Rankings Risers & Fallers + Trade Candidates: Week 2 (Ep. 553)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hey everybody, Welcome back to the Fantasy Pros NFL podcast.
I am your host, Dan Harris. You can find me
on Twitter at Dan Harris eighty. With me, of course,
it is Kyle Yates. You can find them on Twitter
at Kyle I NFL Yates. What's up? Not much, man,
outside of signing so many papers today and documents. I
close on our new house, so we this morning, so

(00:39):
we get to move in later on this week, officially
make the move. So the signatures are all done, they're
all out of the way. We officially have owned the home,
and then now comes the fun part of actually moving.
So that'll suck. I have to be honest, it's a
bold move to do all this and get a new
house right as fantasy football season starts. I don't know
what the hell I was thinking. I don't know what
I wasn't you gotta do, Y, gotta do what you

(01:01):
gotta do. Yeah, it's so good, love that. I'm sure
your hand is a little sore from all the signing
that you had to do during your closing. But look,
I need you. I need your a game today. Are
you ready to bring it? Let's do it, man? All right,
So we've got a great show for you today. First,
we're gonna start by breaking down Monday night football. We
had two games obviously on opening weekend. Then we're gonna
be talking about some rest of the season risers and followers,

(01:23):
a few Bilow and sell High candidates, and then we'll
end on some listener mailback questions. And to do that
all with us today is Brandon Funston of The Athletic.
You can find them on Twitter at Brandon Funston Brandon
what's going on? Hey guys, thanks for having me. Yeah,
it feels good to have a week in the books.
Huh Yeah, I mean last night was just weird. You know,

(01:43):
it was a very I'm heavily invested in James Connor,
so I'm a little concerned. I'm gonna be honest, and
I want to hear your takes on it, frankly, because
I don't know. Man. There's a lot of rumblings from
beat writers that even if Connor's ankle injury is as
minor as it is being made out to be, this
backfield may not be his own anymore. So we're gonna

(02:03):
talk about that. We're gonna talk about everything, but before
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(03:10):
as I said, Yates and I are going to be
doing a weekly waiver Wire live stream on YouTube. After that,
I'm immediately going to start writing our weekly trade chart article,
which you can find over Fantasypros dot com. But if
you want even more help with your trades, you can
look at our trade analyzer over at my playbook. It
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(03:33):
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as well, so go check out the trade analyzer and
everything else over at Fantasypros dot com slash my playbook.
Fantasy Pros dot com slash my playbook. All right, guys,
let's get into last night Steelers twenty six Giants sixteen.
So the James Connor thing is weird. Okay, you had

(03:55):
this vague report. I mean I was watching the game.
I don't know about you guys, didn't nothing looked apparent
to me other than he didn't look good, but it
didn't look like an injury. Then you heard this vague
talk about how he was getting his ankle taped. Then
there was just nothing at all. We're all sitting there
waiting for a Twitter report, an announcer from the team. Nothing. Finally,
late in the game, he's on the sideline, he's got
his helmet. Then he doesn't. Late in the game, it

(04:16):
comes out with an ankle injury. There's a report from
chapter that they're optimistic he's not going to miss much time.
Benny Snell looked pretty good. Nineteen carries for one hundred
and thirteen yards. He did lose that he didn't lose
the fumble he fumbled, but thankfully Juju smishus he recovered. Brandon.
Let me throw to you here. If Connor does have
to miss let's say a few games at this point,
how high would you rank Snell? And even if Connor

(04:39):
is okay, the Snell factor in for the rest of
the season. Yeah, I have some exposure to James Connor
as well, so I wasn't excited about the events that
transpired last night. I think, you know, the thing with
Benny Snell is he's not the receiver that James Connor is.
And you know, Mike Tomlin's history has been he likes
to lean on a featured guy in one that has

(05:00):
that versatile skill set. Benny Snill did look good and
he lost a lot of weight. I was like doing
a double take, like, who's that guy? You know? And
you know, I think if Mike Tomas had his druthers,
it would be a very healthy James Connor. Uh. And
you know they could use him in you know, all
the ways that they like to do that. But it's
supposed to be James Connor's year to prove that he

(05:20):
can be healthy and be there running back in the future,
and it's not off to a good start. So you know,
I don't have any Benny Snell. I didn't I didn't
draft James Connor. Go oh, well, I better get Benny Snell.
So I don't know, I need to I need some
more information. But if it's a couple of weeks, then yeah,
I could see this becoming problematic where Benny Snill's getting
you know, a good a good portion of the carries

(05:42):
and James Connor, who went you know from a guy
who I don't know, could you have could you imagined
sixty five percent or more of the of the share
in that backfield suddenly becomes you know, he's getting fifty
percent in Benny Snill's getting something close to that, and
they're sprinkling in Samuel's and maybe Anthony McFarland. But yeah,
this is this is a bummer as a James Connor owner.

(06:04):
So let me ask you something because we did our
waiver our show yesterday and that was before Benny Snell.
You know this whole thing on Monday night. If you
are making your waiver claims tonight or making fab bids,
where does Snell rank in your priority list going forward?
Is he up there with the niem Hines, Malcolm Brown,
those types of guys are easy below. He's up there

(06:25):
with Malcolm Brown. He's not there with Josh Kelly and
nihem Hines because I just think those guys's roles will
be pretty solidified. I think we're still in flux with
Benny Snell and it's undefined. And I think that's the
same thing with Malcolm Brown. Malcolm Brown looked good, look
better than cam Akers. But do I feel like maybe
cam Akers head was spinning and he was thinking too
much and he wasn't the real, you know, the cam

(06:45):
Akers that I liked in college. I think there's some
of that. I think they'll continue to try to get
him comfortable and get him going because I think he's
a more talented guy. So I think James Connor is
a more talented guy than Benny Snell. And I gotta
believe if Connor's healthy that the high arch you will
fall back into place. All right, Yeah, it's give me
your very quick breakdown here on the James Connor Benny
Snell's situation. If James Connor is healthy, is this his backfield? Yeah,

(07:08):
so you mentioned it. James Connor didn't exactly look great.
And the thing that we have to keep in mind
is this entire Steeler's offense looked rusty, Like the first
half was just terrible football on either side of the
ball from the offensive perspective, both the Giants and the Steelers.
So looking at Big Ben didn't look like a he
looked like a thirty eight year old quarterback who hadn't
played football in an entire year, right, and Deonte Johnson

(07:30):
struggled with drops and that was concerning, and James Connor
struggled with some drops out of the backfield too. It
just and wasn't getting anything done as a runner. It
did not look good. And then at that point we
didn't see Connor get up to speed before he left
the game. So I think the optimism on Connor has
to come crashing back down. However, if they are if
we are to trust the reports and saying that Connor,

(07:52):
you know, his ankle injury isn't anything substantial, then this
could be a split backfield. Because Benny Snell mentioned Brandon
Benny Snell looked great and he did not look anything
like what the player that we saw at Kentucky or
even last year. He lost a lot of weight, he
was explosive, great vision between the tackles, just looked like
a great runner. So this is a messy situation now,

(08:12):
and for people who were holding out hope for James
Connor to be a top ten option at the running
back position as long as he was healthy, that is
all gone. I think, so as far as waiver wire priority,
I would put him behind Malcolm Brown and Nineheam Hines.
As far as what we talked about on yesterday's podcast, Dan,
I would put him behind there because we just don't
have the clarity right now to say is he the

(08:33):
main guy? Is Connor gonna miss six games? What's that
gonna be like if it is a split backfield. I
don't think he's gonna be see enough work to be
a trustworthy flex option week in a week out. All right,
let's talk the passing game very quickly for the Steelers.
Deante Johnson has like a really really really rough first
half and then he comes back pretty strong because he's
ten targets, six catches, fifty seven yards. So Brandon encouraged,

(08:55):
discouraged couraged by Deante Johnson. Yeah, encouraged so he got
the most targets. A little bit discouraged because I thought
James Washington made some nice plays and Chase Claypool pulling
in that that catch on the sideline was fantastic, and
you can see those roles building going forward. I don't
think this is going to be the Antonio Brown Juju

(09:16):
Smith Schuster kind of thing with Deonta Johnson and Juju.
Now I think there's there's going to be those other
guys are going to see their roles continue to grow
as well. So I like Deonta Johnson. What was he,
you know, sort of mid thirties at the wide receiver
position going into the year, And I don't know that
I've substantially changed my value on him one way or
the other. I think he's still kind of there. It's

