Transcription
Week eight of fantasy football is in the books and now we have 10 players to talk about after we adjusted our rest of season rankings. Who is on the rise? Who is skyrocketing up? Danny, I'll let you get it kicked off with a guy that uh was on a winless football team before this week and now is on a winning football team.
Yeah, Bree Hall and uh the Jets upsetting the Cincinnati Bengals probably ruined a lot of your guys Survivor picks, but we just saw signs of life, man. I mean, whether it's Justin Fields getting the motivation after the benching, we heard, you know, the press conference after the fact, a Jets team that played with arguably the most life we've seen from them across the entire year. Um, Brie Saul, he's getting similar usage, I would say, to previous weeks, but the fact of the matter is we saw him displayed as a pure rusher. We hadn't really seen this type of efficiency. We hadn't re really seen this type of explosiveness in these last few weeks. We caught a glimpse of uh just what Bree Hall actually is. Yeah, I didn't really move him too too much because I I was already like a smidge above market on him anyways. So, all I really ended up doing was kind of moving him up into the tier with like the Judkins, the uh Kirn, the Genty, those type of guys. Now, he's at the back of that tier as opposed to the head of the next tier. Um, but the good news for Reese Hall is we've seen this now four times. When he has a good matchup, he'll play well. That's pretty much what's happened. We played well against the Cowboys, the Steelers, the Dolphins, and then in this game against the Bengals. when he has good matchups, the Jets offense can move the ball consistently, he will play well. And I would say the biggest reason why he would be a riser. And the biggest reason why you might be excited now that you have Bree Hall is if the Jets are going to be competitive, they don't need to win five games for the rest of the year. They could win two more games for all I care. If they're going to be competitive, if they're going to be like the Saints and keep every game close and that kind of thing, then you would feel pretty good that Bree Hall is going to have a better opportunity to catch some passes, to get red zone opportunities and that kind of thing. So Isaiah Davis was really involved in the receiving aspect specifically of the Jets offense, but Bree Hall was consistently getting, you know, yards on the ground and, you know, breaking off chunk plays and that kind of thing. We know what Bruce Hall represents and there still is the opportunity that he would get dealt to another team, but I do think he'll probably stay with the Jets.
Yeah, 40 plus% of the routes in all but one game this year. We didn't really see that factored in in terms of his receiving line, but we also note that I mean he was just so strong as a rusher. Isaiah Davis, as we saw, five catches, 44 yards, I believe, was the posted receiving line. There's going to be weeks where Bree Hall does take more of that mantle.
Yeah. and in the games without Brilan Allen this season cuz Brilen Allen went down I believe it was in week four and then heading into week five he has 14 carries 21 carries he had 10 carries last week but he did miss like two drives dealing with an injury seven and then week eight this week he had 18 carries so I think the groundwork is something that is is you know trending upwards for Breeall the targets are down a little bit from what they've typically been but maybe that'll adjust itself as the season goes along so Breeall probably got to be a riser in this situation unfortunate situation in New York is that Cam Scataboo goes down for the year and I would imagine this going to be a long road of recovery back for a day three running back who doesn't have anything guaranteed in this league who was having a breakout rookie season. It sucks but we have to talk about Tyron Tracy.
Yeah, you're not wrong, man. I I my heart goes out to Scataboo. I mean, I was mentioning this to you, Corey, but um I go on Twitter right after I watch the injury on my TV and you know, Twitter algorithm. The first thing I see is a picture of Scataboo with his dad prior to the game like hugging each other. Dad's got the jersey on. It's heartbreaking situation for the family, but we got to talk about it from a fantasy lens. And Tyron Tracy profiles as an every week RB2 moving forward because of it.
Yeah. Um, he was the clear RB1 when Scataboo went down 64% of the snaps, 56% of the attempts, 55% of the routes, and a 16% target. Or keep in mind that when this happened, the Eagles were winning the game pretty comfortably. So, we could even see in closer game scripts, Tyrone Tracy be more involved than what we saw once he got out of the back field there. Obviously, in waiver talks, he's going to be the biggest ad maybe of the season, let alone of of this week. Like, he might be up there with when Trey Benson got the starting job for Arizona and whatnot. Obviously, that didn't work out cuz he got injured himself, but uh Tyrone Tracy definitely got to be on the rise. He goes from my RB 46 cuz he was kind of in handcuff territory before and now you realize that handcuff potential. RB19 for me rest of the season. He's in a tier with Travis ETN, Chase Brown, Jaylen Warren, uh DeAndre Swift. I think you got to treat him this way cuz if you look back last year when he took over the workload, we're talking about a guy who was a high-end RB2, mid RB2 every single week in my running back tier list.
