Week 11 Waivers + Full Stream Ahead, Legal Cheating - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/17

I think he's at the top of my list to 6-4-220, heavily involved, end-arounds, screen passes, went 7 for 101. You know, T.Y. Hilton is washed in terms of fantasy value. He's a single-digit player each and every week. The name is the only thing. He's on so many waiver wires where when I go and I'm like, let me put in my waiver claims for the week. Like I legitimately, I think last week, I think I signed him and released him the next day because I fell for it. I was like, oh, that'd be a nice name on my bench.

But then I looked at it. And I was like, gross. I'm letting you go the next day as a punishment. The catch and release. It's a catch and release. This one's too small. Throw it back. And Pittman is somebody that is, you know, you need the, it's like Jefferson, right? It's like Rager. You need the upside of a player. Like we don't know the ceiling of Pittman. And you need the explosiveness of a player like Pittman where you have the ability to turn one play into, you know, a big play to win your week.

Pitman is somebody that, you know, when you talk about bolstering your lineup, I like the mysterious upside. Yeah, Pittman is up there at the top of the list. And the reason that I wasn't very gung-ho about him is because he does have a difficult matchup against the Green Bay Packers. And we're looking at, oh, we need to, we need guys, we can pick up, play right now, get a win.

But if Jayre Alexander is not past the concussion protocol, he missed this last week, then they're not as worrisome a matchup as it appears at first glance. So if he were to be out, I think Pittman would be a really, really good play this week. And on top of that, Tennessee, Houston, Las Vegas, Houston. Those are the next four matchups for Michael Pittman, who, in my opinion, he's about to break out and emerge as the number one.

wide receiver for the Colts. Yeah, I agree. And if you have to trust an offense more between the Colts and the Patriots, you're taking the Colts option, even though he doesn't have a 40% target market share, it's a much bigger pie. So right now I would probably go, if I needed to play a player this week, I still think Myers is a better play than Pittman. But in more of a holistic view, I'd go Pittman Myers. And then I'd probably.

I probably slot Rager in there at this point, just with the upside and integration of the offense, both those players, Michael Pittman for the Colts, Jalen Rager for the Eagles, have upside, have the ability to become a kind of center piece of their offense overtime. Are you picking up Jacoby Myers? Let's say you're locked and loaded. You just need that one flex play at the wide receiver position this week because you're in PPR. Do you want Jacoby Myers or do you want the upside of Brashad Perriman who we mentioned?

For the Jets, he will have Joe Flacko he's taking on the Chargers. It's very close. I guess I would take if my team was pretty steady, I think the upside is higher for Perryman. If I need a floor, the floor is higher for Myers. Yeah, I agree with that. The name I think Andy brought up, but we haven't really talked about him. Josh Reynolds needs to be someone that is looked at. Since week four, who do you think has more targets? Robert Woods or Josh Reynolds?

Since week four? Yes, it's Josh Reynolds. He's been really involved in the offense. He's playing north of 80% of snaps. His target share is great. Four games ago, he was the wide receiver 26. That's great. Three weeks ago, he was the wide receiver 26 again. This last week, he was the wide receiver 20. This is a guy on waivers that you can pick up. He's getting targets. It's not, it's hard because he's not the one on his team. He's not the two on his team.

He's getting targets like a one, but I get it. Josh Reynolds isn't someone that I am gung-ho about that I really want to start, but he is someone that's on your waivers that you can pick up and you can put out there who's getting targets on an offensive that can score points. And his percentage of 15 plus yard, air yard targets is really high. So he also has the chance of breaking a big play for a touchdown. Yeah, I mean, when you look at this offense, you know, that Robert Woods game is not.

downfield generally. And in Cooper Cup, they take a shot or two across the, you know, like a seam route. But he's close to the line of scrimmage very oftentimes as well. You lost Brandon Cooks. And this could be the deep threat that you need on your offense. I think you're going to see what you've seen from the Rams every year, which is kind of a transitioning change in the offense towards the back half of the year. I would not be surprised if the tidings got more involved due to the lack of production from Woods and in Cup as well. So, uh,

