Transcription
Injuries have wrecked fantasy football. Kamani Vidal looks like a breakout guy. Brian Thomas Jr. might actually finally be back. Let's start there with good news with Brian Thomas Jr.
This was his best week so far in 2025. This is what you drafted him to do. 23 fantasy points today on 10 targets. He had eight receptions for 89 yards and a touchdown. Not to mention, he should have had two touchdowns. This man should have had 32 points today if Travis Hunter had not been lined up in the neutral zone.
And so with Brian Thomas Jr., it's a welcome change that today in this game against the Seahawks, which the Seahawks are very respectable team by the way, obviously taking the win there. Um, it's a very good sign that Trevor Lawrence was targeting Brian Thomas Jr. as much as he was. And again, Brian, Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter, this is worth noting as well, Travis Hunter only had 5.5 fantasy points today, but Brian Thomas Jr. 60 snaps, Travis Hunter 58 snaps. And so Travis Hunter was running as many routes and on the field as much as Brian Thomas Jr. And so you're looking at routes run 43 for Brian Thomas, 44 for Travis Hunter. That's good news for Travis Hunter owners, but it's very good news again for Brian Thomas owners. This is again his best performance of the season. And hopefully what you see now is Brian Thomas again. You've got the Rams in week seven and then a buy. And then you've got Vegas, Houston, Los Angeles, Arizona, Tennessee, and Indie. A pretty favorable lineup of games after the by-week. Hopefully you see him come back from this and uh improve. But it's it's second highest target mark of the season. His highest receptions by far, his highest yardage, and it's his first touchdown of the year. If you're a Brian Thomas Jr. owner, he just took a sigh of relief.
If you invested in Kamani Vidal on on waiverss this past week after the Hampton injury, you're probably feeling pretty good as well on two fronts. Number one, Vidal actually produced. Uh he had like 22 23 points this week. And number two, it was just announced that Hampton is going to be out for much more than four weeks. Not season ending. They they had to specify not season ending, but it's going to be a while. So that really sucks. If you're a Hampton owner, you weren't able to get Vidal, but you're feeling pretty good if you were able to snag him this week because when you're looking at those running back splits, 43 total snaps for Kamani Vidal compared to the 20 for Hassan Haskins. Uh Vidal had like 75% of all the work in totality at the running back position there. You did have the single goal line carry go to Hassan Haskins, but the rest again, Kimani Vidal was just more explosive, more efficient with his opportunity and usage there. So that is promising uh for his long-term outlook considering that he's probably going to be the top option there for the foreseeable future um in LA. Yeah.
So we kept telling you with T McMillan just buy T McMillan. Be patient. Buy Tillan. Be patient. And we said the touchdowns are going to come. Well, guess what? They finally came and it's week six and he finally got his first touchdown. He gets not one but two. Here's the problem. Three receptions today for 29 yards. Like I mean it was the most modest two touchdown game he could have given us was 17.9 points. Wow. I I we we're going to have to see the touchdowns and the yardage and the receptions come in the same game at some point like cuz he still doesn't have a 20-point game even though he had two touchdowns today. Regardless, him getting involved uh in a game against Dallas was always going to be very high scoring was a good sign. Him getting his feet wet to get in the end zone that that's a good sign as well. So, it's it's worth being patient. It's starting to pay off now. You just have to see it all kind of come together in the same game and he's going to be a premier fantasy asset rest of the season at the wide receiver position.
I'm starting to think that Rico Dattle is probably just legit and might straight up take this job full-time over Chuba Hubard even once he's back healthy. I do think honestly you're going to see Chuba Hubard get some work um once once he is back and ready to go. But I mean D is just he's looked more efficient and more explosive than Chuba ever has in his career at the running back position. Doubt again with 6.1 yards per carry, another 33-pointer against Dallas. And granted, Miami and Dallas have two of the worst run defenses in the NFL. Um, and he's got a tougher he's got a tough tougher stint here over the next three weeks. He's got the Jets, Buffalo, and Green Bay. So, I think we're going to learn a lot about Rico, not just with Chuba coming back, but also can he put up 15 plus points against some of these more stout run defenses in the in the near future. Uh, time will tell with Rico, but again, very similar to Kamani Vidol. It's like if you snagged and took a shot on him on waiverss once Chuba went down with the injuries, you're feeling really good and this has been a reason that you can sustain your success and maybe even raise your ceiling quite a bit. Um, and in the in the near future and it's all just been because of your waiver investments.
