Transcription
Welcome to the last edition of the Waiverwire Show. Hopefully, you aren't picking these guys up and instantly starting them. But just in case you are down horrendous, Jacob and I are here. The first like two or three names are the ones that we really care about. Everything beyond that, it's like, okay, if you're picking these guys up, you're in trouble. But let's start this thing off.
One of the the key injuries here, aside from, you know, Micah Parsons and Patrick Mahomes, was of course Bam Knight. Bam Knight leaves early. It's he's week to week. Uh this is the Arizona Cardinals backfield. Michael Carter was the one to take over. Uh what are your assumptions? Michael Carter, they got Ingari de Marcado back. Do we just assume that what happened last week's just going to happen uh this upcoming game?
I don't think there's ever been a backfield in my entire time playing fantasy football that has had this many twists and turns while all of the backs involved were somewhere between mid to functionally useless. Yes. It's just unbelievable how many twists and turns this backfield has had. And it's so frustrating that we have to care, frankly, because none of these guys are any good. But they continue to rack up about 120 plays per game. Some of those involve two-yard runs. Some of them even involve dump offs and they can even involve a touchdown. So, yeah, we're we're basically back to where we were right after Trey Benson initially got hurt. Zonovan Knight came. he went. We're back to Carter and D Marcato. And it seems that it's preferred for Carter to be the early down guy. Uh D Marcato the pass down guy. No Benson, no Connor, no Knight. Uh and yeah, he's like a a total volumebased RB2. Like perhaps the most volume based of any RB2 ever. um basically slot him in I think more or less where you would have slotted in Bam Knight for the last couple weeks which is probably like between RB 24 and RB32 in your rankings.
Yeah, this is simply a flex league only type of play. Uh half PPR. Um the starting running back for the Cardinals like kind of ranges between like nine to 14 kind of expected points and they're dealing with backups at left tackle, uh a guard and at right tackle. So it's the the season's completely over. But Michael Cardell will be in my top 32ish. I would say he's probably gonna be parked like after like the Blake Corm types, but kind of ahead of some of the other um maybe standalone running backs.
Uh I think the more interesting guy, I think not even just for this year, but if you guys love Dynasty, Kobe Parkinson, I just quickly looking at his contract, he signed a multiple year deal. I think next year he's going to remain on the team. Tyler Higgy's a free agent and he's old and who knows if he's going to play football next year. Kobe Parkkins is like very involved and he was kind of a receiving prospect type to me all the way back at Stanford. Now he's starting to pop off all the way up to tight end eight in usage this month. Uh what's the latest on Kobe Parkinson the tight end rotation and I guess we'll hit on Devonte Adams too.
Yeah, he's had a big boost ever since the Tyler Hickey injury happened. Um they've been doing that three tight end stuff all year. Um and typically, you know, they're kind of mixing and matching where Terrence Ferguson is the pure receiver. he's really been actually diminished in the offense lately.
And then they were sort of juggling between Higgby and Davis Allen and Parkinson for that more traditional tight end role and often playing multiple of them at the same time. Without Higgby, Parkinson's really the only do both tight end now on the roster. You have Allen who's more of a blocker. You have Ferguson who's who's more of a an inline wide receiver. Um, and Parkinson's, the do everything guy, especially now with Devonte Adams out, at least this week, probably both of the remaining weeks of the fantasy playoffs, you have a guy who has a very plausible claim to being the number two target on one of the best passing offenses in the whole NFL. Um, and that's extremely exciting. I agree. I think every time he's gotten opportunities, he has been an interesting player. I'm surprised that he's never gotten more sustained run um on any of the teams he's been on. So, you know, who knows looking forward, but I think it's very conceivable he's a top 12 tight end um each of the next two weeks. And definitely uh if you for whatever reason particularly need a tight end, he is going to be the best option to pick up.
Yeah, back toback weeks with at least 11 expected half PPR points based off his usage. He's obviously going to get a lot of red zone looks because he's like legit like six foot six or six foot seven. He got a very referee friendly uh uh call uh to score the touchdown, but he's been scoring touchdowns for the last uh month and a half.
