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Week 7 Running Back and Wide Receiver Rankings || Fantasy Football 2025
01:26:45
In Episode 277 of the Footballguys Fantasy Football Show, Dave Kluge and Alfredo Brown discuss all of the relevant running backs and wide receivers in their Week 7 rankings. Send your questions to fantasyshow@footballguys.com 🎥. SUBSCRIBE...
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- [00:00]
A
Morning, Zoe. Got donuts. Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage? Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So, Dana. Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system. Wow, impressive. Let me try.
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B
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A
Nice. Je free.
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B
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A
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B
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A
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B
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- [01:30]
B
It's so funny in hindsight too. Like, you know, you talk about like these teams that you could have built and like, it's so funny just like how overly confident we are in the preseason.
- [01:39]
A
Like, it's, it's just everything is Chase.
- [01:41]
B
Brown over Jonathan Taylor. Like, what type of idiot are you? And it's like, you know, like all of these things. Like, I remember getting so mad that I got sniped on Chase Brown in my draft. I was like, oh, I have to settle for Kyron Williams now. And it's like, yeah, like, I was so mad about having to draft Kyron Williams. We are so cocksure in the, in the preseason. Hey, now, I don't think that's a bad word. I don't.
- [02:06]
A
I didn't even know it was a word. So let's just, let's start there.
- [02:10]
B
No, cocksure is not a bad you said it again. It's not a bad word. I think.
- [02:17]
A
I wasn't aware it was a word. Hold on, hold on, hold on. This is the cold open, by the way. And now I'm looking up. Yeah, guess what? I wrote it out. It does not come up as a Google suggested search word. Oh, my God, it does. Presumptuously or arrogantly confident. Okay, I need. Can I. Can I get the origins, please? Like this?
- [02:42]
B
I'm just typing. Is cocksure a bad word? Cocksure is not a bad word. It has a negative connotation because at.
- [02:48]
A
Least 16th century from archaic. My euphemism for God.
- [02:56]
B
I want to see.
- [03:01]
A
So wait a second. The 16th century, they were just like praise.
- [03:09]
B
You took it too far.
- [03:10]
A
No, that's what it says.
- [03:11]
B
It says.
- [03:12]
A
It's a direct translation.
- [03:15]
B
Yeah, I'm trying to remember what book I read it in. It was like a. It was definitely an old book.
- [03:19]
A
Like, it was Penthouse.
- [03:20]
B
It was like. No, it's like a 17th century novel. And I came across that word and I liked it.
- [03:26]
A
Smut.
- [03:28]
B
I will say. I wrote it in an article a few months ago and I was just like, I don't know if this is good for writing, but. No, I don't think cocksure requires a. Sorry, Joe. All right, I know what I'm putting. I got my meeting. I got my one on one with Joe later this afternoon and I will. I will bring this up to him first thing on our call. Hey, Joe, we got. We got one that we're. We're not sure about.
- [03:52]
A
We're BT dubs. We weren't cock sure about it.
- [03:56]
B
Gray area. But is there a better word to describe how we feel about fantasy football in the preseason?
- [04:05]
A
Yeah, definitely cocksure. And then that turns into depressed after a couple of weeks, you know?
- [04:11]
B
Yeah, it's not great. I. I'll. I'll just. I'll stick with arrogant going forward. That's probably a little safer.
- [04:17]
A
It's probably a better one. Probably a better one.
- [04:21]
B
Foreign.
- [04:30]
A
It is week seven. Welcome into the football guys fantasy football show. We're giving you our running back and wide receiver tiers this week. We're going through 70 players today. This is a whole new take on what we do on Thursdays. Instead of looking at a couple of players that you could start, a couple of players to sit, we are giving you guys our entire rankings, our tiers. So we're going to start with the running backs here, Dave. And we really don't have any time to spare, so let's just jump right into it. Okay, tier one, we got Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Bijan Robinson, Quinshawn Judkins, Josh Jacobs, Jameer Gibbs, and Devon Hn. These are our tier one running backs. And like we were talking about before the show, I don't think there's anyone saying I'm thinking about benching these guys, but there is a guy here that we want to pinpoint, Quinshon Judkins, who normally isn't in this Tier 1, but he is a good starter. He's going up against Miami this week.
- [05:22]
B
And really, it's just as simple as that. I kind of, like, jokingly tweeted, end of analysis. Yeah, I was watching Kamani Vidal film the other day, and I was like, my major takeaway here is that Miami run defense is really, really bad. And that's why I said, like, you can't really draw any conclusions from Commandee Vidal's game last week because he was just running through these wide open holes. And Quin John Judkins, I know, like, coming off of a down week, and I think a lot of people are worried, you know, is. Is this a fluke? Like, is he not the. No. Quinton Judkins is a good running back. He has a great matchup this week. I think you and I both have him inside our top five or close to it. Like, top six. Yeah. I mean, he's just a surefire starter this week.
- [05:59]
A
Yeah. I have Quinshawn Judkins as my RB6 this week, and I believe you have him as your RB3, so.
- [06:05]
B
Yeah. Which, like, either way, if you're in a world where you've got Jonathan Daler, quinjon Judkins, Chris McCaffrey and Bijan Robinson. Like, yeah, I guess I mentioned Bijan Robinson this week, but I don't know too many people that are in that position.
- [06:17]
A
It's a rare universe where the Browns are favored in a game. Miami's given up 330 combined rushing yards over the last two weeks. So fire up your Quinn, Sean Judkins. Dave, let's jump down to the next tier. I think we can kind of breeze past that first one there, but in the next tier, we're starting at running back eight. It's Javante Williams, then Saquon Barkley. Never thought we'd be saying that at the preseason, right? Kyron Williams, Bree Hall, Jigori Crosky, Merritt, Ashton Jinty, Rashad White, Cam scatterboo, Rico Dall. That is running backs eight through 16. Let's start with Javante Williams, Dave Going up against Washington commanders who they just gave up a big game to. DeAndre Swift. Javante is my running back eight this week. But prior to this game Washington had actually been pretty good against running backs. They'd only allowed one running back to score 15 plus fantasy points and that running back was Bijan Robinson. So I'm a little bit lower than consensus on Javante, but he's still a must start player.
- [07:09]
B
Yeah, and I've got him at my wide receiver or I'm sorry my running back eight and it's just, you know, the matchup isn't great but it's also not bad enough that I'm going to like react too dramatically to it. We've talked about Javante a lot this season, but 25 years old, career best efficiency metrics like breaking tackles, generating yards after contact. He's got the full workload on a good offense. So yeah, I'm just not overthinking this one. I mean like when I'm looking at these guys, they are mostly plug and play starters. But this is also a really interesting tier because like as we kind of talked about it briefly pre show I was like these guys are all plug and play starters. But then you look at it, half of this tier are players that were picked up off of waivers or that there were like no expectations for or super late round picks. So there's a lot of people that might have like two of the guys in tier one and then another two or three guys here in tier two. These are not names that we expected to be talking about as must starts. And because of that there's a lot of difficult decisions where you might be benching some top 15 running backs this week.
- [08:03]
A
Yeah, I'll say like one of the guys who I think people might be frustrated with is Saquon Barkley. But I don't think there's ever a point where you're going to be benching him even against a tough Minnesota defense. Kyron Williams, just a very stable running back. He's got a line right now, 66 and a half rushing yards. Think he probably beats that going up against Jacksonville. It is the London game, Puka's out. You'll probably see this team lean a little bit more on Kyron Williams here. Actually only one game below 65 rushing yards for Karen Williams this year. So if you, if you're a prop bettor, go out and bet that one right? Right away. Dave Breeze hall going up against Carolina. This is a player that I think a lot of people, a lot of people have Questions about. Right.
- [08:44]
B
It.
- [08:44]
A
It is. Let's. Okay. It is a. Let's call it a smash matchup in the past. I do think Carolina's been tougher this year against running backs. Just recently they shut down Javante Williams. They held Bijan Robinson to just 16 fantasy points. I do think there's a little bit of the reputation of Carolina being a run funnel year after year after year. And now all of a sudden they've actually been pretty good against running backs. They're allowing the second fewest rush yards since week two after the big ETN blow up week. I think the big thing here, the saving grace for Bruce hall is going to be what volume can you get with Garrett Wilson out.
- [09:19]
B
Yeah. And I do wonder. I'm trying to remember there was a team last year that like their fantasy points against didn't look great because there were so many lopsided matchups. And we've kind of seen a lot of that. I mean like Bijan, like they were getting beaten down so badly that like Bijan didn't even get touches in the second half. Like the Falcons shut them out 30 to 0 and they just kind iced Bijan. Last week was a weird game where I don't think a lot of people expected a close matchup between Dallas and Carolina. Still, there's just not a lot in this defense that worries me all that much. We've seen Breeze hall is getting one of the highest opportunity shares in the league. Talked about him on yesterday's buy low show, you know, 11th in the league in opportunities. He's still getting the touches. I don't think that they have a lot of guys in this front that are going to slow Breeze hall down. So this to me, you know, I know we're coming off of a down week where he didn't get in the end zone. Had some of his worst efficiency in the year. Now playing at home against Carolina, this just feels like a pretty obvious get right spot for Bree.
- [10:17]
A
You have Breece hall as your running back 11 if I'm not mistaken here. And I've got him as my running back 13. So he's just outside the top 12 for me. Next on here, Jaqui Crosby Merit going up against the Dallas Cowboys. This is another team that has become a run funnel and expecting a shootout with this Washington Dallas game. Like we mentioned in the previous show, Corey Crosby Merritt has sort of become the workhorse for Washington despite the fumbles, which is great. I know there's minimal receiving work here, but Dallas run defense, not great. I'm Gonna ride the workload, ride the matchup, start billing your lineups this week.
- [10:51]
B
And this is another one where like coming off of a down game by his standards, there might be some worry here, but this is one where I think the numbers do tell the whole story. Like the Cal Dallas Cowboys are third in the league in running back points allowed. You know, 28 points per game. Running backs have been averaging against Dallas. We know Jacori crossing merit is good. We know that Jeremy McNichols is going to get his like three to five touches. Chris Rodriguez is going to watch from the bench and Corey Cross Merritt should be able to run free against this Dallas defense.
- [11:20]
A
Dave, the next three running backs that we have here, Ashton Ginty, Rashad White, Cam Scatterboon, each of these players have tough matchups. Kansas City, Detroit and Denver. However, I don't think for any of these three guys, you could say I need to bench them because the usage is there. They all have touchdown upside, they're all getting passing game usage and I think that's what you're hoping for here. The one I do get slightly worried about is Cam Scaboo. Because of the implied point total for this game. This could be another 1310 slog fest. But with Jackson Dart and the way the Giants are playing, you never quite know what's going to happen in this game. So they could do, they could could do what they did against the Philadelphia Eagles, be able to pull away and control the clock with Cam Scatterboo and the Broncos really don't have anything they can do about that.
