NFL Week 7 Headlines: Josh Jacobs Returns, Giants Make a Change & Cowboys in Trouble (Ep. 2284)

0:02 Welcome to the tailgate. I'm Andrew Erickson, your host, joined by my friend, colleague, Alfredo Brown, breaking down all of the storylines heading into week seven. Can't believe we're already at week seven. New starting quarterbacks, running back coming off of the commissioner's exempt list. Alfredo, again, not short in terms of storylines for another wild week of football.

0:27 Yeah, man, it's another big week. I mean, we're seeing... New starting quarterbacks coming in, new running backs too, like everything. I try not to look at everything from a fantasy lens when we get into this podcast here, but I mean, it's for some of us that are at a crossroads right now where your team's either good or you're bad.

0:45 Like this week feels very pivotal. Yeah.

0:47 Pivotal week seven. Again, I just can't believe we're already hitting the midpoint of October. It's going to be Halloween before we know it. And then Thanksgiving, Christmas, And then the NFL playoffs are going to be here. So let's enjoy it while we can. So let's not bury the lead anymore. The biggest news of today, recording this on, what day is it? Wednesday. JJ McCarthy was announced as the starting quarterback for the New York Giants. Reading the tea leaves, it seemed very, very likely that this was going to happen sooner rather than later. It was just a matter of when would the Jameis Winston implosion game happen? Well, we got it against the New Orleans Saints. JJ McCarthy comes in, almost fuels the comeback when it looked like

1:28 the Giants were totally left for dead in a really weird game. Giants had the lead. Saints came back. They dominated from basically the second quarter till the end of the or the start of the fourth quarter. And then JJ McCarthy just drops back in total YOLO mode and total like James Winston fashion, just airing the ball out all over the field, almost completes the comeback. I almost feel like if he had actually completed the comeback, he would have been announced a starter immediately after that game where it's like, nah, man, like we won the game.

1:55 We're going to keep rolling with McCarthy. But I think the Giants are making the right decision here. I think that we know what the ceiling would be with James Winston. And now you get to evaluate a young quarterback. Again, not ideal to draw the the old the old Houston Texans defense in your first official start. But at least McCarthy will be part of the game plan. So what what are you looking forward to seeing with this matchup?

2:17 How do you think McCarthy will do? And again, like rest of season, like can McCarthy be better than the Vikings version of JJ McCarthy, which was really up and down? And I mean, Justin Jefferson managers like all to all are too familiar with what this struggle was last season.

2:32 Yeah, man, I'm excited because I do think there's a lot of still just untapped skill with JJ McCarthy that's there. I mean, some of the things he was doing this past week is stuff that he was doing on his Vikings film. The problem was, is that he was also throwing a ton of interceptions at the very worst times, too.

2:48 And it was like in primetime games, fourth quarter. doing too much, trying to be the hero. And like in this instance, that worked. Go be the hero. You had nothing to lose. You were already down by what, three scores? If you lose this game, you were expected to. And so I think that there's just times where these quarterbacks get to play with some unabashed confidence where the decisions that they would normally make that would get them in trouble, turn them into heroes. And they just don't have that little voice in their head that's telling them like, eh, don't make that throw. This time, he just didn't care.

3:18 And I think that he kind of needs to keep doing it. I do think that's something that allows J.J. McCarthy to still be on the same level as some other starting quarterbacks because he's got the arm talent, he's got the natural athletic ability. Now it's just like, get all the mentals right, man. That's the thing, is just play the game in a mature fashion. The Texans are a tough matchup, dude. The only quarterbacks, because I was talking about this with someone else earlier today, the only quarterbacks that have played well against the Texans have been really good quarterbacks. And then when they have played quarterbacks that they are supposed to dominate, they do. So I think this is going to be a very quick and

3:56 very early litmus test where we're either going to know by halftime, JJ McCarthy ain't it, and the Giants might be flipping back. Or if he's keeping them competitive, all of a sudden we're saying, dang, this is a new NFL starter. Yeah.

4:10 Very interested to see what he does, especially when it comes to like the fantasy angle of it. If you have Isaiah likely Malik neighbors, you're kind of waiting with bated breath to see, okay, like what is this going to look like? And you don't want to be too aggressive in moving those guys down because of what could potentially be a disaster, right? Like this could be really, really tough to your point. Again, if McCarthy does not play, up to the snuff of some of these better quarterbacks in this matchup, you're just praying for, OK, hope that they're getting smoked in the second half. And he's just he's just a whale on the ball like he did against the New Orleans Saints. And that's how you get

4:42 your fantasy production. Again, we'll take it. But yeah, I mean, the Texans are really starting to come into form as one of these teams where you look at their two and four record couldn't be farther from the truth of what this team actually is in terms of how their offense is playing with CJ Stroud playing at the best level he's probably played since his rookie year. The offensive line is still kind of a work in progress, but getting Braden Smith back potentially, I think give them another boost.

