The BEST Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 4 | Fantasy Focus 🏈

Summary

Fantasy Focus Football

Episode: The BEST Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 4
Hosts: Field Yates, Stephania Bell, Daniel Dopp (Mike Clay not present on-mic)
Date: September 23, 2025

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Episode Overview

This lively episode brings the Fantasy Focus crew together to recap a thrilling Monday Night Football matchup, debate their early-season takeaways, and – most importantly for fantasy managers – break down the top waiver wire pickups heading into Week 4. The show is packed with injury updates, in-depth analysis, priority waiver recommendations, and some friendly banter about both their personal fantasy teams and real NFL performances.

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Monday Night Football Recap & Key Takeaways

(Timestamps: 03:47–15:35)

• Mark Andrews Is Back

  • Field and Stefania marvel at Mark Andrews’ explosive return (6 catches, 91 YDs, 2 TDs).
  • “Mark Andrews...caught up to his season long pace in a hurry.” – Field Yates (04:16)
  • All six targets resulted in catches, a perfect night for the previously struggling Ravens TE.
  • Steep drop-off for Zay Flowers (2 catches, 13 YDs), with Field warning he's a “peaks and pits” player.

• Detroit Lions: Statement Win

  • Daniel, the resident Lions fan, celebrates Detroit’s big win at Baltimore with pride.
  • “There might not be a team I enjoy watching...as much as the Detroit Lions. They are unbelievably entertaining.” – Field (01:02)
  • Lions' running game shines: David Montgomery’s 151 rushing yards & 2 TDs; Jameer Gibbs bottles up but still delivers two TDs and passing game production.

• Dynamic Lions Offense

  • Field praises creative playcalling even after Ben Johnson’s departure: “This team is still...talented, but there is some great creativity.” (09:39)
  • Jameson Williams noted as a boom-bust asset.
  • Stefania wonders if both Montgomery and Gibbs can be weekly starters.

• Derrick Henry Troubles

  • Henry’s puzzling fumble streak and declining production discussed.
  • Stefania: “This is a problem he’s never had...now he’s fumbled in three straight games. Two lost.” (11:50)

• Lamar Jackson Fear Factor

  • High praise for Lamar Jackson: “Looked like the best player on the planet to me.” – Field (14:15)
  • Comparison to Mahomes for escapability.
  • Lions' D gets credit for handling Lamar, who was sacked seven times last season too.

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Fantasy Focus Show League Update

(17:14–21:29)

• Daniel gloats over his fantasy victory against Stefania, thanks to Lamar Jackson, Jameer Gibbs, and the Lions' D.
• Stefania's team is ravaged by injuries (Jaden Daniels, Jaden Reed, Evan Engram, McLaurin, Marvin Harrison Jr.).
• Discussion on victory points scoring system – rewarding high scores even in head-to-head losses, and vice versa for low-scoring winners.
• Field highlights his history of midseason comebacks: “I’m a second half team, truthfully.” (19:27)

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Week 4 Waiver Wire Priority Pickups

(21:49–29:16)

Top 3 Must-Add Players

1. Trey Benson (RB, Arizona)

   • Massive priority after James Conner’s foot injury (likely Lisfranc).
   • “Arizona is going to hand over the keys to Trey Benson. I would spend probably 70% of my FAB right now.” – Daniel (23:17)
   • Out-snapped backup Amari DiMarcado 20 to 7 post-Conner; involved in the pass game; only rostered in ~54% of leagues.
   • Field ranks him as a top-25 RB for Week 4.

2. Bashal Tutin (RB, Jacksonville)

   • Scored in back-to-back games; strong insurance back behind Travis Etienne.
   • Not a lead option, but “dynamic” and worth a bench stash. – Daniel (25:18)

3. Hunter Henry (TE, New England)

   • “Ten fantasy points in two of his three games...leads all Patriots pass catchers in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.” – Daniel (26:15)
   • Reliable low-end TE1 while the position remains volatile.

• Honorable mention: “It’s Trey Benson...and then Bashal Tutin...is farther down.” – Daniel (29:09)

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Priority Injury Updates

(29:18–31:49)

• CeeDee Lamb: High-ankle sprain, expected out 3–4 weeks, possible IR.
• Mike Evans: Hamstring, “multi-week injury,” likely out for multiple weeks and may manage riskier comeback.
• Terry McLaurin: Quad issue, no major update yet.
• Tyrone Tracy: Shoulder dislocation, out 2–4 weeks.

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Speculative/Deeper League Ads

(31:49–37:54)

Wide Receivers:

• Alec Iomanor – Growing chemistry with Cam Ward.
• Tyquan Thornton – Boom/bust option; flashes with Mahomes; may lose snaps once Rashee Rice/Xavier Worthy return.
• Torrey Horton – Potential No. 2 in Seattle as a deep-league dart throw.
• Luther Burden – Explosive, but low target volume; points per touch upside.

Running Backs:

• Ali Gordon – Now goal-line option in Miami, especially with Najee Harris out for season.
• Blake Corum – Deep stash as clear No. 2.

Other Observations

• Waivers overall “kind of a slow start” this season; few “season-altering” players (39:05).

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Top Five Leaders Per Position (After Week 3)

(39:51–57:45)

Quarterback

• Lamar Jackson
• Josh Allen
• Caleb Williams
• Daniel Jones
• Jalen Hurts
  • Caleb Williams trending up: “Top eight...is possible for him.” – Field (41:44)
  • Daniel Jones’ rushing: “Second only to Jalen Hurts...that’s not hurting Jonathan Taylor at all.” – Stefania (41:50)

Running Back

• Jonathan Taylor

• Christian McCaffrey

• James Cook (“most surprising,” per Field)

• Jameer Gibbs

• Bijan Robinson (a bit disappointing for a 1.1 pick)

  • Other notables: Derrick Henry (16), Saquon Barkley (13), Chase Brown and Ashton Gentry deemed “busts.”
  • Javonte Williams is a pleasant surprise at RB7.

Wide Receiver

• Puka Nacua

• Amon-Ra St. Brown (“more TDs than any WR since 2023”)

• Rome Odunze (“the most surprising in a positive way...potential to stay around” – Field)

• Trey Tucker (likely not sustainable)

• Jaxon Smith-Njigba

  • Disappointments: Malik Nabers (“just all out of sync...tough to watch” – Stefania), Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase (“where are those guys?” – Field), Drake London (WR44), Brian Thomas Jr. (WR48, “biggest disappointment of the WR group”).

Tight End

• Jake Ferguson
• Juwan Johnson
• Hunter Henry
• Trey McBride
• Tucker Kraft
  • No Travis Kelce, Sam LaPorta, or other preseason favorites in the top 5.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Zay Flowers’ Volatility:

  • “This is part of the devil you dance with when you’re starting Zay Flowers.” – Daniel (07:26)

• On Waivers:

  • “This might be the not-risk-at-all...Arizona is going to hand over the keys to Trey Benson.” – Daniel (23:20)
  • “Top 5 by position is just...incredible how much things can change in less than a month.” – Field (39:51)

• Fantasy Frustration:

  • Stefania: “It’s week four and you already feel like...yeah, but you still had to work to beat me.” (18:31)

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Listener Mailbag Highlights

(57:43–64:34)

• Hunter Henry > Sam LaPorta in Week 4: Browns pose tough matchup for Detroit; stick with Henry (58:10).

• Tony Pollard vs. Trey Benson Drop Dilemma:

  • “I’d keep Tony Pollard due to his touch volume; but in nearly any other scenario, Benson is the pickup.” (59:34)

• Stefon Diggs Droppable?

  • “Diggs has more value to me, but understand if you prefer a speculative add.” – Field (61:18)

• Is it time to cut Jaden Blue?

  • “He’s droppable. If you need to, absolutely you can drop him.” – Field (63:14)

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Tone & Chemistry

• Friendly, banter-filled, but rich on actionable advice.
• A mix of strategic debate (“How much to spend on Trey Benson?”), commiseration over injuries, and optimism (lots of “don’t quit on your teams yet!”).
• Hosts regularly check and clarify each others’ stats, keeping things accurate and light.

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Monday Night Football Recap: 03:47 – 15:35
• Fantasy Show League Recap: 17:14 – 21:29
• Waiver Wire Priority Pickups: 21:49 – 29:16
• Injury Updates: 29:18 – 31:49
• Deeper League Slash Speculative Adds: 31:49 – 37:54
• Positional Top 5s: 39:51 – 57:45
• Listener Mailbag: 57:43 – 64:34

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Quick Takeaways for Your Waiver Wire

• Trey Benson is a must-add after Conner’s injury; spend big FAB and expect immediate workload.
• Bashal Tutin and Hunter Henry are the next best priority adds.
• Injuries open doors for new WR and RB contributors – look to Alec Iomanor, Tyquan Thornton, Torrey Horton, Ali Gordon, and Blake Corum.
• Don’t panic-sell on established stars for flavors of the week unless desperate.
• Tight end remains a weekly matchup play after the elite options.

