Week 10 Fantasy Football STATS vs FILM

Welcome to week 10. This is stats versus film, where we take everything that we learned on the field with our eyeballs while we were 3, 2, 1. Welcome to week 10. This is stats versus film, where we take everything that we watched on Sunday, reviewing the tape and using our eyeballs to look at players, and then comparing that with these spreadsheets, with the stats, with the underlying metrics, in the hope of helping you continue your path to fantasy football stardom and your championships.

Hayden, we already did an entire trade show on every single big deal that happened in the best trade deadline of our lives. Hopefully, you tuned in to that one. It's already on channel, but we can't leave the people hanging with our takes. They are flying. So, we're going to go in alphabetical order. How you doing, man?

>> I mean, busy morning, right? So, I'm like trying to remember what happened, you know, from my tape uh study from from Monday. So, let's let's let's try to like use the big brain here, not uh just forget everything.

>> Well, we have a lot of good takes for the people. We'll start off with the two prime time games because we didn't get to talk about those on Sunday night. So, it's perfectly suited for us to open with the Arizona Cardinals, who just named Jacobe Brassette their starter moving forward. There has been, let's say, some reporting also that maybe, just maybe, Hayden, Kyler Murray's injury is a bit more worse than uh initially predicted. Who could have imagined that? From Adam Schefter sources, Kyler Murray and the Cardinals have consulted with multiple doctors on his foot injury and have been told the timetable for recovery has been anywhere from four to eight weeks with an increased chance of setback until it's properly healed.

Murray now has more time to heal. You know why he has more time to heal? I feel very vindicated on this because Jacobe Brassette is just better for this football team. He's better on offense, as we saw against the Dallas Cowboys team. We saw it against the Packers. We saw it against the Indianapolis Colts. He's just better at third and five, third and seven plus situations. Climbs them out of a hole. Hayden, what did you see with this Jacobe to Marvin connection?

>> I mean, it was glorious. Uh, tons of passes on third and long situations, tons of passes over the middle and down the field. He hit not just Marvin Harrison repeatedly, but a couple nice throws to Trey uh Trey McBride and even uh Michael Wilson. So, yeah, I thought that the offense has looked a lot better recently. The opponents have made that a lot easier. But, um, just looking at the last month without Kyler Murray, the Cardinals are fifth in neutral pass rate, which I just feel like is a is pretty notable. Um, this team's more or less been eliminated from the playoffs. It's just kind of sad because the NFC West is loaded and so is the NFC North. So, like those wild card spots are really hard to find. So, they only have a 3% chance of making the playoffs according to The Athletic. So, this is only just about like the future of the franchise. Like, what kind of style of offense do they want to stick with? Like, who's the better quarterback to make the GM and head coach feel comfortable about saving their jobs? Because Kyler Murray's contract is very tradable this uh off season. Um, so it really just comes down to, is this an arranged marriage that it's already over, or are they going to bring back Kyler Murray in a couple weeks here? Um, but I agree with you that

>> I I think Jacobe Brassette has just been a better quarterback. Yeah. Than Kyler Murray this year.

>> Jacobe has to seriously struggle moving forward for them to go back to Kyler. Again, this is something we bring up on every single one of these episodes that Kyler and Drew Petting's offense just does not feel in sync from a quarterback and play caller standpoint. Uh, you know, just avoiding the middle of the field and then also the rhythm and timing of it all comes to fansky and that tree wants you to hit your back foot and just rip it to that primary read. And you know, Kyler has his good moments, he's had some good seasons in the past, but that is what Jacobe specializes in here. And I understand people might say, well, it's a Dallas Cowboys defense, Russell Wilson, everyone has thrown on them this year. Uh, again, he also did it against the Green Bay Packers. Go back and watch that game. They converted half of their third downs and so many third longs with plenty of pressure in his face. And if it wasn't for Micah Parsons, you know, Jacobe probably wins that game for the Cardinals. And then they gave the Indianapolis Colts a big test on top of it. So, look, this is huge for Trey McBride. I mean, touchdowns with quarterbacks over the last two years, he has four touchdowns in three games with Jacobe and three touchdowns in 22 games with Kyler Murray. I mean, it's significant. And then the Marv stuff, it was awesome in the first half. And to me, that was, you know, isolated coverage on the outside. There's also the Marvin Harrison Sr. comments via the media ahead of the game. So, you know, he uh had the squeaky wheel situation with his son, but this passing attack is just going to simply look better.

What we also have to bring up though, Hayden, is that the running situation is nothing of what we expected. And I think this is just the latest example, one of a few of those in today's show of, hey, the backup running back does not equal a handcuff running back. And things can go awry and out of expectation when a backup gets placed in there and it goes in a split in a direction we didn't foresee.

>> Yeah, Amari played a lot more. Michael Carter's been erased from the offense. We still know about Trey Benson coming off injured reserve. I think that he's eligible to come off, but I haven't heard that he will this week. So, it's going to be Amari versus Bam Knight. Bam Knight got a goal line carry going into halftime, but Amari DeMarcado did uh end up having more snaps in general. So, with this offense, it's an averageish offense. Uh, we're cutting this backfield into two. So, these are just kind of desperate flex plays at best. Like you said though, I think that the two big stories here, aside from the quarterback, Trey McBride is completely separated from the other guys. It's it's Bowers and McBride all by themselves. Then you get into like the Aaron Donald Gadson tier of tight ends with Jacobe Brassette. And then Marvin passed the test. We talked about it relentlessly in the wide receiver show and the preview show is if not this week, then is it ever going to happen with Marvin Harrison? And guess what? I mean, completely obliterated Daron Bland, which by the way, Daron Bland's having quite the season right now. Um, but beat him at the line of scrimmage, had him kind of twisting down the field as well. Um, a nice catch and run out over the middle, too. So, that was good to see Marvin Harrison. I didn't think like anything schematically changed. He just like won his one-on-ones. Um, which he needed to do because every single wide receiver has done that against the Cowboys and he has now joined the club.

>> Unfortunately, it's a bit of a buzzsaw here for Brassette and this team. Um, you have the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams, and then the Houston Texans coming up. Yeah. So, we could have some really brutal games for multiple pieces involved here. Again, I will just say that I will trust Jacobe to hang in the pocket and deliver in unfavorable situations versus what we were seeing of Kyler Murray.

>> Final question here to you. Where do you think Kyler Murray is playing his football next season? I think the two teams that come to mind immediately would be the Jets and the Dolphins. The Dolphins don't have that much cap space, so that would be kind of interesting. Also, uh, the Cardinals have traded a former first-rounder to the Dolphins, so do they want to do that again? That was Josh Rosen all those years ago. Uh, the Jets, it really just kind of depends who's got the first overall pick. I haven't studied the other quarterbacks. Alabama and Oregon and South Carolina also have quarterbacks. So, I'm not sure if there's going to be more than one guy that goes top five, but it just really comes down to the race. He will be starting somewhere and I do think that the narrative that Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones, these guys kind of like turned down their or turned around their careers. I think some team will be trading for Kyler Murray next year.

>> Totally agree. I I don't think it's in Arizona, which by the way, their first round pick this year. And Walter Nolan made his season debut and he was a difference maker for that team going against Trey Smith, going against Tyler Booker. Again, first round guards and he had his way and made a lot of pivotal pivotal plays. So, uh, again, the Cardinals have had issues uh on defense and he was an immediate difference maker for that side of the ball. So, that's good to see for them. Let's talk about those Dallas Cowboys. Again, went extensive on the trade on the previous show, so go back and watch that about adding Quinn and Williams here. Um, Hayden, they've only scored 24 and 17 points over the last two weeks. For many other teams, that would be fine. For this Dallas Cowboys team that gives up 44 and 27, that is not good enough. And their offensive line has been healthy. He was just sacked five times. You also got a fumble by Ferguson. You got a fumble by Javonte. And then Dak had an interception. So, I know it's a tiny sample that we're looking at here, but these last two weeks have not been as good as the opening five or six weeks.

>> I think it's small sample size noise. I believe in Dak Prescott. The fact that the offensive line's healthy, there's just those fluky turnovers that you mentioned. Then the Dak Prescott interception was just a fourth and 28 at the end of the game, didn't really matter. So, I thought they were fine. There were some some drops. I think uh there was three drops by the tight ends. Two by Ferguson, uh one over the middle that I think would have mattered. Um, so this offense is going to rebound. They're going to be in some big time shootouts here. The Cowboys think that they're still in the race. They're really not in the race, but um I don't really I'm not changing my kind of opinion of of the Cowboys. Javonte Williams is a good boy. I think there's nobody else coming for his job. And then CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Dak Prescott. That's a really good combination. So, I think like if I'm panicking over anybody, it's like definitely Jake Ferguson who's now the tight end 14 on tight end 11 usage this month. And that thing's that arrow is going down. And that's obvious to me because George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb keep making plays. Um, so I would just like stop throwing the ball to Jake Ferguson. I think that they're getting the memo.

