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Week 8 Matchup Previews with Joey Wright || Fantasy Football 2025
00:53:08
In Episode 25 of The Launch Pad, Dave Kluge sits down with Joey Wright to discuss some of the most intriguing Week 8 matchups. Become a Footballguys ELITE Subscriber: Follow Dave Kluge on Twitter: Footballguys Instagram: Footballguys...
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- [00:00]
Jeff
Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.
- [00:02]
Zoe
Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?
- [00:05]
Jeff
Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So Dana.
- [00:12]
Zoe
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.
- [00:24]
Jeff
Wow, impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.
- [00:31]
Joey Wright
Nice.
- [00:32]
Zoe
Je free.
- [00:32]
Joey Wright
You heard them.
- [00:33]
Dave Kluge
T mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition.
- [00:40]
Jeff
So what are we having for lunch?
- [00:42]
Zoe
Dude, my work here is done.
- [00:44]
T-Mobile Announcer
The 24 month bill credit on experience beyond for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 device connection charge credit send and balance due. If you pay off earlier, Cancel Finance agreement. IPhone 17 Pro 256 gigs 1099.99 A new line minimum 100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Best mobile network in the US based on analysis by Oklahoma Speed Test Intelligence.
- [00:58]
Rubrik Announcer
Data 182025 Visit T mobile.com AI agents are everywhere, automating tasks and making decisions at machine speed. But agents make mistakes. Just one rogue agent can do big damage before you even notice. Rubrik Agent Cloud is the only platform that helps you monitor agents, set guardrails and rewind mistakes so you can unleash agents, not risk. Accelerate your AI transformation@rubrik.com that's R U B R-I K.com thank you for tuning.
- [01:31]
Dave Kluge
In to another episode of the Launch Pad. I'm your host, Dave Kluge. As always joined by a great football guy staffer. And today, coming on for the second time already this season, we've got my good friend Joey Wright. Joey is the host of Sunday Morning Live that you can find right on Our Football Guys YouTube channel as well as Trivia Night Live with Jake Bryant. Joey is a writer, a ranker and a podcast host over here at Football Guys. And today we are going to talk about some of our favorite matchups going into week eight. Giving you some actionable advice on these players. As always, we're going to this show would not be possible without you taking the time to listen. So thank you so much for doing that. Now, let's dive in. Joey Wright, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
- [02:17]
Joey Wright
I am. I'm great, Dave. I'm happy to be here with you. Not enough times in a week do I see your face. So one more, I'm not going to complain.
- [02:27]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, we get a lot of, a lot of calls. One on ones team calls, shows you see on my shows, I see you on shows. And then every once in a while the universe lines up and we get to do a show with each other. And that's what we're doing here today. This is a fun one. You know, we've been doing the launch pad in season. We're not doing a whole lot of the getting to know the person and talking about process and stuff like that. It's in season and we know what you guys want. You want to hear about football and that's what we're going to do today. I picked what I think are the six most intriguing matchups of the week and we're going to talk about those. The first one being Bills at Panthers and Joey what we saw in the first half of the season was that James Cook was a full blown bell cow back. And then over the last few weeks we've seen that he just isn't really getting the usage that we want to see in the passing game. So my question for you, how much does that limitation in the passing game cap the upside for James Cook?
- [03:15]
Joey Wright
For three years now I've been falling into this trap of saying, oh, there's this problem with James Cook, you know, like he doesn't get red zone work, he doesn't get passing game work. I'm at a point now he is on one of the best offenses in the league and he's highly involved. I'm fine with that. He finds ways to turn in, you know, top 10 production every week. I'm not going to wonder how he does it anymore. If he's going to get touchdowns, he's going to get touchdowns. If he's going to catch passes, he's going to catch passes. He hit two tough matchups. He started the season off four straight weeks. Double digit fantasy points and 10 PPR points in all those games. At least. This weekend's Carolina the think he's got another tough matchup. I think he's going to stumble a little bit this week. I would expect like RB2 production, but in week 10 he's got the Miami Dolphins. He's going to be back, folks. He's got the free space coming up. I'm fine with James Cook this week, just maybe not RB1 production.
- [04:09]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I think this Carolina defense, it kind of gets like a bad rap. Like we get this idea that they're good against the run, but that's just because like, you know, teams are just dominating them so much they just let off the gas in the second half and I think this is one of those games where James Cook could easily put up fear 15, 20 points just in the first half of the game. So it has been frustrated seeing or frustrating seeing him getting pulled off the field on passing downs over these last few weeks. But I think you are spot on. Like people talk about the lack of red zone usage a couple of years back. They talk about the last of lack of passing down usage. Now they talk about so many things. You know, the touchdown regression from last year and it doesn't matter. Like you said, he's just a good running back on a good offense and sometimes we really do just need to dumb it down and make it that simple. So I'm completely with you. James Cook, RB8 for the week. That's where I've got him in my rankings. I want to stick with this game though. Is there a single Bills pass catcher that we should even care about in fantasy at this point?
- [05:04]
Joey Wright
I don't mind Clio Shakir. I think there are two wide receivers in Buffalo that you you can care about once Keon Coleman and one clueless Shakir. What I like about Khalil Shakir is he doesn't fall down when he catches the ball that he seems to want to get yards after the catch. I was actually shocked by this, Dave. 75% of Cleo Shakir's 2025 yardage has come after the catch. He is getting down the field once he gets that ball in his hands. Surprisingly 8th among all wide receivers in Yak this season. I'm a fan of Khalil Shakir. I wish the numbers were higher. Josh Allen seems like he wants to spread around a little bit. Dalton Kincaid I think will still be involved. But yeah, I'm good with Shakir. Keon Coleman, like I'm sorry, like just get down the field a little bit after you catch the ball maybe.
- [05:48]
Dave Kluge
And you know, this is something Khalil Shakir has done for so long and this is why I started to like Khalil Shkir so much a few years ago because two years back he led the league in yards after the catch per reception. Last year he was top three in accumulative yards after the catch and this year he's behind only DK Metcalf in yards after the catch per reception. And that's heavily skewed because like he hasn't had a lot of receptions and we've seen those big plays that he's made where Khalil Shkirich, just like every time he catches the ball, all he's doing is catching those short little crossers generating yards after the catch. Jeff Bell said it perfectly the other day that like, there's no reason Khalil Shakir should not be getting Amon Ra St Brown type of treatment where they're just peppering him with 15 targets per game. But for whatever reason, Joe Brady wants to spread the ball around and everyone is kind of stuck into their role. But Khalil Shakir is kind of emerging as one of these really good NFL wide receivers. I think the big knock has been his usage so far, but he's so good at making plays after the catch that even if he isn't getting 10 targets per game, he can still find a path to relevance. Keon Coleman definitely starting to get a little bit worried there. We'll, we'll see how that turns out for the rest of the year. But one more question with this or no, we got a couple more questions with this game. All right, so let's go. If you had to guess from this week through the end of the year, we kind of saw how the shakeup worked out last week with Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard. But from week eight onward, where would you say that these guys, Rico Dodle and Chuba Hubbard finish among fantasy running backs?
