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Risers And Fallers From Every Week 9 Game || Fantasy Football 2025
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- [00:00]
Jeff Bridges
Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.
- [00:02]
Zoe
Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?
- [00:05]
Jeff Bridges
Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So Dana.
- [00:12]
Zoe
Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.
- [00:24]
Jeff Bridges
Wow, impressive. Let me try. T mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.
- [00:31]
Dave Kluge
Nice.
- [00:32]
Zoe
Je free.
- [00:32]
Dave Kluge
You heard them. T mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition.
- [00:40]
Jeff Bridges
So what are we having for lunch?
- [00:42]
Zoe
Dude, my work here is done.
- [00:44]
T-Mobile Announcer
The 24 month bill credit on experience beyond for well qualified customers + tax and 35 device connection charge credit send and balance due if you pay off earlier Cancel Finance agreement. IPhone 17 Pro 256 gigs 1099.99 A new line minimum 100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Best mobile network in the US based on analysis by Oklahoma Speed Test Intelligence Data 182025 Visit T mobile.com so what'd.
- [01:01]
Alfredo Brown
You end up doing for Halloween?
- [01:03]
Dave Kluge
Sagonia, which was fantastic.
- [01:06]
Alfredo Brown
You mentioned that, you mentioned that your, your, your euro, your, your Gorbachev, whatever his name.
- [01:12]
Dave Kluge
Yes, my, my Gorbachev movie. Yorgos Lanthimos. Great movie though. Like seriously, this has been such a good year for movies. I feel like, you know, I've seen a lot of really good movies this year, but Begonia was up there and of course, I mean our, our neighborhood is crazy. We, we probably had over 100 kids come through and my wife did one of the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus.
- [01:31]
Alfredo Brown
Got like that's great.
- [01:32]
Dave Kluge
Fully, fully 100% in character and just, just really crushed it.
- [01:38]
Alfredo Brown
Dude, I love that. I love it. We, I'm in the new neighborhood now so like we have like 50 houses. It's not enough for everyone to go trick or treating and stuff, but there's. Since the city that I'm in is basically a new development altogether. There's like one neighborhood that everyone drove to. There's a massive line and we decided to skip that out. We let my little sister in law go there, but we just did like a trunk or treat here in the neighborhood. Everyone brought their cars, hung out in like the, the park parking lot that's here in the neighborhood. And it was just, it was so simple, so simple, so easy. But I miss that. Like I want to do once they have more houses built here. Like, I want to do the thing where you can go house to house. That was just so much fun as a kid. Getting the crap scared out of you and all that doing. Seeing the haunted houses, like, I'd get more excited for those. I don't even care if they had candy.
- [02:19]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And our neighborhood, it's all single family homes and they're all pretty close together. So there are so many kids in the neighborhood and like, you know, it restores my faith in humanity a little bit when I like look out the window at like 7pm on Halloween and like the streets are just filled with kids. Like there are families everywhere. You know, we feel like we didn't see that for a little while. Like 20, 20, 20, 21, 2022. Like, you know, trick or treating slowed down quite a bit. And I don't know if it's just the neighborhood that I'm in now, but like, there are a lot of kids out for Halloween this year. Foreign.
- [02:58]
Alfredo Brown
Welcome into the Football Guys fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown, joined as always. We got Dave Kluge with me. And today we're going to be doing our quick recap of the Week 9 games, giving you guys our risers and followers, which players have the great performances that are going to carry over into next week and which players it's not looking so good for. So, Dave, let's start off with, I think potentially the game of the year. Game of the year. You got to be happy about it. Bears beat the Bengals in this one. This was just a phenomenal game. As we got to the end, I was sitting there saying, okay, like, sure, the Bears got this in the bag. Then the Bengals go downfield. T. Higgins touchdown. And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. The Bengals pulled this one off, man. Good for them. They're really keeping everything alive. No way the Bears are going to win this. What do they do? Easy downfield. Colson level in middle of the field. Just basically bounces off the safety Jordan Battle, who doesn't wrap up. And there goes Colson Loveland for a touchdown. Such a huge win. I actually think this is and I know it's the Bengals, so we can pump breaks a little bit, but I do think this is one of those career defining wins for a guy like Caleb Williams where he was able to keep his composure even in the toughest of moments. Get a big win for the city of Chicago. This, I think, means a lot to the Bears and the Bears fans.
- [04:11]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, it was a fun one. And Then there was also that like huge Kevin Bayard where he had the catch return that they said ended up, you know, being down by contract or I'm sorry, Tremaine Edmonds. There was another interception by Kevin Byard that was overturned. I mean, it was just like a crazy, crazy game. A lot of fun. Really enjoyed that one. I do think this was like two just. We talked about this. This was like a fire all cannons type of game. Like two terrible defenses with a lot of offensive playmakers. And every once in a while we have these big expectations for these games and they come up flat. This one did not. I mean, down to the final seconds, just. It was a. It was a really, really fun game to watch.
- [04:46]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, my. My winner from this ariser from this game. Chase Brown and faller Smaj P. Ryan. We just saw that the role for Samaj Pirain just diminished into almost nothing, which is crazy after what we had seen in previous weeks where it was like a 50, 50 split in that backfield. So now we saw Taj Brooks actually get more snaps or, excuse me, more touches than Samaji Piran in this game. So Chase Brown does seem to be the unequivocal RB1 for this Bengals team and they're able. So it's. Yeah, you still, if you held on to Chase Brown, you've still got the value in that player.
- [05:15]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, 14 targets. Just unbelievable. Love to see that type of volume for a running back. And we talked about a little bit where he's like giving up some work here and there. It's actually improving his efficiency. I think being out there for 96% of the snaps like we saw last year probably isn't how you want to use Chase Brown. So I think him coming off the field every now and then allows him to be fresher, helps his efficiency. So, yeah, big winner from this game. Of course, some other winners here. Common on guy. Hard to ignore what he did, you know, 198 scrimmage yards led the league last week. Colson Loveland, the big breakout game was. Is finally here. Two touchdowns, you know, just working as that primary tight end. Colcomette did leave the game with an injury, but even before that injury, Colson Loveland was operating as the primary tight end. So it looks like we finally kind of seen that switch happen. And then, yeah, like you said, Chase Brown, you know, just another huge riser. I can't even really find a faller in this game because like when. When both teams are scoring nearly 40 points, it's tough to identify any fallers.
- [06:06]
Alfredo Brown
Maybe outside of fantasy football, just the Bengals. Bengals is a team so fun stat. Bengals are the first team to score 38 or more points in back to back games and lose both games since 1966 when the Giants did it. It's just a horrible. And you see like Jamar Chase just dejected after the game walking through the locker room saying, we just one stop. One stop. That's it. Get one stop. They asked Chase Brown about it. He said some words that I can't say on the podcast. They just, they just got to finish games and they're. And they're not doing it. But for fantasy, we love this kind of stuff because no defense, lots of offense. It's great. It's fantastic for us. We win.
- [06:42]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, it was a fun game. I mean, I will say I asked my wife if I could say this on the podcast, so she gave me her permission, but she literally broke into tears when we won that game. Like, you know, him being a Bears fan as long as we have been Bears fans, we're just so used to losing those games. Like, you know, coming down to the wire. The Bears are never the team that has that like big final play of the game to win it. And when Colson Loveland, you know, spun off those two tacklers, you know, head down, run to the end zone, my wife just like burst into tears. It was a, it was a, a fun day in the Kluge household.
