Last Straw Players, Pump the Brakes, Manly Men

maybe Demarius Thomas, just like, you know, Andre Johnson and a lot of great players that are big or not speed guys when they hit, they hit a wall. And so that's where he's in my final straw, where I'm paying close attention. I want to actually watch him, not just his production, but, you know, his routes and everything and just see, is this someone I just need to move on from?

Yeah, and I don't know. I wouldn't be cutting him because he's on pace for 132 targets. Right, exactly. Coralyn Sutton is impressive physically, but the targets haven't been there. But you could see a migration over the second half of the season. They got to fix that offense. Brooks, you had a question about the last straw players. I know you brought it up earlier. Yeah, just wondering, does your team's record impact your decision, you know, if you're in a must-win situation or the opposite if you're undefeated?

I think a lot of teams with these players are in a must-win situation, right? I mean, if you have LaShawn McCoy and Derek Henry, and you drafted those as early running backs, you probably lost a couple games where you needed them and they were in your lineup and sucked. And so I do think you have to be willing to make moves. We talked about this yesterday. You have to manufacture wins and you have to do it now if you've got a bad record. You don't have time to keep running out the same tired and tired.

true trash that is not getting the job done. So yeah, if your record is poor, I think you can't wait around for these players. You have to package, trade them or make the move, the scary, ugly, gross move of going to someone else off of waivers and trying to black out the names in your heart and mind. Yeah. Yeah. I like the phrasing you used. Manufacture wins. If you can get yourself over the hump,

manufacture, go week to week. You know, you've got buy weeks to navigate. You've got opponents with buy weeks. If you can find those matchups, get a few wins under your belt. If you've had a rough start, other teams will start to disintegrate around you if you can stay the course. Let's get into the Thursday night game. Thursday night breakdown. Well, Mike's already talked about Andrew Luck. He thinks that there may be, he may have a mental breakdown with the lack of weapons in New England.

Jack Pascal, best wide receiver ever begs to differ. It's the best weapon he's ever had. Well, the Patriots are at home. Sonny Michelle coming off the big week. For New England, what do you expect to see from the receiving core now that Edelman's back? Gordon's had a few snaps. You know, Dorset's on the outside. Patterson got involved. Hogan is a ghost.

Yeah, a big question, the biggest question, is Gronk. What is the health of Rob Gronkowski? Conflicting reports happening coming out saying the ankle injury is not serious, but he's not been at practice on Monday or Tuesday. Gronk, I think he will play. Where do you guys lean on Gronkowski's availability? I believe he'll play. Jason? Yeah, short week, I could see him miss. I mean, this is one where I don't feel I've got to, it's going to.

be based on today. I mean, if he's not with them today, I can't imagine he plays tomorrow. So for the past catchers, for Julian Edelman, I think it's a big, you'll roll them out there right away. A big hug, the return of my friend, if I'm Tom Brady is Julian Edelman. I'm so happy that you're back. I know where you're going to be and I know you have reliable hands. So I think the.

you know, that seven target range for Julian Edelman is back immediately. So are you willing to throw him in a lineup week? Yes. I would play Julian Edelman as a wide receiver too. Well, let me, let me put some names out there. Would you play Jeffrey or would you play Jeffrey? Jeffrey. Jeffrey. Probably Aus on Jeffrey for ceiling. What about Kenny G. G. In the smooth rounds. Oh, that's an excellent question. Kenny Golliday. Or Julian Edelman. I think I'd play Golliday. I would as well. Yeah.

So maybe Edelman's a wide receiver three. Yeah. Quincy and Noonelaw or Julian Edelman. Edelman. Tyler Boyd or Julian Edelman. Boyd. Yeah, I got to stay in the flames with Boyd. Emmanuel Sanders or Julian Edelman. Sanders. All right. Josh Gordon, is he holding pattern on your bench right now? Yeah, I still haven't seen enough that I'm ready to throw him into the lineup. Do you disagree, Jason? No, I completely agree. It's one of those, this is, there's going to be production from New England.

Is it going to be Gronk? Is it going to be Edelman? Let's say Gronk is out. If Gronk is out, Josh Gordon becomes much more interesting to me, the big body downfield guy. Both of these teams rank in the top 10 in terms of pace of play. Colts are number one, pats are number nine. A lot of the no huddle, quick pace of play. Probably going to play a factor for the Colts too on the road dealing with the Foxborough crowd.

And both running backs are startable. I want to play both of the New England guys. And by both, yeah, both on New England. Not on, not both from two teams. Yeah, Sony Michelle, James White. I like them both. Fifty one and a half point over under. Colts are second. I like that. Colts have the second most sacks in the league right now. The Patriots are not getting to the quarterback. They have the second fewest. We talked about Naeem Hines earlier.

in the week. Marlon Mack has been practicing. Heinz has the fourth most running back receptions in the league, which I think gives him or gives him the baseline that you guys both see with Naim Hines and the need for them to likely be...

You know, they don't have a lot of weapons. They're coming back in this game. You guys think that there's value for Hein. Yeah, I think Heinz, even with Marlon Mack coming back, even with Robert Turbin coming back, Jordan Wilkins looking like the best of the rookies on the ground, that's going to be a muddled situation. I don't want to touch any of those guys. But in the passing game, if, look, the Patriots are favored by 10 points on a high over under. That's a coming back. Andrew Luck manufacturing a bunch of yards. I, you know, I know you pump the brakes.

