Week 5 Waivers + Burnt Toast, Full Stream Ahead - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/4

It's Tuesday, so that means it is Waver Day, and there is a lot to navigate. We had some unfortunate injuries, which raises the profile of some players, but is their situation a trap? Stay tuned as we talk through all of those, and of course the news, make sure you subscribe to this channel, like this video, and enjoy. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Visit Samsung.com to learn more. Hey, this is Austin Neckler, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Tuesday, October 4th. I almost said a different date. I'm right. It's October 4th. We'll never know. That is correct. Thank you, computer.

You already making Halloween plans, gentlemen? We got to come up with our costumes, fellas. We do. I know what Alan Robinson can go as. Oh, a ghost. Goodness gracious. I mean, I don't want to start the show the way I ended it yesterday, but I will. Look, I fully recognize. He could also dress up as burnt toast because his career's over. But, no, this one. This one was ridiculous. It has been ridiculous in Los Angeles. They are not a good offense right now. They can't get the ball down the field. I didn't think O'Dell Beckham was that important to this offense of Robert Woods was. But here's what I want. I want when the play begins, I want Matthew Stafford to look to the side of the field that Alan Robinson is attempting to run a route on. So he's, so just.

So Alan Robinson is stacked with Cooper Cup then? Then he can look that way? Those plays, yeah, he does look that direction. But it's just been frustrating. And you've seen like Marcus Spears and Robert Griffin and all these other people on Twitter complaining about it. Now, I don't know if Alan Robinson is open on many of these rounds. But I certainly know that Matthew Stafford has no idea either because it's just, he's out there on, it's compounded. I think he knows. It's compounded by the fact that he's out there on every single snap of the game. So when you watch him, you see him every single play. And you hope. Every play's a new hope. Sure. It's a new beginning. You're like, this is the one that he'll look at. And the only way that you know he'll get a look is if he's inside the 10-yard line. Because I think he's had a red zone target.

Every single game. If they get inside the 10, they try a fade, it fails. And then they move on to Cooper Cup. And is what, 14 catches last night or something? I think Stafford knows. Like over the course of training camp and over the course of the preseason and everything, Stafford probably just recognized this is not going to work. I need to throw to somebody else. What is the status of Van Jefferson? Because it seems like he'll have a role to play. when he gets back. Yeah, $46 million for nothing. That's where it's interesting to me. This is the whole compelling argument and point of Robinson to begin with. Sean McVeigh invested $46 million in Alan Robinson. Is you, I have said where you are currently sitting, because that was me last year with Alan Robinson. He was on my team. I was very invested in what is going on with Alan Robinson and just watching going, I.

I'm not sure that he's good anymore. And the fact that he was able to take what he did last year. Oh, man. Tricking NFL team. Like, it's fantasy football players. It's, it's rough that we, we missed on Alan Robinson, the hopes of being on this offense. We aren't the Rams. Do you know what it cost you to draft Alan Robinson in your draft? Exactly. Nothing. You, we are not professional NFL scouts. We are. We are guys who live in the basement of our parents and play fantasy football. And the Rams got it incredibly wrong. That is correct. Yeah. And it is. So take solace in that. If you drafted Alan Robinson, just remember the Rams are paying him millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. This is why I do lay it at the feet of Sean McVeigh and Matthew Stafford to a degree.

Alan Robinson might be completely toast, but Alan Robinson has historically been one of the lowest percentage separators in the National Football League for his entire career. He was never a separator. He was a contested catch, throw him the ball and see what happens. I just wanted to see what happens to happen. But why would you see what happens when Cooper Cup is open on every single play? But the argument against that now is, yes, you're right. He can soak up a bunch of targets, but they are not explosive plays. I agree. They have lost two of their games so far. Their offense, I mean, he forced it to Cooper Cup and threw a pick six last night. It's just not working. So it's frustrating. They also cannot run the ball. Correct. O'Dall Beckham is not run the ball. O'Dell Beckham is not their.

loss that really matters to me. It's Andrew Whitworth and the offensive line struggles not able to run the ball. I think that's part of why you snap and you look for Cooper Cup, who you know is going to be open, even though it's an inefficient play. You know, it wasn't even 10 yards of reception. Their offensive line has problems. And it's okay when you play against a mediocre defense. They can scheme away. But the 49ers defense, we went into this game saying, seven sacks. Exactly. You know, it was like. They look like a great defense, but they've played mediocre NFL teams. Now we're going to see, are they a good defense and their pass rush against a really depleted Rams offensive line? How are they going to do against Baker next week? I think it's going to be really not fun to watch Baker Mayfield try and play football. I think Matt Ruhl's career ends next week.

