Week 5 Studs & Duds + Grizzly Facts - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/9

I don't know that would slow him down quite a bit. I don't think he would be allowed to play. Well, they would know where he is. So I think he'd be all right. Okay, maybe only home games. David Montgomery, 1949 with a rushing touchdown. He did have six targets as well. He is the running back seven on the season. Just going to keep going. Yes, Jemir Gibbs was inactive. It does not matter for David Montgomery. He, I think that his role is super duper safe. Alvin Camara. Hey, three catches for 17 yards. Which, what was last week? It was like 13 for 17 or something. It was 13 for 33, I believe. So this was much better. But he was also great on the ground, including a rushing touchdown. Hey, if you help the faith and you spent the VAP and you played Joliel McLaughlin, you got nine for 68 on the ground. That's not the worst. You also got three for 21 with a touchdown through the air.

Had more opportunities than Somaget P. Ryan? He's got the juice. He looks really good. His touchdown reception. Yes. It was a difficult catch that most backs probably don't make, kind of tips to himself, catches the ball, makes a juke, turns on the jets, and he's in there. We were talking about how, you know, in the studio where like, Giovante Williams hasn't looked good this year. Somaget P. P. Ryan has looked worse. Like they are two good backs, presumably, coming into the year that you expected to be. quality fantasy assets because of their history. But they just haven't looked good. Whether Javante is still working his way back from injury, he's not to 100% yet, and whether Somaget is just, you know, he's starting to age out. But it is possible here that Jaliel McLaughlin is able to play his way in to be the starter even after Javante is back. At the very least, at the very least, he is going to ruin Javante's second half. You know what I mean?

You had the hope with Bruce Hall, with Javante Williams, where they're going to get healthy. The second half of the year will be much better. This seems like you're not going to be, you know, Sean Payton's not going to be putting Jalil and McLaughlin on the bench. Yeah, I don't know that he can play his way to be the starter, but I think he probably has played his way that he will get opportunities when everyone's healthy. DJ Moore, the Thursday night game was spectacular. Jamar Chase. Look, I guess the Bengals, they took. Our advice. Yeah, it works. What happens when you just throw it your best player the whole time? And 19 targets turned into 15 catches, 192 receiving yards, three touchdowns. He jumped up to the wide receiver 6 on the season because this was a 50 plus point explosion. Tyreek Hill had the nine targets, eight from 181 and one. Oh, worth noting as well, Tyreek Hill was, you wouldn't know it.

All you saw was the box score. Tyree Kill, another great game. He was kind of in and out of the lineup over the second half, so he was dealing with something. It didn't completely keep him sidelined, and when he's on the field, he was still able to go full throttle, but something to monitor. Jalen Waddle also had 10 targets, 5 for 50 with a score. George Pickens came through with another big game, including that huge touchdown to kind of take the victory away from the Baltimore Ravens at the end of the game. Oh, man. I can't wait to talk about the Ravens, but this isn't the section for them. Yeah, unfortunately, it should be. It really should be, but it is not, it can't because of the production. Adam Thielen, 11 for 107 and 1. No, no, no. This was, yes. No. Yes. No way. This was. The touchdown was garbage time. There was so much stinky.

fantasy delicious garbage at the end of this game. There was absolutely the touchdown. This is the second time now. He's had a garbage time touchdown that was pretty worthless for the outcome of the game, but very nice for fantasy. Yes. But we can't call this a garbage time performance. He had 13 targets. He was getting it done from the beginning of the game onward. He is the clear number one wide receiver there. I mean, it's me. You know, it's Adam Thiele, the young man. What? What? What is that voice? That's the opposite of your old man voice, Mike. Because he's, he's just getting it done. Yeah. He's, I mean, wouldn't you want to start him almost every week right now? I'm the, it's just frustrating. Like, if you had played against stealing and you were watching the game, it would have been just daggers over and over right into your chest of like, this game is done.

They lost, so they lost 42 to 24. And that includes the garbage time touchdown from Thielen. Here's the thing. That feels bad. Here's the thing. But it's fantasy. I know it's different. They play Miami next week. How much garbage time do you think they're going to have in that game? About three quarters. Probably four. And so Adam Thieland, he's just going to keep doing what he's doing. They don't have enough other good targets. Adam Thielen, week two was the wide receiver 18. Week three was the wide receiver four. Week 4 was the wide receiver 22. This last week, the wide receiver 5 so far. It's over. No, we got it. So it's like he's just, he has been really, really good. And it's on the back of just volume and targets. Do you want to know the last month these four games? You want to hear his pace? Let me hear it. I think it'll blow your mind. He would be on pace the last four games for 187 targets, 153 receptions.

