# 1034: Mailbag - Vetoing Trades, TreVeyon Henderson, and More

An episode of [The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1224965828), 10 Oct 2025, 24 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0a233618-d694-4c81-a139-b34e00f98fb1/996aee2d-677e-484f-8061-b37101375064/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=5747cc82-33a9-497c-8353-b34e00f98fbe

Should leagues allow trade vetoing? Is TreVeyon Henderson already a bust? What should we expect from the Bengals offense with Joe Flacco? JJ talks about those questions -- and more -- on this week's mailbag episode. Make sure to check out LateRound.com to subscribe to the free newsletter. Want to get weekly and rest-of-season rankings while accessing the amazing Late-Round community on Discord? Become a Late-Round member today. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: This is the Late Podcast with your host JJ Zacherathay
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[0:55] Speaker 1: It's a mail bag day, Let's get to it. This
[1:00] Speaker 1: question this week is from Patreon. It's from Gilu. It
[1:02] Speaker 1: says when during the season is a good time to
[1:05] Speaker 1: start trying to consolidate your power into a starting lineup
[1:08] Speaker 1: thanks to the draft guide, I have five wide receivers
[1:11] Speaker 1: inside the top sixteen rest of season. In a typical
[1:14] Speaker 1: two wide receiver in one flex league, I can only
[1:17] Speaker 1: start three at most. I'm five to zero, but could
[1:20] Speaker 1: probably upgrade an RB two. Do I hold pat and
[1:23] Speaker 1: protect against bie weeks and injury or try to consolidate
[1:26] Speaker 1: into a juggernaut starting lineup thanks as always. Look, I'm
[1:31] Speaker 1: of the belief that you should always be trying to
[1:33] Speaker 1: consolidate into a juggernaut almost immediately when the season starts.
[1:37] Speaker 1: Leaving points on the bench isn't usually a good idea
[1:40] Speaker 1: because obviously those points aren't gonna help you get a win.
[1:44] Speaker 1: It's good and fun, and it's helpful to have a backup.
[1:46] Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. In an ideal world, you'd have
[1:49] Speaker 1: a great starting lineup and a great bench, but you're
[1:52] Speaker 1: trying to get first place. If you're sitting with five
[1:56] Speaker 1: top sixteen wide receivers, at least package one of them
[1:59] Speaker 1: up with one of your running backs and upgrade that
[2:02] Speaker 1: running back spot. Do a two for one. Now. I
[2:05] Speaker 1: don't want to be the analyst who says that wide
[2:07] Speaker 1: receiver threes don't matter. Or RB twos just don't matter
[2:11] Speaker 1: because they do, especially in a deeper format where it's
[2:14] Speaker 1: not always easy to field, like a full starting lineup.
[2:17] Speaker 1: But in a league where you don't start many players,
[2:19] Speaker 1: where your starting lineup is shallower, those players, those wide
[2:23] Speaker 1: receiver three types, they matter less. You know, like the
[2:26] Speaker 1: Jacoby Myers of the world. They're gonna be more helpful
[2:30] Speaker 1: for a deep league with deep starting lineups versus one
[2:33] Speaker 1: where you're just starting two wide receivers, two running backs
[2:36] Speaker 1: and no flex spots, because each spot in that starting
[2:39] Speaker 1: lineup when it's shallower is more impactful because there are
[2:43] Speaker 1: fewer of them. So if you're trotting out Jacoby Myers,
[2:46] Speaker 1: you're running the risk of not getting that much production
[2:49] Speaker 1: in a given week, even though he still can get
[2:51] Speaker 1: you some production in some weeks. Jacoby Myers is not
[2:55] Speaker 1: a mechag Buca, and I love Jacoby Myers. He's not
[2:58] Speaker 1: catching strays here. I think he's a good player, and
[3:02] Speaker 1: I think he's gonna bounce back and not be as
[3:03] Speaker 1: bad as he's been the last couple of weeks. He's
[3:06] Speaker 1: just like the quintessential wide receiver three right now in fantasy.
