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- [00:01]
A
So this weekend, I was supposed to go to a concert with my buddy, and my buddy bailed. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go by myself. Which I haven't gone to a concert by myself in a long, long time. And, like, I'm feeling good, like, you know, put myself out there doing things I want to do. I show up to this concert, obviously, you know, one of the older guys there. I'm by myself, rocking the mustache, just standing there with my arms crossed, waiting for, you know, in between openers and these two teenagers in front of me, one of them pulls a little baggie out of his pocket, which, whatever. I don't judge. Do what you want to do. And his friend elbows him, nods his head back to me, and goes, dude, there's a cop behind us. Yeah, I knew it. I've never felt older and lamer in my life. And I'm just standing there with my mustache, arms crossed by my mustache. Yep, yep. I totally see why that confusion happened here, but my goodness, dude, I've never felt, like such a square before.
- [00:56]
B
You look very copy. You look very copy. Like, no offense to our. To all of our listeners that are police officers, thank you for everything you do. You look a little copy with your. And with your.
- [01:09]
A
I wore a camouflage hat, too. So I had, like, a camo hat, a mustache. And I came home and I told my wife the story, and she was just, like, looking at me, and she's like, yeah, yeah, I get it.
- [01:19]
B
So you wore camo while you already have a must. Like, what are you doing, man? You know what you're going for?
- [01:25]
A
I. I didn't really think it through. I just. But, yeah, that was. That was a humbling experience. The concert was fun, but, yeah, I felt very, very old.
- [01:34]
B
You do sort of look like an extra for Super Troopers.
- [01:37]
A
Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. And I will say, like, there were a lot of other mustaches in the crowd, but I don't think anybody had the same. I was giving off. It's November. A lot of people have mustaches. But I guess I think it's like the camo hat, the tattoos, the. By myself, like, it all just kind of added up to what concert was this?
- [01:58]
B
That can explain the mustaches.
- [02:00]
A
It was.
- [02:00]
B
It was.
- [02:00]
A
It was a death metal show. Death metal.
- [02:03]
B
That'll explain the mustaches, though.
- [02:05]
A
Yeah. Sangui sugabag. It was a fun one. I mean, it was. It was a great show, but I just. I left very humbled and also, like.
- [02:13]
B
I'm just too old.
- [02:14]
A
For that. Like it was fun. But like, I woke up in the morning, I went for a hike that afternoon. I went to the gym. Then I went to a concert and spent three hours at headbanging and I woke up Sunday morning and I was like, I, I can't move. Like I am in so much pain. I just, I can't do it anymore. Man. Getting old sucks.
- [02:29]
B
Shocker. Water wet old man can't do headbanging at concert and hiking.
- [02:35]
A
This neck, this computer posture. He can't headbang.
- [02:40]
B
No. No. Now we know what Davis Mills feels like. Week 10 is coming, gone. And we are going to be recapping everything from the week. All the risers, the followers, those important takeaways that we have. Welcome in to the football Guys fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown joined as always. I've got Dave Kluge here with me and Dave, listen man, we started off with a stinker on Thursday night where I was worried this was just going to be a bad week of football. And then of course, bright and early in the morning, Colts and Falcons come out and give us just a banger of a game. The Colts offense looks revitalized. Daniel Jones is out here giving us memes with his bloody mouth. Like everything just looks like.
- [03:30]
A
And Gladys out there.
- [03:35]
B
What a, what a game, man. Give us your risers. And follows from this one.
- [03:40]
A
Alec Pierce, a big time riser. And I wrote about him last week and we talked about him last week as well. Like he has quietly just been developing in like a wide receiver one but there haven't been touchdowns. And we said like this guy is prime for positive touchdown regression. Like it's only a matter of time. This is all he's done throughout his career is score big touchdowns and he had zero touchdowns going into the week. His pace since he has come back from his concussion, 1500 yards this season. And I mean obviously like we could expect that to tail down a little bit, but he isn't doing what he did early in his career which was like just vertical routes. Now we're seeing some of the in breaking routes, we're seeing the post, we're seeing some opportunities to create after the catch, all while still having the second highest average target depth of any wide receiver in the league. So yeah, like interested to see how this plays out in the off season because it's kind contract comes to an end, I think the Colts are going to give him a bag. And when you've got Josh Downs, Michael Pittman and Alec Pierce, the way that their skill sets work off each other. This is a darn good wide receiver trio.
- [04:33]
B
Yeah, you've got yourself a field stretcher here. And it's. It's not even two that it's. This offense has so many players that can catch the ball and do it well in so many different parts of the field between Pittman, Warren Downs, Pierce. I mean, the Colts offense, it's just. It's Jonathan Taylor.
- [04:51]
A
Jonathan Taylor on pace for a career high in receptions, too. Like, he's getting, like, Christian McCaffrey usage now in this offense. Like, it is just every single player that's on the field as an offensive weapon is always in danger of scoring. Like, this is a really, really good, fun offense.
- [05:06]
B
If you're the Colts, you. You pay Daniel Jones, right? You have to.
- [05:10]
A
I don't know about.
- [05:11]
B
Come on, man.
- [05:12]
A
Daniel Jones looked like Daniel Jones these last couple of weeks. We've got, what is it, four interceptions and six fumbles in the last two games. He's taken 10 sacks over that time as well. I get. But, you know, ask me two weeks ago, and I'd say, yeah, give Daniel Jones the bag. Having a little bit of pause after the last couple of weeks.
- [05:30]
B
I mean, to an extent, too. It's just, who can run the offense? Right?
- [05:34]
A
Right.
- [05:34]
B
Like, that's. That's been the big thing they haven't had. But if it's not Daniel Jones, what's the alternative?
- [05:39]
A
You start over again?
- [05:41]
B
That's. That's kind of the thing. I almost think it's out of necessity you end up paying like this.
- [05:45]
A
Isn't that exactly why the Giants paid Daniel Jones? Because they were like, well, if we. We don't pay him, like, what's the alternative? And then they got settled with this contract. I don't know, man. Like, it does feel like, you know, Giants, Daniel Jones has started to show up these last couple of weeks, and they're still winning, but, like, by the skin of their teeth. And, like, this should have been a game when. When you've got, you know, Jonathan Taylor going for almost 300 yards. Just like this should have been a blowout. It shouldn't have been as close as it was. And the same thing two weeks ago as well. Daniel Jones, his. His shortcomings are starting to become a little bit more apparent over these last couple of weeks.
- [06:16]
B
Yeah, I would say this. At least the Atlanta Falcons have been one of the better defenses against the past. So, like, that's one thing to consider. Not gonna have as many opportunities for big plays in the passing game when Jonathan Taylor's Running the way he is, you could just kind of let him be the facilitator. So it works. One of the guys that I think is a faller from this game and he just has been. Well, not, I don't want to say has been, but because of the rise of the other players in the Colts passing game. And then just from this game, I know it's one game, but Michael Pittman, this is less about him having the bad game. I don't want to overblow that. It's more about the fact that all of these other players are just making it work in the offense. So Michael Pittman isn't the surefire top 15 wide receiver. We were looking at him as, you know, going into each week. I think he's just more of a solid wide receiver, too, each week in fantasy.
- [07:01]
A
Yeah. And I probably. That's kind of where I've been with him. Like, I didn't go, like, completely over my skis. I saw a lot of people talking about, like, Michael Pittman breaking out as a surefire wide receiver. 1. And I wasn't really there. I will say I didn't drop him too much in my rankings because I am chalking this game up. It's just like AJ Terrell was glued to him the entire time, so they weren't even looking his way. Like, that was just kind of, you know, out of the question. They were basically playing 10 on 10 this entire game while Pittman and AJ Terrell were just like, fighting on the boundary the entire. Canceling each other out, basically. Yeah. So Pittman didn't fall too much in my rankings, but I also was a little bit lower on him going into this week than the consensus was.