(09:36):
great that he was the leading target getter and he
looked a lot better in the second half. Yeah, I
think I'm basically keeping him where I had him coming in.
That's basically what you said, That's what it was. And yeah,
I think he was mid thirties for me in my
preseason ranking, so I think that's where i'd come in, Yeates,
you agree with that. Yeah, this was I was terrified
because I had been talking I recommended Deantae Johnson as

(09:56):
a start everywhere, and so watching the first half, I
was like crap. I was like he had the yips right,
And this is what we saw with Dante Moncrief in
Week one last year. Do you remember that, like looking
at Moncrief and saying he has an incredible role and
opportunity in this offense. Get He got like eleven targets
in that game and reeled in like two of them
just could not catch anything. And so I was like,
here we go again. If we have another Steelers wide

(10:18):
receiver that I was hyping up that gets the yips.
But he turned it around and showed, what, you know,
the talent that I was believing in. So I mean
you mentioned like, are you discouraged, encouraged curt all of
the above, right, because I went through a significant wave
of emotions here with Deontay Johnson's so but I'm I'm
optimistic moving forward. I think that he will be a

(10:39):
one A one B situation here with Juju Smith Schuster.
So I am still buying in on Deontay Johnson all right.
On the other side of the ball, Sequon Barkley obviously
has no running room, makes up for it in the
passing game with six catches for sixty yards. But the
big guy was Darius Slayton nine targets, six catches, one
hundred two yards and two catchdowns. Golden Tate was out
in this game, but obviously a tough matchup. That's a
big performance here from Darius Slayton. So how do you

(11:01):
feel about Slayton going forward here, Brendon, I, you know,
I was really high on him at the beginning of
the summer and I kind of let myself just, you know,
fall for this Golden Tate and Sterling Shepherd and all
these other guys, and he's gonna get squeezed, and I just,
you know what, he just looked like, he looks so good,
and he looks so good like he looked exactly like
this last year too, when they was really getting some run.
I don't know how you take a weapon like this

(11:23):
off the field. I think Darius Slayton's a guy that
was a big riser for me because it just reminded me, man,
he's He's different than Golden Tate and Sterling Shepherd and
Daniel Jones is not not afraid to take shots with him,
and gosh, you can go up and high point a
ball and be the vertical guy in this offense. And
I think that's going to continue to be a thing.

(11:43):
And yeah, I'm I'm back in on Darius Slayton. So
all right, so put a number on it or a
ballpark number on it, like rest of season. A wide
receiver three range. I think I would slot him probably
at this point, maybe just ahead of Deonte Johnson, So
in that kind of you know, mid to early wide
receiver three range. Okay, how about you, Yates. I mean, again,

(12:04):
Golden Tate's out here, And that was part of sort
of the thinking on Evan Ingram, who obviously did not
have a good game and you were down on coming in.
But again they're They're part of the reason that you
were down on evaning Orme in particular, was there just
are a lot of options there for Daniel Jones to
throw the ball to. One of those options was out
to you know, last night, with Golden Tate. Assuming Tate's

(12:25):
healthy next week, do you expect Darius Layton to be
the guy here for the Giants? I mean, it depends.
This was the whole thing going into draft season, was
saying like, it's very hard to rank one of these
guys as a top thirty wide receiver because you just
don't know where the targets are going to go. It
probably is going to be, you know, spread out evenly
across the offense. So with Golden Tate out, that was
always part built into like their rankings and the difference

(12:47):
between projections is if one of these guys misses time,
then someone can absolutely assert themselves as the number one
option in this offense. And Darius Layton has done that.
So when Golden Tate comes back next week, it will
hurt Slayton slightly, right, Like, I'm not expecting nine targets,
but he could be like this five to seven target guy,
and he has the potential to take a big play

(13:08):
to the house. And we saw that, you know, hitting
that post over the top of the middle of the
field there with an excellent throw from Daniel Jones so
on one of his touchdowns. So I think a wide
receiver three moving forward, I think you can plug him in.
You just might have to deal with some of these
big blow up performances and then some of these games
where you know, the ball goes to Sterling Shepherd or
then the ball goes to Golden take that game, right,
So that's just part of it. But I think a

(13:29):
consistent wide receiver three I'm buying in all right. Second
game here, Titans sixteen Broncos four team just kind of
an ugly game. But for the Titans, you know, A J.
Brown didn't get as much work maybe as you would hope,
but Corey Davis did, and once upon a time, fancy
managers were really excited about Corey Davis. Eight targets, seven catches,
one hundred and one yards. Brandon, are you buying into

(13:50):
this with Corey Davis? If he just went and watched
this game with no idea about who these guys were
and no preconceived notions, you would take Corey Davis was,
you know, was a man in this passing game, and
he is talented, he's got I mean, we probably dismissed
him too much. I wasn't too big on the aj
aj Brown because you know, it's so hyper efficient, and

(14:13):
you know, I expected a decent amount of regression from
Ryan Tannehill. I thought Tannehill looked fine. You know, I
think it's just Corey Davis. John Us Smith, Yeah, I
don't know what to make of this. I was down.
I'm more down on A J. Brown than most people anyways,
and this was kind of just you know, visual confirmation
bias here a little bit. But I you know, I
don't think it's too damning on AJ Brown going forward.

(14:34):
I think he's going to be fine as a wide
receiver too. But it's I think it's more about, hey,
you know what we kind of forgot about Corey Davis
and uh, it's maybe somebody that you need to go
out on the wave wire grab see where this goes.
But at least there's potential there for a decent amount
of weekly targets. Yeah, it's I will obviously mention that
Johnna Smith got a touchdown, so I think you can
take your very early victory that, But no talking about

(14:56):
John Smith, just Corey Davis. Do you think he's a
guy that fantasy managers ash add and B can ever
comfortably start, Like will he get to that range? Should
you add him? Yes? However, don't overpay. I don't think
that you are going to be comfortable starting him. Because
here's an important thing to keep in mind. I went
back and watched the film on this game earlier this
morning because I'll be honest, guys, I fell asleep. Last
night's game started at ten thirty on the you know,

(15:19):
in Eastern Standard time, and I was out by eleven thirty.
I went back and watched the game earlier this morning,
and looking at A. J. Brown, there were several moments
that I was watching him and saying, he has to
be dealing with an injury, or he has to be
struggling with the altitude. He looked gassed in this game,
and he did not look like his normal self, So
I think there's something there that we just don't know about,

(15:40):
or it was the altitude in Denver that he just
wasn't ready conditioned for this. I don't know what happened,
but I think that eliminated him from this game and
where Tannehill was looking, so that allowed Corey Davis. And
Corey Davis has always had the potential, He's always had
the talent to emerge, it just hasn't happened. So I
think you should add him. However, I'm not spending more
than fifteen to twenty percent my fab on him because

(16:01):
I don't I don't want to fully buy in because
a healthy AJ Brown and like a full strength A J.
Brown is gonna be where the ball goes, the same
with John H. Smith there, So that's kind of just
keep that in mind. All right, let's finish up here
with the Broncos. I don't think there's too much to
take away here. Obviously, Courtland Sutton was out. Noah Fan
look good. He scored a touchdown Derry Judy had some

(16:21):
exciting plays but had some drops obviously. I mean, I
think that maybe just kind of first game jitters. I
think the big thing here is Philip Lindsay left with
a foot injury. I'm not sure how serious it is.
And Melvin Gordon, who had lost the fumble early on,
got you know, the volcalo work looks good. Fifteen for
seventy eight and a touchdown on the ground plus three
catches for thirty eight yards. Of the year. I was
a little down on Gordon coming into the year, just
because all the rumors of the fifty fifty split. I

(16:43):
guess the best question is if Lindsay does need to
miss time. Royce Freeman still on the roster. Obviously, you
saw him come in and get a goal line carry.
Where do you think Melvin Gordon, like, does he shoot
up your ranks here if Lindsay is out. Brandon, Yeah,
I thought he looked very much like Melvin Gordon of yesteryear.
I mean, you know, different team, but he looked very
much like the guy that we know. And yeah, I

(17:04):
think he I had him. I had a hard time
pushing him into my top twenty because of Philip Lindsay,
because of the change of scenery. I'm definitely in the
top twenty with him. Now. We've seen a lot of
backfields kind of you know, sort of fall apart or
kind of change directions in Week one very quickly, and
I think Melvin Gordon's already positioned himself as just a
rock solid guy in that backfield and probably someone who

(17:26):
should be closer to, you know, middle of the teams
at the running back position right now, going forward, all right,
before we keep going, If there is one takeaway that
everybody can agree on, it's that football felt pretty normal
in Week one, and so did fantasy football. And I'm
sitting here right now wishing I could just start the
season again and build fifty new lineups. But the good
thing for me is that I can this week and

(17:49):
next week and every week of the season, and so
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(18:10):
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restrictions apply. See DraftKings dot com for details. Breaking news.