- [07:08]
Joey Wright
So I, I wanted to give a little pause after Rico Dowdle had to the two I mentioned the free spaces he had Dallas Cowboys and he had the Miami Dolphins and he had 200 plus scrimmage yards in both those games. Like everyone is scoring on these teams. I wanted to kind of wait and see what it was going to look like. And you know, Dowdle outperformed Hubbard and so I think, you know, we got double digit points. I still think Chuba Hubbard's going to be involved. I would say where they finish, I can see Rito Rico Dowdle rest of season finishing as a top 24 running back. Chuba Hubbard kind of on the outside, maybe 32 to 36 somewhere in there. But I'm definitely more in on Rico Dowdle. I think you have to see what he's done the last three weeks and you kind of have to put the ball in his hand and I think he should be the first one to get the ball in his hand going forth.
- [07:55]
Dave Kluge
So we're very similar there. I mean I do my rest of season rankings, which I like to imagine is exactly where players will finish from here through the end of the year and I've got Rico dowdle as my RB20. So yeah, like you said, just inside the top 24. And then looking at Chuba Hubbard a little bit lower on him. RB33. So kind of a back end RB3. That's what I'm expecting here. And, and I've said it a few times on this show like it doesn't matter how you look at it. If you want to look at it through advanced analytics, if you want to look at it through raw production, if you want to look at through film, or if you just want to watch the game and use just a generic eye test. Rico Doddle looks so much better than Chuba Hubbard right now. And maybe that's because Chuba is coming back from this injury. You know, he might be a little bit limited, but Rico Doddle, what he's done over these last few weeks, I mean he looks like a good running back. And then if you look at what he did of last year too, we should have seen this coming because he looked awesome in that Dallas offense as well. So I'm with you looking at Rico Doddle as kind of a top 20 option for the rest of the year. Last question I have here. It seems like Andy Dalton is going to be the starter for this week. We saw he was really looking Xavier Legettesway a lot last week. Are we looking at Legate as a possible start in week eight?
- [09:04]
Joey Wright
I mean we have six. Is it six teams on by this week? Right? I. I think if you're in a position where you need to start him, you can. I'm not highly excited about it. He averaged about 77, not 70. That was 70 would be a different story altogether. About seven fantasy points per game last year when Andy Dalton was the quarterback. So I'm not exactly advising we play Xavier Leggett this week if you need to plug him in because there's a lot of people on by. But actually I brought a question for you Dave, as it pertains to Andy Dalton. I know, right? I did my homework and then I had questions from the homework.
- [09:37]
Dave Kluge
Let's do it.
- [09:37]
Joey Wright
We saw this Carolina offense last year when the we switched back to Bryce Young from Andy Dalton and it's like a light clicked on. He was a QB12 and then on rest of the season he was the QB12. So he was a QB1. Definitely startable in fantasy. Is your hope that that's what happens again? Bryce Young comes back from what he's dealing with or is it. Are we. Should we just give up at this point?
- [10:01]
Dave Kluge
Is this just what we need from Bryce Young every year, like put about a little timeout for a month and then let him come back and like be a good boy and score a lot of fantasy points. Is that what we're hoping for? I don't know. I, I really don't know. Like, the regression from last year to this year has been stark. Like, it's really tough to ignore how bad he's been and, and it did seem like he kind of figured it out last year. And then this year we see like improved weapons around him. We think that he's going to have this better year. I'm starting to wonder if what we saw over the second half of last year, you talk about it being the top 12 QB over the second half of last year. What I got really excited about was over the weeks of the season, over the last month he was the top scoring quarterback, tied with your Baker Mayfield as the number one quarterback in fantasy football. So, you know, seeing the, the step back this year does concern me a little bit. Back to what we were talking about with Leggette too, I think that some of the context from last week, it's lost a little bit that they were playing against the jets and Sauce Gardner was just glued to Tela McMillan the entire game. And we've seen Sauce has done that this year. Like whether it be Cortland Sutton or Tedro McMillan, he just deletes players from the game plan. So I think a lot of the action we saw for Legette was just kind of a product of the matchup. So I, I'm also pumping the brakes a little bit on Leggette this week. I think, you know, you do bring up a good point. A lot of teams on by some managers are going to be desperate enough to put him in there. But overall I think this is just a better offense with Andy Dalton, he can get the ball to the playmakers. And of course now with Teo McMillan out there, with Xavier Leggette healthy and active, and now with Jalen Coker also healthy and active, I do see this being a decent game for the Panthers. But yeah, as for what's going on with Bryce Young, man, I don't know at this point we're halfway through year three of his career and I think if you still have this many questions about a quarterback this far into their career, it's very rare that we see somebody take the Josh Allen trajectory and figure it out going into year four. So I think at this point Panthers are probably looking to, to fix that quarterback situation. And Bryce Young probably isn't the answer.
- [11:56]
Joey Wright
No.
- [11:58]
Dave Kluge
49Ers and Texans. This is a fun one. George Kittle, last week, people were really excited to get him back in the lineup, and he put up a big fat zero. Joey, where are you ranking him now going into week 8?
- [12:08]
Joey Wright
Exactly where I had him last week. Tight end 4. George Kittle told me, blame Kyle Shanahan. So that's what I'm going to do. He said it in his press conference. He goes, blame Kyle Shanahan, not me. I thought I was gonna be a lot more involved. It could just be Shanahan protecting his big tool as he gets back from an injury. I'm not reading too much into this. He's still one of the elite pass catchers at the tight end position. If you've got George Kittle, you're starting him every week.
- [12:31]
Dave Kluge
So I can presume it's Jake Ferguson, Tyler, Warren, Tucker, Kraft. Those are probably the three that you have ahead of George Kittle.
- [12:37]
Joey Wright
It's like you were looking at my rankings before the show.
- [12:40]
Dave Kluge
I was not. But, I mean, it just does feel like a little bit chalky almost that, like, you've got this big three and then you've got, like, Kittle and Brock Bowers are kind of the guys like and Brock Bowers, obviously, I'm by this week, but, like, those are the two that we're hoping can ascend into that top three. But we have really seen Ferguson warning Kraft just separate themselves from the bunch this year and hoping that Kittle can, you know, be one of those guys that. That does the same over the second half of the year. But I want to stick with the tight ends a little bit. And I want to talk about Dalton Schultz because he was a guy who was completely off the fantasy radar for me in the preseason. I was in touch with him. He did almost nothing through the first month of the season. But then we see going into last week's game, three straight games with six targets, which piqued my interest a little bit. And then he explodes for a huge game. Season highs and targets, receptions and yards last week. Are we looking at him as a potential streamer now going into week eight?
- [13:28]
Joey Wright
I mean, I think Dalton Schultz has a few things going in his favor, and I don't want to say favor, because one of the things is an injury when Nico Collins, possibly most likely not playing this week with concussion symptoms. So I think that's one way he gets a little bit more volume. The reason that he saw 10 targets last week was a lot because of that injury. You know that you mentioned the six games or the three games before with six targets each, the Devils three, the 666. That's good to see with any tight end if they're getting that much work in the offense even without an injury place. I think with six teams on by, we're in the same position again. If you got him, start him. I was a top 12 titan this week.
