← Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry
Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry
Week 2 Takeaways: Joe Burrow injured + Big days from Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze
00:51:57
September 15: Matthew (@MatthewBerryTMR), Jay (@croucherJD), and Connor (@ConnorJRogers) recap player performances in Jaguars-Bengals, Giants-Cowboys, Eagles-Chiefs, Bears-Lions, Patriots-Dolphins, and Broncos-Colts. The guys also highlight injuries to Joe Burrow, Justin Fields, and Aaron Jones, standout games from Jauan Jennings, Davante Adams, and James Cook, and unveil their favorite bets in a Bucs-Texans and Chargers-Raiders doubleheader on Monday Night.
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- [00:00]
Patrick Mahomes
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- [00:31]
Matthew Berry
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- [01:02]
Zach Taylor
This is the perfect situation for us to be in week two because we're going to find out what this team is made of early in the season as we're in these tough, tough games. And today I saw the most resilient team I've ever seen. There was no ounce of panic in this dude's eyes. It was his confidence. As I've worked for the this moment, I'm ready to lead this team and when it mattered most, fourth downs be Dan. He doesn't care man. He just let us down the field. Quarterback sneak to finish it off.
- [01:44]
Matthew Berry
Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry.
- [01:49]
Conor Rodd
Happy Monday. Welcome to the Fantasy Football Happy hour. Conor Rodd, Matthew Berry and Jay Croucher. That sound you heard at the top was a very excited at least for the short term Bengals locker room Matthew because oh man that's overall a really tough day for this very very tough.
- [02:04]
Matthew Berry
Day in a game and candidly they should have lost. I mean, I mean which we'll get into playing the Jags should you ever.
- [02:10]
Conor Rodd
Lose when you find ways to lose.
- [02:12]
Matthew Berry
Jaguars are going to Jaguar but I will just say listen, we all love Joe Burrow here. Awful to see he's going to miss three months. News came out at least. Adam Schiffer and others reporting. Turf toe looks bad but he's going to need surgery I guess at least three months, right? It's for all intents and purposes he has lost for the fantasy football season and for the majority of the Bengals season.
- [02:35]
Jay Croucher
Jay, can we please get Joe Burrow an offensive line in the off season? He does every year.
- [02:39]
Conor Rodd
It's Andrew Luck level stuff at this point.
- [02:41]
Jay Croucher
I think it's Every single year. He's never had a good offensive line in the NFL. He's always fighting for his life. He's just take a left tackle, just get an offensive line finish.
- [02:49]
Conor Rodd
Well, they have drafted plenty.
- [02:51]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, draft a good one.
- [02:53]
Conor Rodd
There's always holes and you know, and he's a guy that sometimes he'll hold the ball and try to maneuver the pocket like some of those. Yesterday was him trying to create something that's his greatness, but his greatness. Matthew also leads him into trouble.
- [03:05]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, I mean, and it's weird because the actual play, I mean, he gets tackled around the ankles, but it didn't look bad in the moment.
- [03:11]
Conor Rodd
Just awkward, I think.
- [03:12]
Matthew Berry
Just awkward. But yeah, I mean, we talked about this in the preseason. Like, you know, we jokingly said like Joe Burrow is going to get killed behind this offensive line. And yet he sort of does, right? I mean, like he's been under pressure each of the first, whatever game and a half, however long he was there. Either way, Joe Burrow drinks for free today here at the, at the happy hour bar. You know, Joe, we love you and we hope for a speedy and healthy recovery.
- [03:39]
Conor Rodd
And for the Bengals, in what was a high scoring game, they were not slowed down too much by Jake Browning. Coming into this game, guys, I mean, you look at going 21 to 32 for over 240 yards, he does throw a couple picks, but he throws two touchdowns through the air. As you see the scoring in this game, monster day for Jamar Chase. But that didn't stop T. Higgins from getting his as well. We got to hear from Zach Taylor and just the confidence now with this offense belonging to Jake Browning, it's never.
- [04:06]
Zach Taylor
Been too big for him. He's always known that he's ready. He just wanted an opportunity. That's all he wants. And I think he comes in building every day knowing something like this can happen today. And his career, I don't think it's this extreme, but could end if you're not prepared and you walk out there and you have a really bad performance and, and you know, everybody sees that tape and they say, okay, that's, that's, that's enough of that. And so I think as a backup quarterback, he lives that life. He knows I got to be prepared. Could be at any moment, could be down a touchdown and I got to lead this team back to win. And we've had that confidence every step of the way with Jake. He's proven that for us time and time again. He's fully capable to go out there and lead it. And we're fortunate we got the best quarterback in the world leading the charge and we're also very happy we got Jake as the backup.
- [04:50]
Conor Rodd
This is from Adam Schefter. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will need the toe surgery that will sideline him a minimum of three months. Once again, that recovery timeline of three months is the more optimistic side. This is not typically a surgery that you see with quarterbacks very often. Hopefully Joe Burrow though does meet that timeline. I think in the short term though, Matthew, there's just no way around it. We got to discuss the trickle effect on the rest of this offense that has so many vital fantasy talents.
- [05:16]
Matthew Berry
For sure. You know, it's not that we want to make light of the injury, it's a serious injury, but the fact of the matter is we are a fantasy football show. We're going to talk about the fantasy football implications of an injury to a guy that was drafted universally as a top five fantasy quarterback this year. And to your point, has elite playmakers around him, two top 10 wide receivers and a top 10 running back. So first talk about Jake Browning here. So he played a number of games back in 2023 when he replaced Joe Burrow and he was fine. He was absolutely fine. He averaged over 260 passing yards per game, 12 touchdown center interceptions. That sounds about right. He also had three one yard rushing touchdowns during that phase. So he averaged over 19 fantasy points per game in those seven starts. But again, like all of what I just said, we sort of saw play out against the Jaguars. When he came in, he threw a couple of bad picks. He did get a one yard touchdown plunge. He ultimately threw for a lot of yards. Like the fact is, is that all the reasons we like Joe Burrow beyond just his exceptional talent are there for Jake Browning. It's a bad defense, it's a pass first offense. And oh, by the way, he's getting to throw to Jamar Chase T. Higgins and he's got Chase Brown out of the backfield. None of those things change.
- [06:27]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, I think the pass first offense is the interesting thing where so the past three years the Bengals in terms of pass rate over expectation, they've ranked first, second and second. So they throw pretty much more than anyone else along with Kansas City with Patrick Mahomes. Thing is, is that when Jake Browning came in in 2023, they still threw a ton. They threw a ton over expectations, wasn't as much. But this is still an offense it's going to throw. I also think it's Interesting. Conor, this offense, it's not predicated on like Joe Burrow, like taking deep shots or lasering. Like it's a lot of short stuff. It's always a low average depth of target. And so Browning is. He's going to be a lot worse than Joe Burrow, but he'll still be able to replicate a lot of the aspects of the offense.
- [07:03]
Conor Rodd
This is the classic case of they have a backup that what he does best is what the starter does best. Now, he's nowhere near Joe Burrow. Nobody's saying that. But they are typically somewhat physically limited guys that rely on accuracy and making the right decisions, but also being will and Browning made some bad ones yesterday in a tough spot, but he also made some good decisions. So when you look at it, he's been in this offense a couple years now where he understands how to operate on a high enough level that it doesn't sink everybody. But I think, yeah, it goes back to what Jay said and what you said, Matthew. Like, the fact that they're just willing to throw the ball with him is a really positive sign.
