Week 3 Fantasy Football Reactions & Injuries + Early Week 4 Waiver Wire (Ep. 2224)

0:00 What is going on, everybody? I'm your host, Scott Bogman. Welcome to the Fantasy Pros Sunday Recap Show. I'm joined, of course, by Tara Roberts and Deepak Chona. And today we are going to go over all the action that happened in the NFL. And there were a lot of injuries to kick us off here. I mean, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, we have... two graphics. It wasn't, it wasn't enough for just one today. We have, uh, this one that has a chant dart, breeze hall, Garrett Wilson, Mike Evans. This was when it was kind of, you know, okay. And then Callie put together this one for us, which I kind of like better. The week three blood bath for some reason, uh, HN is still in a Jaguars Jersey, but other than that, everybody is banged up here, of course. But, uh, Yeah,

0:56 lots of injuries, but we're going to talk injuries first, then we're going to go over the storylines, talk about who we're panicking about, and get your questions at the end. We're trying to get it all in before Sunday Night Football. So, Tara, how was this Sunday for you today?

1:10 This Sunday was a fun betting Sunday. It was a frustrating DFS because I conceptually had, I knew it was a Gino day. I know how you feel about Geno, but I'm pro-Geno. The Geno, the double stack with Garrett Wilson and Kenyon Sadiq, it was beautiful.

1:25 Beautiful. Beautiful.

1:26 But the RB2 just didn't come through. So, yeah. Other than that, though.

1:31 Deepak, the Texans are 0-3, man. They got to get it together. Are you doing okay?

1:38 I'm doing okay. We should get Nico back soon. We are still, I think, a good defense, but We're losing a little mojo, so it would be nice to have him back.

1:50 Oh, man.

1:51 Yeah. Well, let's get to these injuries here. And let's start out with the ones on the graphic. We'll get to all of them here. But Devin Achan, first epoch with the knee. Halfway didn't sound very positive after the game. What are your thoughts on Achan?

2:09 Yeah, the concern here is, especially in the setting of those comments, the ACL meniscus at risk. The real issue here is that the knee seemed to turn inwards pretty sharply as he was going down. The foot wasn't really planted. And usually that saves players from tearing the ACL. But it sounds from the way they're talking that that's kind of what we should be looking out for. High risk of something incoming here once the MRI confirms. But usually they're pretty good on the exam.

2:39 Oh, man.

2:41 Tara, where do we go? Is it even worth picking up Ollie Gordon or Jalen Wright right now? I know Ollie just had cramps. He went back in. So not the major there. Jalen Wright missed this game. What are your thoughts on the Dolphins backfield right now?

2:56 Yeah, that's the problem is that theoretically it should be Ollie Gordon because he's the healthy one. But Jalen Wright is the RB2 in the depth chart. But we don't know. He's a backup, right? We don't know if this was a, hey, we don't need you for this game. If we were a serious team and you were a starter, you could gut it out. We don't know how serious this injury is for him. So you kind of have to hedge your bets there because both of them will probably be used.

3:20 And while the sample size last year of when HM was down was like super, super slim. it was Jalen Wright that was the direct handcuff. So just keep that in mind. Put your bids on the healthy one, but also keep Jalen Wright on the radar. Try to push it up as much as you can to where you're adding waivers on Wednesday.

3:37 All right, let's go back to the graphic here. Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson. Brees Hall left with a thigh. Garrett Wilson with a head injury. Deepak, your thoughts on these Jets injuries?

3:49 Yeah, starting with Garrett Wilson, they checked him out for a concussion. Glenn said it was... Basically, he would be fine and he was cleared from that. So it sounds like he doesn't have to go into concussion protocol and has a good chance of coming back next week. With regard to Brees Hall, he pulled up saying he felt something in his thigh and that usually points to kind of the quad area where he was holding on the front of it. The average quad strain is about a two-week injury. We don't know the severity. We don't have an indication that he was dealing with anything of this nature going into the week. So those are all positive signs.

4:22 but usually an MRI tomorrow. And then again, average is going to be two weeks for the kind of lower grade severity, which is what we're hoping to hear on this one.

4:31 Good news for your boy, Gino, because Adonai Mitchell already has a finger issue, Tara. So what do we think? Is Braylon Allen probably going to be our number one waiver wire at this point?

4:42 Yeah, must add. There's a clear separation between him and Isaiah Davis. So go ahead and make that claim. And we have at least seen their It's some mild standalone value. Not a great matchup this week, but still one where we should see because we've got Caleb. They're playing Chicago. We've got Caleb Williams dealing with the injury. We don't know if he'll be back. So even though it's not the best matchup on the ground, definitely better through the air.

