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Week 1 Recap: Strong Starts, Broken Offenses & a Bills/Ravens Instant Classic | Beyond the Box Score
01:09:31
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- [00:00]
Adam
This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports.
- [00:04]
Dan
What a play. Can you believe this?
- [00:07]
Adam
No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
- [00:11]
Dan
Off to the races. And he stays on his feet. This is gonna go the distance.
- [00:15]
Adam
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome, everybody, to fantasy football today, presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook. Born in Vegas with what's going on. It is Monday, September 8th. We're recapping Thursday or, sorry, Sunday night's insane game. Buffalo 41, Baltimore 40. Game of the year in Week 1. Also, what the heck happened to the Dolphins, the Texans, the Panthers, the Lions? We'll talk about those offenses. What about those disappointing rookies like Matthew golden and Travion Henderson and especially RJ Harvey? We'll talk about them. What are we buying in week one? What are we selling? I'm Adam with Jacob and Dan. Do you feel like I'm intruding on your show right now?
- [01:02]
Dan
Not at all. I'm excited. This is the show. This is the original OG Show. It all started with us three, and this is the one that I look forward to most. Jacob and I talked about. It is weird, though, because it feels like a cram session. Like, I feel like I'm back in college trying to watch as much as I can before noon on a Monday. So that's the only part I don't like about it. But it's fun because it really cranks you into gear and. And I'm just so excited football's back. And to talk football with you boys. I love football. I loved everything about yesterday, but football doesn't love me, as you can tell from my updated refrigerator magnets back there. And by tell, I mean you'd have to use an. An eyeglass to see what I'm talking about. The Giants are now 0 1, and they looked as miserable as they've looked every week one for the last three years. My fantasy teams, I did good. It was a good day there, but I just. Football just doesn't love me, man.
- [01:52]
Adam
Well, listen, my fantasy teams, I had a bad week one, but I didn't lose week one of a guillotine league, and I'm not good news. Yeah, he never wanted cold peanut butter either, so.
- [02:04]
Dan
Oh, no, no, no. Cold peanut butter is great, dude.
- [02:08]
Adam
The. The food might be good, but your team. Cold peanut butter is apparently good.
- [02:12]
Dan
Which one? Which one is having a bad week?
- [02:14]
Adam
You're gonna get chopped from the guillotine league.
- [02:16]
Dan
Getting chopped from that guillotine league.
- [02:18]
Jacob
Yes.
- [02:18]
Dan
Dude, is there any way Out. Who do I did I have Harvey?
- [02:21]
Adam
Jamie said you need a huge game from Colson Loveland.
- [02:24]
Dan
No.
- [02:25]
Jacob
Hey, for the brand.
- [02:26]
Dan
I didn't even see. That was the one league I didn't check yesterday. I'm in 32 leagues this year. That was the one. My other two guillotines were good. Wait a second. Did I have worthy in that league? What do I have in that league?
- [02:35]
Adam
I don't know and I don't care. Jacob, what's going on? How we doing?
- [02:39]
Jacob
I'm psyched, man. Highlight of my week right here being on this Monday show. Let's go.
- [02:43]
Adam
Good. All right. Buffalo 41, Baltimore 40. Had the ball for nearly 35 minutes in this game and it was, it was a bonanza. 33.4 fantasy points for Lamar Jackson. 6 point per passing touchdown leagues. 42.8 for Josh Allen. We almost got 6 more points for Allen and Keon Coleman. Coleman nearly scored a touchdown super late in that game but it ended up setting up the game winning field goal. So this was just, just tremendous stuff from these guys. But I think. Let's talk about Jacob. The lead wide receiver, Zay Flowers gets nine of 19 targets in this game. He was started in 68 of leagues, Keon. And he had seven catches, 143 yards and a touchdown plus two carries for eight yards. Keon Coleman had 11 targets. Josh Allen threw 46 passes last year. He averaged 30 passes per game. He threw 46 last night. Keon Coleman got 11 targets. He only had three targets going into the fourth quarter. He did almost all of his damage in the fourth quarter. Who do you think, who are you more impressed by? Zay Flowers or Keon Coleman who has started in 8% of leagues?
- [03:49]
Jacob
Definitely Flowers. Yeah. But these are a couple of guys that Dan and I have talked about a lot on beyond the box score. I think I was wrong on Keon Coleman potentially seeing him get his target total pushed up even though it was the game script that influenced it. That was a career high in targets. His average depth of target was down a little bit. So we were seeing more short yardage targets. He had six first downs, which is way more than he's ever had in a game. So all encouraging signs for Coleman. But who am I like buying more at Zay Flowers? Like you said, only 19 targets for the team. If you can, if you're watching on YouTube here, I've got some comparisons on team level and player level stuff. So the Bills had the most plays of any team. 78 offensive plays is an insane amount the Ravens were 26th with just 50 offensive plays in week one. So that affects things, you know, that affects the total volume. But yeah, 41 target per route run rate for Zay Flowers. This is a trend that we've seen developing from year one to year two. They got him way more involved in the offense, but it went a little overlooked because he only scored four touchdowns. But in this game, you know, we saw him getting some looks around the, the end zone, red zone area. And then of course we know he has the speed, the tackle avoidance to turn any play into a big touchdown as well. So that's how he gets to more upside than we've seen in the past is like continuing to evolve as a player, which is what we saw here with the target volume and the efficiency. But then also if he gets some of those big plays and touchdowns and all of a sudden he could be like a top 12, top 15 receiver.
- [05:21]
Adam
Dan More excited about Zay Flowers or more concerned about Mark Andrews, who had.
- [05:25]
Dan
One target in this game, more excited about Zay Flowers. I mean, we kind of knew at this point with Andrews he's becoming a touchdown or bus type player in fantasy football. I think everyone kind of project ends his value. But Flowers is an interesting case because Jacob and I put him like we when we did our breakout show, we talked about Zay Flowers, we broke down all the exciting stuff and then we kind of just not fell off but just kind of stopped talking about him because it's like, well, is there any touchdown upside? But it's the situation that we always see in fantasy where you follow the actual player who looks really good on tape. The targets targets were weren't amazing, but the yardage was there and the yards per target were great. And if he just falls into more touchdowns this year, he's going to be a breakout in fantasy. The touchdowns are the reason he hasn't been a breakout to this point. And I thought he looked unbelievable last night watching that game live. So I'm really excited about what Flowers can be this season and there was also opportunity for more, I thought, in that game. So it will depend somewhat on game script. Like I don't want to make too much of a 40 a game like this where there's 80 plus points scored because it won't look like that every week. But man, he looks good out there.
- [06:29]
Adam
Flowers, he always looks good. You know, for the people who didn't want to draft Zay Flowers or on like our FFT show, we kind of said he was going too early. I think he was a early round six pick or something like that and maybe even round five. And it just. We just didn't think there was enough pass volume. So I think the good thing is, Yeah, I got nine targets. Incredible target share. He had a 25 target share last year and that 25.4. That was with leaving week 18 early with an injury. He was on pace for 121 targets in the first 16 games of the season for him, but still they threw 19 passes, you know, so it is going to be a problem some weeks, right? It'll be a problem a lot of weeks for, for Zay Flowers, but that doesn't mean you have to like sell him. You know, you could just ride it out and. Except they're going to be some highs and lows, but he's obviously going to be the focal point of the passing game. He's so good.
- [07:22]
Jacob
He's very good. He was top five in average separation score last year. And that's just before he gets the ball in his hands. And he's very, very good with the ball in his hands. So in this offense you might have to take some bad weeks, but that's kind of the case with pretty much any pass catcher. I mean, look at what Nico Collins and Brian Thomas Jr. And Jamar Chase and all these players did this week.
- [07:40]
Adam
Yeah, exactly. All right. It is weird to think that Flowers finished this wide receiver 36 per game last year and he had a pretty.
- [07:47]
Dan
Solid year, but just four touchdowns killed him. Yeah, four.
- [07:50]
Adam
Four touchdowns. Okay, so with Coleman, hang on to him or, or try to turn him into something.
