Trade Tips + Burrow/Lamar Face-Off, Dowdle'ing! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/6
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Hey, it's Corlin Sutton, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Why are you pointing at me? Because tomorrow's football time. I want you to remember. So I...

It's Wednesday, brother. I panicked. I knew we were talking about Thursday Night Football, and I panicked, and I thought it was Thursday. And I was giving you the signal, and it all went sideways. We were talking about the game. It's got a 53.0 over-under. Spoiler, my hunger for more is going to be Zay Flowers. So I'm with you, Andy, and you start pointing to Mike. I'm like, oh, yeah, it's football time. I know. And then we point at you, and you're like.

You held firm, brother. Yeah, well, because I was way off. Why do I got to be the only one who knows what's going on over here? Why is everyone pointing at me? It is indeed not football time. Well, good morning. Very soon. Good morning. It will be tomorrow. It's almost always football time, Mike. This week, the Thursday Night Football.

Will take place on Thursday. Okay. All right. Look, sometimes things get crazy and we get Monday night games on Friday. So I understand the confusion. They've done the Monday night football game on Saturday. And it's still called Monday night football. That's the brand.

That's not okay. That's so stupid. Monday Night Football presents Saturday Night Football. Right. It's so dumb. Your brand can't be a day of the week. Nobody can claim that as your brand. I'm a little disappointed that my vigorous pointing at you didn't lead to you just saying something. It's Wednesday. You got me to look over at the top right corner to be like, no, it's Wednesday. Oh, it is. It's Wednesday, November 6th. Welcome into the fantasy footballers. You almost got me.

Welcome in one and all. We have a great show for you today. We've got Hungry for More. We've got your waivers went through today. So make sure you drop it like it's hot. Check out who was released by the other teams in your league. That is our weekly reminder to do that because sometimes somebody great hits the waiver wire. So pay attention. And a reminder here at the top, go download the mobile app. Go to your app.

iOS store, your Google Play store, grab the Fantasy Footballers in-season app. Right now, the Foot Clan resources, the Ultimate Dashboard, now available on iOS, coming very soon, hopefully this week, to Android, so you can get the app now, grab the update when it comes through, and you can access the Ultimate Dashboard with a custom waiver wire, with your lineup optimizer as you get ready for the Fantasy Football playoffs, which are, you know, they're inching closer. We're getting there. It's November.

Yeah, you know, I actually, I want to say. It's cold outside. It's not playoff time yet, Andy. Okay. I think it's worth actually bringing up that it's not that close to playoffs. As a team that's kind of on the bubble in our league of record, having to make choices as to am I in, am I out. You know, it's keeper league, so pretty much half teams sell, half teams buy near the trade deadline.

There are still several, several weeks left before week 15 when the fantasy playoffs start. So... We got five...

We got six, right? Or five full games before then. Yeah. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Yeah. Yeah. So we did it. Five full weeks and you're going to have people giving up. You're going to have a couple teams along the path that are easier victories. So if you're considered, we get this question all the time. It's like, I don't know if I should go for it or if I shouldn't.

If you have a shot, go for it. I genuinely believe that. That's the best advice because if you make it to the playoffs, you can get lucky a couple wins in a row and go home with a championship. I'm with you. If you bow out, you're definitely sad and a loser.

If you go for it, you might win. Yeah, I mean, you're probably going to be a loser because you might 11 out of 12 or nine out of 10 of us are losers at the end of every single league. And we still choose to do this. So, Mike, you're going to go for it.

The Dynasty, yeah, absolutely. Mike's Dynasty team, and I'm going to start setting this up publicly. Mike's Dynasty team is one of the greatest teams ever assembled in our league. I know what you're doing. It won't work. The thing that sucks about his team genuinely is it can't lose, Andy. I know what you're doing. It won't work. There's no way that his team could... Mike, this is not a gag. This is legit. It's so legit. It really is legit. The players...

Your management, you can't even mess this up. Yeah, it's unstoppable. Congrats, man. You can put any players from your bench. It's not going to work, guys. Well, just like you keep saying, you keep telling us, you don't even know why we care about that league. You got it on lockdown. We're just agreeing with you that you have it on lockdown and there's no way anything bad could happen. I'm just going to say that the way you're talking right now, it sounds like you do actually care. And you shouldn't. What? You should not. I do care. Okay.

I care to see you. We're shooting for second. That's what I want. I hope you get third. Me and you, second, third? Yeah, that's fair. That would be, if you're aiming for second, you guys are both aiming really high. Okay. All right. Well, this is good. The highest you could possibly get this year in that league. We'll keep this going. All right. Follow us on X at the FF Ballers. I mentioned the app.

And we've got a new Dynasty podcast out today. If you're unfamiliar, we have a special Dynasty podcast, Fantasy Footballers Dynasty. And Jason is on it with Kyle and Betts, giving out some midseason Dynasty awards, including, and I'm reading this verbatim, the most disappointing young'un, the running back Houdini. Mm-hmm.

And the super flex quarterback surprise. Oh, that's Darnold. Well, we each give one. We actually cover quite a few players, but players that are moving the needle in both directions. Either it's gone poorly for them, Travis Etienne, or there's sky's the limit ahead. Yeah, and from a dynasty perspective. So check that out. We're hungry for more.

Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eats. All right, this week's Hungry for More candidate for me, I am hungry. This is true hunger here. I'm hungry for a Tampa Bay wide receiver to stand up because Baker won't stop cooking, man. He's been so good this year that he's turned now Kate Otten into a top five tight end.

He's completing 72% of his passes. He's on pace for 4,543. And we're multiple games without his top targets at wide receiver. Those numbers from Baker, he would be the only quarterback ever to put up those three numbers, the 72%, the 4,500, the 43, since Drew Brees did it in 2011.

Yeah, that's right. Laser Mayfield has been outstanding. But we have spent two and a half weeks talking about, oh, is it Jalen McMillan? And then maybe it's Trey Palmer. And then Sterling Shepard makes some plays. But he's almost 32 years old. And Rakeem Jarrett. Like, will a wide receiver option please stand up? Because I think if they do, if one of them does, we will be having the same conversation we had with Kate Otten. We will be talking about somebody impeccable.

important for fantasy. And I think we will. And I think we know who it's going to be. But see, I don't know what name you're going to say. Michael Evans. Do not forget he is coming back with the injury to Chris Godwin and Hal Baker has been cooking. They've got a tough matchup this week against San Francisco. Not a great matchup. I don't expect Mike Evans back. The bye week after that. So you're not having Mike Evans for a handful of more weeks. I expect him back after the bye.

And then they've got a great stretch down the road. So I do think Mike Evans is going to be a difference maker. So you think that maybe...

we won't have another wide receiver stand up. It'll be Otten and Evans for the meaningful portion of the year. Yeah, I mean, I'm hungry as well for one to do it. I just don't know that they have the talent. I would say Jalen McMillan would be the player I am most excited about. He's a good looking prospect. He's had a successful rookie season. The opportunity is there. That's who I would put my chips on as the ancillary wide receiver piece. Problem is he's just injured right now. Obviously Mike Evans is injured too, but Mike Evans

second ballot Hall of Famer, so he will be coming back to greatness. They have lost four of their last five games, Tampa. Wow. And Baker's doing everything he can. That feels so wrong. I know. Baker's doing everything he can to make it happen. I mean, he lost by 10 to Baltimore in his shootout, 41-31, then lost to Atlanta by five, then lost to Kansas City in overtime. So it's like

Can those three losses, like, they're so close, they should count as, like, one win? No. Not my NFL. The NFL doesn't do median. Okay. Well, Jason, who are... Oh, I did have a great idea for the NFL, by the way. Speaking of, like, NFL going by median, I think I brought this up, but this is not a joke. This is legitimate. Oh, yes, yes, yes. This is legitimate. I'm telling you right now, they need to take a page out of fantasy football and the tiebreaker for playoffs.

It's not divisional record or head-to-head matchup. It's points scored. Dude, that would be so awesome. You want to know who people want in the playoffs? They want the highest scoring teams. That is a wild thought because my immediate reaction was, oh,

There is no more taking your quarterback out. That's right. In the fourth quarter. Run it up. It's running up the score. The gentleman's knee when you get inside the five. There ain't no gentleman anymore. This is professional football. Stop us if you don't want us to score. None of these whiny coaches being like, damn, my poor sport. No, that was poor coaching. You're fired. No, I would love it. I think it would be so much fun.

And NFL? You would be totally justified in scoring and scoring and scoring. Yeah. And hurting your players. It would be horrible for player safety. I mean, the truth is the teams that are clearly playoff bound wouldn't really worry about that if they're up by a ton and they bench their players in the fourth, whatever. It's so funny. It's the teams that are on that bubble that want to get in the playoffs. You want to get in the playoffs, score. Yeah, put points on. Anyways, I'm hungry for more say flowers.

Zay Flowers this last week impressed the heck out of me. He was always wide open, but then when guys tried to tackle him, he was like, no, I'm still wide open because you can't catch me. I'm a human joystick. He was so good, and it kind of surprised me to go back and look because at the start of the season, the first three weeks...

Mark Andrews wasn't getting it done. Zay Flowers had a good week two, but week one was a dud. Week three was a bust. So it was like there was no trust. So it was week four. Yeah, it just felt over the first month like there wasn't a trustworthy source. And it has surprised me. You know, you just don't always remember what happened.

last week, next week, and then the week after. But the last five weeks, he's been on an absolute tear. The wide receiver 13, six down week with three and a half fantasy points. The wide receiver 11 and the wide receiver two. He's been extremely involved. He's looked great. And so what I'm really hungry about, they go out and they trade for Deontay Johnson. And that made me fearful for Zay Flowers. You know, there's just when Lamar runs so much,

And sometimes the passing pie is not as big as you would want. You're like, well, it's okay if the targets are consolidated. But if they're not, and if Deontay Johnson comes in here and starts earning himself six, seven, eight targets in a game, that's going to crush Zay Flowers. I don't want that to happen because Zay Flowers has... Right now, I don't think you can bench Zay Flowers. Until Deontay comes in and changes the landscape, Zay Flowers has just been too darn good. And his good performances have been...

