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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Week 4 Lineup Advice: Starts, Sleepers, Sits, Player Debates, and TD Calls (Ep. 1734)
01:06:35
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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast.
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- [01:05]
A
Hello everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan Warmley, joined as I am every Thursday morning by Pat Fitzmaurice and by Jake Seely from the Athletic. Guys, it's our starts and sits show. We're also talking some waiver ads in terms of are we starting or sitting those waiver ads from this week. We'll also do our touchdown calls contest at the end. It's my turn to miss on the tight end. We have not gotten one right yet, so I I will take my second swing at it of the season. I was gracious enough to be the first person to try to get tight end right in week one, which means it's already time for me to try again and we are 0 for 3 so far, so we'll see how that goes. Quick reminder for everybody that all of our weekly consensus rankings and tiers can be found@fantasyprose.com rankings. Guys, let's start off right with the starting and sitting popular waiver ads. And we normally don't include players who are playing on Thursday Night Football because of the nature of when the show gets released. It just doesn't make sense to have those guys, you know, mixed into the debates and the conversation. But by far the clear number one waiver ad this week. If he was available, he was not available everywhere, but if he was available, the obvious number one choice was Trey Benson. So I felt like we at least had to hit on him. Fitz, there is this real opportunity here. It's a player that I liked coming out of the draft a year ago that I I kind of thought by the second half of last year might have had the opportunity to take over that backfield. It didn't happen because James Conner was good and also Trey Benson wasn't good. But now he looks a little bit better and more importantly, he has his real Runway with Conor now out for this season. So for week four, I know it's Thursday night, but are you starting Trey Benson?
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C
First of all, we're going to get yelled at for including Trey Benson as a pickup because, you know, if you're, if he was available in your league, you're playing with a bunch of fish and everything, you know, because all fantasy leagues are completely homogenous and totally identical and Trey Banson was not available anywhere. But anyway, yeah, we're starting him. Like, the, the thing is, I, I don't know if we have an idea yet of whether or not Trey Benson is actually good. Like, I, I've had mixed feelings watching him play. Like, on some runs, he looks really impressive. On others, not so much. He's only at 84 career carries. But we are about to find out whether he's good like Trey Benson. Stakeholders just fell into a feature back and it's possible he is a workhorse role. I'm not sure how much of a role Amara Di Mercado is going to play behind Benson. So tough matchup though, against a really good Seattle defense. I don't know if he smashes in this matchup, but, yeah, you're most likely playing Benson for the workload.
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Do you agree, Fitz? And then I'll toss it to Jake that he looks better this year than he did last year. I do feel like, just, I, like, not that it's night and day, but I do think he looks a little bit better than he did last year.
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C
Yeah, I mean, he had, didn't he have one? He's had like a 52 yard run, but take that away. And I think he's averaging under 4 per car. Like, he has looked fine so far with what I've seen so far, but, like, I'm still not ready to quite anoint him as good yet.
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A
By the way, to your point about, you know, is he eligible for this category or whatever, I go based on the, you know, waiver wire rankings that are the consensus rankings on fantasy pros that are listed in the article that you, Debro and Ellis put together, you know, every single week. It's one of the best waiver wire articles I think, you know, out there. And he was listed on there. So that's where I'm like, who are the most biggest priorities, the ones most popular. He's on that list. He counts. So he was eligible for this purpose. Jake, Trey Benson, you know, both rest of season and for. For week four. I'm curious what your expectations are.
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D
Yeah, well, there's three different things here. I included them as well in mine because I go by Yahoo. Under 60%. So it was a reference point that I also wanted to make because it was in conversation with people behind them too that might be 40, but are still pretty big names. And it was basically that Benson is over all of them so far that if your worst running back, which is possible, if your worst running back is Isaiah Pacheco, I'm dropping him for Trey Benson. Like that's where we are. And that's what my point wanted to be is that like I want to also give you context to some of the other names out there. And I'm glad you bring up week four versus the entire season because at the time that somebody might be watching this, he might have been stuffed by Seattle's defense. Seattle gets into the backfield both against the quarterback and the running back and if he comes out at 17 for 54, I would actually see it as a buy low opportunity. And if you have Benson not to sell him, like, don't panic. This might be similar to Jackson Dart going against the Chargers. It's a really bad first. It's his first start. Jackson Dart completely like first start in the NFL. But it's his first game going up as the lead running back. And if it's a struggle, watch out. Like, you know, I would say that's more of a window for you to buy because I do think that Benson is in the top 15 conversation. I had field Yates on my podcast yesterday and that's not like, oh, I feel Yates. No, but I'm bringing up he's. He tripped me up with a question I didn't expect to see coming. He threw it back and he said, if you had Genti and I offered you Benson, would you take it? And it made me pause because of how bad things have been for the Raiders offensive line. I still would shoot for the upside of Genti to be clear, but the pause kind of tells us what we need to know about Benson. I agree with Fitz. We've seen Dame Mercado. Dame Rcado is not going to come in and get 40, 45% like Benson was getting.
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Fitz. When you look at Benson like on the game log, the matchups that the Cardinals have had so far, it's color cod on, on Fantasy pros, the game log. So the first three are green as in they were good matchups so far this season for you know, Benson and this running game in general. The next like several are, you know, kind of normal. There's not a whole lot of greed in the rest of the season. Do you feel like whatever, I mean it's again, it's not like he's been lighting the world on fire. So far he hasn't quite had the opportunity. But for whatever, the running game has looked good so far this season. Do you think any of that is just matchup based or do you expect the running game, you know, in general led by Benson now to be somewhat successful going forward?
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C
I don't know about success and like, you know what his success rate, yards per carry, everything is going to be. But as far as just the decision to whether to start Trey Benson most weeks, like if he is getting the workload, I'm not going to sweat the matchups too much. Like when I do rankings, it's always volume is more of a concern to me than matchups always. And you know, that's from over the years like observing some of the smartest rankers in our business, like people you know, like Mr. Seeley here and Sean Corner and John Paulson and Justin Boone. Like they, they follow the volume and you know, matchups way into it for sure. But volume is more important.
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Jake, let's go to the next name somebody that we included last week but is still, you know, much more available than a guy like Trey Benson and caught a touchdown for the second straight week. He's a rookie receiver which tends to, you know, typically these guys get better throughout the season. Alec IO Manor is still on this list. He was the consensus number two pickup for this week. Again, second straight week with a touchdown. He had just 38 receiving yards. But again that, that touchdown work looking good. So with IO Manor, is he somebody. If you did pick him, if you didn't pick him up last week but you were okay, there's another touchdown. I'm going to pick him up this week. Are you willing to start him in week four?
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D
I'd be hesitant because of the matchup. You know, this is the Texas defense which has been still pretty good for Texans defense. It's their offense that's killing them. So I think he comes into a wide receiver four which is, I think that's what we were hoping and that's what we're getting from IU Manors, the fact that wide receiver fours mean that they're going to we talked about it last week. Wide receiver fours mean you're going to get good weeks. You're going to get top 20 scores, but you're going to get weeks with four points. You're going to get weeks where maybe even a goose egg like it just happens for wide receiver. That's why they're wide receiver fours. And the biggest thing that it's not that I want to be oh IU Manor is a 4. You're stupid to think otherwise. I just want people to understand why receiver fours as a whole and the fact that you pretty much just roll them out there every single week. Now, maybe if you have like they're facing the worst possible, like they're facing the Broncos and somebody else is facing the Cardinals defense, they have nobody left that's healthy that you would say, okay, the tie break goes to who they're facing. But most weeks you want to just start your wide receiver fours because you're more likely to keep guessing wrong and then miss the good games and try to chase the good ones and then get the bad ones. All that being said, so but IU Manor, yes, you're starting them, but he's still a wide receiver of four. I would actually this is also a chance to potentially buy low on Calvin Ridley. It's not the best matchup, but he's still leading all the metrics of the team for over IU Manor. The only thing where he's not is the catchable percentage and actually the reception percentage, which is 38%. He is not connecting with Cam Ward, but IU Manor is. And we're about. I don't know about you, Fitz, but maybe two weeks away from saying if this continues that IU Manor is the one and Ridley's the two, like that's possible. It's possibly coming.
