2nd Half Sleepers + Hungry for More, The Goose Queen! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/25

will include the rushing. And when I talk about the schematic fit that we've seen from the Cardinals that is nice, where Dobbs is getting it done is in the designed runs for him. They are doing it. It makes me really hopeful that this is a perfect system for Kyler to come into. And so I am stashing Kyler. You talked about, Andy, you've got leagues where, you know, you drafted to Sean Watson. You're saying, who do I rely on the second half of the season? I think Kyler's going to be good. And if that's true, if Kyler is good, as he's always been when he's on the field, then Hollywood Brown is his number one target is a great acquisition and should be really a top, for sure, a top 20 wide receiver the rest of the season once Kyler's back. But I think he's got top 12 potential. All right. My second half sleeper is a wide receiver that has been outside the top 78 in four of five weeks.

but has the sixth easiest schedule for wide receivers in the second half and was just on the buy. So it's T. Higgins. It's a player that you drafted early in fantasy drafts. It's been catastrophic. I got T. Higgins and it sucks. I think I saw a, I don't have it in front of me like the ADP. Maybe you can pull it up. I believe every second round wide receiver has been a disappointment for fantasy players. You might want to look at that. Oh, pretty much every second round player. Yeah, maybe that's what it was. Maybe it was literally almost everybody in the second round, but that includes T. Higgins and Devante Smith and for a while there, Jalen Waddle and maybe still Jalen Waddle. Like the players you took there,

Yeah, you've got Devante Adams. Cooper Cup was injured. You've got as far as wide receivers. In the second round? In the second round. Yeah. Oh, because Cooper Cup went later because of the injury. Garrett Wilson. Yeah. Jalen Waddle. Sure. Yeah. I mean, just, well, OLAV is in the third according to RADP data that I'm looking at. But yeah, it's not. The second round was a lot of problems. Even at running back, you know, Josh Jacobs, Derek Henry. Yeah, and you look at not just the schedule being the sixth easiest for T. Higgins, you have a history of success. You have a player that is going to be heavily targeted in the offense. Obviously healthy. He needs to be on the field, but he's had some extra time off going into this final run. And then your fantasy playoff schedule, you get to play Minnesota at home. You get to play Pittsburgh, whose secondary has been just the worst. It literally is the worst in terms of fantasy points given up.

And then you have a potential shootout against Kansas City, which, look, their defense is very good. But, you know, we saw from this past week, like, you know, there's the potential that you could be in a battle there in championship weekend. So it's exciting to think of, you know, T. Higgins is a by-low candidate that teams may want to rid themselves of that they might be putting them on the bench. You know, that's one of those things. Go watch a team and what they set their lineup as Saturday. And is T. Higgins sitting on their benches? Because that'll tell you everything you need to know about how they view that player. Because he's been a lineup lock type of guy for a long time. So to me, T. Higgins is that player that sticks out as, you know, as a guy that doesn't necessarily love the wide receiver two options and fantasy, he's one of those guys you need to pick up and you're going to be very happy, I think. And then just let's, we'll be brief here, but a bonus second half sleeper pick from each of us, Mike.

I'll throw out JSN of this is when we were even I've been in Tyler Lockett was one of my guys I thought he would still have it he has been underperforming drastically and but Jason still hadn't to get on the field but then we we when people were saying can I drop JSN it was no if you draft if you drafted him you have to maybe you didn't realize it at the time but Now you know, moving forward, if you draft these first round rookies, you're doing so to hold on to them for at least the first chunk of the season to see if they do anything. This isn't a, well, if the rookie doesn't show up in week one or two, I'm going to drop them. I mean, like imagine, I guess Addison had the huge touchdown week one, but it's like you can't drop these guys because they start coming through over the second half of the year. And if Tyler Lockett continues to be disappointing,

There's production to be had from the Seahawks, and it might be J.S.N. coming in and stealing it. I'll throw a fat Thor out there. We're talking Josh Jacobs. He eventually got into shape in the movie. I will not. Yeah, that's true. That's not my argument. But that's true. And, look, it just honestly, it comes down to the fact that, like, Jimmy Garoppolo, their starting quarterback, has missed two and a half of their seven games so far. The offense is not going to be as efficient without their starting quarterback. You know, they did not put up a lot of points. in the mix as a team. And I think Jacobs, you know, this is a player who's getting more opportunity at running back than anybody else in football. And so if you're on the field, like last week it was 66% of snaps. That's because you had a quarter of garbage time where he wasn't on the field. Adams was off the field. Previously, it's been 80 plus percent of snaps. You just have to trust the fact that a player that's out there that much who catches the ball that much is going to deliver. Yeah, I agree completely with.