- [07:35]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. And I wouldn't take too much out of his performance yesterday just from this sense. Like, typically backup quarterbacks get like, you know, five passes of practice. Like they don't get a ton of reps. Now this upcoming week, Jack, Jake Browning is going to get every single rep in practice. Right. You know, he's going to go into the week knowing, hey, I'm the starter and, and Zach Taylor in theory is going to design a game plan that, you know, accentuates what Jake Browning does well and probably scales back on some of the stuff that maybe Joe Burrow could do. But Jake Browning just isn't there. Right. And so there's a difference between, hey, hey, crap, get in there, grab your helmet and get in there. Versus okay, we've got a whole week to prepare knowing that you are the guy that you are taking the first snap as well. So I think he's a viable fantasy. Fill in the one thing I want to say, Ashley Morris asking on YouTube, blow the fab budget on Browning in super flex leagues. That I wouldn't do. Depending on. Well, I guess I suppose depends on what else you have, what else is out there. But certainly as long as Jake Browning is healthy, he's going to be the starting quarterback on a fantasy friendly offense. Like, I mean it just depends what you have. But like, I don't know that I'm blowing the budget. But yes, if you just lost Joe Burrow and like there's Nothing much out there then I don't. I would be. I would be aggressive with Jake Browning. Very quickly, while the question is coming up, here are some quarterbacks that are available in over 50% of leagues. Again, assuming you're in a one quarterback league. Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, Geno Smith, Tua Tungavailoa and I think that's kind of the order. We'll dive into more of this tomorrow on our waiver show. But that sounds like the order. I mean, I might flip Daniel Jones and Trevor Lawrence, but I mean I think those are the two guys you want. And then Geno and then you got.
- [09:18]
Conor Rodd
Tua regular Rudy Is it time to sell Chase Brown? That seems like a very dangerous reaction.
- [09:25]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, I mean I look, I think that the production from all the players that we care about on the Bengals, you know, Chase Higgins and Brown are going to be lowered. This offense isn't going to be as good with Jake Browning as it was with Joe Burrow. You think about the 2023 games. Ja' Marr Chase averaged 12.2 fantasy points per game in six games with Browning in 2023. T. Higgins averaged 13.2 fantasy points per game in Browning. Seven starts in 2023. They both had a sub 15% target share. Now Browning's a little bit more experienced in this offense. Those guys are a little bit more established. But I think that if I were quote re ranking for the rest of the season, I would probably have Chase as opposed to the number one wide receiver in fantasy, probably a low end wide receiver one. And Higgins goes from a borderline wide receiver one two to a lower end wide receiver two. But I think you're probably better off hanging onto them as opposed to selling them at a discount, which is what you're going to do. You're not no one is going to give you full price or anywhere close to full price until we see sort of a Jake Browning offense. And I'm telling you that I think will they be as good as they were with Joe Burrow? No. Will they be competent and usable and still the guys you want to start week in, week out? Yes.
- [10:35]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, I think Chase Brown, his. His viability going forward maybe fluctuates the least of the three guys because one. Yeah, they're still going to pass a lot, but they're going to pass less. They're going to run the ball more with Chase Brown there. There's going to be more dump offs and screen passes to Chase Brown than they previously were. And then also the Bengals, do they throw in the Red zone at one of the highest rates in the league. Now, I think that they'll run the ball when they get in close a little bit more when you've got Chase Brown. So not too worried about Chase Brown. Touchdown equity will go down because they're not going to be in scoring position as much, but he should still be a very viable starter.
- [11:05]
Matthew Berry
Connor, the other, the only other concern I have here, I was just going.
- [11:10]
Conor Rodd
To say going back to that question about spending on Jake Browning, be wary of this at Minnesota, at Denver, Detroit, which bounced back in a big way yesterday, they looked a little pissed about how they were perceived after week one. And then at Green Bay, which. Who the hell on this team is blocking Micah Parsons?
- [11:28]
Matthew Berry
Exactly right. So, I mean, I would argue. So the next four games, three are on the. And I would argue at Minnesota, at Denver, at Green Bay. Those are, those are two of the, two of the three best defenses in the NFL. And Minnesota is probably a top 10 defense with Brian Flores.
- [11:45]
Jay Croucher
I mean, there's worlds where those could be the four best defenses in football. It's not, not absolutely insane that that could be the case.
- [11:52]
Matthew Berry
And Detroit is, you know, Detroit, Detroit's got a solid defense as well. So it's just, it's going to be baptism by fire for Jake Browning and this Bengals offense immediately. It's good that they won this game because the road gets tougher here. But ultimately that's why I'm saying, like, I mean, here's my only question to you guys then. Do you agree or disagree with me that as you sit here and look at this upcoming schedule? Because I'm basically saying I'd hold lower expectations, but I'd hold my Bengals skill players. But if somebody's willing to offer you second round, you know, you know, a top, a wide receiver, two value for Chase or Higgins. Are you taking it? Given this upcoming schedule, I would never move Chase.
- [12:31]
Conor Rodd
I just think he's in the Justin Jefferson category of like Nick Mullens could be out there. And no, he goes, it doesn't matter.
- [12:36]
Matthew Berry
Quarterback.
- [12:37]
Conor Rodd
I think Higgins is a fascinating conversation because Higgins is a guy that it feels like you like him getting shots down the field. And I'm not saying Browning can't throw down the field, but I think he's the one that gets hurt the most here.
- [12:48]
Jay Croucher
Who'd rather have Jamar Chase or Monroe St. Brown?
- [12:50]
Conor Rodd
Jamar Chase.
- [12:51]
Jay Croucher
I'd rather have the Sun God, but that's just me.
- [12:54]
Matthew Berry
I think it's. I think it's Jamar Chase.
- [12:56]
Jay Croucher
It's just Like, Chase did not have good production with Browning the last time around. It wasn't pretty. So that would be my concern.
- [13:02]
Matthew Berry
He. He did. But in this particular game, 35% target share. He finishes the game with 10 for 128. Like, so I don't know. You know, both players are a little bit older at this point. Right. More experience in this offense. Well, who else is he going to throw to? Andre Josevic? Come on, turn up Gasecki. Exactly. Tinsley. Exactly.
- [13:23]
Conor Rodd
I mean, that's a serious one. He might actually throw to Tinsley.
- [13:26]
Matthew Berry
Yeah.
- [13:26]
Conor Rodd
On the other side of the ball here, guys, Jacksonville. I mean, number one, a crushing loss for Jacksonville. But I think the fantasy storyline, Matthew, is like, we're. What defcon are we at for Brian Thomas Jr. With Trevor Lawrence right now? Because this isn't just a this year thing.
- [13:41]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, it was a. This is a bad day at the office for Brian Thomas. You know, just, you know, obviously the fourth down drop is what's going to. Is sort of what made headlines, but just, you know, felt like he ran wrong routes. Felt like he, he, you know, he stopped running through a route as well.
- [13:57]
Conor Rodd
And the reaction after the game from Liam Cohen, like he was. Liam Cohen was asked about it and he, he was kind of like something I have to look into. I guess he wasn't.
- [14:05]
Jay Croucher
He was very visibly holding it back. What he really wanted to say, it reminded like Brian Thomas game is that. Remind me like Anthony Volpe throwing a first base. Like, what are you doing? Something wrong in the wiring?
- [14:15]
Matthew Berry
Where it's just like.
- [14:15]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, he kind of had the yips. He wasn't. He was like visibly pulling out of routes over the middle because he didn't want to get hit. It's like, what are you doing?
- [14:21]
Conor Rodd
Like, this is your job.
- [14:23]
Jay Croucher
Like, you have to, you have to try and catch the football. It's very strange.
