0:00Hello and welcome to Episode 1022 of the official Establish The Run podcast.
0:04My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR.
0:09As always joined by fellow co-founder Evan Silva and week one of the NFL season is in the books.
0:15That means everyone's favorite show team by team is indeed back.
0:19Evan, how was your week one buddy? On Sunday there were a lot of ups and there were a lot of downs
0:26and then on Monday night the avalanche came through with Kenneth the canine walker.
0:31But I want to remind everybody that last year week one the Raiders beat the Patriots.
0:36The Patriots wound up going to the Super Bowl.
0:39The 49ers beat the Seahawks. The Seahawks wound up winning the Super Bowl.
0:44And JJ McCarthy was the NFC offensive player of the week.
0:47So we will have a lot of good takeaways this week because this is actual data, but don't trust everything that you saw on opening day.
0:56Indeed and this will be one of the longest team by teams that we do all year because we learn so much
1:03and I have so many notes on every team and the usage and everything because so many of our questions that we talked about all offseason got answered.
1:13On today's show we are going to go team by team by team through all 32 NFL franchises discussing the most important
1:20things we saw in each and what it means going forward.
1:24Usage, injuries, performance, everything. Reminder for anyone serious about fantasy football or DFS this season.
1:29Clearly I'm biased, but I could not imagine trying to play fantasy football or DFS seriously without our in-season product.
1:35I pour over our projections for every decision that I make.
1:39I read Silva's matchups for his take on every player.
1:42I consult Thorne's rankings for things like knowing to play Jets, DST against the Titans, 32nd ranked offensive line.
1:49Tons more. Plus you get all our premium shows like Silva vs.
1:53Leone, Weekly Man vs. Machine, myself, Silva Wiggins on Friday nights.
1:56So head to the content schedule in the NFL tab for a full list of our in-season product content.
2:03That is the in-season product at EstablishTheRun.com. All right, we're going to start with the five biggest stories of the week here,
2:10Evan, and then we will go team by team in alphabetical order after that.
2:15Number one story of the week has to come from Monday night's game, Kansas City Chiefs.
2:20Oh boy, what a night, Evan, for us Kenneth Walker backers.
2:24I could not have dreamed up a better start.
2:27They were facing what I thought would be one of the NFL's better rush defenses this season.
2:32And Kenneth Walker shreds the Broncos. 23 carries, 173 yards, and a touchdown rushing.
2:37Also caught three passes for 18 yards and another touchdown.
2:40Chiefs blast the Broncos 31-10. The thesis played out exactly as we talked about for much of the offseason here, Evan.
2:47What did you think of Kenneth Walker and Chiefs from last night?
2:51And, you know, they did this with an undrafted rookie left tackle, Kalief Benson, in their starting in place of Josh Simmons.
2:59I got so many messages during the game, in the second half, text, Twitter, whatever.
3:04Thank you for Kenneth Walker this year. So I'm so glad that those people were able to benefit.
3:10A lot of people wound up coming back on Monday night to win their fantasy matchups in week one.
3:16And that's a great feeling, obviously, going into week two, 1-0 with what looks like.
3:21I mean, Kenneth Walker was the best running back in the NFL in week one.
3:26We'll see if he's able to sustain that. But he was the best running back in the NFL in week one.
3:33He broke the 14 missed tackles, led the NFL in rushing in week one.
3:38He looked like an absolute beast out there. So I was really happy for everyone that was able to draft him.
3:45He was a steal, man. He was an absolute steal.
3:48You could get him every single time at the 1-2 turn.
3:52Yep. He handled 29 of the first 32 running back carries.
3:55And this was the point. Why leave Seattle? Seattle, I think, wanted to retain him.
4:00They insulted him by playing Zach Charbonnet too much.
4:03He was like, screw this. I'm going to Kansas City.
4:07I got 29 of the first 32 running back carries before it turned into a blowout.
4:12Kenneth Walker also six targets for a 22% share, really high for the running back position.
4:17The flip side of this, Evan, was the Rasheed Rice stuff.
4:21And, you know, we had a bit of a fade on Rasheed Rice.
4:25I did not think it would be this bad.
4:28Two targets for a 7% share. Now, you could argue that this is not the spot where the Chiefs actually need Rasheed Rice.
4:36They need him against zone. They need him when they are trailing more.
4:40But still, two targets for a 7% share was concerning, I thought.
4:44Evan, what do you think of Rasheed Rice and any of their Chiefs pass catcher thoughts?
4:49Yeah, I had Rasheed Rice in my shy away article this year.
4:53And a lot of the thesis behind it was Kenneth Walker, that adding Kenneth Walker to the Chiefs offense was going to end up neutering Rasheed Rice.
5:02And it looked like that in week one. He did score the touchdown to save face a little bit.
5:09But that was very, very concerning. And the rhetoric now is that the Chiefs, you know, they built this team to be centered around Kenneth Walker.
5:17You know, they have a top 10 offensive line in Brandon Thorne's rankings.
5:22They made Kenneth Walker a guy who's one of the highest paid running backs in the NFL.
5:27You know, this is a Kenneth Walker-centric offense now.
5:30And it makes sense because the Chiefs pass catchers, or this is the weakest pass catching core of Patrick Mahomes' career in this game.
5:38Patrick Mahomes did not complete a single pass of 10 or more air yards.
5:43Really conservative offense built around the running game, a very creative running game, however.
5:48So hopefully, and this is, again, dude, the Broncos missed 28 tackles in this game.
5:5314 of them, again, by Kenneth Walker alone. But 28, how do you, that doesn't even seem mathematically possible to miss 28 tackles in one game.
6:01The Broncos got to go back to the drawing board, but huge win for the Chiefs.
6:07Yeah, we'll get on the Broncos. They just played an awful, awful game.
6:11Last thing for me on Rasheed Rice, I'm not sure that the knee is 100%.
6:16This was the knee issue that he was rehabbing from literal jail.
6:20I'm still not sure it's 100%. So that's just something to monitor.
6:24The routes were there. I mean, Mahomes dropped back 33 times.
6:28Rasheed Rice ran 29 routes. Xavier Worthy, 30. Tyquan Thornton, 24.
6:31Cyrus Allen, everyone's favorite slappy sleeper that got steamed up to like 150.
6:36He ran one route in this game. I do have concerns, though, that Xavier Worthy just is not good enough.
6:42I mean, we've talked about this, and that's why he was going in like the 10th or 11th round.
6:49He just might not be good enough, period, and just is what it is.
6:53Oh, last note from me on the Chiefs. Mahomes rushing.
6:57I mean, this is nine months after an ACL tear, and I thought he was running really well.
7:03Seven carries, 23 yards, and a touchdown. Remains amazing how much faster and better these guys are coming back from ACL tear.
7:10So we under-projected Mahomes rushing last night, to be honest.
7:13And yeah, I mean, he looked fine. I want to do one more shot at Emmitt Johnson.
7:19Yeah. Looked really good with the ball in his hands in this game, and he was the only other running back to
7:26touch the ball in the game besides Kenneth Walker.
7:29Emmitt Johnson, one of the best handcuffs in all of fantasy, should absolutely be owned in every single league.
7:36I don't care. Ten men. Ten men. Down to eight men.
7:39I mean, this is a guy that you put on your bench and stash.
7:44Yeah. So if something happened to Kenneth Walker, Emmitt Johnson would have a very, very nice projection from us on a week-to-week basis.
7:52Okay. Let's go to story two. It is the New York Giants.
7:56Really good win for the Giants. They outplay the Cowboys on Sunday night football, win 28-20.
8:01That wasn't even the biggest news, though, that they beat the Cowboys.
8:05The biggest news to me was the return of Malik Nabors.
8:09So much speculation this offseason about the ACL and meniscus.
8:12Would he be ready? How ready would he be?
8:15I would consider this return a pretty big win.
8:18This was Malik Nabors' first game since September 28th, 2025.
8:21He played 36 of 69 snaps, 52%. He ran 24 of 34 routes, 71%.
8:26So he was clearly limited. That is not a normal Malik Nabors role.
8:30But on those limited reps and routes, nine targets for a 31% share, six catches for 69 yards, and emerged healthy.
8:37So if you drafted Malik Nabors in round three, round four, wherever you got him, I would consider this encouraging.
8:44Evan, what do you think of Nabors and any other Giants thoughts?
8:48Well, it was just such an impressive win for the Giants.
8:52The offense was a well-oiled machine under Matt Nagy, who we've had plenty of skepticism about.
8:57And they got the ball to Cam Scadaboo a ton, and he ran like an absolute madman.
9:03He was adding yards onto the end of his runs.
9:06But yeah, they were a well-oiled machine. They controlled this football game.
9:10The Cowboys only had two offensive possessions in the entire second half.
9:14Jackson Dart looks like he might take a step this year.
9:18He had 134 passer rating in this game in his first game under Matt Nagy.
9:23That's the best passer rating that Jackson Dart has had in his career.
9:27Sissy Maui Noah. Francis Maui Noah, who they drafted in the first round, was an absolute beast at guard.
9:33I mean, they've got the makings of being a team that can control football games with their running game if they can keep all these guys healthy.
9:42And I think that that's the way that the Giants want to play.
9:47That's how the Giants want to win football games this year, is to have Jackson Dart play controlled, not turn the ball
9:54over, run the ball a lot behind a big, powerful offensive line.
9:58Absolutely. And this is the boomer stuff, but it might work because Cam Scadaboo ramming hard up the middle.
10:04He carried it 18 times for 81 yards and a touchdown.
10:08That sets up the play action. I do want to note Cam Scadaboo only 14 routes on 34 Jackson Dart dropbacks, not ideal.
10:16And I should note Najee Harris was inactive for this game.
10:19I don't know exactly why Tyrone Tracy fumbled in this game.
10:23I would expect Najee to be active at the expense of Tracy probably next week, assuming he's healthy, but we will see there.
10:31But yeah, Jackson Dart, I thought I was one of the best late round quarterbacks because of the rushing stuff.
10:37In this game, he rushes 11 times for 54 yards.
10:41It reminds me like so much of the young Josh Allen.
10:44People are like, he's out of control. He's going to get hurt.
10:48He can't run like that. How can you draft him?
10:52If anybody's willing to run at the quarterback position 11 times in a football game, I am going to be willing to draft you.
11:00And now he has Scadaboo. So throw the ball deep, run a lot.
11:04I really like Dart. Isaiah Likely. Yes. That was the other big story here.
11:09So 23 of 34 routes on Isaiah Likely. But man, and like that's fine.
11:13It's not elite. That's fine. But man, every third down, Dart was looking for him.
11:18In the red zone, Dart was looking for him.
11:21That was 878-2 result. How sticky do you think that is going forward for Likely, Evan?
11:27That's a good question. I mean, I think that as Malik Nabors ramps up, then I think that that will eat into
11:34Isaiah Likely's target volume on a weekly basis. However, I think Isaiah Likely can really, really play.
11:40John Harbaugh obviously thinks that Isaiah Likely can really, really play.
11:43There was a bunch of stuff like, I saw people be like, oh, well, the Ravens should have never let him go.
11:51So they should, and they kept Mark Andrews. That was a huge mistake.
11:55Actually, the Ravens are doing pretty well for themselves, by the way.
11:59But it was clear that I think Isaiah Likely wanted to go be the number one tight end somewhere.
12:05And that's obviously paid off right away in week one.
12:09Just absolutely cooking the Cowboys linebackers. The Cowboys have a big problem in terms of coverage at linebacker, which is something that
12:16I'll be writing about probably for the duration of the season in the matchups article.
12:21But Isaiah Likely has always, he looks like a wide receiver out there.
12:25He's used like it. And yeah, very, very promising.
12:28I don't know that he's going to sustain this, again, all season long.
12:33I mean, he was the number one fantasy tight end in week one.
12:37That's going to be tough to sustain when he's not a true, true full-time player.
12:42But he's a fantasy starter. He's absolutely a top 10, top 12 option entering week two, no question.
12:48Yeah, they play the Rams next, do the Giants.
12:51And by the way, in this game, even though Neighbors was extremely limited in his participation, he still had more targets than Likely.
12:59Nine targets for Neighbors, eight targets here, four likely.
13:02Story three, let's go to the New Orleans Saints.
13:05So Saints fell behind 21-0 in Detroit. They stage a pretty impressive comeback, send it to overtime.
13:10They lose 31-30 after a failed two-point conversion. I got to be honest, in the first half, Evan, I was pretty worried.
13:17I mean, Tyler Shuck was really, really bad in the first half.
13:21And the Travis Etienne usage in the first half was really, really poor.
13:26We'll talk more about that in a second. But then Shuck catches fire.
13:30I mean, Alave, Vele, Juwan Johnson, they were shredding.
13:33This is what we dreamed of. So it was a bit concerning at first.
13:38Ended well. Evan, what were your takeaways from Saints' loss in Detroit?
13:42Oh, it was very concerning at first. I mean, speaking of getting messages in-game, we were getting messages like, did the people
13:49that established the run forget to tell us that Tyler Shuck is terrible?
13:53I mean, I was getting all kinds of messages.
13:56And I was concerned about it. And we talked about that being a potential liability.
14:01We had a liability out on Tyler Shuck a little bit.
14:05He had a sort of up-and-down training camp. You know, he really, what did he make, 10 starts last year?
14:12We didn't know for sure. And we didn't know for sure.
14:15It looked bad in the first half. And then in the second half, I mean, Tyler Shuck ripped some insane throws.
14:22He made some of the best throws of any quarterback in the NFL in week one.
14:28From the second half onward through overtime combined, Tyler Shuck went 25 of 34 for 325 yards, three touchdowns, one pick, 120.3 passer rating.
14:36I feel great about Tyler Shuck right now. The same could not have been said through two quarters.
14:42I'm really worried about Travis Etienne. But Chris Olave looked awesome.
14:45He played a badass game. I mean, peeling himself up off the turf.
14:50He's a really tough player out there with the Guardian helmet.
14:53You know, he led the NFL in air yards in week one.
14:57Chris Olave. When you get behind 21-0 to Detroit, it's like the perfect setup, right?
15:02Because they do not have a good secondary. They did not have a good defense.
15:07You're in the dome. They get down 21-0. Tyler Shuck ends up dropping back 63 times in this game.
15:14Obviously, overtime helped that. But just my point is, yes, he played better in the second half.