- [08:00]
Dan
I mean, look, Jacob and I were somewhat split on him this off season and I want to give credit to Dave Richard who I think was first on this breakout and really solidified his take once he got to see it live in practice. But I'm not trading Keon Coleman. I think what Keon Coleman offers is exactly what Josh Allen has needed in this offense for a while because it fits Allen's skill set so well as a passer. Allen has the ability to hit those outside number vertical shots in that intermediate deep range. Those stop routes that I saw him rip to Coleman when he needed them, when they started to have to pass the ball when the game script called for it. And they look great on it. I thought their connection was great, their timing was great. Coleman made some really good catches away from his frame, some good adjustments to the football. And then as a mover, I thought Coleman looked. Looked really strong as well. Just moving in and out of his breaks. Even though there were a couple vertical routes, I thought he had a really nice release off the line of scrimmage. Coleman could be a year two breakout player. I always liked his tape at Florida State. I never made much of the 40 yard dash because if you watch the gauntlet drill and you looked at some of the tape from him at Florida State, he was really good outside of straight line speed. I don't think he needs that in this offense. I think he'll be leaned on in the red zone as well. We saw him the, the design two point conversion for him. So I'm high on Coleman this year and obviously the game script will be not like this every game we're going to run into some bad tricky games. So the Bills don't throw the ball a lot, but he's in my mind a good bet at least to score somewhere in the 8 to 10 touchdown range. And if they could really start to continue to get that timing connection down on those outbreaking routes toward the sideline, we could be looking at a big year for him.
- [09:30]
Adam
I guess the my counter would be, you know, you had like Josh Palmer get nine targets. You had Shakir get nine targets. Right. So there's competition there. But also this Bill's schedule. We knew the Patriots for example had the easiest schedule in the NFL. Well, it's the AFC East. I mean their next look at their next upcoming games. Jets, maybe the jets are good. Dolphins, Saints, Patriots, Falcons, bye week, Panthers, Chiefs, Dolphins. I mean it is so many easy games. So what does that mean? Does that mean 30 pass attempts per game? Does that mean six targets for Keon?
- [10:05]
Dan
That's the issue.
- [10:06]
Adam
You know it could, it could be a problem. But again I think you're happy if you, if you drafted him and he hopefully is the number one wide receiver for one of the best offenses in the NFL. Dalton Kincaid, 51 of the snaps. He did catch a touchdown, but not that encouraging of a game. I think we'd have to say same.
- [10:21]
Dan
Concave as last year.
- [10:22]
Adam
I think Khalil Shakir basically as Khalil Shakir as it gets. Anything else from this game, guys?
- [10:30]
Dan
Just James Cook, a player I was high on all off season, have to be enthused with what I saw from what you saw from James Cook. If you also drafted him a lot like I did, didn't come off the field a lot, plate sometimes came off the field not often.
- [10:43]
Adam
He, I think he only played like 55 of the snaps or something. But he doesn't play on third down. But it doesn't Matter. He's a goal lineback.
- [10:50]
Dan
He's. That's what I was going to say. Used in the red zone, which is the most important thing for James Cook. Used in the passing game, made an incredible play in the past game. I think Jacob's having computer issues and also was used when they went to that hurry, that hurry up. No tempo. Up tempo offense. They brought in Johnson for a few snaps, but it was mostly Cook. And so I just thought it was all enthusiastic and really with Cook, it comes down to the talent. He's unbelievable out there. He's incredible in space. He processes the defense incredibly well, makes awesome cuts and has long speed and burst. I think he's just simply put one of the most talented running backs in the NFL.
- [11:23]
Adam
Yeah, I, I still, if I were drafting again today, I'd still draft him in the third round because he played 56 of the snaps. He had five catches in this game. Again, a lot of pass attempts he did not have. He, he. That tied a season high from last year. So he had two games with five catches. But last year he already had like 30 catches or something like that. So. Yeah.
- [11:44]
Dan
But he also came inches away from two more touchdowns.
- [11:46]
Adam
I love him. I mean I thought he was one of the safest round three picks. You know, it's. Even if, even if Cook and Coleman have flaws. Right? Hey, it's the offense that they're in.
- [11:57]
Dan
Exactly. Boost them. I would say that he should be pick if we could redo it over again. I take him right in the range. I took like the Bucky Irving types.
- [12:05]
Adam
All right. Jacob having some computer issues, so I never said simple advanced stats from simple people now.
- [12:14]
Dan
Tagline.
- [12:15]
Adam
Simplest people now. Without Jacob here, forget it.
- [12:17]
Dan
Oh yeah, we're screwed without Jacob.
- [12:19]
Adam
All right. Super simple if for those of you who have kids, super simple songs. Is that, is that what it's called? What's the beyond the box? Your schedule for this week.
- [12:27]
Dan
Yeah, beyond the box score. Obviously you had our off season schedule and you could check us out on YouTube on the beyond the box score feed or if you want to do us a favor, go to your itunes and Spotify. Leave our five star rating review. We will ultimately answer any question you leave in a rating review. It helps us grow the show this week. We'll have a show tomorrow which is going to be an interesting crossover show with Heath Cummings. It's a dynasty. Beyond the box score crossover show where we really dive deep into some of the rookies and younger players in the NFL to give you guys hopefully an edge for Dynasty but also for the back end of your rosters. I know a lot of people think you need, you know, to find some upside on your bench and that's going to do it. Sorry, I was looking at what Jacob said. Also Wednesday will be usage reports from every position. That's going to be a show that we're going to get every week with Jacob Gibbs. And there's also going to be a solo show coming. Sorry.
- [13:18]
Adam
All right. No, that's okay. I I off there. All right. So, yeah, there's a lot coming up this week. Coming up on today's show, Dan, if you could check the chat for me real quick. The private chat. All right. Coming up on today's show, are we worried about Nico Collins? Are we just bailing on Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle? I'm going to give you some screenshots to show you some of the opportunities that the Dolphins had. I'm going to give you some screenshots to show you how big of a day Marvin Harrison Jr. Could have had. But also, it wasn't the most encouraging day for Marvin Harrison Jr. We'll talk about him. Talk a little bit about the Colts. Yeah. The rookies, of course. Like what do we do with RJ Harvey, for example? So that's all coming up. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to give you a player of the week and some news and notes, some snap counts that you need to know. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football Today.
- [14:07]
Dan
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- [15:03]
Adam
Welcome back, everybody. Now it is time for the hymn of the week sponsored by segment. Yeah yeah. Sponsored by producer Jordan Peele's upcoming sports horror film Him Only in theaters on September 19th. Dan, who is him in week one?
- [15:20]
Dan
I think you gotta go with Justin Fields, right? From our fantasy standpoint, it's so interesting. As I worked through the draft season, Fields became a player who in auction drafts just wasn't bid on. And he would fall into a price range that was more toward the quarterback 1819 range than the projected 8 to 10 that he was ranked at. And you just kind of shrug your hands up and be like, well, I don't believe in this offense. I thought Justin Fields looked phenomenal out there yesterday. I thought he made excellent throws on the run. Thought he was more poised in the pocket than I've seen him at any point in his career. Maybe this is the system that best fits his skill set and his connection with Garrett Wilson was obvious. It goes dates back to their days at Ohio State. But in addition to all that we expected from Fields in the run game, what he did as a passer was really interesting to me. And it's not like he did it against a a bad team. The Steelers are or at least were a good defense last year. I think one of the biggest factors is the Jet City really impressive job locating two offensive tackles, which is really hard to do in the NFL even when you have those top draft capital. Just ask the Giants with Evan Neal and several other teams, I mean, Ike Iguanu, all these teams that have missed on early tackles. Both men Boo and Fashanu are studs at the offensive tackle position. And that makes a big difference for Justin Fields from a passing standpoint in addition to everything he offers as a runner. So I gotta buy on this. I think he could easily be a top six fantasy option at quarterback this season. Potentially a difference making player who like reaches that top tier.
- [16:41]
Adam
Okay, good start for Justin Fields and we're hoping that he can keep it going next week. He gets Buffalo, so they're pretty beatable. Oh, Jacob's back.
- [16:52]
Dan
Thank God.
- [16:53]
Adam
All right. That was the hymn of the week sponsored by the upcoming film Him. Producer Jordan Peele invites you to the football, sports and horror event of the season, which acts asks the question, what are you willing to sacrifice? See him only in theaters on September 19th.
- [17:11]
Dan
Nice.
- [17:12]
Jacob
I had one note on the Bills Ravens that I did want to get in and it was the Khalil Shakir's route rate was 90% last night. For comparison, it was 75 last year and he's only topped 91 time. One other game in his career.
