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- [00:00]
Alfredo Brown
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- [00:48]
Dave Kluge
Us I think some I just didn't take into account like obviously I knew they lost Ben Johnson, but like I didn't take into account that like everybody who was a part of his breakout last year is gone. Like, they also lost Tanner Angstrom, the pass game coordinator. They lost Antoine Randall, the wide receiver coach. Like, they had to. Like, the guy that they brought in to be the pass game coordinator hasn't had a role in the NFL in 18 years. Like, he's been a guy who has been in college. Right now their wide receiver coach is their assistant head coach who just kind of like took on an extra role. You know, that happens like in an office. Like you lose an employee and it's just like, okay, well this guy, you could just do both jobs. Like, that's what they're doing right now. They don't even have a wide receiver coach. Like, the assistant head coach is also their wide receiver coach. And I, I, I think that explains the slow start. But like, we just need Dan Campbell calling plays. That's, that's the secret sauce here, I think. Did you see the play where he was, did you see he was celebrating as soon as he made the play call and the Jameson Williams touchdown. Did you see that clip going around? Really?
- [01:44]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah.
- [01:46]
Dave Kluge
You know, he's got his glasses like he's got his readers down at the tip of his nose and he's looking at his play sheet and he calls in the play and before they even get back to the line of scrimmage, he calls the play in and you just see him, he goes, yeah, good. He starts fist bumping and they score the touchdown. Like he just.
- [02:00]
Alfredo Brown
That's so great, man.
- [02:02]
Dave Kluge
I love Dan Campbell. Dude, I would kill to have a coach like that. He just seems so awesome.
- [02:07]
Alfredo Brown
I feel like he's going to change the way people even can, like, think about football teams and construction of staffs. Because, like, even in his first interview, he was just seen as this meathead, this guy saying that we are going.
- [02:21]
Dave Kluge
To get off their kneecaps.
- [02:23]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah. Right now he's calling plays. And like, that had been only specifically reserved for the Mike McDaniels of the world, like, the dorks with the glasses. And now it's just like, sure, let's go and get this guy who has never called plays before. Let's have him calling plays. Like, you could do that when you're the head coach. And when it works even better. It's just I would be surprised if he's like, the. The thought leader or the trendsetter in the NFL.
- [02:48]
Dave Kluge
I also love, too, that he is just like, the staff that he keeps building. It's just like his buddies that he played with, like, that's it. Like, you know, we already saw, like, Aaron Glad and Antoine Randall. Like, now he's got Mark Brunell is the, The. The. The quarterback's coach over there. Tashard Choice as the running back coach. It's just like all of the guys that he played with during his career, like, just come, come play for me, dude.
- [03:09]
Alfredo Brown
He's big on that player empowerment because, I mean, you think about it, it's. Who are players going to listen to the most guys who have played the game before? And I. I don't know, maybe, like, I'm not saying that the only way to do it, but I think he found the formula that works best for him. Right. Because they kind of all have to speak the same language.
- [03:25]
Dave Kluge
I remember I had a tweet from his first year and, like, I got dragged for it. Of course, I get dragged on Twitter all the time. But, like, I. It was one of his post games tweeting stupid stuff. It was like one of his post game locker room speeches. And he was just. He was crying because, like, the team sucked. Like, they were so, so bad. And I remember sharing this video and I said, I've never had more faith in an.08 coach that I do in Dan Campbell because, like, you could see, like, even when they were losing every single week, like, you could tell something special was brewing there. And, like, as a Bears fan, you know, of course I want to see, like, the Bears successful, but, like, it's also cool to see, like, the Lions putting it together. And, like, I don't know how. You can't not root for Dan Campbell.
- [04:06]
Alfredo Brown
He's just too likable, man. He's too likable. Well, I. You know, we say that, too, because, like, with Mike McDaniel, he seemed very likable. And then when you start losing, nobody's like.
- [04:15]
Dave Kluge
Like, it all.
- [04:16]
Alfredo Brown
It all goes away when you start losing.
- [04:18]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Yeah, I was.
- [04:21]
Alfredo Brown
Now everyone loves him again because he went by the Elbow Room, a bar in Fort Lauderdale beach, and trolled a bunch of the Bills fans that were there. And all of a sudden, everyone's like, see, we're back. We knew we loved you.
- [04:33]
Dave Kluge
You beat the Bills. Better win next week or we're gonna hate you again.
- [04:46]
Alfredo Brown
It's time for the Week 11 waiver wire pickups that you need to get for your fantasy football team. I'm Alfredo Brown, joined as always by Dave Kluge, and welcome into the Football Guys fantasy football show. Dave, this week, it's. It's not the prettiest on waivers, but it's actually kind of simple. And I feel like we've got some pretty good clusters of players here.
- [05:07]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and I think the top guy, like, we talked about him last week, we talked about him early in the season, and, well, crazy to me that he's still available in a ton of leagues because, like, there is a plug and play wide receiver, two with wide receiver, one upside. That is, like, just still out there in a ton of leagues right now.
- [05:20]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, let's start there then. Let's start with tier number one. The way we do this, every single week we go through, Dave and I each give rankings to these players to the waiver wire targets. We make a consensus ranking, put those into tiers, and then we break it down for you guys. So let's start with our number one player, Alec Pierce, wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts. Listen, I. I get it that there's going to be a lot of people bidding on Alec Pierce this week. Dave, how high are you willing to go on on him considering there is a buy for the Indianapolis Colts? Is this something where you think some people might just skip over him, or do you think everyone's kind of biting the cheese at this point?
