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It's Fantasy Football Today. It's week number two as we get started with the game tonight between the Commanders and the packers and we have you covered all the rankings you need for the second week of the NFL and fantasy season. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Dave Richard. That's Heath Cummings. This is Fantasy Football Today presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas. Guys, before we get into the rankings, your thoughts on tonight's game. Heath, how do you think this game is going to unfold between Green Bay and Washington?
C
You know, I think we're going to get a shootout. The packers defense is awesome, but Jaden Daniels is awesome. And we've seen in the past generally is you get these great quarterbacks against great defenses and the defense doesn't actually matter all that much.
A
I think it's the opposite. I think it's going to be a low scoring game. I think Daniels does kind of make his moves. He's more mobile than what the packers dealt with last week in Jared Goff. I think Daniels has a decent game and I think the Commanders actually pull away with a win.
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All right, so Daniels is not someone we have to worry about with our quarterback rankings and we'll start there with our rankings options for you for this week. Number two, Slate Daniels is somebody we're going to start. Jordan Love, however, might be somebody that we differ on in terms of what his outlook and output can be for week number two, let's show you the rankings one through 12. These are our consensus rankings, you can see them on CBSSports.com as well. If you want to see the individual rankings for mine, for Dave and for Heath, Josh Allen coming off that big game, no surprise, he's at number one. I am hopeful. I hope you guys are as well. Dave, is Joe Burrow going to bounce back against the Jaguars?
A
I sure hope so. That's got high scoring game written all over it. Jacksonville secondary still a humongous question mark with or without Travis Hunter playing cornerback. I think that Joe Burrow just always, for whatever reason, slow start against the Cleveland Browns. I think he bounces back from it. Look for him to have three touchdowns at least.
B
And you see Baker Mayfield down there at the bottom. We're going to tell you why he might not be the best play, at least according to Heath Cummings. As we get into our starts and sits for week number two, let's show you the rankings 13 through 24. And there's a name that you have not seen yet that you will see on this list as the backup quarterback. So you're starting this player in two quarterback leagues and super flex leagues. And that's Patrick Mahomes coming in at number 13. He's a sit for me. We'll explain that later. I know, Dave, you're a little bit more excited about Mahomes for this week. When you look at these lists, this list, Heath, is there a guy. Last week we saw Rodgers jump up, we saw McCarthy jump up, we saw Daniel Jones play. Well, who's going to be the 1 player on this list that we're not going to talk about but maybe could just surprise us across the board?
C
Yeah, I think one of them I'm definitely going to talk about in about 60 seconds. The other one would be Jordan Love that you talked about against the Commanders tonight. I thought he did a good job in his first game. They were in a situation where the Lions couldn't score against them, so they were able to continue with that. Not throwing the ball very much. Only 22 pass attempts. I would expect we get north of 30 pass attempts from Jordan Love in this game and he gives you right around 20 fantasy points.
B
Very interesting because the overunder is 29 and a half pass attempts for Jordan Love. So you like the over? I would take the under just slightly just because I do think it will be a little bit more of a defensive game. All right, so as you're going to find when you watch this show every week, every Thursday, we'll be here at 1:00 Eastern. We're going to talk about the players that are toughest for us to rank. Give you some starts, give you some sits. So we'll start with the toughest decision. Dave, who is the toughest quarterback for you to rank in week number two?
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I'm still struggling with JJ McCarthy and he's not a top 12 quarterback for me just yet. But man, are we getting the guy that just looked terrible in the first two and a half quarters against the Bears or are we getting the guy that just shined at the end of the game? Look like a total gamer. I have him just outside my top 12. Jamie. I think he's a pretty good quarterback. I love the offense he's in, love the receivers he throws to. I'm not convinced that the Falcons defense is as good as the Bucs made him look last week. I think he is a borderline start this week.
B
First game for him in what was it, 600 days, you know, after missing all of the rookie season in 2024. So feeling out process and then he finally got comfortable and looked like he was, you know, the guy that they drafted to be their future quarterback. And it's just this Kevin OConnell system. It's hard to get past what he's able to do with these quarterbacks. Stay in the course. He was able to have a big game. Heath, the toughest guy for you, Caleb Williams.
C
Why it's Caleb Williams because he scored 25 fantasy points last week and couldn't throw, couldn't hit a barn on half of his throws. But the running was awesome, the offense was awesome. They had guys open all the time. If Caleb Williams is just a little bit accurate, he looks like we're going to get the breakout season where He's a top 10 quarterback. It's just hard to trust it because when you start to rank Caleb Williams too high, you just see the flashbacks of DJ Moore open the ball five yards away from him. Deandre Swift running out in the flat and the ball is going over his head into the sideline. The quality of the passing was not near as good as the quality of the fantasy production.
B
Two questions. One, do you expect him to run as much because over 50 yards rushing and did have one and a half touchdowns. So he got the one rushing touchdown, almost had a second one. And the second question would be, is Ben Johnson facing his former team? So maybe another wrinkle or two knowing this defense and then Dave, you can counter just because you obviously do not have him ranked as high 24th for you.
C
Yeah, I think we're going to see him run six to seven times per game and some of that is because he's good at that and some of that is because he can't find the right guy to throw to. So he just takes off and runs. And coaches hate that. Fantasy managers love that because you get fantasy points in that way. The Lions part's interesting. I think about it more from the Lions offense against the Bears defense. But yeah, I think that if anybody knows where to expose this Lions defense, it should be Ben Johnson.
A
I think the Lions defense will have a much easier time this week than last week because I just feel like Caleb Williams needs to calm down and until that happens, you're going to see this frenetic style that he had and I don't know if we can count on these rushing numbers, the six to seven carries. If we could count on that, he'd be a top 12 quarterback pretty much every single week given the receivers that he has. And as for Ben Johnson, like, as far as him in the offense goes, I'm not sure how much of the playbook Ben Johnson is willing to to actually open up in this game because Caleb Williams can't do the easy things consistently well. He makes me nervous. I'd rather start a bunch of other quarterbacks again.
