Week 11: Hill Freezes Over

long time first or something for you two to be together. Okay, man, that's going back a ways. Holy cow. You know back then John ou Smith was good. Um, you know there was all the running backs are healthy. It was a whole different landscape that Christian McCaffrey still still was a great pick. Now it's Dan Arnold's time. There is touchdown

on Thursday night is upon us. Yes, exactly, exactly. Plenty to get you over the course of the show, will break down every matchup fantasy style letter grades on all the meaningful players. Will give you nine players upon whom you can take a chance. We'll give you three tough questions to ponder, and of course premature speculation. Look my track record on premature speculation has been spotty this year, but last week DeAndre Booker and I thought about using

again this week, but decided that was too easy. It was just the revenge game, that's all. It was the revenge game maybe, so um, let's get Let's dive right into the matchups, beginning with the Detroit Lions taking on the Carolina Panthers. Scott, it looks increasingly like DeAndre Swift will not play this game. Him and have both been ruled out now, so Marvin Jones is limited in practice too, and Matthew Stafford's got thumb injury. So it's it's gonna be a little bit of a rough one there. I

still have the C grade on Stafford. Caroline has been destroyed the last couple of weeks through the air. Uh, it's it's it's a situation where I think he can get some deep balls off to Marvin Jones and Marvin Hall, the two Marvin's as you talked about the other week. Uh. And Hockinson has been incredibly consistent this year all but one week. He had fifty yards and or a score in all but one week. So I have an A grade on Hockinson. I think he's gonna have to lean

on Hockinson more with Golladay out. Both Jones and Hall because Golladay's out, I've upped them to see grades. Marvin Hall is averaging well over twenty yards per reception, so it only takes a couple of them and there's gonna be targets to go around. Uh Amndola also out, so that means Jones and Hall are going to be on the field the entire time. That's why they both get C grades. DeAndre Swift would have been an A grade with a smash spot. Yes, he was in my top

five earlier in the week. Is there any chance the Lions bring back Drew Peacock would be the best? They need a Drew Peacock in their lineup? They do, and that's if not now when so Adrian Peterson has that was that was a terrible by transition. But I just got back to work just right. I'm sorry, I can no way to improve alright. Yeah, for the Panthers of the fourth worst against fantasy running backs, so it was a great spot. Peterson and carry On are going to share.

But Peterson has gotten more touches and more snaps and carry On every week. That they've played together. So I am giving Peterson the B grade and I'm benching carry on. I just don't trust that he's gonna get enough work. He could, But do you want to try? I really don't. Yeah, it's it's such a nice matchup for Peterson. It is. I would not be surprised if you finished eight yards and two touchdowns. Yeah, their bottom five in in rushing yard,

rushing touchdowns, and yards allowed. I think they've allowed like nine touchdowns to running backs and last like five weeks or carry on. Carry on, Jesus, no, I'm can We're making it worse. You're taking a hole for yourself. Right now, they're still not on the other side, they're still not ruling out Bridgewater. If p. J. Walker is the starter, he might get a good amount of rushing yards to maybe be a dart throw. But I have them both

on the bench just because you don't know. At this point, I'm going to do the cop out that Matt did with the Petsburgh Steelers wide receivers a couple of weeks ago, and I'm giving all three wide receivers for Carolina Panthers C grades. Oh, I know you hate it. DJ Moore his top fifty five yards in in all but one game. He gets fifty plus yards every single week, three four five catches. That's solid enough for a SEA grade. Curtis Samuel had a down week last week, but he's had

fifty total yards in six of his seven games. Like, we're talking about guys that are going to get you three four receptions, fifty plus yards. Maybe they get us or that's Sea level production. And it sounds like we've got to a point with Curtis Samuel where you can count on Russia. Last week it was a little bit of a dog in the red zone too. Inside the tea, Robbie Anderson started the league this season off really hot.

He's been weekly, you know, just week or later. But he's still top five in yards, catches, and targets in the NFL, which is which is pretty crazy. And a step I I heard this week is that most of his yards and catches and have come against man coverage, and that's what the Lions mostly play and Bridgewater's best

games are against man coverage. So if Bridgewater does go, Robbie Anderson, even though I gave a C grade, is probably the one of the three you want because that's the type of that's the type of defense that he excels against. Mike Davis, I have an A grade against against the Lions here. This is the Lions are the worst in the NFL against fantasy running backs. Davis is

a good pass catcher. Lions have allowed the most receiving yards, most receiving touchdowns over the last five weeks to running backs. On the ground, they're no not much better most rushing touchdowns six, most rushing yards and if if p J. Walker does start, rushing quarterbacks have opened stuff up for

running backs. It's just what they do. Happen. Yeah, So Mike Davis, I gave an a grade to unless you're care unless you're Kenyan Drake, at which point there there's no such thing as a as a good enough rushing quarterback apparently to open things up for him. Let's go to Miami taking on Denver Brian for the Dolphins. We've got a lot of moving parts here, injuries at wide receiver and running back. We've got two at the at the helm. What are your thoughts on this offense as

they faced the Broncos. Let's start at the running back position for Miami, because we've got a Bell cow on our hands and Salivin Akhmed Jordan Howard is gown. Matt Brady spends more time in the blue tend than on the gridiron, and we'll see Ahmed operating his Miami's bell cow once again. And he scored from the one yard line last week. He's not a between the twenties pony here. So Denver's d rundy has been very leaky over the

last three weeks too. They've allowed one rushing yards per game to opposing back to go to go along with five ground scores. They've also allowed more than five catches per game to the position. Patrick Layard and DeAndre Washington might steal some third down work, but a very safe b for Salvin Achmed uh be for Davante Parker as well. He hasn't posted big numbers with two at quarterback, but his air yard shares have risen each week since two.

It took over from eighteen percent to thirty one percent to thirty seven percent last week. The Broncos held Raiders wide receivers scoreless last week. That's not hard to do, but before that, Denver surrendered six wide receiver touchdowns over their last three games. Uh Denver's top corner A J. Booyer might not play as well. He's questionable with the hip injury, so be for Parker with a upside, and I want to give the seed to Jachim. Grant was

on the field. I'm really interested in Grant. Jackim the dream And there's a great daily angle which I was trying to give my followers last week and it almost came through. But played in more than seventy percent the snaps last week and he returned kicks. So if you play a cheap wide receiver like Grant, we can produce on the field. And Miami's got a very viable team defense play this week and if he returns to kick, you get the double bonus points there. So if you're

a daily player, that's some stage advice for you. Uh, some more stage advices Benching Mike GISSICKI. Yes, he put together consecutive games with more than one catch for the first time since weeks one and two. That's where the bar is right now with catch totals of two and three.

And this is a brutal matchup. Only one opposing tight end is cracked fifty yards against Denver, who also has not allowed a tight end touchdown since week one on benching GISICKI, did you know dermis smite has played over him to our last three weeks? Unbelievable this is and then Adam is the thing too that's always threatening, Ghisicki. So, yeah, he's fallen off the wayside. I'm on the fence with two a tongueo violoa. I'll put him on the bench. Though.

He does have two passing touchdowns and back to back games with at least six rush attempts in each of those games, but he hasn't hit thirty pass attempts yet. He's the sound of volume there to trust him in standard formats for me, So bench or two U over to the Denver side. Not a lot to love here, Melvin Gordon a very soft Sea, only averaging eleven touches over the last three weeks. Miami is not allowed back to top ninety rushing yards in their last twelve games

and has held the positions scoreless and four straight. So you're getting a little bit of volume from Gordon, but I don't expect much. Did you consider instead of a soft Sea giving him a strong D or a hard D. No, I'm sure he didn't because we don't use d S. I would never do such a thing Scott never ever, ever, and I would never play Philip Lindsay at least not right now. Four carries for two yards of one target. Last week, he's on the bench. Jerry Judy uh see

for him. Played through a shoulder injury last week. Looks like I will play through an ankle issue that has limited in practice this week. But he has commanded a target share of nearly over the last three weeks, so you have to start him. If he suits up, he will see a lot of his Avien Howard probably, but Howard has surrendered his score in two of his last three games, so I'm still starting Judy. I'm gonna start

Tim Patrick as well, giving him a see. The Dolphins only allowed twenty points game on a whole, but wide receiver has had have had success against Miami over the last three weeks, surrendering three touchdowns to the position in two one hundred yard performances. Patrick has a very safe PPR floor. He scored double digit PPR points in five of his last six games, including three touchdowns in that span.

