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Waiver Wire Pickups Before Week 2 || Fantasy Football 2025
00:44:06
In Episode 266 of the Footballguys Fantasy Football Show, Dave Kluge and Alfredo Brown discuss players to target on the waiver wire after Week 2. Send your questions to fantasyshow@footballguys.com 🎥. SUBSCRIBE to the NEW YouTube page:...
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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:29]
B
You know, one of the most underrated parts about being a man is that I've got a gigantic pimple right now. But you can't see it because it's hidden underneath my mustache. It's one of those that, like, if you touch it, like, it makes my eyes water. It hurts so bad, you'd be none the wiser. It's just hidden under a little half inch of mustache hair.
- [00:49]
C
It's pretty gross.
- [00:50]
B
It's pretty cool.
- [00:51]
C
It's pretty.
- [00:52]
B
I mean, like, if I was clean shaven, there'd be no hiding this from the world. I'd look like I'd have a, you know, a second Rudolph nose. But instead, nothing just didn't trip my mustache this morning.
- [01:03]
C
You work from home.
- [01:04]
B
Like, who's.
- [01:05]
C
Who's getting. The only person getting that close to your mustache is Emily.
- [01:08]
B
I broadcast my face all over the Internet every single day. Oh, it's that big. Like, if I shaved it, like, it's somewhere under here and like, I can't even. Like, I was trying to, like, part, but, like, it hurts too bad to even touch. Like, it is. It's a beast of a pimple and you'd have no idea. I've just got a nice thick mustache right now, keeping it hidden from the world.
- [01:28]
C
What's the. What's the face regimen, man?
- [01:31]
B
The same bar of soap that I use to wash my butt.
- [01:37]
C
You know, for a second I was going to believe you, and then you went too far.
- [01:41]
B
No, I'm. I don't have a face regimen. I just.
- [01:43]
C
What do you mean you don't have a face regimen? Like, how do you wash your face?
- [01:47]
B
I don't. I mean, I like, the what? Like, I use a Dove bar of soap and I wash my whole body and then I use a little bit extra soap on my hands and I wash my face after. Get like one or two pimples a year.
- [02:00]
C
You don't use like an actual face wash. Like a face skin is different from body skin.
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B
No.
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C
You don't put like lotion cream.
- [02:09]
B
Oh, anything on the. No, no. If I put lotion on my face, it does make me break out. Just a little leftover soap and that, that does the trick. I got great skin. You know, just this is, I think you get, you get some sunlight every single day.
- [02:23]
C
That works. Skin is skin.
- [02:25]
B
No, I, I, it's not like genetically.
- [02:26]
C
You have better skin, but I, I.
- [02:29]
B
Think my skin's okay. I think so.
- [02:31]
C
I'm not saying you have bad skin. I'm just like, all skin needs moisturizer, man. Especially the whites.
- [02:41]
B
Maybe. I don't know. I've tried it.
- [02:43]
C
Like, what does Emily have to say about this? Is Emily like pro?
- [02:46]
B
She's, she's got a crazy face regimen. Like, that's what I'm saying.
- [02:49]
C
Like, that's why I'm shocked that you don't have like a, a face wash or some sort of a, like.
- [02:55]
B
Yeah, we've, we've got like the his and her sinks, you know, and like hers is like all skincare, beauty regimen, stuff like that. I have a toothbrush and a tube of biofreeze. That's basically the only thing I need in my life.
- [03:18]
C
Welcome into the Football Guys fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown joined as always. I got Dave Kluge here. We're talking about the week three waiver wire pickups. And Dave, we, we have some players that are probably really, really exciting for guys to pick up, but they're rostered in too many leagues. So what you and I like to do are players in sleeper that are rostered in less than 40% of leagues. Is that correct?
- [03:41]
B
I think that's the threshold. It seems to change on a weekly basis because, you know, it is like late in the season. Half the leagues are checked out at that point. All right, 40, 40% sounds good. Yeah, let's do 40% today.
- [03:52]
C
Yeah, and so like there's going to be names like Bashal, Tutin, Quinshawn, Judkins, Zachary, some of these names. Yeah, you're going to hear that on a lot of places. A lot of those names, a lot of those players are already rostered in most leagues. That's how we get the comments of like, what is this, Nate? Man league. I want to play in your leagues. So we're not going to be talking about those guys. We're going to be talking about some of these deeper stashes, players that are going to be readily available for you guys that you need to be adding to your rosters. And we'll kind of give you an idea of like, is this real? Do you need this player going forward? Is it a short term rental? How much should you be spending on these players in fab? And so, Dave, I want to ask you right here off the top, who is your number one waiver wire priority?
