Week 8 Waivers & Streamers + Difference Makers - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/22

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway, the Fantasy Footballers podcast Tuesday, October 22nd. Welcome back to the show. Thank you for listening, following, supporting this podcast. It was... It was a night of football. I believe that the last time that I've heard Mike Wright's words was 8.42 p.m. Was that right after the last offensive play of the weekend? Yes. Yeah. Because that's when I lost. And there's the first time I've heard his words since then. That's when I lost. The last studio. I didn't lose on the kick.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who out there they lost on the Cardinals field goal. But no, I lost by point two on that final James Connor run. And that was his final words. Yeah. And we haven't heard from him since. In fact, I was 50-50 that I'd see him this morning. I'm always here. I'm always here. I will say this. I am a full changed man with regards to the double Monday night football. Because rewind the tape beginning of the season, I was not a fan. You know, it's like we. Let us have our island game, you know, where everything can focus on one. And I, you know, I think I would still be exactly there for Thursday night football. You know, let's just watch the one game and we're all in, you know, in it together. But the fact that Monday's the end of the fantasy football week, having more players that met, like across all my leagues, all of our leagues, there were so many teams and so many players. It was like, it was.

It was, the drama was exceptionally high. It was very high, yes. It also is a hedge against the bad game. Yeah, which we had. If you have one that wasn't very entertaining or exciting towards the end, it allows you to, and I was just doing both on the same TV and going back and forth to the sound, and I'm enjoying that experience. Mike and I had our head-to-head battle. It was not looking good for me. Mark Andrews. Hello, two touchdowns. I thought I would lose to two Andrews and two Giovante this week, which just feels like I was excited to play against both of those players and they were dominant. Yeah, the, but the, the universe was really trying to be, to be like, hey, Mr. the most anti-Markey Andrews guy, eat it. And then, uh, then the, the, the, the,

The Chargers forgot how to play defense. The Mark Andrews narrative and story has gone. It's just been so wild. Like we had the beginning of the season. The analysis after the beginning of the season was that Mark Andrews looks the same and is fine. And week two was fine. And then the amount of games with the limited opportunities meant that the gap we have to make up between, you know, the involvement of the offense. and productivity for your fantasy team was wide. Jason went on record two weeks ago and said, don't give up. He scored twice, I mean, 43 yards, but this is Mark Andrews, really. I mean, his red zone involvement has been his story minus one year where he was highly targeted. Otherwise, he's always been kind of a go-to red zone option. He scored twice last night. And he scored once the week prior. So this is, to Andy's point, he is a really good red zone option.

But I do want to make sure when we watch the film, Mark Andrews is good as he's been. He's just annihilating people as a blocker. He's getting open in space. Everything's good. However, his entire career of substance for fantasy football, he's been an 80% route participation type of guy. Now he's down to a 60% and was in this game as well. Four targets last week, four targets this week. Great fantasy games because three touchdowns. Obviously, he is better than a lot of the waiver wire tight ends. Despite the back-to-back gooses, he's not that guy. He's a very good player. But I don't believe, you know, the truth is in between. Yeah, I agree. He's not the goose. And he's not this, oh, he's back baby where he's going to be leading in targets and in yards every single game for the Ravens. He is a talented player on a great offense who can put up points, but is not the center.

focal point of the offense anymore. Yeah, that would be King Henry. Just to finish the story, because I don't want to leave people hanging. Kyler and Connor ended up overcoming JK Dobbins disappearing act against the Cardinals, and I ended up beating Mike in the end, which, you know, last year we had the matchup, me and Josh, and this one ended very similarly except for one fundamental difference, which is Mike has a lot of class. Oh, you know what I mean? And so, um, but far more. I mean, comparing one's character against Josh. Not a, it's, I mean, it's not a bar. You don't even have to have to step over that thing. That thing is in the basement. You can just keep walking and you will clear the bar. If you got ice skates on, yeah, just stay on the ground and move across it. Just slide right over it. So for sure. I appreciate the compliment, but it's also. Yeah, but you look like, you look.

so righteous you know what I mean like it's incredible your your moral character well I didn't get any I didn't get any like paraphernalia left on my you know personal property like I did from Papa Josh last year but no it was we'll get into the full recap there I just you know it's two high scoring affairs I mean we yep We have a lot to talk about. I feel like we could talk about the recaps of those games. But to your point about Andrews, this is, you know, this is Henry and Lamar. I mean, that's this team right now, 500 rushing yards dismantling their opposition on the ground. And you really, if Lamar plays at this level, he is not stoppable as an NFL player. You can't, like they say pick your poison, right?

