Should the Vikings be worried about Jordan Mason?

hey everybody welcome to another episode of purple Insider and the purple Insider fantasy Shel with Mike schel of the deep end fantasy football podcast the show presented by Underdog fantasy a very very exciting week we've got lots of results in the fantasy world and a reminder Underdog fantasy the easiest place to play fantasy sports the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry and you got to check out the pick them which we're going to talk a ton about today so easy to play just pick between two and eight stats for your favorite players choose whether they will go higher or lower and you can win 20 times your money by going five for five sign up with the promo code purple helps the show also great for you claim your special pick and firsttime deposit offer up to ,000 in bonus cash must be 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1 1800 Gambler or visit NCP gambling .org Mike we have so much football but I want to start out in a place where there is fantasy controversy and that is with Christian mcaffrey poor Jordan Mason he has the game of his life he dominates the Jets he goes to the interview yes it's my time and he says yeah they told me on Friday that I'm going to start and everyone went oh because the injury report did not necessarily suggest that and I for one am shocked that a team would mislead the nation of Underdog fantasy players with an injury report but the poor kid had no idea what he was doing and then clearly got reprimanded after that but you know this whole mcaffrey thing it's very relevant to us here in Minnesota with h Christian mcaffrey set to play against the Vikings if he's healthy so what is your take on Christian McCaffrey's status it already sounds like he probably won't and that is how after everybody was sort of like shook by all of that on Monday night yeah he's not going to play next week either so expect Jordan Mason who was excellent in that game you know there I have a lot of thoughts on that um teams of course play games with this all the time and it shouldn't surprise anybody that there's some reason to believe that Kyle Shanahan you know kept it to himself what was actually going to happen in that game Shanahan did have an out on Monday night when he was you know hit with Mason said he was told Friday and he sort of tried to wiggle away but all he could have said was we didn't know McCaffrey's status and you know we wanted him to be ready to handle a bigger workload he kind of did say that but the starting point doesn't have to mean that mcaffrey is inactive and I think the freakout was like oh he's inactive I thought he was supposed to be nobody had that like all the national reporters that would have known that have nothing to say like they they're just going to keep it to themselves if they know I can't I can't assume that they would know but it's very rare for something like that to happen dramatically and he was the number one pick in most fantasy drafts so it's Troublesome in a fantasy context for mcaffrey long term I mean he for a couple years wore the injury-prone tag a lot of us thought that wasn't quite Fair he had a couple of muscle PS and these things will get better and then he just had two insane workload Seasons you know postseason games and like okay that was stupid so we all went back to picking him first overall now he's inactive and he's got a kiles tendonitis and a CF thing and he's 29 and he's had a billion touches already in his career so you know fantasy-wise Mason has been the you know the talk of the week he and Isaiah likely two players that maybe were not drafted in your leagues okay well now what do we do a lot of leagues have just sort of a bottom to top based on the standings waiver claim you know process and a lot of other leagues you have to decide how much to bid you get a budget of fake money free the Fab they call it free agent budget and then how much do I want to spend what percentage and I'm in a couple leagues where Mason was available and I spent out of a thousand dollars of fake money I bid seven well 716 right Matthew Western New York I thought that might have been good enough but it wasn't for Mason who could go back to the bench by week three I don't think it's going to be this week but he could it's just that he showed very well I I got in on Mason just in time in the preseason by the way drafting him a lot in Underdog he became my fourth highest owned player by the end of the preseason because in the first preseason game he looked great and it just looked like if mcaffrey this is what you're trying to do we talked about it a few weeks ago in these drafts you know pick up these not he's not a rookie but these young guys who are one injury away and he's on the perfect team and he might be good so if it's not too late to get to Mason good for you you might still have a chance to take advantage of that but as far as mcaffrey goes you have to be concerned as as far as his matchup against the Vikings you're right everything seems to be pointing that way uh Ian Rapaport mentioned that they are having discussions about whether to even just put him on IR but the thing about San Francisco is for whatever reason Kyle Shanahan is the running freak and so was his dad and so was Gary kubak with those teams with the the Mike Andersons the Tatum Bells uh showing up the Oris Garry's and for whatever reason they have always been able to produce these great running backs and I think it's probably the