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Having him 24th, that makes sense. I think as we're all just consensus wise, you see a number two fantasy quarterback for us. So despite the big performance, just be a little bit cautious with him as a starter in a one quarterback league. So the toughest guy for me, and it's a start for you, Dave, is Bo Nix because he looked awful in week one against Tennessee and a lot of people questioning is he going to be the C.J. stroud, is he going to have the guy that has the sophomore slump after a great rookie season, especially the way that he finished his rookie year. So he's still a number one quarterback for me, but a borderline guy and I think pretty close for all three of us here just because 10th or lower in the case of the matchup. I also don't want to put too much stock into the Colts defense because it was a very bad Dolphins game plan and a very bad Dolphins offense led by Tua Tango Bailoa. So I'm hoping to see Bo Nix bounce back. But when you hear Sean Payton say I need to get a little bit more of the running game involved, I need to maybe take some of the pressure off of Bo Nix, that doesn't really inspire confidence in his second year quarterback, but he's a start for you. Nonetheless, look at who he's playing.
A
It's playing against the Indianapolis Colts. They have a good pass rush. Their secondary is all banged up. I think this is a get right spot for Bo Nix. The one thing I worry about with him is the same thing that I worried about with Caleb Williams. It's the rushing he didn't do. He didn't. He wasn't very effective running the ball last week. He did it enough, but I think this is a great matchup for the Broncos to find their run game and keep it going. They found it toward the end of last week and that might lean into Bo Nix. Not throwing as much, not running as much. He's a borderline starter. You said it best.
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All right, so we'll see how Bo Nix bounces back. We'll see how Dak Prescott bounces back to start for you for week number two. Dak threw the ball very well, but only 7.8 fantasy points in week one against the Eagles.
C
Well, it was against the Eagles. Now he's against the Giants. That might be all the analysis you need for Dak Prescott this week because there was really nothing in his performance that was caused me concern. I don't, I don't care at all about CD Lamb's drops. In fact, I expect that makes him perhaps a little bit more motivated this week. I expect him to have a big game if my number one wide receiver on the week. Cowboys should be able to do whatever they want on offense this week, but.
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I don't think they have to do a lot on offense because I don't think the Giants offense is going to be able to do much of anything. And that could limit just how much Dak Prescott throws in the game. I think you could pencil him in for 20 or 21 fantasy points. That's what we would have said last week and he only had seven. So it makes me a little bit nervous to trust him as a full fledged starting fantasy quarterback. I kind of like J.J. mcCarthy a little bit more.
B
Makes sense, you know, if you're going to trust McCarthy and maybe the boom bust potential of what he could be. I just think this is Jerry needs a win. Dak's going to be the guy to go get Jerry a win and they're going to do it by a lot of aerial attack performance that way. Get Ceedee Lamb back on track. No Michael McFadden, the tight end has a lot of opportunities here. Maybe even George Pickens gets a splash play. And I don't want to buy into Javonte Williams.
C
I was going to say, like if they're trying to run the ball, they're still going to be throwing on third down.
B
Yes. And the one thing just in regards to Javante Williams, we have coming up later in the show, Robert Turban, former NFL running back, joining us. We're going to break down some of the more surprising performances from week number one and his guy is Javante Williams and just what he was able to accomplish. We'll talk about Javante a little bit more. For me, my start is the start of the week. It's Jared Goff. I like the opportunity for him to bounce back. We said what Caleb Williams potentially could do against the Lions there. I think it's going to be a big game for Jared Goff because last week that's probably going to be the worst that this Lions offense looks. At least that's the hope. And so a lot of that had to do with the defense that they faced, the scenario they were in in Green Bay. So back home indoors, I know the Bears defense looked really good for three quarters against JJ McCarthy. That was McCarthy making his first start. This is in my opinion a big bounce back spot for Jared Goff. Now if he does not play well and the Lions offense looks awful again, then everything you said this offseason, Heath is really going to hit the panic button because they couldn't run the ball. There was no Jameson Williams splash plays. Amon Rosse Brown was kept in check. Really, it was a great highlight for Isaac Tesla and a lot of production for Sam Laporta. But that's not what we need. We need these guys to play well. I think Jared Goff will provide it. All right, let's go to the sit quarterback. So your sick quarterback, obviously, Dak Prescott, you gave your reasons why. Your sit quarterback though is very, very tough for a lot of people to get away from. That's Baker Mayfield.
C
It'd be easier to get away from if he hadn't thrown that third touchdown pass to Emeka Buuka last week because he really was not very good outside of the touch. 152 yards passing, 53% completion percentage and last year he was a very touchdown dependent quarterback. That worked out fine because he posted an astronomically high touchdown rate this week. They have an implied team total of 20 total points last week and Dave made me look this up so I'll give him credit for the research. There were eight teams that had an implied total below 21 points. Half of those teams scored 13 or fewer. Two of those teams, the Steelers and Jets were good. So maybe this will be one of the few teams that's good for fantasy with a low total. But I think the bigger problem for Baker Mayfield is like Mike Evans can still be good in a game where The Buccaneers score 17 or 20 points because he catches six balls for 70 yards. Meke Abuca can still be good in that type of game. Baker Mayfield is really dependent on throwing two plus touchdown passes, and it's hard to project that in a game with a total this low.
A
I probably have him too high, but I still think He's a top 12 fantasy quarterback. I think he can find two touchdowns against the Texans pretty easily. The yardage will be moderate, not necessarily high. I just don't know how well Tampa's going to be able to run the ball in this game. And people who have Bucky Irving don't want to hear that. Thank goodness that Bucky Irving caught a touchdown pass last week. I think Bucky can make some plays through the air again this week. I think that's how the Bucs navigate around this Texans offense. Get the ball out quick, attack the middle of that defense and then look for a Buuka and Evans. Those touchdowns to Abuka last week. Excellent throws by Baker Mayfield. He's still on his game, so I want to start him on fantasy football.
