Week 5 Waivers + Seismic Shifts & Superstitions - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/3

Michael Wilson of the Arizona Cardinals. Michael Wilson was all the camp rage, and then comes out week one as kind of a starter, plays 90% of snaps. I don't know what happened there, but there was some issue where he basically got benched. The week two went down to 43% of snaps. It was kind of a big deal of like, you know, he's got to work his way back to the rotation, which he did the following week with 86 yards. This last week, back up to 70% of snaps. seven targets, seven receptions, 76 yards, two touchdowns, and they're going to be playing at home. So, you know, he is widely available. He's available in 90 plus percent of league. He's been very good, and the offense has been much better than people expected with Joshua Dobbs. And so they played very well at home. They beat the Cowboys in their last matchup where Wilson had a huge catch. So, yeah, I think he's on the radar for sure. And, you know, it's tough because.

You have production there with Michael Wilson. You don't have it with Johnston yet. You're going into the buy. And the player that I wrote it in there this morning, like drop candidate Jackson Smith and Jigba, like JSN had like three catches for five yards last night. It's all short. They love running 12 personnel. So he's not on the field. There's something happening there where I'm going like, is the patience worth it with JSN? You're going into buy weeks. You've got injuries at the wide receiver position. It's just interesting to look at Michael Wilson and say, is he a better roster hold right now due to the amount of snaps and targets he has the potential to receive, not to mention the return of Kyler Murray at some point versus Quentin Johnson and JSN who have higher NFL draft capital, but who cares? Yeah, I would rather roster Michael Wilson than QJ than JSN or Jameson Williams three. Essentially they're all rookies. It feels like Jameson Williams not a rookie, but.

hasn't yet started his career, it feels like, despite playing in six games last year. So let's talk James and Williams now. Andy, you brought up the fact that Jameer Gibbs is being pigeonholed into a role. Like this is all we want to use you for for this offense. And the offense is humming. And the lions are winning. And I don't think Dan Campbell is going to sit there and say, well, because Jameson Williams is super fast and because we spent high draft capital, we have to make sure he's playing 80% of snaps. They want him to do a certain role. Some of the words that he's said about Jameson Williams, they don't make you feel good about the situation. They're like, we just want him to be reliable. We just want him to be a good wide receiver. Do the little things. Yeah, it's like, was he not? Here's my perspective on Jameson Williams. It is similar to that of Devon A. Chan, in my opinion. There are players that can go out and do something athletically that once they do it one time, they're established.

And that can happen with Jameson Williams. Like Khalif Raymond has had fantasy relevant performances on 40% of snaps, 36% of snaps, and go out and get targets and make plays. James and Williams is capable of, and I would almost bet on it that he's going to have a two touchdown game this year where both of them are a la Robbie Anderson style of the Jets where he catches two dots. big bombs or one's a screen he takes to the house and ones and over the top and all of a sudden he's just on the field so that i think that possibility totally exists the way that a chan is not coming off the field then yeah i i totally know what you're saying i agree with you that he's going to have the big game where i worry that i don't think that that will necessarily say well now we can't take him off the field i mean we saw last year last year in his uh it was his second game he catches a 41 yard touchdown

bomb like that's why they have him there the following week 19% of snaps wasn't on the field after showing that 41 yard touchdown the following week 17% of snaps it's just like man I don't care that's a cool play but it's still coming back from the ACL yeah it's it's a tough one it's it really is and you if you don't have the luxury of James and letting you know watching him on your bench then don't go out and invest a bunch of fab and then regret it and then wish you had spent it on a player that could help you today. I think Jameson Williams is a hold. Yeah, I would agree. I would spend maybe, and I don't think it will get them, but I'd spend maybe 10 to 15 fab on it. Yeah, 10 is the number for me because I, you know, whenever you have a player who's played in six games wasn't utilized, didn't do much, caught one pass over the course of six games.

the opportunity was there, you know, and he never really, I know he was coming back from the ACL. Where was Gibbs drafted? What pick number? Twelve. You know where Williams was? Twelve. Twelve. Oh, goodness. You know, so I'm a little bit pessimistic there. Now let's talk about, because you're not going to start James Williams this week. No one would. Let's talk about if you need a start this week. Would you rather start Michael Wilson, grab Michael Wilson, or in the same game, I'm just curious. Yep. He should be brought up. T. Higgins went down. In the games, T. Higgins or Jamar Chase has missed. Tyler Boyd has been a very valuable asset. They're against Arizona. They follow that up with Seattle. But Joe Burrow looks like he can't run an offense right now. So would you take the shot on a week one? I mean, if you grab Tyler Boyd, you're only grabbing him to start. You could play both those players this week. If you want a preference, I'm taking Michael Wilson. Me too.

