Reacting to Nick Chubb injury + People's Panic Meter + top waiver wire pickups

Here I am again, just me, Matt Harmon, solo on the Tuesday podcast, unfortunately becoming a theme here, late Monday night because injuries are a consistent theme in the NFL. And I'm here because you all saw it, Nick Chubb in the first half of the Monday night football Steelers Browns matchup leaves the game with a brutal injury, so brutal that the broadcast even said they had been told it was not to be seen. It was not to be shown again, Joe Buck said, Treyekman said it was about as bad as you can get. And it certainly felt that way, it looked that way. It's the same knee that Nick Chubb had suffered a serious, as Adam Schaefter in a tweet interestingly phrased it. It's the same knee that Nick Chubb had dislocated where he tore his MCL-PCL and LCL with cartilage damage in October 2015 back in college at Georgia. So this is a serious injury. Sources are already fearing the worst that this is potentially at least a season ending injury with maybe multiple ligament damages. So at this point, it's hard to imagine that we're going to see Nick Chubb again here in the 2023 NFL season and he's one of the best players in the league. He was a first-round pick in fantasy. He was a guy that, you know, some of our analysts here like Andy Barons were ranking inside the top five overall players and it was deserved because he absolutely is that good. He absolutely is a face of the NFL, probably one of the best, if not the very best, pure running backs in the NFL right now. The Browns losing a player like that, it's a cataclysmic effect of the entire offense. But going forward, it will be more on Dishon Watson to carry the load. And you know, for large parts of this game on Monday night, he did not look like a player that's capable of doing that. Andy, this allows them to get into more shotgun heavy principles. It sort of makes the offense more Watson heavy. But again, based on what I've seen so far, I'm not sure, so sure that that's a good thing. From a pure fantasy perspective, the real thought out here is what happens at the running back position. Jerome Ford has been the backup basically all off season. They traded for Pierre Strong from the New England Patriots. They added him to the equation here. It still looks like Ford clearly has an edge as this backup running back right now. He scored a touchdown pretty soon after Nick Chubb left the game. So he should be somebody that is 100% rostered, come the waiver run this weekend. Maybe they make a call to Kareem Hunt, who obviously is still out there and has familiarity with the system. But right now, I'm expecting Jerome Ford to be the running back, the lead guy in an offense. It's been very fantasy friendly. It's been really efficient from a rushing perspective. So he's a guy that again should be 100% rostered. But let's remember an offense loses a player like this. We've discussed it before. The entire operation just gets worse and much less appealing. So that is the unfortunate update and injury to again, one of the true faces of the league and one of the best players at his position right now in the NFL. The entire sports world was kind of distraught at this injury on Monday night. So with that, let's get to the rest of the regular Tuesday program here on the podcast. Last Tuesday, September 19th, I'm Matt Harman. Welcome to the Yahoo fantasy football show presented by Nerd Wallet. It's a hell of a day to talk ball and joining me to do just that is Andy Barron's Andy was going on, buddy. Man, just just a perfect week to for me, personally, fantasy wise, hometown team, everything, everything clicking on all cylinders. I can't imagine the people have found anything to complain about this week or panic about this week. Cause I mean, it was just smooth sailing. Oh, absolutely. Smooth sailing and the best part, Andy, for you, as you mentioned, personally, the hometown team, the bears are going to be a big theme of the show here on the people's panic meter for this one. We will get into that in just a little bit. But it's funny too, because right, like, I feel like Andy week one was so kind of out of left field and so outrageous in so many ways and in a lot of facets. There's like, okay, you know, at least things kind of got back to normal in week two, not everything. And we're going to talk about some of those performances on the show like a lot of things got back to normal, but it must be nice for you personally that the one constant through the first two weeks is the bears still look like ass. Yeah. Um, I, I mentioned after week one that I was already, that resignation had already sort of settled over me, right? I wasn't even, I wasn't even panicking every more anymore because everything that was wrong with last year's bears is still wrong with this year's bears. So like, what are you, what are you going to fret about? Like, you just have confirmation of the absolute disaster that was the, the 2022 season. And, and here we are. Like, it's just kind of a big civic embarrassment. I don't, I don't have really anything positive to say we're, we're doing this thing again where they're, they're probably going to have to flip a switch at the end of September, change a bunch of things in the offense. Like, I thought, I thought we worked through all that last year. Like any, anything that I thought was progress last season has evaporated. They know institutional memory for that. So we're just, I guess we're just learning all the lessons again. Um, fields has looked awful. The play calling has been awful. Um, opponents are, are kind of clowning the team for the predictability of various play calls. So yeah, uh, that's, that's where the bears are at. That's the state of the franchise at the moment. All right. So let's dive into the week two, uh, the people's panic meter segment here. And again, we are starting with the bears before we get into that. Remember this show is all about you every week. We do this thing. We reach out to you to see which has you panic heading into a Monday morning about your fantasy team after all the action on Sunday. The best responses and oh boy, we have a great one to start. We'll be discussed on the show a couple of ways to get featured in the show a couple of ways to be a part of this one, the mailbag shoot a written email, voice video, whatever memo to fantasy mailbag at Yahoo sports.com. This one's the voice memos, the videos, those go those get bumped to the top. Uh, I also solicit spot responses on social media at Matt Harmon, the score B Y B. That's how you can submit those there. So again, Andy, you actually also asked on, um, ex Twitter, whatever it is this week. Uh, he said, Hey, uh, if you want to rant about the bears, you can go ahead and do that. Well, Dylan, oh, was happy to oblige. He sends in a recording that he says summarizes how I feel about the bears as a lifelong fan. Suffering. Feel free to use however you want. Clip it, edit it. Whatever. Well, let's go ahead and let it roll. Dylan. All right, you asked for it. Here it is. What the hell is going on, Chicago? I don't even know what I'm watching. Okay? I've never seen a team be so open to throwing screens over screens, over screens. When our downfield passing kind of works, two 30 yard passes, right to DJ Moore first drive. Boom. Let's click in. All right. We moved on from week one. We stopped throwing to the ball. The ball laterally. So it's all working. Nah. That we abandon that next drive screen screens, screens, we're