Fantasy Football - Week 5 Start/Sit + TNF Preview, Breaking Benson News! - Podcast for 10/1

Summary

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Fantasy Footballers Podcast: Week 5 Start/Sit + TNF Preview, Breaking Benson News!

Date: October 1, 2025
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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Episode Overview

This episode centers around pivotal fantasy football start/sit decisions for Week 5, fresh injury news (notably the Trey Benson situation), backup option strategy after waivers, and an in-depth preview of Thursday Night Football between the 49ers and Rams. The hosts lean heavily into actionable insights, live reactions to breaking news (including an unexpected Trey Benson IR bombshell), and address listener questions via their weekly mailbag segment. The tone is lively, opinionated, and occasionally hilarious, keeping football analysis fun and relatable.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Waiver Wire Reactions & Injury Fallout

• The crew reacts to Wednesday morning’s waiver wire movement, particularly the uncertainty and scramble involving Sean Tucker and Trey Benson due to injuries.

• Trey Benson's Injury:

  • Breaking news hits mid-episode: Trey Benson is placed on IR, sending shockwaves through waiver strategy.
  • Andy Holloway (35:55): “Breaking news. Trey Benson is being placed on injured reserve due to his knee injury...back to back weeks we have Connor and then Benson down for.”
  • Implications: Michael Carter and Amari Demercado are names to target for Cardinals RB touches.

• Sean Tucker vs Rashad White:

  • Ongoing debate about opportunity and usage, with uncertainty due to Tampa’s injuries.
  • Jason: “I would much, much, much rather have Rashad White...going this week than Sean Tucker.” [05:58]

2. Backup Options After Waivers (10:01-19:50)

• The hosts run through a rapid-fire “care/don’t care” for most-dropped players and highlight backup stashes for Week 5.

  • Players like Michael Carter and Jaden Blue get the nod as speculative pickups.
  • Jason on Jaden Blue (16:41): “He might be on the roster this week, and ... there’s a chance that Jaden Blue is just straight up the backup to Javonte Williams.”

• DST Stash Play:

  • New England Patriots defense is highlighted as a stash due to an upcoming “dream schedule,” despite playing Buffalo this week.

3. Thursday Night Football Preview: 49ers vs Rams (30:01–35:47)

• Rash of injuries for the 49ers: Brock Purdy, Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings all DNP at practice.
• Quarterback uncertainty: Brock Purdy's status unknown, Mac Jones mentioned as a possible starter.
  • Jason: “If Brock Purdy starts the game, we still don’t know who the quarterback that finishes the game is.” [31:05]
• Rams Offensive Standouts:
  • Puka Nacua is called “unbelievable.”
  • Andy (33:14): “Most receptions through the first four games...tied with what Cooper Kupp did in 2022.”
  • Both Kyren Williams and Nacua are considered locks to start.
• Matthew Stafford as a Streaming QB:
  • Despite big WR numbers, Stafford is not a recommended start due to negative rushing yardage and volatility.

4. Live Reaction: Trey Benson Placed on IR (35:55–38:15)

• The news prompts urgent waiver considerations:
  • Michael Carter: Predicted to lead in carries.
  • Demercado: Will get passing-down work.
  • Andy: “I would bet my life that Michael Carter gets more carries than Demercado.”
• The group reflects on the unlucky fantasy manager losing both Benson and Conner in back to back weeks.

5. NFL News and Injury Updates (20:01–29:59, 38:15–40:06)

• Lamar Jackson likely out; Cooper Rush could start for Baltimore:
  • Impact discussed for Zay Flowers and Derrick Henry. Jason expresses slight concern for Flowers due to the Texans’ strong pass D.
• Browns QB Switch:
  • Dylan Gabriel to start over Joe Flacco; hosts expect improved offensive stability.
• Braylon Allen IR Impact:
  • Huge boost for Breece Hall; Isaiah Davis named as a deep-league handcuff.
  • Mike: “You saw it in the game...Breece Hall got taken off the field for a touchdown opportunity. He has so much work in the passing game.”
• Jaden Daniels returns for Commanders after medical clearance.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Sean Tucker’s Opportunity:
  • Andy: “There are really talented running backs that spend some time in the background...maybe Tucker breaks out this week.” [05:43]
• On DST Stashing:
  • Mike: “The schedule is so good that...you might want to go stash this DST [New England], not to play them against Buffalo.” [19:42]
• On Trey Benson’s Breakout Prognostication:
  • Andy: “What an incredible amount of time we spent talking about Trey Benson before we got this news.” [36:55]
• On Nicknaming Cardinals OC Drew Petzing ‘Blobfish’:
  • Mike (38:03): “Pretty disrespectful...as are his offensive play calls.”
• On Michael Carter vs. Demercado:
  • Andy (37:30): “I would bet my life that Michael Carter gets more carries than Demercado.”

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Listener Mailbag Highlights (40:07–54:19)

• Start/Sit & Trade Debates:
  • Judkins vs. Kenneth Walker (40:29–41:12): Panel unanimously prefers Judkins rest of season.
  • Crisis Flex (43:36–44:46): Malik Washington picked as the preferred “Nasty Boy” start in a rough bye week.
  • Dynasty SuperFlex Emergency QBs (44:51–45:56): Cooper Rush is the play over Jake Browning (“Could be your grandma” defense quip).
  • Bo Nix vs. Daniel Jones (46:25–47:09): Slight lean to Daniel Jones for Week 5.
  • Breece Hall vs. Travis Etienne ROS (47:09–48:58): Breece Hall is the slight ROS preference post-Braylon Allen injury.
  • CeeDee Lamb or Amari + Hampton (49:05–49:47): Trade is considered fair—Andy leans RB side, Jason prefers Lamb.
• Dynasty Value on Bill Krauski (51:07–52:08):
  • Jason: “I like Bill more in Redraft than Dynasty... usually a guy like this is replaced in their career.”
• High-volume WRs (52:15–53:26):
  • Chris Olave’s volume is lauded, but the crew notes the targets are “not super valuable.”

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Important Timestamps

• Waiver Reaction/Backup Options: 01:46–19:50
• Trey Benson Injury Analysis & Fallout: 02:38, 35:55–38:15
• DST Deep Dive: 18:41–19:50
• Thursday Night Football Preview: 30:01–35:47
• Breaking Benson News Live: 35:55–38:15
• NFL News & Player Updates: 20:01–29:59, 38:15–40:06
• Listener Mailbag (Start/Sit, Trades, Dynasty, QB streamers): 40:07–54:19

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Summary Table: Key Start/Sit Takeaways This Week

| Player | Start/Sit/Status | Host Tone/Notes | |----------------------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------| | Trey Benson | Out (IR) | “Breaking news!” — shift to Carter & Demercado | | Rashad White vs. Sean Tucker | Prefer White | Higher floor, more likely bellcow | | Michael Carter (AZ RB) | Pickup/Start FLEX | Speculative RB add with upside | | Patriots DST | Stash for upcoming weeks | Dream schedule after Week 5 | | Brock Purdy/Mac Jones (49ers QBs) | Caution/Monitor | Uncertainty due to injury, “limp through” warning | | Puka Nakua/Kyren Williams (Rams) | Start with confidence | Lock them in regardless | | Breece Hall vs. Etienne (ROS) | Slight edge to Hall | Allen’s injury boosts Hall strap | | Judkins vs. Walker (ROS) | Favor Judkins | Panel unanimous | | Chris Olave | Start | Huge volume despite “snake” QB |

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Final Thoughts

• Week 5 planning is dominated by injury uncertainty—especially at RB—so remain nimble with late-week pickups and backup plans.
• Monitor breaking news vigilantly: As seen with Trey Benson, a late Wednesday or Thursday update can render many waiver bids and depth charts instantly obsolete.
• Don’t overlook stashing DSTs with ultra-soft late schedules.
• For streamers and desperation plays, volume and opportunity trump uncertain talent, particularly as bye weeks intensify.

