This is Christian Kirk with the Arizona Cardinals, and you're listening to the Fantasy Football, this podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Football podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike, right. Welcome in. Annie, Mike and Jason, the fantasy football players, back with you Wednesday, October 28, put up with stand victories as we do as we do welcome into the show.

It's going to be a fun one.

We've got a midseason review on this show today.

Some reflection, some predictions, some discussion, oh, so, so eloquent, yes, we've got we've got a lot to talk about. We also will preview the Thursday Night Football game, talk about some news. And yeah, talk about the weather, the weather is changing the weather. The weather is crazy and I hope people are staying safe. There was like an ice storm going on in the in Middle America by my in-laws were over there. They ended up getting in a wreck.

They're safe. They got in a wreck. They're safe. I'm saying I'm too I'm standing out or I'm not announcing that my in-laws are in dire straits. Yes, but I was tracking because because the roads are icy. They're mammoth's out there. Woolly mammoths are back. Yeah. Saber tooth tigers. Right. 20, 20 giant sloths, all the creatures from Ice Age. The Giants lost were part of the Ice Age. The movie.

I don't know. I don't think they actually that is a documentary. Here's what's happening in Arizona.

Arizona, it's getting a little darker and a little cooler, which means we can't wake up. Yes.

You guys have this problem where as world has this problem because the whole world deals with like seasonal depression and the light in the sun. We are the ones that kind of are used to daylight all the time.

I was thinking and hear me out, OK, why do I have no choice smelling salts more like we should have in the studio here.

I watch these football players and they're going to take a big kick and they pull out of smelling salts, give it a whiff and they're like, let's go, I'm ready. I should start our show with smelling salt. I feel like just in the office, like a week ago I was talking about smelling salts. I've never been exposed to a smelling salt. I have no idea what happens. But other than I've seen in NFL players face after they take a whiff of that stuff, that's much different than bath salts, right?

I oh yeah. You turn into a zombie and you do bad things.

OK, so just making sure. But no, you're right. They're not common enough in other industries. Reisen Very good point.

Brooks Jeremy, please get on this. I say school school teachers use them a lot.

They write before class big business meeting. I mean, what what are we doing wrong? Jason, you're on to something. All right, let's get hype. This is because Mike said moments before we started the show I could go for a nap, right? Oh, man. It's eight forty in the morning. Yeah, perfect nap time.

So we don't adjust. Well, in Arizona. That's what we learned. We got a Halloween show coming up on Friday. You do not want to miss that.

I also want to invite you to take a visit on the worldwide web over to join the dot com and check out the community of almost I think it's eighteen thousand foot clan supporters. You get a bonus weekly episode, you get premium perks, get resources, you get a boat, we send you a boat. We do giveaways. You pay one of the times it'll be a boat maybe. What is shipping on a boat? I mean, if you have to actually I mean, you've got to go free.

You've got to create that thing. Yeah. Wait, you're going to ship the boat by land? That's correct. Yeah. Thank you, Al. We're not going to ride the boat.

Al rarely jumps in on the show, but it's been a freight problem. He's got Al Gore going to drive this thing out there. We probably won't ever make it. It's just sitting in a boat where I will take my nap. You may or may not get a boat, check it out and join the foot dotcom, become a part of the community, get access to a ton of cool perks. We'll be recording our bonus episode later this afternoon.

So you don't want to miss it. Let's do some bycel. Buy or sell presented by pristine auction. Oh, no, oh, no. Oh, yeah, let's focus on what happened last week. Oh, you two decided to align all of your opinions to celebrate Best Friends Week. And you guys were perfect.

You sold Devon. We all sold Devon Singletary. Oh, it's easy to sell my life as a top 20 running. We can we stat him or put him in this part of the show every week. OK, if Devon Singletary was the easiest sell of our lives against the Jets, Devon Singletary should be on waiver wire. Based on that, he shouldn't he shouldn't be on the waiver wire because he has a running back that if Zack Moss misses time, Devon Singletary is a good play like so and vice versa.

But together they're both bad plays. Exactly. So he I guess he could be on the waiver wire.

But then if then there will be a clamoring to get him, he'll be a hot pickup. All right. Big Ben, 250 passing yards against Tennessee. Oh, this was a close one, though. You guys got it.

You both bought he hit 268 against Tennessee. That's right. And then more. Seventy five receiving yards. You guys both bought it. He hit 93 again because ninety three is where he wants to beat J. 93. Yeah. All right. Week eight edition of Bycel. Let's start here. Josh Allen against New England.

Will he be a top ten quarterback who threw the first four weeks of the season? He was the quarterback. Six or better each and every week. The past three weeks. Not so good quarterback. Fifteen or worse. Each and every week. It kind of stinks because for those of us that invested in Josh Allen, you pretty much after four weeks you're not committed, you're going to start him every week. You know what the upside is, and yet you've received some disappointment.

It is actually interesting. You're you're speaking to me here in the League of record. Josh Allen is my quarterback. I've gotten off to a hot start. I'm whatever it is, six and one. I'm not looking to the waiver wire. I have Josh Allen. He's in my lineup. He's who I'm going to start this week and I'm going to sell at the same time that he's not going to be a top ten quarterback.

Isn't that a weird situation? That is really weird, because I'm sure the guys like Teddy B are chillin out on our waiver wire.

I think what it is, it's a matter of longevity. I don't you know, he's not a stream guy. He's not a guy. I'm going to be able to drop to the waivers. So I don't want to take up another roster spot with a second quarterback to maybe be better than Josh Allen, because we know Josh owns Peaks, our forty point games. But the New England Patriots, if you if you look on the course of the season, they have literally only had a quarterback one a single time.

We're going into week eight and it's only been once and it was only Russell Wilson that great week to primetime game. Josh Allen has not been great the last couple of weeks. And I've been making excuses. I'm going to sell here.

Yeah, I get it. I'm going to buy it. I think he'll be at the back eight, nine, ten this week. I don't think it's going to be an explosion type of game, but he's due for some more passing touchdowns than we've seen over the last three weeks. Some things just have not come together. You know, you're going to get the rushing baseline. He may rush in a touchdown, too. I'm going to buy. I will be selling.