5:04 We'll still get plenty of burn for Braylon Allen. He takes checkdowns as well. So definitely worth an ad, probably top waiver wire ad this week. All right.

5:11 What about Mike Evans here? Mike Evans left with a rib injury, Deepak. uh, looked like he was in a lot of pain for a guy that doesn't show a lot of pain. How bad do, how bad did it look to you? And, uh, what, what do you think our timetable is initially here?

5:26 Yeah. So, you know, the good thing about even rib fractures is that these can sometimes be played through and, uh, without missing games, most players do miss at least one game, but we just saw lad McConkie come back without missing any time. And he turned out to have a fractured rib So something similar is what I would expect, either contusion or a break of the rib for Evans. Now, the question becomes effectiveness if players come back that early.

5:53 And typically you're doing so with kind of a big padded vest, a numbing injection, and with a significant drop in both snaps and targets for two to three weeks after return. So I wouldn't expect prime Evans next week, but there is a chance he plays.

6:12 Jordan Watkins is like the last healthy guy left, him and Debo there. So I guess we just pivot their way, right, Tara?

6:21 Yeah, Debo's very high rostered, so he's probably not available on waivers in most leagues. I mean, you could turn to Watkins, but really I feel like this is going to be a situation where we see a massive increased involvement of Christian McCaffrey.

6:36 At least Kalen Black is involved this year.

6:38 Exactly. So maybe that'll help alleviate some workload.

6:39 They didn't do anything with Bryan Robinson last year. So glad to see Kalen Black in there. Justin Jefferson, not on the graphic because it happened later, Deepak, left with an ankle injury. How bad did this look? Please give us good news.

6:53 Yeah, well, unfortunately, I don't have great news on this one. The ankle twisted outwards, and that's kind of the classic high ankle mechanism. The concern here, he was ruled out, and then the concern becomes what severity is it? Even the low-grade severity on these average about two to three weeks.

7:09 with some degree of a production hit when players come back, higher grade often ends up on the IR with an average of in that kind of four to five week range. So if he ends up in that higher grade category, his production, most players would see a production hit, especially at wide receiver for about four to six weeks once they even come back. So you're really hoping he lands in that medium or mild category. And the way you know that is basically whether they put him on the IR this week.

7:38 Okay. Well, Who do we pivot to here? I mean, obviously, Addison is a great ad, but probably highly rostered. Juwan Jennings, maybe? Do we think Hawkinson takes a little bit more? What are we thinking, Tara?

7:50 I was hoping to see an uptick for Hawkinson with Kyler Murray back because we did see some usage of the tight end heavily in terms of targets in Arizona. But I do think it's going to be Juwan Jennings. We didn't see him get a high uptick in volume, but maybe that's something that they have to work into the game plan. It was just default rhythm with Jordan Addison.

8:09 So if I have to make a pivot, if this is a long-term thing, we know at least that Juwan Jennings can give us high upside plays. So yeah, Juwan Jennings is the one that I would lean towards.

8:20 I'm going to try to clump a couple of these together here, Deepak. Let's do it. Jackson Dart with a knee injury, obviously. What is his long-term outlook? Then we had Baker Mayfield with a thumb injury, a couple of quarterbacks here. Yeah.

8:32 So starting with Dart, I think his long-term outlook is relatively good. in that it takes about six months for full clearance. And with that, you wouldn't typically see any major production impact when players do come back from this, especially given that he has almost a year to recover fully before next season. The long-term also is that because they're repairing the meniscus, that shock absorber tissue remains intact.

8:57 And therefore, you would expect a pretty low rate of having like the degenerative knee type situation that sometimes evolves from trimming it. With regard to Baker Mayfield, now this looked like his thumb bent pretty far. The question is, did he break or fracture something in there? And they'll get that x-ray shortly here, I think. And we'll probably find out right after the game as to at least that answer. Now, the thumb injury on the throwing side, it's going to swell. It's going to be hard for him to play through that, even as tough as he is.

9:31 My minimum suspicion on this is a couple of weeks. But it really depends what was the internal damage. X-rays and MRI almost certainly pending.

9:40 If it is a long-term injury, Tara, for Baker Mayfield, would you rather have Winston or give a shot with Jalen Daniels in Tampa Bay?

9:50 I would rather have Winston. I mean, we've already seen. I think there might be some potentially offensive coordinator issues that are going on there in Tampa Bay because the past game just has looked mediocre. in general. So like, am I saying high positive things about the offensive coordinator situation in New York? Nah, but I trust Jameis a lot more and I can make any excuse for why Jameis had a bad week last week coming in hot, um, just our cold off the bench, um, against the LA Rams of all teams, and then this week, the weather.

