Week 5 Fantasy Football Preview: Everything You Need Before Setting Your Lineup | Fantasy Focus

What up friends, welcome into fantasy focus football alongside Mike Clay as always. And feel the eights. My name is Daniel Dopp, very excited to be able to be here on a Thursday diving into what will be Thursday football week five preview part one diving into a handful of games here guys. First and foremost though, how you do and feel that looks so comfortable. Oh, thank you. It is. It's not a towel, but it is one of our possibly last nice days out. Otherwise, and Connecticut, so I figured I'd wear a short sleeve button. Oh, wow. Okay. Got a nice chain there too. Looking sharp. Oh, I forgot to tuck that back in. No big deal. No big deal. What are you? Where'd that cool playing t-shirt come from? I don't know. Okay. Kind of say something. May. But haircut looks amazing. So good. Air analysis is always so cogent and the best and you're underappreciated. And just want to say you're generally a really awesome guy. There's no judge segment today. Oh, there's not. No. Like, do you? Is there a chance though? This is Wednesday's rundown. That's why. That's why. Oh, my bad. I mean, yes, there's a judge segment every we should do that every day. I'm enjoying it. I just what do you just do? I don't want to talk. Is it true, Mike, though, that your feet hurt? Do you feel hurt right now? No. No, because I have these comfy shoes on. But it's throwing fields are on literally, and things around. Wow. Calm down. You just been running through my mind all night. That's why I wondered. So. All right. Let's dive into a little bit here. We're bored again. All right. Bringing it back. One one. Big shout out to our friends over at trophy smack. Head on over to trophysmack.com. Use the promo code trophy week five for 10% off your orders. There. Get your league hooked up. Guys, Eric Moody hanging out in chat. Eric and Moody. Make sure you hang out with him. As always, we always go to the chat. Have a little bit of fun with some questions. Get a little bit of news before we dive into everything today. Feel them. I'm going to let you take it away with our first bit of news. The giants go to Washington, DC to play the commanders on Sunday and it looks like one team might be getting some good injury news. One team. We're not sure yet. Malik neighbors didn't practice on Wednesday for the giants. I'm going to use this as a chance of blanket statement. The further we get into the season, and I know that it's only week five, I think the more likely it is that guys just don't take part in Wednesday practices and they're airing significantly on the side of caution. But no Malik, no Malik neighbors because of a sore knee at practice yesterday. Remember when Malik neighbors all of a sudden got to coy about his week one status against the Cowboys after it seemed like he was going to play all throughout training camp. I wouldn't be surprised if there's something along the way of gamesmanship going on here. Malik neighbors is at least a question mark for Sunday. The giants very thin at wide receiver. It would likely be the, let's be honest. As they likely show if there is no Malik neighbors on Sunday in Washington in a great matchup. Jayden dangles, though, did return to practice for the commanders. I think every player on the commander's 53 man roster is on the injury report in some way. Yeah. But Jayden dangles being upgraded from DNP to practicing on Wednesday is a good sign. The team has not yet added a veteran quarterback. And of course, Marcus Mario is not going to play this weekend. So it sure feels like and the rankings and projections reflect this. We'll see Jayden dangles on Sunday against the GMEN love it. We saw Justin Jefferson back at practice as well was limited after nursing that ankle injury. So if he is going to be back, we'll continue to monitor that situation, but feeling good that he is at least back at practice. Jordan Addison did not practice. We'll dive into that a little bit more with the rest of this Viking squad. But if Jefferson is back feeling good about that, we're going to preview that game a little bit later on today. Great matchup. Yes. Great matchup. We can name wide receiver couple of them actually though that we're monitoring. Yeah. The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver situation is tricky for sure. Omar Chase going through the concussion protocol. Maybe he's cleared for this weekend. We'll monitor that over the next few days. He's in the projections for now. As is T Higgins is he a doctor and they added the neck to the injury report as well. It was kind of tricky on if he was going to practice yesterday or not. Ultimately, he was listed as DNP. So again, we're going to monitor both of these down to Friday when they decide if they're listed as questionable or out for the game. In the meantime, if Dante Myers is out there on Waivers' projections, it's still going to look kind of low because Higgins and Chase are in there. Same for Mike Gassicki, you can scoop those guys up if you're in a tough spot, especially if you have Chase or Higgins just in case they are rolled out. I did watch Dante Myers, all of his catches. Somebody does a great job on YouTube of clipping like I'm talking not just like big performances, but any performance like the suggested playlist after Dante Myers for me was all of Austin Ecclers week four touches. Oh, wow. Yeah. I thought it was notable that watching Dante Myers, who obviously had this incredible game, and he's been one of the coolest stories from the Bengals on their roster, is that seven catches. If my memory is correct, three of those seven, maybe even four of those seven were designed quick screens to Dante Myers, which boads really well for him because if he steps into a larger role with no T Higgins or Jamar Chase, maybe both of them, yes, he's going to have to do some more of the stuff down the field. But in PPR formats, if he gets three screens in a game, you might as well just put five points in the bank right away before Dante Myers does anything else beyond that. So he has me intrigued my Cassicki's more of a known quantity. We know Cassicki. He's like, he's prone to finding the end zone when guys are unavailable. He's already done it three times so far this year. Yes. Or getting zero targets. Yeah. It's one of that. He's all over the map. But he could put up 20. So if you're in a desperate spot, certainly his projection will get a boost of those guys are out. It very much helps that they're playing the Miami Dolphins, who would be number one on every team's strength of schedule list to play every single week. Mike, we did have a unveiling of your strength of schedule. We're going to talk about it a little bit here. Yeah. Let's do it. It's up at espn.com. This is something I worked on throughout the offseason to kind of build a new looking tool. And it's a lot of fun. So check it out over there. There's the normal, your standard, you know, for whatever Minnesota's quarterbacks, but the strength of schedule was so far and what it will be the rest of the season based just on what we've seen so far also remove the impact of those specific games like against that team so that it's not influenced by that. Obviously, if your Josh Allen strength of schedule against quarterbacks is going to seem easier because he's putting up huge points every single week. So you have to remove that influence. So that's a kind of unique, unique twist we have on it. Also, you can expand to the PDF where it goes week by week. So you can look forward to every team they played so far and how hard you see that was and then what it looks like going forward, this will be updated every single week. So if we can go back to that page that we had, could we go back one page to the quarterbacks and running backs, which we've started there, yeah, on the YouTube stream here, Mike, and just describe. There you go. So just so I interpret this correctly, it says you have 116 and 32. So the hardest middle is or do the Vikings have the easiest strength of schedule. Right. Yeah, that's where we're going next. So we're going to start here with quarterback and running back. You're seeing them on the screen. So the Vikings have the easiest remaining schedule for quarterbacks, based again, based again, on the first four weeks of the season, they have at the ninth, easiest so far. But it should be pretty smooth sailing going forward. Their schedule includes the cults, the lions twice, the bills, the panthers and the commanders are kind of highlight games going forward. So that's a big chunk of their schedule. On the other hand, the bills at the bottom, I mean, after watching Josh Allen against Houston and Weekly, not that they've been very good defensively, they've been at disappointment, but maybe we're not super concerned about this. We've had a mid-pack schedule so far, but guys going forward, they get