5 Moves You Need to Make Week Ahead Of Week 2 (Ep. 1695)

Summary

FantasyPros Fantasy Football Podcast Episode Summary

Episode: 5 Moves You Need to Make Ahead Of Week 2 (Ep. 1695)
Date: September 9, 2025
Hosts: Ryan and Tara Roberts
Theme: Essential actionable moves to give fantasy managers a strategic edge heading into Week 2, focusing on trades, waivers, and handcuff strategies for standard leagues.

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Episode Overview

Ryan and Tara Roberts break down their immediate reactions to the Week 1 slate and deliver five key moves fantasy football managers should consider ahead of Week 2. Their advice targets standard redraft leagues (think half-PPR) and avoids advice specific to deep, premium, or highly specialized league formats. The show aims to be concise, actionable, and grounded in both week-one performances and broader seasonal outlooks.

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The Five Moves to Make This Week

1. Sell High on Travis Kelce (Sell Move)

Timestamp: 01:55

• Tara’s analysis: Despite the depleted Chiefs receiving group (Rashee Rice suspended, Xavier Worthy hurt), Kelce’s usage and performance in Week 1 raise concerns.
  • He salvaged his fantasy day with a touchdown, but was only targeted 4 times and secured just 2 receptions.
  • Last season, Kelce experienced a decline in touchdowns (3 last year, 5 the season before), with year-over-year reductions in yardage and scores.
  • Tara believes his perceived opportunity makes him a perfect sell-high in the wake of injuries around him, as managers may overestimate his 2025 value.
  • There’s depth at tight end and viable streaming options.
• Quote:

  "Sell Travis Kelce. ... This might be the peak value to kind of swoop in and catch people when they're thinking there's going to be this massive increase in target." — Tara (01:58)

• Ryan’s reaction:
  • Easy to “sell” the case to opposing managers due to Chiefs’ desperate depth and the allure of Kelce as a high-volume option.
  • Use the perception of him as a “PPR monster” to your benefit.

  "It will be very easy to ... sell the upside case for him ... because of what you talked about with the, you know, other injuries in this receiving room." — Ryan (04:08)

2. Waiver Target: Juwan Johnson (TE, Saints)

Timestamp: 04:43

• Tara’s analysis: Juwan Johnson stands out among emerging streaming TEs.
  • Saints OC Kellen Moore has historically favored aggressive passing attacks (as seen in Dallas), which materialized in Week 1: Spencer Rattler attempted 46(!) passes.
  • Johnson played the most snaps and ran the most routes of any Saints player, not just tight ends.
  • Prior inconsistent usage might have been from previous coaching; the new regime could be unlocking Johnson’s potential.
  • The competition at TE is murky, but Johnson’s role in Week 1 is a strong buy signal, especially if Moore keeps up the pace.
• Quote:

  "Juwan Johnson played the most snaps of any Saints player. Obviously, other than Spencer Rattler there played the vast majority of them. He ran the most routes of any single Saints player." — Tara (05:28)

• Notable: Harold Vanit Jr. and Jonnu Smith also mentioned as streaming dart throws, but Johnson gets strong endorsement due to opportunity and coaching.

3. Buy Low: Calvin Ridley (WR, Titans)

Timestamp: 07:11

• Tara’s analysis: Ridley had a poor Week 1 against a stifling Denver defense.
  • The rookie QB Cam Ward struggled (12/28, just over 100 yards), but didn’t look overwhelmed—signs of potential as he adapts.
  • Ridley remains the clear WR1; target volume will be stable and efficiency should grow as chemistry improves and matchups soften.
  • Week 1 was always slated to be tough; use the opportunity to buy from anxious managers.
• Quote:

  "While it was an arguably terrible performance ... he didn't look overwhelmed ... the targets were there for Ridley. ... I'm willing to buy low on Ridley because ... he is the wide receiver one of that offense." — Tara (07:31)

• Ryan’s reaction: Confirms strong agreement; emphasizes this was a long-anticipated buy-low window. Notes Cam Ward “looked like he belonged” and expects improvement.

