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The BIGGEST Storylines Following Week One | Fantasy Focus

STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.

1 hr 7 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Sep 14, 2026
Published
Mon, September 14, 2026
63
Player insights
62
Players mentioned
Topics
Travis HunterAlec PierceAmon-Ra St. BrownBijan RobinsonBreece HallBrian Thomas Jr.Bucky IrvingCaleb DouglasCam WardChase BrownChris OlaveChristian WatsonChuba HubbardColston Loveland
Player analysis

Player insights

63

Alec Pierce

PositiveValue8:22

Alec Pierce is trending up as a flex option after tying for the team lead in targets (six) and receiving yards (61) while running 22 routes.

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Amon-Ra St. Brown

PositiveUsage10:06

Amon-Ra St. Brown continues to be a highly consistent fantasy asset, recording 10 catches on 14 targets for 67 yards and two touchdowns.

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Bijan Robinson

PositiveUsage31:29

Bijan Robinson is an elite fantasy asset, recording 31.3 points in Week 1 behind a massive 52% target share, proving his value despite poor team performance.

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Breece Hall

PositiveUsage39:52

Breece Hall delivered a strong performance with 22 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown, plus two receptions. He remains a reliable fantasy asset despite the Jets' limited passing volume in Week 1.

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Brian Thomas Jr.

NegativeInjury28:35

Brian Thomas looked good early with three targets for 40 yards before leaving the game with an injury. His status should be monitored.

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Bucky Irving

PositiveRole28:41

Bucky Irving is back in the RB2 conversation after outperforming Kenneth Gainwell in Week 1, recording 20.3 fantasy points on 8 carries and 7 catches.

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Caleb Douglas

PositiveSleeper100:28

Caleb Douglas is highlighted as a waiver wire target after catching five passes for 94 yards and running a high volume of routes in Week 1.

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Cam Ward

NegativeProjection40:53

Cam Ward had a discouraging performance in Week 1, failing to show the expected leap forward. He managed only 19 completions on 32 attempts, and the source suggests a long season ahead for him.

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Chase Brown

PositiveUsage26:49

Chase Brown is highly effective as a receiver, recording five catches for 22 yards and a touchdown in Week 1, making him the only Bengals offensive player who paid off for fantasy managers.

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Chris Olave

PositiveUsage12:30

Chris Olave is the clear WR1 for the Saints, recording 10 catches for 182 yards on 13 targets. Despite a brief injury scare, he is a locked-in fantasy starter.

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Christian Watson

PositiveProjection46:46

Christian Watson had a massive Week 1, recording 6 receptions for 147 yards and two touchdowns. The source remains an optimist and believer in his talent, though notes that managers should at least field trade offers given the high point total.

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Chuba Hubbard

PositiveRole25:05

Chuba Hubbard is the clear lead back for the Panthers, playing 70% of snaps in Week 1; he is a low-end RB2/flex option for the early season while Jonathan Brooks is eased in.

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Colston Loveland

PositiveUsage21:15

Despite a zero-point Week 1, Colston Loveland is a 'buy' candidate; he played 86% of snaps and ran a team-high 35 routes, indicating he is a key part of a high-scoring offense.

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D.J. Moore

PositiveUsage19:10

DJ Moore is the clear WR1 for the Bills, recording five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown on eight targets. He is the primary pass-catcher to start in this offense.

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D'Andre Swift

PositiveUsage23:19

DeAndre Swift is viewed as an overlooked, high-upside player after a 18-carry, 124-yard, three-touchdown performance in Week 1; the source prefers him over David Montgomery.

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Dallas Goedert

PositiveValue51:03

Dallas Goedert continues to be a touchdown-scoring threat, recording two scores in Week 1. Despite only 5 targets, he remains a viable low-end TE1 for fantasy managers.

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Dalton Kincaid

PositiveValue20:25

Dalton Kincaid is a borderline TE1 for Week 2 after recording five catches for 130 yards on six targets.

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David Montgomery

NegativeBust21:46

David Montgomery is a 'sell high' candidate after scoring three touchdowns and 29 fantasy points. His snap share was only 50.7%, and his three-yard-per-carry average suggests his Week 1 production is unlikely to be repeated.

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David Njoku

PositiveProjection43:58

David Njoku is a player to watch after recording 5 targets for 58 yards in Week 1. The source suggests he could potentially re-enter the top 15 tight end conversation.

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De'Von Achane

NegativeUsage98:46

The source expressed concern over Devon Achane receiving only five targets in a game where the Dolphins were trailing, though they noted that a 19% target share is still healthy. His rushing efficiency was poor (36 yards on 11 carries), but the source remains optimistic about his overall role.

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Derrick Henry

PositiveUsage3:45

Derrick Henry remains an elite fantasy asset, scoring three rushing touchdowns and 35 fantasy points on 55% of snaps. He is the best bet in the league to rush for 100 yards and a touchdown, and his early-season schedule makes him a high-upside target.

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Deshaun Watson

NegativeBust19:43

The source strongly advises against starting Deshaun Watson, labeling his Week 1 performance an embarrassment and suggesting the Browns should move on to other quarterbacks like Shador Sanders, Taylor Green, or Dylan Gabriel.

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Devin Singletary

NegativeUsage103:42

Devin Singletary is clearly the passing-down back in his committee, running 18 routes and catching four passes for 22 yards and a touchdown in Week 1, despite limited rushing production.

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DK Metcalf

NegativeUsage34:55

DK Metcalf saw 10 targets in Week 1, but the passing offense was inefficient, resulting in a disappointing fantasy output despite the high volume.

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Garrett Wilson

NegativeUsage37:51

Garrett Wilson is clearly the Jets' number one wide receiver, recording 6 receptions for 79 yards on 7 targets. No other player on the team had more than three targets, and the source expresses no concern about his value moving forward.

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Geno Smith

PositiveProjection37:21

Geno Smith performed well in Week 1, completing 19 of 24 passes and effectively running the offense. While the source notes he will face tougher matchups, he remains a serviceable fantasy option with a favorable upcoming game against the Packers.

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Harold Fannin

NegativeProjection20:16

Harold Fannin is currently viewed as a borderline tight end one for fantasy lineups.

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Isaiah Likely

PositiveProjection103:27

Isaiah Likely was exceptional in Week 1, catching all eight of his targets for 78 yards and two touchdowns. The source advises not to worry about his 50% snap share, as his route participation and production make him a high-value asset.

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Jahmyr Gibbs

PositiveUsage10:17

Jahmyr Gibbs delivered an elite performance with 33.6 fantasy points, 29 carries for 156 yards, two touchdowns, and five catches. While his 34-touch volume is unsustainable, he is a clear top-tier fantasy asset.

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Jake Ferguson

NegativeProjection105:12

Jake Ferguson underwhelmed in Week 1 but is expected to be a fringe tight end one once the offense begins throwing the ball more frequently.

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Jalon Daniels

NegativeProjection53:19

Jalen Daniels' fantasy outlook has cooled significantly compared to his rookie season. While he managed 17.66 fantasy points in Week 1, he no longer feels like the 'cheat code' he was previously, and the source is less favorable toward his current standing.

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Jameson Williams

NegativeUsage11:54

Jameson Williams saw nine targets but struggled with drops, finishing with 8.5 fantasy points. He remains a status-quo player for the Lions.

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Jayden Daniels

NegativeProjection88:53

The source notes that while Jayden Daniels had a decent outing with two passing touchdowns and 31 rushing yards (17.66 fantasy points), he is not yet in the same tier as elite fantasy quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts. Despite the solid performance against a good defense, the source expressed disappointment in the play-calling and overall feel of his debut.

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Jaylen Warren

NegativeUsage33:11

Jalen Warren was more efficient than Rico Dowdle in Week 1, leading in rushing attempts and targets, but remains a bye-week fill-in option rather than a reliable starter.

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Jeremiyah Love

PositiveRole45:35

Jeremiah Love scored a touchdown in his first career drive and showed promise in the passing game, leading the team in routes and targets. While Tyler Allgeier led in carries, Love is expected to see increased usage in Week 2 and is currently a back-end RB2.

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Jonathan Taylor

PositiveUsage5:23

Jonathan Taylor remains an elite RB1 candidate, recording 19 carries for 98 yards and two touchdowns, plus four targets. His increased involvement in the passing game keeps him in the top-tier running back conversation.

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Jonathon Brooks

NegativeRole25:11

Jonathan Brooks is a bench stash for now, playing less than 20% of snaps in Week 1 as the team manages his recovery from a major knee injury.

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Josh Allen

PositiveProjection18:20

Josh Allen is an elite fantasy quarterback, finishing as the QB2 in Week 1 with four total touchdowns. He is an auto-start in all formats.

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Josh Downs

NegativeUsage7:14

Josh Downs played 89% of snaps and ran 32 routes, serving as the Colts' primary slot receiver. However, he is not currently an auto-start in fantasy lineups.

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Justin Jefferson

PositiveUsage49:11

Justin Jefferson remains a elite fantasy asset, recording 8 receptions for 92 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1. He is the only clear starter in the Vikings' passing offense, as the team struggles to support other pass catchers.

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Kalif Raymond

PositiveUsage22:38

Khalif Raymond is a waiver wire target after leading the Bears with nine targets, eight catches, and 84 receiving yards in Week 1.

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Kenneth Gainwell

NegativeUsage28:41

Kenneth Gainwell disappointed in Week 1, recording only 2.8 fantasy points and one target despite playing 46% of snaps; his role remains a concern despite his contract.

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Ladd McConkey

PositiveValue42:20

Ladd McConkey showed great chemistry with Justin Herbert early in Week 1, recording 5 receptions for 82 yards and a touchdown despite missing half the game with a chest injury. He is considered a strong fantasy investment if he returns to health quickly.

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Malik Nabers

PositiveUsage102:30

Malik Nabers is considered a clear lineup lock moving forward after running routes on 24 of 29 pass attempts and drawing nine targets for 69 yards in his debut.

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Mark Andrews

NegativeRole5:16

Mark Andrews is currently viewed as a secondary tight end option for fantasy purposes within the Ravens' offense.

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MarShawn Lloyd

NegativeDepth Chart47:44

Marshawn Lloyd's Week 1 performance was unimpressive, as he was out-snapped by Chris Brooks and recorded zero catches. He does not appear to be the clear number one running back for the Packers.

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Marvin Harrison Jr.

NegativeUsage44:50

Marvin Harrison Jr. had a rough start in Week 1, recording only one catch for 33 yards despite running 33 routes. While he was on the field for most of the game, the source notes waning optimism regarding his immediate production.

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Nico Collins

PositiveUsage20:45

Nico Collins is a consistent fantasy asset, recording seven catches for 75 yards and a touchdown on 10 targets. He is the only auto-start pass-catcher for the Texans.