- [14:04]
Dave Kluge
Top 12. You know that that raised my eyebrows a little bit until I looked at my rankings and I see that I've got him sitting right there at tight end 12 as well. So I mean that makes them by definition a must start tight end. So yeah, we're both seeing the same thing here and we'll see what Nico Collins can do. Was unable to practice on Wednesday. We'll see if he can log practices Thursday or Friday. I think if Nico Collins is out there, you could still look at him. He'll probably be in like the tight end 15 to 18 range, which puts him in the streaming discussion. If Nico Collins isn't out there though, I might even bump Schultz up a couple spots higher and get him inside my top 10. We'll see how that works out. But definitely, you know, for people who are hurting a tight end, Dalton Schultz, probably available in your league. I want to talk about the back, the backfield here in Houston as well. We've seen it be very mercurial over the last month. We saw the big Woody Marks blow up. Then we saw it go back to Nick Job. Then we saw a split where Marks looked a little bit better than Nick Job. I mean, it's been really tough to get a read on this. But how do you expect this backfield to break in week eight?
- [14:59]
Joey Wright
I think it's going to be 50, 50, just like it's been pretty much this whole season. I mean, that's what I expect. My hope is something a little different. When you're looking at the numbers and you're watching the game tape, I wish they would just put Chubb in on the first and second and then let Marks do be the change of pace and catch the passes because Marks is doing stuff with the ball when he catches it where Nick Chubb is barely getting over three yards of catch like.
- [15:22]
Dave Kluge
Or even catching it like just bouncing off his hands, which we've seen happen countless times this year.
- [15:27]
Joey Wright
So that's my hope is that Houston will kind of write the ship and maybe get. I don't know if you want to call that a traditional running back split, but it feels a little bit traditional. For how the league runs now. But this complete 5050 where they're getting the same amount of targets, the same amount of carries, it's, it's not working for Houston. They got to change something up.
- [15:45]
Dave Kluge
Which is really weird because historically we have seen this Houston offense operate with a traditional third down back and it's always been Darre Ugumbawale and now he is getting almost no work and we're seeing these kind of split drives between the two. So it does seem like they've kind of abandoned the typical philosophy that they've used in this backfield over the last few years. So something to pay attention to. I will say, I think with the game script here, this is one where I and Vegas, you know, the people that are setting these odds, also expect San Francisco to kind of run away with this game a little bit and if it does break that direction where this game gets out of hand and they're trailing from behind, that's where we could see Woody Marks come in as the preferred pass catching back. Because I trust the Houston staff to do some self scouting and just say like hey, Nick Chubb, this is not what he should be doing in the passing game. And then hopefully we could see a bigger dose of Woody Marks. So in this matchup I've got him ranked very, very tightly, but I actually have a slight preference to Woody Marks in week eight. I think one of the most fun games of the week and we just saw this game a couple of weeks ago, but we get to see the Giants face off against the Eagles again, this time out of New York and in Philadelphia. And I don't know, I, I think Philadelphia is going to be a little bit better prepared for this one than they were a couple of weeks back. We'll see how this one breaks. But I'm going to ask you not necessarily a week eight question. Rest of season Joey, give me the full list of quarterbacks that you would prefer rest of season over Jackson Dart.
- [17:08]
Joey Wright
I like how you asked me this question because it builds some anticipation because I'm just going to start rattling names off and then I'll tell you the number. So Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Drake May, Jaden Daniels, Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, Daniel Jones, and then Jackson Dart.
- [17:31]
Dave Kluge
All right, so you've got him as your QB10 rest of season 10. Yes, and I think that makes a lot of sense. I'm looking at my rankings right now. I've got to make QB12. Maybe this is my homerism bleeding through, but I do Have Caleb Williams ahead of him and did you say Dak Prescott?
- [17:46]
Joey Wright
I didn't. So Dak is kind of the name that I got spicy with.
- [17:49]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. So Dak and Caleb I have ahead of Jackson Dart right now, but very much so in the same tier. And the fact that this is who we're splitting hairs over, like Dak Prescott, a guy who is the QB1 four years ago, a guy who was the QB3 two years ago, Caleb Williams who's like looking phenomenal having this big year, two breakout. The fact that we're even like having the discussion about Jackson Dart after just a handful of starts, I think that alone tells the listener everything they need to hear. Like this is legit. Like he has been rushing last week we saw the rushing start to dissipate a little bit. He made up for passing through the air as well. I don't think there's any reason to think that what we're seeing from Jackson Dart right now isn't sticky for the rest of the year.
- [18:27]
Joey Wright
100%. I'm going to give, I'm going to give you your flowers on this because I drafted Justin Herbert in a league and I remember being in the draft and I was like, I feel okay with it but I want to get a second quarterback just because I like to have two. And you told me you go, go grab Jackson Dart, you feel good about Herbert. I mean you feel set there. You never know what Dart could be. And so now I've got Herbert and Dart.
- [18:49]
Dave Kluge
He was one of my favorite late round picks. And you know, I did the same thing last year with a lot of Jaden Daniels too. Like I. And, and it ends up becoming a headache more than anything else. Like I remember I was in one of these high stakes leagues. Jeff Bell and I were managing it together. We paid up for Lamar Jackson in round three and then we came back in round 11 and we took Jaden Daniels and it felt like a good problem to have until about midway through the season when it seemed like we just picked the wrong quarterback every single week we were starting the guy who wasn't outplaying the other guy. So not a bad problem to have. But I think right now, like, you know, if you're hurting at another position in that league where you got a running back, a wide receiver, whatever you can make a trade for, like get rid of one of those quarterbacks and help another position of need.
- [19:26]
Joey Wright
And I kind of wanted to speak to why I put Dart above Dak Prescott. We've seen Dak Prescott lose his biggest Pass catcher this year year and him take a little bit of a dip. He still had some good work there. But we've seen Jackson Dart just do it on the ground, do it through the air, whatever he needs to do to win. Which, if you know me, I'm a Bucks fan. I like seeing that in a quarterback. Reminds me a little bit of Baker Mayfield. Just do what you got to do to win. And that's what we're seeing out of Jackson Dart. And I don't blame the loss in Denver on him. That was not his fault.
- [19:52]
Dave Kluge
There's definitely some Baker in darts game. I see that for sure.
- [19:55]
Joey Wright
The eye makeup, that's kind of nice, too. But that. That's why I have Dart ahead of Dak is. I think Dart's just doing it himself, where Dak is definitely leaning a little bit on his supporting characters around there in Dallas.
- [20:08]
Dave Kluge
And, you know, think about how excited we'd be for Jackson Dart if he had Malik neighbors. Like, he's out there doing this right now with Wondell Robinson and Lil Jordan Humphrey and Theo Johnson. And like, I. I just can't help but, like. And I don't remember, like, my big reason for wanting to draft a lot of Jackson Dart this off season was like, he's gonna be throwing the ball to the league neighbors. Like, it's. His job's gonna be easy. And then, you know, you can add in another 30, 40 rushing yards on top of that. That, and he's doing this right now without Malik neighbors, which, like, you want to start talking dynasty big picture here. Like, once you inject that back into the offense, then that just raises the floor and ceiling even more New Yorkers. Well, I guess New Yorkers that root for the Giants have a lot of reasons to be excited right now, but let's stick with this game a little bit. And I don't want to be a wet blanket at all, but I do want to talk about Tyrone Tracy, and I know everyone's super excited about Cam Scatterboo. Tyrone Tracy looked good last week. My question for you, Joey, do you think that he did enough to carve out a role alongside Cam Scatterboo, or do you think Scatter Boo is just going to continue being that workhorse that we've seen so far?
