Week 8 Fantasy Football Reactions & Injuries + Early Week 9 Waiver Wire (Ep. 2310)

0:00 All right.

0:01 Welcome, everybody, to the Fantasy Pros Podcast. We are here recapping everything that happened week eight today. I am your host, Matt Modai. I'm currently joined by Scott Bogman. Hopefully, we will get the doc in here again. But, Scott, your Steelers got to win. How'd your fantasy week go?

0:18 Everything go well?

0:20 No, not great. Had a couple donuts in my lineup from some guys. I had in one of my 16-man leagues, Baker. was my quarterback so ouch yeah yeah should we got to get the uh army head coach in here to uh to start running plays for this triple option my god uh but yeah weird day lots of injuries um jaguars had some hideous uniforms on beat down the browns i mean it was a fun one for sure.

0:50 Yeah, it was a fun Sunday.

0:50 Yeah, I'm in a league where I have the best record, most points for, and I have safe flowers and Kenneth Walker. We were just talking offline about a buddy of mine in a different league, but I was feeling good about that league. And then next thing you know, your season's flipped on its head. But yeah, hopefully we can get the doc in here to talk injuries or else me and you are putting our doctor hat on and we're going to try and diagnose these things.

1:10 But yeah, so we'll talk injuries. We'll talk injuries. five storylines.

1:14 We'll go through panic meter, uh, where we, me and you list a player or the, the, uh, comments list a player, and then we give her a panic on them. And then we'll do some rapid fire questions at the end. But, uh, before we get the doc in here, I might as well go through the big injuries that we have here. Um, obviously the, the biggest thing that we have, the quarterbacks for the Ravens, uh, on the graphic here, you see Lamar Jackson thumb injury. I he's The coach came out, said he's going to have surgery and be placed on IR.

1:39 So we'll see what that timeline looks like when we get the doc in here. And then Snoop went down with Turtow as well. And then we had Michael Wilson with a rib injury. He came out after the game and said he had two broken ribs, but gutted through a sick touchdown in the fourth quarter that should.

1:52 Have won them the game. They won. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

1:55 And then we have James Cook who returned, got hurt, returned, and then got hurt again and then returned again. So we should be fine, but we'll see what we have there. And then DJ Moore with a knee injury. And Jeremiah Love, again, with an ankle. Tough stuff there. We'll start with the Ravens because that's, I mean, the quarterbacks. I mean, the quarterback, too.

2:15 You think, like, with Lamar Jackson right behind Josh Allen in terms of quarterback, too.

2:20 What do we do with the Ravens? I mean, what's going on?

2:23 Yeah, everybody has to take a big downgrade right now. And, you know, you kind of noticed that when these guys went out, this game kind of got out of reach. And then we saw more Justice Hills. than Derek Henry in terms of snaps. Right. So I think everybody takes a bit of a downgrade specifically because if we are down to Joe Fiano, who is also banged up, we didn't get a diagnosis, but they asked him at the podium and he said, yeah, I'm not a hundred percent right now. And the next game is on Thursday. Look, Joe Fiano was pretty good in college, right? I think his last season at UConn, 28 touchdowns, one interception. So very careful with the ball, you know, and he'll get, Not a full week, but three to four days of

3:05 practice with the number ones, you would think here with Huntley being down and getting an MRI tomorrow. Lamar just on IR and maybe done for the season. I mean, his thumb look gross. Yeah, not real good. He's going to be he's definitely not going to do the Kyler. No, no call of duty for him. So his thumb is shot down. So, yeah, I just think everyone in Baltimore is probably going to have to take a downgrade, but it doesn't murder everybody. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like Zay Flowers is unstartable at this point, but it might just be like Derrick Henry and Zay.

3:39 Those are the only two that you can even trust. I would say Zay goes from a borderline RB1-2 to a borderline RB2-3. And, you know, Derrick Henry is just going to see fewer touchdown opportunities with a quarterback that is going to be harder to drive into the red zone with.

3:56 Yeah, heading into this game, it was a tough last two weeks with Derrick Henry, but it was kind of like, all right, let's get Lamar back, and then let's see what happens. And then we never really got Lamar back.

4:03 We got a play.

4:06 One play. That's it.

4:07 One play, yeah.

4:08 Yeah, you know, I was excited about Jacoby Lane. I thought that he was a good sleeper. You love rookies in the second half, but even if it's Snoop, I still wouldn't necessarily feel great about that. And then if it's your boy from UConn, I definitely don't feel great about that.

4:24 Hopefully we can get.

4:25 The doc on here just to ask about what the prognosis is for Snoop with the turf toe.

4:29 But the next one that we had was Michael Wilson.

4:31 Now, he had been kind of dealing with a rib injury heading into the game. He had been down the last couple of weeks, which is kind of funny. Last year with no Marv, Michael Wilson, that's when he ascended.

4:42 That's when he blew up.

4:42 This year after the Marv trade, it wasn't great, but he had a great game. Came out after the game, said he had two rib injuries going. I think what, and you can feel free to disagree with me, but I think what we know about rib injuries is that it's a pain tolerance thing, but you can kind of wear a flak jacket, you can get shot up, and you can mostly play through it.

5:00 Yeah, I mean, Bourne got hurt too, though, right? Yeah. I mean, this is going to be like 25 targets to Trey McBride coming weeks here, and they lost two running backs too. Bam Knight got hurt, Jeremiah Love banged up as well, so... yeah, man, this Cardinals offense took a massive hit. They did win after changing quarterbacks to your Minshew, but you do have to wonder, okay, so are we just straight going to Gardner Minshew? He is the backup. He's been the backup all year. Or are we going to give Carson Beck a chance, right? Because this upcoming class is going to have a decent amount of quarterback. So if you want to draft your quarterback for the future, if you're picking very high, You probably

5:43 need to see what you just took in Carson Beck. So I don't think it'll be immediate. I think it'll be Gardner Minshew for the next week or two at least. And if he doesn't keep winning, I don't know if they would go back to Brissette or if they would just say, all right, Beck, let's see what you got for the last five weeks of the season, six weeks of the season. So, but Brissette looked awful. I don't know if this is going to be a permanent move.

