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Footballguys Fantasy Football Show
Recapping Every Week 8 Game || Fantasy Football 2025
01:03:09
In Episode 282 of the Footballguys Fantasy Football Show, Dave Kluge and Alfredo Brown discuss every game from Week 8, talking about risers, fallers, and major takeaways. Send your questions to fantasyshow@footballguys.com 🎥. SUBSCRIBE to the NE...
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- [00:01]
Alfredo
A Mochi moment from Tara who writes for years all my doctor said was.
- [00:06]
Dave
Eat less and move more, which never worked.
- [00:09]
Alfredo
But you know what does? The simple eating tips from my nutritionist at Mochi. And after losing over 30 pounds, I can say you're not just another GLP1 source, you're a life source. Thanks, Tara. I'm Mayra Ahmed, founder of Mochi Health. To find your mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com.
- [00:27]
Dave
Tara is a Mochi member, compensated for her story.
- [00:30]
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- [01:01]
Dave
When I was like prepping yesterday, like, it usually takes me, like when I'm doing my notes on the early games, I finish those after the early games start and then it's usually like by the end of the afternoon games, like right before Sunday Night Football is when I finish my notes. And it was like midway through the third quarter and I was like, I'm done. Like, am I taking lazy notes this week?
- [01:19]
Alfredo
What's going on?
- [01:20]
Dave
I was like, oh yeah, that's right. There are only like five games this morning.
- [01:24]
Alfredo
Yeah, dude, there was, there was really wasn't much. And I, I don't. I felt like the second, the, the 4:00pm slate for, for me is like, it just wasn't very entertaining at all. Dude.
- [01:36]
Dave
This whole, I mean, it was, it.
- [01:38]
Alfredo
Was a crappy week of football. It was a bad week of football.
- [01:43]
Dave
When they cut to Scott Hansen, like, you know, normally it's like, this is the witching hour. And he was like, well, there's about 10 minutes left in the slate. There's one game that's.
- [01:50]
Alfredo
It's almost over, folks. These final 30 minutes would be a good bathroom break for everyone.
- [01:57]
Dave
Foreign.
- [02:07]
Alfredo
We are recapping week eight, giving you our reactions, adding some context to all of the stats and box scores you're seeing for fantasy football. Welcome in to the Football Guys Fantasy Football show. I'm walking Brown.
- [02:17]
Dave
Join.
- [02:18]
Alfredo
As always, I've got Dave Kluge here with me. We're going to go game by game, giving you our biggest risers and fallers from each game of the Week 8 NFL action. Dave, this was not an awesome week, but last night's game was kind of Fun. You know, there's a lot of narrative stuff going on there. Packers, Steelers, Aaron Rodgers. It's not a revenge game. It was crazy going into it.
- [02:41]
Dave
Chris Collinsworth immediately called that out, where he was just like, we've been following this guy for 20 years. This is a revenge game. I don't care what he says.
- [02:48]
Alfredo
Like, we know you, dude. We know what's going on.
- [02:50]
Dave
But.
- [02:50]
Alfredo
But they spent, like, a good 20 minutes pregame just talking about how great Aaron Rodgers was and how he's changed his arm angles throughout the year. This was a fun one. Who was your biggest riser from this game?
- [03:03]
Dave
Biggest riser from this game. You'll be proud of me. I actually pulled up the show sheet this time. I know what we're doing. Biggest riser is Christian Watson. I mean, like, I had no expectations. Like, I don't know where you ranked him this week, Alfredo. I had him, like, outside of my top 90 wide receivers. I was like, okay, like, he's gonna give me a few, like, ceremonial snaps and, like, you know, he's gonna get a round of appl from the audience for being on the field. Like, happy to see him back, but I was expecting. This guy tore his ACL in week 18 last year. Like, I thought we were still a few weeks, you know, months away from him being a big part of this offense. And he just immediately stepped in as, like, the wide receiver, too. He only had four targets, but he caught all of them. They were all for big plays. He looked healthy. And, you know, I think a lot of this comes at the expense of Matthew golden, unfortunately, who didn't do much of anything yesterday. And I wonder if they're just happy to have Christian Watson kind of being that wide receiver, too.
- [03:51]
Alfredo
I. I don't know what this team is anymore because they keep just adding new wrinkles to their offense now with Christian Watson. And I don't. I wouldn't say it's something.
- [04:01]
Dave
Wilson, right?
- [04:02]
Alfredo
Yeah. Like, they've got something new all the time, which is great for the Packers. It's great for Jordan. Love. My riser is the guy that nothing has changed throughout the season. It's Tucker Kraft. He. He has. And it's hard to keep rising when you're. I think I put him as a riser because I think he's locked in just top three tight end rest of the year, potentially even the top tight end with the kind of performances he's having. This was the talk all off season, is that he is sort of the George Kittle light. We're there he's doing George Kittle things. He's the number one target on this offense.
- [04:32]
Dave
He's getting more like George Kittle right now than George Kittle. Looks like George Kittle. Yes.
- [04:36]
Alfredo
And so it's like there is no worry about like, you know, all the talk this offseason, who's the wide receiver one. Even throughout the season, who is the wide receiver one? It doesn't matter. It's Tucker Craft.
- [04:46]
Dave
And, and you do look at this Pittsburgh defense. They give up more yards after the catch per reception to tight ends than any other defense out there. So I think it was a very intentional game plan. Like, let's just give him the ball and let him rumble through the defense. But my goodness, it worked. It was like something like 90 something percent of his cat or yards yesterday came after the catch. It's hard for me to name a riser because I've had him like, you know, as a top three tight end and I've still got him there. But I mean, yeah, like he is very much so in that elite tier which like after you see Jake Ferguson coming off of a game with zero catches and one target, it's like, that does make me wonder who I'd prefer rest of the season. I think like that may be why he's a riser is I could put him maybe ahead of Jake Ferguson after this game, but, you know, it felt like a fluky game for Jake Ferguson. I don't want to panic there, but I mean, Jake Ferguson has been very much so a volume based play. Like, there hasn't been a lot of efficiency he's gotten in the end zone a handful of times. But Tucker crafted is doing things out here that like no other tight end in the league is doing.
- [05:39]
Alfredo
I think that's the big thing with Tucker Kraft is you just, you want someone that, you know, you can rely on every week. Wherever you drafted Tucker Kraft, that was the steal of your draft. This, this sets you up for the ultimate success in fantasy football this year. Dave, let's go to your faller from this game.
- [05:55]
Dave
So I've got two here. Matthew golden, who I kind of alluded to, like, it just seems like Christian Watson's role is coming at the expense of Matthew golden and also Calvin Austin, who, you know, missed some time with shoulder injury. And while he was out with that shoulder injury, we saw the Steelers really lean into this like, tight end heavy game planning where we were seeing Darnell Washington and Johnny Smith and Pat Fryermuth kind of the focal points of the offense. Well, now Calvin Austin is back out there, but he's not getting the same looks. It really feels like he got and got pushed to the wayside for Roman Wilson, who is now getting those deep downfield targets. And we saw it was just like one impact play after another from Roman Wilson. I was a huge fan of Roman Wilson coming out of Michigan. I mean, that's like all he did at Michigan was make big plays, and now he's doing it in the NFL as well. So, I mean, Calvin Austin, he was kind of like on the fringe of the fantasy radar anyway, but this pushes him completely off the fantasy radar and does make me a little bit intrigued in Roman Wilson.
- [06:45]
Alfredo
Roman Wilson was the big Senior bowl winner. Remember, he was MVP of Senior bowl week. He was winning one on ones. And then he went to the Steelers. Everyone's like, ah, good wide receiver, two right there. And then nothing really came to fruition.
- [06:56]
Dave
Yeah, he was hurt all of last year. Yeah.
- [06:58]
Alfredo
And. And so now he does have that opportunity. And it did feel like he was making big plays. Very similar to Christian Watson, where it's like, well, when they got these opportunities, it meant a lot for the game. It was touchdowns, it was big first downs, it was deep plays. For me, my follower, same as yours, Matthew Golden. And a lot of it is just Dave, the snaps are there. He's not getting targeted. And it's something Jared Smola of Draft Sharks put out on Twitter, and it's just. It's something that is ringing true. Matthew golden did not command a heavy target share at Houston. He did not command a heavy target share at Texas, and now he's not commanding a heavy target share in Green Bay. He's a talented player, but he has not been a guy that offenses say, man, we really need to run through him on a consistent basis. It happened at Texas out of necessity when Isaiah Bond went down with injury. They're in the College Football Playoff and they're saying, we got to go through somebody. This offense is set for Matthew golden to step in, and that's what happened. So I think this is going to be one of those things where it's going to take time or it might just never happen. Romeo Dobbs is out there still commanding targets. Christian Watson comes back and immediately pops right back into the game plan. And then we're seeing Malik Heath is getting some run out there. Savion Williams is getting the creative touches. Mind you, Jaden Reed, probably not back this season, but in the future we'll be back. And it's something where, like, the dynasty heads Man, Matthew golden. This, this would have me a little panicked right now.
