Week 7 Start or Sits: Players you Should TRUST in Your Lineup | Fantasy Focus 🏈

Summary

Fantasy Focus Football — Week 7 Start or Sits: Players You Should TRUST in Your Lineup

Date: October 16, 2025
Hosts: Field Yates, Mike Clay, Daniel Dopp
Guest Appearances: Stephania Bell noted, Eric Moody mentioned (chat)
Theme: Week 7 fantasy football strategy — deep dives into start/sit decisions, lineup locks, injury adjustments, analytical breakdowns, and key players to trust or question this week.

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Episode Overview

The Fantasy Focus crew returns for part one of their Week 7 preview, highlighting the most trustworthy fantasy starts, nuanced injury impacts, and key matchups for the week ahead. The team discusses trending players, actionable takeaways from advanced stats (including Mike Clay’s signature "Shadow Report"), debates controversial wide receiver rankings, and spotlights unique sleeper gambles (Raheem Sanders Monopoly Fund). They maintain their signature light, energetic banter throughout, keeping the show engaging and approachable for fantasy managers of all levels.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Commanders vs. Cowboys: High-Octane Fantasy Matchup

• [03:44-05:25] Mike Clay: Projects a shootout (32-30), touting heavy lineup exposure.
• Locked-in Starters: Prescott, CD Lamb, Debo Samuel, Terry McLaurin, George Pickens, Jake Ferguson, Zach Ertz (borderline).
• Dak Prescott Spotlight: “Three straight top 5s… 3+ TD passes each outing… lock him in with everyone else.” [05:25, Mike Clay]
  • Washington QBs allowed 18+ fantasy points four games in a row.

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2. Eagles Downtrend: Worries for Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown

• [06:27-11:12] Daniel Dopp & Mike Clay:

  • Saquon Barkley outside top 10; A.J. Brown outside top 15 for Week 7.
  • Offensive line regression is the biggest factor limiting Saquon.
    • “He’s averaging 2 yards per rush before contact… last year, 4.2, which is astronomical.” [07:12, Mike Clay]
  • Volume is still there but efficiency and touchdowns are not; “You’re not not starting Saquon, though.” [08:07, Dopp]
  • Madden Curse is discussed: “It’s so hard to do that two years in a row… and that was our concern with Barkley.” [09:17, Field Yates]

• A.J. Brown's Fantasy Outlook:

  • 28% target share, but outside top 30 receptions, top 35 receiving yards; only one TD.
  • Minnesota allows the fewest fantasy points to WRs; “Only two WRs hit more than 9 fantasy points against them.” [10:12, Dopp]
  • Trade Dilemma: Would you rather have George Pickens or A.J. Brown ROS? Hosts split.
    • Field: Slight lean A.J. Brown; Mike: Took the Pickens side for “a jolt of energy.”
    • Chat poll: 78% favor Pickens over A.J. Brown [24:52]

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3. Kansas City Chiefs WRs: The Rashee Rice & Xavier Worthy Debate

• [11:49-13:34] Field Yates:
  • Rice returns — consensus: WR12-20 rest of week; Worthy: WR18-26.
  • “Rice was soaking up all the targets...24 catches in 3 games...every bit the part of a top-8...” [12:01, Yates]
  • Chiefs remain pass-heavy. “Hollywood Brown probably off the fantasy radar now.” [13:10, Field Yates]

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4. Tampa Bay Offense Injuries: Unexpected Streamers & Upside

• [15:10-17:24] Mike Clay:
  • Mike Evans (WR17 if he plays), Rashad White (RB7).
  • Cade Otton (TE): major streamer candidate — last two weeks, 5+ targets and 10+ fantasy points. “We’ve seen him in these situations where...they have no choice but to feature him.” [16:08, Mike Clay]

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5. Atlanta Falcons: Drake London Emergence

• [17:25-20:29] Daniel Dopp:
  • London’s last 2 games: 100+ yards and a TD each; massive target share (3rd NFL).
  • “He has absolutely benefited from a condensed target tree.” [17:38, Dopp]
  • Only pass-catcher worth trusting on Atlanta; possible bump if Darnell Mooney returns.
  • Mike Clay notes coaching change (TJ Yates as WR coach) may be affecting target distribution.

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6. Justin Fields: High-Risk, High-Reward?

• [21:12-24:52] Mike Clay & Daniel Dopp:
  • Bears play Panthers — good matchup (Panthers allow 22+ QB points in 3 straight).
  • Fields: 25+ points in 3 of 4 healthy games, but severe volatility.
    • “You have to be an all-time vegetable farmer to trust him because of the onions you'd need...” [22:30, Dopp]
  • “If you drafted him, you probably need to start him, but you’d rather not.” [24:52, Field Yates]
  • Chat poll: 75% would prefer to sit Fields this week.

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7. Panthers Backfield: Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard Split Looms

• [26:45-30:29] Field Yates & Mike Clay:
  • Dowdle—“Sixth player since 1970 to produce 230+ scrimmage yards in consecutive games.” [27:09, Field Yates]
  • “You cannot give Rico Dowdle 30 touches...expect to be split moving forward.” [27:20, Field Yates]
  • Fantasy takeaway: Short-term, ride Dowdle; long-term, likely a split with Hubbard (both flex territory).

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8. Courtland Sutton: Too Low in Rankings?

• [30:29-32:35] Daniel Dopp:
  • Four games of 17.5+ points (top 16 WR each time), faces Giants (third-most fantasy points to WRs).
  • “I feel like if there’s one wide receiver [to trust in Denver], it’s Courtland Sutton.” [31:13, Dopp]
  • Hosts: He’s a solid WR2/3, rank difference for WR19-25 is “a fraction of a point.”

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9. Quinshon Judkins: RB Start of the Week?

• [33:46-36:33] Mike Clay:
  • Faces Miami — “an outstanding runner...Dolphins have allowed the 5th-most RB points.”
  • “Projection is 98, lean over 84.5 rushing yards on ESPN bet.” [35:35, Mike Clay]
  • Knocks: Limited receiving work, but “fringe RB1 because of the matchup.” [36:19, Yates]

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10. The Real Deal: Deep Sleeper for 15+ Fantasy Points

• [36:42-38:53] Daniel Dopp, Field Yates, Mike Clay:
  • Under 60% rostered, 15+ points triggers Little Caesars promo.
  • This week: Michael Penix Jr. (vs. banged-up 49ers)
    • “Hoping...he needs two passing touchdowns. He doesn’t do 300-yard games.” [38:08, Dopp]

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The Shadow Report by Mike Clay

[38:53-48:15] Signature Segment — Shadow/Matchup Upgrades & Downgrades

Upgrades

• Bears WRs vs. Saints: Saints have hemorrhaged fantasy points to WRs, especially if DJ Moore sits.
• Commanders & Cowboys WRs: Dallas defense yields the most points/catches to WRs (“Six receivers already have 17+ fantasy points against them.” [39:30, Field Yates])
• Buccaneers WRs vs. Lions: “Ten TDs already allowed to WRs, second-most fantasy points.” (Mike Evans, Tez Johnson, Sterling Shepherd get a boost.)

Downgrades

• Jackson Smith-Njigba vs. Derek Stingley Jr. (HOU): “Stingley has shut down Adams, Evans, Brian Thomas Jr.” [42:10, Field Yates]
• Tez McMillan vs. Sauce Gardner (NYJ): “Three catches total last two weeks allowed by Gardner.” [43:04, Mike Clay]
• DK Metcalf vs. DJ Turner (CIN, TNF): Turner has limited nearly every shadow assignment.
• Wandale Robinson (NYG) vs. Denver: Tough slot matchup.
• Eagles WRs vs. Vikings: Minnesota has allowed the fewest fantasy points to WRs; “tough challenge for our friends in Philadelphia.” [46:05, Yates]

Other Notables

• Jordan Addison (MIN): Great week due to Philly’s #2 CB struggle.
• Courtland Sutton (DEN): Faces Paulson Adebo (NYG); still mid-WR2.
• Jerry Jeudy vs. Rasul Douglas: Neutral matchup, not excited.
• Justin Jefferson: Faces Quinyon Mitchell, but Jefferson’s matchup-proof.

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Thursday Night Football Preview: Steelers at Bengals

[49:02-56:59]

• Chase Brown: “Platooning with Perine...hasn’t been a top-20 RB yet, hard to trust.” [50:33, Mike Clay]
• Jamar Chase:
  • “90% of his last two weeks’ production came in garbage time.” [51:54, Mike Clay]
  • If you believe in a Steelers blowout, Chase may be a “stat-padding” beneficiary late.
• DK Metcalf:
  • Touchdown streak; but red flags on repetition: “Never topped five catches in a game, touchdown regression has to hit.” [54:25, Dopp]

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Highlighted Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dak Prescott rise: “We’ve talked about him as a streamer...now he’s just a lineup lock in this matchup.” — Mike Clay [05:25]
• On Saquon’s line play: “He got 4.2 before he was touched last year...so we have seen an entirely different version of the offensive line.” — Mike Clay [07:23]
• Rico Dowdle’s hot streak: “Sixth player since 1970 to produce 230+ yards in consecutive games.” — Field Yates [27:09]
• Chat poll fun: “If you had Justin Fields heading into week seven, would he be a starter? 75% say bench.” — [24:52]
• Witty banter: “You have to be an all-time vegetable farmer to trust [Fields] because of the onions you’d need.” — Daniel Dopp [22:30]
• Mike on streaming Cade Otton: “We’ve seen him in these spots where they have no choice but to feature him…and it’s produced big-time numbers.” — Mike Clay [16:08]
• Courtland Sutton Trust: “If there’s one wide receiver [to trust in Denver], it’s Courtland Sutton.” — Daniel Dopp [31:13]
• Raheem Sanders Monopoly Fund: “By week 13 we thought...this fake money pot had grown to $15,000. Well, stop picking good players.” — Field Yates & Mike Clay [58:17]

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Raheem Sanders Monopoly Fund Sleepers

• Rules: Player under 0.3% (or less) rostered, must score a TD for hosts to “cash in.”
• Current picks: Kanata Mumfield, Van Jefferson, Zay Jones; Sample as producer pick [61:18–62:56]
• “I am up to $80 Monopoly dollars collected.” – Mike Clay [62:31]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:44] Commanders & Cowboys fantasy breakdown
• [06:27] Eagles offense concerns (Saquon & A.J. Brown)
• [11:49] Chiefs WR breakdown: Rashee Rice’s return
• [15:10] Tampa Bay injury fallout (Evans, Otton, streaming options)
• [17:25] Drake London’s fantasy breakout
• [21:12] The Justin Fields conundrum
• [26:45] Panthers RB debate (Dowdle/Hubbard)
• [30:29] Courtland Sutton as a WR2
• [33:46] Judkins as a smash RB
• [36:42] Real Deal sleeper of the week (Michael Penix Jr.)
• [38:53] Mike Clay’s Shadow Report (matchup upgrades/downgrades)
• [49:02] TNF: Steelers at Bengals preview
• [56:59] Raheem Sanders Monopoly Fund crazy sleeper picks

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Hosts’ Language & Tone

• Friendly, analytic, and candid with constant jokes and self-referential banter.
• Heavy use of stats and advanced metrics—“projected score”, “target share”, “EPA”, etc.—with clear actionable conclusions.
• Regular asides summarize chat polls, listener questions, and inside jokes (“vegetable farmer”, “Madden curse”, “decimal semantics”).
• Each take is identified by the host for clarity.

