Week 6 Fantasy Football Reactions & Injuries + Early Week 7 Waiver Wire (Ep. 2274)

0:00 All right.

0:01 Welcome, everybody, to the Fantasy Pros Podcast. We're recapping week six. A ton of stuff happened today, including a pretty crazy witching hour. It's not quite over yet. But I am Matt Modai. I am joined by Scott Bogman and Dr. Deepak Chona. Scott, we will start with you.

0:16 How are we doing?

0:17 I'm doing all right.

0:18 I mean, I had a much better Sunday than I did Saturday, if you're looking at my hat. You guys can tell that. But, yeah, Steelers won in overtime yesterday. That was a fun game to watch. Jeremy Bernard with a huge game. That was awesome to see. And yeah, a lot of moving and shaking in the fantasy world as well. And we didn't get crushed with injuries today, knock on wood. It's not over. So I am knocking on wood, but not the worst day for injuries. So, you know, not bad.

0:49 We'll take that.

0:50 We'll take it.

0:50 Yeah, Eagles fan here, so we don't need to talk about my fanhood.

0:54 But I'm good. I got two Super Bowls. I'm chilling.

0:56 But yeah, so the injuries, it's funny because in my notes, this is the third Sunday recap stream that I've done. And the first two were just bloody Sundays. I mean, we're talking just injury after injury. But like you said, not a terrible injury day. And we'll just get right into it. So Deepak, you're here to talk about injuries.

1:13 We'll just get into it. We see on the graphic here. So Hurts, we got a lot of players that missed this week. like Saquon, Jalen Hurts, and Tyler Warren. Hurts is obviously the big news with the blood clot and the fact that he's a quarterback. Tyler Warren tweaked his groin in practice on Friday, ended up missing today, and then Romeo Dobbs left early with the shoulder. Ladin McConkie left early with a concussion, and obviously Saquon's been out the last couple weeks, including this week. Then we got some quick hitters at the end as well, but we'll start with the big names on the graphic. So what do you got for Hurts? I know he was just put on IR yesterday, whatever day it was, after.

1:48 that it wasn't going to happen. But anyways, what do we got on Hertz and the blood clot?

1:52 Yeah.

1:52 So with Jalen Hertz blood clot situation, they haven't released some of the like key details in order to really determine the timeline. The best case here is that the blood clot stays small and superficial, which is what they reported initially, and that the body dissolves it over the course of about six weeks. Now, if that happens, you'd kind of be scanning him along the way to make sure. However, if the clot goes deeper and that is a much more serious issue. And that requires blood thinners and you can't play football on blood thinners because you could bleed, especially if you get hit in the head. So the idea being that this, if you do end up on blood thinners, usually six to 12 weeks as a standard regimen,

2:30 and it usually leans a little bit higher, closer to the 12. So we would potentially see him end his season. If that were the case, they just haven't released a whole lot of info and nor do they owe us that. But right now, obviously out four weeks and the potential here is that this could be much longer.

2:47 Gotcha.

2:48 And we'll talk about, um, Scott, we'll ask you some questions about the Eagles, but just curious Deepak. So if it ends up being the six week one and he doesn't go on blood thinners, is there any risk of it happening again? Or is it kind of like he's back and it should be good to go?

3:01 There is risk, but it's probably not that high because the, if there wasn't any explanation for why did he get this blood cloud in the first place, then I would say that risk is probably higher, but he was cleated. He also went on a long flight. to and from London. So that also adds to that risk. Uh, I wouldn't anticipate this being like a career threatening or career ending type of injury. I would anticipate him regardless of what happens this year, probably back week one of next year without a problem.

3:28 Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense.

3:29 And then for the Eagles, like the players you started, you didn't have a terrible performance from, from Goddard. Obviously Devante Smith got the late touchdown Pierce got in, but Scott, I know I saw a question that we can talk about in a little deeper, but Let's say it hurts. He was out for four weeks. What are we doing with the Eagles? That's the big question here. What are we doing with the Eagles?

3:47 I mean, I think you're downgrading all the secondary guys, right? Like Devante and Saquon are still going to have their roles. Saquon when he's back, obviously. Goddard, maybe a little bit just because, you know, the tight ends are doing okay this year. So, but like, I don't want anything to do with Makai Lemon at this point. Dante and Wicks, I think can probably go. Uh, I mean, he, I think he left and came back, but he seems to be okay. But, um, same thing with lemon. I think he did the same thing left and came back. But I think those secondary guys, I'm downgrading with Tanner McKee, but Mickey wasn't terrible today in his first start. Um, and he played a team coming off a buy that had, uh,

4:28 you know, time to prep for the Eagles as well. So, uh, you know, maybe those guys come back. If you're in a super deep league, obviously you're not getting rid of them. If there's no one on the wire for you to add. but I do think in most scenarios you could probably start looking towards a waiver wire if you're rostering Makai Lemon and Dontabian Wicks and guys like that.

4:47 Yeah and they have a great schedule coming up they got Dallas next week they have the Commanders and the Giants their next three games I forget the order of the last two but yeah I mean Eagles fans love Tanner McKee but the issue is a lot more than the quarterback with that team offensive line play calling like it's just a lot of stuff going on so we don't need to spend a ton of time on the Eagles but While we're.

5:06 Talking about them, I might as well ask about Saquon Barkley.

5:08 So he got injured the first drive a couple weeks ago, has now missed two games. What are we seeing, hearing on Saquon Barkley?

5:17 Yeah, so the data would favor him returning either this week or next, with week eight being slightly more likely. The reasoning for that is that it looked like at least a moderate severity type injury on the video. It's kind of stopped him in his tracks. So somewhat similar to what I would anticipate with like a Caleb Williams injury.

5:35 return here usually when running backs do come back they don't have a huge performance or efficiency dip but you do tend to see their usage a little bit take about two weeks to ramp up so about a little bit of a dip there the re-injury risk is the real concern and you know from an Eagles management standpoint if it were me I would consider slow playing this with Saquon minimizing the risk of re-injury and basically trying to not tank his trade value if you were to re-aggravate this in season so Again, this week may be a possibility, but the data would slightly favor the next.

