🚨 Trade Deadline Recap! Kirk Cousins to Vikings + Josh Downs & Keenan Allen (11/10 Fantasy Football Podcast) 🚨

Hey, I'm Tony DeCouple, anchor of the CBS evening news on my new daily podcast Great Question with Tony DeCouple. We go deeper on the one big question you haven't heard answered, or maybe haven't even heard asked. Follow and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and he. The trade deadline has come and gone, and it's now time to react to it. From a fantasy football perspective, up in the Tennessee football today, presented by him, whatever's holding you back, him says a real plan for it, be confident, be him. I'm Jamie Eisenberg, that's Dave Richard. We're breaking down the NFL trades that happened on Tuesday, Dave. Was an exciting trade deadline, or was it just kind of me? It was kind of meh. I was hoping for a few more fireworks, and yeah, I'm scratching my head over what the cults are doing, and even what the Titans are doing, keeping the running backs that they have on their teams, and why they wouldn't have moved them, knowing that Tony Pollard could be out the door via fear agency anyway, and knowing that Jonathan Taylor, older back, ton of tread off the tire, what's left for him when you can get a second-round pick, and something else. It just made me question kind of how the operations of these front offices are, but that's for a different show, not for this show. All right, we'll get to the cults, and what's left there in a second, because they traded two wide receivers, both Keenan Allen, going to the 49ers and Josh Downs, going to the Chiefs. Those are the big moves from a wide receiver perspective. The big trade, though, is Kirk Cousins going from the Raiders to the Viking. So let's start there, Dave. What do we think about Cousins as a fantasy quarterback, and then the breakdown of the Vikings, now that Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hockinson, they have what should be the best quarterback on the roster and the best quarterback that they will play with this year. So let's just start with those pass catchers first, and I think there's a lot of optimism here. We've already seen it, because in 2022, 2023, Kirk Cousins was in Minnesota. Kevin O'Connell was in Minnesota. Jefferson, Hockinson, Addison, they were there for parts of that time, and the fantasy production, I posted it on X, amazing. Here it is for everybody watching and listening. Justin, Jefferson averaged 21.6 PPR points per game with Kirk Cousins. TJ Hockinson averaged 13.4 PPR points per game with Kirk Cousins. Jordan Addison only ate games with Kirk Cousins. That was the year that he had the Achilles injury, still at 15.8 PPR points per game. Each of them had at least six and a half targets per game. Jefferson obviously, 10 plus targets per game, and the offense just threw at a crazy high rate, and I would think that that's going to be the case here again now. Kevin O'Connell is going to be able to trust Kirk Cousins and let him just let it rip basically. Offensive line, I think, is good enough to protect Cousins and to have him connect on time with all three of those weapons. So I am optimistic that all three of them, to some degree, will be good, but Jefferson's the one, obviously, that I think fantasy majors can expect a big increase in production with Cousins now back in Minnesota. And then ask for Cousins. I think it's a high end number two, fantasy QB. There'll be some matchups coming up where we will want to start him as a low end number one. Is this week one of those matchups against Green Bay? I don't know if I'm ready to say that, but it's going to be close. It's certainly going to be close. I think one big factor could be whether or not Michael Parsons plays because this backers defense has been good. We talked about it early on on Tuesday's show. They were my favorite DSC to pick up. They were your favorite DSC to pick up. If they've got Parsons back, I think that makes it a little bit harder on Cousins. And then after that, it's San Francisco tough matchup, but down the line, some really good matchups coming up where Cousins is going to have to put the ball in the air quite a bit. All right. Just yes or no on these questions. Is Justin Jefferson a top 10 wide receiver wrestler? Yes. Is Jordan Addison a must-start receiver and three receiver leagues rest of season? No. Is TJ Hawkinson a must-start tight end rest of season? Yes. Okay. So benefit huge in the favor of Jefferson and Hawkinson moderately in the favor of Jordan Addison. I agree with you. I think Cousins is a borderline starter most weeks this week, though, with four quarterbacks on a buy. Two of which you can make a case for or one definite must-start guy, one borderline starter in Bonaix. I think Cousins benefits here because we were probably considering, I know I was, I was starting Cousins with the Raiders, you know, this week just giving them the quarterbacks that we had available to us. I'm going to start once. Yeah. That would have surprised you for this week. So absolutely good situation. All right. What are the Raiders now where? Just real quick. On Cousins, like now he's got value rest of season. Whereas before we knew the clock was ticking on Mendoza replacing him, that ship is sailed. Cousins is now somebody that you could consider starting almost any week. But just not necessarily locked in top 10 quarterback. Let's go to the Raiders now where Fernando Mendoza takes over. He's going to be an option in Superflex and two quarterback leagues. If he plays well down this