Week 8 Fantasy Football RANKINGS & Tiers: QB, RB, WR, & TE + Starts & Sits (10/29 Fantasy Football Podcast)

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I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple. I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and I'm Tony DeCouple, and we have a guest who has a lot of things going on right now because Jonathan Taylor may be traded before they even get to Sunday. We know there's been a lot of trades happening already. The Colts have made a couple of them as well. When we're looking at Jonathan Taylor though, this Jacksonville Rundee fence has been amazing day. We all still have a lot of faith in him. I still have the most faith aside from sports line, but we still have him ranked as a number one running back. Is he going to deliver for fantasy managers, or do we get to Sunday, and he doesn't even play? Like, how are we approaching this? One thing you have to make sure of is that he is actually active for the game against Jacksonville. If he is, there's too much upside to say that you're going to sit, Jonathan Taylor, unless something comes out where his snaps will be limited, or they want to give Seth McGowan more carries. But the other factors in play here, number one, the Colts have already traded their best offensive lineman, Quentin Nelson's in all pro. He's a stud. He's been part of the reason why Jonathan Taylor has been so good this year, even when the Colts are losing, and he's getting fed the ball, that's a big deal. And he's going up against Jacksonville. This is a team that's allowing just three yards per carry to running backs on the balance of the season. So you look at the matchup, you worry about that offensive line, I think you have to downgrade expectations somewhat for Jonathan Taylor. We're not going to call him a sit, because we're not crazy. But I think you're going to take some lumps with him at some point while he's still in Indian apolis. Yeah, I think it's just one where you have to keep an eye on the news. And the only thing I've thought as I looked at this is, do I really want to start Jonathan Taylor over Josh Jacobs? I think maybe I should probably move him down a couple spots to have him below Jacobs. I'm starting Chupa Hubbard over Jonathan Taylor, because if he gets traded, even if he plays this week, it's probably a worse situation as he acclimates to the new offense. How many leagues were you guys that picked up Seth McGowan or you haven't done it all? I haven't done it all because I plan a lot of leagues with you. And you've taken Seth McGowan for several weeks already, but yeah, I didn't pick him up this week. I think four or five teams already, so yeah, I can't get that excited about him if he's the lead running back. I mean, that's the reason it's because he would be the lead running back, but it's the lead running back on a team with a worse offensive line that's going to be trailing in games. He's somebody you could start. I just don't know if you're going to feel great start. Sure. I mean, look, it's not going to be Jonathan Taylor. It's not going to be the ideal situation, but still could be a top 24 caliber guy. All right. Let's show you the list. 13 through 24. Heath, you already mentioned this Josh Jacobs. So what we saw from him in last week's game, as he comes in at running back, I guess he's in the top 12. He's in the top 12, man. You guys are just your rank. He's after I send the notes. It's not very ideal. So he's now in the top 12. But we'll talk about Josh Jacobs and we'll talk about Chase Brown, who have fantasy managers of a lot of questions about in regards to Jacobs, though, Heath. What did you see from him last week and what do you expect from him in tonight's game against Panther? So it's kind of weird because like the thing that we loved last week was we got the receiving game work. The thing that we didn't like was they still couldn't run the ball efficiently, even with Jacobs. I'm not sure he gets as many catches in this game because I don't think he's going to need him. The Carolina Panthers will fix all of your running game problems. They can't stop anybody right now. I think we see his rush share go up and he is a boy. I don't have him quite as high as you guys, but he's a borderline top 12 guy for me this week. You got to worry about his offensive line a little bit. They lost two guys that started last week and they weren't very good before that. They weren't. It's really true, but it's still Carolina's defense. Right. Right now and he's got the fresh legs. Too many things going for Josh Jacobs on the field that make him an attractive start in fantasy. Two teams are ready this season. Last week we saw Tampa Bay and week one we saw Chicago. Both of them ran for over 200 yards as a team against the Panther. So that's why we like Josh Jacobs a lot. And then Chase Brown. Look, things got a lot better for him in the last four or five hours with the Titans trading Jeffrey Simmons, but it was already a run defense that we just saw get exposed last week by the Cleveland backfield. How much do we like Chase Brown? A lot more. And when those rankings change again, you might see Chase Brown closer to the top 12 mark than where he is in our consensus rankings. And it's a leap of faith because we know that he himself has not played great and he has been losing some more to Samaja P. Ryan. But I think the Bengals want to be able to get him going and this is the perfect matchup for them to do it. Their offensive lines are okay. And the fact that he's playing on the Titans without Jeffrey Simmons and we know that's going to be the case. Man, you can't help but think that he's going to have plenty of opportunities to put up some numbers. The thing that I liked last week, I mean, it wasn't the fantasy production. It wasn't the fact that Samaja P. Ryan scored the touchdown. But the snap shared a bounce back up for Chase Brown. I still think he's their guy and he should have a much better game this week. Hopefully. I think a lot of people would panic even more so then they are right now. Last two seasons we saw really week eight was the jumping off point for Chase Brown and things are sort of falling in line for a tap and again. All right. Take a look at the rankings. Consensus rankings. 