15:19Yes, we have to adjust that somewhat for the situation.
15:23The best news for me on this was it was extremely concentrated, as we expected.
15:28Again, Shuck's 63 dropbacks, 58 routes for Devon Vele, 55 routes for Chris Olave, 51 routes for Juwan Johnson.
15:34Obviously, those are the three that they're going to go to here until Jordan Tyson gets back.
15:40But yes, the big fantasy story, Evan mentioned it.
15:43The most surprising usage to me in week one out of anybody in the entire NFL was Travis Etienne not dominating usage.
15:50Alvin Kamara was out with a knee injury. And still, Travis Etienne had nine carries.
15:55Kendrick Miller had nine carries. CJ Donaldson had two carries.
15:58Snaps were Etienne, 53. Kendrick Miller, 26. CJ Donaldson, 15.
16:02There were a lot of opportunities for Etienne. He got in there in the pass game late.
16:07Shuck found him for a lot of checkdowns. So opportunities ended up 18 for Etienne versus nine for Kendrick, four for Donaldson.
16:15But yeah, I don't really get it, Evan. They signed him to a huge deal.
16:20I don't think very much of Kendrick Miller or CJ Donaldson.
16:23And they just did not extend Travis Etienne here at all.
16:27So any thoughts on what happened here or what will happen going forward?
16:31Well, I texted Underhill about this and he was like, you should have been reading New Orleans .football because we've been talking
16:39about how Travis Etienne is not going to be used as a traditional bell cow.
16:44Now, the Saints definitely have a higher opinion of Kendrick Miller than we do.
16:48Certainly a higher opinion than Dennis Allen used to.
16:51You know, Kendrick Miller sort of like entered the league with a similar rap as Jaden Blue and they've gone in different directions.
16:59You know, sort of considered like immature, super raw.
17:02Jaden Blue is like now, you know, barely hanging on in the league.
17:06And Kendrick Miller has like a real role, it appears, in New Orleans.
17:11He's always been a really talented player. That was never Kendrick Miller's issue.
17:15It's just sometimes you've got to grow up a little bit.
17:19And also Nick Underhill drafted in his last fantasy draft of the year, he drafted Kendrick Miller in the third round and sent it to me.
17:27And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what does this mean?
17:31You know, maybe I should have read into it more that Kendrick Miller was going to have a real role.
17:37And now you've got Alvin Kamara potentially coming back.
17:40I mean, I'm worried about Travis Etienne. And I have a lot of exposure to Travis Etienne this year.
17:47And I'm worried about it. And I think it's fair for everybody to be worried about it.
17:52The Saints think more of their running back depth than we do.
17:56Yeah, they still gave Travis Etienne on like the first day of free agency, a huge contract, 30 plus million guaranteed.
18:03You know, I get it. First of all, Underhill did not take Kendrick Miller in round three.
18:09That can't be possible. The 13th round. 13th round.
18:12Okay, 13th. Yeah, sorry. Okay. Yeah, you know, I would say I'm worried too.
18:17It just does not make a ton of sense.
18:20But I was encouraged that he was the back that was out there for this comeback.
18:25And he ended up with nine targets in this game on 56 pass attempts.
18:30Now, if Alvin Kamara comes back and he's the passing down back, that would be a problem.
18:35I just think Alvin Kamara, they didn't want him back really.
18:39They don't really care if he comes back. So I still think I'm leaving the light on for Etienne.
18:45He was a fourth round pick. I'm leaving the light on for him.
18:50I'm not totally panicking, but certainly his outlook is worse and we will have him lower in our rest of season top 150.
18:57I know you mentioned Devon Vele, but I just want to put a little bit more of a spotlight on him because,
19:05look, they have the Ravens coming up and it's going to be a lot tougher than Detroit.
19:10We're going to be picking on Detroit's pass defense all year long.
19:14But Devon Vele is a good football player. Did you see the route that he ran and the diving catch that he made on his touchdown?
19:23He goes out there, he catches seven of nine targets.
19:26He's just an efficient possession receiver and he's going to be a fantasy starter until Jordan Tyson comes back.
19:33And oh boy, think about the possibilities when Jordan Tyson does come back for this offense.
19:38Maybe we will get the Saints offense to the point where we were, you know, to see that ceiling that we were
19:45talking about throughout much of the offseason. Yeah. By the way, I mentioned the rest of the season top 150 rankings.
19:52For anyone with DraftKid Pro, those will be out Tuesday night.
19:56Also, the debut of our redraft trade calculator will be late Tuesday night here as well.
20:01Really difficult exercise, but I think an important one.
20:04The rest of the season top 150 for anyone doing trades or stuff like that in their season long league.
20:11All right. Story four, Evan, let's go back to the opener.
20:15This was felt like forever ago, Wednesday night, but story four comes out of New England.
20:20There were some crazy bad decisions from Drake May to choke away this game.
20:25They lose the opener in Seattle 1310. This was one of the worst games that I've seen May play from a mistake perspective.
20:32Three really bad interceptions takes three sacks. But anyways, the big story was the ankle sprain to AJ Brown confirmed through MRI.
20:40This is a high ankle sprain. He's going to miss a month, maybe six weeks.
20:45The latest I saw was four to six weeks on AJ Brown.
20:49They let Kayshawn Booty go, man. Romeo Dobbs played a horrible game on Wednesday night.
20:54And now it feels like the Patriots are back to square one with their pass catching core.
20:59So Evan, thoughts on the Patriots and fallout from the AJ Brown injury?
21:04Yeah. And you know, the Patriots were going up against one of the best, probably the best defense in the league in week one.
21:12However, this was a disaster of an opener. I was watching the game on my TV, but I turned on the radio, Westwood one.
21:20I was listening to Kurt Warner because I really like Kurt Warner talk, hearing him talk about football and hearing him talk about quarterback play.
21:28He was kind of killing Drake May on the radio.
21:31He was talking about how it was a replica of the Super Bowl.
21:36Obviously playing the same defense, but just really late on so many throws.
21:40Some people I saw on Twitter were kind of knocking the arm strength, like it didn't look like Drake May's arm strength was all the way back.
21:49You remember he had that shoulder injury late last season.
21:52The AJ Brown thing. You know, I would like take, I don't want to say anything crazy, but I'm really pessimistic about AJ Brown's rest of season outlook.
22:02Like I saw somebody ask me, hey, should I try to trade by low on AJ Brown?
22:07No, I don't think so. These high ankle sprains are really, really bad.
22:11They can affect the player for an entire season.
22:14We already know that he's out at least four weeks, maybe six.
22:18Um, also the way that he was being used, he was not being used in the middle of the field before he got hurt.
22:26He was stuck to the sideline on 94% of his snaps.
22:30This is worrisome. Romeo Dobbs, as you mentioned, he had a terrible game.
22:34He wasn't even, he was rotating with Matt Collins.
22:37You know, look, I trust Josh McDaniel to devise better game plans going forward.
22:42They need to get Travion Henderson ramped up and he did get back in practice this week, but they're going to need explosive plays.
22:50NFL teams are obsessed with generating explosive plays. Ramondre Stevenson is a solid all around back, but man, they need explosive plays.
22:57And that's what Travion Henderson, I actually think that even though he didn't play in week one and he's got this little
23:05knee injury, it was kind of a win for Travion Henderson, people that have him because it just sort of reinforced to
23:12me that the Patriots are really going to need him despite the areas where he's a liability on the field, including pass
23:19protection and, you know, just trusting him. Like they need the explosiveness of Travion Henderson.
23:24I don't really disagree. And by the way, it's an ankle for Travion.
23:29And as Evan said, he got back in practice.
23:32Felt like he was somewhat close to playing in that opener.
23:35A little close. But yeah, I think we might start with projecting him in this week.
23:41We will see there. I did think Ramondre Stevenson played better than his 2.8 yards per carry suggested in this game.
23:48There was just nowhere to go. I mean, they could not open a single hole for him.
23:53He did catch five balls for 44 yards. They're home against the Steelers next.
23:58Last thing on the AJ Brown thing for me, you got to get Kyle Williams up, man.
24:04He only ran seven routes in this game on 42 Drake May dropbacks.
24:08Kyle Williams was so good in the preseason getting open deep.
24:12If you're going to make someone a sacrificial wide receiver, run down the field and make plays, make it Kyle Williams and let these other guys eat.
24:21But man, I think they got to use him.
24:24Dobbs ran 32 routes. Pop Douglas 33. Matt Collins 25.
24:27That can't be your three wide receiver set and expect to have Super Bowl aspirations again.
24:32So I'd love to hear him go forward. I saw Pat Thorman, the emotional Patriots fan, venting about the Patriots.
24:39And look, in fairness to him, this isn't hindsight because he was killing the Patriots for trading Kayshawn Booty before they traded him.
24:47But yeah, he's especially in a hole now with AJ Brown hurt.
24:51The Patriots could use Kayshawn Booty right now. Never made sense to me either.
24:55You know, I'm not a Patriots homer by any chance.
24:59Just never made sense. Like a sixth round pick when you have Super Bowl aspirations.
25:04Your wide receiver room isn't very good. Do we really need all these guys on the team and active?
25:10It just didn't make any sense. But yeah, I'm sure they regret it now.
25:15All right. Story five. Last one for the top five here.
25:18Oh boy, Evan, the Chicago Bears. Ben Johnson said he wanted to break the NFL scoring record this season.
25:25He is well on his way. The Bears go to Carolina in week one and put 59, 59 points on the Panthers.
25:32Now, it was somewhat of a weird 59 because Colson Loveland airballed on two targets.
25:37Luther Burden underwhelmed. Roma Dunze was bad. Only two catches.
25:40The Bears ran the ball for six touchdowns on the ground.
25:44291 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in the game.
25:47Evan, what do you think of Bears offensive explosion against the Panthers?
25:51And they were still meat on the bone. I mean, I think the Bears could have put up 75 on the Panthers.
25:59They left stuff out there. And this is not like some terrible Panthers defense either.
26:04I don't think. I mean, they did play in this game.
26:07They played in like a super soft zone with five and six defensive backs.
26:12And Derek Brown really wasn't a factor. And he's one of the highest paid defensive tackles in the league.
26:18And, I mean, you can nitpick the Panthers. But I don't think that this is one of the worst defenses in the NFL.
26:26And the Bears just absolutely ripped them apart with Kalief Raymond and the running game.
26:31And, wow, that was dominant. And Braxton Jones even went out at one point.
26:36It just did not matter. The Bears' offensive line was a destructive force.
26:40And, yeah, I think they could have scored 75.
26:43I mean, and Caleb Williams is so fast, dude.
26:46He hit 20 miles per hour as a runner twice in the game.
26:50Now, they face the Vikings next week. So, we'll see.
26:54But, you know, I think that this Bears offense is the juggernaut that we expected.
26:59Like, Caleb had Colson Loveland open for a touchdown and just missed him by like four feet.
27:04If you look at like his PFF grade, Caleb Williams did not have a great PFF grade because he missed some throws.
27:12It's like they left stuff out there, which is crazy to think that they put up 59.
27:17Are you concerned at all, Evan, with this Kalief Raymond stuff?
27:21So, Kalief Raymond led the team in targets by a wide margin with nine targets, caught eight of them for 84 yards.
27:28I mean, nine targets for Kalief Raymond, two for Colson Loveland, three for Roma Dunze, five for Luther Burden.
27:35That is not what I expected. I hope this is like a one-game flip, but any thoughts on the Kalief Raymond stuff?
27:42Olamidi Zaccheus, who I'm sure I'm pronouncing his name wrong, had a big week one last year as well.
27:48I think that it was a case of like the Panthers kind of sitting back in that zone, not letting the Bears studs beat them.
27:57Also, Kalief Raymond, we talked about like the big perimeter corners, J.C.
28:01Horn and Mike Jackson, kind of being a tough matchup for Dunze and to a lesser extent Burden.
28:07I thought the Burden would get more slot. It was a lot of Kalief Raymond in the slot.
28:13He wound up exploiting that matchup. I'm not worried about that.
28:16I mean, you know, usually Caleb is going to hit Loveland for that touchdown.
28:21Usually the Bears are not going to score all their touchdowns rushing.
28:25You know, so I'm not worried about that really whatsoever.
28:28No, I mean, I think it's sort of what happened last year with Olamidi Zaccheus with Kalief Raymond.
28:34Okay, so Caleb dropped back 38 times. Loveland ran 34 routes.
28:38He's going to appear on every single buy low this week just based on his usage.
28:43His usage was fine. He happened to only get two targets in this game.
28:48I agree he's a buy low, but everybody's going to have him as a buy low here this week.
28:54Luther Burden ran 27 routes on those 38 dropbacks.
28:57Roma Dunze 22, Cleef Raymond 22, Jaday Walker 16.
29:00Some of that was blowout related there late. But oh, one other thing, man.
29:05We talked about DeAndre Swift all offseason. Gets the big contract extension.
29:09I mean, guy looks amazing. 18 carries, 124 yards, three touchdowns.
29:13And then Kyle Monongai, who I didn't even know if he was 100%, he breaks a 61-yard touchdown run outrunning defensive backs.
29:20I did not think Kyle Monongai had that kind of speed to get to the house on that play.
29:26So that was just an absolute shredding. But as Evan said, about to get much tougher.
29:32Vikings and the Eagles next two games for the Bears.
29:35Yeah, also Baldinger, Brian Baldinger was highlighting, in addition to DeAndre Swift having a killer game on the ground, his blitz pickup was just incredible.
29:43Devin Lloyd, he's one of the best blitzing linebackers in the NFL.
29:47The Panthers signed him this offseason. And DeAndre Swift just stonewalling him in the hole so that Caleb Williams could get off throws.
29:55I mean, DeAndre Swift, he used to be considered like an underachiever in Detroit.
30:00And he has made vast improvements throughout his career.
30:03He's such a better player now, just a better football player, than he was when he entered the league.
30:09Yeah, and Thorne talked about how this offensive line is better run blocking than pass blocking.
30:14I mean, this sets up really well for DeAndre Swift and feel good about the position there.
30:20All right, let's go to the NFC now. We will go alphabetical order, starting with the Arizona Cardinals.
30:26Cardinals go to Los Angeles and spring the biggest upset of the week on the Chargers.
30:31Cardinals defense holds Justin Herbert in the Chargers to just 14 points.
30:35But to me, two big things on the Cardinals.
