Buy/Sell + Snap Count Trends, "Cool Andy" Revealed

Two running back sets 36% of the time. The league average is 9%. So they have a couple guys out there frequently. They give their running backs more touches than just about anybody in football. Now, as of right now, who do you have confidence starting this week? This week. Cleveland has been pretty good against the running back. They're ranked 10th in the league. I was looking at them when I was looking at some start of the week options at quarterback this week saying, hey, what's going to happen in San Francisco? But you're coming off the bye week. Jason, what were you going to say?

This week, I think I am 100% fine starting Mostert and Brita. Those are the two that I'm... Assuming that Coleman is... Is this a... Coleman's inactive? I am saying I'm fine starting them either way. Because I truly believe that either way, they will be involved. It's rare to want to be okay with three backs on a team. And by rare, I mean, this is the only situation that exists like it.

But if you, over the last several weeks, started any one of the three backs, including Jeff Wilson, you've been fine. You've been really well. Kyle Shanahan's system, it works for running back. You've been very well. Quite well. Quite well, indeed. So, and just a reminder, Kevin Coleman, he had that, the high ankle sprain, was given an evaluation of four to six weeks. So if he's back now, that's him doing healing quite well.

So how do you treat these players, though, when it comes to trade value? I don't think Coleman plays this week. Regardless to whether he plays or not, though, how do you view, it might be easy for people to want to run and trade Matt Breeder or Mostert, mostard especially, on the basis that look, his time is running out. Is that a mistake? To trade Mostert? No. If you can trade him for a start of a player, I would do that. Mostard's out there available on people's waiver wires as well.

It should be interesting with, I think Coleman's going to miss a little bit more time. But do you guys hear the rumors, the Emmanuel Sanders rumors? No, do you tell? There have been some rumors about San Francisco's interest in acquiring Emmanuel Sanders. And with the Broncos being at 0 and 4 now, Emmanuel Sanders and Chris Harris, Jr., both potentially on the trade block as they look to rebuild the team. Interesting. You know, there's an interest there from Shanahan.

Shanahan likes Sanders. I don't know what that would mean for Sanders. I imagine it's worse. That's the way I kind of envisioned it. Sanders is just great. So I think it will be okay. The Shanahan system can put up some pretty prolific passing numbers as well if they have the weapons. And my dynasty shares of Dave John Hamilton's smile at the thought of this happened. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how much you buy into the rumors. I mean, this was speculation based on some people around the team.

It would make Cortland Sutton a very attractive trade targets because he's already, him and Sanders are both pretty much neck and neck on the season. And if it's Sutton and Hamilton, now we had that chance last year with no Emmanuel Sanders, it didn't come to fruition. But Sutton's look like a better player this year. Rookies, yeah. What's the better goes. Rookie's going to rook, Mike. You always say that. If Kevin Coleman is out this week, which right now is a little early to tell, but it does seem like he's not ready to come back yet. If he's out.

Obviously, you could start breeding most. What about Jeff Wilson? No. I'm not going to do it. Not going to roll the ice. I'm not. I'm not. All right. What are things looking like in Denver at the running back position? You've got Lindsay and Freeman. It's been kind of a rough ride. You had a very strong week three for Philip Lindsay. He had 25 touches in week three, 56% of the snaps. But then week four, you know, Royce Freeman, 62% of the snaps. Philip Lindsay, 45% 10 touches to each guy.

This is, if you look at the snap counts and you look at the trends, you realize there are no trends. There's not a trending up player or a trending down player. It's 50-50. One week it's 53-47, Philip Lindsay. The next week it's 52-48 Royce Freeman. The next week it's 5649 Philip Lindsay. The next week it's 4562 Royce Freeman. It's just, it's a 50-50 split. And so, and you can't even make the argument of,

Well, I want Philip Lindsay because he's the goal line guy. He is. Well, I want Royce Freeman because he's the passing down guy. He is. They're more involved in those two roles. It's just a 50-50 split of a bad offense. That makes it very difficult. Makes it stupid, man. Don't these coaches know we play fantasy? You're speaking from a very visceral Royce Freeman ownership perspective. Yes, I am. Also a man who flexed Royce Freeman last week. Yes, I did.