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Final Words

Set your waivers, keep an eye on Friday injury news, and “don’t quit yet!” as the hosts emphasize: there’s plenty of time for a second half run, both in fantasy and reality.

Transcript

[A]

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[C]

The whole 6,010 fantasy.

[B]

Fantasy focus what's good, everybody? Welcome into Fantasy Focus Football alongside Stefania Bell and Phil Jates. My name is Daniel Dopp. Are you guys as tired as I look right now?

[A]

You don't look tired, actually.

[C]

You look energized. Like maybe you're team one. Maybe all your teams won. Maybe your fantasy teams beat some of my fantasy teams.

[A]

No big deal.

[B]

No big deal.

[A]

I have a take on watching your team because obviously Daniel's Lions got a gigantic win last night. As a neutral party observer, there might not be a team that I enjoy watching when they play their brand of football as much as I enjoy watching the Detroit Lions. Yeah, they are unbelievably entertaining. They take, you know, what's the old saying? Like, a good team takes on the personality of his head coach. Yeah. And Dan Campbell might have, like, genetic connections to all 53 players on the roster last night because every single one of them seems like they have some Dan Campbell.

[B]

And then if they did a 23andMe, they would all come back with, like, the little tree. Right. They're all connected.

[A]

And with the Lions, obviously, they've got so many star players, many of which were outstanding last night, but even the role players are total dudes. What a great win that was for you last night.

[B]

Great win. It was super fun to be able to watch, especially. And this is not the fantasy part. We'll get to the fantasy part in just one second. But if you'll allow me really quickly, of course, coming out of that week one where we just looked so awful against the Green Bay packers, we needed a win like this because it was great to get a win against the Chicago Bears last week. Everyone loves that. But dropping 52 against Chicago, even like, even though that's a lot of points, there's something different about going into Baltimore and beating the Ravens on their home field.

[A]

Totally agree. I mean, I know the Ravens are one and two and maybe could go one in three because they're Chiefs on Sunday in Kansas City, but I think if we were doing this college football style where you kind of rank resumes. The Baltimore Ravens, to me, are one of the five best teams in the NFL and you went to their place Monday Night Football and did so in, you know, an adverse environment and took care of business. And I know that the final score was 38 to 30. It was really a 14 point win.

[B]

Thank you as well for saying you went into Baltimore because I do feel like I had a role in that win last night.

[A]

Guys, I'm a big fan of talking about the. There's, like, there's really one team that, like, I truly have a deep, fiery passion for in all of sports is the Boston Celtics. I love them with every fiber of my being and I talk about them like we.

[B]

Like you say we.

[A]

Jason Tatum and I have been rehabbing this off season together. Like, you know, we. I'm very much part of that team, even if I'm not actually at all part of the team. And I can hardly make a layup in life. That being said, I think you should speak about your team. And we just like Stefania speaks about. We like her three and oh, is an undefeated 49ers, you know, nothing wrong with that.

[C]

Yeah, we want to be careful. We. We don't want. We. We want to keep the injury gods at bay.

[B]

That's right. Yes.

[A]

I mean, you're due for one. You guys had no injury. What's the expression? Like if we didn't.

[C]

We didn't have bad.

[A]

Bad injury, bad luck.

[B]

You don't know.

[C]

We were good with that.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Well, quick shout out before we get started and dive into things. To our friends over at Trophy Smack. Head on over to trophy smack.com. use the promo code focus10. To be able to get yourself a belt or a trophy or a chain or. Or a toilet seat. Whatever you want for your league. There is a bunch. A ring.

[A]

A ring.

[B]

The ring is a good one this year. Oh, I'm in. Let's dive into our Monday Night Football recap, my friends. We each brought a takeaway to the table and field. I'm going to let you go first. I'm going to save mine for last.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. I think maybe the most surprising part of the night was Mark Andrews return. Yes.

[C]

We have identical takes.

[A]

Yeah. Well, good. That tells you why. Tells you how surprising it was. Mark Andrews. Last night's finish finishes last night. Six catches, 91 yards, two touchdowns. Yes, again, I acknowledge that one of those touchdowns was with like 38 seconds to go.

[B]

Who cares?

[A]

Garbage time.

[B]

Garbage time.

[C]

Fantasy points. Those are even sweeter because you're getting them when you least expect them.

[A]

Six targets from Mark Andrews on a night that was kind of weird for the Ravens pass catchers. We can dive into that in just a little bit here. But I did feel like there was a bit of intention with this. For those that watched the game from the outset last night, who are the first two plays from scrimmage in the passing game too, they were both passes to Mark Andrews who actually on the very first play had one catch for 19 yards, which gives him gave him 2.9 for the night. That was exactly how many he had in the first two games combined of the season. So Mark caught up to his season long pace in a hurry, ended up 6 for 91, two touchdowns. Not ready to say that Mark Andrews is all the way back, especially with the backdrop of Isaiah. Likely returning some point soon. Maybe as soon as this weekend. We'll see. But Mark Andrews was cool to see him look great last night.

[C]

I know this was my exact same take because as you may recall if you watched the show yesterday, I asked for proof of life of Mark Andrews. I wanted to.

[A]

You got it.

[C]

And I got. I think, I think Lamar heard me because he came out and that was the first guy he went to. His field reference, six catches, 91 yards and two scores. Do you know he also was six of six. So every target thrown his way, he caught, there were no drops. Yay. I think that might have helped him get over, you know that, that bugaboo that was still hanging there from him dropping that pass in the end zone. He had two more catches on Monday Night Football with six than he's had so far in the first two weeks of the season where he's had four. So I think, you know, what's that? I'm not going to do math, but the amount that he upped his catch.

[A]

Total, you're actually being generous.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You said he had four catches in the first two weeks. He had two catches in the.

[B]

I think at four targets, right? Was it four targets? Four targets.

[C]

Yeah. You know, I'm look again just trying to.

[A]

Early morning, early.

[C]

I'm just so overflowing with joy. Thank you so much. At the sight of Mark Andrews, who is the number two tight end on the week. Yeah, I mean if you had going into this week, what would you say the odds would have been of Mark Andrews being the number two?

[A]

Low.

[B]

They would have been low for me coming out of the first two for sure.

[A]

Yeah, very low. I mean he was hardly even a factor. Now it came at the cost of Zay Flowers, who had this weird night, two catches for 13 yards on three targets. It's funny, you know, and it's. I think it's too soon to declare anything as like certainty for the 2025 season. One of the concerns about Zay coming into the year was that he was kind of like a peaks in a pit player, right? Like you have these games in which the talent shows up and he's an amazing talent. He was a first round pick for a reason and he goes for a hundred plus yards. But then there are other games where the Ravens either let a lot of other people eat or Lamar might have like 19 passing attempts in a game because Derek Henry goes for 150 on the ground and they might win by two or three touchdowns. So an odd night for Zay Flowers. Two for 13. Not a whole lot to say other than still, I'm going to have him as a top 20 wide receiver this week. But he's a bit more prone to this than some of the other guys that were being drafted around him prior to the season.

[B]

Ideally when you drafted Zay Flowers and if you have never rostered him before, you may not recognize this, but this is part of the devil you dance with when you're starting Zay Flowers. You'll get some of those boom weeks and then you're going to have some of those valley weeks like you called it field. Unfortunately, this was one of those valley weeks. My big takeaway is just in general. You are welcome, America. For such a great Monday Night Football game, when you look at as a fantasy manager, right, here are two things that I want. One, I just want the game to be fun and competitive because I'm already staying up late watching it, right?

[A]

Yes, I agree.

[B]

So I just want it to be entertaining. And two, how many like fantasy relevant people can we have go off to make it very, very fun for us at the end of the week? Lamar is quarterback 3. David Montgomery is running back 2. Jameer Gibbs is running back 3. On the week, Amon Ra was wide receiver 7 and Mark Andrews was tight end 2. We had top seven performances at every single position across the board. It was just super fun to be able to watch. Nothing stood out to me more than this Detroit Lions running game. They looked unbelievable. David Montgomery with a career high 151 rushing yards.

[C]

What a night for him.

[B]

It was very different actually. Like Jameer Gibbs got bottled up. If you look at his efficiency, yeah, it was really low. He still got in the end zone twice. Still gets a ton of passing game Work. This is one of the things with jaw that makes you not nervous. Is he still going to get enough work elsewhere? But when you have a boom game like this from David Montgomery, man, you're welcome. I mean, he probably helped you win a week.