>> They're heading to their bye week and then they get the Las Vegas Raiders uh on Monday Night Football. So that's a perfect perfect bounce-back spot for this Cowboys team. Let's also talk about Sunday Night Football. The Seattle Seahawks. Again, we discussed them on the trade show with Rashid Shaheed. A trade that we absolutely love and makes them even better. Uh, this does fizzle out the optimism of what Jaxon Smith-Njigba can be rest of season uh if everyone stays healthy. Uh, Hayden, we were fans of Jaxon Smith-Njigba coming in the NFL draft and in the preseason we saw more and more and more. Again, this team utilizes three wide receiver sets the least in the NFL. So we really only care about two wide receivers on this team and that is going to be JSN and Rashid Shaheed despite what Jaxon Smith-Njigba just showed in a what two touchdown performance stepping in for Cooper Kupp. He had three explosives, all of them against man coverage. Happened in three different ways. Just wanted to file this for people that care about dynasty or just for in the future for best ball. It really comes down to is Rashid Shaheed going to resign with the Seahawks after the season. I'm guessing that that's what they all want to do. Um, but we'll see. Jaxon Smith-Njigba I think would be a great backup. He's probably going to be the wide receiver for Cooper Kupp will be a three wide receiver set slot player on the 30% of snaps, but it's just not what they want to do typically. So, uh, got some nice plays to the tight ends and then, uh, Sam Darnold just like all these passes down the field is just pinpoint throws the entire year. It's it's insane. The last like two years, no one's made more downfield throws than Sam Darnold. Like, that is like not an exaggeration. Like, he's just one of the best downfield passers in the league. Some of it's off play action, sometimes it's not. Uh, but man, this offense is completely dialed. This defense continues to get better. So, uh, very impressed with with Seattle and I think that they are legit NFC contenders. Greg Olsen brought this up this week. It's something that we have talked about recently of the Seahawks playing heavy personnel and throwing out of those looks because they force you into base defense. Again, they're forcing opposing defenses into base around 50% of the time. Think of over the last few years when you hear actually nickel your our slot corners are our starting quarterback. It's not really against Seattle. So, they are putting heavier personnel out there, and we'll talk about this with some other teams in order to throw over top of you, which makes sense because if the opposition is putting base defensive personnel out there and then also getting closer and closer to the line of scrimmage, then your rushing success is going to be worse. So, to me, I look at this rushing game and, you know, it's been 88 yards, 118, 60 yards over the last three games. I don't necessarily see that improving even if you know some of those games have been against the Houston Texans for example and some difficult opponents just because of again where defenders are positioned until they start moving their position or putting in lighter bodies and defending the pass in those scenarios. So that's something we're going to be on and paying attention to uh and if that changes for the Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker dynamic in the future.

>> They just need a better right guard and center and then they can figure that out. But you're not not going to get that this season. Did want to note though, Kenneth Walker did get two inside the five-yard line opportunities this last game on two different drives and one of those was actually on a Charbonnet drive. So, could be worse for for Kenneth Walker. Maybe as they, you know, get close closer to the playoffs. It's like not about saving Kenneth Walker, it's about actually using him. But this team's playoff bounds and both these guys could be flex plays. And then I think Rasheed Shaheed I would put him as like the wide receiver 30 or so and then kind of move them based off of matchups and as we get some more data. The other part of this too is, and we discussed it against the Houston Texans, it was prior to their buy, that against great defenses, when you do struggle to run, that does set you up for some high variance fourth quarter stuff uh to close out games. And you know, that led to the end zone flukiness for Sam Darnold and interception on on top of it. And so it would be nice if their running game did get better. even if their personnel dictates that their running game is very good, it really hasn't matched it so far, which is so interesting. Again, NFL is so cyclical in all this type of stuff that now we're back in the era of the big boys being on the field versus a couple years ago. It's spread everything out, small bodies, fast. Uh, I love the one we're in now. Let's put it that way.

>> All right, let's talk about the Washington Commanders. They don't love the era that they're in. Jaden Daniels in the fourth quarter down by a 100 points. Leaves with a, I believe, left elbow dislocation. We haven't gotten many details on it right now. Oh. Uh, what do you think about just the rest of the Commander season? What should we be expecting here?

>> I thought Deebo Samuel and Von Miller would have been good players to trade away at the deadline. The Commanders are pretty much eliminated from the playoffs. This is one of these injuries where in theory he could return, but if you look at the standings, it's pretty unlikely that Jaden Daniels is gonna return from this injury. Um, thankfully this was not his throwing arm. So, like this should not have an impact for Jaden Daniels' future. It is just another one of these injuries though that you have to just add on to a slight frame and some of the worries that everybody had pre-draft. We've seen this. It's >> every body part now at this point has been kind of >> banged up. So that makes me nervous just because how small he is. Marcus Mariota is like good for Marcus Mariota in fantasy, but for the rest of the team uh it's like a five-point difference uh per game. So you have to like downgrade everybody. I think that Zach Ertz and Terry McLaurin are both droppable. They were on my waiver wire drop list. And then Deebo Samuel is going to be able to survive as like a wide receiver two three. Uh and then our buddy Bill, he's been under 12 uh expected points in every game this season cuz he's losing some goal line work to Chris Rodriguez. He's losing all the pass game work to Jeremy McNichols. And now they're going to be underdogs in almost every single game because their defense stinks. And like even players like Latimore are going to be out for the year now. So completely wasted year. It was unfortunate with all the injuries that they had, but also somewhat kind of predictable that the team was just not nearly as good as what their the run that they went on last year. Uh, and I really just hope that these injuries don't keep piling up for Jaden Daniels because even like when Jaden Daniels was like quote healthy this year was not the same player. You just never know if that's just because of the knee and the hamstring injury that he had earlier on.

>> Yeah. Ever since Jaden suffered his first injury this year and you know this team is now on a four-game losing streak. Kind of been reviewing what went so right for them last season and it was the offensive line totally overperforming you know and then you make moves and Cornelius at right tackle and then Larry Tunsil at left tackle and then what it's been about the same if not a little bit worse on top of it then you also had Cliff Kingsbury on an absolute heater last year where it felt like every single throw was open in a lot of ways face and then when it wasn't, Jaden Daniels was on an absolute heater in terms of extending plays with his feet and big scrambles. Still taking some negative plays in terms of pressure to sack rate, but then the explosive downfield passes to Terry McLaurin would kind of negate those and those were hitting at a high degree last year. That hasn't been the case this year. So, it kind of shows like how fine of a margin and obviously the defense just gets much older and much worse. So these are like the fine margins we get to and it's honestly why you know last season at this time everyone would have said well Jaden Daniels should have been the number one overall pick. Those conversations are so short uh and they're really quick to come to conclusions because when we get to one season in someone's career, everyone's environments can be like totally different and it takes like multiple years to see somewhat equal or multiple environments for these types of players in order to make those designations. So, I really hope Jaden Daniels is okay. Washington fans finally had something to believe in with this organization. But again, uh, this season has just been completely derailed and is completely over at this point.

>> And I think you can point back to the Terry McLaurin holdout and they waited to pay him and then those injuries kind of led to the quad injury which there was now a setback and we'll see if he returns this year uh once again. So

>> and then the other part of it is, you know, Cliff was getting head coaching interviews or should have last year and then he just turned it down to return to this team. Probably thinking they did a Super Bowl run and then I doubt he gets head coaching interviews this offseason now, too.

>> No. Yeah, definitely not. Unless Mariota goes on a run, but I don't think we're expecting that.

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All right, let's go in alphabetical order the rest of the way. Let's talk about the Atlanta Falcons. And Hayden, I first want to bring up Bijan Robinson because he's still awesome. But over the last three weeks, his rushing totals have been 46, 25, and 40 rushing yards. One of those games against the freaking Miami Dolphins. All right, we covered that game in depth here on this episode. And so I wanted to go back and look at while the New England Patriots are fantastic, how again was he shut down on the ground? Well, one, Charlie Warner, who was abysmal in that Dolphins game and others, is now down to five offensive snaps in this game. And that means Kyle Pitts is an inline blocking tight end for the Atlanta Falcons. And it's pretty easy to see what direction that went in for this team.

>> Yeah, I think there just been a lot of problems. I think the quarterback play has like really regressed this month as well and it was the entire Drake London show and the only Drake London show this last week. So Bijan's now closer to like the Josh Jacobs, Dameon Pierce category, James Cook category than he is the Jonathan Taylor and Christian McCaffrey category. So obviously that can change in a hurry, but uh the defense isn't as good as it was earlier on when they were a really surprising team. So I think that everything's kind of working against Bijan. Thankfully though, he still made some insane catches. There's that one he had on space. So, he he's still like a totally awesome player, but just uh there's might be a tear break between CMC and Taylor versus Bijan.

>> And that worries me because through the opening half of the season, you could have made a case for Bijan Robinson being the number one overall pick in fantasy football. Uh he gets the Indianapolis Colts, then the Carolina Panthers over the next two weeks. Um, so, we'll see. Uh he was shut down mostly by the Panthers in their previous matchup on top of it. So um I don't know. It it is concerning me because I don't know what lever they can pull to make the running game better on top of it.

>> Uh I covered this game. I watched Drake London live. I'm sure you went back and saw this.

>> Oh yeah. How insane.

>> Yeah. You you put it in perspective. There's like literally nothing else to add. Uh you previously have said that he has the strongest hands in the NFL and then from now on you can just cite that game. Okay. Let's talk about the Baltimore Ravens. Um, it's been forever since they played last Thursday. Feels like weeks and weeks and weeks.

>> It really does.

>> What do you want to say here about the Ravens who are three and five at this moment? Uh, the only comment I'll have is can we get first two weeks, three weeks back of Zay Flowers moving forward? And does Zay Flowers like have it in him to potentially have like a 18-plus point game in terms of touchdowns? Because that is I'm not going to say a fatal flaw of his game, but just not a strong suit where I think he has only one end zone target all season long in comparison, you know, to Mark Andrews once again popping up for a two touchdown performance because he is their red zone off.

>> Yeah, the tight ends went crazy. Um I think Zay Flowers can pop off here, but this is the most run-heavy team in the league, at least this last month. And then even like early on the season, it was still pretty run-heavy um with Lamar. So yeah, he was at one point taking too many sacks. I think that will end up uh kind of regressing to a normal baseline. I think this offense is extremely potent. And Mark Andrews is like not the same player to me on tape, but man, he's just constantly peppered. He had that big crossing route touchdown where the two defenders ran into each other. Um, so he was left wide open. So Mark Andrews, I think, is somebody that's I'm going to have some difficulties ranking because he and Isaiah Likely are running like basically the same amount of routes, but Mark Andrews historically with Lamar is like a top five tight end. I just like can't watch the tape and see that continuing, but I would not be surprised if he's like still like at the tight end 10 just because the Ravens go on a run here. Mark Andrews scored 11 touchdowns on 15 red zone targets last season and he's on like a similar pace this year, too.