- [12:05]
B
Yeah. And two zero at home zero one on the road. So now going on the road, you know, you want to temper expectations a little bit also against a really tough run defense. So I'm with you. Like there's reasonable concern with Cam Scatter Boo this week, but based on what we've seen, like I just, I just don't want to bet against the guy like he is the kind of lifeblood of this Giants offense right now. Like he is going to get a ton of work. We're not going to see a lot of Tyrone Tracy or Devin Singletary and the touchdown upside just makes him worth it. So this might be one of his lower scoring games, but I think that the volume alone, like even if he doesn't get in the end zone, he's going to get a bunch of touches, he's going to get a handful of targets. It just feels like he's one of those guys that has like an 8 to 10 point floor and then we saw the upside last week and I think that's why you keep putting him in your lineup. Rashad White is the other one that I want to talk about real quickly though.
- [12:50]
A
Yeah.
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B
You know, so much was made about his inefficiencies two years ago and that's something that we talked about, you know, in 2023. It's like the workload was there, but he wasn't really great with the workload. Like the production was there, the workload was there, but we were looking at the EPA and the yards after contact per attempt and all these sorts of things and I'm willing to just like not care about that. RB7 two weeks ago, RB10 last week, which is very in line with what he did as the starter a couple years ago. And I, I, I talked with Matt Waldman about this a couple of days ago and wrote about it in our round table. But it's kind of Kyron Williams esque where like he is such a versatile back that that's where his value lies. Like he might not always been.
- [13:28]
A
He and Tyron always feel very interchangeable. They don't have high draft capital, they're not super explosive. They made their, their way as pass catchers, but then they became more of runners. It's been a very interesting road for.
- [13:41]
B
Each of these guys and that's it. I think if you look at like pass blocking, running pass catching, like you stack up all of these things. I don't think that you can say Rashad White is elite in any one thing, but he's like slightly above average in everything and that allows them to just keep him on the field so throw different looks at defenses. So I'm not going to nitpick anything about Rashad White's efficiency anymore. I don't care like if Bucky Irving is out, he is a plug and play guy.
- [14:07]
A
The last running back in this tier is Rico Dowdle, who there's going to be a lot of talk this week, you know, can we trust him now that Chuba Hubbard is back? The coaches have been somewhat non committal, but then say, you know, he's earned a bigger role and you know, like, we'll see and all. It's, it's very ambiguous coming out of Carolina. I think you and I are in full agreement here though. Like the genie's out of the bottle. You can't, you can't put Rico Dowdle back on the bench. And I don't think that he goes back to just a, a supplementary role behind Chuba Hubbard here. I think he ends up being the lead back in this offense and I've got as a running back 16. I believe you've got him at running back 13 right now in your rankings. I think you have to start him. You have to start him. If it's not the same, obviously temper, expectations, he's not going for 200 yards at least we don't think. But I think that with what we've seen over these last two games and even with this matchup, I know the jets matchup is a little bit tougher. It's still a very beatable team. Javante Williams just gashed them for 135 yards and two touchdowns just two weeks ago in week five. So that is still something that is very reasonable for Rico Dowdle to do. I think you're starting him as a running back too, no matter what this week.
- [15:13]
B
Yeah, I'm totally ready to look like an idiot after this week. But like I am just completely ranking this as if Rico Doddle has run away with the job. Like I've got Chuba Hubbard outside of starting Territor this week. And you know, we don't have to spend too much time on Rico Doddle, but I think he is one of the more like interesting players this week. I watched all the touches from last week. It was a took a lot of time. He had a lot of touches last week but like this wasn't like the Miami game and what we talked about with Commodity Vidal and what we talked about, Rico Dowdle two weeks ago, he was making plays himself like this Dallas defense I think is a little bit better than maybe their numbers say. But like there were a handful of plays like where it was getting blown up in the backfield and he had the, you know, quickness to cut back and still make something out of nothing. He was breaking tackles, he was generating yards after the contact. He's a very patient runner. Runner who knows how to press his blockers and use that leverage. And the one last thing I want to say, this isn't just a two week fluke and I think that's what everybody is just like, oh, you know, he's only done it over the last two weeks. If you look back to the midway point of last season when he took that starting job in Dallas. You look at those last seven games of the season plus his two starts now. So we're looking at a nine game sample here. You know, it's not a tiny, tiny little sample size. His 17 game pace over his last nine starts, 2013 rushing yards, 304 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Like this is just a two week thing. Like he's pacing to basically be a 2500 scrimmage yard player over his last nine starts. Rico Doddle, I, I am coming away more and more impressed every time I watch him.
- [16:43]
A
Right? Yeah. This. It's not like it's a rookie that we haven't seen before. It's not a guy who's been a bench warmer for all of his career. He was a starter last year in Dallas, rushed for over a thousand yards. It was actually surprising when he signed in Carolina because I thought he'd probably Dallas and keep the starting running back job. So yeah, I mean this, he's, we, we can't keep thinking of him as like this kind of two game wonder. I think he's here to stay. Let's hop down to the next tier here. This is going to be running backs 17 through 26. So pretty much guys that are going to be either starting for you or on the cusp of starting, most likely in the flex spot for you. But Jaylen Warren, DeAndre Swift, J.K. dobbins, Travis Etienne, Jordan Mason, Alvin Kamara, Chase Brown, David Montgomery, Kamani Vidal, and Ken Walker iii. Dave, let's start with Jalen Warren here because we had a week away with injury, then we had him come back and it wasn't the uses that we wanted to see typically. But he's going up against Cincy this week who's allowing the most fantasy points to running backs. Touchdown odds are pretty high for him. I know that Kenneth Gainwell is coming in there and Caleb Johnson kind of kept his role, but he wasn't very good with it. I'd say, like there's reason to be slightly worried with Jalen Warren, but I also think that if you just need someone to get you 12 points and potentially fall in the end zone. Jalen Warren's a good bet for you this week.
- [18:04]
B
I think that's it. Yeah. And he didn't look 100 healthy. And Kenneth Gainwell is going to be a little bit more involved than he was earlier in the season, but I think he's still the clear RB one here. You know, these Thursday night games are always fluky. These AFC north games are always fluky like this.
- [18:19]
A
It's usually like a 9 to 6 field goal fest. It's horrible.
- [18:22]
B
That's, that's, that's what I was going to say. And we're going to watch the game tonight because we're sickos and that's what we do.
- [18:26]
A
But like the kids are going to go nuts if it's six to seven.
- [18:30]
B
Oh, gosh, please don't even. But like, I have very, very low expectations for this game. But Jalen Warren and then Chase Brown on the opposite side of the ball. Like, you're not especially excited about either, but the opportunity is going to be there. Did you see what, what somebody called this, this game? I don't know if you saw Aaron Rodgers reaction. They're calling it the, the Icy Hot bowl because you got Joe Flacco and Aaron Rodgers going against each other pretty good. I got a, I got a good laugh out of that one.
- [18:53]
A
It's the, you know what, the Copper Fit Bowl. Those little, the commercials like Brett Favre and Jerry Rice running around.
- [19:01]
B
I can handle like those where it's like, oh, you know, you know, knee braces and whatnot. The one that really threw me for a loop was the Emmett Smith Depends commercial. I was like, no, no, no. Like, no, no. I feel way too old now. We got. That's my childhood favorites pooping their pants.
- [19:17]
A
We don't, I mean, we don't think he's actually doing that.
- [19:20]
B
Right.
- [19:20]
A
Like we're just gonna give him the benefit of the doubt.
- [19:22]
B
Yeah.
- [19:23]
A
Selling out for a little bit of money.
- [19:24]
B
Yeah. Yeah. But depends. That's, that's a step too far. Like arthritis, whatnot. We don't need to sell into pens yet.
- [19:32]
A
Everybody poops, Dave. There's a book about it Next on here. DeAndre Swift going up against New Orleans. He got really hot against Washington. I think that's more so what it is than Washington being bad or the Bears finally figuring it out. You could tell me differently, Dave. I do just think it's a player that got hot. And there was a lot of concern with the Chicago passing game that Washington was really focusing on. There were just plays left on the table here and there, especially with Roma dunes. I do expect this to be a bounce back game for him. Saints run D is a little bit tougher than we think. They've only allowed one touchdown to running backs of the last three weeks. And the big, the big games they've allowed have been like just flat out blow up games. Christian McCaffrey, James Cook, Ken Walker getting two touchdowns. So I think you're just kind of looking at a return to normalcy for DeAndre Swift. Yeah.
- [20:17]
B
And I mean like right now we're looking at good production from DeAndre Swift. If you look at his per game average, like he's the RB13 in fantasy right now. And I remember talking a couple of Weeks ago we were talking about DeAndre Swift and I said it felt like he wasn't really living up to his potential. Like at the time he was RB16 in expected fantasy points and he was outside of the top 20 in actual fantasy points. So the opportunity has been there all year and we know with DeAndre Swift you're not going to look at a guy who's just going to like five yards every time he touches the ball. You're hoping for the explosives and the touchdowns and when those hit, that's when you see those big boom games. So unfortunately you are going to have the down weeks from DeAndre Swift and we've seen a handful of those eight points in week one, 9.3 points in week two. But, but because he's got the big play upside, he can always have those 25 point weeks like he did last week. So I think you keep putting him in your lineup as kind of a, a middling RB2, knowing that you're going to have some weeks that aren't going to feel great and then you're going to have these huge boom weeks like last week.
- [21:11]
A
Next here is J.K. dobbins going up against the New York Giants, who at the beginning of the season the Giants were an easy run funnel defense and it does seem that they're. Whatever has happened to their offense has carried over to the defense and everything's playing better. Abdul Carter has actually been a real spark plug for this defense and it's been big in the run game. Brian Burns looks rejuvenated, actually getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback now. Not that he's ever been bad at that, but it's just the defense does look different here.
- [21:37]
B
Both of those guys also have Dexter Lawrence now playing the best football at his career. That, that whole front like that is just going to be a nightmare for years to come.
- [21:45]
A
Yeah. And like that's where when I look at J.K. dobbins here, I see this as a sort of safe, boring, vanilla play where you're just saying hopefully he gets a touchdown here we know he's getting the volume right. And this is probably, like we said said, it's likely not going to be a shootout. It's got the lowest point total of the week set by Vegas. So I, I don't expect this to be a shootout. If you're saying, okay, I'm projected to lose my matchup by X amount of points, maybe you want to go with someone that's got a little bit of a higher upside than a J.K. dobbins, he's still a safe start, but he's, he's not the sexiest of starts.
- [22:18]
B
Yeah, I, I keep waiting for that RJ Harvey takeover, but, you know, they like JK Dobbins, but it just feels like a ticking time bomb. I mean, like, he looked really good early in the season and then has kind of cooled off, which is very similar last year. I mean, that's kind of very J.K. dobbins. Yeah. You know, healthy to start the year looks awesome and then just picks up these minor little aches and pains as the season progresses. So, yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm starting him, but definitely don't feel great about it. Like, of all of the players in this tier, you got, you got to rank him in here because the volume's been there and it's J.K. dobbins, but I'm with you. Like, this does feel like probably one of the riskiest players in this year.