- [14:27]
Matthew Berry
Five for 60 would be a disappointing day at the office for Brian Thomas Jr. That's his total production on the year through. Two games, five receptions for only 60 yards, and yet he's getting a 27% target share yesterday.
- [14:39]
Conor Rodd
That's not the issue.
- [14:40]
Matthew Berry
This didn't come in with the ball. And I will just say this. We had a very good day on fantasy football pregame. A lot of stuff that we predicted came true. My desperation play was Diami Brown come through with a touchdown here. But if there's, if there's one big huge swing and miss. I was all in on Travis Hunter yesterday and that did not work out. So I apologize and I'm back now.
- [15:01]
Conor Rodd
I was going to say because they chose to play him on defense.
- [15:02]
Matthew Berry
They chose to play on defense, which. But. And he gets the penalty. And like, yeah, I don't know.
- [15:07]
Conor Rodd
Cody Kiger is Diami Brown stock up and BTJ's stock down.
- [15:11]
Matthew Berry
Yes, but not in a way that you care about. Right. I mean like, like, do they, do they like Diamond Brown a little bit more today than they did yesterday? Yeah, maybe. And BTJ they're annoyed with. But does that, does that translate into anything you're going to do fantasy wise? No, I mean like we can talk Diamond Brown for deeper leagues tomorrow. Again, he was my desperation play. We always pick one player that's available in over 80% of leagues and that was. Mine was Diamond Brown yesterday. Because they are running a lot of three wide receiver sets and Brown is out there when Hunter and BTJ are. But still, I don't know. You know Travis Hunter, by the way. Let's talk about him for real quickly. He's now been under 35 receiving yards in both games. He's got only three deep targets. He had a under 15% target share in this one. I, I was so high on Travis Hunter in the preseason.
- [16:00]
Conor Rodd
Me too.
- [16:00]
Matthew Berry
And I was high on him on Sunday. And so just Maya Culpa, like swing and a miss. Like I was. I was the Brian Thomas Jr. Fantasy analyst when it comes to the Jaguars yesterday.
- [16:08]
Jay Croucher
Like, yeah, what are we doing with Travis Hunter next week against Houston? Like is he.
- [16:12]
Matthew Berry
We're benching him.
- [16:13]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, the low end flex, if that.
- [16:15]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. I mean, I think Brian Thomas Jr. You have to still keep starting. But yeah, I mean, I'm benching Hunter until further notice. The one last positive I'll say about this game very quickly is Bashal Tootin looked as advertised. Yes, he's coming. You know, I mean, I'm not saying he's going to overtake Travis Etienne, but like he was very productive on limited touches. He could be this year's Bucky Irving.
- [16:38]
Conor Rodd
Kind of a like a Jalen Warren feel with Tutin yesterday. Just get him going in the screen game, make him, let him. Make a couple people miss. And he's just so explosive and looks different than everything else they have. So that is a positive for Jacksonville. And once again, all these newer breakouts we mentioned will be deeper on waiver wires tomorrow as well. All right, let's go to a wild scoring game. Giants Cowboys. This one was out of control. Malik Nabors and Russell Wilson were pretty much unstoppable through four quarters of this one. Javante Williams looks back and better than ever. Dak Prescott, solid. Ceedee Lam and George Pickens, both solid. How about Wandell Robinson at the top of the board here, J. Your Giants lose a heartbreaker, but fantasy relevance from a lot of surprises here.
- [17:22]
Jay Croucher
Absolutely. I liked it. On the rundown. It says the Giants passing game. Is it back? When did we. When was it last there? Was it when Eli Manning threw to Mario Manningham in the Super Bowl? I haven't seen the Giants passing game since 2011.
- [17:35]
Conor Rodd
Well, Russell Wilson spoke after it on all the positive takeaways despite the loss.
- [17:39]
Russell Wilson
You know, I thought Malik played an incredible game. I mean. I mean, this guy is special. The plays that he was making. League neighbors. I think Wandell had a tremendous game. Slade made some big plays, you know, for us when we needed it. I thought the line did a tremendous job of giving me enough time and credit those guys, you know, and we needed one more play, one more moment to make a big play. And unfortunately, you know, they made it before we did. I was just proud of how we. I mean, to. To be able to answer the way we did. I've been a part a lot of crazy games. I don't know if I've been a part of something that's that crazy and that. That much grit.
- [18:18]
Conor Rodd
I don't know about that logo, the Russ logo on his hat.
- [18:21]
Jay Croucher
Not good.
- [18:22]
Matthew Berry
I know.
- [18:23]
Jay Croucher
I know about it. It's bad.
- [18:25]
Matthew Berry
There's no ambiguity.
- [18:26]
Jay Croucher
It's objectively bad.
- [18:27]
Matthew Berry
Giants country, let's ride. You know what? Give credit. Listen, I think this loss is on the defense, like, on the Giants deep right now.
- [18:36]
Conor Rodd
That's a take.
- [18:36]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. Thank you. God bless. Nicely done. Yeah. Thank you.
- [18:39]
Conor Rodd
24 seconds left in the.
- [18:41]
Matthew Berry
What are you doing?
- [18:42]
Jay Croucher
Playing soft zones when I just need.
- [18:46]
Matthew Berry
When they have. Exactly.
- [18:47]
Jay Croucher
They're better off sending the house. Like, what are you doing? You're just going to lose.
- [18:51]
Matthew Berry
It was a failure of coaching and defense. I mean, you know, it's not like I was talking to. On the way in, I was. I was talking to somebody who said. Who said, yeah, like, what a crazy game and that kind of stuff. You know, what a kick. And I'm like. But that's, like, that's not out of the ordinary. Brandon Aubrey makes those regularly. Like, you know, that's his range.
- [19:09]
Conor Rodd
The Cowboys play totally different than most teams in that situation. No, we hit one completion and we'll tie the game.
- [19:16]
Jay Croucher
That's it.
- [19:16]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. I mean, just, you know, that was just. Just tough. I. The positives here are, though, Russ Looked confident, looked pretty good. The deep balls to Malik and Wandell Robinson. Wandell Robinson, what happened to 3 yard average up the target?
- [19:30]
Conor Rodd
We've never seen him go that far in his life.
- [19:32]
Matthew Berry
Who knows what are you doing past.
- [19:33]
Conor Rodd
The line of scrimmage?
- [19:34]
Matthew Berry
He's lost. He finally got a GPS. It was crazy. 29% of Russell Wilson's attempts traveled 15 or more air yards. Went 7 from 12 for 264, three touchdowns on those passes. I like Russell has always been able to throw kind of the deep moon ball. And credit to Brian Dabal for dialing up some of those plays going to Malik Neighbors. He's a superstar. But Wandell Robinson like career high 16.2 average depth the target in this game, three different receptions of 20 or more yards. Connor, is this something that we think continues or was this kind of like a. It was just sort of a nutty game.
- [20:16]
Conor Rodd
It's a little bit of a perfect script. The Cowboys have been banged up in their secondary and quite frankly they just didn't look good in this one. Obviously, you know, not even talking about not having Michael Parsons get up to quarterback anymore though there was legit secondary issues. But maybe it shows that he's not this but viable. That would be exciting. Where listen, this offense needs a number two pass catcher. Malik Neighbors can handle volume as a number one as well as anybody. But if Russ is actually going to be Russ finally just leaned into. I'm going to go down chucking the ball. And it worked in this game. And with the scripts the Giants play where their secondary or notably their defense is coached horribly, they might be in scripts like this.
