Week 4 Studs & Duds + Spooky Season - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/2

On today's show, we're talking about a lot of super studs, and of course there's always some super duds that we've got to go over. Make sure you subscribe to this channel right now. Leave us some comments about who carried you to victory this week and enjoy the show. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the podcast. That's the fantasy footballers podcast, if you're nasty. I couldn't even make it through the intro. Jason just starts looking into my soul cackling. Yeah. Because we nasty today. This is a nasty boy show. The nasty boys are here. Andy is out. I'm in the captain's chair. That means Jay Gris, Cardboard Bear, extraordinaire, aka J. Riz. He's going to be risen up the set today. Holding it down. He had a pretty good day. I mean, yeah. Well, I mean, he's a big just of Fields guy.

Yeah, okay. Justin Fields was great. Great for fantasy. Pretty darn good as a quarterback. The very end of the game, it went well for Bears fans. I don't know if they're happy. Like I had a Bears fan text me saying, should I be happy? And I told them, yes. Yes, you should be happy. But welcome into the podcast, Monday, October 2nd, spooky season has begun. See, to me, the holiday season has begun. Oh, okay. I was driving my kids to school today, and they asked me, they go, did the holiday season begin now? I was like, yes, it has. Wait, so you don't define this as spooky season? It's just its overall holiday season? It's the beginning of the holidays. October 1st kicks off the holiday months. See, I go spooky season into Christmas season. That's fine. We can not recognize. Celebrate our differences, Mike.

We can be thankful for them. A lot to be thankful for over this special NFL weekend. We had a lot of points going in there. A couple quick house cleaning tidbits here. Foot Clan giveaway. We are giving away. We are still giving away a signed Christian McCaffrey, Jersey. Value went up. Yeah. That guy. That guy. Oh, man. I like that guy. He's so nice to me. So good. But Footclan giveaway.com, a bunch of things you can do to help support the show. They are all completely free. Follow us on socials. Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers or on X at the FF Ballers. I am at FF Hitman at Jason FFL or you can follow Andy at Andy Holloway. A lot to talk about. But first, we must, Jason. We must, you know. Mew. Mew. Yes. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

All started off with my... Jason, he might be my best friend. I'm so sorry. Christian McGot-Frey. Oh, yes. What is... How about Nakua Matata? It means no losses. Or hip-hip. Hooray, Jay Brown. Unless he played against them. And Nico Ballins. Justin Fields of Dreams. And we finally figured out how to say this guy's name. It is Devon A. Champ. Because he's a champion. That guy. I mean, ridiculous things are happening. Also, some bad things. P.U. Is that Stank Dell? Yeah. Uh, Jordan Saddison. I did not like that one. Mm-mm. T.J. Hokalugi. We're back-to-back Vikings. Nice. Uh, uh, Joe Burroken? Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. He's dead dude's broken right now. Uh, oh. Chris, no lave. And of course, Rahim most turd.

That was a piece of poop. If you didn't catch that in the verbiage, it was a most turd. Yeah, multiple fumbles. Yeah, he had a, he had himself a very poor game, and he was the number one running back in all of fantasy coming into this week. So very disappointed when you go from greatness to really just a destructive performance. It was a disaster. Meanwhile, A. Chan. Just. Yeah. He's got the beat that make your booty go clap. Yes, he does. All right, let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Adam Schefter reports the Cardinals are not expected to activate Kyla Murray off the pup when he's eligible, which is this week. So they will not be opening up his 21-day practice window.

Yeah, and this is something we brought this up on some show a week or two ago. I don't remember exactly which one. But again, we knew this wasn't going to happen, that they weren't going to activate him immediately. Additionally, we know that when they activate him, he will not be there that week. They want him at practice for a couple of weeks. They might use all 21 days in the 21-day window. So don't plan on having Kyler. immediately. This is the time, though, where we're going to know which one of these, you know, in the preseason, all these players get put on the pup and you go, well, they're going to miss four games. And so we'll have them in week five. That is only true of the players who are going to be activated immediately when their window of eligibility is open, which is right now. So we have two more pieces of news. Yes, the Colts will open the 21 practice day window for Jonathan Taylor this week.