[C]

I was just going to say the volume was still there for Jameer Gibbs. Like the volume, volume, volume was there, but they made it a focal point. Like we are going to try and contain Jameer Gibbs, baby. Because you know there's so obviously he can hurt you through the air on the ground, but then, oh, that's okay. We'll just let David Montgomery feast during this game. I mean, and he ran so hard. I think to me I, with running backs I get really excited when I see them running so hard, so physical. Like it is impossible. Teams are trying to bring him down and they can't like that. I think it was to the eyeball test. To me, if David Montgomery could sustain performances like that. You have to start talking about whether you got two startable running backs on one team.

[A]

Yeah, we have seen a, a, a different SP split compared to last year. Last year it was more equitable. It's the Jameer Gibbs show, to be clear.

[B]

It is.

[A]

And Monty was amazing last night. Not trying to be like the alarmist red flag guy, but 13 total opportunities for Monty is for a guy who only one of those was a catch, by the way. Like he needed big yardage and that pair of touchdowns really pay off. But Jer Gibbs is amazing. I think my biggest takeaway on the is John Morton is here and he has announced his presence. I am not. I love Ben Johnson. I think Ben Johnson's the most creative play caller in the NFL. It's cool to see that the system he left behind and the work that he left behind has sustained. Right. Because this team is still not only very, very talented, but there is some great creativity. Daniel and I were talking about this earlier this morning. The fourth and one play, the Lions ran from like the Ravens five yard line where Jared Goff took the snap, handed it to vertical. Yep. He was almost like Statue of Liberty style to Almond Ross St. Brown who then subsequently pitches it to Jameer Gibbs. A play that I'm sure has been run before. I haven't seen it in quite some time. Really fun to watch. This Lions offense is so, so talented. JMO is the guy who's most vulnerable.

[B]

Yeah, he's going to have that boom bust nature to his game based on what this team needs. And they started out the week. I mean it was kind of like the Mark Andrews where it was like the first drive you had two catches for 40. Some yards.

[A]

40 yards, yeah.

[B]

For JMO and then he just sort of disappeared.

[A]

Still not quite. Quite there yet. He's going to have a handful of games this year where he goes maybe four catches for 117 yards and a touchdown, but then he's going to have some games like last night where he might see a total of three targets. And none of those targets were, you know, moonshots down the field, which even if those are generally low efficiency targets, when you have perhaps the fastest wide receiver in the NFL, it increases the efficiency and the upside just a little bit.

[C]

Tyreek Hill doesn't want to see that get taken away.

[A]

It's probably pretty close, right?

[C]

Probably is. I think it. Weren't you saying before the season that you thought Jameson Williams would be less of a boom bust wide receiver and more consistent?

[B]

A lot of the vibes coming out of training camp, they said they wanted to expand his route tree, have him do more than just be that deep guy.

[C]

And to be honest, but I think that might. There's still time, you know, we're only through three weeks of the season. My other big takeaway was, oh, my gosh, am I feeling sad for Derek Henry. I want to go give him a pass.

[A]

Bell breaks again.

[C]

Well, did you see him, like on the sidelines? Sidelines and then talking to reporters after. I mean, he's just. I think he's just puzzled beyond frustrated. I think he's puzzled. This is a guy he's not. He's not a young running back. This is not a. And this is a problem he's never had. Now he's fumbled in three straight games. Two of those have been lost fumbles. One that you could arguably say, change the outcome in the game last night. I don't know that would have changed it, but it certainly helped them blow it wide open. Wider open. Uh, it's really. It's hard to see and I don't. I don't know what the solution is. I hope he finds it just to make himself up.

[A]

But the solution is 20. TIKI BARBER all the way up.

[B]

All the way up.

[A]

No, not only that. Remember Tiki? It was Keyshawn used to sleep with the football.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Tiki Barber used to just walk around all day. I have just a Yeti. But you could carry a football at all times.

[C]

I know, but I feel like it's one of those things where if you think about it too much, you ever know when you think about Something too much like then that is part of what amplifies the problem.

[A]

Yeah, we play fantasy football, Stefania. We don't overthink anything.

[C]

Well, he did have his 22nd career rushing touchdown of 25 or more yards. And did you know that between saquon and Christian McCaffrey they only have 21 of those combined. So you know those big rushing touchdowns that Derek Henry has, that's what makes him so valuable in fantasy. You just hope that they get the fumble thing.

[A]

He's amazing. Let's. But let's. I think, you know, back to back duds for Derek by Derek Henry standards, right. Under 11 fantasy points, he had 2.3 in week two.

[C]

Here's the concern is our team's going to say this is what we're going to do is we are going to try and just take on Derrick Henry.

[B]

Because you know, the good luck stopping Lamar Jackson.

[C]

I know, well. But we've seen very different Week one. Derrick Henry bowled over everyone. And then we heard the comments coming out of Cleveland about he's easy to tackle. We thought, oh boy, look out. Turns out they did a pretty good job of stopping him. The Lions did also, you know, oh.

[B]

That goal on the stand was.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I think the counterpoint to that for those that are concerned as Henry managers is the Ravens have scored 35 and a half points per game over those two. Let's try to focus in on Derek Henry efforts. So, like, if that's your strategy, I think you need to.

[C]

You're going to get beaten another way. I'm not saying that's not going to happen. I'm just saying is this. You got to pick your poison, right? Is it Lamar you try and contain? Lamar got sacked five times. Yeah, that doesn't happen either.

[A]

Yeah, I think last night, like looked like the best player on the planet last night to me. I know him and Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are in the conversation. But I would be very, very afraid of Lamar Jackson if I were preparing to face the Baltimore Raven. I think I'd live with whatever Derek Henry can do because Lamar is that dude.

[B]

Lions actually sacked Lamar Jackson seven times last year.

[A]

I said five. I should have said that's a bad.

[B]

That's ridiculous.

[C]

But I find that I think that's.

[B]

Tied for the most freaking because.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. You never see that happen. He's slippery. He and Patrick Mahomes to me are the two most slippery quarterbacks where it is. They're like wizards. It's almost impossible to bring them out. You think, oh, they're going to go and and then they always get away. Lamar Jackson not as easily escapable last night and credit to your Lions. As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by.

[A]

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[C]

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[B]

Use polls to settle dinner plans, send.

[C]

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[B]

Learn [e-mail] thank you very much Stefania and unfortunately for you, credit to Lamar Jackson and Jameer Gibbs for helping me beat you in our fantasy focused show league. I also played the Detroit Lions defense, which was a bit of a like a stonesy. Yes, yes. As Troy Troy mentioned it a couple of times on the Nevermind. I'll save that for Another day. Rosie was like, did I hear the word onions on the what is. And I was like, yeah, we'll just move on past that. Don't worry about it. However, I got a big dub over you, Stefania, and thanks to Lamar Jackson and Jameer Gibbs, I scored almost 125 points. It was fantastic for me. And that was with me getting almost a zero from Troy Franklin and 4.9 from Debo Samuel.

[C]

Look, I don't want to take anything away from your win, but I'm going to take a little bit away from your win. I'm going to tell you about how bad my team stinks. I've got Jaden Daniels on ir. Okay. So that's not okay. Oh, I've got jaden Reed on IR2.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Evan Ingram also hurt. There's no room left on the IR for my tight end, Terry McLaren. Oh, he got hurt this week. He did a quad injury during the game, so I got nothing out of him. And then my two stars, running back and wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. And Ashton Gente. So it's a wrap on this season.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Isn't that like the most sinking feeling?

[C]

It's like, what do I have?

[A]

It's week four and you already feel like, yeah, but you still had to.

[C]

Work to beat me.

[B]

I did have to work.

[C]

Point out, despite that horrid situation with my lineup.

[B]

Your team fought.

[C]

We made it. We. It was a valiant effort. But you don't get points for effort in fantasy football, do you?

[B]

Absolutely. It was. Let's take a look at the standings really quickly. Stefania, maybe there's a chance for you to be able to dig your yourself out of the hole here. What are your. What is your official record?

[C]

It's a terrible.

[B]

Oh, you're technically.

[C]

Okay, well, why do I. Yeah, I know.

[A]

We put that dominated standings right now.

[C]

I know. I think Presley in the first week and he's got a massive team because he. Look at his point totals are great too.

[A]

David's got an absolute wagon of a team. The four of us are not exactly holding up our end of the bargain. Mike is the best and he's in sixth place. Daniel's in eighth place. I got my first two wins. Me.

[C]

There we go.

[A]

You know, I'm a second half team, truthfully, so.

[B]

That's right. Yep.

[A]

As I'm sitting here trying to figure out who I might have available, I don't know.

[C]

I got to hit the waiver wire. I hate playing with a bunch of smart people.

[A]

This was really awful.

[C]

I can't Just go out and snipe the good guys off the waiver wire because there's other people trying to do.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. But you know, again, a reminder by the way, for those that are like, how is the team? 2 and 4, 0 and 6 or 6 and. Oh, we play with victory points as well. So we.

[B]

What are victory points?

