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Week 5 Waivers || Fantasy Football 2025
00:44:40
In Episode 269 of the Footballguys Fantasy Football Show, Dave Kluge and Alfredo Brown discuss players to target on the waiver wire after Week 4. Send your questions to fantasyshow@footballguys.com 🎥. SUBSCRIBE to the NEW YouTube page:...
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- [00:00]
Dave
And now a next level moment from ATT Business. Say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of pillows and they need to be there in time for International Sleep day.
- [00:07]
Adam
You've got AT and T5G so you're.
- [00:09]
Dave
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 the Jaguars, they're three and one. Like, Travis Hunter genuinely looks like one of the best defensive dude.
- [00:37]
Adam
The Eagles. Like, people are, like, complaining horribly about the Eagles. They're four. No, they're four.
- [00:45]
Dave
No.
- [00:45]
Adam
Like, A.J. brown is out here saying he want, like, making tweets that he wants to get traded and whatever.
- [00:52]
Dave
The Eagles, I, like, fundamentally disagree with what they're doing. Like, they are simultaneously, like, the most innovative team in the NFL while also being the most boring team in the NFL. And, like, I don't even know how that's possible. Like, they're doing things that nobody's ever done before, but it is so boring to watch. And did you see, like, I understand, like, a part of game planning is deception. Like, that's what you want to do. You want the team to think you're going to do one thing and do something else. But, like, the fake Tush push handoff to Saquon Barkley made my blood boil. Like, that is just. Like, that's your deception. I don't know why. What? No, you have.
- [01:28]
Adam
That's the game.
- [01:29]
Dave
I hate it so much. And, like, you know, they're winning. I don't want to take anything away from them, but, like, it doesn't feel pure. It's boring to watch. Like, it is. I just. I. I don't like it. Like, there's something visceral.
- [01:40]
Adam
No, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. That everyone's complaining about the Tush push. Every other team can do it. I don't agree that they should be false starting every time, but I love that they line up for the Tush push and they're like, actually, here we go.
- [01:54]
Dave
It's impure. No, it's not good football.
- [01:57]
Adam
Be. Be better at stopping it. Like, that's. That's it.
- [02:00]
Dave
Trust me, I said for a long time that, like, other teams should just implement it. Like, I don't know why other teams aren't doing the dosh push. You'll see, like, a Few like the Patriots right here and there. I see the Browns tried it, like, three times yesterday with Joe Flacco. Like that. No, that's not right. Like, you have David Dejoku, like, teach David Dejoku how to take a snap. He can do the Toshi push, but, like, not Joe Flacco. Yeah, it's. It's weird. I don't know. Like, I loved what I saw the second half of week three. That's a fun Eagles team. Like, when they're getting the ball to A.J. brown and he's making plays after the catch. And, like, once they start getting the pass going, then it opens up running lanes for Saquon Barkley. And, like, I truly think if the Eagles wanted to, they could come out and throttle every team, like, 63 to 10 on a weekly basis. Like, they are that good, but it's almost like they're just toying with their food by just, like, picking up, like, three, four yards at a time, methodically marching it down the field. And, like, I get why they're doing it, but it's just, like, not fun football to watch.
- [02:55]
Adam
I mean, they were winning 24 to 6 at halftime. Like, this. They're like, they're. They're going to just keep it really boring and run the game out right.
- [03:03]
Dave
I know, I know, but they're. There's so much more fun when they're, like, firing on all cylinders.
- [03:08]
Adam
Yeah, it's not fun, but, like, they're winning. Like, the Seahawks are fun and they're winning. That's. Enjoy. The Rams are fun and they're winning. Like, those. Those are enjoyable. The Niners, I think everyone's gonna die on that team, but they're.
- [03:21]
Dave
They're also three yesterday. That, like, not funny. You know, we don't laugh at injuries, but, like, like, well, Juwan Jennings needs to get in the blue medical tent, but he can't because he's got to wait for Ricky Pierce all to come out of there. I'm like, that doesn't perfectly sum up the 49ers season right now. Like, a wide receiver can't even get medical attention because the medical staff is working on another wide receiver. That is the 40, 49er season in a nutshell.
- [03:53]
Adam
It's time for the week five waiver wire pickups. Welcome into the football guys fantasy football show. I'm afraid of Brown joined as always. I've got Dave Kluge with me, and today we're looking through a bunch of the players that you guys need to be looking at on the waiver wire. We're recording this Monday morning.
- [04:07]
Dave
So we don't know who's going to.
- [04:09]
Adam
Be available after the Monday Night Football game. Maybe some big waiver wire pickups you need to make there. But, Dave, week four brings us a whole new slate of players. I wouldn't say that we've necessarily had some of the big waiver wire pickups. We had Trey Benson last week. It looks like we maybe have another name this week, but he's already pretty heavily rostered. I'm talking about Woody Marks, running back for the Houston Texans.
- [04:31]
Dave
Yeah, I think he's the number one guy. I mean, we're just seeing that slow changing regard where a rookie is taking over a veteran's job. Talked about it last week, but like, the trend has continued. In week one, it was 8515 split between Chubb and Woody Marks, then an 8020 split, then a 6040 split. And last week, the table flipped. 40% of the touches going Nick Chubb's way, 60% of the touches going Woody Marks way. And Woody Marks just looked better. Like he's got juice right now that Nick Chubb doesn't. I'm happy that Nick Chubb is able to still have an NFL career after the injuries that he has sustained. But, I mean, Woody Marks just looks like such a better running back right now, getting it done in pass protection as well. He's receiving the ball, he's running between the tackles, he's getting outside. He was a player that I really liked at USC last year, and it just seems like right now, you know, there was hope that it would be Joe Mixon and that didn't work out. There was hope that it would be Nick Chubb, and that didn't work out. Woody Marks is the next man up, and he looks good. So he's that guy. If he's still available in your league, you know, drop a lot of fab on him, like 80, 90%. It seemed like the whole Texans offense looked a little bit better as Woody Marks got more involved. So this could be what they need, like get a good running back to get this team back on track.
