Ride or Die + Withstanding Victories, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/14

the look and feel of him. Who would you draft higher if this was a brand new draft right now? Austin Echler. Yeah. One game is not going to persuade me from, I mean, you're looking at what, two, three seasons of Saquan being, you know, having issues? Which offense do I want a piece of? You know, when I look at running backs, I want the Chargers times a million over Daniel Jones. There are going to be lots of games in which. sayquan may want to be wonderful and they don't put him in a position to do so. So I would be, I'd very much be on the Austin Eccler site. I think it's very difficult. And I think, you're that persuaded from one game? I mean, just, I'm persuaded the fact that he was very healthy. Like the problem with San Juan Barclay's been, he's been hurt. And he's healthy. He was ready to go. I think he saw like a 30 plus percent target share. Like absolutely outrageous. And.

This is, it's not just a healthy San Juan Barclay. It's a healthy Barclay with, with actual competent offensive minds around him, not Joe Judge calling the show. It's, it's a player who, or a coach who's had success recently with having a high-powered offense. Yeah, you had seven targets, six receptions. I mean, I get it. It's where this comes from, Andy, and the Foot Clan is in our league of record, I have Austin Echler. And I was considering offering him for, Sequin, I could not figure out who I wanted more because after week one, I mean, the explosiveness looked there and sake, you know, it's like- One had a number three overall finish. The first five games of last year. What you saw says he could be in line to be the number one running back in the league this year. It's possible to me. Yeah, I need more. I need more than one game. I don't blame you. I didn't offer the trade, so. Yeah. It's been, it's, he looked great. I'm not saying he didn't look great, but it was, you know.

It was one game, and I need more before I sell out a guy that was a dominant fantasy force last year. All right, where are we? We have MVS, Skymore, McCole Hardman, Juju Smith-Schuster, Travis Kelsey. The pass catchers in Kansas City, unfortunately, you know they're going to score a bunch of points, but you don't necessarily know who it's going to be. McColl Hardman, as unfortunately predicted, was heavily involved in this offense. Juju was heavily involved in the offense. NVS took a backseat to both of those guys. But out of Patrick Mahomes' own mouth, he said it's going to be a different guy every week. And I have no doubt that NBS will catch a long touchdown every third week and Sky Moore will flash and McCall Hardman. The thing about Hardman's involvement is that it was a lot of design stuff. It was a lot of, okay, we're going to run the Tyreek. All the Tyreek behind the line of scrimmage stuff was Hardman.

And they use that stuff in the offense. The piece I want is clearly Juju. I don't have the data in front of me. Maybe you can get it, Kyle, on like the first half or the first three-quarters snap percentages. I don't remember if Juju was really involved late, but in the beginning of that game. Juju was very involved, but he only ended up playing 66% of the snaps, and it was a blowout. So I'm curious. He did have two fumbles. He had two fumbles, but he also had a 25% targets per route run. That was the guy that they were looking to in the passing game. And if history has shown us anything, is that coaches, players, teams, nobody cares about wide receiver fumbles. They can fumble a hundred times and they still play. Running backs, you're dead. Yeah. So. I think Juju will be heavily involved in this game and is a very good start.

What are you doing with Clyde? Oh, you have to start him. Okay. I just wasn't sure. I mean, 10 opportunities is not what you want from a starting running back. Yeah, in the fourth quarter, Isaiah Pacheco got like 10 carries because the game was out of hand. I don't think that this game's going to be out of hand. Pacheco will get work in this game. He'll get, he'll get, I would bet, like, if you were betting the over under of 10 opportunities for Pacheco, would you bet the under? I would bet the under in this one. I think he'll get up to 10. So what do you got for Clyde then?

I think you play Clyde because he had a great week and he was involved in the passing game and you're not, you know, where you drafted him, you're not moving away from him. I'm just saying like if you feel like Pacheco's going to get that much work. I think Clyde will get, you know, 12 to 13. So you feel like the, it's, I mean, that's basically a 50-50 split. Yeah, except for McKinnon's going to get work too. I have Clyde right now is my running back 19. So I've got him ahead of guys like David Montgomery. Cordero Patterson, Kareem Hunt. But he's not like, you know, top 10 running back for me this week. Yeah, that's why I'm all about trading Clyde after a two touchdown week because we know that those are anomalous with Clyde. He's not been able to do that frequently and they were both in the passing game, not the running game. McKinnon had the same amount of snaps as Clyde last week. So, yeah, I think that he's a start, but you might want to cash in.

