Fantasy Football - Week 3 Studs & Duds + Broken Offenses - Podcast for 9/22

I really worry... We were talking before the show about it, and there's going to be different opinions. And you could decide that Travion's a bye right now. And that's fine. You can go in on that, the talent. The problem is that Mike Vrabel is an old-school coach. I don't think that the physical between-the-tackles running of Travion Henderson has impressed anybody so far. He was 2.5 a carry this week. He got 14 opportunities. 11 on the ground. The week before, didn't do anything on the ground. I think that they're going to give Ramondre more opportunities to be out there. And I don't think they're going to take that away because, you know, Travion has struggled with the penalties in the pass protection, which he got blown up again this week.

I don't know. I'm not sure exactly where that New England offense is going to go, and I'm open to opinion. I still am... While he has not been good between the tackles, he is electric in the receiving game. He has juice that this team looks like they really need. And while he was a great collegiate pass protector in the NFL, he has... To say he struggled is an understatement. He has been a liability on pretty much every opportunity. However, we look... Like, I brought this up. I think I brought it up on air in the offseason. But, like, pro football focus, you know, last year's data on pass protectors.

Like, the worst pass protectors in the league were some of the best fantasy football options. Because they don't... They pass protect by leaking out. By being the dump off. And that's what they need to get to with Travion. Because the offense needs him in the receiving game. And that's his best way to protect Drake May. Is not to stand there and try to be this undersized back dealing with, you know, crazy big NFL players coming at him. But just get right over the line and say, oh, you want to rush my quarterback? You're going to get the ball dumped right over your head to an electric player.

So I do think that that's coming. I mean, I'm not by any means out on Travion. And Ramondre, while they... You could say they want to get him the ball. It's not like this is a brand new problem for him fumbling or Gibson. They've both struggled with fumbles. And so this isn't good. This isn't good for Ramondre to go and cost them the game. And I do think it means a few more opportunities going to their drafted player in Travion coming up soon. But, yeah, I mean, we don't know yet. You've got to call your shots. R.J. Harvey. At least it was not Bidet.

Bidet was kind of phased out of the offense. R.J. Harvey, two rushing attempts. Three catches. Yeah. Not startable right now. Nope. Wide receivers, we all saw in primetime, Malik Nabors and Wanda Robinson sink back into the pit of Russell Wilson. And that was a bummer. And also Jamar Chase. I mean, with their tackle back. How would win is Jackson Dart? When does it happen? What's the record? 0-3? So soon? Let's look at this. I've got the game. At New Orleans after next week. Okay. One more Russell Wilson against the Chargers, Jackson Dart against New Orleans. Oof. Because to be clear, Russ is going to look horrible against the Chargers this week.

Although me saying that may make him throw for 500 yards because we have some weird relationship with Russell Wilson on the show. I don't know if it's the unlimited drop. I don't know if it's like a switch. And every time we hit it, he switches from good to bad. And we don't know that that's happening. Okay. And so we're not keeping track. You did an unlimited diarrhea today. I'll do another one. That gets him back to bad. Okay. I think it's actually, it's only when we make official declarations. Like we say Russ sucks all the time and he continues to suck.

But in our history, when we have gone out of the way to make an official segmented Russ sucks this week. So back in the day, we used to have this segment that was. It was like a sits of the week type of a thing. Yeah, it was like a sits of the week. And we had this stretch of games. It was unbelievable. I think, Mike, you were first and you made him your sit of the week and then he crushed. The next week he had a tough matchup and Andy comes and he says, I'm going to show you how it's done.

Russ is going to sit this week. And then he did a great job. And then the third week, I was like, boys, you don't know how to do it. Let me show you how to bench Russ. And then he went off. As soon as we stopped doing that, he has sucked from that moment till all of a sudden, Mike, on Friday, you're like, I'm taking the less on his yardage because he sucks. And then he goes off. Yeah. So, well, let's just not say anything official then. But it's going to be a rough week. Unofficially. After that New Orleans game that you think Jackson Dart might start.

Yeah. Philly is twice in four weeks or something. Philly, Denver, Philly. So maybe week nine for Dart. I don't know if you could have painted a more negative picture for the first three weeks for the Cincinnati Bengals. You lose Joe Burrow. Chase Brown, unmitigated ADP disaster. Yeah. T. Higgins, invisible. One catch this week. Only two targets. And then Jamar Chase, five for 50, which is not enough. Not even close. Where did the ball go? It went on the ground. Opponent? Opponent's arms? No joke. He threw it 27 times. Who was he throwing at? Yeah, but a lot of it was to the opponent.

