Week 4 Lineup Advice: Starts, Sleepers, Sits, Player Debates, and TD Calls (Ep. 1734)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football podcast. I'm
Ryan Warmley, joined as I am every Thursday morning by
Pat fitz Morris and by Jake Seey from The Athletic Guys.
It's our Starts and Sits show. We're also talking some
waiver ads in terms of are we starting or sitting
those waiver ads from this week. We'll also do our
touchdown calls contest at the end. It's my turn to
miss on the tight end. We have not gotten one

(00:21):
right yet, so I will take my second swing at
it of the season. I was gracious enough to be
the first person to try get tight end right in
week one, which means it's already time for me to
try again. And we are zero for three so far,
so we'll see how that goes. Quick reminder for everybody
that all of our weekly consensus rankings and tears can
be found at fantasypros dot com slash rankings. Guys. Let's

(00:44):
start off right with the starting and sitting popular waiver ads,
and we normally don't include players who are playing on
Thursday night football because of the nature of when the
show gets released. It just doesn't make sense to have
those guys, you know, mixed into the debates and the conversation,
but by far the clear number one waiver ad this week.
If he was available. He was not available everywhere, but
if he was available, the obvious number one choice was

(01:06):
Trey Benson. So I felt like we at least had
to hit on him, Fitz, there is this real opportunity here.
It's a player that I liked coming out of the
draft a year ago that I kind of thought, by
the second half of last year might have had the
opportunity to take over that backfield. It didn't happen because
James Connor was good, and also Trey Benson wasn't good.
But now he looks a little bit better, and more importantly,

(01:28):
he has his real runway with Connor now out for
this season. So for Week four, I know it's Thursday night,
but are you starting Trey Benson.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
First of all, we're gonna get yelled at for including
Trey Benson as a pick up, because you know, if
you're if he was available in your leg, you're playing
with a bunch of fish and everything, you know, because
all fantasy leagues are completely homogeneous and totally identical. On
Trey Benson was not available anywhere, but anyway, yeah, we're
starting him. Like. The thing is, I don't know if
we have an idea yet of whether or not Trey

(01:59):
Benson is actually good. Like I've had mixed feelings watching
him play, Like on some runs he looks really impressive,
on others not so much. He's only had eighty four
career carries. But we are about to find out whether
he's good. Like Trey Benson stakeholders just fell into a
feature back, and it's possible he has a workhorse role.
I'm not sure how much of a role Amaro de

(02:19):
Mercato is going to play behind Benson. So tough matchup
though against a really good Seattle defense. I don't know
if he smashes in this matchup, but yeah, you're most
likely playing Benson for the workload.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Do you agree? Fits And then I'll toss it to
Jake that he looks better this year than he did
last year. I do feel like just iTech like, not
that it's night and day, but I do think he
looks a little bit better than he did last year.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I mean he had didn't you have one? He's
had like a fifty two yard run, but take that
away and I think he's not averaging under four per care.
Like he has looked fine so far with what I've
seen so far, but like, I'm still not ready to
quite annoint him as good yet.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
By the way, to your point about, uh, you know,
is he eligible for this category or whatever? I go
based on the uh you know waiver wire rankings that
are the consensus rankings on fantasy pros that are listed
in the article that you Debro and Ellis put together,
you know, every single week. It's one of the best
waiver wire articles I think you know out there, and
he was listed on there. So that's where I'm like,

(03:20):
who are the most biggest priorities, the ones the most popular.
He's on that list, he counts, So he was eligible
for this purpose, Jake Trey Benson, you know, both rest
of season and for week four. I'm curious to what
your expectations are.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, well, there's three different things here. I included him
as well in mine because I go by Yahoo under
sixty percent, So it was a reference point that I
also wanted to make because it was in conversation with
people behind him too that might be forty percent but
are still pretty big names. And it was basically that
Benson is over all of them so far that if
your worst running back, which is possible, if your worst

(03:53):
running back is Isaiah Pacheco, I'm dropping him for Trey Benson.
Like that's where we are, and that's what my point
wanted to be, is that, like I want to also
give you context of some of the other names out there,
and I'm glad you bring up Week four versus in
the entire season because at the time that somebody might
be watching this, he might have been stuffed by Seattle's defense.
Seattle gets into the backfield both against the quarterback and
the running back, and if he comes out and it's

(04:14):
seventeen for fifty four, I would actually see it as
a buy low opportunity and if you have Benson, not
to sell him, like, don't panic. This might be similar
to Jackson Dart going against the Chargers. It's a really
bad first it's his first start Jackson Dart completely like
first start in the NFL, but it's his first game
going up as the lead running back. And if it's
a struggle, watch out, Like you know, I would say

(04:35):
that's more of a window for you to buy because
I do think that Benson is in the top fifteen conversation.
I had Field Yates on my podcast yesterday, and that's
not like like, oh, I feel yes, no, but I'm
bringing up he tripped me up with a question I
didn't expect to see coming. He threw it back at
me and he said, if you had genty and I
offered you Benson, would you take it? And it made
me pause because of how bad things have been for
the Raiders offensive line. I still would shoot for the

(04:57):
upside of genty, to be clear, but the kind of
tells us what we need to know about Benson. I
agree with fits we've seen day Mercado dey Marcato is
not going to come in and get forty forty five
percent like Benson was getting.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Fits. When you look at Benson, like on the game log,
the matchups that the Cardinals have had so far, it's
color coded on Fantasy pros the game log, so the
first three are green, as in they work good matchups
so far this season for you know, Benson and this
running game in general. The next like several are you know,

(05:32):
kind of normal? There's not a whole lot agreed in
the rest of the season. Do you feel like whatever
I mean, it's again, it's not like he's been laying
the world on fire so far. He hasn't quite had
the opportunity. But for whatever, the running game has looked
good so far this season. Do you think any of
that is just matchup base or do you expect the
running game, you know, in general, led by Benson now
to be somewhat successful going forward.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
I don't know about success and like you know what
his success rate, yards per carry everything is to be.
But as far as just the decision to whether to
start Trey Benson most weeks, like if he is getting
the workload, I'm not gonna sweat the matchups too much.
Like when I do rankings, it's always volume is more
of a concern to me than matchups always, and you

(06:16):
know that's from over the years, like observing some of
the smartest rankers in our business, like people you know
like mister Seely here and Sean Corner and John Paulson
and Justin Boone, like they follow the volume and you know,
matchups way into it for sure, but volume is more important.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Jake, Let's go to the next name. Somebody that we
included last week, but is still you know, much more
available than a guy like Trey Benson and caught a
touchdown for the second straight week. He's a rookie receiver,
which tends to you know, typically these guys get better
throughout the season. Elic Iomanor is still in this list.
He was the consensus number two pickup for this week,
again second straight week with a touchdown. He had just

(06:55):
thirty eight receiving yards. But again that touchdown work looking good.
So with Iomanor, is he somebody if you did pick them,
if you didn't pick them up last week, but you
were okay, there's another touchdown, I'm going to pick them
up this week. Are you willing to start them in
week four?