6:10 Yeah.

6:10 I mean, that running back room, Saquon, obviously Bigsby's on IR, Will Shipley's on IR. The other guy, Carson Steele, not a huge name, but he was getting some passing work. He left with a shoulder injury. So not a great, it's not always sunny in Philadelphia.

6:23 I'll tell you that. But we can move on.

6:26 So Tyler Warren, the next name on our graphic here, tweaked his groin in practice, didn't play today.

6:31 What do you have on that?

6:33 Yeah, this happened just on Friday, so we don't have a clear indication of severity because that quick of a turnaround most players wouldn't play. With that being said, he did have a groin injury in the preseason. This is presumably a re-aggravation, and re-aggravations of groin strains average about three weeks out. So this would, in most cases, be a multi-week injury we're looking at.

6:54 Okay, because, yeah, I was wondering if it was a game-time decision, they worked him out, you think that, oh, maybe he'll be good in a week, but you're saying it's probably looking like a couple weeks.

7:03 Just the nature of re-aggravations is that they tend to be a little bit more severe than the original injury. And secondly, that they tend to have a high re-aggravation risk going forward. So I would think that he would miss another week. We'll kind of see how practice reports line up for him. But at this point with limited info, most players would miss the following week.

7:26 Got it.

7:26 Yeah, that makes sense.

7:27 And then for the Colts, I mean, definitely not seeing the same Daniel Jones that we saw last year. I personally have been disappointed in Josh Downs. I was expecting more from him, especially with, um, with Warren now out this week. So, um, Scott, I mean, are you, are you upping Keenan Allen in your rankings or Josh Downs or lean heavier on Johnny Taylor?

7:45 What are we doing? If we know that, uh, Warren's going to miss a couple of weeks.

7:49 Yeah.

7:50 I mean, I think I want it to be Downs too. Uh, I wasn't the biggest Downs guy coming in, but it seems like everything is there for him to succeed, right?

7:58 No Alec Pierce.

7:59 Uh, now we have Tyler Warren down the guy that's like kind of clears the middle.

8:03 For him a little bit.

8:04 So you would think that maybe we would see an uptick here, but Daniel Jones and just this offense is not working very well right now either. So it's all kind of Jonathan Taylor and nobody else. So Keenan Allen, maybe, you know, I'll move him up a little bit, of course, because he's their main guy at this point, but I'm not like super excited to do it.

8:24 It's almost begrudgingly, you know? Sure.

8:27 Yeah.

8:27 Let's hope Alec Pierce is good to go as soon as he's eligible.

8:31 Off of IR.

8:31 Yeah.

8:32 Yeah, that makes sense.

8:33 All right.

8:33 So next one, Romeo Dobbs left after at least he scored a touchdown. So people that I believe he scored a touchdown, people.

8:38 That started him, at least that they didn't get totally cooked by by the injury left with the shoulder.

8:42 What do you have on him?

8:44 Yeah, it looks like he fell pretty hard on the tip of his shoulder. That's classic for an AC joint sprain. A lot of times these get played through about a quarter of of wide receivers do play even the following week. usually with an injection, some degree of a performance hit. And we saw this with DJ Moore. He came back the following week, but then re-aggravated it from falling on it again. So that's the concern by rushing back. With that being said, these tend to be short-term injuries, and the three-fourths of players who miss one week usually return within the next two. So it should be a short-term injury.

9:15 Got it.

9:16 And, I mean, the Patriots receivers, A.J. Brown, did he have more drops than catches?

9:22 I think he did.

9:23 Did Mario Douglas score it again? So if Dobbs misses, I mean, you're not benching AJ Brown, obviously. And I mean, Douglas is probably in your lineup. Would you agree with that, Scott?

9:32 Yeah, I think so.

9:33 I'm going to lose a league this week because I didn't have him in my lineup. So I scored a couple touchdowns last week. I think he's better than Romeo Dobbs anyway. I just think they need to feed him the ball a little bit more. And they've been doing it the last two weeks. So yeah, I think that is the absolute guy here. And obviously, he's going to go more to AJ Brown pretty soon. But Um, it's the dude is he's shaking the rust off at this point.

10:00 So I know people are upset. He'll be he'll be OK moving forward. I think I would say, yeah, percent. So you watch A.J.

10:10 Brown a lot. I know you like that guy.

10:12 Yeah, I love I love A.J.

10:13 Yeah.

10:13 I mean, you know, first came back. got some drops, probably got in his head a little bit. He'll be fine. Even dropped the.

10:17 Onsides kick, which was just, at least they recovered it because that would have been tough if, if the jets got it.

10:24 And then who knows what happens?

10:26 Um, yeah. Yeah.

10:28 Um, I'm, I'm sure we'll have questions about AJ. So we don't need to go, go too deep on him. And then lad, I mean, so it was the, it was the rib and week one, then it was the foot. Now he's got a concussion. The guy just can't stay healthy. Um, so we have on lad.

10:39 Yeah.

10:40 So these concussions on average do take a little over a week. We've seen Actually, three notable players, Concepcion, Sadiq, and Jamar Chase all come back without missing any time. Fortunately, they have the bye coming up.

10:52 So I would.

10:53 Expect him back week eight. And it may be good timing because those ribs from week one and two to now should be close to healed. That foot injury could use probably two weeks rest anyway. So this actually may be a buy low candidate. I don't know about staying healthy, but maybe a buy low candidate going forward.

11:14 Scott, you agree with that? Buy low?

11:16 Yeah, I do.

11:17 I think if he was in college, it'd be a redshirt season. But at this point, especially because they're playing so bad. But I think, like Deepak said, it's a nice buy low opportunity if you can afford it, right? If your bench is deep enough for you to add a guy like this and you can deal from depth to add him and.

11:34 Your wide receiver room is already good.

11:36 I think it would be a really smart move to go and get a guy like Ladd, specifically with the entire team playing bad, right?

