Beyond the Box Score: Broncos-Commanders, Bucs Offense, Justin Jefferson, Javonte Williams and More (12/01 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Fantasy Football Today: Beyond the Box Score — Broncos-Commanders, Bucs Offense, Justin Jefferson, Javonte Williams & More

Episode Date: December 1, 2025
Hosts: Adam Aizer, Dan Schneier, Jacob Gibbs

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Overview

This episode digs into the week's standout fantasy football storylines, focusing on a wild Broncos-Commanders game, updates on key running backs (Javonte Williams, Bucky Irving, Rico Dowdle), the troubling production of top receivers like Justin Jefferson, committee backfields across the NFL, and the enigma that is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense. The crew also dives deep into under-the-radar players, gives actionable usage stats, and debates start/sit and rest-of-season ranks.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Broncos vs. Commanders: What Did We Learn?

(Starts ~02:10, main talk 02:58–07:40)

• Game Recap:
  Denver outlasted Washington, 27–26, in overtime. Terry McLaurin starred (7 rec, 96 yds, TD, 14 targets).

• Big Takeaway (Jacob):
  R.J. Harvey's red zone dominance:

  “50% of the snaps for Harvey in the red zone compared to 8% for McLaughlin... makes me wonder if this 21 points is really sustainable.” (03:21)

  The Broncos’ offense “just didn’t look good to me. I wanted them to roll and look good and it just didn’t.” — Adam (05:07)

  Caution with Denver options:

  “There’s no must start. To me, Harvey would be the closest one.” — Adam (05:41)

• Corland Sutton usage:
  Encouraging out of the bye, but only 6 targets on 45 Bo Nix attempts.

  “He just doesn’t get targeted that much. It continues here.” — Adam (06:53)

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2. Terry McLaurin’s Outlook, WR Usage Trends

(06:54–08:33)

• McLaurin’s big week (31% target share, borderline WR1 rest-of-season if QB upgrade comes).
• McLaurin “looked really good... I’m not excited about him winning a league, but he could certainly be a must start.” — Dan (07:52)
• “He’s only hit that 31% target share six times over the past three years.” — Jacob (08:25)

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3. Other Game Notes: RB and Offense Deep Dives

(19:30–28:37)

• Chase Brown (Bengals):
  Snap share split with Samaje Perine is real.

  “If Perine were out, I think Chase Brown could be a top 5 RB; with Perine in, still top 12.” — Adam (20:36)

• Travis Etienne (Jaguars):
  Red-zone role threatened by Bashaultun.

  “32% snap for Tutin, 50% red zone snaps and he had 3 touches to 0 for Etienne... That’s a problem.” — Jacob (22:16)

• Isaiah Pacheco (Chiefs):
  Only 3 of 17 RB runs and 27% snaps in return.

• Steelers Backfield:
  Jalen Warren back to 56% snap share, “trending in the right direction.” — Jacob (24:14)

• Kenneth Walker vs. Zach Charbonnet (Seahawks):
  Walker still with lead role, but Charbonnet sees red zone, short yardage work evening out.

  “I feel all right starting Walker week to week and would be really nervous if you ever have to start Charbonnet.” — Jacob (25:51)

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4. Wide Receiver and Tight End Notes: Usage & Trends

(27:28–34:05)

• Kyle Pitts (Falcons):
  93% route participation, career-high YAC; “maybe you can start Kyle Pitts.” — Jacob (27:54)

• A.D. Mitchell (Jets):
  Breakout performance with 39% target share and 58% of air yards.

  “If they can build that rhythm, he could legitimately be fantasy relevant.” — Jacob (31:40)

• David Njoku / Harold Fannin Jr. (Browns):
  Fannin’s tight end usage is “unique” and “so focused on him, you do have a good floor.” — Jacob (33:04)

• Detroit WR Isaac Tesla:
  97% route rate; could matter if Amon-Ra St. Brown’s ankle sidelines him longer.

• Darnell Washington (Steelers):
  “He only had four targets... but I think we might have something here, honestly, with Darnell Washington.” — Adam (34:07)

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5. Bucs Offense: Chris Godwin & Emeka Egbuka

(Last portion, 34:40–37:36, with return again at 59:14–60:14)

• Godwin’s usage up:
  “When he’s been on the field last two weeks, Godwin’s had nine targets; Abuka’s had seven; no other player more than three.” — Adam (34:54)
• Emeka Egbuka & Justin Jefferson:
  Heavy target share, but extremely low production since Week 7.

  “Jefferson’s been like 3/10ths of a point better per game than a Egbuka. They’re both really killing you right now.” — Adam (36:58)

• “What’s going on with Baker Mayfield? Can we get a good game from Baker for once?” — Adam (60:06)

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6. Buy or Sell: Key Fantasy Takes

(42:12–59:32)

• Justin Jefferson:
  Should he be ranked outside the top-30 WRs?

  “If J.J. McCarthy is forced to miss more time, he should be.” — Dan (42:12)
  The Minnesota passing game has been historically bad.
  “Over the last 10 seasons, that would be the worst [passing yards per game] in the last decade.” — Adam (44:19) “Is he outside the top 30? That seems insane... but that’s basically where we’re at.” — Jacob (48:08)

• Kamani Vidal forcing a RB timeshare in Carolina:
  “Yeah, I've got some Vidal stats that are crazy... Seventh-most yards after contact in a game this year.” — Jacob (48:52)

• Ranking ROS: Bucky Irving, Javonte Williams, Rico Dowdle

  • Jacob: “Bucky, Javonte, Rico. But Bucky and Javonte are very close.” (50:48)
  • Dan: “Javonte, Bucky, then big drop off to Rico.” (50:52)
  • Adam: (agrees with Jacob)

• Javonte Williams:

  • Concerns about catch volume, but “still running extremely well... no concerns at all with Javonte.” — Jacob (54:30)
  • Adam compares his fantasy profile to Josh Jacobs, not high on upside unless the pass-game work picks up.

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7. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "Such a lousy Sunday of football. And then you give us Denver and Washington and totally redeem yourself." — Adam, playing off a Dumb & Dumber reference nobody else caught (01:33)
• On RB committees: "Stop, stop with the committees. Everyone just stop!" — Adam (23:00)
• “It’s a dream to have Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard... football guys are so funny to me.” — Jacob (59:20)
• On Darnell Washington: "He destroyed like six people. He went for 45 yards. I love him. He's becoming my favorite player." — Adam (34:05)

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Key Timestamps

• 02:58 — Commanders-Broncos Main Discussion
• 07:40 — McLaurin Usage & WR Outlooks
• 19:30 — Thursday RB Notes & Running Back Snap Shares
• 27:28 — Receiver & Tight End Usage
• 34:40 — Notable Player Breakouts and Deep Cuts (Darnell Washington, Isaac Tesla, etc)
• 42:12 — Buy/Sell: Justin Jefferson Value
• 50:48 — Buy/Sell: Bucky Irving vs. Javonte Williams vs. Rico Dowdle
• 59:14 — Bucs Offense, Baker Mayfield, Godwin/Egbuka latest

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Tone & Style

The podcast is candid, a bit self-deprecating, and full of banter, especially between Adam and Dan. They riff on pop culture, personal failings (fitness, diet, tennis struggles), and keep the fantasy talk accessible and fast-moving, frequently poking fun at themselves and each other.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

• If you own Broncos skill players, adjust expectations: No clear weekly must-starts, and usage is muddled.
• Terry McLaurin is trending up for the fantasy playoffs, especially if Washington’s QB situation improves.
• Committee backfields are killing upside for RBs like Etienne and Chase Brown, but usage still makes both RB2/flex plays.
• Justin Jefferson’s outlook is dire without QB help; don’t treat superstar WRs as untouchable when stuck in league-worst offenses.
• Watch for Bucky Irving to build on his recent workload and overtake declining options like Javonte Williams for rest-of-season production.
• Tampa’s offense is trending the wrong direction, with Godwin ascending but Baker Mayfield failing to deliver consistently.
• Under-the-radar names like A.D. Mitchell, Darnell Washington, and Isaac Tesla could be difference-makers in deep leagues or playoff schedules.
• Avoid chasing "names" over usage and context—focus on snap shares, red zone roles, and QB play, especially as playoffs approach.