- [04:30]
B
I think it's Wanda Robinson. You. You know, I'm very intrigued by this new role that we're seeing from Wandell Robinson. First of all, this was a guy I loved coming out of Kentucky. I remember watching that Citrus bowl. What was that four years ago when he went 10 catches for 170 yards just like a tackle breaking machine. And I had some concerns about his size translating to the NFL because he is a very tiny guy. But what we saw in his rookie season was everything that he did in college, the tackle braiding the yak abilities was translating to the pros. Then unfortunately, he tore his acl and it's been kind of an arduous recovery as he's coming back from this ACL tear. But now he's a couple years removed from that and it looks like he is just operating as the number two weapon, which isn't all that different from what we saw last year in New York. Right now he's got 18 targets. That's the 14th most in the NFL. But what really piques my interest more than anything else, what I alluded to at the top, is when I said the change in usage. Last year, his average target was coming 4.9 yards downfield. This year it's coming 10.44 yards downfield. He has more than doubled his average target depth, and that is a lot more in line with what we saw in Kentucky, where he was very much so a downfield threat. If you look yesterday he had that huge touchdown catch from Russell Wilson. But even outside of that one catch, he had a lot of vertical routes that he was running. He was getting behind defenses, defenses. This guy's a speedster. And now I think that his knee is healthy enough that they can lean on that a little bit. So when you've got all of the defensive gravity flowing to Malik Neighbors, I mean, you see this guy pulling down contested touchdowns with two defenders on him, that's going to open up multiple big plays for Wandale Robinson. So Russell Wilson looks good. This Giants offense as a whole looks a little bit better than I think all of us expected. And Wondale Robinson right now is still available in about 72% of leagues out there. And he's a guy that I think makes more than just flex consideration going forward. This guy could be a plug and play starter in your fantasy lineups.
- [06:20]
C
Yeah, I'm, you know, I don't think there's any question about Wand's talent. Russ looked good. The Giants offense looked competitive. It's. I'm gonna say this and it's gonna sound like it's. It's maybe a little too premature. I don't know. I feel like we've just been on this ride before. Like, we know exactly what we're getting with Wondale. Like, we know we're gonna get a bunch of targets. A very low a.it just so happened to be like, this was a very different game. He gets the long touchdown like this. I don't. Do you think that he's going to be a guy that you can consistently have in your starting line? Who's going to be the difference maker? Or is he more of the. I need to have a guy who's going to give me four or five catches a week and just be that consistent wide receiver three or four. Because these are the guys that we don't like to draft. But now that we're in week three, we're saying, ah, you know what, rosters are thinning out. We need to just get someone in there.
- [07:15]
B
Yeah. And I think that's it. I think he makes for flex consideration. But the nice thing is, like, we've always known Wondale gives you a decent floor because of the volume. But like last year, just a laughably inefficient season. Like all of the targets in the world didn't matter because he was catching the ball two, three yards off the line of scrimmage and picking up two, three yards after contact. And that was kind of it. But I, I think what we saw like this 142 yard outing, like, that's kind of what I had hoped Wandell Robinson would be when he was drafted into the league. And like last year, 71 yards was the most he had in a game. He doubled that yesterday because we now see these vertical routes. And I shared his route chart on Twitter yesterday. I said, if you showed this route chart to me blind, I would guess like 180 wide receivers before Wanda Robinson because he was like exclusively running vertical routes yesterday. And that's what he can do. And it's just something he hasn't done since his ACL injury. So this is one where I think, you know, I, I'd be willing to splash like you know, 8 to 10% of my fab, especially if I've got some underperforming guys that I don't feel great about in my flex spot. I mean, he's probably going to be inside my top 36 receivers next week. He's a talented guy on an offense that has thrown the ball a lot. Russ Wilson looks in his bag. But more than anything, what. What really changes my stance on Wandale Robinson is the change in usage that we saw yesterday where he was running a ton of vertical routes. That's just something that we haven't really seen since he's come into the NFL. And it really, really, really piques my interest because it aligns with my prospect evaluation of him where he is a very good vertical threat.
- [08:46]
C
Wand Robinson, for me, is the oatmeal of fantasy football. It is going to feed you, but you're not excited about it. I don't know. I feel like you are. You love oatmeal. You're an oatmeal guy, aren't you, Dave?
- [08:58]
B
I do, yeah. Yeah. And I think yesterday was vertical routes. It was just like sprinkling some Chia seeds in there and getting me really excited. Jesus.
- [09:05]
C
All right, there we are. There we are. We got a Chia seed reference. This early in the episode. I think the guy, for me, that is going to be number one waiver priority because of the mystery box effect of it. Because of what we're seeing so early in his career in this season. I think I'm gonna go with Elig IO Manor, who right now is one target behind Calvin Ridley for the lead on his team as the leading target earner for the Tennessee Titans. An offense that's going to have to throw a lot like we are seeing defense is not good. The offense is going to be trailing. Is there going to be as many scoring opportunities as we'd like? Probably not. But the passing game is going to be there. And Cam Ward has the legs and the ability in the arm to extend plays. And that's kind of where I o Manor excels, is playing a little bit of that backyard ball the way that Keon Coleman does with Josh Allen. And we saw it yesterday. There was a play, Dave, where it is objectively a terrible decision, objectively a really bad play for a rookie quarterback to make. Running backwards from pressure, extending the play and throwing it not only across body, but across the field all the way to the other side for a touchdown to Eli Manor, which, once again, that's.
- [10:18]
B
Kind of the stuff I like about Cam Ward. Like it's, he shouldn't be doing it but he like pulls that stuff off. Like you watch last year at Miami. He had so many of those ill advised throws where it's just like, yeah, well it worked.