Great. I mean, they're wide receiver one on the week type of numbers. He is wide receiver six on the year in total points scored. You bring something to mind, and tell me if I'm wrong, but so far, Amari Cooper gets traded to Buffalo, right? Keon Coleman has some great weeks. Devontae Adams gets traded to Jets, and Garrett Wilson has had some great weeks. Mm-hmm.

Now Deontay Johnson has the Baltimore and welcome Zay Flowers. So you're just saying people need more motivation. I'm saying that like... They need to be scared. Like, you better step it up. We just talked yesterday about the incredible splits this year between T. Higgins on the field and T. Higgins off the field for Jamar Chase. I just think a better offense...

It raises all the water. What is the boat? Water raises. The boats have water in them. Yeah. No, there's no water in the boats. You flip the boats. The tide raises all ships. There it is. That's the one. There it is. So what you're saying is obviously CD Lambs about to go ham. Oh, yeah, with Mingo? Now that they went out and traded a fourth for Mingo. There you go. All right. I did actually, you know, full disclosure, full work of the analysis.

I had a dream that C.D. Lamb scored like 50 points the rest of the season. 50 total? Every week. Every week. Just dominated with the backup. This was last night? Yeah. I don't think that's going to happen. But we don't know yet. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. We'll see. My career. Oh, boy.

No doubt, old baby. Come on. Of course. You know who I was going to be hungry for? I unfortunately was unavailable for the show the week after the huge Rico week earlier in the season, but I'm here for it now, baby. That's true. You did miss out on your chance. Yeah. Oh, my chance was back. 12 for 75, 5 for 32 on a score, and a debate about Rico is simply just –

Is he good? Is he a good running back? And I think that the jury is still kind of out on that. However, right now, this far in the season, he is fifth among all running backs in rush success rate on the season. And what that is, a play is successful when it gains at least

40% of yards to go on first, 60% of yards to go on second, or 100% of the yards on third or fourth down. Meaning, the guy is absolutely getting it done on the ground. And also... I am... I want to play a game. Ah.

I was just going to say that I have felt the table rumble under the fist pounding of Mike over there. Every point he's made on Rico Dowdle, he has hit our table. This is going to be a fun game. Go ahead, Mike. Let's play a game. We don't want to play. Please don't say Brees Hall or someone. We're going to talk about Rico Dowdle working in the passing game. Okay. We're going to put him up against superstar pass-catching running backs. This is a problem. Rico Dowdle has appeared in seven games this year, guys. So has Travis Etienne.

Who has more receiving yards? Superstar first round pick Travis Etienne or Rico Dowdle? Etienne's been hurt. Yeah, Rico Dowdle. Is that seven full games? I doubt it. Okay, well. I Dowdle it. Okay, well, what's your answer? Dowdle. I'm going to go Dowdle. Yes, Travis Etienne, a measly 97 receiving yards in seven games. Let's go to then.

Oh, let's go. Let's see. Superstar running back Saquon Barkley, who has played in eight games compared to seven for Rico Dowdle, who has more receiving yards. Now we're talking. Yeah. Okay. You're making a strong, stupid point. I'm going to go Rico Dowdle. It is, in fact, Rico Dowdle. Good for Jason. That's a full point. Thank you.

Superstar pass catching running back Jameer Gibbs. No. Who has been in eight games compared to seven for Rico Dowdle. I've got to go Gibbs. I can't go that far. It's going to be Dowdle. No, it is Jameer Gibbs. Okay, I get a full point. Yes, but here's the thing. Who has more receptions?

Now I'm going to go Rico Dowdle. It's Rico Dowdle. Jameer Gibbs. Objection leading the witness. In eight games, Jameer Gibbs has 165 receiving yards. In seven games, Rico Dowdle has 163 receiving yards. Hey, I had a nice parlay on Dowdle's over this last week. I see the receptions. I don't know what the heck the Cowboys are doing. The Cowboys don't know what they are doing. But the point being,

Just let Rico Dowdle be your running back for the rest of the year. You have been. Stop with the bull crap. You have been begging for this. Stop putting dusty, washed running backs. Who had great. Zeke, it was awesome. The career of Zeke should be celebrated. The career of Dalvin Cook should be celebrated.

But as in, we're celebrating it. Yeah, past tense. Because it's over. Just let it be done. Let the good times be what they were in our memories. Move forward. Let Rico Dowdle, fifth among all running backs. Become a monk.

in rush success rate, dominating in the passing game. By the way, I didn't even do receiving touchdowns. He has more than all those guys. How are you not in a Rico Dowdle jersey right now? Do they sell those? So I am 100% hungry for more Rico Dowdle. The upcoming matchup against Philadelphia, it will be a true test with a backup quarterback. How good will it work out for fantasy? I don't know. Okay, just one question for you. Yes. What percentage chance...

