Week 1 Studs & Duds + Reactions & Reality Checks - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/9

Even if you have what feels like a really gross option, I'm just playing Giovante right now. He looks bad. This isn't a, oh, man, things didn't go with the right way. No, he looks bad. He's got a rookie quarterback who also looked bad. Yes. Bo Nix had the lowest A-DOT, I think, that we've seen in quite some time. It was something like three. So, uh... Which Bo Nix can do well, but most guys can do that well. But Bo Nix had more yards than Caleb Williams. Bo Nix looked really good sometimes and really bad sometimes. Anything downfield that the two times he tried to threaten on downfield balls were horrible decisions. Triple coverage on both, picks for both. He was two for 12, two for 12 on any throw over 10 yards. That was from Greg Rosenthal. It's not going to get it done. 42 total yards and two picks.

DeAndre Swift, this was not good. Ten for 30. On 70% of snaps, that seems impossible to do and didn't get past the football. So the Bears were a Mirage win this week on offense. This was a defensive performance. This was a meltdown by Will Levis. This was the special teams making a play. We need to see so much more from Caleb Williams and companies to have any confidence in their fantasy players. Chicago offense was putrid. I mean, arguably the worst of the week. Yeah, I mean, that's a fair, it's funny. Shout out, Daniel Jones. Yeah. Bryce Young, what's it? So arguably third worst. Arguably third worst. I want to go back and just try and figure out what happened, a piece of the puzzle together because we're watching early, early in the game. DeAndre Swift gets a touch and you're like, he looks fast. He's fast. He, I mean, and that's what Swift is as advertises is fast. Probably not a very good running back, at least in my opinion. And we're like, man.

But Swift, if there's a hole, he'll get there and he'll get you some yards. And then we get to like halfway through the game, like, Jason, Swift's like five carries for six yards. What happened? Nothing worked on offense for that team. Nothing did. Well, I mean, they were playing against Tennessee. Well, maybe that'll be true in the end. We're gathering that strength of scheduled data and it's going to need a few more weeks. Rahim Mosterred out of a game as bad as it gets. It's concerning. I thought both players. would be good this week, A-chan and Moster. They were both starts the week. One was the start. One was a huge fart. And neither ran the ball well, though. Like the yardage on the ground was bad. And there are Moster games like this. 44% of snaps. I'm not out on Moster permanently. Next week against Buffalo, we want to see more. This is a watch the injury report situation. There was a play where Moster looked like he hurt his shoulder. He played very few snaps from that point on.

So I think that is actually part of why you saw a lot of Jeff Wilson towards the end of the game. I think that Jalen Wright was inactive. Right. So wrong. Correct. Right. Amen. Yeah. So we'll pay attention to this, but I think it was more injury and snaps than just bad performance. All right. Chuba was not good. Six for 14. This offense is bad enough for you to be scared. Zemir White was not good. 13 for 44 and the worst part was he only played 38% of snaps. Yeah, both of these players. You had, you had Miles Sanders with five carries. So it was a split with Chuba. And then with Zemir, what happened was there was, I think this was a hot hand situation. Zemir started as the starter.

You watched him get everything at the very beginning of this game. And he did jack squat with it. It was like killing drives. And then all of a sudden you have Alexander Madison get his hands on the ball. Cool, man. Hurtle a guy run for a 31-yard touchdown. And then they were like, okay, he's the hot hand. We're giving him the ball the rest of the way. And so this is, I mean. And they blew this game because Antonio Pierce was a was a, was a, what a coward. Fourth and one in positive position with little time left and you need a touchdown? I apologize. Four minutes left? Something like that. Four minutes because they never got the ball back. It was egregiously cowardice. I actually want to reel that back because I don't think it was being. Oh, I don't. I think it was I don't think it was cowardice. I don't think it was cowardice. I think it was just pure bad.