Yeah. And I would argue that this Giants offense this year with Jackson Dart with kind of the life we've seen from it. Definitely a lot more upside than we saw last season when it was Daniel Jones, when it was Tommy Dvito, when it was that rotating cast, you know, Drew Lock made an appearance at one point. Like it was just kind of a mess of an offensive situation. We did see flash weeks though. I mean, 22.7, 26 points, 19.3, 15.4, 14.5. Like, when he was operating as the Giants RB1 last year, there was a reason why we were the guys taking him in the ninth round. We were saying, "Hey, this is an ambiguous backfield, but Tyrone Tracy's the guy that we want to hitch our wagon to." Now, obviously, in hindsight, that take didn't materialize the way we wanted it to, but the same thoughts we thought of Tracy coming into the year are the same thoughts we have on his talent.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I said this about Rashad White when um when Bucky went down. It's nice that when you have the handcuff who's already been the starter, who can carry a workload, who's been productive before, like after
Yeah. Week five's game last year against the Seahawks is when Tracy took over the workload. From that point onward in 2024, he had 13.2 points per game and it was the RB19 from that stretch. So, we're talking about a guy that was legit. Like, I have him ranked RB19. It's exactly where he's ranked. And like you said, the offense you could argue is better. there's still very strong whispers that they could trade for Chris Olive or Jaylen Wadd or one of these wide receivers. So, I do think that the Giants maybe more so than any other team are in the wide receiver market to add a guy like a Lave, especially after another brutal loss uh in New Orleans. I think he could be on the move and could be headed to New York. So, um Tracy, yeah, you got to feel pretty good if you were stashing him because this is a guy that is now realized his upside. He's the handcuff that you were stashing and he is going to be the start of the rest of the year. And speaking of realizing his upside, Cory, the guy that we said was a sleeper coming into the NFL draft, the guy that we said, "Hey, he's a day three profile, but if he really gets developed the right way, we're looking Jawan Johnson." We're looking Who was your comp? Uh, officially
my comp was Hakeem Butler cuz I kind of went for the floor of it. But in the write up, I said like he he's Darren Waller if he hits.
Yeah. Well, exactly. We said Joan Johnson, Hakeem Butler, but the ceiling is Darren Waller. And it looks like we got a Darren Waller regen on our hands because when we look at Aronda Gatson Jr. um he was my tight end 12 coming into the week. I just wanted to see it one more week. I kind of wanted to see what we had with him. But after running 91% of the routes and commanding 21% of the targets on Thursday night, he is in my tier one rest of the season. He is a top six tight end for me. I view him amongst the likes of if I look at my rankings, George KD, Brock Bowers, obviously with the context that he's going to be out for this week's buy. Like I think that's how we have to be treating Aronda Gadson Jr. because if we had full confidence that this is what we're going to be getting rest of the season, he should probably be tier one tight end on his own.
Yeah, I I have him at eight, so he's a little bit further down for me. I do prefer um George KD and Bowers like you mentioned. I also have Jake Ferguson ahead of him. I do still have Sam Laaporta one spot ahead of him, but Gadson, I mean, you could definitely argue that I shouldn't have Sam Leaporta one spot ahead.
Here's a tiebreaker um for me is that Leaporta has had his buy and Gadson has not. I just I I don't think we could do Guy Leaporta. I understand like okay KD he's shown tight on one upside before. Jake Ferguson is averaging 15 points per game. Brock Bowers obviously we know that's fine. Sam Leaport is averaging 10 points per game, dude. Like I I cannot rank him above Ronda Gatsum given what we've seen.
Yeah. I mean he also has a 91% snap share on one of the best teams in the league though. Like and this is an offense that doesn't have aside from St. Brown anybody operating as a dominant receiving threat. Jameson Williams not really commanding the targets and that kind of thing. Again, I view them both I I view them similarly. I realize that Gadson is coming off of two really big games, so it seems like a hot take for me to say that. But I do think we're going to have a stretch of games where Leaporta has two really big games in a row.
Maybe, but if Leaporta had any of Gatson's last three performances on his resume this year, we'd be having a different story on him.
He was 20.2 points in week five, 16.5 points in week six. Those are top four finishes the last two games before the buy. And then week seven, he had a bad game against Tampa Bay. I don't know. with this territory of tight ends. I think they're both spike week guys who are very reliable every week starters, but they are going to disappoint you at times. It's just that Godson since he's been the starter has not had a single down game yet. If he has another great game in a role, obviously I'm going to keep rising him.
