934: 15 Transactions for Week 9

JJ Zachariason (0:02)

This is The Late-Round Podcast, with your host, JJ Zachariason.

What's up, everyone? It's JJ Zachariason. In this episode 934 of The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast, sponsored by Underdog, thanks for tuning in. Before getting into the transactions this week, I want to remind you that you can get my rest of season rankings for absolutely free. All you have to do is sign up on Underdog with promo code LATEROUND and you'll get a deposit bonus alongside my rest of season rankings. Just head to underdogfantasy.com or download the Underdog app. Sign up, make an deposit, and start playing. Just make sure you use promo code LATEROUND when you sign up, and then you'll get those rankings. Again, underdogfantasy.com or download the Underdog app. It's a 15 Transactions Day. Let's get to it. Buy Alexander Madison. So if you were to tell me in August that I'd be saying to buy Alexander Madison after week eight, I'd call you crazy. I didn't like Zemir White entering the season, but I didn't think Alexander Madison would be in the position that he's currently in. Look, no one's expecting the world out of Madison. He was a huge disappointment last year. He's playing in a bad offense, and that offense didn't start him to start the season. But given the last couple of weeks, to me, it's clear that he's the RB1 on that team. Zemir White missed a couple of games back in week five and week six. He's been back for the Raiders over their last two, and in those games, he's seen a grand total of five rush attempts. His running back rush shares have gone from about 72% to start the season to 12%. Meanwhile, over Vegas' last two games, Madison has seen running back rush shares of 89% and 82%. His backfield share has actually gotten better since Zemir White returned. And he's getting plenty of receiving work. Against the Chiefs this past week, Alexander Madison's target share, 18.5%. Now, when it comes to these non-elite players, these non-elite running backs, anything can change in an instant. It's not like Madison has this role on lock the same way that like a Derek Henry does in his offense. We always have to be aware that when we're dealing with non-elite players, a coach can change things up quickly. But if nothing changes in Vegas, if this really is Alexander Madison's backfield, then this is a solid buy-low moment. Because Vegas right now has the absolute best fantasy playoff schedule for running max by adjusted fantasy points allowed. In weeks 15, 16, and 17, they get the Falcons, Jags, and Saints. Atlanta's been kind of tough on running max, but Jacksonville and New Orleans, those are top five matchups. And they're coming in weeks 16 and 17 And because we know that this is kind of a volatile situation, like yeah, we're seeing this work for Madison, but like I just said, because he's not an elite player, this workload can shift, it can change. If you want to, if you don't have Madison, and you can't get Madison, you could always try to add Zameer White, because he's on a lot of waiver wires right now. You never know what can go down over the next handful of weeks. At least what we know is that Madison looks like a bell cow, and the Raiders have a really good schedule, especially in the fantasy playoffs. It's not like Zameer White would be incapable of putting up decent numbers. But the transaction here, buy Alexander Madison. Add Cedric Tillman. So I talked about Cedric Tillman on last week's show, and then he came out in week eight, and he was better than any of us thought he would be. He's now seen target shares of 25% and 22% over these two games without Amari Cooper. He's had 47 PPR points. Now we should keep in mind that the Browns faced Cincinnati and Baltimore during this two game stretch. Those are two really easy matchups according to Adjusted Fantasy Points allowed. And moving forward, Cleveland actually has the toughest wide receiver schedule from now through the end of the season. That's according to the same methodology. So there's a chance actually that Cedric Tillman is a sell high. I just doubt anyone in your league is really heavily buying. But yeah, given his last two performances, he needs to be rostered.

Sell Kareem Hunt. So when you're trading players away, sometimes you just got to eat a couple of weeks. Sometimes a short-term production, you're just not going to get it. And that might be the case for Kareem Hunt. Teams desperately needing a win right now in your league, they might be more inclined to get Kareem Hunt to trade. Or to one Kareem Hunt. Because since he joined Kansas City, he's largely operated as their workhorse. He's averaged over 18 PPR points per game over their last three. But as most of us know, Isaiah Pacheco will likely be back this season. Friend of the show Dr. Edwin Poros believes it could be week 12 when Isaiah Pacheco returns. But even if it's a little bit later, that means that Hunt won't be around for the fantasy playoffs. And even if he is around, the Chiefs have a pretty brutal schedule in weeks 15, 16 and 17 They get the Browns, Texans and Steelers. Those are three bottom half matchups for Running Max. Two of those matchups are bottom five ones. So this transaction goes out to all of you managers who have Kareem Hunt and you're sitting pretty for the playoffs. You may want to ship them right now before he loses a lot of value. Because that's likely to happen each week as we get closer to Isaiah Pacheco's return.