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Week 13 Matchups Previews with Jeff Bell || Fantasy Football 2025
02:25:31
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- [00:01]
Jeff Bell
Ever notice how ads always pop up at the worst moments when the killer's identity is about to be revealed during.
- [00:09]
Dave Kluge
That perfect meditation flow.
- [00:12]
Jeff Bell
On Amazon Music, we believe in keeping you in the moment. That's why we've got millions of ad free podcast episodes so you can stay.
- [00:20]
Dave Kluge
Completely immersed in every story, every reveal, every breath.
- [00:26]
Jeff Bell
Download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts.
- [00:30]
Dave Kluge
Ad free included with Prime.
- [00:34]
Jeff Bell
Oh hey. Welcome to gift wrapping. Whoa.
- [00:36]
Dave Kluge
So is Saldana.
- [00:37]
Jeff Bell
Hey, can you wrap these please?
- [00:39]
Dave Kluge
Wow. IPhone 17s.
- [00:40]
Jeff Bell
You splurged at T Mobile. You can get four iPhone 17s on them. The new center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. It's the perfect gift for everyone. I'm the worst.
- [00:49]
Dave Kluge
I only got my mom a robe.
- [00:51]
Jeff Bell
Well, it's better than socks.
- [00:52]
Dave Kluge
So I have to trade in my old phone, right?
- [00:55]
Jeff Bell
No AT T Mobile. There's no trade ins needed when you switch. Keep your old phone or give it as a gift. Incredible. In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my Aunt Rosa. Forget that. Aunt Liz will be jealous.
- [01:05]
Dave Kluge
Sounds like my family drama.
- [01:07]
Jeff Bell
Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my abuela. I'll take reindeer paper with.
- [01:10]
Dave Kluge
Hey, where are you going?
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Jeff Bell
To T Mobile.
- [01:12]
Dave Kluge
The holidays are better. AT T Mobile get four iPhone 17s on us. No trade in needed when you switch plus four lines for just 25 bucks a line. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits and four eligible board inside essentials for well qualified customers. Bottle pay plus taxes, fees and $35 device connection charge credits ended up palace due if you pay off earlier. Cancel contact US Finance Agreement 256 gigabytes. $830 required. Visit T mobile.com thank you for tuning in to an episode of the Launchpad. I'm your host Dave Kluge and today we've got a slightly different look on the episode. Every Friday morning Jeff Bell and I we do an in depth matchup preview of the upcoming week. And with this being the week of Thanksgiving, I didn't want to inundate another staffer to have to come on a show the morning after Thanksgiving. Jeff Bell and I are doing this every week already so we decided to just make this a special one off episode. On today's episode we we are going to recap the Thanksgiving games that we just saw yesterday and look forward at every other Week 13 matchup. Jeff Bell is our dynasty captain over here as well as one of the leaders on our rookie guide. If you're a fan of this show. Check out what we're doing over on the Football Guys Dynasty show feed where we do this episode every single Friday along with a few other in week episodes. As I mentioned, we're going to talk about some Week 13 matchups today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Now let's dive in. Jeff Bell, Happy Thanksgiving. How you doing today?
- [02:33]
Jeff Bell
Doing fantastic, Dave. It's the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday. It's one of the second best days of the year, the very best days of the year being Thanksgiving. But the after effects are, are they're here and, and it's good times.
- [02:47]
Dave Kluge
But I, I won't go into detail, but I thought yesterday morning leftover chili would be a good breakfast and a leftover chili followed by a big Thanksgiving meal. It's a, it's been a rough morning for me. But here we are, bright and early as we always do, our matchup preview episode. For anybody listening to this on the Dynasty show, you might have heard a little bit of a different intro on today's episode. And for anybody listening to this over on the Fantasy football feed, we are doing this as a special kind of one off episode. Jeff Bell and I do this every Friday afternoon over on the Football Guys Dynasty show feed, but you can check it out over there every Friday if you want to. This week, you know, being the holiday, I didn't want to put anybody in a bind having to record over a holiday week. So Jeff Bell and I are kind of making this our, our weekly episode of the Launch Pad. But let's go ahead and jump in. First, Jeff, with a quick recap of yesterday's game. The packers beat the Lions 31 24. The big news there, of course, is the Amanra St. Brown injury declared out. We're hearing a lot of speculation that it could be a high ankle sprain. Dan Campbell played it down, said it's kind of a, not a long, long term injury is what he said. A lot of people are saying he could be out, you know, one, maybe two, maybe three weeks. But I think the big takeaway here is that we saw Jameson Williams play that possession receiver role where he was getting those short targets, he was getting the targets behind the line of scrimmage. How high would Jameson Williams ceiling be if he kind of steps into that Amanra St. Brown role?
- [04:08]
Jeff Bell
Jeff, I mean wide receiver 1 overall is the ceiling, right? We've seen multiple weeks where he was the wide receiver too overall in fantasy up until of course, it never fails. I made him my start of the week last week and he posts a zero and then he comes right back and bounces right back to doing exactly what he had been doing. But wide receiver 1 overall without the other targets, you're already down Sam Laporta, you lose Amon Ross St. Brown, he didn't have Khalif Raymond in the game yesterday and so you're really getting decimated. And Jared Goff has not been able to push the ball downfield. I saw somebody say that he hasn't had a air yard throw over 40 yards in over 10 weeks. So I think it's just a lot of volume to get shoved Monroe or Jameson Williams way that creates that ceiling.
- [04:54]
Dave Kluge
Yeah and I think like the, the lesson here, if you drafted Jameson Williams, you knew the player you were getting. You just need to start him on a weekend and week out basis. You're going to get a wide receiver 78 week and then you're going to get a wide receiver one week and then you're gonna get a wide receiver 57 week and then a wide receiver three week and at the end of the year he's going to finish as a top 24 receiver. But you just kind of have to take the highs with the lows. Like if you wanted a steady player who was going to get a handful of targets every week in a low ceiling, you could have gotten Romeo Dobbs in the same area you were drafting Jameson Williams.
- [05:22]
Jeff Bell
I think the, the bigger story is while, you know, maybe a week or two for Aman rc, maybe not long term injury, but we're at the point now where long term in not a long term injury is still a long term injury in fantasy football because of the leverage that we have upcoming here. I think most, most week, Most leagues have one more regular season week after this week 13 and then you're into the playoffs and you're looking at high, high field tournaments. And if you get in that round one, round two without Amon Ross St. Brown, you get opportunities where maybe you have a team that advances through and he comes back and you're in good position. But I think he's going to knock out a lot of teams given that he was the first round pick for a lot of teams and not to.
- [06:03]
Dave Kluge
Mention in managed leagues you were starting him last week and he put up a zero and now you're not going to have him for the next week or two or three and if this goes out to be in a three week absence then you're missing him in the fantasy playoffs. So yeah, just a devastating injury for Amon Ross, St. Brown coming to the worst imaginable time. Let's talk about the Chiefs and Cowboys. Cowboys won this one 31, 28. A little bit of a closer game now. We've got the Chiefs sitting at.500 on the outside looking in in the playoff picture. Kind of wild to say at this point in the season. The Cowboys now up to 6, 5 and 1. Jeff, we just continue to see Rashi Rice is just a machine in this offense and you face him up against a soft secondary like the Chiefs, he's gonna absolutely cook. We saw Xavier Worthy with a big downfield play late in the game as well. That really kind of saved his day. I don't know if there's any major takeaway here. I think maybe the one thing we could talk about is the backfield just for the Chiefs, just a frustrating, awful split. Like there's a lot of production in this offense, but with it getting divided up between Isaiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt and Rashard Smith, it kind of feels like the commander's offense maybe a little bit better. But like you don't feel good about putting any of these guys in your lineup on a weekly basis.
- [07:08]
Jeff Bell
I mean, I feel fine about Hunt. It wasn't that big of a split. I think first off, I think in our minds you need to stop talking about Rashard Smith. To be be honest, like it stopped like factory that in there. He plays four snaps. We saw the opportunity for him to be the clear number two back. That didn't take place. They played Clyde Edwards Hilaire instead.
- [07:23]
Dave Kluge
You.
- [07:24]
Jeff Bell
They've told you what they think right now of Rashad Smith. But when you really look at it as Kareem Hunt vs Isaiah Pacheco, Hunt still handled the vast majority of the volume and I think that he didn't score, which holds his total down. He wasn't ultra involved in the past game. The, the scrimmage yards got there. You happy with the scrimmage yards that you ended up getting out of Cream Hunt largely. But if you don't get a touchdown and you don't get passing points, then that's the problem. Hunt still is the goal line back. They just weren't in a situation where they needed to give him the b. The ball in the goal line. So that's part of the drawback. But I think overall we've, we've. They've shown us what they think of Hunt throughout this season. He is going to be the back that gets those goal line opportunities. And if you're playing one of These Chiefs backs, they, that's all that really matters at this point in this offense is getting the goal line work. He did top 100100 rushing yards last week. It was only the third time since 2020 that he's topped 100 rushing yards.
- [08:22]
Dave Kluge
Another good game for George Pickens do six receptions for 88 yards. But of course CD Lamb had the big blow up spot in this one. Seven receptions for 112 yards and one touchdown. So I think this is just one of those situations where we're looking at a wide receiver one A wide receiver, one B. We could see this production flip flop on a week to be week basis. They are both very good receivers. To me this is very similar to how we used to look at Jamar Chase and T. Higgins a couple years ago when they were both healthy. How we're looking at Puka Deku and Devonte Adams right now. We looked at Devonta Smith and A.J. brown when the Eagles were passing a little bit more. They're Both just top 12 receivers and it's as simple as that. Get them both in your lineups every week.
- [08:55]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, they're forcing the question I wrote this week that they're forcing the question of who really is the best receiving tandem in the NFL. Is it in Cincinnati? Is it the Rams that you mentioned? Or now is it this Dallas tandem? And I think that's the takeaway. I think overall, looking at all these three games from yesterday, my bigger takeaway. I know we're a fantasy show and we're only supposed to talk about fantasy, but I think the playoff implications across the league of seeing, imagine telling Anybody in Week 12 that the Chiefs, the Ravens and Lions combined would be two games over.500 and you would have two teams sitting here at 506 and 6 Ravens, 6 and 6 Chiefs. Their playoff lives are significant questions. And then the Lions, I mean these are the teams that you would have put in on those preseason betting slips to say teams to make the playoffs. Well, I want to throw some guaranteed ones in here. I'll throw the Chiefs, the Ravens and the Lions in here and it looks like we could stack it up without any of these teams in. I think on the other side the, the Cowboys are interesting, I think when it comes down to it, because that performance last week against the Eagles and they, there was a lot of talk about that, about the team, the Marshawn England thing, really galvanizing the team and then I think adding a lot of talent on the defensive side. I think Dallas, they're outside of the playoffs right now, but I think that's a team that could be very interesting looking at opening up a spot. Yeah.
- [10:16]
Dave Kluge
And the. The defense suddenly looks a little bit better after being kind of like the laughing stock defense of the NFL through the first month of the season. Adding Quinn and Williams in there, you know, this looks like a much better defense than they did earlier in the. I think a lot of people kind of have these preconceived notions about who the Cowboys are because of what we saw through the first month of the season, then just getting picked apart by every offense they played against, but looking a little bit better. And you talk about the playoff implications of some of these games. Yesterday, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Baltimore Ravens. And it's kind of crazy that the Bengals right now at 4 and 8, are not eliminated yet. I mean, their playoff hopes are absolutely on life support. But in the AFC north right now, where it just seems like nobody wants to win this division, I mean, this was a huge win for the Bengals. That now puts them two games out of first. First place, where we've got these sputtering Ravens, we've got the. We don't really know what's going on with Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. I mean, I don't want to, like, build Bengals hopes up too much. You know, we're looking at like a 2 to 3% chance here. But, you know, coming. If the. If the Steelers lose and if we see another win for the Bengals next week, all of a sudden this. This storyline in the AFC north can start to shift pretty dramatically.
- [11:20]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. Talking about that Bengals game, I mean, Lamar Jackson. I think the quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, but Lamar Jackson's the most significant story here for Fantasy. It doesn't seem like you're going to get the rushing this year out of Lamar Jackson. And it seems like because you're not getting the rushing, the passing game's off a little bit. Because I think the. I so often think about gravity of. Of the way that. And Stephon Curry is always the example there. But you look at when Lamar Jackson can run the ball out of the quarterback position, just the defensive shifts that, the way that that moves those defense defenders around, and the windows that that opens. And when he's not doing that, those windows aren't open in the same way. And so it becomes a lot more difficult. And then stacking up the Bengals. I know that you talked about Dallas's defensive improvement, but Cincinnati, when you look at it, first off, DJ Turner needs to be mentioned because I think that everybody sees the Bengals defense and just double circles it. But he's been excellent against the number one wide receivers now for multiple weeks. And Zay Flowers was completely shut down in this game. I mean, the Ravens almost had a really good game. Mitchell Tinsley almost had a really good game. They didn't. And so that, that's probably part of the takeaway. But I think when you look at the Bengals defense of what we've seen so far this year, being gashed by running backs and being gashed by tight ends, that's not a defense that's built to be playing from behind to be so exposed to the run game. They. It's a defense that's built to be in shootouts, that it's built to be their offense leading the way and then being able to be pin their ears back and blitz like the way that they blitzed Lamar Jackson last night because they did have that lead, they were able to play in that manner.
- [12:58]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I think this team overall just obviously like can't overstate how much better they look with Joe Burrow. They seem to be back there also. Jeff, you know, I, I talked about it a little bit on our show and I've talked about it a little bit over the last few weeks that Chase Brown very much so seems back and I know there was a lot of concern about Samajp Ryan and his return and how that would cut into Chase Brown's workload. And we did see Chase Brown like if you look at the box score, it looks like very much so a 50, 50 split. But so much of Chase or Smaj p Ryan's work came late when they were up by three scores that I don't think the box score really tells the full picture. If you look through the first half of the game when it was still a game, it was a 70, 30 split in favor of Chase Brown. He still finished the game with nearly 120 scrimmage yards. His sixth straight game with 100 plus scrimmage yards. He had seven receptions. I think there's some concern that Samajpurine is going to put a cap on Chase Brown's fantasy production. And while he might take away some of the short yardage situations, some of those in between the 20s looks, I think when they're looking at the guy they want catching passes, the guy that they want in their early in the game, it's still very much so going to be Chase Brown.
- [14:02]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And need to remember recognize too that Smaji P Red had missed a couple of weeks prior to this. And so not only were they getting Joe Burrow up to speed, but probably getting some extra reps for some igp, right, to get up to speed. I think the, the trust, it didn't end up being merited. But we see nine targets to Mitchell Tinsley and it's fairly obvious that Joe Burrow has some level of trust in Mitchell Tinsley. He didn't deliver. Maybe that trust evaporates immediately. But I think that that's, that's been big. You've seen Mike Gasicki come back and plug right into being that top tight end for the Bengals. Even though Tanner Hudson did get the touchdown. You had kind of have Gasicki there. You have a big game from Isaiah Likely. We know that target tight ends against the Bengals and you had Hunter Henry last week. You have Isaiah Likely this week.
- [14:44]
Dave Kluge
So you get to fumble at the goal line. You also get the, the tip pass. That should have been a touchdown to Mark Andrews. Like, you know, I was advocating. I talked about Isaiah Likely as my favorite tight end streamer this week. A guy who, that I've kind of been fading all season long. But I said, hey, if you're desperate, go for Likely and to see like right in the precipice of another tight end game against the Bengals. But like I said that that tip pass at the goal line and, and then the, the, the fumble for a touchback through the goal line from Likely. I mean we're really close to having another huge tight end blow up game here.
- [15:12]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And you got to play them against the Bengals and it's the Ravens again. I think the Ravens are looking for answers offensively. They had a poor performance against the jets the week before, but it was the jets so they weren't really too concerned about it. And that's the if they are to win this division and I think that a lot of people have inked them in as winning this division. Given that there's not a lot of buy in overall, I think belief in Pittsburgh. They need to figure out some of these answers and even if they do win the division, they're going to be out quickly unless they do find some answers to some of these things offensively.
- [15:45]
Dave Kluge
All right, Jeff, well, let's go ahead and preview some of these games and we are recording bright and early on Friday with the length of this episode. Most people are probably going to listen to this episode after this Black Friday football game. So please, if we are just wrong about all of our predictions here, stick through the rest of the game. Or maybe we will be right about some of our later predictions, but Chicago Bears head to Philadelphia to play against the Eagles 28 and 83 or 28 and 3 teams. The way we do the show for anybody listening for the first time is we kind of go through with the injuries as the jumping off point to talk about all of these games and then we'll just talk about some predictions and whatnot from there. So Bears at Eagles phenomenon guy is the only guy that we really care about on the Bear side of the ball dealing with any sort of injury, a knee injury, but he's been practicing in full all week. He's gonna play so relatively healthy. We got this early week scare with devonte Smith, a chest injury, a shoulder injury, an illness. He was dealing with, all these things. Didn't practice on Tuesday or Wednesday. He was upgraded to a full participant on Thursday and he is going to play. Similar for Saquon Barkley. He wasn't a dnp, but he was limited Tuesday and Wednesday with a groin injury. He is going to play as well. Jeff I don't think anybody expected that both of these teams would be sitting at 8 and 3 at this point in the season. There's been a lot of talk about the Bears getting lucky. As a Bears fan, I will admit that they have gotten lucky with some of these games, but hey, a win's a win and they're tough to come by in the NFL. This is probably the biggest test the Bears have had so far this season. What are you going to be watching closest in this game?