- [07:37]
B
All right, let's go over to the next game. Saints defeat the Pittsburgh Panthers. Dave boy, we've. We've kind of. You've done a little bit of a reverse here on Alvin Camara. You're calling him a riser this week. Talk to us a little bit about that.
- [07:51]
A
He just saw a lot of opportunities in this game, which, like, we did not see. I mean, I. I thought like, the Alvin Camaro was coming to an end here. I thought we were going to see, like, Devin Neal and Taysom Hill coming out after that. Just that awful game from Alvin and Taste.
- [08:03]
B
Hill did have his highest snap percentage of the season. So, I mean, the usage is growing for Hill.
- [08:09]
A
Yeah. But I also see camaro, you know, 25 touches in this game. And, you know, I thought that he was going to get relegated into this kind of part Time role where he'd be splitting touches with everybody else, but they leaned on him in this game. He made it through the trade deadline. You know, all of the panic that I was feeling after week nine, I'm just kind of ignoring now. It was just an off game. You know, he had the fumble. He had the missed blocking assignment in the fourth quarter that led to the interception. It was frustrating to see, but they went right back to him in week 10. That gives me a little bit more faith to feel better about putting him in my lineups next week. Week.
- [08:41]
B
Well, don't do it next week because he's on a buy, but after that.
- [08:43]
A
We just noticed that. Yeah, yeah.
- [08:45]
B
After. After that weekend, we can. We can have that conversation. I just want to think that, you know, one good game doesn't do all of the bad games that we've had throughout this season. So that's. I. I do want to see a little bit more here. The guy that I see as a riser or the few guys that I see as a riser here is just going to be that Saints passing game. Like, we actually saw it work pretty well. Like Tyler Schuck. I. I know all the jokes that we want to make, but he has looked comfortable. He has not been turning the ball over at a high rate. He has been able to extend plays. And we saw Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson are his guys that he's going to keep targeting. Former Oregon teammate Joanne Johnson.
- [09:21]
A
Right. I don't know if they still have connection going back from 2019, but it is still pretty funny to. To talk about. And yeah, I mean, Chuck had some, like, really nice plays where he was just sliding around in the pocket, extending time, making some big throws downfield. You know, there were a lot of jokes teams after his first performance, but I've seen many a good quarterback look very bad in their NFL debut. So, yeah, you know, definitely willing to look at this through a fresh lens here. And. And Shuck look pretty good in this game.
- [09:48]
B
Granted, it's the Carolina Panthers, but we've seen the Panthers defense actually look good at times throughout this season. And J.C. horn being a guy that has shut down receivers now, I will say on the big Chris Olave play, J.C. horn falls down. Right. So.
- [10:00]
A
Right.
- [10:01]
B
Does that turn into a different play? Does that change the whole outlook of this game? What I like, though, is just the. The way that Chris Olave is getting targeted, the calculated chances that Shuck is taking here, and his ability to extend plays. The Saints offense just feels like it has some more life in there.
- [10:16]
A
And we both have Juwan Johnson as a riser. I think the, the major takeaway there is that he's going to be the number two option now with Rashid Shahid out of the picture. So that's it. I mean, season high in yardage this week. So a guy who had started to kind of fall by the wayside had this like little mid season slump. I think now with Shahid gone, with shuck out there, we can look at Juwan Johnson, you know, back in that low end, tight end one, high end, tight end two discussion Guy who's a.
- [10:40]
B
Follower for me from this one is Chuba Hubbard. And just Panthers offense just looks really anemic. But to then not have even a role in an anemic offense is just, it's just rough for me. Like it's. It's the biggest crime you can have as a fantasy football. I don't want to say asset, but as a player within fantasy football is just to be forgettable and to not be a part of anything. And that's kind of where Chuba Hubbard is at this point. Man, I know you've got Rico Dowdle as a follower for you. Why? I know why I have Chuba. Why do you have Rico as a follower in this one?
- [11:14]
A
You know, and not a huge faller? It was tough to find a faller in this matchup. I don't think like anybody had like bad, bad games, but Rico Dodle, I mean, maybe I'd gotten a little bit over my skis, but I was kind of looking at him as like that fringe RB1, RB2 area. And I don't know if I'm there anymore. You know, I just kind of took a step back and looked at his entire season this year and like, what he's done has been amazing, no doubt, but huge game against Miami, huge game against Dallas. Those are like the two worst run defenses in the league. And he's smashing those opportunities, which he should. And he still got the touchdown this week, but this was the first game where we've seen the volume there, but the efficiency wasn't, you know, less than three yards per carry. He was able to kind of mask his day with a touchdown score, which is great, but, you know, again, not panicking by any means, but looking at him as more of like a middling RB2 than the guy who was like starting to creep up into that RB1 conversation.
- [12:03]
B
All right, Bears defeat the Giants. Can we please just protect Jackson dart at all costs? Brian Dabel, could you please just stop slamming him into walls. Over and over and over.
- [12:16]
A
He's leading the league in design runs, and he's only started half the season.
- [12:21]
B
You saw the media, asked Brian Dabel about it, and he's like, yeah, we got to figure out a way to protect him. How about just not having so many design runs? Dude?
- [12:29]
A
Yeah, I will say he's pretty great runner. Like, he is really good runner. And we talked about that. Like, he ran a bunch at Ole Miss, and that's where we were hoping this fantasy value would come from. But the crazy thing is we were saying, like, he'll be throwing the ball to Malik Neighbors, and then we get, like, a little bit of rushing on top of that. Now Malik Neighbors is out of the picture and he's just running all over the place. Like, gets knocked out in the third quarter and still gives you almost 30 fantasy points this week. So, like, he has been a cheat code when he is out there. But, yeah, it just doesn't seem sustainable with, you know, him getting evaluated for concussion for the fourth time this year.
- [13:01]
B
No. I posted a video of Fran Tarkenton just running around and was just like, I love watching Jackson dart play. That's just how it feels. Like every play is just. There's a Benny Hill music in the background just the whole way through.
- [13:13]
A
He's fun. Yeah.
- [13:15]
B
I'll say this, but, Dave, I'm gonna give you your flowers, man. You mentioned that DeAndre Swift would retain a heavy role in the rushing attack, and he did in this. Now, that's not to say that Kyle Menungai wasn't or that he wasn't valuable for fantasy. He does punch in a touchdown, but DeAndre Swift was the clear RB one in this, and it was not, you know, the 50, 50 or the 55, 45 split. Like, this was heavily in favor of DeAndre Swift in this game. So that's. I mean, that's something absolutely to take note of going forward. And then Luther Burton is a guy that. I noticed the, The. The. The involvement was up for him in a lot as Kia had some. Some nasty drops in this game. Three drops, dude.
- [13:52]
A
And that was like, he had two the week before. And like, his drops always seem to come at the worst time. Like, they had that where, like, they could have put it away early if he just caught the first down and he dropped that. Like, it's. It's kind of weird because, like, drops have never been an issue with him. But it has been terrible this year. Like, I don't have the number off the top of my head, but he's got to be at like eight or nine drops on the year.
- [14:11]
B
It's, I mean it's, it's rough right now. It's rough. I was no, I saw the quarterback rating for Caleb Williams when Targeting Alameda Zakias vs targeting Luther Burden and it's like a difference of like 60 percentage points. It's just absolutely insane. Dave, let's go into your risers from this game. Bears versus Giants.
- [14:32]
A
Darius Slayton heavily involved. Looked, I think he left early with an injury but like when he's out there like he is the, the big play threat, like he is playing in the Malik Neighbors role. Obviously nowhere close to the talent level of Malik Neighbors, but you know what I'm saying? And then rises and fallers are correlated. Devin Singletary just getting way more work than we want to see. Tyrone Tracy not getting the work that we want to see. This is going to be a frustra getting split. And Tyrone Tracy, we see like he can pop off those big plays every now and then, but Devin Singletary also getting involved in the passing game ripping off big plays himself as well. I think this is going to be a really frustrating like 60, 40 split going forward. So the hopes that Tyrone Tracy would kind of turn in that RB2 production we saw last year, I'm still holding on to hope that he can pull away a little bit, but I think there's just going to be an annoying amount of Devon Singletary for the rest of the year.