(18:35):
Ellen Robinson, who is in the final year of his deal,
has removed hashtag Bears from his Twitter bio and deleted
all Bears related photos from his Instagram. I am tilting.
I am tilting real hard right now. The number of
times that Yates tilts live on these podcasts. Okay, well
that's breaking news in Yates Land for now. Alan Robson

(18:57):
is obviously still on the Bears, still playing, and maybe
he's just mad about something. But everybody keep that in
mind going forward. But you have lost your chance to
talk about Mob and Gordon. Instead, we're moving right to
the rest of the season risers and fallers, so we're
just gonna be talking about like it's one week. I
think more than ever in a season, you can get
more movement from players in your rest of season rankings

(19:19):
this year in Week one because we had absolutely no
preseason games, it's literally kind of flying blind. It's the
first chance we got to see. So let's start with
running back here, Brandon, give me one running back who
you view as a rise or rest of season? After
Week one, I think Nihaim Hines is probably the top
waiver target and his role he's Austin Ekeler. I mean
he really is. I mean, this is not gonna go away.

(19:41):
He might not get eight catches a game, but he's
probably getting at least four every game, and he's probably
catching seventy plus balls. And it's just with Marlon Mack
out there. I mean, Jonathan Taylor's not really a riser
because people were drafting him like he was a man,
but they got bailed out and that's so you know, Taylor, Naim,
both of those guys are I think soaring right now.

(20:03):
So can we put it into just a range. Let's
go half PPR. Let's split the baby a little bit.
Where do you think a guy like Hines would fall
in your rest of season rankings in half PBR formats?
To me, he is somewhere between James White and Austin Ekeler.
I think he's kind of twenty five ish late twenties
at the running back position and a half PPR sense.

(20:25):
And Taylor, I think he's top fifteen. Okay, all right,
well that's I mean Taylor for me one hundred percent.
I think I have him twelfth for the rest of
the season. I just think again, if you drafted Taylor, man,
I mean you know you expected this probably to happen,
that he would eventually take over the lead back role,
but you do get bailed out a little earlier than expected. Yeah,
it's give me a rest of the season riser for

(20:46):
you and running back. Yeah, it is gonna be Malcolm
Brown and Taylor was Taylor and nine he Hines were
on my list as well. So Malcolm Brown is the guy.
Though we talked about him on the waiver for Wire
that he looked like the superior back in this backfield,
and as long as he is healthy and running the
way that he did on Sunday night, there's no way
that Cam Akers is stepping forward and taking over the
majority of carries. So as long as Malcolm Brown can

(21:08):
hang onto this role, I think that he absolutely can
be considered as an RB three for your roster flex play,
so with you know, the potential to score, you got
the goal line carries. So Malcolm Brown absolutely moving up.
I'd probably put him into this consideration of like RB
thirty two, maybe right above like Antonio Gibson. Still in
my rest of season rankings, That's probably where i'd put him. Yeah,

(21:29):
I have zero confidence in Malcolm Brown, but he's a
guy who's shot up obviously my rest of season ranking,
just because do I think that Sean McVay wants him
to be the lead back and get the vast majority
the touches. No, he didn't even get the vast majority
the touches in Week one, but he just looked so
much better than Cam Akers and obviously Darrel Henderson. Out
of curiosity, Brandon, how do you feel about Malcolm Brown
going forward? I just, man, they you know, they didn't

(21:52):
have a first round pick, and they went out and
they used their first pick on Cam Akers. I feel
like that's the guy they want. I thought a few
of the rookie run backs looked like they were thinking
too much and just weren't kind of ready, And like
I expect Cam Akers to show better going forward. As
a week's pass, So I think Malcolm Brown is going
to be the guy running, you know, probably through September

(22:13):
at some point, though, I think there's going to be
a transition. And I thought it was heartening that they
gave Acres fourteen carries as bad as he looked like,
I wouldn't have given him nearly that much, you know,
because Malcolm Brown looked a lot better. But there's in
my mind, I think cam Akers it was just first
game kind of, you know, just everything was moving too
fast in his head. Yeah, Brown's a guy who I

(22:35):
want to add number one. Frankly this because I do
think a in the short term, I think he's earned
like the bigger role, especially near the goal line, and
I think if he can rip off this type of
performance next week the week after, then he's got an
outside shot to actually kind of dominate that backfield. And
so that's worth it for me. For me, Look, we
talked about both those guys on the way for our
show yesterday, So I'll do somebody who we haven't talked about,

(22:57):
and that's James Robinson. Didn't really have James Robinson on
my mind whatsoever in this fantasy season, Like, yes, obviously
you had to draft him you know, with Michael Armstead
on the COVID list and then a zing bo out,
but sixteen carries for sixty two yards. I caught his
loan target for twenty eight yards, the only running back
to receive a carry for the Jaguars an offense that

(23:18):
didn't look terrible necessarily, you know, obviously, Minshew, I've been
I've liked, I've liked the passing game. Titans, Dolphins, Bengals, Texans, Lions.
That is not the worst schedule for a running back
going forward. So for me, he's a guy who was
kind of an afterthought even with the situation, even with
everything coming in, was an afterthought on draft Day. But
he's a guy who I'm a little bit more excited

(23:39):
about now given how much work and the fact that
he was the only one getting work going forward. Conversely,
by the way, when we get to losers, Chris Thompson
is a big loser for me. I don't know if
you guys are buying into what we saw against the
Cults or if you think it's gonna more even outon.
Thompson's going to be somebody who you're gonna want a
roster even more than Robinson. Necessarily, Brandon, what about you,
how do you feel about Robinson? Oh? Yeah, you know,

(24:01):
he's he's a guy that when you put on the field,
he's capable of running the ball or catching the ball.
And that was the problem with Riquel Armstead of Divide
a zigg But you almost needed to make one running
back out of those guys and then adding Chris Thompson
in if they want to be you know, if they
don't want to tip their hand, then they got a
guy in Robinson they can put out there and you know,
the defenses don't know if they're running or they're going

(24:21):
to pass. So I think that plays into Robinson's favorite
a lot and it hurts Chris Thompson a lot. And
we saw that in Week one. That's an excellent point
by Brandon with Chris Thompson. The whole appeal there was
looking at this offense and saying that they're probably gonna
be trailing in a lot of these games and at
that point then they're playing catch up. Well, Minshew had
something to say about that, and they won this game.
And so that left James Robinson on the field and

(24:44):
took Chris Thompson off of it. So I think we
talked about him yesterday on the podcast, Dan saying that
he's someone that you can drop. I fully think that
you can drop him in because this Jacksonville Jaguar's offense
looks like it's going to be more capable than we
gave it credit for. Yeah, no, absolutely, Again, I loved
Minshew coming in and just as a guy, especially in
two quarterback leagues, who I got everywhere I could, and
again as somebody who if you waited, if you were

(25:06):
in like a fifteen team, or you'd get by with him. Certainly,
all right, Brandon, why don't you give me? Do you
have another running back riser here? Also Josh Kelly out there,
he's basically you know, he's he's vying for that Melvin
Gordon role, and I think he's got it. I mean,
twelve carries out of the gate and they looked good.
He's different than justin Jackson And you know, I think
there's there's gonna be mid teams touch is available for

(25:28):
him going forward. And I think Anthony Lynn's gonna want
to run a conservative, conservative offense and so Eckler can
get his. But I think Kelly is going to get
the you know, something close to the Gordon roll, probably
not the full Gordon role, but with something maybe seventy
five percent of that. Yeah, for sure. I think we
talked about him yesterday, Yates, and he was the guy
who we both liked coming into your draft season, and yeah,

(25:48):
he did absolutely nothing to show that he was unworthy
of that role. Twelve carries, sixty yards and a touchdown,
and he got the goal line work and he looked described, Yeah,
it's give me another Riser if you've got one. Brandon
stealing my guys here. Josh Kelly is the one that
I was going to bring up, And for me, this
is kind of where I had him all along. I
had him just in RB four territory coming into the
year because I expected him to take this role, and

(26:08):
so I bumped him up slightly. But I think it's
from like the general public perspective that he's rising. He's
someone that we talked about. He needs to be added
in your leagues, and he has potential, you know, like
enormous potential in this offense for him to step into
this role and get the goal line carries in an
offense that looks a lot different than what I thought
it was going to be. So if he can get
those fifteen touches a game, then he's someone that can

(26:31):
absolute abolutely be rolled out as an RB three RB
two in some weeks. I'm going to throw out one
more guy, and he's not like a crazy rocket ship riser.
But he's somebody who I thought he looked good. I
expected him to get most of the work in week one.
I'm not trying to expect him to look as good
as he did. That's Ronald Jones. I mean seventeen for
sixty six plus two catches for sixteen through the air.