- [06:00]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I think a lot of people are going to overlook him because of that buy. Because, you know, a lot of people when they're placing their waivers, I think they just go to the available players and they look at projected points and, ooh, this guy's projected points. I want to pick him up. And you can see that all the time. Like, guillotine leagues. I don't want to go like way off on a tangent here. Like one of the best things I've noticed to do in guillotine leagues is just to put in low bids for the guys who are on buys because nobody else is even looking at them. I digress. But a lot of people will not be looking at Alec Pierce for that reason. But they should be like he has been awesome since he has come back from that concussion that he suffered in week three. We're looking at a five game sample. Over that five game sample he'd be on a 17 game pace for 1400 yards, 132 targets, 65 receptions. He's still doing exactly what he's done throughout his entire career, averaging 20 plus yards per reception. But now he's doing it on a much higher volume. He is averaging 7.8 targets per game over the last five weeks. So this is a guy who like is kind of Jameson Williams esque, Xavier Worthy esque, that type of player. And I don't think people are there because he doesn't have the draft capital. It took him a few years to get there, but that's exactly what he's doing now. Except he's drawing more volume than Jameson Williams and Xavier Worthy. So like this is a guy right now. I don't know if he's going to completely take over Michael Pittman as the team's winning wide receiver one but we can't ignore what he's been doing. Like he is still a very versatile player or I'm not not still a versatile player. He's always been the deep threat but now he's a more versatile player playing inside, not just playing on the boundary anymore. I mean we're, we're witnessing the breakout right here and I think a lot of people are hesitant to buy in because of what we saw through the first couple of years. But he's here.
- [07:36]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, that's the thing is that he's not just this one trick pony anymore. I mean he's still good at that one trick. Like he's a good deep ball receiver. But now he's able to do other things. And since week seven he's been the wide receiver 12 and fantasy football wide receiver 20 in points per game. He is a starting player every. And he was doing that too like Dave, without just crazy touchdown variance. It's not like we were saying, oh well, you can look at two receptions for a touchdown. That was it. No, he was just getting target volume. He finally gets a touchdown this past week over the last four games, 17 catches, 366 yards. It's just. He's been consistent. He has been productive. Next two games are some favorable matchups, especially for a deep ball receiver. Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans. There's some big play upside there for him, so. Yeah, Dave, also, by the way, can we just. Leading the league in yards per reception? I mean, come on, man. Like, it's. All the signs are there. We're seeing this Colts offense. I know it's been a little bit more of a struggle over the last two weeks in the passing game, but we have seen enough things going in favor of Alec Pierce here. Dave, I know you always hate when I ask this question, but I'm going to keep asking every week, mostly because you hate it, but also because I think it's helpful for people if, if you're looking at a percent fab bid for someone like Alec Pierce. Give me a range here. Like, what are the scenarios that work for you? I know, I know you hate numbers.
- [08:51]
Dave Kluge
It depends. It depends.
- [08:53]
Alfredo Brown
I mean, it's always helpful when you say it depends. Always extremely helpful.
- [08:57]
Dave Kluge
What I will say is, like, if you're in a league that doesn't fab just like, waiver priority and you've been holding that number one pick in waiver priority, I think this is one worth spending it. And. And this is one. Like, even if I'm not dying for a wide receiver, like, if I've got good wide receivers and I feel good, I'm okay making like a big fab bid on Alec Pierce just to play defense here. Because, like, this isn't a guy that I want to have to face against in the fantasy playoffs. So again, like, very dependent on league settings. Like in your really shallow leagues, I might go like 30, 40 in those. Really? Okay. Like, if you're in a league where you got 10 plus bench spots and for whatever reason, Alec Pierce is still available, I'm going 100 here. Like, that's a guy that, like, in deep leagues that I will see 100. We're. I'm talking like, if you're in a deep league where you've got 10 plus bench spots. Yeah, absolutely. And he probably isn't available on those. But maybe the last thing I want to say too is, like, we're not looking at a minuscule sample size here. Five weeks since he's come back from a concussion, and typically when you're looking at those, like four or five game samples, the guys who are atop the leaderboards are the guys who are scoring touchdowns. Right. That Makes sense. Alex Pierce has scored one touchdown over the last five weeks and he is the wide receiver 13 in fantasy. So like this isn't fluky, like he's getting the targets, he's producing, he's efficient. And if we could just bet on positive progression to fall in his favor, which it should because this guy's been a touchdown machine his entire career. I could see this guy just exploding over the second half of the season.
- [10:19]
Alfredo Brown
All right, let's go down to the second tier. By the way, Alec Pierce available in 53% of leagues, so good chance he's probably not available in yours, but we got to talk about him. Let's go down to the second tier here, Dave, where. Well, you and I have some, some dissension here over the next, you know, three or four players. I think I'm single handedly pushing Luther Burden into this tier. So in Tier 2, Luther Burden and Kate Otten are the players we have here. So technically at the number two player, Luther Burton, wide receiver for the Chicago Bears. Dave, for me it's one we're already getting. Ben Johnson saying Luther Burden needs more work. He has earned more work. DJ Moore's got the shoulder injury from last week and then just everything we've seen, like, I think at some point you can't just keep looking at a guy and say, man, he's doing so well. I wish he could just get more playing time. It does seem like that is finally happening here. No rookie wide receiver has had a higher yards per out run than Luther Burden. So we know that the big plays are going to be there. He's actually fourth in the NFL in yards per route run, so big plays are just a part of his DNA now at this point, a third highest target per route run. So he's getting open or they're just being very particular of when they're using him. They're making a concerted effort to get him the ball when he's on the field, he's a team leader in passing rating when he is getting targeted. Everything here points towards not only Luther Burden being a very good player, but being a guy who can unlock this offense. I would say the same thing for Colston Loveland. He's just not available in enough fantasy leagues for us to talk about him. But Dave, Ben Johnson saying that Luther Burden deserves a bigger role. Are we going to get a bigger role?
