Week 7 Rapid Reaction + WTF?!

♪ Fantasy, you and the whole thing, someone home ♪ ♪ Focus, fantasy, fantasy, focus ♪ - Hello friends, welcome into the Fantasy Focus Rapid Reaction Podcast alongside Liz Lose Up. My name is Daniel Topp. How you doing, Liz? - I am wonderful, Daniel. I am bummed, however, that we are not actually alongside one another. I'm back in Los Angeles. You are in Bristol, but together, we are watching some Sunday night football as we are recording everything that we saw prior to this moment. - Yes, J.S.N. just got a touchdown. You love that. I appreciate being able to get that across the goal line. Liz, we got a lot of stuff to talk about here in Week 7. The very first thing that we're gonna dive into is what the fantasy happened in Carolina. (exhales) - Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast. - The Panthers pulled their starters, Liz, with nine minutes left in the fourth. They were getting their butts whipped. 43 to 13, Liz. - A 30-point deficit that they were dealing with. And this, by the way, after we were so excited and surprised by and grateful for the production that Bryce Young in particular was putting for this week's seven effort was his first game with multiple interceptions on the season. His first single digit fantasy outing of the season. He threw the ball 27 times, just 14 of those attempts were completed for 163 yards. One touchdown, two interceptions, 5.4 fantasy points. - We had been practicing an attitude of gratitude around these Carolina Panthers because out of all the teams from a fantasy perspective, we thought was gonna blow up this year. It wasn't Carolina. Chuba had been fantastic, also, excuse me. Also, coming into this game was the running back seven and fantasy points per game before Week 7. Only 10 fantasy points here this week and only four catches for 27 yards. Seven carries for 33 yards, wasn't great. At least it was more though than what the wide receivers did, Liz. - Oh my gosh, Ted Eroa Mcmillan and Jalen Coker had been so dominant. Their volume had been so robust. And yet, just six targets in a losing effort for Ted. He converted four of those opportunities for 40 yards. That was eight fantasy points. He only, by the way, has two touchdowns on the season and they both came in the same week. It was Week 4 versus your Lions. He still led the team and looks with those six measly targets. We know that Bryce Young does not perform well under pressure and we do know that Todd Bulls and the Bucks defense like to bring that pressure. So just something in terms of judging the matchups to weigh looking forward. Coker, obviously, the number two in theory to Ted. Just one ball on four targets for nine yards. That's not even two fantasy points. - No. - I mean, I don't want a panic yet. Everything else that we've seen so far has been really good with this Panthers offense. I want to give it a week that allowed to have a down game. But if this happens continually moving forward, especially because Mike Clay's strength of schedule says that it gets much more difficult, I am going to start to feel like, ooh, do I need to start looking at once I get some good games, maybe selling on some of these players before I get to. The magic might have run out here and that schedule, particularly stiffens over the fantasy playoff. So just a look ahead. - Are you kidding me? That's right. (audience cheering) What do you think you are? I am. - Liz, we don't have one Pete Weber player of the week. We have 11 of them with it being national tight end day. I'm not sure if anyone has told you that so far or not, obviously that was yesterday. - Are you serious? I didn't know that that was a thing. I didn't have a nose, George Kittle involved. - He might have been. I've heard that there are some rumors he was involved in this, but you know who was definitely involved. Mason Taylor with two Tuddies and 25.2 fantasy points. - The Rams Davis Allen also scored two touchdowns. Tyler Higby and Colby Parkinson didn't, but whatever, I'm not salty. 