Last Straw Players, Pump the Brakes, Manly Men

The off season was filled with discussion of, okay, what happens to Carson when it's touchdown rate? It's not sustainable. Well, I mean, it's only been a couple games here, but Nelson Agalore is not coming through in the touchdown department. My first guy, oh, man, it pains me. It pains me. I was grasping at straws, just wishing and hoping that this player would come through because he is on the field so much.

But it's Chris Hogan, wide receiver for the Patriots, from my guy to last straw player in the matter of four weeks. Here's the problem. He's been on, like I said, he's been on the field for over 90% of New England snaps, but he's not getting targets. Enso facto, he's not getting receptions. And he's been playing in the slot a lot. Over 61% of his snaps are coming from the slot according to pro football focus. Row row.

That's Julian Edelman's job. He's about to get Spartan kicked right out of the slot. And as Jules says, Hogan, thanks for filling in. You did a really horrible job. This is New England. And it's trouble. It's troublesome for Hogan. If you have him, I am going to give him one more week because I talked about.

Does it somehow improve his output with Edelman back on the field? But if you want to drop him, I do not blame you at all. All right, Jason, why don't you give us another last straw player from your list? All right. I've got kind of a two pack here because there are two running backs that I don't think you can, I just don't think you can drop them. But this is the last straw. I mean, if these two guys come out this week and don't produce.

You're dead in the water. I mean, maybe it would be better for your team to drop them, and that sounds ludicrous. Right. It's the two-pack of LaShawn McCoy and Derek Henry. Not one of these guys has had a double-digit fantasy game. Now, I'm much more concerned with Derek Henry than I am with Shady. Shady has kind of like what you were saying, Mike. He's been a victim of circumstance. Missed the game, had hurt broken ribs or...

Rip cartilage. Got a hand problem. Three road games to start the year, Baltimore, Minnesota, Green Bay. Yes, very difficult. So I'm a little bit more confident with Shady. But when it comes to Derek Henry, the dude has gotten work. I mean a lot of work. He has had all the opportunity in the world to produce. 10 carries, 18 carries, 18 carries. Now, this last week with Philadelphia, game they won, they said, hey, you're only getting eight carries.

I don't think that was a bad idea because he has stunk. I mean, he hasn't had 60 yards with all those carries in a single game. He's barely cracking seven points in a fantasy league. You cannot start him. If he comes out this next week and gets fewer than 10 carries again and does nothing with them, or I would even say if he comes out and gets 13, 14, 15 carries, but is atrocious as he's been.

against Buffalo who should not be able to stop him. So this is one of those perfect situations where it's like, hey, if you need to start Derek Henry this week, you should be able to on paper. The offense is improving. The offense is improving. The matchup is just fine. You should be able to flex him in. And hopefully he has his bounce back game. And I'm glad that I didn't cut him already. But if he sucks this week, I guess Derek Henry would be.

On the chopping block, there are situations that could happen based on injury and waiver wire pickups where I go, I might rather have this waiver wire star than a guy who every single week is scoring five fantasy points. Yeah, I mean, I don't blame you for that. And ironically, McCoy and Henry get to be inefficient against each other this week. Right. You know, McCoy only had eight touches last week. Eight.

touches. We're not just... We're hoping that's the bridge. Yeah, injury. Carries. Well, he's on the field for 36 snaps. So I don't like that. You know, you're on the field for 36 snaps. By far the leader in the backfield. Ivory was on the field for 22 snaps. Titans give up the fourth most yards per carry. If you're not going to do it against the Titans this week, when are you going to do it? I mean, you're at home. I just, I'm in the same boat. Now, I would never cut McCoy.

Right. Because of the snap count, because it's not the same as Henry to me, where not only is McCoy involved in the, theoretically involved in the passing game, he had three catches. He's been involved before. He's been involved before. And this offense is anemic. It's terrible. I'm playing the Tennessee defense this week. But McCoy is going to have a longer leash for me. There's a few more straws left in there. But I get it. I mean, both these guys, he will be benched.

for better options. I mean, like this week, you're going to play Philip Lindsay? You're going to play the Sean McCoy against Tennessee at home? If you're not playing the Sean McCoy at home against Tennessee a week removed from the injury, when are you playing? Yeah. Fair point. Painful. I'm going to throw a couple more names out there. A couple more last straw guys. Rashad Penny. He was a last straw last week for me. Even with the... When Mike Davis came in and took over and they said, Penny, you're...

You're a dirty penny. I, yeah. Chunky Penny. I don't want him. For me, it's because he gets a leash for me because of the rookie nature, the first round capital. There were weeks when we were going, ah, man, what's going to happen with Sonny Michelle? You just traded him away. It doesn't look like there's a future that's strong. And then boom, overnight. I feel like that could be the penny situation. One breakout game from Penny and everything changes. But definitely.

It hasn't happened. And the other one is Kenyon Drake. My opinion on King and Drake has been the same throughout his entire career. If you hand him the entire backfield, he's explosive enough to give you an entire bucket full of fantasy points. But it's the choice of the staff. If they don't have an option, then they'll play in. If they have another option, then they won't. That's just been the case with Kenyon Drake. And he, you know.

