Transcription
You're not going to believe this, but rookie running back injuries and rookie running back breakouts just changed everything. Let's go game by game and talk about everything that happened.
Starting with the Miami Dolphins, um, they look back, all right? They had a phenomenal performance upsetting the Atlanta Falcons, ruining a lot of survivor pools. Um, two of four passing touchdowns. Achan is still a must-start running back every single week based off his receiving involvement. Nothing changes there. Um, Jaylen Waddle does come through with 99 receiving yards and the receiving touchdown off of six targets. Really, the only thing that changes in Miami because you're not starting Tua regardless is Wadd does look a little bit more viable going into the future as a strong wide receiver two that you just start every week and nobody else is interesting. Start Achant, start Waddle, and move on.
Now, the Atlanta Falcons. The biggest mistake that was made this week was ranking Bijan Robinson as the running back one in fantasy. Even though we had no Michael Penn, no Drake London, the writing was on the wall that this offense was going to collapse without those two key players. But I'm an idiot. I thought that the corpse of Kirk Cousins could still make this a relevant offense. Well, now we know if you have Cousins under center, you don't start anybody not named Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson, but you lower your expectations with Bijon. The hope is you're going to be able to get back in Michael Penn next week and this will elevate Bijan Robinson back. He's still a top three running back for me rest of season, easily. And if you have Darnell Mooney, it's over. Cut him. I thought that he was actually a viable play this week because he had no Drake London. And it looks like that couldn't be further from the truth.
Now, moving over to the New York Jets. This is the other team that ruins survivor pools this week where not only does Justin Fields give you a passing touchdown, but so does Breece Hall. And Justin Fields does give you a little rushing upside here. Justin Fields still just a streaming quarterback based off matchups, but we should have known this was a great matchup going up against the Cincinnati Bengals. And I feel like an absolute clown and an idiot for not sticking by Breece Hall. We had Breece Hall as the buy-low running back a couple weeks back. Then he face-planted against the Carolina Panthers in a prime setup with a great matchup. And I chickened out and go, "Oh, okay. Maybe this isn't the guy. Maybe we can't rank him as an RB1 despite you having no Brilin Allen in this offense." No. Apparently, he is an RB1, especially in a phenomenal matchup against Cincinnati. You were already starting Breece Hall every single week, but I think that this just reminds us of the true upside that you're going to be able to get with Breece.
And then going over to the pass catchers. Nobody here is interesting when you have Garrett Wilson injured at wide receiver. The only guy that you could potentially consider would be Mason Taylor. Mason Taylor does have eight targets, five receptions, 34 receiving yards, and the receiving touchdown. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is still the New York Jets. They just kind of got a great matchup against the Bengals with Hendrickson injured.
And going over to the Bengals side of things, um, Joe Flacco still remains what looks like a viable streaming quarterback. Like, he actually does come through and give you the rushing touchdown, which obviously is pretty exciting. And then going over and looking at the running backs, you actually have Sam Perrine and Chase Brown giving you the rushing TD. We knew that Chase Brown was an auto-start at running back this week because of the implied team total for the Cincinnati Bengals. They're supposed to score a ton of points against the New York Jets. I will be interested to see if that's the case with the projections this next week. I will point out that if you look at the PFF snap data that you do have Sajji Pine expanding his role in this backfield, which is something to monitor, but Chase Brown's still the guy for now.
Jamar Chase is the only player that Joe Flacco looks at. The only wide receivers you could possibly consider ranking ahead of Jamar Chase rest of season would be Puka Nacua, Jackson Smith, and Jaxon. And that's it. He had 19 targets in this game with 34 pass attempts from Joe Flacco. You would think a veteran quarterback's going to go through his reads. No, it's more like a backup quarterback that doesn't know the game plan, that doesn't know the playbook. He drops back. He knows if Jamar's open, you just throw it to Jamar right away. It's incredible. Higgins does give you the receiving touchdown here, but he had two targets in comparison to Jamar Chase at 19. I traded away Higgins in a deal with Stefon Diggs that got me Nico Collins in the Flock League. You'll see that in the Flock League video that comes out on Tuesday.