All right.

Ronald Jones at the New York Football Giants. Seventy five total yards, buy or sell. He's topped one hundred yards three weeks in a row. Or he did top one hundred three in a row weeks, four, three, six. Without Leonard Fournette, he only had fifteen opportunities last week, only ended up with thirty six yards. I'm going to sell this. Yeah, this one is a sell. This is what we were talking about of a couple of weeks ago, highlighting Ronald Jones when he was on a tear because Leonard Fournette was missing time.

Leonard Fournette I'm sorry, Ronald Jones is a good runner. He he's not a complete three down running back. It's a wild world where you need a pass catching running back and you're like Leonard Fournette. That's the guy we'll turn to. I know he caught a bunch of passes last year, but it's when it comes to efficiency and specializing at that, Fournette is just capable. Ronald Jones is not capable of being the passing downs running back. And that turned in to Leonard Fournette seeing seventy eight percent of the running back targets last week that turned into Leonard Fournette seeing fifty six percent of the snaps.

Forty six percent of the running back at Temp's. I got a theory on it. All right, let's hear.

This is why Leonard Fournette to pass catching back now it's easier to catch the ball when you're running slow and he slowed down over the course of his career and now it's easier.

I mean if you're running full speed, Ronald Jones coming out of there like a bat out of hell. I mean, that's true.

It's hard to hard to put it, you know, in the right spot if someone's going full speed. Yeah. So that's a great point I'm going to tell as well.

OK, Robert Woods against Miami, a top twenty wide receiver finish.

He hasn't done it since week three. Miami has been good.

This is really is a great line, Brooks. Yeah, because if you look at the last couple of weeks, Robert Woods was two of the last three weeks. He's very good, but he didn't crack that top twenty. He is a consistent, you know, very high floor type of player usually, but he's not a touchdown guy, generally speaking, in his career. And when you don't get the touchdown and he's already got three on the year.

Yeah. That's approaching his, you know, career high. When you don't get the touchdowns, it's hard to be in the top 20. So I go back and forth on the other side. I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but his home road splits short sample size so far. But he's been much better on the road than he has been at home. Averaged fourteen point one fantasy points versus eight.

The match up is Guzzo. So what are you where you give an answer now, I'm going to buy, but I'm going to see him as a top twenty wide receiver this week, I'm going to sell it. Yeah, I'm going to sell as well. I mean, the the DBS in Miami and the defense, it's it's no joke man.

There you got time. We brought these best friends up. They, they, they still have the stink of the last few years on them. And this is this is a transforming team right now. I agree. Which is why to a better win that was by herself from pristine auction, pristine auction dotcom used to code ballers get a ten dollar credit stock news. News& notes from around the league. I regret my bike, that breaking news, I regret buying time.

It's so funny, it's too late, man. Your bet is that once you got the drop goes, dang it now takes you back.

We also have our our waivers in our league of record is going through in about 12 minutes. And we talked yesterday. Was it tough waiver show? I hope we've had a tougher waiver, so to kind of we have differences of opinion on a number of players and that's based on the fact that we don't have a lot of information. I just thought I would let people know, because one of the things that separates this show, I hope, is that, look, we wear our heart on her sleeve.

Each of us, we have teams and that we really, really care about. And we're one with the foot clan in terms of the emotions that come with fantasy football. And we talked about you have to shoot your shot on certain players. So I'll let you know where I where I'm shooting my shot into 12 minutes. We'll see what happens. I'm doing it on Tevin Coleman, OK? And and so I think he'll be back this week. I do.

And even if he's not, I think he's the back for I mean, how long is it going to be till Mostert and Jeff Wilson and return? I mean, that's two, three, four weeks. Right. So I think Coleman will have a premier role in the offense beyond this week, even if he doesn't start, which heavily influenced my decision to pretty much not invest in Hasti and to invest in Tevin Coleman, which I didn't really have conviction about for the record, and why I didn't bring it up on the show yesterday as much until late yesterday afternoon when Kyle Shanahan came out and said, look, we think we're going to get Tevin Coleman back.

Right. And if I've learned something from Kyle Shanahan from all of one week ago, it's that he's a loyalist to this running back room eight. You've seen it with his lack of care for Jerrick McKinnon to a degree. I mean, as soon as last week happened. And they're like, yeah, we're probably going to get Jeff Wilson back off of we just did this. Yeah. And then he's like, OK, Jeff Wilson, you get all the carries.

I agree. And it's it's big of you to bring it up on the show. That being Jeremy Al Borland was asking me for advice from his father last night. And because it wasn't on the show, I really didn't want to give him the advice that Caltrain did say they're hoping to have to have him coming back because I'm with you on that. I have I have moved in that direction because of the expectation that they might have Tevin Coleman back.

We'll see.

Well, it's big of me, but I mean, it's not that big of me because I checked all of your budgets like Al Borland. I checked your budget. Mike checked yours, Jason. I checked yours.

I'm betting more than all of you have. OK, well, there you go.

And I will say small of me, what sucks is last week, heading into the weekend, Tevin Coleman is I really wanted to add Tevin Coleman. Yeah. And so we have two spots in our league record. And on my ear spot was Zach Ertz, who got locked because of the Thursday game so I could not move, which we just talked about on the show blocking. I could not move Austin Hooper into my ear. So I was not able to put Tevin Coleman onto my bench.

And it was just another another haymaker thrown from old Zach Ertz, even from the bench, even from the ah, he can throw his grave.

He's still shutting me down.

At least you're not bitter. Oh, he's on the waiver wire now. If anyone wants to go pick them up past. All right. I did say we're going to talk about some news. The Texans are closing their facility due to a player testing positive for covid-19. However, in this one small instance, in twenty twenty covid-19 has chosen wisely are on by and hopefully nobody else gets infected. They got time to get through this. Christian McCaffrey designated to return from where he is practicing.

We have the Thursday night preview coming up. And I will ask a very simple question. Based on your current read on Christian McCaffrey, do you expect to see him suiting up for Thursday? No, I do not either. I'm with you guys. I don't think he'll play, but I have the chance of about 10 percent right now. Dalvin Cook will practice today. Mike Zimmer said he assumes he'll be ready, so expect Dalvin Cook to return.

