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Waiver Wire Pickups You Need Before Week 13 || Fantasy Football 2025
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- [00:00]
A
One of my buddies still has the iPhone with a button on it. Like the circle, like button. It's like, I want to say like the iPhone 8 or 9. And he's like, it still works. Who cares?
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B
It's amazing. That's amazing.
- [00:12]
A
I made the mistake. I got it because the camera is really good. And you know, I use the camera for recording on my iPhone. So I got the iPhone 14 Pro Max a couple of years ago.
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B
Okay.
- [00:26]
A
It was such a big mistake. This thing. It's like having a freaking iPad in my pocket. Have you seen how big this phone is? The Pro Max, it's insane. And like, the camera is great. Like, especially, you know, I do a lot of hiking. Like, it's great for landscape photography. It's good for, you know, recording the shows that we do, but it's just too big. Like, it's too big.
- [00:46]
B
Love that, like my. My brother in law has the one that folds open. It's not an. It's not an iPhone. It's something else. He has the one that like folds open and I'm just like, that's. That's not convenient to walk around with a small laptop in your pocket.
- [00:58]
A
No, this. I mean, like I said, the camera is great and that's the main reason that I got it for. But it is like very cumbersome to like, you know, walking around and it's just like whacking my thigh. And, you know, God forbid I forget to take my phone out of my pocket before taking a picture. It looks like I got a brick in my pants.
- [01:16]
B
Just not. I'm not gonna say words. I can't, like, I can't say words. We are talking the week 13 waiver wire. We've got 11 players you should be picking up in your fantasy leagues. Well, don't pick up all of them. That would just be irresponsible by you and us. But welcome to the football guys fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown joining as always, I've got Dave Kluge with me. And Dave, this isn't the prettiest week for waivers, but there are a couple of guys up at the top that could not only become instant starters for a fantasy team that needs a guy this week, but also give you value throughout the fantasy playoffs.
- [02:02]
A
Absolutely. And we had some big ones last week too. Emmanuel Wilson. Shout out to everybody who got him off the waiver wire. It might have just been a one week rental, but, you know, in my home league, I was forced to play against Emmanuel Wilson and some other good players and even my Jameer Gibbs couldn't overcome it. And I took my, my first loss, 12 game win streak coming to an end.
- [02:22]
B
Boy, I could not have been wronger about Emmanuel Wilson. So if anyone listened to me on that one, my bad. I mean, I'm sure I didn't expect.
- [02:31]
A
30 touches and that's what I was saying.
- [02:34]
B
Yeah, that's crazy.
- [02:36]
A
Who needs Josh Jacobs?
- [02:38]
B
Yeah, well, congrats Emmanuel Wilson people and people who didn't listen to me. But let's, let's hop into the Week 13 waiver wire rankings. Dave, as always, what we do is we take a look at some of the top waiver wire pickups. We rank them, we make it a consensus, we put them into tiers. And so we're going to start here with tier number one. This has two running backs in it, a couple of guys we've talked about before. One, this is going to be probably the most we've talked about them. So in this we've got at one, Devin Neal, running back for the New Orleans Saints, and at 2, Chris Rodriguez, running back for the Washington Commanders. Neil's available in 90% of leagues. Dave and Devin Neal. It wasn't a lot of touches that he got this past week, but, but he got pretty much all of the work after Alvin Camaro went down in Week 12. Five catches, 43 yards. He's actually getting passing game usage. There's a really good upcoming schedule for him. Miami, Tampa, Carolina, New York, Tennessee. Like there's if, if we don't know anything about Adam Kamara yet, he could be out one week. He has said he could be out three weeks, it could be longer. And the way things have trended this year, everyone always sounds very optimistic and it ends up not being, being that. So. Devin Neal, top waiver wire ad this.
- [03:47]
A
Week, our Adam Hutchison is projecting a Week 17 return from Alvin, which is just a nightmare scenario for everybody. Like it's a nightmare scenario if you got Alvin Camara because you're not getting him until you maybe get into the fantasy playoffs. And then if you've got Devin Neal, you're gonna be able to ride him through the semifinals, then have to pull him in week 17 if Camaro returns. So all that being said, I mean, you gotta hope that if you pick up Devin Neal, you've still got some other reserves or somebody else could pop up that could be a viable RB2 you by the time you get to week 17. But I think this is a guy, if he's available, like even if I don't desperately need a Running back. Like, if I'm set at running back and I've got a flex and I've got some depth, I still don't want my league mates getting Devin Neal because this is a guy who could realistically see 18 to 25 touches a week between now and the end of the season. So, like, exactly. Yeah. Like if you have been sitting on your fab, drop it on Devin Neal. And I'm not going to sit here and say that like, I think Devin Neal is a super talented player. Like, honestly, I have some concerns about the prospect, as did you. I think Alfredo, he was kind of like the de facto rookie RB6.
- [04:50]
B
Like exactly what I called him.
- [04:52]
A
Yeah, like you had to fit him somewhere. Like, he wasn't close to the top end talent here, but he seemed a little bit better than all of the other guys. I'm not the biggest fan of Devin Neal, but opportunity is really the driving factor here. I think the frustrating thing if you do spend Devin Neal is that he's going to get like 20 touches and they're just going to yank him out inside the five and give the ball to Taysom Hill, which is a very real possibility. But still, I think, like, if you've been holding your fab, this is the guy that you spent 60, 70, 80% of it on. Because you probably aren't going to be many more opportunities like this between now and the end of the year.