but like all poison kills. Yeah. Right. So it's like, pick which way you die is the expression. But like, what if I don't want to die? Yeah, then what if I don't play the Ravens? Right. The bucks were feeling pretty good when it was 10 to zero. And they were dominating on both sides of the ball. They looked great. I will say that the offense for the Buccaneers and, you know, if we're in this game, the offense took a major. major turn the second that Mike Evans hurt re-hurt and then re-rehert his hamstring so he got the touchdown early hurt his hamstring on that play kept playing had a second option opportunity for a touchdown in the end zone drop the ball because his hamstring was ripped to shreds so it seemed by his reaction but once he was no longer in the game

I mean, it really took a toll on that offense. And then, of course, late in the game. And when I say late, I mean garbage time. Unimportant. This is why you don't. Well, whatever you want to say. Maybe it wasn't garbage time, but very, very, very late in the game, a very devastating injury to Chris Godwin, the ankle. My first reaction was that this was the worst coached game in history from the perspective of getting your players hurt. That was my original reaction because it was clear. regardless of Mike Evans scoring the first touchdown that he was not remotely. Correct. Ready to play in this football game. I know he wants to contribute big matchup, Monday night football. I'm not blaming Mike Evans for wanting to play. Sometimes you have to protect players from themselves. But he was not ready to play. And that's a coaching, training staff decision. And then at the end of the game, controversy, because 43 seconds left or whatever it was, Chris Godwin.

dislocates, breaks his ankle, feel terrible for the guy, going into free agency, been playing great football. So both fundamental pieces of the offense are now down. My original reaction was, how is he in the football game? But I also had thought that they had the two onside kick limit because that was a proposal by the NFL when the new unsaid kick rules went through. And so in my opinion, I thought, okay, you're going down to just lose by less because you can't onside kick. and the Ravens can just knee it out down 10. They could have onside kick. They had gotten an onside kick. They could have. If they score, I mean, the Browns won a ball game this year in the identical situation. So I am no longer holding that against Todd Bowles. It's unfortunate what happens. I'm sure those players didn't want to leave the field when you have an opportunity, however minuscule it was, to come back and win, and they had been moving the ball down the field. But now you lose two major components.

The trickle-down effect of these injuries is massive on fantasy football. I mean, I think we'd all admit that Mike Evans, if he misses just three weeks, I'd be shocked. If it's only three? Yeah, I mean, I feel like his history of hamstring injuries and the severity and pain he was in, maybe that, I mean, this is just speculation at this point, but he's got to miss at least a week. Well, you see oftentimes that re-injuring a hamstring is worse than the original hamstring injury. Original hamstring injury obviously wasn't enough to keep him out of the game. He, you know, like I said, he was on the sideline after the first touchdown, really dealing with the hamstring, limping like crazy. And the fact that he went back out and then really, yeah, we've seen Nico go on IR. We've seen a handful of players go on IR. A handful. You know what I mean? Switch.

But yeah, I expect him to miss a lot of time. And we mentioned briefly ankle injury for Chris Gama. But it was one of those like you don't watch injuries. He's done for the season. It's pointed the other direction. Right. So this might have been the swan song for Baker in fantasy football because. Oh, my laser. 370 and 3, 2 picks. I feel like it was a little bit my fault because. The moment I said Baker is so good in our chat, he threw a nasty interception. Two of his next three pass attempts, Andy, after you said that, were interceptions. So, you know, filling in the gap for Evans was Kate Otten, eight for 100. It was also Rashad White. And, you know, a lot of people, today's a waiver show. We're going to run to the waiver wire for Jalen McMillan and Kate Otten. I think Rashad White might be the biggest benefactor.

of these injuries because Jail Macmillan's a rookie. You don't know the trust level. Serling Shepard other players. Kate Otten, there have been times when this offense did not have Godwin and Evans. And I think Otten is a beneficiary. I'm not saying he's not. But I just wonder if Rashad White will get lost somewhere. He was six for 71, two touchdowns, caught passes. And we know what this offense was like when Godwin wasn't a focal point, which was Rashad White. Do you guys agree with that? Richard White might have an opportunity? The opportunities are going to, they will go up. The, yeah, it's so difficult because the game, like this was a, this was a wild game of after the first half, the, the, at least the carry count, I believe it was. I had, uh, I had tweeted it out of someone. It was, I think it was from Yankee, but he's like, all three running backs have five carries or five touches. I can't remember which one it is at half time. It's like, that is.

