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A
Talk about stepping up.
B
Bang, bang.
A
It's time to level up your game. Introducing the all new ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments. The electricity is palpable. Step up your game. With no annual contract required. It's the ultimate fan experience.
B
Level up.
A
For More on the ESPN app or at stream.espn.com Sign up now. You're in the Six Zero One Zero. What's good, friends? Welcome into fantasy focused football presented by Little Caesars. My name is Daniel Dopp here with field Jate and Mike Clay decided to join us for the first time this week. How you doing, my friend?
B
What's going on?
C
Sorry, I just noticed your collars went.
A
Oh, thank you for that. I appreciate it. I'm not a collar guy. More often than not, collars and buttons are sort of like swears to me. If you use them all the time, then they just become like overdone. But when you pull them out every once in a while they like really like land.
B
That's true. I think that with like stand up comedians, like mix it in once in a while, that's fine. But it's too much. If it's like every other word, that's.
A
Not too many swears, it stops being funny. So like it's a well timed swear or a well timed collared shirt really pops when you're in a situation.
C
What if a stand up comedian never swears?
B
Mike? That's okay too.
A
That's also all right.
B
That's actually.
C
That's in. Right.
B
If you could pull that off. That's impressive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Outside standing at that.
A
When you say our friend Nate, is that like the proverbial our friend Nate?
C
Like we have watched his. His special.
A
Okay, okay, got it, got it. I was, I wondered if you were.
B
Yeah, no, we love Nate burying the.
A
Lead there on that one. All right, well, listen, we got a lot of stuff on the on tap for the show today. We got long shots. We got starts of the week. We got an RB2 bonanza, a lot of RB2s that we're going to dive into as a part of our rankings here in week six. We're also going to do a segment called buy, sell and hold.
C
Yeah.
A
Where fields you get to be a judge.
C
I brought my gavel.
A
You have a gavel and everything.
C
I didn't actually bring the gavel. We have one in here and I have seen this in here. It's from trophy smack. Of course you can get 10% off@trophysmac.com using the promo Focus 10.
A
That's right.
C
I've always seen it on our desk, but I've never actually picked it up.
A
And guess what?
C
It's heavy.
A
It's got some weight to it. Yeah, you could.
C
I was thinking it was maybe a plastic gavel. It is not.
A
No, there's some weight to that.
B
It stops working through the projections. Yeah.
C
I was gonna say, if Mike beats me too bad in our FF now league, I'm just gonna gavel his ear, which would. For all of America, because the projections are all on this computer. That would be an issue.
A
It's true.
B
Yeah. By the way, big day for me today. Okay? So I have filed a playbook today, that big day tomorrow morning. I have this podcast with you lovely gentlemen. My lovely, wonderful, smart, beautiful girlfriend is in town, and we have dinner plans tonight.
A
Oh, that's awesome.
B
Tyler Fulghum's wife. Tyler will be there, too, but sure, sure. We're mostly there for Jazzy, of course. I have a sofa delivery. I've been talking about that on the show. The sofa comes today, which, by the way, that's number two. I got a countdown of five. We got the playbook, right? We got all this stuff going on. We got the playbook. We got this pod.
A
We got dinner.
B
We got dinner. We have the sofa delivery, which may come. I might have to take a call during this show.
C
Please do.
B
That's number two. And, yeah, so it's a big day.
C
What's number one?
B
I mean, I send my girlfriends in.
A
That's it. Okay. Got it.
B
Got it. That checks out.
C
I've been married for too long. My wife is like, you're coming home. Really?
B
I mean, I have to paint the picture. I mean, obviously, we're playing Mall Madness tonight. That's number one.
A
Yes, absolutely. That is what's going to happen.
C
Oh, man.
A
All right, shout out to our friend Eric Moody, who is hanging out in our YouTube chat right now. We're going to be asking you guys a handful of questions throughout the show. So not only interact with him, but make sure you have a little bit of fun with us as well. Before we get into anything else on the show, though, guys, news. I feel like we got some NFL news that I just can't wait for any longer. Adam Schefter let us know that Joe Flacco is being traded to the Cincinnati Bengals.
B
My friends, starting lineup, let's go.
A
I feel like we did this. How are you guys? We've been asking for somebody other than Jake Browning to be able to be the starting quarterback of this team. We got a lot of guys that we are going to be trusting in fantasy football because of that. So with this trade, I just want to ask you guys, new expectations for the Bengals?
C
Not really, but I do, I want to say this. You guys know how much I love Joe Flacco, right? Of course. But you guys also may recall when J.J. mcCarthy got hurt and Carson Wentz took over, I framed it, at least personally, and I believe there was agreement from both of you that like, it's not that I'm telling you Carson Wentz is definitely going to make things better for the Vikings offense, but because it can't get much worse, there's at least a chance like Joe Flacco is not going to solve the fact that the Bengals have a porous offensive line. He's an immobile quarterback as well, but maybe he steadies the ship. I'm not saying it's a 75% chance. He said he's the ship a 50% chance. But I think it's a non zero chance. So I don't think it can get a whole lot worse for T. Higgins, who has no more than three catches in a game so far this season. Jamar Chase is just too good that even with some duds which will probably still be mixed in with Joe Flacco, he's prone for a wide receiver two week which he had last week with 29 fantasy points. But I think the floor grows a little bit for both of those players.
B
Yeah, I would agree with that. It's tricky because Joe Flacco has objectively speaking, been the worst quarterback in the NFL this year.
C
I mean you can take that back.
B
Right now if we're being honest.
A
However, worse than Jake Browning, even objectively speaking.
B
He has two touchdowns and eight interceptions. His efficiency across the board is worse than the NFL.
C
He's.
B
He's been bad. That being said, he was in Cleveland. I mean the offense wasn't. The supporting cast there also isn't great. You know, Jerry Judy hasn't done a lot as their number one receivers. Cedric Tillman's been hurt. They've been relying heavily on 12 personnel. It wasn't exactly built to be an explosive offense.
A
Yep.
B
In Cincinnati he is much better targets obviously with the 12 punch at wide receiver specifically. So maybe that allows him to perform at a higher level. And I have some confidence, much like field that could happen because we saw it last year in Indianapolis, even the year before when he was in Cleveland for a little while back. You know, the first time around in Cleveland, he was okay. At least enough to at least keep these guys fantasy relevant. Throw for 250 yards and a couple of touchdowns. So it's possible I have at least a hint of optimism that it could be okay. And that's what we want. Just get the ball in the hands of Chase and Higgins, much like they did Chase last week with that was Browning obviously. So we'll see.
C
Higgins has sort of quietly been disappointing. Not that people who have him don't realize it, but because we've spent so much time talking about the roller coaster from our chase this season.
A
Again, Chase Brown, I think his two teammates have been more disappointing.
C
They've been like sort of masking Teagan struggles. But no more than three catches in a game this year. Has not reached 70 receiving yards in a game this year. Last week was also all garbage time for Tegans, which still counts. We definitely, we take all garbage time points here. We are an equal opportunity fantasy points podcast. That much is for sure. But Higgins, again, I don't know that Higgins is going to crawl into Even like top 25 wide receiver territory, but I feel a little better about the offense in general. And I'll just say this from a real football perspective. I saw a lot of feedback basically being like, what does this do for the Bengals? It does not solve any of their issues. It probably doesn't. They're probably still not going to make a playoff push. But for the price that they paid, which is basically like 45 to 50 draft slots. Yes. If things go as I expect them to go, I'm cool with it. They traded, the Bengals gave away a fifth round pick. The Browns gave back Joe Flacco and the Lions six round pick. So 40 draft slots, it's okay. Take a swing. Why not? You have to send a message to your locker room at the very least.
A
That's what I was just going to say.
C
We're not going to accept the mediocre at best. And that's probably being extremely kind product that's been on the field for the past few years.
B
Yeah, I mean if you can get to 6 and 8 and then fly and then Burrow comes back and wins three in a row and you get in a wild card at 9 and 8 and then you have Joe Burrow, like you can make a run in the playoffs for sure. I mean, so it's at least, at least a possibility. So I agree. You have to at least take a, take a shot, especially with that division, like with the Ravens.
C
The issue is right now I mean.
B
Right now, I think the Steelers can be had if the offense progresses a little bit. So there's definitely, you know, motivation there to at least try.
A
So we're not moving Jamar Chase. I just want to put, like, a pin at it. We're not necessarily moving Jamar Chase up, but we do have maybe, like, a reinvigorated set of confidence, maybe for Jamar Chase a little bit.
C
I think reinvigorated is, like, too strong. Too strong characterization.
B
Yeah. Why don't we save that a little bit?
C
Why don't we save it?
A
Why don't we save it, guys? All right. I get what you. I'm picking up what you're putting down.
