0:00It's Halloween week and the big question is, are your teams the scarers or the scarys?
0:06We hope they aren't in the graveyard already. But this week the Empire's Halloween party has a little bit of everything for our guests.
0:14We're going to explore which players might be soon wearing a new costume.
0:19We'll also remove the disguises from some indecipherable backfields and receiver rooms.
0:23Then we hand out some Halloween treats of players that are primed for a week 8 bounce back and expose some Halloween
0:30tricks of production players set up on their own.
0:34We'll be right back to the end of the week 8.
0:37So let's get into the Empire. Was that bad enough for you?
0:42I mean, that was bad Dan, but I'm laughing at Spiteri.
0:46Spiteri's on fire already in the... Oh, come on, his show never starts on time either.
0:51All he does is he throws up some kind of music that eventually is going to have to get taken down.
0:58It's a shit production over there, Dan. Yeah, no.
1:02You got to give the people what they want.
1:05You got to have you and Spiteri on the Dominator after the Greek.
1:09I mean, I think that's what the people want.
1:12Oh, yeah. We'll definitely make that happen. You know, Paul, I know he thinks I'm old.
1:18I caught last week on the reference from Steve when he started talking about Alzheimer's and immediately pivoted right over to me.
1:26So I got it all. I was listening. I would love to see the two of you on a show as well.
1:33I'll admit, you do have a burn book. So good.
1:37Shout out to, you know, Spiteri again because this morning he fired off his flaming hot Tuesday takes and tagged Sidney Sweeney in them.
1:45So just a legendary thing. I thought you were going to give him credit for still leading the primetime.
1:52Oh, yeah. No, that too. That too. So he's still holding on right there.
1:57Shout out to him for seven weeks. Yep. Yep.
2:00Good stuff. Good stuff. So and and we made it back again this week, boys.
2:05You know, we made it through seven weeks yet, even though the Greek buried us last week.
2:11I believe in the rest in peace segment, rest in peace to the fantasy empire show.
2:17But here we are. So let's get into it, guys.
2:20Another crazy low scoring week in fantasy again. Another boring Sunday in the NFL.
2:25Yeah. Yeah. The games were pretty tough to watch a lot of the time.
2:30So, Chris, what do you what do you think?
2:33What was there anything good you saw? You know, I was disappointed.
2:38We were all hoping for that, you know, Lions Packers shootout game total of 50 plus.
2:43They were going up and down the field. You know, there was some fantasy goodness there with Amon Ron Jamo getting in on the action.
2:52It just the game kept stalling out. But when I'm watching that game, guys, and Josh Jacobs jumps right back into the
3:00mix, it's got me thinking that maybe Josh Jacobs is going to take a little bit away from Watson and Golden in the past game.
3:08And even Tucker Craft, he looks smooth out of the backfield catching the ball.
3:13And if he's taken away five to six targets a game out of the backfield with dump downs, you know, maybe that
3:21takes away from what we were dreaming of all these last bunch of weeks with the outlook every week for Christian Watson and Matthew Golden.
3:30You know, both of them getting double digit targets every week.
3:34Maybe Jacobs is just that extra piece in the offense that takes a little bit of the pie away.
3:40And I wanted to mention this kid's name last week on the show because he jumped off the screen to me and
3:48then he did it again this week. He came right back solidifying that thought was Savion Williams.
3:54They might have something in this kid as a third option, kind of like a Flournoy for Dallas.
4:00You know, when you got Lamb and Pickens, the kid, I don't think he's going to play that big of a role
4:08with Flournoy, but just another guy that could take, you know, three to five targets away out of that passing game.
4:15He looks pretty smooth. So that Packers offense, I got my eye on in the future here.
4:21The game was 20 to 17, but Love and Goff should have had so many more fantasy points as well as the receivers for the Packers.
4:30Could we stay on the Packers or do you want to finish off?
4:35Say that again, Matt. Could we stay on the Packers or do you want to finish off?
4:41I think that Jacobs is an added bonus to the receiving core.
4:45I know I might be in the minority here, but Marshawn Lloyd was getting receptions when these two guys were going off previously.
4:53And I just think he's going to, you know, he's going to make it better.
4:58At some point, if he's going to be good, like he's been in the past, they're going to have to, you know, fill up that box.
5:07It's going to open things. My biggest concern, I did an excellent point on Savion Williams.
5:13My biggest concern is Matthew Golden just got to catch the damn ball.
5:18He is playing at an elite level in every other aspect, but he can't be dropping as many passes as he is.
5:25So that's just my take. I just wanted to touch on that being that we were talking about it.
5:32Yeah. Also, observation, you know, this Cleveland Brown offense is not bad, guys.
5:36You know, talked about it in the summertime. I know I got a lot of heat for it, but AC Concepcion, big game coming on.
5:45This team has pieces. That's all I'm saying. For fantasy.
5:49Okay. It's not a fantasy dumpster fire anymore in Cleveland.
5:52Fannin had a nice bounce back game. I don't think he'll be consistent week to week, but two out of these three
6:00guys in the passing tree will be each week.
6:03Between Denzel Boston, he had his big weeks early in the season.
6:07It looks like KC Concepcion is a nice, solid wide receiver three for your fantasy team going forward here.
6:14And Quinchon Junkins might be one of those best picks in those middle rounds when he was the running back that nobody really wanted.
6:22And he's the guy that everybody, you know, needed as your RB2.
6:27You know, another two touchdowns on 100 yards this week.
6:30And, you know, the Browns are a lot better than a lot of people thought, especially fantasy-wise.
6:36So, you know, I'm interested to see what they have going forward on a week-to-week basis.
6:42Fair enough. All right. I'm going to throw out there, I think we finally hit the time of year when the rookies
6:49are finally starting to hit their stride a little bit.
6:53I mean, you know, we saw a lot of evidence for it this past week.
6:58You know, everybody was crapping on this rookie class.
7:01It was a terrible class, all that kind of stuff.
7:05And, you know, in the long term, maybe that'll be true.
7:09In the short term, as far as just this season goes, I mean, you know, they're starting to get a lot more use.
7:17You know, we got Makai Lemon last night. You know, granted, we had two receivers out for Philly.
7:23But Lemon, you know, is working that middle area of the field where it is about the only place that McKee looks comfortable throwing the ball.
7:32Kim Cepcione finally had a breakout game that Chris was just talking about.
7:37You know, he's been due for weeks, and it finally happened.
7:40I did call that out Friday on the sit-down.
7:44Yeah, you did. So, Omar Cooper, we'll talk over here.
7:47We'll be plugging your show on Friday. There's no crossover here.
7:51You got Spiteri in the chat already telling our listeners, hey, tune in on Friday.
7:56Spiteri, you're going to get X'd out. I'm telling you right now.
8:00It's slippery. All I have to say, Matt, is sit down.
8:04Sit down. Omar Cooper, you know, wow. What a fantastic two weeks to start.
8:09Jonah Coleman, you know, comes off IR. Looks immediately like the best running back in Denver's backfield.
8:15Malachi Fields, I know the Greek was talking about him.
8:19And he's definitely looking like a viable option with McCarthy playing quarterback.
8:23And even Tate, Carnell Tate in Tennessee is starting to look like he might be usable.
8:28And you don't look now, but Eli Raritan, who's sitting on a few of my rosters, is starting to come on for New England as well.
8:38So, loving to see those rookies all looking good.
8:41You guys have any thoughts on that? Yeah, Dan, let's stay on the rookies here.
8:46It usually takes the rookies to like that second half and then they, you know, start popping.
8:52It was a, you know, not a good class in general.
8:56Everybody was down on it. But, I mean, my biggest takeaway from the rookies is Omar Cooper, as you mentioned, in the
9:03previous, in the last two games has a 20% target share.
9:07I think Garrett Wilson has a 15% target share.
9:10And, you know, A.D. Mitchell was like non-existent on Sunday.
9:14So, I mean, right there, that's, you know, and I know Garrett Wilson has been pretty pissed off the last two weeks.
9:22I mean, you saw him on the sidelines. So, I mean, that's something you really, you have to monitor.
9:28And even like Eli Rierden, I mean, this kid, it's not going to be, but he seems to get, he seems to make one big catch every week.
9:38Like 30 yards or more. Hunter Henry's playing well too.
9:42But they don't have any receivers. Like Thursday night, I thought Drake May had a fantastic game.
9:48When you consider everything, his line was decimated. They had a seventh round pick.
9:52They had a practice squad guy. Guys playing out of position.
9:56No receivers. A.J. Brown doesn't look 100% healthy. And, you know, the tight ends are going to keep being used until they get to full health again.
10:06What did everybody do last week in fab with Omar Cooper?
10:10Did you guys go in heavy on him? I made one of my biggest fab mistakes for whatever reason.
10:16I'll tell you guys the thought process. I prioritize Mumfield of the Rams over Omar Cooper.
10:22And that might sound a little crazy now in hindsight.
10:25But I just thought the long-term prospect of Mumfield with the Rams, with Devontae Adams out for 8, 10 weeks, being on the field a lot more.
10:35I liked what I saw early in the year.
10:38I prioritized him. It looked like it backfired. Then I got, when we got the Puka news later on that day, I loved it even more.