25 through 36. We're going to get to some players that we like as starts, sits and sleepers in this range. He's running backs now coming into play here with, for me, the order is Jonah Coleman, RJ Harvey, JK Dobbins. You see what the consensus is. It's Harvey Coleman Dobbins. And the Seattle backfield is now coming into play as well with Zach Sharbonne and Manuel Wilson. There is no guarantee yet that Sharbonne is going to play, although Mike McDonald hinted that this is going to be the week that he does make his 2026 debut. So when we talk about the sits, we're just going to get to it now. You have Sharbonne as a sit. You have Emmanuel Wilson as a sit. What are we concerned about collectively for both these guys? We're worried about just how much work they're going to get in Sharbonne's first game back. I think Sharbonne is best suited for the same role that he had last year for Seattle. He was their passing downs back. He was their goal line back. And he was so good at it that he kept Kenneth Walker off the field until he got hurt. He should keep Emmanuel Wilson and George Hollani off the field in those specific situations. And those are high-value situations in fantasy. If you're catching the ball, if you're scoring touchdowns, yeah, that's where points can come from in fantasy football. It turns Emmanuel Wilson to a trap back. He's only played north of 50% of the snaps in two games this year anyway. Makes me nervous to count it on him against Chicago. And if Chicago has Jeffrey Simmons in their lineup, that's going to be hard on everybody in that Seattle lot. So I was going to ask, are you taking into account that Simmons plays or are we just going to say this defense is still even tough without Simmons and then you just get a lot better? I'm not really worried about the defense. I'd be surprised if Simmons plays the whole game or even his normal allotment of snaps. But I am what I am worried about. You mentioned the Broncos in the same breath. I'm worried that those situations are very similar, especially this week, in that we just have no idea who's getting how many touches and probably the peak for anybody is like 12. And so that's not a situation. It's a little better for Seattle. We thought because the Bears defense is a better matchup than the chiefs are for the Broncos. But if Simmons is in the mix now, that's not even true. So I'd like to sit all the Seahawks and all the Broncos. All right, so let's talk about Denver because you said this on our fantasy football play podcast this morning that you think it's going to be messy and you would like to avoid it altogether. You, however, have Joan of Coleman as a sleeper this week. I did. Now, if you're looking at our projections from SportsLine on any of your fantasy leagues, as you see it here on the show, SportsLine likes Coleman better than JK Dobbins, that can better than RJ Harvey. So they're already all in in terms of expecting him to be the best running back. Dave, how are you approaching it just from the standpoint of, hey, if I don't have Coleman, can I trust Dobbins or can I trust Harvey because this could be a game where they're throwing to the running backs a little more, especially if they don't want to, doesn't play. And that would mean RJ Harvey is going to get the majority of those catches because he's there passing down back and we've seen it see it as recently. I think he's got that role set up. I don't think Joan of Coleman, I don't think, well, you saw the long touchdown catching run he had. That would tell me that he's because somebody that bonix will throw check downs to and Joan of Coleman really didn't start playing until the second half for Denver. And then he was flat. and doing all the good things that JK Dobbins just can't quite do. And so that's where I come out on the Broncos is that. If I want somebody that's going to get what he said, 12 or so PPR points, that's going to be RJ Harvey. It's going to be through catches and what he does in the receiving game. But Jonah Coleman is who I would expect to take over in running downs, maybe not to start the game, but a lot sooner than the fourth quarter like he did last week. And it's Kansas City, and I would expect this game to either be competitive or Denver playing from behind, and that would favor Harvey to be the best running back of the third. I think, I don't know. I don't think anybody has any reason. I could just first off with Sean Payton. And so you don't really know. Second off, you mentioned the second half splits. Well, is that because the game wasn't very competitive in the second half with Arizona? And let's see what the rookie can do. I think if they get a carry inside the five-yard line, it's JK Dobbins. I think if they get into chase the score mode, it's RJ Harvey. But both of those things are still just, I think, we've seen RJ Harvey get carries inside the five-yard line. Sean Payton loves-- and he's not doing it to us. He's trying to do it to the defensive coordinator. He loves using guys. He's doing it to us. He's doing it to us. He loves really trying to mess with us. It's like unexpected ways. And he'll probably have some fourth running back that he wants to get four touches to. Yeah, because he's tired of the day. I go back to a good conversation I had with Sean Payton. And owner's means about Colby Fleaner. Thanks, Sean. Let's show you the rank list 37 through 48. No one really that we need to really get-- no one that we need to get into from a starting standpoint. But a backfield here that you'll see two guys a part over Keaton Mitchell and Kamani Vidal. Heath, when you look at Omar Inhampton, who is in the 25 to 36 range, how are you looking at the chargers backfield coming off their by-week? And they are still sticking with Mike McDaniel as the offense coordinator. So all those things we said about the Seahawks and the Broncos, imagine if you had the same situation except it was the worst team in football. That's what's going on with the Los Angeles chargers. They have not been consistent in the way they've distributed touches. I still view Hampton as the best guy to flex if you have to. It's how I would say it. And I still want to roster Mitchell, because I do think there's a lot of upside there if he ever gets double-digit touches on a regular basis. But he's not honestly not been very good this year. It hasn't worked like they thought it was going to. So try to stay away-- Try to stay away. Yes. Nothing has. Try to stay away from the chargers. And you know who the most sufficient running back has been at least carrying the ball over their last three games? Neither are the guys that he said. It's been Kamani Vidal. So this is going to be-- what do you call it, a discovery game? Sometimes, we just think it's a disgusting game. It's a disgusting discovery game to see what the chargers think of their running backs coming out of the buy. Oh, by the way, they're taking off their ramps. They're going to be chasing points. All right, so we covered a few of the starts and sits and sleepers, but there's one that we're going to disagree on here. So let's talk about the starts. And for you, Heath, it's Tony Pollard. It's a sit for me. So let's have a little Tony Pollard debate. Yeah, like, listen, I'm the projection's guy. And when you're getting the touches, that Tony Pollard's getting, which is basically 18, 19 per game. Last week, of course, there was no Taijai Spears. There was no Singleton. So he got all of the touches. We're not quite, but 28 of them. That guy's going to rank as a starter, whether