- [20:54]
Jay Croucher
Yeah. You know what reminded me of with Russ with these moon balls. It's like how Dan Campbell when he goes for it on fourth down. I'm not sure it's really analytics. I think he's just hitting the same button over again. It's like, yeah, we're just going to go for with Russ. It's like I'm not sure this is amazing offense. We're just gonna do it because why not? And this gives us a chance because he like the interception was terrible in overtime. It's a shocking decision and throw. But at the same time, like Malik Neighbors is a superstar and Russell Wilson, I think there was concern after week one that maybe this offense just has no ceiling whatsoever and it's completely broken. It's not like I don't think the offensive line was great yesterday despite Russell Wilson's comments. But he can get Neighbors the ball deep and that's really all that matters in this offense.
- [21:29]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. To your point about Wanda Robinson though, 25% target share now in both games this season. They are going to need number two pass catch. We thought it might be Theo Johnson, but it looks like it is Wandell Robinson. So yes, I think, I think Wanda Robinson is a viable flex moving forward as well. Johnny dangerly asks on YouTube, is Russell a viable option to cover my Joe Burrow loss? I would say maybe, except for this especially because by the way, he's running a little bit more right. Like we hadn't seen him run recently.
- [21:54]
Jay Croucher
There's more design runs again.
- [21:56]
Conor Rodd
Yes. No, that's.
- [21:57]
Jay Croucher
And you're not doing it anyway.
- [21:59]
Matthew Berry
But they are doing anyway.
- [22:00]
Conor Rodd
Well, it's in the playbook for Jackson Darts, eventual takeover of this offense.
- [22:04]
Matthew Berry
I would agree with that. And that's the, that's the thing is that I don't know. I think there are other viable options as we talked about and we'll talk about more about this tomorrow. But the concern here is also at some point Russell Wilson's losing his job. And then look at their upcoming schedule. So they're home to Kansas City this week. By the way, that's a Sunday night football game.
- [22:21]
Jay Croucher
Russell Wilson more compelling now than it.
- [22:23]
Conor Rodd
Was 25 hours ago.
- [22:24]
Jay Croucher
Very much so.
- [22:25]
Matthew Berry
02 versus 02. You know, two desperate teams, two big name quarterbacks in Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes. But that. So they're home to Kansas City, then they're home to the Chargers. They're at your plucky New Orleans Saints. And then they're home to Philadelphia. So that three of the next four are at home. But Chiefs, Chargers and Eagles are pretty good defenses. I know that the Chiefs aren't as dominant as before, but still a problem. It's still, there's still a problem. Yeah. As you, you sort of look at the schedule and then, oh, by the way, look at that. Week seven at the Broncos. Week eight at the Eagles. Nine they're home to the 49ers. And then week 10 at the Bears. Usually a tough place to play in Chicago.
- [23:04]
Conor Rodd
Our next game, Eagles, Chiefs, which had not a ton of scoring but plenty of fun drama at the end. Chris Jones giving it to Jake Jones.
- [23:11]
Matthew Berry
I like how you just moved past Javante Williams. Okay, that's fine.
- [23:14]
Conor Rodd
Is he a must. I saw somebody ask, is he a must start? I think Javante Williams is a must start.
- [23:18]
Matthew Berry
Yes. Sad. That's the world we live in now.
- [23:20]
Jay Croucher
Solid.
- [23:21]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. Wando Robinson and Javante Williams. Good job.
- [23:26]
Conor Rodd
I mean, Dallas is going to be in position to score enough. That and Javante just gets so much volume.
- [23:31]
Jay Croucher
Here's the thing with Dallas.
- [23:31]
Matthew Berry
That's one of the reasons why we like Dak, because it's, again, the defense is bad.
- [23:34]
Jay Croucher
Kyrie Lamb played every single snap yesterday. Like, that's where the defense is at.
- [23:38]
Conor Rodd
Yeah, you could see it looked that way. Yeah, that's brutal. Not good for us.
- [23:43]
Matthew Berry
All right.
- [23:43]
Conor Rodd
Chiefs, Eagles. Chiefs. Unbelievably 02. That is the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era that that's happened.
- [23:51]
Matthew Berry
First time since 2014, by the way, they didn't make the playoff in 2014 either.
- [23:55]
Conor Rodd
They'll be okay this year, I think, but Mahomes at the top of this board. And as you see, not much fantasy relevance in this game. A lot of it is just Mahomes rushing. We got to hear from Patrick Mahomes just on the brutal 02 start to the season. After the game.
- [24:09]
Patrick Mahomes
Yeah, I think just after the first two weeks, you let games slip away. You know, we played good, two good football teams and made mistakes and big moments, stuff that we're not used to doing. But I think we're coming together as a team, man. I mean, when you deal with adversity, it's about how you deal with it. And obviously this isn't how we wanted to start, but how are we going to respond? So I'm excited for the next few weeks to see who wants to be challenged and how we can get back and really get after it. I think the guys that we have in this locker room, they'll go back to work with that mindset of we're going to continue to work even harder so that when we step on that field this next time, we can find a way to win in those big moments like we have at this first two weeks.
- [24:47]
Conor Rodd
I mean, guys outside of Mahomes in this game and Saquon, there's just no fantasy production. Jay.
- [24:54]
Jay Croucher
I think to me it's interesting because I know that the big story out of this game is the Chiefs are owing to the Chiefs offense. Like the Chiefs offense has been like this for. This is three years in a row now. Like, this is just what they are until they get Rashid Rice and Xavier Worthy back and we get to see what that looks like.
- [25:09]
Conor Rodd
Right. We're a while from that.
- [25:10]
Jay Croucher
But to me, what is more interesting is like, what's wrong with Philadelphia's passing game? Like, look at what the Giants did to Dallas.
- [25:17]
Matthew Berry
Yeah.
- [25:17]
Jay Croucher
Like, Jalen hurts was like 6 yards per attempt against the Cowboys couldn't do Anything through the air. By the way, look at what Justin Herbert did to the Chiefs. Like why can't they do anything through the air? Jalen Hurts had 101 passing yards yesterday, 4.6 yards per attempt. AJ Brown is just a non entity out there.
- [25:32]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, it's unbelievable.
- [25:33]
Jay Croucher
Very strange.
- [25:35]
Matthew Berry
And Devontae Smith, the majority of his production came on kind of one jump ball, sort of like that was under thrown and Smith made a good play to come back to the ball. But I'm with you, it's like it's a concern now. They've got a good defense, you can't stop the tush push and you know they have a good run game but like the passing game is a concern. The fact of the matter is, is that they should have been able to do much more than they did. And for our purposes in fantasy football. Devonta Smith finishes his wide receiver 44. AJ Brown, wide receiver 59, 5 for 27 for AJ Brown, 4 for 53. Both of them, I mean, AJ Brown had a 38% target share and winds up, you know, winds up with five receptions for 27 yards. You know, Dante Smith, 28 and a half percent target share, winds up four for 53. It, I, I don't want to, I'm probably still starting both guys next week against the Giants. But yes, cause for concern.
- [26:35]
Conor Rodd
A.J.
- [26:36]
Matthew Berry
Brown, who was drafted as a wide receiver one, I think he's now probably like a, he's like a wide receiver. Three, like in terms of risk, I mean in terms of like you're, it's like yeah, there's potential there, but it's not, it's not guaranteed production. Same with devonte Smith. They're both right there.
- [26:50]
Jay Croucher
It's like here's their upcoming schedule. It's like so, so it's Rams next week, then at Bucks home Broncos. You got two games against the Giants sandwiched with at Minnesota, then at Green Bay Detroit. Like these aren't, these aren't layoffs like the Eagles. Eagles finished first in the division line so they got first place schedule. It's a brutal schedule overall and they just, they can't generate any explosives at all outside of like one bomb to Johan Dotson in week one. Like this is nothing, there's nothing there.