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Final Notes

• Action Items: Start your studs in shootouts (Commanders/Cowboys), temper expectations for Eagles stars, consider risky upside in volatile QBs (Fields), and monitor split backfields for sneaky flex value (Panthers).
• Shadow Report: Use matchups to bump up or down flex-level wide receivers and tight ends.
• Return for part two tomorrow!

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[Advertisements, intro banter, and outros omitted.]

Transcript

[Daniel Dopp]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans.

[Mike Clay]

Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets.

[Daniel Dopp]

Mom, 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn [e-mail] fantasy. You're in the whole 6010. Focus, fantasy. Fantasy.

[Mike Clay]

Focus.

[Daniel Dopp]

What's good, friends? Welcome into Fantasy Focused Football, presented by Little Caesars alongside Mike Clay and Phil Yates. My name is Daniel Dopp, and things are a little different this morning.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, they actually work.

[Daniel Dopp]

We're streaming live.

[Mike Clay]

We figured out the issue, by the way.

[Field Yates]

Hi, everyone. Right now.

[Mike Clay]

We did figure out the issue.

[Field Yates]

Yep.

[Mike Clay]

Are you okay with me disclosing what the issue was?

[Field Yates]

I mean, this might get me canceled.

[Daniel Dopp]

But that's all right. Go ahead.

[Mike Clay]

All right, so basically, we have this password that we have to enter in every single morning to actually log into the server that allows us to stream.

[Field Yates]

Correct.

[Mike Clay]

Mike was the person who originally set the password. And if you guys are not familiar with cybersecurity, it's important to change yours very often.

[Field Yates]

Yes.

[Mike Clay]

Mike had not revealed to us that he upgraded from hot guy 15 to hot guy 16 for the password.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's what it is.

[Mike Clay]

So we had to adjust it.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the part he's not saying is there were some obscenities in there, too.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's accurate. I mean, honestly, this was one of those situations where Mike came in today, like, pretty much ready to be able to resign because of the shame that he felt from what's happened over the last couple weeks. He actually came prepared with a tua, like, apology. He's going to deliver to everybody now.

[Mike Clay]

I actually had a friend. He's one of my best friends in life, who we were. We were living in the same dorm in freshman year of college, and he was little. He had a couple of Miller lattes.

[Field Yates]

Back in the day.

[Mike Clay]

And he was like, can you get something off my computer for me? And I was like, I don't know, like, what's your password? He was like, it's hot guy 15.

[Daniel Dopp]

I've always wondered where that joke came from. Cause it's a thing that you've had.

[Mike Clay]

I know.

[Field Yates]

I've used stuff.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah. Excuse me.

[Mike Clay]

Hot guy 15. The thing about that is, now that you've been friends for 20 plus years, we have so many more extremely embarrassing moments. That one just that's like a PG compared to some of the crap we've been through together in the 20 years since.

[Field Yates]

If people only knew the stories we have about Field Yates. That's right. Oh, my God.

[Daniel Dopp]

You don't even want to get me started on those stories.

[Field Yates]

Well, anyways, I would like to apologize for nothing. Zero regrets. That's it, rag rats, give me some Little Caesar's pizza.

[Daniel Dopp]

Okay, we got a big show planned for today. We've got our week seven preview, part one. As we always do for a Thursday, we're diving into the shadow report, a part of the playbook that Mike puts out every Thursday as well. We got a Thursday Night Football preview. We got a Raheem Sanders Monopoly Fun. I got all the big show. Yeah, you. We'll get to that in a little bit.

[Mike Clay]

Okay, fine.

[Daniel Dopp]

But I mean, honestly.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, I. I have. Yeah, we're gonna have a. We're gonna have a discussion, gentlemen.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's right.

[Field Yates]

At the Raheem Sanders touchdown conversation.

[Daniel Dopp]

I'm. I'm with you. And we are gonna have a conversation. Also, make sure you hang out with our buddy Eric Moody in chat right now. Follow him not only on our YouTube chat, he is there every single day that we are live. We love being able to have Eric be a part of the show for that. But also follow him on social media at Eric and Moody with all the things that he does everywhere that you can get his content.

[Field Yates]

YouTube.

[Daniel Dopp]

He is unbelievable. Go follow him there and shout out to our friends over at Trophy Smack. Head on over to trophy smack dot com. Use the promo code focus10 for 10% off your order over at trophy smack dot com. Let's dive into our week seven preview, part one. We each brought a couple of things to the table. Mike, I'm going to start with you today, actually.

[Mike Clay]

All right. Yeah, well, I now that you fixed the password exactly.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, well, I foreshadowed this one a little bit yesterday. So let's talk about this Commander's Cowboys game. Yes. This is going to be, you know, we expect. Again, my projected score is 32 to 30, so we're expecting a high scoring fantasy bonanza, which means It'll be 17 to 14.

[Daniel Dopp]

Don't do that.

[Field Yates]

That's what always happens.

[Mike Clay]

Honestly, not with the Cowboys. Like the commanders. I could see gutting out a defensive effort like they did two weeks ago against the Chargers. No, two weeks ago, they did it against the Chargers. Okay, right. And you're like, maybe they do have some defensive grit to them, the Cowboys. Now just.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, no, you're right. So anyway, the, the almost ran out of space in the playbook for lineup blocks for this.

[Daniel Dopp]

No way.

[Field Yates]

Jaden Dan Dak Prescott, who I'll get to in a second, we're going to include him this week. That's the notable one. Devonte Williams and Bill Crosby Merit. I'm going to put both of them in there with the way Crosby Merit's been utilized the last couple of weeks and in this matchup against Salas, CD Lamb, assuming he's back from injury, Debo Samuel and Terry McLaren Again, assuming McLaren's back, George Pickens and Jake Ferguson and honestly, Zach Ertz. Borderline, borderline top 10, top 12 tight end. So it's almost every position covered for both teams. But I think the guy that we've talked about as kind of a streamer throughout the season who is certainly a line of block in this matchup is a guy who's on the rise in Dak Prescott. He's just been tremendous. He started slow, two duds in the first three weeks. Since then, three straight top fives, has at least three touchdown passes. In all of those outings, he's first in past attempts, first in completion, second in yards and touchdowns. Still not running. That's a little bit of a hesitation for me going forward. Just 49 yards and 14 carries. But again, great matchup here. Washington's allowed 18 plus fantasy points to the opposing quarterback in four consecutive games. So Dak lock him in with basically everyone else.

[Mike Clay]

Do you want to be the anti Dak guy this week and make.

[Daniel Dopp]

No, I do not.

[Field Yates]

I very compelling. How did that feel? Because I've been the one that's on the other end for Dak for the Felt good.

[Daniel Dopp]

It felt like validation. Yeah, that's exactly what it felt like.

[Field Yates]

Only. Okay, don't get too excited.

[Daniel Dopp]

Although I do want to say every time that you talk about Dak, you're like, I mean he doesn't run a lot. Every time that you talked about like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady back in the day, you're like, well, they're good quarterbacks, but they don't run. Which is why I only have this.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Dak, Prescott, Pete and Manning, Tom Brady.

[Daniel Dopp]

Basically all in the same echelon. Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

But like Dak's career numbers, if he continues to play and he talked recently about playing like close to his 40s, could he could end up as like one of the five highest passing yardage leaders.

[Field Yates]

Oh, no doubt about in the history of the league that applies to any pocket passer these days. I mean, with how much they're.

[Daniel Dopp]

Matthew Stafford's up there, man. Just stay healthy. Right.

[Field Yates]

Like he's.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, he's already in the top 10. Stafford. Yeah. Yeah. There's been a lot of discourse recently over like, you know, quarterbacks. Like, I saw some Dan Marino comparisons. I was comparing some, some modern quarterback to Dan Marino and it was like, how is Dan Marino one of the greatest ever? And it's like, because you didn't watch football 30 years ago, 40 years ago. Correct. Now. And how it was played compared to how it is played now. What do you got, Daniel?

[Daniel Dopp]

I'm going to talk about the Eagles. I'm sorry about this, Mike Clay, but Saquon Barkley, we have outside the top 10.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah. That's. Wow.

[Daniel Dopp]

A.J. brown is outside the top 15. What happened to our fantasy friendly Eagles? And is there any chance that there will be something that changes this year to go back to what we knew in 2024 in the seasons beforehand?

[Mike Clay]

So things can definitely change because they're really talented and they're still largely int from where they were last year with the team that dominated on the way to the Super Bowl.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yep.

[Mike Clay]

The offensive line feels like maybe the biggest issue for Saquon. I was doing NFL Live yesterday and we were talking about it and our research team dug out some cool numbers. Not for the Eagles, but for. To help explain what's going on here. Saquon has 0. 20 plus yard runs so far this season.

[Daniel Dopp]

Correct.

[Mike Clay]

He has 0. 100 yard games this season. He had 11 of those last year.

[Daniel Dopp]

Not even just rushing games. 00 yards. Games from scrimmage.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

Yes. Saquon is also averaging 2 yards per per rush before contact.

[Field Yates]

Yep.

[Mike Clay]

Last year that number. You want to guess it?

[Daniel Dopp]

It was like six, wasn't it?

[Mike Clay]

Not that good.

[Daniel Dopp]

4.2.

[Field Yates]

Okay.

[Mike Clay]

4.2. Which is an astronomical number.

[Field Yates]

Now it's on the nose.

[Mike Clay]

You would take like there are running backs where you're like 4.2 yards per carry is not terrible. It's not great, but it's not terrible. He got 4.2 before he was touched last year on average. So we have seen an entirely different version of the offensive line. I hear you. These fault. These remind me of the fantasy traps because it's like I've moved Saquon outside of my top 10 of running backs as well. But like I have Saquon on three teams and I'm playing him.

[Field Yates]

That's off.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's kind of the takeaway.

[Mike Clay]

The analysis is just like, hey, if he stinks again this weekend at Least you're more mentally prepared for it.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, we've talked about those guys before. It's like, I feel that way with Rasheed Rice this week because there's talk talks about, will he be limited, will he play a lot? It's like we can rank him fourth at receiver or 25th. We're still starting the guy. First game back. There's no doubts.