stretch, maybe you consider him in one quarterback leagues, but certainly should be rostered in those Superflex and two quarterback formats. What does this do for Brock Bowers, for Trey Tucker, for Ash and Gentie? Does anything change? Not really. I still think that Brock Bowers is going to get a ton of targets. And I've seen enough film on Fernando Mendoza to know that when his top targets have a one-on-one matchup, he's going to throw it to them. And he'll even do it if there's a safety over the top. And he thinks there's enough space between the safety and where that ball will go. So he's kind of got that gunslinger mentality. He will look for those big plays. He did it with a receiver at any NNM Charlie Becker. He was a big physical whiteout. You guys are going to know his name by this time next year. But I think that he will look for that. And certainly Clint Kubiak will design plays where Bowers can have opportunities like that. 10 plus yards down field Mendoza will find him. I'm nervous about Tucker. He's the one that I think is hurt the most. And I know that Mendoza will check down. He was running back. We saw him do that in Indiana too. And Gentie will have that role. And I mean, that's really about it. I think just in the case of Michael Mayer also, I don't think any changes for him either because he'll play that traditional tight-end spot. And for Bowers, he's going to still do what he does. This really isn't much about Clint Kubiak as it is about the quarterback situation. And giving Mendoza the time to learn the offense and be comfortable. So they obviously felt like the compensation was enough to make this move and that Mendoza is ready. Not easy match-ups for him by any stretch coming up. So just keep that in mind. And there will be some growing pains. But I think he should still be okay with the the Raider skill players. One of America's top true crime podcasts 48 hours is back with a new season. This is not scripted folks. This is real life. And so is the official after-show podcast host boredom. Follow and listen to 48 hours wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's go now to the wide receiver move. So the first move that happens, Colt's Get rid of two of their wide receivers in Keenan Allen and Josh Downes. Allen goes to the 49ers. Now, there's a lot at play here, Dave, because we don't know when Mike Evans and Debot Sam, we're going to play this Hurts Jordan walk-ins. I think for a guy that we were looking at as a way from our opt in this week because now Allen should step in and be at least the leader in targets from that position. DeMarcus Robinson clearly somebody you can drop if you're holding onto him. I'd probably still hold on to walk in just to see if Allen maybe isn't playing this week as they want to give him some time to get acclimated. My guess is he does play, but just something to keep an eye on there. So short-term long-term, what do we think about Keenan Allen? Because once everybody's back, it's going to be tough to trust him. I think we just have to kind of figure out what the role will be for Keenan Allen. And is Keenan Allen going to be the type of guy that's going to fly 15 plus yards down field and try and take the top off the defense? I don't think so. He hasn't been that guy for years, but that's what walk-ins can be. So I don't think the role really changes that much for walk-ins. What Keenan Allen brings to San Francisco is a tremendous route runner, a guy who can get open. Once Keenan Allen has his timing down with Brock Purdy, you're going to see him start to get targets. And he's done this funny little bit of saying that Keenan just like steals production from other wide receivers. He did it with the chargers last year, did it with the Bears a few years ago, did it with Indy this year, and he might do it again in San Francisco. I don't think he's going to be in some sort of role where he's only getting three or four targets per game. I think he's too good of a short-area option for that. And I think that there's some real opportunity here for Allen to beat one-on-one coverage and to crush his own coverage on a pretty regular basis. So he might be somebody in full PPR that sees a slight bump up in value with the 49ers. Yeah, I just, I'm not going to trust him when Evans and Debow are healthy. I think it's going to be one of those things where he will be somebody that we talk about. Do you roster him? Do you drop him? You know, and this is going to be probably a couple weeks in once we see those guys on the field. But this is probably an indication that Mike Evans not playing anytime soon because Debow's Samuel's close. I'm hoping that we get Evans down the stretch because I still think when everybody's healthy, he's their best wide receiver. I don't think this has an impact on George Kiddler or Christian McAfee as a pass catcher by any stretch moving forward and only makes Brock Purdy that much better. All right, we got Josh Downs goes to the Chiefs. This was a move, I guess that was the offer that was on the table because they get a fourth and a fifth round pick for Downs and a seventh rounder. The compensation for Keenan Allen was a 2027 sixth round pick. The compensation for Kirk Cousins was a third round pick. But in the case of Josh Downs, he's very excited, he posted on ex Benz Carter. Yeah, the Benz Carter meme of just being excited and when we know he kind of won it out. I don't know that I don't think this is the best destination for him, but it's clearly an upgrade over where he's been or where he's coming