- [22:55]
A
Yeah. And it's, it kind of gets ugly at the end of this tier where you're almost feeling like, ah, gotta start these guys either because of what they've done the past, which is like looking through here. Dave. Travis ETN going up against the Rams. Rams have one of the absolute best run defenses in the league. Haven't allowed a running back rushing touchdown this season. That one worries me. Three straight games below 60 yards for Travis ETN and he's not really getting the target volume either. Jordan Mason has been kind of meh, you know, going up against Philly, who now they're, they're so it's, it's funny when they are missing Jaylen Carter run defense not so great. Jalen Carter gets back in run defense fixed. So should be backing. Yeah. Who to thunk right. The superstar player should be better this week. The Philly defense. So that does worry me a little bit here with Jordan Mason. Alvin Kamara I think is the guy. That's interesting. We talked about him a bit yesterday. There's been worry. Right. We're seeing more Kendra Miller on the field, but now we also got Taysom Hill, who got himself a touchdown when they got into the red zone.
- [23:57]
B
That's stat line. Most Taysom Hill stat line I've ever seen. One carry, one yard. I was like back in. Back in peak form. We. We got him.
- [24:05]
A
Yeah. The kids don't know nothing about taste in hell, man. Nothing. This is. How do you feel about this Alvin Camara this week? Because I know you've said he's a trade candidate that you, that you'd like to go by, how do you feel starting it this week?
- [24:24]
B
The Chicago offense has been good and, and I don't think I'm saying anything that's coming from like a place of Bears homerism. They're the only team that scored 24 points in every game so far this year. Like, it's been good offense. So when I see them go off King. Yeah, yeah, you know, been better than expected. So I see this, you know, potentially pushing them to a game script where they might have to throw a little bit. We know that the Saints offense isn't great, so I see this potentially being a nice game script for Alan Camaro where he is getting some usage late as a pass catcher, but also for as good as the Bears offense has been. And, and their, their past defense is stepping up a little bit, but their run defense is still just abysmal. Like, this is one where, you know, you know, teams can beat the Bears just by running it consistently right through the middle of them. And that, that's not Alvin Camara's job. But like, if they do give Alvin Camara, you know, just a dozen touches and five or six targets, that's enough to get him into a high end RB2 finish this week.
- [25:18]
A
The next guy on here is David Montgomery. Who? Dave, you have him ahead of Alvin Camara. I have him below Alvin Camara era. But here he is in close to the bottom of our tier three. Dave Montgomery, only six opportunities last week. Still efficient coaching staff is saying more opportunity is coming.
- [25:37]
B
Right.
- [25:39]
A
I would say that if we're looking at this game, the Implied point total 29, you're assuming he's probably due for a touchdown. Is that more or less what we're looking at here? It kind of feels like that's where we're trapped with David Montgomery, where we're looking at anywhere from eight to 12 touches in a game and just hoping for a touchdown. Where you just kind of throw them in your flex every single week with limited upside.
- [26:01]
B
Yeah, this is a tough one and I do want to fact check myself. It was. The Bears have scored 21 points or more in every game. Not 24 just for the, the commenters out there, but this one, I do have a little bit of pause with David Montgomery and like you've got to rank him somewhere because it's David Montgomery and this game has a really high projected point total. But also when I look at this Tampa Bay defense, like they are most susceptible when you can get running backs out to the edges. And that's not really David Montgomery's game, like you don't want to be slammin David Montgomery into Vita Baya 28 times. So we've seen there have been a handful of games this year where like David Montgomery has just been completely out of the game plan and it's been the Jameer Gibbs show. And I think that's the risk here is like last year it was a 50, 50 split pretty much all year and we've seen a handful of 50 split 50, 50 games this year. But we've also seen the 80, 20 games that are just like completely foreign to us. So you got to put David Montgomery in your lineup. But this kind of feels like it could potentially be a trap game for him.
- [26:57]
A
Another guy who I think people are going to have actually a couple of these players here. The two final players to finish out this tier. Kamani Vidal, who yeah, got a, a bunch of volume against Miami. I do think this is a different scenario than the Rico Dowdle scenario. Kamani Vidal has been a career third stringer. Going up against Miami last week it was wide open for him. This is a very different opponent opponent this week going up against Indy who has not allowed a blow up game. And when I say a blow up game, I mean just a big fantasy performance for running backs. The most points they've given up was Devon HN 16 and a half points, PPR points, excuse me, in week one. And that was because of a big receiving role. Dave, I think if Kamani Vidal here, if you're starting him, I don't think you're putting him in as an RB2, you're putting him in as a flex who's hopefully getting some receiving work in this game. Game that if Quentin Johnston is still out, you're thinking maybe the, the pie gets, you know, divvied up a little bit differently amongst the players. But that's really about it for me.
- [28:00]
B
Yeah. And I don't know how much Hassan Haskins we're gonna see like you know, we kind of know who he is at this point but it would be.
- [28:07]
A
The most Chargers thing ever to give Haskins like 18 touches charges.
- [28:12]
B
Thing ever would be Naive Hines coming out here and having a revenge game against the correct Colts and going for 150 yards and you know that's in play too kind of being a little tongue in cheek. But this is one like yeah, you've got to put Commandee Vidal in because of what we saw last week. And maybe I'm going to be wrong. Maybe this is just like a good offense And Commodity Vidal, that that's all that matters. And even missing Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater, like, they still have a very good interior offensive line, and that's why we saw these huge holes. But the Colts defense is just much better. So this is one. Like, I'm okay having a little bit of pause here. Like some of the other guys that we have ranked in that range. Like, technically, I do have Kamani Bidal ahead of Travion Henderson and Kenneth Walker and Radre Stevenson and Isaiah Pacheco and. But if you want to put those guys in ahead of Commodity Vidal, I wouldn't blame anybody for doing it because I think a wait and see approach is probably the best thing to do here.
- [29:04]
A
Yeah, Ken Walker, final. You mentioned his name. He's the final running back in this tier for us. Two straight games with 10 carries and one target. Zach Charbonnet has just taken so much volume from him. It's a tough matchup with Houston, if I'm being honest. I almost want to just move Ken Walker down to the, to the next tier, and that's why I've. I've got him ranked a bit lower here. I. I just don't know that I trust him or Zach Charbonnet. I don't really want to start them. I kind of want to sit and wait and see which one ends up getting the workload. I think we got to expect that we're hoping for a trade here. I don't want to say we're ever hoping for an injury, but. But I think you're hoping to see that there is someone who sort of takes over this role. And I just don't think that's happening with this coaching staff.
- [29:44]
B
And I think the frustrating thing is that, like, we as fantasy managers hate what's happening with this backfield, but it's working in real life. Football and the Seattle Seahawks are winning games. And I think that there's like a good symbiotic relationship here.
- [29:57]
A
Like, the rushing game is not great for them, but they're winning games. Right. It's like you can kind of ignore it because you're winning.
- [30:03]
B
Yeah. And it's just like they're such different players. Like, this is a very much so. Like, you always talk about those thunder, lightning backfields, and that's exactly what this is. Like. Zach Charbonnet is the guy, like, if you need him to get 2 yards, he's going to get you 3 yards, and if you need him to get 5 yards, he's going to get YOU 3 yards. And like, Kenneth Walker is the guy who's going to take the losses, but then he's got the big play upside that Charbonnet doesn't. So they kind of benefit each other. Like, Charbonnet wears the defenses down. Kenneth Walker helps them, you know, sit with these lighter fronts that Zach Charbonnet could beat up on. Incredibly frustrating for fantasy. You're just starting both of these guys as flex options, hoping Charbonnet can rip off an 80 yarder or hoping that. Or I'm sorry, hoping Walker can rip off an 80 yarder or sharpening can score a couple of touchdowns. But when they don't do that, then you're like, what was I thinking putting a guy in a timeshare in my lineup? But you just kind of have to keep doing it, unfortunately.
- [30:51]
A
Let's go to the next tier on here. And this is tier number four, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, it is. And we're looking at Number running backs 27 through 32. Trevion Henderson, Ramandre Stevenson. Might as well just make that one. Running back Isaiah Pacheco, Tony Pollard, Zach Charbonnet and Bam Knight. So, Dave, with Trevin Henderson and Ramandre Stevenson.
- [31:13]
B
East Coast Seahawks, right? Like, yeah, we just said. Yeah.
- [31:16]
A
You're not excited to start either of them. I, I think like the only shining light here is that they're going up against the Titans, who Titans run defense actually not bad, but game script would dictate that the Patriots will likely lead. I think what my hope here is that we're going to see some Trevion Henderson usage and potentially this could be one of those coming out parties for him because it's a defense that he can win against on the outside. However, I don't know, man. It's the Mike Vrabel revenge game. I feel like Mike Vrabel is just going to do Mike Vrabel things and be like, let's run Ramon Dre Stevenson 19 times up the middle in Jeffrey Simmons fight face.
- [31:52]
B
That could definitely happen. Did you see the. The quote from Mike Brable in a press conference two days ago where he said that he had to have a talk with the running backs coach because he was focusing too much on ball?
- [32:02]
A
Yeah.
- [32:02]
B
Too much.
- [32:03]
A
Not fumbling. Yes, I did see that. He's like, we're too worried about ball security. I'm like, my guy, you're not worried enough.
- [32:10]
B
You know, Bill Belichick might be out of the NFL, but his spirit lives on. And I think Mike Frable is just like, you know, I think he enjoys trolling fantasy managers. And I think that a lot of the usage and the comments, he's the.
- [32:22]
A
He'S the Mad Men meme where it's John Hammond. He's like, I literally never think of you. He doesn't care. Yeah. Like he doesn't troll fantasy managers. He just doesn't think about us at all.
- [32:32]
B
I. Yeah, I don't know if it's like. But like for him to come out, like, you know the thing where Roman Ray Stevenson had that like huge deep wheel route catch a few weeks ago and then like he gets on a podcast for no reason the next day and he's like, you know, that play was actually drawn up for Travion Henderson. Like it almost feels spiteful and intentional at this point. But maybe that's just me, you know, reading this from, from my perspective.
- [32:54]
A
Running back 29 here, Isaiah Pacheco, he, I mean, got a season high in usage last week. I guess that's cool.
- [33:03]
B
Sure.
- [33:04]
A
Not really getting the goal line work that we want to see, but there's a decent. So like this could be one of those runaway games where the Chiefs win by like 30 points. Like it is very, very possible going up against Las Vegas here, here. Not a good defense. We could see some great things from Isaiah Pacheco potentially. So he's one of those kind of desperation flexes. I'll say this, I do think the return of Rashi Rice opened things up on the offense. Like I know we want and we expect a volume for Rice, which I think will still happen, but it is the Raiders and if the Chiefs end up ahead by three scores. I know these games usually get played pretty tough, but if the Chiefs end up ahead, they could just run the clock out.
- [33:46]
B
And we're seeing like the Chiefs are back to like the explosive, awesome offense.
- [33:50]
A
Very cheefy.
