Week 1 Fantasy Recap
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
54 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Sep 14, 2026
Published
Mon, September 14, 2026
29
Player insights
25
Players mentioned
Topics
Dontayvion WicksJalen CokerMarvin Harrison Jr.Michael WilsonChris OlaveChristian WatsonChuba HubbardColston LovelandD'Andre SwiftDalton KincaidDavid MontgomeryDevin SingletaryDK MetcalfDrake London
Player analysis
Player insights
Chris Olave
PositiveProjection48:36
Olave is a top-five wide receiver candidate due to the Saints' high-pace offense, league-leading air yards, and his strong chemistry with Tyler Shuck.
Insight pageChristian Watson
PositiveBreakout65:40
Watson is a candidate for a WR1 season, benefiting from the Packers' pass-heavy approach and his ability to produce both intermediate floor games and big-play ceilings.
Insight pageChuba Hubbard
PositiveUsage15:10
Hubbard led the Panthers' backfield in snaps (43-12) and saw all four of the team's running back red-zone touches. While Jonathan Brooks was limited by injury, Hubbard's usage suggests he remains the primary back for now, making the 'death' of his fantasy value premature.
Insight pageColston Loveland
PositiveValue6:28
Matthew Berry maintains a 'buy low' stance on Loveland despite a quiet box score. Loveland led all Bears pass catchers with a 92% route participation rate. Berry attributes the lack of production to two missed throws by Caleb Williams, including a potential touchdown, and remains confident that Loveland will lead the team's tight ends in targets and potentially points.
Insight pageD'Andre Swift
PositiveProjection4:06
Matthew Berry and Denny Carter agree that Swift is a solid RB1 moving forward. Despite some competition from Kyle Monongai, Swift dominated carries, including all carries inside the 10-yard line, and showed strong metrics in forcing missed tackles and yards before contact. While Monongai ran more routes, Swift's role in a high-scoring Bears offense makes him a reliable weekly starter.
Insight pageDalton Kincaid
PositiveRole57:16
Kincaid has secured a full-time role, running 75-77% of routes with a 21% target share, making him a reliable fantasy tight end.
Insight pageDavid Montgomery
PositiveUsage58:35
Despite poor efficiency metrics, Montgomery is a 'dog' who coaches trust for goal-line and red-zone work, ensuring consistent volume and touchdown upside.
Insight pageDevin Singletary
PositiveUsage41:57
Singletary was highly effective against the Cowboys, specifically on swing passes, which the Cowboys defense proved unable to stop.
Insight pageDK Metcalf
NegativeUsage52:34
Matthew Berry notes that DK Metcalf had a disappointing 40-yard performance in Week 1 despite accumulating over 200 air yards. Managers should take heart in the high volume of opportunities he is seeing.
Insight pageDontayvion Wicks
PositiveProjection40:56
Matthew Berry views Wicks as a WR1 who must be in lineups every week due to his big-play ability and Jordan Love's elite downfield passing. His role has expanded beyond just deep routes, as he is now playing the Z-receiver position and running a more diverse route tree.
Insight pageNegativeValue42:32
Matthew Berry compares Wicks to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, describing him as a volatile downfield threat. While he can provide value in a flex spot, managers should be prepared for potential zero-point games and avoid overreacting to his big plays.
Insight pageDrake London
NegativeProjection48:50
Matthew Berry advises against trading low on Drake London. While his current production is hampered by Cooper Rush's poor quarterback play, Berry expects improvement once Michael Penix returns to the lineup, citing a high PPR average for London with Penix.
Insight pageHarold Fannin
PositiveProjection50:36
Matthew Berry is nervous about Harold Fannin, who saw a season-low 14% target share in Week 1. The combination of a worse quarterback situation compared to last year and increased target competition makes Fannin a risky start, and Berry suggests benching him for more stable options.
Insight pageIsaiah Likely
PositiveBreakout45:28
Likely is a high-priority target after a 28% target share and team-high three red zone targets; he is viewed as the primary pass-catching option for the Giants.
Insight pageJa'Marr Chase
NegativeProjection45:44
Matthew Berry is not worried about Jamar Chase despite a brutal Week 1 performance (12% target share, 3.2 points). Berry notes that Chase had a similar slow start in Week 1 last year before producing at a high level, and expects him to bounce back immediately.
Insight pageJalen Coker
PositiveBreakout12:18
Matthew Berry and Adam Thielen are high on Jalen Coker, with Thielen calling him the Panthers' best receiver. Coker recorded 128 air yards (sixth most in Week 1) and a 36% air yard share. While the game script was extreme, Berry believes Coker's emergence is legitimate and views him as a WR3 with WR2 upside.
Insight pagePositiveValue36:41
Matthew Berry states he would start Jalen Coker over Marvin Harrison Jr. based on current role and usage observations.
Insight pageKalif Raymond
PositiveSleeper8:15
Denny Carter highlights Raymond as a deep-league add following a 35% target share in Week 1. Citing data from Ryan Heath, Carter notes that Raymond has historically been highly efficient under Ben Johnson, averaging 2.07 yards per route run. While his 58% route participation suggests he isn't a full-time player, his target efficiency makes him a notable deep-league target.
Insight pageKyle Monangai
NegativeUsage4:06
Monongai saw significant work, including a 40% route participation rate compared to Swift's 20%. While he remains a factor in the Bears' backfield, his production was bolstered by one big run. He could see increased usage if the Bears fall behind in game script, but he currently trails Swift in red-zone and goal-line opportunities.
Insight pageLadd McConkey
NegativeInjury37:34
McConkey suffered an injury that may cause him to miss extended time, which Matthew Berry notes leaves the Chargers without reliable playmakers.
Insight pageMalik Nabers
NegativeUsage46:43
Nabers played 53% of snaps but was targeted on 37% of his routes, indicating the team is looking for him when he is on the field.
Insight pageMarShawn Lloyd
PositiveProjection41:47
Despite an underwhelming debut, Matthew Berry believes better days are ahead for Marshawn Lloyd, noting that the game script in his first outing was unusual.
Insight pageMarvin Harrison Jr.
NegativeBust19:26
Matthew Berry and Denny Carter are bearish on Harrison after a one-catch performance. Harrison saw only an 8% target share and was targeted on just 9% of his routes. With Michael Wilson and Trey McBride appearing to be higher in the pecking order, Berry expresses concern that Harrison will be a high-variance option.
Insight pagePositiveUsage35:27
Matthew Berry is benching Harrison until he sees a more consistent role, citing an 8% target share in Week 1 despite the Cardinals' offense playing well.
Insight pageMichael Wilson
PositiveDepth Chart19:49
Michael Wilson is emerging as a primary target in the Cardinals' offense, with Berry admitting he may have been wrong to ignore him. Wilson has shown better production than Marvin Harrison Jr. over the past couple of years and currently appears to be a higher priority in the team's passing attack.
Insight pagePositiveRole33:51
Matthew Berry admits he was wrong to ignore Wilson, noting he is playing the 'Puka role' in the Rams-style offense under Matt LaFleur, which is expected to generate high target volume.
Insight pageStefon Diggs
PositiveUsage44:48
Matthew Berry highlights that Stefan Diggs was targeted on 36% of his routes in Week 1, resulting in 55 yards and a touchdown, despite only running 66% of the team's routes.
Insight pageTerry McLaurin
PositiveProjection44:06
Matthew Berry is concerned about Terry McLaurin's fantasy outlook following a 14% target share and a difficult matchup against Quinyon Mitchell. The Commanders' poor offensive line play limits the downfield opportunities McLaurin needs, potentially relegating him to a flex option rather than a reliable WR2.