10:47But this kid Omar Cooper looks like he's solidified himself in two weeks' time as the second best option in the pass game.
10:55And, yeah, he has, you know, outshined. Who's the best option?
10:59Mason Taylor? Say that again? Who's the best option?
11:02Mason Taylor? Yeah, exactly. You know, Garrett Wilson's disappeared for a couple weeks.
11:07But you can best bet, just like Matty said, he's going to get fed and fed heavy this upcoming week versus the Raiders.
11:15But regardless, the kid Cooper looks like the second best option here in the pass game.
11:20He's got Puka stats after like two games. Yeah, it's crazy.
11:24And he just looks the part, you know. He looks the part here.
11:29I kind of didn't want to spend the money that I thought it would take to get Omar Cooper last week because of Adonai Mitchell coming back.
11:38We still have Sadiq in this offense, but he's fading away a little bit.
11:43But I just thought there was a chance that Cooper would be like a one-week wonder and everybody would overpay for him.
11:51And it doesn't look like that's going to be the case.
11:55Is that not the craziest thing? I mean, I know it's later on in the list.
12:00But the Jets saw what Sadiq did, what was it, like week two or week three against the Lions?
12:07And then decided he got hurt. He missed the game, whatever.
12:11And decided never to like throw him the ball again.
12:14Yeah, something that's just weird. I think it is because of an injury.
12:19But, you know, Mason Taylor's been playing really well.
12:22You know, it is something with the blocking. I read that during the week that, you know, the Jets are a lot
12:30more comfortable with Mason Taylor on the field. But, again, you know, listen, it's a rookie tight end.
12:36And even though he popped for that one or two games early in the season, you know, this is a kid in
12:44Taylor that's been in the league a couple years now.
12:47Sadiq is probably still adjusting as a tight end to what he's got to do in the blocking game.
12:54And maybe they don't feel comfortable with him on the field.
12:58Okay. So they're going with Taylor more. Regardless, Omar Cooper might be, along with Ali Gordon, the two best pickups off the wire this year.
13:06Can we answer a question that Marty put in the chat?
13:10When do you think you guys – when do you guys think Coleman will use – Dobbins?
13:16That happened already, Marty. Happened on Sunday. You know, J.K.
13:20Dobbins, I got a lot of him. It's, you know, put him to bed.
13:25He's on the bench as a, you know, contingent running back at best right now.
13:30Yeah. I was really surprised that people were dropping Coleman, especially when it looked like it was just going to be four
13:38weeks on IR and he'd be right back off.
13:41I picked up a couple of shares in leagues where people just dropped him.
13:46And, you know, I'm like, I'll hold him on my roster.
13:49I mean, this isn't a tough one to see.
13:53I'm with you, Dan. I saw that in a couple places.
13:56I know me and Spatari got him on one of them.
14:00So, yeah. Yeah. So, we – Omar Cooper, I bid the 200 and like 22 on the leagues where I had the money.
14:08If I had the money – but I don't have a lot of leagues where I have the money.
14:15I'll be honest with you. Yeah. I bid over 200 and lost him in several of those leagues.
14:21You know, somebody else bid even more. I did get him in a couple places, but I had no problem going in on him.
14:30I just – I underestimated how much he was probably going to go for.
14:35So, my thesis was in that first game of the season, he had that one play for 30 yards and got hurt.
14:42Yep. And then against the Patriots. Look, he did pop in that game.
14:47So, he's their first round pick. Did I think he was going to do what he did on Sunday again?
14:54No. But still, you know, I'm hoping, you know, Adonai does eventually become a thing.
14:59But I think that's another thing that's not looking good either.
15:03Look at this Jets offense though, guys. Yeah. I mean, we just talked about the Browns offense coming out of nowhere.
15:10But, you know, the Jets offense, I'd rather have – I'd be investing in them right now.
15:16I mean, they're about to get Brees Hall back.
15:19That's their – you know, their star running back.
15:23Now, you've got a one-two combo of Braylon Allen and Brees Hall in the backfield.
15:28A solid offensive line. A first-round slot receiver in Cooper that looks the part.
15:33You've got an alpha in Garrett Wilson that, you know, he's legit.
15:37Garrett Wilson, let's not let a couple slow weeks take that away.
15:41Adonai Mitchell coming back healthy. Sadiq and Mason Taylor.
15:44Like, this offense is going to put up points, okay?
15:48And they got a bad defense. So, the Jets offense is – Yeah, you've got to stay on the point that you just made.
15:56Bryce Hall – Brees Hall is coming back. And as a Brees Hall owner, I'm just so nervous because – I mean, they love Braylon Allen.
16:05I mean, this is clear. Like, I was shocked that – Which is, Geno got the points he got because every play
16:13was a run to Braylon Allen and he was getting 10, 15 yards a clip.
16:18So, I mean, I can't – I mean, I want Brees Hall to be awesome.
16:24I'm just – I think he's going to be capped now.
16:27I was so disappointed when the Jets re-signed him because it would have been such a perfect blackjack split, you know, to
16:35get Brees Hall going elsewhere and have Braylon Allen coming into his own on the Jets.
16:41It would have been fantastic. And instead, what we got is just another frickin' messy committee.
16:46Nelson, you have to say something on this show.
16:49It's been 10 minutes and people are wondering if you have laryngitis.
16:54Nelson has depression. Nelson doesn't have laryngitis. Nelson has depression, which we all know and feel on a weekly basis when we have a below average fantasy week.
17:03So, Nelson, speak for the people. Listen, I get it.
17:07The people tune in. They tune in to listen to me, okay?
17:11I'm like the Garrett Wilson of the show right now, okay, is what's happening, okay?
17:16So, I apologize to my listeners and my subscribers.
17:20These three guys, they have a lot to say, all right?
17:23I'm just staying a little bit on the down low.
17:27I'm a little sad, okay? I had a lot of players do terrible this past week.
17:33So, I'm letting them say their piece and enjoy.
17:36Give us your top three. Give us your top three bombs, Nelson.
17:40That ruined Sunday. Jeremy Bernard. Okay. Roshon Johnson. Oh, God.
17:43Okay. Yeah, I had him in a few lineups.
17:47Okay. I mean, I had Roshon as well. I mean, the guy had nine targets and seven receptions in two games and basically playing 40% chair.
17:56Yeah. And that was just insane. Thanks. Thanks, M.
17:59Lars. Who is that? M. Lars? M. That's the Greek, actually.
18:03He made up another. Isaiah Likely. That's Nelson's son.
18:06Yeah. Well, I got to give Nelson credit, though.
18:09He's been trying to rope and dope on us, trying to get us to exhaust ourselves talking for, you know, eight weeks now.
18:17And it still hasn't worked, but he's still working at it.
18:21Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. Likely had a slow game.
18:25But that's likely season right now, right, guys? Like, it's either less than five points or it's 25 points.
18:31If you look back against, what was it, the fourth quarter of the Saints that last 11 minutes?
18:38I believe that in the game. It looks like Malachi Fields, who the Greek did call out on Friday, said he would become a thing.
18:46It seems like he's taken away from Likely. Well, we hope not.
18:51Only five quarters, but. Yeah. We'll see. He got hurt also, guys.
18:55You know, Likely got. He's fanged up in that game.
18:58Likely got banged up. I think one of the observations, though, that I am noticing is that McCarthy is playing with way
19:06more confidence than I ever saw when he was with Minnesota.
19:10And he just looks more decisive. And he's got the arm to get the ball down the field and throw outside the numbers.
19:18So I think hopefully it's not a sign of things to come.
19:22But we could be seeing Likely taking a little bit of the backseat because he's willing to sling the ball to Mooney and Neighbors and Malachi Fields.
19:32So that was just an that was kind of an interesting observation with McCarthy.
19:36And then my other one, which you guys already spoke about, was, you know, just kind of like the rookies that are coming on strong.
19:45Like Jonah Coleman, like comes in. That's it. Done.
19:48Like he's he's the guy. Like Dobbins. It's over for Dobbins.
19:52And then there's some guys that are going to be headaches like Omar Cooper.
19:57It's I don't I get what you're saying, Chris.
20:00But like if I have Garrett Wilson on some teams and I'm not happy about this situation, like Omar Cooper is a thing.
20:08And he could every team support. But every team could support two options in the past game, you know.
20:15So let's not, you know, the Jets Raiders should be fun, in my opinion.
20:20It should be a fun fantasy team, actually. Yeah, that's that's a great point, Matt.
20:25That that should be, you know, one of our fantasy carnivals here.
20:29So, oh, no. The carnival is back. The carnival is back.
20:33The conspitary. I had to I had to wind him up for his show on Friday.
20:39He needs something to talk about since he gets, you know, overrun by Matty and Steve.
20:44So I tell you the Terry talk on Fridays because the Greek doesn't stop.
20:49The biggest observation I had from this week, and it's impressive.
20:53Mazda Mav, Maserati Mav, Moped Mav, whatever you want to call him, has killed two teams.
20:59He killed the Arizona. He killed Michael Wilson. He's killed Nico.
21:03He killed Noel. Well, I mean, it's impressive. The guy still can't catch him.
