Panic Players + Trade Talk, Combo Platters - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/4

DJ Moore. Yeah, that's fair. Well, they can't because they don't have a first rounder next year. I mean, I like that they say they want a number one caliber guy because the player they trade for, if they trade for one, it's probably not going to be one that we say is a guarantee number one. It also could be Claypool. It is kind of dunking on your wide receivers. Yeah, I agree. Look, you guys are great. We just need a number one. Yeah, yeah, I mean. It's funny because that room that that person's talking in, there's not anyone hanging out in that room. I mean, it's like mingo's hurt. I mean, Terrace Marshall knows what we know. Terrace Marshall, I think, has like 19 targets in the last two weeks. That's, that's all you need to know. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Quick break back with the Thursday night preview. And what a preview it shall be. Oh, baby. Let's kick it off.

Thursday Night Breakdown. I just saw the video, you know, if you're watching on YouTube, you saw it, the drop, the video drop. Sure. Three of us, the pictures in the video drop, we look like we are really excited about this game. So let's see if it's true. The Bears are 0 and 4, managed to blow it again last week to continue the losing streak. Really an impressive fashion, too. It really was. Yeah, they took on... They take on the Washington commanders who were two and two. They're at home. The Draft King Sportsbook line has Washington minus six. The overrunners 44 and a half. We saw good things from Justin Fields and Sam Hal for fantasy last week. Justin Fields was 28 for 35. At this point, you know, it's hard. Like what percentage of that is facing Denver at this point? A team that is historically egregious now on defense.

It's hard not to correlate that because Fields has looked so bad. Then you play the worst defense in football, and then you look good, but at least he looked good. At least he took advantage of it. I mean, there have been some matchups. We've been calling for Justin Field bounce back for three weeks. It finally happened. Yeah, I mean, Joe Burroughs should have bounced back against the Titans, and he did not. No, he didn't. And Sam Hal looked really good against Philadelphia. They were beat up on the back end, but it was a good performance. He's my stream of the week in this matchups because Chicago's defense is bad, bad, bad. They are 31st against quarterbacks, 31st against running backs, putting Sam Hal into streaming consideration, and Brian Robinson into must start consideration. Brian Robinson has been very, very good this year. He has. He is the number four ranked running back for the week on our website, and Robinson is getting all of the work. I mean, I saw two leagues drop Antonio Gibson for the second time.

in today's waiver wire. But Brian Robinson's been good. We'll get him again. So Brian Robinson on the year is the RB 7 in fantasy football. And he had a good bounce back week last week. And you can't ask for much more than being at home favored by almost a touchdown against the 31st ranked run deed that has averaged giving up 30 fantasy points a week to the running back position. Antonio Gibson has not been very involved. So Brian Robinson is, you know, is. From here on out, it seems like a must start, especially given the landscape of all running backs. But with this matchup, you should be hopeful for a really big game, at least a touchdown. On the Washington side, I think Hal, Robinson, McClorin, and I believe Logan Thomas is in the mix in this game. The matchup is very good against the Bears, schedule adjusted. They're 23rd against tight ends. I think Logan Thomas is a player that needs to be on people's radar. If you lost Firemuth,

Like he is streamable. Yeah, I get that. And then Terry McLaurin has seen his target share rise every single week from 14 to 18, 21 to 26. I mean, that's what we're talking about. We're up over that 25% mark against Philadelphia. He's, you already knew he was a stud player, but it's, there's weird stuff going on in Washington because McLaurin's on the rise. Meanwhile, Johan Dotson, while he had a little bit of. an injury. It's been all over the place and they're short targets. They're not utilizing Jahan Dotson's superpower. I mean, he has his highest yardage total of the season through four games is 40 yards, week one, against the Arizona Cardinals. Managed nine targets last week in that shootout with Philadelphia despite being injured and missing some snaps. But four for 27. I don't think you can play him this week.