disgusting and then they were down so much so fast and which maybe that's the prescription now of like the because the offense won't be able to move very much so it's definitely a bump for Rashad White the the Jalen McMillan ad I mean like obviously if you're getting white you have to trade for him where McMillan could be on your waiver wire it's does he go to Chris Godwin's role like he was a slot player in college Does he go to the slot for Tampa Bay now, or does somebody else do that? And that's a, I mean, this is the Cooper Cup role of an offense where it's designed very specifically to get that player involved. So that's where the addition of McMillan is so exciting of if he actually gets that slot role, it's really big upside. Yeah, and you also have Sterling Shepard there who.

We saw Phil in a little bit. He's a veteran guy who can play both inside and in the slot. But he'll be free, I think. I don't think people are rushing after Sterling Shepard on waivers. So, and then in the other game, the Cardinals beat the Chargers. Final score of the previous one, 41, Ravens. Cardinals beat the Chargers 1715. James Connor, 19 for 101 on the ground. Also two for 51 through the air. Didn't get into the end zone, but that was good enough for 17 plus fantasy points and half point. and more in full. Kyler, six for 64 on the ground, only through for 145 yards passing. I think most people's reaction to this game will be great joy with James Connor and great despair with Marvin Harrison Jr. Dude. Who was three for 21. What is going on? Three for 21 and also dropped a pass that was down the field. That was the one he ended up getting a penalty on, but it was kind of egregious.

I mean, went through his arms, hit him in the belly. They're not on the same page. There's also a problem, I think, with play development. There's not a lot of plays being drawn up for Harrison to happen quick. And the Cardinals' offensive line in Kyler's needing to escape the pocket has led to, you know, all these plays. We keep getting replays of Marvin Harrison being open. laid in the play, but Kyler's running all over the place at this point. Yes. So they're kind of irrelevant. And, you know, we got the big game against the Rams, but most of these plays, there's no, you know, where's the quick slant, right? Like, he's in the slot, but where's the quick slant in one-on-one coverage? Where's the out route five yards from the line of scrimmage as opposed to showing us highlights of double moves where Kyler had no chance to throw him the football? The Cardinals have scored 17 or fewer points in four of their games.

I don't, I have no idea what they're doing in these offensive meetings. We're like, yeah, no, things are working really, really well right now, guys. And the last, was the big Kyler run? I mean, he had one this week. Was it also two weeks ago? Or was that San Francisco? It was San Francisco. So, I mean, that's two, like, plays that you can't count on those of all the time. I mean, this one especially of Kyler. It was a masterful play of he watched the defense completely shift all over to the right and then he just ran completely open all the way to the end zone. But it's maddening to see how ineffective this offense is and feel like nothing is changing. They just keep going to it saying maybe it will work this time. What's really weird about this game is that the Cardinals were running the ball. Outstandingly couldn't throw the ball.

which is you would think with Kyler and Marvin Harrison it would be the opposite. And with the Chargers defense being so formidable. Exactly. And then on the other side, the Chargers, you would expect to be running the ball so well against Scardles and not throwing the ball much because their wide receivers are injured. And instead, they can't run the ball for anything. But here's Justin Herbert with 350 yards. It's a weird game. The Dobbins line was awful. 14 for 40. That included a long of 11. The Cardinals looked like they had an extra man in the box in every play, and they wanted to go, I mean, look, the leading receiver for the Chargers. Big Bonnetta, Will Disley. Woo-hoo, 11 targets. Eight receptions, 81 yards. He's big, he's fast, he's strong, he Will Disney, Big Bonnet. You're back, baby. Never die, Will.

I can't believe in the year of 2024. We're talking about Will Disseley. He looks enormous. I mean, he looks like an offensive tackle in the passing game. So the Cardinals said, hey, beat us with the passing game in these players. They couldn't get into the end zone. Cardinals end up winning the ball game. You're right. It's frustrating. Let's talk fantasy, though, through now seven weeks. Tray McBride has been disappointing. Can't get into the end zone. Marvin Harrison disappointing. And. You know, really the only impressive player on the totality of the season. The only player you're happy with the draft capital invested in has been James Connor. Because Kyler, you haven't been. No. And Harrison and McBride, you haven't been. So moving forward, you know, the Cardinals get Miami in Miami next week. Miami, I believe, if you look at the streamfinder tool in our.