11:43 The whole team playing bad.

11:44 Means they're going to probably be playing catch up in a lot of games and we like that garbage time for guys like lad so um you know moving forward it would be nice but i would assume he's going to be out again this week too.

11:57 Yeah i mean just a another last season anyway yeah yeah right.

12:01 They're gonna buy so week eight you would expect him back.

12:04 Yeah yeah yeah okay yeah good and.

12:06 Then we have some quick hitters here.

12:08 Some names bigger than, than the others, but the two that I wanted to get your thoughts on individually, uh, Lamar Jackson obviously missed the last two weeks. Um, and the Ravens lost to the Browns today, fumble from Derek Henry. But what do you, do you think he'll be back next week? What do you got on Lamar? Yeah, I think there's a pretty solid chance he plays this coming week.

12:24 They talked about it early in the week, but then he never even logged any practice time. So, uh, he was ruled out, not super surprisingly, but the average on these mild high ankles is about two weeks, uh, Now, Lamar, you would expect him to come back at a pretty high level, especially wouldn't anticipate any degree of dip in his passing game production. The rushing, sometimes you'll see kind of that elusiveness decrease, and that's key to Lamar's game.

12:52 But the main thing is, you know, the Ravens, if he's on the field, obviously that affects everybody around him too. So I would say probably this week or next, but I would lean this coming week.

13:03 Got it.

13:04 Yeah.

13:04 And, and Scott, so Lamar, you think, okay, when he's back, he's in your lineup, but we did see last year, Lamar, this was, it was a hammy different injury, obviously, but when he came back, he was not the same Lamar. He had some tough performances last week. So do you, if, do you dare not start Lamar Jackson? If, if he's back next.

13:22 Week, I'm I'm this season, I'm going to be prepared for it.

13:26 So I'm going to have a backup, you know, just in case. And uh you know i if the backup has a very good matchup the week that lamar comes back and he doesn't then you know maybe we get him in there so uh i i'm i'm cautiously optimistic but we saw a lot of this last year from lamar as well and you got to start wondering if this is a pattern in his career you know uh he's run a lot but the whole thing was for a long time he was a guy that would slide or get out of bounds without getting hit. It was a lot of runs without taking extra damage. So slowing down a little bit, he's been being hit more specifically with a worse offensive line. So you at least need to have a plan if you're rostering Lamar Jackson, even

14:09 with a short bench, if you can afford to grab a quarterback and sit on him as a backup, I think I'm doing that.

14:15 Yeah.

14:16 And obviously like you've had to have a plan for him the last two weeks. So depending on what that plan was, then you could probably just keep rolling, rolling with that.

14:22 Yeah. Yeah.

14:24 Yeah. Yeah.

14:25 So, all right, we got some, some, some quick hitters here that we'll do quickly so we can move on. And I'll just go, I'll just go one by one. And then I, Deepak, you can just tell us if you have anything, but Duncan Cade left and came back with a rib injury. DJ Moore missed with a shoulder and the bills have a buy next week. So you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing we'll see him. next or when their next game is so in two weeks and then shoulder for Rashad Bateman neck injury for Donald Mooney then we talked about Carson Steele with with the shoulder.

14:52 Yeah so I think the big ones there uh Don Kincaid now the ribs you're often seeing players play through this Mike Evans Ladman Conkey uh both returned without any missed time uh you often do see a production hit that lasts about four weeks so Dalton Kincaid they're coming up on their buy so I would Anticipate him probably being out there in week eight, but you may not see full strength with DJ Moore. I would anticipate him being close to full strength by week eight. He logged a limited practice on Friday and you would sort of therefore expect his trajectory to play week seven if they had a game. But of course, with the by week eight, then regarding Bateman, a little unclear. Truthfully, we have to

15:33 kind of just see on the practice reports in terms of the mechanism for him. And Carson Steele didn't look good. He was walking. He was kind of holding the shoulder. Sometimes that can be a reflection of a stinger, but it didn't really release any info yet. So I think we hit the quick hits for you.

15:51 Yeah.

15:51 I didn't even see it, Deepak, real quick. Devontae Adams going down at the end of the Rams game. Did you catch that one? Because I didn't even see it.

15:58 Oh.

15:59 I saw him hobble over to the sideline and kind of get checked, but It wasn't, uh, I'm not sure if he had extra time, like would he have been able to come back in? It's just, it was towards the end of the game. So a little bit hard to say for sure on that.

16:12 Cause it was such a fresh.

16:13 Yeah.

16:14 Gotcha.

16:15 Um, and then real quick and not on the, not on the, um, the doc, but just cause I'm curious, Baker Mayfield back next week.

16:21 I think so. Uh, at least there's a very good chance. And if it's not next week, it should be the week after.

16:26 Okay.

16:26 Got it. Cool.

16:27 All right.

16:27 Well, um, as always appreciate you for joining us.

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17:21 Now let's talk storylines.

17:22 So we got five that Scott and I are going to talk to you guys about, not necessarily in order of importance, just in order of how they're written down on the doc. And we will start with the, I guess we'll start with next week's bi-weeks real quick. Buffalo, Jacksonville, Chargers, Washington, some big names on like some big players that you're relying on missing next week. So just something to be more aware of. But number one, we saw some wide receivers get more involved this week. And I guess the question is, are they real? So Scott, talk about the receivers.

17:52 Talk about whether we think they're real or not.

17:54 Yeah.

17:55 I mean, Carnell Tate has had a couple of good games now. Seven targets in this one, six catches, 70 yards, and a score against Indianapolis.

18:03 Colts secondary has been good. Colts haven't been good.

18:05 Obviously, there's a lot of hot seat talks about the Colts this week. I think I'm lukewarm on Carnell Tate. I think if someone has rage dropped him and you're sitting on Makai Lemon or Wicks like we were talking about before, those are the type of guys that I would drop for Carnell Tate. I don't know that he is a buy in every single game. scenario though. So, but good things from Carnell Tate, even though, I mean, Cam Ward just looks so bad and I was a buyer in him too.

