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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Jake Ciely’s Top 5 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets For Week 7 (Ep. 1770)
00:20:45
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A
This is an I heart podcast.
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B
If you smoke or dip, I'm going to give you a few good reasons to try Zynn Zyn Nicotine Pouches. First, it's America's number one nicotine pouch brand and Zynn offers a robust rewards program. There's a lot of options for nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zyn. So if you go to zyn.com find that's z y n.com find to to find Zen at a store near you. This product does contain nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Welcome in, everybody, to fantasy pros. This is the fantasy football podcast. It is me, Joey P. Joe P. Zepia with me as always, from the athletic Jake Seeley on a Monday morning, looking ahead to the waiver wire. And just like every single week in the NFL, everybody's hurt. So we're going to give you some guys that you could pick up and stream, maybe some keepers as well for the long haul. Jake. Another fun weekend of football season started out a little slow in the one o' clock games, but by the end of the one o' clock games, business picked up. And then of course, some of the stuff in the evening got real heated all the way to the end. Throwing punches out there, I mean, are you surprised we don't get more fights at the end of NFL games?
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Now move on. There's too much niceties at the end of the game. I will say this, Joe, you're, you're an athlete and competitor as much as I am. I'm all for, like, shaking hands, but I don't even think, like, if you don't want to shake a hand and you lost, like, you're not gonna offend me. Like, I, I'm not in a good mood when I lost, like, I just, you know, I didn't want to be like, yeah, that's true.
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I've beaten Jake in a lot of things and he's never in a good mood, so that's fair. I don't even want to shake, you know what? To your point, like, also, I can be in a bad mood and not smack somebody in the face.
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That is also true. Like, you don't have to take. There's a, there's an in between. There is like, hey, I want to give you a handshake because I know, like, if you were on an opposite team in the NFL, like, we'd still shake our hands and we'd be like, kind of. But we shake our hands because, you know, we know each other. But like, If I didn't want to. If you're some other jabroni, I'd be just like, moving on.
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Professional football, ladies and gentlemen. That's the whole point. It's professional. You all have jobs. It's your job to be competitive. It's our job to get you. And he took our jobs. And of course, we want you to subscribe to the YouTube channel. Drop your comments with your favorite pickups for this week in the NFL. Let's start with Kamani Vidal, the number one spot. Him and Hassan Haskins, those were two guys last week that we discussed. We talked about not knowing how that was going to be. We also talked about the matchup against the Dolphins being very tempting. Yes, Dolphins, one of the worst, is actually the worst team in the NFL in terms of giving up rushing hours. They don't tackle anybody. Well, it turned out to be Kamani Vidal. 18 carries, 124 for him. He also had three catches on four targets for 14 yards and a receiving touchdown. So he really filled out the stat line. There were a lot of rumors going around this past week, Jake, that the Chargers were looking for more help at the running back position because Omari Hampton might be out longer than they anticipated. That could still happen. It could be a breeze Hall. It could be a number of other guys who could take that mantle. But in the meantime, what's the spend on Kamani Vidal if he's still available? Because in about 50% of leagues, he still is.
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Yeah, I actually wish that we would have done our show that we did last Monday. Did my waiver calm everything on Tuesday and then nothing until the game because you want to talk about doing jobs is like doing their jobs. We got so much misinformation. Hasan Haskins was not the lead. Hassan Haskins wasn't even a complimentary with Vidal. So much to the point. Like, we got that news and it's like, oh, they signed Nahim Hines, too, which points to a timeshare with Haskins. Like, they pushed us so far down that road. And I'm not saying we're perfect.
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It just.