- [17:28]
Adam
Okay, that's awesome. Like how about Juwan Johnson we talk about. He played 99 of the snaps yesterday. That's crazy for the Saints. Some news and notes. Giants have not committed to a quarterback for Week 2 at Dallas. Juwan Jennings, shoulder injury. Xavier Worthy, shoulder injury. Drake London, shoulder injury. So London, day to day they're calling him, but we'll see at Minnesota in Week 2. Xavier Worthy gets the Eagles in Week 2. Juwan Jennings, the Saints, George Kittle's got the hamstring injury. The other tight ends I think are okay. Evan Ingram and Brock Bowers, offensive line. So the Texans offensive line is a mess. They played the game without starting guard Ed Ingram and then they lost two linemen during the game. One came back, but David Andrews, their center, left with a foot injury. So that's two starters. They could be down next week against the Bucks. We'll see if Ingram can make his way back for them. And then you just had some other like, oh, New Orleans, they were without a an offensive lineman and then Talis Fuaga left with a knee injury. They get sucked. San Francisco next week. Miami's offensive line is. Is a problem, but I don't know that. It wasn't that bad. But they lost Austin Jackson, starting right tackle, to a toe injury. On defense. Big ones. Giants linebacker Mike McFadden was carted off. X rays were negative, but he's a good player for them. Denzel Perryman for the Chargers, linebacker, he left with an injury. Pittsburgh safety DeSean Elliott left with a knee injury. Raiders linebacker or Landon Roberts could miss some time with an elbow injury. Terry and Arnold has a groin injury. Starting cornerback for the Lions and a good one, but apparently it's not serious. My favorite player of the world, the Jarius Snead, did not play in the second half. He says he's healthy. The Titans did not use him in the second half. I don't know if that's because he's recovering from an injury or what. Seattle safety Nick Iman worry left with an ankle injury. All right, let's get into some snap counts here. So Travis Hunter played 64 of the snaps on offense and he played only six snaps on defense. But he was supposed to be like an every down wide receiver. He wasn't and he was basically exclusively in the slot.
- [19:29]
Dan
Possibly games are related too because they were up by so much.
- [19:32]
Adam
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I guess we could look like the first three quarters, but they didn't pull the starters, you know. Right. Yeah. Travis Etn, 61 of the snaps. Tank Bigsby, 21. Anything to say about the Jaguars guys?
- [19:45]
Jacob
Awful play From Trevor Lawrence. From what I've seen so far, he had the lowest pressure rate of any quarterback at just 13%. It's been pretty rough that and the Texans have been the hardest watches. I've only watched like three or four games so far this week and like half of them have been awful. So that's fun.
- [20:02]
Dan
And the thing about that is, like, at least with the Texan situation, the Rams were in a phenomenal defense with young talent that's improving. And could it ultimately be one of the better defense in the NFL? The Panthers are going to be the stone worst, if not the second worst defense in the NFL. And a fantasy matchup we target all season long. There's just no talent on that defense and Lawrence was just missing routine throws. From what I've seen without pressure, That's a big, big problem for BTJ Stock. It's a big problem for Hunter Stock and obviously for Lawrence Stock.
- [20:29]
Jacob
On the Travis Hunter note, he had an 84 route rate, which I do think speaks to Dan's point that like, I think in a more neutral game script or even where they're playing from behind, you'll see more playing time for him. He was out there when they needed to drop back and do a normal passing game.
- [20:45]
Adam
The Texans were so boring, weren't they? I mean, just.
- [20:48]
Dan
They just have no offensive line.
- [20:49]
Adam
They do.
- [20:50]
Dan
They know run game.
- [20:52]
Jacob
Yeah, it was inexcusable. I don't know. Like, it looks like the same crap from last year where there's no hot. They're running all these like complicated deep play action drop acts and deep route concepts and stuff that take time. But then the offensive line is a complete mess and they're not prepared to handle even three and four man rushes and stunts and stuff like that where it's just like immediate, quick pressure on Stroud and I don't. I have no confidence. Like, Nico is the man. Nico is the man. So I think he'll be fine. But there's going to be games like this, it seems like.
- [21:22]
Adam
Yeah, it's.
- [21:23]
Dan
It's interesting because. Sorry, go ahead, Adam.
- [21:25]
Adam
The Rams are good. You said it. I mean, the Rams have a good defense. They played well.
- [21:28]
Dan
When you have these matchups where you're a defense versus an offensive line and the defense is able to get pressure with 4 and drop 7 consistently just by what Jacob said, just running simple stunts and games up front and the offensive line just can't pick it up. It's almost like a death knell from a fantasy football standpoint. You do not want to have anyone on that offense that day. And that was the case for the Texans. I don't know how many more games will look like that. Hopefully not every game. But it's something that has me worried a bit about Nico. I saw a couple of the things you posted, Jacob. There was a route where Nico just absolutely torched a safety with a double move. Should have been a long touchdown. The ball never gets there and the ball never has any chance to get there because the offensive line.
- [22:05]
Adam
Bishon Robinson played 83% of the snaps. David Najoku and Harold Fannin both played around 75.
- [22:11]
Dan
Baby, it's time.
- [22:13]
Adam
Wild. And then you had Judy and Tillman playing most of the snaps as well. This is nothing new. But Josh Downs played 49 of the snaps and that's kind of what he typically is. Right? He doesn't play in two receiver sets. He had one target yesterday, I believe Josh Downs. Ashton Genti played 86 of the snaps. This. I. Okay, what happened here? Stefan Diggs played 41 of the snaps, which I get.
- [22:37]
Dan
Yeah.
- [22:38]
Adam
You know, and he's playing mostly outside this year. Played eight snaps on defense. Stefan Diggs.
- [22:45]
Dan
That's odd.
- [22:46]
Adam
I said, yeah, I saw it in the game book. And then I looked on Pro Football Reference and it said, I'm gonna check again.
- [22:54]
Dan
But that can't be true, can it? That's wild. They mean special teams. Stefan Diggs, I haven't seen the tape of that.
- [23:01]
Adam
Snaps on defense.
- [23:02]
Dan
What it says, I. I just watched the Raiders offense. I didn't watch the Patriots offense at all.
- [23:08]
Jacob
On the Josh Downs note, He had a 52 route rate and that is the second lowest of his career in a healthy game. So I think it was even less than we've seen in the past. His route rate was 75. His rookie and second season. Part of that is game script. They were playing with a lead. They were running a lot. And so he comes off the field in like two tight end sets and stuff like that. But I also think Tyler Warren was just like really the focal point in the short area passing game especially, and that affected him. So we'll see going forward. But he might be like not someone you can use in fantasy this year.
- [23:41]
Dan
Yep, it's.
- [23:43]
Adam
It's not that fantasy relevant. But I need some. I need to figure out this Stefan Diggs defense thing. He had never played a snap in his career.
- [23:52]
Dan
Someone needs to figure this out. I'm also just totally confused by this.
- [23:55]
Adam
He's listed as having played eight snaps on defense on. On both the NFL like game book official thing that we use and pro football reference.
- [24:03]
Jacob
I'll get to it. Let's, let's move it along here. I'm gonna go find him.
- [24:06]
Dan
I will say one note on that that I did want to add. Shout out Mike Renner, who's CBS podcaster now, he watched the tape of the Patriots offense since I didn't have time to and he said Diggs looks completely cooked. So that's just something that's interesting. He feels that Dig shouldn't be taking any of the routes from these young Patriots receivers at this point of his career.
- [24:24]
Adam
Keisha Booty at one point was listed as the number one wide receiver NFL draft prospect going into his his last year at lsu. Or maybe it was his second. He might have stayed another year. He was a crazy high prospect. It was supposed to be a star and it just never happened.
- [24:42]
Dan
He had some off field issues too and weird stuff, but that seems to be part of his past.
- [24:47]
Adam
And he played, he and Hunter Henry played most of the snaps for the Patriots. They played at the majority. They played the vast majority of the snaps. Juwan Johnson, As I mentioned, 99 of the snaps for the Saints late last year. Joanne Johnson was playing about 75 of the snaps. Kenneth Gainwell out snapped Jalen Warren and had eight more third down snaps. Kenneth Gamble was the quarterback. Zach Charbonnet, we'll talk about this a little bit later. But yeah, he played nine more snaps than Ken Walker. JSN's an outside receiver now. He played in the slot 30 of the time, 29 of the time.
- [25:17]
Dan
So good.
- [25:18]
Adam
Yeah, and it was. His slot rate was 77 last year was 29 in week one. And the only two Green Bay Pass catchers who played more than half the snaps were Tucker craft who played 92% and Romeo Dobbs who played 71. So big concerns for me about all the packers pass catchers, honestly.
- [25:40]
Jacob
So I just watched all the Stefan Diggs defense snaps and he was in fact watching from the sideline. He's on the field. Yeah. I don't know.
- [25:49]
Adam
That's so weird. You just like too close to the field.
- [25:53]
Jacob
I don't know. This is why you go beyond the box score. You gotta watch with your eyes because sometimes happened there starting is wrong. Yeah.
- [26:00]
Adam
Are you guys as worried about the packers receivers as I am?