[Daniel Dopp]

You're not. Not starting Saquon Barkley. But part of it was talking about the matchup and just again, the way that things have continued for all of these Eagles here. He's averaging, and you already mentioned this field, 19 touches per game. That's seventh in the NFL. So you love the volume technically that he's getting, but he's only getting 77 scrimmage yards per game. That's 21st in the NFL, averaging four yards per touch. Only four touchdowns this year. That was another thing that he did really well last year was find the end zone. Not happening this year. So, like, you have. Say that again.

[Mike Clay]

Madden curse, maybe.

[Field Yates]

Well, the Madden curse is a.

[Daniel Dopp]

It's supposed to be the year of. Right.

[Field Yates]

It's a. It's. You peaked. If you. If you're on the Madden cover, it's because. By the way.

[Mike Clay]

Yes.

[Field Yates]

So I can answer this question back.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's right.

[Mike Clay]

Never left.

[Field Yates]

Nailed it. Well done.

[Mike Clay]

It never executed.

[Field Yates]

Dad. Dab right there.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, that was.

[Field Yates]

Boom. Nailed it.

[Mike Clay]

I'm telling you, never left.

[Daniel Dopp]

I can't do that.

[Field Yates]

Never left.

[Daniel Dopp]

I don't know how. I don't have the.

[Mike Clay]

You can do a dab.

[Daniel Dopp]

I don't think I can dab.

[Mike Clay]

I'm not asking you to moonwalk here. You can dab.

[Daniel Dopp]

I don't think so.

[Field Yates]

What do you do?

[Daniel Dopp]

You do this?

[Mike Clay]

Close enough.

[Field Yates]

It was. All right.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's all right. All right. It's great for an audio podcast anyways. Mike, keep going with this.

[Field Yates]

So the Madden curse is basically like, if you put it this way, if you're on the Madden cover.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

It's because you're coming off a peak season. Right. You were essentially the best or one of the best players in the NFL. You probably were healthy for the whole season, put up big numbers, elite efficiency, scored a lot of touchdowns, as we've talked about in the past. It's so hard to do that two years in a row. And that was our concern with Barkley coming into the season. So, Yep, that's kind of what's happening. He's. He's fallen off a little bit.

[Daniel Dopp]

You've got no other option. Other than to just keep rolling them out there. You can't bench them. You're not trading them. You're trading them for, you know, pennies on the dollar. Based on what you got this week against Minnesota, only four running backs have topped nine and a half fantasy points against the Minnesota Vikings. So he is running back 13 really quickly in A.J. brown. He's wide receiver 16 in targets per game. He's getting seven and a half. But he's outside the top 30 in receptions, outside the top 35 in receiving yards. And he only has one touchdown this year. And the Eagles have thrown for the seventh fewest passing yards so far in 2025. It's crazy that when you have a 28% target share, you'd think that you'd be thrilled with that.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

But with A.J. brown, things are just not materializing. The Minnesota Vikings have allowed the fewest fantasy points per game to wide receivers. Only two players have hit more than nine fantasy points at the wide receiver position this year against Minnesota. That's unbelievable. I think he's just a big downgrade against the Vikings. Roma, Dunze and D came back half Marta come in.

[Field Yates]

The shadow report.

[Mike Clay]

I got offered a trade yesterday. Oh my. A.J. brown for my opponents, my league mates. George Pickens, you get.

[Daniel Dopp]

I get Pickens and he gets A.J.

[Field Yates]

Brown. That's tough because I think Pickens in this offense can hang in the top 15. And they're. I mean, are we. Are we 100% sure A.J. brown's on the team in a month?

[Mike Clay]

He's on the team.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, I do too. But are we 100% sure?

[Mike Clay]

98%.

[Field Yates]

That's tough. I think I'm a lean Brown. I mean, CD Lam's coming back. That's obviously Brown. I would, I would give a slight edge to A.J. brown. I think that it's a different conversation if, if the lamb was out for a long time.

[Daniel Dopp]

Think I would lean George Pickens, rest a year.

[Mike Clay]

I don't know what Chad thinks. I made the. I accepted the offer. You want Pickens close? Yeah, I took.

[Field Yates]

I think it's fine. It's close.

[Mike Clay]

My team needs a little bit of shaking up in that league. It's a Brock Bowers team. So I just was like, I need the jolt of energy. Like the locker room has been like a little bit of a malaise. Like I took the ping pong table out of the locker room trying to get the guys to focus. It's more. Feel like the effort hasn't always been there when we needed it to be. So. Yeah, we have made the deal for Jordan.

[Daniel Dopp]

I want to undo all of the analysis that I just had nowing now that field traded away A.J. brown. This is a week to start him. He will in fact go off for 20 seconds. Yes, that is how it will work.

[Field Yates]

Put it out there.

[Daniel Dopp]

Field, what about you?

[Mike Clay]

Well, I had a great question to ask and then Mike kind of stole it. My first thing to follow this weekend is Rashee Rice's debut.

[Field Yates]

Oh, yeah. All right, well, next topic then. There we go. We covered that.

[Mike Clay]

We basically did. Rasheed Rice played zero snaps last year with both Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy on the field. I would say more important than Hollywood Brown's presence is Xavier Worthy in the version that he is in right now. Remember, Worthy had kind of a slow start for the Chiefs last year. He kind of really found his groove after Rasheed Rice got hurt. But Rice was soaking up all the targets for the Chiefs in the first three games of the season. He got hurt very early in the fourth game of the year. He had 24 catches in three games. Did Rasheed Rice. He was looking every bit the part of a top eight wide receiver in all of fantasy football. So I'll give you guys the numbers of where we all rank them to the extent that it matters. As Mike noted, I have Xavier Worthy. I'm sorry, I have received rice as wide receiver 12, Daniels at 17. Mike is at 20. I've got worthy the lowest. So I guess my optimism on Rice is met by relative pessimism on Xavier Worthy. I've got worthy as wide receiver 26. Mike has. Mike has Rashi Rice at 20, Worthy at 24. Daniel has Rasheed Rice at 17 and Worthy at 18.

[Daniel Dopp]

I do.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

Back to back.

[Daniel Dopp]

Got them both.

[Mike Clay]

Discouraging week last week from Xavier Worthy on the end zone, but two catches. Not what I was expecting after what we saw the two weeks prior to that in his return.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, I think they'll both be fine in this offense. There's. I think the plan will be to feature them too. I think we'll see a little bit of a dip from Travis Kelsey, who probably maybe moves to a back end tight end one based on his production last year and this season. Hollywood Brown probably off the fantasy radar now. They're not running the ball. They're the past heaviest offense in the NFL. They've scored what, four touchdowns and three straight games. There's plenty of room for those two guys to be terrific.

[Mike Clay]

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[Field Yates]

Bank of America references to charitable organizations.

[Mike Clay]

Is not an endorsement by bank of America Corporation. At New Balance, we believe if you run, you're a runner however you choose to do it.

[Daniel Dopp]

Because when you're not worried about doing.

[Mike Clay]

Things the right way, you're free to discover your way. And that's what running is all about. Run your [e-mail] running all right, let's keep things rolling here.

[Field Yates]

Who's next?

[Mike Clay]

Go ahead.

[Daniel Dopp]

Mike Lake.

[Field Yates]

All right, next one is we're going to talk about this Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense and how we're going to approach them here with all these injuries. And looks like Mike Evans is expected to practice again today. So we do expect him to go this week. That's not 100%, but that looks good because we're not going to get F Chris Godwin. We're not going to have Mecca Buca this week. Not to mention Jaylen McMillan still out. So Baker Mayfield, I still have QB6. That guy seems to be able to overcome anything. It doesn't matter who the wide receivers are on the field. Like he's going to produce. So like him. Rashad White, RB7 for me. Still no Bucky Irving didn't even mention that one. He's still out. Rashad White, a must start. Mike Evans. I'll get to him more later because he's in the Shadow report so I'll talk about that. But wide receiver 17 if he goes and then like if you're in a super deeply like Tej Johnson, Sterling shepherd, those kind of guys are names.

[Mike Clay]

It's just going to be a complete randomness.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. So I would avoid the other the name that I want to feature is Kate Otten Yeah, because on we've seen him do nothing the first month of the season. Now with the injuries piling up, he's starting to get going. Five plus targets and 10 plus fantasy points and two straight. And I look back to last year because I wrote about this. He, he was, he was like in auto fade and drafts this year because he did almost all of his damage in four games last year when Mike Evans and or Chris Godwin was actually Evans was out for all of it and Godwin was out for a large chunk of it as well. Week seven to 10 last year he handled a 25% target share. That's nine and a half per game. Wow. Eight plus in all four of those games he had 30 catches, 293 yards and three touchdowns. Averaged 19.3 fantasy points per game and had 18 plus three times. So we've seen it from him. This could be the guy. If you're, if you're in a tough spot, you have Bowers, whatever it may be. You need a streamer. I did rank him 13, so I'm on that kind of cusp. We talked about all those like borderline tight end one options but he's in that conversation. And again we've seen him in these situations where they don't have any choice but to feature him. They have and it is produced big time Fantasy number. So definitely a, we'll say a rare tight end streaming option here with kon.

[Daniel Dopp]

KON has always been that guy that's like the ultimate on the field and just not get production guy in fantasy football because he's on the field all the time.

[Field Yates]

Like I feel like he never comes back player.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yes. That's what he does. So like for anytime you get a chance to utilize him in fantasy football, it's just exciting.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

Because he never gets, he's not a guy that we look at. I'm going to go with Drake London.

[Field Yates]

Guys.

[Daniel Dopp]

Talk about the Atlanta Falcons. We were talking before the show about the Atlanta Falcons just a little bit. Drake London's been hot over the last two games. Over a hundred yards and a touchdown and back to back games. 25 fantasy points in week four, 31.8 fantasy points in week six. He had a buy in between those two weeks seeing over 10 targets a game. That's third most in the NFL. He has absolutely benefited from a condensed target tree. This was part of what we were talking about before the show. No Darnell Mooney the last couple weeks. Rarity McLeod was a healthy scratch for a game at least one, if not more which was surprising to me. But he's had a heavy, super, super heavy workload. 3rd in targets per game, 5th in receptions per game, 5th in receiving yards per game. Thank you very much. There's only that that'll happen, unfortunately, probably for me. So third, fifth and fifth in targets, receptions and receiving yards. But he only has two touchdowns, which means there's still more to unlock in this offense. With Drake London, it should have been three and we could have even had more on top of that. So taking this week, taking on The San Francisco 49ers, they're just super banged up. You've heard Stefania talk about it. Basically every time that she's on the show, it feels like they're one of the most banged up teams in the NFL. No Nick Bosa, no Fred Warner, unfortunately for those two guys. And shout out to Liz Loza, facts versus the feelings. Just came out earlier this week in there. She said that the 49ers had just given up 256 receiving yards and two scores to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they basically didn't have Chris Godwin or Mike Evans. They only had a Mecca Abuka for a portion of that game. And it was a bunch of other random guys. And still two 56 and two touchdowns. I'm in on not only Drake London continuing this hot streak, but potentially seeing if Darnell Mooney comes back. Does he potentially do something in this offense?