because I want to play that's more than four yards down the field. I feel like Tyler Boyd, I mean, look at last week. What did he do? Four for 26. I mean, I think you could get to five for 31, Jay, maybe even six for 36. But I would like a touchdown. I'd like a pass that, you know. It's so weird. Everything is a checkdown right now. Yes. Like, who do you think wins that ball game? I don't even know what the line is, but right now I take Arizona to win the game. The line is the Bengals minus three favored on the road. I'm going to put money on that game.

Arizona is playing great. Yeah, and the Bengals are playing the exact opposite of great. But you can play both this one. The rosters, the Bengals have a much more talented roster top to bottom than the Cardinals do. So that's interesting. Let me bring up another name who. Is it Jaden Reed? It isn't Jaden Reed. I like Jaden Reed. I want to talk about him. Absolutely need to talk about him. I know who you're bringing up. No, for me it's Michael Gallup. Michael Gallup has looked really good the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, 92 yards, seven targets this last week was involved.

five receptions for 60. They play the San Francisco 49ers and you go, well, that's a great defense. Yeah, but that's also a great offense. And some of the problem with the Cowboys offensive players is that they've just been kind of dominating people, right? Like this last week against New England, it was 38 to 3. And so Gallup was fine. Gallup was five for 60, but he wasn't necessary in the second half of the game. This is a game where I would imagine the 49ers are favored. And so you might have to keep throwing. I think he's a good start to sweep. 49ers right now, they're 14th on the season. So they're just middle of the pack as far as guarding wide receivers. So that's where you make a decision, Jason, about you might get Gallup for nothing for a buck. Whereas Michael Wilson, Tyler Boyd, you're probably competing for them. I would still rather grab Michael Wilson for the hope of what a special rookie can be in long term. But I would certainly go Michael Gallop over Tyler Boyd, like without hesitation.

Do you have any interest in Wondale yet? I have a little bit. Because the, I mean, the, I'd rather have him than any Kansas City wide out right now. The routes went way up. So from 22% of the snaps, up to 64% of the snaps, six targets was five for 40. So it's, if you're in a PPR, you're like, okay. At least I'm getting some points here. But he, like, no one has separated from the wide receiver crew still. And at this point, it looks like if anybody's going to do it, it will be Wondale. I want to talk about Jaden Reed real briefly, and maybe it's better for a dynasty context. Mike and I are both on this week's dynasty podcast, and we're talking about trade targets. Jaden Reed is one for me in a dynasty league. Like I made the investment in Michael Wilson. I traded very little to get Michael Wilson before the season because I saw the path for him to become something valuable.

Jaden Reed is an eyeball decision, a trade target. He passes every test to me. He's very fluid in the field. I think everybody's looking at Romeo Dobbs and Christian Watson saying, well, he's just not going to be able to have the ability to contribute. I do not think that's the case. I think Jaden Reed has the potential to be regularly used and maybe even carve out a roll above those guys. I think Jaden Reed is very, very good. And I know that that's just film to me. I think he's passing the test. I completely agree that he looks outstanding. He looks fast. And the way they're utilizing him is very smart. The problem is what you said. I think Dobbs is the number one read in this offense for love. And I think he'll stay there. And then you have probably the most talented player is Christian Watson. So Jaden Reed is good and he's talented. But I do think.

oftentimes he'll be the third. He'll be more like the slot guy. So if you're in a full PPR league, might be a little bit better for you as they settle into roles. We still haven't seen more than half a game right now with all three active. So he's someone I want to have on my roster. I want to keep my eye on because he looks good to the eyes. But I want to see how the targets are distributed. Because even though. Jordan Love has been great for fantasy, and his touchdowns per pass are through the roof. He hasn't been putting up a lot of yardage. So he split that three ways or four ways with Musgrave. You know, it gets a little scary. Thankfully, they play against the Raiders this week. Tied into options, Colquette had the huge week, seven for 85 and two touchdowns. Jake Ferguson was seven for 77. Fergalicious, man. You had Higby.

get a contract and then get 11 targets in the offense? Are you chasing those numbers? I'm open to chasing Higby's targets, but that's assuming that Cooper Cup is not playing. Like when it's Puka, Cooper, and Higby, I just, I mean, I can't imagine that he sees another 11 target game the rest of the season. I still think people need to pay attention to both Logan Thomas and Zach Hertz. Logan Thomas had been injured. In the game, he was hurt. He scored and ended up, it's incredible, that two for 22 in a touchdown was the tight-in six on the week. But he's getting a ton of snaps. Like he's going to play 80 plus percent of snaps. He's the primary pass-catching weapon in that offense.

