2025 Week 3 FFPC Big Gorilla Fourth-Place Team Owner Stephen LaFountain

Hosts Eric Balkman and the Kentucky Fantasy Football State Championship (KFFSC)'s Ferrell Elliott speak with the 2025 FFPC Big Gorilla Week 3 fourth-place team manager Stephen LaFountain as they break down the 2025 NFL Season Week 4. LaFountain waxes poetic about how he got his squad nearly to the top in the Gorilla, as well as gives some advice for those playing in the 2025 FFPC Main Event, the 2025 FFPC Best Ball Tournament and 2025 FFPC Superflex Best Ball Tournament, too.

The fellas not only offer up some advice in the 2025 FFPC Weekly Challenge for Week 4, but also give you some tips on winning 2025 FFPC Dynasty Leagues, 2025 FFPC Empire Dynasty Leagues and 2025 FFPC Dynasty Start-Up leagues. The players will also take a look at 2025 FFPC Terminator and 2025 FFPC Super Bracket standings and answer your X posts, emails and more all on The High Stakes Fantasy Football Hour!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
What do we make of the ever changing Washington Commander's
offense with so many injuries, how do you handle the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Kansas City Wide Receiver Corps in
Week four? And what is the best way to put
yourself in the best position to win an FFPC Main
Event or FFPC Big Gorilla Championship for that one million

(00:23):
dollars grand prize after three weeks of play. Once again,
this is the High Stakes Fantasy Football Hour. We are
pleased to be welcome once again Stephen Lafountain, the fourth
place team in the FFPC Big Gorilla Contest, as well
as Farrell Elliott. We've got a great show for you tonight.
I'm Eric Balkman. Stick around. Your high Stakes Fantasy Football
Hour starts now. It's down the.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Pressure broadcast live in Horner Raul the world.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
You are now watching the most entertaining hour of radio
on the planet. Welcome to the High Stakes Fantasy Football Hour,
presented by by f FPC dot Com with your hosts,
Eric Boltman and Farrel Elliott. The High Stakes Fantasy Football
Hour is your home for analysis from the best players
in the world at now. Because no one else was available,

(01:15):
here are Eric Boltman and Barrel Elliotts.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Good evening and welcome to all you Frelix and Paulcoholics.
This is the latest episode of The High Stakes Fantasy
Football Hour, presented by the Fantasy Football Players Championship over
at m y f f PC dot com. That is
my f f PC dot com. So glad to have
you a board tonight. This is gonna be a fun
show for sure. You can connect with me on the

(01:49):
X at Eric Balfman you know me from the road
of his high Stakes load on the f f PC,
the Fantasy Football Players Championship and of course uh the
f f PC Insider Access show on the Better Sports Network.
Going to be a fun show tonight. As we head
into week four. Can you believe it's week four? I
feel like every single podcast and stream you listen to
is like, oh my god, it's week four already. Yes,

(02:09):
it's week four. This is where we're at right now.
But it's so exciting to be here and I want
to welcome you in tonight for this evening show. It's
going to be a good one. We have Farall Elliott
standing by the Kentucky Fantasy Football State Championship Commissioner and
the definitive commissioner of Fantasy Football. You can connect with
him on the ex at Jafarrell Elliott and check out
his Kentucky Fantasy Football Championship at KFFSC dot com. So

(02:33):
good to be joined by Stephen Lafountain tonight, coming up
later on in the program in about fifteen minutes or so.
He is the fourth place team owner heading into week
four of the FFPC Big Girl as he chases a
one million dollar grand prize then no stranger to winning
to a winner of several FFPC leagues going forward here

(02:53):
in the past as well, and he's looking to cash
in a seven figure grand prize here as well. If
you want to connect with the show on X it
is at HSFF hour. You can email the show at
High Stakes Fantasy Football at gmail dot com, Facebook dot
com slash HSFF hour if you want to post your questions, comments, queries,
quibbles and complaints there. If you want to send anything

(03:15):
to us, go there or you know the X post
that we have The chat room Questions Fantasy Feedback segment
is going to be up on the last segment of
the show tonight and we'll get to everything there. I
want to shout out our audio engineer and my best
friend Bryce and of course our producer and mutual friend Rob.
If you are looking for weekly action in the Fantasy

(03:35):
Football Players Championship, go ahead and check out m y
FFPC dot com for the FFPC Weekly Challenge. There's no draft,
there's no salary cap. Just pick ten players or twelve players.
If you want to play with kickers and defenses. You
can win up to two thousand, five hundred dollars ten
thirty and one hundred team contests. Only one player per
NFL team there. Keep that in mind as well. My

(03:57):
FFPC dot com is where to go. Remember, if you
want Calvin Austin, you cannot have Aaron Rodgers. If you
want Jordan Addison, you cannot have Jordan Mason. That is
the slant on it. It's basically the carbon copy of
our FFPC world famous Playoff Challenge, which we'll introduce coming
up at the end of the season as well. Remember

(04:18):
to like this video, subscribe to the channel, comment on
the video, share with your friends, share with your enemies,
and get notified each and every time we go live,
which will be coming up Tuesday, and we'll get you
up to date on everything we got going on next
week on the FFPC Families of Podcasts. So I want
to bring up a lively chat room right now, ladies

(04:39):
and gentlemen, a ton of people chiming in right I
will kick things off right now with James Hicks, my
buddy from Team Porky's and KFFS. Good evening, Ferrell Bulkey,
and Oinker. The weekend starts now. Oinker is very excited
for the weekend and he is hanging out with us
tonight as well. James also wants to know what do
we make of Jacory cross Merritt. Is he Jacory Krossky

(05:02):
Merret the law firm, or is he built the ambulance
chasing lawyer we see on Billboard's and annoying TV ads
Roster Clogger or hold Yeah, this is an interesting conversation.
And I brought this up with god who, as I taught,
I think it was Jack Miller from Established the Run
on FFPC Insider Access last night, and I said, and

(05:23):
he agreed with me. I said, the proper way to
handle this is you go with rostering every single one
of the Commander's running backs from Krosskey Merritt to Jeremy
McNichols to Chris Rodriguez. But as it stands, right now,
you start, none of them agree or disagree, and Jack
said he agreed, And I think that's the way to

(05:43):
do it. You want to make sure that you have
these players on your roster, but you have to wait
till these things kind of sort themselves out. Right now,
these things are not sorted out. Krossky Merrit to me,
is not startable on a non bye week unless you
got hit with big time injuries. He's al that should
be on your bench. Same thing with Rodriguez, same thing
with Jeremy McNichols. I think that's the way we have

(06:04):
to look at it at this point right now. So
hopefully that helps you out. James, Tom Smith, Happy Friday,
Bulky and Farrell. Let's get these oinkers oinking yet they
already are oinking as well. And then John Terry, I'm
gonna bring this up right now because I'm gonna bring
in Farrell Elliott. In a second, I'm gonna bring in
my trustee, John Terry Las Vegas Raiders chain right now

(06:27):
that he gave to me as a gift in honor
of Farrell Elliott. Anytime we talk about the Vegas Raiders,
and quite frankly, since John is hanging out with us tonight,
I'm gonna bring this on as well. John gave me
this gift because we're at Paris Casino in Las Vegas
for the FFPC live events this year, and I don't
know if John has seen me wear this yet. I'm

(06:48):
gonna wear it on the stream right now. This is
the Parisian beret, the French beret in you know, channeling,
channeling the Griswold family in national lampoons, Las Vegas, European vacation.

(07:08):
I have the bulky beret right now that I'm wearing
as we answer his question, and I'll bring in our
Las Vegas Raiders expert. He is the defenditive Commissioner of
Fantasy Football. Please welcome into the program, mister J. Farrell.
Elliott Farrell, welcome in tonight. So good to have you on.
I'm in full gear. I got the Paris MFPC bereon

(07:29):
courtesy of John Terry. I got the Raiders chain on
courtesy of John Terry. And he's asking us right now
what we project for Trey Tucker the rest of the season.
Good evening to you, sir, and what do you think
about Tucker?

