Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Wk 5 Studs, Duds, Rising Stars, Injuries

Summary

Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Week 5 Summary: Studs, Duds, Rising Stars, and Injuries

Release Date: October 10, 2016

In this dynamic episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Jason Moore and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright dive deep into Week 5's fantasy football landscape. With Andy Holloway on a well-deserved vacation, the duo ensures listeners are well-equipped with insightful analysis, identifying standout performers, underperformers, emerging talents, and crucial injury updates.

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Hosts' Banter and Introduction

The episode kicks off with Jason and Mike humorously discussing Andy's absence after 282 episodes. Jason quips, “[Jason Moore, 00:44] We finally got rid of him. Get that guy out of here,” highlighting the playful dynamic between the hosts.

Quick Question of the Day

Question: Which four running backs scored more fantasy points than all of the wideouts on their team combined in a half-point PPR format?

• Mike Wright [02:13]: Suggests Denver as a prime candidate due to strong running and weaker passing.

• Jason Moore [02:56]: Confirms three out of four, including David Johnson, Tevin Coleman, and Devonte Freeman.

• Mike Wright [03:58]: Correctly identifies Ezekiel Elliott as the fourth running back, praising his spectacular performance with “[Mike Wright, 04:14] Nailed it.”

News and Notes

The hosts provide a comprehensive roundup of the latest happenings across the NFL:

• Cleveland's Quarterback Woes:

  • Jason [05:02]: Highlights Charlie Whitehurst's unexpected performance.
  • Mike [05:46]: Discusses Cody Kessler's injury and the team's quarterback depth.

• Steve Smith's Injury:

  • Jason [05:51]: Details Steve Smith’s ankle injury and his potential return next week.

• Baltimore Ravens' Offensive Changes:

  • Mike [06:18]: Announces the firing of offensive coordinator Mark Tressman.
  • Jason [08:22]: Mentions potential shifts in the Ravens' offensive strategy with Terrell Pryor and Jeremy Hill's injuries.

• Carson Palmer and Trevor Siemian Updates:

  • Jason [11:47]: Notes Carson Palmer's concussion protocol status and Trevor Siemian’s readiness for Thursday night.

Stud Muffins of the Week

Identifying top performers who delivered exceptional fantasy value:

• Marcus Mariota [13:02]: Named the highest-scoring quarterback of the week with 163 passing yards.

• Tom Brady [14:11]: Celebrated his return with a commanding performance, throwing for 406 yards and three touchdowns.

• Amari Cooper [16:49]: Despite some drops, Cooper secured four touchdowns, solidifying his stud status.

• Sammy Coates [19:42]: Emerged as a reliable flex option with six receptions, 139 yards, and two touchdowns, described as “[Jason Moore, 20:14] the Martavis Bryant role for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

• Ty Hilton [20:30]: Recognized as a rising star, benefiting from teammate Dante Moorefall's injury.

• Jordan Howard [30:09]: Highlighted as a consistent performer with 16 carries for 118 yards and a receiving touchdown, earning high praise.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore [23:10]: “I'll be my top wide,” referring to Sammy Coates' waiver wire acquisition.

Rising Stars

Emerging talents poised to make significant impacts in upcoming weeks:

• Sammy Coates: Continues to establish himself as a reliable receiver with big-play potential.

• Jordan Howard: Viewed as a safe and valuable asset for the latter part of the season, especially with favorable matchups ahead.

Jason Moore [45:19]: “He’s delicious. If he’s on your waiver wire, I would be very aggressive trying to get him.”

Duds of the Week

Players who underperformed significantly, disappointing fantasy managers:

• Eli Manning [50:23]: Delivered a disappointing performance with only 18 completions for 191 yards and two interceptions, prompting concerns about his effectiveness.

• Ryan Tannehill [51:54]: Struggled with 18 completions for 191 yards and two interceptions, signaling potential trades.

• C.J. Anderson [55:09]: Despite being a top contender, Anderson faltered with 11 carries for 41 yards, though his touchdown kept him relevant.

• Lamar Miller [57:36]: Underperformed with eight carries for 20 yards, raising doubts about his consistency.

Notable Quote:

• Mike Wright [50:26]: “[Mike Wright, 50:26] One of those guys would be Eli Manning.”

Injuries and Player Status Updates

Vital information on player injuries affecting fantasy decisions:

• Steve Smith: Ankle injury, potentially back next week.

• Mark Tressman: Ravens' offensive coordinator relieved of duties.

• Jeremy Hill: Chest injury, uncertain availability.

• Carson Palmer: In concussion protocol, expected to play but with caution.

• Trevor Siemian: Expected to play against the Chargers.

• Todd Gurley [42:58]: Returned from injury but faces future workload uncertainties with Cunningham’s return.

• C.J. Anderson: Despite recent underperformance, remains a high-value back with potential for trades.

Notable Quote:

• Mike Wright [55:16]: “I'm certainly buying Anderson.”

Strategic Insights and Recommendations

The hosts offer tactical advice to optimize fantasy rosters:

• Start Reliable Studs: Emphasize the importance of locking in high-performing players like Tom Brady and Sammy Coates.

• Monitor Injuries Closely: Stay updated on player conditions, especially quarterbacks and running backs pivotal to your lineup.

• Leverage Rising Stars: Target emerging talents like Jordan Howard through trades or waivers to strengthen the roster's depth.

• Trade Duds Strategically: Don’t hesitate to trade underperforming players like Eli Manning or Ryan Tannehill for more consistent options.

Mike Wright [54:56]: “If you can't sell him this week, sell him next week.”

Conclusion

Jason and Mike wrap up the episode by reinforcing the importance of staying active in monitoring player performances and injuries. They encourage listeners to engage with the Fantasy Footballers community through social media for real-time updates and strategic advice.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore [67:06]: “But you know what? I think the Foot Clan loves it.”

Overall, this Week 5 episode provides a thorough analysis, equipping fantasy managers with the knowledge to make informed decisions and fine-tune their teams for upcoming matchups.

Transcript

[Mike Wright]

This is hall of famer Marshall Falk and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Jason Moore]

Good morning America.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, it is.

[Jason Moore]

The takeover is happening.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, it's so great.

[Jason Moore]

This is Mike and Jason here, the fantasy footballers. Andy, our fearless leader is out on a well deserved family vacation.

[Mike Wright]

We it only took us 282 episodes.

[Jason Moore]

We finally got rid of him. Get that guy out of here. So the boss man is not here to keep us in check. We will do our best.

[Mike Wright]

I will do. I will do my best to stay out of check. I forewarn everyone listening that this show will be crazy and certainly could be and completely fall off the rails.

[Jason Moore]

So I will take over the hosting duties today. Andy will be back on Wednesday. Today it is Monday, October 10th. As always, we'll be running through what happened over the weekend. Get you your stud muffins, your pooped in his big boy pants. Of course. Our Raising Cane's rising stars of the week. I want to remind everyone to check out the fantasy footballers.com where we have all kinds of articles going up. We have the burning questions for week six because it is week six.

[Mike Wright]

That's nuts.

[Jason Moore]

I hope everyone's fantasy team is doing well. Before we jump into the quick question, just want to remind you you can find us on Twitter the ffballers, you can find jasonffl, find myself ffhitman. And if you want to find the invisible man at Andy Holloway, he's also on the twitter the fantasy footballers.com and just a big thank you to all of our patrons [e-mail] getting you all kinds of extra goodness every single week. Extra fantasy footballers goodness. So let's get into it. Oh, I have a note here to review. Andy's almost upset of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, that's a good point because he nailed it again. He's just been on fire.

[Jason Moore]

He had. Well, he failed again because the Eagles and the Lions.

[Mike Wright]

I am still firmly on his side here that when he calls his almost upset. And it's close if they actually win.

[Jason Moore]

Wins a win though.

[Mike Wright]

I agree.

[Jason Moore]

But he. They. The Eagles were favored by three points so the Lions had to cover by three. They covered the three and then they won by a point.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm going to take that. I got Andy's back here on that one.

[Jason Moore]

All right, quick question of the day. Which four running backs scored more fantasy points than all of the wideouts on their team? Combined, we're talking half point ppr.

[Mike Wright]

So we're looking for the combination of good, good running games with bad passing cores. Denver strikes me that way. It's got to be. Got to be the Atlanta Denver game because run Julio, their number one great receiver, did.

[Jason Moore]

Julio Hones.