6:05 I would assume it would be with Gardner Minshew taking over and then leading them to win the game in overtime. on the road against the Cowboys. That was a really nice win there. But yeah, that was, we'll, we'll see what's going to happen with it, but you're right. Michael Wilson is all going to be pain tolerance. Can he do the blackjack like Mike Evans did, or does he need a week or two off before he can even try that? Yeah. Yeah.

6:29 And we have, we'll talk about the Cardinals a little bit later, so I don't want to go too deep into the fantasy implications of stuff, but yeah, I think, I mean, Michael Wilson's playing, he's in your lineup. The next one that we have here is James Cook. Now, I mentioned when I brought up the recap or brought up the graphic, he had like crazy awkward tackle. It was like one of the best examples of NFL players are not like the rest of us. Because if I, I mean, I stubbed my toe and I'm out for three weeks. James Cook got like, it was a crazy hit.

6:56 But he came back in. Then he got hurt again, limped off. Then he came back in. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm going to go ahead and guess that he's fine. The video of the second injury looked awful. nothing like nothing crazy not that i'm a doctor i'm not gonna even pretend but the fact that they put him back in in a game that was pretty much out of reach makes it feel like okay it was he got a little banked up and he's fine.

7:17 Yeah that's kind of what i'm assuming at this point because you're right like that that neck thing where he was evaluated for a concussion he fell awkwardly on his neck and then an alignment fell on top of him weird and they were all waving for uh you know the doctors to come over he pops right back up and leaves and then the other thing I believe was a something with his leg. So, you know, definitely nicked up, but he was in the game. So I'm going to assume he's okay until we hear otherwise.

7:47 Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

7:48 And if the game was close, maybe you could say, all right, that he was like, I'm going to gut it out. Um, and then the next one that we have here is DJ Moore. The poor guy just can't seem to stay healthy. I mean, he was dealing with that shoulder injury, got hurt.

7:59 He missed a week. He came back.

8:00 He re re injured, re injured it, missed two weeks by week, came back and out the knee injury.

8:05 Um, I don't know.

8:07 I haven't seen anything on him. I don't know if you were able to see anything on TJ.

8:11 I actually did. I heard the doc talking about this on his Instagram. And he was saying it didn't look too bad. Right. Luckily, it's not the same thing that he's been dealing with with the shoulder. It's a knee injury. Um, and what he had said was, look, it just really depends on severity. And we're not going to know that until probably tomorrow. So, uh, they, they didn't need him to go back in. So he didn't go back in. Uh, but this is something that guys have had and played the next week. So it's all dependent on severity and we probably won't know that until tomorrow. Yeah.

8:44 And he had a great game. I mean, he had an awesome, awesome catch. And I mean, Keon Coleman almost had a good game. Josh Allen just missed him on a, on a deep, deep shot there. So yeah, I mean, DJ Moore was somebody that I, you know, when he was injured, looking to Bobby, I was looking to trade and I, I'm guessing that window is probably a little bit closed now that he had a good game. Um, and then the last one on the graphic here, share my love. We can kind of loop him in cause bam night got hurt as well. I mean, love, I mean, amazing prospect. It sprains his ankle in the preseason and it looks like it's just going to be a lost rookie season.

9:12 Yeah. I mean, this is, um, this is getting to be very frustrating, right? Like, and it seems like they probably should have just stuck them on. I are. and sat him out for six to eight weeks and then let him recover because that's, you know, the, the, it seems like the ankle sprains are now on a spectrum, right?

9:30 It's not just like, okay, you're hurt. You're out three to four weeks. That's it. Come back. Uh, so this is one where it just is really unfortunate. Uh, I think you're right, but with all these other backs hurting, I know this Tyler Algiers season right now, and I just dropped him in my big league, just dropped him. So, Very, very frustrating. But yeah, I think it's wheels up for Tyler Algeo right now.

9:54 Yeah.

9:55 And whatever the quarterback situation is.

9:58 I know there's so much unknown there. There's so much.

10:00 And Hey, Trey Benson's a free agent, just like a third round pick just a couple of years ago.

10:04 Maybe they can bring it back.

10:05 Um, and then there's some, some, some other names that we have here that we can just kind of do some, some quick hitters. So, um, We mentioned the Cardinals running back. So Jake Ferguson left with an ankle injury. It just came out right before we hit record that it was deemed a low ankle sprain, not a high ankle sprain.

10:22 Kendrick Bourne, that one was a high ankle sprain. Hunter Henry in the 4 p.m. game against the Dolphins got hurt, and he did not return.

10:29 I mean.

10:31 In terms of fantasy relevance, probably the only guys on that list you're starting is Hunter Henry.

10:36 But my question is, I liked Eli Raridon. I mean, rookie tight ends. It used to be they never did anything, but that's kind of changed the last couple years. He's flashed. If Henry's out, and I mean, we need to talk about like Trayvon Henderson and A.J. Brown.

10:48 There's a ton of stuff with the Patriots. But if Hunter Henry's out, is Eli Raridon in your lineups?

10:54 In my lineup, I don't know, but he's definitely an option, right? You're in the tight end premium. I have a league where we start two tight ends. You're in a deep league. He's definitely an option because he can score a touchdown, right? That is the whole reason you would put him in. Kind of the same reason why we're starting Hunter Henry, to be honest. It's not like he's racking up 100-yard games. So, yeah, he could definitely– he's on the radar. That's for sure.

11:19 Yeah, and at tight end, if you don't have one of the big names, you're kind of streaming the matchups, and he's definitely somebody that in a good matchup you can stream. And then for Sunday Night Football tonight, we have Saquon Barkley. He means Just a weird situation going on with him.

11:34 He missed a couple weeks with a hamstring injury.

