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Week 4 Starts, Sits, and Sleepers || Fantasy Football 2025
00:34:13
In Episode 268 of the Footballguys Fantasy Football Show, Dave Kluge and Alfredo Brown discuss players they are starting and sitting based on Week 4 matchups. Send your questions to fantasyshow@footballguys.com 🎥. SUBSCRIBE to the NEW...
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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:07]
B
You've got AT and T5G, so you're.
- [00:09]
A
Fully confident, but the vendor isn't responding. And International Sleep Day is tomorrow. Luckily, AT&T 5G lets you deal with any issues with ease. So the pillows will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly, especially you. ATT 5G requires a compatible plan and device coverage not available everywhere. Learn more@att.com 5G Network.
- [00:31]
B
I'm not a big concert guy. I just.
- [00:33]
A
I. I love concerts.
- [00:34]
B
I went to them. I went to them a little bit when I was younger, and just, like, the more I went to them, I was just like, I don't enjoy this. Like, I don't enjoy, like, being surrounded by, like, crowds of sweaty people who, for the most part, like, 90 of them do not smell good. And then it's like, if you are in the crowd, like, the. That's it. This is so old, man. Like, this is very losery of me. It's just like, God forbid you need to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. You're like, well, it's gonna take me about 35 minutes to get out of this crowd. It's just nightmare. I experienced it once. Went to even, like, the most basic thing. I think I went to a warp tour. It was here in Florida, and I was. I had a broken foot. I was in a walking boot, and it was just a nightmare. And like. Like, after that, I was like, you know what? I almost got trapped in a mosh pit, and I was like, you know what? I think. I think I'm too old for this now.
- [01:32]
A
This is where you and I are very different, Alfredo. Like, I was just at System of a Down a couple of weeks ago, like, seeking the mosh pit shirt off. Like, just going crazy like that. That's. I like doing this stuff still, but I like old music, too. I also. This morning, I bought tickets for a Candlelight for four String quartet playing Christmas music. So, like, I'll see any music. I like it all.
- [01:55]
B
Like, metal, you could say Trans Siberian Orchestra.
- [01:58]
A
It's not. I do have.
- [01:59]
B
It's not.
- [02:00]
A
I do have tickets for Trans Siberian Orchestra. Funny enough, this is a different one. My wife loves Christmas music. Like, I've never met anybody in the world that likes Christmas more than my wife does. And, like, we used to do this thing when we live in Chicago. Every year we'd go to See the Chicago Symphony and Orchestra play this like, Christmas thing. There aren't any. Nothing really like, compares to the Chicago Symphony and Orchestra out here in Colorado. But we've got two shows that we're going to this winter. One is the week of her birthday. We're going to see Trans Siberian Orchestra. And the other is this like very small. It's called the. They call them candlelight concerts and it's held in a church and it's just like an hour and a half and they light a thousand candles and it's just a four string quartet playing Christmas music. So I like stuff like that do. Like, you know, sometimes I like going crazy at a metal show and sometimes I like kicking back at some classical quartet music.
- [02:50]
B
Oh, yeah. I mean, for sure. Like, I like all different kinds of music. I'm not gonna lie though. It's just like there's very few concerts that I've been to where I'm like, wow, this is an experience. And I'm probably. I know I'm in the minority of that. Like, there was a few that I did. One that was like a Game of Thrones concert where like they would play. They would play the scenes up on the. On the. It was just at System of A Down.
- [03:15]
A
The band that I just saw, Serge was a part of that. Like he was singing some of the vocals on that tour.
- [03:20]
B
Oh, that's cool. This was like back like when the show was on and like it was in its full fandom.
- [03:26]
A
Yeah.
- [03:27]
B
And it was. This was at where the Florida Panthers play. It was then. It was called the B and T Center. I have no idea what it's called now, but we were not sober watching these. Like, it's basically the videos of like every like major scene from the show with the orchestra playing down there. And that was a super cool experience.
- [03:48]
A
Was this 2017 by chance?
- [03:50]
B
Probably.
- [03:52]
A
So this. He did not do the whole tour, but he was a surprise guest performer in March of 2017 at their Los Angeles show. But it's the, the one that you're talking about and he's saying the Reigns of Castamere. I'll send it to you. You know, System of A Down, right. Like the metal band, but they've got those like, really like, like, like opera vocals almost. So he has kind of changed up his singing style. He's not doing the same like screaming in your face stuff he was 20 years ago. He's got an amazing voice. I'll send you this video. Like, I've got chills just thinking about it. Like he knocks it out of the park.
