Trade Targets, Snap Count Surprises, Shark Bait

My goodness. I mean, this is... There were a lot of them with wrecks, a lot of injuries. Let's talk briefly, and we'll jump back into snap counts. Jason, you were in the middle of an incredible sentence. Sorry. I'm sad. But James White. Oh, yes. I mean, if your confidence level is not high on the, you know, two-minute drill, third down, blitz protection, all of the things that James White is proficient in.

I don't think Sony Michelle is going to be a, you know, on the field all the time. So James White's going to be out there in, what, 40, 45% of the snaps, if not more? Yeah, James White's a great target. I don't believe Sony Michelle is the past catching back that a lot of people thought. So since Rex Burke had had that skill set and that's gone, I love the idea of picking up Sony of James White. But I, you know, also Sony. I mean, had I known that Rex Burke had was going on the IR,

I would not have traded Sony, and that's coming from someone who is not a huge Sony believer. It's just you want a piece of the offense. The goal line opportunities when the offense starts clicking should be there for Sony. Wow. All right. I believe Jason was saying actual NFL team's opinions change about players. That matters. The more confidence they get, the more opportunity you'll have to put them in your fantasy roster. And really, we talked about this with tight ends.

If you're trying to decide between a few guys and you're deciding between 60% snap count and 80% snap count, and they're, you know, a coin flip. Otherwise, I go with the guy that's going to be on the field. There's just more opportunity for something to happen. Yeah, 100%. So let's start with the Lions wide receiver core because we brought them up a little bit earlier this week. But it was very interesting. In week three against New England, Golden Tate's snap count went down to 74%.

It was 84 and 81 the weeks before. You know, Marvin Jones is still out there, 90, 100, 90. And Kenny Galladay has been out there just as much. 92%, 92%, 87%. Gallaudet and Jones don't leave the field, pretty much. Yeah, Golladay and Jones are always out there. Golden Tate is the slot receiver. I think if you look at what happened in week three, this was more of a standpoint of more run formations. This is just fewer.

All three of the Lions wide receivers had fewer snaps. I'm not concerned about Golden Tate dropping down to 74%. If you see that in a vacuum, that's one thing. But both Carry On Johnson and Legerat Blunt had 16 carries apiece. That's 32 carries just between those backs. So I think this was a situation of trying to get the game over while you're ahead of the Patriots. And that's true because the Lions running backs, theoretic in week one when they were being blown out.

60% of the snaps. 28% of the snaps last week. I mean, they were not in a position to need to throw the ball to him, dump it off, two-minute drill, that type of thing. Carry on saw 44% of the snaps last week, which is actually the same as the week before. Billy Garrett Blunts went up as they ran out the clock. But the question on the wide receivers, I mean, plain and simple, half point per reception league, you have to start one of them. Who are you picking? Lions wide receivers? Correct. Kenny Gall did it.

Mine would be Golden Tate if it's a half point on a regular basis. I would take Kenny Gulladay for the touchdown. I would rank them right now, Golden Tate, Kenny Gulladay, Marvin Jones. And I know I'm putting Marvin Jones third and I pump the brakes on Marvin Jones. But I'm not actually against Marvin. I think he's a fine option for your team. This is a passing attack that should be able to work. But I want volume more than anything. I think that's still going to be living with Golden Tate. The biggest problem I have with...

Picking Tate there is simply the fact that, like, you, he never finishes in that upper echelon. Right. You're not, he's not going to be a wide receiver one, certainly. But I think he's going to be, you know, slightly more consistent. Seven receptions, seven receptions. And even this last week, only on the field 75% of the time, six receptions for 69 yards. If you're in a half point league, he basically got you 10 points on, on a bad week.

The Jaguars, wide receivers. In week three against Tennessee, Keel and Cole went in his three weeks. Keel and Cole has gone from 75% of snaps to 83% to now 93% of the snaps. I think he's, I mean, we all agree, he's kind of the guy on this offense. He's the only one you care about. And he had, I believe, he had double-digit targets this past week. Only had six catches. And that was really a Blake Bortle's issue. Bortle struggled.

mightily this past week nine targets nine targets could not for the life of him find his snake it was it was missing he was not blake the snake no he was terrible okay yeah that's what it was uh uh dante moncrieve he realizes what he has done yeah moving on

Didi Westbroke. My man. Dedy down to 68% of the snaps. Dante Moncrief up to 84% of the snaps in week three. Do you read into that at all? Yeah, Dante. Hopefully we get some more base slapping. Yeah, you had the touchdown in. I was so happy to see him slap at that base. It was great. But Dante Moncrief isn't a good.

receiver. And so that's his number one problem. He'll have, you know, he'll have games with touchdowns in the future. He's not going to be 100% irrelevant, but he's going to be 100% never on my team. Quincy and Noonois, Robbie Anderson, Terrell Pryor, if you want to know how they've been doing. Just look at, J-E-T-S. Yeah, Quincy and Nunwa. 84% of snaps in week three, his season high. Robbie Anderson, 66% of snaps down from 81 the week before.

Robbie Anderson had the fumble. Robbie Anderson is over. Yes. Yeah, 100%. He's over until, now he might resurface based on one of two things happening. If as the season progresses, Darnold improves, they start opening the playbook. He starts going down the field. I could see a second and a half resurgence for Robbie Anderson, but not in the next few weeks, not in the next month, month and a half.

That's going to be late in the season. Or injury to Sam Darnold, Josh McCown comes back in, scoop Robbie up off of waivers. In the meantime, it's Baxter off the bridge situation. You punt him, you get rid of him. And it's important to note, I mean, an unwa's snap count went up despite the return of Jermaine Curse, who had targets.