B
We'll see how Baker does. It's surprising that they are underdogs on the road, especially the way the Texans offense look more so than the defense. Defense still very good for me. I'm going to sit Patrick Mahomes last week, I think he got, I don't want to say lucky for him to get, you know, as a top 10 quarterback last week. But you just look at the scenario right now. No Xavier Worthy, no Rashi Rice facing an Eagles defense, getting Jalen Carter back. They held Dak Prescott to under 10 fantasy points. We know what the super bowl looked like when it was supposed to be a competitive game. For the first three quarters, Mahomes was miserable. He did get two touchdowns late in the game. Dave, I'm surprised you're still as high on Mahomes.
A
This is another guy that I have to move down because I'm more. I kind of feel the same way about him as I do Dak Prescott, where the number is like right around 20, 21 fantasy points. You can't expect much more than that. But the difference between him and Dak Prescott is that I don't see a game script where Isaiah Pacheco runs wild on the Philadelphia Eagles. I don't think that that's happening at all. So Mahomes is going to have to throw a lot in this game, and if he's throwing a lot, he can still find his way to a couple of touchdowns and he'll run. He did it last week. He's going to have to keep doing that. So I think he could still be a top 12 fantasy quarterback. Not nearly as high as you see here.
B
All right, so Dave's still very confident. Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes. He's trying to sit Baker Mayfield. I'm trying to sit Patrick Mahomes. You might have some quarterbacks that are available on the waiver wire who can help you for week number two. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, Robert Herbert joins us. We're going to talk about the running back rankings for week number two and maybe some surprise starts and sits for your Week 2 lineups. Make your next move with American Express Business Platinum. Enjoy complimentary access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection and with a welcome offer of 150,000 points, after you spend $20,000 on purchases on the cart within your first three months of membership, your business can soar to new height terms apply. Learn more@americanexpress.com Business Platinum AmEx Business Platinum Built for business by American Express. Welcome back to Fantasy Football today presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook. Born in Vegas, I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Dave Richard, that's Heath Cummings. Joining us now. It's our buddy Robert Turban, former NFL running back and certainly tied to to the Seattle Seahawks organization. So Robert, let's start right there. Last week we were surprised because we saw Zach Charbonnet play more than Ken Walker and out produce Ken Walker. From your perspective, who's the best Seattle running back heading into week two and maybe rest of season?
D
Well, I think it's Zach Charbonnet, unfortunately. I mean, I love K9. You know, he's my guy, good friend of mine. You know, he's an explosive player. But Zach Charbonnet just brings the consistency, he brings the physicality. You know, he brings what the Seahawks need in the backfield. Now the question mark in regards to the Seahawks and both of these running backs is, you know, what are you going to get from the offensive line? And to me, the offensive line play, especially when you watch the tape, a little soft. And so that could be, you know, a negative for both of these running backs moving forward. But if I had to choose one of the two, I'm going with Charbonnet.
B
All right, let's see where Charbonne and Ken Walker rank for us this week as we take a look at the consensus rankings for our running backs. Starting with the list 1 through 12 here. This is again the list combination of myself, Dave and Heath. And so when you take a look at the 1 through 12 list, you're not going to see any of the Seattle running backs here. Heath, you were the Devon Hn guy all offseason. Are you still as confident after seeing this Dolphins offense that he can get the job done? Even in this matchup against New England.
C
RB1 this week he's getting all the touches he needs. Listen, you're having a hard time protecting Tua Tungabalo. He's having a hard time being accurate downfield. How about you just dump it off to to the best pass catching running back in the NFL.
B
Robert, when you see Bucky Irving and the performance that he had in week one against Atlanta, how do you think he's going to do against that tough Texans defense this week?
D
Yeah, I think he'll have a repeat performance. Especially when you think about the versatility in his game. Right. Not just being able to do things on the ground, but his pass catching ability I think separates him as well. And so I like him at 9 where you guys have him right here.
B
Catching a touchdown last week. As Dave said, maybe he'll be involved in the passing game as well. Let's take a look at the list 13 through 24 here and do we get a Seattle running back on this list? Let's see here. Nope, still no Seattle running backs. So Dave, when you look at we're going to talk about some of the surprise performances here, but one that we did not bring up is Alvin Camara. And I know you were very high on him, drafters very high on him taking him to the third round. What do you think of his week one game against Arizona?
A
Saved by a touchdown and did not get nearly as many touches and targets and catches as I would have liked to have seen. And I can't help but wonder if this is the new normal form going forward. There's somebody on this show that suggested that that would be the case and it's the man sitting to my left, Heath Cummings. I do think he still looked good. I still think the offensive line for New Orleans when healthy, they're good. I think this offense in general isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. But you have to downgrade expectations for Camara if he's not going to see five plus Targets a week.
B
All right, next list, our final one that we'll look at 25 through 36. Finally we get the Seattle running backs here and as you see consensus wise, we do have Charbonnet ahead of you. Kenneth Walker. And let's get into one of our topics here, which is the most surprise impressive performance from week number one. Robert, I'll start with you. Javante Williams scored two touchdowns for the Cowboys. What does that mean for his outlook moving forward knowing that Jaden Blue did not play and Miles Sanders lost a fumble in that game against the Eagles?
D
Yeah, I think he's the bonafide number one. I think that's what last week proved for Javante Williams. He's going to get all the opportunities there to be the Bell cow back. So you should expect more carries, more opportunities outside of the backfield and him being in the end zone a lot more. And so I have high expectations for Javante Williams heading into this season and even more now.
B
Dave, for you, it was Breece hall and you know, obviously I was very concerned about what he could do for this jets team. He exceeded my expectations. Leaps and bounds. Where do we go with him moving forward?
A
He exceeded everybody's expectations except probably his own and everybody on the team. He looked great, the offensive line looked great. Playing off of Justin Fields gave him some lanes to run in. I don't see this slowing down. I think Breece hall has become a must start fantasy running back again and as long as you've got him, use him. Think of him as a high end number two fantasy rb.