- [07:12]
Alfredo Brown
By the way, one last thing I want to add here. We don't often talk about defensive players, but every once in a while we can talk about corners that are getting some make making some big changes in the offensive side. D.J. turner corner for Cincinnati has been quite good as of late and he's a big reason that Roma Dun didn't have a big performance in this game. Uh, and he's been doing it week in and week out after the Bengals buy he's going to be going up against Pittsburgh. Week 11 DK Metcalf. Just something to consider as we get closer to that game.
- [07:38]
Dave Kluge
Also, Roman Dunes a drops. You know, we, we talked about this a few weeks ago and we were like, ah, you know, it's Fluky, no big deal. But like they're starting to become pretty consistent. He dropped a touchdown. He had another. That would have been like a nice first down play on actually a pass from Cole Comet that he ended up dropping. He dropped another catch last week that would have kept the Bears alive. I mean there have been some, some pretty, pretty big drops from Roma Dun in big moments over the last Few weeks.
- [08:02]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah. I mean, it does seem like a, like a contained thing to just these few weeks. Like it hasn't been a career thing or a college thing. So hoping he gets that put together. We're going to go quicker through some of these other games. This was just like one of the biggest games of the week. We had to talk about it a lot. Before we do that, I just want to remind everybody we've got a bunch of ways you can enjoy this show. First is going to be right here on YouTube. So if you're watching, take a moment to comment your thoughts on this week's games down below. Who helped you win your week, who made you lose your week, and what do you want to see going forward? Also, take a sec to like this video. Subscribe to the channel because we're with you every single week doing these recaps, going over the waiver wire, who to start, who to trade for. And you can always catch us on the audio side on Apple or Spotify. Dave, let's go to the next game on the list here. And it's Seahawks versus Commanders. That was the game late last night. Who, if you missed Even the first 10 minutes of the game, you missed too much because, wow, Sam Darnold was absolutely cooking early. Just could not miss a throw. We finally see him get his first incompletion on essentially a back shoulder fade to JS end on the sideline where it's just, that's when you know he's like, all right, let's just see what happens. But we're just going for stuff at this point. Like they were playing with so much confidence. You and I have the exact same risers from this game. Tory Horton, Elijah Royo, A.J. barner, all the, all the receiving players on this team not named Cooper cup had themselves some big games. Now the question is going to be, are they going to have those roles going forward when Cooper cup returns?
- [09:24]
Dave Kluge
Hey, Kenneth Walker managers. You should be so happy you didn't get vultured by Zach Charbonnet in this game. AJ Barner is doing the vulture right now. I mean, just, I don't know if it's gonna happen for Ken Walker, a fun player, but like, you know, they just pull them out.
- [09:37]
Alfredo Brown
I don't think it's happening for any of these running backs.
- [09:39]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean, it's just a frustrating split. You're hoping these guys can fall in the end zone. We've talked about them enough, but like, they're both just kind of in that low end RB2, high end RB3 bucket where you're hoping they can score and when they don't, you're just looking at your lineup saying, like, why did I start one of these running backs? And that's what it was last week. But yeah, AJ Barner and Elijah Royal both look really, really good. And this is just kind of how we expect these Kubiak offenses to look. There was so much talk about, like, you know, can Torre Horton even get on the field when Cooper cup was healthy and he was able to here and there. But this team, they use a fullback often. They love these two tight end, three tight end sets. So they have these jumbo packages that they're living out of all the time. And I think that that puts both Elijah Arroyo and A.J. barner in the streaming discussion. What I'm interested to see is how Cooper cup fits back into the offense when he comes back, because, you know, this offense has looked good through the entire year, but last year night, you know, they, they look far and away better than they have in any game this year. And Cooper cup, you know, good at blocking, good at doing the things that he does at this point in his career, but he doesn't have that same explosive potential that a guy like Tori Horton does or either of these tight ends.
- [10:39]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, and I think conventional wisdom tells you he needs to be an ancillary piece in the offense, but NFL teams do this all the time out of respect for the veteran. Let's keep him in there, let's keep him getting snaps, let's get him more targets. We saw it with one of the teams that we're gonna talk about later when it came to the running back position. The Panthers doing that for Chuba Hubbard. Dave, what I will say is this, like, we've learned some pretty easy lessons over the last few weeks. I mean, throughout the season, too. Every running back is going to be able to run against the Bengals and every team is going to be able to pass against the commanders. This is a secondary that is just beatable week in, week out. Sam Darnold is. It's real, guys. Like, it's real at this point. Like we. You. If you don't believe in Sam Darnold, it's not the tooth fairy spoilers, by the way, for the kids listening. Make sure this is not on in the car. But to do this, what they're, what they've been doing is exactly what we talked about in the offseason with Clint Kubiak getting some heavy play action, being able to get defensive defenses off balance where they think constantly this is a running team. They're going to run the ball. They don't have enough targets in the offense to get this ball out there. And they're doing it and they're doing it regardless. That's been one of the impressive things here. And Dave, we'd be remiss if we don't talk about Jaden Daniels. Jaden Daniels here and the commander's offense. This is such a loss for them, which, weirdly enough, saw this on social media. Jaden Daniels and Robert Griffin III's injuries occurred in the same stadium, exact same yard line, both on second down against the Seahawks. Just weird spookiness with this. Obviously it's an elbow injury. It's a little different non throwing arm for Jane Daniels, but it looked really gross. If you're squeamish, don't go looking for the video or the pictures. Dave, how do you feel about this commander's offense going forward, though?
- [12:19]
Dave Kluge
Oh, I mean, just bad. I mean, like Marcus Mariota bad. Yeah, you know, Marcus Barriota, I think, is one of the more serviceable backups. Like, he can go in there and he can keep the offense on schedule and he's got a little bit of rushing upside that we like in fantasy football, but this is not what you want to see whatsoever. I mean, it's just been like this is one of those really unlucky years, and teams have those every now and then. They lost Austin eckler early. Luke McCaffrey is also out for the season with a broken collarbone from last night. Marshawn Lattimore tore his ACL last night. So, I mean, the, the Commanders were just getting it from every single angle. They've got Terry McLaren, who's been dealing with injuries ever since his preseason holdout. So this is just one of those kind of lost years for Commanders, and I think they're already kind of turning the leaf and, and looking 20, 26 and hoping it can get better.
- [13:02]
Alfredo Brown
Then let's go to our next game on here. This could have been, and it probably should have been, game of the week, but Bills beat the Chiefs and the Bills just look really good at football right now. They're able to do whatever they want, whether that's running the ball, passing the ball. The Chiefs look fine, but they just, they were all out of sorts. Patrick Mahomes, this just did not look like a good game for him. He really struggled. Dave Funtat here. Week nines, Chiefs Bills matchup. Josh Allen recorded the highest completion percentage of his career, 88.5%, while Patrick Mahomes recorded the lowest of his career, 44.1%. And yeah, it showed. It absolutely showed. I know that one of my risers from this is Khalil Shakir, who has just proven to be the top target earner for this team. I know that Dalton Kincaid had a big touchdown catch and run, but Khalil Shakir has been the guy who's just consistently dominating targets at the wide receiver spot. I know for you, one of your followers is Keon Coleman. I think those just kind of go hand in hand.
- [13:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean, at this point, I think Keon Coleman is droppable. We got so excited about week one. We're like, he did it. You know, he's taking that step forward. He's going to be the wide receiver one. And it's just been nothing since that game. So I think Keon Coleman's droppable Khalil gear, you know, a nice wide receiver three. We know he can make these plays after the catch. I'd like to see a little bit more usage going his way. And then with Dalton Kincaid, he's another riser that I have this week. He set a career high 108 receiving yards right before he injured himself in Week 5. Missed the next couple of weeks. They had a buy in there as well. Comes back from the injury, doesn't look like himself. And then last week, Amir immediately. 101 yards, second best of his career. So looking at it, I mean, he's already given us three top five finishes. He's given us a top 10 finish, and he doesn't give us a nice floor. But we're not getting a floor from almost any tight end out there. So I think that Dalton Kincaid, you know, he's at that point now where you're just setting and forgetting into tight end one. You're going to live with the ups and the downs as they come. But there's some nice weekly upside with Dalton Kincaid when he's healthy.