Jacobs having a much better second half of season. I'm going to go with a sleeper. We mentioned briefly on yesterday's waiver show, Taj Spears, rookie running back, day two draft capital pick for the Tennessee Titans. This is a player that he's shown flashes. He's involved in the passing game. So far this year, he's got games with targets of 4, 4, 4, 5. Those are great numbers for a running back. And he's, you know, had a last week, he had a 48-yard reception. He's got the juice. He's young. He's athletic. The real sleeper issue here is as we come near the trade deadline, which I believe is a little spooky this year. Friday the 13th? No. Halloween. Oh. Which is it's coming up. If Derek Henry gets moved because this Tennessee Titans team says we're playing for the future, then Taje becomes the future today. So let's follow that discussion up before we get into T&F preview just with the other side of the coin. Like we, it's absolutely.

possible that Derek Henry, they move on from him. They just let go of one of their best defensive players. You have your head coach saying, I did not say I'm starting Will Levis. How dare you? You said that. It could go real bad for Tennessee, but we have not talked about Henry. Because if Henry's traded, the team that I keep hearing that makes so much sense and needs it tremendously. is Baltimore. Like this is a team that... It feels like the only one that when you look at all the teams that actually makes sense. Like, do you target Derek Henry knowing that there are two outcomes? There's either Derek Henry's just Derek Henry in Tennessee this year, which is good, not great, or he's going to a Baltimore offense where...

Look, the competition for touches there, like they're happy to throw Justice Hill onto the bench for all but a snap. And Gus would get some work, but it like it would be the Derek Henry show in Baltimore. Yeah, this happened last year with Christian McCaffrey. You know, it's like, oh, what if he goes to a contender? You know, Baltimore's in the running. The Niners are in the running. Do you trade for him and hope? And then he went to San Francisco and was the dude and won people, you know, championships. It was great. With Derek Henry, it's a little diceier.

Simply because if he's not traded and Tana Hill is gone, you expect really bad production from the Titans in general. And he's going to, you know, like Tage Spears being a sleeper target is because he's, you know, he's on waivers. Like he does this, this cost you nothing and then will become relevant if he gets all the opportunity. Not that he's going to be a sensational superstar. Derek Henry's going to cost you a lot to acquire him. The only good news is, you know, I know, Mike, you've brought this up. their playoff schedule for the Titans is great. It includes two matchups against the Houston Texans. Houston twice. So, you know, I don't mind if you want to call your shot and try to get a Derek Henry Baltimore Raven and end up with a, you know, a runner-up consolation prize of Derek Henry twice against the Texans in the playoffs. But I do believe it is worst days ahead for Derek Henry.

along the stretch run of the season if he remains a Titan. Which I will, looking at the game log, you had Tannenhill missed some time last year. So week eight and week nine, that was Houston and Kansas City. Derek Henry was the running back three and the running back five. One of those weeks they gave him like a hundred carries. Both, yeah, they had 33 opportunities. You remember how many? And then he closed out the season with a game against Houston, Houston. And he was the running back nine, no Tannenhill. But this is a much different situation with Spears on the field so much. If you had to guess top of your head, do you know where Henry is on the year so far? He's still, I would have guessed running back 12. I'll put him like.

like a middling running back too. He's 13, but I guess they had the buy. He had the buy. So he's 13, even with the buy week. And do you know, the last three games, Derek Henry is on pace for 1,500 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. So he's a king. You know, 314 opportunities is still the pace on the season despite the snaps to spears. So we're thinking about, we did get some more news. Jerome Ford, Mary Kay Cabot tweeted. High ankle sprain left the locker room, still wearing a right walking boot, and Ford is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks. So Pierre Strong went in fantasy waiver wires, Kareem Hunt, will be the guy there. Let's talk Thursday. Thursday night breakdown. Well, Thursday night we get some baker on Thursday night. Tampa Bay. They're now at three and three after the loss to Atlanta, and they traveled to Buffalo.