- [15:21]
B
Yeah, that's the thing because if you look at it, Tyrone Tracy, he did have the much bigger workload. Like there definitely seemed to be a preference of wanting to get Tyrone Tracy involved in this game. And Devin Singletary, it's not that he's taking over, it's that he's just annoying enough that you just alter your expectations for, for Tyrone Tracy.
- [15:38]
A
He also does a lot of like the 2 minute work too because he's a better pass blocker. So that ends up, you know, he gets passing down work as well. And that's why we saw like he had that huge catch and run where like I saw Devin Singletary make that play where he picked up like 30 something yards and I'm like Tyrone Tracy's housing that if that's him on the field. But Tyrone Tracy isn't a good pass blocker. So Devin Singletary gets those looks instead.
- [15:58]
B
And by the way, I'll add in here the, just to go back to the Luther Burden thing, he did see an increased percentage of snaps. A lot of that is DJ Moore coming off the field with with a shoulder injury. So that's going to be something to monitor as we go forward. Does that role turn into something more for burden? He'll probably be a speculative ad if he's out there and wafer wires. All right, Dave, let's go to the Texans defeating the Jaguars. This is a wild game. I don't know if you caught the very last play this. You get a fat guy touchdown, you get the Texans coming back. It's hard not to look at this and say that a bunch of Texans players are risers in this game. As well as Parker Washington. Right now I've got Woody Marks, Nico Collins and Parker Washington as my risers from this. Parker Washington seemed like the greatest football player on planet Earth this past weekend, not just the Jaguars. So that was nice to see. Woody Marks does appear though that he has taken control of this backfield over in Houston.
- [16:54]
A
Yeah. And, and we've been saying it for what, a month and a half now. Like I remember when he had his big Blake break blow up game, we were saying like drop all of your fab. And then he came out the next week in a 5050 split with Nick Chubb. But you know, frustrating path to get there. But it clearly just, you know, we keep saying he has more juice than Nick Chubb. I don't know how else to put it. Like there, there isn't a single thing out there right now that tells me Nick Chubb is a better running back at this point in his career than Woody Marks is. They need to keep giving him the work and, and he was my primary ris, as was Parker Washington. You know, there was, I think we had similar takeaways from this game.
- [17:29]
B
Yeah. I mean some of these are just always going to be pretty straightforward. Right. Looking at these, seeing, seeing Nico Collins be able to produce with Davis Mills. Nice. You know, there was some worries early in the game. They come back and they're able to keep it competitive. But the Woody Marks thing is like I don't think we can overstate it enough. This wasn't like he got lucky on a touchdown or he got some more, you know, passing usage and it was a PPR scam of sorts of this was. He was genuinely out there for more plays. He played over 80% of the offensive snaps. That is something you absolutely have to take note of going forward. This is, this is about that time of year where rookies just take over the roles for fantasy football.
- [18:06]
A
Yeah. And we will talk about the Patriots game in a little bit. Can't Wait for that one.
- [18:09]
B
Oh, daddy. Oh, daddy. All right, let's move on. Dolphins defeat the Bills because, yeah, of course they do. Because of course. I told you. I told you. It's so weird. The Dolphins will beat the Patriots nine out of 10 times, and then the Patriots will win a Super bowl and then they'll struggle. The Bills struggle against the Dolphins in Miami. It makes no sense, man.
- [18:33]
A
It makes no sense. But, yeah, this is a. Yeah, just. Just a weird week. This whole week was weird. We saw like some weird upsets. We also saw like the entire afternoon slate was just like three blowouts like that. There's no real actionable stuff to take away. The Thursday night game sucked. It was just. It was a weird week of football.
- [18:49]
B
Yeah, it was a gross one.
- [18:50]
A
This game or score of this week? I don't know if you saw like, just weird, weird, weird week.
- [18:57]
B
Yeah. I mean, weird is the understatement right now at. The Dolphins do defeat the Bills. If I had. The thing is, I don't really have risers from this game. I felt like I had to pick some, right? Like Khalil Shakir is just still doing his thing. If I was like, gun to my head, I'm being forced to pick a riser from this. I ended up picking Greg Dulcich because I'm like, okay, he's the starting tight end for Miami for whatever that's worth, and that doesn't really matter. For fantasy. Can we talk about Keon Coleman? Because you and I both texted each other about this and I know there's going to be much made ado about Keon Coleman and the scoring play that he gets here. Let's just add the context because I love that our show, we like to do this. Let's add the context. Keon Coleman was absolutely blanketed all game by juju Brentz, cornerback for the Miami Dolphins who they traded for mid season. And then on one of the plays where juju Brentz is out and Keon Coleman is being covered by. I don't even remember the name, one of our fourth string corners, he comes down with a contested catch, scores a touchdown, and that is a big game saver for him. We've. We've seen this even throughout the year.
- [20:03]
A
He still put up 13 PPR points. Like this is the breakout game we've been waiting for and he's like a back end wide receiver.
- [20:10]
B
Yeah, no, it's just. It's the one play against a guy who I do genuinely believe on most teams probably wouldn't make the roster. So Please just keep that context. If Keon Coleman is out there on your waiver wire, don't go breaking the bank for him. This is the other thing, too. Like, even the announcers were talking about this. Josh Allen has to run so much just to find a player that is open. And Dalton Kincaid having to leave the game with injury as well, his hamstring. I. I don't see this as a positive for Keon Coleman being a guy who's going to jump into some bigger role. I just see this as a negative overall for the Bills offense.
- [20:45]
A
Yeah, I mean, they just spread the ball so thin. Like there's going to be Elijah Moore and Curtis Samuel and everybody getting theirs and. And Jackson Hawes and whoever else. Like Kuil Shkir is the one guy that you feel good putting in your lineup. Dalton Schultz, or, I'm sorry, Dalton Kincaid, if he's got a clean bill of health, you feel good putting him in there. And outside of those two, you know, it's James Cook, obviously, and Josh Allen, and, you know, they're just kind of rotating everybody else, and you never know where the ball's going in.
- [21:11]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's what the Bills have. Have really become. I'm so upset they didn't try to get a pass catcher at the trade deadline, or allegedly they did. It was brought up so much during the game at. The Bills tried to trade a 2027 first for Jaylen Waddle, but the Dolphins wanted a 2026.
- [21:26]
A
And they're also in the running for Rashid Shahid, apparently, and Rashid Shahid wanted to go to Seattle. So. Yeah, like, they were so close and it just didn't work out for him.
- [21:35]
B
And there were a lot of guys like Myers, Rashid Shahid, like, they were. They were just dudes that were available.
- [21:39]
A
Right. I will say Jalen Wright, I think, is worth just mentioning Ali Gordon not getting the touches in this game, and Jalen Wright did.
- [21:48]
B
So, like, Ollie Gordon is coming off injury. He didn't practice much throughout the week, so that'll. That'll be the thing to monitor. Like, was it the ankle or is it sort of a change in. In strategy here? Because Ollie Gordon hasn't done anything to be wrenched, per se.
- [22:02]
A
Right. But Jalen Wright goes from being like, a healthy scratch for the majority of the year to getting touches on the field. So, like, that moves him from like RB100 to like RB70, which is a pretty big rising. I mean, like, still probably off the fantasy radar in most leagues, but, like, in your deep dynasty leagues or you're like 20 bench spot leagues. Like, if Jalen Wright's out there is at least worth a pickup where he was just like, completely off the radar prior to this game.