(26:52):
Lenon Fournett and LaShaun McCoy combined for just seven touches
for nineteen yards, and they didn't look particularly great doing
it. It It was a tough matchup against New Orleans. And
I think where you've got Ronald Jones right now, I
think you know the plan is obviously long term. It's
four four Nette. That's why they brought him in. His
job is very tenuous. He misses a Blitz pickup and
he's probably getting benched, you know, for somebody like that.
But for now, with the way he looked, he's a

(27:13):
guy who I was very much an afterthought for me.
He's a guy who I think if you, if you
need somebody to start in the short term, he's a
guy who I would be willing to roll with. I
don't know how you feel about that, Brandon, He's a
guy who rolls up my board of definitely a few
spots after week one, I think that's a great call.
I had the same kind of takeaway, and you know,
they didn't use Fournette a whole lot, but it looked
like Ronald Jones was playing inspired, like he like a

(27:35):
guy that knows his job is on the hot seat,
and you know it's I think it sparked him a
little bit because he looked he looked very good in
all aspects. So I'm with you, and maybe he's a
Malcolm Brown type where he can at least hold down
the fort for the first month of the season. They
have Carolina yep, next week, right, So I mean, that's
a guy where I feel like Yates. You and I
did a lot of start sit on Sunday morning, and

(27:56):
it was constantly this guy or And I said, if
it's a Bucks running back, the answer is almost surely
the other guy, because I just want to see what
it looks like. And it was a bad matchup. But
for now, yeah, I think Ronald Jones. Yeah, he's going
to be a guy who you can throw out there,
at least as a flex next week against Carolina. All right,
before we keep going, guys, manscaped, listen to me, gentlemen

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All right, let's do one running back follower here after
week one, Brandon Wilently, we start with you. Who's a
running back who has fallen in your rankings after the
first week. It's mark Ingram sr Hey as he's got
the poster post running back for falling in week one.

(30:01):
I mean, I thought he was a deal in the
mid twenties, like he was, you know, I think he
was seven or eight depending on your scoring system last
year at running back, and I was like, okay, you know,
he didn't have a ton of touches last year and
he was so highly efficient and even if he loses
some touches, he's probably still got mid mid teens running
back ranking upside. And just to you know, ten carries

(30:21):
out of the gates to lose the goal line work
to JK. Dobbins right away to not have any catches
to the running backs. Like I thought, if any week
mark Ingram was going to shine, it would be week
one and it would be a while before JK. Dobbins
really kind of started threatening him a whole lot, and
it just happened way faster than I expected. So he
was a follower for all of us. But let me
ask how much of a follow, because I've been trying

(30:43):
to sort of, you know, put this into perspective, because
Ingram was a guy who, you know, for all the
reason he said, I kind of liked coming in. They
were way ahead obviously, right, So this was a game
where you've got a thirty one year old, you know,
thirty thirty one year old running back. It's not a
game where you really want to waste. He didn't look good.
I mean ten carries for twenty nine yards, but it
is sort of something where you're like, why are we
going to waste our bullets here in a game that
we've got. So for me, he's somebody who was my

(31:06):
primary faller, but he didn't like fall off a cliff.
I'm not ready to annoint this JK. Dobbins or anything.
I don't know about you guys, how you feel about that.
If it was like, whoa, he's way way down at
this point, or just at least somebody who's clearly trending down,
I'll throw to you yates. Yeah, I have Ingram at
RB twenty nine and I have Dobbins at RB thirty
right now. So these guys are like, I'm willing to
put them back to back. I was gonna say this,

(31:26):
like with the Ingram, it's kind of like that gift
of Ron Swanson where Diane and the kids come running
into his office and then Andy comes in and they're
all screaming and running around, and then they just leave
and then he like looks at the camera's like, what
the hell just happened? Like That's kind of what I
felt with Mark Ingram, was like looking at him I'm like,
all right, I got a consistent RB two for my
roster as long as you know, and JK. Dobbins may
take over the role week eight and then I plug

(31:48):
him into my starting lineup and he gets what two
three points? You know, you're just like, what the hell
just happened? But yeah, I'm not willing to necessarily bury
him just yet. I want to see, let's get them
into a matchup where they actually have to like rely
on their running backs a little bit more, and let's
see how it plays out. Yeah. By the way, Brandon,
just so you know, Yates will describe every possible situation
in life with some sort of Jeff from Parks and Recreation.

(32:11):
I'm good with that. I'm good with Hey, more more
Ron Swants than the better. There is no too much
one down. Next time on this podcast, I will wear
my Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness shure. Yeah, definitely to
show off Yates. Do you have anybody else or is
they like no? Ingram was my guy and I'm out now.
I mean Ingram was definitely the clear answer here. I'll
throw out Jordan Howard because Howard was absolutely someone that

(32:35):
I had optimism on looking at Okay, this is a
two person backfield. It's Jordan Howard and Matt Brita, and
you know they're they're going to be better than they
were last year. It can't be worse. And then Myles Gaskin,
out of freaking nowhere, comes in and takes nine carries
while Jordan Howard goes eight for seven and a touchdown. So, like,
it's just it was terrible. I have to go back

(32:55):
and watch the film on Howard just to see what
was he like struggling with injury that I didn't pay attention.
I don't I think he did lead there was I remember, right, Okay, yeah,
I think it was a foot injury or something. Yeah,
that's at least a little bit of a relief. But
you can't. You can't start Howard, you cannot go. He
cannot be anywhere near your starting lineup right now. No,
we joked about it yesterday. I mean, I'm adding Miles Gaskin,

(33:16):
I'm not starting him. I'm not excited about it. That
was more about my lack of excitement about Adrian Peterson.
But Miles Gaskin is a guy who I don't know.
I was not expecting this. But the two fathers there. Yeah,
for me, certainly Jordan Howard and Appreda. And to be clear,
we differed a little bit coming into the scene, and
you were higher on Jordan Howard than I was coming
into the year. I wasn't. I didn't want a Miami
running back anyway. I don't really want one now, But
if there is one, I'm really not convinced it's not

(33:39):
Miles Gaskin. Out of curiosity, Brandon, how do you view
this Miami backfield? Now? Yeah, I'm with you. I'm not
wanting any of it. I do have some Jordan Howard
here and there, and yeah, it just looks like this
is still a problematic, low, low efficiency backfield. I mean,
I might add Miles Gaskin in a in a deeper bench,
twelfth team league or deeper than that, but um, and

(34:00):
I'm a Washington Huskies fan, and I like mild Gaskin.
He's just it's just a little dude, you know, but
he runs tough, and you know, I think just the
issue with whoever you put there is this is not
a good run blocking a good offensive running team, you know.
And so that's just kind of the head win that
we're still dealing with. Yeah, all right, let's go to
wide receivers here, Brandon, give me a riser at wide receiver.