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Listen for:

• Actionable RB/WR usage trends
• Bold rest-of-season tiers/rankings
• Practical waiver and start/sit guidance as fantasy playoffs near

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Notable Quotes Recap:

• “No must-starts in Denver... Harvey would be the closest one.” — Adam (05:41)
• “If JJ McCarthy is forced to miss more time, [Jefferson] should be [outside the top 30].” — Dan (42:12)
• “He only had four targets... but I think we might have something here, honestly, with Darnell Washington.” — Adam (34:07)

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For more in-depth stats, rest-of-season rankings, and to hear the FFT crew’s signature banter, check out the full episode!

Transcript

[A]

This weekend I'm heading to Gainesville for a Gator game. Cooler packed for the tailgate and I'm ready for the whole experience. And while I'm off cheering for my team in the swamp, I realize my home could be doing something for me while I'm away. You can host your home on Airbnb while you're gone. And it's such a smart way to earn a little extra money. So I started thinking just a few nights of hosting could help me cover my part of the trip. Maybe even fund some new merch from the UF bookstore or a few game day upgrades. It's super practical. You don't have to be glued to your phone or managing it constantly. Just open your space while you're out enjoying your weekend. We've hosted before when we went up to the Smoky Mountains and it was easy, straightforward, and totally worth it. So if you got a trip coming up, whether it's a football weekend, mini vacation or just some time away, hosting can be a smart way to make your home work for you. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host this is.

[B]

Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.

[C]

Wanna play?

[D]

Can you believe this?

[E]

No, I can't.

[B]

It's time to dominate your fantasy. This is gonna go the distance.

[E]

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.

[B]

Hey, what's up everybody? It is Monday. It's December. Holy moly. We're almost at the end of this season, December 1st, and it's Fantasy Football Today presented by BetMGM. Make it legendary. We're gonna make it legendary on beyond the Box Score today. Adam Mazer, Dan Schneier and Jacob Gibbs. Such a lousy Sunday of football. And then you give us Denver and Washington and totally redeem yourself. Dan doesn't get that reference.

[D]

What is it from Jacob.

[B]

Want to help him out?

[C]

It's really familiar, but I'm not placing right now.

[B]

I can't believe I just. You know what? Not even going to tell you guys. I'm going to let you guys live in shame for the next hour. Not even let you know.

[D]

Did you forget to shave this morning, Adam?

[B]

I didn't.

[D]

I didn't.

[B]

Intention. I didn't shave. I didn't forget to.

[D]

I've never seen you with this like.

[B]

Yes, you have.

[D]

Post five o' clock shadow with the. The grays are coming in.

[B]

Thanks, Dan.

[D]

Just kidding, buddy. You're stressed. It's the middle of football season.

[B]

Yeah, I'm not stressed. I'm just gray. I'm 42. I'm almost 42. 41 and a half. All right, let's go. So today we're going to talk about. I think we have to talk about Justin Jefferson just because. And Rico Dowdle, Bucky Irving, Javante Williams, the Chargers backfield and obviously Washington and Denver. I want to talk about the Bucks offense. We'll see if the Raiders did anything new with their new offensive coordinator. But let's go to Denver 27 and Washington 26. And really exciting game. Came down to a two point conversion in overtime. Welcome back Terry McLaurin. He scored over 20 fantasy points start of the week. RJ Harvey had two touchdowns. Jacob, big fantasy takeaway from this game.

[C]

H yeah, you love the, the red zone work for Harvey. I thought. I've been tracking their quotes on him pretty closely because I've been nervous about the McLaughlin touchdown right before the buy came in short yardage situation. But the team has talked about how like stout he is up the middle and that they really like him in those situations. I was glad to see him get those, get on the field for those plays because at times it's looked like they prefer the veteran there. But 50 of the the snaps for Harvey in the red zone compared to 8% snap rate for McLaughlin in the red zone. He got four carries and did score. I would like to see him on the field more. You know, 46 snap right. Overall makes me wonder if this, you know, 21 points is really that sustainable. Which by the way I think this was like the. I think I saw as I was looking at the beginning of stats earlier that was like the third highest score in all fantasy this week.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Can that possibly be right at any position? 21 points?

[B]

No. That's got to be maybe right? No, it's not even close. Maybe for Sunday. But Thursday we had some high scoring guys. You know JMO went off and.

[D]

Well I'm taking a look right now and let's filter out all the quarterbacks real quick because that doesn't count. Right.

[C]

All right, look, it's the 22nd highest score. I don't know what what that was. I was like that's not right.

[B]

All right. So yeah, we had our highest scoring non quarterbacks were A.J. brown, Bijan Robinson, Rasheed Rice, Jameson Williams, Dontavian Wick, C.D. lamb. So of the top six, five of them were on Thursday. So it does feel like you know he had a standout game and he was fine. R.J. harvey. But I'll just say this right, like we can, I Don't know if we need to get into every single player. The Denver Broncos scored 27 points in overtime against Washington. The last seven opponents against Washington in regulation, including Denver, have scored 25, 44, 28, 38, 44, 13 and 20 points. Denver average the fewest yards per play of any of those seven tied with Miami, which was the last two games for Washington. So maybe you think Washington's defense is getting better. My takeaway from this game was I did not come away feeling more confident about my Broncos after this game. I wanted them to go in here and roll and look good and it just didn't look good to me. It wasn't easy. And look, they play Las Vegas next week, which is favorable. But Green Bay, Jacksonville at Kansas City, you could argue two of their next four matchups are tough. I don't have a ton of faith in. I mean the Broncos offense is good, but it's, it's not like, like there's no must start. To me Harvey be the closest one.

[C]

I think the Corland Sutton usage is probably a takeaway. It's, you know, first game out of the buy and we'd seen like five straight games of him getting out targeted by Troy Franklin. But the offense wasn't working all that great. It was pretty clunky. I feel like even in those five games, even though they're winning. But we've seen the offense work pretty well with Sutton being the primary read in the past. And so that's kind of what we saw here. Of course Evan Ingram was the emphasis because it's like Bobby Wagner. Just like you gotta attack that match over and over if they're gonna give that to you. Especially if we saw him locking on Ingram. But Sutton did out target Franklin and Franklin, honestly, Pat Bryant was more involved than Frank.

[D]

Right.

[B]

That's the thing. Like you can be encouraged by Sutton, but he only had six targets and Bo Nix threw 45 passes. So this is a guy that. I talked about this on Friday where he ranks in target per out run rate. There are the only wide receiver that we consider a must start that had a lower target per out run rate than Sutton was. T. Higgins. He just doesn't get targeted that much. It continues here. All right, that's enough about the Broncos.

[D]

I don't know if I even consider them a, a good offense or him to be a must start player. They've got Jags, Chiefs, and there's one more tough. Oh, packers down the stretch run.

[B]

Yeah, I don't know how tough the Jaguars are, but it's not, it's not the commanders. It's. Right, it's not the commanders, but we did. I mean the most encouraging thing here is McLaurin right as he comes out. Now listen, Mariota through 50 passes was terrific. But McLaurin, seven catches, 96 yards and a touchdown, 14 targets. Saw a lot of Patrick certain, obviously boosted by overtime, but still had a big game. And he only ran 42.4% of the. No, sorry. That was his target per out run rate. But he played well.

[C]

He played like 60 route rate.

[B]

Okay. Yeah.

[D]

Right.

[B]

So not even a full time player last night. So Dan, are you fired up? Because we could get, we could get Jane Daniels next week, right? You fired up for McLaurin?