>> Yeah, it's crazy. But outside the red zone, it's an issue.

>> Correct?

>> But we always do say that touchdowns matter the most for tight ends.

>> Uh more than any other stat.

>> That's true. That is true.

>> Speaking of, let's talk about the Buffalo Bills here who had a massive, massive win against the Kansas City Chiefs. We questioned if Dalton Kincaid is the key to it all for them to become a legitimate contender in 2025. Anything else you want to add here about the Bills?

>> Bills are 29th in neutral pass rate this month and obviously James Cook is eating. That's going to help Josh Allen a little bit too. But really they've only had uh an opportunity for Khalil Shakir to have some yards after the catch play. But really a lot of their pass game is just these Dalton Kincaid. There's a couple uh like zone yards after the catch plays, but he had that man-to-man coverage touchdown which I thought he was moving really well. So, I think that the Dalton Kincaid I'll call it a breakout. I'm not sure if it's like a he's a first-round level player breakout, but he's a much better player now than he was uh the last couple years when he was dealing with a variety of injuries. So, I would view uh Dalton Kincaid as a top 10 tight end for the rest of the season. Even if he's not getting the bankable volume, this team's way too good. Just watching that Chiefs game like in hyper detail. They're just the Bills are so good at so many different things that is really hard to defend and I think that working over the middle Dalton Kincaid's been their go-to player and even like compared to Khalil Shakir who gets like some dump offs in the flats, you're just not getting the big crossing route that you're get with Kincaid.

>> And if their defense plays at that level, they're going to have a real real chance. I I just wouldn't bank on the defense like playing at that level in multiple games in a row once we get to the playoffs.

>> And then the passing game can be so like hit or miss high variance at times too that talked about a lot of other contenders so far this season. The Bills are certainly one, but I I do think like their margin for error is like so thin in comparison to everyone else and like the stars really have to align for four games in a row to to win the Super Bowl. Yeah.

>> Josh Allen was so I think he completed like completed like 89% of his passes or something ridiculous. It's like even if they're not downfield, that offense is still just cooking.

>> By the way, James Cook is the running back five in points per game so far this season, tied with James Josh Jacobs, uh, and just .3 per week behind Bijan Robinson. Uh, pretty pretty cool. Next, Carolina Panthers. We got all the answers we needed for Rico Dowdle moving forward. He started the game and then got the second series and then continues to get the series and then the only time that Chuba Hubbard comes in is basically when Rico Dowdle needs a breather. Uh, that is going to be their offense moving forward and I think most of all they did it with numerous backup offensive linemen against the Green Bay Packers. Uh, they lost their backup to the backup to the backup right guard. I don't even know the dude who came in and he did work. Uh, Austin Corbett was back at center. Even Yash Nyman played at right tackle. And so you go from the Packers defensive line to now against the New Orleans Saints. And again, we know what the game plan's going to be here in week 10.

>> So over the last month, if you just look at the running back usage in totality, the Panthers are averaging 21 and a half expected points. Let's give Rico Dowdle 80% of that, which I think is largely fair. We're talking about like 16, 17 points per game, which is like RB1 numbers depending on the matchup. though. That's just like the level reset that we're hitting with Rico Dowdle. I think there's a chance from this point forward. He's a top 12 running back down the stretch. And that's even accounting for the Panthers kind of up and down nature of their offense. The good news with Rico is he can play passing downs and the Panthers are 31st in neutral pass rate. So, they want to get going with Rico Dowdle and even when they they're kind of down by 10 points, they're still going to run the ball and Rico Dowdle can catch some passes, too. So he's he's looking really solid. I'd put him like just had kind of a tick down behind like the Javonte Williams kind of tier, but as like a top 12 guy, I think it's about like a toss-up right now between

>> I think you might be underelling him. I mean, he has started three games. Three games. He has 31 fantasy points, 32 fantasy points, and 27 fantasy points. He has started three games this year, and he's third in the NFL in rushing yards, only behind Jonathan Taylor and James Cook. um they're going to face some difficult defenses and so you know I think you have to move his maybe projection more versus others but like in this week against the New Orleans Saints and obviously Javonte's on the buy but if he were playing like then I would rank Rico Dowdle ahead.

>> yeah is he like by then I mean

>> I mean I I think it's really close this is what they want to be you know and when they get close to the goal line it's not like they have a threat of a quarterback short yardage rushing game so it's going to be Rico Dowdle plunging it in too.

>> yeah I I wouldn't be surprised if he's the RB6 the rest of the way. Like I think that's the kind of tier that we're in. Like it's it's low-end RB1 status for sure with huge spike weeks like we've seen.

>> And good for him. I mean he's on a $2.5 million deal. I'll be very intrigued to see what type of deal he gets on the open market this offseason. That's how you do it, man. That's how you do it.

>> Okay. Chicago Bears. Um, this was such a fun game to watch of the Ben Johnson open the playbook dynamic. Now, everyone's going to focus in on, you know, the >> flea flickers, >> Chicago special, whatever you want to call it.

>> Yeah.

>> Um, but look, when you face the Cincinnati Bengals, who you and Jacob have talked about, where they have DJ Turner and then you can pick on all other 10 defenders out there, most importantly, when the Bears have rushing success on first down and they get to like a second and one on the plus 29, then the entire fun playbook is opened for Ben Johnson. Like in that situation, they had DJ Moore motion behind Caleb Williams. They faked it to him. Then Caleb goes and rolls out in the opposite direction with basically a three-level concept with the running back and two wide receivers over top. But then it's also a screen in the opposite direction and they throw it to DJ Moore and he gains 22 yards. Then second and five again because of a five-yard run on first down, they have that push pass touchdown to Zay Flowers. So again, those were the type of plays that they weren't able to get into in the first four or five weeks of the season when this team had zero rushing success. But what we've seen since the buy with DeAndre Swift and then also what we've seen since the buy for Khalil Herbert and in a spot start for DeAndre Swift is they can move bodies up front and that just puts them in such advantageous positions.

>> And it keeps Caleb out of bad situations where he gets outside the pocket. then it's kind of just spin the wheel on what where the ball is going to go. So, I thought Caleb played really well. Did want to give a huge shout out to Cole Kmet. Everyone saw the walk-off uh play down the seam where he broke his tackles, but I thought like the more important play was actually the touchdown earlier on where he was the isolated receiver on a 3x1 set, runs a slant route against man coverage, bodies him, catches it, no problem problem at all. I've seen him run choice routes in in other games as well. He's getting the types of routes that most tight ends don't get. You only give these routes to the absolute dogs and Cole Kmet is getting them. So, he's about to I think really take off. That was a season high in usage. Uh Cole Kmet with the concussion. We'll see if he's going to come back uh for this next one. But you just can't put the the the cap back in the bag here. He's he is going to be a huge breakout player for them and I think Caleb with like the better version of the ground game is definitely going to help. So, there's a lot to sort out though still like Khalil Herbert versus DeAndre Swift that's going to be a thing we're going to have to get right moving forward. Romeo Doubs has completely regressed recently, but I think that that's more matchup dependent like with DJ Turner this last week and then he had like a touchdown kind of called back. So, I'm not really selling Romeo Doubs. He's frustrating to me because he drops the ball, but for the most part, he's very good. Um, so yeah, this offense is still very interesting to me.

>> That is the first time I've ever heard the phrase "put the cap back in the bag." It's real. I was going to make fun of you. It It's a real phrase. Uh, it just means trying to undo something that is already done and can't be taken back. Uh, I had no clue. I mean, I I do like you can't put the special sauce back in the bottle and those types of things, but

>> you know, you're a cat guy. I'm not. Even though my wife has a cat.

>> Yeah, you're a cat guy then. You live with one.

>> I mean, I get all these phrases wrong because I don't read enough. So, every single time I say something like this, I always know I'm going to botch it.

>> You're going to double check it. I have heard "let the cat out of the bag," but I've never heard the opposite of that. the inverse of "put the cap back in the bag."

>> So,

>> yeah,

>> in the comments, let us know if you have or if you use it in your daily lexicon like like Hayden does. By the way, hit that subscribe button and and go and support Underdog while you're at it. You know, promo code the show. Uh

>> we're in 40 of 50 states. They can be prediction markets, they can be pick'em, they can be drafts. Uh use the link in the description down below. If you play $5 your first time, we'll give you a hundred bucks in bonus cash. So, Underdog allows us to do the show every single week. And so you should go and support them. Uh let's talk about the Cincinnati Bengals. They're going to drop back a lot and throw the football a lot and they get the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots over the next two weeks. Uh, it'll be a big deal if the Steelers defense pops up like the one that they had against the Indianapolis Colts or the Pittsburgh's defense that we saw in Thursday Night Football against this team that led to their third win of the season and 33 points on the board.

>> Uh injury I'm paying attention to. Samaj P. Ryan uh did not return last week and I think he's probably going to miss here and that led Chase Brown to season-high 22.1 expected points. So if we're getting the like Chase Brown doesn't come off the field role then that's big news for him. So Ja'Marr Chase has been the wide receiver one in usage this month. Tee Higgins is the wide receiver eight on wide receiver 19 usage. You can throw darts on Yoshi Voss and Noah Fant and these guys and DFS just because the games get totally sidetracked. But I think Chase Brown's like the guy that's I think most interesting now just because uh we're monitoring the Samaj P. Ryan injury.

>> There is no coming back for this defense. Let's put it that way. No. So this isn't something that will get fixed as we go along. This is just how the Bengals are going to live the rest of the way.

>> Yep. Let's talk about the Cleveland Browns here. For the second straight season, Kevin Stefanski has handed over play calling to the offensive coordinator. Last year it was Ken Dorsey. This year it is Tommy Reese. What do you think this means for him?

>> He's done, right? Is that crazy? Like how how many times do you have to let go of play call? And by the way, no head coach is choosing to let go of their play call. Somebody's forcing that out of it. So it's like one of those where Yeah, it's unfair to me. The quarterback play is so bad and it's been so bad that I still think that Stefanski is like a pretty solid coach and that he would probably get hired to be a head coach if they moved on from him. But yeah, this that's just not a good look in general and I think that's coming probably from ownership, right?