And obviously Adams voids like a 40% red zone target share. Uh I I don't really know why they don't throw a puka inside the tent. I'm pretty sure he'd be good at it, but um it's just not really his role for whatever reason. So, you know, Adams voids a ton of touchdown opportunities. I'm presuming their their goal to go package from here on out is going to feature a lot of Kairen and Cororm, but a lot of Corby Parkinson if and when they go to the air.
Yeah, you can definitely throw a jump ball to the guy that's 6'6.
Okay. While we're with Dvonte Adams, is there any other wide receiver we can possibly throw in there for the Rams? Like, I was trying to look at it. Routes are about the same. All these guys kind of rotate. Like, 22 Atwell made a awesome play near the sideline. And then it's like, uh, Mumfield popped in. Uh, Jordan Whittington was kind of out there. Like, there's no way I'm going to be ranking any of these guys in my top 40 wide receivers this week unless you have like a really good answer here.
No, there's there's just none of that at all. Um they've they went with a massive rotation and they did this the same thing when Puka missed the game all the way back in London against the Jaguars and that one I thought was more clear-cut because I thought Wittington was sort of the Puka roll handcuff.
To the extent there is a handcuff for the Adams role, I I guess my guess from like a a skill match perspective might be like Mumfield. Um or maybe Xavier Smith. I'm not really sure, but I I think it's just going to be a big rotation. So, I would avoid probably it all together. Maybe one of them really pops. Um, you know, maybe you have a lot of free bench space. You can take a shot on one or two, see what happens, and then maybe in week 17 they're startable. But I I'm I don't think I'm trusting any of these guys uh for this week.
No, you better have a lot of friends if you're picking these guys up and starting them. This these leagues better be extremely deep.
Um, let's go over to quarterback. We got news. Jaden uh Jaden uh Daniels is going to be out for the season. and they're just going to take it easy with him. Don't want to fully RG3 uh Jaden Daniels. So, it's going to be Marcus Mariota again, a little bit more of a quiet week. Um, but over the last couple years, the difference with Marcus Marietta is he's like actually throwing the ball down the field, which that was like the big critique of him when he was starting for all those seasons like a half decade ago. Now, he's pushing the ball down the field. He's got a healthy wide receiver group right now. He runs a little bit on top of that. So, I think he's gonna be kind of a fringe top 12, top 15 guy depending on the matchup the rest of the way. Uh he's by far probably my favorite uh quarterback pickup for the week.
Yeah, if you're the Mahomes manager or if you're having any other issues with quarterbacks. Um I mean I guess we should mention if Trevor Lawrence is available, that's probably the the number one pick.
Yes.
But uh beyond that, yeah, I think Mariota is totally fine as well. We've talked about him before. He's kind of a not super high ceiling, but totally viable top 15 guy and he gets the Cowboys for the fantasy finals if you get there. Not a great matchup this week against the Eagles. Um, but the uh the Cowboys could be fun.
Okay. Uh, well round quarterbacks, you saw this one live in person. Philip Riversb, what what how did the ball look?
Fantasy. Do not pick.
No. How did it look in person? Was that ball ripping or what? I mean, it was so much fun um to watch in person because you just get a way better view of how the defense is lined up.
And like I'm going to sound like a boober, but like it you don't see a lot of quarterbacks play ball the way that that he plays anymore. And so, you know, it's every snap they're breaking the huddle in the high 20s. Um they're rushing up to the line. They're using indicator motion on almost every single play that has any chance to be a pass. Um, and then Rivers is going up, you know, and and Seattle, super hostile, loud environment. So, everything is indicator motion. Rivers seeing whatever he's seeing. He's going to the line. He's going to Taylor. He's resetting the protections. Sometimes he's completely canning the play. Whatever it is, it's just really fun like to try and play along. And obviously, I don't know whatever the the calls are in the huddle, but it's fun to just play along with, okay, what what do I see here on this defense? What do I think he's seeing? what's he trying to identify? Um, and you know, they they almost win that game. Um, I think they I hated how they handled the
game management stuff. You were totally right on Twitter.
Um, but outside of that, I thought that they really managed the game like as well as they could, which was just soak up as much of the play clock as you can, try to get Rivers in third manageable, and like he I don't think he had a turnover worthy play the whole day except for the the very end fling to Michael Pitman, which like is not his fault, which you got to do. Um, and you know, I think he had the one sack, which was one of the funniest plays I've ever seen, where like he tried to get himself up, but they didn't touch him, and he was like, "Fuck, I guess I've got to try to run."