[D]

Yeah, for sure. I mean we've got Giants down the stretch run. We've got some decent matchups from McLaurin that I think he could exploit. He looked really good out there.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Honestly from just a route running standpoint, understand like I thought Collinsworth did a great job breaking down how he really does a great job of understanding what coverage defense is playing and where to be within that coverage. And he catches everything basically thrown his way. The exception of a few somewhat off target throws. So yeah, I mean I'm not excited about him like winning a league down the stretch run, but he could certainly be a player in this current fantasy environment that is not only a must start player but bordering wide receiver one in my mind with if Jading returns 31 target share.

[C]

So like it was boosted by the fact there were a ton of targets overall but like 31 target share. He's only hit that mark six times over the past three years. Right.

[B]

I, I don't know what to make of earths. I mean it was a great game for him but probably like Ertz and Ingram, you need eight points. You're probably going to get that most weeks from them. They just usually don't have a lot of upside. This was a weird game for them but Deebo to me just looks oh so slow. Looks like he's jogging out there. I mean I watched all of his routes. I mean that last one he had the 30 something yard catch, 38 yard catch, set up first and goal. Riley Moss just stopped. You know, I think Moss may have been gassed at that point, but he's not having a great year. Riley Moss, but I don't know man, Debo just. There's very little dynamic stuff there for him. I don't have a, I don't have a ton of faith in him going forward. Personally.

[C]

You want dynamics, you go to trail and Burks.

[B]

What'd you say?

[C]

Yeah, I said you want dynamic, you go to trailing Burks. We're back.

[B]

Yes. Jalen Burks with one of the, one of the best catches of the year. Sick catch.

[D]

That was a sick catch. He's an interesting player. As we move forward for Dynasty. Is he to me because Debo's not going to be back there.

[C]

Another takeaway that maybe goes under the radar is Chris Rodriguez like out of the buy. What is it going to be? Bill really wasn't hardly any Bill and it was, was pretty much primarily him. It was like 80% Rodriguez in the first quarter, 62% Rodriguez in the first half. As they, as the game got away from, they went to more McNichols and McNichols always seems to play well when given opportunities. But I thought Rodriguez looked good again.

[B]

He did, you know, only 11 carries and again zero catches. So I don't think he'll ever have more than. He's probably not gonna have more than one catch. He needs to have the 15 carries he had three weeks ago at Miami and not the 11 that he had this game and the 12, 6, 15, 11, 11. But you know what, he's playing well and it's good to have a starting running back on your team. I think that'll pretty much do it for Washington and Denver. But football fans, the commanders can't bring that playoff energy, but you can bring that playoff energy to your pro football bets all season long. This pro football boost pack gives you three ways to boost your payout on a winning bet. Just log into your BetMGM account to receive your boost pack. Then place any pro football bet and apply one of the tokens. Make sure to bet up to the minimum stake odds and legs specified on the token. And if your boosted bet hits, bam. You'll score a bigger payout. From opening kickoffs to game winning drives, this pro football boost pack is your ticket to unforgettable moments this season. Don't wait on the sidelines. Join the action with BetMGM.

[D]

All right.

[B]

Talk. Let's go through the news and notes here real quick. We've got Justin Herbert with the broken hand hoping to play next week. It's a Monday game against Philadelphia. He's ex. He's. I guess I shouldn't say he's expecting to play, but he's acting as if he's going to play. Shooter Sanders is going to start again at Tennessee next week. We have Aaron Jones with the shoulder injury, Dylan Sampson with A calf I'm on. Ross St. Brown ankle sprain doesn't seem to be a super long term thing. Parker Washington, hip injury. Marvin Harrison Jr. Heel injury. A lot of offensive line injuries. The Chiefs, the Vikings are particularly banged up right now on defense. The Cowboys have a couple of defensive back injuries. The packers lost the defensive lineman probably for the season. The Texans lost the safety. Steelers have a couple of injuries to keep an eye on. And that's about it. All right, you know what? We're flying through this show here. First of all, I've been told I look like I'm on a bender, which is not good. Not good. I didn't think I look that unpresentable today, but apparently I do. I definitely need a shower. I definitely need.

[D]

You need a shower?

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Not gonna lie. Just as a friend to friend.

[B]

Yeah, I know. I. I don't really. Let's see.

[D]

Thursday.

[B]

Thursday I went to pick up the food.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

For Thanksgiving, I don't think.

[D]

You didn't cook. You just picked up food.

[B]

Yeah, we ordered some, cooked and picked up.

[D]

Respect.

[B]

Never. Never cooking again. Never.

[D]

That was too good.

[B]

It was so good and it was so great to not cook.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't think I left the house since. Since Wednesday.

[D]

That's awesome.

[B]

No, it's not. It's not at all. I went outside, took the garbage out on Friday. I. I feel like I must have left once I brought the garbage in. Oh, I played tennis. I forgot I played tennis on Saturday. Got to see.

[D]

Oh, nice. How'd it go?

[B]

Oh, horrible.

[D]

Horrible.

[B]

Just got. Why again? I played the same guy who kicked the crap out of me last time. He's really good. And I just.

[D]

Yeah. You have no answer for his game.

[B]

No answer.

[D]

My brother got four. I played tennis this weekend too, with my brother. He got four games off of me in. In one of this. The second set. Same thing that happened against you. I just like lost. Yeah, he's not. It's the most he's ever gotten. I like, he's in such good shape and I'm in such horrific shape. I don't look like I should be in bad shape, but I'm in so much worse shape than I look. You do standpoint. I don't know what it is. He's like, you got to change your diet, man. You gotta do this and this and this. And I'm. I'm not gonna do any of that stuff. I don't think so. I'm just gonna keep getting winded in second sets and just like. It wasn't even the same. It's like player one in the first set, player two in the second set. It's not. I gotta figure it out because.

[C]

Are we blaming the butter?

[B]

Yeah, I was about to say you're.

[D]

Putting butter in your coffee. Butter in the coffee is actually better for you than you'd imagine.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[D]

It's just fat. There's no carbs in it and you burn it off. But it's the late night junk food that I eat. Every single, like almost everything. It's just. It's not a good setup. I need to get control of this. I need to start doing some, like, hiit workouts, whatever those are called. I just can't have these second sets.

[B]

Let's make a pack. You and me, after. No. No eating after 9pm.

[D]

I would love to do that. I just think that'll break that pack within one day.

[B]

No, let's try it because I'll. Yeah, I would too. But if. If you can do it, then I can do it.

[D]

The difference.

[B]

You can do it.

[D]

You are at home after 9pm which I can control. I don't eat like crap at home. I'm not saying you can control that. I'm just saying for me, that's not my issue. I play in some poker games at some nights and then I eat like crap in those games. They're all catered and blah, blah, blah.

[B]

You got a lot of vices, Dan. All right, let's get it.

[D]

Changed my lifestyle. Yeah, I have a lot of vices.

[B]

I wanted to read a quote from the AP recap of Buffalo Pittsburgh. It said, quote, the swirling winds at one of the league's trickiest venues made passing nearly impossible for both teams. So keep that in mind. Khalil Shakir had a horrible game. Here's another trend I've noticed with Khalil Shakir. He played 49% of the snaps. If you look at Khalil, you know what, I'm not even going to tell you. I'm going to show you in a minute here. But Khalil Shakir, I'll come back to that because it's so cool. Justin Herbert, he. 40% of his throws were under two and a half seconds. That's down quite a bit from the previous two weeks. His deep ball rate was up. They actually looked like a normal offense. He wasn't great. He threw a touchdown. He threw an interception in the end zone one play after coming up a yard or two short of a touchdown. So the stats could have been better. Herbert missed some time with the Hand injury, threw only 20 passes. But I think it was at least good to see the Chargers offense look like a functional offense. Now we just have to see how it looks with the hand injury.

[D]

That's against the Raiders defense, though.

[B]

Yeah, it was. Yeah. They have. Who do they have next week? Oh, the Eagles. Yeah. So it's.