>> So, he just signed an extension in 2024 and that doesn't necessarily mean anything because obviously there's no dead cap and just owners have to pay those those contracts. Here's a Galaxy Brain thought for you. All right. The owners continue to mention in every single interview when they're on the mic that Shedeur Sanders will start at some point this season. Whenever Kevin Stefanski is asked about it in these press conferences, he just >> never brings it up. Like he doesn't want to discuss it at all. It's it's very obvious. So to me, the owners, if they're telling us in the public, privately has told Kevin Stefanski that Shedeur Sanders will start at some point this season. And Kevin Stefanski, again, if we listen to his words, or lack thereof, does not want to call plays for potentially a pick he never wanted to even make as his backup quarterback, which was supposed to be Dylan Gabriel. So maybe this is just like enter Tommy Reese who comes from the college ranks who can build an offense that can actually maybe get something out of Shedeur Sanders uh versus the head coach who doesn't want him to play a quarterback at all. That's just my read on it.

>> I think that could be totally fair. And then I think your other read on the Browns situation is that none of this matters because they're going to draft a quarterback or correct >> trade for Kyler Murray. I think all that is completely accurate too. So um they did not trade David Njoku. That's something that we needed to note. Harold Fannon's been um kind of holding the line as like a borderline top 12 uh tight end um even with David Njoku in the mix. And then the other thing I'm noting here, Cedric Tillman could be activated from his injury. Jerry Judy has already been completely buried to what what I say 102nd um over the last month. So So uh that

>> was one of the best clips that we we put out like name 102 wide receivers. And then we got a comment being like, "Yeah, this actually took me an hour and a half at work. It was great, >> but he was able to do it. I thought I thought that was lovely. Um, and then lastly, Quinn Judkins, he had that shoulder injury. I think it's an AC joint injury. They give him the Beaver Tranquilizer. He should be ready to go. But just in case, Dylan Samson's kind of the guy that we would have to pay attention to.

>> Look, I'm not saying that's exactly what's happening here with Kevin Stefanski. It wouldn't shock me though if that is what's happening here with Kevin Stefanski. And I don't think he's absolutely gone. Um, it's just he's drawn the wrong cards, let's put it that way, when it comes to quarterback situation there. But, you know, arguably he did some of it with Baker Mayfield. Albeit Baker was always injured and wasn't playing at the same level that he was now and then you had to kind of coach around him. So, that was a different Baker Mayfield that Kevin Stefanski was coaching at that time. Next, Denver Broncos. I had this game on Sunday, uh, you know, where RJ Harvey again got a receiving touchdown and again had five catches. Um, I'm not saying he's going to reach like the 50-plus catch mark that a number of running backs have done in a Sean Payton system, but Hayden on any given week, he is getting the fun stuff from Sean Payton, who loves to try the fun stuff rather than normal offense from time to time.

>> RJ Harvey is very good at the fun stuff, too, because he's fast. you get them out in space and there's just matchups that they like and there was one of the touchdowns against the Cowboys where Harvey said that on Saturday Sean Payton told him like this is going to be a touchdown for you and of course that happened. So the the evidence is in he is the Joker. It's Evan Engram is definitely not the Joker. Marvin Mims has not been the Joker. RJ Harvey is the Joker. He barely gets the ball but when he does get the ball it usually works and it's not normal running back stuff for the most part. So, I think we should kind of view JK Dobbins and RJ Harvey as like kind of totally separate beings. And Dobbins is like the RB25 as a running back and then Harvey is like, "Hey, do we like a manufactured touch to go to the house this week based off

"of a matchup?" I think that's kind of how they're viewing it internally.

Over the last two weeks, Archie Harvey has been the running back six and running back nine. Now, that's basically impossible to predict, like you said, because just the touches aren't there, and touches are the most predictable thing with snaps on any given week. It's also notable to me, though, that I think two of those fun plays for RJ Harvey were on third down near the goal line, and on the first and second down stuff, they went in a different direction. Like, it was either JK Dobbins up the middle or another passing play that just simply did not work. So, it's not like they're getting immediately to that short yardage field and being like, "Oh, this is the R.J. Harvey play. We know he's going to score. It's time for him." So, even like that part is a bit unpredictable. If the other guys like did their jobs better, he wouldn't have even had those opportunities.

He's kind of having like the rookie kind of growing pains, but he's at least very fast and Shawn Peyton has a plan for him.

Yeah. And and you know, he's had positive runs up the middle too this season. I did want to add that I think this season Courtland Sutton and Troy Franklin are within one target of each other in totality. So again, a few weeks ago we talked about how Troy Franklin in terms of his market share in the red zone was super super high among top five across the NFL of any wide receiver. Um and Courtland Sutton is drawing difficult matchups and that just frees up someone like Troy Franklin a bit more often.

It has this month Troy Franklin's the wide receiver 13 in usage. Uh Coron Sutton's the wide receiver 36 in usage. I still think that Sutton's a much better player than Franklin, but Franklin's getting a couple of the easier stuff and he's still getting some of the the valuable downfield reps. So, they'll be close in my rankings. I'm going to continue to go with Courtland Sutton sample size is much bigger that he's been a good player, but uh the gap is closing. I think some of these RJ Harvey explosives that we're getting has hurt Courtland Sutton because that just like did not exist last year.

Let's talk about the Detroit Lions. So unfortunately Jir Gibbs finished as the running back 40 on the week. Some beat writers actually asked some fantastic questions of Dan Campbell specifically about Jir Gibbs and his lack of receiving totals in this game. Three targets, three yards. Um he was forced to be in pass protection on 15 snaps in that game. And Dan Campbell said they never want a game for that to happen again for him to get over a dozen snaps and that the Vikings dictated it often, but Dan said they want to adjust faster next time. So, yep, that's notable to me. Uh, and also, you know, we talked about the Vikings and how they've changed. This isn't a Vikings segment. But again, when Jir Gibbs can't get it going in the run, when the Vikings improved in that area just for this game, then you typically rely on the pass and explosive plays and there was a reason why he couldn't get those. It's because he was staying in to help Jared Golf stay clean.

Yeah, they kept putting their linebackers in the A gap and just either blitz them or at least threatened it and that just made it harder for the running backs to get out. And Gibbs got his ass kicked in pass protection, too. So, he was out there doing it and then was being bad at it. So that's that kind of explained at the margins why the Lions did end up losing that game. So it was good to get an honest answer that was exactly what happened uh after watching that. So yeah, he's had an interesting season. I still don't know how to view Jir Gibbs. Uh I posted like kind of just a top 12 rest of season thing. I think I threw Jir Gibbs at like 10th 11th. He hasn't been that he hasn't been worth the 10th or 11th overall pick, but at any point this thing can kind of flip where he's like the guy you need down the stretch. It's kind of one of those things where like he's probably been the 16th most valuable player in fantasy, but if I was drafting him today, I would still take him higher than that just because at any point this whole thing could could flip.

Yeah, he's the running back eight in points per game on or excuse me, that's running back eight overall. Uh running back seven in points per game, but then like you look over the last few weeks and it's like running back 15, running back 12, running back 27. Then you have the running back two week to go along with like the running back three week that he had in week three and then running back 40. So there's some consistency there, but the times you've had supreme super winning weeks and then kind of tanking your starting lineup on top of it, too.

All right, Green Bay Packers. This one sucks. Tucker Craft gone. So he had almost 300 more yards after the catch than the next closest Packer pass catcher out there.

Yep.

That is huge for this team long term for the rest of the season. that to me I could squint and see the stars aligning that they had a chance of maybe winning the entire thing especially with the defense and the pass rushers they had. I don't think that's the case anymore. I really think that a Tucker Craft injury means that this team cannot win the Super Bowl because they do not have another player that fills in the void of and making the impact that he does on this team.

They could use a Matthew Golden kind of breakout because he has like some yards after the catch moments. They haven't like gone to him enough. like maybe they can kind of just get that out of the first rounder and maybe Christian Watson down the field kind of like those two guys in tandem are enough or Jaden Reed comes back. But I agree it's it's such a huge loss. I think it's a big loss for their ground game and this is one of these offenses where when everything's working together, the offense is really good, but you kind of remove the ground game from working and then you're kind of relying on the downfield stuff. So, I think that was like my maybe my biggest takeaway from watching the Panthers Packers game was they were just maybe overly aggressive through the air and then they're maybe too dependent on the ground. And I think that's just kind of a weird combination where when it's working, it's the best offense in the league are right up there with it. But when the downfield passes go incomplete, then you can get an upset where you didn't move the ball really at all. And I think that's something they have to kind of figure out like when are we actually taking our chances? Are we being too aggressive? Are we skipping on some easy first downs by chucking the ball down the field? And I don't think that gets any easier when Tucker Craft has usually been the guy working over the middle.

Luke Musgrave is going to pop in. But Luke Musgrave and Tucker Craft are very different tight ends. You know, just from a body composition standpoint, Tucker Craft is sturdier, right? He's more filled out and that's why he looks different running the football and then bouncing off these tackles and forcing the yards after catch. Luke Musgraved is like a giraffe. He's very lanky. Uh, and he's more of like a downfield presence and he's going to catch some downfield passes on top of it. But it also wouldn't stun me if they kind of split that tight end position into two with more of like a blocking type and more of a receiving type versus Tucker Craft who was a do everything George KD type.

Yeah, I think that's what I'm expecting. uh by committee at tight end and then I think Romeo Dobs is the one that's just going to elevate into must start status. He's been a top 20 wide receiver in usage and he's a positive aggression candidate and I think he was I think a lot of teams were calling about Romeo Dobs and the Packers told them to pound it and that they want Romeo who's just seems a little bit better this year.