blocking the marrying with the past game that they're so good with and it did make me think for just a second wait should they have not traded for Christian mcaffry no actually they should they went to the Super Bowl that that worked out it's fine they were you know a field goal away from winning the Super Bowl or something so good thing though yeah right because otherwise I mean if he had had this kind of injury last year or when they acquired him then that would look a whole heck of a lot different but for as far as it pertains to Jordan Mason I mean sky is the limit because of who you play for and if you get fresh legs with a guy who runs that hard that's what I noticed about him is he is a he's a violent dude I I mean I think that the Vikings are really in for something different with Jordan Mason than they were last week with single Terry this is a very aggressive Runner who could have a lot of success for that yeah he reminded me of Marshon Lynch watching him on Monday night I'm not sure he's quite as big but um absolutely and so I mean that's that's right about Shanahan and sort of his history his uh his trees history if you will over the years and the running game and you know they also have George KD who is probably the best blocking tight end in the league he's one of them and he can catch the ball too but what limit what has limited KD in fantasy football is that he's just too good on the line of scrimmage he's not somebody you know Kelsey is more of a you know more like a wide receiver and then you have Trent Williams who got signed late and this is one of many San Francisco games where they just don't really need to push it even without mcaffrey I have always kind of said they didn't need to trade for him when you win everything you did was right you know like what what's the point of poking holes in that and they were close enough and he's been so good so it's hard but they spent a lot of draft Capital to get him I never really I never sort of liked the move and another thing with San Francisco that's sort of ironic is that they have spent day two picks on running backs who are not even necessarily great prospects that have completely washed out you have Trey Benson who's now a backup Indianapolis uh Tyrion Davis price is another one and you know here's Mason and if you think about a team like the ners shouldn't they know this like shouldn't they know what not to they're I think they're bad in the draft but they win and coaching has a lot to do with that um and they have Elite skill position players Mason could end up being that guy in fantasy with McCaffrey's age and how the season has started where you're just you know the season over and you take a drink and you're like well how did how did I miss that uh what could I have done differently but um hopefully a lot of your viewers were Keen to him because that's how that's what we were sort of banging the drum for a month ago is rookies backups on the right teams in the right situations once Elijah Mitchell went to IR another one of these guys by the way I mean the path was clear for Mason but for mcaffrey and look at how it started I I think there must be with that San Francisco running scheme some skill set that I don't totally understand that just works maybe it's a vision or maybe it's a patience element to it where if you draft some higher running backs who may have a little more physical Talent or a little quicker but if they don't let the blocks develop the way that they're supposed to develop then it may hurt them and that might be something that's really difficult to identify in the draft which guy is going to be able to properly follow NFL blocking schemes that are never used in college and hey it's just this guy Mason or that guy Mitchell uh for San Francisco or a number of different guys what Arion Foster played for Gary kubak and what was he undrafted or something I mean it always seems to be the guy that you don't expect but I think as far as the Vikings go this is something to very much be feared and the Vikings run defense I think it has a chance to be very good with the amount of beef that they play up front with Harrison Phillips who you know is a very good run Defender Jonathan Bullard that's his thing uh but we really didn't see that tested against the the New York Giants because they were down quickly they had to throw all the time it that didn't work either single ter didn't get that many opportunities and the Vikings run defense looks immaculate after one week but kind of the the way that the game developed probably impacted that more than we can say oh wow they're just going to be unstoppable against the run so I think we'll find that out this week yeah that's right and that's really I think everybody kind of knows this but it's the most important lesson about week one is that it's one game and matchups are so vital to you know analyzing those results a lot of teams are going to look great against the Giants I think I mean that was just a horrendous performance by them after you know you've got all summer to figure out not just you know execution but your matchup your strategy different things and to just be so inept the first game is a really bad sign this team on my head is another example of that Atlanta Cincinnati you almost just can't believe Cleveland that they're not sharper in that first game we do have a Sam darnold Revenge game by the way coming up here and would you not say he was good I mean with all that said about matchups and you know what