Week 2 Studs, Duds, and Surprises! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/18

sell high on someone that might believe in the box score. You think he's on rosters? In two quarterback leagues, absolutely. I mean, he's starting for me in one of my two quarterback weeks. Of course. That makes sense. I was imagining a redraft league. And single quarterback, you'd be selling the waiver wire. Jalen Hertz, bounce back game. Offense doesn't look great. Doesn't matter. He's going to score when you give him one yard in a tush push. Yep. Josh Jobs, he had a good game. He did. Second half was rough. Josh Allen, you expected this. 31 for 37, 274 and 3. Did not run the ball very much. Didn't need to. They crushed the Raiders. Gino Smith bounced back game. Yeah, that was great to see. There we go. And hand in hand, we'll talk about Lockett, but I hope you didn't move away from one bad game from a great player because Lockett was outstanding. As was Jared Goff in the same matchup, 28 for 35.

through his first interception in a long, long time, unfortunately. But has it landed next week? Lamar Jackson performed for fantasy. It's still somewhat difficult to watch the offense at times, but really he got it done. Mark Andrews helped. And he rushed for 54 yards. The news this morning is that Odell Beckham's injury will not affect his availability moving forward. And you would assume that Mark Andrews is going to get healthier and healthier. He didn't look his. Same explosive self in that week from what I saw. But, yeah, I mean, the fact that around the goal line, you got a big target that can muscle his way in for a receiving touchdown like he did is fantastic. He also played lower snaps than normal. This is also exciting to see next gen stats talking about Justin Herbert's performance, push the ball down field, like days of old, average 10.8 air yards per attempt. That's the most in a game since his rookie season. Nice. That's been the problem. You watch the games and you want to see kind of.

It feels strange to say for a young player. Vintage Justin Herbert. You wanted to see those deep shots. Keenan Allen had a huge game, and Justin Herbert looked really, really good. Two touchdowns on those 10-plus air yard throws. And there's a lot of big names in this stud list in terms of players you invested draft capital on with Hertz and Allen and Smith and Jackson and Herbert. CJ Stroud passed for 384 yards. When I heard someone say, you know, the Texans didn't have a great game and their offensive line was, you know, a complete backup line. When I heard them say, yeah, CJ Stroud led the league in passing this week. It's like, what? You check your stats, but 384 passingards. Which will lead to, I was going to say, our wide receiver studs, Nico is going to be talked about. Brian Robinson led the way. 18 for 87, two rushing touchdowns, two for 42 through the air.

And he's the RB3 in fantasy through two weeks and looked. I mean, he looks faster this year than he looked last year. He does, yes. Big challenge the next two weeks, but he's looked great. DeAndre Swift, we talked about the Thursday night game. If you had to guess the split between Swift and Gainwell next, you know, assuming Gainwell's back, what's your, what's your breakdown? I would guess Swift. slightly more than Kenny game. Yeah, that's where I'm at. Rahim Moster was 18 for 121 and 2 against the New England defense last night. He's the RB 5 through two weeks of the season. And, you know, he's delivering. First part of the season was what he did last year as well. If you watched the game last night, he talked about putting weight on, working towards durability. But right now he's the guy.

And he's the only player to start in Miami. Yeah, and you keep starting him. He's got Denver coming up, which Denver has a very good defense. But if you look at this last week, they just gave up the number one, you know, game to Brian Robinson. So Rame Moster, the nice thing is like the Patriots have a good defense. And the Patriots bottled up Moster on the majority of his runs. But when you've got a guy like Moster who can just break away, if you give him that sliver of opportunity like he had, you're not going to catch up to him.

top end speed is just too fast. Kyron Williams, the big day, 14 for 52 and 1 on the ground, 10 targets for, 10 targets to the air is the headline there, 6 for 48 and a touchdown. He also played 96% of snaps. There are options behind Kyron Williams if Akers is inactive. Is Royce Freeman? Ronnie Rivers and, yeah, Ronnie Rivers and Evans, the rookie Evans. Zach Evans, yeah. I think he might still be hurt. Yeah, I mean, this is the reason why Cam Acres was, you know, the shot you were taking in the draft. Evans was inactive. You see that the depth chart doesn't look great and that the offense could be good with Sean McVeigh and Stafford back and all that. It just, it's Kyron, not Cam. And 96% of snaps. The only people that get something like that is usually CMC. The guy on the other side.