- [17:10]
Jeff Bell
Jeff I. I mean, I don't know. I don't buy the lucky talk just because it is difficult to win every single week in the NFL. And we saw just last year that I think the Washington commanders, they believed in themselves. They probably were lucky early in the season, they were probably lucky throughout the season, but that luck ended up in the NFC title game. And you just sometimes you see these teams that, yeah, you can look back and say, well, they should have lost these four games and are they really an 83 team? Your record is what you it says you are. So they really are an 8 and 3 team. It's just maybe it doesn't look so dominant, but I think that if you're stacking up that not every team in the NFL, very few teams do look dominant week to week. If you're finding ways to win, it grows that confidence and it helps you to move forward.
- [17:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, the confidence is absolutely there. But you know, at the end of the day, we also got to look at the fact that they're an 8 and 3 team with a negative point differential. That's not something that you see every single day. So you know, maybe this is just me being a cynic because I've been hurt by this Bears team so much throughout my life. But I want to talk about the backfield split here, Jeff. Last week we did see it go fall in favor of Kyle Manungai. Now what we've heard from Ben Johnson is that he is going to take a hot hand approach and every single week it seemed like we'd get a DeAndre Swift series, we'd get a Kyle Manungai series, DeAndre Swift would look better and he would run away with a workload for the rest of the game. Last week DeAndre Swift couldn't find anywhere to run. Kyle Monongai was running well and Ben Johnson was true to his word. He went with the hot hand which was Kyle Manungai last week. So how does this change your weekly outlook for DeAndre Swift knowing that on any given week if he's not running well in that first series, it could be common guy from there on out.
- [18:50]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, the things that we say that end up wrong is going to be the theme because of the timing of this game. But I said last week on the start, you know I said, I said last week on the start sit show that well surely there is a revenge narrative here for Downer Swift. But it, it felt like DeAndre Swift was kind of locked into being a running back two mid running back two type of territory and then you get this split and this just opens up the entire range of outcomes between was it just one game of Manangai running hot and it'll go back to Swift being the top. Is it a 5050 straight up split the way that Ben Johnson employed so successfully in Detroit with David Montgomery, with Jameer Gibbs for there or is it a high hand approach like you said of are you going to get into these games where Swift just is zero because Manungai is the better back and that it's just introduces a level of uncertainty where into a situation where I think we were warranted and feeling certain in the way that we thought this what was going to work out.
- [19:49]
Dave Kluge
And talk is cheap, right? Like you know Ben Johnson can say a hot hand approach but when you see five straight weeks of DeAndre Swift winning that weekly hot hand battle, we don't really remember that he said that and then all of a sudden we do see it and now it's this harsh reminder that there is a shaky weekly floor for DeAndre Swift. So you're still starting him as an RB2, but I think now with Kyle Menungai where you're hoping that, like, if you start him, the only chance you were getting bailed out is a goal line touch. Now you could have these random weeks where if you're desperate enough to start common on guy as a flex play, he could actually walk out of the game with 18 plus touches, which I think was, you know, a foreign concept a month ago. As for the wide receivers here in Chicago, Jeff, I don't know how much we want to talk about this. You know, it. It's a deep wide receiver room and, you know, it's good for the Bears. It is frustrating for fantasy Roman Dunes, the guy that we were looking at as you know this year, two breakout, you know, top 10 pick. We were looking at him as just a stud wide receiver one through the first month of the season. Now all of a sudden he falls in at wide receiver 27 in my rankings, putting him in wide receiver three category. I've got D.J. moore and Luther Burden both as kind of shaky wide receiver fours. I understand wanting to get these guys in here, but it is a tough matchup. The ball is spread thin. What advice would you have for fantasy managers who are relying on any of these Bears receivers?
- [21:04]
Jeff Bell
I. I think that Roman Dunesay has shown the ceiling that we're still playing him most weeks. This matchup certainly can give you pause for concern and maybe that factors into where you've got Roma Dunes. They ranked this week relative to the rest of the wide receiver room.
- [21:18]
Dave Kluge
It's also no bye weeks. That's big as well. You know, like typically it's, you know, rubbing Dunes a falls inside the top 20 and then all of a sudden no teams are on by and then you start doing these rankings and you're like, wait, this guy feels like an RB2, but he's ranked at RB31. And this guy feels like a wide receiver too, but he's outside of 24. That's just the nature of this weird week without any buys.
- [21:38]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And looking just splitting up this receiver room. It's it the way that these things work of like, you know, there were maybe they were victory laps. I don't know. They had a lot of tweeting about the involvement in the first half of Luther Burden at halftime. And of course the when that gets put out in the world, he posts a zero in the second half because that's just how things work in inevitably. And so you are. But you are seeing Luther burn more involved but you're seeing the big game last week from DJ Moore which opens up we know what we've have potentially with Colson level and you're just going to be a whack a mole. And I think in difficult defensive matchups like the Eagles it can be hard to feel good about going into any of these guys. Of course somebody's going to have probably catch a touchdown or somebody's going to have 60, 80 yards. So you can't beat yourself up. If you're going to say this is a difficult matchup against Philadelphia we've seen Caleb Williams have some low ceiling output games from a total total yardage, total fantasy point production. So that's where yeah, if you're desperate you can play burden or DJ Moore or Roman Nunze moves into that wide receiver 7:27 territory. Whereas some other matchups you might circle it and say let's go with all these guys.
- [22:51]
Dave Kluge
And then for Colson Loveland I don't think we need to spend too much time here. You know we saw that big blow up game against the Bengals a few weeks ago. Since then he's quietly put up 40 plus yards every single game. He scored three touchdowns in his last four weeks. We've been kind of waiting for it to happen. I don't think he's a plug and play Titan 1 by any means but I think he absolutely makes for a high end streamer and you could do a lot worse than Colson Loveland. At a minimum he should be rostered in every single league at this point. And if you don't have one of those plug and play tight end ones you can rely on him as a streamer.
- [23:21]
Jeff Bell
I think it's interesting talk about because we're, we're always looking for the big blow up the spike games but sometimes with a player like Colson level and where early in the season we just wanted to see involvement, staying above that 40 yards per game tells you almost as much as that one big spike week does of that tells you he's involved weekly. That spike week tells you where the ceiling is. But having that weekly involvement tells you, you know, this isn't a guy that's just going to disappear in the next game or he has grown into being a piece that is involved every single.
- [23:54]
Dave Kluge
Week for the Eagles. What do we need to talk about here? Jeff, you're starting A.J.
- [23:57]
Jeff Bell
Brown.
- [23:58]
Dave Kluge
Starting DeVonta Smith, you're starting Saquon Barkley, you're starting Jalen Hurts. We got to say this every single week with the Eagles. Like when they're healthy. There's almost no discussion to be had. This is such a consolidated offense. We know where the touches are going, we know where the targets are going. I don't want to sound like we're just glossing over them, but like this is such a clean offense that there really isn't much to talk about on a weekly basis.
- [24:18]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think that, well, you're seeing the injury for Devonta Smith pop up. Saquon Barkley's overall production has gotten back. I know that was a struggle last week. Seeing AJ Brown, though, last week go up in a Dallas game, that what we do, what we expect him to do, is exactly what you wanted to see. And if you're in a league that hasn't had the trade deadline yet, or if you are in a league that doesn't have trade deadlines, I think AJ Brown's a really attractive piece to go out and get because of the potential discount around him about the concern and consternation because his schedule, the rest of the season opens up pretty well for him to put together a pretty strong run in fantasy.
- [24:55]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and I've been saying it. I just think A.J. brown is hurt. He doesn't look like his normal self. It's not often that we see a guy at 28 years old who has strung together half a decade of elite production just fall off the age cliff. So I know there's a lot of concern about A.J. brown right now, but especially in like dynasty leagues, I think you can go out and buy him because there still should be a few years left in the tank there. It's just unheard of to see this kind of happen. I think there's got to be something that we don't know. I I've said it a lot that I think as soon as the Eagle season is over, we're going to be like three to five days later. There's going to be A.J. brown getting a minor knee surgery. You know, something along those lines that just is being hidden from us right now. But let's move on to Sunday. Jeff Los Angeles Rams at Carolina Panthers Tutu Atwell only guy on the injury report for the Rams and he is practicing in full coming back from that hamstring injury. And then all of the Panthers players, at least the ones that we care about, the fantasy relevant Panthers players are healthy. So not a ton to talk about here except for maybe the Panthers backfield split. I know that's something that has caused a a lot of discussion recently. We saw Chuba Hubbard a little bit more involved last week getting just as many targets as Rico Dowdle. Also looked like he had a little bit of juice back. Now, I am very much so in the camp that Rico Dowdle is a better running back than Chuba Hubbard. But do you think as Chuba Hubbard gets further away from this injury that caused him to miss some time, we could see that workload tighten up a bit between the two of them?
- [26:16]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, absolutely. I, I caught the Panthers broadcast on the radio at one point. I think it was two weeks ago that I did. But they were talking about how much more explosive Chuba Hubbard did looks now than when he did have that injury that caused him to miss time. And when he initially came off of it. I don't know that I assigned too much into last week's game because that was just such a mess of a struggle against the the 49ers. And a lot of those targets for Chuba Hubbard were later in the game when they were just trying to get anything going offensively. They couldn't get anything in the downfield pass game. So sometimes you run into those situations and coaches say, you know, maybe we need to unplug the top guy a little bit here and, and save some mileage and get the other guy a little bit more comfortable. I think overall going in game planning wise, Rico Dowdle is still their plan A as their best road to success. But we do see backs get worn down as they have good runs and then you get the other backup comes in and looks a lot more explosive. You're seeing it a lot now with the talked about Luther Burden. But a lot of the rookies have fresh legs. You see them plugged in and they just look more explosive than the players around them because well, they are at this point in time. So yeah, it's certainly in play that it becomes a 50, 50 split for the Panthers. I think to play it out right now you're still relying on Rico Doddle taking most of the the work share.
- [27:38]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, but I've got, you know, Rico Dottle was a guy that we were thinking like is this a top five guy? Rest of season, you know, stringing together like back to back games with 200 plus yards. This week he falls down to RB18 in my rankings again, no buy weeks. But you know, just not looking at maybe that gaudy workload that we saw last week was a reminder that there is kind of a shaky floor there. Jeff. You know, my, my days of being snarky on Twitter are behind me. But I, you know, I'm not about being a little snarky on the podcast and I saw so many people sharing this clip of Rico Dowdle making like a nice whatever, 11 yard run or something like that. And just like, how could you see Rico Doddle do this and not feed him for the rest of the game? It took everything in me. Chiba Hubbard had a great catch and run in this game where he broke tackles, he showed some bursts, he was able to get through defenders and it took a lot in me not to clip that play and say, how could you see this and not give chuba hover 20 touches per game?
- [28:30]
Jeff Bell
I mean, at what point the 49s were controlling the game, they were dominating the offensively. So I understand we're playing fantasy football and I understand you might say, well, Shuba Hubbard should have 20 touches per game. If you're getting your butt kicked and you want to, you're in the playoff hunt and you're looking forward. You're not going to just stack 20 touches on back in the game that you're obviously losing. It's a little bit ridiculous to, to assign so much. I don't know, it's ridiculous to sign so much week to week.
- [29:00]
Dave Kluge
I think I'm sure Dave Canales was on the sideline saying, yeah, I really need to get Jim from accounting another eight PPR points. We should get Rico Dowdle back out there. I'm sure that that's where his mind was. And then I'll say the same thing for the Rams that I said about the Eagles, Jeff, like when this is a healthy team, I really don't know what there is to talk about again, like one of the cleanest offenses in football. Matthew Stafford, you're loading him up as a QB one because that's all he's done this year is give you QB1 production. You know the targets are going to Devonte Adams and Puka Pukinakua. You know that Kyron Williams is going to get the big work chair. And if you're really desperate and you need to look at Blake Corum and hope that he falls into the end zone, you can do that. I mean, do we want to talk about the tight ends here? Like are we getting cute enough to look at Colby Parkinson or Davis Allen or any of these guys? Or is it just the two wide receivers? Kyron Williams, Matthew Stafford, that's kind of all we care about in fantasy.
- [29:46]
Jeff Bell
Devonte Adams next touchdown will tie will move him into a tie with Antonio Gates for the I think it's the seventh most in NFL history with 116 so you're, you're looking for a touchdown here for Devonte Adams. I think the Titan conversation is interesting because I think it's Colby Parkinson has very clearly the guy there it seems to be. And, and you know, obviously there's the Terence Ferguson of it all. And, and there's everything with Parkinson being the big signing and free agency last year and not delivering Kobe. Parkinson's latter really, really good. And he has been the guy that as Tyler Higby stepped out of the lineup, it was kind of one of these, like everybody would play between 30 to 40% of the snaps. And then the moment that Higby goes out, now Parkinson's flirting closer to 70% of the snaps. He's got touchdowns in three straight games. The overall volume isn't going to be there, but we know with Matthew Stafford, the way that he's playing in an NFL MVP level of performance right now that anything is in play for touchdowns, for multiple touchdowns every single week. It's kind of been early in the season it was split up between Parkinson one week, Davis Allen next week, Higby another week. If Parkinson is that 70% guy and then Davis Allen and Ferguson are those 30% guys, all of a sudden you like double the odds of him being that guy that gets the touchdown. And so it's in play. It's a desperation play, touchdown dependent. But at the same time, I think the way that he's playing, you can get in some of these games where he does get five or six receptions and he does get 40 to 70 yards. And a lot of that's open because of what the wide receivers are opening up in that area. We. But some of it too is just the offensive ceiling that we've seen from this Rams passing attack.
- [31:31]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And if there's one thing, you know, you talking about the devonte Adams touchdowns, like, if, if there's one thing we can kind of talk about here, it's just how frustrating it is. Like, especially, you know, I drafted a lot of Kyron Williams this year. I was very in on Kyron Williams for the first time. And this feels very similar to what we used to see from Aaron Jones, like where he would just march the ball down the field for the packers and then just like three straight goal line fades to devonte Adams until he'd come down with one. I mean, it's, it's unguardable. Like you see it like his release off the line of scrimmage. You cannot stay on devonte Adams. So we used to see it like they get inside the five. And it was just kyron, Kyron, Kyron, Kyron until they'd get into the end zone. And now it's just like Devonte Adams is their preferred goal line back, which isn't all that different from what we saw Aaron Rodgers doing with Devonte Adams when they were together in Green Bay.
- [32:16]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, and that changes the the trajectory, the conversation about Matthew Stafford as a fantasy player because we last year without those, you ended up as a guy that was closer to quarterback 25 than quarterback 5. And now with those you just he's that type of player. We know we're not getting anything on the ground rushing. So to have that shift from throwing 20 touchdown passes, the flirting with 40 touchdown passes, just entirely changes everything about the way that we view Matthew Stafford. It is unguardable when you get down there. I think some of it's I mean it's just he's the very best in the league at what he does and that's score touchdowns when he's inside the one or two yard line where other receivers really struggle to operate in that area of the field.
- [33:00]
Dave Kluge
San Francisco 49ers at Cleveland Browns We've got a lot of names on the injury report, but nothing too crazy here. Christian McCaffrey is getting his typical rest days, so no concerns if you see a Q next to his name in your fantasy football app. Ricky Piersoll still dealing with the knee injury. He's practicing in full. Brock Purdy dealing with the toe injury. He's practicing in full. Jerome Ford we did see kind of weird he's dealing with a hamstring injury. He was eliminated on Wednesday, downgraded to a DNP on Thursday. So we'll see what he's able to do at practice today before we can draw any real conclusions there. Dylan Gabriel practicing in full with a concussion. We'll see if they go with Dylan Gabriel or Shador Sanders. We don't really have a clear read on that one yet. And then David Najoku has been dealing with this knee injury all season long. Still on the injury report with it, but he is practicing in full. Jeff, I think I want to talk about the the 49ers receivers first. There were a lot of hopes that Ricky Pearsall would come back and, and when I say a lot of hopes, I mean me wish casting that Ricky Piersoll would come in and be the immediate wide receiver one here. But man, he just has not looked like himself. Just looks slow, looks sluggish, isn't getting any of the downfield looks. The few targets that he does get have been near the line of scrimmage. It seems right now like, you know, it probably would have been just so far fetched to say this a month ago. Juwan Jennings now looks healthy after dealing with like a slew of injuries early in the season. He looks healthy, he looks sharp, he looks fast right now. And I wonder if we're just still going to be looking at this like acclimation, this ramp up for Ricky Pearsall. I have hope that he can be a guy that can help win leagues late in the season. But I think for now, like if you can afford to bench him, which you probably can because you were able to budget for the six weeks that he missed, I think you should probably try to find a better option until we can see some signs of life here.
- [34:42]
Jeff Bell
Brock Purdy can't push the ball down the field. That and that's the problem right now. And so I think when you talk about Pearsall, I think the timing looks off more than anything. The Anders, he's not looked explosive but at some level he's practicing with Purdy every day. And if Purdy's not able to push the ball down the field, it that explosion could also be I can't get my timing figured out with my quarterback right now where he can actually get the ball to. And so for me to release all the way and explode, am I going to be standing there trying to catch a punt? Like is the TUA arm punt? Is that what we're getting out of Brock Purdy here? And so I think that's just shifts the entire how everybody feels comfortable within the offensive scheme. It's not going to be there on volume. It's when you've got these four guys healthy and right now it looks like these three guys plus Ricky Pierce all healthy, you're getting similar volume week to week. And that plays well for George Kittle. That plays well for Christian McCaffrey out of the backfield. That doesn't play super well for a receiver because you're not getting the ceiling of the receiver. You're really a lot relying on that efficiency. And if Brock Purdy can't push the ball down to create those chunk plays to get that efficiency, you're in trouble all around. And so I think that that's kind of what we've run into with Pierce all with Purdy. You look bad on Monday night and it was everything downfield was a struggle, but going to the tight ends and going to the running backs was fine. In a game that could be Impacted by weather and against a strong Cleveland defense. I think it's really tough to feel good about either of the receivers in this game outside of Kittle and McCaffrey because those lower overall volume ceilings aren't as needed at those positions.
