Week 6 Studs & Stinkers + Weekly Rewind, Mike the Tatman

himself out. James had 400 passing yards and a touchdown and a couple two-pointers. He was actually okay for fantasy. Like, Jared Goff in the beginning of the game, you're crying tears. And then at the end, you're like, ah, he was okay. Joe Mixen, my goodness, terrible game, eight for ten on the ground. Only three targets entering week six. Joe Mixon has been stuffed on.

Over 28% of his rushing attempts. That's the highest in the league. The league average is 18.6. He is 10 points higher. We talked about, I think it was on our serious XM show, a player who is leveled down, at least for fantasy purposes, and you have to adjust. Joe Mixing was drafted at that fringe RB1. You were very hopeful because he was able to defy the expectations in the offensive line last year. Not so much this year. No.

This is a true level-down situation, and it's not all his fault. We're not saying that Joe Mixon himself has lost a step. I don't believe that. When you get him in space, he still looks very good, but this is similar to when Todd Gurley going in his sophomore year had major offensive line problems and couldn't get it going. And then the next year was great when they brought in Andrew Whitworth and Sean McVeigh. Their offensive line is garbledy-gook trash and...

Their passing game can't stop people from focusing on the run because A.J. Green's been out. John Ross has been out. So if you're a defender going up against, you know, the Bengals, you just have to stop Joe Mixing. And that's about it. And they go, oh, this is really easy. Which Los Angeles Charger running back do you start? Melvin Gordon or Austin Eckler, the correct answer was neither. You shouldn't have played neither of them because they both stunk.

Passing usage of Austin Eckler was very surprising to me, especially with that game script. It felt like he would get a few more dumpoffs, but he only managed four targets. They get to take on Tennessee next. They lost their superstar center. Where are you at with Melvin Gordon? I tweeted this out early in the week that I was really scared about Melvin Gordon. I would have been trying to trade him before this game. I don't think Melvin Gordon gets back into that upper.

you know, the top tier, even the top five or six on a weekly basis. This is a back that now looks like he's in a timeshare. I mean, he's still getting the bulk of the work, but for an offense that's sputtering, without their superstars, center, the rest of their line isn't that good. And when you watch the game, and granted, some credit definitely needs to go to the Steelers. Their defense is. Much improved. They look great from here on out. But without Mike Pouncey,

I mean, we've seen it so many times, and it doesn't get enough credit. But we've talked about it. We've seen teams trade a star center from one team to another, and the running game miraculously goes from one team being great to the other team being great. The center makes a huge deal for some of these teams that want to run the ball. So I'm very worried about Melvin Gordon. Speaking of a defense that has turned things around, Derek Henry was held to 28.

rushing yards on 15 attempts. Jay, this team that got torched by Leonard Fournett, when they played the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Broncos gave up nearly 270 rushing yards. Yeah. They lost Bradley Chubb. Yeah. And then they got good at stopping the run. And then not just good, but elite. They allowed 35 rushing yards to the Chargers, 39 rushing yards to the Titans over the first four weeks. They had not turned the...

created a turnover at all. Three each of the last two weeks. What's going on with the Denver Broncos defense? Well, coming into the year, you expected Denver to have a very good defense. They had great pieces, enough talent, and then you bring in a head coach who is widely considered one of the best defensive minds out there in Big Fangio, who orchestrated the Bears defense last year. That was awesome. And then...

We're like, what is going on? So I think the fact that they're meeting expectations now, just a couple weeks into the season, I think the truth is going to be in between these two. But if I had to, if I had to say they're a good D or a bad D, I would say they're a good defense. Because they've got the pieces. They've got the coaching. We'll find out next week because they get to play the Kansas City Chiefs. Oh, they're a bad defense. And then the Indianapolis Colts. Just saying this, you've got to beware of these defenses.

where you have the small sample size of just the first quarter of the season because a couple weeks ago, you were drooling. You were drooling looking at the matchup of the Denver Broncos, maybe not so much anymore. Malcolm Brand, who had 40 rushing yards on the opening drive against San Francisco. Oh, what a great drive. He ended the game with 40 rushing yards and was very disappointing. Jordan Howard, 13 for 49. You knew he would struggle against Minnesota.

despite how well he's been playing and how well he's been playing for fantasy football, he is still a touchdown dependent running back to me because he's not using the passing game. This can happen 13 for 49. Dallas, Buffalo, Chicago, upcoming for Jordan Howard. No thank you. I told you on the show last week. He was definitely a trade high candidate for me, someone I was not wanting to deal with over the next month to go back to Malcolm Brown. Sure.

Malcolm Brown is probably my early start of the week for this upcoming week. If people are dropping Malcolm Brown... Because you're assuming that Todd Gurley will not play. Yeah, I think Todd Gurley... I mean, right now, what it's being said is that he has a chance to play in week seven. This is really early to be using he has a chance to play in week seven. Now, medically speaking, he should be able to, but this is a pain thing. And so my point is that...

I think that Malcolm Brown was the clear leader in volume 11 carries to six. The Atlanta Falcons are not a scary defense, and I think there's a bounce back. I'm not worried about the long-term effects. Obviously, the Rams aren't the rushing team of the last two years. Their offensive line has gotten worse, but I do still believe Malcolm Brown in a plus matchup. What the Niners came out and showed the world is that...