off the field that our offense is done. Toast. All right. Just a field can't run anymore this year. Forgot how to do it. Just getting contained. Left and right. Clip Herbert can't run. Only guy who can run. Rookie. We give him four carries. All right. The only explosive explosive run in the whole game was him. He's off the field. Why would we use him? No, it makes no sense. Justin Fields. He knows what the hell he's doing. Okay. He's stuck on his first read. He doesn't even know how to make reads. Okay. He's missing wide open receivers. I'm getting mixed tribusky flashbacks. I don't know what he sees out there. But I feel like he always takes the check down. It never goes anywhere. Cole Comet looks horrible. This is just another year being a Chicago Bears fan. And it was perfectly encapsulated by the last play where we threw a screen on our own one yard line that was then picked off and walked in. It was just perfect. Well, Andy. Yeah. How do you feel? The first thing that hits me there is that you can tell that this is not Dylan's first Bears rodeo. You can tell from the anger in his voice that there's this thing that goes on with the Bears and has happened historically. We can take it back to like the Jay Cutler years, even before that, where the fan base is like, is it the coach's fault? Is it the quarterbacks fault? Is it the front office's fault? Is it ownership's fault? And it just becomes the Spider-Man meme, everybody pointing at everybody. Everything is terrible all the time. You can tell that like the, you know, Gatsy, Coach Fluce, Justin Fields, Polls thing is not like Dylan has done this before. I've done this before. Every Bears fan has done this. And the kind of rant that he sent in is, I don't know, I got like three, four different text threads that are going with different friends that basically feels the same way, right? Everybody's mad. Everybody's just mad that this Bears thing looks exactly like the worst moments of prior seasons. It's terrible. And he also, like Dylan hit all the really important notes there too. Again, everything that was wrong with the team a year ago, still wrong, Justin Fields. This isn't, I don't even put this on him. Like I think he's been failed by the coaching staff because you could see, I mean his rookie season, you can't, like you can't watch like the Niners game from his rookie season, the Pittsburgh game from his rookie season, and not see pretty exceptional traits. And not, you know, in that moment, like we all felt really good. Like he obviously wasn't polished. He wasn't perfect. There were, there were things to be ironed out, but like you could see some traits that were unteachable, you know, great arm talent, obviously a great running quarterback. And like we're still in the same place and in some ways it feels like regression. There were multiple moments where you had receivers downfield who were like waving or clapping their hands to make it clear just how open they were and fields unable to get the ball out, like waiting, waiting, waiting, eventual sack. Just a mess starts to finish the final pick six, the pick six that like really ended the game. Obviously an awful play. And then you have box defensive players following the game, basically saying, oh, yeah, we'd seen that formation. They'd just run the same thing. So we knew what was coming. And so you get, you know, a lineman who just sort of peels off and steps in the in the path of the pass and takes back like it was, I don't know, the predictability of this team and the multiple failings of this team, the defense is off. There's just nothing you can point to. There's nothing you can point to and be like, well, at least we have that salt. So man, Dylan, I hear you, I'm almost like, I'm not sorry that I solicited this because it's good to get these feelings out, right? But hopefully after this week, the bears aren't even panicking people anymore. And like we can just move on knowing that the bears are what they are. I think it's so easy to just be like, yep, the bears stink. Like you said, Andy, what else is new? No one should really be surprised. And my God, by the way, it's not necessarily going to get better. They go into Kansas City in week three, they get Denver in week four, Denver is a pretty good defense. They get Washington in week five. They're like, that's not like a point to me, like the clear bounce back spot for Justin Fields and the boys here. There was a little bit of hype around the bears, hype that I honestly think was a little misguided. There was a little bit of, oh, things are better. But how much better are they good? Like just because you're better doesn't mean you're good. And I think that's where the bears were the soft season. But really the problem from a fantasy perspective is that people drafted DJ more way too high. People drafted Justin Fields way too high. And like these are guys you were counting on. And I mean, DJ more 20 yards in the first game, a hundred yards in the second game. They're going to be a lot of weeks like that. And for fields, it's just like, I'm, dude, I hope he gets 16 fantasy points like next week and week three. And that's really tough when you drafted this guy and like, it to be a top five, QB one. And now he's like somebody that I'm worried you can't start in week three. Yeah. This was the, you know, I feel like we talked about this with fields a couple times. He was almost free last year in draft. So there wasn't, you know, there wasn't the sense that, oh boy, if Justin Fields bust, what am I going to do? But he was like your fourth or fifth round pick this year. And like you can't, I don't know if you're going to take a quarter back that high. That's not really a traditional quarterback round. You're going to take a quarter back that high. He's got to hit because the opportunity cost is just so great, right? Like the receivers that go in that range are outstanding. You know, you can hit on a running back in that range. Like you can't miss on a fourth round quarter back. And we're kind of headed that direction because the, you know, among the other things that bears aren't doing, there's not, there's not a lot of design runs here for Justin Fields. And maybe that's the switch that flips again, once we get a couple weeks deeper into the season, just as it did last year. But the, the rushing upside has been pretty minimal. You know, I had a rushing touchdown for he was fine on the ground the week before. But we're not seeing like, you know, a half dozen designed runs a game for five, six designed runs a game that really pop. And I don't, I don't honestly know if that's the coaching staff's preference. I don't know if it's Fields's preference. It may be. It might be, dude, I, I can't get out of my head. Number one, it's funny that we do this on Twitter, right? Well, if you're like, oh, there's no design runs, but like we're also saying like, you know, Anthony Richardson really can't take this kind of punishment. Fields was getting a leader, a leader rated last year to the point where he like wasn't viable by the end of the season because he had taken so many hits. And I can never get out of my head being at the Super Bowl doing Ecclor's Edge with Justin Fields as a guest and Austin making the joke. Like there's only one thousand yard rusher on this stage and it's not me. And it wasn't me either. And Matt Harvey, zero NFL, a thousand yard rush seasons. And Justin being like, yeah, oh boy. And, you know, Ecclor at the end of it saying, maybe we'll see you run for a thousand yards. Again, he's like, dude, I hope not. I can't remember if that's on camera or not. People can go back and watch that Super Bowl show. But he was like, I really hope not. So yeah, because he's gotten beat to hell by the end of the year. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, you know, you mentioned Anthony Richardson. And that's the other point that I want to make is a part of the, part of the frustration is a bears fan right now is you, you only have to look at what they're doing in Indianapolis to, to set up Anthony Richardson for success and sort of lean into the things that he was going to do really well immediately. And they give him a bunch of like layup, easy throws, but not, but they're not doing this thing that the bears are where it's just like the same screen passes again and again and again. You know, it's they'll, they'll roll them out. He's, he's had some connections with, uh, with Josh Downs that have been really the, like, it's fun offense. And it is perfectly tailored to him. And that is just exactly what we're not doing in Chicago. Yep. And never were. And I think that's why it's just been kind of doomed this whole time. All right. Let's move on to the next one of your Jim Bell sends in this audio. Let's take a listen. All right. People's panic meter. I have a few leagues and I kind of targeted a lot of the same people in many of those leagues. Here are the five that I was targeting the most. That would be Josh Jacobs, Johan Dotson, Chris Godwin, Dalton Schultz, and Damian Pierce. So I am in a whole lot of panic that I am going to get absolutely no production out of most of my roster in most of my leagues. Thanks. All right, Andy. Uh, so that's an interesting mix of players here. I would say that the two that got submitted a lot were Josh Jacobs and Damian Pierce, um, look, I get Jacobs. It's tough because negative yards. That's always going to be tough to look at from your running back. But, um, you got to remember, you know, injuries to both starting receivers coming out and that those guys will probably be back at some point. I don't know. Are you panicked about either Josh Jacobs or Damian Pierce? Uh, if there's, if there's one player here that I'm a little bit more panicked about and panic is strong, but, um, the offensive line situation for the Texans right now is pretty terrible. Right? They've got like four injured dudes, uh, tonsil, um, like that's just bad. It's, there's not many, there's not many running backs who are going to overcome a situation like that. It's been a fun offense. Um, CJ Stroud has been, has been fine. They've found some things at, uh, at receiver, but, um, it is super tough sledding for Damian Pierce right now. Um, so I'm, I'm a little bit more worried there. I'm, I'm not that worried about Josh Jacobs. Like this is one of those things that you get to complain about because it actually does suck when you're, you know, second round running back or whatever third round running back gives you negative yardage. Um, he still contributed as a receiver. That's going to be a consistent story throughout the year, right? So like he's, but Josh Jacobs is going to be fine. He has been the, the one point that I'd like to make with Jacobs is that he wasn't like, last year wasn't like some fluke season for him. Josh Jacobs from the moment he came into the league has been one of, one of the NFL's most elusive runners that shows up on film that shows up, like in all the, anybody who charts missed tackles will tell you that Josh Jacobs is one of the most elusive runners in the league. Like that's just, that's just him. Um, and unless that has fundamentally changed and I don't think it has, like I'm not, I'm not super worried about Jacobs. There's going to be many better days and they're going to lean on him. Yeah. Pierce, I think he's probably not going to have that running back one ceiling because he hasn't, like fully, like been the every down back that maybe people hoped for. But we also haven't seen the Texans in like a normal game script. We also haven't had their offensive line to establish a run in like a normal game. Some of these guys will be back. Like Laramie Tons will be back. Uh, Titus Howard might be back at some point. So some of these guys, like might start to get back for Damien Pierce, where they get a rather normal run game going. But I do feel weirdly encouraged for Pierce, like if that can happen, that CJ Stroud has been so good and so viable to this point, you know, Nico Collins has been awesome, uh, shout out to me on Nico Collins. He's been, he's been so, like, he been playing so good in isolation for a couple of years now and like we're finally seeing it now that he has a real NFL quarterback and CJ Stroud's been great. So that's good news. Uh, yeah, that is kind of a victory lap. Sorry, my apologies. I, I, I, please forgive me. Um, I think that, I think that just with Stroud looking pretty good that, that could be good news for Pierce if they can get this run game going. Everyone else here, like Dalton Schultz, you know, don't, you can't be panic about Dalton Schultz. Just cut him and get another. What exactly were your expectations for Dalton Schultz? Yeah, that's how I feel. Like, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, he's just Dalton Schultz. What was going to happen there? Like Dalton Schultz was not really panicking that he's not giving me four for 48 or whatever that I was expecting. So yeah, that's whatever Chris Godwin. I mean, I did say, uh, on the podcast last night, I think it was last night it was Scott or if not, I definitely wrote about it and cared. I don't care that I am taking the L on thinking Godwin could be better with Baker Mayfield. I do think like from a rest of season perspective, you've got to have Mike Evans up there. But I think he will have his days. That offense is still rather concentrated between those two dudes. And lastly, Johan Dotson, you know, this actually mixes in with our next one, uh, where Daniel N says, hi folks, any hope left for Antonio Gibson? Or should we drop him entirely in Yahoo. Standard leagues. Uh, Andy, I think we can both be pretty quick and say the answer to that is, uh, yes. You can go ahead and drop him, uh, for sure. Yeah. Listen, I was there. I was even kind of in on Antonio Gibson and I dropped him after week one everywhere. Like for, for, I don't know, Kyron Williams for, for, you know, taking a shot at Puka for absolutely anybody who was on the way or list for, for week one, I, you know, like I talked to myself into Antonio Gibson, maybe be in a thing. He's clearly not going to be a thing that, that early fumble, uh, in week one may have doomed him. Um, but he is just clearly not a part of that rotation that is, that is Brian Robinson's backfield. Yeah. Brian Robinson's going to go down as a really, really good pick, I think for people. But again, the second part of Daniel's question is, how are we feeling about the commander's offense rest of season? So this mixes in with our Johan Dotson thing here. I think Sam Howell looked pretty good last week. That was a really encouraging game for him against Denver and a hostile environment. Um, I, I felt that was a nice moment for him. We got to remember they're working in a lot of new pieces here. Sam Howell is a day three, starting quarter back in his third start, Eric, the enemy. I think it's going pretty well for Eric, the enemy so far, not going so well for Matt Nagy as the offensive coordinator of Kansas City, by