If he keeps playing like this, dude, he might end up being like the tight end two in dynasty, tight end three in dynasty. Like that's the track he's on right now. And I I
I understand. Okay, we got to play cautious. We got to wait and see. It's only been three weeks as starter, dude. I think I've seen enough. Like
to say he's an every week starter. have not seen enough to say that he was convincingly above Sam Laaporta. They're in the same tier. I have him one spot behind. They're in the same tier for a reason. If you wanted to argue him over Laaporta, that's fine. Um, but yeah, two weeks from now, he might be over the likes of Jake Ferguson and George KD and Brock Bowers potentially, Tucker Craft, maybe even Tyler Warren. Like, we we could be talking about a dude that is continuously rising week after week if he continues to do it. I just think that Chargers offense got a lot of deep receivers in it, a lot of pass catching weapons. There's gonna be games where Ronda Gatson has four points.
Maybe, but let me counter with this. He ran 91% of the routes. The second on the team to Lakoni.
Okay. I mean, there's there's plenty of tight ends that run 90 plus% of their team's routes.
No, I get that. But you're you're mentioning the overall um usage on the offense. Like, I would argue he's the number two on the offense today.
Maybe. Yeah, he might he might very well be. I'm just saying that there's probably going to be games coming up where he's not an absolutely dominant guy. Anyways, he's tight end seven for me. He's tighten six for you. This is an every week starter going forward and you should feel great. to have though. I'm sure a lot of you guys are wondering.
Yeah, because some people might be wondering, should I sell high on him? Should I use him to buy low on Brock Bower? Should I use him to buy low on George KD or something like that? I would say like if you gun to your head right now, you got to pick one, one of those three. Is Gadson number three for you or is he number two or is he number one for you between Bowowers and KD?
Bowowers at four, Ferguson at five. And honestly, with the context of how the Cowboys targets are going with Pickkins and Lamb on the field, I I have Gaton over Ferguson rest of the season. I have Brock Bowers at four, Gasson at five, Ferguson at six, and KD at seven.
Yeah. Again, I gun to my head right now, I would still rather have KD and Bowers given the track record of their careers that they've had and the fact that they're still elite tight ends in my opinion. Bowers should be healthy coming off of the buy. KD now that the Brock Party like KD doesn't have his hasn't had his quarterback since he's been back. Brock Pury should be back this week. Ike's practice windows getting opened up. I think the offense will really improve and Houston's defense is no joke, man. Like they're they might have best defense in the league. So, um I think that uh KD is is a guy that I'm going to be maybe talking about on Wednesday as a bo candidate. Um Chase Brown is another riser for me. Um mainly just because we're starting to see the efficiency that we saw down the back half of last season where last week against the Steelers on Thursday night he rushed for 100 yards and then this week we finally saw like the fantasy day where he goes 25.5 PPR points top five running back so far on the week. The snaps and the usage is still like not exceptional because Sam perin also did some damage in this game and also is getting you know the two-minute drill snaps, the long down and distance snaps. This is actually the first time all season in which Chase Brown did not record a long down a distance snap. So, um this is a situation maybe to monitor and maybe to sell high on potentially, but
I do think at the very least, we were talking about Chase Brown about 3 weeks ago as a guy that is an unreliable backend RB3 and now I think you got to at least talk yourself into him with Joe Flacco being there. He's at least a mid to low-end RB2. It is hilarious again pending what happens with Pacheco tonight, but like how the market like consensus, the market feel on them has changed so much in these last couple of weeks.
Yeah. No, it's changed quite a bit. And I I think if you have Chase Brown, you felt it. You go, "Okay, this guy looks so much better with Joe Flacco than he did with Jake Browning." And you have to feel confident that Chase Brown is at the very least a guy that you feel comfortable throwing out in your RB spot every week.
Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I mentioned this to you, but that one league that I was in where a couple weeks ago was looking completely dire. And I might actually still somehow lose this week despite scoring the the first or second most points in this league. But like my running back core was Chase Brown, Woody Marx, uh Tyrone Tracy, um Isaiah Davis. Like you're looking that on face value two weeks ago and you're like, "Wait, that's such a bad core." Because obviously I lost Benson and I lost Omar Hampton. But now you look at it now, it's like, okay, Marks, Brown, Isaiah Davis, Tracy, like that's actually a a serviceable group.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think some people might look at the usage here and be like, why are we putting Chase Brown at RB18 because that's where he moves up to for me rest of the season. My question to you is, can you name those running backs that are after him that you would prefer? Because for me, it's like, okay, Tracy,
maybe you could argue Tracy's above him because Tracy, we've seen the workload and that kind of thing. Swift just split basically 50/50 with Kyle Man. higher
and that's fair. I think that's totally fair given how he's played, but he is not really getting the workload either. Travis ETN, we saw before the buy, he wasn't really getting the workload. Maybe that'll change after the buy. Shuba Hubard's in a backfield by committee. JK Dobbins just had R.J. Harvey snipe him three times. Jaka Crosky Merritt's in a backfield committee. David Montgomery is in a backfield committee. Alvin Chimera is in a backfield committee. Deon Neil played like half the snaps this week. Um Kenneth Walker, again, maybe that would be the one guy that you'd be like, "Yeah, if Kenneth Walker hits a ceiling, he'd be above Chase Brown." That kind of thing. As of now, we can't project that until it actually happens. So, for me, it's like, yeah, the the RB2 land, especially like backend RB2 land is pretty desolate. So, anybody who has good weeks and good performances, is going to move up to the top of that group. And Chase Brown's the kind of the prime example of what that looks like.
Yeah. No, I agree with you there. Um, it's a wasteland realistically. Once you get outside of the top even 15 running backs, it feels like. Is that is that outrageous to say even outside of the top 15 running backs, it gets gross? Yeah, that's pretty much where we're at as a society with this group.
Who would have thought? That's the economy that we live in. But, um, I'll go on to my third player here. And my third player, another tight end. Spoiler alert, I already talked about Gatsson. He is not the only tight end on this video because we have to have a discussion about Tucker Craft. And we have to address the fact that coming into the week, Cory, he said he was in tier two.
Um, yeah. And what I think about him doesn't really change what I think about him. It's just that when it hits, it's going to look great. Obviously, Jordan Love is playing super well right now. Jordan Love has a group of receivers who all serve a purpose, but none of them are are target commanding alphas. We saw Romeo Dobs, you know, a couple good weeks in a row, but he is a little bit more inconsistent than maybe some people thought. Christian Watson comes back, makes some big plays. Matthew Golden still looks like a rookie. Jaden Reed probably not back for at least another month or two. Um, Tucker Craft is the number one receiver of this team and this is a really good offense and it's a really good team and this is a guy that we need to treat as myself specifically needs to treat as a top three tight end rest of the season. And unless Brock Bowers, George KD bounce back completely, I don't really see him being dethroned from a top three tight end because what I said about him going into the week was he's kind of like George KD. He's going to have his big weeks, he's going to have his down weeks, but the big weeks are really big as we saw this week. 33.3 points and also um they're also a lot more consistently big than small.
Yeah, I mean with Tucker Craft, he is my tight end two rest of the season. He's currently tied for the tight end one in PPR points per game. I do prefer McBride. McBride obviously just had his buy. So moving forward, both of both of them are going to be without their buy. McBride slightly more consistent. I have McBride a little bit higher. But with all that being said with Tucker Craft, he is my tight end too with the fact that he's scoring 16.2 points per game. We look at his last three games in particular, top 12 tight end, top eight tight end in the last two weeks in particular, and he's averaging a 21% target share this year. On top of already being I I don't even think this is arguably he is inarguably the best rack tight end in the league. It's not even close.
Yeah. And you pretend that I'm low on the guy. Well,
I'm joking. My most amount of entry fees in any tight end on underdog goes to Tucker Craft. So, I am financially benefiting from this breakout as well.
Yeah, we're set. I mean, realistically, I think it's going to keep being a rotating cast at wide receivers. I think we trust Romeo Dubs the most. Matthew Golden a little bit disappointed. We expected maybe the breakout on that Sunday night game. One catch for negative one yards, I think, is what ended up being the stat line there.
He's like he's a stash at this point. You can't put him in your lineup.
And and Christian Watson comes out, shows signs of life, but realistically, I think even when Jaden Reed comes back, it's probably going to be a four-man rotation with Dubs being the main primary X. Tucker Craft is the number one threat in this passing game and I don't think it should be even arguable.
Yeah. And I I still think that we're looking maybe maybe towards the fantasy playoffs if Jaden Reed gets back on the field. Like I he had like two major injuries. Um he's technically eligible to come off of IR right now, but I I don't think he's going to be back. Like it would shock me if Jaden Reed's back on the field before like week 14.