4. Buy Low: Mike Evans (WR, Buccaneers)

Timestamp: 09:52

• Tara’s analysis: Surprising Week 1 from rookie Emeka Egbuka could be prompting panic among Evans managers.
  • Atlanta’s top corner A.J. Terrell has always presented a difficult individual matchup for Evans, explaining the modest production despite 8 targets.
  • With Egbuka surging and Chris Godwin’s return imminent, some see an “offensive shift” away from Evans—Tara disagrees.
  • Baker Mayfield looked sharp, and Evans remains a high-usage veteran with a stable floor.
• Quote:

  "Now that we've got this solidified hype and we're all, all in. We're just obsessed. Right now's the perfect time to swoop in and grab Mike Evans, older veteran receiver." — Tara (09:56)

• Player ranks: Evans and Egbuka are both seen as low-end WR2s, top-24 receivers for the remainder of the season.

5. Handcuff Priority: Trade for Brian Robinson (RB, 49ers—backup to CMC)

Timestamp: 12:48

• Tara’s analysis: After a brief injury scare for Christian McCaffrey, Robinson’s cost as a handcuff has dipped.
  • CMC was healthy and productive in Week 1 (22 carries, double-digit targets), but the scare was real and demonstrates the need for insurance in this case.
  • Usually not a “must-handcuff” advocate, but for the 49ers’ backfield, it’s warranted given the step-in value if CMC is sidelined.
  • If CMC goes down, Robinson would see a 3-down workload in a top offense, with pass-catching ability pushing his value higher than most handcuffs.
• Quote:

  "This is just the perfect opportunity for you to scoop in and get your handcuff and not have to pay an arm and a leg ... You wouldn't have had that opportunity before because of the trade being so late and maybe Robinson was already on someone else's roster." — Tara (13:25)

• Ryan’s remark: Don’t fret about recent inefficiency; Seattle’s defense is legit. If the 49ers’ starting RB goes down, anyone steps into a great fantasy scenario.

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Additional Notable Moments & Quotes

• On Cam Ward’s Week 1 performance (Ridley context):

  "I was really impressed just with the eye test of like, this. This guy looks like an NFL quarterback who, if they can put a better situation around him … I expect brighter days." — Ryan (08:43)

• On Baker Mayfield and Bucs pass-catchers:

  "Again, we got three touchdowns from Baker. I know people were worried about that regression there in terms of just his touchdown rate just being so high, but lo and behold, here it is, it is who he is." — Tara (11:47)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction and Show Format: 00:35–01:55
• Move 1: Sell Travis Kelce: 01:55–04:43
• Move 2: Add Juwan Johnson: 04:43–07:11
• Move 3: Buy Low Calvin Ridley: 07:11–09:52
• Move 4: Buy Low Mike Evans: 09:52–12:48
• Move 5: Handcuff Brian Robinson if you own CMC: 12:48–14:33
• Closing thoughts and rest-of-season strategy: 14:33–16:09

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Final Thoughts

The episode delivers clear, actionable advice based on Week 1 reactions and lingering perceptions. Tara’s focus is on leveraging market inefficiencies—whether selling high on fading stars, targeting undervalued veterans, or making wise handcuff investments. The tone is relatable and practical, directly aimed at providing tools for league-winning moves in standard-sized leagues.

Summary Takeaway:
Use early season panic and perceived depth chart shifts to your advantage—capitalize on sell-high and buy-low windows, stream at tight end, and protect high-value investments (like McCaffrey) with timely handcuffs.

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Listen to new episodes weekly for succinct, expert fantasy football guidance.

Transcript

[Tara Roberts]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Dan]

I'm Dan, he's Ty.

[Ty]

Hello.

[Dan]

And we're the solid verbal college football podcast.