Noah fant Uh last player with a starting grade. He gets a C he's pretty banged up, but should play. Hasn't delivered a score or a fifty yard game since Week two. But the and and not but and the Dolphins have allowed the ninth views receptions and fourth view as yards to opposing tight ends. So that's not good. But you're hoping for a score here. Miami has given up three touchdowns to opposing tight ends over the last

two games. And then Drew Lock, No, young, jeez, this week he's on the bench, and I gotta leave us with this quote on this matchup. Drew Lock on his bad plays quote. Half the time, right as the ball leaves my hand, I'm like, oh no, half the time. You don't want to hear that. Your half of your quarterbacks passes he instantly knows are in trouble. No, this week, no, I'm afraid not. Philadelphia takes on Cleveland. This will be our last matchup of this segment. Let's start with the

running game in Miles Sanders. In his four full games, Sanders has averaged sixteen rushes. Each of the backs who have hit sixteen rushes against Cleveland have topped one hundred yards. Sanders is averaging five targets per game in the last two opposing backs. That's off five targets per game combined for a hundred thirty yards in a touchdown. He's got to start catching him. Fourteen catches on thirty targets is not good. Well, but you know what, in that offense,

it's probably much more on. Carson Wentz has been tremendously inaccurate so far this year. Pressure, a ton of pressure. So let's go right, let's go right to Carson Wentz. I love that Wentz has got all of his available targets, but it hasn't changed his horrible protection. He is constantly being harassed. Wentz his bottom four in sacks and hits absorbed per Pro Football Focus, or you top four if you're getting the most, get top top, but tops usually

good if you're the tops of something. So when either way, he's getting hit and sacked a lot. Now, Fortunately Cleveland star defensive end Miles Garrett is out for this game, so maybe WinCE gets a cleaner pocket here, puts things together. That would be nice. Now, Cleveland's had their last two games, the last three weeks have been monsoon, bye week, monsoon, so we really don't have an accurate reado where this defense is right now, but maybe they'll treat it like

a bye week with that. Maybe prior to those two Bonsoon games in the bye week, they had allowed three to four passing touchdowns to half of the opposing quarterbacks. Once got some nice upside here. I'm gonna give him a C grade in this matchup. Let's talk about its receivers a little bit. Jalen Reagor gets a B grade. Remove removing the past two games where there was all the wind and everything else in Cleveland. The monsoon games, they had been averaging two yards per game to receivers,

which was third most. And since returning from injury, Jalen Reagor has led Ladelphia and targets, and last week he led the team with ninety six air yards. I think they're starting to my great towards Jalen Reagor. He is good. He's not as good as Justin Jefferson who was taken after him, but he's good. And next, Travis Fulgan moves down to a C grade here. He had been very reliable when everybody else was hurt, but now that they're all back, Fulgan fell off the face of the earth

last week. One catch his usual safe floor is gone here. He runs from both sides of the field and is generally outmatched by both of Cleveland's quarterbacks, cornerbacks Terrence Mitchell and Denzel Ward. Let's go to Dallas Goddard, who is uh depressingly not produced with zach ertz out. I really thought with Earth's out that Goddard was gonna go like into tighten one territory. They need to be pushing each other in the lineup. I guess, right, maybe, I guess.

The Browns have allowed the fifth most receptions to opposing tight ends, but most of the damage was done earlier in the season. They haven't done much lately. They've given up just one score and one fifty yard game over the last five weeks, including shutting down Darren Waller and Eric Ebron over that stretch. All right, let's go over

to the Cleveland side. We begin with Austin Hooper. He's got an opportunity, which is odd to start with the tight end, but am he's got an opportunity to start to get back to his pre Appendix surgery form against a soft Eagles back seven. Philadelphia is allowing the fourth most receptions and touchdowns as well as the ninth most yards to opposing tight ends. They've been using Jalen Mills to cover tight ends in man looks lately, and Hooper's

sixty pounds heavier than the former cornerback. So if Jalen Mills ends up lining up against Hooper, that is a mismatch. And I like Hooper and I start with him because he's got the highest grade of any of the receivers here. I will talk about Baker Mayfield in just a few

minutes as well. Kareem uh see the receivers. Let's go to Jarvis Landry still scoreless on the season and has been held under sixty yards and seven of nine games, but he's set to face Philadelphia slack cornerback Cravan le Blanc, who's been generous to his opposition. Lebron yields a one

fourteen passer rating and is allowing catch rate. So even though the Eagles secondary surrendered the third fewest touchdowns opposing receivers, Landry's got a positive match up here and this could be the one where he finally breaks his touchdown made in Plus, he's had like a targets here in the last three three weeks in a row. He break his touchdown maiden. Yeah like that? Do there? You go? Richard

Higgins is a startable commodity this week. He's the only other wide out who gets targeted really at all in this offense. Anytime he lines up on the left side of the field, he's got a very positive matchup against cornerback and Vante Maddox, who Pro Football Focus ranks as cornerback one eleven. And Maddox yields five inches and twenty pounds to Higgins. So I kind of like Higgins is a dart throw in this one. And then let's go

to the running backs and we'll wrap this up. Nick Chubb has one hundred plus rushing yards in each of his last three full games, but the Goals have not a lot of back more than sixty three rushing yards in their last seven straight and just one back has gone over ninety two yards in the Eagles last twenty eight games. That's incredibly impressive run defense. They're giving up just three point three yards per carry game. Script could be a problem for the as the Eagles are are

far easier to pass upon than run. So I'm nervous about Nick Chubb and he drops to a B grade here. Kareem Hunt is um has maintained all pretty much all of his workload with Chubb back. In Chubb's four full games, Hunt his average fifteen carries for seventy seven yards, which is exactly what he was doing without Chubb. But again, tough matchup against a terrific run defense. And mysteriously Hunt has not been using the passising game, which I don't understand.

He's an incredibly gifted pass catcher. He's scored though. He like when they target him, he produces, but don't target him. They don't target him. It's it's baffling. They need to unfurl that sooner or later. Uh. The Eagles have allowed just two receiving touchdowns to running back in their last twenty six games. So it's not happening this week. And Kareem Hunt is just a C grade, all right? When we come back, take a chance on me. These are

nine players not normally in your starting lineup. Many of these guys are on the waiver wire. We've got some deep calls this week, and there are a lot of guys on the waiver wire. We'll tell you who they are when we come back to Fantasy Football Weekly. Welcome back to the show Fantasy Football Weekly, Scott Fish and Brian Johnson with you. It's a segment we call take a chance on me. We give you a player at each position we believe you should take a chance on,

and we begin at the quarterback position. Scott, I am gonna go with Taysom Hill. I know that you can play him a tight end in some silly places, but come on, he gets the Falcons. They've allowed eight three plus yard passing days, six multi touchdown games. I don't expect him to be a huge pastor if he does get the start, but if he's gonna have to pass, it might as well be against an easy past defense. What I do like is his rushing ability. It's shown

good floors for for fantasy quarterbacks. He has seven yards per carry over the last three and the fact of the average is that in in that last three games, says to me, if he gets the ball, and he's averaging seven carries per game also over the last three, so if he gets seven to ten carries and some passing yards, he's an okay take on. Okay, I like it.

We'll talk more about his his position eligibility in some leagues later in the show, thee there and there isn't There is an issue there, and my phone is blown up with people that want guidance on this. Uh all right, Brian, your take a chance. And the quarterback is Joe Flacco at the Chargers. He's a Black Leagues flack at lack. I just wanted to say that flack at lack. But the Chargers are one of twelve teams with an opponent

passing play percentage north of sixty percent. They've also surrendered multiple touchdown passes and five of their last six games, and with a suddenly somewhat dangerous trio wide receivers in New York now with Crowder Perriman and MEM's, Flacco has looked pretty good, especially his last game out when he had to sixty two passing and three touchdowns against the Patriots. The return of starting left tackle McKay Beckton has been huge, and Flacco's airing it out. He leads the NFL in

most air yards per attempts at nine point five. He's the third lowest and checkdown percentage among all quarterbacks. I do not trust the run game for the Jets, and they'll be playing from behind. Joe Flacco's gonna win someone a million dollars this weekend. I hope it's me. Okay, I might take a chance to be quarterback. Is Baker Mayfield who I alluded to last segment. It's tough to evaluate the O b J. Liss Brown's offense when they've had a bye week in two months soon since his injury.

But in Baker Mayfield's last normal game, Week seven, when Odell Beckham got knocked out very early, Mayfield still piled up five touchdowns without Odell Beckham, So he's got some sneaky upside against a Philadelphia secondary that looks good on paper, but it's seen very few good passers. If we take away Philadelphia's games against Daniel Jones, Daniel Jones, Bend Nucci, C J. Bethard, Nick Mullins, and Dwayne haskins Man, that's

a lot of bad quarterbacks. The Eagles are allowing two fifty one yards and two and a half touchdown passes per game. The Eagles are a fantastic run defense, and the path of least resistance runs through Baker Mayfield's arm. Let's go to the running back position. Who's your taking chance? I mean, runner, Scott, I am going a little deeper

here with a backup Rex Burkhead. Uh. He plays against the Texans who have allowed the second running back, the backup running back to average well over fifty yards per game. That's how many yards they give give up rack backs. The backups are getting over fifty yards per game. Birkhead is getting a bunch of goal line work. Has three touchdowns the last two games. He's getting the goal line

work when Cam Newton doesn't. Basically, Uh, he is now playing thirty more snaps than James White over the last couple of weeks. James w has kind of disappeared in that offense. Yeah, he's gone straight Casper on that and Birkhead's had eight targets in the last two games. He's getting those targets. So I got Rex Burkhead. All right, Brian, you take a chance for me runner. It's come to this for Jonathan Taylor, has he take He's take a chance worthy as I was thinking using Klein balage, but

that's too obvious these days. Taylor get contrarian with everyone's favorite rookie nup from not long ago. But u niheem Heinz technically the starter now for the FLTs. But the Colts will look to run the ball as much as possible against the Packers, keep Aaron Rodgers and company off

the field for as long as they can. And yes, Taylor only handled of the running back touches for the Colts in the last game, but in his eight game career, his illustrous eight game career Jonathan Taylor here, he has more double digit carry games at nih Hinz or Jordan