- [14:52]
Alfredo Brown
Any concern about the snap counts like that just continues to fluctuate. It's been going down. We're seeing a lot of Dawson Knox and Jackson Hawes out there doing a lot of the run blocking, which I mean, is fine. Right. Like you'd rather have Dalton Kincaid out there for passing downs. It just. It does seem a little bit like it's going to be exactly what you said it's going to be the hit or miss, boom or bust. There's not really a safety with the tight end position anyway. So even though you're going to see like, yes, he's not getting as many snaps. The snaps he is getting are very intentional to get the ball in his hand. So I'm, I'm okay with it.
- [15:21]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I'm looking at that like he ran 16 routes yesterday. Dawson Knox ran nine, Jackson Hawes ran eight. So, I mean, he's running just as many routes. Routes as those two guys are combined. And Dalton can keep. He's not a run blocker. Like, I, I don't. I don't want to see him out there run blocking. I want to see him lining up in the slot and catching passes downfield and making plays after the catch and scoring touchdowns, which he's been doing all year.
- [15:40]
Alfredo Brown
It's the context of the snap numbers. Like, so often you'll see his snap percentage is down really well. How often did they run in this game? Were they leading 21 to 7 at one point and decided to run the ball a lot more? That's going to change things. So get that context in there, guys. Next game on you. Panthers beat the packers and this was a just last minute boy, man, those. The packers, man, like, they cannot catch a break with field goals for or competition. They're.
- [16:05]
Dave Kluge
They're the NFC Ravens. Like, they can hang with the best of them and then when they play the Titans on a random week, they're just going to play down to their competition. This is just what they do. I don't understand it.
- [16:15]
Alfredo Brown
I. I don't understand it. I really, really don't. Matt LaFleur's already talked about it. Every time my kicker goes out there on the field, like, I just cover my eyes. It doesn't matter who it's been, whether it's been McManus or. I can't remember the kicker's name. That was out there a couple weeks ago, but it's just been really bad for them, man. But. Pos. I mean, let's. We'll start with actually the followers because we have our. Our followers. Both of them are. We each have the same guy from the Green Bay Packers, Matthew golden, who leaves this game with an injury. Normally, I think we would just say Tucker Kraft. That's. I mean, that's pretty obvious. Like that. That's. That's. Yeah, everyone can see it. He's injured, season is over. Not much to talk about there. But this could have been a moment for Matthew golden where it's like, okay, everything's. The stars are really aligning, man. How many people need to go down before Matthew Golden a role? Now he's hurt. Christian Watson is playing well Dontavio Wicks is coming back. Jaden Reed is coming back. We're just not seeing it for Matthew Golden. He's not commanding targets, he's not a big focal point of the offense and I don't see that changing even with Tucker Kraft out.
- [17:13]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and I, I think that's just it. Like the role that we were hoping Matthew golden could have is undoubtedly Christian Watson's role right now. Like, he was second on the team in targets, he was second on the team in routes. He's getting all the work we were hoping could go to Golden. So it's tough because golden is a first round rookie in what seems like a pretty thin wide rece room. You never want to drop these guys, but he does start to give that feeling of just kind of being a roster clogger where you're just like waiting for it to happen. Then before you know it, you're getting eliminated from the fantasy playoffs and Matthew Golden's still on your bench and you're like, man, I really could have used an extra running back here.
- [17:45]
Alfredo Brown
Did you, did you catch the Rico Dowdle touchdown celebration?
- [17:48]
Dave Kluge
I did. I mean like the rest had to peel two pumps when they threw the flag. Like they had to have known what they, they were playing a part. Man, that was good stuff.
- [17:56]
Alfredo Brown
Also he just immediately he was like, he was like one, two, nah. And then when they flagged him, he's like. But it was two pumps.
- [18:02]
Dave Kluge
Two pumps. It was too good. Rico down a little bit. He's just unbelievable. Looks great handle. Looks absolutely over 80 of the opportunities. Like we never actually see this happen where like the backup comes in while the starter is injured and then actually gets the job. And this is like we gotta remember like Juba Hubbard, he's got that captain's patch on his chest. Like he was the engine of this offense last year. And that's why when he came back from injury, they still gave him the role. But over the last two weeks, you know, Rico Dottle was just outperforming him and like shout out to Dave can for doing the thing that coaches never really want to do, which is taking a lead job away from a captain. But Rico Dowdle, he's just been too good to ignore. I mean like he's, it's kind of crazy how long he was in the NFL just floating under the radar. Because if you look from the midway point of last season when he took over that starting job in Dallas through now, he's just been one of the most dominant running backs in football.
- [18:51]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, it's I was gonna say, like, dare I say league winner at this point. He's had so many top three finishes and he's a guy you didn't have to spend a lot to get or you picked him up off the waiver wire.
- [19:01]
Dave Kluge
He wasn't even drafted in most league. When I was doing like 20 round best ball drafts. He was going undrafted in those.
- [19:08]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah. And I mean, we saw him, Dave. Like it's.
- [19:10]
Dave Kluge
We.
- [19:10]
Alfredo Brown
We've talked about him as a trade target, especially even when Chuba Hubbard was coming back, because it's. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And that's what we're experiencing here with, with the Panthers is, is Dave Canals came out and said he's like, yeah, we're, we're going to give the good guy, the guy who's playing really well, more snaps, like naturally. That's just what we have to do. Regardless of feelings and things like that. That. So it, it's good to see that happening. And it's not just that he's playing well, it's the volume that he's getting too. I mean, just looking at this Dave, where it's just like, it's consistent this past week, 25 carries. Add another two receptions on there. So like h. How many of these games that he's going through where we're looking at 25 touches? I mean, he said three out of the. Excuse me. One, two, three. Yeah. Three out of the last five have been 25 plus touches.
- [19:51]
Dave Kluge
The first two games back with Chuba, they were kind of doing this like 50, 50 split. And then they just stopped messing around with that last week. 84 of the opportunities, like this is his backfield.
- [20:00]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah. 100 next game on here. This was toilet bowl, but there was some fun stuff that happened in here. Jaguars defeat the Raiders. This one also kind of just came down to the end here. My riser from this pretty obvious one, Brock Bowers, who. He's back. Like, he's so back. Everything looks so great. We're not worried. Even with Michael Mayer in there with Jacoby Myers back, Geno Smith playing horrible. It doesn't matter. Brock Bowers is out here getting 12 targets in a game. Like, it's just nuts, man. Like Brock Bowers, if you were able to make a move for him or you held on to him, you got to be feeling really good right now. Yeah.
- [20:36]
Dave Kluge
And I remember we talked about him when we were doing a trade show a few weeks ago. Just saying like, you know, if you're a winning team right now and you can go out and get Brock Bowers and just like sit on him like this is that second half league winner and he comes out immediately in his first game back and scores more fantasy points this week than anybody has scored in a single game so far this season. I don't think he's going to keep putting up, you know, 150 and three touchdowns every single week. But he is like the only good thing happening right now in this Raiders offense. So I expect him to maintain his role as the primary pass catcher here. I think the question is like, do you prefer him or Trey McBride rest of season? And if that's still kind of a toss up, especially now with Jacoby or Jacoby Brissette expected to start, we'll, we'll see how that pans out. But yeah, those two guys, those are like your elite difference maker tight ends this year.