it's a mid-range RB2 or a low-end RB2. I think the other thing that people maybe have missed because Tennessee's still awful is Tony Pollard's run the football really well. He's probably the guy, if a team can't pry Jonathan Taylor away, he may end up somewhere this week or next week. Because he's been very good. He's still good in the passing game. As he showed last week, when they give him the chance, he just had two weeks in a row with one target and didn't do anything with it. But three targets last week turns it into 26 yards. So I do think there's a little more upside there than people think of when they think of Tony Pollard. And the touch floor is really high. I totally agree with everything you said. I think the one thing that-- two things that concern me is, do they give him a lot of work because they are shopping and so are they going to maybe try and pull back a little bit on the reins or even maybe sit him for a significant stretch. Taipei Spears playing or not playing is going to sway how I feel about this because the role in the passing game, he's had three games over 13 PBR points. All three have been when he's had two plus catches. Can he be involved in the passing game is going to be big for him? The other part of this though is the Cincinnati Run Defense shut down Derek Henry last week. And now you just took Jeffrey Simmons off the other side of the field. This could be a blowout from the Bengals perspective. And Pollard may just not get the opportunity to get those chances. Plus, the touchdowns, I think, are going to be important as well. I think they were far apart in terms of rankings. I would just prefer if you could find somebody else to Tony Pollard, that would be a good way to go. Dave, you like Jordan Mason in this week's game. If Aaron Jones doesn't play or even if he does play, I think the Vikings are going to load up Jordan Mason against the Detroit Lions. What's a good way to keep that Lions offense off the field? Run the ball. And this Detroit run defense, they've actually been pretty good. Did a nice job against Josh Jacobs on the ground in his debut last week. But boy, did Jacobs beat him through the air. I don't think Mason can do that. But it's kind of what the argument is for Tony Pollard. If you've got a running back that's going to have a chance to get 15 to 20 touches in the game, it's hard to find somebody that you're going to start ahead of them who might only get 10 or 12 touches in the game and have supreme efficiency. So I think Mason can fall into production. I also think he's the best guy at the goal line. And I think the Vikings can put up a decent amount of points against Detroit this week. For me, I like Rashad White, his last four games, 11.1. PPR points are more taken on the Philly run defense that was completely abysmal last week against the Cowboys. Now, he is not going to do what Javante Williams did, and actually three running backs in their last four games have been over 19 PPR points. But without Dekori Kroski-Marithaer, I think this is a good chance for Rashad White to sort of establish himself as a low-end number to running back better in PPR than non-and-half, but should be involved in the passing game, especially with no Terry McClure. All right, we're going to take a break right now. We come back and get into our wide receiver ranking. You're going to tell you about the guys we like, some players to avoid, and obviously look at our rankings. That's next here on Fantasy Football Today. Welcome back to Fantasy Football Today. We're talking about our wide receiver rankings for week eight. And we have a lot of big-name players missing from a bi-week perspective, but we might be getting a little bit healthy from an injury perspective. Let's show you the teams that are on a buy, the wide receivers that you're not going to have, and some big names. Some of these guys may have missed due to injury anyway, but Mike Evans, Dibo Samuel, sounds like Samuel's going to play in week nine coming off of their bi-week, but to keep an eye on Evans and his Achilles situation, Nico Collins, no Marvin Harrison. Remember, they just put Jalen Noel on injury reserve. Crystal Lava and Devon Bailey are not going to play, and they may have Jordan Tyson back in week nine, and Malik Neighbors and Malik Highfield. Does somebody might consider picking up because he looks like he has a little bit of a rapport with JJ McCarthy from an injury perspective. Mecca Bukka practicing upgraded from a non-contact jersey to a regular jersey is what I read. So hopefully he's trending in the right direction, coming back from the concussion that kept him out of last week. Lad Makonky practicing, but still in the concussion protocol. We have Rashi Reichs back at practice from the hamstring injury that caused him to game. So we'll see if he's able to play in week eight. And then the last one is DJ Moore, was practicing in a non-contact jersey on Wednesday, so we'll find out what his status is. As well, Devon, they submit a Jalen Waddle, sounds like they are not going to play, but still injuries that you want to monitor, as well as a big one for tonight. So let's show you the rank list of the top 12 consensus rankings here. And in the game tonight, we have four very prominent wide receivers, two for the Packers, two for the Panthers. Matthew Golden, though, is questionable, has not practiced this week. So Heath, when we're looking at Christian Watts and Matthew Golden, what's the approach Golden in? Golden out. So you're starting Christian Watts, and it doesn't matter if Matthew Golden plays or not. If Matthew Golden plays, unless we get some report that he's going to be severely limited, I think he's a must-start wide receiver. It would be a little bit interesting if Golden was out, Savian Williams, has been a little more involved than I expected the last two weeks. I think he'd be a decent flex if Golden was out, and I'd feel a lot better about Tucker Kraft if Golden was out. All right, so just an injury situation to monitor. We'll have plenty of pre-game shows here, throughout on all of our platform, CBS Sports HQ. So you can check it out, CBS Sports.com. We'll obviously be tweeting it and posting it, you know, if Matthew Golden is going to miss the game, but as of now, the expectation is he's going to play. All right, let's take a look at the rank list 13 through 24. And as we always tell you, this is where the questionable decisions come in. And day, we have a couple players on this list that fantasy managers have to keep an eye on one from an injury perspective, which I didn't mention in the case of Cardinal Tate. And obviously, the production standpoint from AJ Brown. How are we approaching AJ Brown against the Dolphins this week? Can't help but put him as a number two fantasy receiver. We know what his role is in this offense. I know he's not the same AJ Brown that we're used to seeing from his days in