- [08:23]
Dave
Yeah. And I wish, you know, we, we, we do shows year round and like nobody's watching us when we're talking in February, but we're, we're yapping and we're talking about prospects and rookies and all that sort of stuff. And I remember you and I both had like major concerns about Matthew because we were like, he's a little bit undersized. He doesn't have a target earning profile. All of his production came late in the year after Isaiah Bond got hurt. And then there was just this like groundswell of height that just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And then he gets drafted first round, lands on a team that's desperate for a wide receiver one and we kind of bought into it. I really wish we had just kind of stuck to our priors from February. We had some really big red flags in his profile. But as we get through the off season and the drum beat continues, we kind of forgot about all of that stuff. And I still think, you know, Matthew goes golden. He, he's an athlete and he could have these big plays in these spike weeks, but I don't think he's going to be that wide receiver two that they or the wide receiver one that they hope for or even the wide.
- [09:17]
Alfredo
Receiver too, just to add the context too. He has the tools. He probably can do it. I just don't end up thinking this is going to be the offense that will do it. This is not the kind of offense that you get supplies us as fantasy managers with a clear cut wide receiver one earning targets every week. It's just, it's just not. Let's go to the next game. Baltimore Ravens defeat the Chicago Bears. Dave, who is your biggest riser from this one?
- [09:41]
Dave
I mean it's got to be Kyle Menungai. Just because we have seen now since the buy he is much more involved than he was earlier. I mean we saw like a few touches here and there early. He wasn't really effective with them. But we saw the 13 touches or the 13 carries and three targets last week, seven more this week. And this was a trailing game script too where I thought we would have seen much more of DeAndre Swift, you know, the big play guy, the pass catching guy. But that guy was still getting his and he was still getting touches in the second half as well. So we have seen historically Ben Johnson does like to have a split backfield and it's very easy to tell like who the Thunderer and who the Lightning is in this backfield. And regardless of the game script, I think that we're going to continue seeing Kyle Manungai involved in the offensive game plan here.
- [10:20]
Alfredo
Yeah, I think he's absolutely going to be a part of it. I will say, like, there's a little bit of that has to do with DeAndre Swift having the injury designation throughout the week. Right. So. But you're right, like I don't think all of a sudden when he's healthy, we're talking about an 80% DeAndre Swift and 20% Manung guy. We're right where we're probably looking at a 60, 40, 55, 45 split. Like it's, I don't even think it's going to be that far off, man. Guy just adds something different. Adds something different, gives a different look to this offense here. So I, I get that My, my riser is Roma Dun. Who, I mean Adun Dave. Like it's, we talked about this like he was a trade target. We had last week, go cash in on a couple of down games because he continues to be the lead wide receiver for this team, earning targets at a higher rate than anyone else. And he had a few plays where he was just going down inside the 10 yard line or going down inside the 5 yard line. It was like, oh, this is one of those games where it could have been two touchdowns easily to the stat sheet and it wasn't. And it's just the way that the game broke in this one. Caleb had his struggles inside the red zone. Like the offense got a little wonky when they were under pressure there in tight space. Yeah.
- [11:26]
Dave
And Rome also had a drop which was like very uncharacteristic. Like a ball that hit him in the chest that he just couldn't bring in. That would have added like another 30 yards to his day as well. But yeah, you talk about Caleb Williams having an off day. He is my faller here. And you know, we, we get so anchored to what we see early in the season because we're just like so hungry for football that like whatever happens in those first two, three weeks, we kind of hold on to that all season long. And through the first three weeks it looks like Caleb Williams was taking this huge leap forward in the Ben Johnson offense. You know, we saw that four touchdown game against Dallas. He was like a top three fantasy scoring quarterback through week three. Since there it is quieted up quite a bit. You know, doesn't have a passing touchdown in the last two weeks. Has thrown two interceptions over that time. He has been much better at evading sacks, which I like to see, but the fantasy production hasn't been there either. So I think that there's still an opportunity where, you know, some people are still looking at Caleb Williams as this guy who kind of broke out and they're looking at him as a fantasy QB1 and the reality is that what we saw early in the year might have been a bit more of a mirage. So I'm trying to sell Caleb Williams if I can. I mean in, in a couple of my shallower leagues, like 10 teams, single quarterback leagues, I dropped Caleb Williams and moved on. I picked up Justin Fields in one league, I got Jackson dart another. There's just a lot of errant throws and not great decision making. I'm not panicking long term as a Bears fan, but I think there's still a lot to work out here in Caleb Williams game.
- [12:44]
Alfredo
I'm gonna go to the other side and go to the Baltimore Ravens where my follower is going to be Mark Andrews and I feel like we've had him as a follower for multiple weeks and I think it's just now we are at that time. Even when Lamar Jackson comes back. I don't have the faith to trust Mark Andrews. He just has not been a consistent target earner. He's not shown that he can really run after the catch, which athletic ability has been something that Mark Andrews has been able to show throughout his career. And the touchdowns aren't there right now either. And like that has been the thing that has been the driving force for Mark Andrews over the last two years. Really it didn't matter. He could go three catches but get two touchdowns on those three catches. And now we're seeing a lot of Isaiah. Likely we get Charlie Kohler getting the touchdown here and even had that touchdown gone to Mark Andrews. I just, I don't love the way that the snaps are going. The snapshare continues to go down. Each week we're seeing more and more of other players. So even when Lamar comes back, I'm not, not super excited about Mark Andrews. I will say this, the Ravens schedule gets really, really easy over the next six, seven weeks where they could legit just win seven games in a row with Lamar Jackson being back. And this could be a very run heavy approach. A lot of Derek Henry. I would say this might be one of the last times to buy him. I'm not going all in crazy on Derrick Henry here, but the schedule is relatively easy for the Ravens where Gamescript will have them in the lead.
- [14:03]
Dave
Yeah, I think one of the kind of under the radar storylines from this NFL season is just how like the entire tight end market has been flipped completely on its head. Like all of these guys that we were looking at is just long term plug and play tight end ones. I've got ranked outside of the top 12 in my rest of season rankings. I mean, I'm looking Mark Andrews, Zach Ertz, Evan Ingram, David Nijoku, TJ Hawkinson, Taysom Hill, these guys are all outside of my top 12. Then you've got all of these rookies and year two guys or like random veterans like Dallas Goddard having a career year that are now sneaking into the tight end one discussion. So I think there's still name value out there that is propping up Mark Andrews and keeping him in fantasy lineups. But the reality is like if you took that name plate away and just looked at the raw production and usage for Mark Andrews, he shouldn't be anywhere near a fantasy lineup right now.
- [14:50]
Alfredo
All right, let's go to the next game. Buffalo Bills defeat the Carolina Panthers. Dave, just gonna get this one out of the way riser or winner or whatever you want to call it from this game. James Cook looked back to form after, you know, down week there, but I think we all kind of just threw that into, you know, that's just happenstance. It does happen every once in a while. You don't Bijon Robinson against the Dolphins. Yeah, like it just happens sometimes. James Cook going up against the Panthers here, he was remarkable. I just think he's going to be, he's going to continue to be the running back, one plug and play every single week. If you had any concerns, if you were like, should I be trading him? What should I be doing? Please put all that to rest. Like, don't have those concerns again.