- [33:51]
B
Yeah, I mean like this is not the same dink and dunk Chiefs that we saw over the last couple of years. Like they, they've got a good arsenal now. Like with Rashi Rice back out there, Hollywood Brown has been playing well. They found out Taekwond Thornton how to get him involved. Xavier Worthy, of course, doing his things. Travis Kelski hasn't been great, but he definitely looks better than he did last year. And I think that all of those things happening, like Mahomes is playing arguably the best football of his career now. And when you've got like five legitimate pass catching weapons out there, getting passes thrown to them by the best quarterback in football, I don't see how you can afford to Load the box. So I think that Pacheco here, like, it's just, there's going to be volume and there's going to be soft fronts and there's going to be opportunities for scoring. So trending up in the usage, but we don't feel great about it. But this does feel like one where, like I'm looking at him at RB 29 in my rankings right now and that does feel like admittedly too low because it feels like his upside this week is 150 yards and two touchdowns. And I haven't felt like an Isaiah Pacheco game like that has been looming once this season. But it feels like now that the usage is trending up with a good divisional matchup with Rashi Rice back, I could see that huge boom game for Pacheco that we've been waiting on.
- [35:01]
A
The Chiefs, they're just a fun team to pay attention to.
- [35:05]
B
I just moved Pacheco up in my rankings, but I moved him up a few spots. I'm like, what am I doing? Putting Kamani Vidal ahead of Isaiah Pacheco. So Isaiah Pacheco now my, my running 25 on the week as opposed to the 28. When we put this show sheet together.
- [35:19]
A
Do you feel good about it?
- [35:21]
B
I do, yeah. I might feel frisky tonight, move up to RB24 and then that way I could officially say Isaiah Pacheco, RB2 in my rankings.
- [35:29]
A
No, you shouldn't feel good about it. Tony Pollard, I guess you gotta rank him somewhere. Everything just seems to be going down for him. It's a brutal matchup going against the Patriots. I don't want to start him unless I have to. Zach Charbonnet, similar. It's a tough matchup going against Houston. Don't want to start him unless I have to. Bam Knight is the last guy in this tier. We're looking at a guy who's getting the goal, goal line and early down work. Michael Carter getting the passing down work. But this is a game against the packers where right there might not be a whole lot of goal line or early down work for him to take. So this could. Could packers have been notoriously beatable through the air with running backs. They do tend to play his own defense. Something we've talked about week after week here where Carter could end up being the guy. But I think we're just going to assume Bam Knight gets a little more volume and has the opportunity to fall into the end zone. Michael Carter is not far behind in my rankings, but I think this is more of I Don't like either of them, then I really like one of them more than the other.
- [36:34]
B
Yeah, I mean, the packers, they are best in the league in rushing yards allowed to running backs. They've allowed. And I mean, I guess you got to take that with a grain of salt because they did have a bye week, which some other teams haven't. But even on a per game basis, they're still inside the, the top five. So I mean, this is just a buzzsaw of a defensive front. Looks like we're probably trending towards another Jacoby Brissette start. I still don't know if that's a positive or a negative for this offense as a whole. We'll find out after another Jacoby Brissette game. But. But yeah, I mean, I feel like there are better options than Bam Knight and you know, like, I've got Tajie Spears ahead of Bam Knight in my rankings this week and don't feel great about that either. But like, it just feels like the upside for Bam Knight is so limited. Like we're going to be seeing him splitting touches and getting early down work against a very good team that is the clear favorite in this matchup. Like, if I'm swinging for the fences with my flex spot, give me Tajie Spears who can like rip off a 50 or 60 yard play and like maybe do something special.
- [37:33]
A
I do.
- [37:34]
B
I don't see a lot of special abilities from Bam Knight. I just see kind of a volume based guy who's going to struggle in this matchup.
- [37:41]
A
Yeah. And I think I'll be making that adjustment as well in my rankings as well because I've got Spears behind Knight. Honestly, I think I'm going to move Spears ahead of Zach Charbonnet and probably ahead of Tony Pollard, his, his, his running mate on his team. Like, I, I'd rather go for the upside of Spears in a game where they are going to be trailing, which is every game, by the way, Tennessee. So yeah, I'll, I'll take that. Speaking of, of Tasha Spears, he kicks off the final tier here. So this is tier number five, running backs, 33 through 38. These are the guys that are maybe your second flex, a second desperation flex if things are getting really bad on your team.
- [38:15]
B
But just laughing at how many like split backfields we just have in these last years. It's Gross Marks and Nick Job and Taj Spears and Tony Pollard and Kenneth Walker and Zach Charvada and Radre Stevenson and Travion Henderson. Like we don't know what to do. With these guys. So we're just going to lump them all together and, and hope for the best and.
- [38:31]
A
And that's really it. I mean, just to list these guys. Tajie Spears, Woody Marks, Nick Chubb, Chuba Hubbard, RJ Harvey, Kenneth Gainwell and I think. And honestly, there's guys we didn't put on here, but like Kendra Miller, Tyler Algier, Michael Carter, Hassan Haskins, Cream Hunt. Like, there's a bunch of these guys that are in these split backfields where you kind of have to look at what is the game script going to be? Is the team going to be trailing? Will they need to pass? Let's get the pass catching guy in. Are they going to be ahead? Do they have a positive game script script? Let's keep the guy who can fall in the end zone. And that's more or less where you just start to lean. When it comes down to, like, you're running back 37 in rankings here, right? Like, that's where you have to go. You're leaning for upside. Dave, I don't know if there's anything remarkable to say here. I mean, Woody Marks, Nick Chubb, there's volatility in their usage.
- [39:14]
B
Yeah, I think that's the one that, like, I really want to talk about because I don't have a strong read on this. Like, it felt like the Woody Mark breakout was here two weeks ago and then. Yeah, well, I. A3. Whatever. The woody marks breakout felt like it was here and then they went right back to Nick Chubb. I don't know what to make of this one too because, like, this is a game where I could see it going either way. Like, I could see either of these teams, the Seahawks or the Texans, running away with the game. I could also see it being a tough matchup. This is, you know, we've got. Houston has been trending up over the last couple of weeks. Nick Chubb still doesn't look great, but we saw almost no usage from Woody Marks last week. This one, to me, like, I'm okay saying just bench both of these guys. Like, I'm not clamoring to get.
- [39:55]
A
There's no logic that wins here. There's no logic that wins with either of these running backs because you can say Nick Chubb doesn't look good. You can, you can kind of put this in whatever window you want to and then all of a sudden Nick Chubb will still out touch Woody Marks and it just doesn't matter.
- [40:08]
B
So. So, like I'm at a point where, like, I am ranking both of these guys below where I should because I think there's just so much risk with both of them and I don't even think there's that much upside. So. So like, if we're looking at a split backfield, this is just one that, like I said, I'm just kind of okay avoiding both of these Houston running backs for now.
- [40:29]
A
Couple other guys here in this tier. Chuba Hubbard, I think this is you approach with extreme caution. I, I like to ask the question is like, what can I live with? Whether it's putting the guy in the lineup or keeping him out, I can live with keeping him out of the lineup. And he gets 10, 11, 12, 12 points. I don't think we're getting a big blow up game from Chupa Hubbard. What I don't want to live with is putting him in the lineup and he gets me two points on six or seven carries because he was on a pitch count coming back. And Rico Dowdle is the new starter and that's, that's essentially where I'm at with Chuba. Are you kind of the same way, Dave?
- [41:01]
B
Yeah, I mean I've got him wider or running back, 41 in my rankings. And you know, I said at the top of the show when we were talking about Rico Doddle, this could make me look like a fool after this weekend, but I just am ranking this as if, you know, know Freako Dowdle has run away with the job. And maybe this is me overcorrecting for like a lapse in judgment. I had where I was like, you know, Tyrone Tracy's coming back and he was the starter before he got hurt. And yeah, Cam Scatter booze looked really good but like Tyrone Tracy was the starter, they're gonna give him his job back. And then that just didn't happen. And I, I think we're seeing something similar here where like Rico Dodle has just playing, been playing worlds better than anything we've seen from Chuba Harper this year. And I, I just, just don't know how you go back to it that way. Like this is the first time in Bryce Young or the second time in Bryce Young's career that they've won back to back games. And like we have heard Dave Canal so much talking about wanting to build this physical brand of football. Like they invested heavily in this interior offensive line and Chuba Hubbard was just kind of going through the motions, not doing anything special. Rico Dowdle is coming out here looking like a special talent and I think that he just retains the role.
- [42:04]
A
Yeah, Rico Doddle's been saying all the right things, too. Is that, like, he understands that this was Chuba's team before his. Chuba's got the extension, so he's saying all the right things that might, like, give you a little bit of doubt. I still think it's a red herring. I think you got to live with Rico Dowdle being your starting running back. Now. Final two guys on this in this tier, RJ Harvey and Kenneth Gainwell, who I think they are just a microcosm of each other. Guys who are going to have some role in the passing game. I think Kenneth Gainwell probably has a bigger role at this point, but you just don't expect the Steelers to be in a big passing game type of environment. And, I mean, honestly, same for the Broncos. They've just been a defense heavy team that's been trying to control the clock, and even when they are passing, it hasn't been overwhelmingly to RJ Harvey. So I don't really love either of these guys this week. They seem like more of nuisances than actual players. I want to start in my lineup.
- [42:58]
B
Yeah, I mean, like, we thought we saw the RJ Harvey break out when they just, you know, just beat the snot out of Cincinnati a few weeks ago. And we were like, well, you know, genie's out of the bottle, RJ Harvey.
- [43:08]
A
It's kind of like when you see DJ Giddens have a big role in week one for the Colts against Miami.
- [43:13]
B
That's exactly what it is. And like, last week and what was a close game, like, RJ Harvey was just completely phased out. He had two rushing attempts and, like, you know, was able to get a handful of catches through the air. But this is one that. Yeah, I mean, Sean Payton backfields, and not even Sean Payton backfield. Sean Payton receiver, receiver, rooms, too.
- [43:32]
A
Like Sean Payton anything. Sean Payton offenses. Sean Payton teams seen two games now.
- [43:38]
B
Where it's just like, Cortland Sutton, just, like, why is he even on the field? Like, clearly their best player. And, like, he just gets phased out of random games. So I made the joke after, like, week one or two that I might just have, like, a do not draft any player on a Sean Payton team ever again rule, and I might actually live by that next year.
- [43:57]
A
You know what? It's our fault. It's our fault for having fantasy teams. It's not Sean Payton's fault. It's our fault for thinking that he would do something different. All right, Dave, we went through our top. Was that 39 running backs or 38 running backs? Yeah, 38.
- [44:10]
B
Running back.
- [44:11]
A
Yeah, me, apparently. We're gonna go into the wide receivers now. Okay. We promised you guys 70 players. We're running through these pretty quick, but it's. It's a heck of an episode.
- [44:21]
B
Math tells me that we're going to be way above 70 players. Sure.
- [44:25]
A
Where are we at? Let me see. How many wide receivers?
- [44:27]
B
39 plus 40.
- [44:29]
A
40. 38 and 40. Yeah, sure. But, you know, 78 doesn't sound. 78 doesn't sound good on a. On a thumbnail. So 70 at least sounds. Sounds cool. I couldn't get it clean. All right, let's go into the first tier of wide receivers here. Top tier, Jackson. Smith, Najigba. Amanra. Saint Brown, Jamar Chase. Devonte, Adams. Drake. London. I don't think there's. I don't think there's anything to say. Like, they're all really good. You're starting every single one of them. They can win your week.