- [21:09]
Joey Wright
No, I think Tracy was always going to be involved when he came back. Let's not forget, he was the RB. He was an RB2 last season. He was the RB24 top 12among running backs and targets last year as well. He was going to have a role on this team. I think the days of Cam Scatter Boo going for 30 points in your fantasy league, those might be short, but like last week against the Broncos when the score was 26 to 8, you would think, okay, well, maybe that's when the Giants put Tracy in if you didn't watch the game. No, I mean, Tracy had nine carries and a touchdown at that point, and scatter Boo had 16 carries and a touchdown. So it wasn't a 50, 50 split. Scatter Boo was still the lead back in this offense. It's just Tracy's going to be involved, and I don't think that's a bad thing. The way that Camp Scatterboo plays might be good to limit the amount of touches he gets to. To. To run in upside down in the end zone with.
- [21:58]
Dave Kluge
And. And I do wonder too, because like, we saw, like Cam Scatter Boo was just crushing this Eagles defense a few weeks ago that was coming off of a short week that was playing in New York. I wonder what it's going to look like now. They're definitely going to be prepared for Scatter Boo. They don't want this rookie just making them look like a bunch of Pop Warner defenses out there anymore. So I wonder if they're going to game plan for Scatterboo a little bit more. I think the most intriguing thing here that I'm going to be watching because we didn't really see any of it last week. You know, they were just like fighting for their lives to stay alive in the fourth quarter. But I want to see if we get to a game that's like a true negative game script where they're trailing by two touchdowns with, you know, a whole half of a game left to play. I want to see who takes on that passing down role because we know Cam Scatter Boo can catch the ball. You know, he's pretty good at doing that. But Tyrone Tracy is a former wide receiver. That is his best skill set. So this is a game where, you know, the Vegas odds makers have made the Eagles very heavy favorites in this game. If it does get out of control, I wonder if we do see Tracy come in and start picking up a lot of that passing down slack. So Alfredo Brown and I, we talked about this on yesterday's show. Going through our running back and wide receiver rankings. We are both pretty aggressive in our Tracy rankings in week eight. You know, you don't need to get him in your lineup, but I think if you're looking at flex plays, there's a lot of upside there with Tyrone Tracy. All right, Joey, let's talk about the Eagles a little bit. And I want to talk about Saquon Barkley here. If you are a Saquon Barkley manager, who are some players that you would be willing to trade him away for?
- [23:22]
Joey Wright
I have three names that I would be completely okay to trade Saquon Barkley away for. And I think when you're trading Barkley away in this situation, you're also kind of trading away on Namesake. So if you can get Devon A Chain, James Cook or Quinchon Judkins at this point, make that move. But do it. Do a two for two trade. Upgrade yourself at wide receiver or tight end or quarterback a little bit as well. Because even though Barkley is having definitely down seasons compared to these other three backs, he still has the name Saquon Barkley. He still has that potential to break out. So you definitely want to build that into your trade a little bit. I'm not at a point where I want to let him go for like Javante Williams, Ashton Genti or Javante was.
- [24:01]
Dave Kluge
Going to be my next one. Yeah, Javante was the one I was going to ask because I made that switch. In my rest of season rankings this week, I've got Javante ahead of Saquon Barkley by exactly one spot. So I agree with all the other ones that you said as well. But. But I've got Barkley as my RB9 rest of season and no fault of his own. It's something I've talked about a lot. The breakaway runs just aren't there. Last year he was averaging a breakaway run per game. This year we're going into week eight and he hasn't had a single run of more than 19 yards yet. There's something going on that just isn't letting him get through that second level.
- [24:30]
Joey Wright
It's crazy watching the games with Barkley because it's like you're trained, your eyes are trained to watch Barkley and expect to see what Barkley normally does. And then he's hitting the first. The first contact and then it's. That's it. But you're used to seeing Barkley go for another five or 10 yards after that, and it's just not happening. This year. It's it.
- [24:48]
Dave Kluge
I mean, like the. You look at all of the efficiency metrics I care about, breakaway run rate, missed tackles, force yards after contact per attempt. Saquon Barkley is putting up like career lows across the board. And you know, whether this is just a product of the Eagles offensive line Which I think is a real issue. Like, the offensive line does not look as good as it has in years past, or whether it's last year's workload. But like you said, it still looks like Saquon Barkley. Like, he has such a distinguishable run style, the way he kind of bounces and the jump cuts and you see him and you expect like, all right, one more bounce and then he's off to the races. And it just hasn't happened yet. And it's just like you keep watching this game, waiting for the big play, and I don't know, this just might be that year where last year's usage, the age, the regression, all the things kind of hit at once and are just making for a down year. I think that's kind of where we're at. I've got another question here, Joey, and I think this one's probably pretty rhetorical, but I think that it's important to discuss. AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goddard, They've all been very boomer bust this year, but I think you're just starting them and hoping for the best, right? Like, we're not getting too cute and mention any of these players, are we?
- [25:51]
Joey Wright
No. And. And with Dallas Goddard, especially with the tight end, you know, they say, oh, there's position scarcity and there's new names that pop up. There still kind of is position scared city with tight end. Dallas Goddard's a name you can trust. Put them in there when you can. AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith. I just don't have the courage or the depth to do that. And a caveat with AJ Brown, when Before I was doing my notes this morning, actually, after we got the news that he didn't practice again with maybe a hamstring injury. So definitely want to keep an eye on AJ Brown, especially DeVonta Smith. Just blew up last week with like, it was like a 33 point game for me in one of my leagues.
- [26:26]
Dave Kluge
Which biggest game of his career, most yardage ever in the NFL.
- [26:30]
Joey Wright
Beat Bob Harris with that. Hey, Bob, how you doing with that performance? But yeah, I mean, these. These are elite pass catchers. They're just not the wide receiver ones that they used to be. They're kind of in that wide receiver 2 high upside at this point in their careers.
- [26:44]
Dave Kluge
Are we going into the how we beat Bob Harris last week's stories? Because I gotta say, Bob Harris, like, we. We had a heck of a swing in one of the matchups that we were playing last week where I was like a 98% favorite going into the afternoon games, going into halftime of the afternoon games. And then he hit me with Bo Nix and I thought that was it. I just thought my week was completely over. And then Jackson Smith Najigba ended up being that Monday night miracle that I needed. So it was like just a non stop back and forth with Bob in a very heated matchup in our football guys staffer league. But was was happy to squeak that one out.
- [27:17]
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- [27:47]
Dave Kluge
Right, Joey, you know I invited you on the show, right? You know I always pick the, the whoever my guest is, I make sure that their team isn't on buy so we can talk about their team. And, and Joey, your Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had a really fun season so far and I want to ask you your insight here because I think that you could probably provide more insight than the average person that I have to talk fantasy football on could give me here. So behind Ameca Buka, who is the Tampa Bay wide receiver that you trust most this week?
- [28:14]
Joey Wright
So when you say trust, I think dependable. And for me, it's Sterling Shepherd. Still. I know Taz Johnson's had a couple good weeks. I still think there's some rapport that needs to build there with him and Baker Mayfield. We saw, I mean, David, we talked about there's some them passes that just sailed on Tess Johnson from Baker, that it could have been a bad route, it could have just been overthrown. They need to get on the same.