- [27:15]
Matthew Berry
You know, I had a Guillotine league team that has AJ Brown and Justin Fields and if Justin Herbert goes off tonight, I'm getting killed. I'm done. Just, I mean, you know, A.J. brown just, you know, out here, what's most crushing teams, I don't feel like.
- [27:27]
Jay Croucher
Jalen Hurts is playing that badly. I don't think I thought he played well against Dallas. It's just like there doesn't seem to be guys getting up with Dallas.
- [27:34]
Conor Rodd
It felt like they completely sold out in the secondary and he took what was there as a runner, so you can't blame him for that at all. Yesterday you're kind of looking around and going, okay, do we have a, like a long term problem on our hands in terms of the passing efficiency?
- [27:48]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. And the answer is salty old, salty, salty old dog says, is it worth making a low ball offer for A.J. brown? I'm thinking something like Ricky Pearsall.
- [28:00]
Jay Croucher
Rather have Ricky Psy. I don't know.
- [28:02]
Matthew Berry
I don't know. I think I'd probably rather have AJ Brown, but I mean, like, Piersol has struggled as well. Juwan Jennings was the better wide receiver. We'll get to that game. But I. It's not like Pearsall's been earning targets at a high rate either. So I'd rather have A.J. brown. But the fact that that's a question gives you an idea of how, how far he's fallen and how much concern we have about the consistent consistency of this passing game. There'll be some big games, but there's also going to be games where it's just sort of like, like what we just saw this past weekend. I'm. I'm nervous about it. So.
- [28:35]
Conor Rodd
Tough one for the Eagles offense in fantasy. All right, Our next game here, not tough for the Detroit Lions, who absolutely walloped the bears in this one. 52, 21 fantasy buffet for the Lions offense. Monroe St. Brown almost touches 40 points. Jared Goff goes off throwing the ball. Jameer Gibbs was good in this one. Jameson Williams involved. David Montgomery was even effective after we were talking about him during flexual frustrations. Just a monster, monster day for the Lions.
- [29:03]
Matthew Berry
But Brock Wright instead of Sam Laporta, no big deal. What are you gonna do?
- [29:06]
Conor Rodd
I was totally happy the old Brock Wright game. And on the other side of this for the Bears. The only good news for the Bears right now, it looks like Roma Dunes is their Future wide receiver. Receiver 1 which Caleb Williams talked about after the game.
- [29:19]
Caleb Williams
I think that's just us being together.
- [29:21]
Matthew Berry
For.
- [29:24]
Caleb Williams
What is it, a year and a half now and, you know, year and some change and so being able to just, you know, keep finding that rhythm with him, being able to get in rhythm with the other wide receivers and get in rhythm with, you know, tight ends and everything, just get everybody going. It's important to have everybody going and everybody to understand their role in this offense, that everybody is important. And you know, I think today when you have a guy come out and he's making, you know, great catches for you and getting off a, you know, man coverage and press and all these different things, you want to keep feeding him the ball. And I think that's just what happened today.
- [29:57]
Conor Rodd
That was Caleb Williams on Roma Dunze, who's off to a tremendous start here. Jay, I think, you know, it's not even the question do you must start him now. It's a matter of what is his ceiling, how quickly we forget top 10 picks coming off a great college season with Michael Penix. More importantly, Ben Johnson's made it clear like this guy's the focal point of the passing game.
- [30:15]
Jay Croucher
Played every single snap yesterday on offense as well. So he's getting a ton of usage. He's out there. He's got the rapport with Caleb Williams and also his Bears defense is no good. Like I came out of this game thinking two things, like one, how amazing is the packers defense if the Lions are going to do this to the Bears, they couldn't do anything against the Packers. And then how bad is the Vikings offense if they couldn't do anything at all really against the Bears until the fourth quarter?
- [30:37]
Conor Rodd
So that answer last night.
- [30:38]
Jay Croucher
Yes. So I think that the Bears are going to be in a lot of shootouts. They're going to have to be if they want to keep in games. And Roma Dunes A I think now supplants D.J.
- [30:47]
Matthew Berry
Morris, wide receiver 1000% team high 33% target share for Roma Dunze. He's also through two games gotten 75% of the team's end zone target. So they're not only looking for him a lot in the field, they're looking for him when they get in close as well. DJ Moore downgrades to kind of a wide receiver 3 and not an automatic start. A Dunes A is, however, an automatic start. It's been nice to see his emergence during what has been a tough start to the season for Chicago.
- [31:13]
Conor Rodd
A tough start as well to the season for the Dolphins. The Patriots get their first win of the season, 33 to 27 in our next game here, guys, as the dolphins fall to.02. At least this one, unlike week one, much closer. And the passing attack somewhat back on track under Tuatanga Wailoa. We got to hear from Tyre Kill on just trying to build some momentum going forward.
- [31:36]
Tyreek Hill
We definitely can use this as momentum. Tua looked real good back there, you know I'm throwing the peel today not only to myself but to Waddle and also a chain out the backfield. So it was a good, it was a good feel. Felt like old time. So hopefully we can continue that momentum and you know, go into the next week against Bofalo and you know, just keep, keep doing that same thing, keep attacking down the field because that's one of our biggest strengths. If we're able to, you know, run the ball and then also attack downfield, I feel like we are going to put up a lot of points.
- [32:09]
Conor Rodd
Felt like old times is something you think you'd hear like Aaron Rodgers say with Devontae Adams, not the Dolphins, who it's not that far away.
- [32:15]
Jay Croucher
Also, we can't be taking honorable losses out of losing home by six points to the Patriots who won four games last year. Like that's just a little ridiculous. I thought, look, it's good that they were able to get the volume. I didn't think the offense looked great. Like Tua took five sacks. A lot of it was. I mean they're going to be in a lot of shootouts because the defense is that bad. Drake may had like MVP level efficiency in terms of EPA for play in this game and he looked fantastic. But I just worry about to getting through the season behind this offensive line, missing his whole blind side. There's no running game at the moment to take pressure off of him. So it's good that there was volume for Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle and HN in the passing game. But yeah, worried about this situation going.
- [32:53]
Matthew Berry
No question about it. Hill 22 target share, 109 yards, his third most in a game since the start of last season. Waddle with a 19 17.8 fantasy points. All good. Like if there's a positive here, it's like, okay, they did what they should do against a bad defense they were able to produce. But they played Buffalo on Thursday night. Like how confident are you in starting anyone other than Achan Thursday night? And my answer is like not really because I agree with you. Like the numbers were there but like to the eye test you're like they're still out of rhythm and it's still. And it was at home. They're better. They're much better at home. Tua has been much better at home throughout his career than he has been on the road. Thursday's game is at Buffalo.
- [33:32]
Jay Croucher
Buffalo crushes Miami. Even when Miami are good, this is not a good.
- [33:36]
Matthew Berry
It's going to get ugly.
- [33:37]
Conor Rodd
Yeah, this game was 33 to 27. But you had a punt return from your boy, Malik Washington. You can see how athletic he is. If Tyree Kill is traded, I agree with that take. And then you had the kick return from Antonio Gibson. So there was special teams points in this game that added to the total as well. And then on the other side, Matthew, the one thing that you genuinely can be concerned about at this point, they don't really have a plan for Trevion Henderson right now.