- [44:58]
B
Like, we. We rank these guys almost exactly the same. Same, too. Like, these are your elite wide receiver ones. Nothing to talk about here.
- [45:05]
A
Yeah. So we're going to skip right down to tier two, and this is where things get interesting. Two players in a tie. Roma dun Justin Jefferson. So you can rank them however you want. I doubt you're sitting here saying, well, which one do I start out of? The two of them. Start them both, figure it out. Cut someone else from the team. I don't care. But Roman Dun needs to be in your lineups. Even go. Even going against New Orleans this week, we kind of almost saw the touchdown touch. We don't. I don't want to say touchdown variants here, but, like, we kind of saw it keep going until it got called back. Like, the role just continues to grow for Roma Duna. He is the clear wide receiver. One we're also looking at. Potentially no D.J. moore in this game, depending on how he's trending throughout the week here. Dave. So Roma dun, I think not just a good start, but a potential weak winner.
- [45:49]
B
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is a good matchup for him. And it's funny, like, now we're not panic about Roma Dunes A. But, like, like, coming out of the buy, he had his worst game of the season. And I have heard some, like, concern about Roman Dunes A. But that penalty go by was. Oh, my God, penalty was. Was so dumb. And, like, it just robbed him of what would have been, like, a career highlight. Real catch. Not happy about the way that transpired, but yeah, Roma, dude, you're getting him in your lineup. He's the clear number one option on this team.
- [46:16]
A
Yeah. Justin Jefferson is the other guy here that we have in the exact same spot going up against Philly. It's Justin Jefferson. You're not benching him. Nico Collins. I think this is where people may start to ask questions, but for the most part you're always starting Nico Collins. Going up against Seattle. Seattle has had major issues in their secondary because of injuries. We could be seeing the big blow up game for Nico Collins I think I hope like that's, that's why I have him ranked this high. Dave, I mean you're confident firing up Nico Collins as the wide receiver one this week, right?
- [46:46]
B
Yeah. And I've even got him ahead of Justin Jefferson. Like you know we haven't really seen seen the huge blow up game yet, but still just like making special plays on a weekly basis. Talked about a little bit earlier when we were talking about the running backs. But this Houston offense does seem like it's trending in the right direction here. You talk about the injuries to Seattle's secondary. I mean this just feels like a smash spot. And I will say if Carson Wentz starts ahead of JJ McCarthy then I'll make that flip and put Jefferson ahead of Nico Collins.
- [47:13]
A
But like it does trending that way.
- [47:16]
B
Yeah. And, and right. And it doesn't matter.
- [47:18]
A
It doesn't matter.
- [47:18]
B
That help consumer anyway like this is stuff we care about like accuracy rankings for like in season. But like you're starting Nico Collins, you're starting Justin Jefferson. Who cares?
- [47:28]
A
Right. Right. Next on here, CD Lamb. And we had a specific conversation about how to play this with CD Lamb because obviously as the week goes on you don't know for sure when if players are going to play. You don't get that ruling until later in the week. So typically you kind of keep the rankings a little bit lower. But we said hey, like hey, let's do this where as if he is fully healthy, he is playing. Where are you ranking him? And we've got him, Dave, as wide receiver nine on the week. I've got him as my wide receiver seven. You've got him as wide receiver 11. So he fits right in the middle there. He's still a wide receiver one. I think CD Lamb, if he's healthy, he's going right back to the normal target share. I think a lot of this comes away from George Pickens. It comes away from Jake Ferguson. But teams have seen how important those guys can be to the offensive playbook and I think that just continues to Open things up for this Dallas offense going up against Washington, bottom 10 versus wide receivers. If CD Lamb has the green light, you start him. I don't think you make any question about it or get worried about George.
- [48:25]
B
Pickens, so I will. I think there's like a little bit of nuance to the CD Lamb discussion and I think it comes down to like, how he's able to practice. If he gets a full practice under his belt, I'm much more confident starting him. But if it's like that, like he's limited every single day this week and then comes down to like being a game time decision, I think that's where you might have to have some tough decisions. Benching CD Lam and only if your team is loaded. Like, I'm not talking about benching CD Lamb for Rashid Shahid, but like, you.
- [48:52]
A
Know, there are some guys, there's very few situations where I'm benching. See, like, they have to come out and be like, he's not playing or I don't know, man. Even if they, what if they say he's on a pitch count? Because we've seen this before and players.
- [49:03]
B
Still play well and that's. What if they say he's on a pitch count? If they say, like Jay Glazer, got to give it out to him. Fox Sports. Like, he always has these reads on Sunday morning and like he is very, very accurate. He's not going to say something unless he's confident about it. So. So I'm going to be paying close attention to see if there's a Jay Glazer report because they do play a little bit later as well, which adds something into here. And again, like, I'm not saying that like you need to bench CD Lamb if he's limited or if they say he's a game time decision or anything like that. But you know, if he's limited through the entire week and if he gets that questionable tag going into Sunday morning, I'm probably going to rank George Pickens, Rashi Rice, Jalen waddle, Brian Thomas Jr. Courtland Sutton, DK Metcalf, Tetaro McMillan. I'll have those guys ahead of CD Lamb. So I'm not saying he' like a wide receiver three, but I'll have him kind of in that like middling wide receiver two tier.
- [49:52]
A
Can I just, can I just put the kibosh on all this here?
- [49:55]
B
Yeah.
- [49:56]
A
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer on what he needs to see from CD Lamb this week in practice for him to play. His answer if he's Breathing. So CD Lamb is playing.
- [50:07]
B
Yes. And that's the other. It's a divisional game, you know, like they always want to try to put these guys out. There's a lot of mind games that happen in these divisional games. But I'm still like, if he's limited throughout the entire week, I think there's reason to have a little bit of pause.
- [50:23]
A
I'm just gonna start him. I got like, I've got no worries in the world. I'll go down with that ship 10 times out of 10. Next up on here, Rasheed Rice coming back after suspension. So there's another player where it's been the combination of injury, suspension, all these things kind of coming together here. The assumption he's The Chief's Wide Receiver 11 returns to being the target leader, red zone magnet, yard after catch guy. We know that the Raider secondary is terrible. I think this is an easy game for him to come back into where they can work him on some easy targets, get his feet under him so that he's ready for some of these tougher games. Dave, you have Rasheed Rice. Let me just double check here. Wide receiver 10. I've got him at wide receiver 11. Then we're both starting him with absolutely no pause here. He's a wide receiver one.
- [51:11]
B
And if CD Lamb is active, then I'm making that switch where I'll put Rashi Rice ahead of George Pickens. But this is one too. Like the, the practice report came out, there were no limitations. Like he was a full participant through all of training camp. Wednesday, first practice of the week. He logged a full practice there as well. So there's no ramp up period or anything like that. Like he is going to hit the ground running. He is 100 healthy. You got like it wasn't a huge, like it was a season ending injury, but they said it was a very clear timeline for his return. It was a clean injury. Like he was practicing an OTAS near 100%. So no concern about the injury here. Rashi Rice going right back into my lineup as a top 10 guy.
- [51:50]
A
Yeah, I mean this is, this is a no brainer for me keeping Rashid Rice in the starting lineups. George Pickens, I think it becomes an interesting one. You've got Pickens ranked a bit higher than I do. You've got him as your wide receiver 9. I've got him at wide receiver 13. Like it's not like I hate George Pickens. I just don't see him as the wide receiver at 1 this week. And, and a lot of it, too, just has to do with the names that come right after him on the list, like Debos and Ladd and A.J. brown. Like, I'm just kind of sticking with the Cowboys passing offense. So if you have worries, I think we can make this simple. If you have worries about what happens with George Pickens with CD Lamb coming back, you keep him in your lineup. That's about it. Like, I think at worst, he's dropping from being being a top six or seven wide receiver to being a top 15 wide receiver. And so we're keeping them in our lineups no matter what.
- [52:37]
B
Yeah. And same thing. Like, asterisk next to CD Lamb. There's an asterisk next to George Pickens as well. Like, I, I. You know, when, when I sent these rankings over to you, I did have CD Lamb down in, like, the 30s because I am worried about, you know, whether he does play or whether he's limited. And I've got George Pickens right now as my wide receiver 9. But if CD Lam is active, if after a limited week of practice, I'm moving CD Lamb up, moving George Pickens down a little bit, but I think they're still both wide receiver twos with huge upside that you're putting in.
- [53:05]
A
Oh, my God. Dave. I have just come across a report.
- [53:09]
B
Yes.
- [53:09]
A
From Tony Pauline here that is floating around on Twitter, and I'm about to have a heart attack. Because report is that the Seahawks could move Tariq Woolen, among other assets. That's for Miami Dolphins running back Devon.
- [53:26]
B
H. Get out of here. No, he's trolling us. There is no way. This is, like, Seattle is their secondary. They are. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not even breathing life into this.
- [53:43]
A
JJ's accuration said he'd quit fantasy football. Like, I would just. I'd quit football.
- [53:48]
B
I mean, you gotta imagine they. They say Tariq Wolin because he's the big name, but I. I'd imagine one of those running backs gets kicked back to Miami, right. Like Kenneth Walker last year of his deal. Would they try to just, like, offload him and send him down to Miami?
- [54:02]
A
I'm buying that jersey asap.
- [54:04]
B
Walker in Miami would be a lot of fun and like, okay. Like, okay, you know, they're not going to throw those names in there. But my guess is that if they're getting Devon H. And they're probably shipping either Walker or Charbonnet with Woolen.
- [54:17]
A
I'm trying to find more on this, but, wow, that just. It just came out of nowhere. Smacked me in the face. In the middle of a podcast. Oh, that'd be a lot to process.
- [54:27]
B
Okay, well, I would say Kenneth Walker in Miami. That would be fun.
- [54:32]
A
You know what? You know what? I'm in. I'm in. If it's too.
- [54:35]
B
I think that we're just adding, like, adding to this report. Nothing says it.
- [54:40]
A
They then just Jackson, Smith and the jig. But to Miami.
- [54:44]
B
How would TUA look at a Seahawks jersey?
- [54:48]
A
Probably the same. Probably the same. By the way, speaking of the Dolphins final receiver in this tier is Jalen Waddle going up against the Cleveland Browns. We talked about Waddle yesterday in players to trade for, but he's just. He's been a wide receiver one. With Tyreek Hill out of the lineup. I know the Browns do tend to limit explosive plays, but the volume is there for. For Jaylen Waddle. And so for me, he's still a top 12 guy. I've got him as my wide receiver 10 this week. Dave, I know you're just slightly Lower wide receiver 12, but we both see him wide receiver 1. I think it's simple.
- [55:19]
B
Yeah, easy enough there.
- [55:21]
A
Yeah. Let's go to the next tier. Tier number three, Brian Thomas Jr. Debo Samuel Senior. Oh, that's fun. You never get to say that Back to back. Lad McConkey, Cortland, Sutton, Tet McMillan, AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and Chris Olave. Dave, Brian Thomas Jr. Does feel like he has totally taken over the wide receiver one role in this draft Jaguars offense. I know that there's been. There's been a quote from Liam Cohen where he said, like, oh, we're going to be using Travis Hunter a bit more as the first option in the.