It's a decision-making. It seems like you should be able to do it. You're on their side of the field. You need a yard. If they kick a field goal, it's a two-score game. You cannot punt that ball. You need one yard. I agree. You can't call them. I agree. Coward isn't. It's a dumb-dum. You're a dummy. So my dumb-dum-dum. Dumb-dum. My zoomed-out look at Samir is it could be hot hand. I need some more data here. But it's the Madison Rand. 24 routes. Zamir ran 10. Like that was pretty much my entire concern with with Samir White is that that Madison will be the receiving bag. He was only 3.3A to carry too. Yeah. He didn't do enough and they played Baltimore next week. So you may need to save him through to Carolina and see what happens there. He was not where like Chuba got game scripted out because the Saints just blew out. You know who's in trouble? Chuba and Devon Singletary. Singletary.

is in trouble because that offense is in trouble. You cannot, it just brings back memories of when Cleveland said they wanted to run the ball with Isaiah Crowell. Yeah. And then you came out and your defense was so abysmal that you don't get to do what you want to do. I disagree. I agree with what your take is on you can't. always run the ball a lot if you're down and they're always going to be down. But he got five targets and he played 70% of the snaps. So you're okay with you think Singletary versus Chuba is a safer situation. One billion percent. Chuba's in a split. Devin Singletary's usage behind the scenes were great. And one of the storylines that is, you know, you go away from week one and you try to make your, you know, we're talking about the Falcons like, is Kirk going to be a problem or was it the Steelers defense? The Minnesota defense.

you know, versus the Giants offense. This is one to watch. Like the Giants offense looked beyond putrid. But also, maybe part of that needs to go to Minnesota, whose defense really looked good. Their defense got clicking last year with Flores. And so this was tough sledding for Singletary. They go up against Washington this week. I'll bet Singletary has a great game. Okay. All right. That's good perspective. And you probably, I think I agree with you on the fact that Singletary's bad game was. You know, the snap counts, not being in the committee, gives him some hope and better matchups. At wide receiver, Alman Rae St. Brown, three for 13, we've already talked about it. This was just weird. And we know how good a player Almanra is. You just move forward. Jamar Chase, six for 62. They played so poorly, and now you've got to go to Arrowhead. Now, you don't have Sneed. So Jamar Chase, you're going to play him. But it was not encouraging to see Halbero played. Olave.

Let's talk about it. Uh-oh, Lave. Yeah, Chris, uh-oh, Lave. 47 points. 47 points scored. That's part of the- Are you kind of choking up a little bit? A little choked up. Part of it is that he was completely unneeded, right? Similar to what we saw with the DAC having a bad game. The early touchdowns didn't go to Olave, and Derrickard didn't need to throw the ball much, didn't throw the ball much, right? Not 200. passing yards because this team won they just blew the doors off of a hapless uh panthers team there's no doors there's no walls there's no there's nothing there's there's a foundation just a minute no cement slab is gone

There is nothing left. I know you could take the foundation and disrupt it. I thought the setting a good foundation was the whole point. 47 to 10 is there is the twister hit. You don't even know there's a house there. That is the whole point. The problem is they never set a good foundation. Oh, sand. Bryce Young is the sand. They traded away a hall for sand man. The sand man. Oh, Bryce Hall is the sand man. For sure he is. He's the sand foundation. Do your work, Al. Sandman should be easy enough to figure out. So you're not worried about a lave? I'm not. It's not a good start. It's not a good start. I'm not super worried about a lavee. Now he plays against- Two targets sucks. That does suck. But no one on this team had a bunch of targets. That's true. So I, you wash it away. But Dallas next weekend, Dallas is going to be very, very difficult. We get to talk about it now. And if you check out-

He was my bus pick. I'm just saying it. Marvin Harrison Jr. was one for four. He was the worst performing rookie wide out of the week. He had three targets. There is a very good tweet out by Kyle Borgannoni that shows the breakdown of his routes. The Cardinals' offense, they got up 17 to 3 against Buffalo. I don't know if they just decided to go hyper-conservative at that point. They did. And try to protect. a presumed win or what? Well, the opening part of them getting the lead to was they were getting incredible catch and run out of the running back position. They did not target Marv and they did not look to him early. I don't think they got conservative. I think they are conservative. Like their offense looks kind of dumb. Like they don't throw to their outside wide receivers. We saw this last year and we thought, oh, it was a talent issue. They need better outside wide receivers. But the way Kyler's