Interesting names at wide receiver. You know, we laid it out there. You guys can make your call based on your team dynamic. Let's talk some running backs. And don't forget Sammy Watkins. No, please forget Sammy Watkins is out there. We're bringing up. What do you mean? Don't. We're bringing up. We're going deep. Sammy Watkins should be back from injury this week. I don't know that McCall Hardman will be available. And he's had big games. I'm just saying. I know you're under contractual obligation to the lizard people to mention it.

My goodness. Well, at least we get to hit this drop again. Yeah, it's better when Sammy's involved. Yeah. Okay. Running backs, let's talk about drop candidates first before we turn to some pickups for the week. J.K. Dobbins is a player that you feel like you must roster. And yet, the pathway for J.K. Dobbins, look, we've already seen Ingram out, right?

And it still hasn't been smooth sailing for J.K. Dobbins. This offense has struggled at times. You lose rushing production due to Lamar Jackson. I think Dobbins is not a must hold anymore. I agree. I think Dobbins is someone I would probably move on from because while he is an insurance option, you can't play him while Mark Ingram is healthy, right? You can't do it. Correct.

And so he's an insurance option. Markingham goes down and now he becomes a startable usable asset. But compare him to those other guys like Tony Pollard, where if the starter goes down, he's just the guy. Right now, if the starter goes down, he's now in a better time share. Do you apply that same philosophy to all three running backs for Baltimore? Would you let them all go? Like if you had Gus, would you let him go? If you had Ingram, would you let him go? Yeah, if I need a roster spot this week and I've got any one of these three running backs.

I am fine moving on. It's incredible to release all the running backs from the team that I think is number two in rushing in football. I would be holding on to Gus personally. He looked the best last week. He has been getting goal line carries when they get there. So he's not, maybe you have a better option. You know, like Naheem Hines, we're going to talk about him. I probably would prefer him. But Gus is not a, you have to drop him to me.

Melvin Gordon, Philip Lindsay also been asked about. I think you can let Lindsay go. I would not let the guaranteed carries of Melvin Gordon go. I'd just be kind of holding my nose and putting them on the roster, starting them if I needed him. Love Bell, I think we all agree. You can move on. You can drop him. But the number two question, so when we put the thread up and people are submitting their drop candidates, number one was Marquise, Hollywood Brown. Number two was Jonathan Taylor, running back for the Colts.

always a threat to score from the one. They may be very clear. He's a threat to score from the one yard line. Not the two, not the three, the one. So the way that I look at this, and I know we've had plenty of heated debate over this backfield. This is a player where since the buy, extreme disappointment, not really involved, hasn't looked good.

But if you're only taking that three-game sample and throwing out the six weeks prior where he was the running back 15 and very involved, I think that would be a mistake to just cut him and move on. If he was on the waiver wire, I would certainly be picking him up and rostering him because the schedule is beautiful. He's still a rookie that is, you know, things can change for him. This is his rookie season. So I'm not cutting Jonathan Taylor. I don't mind keeping him on your roster.

I think that makes sense just in case something happened. That being said, we just talked about J.K. Dobbins. And J.K. Dobbins has looked a whole lot better as a runner than Jonathan Taylor. So just keep that context in mind. This is a team that's willing to turn it over to Heinz on any given week. Turn it over to Wilkins on any given week. We've seen that happen. So Taylor is somebody that I think you probably can stash and hope you either. I mean. Just gets back to what we saw the first six weeks where he's.