[A]

Field victory points are when half the league, the top half of the league in scoring that week gets a win, the bottom half in scoring that week gets a loss. It helps offset scenarios where you are the second or third highest scoring team in the league but you lose your head to head matchup, you get some sort of consolation. Conversely, it does punish the people that win an absolute, you know, a pitcher's duel, if you will.

[B]

Yeah, 78 to 81 duel rather than.

[C]

No, it doesn't help.

[B]

Who does it not help?

[C]

People like me.

[B]

I'm sorry about that.

[C]

Damage to their roster when you could be 03, you're Owen, you're owing 6.

[B]

It's doubly bad is what it feels like.

[C]

Don't call it a comeback.

[B]

That's right. Hey, don't quit yet. Listen, a lot of things have happened field jets, you showed us last year, was it this league or was it the FF now league in which you had a valiant comeback to be able.

[C]

To dominate one of those?

[A]

Well, FF now last year I think I was like three and three to start and then I didn't lose the rest of the way.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

This league though, so fantasy focus show league last year. So I started very slow and then like the last week I was like oh, and six or maybe I was one in seven and then I in the final week was competing for the final play.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

That was Christian McCaffrey. Yes. So we'll see. I, after winning the league couple years ago, I have managed to stumble in pretty remarkable fashion. So, um, maybe the good juju was exclusive to 2023. Yeah.

[B]

Well, we'll see how things work out here in 2025 as we're going to continue to play out this focus show league. By the way, head on into our YouTube chat where our buddy Eric Moody, who is also in the league with us, is hanging out. It's not been great. It's been a tough start to the season.

[C]

Eric Moody can give you like good, you know, feel good. He's going to tell you like his strategy to come back when you're down and why you need to stay in it and keep trying.

[A]

And Moody, by the way, had a big week in FF now He had a huge week in ff now got a gigantic W. So we'll about that on Sunday shows to make sure that we don't merely shine the light on the disappointing performances of the week.

[B]

All right, let's dive into the Week 4 waiver ads, my friends. Stefania, every once in a while I'm going to tag you in here, although there's some stuff that we already have figured out. So I'm going to rip through a few things here but I'm going to start with my priority ads.

[A]

Okay, these are like 10 team league. You got to add, need to be.

[B]

Added in 10 team leagues.

[A]

Do you have more than one?

[B]

I have three of them in total.

[A]

Okay. I'll be curious to see who they are.

[B]

I have three of them in total and the first one is a very obvious one. It is the most obvious one. It is a guy that you need to be adding for first and foremost off of waivers and it is Trey Benson. James Connor unfortunately was carted off Sunday with a season ending knee injury. Foot injury.

[C]

Foot injury and actually yeah, the news there. And what is that? It's a foot not ankle as originally reported. And I made a post yesterday saying that these differences do matter. We don't have the details about the injury but when you hear severe, you saw the way his leg was positioned defender falling on him. My mind immediately goes to lisfrank type injury and when you hear severe, that is a serious operation to reconstruct the foot which is so critical for a running back. So keep James Conner in your thoughts.

[B]

Absolutely. Wishing James the best. Hopefully we can get him back out there on the field next year. When you look at the backfield outside of James Conner, once he went down, Trey Benson out snapped Amari DiMarcado 20 to 7 after the James Conner injury and I think that we're going to kind of have that probably like 65, 35, 70, 30 split here with Trey Benson and Amari DiMarcado. But when you look at Trey Benson, this kid's just got juice. He's averaging over 6 yards a carry which would be RB5amongst qualified running backs. He has 10 targets this year. He's getting utilized in the passing game. He actually had more receptions than, excuse me, more targets than James Conner did pre James Conner injury. It wasn't just that all that happened after James Conner went down. So he is going to continually be utilized as a part of this backfield. The attend carries for 42 yards. He's only rostered in 54% of league so that's technically over our 50% threshold, but he's close enough and a big enough name that he needs to be rostered. He was drafted to be the eventual replacement as the number one running back of this team. We didn't think it was going to happen quite this quickly, but Arizona is going to hand over the keys to Trey Benson. I would spend probably 70% of my fab right now. It's interesting.

[A]

I was thinking about it. I know that we've said this now for this will be the third straight week bad waiver weeks.

[B]

It's not great.

[A]

Things look a little bit better like after week one, like Quinton Johnson feels a bit stickier than we thought it would be. Joanne Johnson I think has entered like top eight tight end territory which is valuable given how thin that position is. Daniel Jones has obviously been really good but Trey Benson, this might be like the not risk at all because of course we have many other insurance backs that are just one injury away from having a similar type outlook here. The only note that I want to add on this is in case you went and you've been checking your app already and you've noticed that James Conner still had a projection as of last night or early this morning for week four. It's a system thing. It's a Mike has he already zeroed him out? It just takes a process to get James entirely zeroed out for the rest of the season. So obviously Mike knows that Trey Benson is going to be taking over. It's why Trey Benson's projection is like 13.7 points even if James Conner still shows 13.9 or something.

[B]

And they're going to be on a short week this week taking on Seattle on Thursday Night Football. I'm going to have Trey Benson probably As a top 25ish running back this week field. We can dive into the rankings a little bit more later in the week but some of the needs to be added and can be started this week if you need him.

[A]

Okay, so that's one out of the three.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Who else you got?

[B]

I got two more. The other one is a little bit lower on down this list. But listen, we said it last week and when Adam Schefter speaks I think that we need to listen. Bashal Tutin, he talked him up on fantasy football. Now Shefty did. He's now scored in back to back games. He's been productive. Not a huge pass catcher. That third down role, not yet. The third down role has been laquint Allen which has been much to the chagrin of fantasy managers. I gotta be honest, we did not really want that. He doesn't really play third down a lot. However, I do believe he is an important insurance back behind Travis ETN in this Jaguars backfield. And like I said, he's found the end zone a couple times. You see the dynamicism. I think that's a word when he touches the football with the way that he can be explosive, especially in the passing game, he's got some shift to his game. So I think he's an important insurance back. He's not a starter but he needs to be on benches in case something happens with how much run I think he's going to get. Okay, that's number two and number three. The tight end position is just so bad. It's just so not good this year that when you look at. Go ahead.

[A]

Hunter Henry.

[B]

It's Hunter Henry. Ten fantasy points in two of his three games start the season. He leads all Patriots pass catchers in targets, receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns. If you're a George Kittle manager or an Evan Engram manager who has been kind of throwing darts at the position trying to figure out what you're going to do until you get somebody else. Hunter Henry, with way he's being utilized in this offense, he's not going to be a top five guy. I know we just had that huge boom week. This is, and you mentioned it, feel like this is one of those things. He's going to have one or two of those games every year.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

But if you told me he's going to be in the 8 to 12 point range at the tight end spot, I think he's going to probably be pretty accurate with where he will land. He's going to be a low end tight end one for us right now on the season.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I want to give you the top 10 tight ends.

[A]

I know who number three is. I know where Hunter Henry ranks. I know he ranks as Titan 3.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

I'm trying to figure out who the heck is tight end one.

[C]

That's what I was.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

I know my system is not okay.

[A]

Let me see if I know we're going to do top five by position a little bit later on.

[B]

So you want to save it? We'll save it.

[A]

No, we're not going to do tight end. So who's number who is so. I know. So here are some of the candidates that I figured would have been in the conversation for Titan 1. Yep. Brock Bowers. I don't think it's him.

[B]

It's not him.

[A]

Okay. Trey McBride. I know it's not him.

[B]

It's not him.

[A]

Hunter Henry is tight end three.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Joanne Johnson is tight end two.

[B]

Two.

[A]

Wow. Tight end one. Dalton Kincaid.

[B]

He had a huge game this week. Massive game, huge volume.

[A]

Incredible. Ferguson is.

[B]

Jake Ferguson is tight end one. Like we all thought, the top seven to start the season. Jake Ferguson, Juwan Johnson, Hunter Henry, Trey McBride, Tucker Kraft, Dalton Kincaid and Zach Ertz.

[A]

That's.

[B]

That's the top seven of tight ends to start the season. Brock Bowers is 8. Travis Kelsey is outside the top 10. In general is hurt. LaPorta is tight end 15. George Kittle is hurt. It has not been great for this. The high end tight ends that we have seen so far, it's been all over the place. So because of that, I still feel like even though it's early and we don't believe that he's going to be a high end, like a ceiling play. Hunter Henry probably still needs to be rostered now because of how bad the rest of the position has been.

[A]

The good news is I'm not sure anybody's a ceiling play. Titan.

[C]

It's probably going to rotate week to week, but Hunter Henry to me feels like you've got a decent floor there because he's just a solid, consistent, available player.

[B]

Agreed.

[C]

Long as he's healthy.

[A]

Yeah, he stayed very healthy since getting to New England. That was the story of his career early and he has been excellent in terms of reliability for the I said.

[C]

He got up limping the other day and I was a little bit nervous. I'm keeping my eye on the injury report, but nothing major.

[B]

I am expecting Stefan Diggs to get more involved in this passing attack as the season moves on. So, like, I don't think Hunter Henry is going to lead the team and all the stats that I mentioned throughout the entirety of the season, but he is going to be a part of that. All right, so those are my three priority ads here in week three or going into week four.

[A]

It almost did you feel a little bit like it's Trey Benson?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And then Basil Tutin and then Basil.

[B]

Tutin is farther down. It's like Trey Benson is the clear number one and then the other guys are after that.

[A]

I would say that's a fair way of categorizing it.

[B]

And then I got a couple of speculative ads or some deeper league targets. If you play either in 12 or deeper leagues as well as if you just have a big roster, sometimes you have bigger rosters as though you have a larger bench. Stefania, I do Want to ask you really quickly because some of these are going to be wide receivers. We had injuries to CD Lamb, Mike Evans, who was going to get an mri, but then it was pushed to Tuesday, I think. So we're, I think, waiting on that one. And then Terry McClaurin. Do you have any updates on them before I dive into the rest of this list?

[C]

Yeah. So remember yesterday we were talking about CD Lamb and how he tried to come back in the game for a snap and he was saying after the game that he thought he'd be potentially available this week. And I said, you know, it's always different a day later because they get all the wrap off, they get the tape off the ankle swells. Well, now we're talking about CD Lam missing two to four weeks. That's what the report is, three to four weeks. Excuse me, but I would say it's still based on functionality.

[A]

Right.

[C]

These are approximate windows. But when guys come back, if you go back to when Austin Eckler had a high ankle sprain and here's a guy, he is so physically fit, he was like, I'm coming back. And then he struggled. It took him a couple extra weeks and then even when he was back, he struggled because your ankle just doesn't feel quite the same. So I would plan on you're going to have a handful of weeks without CD Lamb.

[A]

Okay. And Jerry Jones left open the IR possibility.

[C]

Yeah. Well, and that makes sense, right? Because if it's three to four weeks and you're thinking it four to five, then you get the roster spot. Like, why not take advantage of it? Plus, it just keeps. To me, one of the. Exactly. One of the advantages is it keeps the player at bay and it also stops people. They don't mind a lot of questions in Dallas, but it stops people from asking, is it going to be this week? Is it going to be this week? Because you know, it's at least four games. So stay tuned, but plan on filling in for CD Lamb. Mike Evans, we're waiting on the hamstring. This is going to be a multi week injury. Like I'm just telling you, when you.

[B]

Say multi week, do you mean he will miss multi weeks or something? He will deal with and manage for multiple weeks?

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

I mean, it's like it's, it's both because it's going, it's sort of a continuum thing.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

But I said this yesterday by. Based on what happened last year when he came back too soon, I think that memory is recent and he knows and the team knows we don't want to push him back. And then no real Update on Terry McLaren with the quad injury of any significance yet. And just one other Tyrone Tracy dislocated his shoulder yesterday. We weren't totally sure exactly what was going on there. And now anticipating that he'll miss two to four weeks. So you're going to have to replace Tyrone Tracy for at least a couple games.

[B]

All right, so I'm going to start with the wide receivers again. These are speculative ads or deeper leagues, but there's really two guys that kind of lead this list. Hit me, it's going to be Alec IO Manor with the way that he has started this season. Last week he had five targets, four catches, 38 yards, found the end zone again. He's found the end zone twice.

[A]

He has both of Cam Ward's receiving.

[B]

He absolutely does, I think. And this is going to be more tight of analysis, but he just looks like a guy that with growing chemistry with his quarterback. Cam Ward probably just needs to be on the end of benches or at a minimum just keeping, you know him on your waiver priority list as we get into bye week. So I like Alec Iomanner.

[A]

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[B]

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[C]

Boom bus guy's catch of the week when he had because the first if you didn't see it and he made that big catch for Kansas City and then there was a penalty or something or it was incomplete. I forget what happened. Didn't count. And Patrick Holmes goes right back to him.

[B]

Yes he does.

[C]

On the field. And you see Taekwond Thornton's arm stick up like I got this one. It counted. I was like, I like your style.

[B]

He's been fun to watch, man.

[A]

Like he's in development. Nice player scouting there. We'll see whether Xavier Worthy plays this weekend. If he does, it might mean slightly less work for Tyquan Thornton.

[C]

Yeah, I also would caution people on the Xavier Worthy coming back thing and here's why. We heard when he got hurt, remember it was like, oh, he might play this week and then it was pushed back and then it was like, oh, it's going to be another week but probably next week because he's out practicing. And then it was like, oh no, he's not playing again. He's been wearing a harness. Now I don't know if he'll wear the harness in competition. I expect that he probably will. But you are not the same guy when the harness keeps your arm from being able. You know, it's that restricted motion of being getting back up here. And when you can't do that by design, you can't be the same receiver. So you can't make potentially the go up in the end zone. You know the Isaac Tesla.

[B]

Correct.

[C]

You're not making that one handed grab. The DeAndre Hopkins fan, there's certain things he won't be able to do and even the little bits of video because we don't get to see all the practice. People are like, oh, there's Xavier Worthy catching a pass. He's catching them down here. They're all, everything I've seen is down here. So again that changes the nature of what the player can do for fantasy purposes in the game would just be, you know, expectations out of the gate. I don't think he's going to dominate the minute he comes back.

[B]

I think that he, when I look at Tyquan Thornton, he's probably just going to be a boom bust option for you. Maybe there's a chance for more. I mean there's. But I think the passing availability in this offense is wide open. If he wants to establish himself as a guy, I think he can do that. There's an opportunity there.

[A]

But I think of a narrow window here.

[B]

Agree week 7 once Rashid rice comes.

[A]

Back and if Xavier Worthy returns at some point in the next week or two, even if he's not full Voltron coming out of the gates, presuming he if he can stay healthy by week three or four, I think we would expect healthier Xavier Worthy plus Rasheed Rice being back probably means Tyquan Thornton is playing a bit role in that offense.

[B]

I would, I would agree with that. Although it has been fun to be able to watch. Patrick Mahomes like refined his deep ball.

[A]

Again got a long ways to go before week seven, so the next few weeks you might get a little bit of a hidden gem.

[B]

These two are a little bit deeper of ads and much quicker. Torrey Horton likely a Boomer bus dart throw here. There's a chance he could develop into the number two wide receiver in Seattle. So again, if you've got a deeper bench, it's someone that I think is worth adding just to sit on the end of the bench. And Luther Burden the same kind of thing. Just think year one Jameson Williams. If you're thinking about Luther Burden, he's going to have very little target share. But when he does make plays, he's probably going to be one of those guys that leads the position at points per touch because when he touches the ball, it's going to be a big play.

[A]

Yeah, we do this a lot where we start to speculate on if a guy gets traded when we know the reality of the NFL is aren't a ton of trades but and after last weekend doesn't feel quite as awkward. If DJ Moore were ever traded. Part of the reason why the Bears would be motivated to make a trade is that they could elevate Luther Burden into a bigger role. But that's to me probably more of a 2026 at the earliest equation. A part of the equation. But he. I mean that touchdown catch he had, I mean it was an amazing, amazing throw from Caleb Williams, but Luther Burden was flying down the field. That man can absolutely go.

[B]

I was. That was just fun. And I'll take two seconds. As a Lions fan, I'm not rooting for the Chicago Bears more often than not, but that flea flicker was just like a quintessential Ben Johnson play call and Caleb, you already said it like that bomb that Caleb threw was beautiful.

[C]

And by the way, extra credit on that bomb because the flea flicker bag.

[B]

It wasn't a, it wasn't a great Sally.

[C]

So the time, I mean what is that? An extra 1.3 seconds in the air. But those are such timing plays. The fact that he had to like wait for the floater to come down.

[A]

It was amazing.

[C]

And then still delivered it. Shout out to Caleb.

[B]

I got two more really quickly. And if you're going to be needing to fill in a running back either because you had Tyrone Tracy or let's say you had Najee Harris on your bench, unfortunately Najee also going to be done for the season so no reason to keep him. You can cut him. I think Ali Gordon looks to be a goal line candidate. Should be consideration for just the end of benches. We've watched the Miami Dolphins be able to have two running backs before. If they ever decide something's not working in the passing game, they can always just maybe go back to being a two running back system. So I think Ali Gordon, with the way that he can be utilized at the goal line should probably be on the end of benches or at least considered. And I'm going to say the same thing with Blake Corum, although to a much, much greater, lesser extent. Excuse me as the clear number two. Those guys are more speculative or deeper league ads. If you really need to add someone in deeper league insurance policies do matter. Anybody else field that I didn't mention off the waiver that you feel like, boy this was a glaring omission this week because again, other than the top of the list it didn't feel like a super great waiver.

