Latest / The Dream Team / Dream Team: Week 5
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: It's time to set your lineup with the Dream Team.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Here's Jim Zoki and John Halpin.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Panthers don't play this weekend, but that doesn't stop us
- 0:12Speaker 1: about talking about fantasy football because we have so many
- 0:14Speaker 1: other players and other teams to talk about, including the Panthers,
- 0:18Speaker 1: as we can kind of pause and look at what
- 0:19Speaker 1: they've accomplished and what's been a terrific fantasy season for
- 0:22Speaker 1: a number of Carolina Panthers early on. John, how are
- 0:25Speaker 1: you doing today?
- 0:26Speaker 3: Pretty good, thanks. You know, it's funny you said that
- 0:28Speaker 3: because I remember talking– a month ago, and me sitting
- 0:32Speaker 3: here saying, yeah, we're excited about the Panthers, but I
- 0:35Speaker 3: don't know if I see a lot of fantasy help
- 0:37Speaker 3: coming here. And it's just fantasy goodness everywhere.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Well, don't feel bad, John, because they were mulling over
- 0:46Speaker 1: whether they should make him their long-term quarterback with Bryce
- 0:48Speaker 1: Young as far as real football goes. So I think
- 0:51Speaker 1: everybody's surprised. If they would have known what Bryce was
- 0:54Speaker 1: going to do these first four games, they would assign
- 0:56Speaker 1: him to the extension before this year because I'm sure
- 0:59Speaker 1: his price tag's only gone one direction since then.
- 1:01Speaker 3: Yeah, no joke. He's just been everything they could have
- 1:04Speaker 3: wanted this season. And he carried over from the end
- 1:07Speaker 3: of last season, and it's just going so great, and
- 1:09Speaker 3: it's so great to see.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Legitimately, he is, and again, it's the quarter post of
- 1:14Speaker 1: the season. And if you grabbed a quarter of the
- 1:16Speaker 1: football season last year, you could have made the case
- 1:19Speaker 1: Rico Dowdle's an MVP. But Bryce Young seems to have
- 1:22Speaker 1: more legs to it. Through the quarter of the season
- 1:25Speaker 1: he's played so far, it's hard with 16, with 17 games.
- 1:28Speaker 1: But he is definitely not only in the conversation, but
- 1:31Speaker 1: I would think as far as, again, beyond fantasy, football
- 1:34Speaker 1: itself is probably, what, a top three candidate to be
- 1:37Speaker 1: MVP of the league at the quarter post?
- 1:39Speaker 3: I mean, it's always a quarterback, right? And I think
- 1:42Speaker 3: if you look at the stats right now, I mean,
- 1:45Speaker 3: it's Josh Allen and Brock Purdy. And I mean, right.
- 1:50Speaker 3: I mean, maybe Mahomes, but otherwise it's Bryce Young. He's
- 1:54Speaker 3: right in the mix.
- 1:55Speaker 1: Yeah. And again, a lot of that comes down to
- 1:57Speaker 1: how your team performs. And so if the record goes
- 1:59Speaker 1: in a good direction, that'll help them as the season
- 2:02Speaker 1: goes on. Just a fun conversation and an interesting dynamic, again,
- 2:05Speaker 1: for a team that wanted to see it on the
- 2:07Speaker 1: field one more year before committing long term. And hopefully
- 2:11Speaker 1: all that stuff gets settled soon. in the way that
- 2:13Speaker 1: everybody wants it to go. But he has nine touchdowns,
- 2:16Speaker 1: two interceptions. He leads the league in passing yards. Of course,
- 2:19Speaker 1: the bye week will take care of that, I'm sure,
- 2:21Speaker 1: as far as if not, for at least a short
- 2:23Speaker 1: period of time. But where is he in the fantasy
- 2:25Speaker 1: football ranks as far as the quarterback position goes?
- 2:27Speaker 3: He's QB4 behind Josh Allen, Brock Purdy, and Tyler Schuch,
- 2:31Speaker 3: believe it or not.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Yeah, believe it.
- 2:33Speaker 3: Because they just, you know, throw a ton. He's leading,
- 2:35Speaker 3: Schuch's leading the league in passing time. So yeah, Bryce
- 2:37Speaker 3: has been great, you know, every week. I mean, you know,
- 2:39Speaker 3: the game against the Browns was a bit of a struggle.
- 2:42Speaker 3: That's okay. That's a road game against a pretty good defense.
- 2:45Speaker 3: I mean, the Browns, even if the Browns weren't as surprising,
- 2:49Speaker 3: weren't this 3-1 team that we expected, we kind of
- 2:52Speaker 3: thought the defense might be decent, and they are. But
- 2:54Speaker 3: the other guys are guys you figured would be at
- 2:56Speaker 3: the top, the trigger man in Kyle Shanahan's offense and
- 2:59Speaker 3: Josh Allen, who runs for touchdowns all the time. So
- 3:01Speaker 3: this is amazing. Yeah, for whatever you were optimistic or
- 3:06Speaker 3: however you were optimistic about Bryce Young, I don't think
- 3:08Speaker 3: anyone expected this. Well, I should clarify, my son said
- 3:12Speaker 3: Bryce Young MVP before the season, and I laughed at him.
- 3:15Speaker 1: Oh. Yeah. Well, gosh, maybe we have the wrong outfit
- 3:18Speaker 1: on the show, as has happened before, with Abby showing
- 3:21Speaker 1: that she too knows her football. So think about that.
- 3:24Speaker 1: Bryce is QB4. Most people draft two quarterbacks if you're
- 3:28Speaker 1: in a 12-person league. That's 24 quarterbacks that were taken,
- 3:32Speaker 1: and in many, many of those drafts, QB4 was not
- 3:36Speaker 1: even picked, showing that none of us know what's going
- 3:38Speaker 1: on in fantasy football, other than real football in a
- 3:41Speaker 1: lot of cases, because that was very unexpected.