Andy’s sign-off:
“Make sure that backup options—that Michael Carter, like—that this news for everybody came out after their waiver wires went through so he’s going to be competed for tomorrow if nobody picked him up. So make sure you do that and we will catch you tomorrow with starts of the week.”

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For More

• Rest of Season Rankings: Available for Foot Clan members (web now, app soon).
• Podcast Community: jointhefoot.com for exclusive insights, trades, and tools.
• Thursday Night Football: Watch for late-breaking inactives and lineup shuffles—especially with the 49ers’ uncertainty at QB/WR.

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Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

What's up Foot Clan? This episode is brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Watch every game, every Sunday all in one place. And now get NFL Sunday Ticket month to month and Cancel [e-mail] fantasy footballers local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. Base plan required. Renews every month during the 2025 regular season. Only your membership for the following month can be canceled anytime before your renewal date. Terms, restrictions and embargoes apply. Commercial use excluded. No refunds. If you want to treat yourself with a delicious cup of coffee at home, you've got to choose the only coffee that truly feels like a Dunkin'. No matter your favorite roast original blend, French vanilla or hazelnut, you will always get the unmatched rich and smooth taste of Dunkin'. They come in pre packed grounds and K cups. And let me tell you a little secret. I'm the most productive when I've had my cup of coffee. And every single morning it's pretty much the only thing I look forward to when I wake up my cup of coffee. The home with Duncan is where you want to be. Treat yourself with a cup of Dunkin at home. Go to dunkinathome.com the Fantasy Footballer Studio.

[Jason Moore]

Is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Mike Wright]

Welcome in. Got that waiver pep in the step right now.

[Andy Holloway]

October 1st, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the Fantasy Footballers. Back with you, Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon over Inducers Alley this morning. Yeah, the waiver wire just went through. It always times up with like when we start recording so we know until.

[Mike Wright]

Everyone changes their clocks.

[Andy Holloway]

Right? Yeah. Then it, then it's when we're done recording. But at least right now it's like an audience to see what happens. Right. It's like we gather, we do, it's very fun and react to who spent too much or too little and all of that good stuff. But you know, a lot of Darren Waller, a lot of, I mean, I mean in your league's out there. Woody Marks probably going for a lot this morning. And then we got news this, this early morning that like Bucky Irving's pretty much not playing this week.

[Jason Moore]

When you're on crutches and in a walking boot, that's not usually like I'm going to play on Sunday.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no. And so Sean Tucker, Rashad White discussions. That one, that one was really hard for me to decide what to invest on Sean Tucker and what not to like, Sean Tucker has one carry on the year. Okay. One. One attempt on the entire year. It's so similar to what's going on in Arizona because Trey Benson may not play as well. And they have Amari D. Markado in this very defined third down role without James Conner. And you have Rashad White, who has done wonders with kind of limited touches, efficient touches, looked really good this year. So I can see the logic of keeping him in that role. And Michael Carter's off the practice squad, could play and start for Arizona, where he did that last year.

[Jason Moore]

Apparently the team gave Michael Carter a standing ovation when Jonathan Gannon announced that he was being signed to the active roster. So he's. He's going to be a big part of this. And we saw last year, the last three games of the season when Michael Carter had the opportunity. He was given a lot of opportunities, 10, 15, 21 total opportunities those last three weeks and was twice a running back, too. However, in those three weeks, Amari D. Markato missed. So we don't know.

[Andy Holloway]

And then, you know, is Sean Tucker walk into that same situation? Do they want to use him on first and second down? He's a great runner. He's among 72 running backs of 60 plus opportunities. Last year he was second in yards per touch. He's so capable of doing it.

[Mike Wright]

He has had.

[Andy Holloway]

But there is that doubt in the back of your mind that Rashad White gets everything because he wasn't a starter before.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Sean Tucker's career is so wild of, you know, the beginning of the story of coming out of college. I freaking loved you.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you talk about him all the time.

[Mike Wright]

I loved him. Only to have him be one of those players that you go into the draft you're so excited to see, man, how high does he go in the draft?

[Jason Moore]

Could he sneak into the first or is it going to be a day two pick like there was early on that was supposed to be.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And. And then no one. Literally no one. And then the news comes out after that he had been taken off of a lot of boards because of medicals. The heart. Yeah. Something with a heart that medicals that we had no one of his hearts. We didn't have access to that because, like, that was only teams at the combine found out. And then he goes to the Bucks and rarely gets opportunities. When he gets them, he's fantastic. And then they're like, okay, thank you. Tucker back to the bench. It's so odd.

[Andy Holloway]

He's 23 years old. You were surprised he didn't get more opportunities when there was no Bucky Irving there. I do remember he brings to mind Michael Turner. When he played for the Chargers. He played four seasons. Michael Turner.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

For the Chargers. Where he had.

[Mike Wright]

I didn't remember it was that long.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it was. I wanted to look it up. Stuck four seasons, 20 carries, 57, 80 and 71.

[Jason Moore]

And every time he got those carries, he did great with them.

[Andy Holloway]

Yep. Similar to Tucker.

[Jason Moore]

Who was he behind? He was behind Ladinian Tomlinson. So, yeah, I knew he was behind a stud. I forgot he was behind the stud of all studs.

[Andy Holloway]

And he left and had 376 carries for 1700 yards in Atlanta. So it's not to say he's that. It's just there are really talented running backs that spend some time in the background, especially when you're stuck. Lower draft capital. And maybe Tucker breaks out this week.

[Jason Moore]

I still think, like, I will. I would much, much, much rather have Rashad White. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Going this week. Than Sean Tucker.

[Andy Holloway]

I do. I do agree with that. But I. And that's why I had such a trouble, like, I adjusted a lot of Sean Tucker bids up, down, all around because I wasn't sure exactly what to spin.

[Mike Wright]

Well, the news was like, oh, he's in on crutches and he's in a boot and he has a foot sprain and doing some digging on what's with.

[Andy Holloway]

The feet this year.

[Mike Wright]

It's the hot injury. And then you look at it like, okay, if it's a grade one, it's just one to two weeks or so. A grade two. Now you're talking multiple weeks. And you bet we don't. We don't have the information. You got to make your decision, like an hour, I think, before waivers start running. Shefty tweets out. Oh, it's just week to week. It was like, oh, pull the bids, pull the bids down. We're spending way too much. But Tucker is probably. Unless you hear otherwise, he's going to be a bit of a desperate play. But he is fantastic to have on the bench right now. Yeah, there's to see how the news proceeds. Like, who knows? You could get news tomorrow. The Bucky.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, we were wrong.

[Mike Wright]

It's way worse than we thought.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll tell you this. If I had Nick Chubb and Sean Tucker on my team, I'm starting Sean Tucker this week.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Because I want upside for that position group.

