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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Week 5 Fantasy Football Reactions & Injuries + Early Week 6 Waiver Wire (Ep. 1753)
00:45:09
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- [00:00]
Tara Roberts
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
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- [00:36]
Seth Wilcock
All right. And welcome into the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast. It's the Week 5 Sunday recap show coming to you live right here on the YouTube channel. I'm your host Seth Wilcock, joined by two of the brightest minds in the business, including our injury expert here at Fancy Pros. He's an orthopedic sports surgeon and the founder of Sports med analytics. He's Dr. Deepak Cho. Jonah. Deepak, great to see you once again today. How are you? Following a pretty light day on the injury front, but I know it was a busy week for with a bunch of midweek news to stay on top of.
- [01:09]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Yeah, man. And it still keeps rolling in. Big week for the Texans as well. Big, huge little boost. So I'm, I'm riding high.
- [01:17]
Seth Wilcock
I'm glad to hear it, man. Can't wait to dive into the injuries with you. Also back alongside me is one of the many Texas natives we have here on the Fancy pro staff. She's perhaps the biggest ACC apologist on the Internet. She's Tara Roberts. Tara, how is week five treating you so far?
- [01:32]
Tara Roberts
It's been good from a college perspective. I'm not having to apologize this week, so I feel super happy about that. And NFL good. We got some big boom games here. Lots of offense fun games here. So yeah, it was a great week.
- [01:44]
Seth Wilcock
Now that we are back on YouTube, today's program does look like this. We're going to be breaking down the most notable injuries with Deepak. Then Tara and I will give you our five top storylines of the day. We'll then take a trip to the panic meter. So give us the players in the chat that you're most worried about and we'll rank those on a scale from 1 to 10, how much we're panicking here at FP. And then finally we'll round out the program with a rapid fire Q A. So send any Sunday specific questions you have and we can help answer those for you. Or if you have any Monday night questions as well, we'll Be sure to get to those. And before we jump in, shout out to everyone who's rocking and rolling with us on the YouTube channel. Please be sure to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoy this type of content. Also, make sure you're subscribing to the channel if you're new. And let's go ahead, everyone. Let's get to those injuries that we noted. And Deepak, let's start at the top. Another New York Giants wide receiver is plagued by another injury. It looks like Darius Slayton. He exited with a hamstring injury. So what is it looking like for Darius Slayton here? Is this another one to three games type of situation? Deepak?
- [02:45]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Most commonly it would be. We really don't have an indication of severity just yet. They'll usually get an MRI tomorrow and then find that information out. But average is going to be two to three weeks. For wide receivers especially, there's a little bit higher of a re injury risk if you rush it back. So most players would be out next week at least. But we'll find out relatively shortly here with the mri.
- [03:04]
Seth Wilcock
Tara, without Slayton out there, is there another Giants wide receiver you're excited about other than Wanda Robinson? We did see Bo Collins get 28 snaps, Jalen Hyatt 34. Or is it more about Theo Johnson here, who had six catches, 33 yards and two touchdowns on seven targets this week?
- [03:22]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, I feel like rather than looking and trying to find another Giants, we just got to look and see where the ball was spread around here. We saw a nice uptick in Volum from a past practitioning perspective for Scatter Boo. And then also Theo Johnson with that amazing game there, that's definitely where the investment is. We've seen it, you know, uptick in volume two weeks in a row. So yeah, lean in.
- [03:41]
Seth Wilcock
Another injury we have is Tampa Bay Buccaneers Bucky Irving. He was inactive today with a shoulder supplication, I hope I'm saying that right. And a sprained foot, Deepak, Allegedly this shoulder injury is worse than the sprained foot was and it wasn't reported to the team until Tuesday, so we didn't know about it last Sunday's recap show. So do you have any idea what kind of timetable we're looking at for the Buccaneers RB1 to return?
- [04:05]
Dr. Deepak Chona
So the average on these is going to be about two weeks out and that's actually a relatively similar timeframe to what a midfoot sprain would be as well. So the thing with the shoulder that being the more severe of the two injuries, that is news and from the standpoint of where that goes forward, usually the production dip from those is pretty low. Most players play at a high level when they come back. But the key is re injury risk and it's a little hard to know, but there is definitely a re injury risk. It's not as bad as the Xavier Worthy's sort of shoulder dislocation, which this is more of a partial type of injury. But with that being said, we usually see them somewhere around the 15% for the season, so we'll hope to see him continue on the field when he is. It would start him.
- [04:50]
Seth Wilcock
Okay Tara, if it is Rashad White for another week, where will you be ranking him at 14 for 41 on the ground, two touchdowns, and then also saw a pretty good helping in the passing game as well. 4 for 30 on four targets. Is he right back in that RB2 mix again for you?
- [05:05]
Tara Roberts
He isn't. Honestly, given the matchup, probably a little bit higher here. I could go as high as top 15, work on the ground for him again, you know, underwhelming. But the pass catching upside that he has is continuously there in the matchup in Week 6 is against San Francisco. Very friendly run matchup there, surprisingly. So yeah, he could slip into the top 15 pretty easily there.
- [05:25]
Seth Wilcock
Okay. We also have Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers. He was inactive with a PCL injury, slash bone bruise. Deepak Bowers has tried to play with this injury throughout the season. He didn't today. Is this something that keeps him out for future games and could this also linger and hamper his production all year long?