Let's talk about the Houston Texans. Uh I believe that CJ Stra did not practice on Wednesday. I highly doubt he plays this week. Uh they're coming off of a another loss, Davis Mills filled in for him at quarterback. Um I guess the only thing here is that when Nico Collins and Christian Kirk came back, then Jane Higgins and Jaylen Null did not touch the field again.

We will talk about those guys in the offseason. I don't think we're going to see them this year. You know, Texans got an uphill battle to make the playoffs, too. Like a really uphill battle.

Oh, yeah. They're not making it. Do you think Nick Kaye stays on for another season if they don't make the playoffs?

I would say so, but you never know. Um, I think it's kind of hard for Deique O'Brien to keep firing offensive coordinators and continue to demand that he should be the head coach of the team. So, I would give him probably another year over there. Um, my thing is like this game I I understand Davis Mills played for three quarters of it was a really bad look for Nick Kaye in that you continued to get into the red zone and you had to settle for five field goals. Like you don't have certain plays at the one yard line that they were multiple times in this one to get a yard. You can't do that.

That's really bad for a play caller. That's really bad for an offensive coordinator. I'm not saying they are a perfect team. you know, offensive line issues. You have the running back rotation pulled up here between Nick Chub and Woody Marks. We're talking about one yard and having four chances for it, and there were numerous occasions why they couldn't do it in this one.

They have some offensive line issues. I think that explains most. I also think they have running back issues, like I I think Woody Marks is really not all that great, you know, and they could use many pieces on the offensive line and at running back this off seasonason. So, this team's all about the 2026 season. Now, at this point, they've got all the wide receivers that they would need. They got the quarterback of the future. It's just surrounding them with quality offensive line play. Uh, for me, assuming it's David Davis Mills out there, I think Nico Collins is the only starter. Woody Marks, Nick Chub, the team total is going to be split. They're rotating evenly. I guess like for flex play if you're struggling with buys, but for the most part, it just comes down to Nico Collins.

And it's a must-win. It's against the Jacksonville Jaguars at home. So, got to do it.

Next, Indianapolis Colts. We discussed them at length in the trade episode just before this one. Again, hopefully you tuned into it. Uh, it's coming off the heels of a loss and their worst loss of the season. Uh, what went wrong for them?

Everything. That was a maddening game. The Colts were actually moving the ball against the Steelers except TJ Watt and Heismith both had strip sacks where the tackles on each side just got to the quarterback quickly. They threw one of those RPOS's where in comes the linebacker jumping like this, swats it. He doesn't pick the ball off, he swats it to the the opposite edge rusher who catches it for an interception. DS and Alec Pierce were not on the same page on a interception out there. Then you had a Josh DS muffed punt. I didn't think that I was watching Daniel Jones play and be like, "Oh, he forgot how to play quarterback. See, this is him panicking under pressure." There was really like no panic plays like he just got strip sacked a couple times, which it it happens against those guys and everything happened bad at once. So, yes, it does matter. They're still to me one of the best offenses in the league. Um, and Jacob and I talked about this. I wanted your opinion on it, too. The Colts get viewed because they have Jonathan Taylor putting up these crazy numbers as this like balanced offense. They're really not in neutral situations in the beginning of games. They're actually fourth in neutral pass rate right now this month. Yep. And they've been like that the entire season. They just run the ball a lot because they've had a lot of leads. Well, once the schedule tightens up, once they're not the best offense in the league, they're probably going to just be more pass heavy than people think. So, I think that leaves guys like Alec Pierce and Josh DS maybe a little bit underrated. I think that Tyler Warren's a decent bounceback candidate, but I think just Pierce and Downs in general and and same thing with Pitman. They just might be a little bit underrated because they don't feel like a pass first team, but they will drop back a ton, especially if they're losing in some games.

The opening three catches went to Alec Pierce for a total of 64 yards in those. I mean, the whole shot along the right sideline was

Yeah.

Big boy throws. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, again, the other part of this is the offensive line has been unreal all season. You have a couple new starters in there.

Yep.

So, I guess my concern is

there are a lot of other offenses and the vast majority of them that have dealt with worse offensive line play than the Colts. Is this what's going to happen when you know there's pressure on him? I mean, yeah. Five sacks taken, multiple multiple multiple turnovers on top of that. I'm

with you that some of them weren't his fault. And actually, he still like stood tall and made some other throws. So, it's not like to me, oh, he's going into a shell here. This is the New York Giants. Daniel Jones all the way back, but you know, he missed a few more downfield shots that in previous weeks he he was making and then the instant disruption stuff just forced turnovers on top of it. So,

it was like the first time where it didn't feel the full flow and rhythm even though

it's not like they were down 20 points. Like they were down

14-7, it was tied 7-7, just down 17-7. And even despite that somewhat neutral game script, albeit sometimes down a score or two, it was like you said, 50 dropbacks, 55 dropbacks in comparison to 14 carries for for Jonathan Taylor.

Yeah, I think it leaves upside for Alec Pierce and Downs and Pitman that you might not have seen before this game. It's just a good reminder. And then also, uh, Tyler Warren, there's a little bit some splits with him where on play action, he's targeted a bunch. We've mentioned the little like leak routes that they have and a lot of that's off of play action, but in a standard dropback game, he's not getting the same targets. And I think that's kind of how he was in college, too. So, just something to kind of think about with Tyler Warren. The competition for him to like draw a regular target without like a play action league crowd is pretty pretty difficult because you have Pierce, Pitman, and Josh. He's still totally great player.

Yeah. I mean, he's he's still getting a ton of targets though, like for a tight end.

No, for sure. He's he's the tight end three and you use just wanted to know like how how he's getting them is a little bit different than some of the other uh tight ends across the league. But I think that's mostly just because you have DS, Pitman, and Pierce. And that's just those guys are also deserving of a bunch of looks.

All right, let's talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars. Again, we spoke at length on the trade show about the Jacobe Meyers deal, why they felt like they had to do it. Uh I know you want to talk about the the running back room here and Travis ETN and Bashel Tuton. thought it wasn't a huge statistical day for Travis ETN. Um it's kind of the third or fourth in the row where that's been the case.

Yeah, but he was used a ton here. Um you mentioned it with the basial tudin finishing off a drive. If you guys I'll zoom in here. The boxes mean that the inside the five five yard line opportunity

just got stuffed over and over and over again.

Kind of got stuffed. Those were like from five yards out and I thought he was actually making the right reads and the run blocking has just not been nearly as good and that's been kind of the thing with Jacksonville. Um and then Basel Tutin got in there and and did convert one where he was untouched. So I don't think anything materially has changed between Tuton and Travis ETN. I thought ETN looked really good in general. Like he was getting to the perimeter a ton and I thought that he it was actually one of his better games on tape this this last week. Just did not convert the goal line touchdowns which I didn't think were really his fault.

See, I I slightly disagree. I think things have slightly changed in that if Travis Een is getting some of these carries on first and second down and he's not converting. Like if you look at Bashel Tutin and just his carries this past week. One was on fourth and one that he converted. Another was on third and three that he converted. Another was on third and one. And then the other was third and one at the goal line which he converted for a touchdown. So like Travis ETM when I was watching the game was in for those drives and getting opportunities just before that. And then when he failed then Bashel Tutin comes in and has now kind of been I think designated somewhat as a role player to convert to convert those third and one or fourth and one scenarios.

I saw run blocks that were missed for Travis ETN's carries and then Basel Tutin goes untouched.

Well, no no but but that doesn't have anything to do with like when the coach is putting in the player like they actively took out Travis ETN and put in Bachel Tutin on those plays. Yeah, on the one drive, but Travis ETN, that was not the case on earlier in the game, too. So, it just I think right now the pass game is kind of a mess in that they're just going to run the ball more recently or like versus the couple games before the buy and that Travis ET I think is going to be totally fine. Um, and I just think that there's a chance the offense isn't very good. Yeah, I I just saw something different when I I think they actively put Basil Tutin in in some of those situations like the fourth and one earlier and so on and so forth. Um, they need Britain Strange back, that's for sure.

They really do. They really do.

All right, Kansas City Chiefs, uh they're going into their by-week and it looks like they are getting their left tackle back. He's at least coming back to practice and that comes on the heels of Joey Bosa uh destroying some of their offensive tackles, to put it mildly. Um, we'll see if he plays. We'll see how healthy he is. Whatever is going on. No one has reported absolutely anything on this, but you know, this Chief's offense had looked awesome for multiple weeks since Rushy Rice had returned, and they did not look awesome in this game.

No. Trey Smith, elite guard, he didn't have a good game. He was playing through an injury. Jawan Taylor left, and then Josh Simmons hasn't played in in a month. So, this offensive line needs the bye-week to get healthy and then we'll get PCO back, I'm guessing, after that. and hopefully everything starts to click then. Um my note for them, just keeping in mind, Xavier Worthy is now under 10 expected fantasy points in four straight games. He's going to catch a couple downfield touchdowns this year. I think this is extremely similar to Jameson Williams, which I think has largely been wide receiver for and very frustrating. Um but I don't see a difference between Xavier Worthy and Jameson Williams right now.

All right, let's talk about the Las Vegas Raiders. I failed as a host and Hayden, I feel like we didn't talk about them on the trade show when dealing away Jacobe Myers. Feel like I hit on everything except for this one and I forgot it. So, let's do that now. So, what happens in the starting lineup now that one of their two starting wide receivers in Jacobe Myers is gone. Who's going to be the fill in here?

