Fantasy Waivers | NFL Week 5

"The most valuable commodity I know of is information, isn't your grief?" "$105 is just a regular amount." "How many tackles can one man pay?" "You're saying that humans need fantasy to make life bearable." "Fumans need fantasy to be human." "My goodness." "You guys are prone." "Facts." "Rolepless, refusing to give up." "All right, hit that horn, baby, man." Welcome to the fantasy selects podcast from the action network in fantasy labs. I'm your host, Ted Moss Region. NFL Week 5 is here, and I'm joined by one of the most accurate rankers in the game. Sean Kerner, the odds maker. Quick reminder that all of our fantasy football content is available now over on fantasylabs.com. Fantasylabs NFL includes ten season rankings, waiver wire and DFS tips and much more. Make sure you use code flex20 for $20 off the fantasylabs.com/flex. Another fun weekend in football. Some injuries. Not the most fortunate, but Sean, how is your week for? I had a good week for. I had a winning week betting, which is always nice. I won every single fantasy league I'm in, and I embarrassingly, one of my favorite leagues, a bunch of other pros. I love Case Keenum in there, and I still won. My team is so good. Palmanongai is my RB4. You can start at the five running backs in this crazy league. So I still won, but I feel so bad. That'll never happen again. Usually I don't start quarterbacks. But to be fair, Case Keenum did start. He took the very first snap. I guess Ben Johnson was trying to make a point or something. So I guess I technically did play the starter, but very fortunate to still win that. How did a good week overall despite the carnage that I'm getting hit with as well? But hopefully you had a good week for Thrill the Chaos as well. Not my best week for had some brutal calls with the David Montgomery and Bo Nick's last week. I don't really have Montgomery, but Nick's definitely burned me in a few spots. That SF Denver game was a lot lower scoring overall than I expected. Same with Jaguar's Bengals. 39 combined points like BTJ, Parker Washington and Kobe Myers. I was high on Myers. They combined for less than a hundred yards receiving about like six catches in one touchdown that went to BTJ of all people. So weird situation. And then like your hat eagles rams. 92 passing yards for jailiners. Something like that. It was about two passing touchdowns, one of which was a circus catch by Darius Cooper in the end zone. Yeah, I had Cooper over eight and a half receiving yards. So had him in some millimaker lineups with Niko Collins and like some other good ones. But I had Parker Washington stacked with Trevor Lawrence. So didn't didn't didn't bank it with that. But you know, I have Trevor Lawrence and a ton of legs. So last week it was infuriating to see him kneeled out the one. But I added TJ Hawkinson in a league. He was a great late week pick up with Oliver and Justin Jefferson out. So him also kneeling down kind of at the one guard line. I'm not sure if you saw that he still had a great game. But could have added a touchdown to that. So that was frustrating. But we kind of have an epidemic of guys kneeling. I guess the Hawkinson one kind of made a little bit more sense. But still don't like to see so many of these early on the season. But that's, you know, that's what makes face football and other means of investing in football so much fun, I guess. Yeah, definitely fun unless you're me starting Kyler Murray and watching that happen. So not as fun. Not as fun watching his only potential touchdown be taken off the board. If you looked good in the second half or all the fourth quarter, necessarily when they're playing like hurry up. But like that was man, I've been discouraged by Kyler. And also like speaking of lineups, not a millimaker. But the underdog battle royale week four, I had the optimal lineup outside of Jeremiah Love. That Tyler LG or 25 yard touchdown just watching LG or take way more work than recently. Because I think he hit double digit touches for sure. And this is after Love's touches spiked to like 25 in week three. So that was really disheartening. But we move on. We're here in week five. Well, you saw what Love was saying, right? Yeah, yeah, he was dealing with some cramping and like this is going to be the longest year of his life. Apparently, that was I don't know. Yeah, but he's like literally asking the coaches to play LG and even BAM night more. So that's what you want from like your workhorse back, you know, begging for the backups to play a little bit more. But it is what it is. Luckily, it's the lines this week. And that kind of segues right into our free agent pickups are our favorite waiver wire ads. For a week five. So today, we'll go position by position to see who's still available. Most leagues that you might want to keep an eye on. All these guys are going to be available in over 40% of Yahoo leagues. We don't want you guys to have, or we're not going to recommend someone with 80% roster shares in Yahoo. Yes, TN or whatever. So Sean, lead us off with quarterback. Yeah, so I like the guy that you're going to bring up. He would be the streamer play this week. So I'll make this two parts. So I think whoever you have put in a bid for Jacobi Perset, you're going to talk about him next. But if you're like me and leagues where you're streaming quarterbacks for whatever reason, you probably had CJ Stroud last week who had a really good game. He finished as the QB five, heading in a minor football. But he had a great game, had a good matchup. But this week he has another good matchup again against the Titan. So if I have CJ Stroud, I'm putting in a bid for Perset. And if I don't get him, I'm sticking with CJ Stroud because, you know, the Texans are Owen four. They're facing the Titans. So yeah, it might be their first like win with a run heavy game script. But the run game has been struggling. This is a must win game. CJ Stroud is playing for his contract. Nico Collins is back. So I wouldn't be shocked if they kind of still were a bit pass heavy here and kind of ran it up a bit. CJ Stroud really wants a good game and a win at some point. So, you know, this is another week where he's, you know, a solid QB two. It's kind of a tricky week for streamers. But with, you know, Bryce Young, Patrick Holmes on by this week, Lamar Jackson might be out. You know, CJ Stroud's a decent addout there. If you're not able to get Perset. Yeah, and Perset would be my guy. And it's, it's a one week facing the Lions. They're at home, they're in their, you know, friendly environment. Whether it's at Detroit or even in Arizona, it would have been a friendly environment. But how can you not say after four weeks, don't start your quarterback against the Lions. You fire up any quarterback facing the Lions, any wide receiver, any running back. Chuba Hubbard, your guy for last week. Two touchdowns, 100 plus yards on the ground. It was incredible. Last night is just, they're facing a panther's team with no jail and cocker. No gaming, Lewis, Bryce Young. You know, coming off of a shaky game against the Browns the week prior, but it doesn't matter. If you're facing the Lions, start your guys. I mean, that's just, that, that feels obvious at this point. And Chicaubre said is widely available. He's available in 84% of leagues. So look at the guy with, I mean, Michael Wilson's been cooking. Tremac Bride, he missed him a few times yesterday, but Tremac Brides had a good start. Marvin Harrison Jr. had a touchdown. So I, I, I, I, I might have, for set crazy high this week. I don't know how you feel about him. Yeah. Well, I already said I think he's, oh, I meant, how high, sorry. How high I think right now he's my QB 15. I'm kind of, that feels a bit low. It's still very early in the week, not going to lie. So yeah, it wouldn't shock me if he ends up very close. If not inside my top 10. Yeah. Because again, I still, I have Lamar Jackson playing right now. No clue if he's going to actually suit up. You know, I think he'll pass up Jalen Hertz. I just see a ton of guys that he'll probably pass up in my rankings. Because this is, yeah, this against the Lions. He's got his starting running back begging to get taken out of the game. I mean, again, did I mention it's against the Lions? That's all you have to know. And this is, this is a week where the Lions. I think the Lions are going to put up some points. They're going to be pissed having into this game. I just think that this, this could be a classic shootout where we see percent. You know, I'm having to throw the ball 50 times. So yeah, like there's probably going to be, you know, 10 or 11 guys. I'm start over him and that's about it. So he's just the ideal one week plug-and-play kind of guy. So that's why I'm thinking like, what do you think would be a bid to get him? Because I think he's, he's a guy that I think everybody's going to kind of want. But you got to look at your league. You might only have like two guys in your league that would even like be able to start him. You know, if somebody has Josh Allen, they're not going to bid on. Did you cover your percent? So you have to be smart about it. So you might be homes on buy. Yeah, my homes. Lamar, the Lamar owner potentially finally had a good start. So it's like Drake Mavers, the Raiders, you're probably starting May. Yeah, I think if, yeah, if you have May, you're not going to put in a bid to get verset. So yeah, you might only have to compete with one or two people. But, you know, most streamers you can get for free basically. But I think verset will require some sort of bid. Yeah, I'm looking at it like it's somewhere between like two to four percent just it's a minor bid But like if you're oh in throwin four or one in three I'd do five six if you're like I need this quarterback Or like there's a quarterback quarter in your league if a guy has like two or three really good quarterbacks And he's just not selling or whatever. I'm sure they're like with buys two buys really There's probably gonna be like three bitters probably maybe four max, but like there could be competition And I would want for set like you said maybe in your top 10. I think he's right at 10 for me Yeah, I think it yeah, but we're gonna get it to why you're oh in four as well Yeah, it's because it's not quarterback, you know like Caleb Williams is out and he'll be back in a few weeks Maybe you want to like get a running back or why receiver and hope You know some like CJ Stroud can write the ship But if you're on four you probably have bigger fish to fry then get in Jacob I mean wouldn't hurt getting potentially 30 right inside of your fit or your quarterback slot would not hurt But okay, yeah, moving on running back Who is your running back waiver wire ad for weak far weak? Well, yeah, excuse me It was gonna be tank big speed and again whenever I talk about a running back It doesn't mean I would add this guy. It's just like let's talk about this guy cuz he's gonna get a ton of interest Kind of like I was gonna kind of premise it like Jonah Cole in the other week where At that he was a good ad, but I wouldn't go overboard because we we weren't sure who was healthy Tink big speed himself got hurt in the game where Saquon Barkley got hurt and it turns out Tink big speed is definitely gonna mess like the next six games at least so And let me just backtrack Saquon Barkley left the game with a hamstring injury We have no clue what his status is. They're doing testing on his hamstring as we speak and the team has kind of downplayed it But again, we don't know until they look at it. So there's a chance probably a good chance Barkley turns out to be just fine and he plays this week and none of this matters. However If Barkley you have some season long bets on him. I hope he plays this week, but if he's out That means Will Shipley is a must-add I'm not saying You should be the highest bidder on him. I'm actually saying the opposite. You probably shouldn't really want any of these guys But Shipley would be the best ad, but I'm just playing around playing around with projections right now where You know Barkley's out big squeeze out. I would still have Shipley as like an RB three flux because he's still more of the pass-catching back What I think they'll do is bring up Damian Pierce and or Jaden blue to kind of handle the early downward So that kind of makes this kind of a very murky three-way committee However, if if they just bring up like one of Damian Pierce or Jaden blue Then I think we can entertain playing Shipley as like a low-end RB two and possibly either Pierce or Blue especially if they bring back The Carson steal Like as the full-back guy he wouldn't really mix in so we kind of have to see how all this plays out So what you could do is stash a Damian Pierce or Jaden blue for free and Extremely deep leagues and see what happens Or just kind of take a flare in Shipley if you can get him cheap I would do that, but still a lot can happen in the situation But there is a path for Shipley to have like RB two type value this week And what should be a tougher matchup against the Jaguars were the you know the pass-catching back will probably get more work anyway So I think you know at the moment if we're scrambling Shipley is now the best ad of this backfield Yeah, it's kind of like a land of misfit toys Our misfit our bees if anything with blue with steel with Pierce shipley it just these Hand cuff adjacent backs that have been around for like two three years now if not more I definitely would prefer Shipley of them. I mean it would have been big to be obviously had a bit had he been healthy but yeah, it would probably be Shipley Pierce Blue steel in that order I Think blue has the most upside to just give in like his profile But Shipley I mean he was kind of a workhorse at Clemson. He had some years, but it's just in the NFL He's been very inefficient Okay, ish last year, but then you know biggs became it. He has I think he's averaging what 3.1 yards per carry in the NFL 3.9 yards per touch on 76 touches. It's He's been mid, but he's trust they trust him with sake on and biggs be healthy already to get on the field So that's that that speaks volumes But yeah, I'm with you. It's gross. I wouldn't want to be the highest bidder But if it's only one guy like you said elevated Shipley is definitely the one I'm interested in because Pierce doesn't catch pass His blue might not be in on rushing downs at all. Yeah, it it's gross. He hurts probably just runs more That's yeah, he's he's their goal line back so that does kind of eliminate That roll for like a Damien pier I think Damien Pierce would make the most sense To be like the early down back and goal line back, but again with the Eagles You know hurts kind of cap set upside anyway, and I mentioned Carson steel I have no clue that got he might be back to hunting alligators Or something. He's the crocodile man or whatever. So I don't even know if he's around But you know, he's been on the practice squad times mostly has a fullback So you know, he is not in play in the situation at all, but if they do elevate him It's good for whoever the other back is other than Shipley. That's for sure Totally now a back I would be interested in and I I mean despite the the Joe mix and rumors to manual Wilson right now is Hot ad to touchdowns last week. I mean facing the chargers. I mean, it's a okay defense It's not a not the worst defense. It's not the Lions. So it's not the fake game that he had in this situation But yeah, look in that 81 yards on the ground 39 through the air four targets. I mean that's that might be a four in one game might be a career high for him I have not checked he has 41 in four years And it's with the four total targets added. So I don't expect that every game, but looking at manual Wilson I mean, he's had the volume two games with 21 carries 24 touches last this past game was the highest of the season But they trust him. They signed them in the offseason. He was pretty damn good with the Packers and he had 140 touches last year. So it's not like someone he's someone who can't get on the field available on 51% of leagues This is a priority ad for the next month at least well not ad for the next month, but like You could pretty much plug and play him Even when Charbonne is back. Charbonne doesn't look a hundred percent like he hasn't practiced at all He's going to return soon or he's going to be limited, but I mean, Halani isn't more than a passing down back and even then he's not that good Charbonne coming off the ACL MCL price out for at least three more games if not more with this chest Aggregation I I love Wilson for the next few weeks. I wish I would have started him But I had like facial tooting I couldn't take tooting out of my line I'll be right after the fact I should have but who knows, but uh where you at with Wilson? Are you confident in them? Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. I think it's kind of crazy. He's even available in half the leagues right now because he should have been added last week Even if price was healthy. He was kind of already kind of overtaking him Again, probably the biggest frozen pun back Heading in the season for me was judarian price. So I wasn't too surprised that Wilson was kind of stepping up in that like early down role Um, and yeah, he's kind of the goal line back as well. So Once price was ruled out Wilson should have been added and like every league because he he was like My RB 25 or something So following a week where he scored two touchdowns prices out for a while Charbonne might not be back this week. You're probably going to have to bid quite a bit to get them um So it again, it depends if if you're 4-0 and you're solid at running back do not bid on him If if you're desperate and you need you know help because you have some running backs that are banged up or You have like Kenneth Walker who's on by this week or uh Chuba Hubbard then yeah, you need a bid a little bit more for Wilson And I yeah, I don't even know if mixin is healthy enough to play. I wouldn't be too worried about that But yeah, um even like you said if Charbonne is back they love to have committees anyway, so he might be able to have some value Um, Seahawks are a good team they have a good defense. So you know, he should still see enough volume Want Charbonne is back? Who probably has to get ease in anyway. So yeah, it's it's very tricky to just say One size fits all I think it depends on your situation But yeah to open the week he's my RB 21 right around there. So yeah, you're getting an RB 2 for at least one week If not more. So definitely one of the top ads Heading up five. Yeah top 24 for me as well. I look at it like yeah Joe mixin if he does sign it feels like You know when shady or levy on bell signed with the chiefs back in the day and it was like people were Or all picking these guys up and it's like It's just name value at this point. I think that's what Joe mixin is with all this time off with his foot and Whatever injuries that he's been dealing with it was kind of a mystery with the Texans last year That's why they let him go I think it's over for Joe. So even if he signs I'm not scared of bidding 20 plus percent on Wilson if you need a guy 30 to 40 percent if you need an RB 2 RB 1 potentially because it's bad the running back back landscape especially with this tank injury is bad Yeah, I would say Blessing in the skies would be they announced that they signed Joe mixin before waivers run You get Wilson maybe a little cheaper? Yeah, and then you just kind of bank on mix and not factor in that would be ideal as opposed to bidding a ton on Wilson They sign mexin and now you have to just hope ideally. They just announced hey, we signed Joe mexin Everybody sees that they don't bid as much and he still get Wilson. That would be ideal Real quick before he move on want to bring up Pete and Mitchell here your thoughts on him But he's still available one way too many leagues. We have an annoying three-way time share in LA here for the chargers But it sounds like slater and alt might be both out For some time they both got hurt So imagine this offensive line without them again would be hard to Really invest in any Chargers running back so I just want to urge caution if if you're kind of bidding on Mitchell this week about that But if anything I think Mitchell is this more of a thorn and Omerin Hampton side than somebody that we're playing right now But I think the charger situation could get much worse if either of those linemen do in fact miss some time Yeah, neck injury for alt high ankle for slater It's bad. It's really bad out here and I I don't know to make it the chargers anymore. I mean lad has the foot. It's it's terrible and the three-way Commodity it's like Yeah, you could pick up Mitchell, but it's like can he can't really scale up to 60 to 70% of the snaps anyway Their matchups haven't been great, but it's like I mean, he's been efficient. It's just like what what what can we hope for with three-way Like what can he scale up to like 55% of the snaps? He played 46% I believe last week And he's been on trending up, but he's not someone that could take over a backfield regardless It's like he could mix in and be a big part of it, but he's not gonna be a lead back Yeah, this backfield needs Someone to get hurt for any of them to really Be trusted, but you know what I blame I blame the heat out here. How can anybody? Handle this so I think hopefully you're staying cool today, but I think that has something to do with it I also saw a great meme about Medaniel Hit and hit and the vape pen and say you know how we're gonna fix this offense get Justin Herbert targets I don't know if you saw that play, but They threw a pass to Justin Herbert almost got him killed, but things are not great here for the chargers So again, this is a backfield heading of the season. I was very interested in and maybe I will at some point But not right now. I think if you have Hampton Like I don't know if you can play him this week against the Broncos if both alt and Slater are out with again have to be desperate. I'm sure. Yeah, it's like Who like obviously manuals. I'm gonna have manuals and over him God, it's gonna be like I guess I mean the commanders are bees against the Giants that's viable It's gonna be gross the like guys you could consider starting over Hampton The Broncos lost there's I mean they lost Patrick Sir Tan So that's a big loss, but that's a cornerback. I mean, he's a great tackler, but their front sevens pretty healthy You can just they could tee off. I mean, they're gonna be pissed too speaking of his after last week in the way they lost But that's on Nick's at the end of the day I just don't know what to make of Hampton like if you haven't you're probably still starting him Unless you're in a shallower league if you are in a deeper league or like if you are in a deeper league with depth And you could bench him and you have viable options great, but you're He ended up with the touchdown late. He had a few more targets than usual, but Unless Hampton's getting four to five targets at least per game. It's it's nasty God, I mean what what would you who'd you rather have than Hampton right now like if we're talking middle like would you rather Travion Henderson in this time show with Ramandre at least on a Patriot's team that's potentially good or would you rather have Hampton? That's a good question. I think I would rather have Travion because it's a two-way time share not a three-way There's more upside if Stevenson misses time. Yeah, didn't he miss time last year or Travion was like did and Travion like in 30-point games Deligit like top 10 week. I kind of remember that same thing with RJ Harvey when Dobbins went down he was a beast Everybody out there. You know how many spot starts Blake Horm has had zero zero So we don't even know what that looks like, but Travion has already flashed that if Keith Mitchell's out I don't think Hampton's all of a sudden back to being like an R.B. One maybe 70% He would Vidal might take all the passing down snaps. We don't really know what their ideas But you know he would obviously go up, but just with offensive line with the offense sucking with them kind of Making the other backs handle the passing down work. I think he'd still be kept Whereas Travion Henderson would just become the man with Corey Kiner getting scraps So I think Travion at least has I Think don't get me wrong. He's gonna be frustrating week to week, but I think he still has the higher Ceiling because it just you don't remondre injury away or he could just play really good and they have no choice but to get more work, but Both both were obviously kind of frustrating and one Actually went like in round two one didn't God, I can't believe how bad it's gotten up. It's October 5. It's For four weeks in a month in and the chargers look dead like completely dead like I remember almost He had he took a shot to the ribs that I was like. Oh, it's over It's I was like he broke three ribs right. He got up. He let him he ran He had a 35 yard run. He had a 40 yard bomb Q.J. Shout out to him being tough, but that's yeah, ridiculous Okay, moving on to wide receivers who's your top ad at wide receiver or the one most interested in yeah Yeah, I mean a few weeks ago I did bring up Denzel Boston. That was like a you should absolutely bit on this guy kind of thing I think this one's similar where he might only be a one week flyer But I think he'll be cheaper than I'm expecting and it's Dante Myers of the bangles because I talked about Myers on the touchdown show last week Having sneaky upside there, but you know showing value and betting markets is completely