1,623 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. I mean, he's been awesome. He has. Where was this last year? I don't know, man. Goodness. Like, when it's, if you have a tract, I was a big supporter of Adam Thielen last year when he, because I was the, I'm the one. When he looked washed? Yeah, well, I was the one like, coming into this draft season. I don't think that he's too old. I think that he could still get it done. And he could not. To the point of the Minnesota Vikings said, no, no more money for you. You go get paid elsewhere. And he got a huge contract, which felt like a tax of a rebuild team. Yeah. He's been great. He's 33. Oh, man. I mean, he's, he is, he's old. Yeah. He can't keep this up all season. He can't keep getting away with this. I don't know. I don't know. Do you try to trade high? No.

Okay. No, you keep, you keep playing this. We get, we, you keep playing. Stefan Diggs, eight for one, 21 and one. Gabe Davis, post my guy's sleeper. Wide receiver 12, six for a hundred with another touchdown. Wide receiver 12 on the season. He is a wide receiver one. He's gotten, yeah, four straight touchdowns. Unbelievable. And speaking of old man's strength, DeAndre Hopkins. Oh, he looks he heard us. He heard us clowning on him eight for one 40. See, this is what I was talking about. Last episode, Andy was saying he felt like the film with Hopkins was bad. It blew my mind. I feel like Hopkins has looked like himself every week. You just, you know, the targets have been bad Ryan Tanniel targets. But he was awesome. I mean, watching this game, it was like every play. It was like he was just making something special happen. Calvin Ridley, he's back, baby. We got seven for one, 22. And this game included, I believe, a concussion scare. So.

He did. He missed just a little bit of time, but he was back. The Rams. Oh, baby. The King is back. Cooper Cup. Don't worry about, like, he did not get JT's. Cooper Cup was the offense. Yet again, 12 targets, 8 for 1, 18. 32% targets per route run. He is. That's outrageous. He is that dude. He was a wide receiver won his first week back. He's going to be a wide receiver one almost every week from here on out. But that did not stop. Anyone else? The rookie sensation, Pooka Nakua, 11 targets, 7 for 71 and a touchdown. So look, do not fear. Puka and Cooper Cup can exist in the same exact game. Yeah, 2-2 got a touchdown, so it wasn't the end of the world there either. But, yeah, Puka is going to be the Robert Woods. I think that's established after. Do we have the snap? Yeah, okay. I was going to, I don't know if something happened or not.

But the way that I saw that this offense looking when Cooper Cup came back, I thought, no, Van Jefferson will be, he'll be out on the field. 4% of the snaps. So I don't know if something happened. I think they watched film. I mean, genuinely, like Van Jefferson's been straight up terrible. The whole season, someone's got to do the cardio routes. Puka, and I think that was Tutu. Tutu played 90% of the snaps. Tutu is out there 89% Cooper Cup, 95%. Puka, 100% of snaps this last game. Van Jefferson was the true odd man out. So you're going to have probably some deep shots to 2-2, have some value there. Hopefully, you know, in a pinch you could throw them in. But Puka and Cooper Cup, they're good to go. Yep, absolutely. A.J. Brown also had another big game. George Kittle. Oh, last week's start of the week. We did tell people, like, you don't bench George Kittle. Because even though his floor is next to nothing, he is one of the rare people that can go out there and I don't know.

put up like 67 yards and three touchdown. Have a 100% touchdown rate on your receptions? Yeah, three receptions, three touchdowns. And not for like 13 yards though. I was so angry at George Kittle. You were playing against Kittle? No. I have Christian McCaffrey, Jason. Oh, that's what it was. George, ever, I saw you so angry over and over and over George Kittle. I did not realize it was selfish Christian McCaffrey. Yes. I thought you're, you're. Your anger was so real that I thought it had to be just straight up against you. No, it just wasn't for you. Yes. Okay. It was George Kittle is stealing. You are the most selfish Christian McAfree manager ever. You really are. You demand 50 from him every week. I demand greatness. It is funny. We were going through the Monday punday submissions. Submissions. Submissions.