Anderson was the one who suffered from Jermaine Curse's return. Curse was out there. Charles Pryor actually had his highest snap count of the year at 69%, but is irrelevant for fantasy. Yeah, Quincy's great, and he's a guy that needs to be rostered, needs to be started in most weeks. I almost pumped the brakes on him this week. I didn't think he was essentially good enough to pump the brakes on, but he's Jacksonville. Because he's playing Jacksonville. So this is just going to be a bad week for the Jets receivers and Darnold.

I want to cover two more situations, then we'll get into the Thursday night preview and some mailbag today. The Chiefs, the running back situation. Week one, Kareem Hunt was 71%, week two against Pittsburgh, 69%. Last week, 61% and then Spencer Ware was up to 23%, his highest snap count of the year, which fits with the recovery from the injury. He needed some time to get more acclimated to share snaps. Now, 61% of the snaps is great.

for a running back. That's not a complaint. The problem. The problem, I love Michael Keaton, is that Cream Hunt has exactly one reception on the entire season. He has three targets. I'd be trying to trade Cream Hunt. I don't blame you at all. He had two touchdowns last week. That's not going to happen every week. And this is the time to go trade him and pick up somebody more with a heavier load in the passing game. Yeah, this is not.

This is not a fire sale by any stretch for Kareem Hunt. No, correct. He's going to be a usable fantasy guy. He's, I mean, he's 16 carries, 18 carries, 18 carries. Andy Reid's finally getting that part right. We're getting near 20 carries a game for Kareem Hunt. But Pat Mahomes does not check down to the running backs. And this, Kareem Hunt was so great last year because he was a 50 reception type of guy with Alex Smith.

Right. With Pat Mahomes' version of a checkdown is a 35-yard pass. Yeah. That's like I'm just going to, you know. Oh, my 50-yard wasn't open. I'll just check it down here. Dumping down to 35 yards. I saw him look at Kareem Hunt a few times. And Creme Hunt was wide open. And Patrick Mahomes said, I would rather die. This is for my honor. And then he just throws the ball away. He just throws the ball away out the back of the end zone. Not going to do it, Hunt.

Well, actually, guys, I have a little different take on that. I think what he's worried about is actually throwing the football through Kareem. If you try to dump it down to harm within the first five or ten yards, it might just go right through. And that would be. That's a salt. That's a salt with the deadly football. So look, the truth is, if I could go, what I'd be looking to do is take, take Kareem Hunt, take another player, and go get Sequin.

Sure, yes, absolutely. Something like that, because Cream Hunt's name value, Sequin's name value, look, maybe you want Sequin right now, but if you gave somebody Hunt and a middling wide, like a wide receiver two type of candidate? Right. Like who's to say that Cream Hunt and Larry Fitzgerald doesn't get you Sequin? Well, Larry Fitzgerald won't get you much right now. I think you'd be better off offering Calvin Ridley and Cream Hunt. Just saying. Get the hotness off the waiver wire. All right. The Seahawks running back situation changed drastically in week three.

In week one, 44% of snaps for both Carson and Penny. In week two, 30% of snaps for both Carson and Penny. In week three against Dallas, you at least saw the recipe when they are winning. And Chris Carson had 72.5% of snaps. Rashad Penny had 14.5% of snaps. That is a rusty penny. Yeah. Not good. It's Chris Carson from here on out. I still...

Honestly, do believe Rashad Penny is a second half fantasy player. I don't think Chris Carson can keep up with a 32 carry type of a game with the way that he runs. Yeah, the way he runs, he's going to get injured. Correct. I mean, I don't wish that one. You ever see that dude with his shirt off, though, man? He's got.

He's Bill. Is he? Yeah. Oh, he's built. He's an NFL running back. Show me. He's built yet Pete Carroll said after six carries last game, he was too gassed to play in the second half. It was because of the special teams because of those like three or four percent of the special team snaps that he took. Yeah. I mean, he carroll's a liar. Chris Carson is the is 100 percent the guy you want.

As someone who believed in Rashad Penny coming into this year and, I mean, certainly thought that that would be his role, first round draft pick. You have to pivot. You have to change your pick. Are you going to try and target Chris Carson, though? Is this a long-term belief? It's a long-term belief. I don't think it's going to go away by play. I think it'll go away. If it goes away, it's going to go away by injury. But I'm not targeting Chris Carson because right now you're paying up for a guy who just got 32 over 100. It looks like the...

three down or at least, you know, the every, the full workhorse back for a team that I don't think is going to be able to run the ball well in general with that offensive line. So no, I'm not, I'm not targeting him right now. You're certainly starting him over Penny. Oh, yeah. And that was a decision last week. It was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I figured maybe this is the time they'll pass the torts with Carson being. It did look like it, but nope. The Seahawks are not to be trusted. All right. Thursday night preview before the mailbag here, we're talking the one one and one.

Minnesota Vikings. One, one, one, one, one. One, one. Fresh up their Buffalo Bill butt kicking. They have to. It puts the lotion upstairs or gets the bills again. Wow. Does that Buffalo Bill? Yes, that was a Buffalo Bill butt kicking.

Buffalo Bill butt kicking. They might have another butt kicking coming their way. They travel to Los Angeles to take on the Rams. The Rams are 3-0. The Rams are six and a half-point favorites at home against the Vikings. That's quite the line. I mean, I know they're at home. But the Vikings were expected and are expected to be a Super Bowl contender. So this just tells you the confidence that we have in the Rams right now in that offense.

All right. Well, look, the Vikings, their defense hasn't been as stout as it was last year. They are missing Everson Griffin. I mean, that is really telling ever so much. Ever so much. He's a guy you need to monitor, see when he gets back in. I don't think he's playing this week. Jared Goff's been on fire. He has 16 completions for 20 plus yards this season. He's got...