10:18 So yeah, roll with what we know in Jameis.

10:21 Yeah, Jalen Daniels has upside, a lot of rushing upside, but he's got to prove it. He's shown us nothing. How about Travis Achen with the hamstring injury, Deepak Jalen Coker with the quad. We saw Mark Andrews leave with a hand injury, and Tajay Spears with an ankle injury as well. Yeah.

10:39 So the most concerning to me on that list is Travis HN. He was dealing with a hamstring going into the week. He was limited all week in practice. Part of me wonders is maybe a hamstring that we didn't hear about. The reason his usage has been limited weeks one and two as well, maybe. Now, with that being said, when you re-aggravate a hamstring as he did, you're looking at usually minimum two weeks out. So I would be surprised if it's not at least that long. When players come back, the concern is really re-injury risk for even the first four to six weeks back. And this is, again, in best case scenario, the higher level of hamstring, grade two, probably not a grade three based on his reaction, but

11:18 even if it's a grade two injury, you're usually looking at about four weeks for a running back. And then with regard to Jalen Coker, they are listing him with a quad. He self-reports that it's very mild. He's not that worried about it. If that's the case, then he would have kind of a one to two week expectation possibility of coming back even this week. Just depends on, you know, it's hard to say, can we really trust the player's assessment on the day of the game with adrenaline still kind of going. With regard to TyJ Spears, now, I couldn't see the ankle injury on video, but, you know, the question becomes, is it low ankle, which is often played through, or is it a high ankle, which would usually cause the absence? So we may get some clarification

12:02 on that. shortly here. But, uh, at this point I would say that's kind of the best distinction I'm waiting to find out. Um, and then with regard to the hand injury with any receiving player, basically a lot of them are played through and, uh, you'd be kind of surprised, but they tend to have production impacts as you can imagine, just not being able to grip at full strength. So, so that's going to be the concern with Mark Andrews, whether or not he misses time is, is, will he be, will he be usable in any sort of lineup?

12:32 Hmm. Uh, Tara, where, where are we pivoting with these guys with HN? I mean, it seems like a mess behind him.

12:41 Yeah.

12:41 Um, you know, Bryce Young looked like he turned into a pumpkin against Cleveland this week for Coker. Um, I, Hibner had a touchdown for, uh, Baltimore and I mean, the Titans have no offense. So what are our pivots here?

12:58 So there, yeah, no Titans pivot because we'll, both of the work will be Tony Pollard. Um, And no real pivot. We did see, you know, Mechie step up. But again, you know, that would be like a really deep situation. I am interested in Kendra Miller, though, because we have continued to see Alvin Kamara look very mediocre. And I think at this point, I mean, we've got just stacks and stacks of evidence at this point that he is just.

13:21 a shell of himself, unfortunately. So I would anticipate that knowing that we, the split we've been seeing is that Kellen Moore does like to run a committee outside of Philadelphia. He has run a committee consistently over time in LA and Dallas. So we should see Alvin Kamara and Kendra Miller with Kendra Miller getting the preference on the ground and goal line preference. So yeah, I would tilt towards Kendra Miller if you're dealing with some, some deep issues at RB2.

13:49 Yeah. I mean, people are dealing with a lot of injury issues after this week. All right, Deepak, last, just real quick, any updates for Jane Daniels, Caleb Williams, Puka, Nico, Jaden Reed, Jonah Coleman, anybody else?

14:05 Yeah, so Caleb Williams, they announced today grade two hamstring. That makes so much more sense with him kind of being stopped in his track, severe pain, all of that. They called it a three to four week injury. The average is closer to four to five. So I would lean towards that four week being the target here. They didn't put him on IR. And my suspicion is they aim for returning within that four weeks on that fourth game, I guess. The question is re-injury is as high as 20% in some of these cases. And quarterbacks, passing production tends to not be drastically affected. Rushing tends to drop off pretty significantly. So that's the big concern with Caleb Williams, especially with his speed. With regard to Jaden Daniels, typically

14:50 surgery would be recommended. The question is, you know, it sounds like they're going to basically push forward and bring him back. Most likely three weeks would be the realistic target since that's about what he did last year. With that being said, the elbow did get re-aggravated last year as well. And we would think that a fall onto the elbow or a big hit would lead to a potential re-aggravation here. So the re-injury concern remains somewhat high.