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, we'll see. So, two thoughts here. One, I gotta check this, but you said the two games for Drake London, I believe TJ Yates, friend of the program, cousin of the family, took over as wide receiver coach a couple of games ago.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh, did he really?

[Mike Clay]

He's F of the wide receivers coach now. We are not actually related, but I am a big fan of TJ Yates. I hope he becomes an NFL head coach one day. That would be very cool.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's amazing.

[Mike Clay]

Tarnow Mooney could simultaneously be one of the players that we talked about earlier in the week as like, you can drop him now if you'd like. But we could also see like a deeper league. I think there are worse players to potentially stash. We were discussing this because he's kind of. I happen to scoop him on waivers in the Warren League 16 team league, which is very deep. Obviously he's kind of had the perfect storm of circumstances to explain this slow start, right?

[Field Yates]

Yep.

[Mike Clay]

Week one, he's out because of injury. Week two, they play a game Sunday night football against the Vikings and it's a defensive slugfest. Right. They just basically ball out defensively they don't really need much offensively. He gets hurt in week three, he misses weeks four and week six.

[Field Yates]

Week five is a buy, week five's a bye.

[Mike Clay]

So I mean this guy was amazing for the year.

[Daniel Dopp]

He was really good last year.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, he was great. He's a thousand yard receiver once previously in his career, so don't know what to make of him. But if he's out there in your league, I think there are worse end of bench dashes.

[Daniel Dopp]

Totally agree with that.

[Field Yates]

No doubt he's a good player, one of the better. A solid number two receiver in the NFL. And he was fine in fantasy last year. Like he's going to be fine. I think in 12 team leagues. He's a guy we're generally going to rank around. A flex option, fringe flex option. It'll be usable during bye weeks.

[Mike Clay]

And by the way, Michael Pennix Jr. Had 20 completions on Monday night. Sixteen of them went to Bijon and Drake London. Zero wide receiver catches for anybody other than Drake London on Monday night. So at some point defenses are going to say tilt the coverage for that guy. Make somebody else beat you. Perhaps Darnell Mooney benefits.

[Daniel Dopp]

Just you say that. But when DRAKE London gets 16 targets a game.

[Mike Clay]

No, no, he's, he's. I'm not saying to the point that Drake is not a total rock star for fantasy, but you, you would think defenses would say can somebody else beat us a little bit.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, look, London's target share this season then last year it was like 29%. So it's all up a little bit. That might come down a tiny bit, but he's not far off.

[Daniel Dopp]

That could also, I mean that 4% could easily be because of all the things that Field just laid out about Darnell Mooney not being there. Right. So. All right, go ahead.

[Mike Clay]

Big question this week.

[Field Yates]

Yep.

[Mike Clay]

Because some people have been riding this. Players are starting quarterback. Can you start Justin Fields against the Carolina Panthers? Here's the positive. The Panthers have allowed 22.3 or more fantasy points in three straight games to opposing.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh my gosh.

[Mike Clay]

Now they've seen some reasonable, maybe even very good quarterbacks in that time. Right. The likes of Drake May and also Dak Prescott, who they played this past weekend. Plus Tua got them two weeks ago. Tua, I would say is in a different category than Drake May and also Dak Prescott. But still, Tua can have his moments here. I just think Justin Fields, like on paper is a very hard player to trust. He's had two absolute abomination games this season. Week six against the Broncos. 4.9 fantasy points. He actually played the entirety of that game against the Bills. He got hurt, but he had under four fantasy points when he got concussed. You can toss that Week 2 game away, but we have a sample size that goes to his Chicago tenure, especially where Justin's just a hard guy to trust because there's a lot of greatness and there's a lot of fantasy duds as well. Mike and I have him as quarterback 11 this week. Daniel's up at quarterback nine. I just. I get it. And Daniel, as Daniel noted, the Broncos are a tough defense to run the ball against the Panthers. Not quite as tough. That being said.

[Field Yates]

Yes.

[Mike Clay]

Do you trust Justin Fields? Like, do you just trust him?

[Daniel Dopp]

I think you've got to be like an all time vegetable farmer to trust him because you'd like the onions that you have to be able to start. Justin Fields, like.

[Mike Clay]

Is a vegetable farmer one of those terms like Keystone Cop that I know.

[Daniel Dopp]

We just never got.

[Field Yates]

We never got what that is either. I don't know what.

[Daniel Dopp]

We'll explain Keystone copy later.

[Mike Clay]

Okay.

[Daniel Dopp]

But like you can't look at Justin Fields. Like there's two. Two thoughts and you already laid them out. It's just like he has this unbelievable rushing upside. That is a 20 to 30 point a week guy.

[Mike Clay]

And then just one place at a time.

[Daniel Dopp]

Absolutely. And he can just take it off and he's got the goal line ability and all the stuff that he has in that offense. And then it's just like. But what about those other weeks when you like, he gets you 4.8 fantasy points because he can't throw the football and he gets shut down in the running.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, it's tough. I mean, he is 25 plus fantasy points in three of his four full games.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's unbelievable.

[Field Yates]

Which is unreal. 25 plus. Now, I will say this week one felt a little fluky. The Steelers kind of started slowing defense. They picked it up. The last two big games were against Dallas and Miami.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah.

[Field Yates]

And. Yeah. Garbage time. And Dallas. Miami.

[Mike Clay]

Yes. That from Carolina as well. In two ways. Not just that we believe the Carolina defense is better than the Dallas or Miami defense. The jets defense played well this past weekend. Do you expect the jets to find themselves down 24 to 6 in the fourth quarter to the Panthers? The answer might be no.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

Garbage time will be a theme of this podcast later on in a almost hilarious way.

[Daniel Dopp]

I would so. And a reminder that this week we've got two teams on by Right. We've got those guys.

[Mike Clay]

Don't matter for fantasy Lamar.

[Field Yates]

Okay. Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

I was like for a second you had me because I was like, what do you mean they don't matter for fantasy football.

[Mike Clay]

Matter for one week only, definitely. The quarterback rankings this week are a little bit adjusted because 2 of the top, you know, 4 at worst, every single week in our rankings are unavailable. So Justin's a tricky one. Good luck. I have, I mean I have Justin. Every time that I just drafted Justin Fields in the preseason, I think there was two teams I paired him with somebody else. So like I have Justin plus like Drake May and Justin Plouff. I forget the other one who I have, but Justin plus somebody else. So I have the decision. I'll probably pivot. I mean Drake May is an obvious.

[Field Yates]

I mean that's, that's, yeah, that's a.

[Mike Clay]

Little less like woohoo. Like, look at me, I'm so audacious to start.

[Daniel Dopp]

Drake May, like, let me, let me.

[Mike Clay]

Make sure I got Drake. Maybe it's Justin Herbert or something where, you know, it's conversational.

[Daniel Dopp]

Let me ask you this and actually I'm going to ask Chat. If you guys had Justin Fields on your fantasy squad heading into week seven, would he be a starter for you or would you rather bench him? I would love to know what Chat thinks.

[Field Yates]

I think we would all rather bench him. It's just a matter of what your other options, what you have to do.

[Daniel Dopp]

Correct. Speaking of Chat, really quickly though, we did get an answer on the George Pickens A.J. brown conversation. 78% would go with George Pickens.

[Mike Clay]

Interesting.

[Field Yates]

It's going to be tricky.

[Mike Clay]

I took the trade. We'll see. I needed to really kind of kickstart this roster. So I thought that maybe the short term gain I might get could outweigh the potential downside. Which, you know, if CD Lamb comes back and commands a 32% target share.

[Field Yates]

Maybe George Pickens, he will. I mean, if you look back at the first of all, A.J. brown's, he struggled, but he's. The targets have been there. George Pickens was not seeing much work with CD Lamb on the field. And that might change now to an extent. But how, to what extent, we shall see. Is he going to get a quarter of their targets? I'm not so sure, Michael. All right. Speaking of players that have feasted on Miami and Dallas defenses, it's time to check this out. Check.

[Mike Clay]

The football's the best part.

[Daniel Dopp]

I was just going to say that you fumbling the football, watching me fail.

[Mike Clay]

It happens so rarely. We got to enjoy it.

[Field Yates]

Well, you know what I. Well, damn. I was going to say I did not fail by using Rico Dowdle last week, but I did because I played you.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yes.

[Field Yates]

And I got be the idea that.

[Daniel Dopp]

I could win when someone started Rico Dowdle against me. That's true. That's big.

[Field Yates]

That's true. I mean we were the top two scoring teams by far.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yes, we were.

[Field Yates]

You just have I happened to play you. That's the second time that's happened to me this year. You know, I have the most points scored and the most points against in that league.

[Daniel Dopp]

That is such a ambulance. Yes.

[Field Yates]

I've got the tiniest violin to play for you. I'm not. I'm not complaining necessarily. I mean my team is great.

[Daniel Dopp]

I'm happy necessarily. I think Mike is complaining playing me this week.

[Mike Clay]

So you better watch out. You better not.

[Field Yates]

Anyway, check this out.

[Daniel Dopp]

Is that a Christmas.

[Field Yates]

Music season? I don't hear any more about this. Did you know, fellas, that and I kind of. I brought this up yesterday. But here actually is the stat.

[Daniel Dopp]

Wait, is this a check this out or did you know. Now I'm confused as to what the segments.

[Field Yates]

Both of them. It's both of them. Okay. So important that it's all the things. Okay. Rico Dowdle is the sixth player since at least 1970 to produce 230 plus scrimmage yards in consecutive games.

[Mike Clay]

The last one to do it.

[Daniel Dopp]

Levy on Bell.

[Mike Clay]

Thank you. You guys pay attention.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, we were paying attention. However, and here I'll give you some more numbers on that. 234 yards and a touchdown, 26 touches back in Week 5. Last week, 239 yards and one touchdown on a career high 34 touches in the revenge game against the Cowboys. Now here's the thing. Those games came against Dallas and Miami. They rank 31st and 32nd in defensive EPA.

[Mike Clay]

That's as good as it gets.