(34:20):
I think it's got to be Jamison Crowder for me.
Thirteen targets. I think he was top five in targets
in week one, and I kind of had him buried
down in the you know, top forty bubble range. And
I'd heard some reports that he was going to get
an insane amount of targets this year and that people
are sleeping on him, and I just was like, it's
Jameson Crowder. It's you know, solid, serviceable. But I just

(34:45):
look at this Jets offense and this Jets team and
it's terrible. And you got Bhard Perriman and maybe Denzel Mims.
They're kind of two of the same. They're bigger, more
you know, vertical and sideline outside guys, and Jamison Crowder
could just continually get double digit targets week in and
week out. And he had to, you know, he kind
of had to create the long touchdown. But I think,

(35:07):
you know, most weeks, seventy five yards and seven catches,
it's going to be in play. If you like Jamison Cratter,
you have come to the right podcast. Were all, we
were all excited about him coming in. I think I
agree he's even risen further again, especially because of the
Levion Bell injury. Right, I mean, they're they're running in
I mean they are going to be behind in one

(35:27):
I'm a Jets fan. By the way, they are going
to be behind in one hundred percent of games. I
would imagine at some point they're going to need to throw.
He's the only one who is a healthy and b
has chemistry with Sam Darnold at this point, so he
certainly was on my list of risers. All right, Yeah,
it's who's your riser? Oh, it's gotta be Paris Campbell.
I mean, even looking at we had talked about Paris
Campbell as someone that you should be drafting, you know,

(35:49):
in the later rounds, and his ADP was just shocking
to me. Throughout the whole offseason, tags was all about
Paris Campbell. And for me, it wasn't necessarily that I
was all on board with Paris Campbell as a top
thirty five wide receiver or anything like that, but it
was more so to do with I don't think t
why Hilton's going to be anything of a threat in
this offense. With Campbell and Pittman. So now looking at
Campbell seen nine targets out of the slot it we

(36:13):
were kind of saying, like, Okay, was Philip Rivers just
locking onto his running backs and slot wide receivers because
it was Austin Eckler and Keenan Allen Or was it
because those are the positions that he really likes to target.
Well we have our answer now, he really likes to
target the slot wide receiver and the running backs. So
with Nihim Hines and Paris Campbell here, so Paris Campbell
now moves up into a top forty wide receiver for me,
someone that you can roll out as a wide receiver

(36:34):
three every single week. If he's seen that target workerload. Yeah,
we talked about him on yesterday's show, but we talked
about him before the season that he was a guy
who wanted to draft late and stash see if things
blow up. Are you as high Brandon on Paris Campbell
as we are? Yeah? I actually I had him on
my shortlist, but I was bringing up a risers in
the Colt's backfield. I didn't want to just be so
redundant with Colts. But I watched, you know, I watched

(36:56):
that game and Paris Campbell looked great and he was
catching those you know, those horizontal routes across the middle,
and it just looked very natural, and it looked like
something that will be repeatable over and over and over again.
And with Perils Campbell you'll get one or two you know,
jet sweeps and things like that that always you know,
it's nice little cherry on top. But just as a
just a receiver, it looked very good and looked very

(37:18):
comfortable with Philip Rivers right out of the gate. Yeah,
all right, I'm gonna name somebody who we haven't really
talked about because it was the opening game, so he
wasn't on the waiver wire list necessarily. It's probably drafted
a lot of the leagues, but I have seen him
out there. Sammy Watkins, obviously, he's no stranger to big
Week one games. Nine targets here, seven catches, eighty two
yards and a touchdown. He had the monstrous game in
Week one last year and then wasn't all that great,

(37:41):
you know, for the rest of the season. But you
look at the snap count for the wide receivers, Tyreek
Hill sixty Sammy Watkins fifty five, then DeMarcus Robinson thirty
three and Mikole Ardman nineteen and in the playoffs last
year right seventy six yards, one hundred fourteen yards, ninety
eight yards, sixteen targets over his final two games. You know,
obviously he's at You know, you've got, of course, Tyreek Hill,

(38:01):
You've got Travis Kelsey, You've got Clyde Edwards Hilaire. But
if you're going to give me the number two wide receiver,
and I guess you can technically call him number three
if you want to call Kelsey a wide receiver in
this offense, and he stays healthy, this is a year
where I think you're going to be able to roll
out Sammy Watkins as probably if things go well and
he doesn't get hurt of wide receiver three most weeks. Brandon,
how do you feel about Watkins going forward? I feel
a lot better because of you mentioned that postseason stretch.

(38:23):
He was, you know, he was a regular part of
their success down the stretch, and I think that's something
that when you watch what he did in Week one here,
you see it's just you can kind of connect the
dots as a continuation of him kind of settling into
a comfort zone with Pat Mahomes. So I'm with you.
I I you know, I just didn't have any interest
in him going into the year. You know, any I

(38:43):
think he's absolutely rosterable and as a guy that you
can have a solid wide receiver depth. All right, Brandon,
why didn't you do if you have another wide receiver Riser?
Wan't you give us one more and then we'll go
to Faller. I guess Russell Gage, you know, twelve targets
that cannot be or you cannot ignore how bad this
Atlanta defense is and how Matt Ryan is, you know,

(39:06):
when his distribution is very wide receiver heavy it has
been in recent years. So yes, he is the third
wide receiver, and you'd rather have it be, you know,
at least a number two wide receiver. But I think
because of this defense, and because this is going to
be an offense that will throw forty plus times week
in and week out, you know, Russell Gage is going
to continue to get targets, and so again he kind

(39:29):
of falls in that. You know, Sammy Watkins rosterable depths
at wide receiver spot. Yeah, I mean I think probably
my guests, you're gonna see Hyden Hurst get a little
more involved as you get going. He had five targets
in the opening week. But we said it yesterday. You know,
Russell Gauge since the Muhammad's a new trade, has averaged
almost eight targets per game like that. You know, it

(39:50):
wasn't a total fluke there. I mean we joked about it.
You know, every Atlanta wide receiver on Sunday had twelve targets,
nine catches, an over one hundred yard. It's weird. You're
probably not going to see that. But yeah, Gage is
a guy who's way more involved than I think I thought.
So let's go here to followers and Yates. Since Brandon
keeps stealing everybody that you want to talk about, I'm
gonna start with you, Yates. You can give me who's

(40:10):
a wide receiver follower in your rankings. Yeah, well, I
mean this guy wasn't super high to begin with. We
talked about him yesterday, Dan, that's Christian Kirk. Kirk was
just someone that I was really I had him just
inside my top fifty wide receivers and season long rankings,
and so he's falling farther than that now in my
rankings rest of the season. This is just not a
guy that I even want to roster. I don't even

(40:31):
want to potentially hold on to him to see what
the range of outcomes is for him. This is five targets,
one reception, zero yards when you have DeAndre Hopkins and
who Kyler Murray apparently really likes to target DeAndre Hopkins?
And why wouldn't you like sixteen targets fourteen receptions like
good night? So I think Christian Kirk, there's just not
gonna be enough left over With Larry Fitzgerald on the field.

(40:53):
Kirk has actually been very inefficient over his career. So
even if he does get just a boatloaded targets, which
I don't see happening, it's not a guarantee that's going
to turn into consistent fantasy production. So Kirk is someone
that is falling down my rankings. I'm willing to let
him go to the way for wire. Brendon, let me
let me ask you about that, because there, you know,
we me and Yates and Tags were pretty divergent on
how we felt about Christian Kirk coming into season. Tags

(41:16):
was pretty high, Yates and I were a little lower
on him. But you know, it is one game. You know,
if you I feel like if you are high on him,
you know, one game a bad game. Obviously, I don't
think you're necessarily going to expect Andrew Hopkins get sixteen
targets every single game. Kirk did play sixty three of
eighty two snaps, So it is something where I'm not
sure if I roster Kirk, which I don't anywhere, but

(41:36):
if I did, where I'd be completely jumping ship. But
how do you feel about him? Well, he was second
on my followers at wide receivers, so I can't do
two now, but I can't come at him right one. Yeah,
I mean I just thought, look at the nature of
him anyways, was that he was hit and miss and
I hate those kind of receivers in Fantasy, the roller
coaster ride you get. But last year it was what

(41:57):
a three touchdown game he didn't score again, and and
I just see it as, Okay, I don't like that,
that kind of nature of him in Fantasy. And then
you add in DeAndre Hopkins. I just think that just
exacerbates the issue. There's gonna be some games for Christian
Kirk where he's gonna show well, but it's gonna probably
be fewer and farther between now because DeAndre Hopkins is
there and he got sixteen targets out of the gate,

