DON’T Set Your Week 4 Lineup Until You See This! 🚨 | Fantasy Focus

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You're in the 0-6-0-1-0 Fantasy, Fantasy Focus What's up friends, welcome to Fantasy Focus Football. It's Friday alongside Field, Jates, and Mike Clay. My name is Daniel Dopp, excited to bring all of the week for action. Recapping Thursday night football. Guys, there were 51 points scored in Thursday night football between the Browns and Steelers. Not enough touchdowns. Those are the guys we want, but we'll talk about that in just a little bit. Quick shout out to our friends over at Trophy Smack. You see this super cool belt in front of you? Yep. You can get that. TrophySmack.com. Use the promo code TROPHYWEEK4. You get 10% off all of your order over there at Trophy Smack. Guys, I want to dive, honestly, right in. I want to talk about football. We can have fun throughout the show. Yeah, we will. But let's get in. We got a lot of fun stuff here for the storylines here, if you're all right with it. Oh, hold on. I forgot. Thank you, Christina. Our producer just got in my ear and said, hey, in case you forgot, Field had an interview with an NBA athlete. Yes. What? A draft pick. Field, who is Kingston Flemings? Kingston Flemings is the number eight overall pick in the 2026 NBA draft. A highly touted point guard out of the University of Houston. Helped them win a lot of games last year. Now on the Atlanta Hawks. And he is a diehard fantasy football fan. He grew up in Texas. As you'll learn during the interview, he became a huge fan of the Seattle Seahawks because he dominated on Madden with them during the Legion of Badminton. Boom era. So a fun time talking to him. Yes. A bright future for him. I will be drafting him in my NBA fantasy league. Yeah, we'll see about that. Which the draft is, I think, about two weeks from right now. Okay. Love that. Pumped about that. Can't wait. End of the show. Stick around for that. That'll be a lot of fun. Let's dive into Thursday Night Football, guys. I did not expect to see 51 points here in this game. Come on, you guys. The Browns are good. Yeah, something happened here. Legitimately good. It does feel like, Mike, you finally got a lot of your quinch on Judkins that you were looking for. A ton of passing game usage, too, for him, which was great. When we were like, I don't know if this is going to happen, it happened. It happened. But a big reason was seven targets in this game for quinch on Judkins. He made up a lot of ground because, guys, I'm still nervous about this. The rushing was poor. 17 carries. That's great. But just 53 yards. That's 3.1 yards per carry. That's been a trend through four games now where they just cannot run the ball effectively. He did get into the end zone for the first time this season. But the key really was a six for 43 through the air. He got over 10 fantasy points from receiving for quinch on Judkins. We're not used to that. But if that continues, then he can at least have a decent fantasy floor where we can feel okay ranking him on the back end, we'll say, in the late teens at running back. Crawl his way back into that low-end RB2 territory. Yeah, 24 opportunities. I mean, that's big usage. The other thing I would say is that, and I will be the first to admit that I was way wrong on this, is the Browns are a functional offense. The offensive line is not very good, and they have a hard time pass run blocking. They're a functional offense. It's a better offense than I thought it would be. Deshaun Watson played another steady. Football game last night. Yep. Right. It wasn't the reason they won, but was not a reason why they lost. This team put up 27 points against a good Steelers defense. So the Browns have a functional offense right now. Judkins will be somewhere in that RB20 range. They put the Jets next week. So not only is it a matchup where we think they can keep sort of game script in favor of quinch on Judkins. Yep. The Browns could be four and one, and this is not like some smoke and mirrors four and one like this is three straight wins three. I would say decent at best. You know, like it. Worst decent wins. This is legit from the Browns right now. The Bucks, Panthers, and Steelers are all teams that I think will hover around the playoffs in part because the division that Carolina and Tampa Bay play in. So I'm legitimately impressed by the Browns. And Denzel Boston passes every eye test. Agreed. He looks legit. If I had him in Dynasty, guys, I'd be feeling pretty good about that going forward. And he would be the Browns wide receiver you feel best about out of all of them. I know that we sometimes have. It's a fun Mike's expense on this show, but I have to give Mike his flowers here. This was fun. You weren't here. We were talking about this before the show. And this is not an unusual thing to have to have happen. I just don't know that I see it. It's clearly week in and week out because it happened specifically. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is really nice. In the War Room League this week, I'm playing against Louis Riddick, who last night had both Jalen Warren and Harold Fannin in his lineup. Our matchup going into the night was projected to basically be a tie, which I don't think happens very often. In the War Room League, Mike had Jalen Warren projected for 16.96 points. He finished with 15.6, so only, what, 1.3 off. And you had Harold Fannin projected for 11.22 points. He finished with 11.7 points. You miss the combined projection for these two players by under a point. You are an absolute machine. And this stuff happens way more commonly than I think most of us acknowledge or recognize. Just one of the games. I give Mike the flowers he deserves because a lot of people are doing projections. There's probably a lot of AI doing projections as well around the internet. Nobody. And nobody. And I mean nobody comes close to my claim. Thank you, man. What a nice way to start my Friday. Thank you. Absolutely. I'm just going to head out now. Can I borrow 20 bucks? Sure. Just take my whole wallet. Just take my wallet. It's all yours. Let's talk on the other side of this one. Well, hold on. Let me really quickly. Winshawn Judkins, still a low-end RB2, so we're going to start him. Harold Fannin, still a tight end one for us. On the fringe. On the fringe. On the fringe there. Okay. And then Denzel Boston is still in that low-end flex radar for now. And Casey Concepcion getting a lot of targets but hasn't quite made that leap. I think he's fine to leave on rosters. I'm a little worried about the Wandale Robinson-ness of him. I don't know if he's going to have a lot of Josh Downs. Is he going to have an eye ceiling? Eight more targets in this game. Five for 64. That's a big day for him at the office based on what we've seen so far. So I'm just worried about so much short-range stuff just not leading to big plays. A little more value, of course, in PPR. But I think he's rosterable. And because the offense is doing pretty well. Yeah. But not necessarily a guy that's going to be in starting lineups right now. By the way, Deshaun Watson had 20-plus fantasy points two weeks in a row before a down game in this one. He had a fumble and interception. But threw for 268. Had 22 rushing yards. Like, he might be a guy that's in the streaming conversation soon. He's hanging in the QB2 mix. So got to watch. On the other side of this, the Steelers, Jalen Warren, we talked about him being a guy, was again, a sweet RB2 if you started him this week. It's an amazing role. 83% of the snaps. Yes. On this one. And if Rico's out next week, and we have 10 days to figure that out. But what a role for Jalen Warren. He's going to keep being there. He will be right there hovering around that top 10. Yeah. I would say probable. I would personally lean probable on Dowdle back for the next game. He was back at practice a little bit, I believe. Yeah. Tuesday, he was at least on the field. Not participating, but on the field. It's like, yeah. Sort of a quasi visitor. But Warren probably still the lead guy there. Mike, I asked Field this before the show, but you and I were the Michael Pittman guys. And I think I've reached the point where I am okay if I need to drop Michael Pittman for someone else on my roster. Are you at that point as well? Yeah, definitely. The one thing I will say is it seems like Roman Wilson's ahead of him, and he is in target priority, but not in snaps. I mean, Roman Wilson only ran 18 routes last night. It was fewer than, actually, did he run more routes than? No, he was behind Bernard, Jeremy Bernard as well. So he's kind of buried, but when he's on the field, he's being targeted. I don't know if that's sustainable going forward. So maybe at some point, Pittman will come around, but it's a head scratcher. I don't know why you invest in a guy like that who had like handled about a quarter of the targets. I don't know why you invest in a guy like that who had like handled about a quarter and then not really utilize him. It's very confusing. Invest and extend Michael Pittman Jr. as well. Three years, $51 million for him this offseason. Maybe $57 million. The only thought that I have when you talk about a guy who isn't playing that much, but is seeing the football a lot, is who's the quarterback here? Aaron Rodgers. And how many quarterbacks over the last 25 years were more notorious for having guys they trusted and guys they didn't trust? Oh, for sure. He's right near the top of the list. Absolutely. I feel like Tom Brady fit into that. I mean, these are. Literally two of the best to ever play football, so I'm not saying this is a detriment. It's just a matter of fact that if you are a guy that Rodgers trusts, Kenneth Gamewell last year. I was just going to say that. Perhaps Roman Wilson to a degree this year, which what a career turnaround for Roman Wilson who was kind of left for dead after, I would say, a very down first two seasons in the NFL. DK Metcalf, another good game last night for the Steelers, by the way. It may not be always pretty, but they did sort of craft opportunities for him. He had a big wide receiver screen on a third and 11 early. The game and DK can still absolutely fly. So he is one of those frustrating wide receiver to slash flexes. But the upside of DK is still available. Apparently, the problem with DK is it's the peaks and valleys of the weeks that he's going to have. And that's what he's like in the flex radar for that, because he's a lot. There's a lot of other wide receivers in that same range where I was going to say he's like, he's sort of like Jamison. Well, I for Jamison doesn't hasn't hasn't peaked yet. Just all. OK, OK, all the bus. So you guys are a great offense. You don't have to worry about he's he's just all valleys. So we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about that a little bit. Anything else you guys want to talk about with the Steelers before we move on? Other than. Don't watch us. Thank you! If he's not your favorite player in the NFL, you need to rethink your priority. He's the best. He's awesome. When he catches the football, it looks like when Shaq was shooting free throws back in the day. It's so little in his hands. Because he caught a touchdown last night, and he was sliding down. Made a pretty athletic catch, right? He's so cool. And they run screens for him. It's like, hey, you get out in space and just start rumbling. I need Chris Berman to voice every Darnell Washington highlight. He actually had a catch last week when we were all in the war room, and I made the joke to Boom. I was like, I think that might just be rumbling, bumbling, stumbling. That might just be only bumbling. Bumbling, bumbling, bumbling. I don't know how much rumbling there is from Darnell Washington. By the way, I hear you and love the player, love watching him get targeted. It looks like an offensive lineman. It takes away from Pat Fireman. They had three consecutive red zone targets to him, and it's like, no one's starting him. For our purposes, we want touchdowns for some other guys. For our purposes, the Steelers on this one. Yeah, they're a running back when one of them is available, and we'll see whether Jalen Warren maintains a decided edge upon Rico's return, because he definitely has played well. I don't think the Steelers want to lean on Jalen Warren, and I'm not talking about 93% of the snaps. I'm talking even like 65% of the snaps would still be a lot for him week in and week out over the course of an 18-game season. They are, until further notice though, a running back plus one wide receiver team. There are a number of guys in the NFL that I get very upset when they vulture touchdowns away from other people. Darnell Washington just isn't one of them. I just get excited whenever he scores. Anyways. Strong communities are built in the places where life happens. Where families build their lives. Where students build their futures. Where businesses create opportunity. Bloom Energy provides reliable power for the places communities depend on every day. From hospitals and college campuses to stores and factories. Clean, quiet power that uses little water right where it's needed so communities can keep moving forward. Bloom Energy. Power America relies on. Taking a quick break to tell you how Saturday's game time can get a little messy. Your crew came over to watch snacks on the table, drinks in hand and somebody celebrating like they just won the whole season and beyond. 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Carmel Apple 5-Hour Energy Shots available online for a limited time at 5hourenergy.com or Amazon. Let's move ahead. We've got a lot of Week 4 storylines to get into. We're going to talk about Jaguars and Bengals first. Lineup locks in this one. Chase Brown, Jamar Chase, T. Higgins and Parker Washington. Neither of the quarterbacks locks on this list, guys. Yeah, it's been kind of a slow start for Joe Burrow, by the way. I think, is one of you talking about the quarterbacks? I've never heard that before. Yeah, I know. It hasn't happened since last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that. Joe, yeah, but a tough, sort of disappointing first three games for Joe Burrow. Even if you, like, even if you recognize that he has had slow starts over the past few years, you're still not drafting him, expecting him to stumble out of the gate. Not like this. He's Joe Burrow. He's got his receivers. He should be good. I think he's just stumbling, stumbling and stumbling. Stumbling, stumbling, stumbling. But him and Trevor Lawrence. Well done. Mike didn't even smile. Still, like, top 10-ish options this week, right? Yeah, agreed. The player I wanted to bring up is Jacoby Myers. And we're still early enough into the season where nothing is a representative sample size. But I will bring you guys back to Fantasy Focus Countdown last Sunday morning when we were talking to Jeff Darlington in advance of the Patriots and Jets game in Jacksonville. And one of the questions was, it's been the Parker Washington show. Is there any thought from Jacksonville to, like, be a little more balanced within the passing game? And Jeff was like, yes, and they know they need to get Jacoby Myers going going forward. Jacoby Myers in Week 3 had eight catches, sorry, eight targets, seven catches, 64 yards, and a touchdown. He had three targets in Weeks 1 and 2. Mike highlighted this early in the week. Brian Thomas, junior size, snap share, really drop. When the Jaguars are throwing the football, and assuming they're doing so with two receivers on the field, it's almost a lock that it's going to be Jacoby Myers and Parker Washington. So that gives Myers a bit of a boost here. DJ Turner, the very, very talented Bengals corner, sounds like at least a little iffy to play on Sunday. And Mike, because of Parker Washington being moved all around the formation, I don't think we'll see too much shadowing of Parker Washington. He might be on Brian Thomas a lot when he's on the field. It may not be, yeah. But Jacoby Myers, to me, in a there's certainly potential for a lot of points here. He is trending in the right direction. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. At least in the flex radar. Mike, who are you going with in this one? Well, I'm wearing my Jags green today a little bit here, so I gotta talk about the Jags. How about Bashal Tootin? I think he's kind of a fascinating player to look at right now, because I he's a tricky projection, because you wonder if there's some real week-to-week bust potential with him, because there's some concerns here. First of all, so far, so good on the rushing. The rushing lines have been terrific. 13 for 66, 13 for 65 in a touchdown, 15 for 73 in a touchdown. He got a little lucky in the touchdown last week, obviously, with Trevor Lawrence kneeling at the one-yard line. But all in all, the rushing is good. However, he's benefited a lot from GameScript. This is a good team, don't get me wrong, but GameScript has been very beneficial. The Jags have been ahead or tied on a league-high 97% of their offensive snaps, so that's certainly going to inflate your rushing attempt totals. That means they're scoring really quickly, too. Yeah. Well, ahead or tied. Oh, ahead or tied. Okay, so it could be 0-0. They're not trailing, and why the trailing part might be a concern is the fact that he's only played 49% of the snaps, he's only handled 52% of their design runs, and guys, he has five targets in three games. It's a 7% target here. So what happens if, let's say, they're behind a good Bengals team this week? They're trailing. Is he not on the field? They're using three other running backs. Amir Abdullah's getting run. Well, Quinn Allen's out there in obvious passing situations. Chris Rodriguez scored a touchdown last week and will steal some carries and goal line work. They're playing. I mean, that concerns me. I'm worried about, is he going to be able to sustain this level? The good news is, I think that this is a fine matchup this week to justify him as an RB, too. The Bengals show mid-pack against running back so far, but they've only faced 66 running back opportunities. That's fewest in the NFL. Bucky Irving, Jalen Warren, both got to 20 points against them. So there's a couple things back and forth. That's why I'm saying I'm, like, struggling with this one a little bit, where to exactly position him, but I ended up settling just inside the top 20 after we take out the Thursday night guys. It's interesting, because I don't think he's played well enough to consider him a sell high. No. Right? Like, you're not getting crazy return for Basial Tootin. Does sell medium exist, or no? I think it would be tough to sell. I mean, on a running back, maybe. It might be hot. He might be at his peak value, though. I mean, that's what I'm wondering. That's a tricky part of this. Yeah, it's because Chris Rodriguez, we talked about him coming into the year. Like, it's hard to figure out the case for which he has a lot of upside, right? It's so much more about the value he takes away from Basial Tootin. We need a final pronunciation on Tootin's first name, by the way. Basial? Basial? Basial? Well, the last time I looked up someone's pronunciation, I was wrong about Valet. It's Valet. But I, like, looked for that. I researched it, and it said rhymes with delay. So I was pushing that narrative. So I'm not. Oh, rhymes with delay. Yeah, apparently. Are you saying delay wrong, too? No. Valet. Yeah. Valet's correct. How much of a delay is there on your. All right, stop talking. So anyway, this is not my area. I'm going to step away from looking at pronunciations, but someone can tell me. He'd be Tootin'. He'd be Tootin'. He'd be Tootin'. And be running on Sundays. So I don't know exactly what the value in return would be for Tootin', but there are a couple of, like, red flags working against him. Mike already highlighted them and didn't really dive into the Chris Rodriguez of it all in goal-line-specific situations. Yeah. Scored last week? Yeah. It could certainly happen. So I think he's fine, and fine might be good enough because of how few running backs there are to trust this year, but I'm also wary that this might be more of a committee than the three last week box scores suggest. One thing seems very definitive, and that is that his ceiling is capped because of the poor guys that are there. So no matter what, you're not going to get a high-end, high-end. We need to see what happened with Judkins last night, where we weren't expecting much in the passing game, but it started to show up. But I don't think they're telling us they're going to do that, even with Rodriguez. They're like, nope, we'll throw one of these other running backs out in the field, LaQuinn Allen or Abdullah, in passing situations, and that's a concern here. I'm taking the Bengals in this one. Where are you guys going? I'm taking the Jaguars. I am taking the Jaguars as well. Oh, I'm the only one on an island in Cincinnati. You were on an island last night with the Browns, right? I was. I was. Thank you. I appreciate that. Bengals look pretty good, but, man, the Jags look excellent. Great. Let's talk about this next one. Rams at Eagles. We've got some news here, boys. Yeah, we do. Yeah, this one stinks i uh you might see it projections on the screen but i cleared it did you about an hour or two ago uh smith not gonna play in this one puka nakua is in there davante smith not in there saquon barkley kyron williams puka nakua davante smith now should be out and then davante adams as it stands right now guys if there's no davante smith is there anyone else that you're going to pivot to in this offense as a pass catcher don tavian wicks yeah yes um there's an obvious concern here but go ahead right yeah so all right we got davante smith and and dallas got likely out for this game davante missed his second straight practice yesterday a report from our guy tim mcmanus and mike garofalo uh that there's not a lot of optimism about him playing on sunday this is where i get nervous is that i tontavian wicks and he hasn't had nearly the career of the guy that i'm about to invoke a comparison to but you know t higgins has largely been better when jamar chase has been on the field it's like he's better when he can feast on twos than be the guy and be manned up by opposing top corners don tavian wicks again not the same level as t higgins but i would fear that if don tavian wicks steps into the wide receiver one and could potentially see some mcduffie yeah that would be a real problem yeah jaylen watson probably out so it does help the eagle or he is out so it's going to help the eagle's offense he's the other starting corner but uh yeah mcduffie in that scenario even more likely to chase wicks around i would imagine because mckay lemon's going to be in the slot and then you're going to have like hollywood brown darius cooper that's going to be the guy on the other side so naturally it makes sense if you have a replacement corner and it's really being moved around all that much but wicks i mean no he's primarily gonna be on the perimeter because you're gonna have lemon inside so we'll get a little bit of run which i think that makes that only bolsters the chances of trent mcduff that's what i'm where you get in trouble with these it's hard to shadow these guys that are motioning all the time puts them in precarious spots but you've got wide receivers who are relatively stagnant think about marvin harrison back in the day the old the one that was originally good um he played famously it was like the colts had sides for their wide receivers and you just knew every single play it didn't matter obviously they continue to absolutely smother defenses but um for ontavian wicks like for a guy that's probably pretty stationary it only boosters uh boost the chance excuse me that trent mcduffie shadows him and trent mcduffie is an excellent that's a top five-ish corner in the nfl and by the way five to seven one of the few corners that will shadow in this in the slot too not usually they don't do that but he's one of the few that has done that so he could be on him a lot so are we calling wicks and i will be updating my rankings now that i know mike's removed on davante yeah are we calling him a he's a flex i would say maybe in the in the wide receiver three conversations because this opens up almost 30 percent of the project he moved to like 30 out receiver sorry i mean you know how many went up a little bit how many points like was it up by like uh maybe two my one and a half two points i would i would say um just did that right before i got in here because that news came over oh is that where you went up to 11.14 fan that puts him i believe he's right in the wide 30 am i right yeah yeah so he's in that conversation just because remember davante smith was handling 30 of the targets so there is a opportunity for him and some of these other pass catchers it's just this is a tough assignment here against the rams we by the way uh keith lipscomb has a 34 weighed in bay shul tootin bay shul bay shul bay shul tootin all right there we go all right appreciate that hey don't worry i'm swift stop it all right really quickly so for the rams we're starting the running back we're starting both the wide receivers that's a good thing we're starting the running back we're starting both the that's pretty chalky that's what we've been doing for this team puka though like correct i need to know he's going to play before i i still want i don't know like obviously if he plays you're playing him but i i still want to get like a confirmation on like from puka himself like i'm playing on sunday i would love to see that as well yeah i want to see him active at uh 90 minutes before the game before i feel great about it um yeah and by the way keep an eye keep an eye on the tight end situation i mean i'm back for what's up both colby parkinson and terrence ferguson ferguson's not going to play if parkinson goes though he could be a sneaky tight end i option uh if not then tyler higby moves up a notch we might see you know what they say as well when you have five tight ends you have no tight ends but when you have four tight ends then yeah but if you you might have three tyler higby had a big game last week yeah we're playing whack-a-mole with that position guys we are we are right now try to figure out let's talk about okay so that's the ram it's pretty chalky to be honest i want to talk about the eagles we already did a little bit with this davante wicks how does how do you look now at jalen hurts with what you've seen the last couple weeks and going up against this ramps defense yeah and you talked about it on wednesday this is certainly a concern for the rams because they're not going to be able to right now we're going the wrong direction we were hoping that uh with the new coaching staff maybe he returns to running the football a little more we have not seen that so far 16 carries 87 yards and a borderline lucky touchdown last week i mean lucky in the sense that had the clock expired a half second earlier he wouldn't have got it it was a very sharp play by jalen hurts you have to give him credit for that but obviously the rushing is down and it was down last year and he finished qb8 in fantasy points per game we ranked him a little higher this year thinking he's going to be able to do a lot better than he did last year and i think he's going to be able to get back into that top five conversation but we're not seeing that we saw 25 fantasy points in week one but he's finished 15th or worse now in two consecutive games and guys he played the titans and the bears this isn't like juggernaut defenses like he's going to be dealing with here in week four had the five touchdowns through the air in weeks one and two now he's three interceptions over his last two games everything is kind of just going the wrong direction the rams 21 plus fantasy points to bow nicks and brock purdy but they're allowing 5.2 yards per pass at that's second lowest and a 56 completion rate that's third lowest if this eagles offense can't move the ball and hurts isn't running i mean there's real real high bus potential here yeah not just for jalen hurts but same with saquon barkley i honestly feel like saquon barkley we with the regression that has come with jalen hurts i was hoping we would see a better version or a return to the saquon that we thought maybe we were going to see instead in his two healthy games he has not topped 15 carries he has nine fantasy points in both of those games he has three matches through the entire season through three weeks and he has zero touchdowns so at this point he's kind of like a touchdown dependent running back unfortunately in this offense and you know what sucks about this week the rams have allowed zero touchdowns to running back so far to start seems that seems good for the rams and not good for and not good for saquon that's why we have him at 15 17 almost rb 20 with saquon has turned into a mid to low end rb2 especially in this matchup he needs to be derrick henry yeah he needs yeah because you're rocking the target yeah no targets whatsoever 100 hardly any for saquon so we have lowered expectations unfortunately still starting him but lowering the expectations a big amount i'm taking the rams in this one where you guys going ditto going rams the deuces on uh the eagles on the eagles even my big test for the eagles and see if they can turn things around but i'm uh they're a tough team it's hard to pick them right now it's hard to pick them watching the first three games let's talk about the battle of the lone star state cowboys and texans lineup blocks and this one's giovante williams cd lamb george pickens all the normal guys nico collins seemingly back he's back to back days he's he says he's playing on sunday all right feeling good let's start if nico collins is going to be back which one he wants to talk about david montgomery that would be me michael yeah how about uh what's up do you get more do you get do you feel like that with nico back it pumps demo a little bit or is this independent of that no not really i mean maybe it takes a target away but i don't see this very similarly efficiency yeah we're all at rb 20 love it love it uh yeah look you had the great week 179 yards and three touchdowns and 23 touches two games since just 21 touches has 70 yards and zero touchdowns so literally had way more in week one and targets yards touchdowns and he has in the last two games combined yes field where did he we're waiting lisa lisa two shot lisa yeah we're waiting single on two there we go there it is yeah that's it almost like we talked about that uh potential guys on the season 37 carries and seven targets on 111 snaps 2.8 yards per carry 2.8 yards per carry did you guys see the call so every week fowler and dan graziano write an amazing call on espn.com it highlights their intel around the league they're two great reporters our guy graz is obviously a huge fantasy fan and he is so good on fantasy focus content every single week he is he's at least a top two performer on only dance agreed hard to argue with that yes um and graz was writing about how hey like this could be more we could see a little bit more of what he marks yeah and to that point uh marks he's got a lot of success on the league he's got a lot of success on the league he's got a lot of success on the league he's got a lot of success on the league he's got a lot of success on the league he's not behind him he's actually ahead of him in targets and last week if you want some positivity for montgomery he did have a season high in snap share last week at 65 but they had one goal line carry and it was woody marks who had the goal like that's what you're kind of banking on with your with montgomery you know you're not getting much passing game work that's been a trend for years now you're counting on that like two year ago joe mixon rushing workload a lot of touchdowns if you're not even gonna get goal line carries consistently it's a big problem dallas uh they face a ton of running back volume so far so they're a little inflated in what they've allowed their eighth most of the position so i don't view this as a plus matchup necessarily if you start montgomery in your flex it's touchdown or bust you need it you gotta have the touchdown he was an obvious sell high candidate after week one for a specific reason when you face off against the houston texans and you have a quarterback that's not like josh allen or i mean even in the case of josh allen we had that conversation but when you have a guy that's not elite s to your quarterback you ask yourself like am i really starting this guy and i think jack prescott's fine enough to start like if there if if there is a guy that's available that you feel incredible about and we've all been talking about uh marcus mariota sort of like kyler or kyler are the two trendy streamers of the week i'm okay with with either one of those guys ahead of dac but i'm not overthinking it too much with dac if he is my starting quarterback he's my quarterback 14 this week so enough confidence and let's talk about dac so far dac once again a qb1 he's eighth in fantasy - Love that. - He's fifth in passing touchdowns And it's very early in the season, so it's too soon to say that this is a guarantee of things to come. But Dak, quietly perhaps, is pacing for 340 rushing yards, 20 per game, which would be the second most in his career. That's great. Yeah, which is the difference between Dak maybe settling in as quarterback 11 and 12 versus having a chance to get to quarterback 6 or 7, absent thermonuclear passing numbers like we saw last year. The defense is not good yet, but they're better than they were last year, and they just added Joey Porter Jr. So I'm okay with Dak being started this week against the Texans. Obviously, they are a very, very talented defense. They have not wrecked quarterbacks in the way that they wrecked quarterbacks last year. Daniel Jones was under 10 fantasy points last week. That is definitely a Houston thing, but Daniel Jones at a much different place right now fantasy-wise than he was at the beginning of last season. I'm with you on that. All right, guys. Texas State Championship. It sure is. I got the Cowboys. This is a tricky one because I'm picking the Cowboys, but, man, the Texans at home going 0-4 if they lose this. It was tough to pick against them in that situation, but I think Dallas is a good team. I got Dallas. All of us taking the Cowboys. Wow, that is… It's hard to imagine Houston starting 0-4. I mean, that's tough. There were a lot of people Super Bowl picked this year in the AFC, which, for the record, I was not on board with that. I had them kind of an average team. But this is worse than that. Like, I thought they'd be showing a little bit more. By the way, if the Cowboys go to 1-3, put the Bucs on Thursday night, short week. The Bucs, by the way, they need to win at a worse… Can you imagine if the Bucs go… Yeah, we'll talk about that shortly. Let's talk about them right now, actually. Oh, okay, perfect. Bucs and Packers. Someone here is a TV professional, Field Jates. Hey-o. We got Bucky Irving, who's a lineup lock. Christian Watson and Matthew Golden. Love seeing Matt Golden on that list after last year. Me too. I don't love… I don't love not seeing Emeka Abuka on that list. But obviously, this offense is going to be different without Baker Mayfield. Yeah, absolutely. And look, he already hasn't been worthy of this consideration, even with Baker Mayfield. He's been very consistent. Look at that. He's had between 10 and 11.5 fantasy points in all three games so far. He saw a big spike to nine targets last week. That's a point in the right direction. The problem is major concerns about how effective this Buccaneers offense is going to be. Remember, like I just said, they're 0-3. They've been struggling with Baker Mayfield. Now you go to undrafted rookie Jalen Davis. Daniels, who props him for winning the number two job. That's a hard thing to do for a rookie quarterback, let alone an undrafted rookie. This guy had a ton of experience at six seasons at Kansas. He was… So he generated a ton of opportunity. Sometimes those guys will come in older and be a little more polished, like Tyler Shuck last year. Very aggressive. He's going to push it downfield. That's good. That could help Abuka. But he's going to run the ball a lot. He's a terrific runner. That's going to take… It could be design runs. It's going to be scramble opportunities. And also, we worry about… We worry about his passing efficiency. And at the college level, completed just 62% of his passes. Very low at the college level. His off-target rate was highest in this class coming in this year. This is a potential good matchup, guys. The Packers have allowed at least 16 fantasy points to the opposing number one receiver in all three games so far, including huge games to Drake London and Justin Jefferson. But I am very nervous about their ability to move the ball. Without question. Really excited about the player. Had a fun… I thought Jalen Daniels was a very fun player to study in the pre-draft process. The player comp I had for him was… Snoop Huntley because the off-target numbers are going to be there. But he's also one of those quarterbacks that is unafraid to hang in the pocket and let it rip down the field every once in a while. Might be some bad sacks taken as well. But he is fearless. I'll say that much about Jalen Daniels. So, it's a tough go for the Bucs. 0-3 already with Thursday night football just around the corner, as I just mentioned. But good calls here on this entire offense without him. This is where I was understanding that I was maybe hoping that I can watch him get Kenny Gainwell more involved. Like, undrafted rookie, right? Like you were talking about. He maybe struggles with accuracy down the field. Can we just get some nice dink and dunks to the guy? We haven't seen anything from Kenny Gainwell yet, honestly. I'm not starting him. He's outside the flex radar. I'm just hoping that maybe with a new quarterback, we can see some sort of receiving game work for him. Yeah. Well, the concern, I think, with Gainwell and even Irving is, you know, he might pull down a run more than Baker did. So, that would be the concern for me. So, I'm not touching Gainwell for sure this week. Ideally, I'm not touching any of this passing. And the only guy I like… That I really want to start is Bucky Irving. That's how you know that a team is down bad right now, meaning the Buccaneers, when the Packers are the other team in the matchup. We're just sort of like, yeah, don't have to say a lot about that team, right? Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, that's it for right now. That really is it right now. We've got the Craft, obviously, a startable tight end as well. But Craft hasn't been dominant enough that we're talking about him as, you know, baby George Kittle like we did at the beginning. Yeah, not yet. Hey, turns out it might take some time to recover from a major knee injury. That's true. It's not happening. It's not happening just yet. I'm taking the Packers in this one. How about you guys? Yeah. The Packers. I can't pick. I can't pick. Cross the board. I hope Daniels is awesome and keeps them competitive, but it's hard to pick. It's hard to pick them in this one. I'm going green. It's going to be hot down there. Getting out of high-interest credit card debt is hard by yourself, which is why SoFi thinks it should be a team sport. Help yourself out with a SoFi personal loan and consolidate your high-interest debt into one low monthly payment. Save even more with no fees required and do it with the speed you need with as soon as the same day funding. Put SoFi in, coach. Visit SoFi.com slash team sport to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank, NA member FDIC, terms and conditions apply, and MLS 696891. Fast funds terms apply at SoFi.com slash team sport. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. 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Shout out to our buddy Eric Moody. Follow him on social media, at EricNMoody. Hang out and chat like he always does. Always does for us. A couple questions here from those of you hanging out in our YouTube chat. First one comes up from. Red Pants Brigade. Any chance you guys can shout out my best friend's daughter, Valerie. I got that right, right? Nailed it. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't like a Devon Vale-y thing. It's her birthday today. She's a big fan of the show. Valerie, happy birthday. Happy birthday. That's awesome. Hope this is an amazing day. Me too. That's so cool that you're a huge fan of the show. Thank you for hanging out with us. Yeah, that's amazing. I don't know what my name is. It says Drake May or Sam Darnold. Surely May can figure it out, right guys? I hope so. I have a Sam Darnold thought once you guys are done. He draws the Chargers in this one. Drake May, of course, going into Buffalo for a massive, massive AFC East game. Man, the Bills are like. Are they going to clinch in October? Clinch that division if they win this game? Give me Drake May. It's a little. Like, what do we call it? Wish. Wish casting. Wish casting. Yes. Yeah, but I'm going to go with May here. Do you guys think. Not good enough to be like a top 10 quarterback. Do you think Sam Darnold could hold a little more value this year because the Seahawks can't run the ball? Yes. I was going to say that. I actually would go with Sam Darnold. I know. Yeah, and we'll talk about Zach Charbonnet in a minute. Yeah, yeah. Because we're talking about the Seahawks backfield. Yep. But they cannot run the ball and they really can't run the ball. Really? The goal line. Like, the goal line offense right now seems to be like an A.J. Barner, tush-push. Yep. Or throw the ball to Jason. Which, we're all good with that. Happy with that one. Happy with that one. Yeah, it's. Might help Sam Darnold a little bit. A little bit more. Maybe more called runs early in the game, but it's all game script for him. I mean, if that defense is dominating, if they're just up on the charges by 15, it's not going to matter. Emmanuel Wilson will get 19 carries. That's fair. It is what it is, so. I'm just saying, like. That's a concern with him. Like, last year it was, like, get to the goal line and there's an effective running team. And they ran the football as much as they had the, what, tied for the most running back rushing attempts last year. Yeah. Feels a little less of that this year. Mm-hmm. Just a thought. A straight thought. Like, not. I think a little bit not enough to be a consistent QB. We have bye week starting next week. Yeah. We're looking for these guys that kind of float. And we've got some massive disappointments. Drake May, Justin Herbert. I hear you. Books them that you're like, oh, he could come hang on. I'm at 17, so it's not like I have him at 25. Like, I hear you. Certainly in a deeper look. I just think he's got better. First off, there's no A.J. Brown. I think the running backs are better in New England. The Patriots earlier today, you guys might have seen this. They filed a misinformation. Person's report for Romeo Dobbs. They're not even sure if. Wow. So. By the way, you said the Patriots running backs are better. And I was like, who are you talking. Oh, wait. The Seahawks. They are better than the Seahawks. Yeah. For a second, I was like, wait. Who's he saying they're better than? Yeah. I don't know. I would. Actually, a lot of teams this year. We're splitting hairs with this, but I would go with Sam Darnold. I understand. It's a tough question. I'm Drake May for this one. Two more questions here. GShoreG23 wants to know, likely or Darren Waller? That's a good one right there. Likely nine. I'm going likely here. I understand the Waller appeal, but likely he's also been getting a ton of volume. I know the Waller matchup's excellent, but. I think they're both good options this week. week and i would go with isaiah likely i think they're they're both good considerations chris jc swag wants to know ppr would you take omari and hampton or remandre stevenson yeah i appreciate that he disrespected remandre by spelling his name wrong he fumbled the lettering so i'll give it to uh hampton what like that was good it's close but i'm going here i have a lot of uh are we talking about hampton here today yeah we are doing that shortly so i'll save my thoughts on that one was the other one likely versus isaiah likely or lad mcconkey i believe is what it was i'll go lad i'm gonna generally lean wide receiver and those worth noting that lad did not practice yesterday yeah if he goes if he goes so let's just keep an eye on some of these uh injuries all right let's talk about this game well no no we're not quite there so let's move ahead talk about vikings and dolphins we can be pretty quick with some of this guys dolphins running backs here first off lineup blocks kyler murray aaron jones justin jefferson the three vikings that you would think would be you lineup blocks none of the dolphins are lineup blocks on there but we did say you should maybe add at least ollie gordon is there a chance that if you added ollie gordon you'd start him this week against the brian flores defense i think in some ways that that page tells you the answer yeah we're both outside that we're i mean i'm outside the top 30 on all of them you're a little higher than ollie gordon just keep in mind last year we thought ollie gordon might take the two job behind devon hn he didn't uh jalen right kind of held a little bit of an edge over him most of last year and this year they were kind of splitting it until right got hurt i do think because of that i think that's a good thing i think that's a good thing i think that's a good as ollie gordon played 82 of the snaps last week and right was on the shelf that he's going to come back and probably be the 1b to ollie gordon's 1a so i have gordon ranked ahead but it might be jalen right he might out touch him in this one so it's not a very good scoring offense these guys have neither of them has been especially good so far in their career and we don't exactly know who the starter is and they're playing the vikings who are like 3.1 yards per carry to running backs this season this is a situation best avoided if you took a flyer on waivers for your bench for now to see if one takes control fine but starting them this week is a very risky proposition well said by mike there let's go over to the vikings side of this i wanted to discuss both aaron jones and jordan addison because we'll have an injury update here in a moment but worth noting that the dolphins against running backs this season have been the worst they have been the worst team in yielding fantasy points to opposing running backs here's what the starters have done in three games against miami oh 32.7 points 22.6 points and 21.3 pretty good now ashton genti and kenneth walker the third and christian mcafree are all much better players at this juncture of their careers than aaron jones is but aaron jones is playing a ton right now he is playing so much for this vikings offense and it's such a good matchup that it wouldn't surprise any of us if he walks into the end zone on sunday now the dolphins are a bad defense their cornerback room leaves much to be desired and justin jefferson looks very shaky to play in this game on sunday he has missed practice on both wednesday and thursday it doesn't mean that jordan addison is an auto start i think he's an auto flex if justin jefferson is out why am i not going to auto start him because the dolphins have actually allowed the fifth fewest fantasy points to opposing wide receivers because teams are too busy running the football down their throat and milking the clock and basically playing a running clock they don't throw it that much yeah so i think addison gets a decided boost if justin jefferson is out but i'm not at the point where jordan addison becomes automatic start for me if if jefferson doesn't fax it so if that happens and justin jefferson is out we're moving addison up to a flex does kyler move down because of the lack of receiving options or do you still leave him in that you know five to seven to eight range thing is that like kyler could easily go for like 212 passing yards two touchdowns and run for 22 yards exactly yeah i don't think it's going to affect much a little bit less passing efficiency so he might drop a spot or the projection goes down a little bit but still a great matchup and by the way they have a good group of pass catchers otherwise too like if you by the way if you start addison you kind of need to what happened with rashid rice last week where he had like a 40 target share and they he just loaded up on volume early in that game and do you score in that one i can't remember if you found the end zone last week but either way did a lot of damage early had a high share of the targets and got you where you needed to be in fantasy because then again everything else went through the running game we're going vikings across the board in this one we can be pretty quick with that we just for going forward when we're doing our game picks against the dolphins we just assume everybody's picking against them yes we just wait maybe when they're playing like that's what i mean we'll wait until they're playing southwest kentucky or something there you go you know uh let's see next one here guys lions and panthers big lineup blocks that is awesome by the way we didn't do uh we didn't talk about a marion hampton there did we talk about we have not talked about that game yet oh what were we just talking about oh we were talking about miami minnesota i'm sorry ignore me i got so excited to talk about hampton i thought we missed it that's a very rare like uh like your brain skipped ahead that's right i got i got excited to be not excited about marion that's right uh lineup blocks for lions panthers we got bryce young chuba hubbard tetero mcmillan and jalen coker for that side for the lions we got jameer gibbs amon raw saint brown and sam laporta all three of those guys are lineup blocks for sure jalen coker just a quick update did practice limited in practice yesterday after a dmp for the first day of the week so trending in the right direction we like that i would also add not a lineup block but darren wallard to this list as a streaming tight end option with the way that the lions have allowed so much to tie it up and we talked about that a bunch earlier this week guys jameson williams not on that list and i understand why i understand why it's been three straight weeks where jmo has not delivered hasn't been the guy that you've been looking for you drafted him to probably be a flex option and the problem is everything is kind of running through the other three guys of this offense right now totally do you feel like with jameson williams you're out until you see something or is this part of the jmo experience we're like hey man i'm starting him in the flex but i might also have another seven point game i have jmo in i think two leagues one of them i'm just riding him until further notice because and the other one i i like sort of you know i had a favorable late round pick i can't recall exactly who it was and that made all right we're good like we'll just ride ride that that late round flyer until jmo gets it rolling here but worth noting that if ever there was a time for jmo to get going and i know that the lions are going to almost always have a lot of lineup blocks and if you go look at the panthers so far this season you're like they're top five and fewest passing yards allowed but however yeah this is wild both of their starting cornerbacks place on injured reserve this week jc horn and mike jackson so they've been good i mean that duo has been very good horn's one of the best players he's one of the best corners period in the league that's very underrated too opportunity for this lions offense it is already really good to expose this panthers i think if you needed to throw jmo out there in spite of what it's been at the flex position i if you could do it we have them ranked lower because i'm also you know how many wide receivers can fit in the wide receiver 25 to 40 range this year all of them is the answer yes pretty much um this is pretty chalky guys is there anything else even to talk about this game because i feel like from a fantasy perspective we just want to start everybody i think that's it other than uh do we mention jaylen coker just monitoring i just said that yeah yeah limited practice training the right direction if he's out obviously bryce your guy bryson germain becomes a deep sleeper and certainly it helps boost the tight ends a little more including uh darren waller and we talked about bryce young during rankings on wednesday but both quarterbacks are going to be a little bit more interesting in this game both as streaming options right so i'm very good yes could easily see 60 points scored in this one i'm one of the lions in this one how about you guys lions lions like it oh i appreciate that producers what do the producers do with this one yeah show some respect daniel love that all right now finally the game mike clay has been waiting for finally chargers and seahawks oh that's a quick one wow lineup blocks in this one there's a single player disappointing isn't it wow jackson smith and jigba you tell me in week four there is one lineup block for chargers seahawks painful that's insane yeah i mean obviously a super tough matchup for the charges but still you're hoping to get something uh they got so many talented guys on their squad they sure do uh the obvious omission based on what we've seen so far this season is o'marion hampton right he's the guy that's been on that list for the most part when he was healthy last year and this season but guys there are so many red flags the good is two touchdowns so far in three games he's 10th and carries among running backs you'll take the lead and you're going to win the game and you're going to win the game and that's what keeps him in the flex conversation but he's been a non-factor in the passing game he has three targets this season both of his catches came in one game so he's put a zero on the board as a receiver in two of their three games so far this season uh as a result under eight and a half fantasy points in two of those three games also what happened last week 42 of the snaps a season low that's a problem yeah he and mitchell and they they're gonna use uh a little bit as well um as if that's not enough to be nervous now they go to seattle to play perhaps the best defense in the nfl they're lying 2.9 yards per carry to running backs this season and again that's where he's he makes us hey he has to put it we keep making these comps to guys like uh tootin and derrick henry whatever you have to do your damage as a rusher jacquard kroski america so many of these guys it's gonna be hard to do against seattle so if you go 12 for 27 and have one target for 70 i mean there's a major risk of that for hampton in this game as the lineup page suggested there is no running back that has a lineup block in this game so i want to talk about the seahawks backfield and have a very similar tenor to how mike just described the chargers back even worse uh i did a little synopsis of each of the players involved right now uh jadarian price is close to double secret probation it seems like yeah he also mispracticed yesterday uh don't know if that was sort of like load management if you will but he did not practice yesterday so he's trending in the wrong direction emmanuel wilson isn't very good but he gets the goal to go work uh and george alani basically just catches passes so yeah it's uh it's an interesting one for the Seahawks backfield on Sunday on top of the fact and this is more of a future weeks thing, that Zach Charbonnet returned to practice yesterday. So I said on Twitter and I would echo it right now if he's available, and we talked about this on Tuesday, Daniel, good flag by you go grab Zach Charbonnet because with nobody seizing control of this backfield, Charbonnet has a really good opportunity to become a factor, assuming he is healthy sooner rather than later if Price is out on Sunday Do you guys think that Wilson, Emmanuel Wilson climbs into just like unsexy flex territory? No He climbs into unsexy bench territory Okay. Yeah, I think he becomes more palatable. Guys, he's actually ninth in expected touchdowns this year He doesn't have a touchdown, but his number is 3.1 He gets the goal to go work. Yeah, he's tied for second and carries inside the opponent's five yard line Derrick Henry is dominating that one with nine. The next closest is like 10 running backs out of five, including Emmanuel Wilson. So yeah, getting the goal line working in an offense like this that should be ahead in this one at home against a struggling Chargers team. He could, I mean, 15 carries is on the radar. 20 carries might be on the radar. One or two targets. I mean, yeah, that's that's enough volume to be considered for your flex. Okay, so here's the problem like if I'm going to start him then there's likely and I guess you're saying as a flex, but like that means there's other running backs like Omari and Hampton that I'm deciding to bench who I think is a significantly better running back. I don't think I'd put him ahead of Hampton, but in that 20, maybe 25 26, 27. I mean, you're talking 22 to 25. It's close. I'd still lean Hampton, but it wouldn't surprise me if Wilson scored and outscored Hampton this week. By the way, Zach Charbonnet only added in 4% of leagues off of waivers this week still available in 45% of leagues. So if you want, get him now before it becomes a problem when everyone else is trying to grab him on the waiver wire this next week ineligible to play this weekend, but it sounds like he has at least a chance in the next few weeks to play. I'm sure they'll slow roll him out there, but if week 12 he's their leading rusher, like he is the guy that you expect him to lead in rushing attempts for week 12, that wouldn't surprise any of us. Best part about adding Zach Charbonnet is you actually get to add two players off of waivers because you add someone off of waivers. He immediately goes into your IR spot and then you have another guy that you right now. Yeah, so it's a nice spot for that. I am taking the Seahawks in this one. I'm assuming we're all taking the Seahawks. Chargers have to have this one, but I mean, hey, Seahawks got upset last week. Granted, it was across the country in Washington, which, you know, but there's always that kind of when you're traveling that far the time zone thing. Maybe it's a little bit of a trap that happens sometimes, but it's not the case here. The Chargers are going into Seattle for this one. Go Seahawks. Let's talk about the purposes of roster management. If you have Brees Hall, you can move him to the IR spot as he has been officially ruled out like that could be one week, maybe two, but utilize that IR spot. That's what they're there for for a reason. Let's talk Falcon Saints last one that we have here lineup locks. Tyler Shuck has been awesome to start this season. Chris Olave also been awesome to start the season and then Bijan and Drake London. Thank goodness Michael panics. Junior is back under center. They're both obvious lineup locks guys who wants to go first. I think this is Mike on the Saints running back. I'll take Saints running backs. By the way, we weren't sure how long Travis HM would be out. He was placed on IR and then so they have four games and then they're by week. So week nine at a minimum seems for Travis H and you got to keep him on your roster. He's paid too much as a lead back in this offense. He could be a league winner by the time the fantasy playoffs roll around. He's at least a guy that, you know, if we're talking about like Zach Charbonnet and Emmanuel Wilson, like you got to keep each hand on your roster. So hopefully even IR slot keep them around for now. In the meantime, they're going to use three running backs. They've been using three running backs already this season. They're going to continue to do that. Now. It'll be Alvin Kamara, Kendra Miller and CJ Donaldson. Donaldson's going to get some snaps, but not really much in terms of touches. I would lean toward Kamara if I'm picking from this group, but wouldn't surprise me if Kendra leads and carries going forward. It's going to be a bigger Kendra role than people are currently anticipating. Great. I picked him up in a few leagues. If they do get the ball near the goal line and they don't throw it to Jawan Johnson or Tyler Shuck runs it himself. Kendra Miller might actually be their best goal line running back on the roster. Yeah, better than I can. I think those two will handle most of the touches and agreed. I think it'll be close or an edge to Miller as a runner Kamara in the passing game. But keep in mind, they're playing Atlanta this week. 3.1 yards per guy to running backs is a tough spot. Yeah, all that to say I was going to say right the positive thing. Yes, I don't want to start anything. Yeah, they're all outside my top 25. And again, I think you might think Kamara like maybe he does a little Aaron Jones impression and plays a ton of snaps. I don't think they're going to do that. Remember even last year as a clear lead back, the volume was kind of low there and he was under 10 fantasy points per game scored one touchdown guys at his age 32. Now just they don't generally perform in fantasy unless you're like a Derrick Henry sort of unicorn still so wild. They tried to cut it. They didn't try to cut him. They were like they were actively cutting him this offseason. Yeah, here he is. Do you think Michael Penn is can keep all of us fantasy managers happy? Sure hope so. And I think the person that benefits the most is of course Drake London 13 starts now with Drake London or for Michael Penix with Drake London over 20 fantasy points per game for Drake London. And on top of that last week was maybe the best game of Drake London's career most receiving yards in a single game for him last week with 194 that also included his longest catch of his career as well. Drake London felt like he was teetering towards frustration land after the first two weeks when he was barely being utilized to the point that he got into it with fans and there was spat on the sidelines. He was clearly very frustrated. He is trending back up in the right direction. He is inside all of our top tens. Thank you. Michael Penix Jr. Yes, Michael Juniors always can be trusted well, except for Michael unless you're trying to have a good connection with the tight end because right now Kyle Pitts persona non grata doesn't feel great. That's a tough one. Yeah, I don't know what to do with there. The numbers are way worse than even his harshest critics could have imagined. So, but who knows? Maybe they'll feature him this week and get him back on track. This guy was the top five fantasy tight end last year and he is due, you know his career. He's got one, two, three, four, then five catches. So he's due for touchdown catches. He's due for six more six this season. Not just he doesn't have him by the time you get to the trade deadline trade for him at the very end of the trade deadline because you know you've got six touchdowns coming at the end of the season math work. That's