[A]

I think it's been kind of a slow start for waivers in general this season. One of the downsides, if there is one, to having a Puka Nukua just a couple of seasons ago is that it creates this impression in your brain that you can find season altering players on the waiver wire. You can to a degree, but not to the extent of Puka Nkua very often. It's part of one of it's one of the many remarkable aspects of his story so far in the NFL. So I would agree on how you categorize them. Maybe a defense to stream here or there, but even the defensive options this week are not great.

[B]

Yeah, I looked. There's not a lot of really like the, the obvious matchup against the teams that we would want to target. Most of those defenses are already rostered. Totally agree it's going to be a tough one with your streaming defenses this week. Let's take a quick look heading into week four at the top five scoring leaders per position.

[A]

Incredible. Like just incredible how much things can change in less than a month.

[B]

Let's start at the quarterback spot. Couple names here that are pretty obvious.

[A]

Three out of four.

[B]

Three, yeah.

[A]

Three out of five.

[B]

Three out of five are pretty obvious. Yeah. Lamar Jackson right now, number one, Josh Allen, number two with the quarterback spot, Caleb Williams, quarterback three. And of course Daniel Jones, quarterback four. And then Jalen Hurts rounding out the top five. Two of those things are not like the other. My question to you guys is how sticky do you think that Caleb Jones and Daniel. Caleb, Caleb, Caleb, Caleb Williams and Daniel Jones performances have been? Knowing that it's been a small sample size, but they have been playing very well for us in fantasy for the first three weeks of the season.

[A]

So here's what you like about Caleb so far is he. I think he just looks dramatically improved. 16.98 points is his low total for the season. Right. It's not like he had a 38 point game and then in the other two games he had like, you know, whatever, 16 and 14 or something. Right. Like he's had three pretty solid games. Six, 17, basically 17, 24 and 29 fantasy points. The player continues to ascend, that much is for sure. It's an excellent matchup this weekend. So you are getting a juicy, juicy opportunity for Caleb to cash in against the Raiders in Vegas in week four. I think I would categorize him as closer to quarterback 10 than a top five quarterback the rest of the way. But between the injury, assertion, Joe Burrow as, you know, being out and just a couple of guys that have maybe underperformed. Like, I was not as passionate about Patrick Mahomes as somewhere in the preseason process. But like I know that Mahomes had two big games to start the season. That was because of his legs. He had two rushing yards this past week. We saw what it looks like.

[B]

Thank you very much. I was a week too early on this. If I had said this, if we did our board bet on Patrick Mahomes this week, I would have won because he was outside the top 15 at the position.

[A]

Yeah. And so like he. Bo Nix, by the way, has been.

[B]

Bad, really bad, flat bad.

[A]

So some guys trending down. Caleb is certainly trending up top eight, I do believe is possible for him for the, the full season.

[C]

One of the things I love about Daniel Jones is the fact that, you know, we're getting the rushing value that we hoped we'd get, but we weren't sure that we would get. This is a guy now a couple of years removed from his ACL tear. In addition to being in a great landing spot. Three rushing touchdowns for Daniel Jones, second only to Jalen Hurts there. You know, we expected the rushing touchdowns from Jalen Hurts, but to see Daniel Jones getting them I think has been a nice surprise. I don't know that we counted on him being the guy to actually punch it into the end zone. And by the way, that's not hurting Jonathan Taylor at all. So you know, it's not like the competition there for the run game. And also no turnovers so you're not getting the negative points from Daniel Jones has been incredibly accurate. We'll see how well that holds up and we'll, we'll see as the time goes on.

[A]

So Daniel Jones, because of his history, which is uneven at best, right. One of the most turnover prone quarterbacks since he entered the league. Yep. Back in 2019, made a rain on my. Hold on though. Hold on though. No, I'm like he's been incredible because of his past. I think there are still some people that are maybe 60, 70, 80% of the way to completely trusting Daniel Jones if he does it again this weekend against this Rams defense. I don't think there's any other trust issues going forward. People are saying until proven otherwise, this is a top six fantasy quarterback because of the rushing upside. That's DeFiang and noted because of the passing offense that he has orchestrated so far. The eye test has been really good to Danny Dimes. The Colts big bet on Danny Dimes has paid off remarkably. Week four is yet another. It's kind of a touch point moment. If they win and he plays well even if they lose and he plays well for fantasy purposes, any concerns people might have about whether this is a fluke or if this is the real deal, I think go out the window.

[B]

I, I definitely feel like when we get to the end of the season with the way we've started and this is going to be a big test, but it just feels like Daniel Jones is going to be one of these guys that we look back and say, wow, that was the guy that when you look at the waiver wire potentially like helped people be able to make playoffs and or get two championships.

[A]

Like it.

[B]

Is there a player on here? I guarantee. Let's like a little field in the blank here. I don't know if we're doing that segment today. But I guarantee blank player is going to be inside this top five list once we get to the end.

[A]

Top five guy who's not currently part.

[B]

Who's not currently in this list is the obvious one just Jaden Daniels.

[A]

It is. Yes. Because Jaden hasn't even been that great in real life football and he's been pretty darn solid for fantasy football. So that to me is the low hanging fruit answer. But I don't also think it's irresponsible to say as much. And we'll see on Jaden. Yesterday Dan Quinn was in his day to day mode which as Stefania reminds us we all are.

[C]

Yes. And I think that's the responsible way to be for a player like Jaden Daniels. I thought it was maybe that we were thinking about top 10 guys. I mean I just, I just am high on Drake May and the rise of Drake May. Like I think he's somebody who could surprise us and end up you know, right. Right on the bubble. I don't think he'll hit top five. I just don't think he's there. But I think he could have maybe a top five week here and there and I think he's going to be in the top 10 for sure.

[A]

You're not. He's not that far off though. Stefania as Drake is currently quarterback six on the season.

[C]

So not that far off at all.

[A]

And the most important part for Drake May is here is his number. He has through three games, 21 rushing attempts. Is just a remarkable athlete for a player of his size. If he gets seven rushing attempts a game, do the math on that. That's over 100 for the season. That would be glorious for our purposes.

[B]

We'Ve got 12 quarterbacks through the first week of this three weeks of the season are averaging over 19 fantasy points a game. And like that's. I think yeah, you love to be able to get this kind of production from the quarterback spot. Not all the guys that we assumed, you know one of them for what it's worth is Marcus Mariota. However still there's a bunch of guys.

[C]

Get points deducted when you take your coach out.

[B]

No, that was a. That was a tough one. Yeah, that was tough.

[C]

Thank goodness he's okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Let's talk about some running backs here because the top of the running back keep I think Fields, you mentioned it the on Monday but Jonathan Taylor has just been lights out. Absolutely unbelievable. He comes in as RB1 Christian McCaffrey in that passing game. Just not going anywhere. He is just unbelievable using his hands fans. James Cook as well, Jameer Gibbs and Bijon Robinson. Honestly, this feels pretty chalky. There's a couple names that you could throw in here. I'm surprised that Derrick Henry hasn't played better, although we touched on the struggles. But all of these names belong inside the top five.

[C]

I just feel like Bijan at five is a little disappointing for the people who went won overall. And I get it, it's only three weeks into the season. But I also feel like he needs to be like they need to open him up a little bit more.

[B]

Two names that are glaringly not a part of this top five list that were probably drafted close to Saquon obviously being one. Saquon and Ashton Genty, those are the two.

[A]

I think the most surprising name in here I think is obviously James Cook. He was really good last year. But there was some serious regression potential in the touchdown department. Cook had just over a thousand rushing yards with 16 rushing touchdowns last season. I think that's a, that's fair on Bijan. I don't think it's been anything. It's definitely hasn't been a tank job. Right. I mean 20.1 points per game is still really good. And it wouldn't surprise me if Bajan rises to the top here by the end of the season. What a remarkably talented player. The Falcons are kind of a mess offensively. They fired their wide receiver coach yesterday. I Killiard gave even more responsibility. The cousin TJ Yates, the passing game coordinator, now the wide receiver coach too. I'm not sure those teams, his family.

[C]

You'Re going to, you know, speak to him a little bit about what?

[A]

More Bajan, baby. Be actually more Drake London.

[C]

More Drake London.

[A]

But I will say they also announced Zach Robinson, their offensive coordinator is going to go from the box down to the sideline. You know, I don't know what that.

[C]

Does exactly, but love these.

[A]

These are like the coaching equivalent of a players only meeting.

[C]

Right, Right. We're going to try something. So do you think we're doing something about it?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. So anyways, I would just say that of these guys, like if there's a name that I think has a chance to rise up into the ranks that has not been mentioned yet. Saquon is certainly, you know, the obvious candidate here. I'm trying to think of other guys that have just like there's one other.