different than my value in fantasy Advice versa, but you know if Andre Yosevash out Colby Young was out. He was the clear wide receiver through the three for the bangles last week And this this is a passing offense that can support Three viable wide receivers even in the year 2026 But he had Jamar chase get knocked out early and then T Higgins Also got hurt later in the game. So he was operating as the clear number one So heading into this week. We don't know Jamar chase. I don't know if he was Actually put in the concussion protocol, but he I think he is yeah, he evens a day-to-day Higgins is day-to-day Chase is in concussion protocol. Okay, so there's a very old chance that chase misses With T day-to-day can mean three weeks. We don't know that I guess there's a theory if you see him going to practice and he walks up that little hill That means he's playing that week if he goes around it. That means he's out. So we need to watch we need some filter film evidence of What he's doing at practice, but we're on hill watch or we absolutely are you have to find every single edge Kev okay, so we we need to be on hill watch, but Myers either way He could be the number two or even number one receiver for burrow this week. They play the dolphins So this is a great matchup. Maybe even more incentive to let somebody like Chase or Higgins sit out this week, but you know Myers overall like he's kind of a Pretty good slot receiver, which they haven't really had since Tyler Boyd I kind of thought that he could be the the old Tyler Bolt Boyd role where Yosevash kind of reminds me as like a Higgins back up So I think he's a sneaky good fit for this offense If both Chase and Higgins are playing this week, you simply just drop Myers Free of charge. So I think just the way to handle this is pick him up Ideally for free if not for pennies on the dollar and you might end up having a wide receiver to this week Depending on what happens. So want to get ahead of that? I think he's a guy that you got to add just to see what happens and we'll know before before the game kicks off We'll know if he's a wide receiver - or you know wave goes send right back to the waiver wire. So That's kind of how I like handling the wide receiver position I don't want him like just wasting away on my bench either want to play in this week or get rid of them So I think adding him now Before we get clarity on either Chase or Higgins makes the most sense Totally and I agree with you if Chase and Higgins are both out. I mean Dante Dante Myers definitely goes into like Fringe start must start territory like top 36 if both are out It's one one or the other. I mean Chase Brown, Micah Sikki. They both get targets It'll be and then maybe it's a run-heavier game But we'll see I definitely agree with you that he's interesting and I mean he had a thousand yards in the CFL Went to Delta state and Presbyterians. I don't have much info on him from those two schools. He's like 26 So he's not old, but he's not young exactly. So I don't know what the upside is So yeah, definitely in streamer, start territory, I like that a lot. My guy's going to be more of a long term guy, Tray Harris. Just depending on this lad, Makonki injury, maybe they move on from QJ, trade him away for like a sixth round or fifth rounder if they could get that. And Tray Harris suddenly becomes, you know, Justin Herbert's potential wide receiver one after like being, you know, sunk down behind Gadsden last year, even, it was, it was weird. But this year they're making it more of a, or making him more of a priority. He's playing like, he has the second most snaps on the team and he played 93% of the snaps like in week four. That's a, that's a full time wide, but he can't ask for anything more than that. You're not going to get any more than 93% typically. So I like his profile. I don't love the college numbers early on, but he got too dominant receiving numbers at Ole Miss like he was the offense. He was, you know, Lane Kiffin's go to guy or Jackson Dart necessarily is go to guy behind the line of scrimmage, just the perfect kind of wide receiver for this McDaniel scheme where he could just like get him targets, feed him, let him do the work after the catch. How good, how efficient is that going to be with all the left, the, both tackles out, Herbert struggling, everything. I don't know, but he could very much so be in line for a 20 plus percent target share going forward if it's not 25% if again, QJ and Lad are both not there in the second half of the season. So I, I don't know how much I would, it would probably have to be like eight to ten percent because we, it's still ambiguous actually be five to eight percent. Let's say that, but I want to get Tre Harris on my bench at least. Do you think he'll require five to eight percent? What do you do this week? Let's see. Yeah. Much. Yeah, six for 30. I think five percent would get him. No? Yeah. No, that should probably get him. I'd be because yeah, you can't play him this week, they're, they're schedules absolutely brutal. They're facing the Broncos. So nobody's going to really go the other way to add some guy that you should stash on the bench, but I agree that he's kind of a good long term play because anything can happen with QJ, Lads seems like he gets hurt every week. I think he might actually miss time, so maybe you do actually have the bid ten percent to get Harris, but I'm curious to see what happens this week if both offensive linemen are out, we're going to have to see what the V8 pen tells McDaniel to do. But I'm going to be looking at the first read rate because they're probably going to have to make Herbert get rid of the ball quicker, where his first read rate is going to be more important, where it's been all, it's been spread out. Nobody's really over 15 percent right now. He's just kind of like looking at everybody. I think he's going to have to start having some hot routes. Some of like Trey Harris would make a ton of sense to just kind of give him some quick hitters. I know McDaniel loves them, so yeah, they could make some changes to the offense where Harris himself becomes more involved. So I think that now would be the time to get in on him where you, again, you might be able to play this week if lads out. I think down the road he could be a wide receiver free and down the road Joe and Slater ideally would be healthy. So yeah, maybe we might have a functional chargers offense at