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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
5 Moves You Need to Make Week Ahead Of Week 9 (Ep. 1802)
00:21:46
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- [00:00]
Tara Roberts
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
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- [00:40]
Ryan
Hello everybody. Welcome in to the Fantasy Pros. I'm Ryan, warmly joined as I am every Monday by Tara Roberts. We are talking five moves to make before week nine. First of all, before we jump in, Tara, did you survive the unbelievably brutal week eight between bipocalypse and the injuries and everything else going on?
- [00:59]
Tara Roberts
Somehow, somehow I did. And it was, it was a super fun week for me because I, I have Chimney DK in every single Dynasty league that I'm in. So I'm feeling like just super vindicated and sharp right now. So we are just pushing forward this season. Feeling good.
- [01:14]
Ryan
It's good to get a win in a week like week eight. For anybody who maybe had a worse time surviving week eight, hopefully we can help you here. Right? The ship ahead of week nine and beyond. All of our weekly consensus rankings and tiers can be found@fantasyprose.com rankings as a reminder, Tara, let's start where we always do with the buys. Who are you buying this week?
- [01:33]
Tara Roberts
I am buying Jalen Warren. I believe that Jalen Warren is being consistently undervalued in general and has been a good buy basically all season here. But now even better coming off of his Week 8 performance, there was nothing wrong with him in this game. He was fine. 13 carries, 62 yards, 4.77 yards per carry. But from a fantasy perspective, a lot of fantasy managers might be looking at it and it was just a single digit fantasy performance and particularly frustrating, particularly after coming off a matchup where it looked like, okay, maybe this is the massive upside that we're seeing. He had over 100 yards against Cincinnati and now people are probably wondering, okay, well, Cincinnati's defense confirmation, it's absolutely awful. So was the Warren performance just a reflection of a super good matchup and that he's not the running back that we think he is? I understand the sentiment, right, because that was easily his best performance on the ground. But when I look at the Pittsburgh running backs, I am not valuing them for what they can do on the ground. I am valuing them because Aaron Rodgers enjoys checking down and because of the lack of depth that we have in the Steelers receiving core. Now Roman Wilson did step up in this game and that's cool. But can we trust Roman Wilson to do that on a weekly basis? I don't think so. Based off what we have seen thus far, hopefully it carries through, but at the end of the day it's DK Metcalf and then some guys that they hope can step up and then hopefully turn into the tight ends. And the running backs play such a critical role in in the receiving game. So when you look at Jaylen Warren, you know, despite the fact that Kenneth Gainwell has been cool, love him. When you look at the stats, Jaylen Warren is the clear lead back. It's not close. And then when you look at the production in terms of the receiving upside, you can pretty much feel comfortable with Jaylen Warren as a strong RB2 on a weekly basis. He's never finished outside of a high end RB3. He's never had a complete bust game. He's trustworthy. Maybe he doesn't have that overall RB1 upside, but if you just need a guy that you can rely on on a week to week basis, Jalen Warren is a good one.
- [03:29]
Ryan
Warren's really interesting. He's definitely somebody that we have not talked a lot about on any of the shows that I've been hosting this year. He just does his like it. You just know what you're getting from him. So there's not a whole lot really to discuss. I mean just looking at his weekly finishes, he has not finished higher than RB10 which he got in that game against Cincy, but he's not finished lower than RB26. Like he's just been very much in that RB2 range pretty much every single week. Maybe hitting the on the upper end, back end RB1 and at the lower end, you know, high end RB3. But basically in that RB2 range week in and week out, that's in half PPR scoring by the way. You know it's funny too because like you looking at the schedule because there's been some difficult matchups besides that since he won, there is a stretch later in the season where he has some really enticing matchups. He gets Buffalo, Baltimore, Miami back to back to back in weeks 13 to 15. So like in the stretch run of making the playoffs, getting you over the hump first round of the playoffs maybe really, really helpful. Chicago is a week before that too. But then week 16 and 17 are Detroit at Detroit and at Cleveland. And Detroit I would imagine is going to stop Pittsburgh. They're much better and you know that's going to hurt him. And then Cleveland is a very good run defense. And that was his second worst fantasy performance of the year. Was, was his previous game against Cleveland. So it's interesting that week 16 and 17 are this tough schedule for Jalen Warren, but prior to that, since he's Chicago, Buffalo, Baltimore, Miami, it's quite enticing. So it's just kind of this weird balance to strike with him. He is somebody that you kind of hit on it though, like it's the floor is there. You wonder what the ceiling is. But at this point in the fantasy season, maybe you just lost Camp Scatter Boo. Maybe you lost other players previously. Sometimes that floor does become a little bit more helpful. Now. Where do you have him rest of season? Just quickly before we move off him.