30:38First, it was a new coaching regime. The LaFleur administration is here.
30:42And Jacoby Brissett still dropped back 39 times in a win.
30:46In a win. And this is what we talked about a lot of the offseason.
30:51Would it be sustainable for Brissett to drop back this many times?
30:55He did here. And the team lived in three wide receiver sets.
30:59You know, so 39 dropbacks against 28 runs in a win.
31:02Then the second big note I had, Evan, was the Jeremiah Love ankle stuff.
31:07But yeah, first, what do you think of Brissett and the Cardinals playing a pass-heavy approach here in week one and winning?
31:14Well, I said some things about the Cardinals this offseason that look real, real stupid right now.
31:20So I'm sorry for that. At the same time, the Chargers defense was just totally non-existent in this game.
31:26Jacoby Brissett was PFF's number one rated quarterback in week one.
31:30The Chargers could get nothing in terms of pass rush.
31:33And that's against a not-great Cardinals offensive line that was missing their top two or two of their top three guards in the game.
31:41That's going to be an issue for the Chargers.
31:44The Cardinals had the ball like the entire game.
31:47I think it was like a 39 to 21 time of possession deficit in favor of the Cardinals.
31:53The Cardinals just controlled the football game. Kendrick Bourne, you know, I wrote about him potentially being an annoyance in the week
32:01one matchups article to Marvin Harrison and Michael Wilson.
32:04He was more than an annoyance. He's Mike LaFleur's boy from San Francisco.
32:08And he played with Jacoby Brissett in New England.
32:11And I mean, he's kind of good at football.
32:14I mean, he's a guy who came in the league running like 4'7".
32:18And he's still around making catches. I think he can be an ongoing annoyance, actually, for Marvin Harrison and Michael Wilson.
32:25Kendrick Bourne. I mean, Marvin Harrison, the Nepo baby, Marvin Harrison's son, actually, has never had eight catches in a game in his NFL career.
32:34Kendrick Bourne at age 31 in his first game as a Cardinal has eight catches here for the Cardinals.
32:40What do you think of Jeremiah Love, Evan? I thought he looked really good.
32:45He scored. But he did get out-touched by Tyler Algier, 19-13.
32:48Snaps were 44-32 in favor of Algier. Obviously, the ankle thing was a factor.
32:53But what do you think of Jeremiah Love's NFL debut?
32:56He was coming off a high ankle sprain. He's really good.
33:00He's splitting with Tyler Algier for now. They played a pretty bad Chargers defense.
33:05They got the freaking Seahawks next. So it's probably snapped back to reality next week for Arizona.
33:10But, yeah, I mean, Jeremiah Love's ramping back up from the high ankle sprain.
33:15He played, what, 44% of the snaps? He's still in ramp-up mode.
33:19Yeah. And as they're trailing, and it's not like I think the Cardinals are going to be good.
33:25They have a very difficult schedule. It was an impressive win.
33:29But they're going to be trailing a lot. Those will be more Jeremiah Love games when he has more of the snaps there in that spot.
33:37Last thing, you know, Trey McBride. People were so worried about Trey McBride, and I understood that.
33:43But you were able to get Trey McBride like middle of round three by the end of the process.
33:49And that looks really, really good right now on Trey McBride.
33:5335% of the targets. And again, even in a win, they went with really pass-heavy 39% dropbacks.
33:59So 13 targets, 9-95-1. I mean, if McBride— And the win is big too for Trey McBride because you want Jacoby Brissett to stay at quarterback.
34:07You don't want the Cardinals to change to Carson Beck.
34:11There's obviously chemistry there between Jacoby Brissett and Trey McBride.
34:14You want the Cardinals to stay competitive if you drafted Trey McBride because as long as that happens, Jacoby Brissett is going to stay at quarterback.
34:23That's really, really good for your second or third round tight end.
34:27Agreed. All right. Falcons. So Falcons, of course, no Kirk Cousins.
34:30He's a Raider. No Michael Penix. He's not ready off the ACL.
34:34More on that in a second. No Tua Tukavailoa.
34:37He hurt his back in practice. So their week one starter for the Falcons was Cooper Rush.
34:43They go to Pittsburgh. Muster just 13 points. Lose the game.
34:47I saw Cooper Rush miss Kyle Pitts. And open Kyle Pitts deep down the field for what would have been a big play.
34:54Maybe a touchdown. The Drake London people are very worried.
34:58Evan, what do you think about Falcons right now?
35:01Yeah, this was really rough. It was Bijan and then nobody else did anything.
35:05So we're just begging for Michael Penix. You know, I don't even know what else to say.
35:11Like we need Michael Penix in there. Tua's not the answer.
35:15Cooper Rush is not the answer. We need Michael Penix.
35:18Cooper Rush completed 12 passes in this game. Eight of them were to Bijan.
35:23And shout out to Evan. We talked about this on the Sunday morning show.
35:27I actually did not play any Bijan in DFS.
35:30And Evan was on it and wanted to play him.
35:34And it was in full PPR, like a printing press on Bijan.
35:38Now it didn't help that much because every running back went off.
35:42I talked more about that on the solo. But yeah, Cooper Rush will check down obviously to Bijan.
35:48Clearly. On Tua. So, you know, I don't know if Tua's going to be back this week.
35:53I've never been more confident in anything than Michael Penix is going to make like 12 or 13 starts this year.
36:00If he can get his knee right, they're going to put him in and ride or die with Michael Penix.
36:07I think there was a report from Florio that they could cut Tua when Michael Penix comes back.
36:13I buy that. You know, I mean, what's the point of having Tua?
36:17The vibes that I'm getting from Tua are that I don't think he wants to play football anymore.
36:23I mean, he shows up Thursday before the game and like he's not playing.
36:28You know, I don't get good vibes at all from Tua.
36:32And I agree with PFT that the Falcons could easily cut Tua whenever they have the opportunity.
36:37Yeah. And so like if you want to say, well, everybody's freaking out about this.
36:42I'm going to buy low on Drake London or Kyle Pitts right now because I think Michael Penix can support them.
36:49I think that's fair. If people are totally panicked, that's fair because Michael Penix will be an upgrade for these guys.
36:56There's absolutely no doubt about that. And he seems like he's close.
37:00I mean, he was practicing non-contact leading up to the game.
37:04I think he's close. Panthers. So I already talked about against this wildly high scoring game with the Bears.
37:10Panthers can't keep up. They lose 59-37. Obviously, the defense was a disaster.
37:15Offensively, though, for the Panthers, Evan, really encouraging game from Bryce Young.
37:19This is two in a row because remember, Bryce had a monster game in the playoffs last year against the Rams.
37:26Now, I think it's worth asking when we look back at the end of the season, will this be maybe one of
37:33the best spots Bryce Young has all year? Home against the Bears.
37:37Maybe, but still, it was really encouraging, Evan, what you think of Bryce Young and the Panthers on Sunday.
37:43Yeah, I think the Bears have maybe the worst defense in the NFL.
37:48I mean, Jalen Johnson looked bad in this game.
37:51And he's supposed to be the guys that the Bears can hang their hat on in the secondary.
37:57So I want to take everything with a grain of salt here.
38:01But no question, Bryce Young played well. They do have the Falcons next.
38:05So, I mean, that's something to build on with another good matchup on deck.
38:10I don't know. I want to take it with a grain of salt because it's the Bears.
38:15Okay. What about this, Evan? Over the last eight games, including playoffs, Jalen Coker has 39 catches.
38:21Ted Arroyo McMillan has 26. Did we mess this up?
38:24And by the way, we were a little bit low on Ted Arroyo McMillan in the ranks.
38:30And we were a little high on Jalen Coker.
38:33But in no way did I think we should have them anywhere near each other in rank.
38:39How worried are you for Ted Arroyo with Coker seemingly outplaying him for a big stretch now?
38:44I don't know if I would say I'm worried about Ted.
38:48I just think that Jalen Coker is really, really good.
38:51Yeah. He was like my number one DFS sleeper for week one.
38:55And I was watching this game around a bunch of Bears fans.
38:59And when Jalen Coker scored his first touch, I was like, yeah, baby.
39:04And they thought I was rooting for the Panthers.
39:07So that didn't go over well. I was like, it's fantasy football.
39:11Jalen Coker is really freaking good, period. I don't know what else to say.
39:15He's really, really good. He's not that far off Ted McMillan.
39:19And I know that's crazy to say between a UDFA and the number eight overall pick in the draft.
39:25They also can be used interchangeably. You can use these guys in the slot.
39:30You can use them out wide. They can win.
39:33Jalen Coker did tweak his ankle in the first quarter.
39:36And he kept playing and kept balling. Again, grain of salt.
39:40The Bears might have the worst defense in the league this year, but the wide receiver duo for Carolina is 100% legit.
39:47Yeah, we're going to talk about that for the rest of season 150 because clearly we need to have them tighter than
39:54we had them coming into the season. Ted and Coker here.
39:58Two other notes for me on the Panthers. So we talked a lot in the offseason.
40:03You know, we had this Jonathan Brooks fade on for much of the offseason.
40:08I got scared for a while because it seemed like he was really healthy.
40:13But then he worked off to the side leading up to this game.
40:17Did practice in full for most of the week.
40:20But Chuba Hubbard, 48 snaps in week one. Jonathan Brooks, 13.
40:24Chuba Hubbard, 25 routes in week one. Jonathan Brooks, just five.
40:27So clearly they prefer Chuba Hubbard right now. Do you think that changes, Evan, if Jonathan Brooks can get healthier going forward?
40:35I don't know if I'm really pessimistic now about Jonathan Brooks.
40:38And I know that it's been a roller coaster.
40:41Chuba was hurt in training camp. You know, Jonathan Brooks was getting the hype.
40:46And then Jonathan Brooks got hurt. And then Chuba is healthy.
40:50And Chuba is just he's good at football. He's not he's not anything above, you know, a replacement level talent.
40:56But he's good in all phases of the game.
40:59The coaching staff trusts him health wise. You know, he's got another great matchup.
41:04He had an awesome matchup in week one. He's got another good matchup.
41:08You just ride him in the good matchups. You know, Chuba Hubbard is a good football player.
41:14I said on our freaking worst picks podcast that I didn't want him in the eighth round.
41:20And then literally the next day after that, I was like, what was I thinking?
41:25I hate that we put that on tape, but it is what it is.
41:29Again, I apologize. I was wrong about that. Chuba Hubbard is like a locked in RB2 in week two against the Falcons.
41:37So I think that if Jonathan Brooks can get back to his Texas form, he will turn this into a 50-50 committee.
41:44But the bet that we've always had is that he'll never get back to the Texas form.
41:50And that seems unlikely at this point here anyways.
41:53Last note for me on the Panthers. I was watching Darren Waller just because I know the dude can score fantasy points.
42:0018 routes for Darren Waller on 41. Bryce Young dropped back.
42:04So not enough to start Darren Waller here going forward.
42:07Cowboys. Cowboys dropped their opener on Sunday night to the Giants 28-20.
42:11The offense was really bad here, Evan. I mean, Cowboys 4.7 yards per play in this game.
42:17Their longest run was 10 yards. That was by Dak.
42:20Their longest reception was 17 yards by Flournoy. I don't want to say I'm concerned.
42:25I still think this is a very good offense.
42:28But this was a bad, bad showing, Evan. What do you think of Cowboys on Sunday night?
42:34Yeah, pretty concerning. They also didn't have the ball.
42:37I mean, the Giants controlled this game. Again, the Cowboys only had two possessions in the entire second half.
42:43So, I mean, they were outplayed, outcoached by the Giants.
42:46Again, the Raiders beat the Patriots last week one.
42:49And, you know, I still at least want to believe that the Cowboys have one of the most bankable offenses in the NFL.
42:57They certainly, it certainly doesn't help that they're missing Tyler Smith, maybe the best guard in the NFL.
43:03And he's on IR, so he's going to miss at least three more games.
43:08But, yeah, I mean, it sucked. As someone who has a, you know, a decent amount of Cowboys this year, this was not fun.
43:16Yeah. From a usage perspective, they did what I thought they would do.
43:20They were in three wide receiver a ton. A lot of teams are doing so much tight end stuff.
43:26Not the Cowboys. Dak dropped back 36 times. 32 routes for Pickens.
43:3029 for Lamb. 26 for Flournoy. So a ton of three wide receiver.
43:35And also, I thought it was encouraging. I know Evan was high on Javante Williams before this season.
43:41I thought it was encouraging that Javante Williams stayed on the field when they were trailing for the passing situations.
43:47Routes were Javante Williams 20 and Mari Di Mercado 2.
43:51And that led to Javante Williams catching five balls, including one for a touchdown.
43:55So that was good for Javante. Well, I don't think we ever had an opportunity to cover this, but Malik Davis is
44:03out for the year with hip surgery. He was like shaping up to be a really nice handcuff.
44:09And then they had to go out and get Amari Di Mercado.
44:13And now he's the backup. I mean, it's going to be a lot of Javante Williams, whether or not it's pretty or not.
44:20It's going to be a lot of Javante Williams for as long as he holds up physically.
44:26Also, Jake Ferguson, if you somehow wound up drafting him, just drop him.
44:30I mean, they're using Luke Schoonmaker and Brevin Spanford.
44:33There's no point in rostering Jake Ferguson. Let's go to the Detroit Lions.
44:38Lions did score 31 points at home against the Saints, but it was not a smooth 31.
44:43Like I thought they would play much, much better here.
44:47Jared Goff, just 5.3 yards per attempt. Part of that was Jamison Williams had a really bad game, some really bad drops.
44:54But they saddle up Jameer Gibbs. I mean, my God, this Jameer Gibbs season is going to be so epic.
45:0134 touches here for Jamir Gibbs. Ride him to the win.
45:04Evan, what do you think of Lions' performance in week one?
45:08It's almost too much with Jamir Gibbs. I mean, they've got a short week coming up, and they're giving Jamir Gibbs 34 touches.
45:16One of the issues is that it looks like Isaiah Pacheco is not coming back anytime soon.
45:21So they don't have a number two back. They wound up using Sione Vahki in that role, and Jacob Saylors didn't –
45:29I mean, they just totally have blown off the number two running back position.
45:33So they don't have anybody to spell Jamir Gibbs.
45:36And then they got two offensive linemen hurt in this game, Christian Mahogany and Blake Miller.
