Week 2 Rapid Reaction & Takeaways

♪ Fantasy, you and the whole six, someone old ♪ ♪ Focus, fantasy, fantasy, focus ♪ What's up friends, welcome into Fantasy Focus. Monday morning Rapid Recap, I am Daniel Dopp. Here with the incomparable Liz Loza, hello Liz. Hello Daniel, we get to be together for this record. Yeah, very exciting, usually you're in LA today. I am looking in your eyes in the basement of Bristol, Connecticut's ESPN building. Boar. Yeah, we just got to watch a lot of football games together. We did. We're going to talk about a lot of them now. Sure. Let's dive into our WTF moments of the week. Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast. Liz, are we seriously still doing this with the Falcons quarterback? Well, I don't know how much longer we're going to have to, but I have a feeling that you are upset with the entire offense. You have a feeling, that is factually correct. I have a feeling. Like you want to unsubscribe? I would like to unsubscribe. Thank you, Liz Loza. I appreciate this. Listen, the entire Falcons offense looked awful. Once again, Cooper Rush, not serviceable at the quarterback position, did not get it done for the second week in a row. Not for his own value, but for the value of everyone else that we care about. B. John Robinson got bailed out in week one by a ton of receiving game work. Drake London did not get that lucky, and then again in this week. Okay, at least four for 51 on five targets. 8.9 is better than nothing, but that's not where you drafted Drake London to be. He needs to be someone that is averaging closer to 15 fantasy points in game for your fantasy squad. Kyle Pitz, only one for 15 on three targets. Liz, another guy that we drafted as a tight end one through the first two weeks of the season. He has 2.5 fantasy points. That's terrible. So I understand, yes, we'll get Michael Penix back soon. We definitely want to unsubscribe from this offense. But if we get Michael Penix back, I've got to roll it out there and trust it one more week. I've got to say we got to practice patience. I don't want to do that. After these two first weeks, with what I just had to live through for the Atlanta Falcon skill position players, I want to be done. But we got away a little bit longer as much as it hurts. And hopefully with Michael Penix back under center, things will be better. Because if I have to live through another week of Atlanta Falcons football like that again, Liz Losa, I'm going to lose my mind. All three star players on the Falcons posting under 12 fantasy points a piece. That's no good. What about you? Well, my biggest WTF moment came via the quarterback position. I'm going to go a couple of places. Get ready for a journey. If you look at the top producers from a fantasy perspective at the position, they go, Josh Allen, we know that, right? Thursday night was wild. Jared Goff, understandable. Same game. Then, Dak Prescott, Brock Perty, Bryce Young, Tyler Shock, Drew Locke, Kirk Cousins, Pam Ward, Deshan Watson, CJ Stroud, and then finally a name I recognize and probably started Joe Burrow. Whoa, do you know who's not on that list? Who? Caleb Williams, who put up a monster 37 fantasy points in week one in week two? Seven point, seven fantasy points. He completed 15 of 26 for 138 yards, zero touchdowns. But he did manage an interception and three sacks. I should also mention bearing the lead a little bit here. Exited the contest in the fourth quarter with, which is with what is being reported as a hamstring injury, though, it looked a lot worse. It did look a lot worse than that. This is one of the things we'll continue to get information on throughout the week. But as it stands right now, Shepter and a lot of other people reporting it as a hamstring injury, which seems better than what it could have been immediately following what it looked like. Well, if you were talking about the rest of the Falcons offense, the rest of the Bears offense also plummeted. Well, I guess they didn't have far to fall after week one. If I'm being honest, Roma Dunes, A Lutherbird and Ann Colston, Loveland, all posted fewer than eight fantasy points apiece. Loveland, obviously, who we all that was going to quote, bounce back bigly, right? Just 1.3 fantasy points earned via his one catch for three yards on three targets. Silver lining, if you're interested in one, I might be because I'm biased. He did have an end zone look again this week, and Tyson Badger just happened to throw the ball at his feet, so he couldn't catch it. Hey, at least he got an end zone look, though. I mean, that's better than not having one. Two weeks in a row, but no conversion. Well, I like your silver lining for what it's worth. Hey, let's do a new segment, Liz, called the Pete Weber Player of the Week. Are you kidding me? That's right. What do you think you are? All right, we're going to talk about guys that just went off Liz Loza. Who do you think you are? I am is an unbelievably popular phrase within the bowling community that our producer, David Presley and I know. Yeah, you taught it to you. Yeah, you didn't even know that this was a thing. Did not know what a Pete Weber was. Thought maybe he invented grills. Unstop it. Not the case, though. Give me your who do you think you are. I am player of the week. Watch out Justin