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Omarion Hampton

NegativeUsage42:51

O'Marion Hampton was inefficient in Week 1, handling 12-16 carries but recording zero targets. The lack of passing game usage is a significant concern for his ADP, and he split routes evenly with Keaton Mitchell.

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Parker Washington

PositiveUsage28:23

Parker Washington had a strong start with five catches for 83 yards and a touchdown, though he only ran 17 routes. He is a player to watch for increased involvement.

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Quinshon Judkins

NegativeProjection20:39

Despite a poor Week 1 performance, the source maintains belief in Quinchon Judkins' talent and expects him to soak up volume, though he remains a borderline RB2 who could be game-scripted out of production.

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Raheim Sanders

PositiveBreakout19:26

Raheem Sanders saw an expanded role for the Browns in Week 1 and was responsible for one of the team's few positive plays.

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Rashee Rice

PositiveProjection107:22

Rashee Rice is considered a lineup lock for the Monday night game, with the source noting they need a big performance from him to save their fantasy week.

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Rashod Bateman

NegativeUsage5:08

Rashad Bateman is not currently a viable fantasy option, recording zero catches on 26 routes run in the Ravens' offense.

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Rico Dowdle

NegativeUsage33:05

Rico Dowdle held a 58% snap share edge over Jalen Warren in Week 1, but the backfield remains a situation to avoid for fantasy starters outside of bye-week fill-in scenarios.

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Sam LaPorta

NegativeUsage11:46

Sam LaPorta remains a reliable fantasy option, though his Week 1 production was somewhat limited.

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Stefon Diggs

PositiveUsage93:20

Stefon Diggs saw nine targets in his debut, catching four for 55 yards and a touchdown. The source considers him a viable flex option moving forward in the Washington offense.

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Terry McLaurin

NegativeProjection92:37

Terry McLaurin is considered a 'dud' following his Week 1 performance, though the source notes he was on the field for a high volume of snaps. He remains a wide receiver three in fantasy rankings for the time being.

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Travis Hunter

NegativeUsage15:48

Travis Hunter is a concern for fantasy managers due to his 59% snap share and reliance on pass-catching volume. With Alvin Kamara expected to return soon, Olave's target share may decrease, leading to a 'stock down' outlook.

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NegativeUsage18:20

Travis Hunter is not involved in the Jaguars' offense, recording only one carry and two routes in Week 1; he is not a fantasy consideration unless he eventually sees significant receiver-cornerback matchups.

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Trey McBride

PositiveUsage44:16

Trey McBride was outstanding in Week 1, recording 9 receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown on 13 targets, proving he is the primary driver of his own fantasy success.

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Tyler Warren

NegativeProjection5:53

Tyler Warren had a disappointing fantasy day despite running 30 routes and seeing five targets, salvaging his 10.3 points with a late touchdown. He remains a TE1, though the production was underwhelming given the game script.

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Zay Flowers

PositiveBreakout2:24

Zay Flowers looked like one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, recording 26 fantasy points, five catches for 150 yards, and a touchdown on six targets. Despite a part-time role and leaving at halftime due to a blowout, he is a clear breakout candidate in the new Declan Doyle offense.