Speaker 3 (07:08):
I'd be hesitant because of the matchup. You know, this
is the Texas defense, which has been still pretty good
for Texans defense, it's their offense that's killing them. So
I think he comes into a wide receiver four, which
is I think that's what we were hoping and that's
what we're getting from Iu Manner, is the fact that
wide receiver fours mean that they're gonna We talked about
it last week. Why receiver fours mean you're going to
get good weeks, You're going to get top twenty scores,

(07:30):
but you're gonna get weeks with four points. You're gonna
get weeks where maybe even a goose egg, like it
just happens for wide receiver. That's why they're wide receiver fours.
And the biggest thing that it's not that I want
to be like, oh, I you manor is a four
You're stupid to think otherwise. I just want people to
understand why receiver fours as a whole in the fact
that you pretty much just roll them out there every
single week. Now, maybe if you have like they're facing
the worst possible, like they're facing the Broncos and somebody

(07:52):
else's facing the Cardinals defense that they have nobody left,
that's healthy that you say, okay, the tie break goes
to who they're facing. But most weeks you want to
just start your wide four is because you're more likely
to keep guessing wrong and then miss the good games
and try to chase the good ones and then get
the bad ones. All that being said, so but I
you manner, Yes, you're starting them, but he's still a
wide receiver of four. I would actually think this is
also a chance to potentially buy low on Calvin Ridley

(08:14):
it's not the best matchup, but he's still leading all
the metrics of the team for over I you Manor.
The only thing where he is not is the catchuple
percentage and actually the reception percentage, which is thirty eight percent.
He is not connecting with cam Ward, but I you
Manner is. And we're about I don't know about you, Fits,
but maybe two weeks away from saying if this continues

(08:35):
that I you maners the one in Ridley's the two,
Like that's possible, It's possibly coming.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, Fits, I'm curious what you think about that, Like,
not just io Manner for this matchup, which is a
tough one, but how it pertains to Ridley.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, I'm pretty much in lockstep with everything Jake is
saying here. I do have iomanor smack in the middle
of wide receiver four range. You've got him wide receiver
forty three, and so in a week with no buys,
maybe he's less likely to start than he would be
next week when the buys hit and we're going to
have some people missing wide receivers. So yeah, Iomnner, Like,

(09:12):
is he already the Titans number one receiver? Like we
thought it was going to be Ridley and and Ridley
does have three more targets than ioman Or so far,
but like Ridley, he has had a lot of drops already,
like a problematic amount of drops, like a what's wrong
with Calvin Ridley amount of drops? And I am Mannor
is good and oddly enough like that was maybe the

(09:32):
one blemish on Iomanor's prospect profile is that he occasionally
had drops at at Stanford. So cam Ward only has
two touchdown passes in three games. They both went to Iomanor,
and the only the only issue here is that like
cam Ward is averaging one hundred and sixty eight point
seven passing yards per game, like the Titans passing game,

(09:54):
there's just not a lot of meat on that chicken
wing right now. So that's that's really the main concern
and why I've got man Or outside the top.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Forty one more receiver here to talk about Luther Burden,
who his wide receiver finish in half point PPR scoring.
In week one he was wide receiver one hundred and eighteen,
in week two he was wide receiver one hundred and fourteen,
and week three he was wide receiver six. So obviously,
like you know, a breakout game of sorts clearly, you know,
driven by the big play. He only had three targets,

(10:23):
three catches, and one rush, but one hundred and one
receiving yards, seven rushing yards and a touchdown. Jake, I'll
start with you on this one. What are your expectations
for Burden for this weekend? Beyond?

Speaker 3 (10:34):
It was because I held up the Poopamochi for people
that weren't watching the video, Look, this is I know
a lot of times when people pick people off waivers
and immediately try to trade them, people are like, well,
it's so obvious. This is one of the ones I
would do it by any stretch of the imagination possible,
because I even wrote this up in the waivers, and
I'm gonna look at it because some of them, these
numbers I'm obviously not gonna remember off the top of

(10:55):
my head. But the best case scenario, we have a
wide receiver three since two thousand and eight is Tyler
Boyd when in Jamar Chase's rookie season, when he was
actually out there more than t Higgins and he finished
his wide receiver thirty eight for the year in points
per game. Previous to that, you go back to two
thousand and eight. What was that team? Larry Fitzgerald and
Kuwon Bolden, Steve Breston. Oh, by the way, with Kurt

(11:16):
Warner throwing in the football, unless kayleb Williams is going
to throw for forty five hundred yards and thirty five touchdowns,
which cool, Sign me up because I would love that.
In a lot of my leagues, you just don't get
three wide receivers who all have production, who all catch
over one thousand yards. Somebody takes the back seat, and
somebody counter pointed and said, well, look at the Chargers. Well, yeah,

(11:37):
but Lad McConkie's the one taking the back seat right now.
Lad mccaucky's wide receiver forty eight, he's the one that's
not involved. Now that's gonna hopefully change. But my point
in this entire thing is that it's really, really, really hard.
Oh and by the way, to go back before that,
you have to go all the way back to the
nineteen nineties and the Houston Oilers to tell you how
far back you have to go to get three wide
receivers with just over nine hundred yards. It's really hard

(12:00):
to have a third wide receiver and a lot of
the other cases have involved tight ends. So I love
Luthor Burton's talent. I mean love Luthor Burn's talent. He
was a top five wide receiver in this draft class,
if not top three for me, it's just a landing spot.
We just did this with the Dunesday last year. We
did it with JSM the year before. He's behind two
wide receivers. DJ Moore gets hurt or they finally say
we're done with DJ Moore and kick him to the bench. Cool,

(12:24):
it's just unlikely to happen as much as you want
it to happen. You still have Colston Lovelin, you still
have the backfield. It's just too much going on again,
unless Caleb Williams is going to start passing for three
hundred and fifty yards a game.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Fitz, what do you make of Burden coming off of
his wide receiver six finish last week?

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I mean you just can't start him yet because
he's played fewer than twenty offensive snaps in every game
so far in HISAD snapshares of under thirty percent. So
like his time is coming. He's really talented, but it's
just it's not here yet. Like I would rather have
Luther Burden on my roster than Trey Tucker, who is
complete fools gold for anyone who was chasing that on
waivers this week. Sorry, but like, good luck starting Trey

(13:04):
Tucker the rest of the way. I mean he's out
there on the field a lot. I think he was
like fourth or fifth in number of routes run last
year in twenty twenty four, And I mean what good
was that for fantasy? So like Burdon at least has
a chance to be a player you want to start
every week down the backstretch of the fantasy season, trade
Tucker has no chance to be that.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
I actually just traded for Burden in a Dynasty league
before this week, so a little bit better. Well, I
traded away David Montgomery, but I that team, Montgomery was
like a distant RB five on that team. I'm just
really strong at running back, so I was like, let me,
you know, this guy needs help. I need a you know,
good young talented receiver.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Time you can get rid of a running back after
twenty eight years old in dynasty like that hack positive
on top of that to boot, but yeah, like I
definitely agree with Vice, and I'm glad he broughtup the
trade Tucker thing.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Because I don't know me.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
You know what it is? He's new Sammy Watkins. Just
in week three? His name is Trey. He did it
last year in week three, did it this year in
week three? Just always start Trey Tucker in week three.
There you go.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
And by the way, Jake has really annoyed me by
bringing up that Houston Oilers thing, because now I'm like
racking my brain to figure out who the three receivers
were Ernest Givens, Heywoo, Jeffries and I cannot think of
who was number one?

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Oh you want to I'm gonna test here. Here's a giant.
I'm going to test your R and B knowledge. How
about never make a promise? Fits?

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Oh I'm not how about good nineties R and B guy, Jake?

Speaker 3 (14:30):
How about you spell his first name d r U
instead of d R E W Is it Drew Hill?

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Drew Hill, Due Hill, Drew Hill.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Okay, I should have known that this is the come
on the crazy thing was as you got the other names.
They did it in back to back years.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
By the way, Wow, interesting.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, all right, let's let's plant our flag on some players.
Fits will start with you, who are you planting your
flag on? For Week four.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Cam Scataboo, Like I was not sure if his would
translate to the NFL. I have seen enough it is
going to translate. I am all in. This dude is
so much fun to watch. Like the power is obviously
his calling card. That and you know the utter disregard
for his body and other people's bodies. But like, watch

(15:18):
Cam Skataboo with the ball, Like it's not just Cam
running people over on every carry, Like this guy processes
angles in a way that's just so impressive. He had
ten carries for sixty yards in a touchdown last week
against the Chiefs run defense that's always been lights out
under Steve Spagnolo, and the usage in the passing game
was really exciting. Six catches sixty one yards on eight targets,

(15:42):
And like, you better believe the Giants are gonna lean
heavily on Skataboo this week. With rookie QB Jackson Dart
making his first NFL start against a really good Chargers defense,
like Tyrone Tracy has Hurts, we might get twenty twenty
five Cam Scataboo touches this week, and boy would that
be fun to see Jake.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
I know Fitz has already made it clear that he's
following the volume, not the matchup. But are you worried
at all about Skataboo just facing this really good Chargers defense?