- [33:59]
Matthew Berry
They do not. Five touches, 9% target share. Played less than 30% of the snaps. Through two games this year, he's played 16 total touches. He got a couple of holding penalties in this game as well, which sort of tells you, at least to me, that, oh, like, they're like, he's not ready in pass pro, you know, and so somebody's getting by him. So he's holding him. And now you're. You're losing 15 yards. And then Mike Vrabel is like, screw this. Just like, you know, Ramond Ray Stevenson is boring and slow, but doesn't cost us 15 yards every time somebody blitzes. And so, you know, Stevenson ended up, you know, playing almost over 60% of the snaps. 16 for 142. He looked good. Look spry. Looks like a young Jay Croucher out there.
- [34:38]
Conor Rodd
Yes, that's what they say. I mean, and you're right about, like.
- [34:42]
Matthew Berry
Jay chasing his kids around.
- [34:44]
Conor Rodd
I don't think you even do that. I think you just let them run wild.
- [34:46]
Jay Croucher
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Tell them to come back.
- [34:50]
Conor Rodd
Bluegrassrt. Real talk. Should I drop Travion Henderson and pick up Cam Scataboo? I think I. I wouldn't be willing to do that yet.
- [34:59]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, I'm not ready to do that yet. But I get the question, because Scatterboo, we got, you know, we'll talk more about him tomorrow in the waiver show. But, like, there's an argument to be made. He took over this backfield from Tyrone Tracy yesterday. He looked like the better running back against Dallas. And certainly he's gotten a. He's getting on the field more than Trayvon Henderson is these days. Like, I don't think you can start Travion Henderson until you see it right? And, you know, Patriots. Patriots play the Steelers next week. Now the game's in New England, but still their upcoming schedule is not. It's okay. Home to Pittsburgh, home to Carolina. That's better at Buffalo. You don't love that at New Orleans. So two good. Yeah, two good. Too good starts. Too bad.
- [35:40]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, we'll see what Buffalo's defense looks like. So I think with the Patriots like Keshan Booty did nothing. Stephon Diggs was he got five targets with largely nothing nothing adjacent. Hunter Henry was onside. The only guy that you feel good about starting is Drake May and I think you feel okay about signing Ramondre Stevenson as a low end RB2 high end flex depending on how Travion's usage develops. So those are the only two guys I'm interested in.
- [36:01]
Matthew Berry
But yeah, I mean if you drafted Travon Henderson in the fourth round, which is where he was going and you want to full on panic, I think you're allowed to because I think it's going to be a while. I think it's, I mean like he'll eventually get a bigger role but like I don't see him doing it next week.
- [36:16]
Conor Rodd
I think we're at the point where you just trusting rookie skill talent with Mike Vrabel is you kind of made your own bet at that point. It's just not he doesn't thrust guys into those roles even if they seem like the most explosive option. So our last game guys, I wasn't a believer but I'm starting to the Daniel Jones Revenge Tour, Redemption Tour, whatever you want to call this, a massive.
- [36:38]
Matthew Berry
Man, the stick man, creating magic out of Daniel Jones.
- [36:41]
Jay Croucher
A stickman, a shaman, if you will, reviving Shane Steichen.
- [36:46]
Conor Rodd
I mean this is, this is a huge win for the colts over Denver 29 to 28. A very efficient day for Daniel Jones and the offense as a whole. Jonathan Taylor goes absolutely off in this game. We got to hear from the man, the artist formerly known as Danny dimes on the 20 start.
- [37:03]
Daniel Jones
Yeah, I think it does, does a lot of confidence. Does a lot for our confidence for sure. I think we've had that, you know, you know, internally as a group. I think we felt, you know, throughout training camp through, you know, kind of last week and beginning of the season, we felt like we're, we're, we're a good offense, can play with anybody and we got to, we got to keep building on it. I think, you know, last week we played well, but we were right back to work, you know, after that and had a good week of practice. I think we'll have the same mindset this week. We know there's things to clean up and tighten up if we're going to be the group we're capable of being.
- [37:41]
Matthew Berry
I'll say this so on I do this thing called the Football Night in America podcast, whatever it's thought you were.
- [37:48]
Conor Rodd
Going to say the show. And I was like, yeah, I've watched it before.
- [37:50]
Matthew Berry
Have you? Thanks, I appreciate it. But no.
- [37:52]
Tyreek Hill
We.
- [37:52]
Matthew Berry
After the Sunday night game, Maria Taylor, Mike Florio, Jason Garrett and myself, we taped something called the Football night in America pot. And so we were asked in the speed round what was the most impressive win? And I said, the Colts. I said, the Colts beating the Broncos. Now, Shane Steichen drove me crazy with like settling for, you know, playing for a 60 yard field goal when your guy can't even hit a 51 in practice and they get bailed out with a penalty. Whatever. The fact of the matter is is that one of the best defenses of the NFL came to your house and you move the ball. You move the ball consistently. Jonathan Taylor, over 200 yards from scratch. Unbelievable. And Daniel Jones, Danny Dimes is now averaging over 26 fantasy points per game. He's been a top five quarterback in both weeks. He's got a rushing touchdown at least in each one, 300 yard passing game against the Broncos. Looks the part, moved it around. Tyler Warren we've talked about is just a superstar but was able to get everyone involved. And I don't think this is a fluke. The Colts, by the way, they're at Tennessee this week. They're at the Rams. That's a tough matchup. Home to Las Vegas, home to Arizona. They've got a real shot of being 5 and 1 or even 6, 0.
- [39:01]
Conor Rodd
It's on the table.
- [39:03]
Matthew Berry
The Colts are good.
- [39:03]
Conor Rodd
Yeah, Colts are good.
- [39:04]
Jay Croucher
They're good. I think that a couple things. One, I love Shane site. They targeted pets of 10 nine times. They're just lighting up the defensive player of the year. The way I look at Daniel Jones is he's just 20, 22 Daniel Jones, like that guy's back. It's the same level player. He's 28 years old. He's in the best offensive environment of his career with the best weapons. He's got an elite running back, an elite tight end and a good offensive line and a great play caller like I think that he can definitely flirt with being a top 10 fancy quarterback now towards the bottom end of the top 10 as he was in 2022. But that's how I would view Daniel Jones.
- [39:32]
Matthew Berry
That's again, if you've lost Joe Burrow and Daniel Jones still sitting out there. He is a. We'll talk more about this tomorrow, but he is a priority on the waiver wire. Other side of the ball here. Connor, Troy Franklin, you've been waiting for this. Bo Nix's former college, college teammate. And are you buying this from Troy Franklin or was this just a good day at the office?
- [39:51]
Conor Rodd
I'm in on this. He was a top 40 player for me, so I've been waiting for the breakout. I loved him in that draft. He's an excell, excellent deep threat. I think he had a tough welcome to the league adjustment where he needed to get stronger, he needed to get a little bit sharper. They needed to trust him. I think the most important thing, Matthew, is they trust him. And he's out on the field now because he can run by anybody in this league. I am highly encouraged by this and I am in on Troy Franklin at least being the number two of this offense.
- [40:15]
Jay Croucher
He played more snaps than Cortland Sutton, so that shows you that I think.
- [40:19]
Conor Rodd
He'S real with his speed. He can always help open up the run game. So he should be on the field as much as possible. It's just good to see him actually making the most of his targets.
- [40:25]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, poor Marvin Mims. I just. We keep waiting for him.
- [40:27]
Conor Rodd
It's like you four of us having this conference.
- [40:29]
Matthew Berry
Marvin Mims and Troy Franklin seems to have literally and figuratively run by him. Franklin led the team in targets, receptions, receiving yards both in this game and last game. So through two games he is. He is the Broncos leader in targets, receptions and receiving yards. 30% target share in week number two for Troy Franklin, the former Oregon Duck.