Insight pageTravis Etienne
NegativeUsage52:36
Etienne's fantasy value was saved by pass-catching volume in Week 1, but his role is uncertain once Alvin Kamara returns from injury.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Well, it is noon on YouTube. That means it's five o'clock somewhere.
0:04Brothers and sisters, friends of the revolution, welcome to the Week 1 Recap Show.
0:08I am Matthew Berry, your friendly neighborhood bartender, and the Happy Hour Bar is officially open.
0:13And for the first time this year, it's my pleasure to welcome the doctor himself, the man that heals your flexural frustrations,
0:20the man that will tell you what the mainstream media won't, Dr.
0:23Denny Carter. Dennis, sporting a beard. Look at that.
0:26Look at you. Usually it's us bald guys that do that, where we prove like, look, we can't grow hair here, but we can grow here, here.
0:34But you, of course, always keeping abreast of the latest trends.
0:38You've got kind of a Keanu Reeves thing going.
0:41Yeah. And you know what? I was telling producer Damien that I just trimmed the beard, so it actually was more prominent.
0:47And it's the first time I've ever grown one.
0:50And here's the thing. I waited until all my hair was gray to grow a beard.
0:55So I probably missed the boat on a nice black beard, but oh well, we'll go with it.
1:00Yeah, well, you got some salt and pepper going.
1:03It looks good. Does Mrs. Carter dig the look?
1:06She has been. So my wife and I have been together for many years, and she has been asking me to grow
1:13a beard forever, like since before I could actually grow a beard.
1:16And so she's enjoying this a lot. She wants me to have, you know, I don't know, like a Father John Misty
1:23type beard, like, you know, like down to like my navel or something.
1:27That's not going to happen. No, no. But I mean, you know, in honor of Frank Beard, the one member of ZZ
1:34Top that doesn't actually have a beard, their drummer who passed away recently, it would be it would be nice.
1:40It would be a tribute if you could do kind of a long beard, as Mick Genuine says, Danny scruffing it up.
1:47The beardler says Greg Lau 100. So the regulars in in full force here, Dennis.
1:51And of course, we will all check out the Roto World football show that you do every single week, multiple times a
1:58week with a couple of people that don't matter.
2:01It's really it's all about you, Danny. And then there's like a couple of randos that that pop in.
2:07I guess it's the Roto Pat and it's Kyle.
2:10But everyone knows you're the star. Roto Pat was here earlier in the season, and he said the same thing.
2:16He said it's really not about me. It's all about Danny.
2:19So either way, we will all check out the Roto World football show and of course, all of your writing at NBC sports dot com.
2:27It was a crazy week, Dennis. Very, very crazy week.
2:30I just want to take real quickly. Here's the scoring leaders from week number one.
2:34If you can just go ahead and pop up this graphic.
2:38Look at that. So we've got a couple of I mean, Josh Allen.
2:42Great. You knew it. But Caleb Williams, not to mention the fact that you've got DeAndre Swift.
2:47So two guys in the top ten on the Bears will get a guy that most assuredly isn't there.
2:53But, you know, there's some obvious names here. Derek Henry, Jameer Gibbs, obviously B.
2:57John Robinson. Eleven different players have scored 30 or more fantasy points in week one so far.
3:02I believe it is the highest scoring NFL week, not fantasy or just real life.
3:07The highest scoring week in the NFL since the merger, the highest scoring week one in NFL history since the merger.
3:13So just fantasy points galore, scoring galore. But there's a couple of names on this list that I think are interesting and
3:20worth talking about, including Jalen Coker, Cokeheads Unite, Christian Watson, Gentie and more.
3:24But let's start with the Bears, two members of that team on the Bears.
3:28And I think I don't know how much of this you said during the preseason, but we certainly said this a lot
3:35on Happy Hour, which is I think you want as much of the Bears offense as you could get.
3:41And against Carolina seemed to seem to be absolutely the case here.
3:45You know, I mean, nothing we saw on Sunday dissuades me from that argument.
3:49You want as much of the Bears offense as you can get.
3:53But starting with, you know, Caleb, we knew he was going to be awesome and he threw and ran for a ton.
3:59Clearly went crazy. But I want to talk about the running backs here.
4:03DeAndre Swift, 124 rushing yards, three touchdowns. Kyle Monongai, 100 rushing yards and a touchdown.
4:08But most of it came on one big run from Monongai.
4:11Do we need to reset the Bears? Is DeAndre Swift an RB1 moving forward?
4:16Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I have to say that I caught a lot of flack from my Roto World
4:22Football Show co-hosts for saying Swift was a smash in ADP-wise and redraft leagues.
4:27And they said, no, no, no, no, no, no.
4:30The way to play it is Monongai. Now, they both got there against the Panthers.
4:34The Panthers defense, truly abysmal. We have to kind of note that going forward as far as matchups go.
4:40So, but, you know, Swift dominated carries. He saw all the carries inside the 10-yard line.
4:45Really checked a lot. I'm not going to bore everybody with the details.
4:49But checked a lot of good metrics boxes as far as, like, forcing missed tackles, yards before contact, all that stuff.
4:55Now, I will say the one thing that might hedge, I might hedge a little bit on Swift is that Monongai ran
5:0240% of the routes to 20% for Swift. So, DeAndre Swift, I guess, I guess could be somewhat game script dependent if
5:09the Bears fall behind, if they ever fall behind here, then Monongai could be running the routes.
5:14But I feel really good about Swift as an RB1 week to week.
5:18He was on the preseason love list. I talk about DeAndre Swift as, again, one of these boring guys.
5:24He was also heavily featured in 100 Facts in a positive light, which is basically like he's a boring guy that no
5:31one in your draft is going to be like, ooh, oh, man, I wanted him.
5:35But all he's going to do is show up and get a ton of work.
5:40He doesn't really get hurt for one of what we think will be one of the better offenses in the NFL.
5:46Ben Johnson has come out and said, I want to score a ton of points.
5:51I want to set the NFL scoring record. And through one game, 59 points, he's like, we're going to run it up.
5:58We're not taking the foot off the gas. And so through one game, he's living up to it.
6:03To your point about the snap advantage, through the first three quarters when this game was competitive, DeAndre Swift, a 36-18 snap advantage over Kyle Monongai.
6:11He got six of the running back red zone touches, to your point, and all of the inside the 10 touches.
6:18Yeah. So I want to talk a little bit about the pass catchers here.
6:22I think, you know, two things that are most interesting.
6:25The one and the most obvious one is Colston Loveland.
6:28I have a ton of Colston Loveland this year.
6:31He was a runner-up for my ride or die.
6:34I had him significantly higher in consensus than the industry.
6:37As Martin's World 987 says, Mr. Berry has some explaining to do regarding Loveland.
6:41Yes. So, Denny, I have a question for you.
6:44Is he Colston Loveland or is he Colston Hatelyn?
6:46Because, again, you know, they put up 59 points.
6:49The guy doesn't catch a pass. Cole Komet gets the touchdown of the Bears' tight ends.
6:54Komet was very involved, and we kind of knew that going forward.
6:58This team was always going to be pretty heavy on the two tight end sets.
7:02Ben Johnson was very clear about that in the preseason and in training camp.
7:07I will say that, you know, Loveland was the recipient of the two worst throws from Caleb Williams in this game.
7:13One was over the middle with Loveland wide open.
7:16No one within five yards of him. And it was thrown three yards behind him, at least.