[Ty]

Tune in for previews, recaps, bits you won't hear anywhere else, and all the emotional support you need as a college football fan.

[Dan]

Join us all season long as we ride the rollercoaster of this ridiculous sport.

[Ty]

Listen to the solid verbal college football podcasts on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dan]

We don't just love college football, Ty. We live it.

[Ryan]

Hello, everybody. Welcome into Fantasy Pros. I'm Ryan, warmly joined by Tara Roberts. Tara, we have worked together on the social side of things for a few years now, but we're going to be doing a regular weekly show here for everyone, a short form, talking about some moves to make each and every week of the season. I'm very excited to be doing this show with you.

[Tara Roberts]

I'm excited too. I feel like this was a long time coming. Finally. Finally. Yes, yes.

[Ryan]

Finally, finally we get our opportunity here. So what the show is going to be is five moves. This is in no particular order. This is in no particular format. These can be buys, they can be sells, they can be players that you were looking to cut this week. They can be, you know, players you want to pick up off waivers. Really just five moves to make in general. We're doing this on Mondays. It should be released on Tuesdays each week just to give everybody a sense of the housekeeping. But this will be kind of our just immediate quick reaction coming off of all the games Sunday. It is recorded before the Monday night game every week. So if there's news there, that's why that's not included in these. And yeah, we'll just kind of go through. And this is for, you know, folks in kind of regular week, you know, size leagues. Right. You know, you know, half ppr ish mindset. We're not doing anything too crazy like, oh, if you're in mega tight end premium or a 20 team league or whatever, you can get your own advice elsewhere. So this will be kind of more standard advice for folks. But yeah, that's what we're going to do. Five moves to make each and every week. Start us off with your first move here, Tara.

[Tara Roberts]

Well, you said nothing crazy, but people might take this one a little bit crazy. But go with me on it here. I'm gonna start us off with a sell and I don't want to break hearts here. Sell Travis Kelce. And this is no, no, like no insult to Travis Kelce. I think it's just a great opportunity to capitalize on what's happening with the Chiefs right now. They're in a dire position. From past catcher's perspective, right we've got Rashi Rice just at the beginning of his suspension. We've got Xavier Worthy dislocated shoulder. Now the Chiefs did say that he is going to tried to play through it. They qualified him as day to day. We as fantasy managers know that when you hear day to day that can transition to week to week real quick. So when we're looking at Travis Kelce, this might be the peak value to kind of swoop in and catch people when they're thinking there's going to be this massive increase in target. Because when I look at his week one performance, I'm a little bit disappointed. We got the touchdown that made everything okay from a fantasy perspective, but on a day where Xavier Worthy went down, we've got no rush e Rice and we've got Patrick Mahomes just trying to dink and dunk to Hollywood Brown 2 of 4 for Travis Kelce saved by a touchdown. That is not exactly what I wanted to see and would call a successful outing and where I would have expected him to step up a little bit more. My concern here is that again even if the receptions do increase and the targets do increase and I do think they will, even if we get into that area where he's that like 8 to 12 targets, if we look to last season that range for him was often accompanied by a little bit of yardage. Not enough and then not as enough touchdowns as well. Last year we only got three touchdowns from him. The season before, five touchdowns. There's a clear drop off in production that's happening on a year to year basis here and why not capitalize right now? Especially when we look at all of the waiver wire friendly tight ends that are out there. Like when we were talking during draft season my personal perspective was is we've got our big three, we got a nice massive gap and then we look at guys like Tucker Kraft and Tyler Warren who are coming in at nice values for their ADP and then stream if you can't get a hold of those guys and we've got streaming options coming up here. So take an opportunity, sell Travis Kelsey, get someone in another position and stream it. Tight end.

[Ryan]

I think it's a great point that it will be very easy to sell this. Not, not literally sell but I mean like to in negotiating sell the the upside case for him to whoever it is you're trying to trade him away to because of what you talked about with the, you know, other injuries in this receiving room. It feels like there's a very clear path toward him being like a PPR monster just because who else is going to catch passes? So if you believe that's not the case, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of the situation around him and say, you know, let him be kind of someone else's headache. Give me your next move here.

