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Brock Bowers INJURED! Is Michael Mayer a MUST-ADD? (09/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

11m 10s

 Brock Bowers INJURED! Is Michael Mayer a MUST-ADD? (09/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Brock Bowers’ unexpected injury due to meniscus surgery forces fantasy managers to quickly adapt, as he was expected to start the season strongly against the Miami Dolphins—known for their weak secondary and high tight end fantasy production. The episode emphasizes Michael Mayer as the top immediate option, citing the Raiders’ poor tight end target distribution and the high value of a reliable backup. While Mayer is seen as a short-term fix—likely lasting only two to three weeks—fantasy analysts recommend him over other available tight ends like Joanne Johnson or Greg Dolsich, especially in tight end-heavy leagues. The advice underscores the need to evaluate roster depth: if a manager lacks Bowers, they should consider picking up Mayer quickly, but only if they are willing to sacrifice depth or long-term planning. Some experts caution against dropping established players like Jonah Coleman unless necessary, suggesting instead to wait until after the weekend to maximize chances of securing Mayer or other options. The episode also notes that Mayer won’t be eligible for an injured reserve spot, meaning managers must carry at least two tight ends, adding to roster complexity. Ultimately, the analysis positions Mayer as a high-risk, high-reward play in a rare fantasy scenario where the top tight end is unavailable early in the season. The discussion concludes with a strong consensus favoring Mayer for immediate use, though with clear caveats about sustainability and roster management.

Transcription

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- This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. - So what a play! - Can you believe this? - It's a no again. - It's time to dominate your fantasy league. - To the races, play stays on his feet. - Just gotta go to the distance. - Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and he. - Bonus pod. These are usually not good. When we're here for a bonus pod, it usually doesn't mean good news is happening. Brock Bowers, had his meniscus operated on. He's gonna trim. - Trim, just a trim. - Yeah, it's like getting a haircut. He's gonna miss one or two games, according to Adam Schefter. This stinks because man, what an opportunity to get off to a great start against the Miami Dolphins who might have the worst secondary in the NFL. They allowed the third most fantasy points to tie it ends last year, but only one touchdown to a tie in their last eight games. We're gonna give you quick analysis here. Heath, what's the advice? Everybody give me one piece of advice to the Brock Bowers manager, starting with Heath. - Go see if Michael Mayer's available in your league. There's a 50/50 chance he ranks higher than the tight end you have. - Jamie. - Start Mayer this week if you do pick him up. Ironically enough, I put him prior to this news as a sleeper and start sit just because of the uncertainty of who the second best pass catcher is for the Raiders. And so, yeah, he's gonna be good. - Heath. - Look for Joanne Johnson or Greg Dullsich as alternatives, if you don't have Bowers and you just wanna pick up a tight end to play keep away from the Bowers manager or just have depth of the position. - But ultimately, right. - Well, I mean, the problem is, if you don't have Bowers and you add Mayer, who are you starting Mayer over this week? 'Cause I don't think Mayer over Kettle, Kelsey. - Likely. - So I think, well, Joanne Johnson. - I'm not gonna be there with you guys. He'll be behind those guys for me. He's still decent to start. Maybe 10 PPR points. I think we can not pretty much every week off the waiver wire. And once Bowers is back, Mayer's obviously disposable. There's a little bit more upside with other tight ends on other teams to maybe be more useful season long. You don't care about that if you've got Brock Bowers, you just need a replacement. But there are gonna be some people that don't have Bowers. They're gonna run to the waiver wire. They're gonna drop somebody decent for Mayer. And I don't know if I'm on board with that just because Mayer's a very much a short-term solution. - But you were talking about blocking the Brock Bowers manager and I was just saying the Mayer is the better person to do that with than the guy other tight ends on the waiver wire. - Sure, but I don't care about that unless I'm playing the Bowers manager this week. For games last year with Trey Tucker and Michael Mayer and no Brock Bowers, it was about a 24 to 25% target share for both Tucker and Michael Mayer. We expect the offense to be better. I'm gonna have some terribly difficult Trey Tucker decisions now because I thought he was just an end of the bench wide receiver. And now I think he's in flex consideration at least. - For sure, that I agree with yes. - Okay, yeah, now that's a great point because you could think about it from the tight end perspective but Tucker and get a look at his roster percentage here. This might be somebody that you wanna add. - Trey Tucker, but all the way to wire I think. - He's 58% rostered. I'm surprised you guys would start Bowers over Joanne Johnson though, sorry, Mayer over Joanne Johnson. Dave would not, but it seems like Heath and Jamie Wood. I figured Joanne Johnson would be the automatic, go see if he's available. He's available in like 28% of league, 72% rostered. Okay. - I mean, I like Joanne Johnson. I think it's a great setup for him but it's a amazing setup for Mayer right now. There's literally one of the worst receiving cores in the NFL and it's a tight end friendly system that was going to feature Brock Bowers. And this is now the next man up. So it's great match up, great situation. This may not, maybe they learned from their mistakes from last year and not rush Bowers back. - Oh, that would be even worse. - Well, we don't want to rush back. This sucks, by the way. I mean, we'll talk about, let's talk about Bowers in a second here. We're just to wrap this up. Other options. Dolsitch was mentioned, 26% rostered with the Raiders allowed the third fewest fantasy points of tight ends last year. I don't know if any of that matters but they also saw the second fewest tight end targets per game last year. I'm gonna throw K-Dot out there. I know it seems like kind of hard to see it happen but just to thoughts, 25% rostered. Not only were the Bengals the worst team in fantasy against tight ends last year, they allowed about four more fantasy points per game to tight ends than any other team. And they've been bottom three against tight ends, three straight seasons. And the worst team against tight ends, two straight seasons. So I don't think it's just a fluke. Unfortunately, it's not, you know, it's not a great opportunity for Otten in terms of targets, but I don't know. I'll get maybe desperation if you can't get mayor, if you can't get sholts and dolcitch, right? Otten. - Yeah, sure, great matchup. So it's worth it in terms of the theory. I mean, mayor would be the target though if you're talking about guys that are widely available or available everywhere, like again, there's such a huge opportunity here for him. - Okay, now let's talk about Brock Bauer's rest of season. If you were drafting again today, how many tight ends would you draft ahead of Brock Bauer's? - Two, two, two. - Okay. - But this stinks. We don't want him hampered by me. - We haven't even had a game yet. - I mean, it is just a snip. It should be no big deal, all right? Do they grow back pretty quickly? But. - It's pretty unfortunate that they had two players at the start of training camp that we were very excited about to varying degrees. In action, gente and Brock Bauer's. And now both are starting the season somewhat injured and in the case of Bauer's out. It's just, fresh training. - All right, I think that that can conclude it. And this is good because- - We had some questions in the chat that we could or start or favor it. - Okay. - Or bookmarked or liked. - Okay, I have Brock Bauer's all over. This stinks. Should I stick with holding on to Jake Ferguson or drop Ferguson for Dolsich, Barner or Atten? - Is the move here to drop Ferguson for mayor? - 1 billion percent. - I would. - Yeah. - Okay. - Why did you edit blows? - You know what? You know the reason. I don't have to keep explaining this. But if it's blows, is worth editing? - I don't, would you want your seven-year-old to hear that? Say it. I mean, it wouldn't be as bad as seeing you at a bar mitzvah with a beard, but it'd be. - I got Bauer's in all my leagues. Who do I pick up that? Yeah, okay. We just answered that. Michael Mayer or Chico Conquo. We're going to go mayor. - Mayor. - There was someone in our building that dropped O'Conquo for mayor. I thought that was a good move. - Okay, question. Would you drop Jonah Coleman or JK Dobbins to pick up mayor? We're going to go with Jonah Coleman. - If you don't want to- - If you don't want to. - If you don't have hours, you have to. - Yes, but if you don't have bow, and it would be Coleman, not Dobbins. I don't know if I'm dropping Coleman for mayor if I don't have bowers. - Yeah, these are the tough calls you have to make. I have a tough decision in one league where it's two leagues actually. One, I was able to drop the kicker, drop a kicker to pick up mayor in a tight end premium league. So I just have to figure out what I'm going to do. But the other choice was Ray Davis, who I don't want to drop. And then the other league where I only have Mark Andrews at tight end, I have Ken Walker. I have Emma Johnson. I don't want to drop Emma Johnson, but that's the worst player on my team. And so struggling with that one as well. - Okay, and I picked up Hollani. Do I have to pick up Michael Mayer instead? I have Goddard. No. No, like- - You do not have to, no. - Yeah, just keep Goddard. By the way, for the person that's about to drop Jonah Coleman. So I don't know that Mayer might go out and have a great game. Maybe he'll win you a week. I mean, I don't know. If there are other options on the waiver wire that you think are fine, like Greg Dolt, certainly Joanne Johnson. But let's say it's Greg Doltzis or Doltin Schultz or something like that. I would personally, I don't know how you guys feel. I would wait until Sunday or Saturday, whenever the latest you can to drop Jonah Coleman, keep him on waivers and give yourself more of a chance to get him back next week, rather than letting somebody pick him up this week. But if you think it's really urgent that you go out and get Michael Mayer, then go ahead and do it now. - You just have to realize what your roster's gonna look like. This is a short-term solution, not a long-term solution, at least we hope. And so do you need a tight end? That's the first question you should ask yourself. Will he start for you in a flex potentially if that's a decision that you have to make? And then it's a matter of who are you getting rid of? So I think in the case of somebody that you may have some long-term desire to hold onto, like Chris Bell. And I have Chris Bell and so many leagues. And I don't wanna drop Chris Bell. But in the case of waiting on tight end and I have a league with Chris Bell and Travis Kelsey, like Kelsey may think. I don't think he's going to, but he might. And Mayer may be awesome for the two or three weeks that Brock Bowers is out or limited. So that's a trade-off that I'm willing to make because I don't have the best tight end situation. If you waited and you took Johan Johnson or you took Dalton Schultz or you took Greg Dolchert, so wherever the case may be because you did not get the opportunity to draft one of your preferred tight ends, then this is a move you should be looking to make because Mayer may help you and the other crappy part about this is He's not going to. to take up an IR spot. So you're not gonna be eligible for an IR spot if your league is run the right way. You gotta carry two or maybe three tight ends now. - Yeah, right, so that's disappointing obviously. There are a few more questions here. Mayor or Stribling at Flex, PPR. - Mayor. - Mayor. - I would lean mayor. - Mayor or Dalton Concaid. - Mayor this week. - Kittle or mayor? - Mayor. - Kettle. - I would go mayor. - Dalton Schultz or mayor? - Mayor, mayor, mayor. - Okay, mayor of Kingsdown. A lot of team name possibilities here. Oh, I think I had a good team name, but I forgot. I owe him. - Bowers outage. - Bowers outage is very good, yeah. All right, well thanks for watching and listening to our bonus podcast. We will talk to you tomorrow. We'll talk about this game and a little bit more on Michael Mayer and Trey Tucker on Fantasy Football Today. See ya. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Paramount Podcasts. - From executive producer Kim Kardashian and the producers of Love Island USA, baseball and Scottsdale go hand in hand. Comes a new series about the parents behind the elite youth baseball. - What was that? - We don't even know what's about to come. - Team mom's baseball, September 24th on Paramount Flus.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Brock Bowers will miss one or two games due to a meniscus surgery, creating a tight end shortage for the Raiders.
  2. Michael Mayer is recommended as a short-term replacement, especially given the Raiders’ weak receiving corps and favorable matchup against Miami, which allowed the most fantasy points to tight ends last year.
  3. Tight ends like Joanne Johnson, Greg Dolsich, and K-Dot are considered alternatives, but Mayer offers the best upside in a high-leverage situation, though he is not a long-term solution and may be dropped once Bowers returns.