I agree. I agree. That's what it's come down to with Jaden Reed. And if that's going to be the case, Tucker Craft, like we saw with Jaden Reed being that vertical slot wide receiver, being used in space, being used in the Yak game. Like Tucker Craft is actually being used in that capacity. Now, obviously not the vertical shots like Jaden Reed represented, but getting him in space, getting him those screen targets, letting him just rumble after the catch. Like he is such a nightmare to try to take down in the open field. That's what we learned. I thought what out of his 143 receiving yards, I think 130 of them came after the catch. Yeah, the Sunday night crew had a had a stat about that that I saw as well that was like it was basically just all yards after catch plays and um there's one Packers beat writer that wrote an article saying he's estimated maybe back by week 10 or week 11 Jaden Reed but I I think that's a pretty optimistic projection at at best. Um but I have a lot of Jaden Reed bags in baseball so I'd be okay with that. Uh Bo Nick's got to be on the rise as well cuz after backtoback
um what is he was he QB okay no he was QB5 this week but QB1 overall the week before that with a 40 bomb against the Giants. Um Bo Knicks this season uh is averaging 24.5 points per game. Now there's a little bit of lipstick on the pig or sorry in the last five games, sorry, he's averaging 24.5 points per game and 20.8 overall in the season as the QB5. There's a little bit of lipstick on the pig for him because he's had some really bad games and some really great games. So he's been kind of the prototypical best quarterback where you're not using the the bad weeks, but you're getting the great weeks. Um but at the same time, like quarterbacks outside of the top three to five, that's kind of what you want. you kind of want the guy that wins you a week single-handedly. So, um, Bo Knicks, yeah, he's got to be on the rise because he finished as a top eight quarterback in fantasy last year as a rookie. And now with the way that Franklin's coming along, we saw Pat Bryant catch his first NFL touchdown. Evan Ingram is healthy now. He's starting to play a little bit better. And of course, Courtland Sutton is doing his thing. Marvin Mim is actually left with a concussion. You have to feel pretty good about about Bo Nicks going forward. He's running the ball and he's throwing it a lot better.
So, it's funny because uh I also have him at quarterback eight. You mentioned he's quarterback 12 to eight in your rankings. I believe that's the same rise he did for me. Um, the way I view it, again, and this is assuming that Jaden Daniels is healthy, but the way I kind of view it right now is, yeah, Dak had his bad week, but there's seven quarterbacks that I feel confident or like weak out starters. Uh, Daniels, Prescott, May hurts, Jackson Mahomes, Allen,
Jackson Mahomes,
Jackson Mahomes. Hey, there we go. Um,
yeah, Bo Knicks become comes at eight because when he has the good matchup, it's so predictable that he'll do well. Yeah. when he has the bad matchup, it's so predictable. He's going to do bad. So, it's like if he can be the top of the streaming quarterbacks and in the bad matchups, you just pick up another option. In the good matchups, you throw him out there, you're going to get Bo Knicks when he's scoring these 20, 25, 30 point games because again, like I don't want to harp on the guy. I mean, kudos. You put up your fantasy points and that's all we really care about when we're talking fantasy football, but holy crap. I have never seen so many wide openen wide receivers down the field like I did on Sunday.
Yeah. I mean, you guys can't cover anyone, so that makes sense.
We can't stop the run, can't cover the pass. Like, this is this legitimately might be the worst defense of all time.
Yeah, it's really bad. It's like Panthers 2024 bad. Um, Bone Next, Justin Herbert, Baker Mayfield, Daniel Jones, and Jordan Love is my tier from 8 through 12 and is the guys that are the best streaming options possible or like the worst starting options possible if you look at it that way. Um, but yeah, that's kind of where you're at with it because then after that you get like into the Caleb Williams, Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford, Kyler Murray territory and it's like you don't want to have one of those guys as your every week starter. You would rather have Daniel Jones, Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, or Bon Knicks are better. Um, but yeah. Yeah, Bon Knick's got to be a guy that if you picked him up off of waiverss because he was dropped after like week four when he was kind of playing poorly. Um, if you're Bocky and you got him traded to you and you have two straight wins on your Flock League resume now because of it, then you feel pretty good about it. Um, moving into Michael Pitman Jr. Um, a guy that you and I have been a little hesitant on like putting up higher than he's really kind of maybe deserved to be, but
I changed that. He's wide receiver 16 for me rest of the season. Like I could keep saying, "Hey, Michael Pitman, you know, like he's a steady Eddie, but is he ever going to be the reason you win your week?" Well, I'll tell you right now, he's one of the reasons why Avery beat me in the [ __ ] block league this week. I'll tell you that. Yeah, I got him as wide receiver 19 right now. And he was notoriously kind of living in that backend wide receiver 2, high-end wide receiver three territory. And now I think I got to put some respect on his name. Hey, oddnumbered years, man. Oddumbered years. This is Michael Pitman's This is Michael Pitman's game. He's always a top 24 wide receiver in oddnumbered years.