- [11:52]
Dave Kluge
I, I, I wish, I hope. But there are just so many mouths to feed in this offense and that's why I'm kind of pumping the brakes on Everybody in Chicago. I, I think what we expected in preseason was that Luther Burden was going to take over Olamide Zakias role. But we're seeing him play a very different role. Like he isn't getting those slot snaps. Over 60 of his snaps this year have come out wide. It's actually DJ Moore that he's competing with. So if DJ Moore does miss some time with the shoulder injury. Yeah, then I'm looking at Luther Burton as a guy that I'm like fired up to put into my week 11 lineups. But I think as long as DJ Moore is out there, as long as Roma Dunes is out there, it really does limit his path to a big workload. Very talented player. I mean we've seen it. He is doing things that I don't think anybody else in this offense can do. But it is very gimmicky like and, and, and I feel like, you know, we could flashback Ben Johnson. This feels very similar to Jameson Williams. Like we're for Jameson Williams first couple of years in the league. Sure some of that was ACL and the suspension, but like we never saw him with a full allotment of snaps. When he would come on the field, he was the primary target and he was schemed up touches to get the ball in his hand where they can lean on his explosiveness. And I think that's kind of what we're seeing from Luther Burden right now. I just don't see any sort of path where he can be an 80% snapshare player in this offense without injuries ahead of him.
- [13:08]
Alfredo Brown
I mean maybe he doesn't have to be an 80% Snap Share player, but a guy that's going out there for 60% of the snap, 65, 70% of the snaps. I mean what we're seeing here is one. I don't, I don't even think he's gimmicky anymore. He's actually winning on outside routes, doing running big boy NFL routes. He's not doing all the silly underneath stuff and the catches behind the line of scrimmage at some point, man too. Like I do just want to get ahead of things, right. Like the Alamini Zakia's thing has. I don't even want to say it's been fun. Like it's just been there. And Burton's got 90. So this is a fun stat from fantasy points our friends over there. Luther Burton has 90 of Alameda's Akias's receiving yards on just 40 as many routes and 38 as many targets. Yeah, let's let's just inject some life into the offense. Things are going well for the Bears. They're winning games. Caleb Williams is as, as we jokingly said yesterday, looking clutch. There's just things that are happening for the Bears. Why not? Like, I just, I, I don't, I don't get the whole thing with the Lami Zakias being in here. Yeah.
- [14:13]
Dave Kluge
And I think it's just like he's good at those choice routes and that's, that's really it. But we also see like Ramadunze moves to the slot a little bit. We haven't really seen a lot of that slot alignment for Luther Burden. I think it's just around 30 that we've seen so far. And that's the thing. We're seeing Rome in the slot, we're seeing DJ Moore in the slot. We're seeing Comet and Colson Loveland in the slot. So I, I think that they're like, you know, I, I said this when they drafted Luther Burton. I think that this is more of like a, hey, like years down the road, not years, like it could be as soon as next year. But it's just there's so many good pass catchers here and like we didn't even mention DeAndre Swift catching balls out of the backfield as well. I want to get there with Burden. But you know, I kind of jokingly said this in the preseason for everybody to hit their high end range of outcomes in Chicago, you need Caleb Williams to pass for 6, 000 yards and that that's not going to happen. So I think like Rome is the guy that you feel really good about DJ Moore. Do you?
- [15:01]
Alfredo Brown
Because like I felt like over the last couple weeks we haven't felt great about him.
- [15:05]
Dave Kluge
Squeaky wheel game. Thanks. Thanks. James. The dunes. Hey, we, we finally got to the, the targets of the touchdown last week. I think Rome is the guy that like you feel good firing up as like a high end wide receiver too. But I think, and you know, of course Loveland being a tight end, you can put him in as kind of a back end, tight end one. But I think Burden, D.J. moore, Zakius, Loveland, those guys all just kind of fall into like very similar flex consideration for me.
- [15:29]
Alfredo Brown
So let me read the quote here from Ben Johnson. He said you've slow. This is on Luther Burden. You've slowly seen his rep count go up. He's a guy who is starting to get more targets. It's a trust level between the coaches and the player. It's a trust level between the quarterback and receiver, it continues to ascend. He's been very productive when he's about to get the ball in his hands and there's a strong argument that we should get it to him more. So listen, I'm hoping that turns into something like this is. To me, this is the perfect thing where opportunity meets talent, right? And I just, I, I would rather be ahead of that and have a guy that I could potentially be, that could be potentially winning me fantasy weeks here with big play upside in an offense that looks like it is on the ascent in the right direction, especially if there is potentially no DJ Moore. We got to keep track of that injury.