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It was frustrating because, you know, we are doing our jobs, trying to glean as much information as we can to parse it down and give to everybody else. And you and I sat here and talked about Vidal last week, and that's where we were going until all this misinformation came through and why I said, he's not even a timeshare in that Haskins wasn't. It was clearly Vidal, like Haskins did split in a little bit. And maybe he gets a goal line carry going forward like Donovan Knight did. Another misinformation situation. But looking at it going forward, Vidal is the piece. I think that maybe this game does more for the actual Chargers than it does for us in fantasy because they're not going to face the Dolphins every single week. It's not going to be this great every single week of over 100 plus yards for doll Vidal. But maybe they don't go out there and try to trade or pick somebody up off the street in addition to Hines to make this even more frustrating situation. Maybe they actually do give a doll the ball. There you go. So I think RB2 is the spend. So I would say if your league basically not quite what everybody went on Benson, but what everybody went probably on Michael Carter would be a good barometer if he's still out there because I know I actually checked. I looked last night as this game was like finished and then looking at the night games and everything like that. The roster shift is still in the low under 40%. Just over 40% depending on when you check. So Vidal has to be your pretty much most aggressive play this week.
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Now the trade deadline in the NFL is Week 9. Here's what they've got coming up. They got Indianapolis, they got Minnesota, they've got Tennessee in week nine. So again it's just something to understand and stay on top of and good. Right. So I, it's kind of a mixed bag there. I'm of the mind they will go out there and make a move because I think long term, I, I don't, I, I don't think the charges for an office is naive enough to think that a guy off the practice squad can just kind of be that guy necessarily the rest of the season. I'm saying by now doesn't have some talent. He does. We've talked about him on shows in the past and years ago. But at the same time the Chargers have playoff hopes and I think they realize that they've got to get somebody else in there probably. So whether it's another backup guy or depth guy or whether it's a stud guy, that's going to be the big difference of how this spend on Vidal goes.
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Well, like let's put a hypothesis out there like what if they traded for Devin Singletary? Like would you.
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That doesn't move the needle for me. If they trade for Breeze hall that buries.
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Oh, of course. Yeah. Like goodbye Vidal and just throw them back.
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Well and I think there was even people thinking well what about Alvin Camara. Then they shut down those rumors right out of want to go anywhere makes sense. I don't believe that for a second that he doesn't want to go anywhere. I think that's just them kind of creating their leverage there.
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I think it's that, it's that nobody wants to fight for that contract. Like they're just people are going to come to and be like, give you a conditional six for a seventh because of the Camara contract going into next year too, in the committed money. And I think the Saints are like, well, we're not just going to give them away.
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No. Yeah. All right, let's get to another running back here. Taji Spears is on the list here at number two. Spears has returned here. He's missed most of the season already. So two games so far. This one was a little bit better here. He had five carries for 31. He also caught four of his four targets. The problem is the Titans offense is still brutal as Barkley, everyone's favorite dog, makes his appearance or her appearance. Excuse me. Thank you. At in the. I did. I did. Well, it's always confusing because her name is Barkley, which sounds like a boy dog name, but it's a girl dog. So I always confuse that. Well, Cam Scatterboo's a man. I just want you to put that out there. But let's talk about Taji Spears here and going forward because I mean, this is another guy where, you know, the Titans are also in a precarious situation. Not a team going anywhere. What if they want to look at Taji Spears more going down the stretch here? What if Tony Pollard is a guy that people start knocking the door on?
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Well, that's one if I'm the Titans, I'm definitely listening to Tony Pollard because as we've talked about in Fantasy last year when he had all the touches, he was still RB 24 points per game. And then late in the season, Spears started to sprinkle in. And then this year, obviously Pollard started with all the touches again. And guess what? He wasn't even. He wasn't even RB24 in points per game. He was RB28 in points per game. And yes, part of that is the offensive. Part of that is the fact that Cam Ward's offense isn't working right now. Cam Ward's not playing very well. But all that being said is Tony Pollard's very much volume reliant and that when Spears gets up to speed and is starting to get there more explosiveness in the passing game, this was potentially Going to be a timeshare of a 50, 50, maybe 60, 40 at best for Pollard with Spears involved as kind of similar to Najee Harris, Jalen Warren of the Steelers days. And what do we want in that? We wanted Jalen Warren, which is in this case, you would want Tajie Spears. So you already have that upside where Spears could be pushing for a 50, 50 split as the pass catching more explosive, more high of a ceiling value. And then if somehow anything happens to Tony Pollard or even if he's traded, all of a sudden Spears getting 15 plus touches per week, we'd be talking about RB2. And if you told me as of today, Jake Vidal 15 plus touches, Spears 15 plus touches going forward, it would be a close call because I like Spears more than I like Vidal, but I do like the Chargers offense a lot more than the Titans. So I'd still probably lean towards that.