- [22:25]
B
Let's go to the next one on here. Ravens defeat the Vikings. Well, I still. I still don't think we know what the Vikings offense is or this Vikings team as a whole. Defense is good some weeks, then they're bad other weeks. And even within this game, it was like a tale of two halves for the Vikings defense as well. Really strong to start and sort of collapse as the game went on. J.J. mcCarthy just sort of. I want to be careful how I say this. He just looks a little irresponsible right now when he's playing quarterback. He just seems to be ready to throw up anything at any time. And I get that. I know you want your quarterbacks to have confidence.
- [23:03]
A
Play of the game.
- [23:04]
B
I think you're probably going to talk about interception with. With Justin Jefferson.
- [23:06]
A
He's just like, where he launches the ball and it's just like, oh, yes. And then the camera pans and it's just like, oh, that's 20 yards short and there are two defenders right there. Like, like, as the camera pants. Like, like, I went from like, yes. To like, what are you doing? Just as the camera moved to where that ball was going.
- [23:22]
B
Yeah. And it was Justin Jefferson, like, didn't even try to make the tackle. I think it might have been on a different play and people are getting up in arms. Why is he going after the same dude? Because he's just trying to keep. Keep the defender for running, like, running back into the middle of the field. He's not trying to go out there and make the tackle.
- [23:38]
A
It was funny. He just stood there, like, arms at his side, just like, watching it, like, well, that happened.
- [23:43]
B
What else can you do? What else can you do, man, in this game? We've talked about him for a few weeks now. He was a trade target of ours a few weeks ago. He was a sleeper on our show this past week. But Aaron Jones, and he's a continued riser here for this Vikings offense, Dave and I think he's got a clear stranglehold on this backfield.
- [24:02]
A
Yeah, not even close. Like, he is so much better than Jordan Mason. It's injuries have been the only thing that have really stopped him over the last few years. But, like, he looks just as good now as he did at, like, 24 years old. Like, he still has juice and burst and tackle breaking ability, contact, balance. Like, all the things we loved about Aaron Jones are still there. Like he's just the ageless wonder at this point. Like I'm not going to bet against Aaron Jones. He looks great also, again, like a great trade candidate. Because I think a lot of people think that this is just an apparition, that he's going to turn into a pumpkin, that he's old, whatever it may be. You can get Aaron Jones and trades for so cheap right now. And I think as long as he's healthy, he's just a plug and play. RP2.
- [24:39]
B
Yeah, I mean seeing Aaron Jones 14 opportunities in this game to Jordan Mason's five. And that's the thing is that if the Vikings are not going to be leading these games, they're not going to be able to control the clock with Jordan Mason. And even then there's no guarantee that they're using Jordan Mason for that role. Aaron Jones has just been a more efficient runner. So whether it's a game they're leading, a game that they're trailing, Aaron Jones seems like he's going to be the guy. And I think with the irresponsibility word that I'm throwing around here with JJ McCarthy, you lean a bit more on the easy targets to Aaron Jones. You lean more on a veteran like that as you're trying to be competitive.
- [25:13]
A
Absolutely.
- [25:15]
B
Okay, so followers that we have from this game, the exact same for us. TJ Hawkinson, Jordan Mason usage just isn't there for Mason. He hasn't looked good. TJ Hawkinson. Dave, you've been saying this for. Seems like you've been screaming it from the mountaintops for the past like five weeks. TJ Hawkinson is just not a starting fantasy tight end. He's not even a rosterable fantasy tight end.
- [25:36]
A
Yeah, I mean it's just like, like he's like a husk of the player that he used to be. Like he just is slow, he's clunky. There is no after the catch ability. And I wonder too because JJ McCarthy is just a more mobile quarterback. I think he had 12 rushing attempts in this game. Like what you'll see is like TJ Hawkins and so much of his value came because there was an old Kirk Cousins running the offense and he would just check down to TJ Hawkinson and Hawkinson would just gobble up these like low efficiency targets and he'd leave every game with like eight catches. Now instead of getting those little dink and dunk catches at the line of scrimmage, JJ McCarthy is more content to just take off and run with the ball. So, yeah, Hawkinson talked about him as a sabotage drop. I mean, two catches for eight yards. Like, there's no reason to roster DJ Hawkinson at this point.
- [26:21]
B
All right, let's go. Next game on here. Jets defeat the Browns. I guess in. In a football game that happened, Breeze hall is a riser for both of us. And I think a lot of this is just down to circumstance that he's really the only offensive player left for this jets team. And simultaneously, Isaiah Davis is a follower for me because Breece hall just has a stranglehold on this backfield. This is not something where we're getting more Isaiah Davis, we actually got less of him. Breeze hall, it's not like he got a ton of targets, but he did make that one reception count for a touchdown. I don't know if you saw this. Did you see Ian Hartitz? He posted the video of Justin Fields making the pass. Like, look at. People say Justin Fields can't pass behind the line of scrimmage. Pass to breach. It's just great, man.
- [27:10]
A
Special man. And I. I think we both were kind of on, like, quit watch because of, you know, the. All the stuff that transpired at the trade deadline. It didn't matter. Pretty tall.
- [27:19]
B
He.
- [27:19]
A
He's. He's a professional. He came out there, gave it his best effort, looked awesome. There was no quitting. There was no faking injuries or anything like that. Like, he just came out there and looked like the superstar running back that.
- [27:29]
B
He is from the same game. Garrett Wilson is a guy that you and I obviously were both. We have him falling here. A lot of it is just. It's the injury, right? It's the injury. It's the same knee that he was.
- [27:40]
A
Already having pass attempts.
- [27:43]
B
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is, like, if he was healthy, I still wouldn't be super excited. Right? Like, even if he was the top target here, Woody Johnson, man, we may not like him, but he. He wasn't wrong technically about the quarterback situation there. New York Dave, kind of.
- [28:01]
A
Yeah. And it's something I've talked about. Justin Fields, like, it is ridiculous. When you look at his fantasy production, it is directly correlated to the opponent's EPA per play on defense. Like, when he gets to face off against a bad defense, you're getting 30, 35 points. When he faces off against a good defense, you're hoping that he can put up five points. And, you know, going up against Cleveland, Cleveland has a good defense. Justin Field stunk this week. So, I mean, I really think it's as simple as just like you want to keep him rostered and when he has good upcoming matchups, you feel okay about putting him in your lineup. But when you look at his remaining schedule, New England next week is tough. Baltimore the week after is tough. Atlanta is tough. He's got Miami, which is a good matchup. He's got the Saints in Week 16 is good matchup. But between now and the end of the fantasy football season, I think there's only two games that like you'd really feel good streaming Justin Fields. So if you are rostering Justin Fields, I think it is imperative that you get another quarterback that you can use to get you through those matchups where he has tough defenses.
- [29:00]
B
Dave, you've got Jerry Judy as a riser from this game and.
- [29:04]
A
Sure.
- [29:04]
B
How. Yeah, right. That's what I wanted to get at.
- [29:07]
A
Okay, that's it.
- [29:09]
B
That's it. He caught a touchdown. He caught it. It's been the same story throughout the year. It's what was 12 targets on this game. This has been, you know, it's sort of, I guess the law of averages. Eventually we're going to get a touchdown here. We get that regression to the mean.
- [29:21]
A
But yeah, I'm not season high reception, season high in receiving yards. Cut his first touchdown of the week. I'm sure he'll come crashing back down to earth next week and have 15 targets for two catches and 11 yards. But yeah, you know, he's a riser. He caught a touchdown. Good for him.
- [29:36]
B
Dylan Gabriel actually has a two touchdown game here. But I do want to ask the question, do we see Shadir Sanders at some point this season or is this. It almost feels like a statement that they're making at this point that they are just not going to play him because Dylan Gabriel's had some stinkers and there hasn't even been talk of, of some sort of quarterback controversy.