the Giants might be we talked a lot about him of course purple Insider like what darnold is worth in fantasy and what kind of year you might have I mean that's a very nice start it's hard not to overreact because it looked so good and the biggest thing was I saw Dan orlovski breaking this down on on ESPN but the biggest thing was that he was throwing with the timing of the offense and Kevin oconnell obsesses over this as coaches should with the timing of the footwork Mar caring up with the past Concepts and all that sort of stuff but that is how this thing works it's why Matthew Stafford went to the Rams and then did different things that he had never done before with Detroit because once he got that down with his physical tools he was pretty Unstoppable this is kind of the light version or the poor man's version of that it's a dude who's really big and has a huge arm as everyone saw in that 44 yard pass to Justin Jefferson who's timing with his wide receiver in previous stops had been pretty bad and he had tried to scramble around and make plays and turn the ball over a lot that was the biggest thing for me is that there were a few opportunities where he could have said let me let me just gun it into this tight window and he said you know what I'm gonna just G get it to Aaron Jones just gonna get it to Johnny mutt who we talked about didn't have a huge day Jaylen Naylor with a touchdown though we talked about him and he could be very big for this week because Addison is banged up again and it's the other ankle which isn't all that uh good for the Vikings because now you're talking about two ankle injuries out of a two possible ankles that he has yeah that's the most ankles that's the most it's 100% analytics of ankles and uh but but I thought as far as the execution of what Sam darnold was asked to do it could not have gone any better for him the thing is though we talk about how the game played out they're running successfully with Aaron Jones they're ahead throughout the entire game and I just don't know that their defense was very well suited for what Kevin oconnell wanted to do and their defense has three great players and a bunch of ah I don't know just Guys San Francisco has a lot more great players than that New York Giants team did so I think it's one of those remembering it's one week but also going there's a lot there that could transfer over week after week after week but I do worry about Sam without Jordan Addison because there were a couple it was one of those games where the guy you look at the box score and you like 200 yards but he hit the big throws over and over and there were a couple of out routes to Addison where he just breaks the guy off on the route the timing is perfect if he's not out there that's a little bit harder to do with these other receivers who are not Elite route Runners like he is right uh the touchdown pass too which was at the end of that long drive was a great tight throw as well well you know I think all also Jones and even Chandler I mean Chandler caught three passes you got you did well at running back with Minnesota in week one I don't know if you want to do this now but one of the things I wanted to talk about with you is just what happened at tight end in fantasy football in week one I mean so Johnny Mt who was absolutely last round at best you could if you really just sort of felt it you know a Vibes sort of play he you didn't get beat because like almost nobody else did well at that position in week one this was a year where a big part of the fantasy discourse was do we want to pay up for one of the so-called Elite tight ends and there were about six and the consensus was yes that it was important to do that Kelsey leaport cancade McBride Andrew so that's really where the cut off is as I'm doing this from memory and then you get to Pitts and KD and enr but I mean Kyle Pitts went 3261 in busted coverage or something he got a touchdown which is kind of rare for him but what is that in PPR that's like 11 points or 11.6 or something and he was tight end four for the week in the league and everybody played no by weeks there was Isaiah likeley who went for 30 or whatever in the opener then you had Foster Maro for New Orleans I mean a back up Bowers for the Raiders was promising and then Pitts and all those other guys Kelce caught three balls Andrews maybe two and so McBride did all right but only because it was a late drive he caught a couple like all kid Kade had w i mean what happened so if you did in your draft wait until the very end to draft somebody like Mont or no a Fant or whoever Conlin hit one catch uh toward the end of the game in San Francisco you didn't didn't get buried because the top guys didn't do anything former guest of this show Tyler Conlin uh good dude ah yes uh and former Penguins goalie Tai Conlin a different person but uh I'm curious about your thoughts because this sends me to a little bit broader of a place of what happened in week one which was passing was not the passing Universe we were told about you know how when we were growing up they said you know when you get to 40 years old they'll be flying cars I was like wow that's going to be crazy there's no flying cars and they got two years to do it for me it feels the same way with a couple of different concepts in football but one of them is you know in the future every game's going to be like 56 to 54 and it's going to be crazy and that's what it's going to be like and everyone's just going to pass for all these touchdowns