The Show: A Surprising Thursday Night, Running Back Usage, and More

JJ Zachariason (0:00)

You're about to listen to The Late-Round Fantasy Football Show, which originally aired yesterday on YouTube. If you'd like to catch it live, you can find it on The Late-Round Fantasy Football YouTube channel at 1 p.m. Eastern every Friday during this 2025 season. That's on youtube.com/atlateroundff. So without further ado, here's this week's episode.

David Kitchen (0:35)

All right, welcome in. David Kitchen, alongside JJ. JJ, how are you doing today?

JJ Zachariason (0:42)

Had a horrible, horrible Thursday night of football, from like an analysis perspective.

David Kitchen (0:48)

Okay, save that analysis, because it's the first bullet point for the news.

JJ Zachariason (0:54)

Well, we can get, yeah. Yes, it was a rough night from an analysis perspective. I've already apologized to patrons this morning. I always just feel bad whenever I get stuff wrong, and I was just really wrong about that game. We'll get into it, but yes, I've had better nights from a primetime game perspective.

David Kitchen (1:18)

Honestly, if we can take away this rugged exterior that I have, and I can be just honest, I would say that's one of my favorite things about you, is that you care. When you get things right, obviously, it's like a high. But when you get things, when things don't go as you predicted, or as you rank them, it upsets you. It's not like, yeah, you can deal with it.

JJ Zachariason (1:41)

Legitimately, I'm watching the game last night. I'm like, you got to be kidding me.

And even I'm in the live game banter channel all the time during games within our Discord. And I love the Rams defense. I loved the Rams defense last night. I don't know how you couldn't on paper. They checked every freaking box on paper, but Kyle Shanahan was in his bag. I mean, he called an unbelievable game, and he made me look like an absolute moron.

David Kitchen (2:12)

As someone who was forced because of Caleb Williams, I was forced to stream Mack Jones. I was like, this is a pleasant, like by half-time he had already outdone his whole game projection. So whatever we got after that was good.

JJ Zachariason (2:26)

At least I did have Matthew Stafford as a streamer this week. So at least that worked out.

David Kitchen (2:30)

Yeah. I'm still mad that you didn't call the Kyron Williams eight catch game. How many catches did he have?

JJ Zachariason (2:40)

I don't know. I think he had 10 targets in the game. I mean, that's been one of the weirdest parts of the season is that Kyron Williams is getting by via receiving. Look, he's always had that in his arsenal. It's just that they haven't deployed him that way and they haven't had a high target share for running backs in years.

I don't know where it's at exactly right now, but just given the way that offense operates, I don't think that's probably his highest target share slash target total he's going to see all season. But it's been a really weird year for Kyron Williams because the things that we were a little bit nervous about are happening where Blake Horham is getting more work. I think last night happened because Blake Horham fumbled and then he dropped the pass and it was just a really bad game for him. But Kyron's getting there because the offense is good. I've actually oddly been higher than the market in my rest of season rankings with Kyron Williams since the start of the season, basically since week two. I was one or two running back spots below the market entering the season, but just a weird year for Kyron overall.

David Kitchen (3:45)

Yeah. I'm hoping that Jarques Hunter somehow comes out of this because of the quorum stuff. Anyways, look at us just trying to withhold our thoughts.

JJ Zachariason (3:56)

I'm talking ball, man.

David Kitchen (3:57)

Yeah.

JJ Zachariason (3:58)

I can't stop talking ball. That's just what my mindset's at right now. I had to go for a walk today. I was telling you before we hopped on, I had to go for a walk. I usually try to get a long walk in once or twice a week. Then I'll ride the bike other days. I'll weight lift other days, whatever. I tried to move at least once a day. Today, I was like, I'm not feeling that good today. I've got some sinus stuff going on. I'm like, all right, I'm just going to go for a long walk. I had to just tune out everything football. I turned on a podcast about The Challenge, which is my guilty pleasure show.

I escaped completely. I was just completely, for an hour and 15 minutes, just walked five miles and I felt great. And now I'm a little bit more energized than I was this morning. Because during our one-on-one this morning, I was feeling it. I wasn't feeling great.