- [36:23]
Dave Kluge
And you know, you can look at the San Francisco 49ers right now and say they are an 8 and 14. They are winning games. They're, you know, looking. They're winning games, I guess is what I want to say. But to me, this like feels like a very broken offense. Like it's reminiscent of last year when we saw the Dolphins kind of working around Tuataga by Loa's deficiencies and we just saw Devon Hn kind of PPR scamming his way to like a, you know, a very high end finish. And it feels like that's what we're getting from Christian McCaffrey right now. The difference is Devon HN had a lot of juice last year. We're not seeing any juice from Christian McCaffrey. And I know this is like blasphemous to say because it's a fantasy show and he has been a top three fantasy weapon. Like you could take his rushing away entirely and he would still be a top five fantasy running back. But like he does not look good this year. And to me it seems like so much of his volume is being thrusted on him because George Kittle was out for an extended period of time. There was no Ricky Pierce all, there was no Juwan Jennings. Like they kind of force the ball to him out of necessity and now they have won games with this. So they just keep going back to it. But like to me, this is not the offense you want to see if you're a San Francisco 49ers fan whatsoever.
- [37:26]
Jeff Bell
He's basically their slot receiver is where a lot of it comes down to is he's essentially their slot receiver. And you've got the outside receivers with Pierce hall and Juwan Jennings. You've had so many injuries for all the skilled players. I think it's safe to say we are not expecting to see Brandon Aiuk play football for the San Francisco 49ers in 2025 or maybe ever again. And so you kind of looking at who's in the room, who's available, it ends up being McCaffrey as the slot receiver and then also trying to be the running back too. And I mean, I completely agree with you. He's not looked explosive. He's. I hesitate to. He's not look good because I think the Things that he's doing, the amount of players that could do the things that he's doing is basically just Christian McCaffrey and maybe Jameer Gibbs, but other than that, maybe John Robinson, but. But other than that. Yes, like the overall explosion's not been there. He looked good against the, the Panthers on Monday night, though. And Christian McCaffrey's in a really fun stage of his career because of his unique skill set and set in the time, the time that he's done it. It seems like every single week he does something that, like, nobody's ever done or like these stat lines that he puts together. It's like he becomes. He broke a tie with. Oh, gosh, I wish I had the other the numbers right in front of me. But what he did on Monday night, It was the 12th time, I think it was. What were his numbers? I feel like I should have these numbers. If we're going to be a professional podcast that talks about fantasy football, you want to.
- [38:50]
Dave Kluge
Jeff, Christian McCaffrey is second in the league in receptions behind Jamar Chase.
- [38:55]
Jeff Bell
Exactly. And he just, he became this the fifth running back last week to top 600 receiving yards in his career. So last week he the 80 rushing yards and one touchdown with seven receptions and 50 receiving yards. He did that for the 12th time in his career. That broke a tie with Marshall Falk for the Most games of 80 plus 1 plus 7 plus 50 in. In NFL history. Marshall Falk had 11. Christian McCaffrey now has 12 for the Browns.
- [39:24]
Dave Kluge
You know, we want to talk about who the starting quarterback is, but we don't know. Dylan Gabriel is back at practice, but Kevin Stefanski is poised with a tough decision to make right now. I mean, Shador Sanders just came out and won a game, and it might be as simple as that. Hey, you won a game for our starter going forward, but he has yet to make a decision here. Does whoever's starting change how you look at this offense? Because it does for me. I mean, we saw Dylan Gabriel, like, only wanted to throw the ball to tight ends. With Shador Sanders, we saw him throwing outside the numbers a little bit more. We saw him pushing the ball downfield a little bit more. I think if Shador Sanders is starting, that breathes some life into Jerry Judy and Isaiah Bond and potentially Cedric Tillman. And I think if it's Dylan Gabriel starting, the only guys you really want to rely on are Harold Fannin and David Najoku.
- [40:10]
Jeff Bell
Rely is doing a lot of work in that sentence, Dave, because I don't know that I Want to rely on any of these options.
- [40:15]
Dave Kluge
I mean Harold Fannin has, you gotta, gotta put some respect on Harold Fannin's name. He has been very, very solid with Dylan Gabriel.
- [40:22]
Jeff Bell
He has been. Yes. And David and Joku.
- [40:25]
Dave Kluge
He's the only one.
- [40:26]
Jeff Bell
He's David and Joku's five receptions away from becoming second on the Browns all time career receiving list. We said the same stat last week and he didn't have any reception. So he remains five receptions away and.
- [40:37]
Dave Kluge
He might be five away going into next week, you know.
- [40:41]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, that. And that's the way this passing attack is. I don't know why you would plug Dylan Gabriel back in outside of you just. I don't know. I, I don't.
- [40:50]
Dave Kluge
I'm not going to get in the head of Kevin Stefanski. Enough people have done that already. We don't need to play that game. Jeff.
- [40:56]
Jeff Bell
No, you can't get into the head of Kevin Stefanski right now.
- [40:59]
Dave Kluge
And it's the talk about him like trying to sabotage Sidor Sanders like we have have totally jumped the shark on sports discourse with this Shador Sanders stuff. Like he looked what I said if you came away from last week with any strong takeaway on Shador Sanders, all you were doing was reaffirming your biases. He looked like a guy getting his first NFL star. There's some good moments, there were some bad moments. I see some people come out and say that he looked extraordinary. I see other people come out and say that he looked terrible. Any strong take to me just tells me that you are so dug in that you can't look at this objectively because I don't think there was anything you could objectively take away from this game. He looked like a young quarterback getting his first NFL start. Good moments, bad moments. I think it's as simple as that.
- [41:38]
Jeff Bell
It's. Yeah. And, and really so often it's the bias that you looked at things. You're exactly right. The bias that you looked at it coming in of. Did you. Are you somebody that believed that Shadir Sanders has been aggrieved and wronged? And if so, then you saw enough glimpses to say, see, I told you so. And are you somebody that believes that Shitter Sanders was drafted where he should have been or that he just. It wasn't all there. There was enough to say, see, I told you so. And it was against the Raiders. So that's a massive caveat as well. The. It was in the dome and there might be weather involved in this game. So that might Be a massive caveat too. You're right. On the overall arcing theme of feeling better about Harold Fannin with Dylan Gabriel and feeling better about Jerry Judy with Shitter Sanders. I think other than that, other than Quinchad Judkins who is approaching some milestones for the Browns, he needs 329 rushing yards to become the Browns franchise leader in rushing yards for a rookie. And then he needs four rushing touchdown touchdowns to become the Browns franchise leader in rushing touchdowns.
- [42:37]
Dave Kluge
First month of the season and another injury in there. That's right. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's right. It felt like a lot longer. But then he also like that mid season injury. Right. That he missed another two games. I want to say I don't think.
- [42:50]
Jeff Bell
He missed any games. I think he's. I, he's had injuries, but I think he's played through them. Because the other part of it too is how explosive Dylan Sampson looked last week because he was another one of these rookies that he looked very explosive in two big chunk plays. One went for a touchdown. Shoulders the enders just, just dropping the 60 yard bomb. That was really at actually a five yard pass that, that Sampson took for 66 yards. But I think that the explosion that you're seeing out of Sampson that opens it up, it's, it's one that like can we just delete Drone for. I was half expecting Jerome Ford to either be traded or released and so then just kind of go with these two rookie backs because I think that's really what I want to see out of this offense. I want to see these two rookie backs and then I want to see a new quarterback next year and I want to see them figure some other things out. That's what I want to see out of the Browns.
- [43:37]
Dave Kluge
Well, I'm a fool. I don't know why I thought Quinchan, Judkins missed some time, but you're right. Missed week one and has played every single game since. Let's move on to the next game, Jeff. And this is probably the most interesting game of the week to talk to just because of a new injury that just kind of popped up out of nowhere. Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts CJ Stroud back to a full participant in practice coming back from concussion protocol after missing the last couple of weeks. Daniel Jones dealing with a broken fibula. And they are trying their best to downplay this, saying that it's nothing severe, that he's going to be fine. It's no big deal. Jeff. I know, you know, this just kind of came out yesterday On Thanksgiving. I know we were both spending time with our family. Did you happen to see these clips of Daniel Jones at practice? Because he didn't look fine to me. He looked like a guy who couldn't put any weight on his leg. Was kind of shuffling through his drop back. And again, this is the Colts kind of downplaying it, saying that there's nothing that they are overly concerned about here. But my goodness, I don't know how you can watch these clips of Daniel Jones just kind of limping around on the field finding out that he has a broken fibula and, and play it off like it is not a big deal to me. Like this is, this is five alarm panic. Like we should be very, very scared if Daniel Jones is hurt. I think this whole Colts offense could come crumbling down.
- [44:50]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And I think Daniel Jones recognizes he's in a moment of his career that's a very pivotal moment. And so I think probably he's in the window where in a different situation he wouldn't be playing. But you don't want to lose this window that you're in right now. And that game last week with the Chiefs, such high leverage overall. When you look at the Che, the Colts, the way that they started and if we were talking about a 9 and 2 Colts team that had just beat the Chiefs right now, that's one conversation. The reality of it is the Texans have looked like the best team in this division for a month and we expected them to be the best team in the division coming into the season. They're only two games back from the Colts in the lost column and they play the colts twice. There's plus 700 on DraftKings right now. I got it earlier. And then we get plus 750 plus 700 twin the division. They're two games back with two games against the Colts. They could easily win those two games and easily. But they could win those two games, have the head to head tiebreaker. They've got a better schedule the rest of the year than the Colts. I think that what we're seeing, there's a lot of leverage points this week because it gets late in the season. You just run into that. But you are seeing a situation where the Colts were inked in in some instances as being the one or two seed in the afc. I think that it's really questionable they actually win this division, especially now with this injury popping up to Daniel Jones.
- [46:12]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and we saw, you know, Daniel Jones going into the buy. I, I talked about it. You know, we saw the fumbles we saw the interceptions, we saw the sacks. It seemed like Daniel Jones was starting to unravel a little bit. Tightened up some of those mistakes coming out of the buy last week, but still just 181 yards. I think a lot of people don't realize because he threw two touchdowns, that kind of gave him a decent performance in fantasy. But it was not a good game from Daniel Jones last week. So a lot of concern here and, and Jeff, I, I saw somebody tweet like, oh, Anthony Richardson, you know, this could be his opportunity to step into a good offense. Anthony Richardson still recovering from surgery. He is not ready. Jeff, do you even know who the, the Colts quarterback would be if Daniel Jones can't play?
- [46:50]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, it's Riley Leonard and Riley Leonard that he honestly could be interesting for fantasy in just a messy way because of the pieces around there. And Riley Leonard is a running quarterbacks that he could go back and you.
- [47:02]
Dave Kluge
Watch that Notre Dame game, there were some drives where it was just Riley Leonard just carrying the ball for 100 of the plays on a drive until they'd score a touchdown.
- [47:10]
Jeff Bell
The, the national championship game against Ohio State, like the first drive, I think he carried it eight times on the first drive. And it was like one of those things of like Notre Dame Dame feeling fans feeling good because like Riley Leonard drove him down the field. And meanwhile, as Ohio State fan, you're like, you're gonna run your quarterback eight times per drive. We're gonna like do the cow. You're gonna give your quarterback, your starting quarterback, 60 rushes this game. That's your plan here. You had a two weeks to think about this and 60 rush attempts for your quarterback is the plan here. Okay, but I think it's.
- [47:37]
Dave Kluge
I mean we might just see them go to like a full blown option if it gets to Riley Leonard, where it's just like Riley Leonard and Jonathan Taylor wrote an option on every play.
- [47:45]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, because there were games, I think the Penn State game, Penn State was the one that didn't have any receiver catches, but there were games where Notre Dame barely had any receiver receptions. But yeah, I think it's. I don't. It's just not how fleeting it can be in this NFL of seeing the Colts hot start and recognizing they could be nine and two had. They also could be seven and four. And we have a completely different conversation because that Browns Broncos game was, you know, some serendipity on that one. I think the Colts, you look at this, their start, it was a product of the schedule that they played to start out and then you look at the back half of their schedule and they don't play those same teams. They. It starts to get pretty hard here for them.
- [48:27]
Dave Kluge
Anything else we want to talk about from this game, Jeff? I mean the, the Texans, I think we know Woody Marks is kind of of run away with the backfield there. We feel good about plugging him in as a running back too. Obviously Nico Collins, you're still firing him up as a wide receiver. One we're seeing Jaden Higgins start to heat up a little bit and I think my only pause here is that we see Jaden Higgins heating up with Davis Mills. I do wonder what it's going to look like when CJ Stroud comes back because we have just seen this rotation of Jaden Higgins and Christian Kirk and Jalen Knoll and Xavier Hutchison all getting involved for the Texans. I'm kind of of the belief that when it comes to the pass catchers, you can rely on Nico Collins. Dalton Schultz falls into that streaming discussion and I don't really feel good about any of the receivers yet at this point.
- [49:08]
Jeff Bell
No, because you talk about Jaden Higgins looking strong. Chris Kirk looked good last week as well and we've seen.
- [49:13]
Dave Kluge
But he's not a rookie. Nobody cares.
- [49:15]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, he's not a rookie, so nobody cares. And we actually. It's bad that he's looked good. Is it a bad thing to have.
- [49:21]
Dave Kluge
Old dusty 29 year old Christian Kurt work? Nobody likes it.
- [49:25]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. I mean the straw out of it is the real question here of how does this offense look? I think it, I don't know if it has anything to do with anything, but I did think that as I was working through my backfields this past week. Woody Marks, we know what we have in the passing game potentially with Woody Marks in his skill set, but as he's emerged as the number one back in Houston, the targets have completely disappeared. It's one catch a week. And this is a guy that, I mean he should be at three or four receptions a week because of his skills. But as you see this offense develop into what they're trying to do, I think putting him into that rush work doesn't potentially open up passing work in the same way that it does with some other teams because of the depth, that wide receiver and because this offense probably wants to push the ball down the field a little bit more. So you're running into situations where those, those schemed plays. That's where you're getting the ball into Jalen All's hands or you're getting the ball in Christian Kirk's hands. Or. Or we're getting a little bit more Nico Collins closer to the line of scrimmage than what we're used to. Or you're allowing those receivers to get the ball in those plays instead of having the running back. And my overall takeaway of it of the new Texans offensive coordinator is Nick Kaylee, who came from the Rams last year. And what did we have with. He was the Rams passing coordinator last year. What did we have with Kyron Williams last year? We had a back who was talented in the receiving game that wasn't overly used in the receiving game because of the way the offense was structured. It seems like with Woody Marks we have a back who's skilled in the receiving game, but the offensive structure is not overall not allowing him those chances, getting a ton of volume in the rushing game. But when you look at his fantasy production overall, it's a little disappointing relative to the volume that he's getting. Yeah.
- [51:13]
Dave Kluge
And you talk about the abilities as a pass catcher, I mean, four years at Mississippi State and you could say that it was a product of the scheme that they were running there. But he averaged 4.8 receptions per game over a four year stretch. Like this wasn't like a one year fluky thing. Like this guy was just an unreal pass catcher over. Over his four years at Mississippi State. Fell off a little bit in his final year over at usc. But we know that he can catch passes, so we'd like to see that a little bit. Jeff, I think we could move on to the next game here. Right.
- [51:40]
Jeff Bell
Some numbers. Tyler Warren has tied for the 10th most receptions by a rookie tight end at 55. One more will tie him with Mike ditka for the ninth most receptions by a rookie of 56. Tight end, rookie tight end.
- [51:53]
Dave Kluge
Anytime rookie tight ends are on list with Mike Ditka, that's a good thing.
- [51:57]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, it's really funny because it's almost like the. You remember when Mark McGuire broke the record of. I think it was 61 for Roger Maris and then he goes and hit 70 and it was just like, like way in front. Brock Bowers did the same thing with the tight end record last year where we saw Sam Laporta have 86 receptions and set the record the year before brock bars had 112. So like when you're looking at the, the leaderboard, it's like Sam Laporta, oh, this is awesome. 86. And then it's 112 for Brock Bowers there. So that changes that conversation. But, but Warren is approaching. Josh Downs has the Colts record for rookie receptions at 68. Warren's got 55. So Warren is, he's about 13 receptions away from setting that Colts record yardage wise. He's not going to get there. Bill Brooks had 1131. Tyler Warren's at 662. But that, that at 6062 is the 12th most by a rookie tight end in NFL history. He needs 22 more yards to move into the top 10. He would pass Cam Cleland into the top 10 for most receiving yards by a rookie. So you've got Tyler Warren, who's approaching some records there. We saw last when they last played or two games ago, Jonathan Taylor become the Colts franchise leader in rushing touchdowns. I do think it's interesting on Taylor because he's had two down games out of his last three games and he's got his buy in there. So we had that massive game and we know what we have this year with Jonathan Taylor. You're thrilled with that. But we had that massive Atlanta game outside of that game, two down games and a buy. So over the three of the last four weeks and you might be seeing it in your league where the manager that had Jonathan Taylor might have roared out to a 70 start and they might be pulling back into the league a little bit just because of what we've seen the last couple games. We know it's in single week.
- [53:41]
Dave Kluge
He's me.
- [53:42]
Jeff Bell
Yes. But we, we know it's in play any single week for Jonathan Taylor. It is a difficult matchup against a strong Houston Texans defense.
- [53:50]
Dave Kluge
Don't hear what we're not saying. Start Jonathan Taylor this week.
- [53:52]
Jeff Bell
Start Jonathan Taylor in case he needs.
- [53:55]
Dave Kluge
Somebody to remind you.
- [53:56]
Jeff Bell
But if you want to trade for him, tell that person in your league, hey man, Jonathan Taylor's lost you like three last four weeks. Are you sure you want to be holding on to this guy?