And last week, Sean McVeigh confirmed Cooper Cup will practice this week, meaning they're going to open up his 21-day practice window. And then some, like they just, you know how news sources, or not news sources, I'm sorry, like businesses and companies, if they have bad news, they wait until like Friday. Oh, yeah. And then they just, they just dump it in the afternoon because it's often overlooked or just it doesn't get the full week cycle. Not related to that. Tyler Higby agreed to a three-year $27 million extension. What? Cool. I mean, you get paid, man. You usually do that in week four midseason while dealing with it. Achilles injury. It's just as expected. But Cooper Cup, I fully believe he plays week five. Like I think he is. Week five? I do. I think he will be active and playing. Well, fantasy managers are crossing their fingers. Other news during the weekend, quarterback Justin Herbert.

He suffered a fractured finger on his left, non-throwing hand. He does have a weak five by. I mean, he went right back into the game. Yeah, he won't miss any time. He didn't play as well once it happened. I don't know if that was just happening. Because he has a broken part of one of his hands? Yeah, I mean, it wasn't good. But, you know, that shouldn't affect your ability to throw the ball with your right hand. It affects your ability to do anything. Sure. The nice thing is, you understand, like, Just because he's not throwing with that hand, it hurts tremendously. The broken finger. He is really, really tough. That was a part of the, you know. We saw that last year. Yeah. I mean, he played through broken ribs. The timing couldn't be better because he already had a good fantasy day, you know, in their victory. And then they have the by week coming up. So you're not going to miss any time. He'll be good to go when he comes back. It's not really newsworthy, but Brooks is bringing it up. So it's.

It's just fun fodder to talk about. Austin Eccler, sir, great friend of the show, great friend of fantasy football. Does he not know how social media works? He more than anyone knows how social media works. He tried to pull one over on everybody. He posted a nice picture of him like entering this. the field or something like that it was see it was very much implied that i'm going to be back this week i don't know his post to me when i looked at it it was him standing on the sideline and so i was like oh okay he's he's saying he's telling people he's on the sideline but mama bear she posted like she's like week two

You know, game two, it's on. Like he was going to be active. So whatever. Come on. We knew he was probably going to miss because of the bye week. He'll be back. But it's unfortunate. As an Echler manager, it has really been frustrating to have such a great week one performance. And then I don't see him until week five. He just needed some needed to charge back up. Mike Evans of the Bucks, he exited the game with a hamstring injury. They do have the buy week next week, so that's perfectly timed out. Bengals T. Higgins, he left early with a rib fracture. They're saying he will miss some time. Rib injuries often, like the player can put on the flack jacket and play through it, but it always, I mean, it always affects. If you've ever bruised a rib, yeah, oh man, you can't do anything.

This is a wide receiver who's going to be going across the middle of the field. Like, you're telling me you hear the footsteps coming while you've got broken ribs and you're not, you're not a little worried about catching that ball? Oh, I'm super worried. Giovante Williams of the Broncos, he exited early. It was, I think, like, the top of the second quarter, a hip flexor injury. He did not return. So that will be a very interesting piece of news as we look forward to the waiver wire. Devante Adams, he hurt. Like his arm, I guess his shoulder. It turned out to be his shoulder right before the half. He went to the locker room, but he came back and then he caught some more passes. Probably got an injection and we'll do the same before next week. Can he pick it? Pittsburgh Steelers, he left with a left knee injury. It is believed to be a sprained MCL, not season ending, but he couldn't miss some time with teammate Pat Fryer Muth, the Muth.

exited with a hamstring injury, and Joanne Johnson of the Saints. He exited with a calf injury. Is there any other news, Jay, did that, any hidden news that we saw over the weekend? No hidden news that I know. I think we're still waiting on an MRI to confirm with Kenny Pickett. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe this has already happened, but it will, Kenny Pickett will not be playing next week. It'll be Mitchell Trubisky. Yes, that's probably what I think is well. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. This week's fantasy stud muffins. The studs were studly this weekend. Yeah. Yeah, they were. The quarterback position really went pretty nuclear. Josh Stallion. Well, chelo.