18 fantasy points for good old Davis Allen. - The Trimic Bride does what Trimic Bride does, obviously getting in the end zone and a total of 27.1 fantasy points leading all tight ends this week. - No surprise here. Tucker Kraft scored a touchdown against your Detroit Lions for almost 15 fantasy points. - Another Tuddy for Kyle Pitts. We know he's got sixth eventually on the season, given how he's been working out. Love that 13.2 fantasy points. - A touchdown for your doppelganger T.J. Hockinson, also 13 and a half fantasy points accompanying that score. - Yes, and Micah Sicki found his way into the end zone. Only one catch was, but when it's for a touchdown, that's all that matters. You love being able to see that from Mike. - Darren Waller won't go away. He scored a touchdown this week for 12 fantasy points. - Yeah, Darren Waller was fantastic, but not as good as our guide, Darnell Washington, 'cause no one is as fun to watch score touchdowns as a man that is 6.7, 300 pounds. It is so fun, especially in France. Shout out to Darnell Washington this morning. - Drew Sample only had a sample of two targets, but he caught both of them. One of them, though, was in the end zone. That's 10.4 fantasy points. - And we all need a muse, Elizabeth Loza, and Nick Mew's is mine, two catches for two yards, and one touchdown, 8.2 fantasy points. - You know what, that's fair. - I thought it was me. - But now you found out in front of everyone, unfortunately. - It's that you prefer an athletic man with a tight end, then, wah. That was for the France game. - I've got a tight, what do you want me to say? - 10, here we go. - All right, biggest takeaways here in week seven, Liz Loza, Jimmy Bernard. Let's start over there in France. I mean, he had two unbelievable weeks coming into this game, week five, nine targets, week six, 12 targets. Both of those games, over 14 fantasy points. And then here in week seven, three for 27, and only five targets, five point seven fantasy points. Things did not look the way that they have the last couple weeks, in spite of the fact that we thought this new rookie was going to be one of these trusted pass catchers for Aaron Rogers. Maybe we pumped the brakes a little bit. I think we're still gonna see him as a flex option. But I want to make sure that this wasn't a flash in the pan with Aaron Rogers moving forward. - I agree with you, we have to look at the matchups. And also, it's not national rookie receiver day, it's national tight end day, so he wasn't gonna get the TD there. - Tony Pollard also was legitimate, Liz. I don't understand, what do you do here? If you played against Tony Pollard, what's, there's no way he scored more than, what, 12 fantasy points all season long? - I mean, this is his sixth consecutive game, with 50 or more scrimmage yards. But this is also his first game, topping 14 fantasy points. - Yeah. - Three touchdowns, 25 rushes for 129 yards and three rushing scores. We don't need a Tony Pollard hat trick in week seven, particularly when James Cook is on a buy, friends. - That sounds like someone that doesn't have enough Tony Pollard on their roster's list. - You know what? Maybe he benefited by Taj A Spears absence. Spears obviously a late scratch here due to a knee injury. So, you know, we love to chase volume, particularly at the running back positions of Spears, remains limited in some capacity, then Pollard is gonna remain at least a flex. - Yeah, and you know who's gonna remain an RB2 right now is Bucky Irving for us because he goes off again. Girl, he won't stop. It feels like he is clearly going to be locked in. Kenny Gainwell doesn't exist in the same way. You know, we got banged up in this one, but he is not going to materialize as the guy he was last year. Bucky Irving, the clear RB1 in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back field, and clearly needs to be someone that we're thinking about week in and week out here for us in fantasy. - We did anticipate in this effort though, that he was going to be heavily featured. I mean, we've got Baker Mayfield with a glove on his throwing hand, Noah Meco-Booka, and facing a Carolina Panthers defense that coming into this matchup was allowing 5.2 yards per carry, so it does not surprise me that Bucky Irving went off. What does surprise me is his consistent volume, but I mean, obviously this is working for the buck, so there's no reason to not think he won't remain a top 20 fantasy option at the position moving forward. - Oh my gosh, yeah, why change it? Bucky has looked great, keep doing that. I mean, he's one of the few things that has looked fantastic for their offense, so keep doing that. You know what else? Has looked fantastic for their offense, Lizlosa? Zay flowers. It does not make a difference who the quarterback is. I feel like we've seen a completely different Zay flowers this season in 2026, than we have seen at any other point in his career. - I have to say props to Declan Doyle because he has been able to unlock Zay flowers ability