- [55:51]
B
Offense they did last week, you know.
- [55:53]
A
Yeah.
- [55:54]
B
Season high, route parts participation. And, and this is some. We talked about this so much in the preseason. Like, why don't you just turn these two guys into Mike Evans and Chris Godwin? Like, skill sets are so similar and like, yeah, I've said the square peg, round hole thing so many times with Liam Cohen. But like, stop trying to turn Brian Thomas Jr. Into a slot receiver working across the middle of the field. That's not what he does. Like, just let him be like Evans.
- [56:18]
A
Let Travis Hunter be Chris Godwin, let Travis ETN be Bucky. Or, like, just do it. Just give us the Buccaneers in a different city in Florida. That's all we want.
- [56:29]
B
It just, it makes too much sense to me because, like, every time you see Brian Thomas Jr. Doing what he does best, he looks like an amazing receiver. Like, when he's Just like running the rail, making these contested catches deep downfield, getting behind defenses. Let him do that. Like he had three in breaking routes last week. Two of them were dropped and one of them was like a four yard gain. Like, that's just not what he does. He is not a guy who catches in breaking routes through traffic. That is exactly what Travis Hunter does. So just like, you know, put these guys in roles to succeed. I have faith in Liam Cohen getting there eventually. But yeah, like seeing that Brian Thomas Jr. Like, every single week, it just seems like he drifts further and further outside. And it just makes me a little bit happier seeing him where he should be.
- [57:11]
A
Next on here, Debo Samuel at wide receiver 13 going up against Dallas. This is another one where I think we see a shootout. It's an easy secondary for him to win. Still no Terry McLaurin. There was a moment last week where I was like, oh my God, are we going to have to talk about Chris Moore being a thing on Washington? Like where he was just getting peppered with targets and gets a touchdown in the first half of the. And then it just kind of all went away. So I was like, okay, never mind, we don't have to deal with that. So Deebo Samuel, I still think remains the lead wide receiver over there in Washington for now.
- [57:39]
B
Slight pause on Debo, just like paying attention to the injury report because we saw in the last week's game he had the heel injury and clearly was not himself in that game. And heel injury is still lingering and we've played fantasy football long enough and we've watched Tebow Samuel on injury reports long enough. When he's healthy, he's one of the best receivers in football. When he's dealing with an ailment, we kind of look at him as more of like a boom bus wide receiver too.
- [58:01]
A
What's the. Do you remember what the rule is from Adam Hutchison? Like there was a rule of like how many practices that Debo had to get.
- [58:07]
B
I, I can't remember exactly what it was, but I remember asking him to pull those numbers a while back and he said it was like one of the most shocking. Like that when Debo Samuel isn't on the injury report. And then it's like it's something like.
- [58:17]
A
If he, if he logs off in production, he logs like at least one full practice. I think he's good. But if it's like multiple limited practices, it's basically you can't start them. Exactly.
- [58:27]
B
Yeah. So that'll be the thing. Right.
- [58:30]
A
Next on here, lad McConkey going up against the Indianapolis Colts looking like we won't have Quentin Johnson for this game, but keep an eye on that as well. McConkey, I mean, he looked great last week, made a big play towards the end of the game. Just, it kind of just seemed like the lad of old, which is just fun to say out loud into a microphone. But Yeah, I mean, seven catches, 100 yards, a touchdown last week. I mean, just everything seems to be good. Colts are actually not great against receivers. They've been able to stop teams, stop teams running backs. But I mean, their best corner is Avian Howard. Retired after like a couple games, or at least he was their lead corner. I don't know about being best, but.
- [59:11]
B
JSN just beat him down so badly.
- [59:13]
A
Yeah, he was like, I can't, this.
- [59:15]
B
Is a young man. I can't do it anymore.
- [59:17]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was done. He was out. Lad McConi is still, I mean, he should be. Dave. We've got him at wide receiver, 15 in the rankings, so I think he's an easy plug and play wide receiver too this week. I, I, I don't feel like there's a whole lot of like, if, then analysis that you've got here for lad McConkey. Cortland Sutton here on another one like Cortland Sutton, I think is just kind of you're hoping for the touchdown bounce back and some safe volume. But that's not a, a game that I really want to target the sauce.
- [59:46]
B
Treatment last year or last week. So, yeah, we look at the down week. Like when you say that, you mean.
- [59:51]
A
He was shadowed by, by Sauce Gardner.
- [59:53]
B
Yeah, the sauce.
- [59:54]
A
I just wanted to elaborate.
- [59:55]
B
Yeah, a little weird.
- [59:57]
A
Yeah. You're having a weird day. You're having a weird day on the pod for those who listen to the cold open on the audio side.
- [60:02]
B
Yeah.
- [60:05]
A
Teo McMillan is the other guy to talk about here. And this could be interesting because with Jalen Coker coming back back, we saw a little dip in targets last week, but we saw the, the touchdowns come in and so it's interesting. You mentioned, you mentioned. Yeah, I didn't want to say it, but you we mentioned the sauce treatment and he's got Sauce Gardner this week going up against the Jets. I think there's enough reason to worry where I think you'll start. I think I would start a lad McConkey over Teo McMillan this week. I think if I'm looking correctly, I'm, Yeah, I'm starting AJ Brown over Ted McMillan this week and I'm starting Chris Olave over Tedro and McMillan this week.
- [60:47]
B
I don't think I'm there with Chris Olave. I. I do understand it. You know, the, the sauce treatment is always a little bit scary. But we also talked a lot earlier in the week about how Jalen Coker can kind of open this entire offense up. And with him back at practice, I think having a secondary target target to pull some of the gravity away from Tetero McMillan will benefit him. So, you know, maybe I'm too aggressive on Tetaro McMillan. I feel like one of the blind spots in my analysis this year has not been reacting to matchups quite as much as I should. Just kind of like a trust the talent thing and over a large sample size that typically tends to work out. But this is kind of one of those games that could be a little bit disappointing for debt. Tetaroa.
- [61:25]
A
I'm sorry, Tetaroa. Yeah, if he's, if he's watching, he's gonna thumbs down AJ Brown going up against the Minnesota Vikings. Like you said, the role has been growing week after week. Vikings are a pretty stingy defense, but still kind of beatable. I think that A.J. brown's just an easy plug and play wide receiver too here. Dave. I don't. I hate this, this section of the tiers here because it's just kind of boring. Like these are the guys. Like play them. There's, there's. I wish there was more analysis to give here, but there's not. A lot of them are in various very meh matchups. They have had meh production. But you're going to start these guys because they're your wide receiver twos. Yeah.
- [62:01]
B
And I think DK Metcalf is the guy who probably deserves to be a little bit higher in this tier just because like over the last couple weeks it does seem like he has broken out like the, the.
- [62:10]
A
It's the touchdown streak. It's now. Now he's got the easy matchup against Cincy. Yeah.
- [62:15]
B
Also just the, the change in usage. I mean we saw him, he pulled 69 of his team's air yards in week. Week six. Yep. Very nice. Also the. The highest team air yards percentage of any wide receiver in week six. And we're also just seeing like the usage has changed a little bit. Like early in the season it was just like these short little dump offs. Like he didn't catch a single pass more than five yards downfield. Last week we saw that he hasn't had a single game this year with, with an ADOT above 10 yards average depth of target. Last year's eight or last week his ADOT was 17.1 yards downfield. So like, like please give us more of this. Like DK Metcalf is not Wandale Robinson. Like let this guy get downfield and make plays. And it seems like we're starting to see that now.
- [62:58]
A
And Arthur Smith stared into the camera and said, no, no, I don't think.
- [63:02]
B
I will get ready to learn Connor Hayward, buddy.
- [63:05]
A
That's right. You think maybe they'll. I think maybe the Steelers will trade for Darren Waller. Maybe they'll keep just grabbing more Titans grab an AJ Barner from Seattle Battle.
- [63:16]
B
Just keep adding one of the wide receiver. And I, I do wonder like with CD Lamb healthy now, George Pickens like potential target for the Steelers maybe.
- [63:25]
A
Shut up. DJ Moore though. That would be fun.
- [63:28]
B
DJ Moore would make sense. He does a lot of the, the off script stuff that Aaron Rodgers gets a little bit upset about. I, I don't know if that would be the, the best fit. But I said the same thing about DK Metcalf and Aaron Rodgers. I said that they were oil and vinegar early in this or oil and water early in the season. And, and you know, it's like oil.
- [63:44]
A
And vinegar is delicious.
- [63:45]
B
I should bet. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. Maybe, maybe DK is more vinegar now than he was water earlier.
- [63:54]
A
Last guy on the tier here, Chris Olave, who I'm just gonna keep, keep the candle lit for him, man. 10 plus targets in five of his last six games. It's a soft matchup going up against Chicago. Dave, I don't know about you man, but like I remain shocked that Tyreek Stevenson is still a starting cornerback in the NFL. But I mean Chris Olave here, I think this game might be closer than we expect or at least it's going to force the Saints to pass the ball quite a bit more. Like what you were talking about with Dalvin Camara.
- [64:24]
B
Yeah, and, and right now like the secondary is super banged up. Especially like Jalen Johnson still isn't going to be back. So. Yeah, I mean it's. And, and I forget. I think we talked about this yesterday or two days ago. Like this Bears defense isn't really, really built on like stopping teams. It's like built on trying to just beat them down. Like they blitz so heavily and like they are throwing these really like complex looks at quarterbacks, but because they do that, it allows for a lot of big plays. So like they're going to give up those big plays, but they're also going to generate a lot of turnovers. This is not like the, the, the Tampa 3. Ben don't break type of offense. Like they are going to break often, but they're also going to break offenses that they're playing against often. So this could, could be a sneaky big spot for Chris Alave. You know, it's touchdowns have really been his kryptonite so far this year. I could see him getting in the end zone in this game.
- [65:15]
A
Let's go to tier number four where we start with wide receiver 21. It's Keenan Allen. We'll go all the way down to wide receiver 30. So Keenan Allen, Stefan Diggs, Xavier Worthy, Jameson Williams, Devonte Smith, Jordan Addison, Romeo Dubs, Wandell Robinson, Matthew Golden, T. Higgins. Higgins. Now we will the Romeo Dobbs don't surprise me, Dave. You're much higher on Dobbs than I am. We'll get to that one in a minute. Keenan Allen, you and I think both remain just very confident in him because this is a matchup where wide receivers can win. If there is no Quentin Johnston, you're still going to see volume for Keenan Allen. So I'm, I'm not worried about it. You and I both have them around the same ranking.
- [65:53]
B
Yeah, yeah. I'm firing Keenan Allen up. This is one where again, like I went back to the tape because you see like the, the raw numbers. It's like 60 yards and a touchdown in each of his first three games. Games. No touchdowns and less than 60 yards in each of his last three games. But he had like a really tough drop last week, which is pretty uncharacteristic for Keenan Allen. He also had one play where he was wide open in the end zone and Justin Herbert just didn't see him. So like had he been hit on that touchdown or caught that drop, like, we'd be having very different conversations about Keenan Allen because he would have rebounded to 80 yards at a touchdown last week. So still looks like the player that he looked like early in the season. Just touchdown variance hasn't been breaking in his direction. So still firing him up as a wide receiver too. But some of that early season shine has started to wear off a bit.