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Yeah. Fitz, I'm curious what you think about that. Like, not just I Manor for this matchup, which is a tough one, but how it pertains to Ridley.
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Yeah, I'm pretty much in lockstep with everything Jake is saying here. I do have IO Manor smack in the middle of wide receiver 4 range. Got him wide receiver 43. And so in a week with no buys, maybe he's less likely to start than he would be next week when the buys hit. And we're going to have some people missing wide receivers. So yeah, I a Manor. Like, is he already the Titans number one receiver? Like, we thought it was going to be Ridley and Ridley does have three more targets than I am Manor so far. But like Ridley, he has Had a lot of drops already. Like a problematic amount of drops. Like a what's wrong with Calvin Ridley amount of drops. And I a Manor is good. And oddly enough, like that was maybe the one blemish on Iron Manor's prospect profile is that he occasionally had drops at at Stanford. So Cam Ward only has two touchdown passes in three games. They both went to Iron Manor. And the only, the only issue here is that like Cam ward is averaging 168.7 passing yards per game. Like the, the Titans passing game. There's just not a lot of meat on that chicken wing right now. So that's, that's really the main concern and why I've got Iron Manor outside the top 40.
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One more receiver here to talk about Luther Burden who his his wide receiver finish in half point PPR scoring. In week one, he was wide receiver 118. In week two he was wide receiver 114. And in week three, he was wide receiver six. So obviously like, you know, a breakout game of sorts. Clearly, you know, driven by the big play. He only had three targets, three catches and one rush, but 101 receiving yards, seven rushing yards and a touchdown. Jake, I'll start with you on this one. What are your expectations for Burden for this week and beyond?
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D
Was it because I held up the poop emoji for people that weren't watching the video? Look, this is. I know a lot of times when people pick people off waivers and immediately try to trade them, people are like, well, it's so obvious. This is one of the ones. I would do it by any stretch of the imagination possible because I even wrote this up in the waivers. And I'm going to look at it because some of these numbers I'm obviously not going to remember off the top of my head. But the best case scenario, we have A wide receiver 3 since 2008 is Tyler Boyd winning Jamar Chase's rookie season when he was actually out there more than T. Higgins and he finished as wide receiver 38 for the year in points per game previous to that, you go back to 2008. What was that team? Larry Fitzgerald and Quan Bolden, Steve Breaston. Oh, by the way, with Kurt Warner throwing the football, unless Caleb Williams is going to throw for 4,500 yards and 35 touchdowns, which cool, sign me up because I would love that. A lot of my leagues, you just don't get three wide receivers who all have production, who all catch over a thousand yards. Somebody takes the back seat and somebody counterpointed and said, well, look at the Chargers. Well, yeah, but lad McConkey is the one taking the back seat right now. Lad McConkey is wide receiver 48. He's the one that's not involved. Now. That's going to hopefully change. But my point in this entire thing is that it's really, really, really hard. Oh, and by the way, to go back before that, you have to go all the way back to the 1990s and the Houston Oilers to tell you how far back you have to go to get three wide receivers with just over 900 yards, it's really hard to have a third wide receiver. And a lot of the other cases have involved tight ends. So. I love Luther Burton's talent. I mean, love Luther Burton's talent. He was a top five wide receiver in this draft class, if not top three. For me, it's just the landing spot. We just did this with the Dunes A last year. We did it with JSN the year before. He's behind two wide receivers. D.J. moore gets hurt. Or they finally say we're done with DJ Moore and kick him to the bench. Cool. It's just unlikely to happen. As much as you want it to happen. You still have Colston Loveland, you still have the backfield.
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C
You.
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D
It's just too much going on again unless Caleb Williams is going to start passing for 350 yards a game.
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Fitz, what do you make of Burden coming off of his wide receiver 6 finish last week?
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C
Yeah, I mean, you just can't start him yet because he's played fewer than 20 offensive snaps in every game so far and has had snapchairs of under 30%. So like, his time is coming. He's really talented, but it's just, it's not here yet. Like, I would rather have Luther Burden on my roster than Trey Tucker, who is complete fool's gold for anyone who was chasing that on waivers this week. Sorry. But like, good luck starting Trey Tucker the rest of the way. I mean, he's out there on the field a lot. I think he was like fourth or fifth in number of routes run last year in 2024. And I mean, what, what good was that for fantasy? So like Burton at least has a chance to be a player you want to start every week down the back stretch of the fantasy season. Trey Tucker has no chance to be that.
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I actually just traded for Burden in a dynasty league before this week. So a little bit better. Well, I traded away David Montgomery, but I that team. Montgomery was like a distant RB5 on that team. I'm Just really strong at running back. So I was like, let me, you know, this guy needs help. I need, you know, good, young, talented receiver.
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D
Anytime you can get rid of a running back after 28 years old in Dynasty, like, positive on top of that to boot. But yeah, like, definitely agree with Fitz. And I'm glad he brought up the Trey Tucker thing because I don't know, you know, what it is. He's new. Sammy Watkins. Just in week three. His name is Trey. He did it last year in week three, did it this year in week three. Just always start Trey Tucker in week three. There you go.
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C
Yes. And by the way, Jake has really annoyed me by bringing up that Houston Oilers thing because now I'm like racking my brain to figure out who the three receivers were. Ernest Givens, Heywood Jeffries, and I cannot think of who was number three.
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D
You want to.
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I don't.
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I'm going to test. Here's your hair's a giant hit. I'm going to test your R and B knowledge. How about never make a promise, Fitz?
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Oh, I'm not. How about good 90s R&B guy, Jake?
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How about you spell his first name D R U instead of D R, E W? Is it Drew Hill.
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C
Drew Hill.
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D
Drew Hill.
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Drew Hill. Okay. I should have known that.
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This is very.
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You should have known that. Come on. The crazy thing was as you got the other names, they did it in back to back years, by the way.
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C
Wow.
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Interesting.
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Yeah.
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All right, let's. Let's plant our flag on some players. Fitz, we'll start with you. Who are you planting your flag on for week four?
- [16:02]
C
Cam Scatterboo. Like, I was not sure if his game would translate to the NFL. I have seen enough. It is going to translate. I am all in. This dude is so much fun to watch. Like, the power is obviously his calling card. That and you know, the utter disregard for his body and other other people's bodies. But like, watch, watch Cam Scatterboo with the ball. Like, it's not just Cam running people over on every carry. Like, this guy processes angles in a way that's just so impressive. He had 10 carries for 60 yards and a touchdown last week against a Chiefs run defense that's always been lights out under Steve Spagnolo. And the usage in the passing game was really exciting. Six catches, 61 yards on eight targets. And like, you better believe the Giants are going to lean heavily on Scatter Boo this week with rookie QB Jackson Dart making his first NFL start against a really good Chargers defense like Tyrant Tyrone Tracy is hurts. We might get 20, 25 cam scatter boo touches this week and boy would that be fun to see.
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A
Jake, I know Fitz has already made it clear that he's following the volume, not the matchup, but are you worried at all about Scatter Booth just facing this really good Chargers defense to a degree.
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D
But I think that so I did the discord for the Athletic this morning. Somebody's like, who's this year's Chase Brown or Bucky Irving? I was like, it's Cam Scatter Boo. Because it's really the fact that I already thought he was coming for Tyrone Tracy's job when they drafted him and then he missed the entire preseason with the injury and that of course put him behind the eight ball because he's a rookie coming in on top of things. And yeah, last week I know people will point to the fact that Tracy was getting a lot of the early touches, but Scottaboo was still sprinkled in. But the opportunities were coming and now it's clearly has as Fitz said that you know what, we're going to turn to Devin Singletary. I will say this for a team that just went to Jackson Dart, if you are trying to get fired, you don't turn to Jackson Dart for one. But two is like if you are trying to get fired, you give Devin Singletary ten touches this week. Just get them the hell out of there. Pink slip on your door as you walk out because this should be, as you said, possibly 20 touches for scatterboo. The only concern I have is not even the matchups because he's so good. It's not just what Fitz brought up. You saw it like he bounces off contact. Like it's just he's so tough to like really get like off balance. Which is really great to see. But it's the fact the problem of my fear is that he's freaking wealth Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons. He's diving head first through windows like he's he's going to get hurt at some point if he doesn't stop. And that's my only concern.
