Episode 93

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Published on:

11th Oct 2023

Week 5 Ballers, Bums & Overachievers

Get ready for the Hottest Fantasy Football Scoop! The Fantasy Island Fantasy Football Show is back with a scintillating Week 5 recap that's as spicy as a habanero in a snowstorm. DJ Moore's fantasy fireworks and Jamar Chase's gridiron artistry have us all wondering if we've stumbled into a parallel fantasy universe. But hold onto your hats, folks - Brock Purdy is making Dak Prescott look like a watered-down lemonade?

Myles Sanders? He's on a wild ride through Carolina, and we're here for the twisty plotlines! Join us for a rollercoaster of emotions, from belly laughs to nail-biting moments that might even make you blush. #FantasyIslandPod #FantasyFootball #Week5Recap #FantasyFireworks #FootballFever #SpicyTakes

Got a problem with us? Think you know better? Prove it. Shoot us your scorching hot takes or icy hate mail at getatus@fantasyiisland.com. We'll read it, laugh, and then keep on schooling you. Hit subscribe, unless you enjoy being the laughingstock of your league.

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Transcript

Week 5 Ballers, Bums, Overachievers

Welcome to the beginning of week six Islanders. I'm Bombo here for fantasy Island fantasy football show today. We're going to go over the week five ballers, bums, and overachievers. These are guys that did what you expected them to do, did what you didn't expect them to do. And guys that won't do this again.

We'll jump right into it with our ballers from week five, believe it or not, DJ Moore went off for eight catches, 230 yards and three touchdowns. And he placed second out of wide receivers. This week in week five, your number one, right? Receiver Mr. Jamar chase from the Cincinnati Bengals. Exploded with 15 catches, 192 yards and three touchdowns.

The Bengals look like they are back to old form. Joe Burrows throwing that rock all over the place. Jamar Chase being the beneficiary of T. Higgins being out. Exploded, did his thing. Definitely. He's the pain of a lot of fantasy owners that have been waiting for the Bengals to do something. You could easily put Joe Burrow on this list as well, but we're going to go with the big numbers and that's Jamar Chase.

I know I spoke about him earlier, but DJ Moore had himself a day. Big day. Thursday night football explosion, eight catches, 230 yards, three touchdowns. He was all over the place. He definitely got robbed off another long touchdown that they said he stepped out of bounds on. But let's take the positives here.

DJ Moore and Justin Fields look like they're ready to take this league by storm. Is it a fluke? Is it just because they're playing Washington? We don't know. All I know is two weeks in a row, DJ Moore and Justin Fields are better than as advertised. It's what Bears fans, it's what fantasy fans wanted when they drafted them where they drafted them.

Right now I'm just gonna go with my gut and say keep rolling them out there. At the running back position have yourself a day Mr. Travis Etienne from the Jags. Travis Etienne, the London's favorite player for the London Jags Went off for 194 total yards including four catches and two touchdowns I know the smart football move in that game last week was for him to go down at the one yard line and play the clock game as fantasy owners We don't want that.

We want Etienne in the end zone. We want points. We want bonuses. Travis Etienne had himself a hell of a game. The Jags seem to be back to their offensive ways. All it took was a trip across the pond to get them set. And, uh, here we are. With Travis Etienne sitting at a, I want to say a top five running back right now, points per game wise.

Another guy that had himself a day, another couple of guys that had himself a day over in the bay. And that's George Kittle and his QB, Mr. Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant. Both of them combined for three touchdowns. Of course, Kittle caught three touchdowns, Purdy threw three touchdowns. Very efficient as Kittle went for three catches for 67 yards and three tutties.

Brock Purdy, when targeting George Kittle, was six automatic. Brock Purdy is playing flawless football right now. He doesn't turn it over. He's getting about two to three touchdowns a game. He also has two touchdowns with his legs, which is... A surprise. I'm willing to throw the coconuts out there and say Brock Purdy over Kirk Cousins for the rest of the year.

Brock Purdy over Dak Prescott for the rest of the year. And, um, more established names that are on fantasy teams like Daniel Jones and Matt Stafford. Safe to say Brock Purdy is a top five quarterback in the NFC fighting for a top five quarterback spot in the league. If he keeps this up. Meanwhile, George Kittle proving once again at the tight end position when he's not set in line to block.