[D]

There were definitely a few. Few reps where I. Pipkins definitely held Crosby coming around. They just don't. They're not going to call every hold, but it is what it is. I. I feel more concerned on that offense. I feel more concerned about Jacob and I's boy around the Gadsden. I. I mean, the involvement is just so down from where it was when he debuted with those two breakout weeks.

[B]

Yeah, I feel concerned about everyone and maybe even a Marian Hampton, who we'll talk about. All right. Ready?

[D]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[B]

I'm gonna show this Khalil Shakir thing, and then we're gonna take a break. But this is Khalil Shakir snapshare. Let me zoom in a little bit more here. I never know how much to zoom. Too much. Get out of here. Video. All right, well, anyway, I'm botching this. See a snapshare there and see the score when they blow opponents out, he plays 50% of the snaps. He does almost nothing. So Khalil Shakir, they're facing the Bengals, then the Patriots. Next two weeks. Those should be nice competitive games. They got Cleveland after that, that's probably a blowout. And Philadelphia, I think Bengals, Patriots and Eagles and three of their next four games. You should have some competitive games. You should have more snaps, more pass attempts, more targets for Khalil Shakir.

[D]

You hope. Yeah.

[B]

All right, guys, we take a quick break. We'll let Jacob talk when we come back.

[F]

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[G]

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[H]

Here's my 32nd story with Guinness as.

[B]

Soon as my sister and I get.

[H]

Home for the holidays, we don't even unpack. We head straight to our pub. The bartender already knows our Guinness and fries. We laugh all night, catch up with old friends and walk home with faces sore from smiling. It's one of my favorite nights of the year. That was my 32nd story with Guinness.

[C]

Guinness drafts out. Please enjoy responsibly Imported by Diageo Beer Co. USA New York, NY.

[B]

Jacob what stood out to you in terms of anything?

[C]

Life Got a lot of yeah, I got a lot of snap notes. We'll start with some of the Thursday stuff. So Cabanange I think continues to earn a bigger role for Chicago, especially in short yardage situations. So he had a 60 red zone snap rate on Thursday's game four or five running back touches in the red zone finishes with 22 runs for 130 yards and a touchdown. The Eagles had not allowed a 100 yard rusher on the year. They some run games have been able to get after the Eagles on the ground, but not like this. And so I just want to point all of that out. This Bears offense has just been so freaking good with the ground game and of course that's been all over Twitter since Thursday. Lots of fun. Ben Johnson clippable plays to share but it's like as you look forward to the rest of this this season, I don't really see why this is going to change or who's going to slow this down. And so I feel, I feel pretty good about both of these guys. I'm a non guy has been the one who's been getting the short yardage work, the red zone work and so if this keeps being a high scoring offense, I think he's a decent flex plan his own. And again if something is to have were to happen to Swift, then we're looking at like a top eight top 10, top 12 type of fantasy running back for the Bengals in the Thursday night game. I thought it was interesting how involved Samajp Ryan is was we still got a lot of Chase Brown, a lot of targets and everything so it was basically kind of what we've been getting but some of the underlying stuff wasn't quite as good. 59 snap right for Chase Brown to 41 for P. Ryan. There were a Lot of runs for P. Ryan, which was weird to me. And it wasn't just the second half of this weird blowout game. Six runs for Chase Brown to four for P. Ryan in the first half. So are you guys worried about that one at all? I don't think I've heard anyone talk about this.

[B]

Yeah, I worried. Yeah. I mean, I think you look. We liked Chase Brown because Joe Burrow was gonna kind of, you know, make this offense great and Brown I think is good. I think Brown's gonna mostly work near the goal line. They'll mix P. Ryan in a little bit, especially on third down. Third down is P. Ryan's down. But yeah, it's. It's like Chase Brown. If P. Ryan were out, I think Chase Brown could be a top five running back rest of season with P. Ryan in. I still think top 12 with Burrow and P. Ryan.

[D]

That's about right because last season when he did kind of break out down the stretch and we. He was a lot of ways a league winner for a lot of teams. It was with the injuries at running back and it was with that the, you know, no P. Ryan stealing some of the touches, stealing the third down work. So top 12 seems fair to me down the stretch run for sure.

[B]

I only say top 12 because they're almost every freaking running back now is dealing with something, someone.

[D]

Yeah, right, right.

[B]

So it. I think it's the catches are going to make or break it for Chase Brown, but also I'm guessing over his last six games, he's probably averaging close to five yards per carry. I don't know. Just off the top of my head, he has been so efficient. I think their lines playing really well actually. And I don't know, I think arrow's pointing up in general for the Bengals offense now and he'll benefit from that, but certainly he'll be affected by P. Ryan.

[C]

Alrighty. Speaking of, you know, pretty much everybody running, every running back is dealing with it. Travis etn. We saw Bashaltun maybe a little bit healthier in his second game after that ankle sprain continued to cut into the work, especially in the red zone. This is kind of like the Swift manangai thing. So 47 snap rate for Etna to 32% for Tutin, 12 runs for Etn to eight for Tutin. But Tudin had 50% of the red zone snaps and he had three touches in the red zone to zero for Etn. They came on two different drives. The second one. So the first one came after a big play from Jacoby Meyer. So that could have just been the fact that he was in the game already. But the second one, he specifically came in for short yardage reps and then stayed on the field and capped it off with a touchdown. So that is a problem, I think, for etn. I don't know if Tune is necessarily going to take a larger role, but they didn't run very much or very effectively in this game. And so that left ETN managers with basically nothing.

[B]

Yeah, one of the busts of the week. Yep. And he'd been playing so well. It sucks. I don't get it. Stop, stop with the committees. Everyone just stopped.

[D]

Quick breaking news to get in. Todd Bull said it's a possibility Mike Evans could return to practice this week. I did not see that coming this early. That's. That could be really nice for fantasy managers.

[C]

For Kansas City.

[B]

Sorry, go ahead.

[C]

Isaiah Pacheco returned 27 snap rate. Only 3 of 17 running back runs. The other 14 snap rate, Pacheco might get more involved. I thought he had a. He gave them a couple big plays, so we'll see. But it was pretty much all Kareem Hunt for the Saints. Devin Neal making a start for Alvin camara had an 81 snap rate and 71 route rate. So those are both really, really strong. It's on the Saints. Maybe he'll not get red zone touches, but we didn't really see a ton of taste in Hill in this one. So I mean those are massive rates. And I think he's, he's pretty much like if you just combine Tony Pollard and Ty J. Spears playing time into one player, you know you, you basically have like 8 to 10 PPR points. So floor is what it feels like with this role.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

For the Steelers, Jalen Warren did get more work this week I thought looked good. So what it seems like we're turning in the right direction with his health, hopefully to close out the season and some good matchups here. I think he's somebody who can hopefully start to close out this season. 56 snap rate for Warren had 14 touches to eight for Kenny Gainwell and two for Caleb Johnson. And it is the time of the week where we talk about the Seattle Seahawks once again. Either the usage is better for Kenneth Walker, but it doesn't matter. Zach Charbonnet, of course outscores him. Barely did rip off. It was a nice run, 17 yard touchdown run. And Charbonnet was the running back on the field for the two red zone drives in this game. But over the two previous games, Kenneth Walker was on the field for 68 of the short down and distance reps. So that's when three or fewer yards are needed to gain a first down or a touchdown. Walker was out there for 68 of the snaps. He out touched Charbonnet 8 to 1 in short down and distance situations over the past two games. So I don't think that the fact that Charbonnet happened to be out there for like four plays or whatever in the red zone this week means that it's his role necessarily. That's not what it looked like like as I dug into this but we'll we don't really know but prior to the week eight by it was like clearly his role. He had 69 Charbonnet of those short down distance snaps since the weekday by it's been 50 so it's pretty much even could go to either one of them in short down and distance situations. And then clearly and by the way Walker has more of those touches in those situations since the week gave by and has out snapped him overall straight games. This one was another one and then they're also throwing in the ball. He has a route rate of 50 or higher in each of the past two games after only hitting that rate once through the first 11 games or whatever. And he has three targets in each of the past games. So I feel all right starting Walker week to week and I would be really nervous if you had to ever start. Charbonnet is where I'm at with these two but Charming is a pretty good player and they can run on people for sure and they can score a lot of points. So he's not the worst flex okay the receiver tight end notes are pretty quick and a lot of really weird players here so I think this will be fun. BTJ was back 84 rot rate for him, 81 route rate for Brenton Strange scored the touchdown. So I think that you can start those guys but I don't really know what Jackson was going to do. They've been all over the place week to week. Kyle Pitts 93 route rate for Pitts and had a bunch of targets. He had a bunch of yards after the catch and it wasn't just like one long yard after the catch play. He had at least 4 yards after the catch on every single catch. This was a career high in yak for Pittsburgh. So it seems like they obviously want to run the ball Atlanta but they know like the limitations the Kirk Cousins has right now and so the office is kind of predicated on like getting pits going, getting him moving before the snap, at the snap, catching the ball and then running. And it worked pretty well in this one. So maybe you can start Kyle Pitts.