5:06 And then the defense with D'Amico Ryan taking over as the play caller, that's going to make life tough for JJ McCarthy for sure. But again, playing loose, I think is a really key point that you made where, dude, I got nothing to lose, man. I already got traded from the first team that drafted me that didn't want me.

5:21 You at least have the buy-in to some extent with Harbaugh, again, getting the co-sign, I assume from his brother, Jim, about JJ McCarthy, who Jim obviously coached at Michigan and you know, had nothing but stellar things to say about McCarthy. Again, we saw it last week with the Texans, right? Getting the buy-in from the organization with Marvin Harrison Jr. with the quarterback, that means a lot. So interested to see what McCarthy can do here. Before we get to our next storyline, I want to take a look at the chat, see if we have any questions. People are just saying like, yep, still playing neighbors. I would agree. Again, neighbors has been way too good, looked too healthy this season. to consider

5:57 taking out of your lineup. I think that he has three games over 100 receiving yards. So I think that, yeah, you got to just keep seeing it until you see otherwise. I mean, again, the thing with Jefferson, too, last year with McCarthy, it really was just Jefferson. Like there were some games where guys like Addison popped off with JJ McCarthy.

6:16 JJ McCarthy also had this really weird chemistry with Jalen Naylor. where they would actually connect on a few couple big plays. So that's what you're hoping, that maybe it was just a Jefferson-specific thing, and maybe he can steal us the eye-to-eye with guys like Isaiah Likely and Malik Neighbors.

6:32 Well, and the other thing too, man, is they've actually talked about this, that now with J.J. McCarthy under center, they can go back to some of the stuff they were doing with Jackson Dartworth. They're like, we can run some more of this RPO stuff before our quarterback's actually a rushing threat. It's not just Jameis kind of goofing around back there.

6:47 Yeah, he's going to have to be using his legs because Will Anderson Jr. is going to be pinning his ears to sack J.J. McCarthy constantly in this particular matchup. But we shall see. Let's go to our next storyline here. Sleeper names that could be moved at the trade deadline. So we got a report, Alfredo, from ESPN, Dan Graziano, Mike Garofalo, talking about potential trade players kind of across the board at several different positions. Some of the names that they listed off here, Wyatt Teller, offensive lineman Vita Veya, edge rusher Shamar Stewart, quarterback Rick Woolen, quarterback Alante Taylor, safety Jesse Bates. Any of those names stand out to you as, oh, I could see a contender going after

7:32 this particular player or yes, I definitely could see why this guy is going to be dealt on a team. Again, most of these are players that are playing for teams that we don't necessarily view as contending teams, or maybe just players that it seems like it hasn't really worked out. And you're going to see teams move away from them, try to compensate with some type of draft picks.

7:53 I mean, the two big names to me that stood out were Vitavia and Rick Wollin, because they're such stalwarts in their specific defenses. And I think it all depends on honestly, I think a lot of these teams are going to wait till the very last minute to see if they're actually still contention for this because I think the NFC East is still very much open I know the Giants are at the top of it right now but I mean come on it's still pretty even across the board if we're gonna be realistic here between the Eagles Cowboys Giants commanders like it's still very much open because I was even seeing some of the rumors that the Eagles might talk about trading away Saquon Barkley and like I don't know man does anything in the history

8:32 of Howie Roseman like tell you that he's just one to give up on a season After seven weeks, it almost seems like never.

8:42 No, and it seems like whatever he does ends up looking really, really good in hindsight as well. Even the Cam Juergens deal, right? This guy hasn't even played yet for the Ravens because he has a concussion and the Eagles got a second round draft pick for him when it's like, yeah, we don't know when this guy was ever going to play for us. So we just traded him away for a second round pick.

9:01 Yeah, and the other thing, too, is I guess now the Bucs are worried, like, okay, we've lost a bunch of games here to start, and I guess we might need to get rid of Vitavia, who I know he was having contract issues as well. If Baker comes back this week, and all of a sudden they win a couple games, and we're saying, okay, well, we're back in contention again, because this is also another division that's not totally set in stone yet either. So those are the two names that, to me, it's weird to think of Vitavia not in a Bucs universe.