- [28:35]
Dave Kluge
Page shorter than Mike Evans.
- [28:37]
Joey Wright
Well, yeah, that, that's a good point too. But Sterling shepherd is definitely the wide receiver that I would trust. If Tez Johnson goes out and breaks away and has better games than him, I wouldn't be shocked. But I know Sterling Shepard can put his hands on the ball. He just has great hands. I. I don't know if I've ever seen the guy drop a pass, to be honest. So it would be Sterling Shepard.
- [28:58]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I think when you look at this schematically, it's pretty easy to kind of figure out who is going to fit where. Assuming there's going to be no Mike Evans and assuming there's going to be no Chris Godwin, we've seen Ameca Buga. He can move all over the formation, and we want to see him out of the slot for fantasy purposes, but we know that he could also play that X receiver role that Evans was in. That puts Sterling Shepard in the slot where we know he's going to get a lot of targets. And then that puts Tez Johnson out wide as the flanker, where we know he can hit the big plays. So I think it's just like, what are you looking for if you're in a PPR league and you're looking for a solid floor? I think guarantee. I don't want to throw that word around, but I think, like, you can guarantee yourself, like, eight to 10 points from Sterling Shepard, but if you're an underdog in this matchup and you need to really swing for the fences, I think Tess Johnson is the guy who can go for 150 yards and two touchdowns. And I don't think you're getting that sort of upside with Sterling Shepherd. Taz Johnson, really fun guy. I. I imagine you're. You're pretty mvp.
- [29:54]
Joey Wright
MVP of the team.
- [29:57]
Dave Kluge
One of the funniest moments from this year, without a doubt. That was. That was good.
- [30:00]
Joey Wright
It's so sweet.
- [30:02]
Dave Kluge
Who are some tight ends that you have ranked ahead of Cade Otten this week? I'm just gonna ask a question like that because I think a lot of people are out here, you know, wanting to stream Kate Otten. So let's make it actionable. Like, who are some guys that you would put ahead of him, some guys that you'd put behind him? Let's talk through Kate Otten in this week's rankings.
- [30:16]
Joey Wright
So Kate Otten, here's who I have ahead of him or no, I have ahead. He is ahead of Mark Andrews, Harold Fandon, Evan Ingram, Hunter Henry. He's my tight end. 12 this week. Week. And I feel like you set me up to talk about K Don so I could talk about his nickname being Pedialyte, because when the Bucks start getting ill, they start going to him. And they went to him nine times on Monday night, got seven receptions for 90, 65 yards. This is what the Bucks do when. When they need someone dependable. I talked about, you know, Sterling Shepard being dependable. Kate Otten's really who Baker Mayfield depends on when he maybe doesn't know his receivers as well. And so I love K.in this week. Top tell us tight end could even move higher for me, honestly, this week.
- [30:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I've got him as my tight end. 9. I've got Travis Kelsey ahead of him because it's weird. Everyone like, and I've been guilty of it too, talking about how Travis Kelsey looks washed, but at the end of the day, he's third in the league in tight end receiving yards right now. Like, we can chalk it all up as broken plays, but when you've got this many weapons in the passing attack, it's going to allow for broken plays because they aren't focusing on Travis Kelsey. So Kelsey, Dallas Goddard, Zachary, Stalton, Kincaid, and then the Big four we talked about earlier, Kittle, Kraft, Warren and Ferguson, those are the only guys that I'm starting ahead of Kate Otten this week. So Harold Fannin, Dalton Schultz, Evan Ingram, Kyle Pitts, Mason Taylor, Mark Andrews, I have all of those guys behind Kate Otten, another guy. I feel like when you're playing tight ends, you have to look so much at these little pockets. As much as we love the idea of just picking up a tight end, putting them in your tight end spot and, you know, getting weekly production, that is very, very rare. So I'm looking for the guys like Dalton Schultz on a team that is dealing with injured wide receivers, a guy like Kate Otten who's on a team dealing with injured wide receivers where they're going to get extra opportunity than they normally would. So, you know, Kate Otten, again, not saying a must start, but a guy that I have way up in the tight end streaming tier this week.
- [32:07]
Joey Wright
So let's talk a little bit about.
- [32:08]
Dave Kluge
The Saints on the other side of the ball here. You know, we're starting to hear some rumors. It's probably not going to happen this week, but a move from Spencer Rattler to Tyler Sugg feels like it might be somewhat imminent. Would you say that this would be a net positive or negative for the pass catchers in New Orleans?
- [32:25]
Joey Wright
I'm going to say positive at this point, and I only give Spencer Rattler some flowers a little bit. He's actually gotten the team into the red zone more than they were last year, so they've actually improved a little bit. The problem is they have one of the worst conversion rates in the league once they're in the red zone and once you're down there, especially the New Orleans Saints, they have to convert because they're not scoring a lot of points to begin with. They're one in six right now. We've heard about, you know, Chris Olave possibly getting traded, Rashida Shahid possibly getting traded. Sorry, Cooterdoodle. If it happens, he's gone. And you're gonna have to trade in your nine jerseys that you've bought. But I think we're gonna have to see what's in with the chuck. Like we're at a point where something has to change. New Orleans, they're at least going to kick the tires to see what they have.
- [33:10]
Dave Kluge
And yeah, I mean, they spent a second round pick on the guy. You got to imagine that he gets out there at some point. I don't know if it would be a positive or a negative. I don't think Tyler Schuck is that good. But Spencer Rattler also isn't that good. But at least Spencer Rattler is like fun good. Like he's just going to rip the ball all over the field and give his receivers chances. And that's why we see Chris Olave second in the league in targets right now. What I want to hope is that Shug isn't quite the gunslinger, somebody who has a little bit more maturity at this point in his NFL career. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think Shug is actually older than Spencer Rattler. Despite getting drafted two years after him.
- [33:43]
Joey Wright
He's older than like majority of the league. I believe he's 26 years old.
- [33:48]
Dave Kluge
Seven. 26 or 27? Yeah. I mean it's kind of, kind of funny to think about. So I think he does have a little bit of more maturity than, than Spence Spencer Rattler probably does at this point in his career. And that makes me hopeful for Alvin Camara because we saw like Alvin Camara is still operating as that pass catching guy. He just isn't really getting involved because Spencer Rattler isn't going to take the check down. He's going to throw it to Chris Olave in double coverage 40 yards downfield instead. But now we've got the news that Kendra Miller is out for the season with the torn acl. We saw him starting to carve out some of Alvin Camara's touches. So now with Kendra Miller out, do you think the Camaro just becomes a workhorse again or do you think that this rookie Devin Neal starts to get some action?
- [34:27]
Joey Wright
So I think Camara's end up as the workhorse work the workhorse there in New Orleans. I do like Devin Neal though. I liked him coming out of Kansas coming into the draft and then he went to the Saints and I'm like, oh man, it's kind of a mudded backfield at this point. I, I Camara has said that if he gets traded he'll just sit out. So I don't think he's going anywhere. I think he's staying there in New Orleans.