the way, um, it going so well, but it's still breaking into new offense there, right? Um, Dotson, I'm not sure I can really allow panic on Dotson, Andy. Uh, I don't know how you feel about this because one guy was like a seventh eighth round pick. Maybe he got a little higher than that when we thought Terry McLean might miss, you know, extended time, but that was kind of over and shut pretty quickly. As much as I like Johan Dotson, he's the number two receiver on his team. Terry McLean is that dude. They are spreading the ball a little more than I like, but that might change again when they break this offense and more. And the reality is, Andy, outside of like Justin Jefferson, every receiver has down games. Okay. Every receiver in the NFL is capable of putting up 22 yards in a game. So, um, I'm not panicked about Johan Dotson. I think he's a really good player. He looks great, by the way, on film, the big games will come with him at some point. Yeah. Dotson doesn't seem like it doesn't target. So it's not, you know, it's not dreadful in that respect. He also never comes off the field. Like he's playing 85, 87% of the snaps. Um, and as you say, like the list of receivers who are just every week, 70 yards, seven catches what like that, that's a, that's a list that includes the guys that we're taking in the first and second round and no one else. Like you need to, you need to be like 160, 170 target receiver to, to be on that very short list. And that was never going to be Johan Dotson. I, I do think that this is one of those situations where a guy got like a lot of preseason helium, a lot of hype, all of it, you know, richly deserved. He's a very good player. But that didn't mean he was all the sudden become, all the sudden it's going to become like the absolute centerpiece of the offense and see, you know, 12 targets a week. I, I guess you're disappointed that he just didn't have like a supernova opening week or second week and why, you know, why, why has my Johan Dotson bet taken so long to cash? Well, like it's kind of cash at some point. He's a really good player and it's, yeah, yeah, it's a really long season. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't sweat that, but I would also like you just have to be aware that there are going to be a bunch of three for 35 weeks for almost every receiver in the game. Sometimes it can even happen for receivers all the way at the top of the draft as Carl sends in at Nandy. I could say I'm panicking about my first round choice, Jamar Chase, but I believe Cincinnati will figure it out. He actually goes on to talk about another player, but let's stick on since he for a second here. Most people do not seem to feel the same way, do not seem to feel as good as Carl does about this. When I asked for submissions on social media, I got a lot of responses. This is my favorite response of the bunch coming in from at picking last FF ironic that one there. My Joe Burrow slash Chase stack is looking terrible. Happy I only did it on one team. Burrow injured, Chase's lost searching for Jesus. I don't know, but maybe skip next Sunday and go pray, homie. I mean, my God, religion is in the mix churches in the mix here. This is how bad things have gotten for Jamar Chase. Nandy, I know I came on the show last week and I was like, I'm not worried about the Bengals, whatever. Seven days later, I feel a little bit different about the whole situation. Yeah, the only thing that gives me pause with the Bengals, obviously, is that Joe Burrow seemed to aggravate the calf issue, right? He had, and it wasn't a five alarm situation for the training staff necessarily, but Burrow was sitting there on the sideline with the little massage gun that you buy at the airport or whatever, that was a bad scene, he was limping around. We have to have a mobile healthy Joe Burrow. As for Chase, separate from Burrow, separate from team context, I wouldn't worry at all. He's one of the three best five best receivers in the game. He's in a situation that is eventually going to be really ripe, that is going to be great. I mean, he's just a dynamic player. He's seen 17 targets so far. There's no obvious worry with Jamar Chase, other than the health of his quarterback. Joe has to be okay. If that's not the, if Burrow's wrong, if Burrow is going to miss time, if Burrow is going to be a compromised version of himself, then it's not nothing, then I understand a certain level of panic because this is your first round pick, but I'm not worried about Chase individually. In fact, I think there's probably a by-low opportunity with Chase, given the number of people who actually reached out to us about Jamar Chase, I think he is actually probably a screaming buy right now. He's just a little risky, though, you know, Zach Taylor says we're not sure about Joe Burrow for Monday night. They play the Ram, the betting line actually moved from Rams plus six to Rams plus two. For next week on Monday night, that is a little alarming. The back of quarterback is Jake Browning, I wouldn't say that that's like, oh, let's just go ahead and drop in somebody. We know we'll be very capable of getting Jamar Chase ball. I'm with you that, yeah, Chase probably should have held on to that touchdown, Rocky Sin and coverage last week, but overall, I think Chase has played really well as an individual. He still gets open, he's capable of doing all the dynamic things he possibly could have, but I mean, yeah, dude, here's a deal, like you take a receiver in the first round and the quarterback gets hurt, that guy, you should be panicked about that. But, and obviously there was risk coming into the year with Bro being injured in training camp. And Andy, I can't get out of the back of my head. There's another thing I can't stop thinking about is Jamar Chase saying, I don't even want to see Joe Burrow until a week five. Right, you know, when he randomly said that in training camp, and now are we at a point where Joe Burrow, we don't see him until week five, like maybe that's a good point. There was such a weird specificity to that, right, that it had to come from somewhere. He probably didn't pull the number five out of, out of absolutely nowhere. So I'm sure at some point there was real fear that Joe Burrow was going to miss a bunch of time, and it was, you know, obviously great that he came back, but he, like, he needs to get right for that offense, to get right and for them to reach the point. And, you know, I mean, that's a team that's played deep into January and back to back years. So for them to get back there again, obviously he has to be fully functional. Tough to that they're down to, not just O and two, they're down two games of the division. So that's another reason where they're kind of like, ooh, rest Joe Burrow, not fall behind in the AFC. I don't know. There's a lot to think about for Cincinnati. And I think for people, I'm with you that overall, I think, yeah, Jamar Chase probably a buy, but I feel a little less bullish about it than he did. Maybe a week ago. So I'm allowing some panic here on the Bengals again, Carl goes on to talk about a different player says, however, I am starting to get panicked about Isaiah Pacheco. I watched this guy run the ball and he passes the eye test. It seems every time he touches the ball, the chains keep moving for KC. I just do not understand why he is not producing. I'm starting to wonder if Andy Reed running backs are starting to become a full fade in fantasy football. So, I mean, typically that's probably not