the Rams, the Ravens, the Vikings, the Jets twice, who have been actually pretty good so far, the chiefs, the patriots and the Broncos as well. They do get Miami twice, which helps one of those is in week 17, which is a key moment in the season. I'm not panicking, but the gap between like Josh Allen and then like Lamar and Brock Purdy is a little closer because of what the schedule looks like going forward. I like it. And then right in the middle, you had the Seahawks just a reference. That's just for a reference point and you can see the fullest one to one to 32 on the site. Running backs, New England is set up with the easiest so far. It's, it's, does that make it easier for us on that great for the backs and running backs? Yeah. Does that mean that we all of a sudden know what to do with New England's running backs? Now that they have the easiest fantasies, because it's, you know, for me, still a no. Okay. Well, if for Mondraight, are we talking about that today? We will. We will. This week then, it might help, but they've had the eighth easiest so far. They have the easiest going forward, Jets twice, Dolphins, Packers, Bills and Broncos. And then on the hardest side, the 49ers, Daniel. Oh, if someone said sell high on CMC mid, mid pack so far, but it gets tough, they have the commanders who've been actually really good against running back so far at Lanna, Minnesota, Seattle, the Rams and the Chiefs or the highlights of that one. So luckily with my calf free, it's not too scary because he does so much in the passing game. But again, it's not ideal. You want to ideally prefer a lighter slate. Oh, look at that. I love looking at the wide receivers because we've started to unlock carnal tape. We'll talk about him here a little bit more later on in the show, but love seeing that he has an easy strength to schedule. Yes, sure does. Titans about the eighth easiest so far jumps to the easiest, the rest of the way. Houston, who again, maybe that gets tough at some point, but for now, it's one of the easiest Cleveland, the Jags twice, Dallas, Washington and Detroit, all have been pretty generous to wide receivers so far. And then the other end, this kind of, of course, correlates with Josh Allen. It's the Buffalo Bills. And this is the most interesting one on the list. Why? Because they've had the easiest schedule for receivers so far. It goes to the hardest going forward. This is the Bills receivers of face of our Houston, Detroit, the chargers and the Patriots. So it's been, it's been pretty light. Those teams have struggled. I'll explain a little bit about Houston lead on in the show. Yeah, I was trying to sp it, articulate that the right way, but they have struggled going forward. Check this out who they have. The Rams, the Raiders who again. and they've been good so far against them. The Ravens, the Vikings, the Jets, the Dolphins, that's a light one, the chiefs, well, I shouldn't say a light one for the Dolphins 'cause no one throws on it. They don't actually have it. They haven't allowed a lot. The chiefs, the Patriots, and the Packers. They also have Chicago Denver and Miami as well. So this is like, oh, that's a fantasy plan. If Chicago Denver Miami is during the fantasy plan. So just across the board, a tough one for Bill's wide receiver, something to monitor. And then really quick tight ends is the trickiest one 'cause sometimes it just depends on who you face. So this early in the season, it's not super impactful but the Falcons easiest going forward Houston, the hardest. Maybe that helps Kyle Putt's get going at some point, guys, but he's now projected for two catches next week. Exactly. Yeah, so it's a tricky one. But anyway, early on, only four weeks in, this will evolve as the year goes on to get more and more reliable as the season progresses, but this is what we're looking at so far. It's my favorite tool to lie upon for trade deadline decisions. Yeah, that's great. 'Cause you're sitting there and you're like, and Christian McAfry's been so good so far this season, but maybe there is a slight discount. I don't know the perfect running back example. Like if the CMC continues to outpace Ashton Gentie, if you have CMC and maybe you like the slate ahead for Ashton Gentie going forward, you might be able to orchestrate a CMC from Ashton Gentie swap as we get closer. Excuse me to the deadline. Yeah, plus remember, you click the PDF that's on that page and you can actually go ahead if you wanna look at like weeks, 15, 16, 17 and just see who the three opponents are on how they rate so far at all. And this includes kicker and defense as well. So you can look at all those kind of things. Also helpful. And there's some fascinating things. Like if you've had Denver's defense, you're like, that's pretty disappointing. I know that was an elite defense, but you look at their schedule and you're like, oh, well, they've played some really good offenses. Rest of the way, they have the easiest schedule for defenses. So maybe it's a time to scoop them up off the waivers. A big opportunity for Denver. Although I, we'll make our picks later, but I gotta feel in on the Jaguars this week. By the way, this is very easy to find because if you just go to our rankings page, it's like you already do to look at quarterbacks, five receive a site, and it's right there within that list of links as well. So you can find it right on our rankings page. Shout out to you for that, Michael. - Hey, thank you. - Great job. Let's dive into our team previews, my friends. Bucks and Cowboys. Who wants to start with this one? Because I look at these lineup blocks. Bucky Irving, technically on one side is a lineup block. Devon ToWilliam, CDLAM, after his huge game, we talked about George Pickens a little bit earlier. This week, guys, we'll start with you, Field. Do you think that Pickens, this is the week? He's getting back on track and finally finds the end zone. - This is the week that George Pickens gets back on track. He scores tonight, and George Pickens is so talented. The idea of him scoring in any given week, not come as a major surprise. The fact that he hasn't done it through four weeks isn't even bigger surprise than that. Let's talk about the matchup a little bit, though, as you think about this Tampa Bay team and so much attention has been paid to the offensive struggles and injuries that we haven't really focused too much on this defense. Well, the Bucks have allowed the fifth highest completion percentage so far this season, they have just six, you know, that's bad. That's good for George. - For George Pickens. - Yeah. - Yes, they have just six acts. They can't pressure the quarterback. The deck press guy gets his all pro guard, Tyler Smith back tonight. Lots of reason to believe that deck press guy will have plenty of time to throw. Deck order the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Pickens has just one end zone target. And George Pickens is a guy that the Cowboys have to find a way to keep happy, right? George Pickens has had him your career. Mercurial? - Mercurial. - Mercurial. - There you go. - That was it. - No, it's enough, whatever. - What's your job? - Mercurial nature to him throughout his career, right? You got to find a way to keep him happy. I think that happens tonight. Just one end zone target so far this season. I think he gets at least one tonight. And he scores. I got George Pickens as I touched down. - He was a little bit on that Jamo path to start the season. Where like when you have drafted him, it's like, we're just going to keep rolling with him. You kind of knew that he's going to get involved sooner later in an offense that's going to eventually find him. I like the call here. - I've got him as wide receiver 16, which is three spots higher than you guys. A little bit higher than consensus. I'm in on George Pickens tonight. - Love it. - Mike, the Bucks with no passing game last week, basically, because of Jalen Daniel stepping in. Does that mean that it's only the Bucky Irving show? - Yeah, I think so. And even him, I'm a little nervous about it. - What would you have? - Enough volume that you're starting Bucky Irving. He did have 16 carries for 61 yards last week. But guys, we have to get him involved in the passing game. Zero targets last week. That's not going to cut it. Kind of all of our fears going into last week. Kind of came true for wishing with Jalen Daniels. 