Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 8 Studs & Duds, Rising Stars, Dying in Flames

absolutely humongous game going forward DeAndre Hopkins. Is there anybody you want a head of him rest of the season? I was just going to say rest of season. You want Hopkins or you want Brown? I'll still take Antonio Brown. As will. I. There's a little hesitation there. Yeah, because I get it. But it's just a matter of track record. It's just a matter of, you know. It is. It still is. They're both great. I want both. I'm not saying one is going to disappoint.

But if you've got, you know, we're five years running of Antonio Brown being the most consistent, heavily targeted with this quarterback. I think you've got to stay with Antonio. Antonio's friend, Juju Smith-Schuster, 7-4-193 in a touchdown. Paul Richardson, Robbie Anderson, and Adam Thielen all had big weeks. Adam Thielen. I saw this from, boy, I can't remember who posted it. I don't know if it was fantasy ADHD. I don't know if it was, it might have been. If you're talking about the total reception yardage. Yeah.

That was Scott Barrett. Is it Scott Barrett? Okay. He said sometimes the simplest stats are the most dank. That sounds like Scott Barrett. Yeah. If the word bank is in there. Adam Thielen's leading the NFL in receiving. Second. Well, is he now second to Hopkins? I believe he's second in Yardage, which is. Okay. He was at that point. He was number one. So Thielen, consistent, solid, look great once again. Actually, had a drop in this game. Might have been the first one of the season. And it had a huge catch that got called back on a, I believe, a hold.

We're going to talk about Robbie Anderson shortly. We're going to talk about Juju Smith-Schuster shortly. Hint, hint, it's in the Rising Stars segment of the show. Jameson Crowder, he came back around. He did. He's the best bet at wide receiver right now after this performance? No. In Washington? Well, it can't be prior. He didn't catch a pass. Can't be Doxon. He caught one for one for one. Which is, hey, if you're going to catch one for one, make it a one. Make it a count. Make it a touchdown.

The issue here, and maybe James McRowder does step into a little bit of reliability with the absence of Jordan Reed. Yeah, it reads out. But it is, I mean, it's been a problem because there's just been too many options. One week it was Torrell Breyer. One week it was Doxon. One week it now was Crowder. No one's getting 13 targets, though, which is what crowded in. You saw me. He's the best bet. Crowder, when Crowder broke out last year, it was.

the games when Jordan Reed wasn't there to take those slot touchdowns. Do we need to adjust our opinion of Marvin Jones after 6 for 128 against Pittsburgh? Marvin Jones, I believe, is in the top three in terms of total routes run, time on the field. He's been effective. He's been efficient. I don't think he scored the last two weeks, but he still had double-digit fantasy points. 11 targets has Green Bay Cleveland the next two weeks. Marvin Jones is very startable right now. Absolutely. You got it. Yeah, and Green Bay?

It's going to be, it should be a good matchup for Marvin Jones. I mean, it's, he's been, until the past two weeks, though, he's been really, really mediocre. But maybe it's, it's coming around. Maybe he's doing an opposite of what he did last year where he just, he came out of the gates with those two or three incredible games. Then he was just not usable. So maybe he's ramping up. Maybe. I don't know. We need an NBA jam. He's on fire if he can crush. Well, yeah, he's heating up right now for sure.

Alshan Jeffrey. Hey, there he is. That's what we were saying before the week. Alshan Jeffrey was a great play because his cornerback matchup coming into this week had been unbelievably difficult. And then this was an easy matchup. You saw him exploit that going forward. Still really just one big catch. There's really a lot of question marks with that because he was two for 62.

On eight targets. He caught two of eight targets. You got a little raspy. And only one of those catches was of relevance. So it's great to see him get in the end zone, but I'm not sure what I saw. Yeah, neither am I. And then he gets Denver. No thanks. Yeah, not against Denver. And then a buy week. After the buy, he's got a pretty good schedule. I would say every game from then on out minus one game in Seattle. Juicy. Well, I'm baby face today, but let's talk about baby hands.