C
Okay. We've been doing a lot of this year, like, a lot of what we do this year for the rundown compared to prior years. It's like, we'll have a topic and we'll just. We won't tell each other what we're coming with.
A
Correct.
B
Right.
C
To preserve the element of surprise. And I think we have an idea of what might come up later. But that's the reason why Daniel wanted to talk about Jamar Chase, and Mike was sort of like, let's table it for later, or maybe it won't come up.
B
And I just didn't want to talk about it.
C
That's also possible.
B
Maybe that's possible.
C
The audience.
A
That's fair.
C
I might not like the audience very much. I'll explain that in just about 30 seconds.
A
Well, hold on. First and foremost, let's talk long shots, because field.
C
Here's the good.
B
Here's the good start with the good.
A
We do a game called long shots, and we had to pick a player just in case this is your first time listening to the show, Pat. Pick a player every single week that's under a certain roster percentage that we think is going to get in the end zone.
C
Yeah.
A
Mike already hit it once. We went from 1% down to half a percent.
C
Yeah.
A
And then field at half a percent.
C
Yeah.
A
You picked Xavier Hutchinson, who had not one, but two touchdowns last week.
C
Three. Not only that, but when I made my pick last week, Michael's like, wow, you went with a guy who's at 0.1% roster.
B
Unbelievable. Never scored a touchdown. And I had looked at him in prior weeks, and I'm just like, nah. Like, he. He's a. He's a. He's on the all pro route, running team. He just runs routes. They never throw to him.
C
I know.
B
And out of nowhere, they decide just going to have one of them Games. Let's just. It's like the packers mindset, like, or the Bills, like, let's. We're going to feature Elijah Moore for no reason out of the gate. Don Tavian Wicks. And that's what.
A
That's what they did.
B
They were like, this is a Xavier Hutchinson.
C
I love to tell you that there was some, like, very careful thought process put into it, but the reality is, when you're justifying the options that are available in 99.5% of leagues or more, there's really no strong case. It's just kind of like, here's a dart throw. It happened to land on Xavier Hutchinson. So I will take all of my.
A
Mind, but your dart throw, you then threw like a second dart that landed in the middle of the first dart. Right, right, right.
C
Like with the feather of the dart. Exactly.
A
It's incredible.
C
I think we were talking about this on Sunday night. I think we made a comment after the show, like, what do we do if the same player scores twice?
B
Yes.
C
And we didn't come to a conclusion. So there was no actual, like, additional prize for nailing a player and scoring two touchdowns. But, hey, maybe somebody put some money on an anytime touchdown for Xavier Hutchinson over at ESPN Bet then. Congratulations.
B
If you.
A
Congratulations.
C
What was the bet? What do you think? Plus, what do you think? Two touchdowns. Two anytime touchdowns.
A
That was plus 15, 18, 20, 300. It had been huge. It would have been a huge line.
B
Two for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. I'm not sure. But it's. It would have been a long shot, a major long shot field.
A
Because you won, you obviously get all of the monopoly money that is in our monopoly money fund for the last couple weeks. So congratulations on that. But I do think that we need to give you something else. Like if you get two touchdowns in a week, you should get another prize of some kind. I threw it a couple of ideas in our group chat. What I'd love to do right now is open up to our YouTube chat.
C
Okay.
A
And if you guys have any ideas, if you score twice in a long shot, what should be like, not the. Like. I guess it's a reward. Just like an extra reward on top of the monopoly money to be able to get. Do you get like twice the amount of money that's in the pot? Right. Do you get to pick a player that's maybe twice as rostered because you got two touchdowns? Mike and I have to do.
B
You don't have to put your money in the next week.
A
Or maybe you get out of Ford.
C
Boardwalk With a hotel.
A
There you go. That's what it is.
C
It's monopoly money, so it doesn't really matter.
B
Well, actually, with the. You know, with what the Chat did to Feel last week, they might actually be like, Field has to pay double the amount.
A
That's what it is.
B
It might be the opposite.
C
Let's get to that, shall we? Let's.
A
Let's get into starts of the week.
B
Punched in the knee or something.
A
Little bit of starts of the week last week really quickly, and then we'll dive into our RB2 bonanza. But last week, Field unfortunately came in last place and Chat got to pick his team. I remember feeling like, oh, man. Chad actually did field a solid.
C
He picked.
A
They picked a really nice squad. Spoiler alert. They didn't. Jared Goff was awesome. He outscored both Mike and I's quarterbacks. And then the rest of your team scored about six points combined.
C
Yeah, that's correct. Daniel Woody Marks had 2.4, Alec IO Manor had 3.8, and Zach Gertz took a hat. A bye week, apparently. So.
A
Big old zero.
C
I think we need to have a conversation. I think Chat and I need to talk. Here, bring this one in close.
B
I'll check in on my sofa.
C
Yeah, please. That's right. You worry about yourself. Listen, it's been a long relationship between you and I, Chat. Really, I do appreciate you guys. Every single day, you show up and you have spirited conversations, and Eric Moody has joined the party this year, and it's been awesome. I really think about the things that I'm grateful for in my life, and Chat is one of them. You guys bring an energy every single day that allows us to feel passionate about what we do every single day. What the heck happened, man? 26 points during starts of the week. Are you guys trying to get me to do 30 seconds of standup comedy on the next show? Like, if this is some sort of plot against me, I'm okay with it, but I would have appreciated a bit more honesty. I actually kind of like the picks as well, but I'm feeling very conflicted. I thought we were cool. I thought we were in a good spot. I thought you guys appreciated me because I certainly appreciate you. I'm not sure what to think about anything anymore. I don't know. Life is meaningless and lost right now. Until we figure out what exactly was your motivation for last week.
B
I thought they did a great job.
C
Yeah, of course you did, Mike. Of course. Of course you did. You want me to spin the wheel now or.
A
No, I do want you, can you move your backpack just a little bit? I do want you to know that if you remember at the end of that show, Mama Dob actually said she did try to go through and pick bad players because losing builds character. Fields, she wanted you to be able to build character.
B
Well done, Mama Dop. I've got to see you.
A
So we've got the Wheel of punishment here. Field is going to spin it again. Field Minister Yates, Here we go. Wheel of punishment for Friday's show is 30 seconds of stand up.
C
Oh, my gosh.
B
All right, all right. We almost got ice bath.
C
Almost got the ice bath.
B
I still think we should wipe it off once it's used once. We need more. We need to freshen it up. Yeah. Or maybe twice.
C
So now.
B
Yeah, now that we gone, maybe we go in the same one.
A
We'll do it three minutes of stand up rather than 30 seconds in order to differentiate. So, Field, you can just bring a little bit more to the table.
C
Close to three minutes.
B
I was pretty close.
A
Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
All right. Well, that's our starts of the week. Mike and I both did real well. Field, Unfortunately, Friday we got a little bit of stand up coming our way. Pumped for that.
C
Next Friday.
A
Next Friday, however, get a little bit.
C
Of an adjusted cast on Friday.
A
That's right.
C
Yep.
A
All right, one last thing. Before we dive into all these topics, we're going to change a few things with the way that our video looks like, my friends. Because if you ever watch fantasy football now, you'll see that we have this, like we call it a compression in the business. On the side of the screen there's like a big panel that has a bunch of rotating things. And then on the bottom there's a ticker that we have. Well, we are bringing that to Fantasy Focus Football. So if you are watching on the YouTube chat right now, you will be getting the compression live. Coming at you.
B
Look.
C
That is sweet right there.
A
It's going to be the way that we be. We're going to be doing Fantasy focus.
B
People don't have to look at our ugly mug. Exactly.
A
So you got all the rankings on the side panel, which is going to continue to rotate through during the show, which will just be very fun for you guys to be able to look at. We also got a bunch of matchups and other really good information on the bottom ticker while we're being able to do this. So a lot of good things. Go check out our YouTube stream because there's a lot of good video elements there as well.
C
Yeah.
A
All right, let's dive into our RB2 bonanza though because this last week we had three backup running backs that finished inside the top 10. And it seems like this week there is a number of RB2s again that have some quality production here for us. So Field, I'm going to start with you. When we're looking at some RB2s, who's your first one you want to talk about?
C
Yeah, so this, these are kind of selected by all of us. Let's begin with Rico Dowdle, who the big question mark here is whether Chuba Hubbard plays or not. If Chuba Hubbard plays and I think we have a much different conversation. That's where you see him ranked right now. Rico Dowdle with Chuba Hubbard in our projections is right now my 34th ranked running back. Keep in mind that with Chuba active, Dowdle has not played more than 39% of the snaps and he has six targets in the four games that Chuba Hubbard has played. That includes three straight games with just one target for Rico Dowdle. So if Chuba is available, I think his role is going to grow relative to where it was, but not enough to the point that we can start him with confidence. If Chuba Hubbard is out and there's at least a chance he is out, we'll find out more information later on today. Then I think we're talking about a top 20 running back once again. Who do they play this week?