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Full transcript

Episode Transcript

995
0:00Hey, we've got some game time tips to share.
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0:22Air fried mode for crispy favorites and air sous vide for juicy tender sliders.
0:25Plus, there's slow cook, no preheat, and more. That's the game time MVP combo.
0:29Stone baked pizza and air fry, both built right into your oven.
0:33So whether you're getting ready for kickoff or feeding a full house, Frigidaire has every craving covered.
0:37Available at the Home Depot. How doers get more done.
0:40Only when using stone baked pizza mode, cook time requires preheat and reheat and may vary based on ingredients.
0:45I see you in the 0601. Friends, welcome to Fantasy Focus Football alongside the Field Yates and Mike Clay.
0:50My name is Daniel Dopp and we are very excited to talk about week one.
0:54It is in the books with the exception of Monday Night Football, obviously, but we have a lot of games to get into.
1:01Very excited to be here. We're just going to dive right into some football because we have so many things to talk about.
1:07We don't have time to mess around. We don't care about your weekend.
1:11We're going to mess around. We'll mess around in the middle of the show.
1:14We each took a game to be able to grab.
1:17We're going to kind of lead a game here and there.
1:20So we're just going to go around with our week one recap.
1:24Field, why don't we start with you, my friend?
1:26The old Colts versus the new Colts, the Ravens at the Colts in Indianapolis yesterday.
1:30And I want people to understand that when we give you a take, in a lot of cases, it's just not like for the rest of this season.
1:38This is what we expect for this player. But as we enter week two, this is kind of how we feel about specific teams.
1:44In Baltimore, oh my Zay Flowers. That guy looked like one of the best wide receivers in the NFL yesterday.
1:50And he got paid like one this offseason. Despite playing a part-time role, Zay Flowers had 26 fantasy points, five catches for 150 yards, and a touchdown.
1:57He is incredibly explosive. He had six targets only, in part because this game was a blowout, and he left at halftime.
2:03He did not return in the second half. There's been some reporting this morning from NFL Network that Zay Flowers could have
2:09returned if it was a playoff-type game. That might bode well for week two.
2:13But in the meantime, guys, we mentioned Zay Flowers as a potential breakout candidate.
2:17Week one, this new Declan Doyle offense. Very exciting for Zay Flowers.
2:20And then I have news for you guys, and I've been sitting on this all offseason.
2:25It turns out that Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are still freaking awesome.
2:28Still good at football. How good were those guys yesterday?
2:31Derrick Henry had not one, not two, three rushing touchdowns.
2:34He does not age. It's insane to me that Derrick Henry does not age.
2:37He played 55% of the snaps, and he had almost 55 fantasy points.
2:41Actually, it was 35, but still. He was amazing.
2:43Just one catch. It doesn't matter. There is no player who has a better bet to rush for 100 yards and a touchdown in a game.
2:51Then Derrick Henry. He looked awesome. I mentioned him as one of my favorite players coming into this season.
2:56He was No. 11 on my big board, and part of the reason why was I thought a fast start was coming because of the Ravens' schedule.
3:03Lamar was amazing. Nobody else in this Ravens roster at the moment, to me, merits fantasy considerations.
3:08You guys disagree there? Nope. You're right. Certainly not Rashad Bateman, who had zero catches on 26 routes.
3:13Yeah, that would be not good. That's a typical Rashad Bateman.
3:16And Mark Andrews, probably more of a tight end, too, for right now.
3:19Yeah, I agree there. On the Colts side, we can probably keep it pretty narrow, which is that Jonathan Taylor, he's awesome as well.
3:26Even a game in which they got smoked. JT found the end zone twice.
3:3016 carries for—sorry, 19 carries for 98 yards. He also had four targets, which that's a good enough number for Jonathan Taylor
3:36because he can win in the Derrick Henry way, which is like maybe a target.
3:40But when he's getting close to a handful of targets, Jonathan Taylor reminds us why he was right there on the periphery of that RB1 tier, right?
3:47The B. John Robinson and Jameer Gibbs and Christian McCaffrey conversation extended to the likes of Jonathan Taylor and James Cook.
3:53A disappointing day from Tyler Warren, who ran 30 routes, had five targets, got a late, cheap touchdown to kind of salvage the day for 10.3 fantasy points.
4:01But not going to lie to you guys, I would have thought in a game in which the Colts are trailing, you'd
4:07expect bigger numbers out of Tyler Warren. Agreed. Still going to be a tight end one for me, but— Yeah, keep in
4:13mind Baltimore ran three safeties basically throughout the entire game, and they're very talented there.
4:17Like Jalen Hawkins was a starter for the AFC champion Patriots last year, and he was their third safety in this game, not to mention Roquan.
4:24I mean, that's a tough matchup for him, so not too worried.
4:27At least we got bailed out by the touchdown.
4:30Last thing I'll say on the Colts, and then you guys can add whatever you want.
4:34Josh Downs was their wide receiver one in terms of snaps, routes, run, was not wide receiver one in terms of targets,
4:40but he played 89% of the snaps, ran 32 routes.
4:43He was not coming off the field, which in prior years is their slot receiver.
4:47He had been. That might be in part influenced by the fact that Alec Pierce is still kind of recovering.
4:52He played just 59% of the snaps. But again, as we enter week two, the Colts go to Arrowhead next Sunday night, by the way.
4:59I don't view any Colts wide receiver as auto start.
5:02Not auto start. I think Alec Pierce, I'm optimistic.
5:05He was only eight behind downs and routes. He ran 22 routes and actually tied for the team lead with six targets and in receiving yards with 61.
5:12So he made some plays there. I'm feeling better about that mid-round draft investment, so he's at least on the flex radar.
5:18Anything you guys want to add from this game other than what I have covered up to this point?
5:23No way, you crushed it. One for one. I think that was pretty good.
5:27Bang! There we go. 12 to go, right? By the way, we've got four more days, including two leaner days, Wednesday and
5:33Thursday, that we can kind of lean into more of whatever we left on the cutting board today.
5:38Yeah, this is, it's on the screen. Recap. We're recapping today.
5:41We're going to start looking forward tomorrow. Yes. All right, let's talk about Saints and Lions, my friends.
5:46Make a victory laugh, Daniel Dobbs. 31-30 for the Detroit Lions.
5:49Love that. Also, I did kind of, you know, pound the table a little bit for my guy Tyler Shuck.
5:55It took some garbage time, guys. That was one half a play.
5:58Imagine if he played like that the whole game.
6:00Inside of the football. Jared Goff, pretty average day throwing the football.
6:04206 yards and two touchdowns. Mostly found his dude, Amon Ross St.
6:07Brown, who continues to show why he is one of the most consistent wide receivers in football.
6:12Only 67 receiving yards, but 10 catches on 14 targets.
6:14Just absurd. Yes, two touchdowns there. 28.7 fantasy points.
6:17The real story is Jameer Gibbs because he was unbelievable.
6:2033.6 fantasy points behind 29 carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns, plus five catches for 30 receiving yards.
6:25I love and hate this because I do not want him to get into the flow of 34 touches a game, guys.
6:31Who else is going to get touches for them, though?
6:34Sione Vake? That's a great question. The answer is just Sione Vake.
6:37Yes. Yeah, that looked unbelievable, though. If you had Jameer Gibbs, he was everything that you expected out of the guy that you drafted 1.01 or maybe 1.02.
6:44I mean, I think the race is over because B.
6:47John only scored 31.7. There we go. So it's clear that Jameer Gibbs was the right.
6:52There we go, guys. And keep in mind, this was an overtime game, so that added a few touches as well.
6:57Yeah, he's not going to be in the 30s for touches most weeks, which is good.
7:02Yes. If you took him first overall. We're fine at capping out at 24-25.
7:06Exactly. Laporta still looked like Sam Laporta. Wish there could have been a little bit more there in this game.
7:11Any targets you'll take, though? Yes, absolutely. And Jameis and Williams, nine targets.
7:15Had a couple of drops, unfortunately. Could have had a few more bigger plays.
7:18Only 8.5 fantasy points, but he did not look terrible other than that.
7:22Kind of status quo there for the Lions. They're kind of a chalky team.
7:26Yes. Let's look on the other side, though, because Tyler Shuck struggled in the beginning, friends.
7:30Most of this was in the second half, but he finished.
7:33And luckily, we went into overtime, which definitely helped us here.
7:36410 yards on 56 pass attempts, by the way.
7:39Three touchdowns, two interceptions. Didn't run the ball a whole lot.
7:42Only eight rushing yards, but he did finish with 23.2 fantasy points.
7:45And most importantly, he got the ball to the guy that we wanted him to get the football to.
7:50Chris Olave. 10 catches for 182 yards on 13 targets, 28.2 fantasy points.
7:54Do you think that we're in a spot now?
7:56That kind of made sense. We saw that about Chris Olave.
7:59He's the number one wide receiver in this offense.
8:02Do we need to pay more attention to Devon Vele as a part of our waiver conversation potentially going into next week?
8:08I believe so, at least until Jordan Tyson is back.
8:10Definitely. We talked about him on Fantasy Focus Countdown yesterday.
8:13Got it. Long shot. Good job, buddy. Got it.
8:16Was he a long shot? He was Adam Schefter's long shot.
8:19He was Adam's long shot. We had him in our DFS cash lineups in your tournament lineup.
8:23He was a popular play yesterday. No surprise with Jordan Tyson that he was very busy in this game.
8:29And as you said, seven for 69 and a touchdown.
8:31No doubt about it. I think when we do our rankings this week, he's probably going to be...
8:36Who are they playing this week? Do we know?
8:39The Saints are playing down in New Orleans. I think they'll be on the Flex Rater.
8:43I was lying. Is that at Baltimore? At Baltimore.
8:46A little trickier. He'll probably be at least on the Flex Rater.
8:49Certainly the top 40, 45, I would imagine. And the receiver's so deep.
8:52That's the only problem with him. Travis Olave briefly left the game to get some medical attention.
8:57So Valle led the team in both wide receiver snaps and routes.
9:00He ran 58 routes yesterday. That's a lot of routes.
9:03Hey, by the way, how many snaps or how many plays did the Saints run yesterday?
9:07A lot. An enormous amount. Yes. 70... Like 78?
9:10Yeah, yeah. So definitely within the field range of...
9:12Yes. Valle ran 52 routes. I had 58. Whatever.
9:15Different sources we're pulling from, but I had 58.
9:17Travis H. And kind of got game scripted a little bit because they got down in the first half.
9:23Only nine... I think the problem was early in the game, really.
9:26He came around. It was early on. By the way, in our Raheem Sanders...
9:30And Raheem Sanders, if either of you picked CJ Donaldson...
9:32Oh my gosh. Like he didn't score a touchdown, but I would have still been impressed because that was the most out
9:38of nowhere guy who got lots of snaps of week one for sure.
9:42Yeah. It kind of helped replace Alvin Kamara in a way, but...
9:45Right. Can I explain why I'm a tiny bit concerned about Travis H.
9:49And right now? Please, yeah. Yes. 59% of the snaps yesterday, which is an okay number.
9:53That's fine. Not a dominant number, but it's an okay number.
9:56But his production came as a pass catcher. Yes.
9:59Nine targets, seven catches for 32 yards. When Alvin Kamara returns, and it sounds like he could return as soon as next
10:05week, at least some of that passing game utilization probably goes to Kamara, right?
10:09So if you were to ask me, stock up, stock down, stock neutral for Travis H.
10:13And after just one game, despite having nine targets, which is a great number, I would probably say a slight stock down.
10:19I would say a slight stock down as well.
10:21I think though, when Kamara plays, you might get more of the carry share because he did split carries with Kendra Miller.
10:27But if Kamara is there, Miller maybe doesn't have much of a role.
10:31And then that goes to H. And who, by the way, ran it well.
10:35Nine for 46. It's 5.1 yards per carry. So, but again, my main concern is the first half where he was barely on the field.
10:42So that changed in the second half. And we just got our first buzzer.
10:45Yeah, first buzzer to move on with that one.
10:48All right, let's keep on going. Bills and Texans.
10:50Bills and Texans. What a game. The Bills win this game at absolute Barnburn, 36-31.