If you own a Cincinnati Bengal in fantasy football, you are encouraged by what you saw today because it was a tough matchup against the Packers defense. And what you saw is exactly what they needed. It was never going to be great for the Bengals like, oh, they're going to win more games, but it was always going to be great for these fantasy wide receivers. Jamar Chase 25 points on 12 targets. That's the main thing I want to point out. It's only his second time this year going over 10 targets. And lo and behold, last week he had 10. He had 10. In Jacksonville, he had 16. But again, with Jamar, I mean, this significantly raises his floor because of the targets he's going to get. And you'll notice if if you watch the game, the Joe Flacco's ability to a be decisive where he's going to go with the ball, b not get sacked and either throw the ball away or or get the ball in somebody at his checkown anything. Extend plays a little bit even though the offensive line is terrible, but also to support T. Higgins as well, who had eight targets tied for his most uh his highest mark of the season there from a target standpoint. 11.2 points again with no touchdown. A T. Higgins floor is significantly raised by Joe Flacco as well. Joe Flacco a lot of people saying, "Well, he's not an upgrade at all from Jake Browning." He very clearly was. And if you saw that, those pass catchers in that offense are going to get clear upgrades.
Now, a lot of people were asking about Chase Brown and Chase Brown today had 8.9 points. I just don't think it's going to be that way. The the the reason it's very advantageous for Chase and Higgins is because you really just needed somebody to stand in the pocket and deliver the ball into tight windows when they had even just a little bit of space. You saw that over and over with Chase today. And they're going to consistently be playing from behind. If you own T. Higgins and if you own Jamar Chase, this is a this is a very clear upgrade from Jake Browning. Those two contested catches for Chase were the the touchdown was bananas. It was just like last week when he had that that fourth quarter touchdown. I mean, he's the best wide receiver in the NFL. And and and just worth noting here because everybody wants to to doc Chase and plummet him down the rankings. Chase came into the week as the wide receiver nine and he had 25 points today. He's going to be a top five wide receiver after this week and he played a game and a half with Joe Burrow. He's played the second half of the Jacksonville game where I had 20 points and on with other quarterbacks outside of Joe Burrow and he's still been elite. That's why you got to be patient. Look, and I just want to add even even worst case scenario, Joe Flaco longterm after the uh you know the the new fresh guy comes in and does really well with Jason Higgins to start and then he kind of tapers off kind of like he has in other situations before. Worst case scenario that happens and what did you see in the worst case scenario for Chase? He had really really big good games and he's going to finish as a top 12 wide receiver. This is why we never dropped Chase outside of the top 12. This is why we never did it because you are going to see really successful, really high ceiling games like this. Maybe you'll have some slow games every once in a while. That's just the reality of not having Joe Burrow in this offense, but he's never not going to be a top 12 wide receiver so long as he's healthy.
Uh, next guy we've got here is Derrick Henry, who uh reddemonstrated what he is capable of doing even still at what is he now? 32 uh 31 years old. 14 points, no touchdowns. Uh but he had 24 carries for 122 yards. Finally got the volume that you're used to seeing from Derrick Henry um in in a matchup that was really really tough. It was the Rams. They have a stout run defense and he put up 122 yards over 5 yards per carry. This is the Derrick Henry that we know and love and we need to see more of this after the bye-week. I do think we are looking up quite a bit for Derrick Henry once the by-week um is is through because you have Lamar coming back healthy which brings up a whole different dimension for the run game in that offense which I do think opens up opportunities for Derrick Henry. They can't stack the boxes the box as much, etc. Uh Chicago, Miami, and Minnesota out of the buy, which will be really good for him uh to to have, I think, a pretty successful stretch there, and he can get more touchdowns. Uh take him to the house, and I I think he'll have some some big games. So, nothing like last year, right, for for the rest of the season, I wouldn't expect, but you're still probably looking at like a low-end running back one, I think, rest of the season.