- [16:15]
Dave Kluge
And here's what I will say. If we want to look at like the history of receivers, rookie receivers at Ben Johnson's offense, we can look back to Amanra St. Brown. And I remember through the first, you know, two thirds of that season we were saying the same thing, like this guy, when he's targeted, he's awesome, but he just isn't really getting the opportunities. And then T.J. hawkinson got hurt, DeAndre Swift got hurt, and then Amon or St. Brown was a wide receiver one over the final six weeks of the season. So that is like if D.J. moore goes down, if Roma Dunes A goes down, then we could be looking at a bigger role for Burden. But I'm kind of looking at him right now as kind of like a handcuff wide receiver, for lack of a better term.
- [16:50]
Alfredo Brown
You know what? And he's available in 85 of leagues. Dave. And one thing that I wanted to do is we always talk about these percentages from Sleeper, right. And even just looking around, a lot of waiver wire articles and stuff. Don't really have Luther Burden all that high. And I kind of like this because I feel like we're going again or at least I am going against the grade year. You have them pretty high too, though. You have him as your fourth highest player on this week in the sleeper app, Luther Burden's not even trending as one of the top 30 players being added. Like there's just there, there hasn't been any movement on Luther Burden. Not as much excitement. And I, I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe we can be thought leaders in this. Dave. Just, just throwing that out there. All right. Other guy in this tier, Kate Otten, tight end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's available in 62% of leagues. Dave, this has been an interesting one because since week five, he's the tight end, 11 in PPR points per game without a single touchdown. Kate Otten has actually just been a volume guy again. We saw this happen last year when Chris Godwin wasn't in. We saw this happen almost very similar, almost identically. The target volume's been there 12 targets this last game. Averaging over six targets per game in the previous four weeks. Some good matchups coming up, some shootout matchups potentially Buffalo and the Los Angeles Rams. So you and I both have K.in pretty high for a position that there's just, there's not a lot of stability.
- [18:15]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean the big change that happened last week and why I am so excited about kdot and he was a huge riser in my rest of season rankings article as well. He kind of took the slot roll from Sterling Shepard. Like we love Sterling Shepard. You know, he's, he's a dog. He plays with his physicality. Like I've been a fan of Sterling Shepard for a long, long time. But gonna call like it is. You know, he's an older guy that doesn't really have that juice anymore that made him such a fun player in his younger days. He still plays with some tenacity that you know, they want to keep on the field. But I would much prefer to have my 6 foot 6, 280 pound tight end playing out of the slot who can just rumble through the defense than Sterling shepherd who's going to catch the ball and fall over. And I think they realized that last week. I mean we saw a huge uptake where in week eight we only saw nine routes run out of the slot for Kate Otten and that jumped to 25 routes last week. And that's exactly what we saw last year as well. When Chris Godwin was out, Kate Otten was that slot receiver. Getting sounds crazy but like kind of getting Chris Godwin type treatment and that's what he's getting now as well. So yeah, Kate Otten, a huge riser for me and looking at my week 11 rankings, like he's probably going to be inside my top eight. I think that he's just one of those guys that you are plugging in and you can expect 8 to 12 targets every single game.
- [19:27]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, it's gonna be the thing. It's gonna be hard to not have him as a. Not even fringe, just a legit starting tight end one every single week right now until further notice.
- [19:36]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and I mean like there was that stretch last year and he was scoring touchdowns last year which really made it fun. But he was the top scoring tight end for like a month. Last year, well, Chris Godwin was out and I don't know if you've heard, but there's no timetable for Chris Godwin's return. Like, I'm skeptical that he comes back too.
- [19:51]
Alfredo Brown
It's getting weird.
- [19:53]
Dave Kluge
Mike Evans, there's. Yeah, like there's nobody there. And Kate Otten, he's the familiar face that is playing the slot role right now. Yeah, this is being overlooked by a lot of fantasy analysts and managers right now. But like, Kate Otten is a plug and play tight end one, by the.
- [20:10]
Alfredo Brown
Way, we didn't mention his name because he's rostered in too many leagues. But Tez Johnson, if he's available, please go, go out and get him. I think he would be up in that. He'd probably be the number two player that we're talking about here today behind Alec Pierce, Kate Otten, Dave, what's he's been doing this sort of sneakily over the last five weeks where he's just been this fringe tight end one and now, I mean, I don't want to overreact to this big game, but you come out of the buy seems to be a little bit of a intentionality of how they're using K Dot, you know.
- [20:42]
Dave Kluge
And that's it.
- [20:42]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah.
- [20:43]
Dave Kluge
Before the buy, over 50% of his slot, or I'm sorry, over 50% of his snaps were in line, which we don't want that. We don't want a tight end playing a tight end. We want a tight end who's a glorified slot receiver. And that's what Kate Otten's doing now.
- [20:55]
Alfredo Brown
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- [21:53]
Dave Kluge
Podcasts.
- [21:56]
Alfredo Brown
All Right, let's go to the next tier, Tier number three. And honestly, I'm the one that's kind of pulling this player down. Tyler Algier. I think in a lot of. A lot of articles he's going to be a number one or number two waiver wire pickup to make this week. Dave, he's still a handcuff for me. And I guess maybe it's just about how you value handcuffs. I feel like I've had my handcuffs and I've just held on to them, and I think it's just going to depend on where you're at in fantasy. If you know you're making the playoffs, stash some handcuffs if you need the wins. Now, I don't see Tyler Algier as the guy that's getting you the wins here. I get it. He got 11 carries this past week, 57 yards, two touchdowns. He had just had 12 touches over the last three weeks combined before that. I don't want to be the guy that's chasing touchdowns too much. So for me, this is strictly handcuffed territory if I'm already a team that I know I'm making the fantasy playoffs.