B
We got the Seattle situation, Heath, maybe where there's a switch where the number two guy becomes number one. Do we have the same thing in Minnesota now with Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones?
C
I'm not entirely sure that the Vikings will see it that way, but that's the way it worked out in week one. And watching those two guys run, it felt like Jordan Mason should have had even more carries in opposition to Aaron Jones than he did. Aaron Jones in comparison, just as a rusher because he was good in the passing game. It looks like the only time you should really hand the ball off to Aaron Jones is when you're trying to make sure the defense doesn't think that every time he's in you're going to throw it to him. Because if you really want to gain yards running the football, it should be Jordan Mason almost every time.
B
Robert, when you take a look at that situation, again, similar to Seattle, where it was a surprise to I think a lot of people that the workload was different, or at least the way that it came out. You know, where Jordan Mason looked as well as he did and Aaron Jones not playing as much. What's your take of, you know, what we see from this Vikings backfield moving forward?
D
Yeah, I think this was even more of a surprise than what we saw in Seattle. I think there was some speculation that, you know, Zach Charbonnet had been outplaying Kenneth Walker III for a little while now. So I was shocked to see Jordan Mason get more work than Aaron Jones, but it just shows that there's a transition being had, you know, in Minnesota. Aaron Jones, if you think about the offense, more of a slasher. Jordan Mason brings that physicality. He's going to get more opportunity, especially with the way that he produced in Week one.
B
For me, the surprise performance. And we'll get into the starts as well, because it's a start for you. Heath was Travis Etienne, and not only did he have a great game in Week 1 against Carolina with 143 rushing yards, got the three catches. They liked him so much they got rid of his competition. They said, Tank Bigsby, you can go to Philadelphia, be the backup for Saquon Barkley. So Heath, when we look at etn, coming off of that game now facing the Bengals, which their run defense was actually really good against the Browns, I don't know how much that's just the Browns, but how confident are you in ETN in this Week two game taking on Cincinnati?
C
So he's a number two running back for me, which is ahead of where he was last week. Everybody had him as a number three, and it's not quite as good as he was last week when he was actually produced as a top 12 running back. He's not facing the Panthers, so you shouldn't expect him to run wide open down the field as often as he did in that game. But I don't know that the Bengals run defense is quite as good as they looked against the Browns. I think I might say something about the Browns run game right now. I think you view ETN as somebody who's going to touch the ball 15 to 18 times a game, can do things in the passing game and in this Liam Cohen offense also looks good as a runner.
B
Robert, your start is rookie running back Omarion Hampton. My start is rookie running back Travion Henderson. We spoke last week about just the opportunity and outlook for some of these rookie running backs, so I'm going to give you the chance to talk about both. What did you see from Hampton in that game against the Chiefs in Brazil, what did you see from Henderson in his debut as they lost to the Raiders and another rookie running back in Ashton Gente?
D
Well, for Henderson, it's the versatility. They're going to use him in a multitude of ways. His upside is huge for Hampton. You know, he didn't really produce in the points, and I'll be honest, I think Hampton is one of those guys that maybe I overlooked a little bit, you know, coming out of the draft and, you know, looking at it from a fantasy standpoint. But when you watch him play, it's like, man, there's like a big play waiting to happen when he has the ball. That's the one thing that stood out to me when I watched Omarion Hampton. So on Week one, the points weren't there, but it feels like the points are going to start to be there for him more consistently. They're going to give him the ball, they trust him, and he's a big play waiting to happen, in my opinion.
B
The thing I like about both these guys is that the workload was definitely there for Hampton and hopefully that will continue because we don't know what Najee Harris is going to do as he gets more comfortable coming back from the eye injury. The thing for HENDERSON we got 11 PPR points on really was not a great game. Now the passing down work was fantastic. Ron J. Stevenson just looks like he needs to be on the bench and so hopefully the coaching staff in New England realized that. Mike Vrabel said we got to get basically more work for Henderson and so this could be the breakout game for both of these guys. Dave, the start for you is David Montgomery. I hope you'll bring up my favorite stat of the week, but I'm going to give you the opportunity to tell us why you think Montgomery could beat this week.
A
I don't know what your favorite stat of the week is with David Montgomery. I know that he's had a minimum of 10 fantasy points in PPR each of three games he's played against Chicago. Two of them, 14 plus, I think you can count on for a touchdown, a couple of catches. I think the Lions get right back to basics this week against Chicago and they start putting up points like we saw from them last year.
B
Robert, when you look at the Lions and their game against the packers, you know it doesn't have to be just the running game, but just as a whole. How surprised were you that Green Bay's defense handled that Lions offense as well.
D
As did not surprise New offensive coordinator right first game together, right? Good. Good defense in Green Bay packers, obviously Michael Parsons on the side of the football now, putting pressure there on the quarterback. So not shocked. Man, whenever there's newness like that, it's going to take some time to get that thing going. But I'm not worried about the Lions either. I think they're going to be totally fine.
B
I think they bounced back this week. And Dave, my favorite stat about David Montgomery, he's only had one time since he's been a member of the Detroit Lions, where he's gone consecutive games without scoring a touchdown. So I don't know if that carries up.
A
He didn't score last week.
B
He didn't score last week, so I don't think we're going to get it twice. So I think he finds the end zone in this matchup against the Bears. All right, let's talk about some running backs we're looking to avoid. So, Robert, you watched that game, obviously came away pleased with Omarion Hampton and the workload. You can't be pleased with Isaiah Pacheco and the workload that he had for the Chiefs. And he's the guy that you're going to try to avoid this week.
D
Yeah, not. Not at all, man. Isaiah Pacheco definitely on my bench this week. Think about the workload last week. It's probably going to be similar. Then they're playing with the Eagles, I think, you know, this upcoming week and so you're playing against a really good defense. The run game hasn't been strong for the Chiefs in a little while and so for me, can't trust it. Gotta sit him.
