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1:20Monday night is made for the call that changes the game.
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1:45It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno. What's up, everyone? Welcome into the show.
1:49I am your host, Chace Daskalos. And every single Monday, we're going through the numbers of what happened in the fantasy football world.
1:57Player performance, opportunity, usage trends, team trends, league trends, you name it.
2:01I got it, featuring next-gen stats and NFL Pro.
2:05We're going to go through my biggest takeaways from most of the games and what I would call a weird, wild, pretty brutal week four.
2:13We're going to tackle the Thursday night game first.
2:16The surprising Browns taking down the Steelers to move to 3-1.
2:20Going to start with Quin'Chon Judkins, who scored a touchdown on the ground, also saw a career-high seven targets, caught six for 43 yards.
2:29This is a very interesting data point for Judkins because he now has a 15.1% target share over the Browns' last three
2:36games, which coincides with the Browns putting Dylan Sampson, their normal pass catcher, on IR.
2:42Last season as a rookie in his healthy games, Judkins had just a 7.3% target share, which led to practically no receiving upside.
2:50He needs this doubling-in target share. His rushing efficiency, quite frankly, it has not been there so far this year.
2:573.0 yards per carry ranks fourth worst in the NFL.
3:0027.1% rushing success rate. That ranks third worst. With that type of struggle on the ground, Judkins was pretty benchable in most
3:08leagues, but as long as that receiving production is keeping him afloat with Dylan Sampson out, he's a decent RB3 or flex play each week.
3:16The very exciting pieces of the Browns' offense is both the rookie wide receivers, Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion.
3:23Boston now sits at 2.3 yards per route through four weeks.
3:27That is the 12th best start by any rookie wide receiver through four games since 2016.
3:32And when I quickly tell you the 11 names ahead of him, I'd be pretty impressed by the company.
3:39Justin Jefferson, Puka Nakua, AJ Brown, Jamar Chase, Malik Neighbors, Chris Olave, Drake London, Brian Thomas Jr., Marquise Brown, Michael Wilson, and Tank Dell.
3:47Pretty elite company. I think there's something special going on here with Denzel Boston.
3:52And that's on a 17.8 air yards per target, which is awesome for his downfield usage.
3:58And that is the main difference between him and Concepcion, who sits at 6.2 air yards per target.
4:04Concepcion has a 24.3% target share right now. Boston at 19.1%.
4:08So Concepcion is just getting a handful more of those easy layup gimme targets, while Boston is being used more downfield.
4:15Concepcion is certainly the safer weekly play because of that target share.
4:20Boston has a bit more upside week in, week out.
4:23But both are great flex plays moving forward. Deshaun Watson, nothing special here, but much improved from the disasters we saw from
4:31him ever since he was traded to Cleveland. 16.7 fantasy points per game.
4:35He actually has 31 carries so far this season.
4:38That's the second most among quarterbacks behind only Josh Allen.
4:42So he carries a little bit of this rushing upside.
4:45He's probably available on your waiver wire as well.
4:49And a friendly reminder that bye week start this week in week five.
4:53That's the Chiefs and the Panthers. So if you're a Patrick Mahomes owner or a Bryce Young owner and you need a
5:01streaming option in week five, the Browns get a pretty soft matchup against the Jets.
5:06On the other side, Jalen Warren with a massive workload.
5:09Again, with Rico Dottle out with his toe injury, though it does sound like Dottle has a decent chance of playing in week five.
5:18Weeks one and two with Dottle active. Jalen Warren, 55% snap share, 55% running back carry share.
5:24But over the last two weeks with no Rico in weeks three and four, Jalen Warren, 94% snap share, 89% carry share.
5:31So one of the best workloads in the NFL with no Rico.
5:36The week five matchup against the Colts is a very good spot.
5:40The Colts have struggled against the run this season.
5:43Jalen Warren is a must start regardless of Rico Dottle's status.
5:47DK Metcalf finally sort of put a decent game together.
5:50Five catches for 115 yards. I'd like to say we could sort of see this one coming in weeks one through three.