the case. Andy's giving us some pretty good running performances before Andy, if memory serves, but I know where he is. Andy Reed has helped produce some of the signature running back performances in fantasy history. So I wouldn't like it is bad process to fade Andy Reed and to fade Andy Reed running backs. I wouldn't go that far. You wouldn't go that far. But I do watch the Chiefs and I'm like, sometimes I do think like, yo, you spent all this money on the offensive line. I mean, you're pulling Joe on Taylor in the middle of the game because he can't stop getting penalties. But still, you spent all this money on the offensive line. Why don't we just, you know, sack up and run the ball down the throats every now and again. It would be, I think they could, they get a little too cute. I mean, not to bring that in again, but he's like the king of getting too cute. They get a little too cute in Kansas City sometimes. It would be nice if Pacheco was the guy that we're going to hand the ball like 18 times to and be that sort of ground and pound option and build a different type of team. But I mean, that was really never in his range of outcomes. I don't think they, they may have to get there because, obviously, I think it's a obviously the receiving core outside of Kelsey is super ordinary. It's like relentlessly ordinary. I would still be surprised if they, like, if they reconfigured the offense around running Pacheco when you've got Patrick Mahomes, you've still got like the, you know, I don't know, an all time top three quarter back, one quarter back. So I don't think they're going to do that. This also just sounds like a, this sort of fantasy manager that really wishes that every backfield would come down to just one guy, like it's, you know, 2001 or 1998 or something like that. And you're just, that is definitely not going to happen with this chief's team in part because they just really like Jerk McKinnon and Jerk McKinnon was a super productive player for him last year, particularly in the second half, like they're, they're not going to stop playing multiple guys. And I don't, I don't think they're trying to feed Isaiah Pacheco 25 times, but that's, it's not why you drafted him either. You didn't take him where you took him because you were like, oh, yeah, I can easily see the entire offense being built around Isaiah Pacheco's talents within a short period of time. Like that's just not, that's just not on the table. What you're hoping for is Kansas City gets back to being the kind of offense that can score 30, 35, 38 against any opponent and Pacheco gets his slice of that. Right. That would be nice. That would be nice. Uh, if they could score some more points, I think that would definitely help out Isaiah Pacheco. All right. Let's see, actually sent in a lot of people he's panicking about. So tough scene. Sorry about that. But let's try to narrow it down to just a couple of guys here did, did mention Josh Jacobs who we already talked about, but Ethan goes on to say, love the show and reception perception shout out to you. Appreciate it. Is it even worth worrying about Rashad Bateman or Kyle Pits? Bateman was always going to ramp up slow, even if his usage post Odell injury is annoying, probably referencing the fact that Nelson Aguilar ran like 14 routes and got six targets. Understand that? Basically we're going to risk injury to Bateman and attempt to compensate for an Odell injury and pits is clearly lower on the Atlanta pecking order than we'd like given his talent, but it'd be foolish to think they'll change to drastically while winning games. Uh, yeah, on Bateman Andy, I mean, this was why he was a risky pick is because I think he's clearly getting eased in. I think it's great for the Ravens that like, oh, guys get hurt and then Nelson Aguilar as a player you turned to as opposed to in years past. The Ravens number one receiver would be an Elsa, a Nelson Aguilar type. So I think that is good news. I also think it clearly shows again that they are easing him in that he wasn't like thrown to the fire when Odell gets hurt. But I get the point here that he's not really somebody you can even consider playing at this point. Yeah. I feel like this question was really, can I drop Rashad Bateman? That's like the reading between the lines here like you're obviously not going to play him. You're not going to play him next week. You're not going to play him the week after that. And he doesn't have a lot of trade value right now. And there are some fun names on the waiver wire this particular week, most weeks. So I'm going to like, I'm going to approve that. If what you're really asking is, can you drop him? I think you can probably drop him because again, no, no trade market and you're not willing to play him. So that's kind of the definition of a guy that we can cut loose. I do think he's really talented and this situation could swing back around to him. There are well-known health issues here. I think if you're the Ravens, you just kind of want to get him to December healthy and ready to contribute in the most meaningful way possible. He was also never going to be like, there wasn't a clear path for Rashad Bateman to be this team's number one receiver because Mark Andrews is still in town and great. And Odell Beckham was signed for like, you know, there's a lot of excitement around Odell Beckham and he got paid. We knew Zae Flowers was going to be good. I don't know if we knew that it would be this good, but we knew it was going to be good. So there wasn't, I don't know. At no point was anybody screaming that Rashad Bateman is going to be the Ravens clear number one receiver. Nobody should have thought that going into drafts. So, you know, it's a, I don't know, just swinging a miss. There's a lot of those in fantasy, but I don't, I doubt that you took him high enough that you can really, that you can really say that you're panicky about him. And like, let's revisit Bateman in November, December. I realize you can't sit here and like, wait for Bateman at that point. You need, like Andy said, you need to make roster moves. You need to potentially beef up that fake team of yours. But if Bateman is still playing like 30% of the snaps by December, yeah, then I'm willing to throw in the towel on like the player probably ever doing anything. But I hold out some hope that he can still be that guy at the end of the season. So let's talk Bateman at that point. But, um, and just on Kyle Pits here, I mean, one thing at a time, folks, like we just, we just got Drake London back in the box, you know, we just got his season going. And you know, this is something, and I don't know if this is the right move, but, or if I'm, I'm just totally wrong about this. But, you know, if you were, if you were going to pick one person from the Falcons passing offense to get home this year, I think the choice was clearly obviously Drake London. Because even when those two guys played together last year, the pits freak out was happening. London like had a few good games to start his rookie season. Then he kind of went quiet and then he popped at the end when pits was obviously out. But I just think he has established himself as like a dude, a little bit more than pits has. Not really any to any fault of pits is necessarily just like his role in the offense, Drake London's is so much more clear than, um, than, than Kyle Pits to this point. So that's kind of, I don't know, that's kind of where I'm at with pits that he's still an unknown, the offense isn't unknown