Hungry For More + Cooper Heads to Buffalo! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/16

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Happy Wednesday, everybody, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers podcast, back with you. Excited to be here. We have a good show for you today. Lots to talk about. We had another trade break. We just made the comment on the show that the league always schedules their trades around our show for us. And the league heard that. You poked the beer. And the league said, no, we are in control. And so we got to talk about Devante Adams and that big trade. But we did not get to talk about Amari Cooper. And so that'll be part of today's episode. Before we get into things, I need to come out and make a public apology. Oh, thank goodness.

I don't know what it's for. I think I know where we're going here. I really have no interest in being associated with the referees of the national football. That's not what I heard yesterday. I'm pretty sure you were all about the rules and restrictions. I think you actually said, get off my lawn. Yeah, you're half zebra. To all the fans out there on the lawn tailgating. And you're like, that's too much fun. This is part of why I need to make the public apology is I have no interest in being associated with the linesmen and the stripes and the rules. I see the error of my ways. Okay. I would like to publicly apologize for going no fun league for about two minutes yesterday. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to accept that apology, Andy. On behalf of the people, I accept your apology. Welcome to Team Fun. Thank you. Thank you. Very, very important.

So I'm sorry, everybody. I don't care if the rules are followed anymore. Nice. I am only here to be entertained. Yeah. And honestly, I think we get rid of the refs and it's animal ball out there. It's more about what is a good rule and what is not. Exactly, Mike. That's it. I want them behind the line of scrimmage. Like pass interference? It's a good rule. Yeah. Shouldn't be able to just clobber a guy. And then just these things that have nothing to do with the play in reality? Stop it. Stop taking away D.K. Metcalfe 50-yard touchdowns. You know what I would love to see? I would love to see that when they throw a flag, that they have the option to pick it up if it did not affect the play. Like, I've thought that before. Like if there's holding, but it was on the right side of the line, like, you know, you see the holding, you throw the flag. You got to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if then it was determined the play ran the left and that had absolutely no effect on the play, you pick it up.

Can you just be awesome? Yeah. After further review, I have changed my mind. Yes. I've changed my mind for fun. Touchdown. We have the advanced stats, right? We have the play was too good. I'm going to let it stand. What is the AWS next gen? Next gen stats. We have the ability now when we're watching football. AWS is proof. Yeah, Mike, shout out to your distant past. Yes. And your boy, Aaron Rogers, when you look at AWS now and you watch an Amazon game on Thursday Night Football, they have the ability to predict based on the visuals and the AI of the history of the NFL, what players are going to blitz based on formation? That technology could easily apply to, did the penalty happen in the quadrant of the field of irrelevance? Right. You could actually.

You could actually decide that the penalty isn't a penalty if it literally didn't affect anything. We could, but you're also talking about the league that was testing out what chips or just ways to digitally track. Did you get a first down? They're like, oof. No, no, we got to have these. metal chains that are kind of put in there. It's pretty close. I do think they're pretty close to the right spot. That'll happen. Yeah, it'll happen. They'll move to that. It's, it's a slow progress, but let's progress. And I like that. Let's just have the machine tell us if it didn't affect the play, then it can stand. All right. Are we feeling better? Yeah, I feel much better. Thank you for that apology, Andy. Yeah. We have Hungry for more momentarily. If you want to follow the show, you can do so on.

X at the FF Ballers. You can follow Jason at Jason FFL. Mike is at FF Hitman, and you can follow me at Andy Holloway. Thursday night preview. I'm hoping there is something special that we're not expecting to see that happens on Thursday night because right now there's just injuries and offenses with rookie quarterbacks that makes the evening feel a little bit sketch. But let's jump in. Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eads. Hungry for more, we're looking for some rising stars, some players we've seen little bits and pieces of, and we want to see a lot more. And I don't know if there's a player that fits this description more perfectly than the Costco sample of the NFL. And that is Christian Watson. Give you a taste? Yeah, you don't get the whole meal ever with Christian Watson, whether it's injuries.

inconsistencies. I have never been a Watson guy. That is true. When you said you wanted more of Christian Watson in this show before, you know, when we were prepping the show, I was like, well, let's hear that because you've only besmirched his name. Well, Dantean Wix is hurt. And Romeo Dobbs, while a great possession receiver is just that, he's a role player in the offense. And Jaden Reed obviously is. You know, a jack of all trades, into rounds and big plays and everything in between. I just think there's opportunity and room in this offense for Christian Watson without Don Tavian Wicks to maybe, maybe inch his way towards a more consistent big play type of player. He had four targets and 60% of snaps last week. He scored on Arizona and he helps this offense and Jordan Love has been slinging it. So I am hungry for more Christian Watson. I don't want just the Costco sample.