after the catch. He's also not just limited to the slot, like he's moving and working the perimeter, he's moving around the formation, which I think has helped him unlock a next level to his game. This week was the third instance, this season in which he has cleared 100 receiving yards in the first half of the game alone. Also, I don't know if you know this. So like last year, right, our biggest complaint about Zay flowers was that he wasn't scoring touchdowns, right? He was a great PPR play, but he couldn't score touchdown. We are now in week seven. He has three scores on the season and yet zero end zone targets, which again is a testament to his ability to gain yards after the catch. In fact, the wide receiver two in YACC currently. - Now he's unbelievable. And if you have Zay flowers, you're feeling great about your investment right now. It felt like he was more boom bust last year. He is much more consistent in 2026. - Even when he's been at it. - Yes, absolutely. T Higgins had his second game with over 140 yards, Liz and Joe Burrow looked good. 292 and four passing touchdowns for 28.8 fantasy points. To be honest, that's as deep as I want to go with this Cincinnati Bengals offense because those two looked fantastic. My guy Chase Brown continues to struggle and I don't really want to talk about it. - A little bit of context before I move on to Chase Brown because we have to, it's our job, I know you don't want to. - Come on now, come on. - Joe Burrow has now managed 20 or more fantasy points in every game since week three, so we did that. Also, they will face the Titans in week eight, so a great match up for the aerial attack. Not so much, Daniel, for the ground attack, Chase Brown, 11 carries, 39 rushing yards, four catches, 19 receiving yards, zero touchdowns, Smajepirine, he found the end zone though. That resulted in 9.8 fantasy points, four chase brown, he hasn't cleared 50 rushing yards since week three and three of his six games he scored less than 10 fantasy points. Also, the Titans, a match up that I just hyped from a aerial perspective, the Titans defense allowed the fifth fewest catches to opposing running back, so though we would expect Chase Brown to make up to gain ground if you will through the air, unlikely for him to do that, instead, his efficiency has full out stunk on the ground, Smajepirine, I think you had two actually rushing touchdowns, not just one in this effort, correct? Oh my gosh, Liz, I don't even don't, first off, you gotta say trigger warning before you talk about Smajepirine on the show. This is one of those, this is two weeks in a row, Liz. Two weeks in a row that Smajepirine has gotten goal line touches, and if we thought, okay, you're not going to get touchdowns for Chase Brown, four catches for 19 yards, that's not gonna do it. Now with the rushing inefficiency that we've seen so far, we're in full on, I'm in full on panic mode, maybe no one else is, but as someone that rosters Chase Brown, I don't know what you do for him at this point, because it feels like you have to keep playing him in spite of how difficult it has been at the end of the week for you, which I don't love. - Let me correct myself. P-Rine only had one rushing score this week. - Okay. - So, still, that's one too many, if you are a Chase Brown manager, Liz. - It just felt double because of the insult and the injury. - Yeah, yeah, that's totally fair, totally fair. Let's talk about Malig neighbors and Isaiah likely, this was their first full game with JJ McCarthy. JJ McCarthy was not the guy that we saw, in the fourth quarter of last game was unfortunately six for 24, six to me, 16 for 24, 231 passing yards, only one carry for a yard, 9.3 fantasy points. He did still get our guy Malik involved though. Nine targets, seven catches, 111 yards, 18 fantasy points he has had at least 18 fantasy points in every game for a month straight. He has had nine or more targets in three of the last four. Regardless of who was under center, he looks like he is locked in as a Senate and forget a wide receiver. Isaiah likely took a little bit of a step back though. Don't love to see that in this one. - Yeah, he had just four targets caught two of those balls for 12 yards under four fantasy points, barely over three, honestly. - Yeah. - Prior to this matchup though, likely had managed 10 or more targets for three consecutive outings. The last time, in fact, he was under 10 targets, was week three versus 10 a C. I think that this is not too dissimilar, frankly, if I'm trying to draw a parallel to offenses, to what like Tampa Bay did, right? Like there's still an unknowing about Jay-Jama Carthy for this offense. And so the pivot would be to focus on the ground game. This though, Giants Backfield is another one that should come with a trigger warning because all of the offense was produced on the ground. There were what, four rushing scores, cam scataboo, trigger warning, trigger warning, trigger warning, trigger warning. He found the end zone. Tyrone Tracy, for the second week in a row, found the end zone, Devon Singletari found the end zone. And then James Winston got a push push that, frankly, was due to scataboo's running. So while Jay-Jama Carthy did not throw for a single touchdown, four different rushers managed to score. - Yeah, that is terrible. - Just like the end of the first half here, the first Seattle Seahawks, Liz. Again, pulling the curtain back. It's Sunday night football right now. While we're recording this, Sam Darnal just threw an interception with seven seconds left in the end zone. And the chiefs returned it to the 50 yard line. Oh my gosh, JSN has been crushing. All right, sorry, you guys don't care about that. But what you do care about is Omar Cooper Jr. - Who has been on fire? - Yeah, he's been awesome. The last two weeks, this week alone, five catches, 115 yards and a touchdown, five targets, 22 and a half fantasy points. He was unbelievable, not just this week, but last week as well. Knowing that he was a first round pick, feels like he is locked in as a guy that this team is gonna want to try to get involved. It kind of happened in spite of Garrett Wilson, also not getting a lot of volume in this one. - Well, this was something I did write about in facts versus feelings, the column. I was a little bit worried about Garrett Wilson heading into this matchup. Omar Cooper Jr. an incredible receiver, especially after the catch out of Indiana, that's where he went to college, former Hoosier. He forced while at Indiana a mistackle, on 39% of his catches while averaging 7.2 yards after the catch per reception. So certainly has a skill set that is developing. I think you said it converted all five of his looks for over 100 yards and a touchdown, 22 and a half fantasy points for him. Casey Concepcion, another rookie who stood up. - Yes, he did, Liz. Also, Indiana, isn't that the home of the future Chicago Bears? Am I wrong? - Oh, but I know you're gonna do that. - Okay, Casey Concepcion is not blooming tin. - Ten targets for Casey. I mean, honestly, we've had him see volume before, but it hasn't ever materialized into production. So eight for 129 and three carries for 23 rushing yards, 23.2 fantasy points, the dude looked fantastic. It's very obvious he was not Denzel Boston out there on the field, Liz. - Well, it's gonna make things hard to predict. - Yes, it will, it will. With that being said, most of that happened in the first half, girl. Eight catches for 125 yards all in the first half. Whenever that happens, I feel like we're always waiting for a second half let down. It's like, no one can have eight for 125 in the first half. It's like, what is he gonna have 16 for 250 at the end of the game? - Wouldn't you like it to come early and then you could just be like, okay, whatever happens now is gravy. Like I said, I'm good. - You feel good with the 23, no matter what. You're like, all right, I'm going into half time, feel great about this position. I don't have to worry about it. Yeah, that's how I felt when I was watching my Detroit Lions wide receivers take on the Green Bay Packers. You know how that was cool? - Excellent, transit. - Yes, James said Williams, five for 91 and two touchdowns, 26.1 fantasy points, third best game of his career. To be honest, he played the last three minutes of the third and on the entire fourth quarter, needing just one catch to have the best fantasy game he has ever had and they tried multiple times to get him the football. They just could not make it happen. So it's his third best game of his career, but the dude was unbelievable. Him and Amman Ross St. Brown both over 24 and a half fantasy points. Great outing. - We did expect some fireworks in this matchup because the over under was set at 53 and a half now that total was not reached. So I hope you took the under on it. But there were certainly a lot of fireworks here. I was really excited and I feel like now, JMO has had, well, maybe not voluminous outings. He has had consecutive production, productive outings. So hopefully things are clicking there. And you know, we did know that the Packers were stingy against tight end Sam Laporta have obviously a down effort. I think we're gonna have to decide. Is it a Laporta game or a JMO game? 