Philadelphia. Just doesn't have that same type of explosiveness that he once had, but he's still going to be the top target and this Dolphins defense isn't very good. The Patriot should be able to do whatever they want in this game, so I can't help but rank AJ Brown as a top 24 type of fantasy wide receiver. Now, when we talk about the other receiver, Cardinal Tate, he's played well. And this does feel like the type of game script that we'll go his way. He's going to see some tight coverage. Since then, he's got a great outside corner in DJ Turner. He's certainly going to be somebody that Tate will see a lot of. And Cam Ward's obviously not the most accurate thrower. So there's going to be a bunch of targets. He always sees a good amount of targets. Not all them make it into the catch radius of Cardinal Tate. So kind of the same boat as AJ Brown, a low end number two fantasy wide receiver. I see the-- you don't get to see this when you look at me, but he always is very like in the camera to see it, like the facial expression sometimes. Let's see it. What do you do? No, it's just the AJ Brown thing. Yeah, that's fine. We try hard not to do this. And I think you accused Adam Azer of doing it on Sunday night. And I feel like we're all doing it right now. Is the AJ Browns at the top 24 wide receiver just a name thing? Like his game this season has been disgusting. I think it's way more about the matchup against Miami than it is, isn't it? Miami's been fantastic against wide receiver. They haven't been fantastic against wide receiver. They don't get thrown on a lot. Well, statistically, they've been fantastic. They've been like top five in terms of stopping wide receiver's been-- there's been three or four guys. They're getting like 14 targets of game to wide receivers. That's it. That's extremely low. AJ Browns had 20 targets this season. And he has nine catches for 101 yards in no-touch shots. I thought he had more than 20 targets this season. That sounds about right, because he had the 10 target game two weeks ago, and then he's really been kind of shut out since. Listen, there's definitely a part of that. But I also think that there's a part-- now here, I am defending AJ Brown. I'm just saying that he's-- I've got a break to two. I'm not criticizing. - No, but it's a way, it's a between two. - Obviously, FOMO, because you know what he's capable of doing. - I don't think there's as much FOMO though, as there used to be, because of what we say. - If there was, he would be ranked higher. I think it comes down to, first off, four teams on a buy. We don't know what's gonna happen when those other guys get healthy, a book, more, more funky. Like they're all gonna potentially push AJ Brown down a little bit, which is totally understandable, because those guys in the K, or a couple of those guys have clearly played better than AJ Brown. We're all on the same boat. You know, nobody's saying that there's a right or wrong answer because he's still getting chances. And if you're getting chances for a player of his caliber with a quarterback that he plays with, against his defense, 'cause yes, statistically great, performance wise, I don't know if that's the case. So number two, I'd receive her. A lot of people are gonna look at their lineups and say, am I starting him again? Because of his name, am I starting him again? Because of X, Y, or Z, hopefully he delivers. So just keep an eye on the situation. Another guy that was limited in practice with, not just the ankle injury that's been bothering him, but also a knee injury. All right, let's take a look at the right rank list, 25 through 36, and we have now, what could be more upside plays over AJ Brown, with what the rookies have done recently. Jeremy Bernard, bad game last week, but two of his last three games have been fantastic. Omar Cooper studed the last two weeks. Casey concepted he own, finally had a breakout game last week. Caleb Douglas has played two full games. He's been awesome in both of those games. Denzel Boston has been playing well for the majority of the season, tailed off a little bit lately, but you get the point. And Mackay Lemmon, first game without Devon Desimith and Don Tavingwick's played very well last week, 19 PPR points. So let's talk about two rookies here, because I think they're the more interesting talking points. And that's Omar Cooper Jr. and Casey concepted he own. Heath, with these two rookies, you said you do projections. It's hard to necessarily say, because the body work has not been great, but the recent work has been amazing. How are you approaching these two receivers? - So I'm in a favor conception over Cooper because of the projections process. And the fact that Casey conceptions been earning targets almost all season long. He finally broke out on those targets. Omar Cooper, his efficiency is the most and the same thing I've ever seen. Like he's only played three games. He's averaging almost 20 yards per target. If you have a 10 yards per target, you're going to the whole thing. So like he's only getting five, six targets per game. And he either needs those targets to really improve, or well that's it, or he's going to be bad. Because the efficiency is not going to maintain. And this week is the Garrett Wilson squeaky wheel game. Like we all expect Garrett Wilson's going to be better than he's been in the last two weeks. So I am a little bit worried that we got. I love Omar Cooper. I'm glad he's on my team or he's on my team. I'm a little worried about starting in this week. - I think about the matchup against the Raiders. And I think about how Gianos Smith has really taken to Omar Cooper and the stats back that up over the last two weeks. And I can't get away from him. So put me down as future Hall of Famer Omar Cooper ahead of the AJ Brown this week. Because of the outlook, it's a very favorable may not talk about bad defenses. The Raiders are right there with the dolphins for one of the worst in the league. And Gianos Smith has actually thrown the ball moderately well. I mean, some of those deep throws Omar Cooper worked great. But the fact that he's throwing down field Omar Cooper and he can win in the short area, that's huge. I love what I saw from Casey Concepcion. You guys know how much I loved him coming into the season. But those targets don't always end up being big plays. Because he's not always a tackle breaker. He's not going to take on the Titans defense every single week. This is an example. He's taking on Pittsburgh. Much better tackling team. If you're starting Concepcion, you're doing it for the targets. You're not doing it for the yardage or the efficiency. His second best game though, his prior to last one. It was 11 PPR points. Against the Steelers was in week four with 11 PPR points. So I'll show you the rank list 37 through 48. And we have just a potential situation to keep an eye on with DJ Moore because if there is an absence, he on Coleman has been great. Five times this season so far that we've had DJ Moore either leave the game early or miss. And Coleman has scored 12 PPR points or more in four of those games. And he's got to touch down in three straight games. And Cleal Secure has scored 11 and four PPR points in three straight games. So Dave, when you look at more in, more out, how do you approach Keon Coleman and Cleal Secure? If Moore's in, I'm not really that interested in starting Shakira or Coleman, especially Coleman if DJ Moore is playing. If Moore is out, I actually think Shakira is the better guy to start over Keon Coleman. I've watched the Ravens defense. When they're giving up big plays and touchdowns, it's the middle of the field. They play a lot of too high safety. So that middle of the field is attractive for quarterbacks to throw to. There's one other really big wrinkle here. And that's that the Buffalo Bills love to run the football and they can come into this game and run the ball against Baltimore. The Ravens have allowed big numbers to good rushing teams this year. The bad rushing teams, they can't do much of anything against Baltimore. But those good rushing teams can. And so I don't even know if there's going to be an opportunity for any of these wide receivers to get north of 15 PPR points this week, whether or more plays or not. All right, it's keeping eye on the situation. With Moore, it'll impact a lot even Dalton Concade, as well. Let's talk about some starts and sits at the position. So Dave, you're starting Michael Wilson. Heath, you got trade Tucker. Let's talk about those two guys. So Michael Wilson is pretty much a start anyway for fantasy managers. He's already started north of 65% in CBS Sports leagues. But this is the time to trade him. You're watching this at Aimed Time between Thursday and Sunday. There's a window. Get him off your team because after this week's game against Dalton, he should be really good in this game. He's got a murderous row of past defenses that he's going up against. And that makes me really scared for Michael Wilson, who has now the de facto clear, obvious number one wide receiver for Arizona has not been doing that well. Safety coverage over the top is really limited just how much he gets after the catch. When he does actually catch the football, because he hasn't had a ton of those over his last three games. Just piggyback on that because you have Kendrick Born as a sleeper. Yes, I just think it's a fantastic matchup. Kendrick Born is still at the very worst going to be top three on this team in targets. And sometimes he's top two on this team in targets and getting more targets than Michael Wilson. I think one of the big problems with Marvin Harrison this year is that coach really likes Kendrick Born a lot. And this is a fantastic matchup against a bad defense, a good number three wide receiver. You know, one of the cardinals receivers that they were kind of using in that cardio role for that Michael, that Marvin Harrison junior left behind, Jalen Brooks put on IR. I think it's going to shorten up those 8-0 throws from Jacobi Berset. And that'll help born quite a bit. Trey Tucker? Another big week? It might be chasing points. I'm willing to admit that. Trey Tucker has been this guy throughout his career. But we've played seven weeks. He scored more than 20 fantasy points in three of those weeks. Is it a very worst, a good boom bus number three wide receiver? And I think this week with the buys and the injuries, he may be a top 24 wide receiver. Teams are doing everything they can to stop Brock Bowers. And you can't actually stop Brock Bowers. Maybe you can contain him. But that's opened things up for Trey Tucker. 19 targets over his last two games. I think this Jets Raiders game is going to be a shootout. Which will be great for Tucker also. It makes me think about Tucker versus AJ Brown. I think we all know who has more upside. It's just whether or not you've got the guts to start Trey Tucker over there. His last six games, he has at least four catches in every game. AJ Brown does not have four catches in a game yet this year. That's a great point. And I visited with Trey Tucker a little bit during the preseason. And he talked about how he's really tried to improve his game and get on the same page with his quarterbacks and be a better option route runner. And I think you're starting to see some of that. But really it's the speed and the deep ball that Kirk Cousins is pulling off. That's helping both Cousins and Tucker have some big stats. Stefan Diggs is a starter for me. Love the opportunity for him without Trey McCorn on the field. 15 or more PPR points in three of his last five games. And this Eagles defense. I just don't think is very good right now. They're just on the field so much. The secondary, which is still playing well to a degree, is giving a lot of fantasy points. And I think we're going to see another big game for Stefan Diggs. Some sit-wide receivers for us. So we got DK Mecca for you, Dave, Denzel Boston, for you, Keith. Let's start with DK Mecca, because he's been really good. He had a big game against Cleveland back in week four. He's one of four wide receivers to get more than 13 PPR points against the Browns. But things are shifting a little bit in Pittsburgh. Aaron Rodgers is getting the ball out faster. He's not throwing it as far down the field. And they've really been a better running team. Ever since Rico Dahl got hurt, it's the weirdest thing. Jalen Warren has got that confidence. And he's been able to run the ball really well. And now Dahl, that he's back. He's contributing too. And this Cleveland run defense, I mean, we just saw what Tony Pollard did to them. It makes me think that the sealers might not have to throw a ton. And when they do throw, it could be those shorter throws. Those throws to the tight ends. The throws to Jeremy Bernard that are actually successful against Cleveland. Yeah, and with Boston, I like him if you're just looking for a boom bust flex. And you're starting three wide receivers ahead of him. But his profile is terrifying in terms of a week-to-week thing. And we've seen it over the last couple of weeks. He's got four of 13 passes the last two weeks. Has it catch rate below 50% for the season? Is A.Dott's over 16. You're just hoping-- he's kind of like the old Gabe Davis role. You're just hoping that he catches a 40-yard touchdown pass. And he might. But I don't want to start him if I can avoid it. And the way to Sean's throwing the ball, I don't like the chances of a 40-yard throw connecting with mental Boston. Not very popular to say. Sid Jameson Williams has been great for the last three weeks. He's got two touchdowns in each of his last two games. But this Minnesota defense is absolutely amazing. They don't give up passing touchdowns. It's been four passing touchdowns in their last 14 games. I think it's the