45:42And again, they've got this short week coming up at Buffalo.
45:45They're already kind of in a rough spot. But, I mean, yeah, I mean, we want our running backs to get the ball a million times.
45:54And until Kenneth Walker – Kenneth, the canine Walker, came up to bat on Monday night and hit a freaking grand slam,
46:01Jamir Gibbs was leading all running backs in forced missed tackles and rushing in week one.
46:07Yeah. One of the things about the Lions that we talked about for a lot of the offseason, and one of the
46:14reasons I was so excited about them, is because their wide receiver three, Isaac Tesla, cannot earn targets.
46:20He had one target in this game. Evan talked about there's no longer running back two.
46:25No touches whatsoever. No tight end two. I mean, they're going to have better offensive days than they had here, and it's
46:33all going to go to Gibbs, Amon Ra, Laporta, Jamison Williams.
46:36On Sunday, those four guys accounted for 65 out of the 70 offensive opportunities for the Lions here.
46:42So just really, really exciting. Awesome game on Thursday night.
46:46Lions at Bill. I know that Jamison Williams had a terrible week one.
46:50He was like the worst player on the field of any game in week one.
46:55But he had nine targets, and he had a 54% air yard share.
46:59That was third in the NFL in week one.
47:02So does Leone still do the by Leone model?
47:05Yeah, that'll be up Wednesday. And it actually might not be up until after week two, but yeah, so it'll be Wednesdays normally.
47:13Yeah, so I guarantee you Jamison Williams will be in the by Leone model for week two.
47:19Yep. All right. Packers. Packers opened their season on the road in Minnesota.
47:23Played a decent first half. Played a horrific second half.
47:26Ended up losing 39-22. Positives for me on the Packers was Christian Watson and Matthew Golden.
47:3238 routes for Watson, 40 for Golden on 46 Jordan Love dropbacks.
47:36Those guys combined for 20 targets, and both of them balled out.
47:40Especially Christian Watson was just, you know, one of the best players on the field.
47:45So that thesis hit for sure. There were some other stuff that did not hit for Packers that I was on, like Jaden Reed.
47:53But Evan, what do you think of Packers debut this season?
47:56Yeah, I think you summed it up pretty well.
47:59Tucker Craft, also there had been some playing time concerns on him that were actually expressed by him initially.
48:06He played a lot. I mean, he played, I think, 43 snaps in this game.
48:11And they need him to be out there because he can block too.
48:15And they have big problems on their offensive line.
48:18I mean, that was evident in this game. And they knew that.
48:22I mean, Jordan Love was under a ton of pressure.
48:25The Vikings blitzed on something like 80% of their defensive snaps.
48:29Just bring in the house on every snap Brian Flores.
48:32That's, you know, classic Brian Flores. But yeah, I also think that they're going to continue to have to lean into the past.
48:40That's great news for Christian Watson. The Jaden Reed usage was absolutely disappointing.
48:44And then it's not surprising that Marshawn Lloyd was only 45% of snaps.
48:48We talked about that going in, that Chris Brooks was going to get more time because of his pass protection ability against the Vikings blitz.
48:57Yeah. Just on Tucker Craft, he played 45 out of 68 snaps, did Tucker Craft.
49:02I think he can ramp up to more than that.
49:05But the most important thing to me on Tucker Craft was the yards after catch stuff was intact.
49:11Like he looked like a beast in the yards after catch.
49:15And that's what he needs. Yeah. On Jaden Reed.
49:18So I liked all three Packers pass catchers. I certainly liked Jaden Reed.
49:22I expected him to be in three wide receiver sets more than they were.
49:27Jaden Reed was only, Jaden Reed only ran 63% of the routes.
49:31That was because Johnny Smith played 32 snaps. Tucker Craft played 45.
49:35Mark Redman played 21. So they're taking like Johnny Smith and guys I've never heard of at the tight end position and
49:42putting them out there instead of Jaden Reed. And that was very, very frustrating.
49:47It could have been game plan specific, but it also could be a function of the Packers having a bad offensive line
49:54as Brandon Thorne has been on top of since he put out the rankings.
49:59Yeah. Yeah. So a little bit scary there on Jaden Reed.
50:02And yeah, I totally agree with Evan. Like I will say Marshawn Lloyd in this game got 14 opportunities.
50:09He can't handle more than 14 opportunities. Like what did we expect?
50:13He didn't do anything on those 14 opportunities, but yeah, I don't think he's going to get more than 14 in most games.
50:20Let's go to the Rams. So the Rams went to Australia, you know, the travel stuff, whatever.
50:26I don't even want to get into it really, but they went to Australia for the Thursday night game and they laid an absolute egg.
50:34Rams got blown out by the rival 49ers. So much talk about Rams are a super team.
50:40I just thought they looked old. I mean, Miles Garrett couldn't do anything and now he has knee surgery.
50:46Devante Adams was mostly a non-factor. They had a one inch sneak play that Matthew Stafford could not execute.
50:53Just a total mess. Evan, what do you think of Rams debut last Thursday?
50:57Well, we talked about it on the Friday show, but did you see Mike Evans when they asked, when reporters asked Mike
51:05Evans, like, well, what do you think about the Rams travel schedule?
51:09And Mike Evans was like, what about it? You know, he isn't paying attention to the Rams travel schedule.
51:15He's got other things on his mind. And the reporters were like, well, they just got in yesterday.
51:21And Mike Evans was like, what? Like, we've been here for like a week, you know?
51:26So I thought that that was kind of funny.
51:29The thing is that the travel schedule, if you think that that's a big deal, which I don't know, but like the
51:37Rams have a crazy travel schedule period for the first four weeks of the season.
51:42So this is not something that's necessarily going to go away if it is any kind of a concern.
51:48I don't know how much of a concern that you believe it is.
51:52I'll tell you what, it'd be nice if the Rams had used the 13th overall pick in the draft on a guy
52:00who could, they could maybe, I don't know, use in the games, you know, as opposed to a backup quarterback.
52:06And look, Ty Simpson was great in the preseason.
52:09Maybe he'll be good. But also the Rams' second draft pick, Max Clare, he did not play in the game either.
52:16So it would have been nice if the Rams had maybe gotten a little bit more out of their draft class.
52:23But you're right, they did look old in week one.
52:27I did see the Kyron Williams people were big-time victory lapping Kyron Williams in week one when he scored 15 PPR points
52:34and got outplayed in the game by Blake Corum.
52:37I thought that that was a really big victory lap for 15 PPR points in a game where Kyron Williams wasn't even
52:44the best running back on the Rams. But I digress.
52:48I mean, Kyron Williams is going to be fine.
52:51Blake Corum is going to be a big factor all season long, though.
52:55And then the Terrence Ferguson, oh, those people were taking victory laps too because, I mean, what are you going to do during an island game anyways, right?
53:04I mean, that's all you got to talk about.
53:07Terrence Ferguson didn't even get a target. But, oh, he had a 73% route participation in the first half that didn't even continue into the second half.
53:16It was a crazy night all around. I thought the Rams would play a lot better.
53:22But it was kind of like a wonky night from fantasy football to real football in this freaking Australian game, which can
53:29we never have another international game again? Yeah, it's ridiculous.
53:32Keep it in America. Agreed. Agreed. I'll say this on the travel thing.
53:37The reason the Rams did that, or one of the reasons that they did it, is for the backside.
53:43In other words, now they're stayed on California time the whole time.
53:47In theory now, they don't have to adjust back.
53:50They should play better or less jet lagged in week two.
53:54That's at least a theory. I have no idea if that's true.
53:58I would say more encouraged by Kyron than it sounds like Evan was.
54:02Snaps were Kyron 39, Blake Corum 14. Routes were Kyron 21, Corum 3.
54:06Red zone carries were Kyron 4, Corum 0. So again, when you bet on Kyron, and Kyron I thought was a fine round three pick.
54:15When you bet on Kyron, you are betting on high value touches, and he got those in this game.
54:21Red zone, goal line, pass catching, whereas Corum did not.
54:24Doesn't mean that will be sticky, but I kind of think that it will be.
54:29That's just the way that they've done it with Kyron.
54:33Kyron is going to be fine. Everything is going to be okay.
54:37Is it going to be okay for Devontae Adams, who was not a featured part of the Rams scoring position offense?
54:44And that is what his entire fantasy game is built on.
54:47It was not the intention like it was last year.
54:51The intention this year looked like on their goal line plays.
54:54They went three tight end, and the one wide receiver was Puka, not Devontae on those plays.
55:00So I thought it was formational. They wanted to be in those jumbo three tight ends around the goal line.
55:07Last year, Devontae was the first option around the goal line a lot.
55:11So it's certainly a change there, and it's not good for Devontae.
55:15He did end up running 21 routes on 29 Stafford dropbacks.
55:19That was more than Puka, who ran 20. Jordan Whittington, 13.
55:22Mumfield, 11. Xavier Smith, 9. Evan mentioned Terrence Ferguson.
55:25He ran 14 routes on 29 dropbacks. 22 snaps in line.
55:29Three slot. Six wide. He also played on the kick coverage team.
55:33You know, Terrence Ferguson, I thought was a fine, a good late round flyer.
55:38Anyone who was counting on him as like their starting tight end in a room of five tight ends, that was a mistake.
55:45You know, that was a mistake for sure. They play the Giants at home here in week two.
55:51So I think we'll learn, you know, a lot more if they can't bounce back here in week two.
55:58Vikings. Terrible start to the Kyler Murray era in Minnesota.
56:0111 snaps into the game. Kyler takes a shot to the head, a nasty shot to the head at the end of a scramble.
56:09And he's done for the day. I would consider Kyler week to week for now.
56:14We'll see when he can get cleared. So Carson Wentz, not JJ McCarthy comes in.
56:19And Carson Wentz leads the Vikings to 29 points in the second half.
56:23Vikings beat the rival Packers 39-22. Evan, what did you think of Vikings win in week one?
56:29Yeah, it sounds like Kyler is probably going to maybe miss one game.
56:33So we're just taking this, you know, week to week at this point.
56:38Um, Justin Jefferson looked awesome. He's got the freaking Bears next.
56:41You know, Carson Wentz is the perfect example of these Kevin O'Connell quarterbacks that can come in and move the offense at will.
56:49I thought the Vikings offensive line looked, they played really good.
56:53If you look at their PFF grades, like every single dude on the offensive line in week one out, they were playing the Packers.
57:01You don't have Micah Parsons. Okay. But now they get to play the Bears.
57:05So the Vikings offensive line looks really good. Um, yeah, I, I'd, I'd be really optimistic.
57:11I guess the one guy that kind of got left out was Jordan Addison.
57:15Yeah. Jeez. He had two targets and no catches.
57:18Yeah. He was totally absent. But yeah, I mean, you look at the history of Carson Wentz and Justin Jefferson, like they,
57:25they have cooked consistently in about a six or seven game sample together.
57:30Anyone, anyone other than JJ McCarthy cooks with Kevin O'Connell.
57:33I mean, Justin Jefferson had eight 92, two touchdowns on nine targets also converted a two point conversion.
57:39I mean, Justin Jefferson was unreal. And as long as it's Wentz and not JJ McCarthy feel really good about that.
57:46Um, running back snaps were like dead. Even Jordan Mason, 30, Aaron Jones, 29 opportunities, Mason 15, Jones 13.
57:52They only saw one target between them, uh, which was obviously not good, but yeah, it looks like a pretty even split there as of now.
58:01Jordan Addison, two targets is concerning. There were only 30 quarterback dropbacks in this game.
58:06Addison was wide open for a huge play that I saw Wentz kind of short armed it to him, but yeah, I
58:13mean, only two targets is certainly concerning for Jordan Addison.
58:17Um, Justin Jefferson is just such a freak. Yeah.
58:20Yeah. Uh, also one more thing. Juwan Jennings actually got drafted in a decent amount of leagues.
58:25He played 45, 44% of the snaps here. He's, he's a drop.
58:29Yep. Um, okay. Eagles. So the Eagles beat the commanders 24, 22.
58:33I thought it was kind of a concerning win.
58:36I mean, I wanted to see with Kevin Petulo gone a much better performance out of the run game and getting Saquon to the second level more often.
58:46They got him to the second level once he had a 42 yard run.
58:50Other than that, outside of that run, Saquon carried it 14 times for 41 yards.
58:55Also, Saquon did not get going in the past game at all.
58:59Two targets caught one of them for negative three yards.
59:03So, you know, I wanted to see more, I guess in the post Petulo era, Evan, what you think of Eagles first game under Sean Mannion?
59:11Yeah, I would agree that it was sort of a concerning win.
59:15The Eagles along the way also lost Landon Dickerson who could not block anybody.
59:20I mean, his, his body is shot. I remember reading his Bob McGinn scouting report coming out of Alabama and like people
59:27thought that his body was shot coming out of Alabama.
59:31And now, I mean, he, he, and he admitted it like that's the game.
59:35He was like, I don't deserve to be out there.
59:39I need to go on IR, see if I can come back.
59:43And they're going to go with Drew Kendall, I believe at that position.
59:47But we talked about it. You know, the Eagles, they have a high rating in Brandon Thorne's offensive line rankings, but it's, they're like hanging by a thread.
59:56And, you know, now that, you know, they, they can't really afford to lose another guy.
60:02You know, they just lost, you know, a starting guard and, you know, if something happens to 36 year old Lane Johnson,
60:09you know, all of a sudden we're missing two guys.
60:12It's just, they're sort of hanging by a thread.
60:15Devante Smith got caught up in, in Quinn, the Quinn and Mitchell stuff.
60:20Although they did move him into the slot a decent amount.
60:23I'm sorry. We're talking about the Eagles. Yeah. Yeah.
60:26I, you know, I don't know. We'll, we'll, we'll see.
60:30I I'm a little bit discouraged about the offensive line right now.
60:34For sure. And by the way, like there was a lot of talk and I thought that they would play tank Bigsby
60:41more tank Bigsby only got one carry in this game.
60:44Saquon got 15. The other thing that surprised me a little bit, Makai Lemon played more than I thought that he would.
60:52Makai Lemon, 29 routes. Dontavian Wicks, 31. Devante Smith, 33.
60:55Result was really bad for Makai Lemon. Three catches for negative five yards on four targets.
61:00Wicks certainly was more productive, had a 64 yard catch.
61:04Had a touchdown. But yeah, I mean, the Eagles played more three wide receiver than I thought that they would.
61:10Dallas Goddard played a really good game. They played the Titans.
61:14Well, Grant Calcaterra is on IR and now Eli Stowers is on IR too.
61:19Yeah. So actually we should probably adjust for that going forward to expect the Eagles to be more of a three receiver
61:26team because they're short on, on their reserve tight ends.
61:29Yep. Good point. At Titans next are the Eagles.
61:3249ers. I mean, just a really good performance by the 49ers to go to Australia and put a beat down on the Rams 27 to seven.
61:41Two really big fantasy stories here, Evan. You know, the first one we probably could have led with the Christian McCaffrey thing.
61:48I want to get to that in a second.
61:51The other one was the John Stribling injury. At the time that the John Stribling went down in that game on Thursday
61:59night with what is a bad ankle injury. Hopefully he'll be back in a month, but he could miss the season if he needs surgery.
62:07Stribling was in on 21 of 26 plays at that time.
62:11Debo Samuel was in for nine of 26 plays at that time.
62:15And so then it flips and Debo goes nuts and Stribling is ruined.
62:19It's just, I was so tilted. Any thoughts on that spot, Evan?
62:23And then we need to get to the Christian McCaffrey usage as well.
62:27Yeah. I have a decent amount of Stribling and I'm hanging on to him for the moment, but I'm pretty pessimistic, which
62:35sucks because yeah, he was leading the 49ers wide receivers and snaps played before he got hurt.
62:40Um, with, uh, Kalon Black. Now we should note, note that Kalon Black was the 49ers number two rated running back in this draft behind only Jeremiah Love.
62:50They were very, very high on him. Um, he's not a big running back.
62:54Uh, I think he's 204, but he ran four, four, five, and they love how hard he runs.
63:00And he did 27 reps on the 225 pound bench press.
63:04Like there are some really appealing things about Kalon Black.
63:07He looked great with his opportunities, but Christian McCaffrey was dealing with the cramping.
63:12So I think that that definitely played into Kalon Black getting more work.
63:16It was also just Kalon Black was kind of cooking.
63:20So when he got his opportunities, he capitalized, he was going to get more.
63:24Um, I, but I, but yeah, I mean, I, I think that there's a chance that Chris, we don't see that crazy
63:32usage that CMC got last year where he led the NFL in touches.
63:36I mean, you can see even with Kalon Black playing so much, so much more than I ever thought that he would.
63:43Kalon Black had 14 carries CMC 10. Kalon Black actually ran 13 routes versus CMCs 22.
63:49Despite that, McCaffrey was still fine in fantasy because he catches so many passes.
63:53He works around the end zone. And I kind of think this was a floor game for McCaffrey in terms of usage.
64:01You know, he was cramping. He didn't play all preseason.
64:04They're in Australia. The Niners also rested a bunch of their veterans.
64:08Debo only ran 19 of 36 routes. Kittle only 17 of 36 routes.
64:12Mike Evans, 26 of 36 routes. They took it easy on a lot of their veterans.
64:18I think in closer games, we'll see more McCaffrey.
64:21It's certainly not good, but I think this is kind of the floor for his usage.
64:26I agree with you. I'm not really worried about McCaffrey.
64:29I did think that it was interesting. So the 49ers clearly, and they, they outcoached the Rams by a significant margin in this game.
64:37The 49ers clearly went into this game trying to negate Miles Garrett.
64:41Brock Purdy had a 4.4 yard ADOT. I think that was the lowest of his career.
64:47But they were trying to get the ball out of his hands quickly and it worked.
64:52And he was very efficient in the game. And Mike Evans, that's not a Mike Evans game, you know, just throwing the ball short all game.
65:01But he was still winning on third down. Six catches for 49 yards and a touchdown.
65:06I feel really good coming out of this game about Mike Evans.
65:10Stripling goes down. But yeah, I feel great about Mike Evans.
65:14Yeah, I mean, Demarcus Robinson is going to play a lot here with Stripling out.
65:19He finished with 20-year-in routes on 36 Purdy dropbacks.
65:22You could maybe look at him if you're in a very deep league.
65:26We'll talk about more. By the way, the waiver show and waiver article is up for anyone with DraftKid Pro.
65:33But we'll also talk about that probably on rest of season 150.
65:37One more thing. George Kittle. Yes. So, yeah, the 49ers wanted to limit him at least a little bit.
65:43He was destroying people as a blocker in this game, number one.
65:47Number two, Jake Tongass, who's the player with which the 49ers would scale back Kittle, suffered an MCL sprain in this game.
65:54So I think they might have to go to full-blown George Kittle usage right away in week two when they go against Miami.
66:02Yeah, I mean, I didn't think Kittle performed that well as a pass catcher in this game.
66:07Obviously coming off the Achilles, but they're going to need him here badly without Tongass.
66:12Seahawks. So this was the Wednesday night opener that we talked about.
66:16Big story coming out of this game. Seahawks lost Sam Darnold to a hip injury after five snaps.
66:22I've seen some reports that he'll be out like three or four weeks.
66:27But regardless, Drew Locke comes in for this game, Evan, beats the Patriots 13-10 somehow on this crazy Jackson Smith and Jigba play.
66:34Just starts with Jackson Smith and Jigba and good things happen.
66:38What do you think of Seahawks losing Darnold and getting the win?
66:42Yeah. Mark Dankenbring has been highlighting that J.S. Hen had almost a 50% target share.
66:47The offense, we had concerns about the transition from Clint Kubiak to Brian Fleury this offseason.
66:52I think a lot of those were alleviated right away in week one.
66:57JSN was moving all over the place. They kept them away from Christian Gonzalez plenty.
67:02And yeah, they're throwing him. I mean, he's just awesome.
67:05And they're going to continue to center the offense around him.
67:09So love to see that. I feel great about the forward trajectory, even with Drew Locke under there.
67:15I mean, I certainly would rather have Sam Darnold under center than Drew Locke for a sustained period of time.
67:21But Drew Locke is good enough to hold down the forward.
67:25And as you mentioned, Sam Darnold, it's like apparently a really unique injury that he suffered.
67:30It's not common. And so I don't know. We'll see.
67:34That's something worse. Because I do think that JSN needs Darnold long term.
67:38Maybe Drew Locke can support him in the shorter term here, especially they play at the Cardinals.
67:44Next, the JSN stuff is so absurd. I mean, they just don't throw to anyone else.
67:49And that flows through to Shahid. Shahid only had three targets for a 12% share.
67:54The offseason narrative, and I kind of bought it, that they would take the offseason to kind of work Shahid in more as first read.
68:02Just not going to happen. Um, Cooper Cup did have a touchdown call back.
68:07That was a really ticky tack call. I mean, Cooper Cup, uh, scored, got to take him back on a legal motion call.
68:15So yeah. Um, oh, Jadarian Price, Evan. So Jadarian Price, 48% of the snaps, 52% of the running back opportunities.
68:21The most concerning part of that to me wasn't that he only had half the snaps, half the opportunities.
68:28It was that Emmanuel Wilson only played three snaps, but they were all like into short yardage.
68:33And so if they get on the one yard line now, I kind of think they're going to bring in Emmanuel Wilson.
68:41And that's really bad for Jadarian Price. So Evan, where are you at on Jadarian Price coming out of week one?
68:48Yeah. Jadarian Price is 203 pounds and Emmanuel Wilson is 226.
68:51So I mean, I kind of get it, you know, and I think Emmanuel Wilson is like, okay, at least good enough
68:59to have some kind of a role. Jadarian Price looked great with his touches in this game, but it's right back to the high value touches.
69:07We need our running backs to catch passes. We need them to score touchdowns.
69:12And when Jadarian Price is losing the passing down stuff to George Helani and eventually Zach Charbonnet and the short yardage goal
69:19line to Emmanuel Wilson and maybe eventually Zach Charbonnet there too.
69:23It's just, it's, it's going to be hard for Jadarian Price to provide any kind of a real ceiling, even though he's
69:30making the most of his opportunities when he gets them between the twenties.
69:35You know, I did think he looked so good and just like on the eye test, he looks so much better than George Helani.
69:43I mean, so much better. Oh God. Yeah. And so my gut, I want to say this is going to ramp up.
69:50We'll see Jadarian Price 70, 80% of the running back snaps soon.
69:54I'm hesitant to say that though, because this is the same team that relentlessly underused Kenneth Walker and forced him out of town, you know?
70:02So I'm not ready to say that. And then if you want to say, well, he's a rookie, he'll ramp up towards the end of the year.
70:11That's when Zach Charbonnet is going to be back.
70:14And they love Charbonnet. So yeah, it's concerning, but he looks so good.
70:19I don't want to like panic on Jadarian Price.
70:22The Seahawks, by the way, in their last 29 games under Mike McDonald are 24 and five.
70:27They have a 24 and five record. That is wild.
70:31Let's go to the Tampa Bay Bucs. The Bucs lost four.
70:34I repeat four fumbles and a loss at Cincy.
70:37So they didn't win the game. You know, you can't lose four fumbles and win the game.
70:43But I did think Baker was reasonably sharp throwing it, at least short.
70:4723 of 28 for 216 for Baker. Also ran it five times for 30 yards and a touchdown.
70:53I also thought Bucky Irving looked really healthy. I thought Emeka Egbuka looked really healthy.
70:58So there's definitely positive takeaways here for the Bucs, Evan, what you think of their debut in Cincy.
71:04Yeah, the passing game usage for Bucky Irving was a really, really positive development, especially when he's theoretically sharing the backfield with Kenneth Gainwell.
71:12He did not share the backfield very much with Kenneth Gainwell in week one.
71:17The Bengals, so the Bucs obviously played the Bengals.
71:20The Bengals were able to generate a 39% pressure rate against Baker Mayfield despite blitzing at the lowest rate in the NFL.
71:27The Bengals only blitzed on 11% of their snaps.
71:30I think that that is a testament to the improvements that the Bengals have made on their defensive line because I still believe in the Buccaneers' offensive line.
71:40But I thought that that was an interesting takeaway.
71:43And that helped translate to these turnovers that, you know, it's hard to – when you're just giving the ball to the
71:50other team like four times, it's hard to sustain offense and score a bunch of points.
71:55And that's kind of what happened to Tampa Bay here.
71:59I want to double-click on Bucky for a second just because I thought it was interesting.
72:04He did out opportunity Kenny Gainwell 15-6. But snaps were Bucky 35, Gainwell 26.
72:09Routes, Bucky 21, Gainwell 13. That's really good, you know, because there was some speculation Gainwell could out-route him.
72:15The difference was that Bucky stayed on the field, like I said.
72:19For the hurry-up stuff, he gets seven targets. So he got seven targets on 21 routes, caught all of them.
72:26You know, it's not that sustainable. He also only got eight carries and scored a touchdown on one of them.
72:32But again, I thought he looked really healthy. Gets the Browns next.
72:36It's just the underlying usage wasn't quite as good for Bucky as the output was.
72:41Last note from me on the Bucs, they ran a lot of three-wide receiver stuff.
72:46McMillan didn't play. It was Goodwin, Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka, Hurst, Ted Hurst, and Kate Otten.
72:52They ran like nearly all the routes. None of them hit in a big way here.
72:57But they're going to play a lot of three-wide receiver.
73:00And I think that's encouraging for those guys. Last NFC team is the Washington Commanders.
73:05Really tough spot. You know, you're at Philly for the opener.
73:09I did not think Jaden Daniels played particularly well in this game.
73:13He salvaged his fantasy day with two fourth-quarter touchdown passes.
73:16But Jaden was only 18 of 34 throwing overall.
73:19McLaurin did nothing. Evan, it was a really tough matchup.
73:23But are you concerned at all about this performance from the Commanders?
73:27It's just the Laramie Tunsil injury showed up right away.
73:30His replacement, Brandon Coleman, was charged with eight pressures in this game.
73:34Now, they were facing Philadelphia, although Philadelphia did not even have Jonathan Grenard in this game.
73:39But Philadelphia can get after the quarterback. So, it was a tough matchup, especially with no Laramie Tunsil.
73:45Jacory Krosky-Meritt had some sick cuts in this game to generate yards that weren't necessarily blocked open for him.
73:52However, he had a fumble late in the game, lost it.
73:55And the Commanders put in Catron Allen. I think he was a six-round pick out of Penn State.
74:01You know him well. And that was in a crucial situation late in the game that was decided by two points.
74:08So, that tells me that Catron Allen is the clear-cut handcuff for JCM.
74:13I don't know if this is going to have an effect going forward.
74:17I lean toward it not. But that's certainly notable that Catron Allen belongs on the end of benches in Fantasy Leagues.
74:24Yeah, good note. Do you have any concern on McLaurin, Evan?
74:28He had four targets in this game. Stefan Diggs had nine targets in this game.
74:33Even though Diggs ran nine fewer routes than Terry.
74:36But any concern for you on McLaurin coming out of this?
74:39No. I think that the Eagles could have maybe the best combination of cornerback trio in the NFL this year with Reek
74:47Woolen opposite Quinion Mitchell and Cooper Dejean in the slot.
74:50That's going to be something that I'm writing about in the matchups column every week in all likelihood.
74:56Just a really, really tough matchup. And then, you know, you add in the fact that Jaden Daniels was under pressure a lot.
75:03Which, I mean, that could be a recurring thing.
75:06But I think that the matchup sort of dictated...
75:09I'm not terribly worried about Terry McLaurin here. Okay.
75:12By the way, Chica Conquo did tweak a hamstring here in this game.
75:17I'm not sure on the severity of that. But we'll be watching that ahead of a week two game against the Cowboys.
75:24Reminder, this free show is brought to you by Polymarket.
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76:59All right, let's flip it over to the AFC now.
77:02We will start with the Baltimore Ravens. I thought a really, really exciting start for the Ravens.
77:08I mean, all I could think while I was watching this game was Lamar is back.
77:13He made some incredible plays with his legs. He was looking to run, you know, seven carries, 40 yards and a touchdown.
77:21And he was also really efficient throwing the ball, even though he lost.
77:25Zay Flowers missed most of the second half with a hamstring injury.
77:29So exciting start, I think, for the Ravens. Evan, what do you think of their debut?
77:34Oh, it looks like Declan Doyle is going to be an NFL head coach next season.
77:40So this was his coming out party, I think.
77:43You know, they overcame some issues like Jovan Gwynn, you know, starting this guy who had never started a game against DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart.
77:51And they were still – Derrick Henry ran like a banshee.
77:55Lamar Jackson looks like he's going to be right back in the mix for NFL MVP.
78:00Zay Flowers averaged 15 yards per route run before he got hurt.
78:04You know, it just – everything went right. And a bunch of Colts players after the game, Colts defenders, came out and
78:12were like, man, they were beating us before the snap of the ball.
78:16They were quick snapping us. We weren't ready. I mean, Declan Doyle absolutely cooked.
78:21We didn't know what to expect. Declan Doyle didn't call plays under Ben Johnson last year.
78:26You know, he was like a little guy on the staff under Sean Payton.
78:31And here he is, man, you know, 30 years old.
78:34Like Lamar Jackson almost as old as him. He's older than players that are starting on the Ravens and just absolutely cooking.
78:41The Ravens go for over 300 yards passing, over 200 rushing yards.
78:45I mean, I don't think that's a chump defense in Indianapolis by any means.
78:50Very, very excited if I was a Ravens supporter.
78:53I mean, they could not stop Zay Flowers. Zay Flowers was going to go for 200-plus yards in this game if he does not tweak his hamstring.
79:02They're calling it a minor one. We will see.
79:05But that is exacerbated because Jacoby Lane, one of the preseason risers, he fractured his wrist in this game.
79:11And Jacoby Lane is going to miss some time here.
79:15Rashad Bateman did not have a catch. Jacoby Lane was going to have a big role.
79:20He was running a ton of routes. He caught a touchdown that got called back actually on a Jovan Gwynn hold.
79:27It looked like he was going to play starter snaps.
79:30I mean, without Lane and if Flowers misses time, they're going to need Bateman and Mark Andrews to do more.
79:37I'm not sure they're capable of doing more, but at least something to watch.
79:42I mean, Evan mentioned the Derrick Henry stuff. 6.0 yards per carry.
79:46Scores three times. They also threw him a screen pass that went for 19 yards.
79:51I mean, we were ahead of market on Derrick Henry before the season, even in full PPR.
79:56And I was like, man, 33 years old or whatever he is and full PPR and we're ahead.
80:02God, he's just timeless. Like the outlier of all outliers is Derrick Henry.
80:07He's a superhero. And, you know, I said some pessimistic things about Derrick Henry in my matchups article.
80:13And I just I was just totally wrong. I suck.
80:16I'm sorry. I kneel at the at the feet of Derrick Henry.
80:20It's really crazy. Home against the Saints next. I mean, another good spot here for the Ravens to get loose.
80:27Bills. Bills played a wild game in Houston. They were like unowned in DFS because of the matchup.
80:33I'm talking about Josh Allen, Kincaid, DJ Moore, James Cook.
80:36And they went to Houston and put 36 points on this defense.
80:40The biggest story to me, Evan, was the Don Kincaid usage.
80:44Struggled for so long with the PCL issue. We talked all offseason about how this was a healthy offseason.
80:50No pain. In this game on Sunday, 42 of 57 snaps, 74 percent, 69 percent of the routes, five catches, 130 yards and a touchdown.
80:58They were clearly featuring Don Kincaid here also. So really exciting on him.
81:03I know you were on that preseason, Evan. Any thoughts on that?
81:07And the Bills debut. In the games in which Don Kincaid appeared last season, he played 38 percent of the Bills offensive snaps.
81:14In week one, he played 74 percent. He led the NFL in yards per route run among tight ends last year.
81:21He's awesome. He just needs the playing time to cooperate.
81:25And he did here. And he was out there whipping Derek Stingley and freaking Kamari Lasseter.
81:30Like he was beating cornerbacks and not just any old cornerbacks.
81:34Like pro bowl, all pro level cornerbacks in this game.
81:37Dalton Kincaid. It happens sometimes with tight ends. It can be a slow burn for tight ends.
81:43This is Dalton Kincaid's fourth year. He had injuries to begin his career.
81:47He actually came out of college with injury concerns.
81:50I remember Daniel Jeremiah had him as the ninth overall player in that draft.
81:55And here he is. It's a slow burn for him.
81:58He looked absolutely incredible. Josh Allen looked incredible. My God.
82:01The Bills offensive line also cooked in this game against one of the best pass rushes in the NFL.
82:08This is not supposed to happen against the Texans.
82:11And it almost makes you wonder, was Brian Dable actually holding Josh Allen back?
82:15Was Sean McDermott actually holding Josh Allen back? Because in Joe Brady's first game as the Bills head coach, Josh Allen was throwing the ball downfield.
82:24This was like the best we've seen Josh Allen.
82:27Especially considering the opponent. He had 12.5 yard ADOT.
82:30DJ Moore looked great. Dalton Kincaid looked great. This was an awesome, awesome performance by Buffalo.
82:35Yeah. So I wasn't really into DJ Moore in like that fourth, fifth round range.
82:40There were other wide receivers that I preferred to him.
82:44So I did not end up with a lot of DJ Moore after this game.
82:49I am somewhat concerned that I do not have enough DJ Moore.
82:53He leads the team in targets with eight for 28% share.
82:56He played the most snaps among all wide receivers, 75%, 81% of the routes.
83:01And you saw like the thesis was DJ Moore is an off script player.
83:06Josh Allen is an off script player. And that worked five catches, 100 yards, and a touchdown here.
83:12So I'm a little queasy on my DJ Moore position here right now.
83:16Yeah. I wound up like dead even with Hitman ADP versus where I had him ranked.
83:21But that kind of meant that I didn't get very much of him.
83:26You know? And I mean, I think you could consider him like going into week two.
83:31They're playing Detroit. This is going to be the first game at this, the Bills new stadium.
83:37I mean, they are going to be amped up.
83:40It's an island game against the Lions. It's going to be a fun atmosphere.
83:44But I think that DJ Moore is like a borderline wide receiver one.
83:48You got to view him as a borderline wide receiver one based on his week one usage, the opponent, and how Josh Allen is playing.
83:57Like he's already a wide receiver one. Small note here from the backfield.
84:01Ty Johnson was inactive for this game. We do not know if he's playing Thursday or not.
84:07In the first half of this game, James Cook got the passing down snaps.
84:11That was really valuable. For some reason, they ripped that away from him.
84:16And shout out to Joe B for talking about this in The Athletic.
84:20They ripped that away from him. And they went to Frank Gore Jr.
84:24In the second half for the passing down snaps.
84:27So yeah, I don't know that they're going to expand James Cook, I guess is my point, even if Ty Johnson is out Thursday.
84:35Let's go to the Cincinnati Bengals. Underwhelming performance from the Bengals offense.
84:39Yes, they scored 33 points, but the Bucs handed them the ball four times.
84:44On offense, it was weird for the Bengals. I mean, Chase Brown only 3.5 yards per carry.
84:50Mike Gesicki led the team in targets with seven.
84:53Jamar Chase saw just four targets and caught two balls for 12 yards.
84:57And this is nothing new. I mean, Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow have had very slow starts throughout their career, going back
85:04to their rookie, you know, all the time. I thought it'd be better this year, their first game, but it wasn't, Evan,
85:12any thoughts on Bengals' performance against the Bucs. I mean, I don't really have any big-time takeaways.
85:17I think that just games like this can happen, especially in a week one, a sort of blip game that everybody by
85:25week four totally forgets, that Jamar Chase and T.
85:28Higgins didn't really do very much in. I think that there were encouraging takeaways.
85:32You know, Brandon Thorne had talked up the Bengals' offensive line entering the season as just being, you know, maybe dead middle
85:40average across the NFL with some depth. And I think that they delivered on that.
85:45Joe Burrow faced the lowest pressure rate in the NFL.
85:48He was pressured on only 19% of his dropbacks.
85:51There are clips online of Reuben Bain, you know, the Bucs' first-round pick, who has 30 and 7-8-inch arms going up against
85:58Amarius Mims, the Bengals' right tackle, who has 36 and an 8-inch arms.
86:03And, like, Reuben Bain, this is the importance of arm length.
86:06Like, Reuben Bain cannot do anything against Amarius Mims, whose freaking arms are, you know, half of a foot longer than Reuben Bain's.
86:14You know, that's why arm length does matter. But, yeah, I feel fine about it.
86:19I like the offensive line. I'm focusing on the positive here.
86:23I still feel good about the Bengals. I do think that their defense may be vastly improved.
86:28I know that that was a point that you made pretty early on.
86:33I think that the Bengals were your Super Bowl pick, partly because of that.
86:37And I think that you might be on to something there.
86:41Yeah. I mean, defense is certainly better. I think the offense, this is going to turn out to be like an outlier box score.
86:49I mean, Mike Gasicki ran 17 routes on 37 dropbacks.
86:52He somehow saw seven targets on 17 routes, did Gasicki.
86:56Jamar Chase's knee was not the issue. I know people were talking about that.
87:00He ran 36 routes on 37 dropbacks. I think it's just one of those games.
87:05By the way, a lot of people asked us about our Pirine stuff for the best ball streets.
87:11And this is why we had Pirine like, you know, 190, 200 overall when other people weren't drafting him.
87:18He's just not going away. He had five carries in this game.
87:22First Chase Brown, 16. Pirine had three targets. First Chase Brown, six.
87:26And it's not just situational. Like they give Pirine touches all over the field.
87:30Obviously, it's Chase Brown's backfield, but Pirine is not going away.
87:34Browns. Oh, my God. I mean, the Browns go to Jacksonville with Deshaun Watson as their starter.
87:40And they just get absolutely pounded. I mean, the final score was 34 to 10.
87:45That didn't even do it justice. The Browns lost way worse than that.
87:49Deshaun Watson had a 34.2 QBR. Quinshawn Junkins had 2.8 yards per carry.
87:53This is looking like it's going to be. And I think Jacksonville is good, whatever.
87:58It's going to be a really long season for the Browns here.
88:02Evan, what do you think of their debut? Yeah, it was freaking horrible.
88:07I mean, Deshaun Watson is taking like a seven-step drop out of a shotgun snap.
88:12Speaking of quarterbacks that don't want to play, I don't think Deshaun Watson wants to be out there.
88:18Certainly, the Browns fans don't want him to be out there.
88:21And my God, I saw some Browns fan go, if they start Deshaun Watson in our home opener in week three, that's
88:29going to be Browns fans January 6th. Oh, no.
88:32I mean, they are going to burn the stadium down.
88:35They're going to stall in the facility? I mean, it could get really hard.
88:40There's no way. I mean, they can't do that.
88:43And it's got to be some sort of like an ownership mandate that this guy's playing at all.
88:49It's a total joke. I mean, not that the alternatives are great by any means.
88:54But if they get Shador Sanders in there for week three to start, he's going to be the favorite son of Cleveland.
89:01It doesn't even matter how he plays. They just don't want to see Deshaun Watson in there.
89:07And I don't blame him because I don't think Deshaun Watson wants to be in there, period.
89:12Yeah, I don't know why they're starting him, honestly.
89:15It's got to be from Jimmy Haslam. I'm having visions of like Browns fans storming the facility and then like going to
89:23Haslam's desk and putting their feet up on the desk.
89:26Yeah, so they play on the road again this week at Tampa.
89:30Monken said, and I love Todd Monken. I don't like I don't know what they're doing to him to make him say stuff like this.
89:38He was like there was good stuff on tape from Deshaun Watson.
89:42We're starting him in week two. I assume they just want to let Shador have a winnable game to start.
89:49They are home against Carolina in week three, home against Pittsburgh in week four, at the Jets in week five, in week seven.
89:57They play at Tennessee. Like there's winnable games for Shador Sanders coming up.
90:01And I would feel better about some of these other guys if Shador was in there versus Watson.
90:07The highlight of this game for me was Denzel Boston, late touchdown catch.
90:11Denzel Boston ran 30 routes on 31 dropbacks. Judy 25, Fannin 24, Concepcion 20.
90:16Boston gets a late TD catch. Like that's what he can do.
90:20He doesn't need a lot of volume to do so.
90:23One of the reasons we had a really big fade on Quinshawn Junkins was because we expected this to be a terrible
90:31team and Junkins to be a two down back.
90:34And so I had a ton of Dylan Sampson in the best ball stuff and almost zero Quinshawn Junkins.
90:40Dylan Sampson got hurt in this game and they still did not put Junkins in to the pass catching role.
90:47They went with Rockets, Raheem Rockets Sanders for 13 routes.
90:50Junkins 13 routes. But yeah, it sucks. Like I think the Sampson pick was good.
90:55And he's got a while. This is a serious injury for Dylan Sampson.
90:59I also am skeptical that Quinshawn Junkins right now is the same player that he was when he was kind of cooking a little bit.
91:08When he started getting going last year, he broke his fibula and his ankle late last year.
91:13I think it was like week 15. And I mean, he wasn't successful at all.
91:18His success rate was really low. He wasn't getting yards after contact.
91:22And that's Quinshawn Judkins game. He's totally unstartable right now.
91:26I mean, in previous versions of bad Browns teams, they've had good offensive lines.
91:30They've had good defenses. Like they do not have either of those now.
91:35I mean, they're just a bad team, period. Clearly in tanking mode.
91:39Yeah, yeah. It's sad. Todd Monk. And I mean, I guess he's towing the company line, but he's going to be one and done in Cleveland, I think.
91:48Let's go to the Denver Broncos. Really, really disappointing performance from the Broncos last night.
91:53Now, you go to Arrowhead for Monday night, week one opener.
91:57That's really tough. But this was egregious from Bo Nix.
92:00Takes four sacks. Throws the interception. Fumbles three times.
92:03Had 28 pass attempts. That led to 131 passing yards.
92:06So Jalen Waddell, people are panicked out there right now.
92:10Evan, are you panicked at all on Broncos stuff?
92:13I just want Sean Payton to retake the play calling reins from Davis Webb.
92:17It seemed like a favor that the Broncos gave Davis Webb those duties in the first place to try to encourage him
92:25to not take the Giants head coaching job. At one point, he was the favorite.
92:30Davis Webb was to be the Giants new head coach.
92:33And the Broncos retained him. And it was like, all right, well, we'll let you call plays.
92:38But I mean, that's not going to last if they keep doing this stuff.
92:43This was really, really bad on offense and defense.
92:46So I expect them to bounce back. They go back home in week two against Jacksonville.
92:51Jacksonville is a good team. But yeah, I think that sooner rather than later, Sean Payton will be calling plays for the Broncos, if not week two.
93:00Yeah. So one of the reasons that I had in my player by player notes, like I like Jalen Waddell.
93:07I thought it was a good spot. I understood a lot of sharp people had arguments for him.
93:13If you are not the stone cold featured player in Sean Payton, you can just kind of be lost in the rotation.
93:20And I'm not saying that's what's definitely going to happen to Jalen Waddell long term.
93:25But it certainly can happen here. Sutton ran 29 routes.
93:29Waddell 27. Pat Bryant 21. Franklin 9. Mim 6.
93:32That was on 33 dropbacks from Bo Nix. So, you know, maybe you could consider Jalen Waddell a buy low if people are giving him away.
93:40I wouldn't hate that. But I think, you know, somewhere in round five or so, I think is where Jalen Waddell, round
93:48four, round five is where I would have him in the rest of season, top 150.
93:53Yeah. Also, J.K. Dobbins is not going to do anything in games where the Broncos fall behind.
93:59You need the Broncos defense to be good for J.K.
94:02Dobbins to be any kind of a factor in fantasy or else.
94:06It's going to be a lot of R.J. Harvey, which it was in this game.
94:11I was a little surprised Jonah Coleman only played three snaps here.
94:15You know, there was so much offseason hype around Jonah Coleman, only three snaps for him.
94:20But yes, as they're behind, it was a ton of R.J.
94:24Harvey who caught four passes, played 26 snaps. Dobbins, 22 snaps in this game.
94:29But, you know, for deeper league people, I would not cut Jonah Coleman.
94:33Like, he's the direct backup to both, I would say.
94:36Like, both Harvey and J.K. Dobbins. Texans. Texans played a very good offensive game against the Bills.
94:42They scored 31 points. Still not enough to win as Josh Allen throws the late dagger.
94:47Story to me was like, the Texans have not been able to run the ball with any efficiency in so long.
94:54That's been broken for years. And they still couldn't.
94:57You know, Dave Montgomery is not going to solve that.
95:0120 carries for 60 yards against what was a really bad Bills rush defense last year.
95:06The good news is Dave Montgomery gets 20 plus touches as we expected.
95:10Scores three touchdowns. So, Evan, what do you think of Texans putting 31 on the Bills in week one?
95:17Yeah, the biggest takeaway was that C.J. Stroud looked much, much improved from the player that we saw him be the last time that we saw him.
95:26So, that's really, really – you know, C.J. Stroud, his game does not translate to fantasy because he doesn't run.
95:32He's, you know, one of these pocket passers that he's got to throw three touchdowns for 300-plus yards to be any kind
95:40of – have any kind of fantasy relevance. But it's really good news for Nico Collins.
95:45I know Dalton Schultz didn't do a ton in this game, but I think he's going to be – every week he's
95:52going to be in the mix to catch five balls, which can help you at tight end in fantasy.
95:59I know your boy Jalen Knoll didn't get the playing time that you were hoping for.
96:04This is going to be the Nico Collins show this year, you know, ever since they lost Jaden Higgins.
96:10Yeah, I mean, they just don't like Jalen Knoll.
96:1315 routes on 42 dropbacks. Guess what? He got two targets.
96:17Did really well on both of them. But, yeah, they played Booty for 27 routes.
96:22Hutchinson for 29. Jared Wayne for 8. So, yeah, it just is what it is on Knoll.
96:28Just to wrap it up on the running back, Dave Montgomery, 23 opportunities versus 10 for Woody Marks.
96:34I would note that snaps, Woody Marks actually 40 snaps versus Dave Montgomery's 39.
96:38And routes were 14 apiece. So, still a pretty big role here for Woody Marks.
96:43But goal line is going to be all Montgomery.
96:46And, I mean, he's going to get so many touches this year.
96:50I mean, so many. There's going to be games where they're winning and he gets even more touches than he got in this game.
96:58Colts. Indianapolis Colts dropped their home opener to the Ravens 41-23.
97:02Defense was horrific. We already talked about that. Biggest thing for me was the Jonathan Taylor usage.
97:08We talked about this on Sunday morning. The Colts do not trust Seth McGowan or DJ Giddens.
97:13So, even though Jonathan Taylor and the Colts were losing in this game, Taylor still played 89% of the snaps.
97:20Taylor ran 20 routes on 34 dimes dropbacks. Got four targets for a 13% share.
97:25Handled 23 of 24 running back opportunities. And I think that's important because maybe we can call Jonathan Taylor game script independent now.
97:33Where I may not have called him that historically.
97:36Evan, what do you think of Colts in week one?
97:39I almost want to really give the credit here to the Ravens.
97:43Because we have a lot of respect for the Colts offensive line.
97:47Top five in Brandon Thorne's rankings. But they were, I mean, Travis Jones was working Quentin Nelson, who might be the best guard on the planet.
97:56Trey Hendrickson was an absolute beast. The Ravens got him in the offseason.
98:00Ravens didn't even have Nnamdi Madabuike in this game.
98:03And they generated the highest pressure rate in the NFL against Daniel Jones.
98:07Daniel Jones was pressured on 53% of his dropbacks.
98:10You know, because I respect the Colts offensive line, I almost want to give that credit to the Ravens and not have
98:18a ton of negative takeaways regarding the Colts. I mean, that's cool.
98:22That's play at Arrowhead on Sunday night. Like it's not going to get much easier.
98:27Another really tough spot for them. The best news for me on the Colts, besides the JT stuff, Josh Downs usage was awesome.
98:34Even though Alec Pierce played in this game, Josh Downs ran 32 routes on 34 dropbacks.
98:40In other words, he was not only on the field like Jaden Reed was in three wide receiver sets.
98:46Josh Downs was in every down player. Also, Alec Pierce only ran 22 routes.
98:51He's going to get ramped up. I mean, clearly they were ramping him up slowly.
98:56He was like watching the game on the sideline when he was clearly totally fine.
99:01He'll get ramped up. Well, he did. At one point, he hit his hand on Roquan Smith's helmet and he came out for a minute.
99:09Okay. Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah. Yeah. But I, but he, uh, yeah, I'm with you though.
99:15I, I, I think he's already ready to go.
99:18He already, you remember it was 20, it was supposed to be 20 or 30 snaps.
99:23He played 32 snaps in the game. So yeah, I think sooner rather than later, he's going to be back to near full time.
99:31Jacksonville Jaguars. They destroy the pathetic Browns 34, 10.
99:34As I mentioned, it was not even that close.
99:37Um, Trevor Lawrence continued how he ended last year.
99:4018 of 23 for 245 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions.
99:44I mean, Trevor Lawrence is a very good fantasy quarterback and one was in the mix there for late round.
99:50Um, for sure. The big story, Evan was what we talked about.
99:54God, going back to March. What would the split be between Bay shell tootin and Chris Rodriguez?
100:00It was not a great look here because of the blowout, but snaps were tootin 28 Rodriguez, 23 routes were even.
100:07Searod, eight routes, tootin eight routes, opportunities before the game got out of hand in the first half, first half opportunities, tootin six, searod five.
100:15So it wasn't even like role dependent, really. It was just a dead even split between these guys.
100:21Evan, what do you think of that? And then you Jaguars stuff.
100:25Well, I thought that Bay shell tootin played really well in the game.
100:30Um, and Liam Cohen echoed that in his post game presser, um, talking about, or not as even as post game presses Monday.
100:37And he was talking about how he loved how Bay shell tootin looked.
100:42I mean, he was generating yards after contact. They got him a screen, um, hit 16 touches.
100:47You know, I think that that could lead to more work for Bay shell tootin.
100:52And if he continues to play like that, you remember the comments on, from Liam Cohen in training camp and the off
101:00season were a little bit up and down. They were effusive in, in, in their praise of Bay shell tootin, uh, fall after Liam Cohen watched the tape.
101:09So I would be at least somewhat encouraged by Bay shell tunes week one.
101:14Now we've got to keep contact. We, I don't think that the Browns defense is going to be very good this year,
101:21but I think encouraging effort for him. Trevor Lawrence looked great, man.
101:25Um, and I know that you were on him for D for DFS and he threw four touchdowns.
101:31It could have been way more. He's out of the game with eight, 12 left.
101:36They put in Nick Mullins. He had the best Trevor Lawrence had the best passer rating of his career.
101:42They were throwing the ball downfield, um, encouraging effort also for Trevor Lawrence.
101:46I think, um, the other usage story here was how much would Travis Hunter play on offense?
101:52Travis Hunter ran three routes on 25 Trevor Lawrence dropbacks.
101:55Scobie Myers was healthy. He ran the most routes.
101:58Parker Washington, not far behind. Brian Thomas Jr. Left briefly with a shoulder injury.
102:03It's no big deal. He came back. He was after that.
102:07So yeah, again, only three routes here for Travis Hunter.
102:10It was an incredible spot for Parker Washington, you know, um, from a matchup perspective and just the way they played.
102:17And, and he certainly performed would have had a way bigger game if it was close.
102:22Well, there is a Parker Washington hive. Oh yeah.
102:25And I, I believe that that hive is going to, they should feel really good after this performance five for 83 and
102:33a touchdown in a game where the Jaguars were sitting starters more than halfway through the fourth quarter.
102:39I was listening to Daniel Jeremiah's podcast before this.
102:42He was like, man, Parker Washington kind of reminds me of Steve Smith.
102:46And that is, that's elite, uh, comparison historically. So yeah, I would be really excited.
102:51Parker Washington, can you get, end up being one of the steals of the drafts and in, in the sixth round for sure.
102:59Let's go to the Raiders. Um, before we get to the game, the biggest story out of Las Vegas came a few days before their game.
103:07They announced on Wednesday that Brock Bowers underwent a meniscus trim on September 8th, just out of the stone blue.
103:14Now, maybe not out of the stone blue because this is the same left knee that torpedoed Bowers 2025 season when he
103:21sprained his PCL sustained a bone bruise. Have to think that this meniscus thing is related.
103:27Now the Raiders are saying there's a legit chance Bowers can be back for week two.
103:32They're calling him day to day. It's just not good to have this much work done on your left knee.
103:39And the PCL stuff continues to rare its ugly head here.
103:42Evan, how worried are you about Bowers long-term before we get into their game?
103:47Yeah, well, we've seen the PCLs dog players for more than one year, you know, and that's, we're talking about Dalton Kikade,
103:54you know, what happened to Kyle Pitts, you know, I feel like it's happened to Ricky Pearsall now.
104:00Um, so he's certainly not out of the woods, but Brock Bowers is an absolute dog.
104:06He won the Mackey award twice. Uh, and so, and last year, you know, struggling with that PCL all season long, he
104:13was number four among tight ends in fantasy points per game.
104:17So he can get it done at less than a hundred percent.
104:21Um, I I'm, I'm trying to stay optimistic about him for considering how high I ranked him.
104:26Uh, and I have a lot of them in drafts.
104:30Yeah. Uh, so I'm, I'm, I'm optimistic about him.
104:33I think he's a dog. So as for the game, they were playing Miami.
104:37I mean, this was the best spot they'll have all year home against the talent list, Miami dolphins.
104:43They win 27, 13. The story to me was Ashton Gentry, the ankle, the prayer circle, Mike Washington, all that turned out to be totally null and void.
104:53Ashton Gentry handled 23 of 30 running back carries, all six running back targets, 20% overall share of the targets.
104:59I mean, he was just an awesome player playing a bad defense goes for 30 DK points, 50 snaps for him, 13 for Mike Washington.
105:08So pretty exciting start for Ashton Gentry. He will not be home against the dolphins every week, but still an exciting start.
105:15Evan, any thoughts on Gentry or any other Raiders thoughts?
105:18Well, I know you always talk about, you know, Ashton Gentry is not playing, you know, Kennesaw mountain land estate on Fox
105:26sports Northwest at, you know, midnight, you know, across the country.
105:29The dolphins are the closest team to Kennesaw mountain land estate across the NFL.
105:34But no, I mean, the usage is our takeaway here.
105:37And Ashton Gentry was the fulcrum of the Raiders offense.
105:41And, you know, Mike Washington had some nice runs.
105:44He looked explosive in this game, but it was the Ashton Gentry show.
105:48And people wound up getting a big time discount on Ashton Gentry.
105:52And you got to feel really, really good about that.
105:55I mean, he, he was exploiting holes and adding on to the holes that he was given.
106:01And he was used a ton in the passing game.
106:04So this is what Ashton Gentry was supposed to be when the Raiders made him the sixth pick in the draft.
106:11Yeah. Kirk Cousins had 30 pass attempts in this game.
106:15He only got 160 passing yards out of that.
106:18Just throwing short to Michael Mayer, who led the team with seven targets, short to Ashton Gentry, who had six targets.
106:25I mean, Trey, I don't really blame him. Like Trey Tucker and Jalen Naylor aren't going to get open and be dynamic.
106:32So checkdowns to Bowers, Mayer, Gentry, like that's the offense while Kirk Cousins is in there for me.
106:38I'd love to see Mendoza, but they won the game, you know, is what it is.
106:43Chargers. There was so much hype around the Chargers this off season.
106:47And then they lay an absolute egg in week one.
106:51They get beat soundly by the Cardinals as a huge home favorite.
106:55Chargers mustered just 14 points. I guess the biggest surprise to me, Evan, about this game was their inability to run the ball.
107:02I mean, the tackles are finally healthy. You have the Mike McDaniel scheme.
107:07Amari and Hampton is healthy. And running backs averaged 3.3 yards per carry against the Cardinals.
107:12Any thoughts on that, Evan, or what happened to the Chargers in week one?
107:17Man, this was probably the most disappointing effort of any team, I think, in the NFL in week one.
107:23And then, you know, Lopez of the Cardinals' interior defensive linemen just ate them for lunch.
107:28And at the end of the day, like, the Chargers didn't have the ball in this game.
107:34They had 22 minutes of time of possession. They ran 51 offensive plays.
107:38They had zero targets to running backs. Do you think, Adam, that Madison Beer is the new Yoko Ono for Justin Herbert?
107:46Careful. I find Madison Beer to be one of the most beautiful specimens on the planet.
107:51I refuse to say anything. But I was a Mila Kunis guy for a while.
107:56I have shifted. I am now a Madison Beer guy.
107:59So I think Madison Beer could be distracting for Justin Herbert.