- [29:58]
A
Yeah, and, and we did get a couple of weeks ago. I forget who it was. There was somebody on the Browns beat saying that we'll probably see Shador by the end of the year. But like that's just because it's a lost season and they're going to extend. Like we might see desean Watson by the end of this year too. Like, no, that's an actual report coming out of Cleveland. Like we might see both of these guys playing at some point. Like Dylan Gabriel is clearly not the long term answer here.
- [30:24]
B
Yeah, sorry, Cleveland fans, it's a little depressing that, that must have been a depressing game to be at. Browns jets can't imagine there's a lot of fun in that one. No, let's go to the next one.
- [30:35]
A
It wasn't a fun one to watch either.
- [30:36]
B
No, let's go to the next one on here. Patriots defeat the Bucks. This was a wild game. Just back and forth, especially at the end there. We get some big plays from Trevon Henderson which starting to see sort of a. There's like a Ken Walker ness to him where it's either he's gaining nothing or he's going for 70 yards. And I know that's not the tough part with a player like this is that if he, if he's not going to get the touches, he's not going to get into rhythm and be able to have those big plays happen. So if he's getting nine touches in a game, you're probably not getting these big blow up plays. So Dave, the question is, is he, has he earned more touches in this offense even when Ramandre Stevenson comes back?
- [31:23]
A
Yeah, probably. But this is still a Mike frable and Josh McDaniels offense and like I, I do think that we're going to see more opportunities going further. You know, I was writing about Trayvon Henderson last night and this was kind of mind blowing to me but. 55 yard touchdown and a 69 yard touchdown. Ramadre Stevenson has had over 700 carries throughout his NFL career and has never popped a run for more than 55 yards. Trivia. Henderson did that twice yesterday. Like he just has juice that nobody else on this team has. But again there's so many offenses where we talk about similar things like Bijan Robinson and Tyler Algier, Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet. Now we've got Trayvon Henderson and Ramadre Stevenson and there is a symbiotic relationship there where they make each other better. And I think that having a guy like Ramadre Stevenson to just bang between the tackles where defense is down, there is a role for that. But it is really good to see that like if like Stevenson isn't out there, Henderson can handle full workload and look awesome. And you saw like when he broke through on that one like you know, between the tackles, as soon as he saw that green in front of him, he took off like he kicked it into third gear and like just left a trail of smoke behind him because you knew he wanted to get that one. And then the second one, you know, seemed a little bit easier than the first touchdown. But good to see him finally getting in that rhythm and putting up some fantasy production.
- [32:38]
B
Did you see Trevian Henderson not trying to get in trouble as he was running that last touchdown, he was looking to sign like it is okay for me to score. Can I do it? That's.
- [32:46]
A
And I think stuff like that goes a long way with the coaches too. I think 100%.
- [32:50]
B
100%, I was going to say. That's. I think that's a big deal. You and I have a couple of rookie wide receivers on here also as risers. I have Kyle Williams, you have Tez Johnson, Tess Johnson gets himself a touchdown. He's got what seems to be a solidified role in this offense even going forward. I'd say Kyle Williams gets himself two touchdowns.
- [33:11]
A
Two touchdowns.
- [33:12]
B
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I remember seeing the one. But yeah, I mean Tess Johnson, he's got himself a big role in here and Kyle Williams is the other guy that I liked from this. And I know it's easy just to say the one catch for the touchdown, 72 yard touchdown is just going to be a little bit of box score scouting here. But it's the fact that we've got him on the field and a, an actual role in here where he is getting snaps, he is getting targets. It's hard and I hate to do this to everybody ride the fence here. It's hard to say that he will actually take snaps away from Mack Hollins because what, his dad may never die. Mack Hollins cannot be defeated in terms of, you know, a Mike Vrabel offense here, they love him. But if we do get a few more plays from Kyle Williams here, this is a fun guy to keep track of who could be making some big plays. I mean, the rookies are here, man. The rookies are here and they're making big plays.
- [34:02]
A
Yeah. And I don't know how many times over the, the almost 300 episodes now you and I have done together, we've talked about exercising patience with rookies and still every year it's the same exact thing. People draft rookies and by week three, there's all this hand wringing like, I can't believe I drafted this rookie. He sucks. What? Why did you guys talk me into this? And then it's like clock 10 rolls around, dude, it is the same thing every single year. And here we are, week 10, all of these rookies are starting to pop. Now this, this is why you drafted.
- [34:30]
B
Breaking news as we're recording Brian Dabel out as Giants head coach.
- [34:35]
A
Figured that was coming. Yeah. Talked to my friend Stephanie Smalls about that this morning and she said she thought it was Coming as well. Yep.
- [34:43]
B
So let's break that down real quick here. If Brian Dabel is out as Giants head coach, how much do you think this ends up changing the way that Jackson Dart is being used? We're not probably not going to see as many designed runs here. That's got to be something where ownership is looking at this and saying, can we please protect our most valuable asset on. On the field right now, our most valuable player? Can we please protect him?
- [35:08]
A
Sure. Yeah. And I think that that is a thing, but I think it's also in Dart's nature to want to scramble with the ball like he's just a natural runner. So I think we'll see a lot of that. We'll probably still see a lot of the design runs near the goal line as well. But I think what also gets lost yesterday is that like before he left the game with an injury, he was pacing for like 400 passing yards, like he was dicing it up through the air as well. And we've seen that, like, you know, the passing playbook opens up for him every single week. Like very short leash in week one, not week one, but in his first start. And then he just kind of slowly lengthened that leash a little bit. And what we saw before the injury was that he was just hitting every level of field, inside numbers, outside the numbers. Like, he is starting to develop into a good passer too. So I'm still looking at Jackson Dart as a plug and play QB1 when he is healthy. I think the, the big note here, which kind of we're gonna backtrack on some of the stuff that we talked about a little bit earlier. I think so much of the Devin Singletary that we see is because of the connection Devin Singletary and Brian Dable have had together. Brian Dable was a part of the organization that drafted Devin Singletary, what, seven or eight years ago in Buffalo, and they have had a lot of seasons together. I wonder now with Dable out of the picture, if they just say, like, what are we doing messing around with Devin Singletary? Let's get Tyrone Tracy out there more. So. So I'm gonna pump the brakes a little bit on my Tyrone Tracy being a faller now. Maybe this is just me, you know, breathing that copium, but hopefully Tyrone Tracy can look a little bit better now.
- [36:29]
B
Yeah, I think let's all just pump the brakes a little bit with the Giants. Let's see what's, what's going to be happen next week. I think if you started Giants players this past week, you can start those same players going forward, right. As long as they are healthy, they are active, keep, keep doing the same thing. And let's get a sample size under our belt here. All right, let's go back into. We're finishing up here. This Patriots Bucks game. This one, this one was a wild one, but it almost seems like the only guy who didn't have himself a good offensive game, Rashad White. Who it. The role has been slowly getting smaller. The efficiency has not been as good. Sean Tucker looked good in his, in his role, and it's essentially in a 50, 50 split at this point.
- [37:09]
A
Yeah. And not only that, but we also had Bucky Irving. You know, still not getting like the best news about Bucky Irving, but he'll probably be back within the next couple of weeks. I mean, needs to return to practice first before we can get too excited about that. But yeah, I mean, like, it does feel like Rashad White has always been on borrowed time and now splitting touches with Sean Tucker. Yeah, he's. He's an obvious faller here.
- [37:33]
B
I mean, it's, it's 11 opportunities to 15 opportunities for Rashad White, who had a much bigger snapshare. But the opportunities are just almost getting to an even share here where Tucker's just a close. What?
- [37:44]
A
He's getting close game too. Like, it's not like this was just like garbage time. Tucker coming in like it was a one score game and they were leaning on Tucker in the third.
- [37:52]
B
Let's go to the next one on here. Seahawks defeat the Cardinals and the Seahawks are just making a habit of getting up by a couple touchdowns early and then throwing whatever game script they had out the window. Dave, this would just. This is a weird game. This is. I didn't, I didn't even have a faller. I didn't want to put a riser. I didn't want to put anything from this because this was just such a weird game.