Oh my god, that was amazing.
Uh, so like yeah, he has no juice. But like I don't know. I mean, I watched him every game in 2020 and like his arm is worse, but like he also didn't really have any arm strength then either. It's like one thing you got to say, it's a catchable ass ball that he throws.
It really is. It really is. And it's like on certain routes I actually thought it would work. Like I've been I've been waiting for it all. It was the one that they got on the field goal drive. It was exactly what I thought they should have called all game where he just kind of floats it out back shoulder pierce. Like to me that's the kind of play you can you can hit with Rivers cuz like he he believe it or not like his accuracy was really good all day. Like like he was always putting the ball where he wanted it basically other than that um uh double move to Josh Downs that he left inside. So, it's like if you just kind of throw it out there and it's like a back shoulder comeback route where it's not, you know, throwing into a window, like just give your wide receiver a chance to adjust, you know, I think they should take some more shots.
Yeah, the Josh D one was super frustrating because DS like I think maybe gave up on it because the ball was so high.
He didn't see the ball.
He didn't see it at all. Right. But that was the one
if that could have been the 50-yard touchdown. Like if it's him in stride, I think Downs would have housed it all the way and they would have lost their mind. My favorite moment from the Philip River stuff uh was on the touchdown. The the sideline was just laughing like they weren't even like celebrating. They were just like laughing their ass off. So that was a pretty cool moment.
The vibes were so good for so much of that game. Um I mean it was like
it it was almost the best sporting event I've ever been at. Like it was it was so improbable the whole way. And I I mean
it's funny because I saw a lot of people that were like really like Riley Leonard couldn't have done that. I I mean now their season's pretty much dead, but like they almost won that freaking game. They're a 56 yard field goal away from from winning that game. And I I just think that there's no chance that they would have that the other 52 guys on the roster would have come up with the effort that they came up with without that. Like yeah,
that Jacksonville game between the injury and the loss was so unbelievably dejecting. You know, everybody was hanging their heads, panicking, whatever else. And Rivers is just like one I mean a lot of the leaders in the locker room played with him.
He's just like known as like a kind of an all-time awesome dude. Like just an all-time good hang. And like
it just felt like the whole game like despite being down both tackles, they're down their three best starters on defense. They have this old man at quarterback, everybody just played as hard as they humanly could for 60 minutes. And it felt like he just gave everybody like a belief in themselves that was really cool to watch. So, I think it was absolutely the right call. Um, and it was like, you know, a 50-50 game in the last couple minutes.
Yeah, I was like wondering if they're going to go back to Riley Leonard and we can like talk about him or Anthony Richardson's at least like somewhat cleared. We'll see if either of those guys are going to play, but they just committed to Philip Rivers for for next week like right away.
So.
Yeah, they they're still like if they win their last three games, they almost certainly make the playoffs. And if they were to lose this week, but win their last two, they have, according to The Athletic, a 41% chance.
Okay. So, there's some for sure.
So, like they're not dead. and they obviously don't have a first round pick this year. So my guess is it's Rivers um at least for this week and then if they lose depending on what happens in some other games um on how bad their odds are slash how Rivers looks maybe they give a chance to to Richardson for the last two. I'd be surprised if they um yeah turn back to Leonard and Richardson's healthy but
right. Yeah, I guess I think you're the craziest deep league and you're just completely out of luck for quarterback Anthony Richardson just in case he starts week 17 for u who knows what will happen.
Let's get back on track with the waiverwires options. Let's go a couple kind of deep wide receivers. Let's start with Jaden Reed. Let's assume Christian Watson is going to miss this one with a shoulder chest injury that sent him to the hospital. Sounds like he's got a chance to go this next week, but you never know uh with them. Jaden Reed, Matthew Golden, you pick your flavor here. Romeo Dobs, anyone's available. Uh how would you kind of rank these guys?