Do not draft him when he's a top 40 pick next year.
No. No. He will be Josh Downs will be the way better pick. Um, but again, another one of these guys that I feel like I've been low on, but then when I look at my underdog exposure and realize I got 15.4% of them and like my fifth, six most highest entry fees for the wide receiver position that I'm like, okay, I'm glad I drafted a lot of Michael Pitman.
So, it's funny, funny enough, it was very similar to me because I'm I want to check what my exposure on Pitman is because he felt like one of the uh Yeah, I I have like 350 invest in him over market. He was one of the only like salvageable ninth round clicks. It felt like
Yeah, cuz like what was I going to pick Keon Coleman instead? Like there was no other like guys that I liked in that territory. And of course, you know me, like I was drafting the piss out of Daniel Jones. So, um I'm I'm just >> grateful that I got a lot of Michael Pitman splashback as a result. I mean, I guess technically I had to take Pitman first, but he was just like you said, he was just one of those guys that I was like, "Yeah, he was just like probably not supposed to go there in terms of his overall ADP." But 15 PPR points or more in six of his eight games this season. That's really consistent uh play for a guy that you probably drafted or picked up or whatever in like the eighth ninth round who was like a bench player or supposed to be a bench player for you. The Colts are obviously for real even though their schedule is 27th among wide receivers rest of the season. So it's not very good um sledding for the rest of the year, but my goodness, this Colts offense is on fire. You want pieces of this team.
Yeah. I mean it's playing so well. It's funny you mentioned the name Keon Coleman. It's like, well, Michael Pitman's the better wide receiver, but Keon Coleman's playing in the top offense. Like, well, actually, Indianapolis the best [ __ ] offense in the league. Now,
yeah. Not to mention, um, Michael Pitman had like a massive massive like track record advantage over Keon Coleman as well.
Can I mention one honorable mention, Riser? Because we're talking about the Colts. There is no reason why I shouldn't have had Jonathan Taylor as my number one player rest of the season. He's averaging nearly Christian McCaffrey 2019 numbers right now. Yeah, I um finally finally dethrone I finally dethroned Van Robinson um in my running back rankings. Um I still do have Puka Nua as my one overall though.
Totally reasonable again like I have Puka so I want to move Puka back there but I mean it's hard not to put JT there after how he's been playing. Like
to be fair he does not play the Titans again for the rest of the year and he has six touchdowns against them.
Fair. He's got what 15 touchdowns in eight games. Like
he's a machine, dude. He's a machine. And you know, there's still the worry that he gets banged up because that's Jonathan Taylor's MO for the last couple of years, but like you got to just you just got to hope and pray it doesn't happen.
Yeah, realistically, if you're ant you wouldn't be anti JT at this point, but let's say like this offseason you didn't draft a lot of JT and maybe we were part of the reason earlier in the offseason because we were lower, but we got progressively higher as the offseason went along. But I if something were to happen, we we like we got to acknowledge the fact that it was terrible process. Like this guy is legitimately having a generational season. This guy's having a 2006 LT level season.
Yeah. This is like he's nearly five points per game better this year than he was in 2021 when he was the RB1 overall that year.
Yeah, dude. Like you when you're putting a guy in your lineup consistently and you're getting 25 points with these 37 point splash weeks, like again, this is the Pitman case, but I did have to mention JT because he deserves his flowers, man. He really does. Yeah, he's been a beast. Staying in that same game, you have Taj Spears as a riser who in two of the last three games has outnapped Tony Pard. Now, you might be like, oh, well, that was because it was a negative game script. It's like, well, can you point to any positive game scripts for the rest of the season for the Tennessee Titans? Because Mike McCoy, I don't know if you can fire interim coaches, but he should get fired. He's horrific. And, uh, a part of it, too, we did see the roach share bounce back up. Uh, down in week seven for whatever reason, I don't know what the case was. His snaps across the board, rush attempts uh, peaked in that week somehow. Like I don't know if they wanted to get him involved in terms of the carry game more that week. I don't know what
what they're doing.
I I don't think they even know what they're doing. But we do see the utilization score 60 plus and two of these last three weeks. And in these three weeks, 11.1 points per game, the RB20. I'm not going to go out there and say, "Hey, you're going to plug in Taj Spears right now going into week nine and you're going to feel great about him in your lineup." But I do think he needs to be a riser. RB38 to RB33 in my rankings. And if this trend keeps going and he becomes the RB1 on this team, it's easy to see him having that Tyrone Tracy level uh type of rise.