- [54:04]
Dave Kluge
New Orleans Saints at Miami Dolphins Alvin Camaro not practicing with a knee and an ankle injury. He left last week's game with what they were calling a knee injury, but he has been nursing this ankle as well all season. They're putting both on the injury report. Jeff, I don't know if you saw Adam Hutchison, our injury doctor. You know he does all of our injury analysis. He is Projecting a Week 17 return for Alvin Camaro. So not that you were like feeling really good about putting Alvin Camara in your lineup, but prior to this game getting injured, he had a game coming off of 25 touches where it seemed like it was going to be workhorse Alvin Camara down the stretch and then gets injured. So Devin Neal is now on the injury report as well dealing with an ankle injury. He's practicing in a limited fashion so no concern that he won't be ready to go. This is another one that we need to pay attention to though. Chris Olave was limited with a back injury on Wednesday, downgraded to a DNP on Thursday, so going to be paying close, close attention to what he's able to do today. On Friday for the Miami Dolphins we got Jalen Waddle foot injury kept him limited on Wednesday, but he practiced in full on Thursday. Darren Waller up to a full participant on Thursday, so we expect to see him back this week. But Jeff, first thing we want to talk about here I think is the Saints backfield Devin Neal. How much are you expecting Devin Neal to get in this matchup? I I think we can operate under the assumption that Alvin Camaro won't play. Are we expecting just like a full blown Devin Neal workhorse role? Are we expecting some alter estimating there? Are we expecting a dozen touches going to Taysom Hill? I mean we're really just guessing here, but what are your expectations for the Saints backfield?
- [55:36]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, Taysom Hill is the interesting name there because I think the seven to 10 rushing attempts could get siphoned to Taysom Hill. Having Audrick Estimate kind of plug in as the backup there. I think Devin Neal, I would expect him to take the lead share on the running back job, but I think that you're going to run into a situation where Taysom Hill is going to be more involved than he would be in a normal game plan and kind of be that complimentary back to Devin Neal. I mean anytime we're looking at the Saints offense right now, you probably have questions overall with what what the ceiling is. Devon Vale has moved into an every single down role as wide receiver with Brandon Cooks moving on. But you probably just realized that Devon Vale has moved into an every down role as a receiver because the fantasy production hasn't been there at all. And then you're getting Juwan Johnson has emerged as the number two target here and if Chris Olave were forced to miss time then Juwan Johnson would be the number one target. And I think that that's probably the most interesting piece of all of this. Of course of you can have maybe Taysom Hill gets interesting and becomes that tight end that we can plug in like we saw at periods last year. But maybe Juwan Johnson ends up being this guy that can Shift leagues down the stretch in just garbage opportunities week after week as the number one or number two target earner for the Saints.
- [56:53]
Dave Kluge
As I said earlier on the show this week with Alfredo Brown, I said the fantasy football season doesn't officially start until Taysom Hill is a viable tight end streamer and and we're there. So welcome to the 2025 season, everyone. As for Devon Neil or Debbie Neil, though I think we do need to talk about it. I mean I, I do also expect estimate and taste mill to be involved. But if you've got your rankings pulled up, Jeff, I'd like to know where you have Devin Neil ranked because he's a guy, you know, we, we can pick knits in the profiles. Like I was not a big fan of Devin Neal in college and I know a lot of people had him as the, the RB5, RB6 in this draft class. I wasn't really there. I had some concerns about him. But you know, we do see this a lot where these rookies like, I don't know how to say this. I, I don't want to say that he's untalented by any means, that that's just fair or unfair and wrong to say. But what I'm saying is I don't think you need to be a wildly talented player if you are young and you have fresh legs late in the season and you are getting a big workload. That is a recipe that we see for a league winner year after year after year. And I don't want to say that Devin Neal's a league winner because I don't think that he's like this super amazing talent by any means, but he's young and his legs are fresh and he could get a lot of opportunity here. I, I spent an exorbitant amount of fab that I had been saving up throughout this season on Devin Neal this week.
- [58:13]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think that that's where you are. I mean I've got him at running back 26 right now and part of that's because we hadn't seen Alvin Kamara as a feature back be overly worthy of playing in fantasy week to week. Like I think that you are making prescient points on talking about where your own evaluation of Devin Neal is, but also recognizing that running back, it doesn't particularly matter sometimes it's just the guy that's going to touch the ball double digits is going White was a league winner.
- [58:40]
Dave Kluge
I remember when Ty Chandler was a league winner. I remember when Mike Boone was a league winner. Like these guys Just come up out of nowhere. And if you're young and you have fresh legs late in the year, you can give 15, 20 points a game.
- [58:50]
Jeff Bell
You just have to keep grabbing these guys because this is, this is what happens. You get these guys that come out of nowhere. That Tim Hightower is like a fantasy legend because of what he did in the fantasy playoffs. It's just creates situations where you get production unexpectedly and it's a lot different than receivers or a lot different than tight ends of expecting a rookie receiver to emerge that hasn't particularly done a whole lot but it's still a crowded receiver room or sometimes you do get the situations where it is an open receiver room but because of, of whatever it might be, the role in the receiving room, it doesn't necessarily work out with running backs. The guy on the field is touching the ball with running backs and it can get fantasy plays, fantasy production. You're plugging him in. I've again running back 26, so almost a running back two territory. There's a lot of leagues, zero running back leagues, hero running back leagues. You're plugging him in in and this has kind of been one of those things you're waiting for you. I think you're right there on blowing a decent amount of fab on there. And if he's available in any leaks he shouldn't be. He should be rostered because the potential for 20 touchdown, 20 touches is in play. 20 touchdowns would be a record. But 20 touches is in play here for Devin Neal and he has to go there.
- [59:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I'll humble brag for a quick second here. You know I did these live drafts in Vegas with our friends over at the NFFC right now I have the highest scoring team that was drafted over that weekend. But I have been patchworking my flex spot there. You know it has been a little bit of Rashad White, a little bit of Emmanuel Wilson and it's been working out for me. But now with Bucky Irving coming back now with Josh Jacobs being healthy, I dumped a lot on Devin Neal and I am immediately putting him in as my flex play. Hoping that he can kind of keep my season alive here as, as the, the, the those, those zero running backs stop hitting a little bit. But I also want to talk about the, the Saints receiver room here. Brandon Cooks is released. They recently traded away Rashid Jahid. Now Chris Alave is dealing with an injury. You talk about Devon Bailey kind of being a every down starter that people haven't really realized. But. But if we are looking at A potential game without Chris Olave here. He's more than just an every down starter that we don't care about. I think he kind of works his way into that like potential flex play and maybe even if you're really desperate, a Mason Tipton steps up into that role as well. Am I getting a little bit too deep here, Jeff? Or if there's no Alave or these guys that we're looking about looking at as viable starters? Because I gotta say, you know, I wasn't the biggest fan of Tyler Schuck, but he continues to impress me a little bit more every single week.
- [61:12]
Jeff Bell
I think it has to be a very deep league to get there, but I think that it's the worthwhile in deep leagues. Devon Bailey should be added. He and probably we probably want to see it once before we say in moderate sized leagues he should be added but certainly deep leagues he should be added. It potentially is in play. My, my feeling is that you'll see Juwan Johnson lead the team in targets. In a situation without Chris Lobby, you see Joanne Johnson leave the team targets and get to 8th attempt targets which are a ton for a tight end. And then I think you'll see here's three targets to Foster Moreau. Here's five to six for Devon Bailey, here's five for Mason Tipton. Kind of one of those types of things of a lot of these guys kind of pitch in as three receptions for 36 yards type of games with Joanne Johnson as that feeling like that one guy that could potentially emerge as the play. We don't feel great about plays on the New Orleans States offense right now.
- [62:05]
Dave Kluge
Now, right. I think the last thing we could say about this game, if for whatever reason Darren Waller is still available in your league, pick him up right now. Like we saw this guy was like the top scoring tight end and sure it was like very, very heavily weighed by touchdowns and we expect those touchdowns. You know it would just be impossible for him to keep that rate up. But alongside Jalen Waddle, there just aren't any pass catchers in this offense right now. So I think once Darren Waller is active, I mean we saw Greg Dulcich getting five targets per game. You get five targets per game to Darren Waller, potentially more using him as like the primary red zone threat as well, a LA Johnny Smith 2024. I mean it's crazy to me that Darren Waller is still available in leagues out there, Jeff. I just picked him up in our two tight end league that you started this off season. Just because I couldn't believe that he was still sitting out there on the waiver wire.
- [62:52]
Jeff Bell
I might have dropped him in that league. I might be going for a certain direction in that league, but that's neither here nor there. I think it's.
- [63:00]
Dave Kluge
If.
- [63:01]
Jeff Bell
What. What's the Dolphins record in the last four games, Dave?
- [63:04]
Dave Kluge
Three and one.
- [63:05]
Jeff Bell
They're three and one in their last four games. They're playing the Saints this week. They're favored to beat the Saints this week. They're playing the Jets.
- [63:12]
Dave Kluge
Invigorated. They look like a, you know, it's a better team than they have.
- [63:16]
Jeff Bell
Seven losses is too much to enjoy. The thought of a wild card here probably for the Dolphins, but this is a team that we know that they have talent and they're. I think it's a tough out now at this point, at the bare minimum. It's interesting that Mike McDaniel's obituary was basically written after week four, week five, and this team hasn't quit and him in the ways that I think that you could see a situation where the team completely quits. I mean, they're in talks about players being traded, Jalen Wild Waddle being traded. So I think the, the. The Dolphins continuing to be a tough out and it's probably something to look at down the stretch here.
- [63:55]
Dave Kluge
Firing inspired the entire team. But that kind of seems like what happened here. They got rid of Chris Greer and then everybody else in the Dolphins started playing well or that.
- [64:03]
Jeff Bell
Or if maybe everybody saw their opportunity to leave Miami. And so they're all just playing well because they wanted to want to get put some good things on their resume. So I, I did a trade. I didn't trade my home league. I wanted to throw this trade at you here. So my, the way my home league. First full disclosure, the way we work on draft picks is on potential points. And so it's for the full season. So it doesn't matter what happens in the playoffs. You're locked into your draft position. I'm going to be in the 12th position. I've been in the 12th position for the last three years, I think, at this point. So the picks that I'm trading away are going to be the 112, the 212, and Keon Coleman and Kyle Pitts and I got back Devon Hn. So congratulations.
- [64:43]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, that's a huge win. Congratulations. That's awesome. Yeah. Devon Hn. I talked about it this off season. What I like so much about Devon Hn is that we have seen him find elite production in multiple ways. We saw it as a Rookie in a timeshare with Raheem Mostert just like willing his way to RB1 finishes with elite efficiency. We saw this broken offense over the last two years where it was just like, you know, the PPR scam, as I said earlier in the show, just catching a ton of passes. And now this year we're seeing it all kind of come together where he's got the elite efficiency, he's got the pass catching upside. I mean he's really like that. There isn't a huge gap right now between what Devon Ajan is doing and what Christian McCaffrey was doing two, three years ago.
- [65:24]
Jeff Bell
And I, I say that too. I, I'm pretty happy with that trade. But I say that as to open up a point about if you're a contender in your dynasty league and I think what we see quite a bit is trying to augment or like add to the back end of the lineup. But if you're a contender in your dynasty, look, look for these situations where you're able to go out and add a difference maker into your lineup, a player that you can project forward as being a difference maker. And I'm willing to give the 112 and some young players that I'm less intrigued about at this point in their careers than I might have been a year ago or a couple months ago in and be able to grab a piece like hn. So instead of looking at, I think so often of what I see, what the thought across the space and dynasty is, is looking for like a Jacoby Brissette or something and thinking, well, I don't have to give up too much to get him. Look for these teams that are struggling, that are looking towards a rebuild, that have a player like HN or have a player that maybe they're thinking about. Well, I'm in a full blown rebuild here at this point. I've got this one piece. It's gonna go bad before I'm able to use it. So what can I do here.
- [66:30]
Dave Kluge
With a productive 28 year old running back on the team that's just, that's free real estate. Just go out and get them.
- [66:36]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, but even less than that, look for. So the thing with a chance 24 year old I project for the next 3 to 4 years is going to be a focal point. Look for those types of piece impact pieces. Don't look necessarily for the, the old running back and try to buy on a discount. Look for those players that might be like a Justin Jefferson or something like that. Those players that might be available right now that maybe aren't normally available and use your picks, use your your powder that you've been waiting to augment your team for. A player like that, that can be you can plug in a top five producer at their position. Whether you're solving murders during breakfast, cracking cold cases on your commute, or playing amateur detective at bedtime. Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad free included with Prime AI.
- [67:27]
Dave Kluge
Agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U V R I K.com let's talk about the next game here Jeff Atlanta Falcons at New York jets and this probably is going to end up being one of the dumpster fires of the week. I mean the, the Falcons are just decimated with injuries right now. They are falling apart. The New York Jets, I think we're getting another to Rod Taylor game. But you know Aaron Glenn likes to keep his competitive advantage by not telling us, so I guess we'll find out within the next day or so here. But Drake London's still not not practicing with a knee injury. This again. You know, a lot of people tried to downplay it right away when this injury happened and they said it was a minor injury, but I was very quick to say, wait, this is the same injury Brock Bowers had. This is the same injury that Ricky Pierce hall had and we saw that those were both very extended absences. The only way you can recover from this injury is to rest and take some time off. So you know, given where the Falcons season is headed, you know, we, we hope to see Drake London, but we might not see until the fantasy playoffs if at all this year. So just an awful situation there. Obviously no Michael Pennock. So we're getting another Kirk cousin start for the Jets. All of the fantasy relevant players we care about are healthy, of course, not Garrett Wilson, who's still on ir. But Jeff, I don't even want to talk about this game. Like Bijan Robinson, we're, we're dimming our expectations for him a little bit just because of the entire offensive environment for the Falcons. Like you know, still ranking him as a top five running back, but obviously his floor and ceiling have Both been lowered a little bit. Darnell Mooney, you know, for the not faint of heart. If you're looking for somebody to put in your flex spot, you can look at Darnell Mooney. Kyle Pitts was heavily involved. You know that was good to see some life there. But you know, he still kind of falls into that. Streaming discussion for the Jets. John Mechi. Can we get excited about John Mechi? Is that like the, the silver lining in this game?
- [69:38]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. John Metchie takeoff game. Here we go. We got back to back touchdowns here from Menchi and he's looked good. And this is a player we had talked about previously in the week about being a. He had good draft capital second round pick or second round draft capital and came in as a thought of prospect and then had a tough start to his career. And it's awesome to see. It's just a good story that you, you love to see him be able to step up in this situation. He both him and Adonai Mitchell got seven targets last week and the reality of where the jets season is is they're, they're going to give extended auditions to Adonai Mitchell and to John Meche to see if they can be parts of the solutions moving forward because they, they know the rest of their receiver room is not a part of the solution moving forward. So you let these guys have extended run. It's a lost season for both of these teams. I think the, the Falcons are a lot more disappointed in their last season probably than where the jets are. Knowing that last year was basically the, the Falcons version with, with Aaron Rodgers and everything coming back and the expectations for that team. I mean the jets have moved pieces off. They know where, where they are. You're getting a lot of of we talked about it with the Miami game of like jokingly saying maybe players are auditioning for their next job. It definitely seems like Breece hall is auditioning for his next job and knowing that he's headed into the free agency market and wants to put out some good production there. The Falcon side, another addition here where Kirk Cousins has to look at these games and say this is my last chance potentially to be a starting quarterback and the jets could be a team that he's the starting quarterback for next year. And so I think that from his angle maybe he's saying, you know, let's, let's have a good game.
- [71:09]
Dave Kluge
Job interview.
- [71:10]
Jeff Bell
This is a job interview. I mean it is kind of some levels and he, you know, if they, they want to run, I guess the Ben Johnson's tree is a little bit different than the Shanahan tree overall. A little. I think there's some similar elements, but if they want to run that, I mean this is a player that hypothetically Aaron Glenn and Ben and and Tanner Extreme should know pretty well from his time within the NFC North. And so if Kirk Cousins goes out there and looks pretty strong against the jets, maybe that is open up a conversation in the off season. Drake London, I mean it's just competitive position. You were exactly right there on what's the rush to bring this guy back? You know what he is. It's disappointing for us in fantasy given what we saw for Drake London. It's disappointing for me. That takes great pride in my wide receiver rankings and I was the, I think I was the highest ranker on Drake London as my wide receiver three on the season and I had a moment there where I looked very prescient in that and now it's going to be. He's going to be below consensus on the year and I'm going to look like an idiot. I was wrong. Apparently, you know, he got hurt. That happens. It's disappointing. And I think, yeah, you're there on John Robinson. This looks like could be a game for Tyler Algier because the jets offense might not run away with it. I mean, David Sills, maybe he gets into the end zone. He's a leverage piece for Kirk Cousins. He trusts him in some situations. I think the volume could be there for Kyle Pitts or Darnell Mooney as players that shift your fantasy league. We saw volume last week for Mooney. Maybe he's a player that is a difference maker down the stretch. With Drake London out, it's, it's job additions I think for a lot of these players though.
- [72:44]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And, and David Sills, I mean that's a, that's, that's a weird one to call out. But Jeff, you covered the, the Falcons in the off season, one of the training camp report teams that you did and you talked a lot about the friendship and the connection between Kirk Cousins and David Sills and you know, some real sicko stuff. But I was on a show with our friend Andrew Cooper last Friday and he was talking about Kadero Hodge and I was like, ah, let's, let's talk a little bit about David Sills. And we got in this Sills vs. Hodge argument on his show and David Sills ends up, you know, following up that with his first ever career touchdown. So, you know, not saying to get David Sills in your lineups by Any means. But like for you desperate dynasty managers out there where you've got 12 plus 20 plus bench spots, whatever it may be, like David Sills is worth a pickup in some of those leagues.