B
Heath, where are you at with the Chiefs? I mean, you didn't really, you know, get a chance to talk about Mahomes and, you know, sitting him. I know he's not a start for you. Pacheco, I don't think you're on board with him. You weren't on board in the preseason. So how do you think this game unfolds for them? Offensively?
C
I'm shocked. They're one and a half point underdogs. I think if this was any, if it didn't say Kansas City in front of their name, then you're probably looking at a six point, five point spread in this game. They don't have enough pass catchers and they're not going to until Rasheed Rice gets back. This looks like a 24 team to me after week six and they probably win ten in a row.
B
And for what it's worth, were they not ruled out yet, but we don't expect them to play in Week two coming off the shoulder injury. Dave, a guy that you're sitting this week is Tony Pollard, which I know Heath is probably not going to agree with. So let's have a little Tony Pollard conversation here.
A
So let's just start with the matchup. He's going up against the Rams. I think the Rams did. Everybody's going to do a great job against the Texans run game, but they're a tough run defense and I worry about the Titans. First of all, their offensive line, is it going to be at full strength? The workload is going to be there for Tony Pollard, but I still think that the Titans are going to end up leaning on Cam Ward throwing the football downfield a lot more in the second half if they're trailing. And I think that they'll be trailing in this game. So Tony Pollard may be good for around eight or nine fantasy points, PPR or non PPR.
C
Yeah, he had 9.9 last week against the Broncos in full PPR. And so I think whether the Rams are a good or bad matchup, they're not the Broncos. This should be a better offensive performance for the Titans. Pollard is still the most likely Titan to score a touchdown. If you're telling me he's going to score nine to 10 points a week without a touchdown, then there's going to be some 16 point weeks in there as well. Hopefully he sees more than one target. That was the biggest disappointment for last week. Nobody expected good rushing efficiency. It'll be better this week.
B
RJ Harvey is a guy that you're looking to sit Heath and Robert, you can help Heath out here on maybe the breakdown of the Broncos running backs after he's done. So was it just more about J.K. dobbins and what he was able to do and maybe not what RJ Harvey did?
C
RJ Harvey is the very opposite of Tony Pollard. The efficiency was fantastic. He had the big play. It looked great. He's not a starting running back for his own team. He's not really even a 1B right now. He's just a backup running back who gets five to seven touches. Hopefully that changes really quick. I think we're all hoping for that, but this is one of those situations where after what we saw in Week one, you can't start him until we see something different in terms of usage.
D
Robert yeah, yeah. I mean he reminds me kind of like a, I don't know, like a Jahliel McLaughlin, you know, from last season who might have some spark games catching the ball on some screen passes and taking it to the house. He's got great speed, he can be explosive. But in terms of the consistency, you know, being there and being able to produce in fantasy, I don't see that being there at least early on in the season. And so, you know, I agree with Heath in terms of sitting up.
B
Yeah, we'll see if Sean Payton says, wow, that 50 yard run, I don't know if Dobbins are going to do that right now. Maybe we just give RJ Harvey a little bit more work. But be patient as a fantasy manager. Hopefully those will come. This it for me is Ken Walker. We spent some time talking about this already why Robert thinks this is the Zach Charbonnet Show. I think we're all in agreement right now that Charbonnet looks like the better of the two running backs in Seattle. So that'll do it for our running back conversation. Robert, thanks so much for joining us as always. We're going to take a break right now. We come back and get into the wide receiver rankings and tell you about the guys we're looking to start and sit for week number two.
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Welcome back to Fantasy Football today presented by BetMGM. Let's take a look at our wide receiver rankings for week number two. We'll show you the consensus rankings one through 13 and we'll kind of talk through some of the tougher players to rank for us. No real disappointment. No real, you know, tough ones here. On the top of the list of the guys though, Heath who struggled in week one, Chase neighbors St Brown, Brian Thomas, Nico, I hate this. Which one bounces back for you the easiest like which is the no brainer Jamar Chase.
C
But I am hopeful that they're all going to bounce back. We're still ranking them all as top 12 wide receivers. We're acting like there's really no concern so hopefully like if they get put a similar performance in week two, we'll have to have a different conversation.
A
I'll tell you who I'm a little worried about is Nico Collins. It has nothing to do with the matchup it has everything to do with C.J. stroud, how he operated, how his offensive line operated and what that means moving forward for Nico.
B
Let me show you the list, 13 through 24. And yes, hopefully CJ Stroud can get him going to the level that we expected. For Nico Collins, top four wide receiver for me, top seven, I think, overall for almost everybody. So we get to one of the guys, two of the guys on this list that were tough for us to have some ranking spots for them. One guy is Tyreek Hill for me. One guy is Zay Flowers for you. So, Dave, start with Zay Flowers. Why was he tough to rank?
A
Dude, I am worried that he's going to be the toughest guy for me to rank every single week this season because he showed in Week one that he's super talented and he got a ton of targets. And Lamar Jackson barely even threw the football. Is this going to be the new normal for the Baltimore Ravens? I feel like we need to see that over and over again before we really count on that happening. Or does he go back to what he was the first two years of his career, which is boom weeks every so often, and then a lot of duds, a lot of disappointing weeks along the way. I think he's obviously talented, but this is a Browns defense. Whatever they did last week to Joe Burrow, man, it came out in the numbers for Ja' Marr Chase and T. Higgins. And so it made me nervous about just putting Zay Flowers that much higher in my rankings. I feel like a broken record. Amazing talent, questionable situation. And now throw on top of that in Week two, a difficult matchup. It makes my head spin about exactly where to put him.
B
Listen, he's a sit for me exactly a lot of the reasons you said and his history against Cleveland, not great. In four career meetings, he's averaging just over 10 PPR points per game. No touchdowns in those four meetings. So I hope what we saw last week is a sign of things to come because it'd be fantastic, especially the more Zay Flowers fell in drafts. But I'm just a little bit concerned that what they did to the Bengals receivers in terms of the Browns defense, they do contain Zay Flowers a little bit in this matchup. Tyreek Hill is very difficult, I think, moving forward until we see a better Dolphins offense, at least for me to rank. So he's just inside my top 24. I guess you guys have him a little bit higher based on our consensus rankings. Heath, when you look at Tyreek Hill, we're not going to Bring up the off field stuff that he might be dealing with right now. Just from an on field perspective, Tua looked awful. The offensive line's a mess. I know the Patriots defense don't. We don't have Christian Gonzalez. At least as of now. He's going to try and play but miss week one. If you have him, you're starting him. But what's the expectation level?
