Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 6 Keep/Trade/Cut, Pump the Brakes, Big Questions

What happens in the first two games of the fantasy football season in the minds of many players, everyone. They lock it in. Even us. They lock it in. So hard. So hard to get past. If those first two weeks, someone is awesome or terrible, that's just what they are this year. You've been waiting so long. Yeah. And now you know, because you didn't, you didn't just get the first week. You waited two weeks. And now I really know how a guy is. I mean, you know.

The first two weeks last year, Jonathan Stewart, was, I think, the 70th ranked running back. Week one, three Cohen, 12 targets. Week two, nine. And now we're talking nine combined total targets in weeks three through five. Only two targets last game. I thought it was just one. I think it depends on how you calculate targets. Different sites have one. Different sites have two. Whatever. It's still bad. Yeah, it's bad. And usually those calculation differences are because it was a throwaway that...

is technically targeted, but one is probably more apt as far as one legitimate target. You know, the way they used him and what I saw from him, which was he was trying way too hard to get back to the special nature. I mean, he was running backwards. Every single play. Go and Barry. Full college. You know, I can I can outrun everybody. And he wasn't. And so, yeah, I mean, for me, I think he's still got name value. You're going to be able to trade him.

Unlike these other guys, people want Cohen. Yeah, I agree. I would trade him as well. The one target from Mitch, Mitch T. We've got to work on a name for Trubis. Yeah, that's not the one. No, it's honestly, it's baby face. Dude, I look at when he's got that helmet on and those brown eyes that are just black with this baby face without a wrinkle on it. It's like, yeah, baby face Tribisky. Is there a good baby face tune we could sing? Oh, we'll find one. We'll find one. You know we will.

All right. So I would trade him because that was, that was troubling usage, especially in the, the increase of snaps for Benny Cunningham. That's also troubling to me as well. Speaking of a troubling player, many, many dynasty players have already put this guy in the Hall of Fame. Oh, you're going, you're going my guy. Amari Cooper, who has who, Dini, he has vanished from the face of the fantasy earth. And yet.

He's one of just a handful of receivers to have a thousand yards in his first two seasons. Right. But he is a talented receiver who is not getting it done, definitely not returning on his price. And we've seen this, you know, last year, you got big games and you got disappearing acts. Full Houdini, as you say. Right now you can get Amari Cooper for, for.

Circus peanuts. Yes. I mean, I was going to say. People don't even like circus peanuts. I love circus peanuts. No, you don't. Yes, I do. No, you do. The orange. The orange circus peanut candies. Those are, it's just straight sugar. And look, sugar is delicious. Judge Giamati, what is your ruling on circus peanuts? Of course, he's going to hate them. Disgusting. Yeah. No, I know. I stand alone in that because.

Usually when people get them, they're stale and all that. Someone likes them because they're still in stores. That's someone is me, keeping them in business. But yeah, I mean, I was going to say you can get them for pennies on the dollar, but you don't need to spend pennies for Cooper. Owners with Cooper. Two pence. They, yes. Hey, governor, they'll give you two pence for Amari Cooper. They basically want to be done with them. They want to drop them. I traded for him last week. I sat him. If Derek Carr is playing, I play him. If Derek car is not playing, I sit Amari Cooper.

But I still believe, you know, a lot's made of last season where the second half of the year, how do you feel about Cooper? Rightly so. Rightly so. The second half of the season was rough. So his last, his last seven games. How many do you think he was in the top 24 wide receivers? I'm going to go with two. Three. Okay. Three of those seven. In the top 24, though? Yeah. He was in the top 22 all three of those games, which is an absolute start. Yeah, but.

I mean, you're talking majority out of the wide receiver 2 foundation. Yes, however. That's a bad start. That's most wide receivers, though, because wide receivers are so deep when you look at finishing in the top 24, the vast majority of games are not finished in the top 24. The problem is that when he doesn't finish in the top 24, you're talking about looks like week 12 last year, 81.