[B]

Yeah, I thought we talked about this yesterday on the show. I mean, Heath isn't so optimistic that Drake London is going to come back, but if Drake London comes back, then I'm not really going to be too fired up about starting pits. I gotta be honest, I was a little worried. Not in the sense that I was ever considering sitting him, but a little bit worried about Bijan Robinson going into this game because I, I mean, and I actually watched a lot of this game. I just think their offense is garbage right now. Bijan, of course, scores 30 fantasy points, but he was superhuman in this game. He was unbelievable. And I do think there's some duds. He could, he could struggle. He could struggle against Seattle next week. He really, you know, they're not going to do it. This is not actionable. Bijan's the man. You're never going to sit him. But I did not come away with that game, from that game impressed with Atlanta's offense. I think they suck. So I think Seattle's gonna make them quite humble next week. And yeah, Pitts, though Seattle does struggle with tight ends. So if London's out and then maybe you go with pits. But this, I think Cousins is just not going to get it done and I'm not super optimistic about them going forward.

[D]

Moving back.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Oh, yeah, go ahead.

[C]

Me either. I was just going to keep it moving. You got more pit stuff.

[D]

I want to go back, actually, one game. The one thing I. My key takeaway from one of the games, just watching it back today this morning, was watching some of the routes. Jaguars. I have a strong. Maybe it's a gut feel. I have a good feeling about Jacoby Myers rest of season. I think it maybe took some time for him to get ingratiated into the offense. That's only going to improve his rapport with Trevor Lawrence. Just looking back at all of the ways that Lawrence has won in this Liam Cohen system, a lot of it has been through the slot. A lot of them has been through players like Parker Washington who are now. Who's now injured. If I'm making a bet down the stretch run, it's not btj, it's going to be Jacoby Myers. So I think could be really big down the stretch run there.

[B]

Okay. All right. What else you got, Jacob? Oh, actually, wait, can I, Can I tell everybody to go rock the vote?

[D]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[B]

We got. What do we got?

[D]

Where Are we at in this bracket?

[B]

Somebody. We're in the Elite eight, bro.

[D]

Finally. I've been voting. I. I was again very dis. Very disappointed in our seating. But it is what it is and as you can see, we knocked off the two seed. Yeah. Now it looks like we knocked off. Oh, the fantasy footballers. What were they the three seed? Is that right? No, they were the six seed. Wow. Okay.

[B]

They were underseated. They were underseated too.

[D]

They were also underseated. We're doing great out here. What do we have left? Paul Allen. We got a beat out. We're not. Part of my take is in this. That's gonna be.

[B]

That's gonna be. If we get to the championship is going to be Pat McAfee or part of my take. Probably. But Anyway, go to the64.com and vote in the best sports podcast radio show challenge. We're in the Elite eight and the voting for this round ends today. Monday. So please go and vote for fantasy football today. It is super quick. Just you give your cell phone number, they text you a code, you type it in, you vote for fft. You can vote for the other ones too. And we'll keep it going. We'll try to win.

[D]

And thank you for all you who voted.

[B]

Very thankful. Speaking of thankful, we have a good Thanksgiving related poll on YouTube but Jacob, you want to finish up your wide receiver and tight end notes?

[C]

Yeah, for sure. I've got. We've seen questions in the chat. A lot of people asking about Jackson Smith at Jigba and Sam Darnold. We're going to talk about them on tomorrow's beyond the box score for sure. Let's stay in this Atlanta game. On the other side of the ball, we saw the ad Mitchell breakout finally.39 target share, 58 of the air yards. It's still Mitchell and John Mechi as the two primary route runners for the Jets. And I think like we saw if as long as Mitchell can like not drop the ball, if he's like getting open and they, they start to build that rhythm, I think that Tyra is just going to keep going back to him because he's so clearly the best separator on the team. Met you has done well. But like Mitchell is just the guy who can get open in different areas of the field over and over. And so like if they can get that rhythm going and that confidence going, I think it legitimately could be fantasy relevant. Obviously it was in a, in a big way this week. You don't. We're talking about you know, do you want to. Do you feel good betting on Cal Pitts? Like, do you feel good putting your fantasy championship run in the hands of A.D. mitchell and the Jets? Probably not. But if you want just a free shot of upside, like, he could give you 15, 20 points. Like we just saw in we in week 13. The underlying data all supports it.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And this is some. He's been one of the best separators in the league since he got here. Like, it's just been about converting on it.

[B]

That trade, that dynasty trade that dan made for A.D. mitchell is finally going to pay off.

[D]

Well, it's an interesting one. It was. It ended up being Diggs. I get Diggs and Mitchell, you get lad McConkey. So I still think you won that.

[B]

I did, yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

But let's not laugh it off. Like, it was an obvious win. It was like a early second for a late second at the time. And Diggs, when he was like, going into that Texan season, I was, you know, I was playing in a win now situation. This wasn't a recent.

[B]

And he wins. He wins all the time. Except I don't think he's gonna win this week.

[C]

All right, two more notes. Harold Bannon Jr. 93% route rate. Highest mark of the year for Harold Fannin Jr. Only at 37% route rate for David and Joku. So it's like he had the highest route rate on the team. Even higher than the wide receivers. 22% target share. It's been above 20% in like eight straight games or something. Like, this is really unique usage for a tight end. I know it's on the Cleveland Browns, but, like, it's so focused on him. So you actually kind of do have a good floor. It's weird to say that because, yeah.

[D]

They throw for 110 yards.

[C]

Yeah. There's an outcome any given week where it could fall out and you could get like two catches for eight yards or whatever. But, like, most of the time, if you just simulate it like 100 times, like, most of those times, you're gonna get this 47 yards and six catches or whatever. And, like, have a pretty good fantasy floor, which you don't have very many tight ends that give you that kind of stability. But any, any tight end can bust, basically is where I'm at. Your Last note is 97 route rate for Isaac Tesla. I don't know if that's ever going to matter, but, like, if Imanor St. Brown is out and then they know that moving forward, maybe they do base more of the offense around him. Dan Campbell has been quoted as like saying that, like, it's time, it's time for him to get more targets. It's time for him to get like, be a bigger part of the offense. Before the same Brown injury, they're like, we've, we've needed him to like kind of show us that he can do the things and be in the right place. And he's done that. He's done everything we've asked of him. And so we think he's gonna be a bigger part of the offense going forward. So we'll see. Only at two targets in this game.

[B]

You're forgetting the most important one here, this comment from Jim. I'm gonna pick up that 320 pound tight end for Pittsburgh. He had an 80% route participation rate. Washington, he only had four targets. He caught two of them. He destroyed like six people. He went for 45 yards. I love him. He's becoming my favorite player. And I really hope I, I'm gonna guess his yards per catch is like through.

[D]

I wanted the Giants to draft Darnell Washington so badly when he was.

