I Want Your Flex - Bench Your Cowboys and Week 8 Waiver Wire Pickups

Click here to subscribe directly to the I Want Your Flex podcasts! Mike Harmon and Dan Beyer recap week 7 in the NFL including the Rams offense taking it to the stingy Bears defense. The game between the Cardinals and Seahawks proves you must start anyone playing against Seattle. Following Andy Dalton's concussion, most Cowboys are benchable at this point in the season. The guys discuss whether Tua Tagovailoa is worth a pickup and if the Browns are breaking-out right as Odell Beckham Jr. goes down for the season. They tell you which Waiver Wire RB's to target including Carlos Hyde, Chase Edmonds, La'Mical Perine and Jerick McKinnon despite having negative points this week. Both Mike and Dan are bullish on any player you want to start in Thursday Night Football between the Falcons and Panthers and they give you their 3-Point Conversion for Week 8.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever wanted to know what's inside the vault
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from the Vault on the I Heart Radio app, on
Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's
going on, guys. I'm Mike out and I'm a d
D king kablallah. We love football so much we figured
let's start a podcast and call it NFL Explained, where
we just answer all the crazy questions we get about

(00:44):
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Answers to questions like that and more. Every Thursday, come
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a daily breakdown of the league's biggest stories. We do
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(01:27):
your football needs, and we got recaps. We do the retweets,
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Listen to The Good Morning Football Podcast weekdays on the
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(01:49):
well buckle up, sweet cheeks, We've got all the experience
in the world. This is I Want Your Flex with
Dan Buyer and Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan breakdown everything
you need to set your line ups from position rankings,
two starts and sits. The guys help you make those
hard decisions and now let's get your flex on. Here's

(02:13):
Dan Buyer and Mike Harman another episode of I Want
Your Flex. As Week seven is in the books. Mike
Carmen wraps up with the Rams and Bears more happening.
I guess outside the lines of the game in being
interested when it comes to this contest. Rams put a
bow on week seven to ten victory over your hometown Bears.

(02:36):
But it's basically the conversations that Nick Foles is having
with Brian Greasy and Matt Maggie that are really drawing
the headlines from what was an uneventful Bunday night football matchup.
Great opportunity in the land of Chicago. On the Morning Talkers,
I'm sure Brian Greasy talking about the conversation pregame with

(02:58):
you know, the meetings that they have with quarterbacks, you know,
to inform their broadcast. Probably an off the record comment
that well didn't stay off the record regarding the offensive
line play and some of the intricacies of Matt Naggie's
play calling. As a guy who watches every down of
the Bears, that try to watch it for every team,
but certainly for the hometown Bears. Uh, the special nature

(03:23):
of Matt Naggie's play calling, It's not evident to me,
but certainly in terms of trying to get a pass playoff,
we see Nick Fole struggling. Uh, to work behind that
offensive line, no run game and myopia at times with
Allen Robinson. So a bit of a mess and a
lot of explaining to do coming off a miserable loss.

(03:45):
It's funny because Ellen Robinson seems to be the only
Bear worth playing in fantasy right now. But you go
to the other side of the of the of the
sidelines and you see the Rams that you think of
the Rams of of years past, when you could start
Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandon Cooks, Robert Woods, Cooper Cup

(04:05):
and expect to have one of those guys. Are two
of those guys? Are three of those guys have really
good games over a hundred yards receiving probably from one
of the receivers. Now you look at this Rams team
and you're not necessarily sure on what receiver is going
to see the the action Cooper Cup. While you think
that he's still the favorite of Jared Goff, it's not

(04:28):
necessarily the same offense. Robert Woods had a quiet night
with just three catches and twenty two yards. In fact,
Woods had more yards rushing than he did actually receiving.
So Rams get a win. They're happy about that, But
when it comes to fantasy. Bears have a good defense,
no doubt about it. But still I don't think that
anything was cleared up with the Rams, except maybe that

(04:50):
you know, again, Darrell Henderson is going to be the
guy who's gonna get the most carries, should be the
guy ran hard, ran angry fifteen sixty four on the
I two catches thirteen yards. Brown also took advantage of
his goal line, worked ten Carrey's fifty seven yards and
the score. So two headed monster. But the identity would

(05:11):
appear to be more in trying to establish the ground game,
not really working the ball down field a lot of yak.
I would look liking it to the way Breeze and
the Saints operate right ten fifteen yard routes maybe and
then trying to throw a guy open to maybe get
some yak rolling in. We know the tight ends are
always going to be involved. No Higbee for this game.

(05:32):
But Everett found the end zone. Uh you had Mount
I just wanted to say his name. Three catches forty
seven yards for him. Uh, golf to nineteen and two
better than you would expect on the whole for fantasy purposes, Look,
it doesn't get you into the Winter Circle. But a
better day than I would have given him. Uh. And
what was curious was the offense was motoring right, good tempo,

(05:56):
good open routes, and then they got really concern riveted.
The second half seemed like they could have kept the
pressure up and didn't. Whether that's not wanting to put
more on tape or they were gassed themselves as you
would have thought. The Bears defense was trying to chase
them around. So Uh, it's gonna be difficult to really

(06:16):
look to either of these teams for fantasy heroes, except
in spot players, it would seem. Yeah. And and I
think when you look at the Rams of the near future,
They've got the Dolphins in weekend. We know that because
to his debut for Miami. I think that there will
be opportunities there they'll love to buy. And then they
have Seattle in week ten and there definitely will be
opportunities there. There's not a defense worse than the National

(06:37):
Football League. The problem just becomes where in previous years
all those Rams were playable guys. This year, I don't
think that's the case. Even though you could see Robert
Woods with a seven catch, hundred and sixty yard two
touched on game, because if you have Cooper Cup on
your team, that could be the game where he has
three catches in twenty two yards. So they it's the

(06:59):
guessing game and you hope you hit. But I just
that's the only trouble that I see with the Rams,
even with this favorable matchup, is you still can get
burned because it may be the other guy that ends
up having the monster day and not your guy. Yeah,
I'd rather go to the casinos in Vegas here in
California and try try my luck with getting that right

(07:21):
because as we see, it's tough proposition Woods with a
bit of a growing injury. So the bye week coming
up after the week ad game against Miami will be
good timing for him. But yeah, to your point, you're
looking at the only guy that was consistent when healthy
is Higbee. If you're looking for just all right, that's
gonna be my tight end play. The wide receivers, running backs,

(07:43):
I'm guessing Henderson's the guy, but you saw Brown was
the guy with the touchdown. So it's a tough and
they still keep saying they want to get Acres involved.
So when does that happen? And if it does, it's
absolute fantasy chaos, so stick to the daily fantasy lea.
Let's go to the three point conversion recap from our

(08:04):
last podcast, where we hit on a couple of things.
I'll start it off because I mentioned Antonio Brown and
I said, stay away from Antonio Brown. He is going
to be a bucketeer signing his one year deal. We
just don't have an outcome on that game. Swift Trucking,
I went for a what can Brown do for you?
Swift Trucking a FedEx theme. These shippers carriers across the country,

(08:26):
so I went with that theme. DeAndre Swift did get
into the end zone, but just didn't have the usage
that you thought he would get. Falcons did a good
job controlling the clock, and again it's Adrian Peterson with
more of the carries eleven as opposed to nine for Swift.
Swift did f four catches. Uh, a modest day coming
off of his big day that he had the previous week.

(08:47):
But I will say that Washington came through. I told
you that the Cowboys were in trouble. Uh, not that
you disagreed with me, but I I figured that the
Cowboys would have a long day on Sunday in the
Nation's capital with that Washington Front, and Washington came through
just like FedEx would, and we saw what happened to

(09:09):
the Cowboys. We'll talk about them later in the podcast.
But I did convert on that three point conversion, nicely done.
I had a big bet on Josh Allen. He was
my number one rank quarterback obviously against the New York
Football Jets. The misery continued. We're now at an official
streak when it comes to Josh Allen and terrible play.

(09:29):
But I'm taking my win off Sherbert, I mean Herbert
uh and what he had to put up for the day,
number one on the board with his point total against Jacksonville.
So I'm just taking that. I'm spiking the ball and
moving on. We have to start calling anytime you love
Josh Allen. You're living in Allentown, can we do that? Especially?

(09:54):
I mean one of my favorite I am not a
big Billy Joel fan. I am not, And I know
people love him and they'll see him every year at
Medicine Square Garden or Central Park and do his concert,
but I am not. We didn't start the fire annoys me.
That's are you a fan of that song? Okay? Good good.

(10:19):
I celebrate a lot of the rest of his catalog,
but that certainly is not one that makes for me. Uh,
there's one called Lullaby that always gets me. Sir, sir,
I'm just not as much fatic, No exactly. I mean
you go to seventies Jewel and obviously you have the
joke uh from step Brothers with eighties Jewel and Horatio

(10:42):
Sands losing his mind. Go, no, we only do eighties Jewel.
Maybe you don't like Uptown Girl and all those songs.
I don't know, But to me, when you go back
to the Stranger and some of those other other albums,
I mean that that's really where you get me. In
those highlight videos where would look back on a season,
sort of a one shining moment sort of theme, this

(11:04):
is the time is the song that I always liked
when you're looking back on the highlights of your great
season and it's very eighties, but I do like that song.
Bye Bye Billy Joel. Well, well we'll move this on. We'll, we'll, we'll,
we'll leave the Billy Joel conversation and look back at
the time we were all very good, very good. Lead

(11:28):
to lap our executive producer was waiting in the wings
to drop a billy Joel Hunt as well. We just
don't have a microphone forum right now. By the way,
you can get lead to Lap on Twitter at lead
to Lap. You can get Mike on Twitter at Swollen
do Home. You can find me on Twitter at Dan
Buyer on Fox and if you want to send a
tweet to the page. If you have any fantasy questions,
to go to at I Want Your flex. It's a

(11:49):
place that we can check them out as well. At
chief It. We're tired of hearing New Year New you fat,
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Add Kinkawalla and I'm Mike Yam and we are the
hosts of NFL Explained. It's the podcast where football fanatics
come to learn everything they always wanted to know about

(12:31):
football but didn't know who to ask. They can ask
us now, And of course we're going through all of
these topics. Add and I know you and I are
so excited to start disseminating nothing but football nugs. Well,
and Mike, I've got questions of my own, like do
you know why the Packers are named the Packer? I
do know that it has nothing to do with pac Man,
and it has everything to do with cheese packing, not

(12:53):
cheese with meat meat packing. It was a meat packing
company that put five dollars up for the uniforms. Or
how about this? How about like what the constitutes an
actual catch in football? Which I would imagine all my
years of covering college football is a different answer now
covering the NFL, And unfortunately, Mike, I don't think that
we will possibly have enough time to figure that one out.

(13:15):
But the point is you're gonna be able to join
us every Thursday to talk about every interesting detail about
the game we love. It's NFL Explained. Listen on the
I Heart Radio app, on Apple podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. So let's look back at Week seven.
I mentioned the Seahawks defense entertaining game on Sunday Night

(13:36):
up until in my case, where the Seahawks lost the
game that stunk. The point being with this matchup, fantasy
wise is continuing with the theme when you have bad
defenses in the NFL, you've got to play guys that
are against that team. And the Seahawks have the worst
defense right now in NFL history through six games when
it comes to yards allowed, no one has given up

(13:58):
more yards. The Arizona car Adules were a big beneficiary
of that. You saw, uh, you saw Kyler Murray have
a spectacular night. But it's just amazing to me and
just how bad some of these defenses are. And and now,
if you're Seattle and you've got the forty Niners coming
to town, if I'm someone playing fantasy and I get

(14:19):
to the specifics in a bit, but I'm picking up
as money forty Niners as I can because Seattle is
just showing they have no desire to stop anybody. And
they didn't on Sunday night. No, and that's just it.
Shootout after shootout. And as we look across the NFL,
there's a lot of bad defenses, a lot, I mean,
even going back to the Bears Rams game for a moment.

(14:41):
Here's two of your better defenses, and certainly the Bears
a top ten scoring defense, and we've seen what they've
done throughout there. Some terrible tackling in the first half
exhibited there, and I think that's emblematic of what we've
seen through the first seven weeks of the season. You've
got a lot of our arm tackles or guys going

(15:01):
for the big stick and not landing properly. Solve their
doing his pinballing the guy forward and he's falling ahead
for another seven yards, or maybe he keeps his feet
and keeps going. Uh So, certainly Seattle and Dallas are
are two poster children for this season as far as
bad defenses. The fallout from that game, both starting running
backs came down with injuries and are gonna miss time.

(15:23):
Kenyan Drake high ankle sprain is going to be out
for a bit for Arizona and that really could usher
in the Chase Edmonds era. Drake was actually emotional when
he got hurt. I think that he thought the worst
when it came to his ankle injury, and you have
to remember this guy is playing on a transition tag,
so he has free agency coming up and really hadn't
done anything in the first six games of the season,

(15:46):
so to have that injury hurt him. But you could
see Chase Edmonds taking that spot over. You're still gonna have,
by the way, Kyler Murray stealing goal line touches and
faltering those touchdowns. So that's not going to change. The
seattle out of things a little trickier because Carlos Hide's
got a bit of a hamstring. According to to Pete Carroll,

(16:06):
Uh Travis Homer was a bit dinged up, so they
had to go to the rookie d J Dallas. Not
that Homer would be a play, but if you're looking
for someone to replace Chris Carson, Carlos Hide isn't the
sherbet just because of the hamstring, but if if he
is healthy enough, he would be the guy getting the
touch is obviously, Hey, c J. Prosise just got cut
to come back. No, no more of that, No, that

(16:29):
is done. They held out of that thing for so long.
My goodness, there's a better chance that Marshall Lynch comes
back again than c J. Prosise would come back. Oh
my goodness, I found him out on the wire on
the newsreel a little bit earlier. But yeah, it's certainly
not not clear up. Look, it's a lot of it's

(16:50):
still run off Russell Wilson's arm as we've seen, right,
it's metcalf h it's Tyler Lockett. We'll get to him
in a little bit. Jase Edmonds was one of the
guys on the sleeper, not just because of Seattle, but
also because oftentimes to Site Seinfeld, people hated the drake.
Still among the leading rushers in the game, but he's
not been a threat except once or one or two

(17:12):
games in terms of red zone efficiency. But Edmonds as
a good receiver out of the backfield. That's where he
made his Hey here, seven catches eighty seven yards to
give him, along with fifty eight rushing yards, a twenty
one point performance, good enough for fifth amongst running backs
this week. So uh, you know they'll keep moving and
Kyler Murray's on pace for a thousand rushing yards. So

(17:34):
just always remember that in the back of your mind
he's going to tuck uh and run as he goes.
As you mentioned Dan so uh too, tough situations, too,
high flying, high scoring teams. Uh. And now it's just
rolling the dice. We talked about handcuffs a lot early
in the season. Arizona's got the clear one. Seattle, you

(17:54):
thought you did, but now it's clouded. But Hyde only
owned in about ten percent of leagues. I was in
the unfortunate circumstances because of injuries and needing someone to start.
I had to cut him two weeks ago, and now
it's there wouldn't be a starter. Well, there was, and
there was an opportunity to where Chris Carson got dinged
up and you thought maybe Carlos had was gonna play.

(18:15):
Believe it was the Miami game, and and Carson ended
up coming back and ended up playing that next week.
So the a lot of the hide pickups became useless
at that point. You know, we joke about c J process,
but number one, it may not be far off because
that could be a possibility, and we're not telling you
to pick up CJ process. The point that I'm making, though,

(18:37):
is for Seattle's running backs this week, for Arizona's running
backs for this week, for any team the forty niners,
and they're dinged up backfield, you can't add anybody anymore
because of the COVID timelines that you have for these games.
You gotta have guys in the building, and if you
sign them too late and you don't get them in
soon enough, they're not going to be eligible to play.

(18:58):
So that's actually the one good thing fantasy you wise,
is you know the guys that are in the building,
and by Tuesday they're not gonna be able to add
anybody and put them in make them active for the
next week. So that's at least one good thing fantasy wise.
The Dallas Cowboys would probably like to get rid of
everyone if they could, including the coaching staff. But after
that embarrassment against Washington, Mike, I know that you have

(19:23):
to play Ezekiel Elliott and we don't know Andy dalton
status after his concussion that he has. But our most
Cowboys benchable now because of of of what they are
without Deck. Yeah, I think I think we're at a
point where I don't think any of them are automatic plays,
including Ezekiel Elliott. You watched that game on Sunday. Who's
the better running back on the field? Oh, I thought

(19:47):
you meant the other sidelines, but on the other side,
certainly by by a mile. Yeah, yeah, yeah, McKissick as
a runner and receiver, you know, a little muted in
his numbers this week, but yeah, he's a guy that
I'd rather have that side of the equation. But Tony
Pollard is the better running back for what they have
right now. They've got a bad offensive line. He's running

(20:10):
like his harror's on fire when they get him the
ball as a runner or receiver. Zeke Elliot's afraid or
seems afraid right that he is. Ball security is a
problem and running behind a shoddy offensive line, and we
know he doesn't want anything to do with blitz pick up.
That's he's not even pretending half the time. So I
wouldn't be surprised Tony Pollard start taking a little more

(20:32):
of the role, which made Zeke. Yeah, And that's surprising
because that was actually one of Zeke's strengths was past
protection even when he just came into the league. Was
he was a guy you couldn't take off the field
because he would be able to block for you. And
it's actually one of the better blocking backs. And funny
I played Ceedee Lamb this past week. Zero catches, targeted

(20:53):
five times, didn't have any of the didn't bring in
any of the passes. Some just flat out drops had
had a carry for a yard and that was about it.
You take his maybe upside, throw it out the window,
Michael Gallop, throw it out the window. If if Dnucci
is your quarterback, Yeah, they're none of them are playing
No One against the Eagles on Sunday night. No. I

(21:14):
mean you saw Gallop with what do you have two targets?
I think uh? And I'm Ari Cooper for long stretches
is invisible. I mean, the only guy you have trust
is the safety valve of Dalton Schultz. Just the desperation,
just get the balls out of my hands. But now
it's time to go trade for Ryan Fitzpatrick or someone
to lead your team for a while. Uh. That hit

(21:35):
on Andy Dalton was that was scary stuff watching that
live and in living color. But uh, for fantasy purposes, yeah,
they're done. Here's done. They're all benchable, you know. And
and your your point about the quarterback is, I don't
even think it's Andy Dalton's fault. I don't think they
don't block anyone. They can't block anyone in the Redskins.

(21:56):
Excuse me. The Washington football team have a better defensive
line that people would want to think that. I mean,
they can really get after it. And for the next
five or ten years in the NFC East, that's going
to be something the three of their teams are gonna
have to deal with. But training for a quarterback change
that you hear a lot of Sam Donald rumors, you know,
like that that sort of thing. It's like, it doesn't matter.

(22:18):
The quarterback is gonna get crushed anyway, whoever's back there,
So it doesn't matter if it's you know, Andy Dalton,
Bend Douce here, Ben Siever from Growing Pains, they're gonna
get They're gonna get crushed. Yeah. It It really does
circle back to that opening topic of the Bears and
whatever Nick Foles may or may not have told Brian Greasy,

(22:38):
you can say the same thing for the Cowboys. Right
the injury on that offensive line, it's it's you've got
no chance and Andy Dalton should be operating from a
nine yard shotgun like he's gonna pump the ball on
the way you're at bring out the long snapper and
give him the extra step or two, because I mean,
you've gotta have happy feet and you're you're trying to
get the ball out. Well, I had of breaks the time.

(23:01):
There's no timing, there's no continuity, and and Andy Dalton
had no prayer. Uh. And obviously we know the big
hit that ended his day, but before that, there's no
comfort in the pocket, like and did you ever see
him set his feet to throw the pall? Oh? It
was half half of them were jump passes, just to
get the thing out of there. I would love if

(23:22):
the Cowboys came out on first down in punt formation
where you then had to guess if they were actually
gonna throw or punt on first down, because the guy
would You would have Andy Dalton or Benda Nuci taking
the snap from fifteen yards back, and you'd have to
decipher what is the better play. It's like street football again, Dan, Yeah, right, yeah,

(23:44):
one banana to banana. Speaking of quarterbacks and their health,
we're gonna be watching one quarterback in Week eight who's
really never had too much experience, or hasn't had hardly
any experience taking an NFL snap. But it may have
been the reason why we waited this long to see him.
And that would be to a tongue of Voloa of

(24:05):
the Miami Dolphins. Health always the reason when we said,
why when is TWA gonna play? One of the Dolphins
gonna make a change, and we wanted to know when
the switch was going to happen and kind of surprised
everyone that had happened after Week six, after the Dolphins
approved the three and three with that win over the
Jets and surprising to everyone, including Ryan Fitzpatrick. But the
time is now for TWA and he's gonna get the

(24:27):
start against the Rams. Would you pick up to uh
if he was available in a league entering week eights
and not only just for the matchup against the Ramps, Mike,
but for the rest of the season. Is two of
someone you'd want to stash on your team. Yeah, I
roster him. There's gonna be some opportunities. Hey, they gotta
play the Jets. The Bills have shown some cracks of late,

(24:48):
and we know the Patriots aren't what the Patriots want.
We're not like you're gonna run rough shot and suddenly
put up thirty eight on him, but you're gonna be
able to have your success. I think with two on,
when you look at Williams and you look at divin
Te Parker, assuming he comes back in full health, coming
out of the by You've got guys out of the
backfield that can catch the ball. Gaskin has been serviceable,

(25:09):
and you still have Howard and and Breeda there. Uh
and Gisicky hasn't quite been the beast he was to
start the season. But who's always the young quarterbacks best friend?
You're tight end. He's a guy that's probably been kicked
off to the waiver wire, so might have some value
to be had there. But I think I'll take a
run with two. I'm still ticked off that Fitzpatrick got deposed,

(25:32):
but I'll say that fifteen minute ran for another time.
I I have Davante Parker on my team. I was
hoping for his purposes, that Fitzpatrick would get more run
because I thought he was more valuable. However, I am
now intrigued seeing the great success of Justin Herbert and
Joe Burrow as rookie quarterbacks, just wondering if two of

(25:55):
can do the same and maybe not match their starts
because they're having great starts to the season, but at
least be a viable play and keep the level of
those other Dolphins up. I would take a flyer as
well on him. I would put him on my team,
especially if you're in a not favorable quarterback position. Maybe
you have Deshaun Watson as you're starting quarterback, or maybe

(26:16):
maybe we've got Josh Allen as you're starting quarterback. And
and as you said that, which has now become a thing,
maybe it's worth just just taking a flyer on tour
right now. I agree with you on that. Yeah, I
think part of the dan is just the philosophical right
of Originally it was a week eleven by and maybe
that was the plan that gets expedited because of the
Week seven switch. So here we are and and that

(26:39):
was the the plan. So as long as he's healthy,
let's go see what the kid has. I'd love to
see them open up the playbook and see what he
can do downfield. Just I would like it to not
be a conservative approach because right now that division is
there to go and try to win. So that's where
the intrigued all of this happens. In the straight football perspective,

(27:02):
it's lowabs in Cleveland. Life without Odell Beckham Jr. Is
what I'm talking about. But the bronze broke out without
him against Cincinnati Raiders come to town in Week eight,
but now you see Baker Mayfield with his twenty one
straight completions only stopped by a spike in that game
against Cincinnati, so that ended up stopping the dreak. We

(27:27):
heard Kevin Stefanski on Monday say that Nick Chubb could
be back following the team's by in week nine from
his uh from his injury. So the Bronze things are
looking up after that win against Cincinnati. Fantasy wise without
Odell Beckham Jr. How are things looking for the Browns?
You know what, though, I'm gonna let you lead. I
heard the discussion you had with George Rice Stir on

(27:49):
Sunday afternoon. I was driving around as the world cut
down that there was an injury, and I thought your
analysis was dead on and I agree. So I want
you to take full credit for what you had to
say about Baker Mayfield running in that offense. Yeah, I
I think that it's the Again, the pressure for Baker

(28:09):
Mayfield to get the ball to Odell Beckham Jr. Is
no longer there. You saw the targets that were spread
around the team. I mean, David and Joku wanted to
be traded, and what do you know? He scores a
touchdown against Cincinnati, You know, like there's there there was
enough to go around for everyone. Five touchdowns were Shard
Higgins head over a hundred yards. Receiving, Jarvis Landry is

(28:33):
a bit dinged up as he has been all season,
still a reliable target five for forty eight. The pressure
that comes off of Baker Mayfield to throw the ball
to Odell Beckham Jr. Is just immense. And the Oh
b J thing to me his been. I felt that
Eli Manning had enough, had enough cash with the Super

(28:53):
Bowl wins that he had and the mentality that he
had to allow Odell Beckham Jr. To accumulate the stats
that he did. Eli would make throws that I'm not
sure the quarterbacks in the National Football League would be
willing to make. But then you put Odell Beckham Jr.
On the other side of that, and his talent the
way that it is he can make those plays, and

(29:16):
and Odell's first three seasons in the National Football League,
we're off the charts when it comes to receiving. Now,
considering in his first three years, when we talk about
receivers acclimating, there's no one who acclimated quicker than O.
B J. Did in the National Football League when he
when he came into his rookie year. He was hurt
a little bit at the beginning of that rookie year,

(29:36):
but really was great. But Eli Manning was the guy
to me that was able to make those throws and
could make those throws and was really the only option
in New York. So those stats built up with the Cleveland. Now,
Baker Mayfield can't make those throws. Not physically what I'm saying,
he just can't do it within the system and where
he is at the quarterback and where he is in
his career. So now to have that pressure off, I

(29:58):
don't think that it was a coincidence at all that
straight completions when Odell Beckham Jr. Was off the field.
I think you start going through your progressions more to
your point, you start looking off you know that number
one spot, perhaps a bit more than you do, because
what do we keep saying, Oh, how important it is
to get him in early. Look what they did against Dallas.

(30:19):
They're calling end rounds and and everything, and you know
it's quite calling take advantage of a bad defense and
make it work. But you know that that works against
terrible defenses and well, Cincinnati's isn't good, but it's the
idea of going forward. How do you keep the offense
churning once Nick Chubb comes back. It's pretty clear that's

(30:41):
what your focus is right on Nick Chubb and Kareem
Hunt and then spread the ball around, try to play
a little bit of defense while you try to get
these guys healthy for the second half of the season
in that back seven. But for Baker Mayfield made all
the throws. You know, everybody continued their narratives into the
new week of if you don't like Baker Mayfield, no

(31:03):
matter what he's gonna do, you're never gonna like Baker Mayfield.
He played a fantastic game, took advantage of what was there,
and I think it showed signs and and we'll see
the progression. But when you add a Higgins uh to
the to the mix, and you've got Hunt as a
good receiver out of the backfield, you've got guys that
you can deploy and joke who will be happy. Maybe

(31:23):
he still gets traded if Hooper comes back from his
injury fast, but you've got a guy at least you
know there's a physical mismatch to be had because you've
got to pay attention if he starts really distributing the ball, well,
so I think it bodes well for the Cleveland offense overall.
Sorry to see oh b J go. You know, he's
one of the more interesting characters in the game, and

(31:45):
when he's right and things are clicking, it's fun as hell.
But if Baker is going to have to try to
force the ball, damn eight to twelve times a game,
what does that mean the rest of the offense suffers.
You know how much I hate the Michigan Wolverines, just
can't stand them. But when you when you see Michigan
and you watch them play, I will say this. The

(32:07):
one player offensively that I always thought was a problem
and would be a problem for Ohio State when they
played was donalphin People's Jones. And so now he's in
the NFL and ends up having three catches, ends up scoring.
That is a guy. It's not going to replace Odell
Beckham Jr. But I think that you could see more

(32:28):
from him. Heat to me is a guy that's going
to be in the NFL for ten to twelve years.
It is going to make plays. Maybe it's maybe this
is his opportunity to step up. I don't know how
great it would be. To the point that we're talking
about off now Baker being able to spread it around
and get the ball to tight ends and stuff like that.
But you're also gonna see, I think, in emergence from
a guy like him. I've always thought that he was

(32:50):
a really, really good football player, and it showed against
Cincinnati in Week seven. Well, I think this is the curiosity,
right with the COVID nineteen, A lot of leagues I
know yours didn't Dan, but a lot of leagues adding
i R spots for injured players, COVID related players, and
just generally adding more depth to benches. This is where

(33:12):
I'm looking at a Higgins or I'm looking at him too,
and deeper down that depth chart to say, Okay, in
my nineteen slot, maybe People's Jones is a guy that
I'll throw in right and maybe maybe he doesn't elevate
to my starting lineup. I don't have enough bye week
catastrophes or injuries, and his target numbers don't ascend. But

(33:35):
you know what, I'd rather have that guy. It's the
old philosophy I preach here all the time. I'd rather
have that guy sitting on my bench and rotting away
there than coming into someone else's lineup and beating me
with a big day. Let's get to our predictions that
we hit on and of course our fail yes, epic fails. Uh.