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A
I have never seen the Simpsons, but I do understand that reference. I've seen the really meme. Yeah.
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D
Have you at least seen him when he dies into the living room head.
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A
First down that like you know, you know meme of it. Okay. I watched one episode ever an old roommate of mine found out that I had never seen the Simpsons. It forced me to watch one episode and that is the only it's the episode where Homer goes to like hell or whatever and is eating a bunch of donuts. I think that's what happens. I don't really remember, but that's the only episode I've ever seen, so what the heck, It's a big blind spot for me. Mayor brings it up all the time.
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D
I'm wondering what's next because we have like the no Taco Bell. Like what. What's possibly. What was the other thing? There's something else on this list already where it's like every time we talk about it, you somehow trump the thing that you've never done before that.
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Yeah, Taco Bell and the Simpsons might. Might be 1A and 1B.
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D
There was a third popular thing.
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I can't remember what the third one that I'm sure whatever it was TVs.
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D
Or movies or something like that.
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I'm sorry to disappoint you, Fitz and Jake. All right, Jake, who's your plant, your flag player?
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D
I'm staying at running back. I'm going to go to J.K. dobbins in this potential situation with the Broncos being in the game where they can run it out more. So, and I know everybody's pointing to, hey, it's good time to buy low on RJ Harvey, which I agree with. But at the same time, because Tyler Batty was finally kind of a non factor, I looked at R.J. harvey. I'm like, why can't this continue? Like, we all went into the season saying that J.K. dobbins could be the lead for the ENT and it wouldn't shock us. Like, we would hope that RJ Harvey would be more involved, but he's clearly been the lead so far and he's been the lead in that kind of mid teen touches. But it's not just the mid teen touches. It's what he's doing with them. You pick a metric and he's top 15 across the board. Oh, by the way, he's also number five in yards after contact. So like he's getting touches, he's getting yards, he's getting production, he's doing everything, getting usage inside the red zone and at the goal line. And I just look at J.K. dobbins, it's kind of like nobody wants to give him that respect because they're all like, well, RJ Harvey's coming. And we've done this before with JK Dobbins and yeah, but it's funny that we've also done this before with J.K. dobbins. Similar to old Christian Kirk. Not this year. Christian Kirk but where we said like as long as he's on the field, he's productive. Well, he's on the field right now and he's productive and he's J.K. dobbins. So I think I'm buying in. I have him as a top 15ish running back this week and it depends on the format, but he's right there and I'm just ready to set it and forget it for Dobbins goes sideways because it's Sean Payton. But until it does, it might not even happen.
- [21:06]
A
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- [24:42]
A
Guys, let's get into our start Sit player debates. Fitz, you might have noticed I did not ask you what you thought of J.K. dobbins after he was the plant your flag player for Jake. That's because I want to make our first start sit debate JK Dobbins vs Cam scatter so obviously you guys have planted your flags on these two players, but I want to kind of talk it out. These two against each other and kind of how you see them in the rankings. So Fitz, where does J.K. dobbins rank relative to Scottaboo for you?
- [25:05]
C
Well, so I've got dobbins at RB20. So like I'm exactly, I'm bullish. And you know what, what Jake was saying about RJ Harvey, like RJ Harvey could come on and still have it, not affect the value of J.K. dobbins fundamentally. Like I feel like maybe they Were trying to give Harvey a little more work last week. I think he only had five touches, but maybe he had two, including I think a couple a pretty nice game that was called back by penalty. It doesn't matter. Like Sean Payton's backfields have routinely had two fantasy viable running backs, you know, dating back to his days in New Orleans when it was like Camara and Mark INGRAM and DEUCE McALLISTER and Reggie Bush. Like this always happens in Sean Payton backfields. And Dobbins is the lead guy now and he's just got a marshmallow soft matchup against the Bengals this week. So wheels up. But I'm super aggressive on Scad Boo this week. I'm ranking ranking him RB14 and I think the ECR right now is like RB23 or whatever. Like I am all the way in on this guy.
- [26:15]
A
But yeah, by the way, that's a good call. So Scattery 23 in half PPR ECR. Dobbins is RB21. So they're very close to each other, which is why I thought it'd be fun to include them given that you guys are both kind of making your stances clear here. So. So you don't hate Dobbins despite what Jake is joking. You just are extremely high on Scatterby relative to consensus Jake. How do you see these two like relative to each other? How wide is the gap in your rankings? A little bit.
- [26:41]
D
Apparently. I hate Scatter Boo after glowingly talking about him because it's just it comes down to matchups this week and Fitz is right is that they did get Harvey more involved. But interesting enough in that I'm not coming for this Fitz. I'm just pointing for everybody out there that might think otherwise is that Dobbins actually had his highest running back touch percentage of the three games so far. Is Batty got eliminated but they split Batty's touches to Dobbins and obviously more in the run game and Harvey more in the passing game. And I agree with everything that he said and I think the problem real quick to go back to Dobbins and this whole workload situation, the RJ Harvey is everybody's picturing Alvin Camaro with Mark Ingram or something like that where Camaro was the guy. But you're not going to have Camaro every single time. Like this version, which is a lesser Camara, can be on the flip side reversing the roles. So not rolls but the touch percentage. So that's why if you gave me Giants versus Bengals and Broncos versus and that Kind of matchup. I would probably just flip their spots. It really just comes down to matchup for me this week and that's why I have Dobbins in front of Scatter Boo. But if you wanted to argue for Scatter Boo, I'm not going to call you bonkers. But apparently I do hate him this week. I'm the one that hates him.
- [27:49]
A
You can check out the expert ranks. If you go to a player's like page on Fantasy Pros and click rankings, you can see where every expert has a ranked and who has them ranked highest. Fitz is tied for the second highest ranking. There are three folks who have him at RB14. Fitz is one of them, but you're behind somebody who doesn't have them just one spot ahead, but who has them all the way up at RB10 this week. So that was going to be.
- [28:13]
D
My guess was 10.
- [28:14]
A
Yeah, there is. We have an outlier ranking there.
- [28:16]
C
Very.
- [28:17]
A
From Lou Brunson. I'm sorry, I don't know who that is. Lou Brunson has a very high.
- [28:20]
D
It might be right. I'll be fair. The last time we were this far apart last week, my plant, my flag not only went into quicksand, it kind of swallowed me up with it. And I'm pretty sure most people want me to stay there in the quicksand because my plant, my flag last week. And Jake Browning.
- [28:35]
A
Yeah.
- [28:36]
D
As side sideways as possibly it could. That offensive line is like us three trying to block like, holy hell.
- [28:43]
A
That was. I. I told you last week that I accidentally put a typo in this show sheet where I put joke Browning and that ended up becoming more accurate.
- [28:50]
D
You were the right one. Yeah, I was wrong.
- [28:52]
A
That was, that was, you know, should have been. Should have been a predictor for us. All right, so you guys, you know, made it clear who you, who you take in that. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. I always say that. I'm always like, if Fitz and I disagree, go with Fitz. I'm probably wr. Our second running back debate here. Javante Williams or Travis etn. Jake, I'll start with you on this one. Who do you like better this week?
- [29:16]
D
I like ETN. I know he's going against the 49ers and I know that Tutin's been involved, but I still think that ETN is the guy similar to Dobbins. Like the, the fact that Tutin, to Fitz's point, I'll echo kind of something he just said. Just because Tutin's getting more value doesn't mean it comes at the detriment to etn and I know some of it was saved late in that game last week, but I still look at atm being the guy in dobbins. Maybe it's not 85% like it was the first two weeks, but similar to the Dobbins situation, they're kind of in the same bucket. For me. I take Dobbins ahead of them. I have ETN more in line with I like his situation better this week, but Scatterboo's got the volume where I have them closely ranked and Javonte Williams just comes down to the fact that he's facing the Packers. I think last week's volume being down a little bit was mostly about that game and the game script, but I I don't want to start people against the packers if I can avoid it in a timeshare. So I have a decently sized gap. Like Javante Williams of the four running backs we've talked about so far is the lowest.