5:58He had 241 unrealized air yards, which is air yards on incomplete targets.
6:02That was the second most in the NFL over that span.
6:06That's a signal that the downfield opportunity had been there for him.
6:10He just hadn't quite capitalized or connected on anything with Aaron Rodgers yet.
6:15DK Metcalf is going to be a roller coaster basically all season with this usage.
6:20Personally, it's not for me. If you're able to sell off of a prime time 150 yard game, that's a move I'd be looking to make.
6:29Colts Commanders in London. Pretty classic Jonathan Taylor game.
6:3220 carries for 95 yards, two touchdowns. Seth McGowan mixed in a little bit, but JT still handled 77% of the Colts running back carries.
6:41He ran 18 routes to just three for McGowan.
6:44Pretty disappointing fantasy box score for Josh Downs. Four targets, three receptions for just 16 yards.
6:50And that's coming off seven for 72 in week two and five for 77 in week three.
6:56This felt like a smash spot considering his recent production and the matchup.
7:00He just didn't really do a whole lot, but I will say the underlying usage, the numbers there are still really strong.
7:08He led the team in routes with 30. That was on 37 Daniel Jones dropbacks.
7:13So at 81% route participation. Bigger days ahead for Josh Downs without Pierce on IR.
7:19So I would not let this dud of a game and scare you from having Downs in your lineup moving forward.
7:26On the commander side, things definitely much more messy.
7:29Marcus Marietta, who played really well in week three in the commander's win over Seattle.
7:34He leaves the game in the first quarter with a knee injury.
7:38So insert Ethan Kaliak-Manus, the commander's third string quarterback.
7:42James Daniels did practice this week and it sounds like he's pretty confident in his availability for next week against the Giants.
7:49So we're going to kind of stray away from any Ethan Kaliak-Manus analysis.
7:54But a few takeaways. Terry McLaurin was inactive here with a hamstring injury that he actually suffered in practice.
8:00And so rookie Antonio Williams, he ran 30 routes that was tied for a team high with Stephon Diggs.
8:07He saw eight targets, which is one fewer than Diggs' nine, which was a team high.
8:13It does sound like a short-term injury for Terry McLaurin, but keep in mind, Terry McLaurin came out of college as an older prospect.
8:21He's 31 years old now. You never know. Kind of at that age, you know, with these hamstrings, these tricky hamstrings.
8:28I think Antonio Williams is a decent stash for your fantasy bench.
8:32Titans-Ravens. Lamar Jackson left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury and then was reportedly seen leaving the stadium in a protective boot.
8:42Sounds like he's considered week to week. So I'm not going to speculate on his status and rather would love to spend
8:49time on Zay Flowers, who had another massive performance.
8:52Flowers has now generated 6.3 yards per route this season across his 56 routes.
8:57That is the best start on a per-route basis by any player to run at least 50 routes through the first four
9:05weeks of the season in the Next 10 Stats era, which is since 2016.
9:10So over the last 11 years. I don't think we can put him in the JSN, Puka, Mark Chase, Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, Amon Ross St.
9:19Brown tier. But rest of season, I do fully believe he belongs at the top of that next tier of elite players.
9:27We finally got the big Cornell Tate game as well.
9:30He still hasn't scored a touchdown this year, but 12 targets, 9 receptions, 145 yards for Cornell Tate.
9:36He now has the 7th highest target share in the NFL.
9:40He ranks 3rd in air yard share. So the fantasy production hadn't quite been there through three weeks for him, but the underlying usage was great.
9:49Then he finally hits this big week. And reminder, this guy was the 4th overall pick in the 2026 draft.
9:56He's going to continue to have massive weeks with that dominant of target share and air yard share.
10:02I'm going to go to Bears-Jets in a game where the final score doesn't look that lopsided.
10:08Bears 23, Jets 12. But this is insane. The Chicago Bears ran 89 offensive plays in the game.
10:1589 offensive plays for the Chicago Bears. The New York Jets ran 32.