Jefferson, because Jamar Chase is him. He converted seven of nine for 75 yards and two touchdowns wild highlight were the grabs. He managed 26.5 fantasy points after a horrible week one showing where he manages three point two fantasy points. And by the way, this effort was against the Texans, Derek Stingley. So we really love the bounce back. He is incredible. And in week three, they are going to the Steelers. Yeah, a couple of huge touchdown catches in that one that were awesome. How about for me? Mine is JSN. Pretty good. He's the new Justin Jefferson. Well, I guess we're copying him. Yeah, sorry, Justin Jefferson in this one. But he is quarterback agnostic right now. Drew Locke has not slowed down JSN at all. After an eight for 122 and a touchdown a week one, which was good enough for 26.2 fantasy points, he opted to eight for 151 and three touchdowns. Liz 41.1 points. JSN is wide receiver one headed into Monday night football. We talked about him in draft season. Yes. When we were talking about him and Pukinakua. And it's like, if you want to go with the safe option, JSN is a great floor. We saw the things that you did. Jamar Chase also the other wide receiver that we thought could go one overall at the position in fantasy drafts. And we, both you and I, issued a Pukinakua because of potential injury issues and potential disciplinary action that might ensue. Now we're going into Monday night and we don't know if he's going to play. We'll see how that one works out, but if you drafted either Jamar Chase or JSN at the top of your draft, you are feeling really good right now. All right, we're going to dive into our biggest story lines here from week two. And here we go. Liz, Justin Herbert stinks at football. Girl. I didn't see this coming and I am kind of freaking out a lot because I have a lot of shares of chargers across all of my fantasy lineups and all of the leagues that I am in. Herbert is not getting it done. Mike McDaniel is not getting it done. How are you feeling about the chargers right now after the first two weeks? I mean, I feel like it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for the organization. They dropped a game to the Cardinals and then to the Raiders. This one at home. Justin Jefferson, 15 to 27 for 192. One touchdown, two interceptions and three sacks. This is an awful showing. The only player, frankly, who managed a good stat line was O'Marion Hampton who carried the ball 23 times for 94 yards and a touchdown. We love that. He also got some action in the receiving game two for 21. We like to see him peppered. Lad McConkey, though. Yeah. Came in with an injury. I want to believe that that was a part of this situation because he did not look great in this one. And you know what doesn't look great is the next six weeks of the schedule. It is not. Honestly, it's going to be very tough. This is what it looks like for the chargers coming up. Next week is @buffalo, then @seattle, home to Denver, and @canzacity. Okay, so that's three away games in one home game, but the home game is against Denver. Then you hit a buy. Then you're @theRams. A little cross-town classic. That's right. Home to the Texans and then @baltimore. So five of your seven next games are on the road. And the two home games are against the Denver Broncos defense and the Houston Texans defense. This feels like a really tough threat. I don't think you're startable in fantasy. I think Herbert, you have to now look at as a QB2. And it's probably just going to be O'Marion Hampton that you have to start because where you drafted him and what the running back position is. And probably still lad McConkey, but he won't be ranked as the high end wide receiver two that we were hoping to see in this potential breakout player. It'll feel more like a low end wide receiver two wide receiver three flex option for us. If you weren't tilted enough, how about this? Dishon Watson outscored Justin Herbert. That is wild to me. He looks like he's going to get another game after upsetting the Buccaneers. There was a little bit of a weather delay that went on. Yeah. But a lot of us projected that Watson would go on the road for two games. Drop both of them. Yeah. Come home and then Shadour Sanders would be named the starter, not the case. Now this one looks unfortunately frustrating because he played well enough to have another game. Sure. And we were sort of hoping that this is going to be one of those situations where this is going to be two games with the Sean. And then we get Shadour Sanders who a lot of and you've talked about this. A lot of what we are comping our projections for this year too was last year based on the production from last year right. And that was always Shadour under center. So I want to see Harold Fanon. Not with Denzel. Excuse me. Not with Dishon Watson. I want to see KC Concept C own also not with Dishon Watson. And it looks like Dishon played well enough in this game that he's going to get another run here. Like you said, for the Cleveland Browns. I just really don't love the situation because it means we have to wait one more week. And Harold Fanon, 10.4 fantasy points is fine. Six more than last week. We love that. But the advantage of the matchup. I wanted more. I still want a little bit more. We all want more out of Harold Fanon. I did