And then Doug Peterson says Myles Sanders and Lane Johnson day to day.

Oh miles from tomorrow.

And I need you buddy. You know what Mike. You were. You were. Bitter. Yes, about Myal Sanders showing up is doubtful in one of your leagues, causing you to not be able to move him out of the, you know, into the yard. And here you are with some news that he could.

This is this is fantastic. Oh, now you're fine. Yeah. Oh, my. Sanders is the best. Also, speaking of great news, out jefferys foot is cleared. Oh, that's great. Let's pick them up. Also, bad news.

Alshon Jeffery now has a calf injury, so this dude don't pick him up.

His body is just breaking down. He's into at a cellular level and shoulders, knees into knees.

I was getting in with. Yeah, you were.

But yeah, I mean, Jeffrey is not somebody that you can really look at for the rest of the year. I don't think with you're coming back with the emergence of Travis Fulgham. Nope. All right. A reminder, drop it like it's hot. Drop like a song. See who your league has dropped.

Getting more important each and every week because people are giving up on players, players like Zakar just flying into the waiver wire. Yeah, go pick them up and see who your league mates dropped today. He is. He is in my list. Good. Pick him up. He's low on my list. He's in there. I know. Enjoy. And I literally the whole time I'm like, do I really want to get them notes? I put them like that at the end and I'm hoping I don't get him, but he's still on it.

And what does that say? It's like I he feels like a trap.

No, it's no he's really good.

I can't believe I had to drop him. I mean, terrible.

He's zakar it's these kids are kids. I'm, I'm still I can tell by putting him low on my priority list. All right. Before we get into one of the best drops of all time and a great midseason review, I want to thank today's sponsor. Hello, Fresh. Hello. Fresh is awesome, especially this year where we've been doing so much cooking at home. Hello. Fresh makes it easy because you're going to get new meals all the time.

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And ladies and gentlemen, want to tell you, some of you already are in the know, but some of you don't want to tell you about our other podcast, the Spit Ballers podcast, if you like, the nonsense that happens on this show. If you're just looking for an hour of relief, a a time, you can laugh a hearty belly laugh.

Oh, about nothing.

It's usually more realistic than Andy's left that he just gave us a humorous bit of comedy show. You can listen by yourself. We can listen with the whole family. They come out on Monday. It's a really good time. Everyone's looking for a break from life right now in the Spitfire's podcast.

Everybody will give you the. No, not we're not funny enough. I mean, it's not like we're going to win the, you know, best comedy show award for podcast awards back to back years. Of course, we would not do that. And if we did, we would never bring that up and gloat about it. Never, not us. It's one of the most humble comedy shows that you can listen to. Super humble.

Review SARS ranks. All right, we do have that. That's the drop from from the distant past. Review a source, Rex is back because we're doing a midseason review.

Yeah. When Jason didn't come in, this one comes in from. Yeah, this one comes in from midseason review. Yeah.

The alarm went off in my head of saying the show's show's going wrong.

All right.

We want to bring you a little midseason review, make some predictions. Let's talk about quarterbacks right now. This is always fun because, you know, looking at it in totality, halfway through the year, here are the top 12 quarterbacks in fantasy points per game with a minimum of five games played in four point per passing touchdown leagues right now. Numero uno. I think we know, but it's getting tight, Mr. Unlimited. Yes, we don't have that.

Yeah, we do. Oh, I don't see it in there. Get it in there, Al-Hammadi. Oh, thanks.

Well, thanks. Oh, there it is. Unlimited.

I feel like we're not allowed to like my skin crawl. We're not allowed to play that drop only once.

No. Limited number one, Russell Wilson. Number two, Cayler Murray. And it's close. They're getting real close. Tyler just won his second offensive Player of the Week award in three weeks. Dak Prescott is number three or one out. Justin Herbert is at four points per game. You're darn right he is. Patrick Mahomes at five, Josh Allen at six. Deshaun Watson moving up to seven. Aaron Rodgers at eight. Ryan Tannehill at nine. Tom Brady's at 10.

Carson Wentz at 11.

And Matt. Mr. Limited, Lamar Jackson at 12 UIF, if if you ask someone who's been better for fantasy this year, Carson Wentz.

Oh, oh yikes.

I mean there was someone on Twitter that asked me yesterday, do I trade Lamar Jackson for Tom Brady? Now. The answer could be yes, I mean, Antonio Brown, you you package trade that, but what if you can't?

Because we want to move the conversation more. Yeah, right now if you're coming off of if you have Tom Brady and he just scored five touchdowns and he gets Antonio Brown and he's looking like, you know. MVP candidate, right? And then somebody is living with the lumberjack. I mean, this is a hard thing psychologically to do if you have Tom Brady right now. Jason, are you going to go trade him for Lamar Jackson because you're saying look at what Lamar did last year.

I want that. Yeah, that is it's difficult.

You're not going to find a fantasy manager who is wanting to get rid of Tom Brady is different because a lot of times sometimes you wait for a big game and sell high and you think, OK, maybe that's what's going to happen with whoever has Tom Brady.

But the difference is Antonio Brown. The difference is he's on fire right now and then he's getting the best wide receiver of the last decade. And granted, we don't know how that's going to mesh, but that receiving corps is outlandish. And if Tom Brady from here for the rest of the season averages three touchdowns game, it could happen.

Now, Brooks gave us a good thing to point out here. Lamar is coming back from the bye week. We always talk about the strategy of buying the extra game. Tom Brady's bye week is week 13. That could be timed very poorly for your your fantasy needs if you have a win and get in a situation in week thirteen. But part of this review is we are asking ourselves the question, who was somewhat inside the top 12 that you think will finish outside the top 12?

And my answer is Lamar Jackson. I know it's and I'm trying to be measured and I don't want to be hot. Take and pile on to Lamar Jackson. But one, he's he's not throwing the ball. Well, he could still run run like the dickens. But but he but he deep ball accuracy is trash right now. Maybe the bye week. They get it together. They've rallied. But here's what's happening to Lamar Jackson. Here's the schedule for him.