[3:10] Speaker 1: But this is why I say each year, if you're
[3:12] Speaker 1: in a shallower league, an eight a ten team league,
[3:15] Speaker 1: you should probably spend up at least on a quarterback
[3:18] Speaker 1: or a tight end, maybe even both both of those
[3:21] Speaker 1: onesie positions. That's much more difficult to do. That's an
[3:25] Speaker 1: opportunity cost that's much more difficult to take on in
[3:28] Speaker 1: a fourteen team league where you're starting like three wide receivers,
[3:32] Speaker 1: two running backs, and three flex spots. Because of that
[3:35] Speaker 1: opportunity cost, different league sizes, different league types, they're gonna
[3:40] Speaker 1: make players more and less valuable, even though that player
[3:44] Speaker 1: is scoring the exact same number of Fantasy points. Of course,
[3:47] Speaker 1: there's insane overlap, but mecha BUCA is good in all formats.
[3:51] Speaker 1: But you should really have a good grasp on your
[3:53] Speaker 1: individual league to know how spread out you should be,
[3:56] Speaker 1: to know how much depth you need versus how aggressive
[3:59] Speaker 1: you can be at optimizing that starting lineup. But I
[4:02] Speaker 1: would argue in the majority of leagues, optimizing that starting
[4:05] Speaker 1: lineup is the number one thing to do. You don't
[4:08] Speaker 1: want to worry too much about downside in fantasy football.
[4:11] Speaker 1: It's an upside game with only one winner. This last
[4:17] Speaker 1: question from Patreon is from Corey it says, how do
[4:19] Speaker 1: I convince my league that vetoing trades for any reason
[4:22] Speaker 1: other than blatant collusion or apathy is just petty and lame.
[4:27] Speaker 1: I'd like them to remove the veto system entirely. I
[4:30] Speaker 1: feel like I answer this question once a year, but
[4:32] Speaker 1: it's really important. Hear me out. Guys, listen to me
[4:36] Speaker 1: very closely. Vetowing trades is childish, truly it is. You're
[4:42] Speaker 1: sitting there saying that your league mate is so stupid,
[4:45] Speaker 1: is so inexperienced, is so wrong that in order to
[4:49] Speaker 1: save your league, you're gonna say no to a trade
[4:53] Speaker 1: that you weren't even involved with. If that's the way
[4:56] Speaker 1: that your league thinks, then your league doesn't treat you
[4:59] Speaker 1: like an a adult making your own decisions, and you
[5:02] Speaker 1: may need to find a new league. Not only is
[5:05] Speaker 1: vetoing wrong, but a lot of times trades you think
[5:08] Speaker 1: should be vetoed end up not being bad trades at all.
[5:11] Speaker 1: In the end, quit acting like you have all the
[5:14] Speaker 1: answers and you know what's right and wrong, like you're
[5:18] Speaker 1: some fantasy football king. The only time vetoing should be
[5:21] Speaker 1: allowed is if there's clear collusion, if a team is
[5:25] Speaker 1: just giving up doesn't care is moving players because they're
[5:28] Speaker 1: checked out. I'll just group that all together as collusion.
[5:32] Speaker 1: If that's the case, though, you have to number one,
[5:35] Speaker 1: talk to the managers and prove that to be true.
[5:38] Speaker 1: But then number two, my god, people play fantasy football
[5:42] Speaker 1: with better human beings. Quit playing fantasy football with these
[5:45] Speaker 1: five year olds who throw a temper tantrum when they lose.
[5:50] Speaker 1: The problem here is that vetoing would never have to
[5:52] Speaker 1: be a discussion if people were just normal functioning adults.
[5:57] Speaker 1: Everything stems from people trying to cheat or ruin the
[5:59] Speaker 1: fun for everyone else, and if they're doing that, then
[6:03] Speaker 1: they're fantasy managers that you don't want to play with.
[6:06] Speaker 1: Stop vetoing traits. It's a childish thing to do. And
[6:10] Speaker 1: if you think that your league needs vetos, then you
[6:13] Speaker 1: need to recalibrate and look at the managers in your league.
[6:19] Speaker 1: This has question from Chris. It says, how do you
[6:21] Speaker 1: view Colston Loveland coming out of the bye? High pedigree player,
[6:25] Speaker 1: but limited productions so far. So I'm actually intrigued by
[6:28] Speaker 1: both Lovelan and Luther Burden coming out of the bye.