- [15:31]
Dave
Yeah, and I've got him in my top five. I mean he's, he's been firmly there. I mean it's five and six is really tough. Like I waffled back and forth like I don't know who I'd prefer rest of the season, James Cook or Devon Hn. They're both similar players with how they accumulate their points, but yeah, I mean those are just plug and play elite RB1s for me. I went with Khalil Shakir just because, you know, he led the team in targets and we just keep seeing it like this is three straight years where he has been one of the best after the catch receivers in the NFL and it's just consistently every single week making these big plays where he's breaking tackles. And I'm so mad that Jeff Bell kind of like put this seed in my head. He said it a few weeks ago. He's like, imagine how good Khalil Shakir would be if he got Amon Ross St. Brown treatment. And now I can't stop thinking about it. Like, if they just peppered this guy with like 12 to 15 underneath targets every single game, he would break fantasy football. But Joe Brady outsmarts himself and they want to get everybody involved. But Khalil Shakir is so, so good. I wish the usage was a little bit more, but even with the limited usage, like if you get up six, eight targets per game, he can make a couple of those plays really count.
- [16:34]
Alfredo
With Khalil Shakir going up, one of the guys going down, Keon Coleman, I mean, it's just. It's. It's not happening. It's not happening. Yeah, it is. Honestly, ever since week one, we have not seen the target share that everyone wants to see. We have not seen the guy who is giving us the dominant performance week in and week out. And it's just we. We talked about this a little bit. That with J.C. horn out there, you're probably not going to see a whole lot of Keon Coleman this week anyways. We haven't seen anything from previous games that tells us that Keon Coleman is a guy you need to be starting. I've been seeing them get dropped in a lot of leagues and honestly, this isn't even one of those where I say, ah, go, go pick him up and stash them for later. Because we've seen nothing from the Bills that show that Another guy who's a follower for me, Rico Dowdle, and this has nothing to do with his own performance. He still looks good. The Panthers are being stubborn and they are giving Chuba Hubbard the ball. Dave. Dude, it's. It's just.
- [17:28]
Dave
They can't keep doing this, right?
- [17:29]
Alfredo
Like, they can't keep getting away with it.
- [17:32]
Dave
Yeah.
- [17:32]
Alfredo
Like, how are you giving Chuba more carries than Rico?
- [17:35]
Dave
The announcers said exactly what we were saying. They're like, Rico has so much more juice. Why do they keep giving the ball to Chuba Hubbard? I. I do not get it. I don't know what they're doing here. But this. There has to be some self scouting at some point where they look back at like what's happened over the last. I mean, Rico Doddle, 6.8 yards per per touch and Chupa Hubbard 2.8. Like, it's just, it's unbelievable. How much better Rico Dowdle is. And they just keep giving the ball to Chuba Hubbard. But I think because they lost they, they might revisit that usage going into next week. I hope so. So I'm not trying to panic too much because I, I think Rico Doddle is just way better than Hubbard.
- [18:11]
Alfredo
I also wonder too right, like how much of it is, hey, we're down 40 to 9. Let's get the good running back out of here. You know, not even down 40 to 9. Like they were losing much. They were losing much worse than they get the Chuba Hubbard garbage time touchdown when they're down 40 to 3. So a little bit of it is that Chuba Hubbard getting more of those snaps later. But he also, he got the snaps early too. This wasn't a garbage time thing like the Dolphins did with Jalen Wright where it's like let's just throw him in there for some snaps. This was Chuba Hubbard was act actively getting more snaps than Rico Dowdle. Throw the out the game, got more carries throughout the game. Rico Dallas is back to back weeks below 50 snapshare. And you don't, you don't like that. Do you still Dave, do you still keep throwing them in your starting lineup though?
- [18:55]
Dave
Yeah, I would just because I think he's got the big play upside and I mean I, I bumped him down a little bit in my rest of season rankings. I had him ahead of Jalen Warren and I made that flip. Maybe I'm being stubborn here, but like I'm still ranking Rito Rico Doddle as back in RB2. I, I think that we should talent more often than not does win out. So like even though Chuba Hubbard is getting the snaps and the touches ahead of Rico Doddle right now, I still prefer Rico Dowdle to Chuba Hubbard rest of season.
- [19:19]
Alfredo
Who's your follower from this game?
- [19:21]
Dave
My follower from this game, Dalton Kincaid. You know, and, and I still think that he is a guy that you're relying on as a tight end one like a very back end tight end one. But it felt like we were like really starting to see the breakout. You know, he had the, the career best yardage a couple of weeks ago and then just three targets this week. Like it's just not really there. And again, I think Bills are going to operate. They want to spread the ball so thin. They want to get everybody involved. But we saw that huge breakout game the last time we saw him play. Then he was injured, then they had a buy and then he comes back this week might still be limited, but the usage wasn't there, the production wasn't there. So I, I still long term, you know, like the rest of the season. Maybe he can turn a page and get healthier and do something later in the year, but right now he kind of falls like just outside of tight end 2 range. So I've got him as my tight end 12 overall, which means a lot of people are still relying on him as a starter. But I, I don't feel great about having Dalton Kincaid in my AI.
- [20:15]
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- [20:46]
Alfredo
Next game on here. Jets defeat the Cincinnati Bengals. Jets get this massive comeback in the fourth quarter. First win of the season for them. Listen, I'm, I am a natural jets hater, but I gotta say, man, it felt, it felt nice to see them get this win. It felt good to see Justin Fields go, just have, have a personal W, you know, and like hear him doing his, his interview after the game. It's just he got very emotional, very vulnerable in his own words and talked about his personal life. To see him get the win on the field, get the win off the field and, and have the support of his teammates. He called the comments from Woody Johnson, the owner of the jets team, outside noise, which, I mean, yeah, at that point, like, it kind of just is outside noise. Like, Woody Johnson has not shown that he's a good owner. Jets fans, let us know in the comments, man, because I know you guys are tired of it too. Justin Fields is my big riser from this game and I think what he did was he at least secured his job here for the next few weeks. There was the talk of his Tyrod Taylor taking over. And then obviously with the injury to Tyrod, Justin Fields gets the start, but he also gets the win. And he didn't look bad here. Like he actually, we saw some new wrinkles in this jets offense. The passing game did look competent and the craziest thing is that it happened without Garrett Wilson here. Justin Fields got close to a couple of touchdowns as well, running the ball. He looked good. He was just one broken tackle away from a couple of rushing touchdowns where it would have been an Absolute monster game. So listen, I'm not saying Justin Fields retains his job the rest of the year or that the jets are now going to go on some sort of winning streak. This was still the Cincinnati Bengals defense, but Justin Fields, good for you man. Winner this week. Riser for me, he still has some fantasy relevance over the next few weeks here.
- [22:35]
Dave
Yeah, and last week felt like kind of the blip against Carolina. And I still wonder how much of his poor play came from that hit that he took to the head because like he passed concussion protocol. But we got to remember he had a concussion earlier in the year as well. And then he takes a shot to the head and then two straight three and outs and then he takes a sack while clock expires going into halftime. Then we don't see him for the rest of the game. But really what we've seen Justin Fields do all year is just like crush against bad defenses and then kind of struggle against the good defenses. So we knew this was a big spot. You know, I was starting Justin Fields in a bunch of leagues this week, but what we saw was not a typical Justin Fields performance. Like he wasn't just running around with his hair on fire racking up garbage time points late in the game. There were so many times that I was like, like getting teary eyed, just like so proud of the development that I saw from Justin Fields, just like standing tall in the pocket and hitting his receivers and like it was a very non Justin Fields game. The other thing we always hear is that like Justin Fields, when his defense gives up 20 plus points, he can't win. Like that's been that big stat that's been going around for years. Like he is often the guy who is just kind of a game manager, but to pull out a win when his defense gives up 38 points, that's got to feel good for him. So I think this was a big moral victory for Justin Fields. The other riser I have coming out of this one though is Mason Taylor. We saw him catch the touchdown, but we also saw him just very involved eight targets. You know, I think just the, the nature of this jets passing attack, it's going to be very volatile. Like We've seen the 12 target game followed by a one target game and then we get eight targets this week, we get a touchdown. I don't know if Mason Taylor is at that like plug and play, tight end, one spot yet, but I think especially while Garrett Wilson is out, he is going to be a featured part of the passing offense. It's just Going to be, you know, pretty fickle on a. On a weekly basis.
- [24:13]
Alfredo
That touchdown he had showed why he was an early draft pick. Just going up and over the defensive back, plucking the ball out of the sky. I mean, we know that he has the potential to do this. Right. Like, I do think he should be the number two target on this team, but we'll see how all that shakes out going forward.
- [24:29]
Dave
Breeze hall, like, pretty nice touchdown throw. You know, you, you often see guys just like panic when it's not there and just throw it out of bounds or take the sack or run. Like he held on to it. Like he waited for him to get his leverage and then like put it up there after a little hitch. Breeze hall looking. When we get those plays, Justin Fields is a passer.