Speaker 3 (16:10):
To a degree, But I think that I did the
discord for the Athletic this morning and somebody's like, who's
this year's Chase Brown or Bucky Irving? I was like,
it's Cam' Skataboo because it's really the fact that I
already thought he was coming for a Tyrone Tracy's job
when they drafted him, and then he missed the entire
preseason with the injury, and that of course put him
behind the eight ball because he's a rookie coming in

(16:31):
on top of things. And yeah, last week, I know
people will point to the fact that Tracy was getting
a lot of that early touches, but Scottyboy was still
sprinkled in. But the opportunities were coming and now.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
It's clearly his.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
As Fitz said that, you know what, we're gonna turn
to Devin Singletary, I will say this for a team
that just went to Jackson Dart, if you are trying
to get fired, you don't turn to Jackson Dart. Form one,
but two It's like, if you are trying to get fired,
you give Devin Singletary ten touches this week, just get
them the hell out of there. Pink slip on your
door as you walk out, because this should be, as
you said, possibly twenty touches for skating. But the only

(17:02):
concern I have is not even the matchups, because he's
so good. It's not just what fits brought up. You
saw it, like he bounces off contact, like it's just
he's so tough to like really get like off balance,
which is really great to see. But it's the fact.
The problem of my fear is that he's freaking wealth
Ralph Wigham from The Simpsons. He's diving head first through
windows like he's he's going to get hurt at some

(17:23):
point if he doesn't stop, And that's my only concern.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
I have never seen The Simpsons, but I do understand
that reference. I've seen the really meme.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, have you you least seen him when he dives
into the living room head first?

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Seen that, like you know, you know meme of it. Okay,
I watched one episode. Ever, an old roommate of mine
found out that I had never seen The Simpsons. It
forced me to watch one episode and that is the
only It's the episode where Homer goes to like Hell
or whatever and is eating a bunch of donuts. I
think that's what happens. I don't really remember, but that
that's the only episode I've ever seen, So what the heck?

(17:57):
It's a big blind spot for meat.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
That's the time I'm wondering what's next because we have
like the no Taco Bell, like, like, what what's possibly that?
What was the other thing? There's something else on this
list already where it's like every time we talk about it,
you somehow trump the thing that you've never done before.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
That, Yeah, Taco Bell and the Simpsons might might be
one A and one B. There was a third popular
thing that I can't remember what the third one that
I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Whatever it was TV or movies or something like that.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I'm sorry to disappoint you. Fits. And then Jake, all right, Jake,
who's your play flag player?

Speaker 3 (18:33):
I'm staying at running back. I'm gonna go to JK. Dobbins.
In this potential situation with the Broncos being in a
game where they can run it out more so, and
I know everybody's pointing to Hey, it's good time to
buy low on RJ. Harvey, which I agree with, But
at the same time, because Tyler Baddy was finally kind
of a non factor, I looked at r J. Harvey.
I'm like, why can't this continue? Like we all went

(18:54):
into the season saying that JK. Dobbins could be the
lead for the entire year and it wouldn't shock us,
like we would hope that RJ. Harvey would be more involved.
But he's clearly been the lead so far, and he's
been the lead in that kind of mid teen touches.
But it's not just the mid teen touches. Is what
he's doing with them. You pick a metric and he's
top fifteen across the board. Oh by the way, he's

(19:14):
also number five in yards after contact, So like he's
getting touches, he's getting yards, he's getting production, he's doing everything,
getting usage inside the red zone and at the goal line.
And I just look at JK. Dobbinson's kind of like
nobody wants to give him that respect because they're all like, well, RJ.
Harvey's coming and we've done this before with JK. Dobbins,
and yeah, but it's funny that we've also done this
before with JK. Dobbins, similar to old Christian Kirk, not

(19:37):
this year Christian Kirk. But what we said like, as
long as he's on the field, he's productive. Well he's
on the field right now and he's productive, and he's JK. Dobbins,
So I think I'm buying in. I have him as
a top fifteen ish running back this week, and it
depends on the format, but he's right there, and I'm
just ready to set it and forget it for Dobbins
until it potentially goes sideways because it's Sean Payton. But
until it does, it might not even happen.

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Speaker 1 (21:29):
Guys, let's get into our start sit player debates. Fits.
You might have noticed I did not ask you what
you thought of JK. Dobbins after he was the plant
your flag player for Jake. That's because I want to
make our first start sit debate JK. Dobbins verse CaMV Scataboo.
So obviously you guys have planted your flags on these
two players, but I want to kind of talk it out,
these two against each other and kind of how you
see them in their rankings. So fits where it is

(21:50):
JK Dobbins rank relative toscattaboo for you.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, so I've got Dobbins at RB twenty. Sorry, like
I'm exactly I'm bullish. And you know what Jake was saying,
about RJ. Harvey, Like RJ. Harvey could come on and
still have it not affect the value of JK. Dobbins fundamentally.

(22:14):
Like I feel like maybe they were trying to give
Harvey a little more work last week. I think he
only had five touches, but maybe he had two, including
I think a pretty nice game that was called back
by penalty. It doesn't matter, Like Sean Payton's backfields have
routinely had two fantasy viable running backs, you know, dating
back to his days in New Orleans, when it was

(22:35):
like Kamara and Mark Angram and Deuce McAllister and Reggie Bush.
Like this always happens in Sean payton backfields. And Dobbins
is the lead guy now and he's just got a
marshmallow soft matchup against the Bengals this week, so wheels up.
But I'm super aggressive on Scatboy this week. I'm rank
ranking him RB fourteen, and I think the ECR right

(22:58):
now is like RB twenty three or whatever, Like I
am all the way in on.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
This guy, but yeah, but it's a good call. So
Scatboy's RB twenty three in half vpr ECR. Dobbins is
RB twenty one. So they're very close to each other,
which is why I thought it'd be fun to include them,
given that you guys are both kind of making your
stances clear here, so you don't hate Dobbins. This fight
with Jake's joking. These are extremely high on Scatoby relative

(23:22):
to consensus, Jake, how do you see these two like
relative to each other? How why does the gap in
your rankings a little bit?

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Apparently I hate skattaboy after glowingly talking about him, because
it's just a it comes down to matchups this week,
and Fitz is right is that they did get Harvey
more involved but interesting enough, and that I'm not coming
for this fits. I'm just pointing for everybody out there
that might think otherwise. Is that Dobbins actually had his
highest running back touch percentage of the three games so
far as Batty got eliminated, but they split Batty's touches

(23:51):
to Dobbins and obviously more in the run game and
Harvey Moore in the passing game. And I agree with
everything that he said, and I think the problem do
real quick to go back to Dobbin in this whole
workload situation.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
The r J.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Harvey is everybody's picturing album Kamara with mark Ingram or
something like that where Kamara was the guy. But this
you're not gonna have Kamara every single time. Like this version,
which is a lesser Kamara can be on the flip side,
reversing the roles, so not roles, but the touch percentage.
So that's why, like if you gave me Giants versus
Bengals and Broncos versus Chargers and that kind of matchup,

(24:24):
I would probably just flip their spots. It really just
comes down to matchup for me this week, and that's
why I have Dobbins in front of Skatabou. But if
you wanted to argue for Scautabou, I'm not gonna call
you bonkers, but apparently I do hate them this week,
I'm the one that hates them.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
You can check out the expert ranks if you go
to a player's like page on Fantasy Pros and click rankings,
you can see where every expert has a ranked and
who has the ranked highest. Fits is tied for the
second highest ranking. There are three folks who have him
at RB fourteen. Fits is one of them, but you're
behind somebody who doesn't have him. Just one spot, heead,

(24:57):
but who has them all? We have at RB ten
this week, so.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
That was gonna be my guest was ten.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, there is. We have an outlier ranking there very
from lou Brunson. I'm sorry, I don't know who that
has very high.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
It might be right, Hey, it'll be fair. The last
time we were this far apart last week, my plant
my flag not only went into quicksand, it kind of
swallowed me up with it. And I'm pretty sure most
people want me to stay there in the quicksand because
my plant my flag last week and Jake Browning, yes,
as sideways as possibly it could, that offensive line is
like us three trying to block Like the holy hell.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
That was I told you last week that I accidentally
put a typo in this show sheet where I put
joke Browning and that ended up becoming more active.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
You were the right one. I was wrong.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
That was?