15:15 My suspicion is he's probably thinking off-season surgery is in the books. But again, it's his opposite hand, non-throwing hand. So as a result of that, I don't expect any real major performance impact when he's out there. With regard to Nico Collins, he's missed basically a week and a half to this point. Two to three weeks is kind of the average for a grade one hamstring. And especially a player who's had a pretty significant hamstring history, you wouldn't expect them to rush him back. If he practices in any capacity Wednesday of this week, which will be exactly two weeks since the injury, then I would pretty strongly say he's likely to play this coming. I don't think they're going to rush him. So if he doesn't

15:57 get out there by Thursday, probably you're missing him this week. The concern is not so much performance impact, but again, somewhat of a re-injury risk, usually about 15% with these grade ones. And then the next guy up to Puka Nakua. So he has what is sounding more and more like a core muscle injury. The question is, you know, these don't necessarily heal all the way and can therefore linger and sometimes even shut a player down if they can't make it all the way back. They have given us some, some strange reporting. They're sounding very much like next week is the target expectation for him to come back. But I think this may not be prime Puka and the re-injury risk is going to be a major concern. Still

16:42 starting him as soon as he's active, but I would potentially look to trade him away if he has a big game. Then Jaden Reed, from all reports that we've gotten, sounds like he structurally was a little bit fortunate with all of this. It was a scary injury, of course. My suspicion is he comes back about three weeks from now.

17:03 They didn't put him on IR, and that's kind of the key indicator here. But they haven't released a lot of information either. So my suspicion is the next sprain that they're planning on getting him back relatively soon.

17:14 All right, Deepak, thank you. Please tell everybody where they can find all of your work.

17:18 Yeah, we're on Twitter, IG, YouTube, and TikTok, search SportsMidAnalytics, and every week right here with you.

17:27 All right, thank you, Deepak. We'll be right back to talk storylines right after this message. Before we get in to the storylines, let me just tell you guys about Polymarket. I need to tell you about this new prediction market called Polymarket. It's a stock exchange for sports buying in and selling out on your terms. When your team goes down to 20%, you can buy in and sell it off at 40% when they come back to double your money.

17:55 They are so confident you'll never go back to the other guy's. They're giving you a free $ 50 on your first trade when you deposit just $ 10. So download the Polymarket app today and use the code FPPOD when you sign up. That's FPPOD to get $ 50 free after you trade just $ 10. All right, Tara. Storylines number one. You want me to ask you, is Drake May startable? He has been miserable, and today was another bad day. 14-25, 199 yards, two picks at Jacksonville. The New England offense mustered six points. This is coming off 208 yards and a pick, 178 yards, a touchdown and three picks. So he has one touchdown and six interceptions so far this season.

18:46 A brutal run for Drake May.

18:48 Good God, have mercy. We knew that the schedule this season was bad compared to last season. Like, we all acknowledged, okay, Cupcake's schedule last season, it's going to be more difficult, but you've got A.J. Brown, and you're going to throw the ball more, and that's okay, because you were super efficient. So, you know, hey, we can work off a little less efficiency, a little more volume, superstar, superstar. And we have A.J.

19:12 Brown go down. The receiving core is rather mediocre. They traded away. They lack depth now because they traded away Keishon Booty. And you're looking at Drake May and just the upside is just not there. Touchdowns aren't there. The rushing isn't really there. Struggling overall. And it's painful because you're sitting there and you're getting outperformed by guys like Geno Smith. You're getting outperformed by Kyler Murray. You're getting outperformed by literally Marcus Mariota. Literally anybody and everybody else that is Aaron Rodgers is putting you to shame. So looking at next week, we've got a matchup against Buffalo.

19:50 And then after that, you've got, you know, and then Buffalo is a friendly matchup in terms of, you know, you have to chase volume. You have to push. But we did see Justin Herbert in that exact same scenario. And it just was very mediocre from a fantasy perspective. So how much more can we expect from Drake May?

20:05 You're chasing points and will you be able to put them up? we've seen you chasing points, buddy, and you're not putting them up. So after that, the Raiders, then you get into a softer portion of the schedule, but he's already moved back into this week was a borderline QB one. And we were starting guys like Tyler Shuck clearly over him. So yeah, I mean, with all the injuries, maybe you have to, but it's just pushed back so much to where he's a streaming option at this point.

20:32 It's just, just ridiculous.

20:35 Yeah, it's bad. I mean, I, you know, You got to at least pick somebody up. Like you said, you mentioned a bunch of guys. I'm looking at Yahoo rosterhood percentage. Sam Darnold's under 50%. So is Malik Willis, Daniel Jones, Aaron Rodgers, Cam Ward. Kirk Cousins, though.

20:55 Kirk Cousins, yes.

20:56 And Jacoby Brissett. So not Gino. So not terrible options all over the place. No Jaden Daniels, no problem. Mariota brings Terry McLaurin. To life. The run game didn't really get going. And even, I mean, Mariota threw three touchdowns. That was nice. But McLaurin did have six catches for 77 yards and a score. So at least we're saving a little production without Jaden Daniels. And I don't even know if I'm excited for Jaden Daniels to come back with this injury.