[Field Yates]

Yes. They had the two lightest possible matchups and he delivered. Now look, he still had 230 yards. It's not like he had 100 yards and just did good, which would have been good. He had great days. However, you know, I did tweet something along the lines about this backfield and how it might be deployed going forward. And the feedback, you know, as. As is usual on social media, it was all over the place, like Hubbard's not going anywhere or Rico, I know. He's so good. He has to be the clear lead back. Now the answer is going to be somewhere in the middle. Like they're going to. They're going to split this backfield. You would think. Remember, Chuba Hubbard has been their lead back for two seasons. He was through weeks week four this year. They signed him to a contract extension last year. He's a good, reliable, reliable running back. And you cannot give Rico Dowdle 30 touches. Like you can maybe give him 18 to 20, something like that. But this is a backfield. I expect to be split moving forward. So if you can take if look, if you could work the trade market and someone's buying into Dowdle as like a running back one now and apparently based on my mentions, those people exist, now's the time. Now's the time to move because Hubbard, by the way, back at practice you.

[Mike Clay]

Forgot something because on social media you forgot the in response to your tweet, you're a bleeping moron, you bleeping piece of useless life.

[Field Yates]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. A lot of inappropriate. I just post like one plus one is two and I get those replies.

[Mike Clay]

I'm saying, I mean it doesn't matter. What you could gu. You could burp the Alphabet and people.

[Field Yates]

Would yell at you. Oh yeah, yeah. Eight straight days.

[Mike Clay]

I think this has a chance to become Seattle's backfield. But good because the Panthers have shown they can run the heck out of the ball. Like, I get it, the schedule has been softer than what Seattle has faced, but could you see a 55, 45 splits where both guys get 11 to 12 carries per game? Maybe they each get two targets and you see them actually produce as opposed to Seattle's guys which other than Kenneth Walker III occasionally Zack Sharpen does not produce. He just like falls into the end zone.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, you're still looking at potentially like 30 to 35 touches for these two running backs. If they each get 10 to 12 carries, they each get a target or two. Right?

[Mike Clay]

Should be good this weekend. They play the jets we talked about just a moment ago.

[Field Yates]

So they shut down the Broncos running backs last week. Like they've been fine against running backs. It's a much tougher matchup than we have seen for Rico doll the last couple of weeks. So it was kind of a perfect storm from the last couple of weeks including the revenge game. But two great matchups and no Hubbard. But Hubbard's not going to just be a five touch guy when he's healthy. He's going to be, he's be a factor involved and Dowdle is going to come back to. That's my feeling. I think these guys are probably both on the flex Radar. I am ranking Dowdle slightly ahead of Hubbard for this week, but once he comes back to earth, I could definitely see it being Hubbard having a little edge once things settle down. So we'll see.

[Daniel Dopp]

I've got Dowdle slightly ahead of Hubbard as well, just in part because, I mean, back to back games over 200 yards, it's tough to be like, well, they're going to keep featuring the hot hand. Right. Plus a guy returning from injury, so hopefully, like, we're going to use them back in. Exactly.

[Mike Clay]

So use that as an excuse to play the other guy a little bit more.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yes. This week at least. I have it the same way you have the same thing.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

You have Rico Dowdle ahead.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

So what's next? All right, I'm gonna talk about Courtland Sutton, guys. I think he's ranked too low this week. I think he's ranked a little bit too low. Last week was shadowed by Sauce Garden. By everyone other than me.

[Mike Clay]

Okay, got it. I'm trying to make sure I have a good Sutton debate I got to decide on, so.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh, this is great. This is great.

[Mike Clay]

This. I'm just using this.

[Daniel Dopp]

All right, so Cortland Sutton last week shadowed by Sauce Gardener. Mike, you talked about that on the. Yeah, that one away, and he did not play well.

[Field Yates]

Now, 17 yards on one catch.

[Daniel Dopp]

On one catch.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah. So it was not great. He's got two major duds on his resume for sure, but he also has four games over 17 and a half fantasy points. All four of those games were top 16 finishes at the wide receiver position. Like it, one of seven wide receivers. Only seven wide receivers have at least 17 and a half fantasy points in four games this year. Now he's going to get the Giants, who have allowed at least eight games of 14 or more fantasy points to wide receivers. Giants have given up the third most fantasy points to the position this year. And I understand how bad the Broncos offense has been. I feel like if there's one wide receiver. I tried to make Troy Franklin a thing. It's not. We've tried to make Marvin Mims a thing in the preseason. It's not. Evan Ingram maybe is slowly becoming a thing. Yes. But he's not fully there yet. Coralin Sutton is the only pass catcher in this offense. So right now I've got him inside my top 20 in part because of the matchup and the way that I believe that he can play. I'm throwing out the dud that he had last week against Sauce Gardner, and yes, it was a saucy matchup and he did not come out on the top. So I got him as a top 20 guy this week. I think you guys are somewhere in the. Yeah. Mid 20 range. Wide receiver 25 for both of you guys.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. By the way, his other dud, week two, Travarious Ward on the other side for the Colts. So, you know, and, and he's. And he's performed well when he's been shadowed as well, including Quinon Mitchell two weeks ago, I believe he drew. Yeah, he drew D.J. turner three weeks ago also at Tennessee in week one. Saw a little bit of Legeri sneak in that one. So it's been a challenge for him matchup wise and he's delivered in four or six games. So I'm with you.

[Daniel Dopp]

Also, this is like wide receiver 19 to wide receiver 25. Like the difference in projections is like 0.11 fantasy points. Like it's. They're still so close to each other. So I just think Sutton is a good play this week against the Giants.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. I'm glad you brought up decimal semantics because I'm going to talk about that a little. Good.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh, great. Can't wait to talk about decimal semantics later.

[Field Yates]

Oh, you're. Oh, you'll see.

[Daniel Dopp]

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[Field Yates]

Level up.

[Daniel Dopp]

For more on the ESPN app or at stream.espn.com sign up now. Eight years ago, I blew my football career.

[Mike Clay]

He dropped it at the one yard line.

[Daniel Dopp]

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.

[Field Yates]

From executive producers Eli and Peyton Manning. Remember when wearing a prosthetic mask.

[Daniel Dopp]

This is acting and starring Glen Powell.

[Mike Clay]

He thinks you're a rubber chew toy.

[Daniel Dopp]

Not rubber. I'm a man made of flesh.

[Mike Clay]

The Hulu original series Chad Powers is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundled subscribers. Terms apply. New episodes Tuesdays.

[Daniel Dopp]

Anybody else have anything they want to bring to the table?

[Mike Clay]

One last thing. I was over at ESPN Bet and I happened to notice that Quinshon Judkins over under for rushing yards this weekend is 272.5.

[Daniel Dopp]

Wow. Yeah, I might even take the over still.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, Gotta hammer that.

[Mike Clay]

That's, that's, that's of course a Fib. It's not the case. I don't know what is over. Under is. But go check it out over at ESPN bet. Make sure you take advantage of Mike Clay's great promos on espn. Please, please. But there could be a monster day for Quinn shot Judkins this weekend. Mike was just talking about Rico Dowdle and how he took advantage of a great matchup against Miami recently. Quinchon Judkins is an outstanding runner. The Dolphins have allowed the fifth most fantasy points to running backs this season at 162 so far through six games. The fewest points by any. Actually, you know what's hilarious about this? Who is the running back, the starting running back that has scored the fewest points against Miami so far this season?

[Daniel Dopp]

Saquon Barkley.

[Mike Clay]

No, they haven't played him yet.

[Daniel Dopp]

Okay. It's got to be someone else. That's like really good.

[Field Yates]

I don't know. I'm onto the next week. I don't even know they played yet. Like I just.

[Mike Clay]

Jonathan Taylor in week one. No way. 0.4 fans on anything this season.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's incredible.

[Mike Clay]

But over the last five games, I know Jonathan Taylor's a bum. So we'll dismiss that weekly effort and focus more on weeks two through six and the five games since Jonathan Taylor. The fewest points by a team starting running back against the dolphins is 16.1. That was Breeze hall when they played on Monday Night Football. So it's just an incredible opportunity. Even with minimal passing game utilization for Quincha Judkins. If he told me he goes 21 carries, 162 yards and a touchdown on Sunday, I won't be surprised one bit because I do expect this game to be low. Low scoring being played in Cleveland. First start for Dylan Gabriel at home. That's all I got.

[Daniel Dopp]

Quin. Sean Judkins rushing line at ESPN bet over under is at 84 and a half.

[Mike Clay]

That's a big number right there.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

And anytime. Touchdown. Minus 130.

[Field Yates]

My.

[Mike Clay]

Minus 130.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Minus 130. I'm my mean production for him. So the projection you'll see in the fantasy game is 98. So fear a median is going to be a little lower than that. So I would probably lean over on that one. All right, I'll probably lean over. My only concern with him from a fantasy standpoint is they're just like we're done with you in passing situations. He had zero targets last week and his zero or one target in three of his last four games. And when he came out two of his first three games he had three plus targets. Yeah, but they just phased him out. They're just like Jerome Ford's handling that now. So that's a concern for me. Basically that's what I wrote in the playbook. It's like Derrick Henry usage but in a bad offense. It's very similar to how Derrick Henry's.

[Mike Clay]

Used this one though. Like screams opening drive rushing touchdown for Quincy Judkins.

[Field Yates]

Oh, by the way, I mean, yeah, look, I have him ranked as a fringe RB one because of this matchup this week. But going forward I'm a little nervous about the lack of passing game work. We need one.

[Mike Clay]

14Pm Eastern time on Sunday. Me tweeting Quinch on Judkins opening drive rushing touchdown. Mark that one down.

[Field Yates]

Can you bet first touchdown of the weekend or of the Sunday?

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, wouldn't that be great? I would love that.

[Mike Clay]

I'm hungry.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

Let's get into the real deal. Presented by Little Caesars. We are picking one player rostered under 60%. If they reach 15 points or more, come back on Monday, you get 15% off your pizza at Little Caesars. We got a promo code for you. We're two and oh, so far. We had Jackson Dart the first week. That one worked out. We had Sam Darnold the second week. That one worked out. This week I actually called Mike.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, you did. Yeah. If you're wondering if we take this seriously, we had a long phone call about we.

[Daniel Dopp]

I want to make sure that America gets 15% off pizza.

[Mike Clay]

Okay.

[Daniel Dopp]

This week does not feel as good. It's a lot harder for me to find a guy that I love this week. A lot of these quarterbacks have some tough matchups. Sam Darnold gets the Houston Texans. Don't want to do that. They are. They're great. Jackson Dart. Don't want to really play Jackson Dart against Denver if I can help it. Trevor Lawrence plays the Rams. Rams have been really good and Trevor's kind of been struggling recently. So like, I'm not really thrilled on that. Where I am going to go is Michael Penix Jr. Taking on the San Francisco 49ers. Hoping that with this banged up defense that Michael Penix Jr. And every everything the Atlanta Falcons did on offense last week can just keep it right on rolling here in week seven. Ideally we need to have him get in the end zone Twice. I need two passing touchdowns because last week he had 250 yards and one touchdown and had 14.6 fantasy points. So he basically needs to get two passing touchdowns. In order for this to pay off, unless he's going to throw for over 300 yards, that's not a thing he does. However, with it being the week that it is, this was the best option for us. So we're all in on Michael Pennick's hopefully bringing home. We can get there 15% for us.