- [34:48]
Dave Kluge
Can we call BS on that real quick? Like, do you really think that'll happen? Like, he can say that, and I get it, but, like, at the same time, like. Like, if you're at the twilight of your career and you find out, oh, wow, the Kansas City Chiefs just played, like, traded for me, and I get to go win a Super bowl with Patrick Mahomes, you really think he's gonna go drink a pina colada instead?
- [35:08]
Joey Wright
I would rather play with Patrick Holmes and drink a pina colada, but I don't want to, like, put words into Alvin Camara's mouth. Like, he said, like, I, as somebody that, like, grew up in an era where, like, you would see one guy stick with one team the whole time, and that slowly went away. Actually, pretty fast it went away. It's kind of nice to hear that. Like, no, I don't want to be anywhere else but New Orleans. Like, that's. Yeah, maybe you're right.
- [35:30]
Dave Kluge
I mean, it does feel like there are some players. Like, seeing Keenan Allen in a Bears jersey last year, like, it just gave me the ick. I was like, this is not right. Like, so happy to see him back with the Chargers now. And, like, I feel like seeing Camara in anything besides black and gold would just be, like, wrong. Like, just. Just it. Like, just the thought of it makes my stomach turn.
- [35:50]
Joey Wright
The opposite of that effect of, like, you can't imagine someone. Another jersey. When Derek Henry put on a Ravens jersey, I was like, this feels right. I don't know why.
- [35:58]
Dave Kluge
100. Yes. Sometimes it does.
- [36:00]
Joey Wright
Perfect.
- [36:01]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Yeah, that one absolutely does. You know what looks really wrong is The Ken Griffey Jr. White Sox jersey I have hanging up in my closet. Most people don't even, like, believe that that's a real one. I think he had, like, you know, 20 something games with the White Sox, but thrilled that my. My favorite childhood player ended up on my favorite team. But, you know, you know, back to Alvin Camara, I'm with you. I think he's going to be the workhorse here. And. And, I mean, I think we do see more of Devin Neal just because he had, like, no touches through the first six weeks. But I think that what we saw from Kendra Miller, where he was consistently getting, like, 35, 40% of the touches, I think Devin Neal is more likely to get, like, 5 to 10% of the touches, which Camara, even if this isn't a great offense and his efficiency is dwindling a little bit. I think that alone pushes him into like that middling to high end RB2 discussion on a weekly basis. Let's talk about the Green Bay packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers and I think the most fun thing about this one is the Aaron Rodgers revenge game. He is quick to say that no, it's not a revenge game. Like you know, I wish the last year of my time in Green Bay went a little bit differently but like there's no animosity there. Okay, Aaron, I don't believe it. But anyway I want to ask you like are you buying into this? Like how high are you ranking Aaron Rodgers this week? Week?
- [37:17]
Joey Wright
If you have him in a one quarterback league, I'm actually recommending you sit them. I've got him as a QB16. I'd rather play Flacco, Penix or Dart this week. Green Bay still has one of the best defenses in the league. The game being at Pittsburgh is a little bit better but yeah, if Super Flex. I think he's a fine start middle of the road but in one quarterback leagues. Don't go out there and start him just for the revenge game. I don't think he's going to light it up now. If this game was in Green Bay there would be something to it because I think Aaron Rodgers does have that in him to just torch the packers at home.
- [37:50]
Dave Kluge
I'm kind of upset the schedule makers did it this way. Like you couldn't have put this game in Lambo. Like you really robbed us of what could have been a great moment. But Joey, I think you like, I don't know if you cheated off of my work before you came on my show or not, but I've got Aaron Rodgers at QB16 too. Like we are perfectly in lockstep. It is so. You know, Jeff, L and I do this too and you and I do this. Like we just see the game in such a similar way that this happens all the time with like me, you and Jeff when we're talking about our weekly rankings and we somehow all end up on the same page and I'm there as well. Like you know, if, if you're desperate in a single quarterback league, you know everybody's hoarding QB2s and you've got to start Aaron Rodgers. He's in that streamer discussion. But I'm with you kind of outside of my top 12 this week. But sticking with this game. I do want to talk about Kenneth Gainwell. You know we saw the huge three touchdown performance a few weeks ago with Jalen Warren back We saw the sliders move back in his favor. So wondering now, like, is Kenneth Gainwell a guy that you're looking at as a flexible player or is it just injury away stash at this point?
- [38:49]
Joey Wright
He's a lottery ticket for me at this point. Like if he gets the work, it's great. He's going to do good with it. But Jalen Warren is the back to play start and roster at this point with Pittsburgh.
- [38:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, Warren was a huge mover for me and this is something. We had Mike Schubann a couple of weeks ago and he is a Steelers fan. And I asked him when Jalen Warren was coming back. I said, how do you expect this to break out? Like Kenneth Gainwell, he's looked good enough that I think he deserves some opportunities. And Mike really put it into perspective for me. Again, a Steelers fan, like, this is why I like talking to fans, because they have these deep understandings of the team. And he said, no, like Mike Tomlin is not that type of coach. Like he has shown time and time again throughout his career. Players do not lose their jobs to injuries. And all that happened to Jalen Warren was he got hurt and like Kenneth Warren or Kenneth Gainwell stepped in formidably and he played well. But this is Jalen Warren's job. We saw that last year. Like Russell Wilson won the job in camp, he got hurt. Justin Fields came in, looked better than Justin Fields may have ever looked throughout his NFL career. Won some games, but as soon as Russell Wilson was healthy, he got pulled off. Russell Wilson went back in. That's just how Mike Tomlin operates here. So Jalen Warren, he is the guy. Kenneth Gainwell break glass in case of emergency type of flex play. But this is going to be the Jalen Warren show. Let's talk about the packers though before we move on to the next game here, another not necessarily a matchup based question. This one is going to be rest of season, but who do you prefer, Joey, between Matthew Golding and Romeo Dobbs?
- [40:09]
Joey Wright
No, no. Like, honestly, I don't know if there's a team that needs like a true wide receiver one more than the Green Bay packers. The last few years of like we're gonna give six targets to everybody. It's getting a little old. I mean Dobbs is getting a little bit more than that this year and he's getting touchdowns, which is nice. But I still think the talent lies with Matthew Golden. If I'm rostering anybody for Dynasty and this is kind of a cop out answer or in non like a Standard league, it'll be Matthew Golden. So Dynasty. Matthew Golden, Standard Golden. But in ppr, I, I think you kind of, kind of looked at a little bit more work is going Dobbs way at this point. And so that's where I would slide with that.