10:19In fact, the Chicago Bears offense had more first downs than the Jets ran on offense.
10:25That's about as lopsided as you can get. Kyle Monunga himself had 30 carries.
10:30So Kyle Monunga almost had as many carries as the Jets ran offensive plays in the game.
10:36Monunga goes 30 carries, 146 yards, 2 touchdowns. DeAndre Swift did not play another offensive snap after he lost his fumble in the 3rd quarter.
10:44This is a situation and a split to monitor.
10:47I think Swift certainly starts again for the Bears in Week 5 at the Packers.
10:53He shouldn't be benched for your fantasy lineup. As a unit, the Bears offense has logged 159 carries through four weeks.
11:00That is the most in the NFL by 32.
11:03Kyle Monunga has been incredibly, incredibly effective. He may get more and more work.
11:08And as we're seeing, the Bears absolutely, absolutely love to run the ball.
11:13He did pop up on the injury report, I guess, with a thumb injury with not a lot of detail around it.
11:20So something small, hopefully small to monitor. But assuming he's good to go.
11:25Kyle Monunga is a, at this point, he's a no doubt weekly flex play moving forward.
11:30No questions asked for me. We saw some life from Roma Dunze here too.
11:35Six catches for 94 yards. Not bad for Luther Burden as well.
11:39He goes four for 63. Both ran more routes than Kalief Raymond, which is a great sign that maybe the whole Kalief Raymond thing is on the downswing.
11:49Here's a fun one too. Luther Burden was at 1.5 yards per route with Caleb Williams at quarterback.
11:55Roma Dunze at 1.7. Now with Case Keenum and Tyson Badgen at quarterback.
12:00Luther Burden is at 2.5 yards per route. Roma Dunze 2.2.
12:04So on a per route basis, Case Keenum and Tyson Badgen have been better for Burden and a Dunze than Caleb was.
12:12Caleb Williams was scrambling around and playing off schedule so often.
12:15Be very interesting to monitor once Caleb returns from his hamstring injury.
12:20Just how much he's running around, which he hurt while scrambling, mind you.
12:24The Battle of Texas. Holy C.D. Lamb. 21 targets, 17 receptions, 189 yards, and a touchdown.
12:30This is just the demonstration of the absolute target hog that C.D.
12:34Lamb can be. 32% target share, now ranked second highest in the NFL.
12:38That's 12% higher than George Pickens' 20% target share.
12:42We know how incredible of a talent C.D. Lamb is, so I think this discussion needs to be flipped to the George Pickens side of things.
12:51And kind of where I'm at on the panic meter with him, it has not been good through four weeks, especially after
12:58the season that we saw from him last year.
13:01He's at 10.1 PPR points per game. He has maxed out at 15.2, which was in week three against the Ravens.
13:09Now sits at 28 targets on the year. Ryan Fleurnoy has 23.
13:13That's a little bit concerning to me, but we know this is an offense that we want pieces of, so I would not be selling George Pickens.
13:22I think he's a hold if you have him.
13:26I think he's a decent by low candidate if you don't have him.
13:30Javante Williams is a benefactor of what I just mentioned with the Dallas Cowboys offense.
13:35Being an offense for fantasy purposes, that we want pieces of.
13:39He secured the ball just 19 times for 62 yards, but bang, scored three touchdowns.
13:44This was the main thesis with him during fantasy draft season.
13:48He may not be the most efficient runner, the most effective runner in the NFL.
13:53There's no one else in that backfield, and the Cowboys are going to score a lot, and we saw it last week.
14:01A ground game that is completely broken is the Texans.
14:05Through four weeks, Texans running backs rank dead last in yards per carry by half a yard, and 30th in yards before contact per carry at .2.
14:14Minuscule. David Montgomery is not getting it done on the ground.
14:18Woody Marks, he's also not getting it done on the ground.
14:22The offensive line play is just very far from being effective as well until further notice.
14:27Both players are not startable in your fantasy lineup, and really the only guy I have extreme confidence in in Houston week in, week out, is Nico Collins.
