Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lad Jules, you want experience during your football season, Well
buckle up, sweet cheeks. All We've got all the experience
in the world. This is I Want your Flex with
Dan Byer and Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan break down
everything you need to set your lineups, from position rankings.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
To starts and sits.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
The guys help you make those hard decisions and now
let's get your flex.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Ond Here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
A Thursday edition. If I want your flex, Mike Carmon
is here. Hit him up at Swollen Dum. You can
find me at Dan Byer on Fox. The show's executive
producer was Ryan Furschinger, and the trade Dudlton came and went.
That didn't provide as many waves as maybe the other
moves that happened after the trade deadline.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Considering the Raiders.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Got rid of their head coach, got rid of their
offensive coordinator, got rid of their general manager, and now
Fellas got rid of their starting quarterback.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Is Aidan O'Connell is now.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Least starting quarterback for the Raiders entering their Week nine
matchup with the Giants. Harmon, what the Heck's going on
in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I love it. It was absolute chaos. Smith and I
were on air doing our show and I did the
triple check because you know, at late at night, people's
liked to play some games, and so I was like, no, no,
that's actually coming from the Raiders. And it was funny
because a lot of your notable insiders, I won't call
them out by the four letters of the place they work,
(01:29):
their sources say this was happening, and their sources told
them that minutes after the team had already put out
a press release. So I appreciate the timing of all
of that, but yeah, just absolute chaos. You know, there's
some good mocking memes heading around on a bit as
we get into deeper into the week as to how
(01:51):
things transpired, So I guess it becomes a great narrative there.
But swings and misses at the trade deadline, maybe that
was the final straw. Maybe the dire was don't do anything,
you're all gone anyway. It really is curious because we
see the rumors of Wow, the Jets were trying to
get this guy, that guy, the other guy hownter Renfro
was supposed to be traded to New Orleans. All of this,
(02:14):
and now it becomes, hey, Aidan O'Connell, you'll work with
this guy that worked with Adam Gase, not exactly the
greatest of endorsements, and then you'll wing it around and
we'll see what we got. So I'm curious with the
Giants and Jets on tap the Raiders making the desperate
pitch to try to save their season.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Yeah, it always like throws me off. Even as as
bad as some of these coaches can be during a season,
it's still is a rather surprising and jarring when a
guy loses their job in the middle of the season
like this. But to see it not only at the
level of we're firing the head coach, it's we're cleaning
house and we are firing everyone because of how bad
(02:56):
things look. I mean, I get it. On one hand,
expectations weren't super high for the Raiders this season, but
given the fact that, for whatever reason, for weeks now,
the offense still hasn't figured out that you have arguably
the best receiver in the National Football League.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Maybe he did have seven targets.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
There were seven off targets.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, but that's a whole other thing. Jimmy Garoppolo isn't
going anywhere, and they haven't conditioned, unconditionally released him yet.
But you know, you haven't scored twenty one points in
a game yet when you've got this offensive wizard or
so he'd been tabbed all that time ago. And I
think just getting bludgeoned by the Bears and the Lions,
(03:40):
especially the way Monday night went, you could argue, hey,
they did a good job in red zone defense to
force field goal attempts early, it didn't matter. They were
never in that game. Like that was a disaster.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
You know what this all reminds me of, and this
is a bigger picture, is like Tiger Woods can't give
golf lessons. He tries, but if you're going to go
and get a golf lesson, you're going to go to
an instructor, a PGA professional, because you play a game.
Tiger Woods plays a game that none of us can really,
you know, be accustomed to. Sure, And I feel like
(04:12):
Belichick and his disciples are the same way of Belichick's
got his way, and guess what, because he's so great
and it's mine works a certain way.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It works for him.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
But if anybody else tries to do what Bill Belichick
does it just doesn't work. And so like here's another example,
and I mean this is this is supposed to be
New England West. That's why you brought the package deal
out there. And if you're punting twenty five games in
with four years left on the contract, you're probably still
paying the other people that were there in.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
The previous regime.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I you know, I mean I sometimes teeter on the
fence guys of good for them if you know it's
not going to work, just cut your ties and move on.
But the sitting on the fence the other side is
don't you want to see something through? If you're cutting
bait on this and on this package deal, things must
have been really bad in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, and that's just it, right, because everybody had been
airing it out right. We talked about it earlier in
the week, the Josh Jacobs how do you fix this offense?
Not my job. DeVante Adams did a good job of
containing himself when he met with the media, but certainly
all strikes to try to crack a helmet in half
like he was swinging Thor's hammer were pretty damn impressive
(05:24):
on the sideline and you just go on down the
line I mean, going back to the Pellisero report from
Sunday morning that they had the airing of the grievances
last Thursday, Well, clearly that did work. So all of
that adds up to just an absolute mess. And you know, unfortunately,
you know, son of Lombardi. I just wanted to say Lombardi.
(05:48):
I just thought it would have been cool. It's like,
what would he have done the opposite way of whatever
McDaniels was trying to do with that offense. But yeah,
with Mark Davis, it's always been cash poor, cash poor.
It's like, well he does seem to like to pull
the trigger and fire folks along the way. Obviously the
Gruden thing that his hand was forced, so still the
(06:08):
in litigation. How much of that cash? I mean, I
always questioned whether he was really getting one hundred million
or not. Anyway, I thought that was just a nice
round number that we got out in the media. But
whatever it is, that's still in the offing. Mayox deal.
Now these guys all is like, I know, cash flows
better in Vegas, but boy, that's a lot of money
(06:28):
to just just.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Burn I saw on Halloween and maybe a prophetic costume
because this was a few hours before McDaniels was fired.
I saw somebody on Twitter post they had a Josh
McDaniels costume, and with the costume was a big play
card where it just said throw to Jacoby, slant to Jacoby,
deep to Jacoby. It was just all different plays of
(06:53):
just throwing the ball to Jacoby Myers. But in a
very serious sense, looking at this from a fantasy perspective,
you have to downgrade Jacoby Myers because he was Josh
McDaniel's favorite weapon and not on Monday nights, thankfully, thankfully
not on Monday night. And know what, maybe that's what
(07:13):
data mean, is he he ditched the throw to Jacoby
plan and then the offense was just bad in general.
But yeah, seriously, I think you downgrade Jacoby because you've
got to see a more concerted effort on the offense
to give it to to DeVante and to Josh Jacobs.
Even more, Michael Mayer was looking good for the first
half of the season. Maybe there's a greater effort to
(07:34):
get him the ball. There seemed to be a greater
effort to get Hunter Renfro the ball on Monday, and
maybe that had something to do with the trade deadline.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Stuff.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Yes, so yeah, I think that you kind of you
you've got to downgrade Jacoby, but you're still gonna be
playing Davante and Jacobs, And I think you might feel
a little better about it now because there probably will
be an even greater effort to get those guys the ball.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
How about Antonio Pierce, you know, it gets run out
of Arizona State, being like one of the ring leaders
of all this, the wrongdoing they were doing under Herman Edwards.
He's the head coach in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
It's unbelievable. Had against the Giants is his first game.
Oh yeah, yeah, just unbelieving. But I thought the same thing,
and we brought it up last night as it happens,
like well he was fired, so like you're going back
and looking at the details, like what the hell are
we doing here? But it stayed so much Raiders and
(08:28):
we immediately went to all right, Jim Harbaugh is going
to be available. He's a perfect Raider. He doesn't care
what anybody thinks. Go get him. As of this morning,
he's the betting favorite at five to one.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Right, here's the here's the the one thing that I
would say to that I do think that Harball will
try to get back in the NFL. The crazy thing
is is we thought all of his spots had dried up.
But I have no I have no idea how long
your bears are going to keep Matt eberflu Mike and
and now the front off is dealing with another firing on.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I was gonna say, you saw that this morning is
just insane. Yeah, yeah, which are involved again?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, so you may.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Happen Williams nothing running backs coach.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
You may need to like really clean house in that.
And so who knows, maybe that even opens up.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah I argued that before, and here we go again.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
The the other news, Taylor Heineke will be the starting
quarterback for the Falcons week nine, going up against Jaron
Hall of the Vikings, who had that on their bingo
card at the start of the year. Okay, that's where
we are, and uh.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We talked about Heinekee, right and there we go. Open
it up.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I I was debating on who to pick because I
had Russell Wilson on by. It's a big league guy,
so don't Shaun Watson judge. I picked up Heinekey today.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I've had to play Tyson Bage in back to back weeks. Sure,
so I mean stuff happens.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, I went with it. I went with it. I
figured that, you know, Bryce Young, they play the Colts.
Thought that could have been an option because the Colts
defense seems to be one that likes to give up
a lot of points to everybody.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, but I.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Ended up going with Heineke, so he'll get the start,
and I think I think it's gonna be kind of
a letdown for the Minnesota Vikings. Could be wrong, but yeah,
of all the options that were out there, I believe
in Heinekee so much that I actually did pick him
up and I'm going to start him in a week nine.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I dig that.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
I also in my Dynasty super Flex, I lost Kirk
Cousins for the season. I picked up Taylor Heinekee as well,
and I do like him. I am very seriously considering
playing Zach Wilson at my super Flex this week. But yeah,
it's either Deshaun Watson, Zach Wilson, or Taylor Heinekee, which
(10:39):
is a wild combination of choices. I have two as
my main quarterback, so it's fine. But yeah, no, I
we talked about this. I like Heinecke a lot. With
what he can do for that offense. I think that
you can upgrade all the passing pieces of that offense
with with Heinekee at quarterback. So I think this is
a good move for fantasy.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Imagine Ryan going into Monday Night Football and needing six
points from his quarterback and and not be a sure thing.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah, that's the life that you would have if you
play Zaq.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Wilson this week Fantasy Football twenty three.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Let's go get him up at Swellen. Do get Ryan
at Ryan Burcher.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You can find me at Dan Byer on Fox coming
up next year, and I want your flex a little
Thursday night preview as we look ahead to Titan Steelers
plus Versus got a streaming defenses and I'll give you
a Survivor pick that's next year, and I want your
flex Titan Steelers tonight, Mike, Yeah, Will Levis against Kenny
pick ep.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
We think this.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Over under thirty seven, Dan, I think that tells you
where we're at.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
People were raining on the Thursday night schedule parade. I
actually really like Jaguar Saints even before that game actually
played out.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
It was a good game. I like that matchup.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I like I didn't mind Buccaneers Bills figured that the
Bills would win. This just is like AFC mush to me,
But hey, we're gonna watch it. Will Levis gets start
number two? Can you pick it?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah? I expected the role for the Steelers. What do
you like tonight in the.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Steeler says he says he's gonna give it the old
college try right. Yeah, I think based on how inep
the Pittsburgh secondary would be, and on the short week,
you've got some injuries that are gonna open up some
more things to an already susceptible back seven, I think
Levis in daily fantasy valuation is going to be low.
He's going to be worth a shot now. He's not
(12:32):
gonna obviously replicate what he did a week ago, but
and DeAndre Hopkins, we'll see if you can have some
more magic there. But certainly the targets will be there
for him. So he's a high end number two with
the giant question mark next to it because we really
don't know what to expect here. Derek Henry, I've got
to imagine most fantasy owners, you wring your hands a
(12:55):
little bit, but volume works, and he's creeping towards that
one hundred yard mark each week. It ain't pretty right
and you grind to get there, but good enough, so
you know, a high end number two for him as well.
Beyond that, I think you're kind of reaching right On
the Pittsburgh side, the running backs are no better than flexworthy.
(13:16):
Uh they've been grossly ineffective, and poor Jalen Warren's already
giving up two game checks for blocks. He's trying to
be so his teammates all going into the press, not
to complain for themselves, but take some pity out of
the poor little guy. You know, obviously you're not starting
pick it and the wide receivers. I guess George Pickens
as a three. But but my feeling anything even against
(13:40):
the Titan secondary that's been you know, susceptible to some
big plays. I got susceptible in twice now three times
that I still don't trust it. And that includes my
guy Mitch if he ended up getting in there as
the as the backup again, like there's just no faith.
And Matt Canada, I mean, he's fumbling phones at press
(14:00):
conferences and he's feeling so uh so assaulted by the
media that he was apologizing saying I didn't do anything
he had a really fractured environment going on there. Mike
Tomlin needs to fix that part of things. But for
fantasy purposes, this is more a grab a nice cold
beverage and watch kind of situation.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Yeah, I find DeAndre Hopkins definitely being the the interesting
choice with tonight, because like, for example, in the league
that I have him, I also have like Ceedee Lamb,
dk Metcalf, Adam Thelen, and Nico Collins. So I'm not
gonna start DeAndre. I'd probably I'd still stick with Lamb
and Thelin, but I think those are the kind of
situations you're running into where when he went off in
(14:43):
the way that he did in Leffs's first game, you
can't just ignore that. Again, they were based on gigantic
plays that could have been blown coverage. But obviously he's
still DeAndre Hopkins. The talent is there and the rookie
is going to rely on him super heavily. So I
think that he definitely moves back into start worthy territory.
But I still think that he If you've got two
(15:07):
guys who are pretty entrenched in the top twenty four,
I think you're fine with not starting Hopkins.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I am starting Deontay Johnson tonight.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Okay, basically out of necessity, but also PPR racked up
a ton of targets last week. Hopefully the familiarity will
carry over for another week. That's that would be a
play that I would like. Also, you look at the
Bys this week and a lot of big names out,
you know, I mean it's fourteenth By, but you got Jacksonville,
(15:37):
You've got the Niners, you got the Lions, and then
you're even playing some Broncos, you know, and certainly they're
on By as well.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
So I wouldn't shy away from Deontay Johnson.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I myself will put my money where my mouth is
as I'm playing him tonight.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Bye week making you know, the interesting bedfellows again, I
go back to why is week eight have none? But
we've talked about the schedule and that can only complain
about it so much. We just have to laugh at
it as we go through. But yeah, I think that's
the other part, right, We had guys pushed up just
based on that proposition, and then you know it's the
(16:12):
old rule of thumb of all right, be sure you're
maximizing those other positions where you have to maybe gamble
somewhere else right, you might have said, oh, I like
this matchup better, but it's about upside versus some sure things.
If you're gonna have to play a guy in Tennessee Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Verse, you streaming any of these two defenses, gotta hope not.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But although you know what there could be, there could
be other, you know, worse options.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it is a very low point total,
so I would if I'm doing either side here. It
is interesting because obviously, like it is, it is a
strong strategy to fade rookie quarterbacks. But if I want
a defense in this game, i'd I'd probably want the
Titans defense just because the Steelers defense, their offense simply
(17:02):
hasn't been exploding very well. And that's you know, the
testament to the low point total here. But I think
there's also a lot of really strong streaming options for
defense this week, so I probably wouldn't jump on one
of these two.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Who do you have streaming this week? Then?
Speaker 5 (17:17):
So I've still got the Giants in one league. I
picked up the Giants last week because of their their
Jets matchup. The Giants have the Raiders, So with Aidan
O'Connell going with the with all these new faces.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Without Leonard Williams. True, there's one piece that is missing.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
True, But this Giants defense has for the last few
weeks been very solid for fantasy because overall they've not
been allowing many points period. Of course, Yeah, you have
the loss of the Jets there, but they really didn't
give up much. I mean they allowed fourteen points to
the Bills, seven to the Commanders, and thirteen to the Jets.
Over these last three weeks. They've been solid fantasy options.
(17:58):
They're coming off of back to back double digit fantasy games.
So I would definitely still stick with the Giants here,
and you can, I mean, you could even look at
the other side of that matchup, but ideally I'm I'm
going with the Giants a couple strong. I mean, the
Saints and the Browns are probably are already rostered in
your leagues. I mean, the Saints did have the Jaguars
(18:21):
last week, so it's possible that they're available. But against
the Bears, there's a strong matchup there, and I know
I'm sorry. And then, as as we mentioned earlier, Jared,
I keep wanting to say Kellen Mond is playing quarterback
for the for there.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go. I'm all gone, Zimmer.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I've never done a Mike Zimmer.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
I never thought about doing that until three seconds ago.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
But yes, I definitely would consider streaming the Falcons defense
this week against Aaron Hall and the Vikings because simply
that yeah, you're you're betting against. Look at look at
these quarterbacks that I'm betting against here, Jaron Hall, Tyson, Bagents,
Aidan O'Connell, like, these are the type of names that
(19:14):
you want to be streaming defenses against. So those are
my picks for this week.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I believe the exchange to Mike Zimmer was do you
want to see Kellen Mond next week? Not particularly was
the response.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That sounded like McDaniels fuck. When asked a couple of
weeks ago, why ain't and O'Connell didn't start over Brian
Hoyer and he goes, this isn't training case.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
I did the second part of it.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I should have done that, non particularly, but I remember
that I asked them, well, why not I go.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
To see him in practice every week?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Oh man, man, Kellen Mond always looked like a weird
quarterback that there's guys who fit the uniforms, and I
never thought Kellen Mond did, which actually made me downgrade him, like,
if you don't look good your uniform, you look awkward.
Like honestly, Will Levis probably could be boosted up because
he looks really good in his like tiform.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, but they've gotten sued and they can't do it again.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Oh who got sued?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, I mean just told by the NFL to say
beat it, not sued, but more just the here's the edict,
you can't wear the throwbacks anymore.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Well, no, they did that to the University of Houston.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
That's what it was because they tried to do the
the baby blues and the oilers are like, no, you
can't do that. But Will Levis looked just great, not
only in that uniform, but just like how you wear
a uniform. Oh yeah, and so Kellen Mond always looked weird.
By the way, Mike, I've got more bad newsery because
I'm going to dive in to Survivor yis and I
(20:46):
do think, yeah, I do think the Saints are an
option this week.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It is an opportunity.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
We are coming off of a week where in the
Survivor pool that I'm competing in the top seven teams
all advanced this happened.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Earlier in the year.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
There wasn't huge carnage, but I just I'm starting to wonder. Really,
we've talked about how the NFL hasn't been a great
product at times, and they're just there are obvious plays
that everybody's going to do in their survivor league, and
I think that the Saints are one of them. I'm
actually going with the Browns against the Cardinals, planning on
(21:22):
Clayton Tune playing weather wise, I think it just could
be very, very difficult. Why not get the Browns out
of the way. They're probably smarting off of that loss
to the Seahawks a week ago. I actually think the
Falcons could be a play if you want it against
Jeron Hall and the Vikings. Sure, And I'll say this,
I don't think that Will Lovis will ever reach the
(21:44):
point total this season that he did last week. And
I also just have a hard time, no matter how
banged up the Steelers are thinking that he's going to
go into Pittsburgh on a short week and win a
football game.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, nineteen to five and three as home dogs were
Tomlin and you've just seen the record like he and Harbaugh,
you know, just ruling the North on their home fields.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Yeah, I just I don't see. I don't see like
the Titans going in and winning that game. So if
you really want to get frisky and you don't want
to worry about the weekend, I think you could even
go Steelers on Thursday Night Football as a survivor pick.
That would be my fourth option, though I think Brown's
Falcons and Saints are your more likely picks.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Narrow two and a half point favorites at home are
the Steelers. But yeah, it does speak of a pretty
good spot because that front should be able to get
after Willis. Now it's after will Levis. See I just
kind of took his name and matched it after or
was I thinking about Peter Tom Willis? Yea milk Willis
(22:49):
did not enter my mind, Yeah, exactly. But for will Levis,
it's just a matter of is that secondary good enough
to actually take care of it?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I don't know, right, Becausehi, Smith and Watt should be
able to have their way up front, is what we've seen.
And then you know, Ken, you grab a wounded duck
or two, uh to make magic.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
They're gonna you know there, that's part of the deal,
you know, in these survivor leagues, you gotta sometimes win
coin flips or games of those two point spreads. I'm
glad I wasn't here last week to review my Survivor
from the week before because I had about four picks
that I was just I was completely off on. But
last week he had chalked pretty much everywhere. Not likely
to continue this week, but again there's just I think
(23:31):
some some some bad matchups in week nine. One of
those probably will come up and bite someone. So all right,
that's it for the pod guys. You guys want anything
else before we get to Harmon's rankings and everything tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Have you found Alan Williams?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I have not. Mike's still look such.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
A mess there, and I just love it because the
quotes coming out of Eber flush. We don't have a
culture problem here. What the hell's Montes sweat walking into? Okay,
we talk about all the trades, you know, Josh Dobbs
that we talked about the other day, he ends up
in Minnesota and then you had a lot of would
be should have and then Washington gets rid of their
(24:10):
their two pass rushers. But I gotta think about this Sweat.
Is he walking into a better environment? Than he was
in Washington. I would say no. I would say no,
but I guess you could franchise tag him if you
play as well, so you got that going for him.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
No particularly there is all right?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Well, Ryan Bursinger and Mike Harmon hit him up by
at Swellendom at Ryan Bursinger, find me Dann Bayer at
dan Byer on Fox.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I'll talk to you next time here and I want
your plats.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Do you think you want to get a look at
Mond next week?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Not particularly.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
Like why don't you get a look at him?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
See him every day