21:26 Yeah, Sam, I mean, he just needs because we went through this last year, right, where he came back, came back from the injury, just wasn't, you know, and it's tough because a lot of that is also mental. We are, you know, playing more apprehensive. You're dealing with this injury. You're not being the exact same player that you were before. So, yeah, I mean, Marcus Mariota has held it down before. And I'm not shocked that we had this performance because my concern coming into this game was not Marcus Mariota. He can give us volume. He can provide fine fantasy production games for Terry McLaurin. We've got ample examples of that, right?

21:58 We've got stacks and stacks of game logs that say Marcus Mariota is not a detriment to Terry McLaurin. Is Terry McLaurin a detriment to Terry McLaurin based off the first two games was the question. And to see him bounce back like this in a difficult matchup against Seattle, that was fantastic. Get the win. Hello. So yeah, that was fantastic to see. Very encouraging moving forward. It makes me wonder, what are we doing with Terry McLaurin? Are we writing it out? Are we buying? Are we selling high?

22:27 There's a lot of different directions you can go with that because now you've got the flexibility of seeing your guy and he looked good on the field and looked like himself. So there's a lot less panic going on. An upcoming schedule. We got Indianapolis, the New York Giants. Those are plus games from a defensive perspective. And then you've got San Francisco, who unfortunately keeps going down with...

22:45 We only talked about the offensive injury. We didn't talk about all of the other.

22:49 They've literally run out of IR spots.

22:51 Yeah, they've lost an offensive line. We saw trip lineups. It continues to just get worse and worse for them.

22:58 Yeah, it's been bad. Story number three that you have here, the Cincinnati defense struggles, which... They had looked great and really impressive through the first two weeks. But today they allowed 411 yards to Pittsburgh. Rogers had 292 yards and three touchdowns. Jalen Warren had a massive game, tripped over the 10-yard line twice, trying to get us a touchdown and extra six points. But Darnell Washington was your leading receiver in this game with 68 yards on four catches, you know. Three yards of total air yards probably and then running over everybody for the other 65 yards. Because you can't tackle him. He's a monster. But yeah, I was obviously very happy that my Steelers won. But I don't know. No Rico Dowdle and Jalen Warren went crazy here.

23:47 Yeah, I underestimated. I moved Rico Dowdle up in rankings, but I think I undersold it a little bit because I believed that the Cincinnati defense had changed. And to be fair, you look at it and now you're kind of looking at these teams that they have played in Tampa Bay and week one. Okay. We know that you have issues. So that wasn't Cincinnati's defense being excellent. That was Tampa Bay working through these issues that they have shown repeatedly week after week. After that, it was Houston.

24:11 We know that CJ shroud has the issues. I believe that game was without Nico call. Yeah, that game was without Nico Collins. So. Again, maybe the Cincinnati defense isn't exactly the Cincinnati defense that we thought that it was, and maybe it's still vulnerable. So just kind of keep that in mind as you're looking at these matchups, that this was a gauge of them actually facing a somewhat competent offense. And really, quite frankly, this offense had struggled to really produce anything heading into this game. So to see this level of output. Highly impressive to see this, especially Jalen Warren on the ground. Spectacular. Roman Wilson stepping up as well. DJ DK Metcalf actually catching a touchdown pass. Fantastic.

24:48 Good to see.

24:49 He had a drop in two holding penalties also. So let's not give him too much credit. But yeah, that was the best performance he's had this year. So this one is weirding me out because someone asked me and I said, I do not think this will happen. And then it did. The Chargers are actually splitting snaps between O'Marion Hampton and Keaton Mitchell. It was 29 of 69 snaps for O'Marion Hampton. He had six routes run, 15 for 56, one target, no catches. And Keaton Mitchell was only three fewer snaps, 26 of 69, but he did run eight more routes, 14 routes run. He had eight rushes for 52 yards. He had negative receiving yards, negative five, but he did score a receiving touchdown. So a better day for Keaton Mitchell. Now third down snaps went to

25:37 Vidal more than anybody else. Five for Vidal, four for Mitchell, one for Hampton, two minute drill snaps, five for Vidal, four for Mitchell, zero for Hampton. So Hampton is in the doghouse right now, it seems.

25:51 It's weird. You know, we had a comment in the chat from a, Michael F and Scott said, Tara told me to draft Hampton. I'm sorry, Michael. I'm so we're all sorry. Cause I think I suspect I was not the only one.

26:03 Analyst that didn't think the chargers were going to go crazy. It has not happened.

26:10 Yeah. This felt like, yeah, this felt like an experimentation because we had seen Vidal be iced out of the offense. So it like, or were they trying to figure out how can they work in all three? And maybe that would give them some kind of boost and like, I think they're just trying to find a way to get this offense going rather than just sticking. But it does concern me with Amari and Hampton because it's tough to kind of play because Keaton Mitchell is on waivers, so he should be added on waivers. But the thing that you have to remember is that if Amari and Hampton goes down, Kamani Vidal then becomes Amari and Hampton, and Keaton Mitchell stays Keaton Mitchell. So it's just such a weird backfield to kind of handle from that perspective. Our

26:50 hope here is that... Omarion Hampton is the clear lead back. I don't think we have questions around that. But in order for him to be successful as the clear lead back with someone working in significantly as the change of pace back, this offense has to get to the goal line. They have to be productive. They have to move the ball up and down the field. And that becomes a problem when we look at the schedule ahead because It just continues to be a massive juggernaut, unfortunately. We've got Seattle coming up, Denver, Kansas City. It doesn't get better after the bye week. Rams, Houston, Baltimore. I mean, my God, this is just a mess.

27:26 Would you try to trade him now?

27:28 Yeah, I think you might need to. Yeah, and I just see someone in the comments. Marquis says, just traded Hampton for Nico last week. Thank God. You made a solid move right there. Even if Nico doesn't come back this week. We know that's the clear wide receiver one. There is the competition in that offense for him. So I think you got out while you could. So there are still people that need running backs. I think it's possible to sell. So shop it around, see if you can.

27:51 I mean, lots of injuries today at RB. So yes, definitely. And then number five here, Brock Bowers, welcome back. 13 targets, 10 catches, 116 yards and a touchdown touchdown. for all my teams. Thank God Brock Bowers is back. I am very, very happy.

28:12 Oh God. It was so good to see. Cause there was that worry, right? Because we didn't have that early confirmation of like, okay, we feel super good. And the snap count is going to be high. And we're going to get him on a full workload. So to see him come back to this degree, that was excellent, especially after the trauma that we suffered last year where he came back and was clearly still bothered by it, up and down play. And the real big takeaway here is that the offense as a whole just looks so good under new coaching, new offensive line. Yeah, new quarterback. You could say maybe Geno could have done it behind this offensive line. I don't know. I don't know. But regardless, all of the right changes to get this team back

28:51 on track. So feeling very positive about the guy that we drafted to be the tight end one. So wheels up where we're feeling so much better.

29:00 All right. Let's talk about the panic meter. But before we do that, let me tell you guys about the waiver planner here. Take the guesswork out of the waiver wire with the fantasy pros waiver planner, get a complete customized waiver plan for every league, including suggested fab bids and backup options in case your targets are taken. Once your plan is set, you can submit your waiver claims to most major sites with just one click, save time, stay prepared, and maximize your chances of landing the players your team needs. Build your personalized waiver plan today at fantasypros.com slash plan. That's fantasy slash plan. All right, everybody hit us in the comments. Who are you panicking about right now? There's a lot of injured players to be

29:52 panicking about. I got a couple off the top right here to ask you about. Are you panicking about Malik neighbors, Tara? You know, barely made week one, six for 89, one catch for one yard against the Rams. So he's banged up in that one. There was weather in this game. So we kind of, do we kind of have excuses for neighbors or are we worried?

30:11 We have excuses. I'm at a buy low point on this one, just because I think it's come down to two weeks in a row. I've got excuses so I can get into it and buy because he's the clear wider super one. That's not a question. But yeah, mild panic. But at the end of the day, looking at the overall schedule, I don't think we need to massively just dump and say, okay, we just got to bail out on this situation. So mild panic, but it's more of a buy low for me.

30:41 David Montgomery, Houston's offenses look bad without Nico. Last week, he was six for 10. He had two catches for 14. This week, improved 11 for 33 and two catches for 15 yards. But he opened up with that three touchdown banger. And then the last two weeks have been complete duds.

31:00 Yeah, he opened up with the three touchdown banger, but efficiency was not good. And to follow that up with the two games, this is kind of what I feared is that this offensive line. Now, granted, you know, they had struggles with the offensive line in Detroit, but still it's better than the one that they had in Houston.

31:17 So my concern is, is that this just isn't giving him the lanes that he needs to be effective. Um, he still should have goal line opportunities. So things, once they can actually get Nico Collins back and progress the ball up and down the field will get better. So he'll still have priority at the goal line. He's great at that. But in terms of chunk yardage and volume, I think we're going to continue to see this split with, um, Woody marks because he does in fact look fantastic in the Texans like him. They do.