Sam Hale seems to look to him. And I don't think you're getting goose with Logan Thomas in your lineup. And Zach Ertz went right back to 10 targets in Arizona. You can certainly do worse than either of those players. I think they're fine. And you don't have to pay for them. Zacherts, five of those targets were on the final garbage time drive, which was incredible. Four of his receptions were on that drive. And he should have had a touchdown with 12 seconds left to go that he dropped. It was kind of egregious right at the end of the garbageiest of times.

But, you know, he is still involved in the offense. I want to go back real quick. I just say the number one pickup for me is Jake Ferguson. Jake Ferguson right now, we're four weeks in. And in three of the four weeks, he's had seven targets. You know, targets are where you're looking. You're looking for volume. Obviously, it hasn't necessarily been there. Week one, seven targets. He had two fantasy points. Didn't work out. But if someone is getting at the tight-in position seven targets and 75% of their game so far, And it's on an offense that projects to be good and it's on an offense that has used the tight end for a long time. He would be the guy that I feel most confident about just kind of plugging in weekly and not playing matchups. The other guys, I think, are more matchup plays. Interesting tidbit just to throw into the mix there. Schoon man. 56% of snaps last week, a season high. Hender shot was hurt. So I'm not sure what the injury status is for him or does.

Does the schoon man make a move here anyways? I'm standing by my drop pits for Ertz. Pits was two for 21 last week. Pits is a – Pits is absolutely a must drop. Must drop. You should not roster Pits anymore. Johnny Smith outperforming him. Darren Waller and Dallas Goddard. Those names are coming up. And look, there's something to be said about not sitting in your own poop. Sure. Like just because. Sometimes you've got to change your pants. Not always, but sometimes. It's almost impossible for me seeing those names saying, hey, I'm going to put Dallas Goddard on the waiver wire. You had a head coach come out today, and the quote is just great and awful. It was still part of the plan. Like whenever you have to reassure the community that Dallas Goddard is still part of the plan, what was the discussion like yesterday regarding Goddard?

That it's been really disappointing and the fact that it's been every week and it's been that way with a new offensive coordinator, a new system, it is very frustrating. We do have years of him being valuable. We do know he is a talented tight end in his own right. Should the opportunities come his way down the field, we know he can do it. So he's not someone I'm looking to drop. He has seen seven targets. He is on pace for 55 receptions. I'm not hitting it. 374 yards. And no touchdowns. Yeah, I mean, it's been bad. But I think he's the kind of tied in that you could move on from. Like, I'd rather have Ferguson on the roster. Yeah, I mean, Fergie is interesting. Do you not agree? I think I would give it another week. I know it's so hard when you've got a guy going four bad weeks. Same with Waller.

Waller's matchup this week against the Miami Dolphins, that is a tight end matchup to target. You're going to get a lot of anger leaving last night's game, probably from Waller, definitely from the fans, from what is going on. You know, you look at the last, the end of that game when Daniel Jones threw a pick six at the goal line, and Waller was like, you throw it to Waller, you got a touchdown there. Instead, you threw a pick six. Like, go back to the film. figure things out. Waller was on the field 92% of snap. So I'm not moving on from Waller, at least not this week against Miami. But I do think both Waller and Dallas Goddard, you need to look at their matchup every single week. And you need to say, do I like the matchup? Do I want to target this matchup? Or is there someone on the waivers I would rather have? And I'd be willing to roster, you know,

two tight-ins if my second tight-in was Waller or Goddard for the potential upside and good matchups? Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, Waller and Goddard represent potential ceilings that a lot of these free agent tight-ins don't possess. Exactly. And so that's kind of the situation you're in. It probably makes sense to just bench them if you don't want to go through it. But, you know, Kyle Pitts, on the other hand, I think you can just cut and let somebody else pick them up and start them for a few weeks for no points. Defensively. Let's look at some options here. You know, the lowest rostered highest potential, in my opinion, is the Detroit Lions taking on Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers. At home. At home. The Lions are the-Aid Hutchinson. Go hunt. Go hunt Bryce Young, and you shall eat, young man. Yeah, the Manders are playing. They're the Thursday night matchup, but they get to play Justin Fields. I know.