- [40:49]
Dave Kluge
I think if you took a poll of like a hundred fantasy football managers and asked them where Romeo Dobbs is right now in scoring, I think 99 of them would guess too low. He's, he's the wide receiver 28. And I know like one of those did come off of a big three touchdown game and he's not going to catch three touchdowns every single week, but in the five other games that he's played, he's scored double digits twice. Like he is starting to emerge as that wide receiver one. And this is something that I talked about with Jeff Bell earlier in the week on the Dynasty show. It's just kind of like, like reshaping perspectives on players. And Romeo Dubs was this like unathletic blocking wide receiver when he came into the league and everyone said, you know, he didn't have a target earning profile, he couldn't draw valuable targets, he wasn't going to do much. Then in year two, he looked a little bit better. Now in year three, he's looking a lot better and he's kind of operating as the wide receiver one here for better or worse. Now he's not going to be a wide receiver one in fantasy. I don't think he has that sort of upside. But it's kind of like they found their new Alan Lazard, a guy who does the dirty work really, really well. That keeps him on the field for 100 of the snaps. And when you're on the field for 100 of the snaps, you're going to get targets. And sometimes those targets are going to be valuable, sometimes they're going to be touchdowns. So Dobbs quietly put together a nice season here and happy to see that. All right, Joey, last game, I want to talk about commanders at Chiefs on Monday Night Football. Fantasy managers who drafted Jaden Daniels, what should they do with him? We've already got him declared out this week. This is the second injury he has picked up. Now he had the knee sprain. Now he's dealing with a hamstring issue. Are you just holding him and hoping that he can return? Are you trying to sell him? Or if you don't have Jaden Daniels, do you think maybe you're going out trying to buy from desperate owner now.
- [42:27]
Joey Wright
It'S like you're right off My notes. No, you're holding them because you're not going to get fair value back in return. But if you're 6 and 1 or 5 and 2, go see what that Jaden Daniels manager would want. See what other needs are. Because if you could get him for the stretch and you're already, if you're at 6 and 1 or 5 and 2, your. Your team's good, you're most likely going to make the playoffs at this point. I mean, you could crap the bed. This has happened many times before. Let me be a testament to that. It can happen. But no, if you're six and one or five and two, go out and see if you can trade for Jaden Daniels. But if you're a manager and you already have them, you have to hold and just stream quarterback. No better position to stream.
- [43:06]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, and I almost wonder too, like now that he has officially been declared out with like how bad bye weeks are, this might be the like, like best and only time you can trade for Jaden Daniels because Pickens are slim right now on the waiver wire because of all the buy weeks. So this might be an opportunity like if you can give a quarterback plus, you know, an injury away running back or a wide receiver. Three, like some sort of flexible option, flex worthy option. Flexible. I don't know. I've never said flex worthy. Right? Like flexible. That's. That sounds too much like stretchy and flexible. I think you have to say flex worthy option. Yeah. You package up your low end QB1 with another player to trade up for Jaden Daniels. I feel like this is the perfect opportunity to do that before this slate of games. Want to stick with this one though. Jeff. Joey. Sorry. Sorry about that.
- [43:54]
Joey Wright
Jeff's the funny one. I'm Joey. Okay.
- [43:56]
Dave Kluge
Exactly. Yeah. That's how I tell you guys apart. Got Terry McLaurin hurt, you've got Debo Samuels still dealing with injuries here. Chris Moore, is this actually a guy that you can rely on as a streamer this week?
- [44:09]
Joey Wright
So here's why I hate this question. Because originally I was like, absolutely not. And then I started setting some lineups and I was like, oh man, I.
- [44:16]
Dave Kluge
Got a lot of Chris Moore.
- [44:20]
Joey Wright
I've got him as my 54th wide receiver at this point. So not high at all, but like desperate times, folks. If you're, if you're playing in a league that's got four flex positions, you might be starting Chris Moore this week. There's a lot of injuries, six teams on by. If you can avoid it, matchup's Tough, but these are tough times and I.
- [44:41]
Dave Kluge
Think this is one where like we know where this game script is gonna go. Like, I don't expect Marcus Mariota to hang in a prime time matchup with Patrick Mahomes. So this could just be one where it's like, well, we got no choice but to air it out. And Chris Moore has been operating as that X receiver, so I'm even a little bit higher on him than you are. And I know this sounds crazy, but wide receiver 43 on the week, which might sound insane until you think about how many high powered offenses are on by this week. And you know, really he's probably closer to like wide receiver 60 or 65, but with all these teams on by, he kind of moves into that top 48, which puts him in the wide receiver four consideration. So I'm with you, Joey. Like it doesn't feel good, but there's a lot of desperate people out there and Chris Moore is looking more attractive as we get more and more people logging DNPs throughout the week. I want to have, you know, the same thing I did with Jackson dart earlier. Give me the list of all the guys you'd prefer rest of season. I want you to do the same now with Rashi Rice. Give me a list of wide receivers you would prefer rest of season over Rashi Rice.
- [45:40]
Joey Wright
This is a very short list. Puka, Nakua, Jamar Chase Jackson, Smith, Najigba, CD Lamb and then A Monor Saint Brown and that's it.
- [45:53]
Dave Kluge
So no Drake London, no Justin Jefferson. I mean, I'm not going to push.
- [45:56]
Joey Wright
Back on you, but Jefferson's the one that you would think. But I would rather have Rasheed Rice. I don't trust Carson Wentz. And until they figure out what's going on in Minnesota with if JJ McCarthy is going to start or not, I would rather have Rasheed Rice for us the season. I'm sorry.
- [46:11]
Dave Kluge
I'm with you, man. And I think people like look last week and they see, you know, he led the team in targets, but a lot of people are going to say two touchdowns. It's fluky. He scored two touchdowns and this team didn't even have to do anything in the second half. Like they were up three touchdowns at halftime. Complete, completely let off the gas. Like if this was a competitive game, we could have seen rashi rice have 20 targets and 40 fantasy points. I mean like they just, they beat the doors off of them last week. So this is one where like I am completely with you. I think the scary thing here And Alfredo Brown and I talked about this on the fantasy football show yesterday. Is Xavier Worthy what happens to him? Because now we've got Marquis Brown who also looks really good and you know, is, is getting involved in the red zone. We see that he's this versatile guy that can move all over the place. I think Worthy, like the hopes for him were that he could be this wide receiver, one, you know, volume based guy. But seeing the huge dip in target volume last week, like kind of falling by the wayside to both Marquis Brown and Rashi Rice, I think that's the, the biggest takeaway here is like, I don't know if I'm trying to sell like super, super low on, on Xavier Worthy, but if I had him in leagues, I, I wouldn't be feeling too great about holding him right now.
- [47:16]
Joey Wright
You're talking about the flex worthy players. If Worthy could be a flex worthy player, that might be the player to package. I sent him out this week in a league. So. Yeah.
- [47:26]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Last question for you. Prashard Smith, so hot right now. Everybody's talking about Prashard Smith. What are you doing, Joey? Are you buying, selling or holding?
- [47:34]
Joey Wright
I'm buying and holding and that sounded really bad. No, like I, I sold off Pacheco and Xavier Worthy in a league this week. I sold off Pacheco High. We're starting to see Kareem Hunt's timeshare go away a little bit and that's just opening the door for Burchard Smith to actually produce. And listen, I like Pacheco, I like the talent. But there's something special about Berkshard Smith. He's going to get opportunities. And we've seen this Kansas City Chiefs running back historically kind of almost like a revolving door. At some point this season, Rashard Smith's going to be the RB1 on that season due to injury. Just timeshare, whatever you want to say. At some point he's going to get the opportunity and I don't want to miss out on that. I picked him up everywhere he was available this week.