some point. So that's kind of the play it's like if you have the space on the bench, you can have a potential wide receiver free later on, but it depends on your league size and things like that. You're not dropping, I don't know who, but you're not dropping somebody that is already a wide receiver free for him, but certainly deeper leagues it makes sense. Yeah, like I'd be dropping QJ and Marvin Harrison, I mean, there's some trade and we're talking about elastic, but like apparently there are trade rumors for the Colts to acquire Marvin Harrison, but we'll see about that. Um, yeah, they're, it's like that middle end bench fight. Like if you picked up Khalifa Raymond, you shouldn't be rostering Khalifa Raymond in the first place. Like go get trade hours, go get a real upside wide receiver on your bench. Um, yeah, I mean, we could get to a point in a few weeks where it's like trade hair is a way better ad than like don't avian wicks or something once Smith's like the lemon's more integrated, but like I second half of the season, I definitely want trade hair. So I mean, he leads the team in targets yards. He doesn't have a touchdown yet, but like he's been super efficient 10 yards per target thus far. Like, this is the type of player you want on your bench, again, for the long term. It's still early enough in the season, we're not decimated by injuries, and it's been mostly, I mean, what the bangles are hurt, but it's supposed to been mostly running backs, I believe, that have suffered the longer term issues. So yeah, go get trade hair, I would bid up to 10% if anything to get him and keep him on your bench. But, uh, yeah, that sink is back in the action app, and it's better than ever. Now you can automatically track your activity across 15 plus sportsbooks and prediction markets all in one place, connect your accounts once, and your bets will in trades will automatically appear in action. As soon as you place them, no manual tracking required from there, follow all your action with the live win probability in game alerts and better than else throughout the game, just open the action app, head to my accounts, connect your sportsbook or prediction market, and you're ready to go. Then I'll do the action app and connect with Betsy for free today, moving on to tied end. Who's your top guy for week five? Yeah, I just went by just kind of like complicated upside by Mike, but Michael Mayer, he's available on 93% of leagues is still interesting to me because I wrote up in my tears piece last week that Mayer essentially, uh, he essentially has starting tied end usage right now, even with Brock Bauer's back. Um, so I thought, you know, he'd be sneaky for player props and he, you know, he went for eight catches 82 yards, how to 81% routes run right where I don't think he'll be able to maintain the eight catches for 80 yards with Brock Bauer's healthy, but still he's, he's seeing enough usage where he's like kind of a solid tied end to right now, even with Bauer's healthy. And then we know that he has top 10 upside if Bauer's misses time, which could happen again, we never know. He's still dealing with that PCL injury. So he's just kind of a rare tied end where it kind of reminds me of Dallas Goddard back when he was Zach Eertz back up where I was like, this guy has top 10 upside. If Eertz misses time and you still might be able to play him sometimes, just because he's so good. So, um, kind of unique situation where if you're a deeper league, you can kind of have him as like a streamer type play and then he has top 10 upside of Bauer's ever misses time. But I think there's something we might see more of going forward as the league gets to more, you know, tied end heavy. But I think the real reason for this is Zach Besh was place on IR and whenever he's out, they tend to go even more to tied end personnel because he's kind of like a wide receiver tied end hybrid. So as long as he's out, mayor could be running like an 80% routes rate, you know, fighting for targets with the target monster that is Brock Bauer's. But still like every tied end outside of Brock Bauer's and Tramik Bride are going to be inconsistent, have duds. So anytime you can get like a three catch for 40 yards out of a guy, that's usually a win. So that's kind of who Meyer is right now and this is still like his worst case scenario right now. So kind of a sneaky tied end to have that has top 10 upside if anything would happen with Brock Bauer. So more of a deep league at look at my actual rankings to see who the top tied end is this week that's available. But I still think mayor is kind of like an interesting long term play. Yeah, Kirk cousins through the ball 52 times last week. So I definitely don't think the 10 targets are going to repeat. But mayor's, I mean, I hate to say tied end handcuffs because that's it's kind of ridiculous. There's typically tight ends available on the waiver wire that you can add any given week. So you don't really need handcuffs. It's not like we're running backs where the wires so thin that handcuffs are so valuable especially how they could scale up. But if you are in the deeper league and tied end is an issue for you, whomever you have starting it can't imagine. I mean, even King Kate, you're still starting King Kate. If you have him with the struggles, loved ones picking up. So tie ends kind of tough in 10 to 12 team leads with like a 14 team league deeper or dynasty leagues. Obviously like mayor is definitely in consideration of TJ Hawkinson's available on 71% of the leagues and he just went crazy and Kyler. We know loves his tight ends, I mean, trading bridal is one of the better ones in the league. But Kyler and tight ends just happened to go together 13 targets, 13 catches, 119 yards last week. Looked like the guy that got drafted top 10 and could have had a touchdown. We were discussing it earlier. TJ Hawkinson just took the knee or he slid and he could have had an even better day. Do I want to start him weekly, probably not, but he's definitely in consideration as a long term option on your bench spot starter, especially like John Johnson's going to be less viable once Jordan Tyson returns. So that could be a swap you can make in the second half of the season. How do you feel about Hawkinson? Yeah. I like him. I he ended up inside my top 10 last week. I was kind of shocked, ECR was still around tight and 17 to anybody see that Justin Jefferson was ruled out. So I think as long as Justin Jefferson is out, TJ is going to push top 10 value. It does sound like Jefferson might be back this week. So that's obviously going to ding Hawkinson a ton, but Josh Oliver. was also out and he's on IR. So Oliver's gonna be out at least four weeks. They have Gavin Bartholomew out there just to block, like he's not eating into Hawkinson's receiving usage at all. So yeah, Hawkinson's a rare, you know, full-time tight end where yeah, I think he's gonna be at least a high end tight end too, as long as Josh Oliver's out. But if Justin Jefferson is held out again this week, which is possible, then he'll be back in my top 10. So he's definitely a guy that is worth a bit, but he's coming off such a big game that I am worried that he might go for too much. So it's kinda like, forgot who I was talking about last week, but Dalton Schultz the week before, I was like, you know, he's the top ad, but he's probably gonna go for way too much. And then last week, same thing. So it's like with tight end, you want to be careful of not playing Wacomal and just adding the other had the good game last week because it's such a shit show, so inconsistent that usually it's the guy that have the dud is gonna bounce back this week. So don't over bit on him, but T.J. Hawkinson is definitely a top 10 tight end this week if Jefferson's out again. So if we get more clarity on that before, that'll help dictate, you know, what, what you should actually bid on him. - Yeah, no, I probably wouldn't bid more than 5% if you're desperate and you could tie down like 1 to 5% is my bit of range. But yeah, if somebody goes 10 to 15, let them. You don't need them that badly, but it's just of the guys available. At least for a long-term outlook, I like Mike Gassicki more, maybe for this week with the tight ends, like the, or the wide receiver, Conundrum and Cincinnati. Like you discussed Dante Myers. Mike Gassicki's in that same conversation as a one week guy. So you don't have to over bit on Hawkinson, though I would probably prefer Hawkinson if Jefferson's out again, especially against the Saints. That would be, that could be a fun. Yeah, for him to, I don't know if he's gonna repeat 13 catches, though. - Probably not. If the trend holds, he probably won't, 'cause I just realized Kenyan Siddiq was the guy that I talked about last week. Saying like he has a ton of upside, but maybe he don't bid the farm on him. Guess how many catches he had this week? - I'm gonna go ahead and right, assume it rhymes with hero. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, zero. So, but he, to be fair, he was banged up. So I don't even know if he was like fully healthy. But again, Tyden is such a shit show. You don't wanna over bit on these guys after a massive week. If Siddiq was dropped in your league, and maybe Mitchell is still out this week and Mason Taylor is still out, add him immediately, 'cause he's gonna be, he's probably gonna be back inside my top 10. So just gotta be careful of Tyden. It's so volatile that you usually wanna get guys on the cheap, as opposed to just like overpaying for the massive game that they already had. So, yeah, I think Hawkinson will be better than Siddiq and Schultz the past couple of weeks, but still, you gotta be careful with these guys. - Definitely, Tyden is, like you said, a crap student. Almost of them suck. Like look at Schultz with Nikko Collins back. That was, that was bad. It's like, you're gonna be so annoyed. Okay, defense, moving on. Let's, we can go through these pretty quick. Shawn is your top defense ad of the week. - I'm gonna say the Browns, they're on my top two. So they have to be, but casual fans, probably just assume their defense would take a huge hit after the Mell's Garrett trade, but they're still very talented. They have a lot of good young, good players that, you know, this is a rebuilding team. So, you know, they've been very good this year. Mason Graham might miss some time, which will hurt them, but they're facing Geno Smith this week, who somehow took three sacks last week, despite the Jets only running like five plays. Go look at that box score. They got Minon guy. They had like historically low time and possession and he still got sack three times by the Bears. So just a more normal game script, a normal amount of plays. They could sack Geno like three to four times here, potentially force some turnovers. The Jets have one of the lowest and play team total. So this defense checks every single box for like what you can actually project for defense. So again, they're top five defense to open the week. Great, great streamer play this week. - Definitely, yeah, they're having, the Browns are having the extra few days off too, that always helps to defense a little more fresh. They're playing in New York, but at the same time it's having Geno Smith without his weapons, it's not great. Sadiq did play a season high in snaps last week, but like you said, he was a little banged up. So he might not have been 100% in terms of explosiveness. But yeah, if the weapons are actually like 80 Mitchell, if he's back in the mix and Sadiq's down on the injury reporter, he's a full practice all week, I'd probably lean elsewhere than the Browns, but yeah, looking at it on paper, it's a pretty damn good matchup, but the grand loss does hurt. I am gonna go with the Cowboys, just added Joey Porter Jr. Not the most successful game against the Texans, the Niko Collins went crazy against them, but luckily the Buccaneers do not have a Niko Collins. And the Buccaneers aren't starting a CJ Stroud who's like a good quarterback this year. That's cool, CJ Stroud and Bryce are both good this year. We love that. But yeah, they're starting at Jalen Daniels, and Daniels does run, he had about 55 yards, I believe on the ground last week, or yesterday, but I look at it, and I'm like rookie quarterback, offensive line struggling with the interior, wide receivers not getting the ball, running backs, just struggling without Baker under center. I mean, candy game, we'll have to touch down, Sean Tucker, I had to touch down, but this running attack is not as strong without Baker under center, because it's not a serious offense with Jalen Daniels running it. And the Cowboys are still talented. It's just, I don't know what's going on, but they're at home. Short week, weird, but at the same time, it's a short week for both teams. Nobody really has an advantage or