work in the field. It's like Dorch and Trey McBride. Trey McBride might have finished, you know, poorly, but he was still involved. His target share was good. It was, but it was also. I think there was at least, Kyle, I don't, maybe you remember, at least two of the recept, of Trey McBride's receptions were that fourth quarter were going down to, to try and tie whatever it was, and they were just checkdowns to McBride. I did not think that I genuinely, and I'll say this right now, I did not think, When you look at the grand scheme of the offseason and projecting Marvin Harrison, I didn't think a game like this was possible for him. So I'll say that to start. I didn't think it was possible for your wide receiver one to play every snap, to be out there, and to go one for four. I did not think that that was in the realm. I thought even if he wasn't as prolific as Middle League neighbors on the big games, that you would never get a game like one for four. So that is a reality check. We need Marv seniors.

To come in here. He is. He will. There was the clip of, like, oh, what's something that your son should do better? My son needs to go tell the quarterback that you need the ball. So Mr. Jr., Mr. Harrison, Jr., go tell Kyler that you need the ball. Listen to your father. Be a good son. Drake London, two for 15, 56 snaps, three targets. This is why Drake London was a risky pick. is because this is what you've seen from Atlanta for all of the time Drake London's been a member of the offense. It's Kirk. I'm afraid of Kirk. That sentence after week one is why Drake London was a risky pick in fantasy football because he's never done it. And if you're just afraid of every quarterback he has. Well, I mean, we talked about going into week one about how this could look so like, duh.

how good Drake London is going to be for fantasy. And it was all based around the fact of like, if he's got a healthy Kirk Cousins, we're going to go out there and be like, duh, Drake London is the one for a great offense. So this is really Kirk Cousins watch. And I think it's not red alert yet because this was a great, unbelievable defense from the Steelers game. I want to see that Philly game next week. Exactly. I want to see him against another week of confidence in the Achilles. That's another thing. This was his first game on that. So week two, this week two is where I'll start. Don't panic on Drake, but be careful because if cousins isn't cousins, there'll be a problem. We already talked about Tankdale. We can move forward. Amari Cooper, nine targets, two for 16, had a brutal touchdown drop. He did. On a pass that Deshaun Watson chose to take a huge monster hit to get him. He was out there.

Jerry Judy left with an injury, he had the touchdown. Brighter days ahead for Amari Cooper. We know that Najoku's week to week on injury. This was one that I think you just chalk up to Dallas defense and a drop. Because if he scores a touchdown there, we're not even talking about. Yeah, a little bit. But the, so that I like nine targets. I do. I mean, that one particular play, that is Amari Cooper's fault. The rest of them, though, are like Deshaun Watson. looks like a big problem. Give us James. The way that Kirk, I'm concerned about. James would be great. Give us James. The way I'm concerned about Kirk. I'm also concerned about Watson. Oh, I'm that tri- That's not fair. That's not fair. Well, one of them is injury related. Yeah, but I'm just mental injury related. Yeah. Watson's been bad since forever. DJ more Roma dunes at Keenan Allen. We talked about those lots of targets, no catches. And we need more yards.

Rookie quarterbacks. A storyline. Jackson Smith and Jigba, two for 19. Look, it's one game. It's one game, but Tyler Lockett was healthy. I had been saying that he was healthy because they're managing his load and he had been warming up in all these preseason games. He was their best receiver. By far. He had better numbers than Metcalf and J.S.N. Combined, Metcalf, huge disappointment. People should be mad. That was the worst one I've ever done. That was the worst one. I'm so sorry, everybody. You don't have to be sorry. I had a YouTube comment that came through and they thought that I was chewing tobacco on the show. They thought that it's a very professional of you to be chewing tobacco while doing a podcast. That's my life now.