B
How about his old team?
C
That's right, the Cowboys in a revenge game. And the Cowboys have allowed 26.92 fantasy points per game to opposing running backs this season.
A
26.9.
C
That is dead last in the entire NFL. You guys saw Breeze hall of another productive day last week against the Cowboys.
B
Josh Jacobs the week before, same thing. Both had 150 plus yards and Chuba.
C
Was just, I mean, excuse me. Rico was just awesome to watch last week as well. Ran really hard. The Panthers have a very adept run blocking offensive line. Took advantage of a great matchup last week obviously with the Miami Dolphins. Wouldn't surprise me if they do the same thing again this week. I think that Hubbard does see a little bit of a dip even if he does play like he is ranked at 24 right now for me, which is lower than where you would normally see Chuba. It's possible that week four, week five, excuse me, was one of those eye opening moments for Dave Canales which they have been talking about wanting to be a big more evenly split in the backfield. Remember last year Chuba was playing an insane number of snaps, especially with the injuries that they had take place. I think going forward, it wouldn't surprise any of us if there's just a little bit less Chuba and a little bit more Rico Dowdle because he can play. He had over a thousand yards last season.
B
Yeah, I agree. I think especially this week, I think sometimes teams will buy in a little to that revenge street narrative. So it would not surprise me if they're like, you know what, Hubbard's first game back if he plays. But Dowdle has some extra motivation here. Let's even it out a little bit more. So you're right. I'm. I'm similar. I'm at 22 for Hubbard, a little lower end Dowdle, but it's. It's a tricky one for sure. But I agree with everything he said.
A
And on Friday, I will continue to do the injury updates that we have after we get a bunch of practice reports. So we will definitely know more about Chuba Hubbard once we get to the end of the week.
B
Who's up, you or you?
A
Mike, why don't you go next?
B
All right, next up, I'm going to start out with Tampa Bay because no Bucky Irving last week. We expect him to sit out again this week. We don't really have a timetable there.
C
But I think we said unlikely to.
B
Play this UNL to play this week. Exactly right. So last week, Rashad white steps in 14 carries and four targets on 47 snaps. If you look at Sean Tucker, we thought might actually play a little more than he did, just three carries and three targets on 12 snaps. Rashad White was not super efficient 2.9 yards per carry, but we kind of predicted that they were playing Seattle. They've been so dominant against the run in the off season. I projected or I. I graded out. Their defensive line is best in the NFL. At least the interior defensive line, the defensive tackle. It depends if it's 4, 3 or 3 4, but either way they're up front. Is. Is. Is absolutely stacked. So no surprise there. Still at 71 yards, guys and two touchdowns in that game. They're playing the 49ers this week. Remember they allowed 31.1 fantasy points to Kyron Williams last week and the week before, Travis ETN had 19 and a half points against them. So you've shown that you can produce against them. Rashad White, RB12 for me. So I'm locking him into my lineup.
A
Yeah, he's a borderline RB one right now with. With where he's got right.
B
Remember he was rb. I know when he's been in this position in this offense with Baker Mayfield, he's delivered.
C
It's very funny, that. So Sean Tucker was one of the two long shots called out by Shefty and I during FF now this past week. Mine was Malik Washington. His was Sean Tucker. Malik Washington had 0 receiving yards and he still had more receiving yards than Sean Tucker. No way. I'm pretty sure. Pretty sure that Sean Tucker ended up with three catches for negative three yards, plus three rushes for nine yards. I ended up with four catches and zero yards from Malik Washington. So I think I won like 4 to 3.6.
A
That's incredible. Yeah. Because watching it. We just talked about this right, on Monday where he had like four catches for zero yards with his longest reception of eight yards.
C
Yes, correct.
A
Like, that's so weird.
C
Yeah, it's.
A
Football's a funny game, man.
C
It's a funny, funny game. And I thought that Washington might get a little bit more of a look on vertical opportunities down the field for right now, they are continuing to treat him, the Dolphins, like basically, Wanda Robinson.
B
Yeah.
C
And that might be generous. I don't want to derail the running.
A
No, no. Honestly, I had the same conversation not with you guys, but with somebody else when I was talking about the Dolphins because my other friends, my other good friends, because the idea that, like Nick Westbrook, akine ran like 26 routes and didn't have a single target, like it's.
C
Jalen Waddle and like Darren Waller's. It's a Jalen Waddle Hn show with Darren Waller mixed in as well.
A
Yes.
C
What do you got, Daniel?
A
All right. I thought that this was some news that I at least need to bring to the table that we can talk about here. Because the Patriots running backs have changed with Antonio Gibson going on season ending on ir. We have been waiting to be able to see if maybe we could get a little bit more Trayvon Henderson. Now at least one path has opened up where there's a little bit fewer touches now with Antonio Gibson being there. I want to ask you guys this question, though. I was reading an article, Mike Reese wrote this yesterday when he was talking about Gibson going on IR and Ramond Ray Stevenson struggles. He said his role, meaning Antonio Gibson on offense, was on the cusp of being increased due to Stevenson's ball security struggles.
B
Yeah, we saw that.
C
Yeah.
A
When you see that and you continue to think that is like, are they just trying to tell us over and over Travian Henderson is just not ready for. For a bigger workload like Antonio Gibson Bypassing Travian Henderson if we're going to bench Andre Stevenson. It sounds like they wanted it to be the Antonio Gibson show, not the Trayvon Henderson show.
C
Yeah, but they don't have a choice now, now.
A
And that's sort of the thing. Right.
C
I think they were telling us, like, it's definitely easy for us to say, like, how could you give Antonio Gibson carries over Trayvon Henderson? Gibson's not a bad player. Right. Like, he was previously a useful fantasy player signed for $4 million a year, which in today's running back landscape and free agency is not nothing. They don't have a choice now, though.
B
Yes.
C
It's two guys.
B
Yep.
C
They have two running backs on their active roster right now. So it sucks, really sucks for Antonio Gibson that he got hurt and missed the rest of the season. But the value of Henderson inevitably has to go up. Yeah.
B
You know what's funny about.
D
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C
Tron, Ares has arrived.
A
Hostiles.
C
Repeat, we have hostiles. Mating.
A
Mating.
C
Oh, my God. There's hundreds of them. On October 10, we came here from the digital world. The war for our world begins. What in God's name is that? Unimax. This is the end to this world.
A
No, it's not that.
D
I can help you.
C
Tron. Ares who did PG13 may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters October 10th. Get tickets now.
A
Eight years ago, I blew my football career.
C
He dropped it at the one yard line.
A
Chad Powers has arrived on Hulu. If I can't play as Russ, I'll play as someone else. My name's Chad and last name Lijia.
B
From executive producers Eli and Peyton Manning. Remember, you're wearing a prosthetic mask. This is acting and starring Glen Powell.
C
He thinks you're a rubber chew toy.
A
Not rubber. I'm a man made of flesh.
C
The Hulu original series Chad Powers is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundled subscribers. Terms apply.
B
New episodes Tuesdays, running backs and the short shelf life is that. Remember, like, it wasn't that Long ago Gibson was like, free Antonio Gibson, get him out there, let's use them. Let's maximize me the next cmc. Let's get him going. And then it's like, Ramandre Stevenson, same thing. It's like, why is this guy not playing enough? Get him out there. He's just new, young and up and comer. And now we're like, get rid of both of them. We want to. And then like a year or two from now it's gonna be the same thing. Like the Patriots are gonna take like a third or second round running back where we'll be like, get rid of Henderson, he's too old. Get the next. But it's funny how we do that with, with running backs. So yeah, look, by the way, part of this is because of Stevenson getting like some short term benchings from the fumbles. But if you look at the usage between Stevenson and Henderson this season, it's a 38 to 32 edge in carries for Stevenson and 16 to 15 in targets. Yep, it's almost, almost split up between the two. Neither of them has played especially well though. The efficiency has been well below 4 yards per carry after contact hasn't been that good success rate, it's been close. So it's been a, an underwhelming start. So honestly, they both need to play better. We need to see more out of Henderson if he wants to really take control of the backfield.
A
Well, the, the good news is that one of them has more fumbles than touchdowns and one of them has more touchdowns than fumbles. You guys want to guess which one is the starting running back for this squad?
B
Yeah.
C
So I think going forward here. Yes, we do. We get. I think it. Will you tell me how you would assess this backfield for Week 6 against New Orleans and we can.