9:28 Yeah, definitely one of these Buccaneers stalwart players. But what do we see them make this offseason? They lost Levante David. They lost Mike Evans. Two guys that were, you can't see them and picture them without wearing the Buccaneers uniform. And they were both like, I'm out of here. Like, I am gone. And Mike Evans, again, injuries aside, the love and life on his 6-0 49er squad where I mean, the dude is just gutting out every single rep and rep that he's running. But hopefully Mike Evans can get healthy, get the 49ers back. And again, I mean, 49ers, just one of the team. It seems like they're put together with duct tape, but they're making it work, dude. And they continue to win games. Kyle Shanahan, Brock Purdy, the

10:12 pairing that we didn't know that we needed, but now we're so happy that we have. between these two guys just operating at such a high level. I will say one last thing when it comes to these trades. I did think it was kind of interesting and going back to the Giants. The Giants are just a fun team to talk about because they just have a lot of moving parts. You know, we didn't even talk about like Cam Scadaboo thing from last week where he just.

10:32 My favorite thing was someone was like, man, the Giants could maybe even look at adding a running back like Saquon Barkley at the trade deadline.

10:38 Yeah, like, again, that kind of came to mind and the thing that made me think about it was, I mean, number one, how hilarious it would be if They somehow were able to get him back on the Giants from the Eagles. And the Eagles got the actual draft compensation for an aging running back on a contract that you probably don't want in your books in the future. But that being said, the Giants do a lot of weird things.

11:00 John Harbaugh, when he was talking about this backfield, and we've obviously seen the repercussions of some of the comments where Najee Harris is like, yeah, man, like, I'm not a huge fan of the way this is being operated. Well, clearly they're not a huge fan of you because they needed to see you play in a bigger role to figure.

11:15 Out, wow, that interview was wild.

11:16 You got nothing left in the tank and we're going to cut you anyway. So I don't understand why the coaches couldn't. You can't see that in practice, that the guy has no juice. You have to watch him play in the actual game and see him fail to be like, you know what? Najee Harris, man, you're not it. You ain't it, dude.

11:33 And I never know what some of these coaches are doing either. Are you trying to send a message? Because I really feel like you could just sit down and talk to the guy. Coaches will do anything but have therapy. They'll go and just sign players off the street that have been retired and be like, yeah, we're going to start you next game. And then they just do one thing where they question the thought process. They're like, get that guy out of here. And it was actually a relatively innocent comment, too, where the reporters were asking him, like, so what do you think about the four-man rotation? Is that something that you expect going forward? Did you expect to get more touches? And he's just like, you got

12:06 to ask the coaches. I have no answers for you on it. And they just kept asking. He kept saying the same thing. And within hours, he was gone.

12:15 John Harbaugh specifically mentioned that he would love a scenario or situation where he has a Derrick Henry. He has a Saquon Barkley. And it was just, I thought it was interesting that he listed those specific two names because Derek Henry obviously coach for, so that makes a lot of sense. Derek Henry was their workhorse, but Saquon Barkley, like that. I, again, I don't remember a scenario where Harbaugh had this close relationship with Saquon Barkley versus just the fact that he's the new giants head coach.

12:40 So I think they talk about them all the time in that, in that like building, like Saquon Barkley is brought up all the time in that building. So there's gotta be pictures of him everywhere too. It's like, what are these things that he walks? I was like, man, If maybe we had a Saquon Barkley, that'd be sick, you know?

12:57 Oh, John Harbaugh. Yeah, well, we shall see how the, again, the Giants-Texans game is going to be must-view TV this weekend. Maybe not because the game is good, but just to see how this Giants offense operates. What's the backfield going to look like? What's McCarthy going to look like? How are the receivers going to do and step up? But before we get to our next storyline... I want to talk to you guys about our wall smack giveaway. If you want chance to win one of the most unique pieces of NFL gear out there, the large NFL PA 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 NFL PA

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14:03 Jerry Jones looking for an epic prize with the Dallas Cowboys. Quote, I can fix it. The Cowboys always seem to be looking to be buyers at the trade deadline, regardless of whatever their record is, regardless of the narrative around them. The last few times we've seen the Dallas Cowboys, they've been underwhelming, to say the least, in primetime appearances against the two Bay teams, the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, back-to-back Ls for Big D. Is this just more Jerry Jones just kind of like talking about Are the Cowboys actually going to make a move for, again, any of those names that we just mentioned? Is Reek Woolen, I mean, on the Eagles, probably not, but Vida Vea, like, are they going to trade for another defensive tackle?

14:46 I was like, how many can you get at that point too, right? They'd have, what, Kenny Clark, Quinnen Williams? Like, how much money are you going to tie into your D-line? Like, it's interesting because I was listening to the broadcast talking about how the Cowboys have gone through so many defensive coordinators that basically the defense just hasn't been good for years.