Oh, Pittsburgh, the Colts, the Patriots, the Titans. And then we follow that up again with Pittsburgh. Those are the next five matchups for Lamar Jackson. Now, Lamar is supposed to be matchup proof. He is supposed to be, but we already have three stinkers from Lamar Jackson, including a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. So I have my concerns. While Tom Brady is Tom Brady, Tom Brady, you'll probably give you some duds, I believe.

But he is surging forward with the team and the team is going to get better. So this is Lamar Jackson is my my is I raised my hand and I stick my head on the bushes and whisper. I think Lamar Jackson might not finish in the top twelve.

And if you drafted him, you spent a lot of draft capital to get a known commodity superstar. You look at a lot of these names, and this is why we say in the draft season to not draft your quarterbacks early because Cuyler wasn't super early. Justin Herbert, I mean, he wasn't drafted early. George Allen was still a little later. Deshaun Watson was falling in draft. Ryan Tannehill was super late. Nobody wanted Carson Wentz with the injuries.

This is you know, it's the same as it is every year. My player, who I think is going to fall out of the top twelve while I love what I've seen, he's been on fire the last several weeks. He's the quarterback one. But Justin Herbert is a rookie. I don't believe that he is going to smash all rookie records of all time by the end of this season, even with him missing week one as a starter. And at some point I think he will come back to Earth and fall on a fantasy finish forecast.

So I am I am picking big herb to drop out of the top twelve. And it saddens me interesting.

Right now, Herbert is averaging about twenty five fantasy points a game.

I was curious where Burgh was, but Burroughs had some rough weeks, which is what you're kind of talking about.

Exactly. I believe Burrow is a better quarterback than Justin Herbert in real life. I don't know. I mean, the argument certainly I think they're both great.

And but you make a good point, because when I my perception of Burrow because of a couple of explosion games was that he's getting it done every week and because he's on pace for a record breaking forty six hundred yards, you think, OK, fantasy wise, he's been good. But before this last week against Cleveland, Burrough was fourteen twenty nine twentieth thirteenth on the week and I certainly don't believe Herbert will stay at four. But I think I'll stay inside the top 12.

I'm going to go with Aaron Rodgers as my pick. He's sitting at eight right now in points per game and.

I think it's going to be close for Aaron Rodgers, he's certainly a reliable fantasy starter, somebody that you can you can throw in there and get the five touchdown week. But the the kind of DNA of this team is still Aaron Jones, the running game, the defense last year, Rodgers wasn't in this category, so I'll have him slip out. Although, Mike, your point on Lamar. With him being at 12th right now already. And that gauntlet, I mean, Pittsburgh twice in five weeks is enough to dissuade you from a player like like I would I was going to say that the Brady Week 13 by doesn't really bother me.

In general, like with this trade, and that was before I looked at the schedule for Lamar Jackson, so I would trade for Brady, I'd be shopping Lamar for Brady man.

And that is a compelling argument to make if you are the one with Lamar. Yes. Let's get a package. It's the old man. I mean, just. Yeah, try to get more than Brady, but you might not be able to off of a five touchdown week and then is there.

The world is there. Jason, Jason's trying to keep his opinions to himself. Look, when you watch Lamar Jackson play this season, he has been flat, flat out bad at quarterback. He is a phenomenal mobile running option. But when he throws the ball, he has missed too many good reads. I mean, he's making the right read. He's just not hitting the player. But it is a scary proposition to give this piece of advice because will anybody be surprised if all of a sudden he comes out of the buy?

They've worked those things out, good head coach, good team, and they start scorching earth on offense.

And all of a sudden, Lamar, when he had he had the knee injury. So he didn't run a little bit for a couple of games. Maybe he gets that going after the ball. You're right. But surprised. No, not at all. And Lamar Jackson, if we're saying just finishes as a top twelve guy in between here in week sixteen, Lamar Jackson has the ability to have he was the number one guy on the week because he ran into touchdowns and he threw for two and he spikes his points all the way up to finishing as a top twelve guy.

So I'm just he is not an absolute must sell for me. I just want to to point out to people what has happened and what he what he's looking down, coming into the future.

Defense is so good.

You just don't need him to throw, although they might, against Pittsburgh twice in that situation.

Al, did you I notice I got Tevin Coleman. What you pay. I paid forty six for. Wow. OK, did you have a bid in on Coleman before this discussion. Thero I did. OK and so Al Al had a bit of thirty six so I don't feel too bad about that.

Not bad. But I also just lost Bekerman need to start this week and hoping that's him. All right. Drew Brees is the player I think could sneak into that fantasy points per game. Great offense. Michael Thomas coming back. So that's my call there. Jason, who do you think can get into that top twelve and points per game at the quarterback position at the quarter?

It's Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan has been unbelievably good in all the games that he's had. Julio Jones, he missed Julio Jones for a couple of games. So if Julio's there for the rest of the season, I think Matt Ryan will be a great start.

Restasis Yeah, I'm a Jason. Matt Ryan. OK, all right.

Running backs, top twelve right now in fantasy points per game with minimum five games played in half PPR. Alvin Kamara is number one Dalvin Cook set to Aaron Jones at three. Derrick Henry at four. First surprise here. Number five, James Robinson ahead of me, I had a physical Eliot at six, Chris Carson at seven. Kareem Hunt at eight. Girls at Nine Mile, Sanders at 10, Joe Mixon at 11, Josh Jacobs at 12. And those first three names, Kamara, Cooke, Jones, in games that they've played.

No doubts whatsoever. You did have one dud game for Derrick Henry, but he's been outstanding since then. We wanted to kind of a slow start, but he's been great. James Robinson, a couple of mediocre games. But I mean, you're probably flexing James Robinson. So let's have that same question, though, inside the top 12 that you think will be out by seasons end.

So when I looked at this, I just you know, the reality is there's going to be a couple of these guys who are out by season end and it's going to be because of injury. Right? Not just because they're not good enough for their offense changes or their defense changes. And my big concern with here is, is Myles Sanders. Hey, day to day sounds great. Maybe he will be back this week. Maybe he won't. But will he stay healthy?

Will he continue to be on the field? Because so far this is his first time where it's like, you know, coming in in the off season, I was all about the hype that he was one of the rare true three down backs. He was a true workhorse, which is an absolute must for fantasy football. I loved him. I have him in about half of my leagues. I've got Miles Sanders and I'm thrilled when he's out there on the field.

I love it, but I just worry whether his body can take that or not because we didn't see him get a full 300 Kerry or touch workload in his rookie year and then continue on. This was the first time that they're saying, you're our guy, we're going to put the weight of the team on your shoulders. And so far, he's had a couple of injuries now. So I just worry whether he could stay on the field. He's great when he's on it.

Yeah, I went with Todd Gurley, the touchdown dependent Todd Gurley, older back, more tread on the tires. He's only sitting at nine in terms of fantasy points per game.

So over the top, he probably won't finish in the top twelve. I don't think so. It doesn't feel like he will.

But at the same time, you look at the last four weeks and he's got three top twelve finishes to number three finishes. Yeah. And his workload is actually going up.

He tried real hard not to finish in the top twelve last week. He just.

Yeah, I mean I mean, Jason's point about Jason has never been a supporter of Brian Hill and Aerosmith.

In fact, he is very Ivin. The opposite. Yeah, they suck. Yeah.

Well, and the team kept forcing those guys on the field and it seems like they are transitioning away from that.

Yeah. I mean, going door to door to Gurley spoiler alert is the start of the week again this week. So Gurley could continue on this year and be great. But it does feel like because it's well and he's seeing so much touchdown dependancy in his fantasy points right now. If those don't come, he's not a top twelve guy. So are you with Gurley on that, too, Mike?

I think Gurley might hold up because of the scoring. Touchdowns are hard to predict, but I believe in Matt Ryan and I believe in the Falcons offense and their ability to score a bunch of points. That's just going to turn into more Todd Gurley opportunities. As much as I've been anti Todd Gurley for fantasy this year, for me, it's I'm trying not and it's like I'm picking at the the the phrase here, the the guys were just on the bottom, but like Joe Mixon and Josh Jacobs have both shown just like fifty percent of the time, you know, that these guys are good.

Joe Mixon has been trending in the right direction, but foot sprain, how long is Joe Mixon actually going to be out? He might miss this week. We we don't have the information yet. And Josh Jacobs in the Raiders, man, there's they're putting Rishard on the field. They're putting Devante Booker on the field. So those will be the guys that I would be looking at that won't make it into the top twelve.

I haven't, um, I have an announcement to make. You do adjust. While you were talking, I went through our our waivers look and see.

Oh, did I get this guy? Did I get that? Oh, no, he's in. You stepped in my booby trap.

I have Zach Ertz now on my roster. It doesn't feel good. I mean.

Yeah, no, no, this isn't good news. He's so good. Bad. I thought. Hold on, hold on. We have two hour spots. And my hope is that if Christian McCaffrey comes off, I could just sneak Eckert's onto the E.R. and then add an additional. You are Roland Zachares on active bench. Well, I might just look, would you pay a dollar?

I thought I wouldn't get him too much.

No, it's fine. As if you didn't have control over whether you signed Zacker says my favorite part of this. Yeah, it was a willful decision. I went against my own self. All right.

A running back outside the top 12 that could end up a second half star end up in that top 12 in points per game. Jason and I have shared opinions on this.

Yeah, we've we've been waiting for this. I've talked about it from the very get go that I think it's going to be a second half of the season outpouring for Jonathan Taylor Thomas. He's coming off of his bye. We're going to start entering the games that you have to win to get into the playoffs where they can't just rest him. And I think the offense and the offensive line is going to continue to mesh, get it together. Their tight ends are going to get healthy, which will help the run game.

Jonathan Taylor is a great trade for Target now. It's within the realm of, you know, possibility that he's just because I would say most people are disappointed with how he's been so far has not been bad. He hasn't been hurting her fantasy team. He's been getting work load, but he hasn't had any explosive games. He's not winning weeks for you. And that could just be who he is. But I think they get it together. I think touchdowns come more frequently.

And the second half of the season, a player that climbs into the top 12 by seasons and will be J.T..

I agree. I agree. I think he's got a great opportunity. I mean, he's been solid. He passes. He'll be passes by a week now, thirteen point one fantasy points per game. He's you just have one dud. But you're right, Jason, that he hasn't hit he hasn't broke through the glass ceiling yet of like, oh, superstar Johnathan Taylor is here. I have two guys that I want to highlight. One, Darryl Henderson from the Los Angeles Rams.

And this is this is a sketchy proposition here because of what the Rams have been doing with their running backs. But he is the best running back on this team.

Cam Akers seems to be pulling a homer into the bush, just just walking right back despite his draft capital, that it's sketchy because carmakers could emerge at some point.

But but I think that Darrell Henderson is going to be their guy that they roll with through the rest of the season. And the other player is Chase Edmunds from the Arizona Cardinals, the number one waiver pickup of this week. I think Kenyon Drake is going to miss several weeks. I think Chase Edmunds is the better player. And this is the opportunity where I mean, Kenyon Drake did this to David Johnson last year. David Johnson got hurt. Kenyon Drake was the much better player.

Kenyon Drake took David Johnson's lunch money and that lunch money that Drake stole. I think Edmunds is about to snap. That absolutely could happen where Drake does not get his roll back. That can happen. But it is worth noting that the Arizona Cardinals placed two players on Iara yesterday. They did not place Kenyan Drake on IRR. So if you're talking about timeline wise, Iowa would mean you're going to guarantee missed three games. That is not it'll be interesting because they're on by, right?

Yes. So you wonder if. Yeah, I you know, not practicing this week, is it a necessity? The guys they placed on IRR were definitive done injuries?

One of them was, yeah. One was an ankle injury that they're that they're basically calling the three week timeline. All right.

Wide receivers, fantasy points per game leaders at the Midway point, Tyler Lockets number one, Calvin Ridley at two, Adam Thielen at three, DeAndre Hopkins at four. DKA Metcalf at five. Stefon Diggs at six. Justin Jefferson at seven. Tyreek Hill at eight. Julio Jones at nine. Amari Cooper at 10:00. Will Fuller the Flying V at eleven and Chase Claypoole at twelve. Keenan Allen Robby Anderson. Our point one points per game behind Claypoole so basically tied for Twelfth and Davante Adams would be number one but he's only got four games played.

We did it by five games played so obviously he is he's going eligible.

I'm going to pick Davante Adams will finish as a quarterback running back one.

Lockett in the Snapshot two is comedic because you know. He's got to number one finishes. On the week bookending a seventy second and 50 third finish, it looks like Christmas is like seventy second against Miami, 50 third against Minnesota games you thought he would smash, but that is.

You know, that's just part of fantasy football and you have a choice to make, you can accept the realities of fantasy football and not be emotionally destroyed, or you can choose to pretend they don't exist. Expect every player to be number one every single week and just be mad all the time. Those are your two possible outcomes.

One of those sounds better. I mean, if you think about DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Lockett write the dialogue, he these huge games and a couple of bust games. But it's not it's not that's not really true. You know, you look at like DeAndre Hopkins has two weeks outside of the top thirty six now. He didn't finish fifty third, but like his good week at thirty nine, two weeks ago where he was the wide receiver. Thirty nine, he had eight point three fantasy points.

Compare that to Tyler Lockett the week prior having six point four. OK, so you get two fewer points on a bad game. All wide receivers have bad games. They all do with the sole exception of yesteryear. Antonio Brown. Otherwise and I'm sure Jerry Rice. And last year. Last year, Michael Thomas. Yeah, that's that's like three examples over thirty years. Now, the irony is that when you look at the snapshot tool. You get a visualization of consistency in the most consistent player on a week to week basis right now is Tyreek Hill in terms of not having at least multiple outside the top 30 type of games, which is funny.

I mean, it's just. Not necessarily how you looked at him, not necessarily how you looked at Amari Cooper, but let's talk about that same question. Someone inside the top 12 you think will be out by seasons. And for me, it's pretty obvious it feels unfair. But Chase Claypoole, I mean, is sitting at the very edge. And this was an opportunity situation for Chase Claypool. I'm sure he will have some more big games. I'm sure he will have more games like last week where he's irrelevant.

Yeah, certainly for me, another somewhat cheesy thing, but it's definitely going to be Amari Cooper. Amari Cooper with Andy Dalton was going to be OK. I talked about that 75 percent. And I don't think that we're going to be missing Andy Dalton the rest of the way. But if he ends up missing a couple of weeks, you've got a third string coming in who you have no idea who the number one target is going to be and if he can even get the ball to him, the offense as a whole is going to take a major downturn.

And I you know, Amari Cooper is still going to be the guy who's getting the best defensive cornerback on him. So when you go down to these wide receiver, these quarterbacks that are down on the depth chart, I don't think Amari Cooper is going to be able to hold in the top twelve.

I agree with you completely. By the way, that was that was my first answer till I saw you put it in there, Mike. Yeah. I like both of the choices that you guys brought up. I'm going to highlight Justin Jefferson, not because he is bad, he is great. He is a good player. And Kirk Cousins is a good quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. But he is really all or nothing. You have his number one finish, his number to finish.

Other than that, outside of the top 30. So he's the guy that I can see slipping outside of the top 12.

Not that he's not. One just feels a little unfair.

Why is that? Because week one and two, he didn't have snap counts and he's a rookie. He wasn't in the offense.

You could say the same for Chase Claypoole. Sure. But you didn't say it.

So I'm saying it. So I'm not I'm not disagreeing with Russell.

Jefferson was my first answer to this. I didn't want to, you know, the rookie narrative that was used for Justin Herbert. I didn't want to double that up. But the reality is, this is a team that I want to say this is a team that doesn't want to throw the ball that much. But they are. They have to. Yeah, the defense is not good. Yeah.

I think because Jefferson's role is more secure than Claypoole, I would have a better bet on Jefferson. Certainly. But just to share my opinion, sure. Someone outside the top 12 that you think will be a second half star. It's Kenny Golladay for me. He's been great since coming back and he was a top five, not just in projections heading into the year, but in results from last season. So the fact that he is sitting here outside probably buy only the qualifier, I think.

Kenny. Oh, so he shouldn't count.

It took Davante Adams is is just getting all started. The guy that I absolutely love and I think he's going to be great. He has been great and he's got a better quarterback situation. Here is Terry McLaurin. I mean, Terry's awesome. You watch these games, you you look at him in the locker room. He is the centerpiece of this team now in only his second year. And now with Dwayne Haskins not at quarterback, I think sky's the limit for Terry McLaurin.

And he's he's just outside of the top twelve organdy highlighted. But Keenan Allen, I want to highlight him because I think Keenan is a player you should try to get right now. I, I get it. You are. You're it up for Keenan Allen because you're not there's no dip to be had here. But Keenan Allen. What Justin Herbert through the rest of the season, I think that Keenan Allen is sounded like an actual burp.

Right, Herbert Herbert. I think Keenan Allen is in ribbit. I believe the Keenan Allen by the end is going to be a league winning type of wide receiver.

It's certainly possible. I love what I see from their willingness to just entrust the rookie to throw the ball.

And he's smart because he does it to get it. Yes. And then he looks like a genius.

Who would you rather have, Keenan Allen or Terry McLaurin? Keenan Allen as close for me, is it? Yeah. Yeah.

I didn't agree with any of your contentions about his quarterback. I, I agree with all of your contentions about McLarens skills and abilities, but those have been present since middle of last year. And I don't think Kyle Allen's a great quarterback. Well, yeah.

I mean, it wasn't that he's got Kyle Allen. It was that he doesn't have Dwayne Haskins. Though it was an upgrade so far, yeah, addition by subtraction, I think that is what they call it. Yeah, OK, tight ends. George Kittle at one in points per game. That's true, Broox. Yeah, no one and bear that number one, the number one he had in week four was ridiculous. Oh, OK. Yeah, that's when it's a little bit a little bit interesting.

He has two finishes inside the top 15 on the year.

Both were in the top two. Yeah, but they were one and two, so. Kittel one, Kelsi to Wollar three, Mark Andrews for. Johnny Smith is five, T.J. Hawkinson is six. That's nice to see Robert Tonin at seven. Noah Fant at eight, Jared Cook at nine, Jimmy Graham, Paul at 10. Hayden Hurst at 11. Tyler Higbee at 12. Showing you just how competitive the tight end position is. Yeah, it's a yikes.

I mean, there is there is one week that you would have been happy with Tyler Higbee and were still in the top 12. Someone inside the top 12 you think will be out by season's end. I mean, it's it's Higbee, Tyler, Tyler Higbee, and it's it's the guy Jason is going to bring up. Yeah, for. For me. Yeah. Outside of Higbee it's Robert Tongon because he had he had one of those Chase Claypoole type, took advantage of a wide receiver being gone and targets being necessary.

Had he he did have two weeks where he did it. But this is not an offense that's historically used the tight end all that much. And I think by the end of the year he'll have another couple touchdown games, but I think he will fall out of the top 12.

Well, the hard part with him was right before he had a breakout game, I said not to play him because Rodgers can throw it to Lewis and he can throw it to Sternbergh and then he just throw to Ton. And then you saw last week and the week before, he has spread it around a little bit. So an outside the top 12 that you think will end up inside the top 12.

I'll let you take this one. Andy, it's Rob Gronkowski. Yeah. Yep. He looked great. The targets, the results, it's all there for Rob Gronkowski. And, you know, this is a player that hadn't been on the field for a while now. He's acclimated opportunity with OJ Howard out, which Stephen A. Smith wasn't aware of on yesterday's. Oh, no.

Come on. Sounds about right.

He's going on this big rant about how the Tampa Bay is going to make the Super Bowl Antonio Brown and how great he is. And Tom Brady's going to win the MVP. And and he's like, you know, just going through all the players is like, you know, and he's got, you know, Mike Evans, a Chris God was and is OJ Howard. And I don't I don't think he is. And then didn't he do the same thing with Hunter Henry?

Yeah. Depth charts are not a strength, Steve.

And shame on you. Come on, man. But Gronkowski has such a great opportunity.

And so I'll just throw in the the tidbit here of for both Gronk and AJ Green, we had a great ceremony for AJ Green. We retired him. We had moved on. Both Green and Gronk were elite players who missed a lot of time or the season. Yeah, and. It's maybe it just the old lawnmower wouldn't start in those first few weeks. I like that, but they finally got it going. And so we'll have to remember that for the next time this happens, that once, once week for week five comes around, still give the appropriate advice.

But maybe don't don't retire, though.

I mean, the targets for AJ Green, the last two weeks, I didn't even see them. Oh, they are insane. Have you seen them?

I mean, I am aware that his role changed. He moved inside 11 and 13. Yeah. He's he's he's being an inside target hog. And the same thing happened for Gronk, where OJ Howard went down. I don't think it's just the age. And they were gone for a while. Both of their situations changed where their targets, you know, Gronk targets in the beginning of the year right there. It wasn't like.

Yeah, it wasn't like he was, you know, not not healthy enough or something. And and AJ Green had targets at the beginning of the year and he was missing them until they moved him inside. I, I did see a tweet from a good friend of the show, JJ Zachary's, and talking about AJ Green's efficiency on those targets being super bad, even on a weekly basis every single week, including the last couple of weeks on expectation for the the targets that he's getting.

So I'm curious, but the role is there for him. I do kind of worry about Gronk in the sense that, OK, OJ Howard went out and they obviously have been missing back and forth. A little bit of Godwyn does does Antonio Brown coming in and now having the three headed wide receiver corps. That's great. Well, that then take some of those targets that Gronk has been needed far away.

It certainly will, because Antonio Brown will get targets and there's only so many to go around. But but the endzone, you know, Scottie Miller will give his up. Yeah. At a moment's notice. That's true. Yeah.

I mean, it could fluctuate. I like seeing where, you know, around the end zone, what they're what they're doing in Dallas. Goddard could have a nice Dallas God. I was going I was going to highlight both Dallas at Goddard and Jalen Reagor have been activated off of the IRR from the Philadelphia Eagles, which means they are in their practice window. That doesn't mean they're coming back this week. It doesn't mean they're coming back next week or even the week after.

Twenty one days exactly of twenty one days of practice before the team has to make a decision to shut them down or bring them back. So but once Goddard is back and he is going to come back, I think Dallas Goddard is going to be fantastic. Yeah, he definitely could, and Peterson said that is going to practice today and then they'll see where he's at. Thursday night breakdown. All right, the Atlanta Falcons have one in six take on the Carolina Panthers at three and four reminder, take Thursday night players out of the flaks.

Mike, you said something at the very, very beginning of the show.

I've already forgot that I'm going to bring up right now. And I don't know if you were prescribing it, but you mentioned you need an app and I'd like you to take it. Thank you. Goodbye. No, it was about Teddy Bridgewater.

He's your Stream of the Week this week. He's obviously in this in this match up at home.

Atlanta is on pace to allow 50 hundred yards.

Which is the record. It would be the record given up in terms of I guess they were comparing that to like Peyton Manning's record setting yardage season. Atlanta would like to break that. But Teddy Bridgewater, Jason was talking about Josh Allen. Hmm. And talking about him being a potential top 10 guy. Is he a tempting guy? This weekend's New England. Where are you implying, in fact, that you would play Teddy Bridgewater over Josh Allen this week?

That is correct. OK, that is correct. What is your reaction to that, Jason? I'm a little bit surprised, I completely get that on a on a weekly basis, he could very well outscore Josh Allen. But the rushing baseline and what I see is the perceived ceiling says that I would stick with Josh Allen because of his range of outcomes, having a little bit more juice in it. That being said, you know, this is a great matchup against Atlanta.

And what we've already seen these two play each other once this year. Right. And Teddy Bridgewater had 313 yards of two touchdowns, which is great. And that was without Atlanta having Julio Jones. So Allen only scored 16 points. Now, if Atlanta could keep up, maybe Teddy just keeps on going. He didn't have he had a very good game, but they didn't need to score lower. Right. It's going to be very interesting.

I was talking to Mike in the studio yesterday. What has seemed like a great match up for back to back weeks in Atlanta has not translated to superior fantasy numbers for both Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford, who we brought up repeatedly, because all Atlanta does is give up a ton of yardage, including last week to Matthew Stafford, 340 yards, the late game heroics. Atlanta has been better since they got rid of Dan Quinn. They've they've given up fewer points.

Teddy Bridgewater, ironically, feels a lot like D.J. Moore at the quarterback position where I think he needs a big play. He needs one big play against Atlanta, which Atlanta is like. Sure, that's cool. So I do think that that's a it's a viable start. But I feel like with the divisional game.

I'm a little less bullish on Bridgewater giving a top 10 type of week this week, that's just my take on it. Matt Ryan should have a healthy Hulu.

I think so many question marks the end of that.

I mean, that's usually what we say every week for the last three years. It's a sliding scale with Julio Jones. And the one thing we've seen with Julio is, you know, even mid game, he'll leave and come back on the field. When he's when he's out there, he's good. So I'm not I'm not worried about Julio. I think he'll be out here. And that means that the Falcons will be able to keep pace with the Carolina Panthers, who have really been a surprising team to me there.

I thought they were going to be, you know, a really, really bad NFL team challenging for a top five NFL draft pick. And and that next year, because they set themselves up to be really good for 2021. And they've they've really surprised me. I mean, these head coach over there is murder rate.

Oh. What's wild about the Panthers is you can run on them. Yeah, we knew that last year. We've known that this year. But the other positions, they're pretty stingy for fantasy points over the twenty twenty season, fifth against quarterbacks, third against wide receivers and tenth against tight ends. That's not going to persuade me against playing Matt Ryan or Julio Jones tomorrow night. But it's it's something to be mindful of and paying attention that the Panthers. It's not a plus matchup, but you're not streaming your quarterback targeting the Carolina Panthers, which is wild on the Atlanta side, you are starting, I think, all of the knowns.

Todd Gurley, great man. Yes. Julian Kalvin, yes. And then Hayden Hurst.

Honestly, Hayden's been pretty nice the last couple of weeks in terms of, you know, he's not going to zero you out. He seems to be involved. He had a couple of targets this last week that could have gone for touchdowns. Hayden Hurst needs Julio Jones. I agree. And it's again, it's a new offense for him. Acclimation the connection with Matt Ryan. Sure. I think you can play him short off season. We underestimate that a little bit.

I'm curious, on the running back side for Carolina, if Christian McCaffrey was declared active, I know that nobody's going to sit inactive.

Christian McCaffrey. Correct. Are you willing to flex Mike Davis on Thursday night because of, you know, the matchup? Because don't flex on Thursday night, Andy. That's a good we take that player out of our perceptive, perceptive flex and put him in the running back or wide receiver spot, giving you flexibility as week goes on. But you're right, that is where he slots in is as a flex player in this matchup. He had, you know, a fall from grace, you know, this last week and then the matchup is it now.

And it's really the last couple of weeks, I know two weeks ago against Chicago. Towards the end of the game, he turned around the fantasy day. But the gummy bear juice is wearing off for Mike Davis the past two weeks. Twenty one or I'm sorry, eighteen catches for fifty two yards. That's under three yards. A carry against the Saints. Seven attempts for twelve yards. Is that gummy bear there. A Boston scored was on at the end of last year.

Oh yeah. You, you Kubelik. When humans drink gummy bear juice they get real strong gummy bears bounce. This is important.

I'm just I mean you are the PBS kid. That's right. Disney Channel kid. Yeah. I'm just sharing my gummy bear knowledge with, you know, I was learning math there, bouncing here and there and everywhere. I'd say more. You can play them, Robby Anderson, for sure. And that's that's that for Carolina. So it should be a fun one. I had this moment where I thought I was going to get another Thursday night NFC East game.

But we're not it's not Thursday, but it is definitely still prime time. Are you guys aware that Sunday and Monday we get three of the four? We get what we get three of the four NFC East teams. Oh, yeah, awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's that's great. And then. And then. I do have one bit of news. Oh, and this is, you know, when you guys think of Doug Morrow, describe Doug Marone in a word or two.

Uh, these are fun exercises. OK, give me give me a word for Doug Marone, head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Bland. All right. Perfect. Thank you, Mike. Old school playing old school. Listen to this. He says he plans to. Make changes coming out of the week, eight by oh, but I got to read the quote, guys. All right, I'm going to look at some things says Doug. I want to go a little outside the box. I'm going to go after it. And however it falls, it falls. But it's open for me.

I've done crazy stuff before.

What? Oh, man, I've done crazy stuff before, he's done crazy stuff. Oh yeah, because you described him with your one word is crazy. Wild, insane, right. So, like, when he was in the supermarket looking at the Cheetos and then his eyes caught the flamin hot Cheetos. You're darn right. He said go marone 11 on the wild side today. However, it falls, it falls.

If this translates into like analytically, they're like, screw it. We're going on every fourth down. We're not Pontin anymore. I think this might translate to run, run, run for the Hills. Garder Minshew fantasy manager. I don't know.

That'll be I feel like Jack Del Rio did that, though. I feel like at once upon a time he was a black jack. Yeah. And then he turned into Black Jack del Rio. I feel like at the beginning he was this old school commodity. And then he was like, let's just take this belt off it. Go. No, I think yeah. If you can get rid of it. Gardner in a dinosaur league for anything right now, do it.

He's never starting another game if he has pulled this season four for any team sort of injury, by the way, if you didn't notice, Doug Cameron is in fact, Adam Lefko. All right.

That'll do it for today's episode of the show. Thank you for your support. And we'll be back. Big show tomorrow. Match up starts of the week. See you then. Goodbye. We'll get Chris. Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy football podcast, join our fantasy football community on Join the Dotcom and follow us on Twitter at the footballers.