I totally get it. You got a guy with shoulder. I still want to play Heinz. You got a guy with a shoulder injury coming off of an overtime game where he threw 60 plus passes on a short week. That's going to be hard. But you know what's not going to be hard? Those dump-offs to Heinz. I mean, it's going to be left right and center. So, yeah, I like Naim Hines quite a bit. I actually like Eric Ebron for those reasons as well. It's hard for me to be anti- Andrew Luck here. I just think the situation is.

he's going to have just he's going to have to throw the ball. Yes, he's going to have to. I just think he will not have success. I don't disagree with the have to. All right. Any other thoughts from this game that you want to get into? I mean, you've talked a lot about the wide receiver core. I still think Grant the PPR situation. I looked at catch percentage over the last, you know, first four weeks of the season.

Who's best in the NFL in terms of catch percentage? Now I know that has to deal with average depth of target. Regardless, Ryan Grant is in the top 10. He's catching the ball. You know, Michael Thomas, Ryan Grant, those guys are go-to receivers. And if you have to gain yards 5, 6, 7 at a time, run through the air, so to speak.

He's going to be a beneficiary from that. And while Rogers and Pascal have more upside, Grant has the higher floor. Do you agree with that? Yes, Grant's floor should be absolutely fine. If you're in a full point per reception league, I think that's good. The last thing that we need to bring up, because it's an early game, and this is a very important player for stupid leagues that still have kickers, Adam Minnetary has been limited due to a groin injury, which...

My groin. Pretty significant piece of equipment for kickers. Is there growing? That's what I hear. I swap Venetary out for Dan Bailey this morning in our league of record. It's good move. Because I saw that questionable tag show up. That's why I don't mess with Santos necessarily for a one-week rental. You can. But basically with kickers, my philosophy is this. Remove as many variables as possible. And the variables involve...

a new incoming kicker, injury, risk, concern, and weather. If I can remove those three things, I give myself the best chance to get lucky and have a middling week. You know, Dan Bailey's first week with Minnesota, he ended up, you know. That was such a wacky thing. It was. They're down 20 points to the Buffalo bills and can't.

kick a field goal. Yeah, but ultimately when a new kicker comes in, like Cleveland brought one in it, you just run a risk of a guy being out there for the first time with such a mental game with a kicker. Obviously, Santos didn't have a job, and he tried out for other teams, and Zerline will be back. But that's just my philosophy. I remove variables with kickers. All right, let's... What you're telling us is to remove kickers. If you got it, if you got it, if you got it, you're dead on. Let's go ahead and get in the mailbag.

Mailbag. Mail bag. All right, we love answering questions helping you win your league. And this time, it's week five questions. You can dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB if you want to leave us a voicemail question for the show. You can also go to the website, the Fantasy Footballers.com. Click the submit a question button and leave us a question that way. We get to a few here and there. And first one's a voicemail. Hey, ballers. Noah here from Austin, Texas. So I have Ertz.

and read on my team, and I'm getting some offers for Jordan Reed. How should I value tight-ins in trades going forward? Do I value them higher because there's less, less than with all the injuries, or should I value them just as I have in other years? Thanks, guys. Bye-bye. What do you guys think? I think you value them the same. And do not trade Ertz away. Ertz is one of the big ones that is a massive advantage for your team. I love Jordan Reed. I think he's a...

a tight-in one, but he's the one I would be willing to trade away. All right. Chase and Phoenix has a question. Should I trade Jay Jai and Jarvis Landry for David Johnson? I'm glad this came up because this is an aside, this is not me answering your question yet. But for Jarvis Landry, here is the lineup for the Cleveland Browns schedule-wise. They play Baltimore this week, gross.

I don't really, I don't like it. It's not favorable. But check this out. Chargers, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Atlanta. Five games. Holy freaking crap. Those are the matchups you want your fantasy players to be going up against. If I could get Jarvis Langerie right now, I would be super happy. Andy has him in our league of record, so I know there's zero chance that I can get him right now. But in my other leagues,

I'm seeing if I can get Jarvis Landry on my team. Now, that being said, to be able to transfer from Jay Jai, who, I mean, I'd love to get rid of Jai. I feel like what's the over under on three more full games on the season? Like, you're just so worried that he is at some point going to have to call it quits on the season with that broken back that he's playing through. David Johnson.

You know, owners are still willing to sell him right now. And the running back position being much more difficult to come by, would you be willing to trade Jarvis plus JJ with the great schedule? I would be willing to do this. I just wanted to have the quick aside of Cleveland players looking good for Jarvis. And the targets are obviously always there for Jarvis. If you can acquire Enjoku. Yeah. Off of some, he's on the waiver wire for a lot of people as well. Yeah, the schedule's pretty nice. That's fantastic.

In this specific instance, Chase can replace Jarvis Lander with Alshon Jeffrey in his lineup. I like picking up David Johnson there as well. Curtis in North Carolina, Doug Baldwin looked dot, dot, dot, all right.

Dot, dot, dot, in his first game back. And I was pretty much on par with Lockett. Would you feel comfortable swapping out Lockett for Baldwin this week? Or would you give it more time? I would play Baldwin. Yeah, 100%. Baldwin is good to go now that he's gotten one game in. He was 5 for 41. He should be absolutely fine. Now, it's a tough match. No setbacks that we know of. The Los Angeles Rams, but they are at home, and the Rams are going to score, like, silly scoring with...

now the Earl Thomas-less Seattle Seahawks. So I think they'll have to have Baldwin. Should be a good play this week. That was one of the interesting observations I saw in the catch percentage charts. Brandon Cooks is actually near the top of the league in catch percentage to targets. And the Rams in general have one drop on the season. So their receivers, that's the number one in the league. That helps. They're holding on to the football for Jared Goff. It's amazing how a drop kills a drive. Yeah.