It seems like it's every week a new wide receiver for the New England Patriots. And you know what? That's a sign of a good quarterback. Drake May's a dog, by the way. He looks so freaking good. And this week it was Kahan Booty. You all remember Khan Booty beginning of the season. Oh, hot hot week one waiver pickup. Looks like he's going to do it. He's done this at past X games. Hasn't been doing anything at all. But then today, 26.3 fantasy points on just five targets, five receptions, but he had 93 yards and two touchdowns. And also in this game, we're talking about um, you know, every a different guy every week. The last two weeks it's been Stfan Diggs. And today, Stfan Diggs, 38 snaps, he had 5.8 eight receiving fantasy points, three targets, three receptions for 28 yards. Now, part of this was for most of the game they were up on the Saints like even just a little bit. But I I am surprised that that Stfan Diggs didn't get as much volume here and it really is kind of volatile. You've seen Deario Douglas who also had a touchdown today and had 16.1 points. You see him come to life every once in a while and then it's Diggs and then it's Booty. And realistically, you don't want to start any of the wide receivers in the New England offense. But it's not it's not because of the offense itself and the quarterback because I think the offense is capable of supporting fantasy relevant players there. And I also think that Drake May looks really freaking good. And again, I'll just mention the running backs while we're at it. 4.6 points for Trayvon, 1.8 for Raandre. What can you do with that? You can't you can't do anything with it. If you have either of those guys, I've just I don't know. Trayvon I I'm not I just don't want to tell you guys what you want to hear and what I want to hear. And I want to tell you what I actually think. I think if you have Trayvon Randre like us, but Trayvon every everybody's telling you that Trayvon's this big sexy buy whatever. I'm not sure. I'm not sure he is to be honest with you. I'd be a little bit careful buying Trayvon. You just can't predict when he's going to be an impact. So unless he's like a luxury acquisition for a team that's 5-0 and they can give up some depth to go take an upside shot and he just sits on the bench until he pops off. Again, if you can predict when he's going to start producing at a high level, that would be awesome. But none of us can. So again, he's kind of just a luxury acquisition at that point.
Kenneth Gainwell and Jaylen Warren uh looked to be splitting work this week and that was a little bit concerning for Jaylen Warren's not not just floor but also sealing 11 carries as opposed to the 18 and 14 he had the two weeks before the injury in week four against Minnesota. Uh and and granted this was a tough match up against against Cleveland. You're going to have them going up against Cincinnati next week. So maybe Warren can have a more productive day. But eight points for Warren, nine points for Gainwell. What's really concerning here is when you thought you had the receiving upside that that that raised Jaylen Warren's floor uh to start the year, they really seem to want to utilize Kenneth Gainwell uh since he demonstrated that he can really do that at an elite level against Minnesota in week four when Jaylen Warren went down with the injury. Six targets against Minnesota after the by-week, six weeks against or six targets against Cleveland. And again, he's not like he's not super efficient with that usage and with those targets, but he's getting those targets and getting those receptions over Jaylen Warren. And Jaylen Warren only got two targets this week and he wasn't really much more efficient with that usage either. So I think you might be looking at more of a true committee rest a season. I I think that's going to be I that's what I'm afraid of. Uh so if you're a Jaylen Warren owner and you have someone that's willing to overpay at this point, that might be something I I I would look into.
Cam Scataboo Thursday night, three touchdowns. This dude is an absolute freaking maniac. Tasmanian devil. Put his head down and run straight into you and break his neck and have CTE and all that jazz and just is an absolute dog. 31 points against Philadelphia. 19 carries for 98 yards and three tuddies. Him and Dart, I mean, Dart looks Dart looks the part in my opinion. Like I I I I'm very impressed with Jackson Dart. I'm impressed with his pocket presence. I'm impressed with his mobility. I'm impressed with his accuracy. I'm impressed with his ability to extend plays. Yeah, he he looks better already than Jones ever did. I I actually 100% agree with that. Like even during Jones's good year. Like he's just he's just a different it's just a different type of quarterback. He's more versatile. He he he is and he's also he's fantasy relevant as well. Um as you're seeing 19 17 and 23 points in his first three games as well. But Scataboo is going to be a running back one. Um and he's played one less game than everybody else through this week. And so absolute dog. Um continues to climb up. Stop saying dog. You've said that three times. He's a dog. Dude, what else can you call him? He's a dog. That's what he is. Are you doing it? It's driving me nuts. He's a dog. Um, so I literally can't with with Scat. I mean, you can't buy him at this point, but I hope you did a couple weeks ago when we had him on the buy hold and said, "Hey, buy this guy for sure." Cuz he's going to be really high up rankings now. And he's legit. He's awesome. Yeah.