Fields had the big passing day. I don't think that that'll happen against Washington. Even in the big passing day, you look at the Denver Broncos defense last week. They got a touchdown on defense from a fumble from Justin Fields. I think you can have both. I think Justin Fields can have a good fantasy day and a terrible real life day where the commanders score a lot. Mistakes are made. Exactly. He's still a mistake prone. So I think the commanders are a great play. Another team. Look, if things change in the NFL, scripts don't always stay the same. But as of now, through one full month, the Arizona Cardinals have played good defense against good teams, and the Cincinnati Bengals have just given up nonstop points to DSTs. Joe Burroughs taking sacks all over the place. They've lost T. Higgins. He can't move. They can't protect him. He's on the road.

If you want to talk about a defense that's pretty much 100% available, or maybe we're just talking like DFS cheap, nasty, awful defenses that you wouldn't usually start. You could see a touchdown on defense. Well, isn't Miami the defense taking on the Giants this week too? That would be one to target. Yes, yes. That would be one to target as well. All right, let's talk quarterbacks. Full stream ahead. Well, Mike, I'm going to hand the baton to you because we're talking about that matchup a moment ago. Who's your streaming quarterback? It's Joshua Dobbs, who has been a top 10 quarterback in two of the four games. Week one was an absolute disaster. But other than that, it's actually been pretty good. Even week three when he was the quarterback 16 against the Dallas Cowboys, he still put up 17 points. And he's doing it because 12 attempts on the ground last game. Exactly. He's running 41 yards, 55 yards, 48 yards. I mean, these are, this is a delicious.

delicious floor that he is giving us and him making the choice to run so much. This is, it feels like the team has had, like after week one was so rough that the team just said, go do what you do, man. We traded for you. Go try and win some football games. It's pretty excusable week one. He was added so late into the off season to this team and had, you know, all of a sudden you're the starter. Remember they weren't going to reveal Clayton Toon or Joshua Dobbs? Right. But from that time, I mean, it has been, like you said, it's been good. He's on pace for 816 rushing yards in the three games since that first week. And their design runs. You watch the games. Like I tweeted this past weekend, it is actually a delight. It is actually fun to watch the Cardinals' offense play, which did not seem like a possibility. And then they bring in Joshua Dobbs, 41 pass attempts, completing, I mean.

He is completing 71% of his passes since week one, which he also completed 70% in week one. He's playing great. He's playing good. And they play Cincinnati and they play at home. So I think that that one is at the tippy top of my favorites to add. I threw Sam Howell in there. Yeah, it makes sense. Yes. Threw for 290 yards against Philly, ran for 40, had a good performance. They take on the bears. You know, you should have a good floor there. Chicago's defense is not good. I mean, Russell Wilson was worthy of a start last week. And so I think Sam Howell, it has been rough. We've talked about it basically being his rookie year. Hopefully he can kind of grow on last week's performance. Yeah, Sam Howe was very good last week against the Philadelphia Eagles. Their secondary is really, really hurt. They were out two more safeties this last week. And Sam Howe took advantage. So I'm going to play that same matchup with a quarterback who's looked good this year.

He just hasn't been throwing passing touchdowns. It's so crazy, man. It's so crazy. It's insane because Matthew Stafford. Here's his yardage on a weekly basis. 334, 307, 269, and 319. And probably how many touchdowns? Three total on the season. He is on pace, and one of them took overtime to get to Puka for that touchdown. He is on pace for 5,200 yards, which is just. incredibly outstanding and 12 passing touchdowns. Those numbers, they don't add up. The yardage is the predictable stat. The touchdowns are not the sticky stat. That's where Kyron Williams has scored so many touchdowns on the ground. A little bit like golf last year in Detroit where Jamal Williams was scoring a million touchdowns. Yep. You just need the right matchups where it's like, oh, it's going to be much harder around the goal line when you get in the red zone to run on the Eagles than to throw on their injured secondary right now. There's a chance.

that Cooper Cup is there. So I think Matthew Stafford's in a really good week, a really good matchup. Sam Howell had a great game against the Eagles. Mac Jones, week one, had a great game against the Eagles. Kirk Cousins, I think was like the quarterback won on the week against Eagles. I think you could start Stafford this week. Herbert is on by. And just, Gino's on by, watchin's on by. The, like, we're trying to, the streamers are lower rostered guys, but I think C.J. Stroud is still lower rostered as well. CJ Stroud looks like he might be not a streaming quarterback. Like he might be. Every week. Someone you just put in your lineup and you're like, I'm cool. I'll ride with this. He's been top 12 the last two weeks. The last three weeks he's had over 20 fantasy points at the position. I want you guys to guess how many interceptions he has this year. I know. Mike? I already know. Oh, zero. Yeah. Rookie quarterback. Zero interceptions.