- [21:19]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, I think that the answer to do you prefer Brock Bowers or Trey McBride is yes. Yeah, sure. If you have them, you keep them. Like there's not really a. No one's gonna be faced with that option in a fantasy league. Which one do I like?
- [21:30]
Dave Kluge
It's I, I have Brock Bowers in a fantasy league and somebody put trade ride on the trade block and I'm trying to get a trade for him just because like I just want to like box everybody else out in my league from having an elite tight end. Like I'll flex one of these guys and everybody else can stream Juwan Johnson or whatever it is that they're feeling on a weekly basis and just give me those two top guys.
- [21:50]
Alfredo Brown
Man, this game actually had some other cool stuff come out of it. First, let's just start with Cam Little. We never talk about kickers here on the pod, but Cam Little, man, 68 yard field goal, breaks the record for the NFL and immediately gets the drug test request in his locker. Next for the next day, like it's just. Or I don't know where they send it to, but has that for the very next day just hysterical. Good for him, man, congrats. Like, I know he's been having a rough season. The field goal kicking this year has been nuts. Dave, this feels like the steroid era in baseball where because they've changed the ball, like kickers are just doing whatever they want. That kick would have been good from 70.
- [22:29]
Dave Kluge
We'll see it eventually. I mean, Little already hit a 70 yard in the preseason. It's only a matter of time before it happens in a regular season game. And yeah, I wonder if this is going to last long term because I've already hear, you know, the, the old.
- [22:39]
Alfredo Brown
School coaches, they probably want to go back to it.
- [22:41]
Dave Kluge
Vic Fangio is already out here saying like, not in my day. Like back in my day they needed mud out of football to kick it. And like, yeah, it is what it is. People are gonna get upset about it. I hope this lasts because it is kind of fun. But with it's good tv.
- [22:54]
Alfredo Brown
It's more points. We need this.
- [22:56]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And, and I do like scoring points, but when you combine the fact that like with the new kickoff rule, teams are starting from like the 35 yard line, that like there are teams out there that literally need to pick up 15 yards and they're in squad position, it's just pretty wild to see.
- [23:10]
Alfredo Brown
That's great. That is good tv. Like that is good football. Give me more points. Give me ridiculous crazy, steroid driven field goals. I don't care. I want that. I want. I'll take that over the tush push. 10 out of 10 times. Yeah, every single time. Last thing I want to take away from this game, Dave, is Ashton Jinty who he gets, he gets saved by a touchdown, big catch and run. There hasn't been a lot to write home about in terms of the rushing, but so much of it has been him trying to do what he can with this terrible offensive line and looking the next gen stats, how they, they chart out everything. Because I haven't been able to go back and watch this game in full. Cool seeing it. Ashton GT had one run to the outside. There's just no creativity in this run game right now. Everything is slam Ashton Ginti into the B gap over and over and over and over. And he still has the third most missed tackles of any running back in the league. He's trying, he's doing the most that he can. This offense though is just, it's not going to get any better.
- [24:11]
Dave Kluge
And I think now they have Brock Bowers back out there. We've seen Michael Mayer is playing some of the best football of his career this year as well. And we're seeing that the Raiders are liking to play out of base 12 personnel, which so many teams are doing in today's NFL. So I do wonder if now they do have Brock Bowers out there to seal the edge if we start seeing more outside runs. Because when you can get Jinty in space, like he's not going down from a defender in a one on one scenario, I don't know why they keep doing this. It is predictable. It's Boring, it's inefficient, but it's what they are choosing to do. I, I do want to talk before we go on to the next game though. Parker Washington and I'm sure we'll talk about him on tomorrow's waiver wire show. I think he's the biggest big riser here. With Travis Hunter out, we saw Parker Washington and Diami Brown both more involved. But Diami Brown was getting those like low calorie junk targets that we don't really care about like where he's just catching the ball at the line of scrimmage. Parker Washington is the one catching the. In breaking routes across the middle of the field. There wasn't a ton of volume in this game. But I think if there's one guy between Parker Washington and Diamond Brown that I came away from this game more impressed with, it's definitely Parker Washington.
- [25:12]
Alfredo Brown
Oh yeah. I mean he does look like the better player. He looks like he fits well with what Trevor Lawrence wants to do and fits well into this offense. Parker Washington has a lot of the same Chris Godwin vibes that we had and Parker Washington, also Penn State wide receiver played a lot in the slot. Like there's, there's so many similarities there. It just fits perfect into this offense. So yeah, I love, I love Parker Washington. If you picked him up last week, good for you. If you're, if he's still on your waiver wire, he'll probably be a top wave wire ad going forward. Dave, a couple we, we almost skipped over the followers here but a couple of the guys that we each have listed as followers, I have Bashal Tootin, you have Brian Thomas Jr. For Bashel Tutin. For me, it's just that Travis Etienne was so good in this game. Travis Etienne has a stranglehold over this backfield. He played really well. Bashel Tootin got the touchdown and that was simply. They were just by the goal line. They gave it to him. Believe it was like a three yard touchdown. Outside of that there wasn't really much to get excited about with Bashel Tootin and it's. He's one of those guys just gonna stash on the bench. You're gonna stash on the bench in case of injury. But this idea coming out of the buy we were going to see more and maybe you could start to flex him. It's not happening. We are seeing this remains Travis Etienne's backfield.
- [26:21]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean he's handling 70% of the touches and also yards per touch. Like that's just kind of the the basic barometer that I use, like combine up all of these scrimmage yards and right now, last week, drive CTN 4.3 yards per touch. Baseball shooting just 2.6 yards per touch. So he's more efficient and he's getting more workload. Yeah, this is clearly ETN's backfield. I just wish he could score some touchdowns because it's been a while since he's found the ends.
- [26:45]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, it really, really has. I. It's great. Isn't he like most carries by a running back right now without a touchdown in the NFL?
- [26:52]
Dave Kluge
It's got to be close to it. And I mean like they're trying. Like he was just getting slammed at the goal line like consistently yesterday. It was very frustrating to watch. But again, I think this is one of those situations like trade deadline for a lot of people has already passed. For some people it's this week. Some people don't have trade deadlines at all. But ETN is one of those guys out there who just is maintaining the work and there's all this buzz for the younger guys here. I think ETN still makes for a great trade target.
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- [27:46]
Alfredo Brown
Hey, Ryan Reynolds.
- [27:47]
Dave Kluge
Here from Mint Mobile.
- [27:47]
Alfredo Brown
Now I don't know if you've heard.
- [27:49]
Dave Kluge
But Mint's Premium Wireless is $15 a month.
- [27:52]
Alfredo Brown
But I'd like to offer one other perk.
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AT&T Business Announcer
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- [27:58]
Alfredo Brown
That means no small talk.
- [28:01]
Dave Kluge
Crazy weather we're having. No, it's not.
- [28:02]
Alfredo Brown
It's just weather.
- [28:03]
Dave Kluge
It is an introvert's dream.
- [28:06]
Alfredo Brown
Give it a try@minmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
- [28:10]
Dave Kluge
Of $45 for 3 month plan.
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Zoe
$15 month equivalent required.
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- [28:13]
Dave Kluge
Then full price plan options available, taxes.