15:05 And then Collinsworth is like, well, maybe it's not the coaches. Maybe it's the players. And it's just like, well, you've got so many of them and you keep drafting new ones and signing other players who have been stars everywhere. Maybe it's just an organizational thing, too, at that point as well. Like, how is it being run from top to bottom? I listen, man, I don't think there's any one singular player that's going to fix the Dallas Cowboys defense right now. What they actually do need to fix, because what cures everything is actually just scoring points. Their offense is not doing what they did last year. They have done like an Uno reverse card on all the things that worked for them in offense last year. They're

15:40 running less. They're using motion less. They're using under center snaps less, play action less. They're doing everything less. It's almost as if the team got so lazy that they're like, well, we've got all these stars. We don't have to be creative anymore. Let's just have our guys beat your guys. And it's not working for them. And Dak Prescott looks a lot less efficient this year because things are not being made as easy for him. So like I go back to the Jerry Jones, I can fix it thing. Dog, you look what's in front of you. There's got to be someone. And this is like this also like the hot button word or thing to say here. The trigger phrase is analytics. There's got to be some like analytics

16:19 kid somewhere. I say kid is probably, you know, 30. Uh, that works for the Dallas Cowboys front office that can go to Jerry Jones and be like, Hey, our offense was really good at these things last year. And this is why we're not scoring as many points in winning games. Like there's no one in the whole building doing this.

16:34 It's just Jerry being like, ah, let's get ourselves another D tackle. Let him do it. It's not, it's not, doesn't help man.

16:40 It really doesn't because that's the thing with Dallas, right? It's never more a, no one ever looks at the Ross and be like, dude, there's have no talent here. They just can't make it work.

16:48 Like on paper, they might be a top five team in the league.

16:52 That's why it's like the Grand Theft Auto meme where it's like, dude, I look at the Cowboys entering the offseason. I'm like, dude, this roster is so good. Like, how can this not be a Super Bowl contender? And then they just do the same thing where it's like they underwhelm, they lose games that they're supposed to win when they're heavy favorites at home. I mean, they lost to the Buccaneers starting a undrafted rookie free agent in his first road start. And you lose that game as eight and a half point favorites. Right. So for me, even watching that Packers game, thinking like, OK, they're hold the Packers to around like whatever it was like 20 or 24 points.

17:27 And you're thinking like that's a game they should win. Like, oh, they held the Packers in like in the 20s. Okay, Dallas can win this type of game. And then obviously that ended up not being the case because their offense couldn't even get out of their own way. So defensive issues, offensive issues. Yeah, Jerry Jones can make whatever moves he, you know, is talking about here. But I agree with you where I don't think it's really like the personnel that's going to, again, Joey Porter Jr., right? Like you're like, you've already bringing all these guys in. It's like, what more can you do besides, hey, we got to like look ourselves in the mirror and be like, schematically speaking, find our analytics kid and be like, what do we

18:01 need to do to fix things here? Do we just blitz more? Like, like, like that doesn't see a lot of teams do and give credit to, for example, like the giants where you lose Brian Burns when your main pass rushers. So you say, okay, let's just start down on the blitz a lot more.

18:14 Yes.

18:14 That leaves us a little bit more vulnerable to give up big plays, but we got to generate pass rush in some way, safer form to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. So I think that it's good when teams just on the fly when they have injuries, but yeah. Jerry Jones, I don't know if you can really fix it here. Yeah, do not think so. Let's get to our next topic here.

18:39 Breaking news when it comes to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here's recording on Wednesday. Baker Mayfield practiced in full per the reports that we got from Buccaneers practice. He's wearing a white glove on his injured hand, but suggesting that, hey, He should be playing this week on the road against the Carolina Panthers. It's also a revenge game for Baker Mayfield. However, there's a chance that he will be out his wide receiver one in Mecca Ibuka, who is dealing with the rare concussed foot, which is what the injury report says.

19:11 Concussion slash foot.

19:12 Concussion and a foot, yeah.

19:14 I'm like, man, like, dude, these concussed feet, man. Like, my foot will not wake up. It's like when your foot, it's just like his foot fell asleep. And it's just like that for like days, days on end. Miserable.

19:24 That'd be better, maybe, I think. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. Dude, like, OK. This is it's the most bucks thing this year, like with their luck, how this would happen. It's a baker's back. Book is gone. Come on, man. Like, let us let us get a break. Let us get one break here, please. I mean, if Ibuka's out, which seems very likely because of the way that the rest of the week has to go, like he has to complete, I believe it's two more practices right before he can be cleared again. And typically players that get into the concussion protocol, especially by Wednesday, you're saying they're likely not going to be playing this week.