11:36 Re-injured it on the first play where he looked great, and then he was nagging it the whole game. I think he only played 10 snaps, and then he had a back injury, but he's playing tonight. The Eagles are a mess. I mean, it's Sunday night, so I'm guessing people already decided if they were going to start him or not. I decided not to in the league, but if you're facing that decision between like Roshon Johnson or something or Saquon Barkley, obviously you're starting Barkley there, but just curious from a fantasy perspective what you think about Barkley.

12:01 I mean, I'm very frustrated with it, right? Like, I don't like this half-in, half-out stuff. Like, either just rule them out and place them, but they're so banged up at the running back.

12:12 I know.

12:14 So, he's playing through it, and he said after the game, my hamstring was actually okay with my back. That was bothering me, but I'm going to play through it. Don't know how much I believe that, right? I feel like some of those, we need the player injury index, like we have the coach speak index, right? Yeah. Um, uh, I, he's going to be on a pitch count. It's going to be frustrating. So I think you probably made the right decision based, you know, depending on who you put in over him.

12:42 Yeah.

12:42 And I mean like, um, Mitchell, you know, Elijah Mitchell, I'm assuming, you know, I'm messing with him even if sake, like if sake, yeah.

12:49 Nah, no. Like I like Will Shipley, you know, but he got hurt too. So I know Shipley was kind of my guy and tank was in there as well. Like they had viable guys, but these guys are all gone.

13:00 Right now.

13:01 So yeah, it's a, it's a tough scene to be an RB in Philly right now.

13:05 I know tank Damien Pierce even was, was looking good. And then players that missed this week, you know, we'll have to see what, if we can get some, some thoughts on the doc, but come a nun guy. I, you know, I thought he was going to play, you know, he got hurt. You can't, it seems like turf toes about a three week injury. But they keep listing turf slash thumb, so I wonder if the thumb is bothering him more. Jordan Tyson, who obviously has missed the entire season, looking like he might return.

13:32 A.J.

13:32 Brown and Travion Henderson with the Patriots, and then Brees Hall. Yeah, anything you have on those guys?

13:38 I think all those guys are pretty close to playing this week, so I would expect them to go next week. Now, I'll start A.J. Brown, I'll start Brees Hall. I don't like what they're doing with the running back scenario in New England. So until we see trey henderson get in there and go off i'm i'm just unless i'm absolutely desperate to have injuries and bi-weeks and all that stuff and only two teams on a bi-week next week you should be better in a better position or have better options out there i don't want to roll henderson and i love him and i loved him coming in but i might have to take the hell on that one he's been banged up and they do not know how to use him.

14:15 And you know, he came out of Ohio state, like praise for his pass blocking. And he's been terrible as a, as like a blitz pickup pass blocker and stuff. And he's, he's just not going to play for, for Rabel and not many teams are going to want to play. The interesting name is Jordan Tyson, because I mean, he's dealt with the hamstring injuries throughout his entire career. I mean, he looked incredible in training camp and every, all the talk out of New England or out of new Orleans was how good he looked.

14:38 And then he re-injured it. He missed a couple months.

14:40 I'm assuming you're probably not starting him in his first game back, but, I mean, I'm intrigued.

14:47 Yeah, you should be. He's supremely talented, right?

14:49 Yeah.

14:50 But he is Mr. Glass. This dude has been injured in college for the last two seasons, his initial NFL season. He gets hurt right before the season, and he came in and didn't do a lot of the stuff in the combine with the hamstring injury and then got almost all the way through it and then another hamstring injury.

15:08 So very intriguing prospect here. could be very, very high end, but who you are rolling the dice starting Jordan Tyson. Like, let's see him first.

15:18 Yeah, for sure.

15:19 And I mean, Bailey's look good. Uh, John Johnson's kind of, kind of, um, he's falling off after a hot start.

15:24 So there's definitely look terrible too recently, like ever since that, the broken hand thing, he's looked bad. So, uh, yeah, that's, you know, this can work out really well. If you have a spot on your bench, go ahead and grab him and stash him. But, uh, starting him as a different story.

15:38 Yeah, for sure. Yeah, he's been sitting in my IR, and I'm going to see how he does for a week before starting him. But all right, we'll move on. We'll talk storylines. But before we do, we got a quick video to show you guys.

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16:26 That's FPPOD to get $ 25 free after you deposit just $ 10. So, all right, let's talk storylines. Like you mentioned it, not a big bye week, which is good. Only two teams on bye, Pittsburgh and Tennessee. Not a ton of fantasy relevance there, aside from maybe Tony Pollard just being the best running back in the NFL.

16:45 But we can talk.

16:46 You pronounced Keelan Warren wrong, but I understand.

16:49 And Rico Dowdle. I mean, all the running backs.

16:52 But the first one that I wanted to talk about, and again, these aren't necessarily in order of importance, but What's going on with the running backs in Las Vegas? Because you talked about dropping, I think it was Algier right before.

17:04 I dropped Mike Washington Jr. like right before because I wasn't going to start him.

17:08 And I forget what, I think I picked up Seth McGowan or somebody like just in a trade anyways. But so Ashton Jinty, two carries, four targets. Now he did a lot, especially, I mean, it was one big target. But then Mike Washington Jr., 25, pretty inefficient, but still 25 carries. Ashton Jinty said that it was communicated to him before the game that he would get fewer carries.

17:30 That was per Ryan McFadden. The snap count, 38 out of 63 for Washington. Jinty had 25 out of 63. It seems like this is punishment for what he said about the Jets. But what are your takeaways here?

17:42 Yeah, I mean, it is the dreaded split, right? Which we hate in fantasy. And that's kind of where I think we're going. Two carries for Jinty. I know they've been trying to baby him a little bit. Maybe this is one of those games where they're like, we're just going to see what we have more with Mike Washington and give him more carries and let Jenty eat it up.

18:02 So it was 38 snaps for Washington to 25 for Jenty. But obviously, I would still say that Jenty is more valuable, specifically in PPR leagues, right? And before this game, I don't know what it looked like yet. I don't have numbers for it yet. But in terms of carries inside the five, it was over 80% for Gentee still. So I think he's more likely to score a touchdown. He's more likely to catch passes. So specifically in a PPR league, he is more valuable. In a standard, they're probably pretty even at this point. I would still lean towards Gentee a little bit. I don't think that this is going to repeat. I don't think it's going to be 25-2 anyway.