I think the ankle is still a limited practice. I mean, Jason, are you taking the shot on Jehan Dodson? It's always going to depend on who I would have in there. The matchup says you could start him. Tank Dell or Dotson? I think I would go Tank Dahl. He's looked. Michael Wilson or Dotson? Michael Wilson. So I guess I'm not really starting. Tyler Boyd or Dotson? I would go Dotson over Tyler Boyd. I don't trust what I've seen so far from Joe Burrow. And this matchup is good. But one thing we have to keep in mind with Tara McLaurin, how he's gotten more and more involved, his target market share has gone up every single week. He started, you know, he was one of the guys that was in contention for my guy all off season. I was in love with him. And he got injured. He started the year. We weren't even sure if he was going to be active week one. And we knew. He had the toe, right? Yeah, it's turf toe. And so that was one of those things where.

Now we're a month removed from it. Maybe he's just getting healthier and more explosive, being able to push off a little bit better and create separation, get open. It seems that way with the targets he's been earning. On the other side, Justin Fields, the matchup, Washington on the year, 23rd against opposing fantasy quarterbacks. That just equates to 18.6 points given up. Schedule adjusted is ninth. You know, the game's on the road. It's prime time. Would you play Fields? or tomorrow night against Washington or Trevor Lawrence against Buffalo on the road. Fields. Well, they're in London. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. Well, yes. Still on the road. And technically the away team. So yes. Yeah. All right. Buffalo just lost DeVos White. That's a close one. I probably play fields after what we saw last week. Would you play Fields or let's go Jordan Love against the Las Vegas Raiders?

Yeah, I'll probably play Fields. But the matchup is very good for Jordan Love. It is? Very good. If I'm an underdog, I'll play Fields. I don't think Jordan Love's giving you 30 plus points. Okay. Well, then how, I mean, Mr. Super Safety, Brock Purdy, playing the Dallas Cowboys. No, I'll play Fields. Okay. We got to stay water, my friends. And I'm going to follow last week and hope they figured something out and that it's not just Denver. It is really funny, though, the fact that last week he was so good passing the ball. Like really, really good. He had very few incompletions. You know, one of them was a bomb Hail Mary that, you know, didn't get caught and isn't his fault. But it's like, I really wish.

He was great for fantasy last week with 120 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns because I think that's more sticky for him. Unfortunately, he only ran four times. He's on pace for under 600 rushing yards on this season. That can't happen. That can't happen. And I think teams are learning how to defend those plays in particular, whatever they've got. I don't think that's the case. I really, I don't think you can't defend. Oh, I think that's been the campaign. They're not doing designed runs. They're just literally calling fewer opportunities for him to get out and run. Yeah, but when I've watched the design runs, they're getting stacked up. I mean, they're getting, it's not like he's, you know, he had 11 rushing attempts the week before, 4.3 in attempt. I mean, there was no. There aren't any breakaways. Yeah, I mean, he didn't use his legs last week.

by choice. But it's one of the, when you've got a talent like Justin Fields' legs, it's like Lamar Jackson. Just don't take defenses. Like you're going to scheme. You're going to try. But in the end, you just can't catch him sometimes. It's like if he gets an edge, it's like, well, he's faster than us. That sucks. Yeah, we haven't seen it this year. No, we haven't. Khalil Herbert had a big week, 11 for 103. Thank you, Denver. Five targets, gotten to the end zone, had a season high in snaps and opportunities. They definitely. we're having success with him and stuck with him. He's the biggest question to me in this game. Because do you, he, he sucked. He was terrible. He was borderline dropable and then he played against Denver and was great. He was terrible for fantasy. Like his performance on the actual field was not bad. So they're somewhat correlated. Yeah, I mean, he wasn't getting a lot of opportunities. Yes, but that's what I mean. Well,

Yes, they are, they can be correlated, but they're also, when your team is getting shellacked. Which is, which is going to be what happens most games, probably what's going to happen in the first half of this game. So you think Washington. I think Washington is a much, much more competent, more talented team that is at home favored. So it's like the reason that Khalil Herbert was able to succeed and continue to get opportunities was because they were winning. They were dominating in the beginning of this game. The fact that they lost this game is. That's not how the game script was. The game script was they were up by multiple scores and just handing them all off to Khalil Herbert a bunch. But it's also five targets. I mean, it was, did they, you have to ask yourself, did they look at their offensive output and say, okay, that's more the road that we need to go. We've been trying to do this more of a platoon type of a thing with Rochon Johnson moving up, eating more and more snaps.