- [73:28]
Jeff Bell
The interesting point is seeing the shift in the way that the Falcons deployed their personnel and the Falcons led the NFL in three wide receiver sets last year. The in this past week they, they made Kyle Pitts their third wide receiver and they left Charlie Warner on the field as that extra tight end and that was the shift and it was Sills as the receiver opposite Mooney Hodge didn't come in. We, we did see a game earlier in the season when Drake London was out and Hodge plugged in and had good volume. I think that the difference between those two situations and like we see it the most in Jacksonville with Tim Patrick, but the difference in between those two situations, the way the Falcons are set up. Casey Washington's the backup for Darnell Mooney and Kadero Hodge is kind of the backup for Drake London in a one week situation. I think the way they shifted last week is saying we recognize that Drake London is not a one week situation. This is what we're going to have to deal with moving forward. And in that that's where Kyle Pitts is more the wide receiver and David Sills is has been locked into the wide receiver 3 job for over a month now. He was part of the reason why Ray Ray McLeod is no longer a Falcon that he took that job. And so you're seeing that not overall volume but did get the touchdown last week. And just the, the narrative backstory behind that is that Sills is I think he's above 30 years old or he's close to it and, and we know kirk cousins a 40 year old dad and basically those are the two old dads in the locker room that they just bonded over talking about. They actually bonded over. I think it was, it was either Stills or Cousins said hey my kids are here. Like I'm beginning to figure out a family movie night tonight and the other one had a recommendation and that's like where it all came from. But then throughout the preseason and practice like that's practice narrative between these two guys. It was the David Sills was the Drake London in the preseason for the second team offense that Kirk Cousins was running. And so a ton of targets to David Sills in the preseason in training camp from Kirk Cousins.
- [75:30]
Dave Kluge
Let's move on to the Arizona Cardinals at Tampa Bay buccaneers Marvin Harrison Jr. Back at practice after an appendectomy. I apologize to Anybody who can hear my dog snoring in the background right now, she's having herself quite a dream. Enjoying this morning. Trey Benson, who is a limited, practice on Wednesday. We were expecting him to come back this week, downgraded to a DNP on Thursday. So we will be paying close attention to what he's able to do today on Friday. If he is another dnp, then we start to panic a little bit. Amari Damercado, dealing with an ankle sprain. He also is unable to practice. Bam Knight, dealing with a knee injury. He has been limited in practice for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We've got Bucky Irving practicing in full. Sounds like he is going to make his return this week. Baker Mayfield, dealing with this left shoulder injury, didn't practice Wednesday. Limited in Thursday. There's hope that he can still play. If not, we'll go to Teddy Bridgewater, but don't really have a clear picture of that yet. Chris Godwin, still coming back from this fibula injury after the ankle injury last season. Limited on Wednesday, full participant on Thursday and then Sterling shepherd with a shoulder injury is practicing in full. Jeff, it seems like we're probably getting Marvin Harrison Jr. Back this week. Week, I'd assume coming back and being in practice, we don't know for sure. But let me just pose a hypothetical to you. Marvin Harrison Jr's back. What does that mean for Michael Wilson, who has been the top receiver over the last two weeks?
- [76:54]
Jeff Bell
Well, two different conversations there because obviously he's probably not going to catch 15 passes in a game that Marvin Harrison Jr. Is involved in. So it lowers the ceiling overall. But what we're seeing from Jacoby Brissette so far this year is that a higher ceiling than where you expected the passing attack to be or where the passing attack was with Kyler Murray. So you're running into a situation higher ceiling of a passing attack and you talk about Trey Benson, the running back injuries around there, it could open up. I mean, it has opened up and that's the way you attack. Tampa is through the air. So I think overall you're feeling better certainly than you were a couple weeks ago about Michael Wilson, and you're feeling like he's a playable fantasy option. Even with Marvin Harrison back in the lineup up, it lowers that ceiling. But the, the structure and environment that they've been in has a higher floor for Wilson of what it was before Harrison Jr.
- [77:42]
Dave Kluge
So I, I can't even speculate. Like we don't know if Harrison is back or not. I'm ranking it as if he is. But I also think having a couple of weeks off coming back from, you know, a, a surgery which, you know. Yeah, in, in today's world, these are, you know, the, the arthroscopic surgeries, small little incisions. But at the end of the day, like you're still getting your insides cut up. Like this takes recovery. You can't just come back and be 100. So I actually have week. Assuming Harrison does come back. I think there could be some limitations. We've also seen a very clear connection. I would prefer Marvin Harrison Jr. Over the rest of the season, but I don't think it's crazy. Like if you had Marvin Harrison Jr. And when he was declared out, you picked up Michael Wilson. I don't think it's crazy to start Michael Wilson ahead of Marvin Harrison Jr. For this week until we kind of see how this plays out. As for Trey Benson, we need to talk about this 21 day practice window was opened and we don't know if this was just a part of his rehabilitation plan, that they wanted to give him a rest day to see how his knee felt or we don't know if he suffered a setback. But if this was a setback and he is unable to be activated by December 10, which is not this week, but this would be after next week's game against the Rams. The season's over. They can't bring him back after this point, so we'll find out on Friday. But my goodness, if he suffered a setback, this is how we see these seasons end for these players.
- [78:57]
Jeff Bell
It is absolutely how you see these season ends. And you, you, the 3 and 8 Cardinals team right now, they, it feels like they're playing a lot better than 3 and 8, but they are 3 and 8 and, and so Kobe Brissette's.
- [79:08]
Dave Kluge
Out here throwing for 400 plus yards. And like they're fun and we see the fantasy production and then you look at the win loss column and you're like, oh yeah, it's, it's the Cardinals.
- [79:16]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, that's the reality of it is if, if Trey Benson's out and if. I think Bam Knight's probably going to be playing a limited participant, so he's probably trending that direction and he recognizes, yeah, D. Mercado's out. So Michael Carter should be the receiving back and Bam Knight would be the rushing back. Bam Knight would be. Have the best opportunity for goal line work. We haven't seen heavy targets to the running back, but if you're desperate, that's the way that you would slice it up. Trey Benson, if he gets back in there, then should be the, the top back on the. At least on the early down work. I don't, I mean at this point it's, it didn't seem like Benson's just been so bizarre this entire thing because it, when the injury first came out, it seemed to be short term thing. And then all of a sudden he was placed on IR and we were kind of surprised he was placed on ir and it's fitting that these two. It's so funny how often it just naturally works out that the situations mirror the teams that have to be playing that that same week. Or maybe that's just the. Where our minds are looking at these games. But Benson is a player that I think the initial reports were we thought he would be back and plugged back in before this period of time and he's not there yet. And a 3 and 8 Cardinals team could make that choice to say maybe this isn't going to work this year. That being said, James Connor is doing an awful lot of money next year. And I think that when you want to make decisions about what you're going to do with James Conner and what your team's going to look like, then you want to see some stretch of Benson as the lead back of what does this look like? What is full game?
- [80:50]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, like it was his first game as a starter. He got injured. So yeah, I mean that was the talk. Like immediately when James Connor got injured, we said this is, you know, Trey Benson's opportunity to cement his role as the starter and then they can move on from James Connor and wheels up for Trey Benson in fantasy. And it has been anything but. I think they probably have more question marks now. They're probably thinking, do we need to draft a running back next year? Do we need to bring James Connor back? Do we need to look in the free agent market for another veteran? I don't see how. Like, like and, and I think even if they are, let's say Trey Benson doesn't get activated this week, they lose the game, they're 3 and 10. I still think they're going to bring Trey Benson back. They need to see what they have with him, like if he's healthy. This isn't a Drake London situation. This is a, we don't know what this guy is yet. We need to see him out there and see how he plays at an NFL level so we know what to do this off season. So I, I think if he is healthy, he's going to play it's just a matter of if he is or not. So Friday practice for close attention to that footballguys.com news I will be running the newswire all day today. As soon as we get updated news on Trey Benson I will be sure to update that. So footballguys.com news a great tool that we have over at football guys. Bucky Irving, assuming he is back this week, Jeff, any hesitancy to put him right back in your lineup?
- [82:02]
Jeff Bell
You're putting him right back in your lineup. I think hesitancy is maybe a good word there to use and they need it here in this and we've seen the Cardinals be decent defense at times but with the injuries all over the Buccaneers they really need Bucky Irving to deliver here to give them to be able to put the offense on one of these running backs. I think the you've seen Sean Tucker. I think it's a fair question conversation around who would be that second supporting back or worst case scenario would there be a three way committee. That's I think where we're landing on Bucky Irving. My expectation would be we're probably not going to see immediately Balco Bucky Irving like we had seen in stretches early in the season, you're going to get a second back at least involved here. If it's going to be Sean Tucker then we would lean a little bit more in the passing work to Bucky Irving. If it's going to be Rashad White then that opens it up of who's the passing we're going to get to. If it's all three then it's a grenade here on like what's it going to work out here all three running backs being involved which is in play. I think that that's probably overall the like what's the ceiling here with Irving but in most situations you're probably going to play him if he's available.
- [83:11]
Dave Kluge
What about Chris Godwin? Is that another guy that you're just playing if he's available or do you think we're at the point now where like you need to wait and see it.
- [83:17]
Jeff Bell
I need to see it overall in this passing attack for the Buccaneers. I think to see with Godwin there it's we haven't seen Abuka is really a mecca. Abuca has really slowed down the second half of the season here and we've got Godwin. It's yeah it's not it wasn't there on and full disclosure playing the Rams. The Rams are a very very good football team all around, very strong defense and so that was a tough matchup for the Buccaneers, but you lose Bucky, you lose Baker Mayfield at halftime. And that game was one of those that. And I'm sure there was probably some feelings on the other side of the way that the Rams feel about Baker Mayfield, I think, and the way that Baker Mayfield talked up the Rams going into that game, it gives you vibes of maybe the TUA game a couple of seasons ago or where guy gets hurt at halftime and both teams feel bad that the guy's hurt at halftime and the game is competitively over and both teams just want to say, let's get out of this and yeah, just.
- [84:11]
Dave Kluge
Call it a day. Yeah, I think you're right. The, the other thing too, like you talk about how the, the passing attack has been down in Tampa Bay and like Tess Johnson, there's reasonable excitement. You know, it's a rookie showing signs of life. He scored five touchdowns in his last six games. But I think that those touchdowns have really masked how little usage in production. There's actually been there like it has just been pure touchdowns. Like, this feels very reminiscent to Jalen McMillan. The reality is he's averaging three receptions and 35 yards per game. He just keeps scoring touchdowns. So he's a guy that like you want to put in your lineup if you're looking at the raw fantasy production. But it, this feels like a house of cards. Like you can't just keep scoring a touchdown every single week.
- [84:46]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, he had been. Prior to the game two weeks ago, he had been above 40 receiving yards for, I think it was five or six games in a row. So. So you were getting a floor and then that Buffalo game just did nothing. He has been. He has been largely not affected by the return from Godwin. He's plugging in as the wide receiver outside opposite of Mecca Buka with Godwin kind of taking over for Sterling Shepard in the slot a little bit. I think Shepherd's.
- [85:13]
Dave Kluge
That's a big thing. Shepherd's done. He's done it.
- [85:15]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, he. You get vets and they can have stretches where they're really good, but, you know, 17, a six game, five game stretch is a lot different than a 17 game stretch. And so I think that, that Shepherd's really kind of struggling to push through the finish line at this season and Godwin plugs in as the slot, which is what you want to see for Godwin. It's just that I don't know that the volumes necessarily are there yet because it doesn't seem he's fully up to speed the Mike Evans gonna play again this year. I think that that might be underrated question out there that I started to see a little bit of mentions from some of the doctors in the mentioning.
- [85:53]
Dave Kluge
Todd Bowles said that he expects him to come back this year. He said Jalen McMillan is the other one who hasn't played yet this year and Todd Bowles. I, I just looked this up yesterday morning because I was wondering the same thing. I'm like is Mike Evans gonna play this year? And there was a recent quote from Todd Bowles where he said Mike and Jalen, we expect those guys to be back at some point this season, but we don't know when. So take that for what you will.
- [86:15]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. They, the Buccaneers, you get the feeling of have they. They should be a playoff team. I mean they shouldn't lose the division to the Panthers and definitely not the.
- [86:23]
Dave Kluge
Saints, but decimated within years this year. Yeah.
- [86:27]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. So it's. They're almost playing like that that two sides of like if we, if we can get back to fully healthy for the playoffs. We are a dangerous team. We're a long ways off from that. We just need to figure out some ways to win some of these games.
- [86:40]
Dave Kluge
Let's talk about the Jacksonville Jaguars.
- [86:42]
Jeff Bell
We didn't even talk about Baker Mayfield though. Like limited participants. Baker Mayfield, he's probably going to be out there, but it's, he's, he's so tough.
- [86:49]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. I can't ever really count against him like he's going to play through anything he possibly can. I think we're expecting him to play but as we said like we just. The expectations for this entire passing offense are not great.
- [87:02]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And, and it's. My week to week ranks haven't been frustrating for me. But Abuka's been one of these players where it's. I've recognized that the production's been down and I've been like, well why has everybody else got him as a top 10 wide receiver? He's going to be my wide receiver 19 this week. And then he'll go out and drop 100 yards and a touchdown in that game. And then it's like okay, well we're back in. I gotta rank him as top 10. And then the next game is 30 yards and it's just like okay, well this is the game that we're playing this, this year. But overall in the passing attack, it's I think overall in the buck. Just, just talking overall structurally with the Bucks, you're not getting it out of Baker Mayfield so far. And it's that's diminishing everybody else. And if you're looking at a three way committee in the backfield, you're running into a situation where there's pieces that we want to buy in in fantasy and we believe in overall talent and none of them feel playable in moments.
- [87:51]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And what I'll say about Baker Mayfield and I don't know, maybe I need a heat check here Jeff, because I might be double counting a little bit. First of all, I was very anti Baker Mayfield this off season. Just saying like if you look last year they were white hot on efficiency. You look at the, you know, completion percentage, touchdown rate, interception rate, SAC rate, like, like every success rate, everything for Baker Mayfield last year were by far his career best across the board. And I said either Baker Mayfield has developed into one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL or there's going to be some regression last year. And sure some of that has to do injury related as well, but there has been a lot of aggression this year. So obviously in dynasty leagues, in deep leagues and Super Flex 2 quarterback leagues, you're still holding on to Baker Mayfield. But I think like in your standard 1012 team league where you're only starting one quarterback drop Baker Mayfield like it's just not there this year. And I think seeing the, the Jackson darts and these other guys pop up like Jaden Daniels might be coming back at some point, like Joe Burrow was just sitting out there on waivers a week ago in a lot of these leagues I think like I'd rather just take my chances streaming quarterback on a week to week basis than I would be if I'm still trying to rely on Baker as that plug and play QB one that I drafted.
- [88:58]
Jeff Bell
B. Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right there. And it's these quarterbacks that we did see Baker Mayfield run last year a little bit but these quarterbacks that aren't going to run it's so much of it is touchdown dependent and sometimes you get the Matthew stafford that throws 20 touchdowns and sometimes you get the Matthew stafford that throws 40 touchdowns and it is the difference between you're playing him weekly or he's not going to be on your roster. And Mayfield falls into especially the hurt injured version of Baker Mayfield falls into that bucket of players the overall floor is not high enough to merit making sure he's locked into being on your roster on a 1 quarterback, 10 or 12 team of standard depth.
- [89:38]
Dave Kluge
Jacksonville Jaguars attack Tennessee Titans We've got Brian Thomas practicing in full. He's expected to make his return this week from an ankle injury. Hunter Long is also practicing in full for the Titans. We've got a back at practice. I'm sorry. He was limited in practice on Wednesday, downgraded to a DNP on Thursday, so not a good sign there after Amanor has already missed the last couple of weeks. Chicago practicing in a limited fashion with a foot injury. And then Tony Pollard got his typical rest day on Wednesday after a big workload last week and he is back to a full participation as of Thursday. Jeff, how does the return of Brian Thomas Jr. Change the complexity of this offense? What do we expect here? Because it felt like we were at a point where we felt good starting both Jacoby Myers and Parker Washington, adding Brian Thomas Jr. Back into the mix. Who is the odd man out here? If you think it's one of those.
- [90:29]
Jeff Bell
Three, I would say this game the odd man out for me would be Brian Thomas Jr. Just getting him up to speed. How much of it is going to be a decoy versus the way that we've seen Jacoby Meyer start to establish himself as a go to option out of the slot. The way that we know the connection is there with Parker Washington, I would lean toward Brian Thomas being more of the decoy with also saying that Brian Thomas obviously we know has the highest ceiling out of any of these receivers. So that is the calculus that you need to weigh if you're looking at a lineup decision. First off, if you're looking at a lineup decision between multiple Jaguars wide receivers, God bless you and good luck. You're you're at that point anyways. But I had a lot of Brian.
- [91:08]
Dave Kluge
Thomas Jr. And Travis Hunter teams at least I'm you know, almost thankful to not have to have to deal with that.
- [91:13]
Jeff Bell
Well, you know who you're playing between those two so you know, at least you don't have to decide there. But but yeah, I think Thomas Jr. We've just seen they kind of tried to peel back the volume a little bit probably to make him a little bit more comfortable potentially. And I think coming off of injury being out a couple weeks you would expect a lower volume game. Whereas Jacoby Myers looked pretty good second half of last week and you're getting Parker Washington there. I think to rank them all out you really do need to weigh that of do you need the volatility in your lineup? Do you need the ceiling and that would be Brian Thomas Jr. Or do you need a little bit of a safer play of that Just get me those 12 PPR points and I think that would Lean Myers first and then Parker Washington next off of that.