A ton. Isaiah Rogers is the answer to that question. The offensive line when Joe Burrow was there, we knew this is a problem for Joe Burrow, which is part of why Joe Burrow got hurt. Jake Browning is clearly many tiers below Joe Burrow, but he has that exact same offensive line that cannot protect anyone. And when you go, he'll have matchups this year that will be fine, but they're far off. I mean, the defensive line for Denver coming up and for the Lions and for the Packers, it is, they can't. We knew that 0-4 for the next four games was coming.

They don't have the personnel to be able to protect him. And so when you can't be protected, you might have a game with 16 targets to Jamar Chase, but they're all going to be screens. They are, because there's just no way that you can get him the ball. So you just keep playing Jamar. Jamar you do. Yeah, probably. Tiggins, you don't. He's on pace for 589 yards on the year. Or you try to trade Jamar away for, I mean, it always feels like. Oh, it's at a discount now. It's going to backfire to ever recommend that, but goodness. I don't know if you can get it done right now with how negative things are and the fact that Joe Burrow's gone.

I mean, because the players that you'd want to get back, no one's giving you JSN for Chase right now. Oh, no. That ship is gone. I don't know what you do. I think you just hold on. Like Chase, like you said, the targets will be there for Chase. They're not going to be there necessarily for Higgins. So that's, it's rough. And then Ladd McConkie, we already talked about him. Drake London, 5-4. He's got a Michael Penix Jr. problem. Dude. I mentioned it last week. I was really worried about it, dude. I was really worried about that offense and the pass catchers.

Well, you didn't say you were goose egg to 30. I mean, getting shut out by the Panthers, 30 to nothing. 30 to nothing. The passing was, you know, the worry was, are they going to be a team that does not pass the ball a lot? Because we saw, you know, the week prior, only 21 passing attempts. Of course, Michael Penix had plenty of passing attempts in this game against a not good defense. And he looked, he looked. Early in the game, we were like. Darn near incompetent. We were like, I was like, dude, all he does is throw to the flat.

He just like looks down for a split second, throws to the flat. Eventually, he threw it to the flat and a defender was there. The defender's like, oh, I know where this is going. I mean, go to the flat. It looks like a problem. 4.8 yards per attempt. That is pathetic. That's pathetic. And he threw the ball 36 times, which is a good amount of attempts. Keep in mind, he only played 77% of that game before Kirk Cousins came in. 36 attempts in 77% of the game. And Pitts and London are on the bus list. Yeah. As are Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter together.

It's been really bad. Brian Thomas Jr.'s catch rate is 28% through three weeks. That's the lowest of any wide receiver to see 25 plus targets through three weeks. And I mean, in the last 25 years, Travis Hunter is unplayable right now. Yeah. He's, he's almost, he's almost to the point where you're like, I'm just going to cut him. Yeah. I mean, I have him and I'm like, I don't know if he's worth a roster spot. He's a sexy name. And that's your reason to hold him. Because if you have a sexy name, that's a rookie combined with one good game.

Boo. Yeah. That's when you can make a trade. It can. I'm not cutting Hunter because it can improve, but you can't play him right now. No, you can't. He played quite a few snaps on defense, was targeted more on defense than he was on offense, gave up more yards than he accumulated on offense. It was not a good day for Travis Hunter. Marvin Harrison, three for 44. We talked about it. I mean, he's a player that it's a big name. If you're in the trade market, do you believe it gets better? Do you believe he's startable? Last year he had good games, but it wasn't like his consistency level.

He had a good game this year. All right. So he's up 41%. We have enough games at Marvin Harrison Jr. Right now he is up 41% of the time over 10 and a half points. That's a C in consistency. So Marvin right now, it's just been rough. Seattle, Tennessee, Indianapolis coming up. He's not a guarantee must start. There are players that are, that were lower drafted that are playing really, really good football right now that you could make the decision to put in over him. Yeah. Like Mike, you benched him this week. I sure did. And how'd it feel? Oh man, it felt so good.

You didn't care enough when you were watching all this bad stuff because you had like a shield. Oh yeah, you would have been so much. You had like this mental shield of like, I kind of want him to not be good because it proves my decision making. Who'd you play over him? Jalen Warren. Yeah. Of course. Who, I got Jalen Warren didn't, he probably didn't show up in the studs, but goodness, he, like he was great this week and his, his utilization is just, it is a very strong point. Yes. Tett McMillan. That's all right. Three for 48. Eight targets though.