20:04 So there's a good shot he doesn't play this week. And... That would mean we're probably going to be doing a lot of Ted Hurst and Chris Godwin this week, which I'm all aboard the Ted Hurst train, man. I've been waiting for him to get more and more opportunities. He's looked good when he's had it. Chris Godwin, it's going to be six yards and a fall down. So, I mean, if Baker's going to have himself a good return to form, I think it's probably going to have to be through Hurst.

20:29 Yeah, I would agree. Hurst has definitely stood out to me watching these Buccaneers game. Big body receiver. They like to use him a lot in the red zone. So, It will not necessarily be the entire Chris Godwin show, even if Godwin sees the most targets, because to your point, he has not been efficient whatsoever. I mean, the whole Buccaneers passing game has not been efficient. And Egbuka had 16 targets last week and didn't even crack 50 receiving yards, which is never ideal, but obviously getting Baker. Question marks, though, about how effective Baker will be, because let's not forget, before he got injured, he was bad. The Buccaneers were one of the worst offenses overall. So don't kind of like twist the history of what we've seen from this

21:09 Buccaneers offense so far this season under Zach Robinson, it had not been good. And it's always weird when these quarterbacks come off of these hand finger injuries. I know that Burrow had that wrist injury and he was like, yeah, man, like I don't really know how to come back from this. Like it's a really weird injury. So the fact that Baker Mayfield had to like get his strength back in his grip, I think is kind of interesting. And the fact that he's gonna be playing with a glove, which he traditionally doesn't do is also something that you have to kind of consider when you're looking at this specific matchup against a team that I would look at the Carolina Panthers red hot team right like they are feeling

21:43 really good Bryce Young is playing some of his best ball so it's weird to look at like a Panthers Bucks game and be like I mean Carolina could continue to still kind of roll here but even against a Baker Mayfield Bucks team like they are not out of the water yet.

21:57 Yeah you'd think that especially Carolina with how banged up their secondary is like this would be a good opportunity for Baker to come back, but now he's missing his top receiver and he's not going to be at full health like that. That game makes me very worried. So I don't know that I'm starting with anyone. Maybe I'm still Bucky Irving, right? But I think you're, if you're desperate, you're going after Ted Hurst, but I don't really love anyone from the Bucks offense in this game. If a book is going to be out.

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23:08 before we get to our final storylines. We did have a question about the Giants quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. Would you start J.J. McCarthy over Aaron Rodgers? I would not. I don't know where McCarthy is going to be in my rankings, but he might be last just because it is the Houston Texans. I know they grew up as explosive plays, but it does not give me any warm, fuzzy feeling to look at McCarthy as a starting quarterback. This may be over Cam Ward just because I can't, but I'm not starting him over Rodgers.

23:39 I mean, there's a few guys that I'd start McCarthy over just simply because there's going to be a little bit of rushing upside, we'll assume, because it worked for him in his week one. Rodgers has just actually been kind of solid, and he's passing way more than I thought he would. This has not been an offense that has, even though they've been running well, they haven't been overly reliant on the run. It's still a Mike McCarthy offense it's going to throw. Yeah, I'm good with Rodgers over McCarthy.

24:03 Yeah, Rodgers is taken out of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Tom Brady position. pass right over expectations. Be like, I want to do what Tom did in Tampa Bay, where he just threw the ball every single time. I am curious if they keep this up though, because Rogers has been sacked a lot this year. And that's obviously a repercussion of dropping back to throw a ton. So I do wonder if they start to dial back the passing at some point as these hits kind of pile up on Aaron Rogers. But yeah, for right now against the saints in Paris should be a fun game. I think that you're still rolling with Aaron Rogers. Would you trade away Jalen Warren and likely to get James Cook?

24:42 I mean, I think I would need more context on the roster here, but in a vacuum, I think so. I think having James Cook wins you your league. I know that having Isaiah likely is obviously it's such a differentiator at the tight end spot, but. Top five running backs just don't grow on trees, man. Like, it's just not there. Where I feel like you can stream tight end.

25:04 Jalen Warren, that's one I want to get off now. Like, that's a hot potato. Just get it on someone else's team. So I'm okay with this one, yeah.

25:11 Yeah, Jalen Warren likely are going to be both on at bye week next week as well. James Cook is obviously on his bye week this week.

25:18 So.

25:18 Again, this is an interesting time to strike on James Cook as both a trade away and trade for target, depending on when you need your wins. If you feel good right now and you can, hey, I can eat an L this week potentially. So I will acquire James Cook for a manager that needs a win this week. I think that this is a good deal, assuming that you have your tight end kind of figured out, which again, considering where you got likely, there's a chance that you have another tight end on your roster that you feel good about. So I'm cool with upgrading in this capacity.

25:43 And then you always have the risk that with McCarthy, maybe this Giants offense crumbles. and it's just really bad and likely doesn't. I mean, I mean, right now, like he likely has been so, so good, right? It feels like it actually can only really go down, but obviously at tight end, it's all relative because, oh, he was 80% of what he's been this season. You're still probably going to feel pretty good about that.

26:05 Well, and I'm curious to see how this continues with JJ McCarthy, because we don't know his tendencies and everything in this Giants offense says that Isaiah likely should be the number two target at the very worst. But We also don't know what that could mean with J.J. McCarthy. If they go back to running more, is that going to drop the pass volume here? And being the number two target on a run-heavy team, what does that turn into?

26:28 I still think Isaiah likely the top five tight end the rest of the season here, but there's just the littlest bit of uncertainty that's coming into play now with that Giants offense. That could be good, could be bad.

26:38 Yeah, McCarthy, famously. targeted a lot of his tight ends at Michigan. So if that's something that they decide to run back, obviously it didn't work out with Hawkinson that much in Minnesota, but McCarthy also dealt with a ton of injuries. So let's see what else we have here from the chat. Someone said, I'm still playing neighbors. Totally understand that. BC16300 just traded Vidal and Omar Cooper for DJ Moore. How would you grade that trade, Alfredo?

27:05 So Vidal and Cooper?

27:08 So two waiver wire, guys. Or DJ Moore, who's injured, but should be back after the bye week.

27:14 That's an A. That's an A for me. I'm sorry, Adonai Mitchell's coming back for the Jets now, so we don't know how valuable Omar Cooper's really going to be, and Honestly, there's like five targets on an offense that's run by Geno Smith. Like, how great could it possibly be? You never know when to start him.

27:29 When it comes to mistiming of hand injuries, did Adonai Mitchell just like have the worst possible? I remember we were previewing him before the Jets took on the Lions and it was like, dude, Mitchell's going to go off. And then you see his busted finger and then we haven't seen it for a month.

27:44 It's crazy. And then they said that they weren't going to put him on IR and like, all right, well.

27:49 Should have just put him on IR. Cause I think, yeah, he's missed. I think he's missed four games.

27:54 It's four games.

27:54 Yeah. So yeah, Jets, Jets going to Jet. Would you trade Saquon and Matthew Golden for Bucky Irving?

28:03 Saquon and Golden for Bucky? No, no, no, no. Like I said to me, I love, I think I love Bucky still. And I think he was a great draft pick this year. I think Matthew Golden is more valuable than Bucky Irving at this point alone. So would I do Saquon and a sweetener for Bucky? Sure. But I'm not trading away Golden.

28:24 I think I'm okay with this. I think I'm cool with removing myself from Saquon. And because again, I don't know. Really hard to project what he's going to do rest of the season, whether he's on the Eagles or he gets traded. Maybe this is me wearing egg on my face. Matthew Golden, I think is also really valuable. I would say this deal I would make if it's a scenario where I am really dying at running back. Whereas Matthew Golden, where you drafted him, it's, I mean, he was probably your wide receiver five, wide receiver six.

28:54 But he's what? He's a top 12 wide receiver right now in fantasy points?

28:57 Top 12 wide receiver. But in the back of my mind, I still get worried about, does Matt LaFleur ruin everyone in terms of, well, Josh Jacobs is back, so we're going to go back to our run first offense and be really boring and really lame. It just scares me.

29:12 I'm not as worried about that. Okay.

29:14 I mean, I wish I wasn't, but he literally talked about this week. He's like, you can't be too reliant on the pass game. I'm like, why are you saying that? Yes, you can.

29:21 Well, I mean, it's different though, right? They've had no running games. There's a big difference from being probably the worst rushing attack in the league. By far. We got to get some running game here, which is totally understandable. But Genie's out of the bottle at this point. Christian Watson and Matthew Golden have been so valuable to the... team.

29:40 Tucker craft hasn't been exactly what they wanted. And Jordan love is looking better now. It's just about getting him consistent here, but I'm, we'll talk more about Josh Jacobs. I don't want to, I don't want to bury the lead there, but I know we'll talk about him more throughout the show. Okay.

29:54 JJ over Rogers. We talked about that already. Uh, Drop Kincaid for Terrence Ferguson. Thank you, kind sirs. I would keep Kincaid because the latest we got with Ferguson is that he's actually not coming back even after the four weeks. So you got to keep Kincaid.

30:10 Yeah.

30:11 Should I start Noel over Jamison Williams? I personally would not. You got to play Jamo in the dome at home.

30:19 Yeah, no, it's just Jamo. Pretty, pretty easy there. Noel had himself a nice long catch, but outside of that, it was a pretty pedestrian game. And we're just going to see more and more Marvin Harrison Jr.