- [91:55]
Dave Kluge
So I think long term, I'm with you this week. I think that this is going to be a ramp up game for Brian Thomas Jr. I mean, I'm starting him in a couple of leagues as like a, you know, wide receiver for flex play in those, like deeper leagues. Don't feel great about it. But I think long term, Jacoby Myers is exactly what this offense needed did to get Brian Thomas Jr. On track because they were trying so hard to figure out what Brian Thomas's role was. And it felt like they kind of unlocked the offense a little bit when they started using Travis Hunter as that guy playing out of the slot, the guy running the routes across the middle of the field, the guy catching balls through traffic. And that kind of unlocked Brian Thomas Jr. To ride the right rail, play on the perimeter, get outside the numbers, be that deep threat. And I think now having Jacoby Myers in that role, that allows Brian Thomas Jr. To do what he did best at the end of last season, which is be a downfield threat, be a guy who can play on the sideline. So I think this is overall like we haven't seen it, we haven't seen what Brian Thomas Jr. Can look like in an offense with Jacoby Myers. But I think this is very beneficial for Brian Thomas Jr. And you know, once we see him, maybe it's a week, maybe it's two weeks fully up to speed. But I do have a little bit more confidence in Brian Thomas Jr. Now through the fantasy playoffs than I did a month ago.
- [93:03]
Jeff Bell
Breton Strange so, I mean, if I give you a range, you're going to get it. But three out of his last four games, so he had the Kansas City game where he was hurt at halftime. If you remove that game, he's had at least five targets, but seven targets in two of those three, five targets last week. He's had between five and six receptions in three of those last four games. We saw the 93 yard game last week. I think that we're not expecting a 93 yard game, but this is a guy that three of his last four games he's been at least five receptions, six receptions. So the volume could potentially be there for Strange. And that's another piece, is that as we're divvying up this receiver room, as we're divvying up where these targets go, Brenton Strange being back and involved, it does fear that there's a comfort level with Trevor Lawrence going to Breton Strange.
- [93:48]
Dave Kluge
Who do you think is A better athlete right now? Well, not right now, but Last year, a 30 year old Evan Ingram or right now a 24 year old Brenton Strange.
- [93:58]
Jeff Bell
I think that if you were to slice it up of the way they look better athlete, I mean I think.
- [94:05]
Dave Kluge
Ingram might be a little bit more polished. But like, like you get the ball to Britain, Strange, he can do some fun things after the catch and that's what he's going to do. He's not going to be running these complex deep downfield routes. He's going to be running short little crossers and he's going to catch the ball. And he's a what, 270 pound guy who can rumble through a defense. Like that's what we're hoping for with Brenton Strange and we know that Trevor Lawrence throughout his entire career has displayed this affinity for throwing the ball to tight ends. So yeah, Brenton Strange, you know, when I do my rest of season rankings, I, I started to bump him up as it seemed like his like return was getting near after last week. I immediately moved him up to like Titan 16 and I was just like, this guy is a weekly starter. Like if you are hurting at tight end, pick Brenton Strange up and get him in your lineup.
- [94:46]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, it's, that's the reality of it is I don't know that I'm as high as it seems to be. The industry is on Breton Strange overall, but I think when you make the argument that he's basically an every down player and Trevor Lawrence is very comfortable going to the tight ends and it's, it's the exact opposite of the Pittsburgh situation or the Ram situation where you're saying if we compile all these players into one tight end then we'd have something here with. If you just had Pittsburgh Steelers tight end in fantasy you'd have something, but because of the different players, it's not like that. In Jacksonville it's Brenton Strange playing every snap and then just kind of voluming his way just by proximity, not intention sometimes.
- [95:25]
Dave Kluge
Last thing I'll say about this game, no, it's actually about last game, but ties into this game. Cam Ward looked pretty, pretty good last week. You know, we've seen little flashes here and there, but Cam Ward seems like he's starting to maybe string something together here. I don't know if he's a guy that you, you know is ever going to make it into the single quarterback fantasy radar this season, but I, I think Tennessee fans have to have a little bit of hope after seeing what Cam Ward is starting to do over the second half of the season real quick.
- [95:53]
Jeff Bell
Jacksonville backfield Trevor Lawrence or not Trevor Lawrence, Trevor etn, we're plugging him back in as a running back too. And I think Bay Shaltin the takeover season is put on ice for the the moment here. You've just seen the same Bears week to week.
- [96:06]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, the Bears backfield like it to me. I'm. I'm getting the same read on this backfield as I am on the Bears. Like, if Bashaw Tutin comes out and looks really good in the first quarter, he's probably gonna get some more run and, and vice versa. I think we'll see. Travis Etienne probably be the preferred back in most games, but I think that we could have those random games where it's like, hey, baseball Toon's running hot today. Let's just keep feeding him. So yeah, I mean, Travis ETN, he's kind of a boomer bus RB2 and bashaw tootin a boomer bus flex play.
- [96:34]
Jeff Bell
So Cam Ward, I think is. Is a very interesting conversation because he's making chicken salad out of Sorry Joe. And, and I think that that's. You can see it, it's obvious on tape of the talent. The Flashes are there. I do can't help but wonder. So I'm. I'm noodling up my first mock draft of the off season. We're kind of getting to that point of if the Tennessee Titans are sitting there with the number one pick in the draft. So you think that you don't. So we trade back. You don't take a different quarterback and trade Cam Ward?
- [97:10]
Dave Kluge
No, no, no, no, no. I don't think so. I think I've seen like. I don't think the fan base would be too happy with that. Which, you know, not all GMs are listening to the fan base. But it does seem like I've seen Tennessee fans really start to rally around Cam Ward. You know, the, the, the players feel like they're a little bit more inspired over these last couple of games. I think Cam Ward has shown enough this year that you can roll them out again. Year two.
- [97:33]
Jeff Bell
All right, so numbers for Cam Ward. He's got 2,210 passing yards there, the second most by a Titans rookie. Do you know who has the Titans rookie record for passing yards? Dave?
- [97:43]
Dave Kluge
I'd guess Warren Moon.
- [97:46]
Jeff Bell
Marcus Mariota holds the team 2818. So Cam Ward needs 608 yards over the rest of the season to set that record. Kim or has seven touchdown passes. Hugh Millen is the only player in NFL history to throw for 3,000 yards and not hit double digit targets or double digit touchdowns. Right now, Cam Ward, he's headed to be over double digit touchdowns. But there's some interesting potential statistical areas that came Ward is because that, that split is pretty extreme. The wildest thing that I saw when I looked this up, Trent Dilfer had a season where he threw for 2,700ish yards, over 700 yards, and he only threw four touchdown passes that whole year.
- [98:31]
Dave Kluge
Wow. See, I'd like to see some more rushing from Cam Ward because we see the athleticism when he's like moving out of structure and in the pocket and we saw him push the pile for that touchdown last week. This to me feels like a guy that like we should be drawing up like six to eight rushing attempts for every single game and letting him play a little bit more loose. And I don't know if C.J. stroud is the best comp but like one of those guys that like we know has rushing upside but almost like doesn't have the desire to want to rush the ball. So that's been kind of frustrating. You know, maybe a little bit of a miss for me in fantasy projections. You know, I was hoping that this guy would rush a little bit more than he has, but what are you gonna do there, Jeff? Ready to move on to the afternoon games?
- [99:12]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, we can do that.
- [99:14]
Dave Kluge
Minnesota Vikings at Seattle Seahawks JJ McCarthy has been limited in concussion protocol. Sounds like he might be ready to play, but they might be leaning to Max Brosberg. This is a weird situation and I don't really know what to make of it. We'll talk about that in a minute. Justin Jefferson got a rest day on Wednesday, but practiced in full on Thursday. JSN also got a rest day. Cooper cup got a rest day. Kenneth Walker limited with a glute injury. So no majorly impactful injuries here outside of the J.J. mcCarthy thing. And anything I say about this, Jeff, it's just speculation, man. Like I, I don't know what's going on. It sounds like the concussion symptoms were self reported by JJ McCarthy after the game, but then he opened up the week practicing in a limited fashion. Isn't missing any practice time here. We see a lot of Vikings fans are clamoring for Max Brosmer at this point, but I, I don't, I don't know what to make of this.
- [100:12]
Jeff Bell
You know, I think we, we've talked previously about the developing the Nine Persona as a kind of a strategy there for JJ McCarthy, but then like, peeling that back of like, did you have enough failure in your career that you needed to develop this Persona? I think. Or like, is it the type of thing. I think J.J. mcCarthy's very proactive about mental health and is. Overall, that's a good thing. At the same time, when you're young and you're very proactive about mental health, maybe you're too proactive about mental health and maybe it's like, to the point where it's like too much in his own head of these. This is the way that I'm supposed to have to act and behave as a quarterback. And instead of just playing quarterback, I. I don't know. It seems like there's. He's definitely missing the layoffs. I think that there's. He's a guy that. When the evaluation. I was concerned about the amount of football that he had played in my evaluation as a. Him, as a prospect and also what he was asked to do at Michigan, I think he was in a very insulated situation. Yeah, Very, very insulated situation. And it was hardly put on him to have to do the things that you'd have a quarterback have to do. And it's not been as insulated of a situation now with Minnesota, and it looks like a real struggle. And of course, who do they play this week? Sam Darnold come and come in. Well, they're going to Sam Darnold's town now, but Sam Darnold as. As we're really getting to ahead here on this Minnesota quarterback situation and Max Brosnomer being the. The perfect marriage of being a rookie who. You might think not everybody knows his name. So, you know, you can be out there on having his guy first and. And then. But also he's an undrafted free agent that I don't. I mean, we've seen Kevin o' Connell work magic. It doesn't seem to be working magic with JJ McCarthy right now.
- [102:00]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, if we get Riley Leonard and Max Brosmer starting this week, I mean, at least it would be fun. Like, we get to see some new faces out there that we haven't seen yet this year. But. But, yeah, I don't know. It's. It's kind of weird to me that, like, people are clamoring, like, if I'm a Vikings fan, I just want JJ McCarthy playing as much as possible. Getting those reps like this very much so. Feels like a lost season. They have no chance of competing in the NFC North. Like, get out there, take your licks. You already lost your entire rookie season, but, you know we saw the ankle injury this year. Now we're seeing the concussion as well. I mean this to me, I, I've said it a handful of times. Jeff, like Trey, Lance, Vibes, what I'm getting here, like just the guy who drafted with enormous expectations and just struggling through injuries for the first couple of years. When he does come out there, he looks like he's just shell shocked. You know, I'm hoping that they can figure something out here, but I, I think at a certain point he's just gotta let him go out there, play and figure it out. That's the way that he is going to get better. We'll see how that shakes out. As for the rest of this, wouldn't like, I don't know if there's a ton to talk about here. Justin Jefferson, like we could, I guess we can talk about Justin Jefferson. Like my goodness, it's been terrible with J.J. mcCarthy. I was running the numbers the other day with Carson Wentz when he was a starter. Justin Jefferson was doing what Justin Jefferson does, pacing for over 1600 yards in a 17 game season. Look what he's doing with J.J. mcCarthy. He's pacing for less than 900 yards. I mean he's not even giving us like wide receivers three production back right now. And it's not just the touchdowns either. It's the targets, it's the receptions, it's the yardage. There's just been nothing there. I mean it's kind of crazy when I'm doing my rankings this week. It feels so wrong to have Justin Jefferson as low as I do. But you know, DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown, Lad McConkey, Stefan Diggs, those are all guys that I prefer to Justin Jefferson lineups this week.
- [103:40]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think Justin Jefferson's one of those guys that it's the tough part of what we are trying to do here. And you, if you were to rank him relative to where his numbers are telling you then he's going to be a lot lower than anybody's used to seeing Justin Jefferson. But of course if he has that week where he's Justin Jefferson for 120 yards and two touchdowns, where the biggest idiots in the world of telling people to sit Justin Jefferson. So you're, you're catch 22 area there. I mean Justin Jefferson looks very, very visibly frustrated on the field and that's probably the, the biggest thing right now of him looking so frustrated, not even hiding it anymore of where he is. Which tells you probably week to week that's something that he's dealing with in practice every single day. Of seeing it with J.J. mcCarthy, of getting yourself ready to go play that game. He's. His contract doesn't really let him decide to make a different decision if the Vikings don't get this thing figured out for at least a couple of seasons. But we do see these receivers sometimes.
- [104:42]
Dave Kluge
31 teams that would happily take on that contract if that's what the Vikings decided to do. Yeah, I mean like you can't pay enough guy like Justin Jefferson, a lot of teams would be happy to take that on.
- [104:53]
Jeff Bell
And I'm sure you, you probably have the, the group chat there with Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson and Chase is probably overjoyed that Joe Burrow's back in the lineup. And meanwhile Jefferson's like, yep, I gotta go back to work today. So like it's yeah, it's. I don't. That's speculating like and Vikings fans will roast me and destroy me for that speculation. But they've got to get a solution here and I think you're right on it with J.J. mcCarthy of you, you need to keep, keep putting him out there week after week because you need to allow him the chance to figure some things out. But also too you want to see how he takes away from this year because challenges like that can break a person or they can build a person and you were going to want to see you're going to have a difficult decision to make about what the future is going to look here. And it's do we draft a guy in the fifth round or are we thinking about we're going to draft a guy in the first round and that's probably where you're starting to head towards the conversations around the vice Vikings.
- [105:47]
Dave Kluge
And as our Cecil Lammy likes to say, pressure can make diamonds. It could also burst pipes and we'll find out what it's doing here. Jeff, I'm surprised that we've talked about this game for about six minutes now and you haven't once mentioned the Sam Darnold revenge game here.
- [106:01]
Jeff Bell
I did, Dave. I said, I said, you know, as things are are working out here, of course the way that these it works in the season is you're seeing Sam Darnold now.
- [106:10]
Dave Kluge
Yes. So this will be very, very fun. All eyes will be on this one. JSN still very much so on 2k watch pacing right now for 2029 yards, hoping to be the first wide receiver in NFL history to eclipse the 2000 yard mark. He has just been phenomenal. As for the backfield here, Kenneth Walker seems like he's starting to pull away a little bit with the job, but we still see Zach Charbonnet is the one that gets the touchdown last week. I feel like every week we just have more questions and fewer answers on this backfield. So I will just defer to what my default answer has been for the last month. Put them both in your lineups as you know, your, your RB3 or your Flex or whatever. Hope Kenneth Walker can rip off a big play. Hope Zach Charbonnet can find his way into the end zone. But I think trying to pick one of these two running backs, it's just a fool's errand. They're both going to find ways to get fantasy production and trying to guess who's going to do what on a weekly basis is just very difficult to do.
- [107:04]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, the way I was at the beginning of the season, I'm probably in a similar spot now of not we can look at what's happening right now and it's Walker getting the lead in volume but then Charbonne getting the touchdown to be the play. But I think that overall, if you wanted to play this out as if one of these backs were to take command of this backfield or edge swords taking command, becoming that guy that we feel comfortable playing on volume, it would be Kenneth Walker feels way more positioned to do that than Zach Charbonnet does at this point in time. So I think that that's overall the, the overall view to have of this backfield of if it were to break in one way where we feel good about one of these guys, it would be Walker that it would break in his direction. But yeah, it's. They're both just like back in running back to flex potential options. You feel a lot more nervous I think with Charbonnet in the lineup even though he ends up being the guy that scores them all points because it is so touchdown dependent. But that's. Yeah, it's. It's just a messy situation. But then 114 yards per game right now is the number that we're watching for Jackson, Smith and jig Byford approach. 2000 yards, 114.5 is what he needs. He needs 108.5 to break Calvin Johnson's record of 1964 yards. So there's that. He did set the Seahawks single season record last week for most receiving yards. He needs 20 receptions to tie his own team record for receptions.
- [108:26]
Dave Kluge
Unbelievable stuff. Yeah, he's just your three breakouts back on the menu. You let's talk about the Raiders at Chargers. Tyler Lockett dealing with an ankle injury that limited him on Thursday. Trey Tucker limited on Wednesday, but a full participant on Thursday, so no concerns there. Michael Mayer dealing with an ankle sprain, sounds like he might miss some time. Has yet to practice this week. Of course, the Raiders fired Chip Kelly. Greg Olson. No, not that. Greg Olson has been named the interim offensive coordinator. Omarion Hampton back at practice with an ankle injury, which we will talk about. I don't know how we just find this out now, Jeff, months after the injury that he's been playing through a fractured ankle after we were told this was just a sprain. So he said he's ready to go, but we have to wait for him to get medically cleared before we can make any assumptions there. And then Trey Harris dealing with a jaw injury, practicing in full. So kind of a, you know, you don't see jaw injuries too often on the, the injury report here. But let's start talking about the Raiders, Jeff. Chip Kelly is out of the picture. When I saw Greg Olson was the interim headco or the interim offensive coordinator, I was like, sweet, we got a tight end out here. Let's, let's get some, some plays going to Brock Bowers. But no, like I said, not that Greg Olson. What do we expect here with this change? I mean, what we've heard from Greg Olson so far is he said he wants to get the ball to Ashton Ginty and he wants to get the ball to him in creative ways. Like we saw Ginty just getting slammed into the middle with an awful offensive line. I, I want to think that, you know, Chip Kelly does weird things with personnel. I want to think that a fresh set of eyes here is going to look at the whole picture from a 10,000 foot view lens and say Ashton Ginsey and Brock Bowers are really good. If I want to keep my job, I'm going to try to get the ball to those two as much as I can.