want more out of Devonta Smith this week. We got that. And he smashed here in week two. After a really quiet week one, Liz. 10 for 117 and a touchdown on 13. targets. A couple things did to help that along this way. Second one, Barclay, only played 10 snaps before getting hurt. And then left was gone for a while, came back in the second half for a little bit, but clearly not the same situation there. Dallas got it also exited. So that might have affected the targets. But more than that, I think Devon to Smith was able to move around the formation more. You saw him taking more slots out of the snaps and he was able to exploit a much more favorable matchup. Absolutely. And Devon, Devon, Don Tavy and Wix, excuse me, five for 74 on six targets. Another week where you looked really good as the wide receiver two in this offense. But this was more. You're gonna start making a case for a flex consideration. As we get into by weeks, we start being without some of the guys in our player pool. I am with you on that one. Really happy to see Devon to Smith get back to what it is that we thought. Imagine setting your makeup then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Jelly mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy, hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Maybe it's Maybelline. Liz, I'm not sure what to think about the panthers wide receiving situation anymore. Why? Is there a wide? Well, they are getting fed. But is there a wide receiver one like we thought or do we just sort of have like a wide receiver one A or one B? Well, this week, we did see TET rebound in terms of volume 10 targets. He led the team in looks 15.1 fantasy points. He cleared 100 receiving yards. Love that. Coker also though, if you picked him up on the waiver, why are you were rewarded? He's still producing eight grabs for 66 receiving yards. So definitely a piece of this, a piece of this offense. Now, Darren Waller did steal the end zone twice, which is a little bit confounding, but those could have gone anywhere. And like us millennials do, we don't chase waterfalls or touchdowns. That's right. We just chase volume and the volume for both these guys was big for two weeks in a row. Curious to see if Bryce Young is for real, because these first two weeks have looked really nice. Game script has worked out for them to have some pretty nice matchups, even though they lost to the bears. Game script was really nice for Bryce Young in that one. And here against the Falcons, your defense just looked awful at Cleveland in week three. We'll see what that one looks like. How did you feel about Devon H and because you knew I was panicked. I was so worried about what is this guy going to look like? I was told, including by myself, I talked myself into not worrying about what it's going to look like with Malik Willis under center. And I know that he had five targets in that first game, but they were down so much. I expected him to be utilized so much more. He is easily the best player on that team. They did not get the ball in his hands nearly enough here in week two. Well, they put the ball in his hands a lot less 20 carries 74 yards, though. That is not the efficiency that you want to see out of a player with Devon H and explosiveness. You mentioned the targets. We didn't really expect he got six this week. We didn't expect that much from Malik Willis. Obviously, we knew with two under center. There'd be a lot more check down. While those six targets didn't turn into much production, just three catches for 19 receiving yards. I think we're moving somewhere, right? And when you are losing, like the Miami Dolphins are, at least you have a running back who's still seeing 20 carries. I do appreciate that. I appreciate the workload. It just doesn't feel as good to me as I had hoped it would with Malik Willis because you made a talent bet on H and I did. And I think a lot of people did because we weren't really sure about the Malik Willis situation. So we decided to play into this guy as unbelievable. I mean, when you put the ball in his hands, he is an electric playmaker. Right now, just not being utilized quite the same way. And that has definitely hurt his value through the first couple of weeks of the season. A few more things here. Liz is 80 Mitchell for real, you think? I think he might be real. This week, he led all wide receivers, all past catchers, frankly, with 12 targets. He converted on half of those for six catches and 63 yards. He is certainly getting fed. You know, Garrett Wilson was targeted seven times. He caught five of those for 57. And he saved the day with a touchdown. So I think Garrett Wilson obviously remains the team's alpha in terms of production. But the 80 hype that we saw over the summer is not buzz only. He is certainly a massive part of this Jets offense. And this is a team that's going to be trailing quite a bit. So we expect that volume to continue to stay steady. Yeah. In week three, they're taking on my Detroit lines. I expect the lines to score a lot of points as they usually try to do 80 Mitchell only rostered in 17% of league. So he will be a waver target for sure as someone that you could look at. How about Drake May? Oh, I don't feel good about this one. Back to back weeks of Drake May failing to hit 10 fantasy