Oh, Jack Doyle. He got some prosthetics put on. For 1221 and 1. The amount of baby hand Jack Doyle tweets, pictures, the talk of him finding a one-size-fits-all glove to where it worked. 12 for 12-21 and 1 on 14 targets. Look, Jack Doyle right now, and we've been saying it, you've got to start him, and he's Jacobi Brissette's best friend. He's the offensive line's best friend in the sense that, look, when Brissette's in trouble, there's one place he can go.

And Doyle rules. Right. I don't know how it's possible, ladies a gentleman, but so last week or what, yeah, I think it was last week, I got cooped on in over half of my leagues. I'm not, I'm not exaggerating this. And then I got my baby hands revenge this week when over half of my leagues had Jack Doyle going against me. I don't know how these matchups are lining up.

It's a conspiracy against the hitman. Maybe you better watch your mouth. Ooh. Never. Maybe you better watch that tongue, Mike. That's silver tongue. What I would say is that maybe you should. Silver tongue. I gave you gold with baby hands jack. Maybe you should look at your week nine matchups and see who's playing against you in a lot of leagues, make them your start of the week. That's forward. That's what I'm doing. Forward thinking. Jimmy Graham is the best, worst player.

in the NFL, four for 39 and two touchdowns on five targets. I don't know what it is. I have some, I have a problem with Jimmy Graham, but when you got Russell Wilson finding you, it works. Yeah. I mean, the, the tight end landscape is not great and Jimmy Graham is a great player, but you're right. He has looked very poor on the field. I mean, he's dropping wide open, easy layup type receptions. I mean,

I thought maybe you meant indigent. Like he looked very homely and like his uniform was broken down. Very hopeful. Poor, very poor. Very hopeful. He hopped on a train car for his ride home. You know. He rode the rails. Oh. He's too soft for that. I'm up to the big city. I think right now you have to be able to trust him. He's on too good of an offense. Yes. In a bad.

tight-end field where I would rather have Jimmy Graham than, you know, everybody but about four other players. Jimmy Graham is their goal line rushing offense, which doesn't exist. That's the fair point. When they're on the one, two, three, four-yard line, Jimmy Graham is on the field. Apparently team still playing one-on-one, and he ends up in the end zone. Grankowski played well. Austin Hooper had a touchdown this week. Kyle Rudolph had a nice week, six for 27, but he had a touchdown.

which was great. And then Zachert's got in the end zone despite limited targets. Zachert's so good. That's it. That's all you need. Four words. It's so good. Zachert's so good. Come on, baby. Zachertz so good. Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. I will kick off the rising stars because we've talked. Because we talk so much about him. Look, I pumped the brakes on Deshaun Watson last week.

You're a wild card. Yes, I was a cut the brakes, wild card. I was wrong. Just be happy I'm here, Foot Clan. He has, uh, he has proven me, he has truly my, like when I think about the lay the land, he is the rising star to me. I am a full believer now and, and will treat him as he deserves to be treated. Deshaun and Deshaun Ma. I apologize. Uh, you're also going to be all wet.

Ooh. Because I bet you that Deshaun Watson would outperform Drew Breeze and you all called me crazy pants on the show. Because to be fair, you were crazy pants, but you were the right kind of crazy pants. You could have given Drew Breeze eight quarters. He wouldn't have passed Deshaun Watson in this week. All right. I'm going with. I'm going with. Is it hot? I thought that came from Brooks. I couldn't tell you're throwing your voice. Juju Smith Schuster is my Raising King's Rising Star of the Week.