Speaker 1 (25:41):
That was you know, should have been should have been
a predictor for us. All right, So you guys, you know,
made it clear who you who you take in that state. Yeah, yeah,
that's good. I always say that'ways like if it's and
I disagree, go with fits, I'm probably wrong our second
running back debate here, Javonte Williams or Etn. Jke'll start

(26:01):
with you on this one. Who do you like better
this week?

Speaker 3 (26:04):
I like Etn. I know he's going against the forty
nine ers, and I know that Tutan's been involved, but
I still think that Etn is the guy similar to Dobbins.
Like the fact that Tutan to fits this point. I'll
echo kind of something you just said. Just because Tutan's
getting more value doesn't mean it comes at the detriment
to ETN. And I know some of it was saved
late in that game last week, but I still look

(26:24):
at ETN being the guy in Dobbins. Maybe it's not
eighty five percent like it was the first two weeks,
but similar to the Dobbins situation, they're kind of in
the same bucket For me, I take Dobbins ahead of them.
I have Etn more in line with I like his
situation better this week, but Scataboo's got the volume where
I have them closely ranked, and Javontay Williams just comes
down to the fact that he's facing the Packers. I

(26:45):
think last week's volume being down a little bit was
mostly about that game in the game script. But I
don't want to start people against the Packers if I
can avoid it in a time share. So I have
a decently sized get like Javontay Williams, of the four
running backs we've talked about so far, is the lowest.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
So interestingly, if you look at ECR, Jervonte Williams is
the highest, but they are all back to back to
back to back. It goes Javonte Williams at RB twenty,
then Dobbins, than Etn at RB twenty two, than Skataboo,
So these guys are all very similar.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Wells face is going to agree with me. There's no
way Williams should be in front of all three of those,
especially Skataboo and Dobbins.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
What do you think fits?

Speaker 2 (27:22):
No, I've got Javante behind all those guys, and I've
got n Frank higher here. Like his Etn's usage has
been really consistent. He's at least fourteen carries and two
targets in each of the jaguars first three games. He's
pretty much been the best thing about the Jacksonville offense
so far. And it's it's not that I'm down on Javante.
I think he's been kind of a pleasant surprise, and

(27:45):
the green Bay run defense maybe not impregnable, as Quinchawn
Judkins demonstrated last week, like it is easier to run
on the Packers than to throw on them. But the
Cowboys have lost two of their three starting interior linemen
in the last couple of weeks. First it was center
Cooper Bebee, who's on IR now, and now it's first

(28:05):
round guard Tyler Booker, who won't play this week. There
might not be all that much room for Jamonte to Ron,
and I kind of don't expect the game script to
be real run friendly for the Cowboys and the Micah
Parsons ball. I kind of think the Packers are are
going to stop them.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
I can't say the quote because it's inappropriate, but anytime
I hear the the you know word impregnable, I think
of Bron talking about the eerie in Game of Thrones,
and so hopefully people know the quote.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
I've talked about the reference.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, that's what I always think about. Yeah, I was
going to ask you fits what you thought about Green
Bay's run defense, specifically coming off of what we saw
from Quinshaw Judkins last week. I know it's not a
game you really want to spend a lot of time revisiting.
But uh, and again, shouts to you for calling this
last week that you know all the you know, the

(28:55):
stuff going on with your daughter's birthday and what happened
when she was born, and twenty first nailed it, yeah
on this one. But but so you don't think that
that quin Shawn Judkins performance was Like I guess what
I'm asking is how much do you think that's indicative
of this run defense going forward?

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (29:10):
I mean maybe the Packers run Like I don't think
it's a bad run defense, but I it might just
be average. So I think a lot of teams will
try to run on the Packers until they can't until
they're in a position where the scorer dictates that they
can't lean on the run. Because like, if you run
on early downs against the Packers and don't get anything,

(29:31):
like you don't want to be in third and seven
against this team all the time, Like that is a
recipe for failure.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Let's go to some wide receiver debates, Jake, I'll start
with you here, Ricky Piersall or Zay Flowers in Week four?
Who do you like better?

Speaker 3 (29:45):
So I'm laugh because this is the Zay Flowers. We're
doing this again. And I'm laughing because you and I
talked about a ton in the preseason. I know Fits
was on some of those, but like we have Zay
Flowers top three finish, we have Zay Flowers about thirty ish,
and we have Zay Flowers at eighty. This is whose
a Flowers is. Like, you just have to accept the
say Flowers. This is why I wanted him as a

(30:05):
wide receiver three. I didn't get him anywhere as a
wide receiver three because he was always going as a two.
And that's why I didn't want to do it, is
because he's more wide receiver thirty because some of these
downs are really downs because of Lamar Jackson in this offense,
don't force anything. He's thrown it to like seventy five
different people already through three games. Like he's just going
to whoever he feels like and whatever's given, and that's
great for them. But all that said, I would still

(30:26):
go Zay Flowers this week. I think Zay Flowers matches
up well for the matchup against the Chiefs. I have
Pearcil close to him and it would probably almost be
neck and neck if Juwan Jennings doesn't return, we have
to obviously wait and see on that, but I do
think that Jennings coming back would almost have me if
he was in full practice at like we're doing this
before we know on Thursday, full practice Thursday, and then

(30:48):
full practice on a Friday. I would probably put Jennings
just barely in front of Piersil because Jennings is the
guy went out there, But it really comes down to
how healthy is he. It's three games in a row
with Jennings, So if there's no Jennings, yourselves on his heels.
But if there is Jennings, then he drops it in.
It's a bigger gap.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Who do you think is more likely Jake to catch
a touchdown in this one? Because Zey has won on
the season, Pear Sauce cut nine. You know my feelings
on Zay Flowers and the end zone. I just don't
think it's like, you know, prudent to ever really project
a touchdown there. But like I said, Pier Saw doesn't
have one yet. So who do you think is more
likely to get in the end.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Zone for this week? Tylan Wallace? Probably I actually think
Zay Flowers could get one. I actually think if I
had to bet between the two of them, just because
I'm going to bet on Lamar Jackson over brock Party
every time.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Okay, fants, what do you think Zay Flowers or pear Saw?
Not the touchdown side, but just to do you like
better this week?

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, I mean, I pretty much agree with Jake's summary
of the Zay Flowers experience. So I'm going with pear
Saw here, but it's a conditional endorsement. Like it hinges
on brock Party coming back after missing last week with
a toe injury, and it is looking like Purdy will
be back. It hinges on Juwan Jennings remaining out with
an ankle injury and I don't think he practicing as

(32:01):
a Wednesday. And by the way, I disagree with Jake.
I think Pearsall's better than Jennings. I just do.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
And it hit talent, No, no talent. I think that
Jennings is the number one option for the team despite
the talent. I will agree with you, I would take
Piercal talent over Jennings. It's just he's clearly been the
one when they're both out there treatment wise, and that
also comes to I'm just equaying beat reporters that say
every single time they're on the field together, Jennings is
the one. So I agree with you, I just I

(32:29):
actually it's funny. I agree with you, Fitz. I don't
agree with their usage. I wish Pearsall was treated as
the one.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah, I mean give it time with Pearsall, Like I
think he takes Jennings for sure, and like we have
to make sure Pearsall himself is playing. He misspracticed Wednesday
with I think what's believed to be a minor knee issue.
He himself says he's playing. But Pearsall was a huge
part of the game plan last week against the Cardinals,
eleven targets, eight catches, one hundred and seventeen yards. He

(32:57):
and Christian McCaffrey were pretty much the entire Sandford Cisco
passing game. Like they combined for twenty six targets. All
other forty nine ers pass catchers had twelve combined. And yeah,
if Jennings stays out, I think Pearsall's going to have
a big day at home against the Jaguars.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
Fantasy pros has an are they playing tool. It's giving
Ricky Piersall just a forty one percent chance to play
based on historic trends right now, but that tends to
get a lot more accurate later in the week. It's
still Thursday morning, so a couple of days of practice
supports to come. And like you said, Pearsaw has talked
about himself playing, so I would just continue to keep
an eye on that. By the way, just because I
asked about it, just to give everybody the odds on