[Mike Wright]

Julio Hones. So I'm going to. I'm going to say, okay, Freeman and Tevin Coleman. Okay, can they got to be in there.

[Jason Moore]

So two more.

[Mike Wright]

I know for sure David Johnson did. If we're including Thursday, because I believe Larry Fitzgerald had like 98% of the wide receivers and David Johnson outscored him. I will.

[Jason Moore]

I'll give you a Hint. You have three of the four correct so far. We had David Johnson 32 points to 24.7, Tevin Coleman 24.3, and Devonte Freeman 19.8. And all the Falcons wide receivers combined score 7.7.

[Mike Wright]

Wow.

[Jason Moore]

Well, there's one last one, one big running back from the week.

[Mike Wright]

I will take. I will take that compliment, but that was not a hint, Mike. I'm looking for a hint now.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, okay. I'll give you the hint. This team is known for running, and they're. Because their primary wide receiver did not play. All right.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Ezekiel Elliott.

[Jason Moore]

That is correct.

[Mike Wright]

Nailed it.

[Jason Moore]

Elliott had a monster day. 30.6 points compared to 27. 27. So, I mean, Elliott, man, that was a spectacular game. He had that 60 yard or so touchdown. But let's move it on. We're gonna get right into the news.

[Mike Wright]

News and notes from around the league.

[Jason Moore]

We survived this weekend with very little bloodshed as far as fantasy football purposes are concerned, of course, unless you're Cleveland.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man.

[Jason Moore]

Cleveland has a serious quarterback problem as Cody Kessler went out. So they turned to Terrell Pryor, of course, for a couple snaps, but also perennial backup. The best backup to ever play.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man.

[Jason Moore]

Charlie Whitehurst.

[Mike Wright]

Charlie Whitehurst getting it done. He's still in the league for another team. He'll play forever. I believe the X rays did come back negative on Cody Kessler, which I guess you'd say is good news. I mean, you know, Terrell Pryor was all right in this game, and, you know, I think it is good news that Cody Kessler's there. He's better than Whitehurst. At least there's a little bit of hope for the future. You know, the nice thing is coming into this week, I'll bet you Whitehurst ends up getting some more first team reps in practice, so that in either case, they're a little bit more prepared I can't imagine that Whitehurst was fully ready to be the starter there.

[Jason Moore]

Steve Smith, senor left Sunday's game in the first quarter with an ankle injury. He was already just dominating. He was on pace to have a huge game. Unfortunately went down with the ankle injury. I have seen the kind of the Twitter doctors Gene Brammell and company have said. It doesn't look like it's a terrible sprain. The mechanism of the injury was not a very violent one. So we're talking hopefully a low ankle sprain and we might even have Steve Smith back this week.

[Mike Wright]

That'd be great. I wonder what changes. Obviously, other news with the Ravens are that their offensive coordinator, Mark Tressman is no longer their offensive coordinator.

[Jason Moore]

He's been relieved of duties.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, he is. He is out. It was a look. I love Tressman for fantasy purposes for a passing game, but it was always a curious hire because this is a team that with Harbaugh has always wanted to run the ball. And, and you saw this last game that must have been so frustrating to have Terrence west on fire just crushing people. He looked destroying souls. Great. And they're just constantly throwing the ball, just pass after pass after pass after pass.

[Jason Moore]

And it's. The wind is out of control in that stadium.

[Mike Wright]

We knew going cross winds, going crazy.

[Jason Moore]

You were talking when the game started, 20 mile an hour winds. Then you have to deal with crosswind.

[Mike Wright]

Gus and you, hey, breaking news here. No, you don't need a button. But you're so excited. It's like, oh, I get to do the breaking news buttons. Hopefully there will be a real one later. But starting this week on the fantasy footballers.com we are going to have a weekly weather report coming out near the weekend so that you can check in on those things. You know, a lot of our rankings are changed late in the week. We don't know early in the week that it's going to be crazy crosswinds. The, the meteorologists are just not that good.

[Jason Moore]

So calling the weather is tough, man. You got to give these people a break.

[Mike Wright]

I feel like that's more difficult than calling fantasy football. Yeah, probably so. But yeah, the news there, Steve Smith, hopefully he'll be back. Tressman. I don't think Tressman leaving hurts Steve Smith that much because he's. He's been a part of that team before. Trespin was there. But this is great news, I think for Terrence west who has looked good from camp from preseason. He is the starter now and they want to run the ball so much so that they got rid of their past happy offensive coordinator.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And of course, Justin for set. Also relieved of duties. Who's next?

[Mike Wright]

Kenneth Dixon if.

[Jason Moore]

No. Kenneth Dixon will not be relieved of duties.

[Mike Wright]

No. Oh, who's next to be relieved?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And there was quite the cold bucket of water thrown on Kenneth Dixon for this week. Not super effective. Combined with Terence west looking dominant again. So moving on. Jeremy Hill apparently worked through practice this week with a chest injury. This was news that I was not privy to. Somehow I had missed this, which really stinks. I expected big things from Jeremy Hill this week.

[Mike Wright]

He re.

[Jason Moore]

Injured himself in the game in the third quarter. He left. He. Gio Bernard started the game. The Bengals went down quickly. Gio Bernard was the main guy, so we could. And if Jeremy Hill is going to miss any kind of time. We were on full, full on Giovanni Bernard alert. He's going to become a instant plug and play running back, in my opinion.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely. They're a good running team. The issue has always been who's it going to be? Who's going to be the one producing if there's only one guy there, They're a great play. So we'll have to monitor that. And if you play Jeremy Hill, just know this. You are not alone. No, you are not alone. And if you. If you got crushed this week in fantasy football, just know this.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, my goodness. You are not in the lead alone.

[Mike Wright]

Look, I've got a. I feel like I've got a good team.

[Jason Moore]

You have a very good team.

[Mike Wright]

I'm one of. I believe I'm leading the division right now. Three in one league.

[Jason Moore]

One of the top scoring teams.

[Mike Wright]

And it was the only three in one team, taking on the only other three in one team. And I don't think I've ever been spanked like this in fantasy football in my life. This is a league where, you know, if you have a good game, you score about 100 points. I got out. Scored by about 115 points. Jeremy Hill, he was a part of that.

[Jason Moore]

What made your matchup so great was the absolute extreme split of the team you were playing against. I mean, starts the week with David Johnson and this guy. So shout out to Nick, his team just explodes and your team completely implodes.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. It was like a siphon. I think what he did was he was like.

[Jason Moore]

It's like Shang Tsung, he took a. Stole all your points.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And he's like, give all your points belong to me.

[Jason Moore]

Like, I've never seen a team scored so low.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yeah. And just imagine if I Had Eli Manning and Odell Beckham. If that last touchdown didn't go through, I think I was at like 30 points. So.

[Jason Moore]

Speaking of that game, Eddie Lacy, who looked like just an unstoppable Mack truck, who. Yeah, he's slow. Who cares? The guy's getting it done. You cannot tackle Eddie Lacey hard to.

[Mike Wright]

Tackle a Mack truck.

[Jason Moore]

I've tried.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

I don't recommend it.

[Mike Wright]

You can go to jail for that.

[Jason Moore]

His. His spin, spin move was on point. He looked just tremendous. But he left the game with an ankle injury. They showed him on the side. It was all wrapped up, and you could see on his face that he was highly disappointed.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you know, he tried to get back in the game. They wrapped it up and he went back in the game, and then he left again. And so it's. It's a little bit more concerning that way. We'll have to monitor this. James. James Starks might be a good waiver wire pick because there are not a lot of great running back waiver wire pickups this week. Usually every week, a couple running backs go down. Really, Eddie Lacy is. Is the biggest name who might be questionable for this, this next week. So we'll continue to monitor that.

[Jason Moore]

Speaking of questionable, Carson Palmer still in the concussion protocol as of Monday, so follow his reports. It would appear that he's going to be ready to play, but of course, with concussions, you're never quite sure. And Ian Rapaport is reporting that Trevor Simeon is expected to play on Thursday night against the Chargers. He got a little bit of nice job security there as Paxton lynch did not have a strong game against a very, very beatable Atlanta secondary. You know, or at least all other teams are easily beating them.

[Mike Wright]

Right. You know, Paxton lynch, you know what he reminded me of?

[Jason Moore]

The Tampa Bay Buccaneer mascot.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. He really, I was. I mean, he needed to be drafted by Tampa Bay. But as far as his play, he reminded me of what rookie quarterbacks are supposed to look like when thrust into action. We've gotten spoiled here by Dak Prescott and Carson Wentz. Good job, lynch being a rookie.