21:08Marv stole Christmas, Matt. He really did, man. He is the Grinch.
21:12I said this a couple of weeks ago with this freaking coaching staff, man.
21:17I don't know what their fascination is with the OC and everything, getting all these receivers involved.
21:23Like, all these guys are running routes out there.
21:26Nico Collins, he's not even like a wide receiver one.
21:29He's not a number one wide receiver. Nelson, he's gone from...
21:33It's like spare piece. He's gone from, I think, 31% target share week one to like 19%.
21:39Something like that. Every week it's gone down. He ran like 80% of the routes this past week, I believe, which isn't
21:47good enough for a number one wide receiver. But it hurts even more when it looks like, you know, he was out
21:54for those weeks, came back, and blew up, right?
21:58And if you have Nico Collins, it hurts even more now because you got a piece and a taste of what it
22:05looked like as him as an elite wide receiver.
22:08You started thinking, oh, my God, I have my top five wide receiver back.
22:13He's the whole passing game. He's going to get fed.
22:17And then these last couple weeks happen, and he disappears, and it's like the rug got pulled out from under you.
22:24So it hurts even worse when he shows it to you as an elite wide receiver.
22:30Then they come and screw up the whole offense.
22:33They start bringing in Harrison. Noel starts showing up.
22:36You know, Tank Dell's back in the mix now, and it's a shit show for Nico Collins on it.
22:43I don't know if you're trade questions. Yeah, watching that game, though, like I questioned whether Nico got banged up.
22:50And I'm like, no, he's not banged up. They're just keeping him off the field.
22:55He played under 70% of snaps. Like for a wide receiver one, like that's unacceptable.
23:00You can't have that. No, that's true. I don't answer trade questions really ever.
23:05But GB, yada, yada, put in a thing about would you trade Chase Brown?
23:10I'm going to say right now that Chase Brown is probably the best buy in fantasy currently going.
23:16The owner's got to be disappointed. He still, on Sunday, ran the same amount he ran all last year, like 75% opportunity
23:24share, whatever the hell you want to call it.
23:27They have, I thought it was Jacksonville. They have by far the easiest schedule going forward.
23:33He had 16 opportunities to P. Ryan's four. The only reason P.
23:37Ryan got that touchdown was Brown got banged up inside the 10 right before that.
23:42But, you know, so, and P. Ryan did have a 15-yard run.
23:46He had four rushes for 16 yards. Chase Brown last year at this time probably had the same amount of points or
23:54less and then went on to be almost a 20-point game for the last 10 weeks.
24:00Everything with the Bengals, like the Bengals, the Jaguars, those two teams are looking like fantasy gold rest of the season if they stay healthy.
24:09Another crazy game for the Bengals. That game was wild.
24:12I mean, everybody tanking in the first half. And then by the end of it, Burroughs QB won.
24:18T. Higgins. Everybody ate. So, crazy, crazy game. I have one last observation, and it's a tweet from Sleeper who usually provides slop on their tweets.
24:27But this one was actually an excellent tweet, so I will give them credit.
24:32Aston Gentry, they put wide receiver. He has more receptions than Jamal, more receiving yards than JJ, and more receiving touchdowns than Olave.
24:40I mean, look, that's what it's all about. I mean, I don't care if he's got 2.5 or 3.1 yards rushing.
24:48If he's going to catch 34 out of 45 targets.
24:51Only concern I have is if they move from Kirk Cousins to Fernando.
24:56Fernando's got to keep dumping off. That's my concern.
24:59It really is a strain. He's the one that has McCaffrey from last year.
25:04Yeah. Like, if you remember, McCaffrey was not good in the run game.
25:08Excellent comp, Nelson. And he was just getting receptions, and he was getting the touchdowns.
25:14And right now, that's what Gentry is doing. He's on pace.
25:18He's on pace for 82 receptions. And if that's the way he's going to get it done, I don't give a shit how he gets it done.
25:27Right? I got plenty of Gentry shares. I thought the season would be great.
25:32But at the end of the day, you don't watch.
25:35You know? Just look at the box score if it hurts to watch.
25:40You know? He ran. What do you have? 10 rushing yards?
25:44But, you know, still have 21 fantasy points. That's all I care about at the end of the day.
25:50So, yeah. I am concerned, Matt, about them switching to Mendoza soon and how it will affect Gentry in the pass game.
25:58But for now, you know, Captain Kirk, check down.
26:01You know, keep feeding him. Give me six, eight catches out of the backfield every week, and we'll do it the PPR way.
26:09There you go. That was a great thing. You can use for that one.
26:14Shout out to the best analyst in the game, Jeff Manns, for taking Gentry over Jameer Gibbs.
26:20That's why you... That's... The special ed has a great kind of...
26:24Fantasy channel over there. It's serious. Here's another analogy for you for that Raiders backfield.
26:30That's a little bit like Camara and Mark Ingram from the Saints back a few years ago.
26:36I mean, that's basically... You've got Gentry holding down the Camara role and Washington holding down the Ingram role.
26:42Mm-hmm. Sorry, that was an old person's reference. I know you...
26:46Gentry has as many rushing touchdowns as Kenyon Sadiq.
26:49You also wonder, you know, maybe they're taking it off the...
26:53You know, more rushing off of his hands because of the...
26:57You know, he's probably dealing still with that high ankle or that mid-ankle sprain that he was dealing with.
27:04So, give more carries to Washington now. Let Gentry get out of the backfield and do it in the passing game.
27:11And hopefully after their bye week, you know, maybe he gets more touches out of the backfield rushing.
27:17Shout out to Duke. Duke, he was on the Dominar last week and he called out Trey Tucker as a player you want to start.
27:26So, good call. Yep. Shout out, Duke. Real quick, we're going to...
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28:45Okay, what other observations do you guys have? Nelson, what do you got?
28:50Anything? It's week eight. We're on to week eight.
28:5330-minute football should be fun. As Bill Belichick would say, we're moving on to week eight.
28:58Oh, man. Listen, I have one last one. I just want to talk about how bad Kyler Murray looked is all the above.
29:07This team came in to the game versus the Colts.
29:10Sauce Gardner got ruled out. Okay? You start worrying about, all right, you know, maybe the Vikings take the foot off the gas today.
29:18They don't have to do a lot offensively to beat the Colts.
29:23Turned out that they really didn't. But at the same time, it was a dream spot for Kyler and Justin Jefferson and
29:30the whole Vikings offense to put up 27 points, 30 points on this Colts defense.
29:36Then the dream scenario happens. They get behind seven-nothing early.
29:39Now you're like, oh, man, all right, we're in business now.
29:43Now we're really going to cook. And Kyler just can't get the job done.
29:48And Justin Jefferson, without Sauce Gardner to even worry about, gives a four for 44, all in the first half, never even
29:56caught a ball in the second half. Just a disgrace.
29:59And it has me officially worried with this Vikings passing offense.
30:03They'll get one more shot this week versus the Lions in hopefully a game that's got a little bit back and forth.
30:11But Kyler Murray is garbage. Yeah. I cannot agree more.
30:14I mean, the whole thing with Kevin O'Connell is, you know, I gave him credit for a couple years ago when Kirk Cousins went out.
30:23You know, and he's slapping in all these backup quarterbacks.
30:26And he's figuring out a game plan that can take advantage of whatever their strengths are and, you know, just making it work.
30:34But it seems like with J.J. McCarthy, he was completely unwilling to do that.
30:39It's like, here's this guy that you just drafted.
30:42And instead of crafting an offense around him that works to his strengths, he was like, no, I want him to fit within my offense.
30:51And now he's doing the same thing with Kyler.
30:54I mean, I'm just trying to figure out what the heck happened to O'Connell because he's – That was my observation, Dan.
31:02Honestly, the headline on it was his KOC a fraud.
31:06Yeah. Because it's a bad runout for him, you know.
31:09I think he was a crutch for him. I had in my notes that Kyler sucks.
31:15But my other takeaway from that game, which pissed me off, is I put Mason in my lineups over Corum.
31:22And I was so excited for Mason. I figured, like Chris said, they'd go up second half, just ground and pound them, maybe a touchdown or two.
31:31So that was very discouraging. The production wasn't there, Matt.
31:35But I will say what was encouraging was that he was playing a decent amount and he looked pretty good to me.
31:42And Jones looks even more banged up now. Yeah.
31:45But you know what? You know, Jones looks so bad on the sideline.
31:50Like you thought it was an out for the season type of thing.
31:55And then it was really going to open up a dream scenario for Mason.
31:59And now they're reporting that Jones will be okay.
32:03It's every week. The week before against the Saints, he was going to be ruled out of the game.
32:09He came in and rushed for him to 20-year.
32:12Sure. Yeah. Listen, it's going to be Mason's backfield now.
32:16Oh, yeah. No, trust me. I am praying for that.
32:19Yep. Mm-hmm. All right. Anything else? Any other observations anybody wants to throw out there?
32:25No. I don't know. But it was a great Tony Pollard week.
32:29Congratulations. Yes, Jimmy. Tony Pollard. Tony Pollard Christmas. I'll give you the bonehead lineup decision of the week.
32:35I put in Bam Knight and left Tony Pollard on the bench.
