Week 3 Studs & Duds + Injury Reactions, Trade Talk - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/28

It's like what's going on between the ears right now? Mike Rabel after the 35 to 6 loss said my concern level is very high for this football team. Okay. And then Drake May, according to Doug Kloss and tweeting the stout out, Drake May, nine fumbles, 10 picks since the start of the postseason. He is the first player with nine fumbles and 10 interceptions in a seven game span since. James? James. James Winston. Since James Winston during the 30 touchdown 30 interception season. He was playing like James in the sense that like.

balls that you should not throw that you're taught in like pop warner you don't you know if you're if you're spun around and yep you just don't throw that ball into nothingness and he's doing it so the problem here is um the bow nicks we've gotten for the first handful of weeks has been pretty darn bad and then you had a confident player in the second half last night after some throws went his way what makes drake may special or could make him special is going to come

alongside the confidence to make throws. And right now he has the least confidence possible because he's made multiple end zone reads where he's throwing interceptions while he's on the run. I mean, he cost them a game because they were down three and he threw away a ball in the end zone. And then in this game he did it again. He has been the quarterback 23, 25, and 30. He has the highest interception rate in the NFL. AJ Brown is not coming back anytime soon. He does not have the weapons that they need.

For goodness sakesh Kisham Booty would have made a difference because he's not doing anything in Houston. It's been mismanaged through and through and you're not even utilizing. I mean, Trayvion had an awful week. He was 2.9 to carry, 8 for 23 and didn't get, he got one target. His success rate is very low. I mean, it's been abysmal through and through. When Matt Collins is a go-to receiver on your offense, I say all this to ask you the question and submit to you, is it time to actually be

Drop the landmine. Yes. To say goodbye to Drake May. Move forward with anybody else. Well, not just anybody else, but there are plenty of good options. And I think it's fine to not just hold May on the bench, but to drop him. I believe good days are ahead for Drake May. If you want to hold on to him for when AJ Brown returns and the schedule opens up, you know, it's tough matchup this next week on the road in Buffalo.

Sure, there's going to be a high over under. Maybe you can talk yourself into starting him, but I'm very skeptical that you're going to be happy. So, yeah, I think if you drop him right now, it's a landmine. Now, later on, you know, week seven, maybe you get A.J. Brown back then, and that's Chicago, Miami. You've got Detroit a couple weeks after. So I do think there are bright days ahead, but I believe it's a month away.

And so if you want to drop him and move on, you certainly can't. I would not be playing him. The hardest part is the bright days have to represent like top eight in the league. Yeah. That's just a tough thing to picture right now, but maybe we get it with some better schedule situation. Herbert, I mean, come on, man. The Chargers. Come on, man.

They got off to a strong start and looked like, okay, the chargers are here, and then they just chargered all over. The bottom five in EPA per play among all quarterbacks with 50 dropbacks this year. Dead last, James Winston. Makes sense. I don't know why I didn't work a little pun into today since he might not be starting soon. Yeah. Aaron Rogers, Baker, Mayfield, Drake, May, Justin Herbert. I mean, you can't, you can't lose a game where your defense turns the other team over five times. Correct. You can't do it.

Can't do it. They're so cooked. And speak of it, cooked. I mean, Hampton is going the wrong direction. Snap counts, 42% for Hampton, 38% for Mitchell, who is the more efficient runner in this one? Kamani Vidal, 25%. Silky smooth is back. I don't like it. Yeah, I mean, this game. Saw the carries inside the 10. This was also a game where I think there were very few snaps for the Chargers and the 4th.

I want to say Hampton had like four and it was about the same for Keaton Mitchell. So there weren't a lot of opportunities. He's still got 15 carries on the ground. You're certainly not happy with the three targets and three games is not the Mike McDaniel H.N. Scripps. He only ran six routes. Yeah. And that's the big issue. Keaton Mitchell has been involved in the receiving game in a way that.

you would hope, especially the way that it looked in preseason training camp and all that. Vidal was right behind Keaton Mitchell, one fewer route. Yeah, that Hampton would be involved in the passing game and then Keaton Mitchell would be used kind of in two running back sets also in the passing game. But until they get Hampton involved in the receiving game, which might not happen. They're going to go to Seattle next one. It's going to be, it's going to be.