[Jason Moore]

They're probably going to get about the same. I would project them to get near the same opportunity and both be essentially the RB2 for their team and one has juice.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we have a great show for you today. It's a Wednesday episode. We've got the Thursday night preview. We've got NFL news to cover backup options. Some mailbag going to answer your questions on the show today, get you ready for week five. We also have our current Megalobol leader out of over 20,000. Jason, you had been completely like undefeated dominant and you were at spot 1000 in points scored.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, no, I'm still undefeated and dominant and right now my team. Let me look it up. I am nowhere near the leaderboard. I have 532 points scored.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, the leader has 622 and that is dude without.

[Jason Moore]

Dude with.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it sounds to me so very nice. That is the current standings.

[Mike Wright]

Look out for Crazy Joe 99. He's dude without.

[Andy Holloway]

He's right on his tail and he's crazy. Reminder.

[Mike Wright]

Long lineage of Crazy Joes too.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah, 98 of them before it each gets crazy.

[Jason Moore]

I'm still not in the top thousand. I'm 1049.

[Andy Holloway]

When you're Louise Eight. No.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Well, goodness, there's a lot of good teams out there.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you got to keep working. A reminder jointhefoot.com that's the fantasy football community. If you want to become an official Foot clan member, support the show, get access to tons of great perks including the brand new rest of season rankings. We've got trade tools that we're in the process of developing and if you have jumped into the rest of season rankings, this is a reminder for you. Right now they're only on the web. There is a new version of the in season app that is I believe going to get pushed live today or tomorrow. So it will be in both places shortly. But I didn't want any more confusion because we had some people saying where are they?

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Only on the web until the new app update hits. Hopefully Today we'll see YouTube.com the fantasy footballers. If you'd like to watch the show. I will be handling the duties this Sunday for Sunday live duty as. Yeah, I'm going to take over for Sunday this week so you can join me there. Subscribe. Click the bell. Check out the live reactions we had. Well, we had football during your Sunday live last time.

[Jason Moore]

I believe. We do again, right?

[Andy Holloway]

We do again, right?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, we do.

[Jason Moore]

Another international Minnesota staying overseas.

[Mike Wright]

It was very distracting for me as I had just Jordan Mason everywhere and I could not watch what was going on. It was frustrating.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you did. You came out of that show going? Come on, man. I wanted to watch. But yeah. Check out the in season mobile app as well on the App Store. Let's jump in.

[Jason Moore]

Backup options presented by Progressive Insurance.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, you might not have gotten every waiver wire ad you were hoping for. And so we like to take a moment on Wednesday mornings to look at some backup options. Look at the most dropped players on the platforms over the last 24 hours. And right now, the most dropped players. Caleb Williams. And that would be due to bye week. Yeah, I think Bay Shaw, Tutin here. Let's play. Care, don't care.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

These players were dropped. Do you care or not?

[Mike Wright]

As in, like, I care that you should probably pick them up.

[Andy Holloway]

I care enough to, like, maybe try to put them back on my roster off of somebody else's. Caleb Williams.

[Jason Moore]

Yep.

[Andy Holloway]

Bashaw Tutin.

[Jason Moore]

I do care.

[Mike Wright]

I do.

[Andy Holloway]

Dylan Sampson.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

Don't care.

[Andy Holloway]

Chris Rodriguez and Jacori. Koski Merritt.

[Jason Moore]

I do care. We'll talk a little bit more in depth, okay?

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Ollie Gordon.

[Jason Moore]

I care.

[Mike Wright]

I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

And then Braylon Allen with the injury, he's.

[Jason Moore]

Don't care.

[Mike Wright]

We just saw another one from coach Glenn saying it's a. It's a serious injury.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, really? I haven't seen that update.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, I. It Bets just posted. I couldn't Seeing the hit and the fact that he was even on the sideline trying to walk it off is like, dude, I feel like a mortal. Their knee would have just. It would have looked like the Tyree kill injury. It's like I could not believe it wasn't an immediate multiple ligament tear.

[Andy Holloway]

Tyquan Thornton. Do you care?

[Mike Wright]

He was down to 34% of snaps.

[Jason Moore]

You're a touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, but Rice is on his way back, so. I care.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't care.

[Mike Wright]

Don't care.

[Andy Holloway]

Calvin Austin.

[Jason Moore]

Don't care.

[Andy Holloway]

Donnell Mooney.

[Jason Moore]

Care.

[Andy Holloway]

Trey Tucker.

[Jason Moore]

Don't care.

[Andy Holloway]

Sterling Shepherd.

[Jason Moore]

Don't care.

[Andy Holloway]

Evan Ingram.

[Jason Moore]

Never care.

[Andy Holloway]

Johnny Smith.

[Jason Moore]

Don't care.

[Andy Holloway]

Zach Ertz.

[Jason Moore]

Care.

[Mike Wright]

Who's Let Jay take it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's good. That's good. All right. About. We each picked a backup option. We've kind of already dug in on this player, so I'll just throw the name out there. Michael Carter was the pick for this morning. Running back for the Arizona Cardinals. Trey Benson's taking it day by day, he said. Hopefully we'll get him back out there. That's the language currently being used by the head coach. But. But signing Michael Carter to the. To the. To the roster. We'll See what happens. I do have some dad.

[Mike Wright]

Well, it's just a, A, you know, thank you to everyone who listens to this podcast.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Because you're getting agree number one.

[Jason Moore]

You understand.

[Mike Wright]

Just an overall gratitude. Hey, thanks for listening. But like we, we talked about this on yesterday's show that Trey. There was some weird bonus practice that is not normal. And Trey Benson wasn't there because I tweeted out there was an article from AZ Central. That's our local hub. And they were the ones in the article who put out it might end up being Michael Carter instead of D. Markado. And I saw, I post this, you know, because it was breaking news of we had talked about D. Markado and my replies were just like, what are you talking about? Trey Benson. No one's saying that Trey Benson's hurt.

[Jason Moore]

And we're like, yes, that's the point.

[Mike Wright]

Like, I'm giving you news. And they're like, none of the fantasy things. Say that he's hurt.

[Andy Holloway]

Like, okay, what was the voice again, though?

[Mike Wright]

It was very. It's very Liam Cohen.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, okay. Very similar to get my name out your mouth. Yeah. So last year Jason alluded to it, like in the two games that Michael Carter started in week 17 and 18. So you probably didn't even pay attention to it. You know, we had 15 opportunities, 21 opportunities, and Arizona has a matchup against Tennessee this week that seems like it would be a heavy run oriented situation, maybe salting things away in the second half.

[Mike Wright]

And again, we still don't know what's going on with Trey Benson. But the point is you have to be prepared for these situations. You don't want Friday to pop up and you're like, oh, Trey Benson has a practice all week and then someone else beats you to the wire.

[Andy Holloway]

All that being said, the other side of the coin that we haven't talked about is like, if Trey Benson was active, how confident do you feel in Trey Benson with all of this injury news? And is that more dependent on the end of week practices?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I got it. We got to get more.

[Andy Holloway]

It feels a little nerve wracking sometimes when you have these guys that are like, even Lamar this week, they're saying, Lamar is going to try to play.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, no.

[Andy Holloway]

And so then you're like, well, okay, I always play Lamar. And that's probably going to be my advice.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

But then how much does he run? Like, do you. It's like when Tucker Kraft played through the injury and you're like, oh, crap, I have to play him. But then you Kind of knew the numbers would be lower.