A
Ramondre Stevenson is still the short term back. If I need a guy for this week, he is the guy that I have. Part of that is the Saints. Saints have allowed the 10th most fantasy points to running backs. And if you look at everybody that they've played so far this year, 22.7 to CMC. That's really good. 22.5 to James Cook, that's really good. 18 to Ken Walker III, that's also really good. 14.4 to James Conner and 14.4 to Cam Scatterboo. Every single starting running back has scored at least 14 and a half fantasy points against these Saints. So right now it feels like in the short term Ramond Ray Stevenson is going to continue to be that guy. The long term I'm going to save and talk about a little bit later on in the show.
C
Okay, gotcha. So I think, yeah, I think Stevenson is like, I believe I have him as RB26 this week. He's like right in that range, like he's a solid flex option. And there's a chance by the way, with no Antonio Gibson, I think there's a chance that over the next month or so Ramondre becomes like a top 20ish back. Because I think he is going to be the guy feels under the football he's going to continue to be the guy. It sounds like you're going to talk about some Henderson later.
A
A little bit later on the show.
C
I do think that like the, the possibility of Henderson taking on a much more important role down the stretch I think still exists.
A
Agreed.
C
And importantly for Henderson, if the passing game utilization continues to stay afloat, then he's going to be a useful player for our purposes.
A
I am with you on that. Michael. Why don't we talk about the Chargers backfield right now.
B
Chargers.
C
All right.
B
So of course Naji Harris is out for the season now. Marion Hampton is on injured reserve. So we'll get him back in four or five weeks, something like that hopefully. But in the meantime we're kind of back to where we were at times last year. Hassan Haskins and Kymani Vidal will be up off the practice squad. That that's expected to be the one two punch for now for the Chargers. In terms of picking between the two, good luck with that. I don't, you know, it's not clear cut. If I had to choose, I would go Haskins because he's been on the active roster. He hasn't been super effective running the ball throughout his career, but he's a big back. He can handle goal line work. I think he'll be first up on early downs much like how last week we were trying to figure out Arizona. You know, Michael Carter should be the first and second down in the goal line back. That's kind of the same thing here with Hassan Haskins, Vidal, look last year 6 round rookie appeared in 10 games. He had 43 carries and 8 targets. Never more than 8 touches in a single game. So I think he is kind of built to be sort of a change of pace back.
A
Yep.
B
What's interesting this week is and again if you can avoid the situation, you can. If you're picking one up off waivers, I would prioritize. Haskell, this is a great matchup. Great matchup playing the Dolphins The Most Yards 5th Most Fantasy Points to running backs. We just talked about Rico Dowdle 32 points against them last week. So there's a chance that he, you know, Haskins gets the job done. Either one, maybe either one makes a play but there's at least in a 12 team league. Maybe Haskins is a flex option because of the matchup. But best case scenario, you're avoiding.
A
Yeah, I.
C
And he's just wonder if he could just go off like even with the Chargers banged up offensive line. Like man, that Dolphins defense is just so generous to opposing running backs.
A
I just want to see how, how much he was.
C
I bet he jumped like 30% last night.
A
You think so? 30%. All right, I'm pulling it up right now and we'll be able to tell pretty quickly. Hasan Haskins was added in 31% of leagues now rostered in 31.7% of leagues. Alz was nailed it rostered in point four. Did you really say 31%?
C
I said 30%. That was close. I think a couple things to note context wise. On top of this, there's only two teams on a buy this week. So we have most of our available running back options. So that number of 20. You said it was 20. What was the number for Haskins for you?
B
I am at RB20. I know I'm at 32 beat all at 34. So again it's a toss up, slight edge.
C
Really interesting. Yeah, they did. Did you say Nahim Heis was at it or.
B
No, he was on. They added him to the practice squad. Right. He could get promoted but again he's played so little the last five years. I met a couple third and long snaps and that's it.
C
I was. I don't know if the word is worried, but we talked about it in the show yesterday. I was like, I'm just like planning for one like an Adam Schefter to tweet to say that Gus Edwards is coming back. Because if Gus Edwards had been signed.
B
You'D be like oh wow, like Jamal Williams.
C
Right? Like he might just lead the backfield in rushing attempts right away. He was with the team last year. That didn't happen. They worked out four running backs yesterday. I know that Travion Williams was one of them. I believe it was Royce Freeman.
B
Oh, Royce.
A
Why is our buddy Jamal not getting a call then? Yeah, I feel like he needs to be out there by the phone.
B
I lost last we heard.
C
But as of now, it looks like the team is pushing forward with the guys. They have two guys. They have with Naim Hines, who probably play some special teams and maybe handle some pass catching responsibilities.
A
All right, Fields, you're up next.
C
Next one for me is of course tomorrow night. We'll talk about this game in more depth on Thursday. Show with the Giants Play the Eagles Looks like Tyrone Tracy is going to be available for the Giants. Unclear how much of a role that he will play and unclear when he's fully healthy how much he will take back from camp. Scatterboo. But scatterboo is RB22 for me this week. Just a couple of spots behind Mike and right in line with where you are. Daniel. Remember two weeks ago Scatterboo had 25 carries plus two catches as well. Wasn't quite as busy last week, however. He played 69% of the snaps. He had 15 carries, he had seven targets and he led the team with catches with six catches to be specific. I mentioned this on Monday's show, I believe again On Tuesday's show, 17 of Jackson darts completions in week five went to running backs and tight ends. There is very little in the way of vertical action right now for that Giants offense. It's a matchup that I think you'd say to yourself like the Eagles, could they be up early and they just totally smoke the Giants.
D
Perhaps.
C
But the Eagles have allowed the 8th most, 7th most, 7th most fantasy. I had it this 25th. Like they're the 25th best. Got it.
A
So now you're trying to do the opposite of 32.
C
So whatever the opposite is, like they are a bottom seven team in terms of allowing fantasy points to opposing running backs. Good matchup is what I was trying to say. To translate that into English there. So Scatterboo still clearly the back. You want to start tomorrow night. I almost consider the value in Tyrone Tracy observational, right? Like not starting him. It would take a pretty unique set of circumstances to start him. The thing that I am most interested in tomorrow night is how much he plays coming off of this dislocated shoulder which again Adam Schefter reported it was going to be between two and four weeks. Two weeks later he comes back. This will be week three so Tracy will play some, but I think Scatter Booze is still going to be the guy.
B
I feel like the door is open there. Scatterbo. 3 1/2 yards per carry the last two weeks hasn't been pretty heavy volume so the door is open there. The other thing is we could play a game of like speaking of like the passing game for the Giants. Name a Giants Receiver other than Wanda Robinson that's going to play in this game because it is going to be rough. Darius Lane is not going to go.
A
So Richie James.
B
Nope.
A
Plaxco Burris.
B
Nope. Nope.
D
No.
B
Hakeem Sterling shepherd for this one.
A
Hakeem Nicks. Yeah. Anyone else?
B
Mario Manning.
A
Yes.
B
There we go.
C
Mario.
B
Man, I think the other Darius.
A
Tony in this one, maybe.
B
The other three active receivers on the roster right now are Jalen Hyatt, who.
A
Has a. Oh, that's right.
B
Bo Collins, who's a what? Undrafted rookie this year from Notre Dame, and. And our old friend Gunner Ol Shefsky, who's mostly a special gunner. So they're in trouble at that spot right now. We'll see. I think little Jordan Humphrey's on the practice squad, if I'm. If I'm not mistaken. So we'll see what they do for tomorrow's game. But it's not good at receiver for the Giants, who, by the way, when very 12 heavy last week. So it was two receivers, Slayton and Robinson, and then Daniel Bellinger was out there with Theo Johnson, of course, Scatterbo in the backfield. That was their attack. And that'll be the case in this game against the Eagles as well.
A
I feel like I think this every single time I hear this name, but how big is little Jordan Humphrey? Isn't he like 6, 3, 6 4, something like.
B
That's an ironic nickname.
A
Okay.
B
That's what it is. Okay.
A
Thank you, guys. I appreciate that.
C
He's not smart.
A
I got another running back we got to talk about really quickly. Jacordi Crosby. Merritt taking on the Bears. That's right. Last week. 14 rush attempts, 111 yards, two touchdowns, plus two receptions for 39 yards, 23.2 fantasy points. He was uber efficient, though. When you look at it, nine of his 14 carries went for at least seven yards. It was like chunk play after chunk play after chunk play. He still hasn't topped 50% of the snaps yet. Yes, that's the thing.
B
And he also hasn't topped two targets in a game.
A
Don't love that.
B
Those are two red flags.
A
That's the reason why we have him ranked as an RB2 rather than RB1, because he's just not quite getting the volume and opportunity yet to be higher than where he is. However, if matchup. Yeah, great matchup. And if we get into that situation where we're starting to see a little bit more from him, we could unlock him in that higher RB2 echelon. But I have him as a low end. RB2 this week.