- [30:14]
A
So interestingly if you look at ecr, Javante Williams is the highest. But they are all back to back to back to back. It goes Javante Williams at RB20, then Dobbins, then ETN at RB22, then Scatter Boo. So these guys are all kind of very similar.
- [30:28]
D
Unless this is gonna agree with me, there's no way Williams should be in front of all three of those, especially Scatterboo and Dobbins.
- [30:34]
A
What do you think Fitz?
- [30:35]
C
No, I've got Javante behind all those guys and I've got ETN ranked higher here. Like his Etienne's usage has been really consistent. He's at at least 14 carries and two targets in each of the Jaguars first three games. He's pretty much been the best thing about the Jacksonville offense so far. And it's, it's not that I'm down on Javante. I think he's been kind of a pleasant surprise. And the Green Bay run defense maybe not impregnable as Quinte on Judkins demonstrated last week. Like it is easier to run on the packers than to throw on them. But the Cowboys have lost two of their three starting interior linemen in the last couple of weeks. First it was center Cooper Beebe who's on IR now, and now it's first round guard Tyler Booker who won't play this week. There might not be all that much room for Javante to run and I kind of don't expect the game script to be real run friendly for the Cowboys in the Micah Parsons ball. I kind of think the packers are going to stop them.
- [31:35]
A
I can't say the quote because it's inappropriate, but anytime I hear the, the, you know, word impregnable, I think of Bron talking about the eerie in Game of Thrones. And so hopefully people know the quote I'm talking about.
- [31:46]
D
Just got the reference.
- [31:47]
A
Yeah. That's what I always think about. Yeah. I was going to ask you, Fitz, what you thought about Green Bay's run defense specifically coming off of what we saw from Quintean Judkins last week. I know it's not a game you really want to spend a lot of time revisiting, but. And again, shouts to you for calling this last week that you know, all the, you know, the stuff going on with your daughter's birthday and what happened when she was born and 20, you nailed it. Yeah. On this one. But. But. So you don't think like that Quinton Judkins performance was like. I guess what I'm asking is how much do you think that's indicative of this run defense going forward?
- [32:23]
C
Yeah, I mean, maybe the packers run like, I don't think it's a bad run defense, but it might just be average. So I think a lot of teams will try to run on the packers until they can't, until they're in a position where the score dictates that they can't lean on the run. Because, like, if you run on early downs against the packers and don't get anything, like, you don't want to be in third and seven against this team all the time, like, that is a recipe for failure.
- [32:50]
A
Let's go to some wide receiver debates. Jake, I'll start with you here. Ricky Pearsall or Zay Flowers in week four? Who do you like better?
- [32:57]
D
So I'm laughing because this is the Zay Flowers. We're doing this again. And I'm laughing because you and I talked about a ton in the preseason. I know Fitz was on some of those. But, like, we have zay flowers, top three finish. We have zay flowers about 30ish. And we have zay flowers at 80. This is who Zay Flowers is. Like, you just have to accept the Zay Flowers. This is why I wanted him as a wide receiver three. I didn't get him anywhere as a wide receiver three because he was always going as a two. And that's why I didn't want to do it, is because he's more wide receiver 30 because some of these downs are really downs because of Lamar Jackson and this offense don't force anything. He's thrown it to like 75 different people already through three games. Like, he's just going to whoever he feels like and whatever's given and that's great for them. But all that said, I would still go Zay Flowers this week. I think Zay Flowers matches up well for the matchup against the Chiefs. I have Pearsall close to him and it would probably almost be neck and neck if Juwan Jennings doesn't return. We have to obviously wait and see on that, but I do think that Jennings coming back would almost have me if he was in full practice at like we're doing this before we know on Thursday, full practice Thursday and then full practice on Friday. I would probably put Jennings just barely in front of Piercel because Jennings is the guy went out there. But it really comes down to how healthy is he. It's three games in a row with Jennings. So if there's no Jennings, Pierce hills on his heels. But if there is Jennings, then he drops it as a bigger gap.
- [34:16]
A
Who do you think's more likely, Jake, to catch a touchdown in this one because Zay has won on the season. Pierce saw has caught nine. You know my feelings on Zay Flowers and the end zone. I just don't think it's like, like, you know, prudent to ever really project a touchdown there. But like I said, Piercel doesn't have one yet. So who do you think's more likely to get in the end zone for this week?
- [34:33]
D
Tylen Wallace, probably? No, I actually think Zay Flowers could get one. I actually think if I had to bet between the two of them just because I'm going to bet Lamar Jackson over Brock Purdy every time.
- [34:45]
A
Okay, Fitz, what do you think? Zay Flowers or Piersol? Not the touchdown side, but just who do you like better this week?
- [34:50]
C
Yeah, I mean, I pretty much agree with Jake's summary of the Zay Flowers experience. So I'm going with Pierasol here. But it. It's a conditional endorsement. Like it. It hinges on Brock Purdy coming back after missing last week with a toe injury and it is looking like Purdy back. It hinges on Juwan Jennings remaining out with an ankle injury and I don't think he was practicing as of Wednesday. And by the way, I disagree with Jake. I think Piercel is better than Jennings. I just do. And it hinges talent.
- [35:21]
D
No, no talent. I think that Jennings is the number one option for the team despite the talent. I will agree with you. I would take Piercel talent over Jennings. It's just he's clearly been the one when they're both out there treatment wise. And that also comes from. I'm just echoing beat reporters that say every single time they're on the Jennings is the one. So I agree with you. I just, I actually, it's funny. I agree with you, Fitz. I don't agree with their usage. I wish Piercel was treated as the one.
- [35:47]
C
Yeah, I mean, give it time with Pearsall. Like, I think he takes Jennings for sure and like we have to make sure Piersol himself is playing. He missed practice Wednesday with I think what's believed to be a minor knee issue. He. He himself says he's playing, but Pearsall is a huge part of the game plan. Last week against the Cardinals, 11 targets, eight catches, 117 yards. He and Christian McCaffrey were pretty much the entire San Francisco passing game. Like they combined for 26 targets. All other 49ers pass catchers had 12 combined. And yeah, if Jennings stays out, I think Pearsall is going to have a big day at home against the Jaguars.
- [36:26]
A
Fantasy pros has an are they playing tool. It's giving Ricky Piersol just a 41% chance to play based on historic trends right now. But. But that tends to get a lot more accurate later in the week. It's still Thursday morning, so a couple of days of practice reports to come. And like you said, Pierce hall has talked about himself playing. So I would just continue to keep an eye on that. By the way, just because I asked about it. Just to give everybody the odds on Hard Rock bet + 1:50 anytime touchdown scorer for Zay Flowers + 1:35 anytime touchdown scorer for Ricky Piersol. So they think it's maybe slightly more, you know, likely for Pearsall to do.
- [36:59]
D
It in a similar pretty aggressive eyes. I was expecting. That's kind of tight there.
- [37:05]
A
Yeah, I, I kind of agree with that, honestly. All right, one more wide receiver debate here in kind of our main debate section. Jake Ladd McConkey.
- [37:14]
D
Oh, I thought you were going to Fitz first. That's why I was taking a sip because you went to me first on the last one. You threw me off there. Go ahead, continue.
- [37:20]
A
No, no, it's okay.
- [37:21]
D
Fitz.
- [37:21]
A
Fitz's mic sounded a little like quiet on the last one, so I was gonna give him a second chance for maybe his Internet to catch up or something otherwise. So you had the right idea, but I was trying to, to be adaptable here. I'll stick with you. Jake Ladd McConnell or Brian Thomas Jr.