C
Oh, I don't think you can have an expectation. It's just you have to start him. And that's the same way I feel about Zay Flowers. Really? Like you do what Zay Flowers did in week one. I'm not putting you on my bench, especially for a young guy like that. We've seen Tyreek Hill. Even last year when Tua was healthy, this was still an offense that was successful passing the football. The Patriots just gave up 364 yards to Geno Smith. I'm just going to start Tyreek Hill. I'm probably going to start Jalen Waddle. I don't, I don't feel that bad about Tua as a high end QB2 either. If they're bad against the Patriots, then we might just have to throw in the towel.
B
All right, so the alarm will sound if we get to next week and we don't have a strong performance. Tyree Kill against the Patriots and then the guy that's toughest to rank for you is going to be probably every week situation as well as Travis Hunter.
C
I hope not. I hope. I mean the fact that as a rookie in his first game he saw eight targets cut, six of them and one of the two he didn't catch might have been like a 60 yard touchdown pass if Trevor Lawrence had thrown it one yard farther and said it was an interception. It was a very encouraging debut where he barely played on defense. But now we get to talk about he's going to play a little bit more on defense. Now what does that mean? We were sitting in this room and we saw Pete Briscoe talking about how he might start on defense and play most of the steps. If that happens, then we're never going to know what to do with Travis Hunter. Hopefully it's just a small uptick in terms of defensive play and he's still a full time wide receiver. For now he's a boom bust number three wide receiver.
B
Let's talk about the guys we're looking to start for this week. And for you, Dave, it's Jameson Williams. For you Heath, it's Jacoby Myers. For me, it's DK Metcalf. I'll just get DK out of the way real quick. Revenge game he's taking on his former team with the Seahawks. I was encouraged four catches 83 yards last week against the jets where he was getting shadow coverage by SAS Gardner but still able to give you 12.3 PPR points. I hope that's the floor most weeks. So no touchdowns despite the fact that Aaron Rodgers through for four. So the fact that Rodgers played well is encouraging. Hopefully DK Metcalf carries that over against his former team. Tell me why you like Jameson Williams.
A
Well Seattle's changing their cornerbacks too so that's even better because now they've got some guys starting that might not be as experienced and might not be as ready for DK Metcalf. I think Jameson Williams has one of the highest ceilings in fantasy. I think the Lions are going to go right back to where they were last year. They're taking on the Bears. Their secondary was not so great by the time the game ended against the Vikings in week. Number one. They're getting Jalen Johnson back. I don't think Jalen Johnson will necessarily be on Jameson Williams. He's a good number two wide receiver this week.
C
I have a hard time criticizing the Bears secondary. He had like 143 yards passing in that game and Jameson Williams had it was 20 attempts 2% route win rate last week in the new offensive scheme for the Lions. I think he's still a boom bust number three wide receiver and he does have a lot of upside on a weekly basis, but there's absolutely zero floor.
B
For Jameson Williams did average over 15 PPR points per game in his home games last year, so hopefully going back home we know is usually pretty good for Jared Goff in this offense. So I do have some encouraging feelings for Jameson Williams to bounce back, but understandably so it's going to be a little disappointing if he's not running the type of routes that we want to see. Let's go to Jacoby Myers, one of the most underrated wide receivers in fantasy year and year.
C
Every year, every year and week one could not have been more encouraging for him. In the Chip Kelly offense. They lead the league in pass rate over expected. This was not a run heavy offense of any kind at all and then over 55% of their targets go to two guys, Jacoby Myers and Brock Bowers. It's wheels up for Jacob Myers, full PPR. He's a wide receiver too.
B
Eight of his last 11 games going back to last year, 13.7 PPR points or more. He just gets the job done. And every time he just gets overlooked by us in drafts. So maybe should have been a number two wide receiver. Especially after Amari Cooper decided to retire the sit wide receivers for us for week number two. For you, Heath, it's Michael Pittman. For you, Dave, I'm surprised. Ricky Pearsall and I'm sitting Zay Flowers. So Pittman is it just because he's going to see a lot of Patrick.
C
For 10, you can just say that name and we can be done. That's all you need. The Denver Broncos don't start a wide. Like maybe if it's a top 12 wide receiver, you start them against the Broncos and hope they finish as a top 25 guy. But don't start Michael Pittman against them.
A
He's not playing against Miami anymore.
B
Why Ricky Piercel?
A
Because it's Mack Jones under center and I'm just not sure what to expect from Mac Jones or the 49ers offense. And I thought the Saints secondary was okay. Obviously, they gave up one big play to Marvin Harrison. There was another one that was for the taking that Kyler Murray missed. I think Ricky Pearsall isn't going to be like Brian Thomas Jr. Was last year. He's more of like a flex play than he is a surefire number two fantasy wife.
B
I don't know. Jennings not there and George Kittle being out. And the fact that what we saw just last year with what the backup quarterbacks did for Kyle Shanahan, even Josh stops, who doesn't throw the ball very well?
C
Brian Thomas.
B
And what Brian Thomas did with Mac.
A
Jones, that's a different receiver on a different team.
B
Totally. But Mac Jones showed you, hey, I know that guy can catch, and I'm going to throw it to him. And it's a Small sample size. 4 games in his career with at least 6 targets. 4 games over 14 PPR points.
A
See him do it with Mac Jones. That's all I'm saying.
B
I would have said the same thing about Brian Thomas. And Brian Thomas was a superstar last year with Mac Jones. All right, we're going to take a break right now. We come back and get into the tight ends that you're starting and sitting and looking at the rankings for week number two. Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Raise the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over. Roger, wait.