[Jason Moore]

All right, let's move into some fantasy stud muffins.

[Mike Wright]

This week's fantasy stud muffins.

[Jason Moore]

Well, we got to start at the very top, the tippy tippy top, the Mount Everest. Everyone saw this coming.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, everybody ranked them high. Actually, this. This is how far you didn't see it coming. Right. I come into the studio today. We're looking, we're preparing for all of this. You know, we watch basically every minute of Every game we try to catch as much as we can so we know what's going on. But I look at the top list here of quarterbacks.

[Jason Moore]

Highest scoring player of the week.

[Mike Wright]

Highest. Yeah, of everybody. The highest scoring player of the week I watched this week. I'm a fantasy football analyst. I knew what happened. And if you gave me 15 guesses, I probably would not have got it because I would have forgot because I don't care. It's Marcus Mariota. Marcus Mariota, who threw for 163 total yards, was the number one fantasy football player this week. And let me just go on a little. A little tangent here of what a. Look, if this week was hard on you, it was hard on plenty of people because guys like Marcus Mariota and listen to some of the wide receivers that, you know, you had Adam Thielen and Cameron Meredith shout out to Andy for calling that one. And Jeremy Curley and so many guys.

[Jason Moore]

Waiver wire was. Was a strong play this week.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. If you, if you played guys that are not rostered, you did well.

[Jason Moore]

Matt Harmon had tweeted out a very funny line graph of Marcus Mariota's points and weekly finish of QB 15, 18, 13, 30, 30. Quarterback one.

[Mike Wright]

Well, there you have.

[Jason Moore]

Come on. All right, number two. The return that everyone was hoping for and expecting. Thomas Brady. Touchdown. Tommy was 28 for 40 with four. 406 yards, three touchdowns. He's back.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he, He's. He's pretty good going forward now. They're not always going to play the Browns. That was a great welcome back game, but he clearly does not have rust. So anybody that questioned that, your questions were most certainly answered going forward. Where do you see him, Mike, for. I mean, is he the number one quarterback?

[Jason Moore]

I'll still have him as top three. I mean, he would be if you're saying the top quarterback to have. Yes, because Brady, I feel, is a very consistent force where you can count on him weekly for around 302, which is a fantastic baseline to have. And you know that he can explode at any moment. As far as finishing, I would say I would just refer to him as a top three quarterback for now, but I mean, that's still a guy you want to have on your team. Big Ben continues to scorch at home for 34 completions, 308, 380 yards and four touchdowns. So if we talked about this, if Big Ben is at home, you play him with full confidence. If he's on the road, depends on the matchup. You have to at least consider having a Different option. As crazy as that sounds for a guy who has what, nine touchdowns in.

[Mike Wright]

The last two weeks, right? Yeah, well, nine touchdowns in the last two weeks. On at home he has thrown for a minimum of three touchdowns. He's thrown three, four and five touchdowns per game at home this week. He goes to Miami.

[Jason Moore]

That's beatable though.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I feel like you still, you stay in the flames on the road with Ben Roethlisberger there.

[Jason Moore]

Philip Rivers had a big game, four touchdowns. Brian Hoyer continues his dominance, continues his search to be the Chicago Bears starting quarterback through for almost 400 yards and two touchdowns. He did, he did fail pretty epically there in the comeback attempts where he, he tried to force feed it to Meredith. When you saw Alshon Jeffrey was building a house, he went, he grabbed a Sunday paper, he grabbed a McGriddle and then was still open after that fourth.

[Mike Wright]

And eight last play of the game. Obviously you got to pick it up. And really the game script here is you had like a minute to march down the whole field. You were on like the Colts 28 or something like that. And Alshon Jeffrey is alone one on one coverage on the left side of the field and he pretty much runs like a nine route and he blows past his guy and is wide open with a picnic in the, you know, just. He threw out the blanket in the end zone and Meredith is over near the center of the field where also all of the defenders were.

[Jason Moore]

They didn't bother covering him.

[Mike Wright]

Hoyer misses him. What's important to know is that the last three weeks when Brian Hoyer has been playing and a part of that team, Alshon Jeffrey has finished at best, at best as the third in targets on the Bears.

[Jason Moore]

What?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, he is. This week he was the free Alshon.

[Jason Moore]

Come on.

[Mike Wright]

This week he was the fourth highest targeted person. The last two weeks prior to this week he was the third highest targeted player for the Bears. That is not acceptable. And what's crazy, Kevin White is out. And what's crazy is that he still actually produced relevant numbers with those few of targets, you know, because his average depth of target. But the point is Hoyer is not a, an air it out down the field guy. He's looking to be a little bit safer. Even though he's putting up a lot of yards, he's doing it in smaller chunk plays. So Alshon owners must be worried or must be wanting Jay Cutler back.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. Derek Carr in the Philip Rivers game, he also had a very solid outing. It looked like he should have had at least six touchdowns. But things just kept getting called back.

[Mike Wright]

Amari Cooper one way or the other.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, Amari Cooper still, he's in the stud muffins as well.

[Mike Wright]

But Amari Cooper had four touchdowns.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

In that game. He dropped some. He went out of bounds and came back in on some.

[Jason Moore]

He was a toe out for two, two catches. Then you had that weird sequence event of the pass interference. He didn't re establish himself back so the touchdown didn't count.

[Mike Wright]

But he was, he was still a great play. Had an awesome game.

[Jason Moore]

Andy Dalton snuck in. I did. I did not move the garbage man drop over onto the soundboard. Otherwise I would play it right now. Because Andy Dalton was not that good.

[Mike Wright]

The quintessential garbage. That was the most meaningless anything could be. You could have pulled Andy Dalton at that point and put in a backup. So shout out to Andy Dalton and my man Brandon lefell who was the recipient of all that worthless garbage.

[Jason Moore]

If it's garbage time, you got to go to the garbage can.

[Mike Wright]

There you go.

[Jason Moore]

So Brandon Fell had a big game. Andrew Luck and Matt Stafford also had huge games. Let's move over to the wide receivers. I hope you were on the Sunday morning periscope this. Sorry to get a little too tutty but.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you, you, you need to hear. He's the number one.

[Jason Moore]

I was, I pushed Sammy Coates very hard, especially on the periscope. He comes through with a 75 yard touchdown immediately.

[Mike Wright]

And then he. And he continued.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he continued. Ends up with a stat line of six for 139 and two 11 targets. And unfortunately you have three to five drops depending on who was. Was ranking the drops. But including one just horrifying touchdown drop. But it was still a monster game for Sammy Coates.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Sammy Coates was great. The guy that I want to talk about as a stud muffin. Look, we're going to talk about our raising canes. Rising stars. The guy's really coming up. He was in consideration here. The problem that I felt like he couldn't be my rising star is he was already so high for me, but he backed it up. And that's Ty Hilton.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

Ty Hilton to me is a top five top, you know, seven type of wide receiver rest of season. I think he has really taken advantage of Dante Moncrief being out. When Dante Moncrief comes back, I don't think that's going to hurt what we've seen from Ty Hilton. I think it's only going to help the offense. Andrew Luck will have another place to go. Immediately before he gets hit. He loves getting sacked.

[Jason Moore]

His offense. Did you see the story? I don't remember the source unfortunately. But they were talking about the reason the defense is so bad is because they had to give Andrew Luck that big contract. So once again it sounds like management is hiding. Like we had to pay Andrew Luck so much money so we couldn't assemble a good team.

[Mike Wright]

That's ridiculous.

[Jason Moore]

People are doing. People are sending assembling good defenses with high paid quarterbacks.

[Mike Wright]

It's possible. Look at get a general manager.

[Jason Moore]

Look at the Ravens Joe Flacco, monster contract. Their defense is pretty good. So I mean this ridiculous stories just keep coming out of Indianapolis. Amari Cooper, the aforementioned 6 for 138 with a touchdown. Should have had probably four. Larry Fitzgerald, Pro Bowl. Larry gets it done. 6 for 81 with two touchdowns. Drew Stanton is horrifying. Drew Stanton is.

[Mike Wright]

I will say this. If Drew Stanton is not back for the Monday night game, I'm still. I know that if. Every time.

[Jason Moore]

If Palmer's not.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I'm sorry. If Palmer's not back for the Monday night game and Stanton is the quarterback, I realized Stanton targeted Larry pretty much exclusively.