- [24:46]
Alfredo
Yeah. I mean, when we get the plays right, like Dave Montgomery, the same thing. Whenever we get those where our running back has the ball and they're rolling out, they just throw it because they don't really care. They're like, this is my one time. Like, this is my one time I can throw a touchdown pass.
- [24:59]
Dave
If it's a pick, whatever footsteps, he's gonna come down with it.
- [25:02]
Alfredo
He did. Right. Like, their whole mindset is if it's a pick, well, it was a trick play. That's on the coach. Right. Like, I'm not supposed to be throwing this ball anyways. But if, if it's a touchdown, good job, me. Right. Like that. That's what ends up happening. My, My father from this game, ironically, because he did have a good fantasy game and a good game generally overall, is Chase Brown. And I'm almost like forcing this and giving it, you know, square peg, round hole. But at the same time, we saw a lot of Samaji P. Ryan. This has become a very, very split backfield. We're looking at like a 45, 55 split in here. Chase Brown gets saved by the rushing touchdown. He gets, gets. He gets some very good efficiency on the ground and he is getting more targets and Samaji Piran, but the fact that he has to come off the field for Samaji Piranha to come in and do pass blocking sets. And it's not just that he's getting the carries on the ground as well. The arrow is trending upward for Chase Brown. But I think there is that sort of glass ceiling there where I don't think we're going to be ever putting Chase Brown in the top 12 consideration each week. He's going to be hovering around that running back 13 to 16 every single week because of the fact that Samaji Piran comes in. That's why I've got him listed as a follower for this week.
- [26:12]
Dave
Yeah, I've got him at my RB16 in rest of season rankings. So kind of like a middling RB2. And, and weirdly enough, like, even though we're seeing the usage go down, the production is going way up and, and I don't know if this is just like having fresh legs, like not taking all the snaps. That doesn't make a lot of sense because last year we saw him handling 96 of the opportunities and he was still doing just fine there. But you know, for me, I am just kind of looking at the raw output here. You know, 9.7 P points per game through week six. Over the last two weeks with Joe Flacco, 18.8. And yeah, that's been weighed by touchdowns, but I think the fact that he's even able to score touchdowns here is a testament to what Joe Flacco's done to this offense because that wasn't even a possibility when Jake Browning was out there. And then the efficiency is really what's rebounded. 3.2 yards per touch through the first six weeks, 7.3 yards per touch over the last two weeks. So I, for me, I, I understand like for the, the sake of the exercise, trying to find a faller, I just said there wasn't a faller in this game. You know, when both teams are scored nearly 40 points, it's like hard. A true faller. But yeah, I didn't like move Chase Brown way up my rankings. I just feel maybe a little bit better about the Bengals offense as a whole.
- [27:17]
Alfredo
Yeah. T. Higgins is one. Like, if you really want to make a case, like the one target, I think.
- [27:22]
Dave
Right.
- [27:22]
Alfredo
I think it was two.
- [27:23]
Dave
He caught it. It was a big touchdown.
- [27:24]
Alfredo
Yeah, yeah. You know, just, it just wasn't there. So like, I think that's the big takeaways. You're going to find inconsistencies with this Bengals offense. The only thing that remains consistent is death, taxes and Jamar Chase getting a 50 target share in this offense. I mean, like, good God, man. It's just, it's, it's unnatural at this point. But that's, that's where we are.
- [27:44]
Dave
We, we love doing the big extrapolations off of two games. Let me just. Jamar Chase, his 17 game pace with Joe Flacco, 357 targets, 238 receptions. I mean, it has just been unnatural, unreal. Like this guy's just getting like 20 targets per game. I've never seen anything like this. Let's, let's hope it maintains unnatural dark magic week.
- [28:05]
Alfredo
Let's go to the next game on here. Miami Dolphins. What are you doing to me, man? Like, what are you doing? Miami dog. What are you doing? Miami Dolphins beat the Atlanta Falcons. We can't even lose correctly anymore. We can't even lose. Miami Dolphins one of the absolute worst run defenses in the league. Bijan Robinson, one of the best running backs in the league.
- [28:27]
Dave
What do they do?
- [28:28]
Alfredo
They shut them down to a tug of Iloa. Struggling throws, six picks over the last two weeks. Atlanta Falcons pretty solid past defense. They've been shutting quarterbacks down left and right. Tua Tsuga, my loa comes in. Let's have a, let's have a season best game this week. The Miami Dolphins just destroy the Atlanta Falcons. So yeah, I guess the riser is to a tongue of Iloa get pink eye more often, buddy. Whatever it is, he came into the game with his eye, his left eye swollen shut. Okay, I don't, I don't like. I got nothing here, man. I got nothing. There is no analysis you can give to this where a quarterback who's been horrible loses vision in one eye and starts immediately playing better.
- [29:13]
Dave
I got just running Mike McDaniel's offense. He can't see what's happening on the field, so he doesn't think things through and he's just running the offense as it's laid out. Maybe that's where he talked about that.
- [29:22]
Alfredo
This week where he's like, yeah, I can't really see over the line. So a lot of times I'm just throwing and trusting that guys are in the spot where they need to be. And, and of course like everyone ran with it and went nuts. And like guys, he's, he's short, throwing over players that are 6 foot 5. Yeah, we know, we know. He's a timing quarterback. The most impressive play was one where he's rolling out to his left, throws on the run to Malik Washington who catches it at the one yard line, turns and gets the ball in the end zone. Because we don't normally see Tua making these strong armed, beautiful throws on the run like that. And it did look a little vintage. Like it gives, it's the, it's. You're not gonna know this, but the people listening, it's the Hawkeye meme where it's like, don't give me hope and it's just raining on it. Like, don't Give me hope. Dolphins, like, just let it. Let it die. Let it die.
- [30:08]
Dave
When I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.
- [30:11]
Alfredo
No, they won't. They won't. I'll buy another hat and cut that. Dave, who was your. Your riser from this game?
- [30:18]
Dave
Ali Gordon. He. He looked good. And, you know, I was kind of surprised when I. When I saw the initial box score. I thought that a lot of this just, like, came in garbage time. Early. It was early. Yeah. Like, they made it very intentional to get Ali Gordon going. And he looks good. And to me, you know, this is what they need. Like, I. I like Devon H. And he is such a good running back, but he's not a guy I want to see getting 20, 25 touches per game. Like we saw. His best efficiency was early in his career when Rahi Moser was getting a lot of those hard yards. And then he was able to be fresh and bounce the big plays outside and rip off the chunk plays. And I wonder if that's what they're trying to get back to now, because Ali Gordon looked really good running between the tackles. Went back and watched his touches this morning, really impressed with what I saw. So Ali Gordon, big, big riser for me this week.
- [31:01]
Alfredo
The Dolphins did the things this week that they have needed to do all season. Yeah. But the thing is, like, does that work this week? Because you haven't been doing it throughout the year. Jalen Waddle, getting those deep crossers where. I don't know if you've seen it. It's floating around on. On the socials, but, like, it is a almost shot for shot, identical play to Tua to Waddle for a touchdown in the college football national championship game back in Alabama. So, like, this is where Tua has succeeded. The deep crossers getting a really fast receiver to get the defense turned around and flipping their hips and leaving wide open zones for him where he can catch and run. Getting Devon Hn the ball in space, letting Ali Gordon win in short yardage situations where he needs to. He was plowing through, like, three defenders that were trying to hold them down. Like, this is exactly what the team needed. They played well. I personally don't feel great about that, but they played well and they won. So, yeah, I guess I will find some happiness there. Dave, who was your.
- [32:03]
Dave
Look it up too, because Jalen Waddle. I remember when I was watching that play live, I was like, he looked like he was shot out of a cannon. And sure enough, I looked it up behind only Saquon Barkley this week. For the fastest ball carrier. I mean like that is very impressive. He got up to 21.35 miles per hour on that touchdown.
- [32:18]
Alfredo
Jalen Waddle, man, track speed. Who's your father from this game?
- [32:22]
Dave
Followed from this game. Darnell Mooney. Yeah, like no Drake London. You know, I saw a lot of people out there, which I think was a pretty good take. Saying like Darnell Mooney, like low end wide receiver. One high end wide receiver too. Like Kirk Cousins is out here. We've seen that they had a rapport together last year. Like this seemed like a smash spot for Darnell Mooney and he did nothing. So yeah, obvious follower here. Like this was the smash spot, you know, against a soft defense. Kirk Cousins was back and he just wasn't even a part of the game plan.