- [10:28]
C
It's, it's, it's the Mountain Dew of, of quarterback throws. It's like it's not good for you, you probably shouldn't drink it but it's got the cool effect there. Like that's what it feels like there. You know, you're just like, man that it really showed the potential of what Cam Board can be and to be doing this this early in the career. I know it once again, objectively not a good play. Objectively not a good offense right now. But Elik IO Manor being able to go in there, get a touchdown early. There's very few players that have been fourth round picks Day 3 picks in the NFL draft that go in and get a role early in their offense and not just get a role but to be nearly the leading target earner to have a touchdown this early. The other guys in recent memory, Dave and I don't want to, I don't want it to get confusing for people where they think I'm making the direct comps. But the other two players recently to do this were Puka Nakua and Amanra St. Brown. I'm not saying that I.O. manor is those guys, but damn. Like that's a hell of a company to have for just two games into your NFL regular season here. And I don't think there's going to be a lot of people running to the waiver wires to go pick him up. They're thinking Titans, Cam Ward, they're, they're looking at the reception numbers. It's not all that big. Someone else has Calvin Ridley in that league and he's not playing all that well. So how good could second receiver be? Right. Like there's a little bit of that psychology to it. I think he's a guy that willing to be in that same 7 to 9% fab area on because I think most people in your leagues are probably gonna be dropping 5 to 6. So if I can get into that 7 to 9% range, he's a guy that I want to drop on my roster as my wide receiver. 4 with some wide receiver 3 upside on weeks because of the target volume he has right now.
- [12:09]
B
Yeah, I mean 13 targets over the first two weeks and like you said, Calvin Ripley just hasn't looked good. Like some uncharacteristic drops. He's not separating. I Kind of chalked up week one to just like Pat Certain being on him. Go right back to the well in week two. But now I'm officially on, like, I don't want to say panic alert, but like, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm at like a 3 or 4 with Calvin Ridley, like, not feeling too great about what we've seen through these first couple of weeks. But you talk about that touchdown catch. It was the catch leading up to the touchdown catch that I thought was even nicer from IO Menor where he was lined up outside. It was just a go route and like, it was not an easy catch coverage. Yeah. And just like one hand just like stuck to his hand and like, just made it look easy downfield. This is a guy who's getting consistent buzz all preseason too. Was listed as a starting wide receiver. They were just kind of gushing about him. And again, when we're looking for these day three guys that we think could potentially hit, I say it all the time. The two things I'm looking for, which sounds so counterproductive, but, like, I'm looking for guys with character concerns and I'm looking for guys with medical red flags because that is what causes these guys to really outperform their day three draft capital. You can talk about Puka like he had medical concerns. You look back at like Antonio Brown, Tyreek Hill, Stefan Diggs, these other guys that fell three and broke out all had character concerns. I am an or fell because of medical concerns. So there are a lot of people talking about him as a potential round one, round two pick. But he had some knee issues and that caused him to fall to day three. And now he is healthy and he is looking like he could be the wide receiver one on this team.
- [13:36]
C
He had very normal concerns that you have with a wide receiver coming out. Like he had drop concerns. He. He had them like there's no way around that. He was dropping footballs. He was one of those guys that didn't quite have the speed. I thought he'd be a good big slot in the NFL. And so far early, he's proving me wrong. He's proving he's not having the same drop concerns. There's something with the chemistry there with Cam Ward. Like, Cam Ward is hitting him on back shoulder throws. Like the timing is just there. They even did a press. His press conference after the game where reporters are asking about his trust and his confidence in Elick IO Manor, where it's just like that's. They're. They're asking about Him, Not. Not Calvin Ridley, not Chic, conquo not anyone else on this team. It's, hey, you and the connection with the other rookie. And that's something that just can't be understated with these players going forward. All right, let's. Let's go. Who's your second priority player that you're looking at on the waiver wire?
- [14:27]
B
I feel like I'm just stepping into a bear trap with this one, but Troy Franklin. Troy Franklin looked pretty awesome yesterday. And this is a guy who, like, typically when I see a guy do almost nothing as a rookie, like, the likelihood of them breaking out in year two is really, really slim. But I can't help but ignore what I saw yesterday. Led the team in targets, led the team in receptions, had over 100 scrimmage yards, scored a touchdown. We got to remember, this was Bo Nix's wide receiver one in college. Like, they had that connection together from their college dates. And that's why we got excited about him as a rookie. And it didn't really pan out. I wasn't the biggest fan of him as a prospect when he was getting round one, round two, Buzz. I thought that was kind of crazy. But I think he's got the skill set to be one of those day three outliers that we talk about. The 6 foot 2, 44 speed, just a gigantic catch radius. But I think what piques my interest more than anything else is when I think of Troy Franklin, I think of a deep threat, a guy who is just kind of a glider that can get behind defenses, make these big plays. But yesterday we saw him in what has been a pretty good role in Sean Payton offenses. I mean, he, he was slant boy yesterday. Like he was just running slants and making plays after the catch. And we saw what this did for Michael Thomas a handful of years ago, and that's why there was so much excitement about Cortland Sutton and Pat Bryant. Like, who is going to be the guy that's going to get all these short, easy slants across the middle of the field? That was Troy Franklin yesterday. Now, the reason I pause here and say that I feel like I'm stepping into a bear trap is because Sean Payton is a madman and it is impossible to try to find any trends in what he's doing on a week to week basis. We saw Cortland Sutton in this role week one. Now we see Troy Franklin in this role in week two, it might be Pat Bryant. In week three, it might go back to Cortland Sutton. I don't think that this is a guy that I'm willing to pick up and immediately put into my flex splat or my wider t vertical wide receiver two spot. But I do think that there's enough here to notice and if I can put, you know, 2, 3% of my fab on Troy Franklin, pick him up, stash him on my bench and kind of see what develops from here, I think that's the route to take because this is a guy who has a lot of good measurables, has a lot of things to like in his prospect profile. And this was the first time we've really seen him used in this sort of role since he's come into the NFL.