C
Yeah, the Commanders play the Bears as part of that Monday Night Football double header. You guys will recall that Ashton Genty was RB1 for the whole week against the Bears when they played just a couple of weeks back with Bill. And this sort of is in line with what you just described. I think it's a bit game script dependent. I said on Monday's show like, hey, if you think the Commanders are going to be winning a game comfortably, if they play the Giants and you think they're going to win comfortably, then you would feel better about Bill's prospects because of the lack of passing game involvement and the fact that if they're down, like McNichols and Chris Rodriguez are going to have a role too.
B
Yeah, yeah. Well if they're down McNichols. Well, Rodriguez, has he ever been targeted? Maybe in his career? Something like that? Definitely not. Yeah, it's going to be interesting because he's averaging 6.6 yards per carry, which is like Devon H and rookie season level. The Bears are allowing A league high 6.1 yards per carry to running back. So this sets up well for him to have some big play.
A
Great match.
C
Unrelated to this conversation, but tangential, Mike, because I would be curious if the projection, it's definitely good for Ashton Genti. I've already seen it in the app here. I felt like there was. I argued on Monday that even if he was RB1 the week prior, there's at least a case that his Week 5 usage, Ashton Genti's, was the most encouraging of any game all season.
B
I mean, the seven targets is massive.
C
Huge, right?
B
No doubt about it.
C
So yeah, first play he got targeted as well.
B
And also, I mean he still had a ton of touches as he's had in every game. Seven targets. That's. He had more receiving yards in that game than he had combined the first four games of the season. He also rested at the end of the game. It was a blowout. I mean Raheem Mosterts, all his carries came at the end of the game.
C
So every. I said also like you're gonna look at the snap percentage for Genty and be like, wait, it was only 62 or something. It was like 85 prior to getting blown out prior to the blowout.
B
And by the way, I agree.
C
Did you see that Nobody else rested besides him.
B
Yeah, that's good.
C
Geno Smith, Jacoby Myers, they put Bock, they put Brock Bowers out there in the fourth quarter. Yeah, that didn't actually happen, but I.
B
Mean it was out There. Yeah.
C
No more to me, the standing. Yeah. The standing of Ashton Genti in that offense that he is the one being rested in the fourth quarter. Yeah, no doubt.
A
I want to ask you guys a quick question before we. Do either of you have any more players you want to talk about before.
B
We move do Arizona?
A
I got one more. I got one thing I want to throw at you really quickly before we do this then, because this is a Monday Night Football game Monday night and you're gonna have to make some lineup decisions before we get there. I want to ask you guys, would you start Jacori Crosby merit over DeAndre Swift taking on the Washington commander?
C
Same. Same game. So you can.
A
Oh, you're right. That's fair.
C
Let's get rid of that. I would probably lean towards DeAndre Swift in that.
B
I do. I would.
C
Swift is boring and it's not like it's not efficient, but he gets a lot of volume.
A
What about.
B
He's averaging more fantasy points per game than Derek Henry this season.
A
So what about Derek Henry, who takes on the Rams who have allowed just 10 fantasy points to running back twice this year and he has failed to reach 10 fantasy points in three of his four games.
C
It sucks. But I would play Bill over Derrick Henry, especially if Lamar is out.
A
You play Henry.
B
I have Henry, then Swift, then Crosby Merrick. Okay. I'm going to talk about Cross Merrick later, but my outlook on him later will be more optimistic. But that's because of what I expect his role to expand. It's not where we need it yet. Yet. So kind of like what we talk about with Genty, even off the big game, we're like, good, but we need a little more usage in the passing game and some other things to go. Right. And we start. We started to see that we aren't there yet with cross merit.
A
All right. It's close. Yeah. All right. So in that low end RB2 range, Mike, give us one more.
B
Michael Carter. So last week at this time, we were like, who's it going to be, Amari D. I don't want to say it that way anymore because it was. It was. We told him got knocked out of Eliminator because of those Cardinals imploding. I don't really want to talk about that.
C
Your full mustache and beard.
B
No, I don't.
C
That's Joe Fortin. Boston.
B
No. That shows. Yeah.
C
So Joe had to shave his as well. He had the Bills, right?
A
Yes, he did have to shave his mustache. Oh, did he? Yes.
B
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, we have.
A
We did a Whole thing about it. I think you should have to shave your mustache. But leave everything else. Leave the side, leave the beard. It's just the mustache. It'd be such a fun.
B
Put it on the wheel.
C
That's it.
B
Put it on the wheel. Put on the wheel. Yeah. So anyway, we have an answer. It's Michael Carter. He was very clearly the lead back in this game. Led in snaps with 38 carries with 18 targets with five and even pass routes with 19. DeMarcusado played 17 snaps. Bam. Knight played 10 snaps. Carter scored, Knight scored. DeMarcato did not. Carter's efficiency was not good. But that again, this is a practice squad level running back. We didn't expect him to move the needle in that area. 73 yards on 23 touches in the game. Tougher matchup this week. The Colts have allowed the six fewest fantasy points to running backs. No running back has even reached. Reached 17 fantasy points against him this season. So I'm at 29 on Carter. So he's a bottom of the barrel starting running back in fantasy. You know, again, 30 teams playing this week. I'm at 29. So obviously on the low end. I would avoid if possible.
C
Yeah, I don't. I say this all the time. I said it earlier. We don't care how. We just care how many fantasy points count whether they are scored in garbage time at the beginning of the game from a million yards out or from one yard out. I will just add to the context of my, I think, accurate description of Michael Carter playing just sort of average at best ball. Marvin Harrison Jr. Caught a long touchdown pass on the opening drive for the Cardinals that ended up being ruled as like on the half. Half inch line, basically. So Carter punched it in from less than a yard out, which gives you an extra 6.1 fantasy points. Could have had a different tenor to that day if not for that touchdown that originally looked like it was going to Marv.
B
Yeah. And then they were like, all right, Marv, you got your target. That's. That's it.
C
Yeah.
B
We're not using you anymore.
A
No more for you.
B
He had that great start and then he had a season low target chair in that game seven. That's just unreal. I mean, they just. They messed it up. I mean, I don't. They bl. They bl. That's an un. Even with. Even with the DeMarcusato thing. Unacceptable loss. Oh my gosh. Oh, my goodness.
C
Do you want my. My real life football take and where the Cardinals might be with. There with Kyler?
A
Where Might they be?
C
I think they're. I think he is mobile right handed to us in the sense that like the ceiling is just very low on for a franchise with them as your starting quarterback. We've seen peaks, right?
B
Like yes, we have.
C
Cardinals were I think 1101 year or. No, it was like 11 and 11 year to begin the season. They were the talk of the town. It was the year that J.J. watt signed with them and they were amazing. It just feels like over the course of whatever it is, six or seven seasons now in Arizona, there's a very clear and obvious ceiling for that player with that team. So wouldn't surprise me if he is an off season topic of potential trade speculation. Well, let's get into the fun part of the show. We're going to do Buy, Sell, Hold. I actually passed the LSAT yesterday, which I think is a thing you do to get into law school just to make sure that I could be the judge. I am like Aaron Judge bombing a three run home run in the fourth inning last night to help the Yankees mount to come back. I still don't like the Yankees, but congratulations to them on extending their season by one more day at least.
A
Yeah, I don't need to talk about baseball today, unfortunately with the things that happened last night. That's right.
B
My money spn.
C
He's back. Let's go, baby.
A
Love that field didn't. Are you the second Yates in your family to have passed the lsat?
C
I didn't actually pass it.
B
My sister did.
A
Okay, got it, got it, got it.
B
I'm joking.
A
That was by the transitive property. He also has passed the LSAT because his sister has. Yes, got it. All right, Mike, do you want to go first? You want me to go? I kind of want you to go first.
C
Here's how it's going to work. We have a player that each of them is going to nominate a buy, a sell and a hold. I am the judge. I did sort of a variation of this yesterday. I did that a little different.
B
I have two cells, a hold and then our bonus buy.
C
Okay, got it.
A
I have two buys, a sell and a hold. So Mike and I are not at all the same.
C
I'm going to be just judging somehow. Everyone.
A
Yes.
C
Okay, so make sure. I'll decide if I am in or out.
A
Let's start with our buys. We're going to start with the positivity.
B
I only have my okay.
C
All right, Give me yourself.
A
Oh, you want to save those?
B
All right, I'm going to.
C
So I'm Going to start making this.
B
Up on the start with my first sell. A gentleman by the name of Garrett Wilson, New York jets wide receiver is my first sell. 19 plus fantasy points in four or five games. 311 1/2% target share. That is the good so far. Now he has four touchdowns. My question is, is that sustainable? Is expected touchdown total 1.4. He only has two end zone targets. A lot of times we'll see that kind of thing regress to the mean.