- [05:43]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Yeah, I think it very much could and that's really the concern. I think the reason that they sat him. He came out this week and said that he wasn't feeling like himself. He wasn't, didn't have the ability to separate. Now if he had the PCL sprain and everything went well, the average production dip on that is about four weeks. So you'd be seeing him kind of progressing on actually in the right direction from here. So the practice progression went from limited to dnp, so it suggests a setback. And then him being inactive this week usually also would result in at least one more week. So those bone bruises can be problematic because if you're running on it all the time, it's just going to get worse. So I would think he's out at least next week, potentially even more. It's very concerning for the next probably about six weeks.
- [06:29]
Seth Wilcock
Well, we'll talk about who is the top tight end. In the meantime, later on in the show, some more injuries here to get to, including Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard, inactive with a calf injury that led to the way to just a monster day from Rico Daddle. Doc, what can you tell us about the injury here for Chuba? This was another one that kind of popped up midweek for us.
- [06:49]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Right. So Chuba Hubbard, he has been dealing with a relatively mild calf strain and we know it was mild because he didn't really miss time, but he was always on the report. So with a re aggravation or worsening of that, you kind of bump it up in degree on generally one category. So he goes from mild to moderate and that averages about a two weeks absence. So most players would miss this coming week as well and then return after that. We don't have an indication that it was a severe injury. So overall I think there's some buy low opportunity there.
- [07:22]
Seth Wilcock
Okay, some buy low opportunities. Deepak is calling out and we'll talk more about Rigo Dowdle on his big day a little bit later on in the program. I do want to talk about Malik Neighbors as well. While we know he's done for 2025, he is about to undergo surgery here for a torn acl, a torn meniscus, while also allowing a partially torn labrum and turf toe to heal. So it's four different injuries for the former LSU Tiger here. Deepak, what does this mean for his return in 2026?
- [07:50]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Yeah, so the, the turf toe, letting that heal has been something they've been managing for quite some time really since the OTAs, it sounds like, and potentially even since his LSU days. Now with that, we don't expect a long term dip from that because he was already playing really at a very high level through that injury. Similarly with the shoulder, the it's similar to that partial subluxation type of injury where players can play through it at a high level, often seeing rest days in between but not usually missed time as long as they don't re aggravate it. And so that should not carry over a lingering dip. And then lastly coming to the knee, the ACL and meniscus that gets treated all in one surgical trip and as a result most players average about 10 months to return. You do usually see a performance dip the first year back and that blow is kind of softened by the high level athleticism that Neighbors has and kind of we use the combine metrics as a objective measure of that. So he's at the elite levels there. And then secondly, young Age. And so those are the two biggest factors in terms of predicting a faster return to his prior performance level. So the first four to six weeks of the season, you probably will see him play probably on some sort of snap count or at least a dip in his production by mid season next year. You're probably looking at a very similar level to what you're used to seeing from neighbors.
- [09:15]
Seth Wilcock
You said last week you would still be willing to maybe take the gamble end of the second round, early third round. Does that still kind of hold true with this update for you?
- [09:23]
Dr. Deepak Chona
It does, yeah. I think like I said, the other injuries, they are significant, but for the level of player that, that he is, he's been playing through them and still producing at such a high level. So I think you can bank on that.
- [09:36]
Seth Wilcock
Okay. And Deepak, I don't know how much information you have on it right now. It happened towards the end of that 4 o'cl window, but we did see Omarion Hampton leave with what appeared to be an ankle injury. A lot of concern in the chat form. A lot of people have him in a lot of leagues right now. I, of course, had the parlay of the week wrapped up into his. His combined yardage metric. That didn't come through. So a big bummer here.
- [09:59]
Tara Roberts
But.
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Seth Wilcock
But what is the update that you can give us right now on Omarion, if you have any at all?
- [10:04]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Yeah. Oh, Marion Hampton, it looks like he's dealing with an ankle injury. They were taping him up and he was testing some movements out after coming out of the medical tent. But he didn't go back in the game as far as I'm aware. So that usually you would see him getting X rays and not even testing anything if there were a severe injury there. The fact that they were taping it up suggests a low ankle that he was trying to get back in from. So I would think this is on the milder severity. We'll find out tomorrow. Sometimes we do see these players get very swollen the next day, but the fact that he was testing it, trying to go back in suggests to me it's on the milder side. So probably back in the next week or two.
- [10:42]
Seth Wilcock
Tara, is there a backup running back you are going to the waiver wire to add this week? Would it be Vidal? Would it maybe Haskins, a former Jim Harbaugh Michigan Wolverine.
- [10:52]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, it's rough. I knew you were gonna ask me that. You know, I'd have to go through and look and see like play by play if either one of them was getting preferential treatment because it happened so late. It's kind of tough to tell there, but I think I would lean more towards Haskins. He had been the one who had been active. Kamani Vidal had been on inactive for the first few games there when we had Naji. So order should be the pecking order but we kind of need to play it by year there.
- [11:17]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah, it might be one of those situations where we see Haskins kind of get the early down thumper work if Hampton were to miss a game and then maybe it's five down that pass catching rule. We kind of saw him play that role towards the end of that game. Catching a couple dump offs there from Justin Herbert. Before we let you out of here, Deepak Xavier Worthy we're getting updates from Adam Schefter may be questionable for Monday Night Football. Do you have any information on him? It seems like he was kind of a full go all week. So a bit of a confusing situation popping up here for fans, fantasy managers late in the week.
