FFB Week 7: Twelve Takeaways

Welcome back, all ye loyal readers.

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means. 

It's Twelve Takeaway time.  

We have lots to discuss. 

1. Drop Patrick Mahomes.

Okay, that's a bit extreme even for me. Just goofin'. It's a matter of principle that if you drafted Patrick Mahomes as high as you likely did, you shouldn't just drop him. Is he worthy of a hate-drop? Maybe. Should you do it? Probably not. 

Now, should you bench Mahomes? Absolutely. He's been horrific in his last 11 games and his current fantasy output is in the dumpster.  

This year, his max is 16.38 fantasy points back in week 3 and he's now scored less than 13.5 fantasy points in three straight games. The >20 fantasy points drought is now at 11 regular season games. 

The only saving grace from Sunday was a bullshit run where he faked going out of bounds and nobody touched him for fear of being unnecessarily rough, which led to a long gain, and a one yard rushing TD. He still scored just 12 points and threw for 154 yards, 2 interceptions, and no touchdowns. On the season, has just 6 TDs to go with 8 INTs.

We're allowed to say it: He's been awful.  

Yet, here we are. Still talking about him because the Chiefs continue to find ways to win.

It's mind-blowing that Patrick Mahomes is playing like a legitimate D-lister quarterback and the Chiefs are the only unbeaten team still left in the league. This is more of a testament to Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo than Mahomes right now, but there's still something to be said about "real life" Mahomes doing exactly what's needed, when it's needed, and not letting his ego interfere with winning ballgames. 

As for "fantasy football" Mahomes, he's become bench-worthy. Outside the top-20 at QB22. 

2. The Dimebag Daniel Era is coming to a grueling, unceremonious end in New York. 

There are bad contracts in the NFL, and then there's Daniel Jones. As a refresher: 4 years, $160 million for the guy that just completed 14 passes for 99 yards on Sunday and hasn't thrown a touchdown in MetLife Stadium since January 1, 2023. That's 658 days and counting...  

It's so bad that Malik Nabers, a rookie, has a better understanding of the offense than does his veteran quarterback. He's quite literally pointing to where Daniel Jones should be throwing it in the middle of his route. It wasn't long after this that Daniel Jones was yanked out of the game and they let Drew Lock play a little football instead. 

To make matters worse for the Giants, the guy they shipped to Philly (so they could pay Daniel Jones) laid waste.  

I'm not sure how good the Eagles are without Saquon, but the Eagles needed a blowout win and he gave them just that. Dare I say he's one of a handful that are changing the narrative on what running backs are worth because he completely changes the makeup of an offense when he's on the field. 

He totaled 176 yards on 17 carries and scored a touchdown before gracefully letting the backups get reps. 

His work was finished, the homecoming revenge game complete. 

3. I fear that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are cooked. 

🎵Awllll of Baker's friends were hurt on Monday night! 🎵

What a brutal game for Tampa Bay. 

For starters, the Bucs had no answers for your fantasy QB1 Lamar Jackson, who threw for 5 TDs to carry the Ravens to their fifth straight win on Monday night. On top of that, the Bucs are now decimated by injuries, losing Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. 

It remains to be seen whether this hardship forces Baker into dressing like Harry from Home Alone again, but Monday was certainly a deflating loss in more ways than one. 

 


PS - Bucky Irving is a lot of fun, but Rachaad White is still the guy. Welcome to RB1 status, Rachaad!

White logged 39 snaps to Bucky Irving's 29 and Sean Tucker's 16. He carried 10 times for 40 yards and caught all 6 targets for 71 yards and 2 scores. THIS is why we don't give up on Rachaad White, THESE are the fantasy RB2 performances that he's more than capable of.  

PPS - Thankfully, Todd Bowles said Mike Evans will be out through the bye week (week 11), so all's not lost there. 

Chris Godwin's ankle, however, was wrecked and he's done for the year. It's a damn shame as he was leading the league in receptions (50) and second in receiving yards (576), in the midst of a career year.

PPPS - I thought hip-drop tackles were going away?

PPPPS - I know they didn't want to appear to give up, but the game was over. There was 0:43 seconds left and they were down 10 with no timeouts when Godwin got hurt. Coaching malpractice to have them out there with a 0.01% of actually coming back.  

PPPPPS - I hope you read the waivers section last week. The Cade Otton Era has begun. 10 more targets on Monday night and only Brock Bowers has more since week 3. The Evans and Godwin injuries should ensure consistent looks will continue to come his way. 

4. The Lions are an absolute delight and one of the best teams in the league. 

Between the two-headed monster in the backfield (RB5 Jahmyr Gibbs and RB10 David Montgomery) and Dan Campbell just generally being a glass-eating wildling, the Lions are a blast. 