31:45 Uh, here's one from, uh, OG Devin that says, why can't I show this? There we go. Drake May is terrible. Dropping for Deshaun Watson. I'm done. That's a true panic, right? That is a 10 level panic. So if we put Drake May on the panic meter, what number.

32:05 Would you give him?

32:06 It's like an eight. Yeah, I get it. I physically don't want him to start. I wasn't joking before when I said I have a dynasty roster where I started May, and there were Geno Smith and Mariota sitting on the bench, and I'm just looking at it in fury. If I lose purely because I thought, oh, I'll play Drake Bay over Geno and Marcus Mariota. Yeah. Yeah, it's high. It's high.

32:28 Cause especially what deep, uh, what Deepak was talking about with the high ankle sprains is that we have to remember that it's not just when you come back. So we were looking at six weeks of minimum. And then when you come back, you're still looking at decreased performance. So we're not going to see the best version of AJ Brown. And you go back and look at the comp from like CD lamb last year. We look at it now. CD lamb is CD lamb. It wasn't George Pickens.

32:49 It was ankle. He had the high ankle sprain. That was the issue. They don't look the same when they come back.

32:55 Yeah, it's buy and dynasty, sell and redraft for Drake May right now. Absolutely. This one from Nelson. Panic meter at Bucco without Mayfield if long term on this hand or thumb entry, whatever it ends up being.

33:10 About a five. Because the production we've been getting out of him thus far has been rather mediocre, unfortunately. He's clear wide receiver one. He's getting you just over double digit fantasy points in full PPR. You got a touchdown. But the volume is just not there. So panic in the fact that he's not panning out the way that we thought he would, yes. But panic in the fact that it's going to change from what he's been doing, no.

33:34 I think we're going to continue to see this. He's going to continue to get the targets. They're going to continue to be hit or miss. It's going to be a mediocre production, but it's going to get you by from a flex perspective because you can't bench him because at the very least it's a flex because he can, in fact, get you double-digit fantasy points in PPR.

33:51 And the last one here, and then I got a rapid fire for you. Mark asks, panic on likely? Probably not because of the weather, right? Yeah. Jameis' first week out there as a starter. Yeah. It's like a two. You know, a little panic because Dart's not there.

34:08 Yes.

34:08 But Winston's an experienced starter that throws the tight end a lot. So I think we'll be okay. Are you panicking? Like, what's your panic on the Patriots running back situation?

34:23 Uh, I think it was just a bad matchup, but again, this, so this is an overall, um, I, yeah, yeah. It's a split backfield period and they can be successful when they're, um, in the lead, when it's a good matchup, um, when there's competent play going on. But the problem is, is that their backfield will ebb and flow with the quarterback situation.

34:45 And it is a tougher schedule. So, I mean, it just, it's, it's more like a five, right? Um, you would wish that after so many fumbles that one, it's funny, you know, Jadarian price fumbles and he goes banished. Ramondre Stevenson fumbles and is Ramondre Stevenson.

35:00 Yeah, that's true. So, uh, let's, uh, I got, I got four wide receivers. You tell me which, which ones you wouldn't drop yet. Uh, Brian Thomas, a little Shakir, Quentin Johnston, Jamison Williams.

35:15 I'm not dropping BTJ because you can argue this is a matchup issue. This, we knew that this early schedule was brutal. It opens up after the bi-week. So we're not like, just hold on. We're not dropping. Can't drop right now. Can't do it. Can't do it. I know. And I know the Josh Cameron. Ascendance is concerning.

35:34 They had the same amount of snaps today.

35:37 Yeah, yeah.

35:38 That is concerning. Not going to lie.

35:40 Oh, man.

35:41 Yeah.

35:42 He might be my first drop out of these ones. I don't know. I might drop all of them, honestly. Yeah. Shakir can go.

35:49 Yeah, Shakir can go.

35:50 Quentin Johnson can go. Trey Harris had more targets than him today. They might be experimenting a lot in L.A.

35:56 Yes.

35:56 And then Jameson Williams is probably the one I wouldn't drop yet, but he hasn't cleared 50 yards in a game yet. He's still getting targets, but has not cleared 50 yards. Those are all nines. And tens if you're dropping them, but nines at least for sure. So, all right, we are going to go to questions. So anybody that has questions, throw them in the chat. We will answer as many as we can up until Sunday night football starts here. But before we get there, let me tell you guys about this sexy championship. belt here if you want a chance to win the ultimate symbol of fantasy glory the fantasy football championship belt courtesy of our friends at trophy smack the number one destination for epic fantasy

36:41 football hardware this is your moment this massive gold-plated belt is built to make a statement it's bold it's heavy and it's guaranteed to turn heads in your league don't just win your championship wear it to enter all you need to do is subscribe to the fantasy pros youtube channel right now drop a comment below on any of our videos And that's it. We will be announcing a winner right here on the channel, so make sure to turn on notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim this championship belt and flex on your entire league.