C
Also end zone targets. And he has four touchdowns. Wow.
B
Yes, exactly right. The schedule gets much tougher. He's had the second easiest schedule so far. It goes to 20th going forward this season. The schedule includes, starting this week, shadow coverage from Pat Certain the second, who has been terrific and should be able to hold him in check in this game. He also has Carolina coming up. They've been outstanding against receivers. Cleveland is on that schedule, the Patriots twice. And keep in mind they now have Christian Gonzalez healthy with Carlton Davis on the perimeter. That's tough. AJ trail shadow. Jacksonville has been good defensively, so that's going forward this season. That's not what he's had, so it's going to be a lot tougher. And also this is a very, very low volume pass off. And see, he absolutely has to hit luck in the touchdown department. Has to have everything go his way to be at this level. I think he's at a ceiling. He's going to drop off. He'll be startable, but maybe a wide receiver too, not at the level he's been. So I think he is a perfect opportunity here to sell at his peak value. Okay.
C
The other thing that they have going for them right now, and I don't know if we can count on this, but they are the only winless team in the league, so maybe we can. He is just the king of garbage time right now.
B
Yeah, that too.
C
They are just dominated in garbage. But. But the only thing I'll say about garbage time that's good is that defenses let their guard down in garbage time. Like if the Patriots play the jets and they're up by 21, Christian Gonzalez is probably on the sideline wearing a winter hat like good job. Third or fourth cornerback who's now covering Garrett Wilson.
B
Yeah, yeah.
C
I mean, good case, though. Compelling.
B
Yeah.
C
The problem with doing this with Mike is Mike always comes in with extremely good.
A
He's got a good case.
B
It's not bad.
A
It's not bad. All right, here we go.
C
It's really good.
A
Okay, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, sit down. Oh, all right, all right. Sorry, guys.
C
You may now be seated.
A
I may not be.
C
You may now be seated. I have officiated three weddings in my Bible.
A
Have you really?
C
I have, yeah.
A
You've done one. I've. You've done three. I've done one. Mike, how many weddings have you officiated?
B
Negative one.
A
Negative one. A negative one because you undid a wedding. Is that why?
B
Yeah, I was. I just. Someone hires you as. Yeah, I just went in and protested.
A
That was the wedding. You were the one at the end.
B
So it was negative one. And they were like, okay, good point. And then they left.
A
They were like, that's. Yeah. All right.
C
In each of the weddings that I've officiated, I made a joke that was along a very similar line where it was like, you know, you ask if anybody protests, like, now is your chance. And I made a joke like, that was like the starting point, like if anybody has any objection to the wedding or to this, you know, this soon to be marriage, and then like insert a joke right here, like, you can kindly dismiss yourself from the wedding and there is an Uber waiting for you to drive you to where.
A
Right, Correct.
B
Yeah.
C
It's always a good hook right there.
A
All right. Speaking of good hooks, I got a good hook for a sell right here, my friends. That hit me. All right, I said you needed to add him yesterday and you need to add him. You did need to add him yesterday.
C
Add and sell. We pump and dump right here.
A
You stock broker back to back monster games of 17.7 fantasy points and 18.8 fantasy points.
B
Oh, I think I have an idea here.
A
But he had five or fewer targets in both games and three touchdowns in those two games. The production I do not believe is sustainable with the. The volume field. You did note that Darren Waller saw an increase in snaps from 25 to 60%. Here's the crux of my argument because I realized how it's going to sound. Saying you're going to add a guy off waivers and then immediately sell him. I do not believe. I do not believe that Darren Waller is going to top what he has done these last two games. Yeah, you're talking 35 plus fantasy points in a two game stretch. He may get more looks as he even ramps up more in this offense without Tyreek Hill being there. But I believe that your sell high window at a premium position will never be higher. And I realize how unfun this sounds, but I'm just not banking on 12 more weeks of consistent fantasy production from a 33 year old tight end that just came out of retirement. I just cannot believe that that is the thing. He still probably is going to have some boom games left in him. Like, he'll have some games where he just has a big game. There's not a lot of people in that passing game. So I think that that's possible. But your chance to trade him at peak value at a position that is just devoid of talent right now. I would keep my. And it's important in this context, you added him off waivers because you already have a tight end. You're just going to have someone like. I would keep Tucker Kraft and trade Darren Waller as high as possible. I would keep David and Joku and trade Darren Waller as high as possible. See if you can get someone to overpay. Just because of the production of the last two weeks and how bad the position has been.
C
The jury has what? The jury has ruled.
B
They. They've ruled. There's no time for cross.
A
There's no cross examination.
B
My only point was going to be who's buying Darren Waller. Like, who's like, no, no situation so bad I'm trading for Darren. I don't know.
C
I actually think that people would be buying Darren Waller right now. I just have hesitation about selling him because he plays tight end.
A
And that's fair.
B
That's the counterpart.
C
If you have Jake Ferguson and you grab them as an asset, I am totally fine with that. But the judge rules in the favor. As much as it pains me to do that of Mike Clay with this persuasive argument of Garrett Wilson into like.
B
Actually get a good player for him, not for him.
C
I think you know Waller, like, I'll speak out of both sides of my mouth here. Yes, Darren Waller has outtaked this coverage over the past couple of weeks. It is not going to be every week where he is scoring 17 plus fantasy points. That being said, if he said if he gets to 10 fantasy points per game for the rest of the season, not including these first two games, he is a top 10 tight end. Like, he is going to be a top. He is a starting player at the position that we have had the hardest time finding people. So I'm a little more intrigued in keeping him. But I get it. Like, if you have Jake Ferguson and you're just an active waiver wire guy, which I am all about, Tyler Warren, guys like that, by all means, I would be fielding offers for Darren Waller. But if you were sort of sifting through options and had no legitimate starter at tight end and you grab Darren Waller, to me he is a valuable player going forward.
A
All right, we're going to do our next round here. I'm going to lead this off. Mike, you can do your second sell if you want, but I'm going to do my first buy. You only brought one buy to the table, so we're going to have a little bit of a difference here. Feel J's for what it's worth, but my buy is Travion Henderson. I told you that I was going to wait to talk about it, but the long game here I am holding on to my belief that Travion Henderson is just simply the better football player in this backfire. And I think that we talked about all the reasons why we like Trayvon earlier in the show. I'm going to let that stand. The big thing for me, and everyone knows I'm a Lions fan. I look at a lot of things through a Lions lens. This backfield should be doing what Detroit's doing. Trevian Henderson should be Jameer Gibbs. Ramon Ray Stevenson should be David Montgomery. Okay, you're getting a phone call about your couch right now.
C
Go take it.
A
Go take it, Mike.
B
Like, go take it, Mike.
A
Say I was getting a couch call. All right. So when I look at this, it's like, you know, Henderson should be getting 60% of the snaps. Ramon ra. Stevenson should be getting 40% of the snaps.
C
Snaps.
A
And I just believe that fantasy managers who either hold strong or buy low on Travion Henderson. By the time we get into the fantasy playoffs, you're going to have your asset finally be realized, because sooner or later, the Patriots are going to see what every other single freaking person in America sees, and that's the. Trayvon Henderson is the better running back.
C
I think he's the better running back for sure. By the way, Mike Clay has been sentenced to six years in jail.
B
Whoa.
C
For leaving court.
A
I mean, honestly, did you. Yeah, you. I'm not sure that you even were allowed. Did the. Did you. Did the bailiff chase you as you ran out of the room?
B
But I made it back.
C
That actually was a very quick call right there.
B
It was.
C
Yeah.
B
They were just telling me they're on their way.
C
So I. My hesitation is this is everything that Mike Vrabel says and continues to say is basically that, like, Ramondre Stevenson is such an important part of our team.
A
That's why he can go suck a butt.
B
Field.
C
Whoa.
B
That's Field's friend. Okay. Well, used to be his friend.
C
Did you listen to him on. Listen to the busting with the boys? Is that why you knew that?
B
Oh, no, no. We talked about the. You used to work together, right?
C
So Rabel and I got traded same time.
A
Same time.
C
Literally Kansas City? Not literally. He actually was traded, but we used to joke when we were both in Kansas City, Rabel was like, so what'd you do to get sent out here? You know, going from the Patriots at the time where this Omega dynasty to the Chiefs our first year there, we were coming off of a 3 and 13 season. But I will love Mike Brable until the day that I die. That's an all time great. It's just a great. A great, great man of principle, including being, you know, he's loyal to his guys and I think he feels like Ramandre Stevenson gives them a real chance to be competitive in the running game.
A
Oh, sorry.
