October 23, 2025 • 34 mins
It's Fox Sports Radio's official fantasy football podcast! Mike Harmon and Dan Beyer open the show with some final thoughts on Week 7 of the NFL season... How do we feel about these Monday night doubleheaders? They also discuss how the Patriots' early success under Vrabel affects other franchises and coaches going forward. Plus, looking ahead to Thursday Night Football between the Vikings and Chargers!
Hosts: Dan Beyer, Mike Harmon
Producer: Ian Roddy
#fsrweekends #jss
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and Jules.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You want experience during your football season, well, buckle up,
sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world.
This is I want your Flex with Dan Byer and
Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan break down everything you need
to set your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits.
(00:24):
The guys help you make those hard decisions. And now
let's get your flex. Ond here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
All right, we try to stick to our guns here
and I want your flex. He is Mike Harmon. That's
Ian Roddey, our executive producer. I'm Dan Byer, but guys,
I feel like I'm a little wishy washy. We'll talk
about the the backlash from the Monday Night deuvileheader, as
it's always a conversation, especially coming into a week where
we have six teams on buying for those that may
not remember, may forget, or just don't know off the
(00:56):
top of their head. Lions, Rams, Seahawks, Jaguars, Cardinals and
Raiders all getting a break in Week eight, A six
team by which around when Ian was in the studios
on Sunday and Mike and I know you're there in
the mornings, but during the early games. I think the
(01:18):
comment coming from the editing room Ian and you can
confirm this was this has got to be some of
the worst slate of early games that we had had
on a schedule. Yeah, and now I know there's going
to be some marquee teams, but we talked about it
on the last pot. The points spread for some of
these games. You have the Texans and the Niners playing
a point spread of a one and a half. San
(01:40):
Francisco at the time of this recording a one and
a half point favorite, but every other line at least
six points in that early window on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Crazy.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, it stuff, several of them creeping beyond the pivotal
touchdown line when we start getting to seven and a
half or eight, So you know, for betting purpose is
the danger zone, as it were. But yeah, we're talking
backup quarterbacks, situational mitch mismatches, and really just it's it's
(02:11):
I think, just a microcosm of where we're at in
the league. Though, guys, we've talked about it a bunch,
and I love all two seventy two to some degree
because once it goes away, like football is still the
thing that feeds our business, but more so feeds us. Right,
That's why we do the podcast, we do the extra
is that we love the ins and outs, the you
know what I get to do on Sunday mornings and
(02:33):
just throwing throwing lobs to Greg Cosell to tell me
what I'm supposed to be seeing. And you know, my
lay my lay eyes do they do? They lead me
to the right place when it comes to quarterback play
and all of that. But you know, we recognize that
some of these are not gems and some you know,
the unfortunate happenstance of a spate of injuries that befall
(02:57):
an individual team. And we've certainly seen teams try to
navigate that, some better than others. Certainly goes back to,
you know, the organizational excellence or at least some level
of stability. And then you got some teams that were
at week eight going all right, how many of these guys.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
A are here? Like?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Are there viable trade options? How many guys just get
benched because they've been bad? And you want to see
what else is behind door number two, whether it's a
quarterback or guys at other positions, Like we're already at
that point, and some of these I would understand. If
you had a choice between this and a long nap
or a run through a pumpkin patch, you might choose
(03:37):
the pumpkin patch.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Sure, I agree, like, especially this time of year, go
to a corn maze if you can.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And I'm not joking, no, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Going go enjoy being outdoors before it's you know, thirty
below zero wherever you are, and you can still go
out see some daylight.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
It's bad.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There is something to this, and I think if you
listen to the podcast, I think you'll understand where I'm
coming from. We, meaning USh three, have to basically have
to watch all the games at some point.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Ian.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I know that your schedule is a little different when
it comes to when you're in but you're there with
a full sled of games, Mike, and know you're there
in the morning and then you're watching games in the
afternoon and watching games throughout the week. And I'm watching
games all day Sunday and into Monday, and it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And I know that there are.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Fans that don't consume as much because they are going
to do things. We do it because it's a part
of our job. Requirements. And this is not complaining by
any means. It's just trying to make a point of
when we saw what happened on Monday night with the
double header that I thought that I loved, and I.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Don't think i'd love it anymore. I don't love the
true double header.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Of Monday night football, and this was with my team
playing in the late game. I saw a tweet made
not that the Seahawks and Texans was appealing football, but
Greg Ball, who covers the Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune,
said a.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Third of the people were gone in the fourth quarter
of that game. In Seattle.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
It's late, it's a Monday night, they're on the West Coast.
They have work the next day. Like at least when
you have a Monday night game, like starting at five
o'clock local time, it's more doable for those people at
that time. I know East Coast people probably have no
empathy or sympathy for the Seattle fans and going through it,
But I also realized that that was six hours of
(05:38):
football that we had watched.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
Didnight Did you like it better the times when they
did it this season? Yeah, where it was kind of
overlapping a little bit, or is that I thought I didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I thought that I didn't like it, and now I'm
wondering if I do because he was just I just
thought about it. I'm like, this was a long night.
This was I left work at four o'clock or in
the Buccaneers and lines kicked off. And that's basically watching
the whole slate of windows on a Sunday afternoon of games, right,
(06:10):
and you do it for the second straight day, but
there's only two games at that point, and I'm just like.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Man, I don't know if this is good or not.
I'm not sure if it is.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, I wonder what the staggered, if it's just a
conditioning And eventually we go back, like you mentioned, Dan,
like I go back and at least watched it each
game in the condensed version. Right, the fun and exciting
world of the NFL Plus package that you can go
back through games are available ten minutes after they finish,
and you can go through the following day if you
(06:41):
want to go full Nerd with the All twenty two.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
It's their four year as well. But it's just the
idea of.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
If we're not conditioned to maybe you watch it on
red zone, or maybe it's you create your own red
zone channel by having multiple screens going with different games
that we're just conditioned to that level to where we
don't mind it as much. Yes, right versus Wow. Now
I'm locked in for what became six and a half hours,
(07:07):
and even as a Seahawks fan, I mean that got
ugly towards the end, like I was, and I mentioned this,
I was on air with Jason Smith. Right, So we
got game seven of the Alcs, we get the Lions
and the Buccaneers, so lots of talking points out of
two leaders in the NFC, and then we're watching Houston
and Seattle. And we talked in the last podcast about
(07:30):
the decision. You know how they kicked and approached the
didn't on side kick it, didn't kick it through the
end zone, didn't kick it out of bound, so we
kick it to you. You're able to run it beyond
the two minute marks, so you only have one time out.
And then you had that scrum where the player for
the Texans jumped on the guy's back well after the
whistle had blown. They're trying to separate guys, So you
(07:52):
get the extra fifteen yards like you deserve to lose,
right there, everything you did.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
You know, you deserve to lose.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
You don't deserve the eighteen seconds or whatever you were
gonna get because that's just dumb. So it's like, all right,
so I now hate watching the end of a football
game on air. But it was just that kind of
thing of like all of that, we invest all that time,
and that's how you're gonna finish, Like, what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (08:16):
You're killing me?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Blue. I looked at that.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I'm like, unless you have Zach Charbonnat and you need
two points to win your fantasy league, that's why you're
still sitting around, or you have CJ. Stroud as your
starting quarterback because because Nico Collins got knocked out. But
it was just a long day, and this on the
heels of what happened the day before.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Because you had the extra window, right, you had the
extra three and a half to start.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yes, and guys, this is gonna sound disrespectful to the Falcons,
but it's more of a general point. I don't need
to see the Falcons in a standalone window in twice
in a span of seven days. True, if I'm a
Falcons fan, I will, But so the Sunday night game
(09:02):
to me, of seeing the Falcons again after just beating
the Bills very unappealing to me. By the way, I
think it's unappealing to the Falcons to make them fly
across the country after playing on a Monday night to
go then play a game against San Francisco. At least
keep them in a bordering time zone if you can.