Do you give the Dallas Cowboys to have Ezekiel Elliott as the lead back this week? More or less than 0%. Oh, it's higher than 0%. Yeah, this is the issue. I agree, but I'm just trying to get people to the point of,

Like, no, if Rico's on the field, we got ourselves a top 20 fantasy running back. That's happening. But will he be on the field? I don't know. Because Jerry Jones has no idea what he's doing. By the way, a quick update to the Mike Evans comment. We just got word that he is working off to the side with a trainer today, a first step in working towards returning after the bye, which is the plan. If he's working to the side right now, you've got –

Essentially three weeks before he plays football, two missed weeks of fantasy action. He should be ready to go. Do we have any updates on Nico Collins? No. No, no updates on Nico Collins. They're still evaluating.

Oh, did you trade for him again? Everybody, everybody traded my second, my third, which are the two best picks. I traded tank Dell who would be really good if Nico's gone. Uh, Puka Nakua, but I got John. I mean, there were other pieces. Yeah. I got Jonathan Taylor back real quick before we move on. Cause we're hungry. We're hungry for more. And I just had this pulled up when I was looking at Zay flowers. Um,

I was just really surprised. Lamar, we know he's been good, right? Oh, yeah. He's been very, very good. He should probably win the MVP. Yeah, I think he might be one of the players that actually deserves to win the MVP, not just being the quarterback on the best team. But how many rushing yards do you think he's on pace for? Oh, that's a good question. I don't know.

I think it's more than Rico Dowdle. Yeah, probably more than Rico Dowdle. I don't know. I'm going to say a little bit lower, though, than the average that he's been giving us. Right, so maybe like 700. He's on pace for 953 rushing yards. How many passing yards do you think he's on pace for, given that he's on pace for 953 rushing yards? Are we 4K? 4? 4,500 passing yards. How many passing touchdowns do you think he's on pace for?

35? 37.8. I mean, he is a monster across all. He hasn't had a single week this week where he's not a quarterback one. This week? This is the Lamar that we hoped we were going to get last year. We've had it a couple times in his career. When the offense changed last year, this was the excitement that he's going to run. And I just, I got to give this a whole...

One update here for Jerry Jones doesn't know what he's doing. Oh, boy. Jerry Jones talking about Trey Lance.

in the absence of Dak Prescott, quote, he's going to be front and center a lot. There are things we can do with him, and I think can add punch to the offense. Is he playing a different position? What in God's name does he mean? Mike, what did you say the other day, like three weeks ago to Jerry? I was kind of mean, but I said Jerry Jones, shut up. Shut up! Do you think they would trade Trey Lance for Braylon Allen?

I only say that because they gave up their pick that they could have drafted Braylon Allen or a lot of the running backs this year. Instead, they have Trey Lance as their backer. Just wild. So maybe we'll get Trey Lance on the field. This is just entertainment. Sorry, Cowboys fans. That was Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food all season long. Uber Eats, the official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order now. We will take a break. We'll jump into the news.

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Did you talk to Jerry about this? Or do you have to hear this through the media and then go, what are we doing with Trey Lance? He probably is hearing about it through the media. What am I going to do? I have a plan for Trey Lance. I didn't know that. I can't imagine Jerry's not everywhere. What if he just sends texts like every couple minutes? Yeah, I'll bet he does. You hear about this Mingo guy? I got him for you. You're welcome. What, did you give up an eighth round pick?

Ninth round pick? Doesn't exist? No, fourth. All right, moving on. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, the Steelers did not get Brandon Ayuk. They did not get Devontae Adams. They didn't get DeAndre Hopkins. But they did get Mike Williams. They gave up a fifth round pick to get Mike Williams from the Jets, 30 years old. Incoming George Pickens game?

What's that? Incoming George Pickens game. Well, look, I do think Mike Williams kind of works in this offense better than other offenses he could have been traded to. I mean, I guess they'll just run their guys down the field and chuck it. But Russ can do that. It means nothing to me in fantasy. I think it is great for George Pickens. To have another body? Have another capable wide receiver on the team and –

more of a the Steelers since the beginning of the season have been trying to get a wide receiver too. It could have like if Adams goes to the Steelers

You know, what do we think of Pickens? We're super freaked out. So Mike Williams is not someone where you're like, oh, no, targets will not be going to George Pickens. The targets will remain the same, and they might be even better now. That was the big piece of news. Trevor Lawrence also limited in practice dealing with a shoulder injury. The team signed C.J. Beathard off the practice squad. And Khalil Herbert, new member of the Cincinnati Bengals,

to get an opportunity on the field on Thursday, as soon as Thursday. So generally easy for running backs to make the transition and get some opportunities. Yeah, Burrow was talking about it, and he's like, he's right next to me. I'll tell him what to do. Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, that's it. All right, that was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Let's talk about that game. Thursday Night Breakdown.

Cincinnati's 4-5, still alive. That's wild. They were dead. They're used to this, man. It's just how they operate. They were 2-5, right? They were dead, and now they can be one game. If they win, you're one game back with the Ravens. The Ravens are 6-3. Yeah, you're right. Baltimore's at home. They're six-point favorites. The over-under is 53 on DraftKings Sportsbook. It's currently the highest over-under of any game so far in 2024.

Week five, we saw 79 points. There's an overtime game. Baltimore won 41-38. Lamar threw for 348-4. This is the game that Jamar Chase had 10 for 193-2.