- 3:43Speaker 3: Yeah. We thought Bryce was going to hand the ball
- 3:45Speaker 3: off a lot. So totally unexpected. A lot of people
- 3:47Speaker 3: picked him up after week one and especially after week two.
- 3:52Speaker 3: So he's starting in some leagues. I started him last
- 3:55Speaker 3: week in a big league. And yeah, those are great
- 4:00Speaker 3: stories in fantasy because not just, you agonized over draft
- 4:04Speaker 3: scouting through July and August. And then after week two,
- 4:08Speaker 3: you go, oh, let me just grab this guy off
- 4:09Speaker 3: the waiver wire and he's going to be my quarterback now.
- 4:12Speaker 1: I love that. That's like finding money if nobody else
- 4:15Speaker 1: got there first. All right, so he's got to throw
- 4:17Speaker 1: the ball to somebody to make those yards happen. And
- 4:19Speaker 1: as we saw, Tedderoy McMillan had a fairly historic evening
- 4:23Speaker 1: for the Panthers against Detroit. Second most catches, second most
- 4:26Speaker 1: receiving yards in the history of 32 years of Panthers football.
- 4:30Speaker 1: Finally got his first two touchdowns. Fantasy football needs that.
- 4:34Speaker 1: So where is he overall with his season now?
- 4:36Speaker 3: He's jumped up. Last week he was around 20th. Now
- 4:39Speaker 3: he's at wide receiver six. That game last week, that
- 4:42Speaker 3: was another one. What a pleasant surprise. Because you would
- 4:44Speaker 3: have thought that with, as bad as the Lions defense is,
- 4:47Speaker 3: that with Coker out, they could completely focus and roll
- 4:51Speaker 3: every bit of coverage over to Tedaro McMillan. And it
- 4:54Speaker 3: didn't matter. So he was just fantastic. I think that's,
- 4:58Speaker 3: you know, that's sort of like a statement game for him.
- 5:01Speaker 3: I don't usually get into those much, but, you know,
- 5:03Speaker 3: he sort of, became a an alpha type receiver in
- 5:06Speaker 3: that game and it's funny I don't know if you
- 5:08Speaker 3: saw the clip of him on uh with Rich Eisen this.
- 5:10Speaker 2: Week yeah when he said they asked him about you
- 5:13Speaker 2: know do you call for the ball do you demand
- 5:15Speaker 2: that he said no man I just work here which
- 5:17Speaker 2: is a very refreshing take on on how to approach
- 5:20Speaker 2: that position but yeah Tedaro McMillan he's a number one
- 5:24Speaker 2: and like we've talked about the last couple of weeks
- 5:26Speaker 2: I think the Panthers have two of those.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Yeah humble dude humble dude and Jalen Coker's stats won't
- 5:31Speaker 1: show up because he had to sit out with the injury.
- 5:33Speaker 1: I would assume he's trending in the right direction for
- 5:35Speaker 1: out of the bye week against Philadelphia because it sounded
- 5:37Speaker 1: like it went down to game day as far as
- 5:39Speaker 1: Coker's two injuries heading into the last game against Detroit.
- 5:44Speaker 1: But to your point, Jalen Coker went healthy. That's going
- 5:48Speaker 1: to cut into T-Max numbers in a pleasant way if
- 5:51Speaker 1: you're a Panther fan because you got two number one
- 5:53Speaker 1: receivers essentially.
- 5:53Speaker 3: Yeah, you do. And that means, you know, yes, they
- 5:56Speaker 3: do have to share it in the And the weeks
- 5:58Speaker 3: for those two receivers will be a little inconsistent as
- 6:01Speaker 3: to who's the guy who performs more. And let's say
- 6:03Speaker 3: they can't both get 100 yards every week. Well, maybe
- 6:05Speaker 3: they could, but they probably won't. But that just means
- 6:07Speaker 3: great things for fantasy Bryce Young.
- 6:10Speaker 1: Darren Waller has done some good things, but from a
- 6:14Speaker 1: fantasy standpoint, probably still not the guy, right? I mean,
- 6:17Speaker 1: it's like you love what he brings to the Panthers team,
- 6:21Speaker 1: but from a fantasy standpoint, you don't know. It's kind
- 6:23Speaker 1: of a I'm not even going to say boom or bust.
- 6:26Speaker 1: It could be boom, mid, or bust. You really don't
- 6:28Speaker 1: know week to week what you're going to get with
- 6:29Speaker 1: Darren Waller's stats.
- 6:30Speaker 3: No, you don't. And that third week when he was
- 6:36Speaker 3: in there for Coker, you had him getting what? I
- 6:41Speaker 3: think the third week he had eight targets and five catches,
- 6:44Speaker 3: and I was a little shocked at that. But I
- 6:46Speaker 3: do think he's mostly not a gadget guy, but a
- 6:49Speaker 3: red zone guy. Last week, six targets, three for 36
- 6:52Speaker 3: when Coker was out. And that sounds like, you know,
- 6:55Speaker 3: he's kind of a tight end that you can spot
- 6:58Speaker 3: start if you need him, but you wouldn't count on
- 7:00Speaker 3: him for much. And there's a ton of tight ends
- 7:01Speaker 3: like that.
- 7:02Speaker 1: All right. We talked about what a surprise Bryce Young was.
- 7:06Speaker 1: I'm sure Chuba Hubbard in drafts that go of any
- 7:10Speaker 1: rounds of typically these things go 14 to 17 rounds,
- 7:14Speaker 1: something like that. Somebody probably had Chuba Hubbard. but they
- 7:18Speaker 1: probably weren't starting him in week one. Or if they did,
- 7:20Speaker 1: it was RB2 for them. He's a fantasy football stud
- 7:23Speaker 1: so far this year. He was.
- 7:25Speaker 3: By the time draft season was in full swing, Jonathan
- 7:29Speaker 3: Brooks was going ahead of Chuba Hubbard. And Dave Canales
- 7:33Speaker 3: kept talking about a tandem. And I bought into that
- 7:37Speaker 3: because I thought that's what the Panthers wanted to do.