C
But I'll say this, the Patriots being good might hurt the chances for Travion Henderson. Like they're three and two and the Patriots look like a team given their schedule and the conference they play in that. Like they could be in the playoff mix. And if they're in the playoff mix, they're not going to change things up just to get a look at some younger guys. So I have some optimism surrounding Henderson. I said that earlier. I will hold on to that. That being said, like, if you told me for the rest of the season like he never emerges anything more than a flex option, I also think that is viable.
B
I think there's going to be an element of freeing him a bit in the second half of the season. Maybe it takes till next year, but I think it'll happen at some point.
C
He also, you know, at least three targets in every game this season for Henderson. So that's. That's a little bit of a decent.
B
All right, so am I supposed to do my buy here?
A
No, do your sell. Do your sell.
B
You're going to do my other sell?
A
Yeah.
B
All right. My other sell here is one Dalton Kincaid.
C
Yeah, yeah.
B
Going with Dalton Kincaid here. Speaking of a tight end, you should be selling right now, like Darren Waller, who's.
A
Never mind.
B
You go. You go. Third in fantasy points per game. You see that number? That's some. That's something that's going to appeal to someone this year. He's putting up. He's coming off a career high 108 yards. Last week he had a cry. 17.6 fantasy points in Week 3, second in fantasy points this season, but yet to clear six targets in a game. His target share is lower than what it was last year. He's top three a Tight end in yards and touchdowns, but outside the top 10 in snaps, routes, targets, expected touchdowns at just 1.4. We know the Bills like to spread the ball around. That's something that has affected Kincaid already. And by the way, this week I think this is your opportunity to trade him. Because next week, or excuse me, this week they play the Falcons, who have allowed a total of 69 yards into tight ends in four games this season, Fewest in. In the league. So I didn't articulate that as well as cleanly as I like, but the stats are there, the numbers are there. This is a guy you got to take advantage of now before he comes back to earth. I'm thinking about my sofa right now.
C
Yes, you can.
A
When you look at this on True Media and you're looking at who's first in points per game, who's first?
C
First, that would be Darren Waller.
A
Yeah, but total points. Oh, but you said points per game. Second in points per game.
B
I thought I meant you're taking advantage of total points.
A
Yeah.
B
Played two games. So if you sort by total points, which is what the person you're trading with is going to do.
C
Right.
B
They're not going to see Darren Waller there.
A
Interesting, interesting.
B
Coming off a career high in yardage, you take advantage.
C
Mike clearly has worked with some high power lawyers who know all the tricks of the trade. Ways to like paint by numbers a little bit, you know.
B
Yes.
C
Some of the logic I use for Daniel's arguments I will apply to what Mike just said. Is that like it's hard to sell Dalton Kincaid if you have nothing behind him at tight end.
A
Correct.
C
This one feels like in some ways Darren Waller only playing two games so far is helpful because we haven't seen what it looks like. On the bad end of it.
A
We haven't seen the negative. Yes, correct.
C
But the thing is that with Waller it's Jalen Waddle and Devon Hin and him like that's it. Right.
A
That's why I think it's easier to trade Waller than it is to trade Dalton Kincaid.
C
Yeah. With Kincaid it's like the reason why I would be if you could get a comparable level asset for Darren Waller or Dalton Kincaid. I am more prone to sell Dalton Kincaid because there might be games in which Dalton Kincaid is like 6 on the bills in terms of targets in a game. Right. Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir and even Josh Palmer could have a game. We're seeing some Curtis Samuel from out of nowhere recently. So anyways, give me your buy or sell. No, no. Other Buy.
B
Did you have a roll? Did you make a roll?
A
I have a hold and a buy.
B
Who won?
C
Mike goes to jail is my rule.
A
That's all right.
B
I'll deal with that.
C
Six years for leaving the show.
A
I got a hold and I'll be quick about it.
B
Okay.
A
I probably won't be.
B
I'll try really hard, though.
A
My hold is Michael Pittman Jr. We haven't talked about, like, you know, when we talked about the Colts, we talk about Jonathan Taylor.
C
Yeah.
A
We talk about Tyler Warren and we talk about what Daniel Jones has done this year. Right. We basically haven't talked about Michael Pittman Jr. And I think we need to. Michael Pittman Jr. Has at least 14.9 fantasy points in four of his five games this year. He has four touchdowns. Like, he. All of a sudden, he's not a touchdown guy. Hasn't been a touchdown guy throughout his career. All of a sudden, he became a touchdown guy. With Daniel Jones, I don't know whether or not this is going to continue in the way that it has been or if he's just going to keep being a priority target. But with a real quarterback under center and you look at what he's done in the past 2021, 2022, 2023, he was a top 20 wide receiver for all three of those years. Last season, we know why he sucked. He had awful quarterback play across the board for the entirety of the season. Now in 2025, he's back to being a top 20 wide receiver. He is wide receiver 13. The reason why I don't think he's a sell is because his name doesn't really move the needle in the same way that a bunch of other guys at the position does. When you get a text and you're like, oh, someone's offering me Michael Pittman. That's cool. I'll finish dinner and then come back to that later. And you put your phone back in your pocket. Meanwhile, when you get a thing that says like, someone wants to trade me Jamar Chase, are you kidding me, baby, you got to do the recital by yourself. I'm going to be at the computer for 12 to 15 hours figuring out how to get Jamar on our team, you know, it's like there's just like a different level when you're talking about these guys. So I don't think he moves the needle in the same way. Colts offense doesn't feel like sexy yet to people. So when you're trying to trade for a guy like Michael Pittman Jr. Even though he's been really steady. Just doesn't, like, move the needle in the same way. Which. Which is why I feel like he is a perfect hold cold in this cult office.
B
I have so many questions. First of all, I feel terrible for Rosie that you scream at her like that. Second, don't you say you were making dinner and then she has to go to a recital.
A
What is happening? Well, these are two different scenarios. The first one, we were making dinner.
C
Reference or no, I didn't know. You're like.
A
Well, my. No. So my. I. Don't you guys have, like, children? My child is going to be 21 this month.
C
So, like, man.
A
Yes, Yes. I have a man that lives at home.
B
People don't know you're 60 people, they don't know that you don't. You look great.
C
You wear.
A
Thanks, guys. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Anyways, Michael Pittman Jr. Is my hold because we've seen him do it for three consecutive seasons, you know, before this, and I think he's right back to being that guy.
B
All right, my turn.
A
Yes. Give me your hold.
B
All right, my hold, gentleman of the court, is one. You just mentioned him. Jamar Chase is my hold. I thought through this one. Do you buy? Do you hold? You sell. There's a lot going on here with Jamar Chase, however, coming off a big game, a lot of garbage time, of course, but 6 for 110 and two touchdowns last week, now has at least 29 fantasy points in two games so far this season. He has mixed in some duds there. However, his 30% target share is a career high. That's actually up from last season. Now we bring in Joe Flacco, so perhaps that'll help a little bit. We talked about that earlier in the show. Maybe that'll help him out a little bit. And we kind of previewed this last week, but he goes from the sixth hardest schedule sst Higgins for wide receivers to the third easiest going forward based on results so far. So that's going to help out things. It's been a tough schedule so far.
A
I wanted to say this earlier in the show. This is the second time that you've mentioned it, but I wanted to make sure that the people knew. Mike, you put out a tweet yesterday with an updated every schedule. So I just saw yesterday as a part of it just in case people haven't noticed it, like actually might check it out.
C
So I haven't been able to see it.
B
Yeah, it's all. I don't want you to have that edge. I need to Be in these like we. It's all six positions. It's their schedule so far and then their schedule going forward. So you could kind of see like, oh, wow, they've had a hard schedule, now it's much easier, that kind of thing.
A
And that is perfect for what, what we're talking about right now. If you're thinking about trying to buy or sell a player, go check that out before you put in an offer so you can get an understanding.
C
Yeah, it's very valuable issue here, Mike, but if there's ever a week where you want to take like three to five minutes and just be like, things look pretty good for the next few weeks for these players, right?
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
C
If we did it before, like a week ago, you would have said, hey, the Panthers have a back to back weeks, Dolphins, Cowboys, where you're like, wow, like opportunity here for whoever the, you know, the running back is.
B
That's a good idea. I should put that out for like the next four. Four weeks or something more work for you.
C
You're only the busiest person.
B
No, I can do it. That's not. That's not a hard thing to do. So I can do that for sure. Yeah.
C
So busiest person at the company is. Mike's got to be up.
B
It's you.
C
No, come on.
B
Yeah, come on.
A
Yeah, I'm thinking about. I was trying. I was thinking about who might the busiest person be right now?
B
Field 8 draft and fantasy and NFL.
C
I'll nominate Laura Rutledge.
A
I was just gonna say it might be Laura.
C
Saturday morning she travels for a game.
B
And she goes to Monday football.