[Jason Moore]

It was 99.9% right.

[Mike Wright]

But I'm still afraid to play Larry Fitzgerald with Drew Stanton. Drew Stanton was horrifically bad in that game against a pretty easy Niners defense. So you really are rooting for Carson Palmer to get back, which I expect he will be on the. He's got extra time going to Monday night.

[Jason Moore]

I will say for me, the last time I was afraid of playing Larry Fitzgerald last year and I benched him was in that Seattle game where they went up to Seattle and then Larry Fitzgerald had a monster game.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I think the advice is you start him, but you are afraid.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Like you just know you lower expectations.

[Jason Moore]

If you're scared, you go to church and you still start Larry Fitzgerald.

[Mike Wright]

Start Larry Fitzgerald.

[Jason Moore]

Brandon lefell, the garbage can comes through with a. With a big game. Let's move over to the surprises. Adam Thielen and Cameron Meredith and Jeremy Curley all in the stud muffin section this week, all going over a hundo with at least one and having a touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so who can repeat this?

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

I don't think. Well, I want to hear what you say because I have some thoughts on those three guys.

[Jason Moore]

Of these three guys, if anyone can repeat it would be Jeremy Curley for me because he's the number one target for San Francisco. There's the rumblings in the bushes. They're going to make a Quarterback switch. So that could throw everything out the door. I assume though, even if it's Colin Kaepernick or Christian Ponder who apparently the team is clamoring for, they want Christian Ponder to start. I don't know if they've watched game tape of Christian Ponder.

[Mike Wright]

The team, I think the team really does not like Colin Kaepernick, at least some of them. I mean I'm sure some are great.

[Jason Moore]

They've been calling for Kaepernick as well. They're saying the team does not like Blaine Gabbard.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, there will be a quarterback switch likely. I would like to say it's not a guarantee, but I expect that there will be one. For that reason, I don't believe in Jeremy Curly going forward. If Colin Kaepernick was the quarterback, you know that upgrades more of a Tory Smith than downgrades of Curley. To me it could.

[Jason Moore]

Well, the thing about Kaepernick is he's a one read guy. So if his first read every single time is Jeremy Curley, it's going to be throw the ball to Curley or run. So Curly could still be great.

[Mike Wright]

Adam Thielen to me was someone I liked going into this week. I think what we saw no Stefan Diggs but he requires Stefon Diggs being out and you know, Andy really liked Cameron Meredith said he's a spot start if you need somebody with the injuries there. And that was pretty good.

[Jason Moore]

And that was even with we were on Cameron Meredith watch because Eddie Royal should have been out. We got John Fox again where Eddie Royal just did not practice the entire week was considered. I think he was even doubtful. He might have. He might have still been questionable. But then he was a surprise. Active was out there the whole time. But Cameron Meredith still had a big game. Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams was the San Diego roulette wide receiver roulette winner this week as he had the big game. Moving over to running backs David Johnson, Ezekiel Elliott, they're both unstoppable. I want to move over to Tevin Coleman only 6 for 31 on the ground but another big receiving game for Coleman. Four for 132 and a HOJ down. And this was all with we had the sickle cell concerns. Oh yeah. So clearly the team.

[Mike Wright]

I did not think he was going to be very involved and clearly we.

[Jason Moore]

Don'T have access to the medical records. So they. The team obviously went thorough and said okay, this won't be a destructive problem for Tevin Coleman which there are players that they just, they can't play in Denver because it's, it's dangerous to their life. But Ryan Weiss, A staff article for the fantasy footballers is pointing out Kevin Coleman has not rushed for more than 50 yards in a single game.

[Mike Wright]

It hasn't even hit 50 this year. And you feel like, wow, he was before this monster week where he was one of the top backs. He was already the 13th best back fantasy wise. So it's really tough to say, can you start him? You know, this was a difficult matchup and nobody started Tevin Coleman in this matchup and yet he was worth starting this coming week. They go to Seattle. Do you start Tevin Coleman in Seattle?

[Jason Moore]

I mean, I think I do.

[Mike Wright]

Really?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so this will be, what do we, let's make a water bet here. Oh, okay. I don't, I just, I still can't believe it. And so I don't, I don't know.

[Jason Moore]

What to bet yet because I have no, I have no sort of rankings done. This is all just gut of. They went, they went into Denver and they look pretty good.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, here's the truth. Analyst wise. Analyst wise. I was going to make top 20 and then I thought to myself, he's.

[Jason Moore]

Probably going to be top 20.

[Mike Wright]

So I think that completely changes it. There is no water bet and I would probably start Tevin Coleman. It will be doing our research this week in preparation and rewatching film. So pay attention. But maybe Tevin Coleman's just earned a startable spot.

[Jason Moore]

Sure. Before we move on to the rest of the stud muffin running backs, I want to thank today's sponsor, Pristine Auction. The absolute best. The fabulous sports memorabilia site on the web. Look, you're getting fully authenticated signatures from your favorite athletes. And not even just athletes. I mean, you go in here, they have awesome comic book stuff as well. I've seen tons of collectible Stan Lee signed items and I'm on here every single day because they have daily auctions. I mean that's, I think what separates. Part of the separator for Pristine Auction is they have new stuff going out every single day. Then you have your weekly and your elite auctions. So I mean, there's a point for everyone. There's a price point for everybody to get in because this stuff is far more affordable than you could possibly imagine if you've never been on Pristine Auction. I promise you they are the best for you. Want to deck out your office space, your house, you want that apartment to look a little bit better, Get a signed jersey, put it up on the wall. These Things just glisten and they beam. They make everything look better. So head over to Pristine Auction. That's P R I S T I n e auction.com. make a completely free account and when you do, make sure you let them know that the fantasy footballers have sent you.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And we also want to give a shout out to the awesome sponsor of SeatGeek. The SeatGeek app is the place that you need to use to get your tickets. You could do it online. You can do the app. Their app is free and it is amazing. They basically pull in tickets from every ticketing provider. Look, this week, this week, Mike, the Carson Palmer led Arizona Cardinals. They're going to be here on, on Monday Night Football.

[Jason Moore]

I'm very interested.

[Mike Wright]

I think we got to pull out that SeatGeek app and look for tickets.

[Jason Moore]

I think you're right.

[Mike Wright]

I know I'm right. So that's going to be taken on the jets, but that's what you need to do, man. If you want to go to a game, that's the way to do it. You get seatgeek. They pull in hundreds of ticketing sites. They show you the best. Like you can pick your seats. You look at the map and you pick your seats and you pick it based on a color based grid of value. So you know you're getting a good price, you know you're getting good seats. And they have seats to every kind of sporting event, non sporting event, and they'll give you $20 back off your first purchase. So here's what you do. You Download the free SeatGeek app, go to the settings tab, click add promo code and enter the promo code. Footballers and then SeatGeek will send you $20 back after you've made your first ticket purchases. So Download the free SeatGeek app and enter the code. Footballers today, if you grab the ticket.

[Jason Moore]

To go watch the Chicago Bears play, then you got to watch Jordan Howard, running back, one three down guy getting over 90% of the snaps every single game since he started. Jason and I were talking about this. If there was a fantasy draft today, moving forward and I said, where would Jordan Howard go? He'd go in the second round. That's, that's how crazy things have changed and how quickly things have changed for me for the Chicago Bears. Just an absolute monster performance. 16 for 118 yards on the ground.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

3 for 45 with a touchdown through the air.

[Mike Wright]

Hint, hint, we'll talk about him a little bit more in a couple of minutes. Other, other running backs. Theo Reddick got It going again through the air. He was actually decent on the ground, ran at a, at a good clip. But together he put together almost 100 yards, got two touchdowns. So he was valuable. We know from last Thursday, Carlos Hyde is looking good. He's being involved in the offense in a way where if you're winning, if you're losing, you're confident and you can start him. And the guy that, to me like when I watched the tape, if you, if you're out there and you didn't get a chance to watch yourself and you go, I don't, I don't know who I can trust, who I can't. Dude. The guy that looked amazing to me was Lashawn McCoy. Every time he touched the ball, it was like he was a slippery fish that guys could not get a hold of.