- [28:15]
Alfredo Brown
And fees, extra se mobile.com all right, let's go on to our next game here. Vikings beat the Lions. Well, good for J.J. mcCarthy. That's, that's, that's all. I went on Twitter and said good for J.J. mcCarthy. Man, he wasn't perfect. He wasn't even great, but he was good enough where the team was able to win the game. I think we could stop all the soft benching talk and, and we. We do this. We do this too often. And when I say we, I don't mean you, and I mean like, just the royal we as NFL fans, as people within fantasy. There's a need, especially when making content, to be hyperbolic. So if we're going to go on Twitter or we're going to go on TV, we're going to go on YouTube and we are going to say that a player is terrible or a bust, or he's the greatest player, he's going to win Rookie of the Year. We do this where we get overly hyperbolic. Can we just give these guys some time? Can we give these guys some time, please? He's only thrown 41 passes in the NFL. He's played six quarters of football. And, like, can we do that? Can we. Can we just give the guy time?
- [29:11]
Dave Kluge
Also, he looks benched, but who cares? Who cares if he was benched or he was hurt or whatever? Like, I. I trust Kevin OConnell to develop quarterbacks. I trust him to get quarterbacks playing their best football because that's all he's done throughout his career. So, sure, maybe he was benched, maybe he was injured. It doesn't matter. Like, he needed some time to reset because the game was just moving a little bit too fast for him. And, you know, he was only able to do so much last year on the ACL holding a clipboard. But now, you know, I think that he feels a little bit better. The game has slowed down for him. The rest of the offense kind fall into place. I'm happy for him. And I know that's going to sound weird because a lot of people are going to see me as a Bears fan, but, like, I like good football and I like good football players and I like rooting for the underdog. And how quickly JJ McCarthy went from being a first round pick with these huge expectations to people just, like, running him out of town. I want to see him do well because I just think the NFL is better when there are more good teams out there and more good quarterbacks out there. And McCarthy looked good yesterday.
- [30:03]
Alfredo Brown
I can't hear anything you're saying to me because every time I look at you, I just see that mustache and it just. Everything just goes blank in my ears.
- [30:10]
Dave Kluge
I'm so November. Yeah. You know, I do this in November. If, if you have some. Some spare money, if you're listening to this, go to Movember.com and. And make a donation. You know, mental health awareness is something that I'm pretty passionate about and you can do that@movember.com.
- [30:26]
Alfredo Brown
Please, everyone help him reach the amount that he needs. Make this go away. If you're not watching on YouTube, head on over to YouTube. You can see it. It's. It's disgusting. All right, other guys that were the rise and follows from this game. Dave, Aaron Jones, I was originally going to put him as a riser and then we get the injury and it just. It just sucks because it seems like he can't catch a break. This running game for the Vikings has not been great. Jordan Mason has just been so up and down. He's not running with efficiency. His pass blocking has been terrible. Aaron Jones was really the guy that was becoming a legitimate weapon for J.J. mcCarthy in this offense. Now with the injury, that just sets everything back a little bit.
- [31:04]
Dave Kluge
Bit, yeah. And. And it doesn't sound like it's a serious injury. They're downplaying it. Aaron Jones said that he expects to be out there again next week. I think Jordan Mason is the faller here because like he just looks so bad juxtaposed alongside Aaron Jones. And you could look at some of the games that he was playing without Aaron Jones and write it off for tough competition or whatever it was. But here they were playing against the same exact teams and Aaron Jones was averaging like three times as many yards per touch. So I think Mason, like we saw that one big blow up spot against the Bengals where he scored a couple of touchdowns. He looked good. Since then, he hasn't eclipse 60 rushing yards. He's only scored one touchdown. I mean, Mason, I think at this point, like you're holding on to him for the contingent upside, but I'm not even sure there's that much contingent upside. Like F. Jones does miss any time you're looking at Jordan Mason as like a low end RB2. I think there's probably better options out there.
- [31:52]
Alfredo Brown
We saw it like we. We've seen this movie. We know how it ended. He. We saw him be the back. And the contingent upside really wasn't there. By the way, AC joint injury for Aaron Jones here. So it is possible that he plays next week, but it's also possible he doesn't. It's also possible that he goes out there with a limited snap count. Like there's. He's gonna have the harness. He could be limited in what he can actually do. He has an older running back. So, like, there are, there are things here that I'm going to remain a little cautious with him, but once again, maybe that opens up the buy window. If you're one of these people that are not going to be risk averse, let's go out and get a running back that has a definitive role. Let's do it. Dave, some of the other guys you have listed on here, David Montgomery, Jameson Williams as risers and Jordan Addison as a ball baller.
- [32:35]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, we saw David Montgomery very involved in this game. Like, much to the dismay of Jameer Gibbs. Managers probably saw way more David Montgomery than we wanted to, but he looked good. He was able to get some things going for the Lions offense when they didn't have a lot going yesterday. Then, of course, Jameson Williams, you know, we, we didn't see much in the first half. Like, the first half he had one catch for negative yardage and then just kind of exploded over the second half. Had that unbelievable catch where he was just like tiptoeing down the sideline, able to extend out. Yeah, that was really, really good to see and I'm hoping that's what they need. Help Jameson Williams get his confidence back a little bit. And two, go back to the film room and say like, oh my goodness, we forgot Jameson Williams can do this kind of stuff. Let's get in the ball more often. That being said, he also had a really frustrating drop on what was like an easy catch across the middle of the field where he wasn't even covered, like, just wide open and the ball bounced right off of him. So the frustrations of Jameson Williams remain. But at least we saw some of the upside in this matchup.
- [33:29]
Alfredo Brown
And, and I'll say the same thing that I say for running backs is players get into a rhythm. You go so long without a target. When that ball finally comes, man, it's, it's. And I know everyone's gonna say they're professionals, they get paid millions of dollars, they should catch it every time. They're also humans. Like, it is going to happen when you get out of a rhythm. It's just naturally going to happen like that. All right, let's go to the next game on here. Rams beat the Saints. The shuck era begins for the New Orleans Saints. He had moments where there was some flashes of a few nice throws in the run and things here and there. The Saints offense is just dead in the water. There's really nothing going on here except there are. Listen there. There's some, some nice target volume for Rashid Shahid. We Saw a dip in target volume for Chris Olave, unfortunately. I want to see. I wonder if that's going to be a trend going forward. We got a Joanne Johnson touchdown. But really, to me, the big loser in this Alvin Camara, it just continues to get worse and worse and worse, and it doesn't seem like there's any saving it at this point.
- [34:25]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, he just looks so despondent on the sidelines. Like, he just seemed checked out of the game, wasn't doing well beforehand, and then just gets like pulled fourth quarter for Devin Neal. And like we talked about it, like, he has said he's not going to allow for a trade, that if he trade or if they trade him, that he's gonna go retire and drink pina coladas on the beach. And he can say that all he wants. But I do wonder. I mean, we're recording this on Monday morning. We've got like just over 24 hours left until the trade deadline. I don't know if anything's going to come to fruition or not, but Alvin Camara, it just almost feels like he doesn't want to be in New Orleans anymore. And, you know, if they're not using him, what's the purpose of remaining there? I. I don't really get what's going on.
- [35:05]
AT&T Business Announcer
On.
- [35:06]
Alfredo Brown
It felt really weird. It just felt really weird. Exactly what she's like, if he gets an offer to go play for the Kansas City Chiefs, he's not moving that far. He's playing on a green team. He has a shot at a ring. Like, I don't. We're not here to speculate on that stuff. Like, we don't, we don't know. But I don't understand why he'd want to. I mean, I guess you have the whole thing of the loyalty to the city and the organization. Yeah, but like he bleed. But that's not what we're seeing. Like, that's like everything you're saying is he just looks dejected on the sideline and it could all be misinterpreted. Right. Like, it could just be a player that's like, I'm really upset that we're losing, but I'd rather be here losing than anywhere else winning. And that, you know, that happens as well. Dave. Rams tight ends were the big riser for me in this. It's just like they're actually. I don't know that you could start any single one of them, but it's something that we have to take notice. We have to, we have to take note of here. With the Rams tight ends. Jordan Rodrigue, who covers the Rams, she posted this earlier per Next Gen stats, The Rams were in 13 personnel on 45% of their play plays. They had a 51 success rate out of this personnel grouping, including four touchdowns. Now this is multiple weeks where we have seen Rams tight ends be heavily, heavily involved, but also multiple weeks where we see Puka Nakua not being on the field for either all or portions of the game. And I'm wondering how much of that will continue when Puka is off the field depending on how bad this injury is.