Higgins had a big game as well. Not expected to play in this one. No, it doesn't seem like it. The Baltimore pass funnel defense is giving up the most passing yards per game combined with what Joe Burrow has been doing. He's on pace for over 4,500 passing yards. I guess I'm asking like what, who are you not starting? Yeah. I mean, this game just feels like it should be entertaining, exciting. Like think about the different scenarios in this one. Like,

Baltimore's favored, right? Mm-hmm. So Baltimore gets ahead. You expect Cincinnati to still be successful passing the football, trying to get back into the game. Mm-hmm. If Cincinnati gets ahead, it's going to be great. Baltimore can get back into the game at a moment's notice. I don't see a scenario where a

A blowout undermines any fantasy production. No, well, I mean, the only way that it happens, and I don't expect it to happen, would be probably to Derrick Henry. He can still be game scripted out a little bit of these games, you know, get Justice Hill on the field if you're needing to play catch-up. The truth is they haven't needed to play catch-up a lot this year. Derrick Henry's rushing stat lines in Ravens wins.

25 for 151-2, 24 for 199 and a touchdown, 15 for 92 and a touchdown, 24 for 132-2, 15 for 169, and 23 for 106-2. Right now they're favored by six. They're at home. So you expect Derrick Henry to have an unbelievable game. That 15 for 92 with a score was Cincinnati.

I mean, that's a great game. In the last six weeks, both defenses have been top 10 against the running backs. Chase Brown, you know, last week his game was a great football game, but he also had a receiving touchdown in it. You've got to be confident in Chase Brown, right? Yes, Chase Brown has taken the lead job. Even if Khalil Herbert plays,

I don't expect it to be like, oh, he's going to go into Zach Moss' role. And we're talking Zach Moss for the beginning of the season. Chase Brown is going to be the guy for this running back crew. And Herbert will get snaps here and there. Chase Brown was, I think he was 100%. Yeah, 100% of the running back attempts. 47% workhorse percentage, which is like 47% of attempts and targets. That's just...

That's too much for any player to do on a week-to-week basis. Let me ask you a question, though, because Chase Brown was not a player drafted to be your starting running back. He's evolved into that. That means he's on a lot of teams where they had other established running backs, and you have to make start-state decisions about some of those guys. You see the big game from Brown last week.

players like J.K. Dobbins, right, who's had a lull, had a good game. He plays a tough Tennessee defense. Or Chase Brown on Thursday night. Which way would you go? I have them back-to-back in my rankings. And right now I've got Dobbins one spot ahead, but it's a great name to bring up for me.

I would play Chase Brown simply because I get more information on the week. If they are literally that close, they're in the exact same tier, the exact same setup where they're going to get the ball a lot against a very difficult run defense. Give me the high over under and give me the Thursday night football so that I know when I'm looking at the rest of my roster moves, did I get off to a strong start? Did I have a dud week? You know, do I need to swing for the fences? That extra information is good for getting a W. I want to

I want players in a game where the over-under is the highest of the year. So if it's the game we expect and Higgins misses, which he hasn't practiced, obviously Chase is in your lineup and he'll be fine.

But where do you turn to for that other, you know, 23.5 implied point total? Where do you turn to for other value? Is it Yoshivas? Is it Sticky Gasicki? Yeah, Sticky Gasicki should be really, really good in this game. I know you blew our minds with the fact that he only played 36% of snaps, but when he's on the field, he's a pass catcher. He is there to exploit.

a defensive play. He's got eight targets, six targets the last two games without T. Higgins at the tight end position. Now what's interesting is

would be the conversation of what if you've got Mike Gasicki and Mark Andrews? I have seen that already on X this morning, those questions coming through. Isaiah Likely is not going to play. He's been a DNP on Monday and Tuesday with a hamstring. So I'll just be surprised if on a short week Isaiah Likely plays. With him out, I think the – How sticky do you want to get? I would go Andrews personally. I tend to lean the other direction where I feel like I would go Gasicki.

I would go pass catcher. I'm not sure that Andrews isn't blocking a ton in this game. I think that the Ravens, their team applied total is almost 30 points. That's a good reason to believe. You talk about the touchdowns Andrews has had recently. Which player has a higher likelihood of a touchdown? It's definitely Andrews. Last week was a total bust, but

They beat Denver 41-10. They shut guys down early. Zay Flowers ran four more routes than Mark Andrews. And each of his routes were to the house. Yeah, and so he was ending drives on those catches. So this was not a...

The production wasn't there. I'm just saying Mark Andrews' role, it wasn't, oh, crap, we're back to week two where Andrews is not involved in the passing game at all. Here's the real truth of the matter. Andrews has the higher odds in this game to score a touchdown. If neither player scores a touchdown, I think you'll be happier with Gesicki. I would agree with that. Even on this year, I don't know if you know this, but on the year, Mark Andrews has 29 total targets on the year.