Christian McCaffrey is the only player this week, or pretty much ever, who gets both good and bad. Like the puns, half of the puns were bad, were angry at Christian McCaffrey. Who was the running back 13 on the week and was really good? He just wasn't great. He scored. I mean, for fantasy, he wasn't, he wasn't a bust. He's the running back 13. No, no, but I'm saying for McCaffrey. If he doesn't get that touchdown, then this game is, this game is a bust. Sure. Which is, that's not, that's not common for McCaffrey to have to have the touchdown for it to really become, like, be solid. Yeah, I mean, put it this way. He's averaging 27 fantasy points per game coming into this one, and he scored 12.8. That's what I'm saying. He could do better. Dallas got her. Yeah. Okay. Well, they, uh,

The squeaky wheel got the grease. He was, eight for one, 17, and one. Everything for this offense. The first drive was like all Dallas Goddard. I'm happy with our discussion last week on the matchup previews about George Kittle and Dallas Goddard about whether you should play them or whether you should bench them. And we basically said you need to keep these guys in your lineup because there's just not a whole lot of tight ends out there that can do something like this and you don't want these performances on your bench. Sam Laporta is the tight end one on the season because he cannot stop catching touchdown. Only three for 47, but two more touchdowns. The guy is an absolute machine right now. Tighten one. I mean, he's unbelievable. And he's so good. This is Dalton Kincaid. Yeah. I mean, you don't like, you don't love four targets. But again, this was a game that.

This is the fewest targets he's had all season. I can't believe they, I can't believe Jared Goff had that many fantasy points, but touchdowns. Travis Kelsey, 10 for 67 and a touchdown. Logan Thomas, if Andy had been kind of the headmaster banging the drum there for Logan Thomas, and it was a huge week, 9 for 77 and 1. That was back on Thursday. The doctor. The doctor, Dalton Schultz. Finally got back in the office. Well, well, well. Welcome back from vacation, Dalton Schultz. He was on paid leave. 10 targets, 7 for 65 and a touchdown against Atlanta. That was, I think, just shocking. Yep. Colquimette, got another touchdown. What do you make of Darren Waller's performance? Oh, Darren Waller was 11 targets, 8 for 86. Here's what I make of the performance. Absolutely awesome.

When you get 11 targets and you can get 86 yards, he was a wide receiver. If you were watching the game, he was straight. He wasn't playing tight in. Yes. He just was playing wide receiver. He was lined up a ton on the outside. Yeah. And so the fact that the targets were there, his total line on the week was great. I'm happy you made him a start of the week to give people confidence to play him. And one of his three missed targets was a difficult. deep kind of bomb touchdown that just kind of went through his hands. You know, it was upsetting. I wouldn't call it like an egregious drop. It wasn't an easy catch. But if he pulls that in, it was probably a 30-yard touchdown. He was falling into the end zone. You take that out and he still had a good game. So the question now becomes what happens without Daniel Jones. Sure. You know, we're not the largest Daniel Jones believer, but his backup is going to be worse.

Also had a great game with 11 targets. Kyle Pitts, 7 for 87 is the first game with double digit targets since week five of his rookie year. So it's at least a situation to monitor. You do you. It's a situation to monitor. I will be monitoring this with my eyes closed. So some kind of behind the scenes information that I saw was, you know, there's. There was the cut up film going around on social media of Kyle Pitts looking hurt. Maybe not hurt, but just not a fully healthy Kyle Pitts. I've never seen someone fall down on more routes ever. It was like three or four times last game where he just went to make a route and like his hand had to touch the ground. So someone had shared his next gen route tree from this weekend. And again, a.

I didn't dive super deep into it, but you can have a look for it. But everything was him turning left. Oh, really? Yes. So as in like something. He can't go right. Yeah. Where his body is right now, he can't make a good hard cut to the right. So maybe they adjust. So they were forcing everything just to go to the left. And I don't know. That's why I'm saying it's something to monitor. All right. My only hesitation to monitor it is that. Desmond Ritter looked so dang good this game. Like he really, we talked about it, how good he looked. If we knew that that was sticky, then it's something to monitor. I just don't believe that. I mean, Desmond Ritter has looked as bad as he looked good every other game this season. And this was a home game against the Texans. All right. Not everyone had a good game. Poopped in his big boy pants. I feel so bad about this.