Yeah, Christian McCaffrey had 100% of snaps for the first time. Yeah, he did. Since 2019, no snaps for Elijah Mitchell. I've been telling you, if you bench Elijah Mitchell, he can't get hurt. Mike was complaining during this game. Yeah. Where is, he used the phrase like, where is Christian McCaffrey? And he's literally out there. He never left the field. Every play. A meaning more of like. He was mad when Debo got a hand off. Yeah. He got a couple in a row. He's like, why aren't you giving McCaffrey the ball? You are so greedy. I think that there are many people out there who would agree with me. We all may have Christian McCaffrey on her teeth. The bigger complaint was the three targets. Come on. We got to juice that up. Yeah, complain 20 for 11, 16 and 1. He had a full fantasy day in the first five minutes of this one. He's also scored in 11 consecutive games. There are.

There is something special about McCaffrey around the end zone. You just expect it. I mean, 11 straight touchdowns. If he doesn't score a touchdown, how angry are you going to be? Based on how Mike was angry yesterday's game, very angry. That is correct. We have high expectations for our champ. You know who looked great was B. John Robinson, 19 for 1, 24 on the ground. And I don't think there was a player with, uh, like a higher negative yards per or to expectation what's the over expectation yeah he negative 17 was algear's number yeah and then bison robinson had five targets 48 yards on those targets 124 on the ground and he pretty much in my opinion bjean won the game for them every play is so fun to watch him he makes

something special, even if it's like he gets a five-yard run. That five-yard run, if that's what he ended the play with was five yards, should have stopped four yards ago because he always ends up doing something special. He looks so explosive, so good, and do not worry. This right here, 124 rushing yards, 48 receiving yards, do not worry about Algier. Alger had 16 carries. They are going to run the ball so much. It is disgusting. I think they ran the ball as many plays. or close to as many plays as the Green Bay Packers' offense had the whole game. And this is why I don't necessarily think that the Falcons are a defense to target because Arthur Smith is keeping his offense on the field an absurd amount. Yeah. And to run the ball. Yes. Yes. Slowly, methodically. And then beautifully when Bejohn's the ball carrier. All right. Here are some names that, well, they had some.

Tough week ones, or at least Rashad White did. 17 for 73 in a touchdown. Five targets. Solid game. Philly next week. Are you trading Rashad White high, Mike? Probably not just because of, I mean, 72% of snaps, that amount of work. 17 carries with five targets. There aren't, there are very few running backs that get that. I will absolutely be trading high. Because the week prior, he also got that. He was 79% of snaps 19 opportunities. So, Mike, you're not trade high. Jason, you are? Tell me, like, who are you able to trade Rashad White for? Well, I mean, I would have to look at a list of players. Would you trade him for Damian Pierce? Yeah, absolutely. I think Damian Pierce is actually a talented player. Yeah, I do think that Damian Pierce is talented, but his situation is going to be bad. I mean, it's going to be rough for Rashad White against the Philadelphia Eagles.

this upcoming week. And then the Saints and then a buy week. I think a month from now you're going to have said, man, I wish I traded him after his week too good game. Perhaps. Zach Moss played, I believe, 98% of snaps, 18 for 88 and a touchdown. Four targets. Mike started the week. Zach Moss, he did what we hoped he would do. Everyone on my timeline just wants to know. They just want to know how I feel. And I feel great. I feel so great. Well, he did not turn out to be the difference between a win or a loss for you, which he very well could have. I had a nice win over owl back there. How's that feel? How's that taste? Bringing that up. You weren't worried, but then you got Shalach. He did talk a lot of crap leading up to the weekend. I didn't talk a lot, but I did say I was not worried about your team, and I did lose. And then I went to find that post where you weren't worried, and I found it.

Deleted. Oh, yeah. I'm not letting you get those receipts. Those are better receipts. I found your shredded documents. You did find the shredded document. But as far as Zach Moss going forward, he's going to be the dude. He is absolutely going to receive a ton of work. It's going to be a very Rashad White situation. Now, I. Obviously, this last week, I traded him. I'm happy he's not on my team. He's not talented, but he was good. He was a good start. He was in my Draft King's lineup. We recommended him. We told people to start him, Mike. It was your start of the week. Going forward. Five a carry. I don't think, well, right, because it was the Houston Texans. The, like, historically worst rush defense from last year has carried over to this year. They're giving up tons of rushing touchdowns. I don't think that that is going to continue.

going forward as far as efficiency and good performance, but he will be a volume play, probably I think a flex option, very similar to Rashad White to me going forward. Here's a player that's difficult to know what to do. James Cook was 17 for 123, four targets. He's going to keep getting the targets in this offense. And yet, maybe it's greed. But I was really hoping for more from James Cook. And unfortunately, it's played out in some ways as the fears in some of our minds have said that like James Cook plays explosively. And then he comes out inside the 15, inside the 10th. And it was Latavius Murray. And it was Damien Harris on those high value touches. And yet this was a big week for James Cook. And he's certainly capable of doing this on the regular.