Okay. I think it should. I don't think it will. Well, it should have ended earlier. Yes. So, you know, Monday night football, Debo, Samuel, we had been saying pick him up because the day was coming that you were going to get vintage Debo. He gave it to you a 57-yard touchdown where he broke tackles and bounced off of people and made Jalen Ramsey look stupid. He just made the Rams look like a bunch of clowns. Jeff Wilson. Was great. 18 for 74 had a 32-yard touchdown. What is Jeff? George Kittle. Uh-oh. Two for 24. Uh-oh. It's not good. Uh-oh. I mean, this is why Kyle Pitts is just such a better option at tight-in. No, I mean, he has not been targeted a lot. And you don't know if this is coming back from injury. Jimmy Garapolo was not the starter two weeks ago. He had a touchdown called back, so you were close, but.

No cigar. Yeah, I mean, he was, I believe, only blocking 11% of the time. So it wasn't an issue there. It was just the targets weren't going his way. On the ram side, it was the Cooper Cubs show 14 for 122 in the loss. Tyler Higby is a PPR monster right now. I think this is from what I was watching last night and early this season. When going gets tough in the pocket, it's Tyler Higby right now. I'm backpedaling and Higby is running routes to save me being Matthew Stafford from disaster and it's working. So 10 for 73 on 14 targets. I mean, 14 targets for him, 19 for Cooper Cup. To me, it's he, Stafford was going to have two options. And the process of the options really being Cooper Cup and Ellen Robinson.

I still think that over the offseason with the information we had, that was the sound process. It is incorrect now, and it's Cooper Cup and Tyler Higby until, like, when Van Jefferson comes back, that could shake things up a little bit. That could affect where the target share is going, but until there's another good option for this team, Higby is going to be a very safe yardage play. And if Matt Stafford was not incompetent on two throws, Tyler Higby would have had at least one touchdown. Who has more targets on the season, T.J. Hawkinson or Tyler Higby? Oh, it's got to be Higby. It is Higby. How about Mark Andrews? Probably Higby. How about Travis Kelsey? This is another way to say he has the most targets of all tight ends. There is not someone ahead of Tyler and Higby. Yeah, it's been, it's been an interesting season for the Rams in general. A reminder, the fantasy footballers.

We'll be live on Thursday night football this week. We will be covering the Colts, Broncos game, watching, calling the game, reacting with you, answering fantasy questions, potentially screaming at the television. Potentially. We're going to cry together. You know that's happening. We're going to laugh together. Watching Melvin Gordon fumbles together. Oh, man. That's potential. Yeah. Five in his last five games. Is it five? I thought it was like four. Well, preseason. You got a, you got to pile on. When you got a chance to jump on the dog pile, I like it. You do whatever it takes. All right. Let's move into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA insurance. Speaking of the Broncos, unfortunately yesterday it was confirmed Javante Williams, a torn ACL, LCL, and, boy.

Jason, why don't you pronounce that word for us? Postilateral corner injury. Nailed it. This is a significant, significant injury. If you think about, you know, not every ACL injury is the same. J.K. Dobbins was coming back from an injury more akin to this one. J.K. Dobbins got injured over a month earlier than Jvante Williams did this year. And right now we are finally probably this week able to trust J.K. Dobbins. We still don't know if he'll ever return to pre-injury status. It'll probably be another year from now. But this coming week is the first time you could plug him into your lineup with any kind of confidence. So fast forward, say it's at the same timeline, another month into the season. You're talking about Giovante Williams probably not being a very important.