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But just lean towards Vidal. But. Yeah, but, but it. You're not wrong. And that's the problem whenever you're parsing talent, you know, and situation. Right. Talent. I mean talent is amazing. It's wonderful to have, but it's a bad situation. It's going to be hard to be fantasy productive. I think that's always the problem.
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Exactly.
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You know, we mentioned at the top of the show about the third guy on this list today, which is Bam Knight. And that was another one too, where all of a sudden it was, well, Bam, Knight's going to be the starter. And we always talk about how overrated that concept is. Like the starter. What does that mean? It means he's out there with the first, you know, play of the games out there for the series of the game. But he wasn't right. That's the most frustrating thing about it is like, why do we say these things? It's just to throw off the other team and the defense. But anyway, let's talk about what he did against Indianapolis. 11 carries for 34. Now he did have a touchdown. He had one reception on two targets for 20 yards. So what do you make of Knight's value going forward?
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Limited. And the thing is, is that now it's a 5050 split because before day Mercado got hurt. It was mostly Michael Carter with Knight splitting in and get going that goal line touch, as you said, like he wasn't even a starter. Michael Carter was out there and then out there and out there and out there and third down and then out there again and then play calls and. And then Knight comes in and gets the touchdown and everybody's like, all right, I risked night I picked him up off way I saw the waiver additions were not nuts when that news came out, it was like people were dropping people left and right.
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And fortunately, because everybody wants to save himself. Fab. I get it. I mean, I was doing it. We were all doing it. We're all like, well, if this is the guy, let's see where it goes. But Michael Carter didn't do anything poorly the week before.
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No, no. But this looks now, like I said, like this would have been one of the worst pickup panics. Just you got saved by the touchdown. But then the day Marcado situation changed it and now it does. From that point on in the game, it was pretty much a 5050 split. So this is almost kind of the inverse is that the lead option is. Is the Taje Spears. The lead option is Kamani Vidal, similar to the Chargers. That's what we're looking at now. And now you're looking at Bam Knight, kind of more of the Haskins with more of a workload where he'll probably get the 40 to 50% depending on the matchups. Any given week, he might have a little bit better of a game, but the goal line option is what he's going to be. That's. That's the one thing they've made clear, is that when they get inside the five, they're turning to Knight and not Michael Carter. So there's your upside there. But it is the Cardinals offense. The interesting thing here is for their wide receiver situation with no Marvin Harrison with the concussion, is they have a week eight box. So you have this week seven and then week eight after that. And do we see them make a move or do they go just with this hoping that Benson shows back up in week 11 when he's eligible? I think it's week 11, but the point being here is I'm not going to go crazy. I would consider them both RB3s going forward.
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I think that's a good way to look at it. Let's take a look at Jordan Whittington of the Los Angeles Rams. Now, Puka Nakua had a foot injury yesterday. Everybody was holding their breath. Now, he did return to the game there in the third quarter, but again, the foot injury is a concern. So the Rams are traveling internationally this week. So is Whittington worth an insurance policy here going forward in week seven?
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Yeah. And the interesting thing here is this kind of loops into the whole buccaneer situation that you and I were talking about before the show. Is Buka is going for an mri. They have a week nine buy. So this comes down to the reason I have Whittington here is because at least you know, as of today, every assumption out there is Nakua is not playing because you bring up the international game and then Nakua like toughed it out for a few snaps and then that was it for him. He was basically a decoy. Oh, by the way, Joann Jennings decoy, thank you for that as well. Anyway, sorry. You can tell week six was a little frustrating there.
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By the way, how many of us said, well look you could play Kendrick Bourne but don't expect another 140 yards.
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Oh yeah, so much for that.
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Exactly. 140 yards. Again, that's got to be one of the strangest connectivity pieces ever. Mac Jones and Kendrick Bourne. Why that is, they were both at the Patriots at a point of magical chemistry.
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They were both at the Patriots at one point too.