- [05:24]
B
Yeah, that's exactly. My thought process here is I do think you could probably get similar production here from Chris Rodriguez. But the difference with Chris Rodriguez, our number two player on the week, is that everything's going to be a little more game script dependent for him. Whereas Devin Neal. Listen, this could have just been them adjusting on the fly with Alvin Camara being out, right? There's always the possibility. There's always the small possibility. Devin Neal doesn't get as much work next week because they bring in someone else off the practice squad, they give Taysom Hill more touches, anything could happen. Devin Neal could be bad in his upcoming games. And they go, man, we really need to make an adjustment. Right. Like, that's all very possible, but the most likely thing here is that Devon Neal continues to get this kind of work and he doesn't end up being script dependent. We saw him catching passes, we saw him carrying the ball. I know you make the joke. It's. It is not really a joke. It's kind of a real thing about Taysom Hill vulturing touchdowns. But that, but that's been real even for Alvin Camara. So if we're going to say that you could go and potentially grab a top, let's call them top 30 running back off the waiver wire in what is a thin week for waivers and a thin time for having running backs, especially this late in the season. Yeah, go out there and drop the fab. And I hate saying that because if you follow every single person's advice throughout the season, you would have dropped 80% fab back in week five and then in week six and then in week seven. Right. Like over and over and over. We are at that point in the season. Week 13, we're here knocking on the door of the fantasy playoffs. This is when you go and you pay up for the guys that could win you the league.
- [06:54]
A
And yeah, we may have said 60, 70, 80% of FAB on other guys, but there's 12 teams and there was no guarantee that you got them. So you're probably still sitting on that fab. And it really like we talked about Devin Neal over a month ago when Kendra Miller went down with the ACL injury, we were very quick to say like, all right, this is the next guy up. Alvin Camara is 30 years old. It hasn't been a good season for him. So you might already have Devin Neal on your rosters if you were taking our advice a while back. But if not, you know, you go out and you splash some money on him. Chris Rodriguez, the other guy in this tier, you know, we talked about him a few weeks ago, we talked about him last week as a guy that you could probably pick up, you know, for close to nothing as he was heading into the bye week. The other. Yeah, a little bit game script dependent here, but I think that we've seen enough at this point to know that the Commanders want to lean on Chris Rodriguez over Jakory Grosky. Merit. He's going to lose some of the passing down work to Jeremy McNichols, but still, especially if we see Jaden Daniels come back at some point this season, that'll elevate the entire offense as a whole. I think right now we're kind of looking at Chris Rodriguez as like an RB3. But if he maintains this role and Jaden Daniels comes back, that's probably enough just with the extra scoring opportunities to push him into that RV2 conversation.
- [07:59]
B
I would say this, whether it's RB2, RB3, whatever we want to call it, any running back that's getting 15 or more touches in a game like Devin Neal and Chris Rodriguez or like Emmanuel Wilson this past Week, they probably. You probably need to find a spot for them in your starting lineup. Find a spot for them in the flex. If you have two flexes, whatever, RB2, wherever it is, these are the guys that you want to have on your roster. If you can't fit them into the starting lineup, that's fine. You'd rather have them than not have them.
- [08:25]
A
Right.
- [08:25]
B
Like, they are the weapon you'd rather have in this case here. And Chris Rodriguez, you might not need.
- [08:31]
A
Him now, but injuries happen to your team, too. So, like, even if you're picking up Chris Rodriguez to be your RB5, he is two twisted ankles away from being your flex player.
- [08:40]
B
Yeah, I mean, like, there's. There's guys who, like, we can be real about it. Like Ashton Genty, if he ends up going down like, he. There was a little bit of a scare there where he should be okay. According to reports. Right. Like, Chris Rodriguez goes immediately into that role. Devin Neal goes immediately into that role. For your fantasy team. It's. These are. These are the guys that you want to be spending your money on. Rodriguez is available in 71% of leagues. He's both of our number two running back here. He's also coming off the buy, so there's not any type of, you know, expected week off. Whereas, like, I know that happens in fantasy where you get the really annoying week 14 buy for. For players. You don't have to deal with any of that going forward. So that's another positive here to three touchdowns over the last three games played. So even though I know it's not a great offense, Chris Rodriguez getting that goal line opportunity. So that's. That is something that we like to see here, Dave.
- [09:30]
A
Absolutely. I don't think I have too much to add on these guys. These are the. The clear cut, top two guys in the week. Yeah.
- [09:35]
B
All right, let's. Let's go down to our next tier where we've got some wide receivers that.
- [09:40]
A
We just broke them up by positions this year or this week.
- [09:43]
B
Yeah, right.
- [09:44]
A
Every year is just like a new position.