last 15, but we can debate that. Last 14 games. And I think it's going to be a tough game for Jameson Williams. In five career meetings, Brian Flores. He's been under 10 PPR points in four of them. Only one touchdown over that span. So more of a number three wide receiver. All right, we're going to take a break when we come back. And we get into the quarterbacks that we like. The ones that you might to avoid. And we'll talk about the rankings next on Fantasy Football Today. It's now time to talk quarterbacks for week eight. And we have, as always, four guys that are not going to play because of the by-weeks. But we are getting some reinforcements. Because the Marjacks is expected to play. So that's a positive. But here are the quarterbacks that are not going to play in week eight because of a by. You don't have Brock Perty. No C.J. Stroud, no Tyler Schuck. And hey, he's playing great. No J.J. McCarthy. So we'll see what happens to all four of these guys. In week nine, Perty could get some reinforcements in the receiving core. Stroud will hopefully continue to play at a high level. Schuck will get back on track after what has been a little bit of a disappointing three games, at least two of the last three. And J.J. McCarthy can finally just get in the end zone. but he's looking. great for the Giants. Let's show you the rank list one through 12. And again, Lamar Jackson, he's back. Now he's not in the top three, but he is in the top six. So we have a lot of faith in him. And then I want to talk about just the quarterbacks in tonight's game as well. So he, what do you want? Lamar Jackson or tonight's game? All day tonight's game. All right, so Dave, you get Lamar Jackson. You got to be a little concerned about how the injury that he's been dealing with affects him. Last year at a hamstring injury, it really took a toll on his passing efficiency. He really wasn't anywhere near as good of a thrower when he was playing hurt. So this is going to be a game where we're going to check that out. And if we see a bad game from Lamar Jackson, the panic sirens are going to go off for sure. But this is Buffalo's defense. They really haven't been that great at all against the run or the pass this year. I wouldn't count on Lamar running for a lot of yardage. But I think he's going to get some great numbers from Zayful Hours, and he's going to end up having a very nice fantasy week. So I think that one side of the tonight's game is pretty easy. Jordan loves a must-start quarterback. He's like right behind Lamar Jackson for me. Tom Seven guy. Bryce Young is a guy that I really don't feel good starting and I really don't feel good sitting because for the most part, when he's had Teteron Macmillan and Jalen Coker, he's been awesome. This Packer's defense though is such a mixed bag. They've given up some big games. They've also put seven guys at the line of scrimmage and just blitzed the heck out of the quarterback. And the Panthers offensive line is beat up. And even when they've been healthy, they've been kind of mediocre. Bryce Young has been pressured on 44% of his dropbacks this year. And he has the highest or the lowest time to pressure. The fastest time to pressure amongst quarterbacks with a 40% pressure rate. So teams are getting after him already. I'm a little worried that they hit him too often, but he could be awesome. They could be. I mean, the ideal situation is because both these offenses are great that we get a high scoring affair and everybody is fantastic. But you see, we are a little bit concerned collectively with Bryce Young. Let's show you the rank list 13 through 24. And this is where you're going to see some surprise names. You see Jared Goff, you see Caleb Williams, you know, two guys who are typically must our quarterbacks. We'll tell you why we're a little bit concerned about them in a second. And then you have some fun sleepers that could hopefully play well, Jacobi Berset. Great matchup against Dallas. Great setup for him as he takes on his cowboys defense. Whenever we see a mediocre defense and a great offense facing the Cardinals, which is the case with the cowboys, Jacobi Berset's going to be in play to hopefully get some fourth quarter production. Sam Donald, very difficult matchup to last three games or opponents to last three games. This is not necessarily the same type of matchup. So Donald could be fun. And hopefully Kyler Murray shows something against Detroit. They are clearly terrible against every opposing offense that they face. But Kyler Murray has been terrible offensively as well. So this could be a game where maybe he breaks out. At least that would be the whole. I was talking about some starts and sits. So he's the Geno Smith. You like him. Love him. What are we expecting from Geno in this matchup against the rest? I've got him ahead of Bryce Jung, who we just saw was at QB12. I think you could consider starting. I would definitely start him over Caleb Williams. I'd start him over Jared Goff. I think the thing with Geno. I mean, first off, it's the revenge game. That's fun. The Raiders defense is given up the sixth most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season. And we like Geno's got Garrett Wilson, future Hall of Famer, Omar Cooper, got full very good tidings and Mason Taylor and Kenyans Adeak. And at great number three wide receiver in Ed and I Mitchell. So the weapons are good. And this could be a shootout. On the other side of that game is Kirk Cousins. And I like him as a start this week too. And Kirk has really been on a roll. 22 and a half fantasy points and five of his last six days. Are you serious that Kirk Cousins is doing it? Well, when you're throwing to Brock Bowers and you're throwing to Trey Tucker and you're throwing to your running back because your running back can't run very well. And you're chasing points in a lot of games. This is what's bound to happen. And so unless the Jets blow out the Raiders, you're going to see Kirk Cousins for four quarters and you're going to have a chance for Kirk Cousins to make it six of seven. 