- [37:38]
D
This one's painful. I mean, between the two of them, both things have gone. Like I brought this up before when we were having the Luther burden talk. Lad McConkey's been the one left out and like, we're all just like, oh, it's going to correct itself. But Quentin Johnson finally looks like the first round talent. Keenan Allen has not gone away. He looks actually better than he did at any point last year. Looked like he did from two years ago. And granted he's on the field the least and he's out there in a lot of three wide and running a lot of the slot. But I have major concerns for lad McConkey also for the fact that the Giant secondary can get beat up all day long. But one of the bigger things too is like especially getting those deep balls with Quentin Johnston, by the way. So now it comes down to, I think Johnson is going to have a big game. He's the one that ranked the highest of the Chargers. And then it comes down to Ladd and Keenan Allen and do they even need to throw that much against the Giants? So all that circles back to say is I'm going to give BR Brian Thomas the slight edge even against the 49ers. 49ers defense is good. It's not great. But also everything is there for Brian Thomas.
- [38:34]
A
Everything.
- [38:35]
D
Like if you looked at it, if you peeled the name off and didn't know the team he was playing for and just left out reception percentage and looked at everything else, you're like, oh my God, this guy's in line for like top 10 performance. Given all the opportunities, all the targets that he's getting, all the red zone work, like everything is there, it's just not connecting. And I think that as we've talked about before, it's definitely a Trevor Lawrence issue and Brian Thomas does have a few drops to his name and I think it's being magnified because everybody's got their eyes on Brian Thomas as a pick that went wrong so far. But I'm just going to give Brian Thomas the slight edge because I still, at least when at the end of the day comes, I know there's no question he's a top two option for his team right now. Lad McConkey is kind of the third. I don't know if he is a top two any given week right now.
- [39:21]
A
How do you see this fifth?
- [39:23]
C
I'm taking lad McConkey here pretty easily and easily, easily. I mean, like, my concerns with Lad are far less than they are with Brian Thomas Jr. Like Quentin Johnston and Keenan Allen currently top 10 fantasy receivers Ladd, as you said earlier, Jake, wide receiver, 49 and a half point PPR. I'm not worried. Like lad is the Chargers best receiver period. And the presence of Keenan Allen and QJ make Ladd more of a wide receiver too, than the the low end wide receiver last year. But lad is going to get it going. Brian Thomas Jr. Has a 28% catch rate right now. 25 targets, 7 catches. He's averaging 4.6 yards per target and 1.04 yards per route run after averaging 9.6 yards per target and 2.45 yards per route run last year as a rookie. Look, I am not one to push the panic button easily on players. If anything, I'm patient to a fault and don't get struggling players out of my lineup quickly enough. I am mashing the panic button on Brian Thomas Jr. Like he and Trevor Lawrence have zero chemistry. BTJ is dropping passes and it. It seems like he's going out of his way to avoid contact, which makes me wonder if his wrist injury is really bothering him Again. It's not like BTJ isn't tough. This dude played through a chest injury last year that probably a lot of other guys would have sacked with. And I would love to see BTJ go for 100 yards and a touchdown this week and show us that he's fine. But I'm not betting on that outcome at all.
- [40:57]
A
These are again, two names that are just two spots apart in the rankings. Lad McConkey, wide receiver 20. Brian Thomas Jr. Wide receiver 22. Just to state that for the record, Fitz, would you be looking to like sell low on Thomas right now if you're panicking this much?
- [41:12]
C
Yeah, I mean, yes. And based on some of the discord questions I've gotten this week where it seems like some people are willing to buy not that low. Like, yes, I think a lot of.
- [41:27]
D
People think hello is low.
- [41:28]
C
He's going to snap out of this. Oh man. Like, I mean, I would absolutely take Cam Scatter Boo for Brian Thomas Jr. Right now. I'd jump at that. Absolutely jump at that.
- [41:39]
D
What about wirecr versus wide receiver?
- [41:41]
C
Like, I mean, I hates where it's a position.
- [41:45]
D
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, because I think this is interesting. I want to go back to the Luther Burden thing. DJ Moore, who's been kind of disappointing or Brian Thomas, because I think that one, like I would take Brian Thomas all day long. Well, here's why. So like the drops. His drop percentage is 12. It's kind of high. But we're talking about Mike Evans is over 10%. We're talking about the fact that like Marvin Harrison's at 11 point something like he's in the range of like a higher end one but he's also Emeko Buca and Deebo Samuel are almost 10% each. Like it's not an enormous number. It's high especially for Brian Thomas. But again I point to like Eric Ebron back in the day, Quentin Johnson for his first two seasons. Like drops get and you know this fist and this isn't like for everybody out there. Like Fitz isn't sitting there going like I can't believe Jake's coming for me on this. Like drops get magnified for people watching football, especially in fantasy and they're overrated. You can't have drops without targets. Like CD Lamb was getting crucified after week one. Like drops happen where I will agree the one concern of caution I agree with you Fitz 100% on is what if it's the wrist and that's leading to the drops but also leading to as you said, the avoiding contact. He made the business decision. He's not the first wide receiver to do it. But what if that risk changes just isn't 100% and that's really an issue that they're just kind of masking right now.
- [43:03]
C
Yeah.
- [43:04]
A
To your point, Fitz, by the way, about not maybe needing to even sell all that low. I'm looking at our consensus rest of season rankings. These are flex rankings so it's you know, all positions around him. He is still ranked pretty highly. The names that are like he is sandwiched between in both directions. Omarion Hampton, Zay Flowers, Ashton Genty, Tetarola McMillan, Kenneth Walker, Roma Dunze, Travis Eats like it's not really selling all that low. If you are going based off those.
- [43:34]
D
Consensus rankings you can take a lot of those names. I don't know if I would take 100% of them but pretty close. And you brought up that trade before fits which I thought it was a good one. I think the other part two here is like to go the wide receiver. You hate the challenge trades but I think if you're sitting pretty I'd buy Mike Evans for the cheap until he came back.
- [43:56]
C
Yeah, I think I'd rather have Evans than BTJ rest of season. I agree with that.
- [44:01]
A
All right, let's go to a more rapid fire start sit segment. Got a running back one wide receiver one some flex ones. We'll throw in a quarterback and tight end one as well. Running back Isaiah Pacheco or Ramondre Stevenson. Obviously Pacheco has been quite bad this season. Fits Ramandre, of course, coming off this fumble issue. Mike Vrabel has said like he needs to get over this because we need Ramandre. But the fumbling has been an issue for a long time in his career. We are all just craving an opportunity here for Trayvon Henderson. So are we going to get that and. And the Pacheco? You know, we were talking about it a little before the show fits. Like the defensive line for the Ravens is entirely injured. Nande Madam Wike might not play again this year or ever with this neck injury. The Ravens defense has already been bad and now their defensive line is even more banged up than it has been. They're just coming off this game where they got run over by the Lions. So maybe this could be the week that Pacheco finally breaks out. How do you see this one? Pacheco or Ramandre?
- [44:57]
C
I Pacheco one spot higher. Like rough start for Pacheco. Yes. But maybe this Ravens run defense which we were talking about before the show worm like could be a get well card for Isaiah Pacheco and at least we know he's not in the doghouse. Or at least I don't think. And like Ramon Ray Stevenson is probably one more fumble away from getting thrown into fumble jail. And like, like that's been an ongoing problem for Ramon Dre Stevenson. And like last week he is on the cusp of like losing his seat at the table in the Patriots backfield.
- [45:29]
A
What do you think, Jake?
- [45:31]
D
I picked it back up because yeah, I have him back to back. I have Stevenson just actually, no, I don't have him back to back. I'm even lower than you on this. Actually. I was looking at Trayvon Anderson for this whole point here. Stevenson one front of Henderson, both of them in front of both Chiefs running backs. I don't want any of them. Like, seriously, I find another one. What is the upside here? Any of them, they need a touchdown. You look at the Giants last week. Who could be run on Jakari Crosky? Merritt had the 82 yards and just 10 carries and a touchdown. Javante Williams went off against the Giants and then who got the touchdown last week? They keep turning to Kareem Hunt in those opportunities for the touchdown. I don't want a Chiefs running back. I don't want a Patriots running back. Because you're not wrong, Fitz, but it's hard. Took three fumbles in that dang game for them to finally be like, hey, maybe we use our best talent in the backfield. Would it shock anybody if they came out and all of a sudden and Travion still number three and Stevenson's back to leading this game and he needs one fumble. What? How? One fumble in the first quarter, one fumble in the second quarter, one fumble the third, and finally they'll go away from them. I don't want any of them. But they're facing Carolina and that's why I'll give Stevenson the slight ends. Despite what you brought up, you're not wrong about the defensive line for your Ravens. I'll just. I. This is almost like, like sociopath. Like, like I embrace the pain here. Like, I just have a feeling that the Patriots are going to do that and go right back to Stevenson.