- [36:28]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean his like, like best trait is also his worst, worst trait. Pua. Like he plays so aggressively that he's able of.
- [36:36]
Alfredo Brown
Of like for basketball fans, he is Dwayne Wade. Like he just attacks the basket and he's going to get hurt once every six games. And that's kind of who Puka is.
- [36:44]
Dave Kluge
The comp I had in mind was a mankind old WWE wrestler just out there, just reckless, abandoned for his body. Like he will throw himself off sock on hand. Exactly. Like he's just, he's, he's fun to watch. Watch. But this is just the, the problem with Puka Nakua is he picks up these little injuries that knock him out for half of a game here, two or three games here and there. It's just the way that he plays. The one thing I want to note on this game, I saw a lot of buzz for Blake Corum and I get it. I have, you know, two TVs set up and one of them is red zone. I don't know why. That was like the one time that red zone was just like, hey, we're gonna focus it on this game. And it was a Blake Corum drive. Yeah, Blake Cora made a few nice plays there, but like there was no change in usage. This has been a 65, 35 split like basically all season. And it was the same thing last week. Like Kyron Williams still got the touchdown, sold 155 yards, still handed 65% of the opportunities. Nothing changed here. It was just the way that Red Zone chose to show this game. Like they really dialed in on that Blake Corum drive. There's no takeover happening. Nothing has changed in this backfield.
- [37:42]
Alfredo Brown
No. And also there's a massive lead too, where it's when you get to that point, let's let Blake Corum get some more carries under his belt. Let's start to do these things. Let's get Terence Ferguson involved.
- [37:51]
Dave Kluge
I just thought it was so funny that like everyone's like the Blake Oram takeover. It's happening. And then like I, I, I checked the score after the game and I'm just like, what are you guys talking about? Like 20 something touches again. Like he does every single week. This is not like 25 carries for 115 yards. He is still the lead back here.
- [38:07]
Alfredo Brown
Dude. You know it was fun. Tyler Schuck, his first career NFL touchdown goes to six year veteran Juwan Johnson, his former team mate on the Oregon Ducks in 2019.
- [38:18]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I pulled that back when I was watching. I mean this was during like February. It was the first time I was watching Shell. I'm like, let me start from like where he first started. I was watching the game and I was just like, hold on. I had to rewind it. I was like, did they just. Juwan Johnson. Is this the same Juwan Johnson? Yeah.
- [38:32]
Alfredo Brown
Is he throwing passes to Frank White? Check.
- [38:35]
Dave Kluge
Seriously?
- [38:38]
Alfredo Brown
All right, next game on here. Patriots defeat the Falcons. Oh, man. Drake London. You know, I almost put this out on Twitter and like I had to check myself. But you know what, I'm still going to say it now. I think we have to start thinking of Drake London as one of these guys that needs to be considered in the top five of wide receivers in the NFL.
- [38:57]
Dave Kluge
I've had him there for the rest of season rankings.
- [38:59]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, I'm talking about even just NFL, like not just fantasy, but how good it's Jamar, it's Justin Jefferson, it's CD Lamb, it's Puka, and it's Drake London. There are obviously going to be other players involved there as well. Well, but he's just playing on a different level, man. When he's getting these targets, he just wins every single time in these one on one matchups. And what I love most about this is that he was playing all over the field. He's lined up in the slot on 38% of his routes. Dave. Highest rate since week four. All three of his touchdowns came from the slot. Like it's a guy who can win outside, he can win inside, he can win deep, he can win short. And he's just, he's just going up and winning in these one on one, one contested catch matchups. I love it. I love it. Since week four, wide receiver one fantasy points per game, wide receiver six on the season. And the second most targets per game amongst wide receivers this season. Everything is breaking right for Drake London and the talents there, the opportunities there. We said this in the preseason. Gonna say it again. He's a league winning type player. Yeah.
- [39:59]
Dave Kluge
And I mean the way Michael Penix just like locks in on him and allows him to make contested catch opportunities which is where he thrives. Like it's just a perfect quarterback wide receiver match. And, and like I said, know I, I have been holding it down for Drake London and I've been sharing my rest of season rankings article every single week. And like the biggest amount of pushback that I got last week was when people saying like why do you still have Drake London up there? Like he hasn't done anything this year and I was able to contextualize his bad games because he was injured and like people just seem to forget about that. Like he hurt his shoulder in week one, had a few down weeks coming back from that. He had the game two weeks ago where he was coming back from the hip injury, had a down week. But in the games that he has been healthy, he's just a lock for 100 yards and a touchdown and has even higher upside than that. Like this guy is, is legitimately one of the most talented wide receivers in the NFL. You lump him in with Justin Jefferson. Right now I prefer Drake London ahead of Justin Jefferson in fantasy. I heard I've got him ahead of Rashi Rice. I've got him in the same tier as Pukinakua and CD Lamb. And if Pukinakua ends up having to miss any time that pushes Drake London up to wide receiver four in my rest of season rankings.
- [40:56]
Alfredo Brown
I mean we forget one, that players are injured, that it affects their play. But then two, so often is just when fans are watching or fantasy managers in particular. If a guy does not give you the fantasy production, we just start to say, oh, he's a bad player. Not the context around the situation. Right.
- [41:13]
Dave Kluge
100.
- [41:14]
Alfredo Brown
This is a good player and a very good fantasy asset for your team. So yeah, it's just context, guys. Keep the context. Another riser both of us have.
- [41:22]
Dave Kluge
I want to note in this game while we're talking about it, I thought this was hilarious. Michael Pennix 33 targets yesterday went to Bijan Robinson, Drake London or Kyle Pitts. All of the other Falcons.
- [41:32]
Alfredo Brown
What a concept.
- [41:34]
Dave Kluge
Three targets for everybody else. I mean like Michael Pennix, he finally understands the assignment. Like you have. Like you have one of the best tight ends, one of the best wide receivers and one of the best running backs in football. Just get them the ball. Like we don't need to be messing around with all these other guys. Like just, just get the ball to your best players.
- [41:48]
Alfredo Brown
What a concept. Get the ball to your best players. Seems to work Trey Van Henderson. Let's just, let's talk about him really quick. This was not quite the huge blow up game that everyone wanted, but we got to see that he could do it. He looked good given the opportunities. It just wasn't the big, you know, 80% share of the workload here that I think some people maybe wanted. He was starter worthy. This just tells me even though he is a riser for us and we got to see it, it does tell me that maybe he works in a little bit more with Ramandre Stevenson, but that Ramandre will keep a pretty heavy workload.
- [42:22]
Dave Kluge
I hope so. But I also am just not getting my hopes up at all. Like I think Rondre is going to come back and I mean this is just how the Patriots operate. It's in Mike Vrabel's blood, It's in Josh McDaniel's blood. They're going to split backfield and that's why we see Terrell Jennings and why we see Dearness Johnson coming in here and getting touches. And like Trayvon Henderson does look like the best running back here, but for whatever reason they're just doing this like painstakingly slow development plan with him. So yeah, I'm still, you know, getting a little bit more confident about putting Trebion Henderson in my flex spot in some of my deeper leagues. Still stashing him everywhere. I've got him. Like I'm not saying that you should drop Trayvon Henderson, but this could prove to be a little bit frustrating over the second half of the season.