- [16:36]
C
I think that's the only thing that gives me the pause, right Is like we haven't seen this usage for him. Now there is like you just mentioned, there's the connection back in college at Oregon between b Knicks and Troy Franklin. I think the only reason I have pause is because it's Sean Payton and he loves to do this where it's like each week it's going to be a different flavor. He does this with running backs, he's doing this with wide receivers. I mean, we're seeing this pretty often. Like there's been the, the follow the money thing with Evan Ingram right at tight end.
- [17:06]
B
No, he played like 32% of the snaps. Like Evan Ingram's droppable at this point. Like he is a part time player.
- [17:14]
C
Okay, so Dave, after these guys, those feel like the priority pickups. But there's going to be some other names that are going to be brought up and one of them that I want to have a conversation about is the packers wide receivers that are remaining after the Jaden Reed injury. Romeo Dobbs, Dontavian Wicks, these are guys that are for the most part readily available. The packers have this thing. Is this going to be fool's gold? Because the packers have this thing where they really, really like to spread the ball around, rotate receivers. If anything. I think I'm not putting money on these guys. I'm going out and sending some offers to buy low on Matthew Golden. Is that kind of where your head is at as well?
- [17:56]
B
I think that's exactly it. Yeah. I mean, they're going to spread the ball around a lot and I think we talked about this maybe last week. I can't remember if it was a different show, but you know, I kind of said like, it wouldn't surprise me if Jaden Reed, Romeo Dobbs, Matthew golden and Tucker Kraft all have very similar Stats at the end of the season. That means Tucker Kraft is going to be wildly valuable as the tight end. You know, the onesie position, getting that. And Don Tavian Wicks, like we've fallen for this banana in the tailpipe before. I don't know if I'm going to the Dontavian Wicks route again, but Romeo Dobbs is a full time player and he is their ex receiver. A lot of trust in Jordan Love. So I think this is a passing attack that I want to just buy into. Jordan Love looks awesome. Like if you look at his intended air yards per pass attempt, he is just so high above everybody else. It's like 12.6 yards for Jordan Love and then like a huge gap down to like 10 and a half. 10.4, 10.3. Like he is just playing this style of football that nobody is really doing in today's era. I think Dubs is the one. Dobbs is the one that I'd be most interested in though.
- [18:57]
C
Well, let me do this. Let me offer an alternative. Someone that I think you can probably get free. 0% fab. Because if he's available, no one's really interested in him right now. Jalen Coker I think is one of those interesting if you need a deep wide receiver ad like later, you know, for your roster. The Panthers are going to be passing this ball a ton, whether it's good, whether it's bad. They kind of showed some resilience being able to come back against the Cardinals yesterday. Bryce Young had a just an atrocious start. Xavier Leggette is just not happening. We're seeing the target volume going his way and it's just not happening. They are not on the same page. He's not able to come down with the pass. He's not able to win consistently. Coker has the versatility. I would have thought initially that Coker's going to be playing in that slot. Hunter Renfro looks fine in the slot, man. Like he looks like he's going to stay there. And if anything, what I want to do as a coach is get my best three receivers out on the field for those three wide receiver sets. And I'd rather have Jalen Coker out there over Xavier Leggette and keep Renfro in that slot. So he's like one of those guys if you just have the extra space. It's a really deep league. You don't really have a lot. I think I might bypass the packers receivers and what that might cost there and just go get a Jalen Coker for a zero fab because he's not going to be back for another couple weeks anyways. So that's one you could throw on a deep bench there.
- [20:10]
B
Yeah, I haven't heard when he's planning to come back, but yeah, I mean, just putting him in a flanker makes so much more sense. I know a lot of people are excited about Jalen Coker in the slot. I never really understood that because that's like all Hunter Renfro does and he had a very strong camp there. But. But if you look at what Jalen Coker did in college when he was at Holy Cross, it was just consistently making these huge downfield plays as a flanker. So I think having Teo McMillan, who I got to say looked phenomenal, like I'm doing my rest of season rankings right now and I'm struggling not to put him inside my top 12. He looks so, so good this early in the season. Excited about that. Renfro out of the slot looks great and I think having Coker as that flanker, he can lean on his speed, contested catch abilities, ball tracking abilities, all the things that he does best. I think it'll make him a volatile weekly player, but with a hu ceiling on any given week.
- [20:59]
C
Now, Dave, there's running backs that are available and a lot of these guys are the injury away running backs, but some of them are seeing their snap counts and their roles in the offense grow a lot. I mean, one of those guys is Kyle Manungai. Another one was Blake Corum this past week. LA Quint Allen, 10 out of 11 third down snaps. Bayshell Tutin, we mentioned him, his role growing, but he's rostered in too many leagues. Another guy who could become relevant once again after all the offseason hype was Chris Rodriguez with Austin Eckler being out for the year with an Achilles. So you're looking at some of these running backs and I think there's like an obvious hierarchy here. Which running back are you most interested in out of this move away value group here?
