Wow, Hey everybody, It's Monday, September ninth, twenty seed twenty four. Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Show where we'd like a do over on a couple of our drafts. It's me and your man, MG Marcus Grant, along with Michael F. Florio and Lakwan Jones and stuff. We are almost through the first week of the season. Still one more game to be played on Monday Night between the New York Jets and the San Francisco forty nine ers. Uh to this point, Florio, how are your teams looking not great?
Week one?
Is?
Uh is not being too kind to me. I have a couple of teams that I feel really good about. Some others that I felt really good about that did not come through. But it's only week one, That's what I keep saying. It's only week one.
Yeah, how about you, LQ, how you feeling.
I'm literally like half and a half. I just realized I'm in way too many leagues to where it's like I gotta like, yo, you gotta set this line up and get this guy off the WAI Like it's a little too much already. But hey, it's week one and we're having fun.
I will say that Week one has been an unmitigated disaster for me. I think there are like two teams that actually did well. A lot of teams did really poorly. A lot of guys that I had high hopes for did not do very well or do much of anything at all in Week one. But we are staying the course. It is only week one. We are not going to panic. It is not time for overreaction theater. But coming up on today's show, we do have our biggest takeaways from what we have seen so far in the regular season.
We'll have our fantasy heroes, and we will have some disappointments as well. But let's get started with some fantasy headlines. A big one, and I say this is not to poke at you, Lakwan. This is because it is legitimately a major headline. But last night in the Sunday night game between the Rams and the Lions, Pooka Nakula had to leave the game early.
With a knee injury.
Now, as of us doing this show, there is no updates on the severity of it, but we you know that you had to leave the field. They also lost a couple of bodies along the offensive line, so it's a frustrating night for the Rams, certainly, but Lakwan as the resident Rams fan here, the guy who watches this team closer than any of us. If Pooka misses time, does this mean it's DeMarcus Robinson's season?
Man, I hope he's okay, first and foremost, but it could be DeMarcus Robinson season or Tyler Johnson, because you got to look at the situation how this offense was functioning. Like I want to say, first and foremost that you know Kuna matana, you know, no Pooka nakula. This offense is still going to function because it functions through Cooper Cup and you're gonna be able to have guys like Tyler Johnson and DeMarcus Robinson be able to step up
with Cooper Cup still on the field. Now would be a little bit worried if it was Cooper Cup out and Pooko naku in, then you might not get the guys like Tyler Johnson, who was able to step up when his name was called. I mean, you look at the guy generating seven targets. Man, that's pretty impressive for
a guy that's just coming off of the bench. That's not really ready to play for week one, so I would more so look at Tyler Johnson, because I'm pretty sure everybody's already tucking in, stashing DeMarcus Robinson or your league mates going out there right now, grabbing them up, and you could just say, hey, Akuna matata, I'm gonna get Tyler Johnson.
I will say I didn't even realize Tyler Johnson was on the roster. It made me flashback to a few years ago, how there had been this Tyler Johnson hive when he was in Tampa Bay, and it was one of those things where I used to always say, look, there are people who are much more aversed in wide receiver talent evaluation than I am. But regardless of how talented he was, he was stuck on a roster with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and it just never seemed
like there was going to be an opportunity. Now in Los Angeles, he's stuck on a roster that has Cooper Cup and Poopa Nakua. But with Nikua right now dealing with an issue again, we'll see how serious it is. Maybe there is an opportunity there for for you. Ask you real quick, because we saw a lot of Kobe Parkinson too. Is that somebody we're maybe interested in a tight end right now?
Yes, only because tight end is what it is right now and it looks absolutely gross. After week one he had the five targets. But I do agree with Laqwan Tyler Johnson is who caught my eye last night watching the game because of all the yak he had, And that's Pooka's role on this offense. Like so, I think he is better suited maybe to run those Pooka routes than anyone else on the team. But the answer to the test is going to be Cooper cup twenty one targets.
I mean, it was like last season when Cup was out and half the throws were going Pooka's way. That's kind of what I expect until Pooka comes back, which hopefully is next week.
I mean, those guys dominated the target share when they were on the field together. Is not gonna be a lot of oxygen left for anybody else in that passing game. Cooper Cup never even had that many targets in a game during his triple crown season.
A couple of whiles. That kind of tells you what things are. But speaking of passing across the league.
Passing numbers down bad in Week one, depending on how you slice it. If he's just looking at gross overall passing numbers, I averaged just a over two hundred passing yards per game per team. Rather in week one, if you factor in sack yardage would take some things away, you're looking at about one hundred and eighty seven yards passing per game. I mean, I don't even know, because like it's Week one, right, I mean I assume things are going to get better. I'm just going to sit
here and just pound the table again. This is why starters should play in preseason. Just get a few more snaps. Just do so, because I feel like the teams that look better in Week one, where the teams where their starters actually played some more preseason snaps. I know everybody gets frustrated and wants to just move on from the preseason. I will continue to beat the drum that preseason is good and necessary and it just makes us all feel better.
It makes us get better football. In Week one, that's all I got.
Yeah, eight eight quarterbacks through multiple passing touchdowns this week seven through multiple interceptions. And it wasn't just the lack of passing. It Like watching the games, it felt like every play had yellow flag being thrown and it's easy to blame the refs, but it's like, no, these these teams are out there committing these penalties because they're not ready, they're not in game shape, they're they're not synced up yet.
Week one is always weird, but it felt especially weird this year.
No, it definitely did it. It was business for usual for two of though. I mean, he's right now at the top of the board with three hundred and thirty eight passing yards number one, and he led last year in passing yards as well. So whatever Tua and the Miami Dolphins got going on, I mean probably don't need preseason, but there's a vibe down there where Tulla is just absolutely balling out.
It's Tyreek Hill that there are.
That's the answer.
That's that's the vibe.
Also, can they keep that vibe going later in the year, like you know, when it gets colder and they have to go go outside of South Florida, that's no, Winter is coming out. Winter is just like Game of Thrones. Winter is coming that I have never seen. But yes, oh wa, guess we have a new offseason project for the pot.
I didn't know.
I'm not getting derailed. Well, let's take a look now. It's some of the week's top scorers from Week one heading into the Monday night game. Josh Allen your top quarterback. Four total touchdowns, two on the ground and flurial. He did have one that was called back, could have had a third rushing touchdown as well, thirty one points for him. Going back to Friday a couple of year top scorer Saquon Barkley three total touchdowns as Giants fans got indigestion
watching that game down there in South Pollo. Thirty three points for Saquon another thirty three for Jayden Reid. One hundred and seventy one total yards, one rushing touchdown, one receiving touchdown. Back to Thursday night for your top tight end Isaiah Likely nine catches, a buck eleven and a tuddy there, twenty six points for him. Chris god Chris Boswell six field goals, three of more than fifty yards, twenty four points there, and the Bears defense which snatched
victory from the jaws of defeat. Twenty two fantasy points for the Monsters of the Midway again Will Levis and the Tennessee tightened.
So real quick.
I mean, Jaden Reid, are we certain Lakwanda, he is the wide receiver one and everybody else is just playing for second place in Green Bay.
I think he's the most explosive man. We kind of have to give him that title as the wide receiver one just based on the performance he gave us. I mean, the dude had over one hundred yards and this is like something that you want a guy as explosive to be able to help out your quarterback to do. And that's the yards out there to catch and creating separation, and he has the ability to take it to the house. So I think honestly we can say he is the
alpha wide receiver one. But until then we need to know timeline on Jordan Love because it may not be wide receiver one production from Jayden Reed and moving forward.
Just don't tell Matt Laflores that's gonna make him sick to his style. Olio as the resident Bill's fan here, I mean, is this not Yes, they was a huge performance, right, but can they survive with Josh Allen being a DIY specialist every sing week?
Yes?
Yes, there will be downs like he will have turnovers, but when you're asking him to be he literally accounted for like seventy four percent. I believe it was of the Bill's yardage yesterday. So when you're asking one player to be your entire identity. Because they also gave up a special team's touchdown, they gave up a bunch of
points on defense. Yeah, like, there's gonna be some bad plays and stuff, but I mean, he was uber efficient throwing the ball, and it kind of felt like the Bill's whole game plan was just to run the ball because they knew the Cardinals couldn't stop it. That's why I'm not freaking out about Kincaid yet or anything like that. I think there'll be better days for the Bill's pass catchers.
But yeah, there's a number of different ways this offense could beat you now, which is not what they had in past years.