I want the whole meal for the rest of the season, and I want to see what he's got. Well, and you really wanted him on waivers today because you made a great trade for your team yesterday, but you lost a little depth and you thought he'd be a good flex option, so you went hard after Christian Watson. I'm happy to report you did not get him. Yeah, a very smart manager in our league bid $1 more than the fab I have. Yeah. I just realized that that was a personal attack on me. I just realized that was the bid. I hope there are more. It's a division made. It's a smart move, but it was exclusively to take him from me. Nice. Which would infer that they knew how much you were going to spend on other players. What do you mean? Well, because you got a quarterback for 10. Yeah. But see, I actually set up my waivers today in a structured pattern of like, I had multiple bids on Caleb Williams, which you can do.

as long as you have players to drop. So I had a high dollar on Caleb, then I had a low dollar on Caleb with a player drop in case I got the first player. I got you. So I would have got them both if he didn't ruin my life. But anyway, very excited to see what Christian Watson can do. And, you know, if you're in a league where you need some explosive potential on a week-to-week basis, he does fit that mold. Just like a Rashid Shahid did. players that have big play dad dari slayton when he's got opportunities he's not elijah more is what i'm saying right yeah yeah any any any moment could be a 50 yard touchdown and there's not you know there's not 20 guys just sitting on waivers or or easy to acquire that they can do that my there's also just in for green bay there's no one who is dominating targets it's

The real answer for the Packers is just Jordan Love. And then you hope that you played the right wide receiver on the right week. But it's like. Right. Yes. Not having a not having a true number one, though, gives you that option every single week. Like it's Jane Reed. Jane Reed's the best one of them. But he's sitting in a 20% target share. This isn't like this isn't an elite player in terms of. Well, we got to give him 28% of the targets no matter what. They're finding the guy who's open. Yeah, my hungry for more in truth is Troy Franklin, but I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to go there. You want a touchdown machine. You just went there. You want a touchdown machine. It's coming. No, the player that I'm hungry for more is almost a reminder and a wake up call for a player that has really poofed and disappeared this season. Talking about last year's running back to.

If you can remember that far, Rahim Mostert, who came out in week one, had nine opportunities, 44% left with a chest injury, was gone for the next several weeks. And then in week five, and this is what I think people, I know even myself, you know, we're watching all these games, taking everything in, watching the film afterwards, doing all the analytics, everything we can do. And I was surprised afterwards to be like, whoa, did you know, Rahim Moster had 21 opportunities? You know, he was given, I think, 18 carries, 98 total yards. Rahim Moster was the running back 22 without Tua. Without A-chan as well. Sure, without A-chan, but he looked good. Like, this is a team that has not been able to run the ball. Even with A-chan, without Tua, they have not been able to move the offense at all. And I talked about this with A-chan. His ability and size does not fit.

a team that is going to stack the box. Like that's just never going to work for him. That's why it hasn't been working for these last few weeks. When Tua comes back up and he, you know, in the field is spread and defenders are, you know, two safeties are super far back and they're not able to stack the box. Devon A. Chan is going to eat again. But right now, right now this is built for a tackle breaking, big bodied fast back. And that's where he mostered. And so breaking big body passback. Yeah. And he's coming up this week against the Indianapolis Colts, who have not been able to stop most anything. And so I think you've got to remember, like this is a player that you can start this week. I think Rahim Moster is a very good flex. So I'm excited to see a little bit more of him. He might be out on certain waivers, you know, because they had their by week. I think he's about 70% rostered. So he's, he's not.