- [21:41]
B
Yeah, I want to say the, the Kyle Menong guy usage was very similar to the DJ Giddens usage last week where the game was just over in the fourth quarter and he got some run there. And what we saw last week in a closer game for the Colts, Jonathan Taylor handled 100 of the backfield touches. And I think that in close games, if Chicago can, you know, learn to hang in a game, that's prob what we'll see from Swift. But my own guy came in on cleanup duty. And that's good to know that even in a game with a healthy Roshan Johnson, he still got the touches. All right. But Blake Orum is the one that really jumps out to me. Still available in 87% of leagues and like we had clarity in the off season that he had clearly beat out Jarquise Hunter to be the number two. But people, you know, rookie fever and a quiet rookie season from Blake Corum just made him kind of cast aside and he went undrafted in a ton of leagues. But what we saw last week, 70, 30 split between Blake Corum and Kyron Williams, and I'm sorry I say 7030 split in favor of Kyron Williams, of course, but they asked Sean McVeigh after the game about that and he said that's much more in alignment, in alignment with what they want to do going forward. Blake Horm also punched the touchdown in. Now, this is something I talked about a lot last off season. Egg all over my face for it. But there's a lot to like with Blake Horn. He's got advantages in age, size, college production, burst strength, pass blocking. Like he is a very well rounded running back. And I like Kyron Williams. But now we're seeing Blake Corum being able to do exactly what Kyron Williams can do. They're not tipping their hand. Last year when Blake Orman would come on the field, they were running the ball. Now we see Blake Corum running routes, we see him as a pass blocker, we see him at the goal line. He can run inside, he can run outside. And that's what's so important in this Sean McVeigh offense is having a running back out there for one drive where they aren't tipping their hand to the defense. So I think this is kind of what we could expect going forward. Kind of like two drives for Ky Karen and a drive for Blake Corum. But more than anything, I don't think you're putting Corum in your flex spot yet. But now we are very, very certain that he is the RB2 here and he's a Kyron Williams injury away from being a top 10 running back.
- [23:39]
C
I think that's the big takeaway is that he's. He's the clear RB2 in this offense because now all this backfield looks like is what every other backfield looks like. A 7030 split, a 60, 40 split. Like there's nothing that's all that actionable here except for the fact that Blake corum is the RB2 written in stone over there in Los Angeles to Go back to the Nungai thing for the Bears. Are you worried because DeAndre Swift just simply hasn't looked great. He's had, you know, he had himself a big run late in the game, but he hasn't looked great consistently. And the Bears offense have not been able to run the play action like they want to because teams aren't really having to respect the run. Is that something that worries you a little bit here? Like, could Manangai's role grow as the season goes?
- [24:28]
B
I mean, I don't know if there's a player that I'm like more sure of who he is than DeAndre Swift. And these first two weeks just corroborated everything that I know about DeAndre Swift. Like he just runs into the back of his own offensive line four or five times in a row and then suddenly gets loose for a 15 yarder and then gets bottled up in the backfield for five more carries and then gets 12 yards like that. That's exactly what he does. So I think that like people are going to look at the box sc like, wow, 5.25 yards per carry against a very good Detroit defense. But that doesn't show all of the losses that he makes on the field. So this is one of those things where like, I, I don't like DeAndre Swift as a player. He is so frustrating to watch, but the big play upside that he has keeps him on the field. I would like to see Manungai a little bit more involved and Ben Johnson said after the game that he wants to see him a little bit more involved going forward. I don't know if we're going to see DeAndre Swift completely pulled off the field in favor of Manungai because Manungai doesn't have that big play upside. He doesn't have the bur. He doesn't have the pass catching upside. So I think Swift is going to retain his role. But it wouldn't surprise me one bit if by the end of the season we're looking at like a 6040 split in favor of Swift over Man Guy. I think the big takeaway though is that Roshan Johnson was active in this game, didn't even see the field. So I think, you know, any hopes for Roshan Johnson we can just kind of bury at this point.
- [25:45]
C
Yeah, the other two running backs that I had listed here, Chris Rodriguez and La Quint Allen. Rodriguez, I think becomes interesting because I think he becomes immediately the short yardage back for the commanders. I think he becomes more of a stability back for them in Their backfield with Jacori Crosky, Merritt really still not getting the big role that I think a lot of people have wanted. Even when Austin Eckler had to come out of the game, it became Jeremy McNichols out there on passing downs. I think what's going to happen here is we're going to end up in a likely frustrating three man rotation here where I don't know that any of these guys are going to have a lot of until one of them just truly runs away with it. If I'm going for highest upside, it's probably Bill Jakory, Crosby, Merritt there with the explosive plays that he can make. But man, in those deep leagues, yeah, I'll go ahead and stash Chris Rodriguez because he's another guy that's just one injury away from being a very relevant running back. Dave, what's your take on the commander's backfield here?
- [26:45]
B
When I look at the commander's backfield, what they've done since Dan Quinn has come there, it has been so very clearly, you know, just, just split down the middle where you've got your pass catching guy and then you've got your kind of dirty work goal line short yardage guy. And last year it was Austin Eckler in the pass catching role and Brian Robinson Jr. In the short yardage role. This year it's going to be Jacori Krosky Merritt in that Brian Robinson role. And now we're going to see Jeremy McNichols in that Austin Eckler role. And I think you make a good point because a lot of people are going to say like, oh, Austin Eckler is an injured that's going to open up the door for Jakory, Crosky, Merritt. They played 15 snaps after Eckler got injured. Jacqui Cross Gamer wasn't on the field for one of those Jeremy McNichols. So I think both of these guys are going to be pretty game script dependent. Like if they are underdogs going into a matchup, I might be interested in putting Jeremy McNichols in my flux spot knowing that they'll be playing from behind and they'll have to lean on the pass a little bit more, get him involved. I mean Jeremy McNichols we got to remember, converted wide receiver. This guy is just like basically a wide receiver that plays out of the backfield. He's arguably a better pass catcher than even Austin Eckler was. But, but if it's a game where they are favorites and we expect them to win the game. That's where we saw Jecory Crosky Merritt get so much of his production a couple of weeks ago when he was able to run loose in the fourth quarter. So this is going to be a frustrating backfield and I think that you can try to predict the game scripts a little bit. However, that's a really tricky game and underdogs often win and favorites can lose. So you can find yourself in a potential trap here. I, I do like Chris Rodriguez as a stash, but he's not a guy that's going anywhere near my lineup unless Jacori Crosby were to get it injured.
