Unsolved Mysteries + TNF Preview, Trade Decisions - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/23

Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast

The episode navigates the 'unsolved mysteries' of the NFL season heading into Week 3, focusing on player performance trends and injury impac

Key takeaways

Jackson Dart's knee injury is severe, involving damage to the PCL, MCL, and meniscus, likely ending his season.
The Carolina Panthers are playing at an extremely high pace, ranking first in the NFL in neutral pass rate.
Javante Williams is struggling with efficiency, averaging only 2.96 yards per carry due to poor offensive line play.
Mike McDaniel's Chargers offense is facing scrutiny after losing two consecutive home games by double digits.
The Packers' running game is currently inefficient, relying on a rotation of Marshawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks, and Caleb Johnson.

Main topics

NFL Injury Reports
Bryce Young Performance Analysis
Javante Williams Outlook

Notable quotes

The reason that I got on board wasn't necessarily some fairness argument... The reason that I got on board right away was the entertainment of it.

Conclusion

The episode provides a deep dive into player volatility, helping fanta

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:06) Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Speaker 2 (0:21) Welcome in. Speaker 3 (0:28) That was very short. Did you think it was Thursday? Speaker 2 (0:33) No. No, you thought I was giving space? Yeah. No, it just was what it was, Mike. You don't feel welcomed? Speaker 3 (0:43) Oh! Speaker 4 (0:46) Dude, the people. Speaker 3 (0:47) I don't want to say nothing, but the people hated it. They hated it. I didn't really think it was that bad. I'm Speaker 4 (0:53) not going to lie. I didn't think it was that bad either, but the people. The people. Oh, man. Wednesday, Speaker 2 (0:59) September 23rd. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. We just had waivers go through in all of our leagues just before the show started. It's always fun this time of year. Oh, it did. Yeah, in the CHOP League, Mr. Derek Henry goes to Mike. Oh, Speaker 3 (1:18) baby! You Speaker 2 (1:19) got him. Mike got Derek Henry. What Speaker 3 (1:21) did Speaker 2 (1:21) you have Speaker 3 (1:21) to bid? Speaker 2 (1:22) 4.65. And that was the next highest was 4.51. Oh, that feels good. Swish! Oh, baby. Yeah, Jeremiah Love went for 3.34. Speaker 2 (1:34) Quinshawn Jenkins went for 156. Quinshawn Bumkins. Mike is celebrating. Speaker 3 (1:40) I'm on fire. Speaker 4 (1:41) Give me another Speaker 3 (1:42) name. No, it doesn't look like it. Speaker 2 (1:44) Give him another name. Mike Evans went for 121. Speaker 3 (1:47) That's a pretty good pickup. Speaker 2 (1:50) Dude, you Speaker 4 (1:50) asked Speaker 2 (1:51) for an alley-oop, and then you didn't even jump. What do the people think of that? I'll tell you what the people think of that. Speaker 4 (1:58) Oh, no! Speaker 2 (1:59) Yeah, they're fickle. Speaker 4 (2:00) People, Mike, are fickle. Speaker 2 (2:02) You did say they were fickle. Oh, no. We have news to catch you up on today. Thursday night breakdown. We got unsolved mysteries on the show and some mailbags. I got Speaker 3 (2:10) to get Henry in my lineup. Hold on. Okay. All right, I'm good to go. Speaker 2 (2:14) Would you rather have Henry for 465 or... Or play Bill Kroski again? Or Jamar Speaker 3 (2:19) Chase for 666? Well, considering... My running back two situation was Bill Kroski. Okay. That was it. All Speaker 2 (2:30) right. Quick question of the day. James in North Carolina writes in, what is your league format in the League of Record? I was listening to the Tuesday show and heard you say that Andy and Mike are 4-0 through two weeks. That's right, because we work harder than you. That's right. Thanks, Mike. Our League of Record format is a couple years ago we had a vote to add median scoring. So you play one matchup per week against your head-to-head opponent, but you're also facing the median score of the league that week. So you can get up to two wins a week. This is something I had resisted for many years. But once I experienced a year of it, we added it to our Dynasty League. It's just... We enjoy the median scoring system, and now when I'm in leagues that don't have it, I'm kind of disappointed. Speaker 4 (3:23) When you say, oh, after you finally stopped resisting, we added it to the Dynasty League, if you weren't with us several years ago when we did this, what happened was we got Andy to vote for it, and it went through in our league, and we tried it, and then two weeks in to the season, like where you don't usually make in-season changes. Andy led the charge to switch our dynasty league over to median scoring, which I completely agree with you. In the leagues that I am in, where I am 1-0 or 0-1 on a week, it's like, this is stupid. Speaker 2 (3:57) Well, let me explain a little bit of, like, I think I probably have in my head every argument against it possible. Everything I will see against median scoring. my arguments used to be about the consequence of the week, right? Like if you lose to the second highest, you know, the highest scoring team and you have the second most points, you know, so what? You know what I mean? That's the way it goes. Them's the breaks. Be tough. Battle through it. If it doesn't go your way, it doesn't matter. The reason that I got on board wasn't necessarily some fairness argument that like, well, you know, if you lose, tough luck loss, you just, it's more fair to get an extra win. No. The reason I got on board right away was the entertainment of it. It became very fun. We have games now on Thursday night football, and sometimes matchups are nearly settled on Thursday night. Last week, who I was playing against, they didn't have a shot after Thursday night football because of Gibbs and Allen and Amon Raw. It was over. Speaker 2 (5:00) Week after week after week, it was entertaining to watch all the way through the end of Monday night because every point scored for every team changes the median score of the league. You're competing against that number. It's more drama. It's more excitement. It's more fun. F-U-N. More fun. That is the argument for median scoring. Does it mitigate a bad feeling if you get lost or if you lose to a higher scoring team and you scored a bunch? Not really. I mean, it doesn't change it that much. Jason was whining all week about barely losing in the dynasty. He still whined the same amount in dynasty. Speaker 4 (5:37) You're darn right I did. I scored the second highest. The Speaker 2 (5:40) median didn't nullify your pain. No, it Speaker 4 (5:42) did not. No, it did not nullify the pain. That sucked. That still sucked. But you're also 3 Speaker 3 (5:48) -1 instead of Speaker 4 (5:49) being. One and one. Speaker 3 (5:51) Yeah, Speaker 4 (5:51) no, it's definitely better, but it is far more about the fun, the entertainment. That's why we're playing fantasy football. There's more to watch, more to pay attention to, more going on Monday. I pay so much more attention to the rest of the league outside of my matchup. Before, it was like, how am I doing? Or maybe how are you two doing? Like, oh, you're going to win, you're going to lose. Now I care about how's the sixth best team of the week scoring because I would like to score more than them. Speaker 2 (6:20) Yep, and if you want to see more details on our League of Record Keeper format, the whole league, we have that on the website. You can kind of just, if you want to Google that, Fantasy Footballers League of Record Keeper format. It has all of the details on there. Let's jump into the news because, well, we have some. Speaker 4 (6:38) News and notes from around the league. Speaker 2 (6:44) All right, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports Jackson Dart's knee injury worse than initially thought. He is expected to have season-ending knee surgery. Ian Rappaport this morning, ACL intact, damage to the PCL, MCL, and meniscus. His season is done. Speaker 4 (7:02) Yeah, it seems like it went from, hey, he avoided something. He tried to get back in the game. It's going to be, you know, not a very big problem to. oh, there's so much damage in that knee, it's a pretty big problem. So Jameis Winston, Mike, you picked him up in our Dynasty League. You paid up for him Speaker 3 (7:23) because you needed him. I ran into a problem Speaker 2 (7:25) of quarterback Speaker 3 (7:26) bye Speaker 2 (7:26) weeks. Speaker 3 (7:27) So Speaker 2 (7:27) that's a good add in a Dynasty League. Mariota as well. I will say this. I agree with those that believe this Winston will not be the Winston of old. I do not think that it is compatible with the philosophy. of Harbaugh to turn the ball over proportional to touchdowns. That's kind of the Winston experience that we've known to love. But there's many, and I'm one of them, that does not believe that that will be permitted. I think the offense will be protective of the football. I'll say that. Speaker 4 (7:57) Yeah, I think they're going to try. Harbaugh's going to try to run the ball, play defense. Manage the game a little bit. However, Winston's going to Winston. I think what we saw this first week. was a lot of the Rams defense. So Winston did nothing. I mean, he really didn't put up any yardage numbers, any points that you were writing home about. But a lot of that, I think, was the Rams defense coming to play. And they're a very good defense. They've got shut down corners. They've got Aaron Donald there. And then Malik Nabors was a little banged up. So I do think it's going to be in between. It's not going to be 5,000 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 30 interceptions like Jameis of old that we loved. But I don't think it's going to be some nerfed backup that can't go out there and throw 300 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions. They did Speaker 3 (8:44) extend him. So, like, Harbaugh was a part of this. He was already there when they gave Jameis Winston the new money. Speaker 4 (8:52) That's because he hadn't been playing. Speaker 3 (8:54) So, it's harder. No Speaker 2 (8:55) one Speaker 3 (8:55) extends Winston after he's been playing. I agree that John Harbaugh will. He doesn't want the