(42:20):
and when they three forty times, Christian Kirk in the
first game with DeAndre Hopkins gets twelve and a half
percent target share. Just not a good start to a
guy who I already don't like because of the inconsistency
to begin with. Yeah, I think the only thing that
I would say is when you have a guy I
guess again, I didn't love him either. They do get
Washington and Detroit and Carolina and the Jets. I mean,

(42:42):
it's not the worst schedule, so you know, given that
they were against the forty nine ers, maybe see how
it goes with that. But again, I wasn't really rostering him,
all right, you said he was number two? Who was
your number one? Then? Guy to moving down Keenan Allen,
And I think Keenan Allen's a great talent, but I
just think he's a horrible pairing with Tyrod Taylor. And
if you think about Philip Rivers, he's three step drop timing,

(43:02):
you know, you know, and so much involved with that
chemistry between those two guys, and Tyrod Taylor's not a
three step drop run through your progressions throw the ball.
Because of a scrambling ability, he will extend plays. And
if you watch that game and you didn't know anything
about the past, you'd want Mike Williams. Because Mike Williams
was targeted nine times and the guy was hurt, and

(43:25):
he was a question mark coming in. He had his
hands on a lot of potential big plays and if
going forward you can see that actually working out. And
I'm not sure I wouldn't want Mike Williams right now
over Keenan Allen. I had Keenan Allen down in my
late twenties and I'm moving him into my thirties now.
I just don't think that this is gonna work out
well with Tyrod Taylor. Wow, all right, that's bald Yate.
You were down, if I remember correctly, on Keenan Allen

(43:47):
generally compared to the consensus, right, so I was. And
then with the Mike Williams news that he was going
to miss all of September, that forced me to adjust
my projections, which forced the ball because again looking at
the Chargers depth chart, you have Jalen Guyton and kJ
Hill behind Keenan Allen. So it was like Keenan Allen's
just going to be targeted heavily well then randomly on
Saturday or even Sunday it comes out that Mike Williams

(44:09):
is playing. So I think if I had the ability
to know that Mike Williams was going to be playing
all sixteen games right, if he was going to be
starting right out of the gate, then Allan would have
moved back down into the same range that Brandon was
talking about here, just because I didn't see the target
opportunity right in a potentially low passing volume offense with
Tyrod's scrambling ability for a lot of the same reasons

(44:31):
Brandon mentioned. I, however, did not see or forecast that
Tyrod Taylor is going to lock onto Mike Williams as
much as he did. So if that's the case, then yeah,
I'm absolutely moving Keenan Allen down all right. So I'll
just get very quickly my wide receiver. Father. It's a
little lower, and it basically just means a guy he
might have been rostering waiting to see what you had
in week one, and I think now you know, he's

(44:51):
not a guy who're going to be able to get
And that's mcaul Ardman for basically the same reasons that
I said that I like Sammy Watkins again played nineteen snaps.
If he's gonna roster, you know, kind of rotate in
here on the short side of it. With DeMarcus Robinson,
it's certainly just not worth having out there. So for me,
he's a guy who you can let go despite the
fact that he's got obviously a ton of upside when
he does get the ball in his hands. Let's move

(45:12):
on to one QB Riser each Brandon start with you.
I'll go with the popular choice in Gardner Minshew nineteen
to twenty. I like the Levisca Chenault working into the
mix to start. I think that's the weapon that he's
gonna have a lot of fun with. But then, you know,
DJ Shark, I just you know, I was a little
bit hesitant on Gardner Minshew. I think people sort of
inflated him a little bit because he's a fun, fun guy,

(45:34):
you know. Yeah, but he actually, you know, once again
comes out strong nineteen for twenty and ninety five percent
three touchdowns. He can run. You know, this Jacksonville team
actually might be a little bit better than we thought
as well. So yeah, to me, he was the riser. Yeah.
For me, it was always the rushing ability that kind
of gave him the sneaky floor that nobody really thought
about that much. When you have that, it's just like, man,

(45:55):
you just gotta throw a couple of touchdown passes and
you expected them to play from behind. I kind of
hope will more and they were at the beginning of
this game, so that Minshew can go nuts. But yeah,
both him and Robinson free. All right, Yates, keep you riser,
Cam Newton. I had Cam Newton as the top ten
option to begin with, but with his rushing ability and
the way that this offense looked, I mean, guys, he's
getting power QB power runs in the red zone like

(46:18):
that is fantasy gold. And with the way that he
was looking, he looked like he's the old Cam Newton
and a guy who can absolutely. I mean, he's on
pace for something like one hundred and eighty rush attempts
on the season. Now he's going to get that. No,
but fifteen rush attempts in this game. Guys. He led
the entire Patriots team in rushing. The next closest with
Sony Michelle with twelve. So Cam Newton man He absolutely

(46:41):
has the potential, as long as he can stay healthy,
to be a top five, maybe even top three quarterback
just based on his rushing abilities. So this is someone
that I absolutely was all in on to begin with,
but I mean moving him up even further now, Man,
this was the week for your season ranking, because hey,
it's every guy who you were high on in your
season ranking crushed this week. It's all gonna come crashing

(47:02):
back down next week though. That's how it works exactly.
Don't get used to it, man, don't get you said.
For me, my guy is Aaron Rodgers. You know, thirty
two or forty four for three hundred and sixty four
yards with four touchdowns. Obviously was not up against a
great secondary with Minnesota, but he hasn't usually done that
well against Mike Zimmer's defense. He's got the soft schedule
with Detroit, Atlanta, the Bucks, Houston, Minnesota. So again, so

(47:26):
and again, if Lazard and you know, Marcus Valda's scantling
do step up. And he is basically somebody who just says,
you know, screw this, we're not doing this conservative, you know,
just lean on the run non stop. I'm going to
air it out again. Show that I'm the Aaron Rodgers
of old, and he's gonna shoot up my rest of
season rankings. He was a guy who I was like,
I wouldn't mind taking a shot on if I waited
a long time. But I'm pretty sure either had him

(47:48):
twelfth or maybe thirteenth in my rest in my season
long ranking. So he's a guy who I'm pretty excited
about going forward, and I think it might go beyond
just the soft matchup. Brandon, let's go to a QB
faller for you. Who do you have? Oh, there's so
many guys, so many quarterbacks. I just did not like
what I saw. But I think the you know, the
biggest name one and the guy who did not deserve

(48:09):
a national commercial campaign as Baker Mayfield. Man, he just
looked terrible as the Ravens. But you know, we're kind
of we're talking going in that this is a make
or break season for him. I almost feel like it's
a make or break week for him at home against Cincinnati,
like he's gonna have to turn things around because he
looks so bad in Week one, and he's looked so

(48:30):
bad over a couple of years, with flashes of some
things that you start to see can say, Okay, I
can see why he was a number one pick, but
not enough of that, And we certainly saw none of
that in Week one. Just looked just look sloppy. Yeah,
that was a brutal game all around for that offense.
It really just did not look good for the passing
game anyway. I mean Odell Beckham ten targets three hatches.

(48:51):
He just luckily he's ready to snap. All right. Yeah,
it's how about you, qb Fall Yeah, I love the
Baker Mayfield call I mentioned recently like we need to
have a conversation about whose mechanics are worse at the
quarterback position. Is it Urbiski's or is it Baker Makers?
And I think that's a closer conversation than a lot
of people realize. For me, it's Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz
was someone I had a lot of optimism on this season,

(49:13):
and saying that with these weapons, even though he doesn't
have Alshon Jeffrey in the lineup, even though Jalen Rigger
might miss, you know, the first start of the season,
he's still gonna have enough here with the Shawn Jackson,
with Zach Ertz, with Dallas Goodder, and based on what
we saw from him last year, well, we found out
that he apparently needs a good offensive line in front
of him because he was under pressure all game long,
holding onto the ball way too long, telegraphing his throws

(49:36):
just did not look like the Carson Wentz that we've
seen on the field. So I'm hoping that this is
just a rusty you know, like again no preseason and
I'm just hoping that Carson Wentz can turn it around,
and hopefully that means that he's locking onto Zach Ertz
moving forward, because he really didn't this game and to
be able to just get the ball out quick. We
should see Zach er It's heavily targeted next week. But man,

(49:57):
I'm concerned. Now he's moving into this area where I'm
definitely concerned. Yeah, he was my follower too. Again, you know,
I don't I wouldn't even necessarily say that he needs
a good offensive line. He just needs not what he
has right now playing, which is just you know, decrepit
at this point with all the injuries. And again Washington
does the one thing about Washington's defense, you know that
you're a good pass rush right for sure, So I'm

(50:18):
I want to see what he looks like next week,
but for now, Yeah, he was my guy who was
a follower tight end riser. How about you, Brandon, I
mean I didn't there weren't too many guys on my
list here for this one. But I don't know if
you had anybody who was rising in your ranking. Yeah,
I don't know. I think it's just confirmation. And you know,
I don't want to throw a bunch of names, but
I kind of like you could throw all the kind
of the buzzy guys that could be breakout guys, and
they just gave you a confirmation, no offense. Johnny Smith,

(50:41):
T J. Hawkinson guys when people were high on you know,
and but it was it was more it was more
a subjective opinion than you know, and just kind of
look at the situation say it looks really good for them.
But to have them go out and do that in
week one, you know, just kind of makes you feel
a lot better about kind of giving them a boost
in the rankings ahead of the season. Yeah. Yeah, two.