Highfalutin fantasy option for next year. Highfalutin? Uh-huh. Like going to upper echelon parties and... Now, is that... Isfalutin a word or is that just like you're... You're stretching out the word flute as in he's like a high level flute player. Oh, it's a word. It's a word. It's a word. It's a... It's a... It's a... It's a... It's not two words. It's not high-spacedfalutin. No hyphen? No hyphen. No hyphen. Highfaluton. You've never heard of high flutin? I've heard the word, but I always figured people were saying, talk about high level flute players. It's incredible. Hi. No, I mean, the point is, is Jason, I guess at one point thought that he was going to be a more pompous draft pick next year. And now he's decided that might not be the case. Yeah, well, one of those chest beating picks of he's going to be so great. And instead, it's really going to be.

deep into next year before we can maybe trust him again. So this is really upsetting because not only do you lose him now, that is devastating. But, you know, we're in a keeper league. Andy, you just traded him in our keeper league to someone you took Jonathan Taylor away. And it's like, well, maybe that player's playing for next year. But now that other manager's playing for next year with not that great an asset. It just introduces the whole world of like, Like you said, the Dobbin situation, they will make sure there's depth. That's step one, right? You have to make sure you have depth in Denver now. You can't just trust that Giovante will carry the load because he's coming off a major injury. So you'll have an offseason signing, probably not Melvin Gordon, somebody else, or a draft pick. And then you're going to be like the dynasty future of Giovante Williams has become murkier than it ever was before.

Russell Wilson also dinged up his shoulder in the loss of the Raiders. His sore according to Nathaniel Hackett, we expect him to play on Thursday. Mike McDaniel announced that Tua, Tunga Vailoa, will be out this week against the Jets. Teddy Bridgewater will get the start. Jets are two and two, right? Yes. Are they? Yes, they are. I mean, there is no way that, like, even if Tua had cleared whatever concussion protocols. are now in place. The NFL was changing to the things with the NFL P.A. I don't know if we got a final on what was happening there. There was no way optically that Tua was playing this weekend. It was just, for public pressure, you can't do it. If the doctors came out and said, I promise you he is fine, the doctors would have all been fired. Yes, so he will not be playing. But Teddy Bridgewater may throw left-handed in this game. Oh, come on now. Oh, gosh.

But Teddy Bridgewater against the Jets. I mean, the timing of that is sensational for the Miami Dolphins. For whatever the terrible circumstances they are in, at least they are playing against the Jets. I didn't remember to do almost upset last week, did I? I thought you did. I thought you did, too. No. I don't believe so. I'll shaking us head no. All right. Sorry, everybody. Yeah. I was saying that because I'm thinking the Jets might win this ball game. Wow. Did you remember that Zach Wilson's back? Do you want to know, Zach Wilson on the year, Mike? Yeah. Is that the one that you're talking about? He looked good in the second half. How many losses has he suffered in his game started this year, Mike? Okay, sure. I mean, he looked, he's more capable of leading this team than Joe Flacco is. Yeah, I would, I would agree with that. I was, you were, you were constantly watching that game. Yes, I was watching it closely, didn't get off to a hot start, but he hasn't played in a while. And the second half, he looked pretty good.

Well, Brees Hall. Yeah, he's got a superstar running back, so that's going to help. Kenny Pickett's going to start in Pittsburgh. Good. Kenny Pittsburgh. Okay. It's lukewarm. But it's not cold. But it's like, this is not hot. You know, lukewarm. That's what that's. No, define him for me. Highfalut. 23rd in scoring, 25th in touchdowns per game, 30th in yards per play, 25th and first downs. That was the Mitchibisky experience through four weeks. A lot to be determined on Kenny Pickett's utilization. We've talked about it in years past. When you have a player like George Pickens, and he's getting a lot of reps with the backup quarterback, which is Kenny Pickett, in Pittsburgh.

Yeah, it's a little colder. I mean, it was like the same joke. Yeah, because we just did that. But it did not heat up. No. All right. We'll keep it. Just as tepid. We'll keep going. Get the hand on the oven. Crank it up. Yeah, we'll keep it. Give us a good one. We'll keep trying. It's going to be hard to have confidence in how things are going to play out. Deonti Johnson, like I said, before last week was on pace for 187 targets. I think he stays in your lineup. George Pickens is a kind of a risky, high risk, high reward play. And Kenny Pickett's really not on fantasy radar. But it'll be fun to watch because Trisky's not fun to watch. No. Cordero Patterson placed on IR after undergoing a minor procedure on his knee. He will miss at least four weeks, which will play a big role in today's waiver episode. Yes, it will. We are almost to the waivers where we will probably talk a little bit more about.