- [04:24]
B
That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, send me that one. It's week four. You're trying to figure out who to put in your starting lineups this week. Welcome into the football guys fantasy football show. I'm Alfredo Brown, joined as always. I've got Dave Kluge and today we're going to give you guys our starts, our sits, our sleepers and we're going to run through these names, try to see if we can help you all out with your lineups for fantasy football. Dave, we've, we've played with the format a little bit. I think we've settled on this now. We've got three starts, one one player to sit and one player we can consider a sleeper or streamer, however you want to phrase that. Why don't you kick us off with your first player that you want to.
- [05:11]
A
Start this week, which I think this is the format we did last year. It just took us until week four to remember. You know, now we're getting in the.
- [05:17]
B
Swing of things now really in mid season form.
- [05:20]
A
Yeah, we were just kind of flying by the seat of our pants through the first few weeks, but here we are. Yeah, Justin Fields is my start this week. I've got him as my QB8 going up against Miami. We know who Justin Fields is. Like he's going to have really good games and he's going to have really bad games. We saw him smash. He was the QB3 in week one playing against the New York jets and then had a very tough matchup against the Buffalo Bills where he was the QB35 before leaving with a concussion. Sounds like he is trending towards playing this week. You know, obviously if he's not starting, you're not playing him, but if he is starting, I'm putting him in my lineup without thinking twice. Miami's given up the second most quarterbacks to any team so far this year besides Dallas. They've also given up the fifth most to running backs, which is important for a rushing quarterback like Justin Fields. I've got him as my QB8, so starting him ahead of Patrick Mahomes against Baltimore, starting him ahead of Bo Nix, going up against Cincinnati ahead of Jordan Love against Dallas, of course. Keep an eye on the injury report, you know, make sure he's able to log some practices so he'll be trending towards playing. But this is a smash spot for Justin Fields. I don't know if he's a weekly starter, you know, in and out every single week, but in a matchup like this. If you've got Justin Fields, you got to get him in your own lineup.
- [06:26]
B
I think you may have said that the Miami Dolphins are giving up the second most quarterbacks, which either way, I think is an accurate statement.
- [06:32]
A
Second most two quarterbacks. Coffee is still, still hitting.
- [06:36]
B
Yeah, man. Listen, the Dolphins have always struggled regardless of who the defensive coordinator been, the linebackers, the defensive line, the front seven. No matter what, they have always struggled with quarterbacks that can run the ball. And with this defense the way it is, I kind of think that any quarterback that is playing the Miami Dolphins that week should be considered a streamer, let alone the guy with the massive rushing upside. So, yeah, I'm, I'm all in on that one.
- [06:59]
A
And I think that's a pretty simple one. But I think a lot of people are going to see that week two performance and say, like, oh, I can't start Justin Fields. That was a really tough performance. And then it doesn't get much easier than Miami. Sorry, Alfredo.
- [07:11]
B
No, we're, we're very self aware of what we are. Did you notice that Miami, they're, they're wearing the, the rivalry uniforms for this one. The black uniforms that are like, I.
- [07:22]
A
Can'T tell if I absolutely love them or absolutely despise them. Like, sometimes I'm like, this is an XFL team. And then other times I'm like, you know, they're actually kind of cool.
- [07:31]
B
Yeah, it's. When I first saw them, I absolutely hated them. I posted that I hated them. Got. I in turn got a lot of hate for that. And then like now more and more people are coming out of the woodwork of like, yeah, these are kind of ugly jerseys. And the fans in South Florida are just like, we don't care about these jerseys. Win a single game.
- [07:50]
A
That's just the, the Miami always gets weird with the jerseys. What were those Heat jerseys a few.
- [07:55]
B
Years ago that were like the Vice City jerseys?
- [07:57]
A
The pink and baby blue? Yeah, those, those were pretty cool. But just like Miami gets weird with it. I like it.