[Tara Roberts]

So I talked about streaming tight ends. I thought I would make the case for one of the streaming tight ends. I find myself becoming particularly passionate maybe about promoting Juwan Johnson as a waiver wire ad this week in a tight end streaming option. It feels. It feels weird because as we were like, as I was parsing through all of the options, we've got Harold Vanit Jr. Even a guy like John New Smith popped up and got the touchdown and had that kind of interesting usage from Arthur Smith that we were promised. So there's multiple options that you can go with. But when I look at Juwan Johnson, who has been in the league for a while, right, and he's popped, but he's never really sustained production at a high level for an entire season, I'm very intrigued by what I saw from the Saints offense, particularly for him, because if there is one thing that we know about Kellen Moore, and we didn't see it as much last season because I feel like he was held in check. But go back to Dallas. The one complaint that Mike McCarthy had in the divorcing of their relationship there was that the pace was too aggressive, the pass was too aggressive. There just wasn't enough balance. And that's exactly what we saw here. We saw the true Kellen MOORE in week one here, 40 plus, I think it was 46 attempts for Spencer Rattler, that's insane. It doesn't feel like that's sustainable. But given Kellen Moore's history, I would not put it past him. And when you look at the breakdown of not just targets but snaps played routes on the field, Juwan Johnson played the most snaps of any Saints player. Obviously, other than Spencer Rattler there played the vast majority of them. He ran the most routes of any single Saints player. That's kind of insane when you think about it. But you start to wonder if Juwan Johnson being held back was just the previous regime and if Kellen Moore just straight up likes this guy and wants to commit to him as his single tight end, because that's been the problem with Juwan in the past we see the upside, but it was just inconsistent the usage of other tight ends. We had the integr of Taysom Hill and guys like Foster Moreau and it was just never an opportunity for Juwan Johnson to really take over. But I'm willing to look at Week one's usage and say, hey, maybe I can take a chance here that this is finally going to be the year that he hits. Because specifically of Kellen Moore.

[Ryan]

You are right about the 46 attempts by the way, for Spencer Rattler, which would be a big number for anybody. But for Spencer Rattler is just like mind blowing that he had that kind of opportunity and with all those attempts they scored 13 points. So that maybe we'll tell you something about how this season is going to go. Saints, you've had on a couple of tight ends already. What do you have for move number three?

[Tara Roberts]

Move number three. Let's go back to trades here and I want to do a little buy low on Calvin Ridley because Week one wasn't good but that was expected. I, I don't think anybody should have been expecting a good Week one performance out of him. It was against Denver. Receivers tend to struggle against Denver. There are outlier performances right every now and then. But as a whole we just expect there to be these kind of struggles from receivers that are facing blanketing coverage. Especially when you throw a rookie quarterback in his first start facing that naturally the expectation there, I mean we shouldn't be shocked about the performance Now I will say that I'm, you know, also kind of concerned that this week might be an issue for him as well. So while we would expect a little bit of an uptick, we're looking at the long term effect here, the development of Cam Ward as the season progresses. Because while it was an arguably terrible performance from him, 12 completions on 28 attempts, just over a hundred yards, he didn't look overwhelmed, he didn't look like he was panicking. He didn't look like he belonged. And the Saints offensive line clearly or the the Titans offensive line clearly improved there. So when I'm looking at it, I can see a reality where this as the season progresses, he really comes into his own. The targets were there for Ridley. They should be a little bit better in terms of their connection and better matchups. I'm willing to buy low on Ridley because at the end of the day he is the wide receiver, one of that offense targets are going to be there volume and we'll be playing him as a nice low end, tight end or low end wide receiver 2 for the remainder of season.