32:39Oof. Oof. Oof. Yeah. If Tony Pollard week happened and you had him and you benched him this week, you know, that's pretty painful.
32:48You're not going to get another 36-point fantasy game.
32:51But he looked great, you know. And I just worry about what's going to happen with these trades now, you know, because
32:59someone's going to see that type of game and pick up the phone and call the Titans.
33:05The Titans have no reason to keep them. So...
33:08Chris, what an excellent segue you just made into our next topic.
33:12It's called being a professional, Dan. I would think he's more likely to get traded than all these high names we keep hearing about.
33:20I'll say that. Yeah, yeah. I think you're right.
33:24I think Pollard is definitely one of those guys who could be had pretty easily.
33:29And I'll give you, you know, I want to talk trades here.
33:33I don't want to spend too much time, you know, dealing with crazy scenarios and things that probably aren't going to happen
33:41because, of course, most trades that we talk about really don't happen.
33:45But I think underlying it, sometimes we're talking about a team's weakness and how they might be able to shore it up.
33:53Sometimes we might be talking about, you know, what's going to happen to the trading team.
33:58But just curious what your guys' thoughts are. I'll get you started.
34:02I've got a couple of trade targets that I think would be good ones for a couple teams.
34:09Dallas Goddard, I think, is going to be... That's my guy.
34:13Oh, really? I stole your guy? Sorry about that, Chris.
34:16Look at that. All right. Me and Dan sharing a brain.
34:20Too bad for you, Chris. Boy, you might want to get checked out now.
34:25I've apparently got Alzheimer's. I will call the doctor right after this one, Dan.
34:30Early onset Alzheimer's for you. Yeah. You know, but Goddard's going to be super cheap.
34:35I mean, he's going to cost anybody who takes him on like less than a million and a half.
34:42Denver could use him. Seattle could use him. Carolina could use him.
34:46You know, and if he goes, I mean, I think everybody's going to be like, oh, well, you got to get Stowers or you got to get Calcaterra.
34:56And I think the buy might be Lemon because he's a guy who operates the same area of the field.
35:03I mean, Calcaterra and Stowers are going to get targets just because they're tight ends.
35:08But I think Lemon is probably the one who benefits the most.
35:12So any thoughts on Goddard or move on? Yeah, no.
35:16It was my... God, Matt, you want to... No, I agree.
35:19It was my guy. It was the only guy I had.
35:23It makes complete sense. Dallas Goddard's 31 years old.
35:26You just drafted Eli Stowers in the second round who just came off IR for last night's game.
35:33The Eagles are officially dead and buried. The whole season is gone.
35:37I don't think you'll see Barkley for a while now after getting hurt again.
35:42Trade Dallas Goddard. The one thing I do disagree, I had two landing spots for Goddard, Dan, and neither one of them.
35:50You touched on. I think there's two teams in the AFC North that he would look unbelievable on.
35:56You ship him over to Baltimore. Let him be the second option behind Zay Flowers.
36:01Mark Andrews is absolute toast. Okay? And if you don't do that, you send them to the Cincinnati Bengals for a high-powered offense for a third option.
36:11And even though Jacecki shows up with a touchdown every week, imagine sticking Dallas Goddard in the middle of the field with Chase and T.
36:19Higgins for Joe Burrow and just let them score 35 a game and win games like that.
36:25So Dallas Goddard to the Bengals or Ravens was my trade that I was loving.
36:30It's funny that you went. I'll disagree with the Ravens, Chris.
36:34Chris, my call this week, the breakout call this week, if Lamar plays.
36:39That's the caveat. If Lamar plays, Jacoby Lane, breakout week is coming.
36:43Two touchdowns. I will be putting down. Ladder. Ladder, too.
36:47Ladder. But, Matt, I hear you and I hope that's true with Jacoby Lane, but they're still going to need more in that offense.
36:55What do you think? I think they have two pretty good young tight ends.
37:00This kid Quavos looks pretty good to me. And the kid Hibner who got hurt in the Falcons game, he played well in the preseason.
37:09I know they're young, so I could understand that.
37:12I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But I think the targets we've seen in the past that Andrews would get in
37:20the red zone, they'll go to one of those tight ends.
37:23But I think more likely it's Jacoby Lane. That's what the guy does.
37:28That's what he did in college. That's what he fits perfectly for.
37:32We saw week one it got called off the board and then he broke his wrist.
37:38Yep, totally agree. All right, my other guy is not even a skill player.
37:43Quentin Nelson, guard for the Colts. If you want a Colts player that's probably going to get traded for sure, I don't think it's Jonathan Taylor.
37:52I think it's Quentin Nelson. He's on an expiring contract, 30 years old, but still playing really, really good.
37:58And tell me that a team like Minnesota, who's been having all kinds of problems at guard, Green Bay, who has all
38:06kinds of problems across the offensive line, Houston, another team with offensive line problems, Seattle, another team that's had some issues at offensive line.
38:14I mean, you know, all these teams should be lining up to get Quentin Nelson.
38:20I think he'd help the running game for any one of those teams that he lands on.
38:26Yeah, that's going to be an expensive trade, though.
38:29I agree, but it's going to be, first of all, he's got an expensive contract and you're going to have to give up.
38:37But it expires at the end of this year.
38:40So, you know, it's the cap room that's the issue.
38:44You're right. You know, just trying to fit him under the cap this year.
38:48But I'm with you on that. He should be the most sought after, you know, just for me.
38:55Mm-hmm. Yep. All right, Matt, who else you got?
38:58I mean, for me, I got two guys. The one guy I really want to focus on that I think is definitely getting moved is BTJ.
39:07BTJ, maybe this week if they get a big, they showcase him in the second half against the Colts.
39:14I just don't think he really has a part on his team.
39:18And I know the head coach keeps talking him up.
39:21That's what he's got to do. You know, you've got to make him as, you know, valuable of an asset as possible.
39:29But I think the kid Cameron basically could play that role right now for them and has done it and showed them that.
39:37I mean, the Kansas City Chiefs, I know I hop on this all the time, but outside of Ollie Gordon, who's the
39:45number one waiver wire pick, Taequann Thornton, I think, would have been that guy.
39:50Not since Tyreek have they had a player that's done it for them.
39:54He's no Tyreek Hill. But we saw it last year.
39:58He beats, he opens the offense for them deep.
40:01You got Rice coming back soon. You saw Sunday night.
40:04They didn't have a pass over 20 yards. Everybody's the same player.
40:09There are all these guys over the middle. It would make Rice even better.
40:14Xavier Worthy isn't the guy. He can't do it.
40:17I know two weeks ago they force fed him.
40:20The guy caught a pass over the middle. Instead of turning up field and maybe getting a touchdown, he ran right out of bounds.
40:28It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. So I just think BTJ fills that role perfectly, opens it up.
40:35You got Walker. You got the dynamic back. You got the guys that can eat over the middle of the field.
40:43So I would say for them, I mean, I'll put Kansas City in the mix.
40:48Even the Rams. The Rams are always willing to trade futures if they have any.
40:53So that. And the other guy is just me trying to hope for something I think would look awesome in San Francisco.
41:01Is Josh Downs. And, you know, they need to blow the whole thing up in Indianapolis.
41:06San Francisco has no receivers. I mean, you saw Mike Evans on Monday Night Football the first day.
41:13He would have had like two touchdowns. He couldn't run.
41:16He had, what, three catches for 94 yards. And the biggest rug pull of fantasy football this week, too?
41:23Christian Kirk. Oh, I heard. He looks amazing in practice.
41:26Brock Purdy talking him up. Everybody talking him up.
41:30He's old. Then they announce. You don't hear nothing from nobody.
41:33They announce like midway through the game. Christian Kirk is only available as an emergency.
41:39I was like, what? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Getting back to BTJ.
41:43He's super cheap, too, as far as his contract goes.
41:46Whoever picks him up would owe him less than $500,000 this year on the cap.
41:52He's only $2.8 million in 2027. And they would have a club option for 2028.
41:57You know, so I think that if BTJ goes, you guys think I'm crazy.
42:02But I think Jacksonville is going to insist on a second round pick for him.
42:07And I think they could probably get it. If the Marv, and I don't get that.
42:13Marv is, BTJ has at least had an amazing year.
42:16Marv hasn't done nothing and got a second round pick.
42:20So, mile high, I disagree. All right. Nelson. I got Dobbins to the Giants with a Harbaugh connection.
42:26Nice. I could see that happening. And then Singletary sharing a retirement home in the Jersey area or something?
42:33Yeah, yeah. But isn't Singletary at least a person of interest right now with the way the Giants backfield is?
42:40With the injuries? What do you mean by that?
42:43Like off the wire? Just that Tyrone Tracy, I don't know how hurt his hamstring is.
42:48They both hurt, yeah. How about Scadaboo hurt? And Scadaboo's saying he's got a hamstring too.
42:54Yeah. Singletary might show up as the lead back in week nine.
42:58Who knows? Go ahead, Nelson. The other one I have is, I think this guy would look good in the Vikings uniform again is Kirk Cousins.