So you would love to see clarity in production, and I don't think you're going to see either. No, not until the only clarity that's going to come here is injury. Nobody is winning this job outright. They're both playing very well. I believe that, you know, the eyeball test, they're doing their job. I don't see why the coach would change what he's doing, but if an injury happened to either, then you've got value here. If you look at it on the course of the season, you've pretty much been happy playing them.

once each over the course of four weeks. Right. And, you know, Lindsay had the monstrous game against Green Bay, but you drafted him to be something. And then, you know, finishing 31st, 30th, and 42nd, that's not exactly the upside you need to help your team. Makes for a really tough situation. Are there trade options? Would you look to move Philip Lindsay on the heels of last year's big, you know, you had the big game in Green Bay. Last year he was...

I don't think you can get anything from last year. Like we're four weeks in. Last year's equity is gone. You might be able to get something for Philip Lindsay this year. Well, here's a horrible question. He's a running back 15 on the season. Two weeks ago, he was the running back three, had a big blowup performance. And if I could, if I could get something valuable, I would. So here's a real question that nobody thought could be a question. Would you trade Philip Lindsay for Ronald Jones? Because Ronald Jones is finishing the top 22 straight weeks.

I've heard from multiple people out of Tampa Bay. We didn't have an official report on this, but multiple people contacted me around the team to let me know that in week two, the anomalous week two of Ronald Jones's disappearing act, that he, and they were vehement. He came off the field with the toe injury. That's why he did not play in the rest of that game, which I believe. There were some rumors right away in that game. Nobody came out and publicly stated anything. But if you take that game out, if he was hurt, and that's why he didn't see the field,

Because it wasn't like he saw the field and wasn't productive. 26th, 19th, 17th for Ronald Jones. Yeah, Ronald Jones is absolutely trending way up. If you could trade Philip Lindsay for Jones, I would hope to get like a package, like try and sneak an extra player from the... Maybe an upgrade at wide receiver as well. Like you send a whiteout and you get a better whiteout back? Yeah, I would try and do that, like formulated in a type of a package, but if it just has to be a one-for-one trade.

I mean, is this a state water situation where you try to move on the player that's turning the right direction and the running game obviously in Tampa's working? I would personally still take Lindsay. We've seen the talent work, but I totally understand the argument. It looks like the volume is going to be more sure for Ronald Jones over Lindsay, but I'm going to take the talent. Okay. All right. Let's move on to what is going on in Oakland?

Is this a product, week one we saw Josh Jacobs absolutely dominate. It was an impressive debut, 74% of the snaps at the running back position. You know, week two, week three, week four, it's not been the same for Josh Jacobs. Fantasy owners don't know what to do. They've got a Chicago matchup coming up and then a buy week. What do you do with Josh Jacobs right now? Well, it's really, really weird because so week one, he was a workhorse. 74% of snaps.

The next closest was 16% from Jalen Richard. Then we talked about the illness that happened to Josh Jacobs, got really sick, was not used less than 50% of the snap counts in week two, even fewer in week three, while the other two guys there, Jalen Richard. Jalen Richard. Oh, my goodness. Jalen Richard was 31 and 49% snap share.

Last week, I was pretty confident in Josh Jacobs getting back together now that he's passed the illness. And he was 54% of the snaps compared to 28 and 19% from Richard and DeAndre Washington. But the weird thing was, this is a game Oakland was winning. This is the perfect game script for the running back. And they didn't use him as much as we would hope. Well, yeah, his snaps were low. His usage was...