pickings as well. Okay. Let me think about some jokes. Yeah, I'm working on. It's on the Bunsen burner right now. I'm trying to heat it up. Yeah. We're going to, okay, we need to pause the show. We need to hit the lab and get, get figure out what is the can I can do this on the fly. Don't worry about it. All right. We'll see. We'll find out. Third times to try. Kenny Galladay somehow suffered a knee on Sunday. And things are not looking good for him to stand on the sideline this week. Uh, Cadarious Tony the hamstring, Wondale the knee.

Galladay, the knee. Sterling Shepherd on IR. Colin Johnson on IR. Goodness gracious. Daniel Bellinger, just hanging around. I mean, this, there is going to be great opportunity for whichever wide receiver can heal fastest. I mean, Cadarius Tony and Wondale Robinson, I think that they are. The opportunity couldn't be better for them. They just aren't healthy, aren't able to play football right now. But as far as stashes go, I think they've got a good outlook. And they're three and one, right? Correct. And so we just need to remember that this team is willing to give a lot of snaps to Richie James and David Sills. And so we'll see what the opportunity really looks like. Rashad Bateman, midfoot injury. So he was not on the field in the fourth quarter due to this injury.

another player that we'll talk about with the waivers today in case he misses. Yep. The Manders, Jehan Dodson, expected to miss one to two weeks with a hamstring injury. This gives you a little bit more confidence in Samuel and McLaurin. A little bit. But not a lot. Brian Robinson designated to return. I believe that means the team has three weeks to activate him. Yeah, 21 days. Yeah, that does not mean he's for sure playing this week, but. We're in the process. And meanwhile, you know, the Manders, they get Tennessee, Chicago, Green Bay, the Colts, Minnesota. I mean, I'm picking Brian Robinson up. Jonathan Taylor listed as did not practice. They didn't practice, though, as a team, right? This was a hypothetically didn't practice. We'll find out if he has a chance to play. The report came out yesterday. Nothing serious.

Has a chance to play on Thursday night? I feel like you've got to be pretty banged up to not even hypothetically practice. Like if they're just, you know, thinking about it and you're like, man, nope. If we practice today, we wouldn't even have him be limited. He couldn't work on the sideline with trainers if we were going to allow that. Yeah. I like how they all DMPed, but he was listed as D&P. But I think it's a possibility he's out there. He's one of the toughest players in football. He had never missed a practice before last week and any level of professional play. I totally get it that if you got Jonathan Taylor, and he's active, you're probably putting him out there. But an ankle injury, mild toe turf. You do not want. Toe turf. He's got, that's when stuff is growing on your toe. Boom. It's like a fungus. Stuff acting to neck. I got a big patch of toe turf. To turf.

I think if you're a Jonathan Taylor manager, and this might sound, you might not think this is true of you, but you don't want him to be active. I really don't think that you want to be forced with the decision to sit an active Jonathan Taylor, even though he will not be full strength against a great defense, and he hasn't been great the last few weeks. To me, I don't want, I don't want to face that decision of saying, well, I've got to put him in because I think I won't. I think I would say, oh, stop. No, I'm serious. I mean, Josh Jacobs just had a career week against the same defense. If Jonathan Taylor's playing, he played 88% of snaps last week, he's playing the highest percentage he's ever played, you're going to put him in your lineup. You're not going to pivot to Rahim Mosterd on Sunday. I bet you are right, and I bet that is the wrong decision to make, which is why I'm saying.

Just heal up. Like take the extra week and get right. Jerry John said Doc is not ready to come back. That makes sense. He can't grip a football well. One of the big parts of throwing it is the grip. It's the number one step before you can throw. And the nice thing is they don't really have a reason to rush him back. Oh, is that a Cooper Rush joke? That was a Cooper Rush joke. Temperature level. Okay, we're in on that. Temperature. It's better than... All right. And Kenny Pittsburgh? All right, fine. Somebody out there in Pittsburgh is going to call him that very soon. I'm sure they already are. And I'll get credit for that five out of ten. You betcha. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Welcome to the Fold, presented by Samsung Galaxy.