[Mike Clay]

He was running a little bit to begin the year. We haven't seen it as much of late, but they've only played five games, so opportunity for him to bounce back.

[Field Yates]

We have a rushing touchdown. You're almost halfway there, honestly.

[Daniel Dopp]

Rushing touchdown will be ideal.

[Field Yates]

Shows you the value. I mean 15.61. I mean, it's our. As we are looking through these quarterbacks, we're like, man, most of these guys got there like twice this year. So far. We're in week seven. Like these guys hit 15 like twice. That shows you the value of a rushing quarterback because again, you have a 10 yard rushing touchdown, you have seven points right there. That's like half. That's half of what you need. Unreal. That's why those guys are so valuable.

[Mike Clay]

It's actually 46.29777734% of the way of the way there.

[Field Yates]

Got it. Okay. All right.

[Mike Clay]

I don't actually know. All right.

[Daniel Dopp]

That was the real deal. Presented by Little Caesars. Let's dive into the shadow report presented by Mike Clay.

[Field Yates]

All right. Presented by Mike Clay. I'm sponsoring my own.

[Mike Clay]

It's also a perfect shadow report because it's spooky season Halloween.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh, I like it.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Appropriate. Actually. The shadow report is presented by. Your name could be here, your name.

[Daniel Dopp]

Here, your name here. Yeah, like a billboard. That's right.

[Field Yates]

You know. All right, you can, you can fund my. You can fund my $5.

[Daniel Dopp]

Hey, nothing wrong with that.

[Field Yates]

All right, ready? Let's talk upgrades. We'll zip through a couple upgrades for this week. We're gonna start with the Bears against the Saints. We've been picking on them all season long.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh, and Olamide Zakiyas.

[Mike Clay]

Upgrade.

[Field Yates]

Is that what. Yeah, well, he's second on in targets. You know what? He could be interesting if DJ Moore is out. He's been out of practice. So if he is sidelined, Luther Burden and Zakius could have some sleeper appeal behind Roma Dunn. But Saints tenth most fantasy points to receivers, fourth highest. EPA against the past. So it's been a struggle. I feel like a lot of these defenses in the off season that we were like, they're going to. They're going to be rough. Dallas Miami, you know, sometimes we. We focus too much on Mrs. As we're just wired. We're all wired that way. But like, you know, we kind of were on track with a lot of these defenses so far, and they've. They've worked out. So that's good. We like that. Speaking of which, the Cowboys, I bought them the commanders receivers, as we talked about earlier, in a great spot. Dallas has led the most fantasy points and touchdowns, the highest catch rate and the highest yards per target to wide receivers this season. Six receivers already have 17 fantasy points against him, including Teo and McMillan just last week. So we're upgrading Terry McLaren if he goes. Deebo Samuel, of course. And then finally in upgrades, the Buccaneers against the Lions mentioned this or, you know, foreshadowed this a little bit earlier. Mike Evans gets a boost here against your Detroit Lions. He does. So main Terry and Arnold remains out. And of course, DJ Reed is out as well.

[Daniel Dopp]

And Brian Branches suspended for this game.

[Field Yates]

Branches suspended. Yeah. So good call. And as is with the lines with those guys most of the season have allowed 10 touchdowns already to wide receivers that is second most and the six most fantasy points. So Mike Evans, Tez Johnson, Sterling Shepherd, Cam Johnson, all of these guys getting a boost in this matchup.

[Daniel Dopp]

You are contractually obligated to say earmuffs before you say stuff like that to me on the show, Mike. I can't believe you didn't do that.

[Mike Clay]

Yes.

[Field Yates]

You're like the best team in the league. You're good.

[Daniel Dopp]

All right, I'll take that. All right, I'll take the best team in the league.

[Mike Clay]

We don't have to do that to you when Daniel's a Colts fan.

[Daniel Dopp]

Stop field. Why you gotta be like that?

[Mike Clay]

My record, the Bucks and the Colts, I don't know.

[Daniel Dopp]

They're so good.

[Field Yates]

I'm feeling good about my NFC champion Lions pick. I am not feeling good about my AFC champion Ravens pick at the moment. No, it's not over yet. Don't worry.

[Mike Clay]

We're in this together.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, it's not over yet, though. Ravens get Lamar, but come back after the buy. Held here. Lamar's back. I think they're a good buy. Low team right now, but anyway. Ready for some downgrades?

[Mike Clay]

Yes.

[Field Yates]

Yes. All right. Downgrades, fellas. We got a few of these, so I'll try to keep these tight. But. But the first one is the matchup of the week. Jackson, Smith and Jigba against Derek Stanley Jr. We get to watch this one on Monday Night Football this week. Houston has been terrific. Against receivers fifth view his fantasy points, the lowest catch rate. They've only allowed three passing touchdowns this year. Not just the receivers. Three passing touchdowns total this season.

[Mike Clay]

This.

[Field Yates]

So this is going to be a tough matchup for Jackson, Smith and Jigba. He's on the perimeter most of the time, so he'll see Stingley on most of his routes. Go ahead. Do you have a question?

[Mike Clay]

Well, when you're done. I have a question.

[Field Yates]

I was just going to say what Stingley has done so far. Devonte Adams, 7.2 fantasy points when he shattered him. Mike Evans, 10.6. Brian Thomas Jr. 7.5. So when he shattered a guy, he's been good.

[Mike Clay]

So you're going to downgrade Jackson, Smith and jig, but you have him ranked.

[Field Yates]

All the way down at once from one to two. Okay, moving him down from one of the. You're still starting him sometimes. This is for maybe like your DFS players or your betters if you're at espn Bet. Like, oh, man, that looks like a low number for jsn. Well, that's. There's probably a.

[Daniel Dopp]

There's a reason why.

[Mike Clay]

Yeah, yeah.

[Field Yates]

It's going to be a tough speaking those books. Yeah, he'll still get. He'll still get targets, but this is one that going to be one of his toughest assignments at the NFL season. Next up, guys. We talked about Sas Gardner shadowing. He's going to draw a Teo and McMillan this week. This will be McMillan's toughest challenge so far. Gardner has shadowed DK Metcalf. He had 12 fantasy points. Mike Evans, 13, George Pickens, 13. Cortland Sutton, as Daniel mentioned earlier, just 2.7 points. That's ten and a half per game.

[Mike Clay]

By the way, by three catches combined over the past two weeks. Yeah, Hickens and Cortland Sutton. Yeah, he got to 12, but it was two catches for like 53 yards and a touchdown.

[Field Yates]

Exactly right. And he. Gardner kind of came out a little slow the first couple of weeks where he was like, fine. Now he's back to just shutting down opposing ones. The jets have allowed. They have not been good overall against the pass. So the secondary receivers are where. Who have gotten the production. The only three to get 14 fantasy points against him this year, Ryan Flournoy, Calvin Austin and Ameca Buka, which were the. The other. The secondary target to the guy Gardner shadowed.

[Daniel Dopp]

So it is Troy Franklin week is what you're saying, Flannoy?

[Field Yates]

No, no. Well, it's. It's. Oh, sorry. That was last Panther. Yes. Yes. So it could be a Xavier Leggett or Jalen Coker. Oh yeah, that's right for the Panthers. I think that guy might be busy. I think there's room for a second receiver and like that has not got, I feel like Leggette is a good player that just had like he, he has the raw talent to be like a difference maker. You've seen it like that touchdown catch.

[Mike Clay]

The other week, 32nd pick in the draft.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, it just hasn't happened for him yet. But maybe Jalen Coker has a big second half. So name to watch there next one guys is DK Metcalf against DJ Turner who kind of quietly has emerged as a every week shadow corner. Cincinnati's been looking for this for a long time.

[Mike Clay]

Night, of course. Yeah, yeah.

[Field Yates]

And that one's tonight, of course. Yeah. So but we're going to talk about it here because we're going to talk about other stuff later. But he has shadowed Travis hunter. He had five points. Justin Jefferson 12 and a half. So he did a nice job there. Coral and Sutton 19. He had a good game. Jameson Williams had 1.9. Romeo Dobbs at 10.5. Six of the seven, six of the top seven wide receiver performances against the Bengals this season have come from players who did not get shadowed by DJ Turner. So he's done a nice job kind of slowing those guys down. Unfortunately. I don't know what other Steelers receiver you're looking at. Calvin Austin's out. So yeah, I don't think you're going that direction.

[Mike Clay]

But anyway, yeah, DK Metcalf has been incredibly touchdown dependent this season. Yeah, one of the top. I'm sorry, I'm gonna leave it there. I think you're getting there.

[Daniel Dopp]

I gotcha.

[Mike Clay]

Okay.

[Field Yates]

We're getting to that later. Yeah. All right.

[Daniel Dopp]

We'll see there's any football preview.

[Field Yates]

Okay. All right, we'll see. I could have saved that but we're doing it in the shadow report anyway. A couple more here. Wandale Robinson against Denver. I, I, I wanted to mention this one because I don't think he'll draw Pat or Tan. This is certain is shattered in every game. But, but there's always been a clear number one perimeter receiver. That is not the case here for Wanda Robinson who is usually in the slot about three quarters of the time. Nonetheless though, a tough matchup for the Giants wide receiver. So downgrade those.

[Mike Clay]

What are you really good litmus test for the Giants this weekend.

[Field Yates]

Agreed.

[Daniel Dopp]

Does he just live on Darius Slayton on the outside? Like does he ever travel to The.

[Field Yates]

He'll be on. He'll. Slayton probably not playing. Yeah. Jalen Hyatt.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's always going to shadow Lil Jordan Humphrey.

[Mike Clay]

I think Vance Joseph Fields like his. His defensive coordinator normally is like, dude, like Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson and CD Lamb. Like we deploy you there like this week. Little Jordan, Jalen. You guys. You guys got them.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Former. Former teammate. Right. Humphrey had a cup of tea there with the Broncos. Yeah. Maybe this like, corners get hurt so much. Maybe just like give him a week off here or just like.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, right.

[Field Yates]

Snaps a little bit. That'd be.

[Daniel Dopp]

Why not.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Anyway, and the last one you mentioned earlier, Eagles going up against Minnesota. Yeah. Fewest catches, yards and fantasy points to receivers and the lowest EPA to the pass. And a revenge game for red hot Isaiah Rogers against his old team. So, yeah, it's gonna be a tough challenge for our. Our friends in Philadelphia.

[Daniel Dopp]

That was a good shadow report. Mike Clay.

[Field Yates]

Well, we. Do we have our full screen.

[Daniel Dopp]

Do we have a couple of other shadows to be able to dive into? Maybe a few more. Those were the upgrades and downgrades, right?

[Field Yates]

Yeah, those were the upgrades and downgrades. Just a couple others to watch. Super quick. Jerry Judy against Rasul Douglas, who's been shadowing.