'Cause there's always gonna be a Gibbs game and there's always gonna be a Sun God game. - Yeah, they're always going to get theirs. It felt like on the other side, we've been seen both Matthew Golden and Christian Watson always get theirs as well. They both did get volume, Liz. It just didn't materialize into the production. How much of this is Josh Jacobs comes back. It's his first game versus Detroit's secondary. Surprisingly, maybe played a little bit better than expected. - Well, Brian Branch returned as the safety, for Detroit. So it is starting to get a little bit healthier. I also think we've talked a lot about how La Flore's offense particularly at the beginning of the season is so predicated on establishing the run and the success of the ground game. And how that was not really something that could happen given the talent at the teams of Vale. And so I think everybody was so excited. The team included, La Flore included, for Jacobs to return and immediately offer stability. But things take time. There was rust that needed to be shaken off and also there needed to be offensive planning for to allow for that rust. And I think there was just like a real big emphasis on getting Jacobs going right away. And that affected the efficiency of the receivers. - And being able to have, like, you know, we talked about Tucker Kraft gets in the end zone. Josh Jacobs gets in the end zone. Usually we'd see one of these wide receivers. It feels like with all the volume they're getting being one of those guys, having them get 20 targets between the two of them, you still feel like that's pretty good volume for both of these two guys. - Yeah, I think it's good volume. I will say that the Packers play the panthers on Thursday night football. Short week here, we just saw how easy it was for Carolina to give up yardage to an opposing running back in this week. So I think Josh Jacobs may have a pretty big game in week gate on Thursday night. - All right, let's transition, unfortunately, into our least favorite segment. which is diving into the injuries. - Ouch, baby. - Very out. - Our least favorite part of the show is talking about injuries. I will say however, there aren't too many of them. So that is a silver lining. Let's begin with Tyrone Tracy who exited early with the hamstring issue. Aaron Jones aggravated a pre-existing knee issue. We obviously have to monitor that, especially with Jordan Mason off of IR and now returning to that backfield. Jalen Waddle suffered a chest injury. This one was even more frustrating. Obviously I don't want him to be hurt, but he was starting to cook in a plus matchup. I thought maybe we'd have a turning point in Detroit's offense here at least from a receiving perspective, not the case. Please keep an eye on that, moving forward. And Jalen Noel has been diagnosed with turf toe, which is particularly disappointing after he had such a monster showing last week, the options at CJ Strauss avail. Obviously plenty more and growing. So Noel not really going to affect the offense as a whole, but for a player, what a bummer here. - Yeah, especially with how he had been playing, you really hope that all of these guys can get better. But like you said, love that this is a much shorter list this week, Liz. I wish that it was a longer list of times we got to hang out with each other, Elizabeth Loza, but we're gonna close this out. Talking about-- - You making up about that means coming over here? - Yeah, maybe a little bit. I feel a little bit bad about it. Yeah, no big deal. - You're like an NFL Royce. - Weak eight buys, you got Texans and the Saints with the Giants and 49ers as well. So make sure that you are planning accordingly, heading into your weak eight waiver wire and Liz, Facts versus Feelings every Thursday. I'm gonna see you there as well. Make sure you come and hang out with us. Liz and I have a great time. In fact, we have a great voicemail line that you can call and leave us some questions at. Come and hang out with us and maybe ask us a few questions. We always enjoy mixing it up with all of the people that listen. All right, with that being said, don't forget to love each other and be kind to yourself. You deserve it, guys. We love you. We'll see you a little bit later on this week. - Happy week eight, coming up. (upbeat music)