Wilkins and both of their respective careers. So there's a good chance he leads the team and carries against the Packers, who have allowed these second most fantasy points to running backs and have been especially bad since the week five by So now we're never Jonathan Taylor. It's like dropable in redraft formats. If it's not this week, you could almost start Taylor just on the fact that he's gotten so little used the last couple of weeks. He's fresh. Now that seems to be like when the guys pop

out of the Indianapolis rotation of backs, it's inexplicable. Might take a chance of me. Running back is Devonte Booker. Now you might be saying, where was that last week? While we did talk about him last week, So take that he's averaging six yards carry. His workload is increased in four straight games, and in the earlier matchup with this week's opponent, Kansas City, Booker had sixty two yards

on just seven carries. John Gruden runs the ball whopping thirty one times per game, and the Chiefs are seeing twenty nine rushing attempts, So we know to expect a lot of ground and pound in this game. And Josh Jacobs is not going to get thirty one or twenty nine carries a bunch of it's gonna go to Davante Booker because he's just too good to keep off the field. Let's go to the receiver position, not necessarily wide receiver Scott. Who's gonna take a chance on me player? I'm going

with Logan Thomas. Since Alex Smith took over, he's got twelve targets in the last two weeks. It's only culminated in seven catches for ninety four yards. But this week he gets a Bengals d that has given up five games of over fifty yards to tight ends six tight end touchdowns in just the last five weeks. And this is a Bengals defense that has allowed eighteen passing touchdowns over the last six weeks. Actually like Alex Smith this week to give me, give me Ligan Thomas. I've slowly

moved Alex Smith up my rankings all week. I think now he's like quarterback ten. All right, Brian, you take a chance to me receiver is give me Saints tight end taste somehow. I'm just kidding. I'm perring Prescott Perriman with Flack at LAC. Two jets for me this week. Perriman was my prespect a few weeks ago. Looks like he's coming to fruition after a monster game against New England in Week nine hundred plus yards and two touchdowns.

Not necessarily a smash spot here, as the Chargers have only surrendered a handful of big yardage outputs two wide opposing wide receivers, but they still allow four yards per game to the position. That's pretty decent. And since Week four, l A has allowed seven wide receiver touchdowns in six games, and that's basically been to four teams. The two teams that failed to score a wide receiver where the Michael Thomas less Saints and the Dolphins last week, who only

had twenty pass attempts. So I'm rolling with Perriman. I'm going with Michael Gallup against the Vikings. The Vikings secondary is likely without its number three, number four, number five cornerbacks, and if Cameron Danzler can make his way through the concussion protocol, they're also without their number one cornerback and their number one quarterbacks. Like a number four cornerbacks for anybody else, the Cowboys can stretch thin any secondary with

their three excellent receivers. They get Andy Dalton back. What little help the Vikings can muster will be dedicated to stopping a Marie Cooper and Ceedee Lamb, and that leaves Michael Gallup most often on six string cornerback Chris Boyd, who is allowed to passer rating of one D thirty four in his coverage. There you go, nine players, take a chance on me. Let's work. In one more matchup,

the Atlanta Falcons take on the New Orleans Saints. The Saint side is a lot more interesting, but let's start with the Falcon side. Calvin Ridley likely back. This passing attack is at full strength. Do you like Matt Ryan I kind of do. After allowing multiple touchdowns in each of their first seven games, this is the Saints. They have buckled down, picking off five passes and giving up just one touchdown in their last two h granted one of them with San Francisco, the other was Tom Brady.

Though they're a good game against Tom Brady and um Lattimore should be back. He should be quite I think he's questionable. Should play. Uh, they still love Jenkins. They have a good past defense. I'm keeping Ryan a CEE, but it's a pretty strong cee. I could go be too. I could go be too, but I'm gonna leave it as a see Julio Jones plus yards and or a touchdown in four straight, I gotta be grade on him.

I don't, I don't. I don't love either Jones or Ridley's matchups in this one, but they're just too good to sit well. Unless doesn't doesn't go. At the moment, I'm assuming that they go full strength. His lowest yardage game of the last four weeks was the Week nine game without Ridley. Weirdly, that's you think they could be lower with Ridle either. Ridley sixty plus yards in six

of his seven games, has six touchdowns in those. Uh. If he doesn't go, but he should go all along day Zakis would get a C grade, but it sounds like Ridley's going I gotta be great on him too. Hayden Hurst, I'm given a C great too, even though only two tight ends of top fifty yards, and both were because they were the top two receiving option on the team. Uh, they stopped six plus targets and and players that gets six plus targets against the Saints have

done well. Hurst hit fifty yards in five of the six games he hit six targets. I think if he can get that, he's got a fair shot to see grade there. Todd Gurley, don't super love him this week, but he gets so much volume eighteen plus touches in five straight. How he turns eighteen touches into like sixty rushing yards every week? Touchdowns got nine. I think he's

got nine touches. It's unreally scores all the time. The downside also only two catches per game, and over his last four he's averaging two point six yards per carry. As you just kind of alluded to, it's unreal. The Saints on the other side, have given up over a hundred total yards to just one back this year. So, as I said, don't love the matchup, but he gets so much volume and he gets those goal line with touches.

I gotta give him the C grade. On the other side, Taystom Hill was my take a chance on me player. At this point, we we assume he's gonna start, even though there's mind games going out there. Adam Schefter reported he'd taken all the first team snaps. I think he's gonna start, so he's might take a chance on me player. I have eight grades on both Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara. If Winston does start. Winston's ten attempts last week, I believe he targeted Michael Thomas five times and and twice

in the end zone. So if it's Winston Thomas, and if it's not, I feel like Taysom Hill's gonna trust more as a passage where your bread is buttered right well as a past more as a pastor Winston or Hill. Hill has eighteen past attempts in his career. I mean, yes, it's Winston. Hew Bizarre was the verbage from Peyton. He's like, no offensive packages will Jamis Winston be involved in? That's

like a failed smoke screens. That's like, yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't know what that means entirely, Like who says that? Not anyone? So you're not gonna line them up at a receiver? What does that mean anyway? Onto Alvin Kamara? Why the A grade the Falcons against past catching running backs for about five years in a row? Now, Uh, they allow six running back receptions per game. They can't seem to figure it out. And Alba Camara, I have to do some more research, but I think he's good.

Can I make note? Though he has never scored against the Atlanta Falcons in his career, which yeah, I do have Murray on the bench, though he hasn't topped thirteen touches since Week four, and uh, normally ten to twelve touches is good. But but against against the Falcons, no running back with a fewer than thirteen touches has top thirty yards. So they allow three point six yards per carry. They keep people down, but not receiving backs. So I'm

benching they all right? Makes sense? We don't even need to talk about Jared Cook anymore? Do No? No, I don't. I think I think you're probably right about that at this stage. Hopefully you're not so desperate that you're actually starting him. Hey, if you want all my player rankings, we encourage you to go to Guillotine leagues dot com. All the players ranked and many of them explained as well.

You can you can read up on your favorite players, find out who to bench, who to start, everybody's graded. You should also continue to listen to the show because coming up next we got a block of matchups, including the Jets at the Chargers. Air Bear are is there's the air Bear bear justin Herbert will he thrashed the Jets. Find out when we come back. Fannessy Football Weekly, Welcome back.

Then the Football Weekly Puled Church and Scott Fish and Brian Johnson with you and Brian you already told us you love the Jets passing game as a dark throw black over Flacco. Yeah, what do you think about the rushing attack? Well? And and is there anybody else that you want to talk about, like Denzel Mims maybe rushing attack that's rushing attack. I got Frank Gore and le Michael Pernin on the bench. He was a fifty percent forty six percent snap split in favor of Gore. Last week.

Gor saw fourteen touches to just eight from peyin. I don't know if you'd want all twenty two from just one guy in this game. It's it's it's an easy bench for me, uh, an easy be though for Jamison Crowder only two catches on two targets UH his last game,

but one went for a touchdown. He's virtually a lock for ten plus targets every week running went healthy, which he is now running and the Jets coming off there by, by the way, running from the slot, he'll avoid Casey Hayward with Chris Harris on I R. He draws rookie slot corner to Van Campbell, who's allowed two scores in his last three games. So b for Crowder and Brashot Perry and was might take a chance on me wide receiver. It was a coin food between he and Denzel Mims.