- [08:02]
B
Yeah, the Miami Hurricanes actually I think did it best. They had the NFIU as well, but like they had the black jerseys, just straight black with orange lettering. It was really clean. Dolphins messed up. Dolphins messed up. Anyways, let's, let's go to the next player here. I want to talk about a guy that I want to start this week and I think that people are starting to lose their faith a little bit. He wasn't like a very risky draft pick when you made it, but Jacoby Myers, wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders, going up against the Chicago Bears this week. Dave, we're just kind of going at each other's throats already. Bears and Dolphins. But Chicago, they're allowed. Yeah, man. I mean, they're allowing the second most fantasy points to wide receivers. We've had four wide receivers score at least 14 PPR points or more against the Bears so far this season. Bears don't have their two starting cornerbacks. Jalen Johnson looking like he might be having surgery. Kyler Gordon's been a DNP throughout the week. If I'm not mistaken, he didn't play last week either. That leaves Tyreek Stevenson and Nishan Wright. Who, Dave? Each of them together. Tyreek Stevenson's allowing 104 quarterback rating. Nishan Wright is allowing a 123.7 quarterback rating when targeted. Both of these guys are allowing more than 14 yards per reception. This is not a good secondary. This is a smash matchup for Jacoby Myers. If you have any other Raiders receivers that you want to try to throw in there, Trey Tucker and these other guys, you can probably get them into your lineup as well. But Jacobi Myers, he's hit 60 plus receiving yards in every single game. He is the receiver to play from this, this Vegas Raiders team. He leads the team in targets, team target, share, yards, snap count, share. This is the guy that if you have him, I'm not holding back. This could be a big blow up game for him. And honestly, I think a lot of other players on this team, Geno Smith, Ashton Ginty, this could actually be a sneaky shootout game.
- [09:46]
A
Yeah, I like Jacoby Myers a ton. I will pump the brakes a little bit on Trey Tucker. I kind of understand what you're saying, but if there's one strength in this Chicago defense, it is in their safeties. They don't give up the really big plays either. So if Trey Tucker, I mean that's what he does is he kind of lives off of these big plays. And with Kevin Byard and Jaquan Brisker back there, that that's one of their strong points. So I think that they can get eaten up alive out of the slot by Jacoby Myers. I'm very aggressive on him in my rankings this week. So yeah, completely in agreement with you on Myers. I've got a little bit of pause on Trey Tucker.
- [10:18]
B
Oh, yeah. I'm not excited about it, but I'm saying if you went out and you put, if you put fab on Trey Tucker, it's probably because you needed him And I don't think this is the week where you go, you know what, let me wait, let me wait a week. Let's just throw him out there. You probably needed the guy. All right, let's go to the next start. Dave, who else are you starting this week?
- [10:36]
A
I'm sticking with the same game that you just talked about here because as you said, sneaky shootout potential. I'm seeing it as well. DeAndre Swift. It's really weird right now. He is the consensus RB28 this week and like I, I had to look multiple times like, am I overlooking something like why is he ranked so lowly? And I can't really figure it out. I've got him as my RB15 on the week. 17th in expected fantasy points per Fantasy points. That's a mouthful. Expected fantasy points is a metric by our friends over@ fantasypoints.com and they've got him at 17th in that stat. 18th in touches per game, 14th in targets per game. He's the RB23 in points and this game has the fourth highest over under the week. So you talk about that sneaky shootout potential. I don't even know if it's that sneaky like Vegas sees as a shootout as well. This just feels like a bounce back game for Swift. We've seen the opportunities, we've seen the touches. Just haven't really seen the big plays or the touchdowns. But this is a game where that can happen. So I've got him. As I said, My RB15, I'm starting him ahead of Chase Brown, which might sound crazy, but really tough matchup there going up against Denver. I've got him ahead of Kenneth Walker. I've got him ahead of Bree hall, who also has a pretty nice matchup. This just feels like a good spot for DeAndre Swift. I know some people have been frustrated with the production, but you got to look at the usage and it's been there and it's only a matter of time before the production follows.
- [11:50]
B
Yeah, like, like I mentioned, this I think is going to be a sneaky shootout game if, if everything is on track the way we think it is for the Bears and Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams, it did look like he did look like a different quarterback last week. Caleb, like I will say that he seemed. Not that he doesn't always seem confident, but he seemed to be a lot quicker with his decision making. There wasn't. He wasn't as frantic as we normally see. It almost looked like Caleb was comfortable playing in structure.
- [12:20]
A
Yeah. And I mean for me, like this is a Sight that I have, like, never seen in my life. You know how they always like, interview the game winning quarterback on the field after my game. To see my quarterback in a clean jersey, that's unheard of. Like, usually when I see a Bears quarterback after a game, it looks like they've been through war. Just like blood and mud and tears and just like, you know, luckily we were able to squeak that one out and like, he's still got a smile on his face, pristine jersey, zero sacks, I think is the biggest takeaway. Everyone gets really excited about, you know, the big plays and the touch touchdowns and all that sort of stuff. When I see zero sacks, that gets me very, very, very excited. This interior offensive line that they really invested in is starting to mesh, starting to look really good. So I've got high hopes for this team going forward.