[Jason Moore]

It's scary, too, because, like, with Lamar, it's a hamstring, which is like, okay, maybe we don't get the rushing yardage, but whatever. The dude threw for 4540, you know, or, you know, 40 touchdowns last year. So, you know, he could do it from the pocket, but what he can also do is exit the game early. He can go out there and have a good run, and all of a sudden you got one fantasy point. So the floor is. The floor is basically zero when you're starting Lamar. But speaking of Trey Benson, before we move off of that, one thing that I mean is kind of good news in his injury. I was so furious with the end of game management from the Arizona Cardinals. As a Cardinals fan and as a fantasy analyst.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

And the fact that at the end of the game, when they needed to score, the. Trey Benson was not on the field. I was. I was so angry. I was like, why are you running out there with Amari dmicardo, who scored, who scored? I get it. But that you still got to put your best players out to have your best odds of scoring. And it turned out that he was hurt.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So maybe that gives me hope for, you know, the rest of the season that Trey Benson is maybe in apologize. No, not yet.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

No, probably never. You know who else doesn't apologize? My pick, Bill Krauski.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so you're back up.

[Jason Moore]

Never apologize because he's never been wrong.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, fair enough.

[Jason Moore]

Doesn't have a backspace on his keyboard. He's never made a mistake.

[Andy Holloway]

I like that. I do. I like that.

[Jason Moore]

But he's been very disappointing. People are dropping him. He was in one of the, you know, he was one of those players you talked about are on the most dropped list right now, and I think that's a mistake. Keep in mind he got off to a good week one start because he had that touchdown. But he wasn't. He wasn't like a starter in training camp. You know what I mean? Like, Brian Robinson was there the entire camp right up until like a week before, you know, preseason was over. And then he had a little bit of time, and now as he's working his way into becoming a starter. Well, he missed practice this week. He was limited participant in practice. We weren't even sure he was going to play this week. Still ended up with two targets. So I'm not like. I am. I'm not dropping Bill. If I saw him on waivers, I would pick him up. And I want to throw one other name out that I've. Jaden Blue needs to be on your.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Needs to be on, you know, the possible pickup. Jaden Blue is a rookie running back for the Dallas Cowboys who has not played yet.

[Mike Wright]

He's inactive.

[Jason Moore]

He's been inactive. He had some hype during the off season during training camp, and Schottenheimer came out and said that he's getting really close to being active. Like he might start. He might be on the roster this week, and Miles Sanders hurt his ankle. And while he's trending towards being able to play this week, there's. There's a chance that Jaden Blue is just straight up the backup to Javante Williams.

[Andy Holloway]

Who. Kyle, are you with us this morning? I am, and I'm going to try to read your mind. Okay, go for it. No, I have no idea. What are you going to. What I was going to bring up is that, you know, when Sean Tucker's name came up this week.

[Jason Moore]

What just happened?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know. I would have been amazing because, look, when Sean Tucker's name came up this week, that's the second name from a list that Jason provided on our top 10 tips and tricks show. And it was like, these three guys are going to win your league. What were the names on that? Do you remember?

[Mike Wright]

It was Trey Benson.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so Trey Benson, Sean Tucker. I think the other one was now hurt. Will Shipley. Will Shipley's back. Yeah, you read my mind, Kyle. Amazing. But look, two of those names are already relevant and we're four weeks into the season.

[Mike Wright]

Well, we do have another update. Oh, Bucks still are not ruling Bucky Irving out for Sunday. Bull said we'll see if he's out of the boot by Friday.

[Jason Moore]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, this is.

[Mike Wright]

We'll see.

[Andy Holloway]

It'll be interesting.

[Jason Moore]

I will say that no matter what, I'm starting Rashad White this week. Rashad, we saw a game where last year, Bucky Irving was mummified leaving the game. Remember, just wrapped in Ace bandages and ice. He was. He got so much work, and the following week he was active because he's tough and he was there. I think he played like two snaps.

[Mike Wright]

It was.

[Jason Moore]

It was very low. So I would not. I'd be worried about starting Bucky.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Mike, you have a backup option at the defensive position that you want to flag for people.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, the DST position. It does matter. I mean, especially this year. It's been wild with the. With the field goal blocks and defensive scores and punt returns and everything.

[Andy Holloway]

A.

[Mike Wright]

Pay attention to the New England Patriots DST because they are playing Buffalo and they may currently they're available in half of leagues what we're seeing 45% and that could become even more as they face Buffalo and people aren't going to. I'm not playing New England against Buffalo. Of course not. However, after that they have the easiest upcoming schedule for dsts. We're talking the Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons, like all all in a row. Then Tampa Bay. Maybe you don't want to do that. But then you get the jets, the Bengals and the Giants like the the run coming up for for that DST as they are getting healthier is a team.

[Jason Moore]

It's a good stash.

[Mike Wright]

The schedule is so good that we're saying, hey, it's the middle of year, you might want to go stash this DST not to play them against Buffalo.

[Andy Holloway]

Super smart. All right. That was backup options sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote [e-mail].

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league presented by Progressive Insurance.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we talked about Lamar Jackson likely to miss this week. It would be Cooper Rush. If it is Cooper Rush. Let me ask you a simple follow up question. How do you feel about Zay Flowers? How do you feel about Hunter or I almost said Hunter Henry, Derek Henry, who's on the block in our league of records? Hunter Henry is not the player. Derek Henry is the player.

[Mike Wright]

I feel honestly perfectly fine about both. Like Cooper Rush, Zay Flowers was having an okay ish day and like and then he actually ended up with a good day.

[Andy Holloway]

He did have a good day after.

[Mike Wright]

Cooper Rush came in. I mean there should be. You don't have to worry about the Lamar scrambles, you know, with Cooper Rush, at least the amount of course. And so I'm still good playing Zay Flowers. And you have to imagine the game plan where they don't have Lamar is a big, big dose of Derek Daniel.

[Andy Holloway]

If Lamar doesn't play, how do you play him the following week with the bye week, the week after?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, you're saying to the Ravens.

[Andy Holloway]

To the Ravens.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

If he does miss this week, which seems the most likely, I'll tell you.

[Jason Moore]

How you play him next week.

[Andy Holloway]

You're one and four.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I'm not worried at all about Derek Henry. I do worry a little bit more about Zay Flowers simply because of the matchup. I feel like the Houston Texans are kind of a run funnel. They're not a terrible run defense, but they've got a very good pass Rush. Good. You know, right now they've given up the second fewest points to fantasy quarterbacks. And I think in this matchup, they are going to really focus on, let's have Derek Henry win this game. And I think he can in that matchup.

[Andy Holloway]

You realize I was going to make this my almost subset. You realize they're favored in Baltimore.

[Jason Moore]

That Baltimore is favorite.

[Andy Holloway]

Nope.

[Jason Moore]

The Texans.

[Andy Holloway]

What I'm seeing in front of me.

[Mike Wright]

No way.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Houston minus one and a half. Whoa. Once it moved five points once Lamar was ruled, I would.

[Jason Moore]

I would take Baltimore with Cooper Rush.

[Andy Holloway]

You shouldn't. You don't think he's going to win that game.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

They cannot score enough on offense.