[B]

Guy that I think is just because of his pass catching ability. If Devon Achan ended up here, I wouldn't be shocked as a catch.

[A]

Gotta be considered here as well, as far as disappointments go, none bigger than Ashton Genti, clearly the biggest bust, at least amongst running backs and in fantasy. I wanted to clean something up here because I heard from our stats and information group yesterday. So. So yards before and after contact are a stat that is tracked by a variety of different services and you can see big, big discrepancies. True Media is what ESPN uses and True media has a much more favorable opinion of the Lions, excuse me, of the Raiders offensive line than where I had pulled it from previously. So Ashton Genti does have 48 rushing yards prior to contact. When? Yesterday. I gave you a negative one.

[B]

Yeah, that's a.

[A]

Almost like. Yeah, these things are pretty darn subjective. My eyes certainly don't feel like he's gotten 48 yards before contact. It's the biggest takeaway. I wanted to clean up that stat. The biggest takeaway is the offensive line sucks. Right? Very bad. Like whether it's a bad in a matter they stink, they need to help them out a whole lot more. But until the Raiders A, get things going with the offensive line and B, they throw the ball to him a little bit like some, like I don't, I don't believe, and I am happy to be correct here, I don't believe the Raiders have dialed up one screen for Ashton Genty. Like they've done dump offs and stuff. But I'm talking about just like a little screen where you just like let players.

[C]

Goodness. Every week I look for one of those.

[A]

Just one.

[C]

Just one.

[A]

So until those things happen, this is a bust of the highest order. Chase Brown. Not too far. I mean he hasn't been. He wasn't taking quite as high, but Chase Brown's been a big disappointment to the running back spot as well. Not as disappointing. But Bucky Irving's really seen his efficiency drop. He's averaging under four yards per carry. Remember, Bucky was this really efficient runner last year. So there have been some disappointments for sure so far.

[C]

There's a surprise for me and that's Javante Williams is the seventh overall running back in terms of fantasy points and I think, you know, we were staying away from that backfield because it was who's it going to be? It's going to be this combo and it really hasn't been. It's been Javante Williams and, and I don't know off the top of my head what his roster ship is, but really high. Yeah, I mean people, people find people caught on because all of a sudden he was singular in that offense and I just Wonder, you know, it'll. It'll be interesting to see how things change or how much things change, if at all with CD Lamb gone for a couple weeks.

[B]

Devonte Williams rostered in 93% of leagues.

[A]

Or Jake Ferguson 7% where he's not right.

[B]

Like where is he not being rostered leagues.

[A]

There's four.

[B]

That must be what it is. When I look at this I think the big disappointments and then we can move on here. But you already mentioned a lot of them.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Saquon Barkley being running back 13. That's a disappointment.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It doesn't feel like it's. He's as like outside the top 12. It doesn't feel as bad but like you don't love that. Derrick Henry running back 16. We expect him to be higher. Josh Jacobs running back 19. I would have thought he'd been a little bit higher on this list especially with the way that the Green Bay packers have played. And then you had already mentioned the other ones which I think the big one for me is Chase Brown and Ashton Genty. Those guys especially because I talked up Chase Brown a bunch doesn't feel I.

[A]

Think J's in tier one tier one though like he's tier one bust.

[B]

Yes. Right now unfortunately. So hopefully we get some of those.

[A]

Certainly been in that category until this past week. So we'll see if Hampton bounces back.

[C]

I do. That's going to change now.

[A]

Yeah. They don't have a choice in the.

[B]

Back so yeah, we'll see how that one works out. Let's look at some wide receivers here.

[A]

Now we got some surprises here. This is the surprising right.

[B]

Also. Yeah. One of these names is really not like the other. All right. Pukinakua, you mentioned it yesterday field he's wide receiver one in the season. That's not surprising. He's getting unbelievable volume. Amon Rod St. Brown has more touchdowns than any other wide receiver in the NFL since 2023. He's wide receiver too. More touchdowns.

[A]

Unbelievable.

[C]

Unbelievable. That what that tells you. People know that that is who they are looking for. And he still makes the plays, catches the ball, gets in the end zone.

[B]

He's unreal. Unbelievable. Rome Adunze absolutely vaults inside the top five. He is wide receiver three. Trey Tucker is wide receiver four. And then Jackson Smith and Jigba comes in as wide receiver 5. Obviously Trey Tucker doesn't really belong in this list. I think if you're looking at the rest of this though, like Roma Dunes A and JSN are probably the two most surprising. But We've talked about how the wide receiver spot. We've been hit with a bunch of injuries so far this year. We've had some disappointment at the top of the position. Does anybody stand out as like a big surprise to you within this top five, either making it or not making?

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase, people are like, where are those guys at that in CD Lamb, CD had a zero in one game because he got hurt. Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase have been playing with backup quarterbacks at least for one out of those three games. One and a half, nearly two for Jamar. You know, to me the name that I think is most surprising in a positive way and has some potential to stay around is Rome. He's been awesome. 9th overall pick in the draft last year. For the 1000th time, I repeat that. He quickly catapulted DJ as the Bears go to Guy.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Now we saw a little bit of everybody eats last week. I think the first completion of the game, the first completion of the game for Caleb Williams was to Colston Loveland, their first round tight end. He got hurt, but he was playing a larger role. Cole Comet had a touchdown. Luther Burden had that long touchdown. But with a 27% target share for Roma Dunes. When you've got pedigree, huge target share and a very, I'll say it, a very good quarterback recipe for big time fantasy success.

[B]

Absolutely.

[C]

I just think this is what I think this is what we thought it was going to be. But it's happening faster than we thought it was going to happen. You know, I think we all thought that he would likely emerge as wide receiver 1 in Chicago this year. But if you told me it was going to happen this quickly and he was going to be in the top five of wide receivers at this point in the season, I would have been surprised. To me, the biggest disappointment not in this top five league. Neighbors. You know, huge investment there. And I think the telling stat is 32 targets, 16 catches. Like it's just all out of sync there in New York. So tough to watch. And if you invested in Malik Neighbors as a top wide receiver, you're not getting much payoff there.

[B]

I, I like you got the big game that you got out of him in week two, which was fantastic. Like that was really nice.

[C]

But your frustration has to be high because especially, you know, only two touchdowns on the season.

[B]

So when you look at it, not.

[A]

Just the quarterback they got, I don't have any idea how they're orchestrating their offense. Right now.

[C]

And. And that's the thing. I think that's the part about it that is. That extends the disappointment is like, where's the hope? What are you looking for? For optimism? Because we just. We don't know what they're going to do. We don't know if they're going to make a change at quarterback. The offense doesn't look in rhythm. If you. What was that game Sunday night? It was, wasn't it?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, I'm trying to put it.

[A]

Sadly.

[B]

Monday Night Football game is such a pal.

[C]

Say timeline cleanse.

[B]

Yes. Yeah.

[A]

Good.

[C]

Monday Night Football.

[B]

When I look at this list and I'm, you know, looking outside, just the top five even. I'm going to give you the rest of the top 10 here because we just had such a bad start to the position. Wide receiver 6 on the season is Keenan Allen love.

[C]

I mean, for him, I. Not for fantasy purpose, but talk about, you know, what's old is new again.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

And it's great. People who say that vibes don't matter, I beg to differ because this Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen connection is so good. And he's just right back into the Chargers fold. I love it.

[B]

Wide receiver 7 on the season is Garrett Wilson. I wouldn't have expected that, but he did have two big games. Wide receiver eight is Quinton Johnston, which is not what we thought. And then Malik Neighbors is wide receiver 9 and A. Mecca Abuka is wide receiver 10. So we talked about. I mean, I mean, Jamar Chase has just struggled, unfortunately, to start the season. He's wide receiver 11. Justin Jefferson. Yeah. Justin Jefferson is no huge games. Wide receiver 25 on the season. I'm trying to think of who else was big here that we had. Nico, wide receiver. I didn't even want to bring up Brian Thomas.

[A]

Where's Nico? Where's BTJ?

[B]

Brian Thomas Jr. Sorry, Nico was wide receiver 19 and he had a big game this last week, but we got to get more of that. Brian Thomas Jr. We feel like Nico.

[C]

Like now, it's just like. Like there. It's Nico.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Like, I would like to think that that is the only thing that's going to help get out of a good.

[A]

Matchup this weekend, too, against Tennessee.

[B]

Brian Thomas Jr. Yo.

[A]

Wide receiver 48.

[B]

Let me ask you this question. Do you think he's ahead or behind of Romeo Dobbs?

[A]

Well, the way you ask, it's behind.

[B]

He is one spot ahead of Romeo Dobs, one spot behind Alec Pierce. Wide receiver 54. Right now, he is the I think biggest disappointment of the wide receiver group to start the season and it's not even close.