We got 21 for 3.20 and 4. Four passing toddies. Oh, wait. Four for 17 without rushing toddy. Jason's silence says he played against Josh. Yeah. Well, there's going to be a recurring theme through the stud muffins on today's episode. Usually the stud muffins is like the fun time. Not for me. Not when. Like I had such a great week in fantasy. Yeah, your guys are in here too. In most of my leagues and in the league of record, really the only thing that matters. I had a great game. I scored the second most points. But it don't matter when you play against first. And of course, first place had Josh Allen. He went bonkers. You know, it was a real awesome statement that the bills made against the undefeated and seemingly.

unbeatable dolphins they went and smooched them they they laid the law down and they said we are we are the leaders of this division wait your turn yeah they heard the chatter as the the dolphins hive were they were they were getting they were starting to get pretty loud they were squeaky and turns out a buffalo uh stronger than a dolphin i guess that's a fact i mean depending on your your arena Fair. Like you put a buffalo in the water. I think the dolphin's going to win. Yeah, probably. Don't dolphins like kill sharks? They kill, yeah, and whales and stuff. They can be mean. Yeah. All right. Anthony Richardson. There you go. It. I wanted to put, I wanted to put some kind of Anthony Filthy Richardson in the, in the puns. Because it was, it was, it was a little filthy. 11 for 25.

11 completed passes. What a stud muffin. Except it was for 200 yards and two passing touchdowns. And then 10 for 56 with a rushing touchdown on the ground. In four point leagues, he is the quarterback two and points per game. He gets to take on Tennessee and Jacksonville the next two weeks. Hooh. Hey, you got to keep him in your lineups. He was a great DFS play. And not only was he good, but. He came back in a game where they were getting decimated. I think it was like 23 to nothing or something like that where they were just getting absolutely obliterated on both sides of the ball. And the second half rolls around, he steps up, makes some good plays. They come back, they tie the game. They go into overtime where Puka got the game winning touchdown and the Rams still were victorious. But like it's nice to see not just good performance, but.

resiliency. Now, that line is actually pretty similar to Lamar Jackson. He was 15 for 19 with 186, two passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns as well. But they were taken on the Cleveland Browns. The Browns defense, I mean, I guess they were up against it so much because of the... Because they didn't have an offense. They didn't have an offense. Deshaun Watson was a late scratch, and the rookie was not ready to play. I mean, I feel for him as well because they were saying he didn't even know he was going to start until like right before the game happened. I mean, I know you can go through the week. Like the starters is banged up. You're not getting, you're getting some reps and practice. But then imagine you like, I'm sure Watson's telling him like, no, I'm going to be playing. Don't worry. And then also like, hey, go play against the Ravens. You're like, no, thank you. And I think a lot of people might.

you know, be either inflating the Ravens offense. Right. Or saying, oh, the Brown's defense isn't as good as we thought. I don't believe either of those are the correct takeaway from that game. The Cleveland offense with the rookie quarterback could not stay on the field. Yes. And so their defense just collapsed. Justin Fields, he's in this list of that. Of course, he ran for 150 yards on the ground, right? No, but at least 50, right? Yeah, no, only four for 25 on the ground. How many rushing touchdowns? With none. So why is he in studs? 28 completed passes, 335 yards, four passing tutties. What? Yes, that is the correct response. What? So speaking of defenses being good or bad. Yeah. The Denver Broncos. So here, this is what's going to be so funny.

Do you know their matchup next week? Do you remember it? The Broncos? Yeah, who they play. Because it's a real. Is it the Jets? Yes. Oh my gosh. It's a push comes to shove situation of like, okay. Can you start Zach Wilson? Dude. Wilson? Yeah, he didn't look. Wilson looked okay. He was not all of the problem. Yes. Yeah, that's a fair way to put it. Which good for you, Zach. I mean, look, he made. some really good throws. He made some Zach Wilson throws. But overall, I mean, that you had to feel if you're coach solid. You have to feel like, yeah, see, I told you. I told you we've been sticking with our guy. Yeah, I think, I mean, you, you, you want him to do well. Obviously, he's your quarterback. You're hoping that he succeeds and he played well. So the point, though, is that Denver's defense is a trash. Okay. So back to Justin Fields then. 335 passing yards four passing touchdown.