C
Then she does NFL Live.
B
Yeah, for sure.
A
She's all over the place.
B
But anyway, that's my case.
C
I'm gonna, I'm gonna.
B
If I have Jamar Chase, I' I'm not going to go out and try to take advantage of the big game. I'm going to hold tight with one of the best players in fantasy because again, if you are trying to trade him, people are going to be like, I know Joe Burrow. You're not going to get that peak value. I say hold. Hold.
C
Okay. I'm going to rule in the favor of Daniel because I had Jamar Chase as a sell high yesterday. So I can't go against my own words here. What is interesting though is that I don't know that Michael Pittman Jr. Is a name that I have heard being bandied about as like a potential buy or sell. No, I actually, Jamar Chase has.
A
We haven't talked about Michael Pittman Jr. That's part of the.
C
Why I brought him in.
A
Exactly. It's just.
B
It was a way to be able.
A
To introduce him to the conversation.
C
Yeah, it's a totally fair justification for it. So, Mike, given the fact that you just lost, jail is the first part of the punishment. The second part of the punishment is Daniel and I will be over after the show because as remuneration, you have an opportunity to bail yourself out by giving us your couch.
A
Yes.
B
Now you can sit on it for five minutes.
A
You know what I'll do? I'll sit. I'll grab a second chair.
B
Chair.
A
I'll maybe grab myself, like, a nice Miller Light out of the fridge. Miller Light, Mike.
B
And then maybe we'll watch you put it together.
A
Maybe that's. And then feel. Then I can just heckle you like we're Waldorf and Statler from the. Yeah, you know, from the Muppets, right?
B
You think I'm putting that together? It's being installed on site. I'm not doing that.
A
You're making your girlfriend do that.
B
No. No.
A
Oh, my God.
C
Baby. Yeah.
B
Yeah, they're. No. I tried to build the last one I got, and I did not like it. So this time.
A
Time not a good idea.
B
This time, you guys handle it.
C
I am the least. And Daniel can attest to this, I am the single least handy person that has ever graced this beautiful earth of ours.
A
That's not true.
C
It would have. It's pretty close.
A
You put in a lot of effort, Field, and the one thing that you can't control. No, the one thing you can control in life is effort. And you put in a lot of effort.
C
I don't execute.
B
Sometimes you accept what you don't know, and you look to others to help. That's. That's fine.
C
You know, I'm just saying that, like, I don't begrudge anybody who has somebody else do the job. I can barely operate enough refrigerator.
A
My Mike's trying to justify, I think, to every. Like, I'm o. The long guys. Like, I do stuff around the house.
C
Okay.
B
You. I do trash, you know, I do lots of stuff. I, I. You got to pick your battles, you know?
A
Good. We got a poll from our YouTube chat, because earlier today, I'd asked you guys, what do you think we should do for Field's reward for hitting two touchdown? Get twice the amount of money? Get to pick the two long shots, or get to re spin the wheel of punishment?
C
Bring it back, baby.
A
We want to do that. Let me ask our producers. Oh, sounds like you Can't. It is written in the bylaws, small letters that you can't do it on the same week that you win long shots. So you'll have to spin the wheel next week, unfortunately. Feel J.
B
It's tough.
C
Okay, Whatever you guys want to.
A
I'm so sorry. You have to. It's not me. I'm letting. I'm just a mouthpiece here.
C
I don't understand this, though. So, like, what if I. What if I don't lose the rest of the season, like, get out of jail free card?
A
It's like when you play monopoly and you have a get out of jail free card and you never go to jail. You just like, it just sits in your pocket.
C
I feel like I'm getting hosed here. I'm not going to lie.
A
You want to spin it and maybe we'll see? How about you spin it, I'll let you spin it, and then Mike and I will decide which one of the two punishments we want. How does that sound?
C
I feel like you're kind of probably going to choose.
B
You're going to choose the worst one.
A
No, that's not true. I love field.
B
All right, let's do a whole lot of. Yeah. I actually want it to be different because I want a new thing. We already did the.
A
We already did the stand up. All right. Field one more time because you won long shots, you're gonna get a second spin here.
B
Spin again. That's it. That's it.
C
You're out.
B
Third spin.
A
All right, one more, One more for feel GH and we're gonna land. Oh, my gosh. It landed on spin again.
B
And it was almost chat picture. Players.
A
If you do this again, run a mile.
B
You gotta run a mile.
C
Field GH make sure I have that in my pocket.
B
I'll let you pick. Should we let him pick? Yeah. What do you wanna do?
A
Would you rather run a mile or would you rather do 30 seconds of stand up?
C
I'll rather a mile.
A
All right. All right.
C
Well, I mean, I, I, I, I, I think that the standup was really funny, but it's cool to, like, do something a little bit different.
B
So you're just going to, like, do a selfie of, you know. Yeah, like, I'm getting started and then five seconds later, oh, I'm done. I'm so sweet.
A
Oh, yeah, I could see that happening. Are you going to do, like, the fun run where, like, you start a mile and then you actually, like, get in a car that Chapin has hidden around the corner to make it look like you actually did it, and then you're going to get out of the car right before the end.
C
Times, you know, so. So you can't. You have to be able to track me down.
A
Oh, that's gonna be fun. All right. We'll figure out how we pay off field having to do a mile. But it's been a very fun show today. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with us. Today's show was presented by Little Caesars. Go check out our friends over at Pizza Pizza Pizza, as well as come back and hang out with us tomorrow. We love you guys. Don't forget to love each other. Be kind to yourself, and we'll see you here on Thursday. You're in the six zero one zero FOCUS Fantasy.
Podcast: Fantasy Focus Football
Date: October 8, 2025
Hosts: Daniel Dopp, Field Yates, Mike Clay
Special features: Live YouTube chat, interactive audience segments
—
This episode centers on the perplexing state of RB2s (second-tier running backs) in Week 6 of the fantasy football season. The hosts break down which backs are hardest to rank, injury updates affecting backfields, share buy/sell/hold options for tricky skill-position players, and debate new NFL storylines—including the Joe Flacco trade. They deliver actionable advice, in-depth stats, and a healthy dose of fun, banter, and audience engagement, perfect for managers desperate for lineup clarity.
[15:42-36:00]
Backup RBs are breaking out:
Last week saw three "backup" RBs finish in the top 10. The hosts expect a similar shakeup due to injuries and evolving depth charts.
Rico Dowdle / Chuba Hubbard situation (Carolina Panthers)
Rashad White (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Patriots Backfield: Stevenson & Henderson
Chargers' Messy RB Depth Chart
Cam Scadaboo (Giants RB)
Jacory Crosby-Merritt (Commanders)
Michael Carter (Cardinals)
[04:00-08:29]
[09:00-14:46]
[40:41-58:50]
| Segment | Content/Discussion | Timestamp | |---------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|------------------| | NFL News: Flacco Trade | Flacco to Bengals, WR, and offense outlook | 04:00 – 08:29 | | RB2 Bonanza | In-depth RB2 ranks, situations, matchups | 15:42 – 36:00 | | Buy, Sell, Hold | Player market breakdown, trade advice | 40:41 – 58:50 | | Notable Audience Q&A | YouTube chat polls, fielding ideas | 11:27, 60:24- | | Hosts’ Banter/Life Updates| Behind the scenes, funny personal stories | 02:38, 59:39 |
The trio delivers a conversational, quick-witted, stats-driven breakdown of the running back landscape, intertwined with meme-ready jokes, locker-room banter, and interactive fantasy games. Field takes on the earnest "judge," Daniel stirs up playful chaos, and Mike provides unflinching, stat-based analysis. The overall tone is self-deprecating, informative, and community-centric—making the show enjoyable and useful for fantasy football players at any level.
| Player | Role for Week 6 | Hosts’ Take | |----------------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------| | Rico Dowdle | Must add/start if Hubbard out; flex if plays | High-upside revenge match vs. Cowboys; reliant on Hubbard's status | | Rashad White | RB1/2 | Stable volume, favorable matchup | | Trayvon Henderson | Bench/add/hold | Upside for late-season breakout | | Hassan Haskins/K. Vidal | Deep-league flex/emergency| Prefer Haskins, only for true RB desperation | | Cam Scadaboo | RB22 (solid flex) | Heavy usage; no complex alternatives | | Jacory Crosby-Merritt | RB2, risk-reward | Great efficiency, needs more passing volume | | Michael Carter | RB29, “avoid if possible” | Volume only, efficiency and upside limited |
This episode is a must-listen for fantasy managers facing the weekly RB shuffle or navigating chaotic depth charts. The hosts blend real-time news, sharp matchup analysis, actionable trade tips, and interactive fun, all in a breezy, engaging package—you’ll laugh while you learn how to survive Week 6.