[Jason Moore]

Slippery fish.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, he's just, he was just in and out and it was like guys couldn't touch him. He passed my eyeball test by a million miles. And for me I think he's safe. He's on a team that wants to run the ball. If you're down, who are you passing it to? Shady. And the question is, is he, is he still, does he still have it? You know, he's been a fantasy back and yes, he still has it. So you've got the combination. Look, I wish they were a higher scoring offense that you know, you could rely on for more 30 point games. You're not going to be able to do that. But I will say this. Since they have changed their offensive coordinator, the Buffalo Bills look like they're a good team.

[Jason Moore]

They just beat the three and one rams.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And Lashawn McCoy is a guy that for me, I don't know if you can buy him right now. People that own him might be a little too high on them or maybe it's not too high.

[Jason Moore]

He's a running back one.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

He's a three down. There's very little three down backs who are getting that kind of snap percentage. I mean, you talk about Shady. Jordan Howard is now in that conversation. David Johnson and Zeke or of course Le'Veon Bell.

[Mike Wright]

Zeke doesn't really get involved in the past game to the extent three for 37. Yeah. No. Well, he was successful, but I mean three catches, right. Guessing that was his season high.

[Jason Moore]

Maybe, I would say maybe. But where LaShawn McCoy is most susceptible is when he breaks off a big run and then on the two and the one yard line he's very tackleable. Unfortunately for me, as my fantasy team and I would watch Mike Gillislee steal my touchdowns and I would be infuriated. DeMarco Murray just keeps getting it done. And here, this is amazing to Marco Murray, look, he was called washed up, old busted last year because he certainly looked like it. He could not move laterally at all. Had a pretty down year. He's already, he forced, this was just this week. He forced 13 missed tackles on his 32 touches.

[Mike Wright]

That's pretty good.

[Jason Moore]

13 missed tackles a couple of years ago.

[Mike Wright]

DeMarco talking about a slippery fish. Yeah. DeMarco Murray led many people to fantasy championships when he was a part of the Dallas Cowboys. He has done it before and while he doesn't have the same offensive line, he's actually more involved in the passing game than he was then. He would be in that conversation of those three down bell cow.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Any game script, any, you know, defensive matchup. DeMarco Murray is a, is a, he's a weekly start.

[Jason Moore]

Moving over to tight ends, of course. The number one tight end of the week, New England. He's back. He looked a little bit banged up at the beginning of the game.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you're talking about Gronk, right?

[Jason Moore]

Of course not. I'm not talking about Rob Gronkowski. I'm talking about Martellus Bennett. Six for 67, three touchdowns. He, like I said, he went down at the beginning of the game. I thought he was, I thought he like tore his groin or something the way he was down. And there was, there's some pretty funny comments you can look up of him talking about that on Find it on the Internets. But I was, I'm imagining a, someone like a fantasy analyst interviewing Martellus Bennett and saying, you know, what is, what do you think about Gronkowski for fantasy purpose? And then just him belly laughing like Jabba the Hut, like, oh.

[Mike Wright]

As he.

[Jason Moore]

Steals all the freaking touchdowns for New England.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, Gronk still got it done. He had a pretty good game, 109 yards himself. Three touchdowns to Bennett, three touchdowns. So do you start both guys going forward? Yes, I'll answer that for you.

[Jason Moore]

I'll say the answer is yes. But his first two touchdowns, Martellis were very short and then he had the, the 40 yard touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

So yardage wise, do you sell Bennett if you have him? If I can, yes.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, 100%.

[Mike Wright]

And you can't really buy him right now because he's going to be too expensive. He'll have some up weeks, some down weeks. If he's on waivers, pick him up. If you've got him, keep him or possibly trade him. But I think he is a weekly start. I mean, if I have him, I'm probably looking to trade my other tight end if I can get value.

[Jason Moore]

You're that confident?

[Mike Wright]

I think he. Look, most tight ends this year are poopy. I mean, you just don't like a whole lot of tight ends. That's true. I mean, sure, if I've got Greg Olson and Martellus Bennett, then I'm definitely selling Martinez, Bell, Martellis, Bennett as high as I can get something. And I'd rather have Olson, but I mean, other than, you know, four or five guys, then I would say Bennett is right there for me. But here's a bigger question, right? Because you got Tom Brady, you've got, you know, two monster tight ends. Now let's shift over to another team with two tight ends who both performed this week. Right, Right. And I knew when I found out that Antonio Gates was coming back, I lowered both Gates and Hunter Henry. I didn't really love either. I figured they would cannibalize each other, and they did. But there was enough meat to eat that they both had great.

[Jason Moore]

It was like the Oregon Trail and they got a buffalo and they couldn't even bring it all back.

[Mike Wright]

No, they just, they shared aplenty. So you had Hunter Henry three for 74 and a touchdown. Gates four for 30 and a touchdown. Can you start both of these guys going forward with Philip Rivers?

[Jason Moore]

Ah, it's. What's tough here is Hunter Henry out snapped Antonio Gates, 43 to 18. Tony Gates was still coming back from that injury. I mean, when he was asked, are you going to play? He said, I'm going to give it a go. Basically. It wasn't, oh, yeah, I'm ready to. I'm all healed up. It was, I'm going to try. And he did. And he had, he had a good output. Antonio Gates is chasing down that tight end.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, he wants the, he wants that.

[Jason Moore]

So. But moving forward, I mean, Hunter Henry, it. I know the yardage was what looks good, three for 74, only four targets. And one of them was a huge chunk play. But like you said with Martellis Bennett, just because the tight ends are so bad, the guy just can't stop scoring. So I think that he's okay throwing it into the air and starting him.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to go on record right now that they have not convinced me at all. They both got a touchdown. The game script helped them. Like you said, a huge chunk play for Henry. I feel like I'M I don't want to really start either one of these guys right now. I'm going to look for other options. They can win me over. But I think, you know, what I watched was not something that is just certainly going to be repeated week after week. It's, it's a, it's a part of that. San Diego Roulette. Does Philip Rivers have enough, you know, touchdowns and volume to go around? Yes, but he has so many different targets that you just can't bank on. I don't like starting the San Diego Chargers because you're getting boom, bust.

[Jason Moore]

Sure, that's fair. Delaney Walker, of course, Marcus Mariota had a good game. That mean Delaney Walker had an excellent game. Dwight Allen, I think there was the week Jason finally gave up.

[Mike Wright]

I've been, I've been high on Dwayne Allen and he's like, I don't get it. Dwayne Allen's done nothing. And it's like, all right, yeah, you're right. I lower him a little bit in my rankings. He goes for five for 50, six for 50 and a touchdown. Thanks, Dwayne.

[Jason Moore]

Yep. Gronk, a big game. Jesse James, the Outlaw continues to get these touchdowns. He benefited greatly from a Sammy Coates drop. And a Baltimore Raven tight end had an okay game, except it was Crockett Gilmore.

[Mike Wright]

On that note, you need to know this. The last two weeks, even when, even before this week, Crockett Gilmore was running a lot of routes. He was running a lot of passing routes and was involved in that game. Didn't show up on the box score quite the same, but it did this week. And so it says to me that Dennis Pitta is not that super reliable, you know, 10 target guy.

[Jason Moore]

He's still getting tons of targets.

[Mike Wright]

Sure. But with Tressman gone and Crockett Gilmore being there, I think that Pitta, you just need to temper those expectations. I don't think he is going to be as valuable without Tressman.

[Jason Moore]

I'm okay tempering. I will say, I think that there'll be less volume to go around for the Ravens now that Tressman is gone. But I think that Dennis Pitt will be the tight end that gets it. He still had. He was seven for 59 on eight targets. So eight targets, five targets. Eight targets. I mean, that's for tight ends.

[Mike Wright]

That's great.

[Jason Moore]

So I'm not worried about Dennis Pita. So a couple honorable mentions. Devonte Adams did not Limburger this week. He had a very strong game. And Randall Cobb, Randall Cobb went over 100.

[Mike Wright]

I like that you did.

[Jason Moore]

And you liked Randall Cobb coming into this week. I. I don't believe I did.

[Mike Wright]

I figure coming off of a buy at home, Aaron Rodgers is very good at home. There was enough volume and touchdowns to go around. In fact, he caught a, what was it like a 28 yard great touchdown catch in the game that was called back on a completely meaningless. I think it was devonte Adams who kind of shifted on the line during that play. And so it was like it was called back because he moved his hand a little bit. But I mean it was a great touchdown. So I. Here's the deal. I was high on Randall Cobb coming into this week. I thought he was going to have a game like he did. This is where I now sell him. Very similar to me to Ryan Matthews. Ryan Matthews. I thought coming into this game was. And how about this, we got to talk. We got to bring up the water bet.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

This is nonsense, Andy. It is nonsense. So I said that Ryan Matthews is going to be their primary running back. He is the ball carrier. He is the ball carrier. He is their primary running back. And Andy said no. He said Wendell Smallwood and Kenya Barner, they're going to be involved. So I made him a water bet. I said he's going to get 15 carries. I lost the water bet.