Yeah, and I think a lot of people are going to say to themselves, well, maybe he'll get involved. Maybe he'll prove himself and get the red zone opportunities. The goal line looks. That's not going to happen. It's stupid. I don't understand why you take your efficient players off the field in the red zone just for a big-bodied guy. But that's what's happening. That's what's happened from training camp on, and that will be what continues to happen. When they get around the goal line. James Cook isn't going to score touchdowns. That doesn't mean he's going to have zero. He'll score from outside of the 15 a couple times. He had two 10 zone, no five zone. Right. Yeah. When they get down on the goal line, he's not in the game, which is dumb and isn't going to change. But he's still a great, this is an offense that you want a piece of. And I think he's a really good play going forward. RB 11 on the week, James Cook on 50. He played exactly 59% of snaps for each week. Kenneth Walker.

Two touchdowns. Wasn't efficient on the ground, but that was enough. And Derek Henry, 25 carries for Derek Henry. He is a trade four target to me. Oh, really? Okay. Because I, midway through the game. I know you were swapping on him, but no, I'm looking to pick him up. The snaps win up. Yeah, midway through that game, you saw like an almost even carry count between Tage Spears. We talked week one. Tadier Spears out snapped him, but Tadier Spears wasn't really involved in. getting carries. He only had three carries. And then this last week yesterday, it was like, oh, man, they're giving Taj Spears work. They're handing the ball off to him. He ended up with 10 total opportunities Tajay did. So you're not afraid of Derek Henry losing work to Tajay? No. Nope. I think that you can have Derek Henry be great and more balance in the in the snap count. Those two things can be true.

I would try not to have Ryan Tannenhill throw the ball with his arm very often. I think Derek Henry is a player where I'm targeting the volume and I think he's going to be 20 plus carries. I still have fears of the game script of like they were, it was a weird offensive output for Tennessee. I mean, we were talking how poor they were. And of course, Ryan Tannenhill hits the big. pass play right directly after that, which I believe turned into the Henry touchdown. But like against Cleveland, is Cincinnati? Are they going to be capable? Not sure. But I think that there will be, it's going to be hot and cold with Derek Henry. It's not going to be every single week. You're really happy like we're used to. Connor and Pollard, big games. At the wide receiver position, Keenan Allen, eight for 11. And two. Oh, baby. He, the, the benefactor of no Austin Echler.

was not Joshua Kelly, it was Keenan Allen. Joshua Smelly. Yeah. Joshua Kelly was on the field a ton. He was the guy running routes. He just, he got, I think, one target. Mike Evans, eight targets, six catches, 171 yards. Go on beast mode. And one touchdown. You ain't a loss. Oh, Mike Evans. I thought we were talking Mike Williams. I'm still on Keenan Allen and the chargers and the fact that they lost this game to the Tennessee Titans. Unbelievable. I would apologize to the Chargers fans, but there just, there aren't any. Mike Evans, 171 receiving yards. Bucks 2 and O, baby. Baker looks great. I enjoyed watching him play football. Could you imagine if the touchdown that he dropped last week? I mean, Mike Evans has absolutely dominated a great call, Andy. I was a little skeptical. Through two weeks, Mike Evans has 237 receiving yards only. That's fourth.

behind Justin Jefferson, Puka Nakuwa and Tyreek Hill. And he plays the Eagles this coming week, which the Eagles secondary is super banged up, and they've been exploited by Mack Jones and Minnesota. So don't be afraid of Philly right now. Pooka Nakua had 20 targets. Unbelievable. Oh, yes, baby. Against the 49ers. He went 15 for 147. He has the most wide receiver targets through two games in a start to a career ever. He was targeted on 40% of his routes. He seems to be teleporting to open spots on the field. Nothing he does appears anything more than reliable. Like I watched him play. And that's not to take anything away from him, but everything he does seems so like routine. Like he runs the route. He's open. He catches it. He runs the route.