Yeah, I like Reed the best. I just think he's the best target earner. Um sort of the most the most purely talented player. um even in a part-time role the last couple weeks. He's managed to earn targets when he's been out there. Um led the team in targets this week I believe with six um and in yards 55. Um and ultimately I think that the whole situation for Green Bay Packers pass catchers as dire as this is is improved by the Michael Parsons injury. Their defense is, you know, that's a substantial average.
Um that's going to have to that's going to I think materially change how they have to win games. um going forward you might see them lean into the pass rate a little bit more um even in neutral situations and then certainly there's just a higher chance they'll be in negative situations. So um I like Reed the best. Um he's also the one I don't know like a ton about how the Bears deploy their defensive backs, but I'm I'm guessing Johnson primarily sticks to the outside. Yes. Um so I would think Reed sees the the least of him.
Yeah, I was looking just when Christian Watson was not out there this last game trying to get any like indication on how the split's going to be and literally all four of the wide receivers had either 18 or 19 routes without Christian Watson. So that's Wix, Golden, Dobs, and Reed. So it's about an even playing field. Let the me best man win here. I think that Golden's flash and his opportunities he's missed been missed down the field. So, I think like there's some kind of could he be the guy that has the 80 yard touchdown? And then I would say Jaden Reed wins the race to 50 yards uh out of those four. So, I think those are like my top two favorites right here. And then Christian Watson can also just play this week too. Every game matters for the Packers. So, um pretty dire situation.
Uh really frustrating one for me, the Roma Dunay coming back. It's a stress fracture in his foot. It's like negative windchill and they're he's going to like play on it
against the Browns.
Against the Browns.
The Browns.
What? Like what were they doing? Anyways, let's assume Roman Dun is going to be out for the rest of the regular season. Luther the playoffs.
It's so dumb. It's like beyond tilting. Uh Luther Burton, Coulson Lovelin, Zakias, DJ Moore. Uh what should we do with Chicago Bears in rankings this week?
Well, Burton's also hurt.
Yes. And he I saw a video of him being like kind of carded off. So this is getting to a situation where like I guess the the guy that mentioned is specifically old media Zakius.
Yeah. So I mean if if Burton plays then he's he's clearly the best player. He looks unreal. He's six in the entire NFL in yards for run. I mean part-time player but um he's just like a he just looks pretty sick every time. Balls in his hands. um still makes like a lot of silly mistakes, but like he's just an alltime uh alltime mo team moves different type of dude.
Absolutely.
Um and it's just I think immediately apparent how high the ceiling is on him. 21-year-old player. So,
um
yeah, if he is out and Rome is out,
then you have, you know, DJ Moore is is back from the dead this week. Um but overall has not done much this year. Um, and yeah, then all of a sudden probably you have a three wide receiver set of DJ Moore, Alamade Zakias, and Devin Duivere. I don't even know who the fourth wide receiver is on this team at that point. I'm guessing they would go a ton of 12 personnel. So, probably the biggest winners are are just Colston Lovelin and I guess if you're like a real mascist, Cole Kat.
Please not.
Yeah. So, I don't know. I I don't I I think that like the Adun thing is like a a helpful quote unquote injury because this team is just not concentrated enough when everybody's healthy and so it brings burden and more and lovelin into play but you subtract burden and you mostly just fill that with guys who suck.
Yes. So um I don't know that anyone is really someone you want to play outside of DJ Moore and Coulson level. If both of the guys are out, I would probably have to have Oly Zakias. Yeah. In wide receiver 44 or something like that. Sure. And then I think Coulson Leland would absolutely be a top 10 tight end to me. Like I would drop Travis Kelce for Coulson Level obviously uh for this week. So if Coulson Leven for some reason is kind of hanging out there. He's making diving plays. I think that his tape looks really good as well. So uh too early in the week to know about the final injuries.
Let's see. Those are like kind of the top ones. Oh, Woody Marx and Nick Chub. So, this is another uncertain situation with the Texans running backs.
Uh,
let's assume everyone's kind of out and then it's like what, Jar Jordan kind of out of out of nowhere. So, what's your kind of read on Houston?
Yeah. So, Jawir Jordan um I think is most notable for um playing ahead of Isaac Garendo at Louisville um and and being a part of discourse when everybody was getting Darendo fever over um you know, is it smart to draft Jawar Jordan's backup? Nobody wants Jawar Jordan.