He's pretty much unguardable. You can put him in any position. He picks a part zone. He picks a part man. He's great at blocking. That's the thing with these 49ers and their offense. There will be times that people just get it goose egg. We're coming off two weeks ago where Devo Samuel had a fat zero. The only consistence here are Brock Purdy.

And Christian McCaffrey, but don't let that sway you away from putting a 49er in your lineup at any time. One of these guys can go off for three touchdowns and that's what makes Brock Purdy so attractive going forward. For your fantasy roster. He's just surrounded by weapons. He doesn't turn the ball over and he's efficient He also has a great grasp of this offense And I would say they are neck and neck with the Miami Dolphins with most explosive offense and guys You don't you don't want to go against.

So it's funny when you talk about the Dolphins and the 49ers you just look at Tua, you look at Purdy And honestly, they're surrounded by, if you were to make a list of top 20 guys in the league that are probably the hardest to cover and most automatic six, the 49ers and dolphins have about 10 of those guys.

So keep an eye on them. Hell of a day in the bay for Purdy and Kittle and on the ground. Mr. Brees Hall woke up for the Jets. The Jets said they were going to make a concentrated effort to just feed Brees Hall. No longer on a pitch count. No longer on a minutes restriction.

The knee is fine. They're going to roll him out there. And what he has done is he's made Michael Carter and Dalvin Cook have to take a backseat. The Brees train is rolling on the tracks right now. He went for 194 yards, including three catches and a touchdown. Best of all, he's taking that pressure off of Zach Wilson and he's giving the offense now the running identity prior to that they were the Aaron Rodgers throw it all over the field identity turns out Zach Wilson ain't Aaron Rodgers.

And for the past three weeks, we've been trying to figure out exactly what this Jets team has to offer for fantasy owners. They have solid run blocking, they have Breece Hall, and right now, until proven otherwise, that's what they got. If Zach Wilson can just turn a lot of those targets that are going to Garrett Wilson into actual completions and touchdowns, you may have some fantasy relevant guys over on the Jets, resurrected after the loss of Aaron Rodgers.

But stick with Breece Hall, I think going forward, Breece Hall is a set it and forget it, at least high end RB2, RB1 upside if he gets those touchdowns, roll it out with Breece Hall, kudos to you if you stuck through him while he was on his minutes restriction. On the flip side to these guys are your bums, and like we say every week, anybody can make this list, anybody can get it.

And we're gonna start off in New England, the whole team really needs to be on this list. Including Belichick. I know for all of the, uh, mystique and the hoodie and the guru ism of Mr. Bill Belichick, right now he's coaching the worst team in football, and that's coming from a Raider fan. Ramondre Stevenson has been a shell of what he was last year.

He's, for some reason, splitting carries with a very washed Zeke. They can't move the ball through the air. They're stacking the box. They have no identity at wide receiver, but out of everybody on that Patriots offense, it was Ramondre Stevenson that we were hoping was going to develop into at least a top 10 PPR back just because of what he can do out of the backfield.

Mac Jones checking down. You know what Belichick doesn't see it. It looks like Bill O'Brien doesn't see it. They're not trying to put the ball into the most talented players hand. And that's why we're Andre Stevenson is putting up stinkers every week, huge bum from weeks one through five from here on out, uh, hopefully the Patriots realize that they owe it to their fan base to not tank and playmakers hands.

On the bums list, we can also put a whole nother team on here, which would be the Dallas Cowboys, and I'd love to do that, but I'm just going draft capital and where you drafted them, and Tony Pollard was drafted to be a top 10 PPR running back, top 5 if we're just going off of ADP and the, where running backs were being taken off the board, and Tony Pollard just did not get it done this past week.

The whole Cowboys offense didn't get it done. They got torched by Brock Purdy in the Niners.

And Pollard walked away. He salvaged his day with four catches for 35 yards, but on the ground, eight carries for 29 sub 10 point performance for a guy that was supposed to be leading your team to a championship, supposed to be the catalyst of a high powered offense, and we just don't see it right now.

