Week 3 Studs & Stinkers + Weekly Rewind, Maniel Jones

handcuffs are hard to identify. Sometimes you think you have the guy. It turns out you don't. Sometimes you have a guy who just doesn't have the skill to get it done. If I have Dalvin Cook, I want Madison on my bench at this point of the season. And Tony Pollard, I want him on my bench if I don't have Zeke. If I have Zeke, I want to have my handcuff as well. If I don't have him, I want to stash Tony Pollard. He may just sit on your bench forever.

And nothing comes of it. But Andy's right. If the circumstances break where Zeke is going to miss time, then Tony Pollard does enter into that league winner type of a category where he got him for basically nothing. He's still on some waiver wires. Hopefully if you're in a savvy league, he's not. But you should take a peek and see if he's there. The odds of Tony Pollard taking the field are also slightly more than injury too with Zeke. Just being real with.

his ass of just off the field stuff like you have a slightly higher percentage chance of something happening there now it's a complicated time for that though jason it's a you know you're going to get into buy weeks you're going to have your bench is a little bit more important in terms of moving guys in and out of it are you on the same boat as mike where he's just like even if you don't have zeke pollard's got to be on your bench yeah i mean it's yesish in the sense that i agree

but it's always going to be by comparison of who you have to drop, who else is available on the waiver wire. He's certainly one of the many people out there that appear like they should be rostered, and it's just a matter of your makeup. Like you said, if you've got to buy week and you've got to drop someone and you need to drop Pollard, you've got to do what you've got to do. Right, but to speak to that.

With the buy weeks coming up, I'm not like loading up like, oh, check out this wide receiver four I have that I'm going to play in two weeks. Right. No. Hold your running backs drop your wide receiver. I'll figure out the wide receiver position that week if it comes to that. 27 touches for Nick Chubb as well. I'll mention that. Seven targets. That's, that is nice. Yeah. Yep. He was just a three down guy in this one. Marlon Matt had a nice game.

Has Oakland next week. Frank Gore did his thing, valuable for fantasy. Scored. Had, what, just under 90 yards total offense. Rex Burkhead, 11 carries for 47 and a touchdown. Six for 22 through the air, but James White was inactive in this one. I still, I can't figure this team out. Sonny Michelle has been atrocious to begin the year. Had a touchdown in this one. Had a five-yard touchdown. Ended up nine for 11 on the day. Two out of three games this year, he's had.

embarrassing stat lines, not evading tackles. I don't know what to make personally of the snaps in New England because they have been in complete and utter blowouts to start the year. Next week they have what should be a harder game against Buffalo in Buffalo. Then they travel to Washington and the Giants, which are not tough matchups. So I don't know if they're managing Sonny Michelle snaps. I don't know if they are upset with Sunday Michelle based on efficiency.

I don't know what to make of the backfield snap situation, but you, you know, you haven't been happy with Sony. No, not at all. He's in the panic room. The Rex Burke had out snapping Sony Michelle. That's one of those Patriot things where you're like, yeah, well, of course. This other name, though, who out snapped Sony Michelle Brandon Bolden. Their special teams running back out snapped the first round pick Sony Michelle. Like, it's.

That doesn't weird me out, though, in a game where- Oh, it weirds me out, man. You brought your back, why play, you brought your backup quarterback into the game. So why would you be not doing the same thing at the running back position? You brought in, you know, eventually you had to bring Brady back because of a pick six, but you brought in all your reserve. So the snap count doesn't weird me out. But Brandon Bolden was in during the beginning of the game as well. This wasn't a complete product of, they blew him out. Okay, let's put Brandon Bolden in. It was, no, Bolden was in.

at the beginning of the game getting work. Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. The history of the Patriots say, okay, Rex Burkhead, 56 snaps, Sony Michelle 17. I throw that out the window because we've seen this for years with Bill Belichick. Whatever his game plan against that matchup is and what he deems, it could completely flip next week and you're confident in Rex Burkhead, and then he goes out and gets five snaps for seemingly no reason. We've dealt with that for...

10 years. And so, you know, it's really a matter of Sony still is getting touched on opportunity. I mean, we'll talk about him on Wednesday, but should you be a little concerned, yes. You should definitely be concerned. Yes. But, I mean, where are you at long term with him on the basis of like, to me, I've seen him run well throughout a playoffs. So I just don't know what to make of this so far. He's not a bad back, even though he's had bad games.

and has not performed yet. You know, to me, very concerned. But if there are owners out there that are truly panicked, I might try to pick him up. He certainly doesn't seem at a minimum. He's not somebody that is a guarantee weekend and week out. So that's a problem. Yeah. And Joe Mixen, throw his name out there as another, I mean, real big bounce back. Yes. Just because he's stunk on the year. Yeah. And Aaron Jones had a couple touchdowns. Couldn't run the ball.

10 for 19, but had two touchdowns. So there you go. Wide receivers, Mike Evans, Keenan Allen, Cooper Cup. Welcome back to fantasy relevance. Don't think you can buy him low. No, I don't think you can. Mike Evans, eight for 190 and three. Keenan Allen was everywhere. 13 receptions for 183 and two on 17 targets. That's a lot of targets. I mean, Keenan Allen. It was so frustrating watching this game if you have anyone not named Keenan Allen.

Because Philip Rivers only has eyes for him. It was truly outlandish. No matter what the coverage was, no matter what the down and distance was, it was just where's Keenan Allen? I'm throwing him the ball. He is currently on pace for 224 targets, which I would say is impossible except watch the game. You know, it's a weird thing too because this is a team that's gotten off to a bad start. Hey, guys, who does Keenan Allen play next week? Miami.

Oh, yeah. Well, Mike, you and I both at him as our number one wide receiver this past week. Yeah, I was in our ranking. I was pretty excited for Keenan Allen. Can we work out something with our rankings? So like there's something higher than number one. Oh, for next week? For next week. That's where you're at. You get a crown. Yes. Yeah. So Mike Evans, Keenan Allen. Cooper Cup, 11 for 102 and 2 on 12 targets. Cooper Cup, you talk about a quarterback having eyes for somebody.

Jared Goff's a different player with Cooper Cup in the lineup. Yes. And Cooper Cup had 12 targets, caught 11 of them. Brandon Cooks had 12 targets, caught eight of them. Woods had eight targets, caught three of them. Woods was getting like these disheveled targets. Well, he's never been a big play guy. He always needs the volume. You need those target totals for Woods to give you the stability. But I'm saying like they were, it was frustrating because we were watching for.

For our matchup in NFL league one, we needed Robert Woods to go off and Cooper Cup to do nothing. It didn't work out that way. But so I was scrutinizing the Robert Woods targets more than I was the other players. But it was frustrating to see the quality of Robert Woods targets versus the other guys. It seemed like every time he threw to Woods, it was like he couldn't get it over the linebackers and the ball was tipped up. It was, it was very frustrating.

Cooper Cup was open by about five yards every time that he was throwing the ball. Yes. That was one thing I noticed in that game. So, yeah, it's interesting. That offense can obviously support all three guys, but Cup seems back and ready to go. Yes, he does. Tampa next week at home. Hot Locket. My goodness. Oh, yeah. Tyler Lockett 11 for 154 and 1. The game script was perfection for Seattle and Russell to have that monster game because they got.

blown out and the whole second half was CJ Pro Seitz in the backfield and Tyler Lockett downfield. You know, this is a game where David Moore returned, but Lockett had 14 targets. He's sitting at wide receiver 10 on the year and he gets Arizona next week. Yes. And Russell Wilson's not going to throw the ball 50 times against Arizona. That seems very unlikely. 60? Sure. Well, their defense is not really looking good.

It's not working out for Pete Carroll's game plan. Or your bet against Russell Wilson. True. All right. That can count for Cooper Cup and Amari Cooper. How about that? Amari Cooper, six for 88 and two touchdowns. He's the wide receiver four on the year, and he's been consistent through three games. He's the guy in Dallas. Sterling Shepard, seven for a hundred and one on the big comeback attempt by Daniel Jones.