We're just sitting at four and three. The Draft King Sportsbook line, Buffalo minus eight and a half. The over under is 42. Not a high over under, but a big line. So the bills are projected for 25.3 points, 16.8 for Tampa Bay, who has been reeling. Both teams have been reeling. So you would expect this would be a great get right situation for the bills. The defense for Tampa has been very good this year. Very good. You know, their losses, I remember the Detroit game. They still made some plays on defense, lost to Detroit, couldn't score on Detroit. Then they lost to Atlanta, but it was 1613. But Atlanta's offense also not that intimidating. So from a matchup perspective, you're going to face a much more difficult task with Josh Allen, Stefan Diggs, and company. Are you expecting this to be the get right game for the bills? I...

Don't look at it that way. I mean, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pretty stout adjusting for schedule. Fifth against quarterbacks, fifth against running backs, first against tight end. So, no, I don't expect like Josh Allen to where we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There he is. There's Josh Allen. You're never benching him, but it's. Well, that matchup. The bills are just, I mean, like, who are, you can't possibly bench anybody. It's like Alan Cook, Stefan Diggs. I would move the conversation to Latavius Murray, who saw 45% of the snaps. And he started the game? I missed that note. Yeah, but he played a lot less this game than last game, and Cook ended up having a big one. Those players are players that are the matchup matters completely. Davis, Kincaid. Jim's Cook really hasn't had big games unless those situations have transpired. So what do you expect?

For me, I don't expect a great offensive production here from the Bills. They haven't looked excellent. The last three weeks, they are averaging 19.6. points scored NFL team points they seem a little broken they seem a little broken the the uh but they had a three game run of 38 37 and 48 points and so saw the potential and and you know that they're great right like you know they're going to figure it out because josh allen will figure it out but we've also seen this tampa bay buck's defense be really really solid i think that you know they they took a step backwards last year you know at the end of tom brady's career when he's throwing it 750 times and this

Offense helps this defense this year for the Buccaneers. So I don't expect it necessarily to be a get right game in a difficult matchup. They seem like they're a piece short on offense. They seem like they need a better wide receiver too. So you're sitting Gabe Davis? I am sitting Gabe Davis in this matchup. I have him in our league of record. We are actively trying to set him in this one. James Cook last week had a big game. he's been a running back two this year the matchup is tough like you said he was the running back eight last week but then you the lows are low for James Cook yeah it's really hard for him to get into the end zone he has one rushing touchdown this year and he's got one receiving those were two nice games but other than that it's it's not been as great I do think I'll be the one to call the blowout I think Buffalo eviscerates them oh really yeah I do I think this is the game that things get right

So you should start Gabe Davis. No, no, I don't think so. But Kincaid and Cook, I have confidence in. This is one where they're at home. People have been talking. Prime time. Yeah, I just think like the Buffalo defense and prime time, some short fields, turning over Baker Mayfield. I'll be the lone wolf. All right. Believing in the bounce back game for Buffalo because. If they can protect Josh Allen at all, I think that'll make the difference. Now, the Bucks games in general have hit the under. Five of six weeks, the Bucks defense has ruined people's fantasy hopes. What is Rashad White? I mean, I faced him last week. It was annoying as heck because he... He was the running back, what, 16 and a half point. Rashad White is a volume running back who gets a ton of work and opportunity. He is not...

an extremely talented running back, so, you know, things have to break right for him. You hope that he gets, you know, a touchdown in the passing or rushing him. You hope that he gets eight targets in a game. He's really gone back and forth. We joked about it last time we were covering his matchup, but, you know, running back 38, then 9, then 40, then he's top 20, then 37, then 16. To me, what he is, is a flex option that obviously because he's on Thursday night football, if you are going to play him, move him into your running back slot to give you flexibility. But he's just someone that is a middling talent. And if you think that they're going to get blown out, I mean, does that really matter for someone that catches the ball so much? No, he's on pace for 62 receptions on 65 targets. So he's catching everything thrown his way. I think you were dead on, though, with how you project him this week as a flex option.