- [22:56]
Dave Kluge
So I think what you said is like, you drafted your handcuffs and you've got your handcuffs. I think that's probably just like, the biggest difference and why I'm so aggressively going after Tyler Algier. I am constantly, like, just churning those handcuffs at the bottom of my roster, just trying to get every little edge that I can because, like, in the preseason, yeah, I drafted a lot of Ray Davis, I drafted a lot of Taj Brooks, those guys.
- [23:16]
Alfredo Brown
Well, I'm not saying you're holding on to those guys who just, like, aren't.
- [23:19]
Dave Kluge
Playing at all, but I'm. I'm constantly just trying to, like, get ahead where I can. And I'm not drafting Tyler Algier, expecting him to score two touchdowns every single week. I'm drafting him knowing that if Bijan Robinson goes down, I'm getting a potential RB one here. So I think that's why I want Tyler Algier. And, like, he wasn't even a big mover for me because I've already had a pretty aggressive stance on him. I've got him inside my top 40 running backs, but I kind of look at, like, Tyler Algier, but Blake, Corum, Bashaw, Tootin is kind of like the creme de la creme of handcuffs. Like, those are the guys that will win you your season if the guy ahead of them goes down. And of course, we've Already seen Rashad White do it. We've seen Commandee Vidal and some of the other guys, but when I look at Algier, I just prefer him so much to the. So. So here, like if you're in a league where you are holding on to Isaiah Davis, Devin Singletary, Kenneth Gainwell, Brian Robinson Jr. Jordan Mason, Jeremy McNichols, any of those guys, those are the guys that I would happily just move on from and get Algier instead, who I think is a very big upgrade at a handcuff.
- [24:14]
Alfredo Brown
See, that's interesting to me because Brian Robinson Jr. I think is in the exact same league. If it's The San Francisco 49ers offense, if Christian McCaffrey goes down, that's a big time handcuff.
- [24:23]
Dave Kluge
Like what, what, what separates a few spots below. You know, we've, we've seen Tyler Algier rush for a thousand yards in this offense. And Brian Robinson, I gotta say he has looked good in limited opportunities over the last few weeks. But I just, you know, this just for me comes down to talent eval. I just think that Tyler Algier is a better running back than Brian Rob.
- [24:42]
Alfredo Brown
I mean, I'm just going to say what I think is going to end up happening is a lot of people are going to go and spend on Tyler Algier. He doesn't get you two touchdowns this upcoming week. Maybe he does. You know, congrats, that'd be great. And he's just going to get dropped again by a bunch of people because he shouldn't be this available anyways. Considering his value as a handcuff, like he should not be available in 64% of leagues. I think that just shows the impatience that fantasy managers have. And what is likely going to happen again. Someone's going to run out there, spend money and say, okay, cool, I've got this new RB2 that all the articles are telling me to go get because he's got the touchdown upside, he doesn't get the touchdown and he's going to be dropped again.
- [25:18]
Dave Kluge
Like, that's when I'm playing fantasy, I'm looking at like half of my bench is just like not even guys that I'm thinking about starting on a weekly basis. Like, it's just like my cryo chamber of handcuff running backs that are just sitting at the bottom of my bench.
- [25:32]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah.
- [25:33]
Dave Kluge
Out of sight, out of mind. I don't even.
- [25:34]
Alfredo Brown
I'm looking at mine right now. It's Blake Coram and Ollie Gordon and I mean, okay, I probably gotta drop Jaden Blue. Man, I just outed myself here on the podcast.
- [25:44]
Dave Kluge
But yeah, I mean, the same thing, like, when I'm looking at mine, like my, like, you know, I'll pull up my home league right now and take a look at the bench. This is what most of my benches look like. Chris Rodriguez, Isaiah Davis, Tyler Algier, and, well, Trayvon Henderson, who's now in the starting lineup, and Taji Spears. Like, this is what I want. Are these guys that, like, you know, just have that upside, like, trajectory. Trayvon Henderson, I'd just been stashing him on my bench for the first eight weeks, unable to start him, and now we finally see, like, okay, Rodri Stevenson's out. Now we've got a plug and play RBD Tyler Algier. You're going to stash him. You're not ever going to feel comfortable. Like, if you really need to, during buys, you might put him in the lineup. Maybe he gets two touchdowns, maybe he gets five yards. But really what you're hoping for is that if Bijan Robinson misses time, then you've got a plug and play guy.
- [26:29]
Alfredo Brown
All right. The other guy in this tier is Christian Watson, wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. Dave, Boy, what a time to talk about this. Christian Watson is the embarrassing ball off the helmet play, which I don't know if you saw, but he's already come out and so I can't remember which.
- [26:44]
Dave Kluge
I think that he should have caught it.
- [26:46]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, I think it was sleeper. It was just like, should he have caught this? And he just, quote, tweeted, yes, yes. He's, you know, taking, taking responsibility for it.
- [26:55]
Dave Kluge
Hanging out with Bo Melton a little bit too much and starting to play some be back.
- [26:59]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, I mean, this has just been the same problem for the packers wide receivers for years. There's Don Tavian Wicks and Jaden Reed and Christian Watson. And they'll each, each time, like, one of them is going to get a big play, One of them will be the target leader, and then one of them is going to end up with like two or three embarrassing drops. But Christian Watson still has this just tremendous big play upside. He's got multi touchdown upside. That's why I have him a little bit higher in the rankings here. It's not huge before targets in each of the last three games. The snap count is what's growing here. It's 56 to 66 to 82%. We've got no Tucker Kraft. We've got no Jaden Reed. We now have this chest injury to Romeo Dobbs. We got to see how that's going to play out throughout the rest of the week. And some decent wide receiver matchups coming up here for the packers, the New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, week 17, they've got the Baltimore Ravens. So if, if Christian Watson is going to be a top two wide receiver or a top two target earner on this packers offense, I think he's absolutely worth a roster spot.