- [38:13]
A
Yeah, I mean, I made my followers Sam Darnold just because anytime you see a guy who can like put a game away with 12 passing attempts, that's. That, you know, that's a pretty shaky floor there.
- [38:23]
B
I mean, it was a weird one because this is something. I don't think we can expect this going forward. It's not like they were scoring early on offense. They had the two DeMarcus Lawrence returns for a touchdown on strip sacks. Like it. It's so weird. I don't think. I don't. I personally don't know that I could take anything away from this one.
- [38:42]
A
Yeah. And, and I feel like that's kind of what we could say about like, I hate to say it because, you know, keep watching viewers. We need you to watch this video so, you know, we can make our boss happy. But like, I don't know if there's a lot of take away from any of these afternoon games. Like they were all blowouts.
- [38:56]
B
Yeah, yeah. There's one game, you know, the Lions commanders game. I think there's going to be.
- [39:02]
A
Yes, yes, yes.
- [39:03]
B
Something in there. There's something in there. But yeah, this Cardinals game is weird. I put Rashid Shahid as like my de facto riser because I was happy with the amount of snaps he got early in his tenure. Now with the Seahawks he was able to get some sort of, you know, room out there to do things, but it wasn't the immediate starter role that we kind of thought. Dave, I don't know how much of that is just like, hey, we're up. We don't really need to go out there and use him. Like we, like we maybe want to. But going into future games, I like what we're seeing there.
- [39:35]
A
Yeah. I don't know. I don't have any stress about Shahid long term. I mean like, yeah, you know, Tori Horton was out of this game. They were able to get him a couple of manufactured touches, but I think we're just going to see that role continue to grow. My guess, and I don't know if you're here, Alfredo, but like my guess would be that from next week through the end of the season, I think Rashid Jiheet probably outscores and out snaps. Cooper Cup, I think that he is just going to take over as that number two guy. They gave a fourth and a fifth round pick. That's a lot of draft capital. Like this wasn't like a day three pick swap here. Like they gave up like two picks that you're drafting players that you hope can be of value to your team. Clint Kubiak obviously knows who Rashid Shahid is. I think Shahid, like if anybody sees this usage from week one and not week one, but first game with Seattle and is a little bit disappointed by it and like, you know this guy. 12 targets with the saints and now he's got two targets here. I, I definitely go out and see if you can trade for Shichi Chi before the deadline 100.
- [40:26]
B
I mean, what can you take from a game where Cody White led the receivers and snaps. Okay, that's fun. Cooper cup, two targets. He still doesn't look great. I know he had his big play, but just. Yeah, Rashid Shahid, man, I'm. I'm all in on that. Let's go to the next one on here. Rams beat the 49ers.
- [40:48]
A
Real quick. I want to talk about the Seattle backfield really quickly. We don't have to spend a ton of time here, but there's been so much talk about how, you know, Zach Charbonnet is just this inefficient plotter. He's had more yards per touch than Kenneth Walker in every game since week seven. Like, this is. Zach Sharpening has been playing good football. And I know, like, a lot of people, like, there was that prime time game where he averaged, what, like 1.8 yards per carry and got the touchdowns. And everyone kind of looks at Charbonnet as just like this, like, frustrating vulture. But. But he's been playing really good football. I mean, I've got it now in my rest of season rankings. I made the flip. I've got Chardonnay. I had a Kenneth Walker.
- [41:22]
B
In a week or two. It's probably going to be a different backfield again anyways. Like, this is what they do. Like, yes. The reason Zach Charbonnet was being told that he being called inefficient is because he was. And then now, yeah, we've got three weeks of him playing better. Sure. And then we're gonna get three weeks of Ken Walker playing better. Like, to me, they're a wash. Like, they just. They are a wash at this point. I know it's not necessarily helpful for fantasy, but this is not a helpful backfield for fantasy. These are guys that you're just going to end up starting as running back twos, low end running back twos, hoping they fall into the end zone. Zach Sharpening is getting more of that opportunity. So I just think that's where it is. Like, it's tough because you can't even evaluate it and say it's a talent thing or a usage thing. They're getting almost identical usage. It's just. It's just an annoying thing at this point.
- [42:04]
A
They're just completely different types of receivers. It would be like trying to, like, you know, just runners. I can't think of an example, but, like, they're just different types of running backs. Like, you've got one who is, like a big, physical, bruising back, and then you've got one who's like a small, shifty guy. Like, very complimentary skill sets, and that's why they're both involved. But I just want to put to rest this Zach Charbonnet is this inefficient plotter narrative because he had a couple of bad games. It happens to the best of us. But, like, you know, Zach Charbonnet has looked really, really good over the last month.
- [42:33]
B
I don't think there's a narrative, Dave.
- [42:35]
A
I will always keep up for Zach.
- [42:37]
B
I know you will. That's why the second you're like, wait a second, I want to talk about.
- [42:40]
A
This backfield, you know where I was going.
- [42:42]
B
Yeah, I know, man. I know. Like, I think we could just call a spade a spade. Like, he was bad. He was called bad. He's been good. We can call him good.
- [42:50]
A
That.
- [42:50]
B
That's just what it is. Let's go to the next one on here. Rams defeat the 49ers. I think we've had, like, the same risers from the 49ers for the last few weeks and the same shocker.
- [43:03]
A
The guys who are injured that are getting healthier and healthier every single week are rising. That's. That's the way it goes.
- [43:08]
B
George Kittle. George Kittle looks big game. Yep, yep. That touchdown on the sideline, just phenomenal. Great effort from him. Fantasy managers absolutely loved that. But for me, it's the eight targets. It's actually being just a monumental part of the passing game. Juwan Jennings continues to be a big part of the passing game, and it just doesn't seem like we're getting Ricky Pierce or Brandon Iuk back at any point soon. It just. The reports keep coming up, but then it's always a, nope, didn't practice, so. So yeah, these two guys continue to be leading the charge for the Niners passing attack.
- [43:41]
A
Did you hear Kittle's post game press conference where they, like, asked him, like, did you have any, like, concerns about. And I'm Butcher the quote. I don't remember exactly, but he basically insinuated that, like, yeah, I thought Mac Jones kind of stunk, but he's been out here playing really good football. I thought that was pretty funny. But yeah, man, Kittle coming back here, like, catching nine of nine targets. You talk about, like, the, the touchdown on the sidelines, but then he also had another play where it was just like a very routine catch and run. You know, it was like a play, action play. George Kittle catches the ball, and as soon as he caught the ball, like, you know, that acceleration hit, and I was like, there it is. Like, that's the George Kittle that I haven't seen since week one. So, you know, we, we kind of scoffed it like when he came out and he's like, oh, yeah, like, I. I fully tore my quadricep. We're like, there's no chance you're fully tearing your quadricep and coming back. But I'm starting to believe it now because, like, it took two and a half months for him to come back and now he looks like the George Kittle of old.
- [44:34]
B
One thing I want to talk about here, we talked about the Seahawks backfield. I want to talk about this Rams backfield because, Dave, am I going crazy? It feels like you and I are the only ones that are noticing this. Maybe there's other people that are, that are talking about it as well. It seems like so much is being made of the Kyron Williams snapshare going down without the context of the fact that the Rams are getting ahead early in games and then they're just letting Blake Corum come in and run while they're ahead. Kyron's still been incredibly productive. He's getting the early work and then as the game goes on, they're like, all right, let's bring in Blake Corm and let him do his thing.