and I feel like we're in 2002 right now where where's sha Alexander right around the corner Larry Johnson in the back field these 300 carry running backs but it's not that way instead everybody has multiple running backs and the everything is sort of underneath stuff and the average depth of target has gone down what do you think is happening I mean is that one of the reasons that the tight ends didn't have such big days is is there something happening or was it just a random week one or what what can we try to explain where passing went all of the sudden it's the most interesting topic takeaway from the week I think is this you know to the tight ends point maybe because if I have to keep my good pass catching tight end you know hand down in line because I'm more run oriented then I'm gonna do it and I think in Buffalo Dawson Knox has been that player concade freeze you know Knox up so to speak it frees the bills up to just sort of keep him in that kind of box but even concade was blocking in this game like what's that so I do think there could be some Association there I doubt Kelsey and Andrews and McBride are going to end up you know as blockers and that that will change and that's where I feel like you know it's just a onewe sample the the biggest difference I think that accounts for this is the the ability of quarterbacks to run that's what's different from the 90s this was the lowest average passing yards per game in a week one since the 90s and highest rushing but it's not because we have bcow running backs it's because quarterbacks can run and it's increasingly more a part of what offenses are willing to do it's even what they want to do it's while you draft Jaden Daniels who had 28 or 30 fantasy points in a game they were always losing in week one and there wasn't that much success through the air it's why you drafted Anthony Richardson uh for the same reason who completed literally nine passes but also had 28 fantasy points in week one like that's it's not a fantasy football conversation as much as it is a real one but you know the these players coming into the league have changed how teams think what what's optimal and I mean Josh Allen has has run for 20 touchdowns in his last 18 games including playoffs I mean 18 last year including playoffs two on Sunday that's no accident the the bills wanted him to run less and for about the first 10 games last year he did then they were six and six after 12 weeks and they're like all right that's out and then they just sort of let him out and they went went deep so that I think is the difference you're not going to find you know these running backs look at mcaffrey already as much as we like to think sort of those three down guys are the explanation for this I don't you you're going to have a couple examples of that but I don't think it really is it's third and five and your quarterback is mobile he he takes the shotgun snap and what does he do he's going to run and you can't stop him folks US Cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten to be ironic we try to put our phones down for dinner but the menu is on a QR code that's ironic we hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like ironic which is why US Cellular has created us mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from US Cellular visit uscellular.com built for us to get started I think another part of it too is that 2020 That season uh there were a lot of teams that were playing single high and got destroyed by Deep plays and explosive plays and after that season all these defense has said you know what two safeties and we're going to draft lighter linebackers the Vikings did this we're going to focus everything we're going to put another safety on the field the Vikings do this with Josh matelis and we are going to say no explosives and they all got the same memo with whatever stat told them if you get an explosive your chance of scoring goes way up which obviously what yes if you gain 48 yards on one play your chances of scoring do go up uh but coaches think this way and they all went then Vic fangio had a good uh little run there so then he plays the two deep and everybody plays off and then offenses have to have a counter to that they can't just go well let's just throw the bombs into these deep safeties because then you're going to get picked off so running quarterbacks that's easier for them when two safeties are playing in the parking lot well they've got more space to run you can hand the ball off more effectively you could play a little bit safer and have longer drives which I see more the other thing too is that Brian Flores is is a part of this defensive coordinators and their blitzing packages have gotten more intricate year after year after year and I don't think the league has the offensive lineman to block for them and then the other part is too and I want to get into this as well the other part is you're wearing a Carolina Panthers uh thank you what is it called a not a hat but it's a visor yes uh there's some quarterbacks that teams are sticking with who are awful but they have to Daniel Jones is one of them Bryce young is one of them they have no other choice but to just throw them out there and find out in a 90s World they would have played Andy Dalton and tried to see if they could win eight games and get into the playoff race but they can't do that they drafted him number one Jim dren Miller sat on the sideline and watched the 49ers get Jeff Garcia or whatever I don't remember the timeline but you know what I mean that teams don't do that if you draft somebody at the top you got to play him no matter what and I think that also plays into where we're seeing a wider gap between the teams who have good quarterbacks and teams that are throwing out guys that are virtually unplayable yeah well that's that's right and we'll see how it goes with the less mobile quarterbacks I mean this is just absolutely the drum beat in fantasy and has been for years a guy like Joe burrow for he's a first overall pick and he's had a lot of success but you don't want him in fantasy football in my opinion over Daniels that's that's even just on spec because Daniels has so much talent running the ball and there's so much value and that Justin Fields I mean come on when it comes to a passing offense but he was what qb6 last year on a team that couldn't do anything through the air by the way Fields is about to be a favorite on the road for the first time in his career uh this week at Denver if he starts and he did throw for 300 plus last year against Denver so you know to me he's exciting this week the quintessential player which is why especially glad to be with you here Matt today for this whole conversation is Kirk Cousins because that was an absolutely terrifying week one for Atlanta fans and for Fantasy you know backers like no play action passes the whole day one play Under Center it kind of makes you perhaps get why they drafted Michael penx so here's cousins who is this massive Financial investment that team is primed to win they were the division favorite and you do have a top 10 pick right there who they kept out of the preseason saying that they were just already so impressed so I mean that's not that's not imminent I do think uh Bryce young could come out I think there is an argument for that because that is so far gone Dalton would immediately be better and a new coach might be able to get away with look this is going terribly let's let's take our time with him will work over here on the side fans are going to feel like that's the end if they do that but they don't have to be right it still might be the best in the best interest of the player and the team to do that but Atlanta is super interesting and I told you all summer like I'm heavily invested in the Falcons pits and London and bean Robinson all of it and just an absolute nightmare of a we Robinson did all right and pits like we talked about at least he scored but London is really scary for a mid-second round pick right now because who knows what cousins can even do yeah so this is something that I I don't know if you have anything like this exactly in your life this Instinct six sense which is usually just formulated by a lot of experience and I think about Aaron Jones running the ball and how he bounced that touchdown and like I bet he's done that 500,000 times in his life and he knew exactly how this going to play out I feel like this was me with the Atlanta situation after the draft where it's like I've I've covered these teams long enough I know who those people are Raheem Morris Zack Robinson they're not Psychopaths they didn't just roll the dice and say let's just pick this random left-handed quarterback he seems cool and I also knew what Kirk Cousins was going through and how rare it is for anybody to come back playing the same with that Achilles injury that the Vikings right tackle had half of that injury last year and it took him a long time to recover H it was only the half tear it wasn't even the full tear and I'm supposed to believe that Kirk Cousins at 36 years old who has taken a ton of punishment everybody watched that Netflix show quarterback and how much punishment he took in 2022 and he's gonna come back and just be the same dude I I don't think so and that looked scary though for him from a health perspective because it's not that Kirk could ever run and I remember him saying to us yeah well I'm a pocket quarterback this will heal it'll be okay but pocket quarterback does not mean you can't even drop back effectively and he could actually roll out I thought it was one of his best skills roll out throw on the move and that's something if you can't do that at all what are they supposed to do this that I might rather have Taylor hinei out there because at least he can protect himself and at least he can make some plays but if that's what Kirk's going to look like and and when does it change the season's here it's not like this gets better oh no my health will get better as we go along uh a friend of mine said it reminded him of Ben rothberger when he was totally totally at the end and he was just shot putting footballs but Ben rothberger was better than Kurt Cousins and rothberger brand was just to throw the ball to running backs I mean Naji Harris had one game where he caught like 14 passes or something which is insane that's never been cousins right no he wants to move the ball in the intermediate areas to his wide receivers if you were wide receiver one or two you usually dominated with cousins I I think if you drafted those guys you should be very concerned uh although maybe not because it could be week four and Michael penx could be playing like I just the way that that looked he's going to get hurt because you can't just stand back there and be like oh I'll get rid of the football you're going to get crunched uh and he did I thought a number of times I I would be curious for you about what in week one you were celebrating like yeah I knew it I got this one and what you were like oh wow I am so stupid uh for me I texted you about Jaden Reed Jaden Reed although who knows what happens now uh with Jaden Reed uh but that was one where I was like yeah that's right he was was he the leader in all of passing for this week maybe I think yeah points yeah I think he had the the biggest game of anybody and Rashi rice must have been one that you were celebrating because he had an excellent week and everybody in Minnesota not surprised by U Tyler Johnson I'm sure the fantasy world was taken by surprise but he's a gopher and everybody loved him so what was your biggest win and loss from uh week one you know rice we've talked about him how in the course of the summer especially like when everybody was focused on his probably being suspended his draft position really plummeted and with what we know about the NFL and suspensions you can never assume and here we are like week one and he was excellent and so I I happen to be heavily invested in him yes that uh felt good you know the tight end thing didn't because I thought it was better to draft the top tight ends and that's a little scary you know Andrews with what Isaiah likely did now I mean they don't really don't have a wide receiver too that's that reliable we'll see I'm optimistic relatively speaking for Andrews we'll see if he can't carve out a roll Nico Collins is somebody that I couldn't always get because you know mid early to midc round I'd like I like London I bought into Harrison um if ever Garrett Wilson or puka akua slipped then that but I have plenty of cins and that looks very exciting he was the fastest receiver tracked in the league in week one where Marvin Harrison Jr was one of the slowest and that's concerning he was in Buffalo one catch for four yards had a drop and he was running I read plenty of deep routes just egregious I I mean they were in the game but that Arizona couldn't get the ball to Harrison or didn't even really try uh in that game and that's not a good sign it reminds me of the old bills days where they drafted Sammy Watkins so high and like he should get 15 targets a week and you'd get three and like why did you do it you know so that's the question about about Harrison right now um lots of lots of wins lots of lots of losses uh plenty of Mixon again betting on Houston and Mixon was the rb1 for the week Anan is another one like that he's game time for tomorrow night one player that I almost never picked who scares me right now is saquan Barkley because there were really other than sort of draft strategy and I like those receivers like I said that's where he would go late first early second almost always I'd rather Draft receivers there and so that's what I did but the two arguments against Barkley like being a good draft pick one Jaylen Herz the tush push all of that like can Barkley get in the end zone and then two some question about what is Barkley at this stage of his career he's been in the league a long time is he the explosive Prospect out of Penn State you know this many years into his career and I leaned against that I mean just it felt like there were too many flags and then the draft the the way you wanted to build your team point it kept me sort of out of the saquon Barkley business and he was great in that first game on a field where nobody could keep their footing scored three times a beautiful touchdown catch I mean that's a player that the Eagles like all right we trust this guy on this play that's an elite player who gets that that opportunity even and then makes that catch at the left side of the end zone so Barkley is a scary one interestingly in the main event the big ffpc tournament that I draft in uh over the course of the summer what they do because there are dra laughs going all the way to Saturday of week one and this year you had two games that were over by then you can move guys in and out of your lineup that have already played that first week and with those new Saturday drafts you've just seen saquan Barkley who was a late first round pick score three times he literally went first overall in these Main Event drafts on Saturday at least one so um people were not afraid to sort of buy into that you get those points the first week he's somebody that I think might be in line because I think their offense is just like so good I mean for Fantasy they had three turnovers everybody was slipping all night they scored a good a good opponent they scored 34 points I mean Philadelphia you want to be in on the Eagles yeah I was wondering about some Eagles regression this year and after one week I'm like cut that don't bring don't mention that I brought that up saquan Barkley is one of those guys where I have an extreme bias toward how they looked when I saw them in person and saquon Barkley Was Won in 2022 where there were so many runs that could have been losses for him that turned into either great plays or good plays that I was totally sold on the Giants just wasted this man's career because he should have been really as fantastic as everybody said he's that talented I wondered the same thing about this though older running back is that going to really work out for them and he looked like him and Aaron Jones both like with plenty of juice uh their remaining so Philadelphia could be really good they also started out weren't they like 10 and0 last year and then hit the skid so we'll we'll see kind of how that plays out through the season but saquon Barkley definitely looks like uh he's got it one