But let's beside the point. But I just like when
(09:23):
I'm watching that game, like that game on Sunday night
did nothing for me, Absolutely nothing for me. I watched
Christian McCaffrey run all over the Falcons, both in the
air and on the ground. But but yeah, there was
just a and it's not a complain about watching football
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I just think that there's there's gotta be a better
way to do it.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And I don't know if it's the way that we
grew up in watching it that made it better. Because
I had even argued on the network that hey, this
game would have been buried at one o'clock Eastern time,
why not make it a standalone game?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And then in Week.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Seven I just was like, man, this is a lot,
this is a lot of football to try to navigate.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, I think some of it is you converge it
back to and this goes to and from where we
are not just the job but our personalities. Right, we
love college football too. College football is another twelve plus hours, right,
if you're really going from you know, a nine o'clock
kickoff West Coast through the end games and wherever you
(10:25):
live across the globe, wherever you're listening, you know you
consume it as you will. But Saturday was just such
a wild game that even if you were trying to
go do something else, the blips on your phone kept
drawing you back to a screen. Right when we have
nine top twenty five teams between Friday and Saturday that
go down some wild finishes, chaos ensuing. I mean, go
(10:46):
back Friday, we had the convergence being on air, Smith
and I on our Fox Sports radio show, like we
had the show Heyo Tani game going on while Miami's
melting down, and I'm like, I really want to talk
about the college football. This is really fascinating to me,
But look at what the hell's going on over here
with this guy? Right, So, I mean it's but all
of that. By the end of a Monday, you're consuming
(11:09):
all that the Sunday with the extra London game, it's
just your body's beaten down. And if you did a
full day's work, I mean, right, you did your shift,
drive home and then you're still all right now I'm
locking in for another five plus hours of football and
you were in the back with us.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Exactly.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
No, And to that point, I mean, on top of
all the football that we had today, there was also
the Blue Jays advancing into the World Series on top
of all that. So yeah, just just an absolutely jam packed.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Right because even yesterday, right you area Sunday like this
is now the Wednesday, so like trying to try to
do all of that.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Is the idea that you.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Know, you had a game six on top of all
of that football exactly.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
I think that the person who is going to watch
football for six hours a day on Sunday during that window,
I'm not talking about London game or or Senate ball,
but Jordy will watch Red Zone. And I think that
you'll you'll watch your team. If you're there to watch
your team play and your favorite team play, You'll watch
(12:14):
your team and then maybe three hours of Red Zone
or maybe you'll go and do something else. And I
think that the and I'll just call them the the
pumpkin patch guys, the guys that got to go out
and do false stuff or got to do you know, uh.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Take care of their yard and.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, yeah, or whatever, you know, break it up that way,
and so it's it's good for them in the sense.
And that's who we're talking to here. I don't want
this to come off in a way that we're complaining
about our.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Jobs, right all.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
But the point that what what dawned on me on
Monday night was the Seahawks and Texans were.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Putting garbage out on the football field.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
They couldn't block, anybody, couldn't run the football, Seahawks were
turning it over. And I don't think that's the product
that the NFL was hoping unless they're trying to fool us.
And so if you've watched from London at nine thirty
Eastern time on Sunday morning, you had no reason to
stick around to watch Seahawks Texans at the end because
of all the football that you consumed at the end.
(13:17):
And I just don't think that that's the ultimate goal
of the NFL when trying to do in trying to
present their product. So That's why I turned away from
the true double header because and I think, Mike, you
hit it on the head. The London game puts you
in a spot where you're starting way earlier. If you
don't the London game, maybe it's a little different sort
(13:38):
of feel moving in with the doubleheader. But even the
London game made things, you know, super long.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Yeah, everybody's invested in a different way. And to owe
to our time growing up, certainly, I'll speak to my
time growing up in Chicago, went to church, got home,
read the newspaper, bears noon cool.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Yeah, and then the afternoon game at a game.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Was San Francisco or Dallas, and you know, pretty much
every week yep, and then whatever else. There was no
Sunday night game, There was no Thursday night game. There
was afternoon football, sure, and you and then Monday you
checked the box scores in the newspaper for whatever you missed,
or you stayed up and watched the George Michael Sports machine.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But is it Isn't this this this the reason on
why we don't consume as much NBA as because we
can always consume the NBA. Yeah, because it's on now
every single night of the ubiquitous.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Yeah, exactly, yes.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And so I think that there's a little bit of
that happening when the NFL does this true Monday night doubleheader.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I loved it at first. I just didn't love it
in week seven with my team.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Playing in it. Yeah, I don't know why. Maybe that's
a one off sort of deal. Yeah sure.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Maybe maybe you know in the investment and you were unsatisfied,
or would you say you're satisfied, okay, or very satisfied
with the you were unsatisfied?
Speaker 5 (15:01):
We love you why I was.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
A four The number of turnovers by the Seahawks on
Monday Night, that's what.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That's what.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
I was a game that should have been easy.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
But I could see it on paper, right, A lot
of folks and maybe you know, I'm just raising my hand.
I wasn't a believer that Houston would be good this year,
but the matchup on paper look great, and you know,
I love a good defensive struggle on occasion, not in
my Monday night window.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a little funky, I
will say that for sure. And Bucks Lions didn't live
up to the hype that we had hoped either. Fair
unless you're a Lions fan.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Well that I mean, what did you think of the
blue helmets? I mean, that's what we have to ask.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, you know, I don't love the black, I really,
I just I think that they should embrace the silver.
I'm not a fan of the the black usage with
the Lions. They you know, did it in previous years
and I am not.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I'm not a fan.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I like the grays that they had brought out, but
not a lot of people did, and they killing in
these black ones.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
I actually like the black, but but I will say
I think it was a little too Panthers esque, like
it looked like it belonged to another team.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Good call, Yeah, yeah, good call. I think that's that's
that's very fair. It happens well in the NBA, like
all there's there's like a certain color of blue that
you have to have.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So like the.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Thunder blue is the same blue as another blue, like
where like the seventy six Ers and Warriors would have
the same color blue like they don't. Very you know,
there's no variation in some of the blues in the NBA,
So you have to either choose that blue or this blue.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Like the Bucks, you know, the like the Bucks.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Have their cream and green colored, but they've got a
blue alternate that we've seen, and I think they had
to choose between did they want like the seventy six
ers blue that they use or the blue that the
Thunder used, And I think they chose the Thunder Yes
color palettes.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Now we're getting way off the tracks.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Well but by time. But by the time people are
listening this, they're invested. In the first couple of days
of the NBA stam the long road begins.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh goodness, nine months. Where did the offseason go?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Load management? Baby, let's go.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I want to talk some quarterbacks. Plus we do think
we're gonna have a good one on Thursday night. We
just don't know who's good a quarterback for the Vikings
and the take on the Chargers, and we don't know
who's going to show up for the Chargers in that contest.