- [09:46]
B
Totally accidental. But, yeah, that's kind of how this ended up being. It's three wide receivers. We've got Luther Burden, wide receiver, Chicago Bears, Jaden Reed, wide receiver for the Green Bay packers, and Jaden Higgins, wide receiver for the Houston Texans. And it's funny, we have all different orders for these. Like, it's. I have Jaden Reed as my top guy, but I have. Have them as Reed, Burden, Higgins. You have them as Burden, Higgins, Reed. So we're kind of somewhat similar on this, but just a little bit of dissension and I'm sure we'll have our reasons here. For me, I've got Jaden Reed the highest because we really haven't seen what he can do this year. But we know that when Jaden Reed is in these games, he is extremely important to the packers offense and what they do. We've seen that the packers offense has struggled week in and week out. Now to try to find some semblance of a passing game, I'm going to say he's likely out week 13 here, so that doesn't really help. But this could be the added boost that your team needs in the fantasy playoffs from Week 14 going forward. He's not available in a ton of leagues. He's only available in 59% of leagues. I would assume most people that had him put him on ir. And there's also the possibility that yes they take a he takes a little bit longer to ramp up. But I would still say looking at this packers wide receiver room, it is still very much wide open for Jaden Reed to come back in and take over some big playmaking opportunity for there for that offense.
- [11:02]
A
Yeah. And if you can stash him on a IR spot, I mean that's absolutely what you want to do here. I do worry that we've seen like you know the this song and dance before where like there are the very clear cut number one and two guys. We got Romeo Dubs getting his, Christian Watson's going to get his and Jaden Reed is only going to rotate in on three wide receiver sets. I think the silver lining here is that with no Tucker Kraft out for this or with Tucker Craft out for the season, they're going to be playing out of a lot more 11 personnel and we're going to see these manufactured for J manufactured touches for Jaden Reed that make him so valuable. So not my my top receiver but still definitely a guy that I'm trying to go out and pick up if he's available there. But after kind of being the guy who has pushed back on Luther Burden a little bit for the last couple of weeks, I think I'm fully buying in now because we have seen now back to back weeks where he has out run Olamide Zakas running more snaps, I mean he's operating as very much so the third guy in this offense behind Roma Dun and DJ Moore. And and you know I have been quick to discredit some of his per route run opportunities and metrics because of that big flea Flicker play and right now if you look he is 12th in the league in yards per route run. You know given an elite there. But I said what if we take this flicker, flea flicker play out of the equation which and, and I didn't do this for every player. Like I didn't take away the top play from every single player just from Luther Burton. If we remove that flea flicker he is still 32nd in the league in yards per route run. Like right around guys like AJ Brown and Devonte Adams and Chris Alave. So this to me like I, I still think he would need an injury to DJ Moore Roma Dunes to really hit his full potential here. But he is on the field a lot more. He's running a lot more routes, he's been hyper efficient with his opportunities and I'm still looking at him as more of like an injury away stash. But if there is that injury ahead of him, he has all of the makings of potential league winner.
- [12:50]
B
And I think there's also too like yeah the Bears are kind of flying high at the moment and they're playing well and the offense is fun and exciting. But there also like does tend to be a thing in football where if there is any deficiencies in the offense you just start to look to what can give you that spark. That's why I kind of lean towards Jaden Reed and that's why I get the excitement as well here for Luther Burton. It's just like if things aren't working out with DJ Moore on a week in, week out basis, let's get, let's get Luther Burden involved a little bit more. If we are starting to see some drops or some missed plays with Roma Dunes a let's continue to get Luther Byrd involved a little bit more. There's also it kind of becomes a thing where it's like okay, teams are going to be preparing for Roma Dunze when they're going up against the Bears, teams are going to be preparing for DJ Moore. I don't know that a lot of teams are saying we really got to shut down Luther Burden and Colston Loveland and those two guys have been absolutely on fire lately. Their usage has gone up. So that's, I think that's what intrigues me the most about players like that we didn't put Loveland on here just because the availability is not high enough for our weekly waiver standards.
- [13:49]
A
Yeah. And to throw some actionable advice here like on Luther Burden big riser for the last couple of weeks in my rest of season rankings article and like where I've got him now, I prefer him ahead of Trey Tucker, Jordan Addison, Cooper Cup, Jerry Judy. So like, if you're looking at some players on your bench saying like, can I cut this guy for Luther Burden? Those are a few guys that I'd be happily like, okay to just move off of and make room for Burden on the end of my bench.
- [14:16]
B
What's actually crazy is that Luther Burden is the most readily available player out of all the wide receivers in this tier. He is available in 80% of leagues where Jaden Reed is 59% because the IR stash and then Jaden Higgins is 76%. And I want to talk about Jaden Higgins a little bit here because he's been quite good. Three games with seven plus targets this past week, four catches for 38 yards and a touchdown on nine targets. And we, I think we had a lot of potential for something even way bigger. Right? He's had three touchdowns in his last five games. I think the big question here is this has all happened with Davis Mills. Does this continue with CJ it's so weird to say, like in comes the quote, better quarterback. But you does the chemistry remain the same? Because that is a real thing. Davis Mills has had plenty of reps in camp with Jaden Higgins running the number two offense. Does C.J. stroud come in and have that same chemistry with Higgins? I don't know. But I still think he's very much worth the waiver wire at at this point.