[Daniel Dopp]

Do I have to watch Jerry Judy play football?

[Mike Clay]

You don't have to.

[Field Yates]

You don't have to. Kind of a neutral matchup here. Douglas has been fine, but we're not moving the needle on Judy. Justin Jefferson, it looks like Quinn on Mitchell is actually going to play in this game, which I did not expect initially, but it looks like he's going to go. He'll probably shadow Justin Jefferson. He's been fine, but a couple big games will add the last couple of weeks, so not really worried about that one. You're never worried about Justin Jefferson. I would look at, though, at Jordan Addison on the other side. That's been a big. And he's going to sneeze. Oh, I'm trying so hard to keep it in violence.

[Mike Clay]

I know that sounds like an earthquake.

[Field Yates]

I turned. I didn't.

[Daniel Dopp]

I was trying not to interrupt the.

[Mike Clay]

Show and do it, do it, do it.

[Field Yates]

Key information. And you were going to blow it.

[Daniel Dopp]

I held it inside. That means the next one is going to be extra aggressive, so I apologize.

[Field Yates]

You should start against the. This week. Yeah. That's the play of the week. That's it. Yeah. Jordan Addison. The Eagles have been struggling at number two corner. Would not be surprised if they address that with a trade at the deadline. So watch out. Dory Jackson. Keely, Ringo, they can't solve that. So. So we're upgrading Jordan Addison and if Mitchell is a surprise inactive, we're upgrading everyone here because it's going to be a mess for the Philly at perimeter.

[Mike Clay]

Sounds like Carson Wentz going to play against his former team, by the way.

[Field Yates]

You think so? I think he goes. All right. All right, we'll. We'll keep an eye on that. And last one, Corland, Sutton, your guy against Paulson. Adibo. The one thing I would say about this is the Giants have allowed the third most fantasy points to receivers, but they face a ton of volume. The second most receiver targets. Their efficiency has been fine so far and better lately. So again, I think it's. I'm not really moving the needle on Sutton here, but it's notable. Adibo probably covers him in this one.

[Daniel Dopp]

I think we both have. I mean, he's in that low end wide receiver too, no doubt. Very high end flex, you know, conversation. All right, that's the Shadow report. Go check out Mike Clay's playbook. It is an unbelievable article. It's actually quite large. There's a lot to be able to consume inside of it, but it really gets you set up for everything that you need to know heading into the week. Mike, it's a really good job.

[Mike Clay]

Thanks, man.

[Daniel Dopp]

You do really well.

[Field Yates]

It.

[Daniel Dopp]

I want to quickly head to our YouTube poll because I did ask people if you wanted to start Justin Fields. Do you want to start him or sit him? 75% say they would rather sit him. Coming out of last week, which is so difficult. How many other quarterbacks do you think have scored 25 or more fantasy points in three games? But you're like, I want to sit that guy.

[Mike Clay]

Mar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes are the other guys.

[Field Yates]

And. And you don't.

[Daniel Dopp]

You don't want to sit those guys.

[Mike Clay]

I thought about starting Lamar out of respect a couple weeks ago when he on a buy. Yeah. I was like, I'm just going to do it.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

All right, let's dive into this Thursday Night football preview. Steelers at Bengals. Our producer Tyler is a Bengals fan, so I'm going to ask Tyler to eat him up. So we talk about this game really quickly. Let's start over there with you, Mike.

[Mike Clay]

Clay, Cincinnati, which is notable only because. Did you guys see the turf last weekend in Pittsburgh, the grass? It was awful.

[Daniel Dopp]

Not great.

[Mike Clay]

They're already replacing it, but it was so bad. So I'm glad this game is being played in Cincy.

[Field Yates]

Yeah, no doubt.

[Daniel Dopp]

Mike, what are you looking for? Me?

[Field Yates]

Yeah. I'm going to talk about Chase Brown a little bit. We mentioned this guy a little bit yesterday.

[Daniel Dopp]

But.

[Field Yates]

But I want to put some numbers on the change in his role in this Bengals offense. First four games, 68% of the snaps and 78% of their their called running plays went to him over the last two games. Just 53% of the snaps and 59% of their runs he has out snapped during that two game span. He has out snaps MAJP Ryan 64 to 56. It's basically an even time share that is not good at all. He's still seventh among running backs and targets and catches, but he hasn't cleared 10 carries since Week 2. He hasn't scored more than 13.1 fantasy points in a game this season. Now you go up against the Steelers defense that just keeps getting better and better. I mean they're like oh, we lost, we lost Alex Highsmith for a few weeks. Oh, Nick Herbig's just like the best edge rusher in the NFL. Like they're just loaded with talent. It's unbelievable.

[Mike Clay]

So draft a Herbig if you're a nia.

[Field Yates]

No doubt, no doubt. So yeah, Chase Brown headed the wrong direction. I have him 27th. So a flex option.

[Daniel Dopp]

But.

[Field Yates]

But you're going into Thursday night.

[Mike Clay]

But it's appropriate. How many times has he finished as a top 20 running back this season?

[Field Yates]

Zero.

[Mike Clay]

Zero.

[Field Yates]

Correct. So doesn't feel good. Certainly a guy that you can leave on your bench if you would like. Agreed.

[Daniel Dopp]

Unfortunately. Field, what about you?

[Mike Clay]

I'm going to tie it to another Chase and I want to play a little bit of trivia here and I'm not intending to lead the witness, but I want you guys to hear me out. Do you anticipate this game tonight to be close or a blowout?

[Field Yates]

Man, it's tough Thursday night. It's in Cincinnati. They're going to have a little energy. Joe Flacco, I think that, I think it'll be a comfortable Steelers win. I don't think it's going to be like a complete one sided blowout.

[Daniel Dopp]

Anytime you can have two 40 year old quarterbacks going up against each other, I think it's going to be a short rest. I'm going to go with Steelers. So I think it's going to be a blowout.

[Mike Clay]

You think it'll be. Oh, you do? Okay, that's good for you then. Okay. So over the past two games, okay, Jamar Chase has scored a total 54.1 fantasy points. That's pretty good. Simple math gets you to 27.05 points per game. Okay, again, 54.1 fantasy points in the past two weeks.

[Field Yates]

Yep.

[Mike Clay]

How many of those fantasy points do you think were scored while the Bengals were trailing by fewer than 10 points? So when the game was competitive. Basically so.

[Field Yates]

And how many total does he have?

[Mike Clay]

54.1.

[Field Yates]

I will say he scored all but 10 of them.

[Daniel Dopp]

In garbage time, I would say 6.4.2.

[Field Yates]

Oh my gosh, that actually checks out. If you have, if you've been monitoring his stat lines, it's like, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh, okay.

[Field Yates]

No, we're good. We get 20 some points. I lead.

[Mike Clay]

I bring this all to say, like, like go check the rankings. We're all starting Jamar Chase. It's more like we're, it's, it's kind of similar to that Saquon Barkley statistic earlier or that, that, that forecast earlier that like, if things don't go great for Jamar Chase tonight, we kind of warned you and I think people by now understand there is risk in Jamar Chase. But I thought that was astonishing, that basically 90% of Jamar Chase's production, more than 90% of his production over the past two weeks, has come when the game was out of hand.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

If you think the Steelers are gonna boat race the Bengals, that's great for you if you have Jamar Chase. Because what happens when teams get up big defensively? They loosen the clamps and they say, let's just keep everything in front of us. Try not to get beat by a 75 yard bomb. Next thing you know, Joe Flacco throws the ball eight times to Jamar Chase on one drive. He piles up catches. Hey, Jamar Chase is already up to 7 for 74 in the middle of the fourth quarter. He scores a touchdown with, you know, eight seconds to go to make a 14 point game. Now an eight point game.

[Field Yates]

Woohoo.

[Mike Clay]

Everybody likes the stat line. It's all good in the game end. But garbage time has been his best friend so far this season. The Steelers have won four times this season. Three of those four wins have been by seven or fewer points. So again, we're all starting to march, Ace. We all have them inside our lineups tonight, but we acknowledge the risk and the variance that comes with him.

[Daniel Dopp]

Agreed.

[Mike Clay]

Without Joe Burrow.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

Also, I love, like you said mentioned, garbage time. Like prevent defense is my favorite defense because the only thing you're preventing is touchdowns. You're actually giving up a bunch of points.

[Field Yates]

Them scam catches.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, absolutely. I'LL take that.

[Mike Clay]

That.

[Daniel Dopp]

All right, you guys already know where I'm going to go with this because we touched on it a little earlier. But DK Metcalf, can the production keep up with the targets is my question here. He had 19 and a half fantasy points in week four, 23.6 fantasy points in week six. He had a buy in week five as a reminder. So over 19 and a half fantasy points in back to back games has at least 11 fantasy points in every single game. But I want you to look at his stat lines. Against Seattle, 3 for 20 in a touchdown. Against New England, 3 for 32 in a touchdown. Against Minnesota, 5 for 126 in a touchdown. Against Cleveland, 4 for 95 in a touchdown. When I see that over the last month, the big thing that stands out to me is he's never topped five catches, always been held under five catches and touchdown regression has to eventually hit because he's catching touchdown passes in every single game. And how are you only catching five passes a game? Mind you, you, he's done that once when the people that you're competing with are Ben Skoronic and Roman Wilson and Scotty Miller and Calvin Austin.

[Mike Clay]

Dude, I mean a couple of things here. First of all, no quarterback is getting the ball faster this year than Aaron Rodgers. He's 40 and the offensive line is young. They're playing better but they're young. So he's getting the ball at fast. Second of all, like Arthur Smith's the offensive coordinator and they're going to do what's working. And they're four and one now. I would argue that they have. It's sort of like a smoke and mirrors 4 and 1 and they're very fortunate to play in the AFC North.

[Daniel Dopp]

Agree.

[Mike Clay]

But we need the Steelers to like lose a few games in a row to kind of rattle the cage of the offense and get DK unlocked.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, this is a sorry Steelers team that is averaging 28 pass attempts per game, which is the third fewest in the NFL.

[Field Yates]

And some of that's game script, of course. Of course we don't. We expect a game script that allows a lot of running in this game too. Against the Bengals, I will say this is target share, 23% up from the last couple of years. This is kind of his game. He's kind of a, you know, a guy that's yeah, huge target number. You're right though, he's been lucky in the touchdown department. His expected total is 1.7. He is three end zone targets. So he's been lucky there. But your point about getting it out quickly, his average depth to target is a career low 9.2, which in a lot of ways is good because that means we're gonna get some more high percentage throws, get some PPR reception. So there's some hope here in more competitive games. The problem is again, in this game where we expect them to win again, I don't think they're going to win 40 to 10. Maybe they will. I mean, I have. My score projection is pretty wide, but we need it early. Right. Because they're probably going to be able to run the ball the second half. So hopefully he catches a touchdown, you know, has a couple of big plays and then. And then we're good.