10:55I have more breaking news. Yep. I told you guys earlier exclusively that Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are good.
11:00So is Josh Allen. Yes. Shout out to Daniel for not wavering one bit.
11:04Josh Allen is quarterback two on the week with a monster four total touchdown game.
11:08There's not really any analysis other than like, the only week this year where you're going to wonder, do I play Josh Allen was this one?
11:15And only 4% of leagues on ESPN.com did somebody sit Josh Allen.
11:18Wow. So nevermore is there a question. He plays the Lions on Thursday night.
11:22His projection might be 30 points. Is this like patting yourself on the back, but you're massaging yourself?
11:27No, no, no, no. It's just, I do have my therabody out here to be able to.
11:32It just, I was carrying the water for Josh Allen all week that it just, it hurt.
11:36Carrying the podcast. Let's talk about the more important stuff here for the, uh, bills, a kind of a wonky game.
11:42We're not going to take too much away from Josh Allen, but there were a couple of things that did work out really well in his favor.
11:50DJ Moore went for five catches at a hundred yards and a touchdown on eight targets.
11:54So he actually caught, excuse me, had a target on eight of his 26 routes.
11:58Like that's a gigantic number for only 26 routes run.
12:01His touchdown was a long one. Yep. It was also one of those plays that very easily could have just been an
12:07incomplete pass that nobody would have talked about. So I think that DJ Moore obviously and clearly is the bills wide receiver
12:13and pass catcher that you want to start the most.
12:16Yes. But I, I don't think he's, I don't think DJ Moore becomes a top 20 wide receiver for me.
12:21Well, maybe in week two, because of the matchup, just because of what we saw yesterday.
12:25Dalton Kincaid was a really interesting story as like the player that the bill is drafted in the first round.
12:31There's been all kinds of hype basically every year surrounding him.
12:34Yep. Well, great. Five catches, 130 yards, six targets for Kincaid, probably good enough to put himself in that borderline tight end one conversation for week two.
12:41Otherwise bills pass catchers moving on. Let's go to the Texans here.
12:45And I think this is really interesting. Strong start for Nico Collins.
12:48He had 10 targets on 37 routes. CJ Straub was okay yesterday, but clearly Nico Collins is so consistent.
12:53So consistently good guys. That's right. I mean, Nico's the guy seven for 75 and a touchdown wide receiver eight going into Monday night football.
13:00Nobody else, no wide receiver. And I would argue no tight end is an auto start for the Texans right now.
13:06Agreed. Is David Montgomery the ultimate sell high candidate after week one?
13:09Because you might be saying to yourself, the guy was amazing at three touchdowns, 29 fantasy points.
13:14He's RB six going into Monday night football. I don't think, I don't think I would sell.
13:18Go ahead. You said, I was just going to say the snap counts in this one.
13:23He played 50.7% of the snaps. It was virtually an even split.
13:26Yeah. One more snap than Woody Marks. It was very busy in this game.
13:30I mean, it depends. Woody Marks had more run routes run.
13:33Yeah. He averaged way more yards per carry. David Montgomery averaged three yards per carry.
13:37I just, I'm just telling you like we, the leagues we play in are serious and almost everybody is pragmatic.
13:42I know how fantasy football is. Weird stuff happens after week one.
13:46Someone's going to offer David Montgomery for Jamar Chase this week.
13:49It's going to happen. Like I'm just telling you, we'll talk about Jamar Chase in a little bit.
13:54I think there is a case that David Montgomery, after what happened yesterday, is a legitimate sell high.
13:59I agree. I think there's a chance that's, here I go out on a limb.
14:03There's a chance that David Montgomery does not score 29 fantasy points in the game this season.
14:07And I think people are going to be saying to themselves, wow, this guy is like, he's rejuvenated.
14:12He's the guy in the Houston backfield. This offensive line might be a little bit better than last year.
14:17David Montgomery will be a name. I mean, he'll be ranked as a top 22-ish back for me going into week two.
14:23I would consider selling high. And remember, they scored four touchdowns in this game.
14:27In the C.J. Stroud era, at least the last couple of years, they're closer to like two.
14:32I mean, this is not an offense that usually scores a lot of points.
14:36And going into the week, we said this is not a defense we're that afraid of anymore in Buffalo.
14:41So they kind of took advantage of that at home.
14:44The touchdowns went his way. He scored three of their four touchdowns.
14:47That's usually not going to happen. And yes, there's some possibility that he follows what Joe Mixon did a couple of years
14:53ago and continues to put up the big touchdown numbers and the heavy volume.
14:57But I agree. He's at his peak right now is the key.
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16:39All right. Moving on, Mike. Browns and Jaguars. You take the reins here.
16:43Browns and Jaguars. Maybe just the Jaguars? Maybe just the Jaguars.
16:46Yeah, I don't think we really want to talk about the Browns very much in this one, but the Jags did what we thought they would.
16:53They crushed them. 34 to 10 in this one.
16:55Trevor Lawrence did his thing. Four passing touchdowns. Just 23 attempts.
16:58They didn't have to throw the ball much in the second half, but he was highly efficient.
17:03Our guy, Parker Washington, came out firing. Fortunately, he did his damage early in this one.
17:08Five for 83 and a touchdown. He only ran 17 routes, so this could have been a lot better had this been a more competitive game.
17:15By the way, Brian Thomas looked good early. Did.
17:17All three targets for 40 yards. He left injured.
17:20He did only miss 10 pass plays, again, because they ended up throwing much in the second half, but we'll keep an eye on that this week.
17:27I think the most interesting thing here was the running back snaps.
17:30It was a lot of Chris Rodriguez early. That changed as the game went on.
17:34Bashal Tootin, 27 snaps by the end of the game.
17:37Chris Rodriguez, 23. The other two running backs barely played.
17:40Combined six for Amir Abdul and LeQuinn Allen, but this one kind of surprised me.
17:44The carries. Tootin, 15. Rodriguez, 6. And they basically split pass routes as well.
17:4810 for Rodriguez, 9 for 2, and they combined for one target.
17:51So not much passing game involvement for these guys.
17:54Again, they didn't have to use them, but I think the routes is interesting.
17:57They were basically even. We'll keep an eye on that.
18:00The only other thing I have for Jacksonville is not much Travis Hunter on offense.
18:04One carry, two routes. We might not have to mention him again this year unless we're talking about receiver corner matchups at
18:10some point because he is not involved with the offense very much.
18:14I don't think I learned, I don't think yesterday was the right game for us to learn much about the Jaguars backfield.
18:20The numbers are what they are, but that's one of those games that so much was gotten, they did such an amazing job through the air.
18:27Kind of whatever they did in the backfield was just basically killing clock.
18:30Yeah. Right? So like you could make the case, oh, Basial Tootin's playing in the second half when they're trying to kill
18:36the clock because Chris Rodriguez is so valuable. You got to, he's the number one.
18:40Yeah. Or conversely, you could say, hey, they want to run the football in the second half to kill the clock.
18:46They think that Basial Tootin's giving them a better chance to run the football for consecutive first downs and kill more clock.
18:52So I'm largely ignoring week one for the Jaguars backfield, but I agree with Mike on the sentiments surrounding the pass catchers.
18:58For the Browns. We're ignoring all of the Browns for week one, right?
19:02The answer is yes. Yeah. Judkins, Fannin, obviously duds.
19:04I think that it was good to see the rookie receivers out there and impactful.
19:08So if you want to keep Concepcion and Boston on your bench, Boston did have the long garbage time touchdown, which is good.
19:15Concepcion was busy as well. And that's about it.
19:17I mean, Dylan Sampson left hurt on his second special team snap.
19:20That's not really going to affect Judkins much. Maybe a little in the passing game he did to get more involvement there.
19:26But our guy, Raheem Sanders. Literally. Had an expanded role for Cleveland.
19:30Made one of their only good plays in the game.
19:32But yeah, that's it. I mean, I think this week we're still...
19:36Judkins, borderline RB2. Fannin, borderline tight end one. That's it right now for what you're starting?
19:40It's gross. By the way, get this charade over with.
19:43Stop playing Deshaun Watson. Yeah. Like, it does you no good.
19:46It was an embarrassment yesterday, and the Browns know it.
19:49But every time they chart him back out there, it's even more embarrassing.
19:52I don't know if Shador Sanders is going to be the Browns' answer at quarterback.
19:56I have questions about that. But at least go find out.
19:59And the best way to figure that out is to, like, let the guy play.
20:03So, they play Tampa this upcoming week. There's no reason when the Browns go back down to Florida.
20:08Deshaun Watson should still be their starting quarterback. Yeah, and they have, if not Sanders, you have two other quarterbacks you've got
20:14to take a look at this year, too. Yep.
20:17Taylor Green, Dylan Gabriel. So, uh... Gabriel and I are for three more weeks, but at some point...
20:22Take a look at these other guys. I want to say so many things.
20:26Sorry. I wanted to say so many things in that moment.
20:29I decided not to. Okay. All right, let's move ahead.
20:31We really don't have to say much about the Browns for a while, for fantasy.
20:35Like, the only one that I think... I mean, I guess Harold Fannin, too.
20:39But, like, Quinchon Judkins is the closest to the radar.
20:42And they might just get game scripted out of Quinchon Judkins' good weeks.
20:46That's how bad they were yesterday. Only somebody said that coming into this season.
20:49We'll see. It's not over yet. I still believe in Judkins.
20:52That guy's super talented. He's very talented, yes. I think he's going to soak up the volume.
20:57You know who else is talented? Everybody that plays for Ben Johnson, guys.
21:01Oh, boy. Guys, 59 points from the Bears yesterday.
21:03Are you kidding me? The most bizarre box score of maybe not just week one...
21:07Unbelievable. ...that we might see all season is the Bears scored 59 points.
21:1159! Ben Johnson called a shot and delivered. And Colston Loveland scored zero of those points.
21:15What?! Colston Loveland, who ran a team high 35 routes.
21:18And the Bears, I could tell this. Late in the game, the Bears had the ball first and goal from the one.
21:24And Ben Johnson dialed up a play for Colston Loveland.
21:27You know that Ben knew that Loveland had not gotten any production up to that point.
21:31That's wild. He had zero points and they scored 59.
21:34Next thing you're going to tell me is Khalif Raymond led them in receiving or something.
21:38Well, Mike, we'll get there in a second. But Colston Loveland, I mean, what are you going to say other than this is incredibly unlucky.
21:45He was a terrible pick for starters of the week, it turns out.
21:48Loveland's going to be fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. It's a very good offense.
21:52He's playing all the time now. Played 86% of the snaps.
21:55We're going to talk about some other stuff in just a minute.
21:58But how about our guy, Daniel Duff? Wasting no time.
22:01He is on the board of the Raheem Sanders fund.
22:04He's going to come back. Find the edge of it in week one.
22:07Let's go. Great pick. Thank you very much. Thank you.
22:10I didn't get anybody last year. You guys had it.
22:13So for me to be able to do this.
22:15You had none last year? No, I had none last year.
22:18So for me to hit it here in week one felt so good.
22:22Again, listen, he was what? Plus? He was like plus 650 this week.
22:25Yes. Something like that. That was great. Just again, you're in the money, honey, if you are following these picks so far.
22:31And it doesn't matter that Khalif Raymond actually had a legitimately good game as a wide receiver who I believe Mike picked.
22:38He was my pick. Oh, you picked? Okay. Yes.
22:40I knew that Khalif Raymond was going to play a real role.
22:43He was legit. And Johnson loves him. And he had a team high nine targets, a team high eight catches, a team high 84 receiving yards.
22:50I think he'll be on the waiver column tomorrow.
22:53In deeper leagues, I think it's going to be a name that you need to know.
22:57So past catchers, I'm going to largely like the more important takeaway is not that Luther Burden had 9.5 fantasy points and Romo Doonzey had just 7.2.
23:05To me, the bigger picture is Caleb Williams looked amazing.
23:07Great. Quarterback one for the week. The Bears passing offense was ridiculous.
23:11They scored 59 points. There are going to be a lot of good days for the guys that we care about most.
23:17Colston Loveland, Luther Burden III, and Romo Doonzey. Agreed.
23:19DeAndre Swift. Absurd. Shout out to you for shouting out Courtney Cronin, who was shouting out DeAndre Swift field.
23:24She was on it. She said it. And we talked about it on the show.
23:28Yes, we did. She said it like DeAndre Swift is just becoming the most overlooked, really good player in fantasy.
23:34He's not going to score 32.4 fantasy points every week.
23:37He looked apart though yesterday. 18 carries for 124 rushing yards.
23:40He had three touchdowns. Kyle Moon Nungai also had 20.4 fantasy points.
23:43One big run. He got a lot of that on like a 61-yard touchdown run.
23:47But for the Bears, you want as much of Caleb Williams, DeAndre Swift, and the pass catchers as you can get.
23:53For the Panthers, I thought the most... Wait. Before you move on, is this a...
23:57I mean, I know this is going to seem obvious, but like, would you send out panic trade offers to Bears managers?
24:03Absolutely. Roma Dunze, Luther Burden, Colson Loveland. In week one, if you've got those David Montgomerys or someone that you think overperformed,
24:09just saying that so that it's like, I doubt someone's going to want to move off of them, but why not try?
24:15Yeah. I mean, this is probably DeAndre Swift's best game as well.
24:18I mean, it almost certainly is his best game.
24:21I believe in him more than David Montgomery. Obviously, you know, we thought that during draft season to some extent.
24:26So, and the offense obviously looked good, which just helps his value.
24:30But it's still, I mean, when a guy has a game like that, you definitely consider moving, you know, making a deal.
24:36All right. Panther side. I thought the most important thing that I think...
24:39The Panthers went nuts through the air, right? Bryce Young, it was great.
24:43Galen Coker had eight catches for 138 yards and two touchdowns yesterday.
24:46He went nuts. We talked about him as a sleeper coming into the season.
24:50Kind of a quiet day for Ted Arone and McMillan, but it's Coker and it's McMillan, the two wide receivers that matter the most.
24:56Coker will be on the waiver wire list as well tomorrow.
24:59But to me, the most notable thing that I think is like sticky for next week and important for next week is
25:05that it was a Chuba Hubbard show. And, you know, I felt in the preseason the Panthers were not going to lean
25:11heavily into Jonathan Brooks because he's coming off of back-to-back seasons with a major knee injury and he was banged up at the end of the preseason.
25:19So, that was the case in week one. 70% of the snaps for Chuba Hubbard, 69.4 to be specific.
25:24Less than 20% of the snaps for Jonathan Brooks.
25:26He's going to get healthier and he is still an explosive player.
25:30But I think for week two and going into the early portions of the season, Chuba Hubbard can hang around that low-end RB2 radar.
25:36Maybe, you know, low-end RB2 slash flex consideration. And Jonathan Brooks for now is a bench dash.
25:41I would agree he did have a 40-yard catch.
25:43Yep, that was sweet. But the snaps is the big one, yeah.
25:47Hubbard will be ranked as probably an RB2 this week.
25:49I'm with you. There was a little garbage time that affected Carolina a little bit.
25:54It led to some carries for A.J. Dillon late.
25:56So, there will be more volume overall for those running backs.
25:59But I agree, Hubbard's the guy for now, not even a close call.
26:03Another guy who's going to potentially have his best week of the season here in week one, Chuba Hubbard, because of game
26:09script and the way that everything played out with the 24 points he almost scored here.
26:13Let's talk about the Bucs and the Bengals, my friend.
26:16Talk to me. If I told you that 60 points were scored in this game, you'd be like, oh man, my guys smashed.
26:22Yeah, Jamar Chase definitely went for like 25. Then what if I told you that there were two defensive touchdowns and six field goals in this game?
26:29And it wasn't the guys that you wanted to score touchdowns that got in the end zone.
26:34Stop me if you've heard this before. Bengals start the season slow from a fantasy perspective.
26:39They actually won this game. They scored 33 points.
26:41Joe Burrow, unfortunately, doesn't reach 255 passing yards, but does get a touchdown.
26:45Chase Brown does the Chase Brown thing. Unfortunately, inefficient again, but he is so good through the air.
26:49Five catches for 22 yards there. 18.8 fantasy points.
26:52Finds the end zone. And he's the only one, honestly, in this offense that you started that paid off.
26:57Because Jamar Chase, unfortunately, the number two thing, like the second most Googled thing yesterday was, did Jamar Chase get hurt?
27:03No way. Because fantasy managers were trying to wonder, what's going on?
27:06What was number one? Why? Did Colston Loveland get hurt?
27:09Because he had zero fantasy points. I promise you.
27:11I did not think you were going to go that direction.
27:14Oh, that's where it was. I thought it was going to be inappropriate.
27:18No. No, no, no. I thought you were going to say like Sidney Sweeney new commercial.
27:22Oh, yeah. T. Higgins. That's probably factually true. That is probably, yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:26Don't fact check mine, actually, just in case. But T.
27:29Higgins, at least three for 59. But honestly, all of these guys in the passing game just kind of let down.
27:35This is one of those things that I hate to say it, but the Bengals sometimes start slow.
27:40This is a game I'm super, or they're pumped that they won.
27:43Nothing's going to change for us next week. This is the chalkiest of chalky teams.
27:47We're going to roll them out there just like we did this week.
27:51What do you do about this? Well, if it makes you feel any better, it could get worse.
27:55As Jamar Chase did have a game worse than this at one point in his career.
28:00Just one time. Oh, great. It was week 15 of his rookie season.
28:03Okay. He had 1.3 fantasy points as opposed to three points, two fantasy points.
28:07But yeah, not his day. Superman forgot his cape for one Sunday afternoon.
28:11He'll be back next weekend. Yeah. I'll give you a Montgomery for Chase.
28:14Anyone? I mean, that's what I'm telling you. Someone's going to do it.
28:18Oh, it'll definitely happen. Let's talk on the other side here because also for the passing game for the Bucs, it was
28:24pretty easy to see Emeka Bucca clearly the wide receiver one.
28:27Nice to see Chris Godwin out there. Four for 40.
28:30Most of that came on one 30-yard catch. The rest of it was kind of dink and duck for him.
28:35It really was just the Emeka Bucca show through the receiving game.
28:38The real conversation here is holy smokes, Bucky versus Kenny.
28:41And we talked up Kenny Gainwell so much with everything he does as a receiving back, all the things he's going to be doing in this offense.
28:49And that Kenny Gainwell did not show up on Sunday.
28:51At all. Not at all. Bucky Irving, 8 for 45 and a touchdown on the ground, plus 7 catches for 48 yards on 7 targets.
28:58A total of 20.3 fantasy points. On the other side, Kenny Gainwell, 5 carries for 15 yards.
29:03Only 1 catch for 3 yards on 1 target.
29:052.8 fantasy points. What was the running back split with these guys?
29:0921 to 14 in routes. Okay. 22, 13. And then 61.5 to 46.2 in the snaps.
29:13Man. I mean, did we just get this one wrong?
29:16I think it's too early to tell. I agree.
29:18It's odd to me that you would pay Kenneth Gainwell $7 million per year, which is the first real contract of his,
29:24like first big money contract of his career, to then utilize him the way that they did yesterday.
29:29I would have thought that he would be the ultimate security blanket in a game that they were trailing, by the way.
29:35And they were trailing pretty considerably. Yeah. So I am very surprised that Kenneth Gainwell had one target yesterday.
29:40And by the way, he played 46% of the snaps at Gainwell.
29:44That's a big number for a number two running back.
29:46Like he's still plenty involved and the touches will go his way.
29:50And we know from Pittsburgh last year, this guy can make plays.
29:53So he's going to be involved. I think the only variable as it pertains to Irving's fantasy stock is, yeah, we might
29:59get Mark Gainwell, but when Sean Tucker is back, does he take goal line work?
30:03That's still a variable that was not in play yesterday because he was out.
30:07Josh Williams was there and he didn't play any snaps.
30:10So I'm going to keep an eye on that.
30:12But for now, Irving, at least for the moment, back in the running back two conversation.
30:17There's nothing like saying right before we come into the week.
30:20Bucky Irving doesn't have a ceiling anymore because there's no touchdowns because of Sean Tucker and there's no receiving game value because of Kenny Gainwell.
30:26Well, there was no Sean Tucker yesterday. No Sean Tucker.
30:29By the way, do you guys recall in Fantasy Focus Countdown when we were interviewing Kimberly Martin, who's covering the game?
30:35Oh, yes. Yeah, Ted Johnson's like, you can quote me on this.
30:38We got the best wide receiver room in the NFL.
30:41Can we just, let's put that one in the back burner.
30:44Pump the brakes a little bit. Yeah. Nice group.
30:46He also ran six routes, so that must be his justification for not getting on the field.
30:51He had negative receivers. He was so loaded. He had negative fantasy points yesterday.
30:55Minus .4. Oh, yeah, he did. He had a carry for a loss.
30:58Ted Hurst, by the way, ran in place of Jalen McMillan, ran a ton of routes in this game.
31:04Only three targets. Yeah, but that's probably Jalen McMillan's job when he's back.
31:07So, nothing to see there. Guys, I didn't think the day would come.
31:11What? But we really, and I mean really, really, really, really need Tua Tungo-Bailoa back in our lives.
31:16What? Did you guys watch the Steelers-Falcons game? Yeah.
31:18Unfortunately. I tried not to. Those that did, I'm sorry.
31:21For those that didn't, smart decision. This one set back football.
31:24I mean, it was ridiculous. It's a legitimate miracle.
31:26It's a testament to the brilliance of B. John Robinson.
31:29That he had 31.3 fantasy points in a game in which his team was disgustingly bad.
31:33He is so good. God, 10 targets yesterday by far.
31:36He had six more targets than anybody else. Because of Cooper Rush, the Steelers are like, we'll blitz the heck out of you.
31:42We'll pressure you. If you're going to beat us down the field, it's going to be by a miracle only.
31:48So, if you want to dink and dunk your way to 13 points, have at it.
31:52And that's what they did. Yeah, what do you have?
31:55A 52% target share? That seems good, right? That's like double a great target share.
31:59It's insane. So, eight catches for 90 yards, 83 rushing yards, touchdown as well.
32:03The guy's just an unbelievable player. And everybody else got totally neutered by Cooper Rush.
32:07Drake London had four targets. Two catches, 29 yards.
32:10That stinks. Gross. He did have that one rush for six yards.
32:13Doesn't help the things that much. Kyle Pitts had a bagel.
32:16Kyle Pitts had a bagel. I had a bagel for lunch yesterday.
32:19I'm not blaming him for this one. Of course not.
32:22I'm telling you, the quarterback stinks. That's why I want Tua back.
32:25Yeah. Until we get Tua back, these guys who are playing a lot are almost useless for fantasy.
32:30Feels that way. Like, if we think that Cooper Rush is going to start in week two, good luck trying to decide where to rank Drake London.
32:38By the way, Michael Penix might play in week two.
32:40He said week two or three. Yes. I'll take him.
32:43I would take Penix over Tua for sure. Like, I want Penix in there yesterday.
32:47Like, I think Michael Penix Jr. can sling that thing.
32:50I might bring Matt Ryan back out of the booth and take that over Cooper Rush.
32:54He almost walked down there. Yeah. I mean, geez.
32:57So, Falcons, we absolutely need quarterback stability because yesterday was gross.
33:00For the Steelers, to me, the most interesting thing from the Steelers was the running back split in the backfield.
33:05Mike, if you have different snap percentages, let me know.
33:08But my number was 58% for Rico Dowdle, 36% for Jalen Warren.
33:11Correct. A clear edge for Rico, which might be in part because they were winning this game, right?
33:16They're winning this game. Even if it wasn't by a huge margin, seven points felt like 17 points against that decrepit Falcons offense.
33:22Yep. Jalen Warren, though, had more rushing attempts. He had one more target, six to five.
33:27And he had five catches for 27 yards compared to Rico Dowdle's two catches for six yards.
33:31My bigger takeaway coming out of this one, other than, like, Rico playing way more snaps, I think in part because of
33:38the game script, is this one feels a little dead zone-y to me.
33:41That was my, I was like, man, you know what?
33:44Like, even if things were okay for one or the other here, 10.3 fantasy points for Jalen Warren, I'd rather pass than start either of these guys.
33:51Yeah, Warren had the, Dowdle the edge in snaps, Warren the edge in usage.
33:55I think it was just a interchangeable deal because Dowdle ran seven more routes than Warren did.
34:00But I think it was a hot hand thing where Warren was playing better.
34:04He was clearly more efficient in this game. I don't think that, Dowdle's good.
34:07Like, that's not going to be the same every single week.
34:10Kind of same with Tampa Bay, what we just talked about.
34:13Like, you're going to get more gain while when he makes a play or two.
34:17They're going to put him out there more. I think it's going to be the same kind of thing in Pittsburgh.
34:23So, I'm with you. It's a situation to avoid, which is what we said going into yesterday.
34:28It feels like with Rico Dowdle or Jalen Warren, I guess, but these are two guys that you will consider basically from week four to week 12.
34:35When bi-weeks hit and you need someone off the bench to give you that 9.8 or 11.2 fantasy points, but when you
34:41have the full complement of the entirety of the NFL, no.
34:44I don't want to start any of these guys from that perspective.
34:48They're bi-week fill-ins for me. Probably touch on, like, the five dead zone running backs.
34:52Absolutely. Groups in the NFL right now. Encouraging, by the way, from D.K.
34:55Metcalf. Ten targets yesterday. It's a big number. Yeah.
34:58They were not efficient throwing the football down the field, but they were attempting to throw the football down the field.
35:04So DeKalen Metcalf had easily the most targets on the team.
35:07Ten. Next up was Roman Wilson at six. I don't feel great about starting a Steelers pass catcher.
35:11Not even D.K. Metcalf. Yeah. And Pittman led the team in receiving, but only three targets in the game.
35:17On all three of those. It's kind of disappointing.
35:19Rodgers attempted 40 passes. We would have liked to see more production.
35:22If you told me that he had... From the pass catch.
35:25Yes. He threw 40 passes. I would not expect eight points from D.K.
35:29And 8.8 from Pittman. I mean, they were losing for a big chunk of this game.
35:33They were losing to Cooper Rush for a big chunk of the first half, and then they turned it around a little bit, but barely hung on.
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37:19How about them? J-E-T-S. Jets. Never in doubt, fellas.
37:21Ageno Smith-led Jets, baby! Mike had confidence all offseason.
37:24A setback massager. J-E-T-S. Gino Smith is good to go.
37:26Yes. Look at this. Feel it, Mike. Go ahead.
37:29You've been carrying that water. That's right. J-E-T-S. Gino Smith's serviceable.
37:32If I told you J-E-T-S. Gino Smith was going to be 19 of 24.
37:36Shut this off. 19? You hold a button. There's a button that you hold down.
37:40Don't worry about it. That was too much. You need to focus.
37:43He absolutely smashed in this one. And for him, I mean, he smashed because he helped the guys that we wanted to help.
37:49We weren't starting J-E-E-T-S. Gino Smith anyways. Garrett Wilson.
37:52That's what we wanted to see. Six for 79 on seven targets.
37:55Nobody else had more than three targets on this team.
37:58Garrett Wilson, clear and far away. The number one wide receiver.
38:01Of course, we would love a little bit more than six for 79.
38:05But I will take that, especially seeing the way that this offense looked.
38:08I do not at all feel nervous or uncomfortable about Garrett Wilson.
38:11Field, I know we were a little, you, Mike, and I were more on the Gino Smith is serviceable.
38:17And we're okay with what that makes us feel about this Wilson value.
38:20How do you feel after one week understanding it was against the Titans?
38:24I believe the term nonplussed means you have no emotions.
38:26Okay. You don't feel anything. You're still nonplussed? I'm nonplussed.
38:29All right. This one talked to me. They actually have a good matchup this weekend.
38:33The Vikings, I'm sorry, the Packers defense, not great.
38:36No. No, that didn't go well. That did not go well.
38:39We'll talk about that in a minute. Well, I say that because they're playing them next weekend.
38:43Yes. So an opportunity for Gino to throw the football next weekend effectively.
38:47But the rubber will meet the road against more difficult matchups.
38:50I think there are four teams at the bottom of the NFL right now.
38:54Three with a fourth kind of hanging in the balance.
38:57Three teams that I think are like competing for Jeremiah Smith, number one overall player in the draft next year.
39:02Tennessee Titans. Yes. Miami Dolphins. Yes. Maybe the Atlanta Falcons.
39:05Not the Cardinals anymore. No, not the Cardinals anymore.
39:07Who's the other obvious one that I'm missing? Did you say the Titans?
39:11Titans. I said the... Gosh, just... Great radio. Dolphins.
39:13Titans, Dolphins. No Raiders. Browns. Thank you. Browns. There you go.
39:16Browns, Dolphins, and maybe the Falcons. Falcons, I got to see when they get the quarterback situation figured out.
39:21One thing with the Jets is they tried a couple wheel routes to Braylon Allen, who, by the way, split pass routes with Brees Hall in this game.
39:29And one was called back on a penalty. It was a touchdown.
39:32One was a near miss in completion. I'm like, throw the ball to Garrett Wilson.
39:37The guy's getting you down the field. Okay? Let him finish the job.
39:40Six for seven for 79 yards. Get him near the...
39:43I needed some touchdowns. Truth be told, the two guys that you invested in, though, in fantasy football, Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson...
39:49That's good. Yeah. Did not disappoint for you. Yeah.
39:52Brees Hall, 22 for one or two in a touchdown, plus two receptions.
39:55And good game script for them. So, Gino only attempted 24 passes.
39:58Yes. So, they came through pretty good considering. So, whenever we were talking this offseason about planning for this upcoming year ahead,
40:04we were like, yeah, you know, we're talking about, like, you know, wanted to preview every game, wanted to recap every single game.
40:11And we'd always, as we were talking about how to organize our thoughts, well, you know, remember, like, when the Titans play
40:17the Browns, like, we can keep it tighter on that one going forward.
40:20Yeah. After week one, if they play each other, maybe we can just not cover that game.
40:25Just not do it. Because full punt on the Titans.
40:28Yeah. Full punt. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This would have been a quick recap later.
40:32But it's a post-week one. We have, like, some details to get to in here.
40:36But no doubt about it. Even this game was not great.
40:39No. Reese, Garrett, good. Everything else. Yeah. Bad. Yeah, it was rough for the Titans.
40:43All right. So, really quickly here on the Titans.
40:45All right. And Chargers and Cardinals coming up next.
40:48Mike. Yeah. No, really. There wasn't. I mean, truly, for the Titans.
40:51Let's talk about it. It was a woeful day.
40:53Like, Cam Ward, very discouraging performance. You take over or under on his 20 pass attempts.
40:58Or 20 conclusions. Yes. Did he get over or no?
41:01Yeah, 19. 19 for 32. I actually think I had a decent day in red zone.
41:05We'll find out. Oh, yeah. I don't know. I don't know.
41:08Cam Ward, the only one to top 10 fantasy points in this one.
41:12Wondell Robinson, top five for 38. Carnell Tate, four for 38.
41:15Just none of this looked good. Running game didn't look good.
41:18It was awful. And they played the Eagles this weekend.
41:20It was a throwaway game. It feels like this is unfortunately going to be a...
41:24Long season for Cam makes a leap. But not the progress we wanted to see in week one.
41:29We were hoping we'd come out and see a different Cam Ward.
41:33Big leap forward didn't happen. Agreed. All right. That was the early slate.
41:36All of the 1 p.m. Eastern games. Now we're going to switch on over to the 4 p.m.
41:41games. Who's leading us off here? I have a question for you guys.
41:45Oh, yeah. Go ahead. What time zone is Los Angeles in?
41:48West Pacific. The PST. Are they like... Is the PST like 10 days behind us?
41:52Like a week behind us in timing? Why? What do you mean?
41:55Oh, because they played like... Did the Chargers and the Rams not realize the NFL season freaking began this week?
42:01There we go. Are you kidding me, Chargers? Yeah.
42:03What an embarrassing performance that was. Jim Harbaugh, who had never lost a game as a head coach in week one of the NFL.
42:10I'm hot on this one. That was terrible. You were hot and it didn't look like you were going to have to
42:16be hot after the beginning there with the connection with Justin Herbert and Ladd McConkie.
42:20Rad McConkie. Thank you. That's right. Yeah, red hot out of the gate for those guys, for sure.
42:25McConkie actually missed half of this game with a chest injury, but at 5 for 82 and a touchdown.
42:30So I think if you drafted him, even though he missed half this game, as long as he's able to play in
42:36a week or two, and we'll keep an eye on that.
42:39He might be fine for next week. We'll keep an eye on it.
42:42But you probably feel pretty good about that investment because that was a really good connection early on in this one.
42:48But that's really it for the Chargers passing game.
42:51Now, O'Marion Hampton did score a touchdown on the ground, but he was inefficient in this one.
42:55Kind of disappointing. He handled 12 to 16 running back carries, but he had, guys, zero targets.
43:00Zero targets. That won't always be the case. He'll probably get a couple, but that is a concern.
43:05They need to get an uptick in the passing game where he's not going to live up to his ADP.
43:10Can you help me here? I think my numbers may be off.
43:14Did he play 47% of the snaps? That sounds about right.
43:17Let's see. I'm at, oh no, 57. 57. I'm at 57.
43:2031 for Keaton Mitchell. Okay, I was off like 10% for him.
43:23Yeah. 59's not terrible, but we need passing game usage.
43:26It's an okay number, but there's no passing game usage.
43:29That was just a brutal offensive. It feels like we got gaslit by Mike McDaniel.
43:33Because we assumed that this offense would look like the Mike McDaniel offense that we've been envisioning in our head.
43:38I mean, it was woeful. It was pathetic. It was awful.
43:41Like, I was the anti-Hampton guy coming into the year.
43:44And even I can't say like, yeah, you know what?
43:47Like, I thought he was going to mash in week one.
43:50Keane Mitchell, 11 routes. Hampton 10, by the way.
43:52So, kind of an even split there. The guy I'm going to keep an eye on is David Njoku, though.
43:58Five targets, 58 yards. Maybe he gets back into the top 15 conversation tight end.
44:02We'll keep an eye on that. But a disappointing effort from them in a game we thought they should have crushed for sure.
44:08Actually, more storylines on the other side of this one for sure with Arizona.
44:12And not just because they won this game, but Trey McBride doing what he does.
44:16Nine for 95 and a touchdown on 13 targets.
44:18He was outstanding. Oh, it wasn't Drew Petzin that was making him good.
44:22Okay, got it. Yeah. It turns out it was Trey McBride.
44:25It was Trey McBride that was making Trey McBride good.
44:28One of the biggest surprises of the week. Kendrick Bourne.
44:30Eight for 75 in this one. Ran 29 routes.
44:33I will say this. Wait, the wide receiver, Kendrick Bourne?
44:36Yeah. Do they not have Marvin Harrison Jr.? I guess not.
44:39Because I would say hold your horses. He was still third in line here for routes here.
44:43And snaps. Michael Wilson actually led the team with 36 at seven targets.
44:47Marvin Harrison, he was out there for 33 routes, guys.
44:50But one catch for 33 yards in this one, it was rough.
44:53Is it over? What's that? Is it over? No.
44:55Okay. You say that. Can we hold this conversation?
44:58I don't think it's over. All right. I don't think it's over yet.
45:01Waning optimism. We'll talk about. They're going to be interesting guys to rank this week.
45:05So I think we'll get to that for sure.
45:08But it was still Wilson and then Harrison and then Bourne in terms of route run.
45:12But all three of them were out in the field.
45:15For pretty much the entire game. So we'll keep an eye on that.
45:19It was definitely a rough start. It's over. It's over.
45:21They play Seattle this week. That's going to be tough.
45:24Talk just about the running backs. This was very interesting.
45:27It doesn't feel good. Guys, the other part of this is, of course, the running backs.
45:31First drive of his NFL career. Jeremiah Love gets in the end zone.
45:35Yeah, he does, baby. That was about all we got out of him.
45:38Algier ended up with a snap lead in this one, 41-32.
45:41I'm not shocked by that. Remember, we thought Love would be limited in this game.
45:45Algier had the edge in carry, 17-11. In the passing game, though, Love did have an edge, which is a good sign.
45:5114-12 in routes, 4-2. In targets, I'm going to expect Love to take on more in Week 2.
45:56I think I'll maybe lead this team in carries.
45:59They'll probably be close. And, of course, he's already the better passing game option.
46:03So we're pointing in the right direction. But for now, probably a back-end RB2 for the moment.
46:07Love. For Jeremiah Love. He's going to work his way up.
46:10Tough matchup was beginning against Seattle as well. Yes, no doubt about it.
46:14And they do have a tough schedule. But for now, that's where he is.
46:18I think he's just going to slowly work his way up our ranks.
46:21But for now, that's where he falls. All right.
46:24Let's talk about Packers and Vikings, friends. Wow. How about that?
46:27This was a crazy game. Crazy. Which side do you start on this?
46:30Because the Vikings... I think the Packers are easy to just rip through because...
46:34They very are easy to rip through. Definitely with this one.
46:37So here's the thing. They're defenses either. Oh, Michael.
46:40Jordan Love. Had some garbage time in this one.
46:42387 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. Most of it went to Christian Watson, guys.
46:46Christian Watson, unbelievable. You're welcome. A couple of your guys you liked a lot.
46:50He looked really good. Good call on that one field.
46:53Thank you, Mike. Where's that massager? Right here. That's right here.
46:56Christian Watson. Henry Watson. Yes. I think you had a couple others, too.
46:59You had a good start. We all have hits and misses.
47:02Six for 147 and two touchdowns. By the way, the stack in the DK Millie-Maker winning team.
47:07Really? Love to Watson. Yep. Here's what was important to me, to be serious about it.
47:11Daniel, this is your game. Go ahead. I just would say, is that the hope was this was kind of a condensed
47:17passing game and they were more pass aggressive. I know Love threw the ball a lot in the second half, but Christian
47:23Watson, that 81-yard touchdown was early in the game.
47:26This was not him mashing because they were down 20 points.
47:29Yep. However, Matthew Golden. 12 targets. That was mostly late.
47:32That was a lot in the second half. 25, 12 targets.
47:35You still love being able to see that. I am not trusting anybody in this rushing game.
47:39I don't care about any of the running backs.
47:42Is Marshall Lloyd good? No. I don't think so.
47:44Oh, that was the concern, right? All the hype around it was like, we don't know if he's good or not.
47:50It was. You know what that reminded me of?
47:53And it's different in the sense that one team kind of let a running back go by design.
47:57But remember the year that Alexander Madison took over for Dalvin Cook?
48:01And it was like, this guy's got some pedigree.
48:03They re-signed him this offseason. And then it's like, oh, Alexander Madison, not very good.
48:07Correct. I, we're only one game into the Marshawn Lloyd experience, but it was not impressive in week one.
48:12Yeah. And he got out snapped too. And he got maybe over again there.
48:16Zero catches. Yeah. No, no. Keep going. That's it.
48:19Chris Brooks played 37 snaps. Marshawn Lloyd played 30.
48:21He got out snapped. Not good. He's not even their clear number one right now.
48:25We had this conversation about a couple of other players.
48:28There is a legitimate chance that this is the highest scoring week for Christian Watson.
48:32Would you look to sell high potentially on him given the 32.7 fantasy points?
48:36Or are you holding tight because you're like, this is what he can be?
48:40I am a Christian Watson. Christian Watson. Go ahead.
48:42One more time. Christian Watson. I am a Christian Watson, optimist and believer.
48:46But anytime you have a game this big, you're going to at least field some offers.
48:50You got to field offers. Yeah. Let's look on the other side.
48:54Unfortunately, Kyler Murray got really banged up in this one.
48:56Left with a concussion. It looked like a pretty gnarly injury.
48:59We're really hoping for the best for him. As soon as we get more information, we will let you guys know.
49:05But Carson Wentz stepped in and did what we needed him to do to get the ball to Justin Jefferson.
49:11This is what we've been saying. That's it. We need Carson Wentz to save Justin Jefferson.
49:15That's what we've been saying. We've seen it all offseason and it happened.
49:18Eight for 92 and two touchdowns. 31.2 fantasy points.
49:21I don't care about anything else. The idea that we got 31 fantasy points for Justin Jefferson is it.
49:26TJ Hawkinson did also get in the end zone.
49:29Both of the running backs found their way into the end zone through the ground as well.
49:33But the conversation here is we got what we needed.
49:36We got what we needed, boys. Yeah, we absolutely did.
49:39It's funny. Wentz only threw for 133 yards and yet Jefferson had 92.
49:42That's okay. So I feel a little bit lucky in that regard.
49:46But Jefferson is so good. But, you know, we also said throughout the offseason or the question we asked was, can they
49:52support more than one fantasy relevant pass catcher? And at least if this game's an indication, the answer is no.
49:57I know TJ Hawkinson scored a touchdown. That was a good game for him.
50:01It was. Actually, 13.6 fantasy points. But no one else.
50:04I mean, the rest of the team besides those two, Jefferson and Hawkinson, combined for 23 yards and no touchdowns in this game.
50:10Jordan Addison, 26 routes, zero catches. So Jawan Jennings, also zero catches.
50:13So even with Kyle under center, I'm very worried about them supporting anyone else.
50:17Jefferson's the only clear starter in this offense. And that's despite the fact that both running backs found the end zone.
50:23Yeah, I think you said this, but wide receivers not named Justin Jefferson had three targets the entire game.
50:28So running backs feel dead zoning to me as well.
50:31Agreed. Yeah, they did split it. Kind of went how we thought it would.
50:35Yes, yes. I'm with you on that. All right, let's move ahead and talk about this next one, Mike.
50:40Your Eagles and the Commanders. The Eagles tried to blow it, but alas, they did not.
50:44They hung on and won it. You know, for the Eagles, Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley kind of did their thing.
50:50You know, nothing really to write home about that.
50:52Barkley didn't do much in the passing game. Actually lost three yards on his lone catch, but better days ahead for him in that area.
50:59We know that. Dallas Goddard, all that guy does is score touchdowns now.
51:03Seriously. He was one of the cheapest tight ends in drafts this year for some reason, but he got the job done.
51:09Only five targets. But again, they didn't have to throw the ball very much.
51:12They were ahead throughout basically this entire game. Only 25 pass attempts for Jalen Hurts.
51:17So Goddard got in the end zone twice. He's fine.
51:19Your guy, Dontavian Wicks, that's another one. You were talking up 73 yards and a touchdown.
51:24He only had four targets. I'm not going to carry it away there.
51:27And one of the reasons for that is that Makai Lemon actually ran 25 routes.
51:31So the leaders here were Smith at 27. He had 53 yards.
51:35It was a quiet day for him. He'll be fine.
51:37Wicks, 26. Lemon right there at 25. Kind of hilariously, Lemon had negative five yards.
51:41Negative five. Four targets, which is almost impossible. It is.
51:44That's almost impossible to do. He'll obviously make some plays and have some better games.
51:48But I think the only guys we're starting from the passing game here, Smith and Goddard's going to be – Goddard's a back-end tight end.
51:55Low-end tight end one. Yeah, he's a – Big talk this offseason about like this reshaping of the Eagles offense.
52:01And you felt it. Like it looked way different compared to where it was.
52:04He ends up with three passing touchdowns, including two late.
52:07Did you feel like it was a good fit for Jalen Hurts?
52:10I feel like – I didn't think they looked super sharp.
52:13I was a little underwhelmed, but it's also the first game.
52:16It's the first game. I thought it was a good matchup.
52:20I was concerned by the end of the game.
52:22Yeah? Okay. I didn't love it. I wouldn't say panic mode, but I felt a little – it felt a little better
52:28than last year, but they were also playing Washington.
52:30So – Yeah, the thing is the defense is so damn good that they're going to win a ton of games this year.
52:37But I would say the first week and I was like, all right, it's a work in progress.
52:42Yeah, I would agree with that. There was nothing that they can't – they certainly didn't look like Chicago.
52:47You know what I mean? Like they didn't look like they were going to come out and light it up.
52:52But that's also typical for Jalen Hurts, too. He just kind of matriculates, you know?
52:56With you talking about the defense just on the other side, the Eagles defense is so good.
53:01Are you worried about Jaden after what you saw in this one, or do you think that this is – the defense is just that good?
53:08Yeah, I mean, I think you are. We talked about it a little before the show, so I'll let you lead with that.
53:15Yeah, my test just is not nearly as favorable to Jaden Daniels as it was after his rookie season.
53:20After his rookie season, it felt like we were going to talk about Jaden Daniels and that – remember at the time
53:26the QBs were like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, a lot of the guys that are still in that conversation right now.
53:33Jalen Hurts, and it was like, has Jaden Daniels already sort of pierced that bubble and he is in that mix?
53:38I would say that right now, waking up on the morning of September 14th, my answer is no.
53:43He ended up scoring two touchdowns or throwing two touchdown passes later in the game, so he ends up with, what, 17.66 fantasy points?
53:50He had a rushing touchdown – or had 31 rushing yards, I mean.
53:53So he was fine, not a great number, but remember his rookie season, it was a cheat code.
53:58Every week it was like, who cares? It doesn't matter who he's playing, he's going to have a monster week.
54:04Felt like he was a cheat code week in and week out because of his legs, and now with what we're seeing,
54:10and he's supposed to have a slightly better offense around him even with some of the pass catchers we would like to think.
54:16Stephon Diggs, although Diggs had a tough drive. Yeah, well, and again, playing a very good defense too.
54:21Yeah, of course. That's a part of that. Yeah, there's better days ahead perhaps for Jane Daniels.
54:26It feels funny to kind of pick on him when he had two touchdowns, no turnovers, had 30 rushing yards against a really good defense.
54:33It didn't feel great to me. Yeah, I agree it didn't feel great, but – Hated the play call and the two-point conversion as well.
54:39Yeah, oh yeah, no doubt. The running backs for the commanders.
54:42I think we have to take a look at this because we're wondering if this is also a dead zone or if
54:48someone could kind of leap into the running back two conversation.
54:52If somebody is going to do it, it looks like it's going to be Ja'Cory, Kroski, Merritt.
54:56Led the backfield with 33 snaps, ran it very well, which is what he did successfully last year.
55:01Pretty well. 16 for 63 and a touchdown. That's a good rushing line.
55:05He'll take that. Under four yards a carry. I mean, the efficiency is not great, but 16 carries and a touchdown.
55:10I mean, that's a good sign for sure. Rashad White played 27 snaps, only six behind, but only seven for 22 on the ground.
55:17They split pass routes. That is a reason for optimism.
55:20Now, he had negative seven yards on his lone target, did Kroski, Merritt.
55:23But the fact that he ran 14 routes and Rashad White ran 14 routes, he only had two targets, that's a good sign.
55:30We need more JCM involvement in the passing game if he's going to get in the running back conversation, Ktron Allen, the
55:36rookie, also played seven snaps, but it was pretty much a non-factor.
55:39So JCM stock up slightly, but not a running back two yet, but pointed in the right direction.
55:44I'm sure we'll talk about him on waiver wire.
55:46Antonio Williams, a rookie, four for 64 and a touchdown.
55:49But guys, fourth in line at wide receiver. Ten routes.
55:52Terry, Stevon Diggs, Diami Brown, all well ahead of him, so I'm not going to get carried away there.
55:57Terry McLaren, dud, but he was on the field a ton.
56:00Stevon Diggs is good. Nine targets. Four for 55 on nine targets, also scored seven.
56:04Yeah, Diggs in the flex conversation. McLaren, we're going to stick with him as a wide receiver three.
56:09They're the only pass catchers we're touching for now in Washington.
56:12Let's dive into the Raiders. I like how you led into that one.
56:16That's right, taking on the Miami Dolphins. Good win.
56:18Listen, the Raiders had a great win in this one.
56:21Ashton Gentry looked absolutely phenomenal. Biggest story of the day.
56:24Very different. He looked very different than he did last year.
56:2742 yards. Plus, he had six catches on six targets for 45 yards, two touchdowns.
56:3132.7 fantasy points. Michael Mayer, six for 32 in his replacement of Brock Bowers.
56:34He kind of did what we thought he would do without Brock Bowers being there.
56:39Honestly, what it felt like to me with Ashton Gentry was almost perfect game script.
56:43This team gets up. They get to run the ball a lot.
56:46It puts them in a really great spot. They get terrible defense.
56:49There's no Brock Bowers. And because there's no Brock Bowers, because it's not the rookie quarterback starting, I got a veteran.
56:55And you know what I'm good at as a veteran?
56:58Dumping the ball off to my safety valve as a running back is like putting my socks on in the morning for Kirk Cousins.
57:04And that's exactly what it looked like. I mean, Ashton Gentry and him looked fantastic together.
57:09He had a couple of really nice catches, obviously being able to get in the end zone.
57:13If this is what he's going to look like week in and week out, I would feel very different about Ashton Gentry.
57:19This is not what I think he will look like week in and week out.
57:23I do not think he will get this much receiving game work because once Brock Bowers is there, we're going to see
57:30him eat up a lot more of this target volume.
57:32I think a couple of things. This is not a sell high for me.
57:36Agreed. Maybe it's his best game of the season.
57:3932.7 fantasy points, but not putting it past him to get there again.
57:42Running backs are very scarce. They had a plan.
57:45Like this was mastery by Clint Kubiak and his staff.
57:47Crushed it. Ashton Gentry had room to run, which is wild.
57:50I got to check out how many yards before contact he had yesterday.
57:54I'm sure it was the most he's ever had in a game.
57:57Well, he had 13 rushing yards over expectation, so he was efficient.
58:00Yep. But on top of that, his six catches on six targets, the second receiving touchdown that he had is this play
58:06that we see it often, but it was designed.
58:09He actually, there were two backs on the field.
58:11Yeah. He gets motioned into the backfield, kind of works his way towards the slot and runs what we call an option route, right?
58:18Like he goes, he attacks the linebacker. If the linebacker's got inside leverage, he goes out.
58:22If he got outside leverage, he goes in. Easy money.
58:25I mean, it was like a walk-in touchdown for Ashton Gentry.
58:28This is an elite playmaker who at least has the scheme.
58:31I'm still not totally sold on the blocking because it was the Dolphins.
58:35Yes. But definitely a red hot start for Ashton Gentry.
58:37Yeah. That's what I wanted to, you know, remind.
58:40I mean, we might've had Gentry ranked fourth at running back if he was 100% healthy because he was facing Miami.
58:46This is what we expected. I mean, you're at home against this Miami defense.
58:49You should crush it. And he did. Even Mike Washington only had seven carries, almost six yards per carry.
58:55I mean, anyone who had an opportunity in this game was effective.
58:58Agreed. It is what it is. On the other side, is there anyone else that you want to talk about for the Raiders?
59:04Because that was it for me. Nope. Your boy Jack Besh scored a touchdown, but 13 routes, so we're not starting him.
59:10And we'll get some more news. We got some news late that Brock Bowers might not miss a ton of time.
59:16I played next week. Yeah. So if we get more information, obviously throughout the week, we will let you guys know that.
59:22Let's talk about the Dolphins, though, because I was disappointed in a major way.
59:26Devon A-chan, the one thing that was important to me in many ways.
59:29Maybe, okay, maybe you were some ways. I was disappointed in many ways.
59:33Devon A-chan only having five targets when they're trailing mostly the entire game is a problem.
59:37That means to me, kind of like we had said with Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson coming into the season, like, is he going to understand the assignment?
59:45Malik Willis needs to understand the assignment. Get the football to your running back at or behind the line of scrimmage.
59:51So we talked about this on text last night, because I was a little less discouraged by the receiving work for A-chan.
59:57Five targets, map that out over the course of the season, less than where he was at last year.
60:02But he could easily hit 65 catches. Yeah, it's a very healthy number.
60:0619% target share. I think he was maybe at 21 last year.
60:09I mean, that's pretty close. It's just that he was amongst the most efficient runners in the league over the past few
60:15years, and he only had 36 rushing yards and 11 carries.
60:18Wasn't great. That wasn't good. Yeah. Felt like the entire offense didn't look good, to be honest.
60:23Well, there were a couple of nice plays. Yeah, there were a couple of nice plays by some rookie wide receivers.
60:28Yeah, Caleb Douglas got Caleb Douglas 5 for 94 in this game and ran a ton of routes.
60:33Waver wire. Something there. Yeah, waiver wire for sure.
60:36That's about it for the passing game. But, I mean, Malik Willis did what we hoped you would do if you took him as a sleeper.
60:43In fantasy, 220 passing yards and ran for 39 in a touchdown.
60:46Yep. Totally fine. I mean, that's what your... The thought right was, I'm going to take him as a late sleeper.
60:52Stop it. On behalf of everybody that's listening, we did not want positive...
60:55And there's no offense. We don't care about Malik Willis.
60:58Okay. We want Devon Achan. That's fair. I mean, yeah, I want Devon Achan too.
61:02But, I mean, if you took that flyer, that late flyer, that was the goal, right?
61:07Like, hey, this guy could Justin Fields' way to top 10, top 12 numbers.
61:11Let's put out a poll. Are you more excited to see Devon Achan or Malik Willis?
61:15Look, if I had a choice, I'd pick Achan.
61:17I agree with you. Yes, of course. That poll will run until tomorrow, by the way.
61:22Anything else you guys want to talk about with the Dolphins other than potentially throwing a couple of darts at those wide receivers tomorrow.
61:28Ah, nice segue. On to what we're doing into the next one.
61:32Guys, almost... I almost... My prediction was Dart would lead all quarterbacks at fantasy points in week one.
61:37But Josh Allen and Caleb Williams messed it up.
61:39Dart was almost there. He was outstanding. I mean, outstanding.
61:4223 of 29, 230 yards, three touchdowns in this one.
61:44And added 54 yards on 11 carries as well.
61:47He was terrific. Perfect. He attempted 29 passes in this game.
61:50Malik Nabors, who we didn't even know if he was going to play, ran around on 24 of the 29.
61:55A really good sign. Nine targets in the game, 69 yards.
61:58He's back in as a clear lineup block. Good to go moving forward.
62:02Very encouraging. And if we were low on someone from the Giants offense, not everyone was, but maybe I was.
62:07Isaiah Likely was terrific. Eight for eight. Caught all eight targets, 78 yards, two touchdowns.
62:12He only played 50% of the snaps. Don't even worry about that.
62:15He ran 23 routes in this one. He was exceptional.
62:18So that's the pass catchers, the passing game. The running backs were very interesting to me.
62:22Cam Scadaboo and Devin Singletary basically were a committee.
62:24There was no Tyron Tracy. Played two snaps in this game.
62:27Fumbled. He fumbled and that was it. He's inactive next week.
62:30Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, Najee Harris will probably play next week.
62:3441 snaps for Scadaboo, 25 for Singletary. But Scadaboo did all his damage on the ground.
62:3918 for 81 and a touchdown, which was great.
62:41Nine routes, zero targets. Devin Singletary rarely did anything on the ground, but 18 routes.
62:45Doubled him up, had four catches, 22 yards, and caught a touchdown.
62:49So very clear what they're doing there. Scadaboo is the runner.
62:52Singletary is out there in passing situations. That's concerning for Scadaboo's fantasy output.
62:55You're really going to be counting on high-end rushing production.
62:58You need like Derrick Henry rushing production if this guy's going to get into the running back one conversation.
63:03Hopefully that role evolves, but for now it wasn't there.
63:06And then on the Dallas side, not much to say here.
63:09I mean, it's kind of, you know, obviously. It's the same four guys.
63:12George Pickens and Joke Farterson disappointed. Jake Ferguson, underwhelmed.
63:15They'll be fine when they throw the ball a little more.
63:18Pickens is going to be fine. Ferguson's going to be probably a fringe tight end one.
63:22CeeDee Lamb had a good game. Javante Williams had a very good game, but it was kind of what we expected.
63:28There's really not much to say about the Dallas offense other than keep doing what you've been doing.
63:33I'm really, I'm pumped for, by the way, we talked a lot about this Dallas defense.
63:37On paper, they were supposed to look a lot better.
63:40How did you feel about them? Or did you feel like this was Jackson Dart just like looking like a superstar?
63:46I'm going to go with not better. I mean, Jackson Dart looked awesome, but I'm going to go with not better by the Cowboys.
63:52Yeah, it was a really slow start. They scored on what?
63:55They had two drives in the second half and scored a touchdown on.
63:59Both. They was just too, like they couldn't, the defense couldn't stop the Giants.
64:03I mean, they just, again, they used the word twice now in this show, but matriculated the ball so slowly.
64:08It was a very slow pace of that Giants.
64:11And it was, it was impressive. I mean, that's a good way to protect the defense.
64:15Shout out Matt Nagy for week one. They crushed it.
64:18They crushed it. Very impressive. Let's move ahead and look at Monday night football.
64:22We got a big game tonight. Broncos taking on the Chiefs in Arrowhead.
64:25Going back to the name Arrowhead, I believe, at the new stadium.
64:29I believe it's no longer whatever they called it some random sponsor.
64:32It was, it was a sponsor. Now it's not.
64:34Oh, it used to be called Patrick Mahomes Stadium, but they're like, hey, Mike, that's a good funny right there.
64:40Yeah. Hey, there you go. Way to go, Michael.
64:42All right. Broncos and Chiefs. We got Kenneth Walker as lineup blocks with Rashi Rice, Jalen Waddell, and Cortland Sutton.
64:48All three of them. No Bo Nix as a lineup block.
64:51No Patrick Mahomes as a lineup block, Mike. No quarterbacks.
64:53I wrote about that in the playbook. Tough, tough matchups here.
64:56Mahomes hasn't had a good game against Denver since 2022.
64:59And I think Nix, if I'm not mistaken, similar against the Chiefs.
65:02So, guys, they're both QB twos. But again, you probably, your lineup's set.
65:06Yes. You're not doing that. I don't know if we have much to report in week one on this one.
65:12We previewed it. And, you know, you know who you're starting.
65:15I would say so as well. Any lineup decisions tonight?
65:17Nope. Just need 19 fantasy points from Rashi Rice.
65:20I need a big, I need a big Rice game for one specific reason.
65:24And that is our fantasy-focused knockout league. Yes. I had an ugly week.
65:27Tough week. I would have thought CMC getting 13 would be my best scorer of the week so far.
65:32Everyone else is in the single digits. Absolute disaster.
65:35Rashi could save me tonight. We'll see. Yikes. All right.
65:38That's going to do it for tonight. Tomorrow, we got Monday Night Football Recap.
65:41I'll be gone. Field's not going to be here.
65:44Yeah, I'm gone. One day I'll miss. And then we'll be doing Waver Wire, of course.
65:48Yes, I'm going to Miami. Flying to Miami. One day.
65:51Monte Carlo. Yeah. That's it. With the lay flat stuff, right?
65:54You can get down there to Miami real quick.
65:56Travel didn't go so well for the Rams, so I'm just going to stay local.
66:01Yeah. All right. That's going to do it for us today.
66:04Love you guys. Thank you so much for hanging out with us.
66:07Peace. Don't forget to love each other and be kind to yourself.
66:10You deserve it. Have fun watching Monday Night Football.
66:13Mike and I will see you tomorrow. Here talking Waver Wires.
66:16You're in the 06010. 61 and so can you.
66:18Enter for a chance to win the trip of a lifetime.
66:21Four tickets to Super Bowl 61, plus a three-night stay at Disneyland Resort where you and up to three guests can enjoy
66:27the magic of Disney, plus the Super Bowl champion Cavalcade.
66:30Enter at www.espn.com slash sblxi by December 31, 2026 for your chance to win.
66:34No purchase necessary. Ends 12-31-26 at 11-59 p.m. Eastern.
66:36Open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S.
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66:42For odds of winning and full official rules, visit www.espn.com slash sblxi.
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