That sounds about right. Gasicki has 36 targets, and he's playing far fewer snaps and was sharing time. I agree with what your statement is. The higher likelihood for a touchdown is Andrews. If neither player gets a touchdown, you're probably happier

with Kosicki because more targets and yardage. Andrews is averaging 32 yards a game this year. I would still go the Andrews side personally. I think the likelihood for a touchdown is relatively high. Okay. All right. We'll turn the page here. Let's jump into the mailbag. Mailbag. Mailbag. Mailbag.

It's a good time to check out the strength of schedule tool at join the foot.com. Just one of the many premium tools we make available to our listeners. So check that out at join the foot.com. And now just join the foot.com and the app and the app. Now it's all on the app. That's right.

That's right. That's a good point. Download that. If you have a question for the show, you can always go to the website, thefantasyfootballers.com, click the submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline, 302-464-TFFB. First question we got from YouTube, what to do? This is from Ryler Little. What to do with Jonathan Brooks? Because Chuba is a good player. Chuba just scored again last week, your start of the week. What do you do? I don't think I'm...

Playing him? Well, I mean, we need the full activation news as well. Kyle, can you just... We didn't miss that, hopefully. I'm not playing him this week. It will be... It's going to be really interesting to watch here. Do they go back to Bryce Young? What does this team do? Chuba is an unrestricted free agent going into next year. If I'm the Carolina Panthers, I'm not going to overwork Brooks, but I at least want him to get...

You need to know what you have. Yeah, exactly. I want to get some acclimation into the NFL.

And hopefully, if I'm running the Panthers, I'm in about a 50-50 timeshare by the end of the year with him and Chuba just to see what I have. I think a lot of my opinion on Brooks has to do with what does he look like on the field? Does this look like a special player? Or does this look like, you know, kind of how Trey Benson has muddled along this year? Which, Benson's had some plays, but it's not... It's taken time. Yeah, it's taken time. And that's normal. But it does tell you something. Like, if you come out there and...

And Jonathan Brooks, you know, you bring up HN and his passing game work in Miami. If Jonathan Brooks is a obviously superior pass catcher that brings something special to the offense, which is something he could be doing, it's going to dictate his playing time. Yeah.

I, I, I'm excited to have Jonathan Brooks. There's no world where you should be starting him this week. We have no idea his utilization. They might, you know, in his first game back from the ACL, they might give him five total opportunities in the game to just kind of ease him back into getting hit for the first time by an NFL defender. I wouldn't be surprised at that. Now my expectation is more than that.

I think they're going to give him a lot of the Miles Sanders role that he has had, which has not been significant. But a couple weeks ago when I, on the Parley Partey, was looking at Tuba Hubbard's over on reception totals, and I'm watching the game, I'm like, man, the passing work, the packages they're bringing in Miles Sanders,

They've clearly got him as the passing game guy, not in the two-minute drill. It was like the end-of-the-game two-minute drill where Chuba hit that mark. But I could see them working him in in the passing game. So that's what I'm watching for more than anything, is do they bring him in on designed screens more than once? And I think they will, and if they do, that'll be a good signal to, one, see how he looks, and two,

and two, get him more involved for fantasy. Todd Gurley, not that they're the same player, of course, but Todd Gurley was coming into the NFL off of an ACL tear, and his first game was week three. He had seven opportunities. The Rams then turned everything over to Todd Gurley,

I don't know if that'll happen for Brooks, but the timing of... We're in Week 10, correct? We're going into Week 10. So they will play the Giants, and then they're going to go into the bye week. So the optimistic view is he goes out there, looks good...

and maintains health, like he's still good to go, they go into the bye week and then they say, yeah, let's roll with Brooks from here on out. That's the possible positive spin of it. He needs to be activated by 4 p.m. Eastern today, so we will know for sure if he is going to play football this year. To me, the more significant fantasy impact might actually be on the other side of the equation.

Because through nine weeks, Chuba Hubbard's a top 10 running back. Chuba Hubbard has been outstanding. So depending on what you believe about Jonathan Brooks' involvement and what this team's going to do, I don't think they're going – here's what I truly believe about their relationship with Chuba Hubbard. I think they love him. I think they love the player. I think they love the locker room guy. And I doubt they're going to try to subvert his opportunity to go out and get a contract if he's not coming back to this team.

as well. So they want to win ballgames. Dave Canales has to win ballgames. It was proven last year with Frank Reich that if you don't win in year one, you can be fired halfway through the season. So that balancing act is going to be interesting. Chuba Hubbard has been out. Do you know what he's averaging yards per carry this year? I would guess about four and a half. Five. Wow. He's averaging five. He has 665 rushing yards. He has been a top

running back the majority of the year. His bad games are running back 26 and 34 in the last eight weeks. It is one to watch. Whether you're getting to start Chuba Hubbard rest of the year or not, that's going to depend on what they do. I don't think this team is looking at it the way that fantasy players do, which is like, we got to get our next guy in there forever right now. They already told us that

They told us before the season that Jonathan Brooks would play by week three or four. That was the quote from Dave Kanellis. It's week 10. They also said a week ago he might not even play this year. Well, we'll know in a couple hours. In a couple hours if he's not activated. Even if he's active, though. I mean, the workload could stay minimal to protect him for next year when you need him. That could be true. I certainly think down the stretch...