Tough sledding. He's still a good, I mean, you brought up earlier the, you know, the number of fast runs in the NFL. He was, you know, top of the list there or like number five or whatever. Him and Mitchell were tied. Yeah, so he still looked good, I think, and they're still giving the ball to him enough. It's tough matchup. Seattle, Denver, Kansas City the next three weeks. I don't like a game in which they were leading for a lot of it where he gets 42% of snaps.

Again, we said at the beginning of the year, the differentiator between, like, A. Chan and Hampton was like, well, A.N. is going to be on a crap team. Hampton's going to be on a great team. Right. Great offense. Nope. So, yeah, none of that conversation is to say you drop somebody like Hampton. Oh, no. Goodness. That's not the context of it. You're going to be starting them every week. I mean, this was a guy that was going back to back or ahead of Ken Bone in some drafts. That's all. And so it changed expectations. Bucky Irving was 15 for 46.

Bucky Irving did not play the final 15 snaps of this game. He was seen with a heating pack on his back. Why do I know this? I looked into it very detailed this morning due to some transactions in our League of Record. There might have been a Bucky Irving for Devon A-chan trade for playing for the future playing for now. There may be. There might have been one of those. How are you feeling about that, Mike? Do we want to let the people know what happened?

Because I would love to get some candid thoughts from Al Borland. Andy's my favorite commentator. Andy's Super League of Record team suffered an unfortunate Devon A. Chan season ending injury. Yeah, that sucks. We are a keeper league. So those guys moving forward, they still have actually a good amount of value because, look, H.N. should be back by the beginning of next year, assuming all of his surgeries and everything go well. And you just, you put up the bat signal. It's like, hey, I got this guy.

you know, come trade for East. I mean, he's a great keeper. He's a great keeper. But, I mean, he's still not going to play for in your team if you trade for him. And then Jason's like, hey, this Bucky Irving guy who's having a real strong start to the season, I'm just going to swap him just, you know, straight up for a very injured person. I'm not going to make you send a pickover or anything to help my team for next year. Get the camera off. See, it's equal opportunity.

Equal opportunity support, Al. Sure. I mean, I thought I made a compelling point in our league chat, which was that, like, this player is far more valuable than a second round pick. Yeah, but are you 100% sure he's better than Bucky Irving for next year? No, not 100. I mean, I would say that, like, if these players are both healthy right now, there's a world Bucky has a better rest of the season. That's why this trade is.

The trade with no draft picks is very weird. You had to pay zero tax to get bailed out. Well, what was amazing was that I had like, I put the bat signal out there and then I went and immediately my strategy and I share this because it's a good strategy for people who want to make trades. It's week three, right? Trust the fact that people are going to have different emotional states on these teams. I went immediately to look at the teams that were winless and make offers to all of them.

Because for them, they're looking for the future. And they also, you know, if you're winless or you don't have a good record, you want change. That's just what you want. Now, Jason's a very future forward team completely. I went into this year already playing for 2027. But I would have looked at two and four teams or, you know, whatever the case may be. And just, they just want change. They want to feel like they're doing something. So that's a general trade tip I would give people. It's like teams that you know are mentally unsettled by how the season has started. Go target them for trades.

because they want to make traits. I feel like what you're saying is that you think I'm mentally unsettled right now. You did give him C.D. Lamb and Bucky Irving. No, no, no, I wasn't saying you were at all. I was saying teams that are going to try to win but are two and four or, you know, one and three. Our league is so different in the sense of our keeper system and how teams come into each year. There was a reason why Andy last year, his super team, he got wet in the draft because he was the.