- [27:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, definitely. And you know he's going to be in that weekly flex discussion every single week. I just, I don't know who the heck Jordan Love is. Like, sometimes he looks like a top three quarterback in the league. Sometimes he looks like he should still be at Utah State. Like, I think I probably suffered the same injuries. Romeo Dobbs. Yesterday, it was just like acid reflux from, like, the disgust of having to watch Jordan Love out there yesterday. Like, I don't know, dude. He looks so bad sometimes. And like, I, I, I was a Jordan Love guy this preseason. Like, I, I liked what we saw last year, but the inconsistencies are just wild. Like, sometimes he comes out here and looks amazing and then he has these games, like, yesterday. Like, I think he's kind of in that, like, I don't know, maybe like the Trevor Lawrence type of tier where it's like the tools are there. The inconsistencies probably outweigh the tools, though.
- [28:46]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah. You know, I hate and love these conversations about quarterbacks because I feel like almost every single quarterback has these kind of games. You're just like, is he even good? You have the, there's always gonna be that one person that's been sitting around like, see, I told you. Josh Allen's not good. He's just, he's just crazy. He's erratic. So, yeah, man, there's just the inconsistencies here.
- [29:10]
Dave Kluge
I don't know who Jordan Love is. Like, I had a take. He's just.
- [29:15]
Alfredo Brown
I think there's only like a handful of quarterbacks in the league that are actually just, just extremely good that you can count on a week in and week out. Like, the rest of them are all, it's just going to be up and down. It's going to be game plan, game script and opponent dependent. And that's, that's kind of what Jordan Love is. But with all that aside, I want a starting wide receiver in an offense that can be good and a receiver that can be good. So that's why I'm putting him here. The difference between us, I've got him at number three. Priority ad, you've got him at number five. So I think that's. But this. I think this tier has the biggest amount of dissension for us. Dave, why don't we go down to the next one here where it's basically, it's three. We don't want to call them backup running backs, but three running backs with some contingent upside here and. And some roles that are growing for them or at least seem to be somewhat valuable for fantasy right now. So let's go down to this tier. This is tier number four, right? Yep, it is. It's tier number four. We've got Chris Rodriguez, running back for the Washington Commanders, Devin Singletary, running back for the New York Giants, and Sean Tucker, running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dave, if you had to pick one out of these three players, who are you going with? You got them ranked all back to back to back.
- [30:31]
Dave Kluge
I know probably Devin Singletary, if you're looking for, like, immediate production, just because he is splitting the backfield with Tyrone Tracy right now. But am I crazy for thinking Chris Rodriguez has the highest ceiling of the bunch? I mean, Corey Crosby got benched last week and, like, I think that gets lost. I see a lot of people saying, you know, the snap counts and the touch usage and that sort of stuff. Corey Crosby, merit was watching from the bench until Chris Rodriguez left that game with a shoulder injury. And we don't know if he's gonna miss any time, but, like, Corey Crosky Mary got benched and I don't think a lot of people are talking about it.
- [31:04]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say, man. It's like the snap counts are going to be deceiving. The numbers are going to look like Bill went out there and still had a. But it wasn't until Chris Rodriguez had to leave with a shoulder injury at the beginning of the second half. I'm with you. I'm with you on Chris Rodriguez. I've got him ranked the highest out of these three running backs.
- [31:22]
Dave Kluge
I kind of. I probably should have switched him in Devin Singletary. I said Devin Singletary because I have to be true with the rankings that I submitted yesterday. But, like, if I'm setting waiver claims, I think I would prefer Chris Rodriguez ahead of. I'll make that switch on the show sheet. I'd prefer Chris Rodriguez. I had it up in Singletary.
- [31:38]
Alfredo Brown
Rodriguez, man, top 36 running back in three of his last four games. That's a guy that you can actually flex each week, and he's at a touchdown in each of those three games. So, like, I know we said we don't want to chase touchdowns, but also when you get a pattern of it and a guy who's getting usage there, there's like, there's a slight difference. Right. Like, you can just turn the dial a little bit in a certain direction here with the way you value these running backs. If he's good from the shoulder injury. Right. Like, we have to monitor that. But if he's good, Miami next week could be a big running game for him, and then the commanders have the easiest fantasy playoff schedule for a running back. So if Chris Rodriguez is taking over this backfield role, or at least the majority of it, and he's got the touchdown upside that we see big. The whole big thing, Dave, you talked about it multiple times is him being named captain last week. Cliff Kingsbury really likes him.
- [32:30]
Dave Kluge
He.
- [32:30]
Alfredo Brown
He mentioned that he doesn't leave yards on the field, and that's something we've seen with Jagori Kraski merit a lot. He tries to bounce everything. He's trying to make guys miss when they're not even there. And Chris Rodriguez is just gonna say, you know what, maybe I'm gonna get three yards and it's not gonna be pretty, but I'm gonna get you three yards. And that's something that NFL coaches love.
- [32:48]
Dave Kluge
So we've got another. We've got another Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonne situation. Don't we just. In Washington now. It's very, very similar.
- [32:57]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah.