Or do we need to let Khalil Herbert have the primary share? Yeah, I mean, it's just difficult. There's a team that's lost 13 straight games. You have Fields, Herbert, DJ Moore, and Cole Komet that all have big fantasy weeks. And you have to do the broad view approach, I think, and say, you know, I don't think you can chase all four players unless you want to end up disappointed. I'm going to chase. I'm going to stay in the flames with DJ Moore, who's been really good lately. I'm going to chase fields and I'm going to let the other two prove it. That's where I'm at. I'm in that situation. I mean, obviously your options are always going to come into the equation. And look, if you lost Pat Fryermouth, maybe Colquette's the guy you want to take a chance on. If you lost a running back, maybe you want to throw Herbert out there. But this is Thursday night. I don't want to lose it on Thursday night just because I'm chasing. For Colquette, it is worth noting the Washington commanders allowing 3.7 points per game.

to the tight-in position, which is the worst matchup right now. Yeah, and sometimes you go, well, they haven't played any tight-ins, but if you adjust for schedule and who they've played, they're still bottom five. Yeah, it's amazing because Cole come out after that last week is now number four at tight-in on the year. Yeah, tight-ins are so stupid. But, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's rough in the streets. So a reminder, if you have a player playing on Thursday night, please do not play them in the flex. slot them into your starting running back or wide receiver position so that when we get the unfortunate late week injury news, you have the ability to pivot out of somebody else. So anything else from this game you guys want to touch on? Nope. All right, let's hit a little bit of mailbag. Mailbag. All right, if you have a question for the show, go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com, click the submit a question button or dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB.

We're going to jump right into the voicemail. Zach from Maryland, do I trade away Waddle because he has been an absolute disappointment, thanks. Short and sweet. Yeah, do we trade away Jalen Waddle? Jalen Waddle's fantasy finishes this year, 31st, 41st, missed the game, 50th. Last year, Jalen Waddle, 60th on the week, 75th on the week. 98th on the week, 68th on the week, 41st on the week. Those are some of his fantasy finishes on a weekly basis. Also finished as the wide receiver 7 because when Jalen Wattle goes off, he go off. And so I'm personally, I think this is a volatile player. He's not the number one target, but he's the type of player in the type of offense you want. Big explosive playmaker who can...

be the wide receiver won on any given week. In weeks one and two, he was in a half point scoring format, 9.8 and 10.4. So it was a lower finish compared to, you know, a lot of the field. But that's still helping your team. Well, this is a player that has been injured, banged up quite often, hasn't performed so far. The question was, would you trade him? Like, would you trade Jalen Waddle for Nico Collins? No. I would personally, I would rather have. Jalen Waddle. Would you guys? Probably not. I feel good about moving him preseason right now for Debo Samuel, but he had a bad week last week too. I mean, wide receivers are inconsistent. Would you trade him for? He hasn't played a home game this year. I mean, on the road against Buffalo, New England, and the charges for his three games. He did score this weekend, so maybe you can't, but would you trade him for Calvin Ridley? Oh, yeah, I'd do that. Take Ridley? Yeah.

I think the most interesting name would be Puka. Puka's, you know, that now is the time where people are going to have to decide. They don't know if Cooper Cup is back, back this week, back in the next 21 days. How will Puka look when he's back? But Pooka's been outstanding. Outside of the top, tip-top, you know, Stefan Diggs, Tyree Kill type names, he's the next best wide receiver. I think it's what your team needs. I mean, you brought up his inconsistency. You look over his last 17 games played. He ranks as a C. 41.2% of the time he exceeds our threshold for wide receivers of a good game, which is 10.5 points. So 41% of the time, on average, you're happy with Jalen Waddle. But you're ecstatic. You're very, very happy. So look, if he's leading your wide receiver room, you've probably been...

super disappointed. He was drafted to potentially be your wide receiver one. Sure, yeah. That's the problem. But if he's your wide receiver two, I would stick with him. If he's your one and you want to go to consistency, you're probably going to get more consistency even with Cup coming back out of Pukkah, Nuku, or even Calvin Ridley. In my opinion. Sure. All right, let's move on. Hey, I don't have any questions, but I just wanted to say, love your show. My fiance and I are in a league together, and actually we get married this weekend and are actually playing each other this weekend. So wish us luck. End the marriage early this week Sunday. Well, congratulations. That is awesome. Yeah, that's. Hey, there's a wedding gift from Brooks. Yeah, maybe you don't check the scores for a while. Yeah. Bench, both teams take the tie.