Did Chicago figure it out? Or is Denver just that bad? Denver's just that bad. Chicago did not figure it out. Justin Fields is not going to go and throw for 300 again against Washington or even the next week against Minnesota in a plus matchup. That being said, I was saying personally I would have started Justin Fields this last week. I will keep starting him. For fantasy purposes, he is. I think more often than not going to put up large performances. I know it's hard when it was back to back to back poor, you know, starts. But the nice thing at the very least, even if they haven't figured it out and unlocked how, you know, he's just a great passer all of a sudden, there is a confidence thing, right? Like quarterback's confidence is everything. And so coming off of a really good performance where you complete 80% of your passes, you're dropping dimes.

that's got to be good to go into the next game, have some momentum. So Washington is up next for Justin Fields, but then Minnesota, the Raiders, both of those games are at home, and then on the road against the Chargers. Yeah, it's going to be a good three weeks. So are you trading him away? No, no. I guess that's the big question is. I would not be trading Justin Fields away. I think at the end of the year, and at the end of the year, Justin Fields is probably, A top six quarterback. Maybe it's top eight because he started the year so poorly. But that's my view of Justin Fields. I haven't wavered while he was having poor performances. Jalen Hertz had himself a fine game over 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns. He gets to take on the Rams next week. Joshua Dobbs. Hey. Both of us just opened our hands. All right. Okay. I mean, he is running.

a good amount, 12 for 48 on the ground. That's a free touchdown in four-point scoring formats, and then 265 and 2 through the air. And this was against the San Francisco 49ers. It was, if you missed the game, it was so bizarre because it felt like the Cardinals were playing pretty good, is. At the end of that game, or towards the end, they were a two-point conversion away from having it be a three-point game. Like, they were actually in it. Now, then the, the very end of the game, it ended up working out for the 49ers to even cover the spread. So you might look at the box score and say, oh, the Cardinals sucked. That wasn't the process. And what was great about this is what Joshua Dobbs has done is show that you can have a little bit more confidence in the receiving option in Hollywood Brown. Michael Wilson had a monstrous game. And so this is a team where.

The wide receivers, I've kind of been waiting for Kyler to get back to have confidence. You know, you can throw these guys in in a pinch, but they look competent, which is shocking. Justin Herbert had himself a big game despite the broken finger, mostly on the back of two rushing touchdowns. He goes on to the byweek, but he's on pace for 43 combined touchdowns, Jason. Your bold prediction was 50, so you're feeling like an idiot? I'm feeling pretty good. He's the quarterback one, and he's on pace for over 40 touchdown. So I feel like, I feel, I feel, I feel this is a good enough start to get there. Fair enough. Baker Mayfield, taking on the New Orleans Saints, 246 and 3, 8 for 31 on the ground. And the bucks, the bucks on the road beat down the Saints. I saw a submission.

for Monday Punday of Baker may be worth a roster spot. So, okay. I mean, it seems so. And obviously they're going to go on a buy week right now, but they come back with the Detroit Lions. That's not the worst matchup. You want to see Mike Evans active for that game. Sure. But it was also nice to see that in Mike Evans replacement when he went out. Chris Godwin looked good. He didn't, you know, he can be the guy. He can be the one. I don't know if Derek Carr is, is Derek Carr in our pooped his pants? Oh, he needs to be. Make sure he's there. Yeah. I don't care what his, I don't care if he ended up having 20 rushing touchdowns that game. That dude, uh, sucked. All right, put him in. So we'll move the discussion of, of Derek Carr over there. Russell Wilson, Andy started the week. He came through with over 200 passing yard, three passing touchdowns. He does take on the Jets next week.

Yeah, no thing. Yikes. And then C.J. Stroud. I think he's. Yeah, baby. He's just going to be a superstar. He, Kyle, are you on the microphone? I'm here. Yeah, the Stroud boys. We're looking pretty good supporting our guy over Bryce. How's that? Kyle, how are you feeling? How are you feeling about that? I feel amazing. Yeah. That's right. All that nonsense of the Texans aren't even going to take him. Get that crap out of here. They did the right thing and they are looking set up. I mean, they don't have a first round pick next year, but they are. Look, if I'm a Houston Texans fan right now, I am feeling so good. I mean, genuinely right now, C.J. Stroud versus Deshaun Watson. CJ Stroud is playing actively better. 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns. I mean, that's already his second 300 yard game this season. So 50% of his games he throws for 300 plus yards.