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Welcome back to the Harold Fanon segment presented by BetMGM. I'm Jamie. That's Dave. That's Heath. We're talking tight ends, but basically we're just talking about the Browns tight ends because that's the biggest story of the week. It's been one of the more popular players to be picked up off of waivers in terms of Fannin. And what do we do about David Nijoko? So here's the tight end rankings 1 through 12, but let's not even worry about what the rankings are because you're starting Bowers, you're starting McBride, you're starting everybody else. Just get to that other side there where you see the two Browns helmets for Harold Fannin and David Nijoku. So, Mr. Harold Fannin, number one fan club representative, what do we expect from the Browns tight ends for week number two? Because Fannin was awesome, Nijoku was not. The targets were much more in favor of the rookie. Nijoka only had six, Fannin had nine. How do we expect it to go in week two?
C
15 plus targets between them probably, which is 15 is what they had last week. And they've done that a lot of times. Joe Flacco has been the quarterback that he averages 42 attempts per game playing for the Cleveland Browns. So you're going to see about 15 of those go to those guys. One of them is going to score a touchdown this week against the Ravens. The real interesting thing is how it split up. We get to find out this week because I think both these guys are going to be in starting contention moving forward. But is it Fannin over Nijoku? And I think it might be because it looked like that in terms of just how they move with the football.
A
He, Fannin took a lot of the plays that were earmarked for Nijoku last year and he did better with them. He's faster. There's no question about it. He ate the safety for the Bengals, Jordan Battle. He ate his lunch like three, four times throughout the game. So if I'm the Browns, of course I want to get this guy involved. And does anyone here think that the Browns are going to be able to run the ball on the Ravens?
C
Maybe Harold Fannin.
A
Exactly. So these short throws that we see from Joe Flacco that makes up for the run game makes all the sense in the world to give it to Fannin, who's got a much better chance of breaking one of those short passes and turning it into a long play than Chief Fiat does.
B
So I'm looking at the rundown that we have here for this segment and it's toughest player to rank Harold Fannin. David Nijoku for you. For me, start is Harold Fanon. Sit David Nijoku for you. It's just the Browns tight end segment because that's just the most fascinating situation. But let's talk about a couple other guys here. So the toughest player to rank for you, Dave, is.
A
Well, it's Fannin.
B
I'm sorry for you, Heath is Mark Andrews. I just see Fannin everywhere. Mark Andrews disappointing week one, but we did see Noah Fant score a touchdown against this Browns defense for the Bengals last week. So do we think Andrews bounces back?
C
That's why he's the toughest player to rank? Because I have no idea. I didn't. I wasn't totally sure he was going to bounce back last week after week one and then he went on and scored 11 touchdowns in the next 16 games. So you have to be open to that possibility. I think with my ranking, maybe I'm a little bit too open to that possibility. But Mark Andrews has been a huge. They chose to keep him around even after the disaster at the end of the playoffs. They had his back all offseason. He's been a huge part of this organization for half of a decade. It's hard to believe he's going to see one target per game moving forward. And there's going to be some weeks where if he does get one target, it might be a touchdown and he scores eight points on it anyway. So he's going to be a difficult guy, but I think he's directly connected to one guy we talked a lot about in the wide receiver segment. If we see his role continue to be diminished, then I don't know that we have to worry about where we rank Zay Flowers because he's just going to be a star, right?
B
If just yes or no question. If Andrews stinks this week and likely is healthy week three. Are you dropping Mark Andrews? Yeah.
A
Yeah.
B
Okay. Makes sense. All right, so the starts for you, Harold Fannin. No surprise for you. It's Breton Strange. Why?
A
Because he's taking on the Bengals defense that allowed numbers to Harold Fannin.
C
He's no Harold Fanon.
A
He is no Harold Fanon. He's more Nijoku than Fannin. But I like the way that the Jaguars got him involved early on last week and if this is going to be a high scoring game between the Jaguars and the Bengals, Vegas seems to think so. Everybody here seems to think so. I think Brian Strange could end up having four or five catches, 50 or 60 yards, maybe find the end zone on top of it. Good streaming tight end this week got.
B
Up to a great start. Three catches in the first quarter last week against the Panthers only finished with four catches. But Pete Prisco all offseason saying how much the Jaguars wanted to involve Brenton Strange and we saw that especially, you know, you want to talk about tight end being tied to a wide receiver. If Travis Hunter is spending a lot of time on defense, Brenton Strange may see a bigger role on offense. For me, I'm going to start. Juwan Johnson, another popular waiver wire addition this week played 99% of the snaps last week. Now the matchup is a lot tougher this week, taking on the 49ers and Fred Warner. But I still think Joann Johnson's involvement, his opportunity, the way Spencer Rattler is looking for him, Johnson could be considered a starting tight end. So the tight ends that we're sitting this week, David Nijoku for you, for Heath, it's Dalton Kincaid.
C
Why you look at the stat line and you think, man, he's had a 14 point week. Dalton Kincaid's back. He played less than half of the snaps and he had four targets on 46 attempts from Josh Allen. He's just not a big part of this offense. Josh Allen's going to throw 30 passes a lot more often than he throws 40 and Dalton Kincaid's going to be a touchdown dependent streamer.
B
I do hope we get another big game or quality game minus my big game. Quality game for me. And listen, I'm with you. You know you shouldn't necessarily run to start him. But if he does have another big game, and especially like if we see Coleman taken out or Shakir not having big games and Josh Palmer was a play away from having a big game as well. But Kincaid is somebody that I think a lot of people interested in seeing him play well. So it would be nice to see. And same thing with Kyle Pitts. He's going to be a sit for me. I was very excited about him going into the week and then we get to Wednesday and his Drake London shoulder is okay. Darnell Mooney is going to return so the target's probably not going to be there for him. Another guy though, if he has a good game this week, the way Michael Pennix talked about him all offseason, the way he looked in Week one, did a lot of things closer to line of scrimmage, which is what we've been hoping for for the last three years. So Kyle Pitts could have an opportunity to hopefully play well, but a little bit of a tougher matchup.