30:30 Shout out to MetalJames8 in the chat. He was the one that was talking to us about Agbuka and about the rare foot concussion that he's dealing with. So shout out to MetalJames for watching both the live stream for the trades with myself and Welsh and coming in, hopping on the tailgate. So we appreciate that as well. I think that's it for all the questions. Again, one more here.

30:49 Rogers or Patrick Mahomes? Mahomes obviously taking on the Seahawks. So He's going to be a little bit lower in the ranking. You're going to go Rodgers?

30:56 Rodgers, man. Go back and look at these recent games with Mahomes. He started off so hot, and then after that, he's been good for real football. He's been keeping his team in games, and he's been playing well. For fantasy, it is not there. It's not all on him. It's just he doesn't have his weapons anymore. The Chiefs are really committing to running the football, and Mahomes has not been fantasy viable over the last few weeks here.

31:24 It's also a Ken Walker revenge game. So if anybody's hitting pay dirt, fire him up. It's Ken Walker.

31:32 Running back one overall this week, easily six touchdowns. Let's go.

31:35 I don't know how many, I don't know how many touchdowns Ken Walker has scored at Lumen field, but I'd be really curious to look it up and be like, could he score more in this game versus his entire career? Because this feels like he never scored that many touchdowns because they were always giving the ball to Zach Charbonnet in the red zone. So that's just, Again, I'm sure he scored plenty of touchdowns at home for the Seahawks, but I feel like he's a lock for double digit touchdowns, even in a tough match against Seattle. I don't think it actually matters. It's he's just playing on another level right now. And I mean, that's the team that he was Super Bowl MVP for. We're seeing how they struggle

32:10 running the ball, dude. Like if I'm Ken Walker, man, I I had this game circle to start the year and how well he's been playing. Dude, that is going to be a special.

32:18 Andy Reid's totally going to feed him. Andy Reid's totally going to feed him. Just to prove a point too.

32:24 Dude, I like it when coaches reward their best players, right? Just, yeah, man, you are balling out. You deserve to score the touchdowns. I know that with Gibbs in Detroit, they're talking about he's circling the LT record for touchdowns in a season. He wants to break that record. And that's a goal that the team can get behind. And it's like, why is Jared Goff being so bad for fantasy? It's like, because they always give the ball to Gibbs in the red zone. Like that is literally why he doesn't throw more touchdowns because they're like, well, we got to get Gibbs 30 touchdowns this year or so. We got to take them when we get the opportunities to do so.

32:54 So in that game, I didn't know if I got this take from you, Alfredo, but someone asked about Jacobs. What do you think his workload is going to be like in this particular game? Do you think it's just like full stop, 20 carries? Or is it 10, 15? What would you put? You had to put the under over on his carries in this game. What would you put that?

33:13 Well, let's put the over under a 12 and a half.

33:15 12 and a half.

33:17 Yeah, like I don't think we're going to get a full workload, Josh Jacobs, but I do think the They just want to get him some reps, right? And I think it'll probably be slow going at first. And eventually as the field gets spread out, he'll start to get a few chunk plays here and there. Maybe even a short touchdown just because they want to, you know, get him back into the swing of things. But this is also going to be a game that's probably very pass script heavy. And because of that, I can see them continuing to use Pierre Strong, who was like relevant last week and had 55% snap share and caught five passes on six targets. And Josh Jacobs not known for being...

33:52 the pass catching guy, at least not in the NFL, which is weird because in Alabama he was a pass catcher. And I think that's something where we're going to see, okay, let's bring him along slowly. Then this is pure speculation, right? Pure speculation. I don't know. We're not in the meeting rooms there, but this is a guy that also has not been at practice since June 2nd until today. Today is his first practice being back, like back in pads and doing everything. So it's going to take a little time to get him back into play.

34:22 But on the reverse side, you could argue that he's never been more fresh. Like this guy is so locked and loaded. So that's why it's going to be fun to kind of see how it all shakes out. Because I can see both sides of the argument where it's like, dude, he's not in football shape, but it's like, dude, but he is not dealing with any nagging injuries, which was like a big thing with him last year in the second half of the season where this guy was like, dude, my knee is so banged up, but I'm going out there.

34:44 He was playing when he probably shouldn't have been playing at all and hurting fantasy managers in that capacity because that's really the worst case scenario is when guys play but they're really hurt and they struggle as a result. So at least, you know, he's healthy. We'll shall see how much in football shape, but a lot of what could be dictated by game script too. It's if the Packers are down in this game, well, you can't establish the run Michael floor or excuse me, Matt LaFleur. I'm sorry.