7:21I mean, it was a terrible throw. That could have been a pretty big play for Loveland.
7:26And then Williams missed Loveland in the end zone for what could have been a second-half touchdown.
7:32You know, he catches those two. It's not fantastic.
7:34It's not, like, exactly what you're looking for. But it feels a little better.
7:39I, you know, wouldn't panic, obviously. He ran more routes than any other pass catcher in the Chicago offense.
7:44You got that going for you. So if it's point per pass route run, you know, you're rolling.
7:50Yeah, but as a Rise friend once said to me, you can't feed your family on routes run or air yards.
7:56Or air yards. To your point, team 92% route participation.
7:59That was the highest on the Chicago Bears. Just an 8% target share ranked fifth on the team.
8:05But, yes, I agree with you. There were two plays that would have made his day look a lot different.
8:11Like, he should have had the touchdown. You mentioned the big play as well.
8:15Khalif Raymond had a 35% target share. And, you know, it's interesting, though.
8:19And I think people are, like, a little bit like, oh, Khalif Raymond?
8:23Really? That's got to be weird. I do think this was sort of interesting here.
8:28And I want to give a shout-out to Ryan Heath, who does a really good job over at Fantasy Points.
8:34So Ryan Heath pointed this out, that, you know, Khalif Raymond played for the Lions when Ben Johnson was the offense coordinator.
8:41And he puts this out there that, again, this is a tweet from Ryan Heath.
8:46And he puts out a list of, like, these were the NFL's EPA target leaders, minimum 100 targets from 2022, 2024, while
8:52Ben Johnson was the Lions offense coordinator. And he just wrote about the fact that, so EPA per targets, Khalif Raymond and Amon Ross St.
9:00Brown were basically the same. So let's just talk about, like, in terms of targets per route run.
9:05You know, again, it's not a full-time role here, but, you know, I thought that was a really good nugget that Ryan Heath pulled up.
9:13So I want to give him a shout-out there.
9:16I will say Raymond only ran 58% of the routes, you know, and he was targeted heavily on those routes.
9:22I don't know if that sort of thing holds up.
9:25I think maybe he's an ad for deeper leagues.
9:28Not sure. Yeah, this is Heath saying, like, look, Raymond was never a full-time player, but he averaged 2.07 yards per route
9:35run across a 638 route sample in that time frame, splitting routes fairly evenly between the slot and out wide.
9:41Just basically that when he is on the field under Ben Johnson, he's been targeted more than you might think.
9:47And so, again, we'll talk about him more tomorrow.
9:50I think he's a deep, deep ad. But, yes, I still believe that the Bears wide receivers, like Luther Burden, Roma Dunze,
9:56in that order that you want, as PJC 0501 says, good morning, Pino Matty.
10:01They think I'm already drunk, Denny. And I got to be clear with you.
10:05I'm not drunk from this morning. I'm just still drunk from last night.
10:09I got pretty hammered last night. My buddy Brian came over.
10:12His wife's out of town. He was just like, I'm still drinking.
10:16I'm not done. You know, what are you doing?
10:19I'm like, come on over. I'm just watching the Giants-Cowboys game with Beth.
10:23And he's just like, all right. So, you know, anyway, we tied one on.
10:27Brian's my drinking buddy. Anyway, but I think – tell me if you agree with this.
10:32So, while Kalei Fremen were not expecting a 35% target share every week, right, and it wasn't a full-time role.
10:38But, you know, maybe he's involved and Komet's going to be involved.
10:42But I think Colston Loveland is a buy low.
10:45I know there's so many people that are panicking right now, but give me all the Colston Loveland.
10:50If you are in a league that I am in and I don't have Colston Loveland on that league because I have a lot of them this year.
10:59But if you're in one of those leagues where you snipe me on Loveland, make me an offer because I'm in.
11:05I think this is a buy low. I want as much of the Bears offense as I can get.
11:11And Colston Loveland is still a part of this Bears offense despite the box score from Sunday, Denny.
11:17Rotopat said on Sunday night during our review podcast that maybe the most important data point for the Bears offense in the
11:23summertime was Ben Johnson saying, we want to break the scoring record.
11:27And if you think that they're going to try to do that, that means that they really are going to run up
11:34the – they have to run up the score.
11:37I mean, they're trying to break the record of the Peyton Manning Broncos who ran up the score constantly.
11:42I think we all remember that, especially if you had fantasy pieces on that team.
11:47It was so much fun, right? So if they're going to do that, Colston Loveland is going to score a ton of points.
11:54I mean, he's going to probably lead all tight ends and targets at least, maybe even points if he runs hot on touchdowns.
12:01So, yeah, I mean, if the Colston Loveland drafter in your league is already panicking, go ahead and see what's what.
12:08So let's move over to Carolina here, the other side of the ball in this particular game.
12:13It was a really fun game here. And I think the two biggest storylines out of this game was, hey, Cokeheads Unite.
12:19We've been talking about this guy for a while.
12:22Cokeheads Unite, consecutive games now with 130 receiving yards dating back to last year's playoff loss against the Rams, of course.
12:29Jalen Coker was a bright spot in that game against L.A.
12:32He's had nine career games with at least a 20% target share, over 17 fantasy points per game.
12:38And, Denny, it's not just me and the Cokeheads who believe in Jalen Coker, but would you believe that former fantasy football
12:44legend Adam Thielen believes in Jalen Coker? He was on my show last week.
12:49We had Adam Thielen as a guest in the Happy Hour Bar last week, and he had this to say about the Panthers wide receivers.
12:56Take a listen. I don't know if I'm going to call myself a Cokehead, but I am a huge Jalen Coker fan.
13:03Come on in. Cokeheads Unite. Come on, Adam. When I left Carolina and I got back to Minnesota, I told everyone he's their best receiver.
13:11I truly believe that he is their best receiver, and he has the ability to be one of the better receivers in the league.
13:18He doesn't have a weakness. He's 230 pounds and runs a 4'4".
13:22So, I mean, if anyone will know about fantasy success and being a good receiver, it is Adam Thielen here.
13:28Will you, Denny, next week rank him ahead of Ted O'Reilly and McMillan?
13:32I think there is a case to be made for that.
13:35You know, this game script was so out of control, Matthew, and I know you know that.
13:41Yeah. It produced almost double the total team air yards for Carolina than they averaged last season.
13:46And so it can fuel, you know, massive games not only for Coker, but for McMillan, maybe for one other pass catcher in this sort of game script.
13:54It's hard to bank on that game script, I will say.
13:58And then just looking at the numbers from yesterday for the Carolina receivers, Coker had 128 air yards.
14:03That was the sixth most among all receivers this week.
14:06But his air yard share was 36% to McMillan's 33%.
14:09Their target per outrun was virtually the same. I don't know if I can say he's the wide receiver one, but he's clearly a thing.
14:17And honestly, I dismissed him. I had dismissed him completely.
14:20He did look like the best receiver for the Panthers, though.
14:23Yeah, I mean, I think this is more legit than not.
14:27I think this Panthers defense might be bad. And I know the Bears are like a special offense, but I do think
14:34they're going to be in throwing script more than they want to be.
14:38So this may be his best game of the year.
14:41I don't know that we're seeing 30-point games from him every week, but I am, you know, listen, I've been making the
14:47Cokeheads Unite joke for two and a half years.
14:50But it's because I believe in Jalen Coker, just like Adam Thielen does, just like some of your other colleagues do as well.
14:57So, yeah, I'm in on Coker. I do think this is closer to real than not.