Yeah, I'm very curious to see how things Expand you mentioned Dalton Kincaid, I have a since we're gonna get to him a little bit later on in the show, but let's get some more big takeaways from week one and La Kwan, I hope you stretched up the hamstrings because you get a chance to take a victory lap.
Here, let's go Greg Dortch, wide receiver one for the Cardinals on Sunday, and listen, I don't want to be that guy to say I told you so what I told you, sough Man. I'm looking at it at Greg dors can possibly be though one or two target of this offense, because what has shown is that he was the most reliable target for Kyler Murray. I mean, Michael Wilson didn't touch the ball after he scored that touchdown in the first quarter, and you look at the second
half of Marvin Harrison, he didn't generate a target. So when it came down to it the ending moments of the game, when we saw they were trying to come back and beat Michael Florio's I have to say your whole name for that for the Bills. But I feel like Greg Dorsch was always available for him, even some of the targets that Kyler Murray was trying to fit in those windows for him, it's the fact that Kyler
didn't look anywhere else. He looked exactly where he needed to go, which was his number one wide receiver, his most reliable wide receiver, and Greg dortch.
Ah, you're right, he had a great week.
I am not ready to proclaim that he is the number one target in this offense.
Number one wide receiver.
I said, though, that that's that they still think they have Marvin Harrison Junior.
It's one game.
I'm flexing for week two. I'm flexing for two.
All right, that's fine. Seven plays in too. I I just Junior past.
Yeah, I'm like, I'm I'm look, it was not a great game for the first game. I'm just I'm I'm not ready to just proclaim. I'm not ready to crown Greg dors yet before you are crowning somebody down in Tennessee right now.
Yeah, Tony Pollard, he just dominated the volume for the Tennessee Titans.
Uh.
And it got like you even when they were trailing, you'd be like, all right, maybe there we're gonna this is where we see u Tajy spears more. And it's like, nope, it was all uh Tony Pollard pretty much the entire game. He he led them in snaps, he let them and carries, he led them in targets. I'm trying to here it is. I'm trying to find it in my many list of tweets that sixty two percent of the snaps six he carries. He ran the same amount of routes, say the same
amount of targets. He was more productive in every aspect. Tony Pollard is the RB and I think we learned this about a number of teams yesterday. Like Zach Moss is the clear cut RB one right now in UH in Cincinnati, Devon a Hen is looking like the RB one in Miami. I think. I know it's only one game, but when the work goes so heavily to one player, I think that means And this is what we saw from the preseason with the Titans as well, in the litmited action. We saw with the starters it was Tony
Pollard getting all the work. So I took a couple of shots on Tase Spears. I don't see any way you could.
Start him until we see this change.
I am probably a little bit overweight on ta J Spears, but you're right, I can't put him any lineups right now. Just want to see sort of how things go. If it's going to even out, that's what we heard is gonna be even snaps. That was not the case this past week against the Chicago Bears. For me, the thing I beg that I took away Anthony richards is going to be so much fun. I mean, just we saw we saw the rushing of Bill. We knew that was going to be there, and yeah, there are times when
he is going to be inaccurate. You're gonna have to sort of live with the ups and downs. But man, when it is right, it is so much fun. You saw the throw that was circulating all throughout social media, backfoot on like the thirty one yard line and tossing up a dime to the end zone to Alec Pierce.
Oh, this is going to be a lot of fun.
If you did take the plunge and spind up to get Anthony Richardson, you were not disappointed by what you saw on Sunday, and I.
Think this is just going to be the beginning. The only thing we can ask is just to stay healthy.
His physical running style is always going to mean he's going to take hits, He's going to take some physical punishment. We just need him to stay on the field because if he does a huge season, huge season is in the works. By the way, I also feel like maybe I was one year too soon. On Alec Pierce. I drafted him a couple of times last year and it didn't work out, And now now I'm wishing guy had drafted him a little bit more this year.
All Right, we are.
Just getting started. We still got plenty more to do. We're gonna talk about the guys who broke our heart art in Week one and give me some waiver wire picks. That's coming up next on the NFL Fantasy Football Show. So we talked about the guys who went big earlier in the show. Now it's time to talk about the guys who let us down, and that could be a
pretty extensive list. We talked about the lack of passing numbers across the league in Week one, and certainly the pass catchers, wide receivers and tight ends took the brunt of that. But we went and picked out some specific disappointments for Week one and Lakwan who was the guy who most left you feeling empaty this week?
Oh? Man, I'm sitting on my couch watching this game. Man, I'm like, Man, I just was in here in the studio saying this guy's gonna be a top seven wide receiver and he threw it doud it was just three fantasy points. Is the ghost of Arthur Smith still in that building and with the Falcons because Drake London did not show up and show out? And also, man, we're looking at Kirk Cousins. He was struggling in that game
as well. So I'm just going to chalk it up that the Steelers had a really good defense and or Kirk Cousins is not one hundred percent fully healthy. But having Drake London having a one point eight target separation is kind of what we know that he can't separate. But Kirk Cousins never even gave him a chance. He never threw the ball deep and nothing went past you know, ten plus yard. So it's like, come on, man, we
got to get Drake London involved. Ray Ray McCleod should not have a thirty percent target share, by the way, seven targets like that should not happen. Ever, when you have Drake London as your wide receiver.
One the good news for Kirk Cousins and the Falcons is that they won't have to deal with t J. Watt every week because he was He was wrecking the house against Caleb McGarry pretty much all day Yeah.
So that's a good news.
They won't have to deal with that next week, so hopefully things get better because I think a lot of us were left wanting more by Drake Lundon. I'm but at least uh, at least Kyle Pitts scored a touchdowns. We all have that going for us, So that's good news. Yeah, it's Floria. Your your disappointment. I am in a guillotine league and I just beer by the skin of my teeth, survived in part because I was watching your big disappointment do really nothing on Sunday.
Yeah.
I went back and forth between which disappointment I wanted to go with, because coming into the afternoon games, I'm like, all right, I got Amari Cooper and DK Metcalf and a bunch of lineups and neither one of them did anything. But Amari Cooper to me is disappointing.
Although I think.
When you dive a little deeper, there's reason. There's fifty percent of me wants to believe, and fifty percent of me wants to cry for taking so much of Marik Cooper already because he had nine targets and one hundred and seventy five air yards, which was the most going into the late game last night any player had in Week one in terms of air yards, and he did have one that hit him off the hands. It was
a little too out in front of him. But if he catches that one scores a touchdown, obviously we're not talking about him as a disappointment. That is the optimism
in me. The pessimist in me is like Deshaun Watson has been the worst deep ball thrower sent a member of the Cleveland Browns awful, Like, let's just get to the point of the year where Watson stops playing football and Jamison Williams comes in, sorry Jameson, Jameis Winston comes in and is the hero that we need to save Amari Cooper, because man, the only quarterback I'm more worried about right now I than Kirk Cousins is Deshaun Watson.
Yeah. I look, you said.
I know you had a slip of the tongue there, but at this point, I think if your Browns fan Jamis and Williams running RPOs might be a better option than Deshaun Watson, you know, Like, I know we're not doing panic or patients on this show, but I will tell you that I am panicked about Amari Cooper, literally panicked about Amari Cooper. I don't I want to have the optimism that you do. I just I just don't. A guy that I'm not panicked about, but was disappointed
in on Sunday is Dalton Kincaid. I figured he was going to be the number one target in this offense for Buffalo. He had a ton of targets last year. Stefan Diggs has gone, Gave Davis has gone. It just seemed like Kinkaid was ready to ascend to the top spot on the trust tree. That didn't happen on Sunday.
Just two targets, one catch for eleven yards. Floria, you mentioned the fact that the Bills seemed adamant about running the football, trying to just carve up the Cardinals defense on the ground, So maybe that's what it was.
Over the long haul, I'm still.
Very confident that Dalton k and Kaid is gonna be a large part of the passing game. So this is one in a week where tight ends generally let us down. Dalton Kincaid was certainly high on that list as well. I'm not freaking out about it yet. Now, if we are in week three or four and this is still the same situation. I reserve the right to change my mind and revisit this conversation, but for now, I think we're okay with with what we got with Dalton kinkaid It it was just an off game and we're just
gonna leave it at that. So anyway, if you had guys on your roster that had off games and maybe you need to make a change, we're here for you. It's time now for the waiver wire Floria. Who should folks be targeted for a free agency this week?
Yeah, quarterbacks is let down in a big way. But Baker Mayfield looked every bit like late last season Baker Mayfield and he has a good matchup in Week two. Gino Smith surpassed Adrian Peterson for the oldest person in this millennium and have a thirty plus rushing yard touchdown.