19 of 27 passing. That completion percentage is fine, but only 148 yards did have one touchdown to Kenny Gainwell. Yeah, not well, I was going to get there in a second. Also two interceptions in the game. But yeah, to your point, 5.5 yards per attempt. That's very poor. And the reason for that is 4.2 was this averaged up the target. The averaged up the throw, very short range. And also, as if that's not enough, we were worried he was going to run way more than Baker may feel sure enough. Eight carries, 55 yards in this game. Eight carries is a lot of plays when you're a low volume inefficient offense. So Irving, again, enough rushing volume, enough talent. We're starting him, but no buck cleared 37 yards in this game. Last week, Abuka had 13 yards on four targets. The thing that makes this somewhat interesting, if you're thinking about Abuka as a flex is Dallas is not better against the past this year so far. They have the worst EPA against the past. They're mid pack and fantasy points to receivers, but they have a lot 15 plus to a receiver in three straight game. To remember, Nico Collins last week, went for 30 point a point. So maybe there's enough for Abuka to get you to 12 points. Maybe, but it's very risky to invest in this offense. The thing that I am watching most closely from Tampa, specifically on offense, because you can't really do this as much on defense, is could this be a kitchen sink game? They're 0 and 4. Like if they're 0 and 5, even in the NFC South, you might as well just start thinking about the draft tomorrow morning. They lose this game tonight. I'm looking for trick plays. I'm looking for running back. Throwing passes to wide receivers down the field. Anything, flea flickers, reverses, hook and ladders, hook and ladders. You name it. I hope this bucks offense. And the reason I bring up those trick places, not that those totally changed the outlook for a player in fantasy, but a few bonus points here or there. Would it hurt for the guys that we might still be considering starting, which is basically just bucky Irving and Mekka. Okay, so if they're going to throw, naturally, they're going to do the hook and ladder, because everyone's doing that now, right? So they throw it to on Tucker. Yeah, they throw it to what? Keyotten or someone who they get a throw it to. Maybe he's going to ladder a little too. Who do we want to get it? Ted Hurst, a boot. Ted Hurst, a boot. I'm full of the Mekka, a boot, getting all of the yards. Yeah, in the past Irving and a boot. That's where we want it all to go. It might be a surprise to you guys, but I'm going to take the Dallas Cowboys in this one. Where you going to go? We are all the way across the board. Across the board, even the producer. Dallas at home. Yeah. Jalen Daniels, good story to hopefully he performs well, be nice to be a carve out a role in the league. We'll see. We'll see. Go to undrafted to win the number two job to be starting this early. Good story. Let's talk about this Houston Texans offense taken on the Tennessee Titans, my friends. Sorry about that. I meant Eagles. I did Eagles versus Jaguars. No, we could skip the Eagles. Mike wanted to skip the Eagles. I'm very nervous about this one, especially after the Eagles. Joaquin Lee traded a guard yesterday. I think they're down Eagles came into the season thinking they had a top 5.0 line. 60% of it's gone. I mean, at least for now, I ended Nickerson. I'll be back at some point. But Lane Johnson retired. Cam Jurgens goes to Baltimore for a two and a five. So interesting, interesting direction for the Philadelphia Eagles team right now. It's not I'm not feeling good about them going into Jacksonville this weekend. As you can see on the screen, Daniel, no line up blocks. Yeah. They are playing in London. Yeah. They are. The London Jaguars, Basel Tutton, Trevor Lawrence, and Parker Washington, the only three line up blocks for this game on the other side with the Eagles. I just want to quickly run through this with where we have all these players right now. Jalen Hertz, three straight games under 16 and a half fantasy points, back-to-back games under 13 and a half fantasy points. He's outside the top 12 for all of us at the quarterback position right now. With both of the running backs and Saekwan and Tank Bixby being hurt, it looks like it's going to be Will Shipley. We have them in the running back 24, 25 to 30 range. And not someone that you really feel great starting because the best and Eagles running back has done this year is 11.9 fantasy points. So did you guys see Nick Sierge and it's just going to say that. Yes. Take it away then. I said Damien Pierce is starting NFL running back and they didn't want to mention that previously because he was on the practice. Why? They went anyone to scoop him away. I mean, he's been around the league a little bit. I think it's news from the sense that he's going to have a significant role, which is what I said yesterday. I don't think Shipley's going to have a 80% snap share like Aaron Jones and some of these guys in the getting. I think another running backs and have a big role. So wouldn't shock me at all if Pierce leads them and carries and Shipley's more involved in passing situations. I just don't think it's going to be a full-time role for any of them. So is that enough for either of them to be starters and fantasy? No. I think this is the best. It's like Green Bay. Like, I don't want to mess with it. Stay away. Same with the wide receivers. I'm not starting either McIleman or Don Tavian Wix in this one. The only person I might consider would be Dallas Goddard knowing that he is back at practice. I think Dallas Goddard is probably close to a lineup block. Yeah. Yeah. He's not that he's like, yeah, he's like coming back. So it's like we're on defensive. He's going to go for sure. But he is back at practice. But if you have him, I would say you're probably rolling around with out Devon to Smith. I feel like he could just become like one of the target for Jalen. And Devon to Smith, I think we'll miss this weekend. But he was out at practice yesterday. He did not participate, but he was out there. Dallas Goddard was back in a limited fashion, right? Yes. Yes. Well, I think that we'll find out based on who travels right to this game. Well, we have a pretty good indicator who's going to play. Yeah. They're leaving on Friday or doing sort of a Rams type thing where they're going to get to London on Saturday and have a quick trip over there. I say Goddard only because like just mostly because of the position he plays. Yes. Right. Like we're sifting through the wilderness of tight ends. [BLANK_AUDIO] - Well, Dallas, he's been a good player for a long time. - As long as it doesn't sound like he is going to play, but just be a situational play. If it feels like they're gonna play, let him roll, then I will be starting Dallas Goddard if he's out there. - Do you know the Eagles play next week or no? - Not off the top of my head, I do not. Is there, are they at their buy? - They've their buy after them. - No, I don't think they're having their buy. I think they're not taking their buy right after this, which is becoming-- - Only there were a strength, the schedule chart you could look at. - Panthers, so they play next. - Okay, so the only thing that I'll say is I will monitor this backfield most closely for what it might mean the following week against Carolina, that's a more palatable matchup than I think they'll have this weekend against the Jaguars, who have been one of the best run defense. This is the start of last season. - Yeah, I feel like the Eagles are very much a long shot in this game. So kind of getting Devonte Smith healthy for next week in a good matchup against Carolina, he's shorthanded at corner, might be in their best interest to try and turn the season around at that point. - Did you guys know that this Sunday marks the first of 26 games away from Jacksonville? - The Jaguars will play over the next 30 NFL regular season games. - Wait, wait, wait, say that again. - Wow. - The Jaguars, if you take into account, the rest of this season, the 17 games next season, it's 30, we'll play 26 of them, not in Jacksonville. They're going into a temporary state even or a land event, right? They obviously play the international series, giving away home games and London every year anyways. - That's a part of it. - Yes, so 26 of their next 30 games will not be played at Everbank Stadium. - Wow. - You'll feel dive steep for nuggets. - Yes. - That was a good one. - Interesting. - Do you have anything you want to add from a fantasy perspective or just that stadium stuff? - I mean, I thought that was a good fact. - Okay. - It is a good fun fact. - Wait, how do I change my lineup with that? - Yes, what do I do? - You got to update my lineup. - I mean, you know what? - I love you. - No, no, no, no. - No, no, no. - I'm going to go the other way. You know what, awful analysis for you. - Okay, all right. - And your beard is scruffy. - It is, and it's getting white, field. - Oh. - It is. - It's coming in. - It's not me and in a hurry. - Yours is real white. - Yeah. - That is, that's okay. - That's all right. - Okay, with that. - You look good salt and pepper. - I can't. - I appreciate that. - I have no beard. - No. - It would be great. - You know, it'll be funny. It'd be funny if you did the opposite. You know how like people will have like a full beard and then they'll shave in