Yeah. And not to mention too, like with Scataboo going down, Judkins go like getting hurt now on by, Saquon getting hurt now on by. Um there were some players that got banged up at the running back position this week, which is really the first time all season that that's happened. Generally, the running back position, other than like James Connor and Amarian Hampton, had stayed healthy for most of the year. Um, yeah, Taj Spears might be on waiverss for a lot of you guys. You might be able to pick him up for nothing and he is definitely like a top 35, top 40 at worst running back for the rest of the year because this is a dude that has legitimate appeal. Like you look at the the matchup for Tennessee. If they're seven point underdogs, you could probably throw Taj Spears out there assuming he'll catch four or five balls.
Yeah. And who knows, man. Like the trade deadline is going to be happening. Tony Pard's a veteran player that has no dead money after the year. Like could a contending team that needs a veteran running back to take carries for them realistically send the Titans a sixth round pick to get him?
I'd be surprised if they weren't shopping him because they have absolutely he's just a progress stopper for them at this point. So like you might as well like if the the Texans are like we can't run the football at all. Like we'll send, you know, I guess division rival, but it's Tony Pard. I don't think they really care that much. Like there's teams out there that could use running back help. And maybe the Giants would be in the market for a running back now without Cam Scaboo. maybe, you know, some of these other teams, Washington, the Chiefs, some of the teams we brought up as potentially in the running back market could go out and make a move for one. So, yeah, it's possible that Tony Pard would get traded. I think it's more likely that Spears could just win the backfield outright or at least be a 50-50 time share guy getting the majority of the receiving work in a on a team that might not win a game for the rest of the year. So, um this is this is a brutal team.
So, let me mention this to you, okay? Uh we'll we'll do two possible scenarios. We'll do this scenario. Tony Pard gets traded tomorrow. Where do you think Taj Spears in your regular season rankings? I think he would probably go relatively around the range that Tracy went except maybe a little bit after. Like I think I would in a vacuum prefer like a 50 to 58% snap share back on a much better team like a Chuba Hubard, a JK Dobbins, a David Montgomery, a Kenneth Walker type. Like I think you'd probably say that Spears would maybe just find himself in that tier intermixed like kind of in the 20 to 26 range somewhere.
Okay. Yeah, I'd probably be like, yeah, 20 to 24 for me. And then obviously the scenario, the other one you mentioned, if he just took 50 plus% of the carries and he maintained this road share, probably a top 28ish level back. So regardless though, if you can get him for bargain bin type of prices, I'm I'm sure maybe he's in your waiverss in your league. Maybe he's a bench stash for a lot of people. Maybe you can tack him on the end of the deal. Like I do think Taj Spears, given the talent level and the efficiency he's shown, has to be considered a riser.
Yeah. No, for sure. So let's talk about the last two guys that we have. We can kind of group them together on the same team. Troy Franklin um best game of his career so far. 26.9 PPR points. I'm thankfully glad that I talked about him as maybe the best pickup of the week going into the week saying, "Hey, if you guys need by-week fillins, Troy Franklin's one of the best guys you can go out and and pick up off waiverss and just start them because the Cowboys can't cover anybody." And Troy Franklin um 87% of the routes this week, too, which is a a season high for him. And yeah, this is a dude that will be high priority list in the waiver video this week. and you could probably rely on as a top 45 receiver rest of the season.
Yeah, he's my wide receiver 39 rest of the season. That's more so an indictment on the position. Uh I I feel like because realistically I'm looking at it 87% of the routes if he can maintain this type of road share. Again, it is volatile. We have seen it spike and then drop like it did what week three and then weeks four to seven like he did not get remotely the same type of road share. But if he can maintain at above an 80 85 plus percent route share and be the number two vertical shot wide receiver for this Denver offense, like I think at the very minimum, he's shown to be a much better player than Marvin Mims. And even though Pat Ryan is kind of mixed in as that third wide receiver, they play completely different roles.
Yeah. And not to mention too, like if Bo's going to play like this, you're going to have more than one fantasy relevant option on that team. Like Courtland can't do everything. Like if if if Bo Knicks is going to play this well, then somebody's going to eat two. Whether it's Ingram, whether it's Franklin, whether it's the run game, like I Bo is playing too well for them to not um you know, field more than one fantasy relevant option. The only problem this week is that they play the Texans, who for my money are the best receiver defense in the league. And they are according to um adjusted fantasy points allowed on draft sharks here. So, as much as Troy Franklin's going to be a great pickup this week, you might not want to start him right away.