18:47 I do think it'll probably be like, you know, 17 to 14 and then gentee catches more passes something like that moving forward i don't think this is permanent uh but apparently they're saying it was communicated to him that he'll get fewer carries i don't know if that's for a week or for moving forward though so i assume that is going to continue in this type of split which is gross it just moves both of their you know washington moves way up but gentee moves from a you know to maybe an RB2, RB3 borderline guy now.

19:22 Yeah, and it's, I mean, Jente, you can forgive last year being inefficient because that team was just a mess, but, I mean, this Raiders team is not nearly as bad. Their offense hasn't been bad, and he has been so inefficient on the ground. You wonder if this was always going to happen. Like, he's been fantastic through the air, so his fantasy finishes, he hasn't killed you. He's not been an Amarian Hampton, obviously, or anything like that because he's been so valuable through the air, but... Yeah, I mean, if he's getting he's getting two carries, that's, I mean, you can't have that.

19:52 It's worthless.

19:53 Yeah. Yeah. He was in near the goal line. I saw him in on some of those sets.

19:57 I don't know.

19:58 You know, I, I see the snap count, but I don't see the goal line, the third down, all that stuff. Right. All that information available quite yet, but it's, it's, it's 100% concerning. So I will be, if we look in, it was Washington way more in at the goal line than it was a gentee. Then I'll be more concerned, but I do think it was still gentee when they got down there.

20:20 Yeah, I believe, I believe you're right.

20:22 I had red zone on site. I wasn't dialed into that game specifically, but I believe you're right. I remember seeing him on the field. I mean, so do you think that it's possible that whoever has Ashton gentee is going to be panicking and that he's a trade for target? Are you kind of just washing your hands clean and saying, I don't want any part of this. I, You know, if someone is really panicking and wants to sell him dirt cheap, then yes, I would go after him.

20:44 I just don't. He was such a high draft pick. I don't think his value is going to allow someone to trade him that cheap. And I don't think you're going to want to pay up what the current cost is for Gentee. So, like I said, if someone is panicking, yes, but I doubt there's too many people that will sell him too cheap.

21:03 Yeah, you're probably right. I mean, it's worth an offer.

21:05 The only thing here is that, let's not forget that this Raiders coaching staff came from Seattle, where they were taking Kenneth Walker off the field for Zach Charbonnet. So it wouldn't be that shocking if it ended up being closer to a 50-50 carry. But like you said, if Jante's getting a ton of passing work and he's getting the goal line work, he'll still.

21:21 Be very good for fantasy. He might just not be. He'll be the Charbonnet. Yeah, honestly, yeah, yeah. How funny is that?

21:28 So, all right, the next one, and we did talk a lot about the Ravens in the injury segment, but I do, I did want to spend more time here because moving forward, we just need to know what to do with the Ravens, but Lamar Jackson out, not looking good, at least out for four games, probably more than that.

21:42 Tyler Huntley injured turf toe. The third string quarterback injured with some sort of banged up knee injury. We saw Zay Flowers goose. Henry didn't kill you. 11 carries 53 yards and a touchdown, but What do we know about Derek Henry is that he's much better when the team is winning and when the team has leads and they can just feed him carries. On the third string quarterback, you know, I don't know necessarily if that's going to be the case. So you're probably not benching these guys.

22:07 You're definitely moving them down. And like you said, is there anybody else worth starting on the team?

22:12 There isn't. I mean, I don't know that on a week-to-week basis there was anyway.

22:17 Yeah.

22:17 At this point, like Lane is a deep league play for a touchdown upside, right? Mark Andrews is worthless at this point.

22:24 Yeah.

22:25 Who cares? So it was just Zay and Derrick Henry anyway. So like you said, you're probably still going to keep those guys in your lineup. I completely understand if you want to avoid Zay, if you want to try to trade him in a 10 man. You know, I don't think I don't think there's any scenario where I cut Zay, but I wouldn't think it's the craziest move if they say that Halo Huntley is going to miss six weeks and Lamar's out for the season. So it's just this this third string guy, right? Joe Fiano, but I do kind of, I like Fiano coming in. I was a little surprised he was undrafted. I look, looking up the stats here, 3000, over 3000 yards last year, 34, 48, 28 touchdowns, one pick through six picks to 48 touchdowns

23:07 in his collegiate career. It doesn't mean much in the NFL specifically on, you know, this game is coming up in four days for Thursday night football. So this week is really bad, but I don't want to panic too much. And Drop Zay or trade Henry cheap or anything like that, even if it is Viano moving forward.

23:26 Yeah, definitely not drop. I'm with you there. I think that's a little too much.

23:28 I mean, people are going to see that he goosed and say, well, if this is what's going to happen every time this quarterback plays, he's not worth it. But that's I mean, when two quarterbacks get hurt, you kind of just have to throw that game away. Not every quarterback is Brock Purdy and could come in as a third string quarterback and and be good.

23:42 We saw him.

23:43 The commanders, he honestly wasn't bad. Um, I call him Zach Galifianakis. I forget his actual name. Uh, but it's, it's, he actually wasn't bad. So maybe, maybe we should be giving a Fiano a little bit more, more heat here. But the question I have is, is anything like, so justice Hill, they're going to be losing more. They're going to be passing more. And it's, it's an easy check down for young Ricky quarterback. Does he become, you know, flex worthy in your eyes?

24:06 Flex worthy. Probably not just because with the quarterback, this young, specifically this week, like how much, how much are you going to even be on the field? It might be a lot of three and outs. Jacksonville is pretty hot right now. So, uh, that's going to be, it's, that's difficult. I mean, in a deeper league. Sure. Right. I take them over Samaj P Ryan at this point, but, uh, not too many other guys. Cool. All right.

24:32 Uh, that makes sense here.