- [15:13]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And, and we do see this kind of annoying, frustrating rotation at wide receiver two behind Nico Collins. But Davis Mills has this offense humming like we haven't really seen so far this year. Sounds like CJ Stroud is going to be back. We say it all the time. Like these rookies when they start showing signs of life, it is foolish to ignore it. So sure, you can look at what Jaden Higgins did early in the season and use that to write him off, but it sounds like he is starting to come on a little bit stronger now. Weirdly enough, we also saw a big game from Christian Kirk last week, who is also a guy that you can kind of throw in the the waiver discussion if you're looking for somebody deep out there. Interested to see what this offense looks like when C.J. stroud returns. But Jaden Higgins, you know, a player that you and I both love, really liked coming out of Iowa State and is now starting to look a little bit better.
- [16:02]
B
We talking to Davis Mills, future Vikings quarterback, Raiders quarterback, Panthers quarterback. Is he, is he Going to Sam Darnold himself for Daniel Jones. Like, is he going to play himself into a contract?
- [16:14]
A
I don't think so. I think the difference is like Sam Darnold, you know, even Mac Jones, who's probably going to do it. Daniel Jones, like those guys were all first round picks that had like the pedigree. Davis Mills, I mean he's looked really, really good, but I think he was a third round pick. Those guys typically don't get the opportunities as a starter, they'll come in as a backup and kind of earn the job. But he has looked pretty darn good. But I think there's going to be a lot of QB shuffling this offseason and I, you know, still excited about the fantasy playoffs approaching, but can't wait to get into some of the off season discourse.
- [16:45]
B
All right, let's go into the next tier here where we've got two tight. We almost, we almost kept it going with just.
- [16:51]
A
I know.
- [16:52]
B
Position.
- [16:52]
A
I know. Take some hill. Let's just sneak him in here.
- [16:55]
B
Sure. Why we've got two tight ends. So in tier number three, we've got Breton Strange, tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Darren Waller, tied in for the Miami Dolphins and then just kind of combined them into one person. John Mechi and Adonai Mitchell, wide receivers for the New York jets. Because sure, one of them gotta be football. Yeah, that's sentence. Let's start with Breton Strange. Dave coming off a big game here, five catches, five targets, 93 yards. This is all without Brian Thomas in the lineup. And there's just kind of like the ever changing look of what the Jaguars offense is. Do we think Brenton Strange just goes right back to his like, hey, I'm catching six balls a game type of production here. Especially with how sort of open and unclear this receiver room is for the Jaguars.
- [17:47]
A
Yeah, I don't see why not. Like we have seen Trevor Lawrence throughout his entire career, loves to target the tight end. And like we can look now at what Evan Ingram is doing in Denver and say that, oh, his production over the last few years was probably a product of the offense that he was playing in. Like, Evan Ingram is not earning targets on his own accord. He's not out here just breaking games the way that he did last year or the last three years with Jaguars. So I think that this is just kind of a. First of all, it sounds like I'm discrediting Brenton Strange and I don't want to do that. Brendan Strange is a second round pick, 24 years old, a very good athlete and a very good player. And now he's getting the opportunity. And that's why we talked about Brendan Strange a lot this offseason, because we said he's going to step into that Evan Ingram role. And he is arguably better at the end this point in their respective careers than Evan Ingram is. And it's looking like right now, like first game back. And he immediately leads the team in receiving yards with 93 yards. So this is another one where, like, I'm not going to just slowly move him up my rest of season rankings. Like, I saw enough last week. So some guys that I moved him ahead of, AJ Barner, David Najoku, Mason Taylor, Kate Otten, those are all guys that I would cut if Brenton Strange is available to add him to my roster.
- [18:54]
B
I know it sounds crazy, but I've talked about this with a couple players, be it Jaden Reed or Jaden Higgins with Davis Mills and Brenton Strange now with Trevor Lawrence. Is familiarity matters, especially in the passing game. Like, there's got to be a connection of chemistry, reps that have happened in practice, reps that have happened on the field, like these. These things do matter when you get out there. I know we don't like to talk about it because it's not. It's not something tangible, it's not data, it's not something that we saw on film. But it absolutely matters here. So Breton Strange, I think, goes back right into being a startable tight end each week. Darren Waller is the other tight end to talk about here, a guy who we have not seen in a little while. But Dave, last time he was playing for Miami, four touchdowns in three games. This was. He was just doing kind of unprecedented stuff. Like we've never seen someone retire, come back and just be immediately a spark plug for his NFL team and a fantasy team. And then he's got a pretty solid schedule here in the fantasy playoffs, going up against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals, two of the worst teams against the tight end position. And then week 17 against Tampa, where we could see a shootout there. Tampa's been struggling a little bit. But Darren Waller, you have him a bit lower than Brenton Strange. What is the concern there? Because I actually have Waller higher than Strange.
- [20:08]
A
Yeah, I think that we can look at more volume going to Brenton Strange. Waller, you talked about it, the four touchdowns in three weeks that really did skew his production a little bit. That, like, if we look at a per game basis right now, Trey McBride is the only guy outscoring Darren Waller and Like, I don't expect that to make my case.
- [20:27]
B
Your honor. Tight end too, on the season.
- [20:29]
A
And I've got, you know, what I did by rest of season rankings, I've got Strange just a couple spots ahead of Darren Waller. But like, I still prefer Darren Waller to T.J. hawkinson, Evan Ingram, Johnny Smith, Isaiah likely, Kate Otten. Like, there's a lot of guys that, you know, I'd be happy to pick Darren Waller up and put directly into my lineups. We, we did see some promising usage too. Like it wasn't just the touchdowns. I remember like breaking down this film in depth with you where we were seeing like the, the post routes, we were seeing the fades of the goal line, we were seeing the screens. He was getting a lot of creative usage. And now with Tyree Kill out of the picture, we could see him, you know, even more involved. I think the concerns are just the, the injuries, the touchdown cologne, as you like to say. You know, if those touchdowns dry up a little bit, you know, we could be looking at two to three catches per game. Where I think Brenton Strange getting his like five to six receptions per game gives you a little bit nicer of a floor.