[Jason Moore]

That's not true.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, they're not favored. I've got a bunch of smarmy bookmakers agreeing with me right now. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, I would. I don't like being on the other side of the books.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Like, I love when my opinion is like yours right now and backed up by the books because they're usually right. But my opinion is very much that Derek Henry can go and eat this team for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[Andy Holloway]

I think Houston's defense is very good. Yeah. And I think if you have no threat or don't feel the threat of Lamar, it could be. It could be an interesting game. I can't make it an almost upset because it wouldn't be an upset. You could make them the upset.

[Jason Moore]

They would be my almost upset.

[Andy Holloway]

Dylan Gabriel will start week five against the Vikings. The Browns finally making the move.

[Jason Moore]

You've been calling for this forever and not because you think that Gabriel is great, but you have come to the conclusion that Flacco cannot get it done.

[Andy Holloway]

Which Flacco has been getting one of the worst quarterbacks in football this year. He. The offense cannot score points. They can't. They have a great running back now. They still can't score points. And I'm finally putting the blame at his feet. I love Joe Flacco. He had an amazing career. He's now 41, I think, and leading the league in turnovers, throwing two picks a week. Statuesque in the pocket, easy to sack. He's the best. Like, if you're a defensive end, you're like, yes, I got Joe Flacco over there. Dylan Gabriel is more of a tactician. I think he'll be able to complete some easy passes, lean on the running game and get outside the pocket if he has to. It's better for the Browns.

[Mike Wright]

To me, I'm okay with them giving it a good college try here.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, this is my almost upset then. Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Do tell.

[Andy Holloway]

The Vikings are four and a half point road favorites at Cleveland.

[Mike Wright]

Well, because they're both on the road.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Which brings me to my next point. London get wrecked. Enjoy your Carson Wentz, Dylan Gabriel game. This is what you get.

[Jason Moore]

What did London do?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, we know what they did.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you're talking long ago.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

What did London do?

[Mike Wright]

Come on.

[Andy Holloway]

So quickly. We forget.

[Jason Moore]

I apologize.

[Mike Wright]

Do we need to throw more tea?

[Andy Holloway]

Are you the king's man?

[Mike Wright]

Goodness.

[Jason Moore]

This weekend I'm going to New York. We're not going to Old York. Who cares about that?

[Andy Holloway]

You are.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. We're all on board.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. You're going to tour all the great sites from the Revolution right there.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

They're over the over under. The over under is 35 and a half points.

[Andy Holloway]

Can I. I can take this. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

Right? Oh, sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Four and a half point.

[Mike Wright]

Go ahead.

[Jason Moore]

Andy's almost upset of the wake.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't want this to sound inappropriate, but it's gonna.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

I can't wait to hear it.

[Mike Wright]

This is a family show.

[Andy Holloway]

Carson Wentz, Miles Garrett is going to be inside you.

[Mike Wright]

Like a tauntaun.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. Thank you, Mike. Thank you so much. The offensive line, he's going where you.

[Mike Wright]

Like a sleeping bag.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, he is going to be. It's not. You're going to have him in your nightmares.

[Mike Wright]

He's going to wear your skin and put some.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, my gosh. That's. That's why I'm going Browns. All right. Cedric Tillman's on injured reserve. Jason isn't going to be tempted anymore.

[Mike Wright]

You've been. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

You've been protected from yourself.

[Andy Holloway]

We already talked about Bucky and Benson. Braylon Allen, MCL sprain, injured reserve, likely. It is. And this is the fantasy football reality. Terrible for Braylon Allen, obviously. It is very good for Breeze Hall. I mean, like Breeze hall is. You saw it in the game. Breeze hall got taken off the field for a touchdown opportunity. He has so much work in the passing game. Like Breeze hall with his games with Justin Fields. Like Justin Fields in the pocket is comical. He's going to look at. Here's what he does. Look at Garrett Wilson look to run, then look at Breeze hall look to run. That's the offense.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean, it is. It is really good for Breece Hall. You know, Isaiah Davis will be involved deep leagues.

[Mike Wright]

You need to know the name Isaiah Davis.

[Jason Moore]

But unlike Braylon Allen, Isaiah Davis is not going to impact Breeze Hall. Isaiah Davis is an insurance option for. If Breece hall goes down. Isaiah Davis will not have a massive impact on Breeze Hall.

[Mike Wright]

I think he'll get more opportunities than you want. I think he'll be.

[Jason Moore]

I want him to have zero. So you have five.

[Mike Wright]

I think he'll be over 10.

[Andy Holloway]

You could be. There were a lot of times he was in that game. I'm like, dang it.

[Mike Wright]

He was. He was at five last week.

[Andy Holloway]

Jaden. Jaden Daniels.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Got the clearance.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Doctors and will be a full go for the commanders in practice.

[Mike Wright]

Finally, some good news.

[Andy Holloway]

So barring a setback, Jaden Daniels will be returning to action. I don't think we have any other news. Do we, have we been. Is the show canceled? No, the show's still here.

[Jason Moore]

But no new news right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. That was news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third party insurers not available in all states or situations. Coverage of subjects, policy, terms, limits and conditions. We'll take a break and we'll talk about Thursday.

[Mike Wright]

Today's show is brought to you by our friends at indeed. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. With Indeed sponsored jobs, there are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts and you only pay for Results. Join the 3.5 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. We this might surprise you because I know we do a goofy podcast but we, we run a business and we, we understand getting qualified people into jobs to help you out, help grow your business. It's important and you have to find the right people and it can be incredibly difficult. And that's what indeed. That's the problem that they're here to solve. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility at indeed.comfootballers just go to indeed.comfootballers right now and support our show by saying you heard about it on Indeed. On this podcast, Indeed.com footballers terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.

[Jason Moore]

This is an ad by BetterHelp. Who do you go to in order to solve your life's problems? The group chat over sharing with strangers. Maybe you don't have that perfect someone great with advice. That's where BetterHelp comes in. They've been around for over a decade, helped millions and out of 1.7 million client reviews they've got a 4.9 rating. BetterHelp has qualified and experienced counselors that meet localized standards for counselor vetting and care delivery. They do the initial matching work for you so that you can focus on your goals. A short questionnaire helps you identify your needs and your preferences, and you can switch to a different counselor at any time. Completely online. You can pause your subscription whenever you need to. BetterHelp is HITRUST certified and complies with GDPR standards, which means they meet some of the highest global standards for data protection. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of experience. Find the one with BetterHelp, our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com footballers that's betterhelph e l-p.com footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we never go very long without football. Thursday night football coming up. It's going to be the 49ers and Rams. Let's get into it.

[Jason Moore]

Thursday night breakdown.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, it wouldn't be a 49er ball game without talking about a myriad of injuries.

[Mike Wright]

A.

[Andy Holloway]

No Brock Purdy in practice. No Ricky Pierce Law in practice. No Joanne Jennings in practice. For Tuesday's walkthrough, you'd think that you could do the walk through.

[Jason Moore]

You think you but you still need toes to walk and in fact it's one of the most important parts of walking. Your foot is probably the Most important part.

[Andy Holloway]

49Ers 3 and 1 the Rams 3 and 1 Vegas line Los Angeles Rams -6 and a half the over under is 46 and a half. Is there some is this just respective of how good the Rams have been or is this a little bit of baked in Brock Purdy issue?

[Jason Moore]

That's I interpret this as Brock Purdy fears. I mean we are, you know, when you're not participating at all two days before game, it's not that he can't play or won't play, but that it's.