- [28:19]
C
Yeah, I don' you're going out there and starting him. I think with a lot of these running backs, they're just stash, stash and pray, like, you know, like that. That's all we're doing here. La Quint Allen I think is just one of those names I'm going to keep bringing up because it's interesting because I think him being out there on 10 of 11 third downs gives him some sort of value. This is still Travis ETN's backfield, but Bial Tuton's role grew and Bishal Tootin was out there on passing downs as well and he was catching some passes. He even took a screen to the house for a touchdown. So. So I don't think we have too much clarity on this backfield. And the Jags, the vibes are really weird. Really weird.
- [29:00]
B
Did you see Trevor Lawrence like.
- [29:03]
C
Yep.
- [29:04]
B
Yeah, two games.
- [29:05]
C
We're going to talk more about that on the Wednesday show, on the Flex show because this is. Yeah, it's gross.
- [29:12]
B
And one thing I want to say too about this Jags backfield and if you'll indulge me for a minute here, Alfredo, I just. People look back at Tampa Bay last year with rose colored glasses and they say like, like, oh, this is great. We had this big Bucky Irving breakout and I think that we remember the backfield as being much better than it actually was because like in the heat of the fantasy football season last year, yeah, if you had Bucky Irving or Sean Tucker or Rashad White in Best Ball, you felt great about it. But when it comes to managed leagues, we never had a clear read on what that backfield was going to be until like week 16 when it's like, okay, Bucky kind of pulled away and now we can play him through the fantasy championship. And that's why people remember it with these rose colored glasses because Bucky Irving was a league winner. But the Reality is we got 14 weeks of like, who is the guy? Like, remember when we all thought it was going to be Bucky Irving? And then Sean Tucker comes out with like a 17 touch performance and he's the lead back. And then we put Sean Tucker in our lineup and then Rashad White's the guy. And then we put Rashad White in our lineup and Bucky Irving's the guy. So I think in hindsight people are going to look at the Tampa Bay backfield as kind of the blueprint for what to expect in Jacksonville and say like, this is great. When in reality it was a hair pulling, frustrating committee last year and I think that might be where we're headed with Jacksonville. Like, don't be surprised if one random week we're just like, why is Travis ETN on the shelf and Bashal Tutin runs free. Everybody puts Bashal Tutin in their lineup the next week and then Travis Etienne's the RB one and Bayshaltin isn't getting a lot of work. This is just how Liam Cohen deploys his backfields. So while there's a lot of excitement and it's understandable, don't be surprised when this ends up being really frustrating to get a read on over the next few months.
- [30:49]
C
Dave, if I gave you the option in fantasy to have Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts or Daniel Jones, who are you taking?
- [31:01]
B
I mean, I'm taking Josh Allen.
- [31:02]
C
You should be taking Daniel Jones, quarterback 2 on the season right now.
- [31:07]
B
Fair, right? Yeah. I mean, he's been playing out of his mind. Yeah. And it's just, I just remember last year. Like it's so funny how the narrative changes once we get some distance from the season. Like, like looking back into hindsight, Tampa Bay's backfield looked awesome last year, but that's just not what the experience of rostering a Tampa Bay running back was. Another name I'll throw out here though, since we're talking about some running backs. Kenneth Gainwell, nine targets over the last two weeks. He has looked pretty good. And when you look at this offense, 60% of the targets have gone to running backs and tight ends. You talked about this last week, Alfredo, but they are really just kind of dinking and dunking to the the running backs and tight ends. And it makes sense their wide receivers aren't very great, but especially after what we saw from Caleb Johnson over the first two weeks. Like, oh, he's never gonna read for his one touch, he's never gonna play.
- [31:53]
C
You can't make that mistake on the kick return for Those who are unaware Caleb Johnson was returning a kick, just touch the ball, lets it roll into the end zone and he's walking away.
- [32:07]
B
And it's so funny, like the bird's eye view of that, like he's just casually walking to the bench While there are 20 other players on the field, 21 other players, like frantically going. And he just thinks the play is over and he's just walking to the sidelines. Yeah, he's. He's done. You know, if you got him in Dynasty, you got to stash him at this point. Hopefully you weren't taking him ahead of Teo McMillan and Travis Hunter and you know, a lot of the guys that he was getting drafted ahead of. But yeah, for this year, you could just cut Caleb Johnson. I think it's over.
- [32:37]
C
Yeah, I, I'm gonna be honest, man. Like, I don't want any part of the Steelers offense. I don't whether it's running back, wide receivers, anything. Like, I just don't want a part of it. It's confusing. It's not very good. We'll talk more about it as the weeks go on here. But I. Caleb Johnson is the easiest cut right now in fantasy football. Let's go through a couple of other players that we might drop and some of these are names from last week as well.
