Week 2 Studs & Duds + Monday Punday, Turd Alert! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/19

Go get Dalvin Cook back. Just straight up now. And then you... Tricky. The hard part of it moving from Aaron Jones is I don't, there's not a ton of players above him. I'm okay having Dalvin Cook there. But it's like Nick Chubb. Chubb had three rushing touchdowns this week. Last week, Kareem Hunt was the one that had the touchdown. So there's going to be weeks where Aaron Jones puts up numbers like this, like 15 for 100 yards. But AJ Dylan is the one who ends up with two touchdowns. It's just going to happen throughout the week. I enjoyed them both on the field at the same time. They have a lot of plays where Jones lines up in the slot and comes back, and then they're both standing next to Aaron Rogers. Yeah, I mean, you know, if you wanted to try to capitalize, Sequin Barclay would be a different name of like he had a down week, 10 fantasy points-ish and half PPR scoring. But his utilization was outstanding, still, you know, like an 80% snap player. I would rather have Barclay than Aaron Jones. I don't know if you guys would agree with that. What about Austin Eckler?

Yeah, I would rather have Echler. Okay. Oh, man. But Echler nervousness is real. I think I'd go Jones. Tony Pollard, Mike, do you need to speak for a moment about what you watched in Dallas? I mean, Tony Pollard had, running backs across the board were very low scoring this week. Tony Pollard makes it in with, you know, under 100 yards and one touchdown. You're 100 yards from scrimmage. The. The concern, though, for Zeke is now very real. Not that Zeke is still on the field way more than Tony Pollard, but you have these stretches where they're just, they're going with Tony Pollard. And they had a goal line play where I, and if I remember it correctly, Pollard had just had a great chunk play. And it's like, oh, he's going to be tired. You're going to go to the hammer, Zeke at the goal line. And they did not.

So that is extremely concerning moving forward that Zeke doesn't have a monopoly on the goal line carries. He has not been inside the top 40 in either of the first two weeks. Yeah. And the running back usage is still his. Like he, you know, if you look at just the carries and the snaps and things like that. And routes run too. But the passing work as far as targets and receptions, those are going Pollard's way. The way that they're utilizing him. And honestly, his talent in the receiving game is. is better. So, you know, we talk about targets being an earned statistic and Cooper Rush with no Dalton Schultz. I mean, going forward, Tony Pollard looks like someone with the passing work. You could start in your flex, no problem. I had to vet the stat. Ezekiel Elliott has finished both weeks with negative receiving yards. He was negative three in week one and negative four in week two. So we have more receiving yards. That's not great. Yes, we do. And there's not a lot of optimism for like,

What makes Zeke valuable would be DAC bringing them down the field to put up 30 plus points and giving him goal line opportunities. Pollard is the one that can break the 48-yard run. It is very – I don't know what you can do with Zeke now. I don't know if he's somebody that people are still going to trade it for the name. But right now I'm pretty worried, and I'm somebody that has them in a couple leagues. And, you know, I said on the show last week how worried I was, and now it's been validated. Yeah, he's still going to have his weeks, but –

When you're making that start-sit decision, it's going to be very difficult to get him in. They play Monday night football next week against the Giants. If he collapses on Monday night football against the Giants, that will be troubling. DeAndre Swift only had, what, 10 opportunities in this game and yet ended up a valuable fantasy asset, scoring a touchdown, 5 for 56 on the ground. Damien Harris, 15 for 71 and 1. Big week for Damien Harris. of the Patriots. Got stuffed on the one on another drive. So he was, you know, opportunity is there for him. James Robinson. Who boy. I mean, last week it was almost a 50-50 split. This week, 63% of snaps. More routes run than Travis ETN. Twice the touches of Travis ETN had a huge touchdown run in this game and looks just plain fine. As in healthy. Yeah, yo, yeah, he definitely looks healthy. I did not realize his full.

end-of-game utilization because he had his 37-yard touchdown run was it was a great run like he made some people miss and it didn't you're like oh well robinson's not going to make oh he made he's it was a sensational play but to have a 37-yard run and you finish with your stat line of 23 carries for 64 yards i mean that that is that a red flag at all Well, it's not a red flag because this team did exactly what they said they were going to do, which was going to be run the football no matter what happens over and over and over again because that's their pathway. And they had a huge lead. So you kind of knew what they were going to be doing on offense. So I kind of chalked that up to I'm happier he got 23 carries than I am sad. He wasn't hyper-efficient against the Colts because their plan was to waste the clock once they got a big lead. Yeah, I agree with that take. And he's...

getting more and more confidence as someone that you can start. You know, the double touchdown week one looked great like, oh, you could throw him in, but utilization-wise, you were still a little bit worried. Now another touchdown, another great fantasy production. It's almost one of those, do you trade him or now have you switched to where it's like, I have to have him? I think if you get somebody to believe that he's a top-tier running back now, because maybe after one week you couldn't have that belief. than maybe you cash in because he is sharing time. But I don't know. He looks great and foundational. McCaffrey, the utilization for McCaffrey is weird, and yet he still. Throw him the ball. He's still the RB6 on the week despite, you know, disappointment, I think, from a lot of people because it wasn't a prolific fantasy output. But like you said, the running back scoring was way down on the week. He had 100 rushing yards, 15.

rushing attempts, five targets. He saved the day with a huge 50-yard carry. The targets are so frustrating. Baker is not looking to use the best player on that offense. And here is my number one, here is my number one trade four target. David Montgomery, 15 for 122 last night, has Houston and the Giants in Minnesota for the next three matchups. He was one of the best running backs. on the field yesterday in terms of just how he looked and his opportunities could have scored, didn't. And I would be looking at grabbing him personally because he is the guy. Yeah, he looks like he is the guy and he looked fantastic. My question for that was you go back, Dalvin Cook, week one, against the Green Bay Packers, 20 for 90. So, I mean, that's a...

That's a very strong day. You had Montgomery, who had his big game of 15 for 122, and then the few amount of opportunities that Khalil Herbert actually got, he was four for 38 on the ground. The Packers have a problem right now stopping the run. So that looks, at least right now through two weeks, that looks like this could be juicy when you get your running backs matched up. When you throw the ball 11 times, I know what you want to do. Wide receivers, there were some. Lose. That's what you want to do. When you throw the ball 11 times, you want to lose. I thought you said the wide receivers lose. No. Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle. The targets were insane. 19 for Jalen Wattle, 11 for 171 and 2. 13 for Tyree Kill, 11 for 190 and 2. First teammates in NFL history with 150 plus for receiving yards and two touchdowns in the same game. It was one for the ages. They're both incredible starts moving forward on a team that.

You combine their talent with competent play calling and you end up in a situation like this that you dreamed of. And it won't be this good every week, like you said earlier with Tua, but it will be good often. Amun Ross St. Brown? Oh, man. I mean, nine for one, 16 and two, and then had two rushes for 68 yards. He is great. I mean. He's established himself. All the questions in the offseason of, well, Hawkinson was gone. Swift was gone. The stretch of games, he was great, but, like, you know, it was just because he was necessary. He has come back out this season. You saw him on hard knocks being the dude. Then he comes into the season. He's the dude. He's who Jared Goff says he looks for. Dude to dude. And, I mean, it.

Their coach is the dude. You cannot do what he is done on the NFL field unless you are a great wide receiver. This stretch run has been good enough where I think all the questions are answered. If he comes out and has a bad game, two bad games, I'm ignoring it. Kyle, do you have anything to say about Amun Ra? He's definitely necessary. I agree. That's the Kyle we know and love. Yes. Just, what are we? We're like quadrupled down now. I love it. No, I recommend him DFS this week. I was all about it. Oh, yeah, my start of the week, Elmanor Austin, Bro? Yeah, good call. Yeah, thanks. Did you play him in your DFS lineup? I did. No, no, I'm talking to Andy. I did not. Because I did. I know you did. And we were, our matchup was very close. Was it three points apart, something like that? Yeah. Jason, you were a pretty. James Winston was a mistake from the get-go. I knew it on the show. To be fair, we didn't know that, like, we knew he was kind of a little bit banked up and what he's going to play.

And then Sunday morning, they're like, uh, James Winston has multiple breaks in his back. Yeah, we try not like as a game is starting basically. Matchup was a problem. We try to not adjust our rosters from what we announce on the show unless obviously players not going to be active. But I would never have started James Winston without Camara and with four broken bones in the back on Sunday morning. Now you're, you normally keep it to two broken bones or less. That's my limit. Yeah. Yeah. Cooper Cup. Still dominant. 14 targets, 11 for 108 and 2. You can't stop him. He's just Houdini. How many straight games with 90 plus receiving yards? A thousand. Thank you, Kyle. I think he's good, good effort. NFL record currently. Let's talk about Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson had 14 targets, 8 for 102 and 2. He is at 32% target per outrun. And he is a difference maker. You watch you with your eyeballs and you're like, you know, how do you adjust your view of Elijah Moore now with Garrett Wilson's emergence?

So I'm glad you're bringing this up because I think a lot of people are going to overreact on Elijah Moore negatively. Elijah Moore is still a great wide receiver. This doesn't just, I mean, look, you just saw Jalen Waddle. And Tyreek Hill have awesome games together. That's the abnormal thing, right? That doesn't usually happen. Usually when one player is great, the other isn't. I don't think we should be taking things away from Elijah Moore as the possibility of having good games and being the number one. If you look at the routes run, the snaps, he was the one. But him being good doesn't take anything away from Garrett Wilson. They have two really, really good wide receivers. And as of right the second, they have a quarterback that can actually throw on the ball. So would you have the courage, though, to play Elijah Moore? He's finished 52 and 60 at the position. I mean, the disparity of 14 to 5 in this past game would make me.

want to see him do it from the bench. Yeah, I think I would have the courage in certain situations. Obviously, it's always a matter of who else you have to start. But when you are getting the utilization of routes run and snaps as the wide receiver won, you put those players out there. I mean, wide receivers, we say this every year and have to remind people. It's so hard in week two to realize how inconsistent wide receivers are. Like great wide receivers are going to have six, seven, eight. Bad games over the course of the season. Like, you know, that's normal. So if week one and week two aren't great, you're like, oh, man, he's dead. That's not how it works for wide receivers. So I'm not moving on from Elijah Moore. I'm not necessarily like, I mean, the Jets offense as a whole. I'm not forcing into my lineup. But they have a talented cast here. I mean, you look at.

You're not forcing Garrett Wilson in? I'm not forcing Garrett Wilson and no. I mean, I'm happy to play him 14 targets with a monster game and he looks great. I mean, this is fun. I'm happy for Jets fans, not only for the win, but just for the outlook of you know for sure that you have talented skill position players on this team. With Elijah Moore, Garrett Wilson, and Bruce Hall, man, come on, Zach Wilson, be something. And Michael Carter, absolutely. Looks amazing. Christian Kirk, dominant again, Jason's start of the week. Mike Williams, 10 targets, Drake London looks great. Yes, he does. The rookies right now, Alave, London, Wilson, it's been impressive. And we'll see what Traylon Berks has tonight. Amari Cooper bounces back. Donovan People's Jones had one target. Cooper had 10, 9 for 101 and 1, stabilizing, you know, market correction on Amari Cooper. Yep.

John Dodson scored again. Curtis Samuel, nine target, seven for 78 and a touchdown. They have Philadelphia coming up next week. Curtis Samuel and Jehan Dodson in play for you. It's hard to say start all three Washington commanders. It is. What sucks is like you read two names. And the, Terry McLaurin had a good week one, but like. He snuck in. I mean, it was like it was one really big play, which Terry McLaurin can do. It's just saying it's outrageous here that Curtis Samuel, to me, Curtis Samuel is the safest start of the Washington trio. They're all in play. But the fact that we're here was Samuel and Dotson and we're not talking about Terry McLaurin is, it breaks my heart. Rashad Bateman, seven targets, four four 108 and one.

Took a slant to the hizzy. Yes, he did. Was absolutely on display. Jason's proclamation of the disparity between Rashad Bateman and Devin Duvernay. Duverne also got hurt, believe. How many touchdowns did Rashad Bateman have in the special team's game, Jason? He had one fewer than Devin Duverne. Gotcha. Which is what I was obviously talking about. Cortland Sutton, 11 target 7 for 122. Feed him. Yeah, I think they were going to have to. Michael Thomas, nine target, six for 65, tight-in studs this week, Mark Andrews and Darren Waller. Moving on. That's it. But one other wide receiver stud is Chris Olive. He doesn't show up in the box score. He didn't finish the final, you know, fantasy finish as great. But the targets that went his way, not only the total, but the type,

He had 320 air yards. That is the most outrageous number I've ever heard of ever. I don't know that it's the highest ever, but I can't remember. No broken bones in his back, to your knowledge. Right. And so, you know, he was just off on a couple deep bombs. He did catch one deep bomb that he then fumbled on his way down, which was unfortunate. But the utilization was there. I think Michael Thomas and Chris Oliva should be started. Yeah, yeah. He's looking very good. Mark Andrews, Darren Waller had the big weeks. Starts of the week, Tyler Higby, Gerald Everett were very playable, six for 71, seven for 71. The Muth got into the end zone. He's the youth. He's, look, in the landscape of tight ends. Seven targets. The Mewth is pretty good. Yes, give me seven targets, please. All right, on to the duds. Poopped in his big boy pants. I wish we could have talked about Alan Robinson in that last segment.

who did score a second touchdown, but they inexplicably... Oh, my good. The medical timeout. Did you see this, Jason? No, I missed that. So they lined Alan Rob. He had already scored. They lined him up in the backfield like a running back, like a Debo. And then they ran them into the flats, threw him the ball, wide open, touchdown, second touchdown. And the ref, everybody played the play. Yes, the play was done. Offense and defense completely played the play. Nobody thought that there was a whistle because there wasn't. And then they call the playoff and they say the medical spotter up in the...

in the boots saw somebody on the field that they thought had a concussion. You can't undo plays. So they canceled the play. And Cooper Cup ends up with the touchdown. So anyways. Wow. Still nice that he didn't completely, he still got into the end zone. Yeah, week one, your Mike Williams and Alan Robinson were looking, you were holding your breath. Yeah, I was packing a bag. I mean, I was, I called the Uber to take me to the airport. And turns out. Football is not one week long. Thank goodness for that. Here are some duds. I want your concern levels. Ready? Russell Wilson, 14 for 31, one touchdown. Seven and a half. I'm very concerned. So 10 is super worried. Yeah, 10 is full panic, red alarm. He's looked bad. You know, decision making the offensive system. I haven't really seen anything to make me. Sacktown.

fall in love here and these have not been the best defenses. I mean, maybe Seattle and Houston are better defenses than we, you know, thought going in. These are not top five, top ten defenses. These are teams that are going to be picking near the top of the NFL draft next year and they couldn't score. Yeah, there's nothing that like the gap between where they're at and where we want them to be for fantasy is very, very large right now. I'll go six out of ten, especially if Judy is out, then you may want to pivot away from Russell Wilson. I agree that Wilson has looked terrible, but personally, I blame so much of this on coaching. If you're the quarterback and you're not getting your plays called, like you're not being able to set up the offense until there's like five seconds left on the clock almost every time you snap the ball.

That creates a chaos in your offense. No one is settled. No one's fully prepared for the snap. Well, regardless of the fault, you can't expect it to be fixed in one week. No, but I'm saying I think that because it's the coaching to me that over the course of the season, the Denver Broncos coaching staff, this is a completely green staff. No one here has. coached in the role that they are currently in. No, I know. Benjamin Albright came out and talked about that. But that's the red alarm to move on to me. It's, I'm saying, I think you can move on. I don't have a problem moving on, but over the course of the season, I do think it will get better. So I would agree both of those things. I think it will be better later, and I would move on. I would look, if I've got Russell Wilson on my fantasy roster, I'm looking to start someone else next week. Joe Burrough, six sacks.

He led the NFL with 51 last year. He's on pace for 111 sacks. What happened to this massively improved offensive line? I mean, I was so excited for the Bengals this year for the run game and for Joe Burrow to just see like, I don't understand. They spent so much money. And this was supposed to be like the biggest upgrade. They spent 74 million on their offensive line to upgrade it. And then they've. Should have gone with crypto. Have they been starting three offensive line and just rotate? Why? And it's a little bit. I mean, you can't lay it all at the feet of the offensive line. If Joe Burroughs holding on to the ball too long, I'm sure there's some of that mixed in if you lead the league in sacks last year. He's made some mistakes. Four interceptions in week one, six sacks in week two. You have T. Higgins back on the field and you couldn't get it done against Dallas. But red alert here.

for the Cincinnati Bengals. And they're on the road against the Jess next week. Oh, man. And that game is got, what do you think that line, Kyle, what do you think that line's going to be? Cincinnati minus one, two, maybe. I'll go to Cincinnati minus one and a half. Yeah, it's going to be something like that. Oh, man. I think it'll be three and a half. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. They've looked terrible. They've looked at, and they're, you know, you talk about the Super Bowl hangover. Yeah. It's real. It's always real. The amount of grief that we receive for doubting Joe Burrow.

could possibly not take over the NFL through two weeks. And again, it's a long season. But what are you doing with him for fantasy? You spent more than you even spent on Russell Wilson in most leagues on Joe Burrow. I will play him against the Jets. There you go. Tom Brady, 18 for 34, one touchdown. New Orleans defense is stout. He didn't have weapons beyond Mike Evans for some of the game. but it hasn't looked great through two weeks. Yeah, and I mean, I talk this up to the weapons issue. When you don't have a healthy receiving quarter, you pretty much had Mike Evans for most of this game, three quarters of the game or whatever. Brady, someone we set to look to start someone else over this last week. I will continue doing that until I know that they've got at least Julio and Mike Evans.

Totally healthy and active out there. Green Bay next week doesn't look great. He was the 26th ranked quarterback and fantasy in week one, the 25th in week two. So they finally come home against Green Bay, but based on Green Bay's, you know, rushing defense, you may see more Leonard Fournett. Good. I do think there's a chance Godwin plays next week. That would be very helpful. But if he does, man, I mean, nervous. Yeah, sure. I'm just saying with the way that. They talked about the injury, the really late scratch for him to be inactive this week. I think there's a chance. My hope as a fantasy player with Godwin on my bench is that they take another week and make sure he is completely healthy. But after this performance, Godwin might push himself onto the field. Breaking news. What?

Josh Gordon is being elevated from the practice squad. Josh Gordon. Josh Gordon, no. Josh Gordon is, you don't even know where he is. The Tennessee Titans are elevating Josh Gordon, and he is going to play tonight against the bills. Phillips out. Maybe, maybe. Josh Gordon time, baby. Here's the... What could have been? Here's the quote from his agent. Josh needs opportunities to prove that he's still the incredible player and talent he has always been. I mean, yeah, you need opportunities to prove if you're good. That is a fact. And more important breaking news, James Connor, the injury that kept him off the field is not considered long-term or serious. Okay. So stayed in uniform on the sideline during the game. Matt Ryan stinks. Yeah. He looked really bad week one. Michael Pittman was fine, but he looked bad. And now you take Michael Pittman away. I mean, they had two Matt Ryan to give, I mean, he looked terrible.

They had no veteran pass catchers for this team. I mean, Paris Campbell, who's played, what, six games in his career? Believe zero catches. Ashton, yeah, Paris Campbell on the field of the most, zero catches, Ashton Doolin, and then your tight end squad is, like, is Gigantor and Kyle and Grantson second year player. And the offensive line led him down. He looked bad. He looked like he was making poor decisions. But he was getting the crap beat out. No excuses. He's done. Yeah, I mean, when you're a vet. Part of a champion. Literally, this is the nightmare that Frank Reich was walking into when Andrew Luck decided to retire. You go from Brissette to Rivers to Wince to Ryan, retread country. And the problem with the retreads at that age is that if one thing goes wrong in the backfield, the plays over. They have no ability to do anything.

You know, it's just... And the real problem with the retreads is they aren't bad enough to get you a great draft pick and a good quarterback for the future, so you just keep looking for another retread. The lack of using Jonathan Taylor was head scratching. Nine for 54, one target. Yeah, one target for Johnny Taylor. What are you doing? So Joe Mixin, tough week. Zeke, tough week. Rashad Penny, Red Alert, six for 15. Ken Walker played... He looked like he had some juice. I know he didn't do much. All you need to say is six carries. Zero targets, six carries. That's not someone you can start. Cordero Patterson, 10 for 41, one target. The comments out of, we can just wrap the Kyle Pitts discussion into this. Let's just talk about Falcons offense. Bright spot, Drake London, 12 targets. Everything else, what are you doing? Kyle Pitts, most.

Highly drafted decoy I've ever seen. Three targets. Patterson not getting targeted. Like you say you're trying to win the game. That's what Arthur. Arthur. That's what Arthur said. He was trying to win the ball game. This isn't fantasy football. We're trying to win by not using our best plays. Listen to this. Week 1 for Kyle Pitts. 84% of snaps, 78% routes run. Week 2, 93% of snaps, 91% routes run. Maybe we should design. you know, plays. And they took a shot down the sideline, right? And if Kyle Pitts catches that one bomb down the sideline instead of a pass interference, nobody's freaking out, but the panic is real. I mean, the panic is 80 plus percent of people that took him are wondering, am I just going to lock this kind of, you know, cement block into my tight-in spot? Tyler Higby is going out there and catching seven passes. Pat Fryermuth can get into the end zone. Kyle Pitts has now played 19 games and had one touchdown.