- [26:04]
Jacob
Yes.
- [26:06]
Dan
Yeah, I think so. Just watching. First of all, Jordan Love looked amazing out there and I thought LaFleur looked even better at scheming open players, but it's just gonna, it seems like it's just going to Be a repeat of what we've had with the packers receivers. Hard to predict different players making different plays every week.
- [26:21]
Jacob
We needed to see Matthew golden be like the guy. Yeah, his snap rate was below 50. So if he's getting eased in and we have a history of Leflore rotating a lot of receivers, which is exactly what he did in this game.
- [26:32]
Dan
Yep.
- [26:33]
Jacob
And the packers defense looked so freaking legit in this game. It sets up to be not favorable at all for the receivers. It's everything you guys were scared about going into the year.
- [26:43]
Dan
Sets up to be a massive year for Josh Jacobs though, if that's the case.
- [26:48]
Adam
Just a reminder, Justin Jefferson in the first two games of his career had six targets. He played 69 and 54 of the snaps. For the rest of the year, he was on pace for 145 targets and 1600 yards and 11 touchdowns. How many touch? I don't know. A lot of touchdowns, nine touchdowns. So you be patient. But it wasn't what we wanted to see. It is time for football at BetMGM. Register with BetMGM to get instant access to the best variety of parlay selection features. No sweat. And boost tokens, live betting options and much more. And of course, new players can receive up to 1500 dollars back in bonus bets with the bonus code Fantasy if they don't win their first bet. You don't want to miss out on any of the hard hitting action at BetMGM. Place your money line parlay bets and more today. BetMGM make it legendary and the code is Fantasy. If you're an FFT listener, sign up on BetMGM. All right, four big topics. I want to thank our audience for giving us these topics. I didn't feel like doing any work, so thank you. Everybody's strictly sports says after week one, which strong performances are you confident will continue through this season and which are false hopes?
- [28:07]
Jacob
I've got a list but I'll let you guys go first.
- [28:10]
Dan
You can reel them off first.
- [28:11]
Adam
Yeah, I don't. I was gonna, you know, give way to you.
- [28:14]
Dan
So go ahead, get us rolling.
- [28:15]
Jacob
Alrighty. Confident. I'm gonna go position by position. Confident in Justin Herbert and what we saw. Everything just looked so easy and good. Yeah. To see them go so pass heavy really stood out to me. I do think the Chiefs were really selling out to stop the run. If you noticed, anytime the Chargers ran play action, the Chiefs defenders like oh crap. Like not ready for it at all. So I think that had something to do with the. The play calling for the Chargers but we saw this down the stretch where they went a lot more pass heavy. They have awesome weapons so if they can get the ground game going as well this is just going to be really really hard offense to stop. And Herbert with the rushing as well that we saw in this week one could be like a top ten top eight quarterback in Fantasy. That's what he's been over his past like 10 games or so like since he's recovered from that injury early in the season last year. Intrigued. Maybe not confident but intrigued. In Michael Pinnock's Jr. And Justin Fields. That was the best game of Justin Fields career as far as I remember.
- [29:16]
Dan
It has to be right?
- [29:18]
Adam
I don't know. I don't know. It's probably not the most, it's not the most points he scored but yeah.
- [29:25]
Jacob
He was charted with zero off target throws. He was making plays, you know like not just doing the simple read. He was Also play making 10 design runs is just incredible for Fantasy. The offensive line looked good, the run game looked good. So like if this can be a middle of the pack offense he could easily be like a top six or seven quarterback for Fantasy.
- [29:47]
Adam
Yeah he, he pops off with these big games sometimes. Can you believe they lost? I said this on the show last night just like I cannot believe they lost. I think so many things went well for the.
- [29:57]
Dan
They just.
- [29:58]
Adam
And they gave it away.
- [29:59]
Dan
Should have never lost that game. The fumble on the kickoff killed them and then they had that late hit out of bounds that I really didn't think was a late hit but it like it was so far out of bounds they had to. But it was.
- [30:07]
Adam
Yeah it was but he was.
- [30:09]
Dan
His momentum was going into the player and he barely hit him. But I know the NFL it would have been a drive killer. No, it like changed the whole possession. Unfortunately they would add the punt so bad things happen. But they should have won that game. You're right.
- [30:19]
Adam
Sorry for my detour there. Jacob Confident Justin Herbert intrigued by Fields and Pennix. Anything else?
- [30:24]
Jacob
Yeah, Pinnock's performed really well against pressure. Todd Bowles blitzes a ton. Doesn't necessarily get there A Tony I think just wants to speed quarterbacks up. But Pinnock's passed the test for the most part. He needs to get Drake London back. He needs to get Mooney on the field. But I was pretty encouraged by that because he was playing with a banged up offensive line. But I thought he stood in and played well at running back. I'm confident in Chuba Hubbard. I thought the usage was really good for him. All the underlying usage points towards him being like a low end RB1, and this was not a good game script for him. Typically we, we think that Hubbard is someone we can only use when they're playing with a lead, but he still had a pretty good game. Bucky Irving. I'm also very confident in Bucky Irving. We didn't know what the role was going to be last year. At the end of the year, they totally gave like everything to Bucky. You know, he was handling almost all the work and that's what we saw in Week one. The offense scared me a little bit. You know, they gave up a lot more pressure than we're used to seeing in Tampa Bay and the run game didn't work as well as we're used to seeing. So I think, you know, we're gonna feel the Liam Cohen departure. But just in terms of usage, this is exactly what you wanted to see in Week one. It's really encouraging. And he's such a special player that even in a bad game like this, he makes that incredible play to get into the end zone on the sideline. He's so good, so confident in those two because of the usage. Intrigued by Breeze Hall. Looked like the, the old Breeze Hall, Jacori, Crosky, Merit. He only had a 29 snap rate for Bill, but I think that's going to increase. He played really well and the offense looked good. You know, we've speculated like now that teams have all this, you know, full year of film on Cliff Kingsbury, maybe they'll be able to stop this offense. It did not look that way in Week one. I'm definitely curious to get your guys thoughts on that as Giants fans, but it's, it's just a lot to stop, especially if you have an explosive element in the run game. And so I think we're going to see more and more Bill and then Zach Charbonnet. I'm very nervous about this one because I have a lot of Kenneth Walker. I wonder if maybe it was just that they were easing Walker in because he had a slow start with injury. With the preseason and training camp, we haven't really seen Clint Kubiak split backfields like this. He has a. He normally leans on one guy and Seattle has always acted like Walker is that guy in the past, but Charbonnet is legit. Like, we know how good he is and he came in and just like laid wood, like just looks like the guy that we know he is and it's like, well, he can do that. You know, if the Walker stuff's not working. Like maybe they just lean more into this as the season goes on. So intrigued by those guys.
- [32:59]
Dan
I'll throw some names into the mix of players that intrigued me. I'll start with the one and we'll have some a few repeats. I'll try to limit them. But Charbonnet, man, I've been so high on him and I just thought he was the best back for that specific game against the 49ers defense and I wonder how many games he's going to be the best back out there. Walker adds an element different to this offense and yes he can hit big runs on outside zone, but there are times where defenses like the Niners are just going to understand how to funnel everything back into the middle of an inside zone and you need a hammer like Charbonnet so I'll throw him out there. I was super not intrigued. I'm believing in Brock Bowers. Jacob and I have been insanely high on him all off season. The only thing that stopped him was a knee injury that he appears to be fine on. He was unbelievable. And Chip Kelly completely understands how to design explosive plays. I saw a stat about the Raiders explosive plays in this game versus last season. It was night and day. We're going to see explosive plays all year from that Raiders offense with Chip Kelly at the helm and Bowers will be the benefactor on a vast majority of them. So super excited about Bowers moving forward. I've mentioned him before but I'll say it again. Josh Jacobs. Jacobs said it best. If this backers defense looks the way it looked last last game and like you have Edin Cooper breaking out. They have just so many studs on that defense. It's going to be a great Josh Jacobs year. There's nothing else to compete with. He's one of the few workhorses we have a good a solid to good offensive line from a run blocking standpoint and game script that should be amazing. Here's another player I'm going to throw in there and this is not because he looked good at all Adam and Jacob. It's because of the role and the role will continue to be this way. It's the most obvious player in fantasy from a role standpoint. Christian McCaffrey. Like this is exactly what I thought it would be. I a ton of targets in the passing game, the outlet for Brock Purdy that he needs and then a ton of run game like he doesn't come off the field a lot. Brian Robson played a little bit, not much and CMC Would just rotate right back on the field. So as long as he stays healthy, he doesn't even have to look good. He just gets so much volume in the pass game that he becomes a fantasy cheat code in my mind at least. So those are players that stood out to me. Let's see if there's other guys I can, I, I can pinpoint here.