- 7:39Speaker 3: And then Jonathan Brooks got hurt, unfortunately, and he's going
- 7:41Speaker 3: to be out a while. Chuba's just stepped up. As
- 7:44Speaker 3: a workhorse, he's been good. And I think last year,
- 7:46Speaker 3: you know, people doubted him because of how Rico Dowdle
- 7:49Speaker 3: came in and took over. Well, Chuba was hurt, right?
- 7:51Speaker 3: I mean, he was, he was hurt. And then when
- 7:53Speaker 3: he came back, he probably wasn't himself. Now look, he's
- 7:57Speaker 3: not a super tech. He's not B. John Robinson. He's
- 8:00Speaker 3: not Jameer Gibbs, but he's pretty darn good running back.
- 8:01Speaker 3: He does a lot of things and you can't read
- 8:03Speaker 3: enough about how the Panthers think he works hard. He's
- 8:06Speaker 3: fantasy running back eight. And you and I have at
- 8:08Speaker 3: the end of the season, typically done a fantasy MVP
- 8:11Speaker 3: based on draft position. Chuba Hubbard is right in the
- 8:15Speaker 3: mix for that kind of conversation in fantasy football.
- 8:18Speaker 1: Got to love the value. The old Mel Kiper value pick.
- 8:21Speaker 1: He's kind of a Mel, especially day three value picks.
- 8:24Speaker 1: And Chuba was kind of a day three, if you will,
- 8:26Speaker 1: fantasy football draft if there were such a thing. I
- 8:29Speaker 1: remember back in the day, John, do you remember this?
- 8:31Speaker 1: When people didn't have timers and you would do a
- 8:33Speaker 1: fantasy draft and you might have to wait hours or
- 8:36Speaker 1: half a day for somebody to make a pick in
- 8:38Speaker 1: your fantasy league somewhere else. I mean, it's kind of
- 8:41Speaker 1: archaic now to think about that, but there were some
- 8:42Speaker 1: leagues like that.
- 8:43Speaker 3: Yeah, there definitely were. I mean, I, Hey, I remember
- 8:46Speaker 3: back in the beginning, back in my day, kids, I
- 8:48Speaker 3: used to keep a notebook with just touchdowns and field
- 8:51Speaker 3: goals and extra points. And that's it. That's how I
- 8:54Speaker 3: kept score. Had my little spiral notebook would have to
- 8:56Speaker 3: look at the newspaper for those who know what those
- 9:00Speaker 3: are the next morning and keep scoring my fantasy league
- 9:02Speaker 3: and mail out an update to people. So we're going
- 9:04Speaker 3: way back here. And yes, you had to wait a
- 9:06Speaker 3: long time. And drafts were in person, not on these
- 9:09Speaker 3: newfangled computers.
- 9:11Speaker 1: I had one at the radio station. This would have
- 9:14Speaker 1: been about, gosh, 25 years, 20, 25 years ago. And
- 9:19Speaker 1: the commissioner of our league, still a friend of mine.
- 9:21Speaker 1: You actually probably know him, Jeff Naber. He would do
- 9:24Speaker 1: an Excel spreadsheet. We'd have to wait until Tuesday after
- 9:28Speaker 1: the Monday games for him to tally and let us
- 9:30Speaker 1: know what we had. As opposed to keeping up in
- 9:32Speaker 1: real time as you're watching every fraction of a decimal
- 9:35Speaker 1: point go to your total if you're monitoring it. They
- 9:38Speaker 1: have to wait until Tuesday for it to be counted
- 9:40Speaker 1: up by trusting your league commissioner to do it accurately
- 9:44Speaker 1: on an Excel spreadsheet.
- 9:45Speaker 3: You'd have to watch NFL primetime after the games on
- 9:49Speaker 3: Sunday to see how your players did, how your non-local
- 9:51Speaker 3: players did, because there was no Sunday ticket. And so
- 9:54Speaker 3: you just have the little chyron at the bottom of
- 9:56Speaker 3: the screen saying, you know, hey, Hickey Woods scored a
- 9:59Speaker 3: one yard touchdown.
- 10:02Speaker 1: It's advanced a little bit, like a lot of things.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Some things have gotten better, some have worse. I think
- 10:06Speaker 1: fantasy football has gotten better. All right. So we got
- 10:08Speaker 1: some time with the Panthers not playing this week to
- 10:11Speaker 1: kind of focus on some things and the quarter post,
- 10:14Speaker 1: if you will, the regular season. John's taken the big
- 10:18Speaker 1: position groups and given us the so far leader and
- 10:21Speaker 1: who's been a bust that people were counting on. Of course,
- 10:23Speaker 1: we started quarterback. It's always about quarterback first. What do
- 10:26Speaker 1: you got?
- 10:26Speaker 3: Hey, Josh Allen. Seven rushing touchdowns in four games. This
- 10:30Speaker 3: was the first week he didn't get two rushing touchdowns.
- 10:32Speaker 3: So he's just been, I mean, we joked last week
- 10:34Speaker 3: that wouldn't have just, we talked about waiting on quarterbacks
- 10:36Speaker 3: and getting into strategy and game theory. It wouldn't have
- 10:39Speaker 3: just been easier to pick Josh Allen in the second
- 10:41Speaker 3: round like you did in a league. So it's, it's,
- 10:44Speaker 3: He's just been great. And look, he's not going to
- 10:46Speaker 3: rush for 28 touchdowns. So the numbers are going to
- 10:50Speaker 3: slow down. But Josh Allen's still probably going to be
- 10:53Speaker 3: number one in fantasy football. But Brock, like I said earlier,
- 10:55Speaker 3: Brock Purdy doing really well as a runner up to
- 10:58Speaker 3: Josh Allen.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Yeah, and I picked up Tyler Shuck as a backup
- 11:02Speaker 1: and not even had to use him yet. But you've
- 11:04Speaker 1: got him in the conversation as being one of the
- 11:06Speaker 1: best quarterbacks you mentioned already earlier.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. Tyler Shuck, you know, he's not quite running
- 11:10Speaker 3: as much as I expected so far. But the thing
- 11:13Speaker 3: with the Saints is their defense is bad, so they're
- 11:16Speaker 3: in shootouts. They have to be. They play fast, so
- 11:22Speaker 3: they just run more plays. So that's part of why
- 11:25Speaker 3: Tyler Shuck's got 180 pass attempts in four games. I mean,
- 11:27Speaker 3: I don't know if they would want to throw 45
- 11:30Speaker 3: times a game, but that's the situation they're in, and
- 11:33Speaker 3: volume matters.