- [13:02]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the, that's going to be the easiest thing to allow Caleb to play with. Instructors just have the offensive line working well up front. He's not going to be playing as frantic. That's going to be the key going forward. Looks like it's all working out well. I'm going to go to my next guy here, Trevion Henderson, running back for the New England Patriots. And this might feel a little risky.
- [13:23]
A
For people, but I'll tell you, before you even get into it, I just want to say I put him in a lineup this morning. I was setting some of my lineups and put him in over Michael Pittman and I was just like, this is it, this is the week. So I want to hear what you got to say.
- [13:33]
B
I've, I've got him in my lineups as well. And if you drafted him, you drafted him with this expectation that you were going to be starting him and likely starting him early. Everything has been written like, this is, this is what the prophecy spoke of. Trevion Henderson coming in to be the starting running back after Ramandre Stevenson fumbles the job. Quite literally away twice last week going up against Carolina. This is where I think this gets interesting. The Carolina Panthers have the highest neutral passing rate of any team in the NFL. Patriots are also top 10. They're number 10, to be exact, but top 10 sounds better. Henderson's value has always been in the passing game. So even if we don't see 15 carries for Trevian Henderson and maybe we see eight, nine, maybe 10 carries at the most, I think it's likely we end up seeing quite a bit of receptions going through the air. And that's the Big thing is I think there's going to be a lot of passing in this game that we don't normally see. Carolina's allowed at least 12 PPR points to running backs in each game this season. They allowed nine catches over the last two weeks, one of them being Bijan Robinson, but the other being Trey Benson, and that was with James Conner in his full normal role. So this team is susceptible through the air to running backs. It doesn't have to be a high volume game for Henderson. Just get him out in space, get him catching passes. Going up against this Carolina secondary, who, I mean, J.C. horn is a great defender, don't get me wrong. He's going to have to be covered.
- [14:56]
A
Trivian Henderson, that's exactly it.
- [14:58]
B
He's going to be focusing on the wide receivers. So, yeah, give me, give me Trevan Henderson in this game.
- [15:04]
A
Yeah, I, I'm completely with you here. And did you see yesterday in practice? I mean, I don't want to like, put too much weight into it.
- [15:10]
B
I know, I know he went first.
- [15:12]
A
I'm surprised you didn't mention it, but yeah, like people were going like crazy about it. That, you know, that's notable. And you talk about the two fumbles from Ramadre Stevenson. Antonio Gibson also fumbled in that game. And Alfredo, do you know how many fumbles Trayvon Henderson had in his entire collegiate career?
- [15:27]
B
Zero.
- [15:28]
A
Yes. So if we got other running backs here coughing up the football, Treveon Henderson, he takes care of the football. Let's hope we can see that change happen. This is why you are patient with running backs. Sometimes it takes, you know, a few weeks of, of disappointment. But I think this is the week that we can really see him break.
- [15:43]
B
Out season high in touches last week for Trevillon, and that was with all of us throughout the first half going, why is he not in the game? Surely they have to put him in the game now with a whole week of preparation. I think we're going to be getting a lot of Trayvon Henderson this week.
- [15:56]
A
Yep.
- [15:57]
B
Okay, Dave, let's go to the next player on here. Who do you got?
- [16:00]
A
Jordan Addison. Going up against Pittsburgh. I've got him as my wide receiver, 29 on the week, and this one does feel a little bit sketchy, but the Vikings didn't have to throw a lot last week and you know, they were just throttling the Bengals. They had a 48, 10 win, two defensive touchdowns. They didn't really have to throw. But if you look at what Carson Wentz did, he played pretty well, completed 70 of his passes 2. Zero touchdown to interception ratio, seventh in yards per attempt, eighth in EPA per drop back. Like there was a lot of promising signs in what we saw from Carson Wentz. And I know there's always trepidation when starting a player who hasn't played yet, but this isn't a guy coming back from an injury or anything like that. He was suspended and he was playing in the preseason and he looked. Looked really good in the preseason. He is a good, talented player. And before his suspension news started, I went back and I looked 4 for 4 has this cool ADP tool where you can kind of see where players were getting drafted. He was getting drafted in rounds four and five before we expected this suspension. So this guy is a starter. Like he would have been drafted to be a starter. Don't let the discount you got on draft day confuse you for him to be some sort of bench player. Like this guy would have been a starter and he got a discount because of the suspension. So I've got him pretty aggressive in my rankings this week. Starting him ahead of of Marvin Harrison starting to head to DK Metcalf, Michael Pittman, Devonta Smith. I've got him ranked as a wide receiver 3, which is much higher than his consensus ranking.