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Unless you're completely decimated. I mean, we funny enough, week eight was the buydon week. So, if you were to start Franklin, it probably would have been this week and you probably would have profited with the
sell high on him, too. Maybe not the best idea.
Sell nine would be a good uh sell high would be a good idea. Um Bodaki started Franklin, right?
He did. Yeah. He did not start my guy though. uh RJ Harvey who is the other riser on the same team here. Now, the reason he's a riser is not because he had three touchdowns, but that's great. Obviously, you'd like to see him, you know, find the end zone, score fantasy points, that kind of thing. The reason he's a riser is because even despite his snap share staying relatively the same, 27% snap share the last three weeks. It was 28% in week eight, he did get a little bit more of the carries, 28% of the rushing attempts versus the um you know, five and 9% that he saw the week before. Some of it was okay, like there was a little bit of garbage time at the end there. Maybe he got some carries in that regard. Sure. But it's a second round running back who had a pretty good profile. JK Dobbins a lengthy injury history. I think at the very least he goes from middle priority handcuff to high priority handcuff like a Charbanet, like a one of those guys because when he gets the workload, if he ever gets the workload, he'll do a lot with it, especially with the way that the Broncos are playing right now. So for me on RJ Harvey, it's more of like this is the first sign that this guy can play. And knowing that he can play makes him a high priority handcuff. Could he win the backfield out? Maybe. Maybe JK's just too good for that to happen. It's very possible that that is the case. But at the very least, this high injury risk running back ahead of him on the depth chart. He would win leagues if RJ if if JK goes down, R.J.'s a top 15 running back rest of the season. like he would be up there with like the Bree Halls and the Quinchon Judkins of the world if if JK went down.
Yeah. Um I'm a little bit more pessimistic. I got him. I I had RB37. I think a lot of the success that he found against the Cowboys, a lot more Cowboys influence. Like I dude, I'm not even totally right about that.
On that 40 yard touchdown, I'm not even joking you. Sam Williams, his number one priority just contain. You just have to hold the edge. You know what he does?
What do he do? shoots right inside hip of the [ __ ] tackle, completely gives up his contain. And the linebackers on that play, I'm not even joking you, the right guard completely [ __ ] pancake the crap out of Shamar James and the other guard on the other side. So, uh, right guard, uh, offside guard comes and blows up Shamar James. Playside guard completely [ __ ] just decimates Kenneth Murray. I'm watching that play and thinking you could literally substitute me or you at linebacker and there would be no difference on that play.
Yeah, that's pretty crazy.
It was horrible. You you guys were starting K and Peele names at corner this week, too. Like
Quest Bridges was picked up off the practice squad three weeks ago.
Yeah, like it was bad. It was bad for the Cowboys defense. So, again, don't take too much away from R.J. Harvey. But if this is a sign of things to come and next week we see RJ Harvey play 40% of the snaps instead of 28%. Then you're going to want to maybe get him now when he's pretty much still inexpensive and maybe people are just going to chase a three touchdown week and try and sell high on him and that kind of thing. Sure. But RJ Harvey has quite a bit of upside and we know what happens rookies rest of the season. Maybe he could just win the backfield outright. Again, I think JK's probably do good for that. Um but we know JK's lengthy injury history as well. So, um RJ Harvey, this is why he's a riser. If you have him, if you were stashing him, you feel better about him now.
Yeah, I think that's enough on the Broncos. Clearly, they are a better football team than the Cowboys. And clearly, uh, our defense is not NFL caliber.
No, it is not. Um, yeah, not a great situation for the Cowboys defense. It is a great situation for anybody's fantasy players who play against the Cowboys defense. Um, next up, Marvin Harrison Jr. breakout game uh, next week.
Skyrocketing, baby. He's going to be the the wide receiver 12 after a 300yard performance.
Yeah, that would be fun for my Flock League team cuz I could I could use some more heat. Uh but anyways, appreciate you guys for tuning in. Like the video if you enjoyed. Subscribe to the channel if you're new around here. Wrest season rankings all up to date. Dynasty rankings. I just did a sweeping update this morning. Daniel will be doing his this afternoon as well. Um so if you guys need up to date rankings, you can definitely check us out over on the site. Um w uh waiverss will be coming tomorrow. Uh Monday Night Football picks are on the YouTube, Tik Tok, and Instagram already. Um, but yeah, appreciate you guys for tuning in. Peace out. We'll talk to you soon.