So we'll give you a little preview of that. Plus
we'll talk some of these quarterback injuries. It's all next
here and I Want Your Flex. Welcome back to I
(17:39):
Want Your Flex. He is Mike Carmen. That's he and
Roddy our executive producer. I'm Dan Beyer. Coming out of
week seven, moving into Week eight. On Monday Night, Commanders
take on the Chiefs. It's the last game of the
thirteen of the week and we don't know the status
of Jayden Daniels for that game, but I'd be shocked
if he played.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Now the question becomes.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Second injury of the year for the Commander quarterback in
the first half of the season. Now you're starting to
wonder if there's an injury prone label going to Jadeen Daniels.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But for a guy who was in.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Our top quarterback groups, you know, we had Josh Allen,
Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts. Jaden Daniels was right there. Him
being hurt for the second time the season. Not good
for the Commanders, not good for fantasy players.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, we've certainly seen them depleted by injury throughout the
wide receiving court. Terry McLaurin missing it, dude, chunk of
the season, and the running back position has been hurt.
I just go to the wonderful world of X and
this is Jaden daniels mom quote. I wish you would
stop manifesting RG three on my son. Words are powerful
(18:45):
and that's all that's talked about. Rookie of the Year,
second year injury now for RG three, very severe injury
and certainly not equating the two, at least from where
I sit the same. But you know, folks wondering aloud thing,
you know, fans looking at it, going wow, we've seen
this before. A great start and then injuries, but there's
(19:07):
no Kirk Cousins on that roster that that would eventually
become the guy. And you're looking at Mariota that interception
forever now burned into people's brains for once he came
in and threw that pick. But you're looking at a
guy who we wondered last year he got popped in
the middle of the season, had the the the rib
(19:30):
injuries and everything, and wondering, okay is he going. It's
the thing everybody has to learn coming out of college, right,
Guys are just that much faster and they get on you.
So when you go to run. And we talked about
this with Jackson Dart a couple of weeks ago, remember
when he kind of did the B line where he
went and found a guy to hit, like, no, run, straight, slide,
(19:50):
do whatever you need to do, but you don't need
any more contact. For Jade Daniels, that was one of
the things in his rookie year. I was like, I
don't think he can play that way long term. I
don't don't think you've got the physicality, Like you're not
that Cam Newton body that you can go and do this. So, yeah,
you know, this not being the same type of injury,
but you know, all the way through it's the it
(20:13):
starts to become a label that you have to fight through.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, I'll tell you, I don't think that the Commanders
or their fans thought that zach Ertz would be second
in targets. Yeah, through seven weeks of the season, with
Debo being number one. But that also then is the
trickle down effect to the injury to Terry McLaurin, where
this quad injury just seems to be dragging him down.
Deebo ends up missing week seven, Noah Brown, who caught
(20:38):
that Hail Mary last year for the Commanders, who's been
out multiple weeks, Austin Eckler, he thought it'd be a
part of the passing game. So my point is is,
even if Jayden Daniels is healthy, I just don't know
on what you're getting from the Commanders and one of
our top five quarterbacks now I think you can put
(20:59):
him in there, Joe. Group of absolute disappointment so far
in the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, looking at just the roster, I mean you just
went through it. I mean going back to Eckler going down,
that's what seventy receptions ish that go out the window, right,
just as a safety valve kind of guy that can
be a game breaker in that regard to give you
the balance with crosskey merrit that you thought you'd have
(21:26):
this this division of labor and at least some balance. Yeah,
zach Ertz came back for one more run, right, He
was a guy that we were talking about potentially retiring
after their run last year. He comes back for another run,
had to be what six catches in Week seven and
probably maintains a high workload going forward because you know,
(21:49):
still a lot of questions of you know, if when
how McLaurin gets back into the mix.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Does this season change either of your minds on the
top quarterback group, not the actual players, but when we
see efforts. I mean, you guys knew I was high
on Dak so not to pat myself on the back.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
You got that one.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, I don't know, it's completely wrong about Michael Pennix
right now, But I was right about Dak But Daniel
Jones has been there. We expected good things from Drake May,
but I don't think we expected this from Drake May.
I mean, Patrick Mahomes was was a top ten guy,
but we weren't putting him in the top five.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
And now he's like a number one guy.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Like, does this change at all your thinking of how
you would you would attack the quarterback position via the
draft next year or in future years.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
No, I would say I'd probably take it the same way.
Right if I'm all in, And there's certainly some leagues
like some of it is theory testing, right with the
number of leagues we get involved in and knowing how
the if it is a long standing right, You've got
your twenty plus year you know how guys draft right,
you know, you know what they like and unless they
(23:00):
suddenly decide, you know what, I'm going one hundred and
eighty degrees the other way, you kind of know how
the board's gonna flop.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
With a lot of that, like you were playing at
a you know.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
A weekly poker UH set up with your guys, But
you know, for for the most part, I'm generally a
weight wait on a quarterback guy, right, So I'm not
rushing in means I'm not hitting the ceiling, but I'm
also not hitting the floor to where I'm desperate, Like
I was talking to a friend of mine who you know,
waiting too long. It was that one round flip to
(23:32):
where suddenly by time they drafted three more people came
back for their backup before they drafted QB one. So
all of a sudden, now they're in that all right,
justin Fields with his running acumen, do I grab him?
Is to gonna be back?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Tyreek Hill gets hurt too, is what he is. And
now you've got an offense in shambles and a team
you know that looks like the floating dumpster fire. And
then because if you went in on a quarterback right,
Josh Allen has given you could not massive numbers and
Lamar has been hurt like those would have been the
guys you went in on, so you would have been
(24:10):
better off. We probably waiting.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
We had Josh Allen go early in my longtime league,
and then we had a string it went Daniels hurts
Lamar boom boom boom. So that left Joe Burrow in
Burrow to me was that was three picks after Lamar,
and it went Drake London, Chase Brown, and then I
took Joe Burrow, but knowing how high I was on
(24:34):
Dak and obviously you know hindsight's twenty twenty with Burrow's injury,
but the success of the other quarterbacks that I see
down the line in where certain guys were taken. I mean,
somebody took Patrick Mahomes three rounds after I took Joe Burrow,
and I thought it was an absolute reach, And now
that wasn't the case. And then later on is when
(24:55):
we had you know, Baker Mayfield dropped in our league
a little bit further, but that's when we had Herbert
and you're Drake Mays and guys like that being drafted.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So I just it changes it for me the way
that these guys.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
You know, maybe maybe it's because of I'm getting spooked
by Burrow and Jaden Daniels and I mean Jalen Hurt's
still is scoring touchdowns. But man Lamar, I don't even
talk about. You know, I could put Lamar in that
group as well. So three of the top five guys
that you know have significant injuries or injuries dealing with
and when you see how these other guys are dealing
(25:31):
it does change my way because I had been a
let's get your quarterback so you don't have to worry
about it anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, I'd gone down the last couple of years to
the i'll weight, but I got to come back for
number two. Right, So I'm going to have the plan
of I may not have the ceiling guy, but I'm
going to have a backup.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
That I trust.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yeah, and hopefully not convince myself that I now need
to play the game of who do I trust more
on a given week, because I certainly don't want that issue, right.