- [11:47]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Yeah, very much so. So they're listing him with a shoulder and ankle questionable and to your point, he fully practiced all week. The suggests that the ankle I suspect is the bigger of the issues and the reason being that the shoulder would be prone to re aggravation but usually that re aggravation would come from a big contact hit. Not usually the types of things you would see as much in practice as the game. Now the ankle that it being a new injury is a total sort of wild card variable in the sense that we don't really have any indicator of how severe it is. You're a little bit rolling the dice here. Again, the suggestion is that this must have happened today or yesterday for this day. So it's pretty fresh. If you have another option and I'm considering myself starting Travion Henderson in the flex over Xavier Worthy as a result of this. But it sort of I think depends on where you're at with your lineups in the sense that if you're, if you need the big payday like you got to go Worthy, but there's going to be a chance he sits and we really have no indicator and won't until the game.
- [12:49]
Seth Wilcock
Tara, if you had to make a snap call and you have the spot on your bench, would it be juju Smith, Schuster, be Taekwond Thornton? Maybe one of those two that you're adding if you need a play and you don't have anyone here to roll out in just about a half an hour on Sunday Night Football?
- [13:03]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, I would lean towards Tyquan. I mean he still had a little bit of relevancy there. It was cut down with Worthy, but prior to that Tyquan was the one that was separating himself from Hollywood and Juju Smith Schuster. So yeah, save yourself the roster spot just in case you have to make that move. And then it would be taekwondo.
- [13:18]
Seth Wilcock
Okay? Dr. Deepak Chona always on top of it for us when it comes to fantasy football and NFL injuries. How else can we help support you throughout the rest of the season?
- [13:27]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Man, hit us up on Twitter and Instagram, primarily sports meta analytics or search my name and every week here we will continue to be joining and hopefully not seeing too many more injuries and a lot more Texans wins.
- [13:41]
Seth Wilcock
Well, we appreciate you Deepak. Have a great rest of your night. Thanks again for joining us. We'll be right back. We'll get into our top five storylines right after a real quick reminder that if you want a chance to win a signed AJ Brown Eagles jersey for free courtesy our friends over pristineauction.com all you need to do is head to fancyprose.com contest, complete the form and either a download the Fancy Pros app, b leave a review for this podcast or c follow us on X Instagram or Tick Tock where at Fantasy Pros. The more actions you complete, the more entries you're going to receive and we will be announcing a winner right here on the podcast near the beginning of next month. So if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you ring the bell so you don't miss a second of all our content and then you can be alerted if you are that lucky winner and to claim your prize. Tara, let's go ahead and get into the storylines of the week. It was a very very busy one and I think we have to start at the top with Rico Dowell dominating on the ground fueling a Carolina Panthers comeback win. 23 for 2:06 and a touchdown. 9 yards per carry. Also had 3 for 28 through the air, good for 32.4 fantasy points. We know that Chuba Hubbard's only run for 217 yards in four games this season. Dowdle in this one took 47 snaps, Trevor Etn had 14, D.J. dallas took 12. What do you think the split is like when we do get a healthy Chuba hovered back at some point.
- [15:03]
Tara Roberts
I think it'll still lean towards Chiba Hubbard. They did make the monetary investment into him in terms of the multi year contract. So I don't know if this one game, particularly against a objectively bad Miami defense is going to really tilt anything one way or the other. But I think it just emphasizes that again, while there has been, you know, shaky offensive line play for the Panthers, the run game can still be strong in the right matchups. They have a very favorable schedule. Rest of season it's been, you know, when we talk about strength of schedules heading into the season, the Panthers are one that we were like, hey, this is a, this is a GRE flag scheduled here and we're finally seeing it kind of come to fruition here. So it was good to see Dowdle because I think sometimes we forget like there was once a time when we were, you know, we were shipping Rico Dowdle in Dallas and we're super excited about it. So I'm not surprised that he put this level of production out of here. But I think ultimately for us, just a high end handcuff here that we can play if needed.
- [15:57]
Seth Wilcock
Maybe a good sell high opportunity for Rico Dowdle. Right? Let's see if we can get one more week out of him having some elite usage and then maybe it's time to ship him off. I'm sure the Chuba Hubbard manager, if you know the backs are split between rosters in your league, they might pay you a pretty penny at this point for Rico Daddle. So I'm not surprised either. Like it is a guy. We saw it last year with Dallas, right. He was a very capable running back. I mean I think if we were to rank all running backs in the lead just off talent one through 50, he's probably in the top 50 somewhere. It's not, you know, high end, high end talent but still very solid day form. So Rico Dowdle definitely going to be a must roster player regardless rest of season. Someone that hopefully you guys were getting ahead of the waiver wire and added early this week or even potentially earlier this season as well. Next up here for storylines of the week, tight end 1 overall becomes a real question mark Here we have Jake Ferguson. He was the tight end one of the season coming in averaging over 17 fantasy points per game. He currently leads the position in scoring again on Sunday. That's pending Sunday Night football, of course. Nine targets, seven receptions, two touchdowns for 23.9 fancy points. We also had Tyler Warren, he was the tight end five coming in. He averaged 13.3 fantasy points per game. Earlier this season he scored again four receptions on four targets, 44 yards. He had 14.4 PPR points his fourth game over double digit fantasy points this season. And then Trey McBride, who has also been a top five tight end this season had just under double digit fantasy points this weekend. So Tara, do you think now with Brock Bowers injured and banged up that we have to start having a real conversation about who is the tight end one rest of season and. And is it one of these three players I mentioned? Is it still Bowers or is it someone else?