[6:32] Speaker 1: If any of you followed my prospecting work this offseason,
[6:34] Speaker 1: the ZA model had Loveland as being as just as
[6:37] Speaker 1: good of a prospect as Tyler Warren. Warren obviously he's
[6:40] Speaker 1: in a position, He's in a situation where his team
[6:43] Speaker 1: had a plan for his unique skill set, and he
[6:45] Speaker 1: has a more unique skill set, so it's really working out.
[6:49] Speaker 1: And that's not to say that Warren's overrated or that
[6:51] Speaker 1: he's bad. It's to say that Colston Loveland has a
[6:54] Speaker 1: chance to be really good. Meanwhile, the ZA model loved
[6:58] Speaker 1: Luther Burden. He was in the elite producer category, albeit barely,
[7:03] Speaker 1: and we usually don't see that from second round picks.
[7:06] Speaker 1: We've gotten a glimpse of his upside this season, but
[7:09] Speaker 1: we're not going to see it consistently enough until a
[7:11] Speaker 1: Lamine's Akias stops playing as many steps as he's playing.
[7:15] Speaker 1: The last time we saw Chicago's a Kis ran a
[7:17] Speaker 1: route on sixty eight percent of their dropbacks, Luther Burden
[7:20] Speaker 1: was at twenty seven percent. But like most rookies, I
[7:23] Speaker 1: fully expect them to get more work as the season
[7:25] Speaker 1: goes on, and with them coming out of a bye,
[7:28] Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if we see a nice uptick
[7:30] Speaker 1: here in Week six, which means you might want to
[7:33] Speaker 1: stash them right now before they're potentially waiver wire ads
[7:36] Speaker 1: next week. It's not a guarantee, but it's a pretty
[7:39] Speaker 1: decent game theory. Play. This next one's an email from
[7:44] Speaker 1: Andrew that I received last week. Now, some of the
[7:46] Speaker 1: data in this isn't exactly correct, but it's not that
[7:49] Speaker 1: relevant to what we're going to be talking about, it,
[7:51] Speaker 1: says hey, JJ. I recently started looking at expected fantasy
[7:55] Speaker 1: points to help supplement my research on buy lower ad candidates.
[7:59] Speaker 1: One thing I'm trying to Hermann is what kind of
[8:01] Speaker 1: player should I use this data point for and how
[8:03] Speaker 1: should I use it? An example, maybe to avoid using
[8:06] Speaker 1: it for someone like Xavier Lagette, who just doesn't seem
[8:09] Speaker 1: to have the juice but is scoring minus eight point
[8:12] Speaker 1: nine expected fantasy points per game. What about someone more
[8:15] Speaker 1: complicated like Jerry Judy, who has the opportunities but could
[8:18] Speaker 1: simply be washed. However, he is finishing with minus five
[8:22] Speaker 1: point six expected fantasy points per game. Thanks Drew, Yeah,
[8:27] Speaker 1: I actually think you're looking at this properly. Expected fantasy
[8:30] Speaker 1: points can often be misused in the fantasy football space
[8:33] Speaker 1: because there are a lot of assumptions that are being
[8:35] Speaker 1: made with it now. For those who aren't aware, there
[8:38] Speaker 1: are a number of expected fantasy point models out there
[8:40] Speaker 1: that try to describe how many points a player should
[8:43] Speaker 1: have based on where he's seeing his touches. So can
[8:46] Speaker 1: look at history, show what would be expected, and then
[8:49] Speaker 1: see how many points a player should have based on that.