- [45:05]
A
Yeah, I mean, I haven't moved Kyron Williams in my rest of season rankings in like the last five weeks because we know exactly who he is. Like, I've got him as my RB10 in rest of season rankings. It's exactly what he is. He's a back end, RB1. You can't put him up there in the Jonathan Daler, Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Tier. But when you compare him to Derrick Henry, Breeze Hall, Ashton, Jinty, Chase Brown, DeAndre Swift, Jalen Warren. Yeah, I would like, clearly prefer Kyron ahead of all of those guys. And the other big thing is like Corum, I think he has one touchdown in the year, but like, once they get inside the red zone, that's when we see Kyron Williams come in. So, yeah, I mean, this is just. There's going to be a dose of Blake Corum, but what we've also seen is that like in these last few weeks where Blake Corum has been a little bit more involved, we've seen better efficiency from Kyron Williams. So it just naturally kind of offsets itself. Whether he's getting 100 of the touches or 70% of the touches, his value and his production on a weekly basis is just so consistent.
- [46:01]
B
Six touchdowns over the last five games for Kyron Williams. I mean, it's just, it's. I actually wanted to see, as I was looking at it now, Kyron Williams since week five where he ranks amongst fantasy running backs. Dave. Because I have to imagine he's got to be. Let me see, I'm looking at it right now.
- [46:17]
A
Yeah, he's running back six, rb, six or so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [46:21]
B
PPR Stafford's playing like the best football.
- [46:24]
A
Of his career right now. It's unbelievable. Three straight games with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He's got a 16. 0 touchdown to intercept reception ratio over the last few weeks. Like, he has just been playing out of his mind. So, yeah, give me the lead back on one of the league's best offenses. Like, we don't need to like over complicate this. Like, this guy's getting a lot of touches on a really good offense and guess what? He's given us a lot of fantasy production. Who defunk it?
- [46:47]
B
It's the same thing that people were doing before the season was just over. Complicating the Kyron Williams situation where it's, well, they drafted Jarquez Hunter. You can tell they really want to make this a split backfield. Okay, look at where we are now in week 10.
- [47:01]
A
And I'm glad I will be the first to admit, like anybody who's been watching this show for years. When Kyron Williams first broke out, I was so quick to point at the rushing yards over expectation and the EPA and all these sorts of things. And I finally just made that switch this offseason where I'm like, none of that matters. It is his versatility. He can be between the tackles outside. He can pass block, he could pass catch, short yardage, breakaway runs. He can do all of it a little bit better than average and that like when you can do everything slightly better than average, that is more valuable than an to an NFL coach, than somebody who's really bad at one thing and really good at another thing. You want that guy that you can just keep out there all the time and he can be reliable regardless of the down and distance. That's what Kyron is like. He is just the engine that powers this Rams offense.
- [47:46]
B
Go to the next game on here. Lions defeat the Commanders.
- [47:49]
A
Ooh, baby.
- [47:51]
B
Jameson Williams. Man, Jameson Williams is back. And I want to believe a lot of that has to do with Dan Campbell taking over play calling in this game. Who he said he didn't want to make a big deal about it, but broadcasters made a big deal about it and the camera would pan over to him a lot and Jameson Williams, Dave, looking at it now. Six catches, 119 yards and a touchdown. And you posted the picture of him where it's like not a lot of people score on a play like this. Jameson Williams does. He's just a talented player. Man, get him the ball. It's not that hard.
- [48:25]
A
And we saw it last week too. Like he had that unbelievable like tightroping down the sidelines, stretching out for the pylon. Like Jameson Williams, man, caught 10 of 17 targets for 185 yards and two touchdowns over the last two weeks. Last year Jameson Williams got off to a slow start and then you know what he did over the second half of the season. He gave you a wide receiver, one production and it feels like we're heading there now. The Lions have one outdoor game between now and the rest of the season. They're going to be playing indoors on fast turfs. That's where we see Jameson Williams really start to pop off. Dan Campbell knows the importance of getting Jameson Williams involved because when he's involved, then it opens up everything else. Like Jameer Gibbs, talented player. He's going to be good regardless of his opportunities or where he's playing. But when you've got the threat of Jameson Williams deep, then James Jameer Gibbs gets to see lighter boxes and he has one of his best games of the season as well. So I think like this really is and, and I know like this might be us double counting or trying to reaffirm our priors, whatever you want to call it. But like we were very in on Jameson Williams this preseason and we've seen like it has been a very uncharacteristic up and down season for the Detroit Lions so far. And I think Jameson Williams is like kind of what unlocks this entire offense and it helps him on the same brown get open underneath. It helps the running backs see lighter boxes. It gets Sam Laporta going as well. There was no threat of deep attacks in the early part of the season. Now that Jameson Williams is out there, you have to completely change how you game plan to play against Lions.
- [49:49]
B
Every offense needs something that's special, something that you can't defend against. Right. Amanro St. Brown is a great player. Sam Laporta is a great player.
- [49:59]
A
Dave Montgomery, you can't defend against Jameer Gibbs. I think they've got two. That's what I was getting.
- [50:05]
B
Those are the two players I was getting to is the special players that are essentially unguardable in this are Jameer Gibbs and Jameson Williams. Like what you need someone to bring a special factor of just incredible speed that can't be caught. Yeah, it's these two guys so to be almost negligent to the point of not using Jameson Williams throughout the season to me was just so far fetched as the season was going on.
- [50:29]
A
Don't hear what we're not saying. Aman Ross St. Brown is still a top five fantasy receiver. You know, we're not, we're not piling on Aman Rasayn Brown.
- [50:35]
B
I'm not saying he's not a special talent. He is a special talent as well. I'm saying that if when you have players that can do things that only a small percentage of players within the NFL that only a small percentage of professionals can do and you don't use them for that, that's negligent. That's what I'm getting to.
- [50:52]
A
This to me it just feels like we're going to relive what happened last year where the Lions, you know, we're good in the first half of the season and then the second half of the season they're just putting up 40 points a week. Jared Goff is a top three fantasy running back. Jameson Williams is exploding. Jameer Gibbs is a league winner. It seems like that's what we're trending to right now because there were like we maybe brush it off that they lost everybody. They lost their defensive coordinator, their offensive coordinator, the passing game coordinator, their, their wide receiver. Coaches like. And maybe we should have been a little bit more patient with some of these like ups and downs in the early part of the season. But it seems like everything's coming together now. I don't think the coordinators and the coaches matter. As long as you've got Dan Campbell, you know, steering that ship, the, the lines are going to be fine.
- [51:34]
B
Dave, from this game, there's a obvious faller that you and I both have and it's Jecory, Crosky, Merritt. Yeah, I mean just going back through the touches, man. Like the touches aren't there. 11 touches, 13 touches, nine touches and almost every single one of those are carries, not catches. Talked about it last week. Jakori Crosby, Merrick gives you the worst of both worlds. He didn't get the goal line carry that went to Chris Rodriguez. He didn't get the catches out of the backfield that went to Jeremy McNichols. You've got a player here who there's just simply not enough opportunity for him to make it work in an offense that is struggling.
- [52:11]
A
Yeah. And that's it. He is so game script dependent. If we thought Washington was going to go out here and just be like seven and a Half point favorites in every single game. Sure, there might be some excitement for Jigori Groski Merit, but we get Chris Rodriguez, you know, getting named team captain. He comes in, he gets the touchdown. When they're in a trailing game script, Corey Crosby is watching from the, the outside in is Jeremy McNichols is getting the passing down work. Yeah, I, I, I think, I don't know off the top of my head. I'm looking right now, I think he was the biggest follower for me. Yeah, I mean, I dropped him all the way down to RB 37 in my rest of season rankings, which means he is an RB4 by definition.
- [52:49]
B
So over the last four weeks, since week seven, where do you think Jacori Crosky Merit ranks amongst running backs in ppr?
- [52:56]
A
I wrote this yesterday and I forget, but I think he's like, I want to say like RB51 or something like that.
- [53:02]
B
58, running back 50. That's in PPR, maybe in half PPR, it's a little bit higher. It's not good, man. Like, this is not. We talked about him as a sabotage drop.