- [05:16]
Tara Roberts
Amongst running backs rest of season I have him RB20. I mean it's just like a nice little sweet spot for him. He's before the guys that have some kind of question marks in terms of who is actual the lead back there and what kind of upside they have. But he's behind the guys that can actually get you those top five weeks.
- [05:30]
Ryan
Who's your next player to buy?
- [05:32]
Tara Roberts
My next player to buy here. It's a mecca. Ibuka. You know, it's, it's. Can we qualify it as a buy low when we're talking about a player who literally started off his rookie season insanely hot on another level. Right. But in terms of value, it doesn't get much lower than this and it probably won't get much lower than this. And you have to buy into it based off what he's done. He's clearly been playing through an injury and while the targets are still there, he's still clearly, the wide receiver one. He's had 21 over the past two weeks. The production has just been wildly underwhelming. He's not getting it done in terms of yardage. It's been three weeks since we've seen him have a touchdown. We've had the clear arrival of Tej Johnson, who is contributing and clearly stepping up his the wide receiver two here and he's looked fantastic. Then when we look at Baker Mayfield and then you start to maybe raise some question marks about around that. I mean we, we all believe in general around Baker Mayfield, but at the same time this game that we had here against New Orleans should have been A bounce back game and it was somehow worse than the performance against Detroit. So maybe that kind of, you know, uncertainty around that, the uncertainty around the timeline of return for Chris Godwin, Tess Johnson stepping up, it's all adding up to a lot of ambiguity here. But the real key here is that he is on a buy this week. So it is very possible that his lack of recent production has maybe put his fantasy managers who were relying on him in a tough spot here. And if the manager in your league is holding him and they have a losing record and they need somebody who is going to get them a win right now, this could be the chance to get in there and just kind of take advantage of it, buy him and reap the benefits for you as a winning team on down the line as we get this team back on track and we get him back after the bye week, presumably healthy.
- [07:12]
Ryan
Yeah, Igbuka's really funny because I think early in the year you can make a really strong case that he was a good sell just given that he was running hot with touchdowns and it felt like that was going to be unsustainable. But then now it's kind of overcorrected too far in the other direction and you would imagine that he kind of winds up somewhere in between what he's been the last three weeks, obviously, which has been injury impacted versus what he was, you know, the first handful of weeks of the season. When I look at the rest of season rankings, I do feel a little nervous about him be he's wide receiver nine in and this is, this will get updated more throughout the week. Obviously, like we're just sitting here Monday morning, so it's very early on and that could change as more rankings come in. But for the first couple of, you know, consensus rest of season rankings that we have on the site, again, fantasypros.com rankings, he's wide receiver nine. That makes me a little nervous. That feels a little high for him to be top 10. But I don't know that I can make a really strong case for a lot of players who should jump him that are behind him right now, like Drake London is behind him. That's likely injury driven, um, to some degree. There's not a whole lot of names that, that I would want to make that case for. So maybe 9 is right and I'm kind of talking myself into it now. It just feels a little aggressive. Even though he has been very good, obviously and has this Runway with this Mike Evans, you know, out for a long time, obviously Godwin, all that Stuff. And I'm with you on Baker Mayfield. Like, like, I am. I am operating under the assumption that this is just kind of a slump and that he, it will be fine going forward. How do you feel about wide receiver 9 for the rest of the season? Does that also sound aggressive to you? Or does it sound like, hey, there's this real Runway for him to be wide receiver one for Baker. And that actually makes a lot of sense.
