Week 9 Waivers & Season Ending Difference Makers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/29

We had a report yesterday that Brian Thomas would miss two to four weeks or was in danger of it. The MRI was more positive. He's considered day-to-day. It's a contusion. He could play this week. He could miss a week. He could miss two to four weeks. Yeah, well, you know, it depends how minor it is, Mike. Gabe Davis should be fine for Sunday's game with the shoulder injury. Doesn't mean he won't leave it early. And we have one week, one week until the day we're all looking forward to. Next Tuesday. November 5th. The trade deadline. The NFL trade deadline. Yeah, baby. Yep. A lot of big stuff happening next Tuesday in the National Football League. And Deonti Johnson could find a new home. In fact, some of the teams rumored for Deonti Johnson that all makes sense, the Chargers is a pretty good football team that need a wide receiver. Tampa Bay has been mentioned. They've lost Evans, at least until after the buy.

They've lost Godwin. Godwin, who did say he might be able to make it back for the playoffs. So there's a handful of other teams that are in the mix as well. But we'll see. He's probably leaving the Carolina Panthers. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll have the waiver wire. Illegal shift. Shift. Yeah. That's what we all heard it. We all heard it. I wondered why the whole room reacted to me just, you know, hosting the show. No reason. Like a professional. No reason at all. You know what? I'm going to take this play off. You must be tired. All right. It's an important part of the show. You got to let the main guys handle it. We're in the main segment. Week 9, 49th Steelers, they're on by. And we're getting into the waiver wire. Jason, you tweeted yesterday.

for the running back position. And I was with you on this. This was, there's not a lot of good options out there at least majority for running backs. Yeah, majority available because, you know, the one name that's kind of under 50% barely that, you know, you'd say go and pick up would maybe be Jalen Warren, but he's going into a by week. Pick up what? I don't understand. Yeah, what are we doing? What is this person? To the waiver wire. You really did. He really did. He took the play off. Now we can talk waivers. Unfortunately, we are going to start at the running back position. And I say unfortunately, because there are no good waiver wire pickups. There are still one. There's one. Jalen Warren is a good waiver pickup. No, he isn't. He's going on by. I don't care about the buy week. I care about the rest of the season. He's a good pickup. He's not a good spot start this week because he's not playing. You guys were debating this yesterday.

Okay. No, Jaylorne is a very good waiver pickup. This is a player who scored a very not nice 6.9 fantasy points in his first game with Russell Wilson. Followed that up with 6.9 fantasy points with the second game with Russell Wilson and now goes on by. I'm not excited to get a player who hasn't hit 10 fantasy points on the whole season that I have to wait a week on. He's not a very good pickup. I disagree. Well, then we're in Fistakuffs because you're wrong. I think he's fine, but Naji's looked great, man. Noggi's not going away. This is a backup running back. Noggi looked great last night. I agree that Noggi has looked quite good, but I'm just saying that I am concerned over their second half schedule that Noggi will not look so good. Which is why you're going to...

fight each other right now. Obviously, you're not going to pick him up to play him this week. I believe that the best pickups this week are the insurance running backs. The guys that are available on a lot of waiver wires, the Blake Corums, the even Isaac Garindo. You've got, you know, a deep Braylon Allen. Those guys at least represent a path towards a future with an injury ahead of them. To me, it'd be looking more short term. I know 10 carries is coming Algiers way, and I know 10 are coming Zeke's way. So if I had to throw somebody in my lineup, I think those are the two players that I'd go that direction. Yeah, Tyler Algier would be the spot start. They've got Dallas this week. Dallas's defensive line has, they're all in the hospital. So Tyler Algear's been getting enough work to be a spot start. You know, he's.

He's rostered in about half the league. Same with Zach Charbonnet, rostered about half the leagues gets enough work. And at least with Charbonny, he gets some targets. I mean, they all stink. Yeah, I think we're all little dissatisfied with the options. I would probably protest Garindo versus Warren because both going into the by week. Sure. Warren is one injury away. Garindo is two at this point. But, you know, Ty Chandler's been not utilized whatsoever. No. Ray Davis, he's the injury away type of player. Dalvin Cook is cooked. Yeah. And, uh, Dearness Johnson is worse because you should now have, um, take Bigsby is ahead of him and you, you expect Travis Eton to be back. I will, I will throw Keaton Mitchell's name out there as a player to.