(33:34):
hard rock bet plus one fifty anytime touchdown score for
Za Flowers plus one thirty five anytime touchdown score for
Ricky Pearsall so they think it's maybe slightly more likely
for Pearsaw to do it.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
Some pretty aggressive odds. I think I was expecting that's
kind of tight there.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, I kind of agree with that, honestly. All Right,
one more wide receiver debate here in kind of our
main debate section. Jake Ladd McConkie, Oh, I thought you
were going to Fitz first.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
That's why I was taking a sip, because she went
to the first. On the last one, you threw me
off there, go ahead, continue.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
No, No, it's okay, Fitz Fitz as Mike sounded a
little like quiet on the last one. So I was
gonna give him a chance for maybe his internet to
catch up for something. Otherwise. Oh so you had the
right idea, but I was trying to be a daft
will year. I'll stick with you, Jake lad mccackey or
Brian Thomas Jr.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
This one's painful. I mean, between the two of them,
both things have gone. Like I brought this up before
when we were having the Luthor Burden talk, lad mccakie's
been the one left out and like we're all just like, oh,
it's gonna correct itself. But Quentin Johnson finally looks like
the first round talent. Keenan Allen has not gone away.
He looks actually better than he did at any point
last year, looked like he did from two years ago.
And granted he's on the field the least, and he's

(34:47):
out there in a lot of three wide and running
a lot of the slot. But I have major concerns
for lad mccakye also for the fact that the giant
secondary can get beat up all day long. But one
of the bigger things too is like especially getting this
deep ball with Quinton Johnston, by the way, So now
it comes down to I think Johnson is gonna have
a big game. He's the one that ranked the highest
of the Chargers, and then it comes down to Ladd

(35:07):
and Keenan Allen and do they even need to throw
that much against the Giants. So all that circles back
to say is I'm going to give Brian Thomas a
slight edge even against the forty nine ers. Forty nineers
defense is good, it's not great, But also everything is
there for Brian Thomas. Everything, Like if you looked at it,
if you peeled the name off and didn't know the
team he was playing for and just left out reception percentage,

(35:30):
I looked at everything else, you'd be like, oh my god,
this guy's in line for like top ten performance given
all the opportunities, all the targets that he's getting, all
the red zone work, like everything is there. It's just
not connecting. And I think that, as we've talked about before,
it's definitely a Trevor Lawrence issue, and Brian Thomas does
have a few drops to his name, and I think
it's being magnified because everybody's got their eyes on Brian

(35:50):
Thomas as a pick that went wrong so far. But
I'm just going to give Brian Thomas a slight edge
because I still, at least when it at the end
of the day comes, I know there's no question he's
a top two option for his team right now. Ladd
McConkie is kind of the third. I don't know if
he is a top two any given week right now.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
How do you see this fits?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
I'm taking Lad McConkie here pretty easily, and easily easily,
I mean, like my concerns with Ladd are far less
than they are with Brian Thomas Junior. Like Quinton Johnston
and Keenan Allen currently top ten fantasy receivers, Lad, as
you said earlier, Jake wide receiver forty nine and a
half point PPR, I'm not worried like Ladd is the

(36:31):
Charger's best receiver period, and the presence of Keenan Allen
and QJ make Lad more of a wide receiver two
than the low end wide receiver one he was last year.
But Ladd is going to get it going. Brian Thomas
Junior has a twenty eight percent catch rate right now,
twenty five targets seven catches. He's averaging four point six
yards per target and one point zero four yards per

(36:54):
route run after averaging nine point six yards per target
and two point four to five yards per route run
last year. Is rookie. Look, I'm not one to push
the panic button easily on players. If anything, I'm patient
to a fault and don't get struggling players out of
my lineup quickly enough. I am mashing the panic button
on Brian Thomas Junior. Like he and Trevor Lawrence had

(37:15):
zero chemistry. BTJ is dropping passes and it seems like
he's going out of his way to avoid contact, which
makes me wonder if his wrist injury is really bothering him.
It's not like BTJ isn't tough. This dude played through
a chest injury last year that probably a lot of
other guys would have sat with. And I would love

(37:36):
to see BTJ go for one hundred yards and a
touchdown this week and show us that he's fine, but
I'm not betting on that outcome at all.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
These are, again two names that are just two spots
apart in the rankings. Lad mccacky wide receiver twenty Brian
Thomas Junior wide is over twenty two. Just to state
that for the record, fits, would you be looking to
like sell low on Thomas right now, if you're panicking
this much.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, I mean yes, And based on some of the
discord questions I've gotten this week where it seems like
some people are willing to buy not that low. Like, yes,
I think a lot of people think he's going to
snap out of this, oh man. Like I mean, I

(38:19):
would absolutely take camp Scataboo for Brian Thomas Junior right now.
I jump at that, absolutely jump at that.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
What about Wye receiver versus wide receiver?

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Like, uh, I mean I hate it's where it's a position.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
No no no, no no no, but no no no. I
I Well, because I think this is interesting. I want
to go back to the Luther Burnen thing DJ Moore,
who's been kind of disappointing are Brian Thomas because I think.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
That one.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
I would take Brian Thomas all day long. Well here's why. So,
like the drops, his drop percentage is twelve, it's kind
of high, but we're talking about Mike Evans is over
ten percent. We're talking about the fact that like Marvion
Harrison's at eleven point something like he's in the range
of like a higher end one. But he's also and
Mecho Buka and Deebo Samuel are almost ten percent each.
Like it's not an enormous number, it's high, especially for

(39:06):
Brian Thomas. But again I point to like Eric Ebron
back in the day, Quentin Johnston first first two seasons,
like drops get in. You know this fits and this
isn't like for everybody out there, like fifth isn't sitting
there going like, oh, I can't believe Jake's coming for
me on this, Like drops get magnified for people watching football,
especially in fantasy, and they're overrated. You can't have drops
without targets like Ceedee Lamb was getting crucified after week one,

(39:29):
like drops happen where I will agree the one concern
of caution I agree with you fits one hundred percent
on is what if it's the risk and that's leading
to the drops but also leading to as you said,
the avoiding contact. He made the business decision. It's not
the first wide receiver to do it. But what if
that risk just isn't one hundred percent And that's really
an issue that they're just kind of masking right now.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, to your point fits by the way, about not
maybe needing to even sell all that low. I'm looking
at our consensus rest is he's in rankings. These are
flex rankings, so it's you know, all positions around him.
He is still ranked pretty highly. The names that are
like he is sandwiched between in both directions Omarion, Hampton's

(40:11):
A Flowers, Ashton Genty, Tederoa McMillan, Kenneth Walker, Roma, Doonza,
Travis etn. Like, it's not really selling all that low.
If you are going based off those consensus rankings.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
You can take a lot of those names. I don't
know if I would take one hundred percent of them,
but pretty close. And you brought up that trade before fits,
which I thought it was a good one. I think
the other part two here is like to go to
the wide receiver. You hate the challenge trades, but I
think if you're sitting pretty go by, I'd buy Mike
Evans for the cheap until he came back.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, I think I'd rather have Evans than be TJ
rest of season. I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Right, Let's go to a more rapid fire start segment.
I got a running back one, a wide receiver one.
Some flex ones will throw in a quarterback and tight
end one as well running back Isaiah Paicecko or Remandre Stevenson. Obviously,
Pacheco has been quite bad this season. Fits Ramandre of course,
coming off this fumble issue. Mike Rabel has said like
he needs to get over this because we need Ramandre,

(41:10):
but the fumbling has been an issue for a long
time in his career. We are all just craving an
opportunity here for Traveon Henderson. So are we going to
get that? And the Pachecko you know, we were talking
about it a little before the show, fits like the
defensive line for the Ravens is entirely injured. Nonde Mada
week A might not playing in this year or ever

(41:31):
with this neck injury. The Ravens defense has already been
bad and now the defensive line is even more banged
up than it has been. They're just coming off this
game where they got run over by the Lion. So
maybe this could be the week that Pacheco finally breaks out.
How do you see this one? Pacheco or Remandre?