29 or more fantasy points to each of the last two quarterbacks that the Jets have taken on. So this isn't a tough defense for Cousins. I just hope that what you said comes true in that we don't see the Jets blowing out the Raiders. And then it's Fernando Mendoza. Listen, I have Kirk Cousins about five leagues. I'm so excited for what he could do if he plays a full game. I get it to be fair. And I know we keep saying this. That Mendoza at some point is going to take over. They had a four game losing streak against four very good teams. The Rams, the Bills, the Patriots. I forget I'm missing in there. It's just the chiefs. It's not been easy for them to try and match up from a, hey, we can win this game. They can win this game. And if they stay competitive early in the game, then Kirk Cousins should be able to put up numbers. However, most of his productions, how many games this year have the Jets blown somebody out? They haven't played the Raiders very often. They just lose the goal. You should be confident in Kirk Cousins. Trevor Lawrence is the start of the week, expecting him to have a top five performance against the Colts. They just traded away. They've talked about this Quentin Nelson. They're best offensive linemen. They're best defensive linemen as well. The force buckner now in San Francisco. So Lawrence, last two games we saw him over 25 fantasy points. The Colts have allowed three quarterbacks of season to go over 26 fantasy points. And Lawrence in his last three games against the Colts, 23 or more fantasy points. So this should be a game where he has a lot of success as you'll see or as you'll see if you look at the rankings page. Top five quarterback for all of us for this week. Some quarterbacks that we're talking about sitting this week. So Heath, Patrick Mahomes, just another bad week coming up from against a really good Bronco's defense that is going to get Patrick's or Tamback as well. Yeah, this is a pretty easy place to just make it nice and easy. Patrick Mahomes hasn't been in top 12 quarterback this year. The Broncos are much more difficult against the passing game than they are the running game. Sit Patrick Mahomes. Dave Caleb Williams, two great games so far this season, two very mediocre games so far this season, which is going to be this week. I think it's going to be mediocre if not bad. And it's not because of anything he's doing. He's playing really well. It's the Seattle defense. Jamie Marcus Mariotta had a great game against Seattle. I don't know where that came from. Every other quarterback to go up against Seattle this year. This is a listen includes Brock Pretty, Drake May, Jacobi Preset, Patrick Mahomes. You'll take Pretty's numbers though. Pretty was 20.2 fantasy points. And so if that's the hope and the ceiling for Caleb Williams, would I take that? Yeah, but would I rather start another quarterback? That's got more upside. The cousins, Juno, set trilogy. Yeah, I'd rather start those guys ahead of Caleb Williams just for this week because of the tough matchup on the road against Seattle. That's like the first Star Wars trilogy as opposed to the the the ladder Star Wars trilogy as opposed to the first one. Absolutely. One through three. Yeah. For me, it's sitting Jared Goff very similar to Caleb Williams. Hard to get away from a great quarterback, but the Vikings defense is absolutely amazing. And again, four passing touchdowns in the last 14 games. I'll go with that amazing side of this. So you're looking at a quarterback here who in one of those 14 games had under five fantasy points. And so they do a really good job against opposing quarterbacks. And it's just the history of Jared Goff versus Brian Forbes. That's some good games, but the average in the six meetings of Goff versus Flores, 17.1 fantasy points. I think that's the range we're talking about for him. I think I'll be under 20 fantasy points for the first time this season. All right, we're going to take a break and we come back and get into tight ends. We still have your questions coming up. So continue to send them to us on social media using hashtag #AskFFT. But next we're going to talk about Holston Lovelin. Is he safe? Kyle Pitts. Is he going to be great? That's next on FFT. We're talking tight ends here. I'm going to show you the rankings and maybe a little bit of a surprise because it's very, very crazy. Some of the names that you're going to see in the top 12. But first, let's show you the tight ends we're missing in a couple of big name guys that you won't be available to have in your starting lineup. So George Kittle and Isaiah likely they'll also joined by Joanne Johnson and Dalton Schultz. So we have these four teams on a buy. Again, hard to not be able to start Kittle and likely I'm in a guillotine where both players are on my roster and it stinks because they've been carrying me a lot of the way. So hopefully you will be able to find some replacements and there are some good tight ends that we talked about on Tuesday for the waiver wire that you could be using as starting options. We'll show you those names in a little bit. Let's talk about the list one through 12 of our consensus rankings here. And two names that stand out, Sam Laporta and number four, and Colston Loveland and number nine. Heathamny, give you Laporta. I'm surprised you guys are the two high guys on Laporta pushing them up into the top five. I'm surprised you guys are both, I'm starting him, but are still so gung-ho about him coming off the game that he just had and facing Minnesota. Yeah, I'm kind of thinking that in this game the whole we're going to feature James and Williams thing from last week's probably not going to work against the Vikings past rush. They're going to have to get the ball out quicker in this offense. Generally when you're doing that, it's going to the running back where you dump it off to the tight end, that tree chipped somebody. And so I think we'll see more targets for Sam Laporta. All right, hopefully that's the case. And then we got Colston Loveland, Dave, you're the high guy on Loveland. Heath, you're almost sitting him at this point. I'm a little bit concerned because of the match against Seattle. What do we like about Loveland? Seattle plays a lot of cover three and a lot of cover six. This is zone heavy coverage. And since Caleb Williams has come back, a ton of targets have gone Colston Loveland's way just in general. But especially against cover three and against cover six. And he said great efficiency against cover three over two yards per out run. I'm banking on that. I think the Bears are going to have a hard time running the ball. They're going to have a hard time doing anything in this game. But if we're going to trust volume, burdens been getting in the last few games. And I think Loveland has too. I would go back to him in full PPR as a reliable start just because I think he's going to catch the ball a lot. And we know he's capable of making plays after the catch. And we could see just because of the Colcomit injury, a little bit more opportunities for Luther Burton, based on the personnel they use. And maybe a target or two that goes in Colston Loveland's direction. All right, let's show you the rank list 13 through 24. And there are some of these sleeper tight ends that we showed you in the top 12 list. But you could get some quality production here. The Rams tight ends. It's been very up and down about who's going to be the best one Parkinson right now, a little bit banged up. Higby, prior to the Devante Adam's injury was playing well post Devante Adam's injury. It's been Parkinson. And then you had the Davis Allen two touchdown game last week. Mason Taylor had a two touchdown game last week. He's got six targets. He to the last two weeks. He's got a great matchup against Las Vegas. Maybe you get a touchdown out of Friar Mooth or Andrews or Gaseki. That's going to be what saves them. But they obviously have been doing it. Gaseki is now scored in all but one game so far this season for the Bengals. All right, let's talk about some starts and sits for this week. And again, more guys that were available on waivers. Dave, you got Chigel Conkel as a start. 