- [32:51]
Alfredo
Yeah, it really was. Kirk Cousins is my father and I don't know like what that even means for fantasy.
- [32:57]
Dave
He fell from QB 33 to QB 53.
- [33:01]
Alfredo
Yeah, like, okay.
- [33:02]
Dave
I was hoping though, like everybody kind of had the same idea. Like he can go up here and dice his defense up. A QB needy trade team is going to trade for him. Like nobody's trading for Kirk Cousins after seeing that.
- [33:12]
Alfredo
And that was more of what it is. Right? It's like there is no trade value for Kirk Cousins. You know, like you've heard maybe the jets go and trade for this guy or you know, anyone, anyone that needs a quarterback going to trade for Kirk Cousins or Michael Pennix keeps struggling. I don't know, it could be Kirko season again and we get these guys back. No, I, I think unfortunately. And that's been like the. I was the trend with a couple guys this week. I think we're watching the end of some careers of players. Just guys that don't have it anymore. Mark Andrews, Kirk Cousins. Like we're seeing the old guys. Just, just not hindsight.
- [33:44]
Dave
Like what were we thinking? Like Kirk Cousins hasn't played like good football in like three years. He's like 39 years old. And we're like, oh, Kirk Cousins is going to come out here and look awesome today. Like, maybe we all should have thought about that one a little bit harder.
- [33:56]
Alfredo
Yeah.
- [33:56]
Dave
I just want to say I'm proud of us for not saying Bijan Robinson is a faller because I'm sure a lot of people today are going to be like talking about Bijan Robinson. It's just a wonk game. They happen. It's a blip. Bijan Robinson's awesome. Don't even second guess what happened this week.
- [34:10]
Alfredo
No it was just, it was just weird. This next game on here, Houston Texans defeat the San Francisco 49ers. And all the Texans had to do was make sure Nico Collins was not in the game. And naturally, of course, everything starts to work for them. My risers from this were the rookies. The rookies. You have one of the other ones. So I'll just, I'll just talk about two wide receivers. Jaden Higgins, Jaylen Noel. Xavier Hutchins is also in there. He's not a rookie, but I just want to talk about these guys because their roles had not been very prominent throughout the season. But Jaden Higgins, we're seeing the snapshare continue to go up every single week. We saw him get a little bit of the Nico treatment, which I wonder what that means when Nico Collins comes back. Same thing with Jalen Noel looks great making explosive plays. I wonder what that means when Christian Kirk comes back. Not that these guys shouldn't keep playing, but we're seeing the same thing with Woody Marks, where he looks better than Nick Chubb, but Nick Chubb is staying out there. And so I, I, it's, it's hard to determine what this team, the Houston Texans, d', Ameco Ryan's, what they're going to do with these players, I have to imagine you keep. If you're losing games, you get towards the end of the season, you got to know what you have with these rookies. You got to know what you're going into next year.
- [35:18]
Dave
Yeah, and they invested heavily in a lot of these rookies this year, and they are all looking really good right now. Are you a Bill Simmons fan? Do you listen to Bill Simmons or do you ever read his writing or anything? Are you familiar with the Ewing effect? It's something that he's talked about for, like, 20 years. And yeah, I think there really is something to that where, like, for those that are unfamiliar, Patrick Ewing, you know, former New York Nick, when he didn't play in the 1999 finals, like, everybody else on the team played better and they started putting some of their best games on tape. And the theory kind of behind it is that, like, without the best player out there, all of the role players feel like they can step up and they can be the guy. And I almost wonder, like, they force so many balls to Nico Collins every single week that with no Nico Collins out there, you've got all these guys saying, hey, I could step up today. And then everybody starts balling out. I think that's kind of what happened in this game. But now you got a little bit of confidence rolling some of these guys. C.J. stroud was standing tall in the pocket and making those throws. So now I think even when you can put Nico Collins back into this offense, now Jalen Null's got some mojo. You know, Jaden Higgins is feeling a little bit better. Woody Marks had himself a big game. He should be feeling good after this one as well. So I think this is kind of what they needed, was just like a week away from Nico Collins. But Woody Marks is my big riser. He just looks better and better every single week. Nick Chubb isn't going to disappear, but Woody Marks just has so much more juice than he does right now.
- [36:33]
Alfredo
When you're an NFL team, when you have. When you find success, I think you want to try to replicate that success as much as you can, especially going up against a good team like the 49ers. Woody Marks looked great. He looks great catching the ball. He looks great running the ball. These young wide receivers looked good. It would be malpractice for them to not continue to, like, not allow the roles to expand for these players, but we've seen that all season with Nick Chubb continuing to go with Xavier Hutchinson, who, yes, he had a good game, but him being the lead guy in the wide receiver room with Nico Collins there.
- [37:04]
Dave
So this is another one. It's not just like Woody Marx isn't just coming in on third down and running against soft runs like they're switching off drive. So they're seeing pretty similar defensive packages, but Woody Marks is averaging twice as many yards per touch as Nick Chubb is. Like, at a certain point, you've just got to, you know, let him run a little bit loose because he just looks like a much better running back right now.
- [37:27]
Alfredo
So we got our risers there. Who's your follower in this one, Dave?
- [37:30]
Dave
Follower in this one? Kendrick Bourne. You know, it was. It was fun. He was here for a good time. Not a long time. Back to back games with 150 yards, you know, there's all this talk about, like, I don't know if you know, but Mac Jones and Kendrick Bourne are actually best friends. But, yeah, Juwan Jennings is healthy now. He's the X receiver, you know, now the. The 49ers, I think once they get out of the buy, the hope is that Ricky Piersoll comes back. We've also got George Kittle back in the fold now looking a little bit better than he did last week. So I think, you know, we're a couple weeks away. From the full arsenal of Jennings, Ricky Pearsall and George Kittle. And once that happens, Kendrick Bourne is just off the radar. So he's, he's droppable even though we had a couple of nice weeks there.
- [38:07]
Alfredo
In the same vein, I'm gonna put Juwan Jennings here as a faller. Not because he didn't get the snaps of the targets, but because he really has not had himself a good fantasy game throughout this season. And even with other players missing time, it has not mattered. And I know he gets the Derek Stingley treatment this past week, but. But Ricky Pierce all's on his way back. Brandon Auk, the practice windows. Yep, it's there. It's. It feels like at some point. Right, right.
- [38:35]
Dave
Well, it's, it's mentioned Brandon Auk, but.
- [38:37]
Alfredo
It'S expected that they're going to open it up potentially within the next week and open up that 21 day window. So with Johan joinings, man, like it's. I can't even call it a ticking time bomb because there hasn't really been any sort of of production throughout this season. So it's not like we're waiting for him to turn into a pumpkin. He's just a pumpkin that's gonna be, I don't know, a bigger pumpkin. Like what you want to call it.
- [39:02]
Dave
I think.
- [39:02]
Alfredo
No, I know he is. I'm not taking away from him. But you can't rely on 89.
- [39:08]
Dave
Yeah, he had 89 in a touchdown week two. I feel like he looked okay. Like he kind of looked like Juwan Jennings in that game. I'm not saying he's bad and it hasn't been the same since.
- [39:16]
Alfredo
That's exactly. I'm not saying he's bad.
- [39:17]
Dave
Right.
- [39:17]
Alfredo
He has not been a reliable fantasy asset and likely, likely won't be going forward. We get George Kittle back. We get Ricky Pierce all back. We get Brandon Ayuk back. Just it's.
- [39:27]
Dave
We get Ricky Pierce hall back. There's been like no reporting on his injury.
- [39:30]
Alfredo
It's just like some reports came out that he should be back again next week. Yeah. All right, let's. Let's power through some of these other ones, man, because we still got a few more on here. New England Patriots beat the Cleveland Browns. My risers. Drake May has just set himself as a top three top four fantasy quarterback week in and week out. He is the quarterback one in fantasy right now. He is matchup proof and that was one of my worries is will he be a matchup dependent guy where when it's Easy teams. He's top five when it's not. He's probably hovering around 13, 14, you know, QB 13 or 14. No, it does not matter. Drake may matchup proof at this point. Dylan Sampson is another riser for me and that's just simply because of the Quinshon Judkins injury. And we'll see where that takes us. Dave, who are your risers from this game?