- [17:37]
Tara Roberts
You know, for all we know, it could be Kittle coming back here soon after. I think week seven was the target or something like that that they were thinking. But yeah, I mean, it just kind of emphasizes because we've had so many solid streaming options pop up, you can make different moves at tight end. Jake Ferguson, definitely when we're thinking about rest of season, you want to lean that direction just because of how fantastic Dak Prescott has been pushing aggressive volume here. Now we will downtick in production when CD Lam comes back. Right. He'll still be solid, right? The numbers weren't awful when he was out there. There was one game against the Giants where he had double digit targets. That was with CD Lam. And so he can still have a massive impact there. You know, Trey McBride is probably the most solid tight end, but he does lack that overall ceiling that some of these other guys have because he doesn't have the same level of touchdown equity.
- [18:29]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah, I put out a tweet right. Right before the show here asking who they thought was potentially the tight end one rest of season split right down the middle between Ferguson, McBride and Bowers. But Warren actually was leading that at 45.5%, the rest of the tight ends at 18.2. So it feels like you might be able to float out Ferguson and get an absolute haul right now. Is that something you would consider just because we do have Lamb coming back and maybe suppressing that volume a little bit?
- [18:54]
Tara Roberts
I would for sure. There are a lot of guys that had these big performances here and Ferguson is definitely one of them. Because when you, when you look at the options in terms of the streaming options that are popping up, we've got Mason Taylor, we've got Darren Waller that popped up. Now granted everybody jumped and grabbed him, but if you grabbed him and maybe you grabbed him and you roster Jake Ferguson or Sam Laporter or something like that, you can flip and then turn to one of these very awesome stream worthy options. We talked about Theo Johnson as well. So we've got guys popping up. I mean even, you know, Dylan Gabriel breathed life into those Cleveland tight ends. Like no, none other than today. So there are options here. I think a lot of these tight ends that are putting up. These massive numbers here like Ferguson are definitely sell or sell high candidates.
- [19:35]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah, I do agree with you. I will say just from like an eyeball test, Ferguson feels like he has taken a step forward and shown a little bit of talent that I didn't know was there at some points because I've always kind of seen him as more of a volume getter, more of a catch and fall type of guy who doesn't have a lot of yards after the catch. But he certainly showed up in a big way. We saw him take the short pass down the seam about 40 yards and score that big touchdown. So I've been impressed to see what, what he's been doing and also getting a lot of first read routes. So. So, you know, not a terrible guy to hold on to. But like Tara says, if you can get an absolute haul for him and if you have someone else or maybe a Browns tight ends out there on the waiver right wire right now, not a bad option to potentially flip him. I also want to talk about Woody Marks here, Tara, because I'm seeing a lot of people in the chat upset with the performance from Woody Marks. It was a bad week. Seven carries, 24 yards, no targets for the talented rookie out of USC. The snaps did look like this. We saw Nick Chubb handle 24, Woody Marks handled 27. So still the majority of the snaps here. But we saw Damian Pearson on this one, 16 snaps, British Brooks with 11 as well, dare Ogumba, Wally, three snaps. So it was really a committee. But is that, you know, partially because of the game script in this one.
- [20:46]
Tara Roberts
You think might have been a game script issue? Again, it's kind of weird because we felt like Marks had taken that step forward and to see this kind of flip, even the uptick in snaps in terms of Damian Pierce was weird. So almost as if they were trying to like, like go a different route and see how it works out, especially against a Baltimore defense. Like this is a good time for them to maybe try to experiment against this Baltimore defense that has been literally gutted on the ground and kind of see in an ideal matchup, what do we have to work with as a whole? I wouldn't panic over Marks, obviously because one, the snaps were there. This was good. The production being a little underwhelming compared to what we thought we were going to get in terms of Woody Marks, RB1 season. Yeah, that was a major issue here, but we're not panicking. It is frustrating, frustrating here. This was weird usage, but ultimately we didn't see a massive downtick in his snaps. So we're not going to have a big panic here.
- [21:43]
Seth Wilcock
Texans on by in week number six. They'll be back in week seven against the Seattle Seahawks. I imagine the ECR, he's probably going to be closer to an RB3 flex candidate. Is that kind of what you're thinking ranking wise moving forward? I feel like he's kind of back outside that RB2 range that we were ranking him in this week with a bunch of buys and everything.
- [22:03]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate.
- [22:05]
Seth Wilcock
Okay. All right. Also speaking of the the Ravens here in their defense, the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys defenses remain absolute cheat codes for opposing quarterbacks. I think this is a big storyline. We don't talk a lot of defense on the show, but the Cowboys allowing a league High average of 27.4 fantasy points per game. Two opposing quarterbacks coming in and then Justin Fields, he lights them up here. QB3 on the weekend week 25.9 fantasy points also 32 of 46 through the air, 283 yards, two touchdowns and then also add 7 for 26 with his legs. The Ravens, meanwhile, they allowed 23 fantasy points per game coming into this week, the third most in the country. And then C.J. stroud, QB1 on the week, the best we've seen C.J. stroud look honestly in quite some time. 28.8 fantasy points, 23 of 37, 244, four touchdowns and a big carry for 30 yards as well. Next week the Cowboys are playing the Panthers. Next week the Ravens are playing the Rams. How high will you be ranking those quarterbacks in Bryce Young and Matthew Stafford? And is it pretty much like almost an auto start for any quarterback playing these D's right now?