Speaker 4 (07:42):
What do I think about Tucker? I think it was
a year, maybe a year and a half too early, Balky.
We were beating the drums for him twenty twenty four.
He's a wonderful basketball player. It will be very, very
frustrating to figure out when you should start Trey Tucker
and those that started him last weekend the tip of
my cap, and in the variety of teams that we

(08:03):
have in the FFPC and in the six hundred and
eighty four teams we have in Kentucky, I want someone
to step up and say they started last week. But
to that point, Trey Tucker has always been a deep threat.
He's got a quarterback that can unselected games get him
the ball, and he's going to be in a situation

(08:25):
where the Raiders are going to be trailing quite often
and there'll be balls flying around. The running back's going
to get his, the tight end's going to get his,
Myers is going to get his. But as long as
Trey Tucker can beat the secondary and beat him deep
and Geno can get him the ball, you could have
some plus games. But you know what you said earlier
about bie week situations, for Crosskey Merritt. There is your

(08:48):
Trey Tucker situation as well.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I think I'll bring this up in regards to Trey Tucker,
Dante Thornton was a darling of a lot of people
during the drafting season, and he has failed to show
out thus far, and quite frankly, he's a rookie. He
shouldn't be showing out this far. You have Jack Besh
and Jacoby Myers, who I think are a duplication of skills.

(09:12):
You have Brock Bowers who's hobbled right now, who is
the guy that's on the field, a ton who is
the best field stretcher on that team. Not only is
this guy a lidlifter Farrell, but I think Trey Tucker
has a role on this team just in normal passing situations.
And I think that that's something we couldn't say about
Tucker in years past, and we could say it about
him this year. I went heavy on him in a

(09:33):
few Kentucky leagues, a few Private Dynasty leagues. I definitely
needed him in a couple of private Dynasty leagues as well.
So we'll see what happens there with Trey Tucker. Adam
Han joining us tonight apparently Philadelphia Eagles pass catchers are
fantasy relevant when a team gets to build a double
digit lead on them. But how many teams can do that?
And I think this is interesting to bring up Pharrel.
We're very excited to see. At least I was excited

(09:55):
to see what Aj Brown could do for me this
past week. But it took the getting down nineteen to
the Rams. And DeVonta Smith, ye know, he was involved,
but not heavily involved. And Adam brings up a good point.
If this is what it takes for the Eagles pass
offense to be alive, how many teams are going to
get up three touchdowns on Philly this season. I don't
see it.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
No, that passing game is exactly what it's going to
be last year, and there's one guy that runs it.
It's Aj Brown. Smith contributes to Goddard when he's healthy.
That's what it looks like. And as long as Barkley
is a approaching the five yards of average carry and
as long as the tush bush is legal in the league,

(10:37):
that's what you get when you get involved with DeVonta Smith.
And that's why, as Balkie, I know you have an
intravenous drip to Darren RMANI and all of his information,
and that is why you could tell us that DeVante
Smith never moved much further? Was it a sixth round

(10:57):
draft pick? And I want to roll back if anyone
in Jack Beck's camp is listening to the aspect that
you said he had interchangeable skills with Jacobe Myers. You
just made Christmas for him in September. How sweet it
is that that could be. Speaking of Christmas and gift giving, Balky,

(11:18):
right now, I have you at two gifts from John Terry.
The commission down here in Kentucky. We have zero gifts
from John Terry and zero guests from John Terry. But
I love the John Terry. You know, John Terry showed
up in Kentucky for his first trip this year and
was an absolute perfect gentleman. Perhaps we can attribute that

(11:38):
to his being with his running buddy, Bip Lab, but
he was a pleasure to have and I can't wait
till he returns.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, Bip lad Mendel John Terry both top ten and
the kffsc Man event heading into week four, which is
awesome for sure that we're seeing that so far this
season and as John said, too bad Week three doesn't
pay out. Yeah, it's a long way to go, and
for those of us who are chasing Terry and Mandel,
we are very excited that it is a long way
to go, so we have the chance to catch them

(12:08):
for sure. Permar ninety nine, Pharrell, our good buddy. I
have Luther Burden and Tory Horton as stashes. Do I
drop one of them to pick up Jalen Cocher? I
don't think so. What say you? And I'm gonna tell
you right now, I'd love to have Luther Burden on
my team. I love to have Tory Horton on my team.
Quite frankly, I do have Jalen Coker on a few

(12:28):
of my teams. If it comes down to it, we're
the only way I can acquire Cocher on one of
my teams is dropping Horton or dropping Burden. I draw
the line there. I'm with Permar on this. I would
rather have Burden. I'd rather have Horton than Jalen Coker
at the back end of my roster. Right now, Fero, he's.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Asking for advice and you gave him some very solid.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
And I want to bring up before we get in.
Our guest Stephen Lafountain is coming up right now, the
fourth place team in the FFPC, Big Gorilla, heading into
this week of play. I want to bring up some
stuff that came up in the last few hours here, Farrell,
just to kind of get your take on it going

(13:07):
forward as the final or the Friday. Injury reports came
out for a lot of teams today. Bashell Tooton was
removed from the injury report. He's going to play in
Week four against the forty nine ers. I'm of the
opinion that you keep tooting on your roster, not willing
to play him this week even as a flex. Is
that how you fall in on this as well.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
You can't find many running backs on the waiver wire, Bulky.
If you've got one that any kind of promise, hang
on to you.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Tom Smith wants to know as we continue our Raiders conversation,
he wants to know if Ashton Genty is gonna get
rolling versus the Bears this week. I know that a
lot of rookies struggle early on in the season. We
have seen a lot of rookies, and more so wide receivers,
but it's happening with running backs. Farrel pick it up
at the end the back end of seasons, the second

(13:59):
half of seasons. I don't think we're going to have
to wait too long for gent I do think he
has a nice game this week. I'm looking at fifteen
plus Fantasy points, maybe even twenty, So I'm betting big
on Genty this week. How do you think he's going
to fare against that Bears defense.

Speaker 4 (14:13):
I think he'll do well, and I think if he
can quit being contacted behind the line of scrimmage, he
may just have a chance. Watch that defensive at first,
any opposition that you're playing against this weekend or moving forward,
there's little he can do. If he's being touched in
the backfield a minute he gets the ball. That compromises

(14:33):
every running back skill set. But these people that are
talking about Genty being a bust must not be watching
the same games.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, there's plenty of people. I can't remember who said
this this week. I think it was like Graham Barfield.
There's somebody from Fantasy Points was saying, or maybe as
Adam Harstad from Football Guy said that if you look
at the history of draft capital metrics and kie running
backs off to slow starts like Ashton Genty was and

(15:05):
the people that are getting compared to Trent Richardson more
often than not they end up the opposite of Trent.
I am still very much team Genty, still very much
a team o'murray and Hampton as well Woward. With these
rookie running backs, Ricky Pearsall questionable the play against the
Jaguars this week as we stick with San Francisco. He

(15:25):
did not practice Wednesday, got in a limited practice yesterday,
limited practice on Friday. Juwan Jennings got a limited practice
in today, and I think that if he is able
to go against the Jaguars, that hurts Pearsall a little bit.
But Farrell, I am breaking ties in favor of Ricky
pearsall this week, and I'm breaking ties against Juwan Jennings
as far as starting lineups goes that the way you

(15:46):
see it as well.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
I do, And I would add that health is a
question here, quarterback might be a question here. But one
of the things that I think everyone in fantasy football
needs to look at is the power of the Jacksonville
Jags defense. They are They're ball howking corners that are
not afraid to get physical, and they're the type that
could frustrate a player like Pearson, So you add that

(16:09):
into the mix, and it might be good to look
somewhere else. You know, you've got a full roster of
twenty players. Chances are you drafted a lot of good players.
You probably didn't draft them as high with the draft
capital that you had to spend on Pierso and Jennies,
but you've still got good receivers that you can mix in.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Permar ninety nine also says, by the way, he is
rolling with Matthew Golden over Jamison william this week in
his second flex, he feels great about it. And I
will say this to Permar. I think he was alluding
to what happened on the FFPC Inside or Access show
last night, and I said I would still rather play
Jamison Williams over Matthew Golden. And while I do stand

(16:51):
by that, I think I'd rather play Williams than Golden
this week, I will say that I'm much more bullish
on Golden than I was over the last four eight hours. Obviously,
we know that Jayden Reid is not going to play,
we know Tucker Craft is still banged up, and we
know that Dallas secondary cannot cover Deep. So while I'll
still say Jamison Williams over Golden this week, it's much

(17:12):
closer off for me right now. And I don't think
it's a bad start to play Golden over Jamison Williams Farrell.
If it comes down to Golden and Whiskey Bill, who
are you playing in Week four?