It's not fair. Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson, you were awesome. You had a great game. I mean, Lamar Jackson managers, I am so sorry. It's not your fault. It's not Lamar's fault. I've never seen a player play much better than he played. He was running the ball so well. He was throwing the ball so well. Hitting guys open, middle of the field, deep shots. Hitting guys right in the hands in the end zone. Seven drops. So there was a, we got Ravens were credited with seven drops. That's the third most since 2017, including two in the end zone, which it was, I think it was back to back plays. Those are back to back plays. Of Mark Andrews making a very non-characteristic drop. Not a, not like a layup catch, but it's. But it's one that he almost always brings it. Mark Andrews.

is paid to make that catch and he makes that catch. But then Bayman? And then Rashad Bainman. That was as bad a drop as exists. He just jumps up and has like a little lobbed ball into his hands. And he like went narcoleptic for a moment and did not catch the ball. Zay Flowers had also included. So two end zone drops, two more on throws of 20 plus yards that were perfect. Easy catches. Perfect. Agalore. I mean, this is no surprise for Aguilor. He's got a long history. But he had a. just down the field, probably a huge bomb touchdown that just goes, I mean, you watch this. You just right perfectly through the hand. That's exactly what it was, Mike. Lamar Jackson threw a swish. You know what you would play a game like when you're on the playground as a kid? You don't have a hoop so someone has to put their hand, interlock their hands and make a hoop. Aguilar did a great job, a perfect hoop. Yeah, three points. I mean, it was, it was.

I'm not worried about Lamar Jackson's performance. It sucked. I mean, in the end, he had 236 passing yards, no touchdowns, an interception, added 45 rushing yards. I think he also had a fumble too. So it wasn't a good fantasy game at all. I know my son had him in our league kind of a crushing performance. Yep. But don't be scared of it. No, no, this is not Lamar Jackson lost it or played bad. This was his receivers. completely pooped the bed. I don't know how it happened to everyone. It was like, was it contagious? There was something bad in the Gatorade. Trevor Lawrence, who is the quarterback 17 on the season, this was a bizarre game for Trevor Lawrence. Because statistically 25 of 37, 315 passing yards, a touchdown 31 yards on the ground. Like, it's not fantasy wise that those are good numbers. Yeah. But.

And his team won. But he had fumbled. He had some fumbles. Did he? Yeah, in this game that were very costly. I mean, they did win the game, but it seemed like he was trying his best to lose this a couple of times. Three fumbles. It is, yeah. So far not working out for Trevor Lawrence. Also, who was my expensive deck? And here they are yet again back to back. Dack Prescott, whew, brother, that was, that game was a stinky. Yeah, he. He threw the ball 24 times. 24 times. A P.U. Through the ball. To give you context. What was it? 19 times was Jamar Chase targeted. So almost an entire game's worth of DAC. It was terrible. I mean, the Niners. The whole Cowboys offense was putrid. They should go to jail for what they just did. Right to jail. To these cowboys. We are going to be talking about Tony. We'll be talking about Tony Pollard in just a second. C.J. Stroud.

It was a down game for fantasy. 20 for 35, almost 250 yards. He did have a touchdown, but great real life performance. He looked good. He came, he won the game. He came down, had the game winning drive, did everything you could ask for him to do, but then Desmond Ritter was too much on the other side. And he came back and got him in position for that game winning field goal. They always say that about Desmond Ritter. He's just too much. You can't leave him that much time. Not Ritter. Tony Pollard, eight for 29, four for 35. He fumbled. The Cowboys did not get to play football. Yeah, just throw that one in the garbage. But this is too, you know. It is. Bad ones in a row. That's two down games for Tony Pollard. This one, you're putting the blame on the Cowboys offense last week.

you're putting the blame on the defense because they beat New England 38 to 3. So that was a, that one's a blowout situation. I'm not worried about Tony Pollard. JT's 6 for 18. He did have a target. 15% of snaps. That sucked. Do we play him next week? We'll find out. Derek Henry, snip, snip, snip. We're back, back on the bad game side of things. 13 for 43. He did have three receptions. It's just are they lost the game. Did they win? Yeah, did they win? Did they win? Did they lose? I mean, we brought this up. They, they dominated the Bengals the week prior. And so he had a monster game. They lost a pretty ugly game to the Colts. And now they're going to go play Baltimore. 13 carries. That's just, it's so wild. Imagine. And Taj Spears, yeah, he was in the studs. I had bypassed it, but I mean, he had a nice, a nice long touchdown run.

