 Welcome into the Fandall hurry up. I'm Ariel Epstein with sports grid. I'm joined now by number fires Jim Sonnis Jim I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving. I can't believe we're already here in week 13 of the NFL season Yeah, always ready for some more football It was a pretty fun week 12 because we had a lot of big performances and like those are always exciting because you know If you have those guys you get to kind of sweat the entire day knowing you may have You know bullets lots of fire and stuff like that. So it was a fun week 12 Thanksgiving Slate It's always exciting and I think we've got some guys to be excited about for the stretch front, too So I'm in a good mood here. How are you doing? I'm really excited to get your thoughts going into this week 13 slate I want to start with a running back that didn't really look like a running back this past week Austin Eckler the Chargers running back led the Chargers with 85 receiving yards coming off of nearly eight weeks Where he was off with an injury Jim. Why do you like Eckler going into the week? Yeah, I think with Austin Eckler It was easy to be excited about in the begin with because in his absence the Chargers running backs really struggled They churned through Joshua Kelly, Justin Jackson, Kailin Balazs, Tremaine Pope They tried all these guys see if anyone could take on that man who was being the team's lead back and no one took advantage But Austin Eckler came back and despite not having played like he said for two months came back into a full role He had 14 carries in addition to those 16 targets and he's not gonna get 16 targets every week But even if you cut those targets in half 14 carries and eight targets is still a tremendous workload for a running back And that's the workload of a guy who could have a salary of like $9,000 on Fandula that is how good that role was on Sunday if he were to duplicate that it'd be like 10,000 But like if we're projecting forward realistically, he's playing like a $9,000 running back So the floor for Austin Eckler is amazing because of that the yardage should be really good weekend week out You want that for sure But I think that he also has a path to a ceiling and that's always the concern with that girl At least it was earlier this year because Joshua Kelly was taking away goal line duties And Joshua Kelly scored again on Sunday and a short touchdown We should expect that going forward to Joshua Kelly is going to vulture Austin Eckler in fantasy football this year But Eckler almost scored on Sunday. He was a half yard short He had two carries and two targets inside the ten yard line Yet 36% of the teams carries or targets inside the red zone So no, he did not score and yes He will still lose some goal line touches to Joshua Kelly But Eckler can score because he's good and because he still gets chances in clothes So I am really high on Austin Eckler going forward because he is a Featured back on a team that is being led by an efficient quarterback right now in Justin Herbert And that's really hard to find at this point in the year with guys like Christian McCaffrey Saquon Barclay Zeke Elliott not being what they were last year So I say Austin Eckler is someone you want to buy high on because that role is amazing This team is not too bad offensively and I'd expect that pass-catching role to stick So Austin Eckler sure it feels kind of pointy easy to go back to him But I don't care the building blocks for him to be a Just pure featured back are there and I'm gonna take advantage while we have that at our disposal It helps too when all the other running backs in this backfields were essentially getting tried out and none of them prevailed Up to Austin Eckler status as he was out with that hamstring injury Let's take a look at another running back Antonio Gibson of the Washington football team the NFC East leading Washington football team This past week over a hundred yards rushing for Gibson. How do you think that Gibson continues these ways going into week 13? Yeah, I know that Antonio Gibson has been doing good stuff for a long time now But we did still see a role change for him on Sunday because he got a lot more Just touches a lot more opportunities than he has in the past specifically in the passing game He had seven targets in addition to his 20 carries in week 12 That was on a 65% snap rate which tied his season high And so I think that when you add the number of targets He got with the carries in the snap rate. This is the best workload We've seen Antonio Gibson get the entire year. That's a good thing That's a bump up for his floor The ceiling was already there for Gibson because he was getting a lot of red zone work for this Washington offense He has 31% of the teams carries or targets in the red zone from week two on and we saw him score three times on Sunday Or on Thursday So we know that he can do these things on a pretty regular basis the other thing that it's that's fun for Washington Like you mentioned they are in contention like they are Pushing for a playoff spot somehow and the NFC East and when you're in that situation You're gonna ride your best players and Antonio Gibson Outside of Terry McClurin is their best player So I think it makes a lot of sense for Washington to continue to make Antonio Gibson the focal point in this backfield And that's gonna lead to a lot of volume And if we see volume similar to what he got on Thursday He's gonna be a guy we can use despite the fact his offense is not that good now Things could be kind of roughed in week 13 They do face the Pittsburgh Steelers there, but after that it could be you know Rocket ship emojis for Antonio Gibson if he keeps on getting a workload like this And I see no reason to expect that to change so Antonio Gibson a great game on Thursday And a lot of reasons expect to a lot of reason to expect similar stuff for him going forward after that Steelers matchup Especially going up against the Steelers team who We would think is going to play the Baltimore Raven So maybe you get a little bit of a hangover from all of this COVID craziness going on in Pittsburgh The San Francisco 49ers are coming off an upset win over the Los Angeles Rams They got healthy their wide receiver Debo Samuel is back from a hamstring injury Samuel 133 receiving yards against the Rams Jim. How come you like Samuel again going back to back weeks? Yeah Debo Samuel I think is intriguing because we want wide receivers who get rush attempts and that may sound really stupid But like it's valuable because not because just because they can score points on those rush attempts But also because it tells us the team wants the ball in their hands and they got the ball in Debo Samuel's hands a lot on Sunday he had 11 targets in that game and yeah a lot of those targets are bunny targets We're not getting a lot of downfield books. He's not gonna be Tyree kill But there's safety in those bunny targets too and with Debo It's also a different equation because he has so much after the catch ability kind of like AJ Brown where he can turn a short pass Into a long game which he's done throughout his entire career with the 49ers So I don't really care too much that he's not getting downfield books I just want the overall volume and his talent as a pass catcher as well now We will see Debo lose some looks once Brandon Iuk is back Iuk did not play on Sunday, but George Kittle isn't gonna be back here very soon So there's gonna be a lot of targets for Debo Samuel even when Iuk is back And he'll still get those rush attempts as well. That's easy to like even in an offense. That's not that great I'm not gonna expect great quarterback play for the 49ers by any means But you don't really need it when the targets that Samuel is getting are the kind that he is getting right now So I think that Samuel is the kind of receiver. I like to target. He is a guy who gets rush attempts He gets safe targets, but also has the ability to convert on those targets as well and turn a short play into a big one So Debo Samuel the focal point of this 49ers offense And I think that makes them in play for DFS even without a lot of downfield looks in his repertoire I love the rushing yards angle especially because the bills are bottom 10 in the league against the run this season Maybe you do see a big run from the wide receiver of the 49ers in Debo Samuel. Thanks so much Jim Sanis from Number Fire I'm Ariel Epstein with sports grid. We'll see you again soon right here on the Vandal hurry up