- [32:59]
Dave Kluge
And I want to point this out. Chris track to do really good work over at fantasy points. He called this out prior to the Chris Rodriguez injury. Jacobi Crosby married 17 of the carries and 8% of the team's routes. I mean, like. And again, we talk about, like, if you look at the full game and you look at the box score, it's deceiving. But prior to that injury, Corey Crusty Merritt was a nothing. Like, I. I pushed him all the way down to wide receiver or running back. 49 in my rest of season rankings. Like, he is. You know, we talked about him as a sabotage drop. I don't even know if he's a sabotage drop because I don't know if anybody's going to pick him up at this point. But, like, I don't even think it's worth rostering Jacori Grosky Bear at this point.
- [33:36]
Alfredo Brown
We talked about him last week. This is a sabotage drop, like you said. It's. You're right. I don't think it's a sabotage drop anymore. I think it's just a drop. Drop, just a sad drop at this point. That's all it is. We could touch very quickly here on Devin Singletary and Sean Tucker. We've talked about Singletary the last few weeks. The role is there. We'll see what ends up happening here with Mike Kafka now calling plays. He's been the offensive coordinator for the Giants for the last four years, so it's not like there's going to be some new tendency that hasn't been there. He's been calling plays for the Giants this year. Dull called plays last year. So I still think there's a bit of a role there for Singletary. And then Tucker's just been more efficient than, than Rashad White at this point. So 21 carries, 97 yards over the last two weeks here, there for Sean Tucker. We still, like we said, you still have no idea what's going on. Bucky Irving and the Bucks also have a very easy running back schedule for fantasy purposes throughout the fantasy playoffs. So Dave, let's. Let's put them in order then. Let's put them in order. I think you and I have the same order for these guys. It's Rodriguez, Singletary, Tucker. Is that how we're gonna do it?
- [34:42]
Dave Kluge
Mm, yep.
- [34:44]
Alfredo Brown
Easy peasy. All right, let's go down to the final tier here where we've got three players. I think one is a very clear winner amongst these three players, the most upside, but let's talk about them each. Kyle Williams, Luke Musgrave and Don Tavian Wicks. Dave, the guy that I think is the clear winner with the most upside here, which is crazy to say off of just one reception, but it's Kyle Williams. I, I know it's just one big play. It's a 72 yard touchdown, but man, even on the the plays where he's not getting the ball targeted to him, he's open a lot. He's open quite a bit. This is a guy we really liked coming out of Washington State. He was pretty high in the football guys rookie guide coming out of the NFL draft. Even prior to the NFL draft. I think I really like the upside of Kyle Williams being a field stretcher with a quarterback like Drake May. I don't really think outside of. Am I missing someone on the team outside of Williams. I don't know that the Patriots have a true field stretcher. Diggs, Mr.
- [35:47]
Dave Kluge
Fork Hands, I mean, led the team in routes run last week at over 100 yards like it's gross. But Mac Holland has been much More involved than I think any of us want him.
- [35:57]
Alfredo Brown
He's inevitable.
- [35:58]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Demario Douglas and Kjam Booty, they can kind of stretch the field, too, but nobody's got juice like Kyle Williams does on this team. Like, he is so, so fast.
- [36:07]
Alfredo Brown
I think Kyle Williams replaces. He fills in nicely for what Kayshawn Booty was doing. And while Booty is out, I think Kyle Williams gets to go in and have that nice opportunity to do this. And he's not just a deep threat either. Right. Like, it's. He didn't actually catch a deep ball. He caught and ran. He's a highly athletic player who is very good at getting open. I think he can actually do a lot of the same things that Stefan Diggs does. Kyle Williams is really good. Getting off the line of scrimmage, getting off of press coverage. He's really good at creating separation early in his routes. So I think there is a bit more diversity than just being some sort of field stretcher, but the athleticism there is just undeniable for him. I. I think he. If there was more time, he could develop into probably the best weapon on the field for the Patriots and Drake may. But I still have him as a nice speculative ad as a stash going over the next three weeks. Jets, Bengals, Giants. If there was a time for him to start getting some more snaps and make some big plays, Three really easy matchups for him.
- [37:02]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I think, like, Stefan Diggs is a pretty good comp for Kyle Williams. And I remember, like, immediately making that connection because they signed Stefan Diggs early in the offseason, that big contract, and then they drafted Kyle Williams, and I was like, oh, so they've got this plan in place where Kyle Williams is going to be Stefan Diggs three years from now. Like, it just makes too much sense. They can do so many of the same things. And. And Kyle Williams, like, he's not a raw athlete either. Like, he is already a very polished, crisp route runner. Like, we saw him just making plays consistently in college.
- [37:31]
Alfredo Brown
The hands is where he. He struggles sometimes, where he gets inconsistent.
- [37:35]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. But he's a guy that, you know, I. I think we can. Again, like, there's a lot of mouths to feed here. Right. Like, Hunter Henry's going to be involved when Keisha Booty comes back. He's going to be involved. Stefan Diggs obviously is there. Demario Douglas is starting to get hot over the second half of the season. So this is very similar to the Luther Burden conversation. Like, I don't know where he can Find a role, but in your deep leagues. I think he's worth a pickup in his stash.