readily available, but that's just a player that's like, don't forget, he's really, he had 20 plus touchdowns last year. Tua could be back, not this coming week, but the next week against Arizona Cardinals. So I think Moster is just someone I'm, I'm hoping gets going. I'm hoping he gets a lot of the work and continues to look good. I like the fact that when you're talking about Devon A. Chan, you can then say Rahim Moster is big. Right, no, giant. Because Moster does not be. He's not like a 225. That's Jalen right. Yes, but he, Moster is someone compared to A. Chan. He's big in the sense that he can run through, run through contact a lot easier than A. Chan can. I'm going to go with Drake May, rookie quarterback for the New England Patriots, because look, it's his first start and we already have a top 12 quarterback finish from him. This is great news for.

Not just the Patriots. It's great news for teams that play against the Patriots that it is no longer, okay, well, Jacoby and the offense, they're not going to get anything done because, or my team against Jacoby, there's no chance for a shootout. But 243 and 3, 38 yards on the ground. We have a note here that Drake May's first career touchdown pass to Booty. It traveled 51.7 yards in the air. That was the longest completion by a Patriots quarterback over the last three seasons in his first game. This is just, it's such good news. He plays the Jags, which I guess wild to think about, no, in certain situations, you could stream Drake May. Like it is, he's my stream of the week. Yeah, it is a, it is a viable play this week. So just.

Hungry for the Patriots offense. Maybe they have a guy here that can actually get something done. He's athletic, so he's going to be under pressure a lot because of the Patriots offensive line. But he can do something about it, like I said, 38 yards on the ground. So I'm hungry for more. I want to see what's going to go on with the rest of the Patriots and still waiting for the wide receiver room to shake out. As Jalen Polk went from 100% of the routes two weeks ago to... Kind of dog housed here by the Patriots and the coaching staff. See if that gets back on track. It's just I think it's going to be really fun to watch now how this plays out. All right. That was hungry for more. Presented by Uber Eats where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order now. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Okay. So.

Not long after we released yesterday's episode of this show, we got some pretty exciting news. Freeed from prison, Amari Cooper to the bills. When you overcome the shadow of the dark lord and you're allowed to, you know, go away from he who shall not be named, only good things are going to happen for you. Welcome to the resistance. Amari Cooper. The resistance. You're mixing analogies. I know. I know. You're nerd enough to do better than that. All dark lords apply. Amari Cooper to the bills. The bills get him for a third and a seventh. They get Amari and a seventh. They get Amari and a sixth. So he has been freed. He is under $1 million of cost to the bills, which means, you know, that's a pretty good price for 10 games. And.

They really need it. They really do. We talked yesterday about how Dalton Kincaid has not been able to step up. They invested a high draft pick in Keon Coleman, who has shown flashes and has ability, but he is not a one. They need someone who can go out there and create separation in the medium and deep areas of the field. Amari Cooper has been doing that consistently this year. Sometimes he has not caught the ball when it's arrived. But I think he's always surprised when it's arrived. And so now he's going to be expecting that ball to be near his hands. Yeah, I mean, fantasy expectations. This is good for Amari Cooper. It's been, you've been in the, you've been in the turmoil of Watson for a while, starting Cooper because of his target totals, but getting no output. And that's been the essence of Amari Cooper in 2024.

Just to bring up the whole picture, though, for Mari Cooper, he is going to a team that is 29th in passing. That is 32nd, dead last in plays per game. And that is, I believe, fourth or fifth in running. So the identity of the bills since Joe Brady arrived last season, even when they had another downfield separator, two of them actually, Gabe Davis and Stefan Diggs. The identity of the bills became the running game. And now they just discovered that Ray Davis is a really good fit in this offense on top of James Cook. So I'm wondering what the expectations should be. I have him in two leagues. I've already traded him in one of them. I made the comment to you yesterday. Maybe I should trade Omari Cooper on the promise of this amazing success moving to the bills. So I did. But.