I certainly want a division to where if Dak was
whatever QB eight or however you ranked him, that he's
my starter and I'm not going into each week. Okay,
(26:12):
I drafted QB thirteen or fourteen, so damn it, I
now have to play that game. I certainly want that,
But I just think there's such a distinguishable drop off
at the other positions between what RB twelve and RB
twenty four. I don't want to get caught to where
(26:33):
I'm guessing on a week to week basis, who's going
to get a twelve carry count.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well, there's not going to be a Daniel Jones every
single year.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
No, that's it. Yeah, and that's been an odd, odd run.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Like I mean, I was an apologist because I thought
just everything was bad in New York. It's like Joe Shane,
you know, for the most part, came out looking okay
with Jackson Dart and Scatterbo showing up because you know,
Saquon Barkley had a big year. But again, how many
more games were you winning? But it's yeah, the reclamation
(27:10):
projects and guys finding their right home. It seems like
each year we at least find one or two of
those guys.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Oh, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You want to find a way to drive yourself crazy, Ian,
if you're sitting at home, just go back and look
at some of your drafts and how they went down.
Oh sure, and you know he didn't didn't take over
these I'm even just looking back at scrolling through just
to see where these quarterbacks are and who went where,
And I'm.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Like, wait, I took him over him this one to
pick before me.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Oh, it's you want to find a way to torture yourself,
that's the way to do it.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yeah, no, I got plenty in my actual life. I
try to avoid it in the fantasy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Oh Man, Jackson Smith and Jig.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
But right before I was about to pick, somebody knew
my fandom.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
And they were like against you.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, absolutely well people were taking Thomas first round.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
No, but like there's a there's a great example, right,
and he's had games where you're like, all right, he's
at an opportunity and he leaves it on the carpet,
like watching the Jaguars is maddening in that respect. And
you know, Trevor Lawrence is the guy that because folks
don't watch a full game unless it's a standalone like
(28:23):
with the Rams, Like they don't know what's befalling that guy.
I'm not saying he's been great, but the number of
drops between Thomas and the other guys, and it certainly
is dragged his stats down, no question about it. But yeah,
I mean the the wide receiver position a lot of
trust and look at look at Jamar Chase was getting
(28:45):
ready to be destined to a terrible fate and then
you're saved by Joe Flacko.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
Yes, crazy, crazy, That's that's the world in the NFL,
right now, you know number four is in terms of
options Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Wow, I never would have guessed it.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
He's got fifty one catches right now.
Speaker 6 (29:09):
Every week it feels like he's putting up major fantasy,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (29:12):
No, Like it's that kind of thing like Christian McCaffrey's
sitting at third. Ferguson's fourth.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Barely heard his name this year too, which is crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
And if you were giving hints, Mike and you said cowboy,
I would have been like, oh, duh, George Pickens, right,
you know, he's died for fourteenth, you know, Yeah, this
is not even close to Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
But like Chris Olave seventy one targets last couple of
weeks started to find find being opay dirt, he's tied
for eighth with forty four catches. Mcgride's at number seven
and he's actually got four touchdowns this year. So not
allergic to the painted grass, taking whatever medication he needs
to get you by that. But all of that to say,
(29:54):
like it goes to the we've talked a lot about
the quarterback injuries makes for some strain bedfellows along the
way when you get the backups in there or some
of that in the pecking order of who they find
comfort with.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, absolutely, well we'll find comfort with the Vikings and Chargers.
In Week eight, after the Chargers wore their yellow gold uniforms,
which I loved, some people didn't.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I like the brightness to it. I wish they'd played
a little better to represent them. Yeah, because now they
go into that, well, we might not wear those because
we sucked.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Yeah, that would be that would be too bad. They're
now going to their navy a navy look. I don't
call it the fouls. You could call it the sayou.
I call it the Leslie O'Neill. Who nice sort of
era of Chargers football. But the Vikings have their quarterback
conundrum with JJ McCarthy still dealing with his ankle injury
(30:46):
and the Chargers.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
They're banged up as well as we know.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
But Thursday night, what do you like playwise, Mike, between
the Bolts and the Vikings.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Yeah, I think we'll still take a look at Justin
Herbert as a back end to one running back position
is still up in our look at Wentz is certainly
worth a look see with with Addison and Jefferson getting
out there. Hockinson's still mad about the touchdown he didn't
get to keep as as many would be. So I mean,
(31:18):
those guys are all plays because that Chargers defense right
now is getting gashed. They're not getting any pressure in
that back seven is susceptible to big play after big play.
So an opportunity here, even on a short week. Normally,
you know, that's one that we do a lot of
hand ringing over of how much we're gonna trust guys
to get into the mix. But you know, when we
(31:38):
look at the running back position, Mason stands as a
mid second running back. Vidal maybe more flexworthy against that
Minnesota front, and certainly from the Chargers perspective, it's tough
to go against those those corners in Minnesota, and we
(32:00):
watched a little bit of success certainly this past week.
Michael Pittman Junior finished as a top fifteen wide receiver.
So opportunity there. I think I'd look at Maconkey if
I'm going to go down that road of any of those,
So we get him into the mix as a WR two,
(32:21):
but I think I'm staying away from the others. Maybe
Allen as a sure and steady flex worthy with some
red zone potential, but the ceiling is certainly lower. I
think the over under for this game sitting at forty
two and a half or thereabouts.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Well, it should be a good way to kick off
a week eight. You don't see Vikings Chargers too much. Sure,
something a little different for us and breaks away from
all those divisional matchups we've had to deal with on
Thursday Thursday nights.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
You know me, we always want a little bit of
something different.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
And maybe Mike Tomlin's still complaining about Barry sending Joe
Placo to the Bangle. Oh man, hey, if Aaron Rodgers retires,
does that mean Flacco goes to the Steelers because Tomald
loves him and then he can finish the circuit?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Sure? Why not?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Although I don't know if you saw the Steelers' uniforms,
they look straight out of medieval times that they're they're
going to be wearing on.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Oh did they go back to the the what was
it from the forties or whatever that was? Yeah, just
it look like a guard of castle.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
Yeah, break out those bumblebee ones, remember those?
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah, they're not like that, but they do have a
yellow and black stripe.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Like pattern to it.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Ian it's not it's not the ones that you're talking about.
But there is something to this uniform gold gold helmets
for the Steelers coming up on in week eight as well.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
The nineteen thirty three uniform that they're they're rolling out here.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, is that what it is?
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Definitely need to to honor that team.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
I always wanted the bumblebee one, you know. I always
wanted the Casey Hampton from my wall of mean that
I'm gonna assemble. Okay, So I gotta see if I
can locate one of those.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Oh man, these are these are dandy. There's no reason
to bring them out. But the Steelers will on Sunday night.
All right, that's gonna do it for us. Mike's gonna
start prepping for his trip to Baltimore, but he'll be
back with us at the end of the week. Before
he jets off to the East Coast, he'll have his
rankings for Week eight. Ian will have a streaming defenses
and I'll give you a survivor pick or two plus
(34:29):
the little points of Palser. That's all coming up on
the next I want your flex. So for my comment,
end Ian Roddy, I'm dan Byer. I hope you got
your pickups that you want, and we'll talk to you
soon here and I want your FLEs
Ladies and Jules.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You want experience during your football season, well, buckle up,
sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world.