- [40:17]
Dave
Trayvon Henderson. You know it's so funny all the, the hand wringing after last week when he had very minimal usage. But yeah, he, he was back to, you know, his 5050 split and he looked good. Keisha Booty, another riser like just keeps having these big touchdowns. And then Harold Fannin too, who is just like quietly week in and week out just like operating as the number one weapon for the Cleveland Browns. So there's a lot to take away from this game. I got, I got quite a few risers here. Here.
- [40:43]
Alfredo
My follower Jerry Judy very similarly to Juwan Jennings. Like it's just not happening on a weekend, week out basis. What I saw earlier, Jerry Judy, number two in routes run, but like wide receiver 53 in fantasy production. It's just, just crazy or it was a 53 in receptions. Like it's just, it's just crazy. This is. Nothing is working in this offense for Jerry Judy and a lot of it in the past has been like he does struggle to get open, but this is just his skill set does not work with this offense right now. It does not work with this quarterback. It's been easy to get the ball to the tight ends, easy to get the ball to the running backs, easy to get the ball underneath to other wide receivers. But even the other wide receivers, we're not seeing anything from Isaiah Bond. Jamari Thrash got some, got some play in this game, but we're just not seeing it anywhere. And so I don't necessarily want a lot of players that are attached to this offense. I'll take the running backs and the tight ends for the easy check down.
- [41:36]
Dave
Yeah and I've got some stats over the last four weeks where Dylan Gabriel has started. Harold Fannin and David Najoku and mind you, David, David Najoku missed a game in this stretch. David Najoku and Harold Fannin have combined for 34 receptions, 324 yards and four touchdowns. All of the wide receivers combined for Cleveland, 23 receptions, 283 yards and zero touchdowns. So you've got David Najoku and Harold Fannin on their own even with Najoku missing time and being injured during this stretch, outperforming all of the wide receivers in Cleveland. Like this is just nobody matters in this offense besides the tight ends.
- [42:11]
Alfredo
Yep. Dave, your follower.
- [42:14]
Dave
Good job. Judkins. Only because he got hurt. Left with a shoulder injury, quickly declared out. Shoulder injuries, they vary for running backs. He might be able to play with a harness or something next week. He might miss some time. But either way, you know an injury when you're a top 10 running back that's going to knock you down the rankings a little bit.
- [42:31]
Alfredo
It next game on here Philadelphia Eagles defeat the New York Giants and my riser from this was Saquon Barkley. We finally got the week that we have been hoping for. He did leave the field a little limpy and he did talk about that that had the game not been out of reach he, he would have returned groin injury. They've got the bye week coming up. They're going to let him rest.
- [42:53]
Dave
AJ Brown said the same thing after last week. Okay, I just want to say, you know these guys always, they, they can play through it. They always say, yeah, true, but they wake up Monday and you know, it's a little bit tighter. I, I do like the bye week after I'm not panicking. I kept Saquon Barkley exactly where he was in my rankings. My rise with oh Tank Bigsby, like there was so much like we saw AJ Dillon early in the year. Then we saw Will Shipley, Tank Bigsby very clearly the running back too. I don't know why they just put him on ice for like six weeks after trading him. Like he made it through training camp, he was healthy and then he just decided to slow roll it for a month and a half. But the clear RB2 there and looked really good with his opportunities. Then of course Tyrone Tracy, you know we saw he had 15 opportunities after Cam Scatter Boo got hurt. Devin Singletary had three. We saw what this backfield looked like last year with Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary. Tracy emerged as the very clear, obvious workhorse in this backfield. So we saw him giving us RB2 production last year and now this is a better offense than it was last year. So I'm operating under the assumption that Tyrone Tracy is like a top 20, top 24 running back going forward.
- [43:55]
Alfredo
Yeah, my, my follow from this is going to be the Giants offense though. Yes, I know Tyrone Tracy is going to be a guy you can probably flex into your lineups. Jackson Dart has been a fun streamer. The offense in the team was you visibly deflated after losing Cam Scatteraboo for what does appear to be the season. That was a rough this morning. Yeah, that was a rough looking ankle injury. Hoping he's back, makes the recovery for. For next year. But yeah, Giants offense, I think it's just. You lose a little bit of that juice and for all the intangibles that no one ever wants to talk about because it's not a stat, it's not seen on film. There. There is something for what a player like that does for the vibe of a locker room. Jackson dart was screaming profanities and like he just seemed absolutely devastated when Cam Scatter Boo went down. It's tough.
- [44:46]
Dave
Tough.
- [44:46]
Alfredo
It's tough for an offense. It's tough for them to mentally recover and hopefully after this game they can mentally recover. But sometimes you just don't see it. An offense loses a spark plug and they're not the same.
- [44:56]
Dave
I just want to. Did you see Cam Scatter Boo like putting his hands out for a teammate to help him stand up? Like, just. I don't know if there's a tougher dude in the NFL right now. Like, buddy, your foot is backwards. And he was like, I'll just, I'll walk it off, like. And yeah, it's a big, big Scatter Boo fan. Unfortunate what happened. Hopefully he can come back next year.
- [45:16]
Alfredo
Yeah, that was. It was rough. Next game on here. Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the New Orleans Saints. The shuck season has officially started in New Orleans. It seems like Spencer Rattler gets benched late in this game. Tyler Schuck does come in and I don't think we can totally look at what he did in this game and say it's good or bad.
- [45:38]
Dave
Bad.
- [45:39]
Alfredo
I think he looked fine for what he needed to do. He showed some zip on the ball. He showed the ability to extend plays with his legs. He took what was given to him. And a lot of this was Bucks were up big. It's late in the game. We're going to play a little prevent. We're going to drop our guys back, play a lot of off coverage unless you just get some quick hitches underneath and that. That's a lot of what ended up happening with Tyler Schuck here. So I want to see him again next week. But we have entered this era here where he was spreading the ball around pretty evenly. Dave, Chris Olave, Rashid Shahid, Joanne Johnson all getting their touches with Tyler Schuck in there.
- [46:15]
Dave
Yeah. And Rashid Shahid is my riser. 12 targets. That's a season high for him. Like to see him A little bit more involved in the offense because we know this guy with game breaking speed. I did a show this offseason with Jared Smola and he was talking a bunch about Rashid Shahid, just like not understanding why he was falling where he was in fantasy drafts because on a per touch basis, per route run basis, per target basis, however you want to look at it, he's one of the most efficient guys in the league. So if they can just get him a little bit more involved, doesn't take a lot going his way to push him into fantasy relevance. And I like to see that he was a bigger part of the game plan this week.
- [46:47]
Alfredo
Guy who has not been a big part of the game plan, Alvin Camara. And I know like you mentioned pre show, he did have the injury in the game where it just looks like it slowed him down a bit. But Alvin Camara is, it's the same guy that we've been seeing throughout the season. There's very little run game efficiency. He's not getting the same targets that he used to to and shuck in this game. Watching each of his drop backs, he was not looking to dump the ball off almost at any time. He was consistently looking downfield. That's also what he's known for coming out of college is making those big plays. So he's either going to extend with his legs and look for the big play downfield or he's actually going to run it himself. And he did that a few times. So the Alvin Camaro train I think is. It's out of steam. It's out of steam at this point.
- [47:31]
Dave
And I don't even know what it is. Like he left the game with an injury. And I've heard speculation like some people are saying, are saying pcl, some people are saying mcl, some people are saying ankle. I've heard people pointing to the left leg, the right leg, like it was just a nasty tackle where he got like tackled and rolled up and couldn't come back into the game. So I don't know how much time he's going to be out for. But yeah, you know, it's, it's a little tougher to recover from these injuries at that age. You know, I want to throw Tez Johnson in there as a riser as well. And you talked about him as well. But yeah, I kind of actually skipped over that.
- [48:02]
Alfredo
I skipped it. I had him in my notes and I skipped past him.
- [48:04]
Dave
And that's why I wanted to mention it because when I was digging into this a little bit more Last night, like we, we see that he's number two on targets, but he ran just as many routes as Ameka Ibuka. Like there's no question he's the clear and obvious wide receiver too here. Evans is out for the season. We have no idea what's going on with Chris Godwin. We haven't heard anything about Jalen McMillan, but we have seen that Baker Mayfield can elevate just about anybody around him right now. And if Ted Johnson is a full time player on this offense, that's a guy that like I moved, he was moved. The biggest riser in my rest of season rankings, I moved him up like 40 spots. Like just immediately into the wide receiver.