Dallas. Oh my gosh. Dallas Gddard also looks uh really really solid. It's not just the one week where he's been ultra productive. Uh he's been in double digits every single week that he's been healthy. He missed one game against Kansas City in week two, but 11, 10, 19, 10, and 26 points. See, this is what I was hoping for when I traded for Dallas Scott last year and I never got it and now he's doing it. Uh he had 11 targets. No, he's not going to get 11 targets every single week. But I will say like schematically, they are putting him in in a position to get this opportunity and specifically in the red zone. I I mean, look at the touchdowns that he's getting. One, two, one, and one the last four weeks. Five touchdowns total over the last four weeks. Like, is that sustainable? You can talk we can talk about that um all we want. Maybe he ends up being a a sell. We can talk about him in a future video on buy, sell, hold or something. But um look, the the reality is Dallas Goddard is one of the most productive tight ends in the NFL right now. And everybody else is struggling there. And it's honestly Dallas, it's like he's the only one where it's consistently working consistently and whatever adjustments that they end up making in that offense, hopefully it involves Dallas GDR because that's been the only way that they've had any remote success offensively.
All right. Well, this is going to be the hard part of this video. uh the the the Puka Nua injury, the Ibuka injury, the Wilson injury. We'll start we'll start with Puka. I mean, it was it was an ankle/foot. He was clearly down and hurt in the end zone. He ended up returning to the game, but Shawn McVey has already said that they're going to be non-committal about him playing next week. They're going to London, actually. Yeah, that's a worry. And so, I'm not super feeling super good about that. The reason they non-committal is because they have a by-week immediately after. So, if they just rest him up, he'll be probably I would probably count on him not buying this next week. And so, that that sucks for Puka owners. Again, the only thing holding Puka back from breaking every record in the NFL this season is injury. Like, it always will be, always has been. That's how it is with Puka. And I love him to death. But yeah.
Um, and Mecha Ibuka had a hamstring. He had a hamstring, actually came out and didn't go back in. They were just like, "Yeah, no." So, that's not great either. He had a hamstring um earlier in the year and he ended up playing through it. He didn't end up having an injury designation, I don't think, in that game. Um, but this one, they downgrade him to out. Um, they are two weeks away from their buy and so we'll see what they do with the BU. I think they're going to be pretty careful there. Um, and also you still have Mike Evans with the hamstring and Chris God was out this week as well. Garrett Wilson was a knee injury. I don't know. Did you what was the So, they said he'll undergo an MRI. He was in and out of that game all day. Um, I know he went to the medical tent in the first half. He sat out for a drive. He came back in, got some work, went out again, missed like a couple crucial plays, came back in, got some more targets, and then got injured at the end of the game. Um, so it was a pretty brutal one for him, honestly. And again, I'm trying not to freak because I own him in the Flock League, but like it was only a matter of time for me because I hadn't had any injuries. So, we'll see what happens with him, but it's TBD.
Let me freak you out. Marvin Harrison Jr. also left today's game injured. Um, a concussion. He smacked his smacked his head on the turf. Um, I mean, he'll probably he'll go into concussion protocol. He'll probably miss a week at most. Um, and so with Marv, you got to kind of monitor that as well. They have a by-week after that, too. So, they're probably going to just they'll sit him for a week. So, and then Calvin Ridley had a hamstring injury as well. um and he exited the game. He didn't come back. He had one target in this game. He only had 2.8 points. And um you know, with Ridley, you probably weren't relying on him much in your starting lineup anyways because he hadn't been able to put up consistent production. He had one week against Arizona where he was good and outside of that. He's not been good this year. And so a little bit less severe, but I mean we lost three top five wide receivers today and Marvin Harrison Jr. who should be a top 12 wide receiver. So pretty rough week for receiver injuries here.