- [46:51]
A
I think you might be right, honestly. Which is. Which is why I would lean towards Pacheco. I, I think Pacheco has a better chance of getting a touchdown just because I think there will be touchdowns scored in this game. I, I just think there'll be a lot of touchdowns.
- [47:02]
D
I think it's hunts when they get down there, which is the problem.
- [47:05]
A
It is a totally valid.
- [47:06]
C
Come on, guys, rebuttal.
- [47:07]
A
It's totally possible, but I'm. I'm giving Pacheco.
- [47:11]
D
Can we pick something nicer than that matchup? Like, that was terrible.
- [47:15]
A
Well, how About Quentin Johnston vs. Jameson Williams for the receiver side? Jake, does that one work for you?
- [47:21]
D
It does. And this Quentin Johnston despite I talked up Jameson Williams. Like this is the matchup for Jameson Williams to have and if I could find it real quick. And as I'm talking about Quentin Johnston though. But like the. Quentin Johnson already brought up the big plays for him and why it's. Opportunity is there.
- [47:37]
A
But.
- [47:37]
D
Oh, here you go. Jameson Williams against man coverage this year, which the Browns are almost 50. 50 in using man coverage, which by the way also is A league high 49%. 49%. Which is crazy that a defense still uses man coverage that much. Jameson Williams gets man coverage this year and it was already super high last year. But this year's number is ridiculous. 23.03 EPA versus man, which is an absurd number because it's such a small sample. But this is Jameson Williams that we saw last year, which was the point is that he does better against man coverage than he does against zone. Because what is Jameson Williams skill set? And like we know that. Just objectively know that and subjectively know that. So you look at the number and I say this is Jameson Williams game all that being said is I'm still going with Quinton Johnston until it stops and it's just connecting right now. Again, he's been the one. This is a defense that also gets caught behind and the deep ball plenty already through three weeks. I'm going to take Quentin Johnson against the Giants secondary. Just it's close but I like I have a feeling it's just going to go bad this week. This is what it turns into a pumpkin. We're not quite to October yet but so hopefully I get one more week.
- [48:42]
A
Fitz.
- [48:43]
C
Yeah, I've JMO ranked a little higher and I don't have a lot of confidence in this call but as Jake noted, like the matchup against a team that likes to play, man. Quentin Johnston though has drawn twice as many targets as Jameson Williams so far, 24 to 12. And yet we know Jameson Williams doesn't necessarily need heavy target volume in order to pop like he's currently averaging 21.8 yards per catch and 14.5 yards per target. So. But all credit to this goes back to what Jake was just saying about drops and you know, dredging up names like Eric Ebron like QJ had the yips early in his career. So all credit to him for keeping his chin up and, and surviving that case of the dropsies which actually at one point looked pretty career threatened happening. So but still I, I do think Jameson Williams is the better player this week.
- [49:37]
D
This was the I credit to whoever it was. I don't remember. So I'm sorry but this is the the Happy Gilmore learned how to putt. Quinton Johnston learned how to catch.
- [49:44]
A
Yeah, yeah, I have seen Happy Gilmore. There you go, there's one. Although I think, I think Big Daddy's better among the Adam Sandler movies.
- [49:54]
D
Oh gosh, here we go again.
- [49:57]
A
Let's go to a flex one here. Tony Pollard or Tea McMillan this week? Fitz, who do you like better?
- [50:03]
C
Pollard. McMillan's looked really good so far. No one else has gotten very well. No one's gotten excited about Tony Pollard this year. And yet Tony Pollard is averaging 9.8 half point PPR fantasy points per game and McMillan is at 9.5. And with Taije Spears on IR, Pollard has gotten no fewer than 18 touches in any of the Titans first three games. McMillan also matchup problem goes against the Patriots. New England's past. He has been really bad so far, but one of the reasons for that ace cover man Christian Gonzalez has been out with a hamstring injury. He is expected back this week and he is probably going to Lock up with Teterom McMillan quite a bit. Give me Tony Pollard here.
- [50:44]
A
Jake, who do you prefer?
- [50:46]
D
Yeah, Pollard slightly. And that's coming from somebody that didn't want Pollard this year because it's all volume. Like, we just saw the volume last year and he was RB24 and fancy points per game. Well, he's all volume this year and he's not even RB24. He's just outside of it. But he's right there still. But until Spears comes back, which then I'm definitely concerned. And sell before you can. If you can get some value elsewhere or even a buy low running back situation with Tony Pollard, but at least for right now, yeah, he brought up the Christian Gonzalez thing with McMillan. I still have him very close, but I would go pollard barely over McMillan in this situation.
- [51:18]
A
Jake, how about Travion Henderson or Calvin Ridley? I know you already said that you don't really want to do anything with the backfield, but would you start Henderson over Ridley?
- [51:27]
D
So this feels like I'm chasing ceilings for both because the Henderson situation, like, yeah, okay, he got the first run in practice. That could just be variable, being Vrabel, like just to kind of trick everybody. Like, I would love the answer to be if you told me Henderson 55%. I don't even need 65, just 55% of the touches. It'd be like Henderson all day long because it's been so gross between Cam Warden and Ridley, they're not on the same page. This is Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas all over again. All the numbers are there for Calvin Ridley. He leads the team and routes and opportunities and targets and everything like that. And even air yards, it's just not connecting. So I say that to say these are ceiling plays. Both of them are to me, with possible zeros for both. So in that case, I would actually go with the wide receiver because on a per touch basis, if they only Both only get 4, 6 at the most, then Ridley's going to have the higher ceiling.
- [52:21]
C
Fitz, I'm going with Henderson, even though we can't predict the back. Yeah. And it's possible Stevenson is not in fact in the doghouse and maybe Gibson isn't either. But I do think Henderson is probably in line for more work this week after being the one who didn't put the ball on the ground last week in a bad loss to the Steelers.
- [52:41]
D
So I hope so.
- [52:42]
C
Plus, really good matchup against the Panthers run defense, which remains bad worst in the league last year. Panthers are giving up 5.7 yards per carry to running backs this year and I just don't want to play Calvin Ridley right now. Like, I think he's leading the NFL in drops. Like he has been really bad this year.
- [53:01]
A
Another flex one here fits Nick Chubb or Michael Pittman Jr.
- [53:06]
C
I do like the spot for Pittman. Like Colts, Rams is a Vegas total of around 50 and that game could be a shootout. And the Colts are probably not going to have Alec Pierce, who's recovering from a concussion, so maybe few extra targets siphoned Michael Pittman Jr. S way. But I do tend to favor the running back in these flex debates between running backs and receivers. So that's the case here too. Give me Nick Chubb. He's had at least 11 touches in every game so far. I think he has the safer floor.
- [53:33]
A
Fitz, what do you think?
- [53:34]
D
Yeah, or excuse me, Fitz or Jake. Yeah, I'll barely go there too, especially when you talk about with the Rams situation. So I think you're looking at the matchup slightly with Nick Chubb because. Just because the Titans, I'm okay going against them and giving the volume there. The Rams have kind of been hit or miss and like covering wide receivers.
- [53:57]
C
Yeah.
- [53:57]
D
That's who they play this week. Right. Like the Colts and. Or am I misremembering Colts that right? Yeah. Yeah. So I could see them focusing on Pittman and kind of limiting the upside for Daniel Jones. And Daniel Jones ends up doing more with Jonathan Taylor and it's all on the ground and Tyler Warren, obviously. But that's why, like it's not. Not an overly concerning matchup, if that I was remembering correctly. But it's enough that I'll lean to the volume of the running back.
- [54:22]
A
One more flex here. Jake Bayshaw, Tutin or Jordan Addison coming back?