- [48:35]
Alfredo
3 discussion from this game as well. The running backs kind of struggled. Rashad White, we kind of saw him lose a little bit of work here to Sean Tucker. Rashad White was just highly inefficient. So just something to keep note of. I think he's still going to be a starting running back as long as Bucky Irving is out.
- [48:53]
Dave
But production, how much of that had to do with it? Just, just be in like a three score game that they just started getting.
- [49:00]
Alfredo
No, it wasn't just late. Like it did happen a little bit earlier where Rashad White was just looking a bit inefficient. And you know, when they couldn't ice the game with Rashad White, Shawn Tucker had to come in there and kind of keep it going. It wasn't like a big difference, like a big disparity, but Shawn Tucker just looked a little more explosive at that time.
- [49:14]
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- [49:45]
Alfredo
Let'S go to we got three games left here Dave. Denver Broncos beat the Dallas Cowboys Denver Broncos are an enigma, man. Like I got no idea what they are. No idea it was what some they're very much like the Dolphins. Some weeks they look like a very well oiled machine that can beat anyone. Other weeks they look like an incompetent offense that does not have the playmakers or a quarterback who can create. Going up against the Dallas Cowboys I think is kind of a cure all because they are not a good defense. You are required to Pass the ball a lot and try to put up points against the Cowboys. My riser from this one is Troy Franklin who just is continuing to get targets. It's, it's been one of those things where we've always said ah, Sean Payton offense. Right. Like the running backs are going to change, the wide receivers are going to change. But Troy Franklin has sort of emerged as this number two wide receiver in this offense. Now what that means probably not a lot for fantasy. Like he's going to be one of those guys you can plug in as a wide receiver, four as a second flex in certain weeks it'll be matchup dependent. But Troy flank Troy Franklin, excuse me, getting some of those early looks from Bo Nix and you can see the familiarity between them, you know, coming out of Oregon together.
- [50:51]
Dave
Yeah and, and my follower kind of works in line with Troy Franklin being a riser, which is Marvin Mims. We saw him starting to heat up over the last couple of weeks, run more routes, get more involved in the offense and then just a complete afterthought in this one. But lots of risers from this game and I'll, I'll try to keep it to two but Bonix, you know, we saw him, him playing a great game that's back to back huge performances from Bo Nicks much like we saw last year and then RJ Harvey, you know, still in a split with JK Dobbins, but had a ton of touchdowns in this game. Like saw him ripping off the big plays, doing things that we haven't really seen from this year. So we say it all the time with these rookies, like you need to exercise some patience. These are second half of the season plays and I do wonder now with RJ Harvey looking as good as he did in this game if we start to see that role grow a little bit over the second half of the season.
- [51:35]
Alfredo
It, yeah, what's crazy is like the touches and snaps didn't really change all that much. It was a similar workload that we have seen in previous weeks. It was just the explosive plays and when you get those explosive plays that's when the coaches are saying okay, let's get this guy a little, little bit more. J.K. dobbins also looked good though too. Like it's not, it's not something where like one looked good and one looked bad. So I'm going to be forever the pessimist with Sean Payton. But you know we got to pick some winners and fall rises and follows from this here. So I, I totally get it.
- [52:06]
Dave
I'm not overreacting to the, the, the Cowboys either. Like everybody for Dallas had a bad game but sure this is just a, a really tough matchup. You know, I'm trying not to overreact so kind of keeping everyone stuck in my rankings as is and just chalking this up as a weird game.
- [52:21]
Alfredo
Yeah, I think for this one, even though it was a weird game, my follower was Jake Ferguson. Just because it kind of shows like he's not going to be be you know, target proof where he is going to absolutely be the number two guy in the pecking order or even the number three guy in the pecking order. Granted could be a wonky game, you know, but in a game where the Cowboys are losing, there should be more passing. I did expect to see a bigger Jake Ferguson role so it's, it's less of him playing poorly and me expecting this to go on and more of just like cool. He's not totally game proof or matches script proof or anything like that.
- [52:52]
Dave
Right.
- [52:53]
Alfredo
David, your follower from this one, faller.
- [52:57]
Dave
From this one is. Oh, Marvin Names. I already mentioned that that he just kind of got phased out because we see Troy Franklin doing more things.
- [53:04]
Alfredo
Yeah. Okay. Two games left here. Indianapolis Colts beat Tennessee Titans. Just insert team and they defeated the Tennessee Titans. Sorry. It's just going to probably happen that way every week and that's why my riser is Taja Spears. We've just seen him be on the field more. When the Titans are in passing situations which start the game, they're in a passing situation. Let's just say that Taji Spears is going to continue. The workload has shifted where Tajie Spears is out there getting the more valuable touches. He's really the only spark of the offense when they're in the passing situations. He's getting more snaps. It is what it is. Tony Pollard has not looked great. He didn't have a, a bad game here, but it just, it wasn't anything that was notable for fantasy. Like I don't even think he is a trade worthy candidate for NFL purposes at this point. The Titans seem like they're kind of stuck with him. So Tasha Spears, Dave, we've talked about him. I think he just kind of sits in that weekly RB3 category where you can flex him if you need to and PPR leagues. He's a good PPR scam and you.
- [54:06]
Dave
Might even be underselling it I think right now. RB3 but like I could see him developing into more of like an RB2 as the season goes on because. Because such A talented player and like.
- [54:14]
Alfredo
We'D have to see a complete fall off in snaps for Tony Pollard. That's the only thing is it's, it's. There's these kind of annoying incumbents, the Nick Chubs, the Tony Pollards that are just, that are just there.
- [54:24]
Dave
The Chuba Hubbards. Yeah, yeah. We had the same conversation today about so many different backfields that are all kind of the same conversation. Like Taj Spears is like the young guy with juice right now. Like just give him more touches. He looks awesome.
- [54:37]
Alfredo
Yeah, yeah. This one. Anyways, I know Tony Paul is your follower, so I mean it feels like a natural place to go.
- [54:45]
Dave
Already knocked that out. Yeah, yeah. Too much to talk about. He just doesn't look good. And this is like literally, you know, I, I keep looking at the yards per touch. This is another one where Taji Spears is just averaging twice as many yards per touch. And I understand like Tony Pollard does get some of the early work and see more loaded boxes. But like Tasha Spears is a well rounded, very good running back and, and we can see what he can do with larger touches. Riser from this game though, it's Michael Pittman like very quietly just having this wide receiver one season. He's a wide receiver seven right now in fantasy scoring. And my goodness, that touchdown catch that he had was unbelievable. Like I don't know if you saw that one. Like he caught it with one arm.
- [55:21]
Alfredo
He caught the other guy's arm as well.
- [55:24]
Dave
Yeah, he just caught the ball and the defender both down into the end zone. Like he is one of those guys that like we gotta remember a couple years ago we were talking about this guy like the huge breakout talked about if his wide receiver 1 then last year he's dealing with so many injuries I can't even remember them all. I know the back was one, but he had other injuries on top of that. And I think that we just kind of forgot how good he is when he's healthy. And now he's operating as the lead target earner on one of the league's best offenses. And I think people still have it in their mind that like ah, he's this wide receiver three whatever and like no, like he is playing awesome football this year. Year.
- [55:57]
Alfredo
I mean the Colts are playing awesome football this year. Like it's. I, I debated who to put as my riser from the Colts and it's, it's hard to because like they've just all been so good. Like Daniel Jones is now established as a top eight or ten fantasy quarterback. Every single week. Jonathan Taylor, running back one. I mean everyone on this offense, Tyler. Tyler Warren continues to be a starting tight end for Fantasy every single week in the top eight discussion. It just is what it is. I think what we're going to see and what we have seen is a little bit of back and forth between Josh Downs, Alec Pierce, whoever gets the hot week or gets the touchdown that week. I will say this, Alec Pierce looked very good. Not that he hasn't looked good throughout his career, but it's the. The earning of targets is getting a little more consistent for him and Daniel Jones is finding some comfort with him. So it hasn't been one of these things like we've seen in Daniel Jones career where he can only hit the slot and only like you get just hyper targeted to one player. He's spreading the ball around. It looks good, it's just, it's highly impressive. But my takeaway from this one, the faller Chicka conquo and once again not really a talent thing. But the snaps aren't there as much as they used to be. The targets are not there as much as they used to be. Four targets.
- [57:07]
Dave
Gunner Helm catching the touchdown.