Here's Coach Campbell awarding the game ball to their rookie kicker Jake Bates, who was a literal brick salesman not all that long ago. 

Jared Goff has himself squarely in the MVP conversation thanks to an 83.5% completion rate over the last 4 games and a 9:1 TD to INT ratio in that stretch.  

The fantasy production from Amon-Ra St. Brown has been modest (WR11) and Sam LaPorta has been a slight disappointment (TE16), but the Lions are predictably leaning on the run game and Goff's efficiency to win games. They sit atop NFC North at 5-1 after handing the Vikings their first loss on Sunday.

Here's a sexual Jahmyr Gibbs video for you to digest.  

For all you Jameson Williams fantasy owners out there, be advised: he got busted for performance-enhancing substances. This guy just LOVES getting suspended, huh? 

I guess it makes sense after his 1 catch, -4 yard showing on Sunday, which admittedly could've used some enhancement. Throw his ass on the bench for now and don't move him from that spot until week 10. 

5. I was wrong about the Steelers. 

If you can believe it, Mike Tomlin knows more about his team than I do.

Wins are wins and the Steelers are now 5-2. They also scored more points (37) than they have since week 6 of 2020, putting their point differential all the way to +60 through 7 games this year. 

Throwing the ball in the general direction of George Pickens can be useful. It usually results in a circus catch or a pass interference call and he saw 9 targets on Sunday, hauling in 5 of them and drawing a PI on at least one other. Pickens broke loose for his best game of the season with 17.1 points on 5 catches for 111 yards and a TD. 

I still think Justin Fields got a bit of a raw deal and did enough to earn a starting job, if not in Pittsburgh then somewhere else. It's still #JusticeForJustin for me, but the Steelers didn't miss a beat without him. 

6. It might be time for another darkness retreat. 

Regarding the future of the New York Jets and the trade for Davante Adams, last week's question was "now what?"

Well, let's take inventory of what's unfolded over the last three weeks: 

  • The Jets' only two wins are over the two worst teams in the league, the Patriots and the Titans. 
  • Aaron Rodgers may or may not have been instrumental in getting Robert Saleh fired two weeks ago, leaving them in coaching limbo. 
  • Aaron Rodgers got his way and they traded for Davante Adams to presumably cure their offensive woes, only to get held scoreless in the second half against the Steelers this past week and fall to 2-5. 
  • He's thrown 6 interceptions in the last 3 games. 
  • He was caught on camera eating his own boogers.

Then, off another loss, he chose to be evil at the podium when he could've just been nice instead.

Yesterday, he went on to the Pat McAfee Show to explain why they suck and blame it on their "energy" being off. 

I'm so sick of Aaron Rodgers all over again. You can't orchestrate all this, get people fired, and play puppet-master just to blame beat writers for being negative when you're statistically worse than Zach Wilson was last year. 

For all the chaos that's engulfing the Jets franchise, their star players still carry some fantasy relevancy. 

If there's been some good come from this for fantasy owners, it's that the Jets' new OC Todd Downing loves him some Breece Hall. Hall is RB9 right now and has been heavily involved in the offense, playing 85% of the snaps and commanding a 22% target share. 

Heck, even with the increased competition for looks, Garrett Wilson is still hanging in there at WR14 with a solid 25% target share. Davante Adams took a few weeks off trying to get traded rehabbing his hamstring so he's in uncommon territory at WR66, but Rodgers is pass-happy and this group of receivers will continue to get targets. 

The Jets should bounce back against the Patriots next week, but Rodgers could afford to be less of an asshole, especially when he's playing like a dildo.  

7. Deshaun Watson's season is over. 

You just hate to see a traumatic injury happen to such an upstanding citizen that definitely hasn't spent the better part of his NFL career sexually assaulting people. Prayers for whoever is responsible for the rehab on his popped Achilles tendon. My advice would be to keep your head on a swivel.

Shoutout to Lebron for being a stand-up guy and never not backing up his friends, even if they're serial rapists (allegedly).  

Now, the Browns have the arduous task of figuring out what the hell to do now.  They were paying him monopoly money to suck on the field prior to the injury. Now - unless something happens and he's found guilty of what he's accused of  - the Browns are basically stuck paying for his surgery and for him to go to physical therapy. Hell of an investment by the Haslams who time and time again prove they don't know what they're doing. 

Whatever, let's go 🧠 BIG BRAIN 🧠 here: The Browns will be better without Watson. Nick Chubb is back and Jameis is now fully free to do what he does best: spray and pray all around the field to open receivers. Cedric Tillman will be busy and David Njoku should see an uptick in targets now as well. 

8. It sure as shit looks like Tua Tagovailoa is willing to take the Dolphins to the promised land or die trying.

It's quite a decision to not only "play the odds" with his recurring concussions, but to opt out of wearing the guardian helmet as an added layer of protection to his oft-injured brain because of personal reasons is pure hardo behavior. Just wear the thing, it might help you stay on the field and out of the blue tent/crumpled up on the field unconscious.  