Take the time. Oh, gosh, Jason. That's pretty gross. What is that? I mean. Mike is just, he can't handle you today. Yeah, because this guy's ridiculous. Bench your team, take a tie. Would that be good or bad for you if you're a different manager in that league, right? Like, I'm not in that game. And both those teams, neither get a win, but neither get a loss. I would see that as advantageous for me. It's better for the league. Right. What if you say, maybe, what if you mean? Well, they lose out on a whole bunch of points too. Well, that part's true, but maybe one of those teams is, you know, you're rooting for them to lose. Or say you're going to bench your team and then don't. Oh, nice. Well, you still got to bench your team. But then right before kickoff. Yeah. Slash wedding. What a follow-up question. Waddle or Mike Evans for the rest of the season. Evans going into the bye week.

I'm sure we'd take him. Yeah, it's an easy, Mike Evans. His pace with targets was outstanding. Even if you include, if you include the game where he missed with the hamstring injury, he's still on pace for 131 targets and 1,400 yards and double-digit touchdowns. He's been outstanding. It does not appear that the, I mean, Godwin had a good week. Obviously, we had the absence of Mike Evans, but just watching that offense. I think Mike Evans is very secure in that primary target role. Godwin is capable, but, you know, I don't know. I haven't seen Old Godwin yet. This last week was the first week that I felt like he looked like Old Godwin on film, and he was more of the first retarget. Maybe that was why it just appeared. Because Evans was gone, you're saying? Yeah, because Evans was gone. But, you know, he looked good to me this last week. Would you trade?

This is a Instagram question from IROB. David Montgomery for Jamar Chase. Oh, man. I would do that. I would as well. Yeah. Yeah. But it won't feel good right now. Montgomery's going to just going to, he's going to keep cruising. I agree. I don't think Montgomery is going anywhere, but you don't usually have a chance to do a trailer like this. And even though, you know, you look at last week, okay, Jamar Chase had 10 fantasy points in half. PPR scoring. You're definitely disappointed with that, but he had nine targets, seven receptions, 73 yards. Like that didn't destroy you even while Burroughs playing poorly. By the end of the season, Jamar Chase should be back to form and winning people playoff weeks. The only risk there is that they shut Burrow down for an extended period of time and you deal with the browning to Chase situation. And I am worried about the schedule. I'm worried about the loss year for Cincinnati.

But I would probably take the chance because you're trying to win the title. Yeah. Not finished third or fourth. Instagram question following up earlier discussions. Love the show boys. Puka finishes as the wide receiver what this season? He's currently the wide receiver five on the year. I believe that Puka will finish as the wide receiver. Oh, 13. I had it right there. 14. 14. 14. Okay. 13, 14. You know what to do. 15. There you go. Instagram question, would you trade Devon A. Chan for Mark Andrews? Yes. Probably. Yeah, probably would. Probably would. I mean, I don't know what this future for Devon A. Chan is going to be. I still don't. I love the explosiveness. I love the ability to, you know, he's gotten into the end zone and that's been outstanding. But.

It's going to be a bunch of dudes back there in the backfield. And so he's got to make the most of his opportunities. The last two weeks he completely has. He went from 18 carries to eight last week. Now, he averaged 12.7 a carry. He was over 100, right? He was over 100 yards against Buffalo on eight carries. He had a 55-yard run. But look. Oh, and that run. Oh, mercy. We have watched. Some of his cuts. We've watched a lot of football. We've seen C.J. Spiller. We've seen speed. And look, there is nothing negative you can say about Devon Aitchan other than the fact that, you know, he's not going to do that every game. He can't. Yeah, he's unless he's. Unless he's, I mean. It is always one of those things. It's always in the back of your head. It's Chris Johnson versus C.J. Spiller. That was the argument to me coming into the draft season with J. Gibbs. And J. Gibbs to me was like, I saw him more as the C.J. Spiller than the. Calvin Camara.