[Jason Moore]

He fell short.

[Mike Wright]

He got over 15 touches but he didn't get 15 carries. I lost the water bet. But I won in spirit because Kenyan Barner and Widdle Smallwood combined for zero carries.

[Jason Moore]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

And it was clearly Ryan Matthews as the man. I believed in him. He did it. And I cannot recommend people enough to sell them. Sell Ryan Matthews right now because I still do see what Andy saw with Kenyon Barner and Wendell Smallwood there. The injury history of Ryan Matthews and the fact that his contract says he's not the future. I think he might have another couple good games. If you can't sell him this week, sell him next week. But I'm looking. I don't believe in Ryan Matthews rest of season. He's a scary guy to own. I would look to try to shore up running backs, try to trade him and someone else for an upgrade at running back.

[Jason Moore]

I would rest of season. I would have him as a lower end running back too. I mean it's going to be game flow dependent. I love the five receptions and the receiving touchdown that went to him. That was great news for Ryan Matthews owners. The 11 carries, if you didn't. If you weren't privy to what happened in the game. They were getting boat Raced for most of the first half by Detroit. So they were throwing the ball and they weren't able to establish that running game.

[Mike Wright]

Also he fumbled the game away at the end. Yeah, that's not going to earn him a lot of carry.

[Jason Moore]

That's the big variable. He also had a. He had a huge 30 yard run. They got called back because an offensive lineman was downfield. So he's still he curious case of. I don't know, I would probably sell if I could, but I don't know. I don't know if I would.

[Mike Wright]

The hope here is not that you can sell and you can finally get rid of him on the cheap. The hope is that you can find someone who believes.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

I know you and our league of record. You have Ryan Matthews. You said, yeah, I'm going to shop him. I'm probably going to shop him. But that doesn't mean you necessarily have to trade him. Right. You're just going to see if you can. If his name and if his value to a team that needs a running back, if you know that can, that can net you enough in return.

[Jason Moore]

So Matt Aziata has proven that you can just grab off the waivers and start him if you're ever in a pinch. He's not going to be reliable though. Is there any. Oh, Todd Gurley back from. Back from the dead. Todd Gurley had a very solid game. He wasn't enough to get in the full on stud muffins.

[Mike Wright]

Three for 36 through the air, which is important to see again. Are you getting scared, Mike, on your Todd Gurley catches on the season?

[Jason Moore]

Well, because it was. Cunningham was out.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

So what's nice, what I can fall back on is that Jeff Fisher is a creature of habit. And as soon as Benny Cunningham is back, I feel like he's just going to say, okay, Benny, you're the third down guy again.

[Mike Wright]

My goodness, man. When they were down on the goal line, I think they were like the four yard line and it was fourth down. They're down by seven points. They're down by seven. So a field goal, if you get the field goal means you need a touchdown. If you get the field goal, you still have to get a touchdown. And it's fourth and four, the game is almost over and he kicks a field goal. And then guess what they had to do when it was fourth and forever on their own 18 later in the game, they had to go for it on in a terrible situation. How do you not go for the touchdown? I mean, I don't even. You can't convince me of the football.

[Jason Moore]

Book of how to be a winner at football. That was written in 1925.

[Mike Wright]

He needs the updated edition.

[Jason Moore]

That's. That's the one he goes to. Game Script 1925.

[Mike Wright]

Always kick the field goal.

[Jason Moore]

So let's move on. We're gonna talk some rising stars.

[Mike Wright]

Raising Cane's Rising Stars of the Week.

[Jason Moore]

Of course, I have to take this moment in the sun. Sammy Coates was a guy I had talked up pretty strongly. I think I used very strong language for Sammy Coates over the off season that I loved him in the late rounds as a sleeper. He's been emerging lately and this week we talked about it. Six for 139 and two with 11 targets. I don't care about the drops. Look, Mike Evans drops the ball. Amari Cooper drops the ball. Guys have drops. But here's what Coats is not dropping. He's latched in. He's the Martavis Bryant role for this for the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is a very productive fantasy role. We've seen Martavis Bryant, who should have been a wide receiver one if he could play an entire season, and now Sammy Coates, that's his job moving forward. So I have him locked and loaded as a, as a weekly flex start.

[Mike Wright]

At the worst on the road as well.

[Jason Moore]

Even on the road because I know that he because the big plays there at any time we've seen Martavis Bryant. Zeros, zeros, zeros. You get to the fourth quarter, oh, here's a 70 yard touchdown bomb. And now you have a wide receiver too for the week. So it's just I love him. If he's on your waiver wire, I would be very aggressive trying to get him.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, I agree. When we talk waiver wires tomorrow, he will probably be one of, if not.

[Jason Moore]

The top, he'll be my top wide.

[Mike Wright]

Receiver because I do think that he is a guy that for the rest of the season he's going to entrench himself in a place where maybe he's not weekly. Maybe he is very similar to Ben Roethlisberger, a home away start. But when you start him, he's going to have a lot of big performances and you've seen his targets go up and up. The guy to me who's rising up, and I alluded to this earlier, is Jordan Howard because I still have that fear. Look, they've got the week 9 buy and that's where I'm expecting this coach.

[Jason Moore]

Is still John Fox.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm still expecting Langford to come back and to Cut into the workload. But what I used to think was going to happen was that it's going to come back and it's going to be a 50, 50 split or even a 55, 45 for Langford. You know, the. The starter to start the season. He comes back, he gets the work. And you saw this last year, right? You had Matt Forte there. He was the starter. Langford took over and he was helpful to injury from injury. And when Forte came back, they split and Langford was still valuable the rest of the way. Forte was still valuable the rest of the way. And I'm going to say that Jordan Howard is going to be valuable the rest of the season, even after Langford gets back, because what he has shown is that he does, you know, the opportunity helps. Right. Maybe he won't be an absolute monster after Langford gets back, but he gets yards after contact. He is a good receiving running back. So if they get down, which I, I believe the Bears from time to time will get down.

[Jason Moore]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

And I think Jordan Howard is safe. I would be willing to trade for him. Crazy as it is, there's still 10% of leagues he's on the waivers. I mean, it's. It should be 100%, but yeah, Jordan Howard, I believe in him. He's rising up.

[Jason Moore]

I fully believe in Jordan Howard, too. I've had this conversation with Andy, who he happened to. He had that stroke of luck where he picked Jordan Howard up the week Langford the week before. Yeah, the week before it. And I've tried. I've engaged with. In trade conversations, but I don't know what to pay.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, let me ask you this rest of season, who would you rather have? It's. It's a. It's a draft starting today, and the only two running backs on the board are Ryan Matthews and Jordan Howard.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, it's Jordan Howard. It's easily Jordan Howard. But in our league, I mean, trades are different because we can trade draft picks and everything. But I'm with you that he should be a top 10 running back moving forward. But there's that. That ounce of fear that John Fox is going to screw me and if I trade everything away because Howard's price just keeps going up week over week. I didn't strike immediately when I should have, so now I'm paying the price because the law of economics, Jordan Howard is now far more in demand. So. But I have a really tough time offering that price to get him here.

[Mike Wright]

Here's what listeners need to know going forward. Jordan Howard, look, he's rising up my Raising Canes Rising stars really love him. He's delicious. If, if you're going to trade for him, he's got a juicy matchup this week in Jacksonville. You want to get a hold of that, right? You want a piece of that the next two weeks after that he goes to, you know, he's got Green Bay who's tough. A really tough matchup followed by Minnesota.

[Jason Moore]

That's worse.

[Mike Wright]

Followed by a buy.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I see what you're saying.

[Mike Wright]

So while I do like Jordan Howard rest of season, what I'm saying is that I believe in him. Weeks 11 through 16 so if you.

[Jason Moore]

Are a team that's let's say you're, you're 1 and 4 and you're trying to kickstart things. Buying Jordan Howard because you need wins right now, sure might not be the best idea.

[Mike Wright]

Right. Because you might get one and then you're, and then you're going to struggle.

[Jason Moore]

That's fair.