They have to get him playing time and see for the future. They don't want to break the man, but they certainly want to get him ready for next year as an NFL player. So to me, you've got Chuba who's been outstanding. The team likes him. But 74% of snaps, 82% of snaps, 84% of snaps, 79%. Like Chuba has been, you know, almost a bell cow here for Carolina.

So his fantasy production has been good. He's been fine on a per-touch basis, but I don't expect that to hold. So if Jonathan Brooks is activated here in a couple hours, which I expect,

then I'm looking to trade Chuba because Chuba's been great. People are running back needy, and they might not be aware. No, I don't think they're trading for Chuba. They might not, but I would float it out there. I'd use him in a couple trade offers. I'd trade Brooks on the promise of the activation. That's what I would do. I'm fine with that too. And what are the odds that he doesn't get activated today? Because there is a chance the team is greater than zero. Yeah, the team could say, nah.

Let's just make sure we've got Chuba, we've got Miles Sanders, and we're not winning. We're not going to the playoffs, so let's just make sure you're okay next year. Yeah, I mean, Canales did say that there's a chance, but that quote when you watch the whole press conference, it really felt like we're excited to get him back. We've got plans for him, and it's like, well, is there any chance he doesn't come back? And he's like, sure, yeah, there's a chance. What are the odds that we could extend this conversation on this show until that 4 p.m. Eastern?

Oh, man, that's going to be a long time. If anybody can do it. My last thought is, holy crap, if he doesn't get activated and you spent a second-round pick on a running back to not play a year of a four-year contract, that's bad management. Yeah, I think that's not what you would have expected to have happen. It could be the best decision for them now. I don't know. I don't know that. I wouldn't presume to know that. This question comes in from Instagram.

My league doesn't like to trade. What can I do to change that? Make trades. I saw you got a really good trade done yesterday, Jay. I did. So one of the things you can do- You swapped your ninth round pick or your sixth round pick- My sixth round pick for their ninth round pick. That seems like bad value. Yeah. I saw that trade come through and I-

I didn't know what happened. And no other trade followed it when you reversed it. Yeah, he wanted to leave it there for a minute to have the league go wild about it before we edit undue. And what happened? It was a trade that we were going back and forth on for Baker, for Baker Mayfield in a pick swap. Was it swap 6-9? Yeah, and so Baker just was forgotten to be added to the deal. They immediately accepted it. But, yeah.

We're getting old, Mike. You got to accept this. You guys are just a circus act. I mean, I'm just happy to report. It's been mostly Andy this year, this year. Okay. Listen, listen. Okay. It's happened twice. You have twice in our league traded. Here's what's happened. Okay. Your fab for nothing and a player for nothing. Listen, here's what has happened. And this has never happened before.

We've got doofuses in the league. I include myself in that category. I have put out publicly because we did not have fab trading for years. We finally added fab trading. Sometimes like Jason, you're like, hey, Anthony Richardson available for fab. They sent $2 fab. You said Anthony Richardson. I have been so over eager that sometimes I've been like, who's the player I was trying to give you guys, Josh?

Who was the one that I said was available in trade for five bucks? Oh, it was Caleb Williams early in the year. So I'm like, hey, Caleb's available for fab. Instantly, I get an offer that to me looks like- You get two offers. Yeah, two offers, and they're the same offer. I thought they were $5 fab for Caleb. Turns out two doofuses decided to send me Caleb and my fab for nothing. All you have to do is read. I thought I got a cool trade. It's-

I was excited. Trying to start a bidding war as well between us. Wait, is that what happened to the Cowboys? Oh, that's probably, they were excited. They didn't read it. They were just like, Mingo, we've loved Mingo. Except, oh, that was a fourth? And they were like, wait, no, we thought you were giving us the four. Yeah, Mingo and a fourth. How did this turn into me? You traded a six for a nine yesterday. It was just an accidental click. And also, for all the leagues out there, if you're in a good league,

If people make accidents, undo it. That's just like... No, I am not Jerry Jones. Yeah. Anyways, we've had some comedic mishaps. What do you do to make people trade? Because I've seen this so many times. Every year, people are just... They hear us talk about trades on the show. They get jealous. They want their league to be active and vibrant. It can be extremely difficult to...

if this is the establishment of the league to actually change, because it's a true culture change of a league. I've been in leagues like that for long-running leagues where it was almost... Trades just don't happen? It was nearly impossible, and people just don't respond to trade offers. The best way to get it going is to have a hub for communication. I mean, you can use the... We're on Sleeper, so you can use the Sleeper chat room, but...

it might take something more than that. And, I mean, getting people's phone numbers, being able to actually text someone one-to-one instead of everything just going through the system, have a personal relationship with the other people in the league. But having said that, the honest truth is it may not happen, and you might need to find just a different league. I would say the two most true tips are tip one,

Make a great offer. Trade a little bit more. If you want a play, and he's done this for years and he's talked about it as a tip. If you really believe in a guy and you want him,

Pay up for them. It's okay. Go get them. You're like, oh, people don't accept trades, so they're afraid to be wrong. Make sure they feel like they're right. That is not always bad management to go out and pay up, throw in an extra player or two. And then the other thing is part and parcel of what Mike is saying, it's communication. But it is really, really common. Like I go out and I'll offer a ton of trades. And you know what? People have busy lives. They never see them.