On our website is number one against opposing quarterbacks. They are top tier against quarterbacks. Part of that without Tua has been the fact that teams have been in the lead and that Miami is never playing with the lead, so you run on them. It's hard for me to look at any metrics against the dolphins, offense or defense without Tua. And like, Put a lot of stock into it, but it will be interesting going forward to see how that plays out. I think that you're worried about the passing game, but there's still the chance as the season progresses that the passing game figures it out. With McBride, with Harrison and Kyler, you still want them to figure it out. You could see a path where they do, but right now it's not working. Little disappointing, and I don't know how hurried he was, but Ladd McConkey, just 46 of those 350 passing yards. All in the second half. The first half couldn't connect and he did look injured.

Yeah, it was just a strange game. Cardinals won, you know, all this negativity. Cardinals won the ball game, mostly because of the defense in the running game. James Connor, though, has been a revelation. And they, zero snaps for Benson in this game, only one carry for DiMarcato. You're always looking at that. And if that's a trend for Arizona to continue to give James Connor, you know, that kind of a workload, because that wasn't always common down the stretch last year, despite him playing well. but that was good to see. Any other thoughts on this ballgame? I know we had a lot to recap from those. This is a waiver show. So we're going to talk about players to pick up and injuries. We saw more of them last night. So you need to make changes on the team and the roster and add depth and do all of those things. We're going to try to give you the players that we're looking for on today's show. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back with a new segment. All right.

Right. One of the things that happened last year, if you were listening to the show, is that we had some pretty important mid-season transactions. David Najoku, Doc Prescott, C.D. Lamb, there were players that at about this juncture in the year, you could start to foresee the future in terms of we know a lot about opposing defenses. We know the way teams are trending. And you were able to add some players that were league winners. And then inversely, you had players in the beginning of last year, Kenneth Walker, Travis E.T.N. That were such difference makers at that juncture of the season, but didn't finish that way. Connor was another great end of season, Najee Harris. So from this point on in the season, we've got a new segment. We want to break down players that you can look at as maybe the beginning part of winning a championship. Welcome to Difference Makers, presented by IMS Pet Food.

That was a surprise. I thought it was done. And then it was back. So there's not going to be a rule set on this segment. It's not going to be like we each have one name every week or two names every week. We're just going to bring up some names that we think will be opportunities to potentially get ahead of the curve, ahead of your league mates. Not exactly a waiver segment, not exactly a trade for a segment, but a difference maker segment. We want to point out some players that we think could be difference makers down the stretch. I'm going to kind of flip the order of the guys we talk about. Sure. Is that all right? Yeah. Because one of the bigger storylines this weekend was, you know, Brandon Ayuk. It's part of the news. He tore his ACL. He's done for the year. We got news yesterday that Debo Samuel is dealing with pneumonia. Hospitalized. He's hospitalized with pneumonia. We've got the return of Ricky Pearsall, but from a difference-making perspective, we've already seen it at the beginning of this year. I want to bring up Joanne Jennings name. Juan Jennings is...

Right now the wide receiver 19 on the year because he's already taken advantage of opportunities. He put up that 44 point week three when he had an opportunity. What I've noticed when watching the film frequently of the 49ers is that when he's on the field with Brock Purdy, they have a pretty great connection. The passer rating for Brock Purdy is exceptional, specifically with Joanne Jennings. And the things that Kyle Shannon has come out and said about Joanne Jennings have been very promising from his developmental standpoint. So I want to bring that name up. Now, he didn't play this past week. He's dealing with the hip injury. Kyle Shanhan's come out and said he's not positive. He'll be back this week. But, you know, Joan Jennings is on a lot of waiver wires or at the bottom of people's benches. And with this opportunity in this offense, John Jennings could have a crucial role on a good offense the rest of the season. Yeah, he's the clear beneficiary as far as playing time and opportunities and the target pecking order when it comes to the Brandon I, Yuc, injury. You've seen.

some success this year. You've seen a good rapport with Brock Purdy. So Joanne Jennings is someone who could go from almost irrelevance to an actual difference maker. But I don't. Sorry, I just want to throw this in there before you move forward. He's tied with Kettle for the highest targets per route run on the football team. So when he's on the field, there is that connection that we've seen between him and Kettle. Something he sees. Yeah. And for. for just cause because it's worked out when targeting Joanne Jennings. But I, you know, I don't know if Debo plays this week with the pneumonia issue that really hampered him this last week and obviously hospitalized him. But I want to bring his name up since this is a difference maker segment. There's two names to me that when I look forward at some changes going on in the league or their teams that I think are true difference makers. Debo could be top 10 wide receiver the rest of the season. We've seen.