[Ryan]

It's funny that you bring up Ridley. Andrew Erickson and I are going to be doing the Tuesday kind of longer trade show on the feed this season and we have been talking for like a month and a half at this point about how he was like, you can already build the week one. You know, post week one outline, it's going to be Calvin Ridley because we love him for this season. But that first matchup is brutal. Everybody's going to be like, oh, man, this guy that I heard was this great, you know, not breakout candidate. That's the wrong way to frame it. But like, you know, this undervalued receiver in drafts, clearly he's terrible. I got to sell him. That's not the case. So we are in strong agreement with you. I can tell you we will be talking about that in more detail later this week for everybody who is checking out the feed because again, Ericsson has been talking about this basically since like mid July. It feels like how Ridley is going to be the best buy low after week one. So strong agreement there. And I'm with you. Like, I really thought, like, I know the stat line was very poor for Cam Ward, as we should have expected. I thought he looked like he belonged. I was really impressed just with the eye test of like this. This guy looks like an NFL quarterback who, if they can put a better situation around him and not be facing, you know, one of the best defenses of football. I expect brighter days in the future for sure. What's your fourth move?

[Tara Roberts]

For us, we're going to trade for another veteran receiver. Here it is, Mike Evans. And this is no negative to a mecca, Buka. I'm very pro Emeka here. I didn't expect that big of a week. That was kind of a surprise there, but I expected it to be good. Great opportunity. Wide receiver 2 playing opposite of Mike Evans. What more could you ask for? Now that we've got this solidified hype and we're all, all in. We're just obsessed. Right now's the perfect time to swoop in and grab Mike Evans, older veteran receiver, people start to wonder, oh, my gosh, are we just seeing the transition of the offense away from him? Are we seeing the regression in terms of age? We gotta remember this was. Well, Atlanta's defense as a whole is not a difficult matchup. This was a difficult matchup specifically for Mike Evans. I've got my Clemson stuff up here. AJ Terrell is my boy. And that matchup has just been difficult For Mike Evans, they've played, faced each other consistently and he is a good corner here, so it's not odd that he would have still gotten good targets there. He got eight targets, just wasn't very productive with them. And big day for Emek Igbuka in the better matchup in terms of the corner that he faced here. So again, when we're looking at this offense, I mean because of his age, the perception of Ibuka, the looming return of Chris Godwin, I could see where people would start to get a little bit panicked there and I liked what I saw from Baker Mayfield as well. So I'm pro pro Mike Evans as.

[Ryan]

A buyer, where would you say rest of season you have those two ranked like relative to each other, Mike Evans and Igbuka amongst receivers?

[Tara Roberts]

Yeah, it's rough. I haven't updated rest of season yet to account for that massive increase from him, but I think maybe low, very similar in terms of both low end wide receiver twos. I would consistently look at him, both of them kind of hovering around wide receiver, 20 guys that have good upside but also stable floors because of the offense that they're in. So that's the key there for me. These are receivers, both of them that are not going to get blanked. And why even as in his first game as a rookie, I was pro. Like, yeah, a mecca for the flex. Yeah, we're, we're good with that. We feel comfortable with the volume here. Again, we got three touchdowns from Baker. I know people were worried about that regression there in terms of just his touchdown rate just being so high, but lo and behold, here it is, it is who he is. So I'm, I'm okay with leaning into both of them as top 24 receivers rest of season.

[Ryan]

I was going to make a joke that he's like a flexa Igbuka because we want to be starting him in our flex, but he's actually better than that. Like I want to be starting him at receiver in at least in three receiver leagues for sure. Moving forward, we've got a special offer for everyone. Unlock a month of Betting Pros Premium for free. Download the Betting Pros app today. Use promo code fp1month. That's one the the number one not spelled out. Get access to tools like the same game parlay tool, the Prop Bet Analyzer and the Prize Picks Prop Bet cheat sheet. Don't miss out. Try it for free for one month. Now available on iOS and Android. Again, that's FP, the number one month for your promo code there. What's your last move, Tara My last.