- [17:21]
B
I like what you said, where you said, yeah, it seems sketchy and I.
- [17:28]
A
Think that's the Ireland. The travel is what it is really sketchy. Like we always see these games end up being a little bit disappointing when they fly overseas.
- [17:37]
B
It can be, yes. And it's funny because the next two players I'm going to talk about are also from this game as well. The Minnesota Pittsburgh game. This is one where I think it's. It's not going to necessarily be something where we could see a high volume of plays, but I think there are going to be pieces that you can take out of this. And especially with Addison coming back from his suspension, I think this is something where the team's going to want to get. Get him involved quickly and early and get him playing. And once again, it goes back to you drafted these players for a reason. Pittsburgh also not great. That leads me into my player, TJ Hawkinson for the Minnesota Vikings. And so this is what's interesting for me is that I know that I'm going to talk about it later is that the Minnesota Vikings are actually dead last in past attempts per game. And they are. This is not a team that you're going to see a high volume of past attempts, especially in this game with Pittsburgh. And I'll get more into that when I talk about a player that I want to sit from this game, for me, the whole thing is that Carson Wentz loves the tight end and we saw it immediately in his first start last week. However, you think TJ Hawkinson looked a 30 target rate is not something for us to ignore, especially given the landscape of what the tight end position looks like in fantasy football. So for me, Hawkinson doesn't even need volume. He just simply needs efficiency. And with the Steelers giving up the second most points, the tight ends in a game here where, I mean, like we mentioned, Dave, they're traveling. There's going to be probably a lot of them just trying to run the ball, take things slow and then a few big time explosive plays to a couple of players. The guys who I think actually fit that. I know Justin Jefferson obviously, but, but Jordan Addison fits that mold of making, you know, three catches for 96 yards and TJ Hawkinson touchdown on a couple of catches. This doesn't have to be a big time volume performance for either of these guys.
- [19:33]
A
Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, it's good to see life from TJ Hawkinson and also kind of lump Mark Andrews in this discussion. The first two weeks were terrible. Like people were talking about dropping them and I just kept trying to like hope that these guys would bounce back and we saw it last week. So I'm with you here. I think that you know TJ Hawkinson, he's just that, that target magnet that works across the middle you talk about. The efficiency I think can be offset by volume a little bit and that's kind of what we've seen. He was a very efficient, low volume player when he was in Detroit. Now he's been kind of a less efficient volume play since joining Minnesota. I think this game though, we, we always see like the, the disappointing overseas games, but this game, you know, I, I think there is some sneaky shootout here just with the way that Aaron Rodgers plays. Like he is very good against the blitz even in his age. Like it's not something where he's moving around in the pocket. He's just really good at the short passes. He's going to be playing out of, out of shotgun. He's going to be showing throwing these short to, to, to. To get over the blitz concepts that they're thrown at him. So I think this game does have some shootout potential here. I'm firing up a lot of guys in this game this weekend.
- [20:38]
B
Let's go to our. You gave me three starts, right? Let's go to our sits.
- [20:43]
A
Yeah. All right.
- [20:44]
B
Who are you sitting this week?
- [20:46]
A
This is a big name that I'm sitting this week. T. Higgins. I've got him as my wide receiver, 39, meaning he's outside of the top 36, meaning he's benchable, you know, 39.
- [20:55]
B
Outside of top 36.