Winston style, but. I mean, if this team is just going to be like, well, we're going to run and we're going to defense and we're going to stay in the game. No, you're not. No, you're not. You will have to start throwing eventually. And then we'll see how reckless Jameis can get on Sundays. I love that it's Speaker 4 (9:22) Winston and Mariota. The number one and number two pick in whatever year that was. It's like, hey, it's their time to go again. Speaker 2 (9:30) Yeah, that's wild. We did just get word that Michael Penix, not only is he starting on Thursday, but Tua will be the backup on Thursday. He is good to go against Green Bay. So they made the decision not to start Tua. Speaker 4 (9:43) Right. They did take Cooper Rush behind the shed. Speaker 2 (9:47) Okay. And Speaker 4 (9:48) we will not be seeing him again. Speaker 2 (9:49) To work on the shed. Speaker 4 (9:51) Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:52) Jonathan Brooks on injured reserve. Out for at least six weeks. Core muscle repair surgery. Working out Speaker 4 (9:59) Austin Eckler. I love yesterday's show. I was like, I'm going to do a study on whether or not people are injury prone. And then it's like the most injury prone player is like, oh, it turns out this injury is like, it might be okay. No, you're going to injured reserve. Six weeks surgery. Yeah, Speaker 2 (10:19) Alec Pierce officially on IR for at least four weeks, trying to rehab the heel before he may need surgery. Rico Dattel day-to-day after undergoing tests on his injured toe. And here we go, Bears fans, Tyson Bajent. He's in the concussion protocol. If he cannot get through the protocol, which is challenging on one week for anybody. Speaker 3 (10:41) Well, not only that, he didn't get knocked out of the game. So, like, this was after the game. He clearly went and reported concussion symptoms. The Speaker 2 (10:51) only good news there, they do play on Monday night. So, it could be Bajan. It could be Case Keenum. Dude. And it's the Eagles. So, that is, I mean, I would go so far as to say, like, I'm benching all my Bears receivers. Pass catchers. I totally get it. The Bears Speaker 3 (11:09) is like. other than injuries. We come into fantasy football, but there's always debacles where you had something projected one way and it goes completely sideways and you're not even close. And it's like, it feels like that. That's what the bears are right now. But nothing is – we can't get a normal Bears game. Speaker 4 (11:29) Yeah, the first week was an outlandish no defense. The running game took over. Yeah, like Swift and Mnangai are just scoring all the time. Second week was crazy, insane weather. The end of game, losing Caleb Williams, which is usually that last drive or two is where about 50 % of his fantasy points comes from. True. Yeah, I mean, I feel like we're getting bailed out right now of not starting. Rome or Luther or Loveland it's like because we're to the backup of the backup we're like oh now we're gonna bench him you Speaker 3 (12:01) should have Speaker 4 (12:02) been Speaker 2 (12:02) benching him Speaker 3 (12:03) the the hard part will be Loveland because you're going to have to go into the dumpster and put a name in like Dalton Schultz and do that on a Sunday or Monday. You'll be like, yep, I'm doing this. I am making this decision to play Dalton Schultz over Colston Loveland. How does it feel? It's probably the right move, but it's going to hurt your heart. Speaker 2 (12:32) Yeah, it's not great. No. Brandon Cook signed to the practice squad for the 49ers. You can see him moved up soon with all their injuries. That Speaker 4 (12:39) makes me a little bit more worried about Mike Evans. Speaker 2 (12:43) Well, they did say. I know they lost Robinson. It was in the context of losing Robinson that the conversation about adding someone happened. They said Kirk was too many weeks away. Christian Kirk, who is on the 49ers, in case you're curious. Speaker 4 (12:59) But also injured because he's on the 49ers. Speaker 2 (13:01) Meowson Taylor, week to week with a thumb injury. Will miss Sunday's game against the Lions most likely. A paw Speaker 3 (13:09) injury. Paw? Yes. Oh, yeah. Okay. Hey, that's Matt's joke. It's all right. It's okay. Don't give him Speaker 2 (13:17) credit. That one was good. Let's jump into some Unsolved Mysteries. Speaker 4 (13:25) Unsolved Mysteries. Speaker 2 (13:32) Well, this will be fun. We've got two weeks of the NFL season in the books. Last year on this episode, after two weeks, we were worried about rookie running backs. We were panicking about Hampton and Trevo. They were drop candidates in week two, so that was some of last year. We thought the Eagles passing offense was doomed, was it? Kind of. Javante Williams had a hot start last year. We wanted to know if Javante's performances would continue. And then apparently Drake London had a slow start. And we wondered if that bridge was falling down. Speaker 2 (14:06) I like it. I guess that's how it was worded. All right. London Bridge jokes? Yeah. Come on. I'm here for it. We're better than that. We're Speaker 3 (14:18) not. Speaker 2 (14:18) Did Bryce Young level up?