- 11:35Speaker 1: Quarterback bust in this. Again, it's not surprising now that
- 11:38Speaker 1: we're four games in, but before the season, if you
- 11:40Speaker 1: were projecting a bust at this point in the season,
- 11:43Speaker 1: it would not have been this guy, I don't think.
- 11:44Speaker 3: No, Drake May. And this is after having a good
- 11:48Speaker 3: game last week that he finally bounced back in that
- 11:51Speaker 3: win over the Bills. But Drake May so far, four games,
- 11:54Speaker 3: he's got four touchdowns, seven interceptions. He does have the
- 11:56Speaker 3: rushing yards, which is why we drafted him as, let's say,
- 12:00Speaker 3: the fourth or fifth quarterback, right? But so far, not
- 12:03Speaker 3: so great for Drake May. Can't help that A.J. Brown's out.
- 12:06Speaker 3: So hopefully for his fantasy managers, he starts to bounce back.
- 12:10Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe the three touchdown performers will get him going
- 12:12Speaker 1: in a permanent direction that way. But we'll see. Running
- 12:15Speaker 1: backs who have been the guys, looks like the guys we,
- 12:19Speaker 1: like we said, they are who we thought they were.
- 12:21Speaker 3: Yeah, so Jameer Gibbs first, Bajon Robinson third, and the
- 12:25Speaker 3: guy who I said would be a fantasy bust, Kenneth
- 12:27Speaker 3: Walker second. So all doing really well. But Gibbs and
- 12:30Speaker 3: Robinson are just– they're just awesome. I mean, even when
- 12:32Speaker 3: you watch that touchdown that Robinson ran Monday night, they're freaks,
- 12:36Speaker 3: the two of them. So they're great guys. But there's
- 12:38Speaker 3: a lot– a lot of the running backs are doing well.
- 12:40Speaker 3: You know, Derek Henry's doing well. Jonathan Taylor's doing well.
- 12:42Speaker 3: Conor Williams is really well. Like a lot of the
- 12:43Speaker 3: guys you drafted high are producing pretty solid. Some aren't,
- 12:47Speaker 3: but a lot of them are.
- 12:49Speaker 1: And this bust– I learned my lesson last year with
- 12:50Speaker 1: this guy. Boy, I messed up one of my fantasy leagues,
- 12:53Speaker 1: taking him number one overall last year coming off the
- 12:57Speaker 1: 2,000-yard season. Saquon Barkley, and I know he doesn't mean
- 13:01Speaker 1: to get hurt, but he was kind of dinged up
- 13:03Speaker 1: last year, and I think he's kind of living off
- 13:05Speaker 1: his name right now.
- 13:06Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought there would be a bounce back because
- 13:08Speaker 3: last year he touched the ball. He had that busy
- 13:11Speaker 3: season during the Super Bowl year. So he's had a
- 13:14Speaker 3: couple of shortened games. He went out after a couple
- 13:17Speaker 3: of carries on this past Sunday. But they've also got–
- 13:21Speaker 3: that offense is hurting. You had Blaine Johnson retired, and
- 13:25Speaker 3: they just traded Juergens. And like that, you know, Bill
- 13:28Speaker 3: Simmons like to talk about who's who's the season from
- 13:30Speaker 3: hell team. It might be the Eagles. Like everything seems
- 13:33Speaker 3: to be going wrong. The offense is pitiful. And, you know,
- 13:37Speaker 3: Saquon Barkley bouncing back. I thought Saquon Barkley would have
- 13:40Speaker 3: a bit of a bounce back season. I picked him
- 13:41Speaker 3: really second round in the league and it doesn't seem
- 13:43Speaker 3: to be working out at all. And I know we
- 13:45Speaker 3: don't want to ding people for injuries, but even when
- 13:46Speaker 3: he wasn't injured, it wasn't going that great.
- 13:49Speaker 1: Now, just ever since the 2000 yard season, it just
- 13:52Speaker 1: hasn't looked the same with him. And that Eagles offense,
- 13:54Speaker 1: you're right. Hopefully it stays terrible, at least through the
- 13:57Speaker 1: Panthers game. They've lost two starting offensive linemen in the
- 14:01Speaker 1: last two days heading into our podcast, one into retirement,
- 14:04Speaker 1: one with a trade. Wide receiver, this guy, man, if
- 14:08Speaker 1: you got him, you're racking up points. It doesn't even
- 14:10Speaker 1: matter who the quarterback is in Seattle, Jackson Smith and Jigba.
- 14:13Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he had his biggest game with Drew Locke. JSN,
- 14:17Speaker 3: 32 catches, 481 yards and six touchdowns in four games.
- 14:21Speaker 3: The dude is awesome.
- 14:22Speaker 1: C.D.
- 14:23Speaker 3: Lamb's the runner-up at wide receiver right now. But another
- 14:25Speaker 3: one like Lamb, Amon Ross, St. Brown, lots of good
- 14:28Speaker 3: players up at the top. But JSN picking up right
- 14:30Speaker 3: where he left off. He was about the fifth pick.