All right, let's talk about our waiverss and we'll give you these in order of how we think you should prioritize them. Um both of these top guys here are under 50% wavered or rostered sorry every single one of these actually all three of them all of them in in sleeper leagues are widely available and so um I'm going to start with Kamani Vidal we talked about I don't know how to say his name I hear everybody say it different it's Kamani Vidal Kamani Vidal Kamani Vidal I don't know how to say it but his name is Kamani and loved him out of Troy by the way you remember on the Dynasty channel we were raving about this guy probably should have guessed that he was going to be the guy there just based on if you watched the game um a week ago Go the eye test screamed Kanal is going to be the guy. Like you were watching you were like okay that's his son Haskins and oh oh he's way better. He's way better. Yeah. Probably probably should have leaned into our eye test a little bit more but you know a lot of times we're just like I think we kind of overthought that one. Well but also they were shopping for a running back and it was always going to kind of be ugly. I didn't ever think they were going to give him 18 carries but it was always going to be a good matchup. So don't overreact with Kamani Vidal. That being said with Hampton being out a certain amount of time and him playing as well as he did today. I think he's earned himself a spot being the lead guy there for a little bit. And so because of that, um, you know, if you are a desperate team and you need wins, all of it, every every dollar I mean I mean there there really you can't put a it all depends on how desperate you are. You can't really put a price on a starting running back in fantasy football from a waiver of dollars perspective. You you can't. So like if you really need him, go for it. If you don't need Kamani Vidal, you still might go for it because you might get something you might get a desperation trade that's even better that I would spend everything on on Kam Kami Vidal to be honest with you. I think he's the top waiver pick of the week. Again, 45% rostered in sleeper leagues and that's more in ESPN and Yahoo leagues typically. Um, so definitely go and pick him up. And I think even in even in more shallow leagues, you're going to be picking him up. And really, I mean, again, I'm not I'm I'm sparing no expense to go get this guy on my roster whether I need him or not because if I don't need him, I will trade him and I'll get a pretty hefty return for him.
Yeah, Harold Fannon had another really good day. I think it's nice to see Fannon just be very productive the two weeks that Dylan Gabriel has been QB there. He's very much a game manager, distributor type of quarterback and an offense that's not going to look much better rest of the season. But Fannon, I do think is going to continue to get this type of work. Four targets last week, brought in all four of them with a touchdown for 11 points, 15 points this week, no touchdown, but 10 targets against Pittsburgh. You got Miami and New England over the next couple of weeks. I do think if you are a tight end streamer in in your fantasy leagues, you send you spend 10 15% of your budget on Harold Fannon and he's just as a good of a streamable option as any other guy who's in and out of people's lineups any given week.
Josh Down's going to be number three. I would have him as my number two personally because tight ends are a little bit more, you know, easy to get with at production than than wide receiver, especially with injuries right now. And he had 16 points after having 11 points. We were very high on Josh Downs coming to this season and part of it was what you saw today. I mean, his ability to just be a zone beater is is pretty it's pretty fantastic and honestly seem to be a game plan ccentric type of fantasy ass and you saw it kind of at the expense today of Michael Pitman who didn't really do anything. Um, consistently they were looking even for Alec Pearson in the middle of the field more than it felt like they were looking for Pitman. But Josh Johns had seven targets. He's had he's had seven or more targets in three of uh his six games so far this year. And so that's a great sign for him. But se seven targets, six receptions, 42 yards. Um, and he had a touchdown today. And so he ended up with 16 points. But he's a solid slot guy and he's a guy that a lot of people drafted eighth nth round in fantasy football draft that they just let him go to waiverss. He's 49% rostered in sleeper leagues right now. Um man, hard to put a price on this one as well. I took 25 to 50% pretty easily on Josh. I mean like I I I think he's a guy you can play. I don't I don't think he's someone that should be on waiverss and I've seen him I've seen him available on waiverss on a lot of teams that we've reviewed. So I I would I would say up to half of your your fab budget if not more if you really desperately need wide receiver. I mean again guys like you know we get comments all the time on this like oh you this is why you're spending x amount fab on x guy this is why everybody blow it's literally free agent like who cares the odds you're going to get somebody with your free agent budget that actually makes a difference for your team are very close to zero who cares how much somebody spends on a waiver guy a and when you have a guy like Josh DS who is a proven guy that that last year even uh was a wide receiver 35 in fantasy football that's flexible and and so far he's trending to be that way again this year Like the odds are you're not going to What are you saving your waiver dollars for at the end of the year? Like to maybe hope somebody gets hurt so you can pick up another running back, right? In my opinion, anytime you got a guy like this who you can actually use and plug into your lineup with with pretty good upside as well and a good offense, I think you do it. And so 25 50% I'd say if you want to go more, I don't blame you. Again, it's a guy that you can plug into your lineup and that's that's kind of invaluable right now.