A
Taking on Minnesota 15 games last year where he played with London and Mooney in this offense and it was with Kirk Cousins averaged less than 8.5 PPR points per game.
B
And for what it's worth, his last three games against Tampa Bay, he destroys them. Everybody else, he tends to struggle, so we'll see how he does against Minnesota this week. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, it's all your questions Ask FFT next here on Fantasy Football Today.
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Learn more@WhatsApp.com welcome back to Fantasy Football Today presented by BetMGM. Before we get to LR's question, Heath, we saw the news that Xavier Worthy going to practice in some capacity this week according to Kansas City Star. If he plays, are you starting him?
C
No, and I don't expect him to play.
B
Okay, so just maybe getting some rehab work off the side. But very encouraging that he may not be out for multiple weeks as we initially expected after getting hurt last Friday against the Chargers. All right, LR wants to know should I trade Jakory, Crosby, Merritt for Ameca Abuka and PPR has a lot of running backs. Dave says yes, do it, do it in a heartbeat. Yep, I would agree. Next question. Which side is better to trade Travis ETN, CD Lamb or Christian McCaffrey and a Mecca Abuka? So Dave, which side would you rather have? ETN and Lamb or McCaffrey and a Buka?
A
I would lean toward McCaffrey and a Buka, especially if catches count for anything.
C
I'll take ETN and Lamb, McCaffrey and Buuka might be better for the next five to six weeks, but I think when I'm later in the season ETN.
B
Lam Chris Godwin coming back is a little bit of a potential problem for Abuka, so I would take the Lamb ETN side slightly as well. But A fair trade. Next question. I got a tough one this week at flex. Debo Samuel or George Pickens in full ppr. So Heath, which receiver do you like better?
C
Debo. And it's not that tough for me.
A
Yeah, I agree. I think Deebo Samuel who plays on Thursday should have the better game. The Pickens.
B
In my league I would go with Deebo Samuel as well. Next question. Who would you rank out of these three in full? How would you rank these three in full ppr? Heath, you got Kelsey Tillman and Kayshawn Booty.
C
We probably should have mentioned Travis Kelce after basically his in involvement just barely scoring a touchdown in week one. I'm still rolling him out there this week as a top five tight end and I'd start him over both these guys pretty easily.
A
I think I'd start Tillman ahead of Kelsey just because I think the Browns are going to have to throw a lot. But Booty's going to be third on the list.
B
Yeah, I think Booty's definitely third. I would probably go with Tillman as well. Interesting league though where you can start either tight end or wide receiver. Next question. Javante Williams or Crosky Merritt in a non PPR league. 16 team leagues. Oh, I'm sorry. Trade. So would you trade Javonte Williams for Crosby Merritt?
C
I would not make that deal.
A
Who would you rather have rest of the season?
C
Javante Williams.
A
Okay, I'll take Crosky Merritt rest of season.
B
I think I'd take Crosky Merritt as well just because I feel like he's on a better offense.
A
It's a standard scoring league so the catches for Javante won't matter.
B
But the two touchdowns do though.
A
Last one that's in the past.
B
Full PPR. Sit 1. Nico Collins, Courtland Sutton, Jameson Williams, Deebo Samuel. All right, so you're sitting Jaymo or Deebo Samuel. It's going to be interesting conversation here. Who are you going with?
A
I will sit Debo over Jamo because I love the upside for Jamo.
C
I will sit Jameson Williams.
B
I'll sit Debo. But they're almost back to back for me, so tough call but easy to start. Nico Collins and Cortland Sutton. Alright, that'll do it for our questions. We appreciate you sending them to us again. Always use the hashtag askfft. It's the best way to find us and we can help you with all of your fantasy dilemmas. So we got a fun game tonight. We're going to see the commanders and the packers and we have a fun rest of week for you. So make sure you check out our Fantasy Football Today podcast. We have our AFC home games up already with the podcast that we had this morning. We have the NSC home games tomorrow. We'll see what Adam Mazur does to get Dave Richard on the game of the week so it's always a fun show. Make sure you check us out wherever podcasts are available. You can also follow us on YouTube. And don't forget Sunday morning at 11:30am Eastern. We have you covered with all of your start sit questions getting you set for week number two for Heath Cummings, for Dave Richard, for Robert Turban and our great production staff. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching Fantasy Football today. Popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze. Talk about refreshing. You know what else is refreshing this summer?
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This episode of Fantasy Football Today is all about helping fantasy managers dominate Week 2 of the NFL season. Hosts Jamie Eisenberg, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings, joined by former NFL running back Robert Turbin, present their tiered rankings and break down must-starts, risky sits, and sleepers by position. They dig into notable situations—rookie QB questions, running back workload surprises, and WR volatility—to give you an edge in setting your lineup.
Zay Flowers: Dave: "Toughest guy for me to rank every single week ... Amazing talent, questionable situation ... difficult matchup this week.” (29:38)
Tyreek Hill: Jamie: Hard to trust due to Tua and OL, inside top 24 but lower than consensus; Heath: “Just start him, period. If they're bad again vs. Pats, may have to throw in the towel.” (31:19)
Travis Hunter: Heath: “Rookie, first game, saw 8 targets, but will he play more defense? Boom-bust No. 3 WR.” (32:03)
Energetic, good banter, loaded with actionable advice and quick disagreements—but always insightful and detailed. The show emphasizes week-to-week volatility, rookie upside, and not overreacting to Week 1… unless RB usage has clearly shifted.
This episode is a gold mine for managers questioning how much to trust rookies, when to bench veterans, and for anyone puzzled about the Browns tight end situation. Watch out for Seattle and Minnesota RB shakeups, temper expectations on Tua, Mahomes, and Prescott, and don’t sleep on Jacoby Myers.
For rankings, start/sit columns, and more, visit CBSSports.com/Fantasy
For more answers, use #AskFFT on social media or tune in for Sunday morning’s live Q&A!