He looked good.
Derek Carr, I don't want to trust him at all next week against the Cowboys, but I liked what I saw usage wise and how that Saints offense was operating. Sam Darnold started off really hot as well. If you're in a deep league, JK. Dobbins, I believe is the
number one running back ad right now. Julia McLaughlin is in there as well, Bucky Irvin Addison, Madison played, Alexander Madison played more snaps than Zamir White, Justice Hill, Zach Charbonay just because Kenneth Walker was a little banged up. And then Emmanuel Wilson because the Packers are probably gonna
running the ball a whole bunch. And then some pass catchers DeMarcus Robinson gotta put Lakwan's boy, Greg Dorchy oh One, Tyler Johnson, who again I am excited about, Rashid Shaheed Jala Jalen McMillan, who came up really big for the Bucks down the stretch, Wandel Robinson, a couple of Colts, and Alec Pierce, Adonne Mitchell, and then some tight ends Isaiah Likely obviously a huge one to grab, but Kolby Parkinson just in case Pooka's out and he could get an uptick in volume.
Definitely a couple of names of interest on this list here. I want to start at the running back spot, Floyd because you mentioned Alexander Madison playing more snaps than Zamir White, I mean when he got signed to the Raiders. Nobody really thought anything of it, considering last year was not great for him in Minnesota.
Do we need to revisit this conversation?
Is Zamir White maybe not the workhorse back we thought he would be for the Raiders.
I think we do need to revisit this. Zamir White is clearly going to lead them in carries, and he did yesterday more than doubling up any other running back on the team. But Madison again played more snaps, ran Moore routes, and had waym or targets. I think this is going to be like the Ravens backfields. When they are winning, we're gonna see a bunch of Zamir White like we will Dereck Henry. But when they are trailing, we're going to see more of the secondary running back.
And next week the Raiders play the Ravens, I expect them to be trailing most of, if not all, of that game, which means I am not trusting Zamir White in my lineups in Week two.
And if the Raider defense that we saw on Sunday is the same one that shows up against the Ravens next week, I mean we saw JK.
Dobbins run all over the Raiders.
That bodes well for Derrick Henry and maybe not so much, Maybe not so much for Zamir White and his potential to get on the field. I want to ask you, Lakwan, because Isaiah likely obviously is gonna be one of the top waiver wire targets of the week. If you are in a league with FAB, how much of your FAB budget are you blowing? Unlikely You're You're not blowing the whole thing on this now.
I'm not busting the whole bank open for but I'm gonna spend a probably a chunk in the early season just to get him, just based on what we saw. I think Mark Andrews is still banged up. You know, he's just coming back from a car accident. So I'm not too sure we might get the Mark Andrews that
we known in love in the past. So I will be making it top priority if I need a tight end, because if you're somebody like me that just locked Jake Ferguson, yeah, I'm gonna need myself some Isaiah likely who's going to be getting that volume and gonna be able to produce every Sunday.
Yeah, you mentioned Jakes Ferguson dealing with a knee injury right now. The Cowboys say he is weak to weak. There is a chance he could play in Week two, so that's something to monitor. But if you have Jake Ferguson, you will need to get yourself an insurance policy just in case. So likely in Parkinson could be some guys out there to keep an eye on. A couple other names of a note from this list. You mentioned Justice Hill and the situation with the Ravens when they are
in past situations, it's gonna be Justice Hill. We saw Derek Henry sitting on the sideline's helmet in hand but not getting anywhere near the field. So on those occasions that we see the Ravens and hurry up, Hill's going to be the guy that you and Wondale Robinson and you and I tweeted a little bit about this yesterday.
O La Kwan twelve targets for Wondale.
Know that the A dot, the average depth of target is never going to be deep. It's always going to be about five to seven yards downfield. That's always gonna be what it is. But he could be kind of an outlet for Daniel Jones, especially if they continue to struggle to get the Baltom Leak neighbors the way they did on Sunday. So Wandale Robinson understand that the ceiling is probably low, but the floor putting on how this Giants offenses could be fairly steady for Robinson this year.
So there you go.
That is our look at the waiver wire. Of course, you can check out NFL dot com slash Waiver Wire for more names and more in depth analysis of the guys that you can find to fill out your roster for next week and the weeks to come.
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