- [110:07]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, it's, it's so funny the impact that island games have because Ashton Genti has been. And he was involved. Well, he's still eight targets in that island game. But, but he's been really like the Dollar general version of Devon Hn for most of this year where he's just getting it in the passing game as well as the rushing game and you're not getting the super spike ceiling weeks. I think that sometimes with these rookies people can talk a lot about them, but we're not entirely sure what it's going to look like on the field. And I think that when you overall look at the prospect profile of Ashen Genti, it makes perfect sense to be used in the manner that he's being used similar to an Ashen Genty. He's not really gonna profile as being a guy that you're giving 25 rushes and he's gonna, he's, he's very different from Omarion Hampton. I think overall of what you see stacking up these two rookie running backs and their overall package, you are seeing Genti used in the way that you want to see him use. But of course that island game against the Cowboys is where he is seen and it's not there on the ground in that game. I mean a really strong 2.9 yards attempt is not going to scream great game against the Browns defense. But this has been a excellent Browns defense. Gets up over 100 scrimmage yards. He has eight receptions that game, 58 receiving yards in that game. He set the Raiders record for touchdown catches by a rookie running back with four. He had one last week. His next reception will tie Marcus Allen's team record for receptions by a rookie running back. So he's trending towards there. He should be have the third most at the end of the year. Should have the third most receptions by a rookie. Hunter Renfro had 49, Amari Cooper 72 and Brock Bowers 112. So yeah you're getting it. Ash and Denty the Dollar Dollar General version of Devin HN and I think the overall points can be there. Brock Bowers. We've seen Brock Bowers games of what we wanted to see on Ash and Genti.
- [112:05]
Dave Kluge
I'm gonna put you on the spot out and quiz you here real quickly. Jeff, what do you think Ash and Ginty ranks in PPR scoring right now among running backs.
- [112:12]
Jeff Bell
He is I would say running back 13ish.
- [112:17]
Dave Kluge
That half PPR. He's 13 PPR, he's running back 11. And I remember this was kind of what we said in the off season is like the ceiling with Gen Z is that he can become a top five guy and the worst case scenario is that the efficiency is terrible, the Raiders suck and he still volumes his way into a back end RB1 season. That's what you're getting. Like you talk to a lot of people out there and they'll probably tell you Ashton Jensen's been a bus this year when he's given you top 12 production. Like what else did you expect?
- [112:45]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, we were talking a little bit offline yesterday about some of these just like the narratives relative to where the Actual production is. And I think the narrative is on Ashton D.C. being a massive bus. But you're exactly right. And, and I've said that a couple of weeks ago of looking at the numbers here and I did a public poll to ask is Ash and Genti a bust? And a lot of the returns I got was well, yeah, he's a bust. And it's like, well, he's actually a top 12 running back. And this is, these are the things that you're wanting to see, expecting to see. You're getting the spike weeks you're getting. He's got eight touchdowns on the season. He's going to set Raiders team records for receptions. He's going to flirt with rookie overall records for Raiders team records.
- [113:24]
Dave Kluge
The Raiders like a long standing team in the NFL with a lot of darn good running backs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [113:31]
Jeff Bell
It's, it's gonna, he's gonna end up as probably hitting close to a thousand yards, probably going to get to five or six at least. Me, four touchdowns rushing, four touchdowns receiving. So you know, if he ends up at seven touchdowns rushing and five touchdowns receiving, I mean these are things that a very, very small list of rookies have ever accomplished is the way that he's trending towards. And you and I both love our stat head filters and these lists that we can create out of this. But your company man, and, and we appreciate everything that Pro Football Reference and stat has does for us. We, we love them.
- [114:05]
Dave Kluge
We're doing an audio only show today, but I'm rocking the Pro Football Reference T shirt on today's show for those that can't see it, which is everybody listening.
- [114:13]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, but I think at the end of the, the of the day you're gonna run into a season where Ashton Deity does something that very, very few players have done and the overall perception is going to be a negative. A bust like this was a terrible decision to make and it's. I don't agree.
- [114:30]
Dave Kluge
I got a number for you, Jeff. You've been dropping numbers on us all day on today's show. Here's one. Justin Herbert. In the five games where he has played with Joe Alt, he is averaging 23.5 fantasy points per game. That's good enough to be the QB2 in fantasy. In these six games without Joe Alt, he is averaging 16.3 points per game. That is the QB19 in fantasy on a per game basis. So knowing that Joe Alt is out for the rest of the year, do we have to drastically shift how we are looking at Justin Herbert? Like felt like one of the best picks you could have made in football through the first month of the season. Then we see how this offense looks as a whole without Joe Alt and the reality is that he is giving us back end QB2 production. Is Herbert no longer that plug and play QB1 we hoped he was?
- [115:13]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think that we're, that we're there. The pieces hypothetically are there for any boom week, any given week week. And as we talk about this, this week, the way that things work, Justin Herbert will deliver a boom week and all the naysayers of Dave and Jeff out there will say, you guys are idiots. I always knew it. See, Justin Herbert had a great game here, but I think, yeah, week I.
- [115:35]
Dave Kluge
See a terrible offensive line having to face off against macro Max Crosby and a hobbled Justin Herbert. He's not on the injury report right now, but he clearly is not 100. He's taken something like 60 something hits this season. Like it's just lapping the next closest guy. Like he's not himself. The offensive line is banged up and I think Max Crosby is just going to raise, you know what on him this year or this week.
- [115:57]
Jeff Bell
It wouldn't surprise me at all, but the Chargers have just the volatility week to week and, and that's been the reality of it. It's, it's funny because you pull those numbers without Joe Alt in the lineup and I, I looked at, they seemed like they have definitely played an inordinate amount of 1:00pm kick games for a west coast team and they have, have, they have played a lot of one and it's, there's a very clear difference in production for this team in those 1pm Eastern Time windows versus the other windows. I was told that was lazy analysis when I did that and presented those numbers. But you know, maybe that is the Joe Alt splits or maybe just the reality of it is this is a team that has some very extreme splits between what you're getting week to week.
- [116:38]
Dave Kluge
Maureen Hampton, fractured ankle. How does this not get reported? Jeff and like Shout Out. There are a lot of injury doctors out there that saw that Omarion Hampton was in a boot like three, four weeks after this injury. And they said this is not an ankle sprain. There's probably a fracture there. But that news just came out two days ago. I, I mean like this would have really changed how we'd be holding on to Amarian Hampton and what we would have been recommending to do with him in fantasy. But it sounds like, you know, we're hoping he's back this week, but that's not even a guarantee at this point. He's still limited and sounds like he needs to be medically cleared before he can get out there.
- [117:11]
Jeff Bell
Player. Yeah, I'm I'm curious because you, you've dig in harder these injuries things to me but to me it seems like a player playing the first week his 21 day practice window is open doesn't happen that it's ends up being.
- [117:27]
Dave Kluge
It does I'd say about 50 of the time.
- [117:29]
Jeff Bell
Okay. Because I feel like If I got 21 days to get a guy ready, then I'm going to take those a lot of those 21 days that make sure he's acclimated and feeling comfortable instead of of like just plugging him in immediately. I know when the there was one video clip of him running a drill and the news of him being activated and so everybody is slamming him back into their lineups and you know, this is their man Hampton week. I'm not there yet. I think it's going to be bad.
- [117:55]
Dave Kluge
That you talk about. I think people just see him with shoulder pads and a helmet on and they say he's back. Jeff Mueller, he does some really good work when it comes to like movement analysis and injury analysis. And he said he's like that injured leg, like his calf is smaller and he's still favoring his other leg. And Jeff was very quick to say like he does not look fully healthy at this point. So I'm ranking it now as if Hampton is coming back, but I've got him outside of my top 20 because I don't think the verse is going to be there. I don't think he'll be getting his full workload, but I think that there's still going to be enough that you can't feel good about starting Kamani Vidal. So I think Hampton, like I, I wouldn't want to bench Hampton because it's a Mario Hampton it and he could still, you know, score two touchdowns. He can catch the ball a bunch. But I think that it pushes Commandee Vidal completely off the fantasy radar. And it's still Amari Hampton. Like until you see it, he's going to be a risky start.
- [118:44]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. And the way that I rank it, I'm ranking Vidal as if he's going to be the running back. And so in situations like this, I'll rank Vidal where I'm going to end up ranking Vidal and then I'll have Hampton kind of as a placeholder. Like once you start to get out of those running Back two flex guys that you feel like you can plug in. That's where I'll put Hampton at this moment in time and I'll wait for more news. But I think without Hampton Vidal the volume should be there. I, I am curious. I'm. I need a little bit of help here with Vidal because it's been every other week. So it should be an on week. But they have the buy.
- [119:19]
Dave Kluge
How does the buy factor.
- [119:21]
Jeff Bell
So is it an on week or an off week for Vidal? If it ends up find out. It's really tricky.
- [119:27]
Dave Kluge
Guess we will find out. Last question I have for you, Jeff. Who's the Chargers target leader?
- [119:32]
Jeff Bell
It's Keenan Allen. We did trivia and Dave and I both missed that. We, we slammed that button so fast on lad McConkey. It's been Keenan Allen and you know, there's been stretches where Keen Allen looks done but still gets involved and there's been just all over the board here. But it goes to that conversation of being all over the board for the Chargers in general.
- [119:54]
Dave Kluge
And I do wonder too, like, like you know, he's, he's an older guy. He's getting up there and I wonder if there's like some load management in how he is being used a little bit because we saw that one game that was just like so out of nowhere or Keenan Allen had just been like a steady player he was producing and then in week eight he comes out with a 25 SNAP share. Next week 37, next week 51. Then the last time we saw him out there, 75. I almost wonder if there was just, you know, just aches and pains as he's 33 years old. Load management, you know, let's, let's keep him ready. But like, like ever since that one weird fluky game he has slowly jumped back up into being a full time player. So I think, you know, not a guy that like you need to get in your lineups. We don't feel as good as we did after the first month of the season. But I think he's back in that Wide Receiver 3 discussion in this game.
- [120:41]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, the part of it too. I think that they were really happy with what trade Harris gave them in a spot start. And so I think that they wanted to reward him and saw that as an opportunity to reward him in that game. Was that the game I'm trying to pull up my account and snap counts here to see was that against the Titans that you know, Keen Allen had that down game?
- [121:04]
Dave Kluge
No, the really, the really quiet game. So it was super Weird. He came off the game against Indianapolis where he had 119 yards and a touchdown. And then the very next week against Minnesota he only played 25 of the snaps but they just boat raced him in that one 37 to 10 like it wasn't even close. So I think that had something to do with it it. But then the next week they played the Titans and it was a closer game than I think people realize but that was the game worth 37 of the snap. So he came off his best game of the season and then just followed that up with a dud performance playing less than a quarter of the snaps.
- [121:36]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think they wanted to reward Terry Harris but also load manage Keenan Allen. And I think that we saw the blowout in Minnesota. They probably assumed that the Titans game would be another blowout. So they probably went into there thinking Trey Harris we you've been doing great with with the run blocking. We're going to run the ball right down the Titans throats and then it was a 1pm Eastern Time kick that they got off to a slow start. Can I'm going to make a note for our developmental team though because as I look at our snap count tool which I absolutely love, it doesn't list who they played in those weeks and I feel like we should probably have listened to they played.
- [122:09]
Dave Kluge
So also the Tennessee game where that was the game where you said they kind of probably planned to put them under. That was also the game that Joe Alt left early with an injury. So I think that kind of threw them off and that's why that game was a little bit closer than expected. Just. Man, I feel like every year the Chargers just like relive the same season year after year after year after year. Like I'm talking back to like the early Philip Rivers year. Like it has just been the same Chargers team every single season. Man, it's. It's tough to watch.
- [122:40]
Jeff Bell
I'm. I'm a noted Chiefs hater and you know I'm, I'm certainly enjoying the 6 and 6 record but like I just know that you've got so to in order to knock the Chiefs out of the playoffs. You need the Chargers to hold it off. You need the Jaguars to hold it off. You need the Colts to and like I just know you're gonna have the, the Chargers are going to walk around and end up like in a Week 18 game that they must win and then you're gonna end up Daniel Jones. It's hurt. Or the Colts wheels are going to fall off and the Jaguars are going to jaguar and you're just going to have the zombie Chiefs that somehow get into the playoffs at 10 and 7 and then they're the seventh seed and then they go out and they are in the AFC title game again because that's how, how things happen.
- [123:22]
Dave Kluge
Knowing your brain, Jeff, I've guess you already checked. Do you know what the, the odds are right now for the, the Chiefs to make the playoffs?
- [123:29]
Jeff Bell
I want to say that plus odds. Yeah, I was gonna say, I want to say it probably moved to plus for the first time. That is something that I was going to check today. Yeah, you can talk about something else, Dave.
- [123:40]
Dave Kluge
Let's talk about the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The last game of the late afternoon slate here. Josh Allen practicing in full. Dalton Kincaid limited with a hamstring injury, hoping to make his return this week after a DNP on Wednesday and missing the last few games. Josh Palmer, DNP on Thursday sounds like he might not be ready for this game. Curtis Samuel, another dnp. The Bills signed Brandon Cooks. They let Elijah Moore go. So making some back end wide receiver movements there on the Pittsburgh Steelers side of the ball, we got DK Metcalf not practicing on Wednesday with an ankle injury, but he was a full participant yesterday. Aaron Rodgers, DNP on Wednesday, full participant on Thursday, sounds like he is going to be good to go. And then Johnny Smith, he always gets that rest day on Wednesday. So if you see a cue next to his name, that's all that was. Jeff, if you've looked up the playoff odds for the Chiefs, you can share that with us. If not, what are you going to be watching in this Bills Steelers game?
- [124:33]
Jeff Bell
So it's pretty close to even odds. It's minus 122 to make the playoffs and it's plus 100 to miss the playoffs. And so that's probably about as close to even odds as you're going to get because they know that if they were to swing plus on miss the playoffs, people would probably hammer that. So that's where it keeps the, the odds where it ends up being. You see the Brandon Cook's signing here and, and you know I put out into the world that I, I really wanted the Bills to add a Saints wide receiver at the trade deadline here and I need to be more specific next time when I put those thoughts out.
- [125:04]
Dave Kluge
Monkey's paw curls.
- [125:06]
Jeff Bell
Yes, yes, that's exactly what happened here. But I think that overall when you see the movement of what the Bills have done lately with their receiver room, you flashback against that Dolphins game They had nothing vertically at all in that offense and every single thing that they have done since that game has been with intention of trying to open up vertical elements to get to be able to push the ball with Josh Allen. And so adding Brandon Cooks here potentially gives you a vertical element. Playing Terrell Shaver's more potentially gives you a vertical element. Getting Josh Palmer back potentially gives you that element. Getting Gabe Davis involved gives you that element and you're moving off of there. I think there were some redundancies on having Elijah Moore on the roster of where you. Because the reality is if you've got nothing downfield, you need to have something downfield because none of these guys, Curtis Samuel and Elijah Moore are not going to displace Khalil Shakur and Dalton Kincaid when they're healthy and involved and they need that area of the field to operate. They operate in the intermediate to short areas of the field. So you need to be able to open that area up. And so all the other pieces are in with intention to be able to open that vertical element up for Josh Allen.
- [126:12]
Dave Kluge
Again, Jeff, I feel like I asked you some rendition of this question every single week and I'm just going to ask it again. Is there a single pass catcher besides Khalil Shakir that fantasy managers can rely on in Buffalo?
- [126:24]
Jeff Bell
No, there's not a single pass catcher that you can rely on. I mean you can talk yourself into playing any of these options because it's Josh Allen and the opportunity to catch a touchdown in any week week exists with Josh Allen except for when you're playing the Texans who just absolutely own the Bills. That's a tough matchup. That was a tough game last week.
- [126:40]
Dave Kluge
But not the takeaway for next year is just like, you know when you're doing those 20 round best ball drafts, just save your rounds 18, 19 and 20 picks and just take whatever wide receivers at the back end of the Bills roster like don't, don't pay up for, for the Josh Palmer, the Keon Coleman or whoever's getting steam in those middle rounds. Just like take the back of the roster guys at the end of drafts and know that you'll get a handful of spike weeks out of them. And I think that that's kind of how you can play this Bill's offense, assuming they don't make any big investments at the wide receiver position this off season for the Steelers. Jeff sounds like Aaron Rodgers is planning to play. I mean I just, I don't know what that really means. Like this has just been such a Frustrating. Like I've got DK Metcalf down in wide receiver three range. We're looking at this three way committee among the tight ends now we're seeing Kenneth Gainwell more involved, which is taking some of the shine off of Jalen Warren. This just is not a fun offense. I mean it's fun to watch. If you're into like goofy offset formations and you know, tight ends running routes through the B gap, yeah, you're going to get that sort of fun stuff. But for fantasy purposes, this is just another Arthur Smith nightmare.
- [127:50]
Jeff Bell
Arthur Smith, the mad genius at work. Kenneth Gainwell is one of four, four running backs that have four games with six receptions. It's Kenneth Gainwell, Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson and Devin H. Hand. So you know that that tells you the company that Kenneth Gainwell is approaching. He is second in the Steelers and targets. But I do think that you probably have to project a split backfield now here with Kenneth Gainwell with what he's shown in opportunities. And also I think part of that they recognize Jalen Warren's been playing through injury, they can conserve him a little bit. But some of the other part of it is Kent Gainwell has played very, very well. So while like the one constant it seemed like we had on the Steelers was that Jalen Warren being that top back and getting volume, now that's split as well. They just try to figure out how to split everything here. And I think long term darn in Washington has looked like a piece that could be a long term potential option. Other than that, it's just all over the board what you're going to get.
- [128:42]
Dave Kluge
Did you see the. The quote recently with Darnell Washington when he was on the St. Brown Brothers.
- [128:47]
Jeff Bell
Podcast where he's 311 pounds? Yes.