37:12 All right, everybody. We will answer your questions. Go ahead and drop them in the chat like we were talking about before. All right, Tara, first up here. I believe you starred these for me. Thank you. Yes. The first one says, what do you think about Puka moving forward?

37:30 So supposedly he will be potentially available to go next week. I feel, I mean, at this point, there's nothing you can truly do in terms of we need to see him get on the field and actually physically play through it. But I've heard enough positive things directly from the Rams that I feel a little bit comfortable with thinking, okay, next week we'll get him back. And they're feeling like they're just being a little bit cautious with them.

37:56 Let's get to this one real quick because it is pertinent for tonight. Ferguson in a few minutes or Swift tomorrow. PPR need a 15 point performance. This is for a dub.

38:05 Oh, man. 15 point. I mean, I think I still would. I would lean still Swift on this one. I know the appeal of Ferguson with Puka out, but it is entirely possible that they throw those targets to another tight end and it just throws off. And just from a pure volume perspective, I, Not a great matchup, but you know there's a guaranteed baseline of target, of volume that DeAndre Swift is going to get. You can get targets as well from him. So I still lean DeAndre Swift.

38:40 Yeah, I'm with you. It's the volume, just like you said. Guaranteed volume for Swift. You could call it even probable volume for Terrence Ferguson, but those are targets and not all targets are caught. So are the Raiders for real?

38:57 Yes, I think they are. I mean, kudos to fantastic coaching. I mean, we said it before. What can coaching and an offensive line do for you? Clearly, it can literally turn your entire franchise around. So I think this is legit. I wish they had a wide receiver one. I mean, we had Trey Tucker. I mean, he's kind of coming through.

39:17 But imagine if they add one of those high-end– because it's a good receiver class coming up. Imagine if they add one of the receivers in this draft it really round out this offensive group. Yeah.

39:29 Yeah. I mean, uh, Jeremiah Smith would look really nice there. I don't, but they're not going to be picking up.

39:35 They're going to have to get one in the, in the mid to back. So go Raiders.

39:39 Ryan Wingo looked good yesterday. Uh, how about, should I panic with may my other QBs are Mayfield and Stroud. Not good at all for all three. It's been rough. for those guys. Yeah. Yeah.

39:51 Well, theoretically we should maybe cross our fingers, be getting Nico back this week. So you might be okay. Um, and then if that was the case that I would roll with CJ shroud over, over Drake may at this point. Yikes.

40:07 Yeah, it has been, it has been pretty rough.

40:10 Yeah. He gets Dallas next week. It's Dallas.

40:13 Let's see. Um, I got another one here. Do you think Chris Bell is worth a pickup or is this decent play only a result of Caleb Douglas being out? Well, I would say he's probably worth a pickup because what are they going to do without a Chan, right? Correct.

40:30 Yeah.

40:31 Yeah. And I, and I know, you know, and I've seen people debate this, um, between him and, you know, Malik Washington, cause Malik Washington has been there steady and, you know, PPR can get there, but, um, Bell is the one that I do want to pick up and stash just based off talent, who he is as a prospect.

40:50 We know that the only thing that was holding him back is he was on a half workload, only playing around 50% or a little bit less than snaps because he had no off season. He was just rehabbing. So the ramp up has been very quick with him. So to see him come out in this capacity in the first game where they say, Hey, we need you to step up. That was very encouraging.

41:10 And last one, Will Kyron Williams. uh, beat his projected points this week in a PPR league. It sounds like somebody who has just Kyron Williams left.

41:18 Yes.

41:18 100%.

41:19 Uh, no, I can't guarantee you that. Yes. They're the best way. The best way to attack Denver is just ground and pound. So I do think that we are going to see a heavy dose of Kyron and Coram.

41:30 The real last question, uh, which running back are you picking up?

41:38 For health, we do have to go with Ollie Gordon. Um, yeah. If we knew on Jalen Wright, maybe we get some news on Jalen Wright before Tuesday night and you can make that, you know, but I.

41:49 Don't know that we're going to get it. It's possible. And remember, thanks for spending some time with us tonight. We really appreciate it. And right after Sunday Night Football, you can join the Fantasy Dude on the Tailgate YouTube channel, which can be found at Tailgate NFL to hear his takeaways from tonight's action. But that is everything from us, you guys. good luck with the rest of your matchups.

42:12 Hope everybody won your leagues and some money today. We will see you guys next week. Take it easy, everybody. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at fantasypros.com slash review or on Spotify.

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