- [48:18]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And you know, I talked about it like we see Andy Reid historically, like slow roll, the development with these rookies and I think there's a lot of like, ah, well he didn't do anything for the first half of the season. You know who else didn't do anything for the first half of the season? Rashi Rice. His rookie year and then he exploded down the stretch. So I don't want to say it's a one to one comparison like just because Rashi Rice was good over the second half of the season doesn't mean that every rookie for Andy Reid will. But right now we're looking at the most yards per route run of any running back Rashard Smith. Most targets per route run of any running back Rashard Smith. Like this guy on a per route run efficiency has been one of the best pass catching wider running backs in football we saw last week. Yeah, it was in garbage time, but he was getting like actual running back touches where he was running between tackles. He was getting handoffs. So I think they're starting to kind of warm up to a bigger role for Prashard Smith. So I'm with you still available in some leagues that you just pick them up for free. But if you're looking for a trade, as our Jeff Bell likes to say, kind of of changing your eyesights a little bit. So you might be targeting Burchard Smith, but kind of making another deal where you're swapping two guys that are in the same tier for you. Adding Brashard Smith into that deal is kind of the throw in option and getting the guy that you really want. Because if you just go offering a trade for Burchard Smith, somebody's gonna say, what does this guy know that I don't? So, you know, try to throw him in a package and see if you can get some Rashad Smith, whether it be in Dynasty or in Redraft. Well, Joey, that'll do it for the six games that we wanted to talk about for this week. But as always have one question for you that I ask all my guests on this show and you're gonna have to start coming up with more hills as you come on more episodes. But what is a Hill, fantasy football related or otherwise that you are willing to die on?
- [49:51]
Joey Wright
We have talked enough football, so I'm going to talk about something not football related. And you would think it'd be movies, but it's not movies. I'm going to tell you that Saturday Night Live it's just as good and bad as it's always been. Every I've been watching SNL since I was a small smile child before I probably should have been watching it. And every five years or so we hear, oh my God, SNL is not as good as it used to be. It's absolutely just as good and just as bad. What you're remembering is all the good sketches that came from an era. You're not remembering all of the crap and all the bad stuff that happened because it happens every single season. There's bad sketches. There's good sketches, there's great sketches. You're remembering those great sketches. You're remembering the great sketches from these great cast members that every year they have on the show. SNL is a factory. It's a machine. It will never die until probably Lorne Michaels passes away. And that'll be a very sad day. But until then, SNL is just as good and just as bad as you've always remembered.
- [50:48]
Dave Kluge
I'm really happy that you put that and just as bad caveat in there, because if you came out here and said, you know, SNL is just as good as it's always been, you know, we probably would have had an argument here. But I think that you did a good job. Like, there is so much bad in every single episode. But then everyone's like, you just kind of have to sift through the bad. And then every once in a while, you get these, like, moments of absolute brilliance. And I think you're spot on. It's just like, why would we remember the bad sketches? The forgettable sketches? They're forgettable for a reason. So when you're looking back in hindsight and you're remembering all of the best moments from Bill Hader and Andy Samberg or whatever your era is that you think is the best, you're only remembering the best, and that's why you think it's better than what's being put out right now. So I like that one. You know, I. I used to watch a lot of snl, and now it's just kind of like. Like, if there's a host that I really like or if there's a musical artist on that I really like, I'll watch it. But have fallen out of the. The weekly watching. Is that just an age thing, Joey? Like, I don't think the show's much worse than it used to be. I think just as I get older, I just find myself liking it a little bit less.
- [51:46]
Joey Wright
Yeah. You watch a lot of football, Dave? Okay, I think that's it.
- [51:49]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I'm gonna watch a lot of TV on Saturday, period.
- [51:52]
Joey Wright
Yeah, I'm like, dave, I watched a movie this weekend. You're like, I watched 18 hours of game film. And I'm like, I probably should have done that too, but I watched this really good movie.
- [52:01]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, we could. We'll do a movie show this off season for sure. Well, I mean, this has been a great year for movies. And, you know, why not? Like, if you're still listening to the show, if you want to unplug sure, you can go ahead and unplug. It's. It's 45 minutes in and we've got our football talk out. But this has been an amazing year for movies, Joey. Like, we've talked about one battle after another. Weapons, Eddington. Like, there are some movies this year that are, that are better than anything we've seen coming out in the last few years.
- [52:29]
Joey Wright
100%. And for me, I'm most excited. My favorite working director, his new movie comes out this year and it still doesn't come out like I. One Battle for Another is my favorite film of the year, but it very well could be toppled. And I can't imagine that's because one of the best films I've seen over the last, like, five years. It's been a fantastic movie year, whether you. Whatever genre you like. There's been good horror, there's been good dramas, and there's still. Award season's not even here, folks. There's so good stuff to come. Oh, my God.
- [52:56]
Dave Kluge
So it's my top three of the year. I know what your number one is. One battle after another. And then after that, my top three would be Weapons and Eddington. How would you rank those three?
- [53:05]
Joey Wright
Flip the order and you've got my top three. So it's one battle after another. Eddington and Weapons.
- [53:11]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, all really good movies. If anybody's watching these shows, I mean, they're challenging movies. Like, this isn't like just a sit and watch, eat your popcorn and like, you know, watch a mindless movie. Like, you gotta. You got to be ready to brace yourself for a challenging watch. But all three of those this year, like my kind of barometer for whether a movie is good or not. If I wake up the next morning and the first thing on my mind is the movie that I watched the day before, that's my barometer for a good movie. And all three of those, it wasn't just the day before. It was like, for a week straight, I would just have these movies on my mind because they do so many things in them that just, you know, twist what you think movies can do and just leave you thinking and asking questions. And then, Joey, you and I have our standing one on one every Tuesday afternoon where we usually, you know, talk a little bit of business, talk a little bit of football, and then talk a lot about movies.
- [53:55]
Joey Wright
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know it's an audio show, but like, yeah, the. The film collection continues to grow by. By the day, so, yeah, it's great.
- [54:06]
Dave Kluge
Well, Joey, for football, yeah, Big part of what we're doing over here at football guys. You know, leading the football guys bowl community, Ambassador the Discord Saturday morning or I'm sorry, Sunday morning live trivia, all that sort of stuff. But let everyone know where they can find all of your work, where they can find you on social media, all that fun stuff.
- [54:22]
Joey Wright
Everything I do in this world is at Football guys because I am a company man. You can find me on all the socials at the Joey Wright, jump in the Discord, have a conversation with me. Come play trivia on Tuesdays at 7. We have so much fun and we give away prizes. Yeah, I love work being a football guys. I love working with Dave. I love this company.
- [54:42]
Dave Kluge
And as always, I will be back next week for the launch pad. I don't know who the guest is going to be. We'll, we'll figure it out between now and next week. But to talk about some Week 9 matchup next week, I want to thank everybody so much for taking the time to tune in. I will see you next week.
- [55:09]
Jeff
Morning Zoe. Got donuts.
- [55:10]
Zoe
Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?
- [55:14]
Jeff
Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you. Teach me. So Dana.
- [55:20]
Zoe
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 camera system.
- [55:32]
Jeff
Wow, impressive. Let me try. T mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.
- [55:39]
Dave Kluge
Nice.
- [55:40]
Zoe
Jeffrey, you heard them.
- [55:41]
Dave Kluge
T Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible traded in any condition.
- [55:48]
Jeff
So what are we having for lunch?
- [55:50]
Zoe
Dude, my work here is done.
- [55:52]
T-Mobile Announcer
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- [56:09]
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