18:35 Like he just has not worked.

18:38 So it looks like he is not long for that job after this season, but Carnell Tate has looked good when given the opportunity.

18:46 So I do like it.

18:48 I love the talent of Carnell Tate. I do not love the quarterback situation. Honestly, I I wouldn't mind selling high on, on Carnell take is, I mean, Cameron threw for like 102 yards or something in this game.

19:00 And Tate had 70 of 70% of it.

19:02 That was the same thing in his other good game too.

19:05 It was like 212 yards and he had like 110 of them or something.

19:09 Yeah.

19:09 And then last, but then sandwiched in between that, the meat of the good game sandwich was he did nothing against, I mean, Texas good defense, but also not really this year. So, I love Cardinal Tate, the talent and a dynasty league. Obviously you're not doing anything with him, but, uh, for redraft, I wouldn't mind seeing what you can get for him.

19:26 Not that I think he's going to be terrible every single week, but the whole point of selling high is you're getting something good back.

19:32 Right. I would rather do that. If someone's buying on Cardinal Tate, I would rather sell him. But, um, if he's on the waiver wire, there's probably, if you have Brian Thomas, you know, we'll buy, uh, yeah.

19:44 We'll talk about why you would, but yeah. Yeah. And then, um, So DK Metcalf, two Steelers receivers.

19:50 We're going to talk about them in a little more detail we could just do a quick one here uh 15 targets for dk metcalf 11 for 93 jeremy bernard jeremy bernard germy bernard i'm honestly not 100 sure.

20:00 I just want it okay it's just spelled different it's supposed to be jeremy.

20:04 Jeremy, okay, Jeremy Bernard, 12 targets, 11 receptions, 87 yards. Yeah, 12 targets, 11 receptions, 87 yards, and a touchdown. What are we thinking about the Steelers? You're a Steelers fan, right? What do you got for us?

20:14 Yeah, I mean, I really like Jeremy Bernard, and I think he is making more and more of an impact to kind of steal time away from Michael Pittman. My initial assessment of this last week was I had him like fourth in the waiver wire, not up near the top because, yes, Michael Pittman's probably going to miss a month, maybe five weeks, six weeks. But when he comes back, he will be out there to block. That was kind of my initial assessment. Jeremy Bernard blocks pretty well, right?

20:40 Started his Pop Warner as an offensive lineman. So the dude knows how to block. And even though he doesn't have the same type of frame as Michael Pittman, but he's been making plays out there. So I think he's going to have sustained success. And DK Metcalf, it's just nice to see him getting targets, getting more involved, and winning in some contested situations. Him and Parrish had a nice battle. Parrish won most of it, I would say.

21:03 the first three quarters in that last quarter in overtime, it was DK Metcalf kind of bodying him. So just nice to see the Steelers offense getting in more of a rhythm. And I think both these guys are viable.

21:13 Yeah, I've never been a huge DK Metcalf guy, but the utilization has been fantastic for him all year. It hasn't always worked out, but you kind of get that with somebody like him, a big play guy. But I love Jeremy Bernard, the way Aaron Rodgers talked about him. For me, it's if Aaron Rodgers trusts you, you're going to get targets. And for whatever reason, he did not like Michael Pittman, did not like him.

21:30 And Roman Wilson just went on the IR. He did love Roman Wilson, but Roman got stuck on the IR. I think the same day Jalen did. So he's going to be out for at least four.

21:39 Yeah. Yeah.

21:40 So we'll talk about them in a little more detail, but I just did want to mention them. And then Omar Cooper Jr. Six, seven targets, six receptions, 103 yards and a touchdown. First game back from IR. So you love to see that after a long stint off.

21:52 Is it real?

21:53 What do you think?

21:54 I think it can be.

21:55 And I always was kind of on the Omar Cooper side over Adonai Mitchell. Now, I had dropped Omar Cooper in a couple of my leagues after Adonai Mitchell went nuclear the first couple of weeks here. But then he had the finger injury, the broken finger, and we didn't really get a lot of good information on how long he was going to miss. And then they said he had surgery because I was kind of expecting him back this week. So I ended up dropping Adonai in one league and with Omar Cooper looking this good and they already have Garrett Wilson and Uh, Brees Hall is still going to come back at some point. There's a lot of moving pieces there. So, uh, I'm, I think I'm buying on Omar Cooper in deeper leagues. Of course, I'd

22:34 rather have the three guys above him on this list. Sure. I think if you're in a deeper league or if you have, you know, just an, uh, an empty spot, I think Omar Cooper is absolutely a guy we can add and, and might be able to, you know, if he keeps performing like this, we'll be able to count on him. I don't think it's going to be like this every week, but, uh, nice performance from the rookie.

22:54 Yeah, you like to see that from a rookie. And what we know about rookies is they always get better the second half of the year. The biggest issue for me is that Jets offense, they just play so slow. They're going to have games where they don't do anything. And then you're going to have games where Garrett Wilson gets 15 targets and it's just not. So, yeah, not that I disagree with you. I just think that just to maybe be a little bit more cautious.

23:14 But we can move on. The next one.

23:16 We got some tight ends. So who's back of the week? We got some tight ends that might be back. Kyle Pitts, three touchdowns the last two weeks. Loveland and Caleb Williams, first start, almost had a second touchdown, but he had a touchdown, 65 yards, six receptions.

23:28 Do you think that these guys are back?

23:30 Yeah, I do.

23:31 I mean, Loveland, I think was easy to kind of, you know, it's easy to be mad at Loveland. You spent such a high pick on him and he was so miserable. And it was one of those things where I even had him low in my rankings for this week because it was like, all right, well, let's see it. I'm tired of having you in my top 12 and I'm not doing anything. So I think I had him at like 14 or 15, but he got Caleb Williams back and boy did Caleb look pretty good.

23:56 He looked good.