- [43:02]
Alfredo Brown
Still, Booty left this game with the hamstring injury. He's our faller. That's it's it. We could try to guess how many weeks he's going to be out. I would say at least two weeks. Typically with these hamstring injuries, maybe more we might get because they are, they're four weeks away from their buy. If if it's bad enough they've got to put them on IR. You let him get that fifth week and then he's back for week 15 against Buffalo, Baltimore Jets, Miami, lots of conference play there. For Fantasy though it would stink for him to miss the Cincinnati game and the New York Giants game because those could be big potential blow up games for him. But yeah, Keisha Booty, just a follower there. Just something to note. Let's go to the next game.
- [43:38]
Dave Kluge
Demario Douglas, the riser in the wake of the Cajun Booty injury. Definitely worth a pickup in your, your deep leagues. He might be. Yeah, that kind of Secondary guy working behind Stefan Diggs going forward.
- [43:47]
Alfredo Brown
Forward Kyle Williams is another guy. Like, I know the numbers weren't big, but the opportunity. He was the guy that immediately came in for Keisha Booty when he went out. This could be a time for him as well, deeper leagues. All right, let's go. Next game on here. We've got four more games to talk about, Dave. 49ers beat the Giants. One player goes up, one player goes down. For me, it's Devin Singletary the riser, Tyrone Tracy the faller. What are we doing? Like what, what are, what are we doing here in New York, Dave?
- [44:14]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean, Tyrone Tracy didn't look very good and it was kind of funny. Like we, we talked about Tyrone Tracy and we said we saw this backfield last year, right? Like we saw Devin Singletary and Tyrone Tracy splitting a backfield and Tyrone Tracy was a clear preferred guy. But then I looked a little bit closer into it. It was much more of a arduous path to get there than I think we remember. Like, Tyrone Tracy kind of took over the backfield late in the season, but Devin Singletary was really an annoying thorn in the side for the first 2/3 of the season, realistically. And Brian Dable still has that connection. You know, they, they, they date back all the way to their time together in Buffalo, so they've played a lot of seasons together. He understands the assignment. And Tyrone Tracy, for all the exciting metrics, things he can do out in space, the pass catching, all that, I do wonder if Devin Singletary is just like a better between the tackles runner, like the short down distance, the goal line stuff. So Tyrone Tracy, you know, it was really easy to anoint him as a league winner in the the wake of the cam scatter boo injury. But looking at how touches were split up this week, definitely dropping Tyrone Tracy a little bit. My rankings going into week 10.
- [45:15]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, I think we're probably going to be stuck in one of these 50, 50 timeshares as the season goes on. Not that Tracy is bad or that Seventeenle Terry. Sorry. That's just funny. Devin Singletary is some sort of savior here for the Giants, but yeah, I think we're just gonna be stuck in this 50, 50 here. Dave, your risers and followers, Joann Jennings, George Kittle, talk to us about those guys.
- [45:36]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, Juwan Jennings is just playing the X receiver role right now. And we have seen whether that's Kendrick Bourne or Ricky Piersall or Debo Samuel years ago or Brandon Ayuk years ago. Whoever gets the benefit of playing in that role. Like, you know, we talk so much about talent winning out and things like that, but there's something special about this X receiver role in this Kyle Shanahan offense. Like everything is predicated around getting that guy open deep downfield to catch the ball on an in breaking route with space in front of him to make plays after the catch. And we saw saw Kendrick Bourne smashing in that role. For a couple of weeks now Juwan Jennings is healthy and he's in that role. Whether it's going to be him or Ricky Pierce hall when Pearsall returns, I don't know. But at least for now I'm looking at Jennings as a high end wide receiver too. It does look like Pearsall could be back in week 10, so we'll kind of see how that changes things up a little bit. I'll be paying close, close attention to that. But Juwan Jennings is looked good over the last few weeks. I wrote George Kittle as a follower, but I don't know if there really is like a major faller from this.
- [46:28]
Alfredo Brown
We're just not seeing the big role that we're used to with him. And with some. With Piersall being out and IUK not being there, it is odd, but we're just, we're just not seeing. Yeah, I mean if the reports are.
- [46:38]
Dave Kluge
True that he tore his hamstring like a full tear of his hamstring, the fact that he's even right now is a miracle. Right? That's what I'm saying. So like maybe we are just looking at like still a very injured George Kittle and I don't want to panic too much here because once Brock Purdy comes back, we know Brock Purdy and George Kittle have fostered a really nice connection over the years and maybe that's all he needs to get back on track. But I ran a poll on Twitter yesterday. Who would you prefer for the rest of the season, George Kittle or Orande Gadson? Gadson was the clear runaway winner of that hole, which I was kind of surprised to see.
- [47:10]
Alfredo Brown
I mean I'm not. We're such victims at the moment, right? Like Gadston has had multiple back to back performances, a historic performance or a rookie tight end. George Kittle's been out for so many weeks and then the weeks back it hasn't been good. So like that doesn't surprise me. But honestly, even just looking at it objectively at this point, I think you kind of have to go with Gadsden. He's been more productive it's been a better passing offense. There's so many things that are going on on there. All right, we got three more games here and Broncos beat the Texans in probably the most boring game of the.
- [47:41]
Dave Kluge
Yeah.
- [47:41]
Alfredo Brown
Slate. So I don't think there's much to go over here. I'll just say those fun rookie Texans wide receivers, major fallers in this. CJ Stroud leaves the game with injury. Texans offense is just a big faller as a whole. My riser from this game, Troy Franklin, who now 28 targets over the last three games, he's, he's basically a fantasy wide receiver two, but with wide receiver one type usage, it's been big for him. It's not always turning into, into production, but this is the kind of guy you want to have on your team and be willing to start every week. If I'm telling you a player is going to get nine targets, eight targets, seven targets in an offense that can score points, you're probably just going to start him each and every week.
- [48:18]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Best play of the game too was the two point conversion. He caught like just an unbelievable catch. If it looked like he was just gonna like sail into like the eighth row of the, the stands and somehow he was able to come down with that. But yeah, this is again guy. We talked about it a couple weeks ago. We talked about it again last week, like just consistently is that guy right next to Cortland Sutton in routes run in targets? Like, you know, there's a lot of shuffling behind Sutton and Franklin, whether it's going to be Marvin Mims or Pat Bryant or Evan Ingram or Evan Troutman. Everyone's kind of getting their touches here, but Troy Franklin has been a constant. I don't want to talk about Cortland Sutton as a faller, but it is kind of weird that we have three games from Cortland Sutton this year where he's just kind of been a zero and he was able to catch a touchdown in this matchup and kind of bail out his day a little bit. But he's had some, some weirdly quiet games for a guy who is supposed to be the wide receiver one on his team.
- [49:06]
Alfredo Brown
Can I, can I tell you what those games are?
- [49:09]
Dave Kluge
It's for the most part, yeah, that's certain.
- [49:11]
Alfredo Brown
And it's when he, it's when he's going up. I mean, yeah, it's when he's going up Sauce Gardener and it's when he's going up against these, it's when he's going up against these top corners. And it's not a knock on him. Those corners are very good.
- [49:22]
Dave Kluge
I think it's Peyton because he doesn't get targeted markets in those games. I think Peyton says like they're going to take Sutton out of this game, so let's focus on everybody else. And you just kind of. Sutton and that quarterback are just off doing their own thing, just fighting away from the ball the entire game while the rest of the 10 players on the field are playing.