A star is born. He was one of my bold predictions that I actually got right. And I'm not going to pretend like I got a lot of them right. But I said he'd be an occasionally startworthy revelation for that team. Everybody's eyes were on Martavis Bryant. But Juju Smith-Schuster, he's just a really good player. He's solid. He takes pressure off of Antonio Brown. And in a game in which Martavis Bryant was inactive, the opportunity was there for Schuster. So this is a trepidacious.

rising star for you. I had some questions. Yeah, and that's fair. And I'm going to try to cover hopefully your questions ahead of time, which is, look, Martavis is going to come back. We know that the only way Martavis is going to be of any asset to this team is if they give him opportunity. And so does Juju Smith-Schuster deserve to be picked up? 100%. His start is going to be determined based on matchup and the way that the following weeks happen. You're not getting a 97-yard.

longest touchdown of all time in Steelers history every week. But he was involved all over the field, including that beautifully drawn up shovel pass to get the first down to end the game. What do you guys think of Juju? Do you think he belongs here? Yes. Yeah, I think he does belong here. But here's like it's it's trepidacious because until this point, and I'm throwing out game one when he had nothing. I mean, no targets or anything.

But weeks two through seven, he was averaging four targets, three receptions for 38 yards. But again, that's the rookie thing. I say you can't apply that globally. Okay. I completely agree. I mean, when I was watching that game, what I realized is there's a reason, there's, there's more than just Martavis Bryant's actions as to why Martavis Bryant got benched. And a part of that was what they are seeing in Juju Smith-Schuster. He has been.

He's been very good. I mean, when you watch, he hasn't been necessarily getting the targets or used the way that he was this last game. But once it happened, he showed what he's showed all year, which is he is very, very good. He's only 20 years old. Yeah. And think about the track record here of the Pittsburgh Steelers being able to draft wide receivers.

Okay, from Emmanuel Sanders to Mike Wallace to Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant. Now, Juju Smith-Schuster. Did you say Sanders? Yeah. Okay. Sorry. And so, look, I think Juju Smith-Schuster is, I said it over, you know, you talking, but I think a star is born. I really buy into Juju Smith-Schuster. I think he is great. And I love the dude. He is so fun. Did you hear what he said about his 97-yard touchdown?

No. About how he would. Because you remember he was running. If you didn't see the play, he's running. He's clearly faster than everybody. It annoys me. If he just kept running, he would have outran them, but he keeps looking over his shoulder. Almost got caught. Yeah. Well, so Jujo said, to be honest, the reason I kept looking back is because my speed on Madden is 82, 83. So I thought they were going to catch me. I love Jujo Smith-Juster so much. Can we get a jersey? Oh, no. Stay. Hey, Fook Lane.

Stay away from Juju Smith-Schuster jerseys on pristine auction for 24 hours. That is so spectacular. The reason I kept looking back is my speed's only 82, 83. Earlier in the week, he had said it's something about, he's like, everyone loving me now, but they won't start me fantasy on Sunday. But yeah, so we'll see. I'm a will see on a guy who jumps up to 10 targets, but.

He looks pretty solid. My rising star of the week, I'm going to Robbie Anderson, who is, I mean, he is, even despite his big game, he will not be that, that sexy name on your waiver wire like juju will be this weekend, except 76 yards or a touch on the past three.

weeks. We talked about Josh McCown. He's playing great football, and part of that has to do with Robbie Anderson, who has become a very reliable target for him. Not only is reliable, he's the big play guy. I know that curse, you know, he's steady catching some touchdowns and everything, but Robbie Anderson is a big part of this offense. We saw Robbie Anderson last year emerged in the second half of the season as the go-to target. It's...

But I get it. He's on the Jets. It feels kind of gross. But you should pick him up and you should play him as a three with huge upside every week. I agree. All right. Robbie Anderson, Juju Smith-Schuster, Deshaun Watson, the Raising Cain's Rising Stars of the Week. Remember that game day tastes better with Raising Cain's Tailgates full of fresh 24-hour, marinated handbetter chicken fingers and fresh brewed sweet tea.

Visit raising canes.com to find your nearest location. All right. Let's talk about the not-so-great players of week eight. Poopped in his big boy pants. What I learned in week eight is that Dak Prescott apparently can underwhelm you. We didn't think it was possible. But Jack Prescott, James Winston both had rough games. Dak Prescott was 14 for 22 for 143, no touchdowns.