Unsolved Mysteries + Georgie Porgie, Ride the Snake - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/22

muscle memory, mental memory. He's a football player. It's in his DNA. So in terms of an unsolved mystery, I think fantasy players want to know, okay, you're two weeks through the season, but now you've got some tough matchups coming up. You've got the Rams on the road, the Patriots on the road, the dolphins, the Eagles who look great on defense so far, the Bears, then the Saints. Then the next six weeks are brutal matchups. And Grunk did this last year. It wasn't at the very beginning.

So it feels much different. I think that matters, though. But week six through eight, he was tight-in six, tight-in two, tight-in four, and then 47. Followed up, tight-end number one, but then number 32. He's going to, I'm with Andy, that this is a whole season thing that Grancowski is eight. He's a tight-in one. He's probably you could lock in. He's going to be a top six tight-in. Yeah, here's the, here's a deal. If you go box.

score hunting through the last year plus with gronk he really there's been one game one single game where you've been very happy with his fantasy production where he didn't get a touchdown however he gets a lot of touchdown so you're happy quite often in fact this kind of blew my mind so remember at the beginning of last year gronk was coming out of retirement

They had O.J. Howard. So those first two weeks, Gronk was not really involved in the passing game. Throw those first two weeks out from week three through the rest of the season, which is obviously the vast majority of the season. Do you know what Gronk was fantasy football wise? He was the tight end four from week three on through the whole season. He is legit and he's good. However, he is touchdown dependent. He's going to score a lot of touchdowns. For my flavor,

I would prefer to have a Hawkinson, someone that you're going to get, you know, 10 targets every single game, a ton of yardage, and you don't have to. Well, I don't think that everybody is that way. I think some people might want the explosion games of a two touchdowns, which won't be coming from Hawkinson. The big question for me, if you have gronk, is do, are you tempted to trade him away? But, I mean, obviously you've got to figure out what kind of a tight end. I got a perfect, I got a perfect question for you.

Let's hear it. Rob Grankowski for Kyle Pitts. Oh, I did not think that was the best. I thought you were going to go, Porgy. No. I thought he was going on. Mark Andrews. I'll tell you right now, you should trade him for George Kittle if you could do that. Mark Andrews, probably you should. And then Kyle Pitts is another one where it's like, what kind of preference do you want? Do you want yardage or do you want touchdowns?

I think I would want, that's kind of the breaking point. I think that's a very, very fair line in the sand. I would rather stick with the 45 touchdowns thrown from Brady and hoping that you get a monster performance on the regular with Gronk. Then, you know, Kyle Pitts had a very good week, too. I think he was over 80 yards. And that could happen.

a lot, but the Falcon's offense hasn't looked great. He's still a rookie. So I would rather have Gronk over Pitts. But if I could trade Gronk for Hawkinson, Andrews, or Kittle, I probably would, but I am not looking. This isn't one of those situations where I'm going tons of touchdowns first two weeks. I have to move him. I have to capitalize. I think Gronk is legit. I think he's legit. And I hope selfishly for me that by week five.

I'm not looking back after he has to play the Rams, the Patriots, and the dolphins going, yeah, crap. I should have cashed in. I should have cashed out. Yeah, yeah. But my chips are like, I'm riding. I'm riding with Brock. Yeah, I mean, and your investment was nothing. It was the waiver wire. Yep. Unsolved mystery number two, which maybe is the biggest one that exists right now. Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard. Right now, Pollard's the running back 10 on the year. No, he's not. Zeke is the RB 22. No.

I saw a metric yesterday, and the metric was yards per touch, okay? So you're not looking just at carries or catches. You're just saying when this person touches the football, how effective are they? Tony Pollard is presently the number one most effective running back in yards per touch and football. However, it's two weeks of the season.

How do you view this unsolved mystery? What is the lens you're looking through because I've seen everything. I've seen people trading Zeke for Pollard. I've seen people talking about cashing in on Tony Pollard after two weeks. What are the Cowboys going to do and what is demystify this? Do not trade Zeke for Pollard. That would be absurd. The only way that that's going to come.

to fruition is if Zeke gets injured. Look at the snap counts. 84% of snaps to 24% of snaps, week one, in Zeke's favor. Week two, it was 71 to 34%. And I get that. I think that that's probably more accurate for the rest of the season, is a healthier split, a 70, 30, maybe a 65, 35, 35 split in Zeke's favor. You look at the routes run.

they're still in Zeke's favor. The targets per route run are heavy. I mean, when Pollard is on the field, he is utilized, which means to me that they're both valuable, but I don't think. Do you think Pollard will be flex-worthy rest of the season? I think he will be flex-worthy rest of season. He's touching the ball enough and he's efficient enough on his touches. I mean, we've looked back over the last couple of years at some comps. You had kind of the Melvin, Gordon, Austin Echler.

backfield three years ago, where you were happy with both players. Melvin Gordon was great for fantasy and Austin Eckler was great for fantasy. And even last year, Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds, you were less happy with the group, but Kenyon Drake finished as the running back 15. And Chase Edmonds was flex-worthy most weeks, whether or not you had the confidence to do it. But that's kind of how I view. That's scary, though. That statement and that comparison is scary from the...

what you hoped you could get from Zeke. Yeah. Because you can't be happy that there's a backfield where a very relevant other running back exists for the elite production, can you? I think you, well, you're not happy. I mean, you want, you want your guy. I want it all, baby. Yeah, exactly. You want it all. But when I compare those two, right? Like, let's take a look at both of those comps over the last couple of years. You've got Melvin Gordon and Austin Echler. Okay.