- [57:08]
Alfredo
That's what I was going to say, man. Gunner Helm has become the guy who is out there nearly as much as Chiga Conquo and you'd think, no Calvin Ridley, no Tyler Lockett. It let's funnel these targets to one of our best players in the team and it's just not quite there. And this is one of those where like I go back to where I say yes, it's a talented player, but because of the environment, maybe it's just not going to happen. And we've been hoping and praying and wondering would it happen and just seems at this point, no, it's not going to.
- [57:37]
Dave
I'm sure we'll talk about him tomorrow on our waiver show. But Jamir dk, another riser, led the wide receivers in touches and opportunities this game. We saw that like big touchdown two weeks ago and you know, that was coming off just four targets. I thought it was like kind of fluky, but here he is, you know, a guy who was drafted relatively early in round four, you know, starting to look pretty good here over the second half of the season, especially as Calvin Ridley is out. I think DK kind of works himself into the weekly flex conversation.
- [58:03]
Alfredo
Yeah, the drops started to rear their ugly head for Alec IO Manor, which is one of those things that I never liked on film. But Shamir DK is a guy like I Did not think could have this kind of a role in the NFL. But, but he's a field stretcher. He's a big play merchant. And Cam Ward just wants to make big play. He's a gunslinger. He is the effort DK down there somewhere and like he's, he's going to keep doing that on a week. Why not? Dude, you're down 35, seven in every single game. Like just. He's going to keep going for it. So the styles match up pretty well. Last game here, this was the Thursday night game. Los Angeles Chargers defeat the Minnesota Vikings. Dave, Thursday night and Friday morning was the Arande Gadsden happy hour, man. Because this was all anyone could talk about. If you picked him up on waivers many weeks ago, when we talked about him, congratulations, you got yourself a stud tight end right now because that's how he's been playing. I'm still curious to see how this offense continues to shake out. We get the very weird zero target zero reception game for Quentin Johnson here. Dave, I see you getting misty eyed. I understand it's.
- [59:11]
Dave
It's fighting for my wife. I gotta sneeze. Stuck in my notes for like 45 seconds and it is not coming out.
- [59:16]
Alfredo
I'm just watching you like someone's cutting onions, man.
- [59:20]
Dave
Oh my goodness. It's just like sitting right here in my nose. Sorry.
- [59:24]
Alfredo
Don't worry, I'll continue to filibuster Aranda Gadson. I plug and play starting tight end every single week. I. I don't think we need to do the thing.
- [59:33]
Dave
We're.
- [59:33]
Alfredo
Is he matchup dependent or do I have another guy? He's your, he's your starting tight end every single week. And if you went out and you drafted the guys like Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, any of those David Ajoku, and you're wondering, okay, who do I play each week? I'm doing my best to put one of those guys in a trade, package them for something else and go get better at other positions and just let Irande Gadsden keep being your guy at tight end. The upside is there. The floor is there every week with targets and a good Justin Herbert passing offense. That's the kind of move I want to make here.
- [60:02]
Dave
Yeah, I kind of brushed this off last week, you know, thinking that it wouldn't be able to maintain. But then after watching it happen again, I mean, it's coming at the expense of Quentin Johnston is really what's happening is they just kind of dropped Rhonda Gadsden right into Quentin Johnson's role and.
- [60:15]
Alfredo
Trey Harris is jumping out there too. It's like everything that Quentin Johnson was doing, they're like, okay, well we've got Gadsden and Harris that can also do that.
- [60:23]
Dave
And now you got lad McConkey back in his role where he's averaging over 10 targets per game and 19 fantasy points per game game. The weird thing is KEENAN Allen played 24 of the snaps. Like it was so weird to see him just like completely phased out as a full time player. But they've got all of these good young players. So yeah, I didn't want to do the thing where I like, you know, just very incrementally move people up in my rest of season rankings. Like, I saw enough from around a Gadsen. I've got him out of Sam Laporta, I've got him out of Kyle Pitts, Harold Fanning Jr. Dalton Kincaid, Travis Kelsey, all those guys. I mean he is a top eight tight end for me going forward.
- [60:57]
Alfredo
I follow from this game. Jordan Mason, this was not keep patting selves on the back. But like we talked about this when he had his big game and this was the idea is trade away Jordan Mason. He's got the big workload right now. He's got an easy matchup. The matchups get harder. Jordan Mason was very decent. It's weird to say very decent, but he was very, quite okay when he was in San Francisco. He filled in admirably for the Niners when Christian McCaffrey was out. This has not been a guy throughout his career. That is. This is a runaway talent. Absolute RB1 need to start him every week he gets the opportunity here with Minnesota. The offense hasn't quite been what we've wanted it to be. Aaron Jones is back and Jordan Mason did not look good in this game against the Chargers. And yeah, the Chargers have been a decent defense, but running backs have also been able to score against the Chargers and Jordan Mason just isn't there. The, the role is sort of phasing out here and depending on what happens with JJ McCarthy, I wouldn't be surprised if we're back to JJ McCarthy starting Aaron Jones getting his checkdowns over and over and over. And Jordan Mason, I don't want to say gets phased out, but gets relegated to here's eight to ten touches a game. Go get us some tough yards and sort of do the Samaj p Ryan thing. Like I can very much see a Chase Brown Samajp r grind type split here in Minnesota in oh my God, was I about to say a worse offense in Minnesota than a Joe Flacco led Bengals. But yeah, but yeah, it is. It is.
- [62:26]
Dave
Yeah. I, I think and I, I will say like this game, I think a lot of it came because of game script. Like this was a game script that is not going to favor Jordan Mason, but just the fact that he can get.
- [62:35]
Alfredo
Is game script gonna favor this ever?
- [62:38]
Dave
That's what I'm wondering. Yeah. So like you might have a handful of good weeks here and there, but, but I think they're going to be very tough to predict. This is one of those frustrating shape shifting committees on a weekly basis. It's going to be really hard to ever really fully peg down. So yeah, I mean Mason was a big, big faller for me. And again, you know, we talk about this early season bias all the time. Like what happens in the first four weeks seems to carry like 10 times more weight than whatever happens over the rest of the year. Last year, Jordan Mason was awesome for the first four weeks and then started to wane and inevitably lost his job to Isaac Arundo and didn't look good over the second half of the season. Yeah, there were some injuries in there as well. But you know, I never really understood the Jordan Mason steam because like we saw three, four really good weeks to start the year and that was kind of it last year. And yeah, I mean there's, there's a reason that the, the 49ers, who are a very running back needy team this off season, traded him away for a day three pick and now we're seeing why. And the other weird thing is Xavier Scott was still involved as well. So now it's not even just like an Aaron Jones Jordan Mason committee. Now it's an Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason and Xavier Scott committee, which is just going to be, be really, really frustrating.
- [63:43]
Alfredo
Yeah, it's, it's pretty gross. All right, Dave, Week eight, who's your, your final faller that we have here from this Chargers Vikings game?
- [63:53]
Dave
Keenan Allen, I mean, played like 24.7% of the snaps. It was just, I saw somebody a tweet that cracked me up. It was like Keenan Allen is unk maxing so hard in this game, catching the ball, falling over, standing up and not even jogging to the sidelines, like just walking to the sidelines after like picking up a first down signal in the first down and then just walking back to the sideline.
- [64:13]
Alfredo
We need to make the all Unk team just like DeAndre Hopkins, Keenan Allen, Monte Adams. Yep, just Devonte Adams.
- [64:19]
Dave
Unk by age. No.
- [64:20]
Alfredo
Yeah, I was like, he can't.
- [64:22]
Dave
Young lad out there, he can't be.
- [64:23]
Alfredo
Unk by association like this. He's. He's. Yeah, he's playing like the kids.
- [64:27]
Dave
Joe Flacco, Deandre Hopkins.
- [64:29]
Alfredo
There we go.
- [64:30]
Dave
Let's put it all together.
- [64:31]
Alfredo
Yes. I love it. I love it. All right, Dave, we did it, man. We recapped all of the Week 8 games, gave you guys our takeaways here, reactions to us Ride followers how it helps you in fantasy. We're gonna be back again tomorrow with our waiver wire pickups here for week nine. We are getting so much closer to the fantasy football playoffs. I want to thank everybody for joining us here, watching or listening all the way through. For myself, for Dave. We'll see you next time. Adios.
- [65:05]
Dave
Foreign.
- [65:09]
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Alfredo
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Alfredo
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