Pay attention to. He's been on IR. I'll just matumbo it right back to you. That's fine. I'm just mottomboing it right back. In most weeks I wouldn't. But Keaton Mitchell was a really explosive rookie last year who for the Baltimore Ravens got injured and left. We have seen Justice Hill be pretty relevant. Yeah, they like Justice Hill. I expect when Keaton Mitchell comes back, it's still Justice Hill and Derek Henry. This is why you don't drop Devin Singletary or Jordan Mason is because you don't need to be making. Some weeks, and I was talking to Al Borland about this last week, some weeks you do, and I just want to say this, sometimes you need to sit it out. Like you don't have to go spin fab, is my point. You can put in some zero bids if you want insurance back to throw at the bottom of your bench, but sometimes you just sit it out and let other people bleed a little bit of fab.

and you just move on to the next week and spend it then. If I have a spot of the insurance running backs, like Blake Korn would be at the top of, look, we know that Kyron has gotten hurt in the past. A lot of work. And he's just, he's out there so much. So it's just playing the odds of who's most likely to get hurt. Like the guy who's taking almost every single running back attempt? Oh my gosh. Is that why Richardson sat it out? Yeah, yeah, he didn't. Can't get hurt when you're on the side. So Blake is at the top for me. Ray Davis is,

Ray Davis and Kamani Vidal Sassoon are probably two and three. It's like just looking at J.K. Dobbins. Oh, Keaton Paul Mitchell. I got you. Yeah. Oh my gosh. We got Keaton and Paul Mitchell in there. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. Fantastic. I will say this, like all of our waiver wire rankings are on the site. And if you want them customized to your league with who's actually available and you want to see that order that we have based on your scoring settings and everything. You can go to join thefoot.com, become a support of the show, get access to the ultimate dashboard, which is coming to mobile very soon, potentially this week as well, and learn more about that at join the foot.com for those. That's where, you know, the strength of schedule tool, the consistency charts, all of the streamfinder. The resources that we utilize on the show, but also in our leagues, all available there for supporters at join the foot.com. One last name. I could throw out at running back just to.

grab and stash would be Marshawn Lloyd. He is eligible to come back this week. I haven't heard that he is, but he is eligible to come back. Sure, that's a good one. And he was, you know, an exciting, highly drafted rookie running back for the Packers. I would be so excited for Lloyd returning to a bad team. That's how I feel right now. Because I feel like the Packers are very on their way. Who is the running back that is getting work there that is just the worst and shouldn't be playing? Thank you. It's Brooks. That guy, every time he's on the field, I'm like, why is he playing football in the NFL? It's Chris Brooks. Yeah. So that's why I like Marshawn Lloyd, because Chris Brooks has been on the field. Yeah, I mean, Josh Jacobs, it happened again because Jordan Love went out of the game, but he's been, like, there's, there's opportunities in there for another running back.

Looking to the wide receiver position, I want to mention five names that are 60 to 70% rostered. So they're probably rostered in your league, but I'm going to mention these five and just tell me who you like the most of this group if they were out there. Ridley, Keon Coleman, who has quietly put up three out of four double digit weeks. Josh Downs, who in spite of Richardson, nine targets four for 109 and a touchdown. Juan Jennings, who we confirmed is coming back from the by. No Brandon Ayuk rest the season. We saw what Jennings did without him. And then Jalen McMillan, who missed some big plays, might have caused people to doubt the spin of Fab. Those, and did I say Ridley? Yeah, you did. Okay, so those five names, all of them are 60 to 70% rostered. So they could be out there. Who's your favorite? My favorite would be Calvin Ridley. With Hopkins gone, I think he's got an opportunity. And the strength of schedule rest of the way is absurd for him.

Of those guys, if I need a play this week, it's Keon Coleman. I think long-term, my favorite of that group is probably Juan. Okay. Yeah. But obviously, he's on by this. And if Flacco gets named starter, we're all Josh Downs is number one. So that's like a question I was going to ask of. We're talking about, hey, you know, maybe keep an eye on Joe Flacco. Because if they're going to make a change, I lean that they don't make a change to Anthony Richardson, but it's just. okay, let's prepare in the event that it does happen. What kind of action are you or preemptive strikes are you doing with the Colts wide receivers? Because if it's if some, if they move to Joe Flacco, Josh Downs, great play. Michael Pittman, very relevant. Like he goes back to being a high end wide receiver, low end wide receiver too. I think Downs is the only preemptive strike since we have production with Richardson. Okay. So you kind of mitigate like the fab is worth it.