and I don't know how much panicking you're doing because find me the tight end hero on the waiver wire. But yeah, I don't know. Exactly. Yeah. We all can't have Hunter Henry, right? And the rest of us are just scrambling that the thing with pits is it comes down to what your expectations were. Like if you drafted him as like the third, fourth, fifth tight end off the board and you were celebrating when you did it because you thought you had a league winner, but I mean that's just going to be wrong. I would throw in the towel on that. I wasn't, I was not in that camp, a wonderful talent, but he's clearly not going to see that kind of weekly volume. It's just absolutely not going to happen. But can Kyle Pits be, I don't know, can he finish the season as a top eight fantasy tight end, top 10 fantasy tight end? Can he be in that, in that sort of vast middle ground where we're really just hoping for like six or seven touchdowns, six or 700 yards and, and there's a whole mess of players that are kind of in that cluster, obviously he can. But a player like that is just not going to be like, they're not going to be particularly helpful week to week, right? Like they're going to have a ton of three catch 29 year old games and then they're going to have other games where they find the end zone and they matter a little bit. And I think that's where Kyle Pits is just going to fall, I like, it's too bad. And I hope, I hope down the road, we get like the full Kyle Pits experience, but you also have to, I mean, you just look at the way the ball has been distributed in the first couple of weeks for Atlanta and Tyler Algier and B. John Robinson week in and week out are going to combine for like 35 touches. And then the rest of the offense is going to be, is going to be begging for the remaining 10, you know, and a lot of those are going to go to London. London's a great player who clearly established rapport with Ritter at the end of last season. There's just, there's just not a lot left for anybody else. No, no, there is not. And if people have had Kyle Pits on their teams last couple of years, they're well aware of that. So hard to panic on something that is kind of just to be expected. All right, we're going to recap the rest of the folks that have you all panicking coming out of week two. But before that, let's take a quick break. With the new fantasy season underway, you're always looking for a weekly W. But is it a smart decision to start a running back with a history of fumbles? Of course not. Not someone smart who can come in the clutch with the right knowledge to nail your next move. That's why Nerdwallet has a whole team of nerds who provide objective ratings and reviews to help you compare and find top credit cards. So you know you're making a smart decision. It's time to make a smart play with the nerds at Nerdwallet. Compare and find top credit cards, saving counts, and more today at Nerdwallet.com. Nerdwallet, the smartest decision for all your financial decisions. All right, let's get into some of our social media suggestions here. First one comes in from at Dumanomics. They mentioned Josh Jacobs and AJ Brown. We talked about Josh Jacobs. AJ Brown, bro. I mean, Dumanomics says that he's been asked so far while Devonta is going off. I mean, this is basically just jealousy, right, Andy? Yeah. It's like the other receiver on the other side of the field is doing all those graces of it. My guy is not. AJ Brown had a seven catch game in week one. I get it was a nationally televised game the week after. But still, like what are we doing here? I mean, Dumanomics knows that a touchdown was called back, surely, right? We're all watching the same game. AJ Brown's great. AJ Brown's a 1,400-hour receiver who's like in that club of players who doesn't really have to worry about workload and is basically going to be in every week, you know, is going to be in every week contributor, even if he doesn't like go supernova constantly. I don't know what to say to somebody whose biggest fantasy worry is, AJ Brown, like, congratulations. You've got to be storming the league if this is your biggest problem. So no, AJ Brown has not, in fact, been AJ Brown's a really good player, like you're, I don't know. What are you going to do? You're going to trade your way out of this AJ Brown mess that you've gotten your son? No, of course not. You can complain a little bit, but there's certainly no cost to panic here. Yeah. We allow complaints. You can complain about what happened in week two. That was frustrating. You know, Jalen Hertz misses him on some deep throws. One probably should have been a pass interference. The other one in the end zone. People are, I mean, oh my God, I can't deal with the fights on the side. Define on the signline. I mean, give me a break. I mean, come on. Like, find something better. We're watching a football game here. We're not watching Bravo or whatever, okay? Like, give me a break with the, with the dramatic nonsense. Get out of here with that brown head like a deep shot that he caught barely out of bounds in week one yet another deep shot that was like in the end zone in coverage just didn't come down with it. Like, he's been, he's been so close to having just an absolutely incredible open to his season. And some of those things are going to connect. He's going to be totally fine. Yeah. And like week three, Monday night football against Tampa Bay Buccaneers that has some injuries in the secondary. Yeah. He has a hundred yards and two scores. And Devon to Smith. Oh, no, then he the sky is falling for him. He has four catches for 33 yards. Like that, that's all well within the range of outcomes. So yes, Devon to Smith, very, very good player. He's going to get his A.J. Brown also a very good player. He's going to get his. Let's go on to the next one at Capira underscore FF, giving it a shot, sends in Breeze Hall. It touches were expected and it was a tough defense today, but his tweet is making some headlines and I'm a bit worried he might want out, which would of course kill his value for the season. I think the whole he wants out thing is a little overstretching it, even if he wanted out of the Jetsum, GFL pal, you're not going anywhere second, you're running back. I mean, but he did reference the, the tweet again that I had four football emojis probably in reference to being upset about the four carries he got in this game. It's weird, right? Because coming out a week one, Andy, it's like, wow, Breeze Hall had that big run. I feel so much better about him, but then you're reminded what it looks like playing in his Zach Wilson offense where you're just getting boat raced by a good defense. So I don't know if I'm allowing full panic on Breeze Hall, but I'm at least allowing you to feel like I don't quite know what to do at this point. Yeah. I definitely understand because you are now tied not to the situation that you thought you were tying yourself to, right? You thought you were buying into a, you know, and paying a pretty good price to do it and ascending Jets offense that at a Hall of Fame quarterback and man, this thing is really going to click and like everything that we'd heard in the off season was great. And it was going to be an excellent story. And now you're stuck with this sort of Zach Wilson led misery. I get it. They possessed the ball for 17 minutes and 45 seconds of game time in the loss to Dallas that it was a great defense and like there's just no way for anybody to thrive when you don't even have the ball