[8:52] Speaker 1: And it's a good tool to have because it can
[8:54] Speaker 1: help us easily spot things like regression. If a player
[8:57] Speaker 1: is like way way out performing his expected fantasy points,
[9:00] Speaker 1: he'll probably eventually cool off a little bit. And then
[9:03] Speaker 1: if a player is underperforming, we should expect him to
[9:06] Speaker 1: perform better. The problem with this, obviously, is that not
[9:10] Speaker 1: all situations are created equal. A player in the Lions
[9:13] Speaker 1: offense might have an easier time outperforming expectation because that
[9:17] Speaker 1: offensive environment is a lot better. A player in the
[9:20] Speaker 1: Browns offense, the Titans offense, they're gonna have a harder
[9:23] Speaker 1: time playing at that expectation. And then, as you know
[9:27] Speaker 1: it with Jerry Judy, sometimes players just aren't very good,
[9:30] Speaker 1: maybe they are washed, or sometimes they're really good, so
[9:34] Speaker 1: you can work off of that too. But the assumption
[9:37] Speaker 1: that's often made, which is what I wanted to bring
[9:39] Speaker 1: up here, but there's this assumption that players are just
[9:41] Speaker 1: gonna see the exact same volume week over week. Now,
[9:45] Speaker 1: there is predictive power to this, don't get me wrong,
[9:48] Speaker 1: But if a player hasn't expected Fantasy points mark in
[9:50] Speaker 1: a given game that's insanely high, we shouldn't just assume
[9:53] Speaker 1: that it's going to be that high forever. Like even
[9:56] Speaker 1: these numbers, these volume driven numbers, can regress. Remember at
[9:59] Speaker 1: the start of the season, when people have like forty
[10:01] Speaker 1: percent target shairs, they're not going to maintain a forty
[10:04] Speaker 1: percent target share week in and week out. It's just
[10:07] Speaker 1: another tool for us, It's another puzzle piece. It's just
[10:10] Speaker 1: a quick reference for us. We want to see if
[10:13] Speaker 1: someone should perform better or not. Moving forward, you still
[10:16] Speaker 1: need to dig deeper into the individual player, look at
[10:19] Speaker 1: his talent, look at his situation, all of that stuff.
[10:23] Speaker 1: But Drew overall, you're definitely thinking about this properly. This
[10:28] Speaker 1: last question from twitters from at Winslow, Aaron It says,
[10:31] Speaker 1: does Joe Flacco help or hurt Jamar Chase and t Higgins.
[10:35] Speaker 1: So I talked a little bit about this Flacco trade
[10:38] Speaker 1: on Wednesday's ten Trends episode, But I do want to
[10:40] Speaker 1: provide a little bit more detail about how I'm feeling here.
[10:44] Speaker 1: My overall feeling is that this is an upgrade for
[10:47] Speaker 1: the Bengals offense and for t Higgins and for Jamar
[10:50] Speaker 1: Chase and hopefully Chase brown too, because I don't know
[10:53] Speaker 1: how it can get dramatically worse. Now. I have my concerns,
[10:58] Speaker 1: which is what I talked about on Wednesday Show. Joe
[11:01] Speaker 1: Flacco has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the
[11:03] Speaker 1: league under pressure over the last two seasons, and Cincinnati
[11:08] Speaker 1: clearly doesn't have the offensive line to help with that. Now,
[11:10] Speaker 1: with that being said, he's not going to be under
[11:12] Speaker 1: pressure on one hundred percent of his dropbacks. So far
[11:16] Speaker 1: this season, Bengals quarterbacks have faced pressure on thirty eight
[11:19] Speaker 1: percent of their dropbacks according next to Gen Stats. That's
[11:22] Speaker 1: eighth worst in football. There are teams out there who
[11:25] Speaker 1: are in worse spots. Now, it's not just an offensive
[11:28] Speaker 1: line statistic. Just to be clear, pressure rate can come
[11:31] Speaker 1: down to how the quarterback is delivering the football too.
[11:35] Speaker 1: I'm just giving you some descriptive data, but that means
[11:38] Speaker 1: the majority of dropbacks will not be under pressure for Cincinnati.
[11:41] Speaker 1: Jake Browning, according to PFF has eighty one pass attempts
[11:45] Speaker 1: this year while being kept clean in the pocket. According
[11:48] Speaker 1: to that same data, among thirty qualified quarterbacks, Browning is
[11:52] Speaker 1: twenty fifth and passer rating within that clean pocket. But
[11:56] Speaker 1: guess what, Joe Flacco this year is twenty ninth. Now
[12:01] Speaker 1: that being said, when we're comparing metrics from one player
[12:03] Speaker 1: to another, you can't just ignore all context. I sent
[12:07] Speaker 1: a tweet out this week right after the Flacco trade
[12:09] Speaker 1: that said, quote the Bengals getting upgrade in EPA per
[12:12] Speaker 1: dropback per next Gen stats. They're going from the last
[12:15] Speaker 1: ranked quarterback in Jake Browning minus point four to four
[12:18] Speaker 1: to the second to last rank quarterback in Joe Flacco.