(51:02):
Obviously can't move Johnna Smith up anymore because I think
your number one tight end guy, bar but anybody yates
that stick out to you again, not. I agree with Brandon,
I have one guy on my list, but not not
a week where you were like, oh baby, I'm getting
the guys way up. No. I mean again, Brandon and
I must just be working off the same spreadsheet here,
because I've got no A fant in t J. Hawkinson
written down. Now. The thing to keep in mind here

(51:23):
with Anne Hawkinson is that they were missing two of
their top targets at the wide receiver position on their team, right,
So Courtland Sutton out for Denver and then Kenny Galladay
out for Detroit. So that opens up things for these
tight ends to see a little bit more you know,
target share. And I think that Drew Locke absolutely missed
Courtland Sutton. There was some deep shots down field that

(51:43):
Courtland Sutton would have you know, reeled in yesterday, so
I definitely think he missed him. Noah Fant looked great though,
same with t J. Hawkinson. That ankle that was, you know,
caused me to bump him down my rankings just a
little bit going into the season, that appears to be
a non issue, and he looked great against the Chicago
Bears defense. So there's these guys have now in certain
themselves into this back end tight in one. If for

(52:05):
some reason, these guys are still on your waiver wire
and you have you know, you lost Blake Darwin or
whatever you started Evan Ingram, who I'm sure we'll talk about,
you know, then at that point I would be perfectly
willing to move over to a no offense or t J. Hawkinson. Yeah,
you're right, Evan Ingram is my big riser. I'm sorry,
I'm just kidding. No. I he's obviously might slap you.

(52:26):
You're so mean to me. Um. Yeah. So if I
the only other riser who I would say at tight
end and again this is way deeper, you're not starting
him in any normal league. But it would be Oj
Howard again for two reasons. One, he obviously outargeted Rob Gronkowski.
Number two, Rob Gronkowski looked terrible. He just looked old
and slow and everything like stepping on my faller. Yeah,
oh yeah, there you go, all right, so go ahead

(52:46):
into Rob gros. Oj Howard would be a guy who's
rising again, not into startable territory unless you're in a
deeper league or tight end premium league. But Howard is
a guy whos rising because of somebody who maybe Brandon's faller.
Who is yeah, you know, and he's not. I guess
depends on you know. I think he's a follower. I
was suggesting he's a follower in the eyes of other
people who ranked him higher. I think I had him
like fifteenth or sixteenth at tight end to start the season,

(53:10):
So I wasn't high on him to begin with. And
again this was just con for me. He was on
the field for seventy seventy seven percent of the snaps
and he got what three targets two catches for eleven yards,
and Tom Brady didn't look good. This this Tampa passing
game just looks out of sync. And maybe that'll take
care of itself over time. But I just Rob Gronkowski

(53:30):
was out there a whole lot, and I just basically
didn't really notice him a whole lot other than the
fact that I knew he was number eighty seven. That
kind of spashed it out. But you wouldn't have known
it otherwise. As we said yesterday, I looked like a
guy who had taken a year off of uall for sure, Yates.
The other guy on your list, of course, is it's
seven Ingram guys. Yes, I mean I So here's the thing.

(53:51):
I had even Ingram ranked at like tight end fifteen
for the majority of the off season, and then just
based off of the other guys that I had ranked
in that range, you know, like at T. J. Hawkinson
and the concern of his single Evan Engram moved up
into a top I think I had him at like
tight end eleven when the rankings competition locked. So he
was someone that I was like, yeah, he could finish

(54:13):
in the top twelve, but it speaks more to the
tight end position for fantasy football rather than the actual
like talent level and opportunity in this offense. Seven targets,
two receptions for nine yards. No, you can't. He can't
go anywhere near your starting lineup anymore. Yeah, and again
he also negated a big pass somebody else with an
offensive pass interference and he had dropped. It just wasn't

(54:33):
a good day for Ingram. Um. All right, let's get here.
Let's go to buy low sell high. Who's a guy
who you're looking brandon to bylow on if you can
early in the year, Cooper Cup, because I kind of
liked him better than in the industry anyways, and he
you know, he took a big hit for his playing
time decreasing down the stretch last year, and the whole

(54:54):
talk that there'd be a lot of twelve personnel this
year with Gerald Everett. Cooper Cup was out there for
I believe eighty five percent of the snaps in Week
one and he just didn't have a great day. He
only had like four catches. So I think the role,
I mean, they just committed to him financially for the
next three years. I think his role is going to
continue to be up in that eighty percent range. I
don't Gerald Everett was basically non existent, so I don't

(55:16):
know that they're going to be going twelve heavy, And
I just think over the course of time. I know
Jared Goff loves Cooper Cup, especially in the red zone.
The guy is an absolute touchdown machine, and I think
you can get him low right now and I still
have him as solid wide receiver two for me. I
think that it is a great call because again I
think that fantasy managers are going to look at his

(55:37):
line and be like, see this, Look at this Cooper
Cup phased out. It's just like the end of last year.
But no, he was in. That was the difference he
wasn't playing that many snaps towards the end of last year,
but in Game one, yeah, he played upwards of eighty
percent of the snap So I think that's a great
call by you. How about you Yates, who's your by low?
It's Austin Eckler. Guys, there are people that are panicking
over Austin Ekeler only seeing one target, however, nineteen attempts

(56:00):
on the ground. And this is someone that if you
can't get Austin Eckler for super cheap, I will absolutely
buy him as an RB two. This is exactly what
he like. He was being drafted as an RB two
and he's putting up RB two numbers and now everyone's
super disappointed because he didn't score, you know. So it's
just one of those things like if you have someone
in your league who is absolutely concerned about Austin Eckler,

(56:22):
I would be putting out trade offers everywhere. And don't
you think that's something that they're going back and going
do we we scored sixteen points against the Bengals, How
are we going to fix that? Do you think we
want to get Austin Ekeler the ball in the passing game?
Because he's like, you know, one of the best running
backs a doing that, and I think that was just
a that was a fail on their part that I
think they're going to go back to the drawing board

(56:42):
and talk to Tyrod Daylor and they're gonna figure out
how to get him the ball in the passing game more. Yeah,
I think that's a great call for me. Again, nobody
jumped out here. I've seen a couple of people panicking
about DJ Moore, which I think is silly, just because
of the fact that he didn't have a huge Week one,
and obviously Robbie Anderson and Curtis Samuel saw a targets
and Robbie Anderson had the huge game and you had

(57:03):
Christian McCaffrey had the huge game. If you can buy
Dj Moore for me, you know, I get you know,
it's a new quarterback, it's a new coach, it's a
new offensive coordinator. People seemed concerned. I did not expect
that whatsoever, because I think when you're drafting guy like
DJ Moore to be a top twelve receiver didn't have
a terrible game, you're willing to give him some rope.
But if you can buy low on him. I would
because I'm not at all concerned. Let's go to sell high.