- 14:33Speaker 3: And it doesn't mean nobody believed in him because he
- 14:35Speaker 3: got picked high. But, you know, people were looking going, eh,
- 14:37Speaker 3: I'd still rather have Jamar Chase.
- 14:38Speaker 1: Well, okay.
- 14:39Speaker 3: And here we are. And Jackson Smith is blowing up again.
- 14:41Speaker 1: All right. Here's one where I missed big. That's hard
- 14:45Speaker 1: as a bust. Emeka Igbuka. And I had him in
- 14:49Speaker 1: two of my leagues. And I really thought with Mike
- 14:55Speaker 1: Evans out of there, he's going to be the guy
- 14:57Speaker 1: that steps up this year. But Tampa Bay's 0-4, a
- 15:01Speaker 1: little bit like Philadelphia. Things are just not going well overall.
- 15:04Speaker 1: To the point, John, where I'm in one league, we
- 15:06Speaker 1: do a small roster. We just do 12 players, and
- 15:09Speaker 1: that's to leave a lot of decent players on the
- 15:11Speaker 1: waiver wire throughout the course of the year. I had
- 15:13Speaker 1: to waive him because I had a couple of bye
- 15:15Speaker 1: weeks going on. I had to drop him completely. And
- 15:17Speaker 1: he was in my starting lineup. Because I needed two
- 15:19Speaker 1: players that I needed to pick up to fill empty
- 15:22Speaker 1: roster spots, which is kind of fun of doing a
- 15:24Speaker 1: small roster. But he's not been performing so far.
- 15:26Speaker 3: Yeah, that's been a rough one. Ibuka, he's 15 catches
- 15:29Speaker 3: for 154 and a touchdown in four games. He's wide
- 15:34Speaker 3: receiver 49. In August and July, there was talk about him.
- 15:39Speaker 3: He had a toe injury that he was playing through.
- 15:41Speaker 3: And they said it was maybe turf toe. So they said, well,
- 15:43Speaker 3: he's back. I wonder if that's bothering him. Like, I
- 15:46Speaker 3: wonder if he's only 80% of himself at this point.
- 15:49Speaker 3: But yeah, that's been a rough one if you picked
- 15:51Speaker 3: him in, let's say, the end of round three.
- 15:53Speaker 1: What's your dog's name and who did he draft?
- 15:55Speaker 3: We're dog sitting. The dog is downstairs.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Oh, your dog's sitting. Is that your dog? Yes.
- 15:59Speaker 3: And she's not cooperative when it comes to this. So
- 16:02Speaker 3: I apologize, everybody. She's a good retriever named Lemon. She's
- 16:05Speaker 3: very nice, but obviously loud.
- 16:07Speaker 1: Lemon's a good girl. We have two dogs, and there
- 16:10Speaker 1: are times when I'm doing Zooms, and I could have
- 16:12Speaker 1: an Amazon package if you dropped off at the wrong time,
- 16:14Speaker 1: and you just get dogs in the background.
- 16:15Speaker 3: You just do.
- 16:17Speaker 1: It's life at home. So that's the receivers. What's with
- 16:20Speaker 1: these Ohio State receivers? Finally, Tate got a little something
- 16:23Speaker 1: going for the Titans this past week, but Marvin Harrison Jr.
- 16:27Speaker 1: has been a struggle. So these really good Ohio– we
- 16:30Speaker 1: know they're good– And another one's going to be the
- 16:33Speaker 1: first pick overall next year, Elijah Smith. They're good receivers, but, man,
- 16:36Speaker 1: some of them are just kind of collectively not playing
- 16:38Speaker 1: too well right now.
- 16:39Speaker 3: No, they're not. Marvin Harrison, I think, has five catches
- 16:41Speaker 3: for the whole season. They're talking about trading him. It's
- 16:43Speaker 3: a big mess. I mean, the good thing is, you know,
- 16:45Speaker 3: Tate's getting better. JSN's at the top of the list.
- 16:48Speaker 3: So they just churn out those first-round wide receiver picks
- 16:51Speaker 3: every year. You're right, that Ibuka's struggling. And Harrison is just–
- 16:55Speaker 3: I almost put Harrison in the bus list, but I
- 16:56Speaker 3: felt like I was– you know, it's like kicking a puppy.
- 16:59Speaker 1: Right.
- 16:59Speaker 3: Like at this point, like the poor guy, like everybody's
- 17:01Speaker 3: beating up on him. He's the biggest bust ever. It's awful.
- 17:06Speaker 1: Well, don't let Lemon hear you say that about kicking puppies.
- 17:09Speaker 1: Tight end. I shied away from this guy. I just
- 17:11Speaker 1: figure he's kind of injury prone. George Kittle. But so far,
- 17:15Speaker 1: having a really good start to his season. Still healthy,
- 17:17Speaker 1: knock on wood.
- 17:18Speaker 3: Yeah, he's you know, that offense is playing well. Kittle,
- 17:21Speaker 3: you know, they were worried he wasn't going to play
- 17:23Speaker 3: game one.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Right.
- 17:24Speaker 3: And then he scored last week. he's got, let's see,
- 17:27Speaker 3: four touchdowns already, 16 for 244, not awesome, but on
- 17:31Speaker 3: pace for close to 1,000 yards. When he's healthy, he's
- 17:35Speaker 3: a top five tight end, and he certainly seems to
- 17:37Speaker 3: be healthy.
- 17:39Speaker 1: The Bears are a weird team. It's like spin a
- 17:42Speaker 1: wheel every week. I know we're going to talk about
- 17:44Speaker 1: the tight end bust that is Colston Loveland so far,
- 17:46Speaker 1: but You can't figure out which receiver they're going to
- 17:49Speaker 1: throw to in a given week. And now you can't
- 17:51Speaker 1: even figure out what running back they're going to hand
- 17:53Speaker 1: the ball to this guy with a big week. And
- 17:54Speaker 1: Colston Loveland's like the one guy. I guess I still
- 17:57Speaker 1: have Cole Komet, but I mean, really, Colston Loveland's the
- 17:59Speaker 1: guy you expect to be huge. And he's not been
- 18:02Speaker 1: that guy this year.