exactly how it works. Experts projections. I'm going with Saints in this one. How about you guys? Yeah, me too. Take the Falcons first thing. Yep, going on the road by it's going to be a very emotional scene the 20-year anniversary first game back after Hurricane Katrina. So I probably should pick the Saints here, but the Falcons I wanted to be a contrarian. I like it. All right, let's go into starts of the week. Yeah starts of the week here in week four. Let's start with Michael. Why don't we start with you? Oh me? Yeah, we'll start with you first starts first. Okay guys, I'd have I'd have fun theme for mine, which I didn't realize when I was drafting, but it kind of makes sense. Okay. Can we actually change Mike's Chiron to ESPN junior fantasy analyst fantasy analyst now I'm a senior, but I'm pretty sure you're a junior. That was a while ago. Was that like a contract thing? I want to be a no, I think I was just here X number of years and they were like your senior fantasy analyst or a senior whatever senior something is that when you started to go gray ESPN senior right happened. Okay. I didn't laugh when I anyway Shams, who of course is the preeminent NBA insider. These are senior NBA insider. I'm like Shams is like 31. Yeah, he's not senior and that might be age. Maybe when I hit 40. They were like, I got out here. That's what it is. Anyway, my theme is matchups guys because first of all, I'm going with the quarterback tight end battery again and you love it. I did this to I hate it jab the knife at you did Daniel a little bit, but I have Bryson quarterback. Of course love the matchup here against the Lions have allowed the most fantasy points to quarterbacks. I have Darren Waller at tight end who they've allowed the lines have a lot of the most fantasy points to tight ends. My wide receiver is Josh Downs against the commanders have allowed the most fantasy points. To wide receivers like that and my running back is Bucky Irving against the Packers with a lot of the second most fantasy points to running backs this season. So I know that it's a little early to begin to caught up in defensive metrics, but so far these have been super attainable matchups and we're going to see because I feel like you just look at the players alone. You're like, yeah, they probably aren't as impressive as what you guys are putting out there. But hey, if we can take advantage of these matchups, it could work out pretty good. It's what it's all about field. Give us your lineup here. Yeah, I also tapped into some lineup or some matchup opportunities here, but I can't wait for like our week 13 starts the week. It's going to be going to get better and better. It's going to be amazing. My quarterback is Marcus Mariota, which he might not be eligible to be used for the rest of the year because Jaden Daniels could return next week. So I figured I'd use my Marcus Mariota opportunity while it presented itself Aaron Jones. We discussed earlier on facing off against the Miami Dolphins and then two guys who are just elite football players that I wanted to have in my lineup this week. Chris Alave. So no explanation needed and then George Kittle. Uh, who is somehow found a way to prove that he is a Wolverine. So George Kittle. Mike Evans practiced yesterday? Uh, Mike Evans. I don't believe practice, but John Lynch described him on the radio as one of those old school guys where he just wants to play. Yep. So you think he has a chance. And that's Denver. So Evans is a tricky one because even if he plays at obviously not 100%, he's going to see a ton of pats or tan in this game. This is a tough one. I wouldn't want to start him this week. Um, don't most guys just want to play and not practice for what it's worth? Yes, but it's one of those where it's like he's he's going to like sometimes put his maybe like his physical well-being Sure. Sure. Ahead of like behind his pride, right? Yeah. Like I don't care that I'm 50%. I want to play. I want to do it. Well, I doubt I'm going to lose this week guys because I'm starting four players. I have yet to start. Here we go. Starts of the week here. I've got Josh Allen, Jameer Gibbs, Jackson Smith, and Jigba, and Brock Powers. Cross the board. Lock it up. Are you allowed to do this if you just keep losing? I think so. I think so. I should be able to start all four of these. No, my real starts of the week this week are Tyler Shuck. That's a little weird. Going with him against the Saints, taking on Falcons here. I got Jeremiah Love going up against the Giants. Tedderall McMillan against my Lions. And then a little bit of the other side of that game. A little DFS play here because I'm doing the other side. That's Sam Laporta at the tight end spot. I think they're going to just score a million points. My first pick was Tedderall McMillan. I should have taken Bryce Young because then you did the whole thing, and then it was like it screwed me over for that. Well, soon enough, we're going to have to start looking at, like, all right, if I, like, Bryce Young versus Tedderall McMillan. Mike has already taken T-Max, so I got to take Bryce Young because he hasn't utilized some strategy. There is a little bit of strategy. I got to be honest, Daniel, I don't like our odds when it comes to the strategy against Mike. No, I don't either. We'll see. To be honest. I'll lose seven straight now. Watch. I would be okay with that. That's fine with me. We got to get some replacement. Yeah, when are you doing your punishment? We'll figure it out. We got some things on there. What do we get for our last pick? Remember, if we do it once, we got to cross it off. We need some new ones. We'll figure it out. We're going to have some fun ones. Luckily, I won't have to spin the wheel again this week. We're going to take a couple of questions, though, from our mailbag before we get to field to interview. Jake Cake FF wants to know, Kamara, Ali, Price, or Merritt? Oh, my gosh. Is that the Merritt Parkway? Oh, my God. This is like a 60s. JCM, Chadarian Price, Ali Gordon, or Alvin? I don't got Ali Gordon right. I think I have Gordon the highest, maybe. I think so, too. I don't even. Gordon's at 32. I got to see if there's been an update. Oh, actually, Price a little ahead. Man. Oh, no. No, wait a minute. Hold on. I totally missed Kamara at the beginning there. Yeah, Kamara is my pick here. I know it's a long time. Where do you have Kamara at? 25. He's ahead of these guys. You know, one thing I will say, if you need something to hold on to with Chadarian Price is, he came out and was the clear. He played all the snaps, like the first four snaps of the game. The problem was he fumbled in the fourth one, and then they benched him for most of the rest of the game. Yeah. Maybe they'll come back to him. You know, he's a young player. Maybe they come back to him, and they give him the lead back job again, because it's not like the other guys have been especially efficient. So, there's a chance. There's a saving grace there, but obviously a risky start. Yeah. I'm going to find any updates on any of these players early on in the day. Injury-wise, I got nothing. Nothing yet. All right. There'll be a lot. The projections will be updated this evening. Our ranks will be updated. Also, you can always play fantasy basketball. Starts in two weeks. Hey-oh. Yes, you can. Lekron wants to know, should I start DJ Moore, Saquon Barkley, or Braylon Allen? Oh, Saquon. Yeah, I'm going to say it's Saquon, then Moore, then Allen, if you ask me. No sense in. Risking it with Allen when you have these kind of players. That's just wild. This always happens every year. It's like, man, we're in weak form. We're talking Braylon Allen or Saquon Barkley. Saquon Barkley hasn't hit 10 fantasy points going up against a tough defense. He looks good. It's just they got to get the ball in his hands more, and they got to move the ball down the field and score. Hot Barbecue Ruffles wants to know, can you pick two of these to start? Tedderall McMillan, Devontae Adams, or Christian Watson? T-Mac for sure. I'm going T-Mac, and I'm going Christian Watson. Yeah, same. That's where I'm going. If Puka didn't play, would that move Devontae in? That's a really good option. That's a great team. You've got Hot Barbecue Ruffles. Yeah. Those are really tasty. I was just going to say, you can't call in with a name like that. Jordan Stuck wants to know, team names rating. Shucky Cheese. Excellent. Shucky Cheese. I think Shucky Cheese has great pizza, by the way. Shucky Cheese. No, they don't. No, they don't. Do they have great pizza? I haven't been there since I was seven. For real? Oh, Shucky Cheese? I have no idea. Amazing pizza. I haven't been there in so long. You got to go. I think there's one in your town. There is one in my town. I thought I had to take children in there. I didn't think you were just allowed to go as an adult by yourself. You want to come with my kids? Yes. I really am going to take my, I haven't been with my girls yet, but I'm going to take my two older students. Sign me up. We have a blast. Yeah. Let's do it. I'm in. Yeah. I love that. I'll get in the ball pit. No, I won't. That's gross. All right. One more question. One more question here from our chat. Oh, just kidding. That was it. We have a chat, though. We do have a chat. Thanks for hanging out with everybody. We have a chat, with us, though, on Sunday. Guys, don't forget to love each other and be kind to yourself. You deserve it. Have fun with Field and Kingston, and we'll see you guys on Sunday morning on FFC. See y'all. It's great to be joined by a new friend of the program here, the eighth overall pick of the 2026 NBA draft, the newest Atlanta Hawk, Kingston Fleming's proud former University of Houston Cougar, and from what I am told, a fantasy football aficionado. Tell me about your love for fantasy football. I love fantasy football. Yeah, thank y'all for having me, for sure. But I've been playing fantasy football probably since, like, maybe third grade. I used to play with my friend's dad, who was my coach growing up, Coach Cody. We used to always, because he was a high school coach, so we would go up in the summer and on his computers at my high school that I went to, we would draft on those computers and we would always play. So that's when we used to play back then, but I just continued playing throughout the year. I play with my friends, some of the team now, so I've been on it. Is it a, I mean, you're very new to the Atlanta Hawks here, but obviously the football season, the one that we are currently in, started after you got drafted. Is there a Hawks league or