He has elite usage. Would you play him or now we know that Rocheon Johnson's coming back? So Deont de Foreman against the Chargers or Rashad White against a... Oh, man. The Bill's rushing defense is the second worst in the NFL in terms of yards per carry given up. They're actually 21st and fancy points against. I'd go white. But because he's the Foreman situation, I'm sure, you know, when we actually get to that matchup, we'll discuss it. But it's what... What do you possibly do with Bears running backs? Roshan, the whole season had been groomed to be, you know, to take over a huge workload. But how do you, if you're the Bears and Deont de Foreman does that, how do you not go back to him? Mike Evans, of course. You play him. Chris Godwin is this year's Deonté Johnson right now.

Yeah. He's on pace for 93 receptions and zero touchdowns. In fact, Godwin and Judy are two of the most highly targeted players that have not found the end zone at all. You know, last week, cool, 12 targets, only caught six of them against Atlanta. He's just kind of sitting right now, I mean, he had the buy week, but he's sitting outside the top 36 on the year. He's still a solid play. I mean, Gabe Davis or Chris Godwin? Chris Godwin. For the PPR value. Deontay Johnson or Chris Godwin? Chris Godwin. Now when I might go, Deontay. Yeah, I think that's where I sit. It's tough. You're not getting goose by Godwin. No, no. But so far this year, you also haven't been. What's the opposite of a goose in a good way? Like, what would that be? You're not getting swaned. You're not getting swan. Swan is the end. It's the swan song.

No, I think it's great. A beautiful swan? Yeah. I mean, what else would it be? Hold on, hold on. Hold on. I know we're talking on the podcast, so this is embarrassing, but like is a swan, that's the same animal as a goose, right? No. No, they're different. Is a swan its own thing? Yeah. A swan's its own thing? It is. So if a lake is filled, there'd be ducks, there'd be swans, there'd be geese. Yeah. That's possible. For some reason, I thought maybe a swan is just a real pretty goose. When I said it, because of the ugly duckling. I was waiting for someone to be like, dude. Yeah, you were right? Dude, that's the same animal. So a swan's just its own thing. Yeah, the swan's got the real long neck. What do geese have? I'm looking at a photo, swan versus goose. They are totally different. Just unbelievably different. But let me tell you, one is ugly. One is a beautiful.

There are many differences between geese and swans. Yeah, you're right about the whole neck, man. A goose is, I mean, the wing. You'd rather have the longer neck, right? Like if you're choosing what you want to be. You want the beauty of the swan. You want the massive 10-foot wingspan. You don't want a wingspan of geese that's generally between three and four feet. You are so knowledgeable. Oh, man. Exactly. Like I was saying, you're not getting a goose from Godwin, but you're probably not getting a swan. Right. So it's like a mallard. Oh, dude, mallards are great. Oh, you love the mallard. I love me a mallard. That's like the iridescent green. Yeah. This is just a duck. It really is. I mean, yeah, when you say duck, you're thinking about a mallard. Yeah. Are we done with this discussion? The bird one or the football game? Baseball and birds. Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast. Welcome to the baseball and birds pod.

Oh, man, we're dumb. We're in off-season form. Very nice. In the middle of the season. Just to take a quick straw poll of Deucer's Alley over there, a bunch of knowledgeable individuals. All three of you knew that those were separate animals? Yes, sir. Yes. Yep. That's a 100% hit right. The swan. The swan seemed like, you know, like the goose wearing the wedding dress. You know what I mean? Like the most elegant. Like the queen. The queen of the geese is the swan. If you told me that a goose. is a male version and a swan is a female version. Sure. I'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew that. Of course, I knew that. Everyone knows that. Yeah, that's, that's, do you know that the mallard, like the one with the green, that's, that's the boy mallard. Wait, what do you mean? There's female mallors that are ugly? The female mallards are the all brown ones. Yeah, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Usually I feel like that. So a mallard is only a male. That it's a mailerd. Oh, boy.

Jason just fell over in his chair. Brooks, you want me hit this outro button? Would you recommend that? Actually, I want to get into a few mailbag questions. Oh, do you now? All right. Mailbag. I'm so sorry, everyone. This Wednesday. Rap Skane's even smiling over there. The train is running down the hill. Yeah. We're doing good. All right. We got voicemail questions, Brooksie? Yes, sir. All right, here we go. What's up, Waller? He's a big fan of the show. Quick question, is Kirk Cousins now a must start or an auto start candidate? Thanks, guys. No, no, I don't think so. He's been very good, started the season obviously on fire those first three weeks. This last week was great in a tough matchup against San Francisco. But a lot of that, you know, was like, you know, at the end of the half, he threw a ball that should have been a pick.