[Mike Wright]

But if you've got a late if your trade deadline is late, if it's week 10, week 11, I think he's going to be a late season. Great grab.

[Jason Moore]

So those speaking of juicy Raising Cane's chicken fingers. Those were the Raising Canes Rising stars of the week. Remember that game day tastes better with Raisin Cane's tailgates full of fresh 24 hour marinated hand battered chicken fingers. Fresh brewed sweet tea. Visit raising canes.com to find your nearest location.

[Mike Wright]

If you haven't been it's so good.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Pro tip. If you have not been to Raising Cane's, go to Raisin Cane. Evaluate your life, get it together and eat some Raising Canes because it is just the best.

[Mike Wright]

It sure is.

[Jason Moore]

All right, let's move on to some guys who not so maybe they let you down.

[Mike Wright]

Hooped in his big boy pants.

[Jason Moore]

When I say maybe let you down, I mean they let you down in a horrific fashion.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. One of those guys would be Eli Manning. I had him very highly rated. You saw what should have been a high scoring game.

[Jason Moore]

What was so funny. Sorry to interrupt you was the even the commentators like both of these secondaries are depleted and you have two Pro Bowl super bowl winning quarterbacks and no one could get it done.

[Mike Wright]

It was really bizarre. It was. I Something looks off with Eli.

[Jason Moore]

Oh that. That offense is a mess.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I don't, I don't know what's going to fix it. I don't know. You know, hopefully they get it together for the sake of Odell Beckham alone. But they're not looking good. He didn't play well. 18 of 35 is not good. Didn't get to 200 yards, only got a garbage time touchdown and that was it. He was pretty terrible.

[Jason Moore]

Maybe, maybe the general. That was Tom Coughlin, who I'm not, I wasn't a big Tom Coughlin fan because I don't like the old fashioned coaching approach. But maybe that team needs him. Yeah, maybe that team needs that.

[Mike Wright]

They needed a father figure.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

And now they've got an uncle figure.

[Jason Moore]

Well, right now they have the principal from Ferris Bueller's Day off.

[Mike Wright]

Seriously, man, that mustache is just unbelievable. But here's what Eli Manning does have.

[Jason Moore]

Here's he's looking in the mirror like, yep, looking good. That's a good idea.

[Mike Wright]

That's why I called him the uncle look, here's what Eli Manning can say as saving grace is that he was not as bad as Ryan Tannehill. Oh, Ryan Tannehill. I don't know that Ryan Tannehill really has big boy pants. He hasn't looked good for a long time. Only threw the ball 18 times. 191 yards, zero touchdowns, two interceptions. That's not good for your. Jarvis Landry's your Devonte Landry with the.

[Jason Moore]

Lowest targets of his career.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it was not looking good there.

[Jason Moore]

I think, I think Ryan Tannel has not long for the Dolphins. No, I know they gave him a contract, but I feel like the. If I remember correctly, the contract was team friendly that they could get.

[Mike Wright]

Tannehill should be gone before gase. Adam Gates should be allowed to stay and try to rebuild that team.

[Jason Moore]

Moving on to some running backs, we had Isaiah Crowell who. Yeah, I mean he's been tearing it up. But you, this was not the matchup that you really wanted to play Crowell and I understand you that he's. If he's your 2, you had to play him. But against the Patriots, you knew they were going to get blown out. So it was not ideal. Matt Jones, another clunker. But I don't, I don't know if I would put big boy pants onto Matt Jones. You know, he's a starter.

[Mike Wright]

Here's why Matt Jones had big boy pants. Because of the week before. The week before when he blows up. And this is why we say this before. We've said this before and I'm sure we'll say it again. But you don't chase points when you, when you got that big weekly blow up game and it's kind of the first. You don't chase those. Oh, that was on my bench. Now I got to start him. Look at the matchup. If it's good, then continue with it. But if it's not like this one wasn't, Baltimore's got a pretty good run D. You know, I was disappointed with him. I thought he would certainly do better than this. Especially in a game where the heavy crosswinds mean you need to run the ball. Maybe that was part of the problem though. Defenses could kind of load up a little bit more. Less afraid of deep balls. You're not going to throw a deep ball with 20 mile an hour crosswinds. That certainly did not help him. Matt Forte is another running back who.

[Jason Moore]

Has now been I believe the last three weeks in PPR formats has been out produced by Bilal Powell.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I really like Bilal Powell. You know, the problem is they eat into each other's workload. Kind of what we saw to start the season, we were not high on Forte coming in, you know, really felt like, man, we got that wrong. That looks pretty bad because Forte was on fire, but the gas seems to be running low. He is a certainly a continued to monitor. What do you do if you have Forte? You're starting him if you have him. But are you looking to.

[Jason Moore]

I'm not looking to unload him.

[Mike Wright]

Would you look to acquire him?

[Jason Moore]

If I could get him low right now? If an owner has become disenfranchised or disappointed by him by the last couple of weeks, I would because I still think that Matt Forte is a running back too with and he has weekly upside. I think that it was a tougher matchup for when you're talking about running the ball for the fort for the jets against the Steelers because you knew that the Steelers were going to score a bunch of points. But moving forward, I think Forte will still be a usable running back.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, if you need running back help, you might be able to get him cheap enough. The guy that I would definitely target who pooped in his big boy pants this week is C.J. anderson.

[Jason Moore]

C.J. anderson is very polarizing. I'm glad you wanted to focus on him. So you're talking you want to buy Anderson.

[Mike Wright]

I'm certainly buying Anderson. He's a guy that I wanted to buy earlier, but he was too expensive. I mean, you know, he looked like he was going to be a top five back rest of season after those first two weeks. Now he has three weeks in a row where he hasn't been that great. Right. He had 14 for 37 against Cincinnati, then 19 for only 49. But he got a touchdown. So he saved himself last week against Tampa Bay or the week prior. And now against Atlanta, 11 for 41. But you have to consider with Paxton lynch in there, they did not worry about the passing game whatsoever. Paxton lynch couldn't get it done. You know, that that game script also got away from them because Atlanta started the game up. And it's very rare at home for the Broncos to start in a hole with that defense. So there's a lot of things that kind of made this okay to me. I mean, he only had 11 carries, which is by far his lowest total of the season. And that was kind of a game script thing. So to me, C.J. anderson, if people aren't believing that he's a top back, I still believe, you know, top six back rest of season. There's not many guys I would rather have.

[Jason Moore]

I love C.J. anderson. I've professed my undying love for him, but I will, I will play the devil's advocate and read you some, some numbers that are kind of startling.

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Jason Moore]

10.3, 19.7, 23.9, 25, 41.4.

[Mike Wright]

No idea what that.

[Jason Moore]

Those are the snap percentages of devonte Booker.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, sure.

[Jason Moore]

Who is rising in trust, rising in playing time. So I think that you're. I still believe that C.J. anderson is the primary guy for that team, but clearly Booker is, is gaining the trust of the coach and he's going to eat into CJ Anderson being a, you know, that, that 65, 70% snap percentage guy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And I agree that Devontae Booker will get more involved, but I mean, the last three weeks you got four carries, seven carries and six carries for devontae Booker. I think that'll continue. I think he'll get six or seven carries a game, and that's a decent chunk of work. That's a running back that is involved in the running game, but that's not a guy that's, I mean, that's not going to scare me off of thinking that C.J. anderson is. And if you look at the red zone work, that's C.J. anderson's.

[Jason Moore]

The volume finally fell out. The bottom dropped. Lamar Miller had eight carries for 20 yards. This was another one. You know, the matchup is going to be bad, but you can feel safe. And you had that warm blanket of he's going to touch the ball 20 times.

[Mike Wright]

This one hurts.

[Jason Moore]

And then he did not.

[Mike Wright]

Look, Lamar Miller was on my aforementioned, you know, we should put in the pooped in his big boy pants section me. Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Because My goodness, all these guys are on Jason's team.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, all of. All these players belong to me for sure. I had Eli Manning, Lamar Miller, Jeremy Hill. Yeah, I mean, we. Deshaun Jackson.

[Jason Moore]

We've not talked about it. So Kyle Rudolph, Jerick McKinnon had an unfortunately down game. Matt Aziata was the, was the man for Minnesota where McKinnon, he looked good last week. Still got 20 carries, but 20 carries for 36 yards.

[Mike Wright]

So let's talk about the Houston Texans offense. Sure. Because that was. It wasn't just Lamar Miller. It was Lamar Miller. It was DeAndre Hopkins until the absolute garbage touchdown.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, the garbage man.