- [35:00]
Jacob
I've got more.
- [35:01]
Dan
Yeah, go, go for it.
- [35:02]
Jacob
Yeah, let me finish up. A receiver and tight end. So we talked about Zay Flowers and Keon Coleman already, but I do think it was extremely encouraging. I'm confident in Flowers. I would put Coleman in the intrigued bucket. Jackson Smith and Jigba super confident. What we saw in a game where the passing game wasn't really working, he still dominated. Also, weirdly, Clint Kubiak didn't do any of his pre snap motion play action stuff that are efficiency boosters for receivers. And still Jackson Smith and Jigba dominated as an outside receiver. I think this is who he is if he's locked in all year. Like he's just really, really hard to stop. Hollywood Brown, the role is there. I don't know if I believe in him long term. He like his average separation score was negative in week one. So it's like basically a below replacement level player. But the role is so good for fantasy. I'm confident in him for the time being. Chris Alave, I wanted to point out because no one believes in Chris Olave, but here we are, Week one. Kellen Moore plays super fast, produces a ton of pass volume even though it's Spencer Rattler under center.
- [35:58]
Dan
Yeah.
- [35:58]
Jacob
And Chris Olave gets the pre snap motion stuff. He tied Debo Sema for the most routes where he was in motion before the snap with 10 since entering the NFL. Chris Lave is wide receiver 2 in yards per out run on pre snap motion routes. He's a very good player and the situation is good. So I'm pretty confident in him. All right.
- [36:18]
Adam
All right, hold on a second.
- [36:20]
Jacob
Targets and receptions situation is not good.
- [36:23]
Adam
For touchdowns or for yards. Seven catches for 54.
- [36:27]
Jacob
So efficient at creating yards. Yeah, I mean that's fair. That's.
- [36:30]
Adam
I mean like I, I didn't check Rattler's a dot.
- [36:33]
Jacob
I imagine it was, it was like five yards.
- [36:35]
Adam
Yeah, that's the thing. I, I think Rattler is. Look is better than I thought he'd be but I, I don't know that he's going to make any plays downfield. Rarely anyway. So it's, it was good in the sense where I Feel like I can throw Olave in there as a flex, but I am not really going to want to start him without bi weeks.
- [36:58]
Dan
I have a few more I need to throw in there. I'm confident that Liam Cohen is an absolute genius when it comes to designing the run game. Take that for what you will. It could mean Travis ETN is going to be a massive great buy for us this season. But this run game has carried over despite offensive line concerns. I am confident that you are not going to want to start quarterbacks against the Broncos defense. I did watch Cam Ward against the Broncos defense. That defense is the best in the NFL by far. Right now. The Broncos, they're in. No, we won't see about that.
- [37:27]
Adam
They were the best defense last year, probably. They played such an easy schedule last.
- [37:32]
Dan
Year and when the Bengals.
- [37:34]
Adam
When the Bengals came to town in week 17, they lit them up.
- [37:39]
Jacob
So it's one game.
- [37:40]
Adam
They're gonna stop a great. Yeah, but. Okay, but you're gonna give them all these kudos for stopping Cam Ward in his.
- [37:46]
Dan
No, no, no. I'm gonna give them all those kudos from. That was the game I watched yesterday where it seemed like the offensive line had no chance at all at any point because of the pass rush.
- [37:56]
Adam
They're great defense. Okay.
- [37:57]
Dan
And that offensive line is not great for the Titans, but it's much improved. It's better than a lot of the offensive lines they're going to match up against this season. We'll see. If I'm right on that, it could be wrong. I'm also confident I like this segment. I'm confident that that's the best I've seen Kyle Pitts look since Florida. Honestly, I don't know if that's going to mean he's relevant.
- [38:13]
Adam
Let's put him in intrigues.
- [38:14]
Dan
Yeah. In that one part, I'm not confident in him as a fantasy asset, but I'm intrigued by him as a fantasy asset because he looked moved to move to be moving with the ball and without the ball better than I've seen since the Florida days. Maybe he's finally healthy. I don't know how that could be. Like, I don't know how he could go so long being looking the way he looked and then look the way he looked yesterday. But doesn't mean he's a fantasy asset just yet. But it's possible there and I'm definitely intrigued by that one.
- [38:40]
Adam
Well, he had a. He had a 4.6 yard a dot yesterday, Kyle Pitts, and he's always been a pretty High a got a dot guy last year was 8.4, which is not that high, but it's. But a lot of the best fantasy tight ends like the Nijoku's of the world, the Ingrams, they're five, six yard adot guys. They just rack up a lot of easy catches. Get some yak. Kyle Pitts has never been afforded that opportunity. He. I think he led the position in adot each of his first three seasons in the league. So it's one game. But that's how a lot of these tight ends are. Are scoring points. They're just outlets. They just make like even Tyler Warren yesterday like a 5, 5.3 yard, 8 out or something like that. That's. That's kind of what we want from most tight ends. I'm concerned about Brock Purdy in the short term. I don't think we've done guys that were concerned about. They gave up a ton of pressure yesterday. I think the most pressure in. In week one going into Monday Night Football. I just looked is out. If Kittle is out. Purdy had to force some balls. He got pretty lucky on that last drive. Yeah, Roland misplayed two balls that last throw into the end zone. All they needed to go to tie the game. He's just throwing an interception. There would have been a third of the game total luck play. I don't want to start Brock Purdy. At the moment, one of the most.
- [39:56]
Dan
Under discussed fantasy narratives of the off season was the 49ers offensive line. They did nothing to improve it. It's been been aging for years now and now Puni might be hurt like that could end up being a big factor in the fantasy season.
- [40:08]
Adam
I'm gonna ask you guys about two players and you tell me what category you're putting them in here in terms of week one, buying or selling. Marvin Harrison Jr. Let me get some. Should we run some screenshot game here?
- [40:19]
Dan
Big buy for me.
- [40:20]
Adam
All right, let's take a look at how open Marvin Harrison Jr. Was a number of times and not getting targeted. I've got four MHJ screenshots. We'll throw them up, but in the meantime I'll give you a stat line. Five catches, 71 yards and a touchdown on six targets. Okay. Look at that. Hey, Kyler. I'm open. Clean pocket. He gets like. If I let this play run another half second, he's even more open right in the middle of the field this.
- [40:45]
Jacob
Yeah, in the middle of the field.
- [40:47]
Adam
Is that bad for Kyler?
- [40:49]
Dan
Yeah.
- [40:50]
Adam
All right, let's go. To our next one. Let's go to our next one. Dude. So this is hard. I mean, Kyler's stepping up. I think there's an opportunity you got like he's pretty freaking open there. A great quarterback is making a throw to Kyle, to Marvin Harrison Jr. All right, that's number two. Where's number three? This one's the hardest one, but he's going, why do you hate me? I'm captioning all of these.
- [41:13]
Dan
Yeah, I like the captions. They're very great.
- [41:15]
Adam
So Kyler's rolling to his right. This is not an easy play, but I think like take a shot, throw it into the end zone, see if he can make a contested catch. I don't remember what he does there. I think he like threw an incompletion or scrambled or something and then the last one. I think a lot of people probably saw this one from the three yard line. Look at the step that he gets. He beats the safety, the safety is stumbling, Kyler throws. They can't connect. You genuinely had a chance for a 93 yard touchdown on that play. So those were some opportunities that were left there. The good thing is he had a good game. The bad thing is he had a 17.1% target per out run rate. Only six targets. But yeah, Dan, you're buying. You're in on Marvin Harrison Jr.
- [41:56]
Dan
I'm in a Marvin Harrison Jr. Because of how he looked. And he was my favorite prospect in last year's class. Spite neighbors and Thomas in that class on tape. He was phenomenal. And I thought he looked better today than he looked at any point in his rookie season or yesterday, I should say. And they finally used him on some horizontal breaking routes. The red zone touchdown that he had was something we just didn't see at all last year. So I think they're finally understanding, like they need to use him in a different way. I'm not full by on him. Like I'm not saying he's going to be a wide receiver, one elite tier because Kyler Murray I don't think will ever support that. I know he did with Hopkins in the past, but that was a completely different system that he was running. It was shotgun, it was spread, it was a lot of those quick outlet passes and it was mostly PPR based ascension for DeAndre Hopkins. This offense won't be like that. But I do think that he's going to return value on what his ADP was.
- [42:42]
Adam
Okay.