from. So what do we think about Josh Downs and obviously Xavier Worthy's dealing with this hamstring injury? Yeah, I would have preferred that he go to the Rams. And if this is the replacement for Xavier worthy, I think it's a pretty good reward. replacement. We're talking about a short area target, intermediate target, not necessarily a down field guy. Someone who can just, you know, take a short throw and extend the play with Yak. We know that he's very quick. We know that he's very fast. I think he's a good route runner. He's just more of a slot receiver. So I'm going to be real curious how often he lines up wide in Kansas City. But I don't think that that's going to be a huge factor in the number of targets he gets or the role that he'll have. I just think that he's going to be there to just do kind of what Xavier worthy had been doing before. And that makes me mildly intrigued. Could end up being a good number three receiver down the line. I'd like to have him on my bench. I like him better rest of season than Kenan Allen. I would agree. And again, the longer that Xavier worthy is out, we don't know that he's even going to miss any time. But Andy Reed did call him day to day and it looked like a pretty bad hamstring pole. So just something to keep an eye on there. I don't think this is a significant downgrade. It is a little bit of a downgrade, but a significant one to Rashi rice or Travis Kelsey there. You're not starting those guys. Maybe rice goes from borderline number one receiver to still mid-range number two guy because what we saw last week was worthy seem to be getting featured a little bit more so than rice was in the Jets game. But rice I still think when he's on the field is such a go-to option from homes. And Kelsey's going to just be in that, you know, low end number one tight end range. I thought he would get a little bit of a boost this week with worthy being out. And we'll see again how quickly down plays for the chase. We know that's not an easy offense to pick up, just something to keep an eye on there. But still a good potential number three wide receiver for Josh now is moving forward. And hopefully he's just rejuvenated by this. And we saw some of the performance that we got earlier in the season. All right, is there's no receiver for the it's fun. You look at the Colts receiving room right now. You look at the Cardinals receiving room right now and you look at the Rams receiving room right now. And there's no must start options. Maybe not even a must roster option for either of these teams. Let's just talk Tyler Warren and Jonathan Taylor will wrap this up. Taylor, you're still going to start him clearly this week against the Dolphins. But now it's just 25 men in the box him having to run against the entire defense because nobody's going to fear this passing game. What do you think about Tyler Warren rest of season? Well, that's our retailer. I'm going to name some of their upcoming opponents. You tell me if you think that the Colts will be able to stay in the game against these defenses. Miami this week. I think Miami saw the Colts trade two of their wide receivers like Malik. You're going to IR because we may win this game if you play without this game. So, uh, yeah, I think they have a chance to win this. Um, Philadelphia. They'll be competitive. Tennessee. Cleveland and week 17. Okay. All there are other games like Houston, the Giants, Cincinnati. I mean, I'd be shocked if Jonathan Taylor had 14 touches in those games. So I'm real concerned about that. And you also have to consider the fact that now that the Colts are committed to Jonathan Taylor moving forward, if he gets a hang now or a bruise, do they say, all right, you're out this week. We don't need you. We'll go with the young guys. And so I can't look at them as a top 10 fantasy running back rest of season. I think he's certainly in the top 15 mix. But top 10, I can't see this week. Yes. But for, you know, broad, broad picture of rest of season, I totally agree. And it's still worth your interest to roster Seth McGowan because of what Dave said. I totally agree with that that they may shut down Taylor at some point this season. And like, we'll see, maybe an Ashton Dullin or somebody steps up and becomes a borderline receiver three rest of the way. They also, Adam talked, Adam Azer talked about this earlier on our Tuesday morning show that Daniel Jones with the clause in his contract. If something happens, they could decide to shut him down as well because they don't want to pay him for an injury situation next year, similar to what happened to Daniel Jones with the Giants and with Kyler Russell Wilson with Denver. You know, so you could have one of those scenarios where they don't want to play these guys played Taylor for keeping him fresh for next year and play Daniel Jones for risk of injury just because they don't want to pay the contract. All right. So we'll have a lot more on this on the full length episode on Wednesday. You'll get some snippets from us and some content on CBS Sports.com. Obviously, check out Dave's trade chart for all the latest moves that will impact your fantasy moves. The waiver wire column will be updated as well. So we're reacting to the trades. The NFL trades in our written work as well. Thank you everybody for watching fantasy football today and we'll have everything for you more in depth on Wednesday shows for Dave for our great producer Sam. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks for watching and listening to fantasy football. podcasts.