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And I'm like where was that when I was watching you boys in New England? I don't remember seeing any of that. But then again, I think Matt Patricia was calling offensive plays then.
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So yeah, calling. That's the loosest term of the word. But like the thing is that Whittington's already been running as the three and I know people will bring up Tutu Atwell, but he's basically Tutu Atwell's been kind of like a gimmicky type of wide receiver for them even with Whittington. So I think Whittington stepping in now, this is again why he's at 4 behind a running back that we just talk about. That's maybe 50, 50 and only an RB3 because Winnington might be a one or two week play the reason he's here and Tez Johnson and Cameron Johnson, the Johnson's over with your MVP over there. Baker Mayfield. The reason they're not here is because we don't know what's going on with Ubuka. We don't know if the Buccaneers are going to find out Ibuka's out and then say, oh, Mike Evans is back or do they hold them both out for the next two weeks? Plus I think they do, which would make sense especially sitting at 5 and one that we don't see Igbuka or Mike Evans until week 10, which is that that hurts for a lot of teams out there. But if you put it this way, Joe, if you told me today they are specifically out, I'd probably slightly lean Cameron Johnson and then Whittington and then Tez Johnson, who will probably be the Boomer bus play. But they're all kind of in this bucket of wide receivers at four. Like this fourth spot of like, it's just going to be a tough call. It's kind of gonna be like, do you need something immediate to plug in or are you looking for more of a longer week? Because immediate would be Whittington. If you need a few more weeks out of them, then you would go with one of the Johnsons.
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I like, Ted Johnson's a prospect that I think is fun and electric and he made a phenomenal cashier at the end. I, I will say this, though. You know, with the schedule coming up this week, you know, it's a Monday night game against Detroit. Now it is a Monday night, so it's an extra day, too. It does beg the question here. Like, I think you can get by against New Orleans, obviously, but this is a huge game with playoff implications, right? Because the Lions are coming off a loss. If you hand the Lions another loss in this game, you are really in the driver's seat here with the way the Eagles are playing for that NFC home field advantage. And, and I do think they will press everybody they can to try to play because it's the Lions. But at the same time, I think the smart play is to say, let's look long term. We're barely through the halfway or not even halfway through the season yet. Like, we're not even there. Like, let's think long term. Ibuka's been so good. Godwin clearly is dealing with a lot of issues too. So I'd be surprised if we'd see Egbuca and Mike Evans this week, but it wouldn't shock me either because of.
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What I was gonna say. They kept saying this injury for Evans was not as bad as it was last year when he came back in three weeks. Three weeks was actually, if you started week three, four, five, six. So now he's. Yeah, should be. Should be back this week if it's not as bad. So like, I actually, I think if we were estimating as of today, I think there's a better chance of Evans than there is a Buka.
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I would agree with that. I would take that money. I would take your money on that one. All right, let's get to a tight end here to talk about Harold Fannin Jr. Who had another touchdown here. Clearly not a lot to get excited about with the Cleveland Browns, but at the same time, look, you gotta call it what it is here. But look, actually, I'm sorry, he Had a touchdown last week against Minnesota vikings. This week, 10 targets. He got seven of them for 81. So Dylan Gabriel throwing the ball way more than I think you want Dylan Gabriel to play. But we're throwing. But at the same time, it's nice to see that rapport developing between the two of them. And in a year where a lot of people were, you know, really worried about tight end, well, we really like the top, but the rest of it's kind of question mark. The waiver wire has been very plentiful for tight end this year. You've gotten Zach Ertz, who's been good. You've gotten Harold Fannin, who's been good at times here. Let's talk about, you know, of course, Darren Waller catches another touchdown. Let's talk about Fannin here and what it looks like going forward with this Browns offense. And do you think it might change if we see Shador in the weeks ahead?