Melvin Gordon and Austin Echler, you were thrilled. Whereas with Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds, you weren't. Zeke and Pollard are far more talented individually, just on the field football players than last year, Kenyon Drake, and Chase Edmonds, they're far more like Melvin Gordon Austin Echler when you just look at...

the talent of the player. And so, yeah, it can be scary, but they're just examples of how it can work. And I think the talent wins out. I think that the Dallas offense is one that you really, really want a part of, right? You do. And I think it's just kind of a – minds are getting distorted with Pollard's hot start when you still had Zeke really effective last week. By the way, Pollard's at eight yards from scrimmage per touch.

You guys want to know the other top five? I would love to. Yeah. Number two. Nick Chubb, 6.9. Yep. There is another running back tied with him at yards from scrimmage per touch. Okay. Tyson Williams. Dude, he's been a monster. 6.9. Nice. There's two more after that. Cordero Patterson, 6.5 yards from scrimmage per touch. Melvin Gordon.

6.4 yards from scrimmage. A 70-yard run will do that. I know. I know. Hey, do you want to know the basement or should we leave that alone? Just give me the worst. The worst is Mark Ingram at 3.0. James Conner is the second worst in football at 3.3. Sad. Alvin Camara. Yeah. 3.5 per touch. Sequin 3.7. Clyde 3.9. I thought you were going to say Clyde was the worst. Alvin Camara is maybe a nice segue to the next unsolved.

My piece on Zeke and Pollard is I think our hope for that Zeke could return to being that monster top five running back. I think that is gone. And I don't think that's because of the receiving work. Because of the receiving work. And it's, yeah, Zika's out. He's doing a bunch of pass blocking, certainly. But he's out there. He is running routes. I don't know why. Dak isn't looking for him like he has in the past. Maybe it's just he likes.

Do you know his options with Amari Cooper and C.D. Lamb now? He's just, and the tight ends. He has more confidence in those players. Yeah, C.D. Lamb makes a difference. But if you're seeing two targets a week for Zique, then the top five hopes are gone. Still, I believe, a solid running back one because of the volume and the offense that he's in. So I'm not bailing on Zique. But that hope in the draft season that at the back of the first you got a top five guy, I think that's.

Probably gone. Al, are you playing, you just wrote in our Slack channel that you're playing both. Is that Pollard and Zeke? No, that was in regards to Pitts and Grunk earlier. Well, never mind. Number three, unsolved mystery. We talk about it every offseason. There is turnover at when it comes to fantasy defenses. You kind of have in your mind when you start the season. This is a good matchup. This is a bad matchup. This is a good matchup.

The Carolina Panthers defense and then the Washington football team defense. You started the year saying, hey, plus matchup against the Panthers, bad matchup against the Washington football team. And then through two weeks, the Panthers week won. 14 points allowed six sacks and a pick. Second week against New Orleans, the more impressive week. Seven points allowed, four sacks, two picks. They added Reddick in the offseason, who's been a very effective pass rusher for them.

On the other side, Washington gave up 20 points in week one against the chargers and maybe much worse, 29 points given up to the Giants in week two. Only one turnover. What do you do with these two mysterious situations? Should we start changing the way we look at our matchups? Well, let's take a look at each one individually and keep in mind that this is indicative of the rest of the league.

be open to change, especially on team defenses. There's too much personnel changes on an 11, you know, there's 11 people that make up your defense on the field. So the Carolina Panthers, I really, it's so hard to say because you're talking about they played against James Winston, turnover machine, and rookie.

first game ever, Zach Wilson. Like, this is, you want to inflate and get something wrong? This is set up to do it. But man, I believe, I have watched these games and whatever you want to say about James Winston and his turnover prone nature, okay, that's fair. But what about the New Orleans Saints offensive line that is legitimately very good and got decimated? I mean, just outclassed by Carolina last week. We just talked about

Bottom of the barrel, yards per touch, Alvin Camara? What? He's not bad. He's outstanding. And Carolina shut him down. So when I've watched these games, I've been blown away by the Panthers. I think that they are a really, really great defense. Ooh.

Oh, speaking of this, I just realized our waivers must have gone through. They did. I'm playing against Andy. Did I get the Carolina defense against you to go up against General Mills? Let me tell you the answer that, Jason. I have it. Oh, no. You're too happy. I didn't get them. You saw right through me. You did not get them. Ooh. Man, waivers show suck for me. Your bid was four and the winning bid was six. Darn it. Did you get him, Mike?

No. Okay. Sorry, Jay. That's disappointing that you didn't get them. Yeah, for one of us. So I, my position on the Panthers defense because of how atrocious they were last year, the rebuilding process, and the fact that they played what we've now seen. I mean, there's two quarterbacks leading the league in interceptions right now. They're both rookies. It's Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson. You played Zach Wilson in week one.

You played New Orleans in week two with James Winston, who struggled mightily. I expect them to succeed on Thursday night, but I will be curious how they perform against a powerful Dallas defense, a tough offense to face in Philadelphia with Jalen Hertz running the football, and then the ever-efficient Dalvin Cook plus Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson in week six. So would I sit somebody because they're playing the Panthers right now? No, I wouldn't.