Perfectly fine, though. 17 carries, almost 80 rushing yards, two receptions. The receiving game is where things are really lacking. And the Raiders just overall, we're not seeing that type of production that we were hoping for for any of these running backs in the passing game. So Jacobs, he was only there for 54%, but he was on the field. He was getting used. Jacobs is a full hold for me, or even a buy. I would...

I would not be trying to sell off Josh Jacobs. I think that things are trending up for him. And I would actually wait a week for the buy. And I mean that two different ways. Because of Chicago. You got the Chicago matchup that saw Dalvin Cook get stifled for the majority of that game. I don't think Jacobs is going to be on the field as much if they're playing from behind in this one. I think you wait for his buy week when nobody wants him and then you buy him on the buy mic. I don't mind that. The, the.

The one problem with that is the matchup is terrible against Chicago. And there are arguments that can be made about Chicago's quarterback. Did they make a lateral move moving from Trubisky to Daniel? Or did it get worse? Just saying that there is a situation where Jacobs...

just stumbles his way to a couple touchdowns. The yard per carry is not great, but he ends up with an okay fantasy game. I will say this. I watch the film on him this week. He looked great to me in that work. He wasn't as productive as week one, but he did have the highest snap count since week one. And to me, he looked like the best running back by far, the one we know him to be. So maybe it is a buy opportunity for Jacobs. But you've got to be a team that can withstand a Chicago week and a buy week in any sort of trade.

that would be what I'm looking at. All right, let's take a look at the New England backfield. Now, you might have to hold your eyes open. I'm going to have to hold my food down. This is not good. So this last week against Buffalo, James White was on the field 52% of the time. Sony Michelle, 45%, Rex Burkhead, 18%. In the previous weeks, I mean, week three, Burkhead was 74% of the time. Now, James White was out of that game, so that kind of disturbs the balance.

If you look at week one and two, you might see a little bit more of what this team's actually looking to do. Which is gross. Week two against Miami, 49% Michelle, 31% white, 24% Burkhead. That's about how I see the backfield. Yeah, I agree. I mean, you could argue that week one, 33% Sony, 47% James White, 46% Rex Burkhead. I mean, you're going to be between week one and week two, which is basically...

a very three-way split backfield. Now, they have the fifth most rushing attempts as a team and the second-most running back receptions. Thank you, James White. So the volume is there, but you're splitting this three ways. You know, because you expect the Patriots to score a lot of points, they've got the easiest schedule in the known universe. I would say that you can start all three of them, but you have to, like, close your eyes when you click submit lineup.

Mike, would you rather have David Montgomery or Sonny Michelle rest of the season? Wow. As you think about that, I think it's David Montgomery. David Montgomery, the last four weeks, has an actual trend in snap count. 38%, 44%, 67%, 69%. 24 touches this past week against Minnesota. Now, it was tough sledding against Minnesota. Because it's Minnesota. But Mike Davis has seen...

Four touches over the last three weeks total, he has been worked out of that rotation. They came out against Minnesota. They used Tariq Cohen extensively in the beginning of that game. It seemed like the scripted portion. Tariq Cohen's real big on the scripted portion. Sure. Each and every week. But over the back half of that game, it was a lot of David Montgomery. Yeah, Montgomery's opportunity is going up. Sony, Michelle, at the end of the year, he will be a very interesting player to...

When we run our truth series, all of January, we break down the truth of these fantasy players, how they actually got there. Because all of us fall victim to looking at end of season statistics, end of season rankings. And Sony Michelle, I believe by the end, he'll look just fine. And you'll be. He'll have a thousand yards of Ted touched it. He'll look like running back 18 or something. And.

you've got to be reminded, how did he actually get there? And I would prefer David Montgomery's path where I know that the work is going to happen on a weekly basis instead of Sony Michelle, where I'm just crossing my fingers hoping that the touchdown comes. Should Tariq Cohen be owned? 39% of snaps, seven touches. Eight touches, six touches, six touches, seven touches. On a bench, yes, but much like the way that Philip Lindsay and Royce Freeman should be on people's benches, because if...