- [20:57]
A
Well, top 36, you figure that's like a wide receiver one, wide receiver two, and wide receiver three. So, I mean, like, he's on that bubble, and if you don't have a better option, you need to go back to T. Higgins. I understand it, but this is also me just saying, like, hey, if you're frustrated by T. Higgins production so far, it's okay to sit him this week. Like, yeah, you drafted this guy in round two or round three and probably thought he'd be a starter, but things change quickly. This Broncos defense scares me. Jake Browning as a quarterback scares me. The Broncos are 8th best in points allowed to wide receivers, but they've gone up against two very good offenses so far in the Colts and the Chargers and still have been pretty good against wide receivers. And last week, TJ Hawkinson just two points on the season. He's the wide receiver 57. I hate to say it, but, like, he is very much so. A touchdown or bust. Wide receiver four right now. So, you know, we saw last week against a tough Minnesota team, the Bengals really struggled. Now they get to face a tough Denver Brown defense. And I don't think that this is a get right game for them. So some guys that have got ahead of TJ or ahead of T. Higgins in my rankings, Jalen Waddle, Matthew Golden, Khalil Shakir, DJ Moore, a lot of guys that you probably weren't thinking about putting in your lineup ahead of T. T. Higgins when you drafted him a couple of weeks ago. But that's where I'm at at this point.
- [22:10]
B
Yeah, the T. Higgins train is. I don't think it's leaving the station. I think it's. It's busted at this point. And it's not a thing with T. It's just his skill set has not translated well with Jake Browning. It did not previous stints with Jake Browning. And. And that's the big thing going forward here. Dave, I mentioned that I was going to talk more about this Pittsburgh, Minnesota game and the guy that I'm sitting from this because I'm. I'm going to be of the opposite mindset here. I don't see a sneaky shootout. I see a game that's going to be very boring. But I see a game that's going to have a few big plays here and there and it's. It's a. It's about picking who can make those plays. Maybe this does work out for him, but I'm gonna sit DK Metcalf going up against the Vikings this week, the last couple weeks. I know we've seen touchdowns for DK Metcalf this season, but he's combined for just six catches and 52 yards over the last two weeks. It has not been good. He actually hasn't been a top 24 wide receiver in any game this season. Minnesota already allows the fewest points to wide receivers in fantasy football. And then on top of that, that the reason I'm not expecting a shootout here is the incredibly slow rate of play. Both teams are bottom five in plays per game. Vikings have the least amount of plays per game and the lowest amount of pass attempts in the league. Steelers are 28th in plays per game and 25th in pass attempts. Throw in a good defense like Minnesota. I just. I don't see this going well really for either team. I'm trying to. I'm trying to pick and choose where I can find someone to start from this game. That's why I did lean into Hawkins and I think Addison is a nice one as well. DK Metcalf really worries me. Like I. You're hoping you're begging for a touchdown and I don't know that you're going to get that continuously week after week. I think I'd actually probably be trying to sell DK Metcalf like immediately off of that touchdown he had last week.
- [24:04]
A
Yeah. And I think that, you know, I talk about like the way to beat the blitz is with the short passes where you're throwing directly over a blitzer and that's not what DK Metcalf is going to be. So I look at the low adot guys in this offense that I'm getting not, not excited about starting them. But I think that this can be the bailout options for Aaron Rodgers, Pat Friarmouth, Johnny Smith, Kenneth Gainwell, Jalen Moran. I think they're going to see a lot of the targets is just the hot reads getting around the blitz where DK Metcalf running his routes a little bit further downfield. I don't have a lot of hope for DK Metcalf. I don't have a lot of hope for Calvin Austin. I think we're going to see the tight ends and the running backs really heavily utilized in this matchup. So I'm with you on that. I've got DK Metcalf a couple ticks ahead of T. Higgins, so I've got him as my wide receiver 31, which very much so, you know, kind of in that borderline benchable area. What would you say? T. Higgins or D.K. metcalf? Who are you starting between those two if you had to choose?
- [24:59]
B
Because I have to choose. Yeah.
- [25:01]
A
Looking at that situation. Yeah.
- [25:03]
B
Yeah. If I have to choose, I'm gonna go DK Metcalf over T. Higgins. But, man, if I have have three wide receiver options that are better than DK Metcalf, I don't want to have to start him, I don't want to have to flex him. I'm not trying to open, pray for touchdown.
- [25:18]
A
Jordan Addison, the guy that I talked about as, you know, kind of not like a smash spot start, but like a, you know, somebody that I'm a little bit higher on than consensus. I've got Addison ahead of DK And T. Higgins.
- [25:30]
B
Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think I can put them around in the same area. I think that there's. There's similar upside for Addison and Metcalfe. There's the mystery box factor with Addison. What are they going to do with his first game back with once, you know.
- [25:44]
A
Yeah.
- [25:44]
B
How good could that offense be?
- [25:45]
A
I mean, Wentz does have a big arm, and that's where Jordan Addison likes to operate as deep downfield. So we. We can see a big play here. I mean, that's a. Jordan Addison has very much so been a big play merchant throughout his career and hoping that can pick up right where he left off in. In this one.