- [66:36]
A
The next two guys on here, Stefan Diggs and Xavier Worthy. I would say Stefan Diggs worries me a little bit because I think the Patriots could get ahead and not need to pass the ball all that much. And the other thing is that when teams do pass against the Titans, they get a lot of big plays. The Titans do tend to allow more Deep completions than any other team, which this could be another KON booty blow up game because we haven't really seen that as much with Stefan Diggs. So I think he's a fine start if you need to put him in as like a wide receiver three or a flex play. But I'm not, I don't know I necessarily believe that. I see the upside there. Xavier Worthy worries me as well. Where, sure, I think there's more, there's more upside. Like I would put Xavier Worthy over Stefan Diggs, but I'm very worried about what happens with Rasheed Rice back in that offense. Jameson Williams though is the next guy on there and I think that's the guy that I would want to have and I do have over both of them in my rank rankings. We saw the role grow a little bit. Indoor matchup in Detroit, Tampa Bay potential shootout secondary very beatable. Jameson Williams kind of excites me this week as a high upside wide receiver too.
- [67:40]
B
Yeah, I'm ranking him a little bit higher this week than I have in previous weeks. But like overall it just hasn't been good. I, I recorded with our friend Chris Harris this morning over on Harris Football and we talked about Jameson Williams and just, just like you don't have to look at like the in depth analytics. Like last year he was averaging 6.1 targets per game. This year he's averaging 4.7. Last year he was averaging 66 yards per game. This year he's averaged 46. Last year, you know, he was scoring touchdowns at a higher rate. Like he was the per game wide receiver 19 last year he's the per game wide receiver 42 this year. So clearly something is a little bit off. And when you watch the games it feels like he's always like a very intentional part of the early part of the games. You know Those like first 15 to 20 plays that they, they are scripted in the film.
- [68:24]
A
It's almost like they want to scare the defense and like keep them honest and be like, hey, you know, we can do this right? And then they just totally switch away from it and they go, okay, we got to get Jir Gibbs going. Let's get Sam Laporta going. And like it almost feels like they're trying to get everyone going at different times and see who gets hot and what works.
- [68:40]
B
Yeah. And I think like Amanra St. Brown, Jir Gibbs, those are guys that you're firing up without question on a weekly basis. But then when it comes Jameson, Will Williams and Sam Laporta and David Montgomery. We know one or two of these guys are going to go off in any given week, but there just isn't enough for all of them to do that. So we're just going to have these frustrating games with Jameson Williams. Like you just got to keep them in your lineup. And, and I do like, you know, this is a good matchup against a banged up Tampa Bay secondary with a very high over under on the week. So everything is saying put Jameson Williams in your lineup. But I also understand people that are just looking at the raw numbers saying like Jameson Williams hasn't taken that step forward that he hope for. He's actually taken a step backwards. So I understand why some people might want to bench him. But you and I are both pretty ahead of consensus this week because of the matchup.
- [69:26]
A
Let's talk about a group of wide receivers here in this tier. Devonte Smith, Jordan Addison. Neither of them really excite me. You're just kind of hoping they get a touchdown here. Like that's what it is for Jordan Addison. It's kind of always been that it's a big boomer bust performance every single week. Eagle secondary looking a little thin right now. So there is potential for that with Jordan Addison, whereas for devonte Smith, like I'm not really excited at all. Like the usage has been steady. It just hasn't been good. And he's got a tough matchup this week against the Vikings. I know we're seeing more passing volume from the Eagles, but it doesn't necessarily translate into a whole lot of passing points. A lot of it has been A.J. brown, Dallas Goddard. It and just hasn't looked good. Like Jalen Hurts has not looked good if we're being being honest.
- [70:12]
B
Yeah. And that's, you know, anytime you get into the the is Jalen Hurts good Discourse is there's going to be a lot of people with strong opinions on that. But yeah, he's, he's been missing a lot of like easy throws and I think that's why Dallas Goddard is doing so well because like the deep ball has just been so off for Jalen Hurts this year. You can hit Dallas Goddard five yards downfield across the seam. He can't really hit those deep shots. I mean, we saw it like we'd be having a very different question or conversation about Devonta Smith if he connected. Like There was an 85 yard Gimme touchdown a couple weeks ago that Jalen Hurts just said scaled like 15 yards in front of him. So like, you know, it's, it's Devonta Smith and this is a matchup that we are expecting the Eagles to, you know, want to have to throw the ball against this blitz heavy Miami offense. But the problem is, I think because they blitz so heavily and they generate pressure so well, we're going to see a lot of those targets going to Dallas Goddard again, just like we've seen, you know, we're going to see a lot of going to Saquon Barkley in the flat. Devonta Smith isn't going to get to run his long developing routes downfield getting targets because I think they're just going to be able to consist put pressure on this, on Jalen Hurts. So definitely tempering expectations for Devonta Smith this week. If you want to bench him, you know I've got him ahead of Wandell Robinson and Matthew golden and DJ Moore. But like they're close enough that if you want to bench Devonta Smith for one of those guys, I want to blame anybody for it.
- [71:33]
A
There's a player I just realized that we didn't talk about and that's because the news has kind of been breaking as we've been prepping for the show about Mike and Evans, who is reportedly practicing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If he's playing Dave, I think he's a go. Like I think he is a wide receiver too that you are plugging in. There's no Mecca Abuka, there's no Chris Godwin. If we were going out on the waiver wire and getting excited about Tez Johnson and Sterling Shepard and all these other guys, you've got Mike Evans going up against the banged up, banged up Detroit secondary indoor matchup, potential shootout here with these teams, teams I would have him probably, if I'm looking at my rankings right now, probably around that wide receiver 25 range, the same spot that I have guys like T. Higgins and Jameson Williams, Keenan Allen in there and.
- [72:21]
B
That'S I've got him at wide receiver 29. And this is another one. Like what if I said he was practicing in full, he'd probably be inside my top 15. But I think there's a huge risk in this game that Mike Evans goes out not 100 and is just kind of a decoy. We talked about it earlier in the week, but I see this Tampa Bay Detroit game. It's not crazy to think that the winner of this matchup gets the 1 seed in the NFC. Like this is two of the best teams in the NFC going up against each other. And I think that even if Mike Evans isn't 100% like they might still put him out there just to kind of get any edge that they can. So this is one where if he logs a full practice on Friday, you know, I'm starting him as a high end wide receiver too. If he's limited always week, I'm looking at him as more of like a risky wide receiver.
- [73:05]
A
3 well, that's why typically like if he was healthy, I'd be putting him, you know, where I've got A.J. brown, Chris Alava and Ted McMillan up around like wide receiver 17. With him not being or potentially not being healthy, like we don't know what we're going to get. I keep him just outside of that wide receiver 2 tier where say, you know, he's in the same thing as the boom bust guys like the Jordan Addison, the Devonte Smiths and a couple of these other guys that we should talk about here. The packers wide receivers, Romeo Dobbs and Matthew Golden. I've got golden ahead of Dobbs. You've got Dobbs ahead of golden, so let's speak on it. Well, why do you have Dobs a little bit higher in your rankings?
- [73:40]
B
Just he's a full time player in this offense and he has been a lot better than I think expect. It is the guardian cap, you know, big, big fan of him out there, like making himself a very easy to.
- [73:51]
A
Swap like an NBA GM player, right?
- [73:54]
B
But like he has quietly been a lot better this year than I think people realize. Like it was always that like oh, Romeo Dobbs, he's on the field and that's of it. But this year he's 36th in target share. Like he's pulling targets at a higher rate than he ever has throughout his career. I was just looking at this the other day, you know, like the ability to pull targets. And we're looking at Romeo Dobbs. He's a higher target share than Lad Bikanki, he's got a higher target share than Ricky Pearsall and Chris Godwin in the games that he's played. Like he's in the same area as Jerry Judy, Cortland, Sutton, Cooper Cup, George Pickens. Like it is kind of crazy how Dobbs has really stepped up here and I think that his whole career is kind of a story of, of like putting in the dirty work and doing the hard work and then watching that role grow. Like when he came into the league it was like, wow, this guy is a pretty good blocker for a wide receiver. And then it's like, okay, you know, this guy has a good feel for where the first down Marker is and he can move the chains and then like, oh, this guy can also catch touchdowns. And now he is like slowly developing into the team's leading receiver. So I, I don't. I'm not going to fault you for putting Matthew golden ahead of Romeo Dubs because the ceiling is so high. Like, you know, he can break off those big plays that Dubs can't. But right now Dubs is operating as the clear wide receiver one in the this offense.
- [75:03]
A
And I think that's it, that's the tiebreaker for me is when I get to the wide receiver three range. I'm just looking for the guy with the upside. And it seems like as the season has gone on, the team has been trying to figure out, like, how do we turn Matthew golden into Jaden Reed and have him do a lot of the same slot stuff and get a lot of these touches behind the line of scrimmage and get him some carries. They've done a lot of Jaden Reed esque things with Matthew golden while they're just kind of letting Romeo Dobbs be Roman now. We'll see how that goes as the season goes on. They bring in Christian Watson back and what that, you know, ends up becoming. But the role's growing for Matthew golden and that's just why I lean towards that upside. If the role grows, you've got the upside, you've got the explosive plays and then all these unique ways of getting touches. I'm very intrigued by that. And then that's, that's where I'll lean. Other guy, last guy to talk about in this tier. T. Higgins, wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. And it's just, it's been a weird season for the Bengals. Bengals. I'm a bit higher on T. Like a lot higher, actually. So let's talk about that because I've got him at wide receiver 24. You've got T. Higgins as your wide receiver 37 this week. Was it. Pittsburgh secondary for me is very, very beatable. I know this could be one of those slog fests here. Joe Flacco's getting the ball out quick. Didn't really seem like he was doing a whole lot to try to target running backs last week. It seems like it is Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and that's about it. Especially with no Mike Gasicki. I'm still going to lean towards T. Higgins here. So what has you worried about putting T. Higgins in your lineup? Is it just the Flacco of it all? Is the Bengals of it all?
- [76:37]
B
Yeah, I Mean, that's really all it is. Like, this is. I don't, I don't know if people realize how bad T. Higgins has been this year. I mean like he's pacing for 600 yards. Like, this guy is hardly playing as a wide receiver five right now. And I'll admit, like, there were signs of, of life last week. Eight targets. We like to see that. But.
- [76:55]
A
Yeah, Well, I mean, 28 last week and then even the week before that with, with Jake Browning, wide receiver 35. Like that's not exciting. But it's a wide receiver three. Right. So like if I want to lean towards what could happen, that's why I kind of have him on that cusp.
- [77:09]
B
Yeah. And even that you say like the, the two weeks ago with Jake Browning, 22 yards, he was able to get a touchdown, which saved. But like, yeah, it's just, but that's.
- [77:17]
A
Always the thing with T. Right, is like he can get the touchdown even on two catch catches. Yeah.
- [77:22]
B
And I think, you know, I, I maybe over shifted how I'm looking at.
- [77:27]
A
I might be too high.