14:37He missed weeks two and three. He's back, eight targets, seven receptions, 118 yards, two touchdowns.
14:43If you told me before the season started that the Houston Texans, who are now 1-4, which is also crazy, but the
14:50Houston Texans would rank third in called pass rate through the first four weeks, I would not have believed you, but that's the world we lived in.
15:00They projected as a team that wants to play defense and run the ball.
15:05Yeah, third highest called pass rate for the Texans.
15:08They're airing it out because they can't run the ball.
15:11Why frankly, their defense has not been playing very well this year either.
15:16Nico is a weekly locked-in top 10 fantasy wide receiver.
15:19CJ Stroud is one that I have a little more hesitation towards.
15:23I do like him in obvious soft matchups, like we saw this last week against the Cowboys, but with his lack of
15:31weapons and an incredibly underwhelming offensive line, I do think CJ Stroud has a very low floor against tough opponents.
15:38For me, he's not a weekly starter. Just totally depends on the spot and the matchup of that week.
15:45The Texans have the Titans next week. You can play him again there, but then it's Jacksonville in week six.
15:52I think he should be on your bench for that matchup.
15:56In Philadelphia, Puka Nakua returned to the lineup for the Rams in a wild win and really a game of the tale of two offenses.
16:04Puka sees 12 targets, catches nine for 125 yards, also had a two-yard rushing touchdown.
16:09So he picked back up right where he left off on the same old Puka Nakua game here.
16:16Before the game, during the week, the spot I worried most about was Devontae Adams.
16:21That kind of turned out to be correct. The matchups with the Eagles' corners are really tough.
16:27Across eight matchups with Rick Wollin, Devontae didn't see a single target.
16:31On nine matchups with Cooper Dejean, got just one target that was not completed.
16:36And then on 13 matchups with Quinjon Mitchell, he caught three of four targets for 27 yards.
16:42A very underwhelming day for Devontae, considering his recent success, but definitely had a temporary expectations outlook on him for this game.
16:50Who was incredible as a pass catcher was Kyron Williams.
16:5313 targets, which is a career high by three, 10 receptions, 67 yards.
16:58Also 16 carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
17:02He is the fantasy RB1 on the week entering Monday night.
17:06I was a big Blake Corum guy during fantasy draft season.
17:09It's not looking too good as the gap between Kyron and Corum is getting pretty extreme.
17:15In this game, Kyron played 82% of the Rams' offensive snaps, Corum at just 17%.
17:20So now across the first four weeks of the season, the snaps here is at Kyron 69%, Blake Corum 28%, and opportunities 79-40.
17:28Kyron's nearly doubled up Blake Corum in opportunities so far this year.
17:32Not what you kind of want or had in mind as a Corum drafter.
17:37I think he unfortunately needs to be benched moving forward.
17:41Speaking of benching, you might have to sub out every single Philadelphia Eagle right now because, wow, that offense does not smell good.
17:49And it's really bad. And they play Jacksonville next week.
17:52The Eagles have gone three and out on 33.3% of their drive so far this year.
17:58That's the second highest in the NFL. They're ranked 27th in yards per play.
18:03Their average yards to go on third down is eight yards.
18:07That's the third most in the league. And it's a big reason why they converted zero of their 12 third downs against the Rams this last week.
18:16Zero for 12. Jalen Hurts has scored over 20 fantasy points just once this season.
18:21That was back in week one. Saquon Barkley left early with a hamstring injury.
18:26His status is uncertain. Devontae Smith didn't even play in this game because of his own hamstring injury.
18:32Dallas Goddard's week-to-week with a knee injury. The offensive line isn't playing well.
18:37I thought this offense would be much better with Sean Mannion at offensive coordinator.
18:42I know they're dealing with a bunch of injuries, but it is kind of looking like a doomsday scenario for this unit.
18:50Raiders Chiefs was a fun one in Las Vegas.
18:53Actually a game that I was at. So we get some special, I saw it with my own eyes, takeaways.