area just quickly to add to that in fantasy where I'm not scared but I'm worried is a lot of my strategy on Underdog you know we talked about building teams for those late season weeks which means you want to skew younger I almost never drafted Mike Evans but I loved my rookies and a lot of these I mentioned Harrison already a lot of these you know hyped rookie receivers didn't do anything in the first week Brian Thomas was good and he might be the number one receiver to have in Jacksonville but neighbors okay Odun hurt I mean Coleman okay there's a lot there's a long way to go and I think patience is in order there because of the point about you know its rookies and even even Caleb Williams in his first start like just the rookies didn't all hit the ground running it's a tough league for rookies but the first week usually is probably the least predictive of any for the NFL season and I'm sure uh that a lot of these guys will get their targets the the Harrison Arizona thing I would be a little concerned about but he also didn't play football for a really long time and he didn't do the combine and I we just didn't hear a whole lot about him uh Kyler Murray was one where I might say at least as of week one was disappointed with the production uh would have thought that maybe he would have had a little bit more there but you know Buffalo at least has a good defensive mind running the team I I don't know I you watched that game I didn't see that game I just kind of looked at the stat line but H how how did you think he looked he was fine you know fantasy he was a very popular fantasy pick this year not that expensive and he's got great feet I mean Murray can be really dangerous player and have these blow up fantasy weeks I mean as a quarterback he just sort of blocks out half the field um and that's what got Harrison got free you probably saw it on a late play of their last drive and Murray had time to throw he just never even got there visually so I don't know I don't think he's you know perfect as a player what would drive me crazy if I were an Arizona fan is they were down six first and 10 at their 40 with 140 left three timeouts and that drive and the previous one they just kind of wasted plays on inside handoffs the back to the running quarterback you know this is not a fantasy football Point that's your Edge because defenses don't know what to do with you they can't handle all of it and so with three timeouts run Murray even if it's just sort of a fake scramble where he drops back and then he goes a draw or something they they wasted that and ended up losing the Harrison play where he was alone in the secondary was early enough where Buffalo would have had time just needing a field goal to win and I wouldn't bet against that happening but I don't know like teams are just not some teams are just not all the way there to embrace what the real value is of the quarterback running and I think Arizona really blew it all right let's get into some of these Underdog pickups for this week by the way my biggest victory of the week Carson steel we're talking about how hey Carson steel you got to bet on at least uh one touch I think he needed to to hit on that pick them and uh we went with that last week that was pretty good so we'll look at that you saw mine right last week well no what was yours the one I gave out on this show was Lamar Jackson passing over cleared it Derrik Henry Rush under no sweat Z flowers over catches cleared it Xavier worthy over three and a half catches nope but two touchdowns so that's that's how you know the season is back yes you put in a four-way pick them on Underdog and just sort of have it all right and still lose no I mean I'm back this week I'm not I'm not I'm not stepping away but it just seemed like worthy we talked about rice you brought up rice and he did get there that was you know that one won if you did that instead but I saw worthy as being relevant in this game he only scored twice but did not catch four passes no he did not uh that is that is what they call a bad beat for you kind of bad beat you were exactly right on uh on Derek Henry I thought he was gonna run a lot and peo I wanted under on both yeah uh lower rather on both running backs and they were but you know you got to get them all this Thursday night's game love it just what what a what a great contest here between the Buffalo Bills of Buffalo and the Miami Dolphins of Miami uh I I just I want to start with uh Josh Allen makes a lot of sense here uh the higher or lower number for Josh Allen one one thing that I love is that it includes receiving touchdowns as well because it is altogether possible that Josh Allen could catch a touchdown uh but 1.5 passing touch Downs is an interesting place for Josh Allen because we talk about just how important his running element is to it or you could go with higher or lower on point5 Rush plus receiving touchdowns I I think I would easily lean toward him getting one rushing touchdown rather than two passing touchdowns he does have a hand injury and when asked about his status for this game Monday strong mcdermit said cleared to practice which is not exactly like he's fine and he's wearing extra padding in practice so I don't know like that it just seems this is not always a winning approach but I have an instinct for like all right what seems too obvious and Allen scores a rushing touchdown in almost every game he's also crushed Miami 13 starts against the Dolphins 11 wins 11 out of the last 12 he's been over 300 