43:07Yes. I think the way he's playing this year, if the Raiders decide, okay, it's time to move on to Mendoza, you
43:15bring in Kirk Cousins, already knows the offense. And I get it.
43:19They're 6-0. So it's like, how do you bench a guy like Kyler?
43:24But it's so obvious that they're getting it done with the defense, and they're doing just enough on offense to be 6-0 at this point.
43:32I have the answer to that question, Nelson. You said heavy bench Kyler?
43:37They're 31st in EPA on offense. They're number one on defense.
43:41Nelson, I love that Kirk Cousins to the Vikings has zero chance of happening, though, because two things.
43:47One, I'm sure the Raiders are going to want to keep a veteran in the quarterback room to teach the young kid Mendoza the rest of the year.
43:57We'll send them Carson Wentz. And Carson Wentz is the other reason.
44:01If you're bringing Kirk Cousins to Minnesota, a veteran quarterback, to lead the offense, you have the same exact thing sitting there,
44:09right behind Kyler and Carson Wentz that you could put in.
44:13I'm sorry, sir, but Carson Wentz is no Kirk Cousins.
44:16Well, listen, I like Kirk Cousins more as well, but, you know, you've got the veteran quarterback waiting that moved the offense
44:24real well in week three or whatever it was.
44:27The best part of Kirk Cousins going to Minnesota would be on the plane, where he's got the chain rocking again like he did in the past.
44:36Yeah, he unlocks Jefferson again. Jefferson's a, you know, wide receiver one monster.
44:41Right now, it's just not, I don't know, not feeling it.
44:45You wonder if that, you know, the Pollard to the New York Giants, that's, you know, a dream scenario too.
44:52But you wonder if the Scadaboo game this past week made that disappear a little bit because the Giants running back room
45:00looked like dog shit going into this week and then everybody had a nice game.
45:05So you wonder if that Tony Pollard big game in Tennessee would have translated into maybe them moving him to the Giants, first place Giants team.
45:14I don't know. Maybe that doesn't happen anymore. That was a big win for the Cowboys last night.
45:20Yeah. There we go. We're back in business, Matty, for the NFC East.
45:25The Cowboys are going to win the NFC. They play week 17, right?
45:29Cowboys. Yeah. In Dallas. Yeah, that'll decide the division, I'm sure.
45:33I can't see the Giants. The Giants are not going to win this division.
45:38They lost their best player on off – well, their quarterback.
45:42And they're on their third string quarterback and they lost their best player on the team.
45:48We're putting a friendly bet on this. I think the Giants are winning the division.
45:53All right, Nelson. The only way the Giants win the division is if J.J.
45:58McCarthy is the prince who was promised. A little Dune reference with people out there.
46:03Yeah. All right, Nelson. We'll make a side bet on that.
46:07The kind of boring guy is Godwin to the Rams.
46:10Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Godwin's got to get the hell out of there.
46:15He's a state working there. Yeah. What a disappointment he's been to.
46:19Worst pick on the board. Godwin or Josh Downs?
46:23Who's been more of a – Oh, no. David Montgomery.
46:26No, no. I'm not saying – I'm not saying those are the two worst.
46:31I'm just saying two guys that I own a nice amount of, Godwin and Downs, that I thought would be great.
46:38I mean, I'll go Godwin because he was higher priced.
46:42Yeah. Terrible. Yeah. Yep. All right. Let's move into those murky situations we were talking about earlier.
46:48I know a couple of these we've sort of covered already, but I'll just go ahead and throw him out there anyway
46:56in case there's anything else to be said. The Broncos running backs, Chris, I mean, you know, we all kind of agreed
47:03that Jonah Coleman is going to totally eat J.K.
47:06Dobbins' lunch on this situation. But what are you thinking about Harvey, how he fits in?
47:12That's what I would have talked about. You know, hopefully now it becomes the Coleman and Harvey show.
47:18I don't think Harvey's done anything to lose his role in this offense, but I'd love to see them ship J.K.
47:26Dobbins to Siberia and start getting, you know, maybe turn him into, you know, just a short yardage back, you know, comes out.
47:34I think you need to say glue. Yeah, turn him into one of those, you know, he plays five snaps a game
47:41and he comes in on, you know, third and inches or something like that.
47:46And then the rest of the game is Harvey and Coleman.
47:50So we could get two useful RB2s out of the group there.
47:54So that's what I'm hoping for out of the Broncos bounce backfield.
47:59But I'll say this. There's, you know, very few teams that you can look at and say nobody is startable in this offense.
48:07And the Broncos, I think, are one of those teams, if not the team.
48:11It is a cesspool every week in Denver. Jalen Waddell, just terrible.
48:16I'd rather him just be hurt now and get out of the, you know, I'm sticking the guy in my lineup.
48:23Cortland Sutton, I don't know, whatever happened to that guy.
48:27The whole offense is just, the whole passing offense is absolute trash.
48:31Yes, Bo Nix dropped 30 fantasy points out of nowhere, but he's trash too.
48:36Who would have thought Broncos and Chargers this year, fantasy cesspools.
48:39People love them. Well, Chris. Just trying to find out if Spiteri is still listening or not.
48:45Like Bo Nix has been terrible, but that schedule, again, I put it out on Twitter last week.
48:52It's just, I think they have the second easiest schedule.
48:55Second or third easiest schedule remaining. The good news for the Broncos is their number one wide receiver should be back in
49:03a couple weeks, maybe after the bye. Patty Ice is coming back.
49:07So there's hope. Week 11, I think I saw, right?
49:11Oh, Spiteri's there. Look at that. I told you.
49:14He said, oh, yeah, I have to go. I have a meeting.
49:18He's got all his little tech toys that he's got.
49:22And then he showed up here. He's never really listening to his tech guys.
49:26Come on. He's listening to us. Imagine he had the nerve to talk about what we're all wearing today, the cutoff king, the cutoff shirt king.
49:36I got a college shirt on. He said we all looked, that Dan was the only one that looked appropriate and get dressed up.
49:44Meanwhile, he shows up with tank tops on to his shows, okay?
49:48Thinking he's 30 again. Unbelievable. Paul, Andrew, Dice, Clay, Spiteri?
49:52Yeah. Yeah, he looks like he's ready to walk into Ridgemont High.
49:56Yeah. Yeah, nice reference. There you go. So he's going from Spiteri to Spicoli, is that it?
50:02Yeah. All right. Let's move on. Rams tight ends.
50:05Matt, this is one of your favorite areas of expertise here.
50:09So I had to turn this one over to you.
50:12Well, I mean, I'm just going to start off by saying Davis Allen is a true American patriot.
50:19It should be awarded the Medal of Freedom. That's my start.
50:22How much did you win on him, Matt? How much did you win?
50:27On Sunday. I don't even know how you come up with these, Matt.
50:32Davis Allen, who touched that. What do you want to know?
50:35You know what the hell this was? Imagine. He was the high – he was like plus 12'5", and any of the
50:43tight ends were viable because they had no receivers.
50:46That was basically – I mean, look, it was luck that it happened.
50:51But, you know, and it happened the first two touchdowns, too, to get it out of the way.
50:57But on the tight ends, it is what it always has been and was and will be.
51:03It's Stud Ferguson. We just need him back because he is the wide receiver, too, on this team.
51:09He's labeled a tight end. You know, there's plenty of tight ends that are labeled tight ends that run wide receiver routes.
51:17And I've called him the Alec Pierce of tight ends.
51:21Hopefully he's healthy. They haven't decided if he's practicing this week, so we've got to monitor that.
51:27But they desperately need him. And for me – I mean, Higby had three really good weeks, and then the last two,
51:34I don't know, it was a great matchup against the Raiders and just didn't come to fruition.
51:40But the Rams, we've got to talk about the Rams.
51:44I mentioned that they were really tough against the tight ends, and they shut down the Bills.
51:50They shut down, you know, the Raiders for the most part.
51:53So, I mean, that's just something to acknowledge going forward.
51:57But for me, it would be Ferguson. I still think, you know, Higby and Parkinson.
52:02I think Parkinson's banged up, though. Matthew Stafford made some quote.
52:06He doesn't know when the bell – you know, he'll keep playing.
52:10But, you know, without the receivers, the tight ends are always in play there.
52:15Yeah, I think it's a crapshoot. You know, we got lucky three weeks in a row with Higby, but now it's sort
52:23of a – you know, it could be anybody.
52:26I definitely had a lot of Higby going this past week, and it sucked.
52:31I mean, Friday moved to suck, too. I mean, the Saints were terrible.
52:35Speaking of, yeah, Steelers' tight ends is another thing.
52:39You know, and the sad thing is, what's going on is Darnell Washington has killed Moose Valley, but he hasn't added much of his own.
52:47You know, Washington's gotten four targets per game over the past five weeks, and it's like, okay, you know, so there goes
52:55Moose volume, and now both of them are like these TD-dependent options that, you know, if you don't get that touchdown, forget it.
53:03You might as well have just, you know, put a zero in your lineup almost.
53:08The offense has become just throwing it to the running back there.
53:13Even Rico Dattles catching a bunch of passes. Rico looked good.
53:16Rico actually looked real good, real fast and spry, and unfortunately for all of us Jalen Warren owners.