their kids will see them. You should do the opposite where your kids don't see you for, it would probably take 12 or 15 years. - Yeah, to be able to do it and then see how they feel about it. It would be fun. - I was going to make a reference to something, but you guys wouldn't find it fantasy relevant. - Oh, wow. Okay. - I'm the guy who walked around the world in 20 years. - That's fair, that's fair. - You guys pick it in this game. - I'm going to take the Jaguars. - The Jags. - Yeah, sadly, yeah. - Last week I picked the Rams and I thought they would handle the Eagles pretty easily and the Eagles had that thing in the bag for a long time and blew it. So, I don't know, maybe they'll surprise me, but I'm, I'm not, I'm low on confidence right now in this team. - I have a couple of ebbs while there's flow. We can talk about the Jaguars though, by the way. - Bring it. - Okay, just real quick. The three guys that we have is starters. - Are we asking them to do that? - We did. - Sorry. - That's all right. - Patial Tutan talked about him yesterday, but just to reiterate, he's playing just 50.7% of the snaps, but the guy in the backfield who most want to start a 10 plus yard run in every game this season. Parker Washington is ding you'll remind that it's a couple of days ago. Fallen off a bit over the past couple of games. Has the 11th best target share in the NFL? Mike noted the DJ Turner shadow he drew for a ton of his routes last week against Cincinnati. And the Eagles, surprisingly, bottom 10 against wide receivers and quarterbacks so far this year. So it's a better matchup than you would expect this Eagles team to be based off how they played less. - Any comment on the weather forecast, which has intermittent clouds? - That change your analysis? - Intermittent clouds. - Just maybe a life, I don't know. Just random. - It's just a silly weather. - It's so mean. - There might be an occasional cloud. - Yeah, there may be everyone's in a while. Texans and the Titans. Finally, we get to talk about my Titans here, guys. Super excited about it. - Your Titans? - Yes. - Is that news? - No, I was excited. I jumped the gun here and false started on this game earlier in the show. Line-up locks in this one, Nico Collins and Carnell Tate. That's two good looking receivers, right? Carnell Tate is good the last couple of weeks. Who started slow if you had him as a rookie and you looked and watched this offense, it didn't feel great. But last three weeks, 28% target share, 25% target share, 42% target share last week. It was unbelievable and you look at what wide receivers might kind of tease this earlier on in the show, have done against the Houston Texans so far this year. Are you ready for this? - Yes. - These are the four wide receivers that were basically the wide receiver one of their squad that played the Houston Texans. Keenan Allen scored 18.3 fantasy points. - What, this year? - This year. DJ Moore scored 21 fantasy points. Jamar Chase scored 26.5 fantasy points and CDLAM scored 41.3 fantasy points. - That was awesome. - That's four straight guys with 18 plus fantasy points. This is a great situation right now for Carnell Tate who's only getting more and more looks and more integrated in this offense. I don't think the question was, is he a flex play? I don't even think he's a flex play. I think he's a full on wide receiver too right now with the volume and this match up this week. - Yeah, only concern is will he find the end zone ever in this office? - Please, that's a concern. - Not getting much run near the end zone, one end zone target on the season, but to your point, top 10 in target chair. - Yeah, whole NFL the season. That's why we chase volume even after the slow start. That's why he was a bi because he's getting heavy volume. - Agreed. - Not to mention the talent level, obviously. - Yeah, so he is very much in our lineup blocks and going to be in the lineup. What about on the other side of this one? Is just Nico Collins I see? - Yes, I wanted to talk about CJ Straub because he's coming off a rare good fantasy day last week. 347 passing arts and two touchdowns against Dallas, but guys, this is fascinating. 23.1 fantasy points in that game, which is a decent number, not like an elite number, but a pretty good number. Over his last 39 games going back to the start week one of 2024, that's his fourth best fantasy game. That shows you how poor he has been. From a fantasy perspective, the difference this season from years past as he's had added passing volume. He's top eight in attempts, completions in yards, but GameScript has been a huge factor there 'cause their own four. They've been trailing 71% of the time that's fourth highest in the NFL. And even still, he has five passing touchdowns in four games and he's still not a factor with those like just 66 yards so far. Also, this is a game where we expect GameScript to be a little bit different. He used to better handle this game against the Titans. And teams have not had to throw a lot against them. A quarterback has not hit 19 fantasy points against Tennessee this season. And they've, I think they've had a fairly light schedule as them and super tough, but nonetheless, no one's gotten to 20 against them. I don't think Straub is a guy we're gonna be talking about as a viable streamer and fantasy going forward. We'll be interested if this becomes a game very similar to what happened last year in week four. The Texans start 0 and 3, this guy is falling. The Texans play the Titans and they win 26 to nothing. They totally smother them, they outclass them. If that happens, it probably is not great news for, I think that CJ Straub will be fine in a game like that, but certainly not dominant. They've played the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets and New York Giants. There you go. Giants in four teams, who would have thought? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, field, you're going with the Titans here. I woke you like this. I like to hype up. I like the bold call. I think I like Tennessee. I think Tennessee. Yeah. On that, like that. Amward's showing some signs of life the last couple of weeks. All right. One of my themes. I like today and tomorrow's picks is, I'm Ziggin. When others were sagging. I like that field. When we're talking about fantasy analysis, you're talking about stadiums, chats talking about lineup questions. I'm trying it. It didn't really work. I feel bad. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, you have a tender touch. I do. Does Mike ever grab your leg under the desk like I do? No, I don't. Just me. I'm the only one that does it. I'm not supposed to do that. All right. Don't talk to HR. Mr. Big Sheesh. Need help. Bad guys. Who do I start at running back one and two? Will Shipley. Chaelin Wright. Uh, Keaton Mitchell or Chris Rodriguez. Chris Rodriguez. Uh, I think we can throw one. Okay. Yes. That's a tough answer. No. That's a tough question. You know, I was thinking about this, though. And I know Mike's being tongue in cheek when he says this. But I was thinking about something that I found that on occasion, whether it's, you know, on social media, usually on social media, people will ask questions for fantasy and analysts will respond. And they have almost this like this condescending tone, like, you know, like Mike just did. Yeah. Well, Mike was being was joking. Yeah. Obviously. I'm telling you, you playing it deep enough, Lee. Yeah. No, you're right. Crazy crap like this happens. Yep. So this person, uh, Mr. Big Sheesh, maybe he's an attend team league and he just went super wide receiver heavy or he draft the Travis H and and somebody else who's hurt right now. He's all like it. You have nothing. Yeah. There are any number of ways in which a situation like this could percolate. So I mean, I joke about that because been there, done that, you know, we've all been there. I know the pain. I'm, I'm feeling the pain with you in our fantasy focus countdown league. My four running backs are Blake Korum, Emanuel Wilson, Rico Doudel and Jacori Croskey Marit. That's not that far off from this question right now. Because I've got Devine H Ann and Jadari and Price that have both been hurt. Price have been very good. So I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel and that legal stuff happens. It does. I'm gonna try to answer these best. I can't. So let me throw it back up there one more time. Will Shipley is one. Shipley, Keaton Mitchell, Jalen Wright and Chris Rodriguez. I am going with Will Shipley. Yes. Those are the two things. Agreed. I'm living in Jalen Wright. He had just five carries for seven yards last week, nothing in the passing game at all last week. And that would be the way that he kind of helps his cause. And Chris Rodriguez, I think he has to do what he did last week, which is run free for a 20 plus yard touchdown. Yeah. I think that I am banking on Keaton Mitchell getting four to five targets, potentially enough touches. And Will Shipley getting maybe 12 carries and three to four targets himself. Yeah. By the way, we've seen Keaton Mitchell get a goal line carry in score because of his explosive list. I won't worry. around the defender because he's so fast. So yeah, I'm with you. I think it's shipply for sure is as pessimistic as I am. I think he's the clear right number one here. And then the rest are closer, but I would go keep Mitchell. And by the way, the fantasy basketball season opened up very soon. If you want to join fantasy basketball, you can jump in. All right. This guy's still grinding. Now the question Patrick wants to know, what do we think of this trade? These are always our favorites. Tyler Warren and Malik neighbors for Ashton Gentie and Travis Kelsey feels like an easy call to me. Gentie and Kelsey. I mean, you can make a case. Kelsey is over worn right now at the very least it's close. And you want gentie over Malik neighbors for sure. I mean, the running back value as good as gentie's been. I think that's an easy call. Yeah. I concur as well. This goes back to the contract. We've been talking about a lot recently, which is running back is already the hardest position to find players at. It's even more difficult when this season so far, players that either are out for the rest of the year or for a significant period of time, include Devon H and Travis, H and Jardarian price. We've got backfields that we thought might have some level of value that just flat out don't. So like Philadelphia, for example, like that's a sake one. Barkley is no longer a thing that matters to us is an elite fantasy running back. He's obviously he's hurt now too. The Broncos, that's a crossoff backfield. The Chargers are largely a crossoff backfield. So to me, the Ashton gentie side wins that one pretty clearly. Yeah, great. Definitely. If I got that offer, I would be like, how quickly can I hit a gentie hurt? What's going on? What's going on? No, he's not. Okay. Yes, except I like it. All right. Let's do one more question here. This one comes from Fig Jam 12. Oh, good boy. Debo or Denzel Boston rest of season, guys. That's a great question. It's a great question. Brown's offense has been trending upwards. I'm going to lean on Denzel Boston. Yeah, me too. I think there's a growing role potential in Denzel Boston. The Brown's offense is just flat out passable now. It's not great. It's not bad, though. And with Debo, you know, that one game where he has the 80 yard touchdown on no receptions, maybe it's clouded the value of how good he has been so far this season. So I go Denzel Boston. Yeah. Also, it's, oh, sorry, good. Debo's got to hold up. They could eventually get to John. Stribbling that. Exactly where I was going to sit. I'm moving towards Boston here. I would agree with you. Also, what I'm trying to figure out with Boston right now is what he's going to settle in as in the pros. Like I think he's going to be a legit fantasy starter for a long time. Is this like a tee higgins type of player that's going to be like, you know, a little bit dependent on touchdowns and be a little boom bus. I'm not saying injuries necessarily, but you know, kind of how he that role he's been. And he's always kind of hung around as a wide receiver, too. But the bottom line is, I think Boston is ascending and looks like the real deal. Looks like he's fine by Cleveland. The player that kept coming back to him or kept coming back to with him in the pre draft process is like if the high end outcome is straight, London. And through four games, I'm like, wow, okay, like you can see a little bit of Drake, London in Denzel Boston's game, long ways to go. Obviously, but through four four four weeks, like you could understand how that comparison will make some level of sense. I love this question too, because it really shows one of the things that sometimes is really easy in fantasy is just to get hooked on the really exciting new young prospect that you're just going to over, over expect a thing to happen. Divo Samuel is a great veteran to have this conversation with. He said three games over 15 fantasy points. Try not to just become totally excited about the shiny new toy and see which one is actually a better option for my fantasy squad. I'd be curious if this person is asking the question because he or she has an offer on the table. Like his or her debo for the other person's Denzel Boston. Or if it's just like, you know what, I'm thinking about trading one of them to try to get something. Who should I be hanging on to versus yeah, I mean, I think those guys are border, intent team leagues are borderline rosterable. Wait, if you have a shallow bench, I think already rosterable, but then they'll Boston down. They're both right. I think they both should be on rosters, but I think they're like kind of on that fence of like, hey, I need to drop somebody because I need to running back and during I weeks like, maybe do I drop Boston or Debo? I don't know if Boston is more cemented where in general, people are like, oh, no, this guy's going to be the real deal yet. I don't I think he's very much on that cusp alone with someone like Debo Samuel. All right, let's dive into the next game here. My friends Vikings and saints. Vikings and saints. This is going to be an interesting one lineup blocks. Chris Olave, Aaron Jones and Justin Jefferson field. You are a little concerned. The Saints. Oh, will crash down to earth potentially. Potentially. Some a couple of weird injury report situations. Yesterday we'll talk about one later in New England, but in New Orleans, Chris Olave was listed as a rest, although there was some speculation on Twitter that maybe he is dealing with some sort of injury. Sounds like one way or the other, Chris Olave will play on Sunday. Alvin Camera didn't practice yesterday as well. That's just him being an old veteran, right? It's a back injury, not a knee injury. Remember the knee was a horse. What took him out of the game briefly on Monday night. But let's just assume all of those guys play not sure that the outlook is particularly rosy against this Vikings team. Now this Vikings team has not played a bunch of absolute game-changing offenses. But through four weeks, the Vikings have allowed the fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks and average of 10.51 per game. They've allowed the fewest fantasy points to opposing running backs. Ollie Gordon was the only one to reach even 13 so far this season over the past three weeks. No wide receiver has gotten over 12 fantasy points against Minnesota and no titan has reached 10 fantasy points against the Vikings all season. One of the things that has helped the Saints this year has been the game script. So bad on defense that they have been in these shootouts or serious comeback mode. Yeah, and they don't score early. They do. They wait to get going offensively and the Vikings don't score early or late. You know, the Vikings just win games. They grind out games with their defense and their kicker. So I'm a little nervous, not to the point. I've got a lot of a very highly ranked, but Tyler Schuck has dropped outside our top 10. Joanne Johnson board a line top 10 tied in because he plays tight end. But if the Saints score 17 points on Sunday and Schuck finishes with 13, they should not come as a major surprise. No, if you've been riding Tyler Schuck and I have in a couple of leagues, I added Jacobi percent. That's my pivot option this week. I did the exact same thing. I am benching Tyler Schuck and I added Jacobi percent off waivers. Yep. So I just the Vikings defense has been excellent. And I don't think that the Saints are going to have to throw the football 40 times because this might be a grinded out game. Yeah. On both sides. Yeah. It's going to be really fascinating. Big spot here for Kyler Murray. Is that the next topic? Yeah. I don't want to steal it. That's okay. We can talk about it though. Yeah, good. Field is worried that this offense comes crashing to earth. I'm worried the Vikings offense never takes off under Kyler Murray. First two games back. It has not been what we had wanted to see necessarily under 13 fantasy points from a fantasy perspective. In part though, last week, he played the Miami Dolphins. This is a team that ran the ball. A ton. You saw it in Jones. Touch the ball a bunch. I am nervous with what this offense is going to be through the first two weeks of a really scene. I think there's at least a question mark of is this going to be what you want? With that being said, if you have Justin Jefferson, he's limited at practice. As long as he plays, he's going to be a top 10 court or a wide receiver for us again, a lineup block for you. Jordan Addison, not starting. I wouldn't start a second wide receiver right now with what I've seen from Kyler Murray in this offensive. Justin Jefferson is back. I am benching Jordan Addison. And TJ Hawkinson at the tight end spot. I guess he's maybe a low end tight end one given what we saw this last week. And like we've said for a number of guys, the position just isn't great. So we're sort of looking for anyone that we can kind of grasp on to. I think he can actually maintain fantasy value for the guys around him in this offense, but I'm not sure Kyler has shown us that there's any reason to other than Mike's strength of schedule, which says he has the easiest schedule moving forward. He hasn't shown me any reason to think that I should be starting him until I see something completely different on the field. Yeah, that easy schedule does start in this game though. So there is an opportunity here. Minnesota has led on 59% of their offensive snapsets. They're at highest in the NFL. So if you're invested in Kyler, which I actually am in our knockout leagues because I have my homes in one and the other quarterback situation. I lost Shaxon dark. So in a 18 team league, naturally, it's hard to find quarterback. So I'm hoping he gets rolling. I have some confidence in this matchup against the Saints. My hope is that the Saints were some points early on this Minnesota defense. And then there's actually some pressure on Minnesota to operate a passing game. I think if Justin Jefferson Jefferson is back with Hawkinson there and we'll see on Addison, but they do want Jennings as well. Although he's been so quiet this year. So far, he hasn't. Aaron Jones. I mean, there's the pieces here that they should be able to move the football. They should be able to score a point. I have a little bit of scar tissue to be honest on the idea that they went in. They played Miami and didn't score a single touchdown. Yeah, but they didn't get in the answer. I mean, I totally get that. Also, there's just teams when they play Miami this year, just like we don't have to do anything. They can just take their ways into victories. Unfortunately, we'll record NFC special teams player of the week. We've taken in this one Vikings or Saints, which side are you going to land on? I took the Vikings, I believe in this one. I believe that I took the Saints in this one. I am three out of four with the Saints. I thought I was going to zig when all people were zagging. Oh, Saints. I'm still in. Mike is the only person picking the four and oh, I believe in Kyler. He's going to get rolling this week. We'll see. Which of these two teams, I mean, four and oh Vikings versus the one and three Saints, which of these two teams are more real in spite of the fact that their records couldn't be more different. I don't think the Vikings are a four and oh team by any means. I don't think the Saints are the one and three team. The Vikings that just do us a couple of years ago, where all year, when I was like, oh, they're not just good, they're not just good. And next thing, you know, they have what three losses with Sam Dartles, Ryan Flores, his defense is real good. They're always good. Let's talk about jandars and giants and commanders. Excuse me. Janders. Oh, this is going to be a fun one too, because hopefully we get to see Jaden Daniels back in this one. Jaden Daniels, chair McClure and both line up blocks on one side. Malik neighbors Isaiah likely on the other side of this one guys. Lauren, obviously a major question. DNP. Yep. Same first to Von Diggs. Yeah. I was feeling confident McClaren had come back, even when he was rolled out last week, because they said he was kind of clamoring to play in that game and then they decided to not throw him out there. I thought he certainly be back this week, but we'll see. Maybe they just game an extra day off and they'll practice today. So that's one to monitor. So I have the commanders injury report, the practice report, and it's huge. This is an entire page of so many different people. It's to Von Diggs, like you said, and Terry McClaren both did not practice. I'm curious, Mike, with the way that you have Jaden Daniels projected now, we still have both of those wide receivers in the projections. Yeah. Whole offense is in there right now. Okay. If that were to change and we were to find out that either one or both of them were to come out, how would that impact Jaden Daniels? Yeah. It'll come down a little bit, but also like part of why he is high-florn fantasy is rushing. Yeah. So as long as he's going to run the football, he'll still be a pretty good fantasy starter. Still a starter for sure. Still a line of block, even if the wide receivers aren't there. So obviously continue to monitor that. Hopefully he gets back on the field and he is good for practice the rest of the week. It is kind of just a wait and see right now. But if if Terry McClaren's healthy, he's going to be out there, especially with Jaden Daniels back. He will be a lock it in wide receiver for us. Stefan Diggs, if he plays and is healthy, maybe a flex option with Jaden Daniels back kind of now in this conversation. That's really it. I don't want to start anybody in the backfield, guys, we don't, I don't even, unless you want to. There's no reason for me to talk about to Corey Croskey, Merritt, Rashad White. Ideally, you just have much better options than either one of them. This is one of those dead zone backfields. We've been talking about through the first four weeks. I almost feel like we can institute a new term where we call each team, we use a number to assign the value to them. The commanders are a two for team. Like if you're healthy, right now it's one quarterback and one wide receiver, two total players. There are two for team. Yep. That's a good point. Two and a half, maybe in a deeper league. Just to find it is good. Yeah, but two for is kind of the appropriate tag for them. That's how you approach in the commanders. Well, you're approaching the giants this week. Yeah. I'm looking at Cam's category. I feel like just good to check in on players sometimes. He's kind of been, I've used this term a lot, but just kind of ho hum and what he's done week to week so far in fantasy as late 65% of the snap. So that's a pretty good number for a running back. He's 10th and carries 18th and scrimmage yards at that position. The rushing efficiency underwhelming 3.46 yards per carry, we'd like to see that higher. We'd also like to see more touchdowns. One touchdown, two carries inside the five, not a big role in the passing game. It's been very inconsistent. He has nine targets in 67 yards and the bottom line is he's right around 11 fantasy points per game and is zero top 15 so far. So again, he just kind of is kind of motoring along as like a borderline RB two, but hasn't any big game jet. Have you, did you see his comments? Jordan. Hold on. Jordan on said. After yesterday, I'm delighted to find out I'm finally playing for a team in the Irish twins that want me to be a part of their locker room. So it feels like. Oh, that's my boring. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. I feel did trade for cam scataboo the other day. So a couple of a couple of questions for you on one note and then one question. He was limited yesterday in practice. He wore the non-contact jersey because of a shoulder issue, at least based off early reporting doesn't sound like he's an air any peril of missing on Sunday, but just passing that along. A snap percentage did drop in week four. Did you make anything of that? I'm a Najee Harris for kind of going series for series for a little while there. I a lot of what I'm doing pretty snaps is a good number, but obviously don't get fantasy points for just being on the field. So I'm more focused on the carries and target number. So if anything, I think it's target share projection went down a little bit because he's been kind of all over the map in that department. It was low last week. So we're paying. Come on. Certainly. I'm using. Certainly. I'm factoring Najee Harris into the back. I'm a normal just like I want to be a normal person right now. Najee Harris hasn't been on an NFL roster and comes back and and gets this much work in his first game. When Cam Skataboo was supposed to be one of the futures of this franchise, there's a part of me that's like, why really? A guy that hasn't even been a part of the NFL for the last year and a half. But what are you paying on? Like do you think he's going to lose the starting job or you're in four days? No, it's the idea that we feel like that we are going to bring in somebody that adds enough to our offense that didn't even play football over the last year, rather than what we saw out of the rookie and what we thought he was going to be based on his rookie season. Still getting even last week, getting a lot of rushing volume. I feel like he's still going to hang in the top 20. I mean, that's what I mean. I don't know if Najee Harris's role is moving him from RB 20 to 30, right? I think it's still maybe 18 to 21 or something like he's just carrying the upside range. There is it caps the upside. Yeah. I mean, by the way, Washington, I mentioned this earlier, they've been good against running back so far. Jonathan Taylor is the only one to get to 11. So I don't want to get too carried away in Cam Skataboo. But I think there's enough rushing volume and just enough in the passing game where if he gets a more goal line work, he'll be fine. He'll just continue to be a serviceable. At some point, we'll just stop talking about him. Like it'll just be a back end RB 2 every week. I hope so. You hope it's not Tony Pollard. You hope it's better than that. But I don't know. He's a, he's a tricky one amongst the outcomes that include Cam Skataboo staying healthy. This is like bottom, probably 25% of what you could expect from him. I was a Cam Skataboo skeptic coming into the season because I was worried about them. Peeling back the workload a little bit for a guy that has dealt with so many injuries, including one last year in place, it's really physical, rugged style of play. That being said, if you go around and look at volume around the NFL, that was, I mean, I'm into 16 team league. That was the problem is that I'm otherwise striding out a third string running back somewhere. I'm interested to see where you guys land on this because I'm going to take the New York football giants in this game. I forget who I'm taking. I think I took the commanders, I'll take the commanders at home in this. Right. Me and the producers on the Giants. All right. Next game guys here, Raiders and Patriots, I feel like there's going to be, this is a two-fer as well. There's definitely this is the whole bit of a two-fer. Well, that's okay. Okay. Aston Gentie and Brock powers are obviously lineup blocks for the Raiders. Right now we got nothing on the New England Patriots side, guys. Let's talk about the running back room. Yeah. So kind of an interesting one yesterday. Mike Frabel at his press conference was asked about Mac Hollens and Ramondra Stevenson. He said, I don't anticipate Mac Hollens practicing today kind of paused, thought about it for a second and was like, and I don't anticipate Ramondra doing anything out there either. The media went, the local media went and reported that Ramondra Stevenson was not spotted during the media access portion of the practice report. How long is that practice, that media access? I think it's like 10, 15 minutes maybe. And then the practice report came out yesterday, and Ramondra was listed as a limited participant. So it went from not looking very good at all to limited participant gives you some hope that he will play on Sunday. But if he does it, what do we know? Travian Henderson could be in a smash spot in back-to-back weeks last year without Ramondra Stevenson. Travian Henderson totaled 60.2 points. I remember those two 30s. It was just ridiculous. I think it was like 28 and 32. 32. So if Ramondra Stevenson is out, Travian Henderson managers will have themselves a much rosier outlook for Sunday. So we'll keep an eye on this one. I based off of him being a limited participant yesterday. I still think there's a real chance that Ramondra plays. But if he doesn't, Travian will probably be ranked as high as any Patriots running back has been so far this season. That includes when Ramondra played without Travian in a week one against the Seahawks. I like it. I like it. On the other side, obviously, we have the running back and the wide receiver. I just want to mention really quickly, Kurt Cousins had scored 20 plus fantasy points in three straight games. Paulin. He's been doing it in kind of this way that is not really sustainable. It doesn't feel like because there's zero rushing. I think that back. He's had four rushing yards. Oh. Over the last three games. He was 0.4 points. They could have won some people matchups. Yes. Negative two rushing yards on the season. So that's not great either, guys. But at least multiple passing touchdowns in every single game taken on the Patriots here. This is a situation in which I just don't feel confident starting Kurt Cousins. This is, I understand I've seen the touchdown production. I've seen the way that it's or T is absolutely managing this offense really well. But from a fantasy perspective, I just feel like there are better streaming options in spite of the fact that I've seen three 20 point games on the board. I would still go in other direction. If that burns me and we get four 20 point games in a row, then maybe I look at this and say, all right, with by weeks upon us, we need to have a different conversation about Kurt Cousins. Also. Yeah. I mean, he also the Patriots are a legitimately good past defense as well. They have without Chris, Chris, Christian Gonzalez, they kept Josh Allen in check last week. So something that has inflated his numbers is the fact that they have 11, they have 12 offensive touchdowns. So far, 11 have been passes so far. That's going to even itself out something I look at in addition to the percentage of touchdowns that are passes for an offense is essentially what that number should be based on their play calling, right? And that's 65%. But it's 92% right now. So those numbers always start to merge as the season goes on, they're going to have more rushing touchdowns going forward. It's going to obviously benefit Ash and Gentie, who wasn't like Washington. He has a. He did. Yeah. He scored the only rushing touchdown for them. It's all, it's all receiving that didn't even occur to me till right now, but he's still been good in fantasy. So, but anyway, that'll, that will regress to the mean moving forward, which is something that's going to bring Kirk Cousins fantasy output back to earth. What matters the most for us is that Kirk Cousins just keeps putting the ball in the hands of Ash and Gentie and Brock powers like we want. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Funny of volume. Yeah. And the other thing that matters the most to us in this game is if Drake May performs up to expectation, then we can just stop Drake May conversations for at least. some period of time, you can just be a line of block, we would love to get back. to that point. We guys taking in this one. Patriots get it done. Do you think so? Digging the readers. I am taking the writers. This one's in New England. I like it. New England gets rolling now. All right. We'll see about that one. Guys, Rahim Sanders long shot picks. We hit it last week. We sure did our producer Quentin hits with Tori Horton this week. Really well done. We're going to do a couple more. I'm going with Elijah Higgins. You want to know why? Why is that? He's a tied in that plays against the Lions this week. Yeah. You had a pick in early this week. Really early. And he's a good athlete. Good player. 0.1% rostered. Bryce Lance field. I think we saw it. Wasn't didn't Mike need something from Bryce Lance this last week? He was expecting Bryce. I was hoping for when it, oh, because it was a lavet against Drake London. That's what it was. That's what it was. And I needed Atlanta have to have to throw the football because they were up big. And I was like, oh, they're not going to throw it to London anymore. I needed some points. So I was like, can me get like a 74 yard bomb to Bryce Lance. And then Atlanta gets a ball back and has to throw. So a lot of Indian get points. And sure enough, the next play is a bomb down the right sideline, like 50 yards down the field of the Lance. And he gets interfered with next play. They go deep to Lance again. They were trying so hard to get it for me. So maybe it hits this week. I have sort of three. Usually my reasons for my pick and Raheem Sanders are just vibes. I got three reasons why I like Bryce Lance here. First of all, the Saints seem determined every single week to give him a few shots. He's an electric athlete. He's so, so fast. This of course is the brother of Tray Lance. Second of all, Tyler Schuck is one of the most aggressive quarterbacks in the NFL. And we love it. Like there was that throw. I think it might have been two Bryce Lance where he's about to get walloped on Monday night. And he just drives that thing down the field and takes a huge hit in the back field. And he is unbothered by it. Three Vikings, Blitz, happy as team in the NFL. Yeah. What do you do coverage wise behind the Blitz? You play Man-to-Man coverage for quarterbacks. He's Man-to-Man with Bryce Lance. He's throwing the football to Bryce Lance because of his speed. It may be like a 62 yard touchdown. But as long as he goes into the end zone, I am good with Bryce Lance, even if it's just one catch. All right. So field dates and on Bryce Lance and George Pickens any time that's right. That's right. That's right. For the games might be a little bit a little parly with that one. There you go. What about you? Mike, which one, who are you going with? I'm going with tight end Eli Rhyrd and the number two tight end for New England. One player to score touchdown in the NFL. That's right. Sure was. And now he's about to score a second touchdown of the season. Week four, he comes back. He missed a lot of time there with the injury. Comes back last week, play 60% of the snaps for, which should be a pretty good New England offense. 