- [25:58]
B
Yeah. All right, let's go down to our sleepers of the week, or streamer, whatever we want to call this, but.
- [26:06]
A
Yeah.
- [26:07]
B
Dave, who are you streaming or sleeping this week? I don't know. I couldn't think of a better term there.
- [26:14]
A
You know, it's funny, like, so many of the guys that we've talked about recently on the show, Jordan Addison, D.K. metcalf, T. Higgins, and the guy I'm going to talk about right now are, like, lumped together super close in my rankings. But a lot of this has to do with, like, draft day expectations. And the reality is, like, a lot of the guys that we drafted earlier falling in rankings. Christian Kirk was, like, a very late round pick. He was going, like, round round 14, round 15, round 16. If you drafted right before kickoff when he was already dealing with an injury, we knew he was going to miss some time. He fell even further than that. And I think a lot of people are going to see the production from last week and say like, no, I'm not starting. Christian Kirk, he had three catches for 25 yards. That's terrible. But he had eight targets in that game. He led the team in slot snaps. He was second in routes run only to Nico Collins and he was targeted on 28% of his routes. That, that right now is the 11th highest rate in the NFL. And I know it's a one game sample but like when he was out there, he was getting heavily targeted. They were getting mauled by Jacksonville like they this offense did not look good against this defensive front and Tennessee's defense is pretty good as well. But I think it's going to be a lot of those short quick throws. We saw a lot of screens and slants getting drawn up for Christian Kirk out of the slot. I think we're going to see a lot of that as well. The fear here of course, is that C.J. stroud just looks bad. I shared a clip on Twitter this morning where like Christian Kirk had what could have been like a, a 40 yard touchdown and you know, just ran a deep out route into zone coverage and like he was wide open on an island and CJ Stroud stared him down from like the first step in his route, stared him all 20 yards down on his route and then short armed it into his own defense where it just like hit a defender. Like easiest interception that defender is ever going to have in his life. So there is some concern about C.J. stroud because he does not look good at all. But the usage has been there and that gets me excited. So I've got Christian Kirk. I had a T. Higgins who I talked about. I've got him ahead of Calvin Ridley who has really been struggling. Travis Hunter, who has also really been struggling. I've got Christian Kirk up in the, the wide receiver, you know that that same wide receiver 3 wide receiver 4 bubble that we were talking about. But I have a little bit more faith in him than a lot of guys that you drafted way ahead of him this week.
- [28:20]
B
It's funny, you and I keep looking at the same games and these are not your traditional, you know, players that yes, they're sure fire starts. That's the whole point of this show. What we're doing is trying to help people that maybe these guys are on the bubble. For you, you're thinking about them, right?
- [28:35]
A
Right.
- [28:35]
B
And for me, I'm going to stick in that same Tennessee Houston game. I'm going to go with Elick IO Menor going up against Houston, who I mean, Titans are seventh in pass rate last week hit a season high in, in passing where they had their most pass, excuse me, their highest pass rate of the season. A lot of that was them trailing and needing to pass, which could also happen once again this week. I know Cedar Shroud hasn't looked good, but this Texans defense is still good and the Texans can still put up some points. So IO manners had 18 targets across his first three games. He's got a higher target per route run than Calvin Ridley, higher catch rate than Calvin Ridley, higher yards per target than Calvin Ridley, higher yards per outrun than Calvin Ridley. Everything is better right now than Calvin Ridley except for the number of receptions. And it's, it's, it's crazy because like, like he's also, he's not getting used as much. And I think that's the thing that people might push back on is that we're not seeing the same usage for IO Manor being out there as often running as many routes. But the efficiency metrics for IO Manor has been way better and all of the teams receiving touchdowns have gone to I.O. manor 2 for 2. He leads the team in end zone targets and has the only two passing touchdowns from Cam Ward this year. Likely no Derek Stingley in this game for Houston as he's got an oblique injury and even if he does play, he's going to be the one that's shadowing Calvin Ridley to try to eliminate big plays and take away the first read from, from cam ward. So I.O. manor for me, guy that I think you can put in your flex spot this week.
- [30:02]
A
Yeah, you know, we talked a lot during like the, the draft cycle, the whole draft process about how like what this draft class really lacked in high end talent. You know, there weren't like superstars coming in this year, but we kept talking about like the depth that like teams are going to be able to find starters on day three and like how many of these, the rookies that we're talking about right now that are really buzzing. We're not. The highly drafted guys like Ashen Ginty has looked kind of disappointing. Travis Hunter has been kind of disappointing. You know, Mason Taylor hasn't really done that much but meanwhile we got like Cam Scatter Boo and Bashaw Tootin and Ayla Menor and Tori Horton and a lot of these day three guys really kind of carving out a role quickly. So yeah, we, we talked about that a lot and I'm glad to see that it's coming to Fruition now. Imanor was a day three guy had some, Some. Some health concerns. It was a knee injury, I believe. Right. I want to say, like 20, 21, 2022. He had a really bad knee injury that took him some time to come back from. But he looks good now. And Calvin Ridley just does not. Like, can't separate, can't catch. And I think it's only a matter of time before IO Manor becomes that wide receiver one. I don't even know if I could say a matter of time. Like, it might have already happened. Like, he looks like the better receiver right here. So, yeah, I am an or excited for him and, and want to see Cam Ward start winning some games because he's looked much better than his box score has implied. And I think it's better time before Tennessee starts putting it together.
- [31:23]
B
Yeah, I mean, I Manor had a few other things in college that, you know, like, wasn't always the fastest guy on film. But then the combine or the testing put that away. He had a lot of, like, really simple drops. There was things where you were wondering what he could do. He hasn't shown a lot of those same weaknesses here in the NFL. And so there's. There's a chance, like, he could end up being the wide receiver one very quickly for this team.
- [31:46]
A
I. I still remember the first note I took on. I am an or, you know, I try to watch like, you know, a dozen routes before I put like, anything in there. And I said, this guy doesn't look fast, but somehow he's always open. And I think it's just like the way that he moves. Like he, he's a strider where he takes like really long steps. So, like, he doesn't have super quick feet, but he's just like very graceful with his movements and somehow just like continuously gets open. And even when he doesn't get open, he's got great ball tracking skills and can make those really high point catches. So a very fun player. Excited to see what he can do. And yeah, I'm with you. I've got him well in the starter range this week.
- [32:23]
B
Well, there you have it, Dave. We did six starts, two sits, two sleepers, slash dreamers. This is. It's becoming a very easy transactional show for the audience here. I hope that we were able to help some people with their decisions this week. As always, you guys can check out the football guys rankings over on footballguys.com where it has my rankings, Dave's rankings, and everyone else on staff. We've got our projections There as well. So make sure you're checking that out. Dave, I just want to say for week four, you've left out.
- [32:54]
A
The best part about our rankings is that they're completely customizable to your league settings. We put a lot of work into rebuilding this whole rankings platform out a few years ago. So we talk about our rankings and we're talking about 12 team half PPR rankings. But once you get into the football guys rankings platform, you can adjust for league size, how many roster spots you have, how many bench spots you have, how many wide receiver spots, the scoring, like every single thing that you can customize and then that is tied to our back end projection. So it'll actually change our rankings specifically for your league. Yeah, I think you undersold a little bit. I don't know any other platforms that are doing that out there.
- [33:35]
B
I'm sorry, I don't.
- [33:36]
A
Sorry. A true company man. I've got to put it out there.
- [33:39]
B
I don't want to get in trouble.
- [33:40]
A
It was funny, you know, we, we just saw an email because Joe sends our emails out all the time. And in the email he said like, you know, fully customizable rankings to your league settings. And then somebody responded and goes, wow, I just clicked that link and I didn't realize that these were fully customizable to your league settings. No matter how much we say, people are going to miss it.
- [34:01]
B
Welcome to 2025 everybody. We've got great technology over here.
- [34:05]
A
There. Yep.
- [34:06]
B
Well, Dave, you and I are going to be back again on Monday with the Week 5 waiver wire pickups to make. As always, we've got the Wednesday flex show and we back again with our start sits and sleepers for next week. So make sure you are subscribed to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you want to enjoy this show because we're going to be back with you every single week. As always, I want to thank everybody for watching or listening all the way through. For myself, for Dave. We'll see you next time. Adios. From the Cascades to PDX to your kitchen, we recycle like we live here. That's why governments, brands and recycling companies are all joining together to bring change, to make recycling better. As in trusting that your recyclables end up in the right places to be made into new things and having brands that help fund the cost of recycling. You can find the Latest updates@recycleon.org Oregon. From Mount Hood to the bin under your desk, together we can do this.