- [49:37]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah. All right, final two games here. Steelers beat the Colts. I mean I was gonna just put all the different Colts wide receivers as risers here, but Alec Pierce is the one that's standing out to me. 28 targets of the last three games for him. He's averaging over nine targets per game over those last three. Everything seems like it's really coming together for him. He's not just the deep ball go route guy who's running cardio for the Colts at this point. And even in a bad game where Daniel Jones didn't quite look as good as he has the rest of the year and the Colts offense was not as not humming the way they have been, Alec Pierce was still heavily involved. I think we're, we're seeing that this is the wide receiver too on this team. Now what does that mean on four target earners that are all pretty good? Still not quite sure. But he absolutely needs to be rostered. And I think it's similar to the Troy Franklin situation where if I'm telling you that a guy is going to be earning targets and an offense that could score points, I think I'm probably willing to start that guy week in and week out as a wide receiver. 3 As a flex play because of the upside that he has there.
- [50:35]
Dave Kluge
And he pulls valuable targets too, like they come downfield. He is great at making contested plays.
- [50:40]
Alfredo Brown
Red zone guy.
- [50:41]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Alec Pierce, a big riser for sure. And then Michael Pittman. I kind of dove like deep into him yesterday. Just kind of seeing what's going on here and it's really weird. Like he, his usage is like the worst it's ever been in his career but he's making up for it with just mind blowing efficiency scoring. He's already got a career high in touchdowns. Like we're halfway through the season and he's got more touchdowns this year than he's ever caught before. Success rate by far the best of his career. And this is just kind of like the, the what happens when you are a good player stuck in a bad environment for your entire career and then the situation around you improves. He doesn't even need to put up the same peripheral metrics. He's just now benefiting from a better offense all around and giving us wide receiver one production almost every week.
- [51:21]
Alfredo Brown
We both have DK Metcalf as a faller here and I don't think there's much more to explain than just the volume has not been there and all the success has come off touchdowns. So when touchdowns don't happen, you're not going to see a big fantasy performance from him. So Dave, are you just going to keep DK Metcalf in your lineups as your wide receiver three or four every week, similar to how we're talking about about Alec Pierce and Troy Franklin, but it's just more likely for some touchdown upside and not as much volume. It's kind of the the inverse of these two players.
- [51:47]
Dave Kluge
If you're asking me personally, no, I'm not. Because through you don't have fantasy drafts. I didn't draft a single share DK Metcalf this year. Yeah, I mean it just to me, I was never a big fan of the DK Metcalf Aaron Rodgers connection and it's great when DK Metcalf can house a slant 85 yards on a touchdown, but if that's what you're banking on every single week, I mean Arthur Smith just, he loves, loves his tight ends, man. Like we're seeing Darnell Washington out here getting more involved every single week. Johnny Smith, Pat Friarmouth. Like it seems like DK Metcalfe is just falling by the wayside as Arthur Smith wants to just like play around with how involved he can get these tight ends in the offense.
- [52:21]
Alfredo Brown
Last game on here, Chargers defeat the Titans. Mine is just a, a pendulum swing here of running backs for the Chargers where Jarrett Patterson looked good as this game went on. I'm not expecting some sort of crazy role for him but. But Kamani Vidal finally, I don't want to say turned into a pumpkin, but just looked very inefficient and ineffective as the game went on and Patterson took over for him as the game went on here. And this is where the Chargers it wasn't some crazy big lead like they needed to stay in this game. This was a competitive game against the Titans and they turned to Jarrett Patterson. Now the thing with this and the backfield in LA is that Marian Hampton could be back this upcoming week. We could see him back as soon as next week. So I think we probably could get another week. We haven't gotten any new reports on him yet, yet.
- [53:06]
Dave Kluge
But 13 is what I keep hearing is that like they're going to wait until after the buy that they're playing it safe with him. Which, which. But like let's just hype if they're winning, I guess. Yeah. And I don't know, like hypothetical, let's just for the sake of conversation say that happens. Like how good do you even feel about couldn't come on. But all in your lineup over the next couple of weeks.
- [53:24]
Alfredo Brown
If like next few weeks are tough. It's Pittsburgh, it's Jacksonville, then the buy.
- [53:28]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And Pittsburgh, they started off the year with a pretty bad run defense but they have shored that up over the last few weeks. So yeah, like Kamani Vidal, I think he still kind of falls into, into that flex consideration. But like people who thought that they had stumbled into just a set and forget RB1 after what we saw a few weeks ago, I don't think that's the case. And it wouldn't surprise me if we do see Jarrett Patterson a little bit more involved going forward.
- [53:48]
Alfredo Brown
Dave, your rises and followers are in the Chargers passing game talks about Ronde Gadsden and lad McConkey.
- [53:55]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean Ronde Gadsden just rising every single week. You know, I try to be like kind of level headed in my approach for rising with these guys. Like I don't want to just say like a Ronnie Gads in one breakout game a month ago and now he's immediately a top five tight end. But I'm at the point now like he's just been rising each of the last four weeks. I've got him as my tight end. Six in rest of season rankings, ahead of Sam Laporta, ahead of Dallas Goddard, Travis Kelsey, Dalton Kincaid, Kyle Pitts. I mean he has just been so, so good and he's just kind of playing as that secondary wide receiver. Now lad McConkey, I'm not panicking about this game but you know, I, I talked to my wife about this yesterday because she drafted, drafted very heavily. She loves Justin Herbert because he returns his carts back to where they belong when he's done shopping. And you know, big Justin Herbert fan because of that. She drafted a lot of Lad Bikanki. She drafted a lot of Keenan Allen, a lot of Quentin Johnson. She even drafted Iran Gadson in, in the Scott Fishbowl League. So she was asking me, she's like, what do I do? She's like, do I start benching all of these receivers? I was like, no, you just start all of the receivers because any of them can go off for 100 yards and two touchdowns on any given week. But we also see these games where Keenan Allen is phased out out and lad McConkey is phased out and Quentin Johnson catches the touchdown. So it's going to be very frustrating knowing who is going to get the points on a weekly basis. But I think that's just kind of where we're at. Like all of these receivers are boom bus wide receiver twos. Ronde Gadson projects the same as all of them, but he goes higher up the rankings because he's a tight end, not a receiver.
- [55:16]
Alfredo Brown
Which one do you start? The answer is yes. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Welcome to the Chargers Offensive experience. Experience. That's what it is. Well Dave, we did it pretty fast on this one too. We, we flew through this episode all of the Week 9 action recapped with our risers fallers. We are going to be back again tomorrow with our week 10. Weird to say that double digit weeks now already but the Week 10 waiver wire giving you guys the best players to pick up and then some of those deeper league players, the quarterbacks and defenses to stream in the upcoming week week. And of course we're back again on Wednesday and Thursday with our other remaining episodes there for week 10. As always, I want to thank everybody for watching or listening all the way through. For myself, for Dave. We'll see you next time. Adios.
- [56:14]
Jeff Bridges
Morning Zoe. Got donuts.
- [56:16]
Zoe
Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?
- [56:19]
Jeff Bridges
Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So Dana.
- [56:25]
Zoe
Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.
- [56:37]
Dave Kluge
Wow.
- [56:38]
Jeff Bridges
Impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best best network.
- [56:45]
Dave Kluge
Nice.
- [56:45]
Zoe
Jeffrey, you heard them.
- [56:47]
Dave Kluge
T Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition.
- [56:54]
Jeff Bridges
So what are we having for launch?
- [56:55]
Zoe
Dude, my work here is done.
- [56:57]
T-Mobile Announcer
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