- [21:19]
B
Yeah. So I agree with you there. 100. Strange gives you the better floor. I guess for a tight end. I kind of just want to go for the ceiling play. Right. Like that's, that's what I want to do here at this point. Because while I mean, he was a top six tight end in two of his three starts, like, I know a lot of it is all touchdown based, but like you said, there is no Tyree Kill. You've got an offense that is searching for answers. They've been able to run the ball well with Devon. Hm. But the passing game has really slowed down. So. So adding Darren Waller back I think is. Is exciting for that offense. And it goes back to that comfortability we saw too. It was comfortable looking for Waller in the red zone. So while we may not have four touchdowns in three games like we have, I think touchdown targets and opportunities will still come for Waller where I get just slightly worried about Strange. I still think he's a fringe top 12 tight end. Where I get worried is Brian Thomas coming back. And then does that offense try to force things to Brian Thomas? How does that now work with Thomas, Jacoby, Myers, Parker, Washington, Brenton Strange all in the field and a Trevor Lawrence who like you see. Did you see Liam Cohen just get absolutely shocked when Trevor Lawrence threw an interception this week?
- [22:26]
A
Yeah, that was, that was great. I watched it live and was just like laughing hysterically. That was, that was really good stuff.
- [22:33]
B
All right, last guys to take a look at here. These are the jets wide receivers that we want to talk about. And this is one of those examples of, like, where we talk about targets matter and you want to go after volume and then AD Mitchell just kind of keeps doing the same thing every week. Like, here's two catches on 14 targets and you're going to like it. You know, it's just not there.
- [22:56]
A
One reception on six targets two weeks ago. Two receptions on seven targets last week. That tells me that he's trending for like 10 receptions on 15 targets in the championship.
- [23:07]
B
Yeah, sure, yeah. Or 36 targets. One or the other. God, 80. Mitchell and Jacoby Brissette would just be the perfect Madden team for fantasy football. It'd be beautiful. It'd be beautiful. But John Meshi was the guy. Like, we have not talked about him in fantasy, for fantasy purposes, years since he was drafted. Like, yeah, like, maybe there was some dynasty upside when he got drafted, but like, since then we really haven't talked about it much. It's been, it's been a crazy career. Like, from, from what I remember, there was medical issues, then there was injuries on the field.
- [23:39]
A
Leukemia. Like, he had to miss his entire rookie season.
- [23:42]
B
I couldn't remember what it was and I didn't want to try to guess as to like, what he had recovery.
- [23:47]
A
And treatment from leukemia. Like, this was not just like a small little thing that like knocked him out for a couple weeks. Like, the man battled leukemia and came back from it. And like, yeah, it's been a slow start to his career, but I think people forget how good John Mechi was. Like, he was. He was the number two. He was the, the Robin to Devonta Smith's Batman on that national championship winning Alabama team in 2020. And then in 2021, he was the leading receiver at Alabama, got drafted early in round two and then had this horribly unfortunate situation with leukemia. But he came back now and like, I think a lot of people don't even know who John Mechi is unless you're like, you're really plugged into like the, the draft circles, but this was a very good prospect with a highly college career. Exactly. Yeah. Now, you know, he's a couple years removed from this and he looks good now.
- [24:33]
B
Yeah. And I mean, he's probably going to be the jets wide receiver one. Like, I know that that's weird to say after one week, but he's been the only guy that's been this productive at the wide receiver position outside of Garrett Wilson. Nine catches, 110 yards, two touchdowns on 10 targets. Like, he's not only getting the targets from Tyrod Taylor, but he's doing something with them. You got to imagine that jets offense is going to continue to feature him like that. And the good thing with John Mention too, is like, he can win underneath, whereas A.D. mitchell is. He's. There's a lot of. I remember when I was scouting AD Mitchell, a lot of what he does is the same thing that George Pickens does. George Pickens does it a lot better. And A.D. mitchell's like, gotta win those contested catches. And yes, he can get open and he can be aggressive, but he's. He's gonna continue to be used downfield until he starts to just make big plays. Unfortunately, that's kind of seemed like that's been his moniker here in the NFL. Metchie just does kind of seem like a guy that you can stash as a solid. Let's call him wide receiver four, I think, you know, like where you can. You can flex them out on weeks if you need to.
- [25:29]
A
Yeah, absolutely. And I think this Torod Taylor offense, just the passing game looks a little bit better than it has with Justin Fields as a whole. I mean, we did see John Metchie catch the big touchdown from Justin Fields, but we saw him just kind of operating as the primary weapon in the passing game with Torod Taylor last week. So honestly, I don't know what's going to happen with Justin Fields. I don't know if they're going to do this snip snap, snip snap. Like, you know, put him on timeout for a couple of weeks and then bring him back as the starter late in the year. But I think as long as to Rod Taylor's starting, you hit the nail on the head. They John Mechi is kind of this like, you know, shaky for sure, but like warrants wide receiver 4 or flex consideration in a lot of lineups.