This is I want your Flex with Dan Byer and
Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan break down everything you need
to set your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits.
(00:24):
The guys help you make those hard decisions. And now
let's get your flex. Ond here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
All right, we try to stick to our guns here
and I want your flex. He is Mike Harmon. That's
Ian Roddey, our executive producer. I'm Dan Byer, but guys,
I feel like I'm a little wishy washy. We'll talk
about the the backlash from the Monday Night deuvileheader, as
it's always a conversation, especially coming into a week where
we have six teams on buying for those that may
not remember, may forget, or just don't know off the
(00:56):
top of their head. Lions, Rams, Seahawks, Jaguars, Cardinals and
Raiders all getting a break in Week eight, A six
team by which around when Ian was in the studios
on Sunday and Mike and I know you're there in
the mornings, but during the early games. I think the
(01:18):
comment coming from the editing room Ian and you can
confirm this was this has got to be some of
the worst slate of early games that we had had
on a schedule. Yeah, and now I know there's going
to be some marquee teams, but we talked about it
on the last pot. The points spread for some of
these games. You have the Texans and the Niners playing
a point spread of a one and a half. San
(01:40):
Francisco at the time of this recording a one and
a half point favorite, but every other line at least
six points in that early window on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Crazy.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, it stuff, several of them creeping beyond the pivotal
touchdown line when we start getting to seven and a
half or eight, So you know, for betting purpose is
the danger zone, as it were. But yeah, we're talking
backup quarterbacks, situational mitch mismatches, and really just it's it's
(02:11):
I think, just a microcosm of where we're at in
the league. Though, guys, we've talked about it a bunch,
and I love all two seventy two to some degree
because once it goes away, like football is still the
thing that feeds our business, but more so feeds us. Right,
That's why we do the podcast, we do the extra
is that we love the ins and outs, the you
know what I get to do on Sunday mornings and
(02:33):
just throwing throwing lobs to Greg Cosell to tell me
what I'm supposed to be seeing. And you know, my
lay my lay eyes do they do? They lead me
to the right place when it comes to quarterback play
and all of that. But you know, we recognize that
some of these are not gems and some you know,
the unfortunate happenstance of a spate of injuries that befall
(02:57):
an individual team. And we've certainly seen teams try to
navigate that, some better than others. Certainly goes back to,
you know, the organizational excellence or at least some level
of stability. And then you got some teams that were
at week eight going all right, how many of these guys.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
A are here? Like?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Are there viable trade options? How many guys just get
benched because they've been bad? And you want to see
what else is behind door number two, whether it's a
quarterback or guys at other positions, Like we're already at
that point, and some of these I would understand. If
you had a choice between this and a long nap
or a run through a pumpkin patch, you might choose
(03:37):
the pumpkin patch.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Sure, I agree, like, especially this time of year, go
to a corn maze if you can.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And I'm not joking, no, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Going go enjoy being outdoors before it's you know, thirty
below zero wherever you are, and you can still go
out see some daylight.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
It's bad.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There is something to this, and I think if you
listen to the podcast, I think you'll understand where I'm
coming from. We, meaning USh three, have to basically have
to watch all the games at some point.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Ian.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I know that your schedule is a little different when
it comes to when you're in but you're there with
a full sled of games, Mike, and know you're there
in the morning and then you're watching games in the
afternoon and watching games throughout the week. And I'm watching
games all day Sunday and into Monday, and it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And I know that there are.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Fans that don't consume as much because they are going
to do things. We do it because it's a part
of our job. Requirements. And this is not complaining by
any means. It's just trying to make a point of
when we saw what happened on Monday night with the
double header that I thought that I loved, and I.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Don't think i'd love it anymore. I don't love the
true double header.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Of Monday night football, and this was with my team
playing in the late game. I saw a tweet made
not that the Seahawks and Texans was appealing football, but
Greg Ball, who covers the Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune,
said a.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Third of the people were gone in the fourth quarter
of that game. In Seattle.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
It's late, it's a Monday night, they're on the West Coast.
They have work the next day. Like at least when
you have a Monday night game, like starting at five
o'clock local time, it's more doable for those people at
that time. I know East Coast people probably have no
empathy or sympathy for the Seattle fans and going through it,
But I also realized that that was six hours of
(05:38):
football that we had watched.
Speaker 6 (05:39):
Didnight Did you like it better the times when they
did it this season? Yeah, where it was kind of
overlapping a little bit, or is that I thought I didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I thought that I didn't like it, and now I'm
wondering if I do because he was just I just
thought about it. I'm like, this was a long night.
This was I left work at four o'clock or in
the Buccaneers and lines kicked off. And that's basically watching
the whole slate of windows on a Sunday afternoon of games, right,
(06:10):
and you do it for the second straight day, but
there's only two games at that point, and I'm just like.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Man, I don't know if this is good or not.
I'm not sure if it is.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, I wonder what the staggered, if it's just a
conditioning And eventually we go back, like you mentioned, Dan,
like I go back and at least watched it each
game in the condensed version. Right, the fun and exciting
world of the NFL Plus package that you can go
back through games are available ten minutes after they finish,
and you can go through the following day if you
(06:41):
want to go full Nerd with the All twenty two.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
It's their four year as well. But it's just the
idea of.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
If we're not conditioned to maybe you watch it on
red zone, or maybe it's you create your own red
zone channel by having multiple screens going with different games
that we're just conditioned to that level to where we
don't mind it as much. Yes, right versus Wow. Now
I'm locked in for what became six and a half hours,
(07:07):
and even as a Seahawks fan, I mean that got
ugly towards the end, like I was, and I mentioned this,
I was on air with Jason Smith. Right, So we
got game seven of the Alcs, we get the Lions
and the Buccaneers, so lots of talking points out of
two leaders in the NFC, and then we're watching Houston
and Seattle. And we talked in the last podcast about
(07:30):
the decision. You know how they kicked and approached the
didn't on side kick it, didn't kick it through the
end zone, didn't kick it out of bound, so we
kick it to you. You're able to run it beyond
the two minute marks, so you only have one time out.
And then you had that scrum where the player for
the Texans jumped on the guy's back well after the
whistle had blown. They're trying to separate guys, So you
(07:52):
get the extra fifteen yards like you deserve to lose,
right there, everything you did.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
You know, you deserve to lose.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
You don't deserve the eighteen seconds or whatever you were
gonna get because that's just dumb. So it's like, all right,
so I now hate watching the end of a football
game on air. But it was just that kind of
thing of like all of that, we invest all that time,
and that's how you're gonna finish, Like, what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (08:16):
You're killing me?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Blue. I looked at that.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I'm like, unless you have Zach Charbonnat and you need
two points to win your fantasy league, that's why you're
still sitting around, or you have CJ. Stroud as your
starting quarterback because because Nico Collins got knocked out. But
it was just a long day, and this on the
heels of what happened the day before.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Because you had the extra window, right, you had the
extra three and a half to start.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yes, and guys, this is gonna sound disrespectful to the Falcons,
but it's more of a general point. I don't need
to see the Falcons in a standalone window in twice
in a span of seven days. True, if I'm a
Falcons fan, I will, But so the Sunday night game
(09:02):
to me, of seeing the Falcons again after just beating
the Bills very unappealing to me. By the way, I
think it's unappealing to the Falcons to make them fly
across the country after playing on a Monday night to
go then play a game against San Francisco. At least
keep them in a bordering time zone if you can.