When Brandon Iook is off the field, here's some stats. Jacob Gibbs tweeted this out, great follow on Twitter. The target per route run and the yards per route run rate, if you look at their stars, you look at Debo and Kittle. When Brandon Iook is off the field, the target per route run, Debo's at 37% versus Kittles 24% and yards per route run. Debo's up at 4.44. That's an outrageous number. And Kittles at two, which is still good. When Iyuk has been off the field, Debo has been so necessary to the offense. He's a great player. When he recovers from pneumonia, I think he could be one of those league winning type and quality of fantasy assets. And we're still waiting for CMC to return. Yeah, Debo is a good name. So the tandem there in San Francisco potential difference makers, as we know this offense and this team will be in the mix throughout the season. I'll also highlight the upcoming schedule for San Francisco wide receivers.

You're facing bottom, you know, 10 defenses against opposing fantasy whiteouts for the next three matchups. So something to pay attention to. Now, Mike, you threw another name in there. This one, I think, is worthy of more discussion because I think I, I don't know, I'm just down on this guy right now. I get that. And it's, maybe that is exactly why you're bringing his name up. And I've, I've already brought him up a couple times of, but I'm. was bringing up Jalen Warren in the breath of, I think you should. Like, I think you should go get him. He might be on some waivers. And his value is about as low as it can possibly get because he's been hurt for the entirety of the year. Like, he got hurt before the season with a hamstring, was really, really limited for those first three weeks. And then he missed a couple games with the knee injury. So on Sleeper, Jalen's 42% rostered. So he is like,

He's a guy you could just aggressively go get with a priority or with Fab. And it's looking at what's coming up here for Jalen Warren. Because the split, Naji's been great the last two weeks. But the split is back. Like Jalen Warren was back up to 51% of the snaps. He had 15 opportunities. So like what has been happening with Naji, I think that that's going to come back down. And it's. looking at, okay, if Russ is really the quarterback of this team, which he is. Russ is the quarterback now. Russell Wilson, last year at least, was a checkdown machine. He was in the Sean Payton offense, but you had that. And last year, Jalen Warren, 61 receptions, fifth most at the running back position. This is a guy that I think you can get off the waiver wire. And as long as this is not a standard play, this is a half, more preferably a PPR type of a play.

But he's someone who can go right into your flex and then can be a bi-week running back for you that can change the composition of your roster. To get that type of a running back that you know I can play each and every week, it's not going to be great every week, but there's going to be times where he's going to hit. I think that he should be a priority at. Him and Joanne are my top go-to guys off of the Waver Wire this week. Yeah, now before we move on, I did want to throw out one more name that has just been on my heart. You know what? Do you know where I'm going? Of course I do. You do? Yes, because I can feel the... You can feel the excitement? Is this player need to be in difference makers, Jason? This is a true difference maker. Yeah, I think you're talking about a league. Maybe I don't know where you're going. I'm talking about a league winner. Oh, no, I'm not going Troy Franklin. That's all I can think of goes. That's in the waiver segment. It's coming. Don't you worry.

No, no, no. This is a true difference maker. I think a league winner. Okay. This is one of my guys. It's Devon A. Chan. Devon A. Chan, I know over the last month, Andy, you and I've had back-and-forth discussions as to whether or not what you've seen is disheartening. And, like, maybe you don't believe. There are managers that just flat don't believe now. You know, even though Tua has been gone, they're just like, I don't know if he's that guy. You know, Tua played a game and a half. And Devon A-chan was the running back. three over the first two weeks. Yeah, I mean, he was averaging 22.8 fantasy points a game. Over the next five weeks, the number one strength of schedule for running backs in the league is the Miami Dolphins. So if you can find a manager who doesn't believe in Devon A-chan or maybe you can do something, I would personally, I think that the matchup... Which is not a waiver pickup. It's a difference maker you could go trade for on the low. Exactly right. I think our only difference of opinion on him was the kind of...