24:32 We can move on to the, uh, next team with a bunch of injuries and a quarterback that started that didn't finish the game. But so Jacoby preset benched, and a ton of situations, like just a ton of stuff going on with the Cardinals.

24:44 We lost two running backs.

24:45 Teller at year just blew up 147 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown five receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown through the air.

24:53 Just amazing game.

24:55 And then Michael Wilson, after having three down games in a row, eight receptions on 15 targets, 111 yards touchdown team McBride, you know, he ho-hum seven receptions, eight targets, 75 yards and a touchdown. A lot of this was with, um, not Jacoby Bursette, but, with Gardner Minshew.

25:14 So, I mean, what the heck are we doing here? I don't even know where to start.

25:18 I mean, look, if Wilson's going to be okay, we know Trey McBride's going to be fine. It's just figuring out, like, I don't know. I kind of feel like in terms of fantasy, Gardner Minshew and Jacoby Brissett are the Spider-Man meme. You know what I mean?

25:30 Sure, fair.

25:31 Like pointing at each other. They're kind of the same guy. I don't expect a huge drop off with Minshew. And in fact, he looked better this week when he took over, obviously. So, I'm not too afraid of this offense. Now, Kendrick Bourne being gone, and then if Michael Wilson's going to miss some time, we might get triple coverage on Trey McBride, because who the hell else do they have? They just put Brooks on IR last week, too, and traded Marvin.

25:55 So they're now like Simi Fayoko or somebody. I don't even know who it is on the roster. It would be Fayoko. I think Reggie Virgil got hurt as well, and then Devin Duvernay. So on the practice squad, they have my guy Trey Wallace III from Ole Miss. Shedrick Jackson, and they did sign Zay Jones back. So they have some guys on there, but also what's going on with the running backs here. So I think Tyler Algier, it's wheels up for him currently. It's wheels up for Trey McBride.

26:26 I think it's going to be Minshew, but like we kind of mentioned before, what are we doing with Carson Beck, right? Is Carson Beck going to get a look? Is it just straight to Gardner Minshew? Is it let's see how many games Minshew wins in a month and then go to Carson Beck? And then we really don't know what we have when Carson Beck comes in. But for now, I'm okay with these guys as long as they're healthy.

26:46 It's just who is healthy.

26:47 Yeah, the health is obviously a big thing.

26:49 Yeah, I mean, you're right that Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew are probably similar tier quarterbacks.

26:54 I just don't like change.

26:55 We knew with Jacoby Brissett, he was going to hyper-target these guys. I don't like it when things are different. Give me a status quo. I don't care if in the first half, They don't do anything because you know they're going to get those garbage time points.

27:07 And they didn't let Jacoby Brissett do that this week. They benched him. And he was bad. So I'm not saying that they made a mistake. Gardner Minshew won them the game.

27:13 But... I mean, they might go to Brissett. It would not be that shocking if they go right back to him and just say, hey, look, we just paid this guy. It was a bad game. So we went to Brissett and we won. Or we went to Minshew and we won. But I'm so used to saying we went to Brissett.

27:29 I know. But.

27:31 We're going back to our guy. I just don't think that happens. I think once you bench him, uh, you know, it's probably Minshew season right now. And I know a lot of people are happy about it because he's helped people before.

27:42 Yeah.

27:42 And they want, like they came back and they want, so it's like, yeah, if he, if he looked bad, then, then maybe not. But yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot of, uh, wait, we'll have to see. So the next one, um, I want to talk about the bangles of like every week. It's the same story. Jamar chase and Jamar chase hasn't had an amazing year. He's been fine, but he hasn't had like the Jamar chase wide receiver one type year. him and T Higgins absolutely blew up roughly disappointing game from chase Brown. Again, he didn't kill you, but he went lower than.

28:09 I know he's got it.

28:10 I mean, he had one called back of course. Um, but he, like I said, he didn't, he didn't kill you.

28:16 He went lower than his projection, but he had a bunch of targets, a bunch of receptions and he had a rough, like just under a hundred total yards. But, but still, I mean, I keep saying, I keep coming on here saying it's going to come for chase Brown. It's going to come for chase Brown. And it, and it hasn't yet. Is this, you think this is just what it's going to be the rest of the season for him?

28:34 Um, no, I like, I think that he had, he had way more snaps than P Ryan and way more touches this week. Right. Uh, 51 snaps to 26 on, uh, 74 snaps, 33. He ran chase Brown, ran more routes than P Ryan had snaps in this game. So I hope, we get exactly what we saw this week. It's just chase Brown gets a little more and gets in the end zone moving forward in, because this is the bangles I know. And I'm used to uncomfortable with, right?

29:06 Yeah.

29:06 The ones that suck on defense are really good on offense and they have to go point for point with the Titans.

29:14 Right?

29:14 Like that, this is what we want from these guys. So I hope we see much more of this. It looked better for chase Brown. I would buy him low right now. I still think I would. I know he's been frustrating and, Uh, but if you can get them cheap, I think I'd go do that.

29:28 I agree with you. I just feel like the boy who cried wolf at this point.

29:31 Cause I, I, this is my fourth time coming on here and this is the fourth time I'm telling you to buy low on chase Brown. It's like, we're gonna be week 18 and i'm gonna like but it's expected fantasy points but.

29:39 But in dynasty you're gonna buy him you're right right i understand well.

29:43 No that's actually where i'm not in dynasty but um yeah i i agree with you it's it's really easy to be frustrated about what's happening and hard to remove yourself when you have him on your team but like you said he i mean you get nine targets eight receptions still got 12 carries to i think what four from p ryan what Piran had one reception on one target.

30:01 It wasn't anything close to a 50-50 split.

30:04 You're 100% right that, look, we're halfway through the whole season at this point, not even just the regular season. And we're still saying buy low, buy low because it's been bad. But this type of a game is a very good sign for the Bengals. Just bad defense, good offense. Burrow has to throw. And Burrow being upright is just a big deal at this point. So I think it is going to be moving forward. I would bet on it. Yeah.