He must have had one, you know, 58, 77, 42. He, you know, he just goes away. But I do believe in the talent of Cooper. I think they'll get it done. You know, he's still got one more target on the season than Brandon Cooks, despite only getting two targets last week. He's cheap, but you cannot see Amari Cooper. You cannot see Amari Cooper as a weekly starter. If Derrick Carr comes back, you can't see him as a matchup proof. You got to play the matchups with him.

You know, if they're going up against. That's the hard thing about Denver or Kansas City. I know because of his division. Well, I'm just saying the name value, the potential. Like that's, it's like Deshaun Jackson. I mean, you can try to play the matchups, but the only way you're really going to get the value of Deshaun Jackson is if you play him every single week. But you know that he's going to crap your team. I kind of. I mean, but like I have not wanted to start Deshaun Jackson this whole year until last week.

I tried to bid on him. We all did in our league because he had that New England Patriots matchup, and you bid on him, you grab him, you start him, and you were rewarded. He had a great game. I think you can play the matchups with Amari Cooper. All right. Ty Montgomery running back, Green Bay Packers, the starting running back, who was getting about 95% of snaps every single time he's on the field. You have Mike McCarthy, coach McCarthy talking about Aaron Jones, has earned more.

playing time has earned more snaps. You've also seen Mike McCarthy go all or nothing with his running backs. When Montgomery was in, it was all Montgomery. Aaron Jones last week, it was all Aaron Jones. I think Jamal Williams got two snaps, but he was healthy. He could have played, but they kept going with Aaron Jones. So where are you temperature-wise on Thai Montgomery?

I'm still strong on Montgomery. I do think that Aaron Jones... That's not a temperature. Okay. I am a warm 90 degrees. Okay. All right. I mean, yeah, we've seen when it was Eddie Lacey and James Starks. They were both used. But Eddie Lacey was the predominant guy. He was the guy that for fantasy purposes, he was the only one you were starting.

James Starks in a pinch could be used or, you know, if Eddie Lacey missed a game, you'd start him. I expect something more along the lines of that. I still like Ty Montgomery. He's not going to be playing 90 plus percent of snaps anymore. But maybe that's good for Time Montgomery. He's got an injury history going back to college where if you can keep him healthy, utilize him in the passing game, have him be the first, second down back. I still really like Montgomery. He's a full keep for you. He's a full keep.

I would keep Ty Montgomery as well. I have said on the show, I believe Aaron Jones has earned himself some more playing time and removing eight to 12 touches from Time Montgomery per week once he comes back and is the start of that is unfortunate because he was the only show in town. But I still think that Montgomery carries a ton of value with just being such a dynamic and well-rounded weapon. All right, Mike. Isaiah Crowell. Oh.

What do you do with Isaiah, you own Isaiah Crow? I mean, you don't really. But if you did, what do you do? He has only one week this entire season with less than double-digit carries. Got 16 carries last week, 12, 10, 17, the first three weeks of the season. God. Has been putrid with those carries. I mean, Duke Johnson's clearly the better player right now. What do you do? I would try to trade him.

I mean, he's definitely not a must keep. I would try to trade him. Would you cut him? That's the question every Crowell owner is asking. Do you cut Isaiah Crowell? Probably not because running backs that are getting that volume, even though he's not really a startable player right now, he's getting the volume. So I would bench him.

Yeah, I mean, I really want to come out and just say, no, cut him. I really do. I want to say cut him. But the truth is, I don't think it's good advice. We say this, we say this all the time or we've at least said it before. Ask yourself this. If he was on waivers, would you pick him up? And where would you sort him in? I would pick him up. You know, let's say this last week you had, you know, Adrian Peterson, Isaiah Crowell, Elijah McGuire, McKinnon.