But let's beside the point. But I just like when
(09:23):
I'm watching that game, like that game on Sunday night
did nothing for me, Absolutely nothing for me. I watched
Christian McCaffrey run all over the Falcons, both in the
air and on the ground. But but yeah, there was
just a and it's not a complain about watching football
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I just think that there's there's gotta be a better
way to do it.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And I don't know if it's the way that we
grew up in watching it that made it better. Because
I had even argued on the network that hey, this
game would have been buried at one o'clock Eastern time,
why not make it a standalone game?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And then in Week.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Seven I just was like, man, this is a lot,
this is a lot of football to try to navigate.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah, I think some of it is you converge it
back to and this goes to and from where we
are not just the job but our personalities. Right, we
love college football too. College football is another twelve plus hours, right,
if you're really going from you know, a nine o'clock
kickoff West Coast through the end games and wherever you
(10:25):
live across the globe, wherever you're listening, you know you
consume it as you will. But Saturday was just such
a wild game that even if you were trying to
go do something else, the blips on your phone kept
drawing you back to a screen. Right when we have
nine top twenty five teams between Friday and Saturday that
go down some wild finishes, chaos ensuing. I mean, go
(10:46):
back Friday, we had the convergence being on air, Smith
and I on our Fox Sports radio show, like we
had the show Heyo Tani game going on while Miami's
melting down, and I'm like, I really want to talk
about the college football. This is really fascinating to me,
But look at what the hell's going on over here
with this guy? Right, So, I mean it's but all
of that. By the end of a Monday, you're consuming
(11:09):
all that the Sunday with the extra London game, it's
just your body's beaten down. And if you did a
full day's work, I mean, right, you did your shift,
drive home and then you're still all right now I'm
locking in for another five plus hours of football and
you were in the back with us.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Exactly.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
No, And to that point, I mean, on top of
all the football that we had today, there was also
the Blue Jays advancing into the World Series on top
of all that. So yeah, just just an absolutely jam packed.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Right because even yesterday, right you area Sunday like this
is now the Wednesday, so like trying to try to
do all of that.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Is the idea that you.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Know, you had a game six on top of all
of that football exactly.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
I think that the person who is going to watch
football for six hours a day on Sunday during that window,
I'm not talking about London game or or Senate ball,
but Jordy will watch Red Zone. And I think that
you'll you'll watch your team. If you're there to watch
your team play and your favorite team play, You'll watch
(12:14):
your team and then maybe three hours of Red Zone
or maybe you'll go and do something else. And I
think that the and I'll just call them the the
pumpkin patch guys, the guys that got to go out
and do false stuff or got to do you know, uh.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Take care of their yard and.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, yeah, or whatever, you know, break it up that way,
and so it's it's good for them in the sense.
And that's who we're talking to here. I don't want
this to come off in a way that we're complaining
about our.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Jobs, right all.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
But the point that what what dawned on me on
Monday night was the Seahawks and Texans were.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Putting garbage out on the football field.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
They couldn't block, anybody, couldn't run the football, Seahawks were
turning it over. And I don't think that's the product
that the NFL was hoping unless they're trying to fool us.
And so if you've watched from London at nine thirty
Eastern time on Sunday morning, you had no reason to
stick around to watch Seahawks Texans at the end because
of all the football that you consumed at the end.
(13:17):
And I just don't think that that's the ultimate goal
of the NFL when trying to do in trying to
present their product. So That's why I turned away from
the true double header because and I think, Mike, you
hit it on the head. The London game puts you
in a spot where you're starting way earlier. If you
don't the London game, maybe it's a little different sort
(13:38):
of feel moving in with the doubleheader. But even the
London game made things, you know, super long.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Yeah, everybody's invested in a different way. And to owe
to our time growing up, certainly, I'll speak to my
time growing up in Chicago, went to church, got home,
read the newspaper, bears noon cool.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Yeah, and then the afternoon game at a game.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Was San Francisco or Dallas, and you know, pretty much
every week yep, and then whatever else. There was no
Sunday night game, There was no Thursday night game. There
was afternoon football, sure, and you and then Monday you
checked the box scores in the newspaper for whatever you missed,
or you stayed up and watched the George Michael Sports machine.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But is it Isn't this this this the reason on
why we don't consume as much NBA as because we
can always consume the NBA. Yeah, because it's on now
every single night of the ubiquitous.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Yeah, exactly, yes.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And so I think that there's a little bit of
that happening when the NFL does this true Monday night doubleheader.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
I loved it at first. I just didn't love it
in week seven with my team.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Playing in it. Yeah, I don't know why. Maybe that's
a one off sort of deal. Yeah sure.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Maybe maybe you know in the investment and you were unsatisfied,
or would you say you're satisfied, okay, or very satisfied
with the you were unsatisfied?
Speaker 5 (15:01):
We love you why I was.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
A four The number of turnovers by the Seahawks on
Monday Night, that's what.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That's what.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
I was a game that should have been easy.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
But I could see it on paper, right, A lot
of folks and maybe you know, I'm just raising my hand.
I wasn't a believer that Houston would be good this year,
but the matchup on paper look great, and you know,
I love a good defensive struggle on occasion, not in
my Monday night window.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a little funky, I
will say that for sure. And Bucks Lions didn't live
up to the hype that we had hoped either. Fair
unless you're a Lions fan.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Well that I mean, what did you think of the
blue helmets? I mean, that's what we have to ask.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, you know, I don't love the black, I really,
I just I think that they should embrace the silver.
I'm not a fan of the the black usage with
the Lions. They you know, did it in previous years
and I am not.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I'm not a fan.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I like the grays that they had brought out, but
not a lot of people did, and they killing in
these black ones.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
I actually like the black, but but I will say
I think it was a little too Panthers esque, like
it looked like it belonged to another team.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Good call, Yeah, yeah, good call. I think that's that's
that's very fair. It happens well in the NBA, like
all there's there's like a certain color of blue that
you have to have.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So like the.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Thunder blue is the same blue as another blue, like
where like the seventy six Ers and Warriors would have
the same color blue like they don't. Very you know,
there's no variation in some of the blues in the NBA,
So you have to either choose that blue or this blue.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Like the Bucks, you know, the like the Bucks.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Have their cream and green colored, but they've got a
blue alternate that we've seen, and I think they had
to choose between did they want like the seventy six
ers blue that they use or the blue that the
Thunder used, And I think they chose the Thunder Yes
color palettes.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Now we're getting way off the tracks.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Well but by time. But by the time people are
listening this, they're invested. In the first couple of days
of the NBA stam the long road begins.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh goodness, nine months. Where did the offseason go?
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Load management? Baby, let's go.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I want to talk some quarterbacks. Plus we do think
we're gonna have a good one on Thursday night. We
just don't know who's good a quarterback for the Vikings
and the take on the Chargers, and we don't know
who's going to show up for the Chargers in that contest.