Without Tua, the Dolphins have looked like certified shit and there's been at least three times where I thought Mike McDaniel was going to break down in tears on the sideline. Not to mention, Tyreek is one of the greatest fantasy football busts in recent memory, currently at WR45 with his only touchdown of the season coming in week 1.

9. Jerod Mayo publicly slams his team and calls them "soft".

I could be mistaken but this doesn't seem like "The Patriot Way".  

I'm also not entirely sure what this is meant to accomplish - it was almost definitely a planned rebuild year and it's not like he's earned the benefit of the doubt as a head coach as if HE couldn't possibly be the problem. 

If there's a positive with the Patriots organization right now (there aren't many), it's that Drake Maye has looked good. Hunter Henry has been the primary beneficiary, putting up TE9 numbers as Maye's trusty go-to, and in two starts the rookie has gone for 21.5 and 20.8 fantasy points, respectively.  

It's time to lean into the "Tank for Travis" mentality if you're the Patriots. 

10. Anthony Richardson is CONSIDERABLY less fun than I anticipated. 

Richardson just isn't quite coming along the way many thought he would and the accuracy issues are officially a problem. He's completing just 48.5% of his passes through five starts with a concerning 3 TD:6 INT ratio.

What makes him great is also what tends to keep him off the field, and he's kind of a shitty passer. He has all the talent in the world, he's just 22 years old and he's made just 9 career starts, but he's still very much a work in progress and currently a massive fantasy flop at QB27. There's a lot to be excited about with Richardson but I fear it might be 2025 before we see those things come to fruition and some development would be nice to see. 

Sadly, the Colts receivers are non-factors and Jonathan Taylor is out, so the Colts offense is a dud. Michael Pittman (WR33) and Alec Pierce (WR22) are struggling to get viable targets and I hate to say it, but they were better off with Flacco.

11. The Cooper Kupp Sweepstakes is now open! 

Kupp is fresh off the IR and the Rams are trying to maximize that value. To the highest bidder go the spoils! 

Should the Chiefs add Cooper Kupp, then the Super Bowl run is back on. I know I've besmirched Patrick Mahomes' fantasy performance so far, but adding Cooper Kupp would elevate him. 

Also, Puka Nacua stock if this were to happen: 📈  

UPDATE: The Chiefs are sending a 5th round pick to the Titans for DeAndre Hopkins. Great move by the Chiefs to try and resuscitate their sputtering quarterback, the Titans continue to be a joke franchise. 

12. Baker is a Zyn guy. 

Welcome to the brotherhood officially, my dude. Wonder if they’re 3’s or 6’s? Either way, epic.  

WEEK 6 WIN THE WAIVER WIRE sponsored by Olive Garden:

 
Thank you to our new sponsor, Olive Garden, for believing in us here at the Fantasy Football Boys Fantasy Football Department. 

"When you're here, you're family™"
Buttered Bread

  • Tua Tagovailoa - Maybe your league got impatient, and he does get to throw to Tyreek Hill if/when he comes back.
Running backs are a bit thin this week on waivers. Assess what's available in your league and act accordingly. Don't be afraid to say no to any of these guys if your situation doesn't demand it.
  • Alexander Mattison - Zamir White is a no-show and it appears to be the Mattison show in Las Vegas, for better or worse. 
  • Tony Pollard - Maybe he's been cast off as part of the Titans' offensive woes, but he's averaging 22 touches over the last 3 games.
  • Jaylen Warren - Again, check and see - he's missed two games with a bothersome knee, but he crept up to 51% of offensive snaps this week and he's shown he can do it in the past. 
Wide receivers are in high demand after another week of injuries. This is where most of the FAAB budget will be going this week. 
  • Jalen McMillan - No brainer. Evans out, Godwin out. The Bucs WRs are shorthanded, McMillan's role is now increased.
  • Cedric Tillman -  Amari Cooper's departure has him primed to break out, and Jameis is an upgrade at QB for the Browns. He caught 8 of 12 targets last week.
  • Ricky Pearsall - Injuries have the 49ers target share wide open and Aiyuk is down for the season. Gunshot survivor, so you know he's got that dawg in him.
  • Jauan Jennings - Maybe he's available although a WR1 week 3 may have him dry-rotting on someone's bench, but it's still worth checking. 
  • Cade Otton - See above. Bucs pass-catchers are dropping like flies. Otton is coming off a career-high 8 catches for 100 yards.
  • Will Dissly - This is a deep reach but he led the Chargers in targets, catches, and yards on Monday night with Quentin Johnston sidelined. Plus, I like saying "Will Pissly" so I included him in here.


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