I think that was still a disappointment for people. Absolutely. But, you know, we're talking about J.D. McKissick here. We're talking about other waiver wire pickups where there are B-2s. They're just solid RB2s that you can plug in. If he gets back to that and you don't have the expectations of having a top five back. Yeah. But the running back 15 to 24, great. Anything to add there, Mike? No, I agree. I would keep it. JD McKissick is near the top of the.

the list. Now, he might be rostered in your league. He probably is. But, you know, he's just getting targeted, 15 targets last week. Yeah, 14 and 15 targets. If that was a wide receiver, that's incredible. It's a running back. So, yeah, he needs to be, if he's available, grab him. I mean, you pretty much should look at him like a slot wide receiver. He's not really running back. Alex Smith has one wide receiver of note, Terry McLaurin, to target.

And then he has a slot-wide receiver named J.D. McKissick. Naeem Hines, is tough because we've been here before. We've been here before. And look, he was the best runner on the team last week. He was the best pass catcher. And, you know, he's had some pretty nice games this season. The team trusts him more than they do the other two backs. So.

You know, Green Bay, Tennessee, Houston. I think Heinz has to be rostered, but I'm not spending the kind of fab that people were spending in week one thinking this was an every week thing. No, I agree completely. I don't think he's going to dominate every week like we saw or hoped in the beginning of the year. But if you really look at the targets, they're not J.D. McKissick level of absurd. But he's getting five or six targets in most of his recent games. That's enough of a baseline to give you.

the opportunity to get those touchdown games, to get those upside games, or where he just looks, this is the thing about the Colts is they say, oh, we're going with the hot hand. You hear that so often that you just forget about it, but genuinely, this is a team that's going with the hot hand. When Jordan. It's 100% true. When Jordan Wilkins came out and just looked like, oh man, he's got it today, then they're like, we're going with him. When Naheem Hines, if you watch this last game, from the get-go, he was like,

wow, he has got the juice today and then they just ran with him. So that's the danger, but because of his target upside or his target reliability, if he has the hot hand, you're going to have a baseline and then an upside. Yeah, I think the only, you know, when you play Jonathan Taylor, he could score a touchdown. When you play Naeem Hines, he can catch some passes. If you play Jordan Wilkins, you're not really getting either one of them. Jonathan Taylor some heated mittens. Get this man a hot hand.

He's not doing it himself. I'll tell you. All right. My favorite two pickups at the running back position are these next two names, though. By far. Damian Harris and Kalin Belage have the best one-week match-up situations that you could ask for. Belage has been very relevant for two consecutive weeks. Six targets last week. Another 18 carries clearly has surpassed Joshua Kelly in trustworthiness out of that backfield.

And has the Jets this week. So Belage, two straight good weeks. And then Damien Harris has Houston this week. The identity of this offense right now is the running game. And Damian Harris is the running game. 22 carries against Baltimore ends up with 121 yards. He had a delightful 55% of snaps. Told you, Mike. Told you, I'd get you. That one got me. Yeah. Highest of the season.

So I like Harris a little bit more than Belash. I think both are great one week pickups. And look, Belage, if he holds onto that role, like if Echler doesn't come back, we already know Justin Jackson's gone. He gets Buffalo next week. Buffalo can't stop the run either. So it was nice to see Tremaine Pope back in the lineup and only used really on special teams. It said that Kalem Blage was the player they want to go with right now. And again, Joshua Kelly just has.

His role. These are the Joshua Kelly Downs, where we just want to give someone a breather, get two yards, give it to Joshua Kelly. He's your guy. But I agree. I think Kalem Blage is a better pickup over the upcoming... If you need someone for the upcoming three weeks, I would go with Belage. If you just need someone for this week, Damon Harris against Houston, look, he didn't get the touchdowns. It was sexy Rexey. Rex Burkhead had...

Two touchdowns last week. But Damien Harris was the offense. 22 carries, 120 plus yards. If he gets in the end zone, he's a monster, that's a monster fantasy week. If I'm in a full PPR, I'd rather have Belage this week. If I'm in a standard league, I'd rather have Harris and probably a half-pointed rather have Harris. Mike, where do you weigh in? I agree that if you're getting that PPR bump, you've got to go with Belage. I mean, the problem with Harris is he's not going to score a touchdown.