Michael Mayer is going to play a lot of snaps like we saw last week. And then it's going to be a competition between Tyler Lockett, Bes, and Thornton. And there are no winners in that race. Like those three guys, all three of them I think are just bad. So Trey Tucker and Brock Bowers, you're going to get all the volume. And same thing with Ashton Genty, who caught more passes this week and largely didn't leave the field. And then Michael Mayer is going to be in line. So I think Bes has been really bad this year. I think he's playing more outside than I thought he should be playing. And he's going to have to because Bowowers is a slot wide receiver pretty much. And then Thornton can't catch the ball and he's all over the place. and he was a healthy scratch this last game and then you have Tyra Lockett who was released by the Tennessee Titans. So to me there is no answer like who's replacing them a combination of them and I just keep seeing more targets to to Brock Bowers and then Trey Tucker. So Trey Tucker played 62 snaps. Uh Jacob Myers played 57 snaps. Tyra Lockett played 19 snaps and no rookie wide receiver played a single snap. Um, that has to change because to me, if you want to be a developly or how do I want to put this, developmentminded organization, then you have to play the dude that was what, the 58th overall pick in the NFL draft that you just spent a selection on. Even if you just plucked one of your quarterback's friends from free agency in Tyra Lockett and just played him over. Like Tyro Lockett and Jack Bash are totally different types of wide receivers. But again, this is a team that used two tight end sets, if not more than that, at 59% rate this past season. Brock Bowers is just going to feast on targets and really be, you know, an isolated wide receiver, as we saw last week, a slot wide receiver. He's never going to leave the field probably here. But at the same time, that means we have to really focus in on not for fantasy, but just from a week in week out, who are the Raiders? Two wide receiver set thing. And again, if they play Tyrell Lockett, who's going to be on this team for 10 more weeks versus the guy they just been a 58th overall pick on and leave with and you know, learn the growing pains of it all, then that's uh some already rough decision-m for me. It is, but I think just Jack Bes and Brock Bowers, that's just a bad fit for one another. Like when you watch

And why did they draft him?

That's a great question. Why did they draft Jack Besh? When you're watching Jack B as a prospect, were you seeing the outside wide receiver or did you see the big slot?

Well, guess what? Brock Bowers is a big slot that's much faster than Jack Bes. So, how are these two guys going to be on the field together? And then Trey Tucker is just a way better version of Taekwon of not Taekwon Thornton of Deontay Thornton. I think we have too bust at wide receivers. Like way too early to say that, but everything that I've seen and then how they're going to fit with this uh Chip Kelly two tight end set uh offense that matches their personnel. I just don't see how this there's a short-term or long-term solution for for what they have right now. So, you're expecting obviously Trey Tucker is going to be the number one in wide receiver snaps. You're expecting Tyler Lockett to get the second most wide receiver snaps.

No, I think it'll be a combination. They're going to try to get all three of those guys. I just don't see long term it could be Trey Tucker, Bes with Brock Bowers in two wide receiver sets with Bowers as basically a slot wide receiver. Like that to me just doesn't make sense. Like Jack B will always just be be playing out of position.

Yeah. I mean, like is I think this is all fair.

Well, look, it's not like Jacobe Myers was a downfield player. So maybe they think that again this is the replacement. And that's kind of what we said of um this team when they selected Jack Bash is that that's his future replacement of Jacobe Myers. But at the same time, we also kind of thought that Brock Bowers was going to

and this team run in single tight end stuff. And if it's too tight and stuff, then

it makes it much more difficult and complicated to rationalize this move.

But I think when they drafted Brock Bowers, everybody was like, "Is Jacobe Myers going to get moved?" Because those two guys are like kind of playing the same role. So yeah, it's just bad roster management for the Raiders, I'll say.

Yeah. I mean, and we've gone in on the moves they made heading into this year, how's a short term, we're going to try to jump the line, and it's been anything but that. I will say again a big change for Ashen Genty has been catching a whole bunch of passes in these neutral or bad situations versus what he was doing the first three or four games when Den Lowi and whoever else were catching passes. So that saves his fantasy value uh more so moving forward.

Next is the LA Chargers. Again, they made the move for Trevor Penning to potentially fill in at left tackle or right guard or one of these injured spots for them. Uh we did see QJ in the end zone again in this game. Anything else we want to add about the ever evolving passing game for the Chargers? Because uh the running game did unspeakable things to uh some of our lineups.

I mean, what a throw on that Quinn Johnson touchdown by Herbert there. Uh the same we went into a lot of detail the previous episode on the rotation at wide receiver and it's the exact same that we talked about. Lad Mcconi and Quinn Johnson are basically full-time route runners. Trey Harris is going to play some snaps on non-passing downs and then Keenan Allen is the one that continues to lose actual routes. So, he's running like half the routes at this point. And then Aronda Gadston doesn't leave the field and continues to make plays by himself and schemed up plays. So, I would definitely take Lad Mcconkey of the wide receivers and then I think I would go Quinton Johnson and Ard Gadson for about the same amount of fantasy points. And then afterwards it would be Keenan Allen to me who I'm not completely writing off just because the offense is too good, but he's the one that's running the fewest routes and that's the reason why his box score is going to get uh progressively smaller.

All right, Los Angeles Rams. Um we talked about big bodies. That's a big boy league now. It's definitely the case for the Rams. I mean, they go from, you know, taking 22 Atwell in the second round to now utilizing 13 personnel, as Jordan Rodriguez pointed out, on 35 of 77 plays in week nine. And in fact, the three longest gains out of 13 personnel, these three tight end sets,

uh, were all in the passing game, and they were all on first or second down.

You had pickups of 13, 36, 16, and 13 yards. I don't know if you got to watch uh those plays specifically, but Shawn McVey on two of them, the 16 and 13 yard gains. Such a fun play where it's three tight ends all the way on the same side. They motion one of them in Tferg down in at the snap and then basically insert him in between the other two tight ends. Right.

Okay. because he's at full speed and he breaks the line of scrimmage first and because of his initial where he lined up, he takes the first defensive back away. Okay. And then off of under center play action, because that's what you do with three tight ends, the outside tight end, which I believe was both Higgby and Parkinson at one point, block for half a second, then release. And so since that flat defender or first defensive back is now vacated out of that area, there's no one within 10 yards of a tight end and all Matthew Styford does have to pitch it out there. They were in this same exact play twice and it picked up again 16 or 13 yards. So I'm sure he'll have another wrinkle on top of that next week. But uh 13 personnel stuff is just so much fun to watch. It's the new 12.

It is the new 12. Uh and there might be some like 04 personnel um too. So, it's it's pretty wild what McFay is doing. Stafford's playing out of his mind. Um, my fantasy notes here is the Rams backfield is a little bit different than what the box score would indicate. It was a legit 5050 driveby drive rotation. So, you're going to look at snap counts and uh everything else where Kairen Williams was well ahead, but the Blake Cororm drives just didn't last as long. and Kairen Williams ended up playing more snaps, but it was actually a legit I get a full drive then you get a full drive rotation. So, uh just more evidence that Blake Cororm should be owned in every single league, shallow or deep and that he has potential to be a flex play down the stretch because the Rams are awesome. Um but the gap is tightening a little bit now with Kairen that really hasn't mattered because the Rams are just better on offense than what anybody would have guessed. Um, and I don't think that's going to really change, but it is just kind of notable that it's it was a just a drive by drive. Just you get a drive, you get a drive. You're not coming off. And they both

like Haron was making people miss. He was weaving. He was creating some explosives.

Uh, and then Blake Corm just no wasted movement in his stuff, too.

He can bounce.

Yeah. At some point, we should probably do like a rest of season handcuff rankings. Um, because sometimes that is the player that decides your fantasy championship if they pop up in week 14, 15, 16, 17.

Yep. So,

and that list is shrinking.

I'm trying to think like how many guys I would have ahead of Blake Corum.

Yeah, maybe not. Literally, maybe not.

Yeah, and just finally, seven red zone catches for Devonte Adams has equaled seven red zone touchdowns. Odell Beckham had this role when they won the Super Bowl. He was, "Hey, let's abandon this called running play because I see my stud wide receiver who can win in the small game in terms of separation or big game in terms of contested catches in tight fields." And really, Matthew Styford hasn't had that since their Super Bowl run. And Devonte Adams, the mind meld is building every single week. And you see it like there's a called run play, but he sees against Kool-Aid McKinstry or whoever else one-on-one, it's like, "Oh, I'll just lob it up to Devonte and he's going to win instantly." So yeah, easy work. They're so good.

Miami Dolphins to a guy on the mic again, said some words.

Stop. Stop. I mean, he just needs to get away from the microphone. It's crazy.

Uh, they didn't trade all the pieces that they could have. You know, Jaylen Wadd was mentioned here. I understand keeping him for the future. Um, they kept Bradley Chub on top of it, probably because Chop Robinson went down with an injury, too. Uh again, we talked about this on Sunday night, but anything you want to add here on the Miami Dolphins are Achan and Waddle, no matter what, going to be dependable the rest of the way.

No matter what is not something I would say. I think it's pretty likely that we're going to have a good month here with them. I think it was rap sheet. He mentioned that Mike McDaniel is safe and that they want to build around them for the future and that we might see Quinn Eers or Zack Wilson by the end of the season. So, it sounds like Chris Greer is gonna fall on the sword and same thing with Tua and then Mike McDaniel will have another chance to have another quarterback next year. So, we'll see if we kind of drop away from Tua to the next guys. That would probably be a downgrade for Jaylen Waddle and Devon just because you and I have watched enough Quinn viewers by studying the prospects that we weren't huge fans.

Next, Minnesota Vikings. Uh, I would advise everyone to go out and watch the quarterback school video on YouTube of this game because he did an excellent job. And while it was a JJ McCarthy breakdown, it was more a Justin Jefferson breakdown of pulling so much attention that even when you know there's a middle of the field safety that the Lions run, the safety is not middle of the field. And even if there's three wide receivers or three pass catchers to one side and Justin Jefferson's on the other, that single high safety is still shaded in the direction of Justin Jefferson. So you literally have three again,

yeah,

possibilities on the other side that can you can throw the football to. Overall though, I think this is a really nice, let's call it first start. First start for the rest of the year for JJ McCarthy to build off on. I thought he made some good throws early on and then had some up and down moments the rest of the way. um which is totally fine. Again, this is the third game he's ever started in the NFL. So, early successes, lean into those. In other games, he's had zero early successes and it's only been late successes. So, I'm not saying it was perfect at all, but at least it was starting caliber stuff from JJ McCarthy. Uh, again, a guy that I want to remind people we've only seen three games of right now.