40% row participation caught my eye as well. He scored that touchdown on week one. He has two end zone targets this season, which doesn't seem like many. But that's eighth most of tight end. Yeah. Like just getting a couple ends a card double for them. That's another good point. No Matt Collins is one of their bigger receivers than an obviously an option near the goal line. And by the way, the Raiders have already allowed five tight end touchdowns so far. That is second most. The Raiders have also allowed just seven passing touchdowns this season, but six of them have come over the past two weeks. Did you know that they've allowed five touchdowns to tight ends so far this year? I did. I heard that. Just a few. Why sage man. Yes. Thank you. Our producers are going to go with Jacob Cowan, producer Q hit last week. He asked us specifically in chat. Does a special team touchdown count? Yes. Punt return touchdown. He's looking for a punt return touchdown here going with Jacob Cowan. I did notice on this list, you could go to players up to 0.3% rostered. Mike really maxed that one out. He did. Yeah. I mean, the rest of us really took some longer shots there, but it's, I mean, they're all some of us just follow the rules. They're all shots. Mike gets fine. It's no big deal. You want to win or not? All right. Let's dive into the mail bag a little bit. If you want to win, make sure that you follow along with our mail bag. Eric Moody is amazing. Hot barbecue ruffles. Love it when hot barbecue ruffles. Ask us questions. Who we feeling at flex this week, guys? Aaron Jones, Bucky Irving, or Jalen Warren. I feel like one of the two you paid more attention to this than I did. Did Rico down our practice yesterday? I believe he was limited, right? If I'm not a full of backup, Rico's value or sorry, Rico's appearance, obviously, you know, his practice status influences limited. Okay, limited. So real chance that Rico plays on Sunday. I'm going to go with Aaron Jones here. Yeah. Me too. I mean, I could match a saints of a lot of the most fantasy points to running backs. We saw what happened last week. I mean, Aaron Jones with that volume with this matchup, excellent, excellent DFS season long, whatever it is, he should be locked in the line. He's the call here. You're a weekly, your weeks have been able to utilize Aaron Jones with this level of volume are going to start shrinking very quickly once Jordan Mason, potentially 2345. And then I think they might they might have a buy next week. And then Mason's back. I'm not mistaken. I'm with you on that show. Next question. This one comes from Brian Busby wants to know, pick up and stream Aaron Rogers. Or would you stick with Sam Darnold Caleb Williams is in the IR spot. Yeah. This is a good one. I these guys back to back. But I actually have Rogers one spot ahead against the whole really much better matchup. Darnold has the 49ers. So if they're ever going to be stifled in a big divisional game against the good defense, this might be it. So I have no issue with Rogers here. Okay. I have Sam Darnold ahead of Aaron Rogers, but it's very close. Oof. I also have it very close to be honest. They're right next to each other. I think I would go with Sam Darnold because I just like I just think he has a better option in JSN to be with. Yeah, by the way, if you if you're in a situation where you're dropping a player and taking burning another roster spot to keep Darnold and Rogers, that's probably not worthwhile. If you're dropping Darnold for Rogers, I'm fine with that. But I don't want you to drop like a decent receiver running back. Like for example, to use our example familiar like in a 10 team or don't drop like Debo Samuel to pick up Rogers to stream over Sam Darnold, right? Just be more aware of what how the quality of the player that's on your bench next week. Just to go a little farther next week. Sam Darnold gets the Denver Broncos and then the Kansas City Chiefs. So I don't like the matchups. I probably dropped Darnold after this immediately. Aaron very interesting though to see how this Broncos defense looks this weekend. Another point that the chargers, but Pastor Tans is not going to play Riley Moss sounds like he's very uncertain. Those are their two best corners by a long shot. And if they're not going to play on Sunday, doesn't bowed well from their plans for Aaron Rodgers taking on Indy this week, the next two Tampa Bay and New Orleans. So you like those matchups quite a bit more. So I guess if I had to look at the next couple of weeks and I wanted this to be a multi week streaming option, I might go with Aaron Rodgers over Sam. And we talked about this way. I think on Monday, like Rodgers is trying to throw it on the field. I mean, it's not like he's going to add a lot with his legs or be a fantasy star, but there could be enough there to be a cubie too. Don't keep him both. Keep Aaron Rodgers, Caleb Williams on the IR when Caleb Williams comes back, you drop Aaron Rodgers. You're good to go. All right, one more question. This one comes from Reggie Richin wants to know. No, no. Oh, Maureen Hampton or Josh Downs. I'm more than Maureen Hampton. Man, this is such a close call. I mean, at least one of them is getting targets. Like, I don't know. Look, I'm going to go down here. I know he disappointed last week, but he had 20 targets over the prior two games. 70 plus yards in both of them. He's not a big touchdown score, but I'll usually get around four or five. Like he's going to find the end zone at some point. Like I'm going to lean down here. I'm just really worried about Hampton. I mean, the floor with him is just so low right now. He's not even getting enormous rushing volume. He's nothing in the passing game. I'm leaning down. I think I would lean on Maureen Hampton. It's close call. Don't get me wrong with it though, guys. I just think the floor with downs is higher, despite what happened last week. All right, we got a really quick little bit of news. We're going to throw up a tweet before we get out of here. John Kym asked David Blau. If Jane Daniels has any challenges coming back off an injury, any limitations, what the game plan is. Blau said, quote, he is a full go. All right, that's great news. Let's get him going. Yes, I want to see Jane and Daniels back. Let's go run the ball, throw the ball. We have good, I hopefully Terry plays. They have everybody there. Like, you know, as a football fan, you don't want to see him thrive like an as an because I'm an eagle fan. Yes, like in fantasy. Come on. Like, Jayden was so fun. He's working here. Like, I want to see him get back to what he was. Let's go, Jayden. Have fun watching Thursday night football. Make sure you utilize the flex spot appropriately with your Thursday night football matchup, guys. Let's talk about it for a second. I think people sometimes overlook it and peer one of our editors, ESPN, one of the reminders. So do you want to walk through the mechanics of the flex spot? It is really valuable that make sure when you have someone playing on Thursday, you will not be able to move them out of your roster. So the best thing for you to be able to do is put them at the actual position. They're going to be playing at giving yourself the flexibility to have a player in the flex that you can change later on in the week in case something happens or an injury takes place or you need to pivot to a larger matchup. You just want to make sure that you are not playing someone in the flex because you're you're then taking away that advantage that you have to be able to pivot later on on Sunday. Exactly. Even if you have Pukinacua, if a mecca, a book is also in your lineup and you're going to play him, put a minute wide receiver, because just in case something happens with Pukinacua and the only player you have available to pivot to from Monday night is Blake Korum. Well, if you played a mecca, a book at flex, you could have played Blake Korum, right? You would not have the ability to play a wide receiver because you only have Blake Korum left. So if a player in your roster is going in either a Thursday night game, a Sunday morning game, a Saturday afternoon game, or even in a one o'clock slate and your other wide receivers or other running backs are playing in 4 p.m. or later, always tap into that player's natural position before you get to the flex. Love it. All right, guys, that's going to do it for us. Thanks for hanging out with us. Come back and hang out again tomorrow. Don't forget to love each other and be kind to yourself. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow. 1/2 tbc sdmdc. 1/2 tbc sdmdc.