- [26:05]
B
I mean, this reminds me a lot of like what we've always seen, like you plug in Greg Dortch when Marvin Harrison Jr. Is out because you're going to get some volume there. Or Parker Washington when Brian Thomas Jr. Is out and you get some volume there. Yeah, there's going to be down weeks. I know this like the numbers he has is over two weeks here, Dave, but like upcoming he's got Atlanta. You got to figure AJ Terrell is probably going to be out on Adonai Mitchell to stop Any big time plays downfield. Then you've got Miami and then Jacksonville. All very beatable secondaries here because of how John Metchie plays and where he plays. He's never going to be the guy that's having to go up against the top corner on the defense. So I think that's going to be the thing that's going to make things a bit easier for the jets offense to get the ball to him at a greater rate than they have been with A.D. mitchell.
- [26:47]
A
And he's a guy I don't think you need to go out and spend all of your fab on him. I don't think he's on the radar for a lot of people, but definitely worth a pickup in like most leagues right now. It feels like every, every single year when we look back at like the final month of the season, there's always these guys that were like, how did they finish as a top 12 wide receiver? Like last year, Lamas Akias was the wide receiver 18 through the fantasy playoffs. And like there's always these unsuspecting guys that kind of come out of nowhere. And when you look at the situation right now, like the move from Justin Fields to Rod Taylor, the Garrett Wilson injury, if Garrett Wilson doesn't come back this year and if Rod Taylor keeps starting, it's not crazy to think that John Mechi could be a top 20 receiver going forward.
- [27:24]
B
Let's talk about some other receivers. We're going to go down to our last tier here where these guys we all have, we had them ranked all differently actually, in the exact opposite order. I'll list the names. Greg Dortch, Chimmeray, DK and Taysom Hill. And I've got Dortch, DK and Hill in that order. You have it. Hill, dk, Deutsch. Now I totally understand the value of Deutsch. Here it is. Greg Dorch's only valuable for fantasy if Marvin Harrison Jr. Is out. While he's out though, he is a plug and play starter. While Harrison Jr. Has been out, it's been 12 catches, 119 yards, two touchdowns on 15 targets across those games. Over 16 PPR points in those games. Like there's not a lot of guys you're getting that from. And it's not because Greg Dorch is some sort of world beater. Yeah, he's a good player. Like, don't get me wrong, goodbye NFL standards. He's not your typical fantasy wide receiver too that you're plugging in every week. But with Jacoby Brissette, with The way this offense has been run with the opportunity that's there for targets, and the volume's just insane. And this is a guy you can plug in as a wide receiver three or flex play every single week while Harrison Jr. Is out and there's been no update, which is the weirder thing.
- [28:30]
A
Well, Kyler is also out.
- [28:32]
B
Okay. Yeah, Kyler.
- [28:34]
A
I mean, this is kind of the perfect storm right now for this passing attack. Like, we're seeing Michael Wilson, we're seeing Greg Dortz, we're seeing Trey McBride. And that's like, when I was doing my rest of season rankings, I didn't know what to do with this Cardinals passing attack because, like, technically, Kyler Murray can come back in week 14. And I don't know about you, Alfredo, but if Kyler Murray comes back, I'm tempering expectations for this entire passing attack, whether Marvin Harrison Jr. Is a part of it or not. Like, Jacoby Brissette is doing much better things with the receivers at his disposal than Kyler Murray ever has.
- [29:03]
B
How long are we going to stick to the Jonathan Gannon? Like, nothing has changed? Because he said that. He said that nothing has changed. Then the next day, Kyler Murray out.
- [29:15]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [29:17]
B
So how are we interpreting that?
- [29:20]
A
Yeah, I'm looking right now because, yeah, this is what I thought, is that he has an injury guarantee, which means that if he gets hurt this year, the team is on the hook to give him $19.5 million next year. So it seems like they want to maybe get out from this contract.
- [29:37]
B
But what does that mean? Like, his injury, like, if he gets hurt, like, at any time? Because he already did.
- [29:43]
A
So if he gets hurt this year and can't perform in the training camp. So, like, let's say he goes out and suffers this. This would be a severe injury, you know, like an acl, something like that, where he's unable to perform at the start of next year, then they're on the hook to give him $19.5 million. However, if he.
- [29:58]
B
Okay, so they save money next year by keeping him off the field now and avoiding further injury.
- [30:02]
A
Exactly. But the other side of this is, like, maybe they do want to put him out late in the year. Just a show. Like, hey, look, he's healthy. You should come trade for him. So it can kind of break in either direction. And that's why, like, I. I just kind of said in my article this week, I'm like, I don't know what to do with these Cardinals because, like, we don't know when Marvin Harrison Jr. Is coming back. We don't know if or when Kyler Murray's coming back. Like, if you told me that Marvin Harrison Jr. Was out for the rest of the year and Jacoby Brissette was going to remain starting, we'd probably be looking at Michael Wilson as a top 15 wide receiver and Greg Dortz is a wide receiver. 3. But with some potentially moving parts over these next few weeks, it does make hard to project more than like a week or two at a time.
- [30:40]
B
The Cardinals are three and eight. Like, commanders are doing the same thing where they're like, ah, maybe Jayden Daniel's gonna come back. Why? Yeah, like, why?