Speaker 2 (41:44):
I have Pachecko one spot higher? Like rough start for Pachecko. Yes,
but maybe this Ravens run defense which we were talking
about before the show, where Mike could be a get
well card for Isaiah Pichecko and at least we know
he's not in the doghouse, or at least I don't think.
And like Romandre Stevenson has probably one more fumble away
from getting thrown into fumble jail, and like that's been

(42:06):
an ongoing problem for Ramondre Stevenson, and like last week,
he is on the cusp of like losing his seat
at the table in the Patriots backfield.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
What do you think, Jake, I picked it back up,
because yeah, I have him back to back. I have Stevenson.
Uh just actually no, I don't have him back to back.
I'm even lower than you on this. Actually I was
looking at Trevion Anderson for this whole point here. I
have Stevenson one in front of Henderson, both of them
in front of both Chiefs running backs. I don't want
any of them, Like, seriously, I find another one. What

(42:38):
is the upside here? Any of them? They need a touchdown.
You look at the Giants last week, who could be
run on the Kari krossty Merritt had the eighty two
yards and just ten carries in a touchdown. Javontay Williams
went off against the Giants, and then who got the
touchdown last week? They keep turning to Kareem Hunt and
those opportunities for the touchdown. I don't want a Chiefs
running back. I don't want a Patriots running back because
you're not wrong, fits, but it took three fumbles in

(43:00):
that dang game for them to finally be like, hey,
maybe we use our best talent in the backfield. Wouldn't
shock anybody if they came out and all of a sudden,
Trevion's still number three and Stevenson's back to leading this game,
and he needs one fumble, how one fumble in the
first quarter, one fumble in the second quarter, one fumble
the third and finally they'll go away from him. I
don't want any of them, but they're facing Carolina, and

(43:20):
that's why I'll give Stevenson the slide. End. Just fight
what you brought up. You're not wrong about the defensive
live for your Ravens. I'll just I this is almost
like like sociopath like, like I embraced the pain here,
like I just have a feeling that the Patriots are
going to do that and go right back to Stevenson.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I think you might be right honestly, which is which
is why I would lean towards Pachecka I think has
a better chance of getting a touchdown just because I
think there will be such scored in this game. I
think there will be a lot of touch I.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Think it's hunts when they get down there, and which.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Is the problem.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
Totally rebuttal, It's totally possible. But I'm I'm giving a check.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Can we pick something nicer than that matchup? Like that
was terrible?

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Well, how about Quentin Johnston versus Jamison Williams for the
receiver side, Jake? Does that one work for you?

Speaker 3 (44:09):
It does? And where do you like this? Quinton Johnston?
Despite I talked up Jamison Williams, like this is the
matchup for Jamison Williams to have and if I could
find it real quick and as I'm talking about quint
Johnston though, but like the Quentin Johnson already brought up
the big plays for him and why it's opportunity is there?
But oh, here you go. Uh Jamison Williams against man
covers this year, which their browns are almost fifty to

(44:30):
fifty and using man coverage, which by the way, also
is a league high forty ninety nine percent, which just
crazy that a defense still uses man covered that much.
Jamison Williams against man coverage this year, and it was
already super high last year, but this year's number is ridiculous.
Twenty three point zero three epa versus man, which is
an absurd number. Could because it's such a small sample.

(44:51):
But this is Jamison Williams that we saw last year.
Which was the point is that he does better against
man covers than he does against zone because what is
Jameson Williams' skill set? We know that, just objectively know
that and subjectively know that. So you look at the
number and I say, this is a Jameson Williams game.
All that being said is I'm still going with Quinton
Johnston until it stops. And it's just connecting right now.
Again he's been the one. This is a defense that

(45:13):
also gets caught behind and the deep ball plenty already
through three weeks. I'm going to take Quentin Johnson against
the giant secondary. Just it's close, but I like, I
have a feeling it's just going to go bad this week.
This is what it turns into a pumpkin. We're not
quite to October yet, but so hopefully I get one
more week, Fitz.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah, I've JMO ranked a little higher, and I don't
have a lot of confidence in this call. But as
Jake noted, like the matchup against the team that likes
to play man. Quentin Johnston though has drawn twice as
many targets as Jamison Williams so far, twenty four to twelve.
And yet we know Jamison Williams doesn't necessarily need heavy
target volume in order to pop, like he's currently averaging

(45:53):
twenty one point eight yards per catch and fourteen point
five yards per target. So but all credit to this
goes back to what Jake was just saying about drops
and you know, dredging up names like Eric Ebron Like
h J had the yips early in his career, so
all credit to him for keeping his chin up and
surviving that case of the dropsies, which actually at one

(46:16):
point looked pretty career threatening. So but still I do
think Jamison Williams is the better player this week.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
This was the credit to whoever it was, I don't remember,
so I'm sorry, but this is the happy Gilmour learned
how to put, Quentin Johnston learned how to catch.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah, yeah, I have seen Happy Gilmore. There you go,
there's one, although I think I think Big Daddy's better
among the out of sailor movies.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Oh God, here we go again.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Let's go to a flex one here, Tony Pollard or
Teoat McMillan this week, Fitz, do you like better Pollard?

Speaker 2 (46:51):
McMillan's looked really good so far. No one else has
gotten very well. No one's gotten excited about Tony Pollard
this year. And yet Tony Pollard is averaging nine point
eight halfpoint PPR Fantasy points per game and McMillan is
at nine point five, and with tij Spears on ir,
Pollard has got no fewer than eighteen touches in any

(47:12):
of the titans first three games. McMillan also matchup problems,
goes against the Patriots New England's past. He has been
really bad so far, but one of the reasons for that.
Ace cover man Christian Gonzalez has been out with a
hamstring injury. He is expected back this week and he
is probably going to lock up with Teteroe McMillan quite
a bit. Give me Tony Pollard here, JQ.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Do you prefer yeah Pollard slightly? And that's coming from
somebody that didn't want Pollard this year because it's all volume.
Like we just saw the volume last year and he
was RB twenty four and fantasy points per game. Well,
he's all volume this year and he's not even RB
twenty four. He's just outside of it. But he's right
there still. But until Spears comes back, which then I'm
definitely concerned and sell before you can if you can

(47:52):
get some value elsewhere, or even the by low running
back situation with Tony Pollard, but at least for right now. Yeah,
he brought up to Christian Gonzales thing with McMillan. I
still have him very close, but I would go Pollar
barely over McMillan in the situation.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Jake, how about Trayvon Henderson or Calvin Ridley. I know
you already said that you don't really want to do
anything with the backfield, but would you start Henderson over Ridley?

Speaker 3 (48:14):
So this feels like I'm chasing ceilings for both because
the Henderson situation, like, yeah, okay, he got the first
run in practice, that could just be Vrabel being Verrabel,
like just to kind of trick everybody, Like I would
love the answer to be if you told me Henderson
fifty five percent. I don't even mean sixty five, just
fifty five percent of the touches like Henderson all day long.

(48:35):
Because it's been so gross between cam Wart and Ridley.
They're not on the same page. This is Trevor Lawrence
and Brian Thomas all over again. All the numbers are
there for Calvin Ridley. He leads the team and routes
and opportunities and targets and everything like that, and even
airing yards. It's just not connecting. So I say that
to say these are ceiling plays. Both of them are
to me with possible zeros for both. So in that case,

(48:57):
I would actually go with the wide receiver because on
a per touch basis, if they only both only get
four to six at the most, then Ridley's gonna have
the higher ceiling fits.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
I'm going with Henderson, even though we can't predict the best.
I get it. Yeah, And it's possible Stevenson is not
in fact in the doghouse, and maybe Gibson isn't either,
But I do think Henderson is probably in line for
more work this week after being the one who didn't
put the ball on the ground last week In a
bad loss to the Steelers, so I hope so plus

(49:31):
really good matchup against the Panthers run defense, which remains
bad worst in the league last year. Panthers are giving
up five point seven yards per carry to running backs
this year, and I just don't want to play Calvin
Ridley right now, like I think he's leading the NFL
in drops like he has been really bad this year.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Another flex one here fits Nick Chubb or Michael Pittman Junior.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
I do like the spot for Pittman, like Colts Rams
is a Vegas total of around fifty, and that game
could be a shootout, and the Colts are probably not
going to have Alec Pearce, who's recovering from a concussion,
so maybe a few extra targets siphoned Michael Pittman Junior's way.
But I do tend to favor the running back in
these flex debates between running backs and receivers, So that's

(50:14):
the case here. To give me Nick Chubb, He's had
at least eleven touches in every game so far. I
think he has the safer floor.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
That's what he means.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
Yeah, that's j Yeah, I'll barely go there too, especially
when you talk about with the Rams situation. So I
think you're looking at the matchup slightly with Nick Chubb
because just because the Titans, I'm okay going against them
and give them the volume there. The Rams have kind
of been hit or miss and like covering wide receivers. Yeah,

(50:44):
that's who they played this week, right, like the Cultson
or mister Memory.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Yeah, So I could see them focusing on Pittman and
kind of limiting the upside for Dalond Jones and Dalian
Jones ends up doing more with Jonathan Taylor and it's
all on the ground and Tyler Warren on. But that's why,
like it's not an overly concerning matchup that I was
remembering correctly, but it's enough that I'll lean to the
volume of the running back.