for 18 minutes. And I don't know that this is going to be the last time that we see a single digit carry game for Breeze Hall because not only is he just coming back from the injury, but again, this is Zach Wilson. This is an offense that is going to struggle to get to 2021 points in many games against credible opponents. So it's tough. This is not a, this is not one of those AJ Brown, Josh Jacob situations where I can't see any reason to panic. I can see plenty because when the quarterback is bad, it hits everyone and it's a split backfield. You think maybe at some point the coaches are able to look at these two running backs and like, I think this Breeze Hall guy gives us a little bit more than Calvin Cook at this point, but I don't know. I love the whole narrative that like, oh, yeah, now that Aaron Rogers has heard, they just don't have to play these guys that that he made them sign one. We don't know that he, I didn't think the Dalvin cookie made them sign thing was like a bit of a stretch. The Allen is our thing, Randall Cobb for short. That was obviously Aaron Rogers, but I think this coaching staff wanted Dalvin Cook too. And also, by the way, what are you going to do? These are the guys on the team now. They're going to play them. So that, I'm with you that I'm allowing a little bit of like, I'm moving around in my seat a little bit with the, yeah, uneasiness if I've got Breeze Hall. All right. Next one here comes in from Atmorty, a bunch of letters. Alexander Madison is really starting to look like, and it's a picture of Mike Davis in a Falcons uniform. Yep. I mean, Mike Davis in a Falcons uniform is kind of the picture of the running back dead zone. And if things keep up, Alexander Madison is going to look like, yeah, it's going to be the picture perfect poster boy of the running back dead zone going forward. Yeah. That is, that is just exactly right. And this is, this is kind of what you sign up for when you buy, when you get running backs in this range. I will say that Madison has to like, he's got to make a bunch of noise against the chargers this week. This is, like, this is such a meaningful game for both teams, right? Because obviously both teams are pretty good last year, playoff teams last year, and now they're both sitting no and two, and both feel like they're a terrible crossroads. And, you know, they each have to get this game, Madison, this is, this is good to match up as Madison is going to see. And he's got some, he's got some decent ones coming up. He's got, he's got Carolina beyond that. So like, he's got the bears coming up and not, not too many weeks. So like, there's a bunch of friendly spots for him. We, we definitely need to see him erupt against, against the chargers because if he doesn't, it's not so much a fantasy question anymore as like the, I mean, I don't know, the Vikings probably got to, probably got to try out some other solutions too, right? Like either from the current roster right now, or they got to look at one of these free agent backs, or they got to consider trading, they got to do something because they haven't got any production out of Madison so far. So I will definitely allow some panic here because you, like, you thought you were being sneaky and you were thought, you thought you were getting an RB one at a, you know, at an RB three price, but it, it just has not happened to this point. He's a bit of a weird fit for the offense that they're running through first two weeks where they're just dropping back a ton and throwing the ball a ton. Like, that's not the Alexander Madison show, like they need to kind of get under center and like, they're like more of a power run thing. But I don't know, maybe that's a weird, weird, that they made the decision to bring him back. The last one here comes in from at Ian Folletti, Jameer Gibbs, seemingly being behind Craig Reynolds. This one is topical because obviously David Montgomery said today he's going to miss a few weeks with a thigh bruise. It's definitely, if you got Jameer Gibbs on your fantasy team, just be prepared for Craig Reynolds to get like 15 carriers next week and not, and not have like, oh, now Dave Montgomery is out and Jameer Gibbs is just the dude. This is kind of the problem with Jameer Gibbs is that, and why Dave Montgomery is a value and unfortunately he's hurt now, Andy, because they're just not going to play the same position even if they both have RB next to their name. Yeah. So first of all, the issue with Montgomery must be pretty significant because he, at least throughout his bear's career, he was always the guy who came back way quicker than you expected him to from injuries that seem like they could be significant or they could cost him serious time like that guy. Like one of Montgomery's best traits is, but to this point in his career has been availability. So hopefully he gets right really soon that the, I thought this was a parent with Gibbs coming out of week one and wrote about it, talked about it in various places like he'd, he needs to settle into at least some role that has obvious fantasy value beyond simply being a backup. And that's what he was in week, that's like that's what we've seen so far. He doesn't have the goal line role, he doesn't have the two minute role, he doesn't have the passing down role, he's not like the third down guy, he doesn't have any of that. He was just basically a straight back up who in opening week played some like 19 snaps. And he was super fun when he was on the field, right? Like his best play was a really exciting play, but you know, that's not going to pay the fantasy bills and it's certainly not going to justify the draft price for Gibbs, which is not to say that he can't develop into something more. And obviously the coaches, people have done, I think, a little bit of wish casting with what the coaches have said about Gibbs because anytime you ask an NFL head coach like about a player who, I don't know, did, did, you know, had some nice moments on limited touches, they are invariably going to say, oh yeah, we got to get a more work. That's the plan. That's just what they say. And it's a throwaway comment. It, it may be true of Gibbs, but I wouldn't like that's not, that's not the coaching staff, you know, that's not a contract to that, that's not like a legally enforceable statement, right? Like they don't actually have to give him more work called the fantasy police on, on Ben Johnson and Dan Ken, we're like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, last week, they said they were going to get a more work, arrest those guys. I don't, yeah, there's, there's no, we have no enforcement capability in this, in this situation, I'm afraid there's, there's no way we can make that happen. I think it will happen. I mean, my God, they took him so early in the draft, they were so excited about it. And he, he's certainly passed the eye test to this point. But like, you can't, you can't fool yourself into thinking that he was something other than a backup, like to start the season like that is, that is what he's been. And again, I'm skeptical that just because the starter or the early down back is, is out means he's suddenly going to get a ton more work, because he just, they had like more bit plans for him. So, okay, let me, let me just run it to you this way. We're sitting here saying, going into week three, he is not going to, like, take on a bigger workload, just because the starter is out. And so far, he has 14 carries for 59 yards and nine catches for 57 