Super impressive. Did you see the press conference with him? I did not. Talking about, I mean, leadership stuff. I mean, getting up there and saying like, he was talking, it was a lot, you got to go watch it because I could not summarize it very well, but, you know, to the extent of like we want every single Texan fan to be proud to put on the jersey on Sunday. Oh, I did see that. And it was just, it was just impressive. He's an impressive young man. The current passing yardage record is held by Andrew Luck. 4,374 yards. And C.J. Stroud is currently on pace to shatter it with 5,100 passing yards. I don't expect he will throw for 5,000 yards, but he's just been absolutely. He's fully legit. He is real. You've got to make that transition as quick as possible before other people catch on, because everyone will catch on at some point that C.J. Stroud is a very good quarterback. The schedule.

Like Atlanta, it's fine. He does get the Saints after that and then the by week. But then it's Carolina, Tampa, Bengals, Arizona, Jacksonville, Denver. I mean, he's got a good run coming up. Let's have a brief discussion on Joe Burrow. I don't know how much you guys talked about it yesterday. I'm sure there was a good amount of discussion. But he's coming up and drop questions. You know, we put it out on social media. We say, who are you, you know, thinking about dropping? And Joe Burroughs coming up. And what I want to highlight here is that Joe Burrow. Clearly dealing with injury. T. Higgins might miss this game. They have one of the most difficult schedules the rest of the season. The Bengals, I think this is going to be a lost one for them. I think this is just going to be one of those weird years where the injury and the bounce of the football and getting into rhythm and it's not coming together for them. You know, you have the offseason tumult with Mixin and he's been okay.

Jamar Chase is frustrated. And then, like I said, they have a terrible schedule. So you're going to have to make Joe Burrow start decisions based on what he's done so far and bad matchups going forward. So are you just putting him on the bench? Are you taking the week off like you did with Justin Fields? Yes, that's how I'm going to handle Joe Burrow. Or are you just playing him against Arizona? I'm okay playing him against Arizona. I mean, I'd probably play all these other guys. We just talked about over him, which is insane. But Burrow. The history is too large of, you don't just take four games. Well, Joe Burrow sucks now at football. No, there are things that are going wrong. And I put him on the bench. I stream another quarterback. And I don't drop him because dropping Joe Burrow feels like something that really can come back and bite you in the butt. Yeah, if it's so funny in the draft season, we kept talking about Joe Burrow being.

This year's Justin Herbert, the pocket passing quarterback that is being drafted too high. And because he's being drafted so high, if he doesn't throw for 40 touchdowns like Herbert didn't last year that he would be this year's kind of bust pick. Well, last year, what happened to Herbert was he broke his ribs and he lost wide receivers. And then he really stunk through the middle of the year. If you kept playing him, you were making a mistake. Well, that's what's happened to Joe Burroughs. Joe Burrow, he's injured. Now he's lost T. Higgins. And if you keep playing him, you're going to be making a mistake. However, the end of the year, lo and behold, Justin Herbert is actually a really good quarterback. He got over the ribs. He got his weapons back. And then he was, you know, the quarterback 11, 3, 9, 10, 12, 9 towards the end of the season. So I think that's the prescription here for Borough. You don't drop him. You definitely bench him. I think you try to trade him if you get a good game too. Coming out of the buy, listen to the schedule coming out of the buy. San Francisco.

On the road. Buffalo. Houston, who quarterbacks don't put up numbers against. Baltimore. Pittsburgh. Those are the first five out of the by week. His playoff matchups include Pittsburgh and Kansas City on the road. So I'm just saying there may not be the path for Borough to, like, his numbers aren't like middle of the pack. His numbers are 31st, 26th, and 28th in the three games he didn't throw a touchdown. In the games he threw a touchdown, which is one, he was 21st. So look, I... Everyone, like you said with C.J. Stride, you got to be ahead of it. I still think you can trade Joe Burrow because of the conversation we're having. So don't drop him. Trade him on the promise of him being old school Joe Burrow. Certainly if you don't believe. Certainly if you need a roster spot where we're saying don't drop him, bench him, sometimes you don't have the luxury to do that with buy weeks coming up. And whenever we say that advice of like must bench, like a Waller or a Dallas Goddard, if you.