[A]

He should be sending paychecks to Ashton Genty for hiding how big of a disappointment this season has been so far.

[B]

It's crazy. Drake London also wide receiver 44 on the season. Like he has been there as well. I mean this last one was not great. So very interesting to start the season. Obviously this is just the start of the season, not the entire ground.

[C]

Pretty far down there too. But we saw him wake up cup.

[B]

Yeah, you're going to have some of those boom bust games with him, so we'll see how that one works out. A couple of guys I thought were just going to be higher. I thought Tanner McMillan was just going to be more involved. He's wide receiver 30.

[A]

It's fine. He was drafted at wide receiver 30.

[B]

Yeah. I just thought in this offense there was going to be a little bit more. I'm still hanging tight as well. I'm hanging tight as well, so. And I don't think there's anyone else that really just super stands out over top of everyone else. The rest of it feels good. And then we talked about the top of the tight end position which is just sort of weird and gross. Let's be honest.

[A]

Very big decision. Disappointment.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

All right, let's dive into some mailbag questions again. A reminder, head on into our YouTube chat and hang out with our friend Eric Moody. You can follow him on social media at Eric and Moody. But we're going to grab a couple of questions. We call them from our tag board right now. So let's throw up the first one that we got. This one comes from a rogue ops War. Sam LaPorta or Hunter Henry. Guys, are we really already at this point of the season?

[A]

This week the answer is Hunter. He Henry. For me, the lion draw the Browns who are a very frisky defense right now. So I will go with Hunter Henry this week.

[C]

Yeah, I would have to say so too.

[B]

I think that I I would go with Hunter Henry. Goes to Hunter Henry and I do believe that this is going to be a tough game against the Browns. Lions were so excited. I'm going to quick second. I was talking to one of my buddy. Not cool Keith obviously because the Browns beat the Green Bay Packers. I was so excited and he was like Daniel, you could repay the favor and beat the Baltimore Ravens for us. So like our franchises have been really excited with each other and now we play each other here in the next game.

[A]

So with the way tie we Could.

[B]

I'd be all right with a tie. I think a tie actually hurts everyone else in the division more than it hurts you because it doesn't count as a loss when you're talking about win percentages.

[C]

Right. So tie could be your tiebreaker.

[B]

It feels gross to say this, but it's got to be Hunter Henry just with the way that he's being utilized in that offense. Sam laporta. When you've got six guys in an offense to get the football to, every once in a while, you're just going to sort of get left out. And I think it's a much tougher matchup for the Detroit Lions, so.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Can't believe I'd say it, but Hunter Henry as well. All right, next question. Here from our YouTube chat, Ben Fisher asks, should I drop Tony Pollard for Trey Benson? This is an eight person league and there are only four bench spots.

[A]

That's really interesting. I don't.

[C]

I'm going to look at the.

[A]

I would keep Tony Pollard.

[B]

I don't think I would drop Tony.

[A]

Tony is playing, is handling basically every running back touch for the Titans. Now, is it possible that Tajie Spears enters the picture? He's eligible to return next week. Not this week.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And Tony Pollard drops to like a 65% of the workload guy. Yes. Oh, boy. That's a tough one right there.

[B]

I'm looking right now just so I can give some context. Tony Pollard is averaging 10 fantasy points a game. He's running back 26 right now and 26 before you get a return.

[A]

I expect Benson to be better than that. The Titans offense has really stumbled out of the gates.

[B]

Agreed.

[A]

They don't score many touchdowns. Tony's not dramatically involved in the passing.

[C]

Game the next few games for Arizona. Thursday against Seattle.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Week five against the Titans.

[A]

Oh, wow. The Tony Pollard.

[C]

Tony Pollard is week five and then week six at Indie. Week seven, Green Bay. And then there's a buy. So how do we like trade? How do you feel about trade matchups? I don't.

[B]

You know, I think that you need.

[C]

I mean, that whole defense has been.

[B]

If this was almost any other person, I would say probably yes. But when you only have four bench spots, it really tightens how you're deciding where you want to be able to roster your bench. So I don't think I would drop Trey Benson just in this. Or drop Tony Pollard in this specific question, but in almost any other situation, I'll bet you I could find a person on your bench that I would drop for Trey Benson. It's close, so it would be a tough one here. All right, let's grab another question here from our YouTube chat. This one comes from Jesse. Is Stefan Diggs droppable for a Tory Horton or Ali Gordon? I'm going to say no, he's droppable.

[A]

If you want.

[B]

If you need Stefan Diggs.

[A]

I mean, if you really wanted one of those players, yes, that's droppable.

[B]

Would you. Would you drop Stefan Diggs for Torrey Horton? I would still hold on. Stefan Diggs.

[A]

I would prefer Stefan dig. But if you're asking me like, hey, I've got. I've really got a strong feeling about one of those two players, it's fine. Like if you have. If you have for example, Cooper cup or if you have for example, Devon Hn, I'm fine with grabbing each of their backups, but Horton might not be a backup, but it was so I. Diggs has more value to me, but I understand why that where the concerns are.

[B]

I get the question if I think it would be easier for me if it was the Ollie Gordon side. Although I think you're stretching more than the Tori Horton side.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

But just because of where the running back spot is. Knowing that if you were a James Conner manager, potentially you're a, you know, you had Tyrone Tracy and he went down or Chase Brown has been awful for you to start the season and you're like, I just need more running back depth because it's so bad on my team right now.

[A]

Get it.

[B]

I think that's where I would feel more comfortable than just doing the wide receiver for wide receivers.

[A]

Last thing I'll say on this. Did you guys watch the fastest three minutes last night during halftime, Chris Berman dropped Tory Horton, of course, had a long touchdown.

[B]

Horton. Tory Horton.

[A]

Here's a who.

[B]

That was good.

[A]

Amazing. That was so good.

[B]

Last.

[C]

So good.

[B]

What was the. Didn't he do an E I E.

[A]

I O was when he was replaying the jets block kicked Will McDonald. McDonald blocked the kick.

[B]

E I e I bay.

[A]

So good.

[B]

I love that it's.

[A]

There are certain things until the end of my time on this earth I will enjoy. And I just love watching. Watching Boomer.

[B]

Man, I do. Give me the fastest three minutes. Like I'll sit down and make sure that, like that's appointment level viewing for me every single week just to be.

[A]

Able to do it.

[B]

All right, we got one more question here from our YouTube chat. This one's gonna come from Jaden10. Is it time to drop Jaden Blue? The Jaden is spelled differently. So I don't think this is Jaden Blue asking about himself.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Is it time to drop Jaden Blue or is a potential upside whenever he finally plays?

[A]

I would say this, I would describe him this way. He's drop a bull.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

If you need to, then absolutely you can drop them.

[C]

Yeah. I wouldn't be holding on if you have other needs. I would not be holding on and waiting for that to happen because I think as long as Javante is doing what Javante is doing, there's not going to be a huge change.

[B]

Yep, I would agree with that.

[A]

And this team might mean they're already one and two. I think they'll be one in three after Sunday night. Maybe they get to a point where they want to play young players. We're a long ways away from that. And Javante Williams, by the way, he may feel old. He's in his fifth season. He's not that old. No, he's a 24 year old, 25 year old running back.

[B]

I can't believe that it maybe 26 Javante has rebounded the way that he has. Especially because I was like, oh man, I hate that I'm not in on this. Dallas Cowboys give me all the pass catchers and then it feels like he's just come out and absolutely lit the running back world on fire here. So, like congrats to him. Anytime we can see a guy come back from injury, like and he needed another year to be able to fully get back to himself. But it's been a very fun story. If you have Javante Williams been less of a fun story. We're just talking about guys that you need to cut for Caleb Johnson. Caleb Johnson still rostered in 50% of leagues. I just don't think he should be on benches.

[A]

I need to be. Yep.

[B]

Yeah, they're good at this point. Like he, he can be cut and basically any of the guys that we've talked about on the show today, I would add over top of Caleb Johnson. I really hope the best for the kid in the future but right now for us in fantasy, it's just, it's not going to happen. So.

[A]

Agreed.

[B]

All right, that's going to do it for us today. Thank you so much for hanging out with us guys, especially for hanging out in the YouTube chat and to our buddy Eric Moody. Follow him on social media at Eric and Mo Moody. We're going to be back tomorrow, diving into the week for rankings, me field and Mike Stefania. Hopefully we have no more major injury updates. But if we do, we're going to find them out. You do the Buzz file every single week. We're going to continue to keep our eye on that as well as fantasy football. Now towards the end of the week, we love you guys. Don't forget to love each other. Be kind to yourself and get your waiver claims in. We'll see you guys tomorrow for a week. Four rankings later, you're in the six.

[C]

Zero one zero Fantasy.

[B]

Fantasy focus.

[A]

You've seen the headlines, heard the debates.

[C]

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[A]

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