Oh, then. Then the C.J. Johnson. But when you've got these guys. I love that guy. Chris Johnson. When you've got that kind of speed, but you lack the size, there are not a lot of examples you can go to in history and you've got some flameouts and you've got some league winners. Just keep playing him right now. For sure, keep playing him. But I don't blame anyone that wants to try to trade him at his peak. This could be his. peak value for the season because right now you've got the combination of extreme production mixed with still potential, you know, unknown. This final question here is about a player that there's a lot of discussion on right now. It comes from Twitter at Brown's 2008. What is up, Ballers? Am I safe to bench from Andre this week? I'm fortunate enough to have good depth to replace them. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Yeah, yeah, you can do that. I mean, this has been BAD. I mean, Ramandre is averaging 2.7 yards per carry, and it's not like he's had no attempts. I mean, this is 60 attempts for 164 yards in the offense. He's scored one time. It's been a really, really bad start. The passing aim work sometimes saves the day, but you had reports last week that they want to give Zeke more work. If you look at the peripheral metric, Zeke is better in every single metric than Romandre this year. Explosive runs, yards after contact, yards before contact, yards per carry, and Zeke scored three fantasy points despite the hype. So it is not good right now. You have quarterback changes in New England. If you have the ability to put in a Pacheco,

or A-chan or just a different option at running back. I would be fine with you doing that. I don't have any problem doing that this week. The game against the New Orleans Saints, they have been a multi-year great run defense. You're not expecting a big game from Remandre. Andy, I don't think you were here for the show where, you know, my plan for Remandre is wait one more week and trade for him because it's, you know, it's been a bad... stretch where you've got to play the Jets amazing defense, the Cowboys amazing defense and the Saints amazing defense. I don't expect good games there. After that, you've got run defenses of the Raiders, the Bills, and the Dolphins that I would expect really big games from Ramandre. So to me, that exhale right there. You can go get them, but I'm not making the bet. You can make the bet. But that's why I'm going to be doing it because it's going to be achievable.

It's not going to cost me a lot. If he has, I'm hoping for a really bad game from Ramandre this week because then I think I can add him to my roster without destroying it. That is the game. That's my personal plan. If he has a really bad game, then that's five in a row. And you're going to. And that is, that's a place where you've got to really. You got to have the stones. You've got to stare at yourself in the mirror and say, like next week I still think you're going to be looking in the mirror going, I meant what I said.

I did. You meant what you said, Jason, because one more bad week, that stacks up emotionally. That's why you have to have the plan in place. He may not be good this year. He may not be good. That is a real possibility. But he will be. For Zappy or for Mac Jones or for? It's still Mac. It is. It's still Mac. They didn't put Zappi until the game was over. Correct. I mean, you don't, I'm here for all Mac Jones trashing. I've. I've been on record a long time saying that he's... I mean, you're acting like we didn't see Matt Jones replaced last season by Bailey Zappy because of performance. They are... They are... They are circling the old drain. They just lost Christian Gonzalez for the year. Had to trade for J.C. Jackson. The division is brutal. Well, I would agree that the Patriots are not...

you know, an arrow pointing up team. I don't, like, let's say they go to Zappy. I don't think it makes a difference for Vermont, right? I think it's going down. Just as good. It'll be, it's the bet. That is the bet. That is the game of fantasy. So we're wrapping up. A reminder, we have a brand new Dynasty podcast episode that released this morning with a trio never before seen. Mike Wright, Matthew Betts, and myself. Talking trade targets for contenders, trade targets for rebuilding teams in Dynasty. You can check that out, the fantasy footballers. Dynasty podcast tomorrow. We have starts of the week. The matchup previews on Friday. The Wheel of Shame, the Fantasy Faceoff, more matchups, lots to talk about. Don't miss an episode. Go over to YouTube.com slash the Fantasy Footballers. Subscribe. Click that bell. That way you don't miss a show and you catch Mike on Sunday live. Goodbye.

you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on join the foot dot com and follow us on twitter at the ff ballers