[Andy Holloway]

More of a limp through. He participated in the Olympic.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean it's a sign that maybe he really can't go. Obviously he's already missed games this season for this injury and you know he we don't. We don't know for sure who the quarterback is going to be. And if Brock Purdy starts the game, we still don't know who the quarterback that finishes the game is. So I think that's where the line is moved.

[Mike Wright]

There does seem to be a recent post here of Mac Jones talking to the press. Mac Jones saying the Rams have the number one defense in the league that he can't wait to go against them.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, did he let something slip?

[Mike Wright]

I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Is he just going to rip it?

[Mike Wright]

Mac Jones?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's what he said.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he always does.

[Andy Holloway]

He's going to rip it.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, the. The healthy quarterback always talks to the press. So maybe that. Maybe this is our answer.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Brock pretty very, very questionable. And then if Mac Jones plays, you've got a. Re. Injured Ricky Pierce.

[Mike Wright]

All you have Mac Jones who was.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Mac Jones was hurt. Juwan Jennings also hurt. It's not. It's like CMC is alone.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Play quarterback. Play. Just have him play. Honestly, Ronnie Brown style. Wildcat.

[Jason Moore]

It's. It's one of the. It's. It's kind of crazy to think. I bet he could do it. I think Tonjas McBasketball might be a decent play. I mean, they just. They don't have anybody to throw the ball to. They use the tight end position. Last week he was 3 for 58 and a touchdown. We've seen a couple, you know, when. The week one. You know, if Mac Jones is there, I feel less good about it, but they've got to throw the ball somewhere and they just. They're injured everywhere.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I do think Ton just. I did look at him a little bit as a. As an emergency start at tight end on the other side of the ball. Kyron, you play in Puka. Unbelievable. Most receptions through the first four games of a season incredibly tied with what Cooper cup did in 2022 with the same quarterback. It's like a repeat season going on right now. And Michael Thomas in 2018. So first read targets according to fantasy points. 48 for Puka. Nakua next highest is 34.

[Mike Wright]

Puka is.

[Jason Moore]

Unbelievable.

[Andy Holloway]

The best players.

[Jason Moore]

34 is the second most targets. And Puka is at first.

[Andy Holloway]

At first read, the best players in football at the wide receiver position, tight end position. They are the ones where they're like, as a fan, you're like, how are they open again? How's the defense not just stop that guy? How does that. How do you not just go in and say, I'm gonna put three dudes on him?

[Jason Moore]

You watch Justin Jefferson open all the time, Always. Maybe guard that guy. But they're trying.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, they are trying.

[Jason Moore]

It's that guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's the dude.

[Mike Wright]

So they would have. I mean, then they heard us screaming from behind the television. They're like, oh, that's what we're supposed to do.

[Jason Moore]

You're welcome.

[Andy Holloway]

Devonte Adams on pace for 150 targets. You play him?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, for sure.

[Andy Holloway]

So pretty simple on that side. Like some people thinking about toying with Stafford as a. As a streaming quarterback option. He was the number two quarterback last week. He's not normally there.

[Jason Moore]

That was that 22 Atwell 93 touchdowns bomb touchdown.

[Mike Wright]

Stafford is one of the strangest quarterbacks in football for our purposes of being so incredibly good, having two wide receivers that are dominant for fantasy football. I don't want to play Stafford.

[Jason Moore]

Well, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Philip Rivers from days of old, sure, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

At the end of the year he'll, he'll finish. Okay. But on a weekly basis he's not going to help you win games. He's completed 72% of his passes. 70% of his passes, 71% of his passes. He's had three touchdowns, two touchdowns, two touchdowns. And he's not usually good for fantasy. And the reason why is because his rushing yards so far on the season are negative.

[Mike Wright]

1.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you know his total rushing yard? The price picks projection on Matthew Stafford if you went for his rushing yards? Because I looked at it this week, it's 0.5.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I don't know if I want the less or more on that.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, considering you would have lost three out of four weeks.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Negative 2. Negative 6, 0.

[Andy Holloway]

Negative 0.4 on the year. Crazy per game average. I will ask one more follow up on the 49er side just based on the running the wide receiver situation if you have to. Like if Joanne Jennings, Ricky Pearsall, they'll be limited if they play. Do you take a shot on a Bourne or Robinson or anybody else?

[Mike Wright]

I don't. I wanted to be able to do that with DeMarcus Robinson.

[Andy Holloway]

He only ran 13 rounds last year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I wonder if it's a little.

[Andy Holloway]

Bit of a. I mean you got.

[Mike Wright]

To shake the rust off. He'll be more involved this week, but I don't.

[Jason Moore]

Trey Benson. Oh, no way baby. We gotta push a button here.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Breaking news. Trey Benson is being placed on injured reserve due to his knee injury. So Mike, apologize now. I will never apologize. I mean I love that you just dunked on people being like dude, you, you don't know what you're talking about with this possible Trey Benson.

[Andy Holloway]

So back to back weeks we have Connor and then Benson down for.

[Mike Wright]

Dude, that's so brutal.

[Andy Holloway]

I am now thinking about the person who lost him in our league of record.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Oh, he has lost.

[Andy Holloway]

Malik Neighbors.

[Jason Moore]

Oh no.

[Andy Holloway]

Joe Burrow, James Conner and I don't know what you call like I've been referring to the Jamar Chase situation as basically an injury.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

It's an injury of the.

[Mike Wright]

It's almost.

[Jason Moore]

You've lost worse and it is almost worse. Like I was like, what do you.

[Mike Wright]

Do with Jamar Chase?

[Jason Moore]

I have not lost as much losing CD Lamb because I've put other players in. You know, I was like, okay, I'll start. Pittman.

[Andy Holloway]

What an incredible amount of time we spent talking about Trey Benson before we got this news today.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, at least we got it on the show. And oh my gosh, congrats.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, Michael Carter.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. DiMarcado and Carter are both going to be involved.

[Jason Moore]

So we will need more news to know exactly what the Trey Benson knee injury is right now. I haven't heard if it's mcl, pcl, whatever it is, whether this is like, okay, he's going to miss a month. But now that you're going on injury reserve, you know, it's a long term injury.

[Mike Wright]

It's the shefty DID update said he is expected to return.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Four games.

[Mike Wright]

He'll miss the four games.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Look, I would bet my life that Michael Carter gets more carries than Demarcato. So whatever you want to take with that. You want the passing game work. You know, Kyler, that should be. Kyler needs to run more. He's running out of running backs. That would be nice. Wow. Breaking news there. Trey Benson. Man, that Cardinals offense. Did you, did you listen to the blobfish?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

And for those who don't know the blob fish is Drew Petzing, the office of coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals. And yet we'll let you.

[Andy Holloway]

Pretty disrespectful.

[Jason Moore]

It's.

[Andy Holloway]

In hindsight, it was a. As is his offensive play calls.

[Mike Wright]

It was a disrespectful nickname that was kept in private. But it is. It no longer.

[Jason Moore]

It's too good.

[Mike Wright]

No. Now that we're at the point that we beat our chest and we stand behind what they're doing.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you hear his comments? This is his comments. He said that he evaluates whether the offense played well is whether they scored more points than the other team.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Which is. Which undeniably is not the way that you should be evaluating that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Because I understand if you win 13 to 10, you're like, oh, cool, we won.

[Mike Wright]

Does he factor in defensive scores?