Yeah, he was healthy and he's a good athlete. So, I think like we can start with that. he made the one touchdown where if he wasn't as fast as he is, he wouldn't have scored. So, that was I think like the big good takeaway from him. Um, and then I thought he was pretty juiced up and just missed some throws. And then also I didn't think had the greatest feel in general. And when he got outside the pocket, the ball was just spraying on him. So, like you said, it's he's lucky to have Justin Jefferson and we'll see about the Minnesota Vikings. That was a huge upset win to kind of keep them in the wild card mix and uh they're in pure evaluation mode with JJ McCarthy. So, I think the bar is like kind of low and I think we should be grading on kind of a curve here. Um, but I did not think this was just like some like huge JJ McCarthy game. And I think some Vikings fans were like happy about the win and stuff, but I think we can kind of take this in like two categories where I thought the defense played really well. The field possession was pretty good. He made a couple plays when he needed to, and then the rest of the game I thought was kind of bad, but good enough to get a win.

Also, defense um,

huge.

I didn't know Andrew Vaninkle literally met the entire thing for the Vikings here. And he does. I mean, talk about gravity. Uh the dude changed the defense immediately coming back.

Yeah.

onto the team. So

I know

anything about this running back room. I mean Aaron Jones came back a couple weeks ago and he was owning the first drive and the third drive and obviously being their primary player and then he leaves with an injury and then it just turns into the Jordan Mason show all over again.

I think it's as simple as that. I'm guessing Aaron Jones is going to play through his injury the next time around, but that's a lot of injuries. feel like this is just going to happen with him or has a chance of happening with him because it happened with him the last few years and happened with him in Green Bay and

again it's why he's in split backfields all the time.

100% agree.

New England Patriots um also running back room stuff here because we know that Raandre Stevenson was out for this game. Uh Trevon Henderson dominated the snaps overall whenever Terrell Jennings was in the game. They basically gave him the football. Um, anything you want to add here? Because I haven't seen any update on Raandre Stevenson. They just said a toe injury, but toe is very vague here and toes are needed to play running back.

Toes are impactful, especially when you're carrying 230 pounds like with Raandre's toes. I'm guessing it's turf toe. There's only I know broken toe and I know turf toe and I feel like we would have heard broken toe. So, I'm assuming it's turf toe and that's usually a multi-week injury. Went back, watched Tayvon Henderson. I thought still a little tentative between the tackles and not going to force many broken tackles because of his size, but I thought they had the right game plan in general for Trayvon. Had a couple like pitches to the outside. One of them went for negative8 that was not his fault and then some others uh got to the perimeter and you were able to showcase his speed a little bit. Caught a couple passes out in the flats where that's when he made some guys miss. So I think the Patriots are starting to have a little bit of a feel for how to use Trayvon and Trayvon had like 14.7 expected points. So, I think in general for fantasy, you'll take it. Played a bunch of the snaps. Uh, I thought he had some pretty bad pass protection um reps, but I don't think they're going to just put Terrell Jennings back there in pass protection either. They don't trust him either. So, they're just going to live with this. And I think they're just going to keep relying on Drake May to play uh make some plays down the field.

Yeah. I mean, 13 carries for 63 yards reads a lot better than 14 carries for 55 when you lose eight yards because like M. Collins can't

get his man in the team.

That's like some of the negatives of being on an outside rusher. Like you have to have some negatives for huge ones.

Yeah.

Again, I'm just of the opinion that the Patriots overall are going to struggle to run between the tackles.

Yes.

Um and so I'm not saying that it's going to be a great rest of season here for Trayvon, but where he's best running the football actually fits where the Patriots are best at running the football

right now. So maybe there is some continuity there. Just just a little bit.

Um I have nothing else really to to add to this game. Yeah, go ahead.

Uh Kan uh booty hamstring injury. I'm guessing he's going to miss another uh game because of that. What happened was

they put Kyle Hamilton or not Kyle Hamilton, Kyle Williams into that role. Uh and he played about like 68% of the snaps. He got a slant route target where Drake May wanted him to, you know, like cut up field after like two or three yards and Kyle Williams decided to hit a slant route about eight yards down the field. So that one went went incomplete. I'm guessing that was on the rookie wide receiver, not the MVP candidate quarterback. So there's going to be some growing pains, but he is in the Kan Booty role and I did think that he could work downfield. So maybe like a pick entry guy. Uh, and then Pop Douglas dominated, but he only played in three wide receiver sets in a limited capacity. So, I don't think there's a clear-cut answer if Kan's not out there. I think it'll be just mostly Dicks.

Do you want to guess what Kyle Williams ADP was when it closed in September?

136.

150.

Yeah.

There was times it was higher than that.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when when he wasn't playing with the starters in preseason and that got knocked down

considerably. I don't know. I I think Kyle Williams is an interesting player, like an interesting prospect. He had great releases at Washington State. He could win down the field. He could win after the catch, too. Uh it's not a total shock that he hasn't seen the field at all this season when Kahan Booty's doing what he's doing. Um and then obviously Stefon Diggs gradual buildup even if he's never going to play again over 70% of snaps the rest of the season. Who knows? Um and but now he might like that could be the other opposite thing here. even if you know where he gets targets is different than Kahan Bu.

Yeah, I would put Diggs in a full-time player and see what happens. You know, and then Kyle Kyle Williams is like in a air raty type of offense. Um so if it's a wasted rookie season, that would be unfortunate but also not that surprising. I don't think anybody was like expecting Kahan to be as good as he's been and that's that was his competition.

Yeah. Other than Rodman.

All right, we'll talk about the New Orleans Saints. Again, we mentioned their wide receiver move of Rashid Shahed. I'm assuming it's going to be Brandon Cooks filling in for him and then they get Devon Bell in like three wide receiver sets. Um, yeah, I mean Alvin Chimera had like 02 fantasy points this past week. It is so over.

So brutal. So brutal. It's so brutal, man. Um, they this team has no chance. I mean the offense

Malibu. It's it's really that simple.

I know. He really does. Um, how is Brandon Cooks on the Saints? How did we get Brandon Cooks back on the Saints? It's crazy to me. Um, there's no

And they want to have the number one pick, by the way. They have the number one pick right now and they want to have it the rest of the season. It's that simple.

100%. 100%. Chris Olive with Tyler Shuck and this offensive line without Rasheed Jahed. Let's reset. He's been, let's call him, he's been a wide receiver, too. Let's be generous. So far, he's been a borderline wide receiver, too, in fantasy. Would you take him as the wide receiver 34 and a half the rest of the season? Chris Ave,

I'll take the I'll take the higher on that meaning I think he finishes better than wide receiver 34 and a half the rest of the way.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah, he's been the wide receiver 24 in points per game so far this season. Uh he is in between Colton Sutton, Keane Allen, then Chris Olaf, Romeo Dos, Debo Samuel. Now again, we can all watch this Saints team. One, they had a healthier offensive line to start the season. And two, Spencer Rattler was frisky, feisty, whatever term you want to use. Tyler Shuck, it's hit the back foot, ball is out, and then if there's ever first read that's covered, and now extended plays on top of it with offensive linemen, it's just not going to be there quite as good as Spencer Rer. I think Rattler was going to keep them in more games just because of his mobility, even if they was turning the football over and the team was, you know, in his final two starts. Um, Olaf is like their only option. Like Taesm Hill was the juice to even have them score some points. Like again, he came in for three straight Wildcat plays and even threw a pass on the fourth for their first scoring drive of the game. That was a field goal.

Will they win another game? Like it'll be zero or one?

Look, who knows what's going to happen. Quarterbacks have long long stories in the NFL. But again, this is the 40th overall pick on a 26-year-old that you're going to start for probably eight games and take your next quarterback next year.

Next up is the New York Jets. At length, we discussed

Them, Hayden. They've been bad. They've won one game and now they just traded their two best defensive players on a defense that's ranked anywhere from, I don't know, 22nd to 24th, depending on what metrics you want to look at here.

Yeah, they're also going to be terrible. Um, I think we'll get Garrett Wilson back from injury this week. Um, and Aaron Glenn is not naming who the quarterback is.

Oh, scary. Um, I'm guessing it's going to be Justin Fields. And then, yeah, it's just going to be the same thing where I think Garrett Wilson will be a top 15 wide receiver and you're gonna have to live with the game that he's the wide receiver three and then you're gonna have to live with the game where he's the wide receiver uh 53 and that's just signing up with the New York Jets. But for the most part, he's Gary Wilson's been like a pretty solid pick for at his cost aside from the injury. That was like hard to predict.

But should Isaiah Davis rank as a top seven handcuff rest of season? Yeah. I mean, I'm telling you, Bree Hall, if he's on the injury report for a hamstring, you know, like don't be shocked. He seems upset.

And then look, we might get Adnai Mitchell and as a starting wide in the NFL. He will start. Maybe not the first week, but he will start.

New York Giants are up next. Uh, this backfield sucks. Uh, we literally, and you and Jacob put this perfectly in the waiver show. We got this exact same backfield last year for half more than half of the season. And Tyrone Tracy owned it. He ripped it away from Devin Singleary. So you could just assume, oh, when Cam Scataboo goes down, then they'll just go exactly back to honestly what worked last year for Tyrone Tracy, who played well outside of the fumbles in 2024 as a rookie. No. No. As soon as we get a singular back in Cam Scataboo removed from this lineup due to injury, it goes into a total split backfield. And honestly, it leaned Deon Singleary more than it did Tyron Tracy, which freaking sucks.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how you're supposed to predict this one. I think it is just a good reminder though that once you get to the backup running back mix that first week back, I need to lower them in my rankings than where I think it's going to end up because of the uncertainty. So like I think this was unless it's super clear like unless it's behind Kairen or something like or Alga behind Bjan.