Just for a couple more. For those that are new to the show and don't understand, if you hear a whistle, if you hear something weird from me, if I can't say the letter S, I'm still dealing with my front tooth being knocked out. I'm sorry. I'm not chewing tobacco on the show. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. Or off the show or off the show or ever. Yeah, I have never part took. I think that would be about the billion. thing I could see you do. Could you imagine? I'm going to start putting in a Wad mid-show. That whistle was amazingly loud. Yeah, it was good. Metcalf and Jason. Jason, I thought that the time was not yet here, but I'm not willing to victory lap this. I'm just saying if what I said ends up true, which is that Metcalf and Lockett are the better receivers today, you will never be happy with Jason. And for Metcalfe, he had.

the newly paid Mr. Patrick Sartan on him. So that's a, that, that sucks. Metcalf will be fine. That sucks, but that happens. Yeah, I had an expectation going into this week that Metcalf was going to have a bad week. The JSN thing is legit and the locket looked great. Pittman had eight targets. He was four for 31. He can't get downfield and doesn't need to the way that Doolin, Pierce, and Adonai Mitchell will. That was the only worry, and that was the reason all three of us had Pittman regrettably lower in the rankings. It was not a lack of love for Pittman. It was a realization that they're not going to throw that much. When they throw, he's inaccurate. And when he throws deep, it's not Pittman. So those three things mean that he was the focal point of the passing offense. He was 40 plus percent of the targets. It's eight of 19. It's insane that you end up with four for 31 with that. Yeah, it is. Yeah, I mean, his routes aren't as valuable.

All right, really quickly because we're going very long today, but we needed to. Panic alarm levels. Christian Kirk won for 30. Let's just go out of 10. 10 is I'm crying and I'm putting them on. I'll go 6. I'm going to go 7 because Brian Thomas Jr. is awesome. Terry McLaren, 2 for 17. I'm going with a 9. I'm going to go 8. Calvin Ridley was 3 for 50 in this game against Chicago. Jalen Johnson. DeAndre Hopkins was one for eight. Give me Ridley. Ridley is going to be a seven. Will Levis was a knucklehead man. I will go four on Ridley. But yeah, the theme of today's show is if you watched all the games yesterday, we don't have enough quarterbacks. No. In the NFL? Yeah. I think Ridley will be okay. Chicago's a great defense.

The Jets are a great defense next week. Yeah, that's going to be the challenge. So maybe Jason's right. Josh Palmer, two for 15 and was ejected. Get out of here. Cortland Sutton, 12 targets, 4 for 38. Palmer got McConkeyed. I love that. McCongley got Mick Lucky because he. No. Yes, he did. No way. If he doesn't score a touchdown, give me his line. Okay, let me look that. He had a short area touchdown. He was five for 39 with a score. Okay. That is exactly the worry with McCona. That's exactly what we said about Monconkey. That if he gets in the end zone that week, you'll be happy. And if he doesn't, you'll be sad. But the thing that I'm pointing out, though, is he had 44% of the wide receiver targets. He had a 29% target share in his first game. So this is a game against another, you know, not good offense in the Raiders and a great defense where they didn't have to throw the ball much. They're not going to throw that much. They're not going to they're never going to want to. But there are going to be games where they need to. Disley, Hurst.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. Palmer, Quentin Johnston. I get it, and his targets will be short. But a 29% target share in week one, I'm thrilled with. All of them. We've already talked about tight ends. All of them. Are you worried about any of the big ones? Because I am not. Maybe, well, I was kind of out on Kincaid. The only one I would be a little bit worried on from utilization was Kincaid. It was concerning to see him not be. the two targets target leader let alone like he wasn't even they were in a negative game script yeah it was that one was concerning i'm not like you you know pulling a rip cord yet but he is the of the of the big five he's the only one i'm just playing my breath on yeah 100% play him next all right um you got a bonus extra long episode today bonus and tomorrow guess what we get waivers and streaming options it's a big show maybe the biggest waiver show of the year is week one when you get a

you know, take your shot on some players. So we've got a big week two waiver show tomorrow. Check out the community, the ultimate dashboard and tons of tools at join the foot.com. That'll do it. I'm going to go get some more tobacco. What do we? Get a spatoon over here. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join the foot.com. and follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers.