Roundtable: Midseason Grab Bag

Welcome to Week 10 of the 2024 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. We split the conversation into separate features.

This week's roundtable features these four topics:

• The Cowboys Without Prescott
• Midseason Grab Bag (see below)
• Would You Rather, Dynasty Edition
• Dump, Bench, and Start

Let's roll. 

Midseason Grab Bag

Matt Waldman: Here are the potential topics this week. 

• For those of you in the subscriber contest, are you still alive? 
• Who has vastly outperformed your preseason expectations?
• Is Patrick Mahomes II about to rebound in a big way, or was it the toothless Bucs pass defense?
• Who was your first "favorite player" as a budding football fan? 

Pick two. 

Gary Davenport: I certainly didn’t expect Chuba Hubbard of the Carolina Panthers to be a top-10 fantasy option better than halfway through the 2024 season. It’s been lost on a miserable team, but Hubbard has quietly had a solid season for both his team and fantasy ones—a season that has allowed the Panthers to slow-play things with rookie Jonathon Brooks. 

I became a diehard football fan watching Bernie Kosar and the Cleveland Browns teams of the 80’s—and my favorite players on that team were the cornerback tandem of Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield. Not only were they both excellent defensive backs, but their penchant for barking at opposing receivers inspired fans in the bleachers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium to do the same—giving birth to the Dawg Pound.

Waldman: You're speaking my language with that cornerback tandem! Excellent man-to-man players. 

Andy Hicks: Surprisingly, yes, my team is still alive in the subscriber contest. There is a brutal bye week schedule coming up, and at least 30% of teams are being eliminated every week. Wide receiver has been my problem all season; half of them are not playing this week. The rest of my roster is strong enough to survive but needs points from the receivers. 

Waldman: Congratulations, Andy. I am also alive. My team had its best week in Week 9, scoring 182 points. It was not expected, especially when my best receiver, DK Metcalf, was out. 

Hicks: I wasn’t anything more than a passive fan growing up, but the boom of fantasy football coincided with my strong interest in the 90s. As an adult loving this sport without any strong childhood ties is a different experience than most.  

My favorite player was and always will be Randy Moss. He earned 9 double-digit touchdown seasons and 10 seasons with more than 1,000 yards.

A favorite season is difficult, but the 23-touchdown season in New England and his rookie season stand out. Let’s go with the rookie season.

The Vikings already had Cris Carter and Jake Reed, but the team and coach Dennis Green took a risk with the 21st overall pick of the 1998 draft. Moss had elite speed and freakish size, but his attitude was heavily questioned.

Green kept him under wraps during training camp and preseason but knew he was special. He burst out in his first game with two touchdowns against a strong Buccaneers defense. The highlight of the whole season was his three touchdowns of over 50 yards against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. It was in the middle of a nine-game stretch with a touchdown in every game, with the culmination being the unfortunate Gary Anderson missed field goal. His only one all year. But in Moss, a star was born. 

Waldman: I was living in Jamaica when Moss had that emergence in Dallas. I had Moss on my team, and it was my first time eating fried turkey. Fun day and a great player. 

Hicks: Outside his freakish ability, the thing that attracted me to Moss was his attitude about his slide in the draft. The usual I will make them pay attitude was not the way Moss went. He essentially stated that my next contract would make things right.