- [23:09]
Tara Roberts
Tara it is, man. And I know it'll feel uncomfortable because Bright Young again, it's, he's, he's, he's shaky. He has the means to put up the numbers right. You've got an excellent supporting cast there. He has his upside on the ground as well. So it's not the most awful situation. Right. But yeah, when it comes to these two defenses, it's all systems go. Light it up across the board. They've just been so, so, so bad. And especially when we look at the Cowboys defense, I think that's the one that you really hone in on as well. Regardless of who they're playing against, just because the offense is so fantastic, it forces these high volume games. Teams have to chase against the bad defense. So it's a really good setup there and as long as the Ravens are dealing with these injuries, yeah, we've got.
- [23:57]
Seth Wilcock
To target them as well real quickly here as well. Another storyline. Speaking of the Cowboys, Brian Flourne, that flashes this week, he's a 20, 246 round pick out of Central Missouri State. That is a Division 2 university. Had 10 receptions, 102 yards last year as a whole, four for 35 this year. Today, meanwhile, 18.4 fantasy points, nine targets, six receptions, 114 yards. Also two carries for 10 yards. Yards very, very involved but still third in snaps on the team. Just 34 to Jalen Tolbert's 46. George Pickens of course, led the team with 47. There is optimism that CD Lamb could return next week. Kevonte Turpin was also out with a foot injury. Are you spending any fab on someone like Flourney here or do you think this was really just a flash in the pan, if you would.
- [24:45]
Tara Roberts
I think it was flash in the pan. The jets defense is awful as well. They're a little bit, you know, in terms of what they can do. Well, they held on as long as they could against George Pickens and so it makes sense that Flournoy had this uptick in production there. But yeah, unfortunately we, we've got Turpin that's coming back so that even, even if we didn't get CD Lamb and we get Turpin back, that would make it an issue. But then CD Lamb as well, there's just not going to be any room for him. So it was fun, it was cool. But I don't know if it's usable for next week.
- [25:14]
Seth Wilcock
One more headline here. I know I said I'd do five. I want to do a bonus one though because Bill Crosky merit breakout game potentially here. 14 for 111 yards on the ground, two touchdowns as well. Also found his way to two receptions for 39 yards. McNichols Chris Rodriguez combined for just six touches. Was this the breakout we've been waiting for for JCM? And is he a potential RB2? Must start moving forward here. Tara.
- [25:41]
Tara Roberts
You know I'm not gonna lie. I've been skeptical just because of the committee that, that Washington has been so clearly dedicated to for multiple years now. But for him, he's, he stood out as clearly the most talented one in the offense. And this isn't just this week. We've seen it time and time again from a running back perspective. He's been clearly the most talented. It's just whether or not they would allow him. And sometimes you get those teams that don't allow it. We see it with New England and not allowing Travion Henderson to be out there, but this was pretty definitive here. And when you look at the schedule moving forward, we've got Chicago, Dallas and then things, you know, get a little bit tougher. Playoff schedule is not that bad either. So when you look at it, yeah, it might seem like a sell high opportunity. I don't hate it if you want to get out of it. But yeah, you know, moving forward he does solidify it himself. In terms of putting up into that RB2 area, you feel more comfortable with it. And as long as the matchup is is decent, I, I feel like we can turn to it with confidence.
- [26:41]
Seth Wilcock
Well, and speaking of decent matchups, the Chicago Bears on Monday Night football in Week 6, then the Cowboys as well. So a really good run setting up for JCM here. If you've held on to him this long, congratulations. If you went out and bought him low congratulations as well. And you know, I'll say, Tara, like I really felt like he was the difference makers for the Commanders in that game. They weren't getting a lot through the air going aside from, you know, some RPOs here to the tight ends. We saw Debo catch a couple flash plays, but really it was JCM who was sparking some big, big gains down the stretch. So, so I'd be very excited to start him against the Bears. I think he'll be probably top 15, top 18 in ECR next week. And then Cowboys probably right there. Same thing as well. So very excited about that. Very excited about everything we did see in week number five of the season. And before we keep it moving, just a quick reminder and a shout out to our good friends over at Hard Rock Bet. They're our presenting sponsor for this particular program. Week five wraps up in Duval county between Kansas City and Jacksonville. So let's take a look at this streak from Hard Rock Bets. The Stat Hub page on their app. Jacksonville's defense has forced the most turnovers so far this season, but we still like Patrick Mahomes to have a great night in Fantasy. He's our third highest QB in the Fantasy Pros consensus rankings. Patrick Mahomes also is thrown for 272 plus yards in seven consecutive week five games. His over is just 250.5 yards. That stat again courtesy of the Hard Rock Stats Hub. If you haven't tried it yet on the Hard Rock Bet app, make sure there's still time that you get invested with them. You can get $150 in bonus bets. If you win, just place a five dollar bet and if it hits, you're gonna get yourself $150 in extra bonus bets. Plus, every single day during week five, you get a profit boost for a parlay on Hard Rock Bet as well. If you've already missed Thursday or you haven't used Sunday or Mondays, don't miss out. Boost your parlay so it pays extra winnings. There are new promos out every single day, so if you're listening to this later, just open the app and check it out. Any day this week, download the Hard Rock Bet app and make your first deposit today.
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- [31:49]
Seth Wilcock
Tara, let's go ahead and get into the panic meter. I want everyone in the chat who's listening to us live on YouTube right now to drop a couple names that you're panicking about. Who is someone that has let you down time and time again. Or maybe they just had a blip in week five and they didn't come through for you. Who are you panicking about? Tara and I will rank them on a scale from 1 to 10. One not panicking at all and 10 being full blown panic mode. So Tara, let's get into the panic meter here and I want to start with with someone in Jameson Williams here, Zaza saying he should be dropped. Do you agree with this assessment?