All right. We're into the waivers. Week four is in the books. Buy weeks are on the way. Week six is the beginning of buy weeks. So we're going to dive into the wide receiver position and talk about who are welcoming into the fold this week. The likely rostered players, Romeo Dobbs, Robert Woods. We should have had the news in there about Traylen Berks. But Traylen Berks has turf toe. not tow turf, and we'll be missing an extended period of time, does not need surgery, but might be placed on IR as soon as today and we'll miss time recovering. So Robert Woods right now is going to be kind of the de facto number one option on a team that has been resurgent in the past two weeks. Yeah, I mean, Kyle Phillips, his teammate rookie wide receiver who has missed the last couple games with injury as well. He was very good week one.

had a very high level of targets per route run. And he's worth a stash as well because we don't know his health. But if he gets to full strength, I think that he will have plenty of opportunity ahead. So Robert Woods probably rostered. Kyle Phillips probably not rostered. And then Dobbs looked great, had several plays where he resembled the Devante Adams of last year where I don't know, Rogers is throwing him open. which is something that, you know, you have to trust these receivers and he's looking pretty good. Now, there's a really specific screen that they run that just looks like a Devante Adams screen. It's like. When they give them some separation. Yeah. It's so fast. Snaps the ball, throws it and the system. And yeah, I saw the same thing you did where they ran that a couple times for a couple times for Dobbs. And it was like, oh, I've seen that play. My biggest.

concern with Dobbs is that you buy in, you go and you trade for him, you invest in the hope that he's the one for Rogers, but you've got this simultaneous like building of Christian Watson's confidence who he's getting snaps. Like this team seems very committed to getting him out there on the field. So I guess I have some concern that, you know, that may diminish the opportunity. Yeah, very well. Might last week was Christian Watson's first back from the injury. So. His snaps should rise. You just hope it comes at the expense of Randall Cobb and not at the expense of Romeo Dobbs. All right. Let's turn to the main waiver wire pickups, though, at the wide receiver position. I'd love to know who you have at the tippy top of your list. For me, it was difficult ranking these guys, but George Pickens is my number one pickup. Okay. Because you are combining, you know, big playability, rookie potential, new quarterback.

The target share last week was 31%. He makes contested catches. I am looking for the home run pickup. I'm not necessarily looking at George Pickens saying, like, you know, is he going to have the best week this next week? I don't know. But Pickens is my number one. I don't know who your guys is number one is. Pickens is right there. I mean, I think part of this is what you're looking for. Pickens is a great pickup. solely because he could become the number one target with the quarterback change, and he is really, really talented. That being said, I still project that Kenny Pickett is good, but not great. He's a rookie quarterback. They're just not prolific when it comes to counting stats. When it comes to your yards and your, you know, completions, there's not going to be a huge pie, I don't think, to split up. And Deontay is there. So while the upside is certainly there for Pickens to just.

you know, Odell Beckham explode on the scene. And if you want to take the shot, take that. I don't think it's going to happen in a, in a super breakout way. Probably not the next four weeks. Buffalo, Tampa, Miami, and Philly. Yeah. Welcome to the NFL. For me, I think it's actually Michael Gallup. Okay. We all have a different number one. Yeah, Michael Gallup. was way more involved than I thought he would be. He came right in off of the injury. They were really slow getting him back. And then they said, you're up. He played the role. He was a field stretcher. It was involved. I think Noah Brown got a little banged up in this game as well. Going forward, his quarterback situation should improve. Sure. And I think that Michael Gallup is a guy who should be able to be started.

as a flex option pretty much every week the rest of the season with a decent level of confidence. Now, is his ceiling as high as the potential breakout of a rookie sensation? No. But his likely outcome of being a starter that you can get fantasy points from week in and week out, I think is the highest of this current week's waiver wire. So Mike's must be Isaiah McKinsey wide receiver of the Buffalo Bills. Yes, it is. Isaiah McKenzie slot wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. James and Crowder, the veteran they brought in their plan over the off season was Crowder's going to be our slot wide receiver. He broke his ankle this past week, so he's out for the season. And even before the injury, McKenzie had played his way into a timeshare, which a timeshare is a slot wide receiver is.