- [42:43]
Jacob
Not for me.
- [42:44]
Dan
You're out still.
- [42:45]
Jacob
Yeah, they used him a lot on horizontally breaking routes. At the end of last season and he didn't produce during that time. I just don't want any part of Kyler Murray. He's fine. I think he's fine where he's at. But it's like he was a good player last year. He really was. Nothing has changed in my opinion.
- [42:59]
Dan
I. I know what you're saying, but like he had eight touchdowns last year. He has one touchdown already. If he gets the 10 plus touchdowns he will return value.
- [43:07]
Jacob
He's fine where he's at. I'm not buying him.
- [43:09]
Dan
Okay.
- [43:10]
Adam
That's fair.
- [43:10]
Dan
You one player we. We missed though. And the confident factor. Let me take a break very quickly. Very quickly.
- [43:15]
Adam
All right.
- [43:17]
Dan
Is going to be an elite. You just.
- [43:19]
Adam
But you're basically just naming like all the first round, second round picks ahead.
- [43:22]
Dan
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
- [43:24]
Adam
It's not.
- [43:25]
Dan
Not true.
- [43:29]
Adam
Same issue. That's still there right now. It's no health. Yeah. No one's concerned about Puka when Stafford's.
- [43:35]
Dan
Healthy after made it through a fine.
- [43:37]
Adam
This.
- [43:37]
Dan
This game. Like we're overrated.
- [43:38]
Adam
It's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine.
- [43:41]
Dan
Big back and more importantly, Puka was used and Jacob pointing this out and it was a really good astute point that he made in some of the Cooper cup ways. And that's the real factor that should be noted. Like the way they use cup. That's the heaviest PPR role you can find in fantasy and it's the most guaranteed path to points.
- [43:58]
Adam
Yeah. No, he's insane. He's. He's incredible for sure. All right, we'll take a break and come back and talk about three offenses. Actually four that completely stunk yesterday. We'll be right back on fantasy four football today. When did making plans get this complicated?
- [44:15]
Dan
It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the.
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Adam
Secure messaging app that brings the whole group together.
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Dan
Use polls to settle dinner plans.
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Adam
Send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption.
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Jacob
It's time for what?
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Dan
WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more at WhatsApp.com popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze. Talk about refreshing. You know what else is refreshing this summer?
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Adam
A brand new phone with Verizon. Yup.
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Get a new phone on any plan with select phone. Trade in and MyPlan and lock down.
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Dan
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- [45:08]
Dan
Getting cooked by the chat for this puka Taken. I stand by it entirely.
- [45:12]
Jacob
I've got two non puka Brock Bowers ones for you. Debo Samuel and Michael Pittman. They both look like the guys they've been in the past. The target volume was great.
- [45:20]
Adam
Pittman, Yeah. I mean Pittman I think was like completely wide open on two of his biggest plays because Dolphins are just pathetic. And honestly I think we have to sit here and decide what we're going to do with our Colts. How much are we buying it? You know, Tyler Warren had a very good game. Pittman had a very good game. You know, what do we, what do we do with that? Because I, I still think Daniel Jones is bad. Is a bad quarterback. One game can't change that for me. But he played well with. No, no question.
- [45:48]
Jacob
I mean, I assume this is all relative, right? Like I don't think Pittman's wide receiver aid or whatever he finished as this week, but relative to where he was drafted, I feel confident going forward.
- [45:57]
Adam
Okay. Well, what about Warren though?
- [46:02]
Jacob
Same exact thing. Feel confident relative to where he's drafted. Think he looks like a good value, potentially like one of the best values at tight end. Don't necessarily see him as like a. What did he finish in fantasy, like tight end two or something?
- [46:14]
Adam
No, because he didn't score. He had seven for 76 on nine targets. That's probably actually pretty close. Tight end one was Juwan Johnson. Brock Bowers was tight end too. So Warren was probably up there.
- [46:25]
Jacob
Yeah, I don't, I don't think you can expect that every week, you know, in this offense. But he looked really good and it was obviously an emphasis to get him the ball.
- [46:34]
Adam
Okay.
- [46:35]
Jacob
That's all you can ask a tight end. He doesn't have like as much touchdown upside as like you would maybe want a tight end in this offense, but I, I think like for a rookie tight end to come in and have the role, get the targets, produce 15, he was tied in three in PPR. Yeah, super encouraging.
- [46:51]
Adam
Okay. Yeah, my bad. I didn't realize it was, it was that good. Okay, so the, the question from Hog fan. Hog fan reminds me of the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- [47:02]
Dan
Oh, I thought you were gonna say the movie Swim Fan. You ever see that one?
- [47:05]
Adam
No, I never did. But that's you with Jamie. But you ever see the movie? What you Love it's always agreeing him, the vampire slayer.
- [47:17]
Dan
No, I never saw it. I heard it was a good show.
- [47:20]
Adam
No, the movie. I never saw the show.
- [47:22]
Dan
Definitely never saw the movie.
- [47:24]
Adam
Yeah, it was good. All right. Are the Dolphins and Texans and Panthers offenses broken? Let's rank them on the broken Ometer. Who's the most broken to least broken? Dolphins. Texans. Panthers.
- [47:39]
Jacob
I kind of feel like I have to put Texans to the top, even though it seems like it should clearly be Dolphins. Dolphins were like the most depressing team yesterday, but man, I couldn't stand watching that Texans game.
- [47:50]
Dan
I might. So the Texans obviously played the best defense. So I. I want to factor that in. Of those teams that you mentioned, and I do have respect for Luana Rumo and what he can do with that cold Stevens, but that Colts defense was one of the worst in the NFL last year. And to completely shut down the Dolphins like they did. I want to put the Dolphins first. I have no belief into it personally and I have no belief in the rapport with him and Tyreek, Mike McDaniel, any of it really. So I'll put the Dolphins first. Or will any of them bounce back? Panthers are the one I have the most hope for. If that's the answer.
- [48:22]
Adam
If that's a question I want to show. Can we show the first Tyree Kill. This is to his first interception of the game. This is a play where if you see Tyree Kill and I wrote open, there's three defenders around him and we're used to seeing the Dolphins complete this pass. Tua makes a pinpoint throw in between two levels of the defense here. He overthrows it and it's intercepted. We can show the next one, whatever, whether it's Waddle or Tyreek Hill, whatever. I am seriously so wide open. Tyree Kill, like, that's how open tyree kill is.2 is rolling to his left. He throws the pass to Hill. His momentum carries him out of bounds. Like they don't complete that pass right. Your offensive line was not the problem. Not saying it was great. They had a couple of like blitzes that they just didn't pick up. One of them led to a fumble and a turnover. They. They turned the ball over three times in this game. That was bad. But The Colts were 29th in pressure rate. Only the Panthers actually had a lower pressure rate than the Colts in week one through the Sunday games. And yeah, I think it just like there were plays that they. That they usually make that they didn't make and they barely had the ball. So I feel like they can rebound, but also I feel like I'm, I have aqua and orange colored sunglasses because they're, they're, they suck right now and everything's going again. I, I don't understand how they're so, how they're this bad when they, as Jamie pointed out, were 20 and 11 when Tua was healthy with Mike McDaniel. They're good. Why are they this bad? Well, first of all, their defense sucks. They were in a hole immediately they're down three nothing. Then they get the ball back, they turn it over. Next time they get the ball back, they're down 10 nothing. I mean, they're just immediately in a hole and that could be a problem for them. The Texans. One thing I wanted to point about the Texans, their field position was awful. They had one drive that started better than their own 24 yard line because like I was watching, like, man, they're backed up a ton, right? They had twice the, the Rams only kicked off three times in the game. Twice they kicked the ball into the landing zone, it bounced and rolled into the end zone for a touchback, which puts the ball on the 20 yard line. That is like one of the worst case scenarios for an offer to let that happen. They let it happen twice on three kickoffs. So they were backed up deep in their own territory a lot. They started, their first two possessions were from the. The first three or the 20. The five. No, they started from the 20, then they had a holding penalty. So they really started from the 10, then the 5, then their own 20 and then Carolina. I mean, I watched every snap for all three of these teams. Carolina looked like the most competent offense. They had some chances. They missed a few plays.
- [50:58]
Dan
Problem being they played by far the easiest defensive matchup.
- [51:01]
Adam
Well, the Colts should be a pretty easy matchup too. But yeah, I didn't see any like, you know, issues with the Panthers that didn't seem fixable. I just, I see a team that doesn't have a lot of speed and it's probably not going to make a lot of big plays. That's my concern with Carolina.
- [51:17]
Dan
Yeah, I wonder if. Sorry, go ahead, Jacob.