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I don't think that's so much the fact that it's more David Njoku got hurt and then he left. And it sounds like this could be an injoku situation where he's out for a while. And that's the appeal here, is that we just talked, not you and I, but like the industry. And I talked about on my podcast last week about how that split was kind of almost 50, 50 for them running routes, that being Njoku and Fannin. And then that first Gabriel start, it was a big split. It was almost twice as much for Njoku, possibly because of speculating. They trust Njoku more in the blocking game and that's why they had him out there more with a rookie quarterback making his first. And it looked like it was starting to lean that way early in the game. And then he got hurt and then Fannin to the moon. And I say Fanon to the moon because everybody's wanting Fannin to be the thing because he looks good, he's the rookie, he's a matchup problem. And the problem with this with two tight ends was going to be we know how two tight ends go. Very rarely do we get value that we can count on one, let alone two. So with that injury there, yeah, Fanon was actually one of the most dropped players over last week because of what happened with Gabriel's first start. And then I think he was actually one of the more dropped ones. I wish we could find a site on Sunday morning for how many people drop Fannin for Bam Night. Just specifically that alone. And then. But now you bring up the fact that you can Go back to tight end. The Browns have basically one and a half players, and I say that being Judkins and now Fannin kind of being a half because you still have to rely on Dylan Gabriel, the quarterbacks, and that's why Fannin's 5. If this was still Joe Flacco the quarterback, Fannin would probably be up by two or three.
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Yeah, I, I agree with that. All right, so we touched on the Buccaneers wide receivers a little bit, too. We've touched on a lot of running backs real quick, just as a bonus here, streaming quarterbacks, obviously, when we're looking forward here with bye weeks, Jackson Dart is still out there in a lot of leagues. And is it always perfect and pretty? No. But again, he's getting points with his legs and that's what's been huge. I mean, we're looking at a guy who's, you know, averaging around, what, 45 yards a game rushing, and he's got touchdown equity. You know, he likes to run for it, too, and if he sees that end zone, he's going to give it a shot. He's got that kind of dog in him. So it feels like if you're looking ahead to the bye weeks, this might be a time to still kind of just pick up Jackson Dart. If you, if you're doing very well and you know, you got a quarterback in the next couple weeks coming up on a buy, now's the time to get dart and, and see, you know, if that's a guy you can stream and then drop him and play Baker Mayfield again or play whoever it is you need to play coming back from that buy.
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Yeah, and I would make a really easy comparison here is that I've thrown out the Daniel Jones thing before, but also another one to understand the risk associated is Justin Fields. He's headed to Denver this week, that being Jackson Dart and the Giants. And I'm not saying I actually like his floor better than Justin Fields, that being Jackson Darts, but make it clear that he's still a rookie. The passing has still been suspect at times. He's made some good throws. He's also. That's why I keep bringing Daniel Jones to the conversation, is because Daniel Jones still does the same thing as of today. Make some questionable throws, make some really nice ones. You put Jackson Dart on the Colts, you're going to get a better version of Jackson Dart. And that just proves what offensive lines and teams can do for quarterbacks. So I say that to say he's headed to Denver this week and then you got the rematch with Philly. The Philly gets to see him for the second time within three weeks on the road. I'm still not scared of him because of the rushing upside and that's what we're talking about here. He has rushing appeal and fantasy, which already magically puts him in the mid to upper 2 QB range and then QB1 potential. If he has a decent day, this would be the week I would be worried about it. But Philly, San Francisco, not really much left there, Chicago's defense and then they get Green Bay, Detroit, New England before they finally hit their buy. So it's kind of as we brought it before. It's it's a mixed bag. This is the week that you probably might want to find a better option, but it's not the worst schedule where like the rushing is just going to keep them in that 15 plus range at quarterback.
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All right, if you need more help on the waiver wire, don't worry because the tools are here for you. Download the Fantasy Pros app or go to fantasypros.com myplaybook and use waiver Central. That's the place where you can find the difference makers on your waiver wire. Add them to your list there of players for waivers this week and of course it'll show you who to drop as well. Make all the moves that you need to for your fantasy football league, but don't make a move without checking Waiver Central first. One of the many amazing tools. Again, sync your leagues for free with Fantasy Pros and don't be a tool. Use the tools to help win you a fantasy championship. That'll do it for us, but the story of the game goes on. For Jake Seeley, I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time, kids.
- [20:34]
A
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 TikTok Antasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
- [21:17]
B
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