- [77:28]
B
Yeah. And I might be too low on him. And that's why we do this show where we can kind of talk about our aggregate. Like the reality is like, you might be too high on him, I might be too low on him. And this average ranking that we have him is probably exactly where he does belong. But I'm just so terrified of this Bengals offense. And like, we know Joe Flacco, he understands his role in this offense. He's going to throw the ball to Jamar Chase 12 to 15 times every single week. And if there's scraps left over for T. Higgins, you know, T. Higgins can kind of squeak in as a wide receiver too here and there. But this is one where like the upside just isn't there. And like, that's why we love T. Higgins, because Joe Burrow was throwing the ball all over and he was so efficient. We'd still see T. Higgins with like 100 yards and a touchdown. Well, Jamar Chase was going for 152. And those days that, that's just not happening this year. Like, I think T. Higgins is very much so at this point, even with Joe Flacco just kind of like a touchdown dependent wide receiver three.
- [78:19]
A
See, I, I put it the other way. Like, I do see him as having the upside. I see him as, as having though, a pretty bad floor. Like if those targets are not hitting right. But the upside for me is definitely still there because of Flaco's tendency to Want to throw deep. He hasn't been doing it as much lately this year like he's been, he's been getting the ball out quick. We'll see how this ends up going against Pittsburgh. It's a Thursday night game. Let's go to the final tier here where it's going to be wide receivers 31 through 40 and we've got Trey Tucker, Jacobe Myers, Kendrick Bourne, Rashid Shahid, Cooper Cup, Travis Hunter, Jordan Whittington, Jerry Judy, Troy Franklin and Tez Johnson. And I think the Tez Johnson thing kind of works itself out. If Mike Evans is in, Tez Johnson goes back down. Like this is where we have Tez on a best case scenario, right? It's like being a wide receiver, receiver four or whatever we want to put him as. I don't think we need to talk about all of these players, Dave. In this tier, I think there are a few guys that stand out and we can talk about the, the Vegas receivers together.
- [79:17]
B
That's what Trey Tucker is. The one that surprises me. Like I thought I was being like irresponsibly high on Trey Tucker and then I saw your rankings come through, you were even higher than I was and like I went back and I, I've watched all of his film from this entire season because like I totally looked at that, that huge 145 yard three touchdown game and I was like that's a fluke. Like that is not going to happen again. Completely wrote it off. And I was so smug about him having two catches for 13 yards the very next week because I was like, yeah, that's what Trey Tucker does. But he is quietly starting to take over as the wide receiver one here and like I love Jacoby Myers. I know you love Jacoby Myers as well, but, but something weird is happening here and like Trey Tucker isn't that guy who's just playing on the boundary anymore. He is starting to play all over the formation, he's starting to run in breaking routes, he's getting screens they're allowing him to create after the catch. And I think the reason I'm taking the cheese on Trey Tucker is because what we're seeing now like being that field stretching burner for the first couple of years of his career and then developing into a more well rounded player immediately. Think of two other guys that played under Pete Carroll that did the same thing. Doug Baldwin early in his career was just stretching the field and then started working all over Tyler La Lockett early in his career was just a downfield burner. And then became that guy winning all over the field. And we're seeing a very similar career path for Trey Tucker now. So I don't want to ignore what we've seen over these last few weeks.
- [80:36]
A
Yeah, and I mean Geno Smith has been a guy that likes to throw the ball deep. So when you've got a guy that he knows can win like you, you want to go and try to get those chunk plays, especially when you're not a good offense. But the big thing for me is I kind of have Jacoby Myers where he's at as a placeholder because he has not practiced the this week. And there's all the trade rumors right now. There's all the fun reports that he's unfollowed the Raiders on Instagram. He started following the Patriots on Instagram. And so there's also the reports that the Patriots are looking at adding a wide receiver. So who knows, maybe we get Kobe Myers back in New England.
- [81:06]
B
Jacoby Myers is the one that makes sense to Pittsburgh. You know, we talk about like them looking like he I think is the perfect complement to DK Metcalf. You know, just super crisp route runner.
- [81:16]
A
Who can work Adams like I'm with.
- [81:19]
B
It a hundred percent. Just such a good fit for Aaron Rodgers and such a complimentary piece to DK Metcalf. That's the one that would make the most sense to me.
- [81:26]
A
And Jacoby, if you're listening, I didn't mean that as a, as a slight to you. Devonte Adams just really good. Kendrick Bourne is on this list as well. Going up against the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta's defense has been quite good and they've been really good at not allowing a whole lot of pass passing yards. We don't quite know what's going to happen with San Francisco. We, we have the reports that George Kittle's practicing, but we don't know if he's going to be active for sure. We've had reports that Brock Purdy is practicing. We don't know if he's going to be active for sure.
- [81:59]
B
Juwan Jennings, they said Brock Purdy was more limited than Mac Jones reports. I've never heard a coach say that. Like it is just you're either like not practice limited or full practice. To hear more limited. Like I've never heard that before and it made me laugh yesterday.
- [82:18]
A
He was just had a VR headset. He was inside seated, did not move.
- [82:22]
B
And that's like when you see a limited participation. That's why like it's so hard to draw Conclusions because a limited partisan participation in practice could be you're doing 5% of the work or you could be doing 95% of the work. And it is just such a broad spectrum of what an LP means at an injury report.
- [82:39]
A
I think Kendrick Bourne right here, he kind of leans in perfectly to a couple of these other guys that we have in the exact same spots of Kendrick Bourne, Rashid Shahid, Travis Hunter, Jordan Whittington are kind of all these guys where they could be absolutely nothing this week or they could absolutely blow up. And that's kind of what we've seen from them throughout their career. At least with Shaheed and, and Bourne Hunter, I think we're all just kind of waiting to see it happen happen. And I don't know that anyone's going to be starting him in each week. Whittington, however, I do put enough in.
- [83:10]
B
A handful of leagues that I don't have a choice. And that's the thing, like you get to the point in deep leagues. Injuries are here, bye weeks are here. I don't feel good about it, but I've got Travis Hunter in a, in a few lineups this week.
- [83:21]
A
Interestingly enough, Jordan Whittington I think becomes the, the easy desperation start for a lot of people that need a wide receiver 3 or need a flex play. Going up against Jacksonville. It's a bad secondary obviously. No Puka Nakua, it's London game. Don't know what bearing that has on fantasy football, but I said that into the microphone just now. Jordan Whittington's had a good role when he's had the opportunity to go in and play for someone when they get injured. He's been a wide receiver three or four for fantasy and I think that's kind of what we can expect here.
- [83:51]
B
Yeah, I mean former running back, that's what he played in high school, was a very good running back in high school. Actually holds the all time time state record in Texas for most rushing yards in a high school championship game. Fun little tidbit there. Got went to Texas, still played running back there and made this transition midway through his college career. And when you watch him like he's listed as a wide receiver but like it's jet sweeps, it's end arounds, it's screens. Like he's not going to be doing the Puka Nakua stuff, lining up out wide and beating a guy 30 yards downfield, but he can do a lot of like the early career Puka stuff that we saw. So relatively high floor for a guy who's still available in like 70 of fantasy leagues right now. If you're one of those guys dealing with injuries, you can pick him up for nothing right now and play him as a high floor flex option.
- [84:38]
A
Last guy that we're going to talk about here, he's not the last in the rankings, but honestly, might as well be Jerry Judy. Is he, is he deceased for fantasy football purposes?
- [84:48]
B
I mean, this whole offense in Cleveland.
- [84:52]
A
13 targets and you can't do anything with it.
- [84:54]
B
Yeah. And that's it. Like the, it's the Harold Fanning show there. And I didn't think we'd be saying that, but like Harold Fannin is the, the number one weapon here. Dylan Gabriel loves him and Bond and Judy and other guys are going to get targets. But like, it feels like the only targets that Dylan Gabriel can hit are the short tight end. Not short, like they're tall, but the short targets going to these big bodied tight ends. And yeah, I don't have a lot of faith in Jerry Judy right now. You know, all these guys that we have kind of talked about, Tez Johnson, Jordan Whittington, Kendrick, Bourne, if, if we're not looking at you on Jennings out there, I prefer all of them to Jerry Judy at this point.
- [85:34]
A
I'm double checking because I really need to see this. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Jerry Judy. Yep. This is a homecoming game for Jerry Judy. And we know how petty he gets. He's from Florida. This is, that, is that Deerfield Beach, Florida is about 25, 30 minutes from the stadium. It could be one of those things where family's going to be there. Jerry's back down in Miami going up against the battered Dolphins defense. I don't know how this helps you for fantasy because I'm not saying to go start him. I'm just saying it could potentially happen because of who Jerry Judy is.
- [86:11]
B
I mean, I will say, like there are guys that we didn't even talk about on today's show that I have ranked ahead of Jerry Judy this week. Like if you can get Jalen Coker off waivers, I'd play him over Jerry Judy.
- [86:22]
A
Yep, yep. Like I, I think it's, I think it's really fun to start kiaan Booty this week. Luther Burden this week. Like you said, Jalen Coker as well. Like I, I, I will start all of those guys over Jerry Judy because the mystery box upside is just there for them, honestly.
- [86:40]
B
Exactly. Right. And, and Jerry Judy, you know, he just, it takes him like eight seconds to get open like, he doesn't. He's not one of those guys that just like immediately gets open. Like, you see all of these plays where like Jerry Judy is like running.
- [86:52]
A
Like, feels like he's watching his own highlight reels in his head as he's. He's like, man, this is going to look so good on Monday and film study and it just never matters.
- [87:01]
B
And I'll see people on Twitter like, you know, look at Jerry Judy. He was wide open and like, by the time Jerry Judy 60 yards downfield with his hand in the air, Dylan Gabriel's got like four defenders in his face and he's fighting for his life. Like, trying to get the ball off, like, that isn't helpful. Like, taking eight seconds to get open 60 yards downfield helps absolutely nobody. So, yeah, I'm kind of out on Jerry Judy unless we see a big change from Dylan Gabriel.
- [87:23]
A
Well, you know what, Dave? We did it. We always under promise over deliver. We said 70 players. You thoughtfully pointed out this was more like 78 players. No, we talked about 70 poker.
- [87:34]
B
Yeah.
- [87:34]
A
So you know what? Welcome to the top 80 running back and wide receiver rankings. If you stuck around for the whole show show, you got that in this heck and chonker of an episode here, man. But we're going to be doing these every Thursday, week seven. Good luck to everybody. We're going to be back again on Monday with our week seven recap. And then we've got the waiver wire, the trade show, and then our tier rankings 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. Foreign Zoe got donuts. Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage? Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me.
- [88:25]
B
So. Dana.
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A
Oh, no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly. AT T Mobile will get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system. Wow, impressive. Let me try.
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B
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A
Nice. Jeffrey, you heard them.
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B
T mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition. So what are we having for lunch?
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A
Dude, my. My work here is done. The 24 month credit is on experience.
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B
Beyond for well qualified customers.
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A
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B
On analysis by Oklahoma Speed Test Intelligence data 182025 Visit T mobile.com hi, I'm Chris Gethard and I'm very excited to.
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A
Tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast.
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B
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