They're not a plus matchup anywhere. And we knew they weren't a plus matchup, but you still wondered because they hadn't really faced anyone great. Was this just a matter of the schedule? And they said, nope, this Bosa kid, he's pretty good. The running backs for the Kansas City Chiefs, usually like a long historic career of absolute fantasy gold at the running back position because head coach Andy Reed.

goes with one guy as the predominant player. It is looking rough. It looked like it was right back to that, on track with that. When Damian Williams came back last week from his injury, received over 90% of the running back. Cary's was heavily involved, but this week was an absolute hodgepodge. And Damian Williams, two opportunities on the entire game, one carry for six yards, one target, one reception. Now that reception was a 14-yard touchdown, so he saved his fantasy day.

what's your heby-giby level on the Kansas City Chiefs running backs right now? Yeah, I mean, it's got to be through the roof. Who should, who's going to get the main care? And when you get through the roof. Oh, you get injured. You get hurt. You get hurt. You got a lot of, you got to hire a roofer. Right. Because you broke it. Hope you don't have a popcorn ceiling, bro. Get that asbestos everywhere. Oh, that's, look. I mean, who has the most carries next week for the Kansas City Chiefs?

Because Shady McCoy had the most this week. He was eight for 44. So who gets the most carries? You don't know. I don't know. Who gets the most targets out of the backfield? You don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. Yeah, this is turned into a mess quickly and very, very unfortunate. You're fine to keep these players and continue taking shots on them. But the same way that you've been taking a shot on DeMarcus Robinson. Yeah. And these guys is like...

You might have to roll. I would rather roll with someone like that than a Benny Snell that's like you hope gets you 10 points, but maybe he gets a lot of work. I'd rather throw, I mean, obviously that's going very low. But say Royce Freeman. Royce Freeman is a guy that pretty much week and week out, if you're in a half point scoring. He gets you about 10 points. That's okay. But I feel like I would rather take the shot on a Damien Williams who could come out and get two total touches.

but could also one of those touches be an 80-yard touchdown. Wild, man. It's a wild world. The Rams wide receivers also disappointed. Cooper Cup and Brandon Cooks. Keenan Allen, now we have a few disappointing games in a row. He was double-teamed for a lot of this game. The schedule is not great for him, though. Tennessee and Chicago up next. Juju Smith, Schuster.

He is not only playing against defenders. He is also playing against his quarterback on his own team. His quarterback is winning. And is that fight. His quarterback is winning. Tyler Boyd did not come through. DJ Chark, we knew the matchup was going to be tough against Lattimore. It appears that Marshall and Lattimore got the better of DJ Chark. And really, that game was a slug fest. If you were watching what was happening, it was tough for everybody. The afternoon games were trash.

for a fantasy for like scoring other than the Cardinals game. It seemed like every game was like three to six at halftime. Michael Gallup and Jarvis Landry returned to Earth. DeAndre Hopkins, here we are again. We have going on about a month. Weekend. Of by low on DeAndre Hopkins, nine for 55. 55. Oh my goodness. Oh, 12 targets turned into 55 yards for Hopkins.

He was being used as a possession wide receiver. He's the wide receiver 19, so he's not totally and completely busted. Well, put it this way. Where are we? If you take out that week one and you look at the last well over a month, you know, the last five games, he's on pace for 931 yards. Now, that's not a bad number for a wide receiver, but that is a terrible number. Yes.

for D'Andre Hopkins, and during that span has not caught a touchdown. You say, is he continually a buy low? And I say, yes, of course. He is for me, too. It feels bad, but he got 12 targets. His team is bawling out. To truly buy low on someone. The thing that I, that's not really talked about, to truly actually buy low on someone, you have to.

you will feel hesitancy inside of you. Otherwise, it's not actually buying low on a player. You're buying a player who has been disappointing for a long period of time, and you aren't sure they're actually going to turn it around. Now, with a player like DeAndre Hopkins, who's an elite level wide receiver and has an elite offense and elite quarterback, you can feel mostly confident, but it still feels bad. There's no way.

Almost no way you could trade for DeAndre Hopkins unless that the person who has him on his team has not been just stung repeatedly like a hornet in his butt cheeks on a weekly basis. And then you're like, I need to get rid of these hornets at my butt cheeks at that point. You don't want that. You ever had hornets in your undies? Oh, it's not a good experience. I speak from no experience. At the tight end position, Gerald Everett.

He went in for the dunk, and then Matumbo rejected him. He is not on fire with the rest of the Rams team. Only nine receiving yards. If you played him, as I did, you are highly disappointed. Now, real quick, just to throw these two games out, because I just want to discuss Keenan Allen and Juju Smith-Schuster. Juju to me is a guy I'm worried about from here on out. Yes. I'll play him in a great matchup. So he's going to the bye week. He comes back. He's got Miami. Oh, fantastic.

He's going to get a 70-yard touchdown. Look, even Devlin Hodges can get it done against Miami. Exactly. But if it's not a plus matchup, he's a guy that until, I mean, going to the buy, I assume coming out, he's not going to have Devlin Hodges. I assume. You think Mason will be back? Mason will be back after the buy. And is that really that much better? But it's not that much better. So, you know, but Keenan Allen, are you worried long term? Are you buying low? I would be willing to buy low. This is, this is pretty much the history of Keenan Allen.

When he goes off, it's a string. It's four games in a row where he just annihilates everyone. And then he pulls a Houdini and he vanishes for a little bit. It's weird. That's really what he's done for the last like five years. He has stretches where usually it's half the year and half the year. Right. But when he's on the stretch, it feels like he's going to go forever. And then you run into this. So I'm willing to go and get Keenan now. And I think better days are ahead. How do we have O.J. Howard on the on the sinkers of the week?

As you're saying his big boy pants are not worth being on here anymore. I mean, he's, you know, like when you go to the city dump. Sure. It stinks. Yes. But I'm not surprised. I'm not like, oh my goodness. Did you smell that? No, you're at the city dump. That's O.J. Howard gets. Oh, no. I'm just saying he's the city dump. He's the city dump at this point.