30:33 And then with, with Jason T Higgins, the biggest surprise is that, I mean, T Higgins has been so boomer bus his entire career. He's pretty much just boomed this year. The only bus game was when he was, when he was injured. And he, I mean, he played the game. He played basically his normal snaps, but he just wasn't a hundred percent. Other than that, I mean, he's been, he's been fantastic.

30:51 Yeah.

30:51 He's I got, I have T Higgins on a lot of spots cause he, he falls. Yeah. In every draft I do, he falls because everyone, well, Chase is there, Tee Higgins. They're both ones. They're two number ones on the same team. Chase is better, but Higgins is still really good.

31:05 Yeah, and they need each other.

31:06 Tee Higgins has always been somebody that's missed three to five games a year, and Jamar Chase is never as good without Tee Higgins.

31:12 They need each other.

31:13 And then the last one, so this– This fifth and final one, I have written down Justin Jefferson. I also wanted to talk about like a Blake Corum versus Kyron Williams split. And then Kyron Williams got like 10 carries to salt that game away. So the carries ended up evening out. So we'll stick with Justin Jefferson. But he was somebody that I was scared to draft this year.

31:31 I mentioned that on a lot of shows. And he was frustrated after the game. I think he no commented. He didn't want to talk to the media. He had an amazing touchdown catch that just reminds you how good he is. But five receptions on 33 yards. no games this year with a hundred yards. The closest he came was in week one with Carson Wentz, where he had 92 and he, I think had two touchdowns. And he's got three games this year with 50 plus yards. Now he did get injured early in a game and then he missed a week and they had a buy. So it hasn't been a full season for him, but still we saw this last year. Like we know how good Justin Jefferson is, but we also know that if your quarterback isn't good, it doesn't matter how good the receiver is.

32:07 So what are we doing with Justin Jefferson?

32:10 Yeah. I think this is this one. I can't sit here and tell you like, Oh, I'm still super flowering on him. Like, uh, chase Brown or, or, uh, others. It's so frustrating because Kyler stinks and they don't have another option. Carson Wentz is not any better than Kyler. Uh, this is the guy that they decided to go with.

32:32 It might've been better if they stuck with McCarthy.

32:34 I know.

32:34 I know. It's just so frustrating. And, um, I mean, I think we just need to start viewing him as a wide receiver too at this point. Not a wide receiver one. He's still going to have a ton of targets, but him and Kyler are not on the same page. This is what I thought was wrong with Marvin, right? Was Kyler. And then Kyler leaves and Marvin still sucks.

32:54 So I was like, okay, well, maybe that's good for Kyler.

32:56 It's not.

32:57 They were both not good. Yeah, both bad. So I think the Vikings are going to be on the hunt for a quarterback again next year. You kind of hope that this would turn out like, Okay, well, Sam Darnold, and we give him an extension, and he looks good, but it's just he doesn't fit, and they're not adjusting.

33:14 They should go get a running back. They should go get a running back and run the ball way more. I just don't know if they're going to end up doing it.

33:21 Yeah, if you can, I'm out on Justin Jefferson.

33:24 I had him last year, and I ended up trading him for a pretty good price once McCarthy came back because Justin Jefferson was actually pretty good with Wentz. I agree with you that if your goal is to win a game, if you're the Vikings, that's what you're trying to do. then they're probably equal. But I know from a fantasy perspective, Carson Wentz will provide more fantasy value than Kyler Murray for the ancillary weapons.

33:44 He was good with Justin Jefferson last year. He was good in week one.

33:47 Week two, Wentz started and played that whole game, but that was the monsoon against the Bears. So nobody really performed well from a fantasy perspective. But Wentz I view as like Jameis Winston, where he's going to throw one to three interceptions.

33:59 He's I think you will get fantasy relevance.

34:03 That's why I was kind of happy that the Vikings lost because you know, they're going to go 18 and Oh, with the, with the worst team, like worst 18 and Oh team and 17, no team in NFL history.

34:11 So at least they lost. Maybe they go to Wentz if they keep losing games. And that's, I think what you want.

34:16 If you have Justin Jefferson, I would much rather have Carson Wentz as the quarterback for Justin Jefferson than Kyler Murray.

34:22 If you're okay, a wide receiver, would you flip Jefferson for chase Brown?

34:26 Oh, I would do that in a, I would do that in a heartbeat. I, I, yeah, I I'm in a league with, with chase Brown. The, and the manager who has Justin Jefferson's good at receiver. And I I'm, I'm good.

34:35 No, thank you. I'd much, I'd much rather have chase Brown, which is.

34:37 Like, I feel like Tony Pollard. I mean, yeah, I, I think rest of season rankings, I'm right there with you. I, yeah, you're, you're probably right. Because I mean, he was still a borderline first round pick, right. He's picked at the end. So, but like here, here's one more. Would you rather have cam scataboo or would you rather have Justin Jefferson for the rest of the year?

34:58 At that point, I'd probably rather have Justin Jefferson because I think they're going to trade for Jonathan Taylor. That's my prediction is that the Giants are going to trade for him.

35:06 Oh, okay.

35:08 They're going to see that in the first year with John Harbaugh, they can win the horrible NFC East. But anyways, we got to move on. We got some questions and panic meter and stuff to get to. But before we do that, I want to talk to you guys about the waiver planner. 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, and maximize your chances of landing the players your team needs. Build your personalized

35:46 waiver plan today at fantasypros.com slash plan. That's fantasypros.com slash plan. So now we're going to move on to the panic meter. And What I want to do here for those of you watching and listening, A, we love you. Thank you for watching and listening. Put in the comments somebody that you want us to answer whether we are panicking on them or not. One means we're not panicking at all.

36:08 Ten means that we are in a full-blown panic mode.

36:11 So get all of those in the chat.

36:13 While we're waiting on you guys, I wrote some down here just to kind of get me and you started, Scott. We already talked about him, but Ashton Janty, scale of one to ten, how much are you panicking on him?

36:24 I think it has to be over a five. So I'll say six, right? Like if you're going to take away 15 carries from him, basically I'm pretty panicked about that. Now I do think I'm trying to be measured and think that, okay, maybe we didn't know this. We was going to be this lopsided going in and we'll change it moving forward. But I, I'm, I think that's, what's going to happen. Can I guarantee it? Absolutely not. So I think this has to be a six.

36:52 Yeah, I'm going to go with a five.

36:54 I'm definitely not panicking. I'm definitely not full-blown panicking. So I'm going to go ahead and sit right on that fence and go with a five because I still think that you will have fantasy relevance from Ashton Janty. I think the days of him, like, could he be a top five running back? Yeah, that's not going to happen.

37:09 But I think it could still be a running back one. And like I said, I think if the manager has him and is freaked out, I mean, you tout those two carries. You say like, look, this guy only got two. Like when you're massaging that trade offer, You talk about how few carries he had and see if you can get him for cheap.

37:23 But we can, but we'll see. And that's why we play the game. We'll see.

37:27 We just talked about him. Let's get an official panic meter on Justin Jefferson.

37:30 That one's got to be higher, like a seven. Like I, it just hasn't worked at any point. Like he's still, I don't know, probably 50, 50 to score in every game. And I, we'd look real dumb if, you know, he just goes off for the rest of the year, but, um, uh, it's, it's looked bad. And like I said, we're way more than halfway done with our regular season and close to halfway done with the whole season here. So, uh, yeah, I think it's gotta be at like a seven. I, I'll agree with you on seven.

38:08 I would even go as high as eight. Um, and I mean, we saw Larry Fitzgerald have some down years. We saw, um, The Texans.

38:15 Receiver Hopkins Hopkins.

38:17 Yeah. Thank you.

38:18 Hopkins.

38:18 We saw him have some bad down seasons with bad quarterback play. I love Justin Jefferson as a player. I just, it's a Kyler Murray thing for me.

38:26 God is Kyler really as bad as Brock Osweiler. Do you think it's pretty bad at this point?

38:32 I mean, as bad as nine was last year, it seems like it.

38:36 Yeah.

38:36 Get, get your, your, your, your questions on panic meter. I have some more that we have in the chat. We talked about him as well as a flowers. Give you a nice big goose. We have dual injuries to the Ravens quarterbacks. What's your panic meter? One to 10 on Zay Flowers.

38:50 I think this is another seven, right? And it's not, it has nothing to do with Zay. It's all about what quarterback are you getting? And is this quarterback going to be good enough? Like, you know, if we get the performance that we've seen from Tanner McKee recently, like I think a good player can perform with Tanner McKee, but we've also seen Max Prosper in the NFL, right?

39:10 And yeah, That was Max Brosmer was not an NFL level quarterback at any point. Right. So if that's what we're going to get from Fayano, what we saw today was pretty bad. But again, he's third string. He's the emergency QB did not expect to play zero reps with the number ones. So let's see him with a little more time to adjust. Know that he's going. in, you know, work with the coaching staff and the receivers really diligently this week. And I think he's going to be better and definitely better than Brosmer. So I would say six and a half, seven, somewhere in that range.

39:43 Yeah, I think For the rest of season, I'd probably go five, six. But for Thursday night football, that's like a 10. Like you can't really get your third street quarterback acclimated that quickly. So I think if you're looking to trade for him, I would wait until after this week and then send some offers because if you have a better option, I would not be super excited to start him again on Thursday night football, even though the matchup should be pretty good. It's just, it's such an unknown, but all depends on who you can start. in his place, but we can move on.

40:16 We can talk.

40:17 Uh, the last one is that the Q and a, so all your questions that you have, you want us to answer. It doesn't need to be panic meter can be anything. I want you guys to get those in the chat, but before we do, I want to talk to you about the custom trophy football giveaway that we're doing. So if you want a chance to give your fantasy league, the ultimate championship upgrade, courtesy of our good friends at trophy smack, the number one destination for Epic fantasy football hardware, uh, 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.

40:51 And the best part is that you can make it your own.

40:53 Choose your topper, personalize a 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 Football YouTube channel right now. Drop a comment below on any of our videos. And that's all you got to do. We're going to announce a winner right here on the channel. So be sure to turn on notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim your prize.

41:15 And like I mentioned, the last thing we're doing here is a quick Q & A. So I saw that you guys put in some questions as we're going on. So we have some that we'll answer. But yeah, any questions that you have that you want Scott and I to answer. And I'll just go through the ones that we have starred. So and I think this is a pretty good question for Michael Sullivan. What are we doing with Jordan Mason? Held him on IR for weeks. Same disappointed so far, not to mention JT could be traded to Minnesota. So what are you doing with Jordan Mason?

41:41 I think I'm in a hold right now. Cause I've done the same thing. I actually had to start him this week. Obviously didn't work out very well for me, but I'm in a hold right now to see what they do. Right. Cause Aaron Jones is fragile. Kyler's not working. So you got to think that they will focus more on the run game moving forward. And, I think it's going to be more Jordan Mason, but I really hate what they did this week. I don't know if you saw it, but DJ Dallas was ahead of Mason. So I don't, if you're in a short league, dump him, right?

42:11 Like if you're in a 10, a 12 with short benches, I'm fine with dumping him. But I think in most leagues where I'm in, they're 12 with deeper benches. So there's not a lot on the wire that I'm going to add. That's going to be better than Jordan Mason or they're 14 or 16. And there's just nothing out there right now. Uh, I, I think for the most part, I'm going to be in a holding pattern.

42:34 Yeah, I agree with you. I'm, I'm holding him. Uh, the, the, the lines, a, the defense is getting better.

42:39 Like maybe they're not going to be quite the bad defense that we saw at the beginning of the year. And they've always had a good run defense. Like ever since they've had Dan Campbell, they're, they're a pass funnel.

42:47 They welcome the past. They stopped the run.

42:48 This was never a great matchup for Jordan Mason. So I would give him another week, but yeah, if they trade for Jonathan Taylor, then, then you can drop them.

42:56 Then you can, then, then, then he's toast.

42:58 Um, Good question for a wise guy with the game starting in just a couple minutes here.

43:04 Slight lead.

43:05 He has Lemon and Saquon. I'm guessing the question here is who do you start?

43:10 I'm still going with Saquon. If he's starting, I'm putting him in my lineup for the most part. Okay.

43:16 Knowing that you have a slight lead makes me lean towards Lemon, to be honest with you, because no Devontae Smith. Lemon had a good game. His first good game last week. Scored a touchdown, six receptions, seven targets. good matchup against a not great Washington commanders defense. So I guess it depends on who your opponent has. Like if your opponent has digs or they have like, you know, Jason or somebody tomorrow, then you need a higher performance.

43:40 Then I would probably go Saquon.

43:41 If you're projected to win and they only have like a defense or something, not super, but it's going to score a lot of points.

43:47 I'd probably go lemon. So I guess it just depends on the matchup. Here's a good.

43:51 Question from Tanner, Tanner, olive six, six, five, seven. What in the world happened to Omar Cooper jr.

43:56 I don't have an answer for this because he played 50 snaps in this game. Didn't see a target. Uh, so I'm guessing this is going to be just like Gino from game to game and who he likes to target. Obviously Garrett Wilson is going to get his, uh, but Garrett Wilson did get much last week and it was all Omar Cooper and no Adonai. So, um, yeah, I mean, this is, this might be playing whack-a-mole with the, uh, Jets wide receivers. Now they all should get targets every week, but it's been heavy to one guy over the last three weeks. So, uh, yeah, I, I just don't like the situation as a whole. So I still really like Omar Cooper, but this was a very weird instance specifically with so many points scored. This feels like the Colson

44:40 Loveland game from week one. This makes no sense.

44:44 Yeah.

44:45 What I, you know what I, I really liked Garrett Wilson heading into, I know this is not a question about him, but I'll get there. I really liked Garrett Wilson heading into the year, but cause I thought that he was going to get all the targets like he always did. And now you look, and there's like seven miles to feed in this Jets offense somehow. You're like, how the heck did we get here?

45:02 And Brees didn't even play.

45:03 Exactly.

45:03 Brees didn't play, but like Sadiq has flashed. Mason Taylor had two touchdowns last week. Omar Cooper had awesome games two weeks in a row, and then he goosed. Adonai Mitchell came back from a finger injury, did nothing, and then he blew up. And Garrett Wilson hasn't had a good game in like a month. Like his last three games have not been good. So what in the world happened to him is– other mouths got fed. And I think, like you said, it's good. I think it's going to be frustrating owning any of these guys, any given week, any one of them can have a good game, but any given three weeks, they could have three bad games in a row.

45:35 So it's not an offense that we love. They play super slow.

45:39 Yes.

45:39 They scored a bunch of points today, but they play the Raiders. They played the Raiders.

45:43 So, I mean, I don't, I think you just got to hold them, but I think you thought you struck gold the last two weeks and now you're kind of like, okay, maybe not.

45:52 Yeah, I agree.

45:54 All right, from Hammy to Hamster, should I drop Bryce Young for Malik Willis?

46:04 I'm okay with that. Like, I think Bryce has played pretty bad the last two weeks. This game was on Thursday, though. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Willis has a lot of rushing upside. So it's kind of a coin flip. It's kind of a by the opponent, I would say, for the most part. But I'm fine with that move.

46:25 I would agree with you.

46:25 I knew the, my biggest fear with Bryce Young is their offensive line, their best offensive lineman got hurt. And it looks like we're seeing old Bryce Young and the fact like he's not somebody that can handle pressure every second. So if this is what we're going to, this is what we're going to see. I'm also okay with that. Um, from MM gaming one, three, six, I'm guessing this is the rest of season question, which I, I, I like it.

46:47 Bucky or Parker Washington.

46:49 It's bucky for me and i you know obviously i i'm eating a huge l on parker washington this year because i was like well who's gonna catch the ball in jacksville park wash yeah it turns out yeah it's just in jacksville right yeah so parker but you know terrible this week uh i don't was it the week before two weeks ago where he was bad obviously i don't roster him anywhere so i haven't been paying attention but who are we guaranteed touches with bucky every single week specifically with Baker playing the way he did today.

47:18 That was in a monsoon and, you know, they're loading up animals two by two. But that that was a crazy game that they won. Not since 1974. Team one without the pass, by the way. So just a crazy occurrence to happen. But Bucky is being fed the rock right now. You're just guaranteed so many touches with them.

47:36 And he makes explosive plays still. So if he's going to get 20 carries, one of those is going to be huge and might go to the house. So for me right now, it's Bucky.

47:45 All right, last question that I have for you, and this is from me, not from the audience, but rest of season, Bucky or Ashton Gentry?

47:52 Bucky.

47:53 See, I worry that, I mean, he's been really good for like three out of the last four weeks, but Monsoon this week, last week, the crazy Panthers game, where next, like you blink and the Panthers are down 33 to eight, and then the Cowboys three.

48:09 Those were like 27 touch games. I'm not expecting that for the rest of the year. 18 to 20? that's still way too many for me to, to go to somebody else, specifically somebody who just got their, their carries cut to two, right? Like, and he had fewer snaps than Mike Washington. So for me, it's gotta be Bucky.

48:29 Yeah, that's fair.

48:30 And I think that you could probably get that maybe not after this week, but you might be able to get that trade done. If you ask, if you offered, if you had your NT and you offered him for Bucky, but anyways, That's all we got. You guys got some Sunday night football to watch. I'm just really excited to watch my Eagles play football. So I need to get out of here very quickly so I can do that.

48:45 But thank you for spending 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. You can hear his takeaways from tonight's action. Scott, thank you for joining me as always. This is super fun.

48:59 Everybody in the audience. Thank you for joining us, commenting, watching all that stuff. We love it.

49:03 Make sure to like comment, subscribe, all that good stuff.

49:05 And we will catch you next time.

49:07 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. Follow us on X, Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash Fantasy Pros.