Yeah, he was Was he drafted by the Texans? I think he was actually or or might have been a UDFA. I I think he was drafted on day three.
Yeah, I would have to check that. Did they double dip? They must have.
Well, well, Gendo went uh later.
Uh, yeah, the sixth round.
Sixth round. Yep. Sixth round.
Okay. So, Jawar Jordan went in the sixth round of 2024. Um famously, not that famously, but I was like kind of a weirdly into Jawar Jordan guy. So, famously enough to me, he proclaimed himself the starting kick returner in July. So I was like, I guess he's going to make the team. He in fact was not a starting kick returner and in fact he was not active for a single game in 2024. It was a good eight
and I think put on the practice squad. Um I didn't know he was still in the NFL until he was on my screen yesterday.
Yes.
But I guess he stuck around this whole time on the practice squad of the Houston Texans. Um and everything else has left around him. And so all of a sudden when the only two available running backs were Jawar Jordan and Dar Goombow, you know, Jaw Dar Goombow is not someone you give the ball to. He is there to pass protect only and play special teams. So yeah, I guess Jawar Jordan would be the start.
U do the Texans have any other running backs on their practice squad?
I mean, who knows at this point?
Let's All right, we're gonna do another quick.
Joe Mixon back from the dead.
Well, wouldn't that be funny? What if Joe Mixon is the guy you need?
Um, so the only other the only other air quotes running back
that the Texans have is is that British Brooks who's a fullback.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.
So So yeah, I think like just process elimination. Jaw Jordan is uh probably in play. I guess I would rather
him or Michael Jordan or Michael Carter. Yeah,
I think I would rather do Michael Carter uh than Javar Jordan. Yeah, but um I'll I'll note if somehow this last two weeks Chargers is not a very good run defense.
Yes, this is true. I will say CJ Stout's playing really well. I think he's seeing the field extremely well and they've kind of found a couple answers here and they got like the right wide receivers on the field enough. So, I think that that offense is like starting to click. It's like more like league average like fringe top 10 at this point. Um so, that hasn't really translated for like the rushing success. Uh but um yeah, I think it's pretty comparable. They'll probably both be hanging out in the wide receiver 30-ish range assuming that they both start.
Laquin Allen with BAL tootin now that I don't think he's going to really like morph into anything there. Um yeah, pretty dry week for for waiverss. Um so I think Michael Carter, Jaward Jordan perhaps. And then Kobe Parkinson's I think like the most fun name that we kind of talked about today.
So.
Yeah, that'll do it. Um it's our last show. Huge huge huge huge thank you to Jacob. He crushed it, especially early on this week when all the weeks uh really mattered. uh what do you got for this off seasonason? How can we keep track of you? Uh and I'm sure that we'll be linking up uh during the summer and for NFL playoff baseball and whatnot, but what do you got in the meantime?
Yeah, can't wait for that. Um in the meantime, um thinking about thinking we'll we'll do our sort of pre- running back column for the last two weeks here. Um I'll probably have some playoff baseball stuff up in and around Christmas um as we lead into the playoffs. uh that'll probably be on a bit of a hiatus, but um for those that are new to my stuff, it's it's a lot of Dynasty content between basically when I come back in the offseason in February all the way up through the NFL draft. And I usually try to mix in some like micro prospect evaluation with some macro like strategy, longer form research pieces. Um always a really fun time of the season. Excited to get in the lab, see what we have prepared. So um yeah, if people want to come along for the ride, um that'll be fun and uh looking forward to it.
Yeah, this channel loves NFL draft stuff, so we'll link up and kind of compare our models and see what we're what we're liking from the film and stuff. So, uh, right when the season ends, Josh is gonna be out and I'm going to be just deep in the prospect lab. Maybe even a little earlier than we typically do just because I'm going to be bored and kind of solo missioning this. So, we'll see if I can get in the lab and start uh knocking out some of these quarterback prospects early. So, uh, waiver while I I'll handle it probably with my rankings. It's what Christmas on Thursday next week. So, we'll probably have some type of content on Monday where I'll just handle kind of waiverss in another video. So, that's what we're doing next week. Stats versus film tomorrow. Last one of the year. Appreciate everybody.