53:23Jalen Warren looks great, too, you know? That's the, you know.
53:27Yeah, Jalen Warren looks amazing. They both look really good, so there's a lot of pieces in that offense, and, you know,
53:34Moose is going to be the odd man out.
53:37I love that the Greek calls him Patty. He's the only person in the world that calls him Patty.
53:44It's Moose. Patty. Okay? All right. Okay. Nelson, we talked a little bit about the Jets wide receivers already.
53:51You have anything to add on that? No. The people are desperate for your voice.
53:56Sure. No, like I said, I think that the emergence of Cooper is a little bit of an issue for Garrett Wilson.
54:04I think there's always rookies that emerge in the second half of the season, and there's some guys that are already on
54:11the radar, and then there's guys that, you know, start putting it on, you know, right about now.
54:18And Omar Cooper is one of those guys. And I don't know.
54:22I don't know. You know, you're going to be the guy who's going to be the guy who's going to be the
54:30guy who's going to be the guy who's going to be the guy.
54:34You know, just a weird week, and you've got variants and stuff like that.
54:39But at the same time, you don't want to just totally put your head in the sand, ignore it, and you know, not – you miss something.
54:49But I think the biggest piece of advice that I can give to people is that look at rookies, okay?
54:56Rookie wide receivers, rookie running backs. Those are the guys that are available on your waiver wire, like in your home leagues
55:03and whatever leagues you guys are playing in and stuff like that.
55:07Those are the guys that you should be attracted to, and less so of these, like, veteran miscasts, okay?
55:14These veteran players that have been in the league four or five years, they're going to have their little 15-, 18-point game every once in a while.
55:24But they are who they are, okay? So focus more on the upside of, like, the rookie receivers and, like, second-year players emerging.
55:32Well said. All right. Good deal. Let's skip over the Giants running backs and just cover the Jets tight ends real quick,
55:39too, as long as we're on the Jets, and we'll come back to the Giants.
55:45Yeah, I mean, Mason Taylor, like Chris said, it's probably the blocking, but he's played very well these past couple of weeks.
55:52I just, like, I don't see – I guess it's just so crowded now with the Jets.
55:58They have these three wide receivers. I mean, for me, Sadiq isn't a guy that should be playing, like, the tight end role.
56:06Like, it should be like the Raiders, where you have Bowers and you have Mayer.
56:12And that could work really good for them. But now you've got Cooper Poppin.
56:16I mean, A.G. Mitchell – A.D. Mitchell flashed the first couple of weeks.
56:21Garrett Wilson is Garrett Wilson. So, you know, the Jets, if they had a different head coach, a competent head coach and
56:29a better OC, this is a team that could be putting up, like, 30 points a week on average with this offense they have.
56:37Now you've got Allen and Hull. And everything is – and they have a good line on top of that.
56:44So, like, everything for them should really be – you know, there's no week that they should score less than, like, 24
56:52points, in my opinion, with the talent that they have on offense.
56:56And that their defense isn't that good. So – but, you know, we'll see going forward.
57:02Right now it's Mason Taylor's world. I did take the shot on the Sadiq ladder because it was just so juicy.
57:09And if he caught, like, one pass for 50, it was a home run.
57:14But it didn't happen. And you've got to tip the cap to Mason Taylor, too, the way he's played.
57:21But, I mean, when you saw what Sadiq did in week one, I just don't know how this guy isn't going to involve him.
57:29Nelson, going into fab this week, is it me or is this the worst week of the year, fab-wise, off the wire?
57:37Is there anything that's really popping off to you?
57:40In terms of, like, who's the biggest bid out of any skill position?
57:44I mean, it's probably going to be that wide receiver.
57:48There's no running backs, like, really, that you should be going crazy.
57:52Unless the one-offs. Like, you know, people dropped, like, Jonah Coleman.
57:56Yeah. For, you know, so, like, crazy stuff like that.
57:59But outside of that, it's pretty boring. I'm not, like, with my teams personally, I have, like, nothing, you know.
58:06You might see, like, there could be, like, a sneaky guy or whatever that you can pick up for a couple of bucks.
58:14That could be kind of interesting. But for the most part, it's just boring.
58:19It's called, you know, there's probably guys on your bench that, you know, time to clean house and get rid of.
58:27But you're not picking up anything special this week.
58:30I think this week the main purpose is to make sure your future buys in the next week or two are covered.
58:38Do it now as opposed to, like, two weeks.
58:41Yeah. You know, just look exactly, Matt. Like, I, you know, on Saturday, last Saturday night, I started picking up the Bengals
58:48defense everywhere, you know, to get a week ahead.
58:52Because now I thought, you know, this week people would see that they're at home playing the Titans.
58:58And, you know, now the bids become $20, $30 for if you're trying to replace, you know, your defense now instead of a week earlier.
59:07You get them for $2 or $3 instead. Stuff like that with your eye on week nine, I think, is what Nelson's saying.
59:15But this is, you know, just fill in your kickers and defense type week.
59:20Small bids. There won't be a lot of money spent this week.
59:24And you got to hope that you don't need anything off the wire to help you because I don't think you're getting
59:31much this week going into week eight. Oh, Chris, before we sign off today, you got to give the people the Jimmy the Greek special for this week.
59:41Yeah. After the fountain. Will do. I almost came out of retirement on sides and totals and did it, but I didn't.
59:49I'll tell you what, I was watching that. I had that game on at the bar.
59:55Obviously, I was pretty locked into that game because I went pretty heavy on it.
60:00And the game starts off, the Niners go right down the field.
60:04I said this is going to be a long-ass day.
60:08But it came through, so we'll see. It's not often that, you know, you have a game that you absolutely love that you load up on.
60:17But I don't want to give out a pick every week acting like it was a Falcons bet.
60:23But we'll see. You're like Santa's little helpy. You'll give a little stock and stuff.
60:28Yeah, a little this. A little taste, Matty. A little taste.
60:32There you go. All right, Chris, what do you think about the Giants running back room?
60:38Do you have any way to decipher this mess?
60:41No, I think Scadaboo took back the backfield. I think he's the main guy there, but I think it's another three-headed monster.
60:48Well, I don't want to say monster. Scary monster.
60:52I think that, you know, all three of them are going to play.
60:56And I think, you know, it'll probably be like 60% Scadaboo, you know, 25% Tracy and 15% Singletary.
61:03Something like that. So all three guys will play.
61:06Scadaboo will be like a back-end RB2 each week.
61:09And then, you know, Tracy and Singletary after that.
61:12So nothing to write home about. You need one of those two out of the mix.
61:18Maybe they come out of the bye and Tracy misses a week or two.
61:22And then I think Singletary will be, you know, a desperation play.
61:27And Scadaboo will be a comfortable RB2. So you need one of those guys to disappear.
61:32Yep, for sure. Vikings running backs also. I mean, Mason coming back, I think it makes it pretty obvious that Mason's the
61:40guy you want to be bankrolling here. Aaron Jones just looks like the walking wounded every week.
61:46And hopefully what happens is the offensive line gets reinforcements because that could really help out Mason a lot.
61:53He's a guy that, you know, the better his blocking is, the better he's going to do.
61:59But, man, if the Vikings bring in a running back, that could really run things for the Mason owners.
62:05So hopefully that doesn't happen. And Nelson, you want to wrap up with the Browns receivers?
62:11With which receivers? Browns? Oh, Browns. Fantasy juggernaut. The fantasy juggernaut, Nelson.
62:15Much more exciting. I thought you said Broncos. And I was like, there's nothing to talk about with the Broncos.
62:22Imagine we live in a world where the Browns offense is more exciting and better than the Broncos offense.
62:29We live in a world where the Steelers and Browns are facing off at 5-2 and neither will finish first or second in that division.
62:37You're right. I agree with that, Matt. I think Cincy and Baltimore both go to the playoffs and the other two don't.
62:45But it is funny that one of these teams is going to be 6-2.
62:50Browns over or under win total is about 6-1⁄2, I think?
62:545-1⁄2. I have it. It was 5-1⁄2. Yeah. Yeah, 5-1⁄2 and one more win for the Browns and I'm paying the man.
63:02All right. Nelson? With Denzel Boston, he was the odd man out even though he saw a bunch of targets in that game.
63:10So it just didn't click with him and Watson.
63:13But Casey Concepcion was the guy that obviously took off and had his breakout game.
63:18I still think that Denzel Boston is going to have some good games there.
63:23Like I said, he wasn't phased out. He had like, I think it was like seven or eight targets in that game, which is healthy.
63:32That's a good number that you want from a receiver.
63:35So yeah, the offense, listen, they're making it work with Watson.
63:39Watson's good enough to keep this offense going. I thought Dylan Sampson looked great, you know, with him back also.
63:46If this offense, what's interesting is I thought you needed an injury between him and Judkins, but they, like Sampson might be
63:54like a desperation, like RB2 type option because he's going to get it, be involved in the passing game.
64:00So he'll get you a few points here and there.
64:04That was a great, great point. Bringing up Dylan Sampson, by the way, that was one of the things I wanted to
64:12make sure we spoke about today was he looked really good.
64:15And I think that he's a serviceable, he's a piece.