So we'll give you a little preview of that. Plus
we'll talk some of these quarterback injuries. It's all next
here and I Want Your Flex. Welcome back to I
(17:39):
Want Your Flex. He is Mike Carmen. That's he and
Roddy our executive producer. I'm Dan Beyer. Coming out of
week seven, moving into Week eight. On Monday Night, Commanders
take on the Chiefs. It's the last game of the
thirteen of the week and we don't know the status
of Jayden Daniels for that game, but I'd be shocked
if he played.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Now the question becomes.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Second injury of the year for the Commander quarterback in
the first half of the season. Now you're starting to
wonder if there's an injury prone label going to Jadeen Daniels.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
But for a guy who was in.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Our top quarterback groups, you know, we had Josh Allen,
Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts. Jaden Daniels was right there. Him
being hurt for the second time the season. Not good
for the Commanders, not good for fantasy players.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Yeah, we've certainly seen them depleted by injury throughout the
wide receiving court. Terry McLaurin missing it, dude, chunk of
the season, and the running back position has been hurt.
I just go to the wonderful world of X and
this is Jaden daniels mom quote. I wish you would
stop manifesting RG three on my son. Words are powerful
(18:45):
and that's all that's talked about. Rookie of the Year,
second year injury now for RG three, very severe injury
and certainly not equating the two, at least from where
I sit the same. But you know, folks wondering aloud thing,
you know, fans looking at it, going wow, we've seen
this before. A great start and then injuries, but there's
(19:07):
no Kirk Cousins on that roster that that would eventually
become the guy. And you're looking at Mariota that interception
forever now burned into people's brains for once he came
in and threw that pick. But you're looking at a
guy who we wondered last year he got popped in
the middle of the season, had the the the rib
(19:30):
injuries and everything, and wondering, okay is he going. It's
the thing everybody has to learn coming out of college, right,
Guys are just that much faster and they get on you.
So when you go to run. And we talked about
this with Jackson Dart a couple of weeks ago, remember
when he kind of did the B line where he
went and found a guy to hit, like, no, run, straight, slide,
(19:50):
do whatever you need to do, but you don't need
any more contact. For Jade Daniels, that was one of
the things in his rookie year. I was like, I
don't think he can play that way long term. I
don't don't think you've got the physicality, Like you're not
that Cam Newton body that you can go and do this. So, yeah,
you know, this not being the same type of injury,
but you know, all the way through it's the it
(20:13):
starts to become a label that you have to fight through.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, I'll tell you, I don't think that the Commanders
or their fans thought that zach Ertz would be second
in targets. Yeah, through seven weeks of the season, with
Debo being number one. But that also then is the
trickle down effect to the injury to Terry McLaurin, where
this quad injury just seems to be dragging him down.
Deebo ends up missing week seven, Noah Brown, who caught
(20:38):
that Hail Mary last year for the Commanders, who's been
out multiple weeks, Austin Eckler, he thought it'd be a
part of the passing game. So my point is is,
even if Jayden Daniels is healthy, I just don't know
on what you're getting from the Commanders and one of
our top five quarterbacks now I think you can put
(20:59):
him in there, Joe. Group of absolute disappointment so far
in the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Yeah, looking at just the roster, I mean you just
went through it. I mean going back to Eckler going down,
that's what seventy receptions ish that go out the window, right,
just as a safety valve kind of guy that can
be a game breaker in that regard to give you
the balance with crosskey merrit that you thought you'd have
(21:26):
this this division of labor and at least some balance. Yeah,
zach Ertz came back for one more run, right, He
was a guy that we were talking about potentially retiring
after their run last year. He comes back for another run,
had to be what six catches in Week seven and
probably maintains a high workload going forward because you know,
(21:49):
still a lot of questions of you know, if when
how McLaurin gets back into the mix.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Does this season change either of your minds on the
top quarterback group, not the actual players, but when we
see efforts. I mean, you guys knew I was high
on Dak so not to pat myself on the back.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
You got that one.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Yeah, I don't know, it's completely wrong about Michael Pennix
right now, But I was right about Dak But Daniel
Jones has been there. We expected good things from Drake May,
but I don't think we expected this from Drake May.
I mean, Patrick Mahomes was was a top ten guy,
but we weren't putting him in the top five.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
And now he's like a number one guy.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Like, does this change at all your thinking of how
you would you would attack the quarterback position via the
draft next year or in future years.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
No, I would say I'd probably take it the same way.
Right if I'm all in, And there's certainly some leagues
like some of it is theory testing, right with the
number of leagues we get involved in and knowing how
the if it is a long standing right, You've got
your twenty plus year you know how guys draft right,
you know, you know what they like and unless they
(23:00):
suddenly decide, you know what, I'm going one hundred and
eighty degrees the other way, you kind of know how
the board's gonna flop.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
With a lot of that, like you were playing at
a you know.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
A weekly poker UH set up with your guys, But
you know, for for the most part, I'm generally a
weight wait on a quarterback guy, right, So I'm not
rushing in means I'm not hitting the ceiling, but I'm
also not hitting the floor to where I'm desperate, Like
I was talking to a friend of mine who you know,
waiting too long. It was that one round flip to
(23:32):
where suddenly by time they drafted three more people came
back for their backup before they drafted QB one. So
all of a sudden, now they're in that all right,
justin Fields with his running acumen, do I grab him?
Is to gonna be back?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Well?
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Tyreek Hill gets hurt too, is what he is. And
now you've got an offense in shambles and a team
you know that looks like the floating dumpster fire. And
then because if you went in on a quarterback right,
Josh Allen has given you could not massive numbers and
Lamar has been hurt like those would have been the
guys you went in on, so you would have been
(24:10):
better off. We probably waiting.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
We had Josh Allen go early in my longtime league,
and then we had a string it went Daniels hurts
Lamar boom boom boom. So that left Joe Burrow in
Burrow to me was that was three picks after Lamar,
and it went Drake London, Chase Brown, and then I
took Joe Burrow, but knowing how high I was on
(24:34):
Dak and obviously you know hindsight's twenty twenty with Burrow's injury,
but the success of the other quarterbacks that I see
down the line in where certain guys were taken. I mean,
somebody took Patrick Mahomes three rounds after I took Joe Burrow,
and I thought it was an absolute reach, And now
that wasn't the case. And then later on is when
(24:55):
we had you know, Baker Mayfield dropped in our league
a little bit further, but that's when we had Herbert
and you're Drake Mays and guys like that being drafted.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
So I just it changes it for me the way
that these guys.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
You know, maybe maybe it's because of I'm getting spooked
by Burrow and Jaden Daniels and I mean Jalen Hurt's
still is scoring touchdowns. But man Lamar, I don't even
talk about. You know, I could put Lamar in that
group as well. So three of the top five guys
that you know have significant injuries or injuries dealing with
and when you see how these other guys are dealing
(25:31):
it does change my way because I had been a
let's get your quarterback so you don't have to worry
about it anymore.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, I'd gone down the last couple of years to
the i'll weight, but I got to come back for
number two. Right, So I'm going to have the plan
of I may not have the ceiling guy, but I'm
going to have a backup.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
That I trust.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yeah, and hopefully not convince myself that I now need
to play the game of who do I trust more
on a given week, because I certainly don't want that issue, right.