Summary:

Brock Bowers’ unexpected injury due to meniscus surgery forces fantasy managers to quickly adapt, as he was expected to start the season strongly against the Miami Dolphins—known for their weak secondary and high tight end fantasy production. The episode emphasizes Michael Mayer as the top immediate option, citing the Raiders’ poor tight end target distribution and the high value of a reliable backup. While Mayer is seen as a short-term fix—likely lasting only two to three weeks—fantasy analysts recommend him over other available tight ends like Joanne Johnson or Greg Dolsich, especially in tight end-heavy leagues.

The advice underscores the need to evaluate roster depth: if a manager lacks Bowers, they should consider picking up Mayer quickly, but only if they are willing to sacrifice depth or long-term planning. Some experts caution against dropping established players like Jonah Coleman unless necessary, suggesting instead to wait until after the weekend to maximize chances of securing Mayer or other options. The episode also notes that Mayer won’t be eligible for an injured reserve spot, meaning managers must carry at least two tight ends, adding to roster complexity.

Ultimately, the analysis positions Mayer as a high-risk, high-reward play in a rare fantasy scenario where the top tight end is unavailable early in the season. The discussion concludes with a strong consensus favoring Mayer for immediate use, though with clear caveats about sustainability and roster management.

FAQs

Brock Bowers is expected to miss one or two games due to a meniscus operation, creating a short-term tight end need for fantasy managers. This opens opportunities for players to pick up alternatives like Michael Mayer or Joanne Johnson.

Yes, Michael Mayer is a strong short-term option given the Raiders’ weak receiving corps and high target share for tight ends. He’s likely to perform well in matchups against a struggling secondary.

No, Mayer is considered a short-term fix. Once Bowers returns, he becomes less valuable. Fantasy managers should evaluate whether they need a long-term tight end or just a temporary replacement.

Good alternatives include Joanne Johnson, Greg Dolsich, and K-Dot. These players have varying availability and are more likely to provide consistent value over multiple weeks.

Only if you have no other tight end and are in a tight end-heavy league. It’s a high-risk move due to Mayer’s limited availability and short-term nature, and you may need to evaluate your overall roster depth.

Only if you don’t have Brock Bowers and need immediate help. However, it’s recommended to wait until after the weekend to avoid losing a valuable player, especially if you have other viable options.

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