- 18:03Speaker 3: No, he hasn't. And I want to say that we
- 18:05Speaker 3: talked about Kenneth Walker earlier, and there's a lot of
- 18:07Speaker 3: people on the social media as the fantasy analyst taking
- 18:10Speaker 3: victory laps about Kenneth Walker. But they're also the same
- 18:13Speaker 3: people who said Colson Loveland's can't miss and pick him
- 18:15Speaker 3: in the fourth round. So, you know, the pros and
- 18:16Speaker 3: cons and wins and losses for everybody. Colson Loveland finally
- 18:19Speaker 3: last week, six for 57 on nine targets, makes you
- 18:22Speaker 3: think they might get him more involved. And again, I
- 18:25Speaker 3: don't know if we can get a full assessment of
- 18:26Speaker 3: that until Caleb Williams comes back, which is probably not
- 18:29Speaker 3: this week. But Loveland, man, it's been a rough one
- 18:32Speaker 3: so far because down the stretch last season and including
- 18:35Speaker 3: the playoffs, he put up monster numbers and it seemed
- 18:38Speaker 3: like the breakout was obvious in the first two games.
- 18:40Speaker 3: He had literally one catch. So, Hopefully things are taking
- 18:42Speaker 3: a turn for the better for him.
- 18:43Speaker 1: All right, let's jump into the games that are coming
- 18:47Speaker 1: up this weekend. And players of note, we've touched on
- 18:50Speaker 1: the hamstring injury with Saquon Barkley. How strongly do you
- 18:53Speaker 1: feel about Will Shipley in what, again, has overall not
- 18:56Speaker 1: been a good offense, Philadelphia?
- 18:58Speaker 3: I don't feel great about Will Shipley. I picked him
- 19:01Speaker 3: up in a league last night, and I'm going to
- 19:03Speaker 3: start him because I've got some injuries. The volume is
- 19:06Speaker 3: going to be there against the Jaguars. I just think
- 19:08Speaker 3: the Eagles defense, sorry, the Eagles offense, as we talked about,
- 19:11Speaker 3: has been struggling. And it's not just about the skill players.
- 19:14Speaker 3: It's about, they might not have Devontae Smith. Hurts has
- 19:17Speaker 3: not been playing well. The offensive line's a mess. I
- 19:20Speaker 3: think he's going to get 20 touches. So I'm willing
- 19:23Speaker 3: to start him. I can't say I'm super optimistic about
- 19:27Speaker 3: how he's going to perform with those through no fault
- 19:29Speaker 3: of his own. But if you need a running back,
- 19:33Speaker 3: if one of the backs is Hurts, Will Shipley's a
- 19:35Speaker 3: guy you can pick up and plug in, and right
- 19:37Speaker 3: now he is available in more than half of Yahoo leagues.
- 19:41Speaker 1: And you mentioned Devontae Smith, also a hamstring injury. Didn't
- 19:45Speaker 1: practice Wednesday. We'll see moving forward. Hamstrings can be tricky.
- 19:48Speaker 1: Cincinnati's got... a couple of issues. Jamar Chase with the concussion.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Tee Higgins has an injury. So what are you hearing
- 19:57Speaker 1: here on Thursday about these guys?
- 19:59Speaker 3: I think, I mean, Jamar Chase, you think he's going
- 20:02Speaker 3: to be out with concussion. Guys usually don't come back
- 20:04Speaker 3: the following week from that. Higgins is more of a
- 20:06Speaker 3: TBD And that leads you toward maybe Mike Jasicki, who
- 20:10Speaker 3: wasn't my number one tight end to pick up, but
- 20:12Speaker 3: it's a possibility. I think you have to wait and
- 20:13Speaker 3: see on Higgins to see how that's going.
- 20:15Speaker 1: To work out. I've done a brilliant job. This is amazing, actually.
- 20:19Speaker 1: Maybe unprecedented in fantasy football.
- 20:22Speaker 2: You know where I'm going.
- 20:23Speaker 1: The past two weeks, I've picked up a tight end
- 20:24Speaker 1: that got zero points, and they played the game. This
- 20:27Speaker 1: past week was Kenyon Sadiq, and the week before was,
- 20:30Speaker 1: who's the guy with the Chargers?
- 20:32Speaker 3: Gaston.
- 20:33Speaker 1: Gaston. Zero. Both played. And Gaston, actually, this past week,
- 20:37Speaker 1: If I kept him, it would have at least got
- 20:38Speaker 1: me a couple of points. And now with Sadiq, he
- 20:41Speaker 1: did have a back issue, but he also got tied
- 20:43Speaker 1: for the most targets for in his direction in a
- 20:46Speaker 1: low-throwing game for the Jets, but he didn't catch anything. Right.
- 20:49Speaker 3: And the good thing about Sadiq, like if you want
- 20:51Speaker 3: to talk yourself back into that one, his target share
- 20:54Speaker 3: was probably 20% because they only threw the ball like
- 20:58Speaker 3: 20 or 22 times. I forget which. So there wasn't
- 21:01Speaker 3: a lot of balls to go around for Sadiq. And
- 21:03Speaker 3: if the Jets throw at a normal rate, In the future,
- 21:07Speaker 3: Sadiq's probably going to get his.
- 21:09Speaker 1: Selfish question. I have Goddard. That's who I've been trying
- 21:12Speaker 1: to replace the last two weeks. Any sense that he
- 21:14Speaker 1: might be back for the Eagles?
- 21:16Speaker 3: Actually, I don't know much about Goddard's status. I will check.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Sorry, folks.
- 21:20Speaker 3: I'll tweet it out later, but I'm not sure about
- 21:22Speaker 3: Goddard right now. I'm looking at the injury report. He
- 21:26Speaker 3: was limited in Wednesday's practice.