disadvantage. I think this is a get right game for them in a way. And the defense can definitely tee off and maybe juice some sacks and maybe some picks out of this to make themselves feel better going forward. So I'm leaning with the Cowboys at home this week. They're in my top five because I don't trust Jalen Daniels at all. - Yeah, that's why I gave up the Packers last week. I'm high on Jalen Daniels, like rushing upside, but that's about it. And a through two picks last week and got sacked three times. So definitely there for the Cowboys defense. - Yeah, no. And again, maybe Joey Porter Jr., just another week gets more integrated, just helps like they figure things out. Like this is a week to week thing with a new addition. You never really know when it'll be, he's a good player. So you don't know when it clicks or how it clicks or when it sinks to whatever, but once it does, I think that that's like a huge missing piece, just a really solid boundary corner who can make it easier for the rest of the guys, because Doron Blande was in trouble. Last week, and he's been in trouble since pretty much he signed his contract. But yeah, moving on to kicker, who's your kicker ad for the week? - I'm gonna go with my guy Harrison Mevis, the thicker kicker at home against the bill. So assuming it'll still be a hundred degrees here, so that's nice for some extra yards. I think I don't know, but Rams have the third highest implied team to all this week. So it should be a high scoring back and forth type of game. Obviously, there's risk here where that could just mean he kicks five extra points and that's it. But that just means he has a higher floor, which a lot of the time that's kind of what you're looking for when you're streaming kicker. But for being one of the most innovative offensive minds of this entire generation, McVeigh can be pretty conservative. When it comes to fork down decision making, which kind of helps the kicker. So he has that going in his favor, he's only made 70% of his kicks this year. No reason to believe he can't regress towards 85%, which is league average. So I think he's a good by-law this week and what should be a high scoring game? A lot of times that's kind of all you need from your kicker, so I'm gonna go the thicker kicker here. - The thicker kicker, it's become a bit of a meme. And yeah, he's missed two 40 plus yards. So it's not like 20 to 39 yards, he's missed. But even so, it's like 40 to 49 yards, you should still be making. He's on the hot seat. Yeah, they're not gimmies, but they're, you better make it. - In this day and age, you gotta make those, like everybody's getting 60 plus. It's ridiculous. I mean, it's amazing, but at the same like, I watched football with my grandpa and he's like, how does it keep happening? I'm like modern, modern athleticism, every like innovation, et cetera. I'm like, I can't help any of your work. They also let them mess with the balls, right? - Oh yeah, that's it. - Yeah, they let them play with their own balls, like they can play with their own balls. - They could sit there and like do whatever they want with them, right? So. - Sounds like you and me on a. - I had a whole lesson on this on Twitter after I think the butker field girl, somebody gave me a whole lesson on it. So it was kind of, today I learned kind of moment. But yeah, whatever makes it better. - Yep, yep. - Yeah, but we've come better fantasy players learning all of this, but yeah, my guy's gonna be Jacobates here. 49% available in Yahoo leagues. And I mean, he went crazy last night, but that was because the offense was not finding the end zone Jared off through one touchdown to your Gordon, to your Gibbs scored once. That was crazy. I had him for over two touchdowns yesterday. Very sad performance. Like you said, they're definitely gonna be in the more aggressive kind of pissed off side, Bye. But they trust Jake Bates, he gets it done and I feel like this is another high scoring game where they're going to have, I mean, they're going to be kicking at a certain point. Also, Joe Mixen just signed by the way. So he's now a Seahawk. Congratulations to everyone who gets Immanuel Wilson cheaper on the way where we're wired this one. Exactly. That was my point. So now you can get him for cheap hopefully 15 to 20%. Maybe even less depending on how what your need is. If you need or be out, still go 15 to 20. Yeah. There's still time, like if we see a video of Joe Mixen like doing sprints and he looks really good or something, yeah, that, you know, that would kind of lower my bid because there's a chance Joe Mixen is healthy and now he's, who knows, he's going to be the lead back. So we have to, we can't just write him off completely. But I think that that certainly lowers the asking price for Wilson. But again, not everybody's paying attention. So there might be somebody in your league that bid on Wilson, not even knowing that Mixen signed. So it just depends on your league depends on your situation. Definitely. It always does. And Mixen, I mean, he's been out of football or when's the 20, 24 had to be, yeah, that was his last game action. So a year and a half, not more out of the game, I would imagine it takes a few weeks to acclimate. I mean, Austin Eccler came off the street and played last week, but he at least, you know, he was on the commanders last year, he knew the system. He knew. Right. But that was the familiar territory for him. So I mean, he was coming off the killy shout out to him playing. But I would imagine Joe Mixen takes a few more weeks to acclimate. I would definitely, I mean, Emmanuel Wilson's a must star still for the next two, three weeks while Jerry prices out. So he's savvy with those bids, uh, yeah, streamers and whatnot be, you know, you could, you could go lower on that because it's really just a pump and dump for a lot of these guys. And that'll do it for a week five and if all waiver wires episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. You don't miss anything this season. Don't forget to check out the fancy labs app for all of our projections and more. You use code flex 20 for $20 off an NFL subscription. We'll be back with our player projections episode tomorrow. So if you're going to eye under podcast feed, thanks for listening to see you. Action Network reminds you. Please gamble responsibly. If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem, help is available 24/7 at 1-800 gambler.