Unless you're McKinnon was there. Yeah. McKinnon was number one. So I'm just saying of the lower tier, like where would you mix him in? Alex. Who would you rather have Alex Collins or Isaiah Crowell? Adrian Peterson or Isaiah Crowell? I would probably rather in both. I'd rather have Peterson. I'd rather have Peterson and Collins. So I think it's a matter of your waivers. I think he has cut a bull if you have better running back options. But I very rarely cut a...

a running back with carries for a wide receiver. I'm not going to cut him, you know, to pick up Taylor Gabriel, unless you have to start him this week. Sure. He is, he has a curious case that Isaiah Crowell. He's got 34 PPR fantasy points over five weeks. Yeah, that's not getting it done. That is getting it done for your opponents. I mean, they love you. Speaking of it, we'll go to another running back.

Frank Gore. Oh, this is, this is the elder statesman Frank Gore. That's an easy keep for you. That's an ease. I mean, that's not even, I don't even understand what the, are you saying maybe you try to trade him? Yes. You're worried about Marlon. Yeah, yeah, he's not a cut. Well, it's not just Marlon Mac. I mean, Robert Turbin. You're talking last week, you got barely over 50% of the snaps. Yeah, I, I, I'm keeping Frank Gore. I don't really. He's getting phased out of the red zone. I think you're going to see. What is the upside of Frank Gore?

Running back 12? I mean, I mean, we know this. Tushay. You have three of the five weeks that he's played right now where he's double digits at the running back position with Jacoby Beef Brisket. You know, where's the beef? Hey, where's the beef? There you go. Thank you. When Andrew Luck comes back, the offense gets better. The boxes are stacked less. I mean, he is still the clear starter. He is.

getting it done unlike Isaiah Crowell. He has no weeks on the season with less than double-digit carries. Yeah, he's not Frank Gore of three or four years ago where he's rolling out as an RB1, but in the right matchups, he's absolutely startable. So against Tennessee? Yeah, I would start him this week. Man, I would, I would have started him as well if I had him, but, yeah. I mean, look, everybody, it's getting cloudy for Frank Gore. Everybody out there.

If you can trade him for better value, then sure. And there are, you know, Marlon Mack behind the scenes. Maybe you get scared about Marlon Mac taking over rest of season, in which case, try to turn Frank Gore into a same caliber or better caliber in a package trade running back. But don't get rid of a running back without getting something back. I feel like that's the best approach right now for Frank Gore and Crowell. If you can do a two-for where...

You have a shiny piece that somebody really wants, and then you package in Crowell or Frank Gore. You're getting a starting running back who's getting double-digit carries, talk them into that, and get the better player back. Yeah, if you can trade Frank Gore and Tariq Cohen for a better running back, just a more solid every week starting running back, I would do that. Oh, man. Go to that tilting J-H-I owner.

Right. Exactly. Just, just send it. It's, I don't really like sending over putrid offers and that's not a very, that's a pretty bad offer for JJ. But people are tilting on, on Twitter and everywhere. All right. One last name for Keep Trade Cup before we move into the Thursday night preview. Because this is a Jason more special. Oh, oh. Samuel Watkins. The goose. The goose. I did not just, I mean, he had the goose.

And he had the sub two points the week before. The targets are not going to Sammy. They're going all over the place. Yeah, you can't really trust Sammy Watkins right now. Jacksonville. Yeah, you can't play Arizona by week giants. Yeah. That's a four week stretch of despair. That's a one week stretch of despair to me. I think you can play him against Arizona. I think you can play him against New York. Patrick Peterson.

Who will he be lining up against? He's been shadowing. He's been eliminating the wide receiver one for a team. Yeah, I think with a team like the L.A. Rams where we don't know who their number one target is. Right now it seems like it's Cooper Cup. I don't think they're going to shadow with Peterson. I think that Sammy Watkins is going to have his opportunity in the game. Plenty of wide receivers have been getting to get done against Arizona. Not the ones. Sure, not the ones. But we don't know that Sammy Watkins is the one. I think that teams will still treat Sammy Watkins as the one.