Speaker 1 (51:10):
One more flex here, Jake Beasehall, Tuton or Jordan Assen
coming back.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
I'll go with Tuton, And like it just comes down
to they're starting to get him incorporated more. And that
was before when I was saying that I'm not worried
too much for Travis etn. But the Tuton usage. If
we're talking about R. J. Harvey usage and we're talking
about ten touches a game. It really comes down to
the first game back, and I know it wasn't an injury,
but Jordan Assen coming back to what is probably going
to be a pretty conservative offense. The Steelers defense hasn't

(51:37):
been that good, especially against the runs, so you could
probably see another twenty touches for Jordan Mason in this game,
and a Carson Wentz at this point of his career.
He already kind of was to a degree, but even
so much more so, like he's so game manager you
might as well just take Carson Wentz house to slap
Andy Dalton in there. At this point, I just feel
like how many pass attemts you're going to have? Is
he going to even force at the Jordan Assen when

(51:59):
you have Jefferson And then they finally started the show
a connection with Howkinson after late in the game the
week before, there was a good connection throughout the game
last week. It's just how many opportunities is Ason going
to get? So this is one where I'll just go
for tuting in the backfield.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
Fitz, I'm not sure if you've talked about this on
earlier shows this week. I wasn't able to listen this
week due to my schedule, So I don't know if
we've talked about.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
It, support your cok as I followed it.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
But I'm really curious because I know you have been
to a Jordan Addison fan, you know, coming into this
in general, you know, setting aside the suspension stuff. So
I'm curious where you have him ranked in his first
week back, especially considering, like Jake said, it's not coming
off an injury, so you wouldn't think there would be
that kind of rust. Maybe a different kind of rust obviously,
And then of course the questions with the offense, But
do you like Tuton or Addison better this week?

Speaker 2 (52:46):
I like Addison, but I struggled with this one. I mean,
this is one of those dilemmas you face when you're
in a sixteen team league. I think and like and
one of the things. And this is not exactly an
argument for at in this case. Like, the first time
Carson Wentz has ever thrown a pass to Jordan Addison
was yesterday Wednesday in Vikings practice, Like that was the

(53:09):
first time these guys have worked together. And like I
don't even know if Addison plays full snaps in his
first game back from suspension, but still like Addison is
just a terrific player, like a fantastic player, And I
don't know where we are on Bachel Touton yet, like
he's playing go ahead.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
I was gonna say. My one catter argument too against
Addison is that I'd be like, this Vikings defense is
just gonna murder Aaron Rodgers and like the could you
could just just grind out the clock with Mason all
day long? And that's part of my Like again, why
I go back to do Wentz even attempt thirty passes
in this game, I wouldn't be surprised of it.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
In the twenties, the Vikings recipe for success is probably
trying to hide Carson Wentz as much as possible, So
you could be right about that, Jake, But like at
the same time, Basil Tutin, like he's interesting, but he's
played thirty four snaps in his first three games. You're
not just I don't yeah, I don't think he's startable yet.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
Got a quarterback one here, Bryce Young or Jackson Dart
in his first career NFL start, Jake, what do you
think about this one?

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Let's go Jackson Dart. But it really doesn't even come
down to the Giants, it doesn't even come down to Jackson.
Actually it kind of does come down to Jackson Dart
because id of reference a joke I made. But like
this is where it comes into fantasy. Like when they
drafted Jackson Dart, I was like, congratulations, Giants, you just
drafted Daniel Jones two point zero. But I'm saying that
like I do think Dart has a higher ceiling. Although

(54:32):
Daniel Jones this year is a completely different story. But
Daniel Jones to Jackson Dart to Drake May, I need
the Spider Man, three people all pointing at each other,
because that's what we have in fantasy. We have the
rushing upside of five six hundred, maybe even seven hundred
best case scenario for all of them. So you have
that rushing appeal, but you also have similar styles of
quarterback when it comes to throwing the ball. I like

(54:53):
Dart more than Daniel Jones as a pure passer, and
that's the opportunity here. Now let's also look at it.
He has Malik neighbor like also everything being equal to
Drake May. And now even including this conversation toss up
that you brought up, was Bryce Young well as much
as we all love the opportunities for Tteroe McMillan. I
like Malik Neighbors more than McMillan any day of the week.
So I'm gonna give the edge to Jackson Dart. But

(55:17):
if fits disagrees, and we just did the Jake Browning thing,
I'm just ready for Jackson Dart to finish his QB
twenty nine this week. I'm just letting you know right now.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Fisty disagree, well, I don't know. I almost walked out
when Jake threw Drake May. And with these guys like,
what the heck Drake May and Jackson Dart.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
What they're all the same?

Speaker 2 (55:38):
No, dude, Drake May, it's good Drake May.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
No, Drake May's better, Sam Howell, like he's better. No,
but he's not.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
He's not.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
He's not on another tier of Jackson Dart and Daniel Jones.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
He absolutely is on another two. Yeah, like he is
for whatever, it's a better pass or oh my goodness,
like whatever planet than these.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
An expert consensus rankings right now. And I know that's
not only what you're talking about. Jake. Drake May is
QB six for the week, and Bryce Young is QB
twenty three and Jackson Darts QB twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Throw the football and watch Jackson.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
I have Drake May is overrated.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Oh my goodness, So I have Bryce Young ranked a
little higher than Dart, like they're both outside the twenty.
Totally possible that Dart runs for enough yardage to outproduce
Bryce Young in fantasy, but like first NFL exposure, Darts
passing numbers probably aren't gonna be very pretty in his
first NFL starts. I think Young might just a little

(56:33):
better percentage play. Yeah, good Chargers defense too.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
He's Jake's out here calling him fake May not Drake May's.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
I said he's better, but he's not. Like this isn't
another world better.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Man, I'm going different.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Do you have Drake May as a top ten quarterback
in the NFL?

Speaker 4 (56:51):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (56:51):
Yeah, oh right, we have a whole there's no way no.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Wait wait, wait already there you're just you're just talking fantasy, right,
You're not saying top ten non fantasy or are you
saying in real life?

Speaker 2 (57:05):
I mean, like, because I am I have would Jake
on this?

Speaker 1 (57:08):
I think clear top ten fantasy quarterback different top ten
NFL quarterback?