points, Liz. Also failed to find the end zone in this game, completed just 14 of 22 for 208 yards. Like I said, zero touchdowns and interception and took three sacks for interceptions. And only one touchdown through the first two weeks of the season. And this next week, they're going on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars. It feels like we are approaching or have approached bench territory for Drake May right now without AJ Brown as his best playmaker. It doesn't feel like all of the things we were thinking would come to fruition are going to happen with Romeo dobs and the guys unfortunately in that wide receiving room. Yeah, he's having trouble converting. I think you're right. We just have to wait and see. But I would try to stream a different option, especially considering the matchup next week. I'm with you on that. Last question here really quickly. Are we dropping Marvin Harrison Junior? Can we just be done? Girl, I would like to be done because in a game in which the Arizona Cardinals lost 7 to 31. Yeah, while hosting the Seattle Seahawks, Marvin Harrison drew one look. Oh, they were trailing. You would think you would want to feed your theoretical wide receiver one. Nope. Also, he didn't convert on that one. Look, it does look obviously, Tremac bride, an exceptional talent led pass catchers with 10 targets converted eight of those for 41 and a touchdown. But behind him, Michael Wilson, you made a point as we were watching these games that Michael Wilson got paid. He does look to be the guy despite draft capital ahead of Marvin Harrison Junior three years, 75 million dollars. It honestly feels like Tremac bride. I know he's a tight end, but Tremac bride is the wide receiver one or pass catcher one. Michael Wilson is the wide receiver two and Marvin Harrison Junior literally doesn't even factor into this offense. At this point, if you have them on your bench and you want to drop him for someone off of waivers this week, I don't think I would tell you not to. I would be totally fine if you want to move on from Marvin Harrison Junior. It is time for you to be able to allow yourself to have that option. And in week three, they're facing the San Francisco 49ers, a resurgent 49ers team. I don't like it at all. I just don't I sometimes you got to let go of the brand name, right? I got to let go of it and just look at the data ahead of you. And right now, MHJ, not posting much evidence to keep him rostered. Well, to keep him starting. I won't be starting him. That is for sure. And if I have him on my bench, it's because I want to believe in the upside of something that could come down the road. And if I believe that there's another player off of waivers that maybe has a little bit more upside, this is the first time I've ever felt like I could at least entertain the idea of dropping Marvin Harrison. Isn't it wild that it's week two and we're already compartmentalizing it? Bro, it's so I I hate it. I hate it. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just clump to a hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Liz, let's talk about a couple of injuries before we get out of here for week two. Outch, baby. Very out. All right, well, we already talked about Kayla Williams, who left with again, what is being reported as a hamstring injury. Sequan Barkley, who he mentioned left the game, Bigsby did score. Sequan came back, but was rather overwhelmed, underwhelming rather. The Eagles will face the bears in week three ironically. Jayden Daniels, oh, this was a tough one to watch and we did not need to watch it at many times as it was re-play dislocated his elbow, the same elbow that he injured last year. You gotta imagine he's going to be out for some time, but we will definitely keep an eye on that. Dallas Goddard exited with an exited with a knee issue. Jonathan Brooks left with a groin issue. He is currently being reported as day to day with that injury. Now, Chuba Hubbard, who did score in week two, would be the Panthers RB one. So again, something to keep an eye on. Another running back. Jadari and Price suffered a chest injury in the fourth quarter. Now, at this point, Seattle was way up over the Cardinals. Hence, in case people are looking at box scores, 21 carries and 92 rushing yards for a manual Wilson. Jayden Reed had a scary moment. He had a neck injury. We are happy to report that he does have movement in all of his extremities. Now, though, finally, David and Joku left with a knee injury in the Chargers contest versus the Raiders. And like we said, we will have more on that throughout the week. So continue to check in on fantasy focus. And with that, check out fantasy focuses Monday official podcast with field and Mike. I will not be there, but Liz Lose, you will be there. I appreciate you holding everything down for me. And we'll see you on Tuesday as well. And make sure you hang out with us every single Thursday on facts versus feelings. You can find that on the NFL on ESPN YouTube page. All right, guys. Don't forget to love each other. And be kind to yourself. You deserve it. Thank you for hanging out with us. We'll see you a little bit later. Bye! Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue, just plump, dewy hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. Maybe it's Maybelline.