- [51:20]
Jacob
Oh, I was just gonna say the fantasy points data, advanced stuff just hit their charting data and they, it looks really good for Bryce actually. Like they have him with one of the lowest off target rates and a decent, highly accurate throw rate, decent catchable ball rate. I haven't got to that game yet. His time to pressure was very fast. They were getting there fast when they were getting pressure and I know his Overall pressure was decently high too. Yeah. I think my, my guess is that like they just kind of got in a hole, you know, because their defense, they got down early. And then the way Bryce plays is volatile.
- [51:56]
Adam
Right.
- [51:57]
Jacob
I feel like he kind of falls into the hero ball stuff sometimes and we need more like success rate kind of plays. And especially with Thielen and Coker out, I just worry about that. I don't really trust Xavier league it that much. We've got a lot of young players who are trying to make this come together offensively. So my guess is before watching it and looking at the data, seeing that it is accuracy charting is at least decent, is that it was just kind of a randomly bad game.
- [52:24]
Dan
I hope you're right.
- [52:25]
Adam
Yeah. Well, I've got Ted Arrow. McMillan dropped a 33 yard touchdown pass. It wasn't an easy catch, but it was a really nice throw. He then he had a cornerback beat for a deep ball. But Bryce Young was throwing it to him. He was hit as he threw. That's this play here, right? See that step he has. He's got a step or two on the defensive back. Bryce Young is getting his ass kicked at the 49 yard line on this play. But that was almost a big play. Renfro almost had two chunk plays but couldn't come down with one of them. Was out of bounds for another one. Jatavian Sanders nearly had a 20 yard catch, but he couldn't, he couldn't make the catch. So they were close. They were close. It was the Texans that were the one that really jumped out as just boring. No time to throw, no explosiveness concerning. Yeah, I think we covered that though. So why don't we go to our next one? It's from. It's from. Hold on. Evil Eric. There is evil Eric wants to know about the Lions offense. And ESPN had a note. They averaged 3.8 yards per play, the second lowest in Dan Campbell's tenure. Yikes. Yep. Yeah. So what are we thinking about the Lions offense getting spanked by Green Bay?
- [53:38]
Jacob
This is what we were worried about.
- [53:40]
Dan
Yeah. Jacob and I were worried about this Lions offense all off season and we didn't really buy into any of the players because of it. Now I don't want to say it's over now. Right. It's.
- [53:50]
Adam
It's.
- [53:50]
Dan
This offense is done because the packers defense may be the best in the NFL or one of the best in the NFL. So I want to put. Make that clear. But it didn't look like the Lions offense to you guys, right? Like it didn't look at all like the Ben Johnson offense. First of all, the run game was non existent and the run game was getting no push up front. That's an issue. Frank Ragnell was the best center in football. He's gone. They basically have a. No, they do have a brand new interior offensive line and I mentioned that throughout the off season as a major concern for me and it didn't look good. The interior offensive line soul's still there. He looked awesome. But even he had some trouble in bass production with Parsons. It just feels to me like I wasn't watching the Lions offense at all. And we'll see tonight. I think tonight's going to be really interesting. If Ben Johnson can get that Bears offense humming against a coordinator and a defense like Brian Flores and the Vikings. We kind of know like we kind of have an idea of what happened there with Detroit and what's going to happen moving forward.
- [54:44]
Jacob
Maybe they didn't use play action and pre snap motion quite as much as we're used to seeing 38 play action rate last year on passes that was down to 26%. Their pre snap motion on passes last year was 60, it was down to 51%. So it's still above league average. But last year Ben Johnson was just like cooking with those types of plays. We heard that they're gonna ask their guys to go win more and I don't think that that really happened here. And like Dan said, it's a, it's a really brutal matchup, especially for that kind of approach because Green Bay doesn't. They kind of take away the receivers and let you just do short dumb offs and stuff. I didn't think golf played very well and the charting kind of backs that up too.
- [55:25]
Dan
He had 13 games, what was it, 12 or 13 in a dome last year.
- [55:28]
Adam
Yeah, I knew and you were gonna go there. Someone went there in the chat earlier and it is true.
- [55:32]
Dan
But I feel that way.
- [55:34]
Adam
Look at the end of last season at Chicago, at San Francisco. True Jared Goff, nothing was stopping him. He was in the zone. They were playing great, Their defense was terrible and they were throwing a lot. But he, he seemed to conquer that last year. So you know, he's got a lot more outdoor games this year. He's never had a big game at Lambeau, at least not with the Lions. Yeah, at Chicago, 31 points. At San Francisco, 32 points in week 16 and 17 last year.
- [56:04]
Jacob
So I've got on the screen here the usage for the Dolphins, only a 5.2. Yeah, for the Lion. Sorry, 5.2 average depth of target at 5.2 yards for Jameson Williams, which I thought was interesting. It's just a one game data point but that's. I'm curious to get in here and dig into how they used him. He's been one of the most curious cases for me this year of at any position because so much of his production last year was schemed up. If you take away the play action plays and stuff like that, his per route data all gets much, much worse. Obviously it was, it was bad in this game. He only drew a target on 12 of his routes. So I'm definitely like look out for that. I'll update you guys on that same. Laporta is the one who stood out to me. Really good route rate and played well and had you know, 24 target per route run. Right. And I thought he looked great out there. A lot of people have said that he played through an injury last year and I thought he played pretty well even given that. So this heat, like we don't really know how things are going to shift with a different offensive coordinator and he's a really talented player so maybe he's the one who kind of benefits more here. But again, I do think the matchup lends itself more towards Laporta type of targets than wide receiver targets.
- [57:17]
Adam
For what it's worth, Jared Goff scored 15.6 fantasy points in Week 1 last year. You know, a lot of guys got off to slow starts. Actually I'm at 13.4 fantasy points in, in week one last year.
- [57:30]
Dan
I think he'll still be fine in home games.
- [57:32]
Jacob
Here's the real problem. Three rounds for Isaac Tesla. That's how you fix the offense.
- [57:39]
Dan
Incredible catches I've ever seen.
- [57:40]
Adam
Yeah, right.
- [57:41]
Jacob
That's how you fix the offense right there. Another note was that in the first half, dead even split between Montgomery and Jameer Gibbs, 5050 playing time with more touches going to Montgomery slightly. When they got behind, it became more and more Gibbs.
- [57:54]
Dan
But it was just so disappointing watching a Lions offense not get the push up front that they get in the run game or they have gotten in the run game. And I just ultimately think that could derail a lot of things offensively.
- [58:05]
Adam
Okay, so let's go to our last topic here and it's from Chris Donor and he says rookies, who did we over hype and who did we under hype?
- [58:16]
Dan
Yeah, a lot of thoughts on the rookies. I can start with a few. Credit Jacob for cutting up some of the film on them. Got A chance to watch Ashton Genti. I felt like on Genti, the Raiders run blocking is still an issue to me and that was an issue I thought was going to be there all season. I didn't think they did a good job upgrading that unit. But he did. I did. They did block up one run. I thought. To be honest, I thought, and you could correct me if you disagree, Jacob, on the film that I watched, which was Every Touch, I only thought they blocked up one run. Well, it was a duo run and he did a good job of bursting through the only open hole he saw. Other than that, the touchdown run was just incredible effort on his part. Post contact like the play was completely blown up from a blocking standpoint. He did everything there. He was hit behind the line of scrimmage often, mostly throughout, almost all of his touches. But he did look natural as a receiver at the backfield too. Not that there was that much design to him as a receiver out of the backfield. So I like what's the ceiling for a player like that. It still should be pretty high because he's an amazing talent with a great role ultimately more so, I think for non PPR leagues.
- [59:22]
Adam
Okay. Yeah. I mean, in terms of Hampton, I. I'm fine with it.
- [59:28]
Dan
Yeah. Another example.
- [59:29]
Adam
Good role.
- [59:30]
Dan
Yeah.
- [59:31]
Adam
Yeah. The Chiefs might have a great run defense like they did for two thirds of last year. Not, not a great run Davis, but the best in football, basically. So, you know, I, I thought we saw a little bit of burst from them and we're buying into the Chargers offense. Your the concern would be does Naji Harris get mixed in more? Personally, I don't really think that's the solution, but it definitely could happen. The ones that you'd have to be concerned about would be Henderson and Harvey. Obviously Caleb Johnson is, is a big concern right now, but maybe that's a long term play. But Henderson and Harvey. Harvey being much more concerning than Henderson. To me, I feel like you guys would agree because Tyler Bidet had six targets for the Broncos yesterday where Harvey wasn't used at all. I don't really understand the preseason. I mean, it seems so clear what RJ Harvey's role was going to be and he just didn't really have it. All I can say is that there is a history, a very long history of rookie running backs that were not drafted in the first round being eased into action. And it does take some time. Even for some of the best ones, like Nick Chubb, for example, it does take some time. But Harvey. Yeah, super concerned. Not even close to startable until we see something. Whereas Henderson, I feel like is knocking on the door of, of taking over there in New England. But maybe I'm just being too optimistic. So Jacob, how do you feel about those two guys?