We like a lot on this show. But we're gonna talk more about later, even more about Mims later. But Uh, I went with Perim and he does lead the Jets in first down receptions and yards per target with Flaco at quarterback. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna bench Mims for here, uh for this week, but he should be rostered for sure. And a flac of again might take a chance in the quarterback flack at lack over to the Chargers side. In a for Kalin Balage, I'm flabbergacid

flustered all those actives. The Jets are top five and red zone touches and red zone targets yielded per game to opposing running backs. It's no surprise top five in a good way in the most red zone touches and red zone targets for the Chargers. For Kalin Balage in particular, yes, it's no surprise. The Jets have allowed the eighth most fantasy points to running backs, including the league's fifth most

receptions to running backs at fifty eight. Blage has been very active catching the ball at the backfield of the last two games, turning nine targets into seven catches for forty nine yards and a touchdown. So in a for Klin Balage, holy f over. Keenan Allen can give him an a as well. He was wide receiver twenty like in late August. That's criminal right now, He's Eclipse has scored endoor Eclipse the hundred yards and six of his

last seven games. And here come the Jets, who are bottom ten and yards receptions and fantasy points allowed to wide receiver, and that's bottom ten in terms of the most in a very good way for Keenan Allen and the Jets have also surrendered four touchdowns and two one yard games to wide receivers over their last three for those very same reasons of giving Mike Williams a very easy B here and Hunter Henry gets a B as well. Four tight ends have seen at least four targets against

the Jets this year. All have put up at least sixty yards or a touchdown. Henry has four targets and all but two games this year. If you get opportunities against the Jets, he turned them into something. And that's why your boy charge the air bear Justin Herbert Uh just to be though the haircut worries be. He looks like a looks like Sampson. Yeah, it looks like like a Juviy mug shot now for Justin. But that fourteen

year old just leading rookies, that's right. And you know what the Jets are not leading Uh in his sacks. They only have eleven on the season, that second fewest air Bear. It's gonna have plenty of time to play with all of his poison. The air Bear. I like it, the air Bear. Uh. There was a little Ardvark in there for just second. If you're wondering accidental Ardvark appearance, He's not there. It's dark cross cross mate. Uh. Getting

Dr Moreau over here. Uh, Cincinnati and Washington face each other. Let's begin on the Cincinnati side where Joe Bernard will get the start. With Joe Mixon nursing his foot injury, Bernardo face a Washington run defense that is law just one back to top eighties six rushing yards. But we just saw DeAndre Swift post a solid all purpose game against Washington last week, so it can be done here by Bernard, both on the ground and through the air.

Washington has given up a running back score one way or another in five of their last seven games, so I think Bernard gets a B grade. I like him here. Going to the passing game, Joe Burrow gets a seat. Good defenses have mostly held Joe Burrow in check, and he'll face a good one this week. Washington is allowing the second fewest passing yards and the sixth fewest passing touchdowns.

The Bengals struggling offensive line is gonna get ambushed by those four first rounders that Washington's got on their defensive line. And I'm worried about Joe Burrow having time to get downfield, and that means I'm not crazy about his receivers either. We love Tee Higgins on this show, but there's a bad matchup. Now, he did practice on Friday. I think he plays here. I worry about Burrow having enough time to find him. He may have to settle for the

underneath stuff to Higgins. Now, Higgins runs from both sides of the field, but when he runs from the left, he faces incredibly tough coverage from Kendall Fuller, who has been basically invincible before yielding a bit last week. Then Tyler Boyd gets a sea great. I say c great and tigins if I didn't use a sea see great and Tyler Boyd again. Washington secondary very good. They surrended the second fewest fantasy points per game to opposing receivers.

Boyd runs overwhelmingly from the slot. They'll face slot cornerback Jimmy Moreland most often. Moreland has yet to allow a score this season, and has allowed thirty eight or fewer yards in his coverage in every game since Week two. That is a bad matchup for Tyler Boyd and he's just got to see a. J. Green is on the bench. He's been held scoreless this year and he has totaled nineteen yards over the last two games. There. That is, isn't it? Remember when it when more and Andre Johnson

hit the wall. I'll say, yeah, that's a great point. I haven't thought about that comparison. That's very good. Let's go to Washington and start with the running game there. Antonio Gibson with the two touchdown game last week, Yeah, that felt good. He's a good player. He ranks third and missed tackles per Russia attempt that's very good. And he just passes the eye test. He didn't see that. He's good. This is a This is a far tougher

matchup on the ground than through the air. Going all the way back to Week three, Cincinnati is allowed just one rushing touchdown and that was the Derrick Henry and and only Henry's top seventy five rushing yards against Cincinnati. So this is a tough matchup. And I've only got a B grade on Gibson. I almost gave him a seat, but I like him too much Gibson with his pass catching skills without Kissick, I know, and I don't understand where they never throw to him. He's a converted wide out.

He'll catch it if you throw to him, but they never do. Sticking with the running back, so let's go to j. D. McKissick. He's been a PPR superstar over the past couple of weeks with target totals of fourteen and fifteen from Alex Smith up. But those numbers are unsustainable and he's only scored once all year, and the Bengals have been very good against receiving backs, allowing the third fewest receptions and only two receiving scores two running backs. So I only have a C grade on J. D. Mckissic.

We're not going to chase his production the past couple of weeks, all right, So let's go to the Let's go to the receiving game. In the passing game, Scott and I talked about Alex Smith a little while ago. He has top three hundred yards in both of his full games and now meets his easiest opponent, Cincinnati. The Bengal secondaries devolved before our very eyes over the past month, they've given up three touchdowns, five touchdowns, two touchdowns and

four passing touchdowns. So lots of upside for Alex Smith in this one. And that means I love Terry McLaurin, who's an obvious A grade. I don't even need to expound on him here. And Logan Thomas was your take a chance on me tight end receiver earlier today, Scott, So there you go. Let's go to a final matchup. It is the Patriots taking on the Houston Texans. Scott. Sure Cam Newton the running back, right, He's right, there's not even a reason to talk about him as a passer.

He he only gets a C grade from me on his rushing ability and his ability to get touchdowns. Sure, he might get a hundred hundred and fifty yards, but it's all about all about the rushing for him. He's only has three passing touchdowns on the season. This Houston defense is is a defense that he can work against. I have a B grade on Damien Harris. Such a good much matchup for running backs, it's hard not to

like him. The main problem is Damian Harris doesn't catch passes and he doesn't get touched on opportunities, which he should because he's built for gold line use. He's a bruiser. Yeah, I I don't get it, but Texans are second worst against fantasy running backs, allowing by far the most rushing yards to running backs, which is what Harris gets. He has fifty two touches in the last three weeks. I've B grade on him, but I could go higher, but I have a very very solid, strong B grade. Then

we get to the passing game. Because Newton doesn't throw a lot. I don't like a lot of the receiving options except for the guy that has forty press plus target share in three straight games, Jacoby Meyers. He gets everything that they throw, so he's the only one I trust. Uh sixty plus yards in four straight games, averaging over nine targets per game. In that uh the average stat line for wide receivers that get nine targets a game eight for one thirty four and one point to five touchdowns.

Against these Houston Texas, we would certainly take that. Let me ask you, I don't know that he gets it, but I mean, do you think every time Cam throws to Jacoby he just sales Jacoby? Do you get what I'm saying, yeah, Kobe, I get it. I get it, you say, Kobe Brant, Yeah, it's like going in. It's you're gonna score throwing it away, not in the garbage growing throwing it throwing period, throwing away, Jacoby. Let's assume there's a quarterback upgrade of some kind coming next year

for the Patriots. Kobe Myers gets kind of interesting next season, doesn't he does. I picked him up in a couple of dynasty leagues just to just to see what happens over the offseason. On the other side of the ball, I'm I'm I'm gonna be Oprah with some a's here getting away. If at some point you need to award the Fantasy hard Park, just let me know, because I'm

ready to go again. I don't think so. Deshaun Watson giving an A grade two multiple touchdowns in six of his last seven New England has allowed the most twenty plus yard completions on the season. Could you could one of you guys do some research on me. Twenty plus yard completions a team that gives up a ton of them? Is that good for Will Fuller and Brady Cooks? That might match what they do well, that might match what they do well, so I have a grades for both

of them. Fuller head touchdowns and of sixth straight before the Monsters to a grades. There you go at your fantasy ard Vark right there. Ry Yeah, six straight games with a touchdown before the bad weather game last week. Brandon Cooks eight targets in five at least eight targets in five straight uh and the and in the four that weren't hampered with terrible weather, he had sixty plus in each of them and scored in three of them. Also, if Gilmore misses, which he might upgrade him even more.

Uh Over. On the running back side, Duke Johnson missed some practice this week with an illness. Sounds like he's to go anyway. David Johnson is on it, obviously, but I gave him a C grade. He has thirty carries in the last two weeks. He's getting so much volume it's hard not to give him a C grade, even though he's only averaging three point one yards per carrying UM.

Not that effective getting the touches. So I'm giving him a volume C. A volume C I like that when as I look forward to next week's show, Chris Carson likely to be back, does he immediately go right back to being the workhorse or do you think that they saw enough from Carlos Hyde and DJ Dallas and Travis Homer that they start distributing the ball a little bit more.

I think they would have seen enough from DJ Dallas a couple of weeks ago when he had that big game, and then they went right back to Carlos Hides, And I don't. I don't think so Carlos look good on Thursday, I know, I don't. I think they just go back to Carson. Honestly, we have a lot of history that suggests that that the Seahawks like their main heavy workload, and that probably goes right back to being Chris Carson. And he'll enjoy whatever ten days off. So he ought

to he ought to be fully healthy by then. He was almost ready, So almost ready. So there's a there's a sneaky opportunity out there for Chris Carson to dominate fantasy leagues the rest of the way. This offense is so high scoring, there's so many scoring opportunities. Carson is a good running back now healthy. Look what Carlos High did is fractionately as talented and pt Sunshine had to quote this Pee Carroll obviously, pet Sunshin had to quote this week about wanting to get back to the run

more when everybody wants rust to cook. He's like, I want to get back to the run more so if that comes to fruition. Chris Carson, Chris, back to Chris Carson, I just get I got this feeling. We're gonna be get doling on a lot of a grades to Chris Carson between now and the Fantasy Football Championship. When we come back, three Tough Questions. I will pepper my co host with well, three tough questions. You get to play along,

see if you can go three and oh. When we returned with Fantasy Football Weekly, don't don't you don't don't you don't you do you don't don't don't if you don't, don't you don't know you Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly. Our number two, as usual, begins with the game we call three tough questions. I will hit my co host with three tough questions. They will try to get them correct. You can play along, try to go through. You know. We begin with tough question number one and this is

the big e for the weekend, isn't it? Should commissioners in ESPN leagues where Taysom Hill is tight and eligible allow Hill to be played as a tight end? Scott Man, If if your question was should he be allowed, I'd be like no. But should commissioners in leagues that have been set up since the beginning to allow it? I gotta say yes for this one week before they change it next week. I'm very against changing it. They might

change it after this week. That's what they said. That's what they said, and it was also in Taysom Mill's outlook that if he starts at quarterback, they will change they will remove strip the tight end designation. They should and they should have done a long time ago. This has been a budding This has been a budding problem waiting to happen for them for a long time. But continue, I I say, I say, that's this has been the rule,

this is the way it was set up. You got to play with it for this week, and when they strip it next week, it's gone. I I hate I don't like the decision that ESPN made. I don't I don't like any of that, But I say, you gotta play with the rules that that were in place. Okay, yeah, the site allows it. You'd have to adhere to the settings unless before the season all the league members wrote in blood, we will not start Taysom Hill at quarterback.

But uh, this isn't the first instance of something like this. Uh. Several years ago, Joe Webb was wide receiver eligible, but he was starting at quarterback for the Vikings, and people got to play Joe Webb at wide receiver. And the most famous instance didn't involve a quarterback, but Marquez Colston in YAHOO leagues in like two thousand five or six, it was tight end eligible when he was clearly a

wide receiver. And I remember every week someone being like, you shouldn't do that, and I'm like, okay, but I'm gonna because I'm allowed to. So that's the answer. Yes, it sucks, but that's the way it goes. Well. Uh, first I will say this, Yes, pen should not have him his tight end eligible. They should have known this

years ago he did. The problem goes back like when he entered the league, they didn't really know what to do with him and at what position he was gonna play, and he got designated as a tight end by somebody somewhere who like put a finger in the win and went tight end and because well, I'm not gonna even speculate, but ESPN and others continue to carry that tag as tight end for years and years and years forward, despite the fact Taysom Hills never once appeared on an NFL

roster as listed as tight end, not once, So ESPN should never have had it this way. Taysom Hill as a tight end is a loophole. If you've got Taysom Hill and you're starting him as a tight end, it is a cheap and unfair advantage that you are putting on your league. I personally question your personal integrity and your sense of fair play. I don't run any leagues on ESPN. If I did, and I had Hill, I would only start him at quarterback. I would not start him at tight end. I don't care who my tight

end is. I wouldn't do it because in my heart I know he's not a tight end, and I care about my personal integrity more than I care about trying to find a loophole for a victory. That's not how I want to win. Now, commissioners want to talk to you for just a minute. Who runs your league? Is it you or is it your software? Who runs your league? Does a software dictate who runs your league? Or do you run your league? This you need to make this call.

And simply abdicating to the software is spineless. Is like I like, I like that My b by laws in my league specifically state we are at the complete mercy of the designations of the site, which you can do. And that's great, and that from that point someone you have to know that's my private leagues too. But but still the Tystom Hill owner would argue with me, Hey, this is what your by law says. If it's in the by laws one way or another, you live by

those by laws for sure. Our listeners do not have this situation in their by laws. So Commissioners, you need to make a call. But let me give you a little bit of data. Taysom Hill has played forty two snaps this year at quarterback, forty two. He has played fifty six snaps at wide receiver. He's played thirty two snaps at tight end, so he has played at the tight end position. It's fair to say he's not a tight end, but he plays at least some tight end.

You can make a case and you should make the call commissioners that he should be allowed to be a tight end. Now, my preference and the correct answer is should Taysom Hill be allowed? Should commissioners allow him to be played as a tight end? Yes, he should because

of the thirty two snaps at tight end. That said, those of you that have him, I hope you will play with integrity and you will not start him that way because winning is not winning a game of fantasy football is not worth the loss of integrity for yourself or the league when you know he's a quarterback. Wo tough question number two, Alex Smiths posted back to back three yard games. Will Alex Smith finished the year? Is a top six quarterback, a seven through twelve quarterback or

worse than twelve? Brian, I have to mention that back to back three yard games, Yes, but just one passing touchdown across those two games. So top six. If he's gonna finish top six, he's not gonna beat out Kyler, Murray, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, and Josh Allen in particular order. That leaves two spots, and those two spots he still got to compete with Aaron Rodgers, air Bear l Jack's

DeShawn Watson, Matt Ryan, Tom Brady. He's not finishing top six, and that really doesn't leave a whole lot of meat on the bone for seven to twelve because Ryan Tannehill is still in the mix. Joe Burrow, I know Fish has a lot of stats that are probably gonna support the same answer. But he's worse than twelve. But he's Ah, it's great to see him back. Okay plus plus all right, Scott, this is easy. He scored thirty four Fantasy points. QB

twelve has scored a hundred eighty five Fantasy points. He's got a hundred points to bake up. Just clearly. The question was why did I think of that from this point forward? Oh? Okay, So he has very positive matchups against the Bengals, we've already I think those touchdowns are coming this week. Uh Seattle Carolina his even a decent matchup against Dallas. San Francisco has giving up like four huge games in the past six weeks, even though they're

in middle of the road defense. The only tough spot is Pittsburgh. That's said Brian gave the list. I just don't see how he can. I don't see how he can get to top six at all, I have trouble even seeing it always in the second tier of six. I can see him getting into that ten to twelve range. But if I had to place money on it, and you do, that's how this game works, I'm gonna go worse.

Washington's path to victory real life victories is with an efficient Alex Smith, which is in his DNA anyway, because that's who he really is. You know. They want to continue to play very good defense, which Washington has. They want to run in town Antonio Gibson a fair amount because he's pretty special, and mix in a lot of high percentage passing from Alex Smith. In these two games with the three yards, he's completed sevent his passes very

efficient only the one touchdow. What you mentioned, efficiency does not equal fantasy stats. He doesn't have the receivers. Teddy Bridgewater is that That's kind of what I'm saying. He doesn't have the receivers to unlock big performance. He's only got the one receiver, Terry McLaurin. And here's really I think the crowning blow. In his fifteen year career, Alex Smith has never not once finished as a top twelve quarterback, not even the the m v P year. He probably

got hurt at the end. Even in the old days he was in the running. I thought you made on a weekly basis for a second, but that's not what I never finished the season at the top twelve quarterback in his fifteen year career, So the answer is worse than twelve. Tough question Number three. Minnesota wide receiver Justin Jefferson leads all rookie receivers by almost one hundred fifty yards. Is he an every week starter? Scott? Of the time, he's aid every week starter all the time he has.

It's a movie that keeps on giving. Yeah, that was the movie. But half the time he's he has boom games. The other half the time not so much. He's he's got that Brandon Cooks, Will Fuller, Amari Cooper, Lee Evans type of remember four to six big games a year. That's it. Oh with peerless price on the other side, right, Drew Bledsoe, I believe, yes, just two negative matchups left on the schedule. One again is against the Bears, who we just torched. But you can't bench Justin Jefferson just

because of those explosions are going to happen. I think he's flexworthy at minimum every single week, So yeah, he's a never a week starter. Yeah, on a PPR points per game basis. Right now, he's wide receiver twenty and that's after a very slow start to the season, which is understandable for rookie, where he had six targets across his first two games, and now since Week three, the target totals have been a bit of a roller coaster ride. It's gone nine, five, five, up to eleven, then four, four,

then back up to ten last week. But he checks virtually every box when it comes to the eye test, and he can turn one target into a productive box score and there's no way he falls below wide receiver three or flex territory any given week, even based on matchups. So yes, and every week starter. Moving forward, Justin Jefferson is ahead of Randy Moss's epic rookie season by yards.

He's already at seven hundred sixty yards. He has a deep downfield threat averaging eighteen yards per reception, which is fourth most in the entire NFL, not just among rookies, and despite how deep those passes are, he's got the seventh highest catch rate in the NFL. Normally, you're deep ball receivers have a low catch rate because those are hard to complete passes. It. But here's the problem, Dalvin Cook. He's so good and the Vikings are so run oriented.

Minnesota's dead lasting pass attempts twenty seven. When you divide up twenty seven pass attempts among all the wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, there are just some games that Justin Jefferson can't be a big part of. But here's why he's still an every week starter. There isn't necessary really a script for knowing when the dud game is going to come. It could have come against Chicago, it didn't.

And even in games where Dalvin Cook has had high usage games, Justin Jefferson's posted good games and some of those two So he isn't every week starter, But that doesn't mean he's gonna turn out every week big totals because the volume is not going to be there some games. So couldn't you have just said, okay, Scott, what you said, Well, why I can't I can't give you that kind of credit. I'm sorry, No, I can't do that. Uh. Brian green Bay takes on the Indianapolis Colts is the toughest matchup

of the year for the Green Bay Packers. Yeah and this this would be a shootout in years past, but not so much this year. We'll start with Aaron Jones on the Packers side, Gonna give him a beat. Despite the painstaking, painstaking over usage of Jamal Williams, Jones has still garnered at least fifteen touches in every game he's played this year, and his role is expanding at receiver. Last week he played eight snaps lined up either in the slough or out wide, so he's usage is expanding

all over the field. In a tough spot though, against the Colts, who are ranked fourth against the run by Football Outsiders. Indias allowed just seven total touchdowns to running backs this year, but six of those seven touchdowns have come over the last five games, so there's hope Jones

can score in this. One's still gonna give him a b. I'm gonna bench Jamal Williams, though only one opposing running back has managed to top a hundred combo yards against the Colts, and of course Williams is not the lead back and the one and that one back who topped the hundred compoy yards was Derrick Henry who ran for over a hundred yards and added to to receiving yards or something. So I will say it's if Davante Adams

doesn't go, which he should go. Jamal Adams in his last three games without Davonte Adams has like two receiving touchdowns in an eight catch game like he gets involved in. If Adams does not go, You're absolutely right. Yeah, a lot of a few players will get bumped up into sea range if Adam, Robert Tonyan would be one. Remember Tonyans big games happened without Adams. We're gonna I'm gonna assume Adams play plays he practiced on Friday. Um, I'm gonna give him. He's banged up and it's not a

great matchup. But Adams is an auto a at this point, regardless of matchup or or weather, which has been proven over the last couple of weeks. The Colts did just hold a j. Brown to one catch for twenty one yards, but Brown did drop a seventy yard touchdown bomb twice on the same route, bobbled it, dropped it again. Uh, and Adams should see a lot of Xavier roads a very familiar face from Rhods, this time with the Vikings.

Adams has had either a hundred yards or a touchdown the lack last six times he faced off Againstxavier Roads. So I'm giving Adams in a here, and if Adams plays, I'm benching all the other pass catchers not named Adams, Alan, Lazard, Marcus of all this gambling. I don't even know if Lazar is coming back this week, and even Robert. Yeah, but it's it's it's a tough matchup against the Colts.

So all their past catch catchers around the bench for me and Aaron Rodgers just basically off the Bench's gonna give him a see. The Colts defense ranks third in passing touchdowns allowed and that means the fewest bad for Rodgers and first in passing yards allowed allowed the fewest and Rogers has faced one other defense that's been comparable to the Colts, and that was Tampa Bay and they pretty much shut him out. So, uh, A tepid c for Aaron Rodgers, a lot of a lot of trepidation

for the Colt side. Uh nahem Hines gonna give him a see. Looks like the lead back, but he's followed up these monster games with duds. Remember weeks one, everybody ran to the waiver wire to get nih Hines and then in week two do you remember me touches he had one? See, I ran to get him in week one, knowing I was gonna stash him till week ten, arbitrarily

playing in weeken and only week ten. Yes, it's a great matchup though for running backs, but I got Jonathan Taylor's might take a chance of me running back, invite to pick between the two. I'm I'm gonna ride with Taylor this week. We'll see how that plays out. I'm gonna bench both Michael Pittman and t Y Hilton. Pittman is the lead receiver on this team as far as I'm concerned at this point, he's really coming on strong.

But both starting cornerbacks for the Packers, Jaire Alexander, who might be the best cornerback outside of j and Ramsey in the NFL, will probably be shadowing Pittman and Kevin King also making their return from injury, So both the receivers on the bench as are the tight ends for the Colts. Mo Aali Cox out targeted Trade Burton last week. Jack Doyle is slated to return again. They're all on

the bench, and so is Philip Rivers. Six of the last eight quarterbacks who face Green Bay have basically finished outside the top twenty range and that secondary was dinged during that tenure or so easy bench for Phil. By the way, Michael Pittman roster, everybody go get now, Go get Michael Pittman. And if you're in a dynasty league, the love it God, get him. Although we don't know his quarterback is gonna be next year, even it'll be somebody better than who they got now in all probability,

but I couldn't tell you who it is. That is a That is a tricky spot for the Colts. If you're next year, who is your quarterbacks? You're too good to land a premier quarterback in the draft. When we come back, the Dallas Cowboys face the Vikings. Will Andy Dalton sparked the passing game back to LFE. Find out when we returned to Fantasy Football Weekly. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly on the fan. While charting with you, Scott Fish, Brian Johnson, Cowboys go to Minnesota. Let's start with the

passing game. Andy Dalton back under center. He battled concussions then covid. Now he's back, but remember he looked really bad last time we saw him. Dallas does attack with three excellent receivers. Each of them was far better than the Vikings cornerback counterparts. Even if Cameron Danceler they're they're presumptive number one cornerback is able to clear the concussion protocol.

Prior to facing the completely helpless Bears offense last week, the Vikings were allowing almost three hundred yards and two and a half touchdowns per game. That is a lot. Andy Dalton is a legitimate starter in this offense. I've got him against the Bikers. I've got him with the C grade, but he does have B grade upside, But I'm giving him a C grade here to play it safe. Amari Cooper B grade. In three games Dalton has been

under center. Cooper seen eighteen targets from Dalton and led the team with seven catches seventy nine yards in one touchdown in the one game Dalton started and finished. If we're gonna get the same thing from Dalton, that's I would take that. Seven catches, seventy nine yards and one touchdown. Um Cooper draws the Vikings probably the Vikings most favorable matchup against Chris Jones, allowing a passer rating of a

hundred thirty two in his coverage. Ceedee Lamb works out of the slot and he has actually seen the most targets from Dalton and running from the side of face off against Jeff Gladden e in all probability glad and he's given up five touchdowns and is allowing a pass writing up in his coverage. So I've got to be grade on Ceedee Lamb C grade and Michael Gallop he was might take a chance on me wide receiver against this already thin Viking secondary. And let's go to the

running game. Zeke. I've never been more unhappy to be right about a preseason prediction. But this is everything we're worried about. Was Zeke in the off season. He's failing the eye test and the analytics are not favorable either. Compared to Tony Pollard running with the exact same offense, Zeke is averaging few yards per carry, fewer yards after contact, fewer more more, fewer forced missed tackles than Tony Pollard. Pollard is the better running back right now. That doesn't

mean poll It's going to get more work. Yet I'd even start guy ze right now. Oh yeah, I think I would do. And I've only ever see grade on Zeke Minnesota. And here's a part of it is Minnesotas run defense suddenly very good. They have only a lot of one total touchdown to running backs over the last five games, and during that span, no back has managed

to crack seventy five rushing yards. That said, the Vikings have yielded the second most touches to running backs in goal to go scenarios, So maybe those touches go to Zeke. They're still giving Zeke the ball to goal line, so maybe he gets a touchdown here. And that's where the sea grade comes from. Let's go to Minnesota. Dalvin Cook is fascinating, and normally this is where I would just say Dalvin Cook, he's an obvious. Hey, let's move on.

But I want to spend a minute talking about the thirty two touches he had, the twenty four touches he had, and the thirty four touches he's had the three weeks since coming back from injury, the whole lot of touching, and I gotta I gotta wonder if Dalvin Cook will be rested a bit in this game, and especially if you believe the Vikings are I don't like, like ten point favorites or something, especially if you if the Vikings are going to get ahead in this one, we might

see a lot of Alexander Mattis sin to try to keep some fresh legs for Dalvin Cook, And that part does worry me a little bit. Still, if the Legis do get ahead, he's probably Dalvin Cook's probably already had a good game, so you know he's still in a grade. But I'm just putting that out there that I think there's a snare where they rest him a bit. Dallas is allowing one d twenty seven rushing yards per game to running backs, and they've already let three different backs

record multiple touchdown games. So Dalvin cooking a if you feel like throwing darts, you could go to Alexander Madison. But I don't have a starting grade on and I'm gonna guess those three backs that scored multiple touchdowns were not as good as Dalvin Well. I don't think from right now, I don't think. I don't think anybody's as good as Dalvin Cook. Right now, Let's go to the

passing game, Kirk Cousins gets a B grade. Now, Cousins often suffers from these Dalvin heavy game plans, but as I just explained, I think they could dial back Dalvin and this one a lot to keep him fresh, and I think there's an up There's a little upside on Cousins for volume. But even if he doesn't get it, that's the beauty of playing the cow Boys. They give up big games even without seeing many passes. In recent games, Kyler Murray, Kyle Allen, and Carson Wentz only through twenty

seven passes. They all scored two times. What's more, Dallas has allowed multiple passing touchdowns in every game since the opener. I think Kirk Cousins is sitting on multiple passing touchdowns. And if I like Cousins as a B grade, I must like his receivers Adam Theland and Justin Jefferson. They both come in with B grades as well. For Theland, he's become touchdown dependent and this is an ideal matchup. Theland has been Kirk cousins favorite Weds red zone weapon,

drawing a team leading fourteen red zone targets. Dallas has allowed sixteen touchdowns to receivers that is the most, including allowing multiple receiver scores in three of the past four games, and I expect that to happen here as well. Justin Jefferson has it mentioned already already a B grade. Dallas has allowed sixteen touchdowns and receivers, which I just said, um, and I think this is a sellent opportunity for him

as well. Trayvon Digs is out cornerback. Jefferson has a dream matchup against an inexperienced, undrafted rookie and Savan Smith, who has played just fourteen defensive snaps in the NFL against Justin Jefferson. That is a rookie on rookie matchup that heavily favors Justin Jefferson. It is Savory uh irv. Smith is shaping up as a game time decision. If

he does not go, you can start Kyle Rudolph. Much like last week, good tight ends are generally faring well against Dallas, and if Kyle Rudolph's going to get the overwhelming majority of the tight end snaps, he is a guy that you can use. All right, Let's go to our next matchup, which is the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Scott actually want to start with James Conner and this one. He has been stone cold for

a month, even in favorable matchups games. Do you think he would do really well bad field conditions where he should be running the whole thing, and none of it's works for James Connor. But here comes to Jags. What do you think you know what is bad? They got up by a couple of scores in the Bengals, didn't kept throwing, kept throwing, didn't didn't even care. Gabe Connor nine carries the week before, thirteen carries last week, even up big points. They did not care. They just keep throwing.