I certainly want a division to where if Dak was
whatever QB eight or however you ranked him, that he's
my starter and I'm not going into each week. Okay,
(26:12):
I drafted QB thirteen or fourteen, so damn it, I
now have to play that game. I certainly want that,
But I just think there's such a distinguishable drop off
at the other positions between what RB twelve and RB
twenty four. I don't want to get caught to where
(26:33):
I'm guessing on a week to week basis, who's going
to get a twelve carry count.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well, there's not going to be a Daniel Jones every
single year.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
No, that's it. Yeah, and that's been an odd, odd run.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Like I mean, I was an apologist because I thought
just everything was bad in New York. It's like Joe Shane,
you know, for the most part, came out looking okay
with Jackson Dart and Scatterbo showing up because you know,
Saquon Barkley had a big year. But again, how many
more games were you winning? But it's yeah, the reclamation
(27:10):
projects and guys finding their right home. It seems like
each year we at least find one or two of
those guys.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Oh, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You want to find a way to drive yourself crazy, Ian,
if you're sitting at home, just go back and look
at some of your drafts and how they went down.
Oh sure, and you know he didn't didn't take over
these I'm even just looking back at scrolling through just
to see where these quarterbacks are and who went where,
And I'm.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Like, wait, I took him over him this one to
pick before me.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Oh, it's you want to find a way to torture yourself,
that's the way to do it.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yeah, no, I got plenty in my actual life. I
try to avoid it in the fantasy.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Oh Man, Jackson Smith and Jig.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
But right before I was about to pick, somebody knew
my fandom.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
And they were like against you.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yes, absolutely well people were taking Thomas first round.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
No, but like there's a there's a great example, right,
and he's had games where you're like, all right, he's
at an opportunity and he leaves it on the carpet,
like watching the Jaguars is maddening in that respect. And
you know, Trevor Lawrence is the guy that because folks
don't watch a full game unless it's a standalone like
(28:23):
with the Rams, Like they don't know what's befalling that guy.
I'm not saying he's been great, but the number of
drops between Thomas and the other guys, and it certainly
is dragged his stats down, no question about it. But yeah,
I mean the the wide receiver position a lot of
trust and look at look at Jamar Chase was getting
(28:45):
ready to be destined to a terrible fate and then
you're saved by Joe Flacko.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
Yes, crazy, crazy, That's that's the world in the NFL,
right now, you know number four is in terms of
options Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Wow, I never would have guessed it.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
He's got fifty one catches right now.
Speaker 6 (29:09):
Every week it feels like he's putting up major fantasy,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (29:12):
No, Like it's that kind of thing like Christian McCaffrey's
sitting at third. Ferguson's fourth.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Barely heard his name this year too, which is crazy.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
And if you were giving hints, Mike and you said cowboy,
I would have been like, oh, duh, George Pickens, right,
you know, he's died for fourteenth, you know, Yeah, this
is not even close to Jake Ferguson.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
But like Chris Olave seventy one targets last couple of
weeks started to find find being opay dirt, he's tied
for eighth with forty four catches. Mcgride's at number seven
and he's actually got four touchdowns this year. So not
allergic to the painted grass, taking whatever medication he needs
to get you by that. But all of that to say,
(29:54):
like it goes to the we've talked a lot about
the quarterback injuries makes for some strain bedfellows along the
way when you get the backups in there or some
of that in the pecking order of who they find
comfort with.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah, absolutely, well we'll find comfort with the Vikings and Chargers.
In Week eight, after the Chargers wore their yellow gold uniforms,
which I loved, some people didn't.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I like the brightness to it. I wish they'd played
a little better to represent them. Yeah, because now they
go into that, well, we might not wear those because
we sucked.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Yeah, that would be that would be too bad. They're
now going to their navy a navy look. I don't
call it the fouls. You could call it the sayou.
I call it the Leslie O'Neill. Who nice sort of
era of Chargers football. But the Vikings have their quarterback
conundrum with JJ McCarthy still dealing with his ankle injury
(30:46):
and the Chargers.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
They're banged up as well as we know.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
But Thursday night, what do you like playwise, Mike, between
the Bolts and the Vikings.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Yeah, I think we'll still take a look at Justin
Herbert as a back end to one running back position
is still up in our look at Wentz is certainly
worth a look see with with Addison and Jefferson getting
out there. Hockinson's still mad about the touchdown he didn't
get to keep as as many would be. So I mean,
(31:18):
those guys are all plays because that Chargers defense right
now is getting gashed. They're not getting any pressure in
that back seven is susceptible to big play after big play.
So an opportunity here, even on a short week. Normally,
you know, that's one that we do a lot of
hand ringing over of how much we're gonna trust guys
to get into the mix. But you know, when we
(31:38):
look at the running back position, Mason stands as a
mid second running back. Vidal maybe more flexworthy against that
Minnesota front, and certainly from the Chargers perspective, it's tough
to go against those those corners in Minnesota, and we
(32:00):
watched a little bit of success certainly this past week.
Michael Pittman Junior finished as a top fifteen wide receiver.
So opportunity there. I think I'd look at Maconkey if
I'm going to go down that road of any of those,
So we get him into the mix as a WR two,
(32:21):
but I think I'm staying away from the others. Maybe
Allen as a sure and steady flex worthy with some
red zone potential, but the ceiling is certainly lower. I
think the over under for this game sitting at forty
two and a half or thereabouts.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Well, it should be a good way to kick off
a week eight. You don't see Vikings Chargers too much. Sure,
something a little different for us and breaks away from
all those divisional matchups we've had to deal with on
Thursday Thursday nights.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
You know me, we always want a little bit of
something different.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
And maybe Mike Tomlin's still complaining about Barry sending Joe
Placo to the Bangle. Oh man, hey, if Aaron Rodgers retires,
does that mean Flacco goes to the Steelers because Tomald
loves him and then he can finish the circuit?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Sure? Why not?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Although I don't know if you saw the Steelers' uniforms,
they look straight out of medieval times that they're they're
going to be wearing on.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Oh did they go back to the the what was
it from the forties or whatever that was? Yeah, just
it look like a guard of castle.
Speaker 6 (33:25):
Yeah, break out those bumblebee ones, remember those?
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Yeah, they're not like that, but they do have a
yellow and black stripe.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Like pattern to it.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Ian it's not it's not the ones that you're talking about.
But there is something to this uniform gold gold helmets
for the Steelers coming up on in week eight as well.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
The nineteen thirty three uniform that they're they're rolling out here.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, is that what it is?
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Definitely need to to honor that team.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
I always wanted the bumblebee one, you know. I always
wanted the Casey Hampton from my wall of mean that
I'm gonna assemble. Okay, So I gotta see if I
can locate one of those.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
Oh man, these are these are dandy. There's no reason
to bring them out. But the Steelers will on Sunday night.
All right, that's gonna do it for us. Mike's gonna
start prepping for his trip to Baltimore, but he'll be
back with us at the end of the week. Before
he jets off to the East Coast, he'll have his
rankings for Week eight. Ian will have a streaming defenses
and I'll give you a survivor pick or two plus
(34:29):
the little points of Palser. That's all coming up on
the next I want your flex. So for my comment,
end Ian Roddy, I'm dan Byer. I hope you got
your pickups that you want, and we'll talk to you
soon here and I want your FLEs
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