- [128:52]
Dave Kluge
That is unbelievable, man. Like you have a left tackle out here in space just mowing through defenders and like, I don't know, I'm not an offensive coordinator but if I was, I'd. I'd draw up like at least eight plays a game to get the guy that or get that the ball to that guy. He's been a been a fun player this year. All right, let's talk about some Sunday night football here, Jeff. Denver Broncos at Washington Commanders. Pat Bryant practicing in in full. That's the only notable guy on the injury report for the Broncos. For the Commanders though, we've got a huge list of guys that are dealing with something right now. Zachary, it's got a rest day. He didn't practice at all this week. Chris Rodriguez dealing with an illness was a DNP on Wednesday. Jaden Daniels is back at practice. I can't believe this but we'll talk about that in a second. Terry McLaurin was a full participant on Thursday. Sounds like he is going to be back out there. Noah Brown, he is back as well after missing quite some time with this groin slash knee injury. Jalen Lane has been limited. Ben Sennett is on the injury report with a ankle injury. I mean and we haven't even talked about all the people that have suffered season ending injuries and are on IR right now. I mean this has just been a disaster year for the Commanders. Jeff, are we actually going to see Jaden Daniels play again this year?
- [130:08]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I, I think so. I think it's you. It's fitting that you know the week after we see or the day after we see Joe Burrow return but the week after Joe Burrow kind of gets ramped up. I just feel like there's a lot of like three lines with these LSU quarterbacks with Joe Burrow, Jane Daniels, we know when they played each other last year it was a definitely Bengals.
- [130:27]
Dave Kluge
It's going into the game they have the same record but the Bengals feel so much more alive than the Commanders do. Like, like the Commanders feel dead in the water where it feels like the Bengals like you know a few things break in their direction. They could still sneak into the playoffs.
- [130:41]
Jeff Bell
Well difference between a 6 and 5 division leading Pittsburgh Steelers and a 8 and 3 division leading Philadelphia Eagles because the Bengals know that their path to making the playoffs would be through the division. The wild card's probably not going to be there and I mean the, the Commanders you'd say it would be the wild card. I think it's really you're looking at a point that there were high expectations coming into this year and recognizing that they've lost how many games in a row they've lost five, six games in a row and you lose the Dolphins and then I mean this is kind of fire shot against me. Whether it be Denver this week or Minnesota next week, you can't lose any more games. And maybe it's the fire your shot and we decide for the discretion is a better point of valor. We're going to bench gentlemen the rest of this year or maybe it is he's just healthy and he's going to play the rest of the year year.
- [131:32]
Dave Kluge
And I don't think we're going to see Jaden Daniels back in this matchup. I think that you know the limited practice we've still been seeing Marcus Mariota getting a lot of the starting reps this week. So it's probably another Marcus Mariota week. So that poses my next question, Jeff. People have been sitting on Terry McLaurin for a while now. They are antsy to get him back in the lineup. Is this a matchup where you feel Good Getting Terry McLaurin in your lineup? Like, where do you have him ranked this week? Because I don't feel too good about it. It.
- [132:01]
Jeff Bell
No, I'm, I'm, I'll happily be wrong and not play Terry McLaurin going up.
- [132:06]
Dave Kluge
Against back at practice in a full capacity so that we're expecting certain back this week, too.
- [132:13]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, no, this is, this is trouble spot for the commanders. It's just, yeah, they're ramping. You know, Jane Daniel's back at practice. But then if the Broncos do what the Broncos should do in this game, maybe we see them say, okay, maybe we don't need to put Dane Dan finals out here this year. It is a very, very difficult matchup for the commander side. Zach Ertz next catch. And it's fitting that they play the Broncos this game because his next catch, 859, his career, would tie him with Shannon Sharp for the second or for the fifth most by a tight end in NFL history. So he can move into the top five, tying with Shannon Sharp at 815 with his next reception. And they're playing Broncos, Shan Sharp's former team. So there you go.
- [132:54]
Dave Kluge
And then RJ Harvey, we're getting him in the lineups, but you kind of know what you're getting there. There's going to be an annoying amount of Jaleel McLaughlin and Adam Prentice and Tyler Bidet, but you're still getting RJ Harvey in your lineup. Where you can, I think with Troy Franklin or Cortland Sutton, you and I could have an hour long discussion on who the more valuable player is, but I think for fantasy purposes, you're just getting them both in your lineup.
- [133:15]
Jeff Bell
Right.
- [133:15]
Dave Kluge
Like they're both just kind of back end, wide receiver, twos, high end, wide receiver, threes, however you want to look at it, that, you know, you know, Sutton's got more big play upside, Franklin has more volume. But I feel like the differences in target depth and volume and after the catch abilities, they kind of all offset each other and they just project very similarly.
- [133:33]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, I think the thing to watch for Denver's wide receivers, we, we can project the volume for Franklin. But Franklin, despite being the lead team leader in targets, he's never really moved Past being like that 65% snapchair wide receiver. And you've had. It was a lot cleaner when Marvin Mims was injured because Pat Bryant could just plug in there as the third receiver. With Marvin Mims back now for a couple of weeks and getting up to speed, are we going to trend back towards having, you know, Cortland SUTTON Being that 80 to 100 receiver and then the other three receivers all end up kind of in the 50 range? Or has Troy Franklin solidified himself with the running backs or the with the wide receivers? In terms of the running backs, I feel like the entire conversation comes down to Jillian McLaughlin getting the touchdown against Kansas City. And it didn't feel intentional of him getting that touchdown. It just happened to be in the game when it happened. Because I think had R.J. harvey gotten that touchdown, it would all be wheels up. Here we go. Takeoff season for RJ Harvey. Because you saw the volume that you wanted to see out of RJ Harvey. You saw the volume. It's just that because McLaughlin got that touchdown, it lowered the total points that Harvey scored and it opened up the. Well, the other back scored the touchdown here. So what do we have? I think you have RG Harvey as the lead back here here for the Broncos and the only person in the only player in fantasy consideration in Denver backfield.
- [134:50]
Dave Kluge
Monday Night Football Jeff Final game of the week, New York Giants 2 and 10 going into New England to face off against the red hot ten two Patriots who have coming off of nine straight wins. Here for the Giants we've got Wandell Robinson and Darius Slayton, both limited with injuries. Jackson Dart has cleared concussion protocol and will return this week after missing the last few games. For the Patriots we got Hunter Henry limited with a toe injury, but he is expected to play through that. Jeff Jackson Dart, unbelievable. So far this year he's the per game QB3. However, he scored a rushing touchdown in every single game despite only playing like half of the season. He leads all quarterbacks in design runs. A lot of people are saying that that's what got Brian Dable fired is that he was just using Jackson Dart. You know their first round quarterback is the battering ram to move the offense down the field. Do you think that with Mike Kafka who. I gotta say Mike Kafka was the play caller beforehand. Like you know, Brian Dable was kind of the fall guy but Mike Kafka is now in the position as the head coach right now still calling plays. Do you think that maybe we see fewer design runs for Jackson Dart as Mike Kafka hopes to preserve this job and, and hold on to his first head coaching opportunity.
- [136:05]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, probably. But you know, maybe Jackson Dark catches a touchdown and leads the the NFL in yards per reception. You know, so maybe there's other ways that it gets to there. The creativity that we saw last week with James Winston in that game. Yeah, I would expect overall the volume to decrease a little bit. But I think at the same time I think that Jackson Dart is the, he's got a little bit of young Josh Allen in him of the, you know, I want to get hit in the mouth and then I'll feel comfortable in the game type of an approach to playing the quarterback position. And so I think he's that type of type of player. So you can scheme it out but it's, he's still probably going to be there because that's the way that Jackson Dart feels comfortable playing. And while you, you can talk about scheming it out but you want the guy to do the things that he is good at doing and the way that he plays the quarterback position, you want to develop around that. It's the, the opposite of the Cam Ward conversation. CJ Stroud conversation of I think Jackson Dart does have that Josh Allen gene that he is going to run. Even if you tell him not to run, he is going to run and put his head down and try to get those, those important yards.
- [137:08]
Dave Kluge
So I got another stat for you, Jeff Wandell Robinson. We are seeing him just have an unbelievable breakout season. If I told you that his target volume was identical to last year, I'm sure you'd believe me because you look at these numbers, last year he had 140 targets. This year he is pacing his 17 game pace for 145 targets. So a very slight uptick, but we're talking like less than a target per game here. Last year on 140 targets he had 699 passing yard or receiving yards. This year pacing for 145 targets, he is pacing for 1125 yards. I mean this guy's almost doubled his efficiency from last year. We are seeing him getting unlocked as a deep weapon and this is something that he did consistently. Was it. Oh my gosh. I should. Western Kentucky. Is that where he played, Jeff?
- [137:53]
Jeff Bell
No, he started Nebraska, then he went to regular Kentucky.
- [137:56]
Dave Kluge
Kentucky. Yeah. I don't know why I thought regular Kentucky. Kentucky. That's right. Like we saw this guy like you know, he was a deep threat in college. He was just catching balls deep downfield making these exciting plays. And since that ACL tear in his rookie season, he's just been relegated to this like very low value, short target type of player. But we're seeing him blow the top off of defenses now, getting behind him, making the big plays. I mean it's crazy that it kind of took us like this long in the season to realize that this is like actually happening. Talked about a little bit here and there but. But he's quietly been a top seven wide receiver over the last two months, Jeff. Like he's just a plug and play starter at this point. Right. And you were able to get him off of waivers in most leagues.
- [138:35]
Jeff Bell
Yeah, so we, I did, I participated in a dynasty mock draft for Sirius. Our Bob Harris invited me to be able to participate in that and I got Wanda Robinson late in the eighth round in that and he's wide receiver 38 in keep trade cut. He's 24 years old and I think that these, he's younger probably than people realize. But it's just I think as as good dynasty process of just looking through these guys of when their production and when they're young or youngish and their production is a lot better in redraft than their dynasty value is. Those are opportunities where the once we get out of the season I think you'll see a massive market correction to the things that you talk about there of his target volume being the same with Malik neighbors in the lineup. With Malik neighbors out of the lineup, the efficiency improving. It's. That's one of those things of why you're a sharp analyst to discover that in season and then everybody kind of catches on out of the season and we get one of these things with his value. I think that we'll probably see that in Dynasty. And so as you're looking for pieces again it's kind of that Devin H. Hand theme that I talked about of if you're looking for these pieces to make these all in contender moves, look for these under the radar 24 year olds or look for these guys that are still multiple years of production window instead of looking at the 31 year old wide receiver and saying well he's you know, right until the wheels fall off trying to win. Look, look for these real opportunities make meaningful impacts that can balance out your dynasty roster, give you that augmentation of. Of upside there. And Wanda Robinson seems like one of those pieces right now.
- [140:11]
Dave Kluge
And I want to say like Wanda Robinson's rookie year there was so much steam building because like you know, and I know you'll kind of laugh at this. Jeff, like the per route run data for Wandell Robinson as a rookie was blistering. He was pulling targets, he was being effective with his opportunities and then went down with the ACL tear and hasn't come close to those metrics since. But now we're seeing it and sometimes we talk about this all the time with injuries. Like sometimes you're Christian Watson and you come back nine months from your injury date and you look like you didn't skip a beat and you are just out there playing better football than you ever have before and sometimes it's not that clear. Sometimes it takes a couple of years to regain that trust and feel like your old self. And to me, like the Wandell Robinson we're seeing this year looks very much like the guy that I scouted coming into his rookie season. And the guy that we saw the first half of his rookie season, the guy that we saw over the last couple of years didn't look like Wandell Robinson. He looked like a guy who was still limited by a knee injury. So. So I am totally buying into this breakout right here because Wando Robinson was a prospect that I loved and now two years removed from the injury, he's looking like the player that I really liked when he was younger.
- [141:14]
Jeff Bell
So Wando Robinson was a running back to start his college career at Nebraska. He was a running back and so a lot of his Nebraska usage was around the line of scrimmage. And then it really what he did in Kentucky in opening up the vertical game was a shock if you were in the prospect areas. And and so I think and we saw a similar narrative probably set in with his NFL career of having that low volume role last year and deciding this is what this guy is. It's definitely there into impact all elements and he looks like he is the long term solution potentially next to Malik Neighbors as the wide receiver too in this offense.
- [141:51]
Dave Kluge
Anything we need to talk about with the Patriots, Jeff? I think we know what we're doing here. Like Drake may plug and play Travy on Henderson plug and play. I think we might see a little bit more involvement from Ramadre Stevenson now that he's got, you know, another week removed from the toe injury. But Stefan Diggs, we're starting him as wide receiver too. This, this to me like kind of feels, I don't want to say like the Texans because that's, you know, just rude to the Patriots. But you kind of got like Stefan Diggs and Nico Collins or the, the bona fide wide receiver one and then you Just kind of have this rotation behind them. I don't know if there's anybody you really feel comfortable relying on outside of Stefan Diggs. Keisha Booty. You know, we saw some exciting things early in the season, but now we're seeing Matt Collins kind of run a lot of his routes and maybe even be better at those routes. So with him coming back from the injury, I'm talking a lot here, but basically what I'm saying is, like, Stefan Diggs is really the only wide receiver you can rely on this week, Right?
- [142:41]
Jeff Bell
Yeah. I mean, if you're desperate or if you are the type of person that likes to look at numbers and have your play entirely numbers. Matt Collins, I think is. Is in consideration of a prop market because he's is so involved in those, numbers do tend to be lower. We've seen him be consistently involved, but overall, if you're looking at fantasy and looking at setting a lineup in a managed league, you're not there at all. I think that plugging Keisha Boute back in, getting him back up to speed, you can get open up some of those splash targets again to Keisha Bute. I think that's potentially there. You know, demaro Douglas has flashing moments, but I think he's pretty limited. He seems to be the backup to. To Stefan Diggs. And if Stefan Diggs were to miss time, I think that demario Douglas, you can make the argument that he would be the second most valuable Patriots wide receiver to own right now. But it would take Diggs being out of the lineup to really realize that value. I mean, the running backs, you. We should be at a point where Travon Henderson has established himself to the level of not losing his job to Reminder Stevenson. But who knows how this might shake out? But yeah, right now, I think, right. We feel comfortable projecting Henderson.
- [143:49]
Dave Kluge
Well, Jeff, you're gonna get the same hill you're willing to die on question that everybody else does. For everybody tuning into this show. If you've listened to the launch pad before, I always have one guest on, and we always kind of do this thing. Jeff and I do this episode every single Friday. But we're doing a weird kind of mashup here this week with the show not going on YouTube, not going on Twitter, trying to get it out to a little bit more audiences by putting this on the fantasy football feed. So. So if you're listening to this on the fantasy football feed and you enjoyed it, be sure to check out what Jeff and I are doing over on the Dynasty show feed. And if you're listening to this over on the Dynasty Dynasty show feed. Please check out the fantasy football show feed where every Friday I have a guest on to do a one on one episode like this. So without any further ado, Jeff, I filibustered for about 45 seconds there to let you come up with this. And we'll do another episode in the off season where we kind of dig into your process and projections and all that stuff. But. But for now, on Friday, November 28, football related or otherwise. Jeff Bell, what is a hill that you are willing to die on?
- [144:45]
Jeff Bell
A hill I'm willing to die on. Oh man. The hill that I'm, you know, football. It's also football also. Otherwise there is a lot of conversation about college football schedules. So here's two hills that I'm willing to die on. First off, the the idea that Julian saying should should not be the Heisman Trophy winner because he is making he is playing so good that he is making it look too easy is the most asinine thing that I can ever imagine. This is a player that he is on pace to smash the NCAA record for completion percentage in a season. He's one of the most efficient quarterbacks. I think his efficiency slid just the tiniest tick and so he's second now. I think in an efficiency he's like second or third in touchdown passes. The idea that he's playing so well that he can't win the Heisman Trophy is just the most group thing think possible. I think this is a slam dunk. One of the most efficient quarterbacks ever playing for the number one team in the nation in his first season. He should be a Heisman Trophy. The other wheel that I'm willing to die on. I'm very passionate about college football opinions relative to NFL opinions. I feel like I try to be a lot more even keel when it comes to the NFL opinions, but the the loss of some historic rivalries and we're seeing some of them come back a little bit. But that's the the biggest thing in college football that I think is an absolute disgrace of like some of these games of like why is Pittsburgh not playing West Virginia this weekend in the backyard brawls? Some of these things that these teams have ended these games their season for 100 years. We're getting Texas, Texas A and M back now. And so that's great and it was ridiculous that we didn't have have it for a period. But the your rivalry game should be set in stone and it shouldn't matter what conference you're in to get a paycheck right now you need to play that rivalry game. There's talk that Notre Dame and USC might not play each other anymore because of reasons that USC is saying that our schedule is strong enough now. We don't need to play Notre Dame. That's the most. It's, it's just too much thought into too many things. I think is college football is a lot of people thinking about things way too much and you should be playing your rival this weekend. If you're not, you should feel fix that.
- [146:54]
Dave Kluge
And for anyone who can't see this because it's not a video episode, Jeff is rocking his Ohio State jersey and Jeff is a huge part. I, I wouldn't even say a huge part. The biggest part of the rookie guide that we do over here at football guys, which we are starting to lay the ground work out for. We're going to be doing that a lot over the next few months, dipping our toes into the rookie waters as we approach draft season at the end of the year here. So anybody who hasn't listened to Jeff and I before, please, as I say one more time, check out the Dynasty show feed where we talk a lot of Dynasty, but we also talk a little bit of redrafts, best ball, some dfs, some rookies, some college, just a little bit of everything there. So I want to thank everybody so much who took the time to tune in today. Hope you had a thanks a great Thanksgiving, approaching Christmas. Hopefully you have a great December as well. I want to thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you soon. Listen up.
- [147:54]
Jeff Bell
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- [147:55]
Dave Kluge
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- [147:59]
Jeff Bell
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- [148:02]
Dave Kluge
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Jeff Bell
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Dave Kluge
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- [148:13]
Jeff Bell
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- [148:21]
Dave Kluge
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