[Jason Moore]

Because that's great. Because the Cardinals, when we lost the other game, we scored two points from our defense.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

He's like, well, we're two. We've done it twice and we didn't do it twice. Mike is. Mike can't handle the blobfish. I'll tell you that right now.

[Mike Wright]

It.

[Andy Holloway]

How do these.

[Mike Wright]

How do these people maintain their jobs like these?

[Jason Moore]

To be honest, they don't. These don't for long.

[Andy Holloway]

There are a lot of other ways to measure an offense, right?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Than just. Did you score more than the other team? Yeah, it's like, did you score more than like. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

What an idiotic thing to say.

[Andy Holloway]

More than the bottom third of the game.

[Mike Wright]

The defense could have turned the ball over on the five and then you get a touchdown. You're like, look how great our offense is. Get out of here.

[Jason Moore]

It's ridiculous. That's. You cannot evaluate an offense that way. In fact, a couple years ago, we saw this with the Philadelphia Eagles. They were undefeated. I think they were seven. And, oh, they were doing great coming off of a Super bowl loss. Defense playing great, but their offense looked bad. Like their defense was.

[Andy Holloway]

Did they come out and say that their offense was amazing? Because that's what petsing would have been.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, it was like, you saw it and you were like this offense. And honestly, it's what's happening right now again with the Eagles where you're watching the offense, you're going, okay, I know you're winning, but your offense looks really bad.

[Andy Holloway]

No, Mike, don't watch the video. It'll get you. It'll put you in the state of mind that Jason was in on. On Monday.

[Jason Moore]

You don't want that.

[Mike Wright]

I got to meditate, man.

[Andy Holloway]

It's good for the ratings. Apparently.

[Jason Moore]

Some breathing.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we're going to jump into the mailbag.

[Jason Moore]

Mailbag. Presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV.

[Andy Holloway]

If you've got a question for the show, it's easy. Go to the Website V. Fantasy footballers.com Click the submit a question button. Or you can dial the voicemail hotline. 302464, TFFB. Let's jump in with a voicemail question to kick it off.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, footballers, Dylan here. I was calling because I'm really into Judkins. I wanted to know what you would be willing to give up for him. And in that line, who would you rather have, Kenneth Walker or Judkins rest of season?

[Andy Holloway]

Thanks. That's. That's a pretty easy Judkins for me.

[Mike Wright]

I think it's fair, man. It's probably. So it's a Judkins versus Ken Walker, rest of season. It might be Judkins. Yeah, I think it's very, very close.

[Jason Moore]

It would be Judkins for me. I'm looking at our rest of season rankings and I've got him ahead.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll take a quick break and jump into the rest of the mailbag.

[Jason Moore]

Lowe's Nose Sundays are for football, so tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on Cobalt power tools, Pit boss grills, LG appliances and more. Then once your to do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax and enjoy the game. Shop in store or online now and earn your sundae with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. Uncrustables are the best part of the sandwich. They're the perfect grab and go for all of life's moments with unbeatably soft bread and a variety of flavors like peanut butter and grape jelly, peanut butter and strawberry jam, peanut butter and raspberry spread and more. No mess, no prep. Just thaw and eat. Get them in the freezer aisle today.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, our next question comes from Brady starts it Question Start Jordan Mason against that Cleveland defense in England or quinch on Judkins against the Minnesota defense in the same game. So another Judkins question. Mason, Judkins, what are you doing, man?

[Mike Wright]

The Dylan Gabriel variable is it does matter. I mean, Joe Flacco has been bad, but I still think that defense has paid attention and if they feel like if Gabriel is the quarterback they can just fully sell out to stop the run, that could be. It could be an issue for Judge.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, haven't they done that the last two weeks? They've done that for Joe Flacco. You don't need to stop Joe Flacco.

[Jason Moore]

And also the Cleveland Browns rush defense is. Yeah, they're the number one in the league and they have shut down.

[Andy Holloway]

It's not like just went ham on Minnesota.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, they have not been good rush defense, easy Judkins. For me, Mason is. He's not a must bench, but he is an absolute. This week I'm looking at my roster and I'm saying, do I have someone else to put in? Because if I do, I'm going to throw in a, you know, a Cam scatter boo. I'm going to throw in guys who haven't necessarily been as good as Mason so far, but they shut down the Detroit Lions, they shut down the packers and Josh Jacobs, they shut down Derek Henry. Like so far people are not doing well against the Cleveland Browns.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I have. I have Judkins higher for the week.

[Andy Holloway]

Drew in Illinois. Hey Ballers, I'm having a rough bye week and going to have to start at least one of these Nasty Boys in the flex this week. Please pick one of the following for full ppr. Ready for the Nasty Boys, Travis Hunter. Key Malik Washington, Harold Fannin. I know that if I had those guys on my roster, I would start Malik Washington. That's what I would do.

[Jason Moore]

I feel like he's in third place for me.

[Mike Wright]

The ppr Gabriel, man, that matters. If it was Joe Flacco, it would be an easy.

[Andy Holloway]

Travis Hunter isn't even starting right.

[Mike Wright]

He's playing very limited snaps. They seem very confused on how to use them right now.

[Jason Moore]

They do seem confused, but if. If last game is any indication, they basically stopped playing him on defense of the second half and they moved him to basically just be an offense towards the end of that game.

[Mike Wright]

Still a halftime, but on the game it was still like half.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, yeah. By the end of the game, still 56% of.

[Andy Holloway]

So wait, what's your order then? I go Malik Washington, Harold Fan and Travis Hunter.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to go Fan and Hunter Washington.

[Mike Wright]

I think Malik's at the top for me, so I'm with Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we'll jump into a voicemail.

[Jason Moore]

What's up, ballers? This is Josh from New York. I am in a dynasty super flex league. So this is a real question that I'm facing. Would you start Jake Browning or Cooper Rush? Love the show.

[Andy Holloway]

Bye. Cooper Rush.

[Mike Wright]

Who's Browning play?

[Andy Holloway]

Doesn't matter.

[Jason Moore]

Could be your grandmother. Could be your grandma. He plays against the Detroit Lions.

[Andy Holloway]

He scored five fantasy points two games in a row. If he was. If he's playing Alabama this week, I'd play Cooper Rush.

[Jason Moore]

What about when he was. The last time we saw him as a starter? I just want to remind us, because he played two of the best defenses in the league and he's got a tough defense. I'm not playing Jake Browning this week, but I do think after this week it will open up for him. We saw him start seven games back in 2023. He was the quarterback. Four quarterback, four quarterback, eight quarterback 21 quarterback, eight quarterback, nine. He's not going to score five fantasy points every time.

[Andy Holloway]

No, but I. The last time we saw him play was actually the last few weeks and those are the ones I care about.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm just saying those also were great defenses.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm going either.

[Jason Moore]

Either way. It's Cooper Rush this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's. He might have forgotten how to do the football thing.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, that, that. That has to be one of your interpretations, right? He's forgotten how to do the football thing is one answer to why it's been so, so bad. Now I will say this. In 2023, there's no way that their offensive line was as bad as it is right now. And so that's going to, that's going to happen the rest of this season. Their bad defenses might look good against them.

[Andy Holloway]

This is a good question. Start sit from YouTube Matthew writes in would you rather start Bo Nix against Philadelphia in Philly or Daniel Jones at home against the Las Vegas Raiders? Because Bo Nicks had a good week but Phillies a tough matchup. You've seen him flounder at times.