What are your true expectations for where he slots in rest of year? We did this with Adams yesterday. Yeah, I mean, this is a clear and obvious upgrade for him, but that doesn't make him, you know, some top 10 wide receiver. And if you can trade him as if he is going to be a top 10 wide receiver, then you should always capitalize on that. Like you traded him, but you traded him for in a package piece and receive Jamar Chase. You know, so. Yeah, feel good about that. Oh, and you should. It was a great trade. The, you know, the issue here is like they won't always need to throw the ball. And when they don't need to throw the ball, they're not their identity is not changing. Joe Brady really ruined things for our sweet, sweet, high powered bills offense. And this is good news. I think pretty much across the board for the bills. I know yesterday we talked about how Garrett Wilson takes a hit.

with the arrival of Devante Adams. The reason for that is because Garrett Wilson has literally led the league in targets. His volume has been what has really propped him up for fantasy. He's good. He's not going away. Whereas Dalton Kincaid, Keon Coleman, these guys have shown themselves not able to be the absolute one for their team. And I think this is good news for the offense as a whole. Like Keon Coleman can now stop trying to be the separator, the Stefan Diggs, the ex receiver in this offense that he wasn't really built to be coming out of college. And he can play the Gabe Davis role. Go stand in the end zone and get these, you know, a little bit easier one-on-one targets where, you know, you come down with that 50-50 ball. Mike, the wide receivers for the bills through six games.

ranked 27th in fantasy points. They average a combined 21.4 fantasy points per game for the entire group. Obviously throwing the football to the tight end a little bit more than average. But do you think Cooper is going to be an every week start and does it begin this week or does it take a couple weeks? I would imagine it takes a couple weeks. I would put Cooper. Yeah, he'll be a weekly start. Like a top 24 type of a start. That's a very valuable player. It's just the, I think the, when the trade went out, it's, it's Amari Cooper who has been a fantasy superstar in the past to Josh Allen, who is a fantasy superstar. So you're like, the antennae just go way up in the air. Like, yes, what could this be? And then it's, take a moment. And the team is not changing who they are.

Yeah, they're four and two. But I do think Amari Cooper can come in and be like a, we were talking about how Jane Reeves not getting that target share. Cooper could get that, but it's just what is the size of that pie? Well, let me tell you where Josh Allen is through six weeks, if this would be helpful for you. Because he's had three top five weeks and three, 20 or below weeks. He's on pace for 442 passing attempts. Yeah, he's throwing the ball 26 times a week right now. He's on pace for 3,200 passing yards. 3,200? He has for the last several years been a 4,500 yard. He's averaging 193.3 passing yards per game. He's had games of 139, 131, 180. He is not thrown for 300 this year. So obviously, this chicken or egg to a degree, but what removes that chicken or egg situation for me,

is the fact he had Diggs and Gabe Davis, and the identity changed last year while they had those players to throw the ball to. Yeah, 100% I agree with you. I do think that they'll have more success throwing the ball, so Josh Allen will throw a little bit more, but we already saw this system last year not throw the ball a ton. And this week, This week I would pump the brakes a little bit on Amari Cooper. Not that he can't get a nice touchdown, you know, and have a great first week. He's a flex option to me this week. But I've got him like near wide receiver 30, which I think he, I think bright days are ahead for him this season. I love this for him. But coming in week one, it, you know, at least with Devante Adams, you're coming over. You've played with Nathaniel Hackett, the offensive coordinator, with this quarterback. There's not going to be the same learning curve.

for, you know, Devante Adams coming over in week one that there will be for Amari Cooper who, you know, is arriving and then it's like going to play soon. They'll have some packages for him, but I'd be shocked if he's out there, you know, 90% of snaps week one. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. So big trade in the NFL, big trade for maybe Josh Allen's floor coming up a little bit in this offense. I'm going to blitz the rest of this news real quick. We do know Devante Adams is going to make his debut on Sunday night football.

against Russell Wilson. So that's must-see TV. Yeah. Cam Acres was traded to the Vikings. They just don't need him in Houston with mixing back. They already brought Damian Pierce back, who took his backup role, and they have a Gumbulli for third down. He was the fourth man in that offense. He goes back to the Vikings where he already was. Yeah. Vikings have a hurt. Aaron Jones and they add some depth. That's the question to me. The fact that Aaron Jones has been hurt, he was working off to the side. And so I thought he'd be good to go this week. The fact that they went and traded for Cam Acres, maybe that's just, hey, we need to have some depth. But also maybe it's, I'm not sure that Jones is ready and we need another player this week. So it gives me a little bit of heby-jeebies. Yeah, that makes sense. Clyde Edwards O'Leary returned from injured reserve are designated a return for the chiefs. Here we go.