19:00Kenneth Walker, wow. Another massive performance. 22 carries, 177 yards, two touchdowns.
19:04He goes for over 30 PPR points for the second time this season.
19:08He has gone for over 20 in all four games.
19:12Next-gen stats were rushing yards over expected number. Basically how many yards did your running back gain versus how many were they actually expected to gain?
19:21He sits at 212 rushing yards over expected so far this season.
19:25That's the best start through the first four weeks in that stat by any player since 2018 by 27 yards.
19:32He's forced 40 missed tackles just on his rushes alone.
19:36That is also a next-gen stats record through the first four weeks by six.
19:41He is very clearly the RB3 in fantasy. Rest of season behind only Jameer Gibbs and Bijon Robinson.
19:47The Chiefs wide receiver room is about to get really interesting.
19:51Pretty devastating and gruesome to watch Taequann Thornton go down with a dislocated ankle while having a career game.
19:57That was after Rasheed Rice pulled his hamstring in the first quarter and did not return.
20:03So there's a bunch of Tyree Kill speculation out there right now.
20:07But I will say Jalen Royals was the next man up for Rasheed Rice.
20:12He ran 21 routes. He was not productive on those 21 routes.
20:16Just two targets, zero receptions. If he's out there on the waiver wire, I think I would avoid Jalen Royals and just
20:24let someone else spend their money and pick him up.
20:27And everyone's favorite preseason player, training camp player, Cyrus Allen.
20:31He ran just two routes in a game where both Rasheed Rice and Taequann Thornton got hurt.
20:37So fun preseason story there, but does not look like it's happening for Cyrus Allen this year.
20:43On the other side, Kirk Cousins continues to sling it.
20:4631 for 52, 365. Two touchdowns, one pick on the final play of the game.
20:51Pretty unbelievable to see the Raiders drafted Fernando Mendoza number one overall.
20:56And through four weeks, 38-year-old Kirk Cousins is fantasy's QB eight.
20:59He has outscored Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Trevor Lawrence, Matthew Stafford, you name it.
21:04Kirk Cousins is cooking right now. We saw more of the wide and slot alignments from Brock Bowers again this week.
21:12He is now aligned out wide or in the slot on 81% of his snaps this season.
21:17Just 16% as an actual in-line tight end. I think that's hilarious.
21:22It's pretty insane stuff. So when you have Brock Bowers in your fantasy lineup at your tight end position, you're really actually like starting a wide receiver.
21:31It's a positional cheat code. And pretty hilarious that he has only played two weeks so far this year, half the season,
21:39and he's already the tight end nine for fantasy.
21:42All right, as always, going to end each episode with an action item.
21:46My biggest move to make for fantasy, whether that be buy a player, sell a player.
21:52Last week, it was buy Zay Flowers. This week, we're going with sell Tett McMillan.
21:57I know, I know, doesn't sound very fun selling a guy coming off a primetime game where he puts up 14 receptions
22:05for 192 yards, two touchdowns and 45.2 PPR points.
22:08But this is the absolute peak of his value.
22:11This was a game with no Jalen Coker, a game in which Tett McMillan had a 41% target share in weeks one through three with Coker.
22:20Tett had a 21% target share. Jalen Coker was just one target behind him and at 20%.
22:26The Panthers have also had one of, if not the softest, friendliest fantasy schedules I think I've seen in a really long time.
22:34That was Bears, Falcons, Browns, Lions. They now have a week five buy.
22:39They play at the Eagles in week six, who I already talked about being a brutal matchup with their strength at corner.
22:46And looking way ahead, we're getting way ahead here, but the Panthers fantasy playoff schedule is gnarly.
22:52Bengals, Steelers, Seahawks. Seattle is about the last team that I think I would want my fantasy players to face with my fantasy championship on the line.
23:02All right, that's gonna do it for this week four edition of the show.
23:07We will be back every single Monday throughout the season, sifting through each week's data.
23:12Appreciate everyone for tuning in and we'll be right back here for week five.
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