15:02So definitely like, you know, on the wide receiver, three range with wide receiver, two upside and potentially the best wide receiver in Carolina.
15:10Quickly on the backfield here, Chuba Hubbard led the Panthers backfield.
15:13I don't want to read too much into this just because Jonathan Brooks was so banged up, but the death of Chuba
15:20Hubbard might have been a little bit too soon.
15:22The Chubbler out snapped Jonathan Brooks 43-12. He saw all of the running back red zone touches, all four of them.
15:29Jonathan Brooks just five touches on 12 snaps. He did catch a 48-yard pass, which I didn't know that was part of his game.
15:36But I think that yet to be determined on this Panthers backfield because I want to see, you know, a fully healthy Jonathan Brooks.
15:44But, you know, listen, Hubbard looked good. Fully healthy this year.
15:47He looked good. We're running short on time. We're already behind, and it's my fault.
15:52So let's move over to Arizona and the Chargers here quickly, Denny.
15:55News or noise? This is the whole thing we used to do at my old show at ESPN.
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17:24So, news or noise? Tyler Algier leads the Cardinals backfield in touches.
17:27Is that news or is that noise? I think it's noise.
17:31I'm sorry. I think it's news. Okay. Because I think that it's clear that Tyler Algier is the Cardinals' choice to kind of salt games away.
17:39Now, how many games will the Cardinals be able to salt away this season?
17:43I don't know. But he also, you know, ran the same number of routes as Jeremiah Love out of the backfield.
17:49I know Love scored the touchdown, sort of saved his day.
17:53Algier is a real thing, though. And maybe, you know, I guess there's a chance that Love is not fully healthy, you know, coming off that ankle injury.
18:01Maybe it'll take a few weeks for him to get there.
18:05But for now, it does seem like the team takes Algier pretty seriously and that Love is going to have to get
18:12there on kind of limited touches at the moment.
18:14I think it's more noise. I mean, through the first three quarters, Jeremiah Love actually led in touches 12 to 10.
18:21They both had about 54% of the snaps. And so in his first game back as a rookie off of the ankle injury, I was encouraged by that.
18:29I mean, I think Algier, to your point, I think Algier will be more than just an insurance running back or a handcuff.
18:36I think he will have a legitimate role on this offense.
18:40But as it relates to everyone that has Jeremiah Love, I think this is noise.
18:44I think his workload will only increase. We like Tyler Algier.
18:48He's not Jeremiah Love. He's not somebody they used, you know, a third overall pick on.
18:53He doesn't have the kind of talent and the versatile skill set.
18:56And there's a chance this Cardinals team is a hell of a win for them.
19:01It's just a better team that we might give them credit for.
19:05I agree. You know what I mean? Like, I thought, I legitimately thought the Chargers were going to just blow them out.
19:11I had, you know, Herbert and McConkie on my Love list this week.
19:15And, you know, I mean, they got their butts kicked.
19:18I mean, Arizona was in charge of this game from start to finish.
19:22So, and let's talk about that for a quick question here.
19:26News or noise that Marvin Harrison Jr.on catches just one ball in this game.
19:308% target share, fifth on the team. Trey McBride had more targets.
19:34Michael Wilson had more targets. Kendrick Bourne had more targets.
19:37Had a higher target share. Jeremiah Love as well.
19:40I think it's news. I mean, I was. I agree.
19:43Yeah, I was bearish on MHT coming in. And, you know, they give that huge contract to Michael Wilson.
19:49And you're like, oh, okay. So this team really does regard Michael Wilson as maybe like a wide receiver one.
19:55And Michael Wilson has just been plainly better than MHJ over the past couple years.
19:59Harrison saw 25% of the team's air yards. That was third behind Wilson and McBride.
20:04Only targeted on 9% of his routes. That's not good.
20:07We don't like to see that. So I'm bearish on him.
20:10I think that he's going to be a pretty high variance option.
20:14He's running a lot of routes. And look, Jacoby Brissett has such a fun fantasy game, right?
20:19Like the fact that he'll step back there and just rip it downfield.
20:23That could benefit Harrison eventually. But I think that he is like second or third in line as far as the pecking order goes.
20:31Yeah, I think this is news as well. I'm a little bit nervous.
20:35I talked about this last week on the show where I said I may have been very stupid because I sort of
20:41ignored Michael Wilson because, you know, and I talked about this like in my 10 facts column last week about how the
20:48fact that like, you know, last year when Michael Wilson, when Marvin Harris was on the field, Michael Wilson just did not,
20:55you know, average like under six fantasy points per game and just didn't get a very high target share.
21:01And all of his production came when Harrison was gone.
21:04And then I remember saying, I said this last week that a buddy of mine, a source who's been pretty good in
21:11the past was just like, I think you're going to look really stupid on the Michael Wilson thing.
21:16And I said, why? And he said, because Michael Wilson, they're running the Rams offense under Matt LaFleur and Michael Wilson's in the puka roll.
21:24He's in the puka roll. He's going to just catch a ton.
21:27And so through one game, I feel pretty stupid and I'm not cutting Marvin Harrison, but I think I am benching him
21:34until I see a more consistent role in this offense because this was a game where the Cardinals offense looked good and
21:41they won the game and he got an 8% target share.
21:44And so don't know if that was, I, you know, I got to go look at this closer.
21:50I don't know if that was, you know, they took a point of getting Mark, taking Marvin Harrison out of the game or just they found success.
21:58He was out there. Unfortunately for him, he was out there.
22:01It just, he just wasn't, wasn't involved. I would, I would start Jalen Coker over Marvin Harrison Jr.
22:07just to name two guys we talked about. Completely agree.
22:10News or noise. The Chargers scored just 14 points.
22:13We thought this was going to be one of the best offenses in the NFL.
22:17Mike McDaniel, new OC, brilliant run game creator. 14 points against a defense that we thought was going to be one of the worst in the NFL.
22:26Is this news or noise? I hope it's noise, man, because I have a lot of Chargers and they looked so good on that opening drive.
22:34Now, it usually takes, it usually takes defenses like, I don't know, three or four weeks to figure out Mike McDaniel and
22:40be like, oh yeah, we remember how to stop this.
22:44It took the Cardinals one drive to figure it out.
22:47Like they were like, oh, okay. Okay. Like we, we know what to do now, but in that one drive, man, that looked good.
22:54And then, you know, McConkie getting hurt. Hopefully he doesn't miss extended time.
22:58I think he might, he might, we'll see. Without McConkie that they don't have anybody like to make plays.
23:04You know, they have Quentin Johnston as a downfield guy, I guess in Joku as a, as a intermediate option, but it's, it's, it's bleak.
23:11Also the Cardinals defensive line dominated that offensive line per the metric.
23:15So it's a, it was, it was bad. I don't think it's going to be that bad going forward.
23:21Hopefully. Yeah. I mean, Herbert was under pressure. They, the, the line allowed three sacks to that point.
23:27They were two of eight on third down, had two turnovers.
23:30I think the McConkie injury hurt them a little bit as well.
23:34The other thing is they just didn't have the ball.
23:37It was a, it was a true team loss by LA because the Chargers defense couldn't stop the Cardinals.
23:42The, the Cardinals, they, the, the Cardinals ran 21 more plays than the Chargers did.
23:47LA had the ball for 2230, literally like time possession.
23:50They got their ass kicked there. So as well.
23:53So I'm hopeful for better days ahead for the Chargers.
23:56I also just want to say this to all TV broadcasters.