[12:21] Speaker 1: And while all of that is true, EPA per dropback
[12:24] Speaker 1: isn't like some flawless metric. Clearly, throwing the ball to
[12:27] Speaker 1: Jamar Chase to T Higgins, that's probably gonna be a
[12:30] Speaker 1: better experience than what Joe Flacco was throwing to in Cleveland.
[12:35] Speaker 1: I think if you were to sort of look at
[12:36] Speaker 1: how these quarterbacks have performed this year, Jake Browning versus
[12:39] Speaker 1: Joe Flacco, they're not that far off from one another statistically.
[12:44] Speaker 1: But then you layer on that context, and you could
[12:47] Speaker 1: argue that Browning should be posting better numbers. Not only that,
[12:51] Speaker 1: but if you look at twenty twenty four numbers, Flacco
[12:53] Speaker 1: is actually eleventh in the NFL and passer rating from
[12:56] Speaker 1: a clean pocket, So maybe there's something there. I just
[12:59] Speaker 1: don't think Jake Browning was the same quarterback in twenty
[13:02] Speaker 1: twenty five versus how he played in twenty twenty three.
[13:05] Speaker 1: There were some metrics in twenty twenty three, like how
[13:08] Speaker 1: he played in a clean pocket where he wasn't that bad,
[13:12] Speaker 1: And maybe it's just the offensive line, but there were
[13:14] Speaker 1: plenty of instances that I saw with my eyes because
[13:17] Speaker 1: I do watch the games too, where he just didn't
[13:19] Speaker 1: feel comfortable at all and he missed open targets. I
[13:22] Speaker 1: think the hope with Flacco is that he can do
[13:24] Speaker 1: more at the line and he won't be as afraid
[13:27] Speaker 1: to let his wide receivers make a play. That's the hope.
[13:31] Speaker 1: But given all of this, the data of Flacco under pressure,
[13:35] Speaker 1: his poor performance so far this year, I mean the
[13:37] Speaker 1: fact that he's forty years old, I'm trying to be realistic.
[13:41] Speaker 1: I'm still lower than the market on the pass catchers there.
[13:44] Speaker 1: I think Jamar Chase he's fine as like a top
[13:47] Speaker 1: ten wide receiver, but if you look at rest of
[13:49] Speaker 1: season rankings, right now he's being ranked as a top
[13:52] Speaker 1: five wide receiver and t Higgins probably more of a
[13:55] Speaker 1: wide receiver three type. And then I talked all about
[13:58] Speaker 1: Chase Brown and his volume on that ten Trends episode
[14:00] Speaker 1: as well. I think Brown is gonna struggle to be
[14:03] Speaker 1: efficient this year, but if his volume keeps up, and yeah,
[14:06] Speaker 1: that's a big if. Still we don't know if that's
[14:08] Speaker 1: gonna happen. But if this volume keeps up, he's gonna
[14:12] Speaker 1: be more productive. It's almost impossible not to be. So overall,
[14:16] Speaker 1: it's a net positive for the Bengals. Just don't take
[14:18] Speaker 1: it too far, at least not right now. The last
[14:23] Speaker 1: question this week is from Patreon. It's from Harry Hensley eleven.
[14:26] Speaker 1: It says, just how many times does Ramandre Stevenson have
[14:29] Speaker 1: to put the ball on the ground to give Trayvon
[14:31] Speaker 1: Henderson some more work? Not one, not two, not three.
[14:35] Speaker 1: I imagine Gibson's injury opens the door for Trayveon, but
[14:40] Speaker 1: the fact he was losing work to Gibson in the
[14:42] Speaker 1: first place is worrisome. Are there any metrics that tell
[14:45] Speaker 1: you Henderson just might not be the prospect we thought,
[14:49] Speaker 1: or is this just early season rookie struggles. Thank you
[14:53] Speaker 1: for hearing my tilt. All right, this isn't directly related
[14:57] Speaker 1: to your question here, but it also kind of is
[15:00] Speaker 1: to all the Henderson stuff. I've just got to get
[15:02] Speaker 1: something off my chest. Some people hate it when I
[15:05] Speaker 1: do this, some people love it when I do this,
[15:07] Speaker 1: but this is just me. I'm passionate about this stuff.
[15:10] Speaker 1: I love this stuff. I don't think I should be
[15:12] Speaker 1: doing this as my job if I didn't. I've found
[15:16] Speaker 1: the reaction to rookies this season to be absolutely insane.
[15:20] Speaker 1: And I talked about this a couple of weeks ago too,
[15:22] Speaker 1: Like there are people who's still to this day they
[15:25] Speaker 1: email me with questions, and those questions start with with
[15:28] Speaker 1: this disappointing rookie running backclass dot dot dot, Like, folks,
[15:32] Speaker 1: we need some perspective here. So far this season, Ashton
[15:36] Speaker 1: gent A, Marian Hampton, and Quinshawn Judkins are all over
[15:39] Speaker 1: fifteen PPR points per game. I'm recording this before Thursday
[15:42] Speaker 1: Night's game, but Cam Skataboo is at thirteen point seven.
[15:45] Speaker 1: Jacory Krosky Merritt, who's trending in the right direction. He's
[15:48] Speaker 1: at twelve. That's five rookie running backs in five weeks,
[15:52] Speaker 1: their first five games of their careers getting to twelve
[15:56] Speaker 1: PPR points per game. Since twenty eleven, do you know
[15:59] Speaker 1: how many rookie running back classes have had five players
[16:02] Speaker 1: score twelve or more PPR points per game across the
[16:05] Speaker 1: entire season? One of them one we saw it in
[16:09] Speaker 1: twenty twenty where there were five. That twenty seventeen class
[16:14] Speaker 1: that everyone looks at as the best one that we've
[16:16] Speaker 1: seen over the last decade plus, that class had four
[16:20] Speaker 1: rookies get the twelve or more PPR points per game
[16:23] Speaker 1: minimum eight games played. Dalvin Cook he got there, but
[16:27] Speaker 1: he only played four games. Now, of course, the players
[16:30] Speaker 1: doing that now may not finish there. We have a
[16:34] Speaker 1: lot of games to still play. But hopefully that puts
[16:36] Speaker 1: into perspective how this rookie draft class is actually done.
[16:41] Speaker 1: I think there's just been really really high expectations for
[16:44] Speaker 1: rookies this year, and maybe it's because people like myself,
[16:47] Speaker 1: how did this rookie running back classes being really good?
[16:49] Speaker 1: Or maybe you heard me getting excited about Trayvon Henderson
[16:52] Speaker 1: this offseason, and so far he's sing the b or
[16:56] Speaker 1: Jayden Blue, liking him as a flyer bshard Smith. But guys,
[17:02] Speaker 1: I can't stress this enough. Liking a flyer a literal
[17:06] Speaker 1: last round pick or a double digit round pick, does
[17:09] Speaker 1: not mean that there's a high likelihood of that flyer
[17:12] Speaker 1: actually hitting and becoming a week in, week out starter,
[17:16] Speaker 1: just as there's not a high likelihood of a flyer
[17:19] Speaker 1: veteran running back hitting. Like, how's Ray Davis doing this year?
[17:23] Speaker 1: What about Tank Bigsby? What about Braylan Allen pre injury?
[17:27] Speaker 1: No one seems to care about those guys, and yet
[17:30] Speaker 1: every week it's beashall Tooton sucks. Did you see that
[17:33] Speaker 1: player where he just ran right into the defender? Why
[17:36] Speaker 1: aren't we doing that with veteran running backs? You, guys,
[17:38] Speaker 1: I don't understand. There were just a lot of rookie
[17:41] Speaker 1: running backs that we were drafting late this year because
[17:44] Speaker 1: it was a really interesting and good rookie class. But
[17:47] Speaker 1: drafting a first year player in the double digit rounds
[17:50] Speaker 1: makes a ton of sense. We know rookies performed better
[17:54] Speaker 1: during the second half of the season. We know that
[17:57] Speaker 1: there's still potential for more of these guys to emerge.
[18:01] Speaker 1: The fantasy football season doesn't end after five weeks, and
[18:05] Speaker 1: so far this rookie running back class has actually been awesome.