23:56 Right. So right back there and throwing the ball to Loveland. So I think he's back. And then Kyle Pitts usage really improved this week. That was the big thing because it was like a lot of Charlie Warner and we're seeing him Less and less specifically on 11 personnel, but this week he played a lot. Last week against Baltimore, he had five catches for 42 in the score, and then five for 60 in two scores this week.

24:19 So, yeah, that was Pitts. I'm sorry.

24:22 Loveland today, six for 65 in the score, like you said, just barely missed the second one.

24:27 So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

24:28 I mean, I think I'm back in now that Caleb is back and that offense is humming a little bit.

24:32 Yeah, I agree with you on both counts. The thing with Pitts is you just– you forgive the first two weeks of the year. Like Drake London didn't do anything. The Cooper rush starts. We don't, we don't talk about the Cooper rush starts. So with Pennix, it's, it's definitely been better. But next one we could talk about is the giants and in crazy game for the giants, Cam Scadaboo benched. He gave you a nice big goose. If you started him, then we saw Jameis Winston get benched for JJ McCarthy, who proceeded to throw for 243 yards in like 11 minutes of game time for.

25:04 He threw a pick to start too. It was like, Oh God, what are we doing? Yeah.

25:08 And it's funny because Jameis is normally the one that does that. He comes in in the fourth quarter and starts bombing away. So there was a little bit of a freaky Friday situation, but we saw huge performances from not huge. We saw, yeah, we can say huge, big performances from Malik neighbors and Isaiah likely, but then the other, the downside of this is the giants running back snaps 14, Devin single 30, 13, Tyrone Tracy, 11 for Najee Harris and six for cam scataboo.

25:33 I don't even know where to begin. Did you see the interview with.

25:36 Harbaugh after, too? Yeah, it wasn't our plan to bench him.

25:38 It wasn't by design.

25:40 And then he said, we were down a bunch of points, so we have our third down guys in there. And then they interviewed Cam, and he was like, I'm being punished for what I did last week.

25:49 It's completely understandable.

25:51 And I just want to be ready when my name's called by coach again. And that's the correct answer. That's the only answer you can give and still stay in favor with a quarterback as well. So I don't know how this is going to work out. Like we got word about, you know, 30 minutes before kickoff that Najee Harris was going to be way more involved and it was going to be at the expense of Cam Scadaboo, which makes sense, right? After the big fumble that you were on a game winning drive and then, you know, probably should have lost, but then Jane Daniel screwed that up.

26:24 So I understand like the punishment aspect of this, but I think it is at the detriment of your team when you're benching Really, you're not, but you are. You gave him six snaps. When you're benching the best player in the backfield, I just think that's stupid. Yes, he fumbled. It was a big-time fumble. It was a huge mistake, but you've got to let the guy pick it up and move on from that. Harbaugh being a hard-o about this is not going to be great in the long run.

26:55 I do wonder which quarterback starts next week, though, as well. Would you lean towards J.J. McCarthy or Jameis here?

27:03 I feel like you got to go JJ, but then I feel like we're going to get, you know, 13 completions on 27 attempts for 119 yards if he starts next week.

27:12 But I don't know how you, I mean.

27:14 I don't know.

27:14 I don't know how you go back to Jameis after, and I mean, McCarthy, I've never been after, like, I thought he was going to be good. Then he missed his rookie year.

27:21 Then he was terrible.

27:21 Then I was like, then I was out and I didn't think he had in him what he did today. But a lot of times you see weird garbage time stuff happen in the fourth quarter. That doesn't necessarily, Jameis has made his career in garbage time. Joey Bursette was kind of like last year with so much garbage time, garbage time work that it doesn't in like when teams up big, they played, defense different differently.

27:41 And then sometimes I can't.

27:42 So I don't know. I, I think you start JJ, but I would definitely be cautious with my, with my job.

27:47 At Houston at Houston next week. So, and their defense has been terrible, right?

27:52 It's supposed to be good. Uh, it's been awful this year.

27:56 So yeah.

27:56 And they're saying, I know it makes no sense. And they're coming back from London too. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know.

28:01 I mean, you're not obviously not benching Malik or Isaiah likely, but I'm definitely not expecting those types of performances from them. Next week, what you've gotten. I mean, likely it's been awesome this year. But anyways, we can move on. So we hinted at this. Aaron Rodgers at 41, 42 years young. Playing the best football that he's played since he tore his Achilles. His last four weeks, 22.6, 21.96. So basically 22.

28:25 Exactly 22 and 16 points. Now the 16 is not great, but three straight 20-point performances. We talked about the receivers for the Steelers performing well.

28:34 You know, this offense.

28:36 we thought was going to be gross. I thought it was going to be gross heading into the year, but they've been good.

28:41 Yeah. You take the last four weeks.

28:42 And I think, uh, if you just average that out, he'd be like fourth among quarterbacks, right? Behind Alan Purdy and golf. That's it at this point, just ahead of Joe Burrow as well. So that's kind of crazy. Uh, I didn't expect this to work like this, but, um, you know, the offense has been working for the Steelers specifically after last week, right? It was, I told her boy Seth, who is also a Steelers fan from Pennsylvania.

29:08 And he said, or he was texting like, Hey, at least the Steelers won.

29:12 This was after my Longhorns lost to Oklahoma, of course.

29:15 Yeah.

29:15 And I said, I said, yeah, it was weird to win a game without like four turnovers and six sacks and all of that. Like the Steelers typically do just to win with an offensive game. So Aaron Rogers is humming right now. And if you've had problems, the quarterback, he might be your answer at this point. So, you know, I think I think he's absolutely viable, like better than like Tyler Shuck, who is apparently playing with a broken hand. So, you know, that's kind of weird. He's been better than Patrick Mahomes. Obviously, Jalen Hurts is out. Justin Herbert's been a mess. So is Bo Nix.

29:50 Right.

29:50 So there's a lot of down here in the quarterback market. Aaron Rodgers, one of the few guys moving up, it seems like.

29:57 Yeah.