[Daniel Dopp]

It's just figuring out whether or not that production can keep up with the limited volume that he's had because he has been very touchdown dependent at this point. If he's not getting the end zone all of a sudden, you're going to start seeing some of those fantasy production points. Points really fall off.

[Field Yates]

To make a decision here. I have DK and Jalen Warren in FF now, probably no. Or James Cook this week. So I have some. Some decisions to make. FF now, lineup, which decision are you.

[Daniel Dopp]

Making when you are choosing who wins this football game?

[Field Yates]

I'm taking the Steelers and I know I said I think it'll be like they'll hang a little bit, but I again, I have a very wide projection of 12 points here. 29, 17.

[Daniel Dopp]

Wow, that's a big one.

[Field Yates]

That is a big number.

[Mike Clay]

I'm going to. You go first, Daniel.

[Daniel Dopp]

I'm going to take the Steelers. My projection is 30 to 18.

[Field Yates]

That's way off.

[Daniel Dopp]

Field.

[Mike Clay]

Tyler, this one's for you. Let's do it, baby. Bengals 23, Steelers 20.

[Field Yates]

Wow.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yes.

[Mike Clay]

Let's go.

[Daniel Dopp]

Love that. All right, we got one more thing we're going to dive into before we.

[Field Yates]

Get out of here that might retire.

[Daniel Dopp]

I felt like that was the. I mean, honestly, we should have ended the show on that note. We can't, but, like, we should.

[Field Yates]

I'll talk about my.

[Mike Clay]

My Sanders.

[Daniel Dopp]

Okay.

[Mike Clay]

All right.

[Daniel Dopp]

All right. Now let's do this. The Raheem Sanders monopoly Fund it again. Honestly, I can't believe that this has happened. We did it. We. I mean, by we, I mean field did again. But field, you hit on a player under 0.3, 0.3% roster that got a touchdown. Your player you chose in week six was.

[Mike Clay]

Has Johnson.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. Under 0.3%, you said, right.

[Daniel Dopp]

Under 0.3%. Unbelievable. So you get even more money from this thing.

[Mike Clay]

Dude, I got all the monies right here.

[Daniel Dopp]

We have now. And mind you, there was one week. I would like to see you get this money here in this jar as well.

[Mike Clay]

Give me my moneys.

[Daniel Dopp]

We had one week in which we have not hit. But five of our six weeks, we have hit this touchdown. Or, sorry, four of our five weeks. So we didn't do week one. We have hit this play.

[Mike Clay]

So it's funny, because we had a.

[Daniel Dopp]

Three of five, we technically, our producer, one of the weeks, chose a player that was one roster. That was pull Comet didn't realize that we had changed the rules. So that's why.

[Field Yates]

Why.

[Mike Clay]

But still, like, the. I remember when I was pitching this idea in the preseason, the idea, the. The concept was maybe by, like, week 13, this fake money pot had grown to, like, $15,000. And we're all like, dude, I finally hit it.

[Field Yates]

Well, stop picking good players, then.

[Mike Clay]

They're available in 99.8% of leagues.

[Daniel Dopp]

Well, that's unbelievable. Honestly.

[Field Yates]

On that note, so this is where my rant comes in. Okay, okay. Because now you said. And I. I intentionally followed up in here. You said under 0.3%.

[Daniel Dopp]

Oh. Because I chose a player.

[Field Yates]

It was field hit. Okay.

[Daniel Dopp]

Which means now it should be, what, under 0.15%.

[Field Yates]

Under, yeah. Or under 2%. Under 2%. Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

We don't have.

[Field Yates]

So under 2%.

[Daniel Dopp]

I'm a rounding.

[Field Yates]

So last night, when Tyler texted me, our producer, and said, hey, you know, can you send me your name? I said, under 0.2% now, right? And he said, 0.2 or lower. And I said, ah, someone wants to cheat and use Zay Jones. Because I noticed Jones was at 0.2% and who did it.

[Daniel Dopp]

Wow.

[Mike Clay]

Okay. Okay.

[Field Yates]

So not me. Who cheated.

[Daniel Dopp]

Hold on. I did a 0.2% player, but I thought that was allowed.

[Field Yates]

If it's under 0.3, why would it be. Why would it not be under point two?

[Mike Clay]

Okay, okay, okay. Hold on. So we are pulling the curtain back. Wow. So, yeah, Daniel and I actually both submitted Van Jefferson Jefferson at the exact same time.

[Field Yates]

Did you really?

[Daniel Dopp]

We texted Tyler, our producer, and they both say 1209pm Van Jefferson. So.

[Field Yates]

So it's. He.

[Daniel Dopp]

What is his own 0.2%.

[Mike Clay]

Okay, so I will adjust my pick if you want me to do Zay Jones. I don't even know who picked. I was like, oh, no problem. I'll go to Zay Jones. Just, you know, I don't know. Like, I thought.

[Daniel Dopp]

I think both I think we got two good picks.

[Field Yates]

Well, no, I was going through and I saw. I saw Zay Jones, I was like, oh, yeah. Oh, nobody's 0.2. Can't take him. And then when I. As soon as. As soon as he said 2.2 or under, I was like, someone took Zay Jones for sure.

[Mike Clay]

So the hilarity of this all is that my best pick of the year was Xavier Hutchinson with two touchdowns, and he was 0.1% loss.

[Daniel Dopp]

Correct? Yeah, correct.

[Field Yates]

Well, anyway, I picked someone within the spirit of the rules, but you guys can cheat. It's fine.

[Daniel Dopp]

Dang it.

[Field Yates]

Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

Cause Van Jefferson is 0.2% okay for this week. All right, who do you have then?

[Mike Clay]

That's actually the thing, is, like, you're making that the story, Mike. I don't think that's the story.

[Field Yates]

What's the story?

[Mike Clay]

I think the story is we're now into week seven and only one person hasn't hit.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah.

[Mike Clay]

Is this going to be like when Deontay Johnson didn't score a touchdown? Every week we're going to talk about it, and then every week it doesn't happen.

[Daniel Dopp]

I'm. No, I'm Trey McBride, because week 18, I'm going to get in the end zone.

[Field Yates]

Absolutely no one's going to win now for like, 10 straight weeks.

[Daniel Dopp]

And then, honestly, I was saying to Tyler, I was like, tyler, I don't want to win this week. If I win this week, I only get $20. I need the pot to build so that I can. Because right now, Field, you've got a good amount of money right now built up.

[Mike Clay]

Rich. I'm literally going to go buy a horse.

[Field Yates]

Are you the person that only plays the lottery when it's $1 billion?

[Daniel Dopp]

That's exactly it. It's not worth it. When it's 400 million, it's not worth.

[Mike Clay]

It for me to stop life changing.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's.

[Field Yates]

No.

[Daniel Dopp]

No way.

[Field Yates]

After taxes, stuff like that, that's so difficult.

[Daniel Dopp]

All right, Mike. Well, you know who our players are.

[Field Yates]

Who's your players again? I went with the spirit of the game, and I went with probably the biggest long shot we've had in this game so far. All right. I don't even know. I know you know who this guy is. I don't know if you do. I'm going with Canada. Mumfield.

[Mike Clay]

Wow. Let's go.

[Field Yates]

Percent rostered at espn. Seventh round. Rookie, of course. Akron Pit. Yeah. So what I'm watching here is Puka Nukua probably out here. If he plays, then this is Going to look really dumb, but Choo Choo Atwell may not go either. Yeah, Mumfield almost scored last week. He has two career targets. They were both last week. He caught one of them for seven yards. Yards undersized receiver, but they ran him on a wheel route and he. Matthew Stafford just missed him. He almost had a 50 yardish touchdown last week. So I think he's going to see some extent expanded playing time here. Maybe plays half the snaps and hits for a touchdown. So again, I feel like this is. This is within the spirit of this very.

[Daniel Dopp]

That's not.

[Field Yates]

Bad dream. Long shot.

[Daniel Dopp]

I thought about going with Xavier Smith or maybe even Davis Allen in that same offense. Both.1% roster, but I didn't want to, you know, do all that stuff, so. All right, I'm going to go with Van Jefferson. You got your guy. What's his name again?

[Mike Clay]

Kanata Mumfin. Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

Okay. All right, great.

[Mike Clay]

I am sticking with Zay Jones, I guess who by the way had five catches for 67 yards last week. Yes. Marvin Harrison Jr. Remains in concussion protocol as of yesterday afternoon.

[Daniel Dopp]

Correct.

[Mike Clay]

I am up to 80 bucks collected. 80 Monopoly dollars collected. Because we did have a couple of weeks where we didn't technically hit. So it told. Right. It built up.

[Daniel Dopp]

We had one week where it didn't hit yet.

[Mike Clay]

80 bucks now and then.

[Daniel Dopp]

Mike, you've collected $20 so far.

[Field Yates]

Got my cash right here.

[Daniel Dopp]

I've collected $0. Our producers have technically collected $0. They did hit on Cole Comet. Unfortunately we had the whole situation this week. They're going back to the well with the tight end and Drew sample, who is 1.1% rostered.

[Field Yates]

Mike Kasicki on IR. So it's a Noah fan show there. I think Tanner Hudson's out as well. So Sample could see an extra target.

[Mike Clay]

Sample playing for Tyler's Bengals tonight.

[Daniel Dopp]

Love that. All right. That is our Raheem Sanders Monopoly fund. I actually cannot believe that we've hit it so often. And it does make me feel like I need to start going to ESPN BET and putting down an anytime touchdown on some of these players that we're talking about.

[Mike Clay]

People.

[Field Yates]

Some.

[Mike Clay]

I mean, at least one person on Twitter last week was like, did you guys do it again?

[Daniel Dopp]

Yes, we did.

[Field Yates]

There's a bunch of those. Yeah.

[Daniel Dopp]

People pay attention.

[Mike Clay]

I wasn't paying. Yeah, I am. I'm too busy counting my money.

[Daniel Dopp]

No.

[Field Yates]

Yeah. I gotta figure these out.

[Mike Clay]

I need.

[Field Yates]

I need. I need enough where like we get our 15% off and then I can. Oh, that's. Cause I don't have a lot of money. I have a little, so I need 50% off so I could get pizza.

[Daniel Dopp]

If these could just actually be Little Caesar's bucks, that would be perfect for us.

[Field Yates]

I put mine in. I don't think.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah, I don't think you did, Mike. You probably didn't pay attention. All right, speaking of, thank you for watching today's show presented by Little Caesars. That's going to do it for us today. Have a ton of fun watching Thursday Night Football and make sure you come back and hang out with us tomorrow for week. Sorry, part two of our week seven preview. We'll see you guys later.

[Mike Clay]

Later.

[Field Yates]

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