Oh, you don't respond to a trade. Tip two is make sure they see the trade. Give them a text message. Poke. Say, hey, I sent a trade offer over something. Because as soon as you send something that is actually seen, they will respond nine out of ten times.

with a rejection or a, Oh, I'll look at it or something. And it starts communication where now you can get working on it. And maybe if you're not finding another league, replace a couple of managers that are inactive because don't underestimate the power of one or two very trade active managers. They do motivate trades for the entire league. And we've seen that time and time again. So we'll take a break. Some more questions after the break. All right. Well, boy, here we are. Instagram question from Shump.

Trade Travis Etienne for Cortland Sutton, question mark? Oh, fun question, Andy. I mean. If you need a wide receiver, I'm fine with it. I would hate to do it, but that doesn't make it wrong. Cortland Sutton has had three straight top, or sorry, three out of four top 24 weeks. The targets are what make you excited for Sutton.

it's not just the targets. It's that Bo Nix is, he's, he's, he's talking, he's playing really good football and he's playing like fantasy friendly football. Like they're getting explosive plays. Like you can't,

You can't pull up Cortland Sutton's game log and be like, oh, well, it's only been this part of the season. The beginning, he was terrible. Yeah, he had Bo Nix, who was a rookie quarterback who had never played. Like, this is the transformation of Bo Nix is getting better. He's getting more comfortable with Cortland Sutton. And Travis Etienne is...

It's doo-doo, baby. Just off the top of your head, without looking, maybe you're wrong, what do you interpret as some of the, or maybe the, what's the hardest run defense? What are the best run defense? Detroit, for sure, that comes to mind. Anyone else that just jumps off the page? Detroit's usually what I think of first, but when I'm thinking of other great defenses out there, very difficult to run on.

Minnesota. Minnesota. Yeah, Minnesota. Those are the two that come to mind for me. Travis Etienne's next matchups against Minnesota and then on the road in Detroit. He might need to be on the roids. You're going to need some cream. Get on them roids, brother. You're going to get a donut. You're coming off of three rushing attempts, and then you go and you play Minnesota-Detroit bye week. Now, I do, I genuinely do think

There are bright days ahead for Travis CT in this season. But it's a month from now. And if you need wins, if you need a wide receiver. Sure. Maybe there's not. When I say I think there is, that's just a hopeful. Pass catching is my hope there. With the absence of Kirk and the absence of other options, maybe. Just go get Rico Dowdle then. Oh, gosh. You know.

What a world, man. What does the success of Rico Dowdle mean for the future of this show? I think we're going under. And how many more chances that Mike's going to take on guys like this? You got to take the chances, man. That's how you win. Look, we can't say anything right now. I will say this. You did your best analysis work preseason to identify situations where guys that were lowly drafted running backs

hit and are a top 20 running back. You identified bad situations that don't hit like the Raiders. You know, home run. And Zach Moss. But yes, the Bengals were one of the two. And whether it was Zach Moss or Chase Brown, you were saying we don't necessarily know who it is, but you target that and that was right. You're just getting lucky on Dallas because it's not a good offense. Hey, you're leaving out the Chargers. No, no, no. There was three teams that I wanted. That's right. They're all hits right now. So that's good work.

I guess it's good that we have a podcast that you can share that with the world. It's just we have to be around the dawdling in between the shows.

Yeah, it doesn't stop off. The airwaves are not the only place. He comes in the door, he dawdles. Uh-huh. Afternoon, he dawdles. I mean, there's dawdling up and down the street. No, and you don't want that. No, you don't. April, he dawdles. Bring May shower. Or flowers. I couldn't remember. Oh, no. He could have just let us finish. It's bad. I'm sorry. YouTube question from Technoyay says, what is everybody's favorite food on football Sunday? Ice cream.

You know, I have to go Chipotle. Yeah, we're pretty Chipotle heavy on Sunday. On Sunday specifically. Why do we end up there? Is it just easy? I think it's easy and you can actually order healthy and it's delicious. And

Not a sponsor. Yeah, not a sponsor. Till we get the gold card. Could be. They have a gold card, right? I've seen rumors. Please sponsor Chipotle if you're out there. Big Chipotle. We're tired of paying for it. Yeah, every single Sunday because we're in the studio. You call them Big Chipotle? Yeah, that's who they are. But we're here watching the games in the studio because we've got the Big 9 TV set up and pretty good.

Pretty much every Sunday we're ordering Chipotle. And then if it goes poorly, you're right, Andy, we order ice cream. Yeah, that's for the bad days. Also good days. Celebrational ice cream. Yeah. Also, depressional ice cream. Pretty much just a normal day is the only day you don't eat ice cream. All right. That is going to do it for today's episode. Starts of the week in the matchups tomorrow when it will actually be football time. It's going to be great. More matchups and a double wheel of shame on Friday unless I just dip out for that day. We'll see. But in the meantime...

I'll let Mike get back to dabbling, and we'll catch you tomorrow. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.