108:03Yes. Have you seen her? I think she could be distracting.
108:07Yes. That may be it. There's our excuse. Bad news.
108:10Also, when Lad McConkie went out, the Chargers offense just lost all their functionality.
108:15Yeah. So I got a few things here. I'll start with Lad.
108:19He was absolutely smashing. I mean, he had a 38% target share at the time he went down.
108:25Shout out to Dwayne McFarlane for that one. He had five catches, 82 yards, and a touchdown on seven targets through three quarters.
108:32Then he gets absolutely lit up by a linebacker.
108:35They're calling Lad day to day with a rib injury.
108:39They need him. I mean, you know, we'll see if he can go next week.
108:44They need him badly. I hope that he's fine.
108:47The running back stuff. The good news for Amar and Hampton was Kamani Vidal only played four snaps and got zero carries.
108:54Hampton played 32 snaps. Keaton Mitchell got 17. But I feel like we still don't know if Amar and Hampton is a
109:01really good player or not, or a needle mover in the NFL.
109:05And I don't know that the Chargers know either.
109:08I mean, Keaton Mitchell's usage was solid, especially because he was coming off of a hamstring.
109:14He played 17 snaps versus Hampton's 32. That's really encouraging for Keaton Mitchell's usage, even though he didn't do anything either.
109:21So, Evan, are you worried at all about Hampton coming out of this game?
109:25I'm worried about the Chargers as a team. Yeah.
109:28Like, are they going to be really bad on defense to the point where they can't even possess, that, you know, they
109:36can't get the Cardinals offense off the field? Well, the other thing is, is they play the Raiders next, okay?
109:42They better turn around because after they play the Raiders, after that, the Chargers play Buffalo, Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, Rams, Texans, Ravens next seven games.
109:51It's one of the hardest seven-game stretches I can ever recall.
109:55So, I mean, they need to get it on this week against the Raiders.
109:59Oh, boy. By the way, only five routes for Rondae Gadsden in this game.
110:04Charlie Kolar, 12 routes. David Njoku actually led the way in routes with 17 here in the tight end group.
110:11It's just really surprising to see a Jim Harbaugh team come out and look as bad as the Chargers did.
110:17And Jeremiah does the play-by-play for – not the play-by-play, the color for the Chargers.
110:22And he's like, man, you know, Mike McDaniel's out here running all these shifts and motions.
110:27And it's like – and it's slowing them down.
110:30And they've got to scale it back already. I mean, it's one game against the Cardinals.
110:36And Jeremiah, who I think is, you know, a great offensive – you know, a great football mind.
110:42He's like, man, they're doing too much stuff. They're way too – they're getting too – you know, they're too smart for their britches.
110:50I don't buy that. I mean, we know that motion and all that stuff is a benefit for EPA per play.
110:57Like, we know that that stuff works. So, if they want to say that Harbaugh's a boomer and he doesn't want that stuff, he shouldn't have hired McDaniel.
111:06You know, Pat Thorman was banging the drum to maybe pump the brakes a little bit on at least certain players for
111:13the Chargers this offseason because he thought that they were going to play slow and that can lead to less play volume.
111:21Now, if you combine that with a defense that can't get the freaking Cardinals offense off the field – I mean, they
111:28were talking about a team that's running 50 plays in a game and possessing the ball for 22 minutes.
111:34And it's like they're not going to meet any of our expectations offensively.
111:39Yeah, and I think that's fair for sure. The McDaniel offense has certainly played slow.
111:44That's certainly fair. Let's go to the Miami Dolphins.
111:47You know, I don't even think the Dolphins played that bad in this game relative to their talent.
111:53And they still lost 27-13 to the Raiders. I mean, this is a scary, scary bad team.
111:58Everyone knows we had this huge H-hand fade on.
112:01And, like, you kind of see why now when you have no talent around you, it's hard to generate touchdown opportunities.
112:08And he only caught four balls. You know, he's going to have to catch so many more to pay off his second-round price tag.
112:16Evan, what do you think of Malik Willis and the Dolphins debut here in week one?
112:22Yeah, it was really ugly, you know, against the Raiders.
112:25I saw Rich Rebar tweeted that the Dolphins had the lowest rushing success rate and the lowest passing success rate in week one.
112:33That's not good. You know, there are – like, they can't run the ball against the Raiders.
112:38They are built to run the ball. We talked about this.
112:42They got freaking Patrick Paul, 6'7", 331 at left tackle.
112:45They use a first-round pick on Caden Proctor, who can block out the sun, put him at left guard.
112:52They got Aaron Brewer, the best center in the NFL, at center.
112:56You know, they got the 2024 second-round pick, Jonah, blah, blah, blah, at right guard.
113:01You know, they got Austin Jackson, a venerator in right tackle.
113:04They are built to – they got Will Kazmarek, one of the best blocking tight ends in college football out of Ohio
113:12State, and they can't run the ball against the Raiders.
113:15You know, that's really, really concerning, and it puts a lot on Malik Willis' plate that I don't know that he's capable of.
113:23This was his seventh NFL start. You know, we could talk about Caleb Douglas a little bit.
113:28I don't know how – I think he's a player.
113:32I think that they got a good pick in Caleb Douglas, but I don't know that that's going to be sticky week to week at all.
113:40I have no sense of optimism for any member of the Miami Dolphins in fantasy football right now.
113:46Yeah, I mean, Malik Willis takes so many sacks, too.
113:50He took five sacks here in this game. He threw an interception.
113:54He fumbled once. You know, the thesis on Malik Willis is just he's going to run like crazy.
114:00He only ran six times here. I think he's got to run more.
114:04He did run for 39 yards and a touchdown.
114:07I haven't mentioned Caleb Douglas. I did think that was a bright spot.
114:11I mean, dude can play. Five catches, 94 yards on seven targets.
114:15Caleb Douglas and Malik Washington were the every down wide receivers.
114:19Chris Bell, who I'm also, like, intrigued by, came on for 20 routes as he ramps up here.
114:25Let's go to the Jets. The Geno Smith 2.0 era in New York is off to a 1.0, 1-0 start.
114:32Jets go to Nashville, beat the Lowly Titans 23-10.
114:35I guess the big question for me on Jet stuff coming into the season, Evan, was could Geno give them league average
114:42or even like 35th percentile quarterback play? I don't know that we got that question answered here in week one.
114:49Geno goes 19 of 24 for 215. No touchdowns.
114:52No interceptions. No sacks. Just didn't really have to do anything because the Titans couldn't do anything.
114:57Evan, what do you think of Geno and the Jets in week one?
115:02Yeah. I mean, again, you know, we have to have context around all this and they're facing the Titans.
115:08I don't think the Titans are, I mean, the Titans might, it's going to be them or the Dolphins, I think, for
115:15the number one pick in the draft. You know, one of those probably, we don't have to talk about that now.
115:22Let's talk about the Jets. The Jets had a sense of competency.
115:26You know, we had concerns about Aaron Glenn and Frank Reich and Geno Smith.
115:31And they went out and they played pretty good football and they ran the ball well.
115:36I know that their yards per carry doesn't look great.
115:40They didn't have any long runs. You know, they had a long run of 13.
115:45But they ran the ball successfully. And Brees Hall had a good game.
115:49And Garrett Wilson was solid. And A.D. Mitchell had a 40-yarder.
115:53And Omar Cooper had a 30-yarder. He suffered a high ankle sprain.
115:57So he may end up going on IR. But there was a sense of competency here.
116:02The guys that we're really interested in are Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson.
116:06Everybody else is pretty ancillary on the Jets. But I have optimism about those guys.
116:11Those guys are going to be all right or better, maybe in Brees Hall's case.
116:16The Jets have a really good offensive line from a talent standpoint.
116:20And Brees Hall got the ball a ton here.
116:23So I feel good about that. Yeah. I mean, Jets are going to get into trailing game scripts.
116:29You know, and that's when you can see Garrett Wilson or Brees Hall in the passing game really have some explosive games.
116:37They're home against the Packers next. Yeah, I hope Omar Cooper is okay.
116:41It sounded like they got a report that it was better than it seemed initially.
116:46But while he's out, it will be Isaiah Williams in the slot.
116:50Other note that I had on the Jets. I mean, Kenyon Sadiq got down to like 200 plus in ADP for a
116:57first-round rookie with crazy athleticism right out of the gate.
117:01You know, 12 routes on 26 dropbacks. Not great.
117:04But three targets. He also got a goal line handoff, like a three-yard touchdown on a Jets sweep.
117:10So, dude's an athlete, man. I mean, crazy. On that Jets sweep.
117:14And it's only three yards. You see the guys for NextGenStats.
117:17They get into the open field and they hit these like 21 miles an hour.
117:22You know, this was a three-yard Jets sweep. And Kenyon Sadiq hit 20 miles an hour.
117:28And that was the fastest time ever recorded in NextGenStats history for a tight end.
117:33You want to talk about flying. Kenyon Sadiq can turn on the accelerator immediately.
117:37I think it was only, what, 40-something percent of the snaps.
117:41But, yeah, I mean, if they can ramp him up into a 60% or 70% player, he's going to make an impact
117:48in fantasy, I think, by the end of the season.
117:52Yeah, I mean, one of the best athletes ever to play the tight end position is Kenyon Sadiq.
117:58Steelers. Steelers, you know, God, this was the first game of the post-Mike Tomlin era, the post-Arthur Smith couple years here.
118:05It's the first game of the Mike McCarthy era.
118:08And they led the entire league in neutral situation pass rate.
118:11This was a game that they were trailing by four for a little bit, but were winning for most of the game.
118:19And Mike McCarthy had Aaron Rodgers 42 dropbacks against 18 called runs.
118:23Aaron Rodgers at 42 years old, 42 dropbacks against 18 called runs in a game they were leading.
118:29That is very, very aggressive. Evan, what do you think of that and anything else from Steelers in week one?
118:35There was a lot to talk about with the Steelers.
118:39You know, I had been on Pat Fryermuth. I thought he was going to be the number one picked up tight end coming out of week one.
118:48And like, he should be. Yeah. Five for 46 and a touchdown.
118:52DK Metcalf didn't really do a whole lot with his opportunities.
118:55He had 171 air yards, though. He had drops in this game, but he will probably be on the Leone by low model entering week two.
119:04I don't know if they're going to. Do you think that they're going to maintain this style of play?
119:10I don't think Rodgers can last playing this this style.
119:13I don't think it's a winning style either. But I mean, I know McCarthy likes to chuck it.
119:19That's what he does. This just seemed really extreme.
119:22Yeah, it did. I guess we'll see. He wasn't efficient throwing either.
119:26It's not like they're going back and watch the tape and be like, you know what?
119:32That really worked. You know, they were inefficient on their dropbacks as well here.
119:36On the running back split, Rico Dowdle did play more snaps.
119:40He did run more routes than Tyler Warren, but then Jalen Warren.
119:44But Jalen Warren had 16 opportunities versus 13 for Rico.
119:47I continue to think Jalen Warren is the better player, but I'm not sure it's going to be much more of an even split, you know, going forward.
119:57It just, you know, roughly even on those guys, I think makes the most sense.
120:02And yeah, shout out to Evan for the fire me with call.
120:06I doubted that one for sure. But yeah, you can play him.
120:10Titans. Last one we're going to do here today.
120:13These last four are so funny, by the way.
120:16I can just imagine us every week. Dolphins, Jets, Steelers, Titans at the end.
120:20My God. Anyways, Titans. New coaching staff looked a lot like last year.
120:25Offensive line bad. Cam Ward bad. You know, Cam Ward got up 32 pass attempts and generated 140 passing yards.
120:31So whatever optimism people had about the Titans for this year based on the addition of Dable, the addition of Carnell Tate,
120:39the addition of Wondell Robinson or whatever, it's hard to be optimistic now.
120:43Evan, what do you think of Titans' performance in week one?
120:47Yeah. The Titans lost the time of possession battle 39-21 to the Jets in Tennessee.
120:52And they ran 49 offensive plays. I just, I don't think, I don't think that this is happening.
120:58You know, I think the Titans are going to have to end up, they're going to, Titans are going to draft a new quarterback in 2027.
121:06You know, I don't know that. I mean, again, this is another team like, like Miami.
121:12I don't have optimism about any, any member of the Titans in fantasy right now.
121:17Yeah. I mean, Titans, Browns, Dolphins are some really bad teams in the NFL this year.
121:22I mean, just on talent. Maybe they'll win some games, but just talent, man.
121:27It's just, it's just really, really. They just don't have enough players to be, but I mean, I mean.
121:33They're not competitive with the Jets. Like, come on.
121:36Yeah. Titans have to play the Eagles next, by the way.
121:40So Cam Ward dropped back 39 times. It was kind of as we expected.
121:44Carnell Tate, 36 routes. Juan Dale Robinson, 34. It was a little bit at wide receiver three.
121:50Ridley, 25 routes. Elick Ion-Minor, 21. I like Elick Ion-Minor.
121:53Like, I would like to see him get more routes here.
121:57Calvin Ridley did not earn a single target on his 25 routes here in this game.
122:02Last note I had, there was a lot of talk that Dan Bellinger is Daybol's guy, and Dan Bellinger is going to play more than Gunnar Helm.
122:11That is not the case. Gunnar Helm ran 22 routes.
122:15Bellinger ran five. So, you know, only the truest of virgins care about that spot, but I do have some Gunnar Helm
122:22round 19 or so in best ball. All right.
122:25That will do it for a marathon edition of Team by Team.
122:29I know this went long. We had a ton to get to because we learned so much in week one.
122:36Future shows will likely be a bit shorter, but they will be up every Tuesday as soon as we possibly can.
122:43Free on YouTube. Free on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
122:47Be sure you subscribe to those spots. It is indeed free.
122:50Show's coming up later this week. Silva vs. Leone Man vs.
122:54Machine for in-season subscribers is going down on Thursday.
122:57Myself, Wiggins and Silva Friday night for Establish the Show.
123:00Myself and Silva Sunday morning for last minute live stream.
123:04You do need a subscription to ETR in-season product.
123:07Be able to check out all those shows. And our first round of projections for week two for in-season subscribers will be
123:14out Wednesday night here as well for anyone with start, sit or DFS decisions.
123:19Four, Evan, Brewster Ryan, Brewster Luke. For everyone behind the scenes at ETR, I am Adam.
123:24Good luck, everybody.