- [33:07]
B
What one more AD that I'll throw out there is Jake Browning. Obviously we know Joe Burrow is going to miss the next like three months or so and I don't think that he is like a super fan. Must start immediately. I'd say even in your one quarterback leagues, like we are looking like, I'm almost at the point where like any quarterback not named Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson is expendable because like we have seen like really highly drafted quarterbacks do terrible and we've seen the guys that weren't even going drafted in leagues really outperforming. I think you've got like your, your handful of untouchables. And of course I'm being over dramatic here. Like Jalen hurts, Jaden Daniels, you can hold on to those guys too. But I think every quarterback is kind of expendable at this point. And what we saw yesterday is like Browning didn't look great, but they keep the pass rate up with him and he just laser focuses on Jamar Chase. Like they've got really good weapons there and he's going to throw some picks and he's going to take some sacks and he's going to have some turnovers. But he also, like, we saw when he was starting a couple years ago, this guy can throw for 350 yards and three touchdowns in a game like, still has a really high ceiling in this offense. So I think that he, you know, I'm not trying to put him in my lineup next week, but now he is a part of that kind of quarterback churn of all of these streamers that we're looking at on a week in, week out basis, upcoming opponents.
- [34:21]
C
I'm not touching him. Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos Next two weeks. I promise you he'll be on the waiver wire for the next couple weeks here. There's a, there's a decent matchup against Detroit. Then he's got Green Bay. So three out of the next four matchups are just completely awful. I'm actually genuinely worried about the Bengals at this point. And then they get the nice little stretch of games that actually it's the back half of the season where it gets really exciting. Pittsburgh Jets, Chicago, the buy. Pittsburgh again, New England, Baltimore, Buffalo, some shootouts there. Baltimore again, Miami and Arizona in the final weeks. Like there's a, a good back half of the season for the Bengals. So it's, it's one of those. If you can weather the storm with Jamar Chase and Chase Brown, a bunch of these other guys, I don't know that I want to jump in on Jake Browning, but some of these other guys, I think you can put some feelers out there in your leagues.
- [35:13]
B
Are we even sure the Vikings are good?
- [35:15]
C
Yes.
- [35:16]
B
Or did we just.
- [35:17]
C
The defense is good used by the defense. The defense was missing.
- [35:20]
B
Atlanta scored on them six.
- [35:21]
C
The defense was missing like three starters.
- [35:24]
B
Yeah. I just wonder how much of that week one game was just the Bears offense being way worse than people expected. I mean, they definitely have some good playmakers there, but when. I mean, Atlanta was able to score on them six times last night. That makes me wonder if maybe we overreacted a little bit to week one, saying, like, the Vikings are this elite defense.
- [35:42]
C
Well, I mean, Atlanta got a lot of field goals on them. They didn't score six touchdowns on them. Like, it's, it's quite a different game. Like, what I'll say is this is. You're, you're missing a bunch of starters. The, the Vikings, in both games, the defense started out a little slow and then they pick it up. That's what Brian Flores does. He makes those adjustments here. We're way off task here on a waiver wire show. We'll talk more about that in the flex show on Wednesday. Let's Go through the players to drop now. So we already mentioned Caleb Johnson. Jerome Ford is an easy drop with Quinshon Judkins, which, by the way, everybody who wanted to respond to tweets saying, I only want to draft players that are available now, well, guess what? We're going to be going into week three. Quinshawn Judkins is the starting running back for the Cleveland Browns, and he looks good. Shocker, good prospect, plays like a good player. This is, this. These are the kind of risks that we wanted to take in round 10 of our fantasy draft. So Jerome Ford is a guy who's an easy drop, I think. Marvin Mims. Dave, you talked about that rotation there with the Denver Broncos receivers and Troy Franklin being a guy that we're picking up. Marvin Mims, I think a guy we can drop. JJ McCarthy doesn't look awesome in Minnesota right now. We're still waiting for the fourth quarter to kick off because that's when he plays well. But Adam Thielen, I don't think is. Is going to be necessary to roster. Xavier Leggett's another guy. Anyone else you want to add in here?
- [37:11]
B
Colson Loveland and Luther Burden. I'm ready to move off both of these guys, especially in, like, shallower leagues. I know there was some excitement. We're looking at a top 10 draft pick. He did not see the field until cleanup duty when Tyson Bajan was targeting him in. In the fourth quarter. Luther Burden is just completely buried as well. And I understand, like, you know, the, the hopes that these guys can break out over the second half of the season might happen, might not, but I'd be okay just like, cutting them for guys who are actually on the field right now. And if we see a pulse from either of them, at some point, you can go pick them up.
- [37:41]
C
Like, are you cutting Luther Burden right now for Wandell Robinson, no questions asked?
- [37:45]
B
Yeah, easily. Yeah. Without. Without thinking about it. And Colson Loveland, I mean, we are seeing so many guys popping up on the waiver wire. Like Harold Fannin in another good game. Juan Johnson had another good game. I would easily move on from Colson Loveland for one of those two guys. Jaden Blue, I'm okay. Moving on from him as well. And then this one's going to be spicy for some people. But Hollywood Brown, you know, I was. I was calling his week one game Fugazi. And what we saw was five targets for 30 yards in week two. Taekwond Thornton was getting the more valuable touches. Travis Kelsey was getting the looks near the red zone. And, and this is kind of what I saw in week one was that they were kind of like forced by necessity to put Hollywood Brown in a role that he isn't really suited for. And then with a week to game plan, Hollywood Brown went back to being the inefficient, low volume player that he's been since joining Kansas City.
- [38:33]
C
I picked up approximately 0% of Hollywood Brown after week one. We talked about that on last week's waiver show was this was a guy that your league mates are going to go and spend a lot on and we did not find him to be worth it. And actually we had a pretty good week week. What's called week two, right? Week two waiver wire show there some of the Juwan Johnson gets himself a touchdown. K Sha Booty gets himself a touchdown. Harold Fannin still getting the targets and the usage that we want to see.