Or wait another week. He may have another good week this week against the Chargers. All right. Any other players from this game you guys want to talk about? Nope. All of the rankings for week two going up on the website today, the fantasy footballers.com. The start sit tool is up there. We get tagged in approximately 45 million tweets every week about this guy or that guy. That's why we gave you the StartSit tool. You can go and plug those players in. and you can get a result and you can see not just who we would pick, but why? You can see, you know, who's at home? What's the over under in the game? The matchup. It's an incredible tool. If you haven't used it yet, I mean, do yourself a service. Even when you're making your own decision, if you wouldn't come and ask us on Twitter, just look at these. It's a great way to just look at two players and they're.

their situations, their opportunities, and just see them side by side. So avail yourself. And I know the psychology of fantasy players. And that is you need someone to pat you on the back for the decision you want to make and or blame somebody. So you can blame the start to it to it. All right. Into the mailbag we go. Mailbag. If you have a question for the show, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click the submit a question button or dial the voicemail hotline, Mike. 302-464 TFFB. Let's begin with a voicemail. Hey, fantasy footballers. Just wanted to say, I'm loving the show. I've been listening to it for about a year now. Keep up the good work, guys. I have a question about a trade in a full PPR league, Javante Williams, for Najee Harris. Thank you, guys. This is fun. Oh, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, I want Javante over Naji. Correct. I'm in the same boat.

not encouraged by the Pittsburgh offense, the Naji injury, the lack of targets, and then just going into the season, I think nine times out of 10, I would have taken Javante anyway. Well, that's what's the surprising part and the fun part to me is that going into the season, you know, Javante was back of the second round, Naji was back of the first round. So it's interesting to swap these guys pretty quick. The injury puts it over the top for me. Yeah. It would definitely be Javante. The fact that it's a full PPR, what's funny is Naji's been the. receiving back, right? Like he was up among the league leaders last year. And I don't, I think Javante catches more balls than Naji this year. Certainly in week one, it looked that way, 12 targets for Javante Williams. And only two for Melvin Gordon, which is. It's pretty different. Yeah. And I don't know the reason for that. Like I haven't gone back and watched. I don't know if either, Kyle, if you've looked at it, but every snap when Javante caught the ball, I didn't know how many of those were.

you know, pass rush escapes versus design screens and things of that nature. But it's something to watch because if Giovante has those opportunities, it takes him into a different, you know, place as a running back even though he's in a committee. If he gets those amount, you know, that amount of work in the passing game, it's much more of the Echler situation where they try to take Echler off the field. They try to keep his snaps reduced, but the utilization's so high and the past catching so high that you're happy. All right. A few people sent this in. We'll go with the one from Keegan and Iowa. Which Jags running back would you start week two matchup against the Colts? Travis E.TN. James Robinson. Oh, man. I, I'm going to, I'll go first here. Okay. I'm going to stick with Travis E.T.N. recognizing that Robinson looked great. Robinson is a fine play.

More valuable touches, the two-minute drills, the goal line, the pass-catching work. Those were Travis E.T.N. was the back in those situations in week one. And Travis E.T.N. also was about three little oopsie-whoopsie plays away from a really good week one from, yeah, two different touchdown opportunities that were kind of mishandled. So I... I think it's close, but I would go with Travis E.TN. Where do you guys go? I could see somebody making the argument that Robinson will, you know, continue to improve after his first game, but I would lean EETN in this one. The matchup against the Colts, the likelihood that they are playing from behind and need more help out of the backfield. I'm going Robinson. And it's goodness gracious. I can't believe that we are here.

Coach Peterson after the game was, I mean, glowing about James Robinson of how happy he was with the performance and specifically saying like the confidence to move forward. What James Robinson was able to do in week one to be able to get the game playing going with even more Robinson. So I lean with him and his repaired Achilles. Do we know anything on Darius Leonard? Kyle, for week two, or Shaquille Leonard? Not yet. Okay. Circling back to our matchup on Thursday night, I just wanted to share this. Who's this tweet come in from, Kyle? This one right here from Logan Bethel? No, no, no. You shared one about the next-gen stats on first half snaps of the Chiefs players. Adam Teacher. Okay. At running back, Clyde and McKinnon were 50-50. Pacheco had four. Right.

uh juju 39 nbs 29 hardman 22 Watson and more combined for what 15 yep so again you don't you can't just prescribe that through the season especially with the young player like pacheco but those are good information yeah those are more valuable numbers for how that week one matchup happened the second half was already garbage time yeah if Clyde doesn't score you you're sitting there with a little bit well you're sitting there with your normal view of Clyde yep So it was nice to see it happen. One of them was a little one of those special Andy Reid shuffles. Shovel passes, not a shuffle. You don't want the Andy Reid shuffle. You want the shovel. Usually goes to Travis Kelsey. Yeah. But it went to Clyde, which was nice. Thank you. Thank you for that, Mr. Reed. Julie in Minnesota, would you try to capitalize on Cordero Patterson's hot start and trade him away? I'm thinking of targeting the ETN manager after his slow week one.