Yeah. A couple other wide receivers you you could apply the same logic to. Kendrick Bourne. Uh, he's had two very productive weeks now. And I I think everybody understands the context here, which is why he only has 51% roster on sleeper, though. I do think it could be more. He's had 11 and nine targets the last two weeks for 24 and 19 points. Very productive with his opportunity. Big play ability. So long as Piol and Jennings and Party are consistently banged up any given week all season, Kendrick Bourne is going to have weeks like this. I I I do believe that he could continue to have some solid weeks. Uh anytime that Jennings is out for a week or two, anytime that Persol is out for a week or two, um anytime that KD is banged up, once he comes back healthy, hopefully he can stay healthy. But again, there are so many moving parts there that it's really unpredictable, which is why for Bourne and then Boute or Booty, I would say the same thing. uh we'll probably go cheaper for both of these guys because you're really only looking at them being last resort flex options and like last second plugins if injuries are favorable um for them. But Kendrick Bourne is case in point that right once we heard that Piersaw was going to be out this week we're like okay you got to start Kendrick Bourne you have to flex him and it paid off for for a second straight week. So probably go like 10 to 15% for him and I would go probably like 10% for Kahan Bout or golly booty. Uh I yeah, one of them. And uh Booty only had five targets this week. He was just able to be productive with that limited amount of volume, two touchdowns, which is very, very volatile against one of the worst defenses in the league. Uh so while he was the most productive by far at the wide receiver position for New England, that's not going to happen every single week. But again, we've seen it a couple of times now this year where he's had some productive days. And I do think that is possible that he could have a couple more weeks like this during by-weeks, injuries, etc. If you have to plug him in with Drake May on the up, maybe he could maybe he could kind of establish himself as a more cons more consistent target earner.
Yeah, look, realistically, you probably don't want to start any of the Cardinals running backs here. Bam Knight is the guy that he's been getting the touchdowns the last two weeks or nine and 12 points, which is somewhat flexible. 10 to 15% max. Like I I don't want to start these guys and I don't think it's somebody you can plug your lineup consistently. They're like, "Oh, we're going to start Bam Knight this week." And then they started Michael Carter and then they gave Bam Knight the red zone carries and then they both put up like the same amount of points. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then the last three here, Ellio maner, Josh Reynolds, and Zay Jones. ELC might be a good one because of the Ridley injury. Um but you still there's no promises that that offense is going to let him produce. In fact, since he stopped scoring touchdowns, six3 and five points, which exactly what we thought was going to happen with him. Um so I would say 0 to 10% for all three of these guys here at the bottom. Um just just to just to you know, if you need them and you want to take a shot and you have a roster spot, do it. But you don't really you're not going to use them. And so if you want to check out our updated rest of season rankings, you can do so on the site. I've got the link in the pin comment. If you create account with code domain, it's free to check out our up to our rest of season rankings. You can also uh use our trade calculator as you make deals. You can use our my teams tool to see where you rank in your league through 6 weeks. Hopefully, you are on the winning side of things. But we're going to have buys for you in the morning per usual. So, make sure you got those noties on and you can watch it as soon as it comes out. We appreciate you guys. Hope you won this week. We'll see you here tomorrow.