23:59If, if you, if you are somebody watching this show and you are a broadcaster, whether it's CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, Amazon,
24:06NFL network, any of the places, ESPN, any of the places that are going to broadcast NFL games this year, Netflix.
24:13If you have a Chargers game on and you don't show Madison beer as much as we saw Taylor Swift last year, I'm going to be very angry.
24:21And I'm not alone. I'm not alone. Dr. Denny Carter.
24:24It's so. People are. People are. She's a celebrity.
24:27Frustrated about it. She's a big star. She's a big star.
24:30She's there. She's rooting on her fiancee. For the love of God, let's see Madison beer.
24:35I'm all for as many audience shots of Madison beer as possible.
24:39Let's move on to the Giants and the Cowboys.
24:42I wonder if we'll see a lot of Alex Earl shots as the Giants because, you know, she's, I think she's still
24:48with Braxton Berrios, who's now a member of the, of the New York Giants.
24:53I have to, I have to update my, my Tiger Beat subscription, right?
24:57That's still a thing. Anyway, all jokes aside, news or noise?
25:00Dr. Denny Carter. Giants offense scores 28 points and looks pretty damn good against the Cowboys.
25:05I'm going to go with noise-ish because the Cowboys defense was really, truly bad.
25:09I saw some breakdowns of, of, you know, just how bad they were, especially on like early downs and just not being able to stop.
25:17What's with the inability to stop like swing passes to Devin Singletary?
25:21I mean, what was, what was going on there?
25:23I've never seen anything like that. It was like six in a row or something.
25:28We couldn't stop it. The Cowboys defense I thought would be improved.
25:32It looks worse than ever. I think that played a factor here.
25:35But it, you know, you're, you feel pretty good.
25:38If you have Giants pieces, you feel pretty good about Jackson Dart as an every week starter.
25:43Now, I think he was always going to be that way because he's, he's going to rush eight to time, eight to 10 times a game.
25:51You feel okay about neighbors. He ran 70% of the routes and you feel great about Likely, who looks like their wide receiver one at the moment.
26:00The Dartler, as Ryan Diamond says, no doubt. I think this is news because I thought, yes, is the Cowboys offense, defense,
26:06I mean, you know, and Jonathan Medici says, how dare you, Denny?
26:10The Giants are incredible running the same play again and again and again.
26:14I mean, I agree with you. The Cowboys, well done, Medici.
26:17The Cowboys defense was bad. There's no question about it.
26:21But like, what's repeatable? To your point, I thought Dart looked really good.
26:25And I think Dart's always looked good since he's been in the league.
26:29Like, again, as a fantasy option, as a real life NFL quarterback, Malik Neighbors was out there.
26:34Like, they kept it simple for Neighbors. They didn't do much there.
26:37But like, it was just good to see him out there and that he played and he was able to, you know, make some plays here.
26:45And to your point about Isaiah Likely, Isaiah Likely was on the preseason level.
26:50He was on the love list this week. He is somebody that we talked about on Sunday during Fantasy Football Happy Hour last call.
26:57And somebody that we thought was going to have a big role, that he's going to be the number two pass catcher
27:04on an offense that's going to throw. And it's so funny, John Harbaugh in the postgame said what I said all throughout
27:11the preseason, which is like, they paid the man.
27:13John Harbaugh gets this huge contract to become the head coach of the New York Giants.
27:18And one of the very first things he does is throw a ton of money at his former player, Isaiah Likely, to
27:25come with him to New York and the Giants.
27:28And so, you know, 28% target share, three red zone targets, which was a team high.
27:33You know, Isaiah Likely, I mean, Isaiah Likely was, I have a lot of Loveland.
27:37But the person I, in leagues where I didn't get Loveland, I have almost entirely Isaiah Likely.
27:43There's something we talked about in the pre-draft process, which was, you know, if you don't get a tight and early, wait late.
27:50And my favorite person, you know, going outside like the top seven or eight is Isaiah Likely.
27:55So I think he is real. I'm not saying he scores two touchdowns every week, but he's going to be a big part of this offense.
28:03Neighbors played just 53% of the snaps. He was targeted on 37% of his route.
28:07So when he was out there, they were looking for him.
28:11I think Neighbors will be fine. I don't know that there's anything to take away from the Cowboys other than just, you know.
28:18Yeah, I mean, you know what you're getting. Yes.
28:21They were a little run heavier than I expected, but that probably won't last.
28:25With Likely, I just want to mention, he had seven first read targets, which was only behind Neighbors, who had eight first read targets.
28:32Like that, for a tight end, that's a pretty significant stat.
28:36I do think, you know, Dalton Kincaid and Likely were the way to play tight end if you were not going to
28:42go all in on the elite guys. Two quick things.
28:45My producer Damien said something in my ear, but I don't know what he said.
28:50So you can, producer Damien, you can say that again.
28:53Meanwhile, though, important update. Apparently, Alex Ertel and Braxton Berrios have broken up.
28:57They're no longer a couple. So just heads up there.
29:00I appreciate the update there. I got to put my TMZ alerts back on.
29:04None of this changes the fact that- That's tough news.
29:08Yeah, it is tough news, but I wish them both the best moving forward.
29:12Much like I wish the best for anyone facing against Chris Olave.
29:16Oh, yeah. Moving forward in fantasy, I'm representing the 12.
29:19Chris Olave on the preseason love list, on the week one love list as well.
29:23You know, the question here is, is Chris Olave a top five wide receiver going forward?
29:28And I'm going to lead the witness here, Dr.
29:31Denny Carter, and tell you that in the games that Chris Olave has played with Tyler Shuck, this was in my 100
29:38facts column, and I'm now updating it. He's now had nine career games with Tyler Shuck.
29:43He averages 93.6 receiving yards per game. That's pretty good.
29:4628% target share with Tyler Shuck. Like, Tyler is kind of like, Shuck it.
29:50Olave's down there somewhere. Yeah, that's true. And he does.
29:53This Saints offense is gross. Don't get me wrong.
29:56It's super inefficient, and the team is not good.
29:59But here's the thing. It's going to be great for fantasy.
30:02And I kind of had this suspicion going into the season because, A, the defense is not so good.
30:08The offense runs at a league high pace. Kellen Moore is always very quick on offense.
30:13They ran 90 offensive plays, I believe, against the Lions, which is insane.
30:17Like, even if that regresses a little, you're still getting like 70 plus, which is awesome.
30:22Air yards are outrageous. You know I have a thing for air yards.
30:26They led the league in air yards this week.
30:28Chris Olave led all pass catchers in air yards.
30:31So, really, what that means is they're going to be able to backdoor their way into a lot of fantasy production.
30:37So, even if Olave is not super efficient, he can still get there and still be a top five guy.
30:44I like the fact that you used the phrase backdoor.
30:47Reflectual frustration pass is coming into play here. Since week nine of last season, Chris Olave is the third best wide receiver
30:53in fantasy football on a points-for-game basis. He needs to be treated as such.
30:58I don't think he is. Devon Vele, as well, again, to the point of this offense just running a ton of plays.
31:05We'll talk about him more tomorrow. But Devon Vele, I think, was very used.
31:09And, hey, let's hear it for Juwan Johnson. Again, two-time champion of Live at Noon on the Cock, our League of Assholes, my League of Assholes team name.
31:17All right. Here's a question for you about this backfield, though.
31:21Travis Etienne and Kendry Miller basically split the running work, right?
31:24Yeah. Etienne, nine for 46. Caught seven passes. 14.8 fantasy points.
31:28Kendry Miller, nine rushes for 30 yards. He also gets the touchdown.