[C]

I was just about to look it up because I'm like, on a per opportunity basis, I bet he's been pretty good. 1.8 yards per outrun this year. That's pretty Dang Good.

[B]

Yeah, man. 12.5 yards per catch for Darnell Washington. 7.4 yards after the catch for him. No one wants to tackle him. I actually think this could be something. I really do. They're desperate for anything for. I wouldn't even say a number two receiver because their number ones do it. Nothing. They're. They're desperate for a number one option. You're not saying he's going to lead them in targets, but Washington getting an 80% route rate. Now. Dave was telling me that they use him specifically against either 4, 3 or 3. Four defenses. I think 4, 3, because you look at his route rate, it goes up and down, up and down. Like you think, oh, they're using him. And then next week, nothing but or not or very little but. I don't know. I think we might have something here, honestly with Darnell Washington. I'll finish up with a few things here. I think you mentioned pretty much everything I was going to say, actually, except you want like a couple of wide receivers who are playing a ton and for 16 team leagues or whatever, maybe 14. Devon Vale for the Saints, David Sill for the Falcons. Sils has a touchdown and two strikes. Yeah. These guys. Yeah, whatever. I think that's pretty much all I had. Oh, the Bucks, the Bucks offense. I mean the Bucks offense. I wish it were part of the buy or sell, but Chris Godwin 67 of the snaps, ran 67 of the routes. When he has been on the field over the last two weeks, Godwin's had nine targets, Abukas had seven and no other players had more than three. I think if you look at the four games that he's played, it does not paint a good picture for Kate Otten. What's going on with Abuka right now? Well, let's just take since week seven because he got hurt in week six and then week seven, everything's kind of falling apart for Abuka. He's wide receiver 36 per game and he is just behind number 35 per game, Justin Jefferson. They have very, very similar stats. They both have a ton of targets. Like since week seven, Abuka is wide receiver 36 per game with the fourth most targets at the position and sixth in target share on pace for 167 targets. He's doing nothing with them. 42.4% catch rate. A lot of, you know, downfield stuff. Baker's been a little bit off again. It's two weeks in a row now. I've watched all the routes where he's, you know, had some opportunities for chunk plays. It just happened, happened. He had a drop in this game that would have been about a 15 yard or 12 to 15 yard catch. But I don't know, I don't really know how to explain it. But the Godwin development, not great. Because Godwin's getting a ton of targets when he's on the field. The Evans development, not great. The Jalen McMillan development, not great. So it's funny, everyone's just so that Justin Jefferson, since week seven, Jefferson's been like three tenths of a point better per game than a Booka. They're both really killing you right now. All right, let's take a break, come back, actually have a bonus Fantasy Cops I want to get to. We'll talk about Justin Jefferson. Yeah, baby. Justin Jefferson and more after this.

[I]

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[D]

Let's drive.

[J]

What's good, y'?

[C]

All?

[J]

It's Vaughn Miller, Super Bowl MVP Sagmaster, and now your host of Free Range. This is where NFL meets Real Talk. Every week I'm bringing you inside the game. From locker room stories to league wide headlines. You want football iq, locker room insight and real conversations with the people shaping the league. Welcome to Free Range with Von Miller, where nothing is off limits and every down counts. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen and follow Free Range with me, Vaughn Miller, wherever you get your podcast.

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Things are getting a little out of hand. Well, you think.

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I don't know how to protect you this time.

[E]

All these and more streaming this month plants starting at 19.99amonth. Terms apply. Visit Disney/Hulu HBO Max bundle.com for details.

[B]

And we welcome you back, everybody to Fantasy football today.

[D]

All right.

[B]

I love that commercial you do. Well, I know what else. I know what else you love. Love the fantasy comps.

[C]

I don't know if we're going to.

[D]

Be able to beat last week's though. That was unreal.

[B]

Last week's was crazy. But this was from Jeremy. Hey, Austin, Pete, Paul and Roger.

[D]

Austin, Pete, Paul and Roger. Roger Clemens. Snow.

[B]

I don't know, it's the who or something.

[D]

The who?

[B]

Really? No, I have no idea who these are. All right, well, anyway, Jeremy says I'm the Commissioner in a 12 team league. I've been babysitting my brother in law's team all year because he's new. But even after weekly reminders, he never ever sets his lineups. Like not even once. This week he managed to squeeze into the last spot to make the playoffs, which start next week. Am I, is. Am I in my rights as the commissioner to manually push him out of the playoff spot and put the team below him in? I'm 100% certain he wouldn't even notice.

[D]

What? This is a joke, right? No. So he wants to manually take a team that earned the playoff spot, move him out just because what, he wasn't active enough?

[B]

He Would dispute the word earned. He's been babysitting his team. I think he's been setting lineups for him.

[C]

That's your first mistake.

[D]

I am so confused about trying to.

[B]

Help his brother in law out. The brother in law's not.

[D]

Finally, when push comes, he tries to help him out. Then push comes to shove and the guy makes the playoffs. He's like, no, never mind. You're out.

[B]

He doesn't even think he'll notice.

[D]

Look, I'll. I'll defer to you guys because otherwise I'll probably lean toward what Dante Goose can't. Goosecon has said in the comments. My thoughts on this type of league. Not a huge fan.

[B]

Yeah. Not everybody gets to play in leagues with 12 dedicated people. These. This happens.

[D]

Well, time if you're. Yeah, I mean, I just.

[B]

Family league here.

[D]

It's a family leave. Well, let's let him make the playoffs. Who cares?

[B]

Yeah, let it make the playoffs, right?

[C]

Yeah. If you've been doing this, if like, if this is his team, you set the team, then like, that continues to be his team. And this is just what you've dug yourself here.

[B]

Yeah. But do not let. You know Gung ho Joe is right. Do not let. Do not set his lineup in the playoffs.

[D]

No more setting the lineups. No more text messages. You can text them before the playoffs. That's it.

[B]

All right, let's get a fun tweet here. Let's see if Dan or Jacob get this reference. All right, this is from the home alone.

[D]

Come on, fake boss.

[B]

The Globe account says Aaron Rodgers looks like he tried to rob Kevin McAllister's house.

[D]

You missed it with this, though. There were better memes here of people saying, this is like me on the show when I use my nose strip. By the way, when we play tennis next, you can be sure that I will be wearing that nose strip so I can breathe.

[B]

Okay. I'm sure it was the breathing.

[D]

Yeah. Part of it. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. All right, let's go to our buyer's cell here. And the first one is from Black Rose. And Black Rose says buy or sell. Justin Jefferson could. Should be considered Outside the top 30 rankings wide receiver, you know, going forward.

[D]

Well, certainly if J.J. mcCarthy is forced to miss more time, he should be just, you know, a great lesson. This past weekend, just when you think. Think things can't get worse than they are. And I think from what I saw before his concussion, J.J. mcCarthy was second to last quarterback out of like 900 in EPA, just ahead of Jamarcus Russell, who may be the worst quarterback in NFL history. Well, Max Brosmer is somehow worse. It is somehow possible to be worse. And Brosmer looked horrifically bad. The ball location, the footwork. I think he is not capable of playing another snap at any kind of level and moving the offense. Anyway. Now it is Seattle defense. Let's be clear. McDonald's a genius and they have so much talent there. So maybe Brosmart could be better but against a easier defense. But Brosmer or JJM, I don't think Justin Jefferson is inside the top 30. Regardless.

[B]

You mentioned the mat. I'm just going to say the matchups if the only reason is the matchups. Washington is 28th against receivers. Dallas is 32nd. Giants are 29th. Detroit is 30th. These are their next four games. One of them is outdoors in cold weather. That's the giants in week 17. The other or week 16. Pardon me. The others are indoors or. Yeah, indoors. So that is the saving grace here for Jefferson. I would argue that Detroit, if they are actually healthy in week 17 because they've had injuries in the defensive backfield all year, they might actually be a good secondary. But that's the argument for Jefferson is it can't get any worse and the schedule's so good.