- 21:28Speaker 1: So we don't know yet. We don't know. So we'll
- 21:30Speaker 1: see about him. Lamar Jackson, this is a biggie because
- 21:33Speaker 1: it's not only the quarterback. It affects the entire offense.
- 21:35Speaker 1: when things happen to the quarterback. You getting more positive
- 21:39Speaker 1: vibes on Lamar's possibility to play this week?
- 21:41Speaker 3: The only positive vibe, I was kind of expecting him
- 21:43Speaker 3: not to play. Adam Schefter apparently tweeted out that there's
- 21:46Speaker 3: a decent chance that he'd play, a realistic chance that
- 21:49Speaker 3: he plays. I'm not sure I'm buying that. So if
- 21:52Speaker 3: you have Lamar, you're going to want to look around
- 21:54Speaker 3: and have a replacement teed up.
- 21:55Speaker 1: All right, Caleb Williams, we don't expect to play this
- 21:59Speaker 1: week again. So as we said, we don't know who
- 22:00Speaker 1: the quarterback is. We don't know which receiver or running
- 22:03Speaker 1: back will star. We'll just have to all find out together.
- 22:05Speaker 1: Jaden Daniels, elbow injury. This one looks like it's trending
- 22:10Speaker 1: in a more positive direction, if you trust it.
- 22:12Speaker 3: It does, but I thought I read someone say that
- 22:13Speaker 3: they didn't want him to run much with it, which
- 22:16Speaker 3: if you have Jaden Daniels, that's the whole point.
- 22:18Speaker 1: Why do you run with your elbow?
- 22:19Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe they're afraid he's going to get hit, which
- 22:21Speaker 3: doesn't seem like a good situation for a quarterback. So
- 22:24Speaker 3: I don't know. That's a weird one. I feel like
- 22:26Speaker 3: if I had him, I wouldn't be eager to get
- 22:28Speaker 3: him back in there.
- 22:30Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson, of course, one of the big star receivers
- 22:33Speaker 1: in this league. And you want to know if he's
- 22:35Speaker 1: going to play with that ankle injury, but you probably
- 22:37Speaker 1: got to wait a little bit longer to find out
- 22:38Speaker 1: the answer.
- 22:39Speaker 3: Yeah, you do. He was limited on Wednesday, which is
- 22:41Speaker 3: a good sign. If he didn't play last week and
- 22:43Speaker 3: you thought he was going to miss this, then he'd
- 22:45Speaker 3: probably be not practicing is kind of the way I'd guess.
- 22:48Speaker 3: But hopefully we get him back this week.
- 22:51Speaker 1: J-E-T-S, they need offense wherever they could find it. Will
- 22:54Speaker 1: it be H-A-L-L? Brees Hall, is he back this week?
- 22:57Speaker 3: No, it'll be another week. Most likely he's going to
- 22:58Speaker 3: be another week of Braylon Allen as the lead back
- 23:00Speaker 3: for the Jets against the Browns at home.
- 23:03Speaker 1: Ramond J. Stevenson, I guess if he needed a flex
- 23:06Speaker 1: guy or something. I don't know that I trust him
- 23:08Speaker 1: to be big numbers guys, but what do you think
- 23:10Speaker 1: about his availability?
- 23:10Speaker 3: Yeah, timeshare there, it looks like. So not too much
- 23:14Speaker 3: last week, but he didn't practice Wednesday. He hurt his
- 23:16Speaker 3: knee at the end of the game. It's one of
- 23:18Speaker 3: those things that didn't come out on Sunday. Like, you know,
- 23:20Speaker 3: other guys get hurt and they come out of the game.
- 23:21Speaker 3: Ramondre kind of jogged off the field and people were like, oh,
- 23:24Speaker 3: he looks like someone, I think someone landed on his
- 23:25Speaker 3: knee or something. So didn't practice Wednesday, not looking great.
- 23:30Speaker 1: Can we call, as we're going to talk running backs,
- 23:32Speaker 1: can we call the entire Chargers offense as a bust
- 23:36Speaker 1: this year? Because that whole thing is not anything like
- 23:39Speaker 1: we thought it would be with McDaniel coming over there
- 23:41Speaker 1: from Miami.
- 23:41Speaker 3: Yeah, it's bad. They're 0-4. The offense looks terrible. Both
- 23:47Speaker 3: tackles are hurt again. They've made the running back situation
- 23:51Speaker 3: from Omarion Hampton, their first-round pick, into a complete committee.
- 23:54Speaker 3: Ladd McConkie's hurt. It's just a disaster going on. That
- 23:57Speaker 3: season from hell for the Chargers right there because people,
- 24:00Speaker 3: there were some, you know, hey, Justin Herbert MVP, and
- 24:02Speaker 3: they're going to make the playoffs, and it's just a mess.
- 24:06Speaker 1: This keeps up. Jim Harbaugh's going to have to go
- 24:08Speaker 1: back to cheating.
- 24:08Speaker 3: All right.
- 24:10Speaker 1: Sorry, from Ohio. Free agents out there, dumpster diving for quarterbacks.
- 24:14Speaker 1: Who's in the dumpster that you might be able to pick?
- 24:16Speaker 3: Well, for those of you who watch the Detroit Lions
- 24:19Speaker 3: defense on Sunday night, you're going to want to pick
- 24:21Speaker 3: up Jacoby Brissett because he's rostered in less than half
- 24:25Speaker 3: of Yahoo leagues. He plays at home against the Lions.
- 24:27Speaker 3: The over-under is 54 and a half. Everybody's expecting a
- 24:30Speaker 3: high scoring game. And why wouldn't you against that terrible
- 24:33Speaker 3: Lions defense? So if you need a quarterback, if you
- 24:35Speaker 3: had Lamar Jackson, maybe Bryce Young on a buy or
- 24:37Speaker 3: Patrick Mahomes on a buy, Jacoby Brissett's your guy.
- 24:41Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison Jr. may turn into Jerry Rice this week.