- [05:37]
Adam
Yeah, the role for Marks has grown every single week up to a 56% snapshare this last week. I'll say this, the Texans running back room probably won't see a combined 30 rush attempts. You know, for. For Woody Marks and Nick Chubb. Again, this was a very particular game where they're going up against the Titans and they're going to have a lead. But that's not a reason to not Invest in Woody Marks because a lot of his value comes in the passing game. Like, this was a guy who was a very good pass catching back coming out of USC right now, Woody Marks, last week he was second in targets on the team with, with the Houston Texans tied with Nico Collins at five targets for the game. They got Baltimore next week, who have been very, very giving to fantasy running backs. So this could be, I mean, we could be looking at Woody Marks being on the precipice of having the big breakout game. Like, all it takes is one big run and all of a sudden if, if people aren't putting a lot of their money on Woody Marks this week, everyone's going to be doing it the following week.
- [06:35]
Dave
Week. Yeah, and I think he already had the breakout. I mean, he, he looked darn good last week. I'd say that it's already here. And, and I know I'm saying like.
- [06:43]
Adam
One of those, like the big obnoxious ones where it's like, oh, Woody Marks ran for 120 yards and scored two touchdowns. How did we not see this coming? Like, like one of those where, where.
- [06:52]
Dave
It'S at 119 yards and two touchdowns yesterday. So I'd say he's pretty, pretty darn close.
- [06:59]
Adam
All right, Dave, let's go to the next guy on the list here because another running back that I think a lot of people are going to be going out to look at. Kenneth Gainwell is another running back that I think, I mean, has this massive game. I do pause for a second with Gainwell because I do worry that it could be the fool's gold that Jalen Warren comes back. And we obviously don't see the same type of workload for him. He is a good handcuff running back for you to have. Like, he is the good injury away running back for you to have. They get a buy next week. Jalen Warren's likely back. They get Cleveland in Week 6, which has been really tough for running backs. I know we saw Jameer Gibbs have his big game here for the Lions also. Like, is there anything there that worries you with Kenneth Gainwell or are you putting a good waiver fab bid on him?
- [07:48]
Dave
You know, he's somebody that I've rostered in a lot of leagues already just because I knew the, the upside was there if Warren had to miss. But I didn't expect him to do what he did this week. That was just absolutely insane. Like, I don't think we're going to see that sort of upside again. But he had had a pretty steady role, 53% of the in week one, 42% week two, that dipped a little bit, 26% in week three. But he's been steadily involved. I think you are right though that like once Jaylen Warren is back, we're going to see Kenneth Gainwell go back to the role where he was, where he's the clear RB2 on the team. You're hoping that he can score a touchdown to kind of pay off. That being said, the Steelers offense, they didn't have a single pass attempt that went more than 15 yards downfield. And we talked about this coming into the week, that it is a running back, tight end sort of team here. Like they are just featuring the running backs and tight ends in the passing game and not even getting the ball to the receivers all that much outside of that huge DK Metcalf catch and run on the slant. Love to see that. Good for you dk. But yeah, I think that there could be some standalone value here in ppr. But just to like tell you how I feel about this, before the game kicked off like I was awake at my desk at 6am yesterday, saw Kenneth Gainwell was available in the league and my opponent needed a running back. So I dropped Kendra Miller for Kenneth Gainwell. And yeah, Kenneth Gainwell went nuts on my bench. But like in hindsight I, I'd rather have Kendry Miller at this point than I would Kenneth Gainwell.
- [09:04]
Adam
And I think I'm in the same spot. So let's, let's talk about him now. Because Kendra Miller is available in roughly 93% of leagues, we saw his biggest workload of the season. The role for him has grown every week. Alvin Camara has been a guy that's been sort of a speculative trade candidate. I think most of that is just, you know, people watching saying, oh, he's old, get him out of there. The Saints are rebuilding anyways. Go put him on a team like the Chiefs or something like that. Right. There could be truth to that. And even if there isn't, we're seeing the role for Kendra Miller grow where this could be one of those things where he just sort of takes takes over the ground game role and Alvin Camara is just relegated to passing down stuff.
- [09:41]
Dave
Yeah, and that's kind of already what's happening a little bit. I mean, Calvin. Calvin Camara was still involved yesterday, but Kendrick Miller frankly just looks like a better runner right now between the tackles. And Camara can do things downfield and in the passing game that Kendrick can't. But I do Think that we might see a trade and it feels like we've been speculating about an Alvin Camara trade for years now and it's never come to fruition. But this, this could be the year. But yeah, Kendrick Miller, just a big fan of the talent, you know, 23 years old, an early round pick. And we talked about it for years, kind of tongue in cheek that Dennis Allen just did not like him, would bench him for no reason, like publicly besmirch his name in press conferences, talking about how he's struggling to stay healthy. All these just like very unprofessional things that he was saying about his running back. So seems like Kellen Moore likes him quite a bit more. We're seeing that role grow every single week and just still a very young guy with a lot of talent that's finally getting his opportunity. Kendrick Miller, I mean, I, I don't think it's crazy to say that he's like a must roster player in every format now because whether Alan Camar gets hur or traded, the ceiling is just so high for him.