Yeah. And instead of it being a pick, it was like a 70-yard touchdown bomb to Jordan Addison. You know, it's like he is a pocket passer that's going to need a lot of yards and a lot of touchdowns throwing to make up for the fact that he's not a mobile rushing quarterback. So to me, he's a streaming option that you play the right matchups. And you won't always get it right, like Jared Goff. I feel like people think Jared Goff is an auto start. And in that respect, I would put cousins in that category. But I understand. Like if you say three times.

If you say should Kirk Cousins always be in my lineup three times, he will not perform for you. No, he'll get one of those bad. I mean, you know, he's on pace for 680 pass attempts, brother. Oh, I love the system that he's in. But, you know, how long is he without Justin Jefferson? We don't know. I mean, the nice thing, we should talk about that because part of the threat of like people are, you know, do I trade Justin Jefferson? Do I keep him? Do I wait? Do I not wait? Part of the narrative has been. Justin Jefferson might not come back if this team is circling the drain and they trade Kirk Cousins and they now they're three and four in a winnable division. I think they're going to keep competing. The schedule is not bad. They play Green Bay this week in division. They win that game in my opinion. I know it's in Green Bay. It's a close, you know, the line. Green Bay, Atlanta, the Saints, Denver, Chicago. Wow. Bye week.

Win, win, win, win. Those are five winnable games. To me, so Jefferson's coming back, if that's the case. Yeah, to me, Kirk Cousins is in, he, I'm playing him, like, as a must start until I, until the system changes. If you had to lock. This is, it's like, now, I guess Brady was, was not good last year, but the point being, they were throwing so much. I believe Minnesota has. Zero rushing touchdowns, which that will bounce back. I thought you were going to say zero rushing attempts this year. They will eventually get rushing touchdowns, and that will be devastating for Kirk's value. But they're just throwing it so much. And with, even with Jefferson out, you have Addison and Hawkinson. I mean, those two guys can absolutely get the job done for fantasy football. So until.

Further notice, I think that he is in the must-star. Would you rather lock him in or golf? Kirk. I would rather lock golf in. I think I'm on the Kirk side just because the rushing game in Detroit's going to have its weeks. Yeah, and Montgomery will be back. What in and about, so they play, they have a game this week than a buy week. Yeah, I expect Montgomery back after that. All right, another voicemail question. Hey, ballers, big man of the show. Quick question. After the Gibbs breakout. Are you trading for Jemir Gibbs? And if so, what would you trade to try to get Gibbs? Now is not the time. Yeah, I am not trading for Gibbs off of a big performance. You trade for him off a bad performance because you believe it will come. Also, I believe that it is probably worst days ahead when David Montgomery comes back and reclaims the...

primary ball carrier role. Not that Gibbs will be bad or irrelevant when Montgomery is back, but, you know, let's say Montgomery is back this week, right? We would rather have Montgomery than Gibbs. Yes. For fantasy purposes going forward, right? So like, I would. Yeah, I would. I mean, Andy in the redraft basically said he definitely would where he drafted David Montgomery. So, yeah, I'm not trading high for Jameer Gibbs. right now. Instagram question coming in says, can I play Josh Downs over Chris Oliva? And so the old can I? That's the, can you give me permission and take the blame if it's wrong. It's your team, brother. You can do whatever you want. You can. I would not. I realize that, you know, you've had a couple really good games with Josh Downs with Gardner Menchu.

That doesn't mean that it's going to be universal and 100% of the time when he got a 59-yard touchdown to start the game on a broken play. That is really cool. That is not prescriptive or easily repeatable. Points per game, Olave is still ahead of downs, even with the big games. I mean, he's at 10.4, downs is 9.8. Good. 15 targets. Olave has. Yeah, Olave had 15 targets last week. It's just not getting touchdowns. One touchdown on the season. Olave is more talented, more targeted, more important to the offense. Drives faster. Yeah, it's true. That's true. Than everybody but than Addison. Yeah. Can you name the top five target leaders in the NFL right now? Ooh. Just totals, raw totals? At the wide receiver position. We'll go.