89% route share last week in the same earn their last game moves against San Francisco. That's when Terry McCluren went down. That was a season high form. 13.9 PPR points per game. That was a season high for O'Concoo. And we know McCluren's not coming back. He was already playing a lot, and he had double digit PPR points and two straight games to begin with. We know how Jay and Daniel feels about his tight ends, thinking back to how Zach Hertz was still involved for a couple of years in Washington. Now it's Chico O'Concoo's turn, and he's a more athletic version of Zach Hertz. I would expect the targets to be north of six that's usually what you're looking for from a tight end when you're starting him. - Heath, another guy that we talked about on the waiver wire, you like as a top six tight end this weekend, that's Brent Strange. - The last three games before thereby, he had 23 targets. You know, us at 23 targets, Parker Washington. Those two dominating the consolidates. - The target has more. - Two has more. He can't do that. He has more when it's a tie. And he's also been very efficient with those targets. You know, we came into the year and we're like, "I have too many wide receivers. "I have too many mouth to feed." And they have consolidated things just a little bit between Parker Washington, Brenton Strange, and then if they throw a lot, Chico B Meyers can be good too. I don't think they throw a lot in this game. So maybe it's six or seven targets instead of seven or eight for Strange. But honestly, it's kind of a bad week for tight end this week compared to what we've had most of this year. And Strange's volume over the last three games elevates him for me. - I just worry if there's going to be enough throwing too strange in this game because the Jaguar should be able to win and Strange could be a part of how they get up on the Colts anyway. But I worry about just how many targets will be there for him when Travis Hunter had a role last week, when Chico B Meyers is somebody that can end up playing and of course Parker Washington total stud. And this is a team that I think wants to get their ground game going a little bit more too in Jacksonville. So I would actually sit Brenton Strange if you want to call him a streamer, high end number two by week tight end. I'd be cool with that. I don't see him as the top 10 type of tight end. - All right, so a different opinion there on Brenton Strange. I'm just looking at Hunter Henry and just I get so excited every minute that I get a chance to start him because I think we're gonna see another big game for him. The Dolphins top three in most fantasy points allowed to tight ends. And Henry is now scored 11 PPR points or more enforced rate games. Two touchdowns done his last three matchups here. And so we've seen AJ Brown struggle. We obviously have seen Demaro Douglas up and down. Two games ago, he was great. Last week he was disappointing. I think Hunter Henry's just been that steady guy for Drake May and given the matchup, given the opponent. I think he's got top five upside. Let's talk about some tight ends to sit. Davey already mentioned you're sitting Brenton Strange. Heath, no love for Donald Concade as a guy that could take advantage of this Baltimore defense or is it gonna be a difficult game for him. - I mean, he's kind of like the Bryce Young of the tight end position. He has the upside, you don't really want to sit him, but man, it's terrifying what he could be. Look at his last four games. It's 38 yards receiving or fewer. That first start to the season was so good. And I've talked about it. He's been better when DJ Moore has been a full-time player. I know that doesn't totally make sense there. I think the problem is they run so much of this 13 personnel. And if the wide receiver that's on the field with them is not a great target earner, then Dalton Concade's the guy that defense is taking away. So maybe if DJ Moore comes back, he's better. - For me, I'm gonna sit Harold Fanon and another guy coming off a great game last week. And he squirted touchdown the last time these two teams met, but it was two catches, three catches for 27 yards and a touchdown on five targets. That's the last touchdown that the Steelers have allowed. So three straight games they have. I'm gonna go touch down to a tight end. It's very similar to what we talked about with some of these backs. You could tell me if fans are gonna play well, you could tell me Concepcion's gonna play well, Boston gonna play well. They all had North of eight targets last week. I just think the Steelers defense takes fan in the way. I would sit him. All right, we're gonna take a break. We come back. It's all your questions to close the show. That's next on FFT. There's the guy you are right now and there's the guy you know you could be. Hymns is here to help you close that gap and get there. There's a specific feeling that comes from actually taking control of your health, not from talking about it, but from actually doing it. 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Would you trade Michael Wilson for Zack Sharbinay and half PPR? If Michael Wilson was not somebody that I needed to start, and I just wanted to have somebody on my bench for upside, I would rather have Zack Sharbinay. I think he'll be better in the second half than Wilson. Hi, Dave, I'm higher than Sharbinay, but if you wanted to settle for an RB, that would be one that you could. Next question. In a knockout league, I have LaPorta and Kraft. Likely is available. Would you drop either to pick up likely Dave? I think I would drop Kraft, and then I would carry likely through the buy and start LaPorta this week. Makes sense, next question. Heath, would you trade sake one for Tutan? Oh yeah. Yeah, I think you have to do that 'cause sake one could get shut down. All right, that'll do it for your questions. We'll get some more on Sunday with our free game show. Remember, no early morning start, so we'll be going at 11 a.m. Eastern. Check us out and check out our fans before they pop us over. Pop guys are found for Heath, for Dave, I'm Jamie, and I want to full-product your staff. Thanks for watching, fans, people, both of you. Now streaming on Paramount Plus. I'm Dexter Morvin. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you. You're having a mid-life crisis. I'm all ready for that. He's back. I'm older. I'm wiser. And sharper than ever. Things are gonna get messy, but if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything.