5 BIG NFL Week 8 Storylines That Could Shake Up Your Fantasy Football Team (Ep. 2302)

0:00 What's going on, everybody? I am Andrew Erickson. That is Alfredo Brown. And we are here live on the tailgate, tagging your questions, talking about week eight. Is that the right week? Week eight previewing with the top five storylines. I mean, there's probably 10, 15, 20 different storylines, which we're going to start at the top. Alfredo Brown with the Indianapolis Colts selling their entire team to whoever wants to buy the They're just standing outside of Lucas Oil Stadium with a sign that says, please take all of our assets, take away all of our players, because they are ripping it down to the studs, like our friend Derek Brown projected. After they beat the Houston Texans a couple weeks ago, Debro came onto the tailgate program and said,

0:46 rip it down to the studs. This team is fraudulent. It doesn't matter that they beat the Texans, and he could have been more right. So, Alfredo Brown, are you buying any Colts players?

0:56 Oh, man. That's a tough one, dude. I think the only thing that gets me slightly intrigued is where Josh Downs might end up. I still think he's a good player. Wherever he's going, there's going to be targets to be had, but we all kind of know the thing that receivers that get traded in the middle of the season, it never ends up well for them. There's only really one place where I think it potentially ends up well, and that's the San Francisco 49ers. But man, other than that, I'm seeing rumors of Washington and all these other places.

1:27 And I'm like, why? You guys have two Josh Downs' already. Like, stop. Don't do that.

1:31 Please, no. How many Josh Downs' can we get on this team?

1:35 Yeah, we don't get Josh Downs' now. We got Josh Downs' at home. We don't need that.

1:40 It's funny because I think that it might have been Welsh on the ranking show that brought up the idea or teased the idea of, well, you know who already traded for Colts wide receivers earlier this offseason? The Pittsburgh Steelers.

1:53 Stop. Stop. We've got Jeremy Bernard.

1:55 There's a lot... There's a lot of teams that we would probably pencil or scratch out as potential Josh Downs landing spots. But you got to remember Josh Downs, I believe, is in a contract year. So it makes total sense that he goes to his camp. He's looking at his numbers this year that have declined from what we're using to see from Josh Downs. Basically, all of his efficiency stuff is going down because even though he is playing more because the Colts need him to play more because Al Pierce is injured and He's playing a larger role in the offense. He's being targeted at a less frequent rate.

2:28 He's being used more downfield, which again, that's going to make it tougher for a quarterback like Daniel Jones to hit him consistently. So has not been Josh down's best year. He knows that, but he wants to get paid during the off season. So he knows that won't happen as long as he's attached to Daniel Jones and currently how that quarterback is playing. So Again, 25 years old, fourth season, former 2023 third round draft pick out of North Carolina.

2:53 I also tease the idea of like, it's probably not going to happen, but to see him reunited with Drake May would be kind of cool. Would be kind of cool.

3:01 You know what? I would like that. I'm not going to lie, but you got the Mario Douglas. Yeah.

3:08 No, they got AJ Brown who popped up in the injury report now with a knee injury. So that's great. So absolutely hate to see that. So you said 49ers. I think that makes a lot of sense as a potential landing spot. I know I threw out Kansas City Chiefs as another interesting landing spot. We know that they have been in the rumor mill to add another wide receiver.

3:29 It looks like Rashi Rice did at least practice today on Wednesday as we're recording. So if he makes his return from his hamstring injury, but we know that you can't really rely on Rashi Rice to be available in more than one way. And we know that the Chiefs also are definitely not going to resign Rashi Rice as he's on an expired contract. So teams might be looking at Josh Downs as a future asset as well. So I think that is kind of interesting. 49ers make a ton of sense. Any other, a dark horse team or any team like that, do you think that, oh, they're going to make a play for Josh Downs? Raiders, maybe? Like, again, I don't think that they need him as the archetype receiver, but another receiver, I don't think they would say no

4:08 to necessarily.

4:09 Yeah, I'm, I'm not, Sure, at this point, could it be the Rams? If they're worried about Devontae Adams, I know Mekhi Lemon was a draft target of theirs. I mean, it makes sense. He'd be going from AFC to NFC, and if they're all in, just be all in on getting more players. They've never really cared about draft picks before, so just go for it.

4:33 Yeah, I'm glad you brought the Rams because that was Fitzy's prediction when the news first broke earlier when we were doing the wide receiver rank show. So I gave out the Chiefs. Fitzy backed the Rams as a team. They don't give up. They don't care about those draft picks. So adding another wide receiver like Josh Downs makes a ton of sense. So let's stick to the Colts here because I know that we they are the hot button topic when it comes to the NFL. Let's move to their running back. Jonathan Taylor. So now he's saying that I don't want to be traded. Right. Which is always the first thing players announce and teams announce after a guy gets traded. It's like this guy is not on the trade block. We refuse to trade this player. Week later,

5:14 they get traded because that's just how these things work. Alfredo. Jonathan Taylor. What team is he playing for in November?

5:23 I think it's still the Colts. And I think that's maybe unfortunate because I just this team's about to start losing games, man. And it would not surprise me if we see Anthony Richardson on the field starting at some point. The Daniel Jones signing and the Daniel Jones, you know, starting quarterback thing. That was a Chris Ballard move. And if Shane Steichen doesn't finish out the season or he doesn't make it the next few games, they're already showing us all the signs of a complete teardown. We could be looking at an Anthony Richardson-led Colts team with minimal offensive line players left, no Josh Downs. You're looking at Laquan Treadwell and Ashton Doolin being the receivers going out there with Jonathan Taylor, a defense that doesn't have DeForest Buckner,

6:06 the secondary that's already been kind of decimated. So you're looking at a team that's going to be trailing a lot of games and a quarterback who's likely not going to be checking down the ball. Like everything for his future in this season is just red flag city right now for Jonathan Taylor. But I think he ends up staying there through probably the rest of his career or at least the next contract.

6:29 Do you think that is due to the Colts not getting enough for Jonathan? Because I got to imagine that there's going to be deals coming in. for Jonathan Taylor. And it's just a matter of we're getting low balled here. We know he's a older running back, not super, super old, but in terms of total volume, Jonathan Taylor is obviously up there just because he's been an absolute workhorse since he's been in the NFL, obviously one of the best running backs in the league. So that's where I'm kind of curious where, when do the Colts decide, okay, this is enough for us to move on from right now, the franchise player, right? He is the face of the franchise player. It's not Daniel Jones. It's not Sauce Gardner.

7:06 It's not Quentin Nelson anymore because he's gone. So if you're the Colts, when do you say yes? Is it a first-round pick, like a second-round pick?

7:14 I would have done this already. If you're tearing it down, I would have done this already. That was still my belief with the Miami Dolphins this offseason. When you had Devon Achan, you could have traded that to the Seattle Seahawks who were going for a running back in the first round, and you could have had a first-round pick and done that right there. Now you gave Devon H.

7:32 Analyst money and you got Ollie Gordon, and I digress. The Colts, they should have already done this. And I think there are competing teams that maybe they'd be willing to give a first-round pick. Who's the competing team that needs running back that would be willing to give high enough draft capital for Jonathan Taylor? Is it the Vikings?

7:52 Yeah, I think the Vikings are, and it pains me as someone that was just like, pounding the table to buy Lowe and Jordan Mason across the board because he would just get absolutely nuked entirely. But it makes too much sense, right? And I know that this has been a topic on a couple of different shows, but you bring in Jonathan Taylor, you trade for Kirk Cousins, and you just run it all back with the Vikings.

8:12 And that's just what you do. Is it the Giants?

8:15 Yes, the Giants are the other team that make a lot of sense.

8:18 John Harbaugh the other day was like, if you had a Saquon Barkley, well.

8:21 Pretty close. If only there was a three-down workhorse running back available to trade for. We would love to have that guy on the team.

8:30 The Colts no shot they trade with the Texans in division. That's not happening.

8:35 I don't know if that would be. I mean, look, the Texans offensive line can't run block. It's just it's it's. It's abysmal. We're getting some comments. Patriots, same division. Bengals.

8:45 It's AFC though.

8:47 I don't know if the Colts care about where they're actually, I mean, what do they care? They're just, again, if they're trading everything away, they're incentivized to lose as many games as possible. Sure, yeah.

8:57 No, no, they're not because they don't even have their own first round pick. The Jets have their first round pick.

9:03 That is a good point. Now they actually need to keep John Taylor so they can win some games. Man, see, that's why we have you on the tailgate, Alfred, because you bring up the points. that actually matter. So, do they have a second round pick? What picks do they have at all?

9:15 I have not been keeping tabs on the Colts draft capital.

9:18 But they do have the Jets. Yeah, the Colts play the Jets later this year. They got to. That'll be fun.

9:22 At some point.

9:23 Do the Jets trade for Jonathan Taylor's when they win more games? Oh, God.

9:29 Oh, man.

9:30 Oh, God. This Colts thing just is.

9:32 It's not great.

9:34 No, it's not. Does Shane Steichen survive? That'll be my last question about the Colts. Is it over?

9:40 No, I think you have to have some sort of a miracle turnaround of the season with Anthony Richardson, which is I don't think it's totally out of the realm of possibility, but I think it's like a one percent chance that that happens. You'd have to. And because of that, it would have to be like, yep, look at Shane Steichen.

9:58 He he got his his. quarterback to do the thing right he's been held back by chris ballard making bad decisions like that and but even then man i don't know i don't think he makes.

10:08 It through no i don't think so either and i think that it's not all shane steichen's fault the rotating carousel at quarterback has been tough and they were put in a bad spot where Daniel Jones had the Achilles injury, right? What would we talk? What would have happened to the Colts if he had not torn his Achilles last year?

10:26 Like maybe they could have gone on a run. I know that the offensive production was never going to sustain because it was on level of like the 2007 Patriots. They're like the first 10 weeks of the season, which is absolutely absurd. So I still think Shane Steichen and Alfredo, if you disagree, please say something. I still think Shane Steichen is a good offensive minded head coach. I think that he can definitely be a coordinator. And I think that, He's going to be one of these coaches that gets scooped up pretty quickly. Hopefully it won't end up in a way like Mike McDaniel has was kind of like sought after as a free agent coach, as an OC and coming into a new team. Obviously that has been a disaster. I would hope that Shane Steak would probably

11:02 do better, but that's kind of my view on him in a post Colts life. How do you feel?

11:07 Yeah. I mean, we, I think we've seen that he can be a good coordinator and his offenses can score points. I just, you start to get that perfect storm of just everything going wrong where you're saddled with draft picks you don't let that don't pan out you're saddled with a quarterback that's injured and there's a ton of money stuck with him you got a bunch of money and a wide receiver that's not playing you know he he's been stuck in a bad situation here but also like he's not totally innocent there's just certain guys that aren't cut out to be head coaches like Raheem Morris was asked about this the other day. They're like, ah, everything's going well. When do you want to take up your shot at being a head coach again? He's like, I'm good.

11:45 He's like, some of us are just meant to be coordinators, and I'm really, really good at this. If the right job comes along, then cool.

11:52 Yeah, I know another guy that falls in that category is Josh McDaniels. Been a head coach multiple times. Yep. Disaster multiple times. Very good as an offensive coordinator. So before we get to our next storyline... If you want a chance to win one of the most unique pieces of NFL fan gear out there, the large NFLPA wall smack, courtesy of our good friends at Trophy Smack, the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your shot. Their oversized, officially licensed NFLPA wall smack are bold statement pieces that are perfect for your fan cave, office, or living room wall. It's not just decor. It's a way to rep your fantasy players in style. To enter, all you have to do is subscribe to the Tailgate

12:33 YouTube channel right now, drop a comment below on any of our videos, and that is it. announcing a winner right here on the channel. So make sure you turn on those notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim this epic prize. Look at Jalen Hurts in that image. He was so happy.

12:47 I like the emphasis on the word prize.

12:51 Dude, you got to get the prize, man. You got to get the prize. Speaking of prizes, are we going to be gifted a Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen matchup this week? I love the image here. Lamar just wearing the hoodie. He should be like, Is he going to play? Is he not going to play? So it's so funny because expectation right now on Wednesday is that Lamar Jackson is expected to return. Now, we turn back the clock three weeks ago. Jesse Minter had said that, oh, yeah, Lamar could have gone back in the game. Okay, that was three weeks ago, and he still has not played. So are we actually going to get Lamar Jackson? Because I think everybody wants this. We know that the Snoop Huntley experiment, we know that, okay, he comes in, he's a backup

13:31 for a couple weeks, but then you remember he's not Lamar Jackson, and that's why Lamar Jackson is who he is, and that's why Snoop Huntley is a backup. Are we going to get the Lamar-Josh Allen matchup that we all are dying to see?

13:42 I think so. I mean, last week we saw Lamar, you know, he did the hill test, and he was moving... somewhat decently, and we saw him out on the practice field a little bit, and then it was a little surprising to not see him go last week, and I think they're just trying to be careful with this. I think that Tyler Huntley has proven that he's a good enough backup that they weren't in any kind of rush to bring him back, but if he's healthy, and especially in a game like this that matters for AFC playoff seeding, this is the kind of game that I'd want Lamar Jackson back for instead of trying to rush him back last week, so I do think we end up getting both these guys back together.

14:21 Must see television when these two guys are on the field at the same time. It's interesting because when you look at it from a betting standpoint, Lamar, Josh Allen, Mahomes, these are guys that if you bet on them blindly as underdogs, they seem to always come through. So it almost feels like whichever team is catching the points or whichever team is being counted out. I don't know what the spread is. I'm not sure if Sal, you can look this up for us because I'm kind of curious about now that we're getting more confirmation about Jackson potentially playing who he's actually fed, where is this game being played?

14:50 Is this in Buffalo?

14:51 This is going to be at Buffalo.

14:53 It's in Buffalo.

14:54 Yeah. And the, uh, the bills are favored.

14:59 It was, I'm assuming it's probably like by two and a half points or something like that.

15:02 Yeah.

15:02 Two and a half points. That's how it makes sense. Bills by field goal. Essentially they're playing at home where on a neutral field, it would basically be a coin flip between these two quarterbacks. So I think that's kind of interesting. Just, It's basically kind of giving Jackson the benefit of the doubt that he comes back and he is 100 percent, which was definitely not the case last year at all. But to your point, it seems like he was very adamant about waiting as long as humanly possible to come back into the lineup. And he was not going to play at less than 100 percent, which obviously was happened last year. So you expecting full go Lamar?

15:38 Um, we, I think we make this mistake all the time where we say, oh, guy is back. Guy is 100%. And there's like a magnification of the way we look at players. We're like, not on the injury report, buddy. He's good to go. I don't think that a lot of the, I think that basically no players are playing at 100% of their abilities once we get to this point in the season. But 85% of Lamar Jackson is better than 100% of most quarterbacks in the league. So I think we're going to get Lamar Jackson and a good amount of him. Do I think we're getting a full 100% healthy Lamar Jackson? Maybe not.

16:17 So it means there might be some value there on the big old Buffalo Bills at home if it's going to be against a compromised Lamar Jackson. I'm interested to see if this Bills defense can improve after their bye week. Now you had Jim Leonard coming in, new defensive coordinator. We see this all the time when new DCs kind of step in and it's kind of a mess to start the season. They give up a lot of explosive plays and we've seen this with like legendary defenses. Like there was a time when Mike McDonald's defense wasn't that great in Seattle through the first month or so of his tenure there. And then obviously we've seen an insane turnaround where they are now the best defense up there with Brian Flores and the Vikings in the NFL over

16:56 the last couple of years. So I am expecting a little bit more of a new wrinkle with the Buffalo Bills and And I think that definitely gives them a little bit of an edge here against the Ravens, who, again, coming off a loss. Bills coming off a bye week. Like, they should be healthy. They should get DJ Moore back, potentially. So, yeah, man. Like, I kind of like Buffalo in this spot.

17:14 I do, too. And I think also just teams coming off a bye week. They're rested. They've had multiple weeks to plan for their opponent. They're getting DJ Moore back too. That's another thing is that Baltimore doesn't really know how to plan for DJ Moore because they haven't seen a whole lot of game foam on him in the Buffalo offense.

17:30 So you don't have much that you know what to plan for. I mean, I guess the same argument can be made for the Bills defense with Lamar, but you've played him year in and year out. You kind of know and you see what tendencies the Declan Doyle offense has. So I think you're right to call out, can the Bills defense just contain Lamar? And if they can do that, I think they win. And that's where I'm at in this one. I do think it's a close one. I think that the Moneyline's got it right. I think it's going to be Bills by three.

17:56 Ravens also put another interior offensive lineman under reserve. I didn't think they could have more injuries on their offensive line, but losing rookie Vega Iwane, who was a stud, just losing him. Again, they traded for Cam Juergens, who made his... I believe he made his appearance or his debut for the Ravens last week. But then, great, we got our new center, and then they lose another offensive lineman. So...

18:18 that creates question marks about how much push they're going to get up front with Derrick Henry. And yeah, man, the bills here are an interesting, or the Ravens, I think are in an interesting spot here. We'll see. Cause again, they can't keep losing games, right? Eventually they're going to fall behind the five and two Cleveland Browns and five and two Pittsburgh Steelers. Dude, I can't. And those teams already played each other. It's pretty insane. The Browns are five and two.

18:45 I don't, I don't know how, but it's happening.

18:50 Dude, I don't know.

18:52 They're just good enough.

18:53 Again, I got to give some credit to Todd Munkin.

18:57 Good coach, man.

18:57 I think that he's done an exceptional job with Deshaun Watson in this offense. Again, you're not going to get primetime Houston, Texas version of Deshaun Watson, but he's gotten enough out of Watson with these rookies, a lot of these young, talented players on the offensive side, an offensive line that, again, all new pieces, a lot of young players, and he's made it work. So, I mean, he was in his bag last week, putting Casey Concepcion in positions to take advantage of the defense. So I'm expecting that to continue. So definitely liked what the Browns have been doing.

19:25 And that's something that I was definitely wrong about where I was basically just fade this team into oblivion, fade Sean Watson into oblivion. But he's definitely played well above what I was expecting from him this season.

19:38 Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of it has just been Dude, Todd Munkin's a good coach, and we gotta give him credit where it's due. They've been doing this mostly without a run game, too. I also think there's a bit of a mystery box, too, to the Cleveland Browns where teams don't really know what to prep for.

19:54 Is it Harold Fannin week, Denzel Boston week, Casey Concepcion week? They're finally, and I don't want to say finally, but they're actually a complete team. You get a little bit of an offensive line revamp over there. You have some targets that can catch passes. yeah, the running game hasn't quite taken off yet, but I, yeah, I'm just going to say it like Deshaun Watson's playing decent football. So Browns are winning games, man.

20:20 Will the Browns continue to win games? Will the Browns win the AFC North? Well, if that's what you think, why don't you go check out Polymarket? Basketball season is here and a new way to trade on it is this new prediction market called Polymarket. Polymarket is a prediction market. It's a stock exchange for sports. buying and selling out on your terms. They are so confident you'll never go back to the other guys. They're giving you a free 25 bucks on your first trade when you deposit just $ 10.

20:46 Every bucket, every block, every matchup in basketball trades on Polymarket. So download the Polymarket app today. Use code FPPOD when you sign up. That's code FPPOD to get $ 25 free after you deposit just 10 bucks. Alfredo, are you into... into b-ball a little bit do you have an nba team that you follow.

21:07 Duh dude miami heat that's that's been my team that was my first love actually before football i was i was hitting up the miami arena as it was called back then to go watch my dog tim hardaway and alonzo morning pj brown jamal mashburn for john leonard that was that was that was the squad back then sal in the background saying glenn rice that was dude i was i was in diapers.

21:31 Man i don't i don't know you're saying these names uh when you say miami heat i only my mind automatically gravitates towards the uh the big three that were there when it was uh let's see if i can get the names right so lebron james um chris bosh right.

21:49 Yeah why does it feel like i'm talking to my wife do you not know basketball players no.

21:54 I don't i don't know that foreign to you This is pretty foreign. I mean, I know, again, I know who LeBron James is. Sick.

22:01 You know one of the most, you know the most popular athlete on the face of the planet. Good on you, Erickson. Chris Bosh.

22:09 Chris, let's go. Shout out to me. LeBron James, Chris Bosh. And then who was the other guy? Oh, Dwayne Wade. There we go.

22:16 Come on, dude.

22:17 Well, Dwayne Wade, he was the guy always in Miami, right? Like he was like the state.

22:21 Dwayne Wade is at the top of the, like he would be the first face on the Miami Heat Mount Rushmore.

22:27 Yeah. Okay. All right. I like that. Yeah. I know the big three from the Celtics too. Obviously Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen. Yeah.

22:34 Okay. We don't talk about them.

22:36 Let's go. All right. Before we get to our next storyline, let's hit some questions from the chat. We got a couple of comments in here. KHamilton35 asking a full PPR question. Listing off the roster here that you can see. So Purdy, Bucky, Gordon, Charbs, HN, Jason, Neighbors, etc. Three and four record right now. Where can I upgrade and with who? alfredo do you see any pieces that you're trying to ship off break up into other assets i don't hate this roster i mean jsn bucky purdy gordon's playing really well um i don't really think you need to blow it up but what do you think i.

23:19 I don't think you need to blow it up either i think there's like some extra fat that we can cut here like uh charbonnet and dowdle and it's just Those are some players that I don't want to deal with the ups and downs of them each week. And the other one is going to be Garrett Wilson. For as much as I love the player and the talent, I just don't like that we're going to have this revolving door at receiver for the Jets. I mean, Adonai Mitchell was great when he was healthy earlier on in the season. We should see more of him this next week.

23:46 Omar Cooper Jr. has been taken over as well. We got the rotating tight ends with Mason Taylor and Kenyon Sadiq. So Garrett Wilson's a guy that as much as I love him, I just... I feel like we're getting to the point where he's getting Terry McLaurin in his career, whether it's been bad quarterback play injuries. And now there's just one too many miles to feed there.

24:07 Yeah. I think that is a sharp play to me. Move off of Wilson. I will say this week, I think it has the look and feel of a squeaky wheel game for Garrett Wilson. Just Aaron Glenn. Anytime someone puts a microphone in front of him, they say he's getting 10 targets. Sure. But that being said, what happens after this week?

24:26 Yeah. Yeah.

24:26 The playoff schedule is also pretty tough for the New York Jets. I know that a lot of people have made that comment in some of the Discord questions that I've gotten about Garrett Wilson. So, I know I have Garrett Wilson in one of my leagues and he's someone, also along with some of these Panthers receivers, like their schedule is also not, I mean, if you just look at week 17 when the Panthers played the Seahawks, like, that is something that you just have to be aware of because Seattle, when teams face that defense, it's where fantasy points go to die. Just, like, there is no hope. So, especially in a league where I have both Panthers wide receivers.

24:59 I had to make a move off of one of them because I just, I can't go the rest of the way with both Coker and T-Max. So I ended up making a move. So that's another recommendation. Just look at some of these receivers and the rest of season schedules. Also, make sure you check out on fantasy pros. We have a strength of schedule tool that lays out the rest of season for all the main positions, even defense and kickers or whatever. So you can kind of set yourself up. Also, we have one specific to the playoffs. So I think that's also, worth looking into. Let's go to Newkirk7591. I picked up Jonah Coleman on waivers. Shout out to you.

25:34 But now I see someone dropped Jordan Mason. Should I pick him up and drop Jonah Coleman? Alfredo Brown, what do you do?

25:42 I mean, I guess in a vacuum, I prefer Jordan Mason over Jonah Coleman. I think we are looking at the potential of a better offense in Minnesota, a guy in Mason who we have seen be a top 12 running back at certain points in his career. And Aaron Jones is still dealing with a knee injury. Again, it's like the same injury, but just a new occurrence of that same knee injury. And it's an MCL. It just kind of keeps coming back with him. He's 31 years old.

26:06 So like being in your 30s dealing with knee injuries weekly just seems like a recipe for disaster. So I do prefer Mason. However, if you could drop anyone else, I'd really rather prefer drop someone else than Jonah Coleman. I just I want to hold on to these contingent upside running backs.

26:24 I agree. I would try to find somebody else to drop. Maybe you could even trade Jonah Coleman. That's potentially another option, but I agree. I think just my rest season rankings, I'd rather have Mason. So if that's what you have to do, then that's the trigger I would pull. Again, I feel good about Mason, aside the fact that they may trade for Jonathan Taylor. Honestly, I mean, if they didn't trade a first-round pick for Jalen Waddell, Sean Pate would probably be the first one up. He'd be like, I want Jonathan Taylor on my team. Yeah. Speaking of, Jalen Waddell... Our last topic we're going to get to, Jalen Waddell injured again. TBD for Sunday after he got a chest injury taking an end around in the end

27:04 of the Cardinals-Broncos game. Waddell is no stranger to the Blue Medical Tent, Alfredo Brown, as I'm sure that you are well too aware of. Yep. This has really been a big disappointment for arguably, I would say, one of the biggest busts in fantasy football thus far. Obviously, injuries withstanding Waddle has played in all the games this season, has had, I think, just one good game that came back in week two against the Jaguars. But besides that, the Broncos offense passing game has been abysmal with Bo Nix and Waddle really has not fired in any way, shape or form with Bo Nix, unable to execute down the field, which is why we thought Waddle would be a good fit for Bo Nix, where he's coming in

27:50 to open up the downfield passing game, which has been non-existent, whether it's been Davis Webb calling plays, whether it's been Sean Payton calling plays. So, um, Are we just done? It's over.

28:03 Yeah, I think it's very over. This is something– I remember when I was doing my pre-draft prep for fantasy football this year and I was putting it in my fantasy draft guide. Over the past like three years, Jalen Waddell has been outside of the top 36 wide receivers more often than he has been in the top 12.

28:24 But because of this trade to Denver, we kept looking at him as the guy that's going to break through and potentially give us the JSN type season. There was nothing in his past profile, along with Bo Nix's passing profile, that said that these guys meshed well. Jalen Waddell, really good on in-breaking routes. and specifically slants. And that was where Bo Nix struggled the most was slants. So there was just something, and we see it now with the timing too. The ball is always like a step behind him.

28:55 Jalen Waddle is sort of a chest, a chest catcher of the football. He's not always consistent with his hands. When I saw that he had a chest injury for a second, I was like, Oh, that ball must've hit him hard in the chest. And I know that sounds like me being a hater, but like we, as a Dolphins fan, like we have seen this song and dance before.

29:09 I think the guy is supremely talented, but he is often injured. A lot of that is because of the way he is forced to play the game, which is catch the ball over the middle or catch the ball in a screen where your body is available to get hit. And that's that's what we're looking at now with Waddle.

29:26 Yeah, it was the kiss of death when Sean Payton told reporters that he told his wife to draft Jalen Waddle.

29:34 He hates his wife.

29:35 And dude, there is no coach you can't trust. less than Sean Payton.

29:42 If I said that correctly, you can't trust more.

29:45 You can't trust more.

29:46 There's a, there's no coach that you can trust less than Sean Payton.

29:50 Yes. See, that's why we bring you on the tailgate.

29:52 This is why you guys pay me the medium bucks, man. This is what I'm here for. 40 minutes a week.

29:58 Before we get to the rest of the questions in the chat, what's your confidence level with Jonah Coleman? Again, we're look like the guy last week, but Sean Payton has pulled the rug out on fantasy managers, reporters before. I actually brought it up on the rank show with Welsh two years ago, around the same time. Who's talking up?

30:21 As a guy that should get more touches as a rookie running back coming off a good game. That was not the case the following week. It was a disaster. The following week. So it's the Chiefs. It's not the Arizona Cardinals this week as well. Defensively, I think that Coleman should be the RB1 for the Broncos. I don't think that's a hot take. He's my highest ranked guy heading into this week. But I would be lying if I didn't say, oh, I feel like uber confident about this.

30:45 What's your kind of temperature check on how this backfield is going to actually shake out?

30:50 Can you imagine what these coaches are like in their everyday life? Where they just they tell their loved ones that this is a player they should have because that player is going to have a great season. And then they just don't do that. And then they go out and they tell us, remember when he had seen enough of Jonah Coleman in the preseason to be like, we're good.

31:09 I've seen enough. But also, I don't want anyone else to see him for the next few weeks either. So we're just not going to play him. Yeah. I don't understand it. Like, I really don't. Because in one week, we get double-digit touches for J.K. Dobbins, who just still doesn't look great. And then we've got R.J. Harvey in this sort of modified Alvin Kamara role in potentially one of the worst offenses in the league. You asked about my confidence level. It's not a confidence or lack of confidence in Jonah Coleman, the player. It is a lack of confidence in Sean Payton. I don't think that he goes into these games knowing what he's going to do at the running back rotation. We are not expected to ever know or understand what he is doing. I just,

31:54 as much as I like these players and their talent, I stay away from it. It's just, it's no good. It's like, It's just a bad advice. You know, like once you get hooked on it, you start to think, ah, but once this guy does hit, once this guy hits, I'm going to look so smart that I spent my 10th round pick on Jonah Coleman and everyone's going to want a piece of it. No, no, they're not. Because you never know when to start the guy.

32:18 I've picked up Jonah Coleman in the same league twice already, spending probably around 40% of my total fab because I picked him up after the Jaguars game. Then he got hurt. And then I immediately had to drop him because he was injured. And I did it again. And I feel like that, it's like that Grand Theft Auto meme, right?

32:35 Where it's like, here we go again. Here we go again. We're just going for it again. So let's get to a couple of questions here for the people. KHamilton35, is there any update on 8chan' s return? He's got a return as the Saints RB1, right? So I'll hit this question first because I brought up 8chan on the buy low running back target show with Worm because the expectation is, He is eligible to return from injury reserve after the Saints bye week. No guarantee just because it's a hamstring injury that they will bring him back immediately, but he is eligible. And I think just given the state of how poorly the Saints run game has been and the fact they brought HN in for a reason to fix the run game that was also abysmal in 2025, I

33:18 think that he does get back to being the RB1. Now, it's not going to be solely exclusively him as a workhorse because they'll still dabble with Kamara, but I think they're going to get away from Kendrick Miller. All that guy does is put the ball on the ground. So how do you feel about A-Chan as a potential? You can kind of sneak him onto your roster. He's cheap.

33:36 People have not totally out of sight, out of mind.

33:38 Yeah, I think this is a nice one to go grab in a trade somewhere because of the time missed. He'll probably be a nice buy low. I think there's people losing confidence in the Saints offense. People may be worried that, oh, they're also getting Jordan Tyson back at some point too. So what does this mean? Honestly, I just think it means the Saints offense gets better because they're going to have an improved running game. They're going to have another good target out there that opens up lanes in the running game. And I mean, Travis Etienne, for as much as he has his own faults where he's not always the most efficient player, he's the best running back in this backfield. And I don't know how Kellen Moore or anyone else in this offense can look

34:12 at what this Russian game has been without Etienne and then been like, let's just keep doing the same thing, man. We keep losing games. We're not good at running the ball. Let's do that more. Right. So I have to imagine if you're paying them all the money on like day one of free agency, you are going to use this guy for what the intention was.

34:31 So I have a.

34:34 I don't want to say an overwhelming amount of confidence with him, but I do like him as a buy-low trade candidate that you can either go target for some players off your bench, maybe if there's a desperate fantasy manager that drafted him early and they're losing some games and they need some starters, and you're good, you can wait and pick him up as your RB3.

34:53 Would you flip Jonah Coleman to get AJ?

34:55 Yeah, right now.

34:57 Okay. Scuba... four two or scuba two four three thoughts on me trading away stevenson and egbuka and tate for flowers and scataboo.

35:08 Oh boy okay so i think stevenson i'm gonna put i'm gonna put stevenson ahead of scataboo here.

35:15 Um i don't know i think i'm doing this just so i because i get flowers and that's all i care about.

35:21 And that's where my head was too is like i almost tried to just convince myself is this Ibuka and Tate for flowers because the running backs feel relatively even here, which I think so. I mean, you're getting, you're getting the top 10 wide receiver here, potentially top five wide receiver. Yeah.

35:36 I mean, if, if Lamar comes back and healthy worm and I broke it down, dude, the dude say flowers numbers are already ridiculous. Yeah.

35:45 They're nuts.

35:46 And then we just look at it with just Lamar. It's, it's insane. So if any of this sustains with a healthy Lamar Jackson and, You're going to be glad that you traded whatever to get, say, Flowers on your roster. So I'm cool with this deal.

36:00 And you got some good matchups coming up too, man. And then the actual playoff schedule, pretty solid. You get Cleveland in Week 16, Cincy in Week 17. So if we're looking at a potential shootout between the Bengals and Ravens, two pass-heavy teams that can make it work for them, not that the Ravens have been traditionally pass-heavy, I think we're looking at a good final week in your fantasy championship for, say, Flowers.

36:24 Brandon Rhodes, eight, eight, six, four pits or Laporta. I assume this is for week eight. That's what we're on. I'm still going to go with Laporta. I know it's a tough match against the Vikings, but he played pretty well the last time he faced the Vikings last season. And I mean, besides last week, he had been super, super consistent all year long. So I know the pits has the Buccaneers matchup that he seems to always exploit half of his touchdowns. And you already seem to always come against Tampa Bay. I'm not willing to go down to pits. Do you feel different?

36:52 I've got Pitts just two spots behind Sam Laporta, so I think the difference is negligible. I was just checking my rankings there. I'm willing to go Laporta again. I think that maybe last week was more of just like a one-off fluke coincidence of him just not getting the target volume. So even though I know it's tough matchups for both of these guys, I think I'm willing to go with Laporta again. Jared Goff is just– he has inserted himself into the MVP consideration here where he is in this race. He is in this conversation. I don't think you can bench any of his targets in that case.

37:25 Last question here before we get out of here. Ease in the tension. Tradeaway digs Jordan Mason, Isaiah Likely to get Parker Washington, Kyle Menungai, and Darius Cooper. So really just Parker Washington, Kyle Menungai. I don't really think Darius Cooper has a ton of, he's just kind of like a throw-in piece. So how do you feel about this one?

37:45 I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I mean, I love the idea of getting Parker Washington. For me, that's the best player in the deal. I'm getting a potential top 12 wide receiver here. You've already had the bye week for Parker Washington. I personally just bought Parker Washington this past week and got him on my team as well. I did Matthew Golden and Kenneth Gainwell for Parker Washington and Mike Washington Jr. And I felt like I got slightly better at wide receiver from Golden to Washington and then slightly better at the handcuff running back.

38:16 I like that you're doing your trade meme pose. It makes me very happy.

38:21 I also like this deal.

38:22 Yeah. I think I'm good with this. Yeah. Diggs, Mason, likely for Washington, Menungai. The Cooper thing, I don't know, man. I'd almost rather not get Darius Cooper and just have a free roster spot to go pick someone up off the waiver wire or get a better player in that one. But I still like the Washington side.

38:38 Yeah, essentially just like the roster space type of move. But yeah, no. Ease and tension make the move. I think Diggs is a Good sell high candidate, older receiver. He hasn't topped 55 yards in any game this season. So it's funny. Antonio Williams actually had more receiving yards against the Eagles back in week one over Stephon Diggs.

38:57 And people forget, but Antonio Williams had an 87-yard touchdown in that game against the Indianapolis Colts that Terry McLaurin did not play in, but it was wiped away due to a penalty.

39:08 But... Sad stuff.

39:11 Darn shame. Darn shame. What's not a darn shame? Great segue by me. Thank you again for all watching and hanging out with us. But don't forget about the Thursday night post game tailgate stream after tomorrow's game between the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers. The fantasy dude will tell you about his biggest. takeaways right here on the tailgate YouTube channel so consider subscribing thank you guys all for coming in and hanging out with us hopefully you know you got some good information you had some laughs we talked about basketball we talked about the Colts I learned again that the Colts Jets don't even have their first round pick and how the Colts actually are incentivized to lose games. So again, shout out to Alfredo

39:49 Brown because the Colts are going to try to win all these games. So they're not tanking, but they are going to lose a lot of games from here on out. So that's Alfredo Brown. I'm Andrew Erickson. This is The Tailgate, and we will see you next time.