You were the worst record last year. I traded for Walker midway through the season and it paid off. I'm looking to be the 2027 super team. You're not at all the example I was talking about. I'm talking about a team that's actually trying to compete. You also got a bunch of picks, Jay. You didn't get any picks. You could have extracted. It's week three. And he knows it too. He would have given you picks. Maybe. No, he definitely would have gave you picks. You never know. The only issue is, is in our league, we have so many teams that are basically feeling like they're out of it playing for next year.

And so the question is. And all colluding to help one team. No, no one's colluding to help. No one wants to help Andy. Do you agree with that statement, Jeremy? I sure do. Nobody's colluding to help me. As soon as Andy sends up the bat signal, there's a line of people waiting to help him. Listen.

The thing is, people want to help themselves, and I am happy to help them help themselves. If he wanted to help himself, he would have gotten a pick in the deal. Yeah. But he wanted to be the first to market. It's a race. It is a race. I mean, he started the season bad, and now he gets to come back from an ACL injury. So I get the band. I did have two people DM me after I made the trade and told me I should have waited because they were cooking up some offers for Devon A-chan.

Does that make you feel any better? No, they weren't. You weren't one of those teams, were you? It doesn't surprise me. What you're saying is you had three or four people fighting over the chance to help you, and I'm not shocked. I, you know what, Al is, Al is got some demons. Al is playing for this year and he's very upset that Andy's team looks significantly better. And anytime that something helps Andy's team, it will be a monster. I basically, I said this, and this is 100% true. This is a thousand percent true.

If I did this exact trade with anyone else in the league, no one would even bat at an eye. But the eyes are getting batted. Yeah, it's because your team is the super team that got hurt. And so I don't know. Yeah, and then you just fixed it for me. Travion Henderson and Ramandre Stevenson both had awful weeks. Targets went Ramandre's Way three versus one. We don't get this. Nobody understands this. If you want to take advantage of anything Travion does.

space in the passing game would be part of it. I don't know why they're not involving him in the receiving game. They need him out there in space so much. Put both guys on the field if it's a problem about pass blocking. Like, if you're running to Mario Douglas around and Matt Collins around and Williams and these guys, let Trayvion be a weapon. And then Judarian Price, five for 15, got, he fumbled again. He got benched. So this is going down, down for Judarian right now. And the team lost.

And the fumble played a big part. It was, what, 33-31? I mean, you cannot, as a rookie, come in. What was it, Jemir Gibbs that fumbled on his first play ever? I think that was it. Maybe. I know Kareem Hunt did. Yeah, I mean, you just can't do this as a rookie on a defending championship team. If you want to establish a role, and you go out there and you fumble two times and three games. I was James Cook. Oh, James Cook. That is who it was. But, like, you can't do it. They're going to give the ball to salami.

You're going to give the ball to somebody else. We'll say the metrics for Judarian price, though, among 39 qualifying running backs, he is 39th in EPA per rush, 32nd in rush success rate, eighth in yards after contact. Like these are not, you're fumbling and you're not producing. I like the last one. I don't like the other two. Malig neighbors. What are we doing? Yeah, this was James Winston. It was.

But it's also like we haven't seen neighbors be neighbors yet. Yeah, but the. So is he going to be like if Jackson Dart was perfectly healthy, would we feel like that first week was enough for us to feel like he's the same dude or like changed expectations? What is your thought on him? Like rest of the season. It's very difficult in terms of like that game, the Giants versus Tennessee. It was 12 to 7. And it was 12 to 7 not because like the defenses were just juggernauts stopping the other.

It was a storm again. Yeah. Like this was a disgusting game. That's why I think part of the, like the J.J. McCarthy trade, I get it. And I understand not wanting James to be like everything's resting on James. I mean, man, the ultimate goofball comments. The, uh, well, he's like, we 12, we scored 12 points. That's six times two is James, the sound bites from this week were fantastic. But you can't.