And that's the big problem. I I am giving Connor a C grade here, but as you alluded to, under sixty yards in three straight, hasn't had more than three catches in a game since week three, So he's not even getting the receiving work. It's all going to. You know, they're amazing receivers. They just have a ton of options. Now you think that at some point they're gonna start switching to Benny Snell Anthony McFarland because James Conner is

getting it done. See I don't know. I mean snow has six carries in the last two weeks for thirteen yards. You know it's not I'm just talking future out a whole. I don't know. There might be there might be a spot to speculate there. McFarland three for seven yards in the last two weeks. So I did because he's gonna get the volume he'll get. He'll get ten to all thirteen cares. He might get a reception or two. He might get you fifty sixty yards maybe. So I give

him a C grade here. I'm giving Ben in a grade. I'm giving Juju in a grade. I'm giving Claypool in a grade. I'm giving Deonte Johnson in a grade. I don't even care because, as I said, they just keep throwing the ball and they keep racking up scores. The Jags are bottom ten in passing yards and passing touchdowns alone.

Allowed UH Steelers hitting their stride right now. Juju has averaged over ten targets per week over the last four UH topping six for sixty seven and scoring in all scoring in two of them, topping six for sixty seven in all of them. But most importantly, Scott, it's his birthday. There you go. Uh. The reason his yardage totals are the are the low ones though, because Deonta Johnson he's the deeper guy. Claypool is the deeper guy. Deante Johnson

double digit targets in every full game he's playing. That's that's the he's played one of those. He has played four of those. Uh, he has four scores in those games and at least seventy seven yards in each of those games. Uh, Claypool, Uh, let's talk about the rushing. Nine carries and two touch does rushing? Yeah, he's already like seven right now. James Conner just shaking this fist, who probably is. Uh, he's running up thirty two targets

in the last three weeks as well. They're all averaging ted plus targets a game, three scores in that span. I don't care. I'm giving all a's. Maybe one of them turns into B performance. You don't know which one is gonna blow up, though, and they should all be fine. James Washington four touchdown, that would be That would be insane. On the other side, I'm giving I'm giving a bench grade to Jake Luton. The Steelers have not allowed a

single top twelve fantasy day from a quarterback. Yet this year they're getting pressure on the quarterback thirty percent of the time, they're dialing up a blitz forty two percent of the time. If they do that on a rookie quarterback like Luton, I don't have a lot of faith in what he can do. Uh. They haven't allowed over two hundred and fifty yards passing since Week five either, Uh,

DJ Shark. I'm giving a B grade though, too, because with Luten in, Luton has just lasered in on him seventeen targets in the two in the last two weeks. Similar size number one receivers against the Steelers have actually had decent days against them, So I think if Luten gives it enough volume, he could get up to that B grade. I don't think Cole's getting there though. He's been a forty to fifty yard guy every week except for one blow up where he had three huge plays

in garbage time. Otherwise he's like a forty yard guy and you hope for a touchdown. I think it's only about Shark here in the running game. Robinson B grade. I won't sugarcoat it though. It's it's not a great matchup, but Robinson gets of the touches in percentage of work. The last four Backs to hit fifteen touches against the Steelers all had seventy plus yards UH, and fifteen touches for Robinson is like, and that's below his floor. He's he's a guy that's more likely to get twenty to

twenty five. He gets. He's he's had twenty five or more in three straight games. So I gave him the B grade. Rams take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Brian we all started every part of the Rams passing game. Last week in the seemingly obvious matchup against Seattle, we got nothing. Now here comes in in much much tougher test against Tampa Bay. Do we dare go back to Jared goffin company? No? Not, at least not Goff. The last time Goff flew to Florida, things did not end well.

We'll playing across the country and we went to play in Miami. I think he had about four four or five turnovers. And I hate golf in Florida, and I don't like a lot of his pass catchers. The only one to truly like his Cooper Cup and give him a b Cup of scene at least seven targets and six of the past seven games, Tampa Bay has surrendered a touchdown from the slot in three of the past

four games. Couple see plenty oh Sean Murphy Bunting, who has yielded a total of four scores and is allowing a passer rating of one nine and his coverage that would be for Cup. You made him sound irash when you called him oh Sean. Well, that was kind of what I was going for, but the oh was like plenty of twenty of. But to the other receivers, Robert Woods and Josh Reynolds. I wanted to write a Reynolds wrap this week, but they're both on the bench, so

I'll have to save that for later. Woods has seen nine fewer targets then Josh Reynolds over the last three games and has failed to reach thirty five yards and three of those past four Robert Woods that is, and over the past five games as a whole. This is a bad matchup for both. The Buccaneers have only allowed

two receivers to top seventy five yards. They'll both base a tricky matchup in Jamal Dean, probably more so Woods, but Dean is uh allowing just thirty one yards per game and his coverage and is ranked ninth among corners by Pro Football Focus. So Woods and Reynolds are on the bench for me this week, but they're both both should still be rostered, of course. And then Tyler Higby and Gerald writ I had them on the bench as well.

H The Bucks have left three tight end touchdowns over the last two games, the likes of Adam Troutman, Josh Hill, and Colin Thompson Carolinas Colin Thompson. But opposing type and opposing tight ends are averaging five catches for fifty plus yards. That's decent, but this is just a coin flip. I want no part of Tyler and Gerald Everett, so they're both on the bench, and all the running backs with their rams on the bench as well. Last week, here's

the snapshare breakdown. Malcolm Brown, Darryl Henderson percent Cam Akers and he's the one that got start to Yeah. Acres led the way with ten opportunities and opportunities either a carry or a target. The other two had eight. And this is just a brutal matchup. Tampa Bay ranked second against the run by Football outsiders. Opposing running backs are averaging less than a hundred combo yards per game. That is absolutely insane, rushing receiving yards under a hundred and

less than a touchdown per game. So they're both on the bench, uh quickly over the Tampa base Ronald Jones, can you give him a ce? I need to eat some crow here. We're really ragging on Ronald Jones last week. Maybe what's our anti our anti peacocks sounds? The barnyard is does a turkey on there, thank you. But Ronald Jones looks to be the Bucks lead back again. Assuming Jones the bulk of touches, which again is never a safe assumption in Tampa Bay, He'll have to tough matchup

in the Rams. Los Angeles has only allowed five total touchdowns and running backs this year, and since Week four, no loan back has managed to top eighty combo yards against the Ram. So it's just awful matchup for running backs on both sides. But I will give Jones the sea. I'm gonna bench Mike Evans because I'm gonna assume he sees the most of Jalen Ramsey, which is just the hard st anyone who's gonna see the majority of Jalen Ramsey. You gotta benjam. I don't care who they are at

this point. Davante Adams maybe, but we'll see if we ever get there. But anyway, that gives UH definitely not that leads me to believe Antonio Brown deserves a C target share since uh starting to share punk beds with Tom Brady. He should have had a fifty plus yard touchdown last week as well, Brady overthrew him and now now Brown could see an equal amount of Jalen Ramsey here. But I still think h Evans is of the majority

of shadow coverage from Ramsey. But on Ahold of the Rams are allowing the fewest yards to opposing wide receivers, just one seven per game, and they haven't allowed a receiver to top seventy yards in the past six So just a CEE for Brown. Chris Godwin is gonn give him a C too, but he feels like the safer sea to me. Uh, Godwins has at least six targets

in every game. He definitely won't see Jalen Ramsey. Instead, he gets slot corner Troy Hill, who was allowing forty two yards per game and a past rating of ninety five in his coverage. Not amazing numbers, but it's the best you're gonna get. Nobody going out against the Rams. Actually, the best you're gonna get it is probably Rob Gronkowski.

Gonna give him a b um a lot of mouse to feed in Tampa Bay, of course, but um, his matchup is with Kenny Young, who allows an catch catch rate and coverage and his Pro Football focus is worst graded tight end defender. So Gronk probably your safest pass catcher this week with a B and because I'm ragging all the past catchers, just a cee for Tom Brady. The Ram secondary has been great, blanked Russell Wilson last week. Non Josh Allen. Quarterbacks have averaged a paltry and Allen

six passing touchdowns. Not good, but that list does include Daniel Jones, Kyle Allen, Alex Smith hybrid, and Washington Nick Foles to uh, not too impressive. So you're not bentioning Brady, but temporary expectations, all right? That sounds like a very good plan when we come back premature speculation. This is the bit where we give you players you want to pick up now that everybody else is going to be trying to pick up next week, but they're already on

your roster because you jumped into the premature speculation. Sounds just like that also from last segment. If you can figure out the natural predator to the peacock, let us know so we can start getting the natural predator to the peacock on at the button bar here because we we're a little bit flummixed by that. What what eats a peacock? What doesn't eat a peacock? I don't know if I'm gonna google that right now. I'm nervous about tiger and mongoose. We didn't want to go the fantasy

mongoose for when we have to anti peacock. That would be awesome. The fantasy monk Ricky Ticky Tabby coming up when we come back to Fantasy Final thing in a Fantasy Football Weekly Paul church In, Scott Fish and Brian John. If you're listening over the air, we are also a podcast. Look for the Fantasy Football Weekly podcast or whatever platform you prefer to get your podcasts on. We're pretty much everywhere, and thank you for subscribing, rating and reviewing the show.

We always are grateful and we care what you think. This segment is called premature speculation. We give you three players to pick up that other people will be trying to pick up next week. But you're ahead of the game, Scott, you got so I gotta. I got a kind of a weird one here because he's going to be on buy, so I want you to get him before the Weavers after the buy. So I want you to get him now in the next five games. Jordan's Red faces three

bottom seven teams against tight ends. Two are just middle of the pack and the other two are just middle of the pack. But those teams have govern up nine games of sixty plus and or a touchdown uh combined. Those are the tough matchups. So he's got a greade five games late. Kittle is I would tell December, and if San Francisco gets eliminated, Read might be good to go for the entire season for you. That wouldn't surprise me. Yeah, So go get him now, all right, Jordan Read, I'll

like everybody, everybody needs tight end help right now. That's a great angle, Brian, Mine's them a little more of a dynasty angle. But I'm going Autumn Tate wide receiver for the Bengals. Now, if something happens to a j Green, which might very well happenings happening right, he's decomposing in front of our eyes. But more importantly, Tee Higgins, uh would would see more targets. But when he does see targets, he's producing. He's got good size, six five pounds and

he leads. He's a big boy. Takes a lot of really nice looking catches too. Next year, Tates and Higgins on the boundaries of Boyd running out of the slot with Joe Burrow is going to be scary, and Tate, despite his opportunities being limited, does lead the team in yards per pass route run. So when he gets the ball, he makes things happen. So if you've got a dead dynasty team, he's he's a good stash right now. Most of this year's rookie receivers started blowing up right around

like week four. You know, they got through what was sort of like their version of the preseason, and you know, right around week four, second round pick Denzel Mims didn't play until three weeks ago. This is week four coming up for Denzel Mims. You may remember from the draft Denzel Mims, he's big, he's physical, he's fast, He's a

big play down field threat. In his three games so far, he's been getting a bunch of targets and the Jets are gonna want to work him in for the rest of the season as they try to get some reps for him this year. That will pay off next year with Trevor Lawrence. Game scripts always favored the Jets passing game because they're constantly behind. They're going to be passing throughout and Mims has got a bunch of plus matchups left, including two in the playoffs. He will face Seattle and

Cleveland in the Fantasy Playoffs weeks fourteen and sixteen. That might be a flex starter for you in fourteen and sixteen, Denzel Mims, let's get in our final two matchups of the show, including Kansas City taking on the Raiders. Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelsey. All obvious a's and do not require elaboration. They are my third, first, and first ranked players at their respective positions. Clyde Edwards, a layer, clocks

in with the C grade. He's at a grand total of Since Bell arrived, he's had a grand total of nineteen carries, a lot even though Bell isn't taking the work, Bell's not getting it, isn't getting any work score in touchdowns now a little bit. Clyde Edwards Laire has posted eighty combo yards and no scores on thirteen touches, and the earlier matchup Agains Las Vegas he had eighty combo

yards in and no score. The Raiders haven't allowed it back to top seventy rushing yards in their last six games, so there's just not a lot to like here from Clyde Edwards Laire feels like he's sitting on fifties sixty yards and maybe a chance at a touchdown, let's hope. So um Levy on Bells on the bench, as I mentioned before, almost totally unused since his acquisition by Kansas City.

Apparently not everybody who leaves Adam Gaze automatically becomes a star player, because Lavia Bell is doing less now with the high the best offense in the NFL. Go figure. Last, I want to mention, there's a chance that both Sammy Watkins does not play because of his hamstring and Mikole Hardman doesn't clear the COVID protocol. If both of those things happen, then I think you could throw into Marcus Robinson because he'll be on the field like every snap,

so he might be a sneaky play. If both Watkins and Hardman can't go, let's flip over to the Raider's side. We'll start with the running game, which makes sense for this team. Josh Jacobs posted seventy seven yards and two scores against the Chiefs earlier this season in Kansas City is allowing the sixth most rushing yards, and the game script almost certainly involved another run heavy attack in an

effort to keep the ball away from Patrick Mahomes. As I mentioned earlier in the show, John Gruden runs the ball thirty one times per game. Kansas City sees twenty nine rushes per game. You figure Josh Jacobs gets like two thirds of the work. That's twenty touches for Josh Jacobs in. That's an A grade for Josh Jacobs and DeVante Booker was might take at Anthony player with the C grade. All right, let's go to the passing game.

Derek Carr comes out of the C grade here. Posted his best game of the year in the earlier meeting, throwing for three hundred forty seven yards and three touchdowns. But that was an absolute anomaly for both Car and the Chiefs against one of the best past defenses. Cars average game in the month since that Kansas City win just one hundred seventy eight yards and one point three touchdowns.

That's it. That's the real Derek Car here. He's been under one hundred sixty five yards in three straight games. And for the Chiefs, they've only allowed one hundred eight yards in one touchdown to the rest of the league other than Derek Carr in the previous game. So let's talk about his receivers. If Derek car is a Sea, who do we like? Darren Waller. Good tight ends have gotten it done against the Chiefs Hunter Henry and with the Chargers and Mark Andrews and the Ravens and Noah Fanton.

The Broncos tight ends averaged seven catches seventy two yards. Good tight ends get it done here. Waller had five. Sorry, Waller's had at least five catches and sixty yards or a score in each of his last three against the Chiefs, and he did well in the previous matchup this year, everybody else is on the bench. Nelson Aguilar three catches, across his last three games and a bad matchup Henry Ruggs.

He had the long bomb touchdown when these teams played each other last time, but he's done nothing else all season besides that one long reception. That's it. He is a low, low volume dart throw at best against a very good secondary a million times already. But just imagine Steedee Lamb or Jerry Judy on the Raiders or Justin Jefferson rookies. They got it wrong. They flat out got it wrong. Our last matchup of the day, Tennessee Titans at the Baltimore Ravens Scott. This has been a sleepy

Tennessee Titans offense and now they go at Baltimore. This is not a get right spot. It's really not. The Evens have only allowed five passing touchdowns since Week three. That's not many. Week four is the last time a QB through for more than two thirty yards against them. Conversely, Tannehill's best yardage day in the last four weeks the sleep before week run two or thirty three yards. It's they're just really off. It's a tough draw. I have

Tannehill on the bench. I actually have the whole passing game except A. J. Brown on the bench. Sorry about John, who I I just know I'm with you. John is not startable to eight catches since week five? John, John, Yeah John and JOHNU uh A J. Brown? Though he's just too good not to start. He had a terrible leak week last week, but he has scored in five straight prior to that. He has he's getting seven targets

per game. Even in a tough matchup. If he's getting seven, eight nine targets, he might be able to get something done. And they gotta they gotta pass somewhere. So uh A J A J. Brown. I do have a soft be on Derrick Henry A grade for Derek Henry. There isn't benching Henry anyway. Uh. He scores most weeks, hits a hundred most of the time. Ravens have been good against running backs, but David Damian Harris just at a hundred and twenty two yards and and he's a big bowler

of a running back. Henry is a little bit bigger and a little bit a little bit more of a bowler than him. Also, Clais Campbell and Brandon Brandon Williams might be missing from that interior defensive line if they are more for Henry On the other side, Lamar Jackson, Tennessee is bottom five against quarterbacks, but Lamar Jackson only has two games with more than passing yards. He gets it done on the ground now. In his first five games he only had forty two rushes. He's got forty

in his last three a round alone. He's he's starting to ramp up that rushing again. I'm still giving him an A grade. It's a bottom five pass defense, so he might be a little more prolific there and he's getting the rushing at least recently. Willie Sneed and uh and Marquis Brown, this is a matchup call. The Titans are bottom five against wide receivers. They've allowed nineteen different wide receivers to top fifty yards. That's sea level production.

And the Titans are the worst team in the league against slot receivers, which is good for Sneed. So I have SEA grades on both of them. Mark Andrews gets an A grade, obviously a grade for me. Boil out for the season. And you are not touching those running backs with that split. No, Unfortunately, you can't use any of those running backs right now. We um when Ingram was out you you know, it gave you a glimmer hope for using Gus Edwards and j K both you know,

but immediately Ingram comes back. Last week they split it up three ways and now they're all unusual. I can only hope next year we've got a little more clarity and frankly, one less guy in that backfield for us to worry about exactly. If you miss any part of the show, you get all my player rankings available at Guillotine leagues dot com. We encourage you to go there for that. Also, if you missed any part of the show, you can also read listen to the entire thing on

the podcast version of Fantasy Football Weekly. Good luck in week number eleven, everybody, We'll talk to you next week, but I Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.