- [10:43]
Adam
Well, I think that's the thing you want to look for with these players first, right? Is do they have standalone value? And that's what Kendra Miller has right now. He has standalone value without some sort of injury to Camara or a trade with Camara. So if those were to happen, I kind of think you have to look at Kendra Miller in the same way you look at a guy like Trey Benson. If not, maybe even better because he might take over a massive role on a team that's going to have to pass a lot. So, yeah, Kendra Miller must roster waiver wire pickup this week. Let's go to the next guy. And this is a name that is probably not very familiar to a lot of people, but I guess after this last week he will be. And it's Xavier Scott, running back for the Minnesota Vikings. Dave. Who is available in 97% of leagues. We saw him kind of take over the Aaron Jones role here where he was a major passing. Major passing role for him in the Vikings offense. Seven targets, 23 routes run on 29 snaps. Aaron Jones could be out for another two weeks, could be another four weeks, could be longer. We're not quite sure. We were talking before the show is that I don't still quite know what the Vikings are. Their offense has obviously had its ups and downs with different quarterbacks playing. The defense has had their ups and downs. It almost feels like they're bad when Andrew Van Ginkel is out of the lineup and then they're good when he is in there. I still think we don't know enough about this team and they might not be leading every single game and being able to pound the rock like we thought they might. And Xavier Scott could actually be one of these very reasonable like RB3 desperate flex plays because of the passing upside in certain weeks.
- [12:19]
Dave
Yeah, and I do think, you know, we're expecting Aaron Jones to come back in about three weeks. They've got to buy in two more weeks before Aaron Jones is set to return from ir. And I think that's just going to push Xavier Scott to the back burner, unfortunately. But I am such a big fan of these converted wide receivers, like they never really pan out. But Antonio Gibson, you know, Tyrone Tracy, like still keeping a light on for these guys in case it ever does. And, and we saw like an unreal toe tap touchdown in the back of an end zone. You don't see that often from running backs. He was also getting some deep wheel routes downfield, but we've seen that in this offense with Aaron Jones like he is running wheel routes 40, 50 yards downfield and getting targeted there. So not all that uncommon to see a running back getting that sort of usage here. But I think this is like a band aid over the next two games that like maybe you could put him in there if you're absolutely desperate. But as soon as Aaron Jones returns, I think that he is going to be cast to the wayside. So not going crazy for Xavier Scott. I think the major takeaway here is that people thought that Jordan Mason was just going to be this like plug and play RB1, getting 100 of the opportunities while Aaron Jones was out. And that's not the way that they want to split this up. And we saw Kevin o' Connell last year lean pretty heavily on Aaron Jones. Doesn't sound like he wants to put that same trust in Jordan Mason. So maybe especially with these two really tough matchups coming up for the Vikings, maybe pump the brakes on Jordan Mason a little bit in your rankings.
- [13:40]
Adam
Yeah, I think for, for Xavier Scott, he's a guy that maybe if you lost Aaron Jones and you haven't been able to adequately replace him and you're just kind of, you're really, really getting desperate running back. He's one of those guys you can think about a couple of other players on here that are pretty widely available. Amari Di Mercado, we just brought his name up briefly last week. Wasn't a big role for him in this last game, but also Just not a lot of rushing attempts for the Cardinals in general. 11 running back rush attempts for the Cardinals. But he DiMarcado gets the receiving usage 17 rounds on 26 snaps, gets a touchdown. This is just strictly handcuff at this point, right?
- [14:21]
Dave
Yeah, I think so. And like maybe if you're like really desperate in a PPR league and the the Cardinals have a matchup where you know they'll be trailing, you could put him in there because he was getting a lot of the two minute work and he was getting a lot of the third down work and we were hoping that that would all go to Trey Benson because Trey Benson's a very good pass catcher and he did have more than DeMarcado. But so much value from these pass catching running backs comes in the ability to get on the field in two minute drills where you know you could just march down the field and gobble up 3, 4, 5 catches against a soft defense on a single drive. And if D. Mercado is taking that role, that would put a cap on Benson's ceiling. Now hopefully they're just saying like this is Trey Benson's first start ever. We don't want to put too much on his plate and we'll see that change. But I think DeMarcado is more of a cap on Trey Benson than he is anybody with any standalone value you're going to want in fantasy. So in your super deep league, sure sprinkle a few bucks on him and kind of hold him as an injury away stash. But DeMarcusado is probably not a guy that I'm itching to get my lineup anytime soon.
- [15:19]
Adam
Next guy on here. And this is because we saw an injury last night where Miles Sanders left the game with an ankle injury. So Jaden Blue makes this list and a lot of people are still holding on to him. And by the way, like I am a lot of people I'm contributing to. The 24 of fantasy managers still holding on to Jaden Blue despite being a healthy scratch. Just wish casting things into fruition here. But Miles Sanders leaves the game with an ankle injury and Dave, their other running back is actually a fullback, Hunter Lipke and the Cowboys really don't much have much else in that backfield outside of Javante Williams who by the way not in any danger of losing his job, not in any danger of losing snaps. It's probably more so just to keep him fresh. But they get the jets next week. Carolina and Washington, two games that require could require a little bit more passing. You know, Cowboys they are number two in pass play percentage throughout the season. So there's kind of a glimmer of hope here that Jaden Blue has some fantasy relevance with Miles Sanders out potentially.
- [16:19]
Dave
You know, I'd like to see him activated before I can get too excited about him. I mean, there's a lot of injuries in this backfield as well.
- [16:26]
Adam
Do you think they're not going to activate him or they're just going to keep running with. With. With Hunter Lipke as the. As the backup running back here?
- [16:32]
Dave
I think they might activate him if Miles Sanders has to miss any time.
- [16:35]
Adam
If they can't activate him now, like, all. All hope is gone.
- [16:38]
Dave
Right. I think what we're going to see, though, is just where it's been kind of like an 80, 20 split with Javante Williams and Miles Sanders. I think that if Jaden Blue is activated, he'll be watching from the sidelines While it's like 100% Javante Williams, unless he gets hurt and then they're kind of like, desperate where they need to put Jaden Blue out there. The coach's comments haven't been too great, talking about him, like, struggling with consistency and whatnot. I think if they got to the point where, like, you know, Miles Sanders has the miss extended time, Phil Mafa's still on ir, then Javante Williams goes down, they probably start looking at a free agent or trade. I think before they'd really lean on Jaden Blue as their guy. This is just me being a Jaden Blue hater, though.
- [17:14]
Adam
Yeah. I was about to say, man, like, you really went from, like, should we pick him up to. I don't think he's even gonna play ever.
- [17:20]
Dave
Yeah, like deep leagues, dynasty leagues. I think he's worth a stash, but I just don't. You know, I. I have some concerns about the size, you know, and the. The limitations. We talked about a lot during the draft process that I think he's like a runner, but I don't think he's a guy that an NFL team wants to rely on for 15, 18, 20 touches per game because you can't do a lot in between the tackles. That's where the strength of this Cowboys offensive line is.
- [17:42]
Adam
Yeah, I mean, I don't think any NFL team really wants to. I mean, there's very few NFL teams that want to rely on anyone for 20 touches in a game, right? They. They did. The Cowboys did that with Javante Williams this past night because they had to. I don't think they want to keep doing that with him. Either. I'm not saying Jaden Blue becomes this guy you have to go run out and grab, but. But his ability on passing downs, I would, I would say it's still probably an 8020 Javante Williams split with, you know, Hunter Lipke working in there and then and Jaden Blue getting some of the part of that 20 that's. That's remaining, but nevertheless a guy to have with an open spot in a backfield for the Cowboys. Two other guys here, last one. Emmanuel Wilson. Just a name to throw out there because we need to keep an eye on the Josh Jacobs knee injury. I know he left, he came back. But then Emmanuel Wilson started to take some more snaps for the packers as the game went on. They do have their bye week coming up and then they have Cincinnati in week seven. So, you know, there, there's. I wouldn't say there's like a ton that I, I really want to like put on Emmanuel Wilson or put a lot of stock into his position there. I think it's just something to keep an eye on the Josh Jacobs thing.
- [18:46]
Dave
Yeah. And I don't. I'm trying to find information on this Josh Jacobs injury this morning. And like, the more I searched, the more confused I got. Did you see he said he's like, oh, I just have a hole in my knee. Like, it's no big deal. I just have a hole in my knee and it's going to be there for a while. What does that mean?
- [19:02]
Adam
No idea.
- [19:03]
Dave
Like, I'm reading it right now. Josh Jacobs said he got stitches on his right knee after being cleated on the touchdown run. And he said there is a quote, hole in his knee and that it will be quote there for a while. So that's it. Yeah, he got.
- [19:16]
Adam
I mean, no, that's exactly it. You made it sound like he had a hole, like burrowed through his knee. It's just. He's a gash. He got stitches. He's good.
- [19:23]
Dave
So I don't think it's. There's no ligament damage, no joint damage, anything like that. But I think the, the promising sign and why like we, we were talking about a pre show. Fantasy managers have gotten good. Like the average fantasy football player has gotten very good. Like, we don't. We haven't seen a lot of these. Like, I feel like five years ago when James Connor went down, like Trey Benson would have been available in 98 of leagues and everybody's spending their fab on them. But like, people know to get ahead of the curve now and no, there's no concern that Josh Jacobs is going to miss time. But I think what we saw yesterday is that Emmanuel Wilson is the very clear RB2 here and like early in the season we saw some Chris Brooks, he's only had one touch in the last two weeks. So Emmanuel Wilson like standalone value, hoping Josh Jacobs is going to miss time. No, that's not what we're talking about here. It's just that this is a proactive pickup. You get Emmanuel Wilson on your team now so that if Josh Jacobs does get injured, you don't have to get in a fab bidding war for him.
- [20:17]
Adam
Let's go to our last running back on here. Justice Hill, running back for the Ravens, available in 89 of leagues. Dave. He gets a big run, a big run towards the end of the game here, but heavy passing game usage and this is something we're not used to seeing, but the Ravens trailing and the Ravens just overall not being that great this year. Two, I'd say relatively tough upcoming matchups here for at least a running back position. Houston Texans, Rams then a buy. Is this something where you're thinking Justice Hill needs to be rostered or like, at least in my opinion. I feel like we have seen this song and dance before. We'll get the big Justice Hill game. He gets a few pass catches and then we're saying, ah, he's good to roster. And then Derrick Henry just does Derrick Henry things and like never misses a game. This might be different though if we're looking at time off for Lamar Jackson who also has an injury.
- [21:11]
Dave
Yeah. And I think like in hindsight maybe we could have kind of seen this coming. Like Justice Hill, his biggest games last year came against Kansas City where he had eight targets and had himself a nice game. And then he had another big game when they played against Buffalo where he had six targets and had a big game. And then he had another big game against Pittsburgh and another big game against Philadelphia. So it's like when they play good teams, that's when Justice Hill has to get into the lineup. Now can you predict when these games are going to happen, where the Ravens are going to be trailing? No, you, you really can't. But I think that it's very obvious that like when the Ravens are in a close game or when they have the lead, they are going to give the ball to Derrick Henry in the second half and eat up the clock. And when they're trailing, they don't trust Derrick Henry to be out there, to be that passing down guy, to be the pass blocking guy. And that's what Justice Hill comes in. So I think this is another one of those, like if you're super, super desperate in a certain matchup in a PPR league and you need to plug Justice Hill in through bye weeks, you know, you could luck into one of these game scripts that are friendly to his skill set. But I think the more reasonable takeaway here is that we haven't seen Keaton Mitchell at all this year. Justice Hill is the clear RB2 here and if Derrick Henry were to miss any time, I think we'd see Justice Hill have that contingent injury away upside that we're always chasing.
- [22:23]
Adam
Now Dave, we went through all the running backs here. It really feels like it's a running back heavy week but there are some wide receivers that we can pay attention to. First one, not even on the show sheet but just like someone to mention because of how things went last night. Romeo Dobbs is a guy that if he is out there, I think you're, you're paying attention. It's another one of these players that I kind of look at and I say sure. Do I want a rostrum? Yeah. Will I ever know when to start him? Because that's what the packers wide receiver room is like. No, like you, you just, you really don't. And then I hate to be that person but like we've seen some good matchups for him and then we've seen two targets, four targets, five targets. Like we never quite see that target volume. We get to see the blow up this week with the three touchdowns and then, but then they go into a buy and I think it's going to be kind of hard to justify spending a lot on a guy like Romeo Dubs going into a buy and us really not knowing what the workload or what the target volume is ever really going to be.
- [23:20]
Dave
Yeah, this whole packers wide receiver room is tough to get a read on. But Dobbs doesn't come off the field like he has been that guy for the last couple of years. Like we're always chasing the shiny new toy and Don Tavian Wicks and Jaden Reed and, and Matthew golden this year. But like Dobbs really has that X receiver role locked down and when it comes to moving the chains and when it comes to getting into the red zone, that's where they focus on him. So it makes him a very volatile player because he could have these huge blow up weeks where he scores a bunch of touchdowns, but when he' not scoring a touchdown, you're usually getting like three catches for 27 yards. So, yeah, I think that's the issue here is like, it is very, very boomer bust for Dobbs. But yeah, you know, in a best ball league, like, where you don't have to worry about it, like, if you're in a best ball league with waivers, Dobbs is a, you know, a guy that you're splashing a ton of money on because the variants could always break in his direction on anything in any given week. You know, deep leagues, dynasty leagues. I started him in SFB this week. Like in your deep league, sure, Dobbs has a lot of value, but probably not a guy like in your standard 10, 12 team league that you want to be firing up on a weekly bas.
- [24:20]
Adam
Yeah, and we, we saw him do this a bit last year as well, where he'll go and have the big game. Last year, week six, week seven, wide receiver, nine, wide receiver 15. And then you've got four consecutive weeks of being outside the top 45 wide receivers. Like, it's.
- [24:36]
Dave
Exactly.
- [24:37]
Adam
That's kind of what we've gotten used to with Romeo Dobbs. So I wouldn't go out there and spend a ton on him.
- [24:43]
Dave
Much better football player than he is. A fantasy asset. Like, like, really important for what they do. He's great at blocking, great at moving the chains. He's just kind of got like a beacon in him to like pick up that first down when they need to, but not a guy that gets the volume. We really care about for fantasy.
- [24:58]
Adam
Right. And that's. And I think with, with all of these waiver wire pickups, we want to pick the guys. Like, could he be more right? Have we seen what their, what their limit is and some of the names that are here? Dave, this one almost feels like, I just have to put it because of what happened to the Giants wide receiver room, losing Malik neighbors. Wanda Robinson is going to be a guy if he's available, obviously. Go and just put, put fab on him because he'll. He'll probably be the lead target earner in this offense, but he's way too heavily rostered for us to talk about him. In this episode, Darius Slayton becomes the other guy to bring up here. And I wouldn't say that I'm advocating to go and get Darius Slayton, but I felt like we needed to talk about him because he's available in 95% of leagues. He's almost always in the field in two wide receiver sets. He's on the field in three wide receiver sets. Highest target per route run amongst Giants wide receivers in week Four, obviously the ones not named Malik Neighbors. I just don't think we know what we're gonna have with Jackson Dart under center. And I don't think we quite know like what the pecking order even is for this offense. I think we would assume it's still Wandale Robinson, but we don't really know what the tendencies are for Jackson Dart.
- [26:06]
Dave
Yeah, I think it's mostly going to be Wandell Robinson and I think it's also going to be a very low volume passing attack. We only saw 20 past attempts in this matchup. He completed 13 of those. So I struggle to buy into any of these receivers here like Russell Wilson, for all of his faults and the interceptions and the errant throws and the poor decision making and all that. I mean, at least he could throw the ball a lot and he could throw it downfield and he could occasionally connect with these guys. And you might get that from Dart as well. But I think it's just going to be so much more volatile on a week in and week out basis. So, yeah, Darius Slayton might be the wide receiver one here, but I think Wandell Robinson is probably getting more touches. I think we're going to see a lot more work for the running backs out of the backfield. Cam Scatterboon, Tyrone Tracy, when he returns are both very good pass catchers. Theo Johnson, you know, it seems like he's got a little bit of a connection with Jackson Dart as well. So I understand, like there's excitement about Darius Slayton, but this is another one of those that like, if I'm ever putting Darius Slayton in my lineup, I feel like something just went badly wrong. And like if I'm counting on Darius Slayton catching passes from Jackson Dart, probably not a spot that I want to be in.
- [27:08]
Adam
Do you want to just talk about the Giants here? Because we've got Jackson Darton Theo Johnson on, on the show sheet here, but we might as well just start talking.
- [27:14]
Dave
Excited about. Yeah, Dart, I am excited about.
- [27:16]
Adam
Okay, but I wanna, I want to hear, I want to hear your side of it because I'm, I'm just, I'm not. It's completing 13 passes, 111 yards. I get. There's the rushing upside.
- [27:26]
Dave
It's as simple as that. I mean, like this guy, there's a lot type of player, like he had 1498 rushing yards over his last three years at Ole Miss. That is solely where my argument lies. I'm not going to say anything about his passing or the playmakers around him. But like this Guy can rush for 150 yards and two touchdowns on any given week, and that alone makes him a streamable option.
- [27:46]
Adam
Streamable option. So this is, this is basically if you are in the business of rostering two quarterbacks, right. And you're. You're hoping for some big rushing games from Jackson Dart. Let's do this. I want to look ahead at what some of the games that he has coming up where we think he might be streamable. Is that, is that fair to do?
- [28:09]
Dave
Sure.
- [28:10]
Adam
So next week against New Orleans, is he streamable?
- [28:13]
Dave
Yeah, it's a bad defense and that offense can put up points, might push them into a spot where he's got to run a little bit. Yeah.
- [28:19]
Adam
Okay. This is where it gets tough because the next four weeks, Philly, Denver, Philly again, San Francisco, probably not in any.
- [28:27]
Dave
Of those matchups, but if he looks like really good.
- [28:30]
Adam
I didn't know, I didn't know that those were the matchups prior to looking this up. I wanted to see when he.
- [28:36]
Dave
The Giants have the hardest schedule of any team this year. And that's why, like, you know, I, I kind of saw week four is like, maybe this is when they'll push Jackson Dart out there. But yeah, it is a murderer's row for the next, like, two months. And that was kind of the thing. Like, I spent so much time this off season looking at the Giant schedule, trying to figure out when Dart would come in and. And I couldn't really figure it out because even after that San Francisco game, like, they don't really have a break in the schedule. It is just one tough game after another. Like, this is going to be tough sledding for Jackson Dart. Like he is, very much so. Like, they're just going to find out if he can sink or swim this year.
- [29:09]
Adam
Yeah. And I'll say this because I think I, I heard a lot of the Tim Tebow comps, which is, I think are just. They're funny but also kind of accurate. I had also heard like the Drake May comps of, like. Well, you know, Drake May was rushing a lot, too, and the big arm and all the Drake May was completing a lot more passes. He was attempting a lot more passes. This was a very different. Like, the offense seemed still very simplified for Jackson Dart on purpose. I know that's the same kind of offense he came out of at Ole Miss. Make the one reads. He does have the potential. He does have the potential to be a better quarterback. And I think what it is, it's a lot of hit your first read or take off. And I'm going to be intrigued to see how that works in some of these better. Definitely defenses. I think the Giants, like, we kind of saw everything get a lot. They won, which is still crazy, is like they win. They were not nearly as efficient and it might just be ugly wins. Like, it might actually be ugly wins. Sort of like. No, I wasn't. I was gonna say Blake Bortles. That was the exact opposite. He was good for fantasy and bad.
- [30:10]
Dave
He was launching like 500 yards a game.
- [30:12]
Adam
Yeah. Yeah, I, I kind of wonder if this is just gonna be ugly wins. Like Cam Scatterabou was not efficient either, but it was just, just, hey, let's just keep spamming the same couple things. How this team reacts to losing Malik Neighbors is going to be very interesting going forward.
- [30:26]
Dave
Which if you watch Ole Miss's offense last year, that's a lot of what they did. Like, you know, scheming up a touch for Trey Harris and if he's not open, just tuck it and run. And like that's a lot of what we saw last year from Jackson Dart as well. And he can run that offense. I think they could open the playbook up a little bit more every single week. But like you talk about the schedule coming up is just so brutal. But yeah, I mean, I'm looking at him in the streamer discussion. Like in my best of season rankings, I'd prefer Bonix, Jared Goff, Drake May, Kyler Murray, Brock Purdy, all those guys. But like, I'm at the point right now where for me, like he's in the same tier as Trevor Lawrence. I would prefer him ahead of CJ Stroud. Like.
- [31:03]
Adam
Yeah.
- [31:03]
Dave
And you know, it's again, like, it is very much so. Like you've got like your 6 or 7, maybe 8 plug and play QB ones. And I think outside of those guys, everybody else is kind of in that streamer discussion. And I think that Jackson Dart did enough last week that we can throw him into that weekly conversation as well. But I think that like the big thing, it'll be how he looks this week against New Orleans because if he comes out looking really good about against New Orleans, then we'll have a little bit more faith plugging him in against those tougher matchups in the future.
- [31:30]
Adam
Yeah, I think I'm still just like the. I just want my one quarterback and that's fine. I don't want to have to roster two. I'm so, I'm so pilled on rostering as many of these backup running backs as possible. Theo Johnson was the other guy from this Giants offense who he gets the little flip pass in for the touchdown. Could he be a guy that benefits from Malik Neighbors not being on the field? I. I'd say this is more of a stash tight situation that maybe has some upside, but it's not. It's not exciting. I would say.
- [32:02]
Dave
Yeah. And I think it's not even so much Malik Neighbors being out as it is Jackson Dart being the starter. We see this all the time where these like young guys kind of build a connection and a chemistry throughout camp and maybe we're seeing a little bit of that right now. Theo Johnson's also dealt with injuries throughout his career, but like, you go pull up this guy's player profiler page, like just off the charts athleticism, like 6, 6, 260 pounds. Just like a freak athlete. And like if you want to make the job easy for your young quarterback, draw up passes to get the ball to Theo Johnson where he can just create after the catch. So yeah, very much so. A stash. I'm not putting Theo Johnson in any week five lineups, but definitely worth a stash with this change in the offense that we're seeing in New York.
- [32:45]
Adam
All right, so let's move on from the Giants. There's another player I want to throw in here and it's a name we've brought up before, but now it actually seems like there's a little bit more to the noise that actually brings some value. And Isaiah Bond at 98 available in fantasy leagues on sleeper. The target volume is growing every single week. Dave, he's already playing in both two and three wide receiver sets. Cedric Tillman leaves this game with a hamstring injury and we're not sure how long that's going to be. But as they Bond, he led the team in receiving yards this last week. We don't quite know with this Browns team how long they're going to stick with Joe Flacco, what that could mean. But I mean, Isaiah Bond is a talented player. He was the leading wide receiver at Texas until he got hurt ahead of Matthew Golden. Likely would have been a second round pick had it not been for a lot of legal stuff and allegations going on. Is this a guy that we could actually see have some real value on a pretty. I don't want to say bad, but just not exciting Browns offense.
- [33:41]
Dave
Yeah, I think this is one where like I'm going to see a lot of my league mates going after the Darius Slaytons and the Xavier Scotts. And you know, a lot of the guys that we've talked about and I'm gonna be okay just like putting in that zero dollar bid on Isaiah Bond and getting him for free after waivers run because I don't think that he's on a lot of people's radar. But we gotta remember like he joined right before the season kicked off. Like did not get a full training camp under his belt. We're just seeing him slowly every single week improving a little bit. We know the athleticism's there, but he's also has the rare combination of athleticism and deep ball tracking skills. So like when they throw the ball to him late, he can come down with it. Just a very, very good player. And this, this wide receiver room is wide open. Like Jerry Judy does not look good. Like you talk about Cedric Tillman picking up an injury as well. Would not surprise me one bit if we just see Isaiah Bond take over as that wide receiver one in this offense.
- [34:31]
Adam
All right, last two players that I want to talk about here before we get to the drops, there are some other tight ends, rookie tight ends here. Arande Gadson II for the Chargers 90% available. And Elijah Arroyo for the Seattle Seahawks, 93% available. I think both of us lean the same way here. It's a ronde Gadsden the second right. Who, who you'd be interested in out of these two. But I think they're both intriguing.
- [34:55]
Dave
Yeah, I mean it was disappointing to see the, the target total fall off a little bit after that big week three breakout guys had only had three targets last week. I think like 16 yards or something like that. A very good player. But there's just so many mouths to feed in this offense. Like Hampton is getting going now we see like lad McConkey can't even get enough to make him fantasy relevant. I find it hard to envision a world Rodney Gadson can. I mean Quentin Johnson. Like I think we might start to have a conversation about like him being the most valuable wide receiver in the charges right now. He is looking.
- [35:26]
Adam
It's crazy. It's Quentin Johnston pulling like 13 targets a game is just not on the bingo card, kids.
- [35:34]
Dave
Yeah, like running nice routes like catching contested balls downfield. Like he is developing like we're seeing that year three breakout. So I like Gatson, you know, he's a fun player. He's got the NFL bloodlines that we like. His dad was a wide receiver in the NFL. For those that aren't aware. But I just think like the best case scenario is that he's going to be, like, fourth on this team in targets. I think he'd probably need, like, multiple injuries to really find a path to fantasy relevance.
- [35:59]
Adam
With how bad the Titan landscape is, though, like, is he or Arroyo worth it? Because, I mean, the. The snap rate nearly doubled. Right. Even though the targets didn't go up, the snap rate nearly double. I'm. I'm curious about that. Like, where. Because next week, next couple weeks, sorry, Washington and Miami both pretty bad against the Tiger end. And that's where I get a little bit more intrigued. I have him rostered. I'm not starting him. Or, like, would you ever feel comfortable starting him?
- [36:26]
Dave
No, no. I mean, we need to see, like, a drastic change in usage. But again, like, my take on the tight ends is very similar to my take on the quarterbacks that, like, you've got six guys that you're feeling really good about, that you're plugging and playing every single week. And then once you get past that, like, yeah, we're seeing, like, Kyle Pitts looks hot right now and Hunter Henry has had back to back good games. Yeah, but. But I lumped those guys in with Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey and T.J. hawkinson and Dallas Goddard and Dalton Kincaid and Zach Ertz and Juwan Johnson. Like, I could just keep going down the list. Like, they're all just kind of streamers for me. And I think that's where Gatson is as well. Or where we'll hope to be, I should say.
- [37:04]
Adam
Yeah. Okay. Let's. Let's go to the players that we're considering dropping right now because this name might surprise people and there's a stretch of games coming up that look good for him. And I just don't even know that we're all that interested anymore in Calvin Ridley. Dave, it's.
- [37:21]
Dave
Yeah.
- [37:21]
Adam
When you, when, when you put this name on the show sheet, you said, I know it's spicy, but we got to talk about it. And you're right. 154 snapshare this week, three targets. He's not even the leading target earner on his team anymore. He's not even the leading snap, snap, snap receiver for the team. Like, he's behind both Tyler Lockett and Elik IO Manor. And I won't directly quote Cam Ward when he was asked about the team, but to paraphrase, he said, they are cheeks right now. And I don't know that I want a guy who's not the leading snap earner, not the leading target earner on a offense that is this bad at the moment a little bit. Yeah.
- [38:00]
Dave
I mean, he's, He's a wide receiver, 70 right now. That is just so bad. And I don't want to like, try to get into the psychology of Calvin Ridley too much, but based on like, what we've seen throughout his NFL career, he is a very like, emotional player. Like when he's playing well and the team around him is doing well, he looks like one of the best wide receivers in football. And when things aren't going well, we see him get in his own head and we struggle a lot. And I just, you know, barring a trade, I just don't see Calvin Ridley really being a guy in this Titans offense that we see stepping up and being fantasy relevant.
- [38:30]
Adam
Yeah, I'm. I'm the same spot with. Even on a good. Like, even if he turns it around. What does turning it around look like? Does it look like a guy that you're willing to start every week as a top three wide receiver on your team? Is he a guy that you're flexing or is he a guy that becomes kind of a roster clogger where you just have him on your bench and you say, well, yeah, but my bench is pretty sweet though. I got Calvin Riddler Ridley. Right. And then like, you never actually play him. I feel like that's kind of the territory he's in where someone's gonna Adam and either start him and it's gonna bum you out or you're not gonna start him and you just kind of keep him there and it's a roster clocker. You're gonna dropping him for someone later.
- [39:07]
Dave
Yeah, and that's exactly it. Like, if I've got Calvin Ridley right now, the upside case just isn't there for him. So a lot of the guys, guys that we've talked about today, you know, Kendra Miller or an Emmanuel Wilson or a Blake Corum who still just like keeps carving out a bigger role every single week. I'd prefer all of those.
- [39:24]
Adam
Kelden Ridley, a couple other guys that are on this list. Cedric Tillman, I mentioned him earlier. He's got the hamstring injury. Darnell Mooney, another name to put on here. And this is another one. Been dealing with injury by next week, I believe too.