35:08 As much as you want to everyone, you can't do it. You got to throw the ball here with Jordan love. And I mean, that'll just make everybody happy, right? Just, I mean, again, I don't want to be the bad guy here and be like, they're going to run the ball more. I'm just trying to be somewhat realistic with, how this coach and team has operated in the past.

35:24 And when they get Josh Jacobs, dude, it's like tunnel vision. It's like, no, we must feature and feed our aging running back. Oh God. But it pains me. Pains me. I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. But what I do want to see though, is the post-game tailgate stream. After my Patriots take on the Chicago Bears, after tomorrow's game, the fantasy dude will be telling you all about his biggest takeaways. right here on the Tailgate YouTube channel. Any predictions for that game?

35:56 Alfredo Brown on my path going to the road with the upset to beat the Caleb Williams Chicago Bears.

36:02 What's happening? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I think that it's going to be tough for New England, actually. I'm not going to lie. I think it's going to be a tough one because I don't think you know what Chicago Bears team to actually prep for. We saw very different. We saw Caleb Goff. Last week, who I think this hamstring injury is the best thing that could have ever happened to him because he's not running around like like tall Kyler, you know, and just like being frantic all the time. He was actually sitting behind his blocks waiting for things to develop. And like, that's just not a common thing that we have seen on Caleb Williams film over the years. So now you got a Patriots defense that's coming in and saying, oh. OK, so even if

36:41 we get pressure on him, he's just like he's just not running because of this hamstring. He's getting the ball out quick. And that was something they did this past week was they got the ball out really fast and they let their their weapons work. So is this a Ben Johnson rug pull? Last week you saw us throw a bunch of short stuff and Caleb wasn't running. And this week, all of a sudden, we're back to the old bears. We're going deep. Caleb's running around. We're just going to, you know, give you a little trickeration here.

37:07 I don't know that. I think that's going to make it tough.

37:10 I would agree that this is a tough spot for New England. On a short week, going on the road, never a great spot. Offensive line really banged up. I know that at least two starters are not going to play. Maybe a third starter is going to potentially be out. And this offensive line had already been compromised with injuries earlier in the season. I think about that Jaguars matchup.

37:30 The Jaguars were a really tough matchup for the Patriots because they had so much depth on the offense where having Christian Gonzalez to neutralize one piece doesn't actually move the needle. So if they take away Roman Dunzay, I don't know if that's going to actually help them win the game because Roman Dunzay really hasn't been a consistent factor in this offense. Obviously he can make plays, but if it's burdened Colston Loveland, especially with this run game too, that the bears can run on anybody. So although Barrymore Milton Williams are really good upfront, it's still going to be a big challenge for the path. So I actually kind of like the bears here as well, even as a Patriots fan. So it pains me, but I know

38:05 my team pretty well. And I know when they match up good against certain defenses and offenses. This is not one where I feel good about them on the road. So we shall see as it all pans out. We do have one more question I want to get to because someone just joined in. They gave us a follow. So we want to answer their question here. So the Fantasy Minion, shout out to you for the follow on the tailgate. Sal, can you throw their question up real quick before we get out of here? I'm one in five this year. Would Amon Ra be a good trade to get Tyson out? Denzel Boston in a 2027 late first, or should I hold Amon Ra? This is a dynasty question.

38:39 Seems pretty simple to me that this is a pretty strong return for someone like St.

38:43 Brown.

38:43 You're getting, I think the equivalent to at least two first round picks with Tyson and the late 2027 first plus Boston, who has played like a rookie first round pick. Do you have any other thoughts, Alfredo, for this rebuilding team?

38:59 I'd man, man, So this one's tough because the whole thing with Boston is yes, he's flashed, but he's flashed at times. And that, that whole receiver room, the pass catchers, it's a little bit of a merry-go-round of who's going to be the guy that week. And Deshaun Watson, you don't know what the future is there. Jordan Tyson dealt with hamstring injuries in college. He's dealing with one now.

39:18 We don't know if he's going to play this year or this week or, or whatever it is. And I love the Tyson, the talent of Jordan Tyson and the 2027 late first. Like, I don't know. I, this. I know it sounds crazy because it's essentially like getting three firsts for a Monroe St. Brown. And I'm still saying, no, I'd rather have a Monroe St. Brown. And I know that's weird, especially for a rebuilding team, but there's a big difference between like rebuilding and then just tearing it all the way down to the studs where you don't have anyone good on your team. If you're going to do it, I'd almost rather just get a whole mess of picks and maybe some different players do it for me instead of those specific players. I think that's what

39:56 it is for me.

39:57 All right. There you have it. I'm Andrew Erickson. He's Alfredo Brown. This is The Tailgate. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll see you guys next week.