64:19You could put him in as an RB2 on a team right now going forward in this offense.
64:25He's going to catch the ball out of the backfield.
64:29He's going to get his six to eight carries.
64:32And if Judkins ever goes down, you've got a real legit back here in Dylan Sampson.
64:37And I made sure I spent up on him.
64:41I overpaid for Dylan Sampson last week on waivers.
64:44That was my priority. So I have a lot of shares of him now on my bet.
64:50The other observation that I wanted to make, which is another backfield, because I was curious to see what was going to
64:57happen with the Rams backfield coming off of an embarrassing loss to Arizona at home.
65:03And you had Kyron basically talk about how like, you know, a little bit of a selfish quote of, you know, I wasn't on the field or whatever.
65:13And the dude, you know, was playing well ahead of Corum.
65:16But what was interesting is this. So like, obviously, I got a decent amount of Corum on teams.
65:23So that was one of the bright spots of my weekend was that Corum has looked good all year to me.
65:30And it was just a matter of, can he get more touches?
65:34Can he be more involved in this offense? And I found it interesting that this past week that Kyron had his lowest
65:42snap share of the year and Corum had the highest and it wasn't injury related.
65:47Did you guys notice that? Didn't Corum get the opening drive?
65:51I saw that he did have that higher snap share and everything.
65:55The one thing that I saw somebody pointed out on Twitter is that Corum does a lot better when the Rams are up by a touchdown or more.
66:05They use him a ton more. Whereas when they're up by less than a touchdown or down, it skews heavily over towards Kyron.
66:13Here's the most important thing I've noticed with Corum the last few weeks is they're throwing him the ball.
66:20He had three receptions, I think, against the Bills.
66:23He had two receptions. This week he got it on the first drive.
66:27He went one for eight. I had over five and a half, so I was happy.
66:33But he didn't get a pass thrown to him again.
66:37But I do think the fact that he's catching passes is huge in the way that they really weren't doing it.
66:44Late last year he started getting a little involved in the passing game, and it's something he wasn't involved initially this year.
66:52So we're starting to see that. So I think that's big.
66:55Look, it's Kyron is the number one. But Corum, to me, and I'm not taking anything away from Kyron.
67:02It's a great pick. Corum, to me, would be like a candidate for, you know, top running back, like as far as
67:10yards, if he had the whole backfield to himself.
67:13He would be one of those guys. You can just see it.
67:17At least I see it. When this guy gets the opportunity to run with the Rock, he has that vision and everything.
67:25Well, I mean, it's a good sign that, you know, that stat that Dan just threw out, like when they're up seven
67:33or more, it's more Corum than anything. So, you know, there's seven-point favorites this week versus the hapless Chargers here.
67:40So hopefully that game script plays out again. Two touchdowns he had taken back.
67:44The first drive on the holding call and then the face mask.
67:49Yep. All right. Any other situations you guys want to get into or move on?
67:54Keep it rolling. All right. Let's get into those Halloween treats.
67:58Players that we think might bounce back from a string of poor performances.
68:02Matty. I mean, I'm going to reiterate. The first guy, I have two.
68:07The first guy is Chase Brown. Basically, everything I said prior, they have the easiest schedule by far going forward.
68:14He hasn't really lost his share of the backfield.
68:17Yeah, look, I own him. I want to make sure I have P.
68:22Ryan for now. I mean, unless they bring somebody else in, you know, just as the offense is that good and as a contingent piece.
68:30But Chase Brown, to me, is the best buy in fantasy right now going forward based on schedule, based on that he's had the opportunity.
68:39He would have gotten that touchdown if he does not get hurt and leaves the game for that play.
68:46The other guy, it's by his standards. The last two weeks, I think it's been like nine, ten points.
68:52Christian Watson on Thursday night football, I think, goes nuclear.
68:56It's been the Matthew Golden show of late, or the guy, you know, if you could just hold on to the damn ball, too.
69:04But I think it's the Christian Watson show. This is a banged up secondary.
69:09Now, the only thing is you can really run on Carolina.
69:13Like them and the Saints are atrocious. But I do think Christian Watson gets back on track.
69:19I think it's very favorable for him. So those are my two guys right there.
69:24All right. Sounds good. But, Nelson, who are you backing to have a great performance in Week 8?
69:31I need the Packers passing game back on track.
69:34That's first and foremost. Hold on one second. Hold on one second, Nelson.
69:38Let's talk about that. You got an interesting – I know you got the Packers stack on the Legacy League, and you got Dak with Lamb, right?
69:48Yeah. So who are you going to go with in – you got Dallas at home versus Arizona, and you got Green Bay on Thursday night versus Carolina.
69:58That's a pretty tough call in my opinion. It is.
70:01I mean, listen, with Dak, the last two weeks, Dak's looked like crap and has been playing terrible.
70:07And that was good to see last night that he actually played better, and they made plays, and he scored.
70:14Obviously, I went with love against the Lions. I thought that was like a no-brainer, especially the way Dak was playing.
70:22This week, I think it's debatable. Yeah. But if you're looking for like where am I going with that one, I'm probably
70:29not going to know until Thursday, to be honest.
70:33That's the honest answer. I'm not sure. That is a very tough decision.
70:37Yeah. Well, as you said, it wouldn't have even been a debate before last night, and now it is.
70:44Yeah. Okay. All right. So what else, Nelson? You want me to list all my guys that I need to perform well?
70:51I need Jeremy Bernard to – This is not who you want to perform well.
70:57Who do you think is going to perform well?
71:00I think Jeremy Bernard. I think the Packers offense.
71:03I think AJ Brown's going to have a breakout game.
71:06What else do you want to know? Staying positive.
71:10He's staying positive. There we go. All right. I agree with Matt.
71:14I had Christian Watson and Matthew Golden this week with the Carolinas banged up secondary.
71:19I think that combination is in line for a really good spot this week.
71:24Garrett Wilson has to be on this list of a player I'd expect 20-plus fantasy points from versus Vegas.
71:31Hopefully, Brees Hall is back now. We got teased last week.
71:35I put Brees Hall back in my lineups across the board on Friday thinking he was going to be ready to go when he came out.
71:44But let's see what this Jets offense looks like again as a whole hopefully this upcoming week.
71:50And then I know I shitted on them earlier.
71:53But listen, it's been a shitty, shitty year for Jordan Addison.
71:57One of these games he's going to pop that Trey Tucker type game.
72:01This might be it. With Kyler Murray at quarterback?
72:04That's the thing. You know, it comes with the caveat that I like the Lions in this spot at home versus the Vikings.
72:12They'll hand the Vikings their first loss this week.
72:15Hopefully, though, it is a track meet and a back-and-forth game where Kyler can maybe play from behind if he doesn't get benched.
72:24Listen, there's a scenario here that, you know, the Lions go up 14-0.
72:28Kyler's throwing picks. Looks terrible. Three and outs. And they go and turn to Carson Wentz.
72:34And Carson Wentz comes in and lights up this Lions defense and gets J.J.
72:39and Addison rolling again here. So I wouldn't be shocked if that happens.
72:43K.O.C.'s got to be close to pulling the plug on Kyler if he struggles again.
72:48But whether it's Kyler pulling one out of his ass or what, I think J.J.
72:54and Addison this week, if not both, at least one of them, has to put up some big numbers.
73:00The best thing about Kyler is that meme that's all over Twitter.
73:04Is it Rumpel Silkskin or whatever? The little thing?
73:08The little dancing in the hay? No, no. Take a step back.
73:12I want to see that. All right. Let's do the chip join.
73:16That is pretty amazing. But, Chris, I do like that call.
73:20Somebody does. I mean, Addison is going to have one of these weeks.
73:24Maybe you can't start him, but maybe you drop a little shekels on him for the two touchdowns.
73:31Yeah. There you go. It's a two touchdown prop bet, Matt.
73:35Addison, two plus. So tempted to take the other side of that, even though I know I'd be giving out a lot of money if I lose.
73:44Well, very bold call from you. I take it out of the edge.
73:49They're going out on a ledge once again. Ballsy.
73:52That's terrible. I don't know what he's talking about.
73:55And Jonah Coleman breaks out. Jonah Coleman broke out on Sunday.
73:59That happened. We'll talk about this. Goff exploiting the Vikings defense.
74:03Brian Flores owns Jared Goff. I mean, there's just no two ways about it.
74:08So I don't see that happening. What I'm afraid of is this is going to be a low-scoring game because the Vikings
74:15offense won't be able to score again. And they'll find a way to hold the Lions offense down.
74:22And it's just going to be more grossness. And I don't even want to think about it because I have way too
74:29many Lions players and way too much Justin Jefferson.
74:32So I don't want to think about that. We're here to talk about the treats.
74:38And I think I'm assuming Jeremiah Love is coming back this week and going up against Dallas after two weeks off.
74:45I mean, I think that's a smash spot for him.
74:48You know, he has not looked good so far.
74:52But I think that Arizona is trying to get him on track.
74:56And so I'm all about Jeremiah Love if he's playing in Dallas back into the lineups.
75:01And I'll throw out there, I think also, I'm right with Chris on Garrett Wilson.
75:07I think it's squeaky wheel week. He's going to get all the grease there.
75:12But Derek Henry's had a couple off weeks. And I think he gets right versus Buffalo.
75:17That's a team to do it against. If there ever was.
75:21The Bills are, I think, first in EPA on offense and 31st in EPA on defense.
75:27Yeah. The exact opposite. Corrupted. There's some games. One of the guys who wrote it while I put that out, that tweet.
75:34The exact opposite of the Vikings. One thing we did leave out as bounce back players.
75:40The two best kickers this year are Schrader and Reichert.
75:43Both missed field goals. I think he missed two for the Colts, right?
75:48Yeah. Schrader definitely missed one that I saw. He missed two.
75:52I think he missed two. Wow. But I think, you know, they've been the two top guys.
75:58I think they've bounced back. And Reichert missed one.
76:01So. Yeah. And how the hell is Trey Smack, who I thought was going to be a good kicker, still on this team?
76:09You know what else? Last night, Aubrey kicking the 55-yarder and Schadheimer not, you know, I thought for sure that he would
76:17have took the penalty, gone for it on fourth and three at like the 40-yard line or something like that.
76:24I was like, and that happened in another game.
76:27Oh, Pittsburgh at the ends. If you have Boswell.
76:30Boswell took the 40-yarder. You got the Boswell points, but the idiots on the Saints jumped off sides and they accepted the penalty to end the game.
76:39Little things like that. I was like, oh my God.
76:43Just frustrating little things. But so be it. Once again, the Fantasy Empire is your preeminent source for all kicker.
76:50That's right. Kickers are people too. Kickers are people too.
76:53One other running back I had mentioned with, I wanted to talk about with Dylan Sampson.
76:59We haven't seen him because of the bye week, but Ja'Cory Kroski-Meritt on IR.
77:04Let's not forget Rashad White was looking decent there.
77:07And now they have a team in Philly here that I don't know what was going on with Philly's run defense last
77:15night, but Javante Williams and Tyler Goodwin was, Goodson was eating them alive.
77:19And it looked like they didn't even want to tackle out there.
77:24So it'll be interesting to see what Washington does with their backfield here.
77:28And if Rashad White comes into play as a useful piece for our fantasy teams now off the bye.
77:35That touchdown late cost me my one home week that I do with my partner, Raging Ralph.
77:41And let you know this morning he wasn't any too happy.
77:45Raging Ralph. Staten Island's own. Here we go. All right.
77:48Well, let's move into the Halloween tricks. Players that you don't trust in week eight, despite the fact that they've been producing solidly pretty recently.
77:57Nelson. This is going to be all the players Nelson doesn't own, by the way.
78:02Yeah, no, I haven't really given it much thought, to be honest, Dan.
78:07So we better move on to somebody else. Nelson threw the towel in on the week.
78:12You know what? I think this is actually – I'm so miserable.
78:16F this shit. I didn't think about that one.
78:20Nelson didn't do his homework. I'm not ready for these bold calls on who I don't like.
78:26Just pick a player. Nelson, you pick a player you have no shares of and you want to bomb out.
78:33You know? I mean, let's go three weeks in a row, Derrick Henry.
78:37There you go. No, no, don't do that. There you go.
78:41I think Jonathan Taylor's in a tough spot this week with the Colts.
78:46Jags run defense pretty solid. I can see JT dropping a bomb here and the Colts offense just bombing out.
78:53And then next week it's the sell-off. This team's going nowhere.
78:56They suck and maybe that's the last nail in the coffin for all the guys you mentioned earlier.
79:03Quentin Nelson, Jonathan Taylor, maybe Downs. Who knows? All right.
79:06Anyone else, Chris? I mean, I got a couple if you want me to go.
79:11Yeah, I got a couple too. But, yeah, go ahead, Matt.
79:15I mean, I think – Look, Bucky has been great at times this year.
79:20Sword against Dallas week one. He's getting red zone carries, which we all – At least I was worried about prior to the season.
79:29But Atlanta – I mean, the beginning of that game versus San Francisco.
79:33San Francisco was just running all over them. But that seemed to stop.
79:38And you got to be a little concerned about him.
79:41But I think there's two high-powered offenses. Dan touched on it in the previous segment.
79:46The Lions facing off first the Vikings and how Flores is old golf.
79:51And the other one, I think – Was it Sunday night?
79:55The Bears and Seattle. Oh, yeah. Seattle's defense, what, 36 straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
80:01I mean, Nick Amawari is one of the best players.
80:04I don't know if I said his last name right.
80:08But the guy is one of the best players in the league.
80:12I mean, how he can, you know, stop the run, run, you know, toe-to-toe with Worthy down the sidelines.
80:19So, I mean, look, I'm starting on my Bears.
80:22I'm not saying I'm not starting on my Lions.
80:25I'm just saying those matchups you got to be a little concerned about.
80:30You got a lot concerning for that Bears game.
80:33That's the last team you want to see them playing right now, especially on the road.
80:38Especially with Caleb and the Bears often starting to look like they have been the last couple weeks.
80:45Going into Seattle right now. So, one of those situations, you're going to put them out there.
80:51Loveland's on a heater. Burden's on a heater. But, you know, to see all these guys and Rome, hopefully, you know, to
80:58see all of them hit in Seattle would be a monumental showing for Caleb and his breakout.
81:04If they go in there, they put 27, 30 points on the board.
81:09And Caleb keeps rolling with all those skill players, including Swift, who Swift looks amazing now these last couple weeks, getting it done running and receiving.
81:18If that happens, man, you're going to be real giddy about the Bears offense the rest of the way.
81:25If Burden puts up 30, I might paint my nails.
81:28How about that? Will you do it on the sit-down next week?
81:32If that's what gets you going, Dan? I mean, you know, I like to watch.
81:37Oh, he's a voyeur. Matt, he's a voyeur. Oh, shit.
81:41I may have to watch him. Dan, do you turn in for Terry's cut-offs?
81:46Is that what it is? No comment. I went.
81:49Spateri's shopping right now, buying some new stockings for Friday.
81:53Yep. That's why I haven't had him yet on the Dominator.
81:56I'm not sure I can hold it together if Spateri comes on in cut-offs.
82:01Oh, man. All right. I got a couple for you.
82:05Yep. This one, I promise, it's not my usual Ollie Gordon hate.
82:09I was wrong about Ollie Gordon. Ollie Gordon was a great pickup.
82:13Yep. I totally missed the boat on him. But I think this week is probably the week that he has a little
82:21bit of an underwhelming week going up against the Patriots' run defense.
82:25I think the Patriots are going to probably hold him in check here.
82:30So not, you know, I think you've got to keep starting him.
82:34But I'm definitely holding in my expectations for his game this week.
82:38And Quinchon Judkins against Pittsburgh. I don't really like this matchup for him because with Samson on there, Samson all of a
82:46sudden now he's getting all the receptions. And so Judkins is not getting the target.
82:51And Pittsburgh's rush defense is really tough. And other than one week, you know, Judkins has been getting like 3.1 yards per carry.
82:59Just hasn't really done very well on the ground so far.
83:03So unless he gets lucky with touchdowns, tough week.
83:06Okay. Time will tell. All right. All right. Anything else, gentlemen?
83:10No, I think that about covers it, gentlemen. Hopefully Thursday night's a fun fireworks.
83:15Yeah. Sure. Need to get off to a good start this one.
83:19What happened with Carolina this past week? I was not expecting that out of them.
83:24Very, very strange. Strange game. Strange everything. I think it was turnovers, too, that really flipped it.
83:30But Carolina's, if you remember week one, the Bears put up almost 60.
83:35But it was over 300 yards on the ground.
83:38So that's my one concern about the wrenching Thursday night if, like, Jacobs goes wild.
83:43Right. One of them all. Sure. Yeah. And that's the thing.
83:47I mean, you know, I think that when you can't defend the run, a lot of times you get cooked on time
83:55of possession, which is not going to help the Carolina offense.
83:59And, you know, three out of the last four games, Bryce Young has been below 55% completion percentage, which is not great.
84:06He looks good against bad pass defenses. But, you know, and part of it, too, I think the Buccaneers are a better
84:14defense than we've given them credit for so far.
84:17So. This was the first time Young threw for less than 280.
84:21Right. Bryce Young was 280 or more every game.
84:24Yeah. I mean, I expect the Carolina, like, the Panthers defense is not very good.
84:30But I expected the offense to muster something and put something together.
84:34Did not happen. Well, hopefully it's a, you know, I don't think Green Bay's defense is any sort of an iron wall.
84:42So. No, I mean, Green Bay's defense, we saw on Thursday night, I mean, look, I know it was Bijan, but they got gassed on the ground.
84:51And then for Chuba owners, if he gets, you know, 30 touches, you know, that could be a good thing there.
84:58Yep. Yep. All right, boys. Yeah, I think we've, I think we've covered it all.
85:04Appreciate everybody hanging out with us this week. We love getting the feedback, so make sure you're hitting the like button, leaving
85:11a comment, give us a review, whatever, whatever's appropriate to whatever format you're consuming the show upon.
85:17And good luck, everyone, this week in the Empire.
85:20Have a happy Halloween and let's scare up some wins.