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Yeah? I mean, are we putting like bow Knicks ahead
of him, like I certainly wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
There's a lot of good quarterbacks in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
There not a lot. I mean, I'd rather have Drake
May right now than Kyler Murray. I'd rather have like, Okay,
I think I'd rather have Drake May than in pretty immobile.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Baker Mayfield Stafford.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Yeah, I mean, like Baker's more fully formed right now.
Baker's better right now.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
And golf team yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
I mean, I just think you can get down quick.
Not not talking fantasy. I think it gets like.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
Alan two different conversations for everybody watching this show. To
be clear, Drake May I have his QB one. I
have Drake May inside my top ten, to be clear.
But like I'm just talking about pure NFL as a thrower.
I think he's better, Like I want to make that clear.
He is better than those two. I just think stylistically
they're in the same bucket. Where like if we were
doing tiers, put it this way, like if I had

(58:08):
an imaginary better version of Drake May, Drake maybe be
Tier two, both of them would be Tier three. It
just sounded like you were saying Drake May's Tier one
and both of these dudes are Tier four, that's what.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
That's kind of. I think he is a better quarterback
right now than Daniel Jones. Sorry yes and yes, no, no, no,
I agree. Jackson Dart like isn't even on the map yet,
Like I don't even know if he has the Drake
May starter kit. I mean, we'll find out, but let's
see it.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Well, I yeah, that did not go the direction I
expected it.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
That's what makes us fun.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
We got a tight end one here for everybody. Hunter
Henry coming off really big game, or Jake Ferguson, who's
gonna have this real opportunity with LAMB now missing a
few weeks. So Jake or I think I saw you
last time, so I'll start with you. Fits Hutter Henry
or Jake Ferguson.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I spent like fifteen minutes the other day trying to
figure out which of these two should be ranked tire
Like I ultimately.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
So fourteen minutes too much, pretty much.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
I ultimately sided with Jake Ferguson, mainly because of my
University Wisconsin bias, and like, look, there's there is not
a lot to celebrate with Wisconsin football these days. For them,
I mean, the Badger's actually just lost a home game
to the Maryland Terrapins. That's how I.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Wasn't gonna say anything. I want it on record. I
hope everybody clocked the fact that I did not bring
up that game once to you fit.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
So with with Wisconsin football being this hapless, I have
to search for reasons to be proud about the Badger.
So I'm going to celebrate the fact that Jake Ferguson
is currently on pace for one hundred and fifty three
catches this season. His twenty seven catches trail only Pukinnakua,
and uh, you know, Fergie's going to be really busy
again this week with Cede lambout. The Packers seem like

(59:49):
a tough matchup, but they've actually given up the sixth
most fantasy points to tight ends. But like, look, Henry
is a great option too. Currently your tight end one
in half point PBR fantasy scoring, and he gets a
great matchup against the Panthers, who gave up the most
fantasy points to tight ends in twenty twenty four and
have given up the eighth most to tight ends this year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
First of all, since you brought it up, not me,
I'm going to correct you and say that Wisconsin didn't
just lose at home to Maryland. They got their doors
blown off them at home to Maryland. It was It
was a demolition by a true freshman quarterback for Maryland
making his first career Big ten start, and we domin that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
He's going to transfer to a different school next.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
No, people keep saying that he's a hometown guy. That's
not going to happen. He's going to be I told
you already I was a twenty twenty eight Dynasty first
round picks. Start saving him up from Eleikue Washington right now.
Speaking of Dynasty, actually want to ask a quick question
fits one of our coworkers, Brandon, who we all love
here at Fantasy Pros and the dev team. He messaged
me yesterday asking if he should move off Isaiah Likely

(01:00:55):
for Jake Ferguson in the Dynasty League, and my response
to him won. Jake Ferguson is definitely better than isaaa
Likely for twenty twenty five, but I think Likely is
better than Ferguson long term because I really believe that
he will not be sharing a tight end room with
Mark Andrews next year, whether it's in Baltimore. Or somewhere else.
So I was basically saying like, if you're in win now,

(01:01:17):
I go with Ferguson, but if you want to think
long term, I go with likely. What do you think
about that question?

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
I agree with your assessment higher ceiling for likely. Ferguson
is useful, but ultimately he is kind of a catch
and fall down.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
The other thing is Brandon also has Tyler Warren. So
I was like, you already have an upside tight end, like,
just aim for more upside, right, You're not starting these
guys over more and typically anyway, So that was my thought. Anyways,
Ferguson or Henry Jake, could you like better?

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
Ferguson is not on the same strats for your saying,
I'm kidding, Like really, what comes down to is it's
legit a coin flip to me to the fact where
I would go Hunter, Henry and Non and Ferguson in PPR,
like that's how close they are to me because I
think that Ferguson was the clear beneficiary and City Lamb
like people are like, well what about Turpin and Tolbert.
I think it's really just more, it's more Ferguson, and

(01:02:05):
that's what we're going to see, so I'll give him
the slight edge hunter Henry. Like I said, it's going
to be more of the potential volatility than Ferguson will be.
But if we're really going to talk about our college
football teams, I just want to talk about the fact
that we didn't bring it up last week and they
were off so old Dominion freaking gobsmacked Virginia Tech. In
Virginia Tech, I just want to bring up my almad

(01:02:26):
Water and say, hey, how about that one.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Virginia Tech was the school I grew up rooting for
because both my parents went there. Obviously I switched to Maryly.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Have you talked to your parents say that game? Should
I give him a call? Check it out?

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Both there and my sister and my brother in law.
I am like the black sheep of the family who
didn't go to Virginia Tech. So I have a lot
of people I could call after that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Actually, second, the last straw for the Hokies coach was
that the game?

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
Yeah, that was the one that was the one that
got forty five points to go to you at home?

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Yeah, you could say goodbye to start sitt the lemma
with the fantasy Pros. Start cit Assistant within seconds, you'll
know exactly who to play for optimal results each and
every week. Leveraging insights from numerous experts to start cit
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(01:03:18):
app and make winning decisions in no time. We are
about to get into our touchdown Calls for the week,
but first I want to let everybody know you can
join our free Touchdown Calls contest in the Fantasy Pros Discord.
Each week, pick four players you think we'll score with
the bonus flex Worth double. Weekly winners get a twenty
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takes home a signed b Jon Robinson Jersey. Play now

(01:03:41):
by going to Fantasypros dot Com slash Chat and heading
to the Touchdown Calls channel. Jake, you are on running
back this week?

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Yeah, I'm going right back to that Giants matchup I
mentioned it earlier. Krosskey Merritt scored both Cowboys running backs
and clean Miles Sanders scored against them when Crane Hunt
got the rushing touchdown last week. So it's Marinhampton's turn. Unfortunately,
Najre Harris is out for the year. You want to
talk about Bell callious, verybody that was disappointed with Hampton
for the first couple of weeks, you just got your
potential RB one because man, he's gonna have a day

(01:04:10):
and he's gonna have a great one this week. I
guess the Giants and get into the end zone.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
So let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Mar In Hampton fits here. On wide receiver Ricky Piersall.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
I think he's gonna play this week. He is third
in the NFL in receiving yardage but hasn't scored a
touchdown yet. I think the drought ends this week.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Speaking of the drought ending, I am on tight end.
We'll see if I can pull it off. I told
you guys that when I was putting this together, I
was like, Okay, I'm just gonna pick whoever tight end
one is and like stop messing around. And it's Trey
McBride and he doesn't catch a lot of touchdowns. So
I was like, all right, well, maybe I'll look a
little bit lower. I'm going with Tucker Craft. He kind
of touched out at each of the first two weeks.
Obviously he's having this great breakout season, not so much

(01:04:47):
in Week three A. It was he was facing like
what might arguably be the best defense in football, and
b you know, he had that injury scare in the
middle of the week going into Week three, so he
didn't have a normal practice schedule. I'm expecting other weekly
would be a little more healthy. He's also facing the
Dallas Cowboys, who give up touchdowns to literally everybody. So
I'm going to.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
Tucker Craft, you know what's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
Get off the schneid.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
There you should go like, and Djokoho is gonna get
off the schnid because the line's just got blitzed by
your Mark, your boy Mark Andrews and have whole linebackers.
And finally everybody's gonna be like, I don't want n
Joku and it's going to be an n Joku touchdown
Week A.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
You can call that down and a joke. Who does
I'm going to be really upset that your like quick
throw in would have been right and my pick is not.
But it's title with yeah, Yeah, exactly. We're going with
the Mary and Hampton, Ricky Piersoll, and Tucker Kraft. You
could dominate your fantasy football league with Fantasy Pros Premium,
now available free for six months when you deposit and
place your first wager one of our partner sports books.

(01:05:40):
This is the easiest way to get full access to
our top fantasy tools all season long. Go to Fantasypros
dot com slash Premium to get started. We will win
a little long day, so we'll wrap up there for
Jake and Fits. I'm Ryan Warming. Thanks everybody for tuning in.
We'll see again next time. Thanks for listening to the
Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show,
the best free way to support us is by leaving
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(01:06:03):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Week 4 Lineup Advice: Starts, Sleepers, Sits, Player Debates, and TD Calls (Ep. 1734)