- [08:42]
Tara Roberts
It's slightly higher than where I think it should be. But quite frankly, as you like, literally perfectly explained, the problem is, is that there are so many guys with question marks around him and then so many guys that you could make an argument for. But a lot of people would argue against you. Like, let's say a Jalen Waddle would be behind him and you say, okay, well, he's the wide receiver one in an offense that has the throw a lot. But then who do you trust more as a quarterback, Baker Mayfield or Tua Tug of Aloa? So that then raises the questions of, well, you know what, maybe Abeka is in the right place where he needs to be. Because a lot of those guys falling behind him, they've got these big quarterback issues. If it was apples to apples and everything was trustworthy, yeah, we probably push him a little further back here. But even guys that are slightly ranked above him, like a Nico Collins, you say, okay, has he shown the level of upside this year, particularly that a Mecca has shown? No, not really. So, yeah, I think it's an appropriate range for him.
- [09:33]
Ryan
Even one of the guys ranked ahead of Igbuka, not behind him. George Pickens. I'm like, I think you could make a pretty strong case with CD Lamb back that Igbuka should be higher. So maybe, maybe 9 is the right range, but it just, I guess it just sounds maybe more aggressive. But you know, logically it probably does make sense if you want a chance to win the ultimate last place punishment. The fantasy football loser toilet seat, courtesy of our good friends at Trophy Smack, the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your moment. This isn't your average toilet seat. It's a wearable badge of humiliation designed to be shamefully worn around your neck. It is the perfect, perfect way to immortalize your league's biggest loser. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to The Fantasy Pros YouTube channel right now and drop a comment below on any of our videos. That is it. We will be announcing a winner right here on the channel, so make sure to turn on notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim this prize and crown your league's ultimate loser in style. All right, Tara, let's help our audience avoid being that ultimate loser. Who are you selling right now?
- [10:29]
Tara Roberts
I'm selling Tyrone Tracy, and I feel like a little bit of a hypocrite there because I definitely just listed Tyrone Tracy as my top waiver wire AD of the week. But here's. Here's the thing. He is definitely worth an ad if he is on waivers. But if you already roster him and you don't need him because you probably haven't been playing him for a while now, like maybe the vast majority of the season, now would be the time if you've been holding him, to sell and upgrade at another position. Because if you haven't been starting him, you've definitely been in a spot where you've got better options here and your roster is built around not needing this guy. And maybe you can sell him and go out and get something that's actually usable for him because he's definitely going to be the lead back here. I don't think that's a question mark here. I don't see Devin Singletary as a threat. Now, it's possible that maybe the Giants, because you know Brian Dable is fighting there, perhaps they look and add a depth piece at running back and try to force this back into a committee. But again, when we look at Tyrone Tracy, the problem is, is that where we know what he is and who he is, we know that he straight up lost his job to, to Cam Scaboo. And that's, that's fine. Cam is very, very talented. But Tracy still lost it and he hasn't looked particularly good this season. And I think sometimes we were holding on to what we saw last year. There was a ton of offense, different situation, different upside there. And when we look at this one in particular, I might have faith that he can be more successful on the ground than he has shown thus far this year. But part of my problem also is that how much does Brian Dable trust him at the goal line at this point, especially after we've seen the level of success that Scatterboo had. So when we look at Jackson Dart, who has been excellent on the ground and has had success on the ground with touchdowns in the red zone, I start to wonder if perhaps this just becomes the Jackson Dart show instead of Tyrone Tracy getting those goal line touches. And so we're looking at a guy who you know is going to be the lead back. You'll get you 14, 15 carries or so, maybe 50 on the ground, you know, a few receptions here. But if there's no touchdown opportunities for him in the way that we were seeing with Cam Scabo, I get worried about him just being a rather mediocre fantasy producer for him. So it's not an absolute sell on him because again, if you need a running back and is as advised for picking him up with waiver wires, Tracy is absolutely going to be the RB one here. You know, trade pending or anything. But if you are already set at running back, this is just a great opportunity to go ahead and sell him high to someone who actually truly needs to take this swing at him as a running back.