29:57 Next week we got Josh Allen on by Trevor Lawrence on by Jaden Daniels on by also Justin Herbert, but hopefully nobody's starting him anymore. So, uh, yeah, I mean, you can definitely stream. I don't know the matchup next week, uh, but you could definitely stream and Rogers assuming he's not playing. Like, I don't know the, whatever the worst, whatever the worst defensive matchup would be.

30:15 Um, saints in Paris this week.

30:17 Oh, that's right. That's right. It's the parrot. Yeah. The Paris game.

30:21 Um, If they keep it.

30:22 Okay.

30:22 Yeah.

30:22 You can start them.

30:23 If you got a QB on bar week or you got a Jalen hurts injury and you're, you're, you're trying to figure it out. Um, and then the last one we have here, this was the London game. So let's not forget about it. Huge day for Travis Hunter on nine offensive snaps, but they were meaningful offensive snaps, but the flip side of that is no, no BTJ.

30:40 I don't, he didn't play at all in the second half.

30:42 He needs to have the Marv treatment sent to whoever his college quarterback is, um, and see if he can, he can, um, but yeah, I mean, are we starting Travis Hunter?

30:53 Um, I'm in, by the way, you'd be sending him to Cleveland, uh, for Shador, but, uh, but, uh, I do think that, uh, I don't think that we can start Travis Hunter's nine snaps, right? Like he got usage in it and I had to go look it up too, because usually I follow, uh, uh, Nate Yankee who does on PFF. He does like all the snap breakdowns and everything, but because Hunter plays on defense, he doesn't show up on the wide receiver one. So I had to go hunt it down through, uh, the other way. So, And I saw it was nine snaps on offense and 62 on defense. He's still primarily a defensive player, but if they are going to start using him, I think Travis Hunter is the best wide receiver on the Jaguars, including

31:34 Parker Washington. If they moved him to that side, this is a Heisman winner, right? Incredible athlete, unbelievable, but they need him more in the secondary. So I think he's going to stay mainly playing on defense. He'll have a couple of nice plays and big games, but, But with nine snaps, that just guarantees you.

31:53 Close to nothing.

31:54 So it's just really hard to pick him up and then also be willing to start him.

32:01 So if you have.

32:02 A really deep bench and you want to add him just to see if he starts to tick up those offensive snaps, then I'm all for that. But if you're in a normal league with a normal bench, I think you probably let somebody else use their fab on him.

32:16 Yeah, I think you put in a $ 0 claim and then you try to trade them. That's my plan. See if somebody just wants the big name. All right, we can move on. The next segment that we're going to do here is Panic Meter, where you guys in the chat will give us your players, and then Scott and I will give us our Panic Meter on those players.

32:32 But before we do that, I want to talk to you guys about the Waiver Planner. So you can 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 top targets are taken. Once your plan is set, you can submit your waiver claims to most major league sites with just one click. Save time, stay prepared, maximize your chances of landing the players your team needs. Build your personalized waiver plan today at fantasypros.com slash plan. That's fantasypros.com slash plan. And now we're talking panic meter. So like I said, get those names in the chat and we will give you our, uh, panic on those players.

33:21 One means we're not panicking at all. 10 means we're in full blown panic mode. And while you guys are doing that, um, I put some in the chat here or in our, in our notes here, just to get us started. Cam Scott, we just talked about him one to 10.

33:34 What's your panic meter on cam? I, how could it be lower than like an eight and a half or a nine?

33:40 Right?

33:40 Like he had six snaps today and didn't have a touch. So, uh, I mean, unless we hear different from the coaching staff specifically, like we are going to get cam Scadaboo more involved. He has to stay on your bench. I wouldn't recommend dropping him yet because he's still the best running back by a lot on the giants, right? Like nausea is older.

34:01 Hasn't been that good. And it's coming off an entry. Uh, Tyrone Tracy scored the touchdown here. I know But I still don't trust him, and I don't know why Singletary was active this week, right? It was because Cam Scadaboo fumbled. I think they're making a big production out of nothing, which is dumb. But I expect him to be back involved, but until I see it, it's really hard to start him.

34:26 And they play the Texans this week. They should be using him, but I don't know if they will.

34:32 I am totally in total agreement that it's bad coaching. I mean, like you see the best coaches go back to their, go back to their guys and put faith in them. Like you think he knows that he shouldn't fumble, but anyways, that's not what we're talking about.

34:40 So I'm with you.

34:41 I'll, I'll go nine on a camp sky to boo. You can't drop him. Probably can't trade him. Can't start him. So you just wait it out at this point. But, uh, we got from Trizzo, Sam, two saints players, Olave and, and Juwan Johnson. Chuck has not been tearing it up. Like he has the past couple or the beginning of the week or sorry, beginning of the year. He has not the past couple of weeks, Obviously, some tough matchups like the Vikings a couple weeks ago. He's got the broken hand. He's got an offensive line injury that I think is probably the most important of all of that.

35:09 So anyways, what is your panic meter on Olave and Juwan?

35:12 Yeah, I think it's probably like a six on these guys. There's nothing you can really do. You're not going to bench Olave. You're still going to start him next week and roll with them. I would say that if the terrible play continues from Shuck, they'll probably go to Rattler, I guess.

35:31 Uh, we'll see.

35:32 That's not a great, but Chris Olave is, uh, fairly QB proof, not completely. I don't know that anyone is completely, but fairly QB proof. And, uh, I think that he'll be okay. Juwan Johnson. I would be more concerned. I would say that probably the same, uh, you know, ballpark, I would be more concerned. Maybe I'm less concerned because I feel like there's tight ends on the wire that you can add. um and i don't think if you are starting juan johnson you've probably never really been married to him so uh less for juan just because of the nature of where he is a little more panicky on olave but i do think it'll get straightened out fairly quickly and i think the whole offense will be better when etchan comes back.

36:13 Agreed yeah agree with you i'm a little bit lower on the panic i think that they'll be fine i think they play so fast that they're going to have games where they're just running up and down the field. So I'm like probably a three on a lobby, a little bit higher on Juwan Johnson, because I mean, at this point he's like 30 years old.

36:27 It's not like there's that the upside there.

36:28 And I think it might've just been a hot touchdown start for him that it's kind of gets just going to fade.

36:33 But we can, we can go here to sir, sir. Dinesh, what do I do with AJ Brown?

36:39 So panic meter one to 10 on AJ, we kind of talked about it, but what do you got?

36:44 Um, I'm, I'm not panicking about him. I think we talked about this a little bit, like knocking the rust off. The hands are, the hands are not great, right? Like, uh, obviously that's not a good thing, but unless you start to get benched like Cam Scadaboo for the mistakes that you're making, it doesn't really matter that much to us. So, uh, you know, I do, I do think that AJ Brown's going to be fine and you're just going to leave him in your starting lineup.

37:08 Totally agree.

37:09 Yeah.

37:09 One, I'm not concerned about AJ Brown at all. I love the targets.

37:12 I'll probably take him in a, in a bet next week, but we can move on. And so we're going to, the last thing we're going to do here, got about 10 minutes to answer your guys' questions. But before we do, we got to talk about the custom fantasy football trophy that I want to talk to you guys about. So if you want a chance to give your fantasy league, the ultimate championship upgrade, courtesy at our good friends at trophy smack, which is the number one destination for Epic fantasy football hardware and This is your shot. We're giving away a 26 to 36 inch custom football trophy. It's a massive centerpiece built to make your league championship feel like a big deal.

37:47 The best part is that you can make it your own.

37:49 You can choose your topper, personalize the center and front plaques, customize the columns, create a trophy that represents your league. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football YouTube channel right now. Drop a comment below on any of our videos and that's it. We'll be announcing a winner right here on the channel.

38:07 So make sure to turn on notifications. Don't miss your chance to claim your prize. And let's talk questions. So get your questions in the chat. We got about 10 minutes before Sunday Night Football starts. So like I said, yeah, get your questions in the chat. We'll go through as many as we can before we have to get on out of here.

38:24 And we'll just go through it. So we talked about Scataboo. So we can do this one quickly.

38:30 Mr.

38:31 Aaron is, yeah, great name. Is Scataboo cooked? Yes or no?

38:36 I don't think he's cooked. Like we talked about before, I still think he is the best running back on the Giants. And I think at some point, seeing how this run game was today, they are going to have to put him back in.

38:49 So not panicking, not dropping. I don't think he's cooked yet.

38:53 Agreed. We can move on.

38:55 From Michael Sullivan, do you sell high on Devontae Smith? Full transparency, I didn't watch that game.

39:01 What do you think? Do you sell high on Devontae?

39:03 I don't know that.

39:04 You can sell high on Devontae Smith right now, right? Like he's still performing well. So if someone, you know, if you're in a Reuben Boob League and you can trade him as someone that doesn't pay as much attention as you, then great. But I think most people are paying attention. Most people understand that Jalen is gone. I don't know that this hurts him that much. Jalen wasn't great at passing the ball anyway. So uh, I think I'm okay with holding on, uh, to Devante Smith and seeing what he does with Tanner McKee.

39:29 I think you send some offers. Like the worst people say is no, that's the cut. That's like how, how I like to kind of go about things. I don't necessarily think like I've always been like, I don't think I like Jalen hurts, but I don't necessarily think that going from him to, to Tanner McKee is a huge downgrade for Devante Smith, because what you like about Jalen is a lot other than being a dropback passer, which is what Tanner McKee is. So Their offensive line and dealing with pressure is a bigger issue than the quarterback.

39:53 So he had a lot of targets today. He scored the touchdown. He's got great matchups coming up. So if you can get a haul for him, then sure. But I'm not trying to sell him. And we can move on. Axel Gonzalez, do you think Milton will start a game this year? Bazooka Joe.

40:09 I don't think I would put it completely out of the realm of possibility, specifically if Jalen does have to miss the entire year, as Deepak kind of alluded to. blood clots and all that stuff being a six to 12 week timeline with most taking more closer to 12 than six. So I wouldn't completely rule it out, but I think McKee's been there for a long time. He knows this offense. I would expect Mickey to start most of the games unless he's just looking really terrible.

40:37 Yeah.

40:38 Barring injury.

40:38 I don't think that we're going to see Milton. I mean, he's fun.

40:42 He's not that great of a quarterback.

40:43 Unfortunately, that's the problem with, he can throw it 900 yards, but I don't necessarily, I mean, we haven't seen him, so maybe we don't know, but in the limited time we have, it hasn't been great. So I would say barring injury, I would, I would get, I would guess no. And I don't think he's worth picking up and stashing or anything like that. Um, from J red 97, 99, my horrible running backs in PPR are Irving Pollard and Armando Stevenson. Do I pick up Roshan Johnson?

41:08 No.

41:08 Uh, like I think common on guys back next week, So I don't think I would pick up. Rashawn had nice usage today. So I'm not going to say it's completely a no. If you're in a super deep league, then maybe I look at throwing a couple bucks on Rashawn and just seeing if I can get him. But I think for the most part, I don't I don't see you starting him over any of the guys that you listed. So I'm probably going to leave him on the wire for someone else that.

41:35 Yeah, if you have a spot, I think he's probably worth picking up in the off chance that Mnangai doesn't play.

41:40 I also think that he plays.

41:41 Maybe we could have asked Deepak that, but maybe you start him over Ramondre, but probably not. But like I said, he's at least worth picking up in case that Mnangai misses again, because toe injuries can be a little weird.

41:54 From JP Tay, Bogman, what is going on with the Rams? They barely score on the 32nd. Yeah, that green was crazy. I mean... Losing to the Cardinals is wild. Yeah, it really is. So what's going on with the Rams?

42:08 I think the Rams.

42:10 Are going to be okay, but obviously it has not looked good yet this year. And Kyron has still been good. Like most of the pieces has still been good. I think this was like the first down game for Puka where he played the full game. Devante getting hurt at the end of the game. We're going to have to see what happens there. But Blake Corm has been in and out. He's been in the last two weeks. He was out before that. So I think they're going to be okay. You know, this was a division rivalry game. So, you know, these typically play a little bit closer. And I think they made some coaching mistakes, right? It's tough to lose to six field goals. That's not something that typically happens. So I think they'll be okay moving forward.