They have an option right now. Give the other player. And they don't. So Rashad Penny, Kenyon, Drake are both in that category. Mike is smirking? Sorry. Smirkle over there. It was waiver time. And so I had to check something because in our dynasty league. I am in tight end purgatory. I started Rhett Ellison last week. I'm sorry. So Usma was there. And we talked about this for. Usama. Usama. Thank you. I don't want to get it wrong. Usama.

uh we don't know what'd you say isn't it you zama isn't it zom i don't know look cj u he uh for the tight end for the for the bangles we don't know if it's going to be him or tyler croft it's it's really a toss up but cj u was on our waiver wire and i put in what i thought was a a really high bid to make sure that i got him and then i was pleasantly surprised to find i outbid brooks by just two dollars

Eat it, Brooks! Yeah. I'm the, I'm the croft owners. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really hope it's croft. It's Usama. Usama. Okay, we've got it. I've got the official Cincinnati Bengals pronunciation guide in front of my face. Usama. Usama. Well, I hope they use them a lot. I really want to... I'm really on the fence with that. Very interesting. Right, it could be either... This is a Dynasty League, so this is just a...

stash and hope. It was just brought a smile to my face. When you outbid someone by just a fraction, it means you did it right. It feels so good. You did it perfect. And that person considered upping it by a few bucks a few times. It didn't happen. It feels so good. Yeah, Zach Pascal picked up. Yep, by me. I actually am very curious on Zach Pascal. He's undrafted rookie, but he's 216 pounds, 6-2 and runs a 455.

and he was actually involved now with T.Y. Hilton out of the way, it's just one of those curiosity things for a Dynasty League. He's got a different shine to him now for Jason now that he's on his roster. No, this was... There was not that level of shine yesterday for Zach Baskill. There was not that level of shine yesterday. Suddenly you did a more digging. On the show, I did more digging. And then I decided to bid $20. He's also a French mathematician who created a unit of pressure. A wonderful name. Equal to one Newton per square meter. I mean, I'm...

That's common knowledge. Of course it is. We went to college for some period of time. Mike, let's hear the final couple last draw players. The last one I want to throw out is Jamal Williams running back for the Green Bay Packers. This is the perfect, like I was really upset that you had him in here because this was, this is my, this week, my primary last draw player. He's on my roster and I kept struggling with, do I, do I drop him?

And I said, no, I need one more week. But one more week, if Aaron Jones takes over and is the guy, I mean, he's gone. I think it will remain a nasty timeshare for fantasy purposes. But Aaron Jones is the best running back. He's, I think, will get the most opportunities by a hair. And he will be the most productive guy with those opportunities. If Jamal Williams doesn't get full volume.

then he's not useful for your fantasy team. And he's, unlike Shady McCoy, I'm okay dropping Jamal Williams because I know someone else out there's going to go, oh, Jamal Williams, I should pick him up. I've seen a ton of Twitter messages already. And just clog the roster. That say, oh, Jamal Williams just hit my waiver wire. What do I do? Yeah. And I say, leave him there. Yeah, he's a roster clogger. So that sounds like he's already had the last straw to you guys. But just saying, I'll give him one more week.

Mike, you accomplished your goal in the listener league as well. I was going after Mr. Kiki. Ah, my co-owner. And you outbid me by $6. Wow. That's my co-owner. So that stinks. What's up, Jackie? I am the resident Will Fuller owner, and that would have been real nice, real nice to protect that. So thanks for nothing. Demarius Thomas, Jason. Is he a guy in that category for you? Yeah, so he's similar to the two running backs that I mentioned where you go.

I don't know that I can drop the Marius Thomas. He's still getting the targets. And the volume is really what you chase. But he is a last straw in the sense that if he stinks again in New York against the Jets, then he is a ride the pine for a long time type of guy. Or a package, a package 100% must trade. Prime time for pine time. You've got to. I mean, the problem is Cortland Sutton.

literally looks like the better player on the field right now. I haven't seen anything from Demarius Thomas to say that he is a special talent this year other than he's a big, strong guy with pretty good hands. I think I made this prediction in the studio yesterday. By the way, the touchdown to interception ratio for Case Keenum over the last three weeks, that would be zero touchdowns, three interceptions, for three weeks. That's the problem, people. Let's stop.

worrying about that. The problem is the quarterback. And I talked about this yesterday in the office. I think they're going to lose to the Jets this week. I think they're going to lose to the Rams the week after. And I think you're going to be wondering and clamoring. And I know Denver fans. They are fiery. I talked to one yesterday who wanted to tell me that Pat Mahomes, Kareem Hunt, and Tyree Kale, were very, very bad players and not talented.

Maybe, and I know what you've been through. You've been through Simeon. You've been through the Paxton Lynch experiment. You have the 18 million dollars you spent on Case Keenham. It is, you've given him a long leash and you need to. And I don't think Case Keenum is the worst in the entire NFL by any stretch. But right now he's the 25th rank fantasy quarterback. And that is, you know, when you throw 250, 245 and zero up for fantasy,

at home against the worst defense in football in Kansas City, that's your problem. Single-digit fantasy points. Demarius Thomas Emmanuel Sanders and Cortland Sutton can't perform when your quarterback is getting under 10 fantasy points. Yeah, I mean, the problem is Emmanuel Sanders has been pretty good, and Cortland Sutton has impressed while Demeris Thomas has stunk. And my issue is this. Mike, in the offseason, we, you know, we talk.

much more in depth in the off season. We're doing a lot of, you know, real digging on players. And you created kind of a target versus fantasy expectation and what the discrepancy is there. And we looked back over several years. And there was this trend where when a player is, you know, above age 30 and the metric was really bad on one of their seasons, it.

tended to point towards that's the end for that player. Right. Like over and over. When they're still getting a bunch of targets, they rank highly on that, but they rank poorly in fantasy points. And that was... We did. We saw that was a marker for the beginning of the end of a lot of players. And that was last season's Demarius Thomas. Last season, he showed up as one of the worst in that stat at age 30. And so I'm worried that...