- [30:48]
A
I mean, Jaden Daniel's back at practice this week. That's. That's crazy.
- [30:50]
B
No.
- [30:51]
A
Why? I don't know.
- [30:54]
B
This is. Can we just move away from fantasy football? Like, just. It was just for football purposes. Like, don't RG3 him, guys. Like, just let him rest. Please don't do this to him. I know I said the quiet part out loud. Sorry.
- [31:07]
A
Yeah.
- [31:08]
B
All right. Other guy on here. The next player that we both have ranked as our number 10 player is Shimmery DK. I've heard Shamir DK. I've heard it both ways. Whatever. Dave. He's available in 77 of leagues. This kind of like how we joked that Devin Neal was like the de facto RB6, RB7 in rookie rankings. DK feels like the de facto waiver wire priority 10. Because we wanted to put someone and if we just been on this before, like, we've been on this ride, it's. It's good for you. You had a good week. It's still the Titans. We still don't know what this passing game is. There's still not going to be any consistency. You might have a big play, but it's probably another four targets next week. I don't. I don't know that I have really any priority to this guy. I probably should have just put him at 11 and put him behind Taysom Hill.
- [31:53]
A
Yeah. You know, he's an intriguing player just because, like, off the charts athleticism, like RAN a 4:3, 4:40, has 97th percentile relative athletic score. Like, there's reason to like him. And now, of course, we've got Kelvin Ridley out for the season, has been dealing with this hamstring injury for a couple of weeks, still has yet to practice. So we don't know what's going on there. And I think that's why we've seen a couple of nice weeks from dk just because like, there's nobody else standing. Like his only competition for touches at this point, Van Jefferson and Gunner Helm and Chiga conquo so of course he's making plays out here. The problem is his best plays have come in the punt return game, which, you know, don't really count all that much for fantasy. Like he's the leading punt returner right now in the NFL. But whether it's a, you know, 14 yard or an 80 yard, if he's not in the end zone, it doesn't matter. And even if he does take a 90 yarder into the end zone, you're still only getting six points for it. So an exciting player. He's shown a lot of flashes this rookie season, but he's still kind of a raw player. You know, you're hoping that he can break off a big play and Cam Ward's got the arm to hit him deep every now and then, but the reality is he's, he's very much so a boomer bust wide receiver. 5.
- [32:57]
B
All right, last guy on here is Taysom Hill. Dave, you have him as nine. I have now adjusted mid show and changed him to 10. This is all just about. You can fly, you can plug them into your tight end spot and he can give you running back numbers potentially essentially like, that's it. He can give you the Vulture touchdown. Especially with Alvin Camara out. Whether you're going to start him this week or not, he's worth the roster spot because we're one bad Devin Neil week away from them being like, you know what? Taysom is going to probably get the majority of the carries out of the back.
- [33:31]
A
Yeah. And it's, it's not pretty, but that's kind of where we're trending. I think they'll probably call up Audricast May this week, but like Taysom Hill, the season's not like officially here until we're in the double digit weeks and we're talking about Taysom Hill as a guy that you need to pick up and start and, and welcome everybody. Like the, the, The Fantasy Football 2025 season has officially commenced because that's where we are now. But I mean, 10 carries last week and, and he threw a pass attempt into the end zone as well. Like, yeah, it's Taysom Hill. It's not fun, it's not pretty, but you can put this guy in your tight end spot.
- [34:05]
B
Oh, it's fun.
- [34:06]
A
Really desperate.
- [34:07]
B
It is. It depends on what you're into.
- [34:09]
A
When he has his like two rushing touchdowns for 11 yards. It's fun. And when he has his, you know, zero touchdowns and an interception and nine rushing attempts, you're saying, what did I do here? But yeah, I mean, if you're looking for somebody that you can pick up off waivers, it's going to give you a very high ceiling taste. Mill can do that on his 1.7 yards per carry last week.
- [34:30]
B
Yeah, it's not. It's like you said, it's not pretty. It's fun.
- [34:33]
A
But then he had that game last year where he just like ripped off a night. What was it, like a 93 yard touchdown or something?
- [34:38]
B
Like, I don't know. You're the Taysom Hill historian, man. Like. Like he's not a real player to me.
- [34:44]
A
I still. Yeah. I hope you enjoy the. The fourth round pick that I traded for. For Taysomal last year at the deadline.
- [34:51]
B
That's right. You did trade me a fourth round pick. For days.
- [34:54]
A
I was like, yeah, blew out his knee the very next week. So, yeah. Fun.
- [34:59]
B
Hold on.
- [34:59]
A
Experiences.
- [35:00]
B
Now that we're here. What league was that in?
- [35:04]
A
Heartbreak, I believe.
- [35:05]
B
I. I need to go look this up. Like, what? What? I need to be faster on this. I'll look it up and I'll. I'll comment.
- [35:20]
A
It takes way too long to pull up old drafts.
- [35:21]
B
Yeah, I can't.
- [35:23]
A
We'll let you guys know in the comments.
- [35:24]
B
Who. Yeah.
- [35:25]
A
Alfredo. Drafted with that pick that he received for Taysom Hill.
- [35:29]
B
Oh. Oh, wait. I think I. I think I found it. I think I found it. Hold on.