We'll see what happens against Washington this next week, you know, whether Daniel Jones has another big game or not. Yeah, I mean, he is, to me, a great pickup. If he's on waivers and you can pick up Sterling Shepard and start him, no Golden Tate still in a matchup against Washington where Shepard's the clear one, him and Evan Ingram, but the clear wide receiver one, I'm all about Shepard. Now, another reminder, pick up Golden Tate. Yeah.

Julio had another big game as four touchdowns on the season. You don't need to talk about Julio. He's just really good. MVS. It was an MVS week. Marquez Valdez Scanling. Where are you at with him? Six for 99 and a touchdown on 10 targets has Philadelphia on Thursday. So you'd have to make a decision on starting him early this week. With Philadelphia being the matchup, it's not the worst play. He did have the 40 plus yard touchdown on the...

the Aaron Rogers special where he gets the team to jump offside, so he gets the free play, and it hit, so it was a 40-yard touchdown. I, like he's a fine wide receiver three play. The night thing is, if you look at the targets, he's in the role that is both valuable as the downfield wide receiver, and he's higher up in the, you know, the, the, the, the,

you know, the target counts are great. He's on base for 112 targets. He had 10 targets this game. So if you've got both, you know, air yards mixed with targets mixed with Aaron Rogers, you know, you've got to be somewhat happy with MBS through three weeks. McCall Hardman, two for 97 and in touchdown. Where are you out with Hardman and Robinson? They are must starts when, until Tyree Kill is back. Then it will be, it will be hard to make that call.

Like the week that Tyree kills back. It'll be hard, man. Oh, nice. Let's see what you did. That could be this week. Yeah, it could be this week. We'll see what the news says. But it's going to be a very difficult call with DeMarcus Robinson and McColl Hardman when Tyree kill is back. Because who loses their spot to Tyreek? Yeah, it's interesting because I think Hardman serves a unique purpose in the offense. Of being just...

the fastest of man alive. Yeah, you know, but things like jet sweeps, you know, that you'd involve Hardman on a jet sweep with or without Tyreek Hill available and active. You know what I mean? Sure. Where Robinson steps into kind of a more complete wide receiver role for that team. So that makes him the more consistent target guy with Tyreek out. It'll be, it'll be interesting. I think both of them are shaky starts once. Sure. Once he gets back. Once. Because Watkins led the team in targets for yet another week.

It just, the touchdowns didn't go his way again. Yeah, if I had to play one of those two, once Tyreeks back, it would be DeMarcus Robinson. Just because week one, you saw him on the field for 63% of the snaps. He appears to be the third wide receiver. So, you know, that's not to say McCle Hartman won't come on for all he needs. More important snaps. Oh, yeah. All he needs is, you know, he only had three receptions.

Every snap for the Chiefs is an important snap. We talked about Dorset. He was six for 53 and one and could have more work with obviously A.B. being gone and then the injury to Edelman. Juju Smith-Juster was three for 81 and a touchdown. Brooks put him in the stud muffins. But I don't think that's how I feel about Juju. Now, he obviously won play. It was a 76-yard play for a touchdown. So he was two for five outside of it. How do you feel about Juju?

With this game, is this a sell high opportunity for him because of the touchdown? It certainly could be because Mason Rudolph looked real bad, like really, really bad. I was so disappointed with Mason Rudolph and you have to be worried as the Steelers defense looked great. I mean, five turnovers, but they lost the game because the offense could not get it going with Mason Rudolph. Now this next week, they've got Cincinnati. So maybe you'll have another sell high opportunity.

The following weeks are much rougher. I'm concerned as someone that was really excited about James Conner and Juju Smith-Schuster. Without Big Ben, this offense is scaring me. All right. Tight-ins. Some monster performances. Mike, you had Greg Olson as your start of the week. He torched the Arizona Cardinals who have yet to determine whether tight ends exist. Start of the week, Will Disley? Nope. All right. Got it in the dock. Are you freaking kidding? I am 100% telling the truth.