Yeah. So I think this is just a good thing for me to just keep remembering about. But yeah, I think largely unpredictable here. Devin Singleary played all seven of the snaps inside the red zone. Those were on three different drives for the Giants. So maybe it's a small sample. Maybe they just don't trust Tyrone Tracy at the goal line. He's just really not a very good goal line back. Um but yeah, this one this one sucked. It's going to be a committee on the Giants are going to be very up and down and both of these running backs have been lead like not exaggerating lead blockers for Jackson Dart. Um and that just has to be kind of priced in for the touchdown departments. Um so yeah, I think it's low-end. It's not as bad as the Titans split backfield, but it's not that much better. Um, and you're not going to win your league because of these guys, unless the split changes. So, I would still rather have Tyrone Tracy, but you're not winning your fantasy league if Tyrone Tracy's in this role and he's in your lineup. That's for sure.

Yeah, I have a dynasty league that you're in with me as well, and I traded two fourth round picks for Tyrone Tracy, which I still feel okay about. Um, but if it was anything higher, I would have because that trade was accepted and then I didn't get him until after the game because uh, yeah, let's say the guy was playing also is the commissioner of the league. Let's put it that way.

Could I uh, hold on before we move on. Would Jackson Dart be the first overall pick if drafts happened today? I know you I know you hate these conversations, but it is interesting.

Yeah, I mean, I hate these conversations, so I'm not having this conversation with you. But you can say it if you want to. I mean, I think he would be. Uh, I was listening to Daniel Jeremiah and he he thought he's either first or second and that he thinks it could be first. Pretty crazy.

Right, again, 365 days from now, it might be totally different than that, too. Like, and I would love to have that conversation then.

Right. Right. Um, yeah. Uh, I'm just looking at Tyron Tracy's finishes last year. Like when he took over as a starter, he was running back 16, running back seven, then a bad week, then running back four, then running back 10, then running back 17, running back 11. Had a running back 18 week in there, too. Like Brian Dable, just give us that. He's a talented, fun player. Give us some Tyrone Tracy back in our lives. We don't need that in anymore.

Come on. Enough headbutts.

Philadelphia Eagles, uh, they are coming out of the buy. AJ Brown was not traded. What do you want to see from them? the AJ Brown trade rumors is just like insane to me. Um, yeah, I just want to see Saquon Barkley kind of have the same exact um role that he had the week before the injury and hopefully the growing all right and the same thing with AJ Brown coming back from the hamstring injury. So those are two soft tissue injuries. I hope they're ready to go. Um they were cruising right before the buy. So hopefully they come kind of come out of it uh healthy. Prior to their buy, Saquon Barkley ranked as the running back 12 in points per game. So that's week one through week nine and that's points per game. Where do you think he finishes on the season?

RB9. I left him just outside of my top 12 and I was doing that rest of season rankings, but I included him in like the next group of names. He has not been that player so far, but Landon Dickerson started looking healthier and then hopefully like the new play caller. You would assume he gets a post by rookie play caller bump too. So hopefully it kind of just gels. He was the running back one or two in your league depending on where you drafted. Uh he only has one finish running back nine or better so far this season or excuse me two week one running back eight and then running back four just prior to the buy. Uh, and he does get Green Bay, Detroit over the next two, but then he gets like Dallas and Chicago. So, we're gonna, I think, be able to pick our spots here with Saquon Barkley, but obviously he's going to be starting in everyone's lineup every single week. And then just continue to remember that over the last year plus, Devonte Smith has just produced better than AJ Brown. So, yeah, it's okay to rank him higher than AJ Bra.

Pittsburgh Steelers, I did not watch this game. like the trade deadline hit, a lot more happened. I was saving it for last, so I didn't get to watch it. Anything you want to add here for this one?

I can't get DK Mechaf's ranking right this year. Like I've been on I think the wrong side of it every single time where I ranked him too low and that's the he goes crazy. I've chased him up to like wide receiver 14 and then he duds out. He's like the wide receiver 24 and that's kind of how I should be ranking them. Uh this team just keeps using Darnell Washington in in new ways. And then the running back group, um, it's kind of largely settled in to what it was this last game where you get a little bit of Kenny Gainwell. They got Caleb Johnson two touches, but Jaylen Warren at the goal line. Jaylen Warren still getting most of the opportunity. So, I think Jaylen Warren's a low-end RB2. DK Metaf you play every single week and then everybody else is irrelevant for fantasy.

Couple more teams. San Francisco 49ers. Uh, M. Jones open 14 to 14. Brock Pertie. Kyle Shanahan said that he's just gonna have to deal with this injury for the entire season. That really doesn't give us a timetable on when Brock Pury is going to reenter this team as a starter. And it kind of might hinge on if M. Jones has a letown performance or if not. Is that fair?

I think it's fair. M. Jones has been very solid for them, you know. So, and then there were also we got a report that Ricky Pear's knee is quote fuzzy.

Yeah. What a fuzzy like an MRI. Is it fuzzy on the MRI? Like or his return is fuzzy. I just know something's fuzzy about his knee and don't love to hear that. Uh but this is a very similar injury to the one that Brock Bowers was dealing with. And those PCL injuries just your knee feels unstable. That's just what everyone says about that injury. That's what he's dealing with. So we'll get Brandau and Pearl back eventually, but in the meantime, it's Jawan Jennings clearly above Kendrick Bourne. Uh, it's three straight games where Jawan's been healthy and then been fairly productive. I guess for for me, George KD, like what should my actual expectations be? He goes on these stretches where he's completely irrelevant and then I bring it up on the podcast and then he finishes at the tight end one by 25 points. So, I don't want to overreact here, but this is we've gone 0 for three now with with KD. I think we can just say that Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and Tyler Warren are just guaranteed to get more looks and targets in their offense.

And Gadston and Gadston like George KD on any given week can score two touchdowns. You know, he can run over. Yeah.

Yeah. But if we are just And look, touchdowns matter the most. But there aren't many tight ends that you can bank on five plus targets on any given week. seven plus targets with some of the guys that we're talking about and some of the names that we mentioned you can't and just with George KD it feels like you kind of can't which is weird because typically in seasons past when one of the wide receivers was removed then George KD would have his crazy weeks at the same time some of those seasons like Chris McAffrey had been injured too and now CMC is the entire freaking offense.

well and they're passing the ball to CMC and I'm sure there's some kind of overlap on the skill on the play sheet between all right, this is a running back target and tight end target. So, just something to monitor. I think it's what you said is fair. Maybe he's more of the tight end six than having a chance to be an elite tight end.

And then after we say that, guess what's going to happen? It's going crazy. He's going to be on the thumbnail.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are also coming out of their by-week. What I want to see is Bucky Irving coming back healthy, Iuka healthy after this buy, and then maybe most importantly, I believe Luke Gadeki's practice window is open. his fill in right tackle and heck had one of the worst pressure rates in the NFL. So, this team should quite clearly win the NFC South and they're getting healthier in a lot of pivotal spots in order to do that.

Yeah, this offensive line should be very good again. Um, they're going to be having four of the five starters and eventually and Bucky Irving plus I think we've got better football from Rashad White. the Mecca breakout was very real. And then hopefully at some point Chris Godwin can look like at least like a shell of himself. So I don't know who's going to be playing. I do know that Amecha, if you took his September numbers, was the most efficient player in football and then the last couple weeks he's been the least efficient wide receiver. And neither one of those things are like the base baseline. That's just like running pure on post routes and then missing on your post routes. Guess what? He's going to be a low-end wide receiver one the rest of the way. And we should smooth those things out. We shouldn't call him the best fantasy wide receiver when he's hot and we shouldn't call him a bench player when he's not hot. He's going to be a very good football player and we have to ride the wave.

Right now they are running into a bit of a buzzsaw in these next three games. It's the Patriots, the Bills, and the Rams with the Bills and the Rams both on the road. Then, you know, you get the Cardinals, the Saints, and the Falcons. So, it'll be very interesting to see, and this is a long way away, but and don't laugh here, Hayden. Don't laugh. in week 16 and week 18 they face the Carolina Panthers. Uh what if those two games kind of decide the division?

Yeah. Yeah. What if what if if if the Panthers are still in the division in week 16, chalk that up as a win? One team is six and two, one team's five and four. So, I'm just saying like those are the teams that they're facing twice over the next, you know, to close out the season.

All right, let's close it out with the Tennessee Titans. Um, I forgot to mention on Sunday night that while DK only had one reception for two yards, he did have a return touchdown. So, that gave us fantasy points and that gave him six points in the week.

It did. No, it was a very impressive play uh from him. But yeah, I don't think anything really has changed. I think Chime DK is their best wide receiver.

Uh, Ela Yumar is just not good. He drops it every single I mean, he has brutal drops.

It's exactly what we talked about with the Stanford stuff. Like, he's an athlete. He's big, but then just like the concentration stuff was all over the place. Like sometimes he had some crazy good catches, but then I would look at it and I was confused why people said he had great hands because that's not what I saw at all.

No, I mean they must have watched like the Just Bombs production highlight tape and not the rest of it.

Yeah. I mean DK is going to be their slot receiver probably for the next two or three years. I would say I manure at best is your wide receiver three wide receiver four.

Agreed. moving forward. I just don't know like where this team goes. The offensive line has to totally play better. Again, this isn't a conversation for now. It's not a conversation.

They need a little bit of everything. I never say DK's first name because Have you ever seen Mission Impossible 2? No, you haven't. You only watch Jim Carrey, Pet Detective, and all that type of stuff. So, uh, it's the worst mission possible, but the the what's the type of the parasite, if you want to call it that, that they're trying to spread around the world is called Chimera. And so, I always think of Chimera when I read his first name instead of But I've seen people say Chimeir, Chim, you know. So, I'm just I'm just gonna say DK. That's it. And here I'm more nervous about mispronouncing his last name.

Right, that does it for us. Two shows tonight. Be sure to watch the first one after you finish the second one. We'll be back tomorrow with a running back rankings and do it all over again as we uh as we hit hit week 10. So, thank you all for tuning in. Leave a thumbs up. Hit that subscribe. Uh we have 2,000 more to hit our goal for the season.

We'll talk to you'all soon. See you.