- [40:48]
Conor Rodd
Some injuries we're tracking coming out of the weekend, of course. Joe Burrow, we talked about that one extensively. Jaden Daniels with the potential knee injury. Justin Field is in concussion protocol. We'll see if that's a Tyrod Taylor game in Tampa Bay next week. Aaron Jones became questionable with that hamstring injury during the game. Jaden Reed, the broken collarbone, he's going to be down now for a while. Kamante Turpin has a neck injury, so some big ones that we will be following all week long.
- [41:14]
Matthew Berry
I literally feel like at least two or three times a year Aaron Jones leaves the game early with a hamstring. I just feel like it's constant since he was a rookie. It's.
- [41:24]
Conor Rodd
Anyway, deep breath and you can take another one because we're taking our first break when we're back. Weekend warriors and Sunday scaries right after this.
- [41:30]
Matthew Berry
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- [44:45]
Mack Jones
I've worked a lot on my mindset this offseason and obviously when you're having your first start you'll have a couple nerves but just working through those and once I finally got into a rhythm and felt like the line did a great job blocking for me and when they do that, I know I can sit in there and let it fly. So really the guys around me, like Trent came up to me, he's like, you're good dude, just go out there and hoop. And I was like, I got you, I can go hoop. And then once he said that I was like, alright, let's play ball. So that was kind of cool.
- [45:10]
Tyreek Hill
You know, he plays with a lot of passion.
- [45:11]
Matthew Berry
I think that's what San Francisco has made, you know, this team about. You know, we come out and we're just fiery and ready to go and Magnify is a great example of that.
- [45:22]
Conor Rodd
That was Mack Jones and Juwan Jennings after the Niners win, Juwan Jennings is looking like he's ready to go.
- [45:27]
Matthew Berry
Dirt bike concert style or a Prince tribute show.
- [45:31]
Jay Croucher
Yeah, maybe that too.
- [45:32]
Conor Rodd
Maybe we could do both in one day. We'll see how it goes. Solid day though for Mac Jones who when he continues to get these opportunities filling in for injured starters, he takes full advantage of them. So Mac Jones and Juwan Jennings. Matthew headline Our weekend warriors fifth career.
- [45:46]
Matthew Berry
Game with three touchdown passes. His best fantasy game since week one of 2023 with New England. The Mack Attack happens home to Arizona next week so could be a reasonable streamer next week as well. As long as he's filling in for Brock Purdy. Juwan Jennings though to me this is the more interesting one because I thought he came into the game questionable. We talked about this on fantasy football pregame that oh hey look, you know Schefter is saying he is going to play. He did end up playing. Good call by Adam. But the question was, well he's probably going to take a back seat to Ricky Piersol. Not so fast, you know, 26% target share, that was a team high. His last nine completed games he has got almost a 30% target share. Connor. So Juwan Jennings is. We talk about this all the time. When he's out there, he's good.
- [46:27]
Conor Rodd
That's the thing. He missed a lot of camp. There was some weird contract and injury stuff going on and then he gets hurt week one. But when he's healthy, we know he could have these monster weeks. Jay how about Devonta Adams? I wouldn't say turn back the clock because he's just really been good as he's gotten older, but this is what the Rams are looking for when they gave him that big contract. 106 yards and a touchdown.
- [46:46]
Jay Croucher
Absolutely. Look Spry, looked explosive, seemed to have a rapport with Matthew Stafford. Looked a very young 32 and a half. DeVonta Adams. Also quick shout out to the man who replaced Cooper Cup. Not washed. Looked good. Looked really good against the Steelers. Much, much better than week one.
- [47:00]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, thank goodness.
- [47:00]
Conor Rodd
Great bounce back for Cooper Cup.
- [47:02]
Matthew Berry
Thank goodness. And the Rams. We've seen this before with Kupp and Nakua. We've seen this. Sean McVay Offenses can support two very fantasy relevant wide receivers.
- [47:10]
Conor Rodd
They just throw the ball to their two best players over and over again and that's what worked out best for them yesterday. James Cook 21 carries. Matthew 132 yards. He had the big touchdown run, two touchdowns on the day where Josh Allen, who we'll get to in a second did not have to do anything in this game.
- [47:23]
Matthew Berry
No super annoying. As somebody who has a lot of Josh Allen and not a lot of James Cook this year, this is a, this is a super annoying game. But look as we talked about here, James Cook has to have touchdown regression just hasn't come anytime soon. He was awesome. We're just waiting for no, listen, he's had at least 21 fantasy points in both games this season. They paid him for a reason. He's back to being, you know, a top 15 fantasy running back. Those of those of you who faded him in the preseason sheepishly raises my hand looking looking a little foolish because the usage has been there especially in scoring position.
- [47:57]
Conor Rodd
A more difficult one to figure out. Seattle's backfield J Kenneth Walker has the day 13 carries over 100 yards and a touchdown. But Zach Charbonnet still got a ton of work where this one to short term celebrate. I don't know what the long term outlook is for this duo.
- [48:11]
Jay Croucher
Good news is Ken Walker looked amazing. He was 13 from 105. He just looked like Peak Ken Walker. The underlying stats are amazing there too. Bad news is he played 23 snaps which was 50% less than Zach Charbonnet played. I think I'm now back to preferring Ken Walker just because of the upside and he just looked a lot better than Charbonnet. But I think this was just going to be a weekly nightmare at this point.
- [48:31]
Matthew Berry
I think, I think that's exactly right. I think it's going to be sort of a weekly hot hand approach. And like in week one, Charbonnet was looking better. This week, Ken Walker, I agree with you, look shot out of a cannon. They're both flex plays and I think if you have one or the other, you're just going to sort of start and hope it's their week. If you have both of them. Yeah, good luck. It's going to be tough because your point. To your point, he played 36% of the snaps. He just looked a lot better than Charbonnet in week two.
- [48:53]
Conor Rodd
How about a welcome back to Hunter Renfro on Weekend Warriors. This is with Devonte Adams. It's not turning back the clock. With Hunter Renfro, it is turning back the clock. Caught seven to nine targets, 48 yards, but two touchdowns. Matthew.
- [49:04]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, the touchdowns are a bit fluky, but I have to tell you, like so far in two seasons, like we love him personally. Friend of the podcast, Xavier Leggette. But like he. It just. It's not happening for him. No, it's not. He's just not being able to. So obviously, you know, Ted Roa McMillan is just a target hog. But after him, like there's as we sort of talked about with Wandell Robinson, somebody has to be the number two pass catcher on this team. And until Jalen Coker comes back, it's Hunter Renfro.
- [49:31]
Conor Rodd
Yep.
- [49:31]
Matthew Berry
It just almost like Adam Thielen, you've got Hubbard, but like Leggetta's just not doing anything.
- [49:37]
Conor Rodd
No, this was what happened when Adam Thielen was solid there.
- [49:40]
Matthew Berry
Yeah.
- [49:40]
Conor Rodd
Is it just felt like there was somebody always taking away the targets you expect for Leggette. All right, let's go to Sunday scaries, guys. And headlined by. Listen, you got to give Jake credit. It's the end for Derrick Henry. Hold it. Seven carries, 23 yards. It's a good career for Derek Henry. Week two against the Browns, not so great.
- [49:56]
Jay Croucher
No, not great at all. I didn't, to be honest, to be fair, I didn't know we could have these games in this Baltimore offense to go 11 for 23. It was just a strange game for the Baltimore offense in general. So I think you've got to downgrade that a little bit. But I mean, Henry, I guess these games are Possible when you only really play half the snaps for a lot of the time.