- [35:32]
A
I do really want to know now.
- [35:34]
B
Yeah. Right.
- [35:35]
A
Now that we're there. Let me see. I can pull it up. I got there real quick on my.
- [35:39]
B
I got Tori Horton, my man. No, Joey, no. Joey Wright did. Joey Wright did. Where's. It wasn't a fourth round pick.
- [35:46]
A
Oh, maybe. Was it a third or maybe it was a 20, 27 fourth.
- [35:50]
B
I may have. I. Yeah, I think so.
- [35:53]
A
Maybe you're still waiting to use that fourth round pick. I did see. Yeah. I got Tori Horton in the fourth in that draft. That was a fun pick.
- [36:01]
B
No, Joey Wright got Tori Horton in the fourth. Where. Where your pick should have been.
- [36:07]
A
Yes. Yeah, you were right. Yeah.
- [36:09]
B
How's your heart? Also Devin Neal in the third round by Sam Wagman.
- [36:14]
A
Yeah. I mean, Devin Neal. And this is one where we do these drafts early and you know, a lot of weird things happen early in the off season. Yeah. Yeah. Devin Neil, the. The de facto RB6 of this class, people were thinking about had camp Scatter Boo for a while there.
- [36:29]
B
That Jack Bash pick in the second round is just flipping me off right in the face.
- [36:34]
A
If you ever want to ruin your day, just go back and look at some. Some rookie draft picks. Yeah.
- [36:39]
B
By the way, some other players that we didn't put on here just. They just didn't quite make the cut. But we always talk about how important it is to have running backs to stash guys like Raheem Mostert, you know, with the Ashton Ginti, you know, question, health questions, but he should be okay. Jalil McLaughlin, another guy. If you just. If none of these players that we mentioned are available, just go out and start stashing some of these running backs that are always an injury away. Just look on your waiver wire, see who's there. Those are the guys you want to keep adding if you have the space. Don't. Don't just churn bench spots for no reason either. Dave.
- [37:14]
A
Yeah, I'm looking back at it. We actually, we had the trade wrong. It was a third and fourth round swap for Taysom Hill. I ended up moving that fourth round pick in another trade. But you use the third rounder that you traded from the fourth up to the third, and you got Tyler Shuck with that third round pick. So. Hey, now, not too bad. Tyler Shuck.
- [37:31]
B
And then so we traded a Saints quarterback for a Saints quarterback. All right. All right. I like it. Not bad. Fun. Fun. Going back.
- [37:42]
A
Non Dynasty. People out here are listening to this part of the show saying, what in the world are you guys talking about?
- [37:47]
B
Thumbs down. Dislike. Don't like this episode.
- [37:51]
A
It is a holiday week if you can't tell.
- [37:53]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, guys, what's your favorite dish?
- [37:56]
A
Alfredo. Probably a little early, but I'll put you on the spot. What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish? I know you told me a couple years ago that, like, you do a very Latino style Thanksgiving, and you say, like, and. And I was, like, salivating, like, don't get me wrong, I love turkey. But when you were telling me, like, what you guys do for Thanksgiving, I. I got hungry.
- [38:15]
B
Yeah, we. So we have, like, a lechon, which is pork that's, like, smothered in garlic and onions and all that. Your breath is disgusting. But it's. The food is delicious. And we've got white rice, black beans, plantains that are fried up real like. It's just. It's delicious, man. It's so good. But I'm. I'm gonna be doing Thanksgiving with mom and dad this year. Dad is like pure blood American Thanksgiving with stuffing and mashed Potatoes and all that. So I'm not a big turkey guy. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not. I'm not. You know what my favorite dishes from Thanksgiving is? Pumpkin pie. I'll kill a pumpkin pie. An apple pie, too. I'm a big pie guy.
- [38:55]
A
My wife does a good job with pies. And I will say turkey. A lot of people, I feel like they just do turkey wrong. They throw, like, an unseasoned bird in the oven and cook it until it's white all the way through. Like, no, that's not how you cook a turkey. We got a deep fryer a few years ago. Oh, my goodness. What we do is we let it thaw out, and then I make this herb butter, and I have this gigantic meat syringe. So I inject the entire turkey full of this herb butter and then deep fry it. Oh, it's. It's amazing. Like, it is crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside. It'll. It'll change the way you look at turkey.
- [39:31]
B
You just reminded me that I have been fasting all morning and I have not had any food. So, yeah, we're gonna wrap this up.
- [39:38]
A
Call in eight minutes, and we gotta eat some before that. I have also skipped breakfast, which is probably why we're just, like, rambling on about food at the end of the.
- [39:44]
B
Show, which is why Dave has not needed a bathroom break yet. Guys, we're going to be back again tomorrow, actually, Wednesday. We're doing everything a little bit earlier this week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. We know you still need your information. I know you still want to enjoy your week with us here on the podcast. So we are still giving you your waiver wire updates here on Tuesday. And then we're also going to be giving you starts and sleepers. Now, remember, it's going to be a little bit different with the week. We're going to have some Thursday games, probably a little more focus on that. And it is earlier in the week, so we may not have as much information, but we'll keep all that in mind as we're talking to you guys tomorrow. As always, I just want to thank you all for watching or listening all the way through. For myself, for Dave. We'll see you next time. Adios.