 Hey everybody, what's going on? I am Greg Susman, joined by Jim Sonis of Fandle, who's here to continue helping us break down week 9 from a DFS perspective. Jim, what's happening? It's all good, Greg. The value plays this week. Kind of scary in accordance with Halloween, so I guess there is that. Unfortunately, the NFL following that theme, and there are some frightening options in the value section for this week. We've got to find value somewhere, so I guess we've got to talk through them. I'm a little frightened. How are you doing? To be honest with you, a little disappointed because I woke up to an email from you saying, all right, my quarterback this week that's undervalued is Mitchell Trubiskin. I'm like, dude, what happened to Derek Carr? Well, Derek Carr is the same salary as Sam Donald. I prefer Sam Donald straight up, so I would probably wind up going there anyway, and he's $200 less than James Winston. So if we're going to go value, let's dive all the way into that dumpster, bathe in the slush and go with Trubiskin instead. Fine. We're bathing in something. I don't know if we want to call it slush or mud or just poop at this point, but you're going to Mitchell Trubiskin. Why? I'd rather not, to be fully honest, but we are talking about value plays here, so I try to keep it to quarterbacks under $7,000, and there's not a whole lot cooking there this week. We do have Mason Rudolph at 68, Matt Morris in play at 65 if Pat Mahomes can't go, but Trubiskin, there are a couple of factors that make him intriguing. The first one is that he should be passing a bit more this week against his Eagles defense because they grade out as being sixth against the rush based on number fires metrics compared to being 21st against the pass. So he should be passing a bit more often, maybe able to do so a bit more efficiently than usual. And also last week, Trubiskin did set a new season high in rush attempts. It was four, which is much lower than what he did last year. But I think that if you're Matt Nagy, you're trying to kick start this offense. That could mean more David Montgomery, but it could also mean more Mitchell Trubiskin getting back to what made you successful last year. Maybe Trubiskin's not healthy enough for that. But if he's healthy, I see no reason why they wouldn't continue to increase the ground game as being a presence within Trubiskin's game. So I think we could see things get better from that perspective. So I think that looking at this spot, it's tough. And I'd rather spend four guys like Sam Donnell at 73, Phillip Rivers at 72. We've also got James Winston again at 75. But if you want to get Dalvin Cook and Christian McCaffrey in your lineup, you got to spend down. And I think that Trubiskin is at least an option. Again, I think that Rudolph and Matt Moore are as well. So if you'd rather go there, I don't blame you. That's totally okay. But I think that there are at least some reasons to consider Trubiskin this weekend, despite how wretched he has been for the full year. I get needing to save money going after Christian McCaffrey. He's almost $10,000 this week. Mitchell Trubiskin, even against Philadelphia, as he started off, I'd rather not. Let's move on to the running backs here, Jim. And someone that I am more interested in is the former Chicago baron Jordan Howard. Miles Sanders is banged up. You got the all-important revenge game for Howard. And perhaps most importantly, he looked good last week. The Chicago Rush Defense ever since this team lost to Keem Hicks, hasn't been nearly as frightful. Why else do you like Jordan Howard this week? It's mostly the reasons that you mentioned. Obviously, the revenge game, chiefly among them, because, you know, what other process do we need here? But I think that I agree with your assessment of the Eagles last week. Part of the reason they ran so much last week was because the weather was terrible. And that certainly factors in here. But they were also just moving, dude. This is a talented offensive line. It's among the best in football. And when you're getting heavy rushing volume behind them, it's probably going to be fairly efficient. We've seen running backs be efficient against Chicago ever since the Keem Hicks first got banged up back in earlier this season. We've seen running backs do pretty well against them. Latavius Murray did well in this, facing this defense. So I don't think it's totally outrageous to view this as being a plus spot now for opposing backs. And Jordan Howard could get volume. It's not just Miles Sanders who was banged up. Darren Sprouls has missed the past couple of games. He was able to practice Wednesday. So Sprouls may be back, but if we get the situation where either Sanders or Sprouls is out, I think we're going to see pretty good volume for Jordan Howard. And as mentioned, it is an air revenge game. He's had at least 11 carries in seven straight games. So he was getting volume even before the injuries to Sanders and Darren Sprouls. And again, I think that attaching ourselves to talented offensive lines and good quarterbacks is a good process at running back. Howard does get some work in the passing game too. It's not a whole lot, but it's enough. So I think that this does make sense for Jordan Howard. If both Sanders and Sprouls are healthy, it would definitely lower my thought process, lower the appeal behind Jordan Howard. But if one of them does wind up sitting, I think that he is a viable revenge game narrative play at $6,300. It's a