[D]

But even if it can't get any worse, like that doesn't. What has he been. He hasn't been in anywhere near the top 30.

[B]

Right? I just said since week seven. No, no, no. It was. It was lost in the Abuka stuff. But since week seven seven he's wide receiver 35 per game in PPR. But that's with two games with Carson Wentz, right? It's gotten worse since then. And not that he was great in those games with wins, but it's gotten.

[D]

Worse playable with Wentz. What are his non Wentz what? I wonder what his non Wentz wide receiver per game numbers are. They gotta be bad. Bad. Real bad.

[B]

Jacob, let me tell you. Jacob, let me give you this stat. In the non Wentz games, the Minnesota vikings are averaging 150.7 passing yards per game gross passing our stream not including like not taking away for sacks one. So let's say 151 passing yards per game. Jacob, over the last 10 seasons that would be the worst in the last decade. I didn't even go farther back. It's hard to find teams that are like 170. So they're 151 passing yards per game. It's mind blowing. Jacob, what were you going to say about Jefferson?

[C]

I was going to say that we got 60 total catchable air yards from Brosmer in this game, which is actually not the worst game we've had all year for Minnesota. It's crazy. McCarthy had 58 last week, but he at least was throwing down the field a little bit. Brosmer's average depth of target on catchable balls was 2.6 yards. Anytime he did throw down the field, it was pretty much just no shot. Brosmer on throws of five or more air yards was six for 16 in this game. Three picks which by the way he had a 19 highly accurate throw rate on throws that came five or more yards down the field. Tyrod Taylor's was the next lowest at 31%. So 19 is extremely low. Actually though the lowest on the week belonged to lamar Jackson at 9.5%. Whoa. On 21 of these throws. Yeah, he is not playing well. I definitely could have been off base thinking that he was fine last week.

[B]

But you know he had, he had some bad luck in this game. Right, like he had. You had likely fumbling. No, I'm talking about Jackson likely fumbles going into the end zone that costs him a touchdown. Zay Flowers gets a ticky tack pass interference.

[D]

Yeah, but he didn't agreed on.

[B]

But he made enough space to score a decent amount of fantasy points against the Bengals.

[D]

Yeah, it's a Bengals defense. There's no excuse for for what happened against the Bengals defense for me at least.

[B]

I just want to give one more stat on Jefferson. He had a 20.7% target share yesterday with JJ McCarthy it's been 28.1% or higher every week. So that's at least. If we get McCarthy back we may.

[D]

Not get a lot better with McCarthy.

[B]

May I get a lot more yards but I think we'll get a more a better target share.

[D]

Touchdown upside is so low though. I mean it's almost non existent in that offense. So yeah, I mean I. I think you know best said by the chat here. Dante Goosecon again he said why didn't they just keep Nick Mullins? Seriously though, like why didn't they just keep Nick Mullins Minnesota? They should have paid him. I don't know what it would have cost. Probably not much than the Jaguars backing up Trevor Lawrence. I think he's their number two. I don't even know if that's even true but I think that's the case. Should just get Nick Mullins. What happened there?

[C]

I think going back to McCarthy will be a lot better. Like you said, the first target rate was much, much lower for Jefferson than we ever seen it. And I gave you the 58 catchable air yard stat for McCarthy. It hasn't always been that bad. He actually has a couple of games where he's been at 169, 164, 150. Okay, for reference, the best rates that the Vikings have had all year where Carson Wentz starts, He had a 238 catchable area yard game, a 226 game as well. But he's also had games and these weren't just the late games where he got heard. Like week eight Carson Wentz's number was 80 which is really, really low. But week three, Carson Wentz didn't have a good game. Week five, Carson Winston have a great game. Those are like 128 catch warriors, 92 catchable area yards. So I, I don't. It's been awful with McCarthy, no doubt about it. But I think it's clearly better than what we just got where it was like not a functional offense at all.

[B]

Okay, let's go to our next.

[C]

Oh, I Jefferson, a wide receiver, 23 this week that like that. And it obviously was even worse this week. But like that's where I had him ranked going into the week. I think it's totally viable to ask this question. Is he outside of the top 30? That seems insane because it's Justin Jefferson, but that's basically where we're at.

[D]

The matchups could help hopefully down the stretch, but it's just hard to buy. It's just a good example of why you have to be really careful with putting name brand receivers behind these types of quarterbacks. Like in the end, the pat the quarterback does kind of dictate the fantasy success in, in my opinion in most, most situations.

[B]

Okay, let's go to our next topic. We hate these committees and timeshares. Morgan says buy or sell. Kamani Vidal has forced a timeshare.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Bye. Right.

[C]

I've got some Videl stats that are crazy. I haven't got to the film yet. I'm very excited to but apparently according to true media and PFF charting he had avoided tackles in this game which ties Bijan Robinson for the most of any player in any game this year. Yeah. 124 out of 126 rushing yards after contact is what they have it charted as. That's the seventh most yards after contact in a game this year.

[B]

Basically.

[D]

You're telling me this is like one of the best individual games by a running back this season on paper? Yeah, I, I can't Imagine a man, Hampton comes back to the role he had then. Just doesn't make any sense. Why would he?

[B]

Yeah, he had. He had five to seven targets in his last three games, including one in which he got injured. Omarion Hampton. So that was huge. He scored 24.9, 27.5, and then 13 fantasy points in a game that he left early with an injury. He looked like, you know, first round value kind of player. After the Najee Harris injury, I also feel like they definitely need a good pass protector back there. And I feel like Videl is certainly going to have an edge there. Would you agree with that over Hampton?

[D]

Just from more. Getting more reps in. Yeah. And playing more. Yeah.

[B]

And that's what he's. I mean, he was a third down back originally. Right. So I feel like that would be kind of what.

[D]

And I watched some mix back in Hampton. They're not gonna just not play him, but I just.

[B]

Oh, for sure.

[D]

It's gonna be some kind of committee.

[B]

Yeah. I'm curious what it was. I was really rooting against Vidal because I have Hampton coming back in a few leagues and I was like, please don't have a good game. But he had a huge game. And let's see, they've got Philadelphia at Kansas City at Dallas and Houston. It's a terrible schedule.

[D]

Terrible schedule for running backs.

[B]

Yeah. So we'll see what happens. All right, I think we can move on from that. And let's go to our last buy or sell. It's about three running backs, buy or sell on Rico Dowdle, Bucky Irving, and Javante Williams. So I'll just ask you guys, how would you rank them rest of season, Bucky or Rico Dowdle? Bucky Irving, Javante Williams.

[C]

I'm going Bucky, Javante, Rico. But Bucky and Javante are very close.

[D]

I'll go Javante, Bucky. Then big drop off to Rico for me.

[B]

I'm with Jacob. Bucky, Javante, Rico. I'm pretty encouraged by Bucky Irving like this.

[D]

Honestly, it's probably fair to put Bucky ahead of Javante.

[B]

Yeah, he kind of. He kind of first game back, ran away from a committee. He's not gonna be the third down back. That's just not gonna happen. But like, Damn. He had 17 carries. Yeah, you know, it was. It was awesome. And he scored a touch. And the thing is, his yards per carry have been bad all year. I don't really get it because I watched it and he looked pretty good. His touchdown run was really good. I don't know why the efficiency has been bad. He's averaging 3.4 yards per carry, but.

[C]

So much that is like front loaded. When they were trying to work their center at left tackle and they were like all jumbled up on the offensive line.