[Tara Roberts]

Move is a weird one, but I think it's a critical one for very specific people. If you roster Christian McCaffrey, trade for Brian Robinson. Now that would have been very expensive to try and do last week, but now we've got Chris McCaffrey on the field. Say, okay, maybe that was just a little bit of a scare with the caf. It's not a major issue. McCaffrey played the vast majority of snaps. He had 22 carries. Efficiency wasn't spectacular, but my God, I mean he had double digit targets and was very productive with them. And I think you can expect that moving forward given all the injuries that we have into that receiving core for the 49ers. So McCaffrey was fine. This is just the perfect opportunity for you to scoop in and get your handcuff and not have to pay an arm and a leg if you would have tried to get him last week when CMC popped up on the injury report because apparently it was just a scare. But the scare is real and I think it kind of brings into the panic of that's your, that's your RB one. And typically I'm very pro, like diversify. You don't have to have the handcuffed of your starting running backs. You want to have have whatever upside you need to get on your bench. But when it comes to Christian McCaffrey in that situation, I'm okay with having the direct handcuff there for cmc. And you wouldn't have had that opportunity before because of the trade being so late and maybe Robinson was already on someone else's roster. Now you got the opportunity to go in there, sneak it in and know that you've got somebody who will step into a role. If CMC goes down where he arguably will have a three down role, he does have a little pass catching upside. He doesn't have stone hands there. And we know that anyone that steps into that 49ers running back room, they get on the field and their opportunity when CMC goes down, they thrive 100 yards on the ground because that's just what the offense does. So I'm pro going ahead and grabbing your handcuff there if you've got cmc.

[Ryan]

And just to kind of jump on that point too, in terms of the efficiency that you mentioned on cmc, just while we're talking about him, I expect Seattle to be one of the best defenses in football this season. Like we saw what Mike McDonald did in year two as the defensive play caller for the Ravens this is now year two for him in Seattle. The defense is going to look more like what he wants it to look like. I think a lot of players at a lot of positions are going to have inefficient days against Seattle. Maybe I'll, you know, defense is tricky to predict year to year, but I have pretty high hopes for the Seahawks as a defensive unit. So I, I wouldn't, you know whether thinking about Robinson, you know, he himself was averaging under 4 yards a carry. Like you said, McCaffrey barely over 3 yards per carry. I'm not really worried about that. I think that was more matchup driven than, than anything else, truthfully. So I think it's a great call. Also, those were Tara's five moves to make here as we get ready for week two in, you know, just about a week here, obviously. So like I said, we'll be here recording this every Monday with some of our immediate reactions, moves to make here coming off each and every week. So be sure to stick with us throughout the season. For Tara, I'm Ryan. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you again next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple [e-mail] review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.

[Tara Roberts]

Foreign and.

[Ty]

I'm Michael F. Florio and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet that we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Honey German]

Hi, it's Honey German, and I'm back with season two of my podcast. Gracias. Come again. We got you when it comes to the latest in music and entertainment with interviews with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition.

[Tara Roberts]

No, I didn't audition. I haven't auditioned like over 25 years.

[Honey German]

Oh, wow. That's a real G talk right there. Oh, yeah, we'll talk about all that's viral and trending with a little bit of chisme and a whole lot of laughs. And of course, the great Bibras you've come to expect. Listen to the new season of Gracias. Come again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Dan]

I'm Dan. He's Ty.

[Ty]

Hello.

[Dan]

And we're the solid verbal college football podcast.

[Ty]

Tune in for previews, recaps, bits you won't hear anywhere else, and all the emotional support you need as a college football fan.

[Dan]

Join us all season long as we ride the rollercoaster of this ridiculous sport.

[Ty]

Listen to the solid verbal college football podcasts on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dan]

We don't just love college football, Ty. We live it.

[Tara Roberts]

This is an iHeart podcast.