Second most passing yards by a player in his first four NFL games in history. They dismantled the Jaguars last week. They destroyed the Pittsburgh Steelers this week, 30 to 6. I mean, they're doing some good work down there. Yeah. Doing some good work with CJ Stroud. We're going to get into the running back studs of the week, but we've got to take a quick break. Christian McGoat free, Jason. Man. That dude, he's goating. In the morning, I declared when we were all together that I thought Bijon Robinson was the best running back in the NFL. Yes. And early into the 49ers game, I said, I think Bejohn Robinson is the second best running back in the NFL because I don't understand why Christian McCaffrey is so good. Like, I just don't understand it. I don't get how no one can ever tackle him. He always makes the right read. He always.

keeps his balance. He's just like this. It's just always, it's almost like decision making. I don't even know how he. There's a lot of that, yes. It's not fair. It's not fair. Every time he touches the ball, it's like, oh, there's another eight yards. It was 20 for over 103 rushing touchdowns, eight targets, seven for 71 with a receiving touchdown. And the Shanahanans, they got us at the end of the game. They, They were trying to get juice a touchdown, which I respect it. Yeah, get your full back in there. Like, yeah, the, the unheralded position, get him some love. He did not make it in. So then they let purdy rush out. That was stupid. That was a strange decision. Give McCaffrey his fifth touchdown of the game. Thank you. So look, for the record, it was not greedy.

Mike loving his Christian McCaffrey points. Jason's on board of saying give him his fifth touchdown. If you have an opportunity, if you've got a player with four touchdowns in a game and you're on the goal line, you've got like just give the man a special day. It's also, I mean, it's also a little weird. Not that you, not that you, quarterbacks always get hurt, but it's just you've seen quarterback sneaks go awry. Not only that. So like at the end of a game, when it's, I mean, the game is done. Like for, there's still time on the clock when I'm saying the Cardinals not come a bag. I don't know. Interesting decision. I also think if I am the coach there, forget giving the guy the fifth, like charity or making it special. How about just call your best play? Because you know what your best play was all day? Just give the ball to Christian McCaffrey. So he's automatic. We don't need to talk about him other than to just say he is the new Ladania Tomlinson. Yep. He plays the Dallas Cowboys and then the Cleveland Browns. Don't.

So what, who cares? David Montgomery from the Thursday night matchup from missing games with, I think the thigh bruise to 32 carries, 121 yards, three rushing touchdowns. It was a great game for him. Kyron Williams continues to be the absolute best late round pick or the best waiver wire pickup. I mean, I'm including Puka in that list to find a running back. who was doing what Kyron Williams does. Like this is, you would have drafted this performance at the 102. It is incredibly. You would have only drafted McCaffrey's numbers over Kyron right now. It's incredibly impressive that the potential two best waiver wire pickups are both Rams. You know, nobody went into the draft season being like, oh, you've got to get Kyron, you've got to get Pook. I mean, I liked both players. They were last round dart throws, but.

You know, they weren't people that, you know, their average draft position was undrafted. And so this role, when we were kind of pro Cam Acres, it was because the role of the lead workhorse back for Sean McVe is very valuable. So you go, okay, he has it on lockdown. What's he going to be going forward, rest of season? It's going to be a top 10 running back. Yeah, he's looked great. He does face the Philadelphia Eagles next. So that'll be a bit. tougher for him. Here's a guy that might, I mean, if you're talking waiver wire pickup of the year. Yeah, no, that's fair. He could make a run for his money. Devon A. Chan, only eight carries, but that's all he needed to get 101 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. Believe his two first touches of the game were both for touchdowns. Five targets, three for 19. The snaps went up. The routes run went up. I do, I will.

put some pause into say, Mostert fumbled two times in this past week. Could that have something to do with the snaps of A. Chan getting more involved in the game? It could. Or could it just be that A.N. is just so dominant that you've got to get him on the field. I think it's a combination of both. So it wouldn't surprise me to see the snaps flip back to being in Mostert's favor. Not that I'm not saying I'm benching A. Chan or anything like that, but just saying that the... I'm not looking at the snaps going from 42 to 60% going, we did it. We did the H.N's the guy. I'm not ready to do that. I don't think he's ever going to be the guy who gets what, like, Kiron is getting, where he's going to be on the field 70 to 90% of snaps and touching the ball 25 times. It's not built for that. But if you watch the game flow, I don't think it was the fumbles that really, I don't think McDaniel benched most are.