- [32:22]
Tara Roberts
And it's tough. This was a really good matchup here. So if there was a matchup, we were finally going to see that volume tilt back towards him. This was it. We didn't get it. Instead we got the Sam laporte today. I don't think he's droppable because he is who he is. He's Jameson Williams and it takes literally two receptions for him to have a massive fantasy day. But at this point it's really tough to trust him in rankings. He moves into more of a low inflex option and you're streaming guy a Lot of guys over him at this point.
- [32:50]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah, I mean we're at a point now where it comes off this game just one target for JMO and he now has four games under double digit fantasy points and that's not what we are paying up for him in the fifth, sixth round. Sometimes I saw him going as early as the top 48 here and it's one of those situations where like I have pie on my face. I thought a Monroe St. Brown would maybe take a step back, we'd see Jamo continue to elevate here without Ben Johnson but it seems like it definitely is not the case. So I mean I'm probably a 7 on the panic meter about Jameson Williams if not more. Like you said, I'm probably streaming like whoever I really can at this point over him like Flourne. I'd probably start him next week over him at this point.
- [33:27]
Tara Roberts
Paul Goshen got to that point. I'm like slightly less panic than you. I'm more like I'm not like a 5 just because again we've got good quarterback situation, we've got a talented guy, we've got no injury. So it's not like I'm like I'm a like okay, I'm feeling not so awesome about it but I'm not full blown. Oh my God. The end is nice. So yeah, I'm more, more of a five here on him.
- [33:50]
Seth Wilcock
Okay. What about Jerry Judy? Jerry Judy is someone else who has just been consistently underperforming this season. I don't think anyone expected big things this week with Dylan Gabriel at quarterback but he really did target the running backs, the tight ends quite a bit. Just 2 for 15 here for Jerry Judy. Judy, his fourth straight game under 10 fantasy points. His max has been 11.6 this season. Where are we at here on Jerry Judy, the former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver.
- [34:17]
Tara Roberts
I won't bear the lead here. It's a solid 10. It's a solid okay, okay. On the panic meter with him because Dylan Gabriel coming in here and this was my, this was my fear when he came in and we look at what he is good at and Kevin Stefanski kind of looking at preseason and what they like to do with him. It's not shocking that we saw the increase in productions going to the tight end. More intermediate stuff putting him in better situations so where he doesn't have to make aggressive passes downfield. So the receivers not getting the big benefit here doesn't shock me at all. You know when I look at this offense, I love Quin Sean Duncan. And now we do have a boost to these tight ends but outside of that man, I feel super uncomfortable. So with Jerry Judy, I don't want him in my starting lineup. I didn't want him before, but now it's kind of like a, I mean I think we might be there.
- [35:05]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah, I mean it's one of those situations too. Like I guarantee we'll all go cut Jerry Judy and then he'll have this huge blow 40 point game like he does every season. And that's kind of the ride with Jerry Judy. But if you can tell me the game's rest of season where you are excited to start him and feel comfortable starting him.
- [35:20]
Tara Roberts
Yeah.
- [35:21]
Seth Wilcock
Then, then tell me that. Dallas, week 11 maybe do you want to hold him for six more weeks? It's Tennessee, it's Kansas City and it's the buy. I don't feel good about any of those matchups necessarily. I, I think we'll see a heavy dose of the ground game against Tennessee and I, I, I think again against Kansas City it's not going to be very good as well with their outside cornerbacks playing at least manageable so far this season. What about Jacoby Myers though, Tara, is this someone you are panicking on as well? Because Myers has seen just kind of a decrease in volume after the first two weeks. He saw double digit targets starting out against New England and the Chargers. Putting up double digit fantasy points with those hasn't really bottomed out to the point where he's killed you. But he hasn't had over nine fantasy points points since week two.
- [36:03]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, we're at eight with him. Unfortunately. This, this was a game where he should have seen some increased benefit of Brock Bowers being out because that opens up more intermediate opportunities for him. So when we're looking at his production in this game and then we look at Geno Smith and his preferences, I just feel like it might be a situation of Geno Smith as a quarterback not meshing with Jacoby Myers. That's why we're seeing these increases targets towards Trey Tucker who has become the most reliable receiver in the offense at this point. But it kind of makes sense when you look at what Geno likes to do.
- [36:38]
Seth Wilcock
Mark Andrews, is he someone else that you're potentially looking to move on from? Are you panicking about? Because we had this really nice two week stretch, right? We had the big game against Detroit in prime time in week three, six for 91, two touchdowns there, also seven for 30 last week. But we did see Isaiah likely back in the mix this week. Week slightly. And only three targets for Mark Andrews with Cooper rush at quarterback, two for 22. What's the panic level on Mark Andrews?
- [37:04]
Tara Roberts
I feel like we can't judge too bad with Cooper Rush at quarterback. I mean he's a, he's a veteran quarterback, but at the end of the day we will see fluctuations in terms of how the pass catchers operate in that offense with him at quarterback. So as of right now, will I start him next week? Probably not. I'm waiting for Lamar to come back. We anticipate probably after the buy here. So yeah, we're, we're at a panic meter high, very high level on him like, like a nine. But it is because of the situation. Once we get back into Lamar Jackson and then much better matchups, the schedule really opens up. I love like Loki, I love potentially investing in these Ravens pieces, including Derrick Henry, maybe even Mark Andrews, just because the schedule opens up beautifully. Rest of season after the buy, Chicago, Miami, you know, Minnesota has been kind of shaky right here. Their playoff schedule is Pittsburgh, New England, Green Bay. It does get very advantageous.