- 24:43Speaker 1: You never know against Detroit. Running backs, we mentioned Will Shipley.
- 24:46Speaker 1: We don't really trust the Eagles offense. I do see
- 24:49Speaker 1: on your list of availables, I do have him not
- 24:51Speaker 1: playing them, but I have him sitting on my bench
- 24:52Speaker 1: in two leagues because he's an ECU pirate. Keaton Mitchell,
- 24:56Speaker 1: and every week they're getting him a little bit more involved.
- 24:58Speaker 1: This could turn into something down the road.
- 25:00Speaker 3: Yeah, Keaton Mitchell got a bunch of touches last week.
- 25:02Speaker 3: It is a three-man committee, so it's not like Shipley
- 25:04Speaker 3: where you're going to see the volume. But Keaton Mitchell's 39% rostered.
- 25:09Speaker 3: It seems like Mike McDaniel likes him. So if you
- 25:13Speaker 3: need a back for this week, he's going to get it.
- 25:15Speaker 3: We got some good ties here because Keaton Mitchell, East Carolina, right?
- 25:18Speaker 3: And Will Shipley, Weddington High School in Clemson.
- 25:20Speaker 1: Weddington High School.
- 25:21Speaker 3: So our running backs have a local flavor.
- 25:23Speaker 1: Support local folks, even with your fantasy league teams. That's
- 25:26Speaker 1: what we say. Wide receiver, what's out there this week
- 25:29Speaker 1: in most leagues?
- 25:29Speaker 3: Not a heck of a lot for people you want
- 25:31Speaker 3: to start. The best I can give you is Malik
- 25:33Speaker 3: Washington on the Dolphins. And I hate giving... receivers on
- 25:37Speaker 3: offense is that terrible, but each of the last two weeks,
- 25:39Speaker 3: he's got five catches. He's available in almost two thirds
- 25:42Speaker 3: of leagues. If you're desperate for a receiver, that's an option.
- 25:46Speaker 1: And then we have to find, you know, tight ends
- 25:47Speaker 1: are sometimes as I have found and expressed in the
- 25:50Speaker 1: last two weeks has been tough for me. If I
- 25:52Speaker 1: wanted to go try one more week in a row,
- 25:54Speaker 1: what might be a tight end out there?
- 25:56Speaker 3: I think Tyler Higbee on the Rams, the Rams. So
- 25:59Speaker 3: Parkinson's on the, uh, on injury reserve, um, No, Ferguson's
- 26:05Speaker 3: on injured reserve. Parkinson was hurt last week. We're not
- 26:06Speaker 3: sure if he's going to be back this week. The
- 26:08Speaker 3: Rams play a lot of heavy personnel. They love the
- 26:10Speaker 3: multiple tight end looks. Higby's kind of been a guy
- 26:12Speaker 3: over the years that has been good for them. In
- 26:14Speaker 3: the last two weeks with the other guys hurt, 13
- 26:16Speaker 3: catches on 17 targets in his last two games. They're
- 26:19Speaker 3: throwing to him. And we know in the past that
- 26:23Speaker 3: he's produced. I actually cut Kyle Pitts for Tyler Higby
- 26:26Speaker 3: this week.
- 26:29Speaker 1: Well, thank God for that. I mean... Just hearing that
- 26:32Speaker 1: name just gives me shivers, Cal Pitts. It's just too
- 26:34Speaker 1: many zeros, and that's even happened this year with Cal Pitts.
- 26:38Speaker 1: I don't have them, and for that reason. And then finally,
- 26:41Speaker 1: a defense to pick up as we're talking about streaming. Yeah,
- 26:43Speaker 1: I picked them up a week or two to stream.
- 26:45Speaker 1: I may just keep them because I think they're really good,
- 26:48Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns defense.
- 26:49Speaker 3: Yeah, they are good. They're playing the Jets this week
- 26:50Speaker 3: on the road. What I like about the Browns is
- 26:53Speaker 3: the 12 sacks so far. The defenses look pretty solid.
- 26:55Speaker 3: I am a little concerned that Mason Graham might not play,
- 26:57Speaker 3: and he's a big part of their front seven, but...
- 27:01Speaker 3: The way the Browns have been playing, you know, same
- 27:03Speaker 3: thing as you. I picked them up for a matchup
- 27:05Speaker 3: last week, and for this week I'm going, well, you know,
- 27:07Speaker 3: I think I'm just going to hang on and see
- 27:09Speaker 3: how that goes. So they're available in three quarters for Yahoo!
- 27:11Speaker 1: Leagues.
- 27:11Speaker 3: If you need a defense, go get them.
- 27:14Speaker 1: All right. John Helper, we've got another London game, of course,
- 27:16Speaker 1: this week. Enjoy your bye weekend as Panthers go with football.
- 27:20Speaker 1: How was your trip to New York? Everything went well?
- 27:22Speaker 3: Pretty solid. Got to watch the Yankees almost get no
- 27:25Speaker 3: hit in a local bar, not in person. So that
- 27:28Speaker 3: was all right. But generally, lots of, you know, food
- 27:32Speaker 3: and drink and merriment. Good time.
- 27:34Speaker 1: What else can you do in New York? Because it's
- 27:36Speaker 1: not baseball season there anymore. And it's not a really
- 27:40Speaker 1: good football season either. But you got the Knicks. You
- 27:42Speaker 1: got that?
- 27:43Speaker 3: The Giants are 3-1. What are you talking about?
- 27:46Speaker 1: They'll get hurt. Something will happen.
- 27:47Speaker 3: James Winston won't throw any more interceptions. What are the
- 27:49Speaker 3: odds of that?
- 27:50Speaker 1: Right?
- 27:50Speaker 3: Come on.
- 27:50Speaker 1: Yeah, he did. He actually came through for the fantasy
- 27:52Speaker 1: guys last week. All right. It's a great job helping.
- 27:54Speaker 1: We'll talk again next week. Thanks, Jim.