(33:56):
I had a mixed bag on might give me one
reasons because I did hit for the simple fact that
my give me one reason to start a guy outscored
my give me one reason to bench a guy, So
I was happy with that. Curtis Samuel would have given
you a seventeen point three points for the Carolina Panthers
and your fantasy team from his effort against these Saints

(34:18):
on Sunday got into the end zone and I could listen.
You guys need to vouch for me, Mike and Lee.
I told you guys off air that I said I
was gonna say d J Moore, but I felt it
was more of an obvious pick that DJ Moore would
have started anyway, so I wanted to go with a
deeper dive. Samuel gave me a little bit, uh, not

(34:40):
as much as DJ Moore would have, but still I'll
take a win on that. But because I took a
win on that, I'm gonna take the loss on Melvin Gordon.
Philip Lindsay got hurt for Denver. So Gordon end up
having sixty eight yards, did get the end zone at
a couple of of receptions as well, so would have
given you some points. But I'm gonna say I went
one and one in the give me one reasons four

(35:01):
weeks seven. No, Samuel is a great pick. You're trying
to find value and d J. Moore's a guy you're
always gonna start. Samuel is going to be one of those.
All right, give me one of these four, Samuel blah
blah blah. Right, So you picked the one of the
four and he found the end zone. So celebratory dance
for you. Nicely done. Let's get to your hits. And

(35:27):
I don't think there were a lot of epic fails, honestly,
because I know you hit on Herbert. Yeah, yeah, they're
you're giving me that. You're giving me that. Look, but
go ahead, give me your your hits and your epic fails. Yeah.
This is one where I I really I judge myself harshly. Right,
you make bold predictions, uh, and you're guaranteed to find

(35:47):
a couple that come back to bite you on the hits.
Obviously Herbert massive day for him. Kareem Hunt I had
in my top five. Well, he finished eighth, but still
nineteen points at the job, but hitting Hunter total yards
plus the touchdown. One of the ninja's was Chase Edmonds. Uh,
not the way you wanted to happen in terms of

(36:09):
tries getting hurt, but you take them as they come. Uh.
Todd Gurley with the inadvertent touchdown really took it over
finishing fourth on the week. I had him third for
the week. He finished fourth, sixty three yards, two scores. Uh.
We got a whole that's a whole psychological thing that
he's gonna have to deal with for a long long

(36:29):
time there in Atlanta. But anything is guaranteed to go
wrong right now when it comes to that. The Kyler
Murray pick, Baker Mayfield, we talked about quite a bit. Uh.
And then Derrick Henry he found the end zone. But
he finished fifteenth on the week. So he was our
cautionary tale of guys that were normally, hey, you know,
absolutely huge, but for this week, make sure you're maximizing

(36:51):
other positions because facing that Steelers defense and what a
crazy game that was. Uh. He found the end zone
to save you, but it could have been even uglier
on the misses already mentioned. Josh Allen, Yeah he had
three total yards, three or seven in the air, sixty
one on the ground, But that gives him amongst quarterbacks.

(37:13):
This week, Cam Newton thought we'd get some running effort
out of him. Figured he would be a little muted
in the passing side, but to be benched three interceptions,
thirty fifth. Mike Davis was my number two running back. Yeah,
that's not good for anybody. Uh, twelve rushing yards, five catches,
twenty four yards good fort And I mentioned Kenny Golladay. Yeah,

(37:37):
he went over the hundred mark, but he was still
twenty third on the week for wide receivers. Good enough
for a starting position, but not so great. Stefan Diggs
was in my top five, yeah six for forty eight.
He was forty seventh among wide receivers. Will Fuller was
thirty nine. And then I'll be give myself a big
whiff because in my rankings, Tyler Lockett I had as

(37:59):
a mid w r too. And as you well know, uh,
because back to back weeks he scored a total of fourteen,
which meant I don't know what I'm getting out of him,
and instead we get the hat trick, we get two yards.
I think it was two weeks ago, Actually it was
four weeks ago that I tried to convince everybody that
Tyler Lockett was still Russell Wilson's favorite target, and then

(38:21):
I had to admit after the Vikings game that all right.
In those situations, Russell Wilson looks for DK Metcalf, and
what happens on Sunday night, Tyler Lockett emerges again. So
it tells me just stick with stick with your feelings,
don't be swayed by the one week things. Not that
DK Metcalf was a one week thing, but it's one

(38:41):
A and one B in Seattle, and that's that's where
you've got. You lock it with an amazing, amazing game,
but still proud of what you hit on Mike, because
it's justin Herbert was magnificent. You had Murray, you had Wilson,
you went along with that. Kenny Gollady has got to
get his button the end zone at some point as well.
Let's go to the celebrity selections because well, it's one

(39:04):
of our favorite times of the show, even celebrities have
fantasies two chicks at the same time. Who better to
set your starting lineup than the stars themselves? See what's
going on? It's Daryl Hall and Mrs Snook Eagle double Gene.
They rack them, we rack up. It's celebrity selections. Our

(39:28):
celebrity for week seven was a member of the United
States men's national team. Former professional soccer player A Gucci
and Ye Woo was our celebrity picker. You can find
him on Twitter at a Gucci and Way You five
and a Gucci. Mike got bit by the injury bug

(39:48):
because he put in his line up in time for
our episode that was going to launch on Friday morning.
At that point, we had no idea that Aaron Jones
was going to be a scratch for the Green Bay
A Packers ended up being the case dealing with a
calf strain, and so Aaron Jones ended up not playing.
Was one of the players that's a Gucci put it

(40:11):
his starting lineup, so we had Josh Allen, Aaron Jones.
In George Kittle, you mentioned Josh Allen's stat line. George
Kittle ended up having five catches for fifty five yards,
so in the end because of the goose egg from
Aaron Jones, Gucci and way you comes in at thirty
one point six points for week six. It's tough and

(40:33):
we did. We could have given him Jamal Williams's numbers,
which would have been like twenty one point four points.
You would have would have finished with fifty three, but
we gotta go with the lineup. So with Gucci and
Yebu with the thirty one point six with only two
players playing in our celebrity selections. Well, now, to be
fair Dan, a lot of folks would have said, hey,
you need to put Dylan in the lineup. That was

(40:57):
the big debate. Let's dive into waiver wire, moving on
from our celebrities, because we ate the National Football leagual
have the Cardinals, Texans, Jaguars, and the Washington football team
with Buys I, we both talked about two a time,
and it's time for to us to go ahead and
roster him. And I'll also mention that to your point,
Chase Edmunds probably should have been rostered. But for some reason,

(41:18):
if he's not in your league, maybe people just weren't
paying attention. You're definitely gonna want to pick up Chase Edmunds.
But who else are we looking for the waiver wire
in Week eight? Well, we gotta look at p Ryan
for the New York Football Jets. Fifty total yards on
thirteen touches and a touchow. Look, they gotta move away
from Frank Gore. Uh. And you saw that he runs

(41:40):
with a little bit of violence. Uh. Young guy getting
to the outside could catch the ball out of the
backfield going up against Uh. You know this solid team
in the Buffalo defense. Uh, some cracks of late, But
he's the heir apparent, right and Levy on Bell was
gone and Frank Gore is is riding out the string

(42:01):
that I did. I mentioned that we've watched Frank Gore's
kid playing college this year. Anyway, moving on from that
with you know the Carlos Hide thing, Uh is certainly there.
He's only roster in ten percent. Richard Rogers and Jalen
Reagor of the Eagles, those are two guys to look at.
Why Dallas is on the table. But for Rogers, he's

(42:21):
the only healthy guy you really got going. Reager's coming
back off injury. So the expectation is that you'll be
able to get some sort of production out of him UH.
With DeShawn Jackson getting hurt once again, an opportunity still
waiting on alshon Jeffrey as well, bye week. So this
one is a long term play. Is you're looking at

(42:43):
Logan Thomas of Washington four for sixty and a score
against Dallas, but he has scored in back to back
week so a little bit of an opportunity. They're going
back to San Francisco. We're talking about their running back situation.
Jeff Wilson was the number one running back score for
Fantasy per passes in Week seven, but ankle injury. UH.
Tevin Coleman comes back from injury and expected to play UH,

(43:08):
so he and Jamichael Hasty probably fighting, uh fighting for
touches this week. Going forward. You got Irv Smith for
some help out of the Minnesota UH position. UH. Back
to back weeks where he's got four balls on five
targets sixty four and fifty five yards. So take some opportunity.

(43:28):
And then we still don't know what's going on in
New Orleans. So Trey kawon Smith being one of the
few healthy guys running a muck UH four for four
fifty four yards. Obviously the way drew Brees distributes the ball.
You're gonna have some muted efforts, but opportunities all I
can promise. The forty niner situation bears monitoring because he

(43:49):
mentioned Keevin Coleman and Kyle Shanahan even mentioned it after
their winn against New England that they were just giving
Jerick McKinnon kind of a week off, and so Jeff
Wilson and ends up having that three touchdown effort but
then gets hurt, and now you're saying, Wow, Kyle Shanahan
is a freaking genius. Stevin Coleman because he's not necessarily

(44:10):
guaranteed yet to come back off of I R. But
there is a possibility could practice this week and no
more against that Seattle defense. So monitor that forty situation.
So if if Coleman and McKinnon are available, people that
you may want to jump on. Nelson agol Or got
five or got nine targets for the Raiders, And I
know that Henry Ruggs is the the hot name, but

(44:33):
I still think a veteran wide receiver is nice to
throw too. I think that Cleveland's gonna have more of
an opportunity maybe to try to control the clock against
the Raiders than they did against the Bengals. But I
would also look at Nelson Agol or just why not
try to write a hot hand if you're looking for
a wide receiver, if maybe you've got DeAndre Hopkins on

(44:55):
by or Will Fuller or someone like that. Uh, maybe
Nelson Aglar keeps the street going with his nine catches
that he had against the Buccaneers. Yes, we were talking
about you know, with Cleveland Higgins on the other side
is six for one ten, but with Aglar, like health
was not his friend. Uh during the end of his
run back in Philly, and we look at him here

(45:18):
in Vegas. You know, Rugs is the deep guy. That's it, right,
He's what was it twenty nine yards per catch or
something like that that he was averaging. Uh So what
does that tell you? That's just a throw it up
or scheme it out to where you may get one
or two pops a game and maybe you're lucky against
a bad defense that that'll expand or you're getting buried,

(45:40):
So you've got to keep chucking it. With Agil, he's
a guy that can run the full tree. So as
long as he's healthy's certainly worth a look. SI. Yeah,
and I think I said nine catches, nine targets, what
I meant nine targets five catches, very glar but still
was over a hundred and got into the end zone
and tied Darren Waller for the high end targets for
the Raiders, who again have the Browns coming up in

(46:02):
week eight. Alright, Thursday Night Football. This is an interesting
matchup because I think that the Falcons haven't lived up
to expectations, which is obvious. Well, the Panthers have fully
succeeded expectations in NFC South matchup. Christian McCaffrey was able
to get on the practice field on Monday, but still
not likely to go on Thursday night, so you may

(46:24):
want to wait that out. Panthers have a really late
by this year, but you could expect McCaffrey back in
week nine. I'm not mad at anybody in this matchup, Mike,
and I really like Teddy Bridgewater in this in this
game for Carolina. So if you've got I'm not saying
play everyone, but you could convince me to play anybody

(46:44):
on Carolina and anybody on Atlanta and I'd be good
with it. For Thursday Night Football. Yeah, I think there's
points to be had in this game, as you imagined,
maybe a nice bounce back from Mike Davis. So it
doesn't make me look dumb two weeks in a row.
But Todd Gurley's he scored what in five or seven games, right,
I mean, he've got opportunity and maybe this one he

(47:07):
won't be falling into the end zone accidentally. Good for
fantasy owners, bad for the rest of the world as
far as those Atlanta Falcons fans. But we talked about
Samuel and d J. Moore, opportunities there, um. Teddy Bridgewater
is a guy who's quietly he's the top five in
terms of passing yards right now, was number five in

(47:29):
the league, believe it or not, Robby Anderson number two.
He's over sixty receiving yards. So opportunities UH downfield here
against Atlanta, certainly Matt Ryan. He's got three guys that
you could look at when you talk about Ridley, Julio
Jones and Mr Gauge. Uh has been targeted frequently. UH

(47:51):
may may have some muted efforts in there, but as
we know, their defense isn't very good. So Matt Ryan
always has to have some extra ice of all for
the shoulder. I'm gonna make a prediction the Saints beat
the Panthers in Week seven, twenty seven to twenty four.
I'm gonna predict it's the second straight week the Panthers
play at twenty seven to twenty four game. There's my predicting.

(48:13):
I'm just gonna leave it at that. I'll just leave it.
You know. The Falcons are interesting because I watched a
decent amount of that Lions game and watching them. They
got turnovers against Minnesota and they were able to cash
in and it was kind of a no contest. But
to see Matt Ryan and the Falcons, they're very deliberate.
They're not chucking the ball fifty yards down field like

(48:34):
they used to. It was chunk after chunk, taking up time,
keeping the opposing offense off the field. I'm wondering if
that's gonna carry over in Carolina. But it just sets
up to me like a twenty four game. But but
watch Atlanta. It's not necessarily the high flying team that
went to the Super Bowl a few years ago, even
though a lot of the pieces are the same. It's uh.

(48:55):
I felt that they were more uh reeled in against
Detroit and think that was conscious to keep their defense
off the field. But that's what we've got for Thursday
night football, Falcons and Panthers, fun matchup, which he could
flex it out to Sunday. You know, so if we're
gonna have a Sunday game, I don't want to watch
the Cowboys. I'm sorry. Did you catch my Did you
catch my tweet on the the s Sunday night game?

(49:18):
I said, you want to get rid of it all together?
I said, well, I tweeted. I said that the NFL
should flex the Cowboys and Eagles to Wednesday at three
a m. Eastern time. That was? That was? Yeah? That was?
That was? That was? You know, hey, why no, I'm
gonna go find that. Let's get to the three point
conversion to wrap this episode up. I'm gonna just continue

(49:40):
and I'll take it. I say, roll the dice with
Teddy b He Actually this may sound crazy. You mentioned
his yarded, which is something that we've looked out. He
may be a better option this week than Patrick Mahomes.
You mentioned the Jets game with them being a twenty
one point favorite. The Chiefs moves this year are all
about getting back to the Super Bowl, going back Mahomes.
They subdued game in the snow in Denver. If they

(50:02):
get up big, I think that the Chiefs try to
get Levyan Bell his revenge and that they put this
baby on cruise control. So roll the dice with Teddy
b if you know, I'm not saying bench Patrick Mahomes,
but I think that there's a chance that he'll have
a better week. And plus you've got Kyler Murray and
Deshaun Watson on buys already take a flyer on to
us so that we touched on earlier the podcast and

(50:24):
touched on the last week, and I'm gonna say, get
your a game on when it comes to pick ups.
Nelson Agilars we mentioned from the Raiders, but also Brandon
a Yuka the forty Niners because they're going against the Seahawks.
We talked about the injuries that San Francisco has. There
are plays to be had, so grabbed the rookie at
Arizona State if you can. Yeah, an injury to Deebo

(50:45):
Samuel line up and right right once again? Uh a
hamstring injury? All right? Uh. We talked a lot about
the Thursday games, so we'll gauge where we're at because
it's week eight, So gimme Russell gauge In as a
number three wide. We're seaver. We're gonna five the keys
to the handcuffs. Why because there's so many injuries and
bye weeks. If you go through the rosters and depth

(51:08):
charts and find the number two options, make sure that
you're covered. Because this year has well, frankly, it sucked
in terms of running back health. You're gonna need that
help eventually. Don't let someone else siphon that uh second
running back on a depth chart away from you. And three,
it's time to trim the fat. We've hit that point, Dan.

(51:30):
I think we'll probably hammer it more in the next
couple of weeks. But there's just guys I don't want
any part of anymore. I'm selling my shares, So whether
you're trading them or just say it, beat it. I
got t Y Hilton, see you, Andrew luck ain't walking
through that door. I got Devin Singletary, Zack Moss average
seven yards to carry. Your time is done. And then

(51:53):
Captain Kirk with his eleven touchdowns and ten interceptions good
for four among quarterbacks through the first seven weeks. Uh see,
I'm taking you to the tractor beam and sending you
off into space. Are you looking for cousin subs? That?
Do you, guys? If you guys ever had a cousin sub,
it's it's a sub. See Lea's looking at like that.

(52:16):
It's a Midwest sort of thing, and it's the Wisconsin
thing as well. There it is three version from Mike,
three point in version for me, and that puts a
bowl on week seven as we look ahead to week eight.
Get Mike on Twitter at Swollen Dome. I'm at Dan
Buyer on Fox. You can get our executive producer lead
to Lap on Twitter at lead to Lap and you
can find us on the show Twitter page as well

(52:36):
at I Want Your Flex. Thanks to Lee Mayak, thanks
to Gucci and Yau for a celebrity selections. We'll have
another celebrity for you coming up in our new episode
that drops on Friday. Enjoy Thursday Night Football and we'll
get you prep for a week a doc. Then, don't

(52:58):
miss out on the top stories from the best insiders
around the NFL. I'm your host Rhent Lewis Send on
the NFL Inside Report podcast. I'll go around the league
or in depth analysis and storytelling with a multitude of
exclusive NFL insiders getting unmatched access, game recaps, the biggest news,
and in depth storytelling that take you beyond the headlines

(53:18):
multiple times per week. Paul on the NFL Inside Report podcast.
Listen to NFL Inside Report on the I Heart Radio app,
on Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey,
what's going on? Guys on my key out and I'm
a d D King Kabwela. We love football so much

(53:38):
we figured let's start a podcast and call it NFL Explained,
where we just answer all the crazy questions we get
about football all the time. There are a ton of
those questions. DD. We can go through team names like
how the Buffalo Bills got their name or who even
came up with the sky camp because that is actually
a really cool idea and answers to questions like that
and more every third day. Come join us for the

(54:01):
NFL Explained podcasts. You can find it on the I
Heart Radio app or on Apple podcasts, basically wherever you
find your podcasts. You know the final score? Now listen
to the NFL podcast that tells you why it happened.
Do they have a skillar trait that is going to
allow them to survive. Dan Orlovsky, Scott Pioli and me

(54:25):
Boba Schusan. We're tape heads going inside the coaching tape
and giving fans the answers. Regardless of what the hierarchy is.
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