really solid play at that price. As you mentioned, the whole important revenge game is what stands out. There's a whole lot of other reasons to really like Jordan Howard this week, especially at that price at $6,300. It may be not as fun to do it because he's an old veteran and it feels like he's been around forever, but Jordan Howard is still young enough to perform really, really well, potentially this Sunday against Chicago. Another running back that you like, and even all over this one, Jim, this week, it's Melvin Gordon for the Los Angeles Chargers. They're home against Green Bay. Gordon is also $6,300 on FanDuel here this week. But Melvin Gordon, the whole talk about him in the fantasy Twitter universe has been applauding under three yards per carry, and it hasn't looked good. It hasn't felt good. Why are you holding your nose and putting in Melvin Gordon this week? Yeah, I think you can make a strong case for either Melvin Gordon or Austin Neckler this week because the Chargers fired their offensive coordinator, Ken Wisinhunt, which means that we're probably going to see some sort of change in their personnel or usage, and that could benefit Austin Neckler at $6,500, or it could benefit Melvin Gordon at $6,300. So I think that from a tournament perspective, both these guys are at least options if you assume that one of them winds up getting more volume under the new playcaller for the Chargers. The reason that Melvin Gordon has been so hideously inefficient is partly because his offensive line is super banged up, but it's also because of the matchups they've had. In the past three games, the Chargers have faced the teams ranked second, fifth, and ninth against the rush based on Number Fire's schedule-adjusted metrics. The Packers, as we talked about a couple of times this year, are not that. They were actually ranked 26th against the rush, partly by design. Mike Patton wanting to force teams to run against him rather than pass. I understand that. It makes a lot of sense, but it means we should see a more efficient Melvin Gordon in this game. He's been playing a pretty good number of snaps. He's been getting some work in the passing game. He's been getting a good number of carries as well. So I think that we could see a kind of resurgent week for Melvin Gordon. He is not a bad running back. He's just had a bad situation behind this offensive line. Austin Neckler's efficiency as a rusher has gone down to ever since Mike Pouncey got hurt. So it makes sense that this guy has struggled, but he gets a better matchup. He is, I guess, in name only at home, but it can't hurt to be there rather than on the road. So I think that Melvin Gordon makes sense. Again, I think that Austin Neckler does too at 65, depending on who you think will wind up getting a slight role change here under the new OC. I'd probably favor Melvin Gordon, given the tendencies they have shown so far this year, but I think it does make sense to give some thought to Neckler too at $6,500. Really interesting to see what this Chargers offense looks like with a new offensive coordinator with Anthony Lynn taking a more active approach in running the offense. You know he wants to run the ball. That was his mantra as a running backs coach previously and then as an interim head coach with the Buffalo Bills. And he's been Melvin Gordon's biggest believer. Of course, if you just watch the tape or watch the game, you know that's not a great approach to take, but that's what the coach is going to do. So we need to listen to the coach for once and play Melvin Gordon, whether we like it or not. Moving on to the wide receiver here, Jim, we'll get to Marvin Jones of the Detroit Lions. I believe yesterday we talked about Kenny Galladay, so talking about Marvin Jones today kind of makes sense because I know you'd like both of them this week. Yeah, and I don't hate Danny Amondola either at $6,000. He's a little bit spendy. He doesn't get as many high leverage targets to these guys, but I think honestly, all three Detroit Lions wide receivers are in play because the Raiders are that bad against the pass and Matthew Stafford has been that good this year. So it kind of makes sense to take stabs at all of them. I would rank them Galladay, Jones and Amondola, but I think that they're all in play. The reason I like Marvin Jones is a value play is that unlike Amondola, he is getting more higher leverage targets. He has 19% of the team's targets in the four games where Amondola has played at least half the snaps, which is not a big number, but it comes with a good amount of high leverage work. He is averaging 1.5 deep targets per game in those four games and 1.5 red zone targets per game. So he's a good threat to score a touchdown. He can also haul in a long ball or two and that can allow a guy at $5,700 to pay off pretty quickly. So I think that it does make sense to go to Marvin Jones here. Again, I'm going to rank him below Kenny Galladay, even when you consider that Galladay is a much more expensive guy given how much deep work Kenny Galladay has gotten. And Marvin Jones does get a downgrade, but Danny Amondola being a relevant piece within this offense. But even with that being the case, Amondola played more than half the snaps in that game where Jones went off back in week seven. He can still have a huge game. So Marvin Jones, not my preferred piece of this Lions passing game, but he will be a guy turned to pretty often in tournaments this week at $5,700. And I think this entire