Speaker 4 (17:22):
It's not even a decision. You're playing Whiskey Bill. Detroit
rolls back into their home stadium. This is a player
that's paid his dues, that deserves to start Golden. Maybe
a good player. Balky. You say that the Dallas Cowboys
cannot defend deep, Well they haven't yet, but they practiced
all week. Let's see what happened.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yes, we will see what happened. Mean like, if this
was the panacea that they needed, was a full week
of practice heading into this Packers game, then listen.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
That they showed up and watched some film right exactly.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Racy wants to know as far as quarterbacks go for
Racy this week, Geno Smith or the Raiders. Who who
is taking on the Chicago Bears or Jared Goff who's
at home against the Cleveland Browns. A defense that really
stemied the Packers offense last week. Who you got this week?
Pharrell Smith or Golf?

Speaker 4 (18:12):
We always played Jared Golf at home, That's who. That's
why we drafted Gino Smith. It's hard to pick Gino
roulette of which game that he's going to play, and
you would expect him to bring this one together and
you would expect him to get mid twenties points. But
I'm just going to look at Jared Golf in an

(18:32):
offense that I can really respect, to the player that
knows how to play in that in that field, in
that home stadium, and you add in the variety of
talent that is around golf, and that's hard to beat.
So let's go with Golf.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I'm actually gonna roll with Smith. I got burned on
him last week. I know he's at home this week
and he plays really well at home, but man, the
way that Gino Smith is launching the ball down the field,
I'm just salivating for the big plays.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
And sometimes, Balky, I think that the quantity and quality
of bourbon that you you consumed at the KFFSC has
washed all logic from your tongue. But I will not
abuse you on Gino Smith. God bless you go.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Too, God bless you my friend a couple more before
we get to steal a fountain. The fourth place team
owner in the FFPC Big Gorilla, Steve Irgallos Fantasy Sopranos,
Brian Thomas Jr. Is destroying me. Yes, he is not
helping anybody with you know who has him on his
team right now, parall I'm playing the long game. I'm
not panicking. I understand that this is a player that

(19:42):
has really led us down in the first two weeks.
I still think that based on what I saw last year,
really tough for me to see him just fall off
the face of the earth. This year, I'm still playing him,
maybe with a little bit less confidence than I had
in weeks one or two, but I'm still playing them
and I still have a faith that he is going
to perform and get close to his draft capital this year.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
You should there is variants in this young player's game.
Jacksonville is a team that I looked away from in
the draft, and you know too. So far I was
correct because of the production of Thomas and the production
at the tight end, a position has not been there,
but Travis at the end has been a fine producer

(20:23):
in the backfield. These games have heaving flows to the
Thomas will get his So far no good, but we
could say that about a number of players drafted in
that area. You can't before we get to October. You
can't give up on your draft strategy. You guys are
very very good drafters. You have reasons you made those picks.

(20:46):
You thought about them all summer long, and you put
them into motion both online and live at the FFPC.
You must understand that you were right. Then you've been
proven wrong early. But he's given you great advice.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
We'll try to give some great advice to Tom Smith here.
He's got a choice between Brock Perty or Justin Fields.
Party practice today, he is a full goal against the
Jaguars on Sunday at home. Justin Field's coming back off
that concussion. He's going to go, but he goes down
to Miami on the road, but it is the Dolphins.
I'm rolling with Purty here, Perrell. I understand that Fields
maybe has the higher upside, but I think Perty is

(21:24):
the stronger start for me for Tom Smith here, what
say you?

Speaker 4 (21:27):
If you ever believe in Fields, this is probably the
week to play him. However, Tom, if you're talking about
your teams, both of them that are in the top
ten in the KFFSC. You don't need a hero performance
from your quarterback in purty. We'll give you exactly what
you need to fill in with the rest of your roster.
Depends what your roster needs. If you're off to an

(21:48):
zero and three star and you're down in the second
half of your division, run fields out there and try
to get that plus ten over party that you really
don't need.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
We uh, we do need this for uh for our
show tonight, our guest, ladies. Gentleman named multi time winner
in the f FPC over the course of the main
event and our midstakes contest. And speaking of our midstakes contest,
he currently sits in fourth place overall in the f
FPC Big Girl heading into week four. He's got a

(22:21):
heck of a team and he's gonna join us tonight
to talk about that squad, his other teams, and so
much more going on in the FFPC. Please welcome in,
ladies and gentlemen, mister Steve love Fountain. Steve, welcome aboard tonight,
Happy Friday night. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
Oh no, Steve, you're muted. May be on mute.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
You may be on and hold and hold on. I
think I might have the problem. So I'm gonna test
something here, Farrell. I'm gonna take off my French beat
and see if that somehow unlocks the audio for one
Steve la Fountain.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Steve, No, he's out there.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Oh he can't. Now he can't. Might not be able
to hear it as well. This is a problem. This
is a problem. He can hear us, but we cannot
hear him.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
You got mute, got on mute.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
I'm gonna try to try something here. I just I
tried muting and unmuting him. We'll see it might be
might be on the settings there for because he can
hear us, which is good. We want to hear that.
But most importantly, we want to hear from the dude
who is this close to the top of the top
of the mountaintop in the f f PC contest. Steve.

(23:31):
We got you know? No, still unmute. I'm sorry, Steve,
this is a problem. Hold on, Let's let's try to
figure this out. I'm gonna I'm gonna private message Steve
here and see if we can figure this out.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
To make maybe if Steve would go to his telephone
and come in that one that that's a that's a
that's a.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
That.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, try your phone, Try your phone and and see
if that happens, Steve. See if that works, Steve, and
you'll be able to get on video on your phone too.
You can use that same link that I sent you
and you should be able to log on with your
phone there and uh and that may that may help
us out. Pharaoh. By the way, this gives us a
good opportunity. Right now. Do you have the questions for Steve,

(24:14):
because I'm seeing something weird with the rundown tonight. Yeah,
I've got the questions for you. Okay, so this is
this is on. No, No, I have them, I have them.
I'm just looking at my show sheet tonight. Oh my
show sheet looks jacked up. And that's normally what I said.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
I'm good to go, buddy. I've got the engines on
the seven forty seven rumbling. I want to take off
down that that don that runway and let let's get
flying here.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Okay, hold, there we go.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
There is all right.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
I'm gonna turn one of them. Most got it.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
He's got it. He's way ahead of it, Pharaoh.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Steve.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Good evening, and welcome to you. Once again, technology falls
in the face of great f f PC high stakes players,
as Steve Lafountain has defeated it. Tonight, good Friday evening
to you. How you doing tonight, man.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
I'm doing real good man. How about you? Guys?