potentially no matter what. These guys are probably not available. I like this Ron Jennings mentioned because he could become more available this week. He could hit waiver wires because people need somebody to play. So you should pick him up, drop it like it's hot. Looking below that percentage of roster ownership, Cedric Tillman's going to lead the way this week. You're just going to look at the Brown's wide receivers. All of them, Jason, you said you watched the film. Yeah. But Elijah Moore had 12 targets, 8 for 85. Jerry Judy, five for 79. Cedric Tillman led the way in part because of two touchdowns, seven for 99. When you looked at all three of those guys on film, was Cedric Tillman far away the best target? Yeah, Cedric Tillman was far and away the best target. I did not watch his film and get wowed. I wasn't like, what an incredible player. Wow. You know, there were there were some.

there were some opportunities for him to break some tackles that he failed on. It was very similar when I watched Giovante a couple weeks ago, he had a great game, and I was like, he gets what's given to him, but he's not doing anything super special on his own. That being said, the utilization, and what is given to him is why I really like Cedric Tillman. I would put Cedric Tillman in the category with all those guys that you said, they're heavily rostered. They're probably not available in your league. To me, Cedric Tillman is a must. grab target. They are using them. They had a couple screens, but they used them down the field. They used them on some crossing routes. He's a big bodied player. He's got a very wide target radius. And if you compare him to Elijah Moore, he's just got more ways he can do important things for fantasy. They use him further down the field than they did Elijah Moore on a consistent route running basis. And

He can box someone out, body them. I think he's got to be 6-2-215, something like that. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but just watching him on film. He seems like a big target for James Winston down the field. I love that. Nine targets is great. 26% target per route run over the last two weeks. And those two weeks are important because those are the two weeks where Amari Cooper wasn't there. It's even more important now without Deshaun Watson. But this is, it's important to remember, Cedric Tillman. was a rookie last year. This isn't, you know, Elijah Moore, I have a real struggle with because even though the targets were there and he looks, he looks fine. He's not good at football. We've had years and years of him not being. I don't know. Sure, we don't, we don't know, but there are years of him not getting it done. His mom knows. But the, but the years of him, so Elijah Moore. 21, 22, 23, 24. Elijah Moore is in year four of his career as a rookie.

With the Jets, he was, like he had this stretch where it looked like Elijah Moore is going to be a thing. That's why we are even here having this discussion. Then he was still with the Jets. Like he was still with the, like where even Garrett Wilson is getting a bejillion targets but doing absolutely nothing because the quarterback play is so bad. He goes to the Cleveland Browns. Whose quarterback play is like no one is doing anything. I mean, Amari Cooper here and there, but then mostly when Joe Flacko took over, that's when things happened. So I just, I don't know. I don't know if he's bad or good. He can get 12 targets and be outside the top 24. 100%. That's what he does. I mean, he's seven a catch this year. Like, we don't need to talk about this last week. He was 10 to catch in the game with James. Yes, this last week, there were two plays down the field. But the majority of his routes are, are worthless fantasy routes. There, there, you know, there were probably four or five plays where his, his route wasn't even a route. It was like,

Just go stand over by the sideline. Literally just stand there. Just answer this question. When you start Tillman or would you start more? Oh, Tillman. Did you start Judy or more? Judy. Would you start Najoku or more? Nogoku. Would you flex Chub or more? Touchdown opportunity. So, yeah. I do think, I think Elijah Moore is a fine waiver pickup for people in need and a full PPR that might, you know, he could, he could end up with six, seven, eight receptions and have a. a fantasy floor. But yes, Cedric Tillman looked good enough to be my main waiver pickup this week. It's such a disaster in our League of Record losing Tillman. Like I had him before the week in anticipation of this and just. Just drop some fab on him. I don't have any fab. I know. Parker, Washington, Gabe Davis, who are you interested in Jacksonville to take up the disgusting mantle against a tough Philly defense this week? I think I'm going Parker.

Um, you know, we had a little bit of excitement for Parker Washington last year when he, uh, as a rookie, it didn't last very long. But it was at least a little bit there. It's just where, who's going to play where? Like is, if Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas are back, is Parker Washington now the, the slot wide receiver? Like, does he replace Christian Kirk? Is he go to the outside if one of these other guys are out? There's a lot of huge questions here where he's not. In a normal 12 team, I want to add him, but I don't want to play him yet. But I think that he's a good speculation ad for that you can get cheaper. Like, Tillman's going to be expensive, very, very expensive this week. If you can't get him on your roster, you've got to find other cheap options. Okay. You know, if I had to pick between Parker, Washington, and Gabe Davis, if I knew Gabe Davis was healthy, I would obviously go Gabe. He is...

He's a veteran player who's had big games in the past. He's even had big games already for Jacksonville this season. Big game. Big game for Jacksonville this season. Singular. On the road in London had the two touchdown game. But the opportunity there with potentially without having Brian Thomas Jr. as well as no Christian Kirk. It just says he we've seen him have a big game here, but big games in the past. He wasn't very necessary to this office. He might become necessary. The truth is it's going to be Evan Ingram. Yes, it will be. Seven billion targets this week. Maybe some running back involvement from Travis ETM when he returns. Other names that you want to bring up on today's show, again, you can see the full wide receiver rankings list, but any names that you think people are going to forget about, like Xavier Legat. That was the name I was going to bring up. Xavier Legat is, you know, he's had flashes of.

of brilliance, a few great catches had a touchdown this last week and the rumors about Deontay Johnson being traded. If Andy Dalton comes back and Deontay Johnson is not part of this team, you have a first round rookie wide receiver who is going to be forced fed the ball and see what his athleticism can do. Second half of the year, that would be my next favorite pickup. Mike, do you have some other names? I mean, I would just with Lee Gett. I'm at least going to throw out the name Jalen Coker. He's another rookie wide receiver for the Panthers who went four for 78 with a score. So I need to dive into his film and just to see if anything has a mirage or not. But he was in the opportunity for him will be there. The rumors about Deonté feel like they're like.

Deontes being traded. That's how it's being reported right now. Well, put it this way. Last week when Deontay Johnson didn't play due to injury, the questions in the locker room to the head coach, or not in the locker room at the press conference, did Deontay Johnson not play because of being traded? Like that was the, it was already thought like, oh, he's not playing because they don't want to get him injured because they're going to trade. Fair enough. And Coker ended up in a draft Kings lineup for me a couple weeks ago because his snap counts had been going up at that point already.

with the Anthe Johnson involved. It's a good name to bring up. You know, we didn't see much from Demario Douglas. Drake May got hurt. I want to throw one name out there almost certainly rostered. He's like 70% rostered. But since we threw some of those names out there, Jacoby Myers is going to be a really good fantasy asset rest of season. So maybe this isn't a waiver. Maybe there's a little trade for target on the cheap. I don't think anyone's excited about Jacobi Myers. But with. Devante Adams being gone, Jacoby Myers being back. I believe that he'll have a lot of work rest of season. It does seem like he will be the most consistent, whereas like DJ Turner and Trey Tucker are not getting the level of involvement in the offense to be viable. And I would be willing to drop them. I drop Christian Watson. Yeah, I'm fine with that. That's a drop candidate. Someone brought up DJ Moore. No, I'm not doing that. Michael Pittman, I would not drop him right now. I drop him for Tillman, but.

I would rather have Tillman than Pittman, but to Mike's point, if they make the change to Flacco, Pittman becomes a, I believe, a really valuable fantasy asset. So I'm going to hold him for now. And just keep your eye on Houston, on the Texans. We did not get an update yet on Stefan Diggs in the knee, which is, if it feels like the Rishi Rice situation all over again, where we just, we know that he's hurt. We know it's probably bad, but no one is. giving us information. Yeah, we're two days away from the injury at this point and still have still under wraps. All right, before we jump into tight ends, we'll take a break. I'll make sure that I've hit all the appropriate drops, and then we'll continue with tight end defense and quarterback. All right, gentlemen, tight end pickups. We had the big week from the tight end position, lots of touchdowns. Kate Otten.

was one of the stars of the week. Nine for 81, two touchdowns, 93% of snaps. That is the most offensive snaps of any offensive skill position player since the beginning of 2023. Is that a lie? No, it's not this week that I believe like he has the most. So Kate Otten has been. Oh, you're saying on the totality of the year. That makes more. He is a snap warrior. He's always, he's always been on the field. He just. had never gotten targets. He is the tight-in six right now. He is highly rostered, but K. Dotten really is, like, it's Cedric Tillman. The priority ads for me this week are Warren, Tillman, and Kate Aughton. Should Kate Aughton be out there? He gets to play the Chiefs this week. He thinks it's not great, but tight-ins can do okay. And it's just, he's always out there, and now they need him. And he's...