yards. That's 23 touches and 116 yards from scrimmage through two weeks. What is the percentage chance rest of season? Myrgib's returns like third round value where he went in some spots. Oh, wow, third round value. Yeah, it's probably, it's probably 15% something like that. 15 is really low, it's very low. I mean, I just, I just don't think that week three is going to, I don't think week three and week four are going to be like 25 touch weeks. I, I thought the Lions made it pretty clear just like by their, by their choices on Sunday. That, that Reynolds is going to play. Like Reynolds is going to, he may not get the full David Montgomery workload, but I don't, I don't think that Gibbs is looking at something more than like a 50, 50 split. I don't think the team is trying to, you know, get that backfield down to one guy because most teams aren't, I don't know, I think, I think if Reynolds were to face plant, they would, they would probably bring somebody in. And that guy would get carries alongside Gibbs. Like I just, I don't think there's a path here for, for Gibbs being, you know, until they're committed to, you know, oh, we got to feed this guy targets. We got to get this guy 10 targets, a game eight targets, a game. Unless that's going to happen, I just, I don't, I don't see the path to him delivering like third round value. That's pretty wild. That's pretty bleak. So on that note, let's maybe give the people some hope. We're coming out of week two. We're heading into week three here. Now Andy, give us the top five waiver wire pickups heading into week three. Yeah, I first want to mention Matt Breda is kind of an honorable mention here. Sequan Barkley is going to miss some time with that ankle injury we've seen as, as many as three weeks. That's really a bummer, obviously, for a variety of reasons, because the game is more exciting when Barkley's in it. Also, Barkley was, was terrific on, on Sunday, he was great. A couple touchdowns carried like dragged your fantasy team to a win. I would imagine, and now he's going to miss time. The reason that I'm not more enthusiastic about Breda or Brightwell or anybody else there is the looming matchup with San Francisco, right? Like we can, we can look beyond that. And if it's going to be Breda against like, I think it's, I think it's Seattle after the San Francisco game. Like there are some, there are some friendlier matchups down the road, but I wouldn't, I don't know, I wouldn't exactly push my chips in to get Matt Breda ahead of a matchup with the Niners. I just don't think that's like a blow up spot. My, my five top waiver adds this week. And I don't feel, I don't feel great about this fifth one. Because again, I, I'm not encouraging people to find new and different ways to invest in the Bears offense. But I do want to call out Rochon Johnson, who has looked great. Yeah, he had a relatively quiet week too. But we also did get to see Rochon streaking down the field, like waving his arm frantically at Justin Fields wide open. Could have caught like a 30 yard touchdown pass didn't happen. But he's, this is a gifted receiver. He is a gifted runner. The, the important thing here is that the Bears actually got this backfield down to two dudes in, in week two. That was exciting. Do you want to say for him and was inactive in the games, a healthy scratch in the game? That matters. Because Clil Herbert has looked great. Rochon has looked great. This is the only aspect of the Bears offense that is working even a little bit. So when, when Rochon like gets 12, 13 touches in a game, he's going to make a difference. And that's something that I think can persist for the entire season. So I think he has value going forward. My number four guy is Tutu Atwell. And we are all like everybody's buzzing about Pukinakua and Deservately so he was the top waiver out last week. Just somewhat quietly Atwell has seen 17 targets. He's caught 13 of them for nearly 200 yards. He's been really good. He's getting, and this is the role that I can really see him settling into down the road. Once Cooper cup is back, he's seen a bunch of downfield chances for this team. His A dot is over 13 yards. Matt Stafford looks awesome. So if he just keeps that role, if he's just like five targets of game, something like that, when Cooper cup is back, he's going to have some spike weeks and he's going to be an interesting player. He's been very good so far. My number three is Justice Hill, who I did not think was going to remain eligible for this segment, but he is. He's still not rostered in even 50% of YahooLeaks. He played almost 60% of the snaps in week two. It was the first game following the JK Dobbins injury. I handled 14 touches. I think that if Baltimore is actually, you know, this is one of those promises we're made and we haven't really seen it to this point, situations, but if Baltimore is actually going to start throwing to the running backs, like Justice Hill is the best candidate in that backfield for it. Probably going to split time with Gus Edwards, we know that, but they will use them interchangeably. It's not like Justice Hill will never see looks at the goal line. He said he had a couple of touchdowns just two weeks ago. So I think Justice Hill, interesting player for a team that is going to continue to feed him the ball. My number two is Tank Dell, who was great in week two, like absolutely great. Led the Texans in targets with 10, caught seven, 72 yards, a touchdown. The touchdown was like a little after the catch miracle. He was fantastic. His collegiate career was like just hyper productive. Last two collegiate seasons at Houston, 199 receptions, 29 touchdowns, over 2700 receiving yards. This is just a really good player. He's kind of tiny, but he plays bigger than that. I think he's really exciting. I think that passing game has been really interesting so far. I think Tank Dell is going to have staying power for us. My number one, just to bring this all back to the Bears, I think perhaps the most impactful fantasy out of this week, seriously, and this isn't even like, I mean, this is just me as an analyst. This is not me as an angry, you know, Bears Meadhead fan. I legitimately think that the Kansas City defense is probably the most impactful fantasy out heading into week three. They are hosting the Bears next week. They are available in right around 60% of Yahoo leagues right now. They are going to finish as a top five fantasy defense. There's a really good shot that they finish as the number one overall fantasy defense. You get this Bears team into a mode where they become a one-dimensional offense and good things are going to happen for your defense. We're probably talking five or six sacks. We're probably talking two or three turnovers. They are the defense, I think, that has the best chance to return something for a touchdown. So I feel like this could be a 20-point week incoming for Kansas City. And I would, like, this is one of those situations where if you normally stream defenses, I would go like a couple of extra fab dollars to make sure that I got Kansas City. What a show. We can bookend it on Bears, what a show, Andy Burns. I appreciate you doing this man, even if again, a lot of sad bears stuff, but you are resigned. You are resigned. I am. Yeah. There's no panic here. All right. That's good. Oh my God. All right. That's going to do it for us tomorrow. We're back. Eccler's Edge is back after making some waves last week. Oh boy. It should be another fun one tomorrow. Until then, we're out.