- [39:02]
B
I'm looking right now. Hollywood Brown, his consensus weekly ranking. When I say consensus, you the listener can probably fill in the blanks what I'm talking about. He was inside the top 30 last week. Like I don't know what we were doing getting that excited about Hollywood Brown one.
- [39:17]
C
I think it's when you see something crazy like what was it? I got it wrong on the show last week. You got it wrong on the show last week. But then we got it right in the comments. Was it 16 targets?
- [39:28]
B
Yes, 16 targets. Which like I understand that's gonna get some people excited.
- [39:31]
C
There's gonna be a little bit of the excitement. But yeah, I think about the Chiefs offense. We gotta, we gotta deep dive on that on Wednesday. We have to talk about this because it is broken beyond repair. It just looks awful. Absolutely awful.
- [39:46]
B
Patrick Mahomes on pace for over a thousand rushing yards. Just like we all expected. Matt Nagy, man, like just throw him in the barracks.
- [39:57]
C
Pat Mahomes dude and the Chiefs, it's just, it's, it's, it's not looking great.
- [40:02]
B
Right now, you know, heartbreaking. It was as a, you know, heavy. Travis Kelce bags to see him targeted at the goal line and like a touchdown that like prime. Travis kelsey is scoring 100 out of 100 times. Just like wide open ball hits him right in the hands. He's got a foot on the goal line and the defender just like takes the ball out of his hands and returns it for 50 yards and it's just like wait, what? No, like that's where Travis Kelsky is supposed to score. It's been. Yeah, it's been, been Rough for the Chiefs, Dave.
- [40:31]
C
Monday Night Football tonight, right? We got Chargers, Raiders and Bucks Texans. You think there's anyone from either of these teams? Because we're doing a little bit of the projecting because we do we record this on Mondays. Do you think there's anyone from these teams that might come out and surprise us and you know, be a guy that gets added to this waiver wireless here?
- [40:55]
B
That's a good question. I like this Jaden Higgins. I don't think that he's available in a lot of leagues, but he was pretty involved last week when a lot of people weren't expecting that. And then I think the one that could did surprise a lot of people. Rashad White was basically a zero last week, but he looked good on his limited touches. Bucky Irving, we talked about it on the flex show that we did last week. Bucky Irving, the volume was there, but he did not look very good. So Rashad White got cut from a ton of leagues last week and now I'm wondering with a week to kind of regroup and look at the film and see what worked and what didn't, I'm looking right now. Rashad White is still available in about 60% of leagues and if he comes out with a little bit more of a role this week, you know he's a guy if you've got the spot, like if you're in one of those leagues that allows you to cut players that have already played. If you can pick Rashad White up now and stash him before this game, I think that he is worth holding on do.
- [41:45]
C
Yeah, I, I think this is going to be interesting to see how these, these play out here.
- [41:51]
B
Naji Harris too? Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. Naji Harris is still available in like 50 of leagues out there. He got touches coming off of like, like two practices. After missing all of preseason, I think that role is only going to grow. Martin Hampton is very good. He's going to be the lead back there. But Naji Harris still has elite injury away contingent upside.
- [42:10]
C
I want to see what happens with the Raiders pass catchers this week. I know that right now the reports are like 50, 50. Brock Bowers is expected to go, but a lot of medical professionals saying that they don't expect them to see him go. We'll, we'll find out what happens there. But I'm, I'm curious to see what happens with any of these Raiders pass catchers. I think it's, it's one, one of those, Dave, where like you said, if you can drop someone who you know has just been inefficient for you and not effective, and you can grab one of these, whether it's Dante Thornton or Jack Besh or any of these guys that can be pass catchers for you, even a Michael Mayer, I'm, I'm intrigued to see which one of them can pop off. Each of these guys has had their moment where they've looked good in one or two plays. Someone is eventually going to take over a bigger role there, so I'm, I'm curious to see what ends up happening there.
- [42:58]
B
Dalton Schultz also five targets last week. Again, like, this is just like, I'm not a big Dalton Schultz fan, but he's been banged up, like, feels like he's just been dealing with injuries ever since joining the Texans and looked pretty good last week. So again, like, we're talking about moving on from Evan Ingram and Colson Loveland and some of these really disappointing. Like, I'm even at the point, I don't know what the heck to do with TJ Hawkinson and Mark Andrews, but these guys have just been terrible so far that I think even if I have those guys, like, I'm at the point where I want to pick up and stash a tight end too, just to hope that maybe I have a better option next week.
- [43:29]
C
Stashing a Texans running back. Damian Pierce, Woody Marks, we're staying away from that.
- [43:37]
B
I hope Nick Chub can stay healthy.
- [43:39]
C
That's.
- [43:39]
B
That's what I'll say about this. But man, it's, it's bad. It's bad. Houston Texans, I. They might be a three or four win team this year.
- [43:47]
C
Well, guys, I think it's going to be a wrap for us on the week three waiver wire pickups. We're gonna be back again on Wednesday with our Wednesday Flex show. We're gonna be giving you guys guys all of our observations, our takeaways from last week of fantasy football and how it can help you win in your upcoming week here. So make sure you are subscribed to the channel. Either it's on YouTube or on Apple or Spotify podcasts, of course. And always take. Take the time just to leave a review. It's such a big help for us as a podcast helps us grow and get to do more. As always, I want to thank everybody for watching or listening all the way through. We'll see you next time. Adios, foreign. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today.
- [44:39]
B
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C
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B
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