- [54:27]
D
I'll go with Tutin. And it just comes down to they're starting to get him incorporated more. And that was before when I was saying that I'm not worried too much for Travis ETN, but the Tutin usage, if we're talking about RJ Harvey usage and we're talking about 10 touches a game, it really comes down to the first game back and I know it wasn't an injury, but Jordan Addison coming back to what it is probably going to be a pretty conservative offense. The Steelers defense hasn't been that good, especially against a run, so you could probably see another 20 touches for Jordan Mason in this game. And a Carson Wentz at this point of his career, he already kind of was to a degree, but even so much more so like he's so game manager. You might as well just take Carson Wentz house and slap Andy Dalton in there at this point I just feel like how many pass attempts you're going to have. Is he going to even force it to Jordan Nassen when you have Jefferson? And then they finally started to show a connection with Hawkinson after late in the game the week before. There was a good connection throughout the game last week. It's just how many opportunities is Aston going to get? So this is one where I'll just go for Tootin in the backfield.
- [55:25]
A
Fitz, I'm not sure if you've talked about this on earlier shows this week. I wasn't able to listen this week due to my schedule. So I don't know if this is talked about it. Support your coworkers, I apologize. But I'm really curious because I know you have been a Jordan Addison fan, you know, coming into the season in general, you know, setting aside the suspension stuff. So, so I'm curious where you have him ranked in his first week back. Especially considering like Jake said it's not coming off an injury so you wouldn't think there would be that kind of rust. Maybe a different kind of rust obviously. And then of course the questions with the offense. But do you like Tudin or Addison better this week?
- [55:59]
C
I like Addison but I struggled with this one. I mean this is one of those dilemmas you face when you're in a 16 team league I think. And like and one of the things, and this is not exactly an argument for Addison in this case, like, like the first time Carson Wentz has ever thrown a pass to Jordan Addison was yesterday, Wednesday in Vikings practice. Like that was the first time these guys have worked together and like I don't even know if Addison plays full snaps in his first game back from suspension. But still like Addison is just a terrific player, like a fantastic player. And I don't know where we are on basaltooting yet. Like he's playing 30. Go ahead.
- [56:41]
D
I was going to say my one counter argument too against Addison is that I feel like this Vikings defense is just going to murder Aaron Rodgers and like they can just, they just grind out the clock with Mason all day long. And that's part of my like again why I go back to those wentz even attempt 30 passes in this game. I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the 20s.
- [56:59]
C
The Vikings recipe for success is probably trying to hide Carson Wentz as much as possible. So you could be right about that Jake. But like at the same Time. Bashel Tutin, like, he's interesting, but he's played 34 snaps in his first three games.
- [57:12]
A
You're not wrong.
- [57:13]
C
I don't. Yeah, I, I don't think he's startable yet.
- [57:17]
A
Got a quarterback one here. Bryce Young or Jackson Dart in his first career NFL start. Jake, what do you think about this one?
- [57:24]
D
Let's go Jackson Dart. But it really doesn't even come down to the Giants. It doesn't even come down to Jackson. Actually it kind of does come down to Jackson Dart because I'm going to reference a joke I made but like this is where it comes into fantasy. Like when they drafted Jackson Dart, I was like, congratulation, Giants, you just drafted Daniel Jones 2.0. But I'm saying that like I do think Dart has a higher ceiling. Although Daniel Jones, this, this year is a completely different story. But Daniel Jones to Jackson Dart to Drake May. I need the Spider man. Three people all pointing at each other because that's what we have in fantasy. We have the rushing upside of 5, 600, maybe even 700, best case scenario for all of them. So you have that rushing appeal, but you also have similar styles of quarterback when it comes to throwing the ball. I like Dart more than deanda Jones as a pure passer and that's the opportunity here. Now let's also look at it. He has Malik neighbors like also everything being equal to Drake May. And now even including this conversation toss up that you brought up was Bryce Young. Well, as much as we all love the opportunities for Ted Roa McMillan, I like Malik neighbors more than McMillan any day of the week. So I'm going to give the edge to Jackson Dart. But if Fitz disagrees and we just did the Jake Browning thing, I'm just ready for Jackson Dart to finish his QB 29 this week. I'm just letting you know right now.
- [58:37]
A
Now Fitz, do you disagree?
- [58:40]
C
Well, I don't know. I almost walked out when Jake threw Drake May and with these guys like what the heck, Drake May and Jackson Dart, what?
- [58:49]
D
They're all the same.
- [58:50]
C
No, dude, Drake man's good. Drake man.
- [58:53]
D
No, Drake May's better. Sam Howell, like he's better. No, but he's not. He's not. He's not on another tier of Jackson Dart and Daniel Jones.
- [59:02]
C
He absolutely is on an another two. Like he is for whatever. It's much better pass or oh my goodness, like for whatever it's worth on a different planet than these guys in.
- [59:11]
A
Expert consensus rankings right now. And I know that's not only what you're talking about Jake. Drake May is QB6 for the week, and Bryce Young is QB23. And Jackson Dart is QB27.
- [59:20]
C
So it does feel the football. And watch Jackson.
- [59:23]
D
I have. Drake May is overrated.
- [59:26]
C
Oh, my goodness. So I have Bryce Young ranked a little higher than Dart. Like, they're both outside the 20. Totally possible that Dart runs for enough yardage to outproduce Bryce Young in fantasy. But, like, first NFL exposure. Darts passing numbers probably aren't going to be very pretty in his first NFL starts. I think Young might charge just a little better percentage play. Yeah. Good Chargers defense, too.
- [59:49]
A
He's. Jake's out here calling him Fake May, not Drake May. He's. He's.
- [59:55]
D
I said he's better, but he's not. Like, this isn't another world better.
- [59:59]
C
Yeah, I'm. I'm going different.
- [60:01]
D
Do you have Drake May as a top 10 quarterback in the NFL?
- [60:04]
C
Oh, yeah.
- [60:05]
D
Oh, we have a whole other show. There's no way. No, wait, wait, wait.
- [60:09]
C
It's already there.
- [60:10]
A
You're just. You're just talking fantasy, right? You're not saying top 10 non fantasy. Or are you saying in real life?
- [60:17]
C
I mean, like, because I. I am.
- [60:20]
A
I am with Jake on this, I think. Clear. Top 10 fantasy quarterback.
- [60:23]
D
Yeah.
- [60:25]
A
NFL quarterback.
- [60:26]
C
Yeah. I mean, are we putting, like, Bo Nicks ahead of him? Like, I certainly wouldn't.
- [60:31]
A
There's a lot of good quarterbacks in the NFL.
- [60:35]
C
They're not a lot. I mean, I'd rather have Drake May right now than Kyler Murray. I'd rather have, like.
- [60:40]
D
Okay.
- [60:41]
C
I think I'd rather have Drake May than in Pretty immobile Baker Mayfield. Stafford.
- [60:46]
A
Yeah.
- [60:47]
C
I mean, like, Baker's more fully formed right now. Baker's better right now.
- [60:52]
D
Jack Mayer, Jared Goff to lead your team.
- [60:55]
C
Yeah.
- [60:55]
A
I mean, I just think you can get to 10 pretty quick. Not. Not talking fancy. I think it gets, like, two different.
- [61:01]
D
Conversations for everybody watching this show. To be clear, Drake May, I have as QB1. I have Drake May inside my top 10, to be clear. But, like, I'm just talking about pure NFL as a thrower. I think he's better. Like, I want to make that clear. He is better than those two. I just think stylistically they're in the same bucket where, like, if we were doing tiers. Put it this way, like, if I had an imaginary better version of Drake May, Drake May would be tier two. Both of them would be tier three. It just sounded like you were saying Drake May's tier one and both of these Dudes are tier four. That's what. That's kind of what it.
- [61:32]
C
I think he's a better quarterback right now than Daniel Jones. Sorry.
- [61:35]
D
Yes.
- [61:36]
C
Yes.
- [61:36]
D
No, no, no. I agree.
- [61:37]
C
Jackson Dart like isn't even on the map yet. Like, I don't even know if he has the Drake May starter kit. I mean, we'll find out. But. But let's see it.
- [61:48]
A
Well, I. Yeah. This. That. That did not go the direction I expected it to.
- [61:52]
D
That's what makes it fun.