- [37:57]
Alfredo Brown
That's just kind of where I'm at right now with some of these players. Like, I think it's interesting we're both saying the same thing, but about different styles of players. I know you're saying, make sure you have as many of these insurance handcuffs, which I also agree with. With. And I think you agree with me as well. It's just like, take some swings on these really good rookies, these talented players that haven't quite seen their roles grow yet. Because I'd rather be ahead. I'd rather be one or two weeks early on these guys than trying to be the one who's paying a premium for them at the last second. Or the breakout already happens, and he's just not on my roster. Right. Like, I'd rather stash Kyle Williams now, while not many people care. And in two or three weeks, we're talking about, man, he's been really good over the last three weeks. Been catching touchdowns and making plays. And here he is for the fantasy playoffs. Playoffs, you know, make sure you stash your rookies every single week that I. I just want to be ahead on this one. The other two guys that we have in this tier are packers players. Luke Musgrave, Dantavian Wicks. Let's say. Let's say you have to pick one. And I know it's different. Yeah, I know it's. I know it's difficult because there's a premium position here in tight end, but I think I'm with you. Just. It's Musgrave. That's. That's where I'd rather go.
- [39:03]
Dave Kluge
I mean, no Matthew golden in this game. Romeo Dubs left early. I think that's why we saw some of the Don Tavian Wicks involvement. But how many times do we have to step into this trap? Like, it's. It's Don Tavian.
- [39:13]
Alfredo Brown
At least one more time, baby.
- [39:15]
Dave Kluge
It's like, you know, we see it all the time. Like, he has these big games, and then everyone, like, rushes to the waiver wire, picks up Don Davian. Wicks keeps him stashed for six weeks, and then inevitably drops him. I'll let somebody else do that. I'm not going to. Luke Musgrave was second on the team in routes run, only had three targets. You know, wasn't very efficient with those three targets, but the usage was very intentional. Like, he ran just as many routes as everybody besides Christian Watson. So Musgrave, I think he's one of those guys that is probably, you know, was picked up in a lot of deep leagues after last week, is probably going to get dropped in a lot of leagues after this week. And I think he's one of those guys that like, I will happily pick up if I missed out on him last week.
- [39:54]
Alfredo Brown
Well, Dave, there you have it. We went through the Week 11 waiver wire here. We're getting closer, man. We're getting closer to the fantasy playoffs. We are gonna be back tomorrow.
- [40:07]
Dave Kluge
Four weeks left in the fantasy regular season. Like, it somehow feels like the season just started and is almost over at the same time. But yeah, I was like, right about it yesterday. I'm like, we got four more weeks and then the playoffs are here and then three more weeks and it's over. Like less than two months of the season left. Like, it is flying by.
- [40:23]
Alfredo Brown
Guys, this is the time. This is, this is crunch time for you, man. You have to win to get in. And I know that's the old cliche, but like, this is when you should be paying more attention to your fantasy teams, players that are available to everything that's going out there on the field. Because every single week is going to matter from here on out. And so what we're going to be doing is not just giving you our recaps and our waiver wire transactions and the starts and sleepers and all that, but tomorrow we're back with the players to stash. So that when you do make the fantasy playoffs, you have a good set of players that are, that are there to win you your fantasy championship. That way we're looking ahead. Like we've been saying throughout this episode, you don't want to be late on these players. So players that you can stash. This is also a fantasy trade deadline for a lot of leagues as well. So this might be the time to start making some moves as well. Dave.
- [41:09]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and I think that, you know, I wrote about this a little bit in my article that published this morning, but like, this is the time of year where I think that where you're at in the standings really dictates the moves that you want to make. Like if you've already locked the up a playoff spot, we talked about going after those handcuff running backs, but also go after the Ricky Piercels, the Omarion Hamptons, you know, the guys who are injured right now that you don't need to rely on. That could end up being that late season hammer to kind of push you through the fantasy playoffs. If you're in A losing record right now. Like, you're scratching and clawing trying to get into the playoffs. Like, I'm not very high on Kamani Vidal in rest of season rankings, not very high on Rashad White or Sean Tucker. But those are guys that can give you that immediate production that you need over the next couple of weeks to get in. So it's really hard to just say, like, these are are flat rankings this week and you should trade X player for Y player. So much of it has to do with your situation in your leagues. But if you're watching the show, you know, going into week 11, you're still plugged into fantasy football content. You probably know what you're talking about, you probably know what you're doing, and you know which players you should be targeting.
- [42:06]
Alfredo Brown
You don't even need us at this point.
- [42:08]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, but. Well, I got you. You know, if you're. If you're listening right now, you know, 40 minutes into the show, waiver wire late in the season. Leave us a. Leave us a review. On Apple podcasts, we say it all the time, but it's like the best way to help us grow. So let us know that you stuck through to the end of the show. Let us know, know what your record is right now, how you're doing in your league, and, you know, one to five stars. Let us know what you think about the show as well. It would mean a ton to both of us.
- [42:31]
Alfredo Brown
I want to correct you. Not one to five stars, just five stars. Please don't. Don't give up.
- [42:37]
Dave Kluge
You need to.
- [42:38]
Alfredo Brown
No, no.
- [42:39]
Dave Kluge
I'm sorry. Much preferred, please.
- [42:40]
Alfredo Brown
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let us know in the comments. Thanks.
- [42:45]
Dave Kluge
Five stars. I've been listening to the show all season and I'm owing. There we go.
- [42:50]
Alfredo Brown
All right, y', all, we're gonna be back again tomorrow. Like I mentioned, 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. Introducing family freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com familyfreedom. Up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card. Typically takes 15 days. Free phone via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement. Example Apple iPhone 16128 gigs 829.99 Eligible trade in example iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due. If you pay off early or cancel contact us this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.