[Mike Wright]

It was Will Fuller who did absolutely.

[Jason Moore]

Nothing, one for four.

[Mike Wright]

And Brock Osweiler, who, like a lot of us pundits were kind of saying was not worth that money and was not a great quarterback, is looking like he cannot handle this role. Now, that was a really tough matchup. That was. You can't blame them in that matchup to necessarily say, well, what are you going to do? Nobody. Nobody has done anything.

[Jason Moore]

Against the Vikings.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, against the Vikings. So do you. By these players or are you scared? Because this is several games where they've really stunked it up.

[Jason Moore]

I'm still willing to buy Hopkins. I'm not sure if, if the DeAndre Hopkins owner is going to be willing to sell. I know that if they followed the game, they would know that Hopkins was. Was terrible until the very end. But I imagine that little boost at the end, they're going to puff their chest back up and be like, oh, no, he's. He's still the top five elite wide receiver, which he hasn't been since the first half of last year. But I think that he's a fine wide receiver. One moving forward. I would try to acquire him.

[Mike Wright]

But what about, what about Lamar Miller? People have been very disappointed.

[Jason Moore]

I would love to buy Lamar Miller.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, I would have him.

[Jason Moore]

I know, I know. For our league. But I'm saying for the listeners, for the Foot Clan out there, I would try and get Lamar Miller. The tweets are coming in furious right now, people. What do I do with Lamar Miller? And the answer to me is you keep him or you go and you buy him. This was, this was the week where you knew it was going to be really bad. You hoped it wasn't going to be 8 for 20 bad. But the touches are secure for Lamar Miller. No one else in that backfield is going to take his job.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. The whole offense did absolutely nothing. It wasn't just Lamar Miller. Let you down. The Texans did and it was against the Vikings. So there's rationale for it.

[Jason Moore]

Wide receivers, some big time guns let you down. A.J. green fell back as the Bengals had just a really off day. Julio Jones unfortunately only 2 for 29. I thought that he could still be okay and get you low level wide receiver, one production but that was not to be. Julian Edelman on 10 targets, only 35 yards because stupid Martellus Bennett. Dang it man.

[Mike Wright]

Everybody, everybody that had Edelman.

[Jason Moore]

Congratulations to you Martellus. But you hurt my feelings. You hurt my feelings, my friend. The aforementioned Jarvis Landry. Three for 28. That's back to back bad weeks for Jarvis Landry. Well like last week wasn't horrifying but I bet that the Jarvis Landry owner is a little bit concerned. D Jacks continues to have a back to back bad games.

[Mike Wright]

Trying to think if there is DJ was another guy. If you had listened, you know to. If you're on Twitter, if you're, if you're on Twitter, you need to follow us. You know when the wind report came out that there's huge crosswinds. Look, DeSean Jackson is a downfield threat. He's a 20 yards in the air type of receiver and you can't do that with 25 mile an hour crosswinds. You know, you watch them kick a field goal and it's like you kick it over one way so that it can end up in the middle. So we moved desean Jackson down quite a bit.

[Jason Moore]

So that's just a good reminder. Follow the Twitter account at the FF ballers. Jump on the periscope, join the foot. I mean we're putting out all kinds of alerts up here, keeping you up to date. So Sunday morning, I mean I'm with you, I'm with Jason. I had Cousins as an okay play. I had Flacco as a low end quarterback one. When I heard the news of what was going to happen, I buried both of them. I jumped off of Joe Flacco where I could and so just so follow the show. The social media will help you out. And then the last one I want to talk about just because the coach said he's going to have a big game, big game coming for Golden Tate who so apparently, apparently a big game is 3 for 39.

[Mike Wright]

He dropped the touchdown so that doesn't.

[Jason Moore]

Help but drop him from my 3 for 39 roster.

[Mike Wright]

Here's a reality. They did try to get him involved. They gave him three rushing attempts. You know you're trying to get him going because this team needs him and I don't know what it is, but he just has not been able to get it done. I completely agree. He's a droppable asset right now. You know, there's a lot of guys out there I would probably rather holding on to. Upside guy.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Even than Tate.

[Jason Moore]

To me, it's time to move on from Golden Tate. But I've seen five weeks. That's enough for me to even if he blows up and has a great rest of the season, still feel good in my choice that I'm going to move on from him and put somebody with higher upside like Sammy Coates on my bench.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So last. Last couple players here, we got some tight ends. Zach Ertz, Kyle. Yeah, Zach Ertz. We, you know, we bought in. I know we were high on him.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Didn't get it going and really had the. Had the game script to do it. You know, so there's. There's no great excuse on Zach Ertz. He just didn't get it done. And Kyle Rudolph, who, I mean, I know we weren't high on. At least I was and I had said there's a lot of guys on waiver. I would rather play because of the matchup. Houston's very good against the tight end and they played great tight ends this year. So far they have shut down every single tight end, even without J.J. watt. So going forward, I think you need to look at the Houston Texans as a matchup where if you've got a good tight end, look for other. If you've got your. Whoever it is, not a weak starter.

[Jason Moore]

Not a Jordan Reed or a Gronk. You're middle tier.

[Mike Wright]

Gary Barnage and you know Eric Ebron if he's healthy or Gates or whoever. If you're playing against Houston, you know Dwayne Allen. Right. He's going to play Houston twice a year.

[Jason Moore]

All right, so then the Monday night. Just a reminder that Doug Martin and Charles Sims, they're going to be out. They're both considered doubtful. For some reason though, we're getting the nonsense of we're not ruling them out until the game time. Even though no one has practiced a single snapped and they're doubtful. And I think the percentage of players listed as doubtful who have actually played is. Is so minute they're not going to play. So Jacques Rogers, if you are in a very tight spot, him or Peyton Barber lot. I mean, good luck. Good luck to you out there. Foot Clan.

[Mike Wright]

I think Jack Quiz is.

[Jason Moore]

Is you think he's okay for PPR.

[Mike Wright]

I think he's okay. By okay, I mean he's going to be in that, like, 20s to 30s running back. I don't see him finishing with, you know, five for 12. He'll get enough usage to be valuable, but he doesn't have the upside, especially in this matchup, to do anything special.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

You've got Derek Anderson. I don't think that causes alarm for any of the men.

[Jason Moore]

Cam is out. Oh, man. TJ Hernandez, good friend of the show. TJ Hernandez, who is just. He always has fire on Twitter and he puts out. You know, Cam Newton is out. Huge upgrade for all the Carolina pass catchers. It was. I was like, oh, man. Rough. Burning the ground. Love it.

[Mike Wright]

I like Kelvin Benjamin. Greg Olson is. Honestly, all jokes aside, I actually upgraded Greg Olson when Cam went down, because we saw that with Derek Anderson, he loves.

[Jason Moore]

The thing about Derek Anderson is he's a passer, right? Like Cam Newton. When Cam Newton throws for over 300, I'm like, wow, Cam Newton had a huge game. Cam Newton's great. He's good for fantasy. He's good for the real life NFL team. But that's because he. He runs the ball and he makes things happen.

[Mike Wright]

And this is a game without Jonathan Stewart. So you've got a passing quarterback that really can't rely on the normal star of the running game. So the passing should be there for those players. I'm just throwing it out there once again.

[Jason Moore]

Sure.

[Mike Wright]

I'm sure. Look, he's done nothing this season. I'm not saying that you should. I'm not saying you should start him.

[Jason Moore]

Don't do it.

[Mike Wright]

But I think Devin Funches shows up today.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, all right. Well, we're gonna close out the show here. Andy's gonna download the show, see how long it's been. He's gonna freak out.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I can't wait.

[Jason Moore]

He's like, what are you guys doing? You're going so long. But you know what? I think the Foot Clan loves it.

[Mike Wright]

Also, tomorrow we might have a special thing or two for Andy.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Oh, of course.

[Mike Wright]

Huh?

[Jason Moore]

But so tomorrow, the Tuesday shows, the big waiver show. You gotta. We got to help you make your decisions on how to improve your team. A shout out to Fantasy jocks for sponsoring the studio. If you have any trophies or winner need. If you have. You need to win any kind of thing. Fantasyjocks.com promo code. Footballers helps you out. Follow us on Twitter JoinTheFoot.com I mean, we're on Facebook.

[Mike Wright]

We're everywhere.

[Jason Moore]

Jason.

[Mike Wright]

We're like Visa we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter @the ffballers.