[18:10] Speaker 1: It's just that we focus on the players who haven't
[18:12] Speaker 1: been awesome, because that's what humans do. We like to
[18:15] Speaker 1: focus on the negatives. RJ. Harvey, Caleb Johnson, Traveon Henderson,
[18:21] Speaker 1: and yeah, those guys, they had more draft capitals spent
[18:24] Speaker 1: on them, and people are more frustrated given that cost
[18:27] Speaker 1: to acquire. But we're still doing this exact same thing
[18:30] Speaker 1: with the late round rookie running backs. Not every player
[18:34] Speaker 1: is gonna hit. We're also five weeks into the season.
[18:38] Speaker 1: We know that we typically see that uptick and rookie
[18:40] Speaker 1: production during the second half of the year. Now, I
[18:43] Speaker 1: know that's more chatter about this rookie class as a whole.
[18:45] Speaker 1: And this question was about Trayvon Henderson. But the idea
[18:49] Speaker 1: that Henderson just might not be as good of a
[18:51] Speaker 1: prospect as we all thought, that idea is just way
[18:54] Speaker 1: too premature in my eyes. Yes, it's possible that that's
[18:58] Speaker 1: the case. Of course, probability wise, we'd probably lean that
[19:02] Speaker 1: way right now. But this also comes down to what
[19:05] Speaker 1: your expectations were. I for sure thought that he would
[19:08] Speaker 1: have a bigger workload by now, but I'm also recognizing
[19:11] Speaker 1: that rookies have a lot more volatility from a floor
[19:14] Speaker 1: ceiling perspective to start their rookie seasons. Basically, you didn't
[19:18] Speaker 1: draft Henderson or any other rookie running back for their
[19:21] Speaker 1: September numbers, and in hindsight, that should have been talked
[19:24] Speaker 1: about more by me in the preseason. I should have
[19:27] Speaker 1: dedicated more time to that talking about on the podcast
[19:30] Speaker 1: and writing about it in the draft guide. It's a
[19:33] Speaker 1: concept I'll talk more about next offseason. I just don't
[19:36] Speaker 1: want to get into it right now because that's an
[19:38] Speaker 1: entire podcast. But you drafted these guys to get their
[19:41] Speaker 1: season long numbers, which typically get better as the season
[19:46] Speaker 1: goes on. But remember, not all of these players are
[19:50] Speaker 1: gonna hit. It's not a guarantee that Traveon Henderson turns
[19:54] Speaker 1: his season around, or that RJ. Harvey gets better as
[19:57] Speaker 1: the season gets going, or that Caleb Johnson sees the field.
[20:01] Speaker 1: None of that is a guarantee, just like it's not
[20:04] Speaker 1: a guarantee that the veterans he would be drafting are
[20:06] Speaker 1: gonna do the same thing. Some of the veterans bus too.
[20:10] Speaker 1: We just shouldn't lean so far in one direction at
[20:12] Speaker 1: this point in the season, unless we're talking about like
[20:15] Speaker 1: a Caleb Johnson situation, which is pretty unique. There's still
[20:18] Speaker 1: plenty of time for Trayvon Henderson to figure this out.
[20:23] Speaker 1: And that's not just me like coping. I hate that
[20:26] Speaker 1: when I say stuff like this where I'm defending a
[20:28] Speaker 1: player that I liked, that's gonna be the response for
[20:30] Speaker 1: some people, You're just coping. I'm not coping. I don't
[20:33] Speaker 1: care where I was at with players in the preseason.
[20:35] Speaker 1: I care about right now. I want to help you
[20:38] Speaker 1: guys win it fantasy football right now. Take lock is
[20:42] Speaker 1: one of the biggest drivers of being a bad fantasy
[20:45] Speaker 1: football analyst. This is just the way that I play
[20:49] Speaker 1: and analyze fantasy football because I know that historically we
[20:53] Speaker 1: see this happen sometimes with rookies. Sometimes it takes a minute.
[20:57] Speaker 1: It's not a lock that it's gonna turn around. But
[21:00] Speaker 1: I would much rather bin into a strong rookie who
[21:02] Speaker 1: starts off slow on the volume front than some random
[21:05] Speaker 1: veteran who's also starting slow in the volume front, because
[21:09] Speaker 1: there's more ambiguity and more upside with that rookie now,
[21:13] Speaker 1: specifically to Henderson, I don't think he's been very good
[21:15] Speaker 1: to start the year. His pass pro has been the
[21:17] Speaker 1: opposite of what many expected entering the league, and his
[21:20] Speaker 1: rushing yards over expected per attempt is pretty poor. I
[21:23] Speaker 1: personally think they're not doing enough in New England to
[21:25] Speaker 1: get him the ball in space, which is where he's
[21:28] Speaker 1: going to be better. But he still hasn't looked the
[21:31] Speaker 1: part as a rusher. It's a small sample though. Meanwhile,
[21:35] Speaker 1: he has the exact same success rate basically as Ramandre Stevenson.