Full PPR league, I look at that trade as too neutral to do. I think Patterson is a really good player and certainly a really important part of this team. So I wouldn't do it. The Patterson evaluation from this game is insanely difficult because he had a monster game. I think that was the most carries. He had more carries in that game than he ever had last year. I'm remembering correct off the top of my head. Fantastic for fantasy football. But if you look at the way that the game started, when Damien Williams was healthy and on the field, Damien Williams was out snapping Cordero Patterson. The game plan was not to feature Patterson as a three-down running back. Their hand was forced because Damien Williams left the game with a rib injury so early on. So it's...

like I said, very, very difficult to gauge what the team wants to do or what they wanted to do at the beginning of week one. But now with the information that Patterson was so dominant, how do you go back to that? You know, it's worth saying you don't know how involved he would have been in the passing game. Maybe the game plan before he had to step in at running back was to involve him more there. Maybe he's maybe it was the goal line back. I mean, all we have is, has he been effective for fantasy? he has been for the most part. Yeah. And last year, Mike Davis was very involved. Mike Davis had like 125 plus carries last year. And Cordero Patterson, we had this constant lack of belief. You know, last year, week two, he comes out. He was the running back five. And it was like, well, that was anomalous. That, you know, he's not going to keep being good. And then week three was the running back 22. He's like, okay, it was an RB2. You know, you shouldn't start him. Then he was the running back one. And he was the running back.

18, 13, 7. Like, he's really good. He's super involved. What would you do then? I think I keep Cordero Patterson here. I like ETN's explosive upside. And I'm almost always on the young explosive athlete versus the aged vet. But these are fresh legs in a career for Carderle Patterson. Young explosive athlete versus old explosive athlete. Yeah. I mean, Cordero looks good every time he touches the ball. I'd be worried more second half of the year on Cordero. Yes. That's and. But not in last year was Drake London, who we just said had a fantastic start to his NFL career. It's still good to me. Yeah, but Calvin Ridley, when he was there, Cordero was way better when Calvin Ridley was on the field. I mean, that was just, how many games was that? It was like three games. It was probably four, five. And second year, Kyle Pitts and Marcus Mariotta scooting his booty all over the field. Yeah, I get it. I have, I don't, I'm saying all this, I'm just, I'm just,

Yes, you're laying out both sides of like, I don't know what to do with Patterson because both sides of the argument are very strong to me. Here's what I will say. I don't have a problem trying to capitalize on Patterson's Strong Week 1. I don't think you're aiming high enough with Travis ETN. Is that fair? Yes, that's fair. I think I'd be happy to cash in on it if you're getting a value of, like I just don't think there's a guarantee built into UTN yet. So I'd go for a player that I feel like there is more of a guarantee.

Such as, let me ask you, this name's funny to me. How about Zeke? Sure. Okay. I think I would do that deal. Yeah. But I can't tell you. Let me just, can I get the spotlight. Oh. Oh. Hit the lights. Can I get the lights, please? Hit the lights. I want to stare at this camera here. I don't know if we can do it or no. Okay. I just want to look at the Foot Clan because I'm heavily invested in Ezekiel Elliott. Yes, you are. I am terrified. I am frightened. I am scared and I need help emotionally because I don't know what I got myself into. And I thought I knew. So someone tell me that it's going to be okay. It's not. Here's what. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I won't talk. Mike. You tell them it's going to be okay. I can't promise it's going to be okay. Just lie to the man. No, I can't promise it's going to be okay. But watching Zeke on that Sunday night.

He was the best running back on the field. He averaged 5.2 yards to carry. He looked great. He looked healthy. They just didn't commit to the work. Now, now that it's Cooper Rush, like what happens to that offensive game plan, does it get completely scaled back? Because remember, go back to week one. I think it was week one last year. It was the Cowboys' Bucks. They didn't run at all. They felt like their best chance to beat the Buccaneers was they have to throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. So maybe they came in and this is our offensive philosophy for this week. We aren't committing or overcommitting to the run. Even though Zeke was having great success, they had all the plays drawn up to be pass heavy. Unfortunately, it's probably going to happen again this week. And then you're really going to be in a situation. But is it with a backup quarterback?

Yes, it's going to be a huge problem. They're playing Cincinnati. And Cincinnati shut down nausea last week. I mean, it was, if I'm Cincinnati, I'm playing against the run this week. I just think, you know, it's going to be scary for Zeke managers for a little while. Agreed. And I'm not saying he doesn't have it. I'm saying it's just a problem when Cooper rush is your quarterback. You're going to get probably 50 to 55 percent. completion percentage for Cooper Rush. You're going to have negative plays from Cooper Rush that puts you in a non-rushing situation. And you're going- Not rushing. Cooper Rush. I know. I know. He nailed it. It's a problem for this week. And so I am. I'm just scared Mike. And I know you invested your league of record early pick on him. I traded for him in Dynasty to make a run for the title. And I just, I'm being honest with my feelings here.