- [39:39]
Dave
Right.
- [39:41]
Adam
Let me just double check that. Yes, they have the buy next week and they have Buffalo, San Francisco, Miami. But this is a hamstring injury. And this is. You know, these soft tissue injuries, they do often often tend to take multiple weeks to heal. So we might not see Darnell Mooney out there. If you have an IR spot, obviously. Just put him on ir. But even then, Dave, it just hasn't been. It hasn't looked good. Even in an 11 target game for Mooney, it hasn't looked good. I think that we're. It's safe to say Drake London and Bijan Robinson are the two top weapons on this offense. And even Kyle Pitts is coming around. Like, I just don't think there's that chemistry right now for Mooney with Penix and this one offense.
- [40:19]
Dave
Yeah, I think Drake London is just healthy again and that's what this came down to. I saw a lot of people panicking about Drake London, like when he came back in week two with four targets, it's like we, we do not see that like Drake London is not a 4 target. We talked about it player, right. And people were really panicking. And then we see Darnell Mooney's coming in and pulling 11 targets. Like that was just a function of Drake London being injured. Now that Drake London is healthy, Kyle Pitts is healthy, Bijan Robinson getting involved in the pass catching game. I just don't think there's enough left over for Mooney. So. Yeah, A. Okay. Moving off of. Of him.
- [40:48]
Adam
Yeah. Anyone else you want to throw in here? I think you're. We're good.
- [40:52]
Dave
A lot of tight ends. You know, there's so many guys, just every tight end basically. But like how many people last year spent a bunch of fab on Isaiah Likely and then kept him rostered all year because he said, Well, I spent 85 of my fab in week one and the reality was Isaiah likely was the wider or the tight end 25 from week two through week 18. And now Juwan John Johnson, like really good. Week one, you spent a lot of fab on him. I get it. His target total has gone down every single week since week one. David Dejoku, right now he's getting out targeting or outplayed by Harold Fannin. So I think you're just at that point where there's a lot of sunk cost fallacy going on with a lot of these tight ends because you drafted them expecting them to be a tight end one or you picked them up early hoping that they'd be a tight end one over the rest of the season and just keep, keep churning. Like if you don't have one of those top guys, just keep churning tight ends and kind of play in these two three week pockets where wide receivers are injured, good matchups or whatever. There are no plug and play options once you get past like the Jake Ferguson and you know that, that, that tier of tight ends.
- [41:54]
Adam
Yeah. I mean one thing you guys can all do is you can head over to football guys.com and check out our strength of schedule tool that we have there and you can see the pockets where these players are. These tight ends are going to be good to stream. Like for example you mentioned Joanne Johnson as a guy that you can drop looking we weeks six through ten it's got a good schedule but like next week is going to be rough. This past week was rough going up against Buffalo. But 6 through 10 is actually a good little stretch of games. Then he's got a buy and then he's got. It's a really tough fantasy schedule for the playoffs. The fantasy playoffs for him. But like you could take a Jowan Johnson and insert other tight end and just start to mix and match those schedules and get guys that you can stream as opposed to saying like you're absolutely stuck if you look through and you're saying man, David Joku just really hasn't been producing for me. The schedule doesn't get any better. But there's maybe two games there. Maybe you don't have to drop them. But I totally get the argument that these guys do become roster cloggers at some point.
- [42:50]
Dave
And I think also just like paying attention to team trends and injuries. Like TJ Hawkinson terrible in the first two weeks and then Carson Wentz gets two starts and he wasn't great by any means but like TJ Hawkinson was very much so startable over the last two weeks. And then right now we're looking, looking at Hunter Henry. Like Keisha Booty is dealing with an injury and demario Douglas not even getting targeted right now. Hunter Henry is like the de facto number one guy right now. Now if Booty gets healthy or demario Douglas carves out a role then we change that a little bit. But I think you just kind of look at like how are things going right now Like Zach Ertz when Jaden Daniels is healthy we can look at him as a low end, tight end one. But he has been dog water with Marcus Mariota out there. So I think it's just kind of like looking at the entire which is situation. Wild.
- [43:31]
Adam
Killed.
- [43:32]
Dave
Sorry.
- [43:32]
Adam
Like just it's wild because Mariota does love him the tight end.
- [43:35]
Dave
I know.
- [43:35]
Adam
And there's no Terry McLaren. I just. Yeah.
- [43:39]
Dave
Or dare I even say it right now like Colomet is a full time player and he has been getting targeted and like if you want to look at him as a streamer, it's worth it. But if Colson Loveland starts coming on, then you change the stance. So it's so hard. I think that, like, and you know, I keep talking about these top six. My top six, Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, Tyler Warren, George Kittle, Tucker Kraft, Jake Ferguson. If you've got one of those guys, guys, congratulations. You've got a plug and play tight end for the rest of the season. But even that, like, what happens if, you know, George Pickens cats out of the bag and then CD Lamb comes back healthy and then Jake Ferguson ends up taking a backseat to both of those guys. So I think you just have to play tight end in very short term. Windows.
- [44:15]
Adam
Could not agree more. Well, Dave, there we have it. The week five waiver wire pickups. It's kind of weird to say that we're already a good portion of the way through the season. What's the, what's the math on that?
- [44:28]
Dave
4 weeks, 23 of the way through.
- [44:32]
Adam
Sure. I'm just gonna agree because I'm not good at math. So know who you're taking fantasy advice from.
- [44:39]
Dave
But we want to point five. That was close.
- [44:41]
Adam
Did you do the math?
- [44:42]
Dave
Yeah.
- [44:42]
Adam
You did. Good job. Good job. We're gonna be back again later on in the week. We got the Wednesday flex show. We got the start sits and sleepers on Thursday as well. 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. Time. Adios. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Dave
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