[Mike Wright]

I think Bo Nix is going to be.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you playing him? Are you playing them this week?

[Mike Wright]

No, because I'm playing Justin Fields against Dallas.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh yeah, that seems like a good thing.

[Mike Wright]

The Dallas matchup makes that easy. But like Bo Nix is not a abandoned at all costs this week, but Daniel Jones is, I think a better option this week.

[Jason Moore]

I think that's well said. You don't have to bench Bo Nix, but Daniel Jones looks like he's got more upside and a safer path.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you, you, you got to remember last week one of the worst looking matchups was a talented Dak Prescott against a top tier defense without his top wide receiver. You know, sometimes things work out and sometimes, you know, you have to come back in a game and you're throwing the ball all over the place. And so Bo Nix is. They're a good enough offense where I don't think they're going to completely collapse. Who do you prefer rest of season? We just got the Braylon Allen news. James writes in says Breece Hall. Okay, Travis etn. Who would you rather have rest of the season?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, wow.

[Andy Holloway]

We know, we know that the schedule had been pretty good for etn, but then he had another big game. He's played very, very well. Breeze hall does not have Braylon Allen to contend with Kansas City, Seattle, the.

[Mike Wright]

Rams the next three weeks. We talked about ETN on the Dynasty pod.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Of pointing out like not. I don't want to take anything away from Travis ETN or what the Jags have done, but the, they played Carolina, the Bengals, Houston and San Francisco like this. This happens every year in fantasy football. Someone starts out real hot and because we don't have the, we don't have enough knowledge to know which ones are the defenses. And then you look back when, when a player falls off and you go, oh well, they started with at what turned out to be more cupcake matches this Year and the next three are very, very tough for etn.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean, San Francisco's a pretty good defense.

[Mike Wright]

They're okay.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. And he torched them, so I don't think it's going to be terrible. I have both these guys in my dynasty league. They're my running back, 2 and 3, and I would prefer Breeze Hall.

[Mike Wright]

That's where I am as well.

[Jason Moore]

Hopefully. You know, they're both great. Yeah, exactly. Hopefully they're both great. But if I had to pick one, especially without Braylon Allen, it's Breeze.

[Andy Holloway]

Instagram Trade question from Ramir. Is CD Lamb for Amari and Hampton a fair trade?

[Mike Wright]

If you really need a running back, I wouldn't do it.

[Andy Holloway]

You wouldn't do it if you had cd?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I'd be totally fine. I thought it was actually the other side that you.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, really?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Because I value running backs more than wide receivers and I think Hampton's a potential top 5, 6, 7 back the rest of the season. And you miss. You get games that you're not going to have. So I actually, based on that conversation, super fair trade.

[Jason Moore]

Sure, fair trade.

[Andy Holloway]

Two people to agree on who wins.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, exactly. I don't think it is completely unfair. I'd be on the CD Lamb side.

[Andy Holloway]

What's funny is, would you trade Justin Jefferson for. Same question. Justin Jefferson for Amari and Hampton?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I would do that.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean. And Jefferson's healthy, so. And was drafted higher than cd. Yeah, some leagues.

[Jason Moore]

But you see the quarterback play difference. I'm still.

[Mike Wright]

Dak is playing so, so, so well.

[Jason Moore]

I'm still so excited for my CD Lamb, Dak Stack that I'm, you know, I'm not. I'm not moving off of that. I know it's been tough sledding and you got to get through this injury, but, I mean, we just saw it with Dak and George Pickens last week. There's going to be potential outputs that are like when Deck and CD a couple of years ago won people their leagues. It's not going to be Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow anymore. So if you like, who's the best stack to have by the end of this year, you know, it's not Stafford and Puka because Stafford doesn't end up finishing usually great for.

[Andy Holloway]

It's not an argument against CD Lamb, it's an argument for Omarion Hampton, who's been a top, I mean, RB6, RB5 last two weeks. And it's only going to get better, I think. Man, do you. Do you realize the snap Count for.

[Mike Wright]

Hampton last week, I would imagine it was 80. Probably higher.

[Andy Holloway]

90 lower. Okay, 89.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. He is the Naji absence. Big, big workload.

[Andy Holloway]

YouTube question from Jacob. What is Bill worth in a Dynasty league?

[Mike Wright]

Less than he was a couple of weeks ago.

[Jason Moore]

Well, and also, I would say not that much. I would. I like Bill more. It's so funny for a player like this to exist, but I prefer the rookie more in Redraft than I do in Dynasty, which. That's a rare thing. Usually a rookie is even more valuable in Dynasty. You got a long career ahead of him. But this is. We talk about it all the time with guys that break out on day three or later undrafted, they're usually replaced in their career. You know, maybe Bill Crosby can end up being incredible and just he takes over the role by the end of the year and they double down and say, you're our Bucky Irving and you're going to be our future. That is in the range of outcomes. That is not my expected outcome here. I think this team is desperate for a running back and next year they're going to, either on the free agent market or in the draft, invest in a running back. That will make him irrelevant.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you start Crystal Lava against the Giants or Ella IO Manor against Arizona? That would be Olave for me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I would start Olava.

[Mike Wright]

Olave is getting incredible volume that the Puka stat. The player of first read targets. The guy who was tied for second is Chris Olave.

[Jason Moore]

Olave's on pace for 182.

[Mike Wright]

These are not super valuable targets, but yeah, they're thrown.

[Jason Moore]

They're thrown by a snake.

[Andy Holloway]

It's because. Well, it's becoming his thing. It's actually becoming who Chris Olave is. Because you were at 5.7 a catch last year. You're at 6.7 a catch this year. This is now the. This is the new Crystal Lave to some degree. And a part of it is like you said, it's. It's. It's Spencer Rattler or I think it.

[Mike Wright]

Was a Derek Carr Spencer Rattler combination.

[Andy Holloway]

But it's also like you've seen this. I mean, there becomes a point in certain players careers where they're not the downfield guy anymore. You know, you have much better downfield players. Rasheed Shahid is a better downfield player. That's fine than Chris Olave.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I can agree with that.

[Jason Moore]

I think the area of the field where Olave is very good and is not good with the current quarterback situation is not the deep shot, but the mid range, you know the middle level, that 15 yard reception where I think he can thrive and I don't think the quarterback can can get it to him right now.

[Andy Holloway]

That was today's mailbag. Watch every game every Sunday with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Visit YouTube.com fantasy footballers local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games. Base plan required Excludes digital only games. Commercial use excluded no refunds. Do we get any other injury news to end the show? Any other players placed on season ending IR that I need to worry about?

[Mike Wright]

No sir.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, let's make sure that backup options that Michael Carter like that this news for everybody came out after their waiver wires went through so he's going to be competed for tomorrow if nobody picked him up. So make sure you do that and we will catch you tomorrow. With starts of the week. Breaking down the matchups for week five, we'll get into our first bi weeks of the season and make sure you check the community out jointhefoot.com, we'd love to have you.

[Mike Wright]

Goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

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. These days you've got two choices. Buying a new car or making the one you've got run like new. We know which one we choose. That's why at Firestone Complete autocare we have thousands of ASE certified technicians nationwide trained to spot an issue with your car before it becomes a problem. No matter the make or model, get more out of your car. Firestone Complete Auto Care call or go [e-mail] to book today.

[Mike Wright]

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