You could blame Dak, you could blame Woes on that offensive line, or you could just blame the Cowboys being the Cowboys, and they were just too overhyped. The only real team on the field Sunday night was the San Francisco 49ers. You're still gonna roll Pollard out there, but right now I would temper expectations on him being the guy that's gonna win you your week.

And if I'm putting Pollard on there, I'm putting Dak on there. Dak's stat line, 153 yards, one touchdown, three picks. He was the second best quarterback for the 49ers that night. He did nothing for the Cowboys. It's looking like the Cowboys were the last to find out that Dak was overrated.

That might just be my opinion, probably not the opinion of everyone on the island, but I'll let you know right now we have seen the decline in Dak Prescott over his last 19 games started. He's only had one top five fantasy finish. That's coming from a guy that has CD Lamb, Tony Pollard. He's got Michael Gallup, Brandon Cooks.

Ferguson, I mean, he's got weapons around him and he has the trust of the organization to run this offense. He's got the bag. He's just not turning it into wins and he's not turning it into fantasy performances that are worth you rostering him or putting them in your lineup.

Keep Dak Prescott out of your lineup until he has. Too juicy of a mashup to pass up. Probably a game against the Commanders or a bottom 10 pass defense. But right now, it's wait and see with Dak Prescott. I wouldn't fault you for just flat out cutting him.

Another running back we are going to put on this bums list for week 5. Myles Sanders. I know everyone was waiting for Myles Sanders to embrace the fresh start new change of scenery in Carolina. He was going to be the him and Thielen were going to be the savvy veterans on this really young offense. What I've seen Myles Sanders do is give up carries to Chuba Hubbard and this past week.

He goes for seven carries for 32 yards, no catches, no touchdowns. This is not the Miles Sanders we saw in Philadelphia who had flashes of what he could potentially be as a three down workhorse. This is Miles Sanders in a really bad timeshare on a really bad offense. That's trying to find out what they do best.

Looks like what they do best is just passing it to Adam Thielen. What they definitely don't do is get the ball to Miles Sanders in space. He's also not showing that explosiveness. He's not doing what he can to gain extra yards and to make a play. Right now I have to say put Miles Sanders on your bench, unless you're in a deep league and you got nobody and you're surfing the wire.

I'd be looking to either move Sanders or I'd be looking to eventually find his replacement in your lineup. Brings us to our week five overachievers. These are guys that are not going to consistently do this. If they were in your lineup and you rolled the dice, kudos to you, your league mates are probably hating because you obviously know what you're doing, but you should be trying to make a move.

You should be trying to, you know, curb your enthusiasm when it comes to these gems that you found, because there's just not any evidence that showing these guys are going to keep doing it. There is one name on this list. There is one name on this list that I'm ready to convert to just, this is no longer some mediocre performance.

This is. What we're expecting, but we'll start it off with Zach Moss. All the talk in Indianapolis was JT is back, signed a new deal, ready to go out there, immediately took him off of IR, didn't have to open the window. He's ready to go. He watched from the sidelines as Zach Moss racked up 195 total yards, including two catches for, I think, two catches for 30 yards and two touchdowns, rumbling, stumbling his way into the end zone as the most explosive offensive player for the Indianapolis Colts.

This is Zach Moss, who was a throwaway in a trade from the Bills. Yeah. If you are, if you're hip to Saturday football, he was good at Utah, but he just didn't translate to a really good pro back. He's always been on a team, just never got the opportunity to be a starter. Well, he's been getting starter carries the past few weeks and he's been doing it for the Colts.

I know the Colts are not about to dump all this money into JT and say, now we're going to ride Zach Moss as the hot hand, and that's why he's on this list. He's eventually going to fall back into, at the best, a 50 50 timeshare, depending on how JT feels. But the better that JT feels in the offense, and the more that he produces, Zach Moss is going to turn into a handcuff.

He's going to fade into a 30 percent of the carries player, which is still good. It's still somebody he should definitely be rostered. This might have been the last week that you're using Zack Moss as your RB2 or flex flat out starter. Another guy that I'd love to dog, that I'd love to tell you to get rid of, and he may have made me eat crow this past week, but I'm sticking to it.