over the last month has really been showing out as this is a player who can contribute to the Tampa Bay Bucks. Well, and with Baker throwing so many touchdowns on a weekly basis, that is definitely a player to pay attention to with no Godwin, no Evans, two weeks till the buy, heavily rostered. Zachary's continues to get it done in this offense. He is the kind of next best target behind. Terry McLaurin. He had a slot machine this last week. He was seven for 77. I mean, he's been very, very involved. See, I thought you many played in the slot, but you were saying, you were going sevens. You like it when three numbers line up. I'd call that more of a jackpot. Jackpot? Yeah. Okay. That's fine. He had a jackpot this. I like that. That is better. That's an upgrade. Thank you, Mike. He's on pace for 96 targets this year. So gross. It's not gross. He's a good player.

He's a good football player. We've spent five years trying to retire him. He's not retired. He is a, I mean, he will get what's there. He will. smash Adam Troutman on a weekly basis. I'm just going to put that out there. If that's the barometer, I'm just saying, darn right it is. If you're giving this guy 100 targets, he's on pace for 770 yards, I would hope for not 777. Well, you know what? I submit week eight of the 2024 season for your evaluation. Okay. First of all, you had to type over there, which meant you were not sure about that. I saw you type. I knew. I knew because he got a touchdown. Yeah, submit.

submit one week per four years. Mike Gisicki is a name we have to bring up. He got completely overshadowed on national tight end week because he didn't get a touchdown and there were 17 of them. But I actually believe Mike Kosicki might have been the best tight in this last week. He had eight targets, eight important targets. He was seven for 73 had incredible catches. One of the better catches of the year. The outreaching arm was Brilliant. They also had a third and long where he, who dined behind the defense and was just a really smart play. He's involved in this office while T. Higgins is out. That's the headline. I would never play him with T. Higgins. 100% true. This is a weekly play against the Raiders. If T. Higgins doesn't play, I would, I would be fine to throw Gassiki in there. And the latest report on Higgins is what, day to day? He's day to day. Ah, ah. Yeah, wait until he practices again.

Yeah, so the thing about T is he is always day-to-date. Oh, other players to pay attention to, we did get a little bit of Tassum Hill back on the field. So, you know, they're not going to have Shaheed. He could be involved. And Kendrae Miller got hurt. He's just such a scary start anytime you give him a chance. And if Quentin Johnston, who didn't really practice this last week, if he's out again. Spot start, Disley? Spot start the big Montana, baby. Will Disley. You talk about 19 targets over two weeks. Dad Will Disley. You talk about 13 receptions over two weeks. That wheel disley. You're talking about a bunch of yards over 120 yards. That tied in. Thank you, Will. Thank you for what you've provided. Big Montana, but yeah. To this show. I hope someday we meet Will Disney. And he just has the thickest New York accent.

Like, no, you're big Montana. No, we did it. We did that. The research and development department is from Montana. That is where it comes from. He is also enormous. So the big part of big Montana is his size. A lot of times, I will admit, the nicknames on this show are not of the highest caliber. They may not even be considered good. But big Montana is it like how was that not? nationally someone has to have picked up on this listen his nickname on pro football reference do you know what it is oh it's not good please tell me it it's uncle will bad who wants uncle will uncle will is who you hide from um busted yeah there was a time you weren't in you were not in mike i've really no i've always been in on the name big montana no the song it's the music that's

But you're here now, right? Look, sometimes you've got to lean in. Yeah, it's too fun. Just enjoy it. But he is a Montana prairie. He is an okay spot start if Quentin Johnson is out. There are a number of defensive options this week. I think for managers to look at the Saints against Carolina and maybe Bryce Young, the commanders who've been playing great. against a sack prone Daniel Jones in New York. I love that. That's the defense that I would want. Is that your favorite? That is my favorite of the ones that are widely available. I mean, I love the Bengals against Las Vegas because the Bengals are at home this week. I like Minnesota against maybe Anthony Richardson, something to monitor there. I would throw the Giants out there as a pickup, not for this week against the Washington commanders, but sometimes with defenses, you want to look two weeks out. Yeah, it's a week ahead. And so.