- [53:12]
A
Yep.
- [53:13]
B
That's what he is, man. You can't start.
- [53:14]
A
I don't even know, I don't even know if people are going to pick him up and start him at this point. Somebody's going to pick him up and bench him like in case, you know, Chris Rodriguez gets hurt and Jaden Daniels returns after the buy. But yeah, I mean, like, he, he is, he does not deserve to be anywhere near starting lineup at this point.
- [53:30]
B
All right, let's go to our last game on here. Chargers against the Steelers. Steelers. Football is just ugly, man. It's just ugly. It's not pleasing to look at. But Dave, we have to pick some winners, some risers and followers from this game. Who is your biggest riser?
- [53:46]
A
Jalen Warren. Like, he just, he's good and, and sometimes they just boil it down and make it simple. Jalen Warren's a really good football player. I, I had some major reservations about Jalen Warren this preseason. I'm kicking myself. I didn' draft him in like any leagues because we've seen this song and dance so many times. Like the RB2 on a team that gets to come in and face soft fronts ends up getting the lead role. Efficiency falls off a cliff. Jaylen Warren is like maintaining the same efficiency that he saw when he was playing in a relief role, Tanaji Harris. But now he's doing it with one of the league's biggest opportunity shares. I talked about him As a buy low candidate on our trade show a couple of weeks ago. He has done nothing but produce since then. I mean, I've got Jaylen Warren very high in my rest of season rankings. Ahead of Travis Etienne, ahead of Bucky Irving, ahead of Quinn, Sean Judkins, he's quietly just like turning in a really, really good season here. There's no competition for touches. Like Gainwell gets his handful here and there, but like Jalen Warren is the clear workhorse in this offense and he has been very efficient with his opportunities.
- [54:44]
B
So I don't want to overstate it. I think there's like the smallest ever bit of concern when it comes to the way that the backfield is being used. Kenneth Gainwell does out snap him him in this game. He's not being used. Right. But the fact that Kenneth Gainwell is coming onto the field in these passing situations is just annoying enough that you're not going to get the full workload that you want for Jaylen Warren. And then early in this game, Caleb, Caleb Johnson, excuse me, gets some, gets some touches. It almost seemed like they were scripted touches for him. He gets a seven yard run called back. I'm, I'm just, I'm curious how this continues to work out. Does this, it does seem like there's a little bit of a fork, like it could really split where this is just a 100% Jalen Warren backfield going forward. Or do we start to see where that's just the thorn in the side where Kenneth Gainwell is out there and passing downs. Caleb Johnson sort of gets a Chris Rodriguez esque role in this. I don't want to suggest that we're going the way of the commanders here at this backfield because nothing says that yet. But there are small signs, just things to look, look, look after here.
- [55:53]
A
And Kenneth Gainwell, he's an amazing pass. Blocker. Like he does deserve those opportunities. He is a very, very good pass blocker and that's fine. Like if we want to put Kenneth Gainwell out there. So he's the one getting slammed by a middle linebacker a handful of times every game, keeping Jalen Warren fresh so he could hurdle over defenders. Like, let's do that.
- [56:11]
B
The better probably the better comp for this backfield is going to be the Jaguars backfield where Laquin Allen is out there.
- [56:17]
A
Quint Allen is Kenneth Gainwell. Yeah, yeah.
- [56:19]
B
And he's just out there doing the pass blocking stuff. And then Bashal Tootin comes in for like four touches a game and he's.
- [56:24]
A
The Caleb in The preseason, we'd say that, like, Caleb Johnson is a poor man's Bashal tootin.
- [56:33]
B
Oh, week 10 of fantasy football. You beautiful, beautiful mistress. All right, the last players to talk about from this game. I've got lad McConkey as a riser just because it just feels like we're back to, back to good old Lad days where it was just. I can't believe there was a time in the season where people were saying that lad McConkey was not one of the best receivers. You thought he was not the best receiver on this team. Come on, David.
- [57:01]
A
I mean, there was a point in time, like after the first month of the season, and I'm not the only one, but like when I published my rest of season rankings, I had Quentin Johnson ahead of Lad Magon because I'm like, you know, first round pick, figured it out, playing great football. I, I bought into it for the first month of the season when lad McConkey was doing nothing and Quentin Johnson was giving us wide receiver 1 production every single week. Yeah, I bought into it. I'm not too proud to say that. But yeah, now we've seen over the last six weeks, is lad McCaughey's back?
- [57:27]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimes we just got to practice what we preach, man. It's hard to do it when we have to do the analysis every single week. But, but, you know, it's hard to hop on a show and just be like, be patient everyone. And then week two, be patient, everyone. Then week three, be patient. Like, it's, it's. Yeah, it makes sense. I will say the guy that I think that we're losing the patience on is Keenan Allen. Where I, I think the role is just, it's very clearly, he's the third guy on this team. If we start to see more Trey Harris, he could be the fourth guy.
- [57:55]
A
Fourth with Gadson. I was gonna say Gadson left this game with an injury, but yeah, yeah, Keenan Allen might be fourth behind Quentin Johnson, Lad McConkey and Rodney Gadson at this point, which is crazy to think. And he did see an uptick, like 51 of the snaps. That's better than the 37 last week and then 25 the week before. But still a part time player and like, you know, saved his day. Did you hear he went up to Harbaugh and asked Harbaugh to call that play so he could break the record at home like that, that, like that last, that pot pass that we saw with like the final minute of the game, that was Keenan Allen. Asking Harbaugh to give him a pop pass so he could break the record like he should have left last night's game with one catch. That's that. It's bleak.
- [58:36]
B
Yeah, it's not, it's not great. But Dave, we did it. We recapped all the week 10 games here. And by the way, just a little bit of news came through as we were recording again. Joe Burrow has been designated to return from IR by the Cincinnati Bengals. So, yeah, that, that toe heels fast when Flaccomania is going on, but. Yeah, well, we'll see. I don't, I don't know that we're going to catch him out there this week, but I mean, crazier things have happened in the NFL. So the fact that we could see Joe Burrow back out on the field sometime within the next two to three weeks is, you know, it's exciting. It's exciting for anyone who made their moves. For Bengals players, T. Higgins, Jamar Chase, when things were down, man, second half of the season is going to be absolutely wild. Dave.
- [59:25]
A
Yeah, one, one other thing we, I know we didn't talk about the game at length, but I was, I was doing some digging on that Broncos game from over the weekend or from Thursday night. Just, you know, we, we have been very pro Troy Franklin on this show, but like, the more I dig into it, the more that, like, this is, this is a real thing. Cortland Sutton hasn't out targeted Troy Franklin in each of the last last five games over that time. Troy Franklin is the per game wide receiver, 24. Colin Sutton's the PER game wide receiver, 48. I don't know what to take away from this, but like, basically what we've seen in the last month and a half of the season is that Cortland Sutton isn't even startable and Troy Franklin is a plug and play wide receiver, too. I don't like it's a small sample size, of course, but like, I have no idea what to do in my rankings right now. Like, are we at the point where we're just putting Franklin ahead of Cortland Sutton? I don't know.
- [60:14]
B
Yeah, I think, I think, I think you are. At this point, it's, it had been inching closer and closer, but I think at some point, you know, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. It's Troy Franklin, you know, you kind of have to go with that at this point, man.
- [60:26]
A
Pretty crazy that we're there. But yeah, just, just something worth noting.
- [60:30]
B
It's, you can't try to make sense of offenses that don't make sense. And the Broncos offense doesn't make sense. Yeah, there's your answer. Well, Dave and I are going to be back again tomorrow with our Week 11 wow. Week 11 waiver wire targets players for you guys to pick up. We'll be ranking those and back again on Wednesday looking at some playoff stash players. Dave will, you know, be supporting his stash for that episode and then give you our starts and sleepers on Thursday. So make sure you are subscribed to the channel, whether that's YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. 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.