- [50:14]
Matthew Berry
Yeah. I mean, just kind of a game script went weird and they had like first and goal at the three and you're like, oh, here comes Derek Henry. And then like, you know, they try to play and tackle and blah, blah, blah. And anyway, he just never gets into the end zone. It was just a weird game. What are you going to do? I will say though, Derek Henry's bad game. Along with Chase Brown, Cortland Sutton, Sam Laporta and Jakory, Crosky Merritt, all on my team. All of them combined to have less than Ramondre Stevenson, who backup producer Pete started. Backup producer Pete washing me. Just absolutely destroying me.
- [50:46]
Conor Rodd
It's not great.
- [50:47]
Matthew Berry
He's doubling me up this week.
- [50:48]
Jay Croucher
You hate to say the champs 02.
- [50:49]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, exactly. I'm the chief.
- [50:51]
Conor Rodd
You know what they say about 02. Not a lot of team.
- [50:53]
Matthew Berry
I know, I know.
- [50:54]
Conor Rodd
Big adversity for you. Gut check out.
- [50:56]
Matthew Berry
Adversity. Gut check. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be tough. We'll have to see how I play. But I mean, seriously, like, Pete is just destroying me. He's going to wind up with the highest score in the league. But I wouldn't have beaten anyone. Like my entire team didn't show up. Darnell Mooney, four points.
- [51:09]
Jay Croucher
Okay, Chubby lad, the daddy's two and rugged off.
- [51:13]
Matthew Berry
Well done.
- [51:13]
Conor Rodd
Fantasy life comments are just steamrolling everyone's bathroom.
- [51:16]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, I'm glad at least that someone on this table is doing it. Tough game. We talked about this because Josh Allen was so good and because your jets literally didn't show up.
- [51:24]
Conor Rodd
They were out of this game after the first quarter. So Josh Allen didn't need to do anything?
- [51:27]
Matthew Berry
No. He averaged under six yards per pass attempt. His first game with zero touchdowns since week four of last year. Speaking of the jets, they just imploded. Justin Fields was brutal. He leaves the game with a concussion, but he wasn't doing much prior to that and neither was Breece Hall.
- [51:41]
Conor Rodd
Right. And they were down by 20 points almost instantly. So took away the run game, which took away Breece Hall. So a tough week for Breece hall after a very strong week one. Marvin Harrison Jr. With a quiet game as well. And this is what kind of drove us nuts last year. Matthew, he, you know, has a good week where you're like, okay, this is it. And then he has a 2 for 27 yards kind of week. Tyler also weird decisions in this game.
- [52:02]
Matthew Berry
Tyler did not have a good game. Cardinals are lucky to get away with a win in this one. Only the Panthers implosion saved them. But 20% target share through only two games this season. Like they're not getting them the ball in a significant way as well. And it's weird they didn't even try to Target them downfield. 5.4 Average depth of target in this one. Hopefully better days are ahead for Marvin Harrison. We're out of time. I'll just say the Vikings are a disaster. That offense last night was absolutely brutal.
- [52:27]
Conor Rodd
Taking our last break. When we're back. Last call. Monday Night Football doubleheader. We got our best bets for you right after this. DraftKings sportsbook is an official sports betting partner of the NFL. New customers commit $5 and get $200 in bonus bet. That's instantly and $200 off NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube TV. Just download the sportsbook app and use promo code FFHH when you sign up. DraftKingsportsbook on the crown, it is yours.
- [52:56]
Jay Croucher
Okay, crown is yours.
- [52:58]
Conor Rodd
Crown is yours. Let's take a look at the most bet player props for the Monday Night Games here with Justin Herbert's alt passing yards 250 plus is minus 120 leading the board. Baker Mayfield. Ultimate passing passing touchdowns two pluses, second at plus 108.
- [53:15]
Matthew Berry
Jay, what do you think of that? At plus money, Baker throwing two.
- [53:19]
Jay Croucher
Sure.
- [53:20]
Conor Rodd
I think. I think it's faith in the Texans defense. Yeah, like Baker Mayfield, two touchdowns should typically always be in the minus territory. So a lot of faith in the Texans defense.
- [53:30]
Jay Croucher
I mean, what did The Rams score 14 points against the Texans? It might be the best defense in football.
- [53:36]
Conor Rodd
They have to be.
- [53:37]
Jay Croucher
The Raiders are not the best defense in football. And my man Justin Herbert Denver was.
- [53:41]
Matthew Berry
The best defense until Danny Dimes. Cargill loves, so you never know.
- [53:44]
Jay Croucher
Exactly. So I think that Justin Herbert is going to replicate his performance in Brazil and continue to throw the ball at a very high rate. I think the beneficiary of that is going to be the great lad McConkey who people are freaking out about because Quentin Johnston went off in Sao Paulo and so did Keenan Allen. This offense, the passing game still goes through lad McConkey. Like him over five and a half receptions. He played almost every passing snap in week one. He'll get more usage.
- [54:09]
Matthew Berry
He'll be. He'll be.
- [54:12]
Conor Rodd
That's a really good number. Five and a half. I like that.
- [54:14]
Matthew Berry
Ladalicious. Not bad, but McConculous is better.
- [54:18]
Jay Croucher
Okay, sure.
- [54:18]
Conor Rodd
I think it'll be. I think it'll. I agree with you. I Think it'll be a good night for the Chargers offense, but I expect the Raiders to hang around. I'm going to take them getting three and a half points. I think Pete Carroll's Raiders team this year is going to be very feisty, very annoying. People Forget they are 10 by the way. And it's looking positive for Brock Bowers.
- [54:34]
Matthew Berry
To play in this game, which is fantastic. But Brock Bowers, even if he plays maybe less than 100%. I agree with you, Gino. Looking good. I think they hang around. So Jacob, Kobe Myers over 63.5 receiving yards. Look, guy had a 30% target share in week one. He's been over this number in five of his last eight games dating back to last season. And remember, in week one the Chargers allowed the second most yards to the slot. Myers can move all over, including playing out of the slot. So they'll try to get him some easy catches. So yes, give me Jacob Myers over 63 and a half receiving yards tonight. We're all in the Raiders Chargers as an area to bet tonight.
- [55:09]
Conor Rodd
Weird choice by us, meaning we have to stay up until God knows when to see if the bet's cash.
- [55:13]
Jay Croucher
But that's the East Coast Football Bowl Fans drink Fredovar.
- [55:15]
Conor Rodd
Yes, that's right. Here's Matthew's top players in the game. Justin Herbert comes in as a top 10 play at quarterback. Geno Smith as a top 20 play at quarterback. Hopefully a big week for the rookies in Ashton Genty and amarian Hampton.
- [55:28]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, Q.J. i still have a wide receiver, 44. I think last week was a fluke. We'll see if he gets more usage. I do think Keenan Allen is viable as a low end wide receiver. 3 Tonight we move to the Buccaneers at the Texans. Again, we think this is more of a defensive battle. Can Nick Chubb get anything going? I'm outside my top 30 obviously. Starting Bucky Irving and Nico Collins. But I have both quarterbacks outside my top 10 this week.
- [55:49]
Jay Croucher
Tough matchup. Excited to see the Chubbler tonight.
- [55:52]
Matthew Berry
Yes, the original Chubbler.
- [55:53]
Jay Croucher
Yes, the original Chubbler. The OC running into the wall, that is Vita Van.
- [55:56]
Matthew Berry
Yeah, it's closing time. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. For Jay and Connor, I'm Matthew Barry. May your Monday night miracles come through. We'll see you tomorrow. Peace.