He's an overachiever, Mr. Kyle Pitts in Atlanta. He goes for seven for 97 on 11 targets. He still has the air yards. He's still getting the looks downfield. He just has Desmond Ritter at his court as his quarterback playing for an offense that runs the ball a ton. And he's just not showing out. He was, he went from as a rookie being their number one receiving option to now he's number three on the pecking order.

He happened to be the number one option this past week, but it's so inconsistent, you can't bank on that. Smart owners will look at this Kyle Pitts game and think that it's an upturn, that he has now hit the corner and this is what it's going to be for the rest of the year. Good. Sell him to somebody who loves names.

Sell him to somebody who looks at Kyle Pitts as the next Gronk or Kelsey and not what he really is, which is the next OJ Howard or Jermaine Grisham. Sticking with the tight end position, Dallas Goddard. He had him. So it was his turn against the Rams Dallas got her tied in for the Eagles goes for eight catches, 117 yards in one touchdown.

We've preached it on this show before folks, the Eagles are going to be really. Iffy on who's going to have the big fantasy day and they're one of those offenses that it could be any one of those guys at any time. Deandre Swift, AJ Brown, Devante Smith. It was Dallas Goddard's turn. But prior to him blowing up like this, Dallas Goddard was like a bottom, like between a 12 and 15 tight end in the league.

These are not sustainable points. He was putting up streamer points prior to this game. I don't think all of a sudden that Dallas Goddard is going to become a crucial point of this offense. They like what he does as far as blocking. They like what he does as far as stretching the field down the middle to open things up for the outside receivers and the run game.

He does his job really well, but sometimes him doing his job really well does not translate into producing for your fantasy team. So Dallas Goddard has made the overachievers list. I expect him to at least, you know, he's going to probably hit his floor next week, which is between four and six points.

But these 20 point explosions, we're not going to expect that from Dallas Goddard every week. But unless you have one of these top tight ends. You're good enough to throw Dallas Goddard out there expecting him to maybe pop off with a couple of these throughout your season and to round out our overachievers list, I'm going to this is the last time I'm going to have this guy on here.

I'll talk to T. I'll talk to King. I'll let him know. Adam Thielen might officially be a thing. I know there's been all this talk about Carolina needs a number one red receiver. They brought Adam Thielen in to show these guys the ropes, some of these younger guys, Mingo and Terrence Marshall, that they want to probably build with.

All he's done is take all these guys jobs. He shows up in week five for 11 catches, 107 yards, and one touchdown. Adam Thielen is a top 20 wide receiver right now, no matter what. Looks to be matchup proof, looks to be the only guy catching anything from Bryce Young. And you got to go back in time a little bit to what got Adam Thielen out of Minnesota.

Adam Thielen wasn't washed up. He just wasn't as good as Justin Jefferson when Justin Jefferson blew up. He was still the number one ride receiver when Justin Jefferson was drafted. He just hasn't been better than Stefan Diggs or Justin Jefferson. These are top five wide receivers in the entire league.

Adam Thielen isn't washed because he's not better than Stefan Diggs and Justin Jefferson. Adam Thielen is a gamer. He knows how to play the position. Crisp route runner, and he seems to have the trust of every quarterback he's ever played with. Remember, this guy made Case Keenum look awesome, so Adam Thielen, you can say he overachieved by default, by definition he overachieved just because of where he was getting drafted at, and how many rosters he started on, but Adam Thielen going off for 11, 107, and one touchdown, that may no longer be a mirage, that may just be what this guy can do.

So, if you're an Adam Thielen owner, Kudos. Write them out. Like always. Like. Subscribe. Follow. React. Send an email. Hate on us. Just listen to us. Fantasy Island with two I's. Fantasy Island Pod. Follow us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you're listening to your fantasy podcast. On behalf of Sweet Tea, Mr.

R. W. King, I'm Bombo. Hit the music.

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The Double I show | Fantasy iisland
Fantasy Football Show
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Got a problem with us? Think you know better? Prove it. Shoot us your scorching hot takes or icy hate mail at getatus@fantasyiisland.com. We'll read it, laugh, and then keep on schooling you. Hit subscribe, unless you enjoy being the laughingstock of your league.