passing game just kind of light him up and see what happens against his Raiders defense. It's not only you that likes Danny Amondola this week. A lot of smart fantasy players who I trust really like Amondola. Marvin Jones as well. They're firing up this Lions offense, especially with the lack of running game they now have with Karyon Johnson out for the year. Good spot to put in a wide receiver from Detroit in the year lineup. One more wide receiver we want to get to and that brings us to Mike Williams with the Chargers. We go back to this game and this touchdown positive regression, it has to be coming. Right, Jim? I hope I've been waiting for it for a while now and it hasn't come yet, but I think that with Mike Williams, it should get there. And the reason we should like Mike Williams is kind of similar to Marvin Jones because he gets a hot, a lot of high leverage targets. We can look at the three games since Hunter Henry came back. And yeah, it does add an additional piece to this passing game, but Mike Williams has still gotten really good volume in that time. He has 20% of the Chargers overall targets in this three game sample. He has 25% of their deep targets and 21% of the red zone targets. Now 25% of the deep targets is not a huge number, but Philip Rivers has been very willing to throw deep in this time. So the raw volume down the field has been very good for Mike Williams. This happens to come in an offense that does that quite a bit, which deflates the shares of those deep targets. But we know that he can catch a long ball and the yardage totals have been there despite some pretty tough matchups this year. Now the Greenway Packers have a good secondary and they're not exactly the easiest matchup. But when you have as many good pieces as the Chargers have, I would expect them to move the ball against this Packers team as we've seen teams that have good players, multiple good players do throughout this season. I think that applies to the Chargers here and Mike Williams is the cheapest piece between Keene and Allen, Hunter Henry and Mike Williams. So I'm going to plug him in. Eventually the touchdowns will come. That body is made for the red zone, 10 touchdowns last year. He didn't overperform there, but he's underperforming this year. So the regression will come in a positive sense now for Mike Williams. And I think we're going to keep on plugging him in as long as he is as cheap. We'll just keep putting him in there. The touchdowns are coming. So we believe they have to. The River's now has a mustache, so it seems like a lot this weekend. Mike Williams, get him in the lineup here against the Greenway Packers and under $6,000. One last player to speak about Jim and it's at the tight end position. It's Greg Olson against Tennessee. It's not been a great year for Olson. He is priced at just $5,300. But why do you like him here on Sunday against the Titans? Yeah, I'm guessing a lot of the attention in this game will go to John U. Smith, because it looks like Delaney Walker may wind up sitting here and John U. Smith is a very athletically gifted guy. He is super fast. He has shown that he is good, but I don't trust his offense as much as I trust Greg Olsons, especially when John U. Smith is pretty likely to be a popular option for this week. So I don't mind pivoting over to Greg Olson because Greg Olson is still playing 78% of the snaps he did last week for this Panthers offense against the 49ers, but he was on a buy. He was in London and then he played the 49ers. So we haven't really seen Greg Olson on a main slate, a relevant main slate in quite some time. That has pushed his salary down to $5,300 and that's justified given the struggles he has had with Kyle Allen in his quarterback. But he has the potential to have a really good game here. He has had at least seven targets twice in the games that Kyle Allen has started. He got three deep looks in one of those. We know he can get some work in the red zone. Curtis Samuel is banged up for the Panthers. He missed practice on Wednesday with a shoulder injury. And if he can't go, that's going to give additional targets to Greg Olson and to your boy DJ Moore. But I think that Olson is kind of in play, even if Samuel does go, just because he's a pretty solid pivot off of John U. Smith. I will still use John U. Smith in tournaments because he does have good yardage upside, which is hard to find for a tight end in the salary tier. But it's also okay to trust the better offense. That is a Carolina Panthers and trust the more experienced player in Greg Olson. So for $5,300, I don't think he is a bad play, even though I understand why John U. Smith will be popular this weekend. After what he did last week with Ryan Tannehill quarterback, John U. Smith going to be very, very popular in the DFS community. Greg Olson, a fine pivot. Tight end position is so hard. You're just banging on that touchdown. Olson at $5,300. Certainly someone to consider. Jason Whitton as well. He always kills the giants. So you should put him in there as well. That's it for us here on the FanDuel. Hurry up, Jim. Best of luck this weekend. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you, Greg. I appreciate it. Good luck to you as well. Happy Halloween and we'll see you then. Absolutely. Happy Halloween to you. Tomorrow, Gim Marensi joins me and we go over his six best bets for week nine of this NFL season. Have a great night. Enjoy Thursday Night Football and we'll see you right back here tomorrow.