James Cook has a chance to play this week against the Titans. Most players do. I have a chance to start him in my leagues. You'd put him right back in. If he plays, you start him. And the target right now being put out there, at least by the athletics Joe person, says Jonathan Brooks could be back by maybe week nine as a target. Which means they're taking it slow as they have done this whole time. They're not rushing him back, which also means when he's back, they're not going to rush him into. were of course volume. I still think at the, you know, the last month of the season, you're going to see some special stuff, but it might be a little too late for most fantasy managers, maybe fantasy playoffs, but getting there, he might not be that helpful. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the Thursday night game. All right. Before we jump into the Thursday night football, there was one other side of the trade, believe it or not. The Cooper trade wasn't from.

Nothing. Right. I mean, close to it. Very close to it. The Browns have said that they are resigning their fate of having Deshaun Manzanate quarterback. I saw one of the most incredible stats ever about the Browns. They had a two-year run. Remember they ended up with Miles Garrett and Baker Mayfield. Sure. Number one pick, number one pick. Yeah. During that two-year run, I believe they were one in 31. Like, I think that was a record. I think there were 1 in 31 across two years or something close to that. They had a stretch of being 1 in 31. You can go vet that. That's the number I saw, something like that. They didn't win a lot of games. They got the number one pick twice. The offensive numbers for the team that went 1 in 30 or 1 in 31, whatever it was, 2 and 30, the offensive numbers for that team were much, much better than the offensive numbers for the Browns today. The team that won no games, the team that got back-to-back number one picks had a...

much, much better offense. They were over 300 yards a game. Everyone has a much, much better offense. I mean, I just want to be clear that this is historical. This is not a blip. We talk about the gap you have to go from worst of the worst of the worst to just okay. Every single team in the NFL has scored 20 points so far at least once except one and they are losing Amari Cooper. This is a really bad offense. Where do you find value there? Well, I saw a great tweet from Andy Barron's about this is just a quote from him. He says Jerry Judy jumps from wide receiver 53 to wider receiver 51 in my ranks following the Cooper trade. Oh, that's good, Andy. Judy is the wide receiver who benefits. Elijah Moore can't do anything. This isn't Najoku. To me, it's just David Najoku is going to end up with a lot of targets. And garbage time targets and targets that.

are easy to catch. He's not going to do much with them, but if you're in a full PPR, I think you're going to have a lot of Evan Ingram type of lines rest of season from the Joku. They did go 1 in 31. That was the record. Oh, and 16 with Hugh Jackson and won't 15. That was your coach. Yeah, he's great. The only player I have interested in on the Browns is Nicholas Chubb. So you don't have interest in the Joku? I don't understand that. Well, how can you have no interest? That's wild. Because Deshawn Watson sucks, dude. He sucks. Yeah, but like Najoku would be fine. Yeah, Najoku should be. Those are the targets. He should be fine. You know, Amari Cooper, is Amari Cooper still a very good player? Yes. And, okay, that's the, but Amari Cooper is down the field. Yeah. Najoku is going to be across the line of scrimmage and he's going to get seven to ten targets. For, for me, would you rather have David and Djoku or Dalton Kincaid? Don't Kincaid.

David Najoku or Pat Frye Mood. Nojoku. With Russ coming back, it might be the mute. Wow. I didn't realize you were so anti-Najoku. It's going to be for this. My opinion is it will be nothing but pain. And the process, the process says, I need to keep starting David Djoku, who has been on the Browns for nearly a decade. We saw the best of him with Joe Flacco. I know the numbers for like, Last year, you had some showings of like, oh, it's been okay with Watson. But years and years and years of nothingness. And so that's my fear is everything will say, this should work. This should work. But like you just pointed out, historically bad offense. That just got worse. Like, teams don't have to worry about a Mark Cooper anymore. I can see the path. I will not sit here and say that there is no way that Najoku is not a.