31:31Ends up with nine fantasy points. Is this news or noise the workload for Travis Etienne, I guess, and Kendry Miller?
31:38I was going to correct you, but I'm glad you did it yourself.
31:42Yeah. Yeah. But his brother is still Trevor Etienne on the Carolina Panthers.
31:46Yeah. And you know what? It'll probably change once he has a bad game.
31:50You know, they just kind of go back and forth sometimes.
31:53Etienne, Travis Etienne. His pass-catching involvement saved him here.
31:56He is among the guys who just benefited from disgusting play volume.
32:00And like Juwan Johnson did too. Vele did too.
32:03Like these guys can come along for the ride because of how many times Shuck is going to be dropping back here.
32:09Now, when Alvin Kamara returns from injury, I don't know if that sticks.
32:13I don't know if A-chan's still running a lot of routes, still seeing a lot of targets from Shuck.
32:19And then that makes me nervous. Well, what is he getting then?
32:23You know, if he's losing some of the early down work, if he's losing the pass-catching work.
32:28So I think the role looked great this week as far as pass-catching goes.
32:32I don't know if it will stay that way going forward, though.
32:36Yeah. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Alvin Kamara comes back too, right?
32:41So, I mean, but like A-chan out-snapped Kendrick Miller 50-26.
32:44He had a 17% target share, two red zone targets.
32:47Again, we mentioned the 7 for 32 as well.
32:49And so I think this is more noise. I think Travis Etienne, like I'm encouraged by the passing game work here, especially
32:56for an offense that's probably going to be down and throwing a lot.
33:00But I do want to, I'm a little nervous.
33:03We'll see what happens when Alvin Kamara comes back.
33:06Let's move to one of the more entertaining games, if not the most entertaining game of the slate, which is Buffalo 36, Houston 31.
33:13We were curious about, we had two questions coming into the season for the Bills in terms of their pass catchers.
33:20What would DJ Moore's role be? And is Dalton Kincaid healthy?
33:23And is he going to finally have kind of a full-time role?
33:27Or is it going to be more of these like 50, 56% of the snaps kind of thing?
33:32And I think we got answers to both questions in a big way, Denny.
33:36Yeah, look, the beat writers for the Bills try to tell us.
33:40They try to tell us about both these guys, Matthew.
33:43They said DJ Moore is going to end the everyone eats offensive approach that the Bills have taken over the past few
33:50years, wherein like Khalil Shakir has been their number one receiver somehow, okay?
33:54And they said, you know, Moore's there to freelance, to get open, to be a downfield threat, like a viable downfield threat
34:01for Josh Allen in a Bills offense that should be a little more pass heavy.
34:05At least it was in week one. We like to see that.
34:09And then we heard from Bills beat writers that Kincaid was going to have what was an enhanced role, right?
34:15So that means more routes. Basically, it means that the Bills felt compelled to only use him in obvious past situations the last couple of years, right?
34:23And now they're using them in more situations, not all situations, but enough, I think, to give him a cushion, right?
34:30So when he was running half the routes, he really had to be super efficient to get there for fantasy.
34:36Now he's running 75% of the routes. That demand is not quite there.
34:40And his ADOT was insane against the Texans. I mean, if you have Kincaid, you're feeling great about what you did at tight end.
34:4777% snaps. It was his highest since week nine of 2024.
34:5121% target share. Three of his receptions gained at least 35 yards.
34:54Yeah, Dalton Kincaid, if you tell me I'm getting 77% of the snaps with Dalton Kincaid every week, I am all the way in.
35:02So I'm with you. He looks fully healthy. We know that Josh Allen loves him.
35:06We know that Joe Brady loves him. So him and DJ Moore, I think we have some clarity finally on Bills pass catchers, and you feel good.
35:15I think both performances are legitimate as well. And, you know, just like we talked about with David Montgomery, I'm sorry, just
35:21like we talked about with DeAndre Swift, Dave Montgomery was another one that was just like sort of in that, you know,
35:28those runs four to six in drafts where we're just like, no one's going to be excited about Dave Montgomery.
35:34He's not sexy at all. Everyone's going to be kind of yawning when you take him.
35:39And then we're going to look up at the end of the year.
35:43He's going to have 1300 total yards and like eight to 10 touchdowns.
35:47I might've undersold him on the touchdowns. He's got at least three through week one.
35:52This is such a Dave Montgomery line, 20 rushes for 60 yards, little three yards for carry.
35:57But again, he's going to, he's not going to be efficient, but he will get volume and he'll fall into the end zone.
36:04He scores the two touchdowns. He actually catches one for a score as well.
36:08Played 100% of the Texans red zone and goal line touches, 23 touches overall, but he played only one more snap than what he marks.
36:16This was a, this was a bit of a shootout game.
36:19I actually think like we could see better games from Dave Montgomery Denny, because I think in games where the Texans are
36:26leading, I think he'll be play used even more than he was in this one.
36:31Could be, it makes me a little queasy that he got away with it with three touchdowns and was really bad.
36:37Like the rushing metrics were awful. You know, like he was stuffed on more than half of his carries.
36:43Like he wasn't breaking any tackles. He wasn't gaining any yards before contact.
36:47Like these are things that we like to look at and say, okay, like, did he, did he get away with it or did he actually perform?
36:55And it was, it was pretty bleak. And then Woody Marks actually looked pretty good.
37:00I thought in a way that makes me think that he'll, his role could increase going forward.
37:05Look, I'm going to tell you something, Denny. I'm going to tell you the, here's what the mainstream media won't tell you.
37:12Yeah. Tell me. I'm going to tell you this right now is that while everything you say with your little metric, you
37:19know, underlying metrics and, you know, efficiency stats, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
37:23D'Amico Ryans, like, you know what, like he wants a veteran.
37:26That's right. And you think about Joe Mixon, you think about Nick Chubb.
37:30They don't care. They want an old running back that they trust.
37:34Yards per carry be damned. Underlying metrics be damned.
37:37Three yards in a cloud of dust. That is what they effing want.
37:41And that's what they're going to get from David Montgomery.
37:44They literally do not care about any of your fancy little stats.
37:48Absolutely. They know David Montgomery's a, he's a veteran and he can, he can get the team what they need.
37:54He's a dog. He's a dog. Yeah. He's our guy.
37:57Like, I'm just telling you. No, you're right. Like this is what I'm saying throughout the entire, it literally does not matter.
38:04Listen. I mean, 20 carries for 60 yards. He's going to get that every week.
38:08I waste too much time talking about rushing metrics because here's the thing.
38:12No coach cares about how good a running back is.
38:15There's no, no, they don't care at all. They just say, we want big guy running forward.
38:20Like that's the only thing a coach cares about.
38:23Right. And so like, if Keaton Mitchell starts popping off in LA, it doesn't matter.
38:28Right. Because it's like, oh, we want Omari and Hampton big man moving forward.
38:32That's all we care about. I mean, it might matter.
38:35It only might matter because Mike McDaniel is somebody who is more progressive, but we've got, we, right.
38:41He's a nerd, but we've got, there, there's a lot of, you know, um, there are a lot of coaches in the
38:47NFL who are just like, yeah, man, I need, you know, give me a, give me that, give me that big boy.
38:54For sure. Let's let's, um, we got 13 minutes left.
38:57Here, uh, Denny. So we got to whip through these real quickly.
39:01Let's talk about this, uh, Vikings Packers game here.
39:04Carson, Kyler Murray gets hurt. Like, you know, Kyler Murray throws a pick and then leaves with a concussion bad day at the office for Kyler Murray.
39:12We'll track that injury moving forward. So we'll see, um, how that goes.
39:16But, um, I think the positives here, Carson Wentz came in and it's clearly that Carson Wentz, even if, if Kyler's going
39:23to miss some time, Carson Wentz is going to be good enough to keep Justin Jefferson's fantasy value afloat eight for 92,
39:29two touchdowns, his best fantasy game since week 16 of 29.
39:33I'm sorry, 2024. But the question here, the big question out of the Minnesota Packers game is, is Christian Watson headed for
39:40a wide receiver one season, 20, 20% target share.
39:42Mm-hmm. He's had 20 or more fantasy points in three of his past five games dating back to last season.
39:48You know? Um, but Matthew Golden actually led the team in routes, had a 30% target share.
39:54Where are you on Christian Watson? Is he headed for a wide receipt?
39:58Could he be a top 12 wide receiver in fantasy football this year?
40:02He could, he could. And, you know, everything seemed to be happening the way that we kind of thought they it would with the Packers without Josh Jacobs.
40:10You know, Josh Jacobs being like the, the safety blanket for, uh, Matt LaFleur.
40:15He doesn't have that. So he has to let Jordan Love, one of the most efficient passers in the game cook a little bit.
40:22Um, the Packers went, went super pass heavy here.
40:25It was a little bit game script, uh, driven and, and that's okay.
40:29We'll, we'll take that. But in the end, the Packers had more total team air yards than anybody, but the saints.
40:35Okay. Our saints are, are disgusting saints who will, are going to produce a lot as far as fantasy points go.
40:42And the Packers were second. And that means that two or three pass catchers are going to be able to do stuff every week.
40:49And that obviously includes Watson. Uh, and Watson has the ability to both post a floor type line with the intermediate stuff.
40:56And then the ceiling comes on the big plays downfield.
40:59And we know he's good at that. Right. And we know Jordan Love is one of the best downfield passers in the game.
41:06So yes, I do think he is a wide receiver one.
41:09He needs to be in lineups every week, no matter what, but your listeners already knew that.
41:14Yeah. I mean, because they, we had Dwayne McFarlane on earlier and we talked about this and he's one of these guys
41:21that both Dwayne and I were very high on in the preseason.
41:25And Dwayne talked about the fact that to your point, he's not just, he's playing the Z, not the X.
41:31Like he's running all sorts of different routes, uh, in this offense.
41:35They've expanded his route tree significantly as well. And so I think people are thinking he's just this guy that's going to
41:41do nothing but long, you know, go, go balls.
41:44And it's, that's not the case, uh, at all.
41:47Uh, underwhelming, uh, debut for Marshawn Lloyd, but again, the game script sort of got a little weird.
41:53I think, uh, better days are ahead for him.
41:55Uh, so we'll see there. Let's move over to my beloved commanders who actually had a chance to win this game and just stupidly, you know, yeah.
42:04I mean like missed a field goal, missed an extra point, missed the two point conversion.
42:08Um, those three plays ultimately did them in. Um, but, uh, what was your impressions?
42:13Your first impressions of this new Sean Mannion Eagles offense for Jalen Hurts?
42:17It looked, looked pretty good without AJ Brown. Yeah.
42:20I mean, lots of attacking via the slot, both to Goddard, uh, and to, um, uh, Devante Smith.
42:25Uh, and then the downfield stuff to Dontabian Wicks.
42:28I will say, you know, look, you know what you're getting with Wicks.
42:32You're getting like an MBS type player, right? Like a downfield shot player who sometimes you're going to feel really smart if
42:39you're forced into playing him at the flex. And then other times he's going to give you a zero and you're going to feel really bad about yourself.
42:47And that's the way it goes in fantasy sometimes.
42:50So don't go, don't get over your skis on him.
42:53But I thought, you know, they were under center a lot more.
42:57The commanders seem to be, you know, not really know what they were doing at times, uh, against the Eagles.
43:03And what I mean by that is the Eagles offense has become pretty stale and pretty predictable over the past couple of years.
43:10I don't think that that'll be the case this year.
43:13Yeah. I mean, I, I thought, look, they, they, they had, they had 44.
43:18I mean, I thought the commanders defense looked really good.
43:21So just something to sort of know going forward.
43:23Like, you know, I mean, I think there are defenses, some, some defenses that looked terrible in previous years that were always like, oh, those guys are bad.
43:32Um, looked pretty good. I thought this week, I thought the, both the Bengals and the commanders both looked, uh, better than
43:39we've seen in previous seasons as well. And so I'm not worried about my ride or die.
43:44Devante Smith, that to your point had a 27% target share, you know, the production wasn't fully there.
43:49They got the big, big play to Dontavian wins, but it'll, and you know, God scores the two touchdowns, but, um, Jalen Hurts looks back.
43:57Saquon Barkley looks back. Devante Smith is going to be just fine.
44:01Um, which leads us now to, but on the other side of the ball was our Sunday scary.
44:06So there were some, uh, players that did not perform.
44:09And one of them was a guy that was on the hate list this week.
44:14And that's Terry McLaurin, just a 40 team, just a 14% target share two for 14, 3.4 fantasy points, any concern or
44:21just a bad day at the office for Terry McLaurin.
44:24He was faced up against Quinone Mitchell. I mean, just one of the toughest matches going.
44:29It was a horrible match. And the, and the Eagles generally over the past three seasons have shut down boundary receivers.
44:35And that's primarily as you know, where McLaurin operates, you know, and that funnels that tends to funnel targets toward, uh, the
44:42middle of the field, toward the slot. Stefan Diggs, um, of course he only ran 66% of the routes.
44:48Um, but he was targeted on 36% of those routes that led to four catches, 55 yards and touchdown.
44:54McLaurin worries me a little bit because the offensive line for the commanders is not great.
44:59And I don't know if those downfield shots can develop in ways that McLaurin needs them to.
45:04Um, so he makes me a little nervous about wide receiver too.
45:07He might be more of a flex, I think.
45:10Yeah. Somebody else was asking, he's welcome to dumpsville.
45:13I'm not dumping him just yet, but this commander schedule here is a little bit tougher over these first few weeks.
45:19So, so, but I was able, I was happy to see them move the ball and Tony Williams had a nice game.
45:26Diggs catches the touchdown. They ran the ball pretty well, uh, as well.
45:30And we'll talk more about that tomorrow, uh, on the waiver wire show.
45:34It was a little bit of a committee. Um, but JCM looked better than I think we thought he might.
45:40It's so weird, but, um, three of us passed for week one games.
45:44Danny Carter, proud fantasy life investor. Jamar chase has been under 40 receiving yards, brutal game and week one, 12% target share, just 3.2 fantasy points.
45:52It's his lowest target share in a game since week 15 of 2023.
45:56But this is just a very tough if you're in a guillotine league, by the way, I'm in a guillotine.
46:02I'm in 16 different guillotine leagues. I'm in 16 different guillotine leagues this year.
46:07And one of them is with all the regulars, all the listeners of happy hour.
46:11Mm-hmm and unless Cortland Sutton basically gets a zero tonight, I'm going to get cut.
46:16Oh no. Yeah. I'm going to lose because I played against 17 guys that all watch this show every single day.
46:22They know exactly what I was doing. So I had to zig where they were all zagging.
46:28Right. And so I did something I haven't done in any other guillotine league, which is I went wide receiver early and I went with Jamar chase.
46:36And so I'm, uh, I'm in second to last now.
46:39I'm sorry. I'm in third to last now, but one guy has, I think, Bo Nix and like Kelsey or something like that.
46:46So he'll be fine. And then there's one guy that has like, needs like three points from Cortland Sutton, I think.
46:52So I like assuming Cortland Sutton catches like one pass.
46:55Yeah. I'm dead. It's over. And I'm surviving fine in all other 15s.
46:59But, uh, yes, there's a chance that I am.
47:02I'm the first one chopped in the listener league.
47:05Shout out to all the regulars who, uh, who, who used me against me.
47:09Totally screwed you. Oh, and it's raise the flags.
47:12Raise the flag says I'm the Sutton owner in this league.
47:15So it is, um, it's either me or raise the flags today.
47:19That's tough. Um, as Dr. Deoxide says, the excuse-ler.
47:22You're damn right. I'm like, but I'm going to lose first.
47:25You're damn right. I'm, if you think the excuses are bad now, wait till tomorrow.
47:30By the way. When I come loaded with stats as to why I was the first one cut, uh, Dr.
47:36Deoxide, by the way, Dr. Denny Carter, unlike you, Dr.
47:39Deoxide is not a real doctor. He just made that up online.
47:43That's okay. You know, it happens. I, I'm, I am a doctor just so everyone is, by the way, Jamar Chase, after
47:50two catches in the opening game, 12 yards, he's going to start posting so cryptically on social media.
47:55You guys don't even know. I mean, the cryptic posts are just going to come a mile a minute for the next three or four days.
48:03I think he's just going to go off. Like, I mean, last year he did this.
48:08He had a bad game in week one last year and then just rolled off.
48:13I don't know what it is. It's weird. He has a bad week one and then he just becomes Jamar Chase again.
48:19So not in time to save my guillotine league, but, um, guillotine league team, but I'm not worried about Jamar Chase or
48:26any of the, uh, any of the Bengals. Mike Kasecki had a big game.
48:30Yeah. It was a weird game script. Very strange.
48:33Very, very weird. They had a lot of turnovers early.
48:36They had to throw. Yeah. But you know, T Higgins looked good.
48:40Chase Brown looked good. The Bengals are all going to be fine.
48:44I'm not convinced that Drake London and Kyle Pitts are going to be fine as long as Cooper Rush is under center.
48:50Mm-hmm . B. John Robinson had a 53% target share.
48:53Uh, you know, Cooper Rush's average depth of the target was 3.5 yards.
48:57It's as if I played quarterback for the Falcons.
49:00Denny, this was, this was bad. We need Tua or Michael Penix.
49:04And I never thought I'd say that, but this was bad.
49:07I thought, I said, ah, Cooper Rush will be fine.
49:10I was wrong. I was wrong, wrong, wrong, Denny.
49:13This was bad. Cooper Rush is abysmal. Like the Ravens, I think released him like five minutes after he started for them,
49:20uh, when Lamar went down last year. Like he's, he's that bad.
49:23I, I guess they didn't think Jack Strand, the rookie was ready, but Jack Strand brings a lot more to the table.
49:30I think as far as pushing the ball downfield and Cooper Rush, um, go ahead.
49:35I cannot imagine Denny that two time coach of the year, Kevin Stefanski.
49:39A lot of people don't know that he actually won that award two times.
49:43Two time coach of the year, Kevin Stefanski. I can't imagine that he gets that Cooper Rush gets a start next week.
49:50Now, I mean, again, they were playing the Steelers, which is a really good defense.
49:54But still, I agree with you. If, if, if, if Tua's not ready, I think Jack Strand, I'm, they have to do something.
50:01They cannot go back. No, I know. To him.
50:04It's bad. Yeah. As far as, as far as London goes, uh, don't, don't cut bait on him.
50:10Don't trade, don't trade low on him. Don't, don't sell low because, uh, Michael Penix comes back and I mean, I think
50:17London averages 19 and a half PPR points with Penix under center.
50:20So just be patient. I think. Yeah, I agree with, I agree with you there, but, uh, you know, we'll talk about
50:27it if Cooper Rush gets named the starter, but I can't imagine it will be, I think they'll ultimately be fine.
50:33London and pits. I'm nervous about Harold Fannin though.
50:36He was on my preseason hate list. He was on the hate list this week, you know, because the argument, the anti-Fannin
50:43argument this year, Denny was last year. So much of his production was fueled by just massive target share.
50:49And now you've got a worse quarterback. Such. And it was all with Shadur Sanders, by the way.
50:54Now you've got a different quarterback and you've got a lot more target competition.
50:59As we saw Denzel Boston catch the touchdown. Casey Concepcion gets a lot of targets in this one.
51:04Tough matchup on the road at Jacksonville as well.
51:07Hot game, good defense, but still just a 14% target share.
51:10That's his lowest in a full game since week five of last season.
51:14I don't know that it's going to be this bad moving forward, but I think this is real.
51:20I think you should be nervous if Harold Fannin's your starting tight end.
51:24You're waiting for Shadur. I think that's how I'm looking at it.
51:27Honestly, like this week with Deshaun Watson under center for Cleveland, I would have felt more comfortable starting someone like Michael Mayer over Fannin.
51:35You just, you can't, don't get stuck on the fact that like Fannin is good.
51:39Cause he is good. Like he was amazing in college.
51:42He's a spreadsheet hero. I get that. I like him a lot, but you can't survive in this kind of horrible, toxic offensive environment that the Browns have.
51:51And so you just have to be really careful with how you deal with Fannin going forward.
51:56Some injuries that we are tracking. Zay Flowers left the game early, although it sounded like it's not that serious.
52:02Of course, Brock Bowers and AJ Brown, Lad McConkie left the game.
52:06Kyler Murray with the concussion, as we talked about here.
52:09Um, so all of those are injuries that we'll track and we'll try to update tomorrow on the waiver wire show.
52:16Denny, any other, we have a minute 30 left.
52:18So any last thought about week one so far?
52:21A lot of teams that were super run heavy last year were not so run heavy in week one, including the Steelers,
52:28uh, who were, I think had a top five neutral pass rate, um, top three in total team air yards.
52:34DK Metcalf had 200 plus air yards, only 40 real yards.
52:37So I know that that was disappointing, but just take heart that, you know, he's seeing a lot of opportunities.
52:44And then the Panthers, um, the Panthers are hard to figure out because we know they don't want to play like that.
52:50Right? We just, we know, but will they have a choice and some teams simply don't have a choice.
52:56Think of the Cardinals last year. They didn't want to play like, like the way they were playing, but it fueled Michael
53:03Wilson to be, I don't know, like Jerry Rice Jr.
53:06Like it was insane what he was doing. And it was because Jacoby Brissett had to keep dropping back and throwing it.
53:13So figuring out the Panthers will be key going forward.
53:16I think we get the Broncos and the chiefs tonight to close out week number one.
53:21Again, please Cortland Sutton, if ever there was a game for you to get a goose egg, let's make it all Jalen wall tonight.
53:28Let me survive. There you go. Although raise the flags, I'll have to say this, raise the flags.
53:34If you loved me, if you were truly a regular, if you were truly, truly a big Matthew Berry fan, you'd take
53:40a knee, you'd bench Cortland Sutton to let me survive.
53:43Just saying just how much of a fan are you?
53:47Raise the flags. Something to think about here. Dr.
53:49Denny Carter, it's closing time, which means you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
53:55We'll all check out the Roto World Football Show.
53:58Waivers tomorrow with Jake Seeley. That'll be a lot of fun for Denny.
54:02I'm Matthew. We'll see you tomorrow. Peace out.
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