Now, going over to the Buffalo Bills. Y'all know I start Josh Allen every single week and I am excited to do so. The only quarterback that I think you could consider ranking ahead of Josh Allen rest of season would be Patrick Mahomes, who we're not going to be able to talk about in this video because he is going to play on Monday night. But I have good news for you. If you like Patrick Mahomes, you get a free Patrick Mahomes gimme pick, higher, lower, half a total yard for that Monday night game on Underdog Fantasy, which is the number one sports app in all the app store. It's been that way for about the past month because they have the best promos in the industry where if you use code flock, you're going to get a $100 added to your account after you play your first five. You'll get that free Patrick Mahomes pick, higher, lower, half a total yard. And on top of that, you'll get free questions that you can ask me in the live streams. And we're streaming every single day until Christmas. Underdog Fantasy is available in almost every single state. You can find that link in both the comment section as well as the description.
But for me, I may just keep Josh Allen as my quarterback one rest of season. Like, he has the rushing touchdowns in this game, which is something that we had been waiting for. Obviously, it wasn't a game in which you had the Buffalo Bills going out there and being forced to push the ball. They had 23 pass attempts to 35 rush attempts. And obviously, you got Mitchell Trubisky some action. So, this was just a blowout. James Cook, absolute blow-up game. Over 200 rushing yards and is leading to the worst team in my league, Bodaki, winning back-to-back weeks here. And James Cook as well comes through with multiple rushing touchdowns. Now, James Cook was already a running back one in our rest of season ranks. The rest of season rankings are updated on flockfantasy.com right this second and you can go ahead and check him out with the YouTube video tomorrow. So, just make sure you're subscribed.
And then looking at the wide receivers, Khalil Shakir remains the only startable name. Um, but he is still just going to be a borderline flex option. Like, he only ran 16 routes today. Obviously, a lot of that had to do with the overall game environment, but still, like, you had Keon Coleman with 46 snaps compared to Shakir with 30. And then looking at Dalton Kincaid, you can see this chart from PFF. I don't know if this was due to Dalton Kincaid not being at 100% health, but you actually did see Kincaid play fewer snaps in this game, at least his snap rate in this offense than what we had had for him over the past two years. So, for me personally, I am going to be moving Dalton Kincaid down my rest of season ranks.
And the Carolina Panthers end of things. Andy Dalton, you never start him. Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, they are in that range of Zack Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker where you can't start either player. They're just going to eat into each other where neither of them is going to be viable. This is back-to-back games where Hubbard's actually played more and he has seen more opportunities. So, I do sadly think that we need to move Chuba Hubbard possibly ahead of Rico Dowdle in our rest of season rankings. But Hubbard has just been horrendous this season in comparison to Dowdle in terms of the efficiency. I mean, his longest rush today went for five yards.
Then going over to the receiving end of things, you had D.J. McMillan seeing 10 targets out of 24 pass attempts for Andy Dalton. He is the clear alpha. I understand a lot of people have been talking about Jalen Coker for a long time now. I mean, he does play more snaps this week, but realistically the upside for Jalen Coker, Xavier Legette, etc., etc. would be the wide receiver two for the Carolina Panthers, which in my mind, that's a very low ceiling and I want nothing to do with it.
Now going over to the Chicago Bears. I traded for Rome Odunze this week. I traded away Cam Akers. I got Quinshawn Judkins. Then I traded Judkins for Rome. So I'm sitting happy with how I'm sitting right now. But anyway, Caleb Williams disappointing fantasy day. No passing touchdowns, no rushing touchdowns, but you do have 38 pass attempts. D'Andre Swift does have 11 carries in comparison to Khalil Herbert with seven. D'Andre Swift only has two targets with two receptions, but D'Andre Swift just does give you an incredibly high floor every single week where, you know, you're getting double-digit fantasy points.
Going over to the receivers, D.J. Moore may actually be a little more interesting. Now, he does see a total of seven targets, which is a season high for him. But the big thing that I want to point out is Luke Ford goes down with the concussion. So this next week you're going to have Rome Odunze and D.J. Moore taking the step upwards. And then also with this as well, I do need to point out that Cole Kmet got the opportunity with no Cole Kmet today and didn't really do anything with it.
Now the Baltimore Ravens into things right now. The reports are that Lamar Jackson possibly comes back on Thursday. We had Derrick Henry as that bell-cow running back and Derrick Henry does give you the multiple rushing touchdowns. But again, if the Baltimore Ravens are getting blown out of games, Derrick Henry is still not going to be that interesting. So, for that reason, um, if you have no Lamar this next week, Derrick Henry will still have a low floor, but if Lamar plays, obviously they should be favored in that game, which will allow Derrick Henry to project extremely well. Um, Zay Flowers has nine targets out of 22 Tyler Huntley pass attempts. So, one thing that's a trend that we are seeing across the league, whether it's Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, or Tyler Huntley, is when the backup quarterback steps in, they are just locking in on their number one target, and they're not going to go through their progressions. So, if you have a backup quarterback in that offense, um, the wide receiver one's still going to get fed targets. The offense is going to be worse, so you're not as excited about them as if there would be the starting quarterback, but you know for a fact you don't start any of the secondary pass catchers. And Mark Andrews, I want to reiterate, is droppable at this point. You have Isaiah Likely coming in and stealing some of these snaps. And Andrews wasn't viable in the first place.