42:52 But it's less and less of a guarantee every single week. Matthew Stafford isn't even looking good. crazy old yet but he is looking like he's not moving very well so uh i think it'll get better um you know beyond this week but that was a really terrible performance and you are right to be a little concerned for sure.

43:13 Yeah i mean from like a fanhood perspective for sure from a fantasy perspective you're right i mean like you're happy with with the players on the rams they're just also two and four so it's like yeah you know i don't know where i don't know what you can really do other than you're obviously playing those guys and you Just hope that the team themselves gets better.

43:30 I think Korn's the only guy that wavers. Everybody else, you're rolling, for sure. Yeah, fair. Yeah, fair.

43:36 So, funny, awesome, person 90. Should add Humble in there as well.

43:39 We talked about him, so we don't have to go super long here, but thoughts on Devontae without Jalen.

43:43 Should I, I'm guessing, trade him, taking advantage of, from his good fantasy performance?

43:48 I mean, if you can trade him, I get it, but I think, like we said before, Tanner McKee might, I don't think much changes. So, I'm going to roll with Devontae Smith if I'm rostering him.

43:59 Yeah.

43:59 See if you can like package him for like him plus another player for an upgrade. See if like maybe somebody had a down week this week. But yeah, other than that, you're not, you're not, I don't think you're getting a hall for him anyway. So I'm kind of with you. Jeremy Patton, 58, 57. Do I trade or bench Ladd McConkie or Amari and Hampton? Well, this week you're lucky.

44:17 You don't have to play them.

44:18 You don't have to make that decision, but moving forward, do you trade or bench Ladd McConkie and Amari and Hampton?

44:24 I don't trade.

44:26 Uh lad i don't think you can trade omari and hampton but if you can i would see what type of offers you get because they've been splitting up this backfield three different ways i think mitchell was the guy out of the loop this week and hampton has always kind of been there but he hasn't looked good right videl has looked better than him for the most part so uh i don't think there's much you can do with hampton i don't think there's a lot of guys that i would cut him for specifically this week. And Ladd, you know, he should be back the next week. And like Deepak said, if he does have to miss another week, it's probably good to rest these other injuries that he's had.

45:04 But they're on a bye. So he should be back in week eight. So we should be fine with him. Yeah.

45:10 I don't know what you could get for them. So you're probably just have to, I mean, this week, obviously you're not playing, but you probably just have to hold. But so we got two questions from will fricking power, but this one I thought was a little bit better. Cause it's a little more like an easier yes or no question to answer. Would you trade a Buka or burden straight up for chase Brown? This is a pretty, pretty clear.

45:28 Yes. For me. Do you disagree? Yeah, not at all.

45:31 No. And I don't, I don't love what's happening with chase Brown in the backfield and then giving us some Ajay P Ryan more, but you know, these are, wide receiver two to threes like flex guys. And Chase Brown has a chance to be a game changer for you. So if you can do those traits, I'd absolutely do them.

45:47 Yeah.

45:47 And it's, you know, it's, we've seen two straight years heading into this year. Chase Brown's being significantly better the second half of the year than the first half. It happens a lot with the Bengals offense, but I agree with you. The utilization is what's the, is what's the scary part with Chase Brown. Like you could explain a way that rough start the last two years, splitting time with Zach miles two years ago, last year, it was Jake Browning was the quarterback. So either way, I am doing either– I'm doing either one of those trades. And if you had to choose which receiver, like who do you like better between Igbuka.

46:13 Or Burden, meaning– I like Igbuka better. Oh, interesting. Okay.

46:18 I would say Burden. But see whoever the Chase Brown manager likes better. Either one of those we're both good with.

46:24 Yeah.

46:25 I'd be good trading either one of them.

46:26 Yeah.

46:26 Yeah.

46:27 All right.

46:27 This will be the last question because then you guys got to watch Sunday Night Football. But I thought this was a good one from Saquon FTW. What do we think about Warren now that Dowdle is back? And I thought about adding this. Sorry to interrupt you. I thought about adding this to the when we talked about the Steelers.

46:41 But yeah.

46:42 So, yeah.

46:42 What do you think?

46:44 I think Warren is still the guy.

46:45 And specifically, I think the reason I think he's going to be the guy is what we saw in overtime.

46:50 Right. Was at the end.

46:52 They just they they used him as a closer. Pretty much was he had the he took the ball. He bled the clock, led the Steelers down the field. rogers is looking to dump it off to him all the time because he's looking for those short routes so he doesn't get hit so i think it's still warren but thattle is going to eat in right and might be annoying occasionally near the goal line as well so uh this gets more complicated than it was but i still think jalen is the guy in pittsburgh.

47:20 Yeah i agree with you and he was never going to continue to play 90 of the snaps that was that was just kind of like hey like we're just going to run you into the ground until dowell comes back it was always going to be more of a split but Warren's awesome. Rogers likes him. Dowdle Dowdle has not looked good even before the toe injury.

47:34 So I'm not today. Yeah, he did better today. Better today.

47:37 Yeah.

47:37 A couple of big rip runs.

47:38 So he looked better, but I was kind of hoping he was going to Dowdle, you know, he was going to do to Dowdle what Dowdle did to Chuba last year, because I have a lot of shares of Jalen Warren, but we didn't get that lucky.

47:50 No, no, we didn't, but cool.

47:52 All right.

47:52 Well, thank you everybody for joining us. Thank you for spending some time with us tonight. Right after Sunday Night Football, you can join the Fantasy Dude on the Tailgate YouTube channel, which can be found at Tailgate NFL. Here's takeaways from tonight's action. We got hopefully an awesome game. Hopefully we see a ton of scoring in this one. That should be the case. Thank you, everybody, for joining us, and we'll catch you next time.

48:12 Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.

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