yards passing in each of the last five over 350 in three of those games the higher lower number is 244 and a half I think you know that's another one where it's like okay well that seems pretty obvious and I can overthink it if you believe in overthinking um I think you've got to juxtapose that number with what just happened in the league with a point about the fewest passing yards on average for a week one since the N9 and you know the whole Thursday night game on the road maybe it gives me pause I'm not including Allen in my four-way pickham that I placed at Underdog earlier today I am going higher on Tua though 265 and a half went over 330 in week one he led the week he also didn't he lead the league in passing yards last year he did so I'll go 265 because the bills the Dolphins are not traveling and the bills have some serious issues in like the back seven of their defense and I might have injured running backs in Miami moster it's already ruled out hn is game time I think you know it's a it's a game that with all the familiarity the Dolphins have with the bills just the same and a almost entirely new secondary Taran Johnson Arizona Ross Tucker told me yesterday on wgr their coaches called Taran Johnson the best slot Corner in the league he's out with a forarm injury he suffered early in week one I'll take the higher on Tua at 265 a half and I want to correlate so I'll put in a Tyreek Hill touchdown uh in that game and then if you do these by the way you have to make sure you you tap into both teams you can't just pick only one team if you think they're going to you know run away with it or whatever so I picked two bills hes Dawson Knox higher than 10.5 yards longest catch of the game um I could see that happening that happened in week one as the bills try to figure out their target distribution Knox has been there I could see you need one play you need a Carson steel you need one play 10 and a half yards and at a fairly modest 39 and a half receiving yards I'll go higher on khil Shakir uh he had a nice touchdown after yards after the catch guy you know and that's something where the bills really need to get going no big stats this was the concern fantasy-wise about Buffalo all summer like who pays you off and I have I don't have to worry about that so hard here if I'm picking Shakir to go higher than 39 and a half $20 pick him pays 200 Underdog by the way does give you the option to do what they call a flex where say if you're picking four picks like I did you win less money if three hit or even maybe get your money back if it's only two but uh Matthew over here in the deep end we don't we're not about that okay well since you gave your very serious uh pick thems for this I will give my very unserious pick them which is I think with the way Buffalo is going to have to play defense this year sha McDermot will have to memorize these words Bend don't break will be something you start to hear as the season goes along which means that the field goal kickers are going to thrive here and I have Jason Sanders the great kicker of the Miami Dolphins booting higher than 1.5 field goals so I will be keeping close track of whether Jason Sanders kicks two field goals in this game unserious is in the lead one of the NFL season unserious is one and0 and serious is 0 one we definitely we definitely have to keep track of unserious versus Series this is my unserious pick and but you do have to come up with at least three picks by the way if we're going to really do this I mean game is at least three all right well if I have to go three on serious picks then it becomes much more difficult what I should do is build mine and then tack on yours so if you're right if like last week I just got beat on the Xavier worthy thing but that's a much better payout okay if I but if I were to go yeah that's that we should do this together rather than compete um but maybe I should go both kickers and assume this is going to be kicker battle and both kickers end up with more than 1.5 field goals just to be unserious completely and how about ma Hollins just because for a touchdown how about that Mack Hollins for a touchdown and the kickers both need to make two he got his touchdown last week you know Elite run blocker that's why he's on the team he's on the field constantly it's again another sign what the bills want to be and you know also maybe League trend um I I don't like him for a touchdown those touchdown picks you do get a nice return though I mean yeah Tyreek Hill is closer to even money but some of the guys like that there's even first half touchdowns on guys would also you know keep track of the injury stuff because as like a moster gets ruled out then you can get to Jaylen Wright or Jeff Wilson it's not just gonna be H and who knows if Anan even plays in this game so that's something where I did this on Wednesday morning before I knew the Dolphins latest with injuries and you can't touch any of it really with confidence on a Wednesday morning because who knows who's going to play right no for sure well we'll uh we'll still keep track of my unserious picks with I know you will uh the deep end fantasy football podcast Mike shop wgr550 in Buffalo it's great to have I mean just great to have games we got so much to talk about and we're going to be doing this every week all season and a remind use that promo code purple over at Underdog fantasy it's good for you it's also good for me so make sure you check that out thank you again Mike and uh we'll see you next week