Now going over to the Niners. M. Jones. Hopefully we don't have to see another week this year. Hopefully we're going to get Brock Purdy in the future. Christian McCaffrey gives you realistically nothing. It was very surprising to see the Texans defense be able to completely remove Christian McCaffrey from this game plan where he only had six targets, which is a season low. McCaffrey is still going to be a top three running back in my rest of season rankings without hesitation.
And then looking at the pass catchers, Jauan Jennings leads this team with seven targets, but realistically, we're not super interested in any of these wide receivers until we get Brock Purdy back in, outside of the pass catcher in George Kittle. George Kittle does get you the receiving touchdown. I know a lot of people were upset with us this past week for having George Kittle ahead of Jake Ferguson in our rest of season rankings and our weekly rankings, but hell, I'm gonna stand by the projections. And then if you were looking at Kittle's game, it could have been even bigger because you did have Jake Tongi coming through and stealing the receiving touchdown at the goal line for him in this contest.
Now, the Houston Texans will be our next offense. And I'm feeling good since I just traded for Nico Collins that this offense may look viable at this point. C.J. Stroud goes for over 300 passing yards and two passing touchdowns. You'd never start him in fantasy. He's not going to run the ball at all, outside of today where he had 30 rushing yards. It's not the norm, though.
Going over and looking at the running backs, you actually had 17 carries for Nick Chubb, which is a little bit of a surprise. So, maybe Nick Chubb's not completely dead. Like, you don't have to cut him, but Dameon Pierce is the running back that you want. Dameon Pierce is the running back with the juice and the receiving role as well where he actually comes in with over a 100 total yards, mainly based off a 50-yard reception. Dameon Pierce is a borderline flex play/low-end RB2 in full PPR formats.
And then looking at the wide receivers, I know Xavier Hutchinson gets there with the receiving touchdown. Fact of the matter is Nico Collins's going to be back this next week and the targets are so dispersed in this offense with all these crap wide receivers that I'm not super interested in any of them. I know you're going to hear a lot of talk of like Jaden Higgins on the waiver wire, Xavier Hutchinson on the waiver wire. I'll talk about them in depth with that waiver wire video that'll come out Wednesday morning. Just make sure you subscribe, but ultimately you're probably not going to want to pick him up.
Now, with the New York Giants. Um, Jalin Hyatt, I know we had as a big-time regression candidate, but he comes through with the rushing touchdown, so he still gets there for fantasy purposes. I will stand by. I think if you look at projections week in and week out, they are low on the Giants offense, projecting them to be a bottom five offense weekly. So, Hyatt is nothing more than just a streaming quarterback for me, even though he's really exciting and I love the long-term upside with Malik Nabers.
And then at the running back position, we traded away Cam Akers. We went out there and got Rome Odunze this week. If you go to that Flock League video, hear me say we are offloading risk because Cam Akers is a running back that actually takes on contact willingly rather than avoiding it. Now, of course, I'm not going to sit here and try to victory lap an injury, freak injury with the ankle and it was devastating to see. This is a player that you want to root for and just from a human element as well. It's so sad if you just think like realistically, you put in so much work, right, where you just assume Cam Akers works his entire life for this moment. He's on top of the world and then something like this happens and you just must be in the darkest place. Imagine. I can't. I can't imagine it. Like my day is ruined. My life is hell when I have a very public fantasy football call go wrong. I can't imagine can't imagine that happening if I was Cam Akers. So, prayers up for Akers. But if we're looking at the backfield option, it is going to be Tyrone Tracy. Is Tyrone Tracy as talented as Cam Akers? No. But he can be startable as a low-end RB2, too. So, realistically, um, if he's on your waiver wire, he is going to be the number one pickup.
And then looking at the pass catchers, Darius Slayton still leads the team in receiving, but again, the expectations are that you do have some regression across the board for this Giants passing offense. So, I don't think you're super excited about any of the players.