Speaker 1 (25:06):
We're doing good. Not as good as you on the
cusp of a no. I mean, granted, there's a long
season to go, but seeing your name up at the
top of the leaderboard for a million dollar grand prize, dude,
that's gotta be awesome.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, it's it's a strong feeling. You know. I've been
doing fancy football since back in the days where it
was in a newspaper, you know, me and a bunch
of guys that get it wrong back in early two thousands,
like even late nineties. But you know, you get a
little better each year you do this. And I'm sure
you can see by the amount of leagues I do that. Uh.
I enter quite a bit of them, mainly because I

(25:38):
win a lot of them. Uh So, you know, it's
a nice source of income on the side.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Dain is your last name French? By derivation, it is French.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
It is pronounced the fountain, but it is French.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Well that put that back on I got.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
In honor of Steve Tonight.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Here.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
See when you are not having a French surname in
winning all these FFPC leagues over the course of your
career dating back to the to the nineties and the
eighties when you started playing with the newspapers. What are
you doing for a living right now? To supplant or
supplement I should say.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
So, I've been in restaurants my whole life. I've been
in an exec chef for the last twenty three years.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
I've been literally in restaurants as I was fourteen, So
I'm heading into my thirty third year of running restaurants,
been in management pretty much since I was seventeen, and
you know that's just pretty much what brings everything home
for the family.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Can we promote any of the restaurants you're affiliated with tonight?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Uh? Yeah, I mean I actually run a private country
club in Huntington Beach called the Huntington Club break in
currently right now. But you know I used to work
with some main name places like Mastros back in the day,
and you know I was there for like six days
and you know, you just just like Fantasy football. Every
year you do it, you get a little better.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Right, exactly exactly? Do you have a specialty as far
as something maybe you like to eat or something that
you think you're really good at cooking for other people?

Speaker 2 (27:12):
You know, still at a core, you know, I came
from a pretty you know, poor family. Growing up. There
wasn't a lot of money. My mom made a lot
of stews and pastas, and you know, I still eat
that way. That's my taste still to this day. I
can cook everything I've done any cuisine. I definitely specialize
in steakhouses and sushi. Those are definitely my top ends

(27:33):
in Asian cuisine. But my tend s is for myself
or not what I would cook for guests, you know,
because it's for me. It's pretty simple.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Oh perfect, I love it. I love it. Fantasy football
portion in the interview starts now, Farrell go ahead with
I was taking a trip to Buffalo.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
It's been pretty simple to head to Buffalo. Just give
us some give us some chicken, leans and a little
bit of James Cook. Now, I you know you don't.
My first thing, my first thoughts when we got to
this question was to say, well, James Cook has been wonderful.
Twenty carries each game, since the Baltimore game. And in

(28:10):
Baltimore when he didn't run the ball that well, he
caught passes to back to back one hundred yard games
versus the Jets in Miami. But Steve I thought, well,
you know, you don't get to play the Jets in
Miami every week. And I looked at his schedule. He's
got the Saints coming, New England, the Falcons, and the Panthers.

(28:35):
Did you know this schedule when you drafted James Cook?
And how fantastic it must be and it's got to
stay that way, don't you think?

Speaker 2 (28:43):
You know? I do look at a lot of the
schedules a lot of players. I come up with a
list of a couple people every year that I avoid
because I'm like, I love them, but I do not
love their matchups. I mean, and the worst part is
you're in the championship and you're playing the three best
defense at the end of the year. It kind of
sucks and not look at that in advance. But James Cook,
you know, I think it's more of an evolution with him.

(29:05):
Let's first off, talk about good jeans. I mean, Dalvin
Cook's his brother and he comes in and in my opinion.
He runs better and he's got a sturdier build. You know,
Dalvin Cook always had that lower waistline and kind of
looks like he could tip him over. But you know,
James Cooks runs hard. I think that it's been a
three years in evolution on him. Of you know, he

(29:25):
showed up at the end of two years ago and
then last year had a great season, and I think
now they're getting to the point like, hey, we got
to let shosh Allen, you know, live. We need him
to survive the next few years. He can't be taking
all the runs. And then when you lose Stefan Diggs.
Kind of they're playing ego lists wide receiver now, so

(29:45):
you know, they're not really looking to call anyone's name.
I think they're just constantly looking to get themselves at
three and one, three and two, you know, third down
and one, third down to two and why not run
it with him one or two times? See what he
can get you. And he's got big play breakability for
a sixty years all the time.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
Well twenty plus carries back to back weeks. We probably
won't see that all year, but you know, two hundred
is the most that he had last year. But I
love this player's situation moving forward. And you know, especially
with all the injuries and lack of performance for other
running back, James Cooks looks like a very wise choice. Congratulations.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
You know, I always thought you could. You brought up
Dalvin Cook and and I'm a Florida State fan, and
I always remember James Cook. He decommitted from Florida State
and and and it always left the bad taste in
my mouth. But as I was scouting this guy for
Dynasty stuff, and when he was a rookie, I was
kind of like, God, this guy looks like Dalvin Cook
was fast, like football fast, not combine fast, because football

(30:43):
fast like James Cook is so speedy. And I'll be
honest with you, I thought that was his main calling card.
But he has shown me a well rounded game.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
Yeah, mister Newkark brings up something very important. He says
it having the MVP as your quarterback, it helps. But
he also the various motion that's going on and what
those linebackers are doing for the opposition. All that movement
back and forth has got to make it beautiful for

(31:12):
a running back because there's guys moving around on defense
and looking at a lot of different things when they
played this team as well as that MVP quarterback and
tucked the ball to take off. So yeah, it's a
good situation. I think fantasy players were too much concerned
about James Cook's contractual status. Yeah, through the early months
or through the late months of.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
I think the biggest upside I saw last year they
really sold me on him this year was how many
times they actually started giving him doing in the red
zone and stopped running Josh Allen this much. Yeah, so
when I saw that, I'm like, you know, you knew
he was going to get the sixty eighty yards. The
question was inside the fight it was Josh Allen. So
you know, he doesn't get any TDS, but he started
getting some TVs last year. In fact, I think he

(31:54):
was number two or something right like, he was pretty
high in TDS. So, you know, I just looked at
the up side of Hey, you know, plus cold weather
ball at the end of the year. You know, I'm
from Ohio. I grew up in that stuff. It's uh,
you know, I'm in California now, but I grew up
in Ohio. You know, you keep the ball in the
safest hands when it's cold outside, and that's gonna be
Josh Allen's and Cook and the end of the year.

(32:15):
So figure it's got some end of year aspects to
it too, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
And the other thing too that I think, I mean,
I wouldn't say it was one thing that prevented me
from drafting a lot of James Cook, but another thing
was the fact that he just wasn't on the field
on third downs. Hi Johnson's He's once again mitigated that
like this, this is a situation where he's he's it
doesn't matter if he's on the field for third down.
He's producing and that's all we care about.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
Five catches in the first game versus Baltimore, which was great.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, I want to shift things not too far from Buffalo,
but let's go further, a little bit further west here
Steve to Detroit. I heard a lot of pundits over
the course of the summer, and I perhaps bought into
this a little bit as well, that the John Morton
offense in Detroit was going to feature lot more downfield stuff.
In fact, we're going to see the big time breakout

(33:04):
season that we'd been waiting for from first former first
round pick Jameson Williams for Detroit and that amana Saint
Brown was going to take a step back. Also working
against Saint Brown was this off season knee cleanup surgery
that he had as well. And to me, it was like, God,
do I really want to pay first or second round
draft capital for Saint Brown or do I want to

(33:26):
pay you know, sixth round or seventh round for Whiskey
Bill and getting Jameson Williams on my team. And I
definitely ended up with more Williams than Saint Brown. You
did the opposite. You have much more Saint Brown than Williams,
and it's been paying off for you so far, especially
on your fourth place Big Gorilla team. Can you tell
us a little bit about why you were not willing

(33:47):
to necessarily buy into hype on Jameson Williams and you
still were a believer in Saint Brown in twenty twenty five,
a decision that's been proving very fruit fruitful for you
so far.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, you know, honestly, there is I'm gonna give a
little bit of my trade secret away here on drafting,
but I do a majority of my drafts well before
preseason even starts, and I know it's a risk But
the reason I do that is because I feel like
the intel I have, by the time it gets to
after preseason, everyone else is caught up to what I
already kind of know going in the season by my gut.