is there an NBA Players League for fantasy football? Yeah, we do have some players on the team, actually, in the league. We have, like, eight of us. We started, like, late notice, kind of, but we have eight of us, so it's going pretty good so far. All right, eight-team leagues are fun. You know, everybody's got, everybody should have a good squad with only eight teams, but a lot of high-scoring affairs as well. So you started, like, you started all the way back in third grade. Do you have any memory of some of the first players that you drafted in fantasy football that really came through for you? Let me see. That really came through. I used to always remember, like, I remember when I was younger, I always remember, like, that QB, like, I remember one of my friends' dad would always pick Tom Brady first. Yeah. Back then, someone that really, really did good for me. Kelsey. Kelsey was always good. I always tried to have him on my teams when I could. I mean, just having him and having tight end advantage is always good. A player growing up, I can't, I can't remember my exact player, but I was always picking him. Like, Le'Veon Bell, maybe? I'm thinking about some of the guys that a decade or so ago. I had A.B. one year. I had A.B. A.B.? I had Antonio Brown. I didn't have Le'Veon Bell, I don't think. I think my friend actually had him the year when he was on the Jets, and I think he was supposed to be really good, but he didn't play. Yeah. I think he had him that year, so, yeah. That was a fantasy nightmare right there. Do you, so your fantasy football passion, is it because you love football, or do you think, or were you sort of just an average football fan who kind of caught the bug once fantasy football came into your life? No, I love football, too. I'd say I really got into football. I used to play Madden a lot, or I still play it a lot, so I played Madden, and like 2014, 2015, the best team was the Seahawks, so when I was a kid, I lost in the Legion of Boom, so that was my team, and that was my squad, and from then on, I always liked watching football. I always liked playing fantasy football, so, yeah. I was going to say, you're, Texas native, but you're a Seahawks fan from what I understand, and it's a good time to be a Seahawks fan right now. What was last season like for you? I mean, that was an unbelievable run for them, certainly not one that a lot of people were expecting. Yeah, I remember the Super Bowl game, we were actually playing, I think we were about to play BYU, at Houston, we were probably playing BYU, or Utah, I can't remember exactly what it was, but if you would have asked me before the season if we would have won the championship, I probably would have said no. I knew we were going to be competing, like being in the playoffs, we were always a pretty good competitive team, but Mike McDonald, he's changed the team around, so it's been good. This season, they're 2-1 obviously, but for fantasy purposes, JSN has been ridiculous. Do you have any JSN on any of your rosters this year in fantasy? Yeah, I have them in my, my lady with my friends, I have JSN, so I mean, he's definitely been killing like crazy, going crazy, but on my other team, I don't really have any, I had a little bit of Jadarion Price, those are the only two guys I have on those teams, so yeah. We've got to get, we've got to get Jadarion Price going a little bit. He's got a whole lot of the football, you know, he's got a whole lot on the ball, he's got to find a way to pick up some more yards on the ground as well. I am optimistic he'll eventually find his footing here. I was wondering, so, you know, obviously having played a season at Houston, there were probably some Sundays you kind of just alluded to it where you've got a game of your own or you're coming back from a late game on Saturday night traveling back. I want to hear about the mechanics of how you get ready for your fantasy football lineup. If we're tipping off for a Sunday game at 2 p.m. Eastern time, wherever you are locally, like, how are we getting ready for fantasy football? Are you going to have somebody on the ready in case there is a late injury scratch that impacts your fantasy lineup that you can't get to because you're getting rid of the hoop? Yeah, so for me, I'm really like tapped into it. So we would never really play on Sundays. The most we would have is we'd play Saturday and then maybe Monday if it was a big Monday game. But I'm super tapped in, so I'm kind of super locked in with all the injuries, all things like that. Like, I follow Injury Doctor on Instagram so I'm all locked in on that. So I haven't really had any, like, big scares. And, like, so I'm looking at what's the weather for the games, like, what the players are. So, yeah, really, I mean, I'm usually, you know, I wake up pretty early on weekends, too. Probably the latest I'll probably wake up is 9, 30, 10. So I'm still up in time for the game and I'm getting ready and then it's football weekend. Yeah, we got our first international game this upcoming weekend. So we got to remind people, especially on the West Coast, get those lineups set before you go to bed on Sunday night. Do you have any memorable sort of, whether it's championship wins or just memorable wins, I guess, or defeats in fantasy football that stick with you forever? Like, I was down 35 going into Monday Night Football and I overcame this or maybe I was up 35 and I got the other side of that miracle. The most memorable one for me was, I don't know if this was last, I think this might have been two years ago. But I was in, so it was fantasy playoffs and I was playing Devo Samuel on my team and this is the game brought Purdy through four interceptions versus the Lions. Oh, yes. And it was like me and a player I was playing in the playoffs, we both had a bad game. I think I lost by like.5 points. But Brock Purdy threw a pass to Debo Samuel, and Debo Samuel catches a lot of screen passes. And I'm watching the game, he throws a screen pass, and I'm like, oh, I won off PPR. They counted it as a rush because he was either throwing back or something like that. If they would have counted it as a catch, I would have won that. And then based on how I did the next week, I would have won the championship. But that's definitely the craziest one that stuck with me for sure, that Debo Samuel game with Brock Purdy. I'm not ashamed to admit that there have been a couple times where I have emailed the NFL League office about a potential scoring change where I was convinced that my guy caught a pass rather than a lateral and got that extra PPR points. But this game is, you know, I think sometimes I think about fantasy football like golf. It's, you know, if you're a good golfer, you're motivated by the bad shots you make to overcome those the next round. If you're a bad golfer, you're like, well, I did have those five holes. I played okay, and I'm going to come back for more fantasy football. The heartbreak can fuel your next victory. How many leagues you in this year? I know you are in our ESPN Elite Knockout League, which obviously started at 18. We're down to 15 now with three teams knocked out. But how many total leagues for you? I'm in three total. So I'm in the ESPN one. I'm in one with the Hawks, and I'm in one with my friends back in hometown. Okay. Are you a commissioner in any of those? Are there those two besides the knockout league? Yeah, I'm a commissioner in the one with my friends back home. I shouldn't be the commissioner. I'm never usually the commissioner ever. But this last year, one of my friends was messing up with it. So we kind of had to switch and I ended up getting it. I hate being a commissioner, but I am in that league. So you're 19. I'm going to go ahead and guess that your friends back home are a little less busy than an NBA player. Can somebody step up for you right now? You kind of have a few things on your plate at this moment. I mean, definitely. I mean, we literally have a friend in my group chat that's always the commissioner. And this is the one year he wasn't. So, I mean, he didn't do his job. He didn't do his job. Well, you know what? I'm interpreting that information this way. You're a leader. You're a leader despite your age. And Hawks fans should be excited about that. Have you ever played in a league with a crazy rule or a crazy punishment that you think the world needs to know about? Let me see. A crazy rule. I know a league where they. They take away 100 points if your kicker misses an extra point. I saw a league where, like, if a guy does a backflip, they get 100 points or something like that, too. Those are crazy ones. I could never do that. So, like, Cam's got to move on to the greatest players. But I couldn't do that because I feel like I would just be mad if I lost the whole week over one thing like that. So, I don't have any crazy things like that that we've done. No, not really. Okay. Well, you know, there's something to be said about just, like, kind of keeping it straight and to the point. It's also like the NCAA. I know we're about to maybe expand from 68 teams to more, but the NCAA tournament as it is is pretty darn fun to me. We'll get you out of here on this. Any NFL players that you just love watching on Sundays, whether it's because of their fantasy prowess or otherwise? I mean, obviously, Seahawks guys, JSN, Sam Donald's been hooping for us. I like Jordan Tyson a lot, so I hope he comes back from his hamstring injury and he's good with it. And three guys who helped me a lot. So, Kenneth Walker a few years ago. I picked him up off waivers and he killed for me. And I was super sad to see Seahawks let him go. But, I mean, he's killing with the Chiefs, so it's a little bittersweet because I know the player he is, but he's killing for an opponent that we're probably going to have to play this year. Bucky Irving was another one of those players. I picked up Bucky Irving, I think, two years ago. And he did really good for me. And then Travis, I guess his name's A-Chain. Yeah, now he's A-Chain. Yeah, Travis A-Chain. So, I picked him up off waivers, too. So, those running backs, those are definitely guys I like watching for sure. No doubt. A lot of fun to watch. Well, we can't wait to watch you, King Flemings, play. The NBA season is just around the corner. A Hawks, a team with a lot of buzz. A team that obviously made the playoffs last year. You're a new part of this puzzle, but we can't wait to see what it all looks like. And thank you so much for joining us here. Yeah, thank you. We'll see you next time. official sponsor of the NFL. We'll see you there.