Tett McMillan is so good. He's very good. Debo Samuel, just three targets. Tett's got that dog in him. Yes. Um, Debo just two for 11 with Mariota three for 18 rushing. Um, not too worried about him. He, he may have bigger opportunities if you want to, uh, buy low. He might. With Jaden Daniels coming back and maybe, uh, a prolonged absence by McLaurin. Calvin Ridley has been awful as has Cam Ward. Yeah. I think that's the real issue. I mean, Iow Manor has been good. Iow Manor has got a touchdown, uh, in the last two games and that is very good for fantasy,

but Cam Ward, he is struggling right now. His, you know, his throwing motion is weird. It's new. And, um, yeah, it's, it's a generous way to put it. It's tough. And he's got the Houston defense coming up in Houston. Uh, you know, I'm not chasing those receivers just because, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Um, but are you cutting Ridley? It's a big name to cut, but he's probably worth cutting. Uh, we'll talk about it on way. We'll show tomorrow. He's probably expendable. Uh, Brock Bowers, Tucker Craft, Tyler Warren, Travis Kelsey, Kyle Pitts, five players that

have been pretty good contributors to your fancy team all in the duds list this week. Bowers did very little craft. The, the, the problem with craft playing and, and when I heard that he was going to play, it was like, there were so many people that were like, would you play craft or Ferguson? It's like, now you feel like after craft's breakout, you got to put him back into your lineup. Yeah. But you knew that he was probably going to be a little bit limited and it was Cleveland. So I feel like people got trapped with craft this week. Tyler Warren though, three for 38, their defense.

Tucker Craft plays Dallas next week though. So yeah, I mean, it's not like you don't play back. You'll play all these guys again. Right. I mean, Zachers didn't have, um, he didn't have Daniels. Yeah. So, I mean, they, Kelsey though, four for 26. Zachers' utilization was also strange. They were. Of just how much he was actually on the field. Like early? Because I mean, they blew the barn doors off of the Raiders. I mean, they were up by a million points. It's, it, it still was a little strange. Um, any concern other than Kelsey? I mean, Kelsey seems like they, Kelsey, they, you need him so bad right now and he doesn't

have it. Yeah. He doesn't have it. And, and honestly, like, you know, we talked about how for years, Kelsey was the guy working his way back. Kelsey's got just the dog of dogs in him and Kelsey's starting to look just like, kind of like a baby. Almost 36 years old. Well, sure. But like, I feel like he's kind of whiny. You know, you see the argument with Reed throwing his hands and you're always in the Superbowl and you're always winning all your games and you're dating a good superstar. Yeah. Uh, two updates for the injury front before we close this out, by the way, um, low grade

hamstring injury for Mike Evans, still likely to miss time. Dislocation of the shoulder for Tyrone Tracy going to miss time. All right. That was studs and duds presented by Lowe's. Lowe's nose Sundays are for NFL football. Earn your Sunday with Lowe's official partner of the NFL. Now we got a thought Jay. Yeah. We've got quite the game tonight that a lot of people are, they have their vested rooting interests, whatever they need or need to not happen. And we've got, are you trying to recruit people to your, of course, of course I'm trying. I lost CD lamb. I got a goose.

I need, I am heads up and I need the people to root with me. I need Mark Andrews to do something. Please catch a touchdown. Mark Andrews and David Montgomery need to outscore Jameer Gibbs. I got a fun question. Not likely, but possible. If you could go back in time and play Najoku and get his 6.5 fantasy points. No way. Or have Mark Andrews, you know, live tonight. You'd rather have Andrews live. Yeah, I would. It was actually Zach Ertz who I had in the lineup, who I pivoted to Mark Andrews. So I'm pretty happy that Zach Ertz ended up with.

Mark Andrews so far, one point and .9. Yeah, no, I agree. But he's due, right? He is due for a touchdown. But you are a touchdown or bust tonight with Monty and Andrews. I think if I get five points from Andrews or fewer, I don't have a chance to win this game. I need a touchdown. I need nine points from Andrews. I can tell you from experience, going into Monday night, needing a bit of a miracle, and on the opposing side is Jameer Gibbs. He is not fun, is he? It is not fun. Dang. It is not fun at all.

He's so fast. Baltimore, Detroit tonight. Enjoy the game. We'll be back with our Waiver Wire episode tomorrow. Take care, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.