[B]

Maybe it was bad yesterday too, but I mean, I. Yeah, this is what, like 3.8, but. And that was against a struggling run defense. But I don't really care. I think he's. I think he's their guy. And you just have to hope that Baker Mayfield throws to him on first and second down. That would really boost him, but I'm pretty pumped about him. Yeah, Javante, I think he got a little lucky with that touchdown catch. Right? So he's been struggling. He's got a tough schedule. Detroit, Minnesota Chargers should be good. He's got a tough schedule. The next two weeks finishes with the Chargers in Washington. Here's what I got on. On Javante. So the first seven games of the year, he's averaging 5.3 yards per carry and on pace for 56 catches. Last four games of the year, averaging 4.2 yards per carry, which is very respectable in my opinion because he's. He's had a tough schedule. He's only on pace for 27 catches. So a couple more things. One, he's had three targets in two straight games, which is great. I don't know there's a specific reason for it. It's not necessarily a lamb in or lamb out thing, but we need three targets a game. I'm just asking for two catches a game at this point. That would help me for Javante, 2 to 3. Also, they're winning more. He has averaged 18.7 carries in their six wins, 13.2 carries in five losses, and 20 carries in a tie that went to overtime. So we need them to be competitive because he's not involved in the passing game. And they are good. I know I'm a little concerned about them at Detroit this week, but not, Not a huge concern. Minnesota, you know, whatever. I think they're going to compete for at least three of their next four games. But he's, you know, you guys watch that game on Thanksgiving, right? I mean, I know we were all busy. He's. He's kind of slow. And you saw that run by Malik Davis. Like, he. Javante can't really do that. And I just think there's been almost no big plays. His longest run in his last five games is 20 yards. First seven games he had a lot of them.

[C]

His like 60 yard run. And week five, Rider was so funny. Dude, he looked so slow. I know, but it's like he's still good, he's still awesome. Like, Kyron Williams is faster than him, but Kyle Williams is slow too, you know, but like, he's still an awesome running back who like, is the engine for a really good offense. I don't really see what I. This is not a important point, but why do you think the touchdown reception was lucky? What do you mean?

[B]

Oh, just because like he, he barely ever catches the ball now. He's usually one catch a game. I just. It saved. It saved your. It saved your game. And he's not really getting a lot of those opportunities lately. Like I said, on pace for 27 catches in his last five games.

[C]

Yeah, so I did it. I did a deep dive on Javante because people were freaking out and they're like, what is Javante Dust? Is he a cell? And it's like nothing has changed. Like he's still running extremely well. He's playing like 78 of the red zone snaps. He's playing inside of the 10. Like he's getting the ball. He's not getting the ball quite as much inside of the 10. They're throwing a little bit more than they did at the beginning of the year. Maybe that's random or maybe that's more trust than George Pickens and Dax playing phenomenally. Who knows? Maybe that's about Javante. But he's, he's done well. He leads the league in yards after contact per fantasy point status charting. Like everything checks out, roll checks out, offense checks out and talent checks out. He's not ripping off a bunch of explosive plays, but he's consistently churning out good plays. I have no concerns at all with Javante. The only reason I would take Bucky over him is because I think there's more upside for Bucky. But they're both. I think Lockman is like top 10 guys.

[B]

If they throw to him then, then you could say Javante has one of the best roles of any running back in, in football. But you know, look, he had a five game stretch where he had 1, 1, 112 catches this week. This past Thursday he had three. Javante Williams. Someone said that I called T Max touchdown lucky. I guess I should stop using the word. Tedro McMillan's touchdown Lucky. I think that was either yesterday or last week. I shouldn't use the word lucky like this. I guess I'm saying that when you have a guy like Ted Oakmill, what did he have, four targets or something like that? He had such A nothing game. Yeah, he had two targets. He had two targets in this game and he had two catches the week before. They, you know, they went for touchdowns or two of his last three catches went for touchdowns. I do think it's a little bit lucky. I'm just saying, you know, you want more catches, you want more yards, you don't have to rely on a long touchdown. Two weeks in a row from Teteroa McMillan for Javante. You know, you're getting almost nothing in the passing game. And he's been the least efficient receiving running back in the NFL. I don't know why, but he does nothing with his catches. So I, that's why. It's like, man, you got a little bit lucky. I thought with him catching a touchdown, maybe I shouldn't be using that word. But it was. I have so much devonte. It was just like a sigh of relief because it looked like he was headed to another high volume game with low fantasy points.

[C]

I see him almost identically to Josh Jacobs in my mind for like a fantasy profile. He's very much like Josh Jacobs. He's almost. He's kind of like a Derrick Henry James Cook with way less volatility. And they have like more potential to get to the upside, but they also have bigger down weeks. Like none of those backs get that much receiving involvement. It's mostly on the ground, but you can expect 15 to 22 touches and it's in a really good offense. And most weeks he's going to be pretty dang solid. I think he's. He's like Josh Jacobs in my mind, which is good. It's a really good player.

[B]

And so what it comes down to then is are they scoring touchdowns? Basically because like Jacobs, Jacobs just had a really good game. 17 carries for 83 yards and one catch for 8 yards against Detroit. Great run defense. He scored 10.1 PPR fantasy points. That stinks because he didn't score. So that's what it comes down to.

[D]

I think part of it is like the packers are more willing to run in the red zone than the Cowboys are because Cowboys have George Pickens in one on one situations.

[B]

Yeah. All right. Rico, though, you know, we watched it yesterday. I went back and watched it today.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Just no way to deny that Chuba Hubbard was the better running back yesterday. And Dave mentioned it that Chuba said when he first came back from the injury, he wasn't himself. He just got back to feeling like himself a couple of weeks ago. And in his first two games, games back, he struggled. He Struggled against the Jets. He struggled against Buffalo. This is Chuba Hubbard. And then he got four straight games with five or fewer carries, 17 carries in week 13. Dave Canales said, quote, it's a dream to be able to have two guys that you can count on and I can call anything that I have on the call sheet and trust that it's going to get executed. Then he was asked why Chuba Hubbard was used more yesterday. He said, quote, it's just the way that the game played out. We had more attempts, we had more opportunities. And then it really came down to some third down conversions and then also some third down runs. And Chuba's been our primary third down back right now with the protections. But we also run the ball some and that's a great opportunity. Just make sure he gets his touches. Dan, what's your take on the Panthers.

[D]

As like Chuba is a player that was impressive last season on a per touch basis. I remember watching the tape being impressed with him. I don't think there's any reason to believe they won't. He won't be part of this moving forward. Even though there was that stretch where Rico was the lead back. Which is why earlier when we asked to rank these players, he was last for me. Rico kind of a tier of his own.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Clearly last. Yeah. But once. Now he isn't. Rigo Dowdle is no longer a guy that I think I can trust. I don't know if he's a flex because I don't know.

[D]

I still think they're both worth starting flex wise.

[B]

I don't even.

[C]

They're like Swift and Manangai but the offense is way less. Way less trustworthy.

[D]

Exactly right.

[C]

I love that it's a dream to have Rico Dowdle at Chuba Hubbard. Like football guys are so funny to me.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Let me show a screen.

[C]

They're dogs. I love both those guys. Like they. I get it. It's just very funny.

[B]

Quote, show a screenscope before we leave here. Chris Godwin, this was his. His long catch went for 31 yards. You see him. This was kind of like a trick play almost that he just crouches down and he hides behind the defensive line and nobody runs with him. And he got open for a 31 yard play. It was kind of. It's kind of neat play there for Chris Godwin, but was most of his production. Of course he also dropped a touchdown. Buck's offense is really interesting, man. Like what's going on with Baker Mayfield? Can we get a good game from Baker Mayfield? For once.

[C]

No. I've got some really bad stats on even this week with Baker. We'll get to that. On tomorrow's beyond the box score. Oh, it's not looking good.

[B]

Would have been. It would have been a good game if, although I think on the drive that on which Chris Godwin dropped a touchdown, I think that drive ended with, I'm not sure. May have ended with the worst touchdown. I don't want to sit here and say, oh, Baker would have had a good game if Godwin had caught that touchdown because he may have scored a touchdown a few plays later. I don't really remember. Could be wrong about that, though. All right, guys, thank you. Great show today. And we will talk to you on. On. Well, they'll talk to you on Tuesday and so will I. Two separate feeds. We'll talk to you later, everybody.

[D]

See you.

[C]

Paramount Podcasts.

[H]

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