He's open. This is not Tyreek Hill flashing down the field. This is just all reliable puka. It reminds me of two great players, Cooper Cup, Travis Kelsey, where it's like, I just don't understand. Yeah. But they're not, it's just they're always wide open and everyone knows. Like, you know where the ball's going. Why can't defense guard these guys? It's because they're just smart football players that know how to get open. They don't measure that at the combine. We talked about this yesterday in the studio. This is what made Wes Welker a great football player. So it made Julian Edelman a great football player. You don't measure this sense of, like you run a 40 and you do a vertical jump, but you don't do something where like the player runs a route against his own defense and detects where the court, you know, and flows with the quarterback from side to side or makes himself reliable in that way. And those are players that can sneak through in the draft. And then all of a sudden you're like,

Well, he ran a 4-7. Who cares? He looked exhausted. Oh, he did. He had to be. On the last few catches, his body language was like, please stop throwing me. Have you seen his hands? They're bruised. He's like, I'm so tired of being tackled. Can we please throw the ball to somebody else? And then he tried to throw it to Van Jefferson and it didn't work. So they threw it to Puka. It did not. Puka looks like a league winner right now. Yeah, he looks. Incredible. He just has the one wrinkle where when Cooper Cup returns, what does it look like for Pook and Nakua? Because 2-2 Outwell looks good too. 2-2 looks very, very good. That's the only concern is that when Cooper Cup comes back, who is going to be the wide receiver 2? Who's going to be in the Robert Woods role? And to me, I think it's going to be Puka. Puka has the body for it. He looks very similar to Robert Woods is another one of those players. It's just such a good route runner and knows where to go.

at least when he was younger. Here's the wild thing, too, when you talk about streaming quarterbacks, and we didn't bring him up because he only threw, he's only throwing one touchdown on the year. But Matthew Stafford is over 60% completion, over 300 yards. So it gets the 49ers, he put up 300 yards. When you bring Cooper Cup back and you have Pooka and Kua and you have Tutu Atwell and you have Kairn Williams in the passing game, and Higby and Van Jefferson. The offensive line seems to be protecting. Oh, my gosh, they are. He's barely been sacked. Big surprise there. Credit to Sean McVeigh, credit to Matthew Stafford, and credit to, is it, less need that drafted Pukkah, where they did. Nico calling 7 for 146. It's not just Nico. I mean, Nico had an amazing game, 740, 146 with the tutti. But Tank Dell, with Noah Brown being inactive for the game, like Tank Dell was.

I think he was like, in terms of snaps, was the number one wide receiver. He played on 79% of the snaps. He saw 10 targets, got seven catches for 72 and the score. Tank Dell, dude, is, and he was a round three draft pick. I think that we need to pay attention that Tankdale might be a real thing, too, considering the game script that's going to be going on here for the Houston, Texas. Like, they couldn't run the ball and then. their defense lets points happen, so CJ Stroud and Company have to throw a bunch. What's crazy is, so he didn't play the most wide receiver snaps. That actually was Robert Woods, up at 86%. Who had a good week last week? He had nine targets, six for 74. And honestly, he stepped out of bounds on a play where he was running down the sideline for a bomb touchdown. Yeah, so I think Nico's leading the way there because he's the one that's got the highest probability of scoring. But all three of those guys had relevant weeks,

And Nico helped my fantasy faceoff roster tremendously. Yeah, he was a great play. T. Higgins, Jason's start of the week, two touchdowns, 8 for 89, bounce back performance on 12 targets. If for some reason, Joe Burroughs is not out there, Higgins and Chase are going to be depressing discussions in terms of starting them next week against the Rams, which I'm sure people will do. But it's going to be, it's going to fall into that Garrett Wilson category where people making, they were making the starts a decision with Garrett Wilson this past week. who managed to have the big play, but that's a tough one when you don't have confidence in the quarterback. Lockett, Devante Smith, Josh Reynolds, C.D. Lamb. Yeah, huge weeks for all of them. What do you do with Josh Reynolds? Because I imagine he's still on people's waiver wires right now. Talking Detroit Lions wide receiver. Week one, it wasn't a huge fantasy day, but it was four for 80. This past week was five for 66, two touchdowns. You have...

Almond Ross St. Brown, who might be a little bit banged up. I mean, is Josh Reynolds a, does he have flex appeal until the Jameson Williams suspension is up? Yeah, I mean, flex, I think is right. He's a player you can throw in there and in the right matchup. We know when they're home against a winnable matchup that there's going to be, you know, what are the lines usually put up in those kind of good matchups near 30 points? Yeah. So yeah, if you've got a 30 point game, I'm fine with Reynolds in there, but he's not more than just a spot flex. Do you believe in Marvin Mims after he had five total routes, and yet on the five routes, two for one, 13, and it touched him? This is a great player, but so upsetting. Is this fool's gold people competing for Mims on the free agent market this week? So, I mean, this is just, it's very simple. You need to be aware that he was not on the field a lot. He was not getting a ton of targets. But on the flip side,