- [37:58]
Seth Wilcock
Last one here, Juwan Johnson. Is this a 10 and he's droppable Because I mean this kind of story with Juwan Johnson, right, he pops up. He's had high volume games. He was a, a guy coming out of Penn State. More use as a wide receiver than a true tight end in college. It took him a couple years to develop here down in New Orleans. We thought maybe this was finally the breakout season. He had over 28 targets in his first three games this season. Just seven over the last two weeks. Tara, under 10 fantasy points combined find here in week four and five. I'm probably at a nine or 10. Like Taysom Hill is already back. That guy's a freak show. I mean, it wasn't much that he gave you fantasy wise, but I just don't think I really want anything to do with this New Orleans pass catching group outside of Crystal Lobby right now.
- [38:40]
Tara Roberts
It's more like a seven for me, maybe even a six the past two games. Oddly enough, New Orleans has kept them and they won this game. They've kept it so close that Spencer Rattler hasn't been having to push aggressive volume. If we can get into some games, games with much better offenses and that's what we're heading towards. We'll start to see Rattler have to throw back up well above 30 attempts. And once we get that volume, I think that Juwan's back on the table.
- [39:06]
Seth Wilcock
Okay. All right. Derek does is not agreeing. He is saying go ahead and drop Juwan. I. I get it, man. It was, it was a tough outing. And Mason Taylor, maybe another guy. Yeah. You can go out there feeding families today. Yeah. Hopefully if you bet on Mason Taylor, you're getting yourself a nice steak dinner winner as well. Before we keep it moving here, I did want to remind everyone about the Fancy Pros Discord community. Such an awesome place always over there in the FP Discord community. Go to fantasypros.com chat to get invested with us over there. You can chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that actually wind up on our podcast feed. Our schedule currently looks like this Worm and Fitz are at 5 Eastern Talking Dynasty the first Tuesday of every Monday month. I'll actually be filling in for Worm this week. So excited to chat with Fitzy about what's new over there in the Dynasty trade value chart. Bogs and Fitz at 5 Eastern on the third Tuesday of every month and then Welsh and Erickson Thursdays two Eastern every single week. So come get your questions answered and be on the show@fancyprose.com chat now. I want to go ahead and get to everyone's questions. Go ahead and drop those below. We'll be sure to get to them as many as we can here before Sunday Night Football kicks off. Looking forward to helping out where we can. I know a lot of people are in some tough situations right now. In some tough situations. Here's one as well from Rachel asking, do I play Hollywood Brown or Keon Coleman in the flex with Worthy's new injury designation half point ppr. What do you think, Tara for a friend? Rachel?
- [40:34]
Tara Roberts
Honestly, I lean towards Hollywood and you know, even without the injury designation, Keon's been highly disappointing in terms of volume. I would go ahead and take that chance and lean towards Hollywood. 1.
- [40:44]
Seth Wilcock
What about Shakira worthy? Are you trusting Shakira here, one of Josh Allen's most trusted weapons?
- [40:51]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, if you want to go with the floor, play there and go ahead and go with Shakir. I'm not mad at it. Apples to apples. No, but it's a risk that he doesn't play. So going ahead with Shakira there is fine.
- [41:05]
Seth Wilcock
Chris asking Devonta Smith over AJ Brown rest of season. Are you feeling that way too, Tara? Really nice game for Devon Smith. 8 for 114 didn't find the end zone but AJ Brown could have potentially had a couple deep shots. Jalen Hurst missed him a time or two, but five or 43 he was shadowed by Patrick Surtan for a large.
- [41:24]
Tara Roberts
Majority of this game though, no, it's still A.J. brown. That's over. Again, you mentioned the matchup does favor targeting to go towards devonte and at the same time on a weekly basis it's tough to trust either one of these guys in terms of pass volume unless they're specifically trying to push it there. No, it's. It's AJ Brown that I still have. I think as we continue to move forward the safer bet on a week to week basis is still AJ Golden.
- [41:47]
Seth Wilcock
Travis Hunter or Blake Corum as a stack in 10 team leagues. I actually like I might be on an island here. I mean I, I do think Matthew golden should probably be the one rostered out of this group Terror but I actually think maybe we see a bit of a breakout coming soon for Travis Hunter, specifically tomorrow against the Chiefs. They've struggled against slot wide receivers this season. That's where Travis Hunter usually is playing out of when he is playing on offense and we didn't see him play a lot of defense late in that last week four game. I don't know if that was necessarily a coaching decision of hey he's been terrible on defense or hey we just want to give him some rest so he can play better on offense. What's your kind of situation here? Do you also like maybe Travis Hunter's potential stash candidate right now? Maybe a sneaky play tomorrow? And how do you factor golden and Corum into this trio?
- [42:35]
Tara Roberts
Yeah, it's golden for me with Travis Hunter. Again like the trust level with Trevor Lawrence is also an issue. We have to rely on. One he's we've got. There's a lot to overcome there for him. One we got. Trevor's got to be accurate, right? That's a big issue. Then you have BTJ that Hunter has to overcome. Right. So I feel like there's a lot going on here and then for golden quarterback situation is fine. It's just men and he's been fine as well. It's just a matter of hey, you know, consistently can you get that volume there. And we've got, you know, probably two more months without Jane Reed. So I still lean towards golden and I don't hate Corum as a, you know, high end handcuff. Right. Obviously on a week to week basis we can't use him. But if you want to go that direction and you're stacked at wide receiver and just want to stash Quorum, that's fine as well.