(34:20):
So I got him at even more of a discount
than you'd imagine. I was getting him mid to late
second round in a lot of leaks. So I'm a
big person on analogies. I use them all day long
to inspire my crews in my restaurants. But why in
the world would I go pay a lot of money
for a high end Corvette when I can go get
a little bit slightly used Ferrari, you know what I mean?

(34:41):
So like James Sen's the Corvette that he's gonna get you,
He's go look pretty, he's gonna have those big, flashy games.
But man, you know, Saint Brown has got amazing hands,
great route running, He's always open, he catches almost everything
thrown his way. He gets TD passes, they run him
out of the backfield. I mean, you talk about a Ferrari,
He touches the ball all the time. And let's I
think people overreact on this. That was not Ben Johnson's team.

(35:04):
That was Dan Campbell's team. Dan Campbell helped make Ben Johnson.
That's pretty evident when you look at Chicago first three
games and then Denver was a little not Denver Detroit
was a little sleepy after week one, but they quickly
woke up, didn't they, you know, and not a whole
lot has changed really. That offense looked pretty good versus
Foot Baltimore this past week. Right. You know, I have

(35:25):
nothing against Wilton Williams. Is just if I'm gonna sit
there and buy Williams in the fourth to sixth round
or I'm gonna get I'm ran Saint Brown in late
one or early two. Man, I'm gonna take the guy
that I know is gonna get the passes. And Jamison
missed so much time. I mean, you want to talk
about injuries, Jamison Williams missed way more time than Saint
Brown has.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yeah, and you look at this situation. The beauty, the
beautiful thing about it is you're not You're not limited
to only one decort player.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
So yeah, that's that's another good point to bring up
as well. Guys. I want to bring up a question
from the chat before where we move forward here, and
and it's from Corey Walters hanging out watching us on
YouTube tonight and he wants to know. And I'm gonna
throw this to you first, Steve, as far as getting
your thoughts on this, what is going on with Sam
Laporta right now? So if you look at Laporta's stats

(36:15):
over the course of the first three weeks of the season,
and I think we have to throw on the let's
add some context on this, Like Detroit went absolutely crazy
against Chicago and then against Baltimore. They put up a
lot of numbers. So it's not like they're, you know,
just scuffling along. They're doing numbers here. Obviously Week one

(36:35):
was kind of the outlier against the Packers only scoring
thirteen points, but fifty two against the Bears, I mean,
thirty eight against the Ravens. This is an offense that's
doing numbers. And if you look at Sam Laporta so
far this season, thirteen catches over three games, He's got
one hundred and thirty eight yards over three games, no touchdowns.
Not the end of the world here, Steve, but can

(36:57):
you give some hope for Laporta laporta owners going forward
and what you think has been his biggest problem going forward?
In the first three weeks of the season.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, I mean that one's just kind of I think
it's just bad timing. I think people living a little
bit in the past of his rookie year. You know,
let's let's look at it, and rookie year, there was
no Jamar Gibbs. They didn't have Montgomery or he had
just came in, Jamison Williams was still out. It was
just Omran Saint Brown and Dan Campbell had just gotten there.
They were starting to figure things out. They weren't really.

(37:29):
I think it's more of a product of who do
you want them to get the ball? Do you want
Jamier Gibbs, do you want Saint Brown or do you
want Williams? Or do you want to check it down
to a tight end for five yards? I mean, you've
got big play capability in Montgomery and all those guys.
There's no need for him down in the red zone
because they can run. Like, why do you want to
check out for a five yard pass when you can
run it for five yards with one of two great options?

(37:52):
You don't You don't have to check it down to
Laport's in my opinion anymore. And then you know the
stuff we never know. Maybe the guy's just not the
same as have his knee blown out, you know, I mean,
maybe he just maybe they don't want to put him
those positions. Maybe they're still being cautious. Maybe they want
to turn him into game script like the way Kelsey
is used in the end zone. Eventually later in the season.

(38:12):
They don't watch to other hands early. I'm not saying
he has no value, but you know you're gonna pay
a high price to get him in the earlier rounds
when you get someone in the twelfth and fourteenth round
for the same value, in my opinion.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
And you're dealing with a quarterback that goes through his
progressions and then does not, as you say, does not
check down. He's he's looking for that fourth and fifth option.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, he wants that big play. And let's be honest,
if you had to choose, are you gonna throw it
to Laporta four yards down the field in coverage, or
you're gonna throw it to Gibbs in the backfield with
one man in coverage on him. I'm going to Gibbs
because I'm pretty sure Gibbs gona probably break that.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
But I think at the end of the day, We're
going to see Laporte a pay just about what he
should pay, or give us just what he should give
us for his draft capital, but not beyond that. Yeah,
don't there's another side, and here's another tight end. I
got to talk to you about draft Captain, and it's
it's just this matchup with Baltimore and Kansas City this

(39:12):
weekend is difficult for me to realize that one of
these teams is going to walk out of this one
in three And I still these are my one and
two teams from the AFC to play in to play
in the Super Bowl, And I still love watching these teams.
But I like what.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
I like what.

Speaker 4 (39:31):
Lays in front of them, especially with Baltimore in this division.
But let's look at Kansas City with the tight end situation,
and that's Travis Kelcey. The team came alive a little
bit in the second half of their last game against
the Giants, and we all saw when Kelsey had a
good game and was ready to score a touchdown, how

(39:51):
the ball bounced off of him and became an interception.
Do you think what we're seeing with Kelsey is in
dick of what's going to be forthcoming, or do you
think we're gonna get production that comes back into historical
numbers for him, which would add up to ninety or
one hundred catches.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Now, you know. I look, I've loved Travis Kelsey. I
love everything about him. He's an Ohio boy, just like me.
He he plays hard, does everything hard. But you know
he's been in the career, his career. You know, he's
he's focused on getting married. He's it's the end of
the road. They've already won multiple super Bowls, They've done everything.
I'm not saying the love luster is there, but you

(40:33):
know that he's gonna be gone in the net year
or two. Mahomes is gonna keep going another five ten years.
That team needs to figure out how to play without him,
and I think that right now they're trying to figure
that out a little bit. I think he's gonna still
have some key games. I think when it comes to
the playoffs, sports can always have those games where he
just goes off. They will come intermitting. But I think

(40:55):
that's where you're relying on him for eight to ten
catch for eighty five yards and one or two touchdowns
are over, you know, And it sucks because I think
he has it, but I think there's mentally something going on,
whether they'll admit it or not. But I mean that
first pass around to him where on this last game
where he like Mahomes literally missed him. They are not
in sync the way they used to be. You know,

(41:17):
they had a couple of connections in that game, but man,
like that was eye opening. He I mean, he was
five yards off where he was supposed to be. One
of them was either Mahomes or Kelsey. But something's not
just jiving the way it was. And maybe it's because
the teams told Kelsey things we don't know, like, hey,
you're not gonna see as much play. We need to
see what this team looks like for two thousand and

(41:37):
six and seven, twenty twenty six, and twenty seven. You know,
I wouldn't be surprised if this is Kelsey's last season.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
The other aspect that we had to bring up, like
Corey Walters brings us up on YouTube right now with
Noah Gray. Is he the next great tight end in
Kansas City or you think they're gonna look elsewhere for
the second half of Mahomes' career.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
There, Steve, what I saw in the last game, It
looks to me like they're trying to see if he's
got it, you know, like because the routes that Kelsey
normally got they were going to Gray, you know, and
it was kind of that rollout role. I mean, whenever
you have that roll out to the right and then
did you see the split image of the exact route
running that Kelsey does, that one where he steps in
and he steps out and he's kind of open and

(42:19):
he has five yards of roll to his left. Did
you notice Gray on like the next series did the
exact same play route. Yeah, I mean I don't. I
don't find that as coincidental. I think that's can you
do what Kelsey does? So I think they're trying to
see if he is, and if he can't, then yeah,
they might be in the market for one, or they
might just go into the field of bio one and
draft one like everyone else seems to do.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
There's things I liked about Kelsey's foot moving and route
running that I did see in the end of that
Giants game. It's like he came alive. There's a whole
lot of players that seem to be ghost walking and
the Kansas City Chiefs right now, But I agree with you.
It's you know, since we've got tras Kelsey this season,
we're very glad we got him because he's a pleasure

(43:03):
to watch play football. I don't think no great a
step into those shoes, and I don't think many Tidians can.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
It'll it'll be tough. But the other thing too, is
you won't have the pressure of Gray, won't have the
pressure of having to be the guy. If you know
Thornton keeps playing the way he does, and you know
Rashie Rice comes back and Xavier Worthy keeps showing out
like great can just kind of like be who he
is and and that'll be plenty in that Kansas City offense.
I want to focus it in on week four for

(43:31):
this next question here. Steve and Mike Evans not expected
to play this week for Tampa. Chris Godwin officially listed
as questionable on the final injury report for the Bucks
this week. If we look back to last year in
those games that Evans and Godwin missed when they didn't
have a mecha agbuka uh. And I'll admit that right away,

(43:53):
Kate Oughton was really, really good. You think this is
a Kate Otton week against Philly.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
You know, I would love to say yes, but you know,
sometimes you got admit when you draft some things wrong.
And I drafted him in a lot of leagues as
a late pick, so did I before the season before
McMillan's injury. I had Jaylen McMillan in a lot of
leagues too. I think he's gonna see some volume, definitely
because there's injury. But you know, they were already starting

(44:18):
to get Tesz Johnson, which I think people forget how
amazing he was in Oregon. And on top of that,
you still got Sterling Shepherd, who is a veteran knows
how to get open in the slot. I don't think
it's going to turn into a Katatten game. I think
what you might see is full throttle. What Canamiko umbucca?
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (44:36):
Like?

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Can the guy get fifteen catches for two hundred and
twenty yards and two touchdowns? I think we might find
out this week, you know. I think they're gonna just
go at him. I think the kayd Otten will definitely
see an uptick in some passes from what we've seen
in the last few weeks. But man, I was expecting
a lot more production after him in the first three weeks.
But true transparency, I've already started dropping a few leagues

(44:57):
because I just don't see it turning around. Because if
he wasn't getting it early in the league, with God
went out and and Buka being a rookie, I don't
see how if Evans returns and God wins healthy and
he got in Buka, I don't see where he sees
any more than four or five targets a game.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
But to your point, yeah, anything could happen this week.
He could have a blowout, but I'm not going to
risk it on When I got people like Jake Ferguson
in my tight end spot that I could put in there,
you know, it was in a much better position.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
I I agree with you with that Buka becomes the
new Pookah. I love that. I think they could be.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
What it happens, Yeah, well, that we could combine him
and he'd be Pooka at Buka.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
Yeah right, fifteen targets that would be Pooka. Like about
the talk to me about the Rams backfield coorm ate
into a little bit of Card Williams activities this past week.
I like Williams and he is He's one of the
backs I'm counting, you know on this year, is kor
gonna continue to eat away of his opportunities?

Speaker 2 (45:59):
You know, if you look at the snaps and the attempts,
they are upticking each week one to five to eight.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
You know.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Korm' is a strong back man. He's a Michigan product.
Ego lists he shared the ball in the backfield then
I think with Mullings when he was there, so I
think of the two people he's okay with sharing the ball,
Kyen Williams is still their belcal though. I mean, even
though he's getting an uptick he had eighteen, seventeen and twenty.
I think the biggest thing in fantasy value is the

(46:28):
passes are still going to Kyrie, They're not going to Korm.
I think that my worry of a shift is fantasy
of Koram. Would if I started seeing passes going to Koram,
I'd start worrying more about that time share factor. But
right now, Kyrie's still got the passing backfield option, So
if I see him lose some of that, then I
would start saying, yeah, Korm's starting to work his way

(46:49):
into the touch field.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
I have to ask in regards to the Raiders situation,
and I don't want to make this into a Raiders
show as much as Pharaoh would love that. Oh, I
know you have Jacoby Myers. Do you have him on
your fourth place team right now?

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Steve?

Speaker 1 (47:10):
I don't know if you do. I know you got
him on a bunch of teams.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
You know, I probably do because he was always there
in that seven eight round where I was like, man, like,
this could be a number one receiver in the late rounds.
And I like Gino, and I think Gino does Geno
things sometimes, you know, but for the most part, he
can complete it to a lead receiver. But I'd have

(47:33):
to use my phone to pull it up. But I
can't do it right now.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Don't worry about it, because you can answer this question
without pulling it up. Trey Tucker put up forty plus
points last week, as we all expected, so in regards
to what we saw from a breakout of Talker, I'm
of the belief that he has a significant week to
week role on this team. How much do you think
what he did in week three carries over? And I'll

(47:57):
just put this out there right now. I think a
Trey Tucker's best game of the year was this past week.
I don't think he does anything better than that, but
I do think he has these good games. How much
do you think his role eats into the pro production
of Jacoby Myers on this squad right now?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I don't think it's gonna hurt it that much, honestly,
and true transparency. The way that the line is blocking
for genty, they just might be going more passing. You
know that's not on genty right now. Genty's look good
in some moments when he does get the ball, but
to your point earlier, he's getting hit behind the line
a lot. But I mean, I think it's more of
sometimes like people forget about game plans. Brock Bauers is hurt,

(48:35):
they're not trying to hit him. I'm gonna say easily
that I think Trey Tucker had nine targets on this game.
Probably four of those targets he got were because Bowers
wasn't getting them because they were trying to keep him safe.
So I think he got four more targets and he
probably ever will get. I mean, and Bower's got hurt
in that second game, so he kind of got some
more at the end of that game too. I think

(48:57):
he's still is safe six to seven target. I think
he might get you five receptions if he pops one
off for a long distance, maybe eighty yards. But I
still think your touchdown options in the red zone for
the most part are gonna be in order. Jint if
they can get the running going. Bowers obviously, and Jacobean.

(49:19):
I mean, are you gonna take a five eight guy
or you gotta take Jacoby bones Jacoby Myers in one
on one? I mean, I'm taking the bigger guy one
on one in the red zone. So I think the
big play capability for Trey Harris just worked Trey. Sorry, Trey,
Tucker worked out this week. He just had a good week.
You know. I don't think it meets into it too much.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
Raiders in the red Zone. What a beautiful thought, sunny day, Steve.
I feel very very strongly about what I'm gonna ask you,
and I'm not going to share my opinion because I
want to hear yours and then I'll talk about And
it's a theme that I've beaten on the table about

(50:04):
in this show, and so I think anyone that as
foolish enough to pay attention to what I have to
say already knows how I'm gonna answer this, But Zay
Flowers when he came into the league and still today,
I think he's one of the most exciting players in
the league. I love the player. I love the guy.
I once said he's the most who was the rookie

(50:25):
the most reminded me of Tyreek Hill and that we've
had since he's coming to the league, he's still the
rookie that reminds me, or still the newest player in
the league that reminds me of Tyreek Hill. What we
saw in weeks one and two, it's fantastic. What we
saw in week three, it's a disappointment. What do you
see for Zay Flowers when moving forward?

Speaker 2 (50:46):
You know, I still think he's gonna be a top producer.
I don't. I think that the last game was the fluke.
I think weeks one and two is what you're really
gonna see. Let's be honest. Mark Andrews hasn't done squat
in two years, and then he had the best game
I've seen him having forever. That sounds more like gamescript
to me. Like Detroit, you know, wasn't looking out for him,

(51:09):
and they knew they weren't going to be looked for him.
So they went to them all day long, and you
never know, it could have been game script on Detroit
side that they were gonna take aways a and Baltimore
was like, I'm not going to force it to him,
you know, So they went away from him that game.
I mean, I mean, I don't even think he had
what one or two targets in the first half period, Like,
I mean, it wasn't it wasn't even like they were
looking his way. That just seems to me more of

(51:31):
like game script. I don't I don't think there's anything
to worry about. Zay too electric, you know, And honestly,
I love Henry. Look, man, King Henry is the great,
but man, he has fumbled in two crucial areas back
to back. I wouldn't be surprised if they start taking
a couple carries away and throw a little more for

(51:51):
a couple of weeks, just some punishment, you know. Or
then again, they could just beat him the rock trying
to get him out of his head. You could go
either way.

Speaker 4 (51:58):
But you know, he's been a victim of guys coming
in and getting perfect punches on those balls, which is
highly unusual. And I don't know if any way that
he could change carrying that ball. But it's been some
perfect defensive plays against him. But let me, okay, let
me get back to Flowers. Give me some numbers. When

(52:19):
you say productivity, he's going to be there. What are
his numbers catches and touchdowns this year? His first thing
that pops in your mind.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
I'd say anywhere between eighty five ninety five receptions, eleven
hundred yards, ten twelve touchdowns.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
Okay, I've had him at seventy five to eighty and
maybe six touchdowns, looking more like he did last year.
And when you roll back to last year week three
three for twenty, week four two for twenty one, Week
seven one for eleven, Week eleven two for thirty nine.
Is the inconsistency in the variance of this player. I

(52:58):
think plays into the hands of quarterback who can extend
the play and give opportunities for many, many receivers to
get open downfield. What you just said about Tucker and Myers,
one of the things that you see there is the
big body to Andrews. You see Bateman who, despite some
of his other skills set Bateman does a great job

(53:20):
settling both in the middle of the field and on
the sidelines he gets a solid target and he stays
there for Lamar. I just, I just this is this
is a player that I really love that I think
is overdrafted every year. And Bulky, I don't know if
you can get that Darren Rmanni drip and tell us
where he ended up going. But you know, he was

(53:41):
so far out of my price point and I never
could draft him this year, and I'm kind of glad
that I don't have to make the decisions to put
him in a line up.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
I will I will get that information for you shortly here, Phrol,
but I do want to well, I look that up.
I'm gonna ask an email from Kevin and Adrian Michigan
who he miled in to ask you a question, Steve,
and he wants to know whether Jalen Waddle is a
strong start this week against the Jets. And I appreciate
the email.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
Kevin.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
You look at Waddle, who I thought was gonna be
a huge part of the game plan on Thursday night,
and he really wasn't. He got that touchdown laid against
the Bills. This is a game where it should not
be as lopsided. You would think that the ground game
would be more involved your thoughts on Waddle. I mean, obviously, Steve,
I know what kind of depends on what the rest
of your team looks like. Yeah, in a vacuum, Jalen

(54:30):
Waddle as a second flex or maybe even a first
flex in an FFPC league. How'd you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (54:36):
I mean, I wouldn't hate it, but I wouldn't be
optimistic about it. I mean, look, things are definitely going
south in Miami. I mean, and I let's just say
it for what it is. I like McDaniels, but seems
to right now look like he's a one trick pony
that he came in with a bunch of quick, tricky
plays with a lot of speed. The rest of the
league caught up to him the last two years, and
he hasn't figured out how to adjust. So teams come

(54:59):
with specific packages for that speed. I will say, the
one person I think the benefits when they have those
packages is Waddle. Because you're planning for Tyreek, you're planning
for a chain Waddle. To me, I feel better about
starting him when everyone else is a little nicked up,
you know what I mean? Like there's a question mark
on hill, there's a question mark on a chain. Yeah,

(55:19):
I want to start me some Wattle because I feel
like he's gonna get the ball. But man, right now,
I'm really glad that I did not draft many Miami
players because I the only one I was I wanted
was honestly a chain. And I think I had Hill
in like one or two leagues just because of where
I got him. But man, I mean that offense just
looks dysfunctional right now. It looked a little better this

(55:40):
past week, but I'm not loving that situation. Period. If
I can put him on my bench and I got
someone better to start than I am, I'm hoping in
that league I Draftednia's from the Bears rather than him,
and I am putting him in that flex rather than
you know, Wattle.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
One one final email for you here tonight and Steve.
It comes from Larry in Bensonville, Illinois. What's your level
of concern Steve on the Texans pass catchers given their
poor offensive line so far this season? That is Larry
in Bensonville, Illinois. Thank you Larry for that email. And
I'll expand this a little bit, Steve, and we can

(56:19):
include Nick Chubb and we can include what he marks
that offensive line. We knew that they're losing larry My
Tunsul to the Commanders in the offseason, and it's been
bad so far. But I don't know, like I feel
like when we drafted these Texans based on knowing the
offensive line was not going to be great, and certainly
it has not been great so far. It's been bad,

(56:39):
And I don't know if that really affects what I
think about these players, because quite frankly, I haven't changed
my opinion on many of these guys because I believe
this was gonna be the situation we'd find ourselves in.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
Yeah, I can't figure it out. I mean, true transparency.
I didn't have a good feeling about that offense, so
I didn't grab them in any league. The only player
grab was chubbed super super late because Mixing had the
flag on him. They have the injury and look, Nick
Chubb before he got his knee blown out was a stud.
But man, I mean, you talk about the digression of

(57:14):
Stroud the last two years, he has not looked the same.
I mean, Nico Collins is almost valueless. If it wasn't
for that long pass at the end of the game
in the last one I mean, he's not getting anything.
I don't. I don't think it has any factor to
do with Tank Delbian out at all. I don't think
it's because they don't have the speed option. I feel
like the play calling is just dismal right now, like

(57:35):
they can't figure it out. I don't know why they
can't figure it out, but I I mean i'd stay
away from I do. I do a lot of like
FanDuel and DraftKings. I haven't started a Texan guy yet,
you know, not once, and that is because there's no
way I'm gonna put money on them, so, you know, transparency,

(58:00):
I stay away from him. It sucks too, because there's
a lot of talent there. I mean, let's be honest.
Nico Collins is straight great, you know, I mean product
out of Michigan, great hands. When Tank Gell was going,
you know, Stroud out of Ohio State, they all look
like all the perfect makings that first year, right, but man,
they didn't look too great last year and they look
even worse this year. So who knows? Was it the

(58:21):
first year Stroud just was figguring the league out so
quick and they've adjusted. I don't know, but I would
definitely be afraid to play him anyone in the Texans.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
Well, I think you might have leaned into a little
bit to what I wanted to ask you about, because
you know, I made the gutsy move of announcing that
everyone should should bench Pittman in week two, my favorite
wide receiver, and I'd said he would put up twelve.
He put up eight. Then last week he got back
to twenty. Bulkyd you see how I got that in

(58:53):
there smooth? But in this in this week four, you
talked about a couple guys. See if you can give
us one more that should be set on the pines,
a guy that typically would be played based on draft capital,
and then give us a guy, give us this week's

(59:14):
Trey Tucker. Give us a guy that should get an
opportunity to play and be put in rosters. I've been
working with my lineup, so I think I have a
couple that would not be the Chalky pick. So give
us one that's the not chalky pick, and it make
you look really smart.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
Well, definitely, the guy I wouldn't start is Jamar Chase.
I mean that offense looks awful without Burrows, and that
hurts me because I drafted burrows in half my leagues,
and luckily I had a good backup in a lot
of them. But I mean, you want to talk about
dysfunctional last week, I don't see it getting any better
playing in Denver, you know what I mean. I just

(59:54):
jamar Chase. He may get six or seven receptions, he
might be for thirteen yards, Like, just don't see. So
I would definitely not. I know it's crazy to bench
your number one starter, your number one pick, but I'm
not starting Chase if I don't have to either. Yeah,
but the guy that I like, you know you kind
of already mentioned them a little bit earlier. From what

(01:00:16):
I saw in that game, I think Casey is starting
to try to figure out who else they got. And
I think on those two plays back to back with uh,
you know Tae with Taekwan Thornton, man like that was
electric on those two plays, to the point where he
didn't catch the one, They're like, let's do it again,
and then he brings it down. You know, I mean
they might throw this ball up deep to him four
or five times. It's going to be everyone else has

(01:00:38):
been able to throw all over Baltimore, why not case
And I think they're gonna see what they can get
away with it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
This is one final question, Steve. I know I said
we're done, but I want to throw this out there
because it's getting some discussion in the chat right now
on YouTube Racy Xavier Worthy this week, who is at
home against the Ravens or Jordan Addison, who is making
his season debut across the pond in Ireland Sunday morning

(01:01:06):
against the Steelers. Who would you rather play between those two?

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Addison's completely healthy right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
As far as we know, he's not on the injury
re board at all.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
They're playing pits. They're playing the Steelers.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Right in Dublin.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Yes, yeah, that one A man. I feel like I
feel like they're figuring things out. I think it was
way too early to crown McCarthy. In my personal opinion,
I think they were stupid. They should have kept Arnold.
They really should have. They should have kept him and
let McCarthy grow underneath him. He already missed a year
for injury. Again. I love McCarthy. He's a great Michigan product.

(01:01:44):
He's a great kid, but he needs some time to learn.
I see him more of like an Aaron Rodgers needs
two three years kind of see how it is and
he's gonna pick it up be really good. That said Wentz,
I feel like he's probably already picked that offense up.
We have yet to see a big game out of Jefferson,
and I feel like it's coming and this might be
the that Jefferson blows up for eleven receptions, one hundred
and twenty five yards and a TV or two. That

(01:02:05):
being said, I don't think Addison just goes ripping. But
on the other side, everybody looked better than Worthy in
my opinion, in the last case game. You know, they're
throwing it to Juju Smith, they're throwing it to Kelsey,
They're throwing it to Gray, they're throwing it to Tyreek Thorton.
I mean, it looks to me like they've already given

(01:02:26):
You know, Xavier Worthy is shot in the first week
or two and he didn't really capitalize because of the injury.
He was out right. You know, they were going with
Hollywood Brown. A shoulder surgery. I've had three of them.
I've had three shoulder surgeries in my life. Separated shoulder
is not a small thing when you jam or anything
like that, or it hurts. I don't think they're going

(01:02:47):
to be passing to them, He'll be more probably a decoy.
So I'd say, despite liking Jefferson to have a big game,
I like Jordan Edison.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Normally, I would say Worthy in this sense. And the
reason I'm not going to is not only is perm
our points, so not only is Worthy going to be
playing or expected to be playing with a harness on
Sunday afternoon. There was reporting earlier this week that he
was expected to play but be a decoy, and I
haven't seen reporting done since then on that. But I
haven't seen anything to refute that either, Whereas I think

(01:03:18):
Addison could come in and make some waves right away.
So it's close. I mean, I think both of these
guys are flexible this week, Ferrell, I lean towards Addison
as well. Do you make it a triple score on
this Overworthy.

Speaker 4 (01:03:34):
I'm not going to fight the genius that I'm here with,
and I agree with you, and I happened to like
Carson Wins, so they've installed him in Las Vegas as
a thirty thirty or thirty one pass attempts. If he
throws the ball that much, there's gonna be plenty for Addison.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
We may have lost. Steve, I'm not sure what happened there,
and I doe with this.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
He was contracted until eleventh am.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
And and he's like, look, I'm out, which could be
the case. If he pops back in, we'll definitely bring
him on. But in the interest of uh, we're already
over time here for well, yeah, he might have Irish
goodbye in honor of the Dublin game as well. That's
a non zero chance of that, Farrell. Kf FFC dot

(01:04:23):
com is where to check out the Kentucky Fantasy Football
State Championship. I want to thank you for all your
contributions tonight, UH and going forward, we will be live
again UH this coming Friday night at ten pm Eastern
Time when we usher in the bye weeks, and I
know we'll have a bunch of new questions from all
the viewers that night on some tough start and sit
and quite frankly player acquisition questions as well. Be good,

(01:04:46):
enjoy your weekend and we'll talk with you again next week.

Speaker 4 (01:04:48):
See you book.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
That is Farrell Elliott, Ladies and gentlemen, and this has
been the high stakes Fantasy Football Hour. I want to
thank Steve Lafontain, the f f PC, Farrell, Rob Bryce,
and of course each and every one of you. We
will be back at ten pm next Friday night. Do
I have a guest for that yet? I'm looking that
up right now just to make sure. Yes we do,

(01:05:10):
and it is the fifth place Big Gorilla team owner.
Heading into week four, mister Jason Coe will be our
guest next Friday night. Breaking news. I'm just finding this
out myself right now, so he'll be joining us at
ten pm next Friday. In case you missed the Road
of his high Stakes load On, this past Tuesday, had
a fun little conversation which you can always check out

(01:05:32):
ten pm Eastern Time each and every Tuesday night had
the fourth place team in the FFPC main event. Mike
Edelman rejoined me on that show. Check it out on
the FFPC Socials in case you missed it. It's also
available anywhere you get podcasts as well. This coming week,
on the Road of his high Stakes load On, we
have the seven time FFPC champ Ted Rochus making his

(01:05:52):
return to the program. That's going to be a lot
of fun. Ten pm on Tuesday night. Last night, the
Better Sports Network was live with the FFPC insert our
access show. It was myself and Jack Miller from Established
the Run for two full hours of fun. That was
a lot of a lot of fun, great time, and
we'll be having a lot of fun for two hours
next Thursday at seven pm Eastern Time with one of
my favorite guests, ch Heterms from Optimus Fantasy. Can't wait

(01:06:15):
to talk to that dude again, and that will be
at seven o'clock on Thursday. FFPC Weekly Challenges Live, no draft,
no salary cap, just pick ten players or twelve players
if you want to start. Kickers and defense as well,
went up to twenty five hundred dollars, ten thirty and
one hundred team contests. Only one player per NFL team.
If you want Addison, you can't have Carson Wentz. If
you want Xavier Worthy, you cannot have Isaiah Pacheco. My

(01:06:38):
FFPC dot com is where to go for that. For
Steve Lafontain, for Farrell Elliott, I'm Eric Balkman. This has
been the High Stakes Fantasy Footballer. Remember like, subscribe, comment
on this video, share with your friends, share with your enemies,
and get notified each and every time we go live.
Your weekend officially starts now.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
This has been another episode of the hot Stakes Fatasy
Football Hour, presented by my FFPC dot com. It was
broadcast live and was watched around the world. Bulky and
Farrell will be back next week with more analysis, more interviews,
add more advice from guests much smarter than they are.
Thanks for watching, and we'll talk with you again next week.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
Can one final piece, And I know I've mentioned this
a couple of times on the show, but I want
to give this as a final reminder. Steelers and Vikings
will kick off at nine thirty am Eastern Time on Sunday.
Set your lineups on Saturday night or very early Sunday morning,
so you make sure you have those Steelers and Vikings
started or maybe more importantly benched on the leagues. You

(01:07:47):
don't want to have those players going and for that
ten am Eastern Time waiver wire Steelers and Vikings will
not be available for that, so make sure that you
are not counting out acquiring a kicker at defense or
anybody else from those two teams. And have fun in
week four quadruple header on Sunday with Steelers Vikings kicking
it off. Then you get the one o'clock window, the

(01:08:07):
four o'clock window, and of course, Sunday night football with
the Parsons Bowl in Dallas, Texas with the Packers and Cowboys.
Very excited for that. Thanks so much for watching, streaming, listing.
Everybody be good and we will talk with you again
next Friday.