[21:39] Speaker 1: The good news is that this Antonio Gibson injury, it
[21:41] Speaker 1: does open things up a little bit. Of course, it's
[21:44] Speaker 1: not a good sign that a guy like Gibson was
[21:46] Speaker 1: in Henderson's way, but Gibson was also taking like twenty
[21:49] Speaker 1: percent of their snaps each week. I think there's a
[21:51] Speaker 1: good chance that we see over a fifty percent snap
[21:54] Speaker 1: rate for Henderson this week, and Henderson last week saw
[21:57] Speaker 1: a season high fifty three percent route chare. That's really
[22:01] Speaker 1: where the upside is. It's his pass catching that was
[22:04] Speaker 1: the Traveon Henderson thesis from the start, not that he'd
[22:07] Speaker 1: becomes some like eighty percent running back rush are player.
[22:11] Speaker 1: But I think we can wait a little bit before
[22:13] Speaker 1: we say that he's a bad prospect or we just
[22:15] Speaker 1: completely overvalued him as a prospect. Of course that's in
[22:18] Speaker 1: the range of outcomes, and of course that might happen.
[22:21] Speaker 1: I'm just saying we don't have that answer yet. Thankfully,
[22:23] Speaker 1: we're probably gonna learn a lot more about him soon.
[22:26] Speaker 1: I just won't bury ninety nine percent of rookies after
[22:29] Speaker 1: five weeks. I won't sit on my podcast and say, Okay,
[22:33] Speaker 1: we've seen enough. He touched the ball forty times in
[22:35] Speaker 1: one month. I know that he's overrated. I don't know that.
[22:39] Speaker 1: I think we can say there's a chance. There's clearly
[22:41] Speaker 1: more of a chance today than there was in August,
[22:44] Speaker 1: but I don't know if that's really helpful or not, Like,
[22:46] Speaker 1: what does that matter? For now? You just have to
[22:48] Speaker 1: hope that New England starts to deploy him more as
[22:50] Speaker 1: a pass catcher, to really let him show off his
[22:53] Speaker 1: money making skill set. And not only should that naturally
[22:56] Speaker 1: happen as he learns the game he gets more comfortable,
[22:59] Speaker 1: but it'll happen slightly faster now that Antonio Gibson is out.
[23:03] Speaker 1: I doubt Henderson is gonna be a league winning player,
[23:07] Speaker 1: if that's really what you're asking here. I doubt he's
[23:09] Speaker 1: gonna be a league winning player, but I don't think
[23:12] Speaker 1: he's already dust. I think everyone should be living in
[23:15] Speaker 1: the gray area with Travon Henderson right now and stop
[23:19] Speaker 1: thinking that these rookies are underperforming based on a few
[23:22] Speaker 1: bad starts. And I'm not saying the question is asking that.
[23:25] Speaker 1: I'm just making that note. It's actually been a good
[23:28] Speaker 1: rookie class overall so far, and things should only get better.
[23:33] Speaker 1: That's it for today's show, though, thanks to all of
[23:35] Speaker 1: you for listening. If you had subscribed to the Late
[23:37] Speaker 1: Round Fantasy Football podcast, make sure you are a budworting
[23:39] Speaker 1: for it pretty much anywhere podcast can be found, and
[23:42] Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter and on Blue Sky at Late
[23:44] Speaker 1: Round QB. Thanks for listening everyone. Late Round Perspectives later
[23:48] Speaker 1: today and also the Late Round Fantasy Football show that'll
[23:52] Speaker 1: be live on YouTube YouTube dot com slash at Late
[23:54] Speaker 1: Round FF and then it will find itself in this
[23:56] Speaker 1: podcast feed tomorrow morning. Enjoy your week end. I'll talk
[24:00] Speaker 1: to you next week. M

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