He is a rookie who is a rookie who is absolutely outstanding. Like this is the reason, you know, we kind of, I talked him up, I had him, dropped him, unfortunately after week one. And then he goes, goes ham on two receptions. But I think you can pick him up and hope he gets more snaps going forward, but you can't pick him up and start him. I don't think reliably. You can't start a guy who just had, you know, five total routes in the game. That's a, if your team is looking solid? Like you're really confident in your starters and you have some depth. Marvin Mims is a good stash player. Here's a fun stat. Debo Samuel averages 1.27 fancy points per rush attempt in his career where CMC is at 0.68. Chubb is 0.75. He was involved in the running game. Five for 38, Natasha down 6 or 63 through the air. They missed them on two deep bombs that he could have produced. So that was nice to see. Gabe Davis, bounced back game, six for 92.

And a touchdown. Gave the babe. And Christian Kirk. Well, okay. 14 targets, 11 for 110. Thanks. Thank you, Jackson. What is happening here? A great game, 11 for 110. Zay Jones. He was the only good performance on the entire roster. E.T.N. Lawrence, they're all duds. Zay Jones did miss some time in the second quarter. He came back. It's hard to know if that injury that he sustained in the second was affecting him throughout the second half. And this was a wild game for the passing offense. There was at least three, if I'm remembering it. There's three. There was at least three one foot end zone catches. And that did not turn into two passing touchdowns for Trevor Lawrence. But so if you're looking at Lawrence upset with the box score, I get it. I get it. You want your guy to come through. But.

He was so, he was just a fraction away from a monster game. Yeah, there should have been three touchdowns. And it applies to the other players, too. Zay Jones had, you know, one where his, they called it a touchdown. I think it first. Calvin Ridley should have had a touchdown. They were just, beating close. So don't, don't go away from the Jags. Tight-in performances this week, Hawkinson, Henry, Mark Andrews, and Travis Kelsey. And then you saw a nice week from Darren Waller. Yes. So some of the big names performing for you this week. Hunter Henry looked good. Mike started the week and then like I said, Hawkinson, the two touchdowns. So let's talk about some of those disappointments. Poopped in his big boy pants. Well, you just talked about him. Trevor Lawrence, very disappointing. Just completed about 50% of his passes. And 216, no touchdowns. It was the only game, I think, that didn't hit the over. It was putrid. Yeah, maybe there was two. But yeah, the over bounced back in a huge way.

Tua. He had 15 fantasy points in the first half. He had 14 for the game. So the second half, it was a lot of Rahim Mostert. It was a lot of preserving a lead. And they did a good job of basically containing big plays down the field, at least at Tyreek, 21 for 30, 241. It was tough because this matchup didn't look juicy for Tua. You also dealt with Jalen Waddle. in and out of the lineup. Like if Tua doesn't have both of those guys, it's a problem. Yeah, and Mike, he might not have Waddle next week. We need to pay attention to that. And I, in an effort to maybe start a new tradition here, I am going to, I'm going to give each of you a panic alarm. Okay. And you can have one per week in the duds. And here's mine, Justin Fields. Yeah. Justin Fields was absolutely. Oh, he did it again. We're back into the, uh,

Back into the chicken heater. Justin Fields was impossible to watch play football. It was so frustrating to watch him sit in the pocket, staring at receivers, having plenty of time for protection of, dude, somebody. Unload the ball. Someone has to be open. Throw the football. I think the first drive, it was like, hey, we need to get DJ more involved. Yep. He, he. you know, snaps the ball, throws it to DJ Moore. I think he threw it to him three times on that drive, two big plays. And DJ Moore had a good day. Has a rushing touchdown. And you think, oh, we're back, baby. And then apparently just forgot how to, he just held, he holds onto the ball in disgusting fashion. Yeah. Yeah, it's impossible to watch the depression among Bears fans. I have heard it. I understand it.

And I know the Matthew Betts said, I think on the DFS show, like, he's not sure this is going to be your quarterback next year. And I'm not sure he's going to be. Yeah, for the bear. Yeah. Well, I mean, Justin Fields, if you, two design runs on the season, it was, it was just really, really hard to watch. And if you don't, we hoped he'd make the Jalen Hertz ascension as a quarterback. You give him an elite weapon in DJ Moore. But what we should have known is that the curse of DJ Moore is stronger than the potential of Justin Fields. Yeah, I would agree with that. And here's the thing. He was as bad of an NFL quarterback as you have ever watched. It was mind blowing. He had a play on his own goal line that was, let me lob it to a defender.