Then going over to Philly. You had Jalen Hurts with the four passing touchdowns, but the passing volume wasn't really there. Obviously, no A.J. Brown in this game led to everybody ranking DeVonta Smith super aggressively, which Smith had nine targets out of 20 Jalen Hurts' pass attempts. If the Giants offense would have been able to keep up, DeVonta Smith could have had a blow-up game. Dallas Goedert, I started on my own team. We get multiple receiving touchdowns. I don't understand how Goedert for the first time in his career has started scoring touchdowns and can't stop. But I'm not going to complain. And both of these names will be elite options any game that you have no A.J. Brown.
And then Saquon Barkley with the massive blow-up. I have Saquon Barkley on my own team. This is exactly what I've been waiting for and I couldn't be more excited. But you do have the groin injury which is going to be something to monitor. However, Saquon Barkley has the bye week in week nine. So, he was going to miss week nine anyway. And earlier reports are saying that he'll probably be good to go week 10.
Then going over to the Cleveland Browns. Like I said, we traded Akers for Quinshawn Judkins. Then we flipped Judkins for Rome Odunze this past week. We are very, very busy trading. Um, Deshaun Watson not interesting at all. If you have him, cut him. Uh, Elijah Moore, I have not heard that name in quite some time, but technically leads this team in rushing. But realistically with no Kareem Hunt, what's going to happen here is it's probably going to be a backfield split between Jerome Ford and D'Onta Foreman. Between these two running backs, we saw D'Onta Foreman get more work than Jerome Ford this week, and he will be the waiver wire pickup that we want to have on the waiver wire. But similar to the Philadelphia Eagles, you actually have the Cleveland Browns on bye in week nine. So hopefully we're able to get some clarity with this Kareem Hunt shoulder injury to know if D'Onta Foreman will be viable in weeks 10, 11.
And then looking at the Cleveland Browns pass catchers, I started Jerry Jeudy this week because like I said, we traded our depth for Nico Collins. We're going to win easily regardless. But what I know is we can just go ahead and we can simply cut Jerry Jeudy at this point. Goodbye forever, my friend. This was your last opportunity. You squandered it. I mean, you have Amari Cooper injured, which Amari Cooper had eight targets in this game. Um, David Njoku is banged up as well, but it looks like just literally everything is being funneled through the tight ends here and the offense is garbage in the first place.
The New England Patriots do not have a garbage offense. Drake Maye is turning into an elite fantasy quarterback as well as real-life QB. Six incompletions today. You get 50 rushing yards. If you go through and look at this, Drake May over the past five games has had 10 passing touchdowns to only one interception and has actually had 93 completions to 120 pass attempts. He has been phenomenal. Trevon Henderson looked very good as well today, showing a ton of juice, way more juice than Rhamondre Stevenson. Does this mean all of a sudden we can reverse what we said where I told you, hey, if I say to start Trevon Henderson, unsubscribe from the channel? No. I still can't tell you to start Trevon Henderson because if you look at the underlying snaps from PFF, you'll see Rhamondre played 50 snaps. Trevon at 14.
And then looking at Kahan Booty, I'm an idiot because I said there's no way he continues to score a touchdown on one out of every five targets. And what happens today? He has five targets, three receptions, and scores a touchdown. So, I know a lot of people are going to now view him as a must-start, absolute jam every single week. I'll still say probably not that excited, but also I'm not that excited to start Stefon Diggs. Like I said, we just went ahead and we just traded away Stefon Diggs and um, I feel decent about it where Stefon Diggs only has 22 routes out of a total of 34 potential ones.
Now going over and looking at what we have with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Uh, this game just wasn't competitive whatsoever because they didn't have to throw the ball. Like Baker Mayfield only had 15 completions. Mike Evans had nine targets out of 24 Baker Mayfield pass attempts. So Mike Evans going to be still a locked and loaded wide receiver one every single week into the future. Looking at the running backs, you have Sean Tucker, Rachaad White split in the backfield. We had previously had Rachaad White as an auto-start. He actually got stuffed at the goal line a couple times. Said 15 total opportunities, but with the inefficiency, it does look like they're going elsewhere. Rachaad White also got banged up in this game, which will be something to monitor. But realistically, you may have Mike Evans coming back this next week. And then Cade Otton, who I wasn't a big fan of this week, does actually perform well where he gives you a 40 receiving yards, four receptions off of only 150 passing yards for Baker.