- [60:49]
Jacob
Well, you know, I'm gonna defend RJ Harvey. I thought he looked great and I think that like great players get more and more opportunities and that they're probably going to need him. It doesn't make any sense to me that a team that's contending and trying to knock off the Chiefs would draft a 24 year old rookie in round two and not play him. They cut out the Tyler Beatty stuff in the second half. He just barely didn't. He barely played at all in the second half. Sean Payton did some shenanigans at the beginning of the game and it didn't really work. And then they got kind of into a more natural flow in the second half. For what it's worth, that didn't result in a ton of more opportunities for Harvey. It was actually more for Dobbins.
- [61:26]
Dan
Yeah.
- [61:27]
Jacob
But I think we could see that shift more towards the rookie as time goes on. I'm just mostly encouraged that he looked good because a lot of people right. Were panicking about his preseason film. I thought he made some nice cuts here, looked elusive. He gained a lot of yards after contact.
- [61:41]
Dan
Yeah. Looked elusive, had great burst. His one long run was a phenomenal individual play. I'm with Jacob. I mean I was high on Dobbins all off season. So I still am pro Dobbins. I kind of had an idea this was going to be his role in the offense as a veteran player. And I think he'll score a lot of touchdowns as long as he's healthy. But he has an injury history and if he goes down, that could be what they need or what RJ Harvey needs to break out. But I'm with Jacob. Like I think this role will expand. I'm actually more worried if I, if it were me about Henderson. Not because of the player, just because of the role and because of the Patriots offense and their offensive line specifically. That was what was had me worried about Henderson. I don't have any shares of Henderson, mostly because of his price combined with what I project that offensive line to be. And then being in a Josh McDaniels offense. Not like, not a volume heavy. I never saw the volume coming. I still see potential for Harvey's volume to take a big jump.
- [62:32]
Adam
But he had what he have, six catches, five or six catches in this game. Right. So he's already being involved.
- [62:37]
Dan
Yeah.
- [62:38]
Adam
I just think that he has to beat out Ramandre Stevenson and RJ Harvey has to beat out J.K. dobbins.
- [62:43]
Dan
So I don't think it's ever a beat out thing. Like to me, McDaniel's offense there is no beat out. They're going to use a lot of backs. We'll see if I'm wrong about that.
- [62:52]
Adam
Yeah, yeah. He really hasn't had great running backs and one time that he. There's a spider in this room. Happy about this.
- [62:59]
Dan
So irrationally scared of spiders.
- [63:01]
Adam
I'm fine. He had Josh Jacobs and didn't really split things up there. He just gave it to Josh Jacobs. Now Henderson's not Jacobs. He's not a workhorse.
- [63:10]
Dan
Different back. Yeah, right.
- [63:11]
Adam
No, he's not going to be a workhorse but you know. All right, so let's, let's try about the wide receivers. I think maybe, maybe overhyped Matthew golden but again we're not going to make a judgment in week one. Maybe underhype the Mecca Abuka. He only had six targets but boy did he make them count. Don't know about Hunter yet. I don't think for. I don't think I know. Like the question is who's overhyped, who's under hyped. I don't think that we need to take a stand in week one. I think it's perfectly fine to say I don't know and let's let it.
- [63:40]
Dan
Yeah, yeah.
- [63:42]
Adam
But obviously I'm worried about golden and I'm worried that I didn't draft the Mecha Buka which might have been really stupid. He looked terrific. But what do you guys think about rookie receivers?
- [63:53]
Jacob
The only thing I would add is that Eloka Yamanor played a ton for the Titans. He also got like a surprising amount of first read targets. So he's somebody I'm keeping an eye on because I think he is a talented guy. I know that you aren't a fan of his Adam, but this up opportunity. 133 air yards for a rookie. He's intriguing.
- [64:09]
Adam
Yeah. I didn't like the way he was used. He did almost nothing that was not on the boundaries. Almost. He's some crazy thing like four catches in the middle of the field between the hash marks.
- [64:18]
Jacob
Yeah, it's deep deep leagues. Nobody's rostering him but it's just like I want you to know that this guy's playing is very big and athletic and could be something at some point.
- [64:27]
Adam
I think I Tedro McMillan Absolutely. Happy if I drafted him.
- [64:32]
Dan
Yeah.
- [64:34]
Adam
Who do you guys think is going to lead the Buccaneers? And fantasy points at wide receiver Mike Evans.
- [64:39]
Dan
I still think it'll be Evans as well.
- [64:42]
Adam
Okay.
- [64:43]
Jacob
I was hoping to see more targets for Igbuka in this game. 17 target per hour run rate. I'm not like worried. This is great. Obviously. It's great to see him out there and produce and do the things we know he can do. I just thought given the state of the receiver position there, that he would probably see more targets.
- [64:58]
Dan
Yep.
- [64:59]
Adam
You mean a Buka Joe?
- [65:01]
Jacob
That's right.
- [65:02]
Adam
Thank you.
- [65:04]
Dan
No one said it was. He said that was right. He didn't say great team name. Adam, you did Well, I think.
- [65:10]
Adam
I think it was implied.
- [65:12]
Dan
I don't think it was implied there.
- [65:13]
Adam
How about his average route depth? I. I didn't this not. Did not expect this. 10.5 yard average route depth for a Mecca Buka.
- [65:20]
Jacob
Yeah.
- [65:21]
Dan
Yeah.
- [65:21]
Adam
Very high.
- [65:22]
Jacob
That's how they used in the preseason. I thought that was maybe just a test run. I thought we would see him get more Chris Godwin's stuff, but they didn't really do a lot of that. And maybe that's just Liam Cohen was the one skimming that up last year.
- [65:35]
Dan
The final touchdown he caught was it was good by him. But man, was that an incredible ball by Baker Mayfield. I thought that was one of the best throws by any quarterback this entire weekend.
- [65:43]
Adam
I'm pretty annoyed that Baker Mayfield had such a big game.
- [65:46]
Dan
Why?
- [65:47]
Adam
I still think he played very well. Got lucky again. Like a couple balls could have been picked. I don't know. Just kind of bothered by it.
- [65:54]
Jacob
It's time to talk about Harold Fannin Jr.
- [65:57]
Adam
In the show on this.
- [65:58]
Dan
Yes.
- [65:59]
Jacob
I love this guy. They use him all over the place using the backfield. Use him now wide. Use them in the slot using a tight end. He played a ton. Nine targets out. Targeted David and Joku got some yak as well. Got some downfield looks. What if he's just really good? You know, Like, I. I compared him to Trey McBride who also broke out at a small school similar to Fanon, similar levels of competition. And Fannin was better across the board. He tested better than McBride in any athletic testing that McBride did. I don't want to say he's better than McBride, but like, what if he is good? You know, he could be good and he's just kind of an unorthodox mover and maybe some people judged him a little bit too quickly and now we seem at the NFL level and it's like, okay, yeah, he's still doing the same stuff. It's gonna be contingent on Joe Flacco, I think, like, if they. If Joe Flacco is not a QB anymore, you don't probably want any of the Browns, let alone the ancillary pieces.
- [66:53]
Adam
Yeah. Okay. I always pronounce that ancillary. Have I been wrong the entire time?
- [67:00]
Dan
No, I think ancillary.
- [67:01]
Jacob
I think answer is right, actually. Yeah.
- [67:03]
Adam
Yeah. I never trust me with. Well, I'm good at regular words in the English language. I'm not very good at pronouncy. Izing. Okay, we're out of here. Thanks for watching beyond the box score. There's a lot more of it. It's got its own feed, so check that out. And we'll have the waiver wire on the FFT feed on Tuesday and on FFT Express coming up very shortly for Dan and Jacob and Josh, our producer, I'm Adam. Have a great day, everybody.
- [67:30]
Dan
Talk to you.
- [67:33]
Adam
Foreign.
- [67:44]
Dan
Plus it's an all new season of adventures.
- [67:46]
Adam
We have to stop this invasion. Get into this. This crew is a team. We are going to find our way out of this.
- [67:52]
Dan
Star Trek Strange New Worlds New season now streaming on Paramount plus.