Because the Foot Clan, we keep it straight. It's the forum. I know. We've got. And Jason, Jason helped me so much because right when I said, tell me he's going to be all right. He answered immediately. Well, it's not. Because week one was just a full confirmation of priors for Jason. That is true. But also the Bengals matchup is tough. I brought this up, though. After these first couple weeks, the schedule does open up very well for Dallas. They have an easy schedule after this week. And you have the single ray of light that was the Halloween game from Cooper Rush, where he, you know, had 60% completion percentage. Wasn't Dinkin Duncan was, he looked good. I mean, you know. Who were those two backups they used to have? Do you remember the names? Oh, yeah. The guys that started after the injury to DAC. And it was. Garrett Gilbert. And there was another one. Oh, you got to effort that because.

That name's going to bring back some memories for people. Danucci. Danucci. Danucci. Ben Danucci. I'm glad they don't have them to turn the ball over to. All right. Well, they're glad as well. Here's a final question for the show today. Instagram from Andy Dubbs 34. Should I trade Michael Thomas for Darren Waller? My tight end right now is Cole Komet. I don't mind that. I don't mind it either. I do think Michael Thomas is going to have his games, but I think Landry will. I think Olave will. I'm in on Michael Thomas moving forward, but if you can, and I'm not out on Cole Commet, but if you can take that later, you know, like mid, late round pick and stabilize your tight end position, I would do it. Yeah, I have in our league of record, I've got T.J. Hawkinson, right? Oh, man. Are you looking for solutions with him?

And all I'm thinking is, well, I can't win with Hawk. I've got to find an answer. But there are so few. It's like Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey. What about what about my guy? Maybe Kyle Pitts. But that's the thing is like a Kyle Pitts or a Darren Waller who had bad week ones. This is where you do try to capitalize with a guy that you drafted in the eighth round that hit. Yep. And you try to swing so that you keep your third and fifth round picks that, you know, you took instead of those tight ends. And then you go and trade for one of those tight ends. I think it's a better way to win. And yeah, Andy, you and I should talk. Yeah, the highest percentage of snaps not lined up at the tight end position in week one wasn't even Kyle Pitts and his were super high. It was Darren Waller. 81% of his snaps, not even lined up as the tight end, just lined up as a wide out. Nice.

So something to pay attention to for a bounce back week. A couple reminders here. Make sure you drop it like it's hot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Especially week one. Yeah. So that is a reminder to everybody listening to check the waivers to see who is dropped by teams that are probably panicking. grabbing players that produced in week one and you're going to find some names hit the waiver wire that you'll be like, oh my goodness. Like Cole Komet's going to hit the waiver wire. Oh, everywhere. And if you need to fix your tight end position, I still think he has a potential fix. I know it was a bad week one. I think people are reacting stronger to that than Darnel Mooney, which, look. Mooney could hit your waiver wire. People do crazy things in week one. If you're not checking to see who was dropped, then then you're missing out on some gold.

Did you guys happen to browse our League of Record? I'm looking at it right now. Did you guys spend on anybody this week? No, because I listened to Mike the Fantasy Hitman Wright and stashed Jeff Wilson on Sunday. Oh, did you really? Yeah. You stashed Jeff Wilson before the game. Yes. Listening to your own advice. That's right. And then praising yourself, I presume? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, there was so many self-fi vibes. In front of the mirror. You did it. You did it, Mike. You ever see that Alex Rodriguez picture with the mirror? No. He's just giving himself a big old smooch. Are you wearing the green suit that Russell Wilson decided to walk into the stadium with? No, because I did not see it. You don't subscribe to the Goober blog? I mean. Oh, man, what with the bow type? What, that guy's the worst. It's a shiny suit, Mike. All right, I'm looking it up.

It's a big time. All right, Jason, did you spend any fam this week? It looks like I did. I got a little... What's wrong with this suit? A little cheap bid on Devin Duvernay, just in case he's more involved than we think. I tried to get... There's nothing wrong with the suit, Mike. It's the man underneath. Yeah, that's fine. But that's the way you walk in that suit says a lot. He looks like he's going to the enchantment under the sea dance with that suit. It's a mint. It's a minty color, right? I'm in on this suit. That's who's hot. Go watch him walk in it. Mike loves Russell Wilson. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense because he's a limited. I'll say I'm also a good. Did Ross pick up Jeff Wilson on Waver Wire 2? Probably. Nah, you never would. All right. That is going to do it. Back with the matchup starts of the week. Boom, boom kicker. Never not working. A whole lot more on tomorrow's jam pack show. Do not miss it.

Talk to you then. See you on Spotify Live, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.