Now, looking at the New Orleans Saints side of things, it's over for Spencer Rattler, which is a little bit of a surprise because the New Orleans Saints had been projecting well every single week, or at least much better than the true garbage offenses like the Tennessee Titans and the Browns, but you may not have Spencer Rattler this next week. It may be Derek Carr, who looked just as bad, if not worse. Um, Alvin Kamara doesn't do anything. The issue with Kamara, again, what we've talked about for a long time now, is the receiving floor is not there. Kamara is washed. It's not just the offense. Uh, in looking at the pass catchers, everything gets funneled through Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. Both are probably like, Olave is still a must-start option just because the consistent target volume and Shaheed's definitely a viable flex in weeks like this where you're desperate with the byes.
Um, going over to the Tennessee Titans, nobody's interesting here. You never consider rostering Will Levis. Um, Tyjae Spears, Tony Pollard, you roster both of them. If either one were to go down, the other guy becomes startable, but I'm not starting either of them right now. I know Spears has decent fantasy output with the 41-yard rush with the rushing touchdown and at the same time with the receiving involvement, but he had nine carries. You're not excited about a running back with nine carries for the Tennessee Titans. Treylon Burks actually does come through with eight targets, tying DeAndre Hopkins. And this is back-to-back good games for him, but again, it's the Tennessee Titans offense. You're not interested.
Um, going over to the Indianapolis Colts. This is an offense that we are very interested in. Michael Pittman has nine targets in a game in which Josh Downs played. Josh Downs only had three, but this offense continues to look phenomenal. Jonathan Taylor's officially the number one player in fantasy football in my rest of season rankings. Players with the most games of three-plus rushing and receiving touchdowns in a single season since 2000. You have LT, Marshall Faulk, Priest Holmes, Shaun Alexander, and Jonathan Taylor tied with four. And there's a good shot Jonathan Taylor has a couple more in the tank with half a season to go. And yeah, I mean, if we're having to take any L's here, it looks like just Pittman's target share is going to be more consistent than we thought it was.
And then going over to the Dallas Cowboys. Um, this game gets out of hand. Dak Prescott, I still think going to be a viable quarterback option going into the future. Javonte Williams, I still think's a three-down running back that you start every single week. I think George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb are still must-start wide receivers every single week. Um, and I know we talked about Jake Ferguson being a sell-high candidate. I know we had ranked George Kittle all over him, blah, blah, blah. I do think Jake Ferguson is still somebody that you need to start, but again, I want to reiterate just with the additional target competition that you have, um, he's just not going to be nearly to the same level as what you're going to get with what he gave you at the beginning of the season.
And then going over to the Denver Broncos side of things. Bo Nix blows up. I mean, hell, you're going up against the Dallas Cowboys, right? So, this is what you know, you start everybody against the Cowboys. J.K. Dobbins goes over a 100 rushing yards. Jaleel McLaughlin looks like the much better back. Jaleel McLaughlin has three touchdowns in this game. Jaleel McLaughlin in the first seven weeks of the year had two touchdowns. Like, now, can I tell you like, oh yeah, let's go through and let's jam in Jaleel McLaughlin all of a sudden. No. Jaleel McLaughlin had eight opportunities in this game. That's fewer than what Tyjae Spears had in Tennessee. But we told a lot of people in the live stream on Sunday morning and honestly Saturday night as well when we were reviewing teams. Hey, I see Jaleel McLaughlin on your waiver wire. Pick up Jaleel McLaughlin because if you were to get an injury to J.K. Dobbins, he does turn into a league winner, which I think that is true, but I'm not excited to start him this next week.
And then looking at the pass catchers, Marvin Mims gets injured. This actually allows Troy Franklin to play even more. And Franklin has multiple receiving touchdowns here off of eight targets. A lot of this has to do with the fact that it was a really strong matchup. But if the Denver Broncos offense can keep playing in this way, well, we already know you're starting Courtland Sutton every week. Troy Franklin could turn into an every-week starter as well. We just need a game or two additional to the sample. But as of today, Troy Franklin is 100% influx consideration for you.
But I think that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you and really hope that you won today. If you didn't win today, you can win tomorrow with a free Patrick Mahomes pick. Higher, lower, half a total yard against the Washington Commanders. That's on Underdog Fantasy. Code Flock's going to get you that free pick. It's also going to get you $100 added to your account after you play your first five, plus free questions that you can ask me in the live streams that we're doing every single day until Christmas. Underdog Fantasy is the number one sports app in all the app store because they have the best promos in the industry. They're available in almost every state. Code Flock with you. All those promos, links in the description as well as comment section.