(57:24):
Who do you have here, Brandon, I'll say two quick ones,
really quick. I think Ceh twenty five carries you can
you might be able to get like an Aaron Jones
and a wide receiver. Two for him right now. People
love him so much. Two things that concerned me. Did
not catch a pass and he got went over six
on carries from three yards out. I mean that could
potentially be Daryl Williams going forward at the goal line

(57:46):
because if you watched that, he did not push the
pile at all. Part of that was upfront. Kansas City
is blocking, but that concerns me. I feel like I
love Cech's talent, but I feel like he's a sky high.
You can almost ask for anything with him right now.
And then the other ones. Cam Newton, who Kyle just mentioned,
you know he considers having top three to top five upside.

(58:07):
I don't think he has any upside in the passing game.
It's gonna have to be all rushing. And I think
this week will be very telling against the Seahawks because
they got Jamal Adams who was all over the place,
and I'm curious to see how successful he is running
the ball with the speed that Cell has and Jamal
Adams and even Bobby Wagner and some of their linebackers there,
because I just don't trust that passing game is gonna
give him a whole lot of helium. So it has

(58:27):
to be you know, an early thirties Cam running the ball.
Wee can a week out. I'm a little dubious of that,
all right. Yeah, I know you're now on tilt because
somebody spoke relatively negatively about Cam Newton. So try to
control yourself. No, No, I'm just I mean I know this,
like I am all four capitalizing on value, right, and

(58:47):
so you really should not ever get to the point
where you are so attached to these guys in fantasy
football that you're not willing to sell them. So even
though I have identified you know, Johnny Smith and Cam
Newton and these guys into the later rounds, who can
app emerge guys Dak Prescott didn't have a great game, Okay,
from from a fantasy perspective, right he looked fine on
the football field. If you can trade Cam Newton for

(59:08):
Dak Prescott right now, I would do that. That was
exactly the example I was going to get. I agree.
I think that's it's a perfect challenge deal. Someone might
be willing to do it. Don't do that, people, but
if it's one week, please don't do that. I mean,
I mean, if you're if you're the Newton owner, please
do that. But right, exactly, completely, I know. I mean,
this is the way that people play in your normal leagues,

(59:29):
right in the leagues that people just do not consume
like the Fantasy pros Football podcast right, or read everything
on or even read Brandon's work. Like these people that
don't consume it as much and get the advice that
we are giving, they are going to play it on
a weekly basis, and they're going to overreact one percent
r So if you can take advantage of that and say,

(59:50):
look Cam Newton had, you know, and you can position
at Cam Newton has top five upside, He's gonna, you know,
look at how many rushing attempts and look at the points. Right,
people are just going to look at the points and
they're gonna say, well, Cam Newton had more points than
Dak Prescott. I'm gonna make that trade. It's gonna happen,
all right, Well, don't do that. People, get all of yourself.
Yate's give me your though sell high unless you want

(01:00:11):
to make it. Cam Newton, Do you want to make it,
Cam Newton? Is that what it is? You want to
jump on board mysell high niem Hines? Like if you
can get niem Hines off your waiver wire, or let's
say that you you know you gambled and you took
niee Hines and put them on the end of your
bench in a in a redraft league or anything like that. Guys, again,
there are going to be people that are overreacting in

(01:00:31):
week one. And if you can go out and you
can trade a niehem Hines for an Austin Eckler, like
I just mentioned sell high and buy low candidate pairing,
I guarantee that that's going to happen in some leagues.
Again it shouldn't, but throw out the offer get niem
Hines on the waiver wire if you have someone in
your league it was like, oh, man, I really wanted
niem Hines, Go okay, you can have him, give me

(01:00:52):
Austin Keckler. I would do that trade ten times out
of ten. Yeah, I think this is the time that
you can try to capitalize on things like this where
everybody's crazy about high you know, especially given week one
and he got the goal line work you know for
a while and fourth and one carries and everything like that.
So yeah, I like that idea for me. Two guys
that we talked about, obviously Darius Slayton, just in case
you know, I'm not looking to unload Darius Slayton necessarily

(01:01:12):
if I don't have to, but if people are gonna
be like, oh, this guy's a wide receiver, to look
at this amazing, I might And JK Dobbins Again, I
have mark ingram as a faller. We all do. But
I don't think that this is just JK. Dobbins backfield
and the fact people sometimes just look at box scores
and they see that he scored two touchdowns and they
might be like, this is the guy I need to
roster right now in Baltimore, and so I'm gonna go
for there. So those are my two guys. Guys. I

(01:01:34):
had a bunch of listener mailback questions. We have basically
hit on almost every topic. So I'm just gonna ask
two real quick. Okay, let's start with you, Brandon Joshua
Kaiser asks what are your thoughts on essentially Latavius Murray's workload?
He got fifteen carries. Are you concerned about the split
now between Camara and Latavius Murray? Not really. I mean

(01:01:55):
that's this is already a lot more conservative. I think
people are still stuck on this idea that this is
a you know, it's a high flying offense. They're conservative
now and they'll run the ball a lot. And Camara
has never been dependent on a high volume, and he's
still getting the red zone touches and he almost had
a hat trick, just barely missed a hat trick of tds,
and you know, you gotta remember Camara was also dealing
with a back issue throughout preseason, So I expect his

(01:02:18):
workload to go up and Murrays to maybe fall a
little bit. But Murray could be a ten to fifteen
touch guy week in and week out, and Kamara still
can hold top five, top six value. All right, let's
go to you here, Yates, for this really the last
question because all the other ones we've covered frankly throughout
this This is from Andrew Harbaugh. With Chubb being a
pick from the previous regime, do you worry that after

(01:02:39):
the Browns resigned Hunt, they begin to make Hunt more
of a main focus on the offense. He's particularly worried
that they're going to kind of go with a little
more of a hot hand approach or a fifty fifty breakdown.
So how do you see the Browns backfield breaking down? Well,
first off, hey, Andrew, so I think just with this one,
like the situation here in Cleveland with Nick Chubb and

(01:03:00):
Kareem Hunt, this was something that we were concerned about,
was that this was going to be more of a
potential fifty fifty split as far as the receiving workload
and you know Kareem Hunt compensating for that. I want
to wait to you know, issue a like final edict
here on like what this backfield is going to look like.
I want to see him in an actual like a

(01:03:21):
game that they're competitive in, if that makes sense, right,
Like this game got out of hand real quick. Cleveland
looked terrible, Like I expect them to go back to
the drawing board and again, Cincinnati, this is a matchup
that they're actually favored in somehow that you know, we
were talking about that in the in the company here
earlier today, Like how the Heck, are the Browns favored
in this matchup against Cincinnati by six points? So you know,

(01:03:42):
this is just one that I want to wait and
see in a game that they should win, what the
workload work looks like before we jump to you know,
some some massive conclusions here. All right, Brandon, real quick,
how do you see? How are you evaluating this Cleveland backfield? Yeah?
I think this game made a lot of sense for
cream Hunt to get a decent amount of workload because
they were trailing, and in those situations, cream Hunt's going

(01:04:03):
to play more. I agree. I would what Kyle said.
I think this week will be a lot more telling
because this game should not get out of hand one
way or the other. It should be fairly competitive, and
if that's the case, I'm interested to see how the
breakdown looks. But you know it should if they're if
they're playing a competitive game, they should be run heavy
and there should be a lot of touches available for

(01:04:23):
both of these guys and they can be on the
field at the same time with cream Hunts, you know,
receiving ability. So I'm not too much down on Nick
Chubb after this game. Great, I'm basically in agreement with you, guys.
I have very little to add as usual. All right, Brandon,
thanks for coming on. It was really great talking to me.
The first time we ever talked. I thought you offered
some great insights. So thanks a ton for stopping by. Yeah, absolutely, guys,

(01:04:45):
and best of luck the rest of the way. I
appreciate it. Thanks you too. Remember you can find Brandon
over at Twitter at the Athletic and on Twitter at
Brandon Funston. Don't forget to play this weekend over at DraftKings.
Remember go to DraftKings dot com use the code Fantasy
Pros get a free shot at millions of dollars of
prizes in week two. Thanks also to Manscape look at
everywhere guys, especially below the Belt go to Manscape dot

(01:05:08):
com use the code Yates get twenty percent off your
order and free shipping. And don't forget to check out
our trade analyzer over at Fantasypros dot com slash my playbook.
Enjoy the rest of your day. Everybody starts it episode
tomorrow

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Rankings Risers & Fallers + Trade Candidates: Week 2 (Ep. 553)

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