- [61:55]
A
We got a tight end one here for everybody. Hunter Henry coming off a really big game or Jake Ferguson who's going to have this real opportunity with. With Lamb now missing a few weeks. So Jake or I think I started you last time, so I'll start with you, Fitz, Hunter Henry or Jake Ferguson?
- [62:09]
C
I spent like 15 minutes the other day trying to figure out which of these two should be ranked higher. Like I ultimately.
- [62:14]
D
So 14 minutes. Too much. Much.
- [62:16]
C
Pretty much. I, I ultimately sided with Jake Ferguson mainly because of my university Wisconsin bias. And like there's, there is not a lot to celebrate with Wisconsin football these days for him. I mean, the Badgers actually just lost a home game to the Maryland Terrapins.
- [62:32]
A
That's how I, I wasn't gonna say anything. I wanted on record. I hope everybody clocked the fact that I did not bring up that game once to you. Fit.
- [62:41]
C
So with. With. With Wisconsin football being this hapless, I have to search for reasons to be proud about the Badgers. So I'm going to celebrate the fact that Jake Ferguson is currently on pace for 153 catches this season. His 27 catches trail only Puka Nakua. And you know, Fergie's going to be really busy again this week. With CD Lamb out, the packers seem like a tough matchup, but they've actually given up the sixth most fantasy points to tight ends. But let's like look, Henry is a great option too. Currently your tight end. One in half point PPR fantasy scoring and he gets a great matchup against the Panthers. Who gave up the most fantasy points to tight ends in 2024 and have given up the 8th most to tight ends this year.
- [63:25]
A
First of all, since you brought it up, not me, I'm going to correct you and say that Wisconsin didn't just lose at home to Maryland, they got their doors blown off them at home to Maryland. It was, it was a, a demolition by a. A true freshman quarterback for Maryland making his first career Big Ten start. And we dominate.
- [63:42]
C
He's going to transfer to a different School next.
- [63:44]
A
No, people keep saying that he's a hometown guy. That's not gonna happen. He's gonna be. I told you already. I was like 2028 dynasty first round picks start saving him up for Malik Washington right now. Speaking of Dynasty, I actually want to ask you a quick question. Fitz, one of our co workers, Brandon, who we all love here at Fantasy Pros on the dev team, he messaged me yesterday asking if he should move off Isaiah Likely for Jake Ferguson in the Dynasty league. And my response to him was Jake Ferguson is definitely better than Isaiah likely for 2025. But I think likely is better than Ferguson long term because I really believe that he will not be sharing a tight end room with Mark Andrews next year, whether it's in Baltimore or somewhere else. So I was basically saying like if you're in win now, I'd go with Ferguson. But if you want to think long term, I go with likely. What do you think about that question?
- [64:34]
C
I agree with your assessment. Higher ceiling for likely. Ferguson is useful, but ultimately he is kind of a catch and fall.
- [64:41]
A
The other thing is Brandon also has Tyler Warren. So I was like, you already have an upside tight end. Like just aim for more upside, right? You're not starting these guys over Warren typically. Anyway, so. So that was my thought anyways. Ferguson or Henry? Jake, who do you like better?
- [64:57]
D
Ferguson's not on the same stratosphere. I'm kidding. Like really what comes down to is it's legit a coin flip to me to the where I would go. Hunter, Henry and Non and Ferguson in ppr. Like that's how close they are to me because I think that Ferguson was the clear beneficiary of no CD Land. Like people are like, well what about Turpin and Tolbert? I think it's really just more. It's more Ferguson and that's what we're going to see. So I'll give him the slight edge. Hunter Henry, like said, is going to be more of the potential volatility than Ferguson will be. But if we're really going to talk about our college football teams, I just want to talk about the fact that we didn't bring it up last week week and they were off. So Old Dominion freaking gob smacked Virginia Tech in Virginia Tech. I just want to bring up my alma mater and say, hey, how about that one?
- [65:41]
A
Virginia Tech was a school I grew up rooting for because both my parents went there. Obviously I switched to Maryland.
- [65:47]
D
Have you talked to your parents since that game? Should I give them a call?
- [65:53]
A
Both My parents were there and my sister and my brother in law. I am like the black sheep of the family who didn't go to Virginia Tech so so I have a lot of people I could call after that actually.
- [66:01]
C
Was that game the last straw for the Hokies coach? Was that the game?
- [66:04]
D
Yeah that was the one. That was the one that got 45 points to ODU at home.
- [66:08]
A
Oh man, you could say goodbye to Start Sit Dilemmas with Fantasy Pro Starts It Assistant within seconds you'll know exactly who to play for optimal results each and every week. Leveraging insights from numerous experts, the Start Sit Assistant aligns your lineup decisions with the top minds in fantasy football, giving you a competitive edge. Maximize your lineup lineup's potential with just a few clicks, head to fantasypros.com myplaybook or download the Fantasy Pros app and make winning decisions in no time. We are about to get into our touchdown calls for the week but first I want to let everybody know you can join our free touchdown calls contest in the Fantasy Pros Discord. Each week pick four players you think will score with a bonus flex worth double weekly. Winners get a $25 fantasy pros gift card and the season champ takes home a signed Bijan Robinson jersey. Play now by going to fantasypros.com chat and heading to the Touchdown calls channel. Jake, you are on running back this week.
- [67:01]
D
Yeah, I'm going right back to that Giants matchup. I mentioned it earlier. Cross Demerit scored. Both Cowboys running backs including Miles Sanders scored against them and Kareem Hunt got the rushing touchdown last week. So it's Maureen Hampton's turn. Unfortunately Najee Harris is out for the year. You want to talk about Bell Cal use for everybody that was disappointed with Hampton for the first couple weeks you just got your potential RB one because because man he's going to have a day and he's going to have a great one this week against the Giants and get into the end zone. So let's go.
- [67:26]
A
Martin Hampton fits here on wide receiver Ricky Pierce.
- [67:30]
C
All I think he's going to play this week. He is third in the NFL in receiving yardage but hasn't scored a touchdown yet. I think the drought ends this week.
- [67:39]
A
Speaking of the drought ending, I am on tight end. We'll see if I can pull it off. I told you guys that when I was putting this together I was like okay, I'm just going to pick Whoever tight end one is and like stop messing around. And it's Trey McBride and he doesn't catch a lot of touchdowns. So I was like, all right, well, maybe I'll look a little bit lower. I'm going with Tucker Craft. He caught a touchdown in each of the first two weeks. Obviously he's having this great breakout season. Not so much in week three. A, it was he was facing like what might arguably be the best defense in football. And B, you know, he had that injury scare in the middle of the week going into week three. So he didn't, you know, have a normal practice schedule. Yeah, I'm expecting another week later, be a little more healthy. He's also facing the Dallas Cowboys who give up touchdowns to literally everybody. So. So I'm going to Tucker Crafts.
- [68:19]
D
You know what's going to happen?
- [68:20]
A
Get off the schneide there.
- [68:21]
D
You should go like Njoku's going to get off the schneide because the Lions just got blitzed by Mark, your boy Mark Andrews and have no linebackers. And finally everybody's going to be like, I don't want ninjoku. And it's going to be an Njoku touchdown week here.
- [68:32]
A
I'm giving you a bonus. You can call that down and a joke. Who does? I'm going to be really upset that you're like, quick throw in would have been right. And my pick was not.
- [68:39]
D
But it's tight end with.
- [68:41]
A
Yeah, yeah, exactly. We're going to the Marion Hampton, Ricky Pierce, all in Tucker Craft. You could dominate your fantasy football league with Fantasy Pros Premium, now available free for six months when you deposit and place your first wager on one of our partner sportsbooks. This is the easiest way to get full access to our top fantasy tools all season long. Go to fantasypros.com premium to get started. We will win a little long today, so we'll wrap up there for Jake and Fitz. I'm Ryan Warmley. Thanks everybody 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 TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
- [69:49]
B
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- [70:48]
D
Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez.
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A
Back to school is an exciting time.
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D
But it can also be overwhelming and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that.
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D
Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking.
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A
Learn the signs and how to report@dhs.gov.
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C
Blue campaign ever go to make nachos.
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D
On game day and realize the cheese is missing? Or the chips?
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C
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D
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