- [43:18]
Seth Wilcock
Woody or JCM for a rest season from Joe here.
- [43:21]
Tara Roberts
Tara, I mean, if you asked me last week it would have been different. Probably lean towards JCM there. Again, you don't trust the committee, but at that same time, Houston is not being very straightforward about leaning into one running back versus the other here. And at the very least when you look at that Washington offense, they're more competent as an offense overall. Right. In terms of offensive line situation and consistency. So I would definitely lean into Washington.
- [43:50]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah. Especially with Jane Daniels back in the mix. Terry McLaurin hopefully getting back healthy soon. We'll continue to see that offensive line, which was a lot of new pieces coming together, continue to improve throughout the rest of the season. So I'm with you there. A little more steady. Is there still hope for Calvin Ridley after one good game? Look, I've been saying it for about a week that I was actually interested. I was going around, I was buying this guy for absolutely nothing. I was giving a ham sandwich and a six pack of beer and cigarettes out Tara this week to get me some Calvin Ridley. I wasn't thinking this would be the game that he would break out a little bit. I actually had some plays over on AO Manor who seemed to get locked down a little bit at times, but Ridley who was on the injury report all week, kind of has the Jobu game here. So do you have hope for Calvin Ridley that him and Cam Moore can continue to build off the chemistry that they showed tonight in that epic comeback?
- [44:38]
Tara Roberts
I'm a little hopeless on this one. It was good to see see it was but but I can't let one game distract us from everything that we saw before. But man Cambor did look very sharp on that final drive there. So there is hope for Tennessee in the long run here. But still this split in terms of him and I Manor, I don't know if I can trust it on a week to week basis there.
- [45:02]
Seth Wilcock
Okay wow. Here's a really good question from Atlantic City Phil AC Phil asking Quinshaw Judkins or Bree hall rest of season Season it was another big carry day for Quid shot Judkins. Keep in mind he also had that long touchdown called back due to holding penalty. 14 for 113. Averaged 8 yards per carry for Breeze Hall, 4 for 42 in the passing game as well. 17.5 fantasy points right now coming off of of that really good day for Breeze Hall. So where are you at here Judkins? Breeze hall rest of season if you had to pick one.
- [45:34]
Tara Roberts
Yeah I saw that one in the chat and I was like oh I wonder if you're Gonna show it. It's. It's. It's Judkins. Judkins. I moved all the way up my rankings this week. When I look at Hall, I love hall, but we would be remiss to not notice, like, the lack of touchdown opportunities. Just. Just kind of crazy there, unfortunately. I don't know if that's going to change in the context of the jets offense, unfortunately. So volume, receiving upside and he's doing well on the ground. That's awesome. But ultimately, the touchdown equity with Judkins and the way that he has been matchup agnostic. It doesn't matter. Bad matchup. He's been putting up those numbers. You got to go with Jug kick.
- [46:11]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah. And the schedule looks pretty favorable for him as well at the Steelers next week and then down south for the Miami Dolphins as well. So gonna be a really good stretch for Judkins. I'm with you. I love Breeze Hall. I think these are both like, top 15ish running backs, top 12ish rest of season, but either way, you're in good spot. But I think Judkins feels a little safer while Breeze hall is just so fun to root for. So, Tara, thank you so much for your time today. Anything else you have going on this week week over here on the Fantasy Pros channel that we should be aware of and keep an eye out for.
- [46:42]
Tara Roberts
Oh, yeah, live shows all week. We got live shows on the Fantasy Pros Instagram, on the Fantasy Bros, Tick Tock Instagram Tuesday, Tick Tock on Thursday. So, yeah, make sure that you're following across all the platforms because we're live all the time. So in Live Q A, get all your questions answered, all that good stuff.
- [46:59]
Seth Wilcock
Yeah. I think you also have five moves to make. Coming out with Worm on Tuesday as well. That's always one of my favorites to just kind of get into the next week and see what I should be doing, whether that's dropping, adding, trading, all that good stuff. So, Tara, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in right here on the Fancy Pros Fancy Football podcast. Let us know your biggest fancy football winners and losers of week five down in the comments below. Also, make sure you're smashing that, like, button on YouTube and subscribing to the show. If you're new for Tara Roberts, I'm Seth Wilcock. Take care, y'.
- [47:30]
Tara Roberts
All.
- [47:30]
Seth Wilcock
Have a great rest of your time Sunday.
- [47:32]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
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- [49:00]
Tara Roberts
Good story about Bronx and his dad Ryan. Real United Airlines customers.
- [49:04]
Dr. Deepak Chona
We were returning home and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Captain Andrew.
- [49:10]
Tara Roberts
I got to sit in the driver's seat.
- [49:12]
Seth Wilcock
I grew up in an aviation family and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me of myself when I was that age. That's Andrew, a real United pilot.
- [49:20]
Dr. Deepak Chona
These small interactions can shape a kid's future.
- [49:22]
Tara Roberts
It felt like I was the captain.
- [49:24]
Dr. Deepak Chona
Allowing my son to see the flight.
- [49:26]
Seth Wilcock
Deck will stick with us forever.
- [49:27]
Dr. Deepak Chona
That's how good leads the way.
- [49:29]
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- [50:01]
Tara Roberts
This is an I Heart podcast.