James Cook, hold on to your hats and your glasses because I need to make sure that this stat line is correct. Five attempts. That in and of itself is very bad. Yeah, you're like, oh man, what happened? Negative four yards. That's worse. He had negative four yards on the ground? Yeah. Oh, brother. But he got it done in the passing game. Three for 25. Oh, no, he didn't. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it was a really, really bad game for the Bills in general. Like I know fantasy-wise, we talked about Diggs was great, Allen was great, Gabe Davis was great, but it wasn't that way for the Bills. The Bills got off in this London game to the slowest start imaginable, looked bad. And so they weren't really, they were quickly down and they didn't really run the ball much in the first half. They didn't really get a lot of,

offensive opportunities like time of possession in the first half feel like it just was deleted for the bills and then they come out in the second half down by quite a bit and they've got to throw a bunch of deep shots and so it was like it really I mean deep they were just airing it out to Gabe Davis and digs down the field and so it wasn't really a situation that allowed James Cook to do anything he does he's been getting a ton of volume in the running game but they weren't up they didn't have the ball until they had to throw it deep

But if you look at it, he still played 62% of the snaps. The next highest in the backfield was tied. Damian Harris and Latavius Murray, each with 18% of the snaps. I'm not worried about this game. Like this is to me an opportunity where that stinks. It's terrible. But if you want to try to trade for James Cook, this is your opportunity off of the back of something like this. Speaking of trading four, we are now, we're now in the zone. Romandre Stevenson. Another absolute stinker, 2.4 fantasy points, two targets, no catches, played 50% of the snaps. Those have gone, his snap share has gone down essentially every single week. Now it was another blowout for the New England Patriots. This one, I think this one's worse. What's worse? Losing 38 to 3 or losing 34 to 0. But yeah, getting shut out? Yeah, I agree. So the Saints.

Defense just apps. You don't feel good about the three points, but like don't hear what we're not saying. They're both bad. These are like the two worst, you know, losses for Bill Belichick ever and they're back to back. Both weeks, Mack Jones getting benched. Now, they came out and said, he's still the starter. They bench him because the, you know, the game was out of hand. It's bad, bad news right now. They play the Raiders next, right? Is that right? We go Raiders, Buffalo, Miami, Washington, Colts. My only worry with Romandry, because I've been talking about how he's going to have a bad week last week. He had a bad week. A bad week? This week he had a bad week. And then I'm going to trade for him three of the next four weeks. He's got really plus matchups. My only worry with doing that is simply the fact that he was injured this last week.

And I worry a little bit about... Yeah, he was on the injury report. Like, I don't know how much of the snap percentages. This week it was pretty much 50-50 with Zieg, snap count-wise, where it's been, like even the previous week, he was 64% of the snaps to 40% for Zique. So I just don't know how much the injury plays into that versus, you know, performance. My biggest concern is that they aren't throwing the ball to him. Right. Like... His receiving yardage, here's, week one was great, 64 yards on six catches, but since then, 10 yards, three yards, 10 yards, none. He's sitting at a, what, we got a 10% target share. I mean, and it is so bizarre because it's like the wide receivers are not overwhelming. Like you don't like, you're not like, well, they.

They have two superstars now who they got to feed the targets too. We got, it's Hunter Henry's at the tight end position. I think, did he get shut out? I get, like he had another bad game. Yeah, well, Hunter Henry had, I mean, the Patriots got shut out, period. He had a, you know, remember that really good route? He put the defender on and then had a bomb where it would have been like a decent fan of, probably 40, 50 yards, but got overthrown. Yes. So that is the concern, but I do think that there is a. There is a world where Remandre Stevenson, because his value is low, low, low. Yeah. I think that he could be someone who they figure out the offense that bounces back. It's risky. I'm going to kick the tire still. But the whole point of this was not just because he's going to be awesome. It's because he's going to be cheap. Remandre Stevenson managers right now probably want to cut him. They don't want to start him. They want to bench him. Everything I saw was I'm benching Ramandre Stevenson from here on out.

When you're talking to a manager who doesn't want to start the player and wants to bench him and is looking for permission, they'll take just about anything. If there's a startable wide receiver on your roster, like a, you know, a guy who scored a couple weeks in a row, and he's like, oh, yeah, you just offer that straight up. Miles Sanders, another down game. It was the Detroit Lions, but this timeshare has been in Chuba's favor while Miles Sanders has been dealing with his groin injury. But, I mean, he. He seems unplayable at this point. There's just too high risk. Brian Robinson, he had the dud on Thursday night. I'm throwing that game away. Kyron Williams, he is human. After all, 13 for 53 on the ground, only two targets, which turned into two receptions for four yards. He did play 84% of the snaps. He was limited on Wednesday's practice report with the, I think with the hip. So we weren't exactly sure. Will he have the full allotment of snaps?