- [13:00]
Ryan
It seems like in the early rest of season rankings because obviously this is one that is going to be very dependent on, you know, this news. Just, you know, his circumstances just materially changed yesterday. So I want to give this one time to see where he settles. So far he's settling in the late teens. He's like RB18, RB19 kind of range. I get it. I think it's a, it's a, it's a fair ranking. I'm not going to like, you know, start banging the table and say that this is way out of line, but I do think at that ranking, if that's how the other managers in my league are ranking him and you know, like you said, and I have, you know, Javante Williams and James Cook or whatever it is that my, my RB duo is, I would probably be looking to trade him as well, I guess. I'll ask you again, kind of the RB19 range, does that sound too high, too low or just right?
- [13:45]
Tara Roberts
It feels a little high for me. I would have him further back here and the reason for that is I feel like a lot of guys behind him are on the verge of maybe those backfields becoming a little bit more clear. Like maybe an Isaiah Pacheco has been getting more carries by the week of the week and you know, who might you end up trusting more? Perhaps the one in the better offense and perhaps more with goal line opportunities as well. Same pass catching upside too. So yeah, I think there's guys that are kind of flowing right behind him that end up, you know, maybe potentially over the next couple of weeks superseding him there. So it's appropriate. But something that I feel like can adjust and fall back over the next couple of weeks.
- [14:22]
Ryan
One guy who's behind him by a couple of spots is Chase Brown. I would, I would trade Tyrone Tracy, Chase Brown, like very, very quickly.
- [14:29]
Tara Roberts
That's definitely one of them.
- [14:30]
Ryan
All right, let's go to your next.
- [14:31]
Tara Roberts
Sell my next cell who I love. I don't want to sell him, but it is, I think he was a.
- [14:38]
Ryan
Buy last week, right?
- [14:38]
Tara Roberts
He was, yeah. Last year, the week before Teteroa McMillan here. One thing is very clear and that perhaps might not be the best thing for McMillan. Bright Young is definitely the starter. There is zero chance that we have any kind of quarterback controversy here and I'm sure they will be very happy to get him back hopefully this week. But I think it's important to note that the offense does run differently when Bryce Young is under center. And part of the reason that this has tilted for me is that we did have comments from Dave Canales that regarding Rico Dowdle and regarding how they did want to give Chuba, you know, the opportunity. But Rico has been exceptional. I think ultimately they want to be a run heavy team and they don't want Bryce Young throwing the ball upwards of 25 times. You know, that would be the max range that they want to see because he hasn't hit 200 yards outside of one big outlier performance that he had. And then when we look at tech, McMillan's production, you know, he's been, he's a clear wide receiver. One that's not an issue. I don't, you know, while I like some other assets on that roster, I don't think there's any, any threat to his game here. But he's only hit 100 yards in terms of receiving one game. And that was the game where Bryce Young had that massive volume outlier game. He's a very trustworthy option here. But coming off of a game where he had 99 yards, eight receptions, 10 targets, that was an excellent game for him. And that's probably about the ceiling that we've got for him. So as again, there's no urgency. He's not an absolute like must. You got to get rid of him. This is a major issue. But I feel like he's a player that you can package up off of this big game here and maybe package, package up with a running back and try to upgrade significantly at another position.
- [16:23]
Ryan
So he's in a similar range actually to Tyrone Tracy on the wide receiver side. He's wide receiver 18. That feels okay to me. I, I really wonder. It's funny because like he finally had the two touchdowns a couple of weeks ago and it's like, oh, they've learned how to get him in the, in the end zone and he hasn't been back since. But you know, coming off of this 99 yard game against the Bills, like, I just like the player so much and rookie receivers and I think typically I forget who it was and I apologize to whoever it was, but there was somebody was sharing these stats on Twitter over this past weekend talking about how week nine is the mark where getting that second half of the season, rookie receivers tend to take that next step and really become league winners. And I just like the players so much. I like the opportunity so much in general, just in terms of being the obvious wide receiver, one that I, I don't want to trade him away then watch him become a league winner. I guess it probably does come down to what you would get for him though, because he is a player that a lot of people recognize as being good and getting a lot of targets and you know these things that we like to see. Who is the type of player you think you would get back for a tet a Roa McMillan right now.
- [17:31]
Tara Roberts
So for tat, if I was packaging him up perhaps with a running back, like let's say that maybe we packaged him up with a Tyrone Tracy, right. I think you could get a low end RB1 out of that. Like maybe you target a Derrick Henry, who was someone that we talked about as a buy. And I think at this point people were very, very skeptical of him in general. And now we've got Lamar Jackson. The injury ambiguity around that, do we trust that he's even going to be back for next week or this week coming up here? That's potentially one that you could maybe look at.
- [18:05]
Ryan
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- [18:32]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, I'm cheating a little bit here. I'm using the word shop because you can like shop around Tajie Spears if you roster him and you want to try and flip him for a quick buck. Or you can shop for Tajie Spears if you're in a top spot and you have no RB2 and you have a desperation he that you need to make here for high upside. So again, it depends on the position of your team here and I'm going to ask viewers, you know, just go with me on this one here because it's situational. The Titans backfield is very clear though it is a committee, unfortunately, it's a committee that tends to flip back and forth. But now we've got all of these trade rumors around Tony Pollard and a rumor is just a rumor, but got the Titans actually selling a player. We know they are a terrible team. This is something that we've thought was a possibility for other guys like potentially Calvin Ridley. But Tony Pollard on the trade block does make a ton of sense because he's a fine back. There's no issue. He would be an excellent addition to any team that is dealing with run running back injuries here. And it's not his fault the Titans offense is so bad and it's not his fault that they are determined to be a committee because this could work. And we've seen it work with Tony Pollard like in the past last year as well. He's stable as long as he's the only back in that backfield. But the offense is just not good enough to support an effective committee. They are no Detroit Lions and that is not happening anytime soon. So if we can whittle down this backfield and Pollard does exit, Tajie Spears then does become a valuable asset. You know, because when we look at them, the problem in terms of predicting what this committee is is that they have such overlapping skills. They both can do early down, they both are receiving backs. They, you know, both can handle goal line work. There's no clear delineation in their roles. So it's easy to try and look at this and say, hey, I don't want to deal with this because I can't predict it. It's very understandable here because we have literally, since Spears return, we've literally been flipping back and forth over and over and over again week by week in terms of which one is the more productive back. And again, because they both have receiving upside, you straight up can't predict which one that it is going to be, unfortunately. But if you're in a position now when you're looking at this backfield and you don't necessarily need Tajie Spears because at no point were you actually starting him and you say, okay, look, I just want to, you know, take this opportunity to sell him high, get him off my roster and buy something that I can actually utilize on my team because I'm weak at another position. That makes a lot of sense. On the flip side, if you're in a bad position running back and you say like, I'm at the point of my season where I don't see anything on waivers available to me that I can, you know, pick up and make a high upside swing here. So unfortunately I have to make a trade in order to a risky trade in order to get somebody who can maybe be a strong RB2 for me. That would be the situation for you as a fantasy manager in that position to go out and take a shot and potentially buy Tajie Spears.
- [21:32]
Ryan
We'll go ahead and wrap things up there. Best of luck to everybody here in week nine. Should be a little bit easier than week eight was, hopefully for everybody. 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 podcasts@fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and and Tik Tok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
- [22:24]
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- [22:54]
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- [23:08]
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- [23:37]
Tara Roberts
This is an iHeart podcast.