0:00Hello and welcome to Episode 1025 of the official EstablishTheRun.com podcast.
0:04My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR.
0:08As always joined by fellow co-founder Evan Silva. Week two is in the books.
0:13Everyone is hurt. Evan, how's it going today? Coming off a humbling week two for me.
0:19I know that you had a really good week.
0:22The weather and the injuries and thinking that you knew stuff after week one and then week two hits and it's like you didn't know anything.
0:31You know, this is a humbling game that we play.
0:34Indeed, it is. We will talk about all of it today because on today's show, we are going to go team by
0:41team through all 32 NFL franchises discussing the most important things we saw in each.
0:47And what it means going forward. We'll touch on usage, injuries, performance, everything.
0:51Reminder for anyone serious about fantasy football or anyone interested in DFS this season.
0:56Clearly, I'm biased, but I just could not imagine trying to play this stuff seriously without our in-season product.
1:02I pour over our projections for every decision that I make in any football-related venture.
1:07Read Silva's matchups for his take on every player in every game.
1:11Consult Thorne's rankings for things like knowing to play.
1:14Panthers defense against Falcons, 23rd ranked. Offensive line, tons more.
1:18Plus, with in-season, which is about $13 a week.
1:21With in-season, you get all our premium shows. Silva vs.
1:24The Only Weekly Man vs. Machine. Myself, Silva and Wiggins on Friday nights.
1:29Me and Silva last-minute livestream on Sunday mornings. So head to the content schedule in the NFL tab for a full list.
1:36That is the in-season product at establishtherun.com. All right, going to start with the five biggest stories of the week, and then
1:44we'll go team by team in alphabetical order after that.
1:47Story number one has to be the Chicago Bears.
1:50Just an awful day for the Bears. Raining, windy.
1:53They're facing a very good Brian Flores Vikings defense.
1:56Caleb Williams musters just three points through the first three and a half quarters.
2:01Then goes down with what looked like a horrible injury.
2:04He's screaming in pain. Looks like he's crying. Everyone assumed Achilles.
2:08And then it turns out, he may have just pulled a hamstring.
2:12So, a shred of good news there, Evan. But how concerned were you with what you saw from Bears for the first three and a half quarters?
2:21And then any thoughts on the Caleb injury? Yeah, grade one hamstring injury.
2:26So that's probably a best-case scenario, all things considered.
2:29He was apparently a reporter said that he was not, he didn't even have a pronounced limp after the game.
2:36And he wasn't on crutches. And the Bears play on Monday night in week three.
2:41I mean, it feels like a stretch to think that Caleb Williams could play.
2:46I mean, you don't want to aggravate a hamstring injury.
2:49And then it's bothering you for the entire season.
2:52But I think it is a best-case scenario run out for Caleb Williams, considering how bad it looked at first.
2:59Everybody on the internet thought it was a torn Achilles.
3:02Maybe you can give the people a little background on Tyson Bajan, since he probably has to start this game on Monday night.
3:10They play Eagles in week three at home and then Jets at home in week four.
3:15What is your report here on Tyson Bajan? I think he's a stand-in-deliver pocket-passing quarterback who's very, very familiar with the offense.
3:23Before last season, the Bears gave him an extension.
3:26So they're certainly high on him. The rhetoric around here, we haven't seen him play a lot, you know.
3:32But the rhetoric around here is that they think that Tyson Bajan is like one of the best 40 quarterbacks on the planet.
3:40And that he could, you know, remember there were some rumors that maybe the Cardinals wanted to trade for him at one point.
3:48I think he'll be able to deliver the ball to the pass catchers enough so that we don't have to worry too much about, you know, the production.
3:58Although Philadelphia coming up, that's going to be a really difficult matchup on Monday night.
4:03For sure. And, you know, Ben Johnson is very willing to be run heavy anyways.
4:08Maybe lean a little bit more that way. With Bajan, people are going to be very worried about Colston Loveland here, Evan.
4:15I mean, Caleb played the first three and a half quarters.
4:19Colston Loveland had one catch for three yards in that span.
4:23And then he had the air ball in week one when they scored 59 points.
4:28Now, I will say this. When you play a Brian Flores defense, it is not the spot to play tight ends.
4:35Like when I'm playing DFS, I try not to play tight ends when they're playing the Vikings.
4:41So it certainly was not a great spot. But still, through two games, Evan, one catch for three yards for Loveland.
4:48How concerned are you there? We see this kind of stuff happen every year.
4:53And I know that nobody wants to hear about it.
4:56But it's a two-game sample. And when you look at, you know, week one, the Panthers sat back in this soft zone coverage.
5:04And the ball went to Kalief Raymond over and over again.
5:08And the Bears ran the crap out of the ball.
5:11They ran for, what, like, I don't know, over 200 yards.
5:15And then in week two, they played, the Bears played one of the toughest defenses in the NFL in horrible weather.
5:22So, you know, you have to consider some context here.
5:25It is painful, though, as someone who was definitely very high on Colston Loveland and Luther Burden and Caleb Williams and all these guys.
5:33It's painful. Yeah. I mean, Rome Dunse led the way with 38 routes.
5:38I will say, though, Kalief Raymond's not going away.
5:4132 routes here for Kalief Raymond. 30 for Luther Burden.
5:4429 for Loveland. You might get to a point here where you can buy on Colston Loveland.
5:50I mean, people are pretty panicked. I am fine buying.
5:53I would not be valuing him or willing to pay where he went before the season, which was around four or so.
6:01I think in our rest of season, top 150 will likely still have Loveland somewhere around round five, round six.
6:08Depends how long Caleb is going to be out also.
6:11But I do think there's room to buy low on Caleb.
6:15Burden thing, you know, he did have a 20% target share here.
6:19He led the team with seven targets. Only three catches for 32 yards, though.
6:24I'm annoyed at the Kalief Raymond stuff, and that is not something that I was thinking when I was talking about Colston
6:31Loveland and Luther Burden before the season. I just don't want to get too hung up on that.
6:37So I'd be okay with a buy low on Burden here.
6:41Also, again, this depends on the Caleb stuff. Hopefully that he is back in the next one to three weeks here.
6:48Any Burden thoughts for you, Evan? Are you still okay there with him?
6:53I'm okay while acknowledging that it's been a very painful start, and now his quarterback's hurt.
6:58So it's rough. Last thing for me on the Bears.
7:01So Kyle Monongai came into this season with a knee injury.
7:05I thought maybe Swift could separate more. Monongai actually, I thought, outplayed Swift here, which surprised me a little bit.
7:12It was 16-10, Swift over Monongai and carries. Routes, though, very important stat.
7:16Routes, Swift 19, Monongai just 5. So, you know, I thought maybe Swift could take more control of this backfield, but Monongai
7:24isn't going away and played a very good game here in Week 2.
7:28Story 2. Let's go to the Carolina Panthers here, Evan.
7:32Panthers' offense stays hot. I mean, they torched the Bears in Week 1.
7:36In Week 2, Panthers put 34 points on the Falcons, win 34-3.
7:40The reason I wanted to bring this up as one of the top stories, Evan, is because the way they're using Bryce Young.
7:48And this is a new play caller, Brad Izzik.
7:51This was a game in Week 2 that Panthers dominated the entire game.
7:55I mean, absolutely dominated. And still, Bryce Young dropped back 39 times against 17 called runs.
8:01They are up to 4th in pass rate over expectations.
8:04This season, Bryce Young, Evan, is fantasy's number 2 quarterback.
8:08Number 2 quarterback behind only Josh Allen. How real do you think this change is for Brad Izzik and Bryce Young?
8:15I mean, again, we have to have some context here.
8:18The Panthers have played the Bears and the Falcons.
8:21And those are two teams that you can absolutely throw the ball on.
8:26Now, is Brad Izzik maybe more willing than Dave Canales to attack the weaknesses of the opponents?
8:32That could be interesting. We know that they have two ballers at wide receiver.
8:36We can all agree on that. But, I mean, you know, the Bears, they don't rush the passer.
8:42They're terrible in the secondary. Terrible linebacker. The Falcons lost both of their starting defensive ends before the season.
8:49One to a suspension. One to a torn ACL.
8:52So, these are opponents that you can throw the ball on.
8:56But, I mean, it is nice maybe that they're more willing to attack those weaknesses when they see them.
9:02When they're game planning with Brad Izzik calling the plays.
9:06And not only that, you know, they're being more pass heavy.
9:09They're being much more vertical. And it's very concentrated.
9:12I'll get to Darren Waller in a second. But they lost Chris Brazel.
9:17Xavier Leggett can't play. Ted Arroyo McMillan and Jalen Coker have combined to see 49% of the targets from Bryce Young so far this season.
9:25So, really strong stuff for Ted Arroyo and Coker both.
9:29The Darren Waller red zone stuff is a little bit annoying for them.
9:33I think he had two short touchdowns here. Remember, Darren Waller scored six kind of short touchdowns in 2025 in just nine games for the Dolphins.
9:42So, that's a little bit annoying in the red zone is Waller.
9:46But still, you know, really good for Ted Arroyo and Coker usage so far.
9:51Other story. The reason it's the Panthers are up here as one of the top stories.
9:56Jonathan Brooks aggravated his groin injury. Now, he's getting a second opinion on that groin injury.
10:02They're calling him week to week. You know, and Evan and I have had this massive fade on Brooks for the last couple years.
10:10Feel bad for the dude, but just cannot stay healthy.
10:13And we have no evidence that even when he is healthy, he's a really good NFL player.
10:19So, never really understood all the hype around him.
10:22But clearly, it's been a really good run out for Chuba Hubbard.
10:26Evan, any thoughts on the backfield here for the Panthers?
10:29Yeah, Chuba is in an excellent spot now. And he only had 14 touches on Sunday in a good matchup.
10:36But the backfield is controlled now by Chuba Hubbard for sure.
10:40You wonder, is Jonathan Brooks just broken? Can he last as an NFL player?
10:45I mean, that's a fair question to ask at this point.
10:48Chuba Hubbard's backup while Jonathan Brooks is out. I'm not sure exactly what they're going to do.
10:54At least in this game, it was A.J. Dillon.
10:57I'm not sure A.J. Dillon is an NFL player.
11:00So, really, really good spot here for Chuba. And I would note, caught a short touchdown in this game.
11:07Which, you know, catching touchdowns from close in as a running back is just, man, really good roll out for Chuba Hubbard.
11:14We're going to have him much higher in the rest of the season top 150.
11:19That'll be out, by the way, the rest of the season top 150 for DraftKid Pro subscribers.
11:25That will be out Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. Story three, Evan.
11:29Oh, boy. We got to go to Los Angeles Chargers.
11:32One of the biggest surprises of the entire season has been the ineptitude of the Chargers offense.
11:38They have played the Raiders and the Cardinals and performed horribly in both.
11:43They are 0-2. Justin Herbert was held under 200 yards passing, even though they were trailing for a lot of this game against the Cardinals.
11:51He threw two picks. He took three sacks. It's just a mess.
11:55Everyone, Evan, wants to blame my boy, my brother, Mike McDaniel.
11:59Some people want to blame Justin Herbert. Where do you think the blame falls, and how worried are you about this Chargers offense?
12:07Real worried. And I was worried after week one.
12:10You know, now we got a two-game sample of this.
12:13And the offensive line is a big problem. And it's not just the interior that we have been discussing.
12:20Joe Ault is getting beat like a drum out there.
12:23Max Crosby owned him in this particular game. I was listening to Nate Tice talk about this.
12:29You know, the son of Mike Tice. He's a really good X's and O's guy.
12:34And he thinks that Omari and Hampton is not a fit for what Mike McDaniel wants to do in the running game.
12:41It's really, really rough for the Chargers right now.
12:44And I feel like there's not a light at the end of the tunnel because these were supposed to be two very favorable matches.
12:53These matchups, and, you know, they blew both of them.
12:56Blew both of them and eliminated, you know, there's like 35 to 40 percent of people out in most survivor pools.
13:03Most of that is just Chargers losses. You know, obviously there were a lot of Browns losses, Bucs-Browns losses this week too.
13:11We'll get to that. But yeah, to Evan's point, they had a home game against Arizona, home game against Vegas.
13:17They lost both. They've scored 28 points. Their next six games at Buffalo, at Seattle, versus Denver, at Kansas City, by, at
13:25Rams, versus Texans, and then a seventh at the Ravens.
13:28I mean, people are betting them to be the worst.
13:32They're also not good on defense. They look like a bad football team, period.
13:36God, and do you blame McDaniel? I mean, you know, McDaniel has been so good on EPA per play as a play caller.
13:44They, like, even Daniel Popper came out, who has covered the Chargers for a really long time, and he was like, the
13:52Chargers bet their entire offseason, their entire franchise, on a franchise-altering move at offensive coordinator, and it has failed.
13:58Like, they are getting all over my guy, Evan.
14:01Tell me this is not Mike McDaniel's fault. Yeah, it crossed my mind today, like, is Mike McDaniel going to last the season as the Chargers OC?
14:10Because, again, it feels like there's not a light at the end of the tunnel.
14:15Are we going to see Mike McDaniel get fired and Adam Gase is the OC of the Chargers by week 14?
14:23I mean, it's just really bad, and they're a bad football team on both sides of the ball, and that's when heads start rolling.
14:31You know, when they're losing every game, and, like, there's just no light at the end of the tunnel.
14:37All right, let me get to some fantasy stuff here on the Chargers, because they're playing at both, though.
14:44This could be a very high-scoring game. I do not want to ignore this from a fantasy perspective.
14:50Lad McConkie, despite having a cracked rib, played in this game in week two, ran 22 routes.
14:56That was kind of like his usual-ish role, but only three catches for 35 yards on three targets.
15:02When he is not himself or not 100%, it's a problem because Quinton Johnston just, I know Evan doesn't want me to
15:09hear me say this, he's just not good at football.
15:13Like, just isn't. There's been no evidence that Quinton Johnston is good at football.
15:17Trey Harris made a 53-yard catch here, has struggled to earn targets.
15:21And then at tight end, they lose Charlie Kolar in this game to an arm injury.
15:27They lose David Njoku to a knee injury. Both those guys on IR.
15:31So it's like, I don't really know where to turn.
15:35I still like Ladd. I'm just not sure any of these other guys can really play.
15:40And actually, maybe it's a good thing for them, Evan, that Gadsden's going to get on the field.
15:46And by the way, Gadsden was, like, dead. He's back now.
15:50He ran 15 routes on 31 Justin Herbert dropbacks because Kolar and Njoku were out.
15:55And those guys are on IR. I could see people in a pinch in deep leagues, tight end premium, getting and starting Aranda Gadsden here pretty quickly.
16:04So, yeah. Evan, any more thoughts on the pass catchers?
16:08I think you summed it up. It's so frustrating to talk about this team right now.
16:13And they lost Coyote Awisoka, who I know that some Chargers fans have been hoping would take over as one of the
16:21starting guards because Trey Pipkins is terrible and Cole Strange is terrible.
16:25So, you know, injuries are mounting as well. Yeah.
16:28And just last point on the Gadsden thing, he might be their second best pass catcher.
16:33You know what I mean? Like, so it is not crazy for them to start doing some stuff with him here.
16:40If he runs like half the routes, 55, 60 percent of the routes here against the Bills, that would kind of be my expectation right now for him.
16:50Last thing. Evan mentioned Amari and Hampton. Amari and Hampton cost the Chargers this game with a horrible fumble on a short yardage play late.
16:58Before that, though, I actually thought he played OK.
17:01It was 23 carries for Amari and Hampton, five for Keaton Mitchell.
17:05Note that Kamani Vidal only played seven snaps, had zero carries.
17:09So yeah, maybe he's not the best fit for Mike McDaniel.
17:13They were using him as a true workhorse here.
17:16Amari and Hampton before that late fumble. That was really, really a backbreaker.
17:20The Chargers fumbled six times in one game. All right.
17:24Enough with them. Story four comes from Washington. Another brutal start to the season for the Commanders.
17:30They fall to 0-2 with a loss in Dallas.
17:33But more importantly, Jaden Daniels again, again dislocated his left non-throwing elbow.
17:37And that sucks because I thought Jaden was playing a really good first half in Dallas.
17:42I mean, really good. And he was going nuts in fantasy.
17:46But this is the same injury, left elbow dislocation, that happened to him in week nine last year.
17:52Remember, he took some time off, returned in week 14, hurt that left elbow again, and shut it down.
17:58This time, he's meeting with specialists this week to determine the course of action.
18:03I don't know what's going to happen. It's possible he's out for the season.
18:08It's possible he rests it for a few weeks and comes back.
18:12I don't know. But they're going to have to go to Marcus Mariota for the foreseeable future here.
18:18Evan, what do you think about Jaden Daniels' situation and the Commanders?
18:22For what it's worth, some Twitter doctors were saying that Jaden Daniels could come back and play in a brace.
18:29But we'll see. You know, we're kind of low on information on the situation right now.
18:34Marcus Mariota can hold down the fort. Of course, they've got to go play Seattle in week three.
18:41So it's not going to come easy. Absolutely brutal spot to start for Marcus Mariota.
18:46I will say, Marcus Mariota is still only 32 years old.
18:49He did run for almost 30 yards per game in his starts last year.
18:54He did go over 200 passing yards in five of his first—five of his six full games.
19:00Now he has Stephon Diggs. Like, I think he's going to fail against Seattle.
19:05But I don't think Mariota is drawing dead to, like, keep this offense okay.
19:09It just doesn't have any kind of ceiling whatsoever.
19:13And we're going to have a downgrade in the rest of the season's top 150 on all the Commanders.
19:19McLaurin, Diggs, JCM. I mean, everybody's going to have to come down with this Jaden stuff.
19:24Just sucks. Just sucks. Again, he was playing a very, very good game.
19:29All right. Story five, Giants. So much excitement around the Giants after their week one win over the Cowboys.
19:35Because Monday night at the Rams turns into a disaster.
19:39Jackson Dart was actually in the pocket. And he gets hit hard by two Rams defenders.
19:44Hurts his left knee out for the game after playing just seven snaps.
19:49Reportedly, it is an MCL sprain for Jackson Dart.
19:52Malik Nabors also left the game briefly with a shoulder injury.
19:55Said he popped it back in and came back into the game.
19:59He finished with just one catch, though. So after all the excitement in week one, Evan, it comes crashing back to earth.
20:07In week two, what did you think of Giants stuff last night?
20:11Well, and then we hear Jameis Winston comes in the game.
20:15It's like, oh, Jameis Winston. He can get the ball to the receivers.
20:19And he just looks terrible when he goes in the game.
20:23And Malik Nabors, as you mentioned, out there playing with a subluxed shoulder.
20:27Apparently, he's had shoulder issues in the past. So, yeah, I mean, that was a rude awakening.
20:33The Giants looked really good. They controlled the football game in week one.
20:38And week two, they looked, you know, kind of like what we were kind of worried that they might look like.
20:45Yeah. I want to be clear that the preseason rhetoric from, because I was, I like Jackson Dart a lot preseason as part of like two quarterback rooms.
20:54I want to be clear that every time I said that, people would say, yeah, but he's not going to stay healthy.
21:02He's not going to stay healthy, Adam, because he's crazy as a runner.
21:06He didn't get hurt because he was running wild or whatever.
21:10He was in the pocket. His knee just got bent the wrong way.
21:14So I don't want to get it twisted on how Jackson Dart got hurt here.
21:19Other note for me on the Giants. They had four running backs active last night.
21:24Now, Tyrone Tracy was only active for special teams.
21:27He played one offensive snap, but Najee Harris played eight snaps, got four opportunities.
21:32Devin Singletary got 15 snaps, four opportunities. Kim Scadaboo led the way, 34 snaps, 16 opportunities.
21:38A, they should probably try to trade or do something with Tyrone Tracy if he's only going to play special teams.
21:45And I don't even disagree. Maybe he only deserves to play special teams, whatever, but it just seems like a waste.
21:52B, doesn't seem like they want to go full workhorse on Scadaboo.
21:56So again, he had 16 opportunities. Singletary, four. Najee, four.
21:59So yeah, I'm okay with Scadaboo yet. One other note, left tackle Andrew Thomas, probably the Giants' best offensive lineman, left this game late with a groin injury.
22:09That is a situation that I'll be monitoring when I'm writing my articles this week.
22:14Yeah. And, you know, Singletary playing a lot and playing a lot on passing downs is just not ideal for Scadaboo.
22:21And when we did the rest of the season top 150 show last week, I believe Mark's move to make was sell Scadaboo.
22:29Just on the receiving role may not be as exciting as it seemed there after week one.
22:35All right. Let's go to NFC now. We will go alphabetical order.
22:39Start with the Arizona Cardinals. Cardinals got smoked at home by the Seahawks 31-7.
22:44Obviously, this is one of the most difficult matchups a quarterback can face.
22:48But Jacoby Brissett dropped back 31 times and totaled 98 passing yards.
22:52That is really hard to do. Evan, what do you think of Cardinals' loss to the Seahawks?
22:58Again, toughest defense in the NFL to play against.
23:01Last year, I think the two best defenses in the NFL were Seattle and Houston.
23:06And Seattle this season has been way better than Houston defensively.
23:10Just, again, context. They're playing against Seattle. You still got away with it with Trey McBride because he had eight catches on 10 targets, only at 41 yards.
23:19But it's just really hard to do anything against Seattle.
23:23There is, you know, the Mazda Marv stuff. I know I've been talking about this for like two years now, but the
23:30general public has now completely turned on Mazda Marv.
23:33There is viral clips going around of him looking like, I don't even know how to describe it.
23:39Like, he looks like he's one of the kids out on like the playground who really doesn't know how to get open
23:47or doesn't know how to make sudden movements. He is down to 0.53 yards per route run this season.
23:53Just getting massively outplayed by Kendrick Bourne and Michael Wilson and everyone else.
23:58The clips show him not even trying on like blocking.
24:01Maybe I'm biased because I've been like the biggest Mazda Marv hater forever.
24:06Do you have an unbiased take on what's going on with Mazda Marv, Evan?
24:10I think it's just got to be mental at this point.
24:14I mean, for how awesome he was in college.
24:17I mean, he was, you know, the biggest recruit in the nation.
24:21He comes in, he did have eight touchdowns and over 800 yards as a rookie.
24:26Like, it shouldn't be this bad. Would he still be in the league if his father wasn't Marvin Harris?
24:33This is your thing. Yeah, I mean, Trey McBride is just such a beast.
24:37He's now played 14 career games with Joey Brissett.
24:41He has 12 touchdowns in those. Like, every time I look up and Brissett is at quarterback, it's a target to Trey McBride.
24:48I mean, it's crazy the chemistry those two have.
24:51I will say that the Jeremiah Love stuff, so his ankle seems to be totally fine now.
24:57In a game they were trailing badly for the entire second half.
25:01I was a little surprised that Algiers still out-snapped Jeremiah Love 32-20.
25:05I mean, we can't use a top three pick, top four pick, whatever it was on Jeremiah Love, and then have him
25:13play 20 snaps when he's healthy, and Tyler Algier 32.
25:16Yeah. I think Jeremiah is going to play a lot more.
25:20Like, I'm not, like, in full-blown panic, but it's clear they're not going to...
25:25Tyler Algier is not going away, even in trailing situations here at the outset.
25:29They're not showing any, you know, sense of urgency that they need to make it a one-back backfield.
25:36Like, they're going to use both guys, you know, until further notice.
25:40I will say, Cardinals have a very, very, very difficult schedule this season.
25:44This is maybe a softer stretch. They play 49ers, Giants, Lions in their next three.
25:49It's not easy, but it's easier than a lot of the stuff they'll face this season, which will be obviously a lot
25:57of 49ers, Seahawks, and tough out-of-division stuff there also.
26:00Let's go to the Falcons. Another hideous performance from the Falcons.
26:03They lose at home to the Panthers, 34-3. I mean, Cooper Rush, Jack Strand, it's a joke.
26:09The Panthers' fantasy defense actually scored 26 points here.
26:12That tells you all you need to know about the Falcons' performance.
26:16But the good news, Evan, the savior, Michael Penix, he of three ACL tears, is returning for week three.
26:23Can Michael Penix save this Falcons' offense, Evan? I don't know.
26:27We're going to see him on Thursday night against Green Bay, so that'll be interesting.
26:32But, I mean, you know, Michael Penix was technically medically cleared several weeks ago and did not, you know, declare himself ready to play.
26:40And you just wonder, does he not have confidence in, you know, his knees?
26:45Because, yeah, as you mentioned, three career ACL tears.
26:48I don't know. I mean, I'm trying to stay optimistic.
26:51He certainly, I think, gives us a better opportunity for Drake London and Kyle Pitts to do things than Cooper Rush and
26:59Jack Strand and probably Tua as well. So, I don't know.
27:02We're going to find out. It's not the worst matchup on Thursday night.
27:07Hopefully they let him air it out. So, the Falcons have scored 16 points in two games this season against the Panthers and the Steelers.
27:15At least in nine Penix starts last year, they averaged 20.5 points per game.
27:20Penix averaged 220 pass yards per game. They're at 144 per game this year.
27:25So, clearly, Penix is a big jump up, assuming the ACL stuff is okay.
27:29It's still, I'm a little worried on Drake London just with the state of the team.
27:35But, yeah, clearly, you know, very, very big upgrade here going to Michael Penix.
27:40Hopefully. Hopefully. You said that you played the Panthers' defense this week because of Brandon Thorne's matchup against the Falcons' offensive line.
27:47And they were very cheap. But, yeah, Falcons' offensive line was 23rd in the Thorne rankings.
27:53And they were very cheap. And they're starting Cooper Rush.
27:56Like, I just thought, how bad can it be?
27:59I did not expect to get 26 fantasy points.
28:02I mean, it's absolutely insane. That's really, really nice.
28:05The Falcons have given up the third most sacks in the NFL.
28:09So, that's another issue that Michael Penix is going to have to deal with.
28:14Go to the Cowboys. Nice bounce back here for the Cowboys.
28:18I think a predictable one. Dak Prescott was our highest projected quarterback on the main slate for Sunday.
28:24And he responded with a shredding of the Commanders.
28:2726 of 31. 279 yards. Four touchdowns. No interceptions.
28:30Nearly a perfect game here from Dak. Evan, what did you think of Cowboys' performance?
28:35Yeah. Something that was supposed to happen did happen as we expected it to here.
28:40And that was Dallas offensively going back and starting cooking.
28:44The Cowboys' defense also is like a really big problem.
28:47And they keep losing guys. They lost. In week one, they lost Malik Hooker.
28:52His backup tore his plantar fascia this past week.
28:55They lost starting cornerback Kobe Durant. And in week one, they lost DeMarvion Overshone, their starting middle linebacker.
29:01So, the Cowboys are going to have to keep up with their own defense because they're going to keep giving up points all season.
29:09And they will get back Tyler Smith, one of the best guards in the NFL, in a few weeks.
29:15I know people were disappointed by the Javante Williams output.
29:19I was too. I played Javante Williams in cash on DraftKings this week.
29:23By the way, you can read about my cash team every week if you want.
29:28It's totally free on the site every Sunday night.
29:31But anyways, Javante Williams played 44 out of 55 offensive snaps.
29:35They just didn't have that many plays because they scored so fast.
29:39Every time they got the ball, it was just like seedy going nuts.
29:44He finishes with 8-153-2 here. But yeah, not worried about Javante Williams.
29:48Role remains elite. Evan, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up Jake Ferguson.
29:53I know. Because the people, they're all over you.
29:56They said, see, Evan, Jake Ferguson scored two touchdowns here.
29:59Yada, yada. Any response to the Jake Ferguson freaks out there?
30:03Are there really Jake Ferguson freaks? I don't know.
30:06Yeah, I mean, you know, in an offense like this, ancillary guys can have big games when the offense is cooking and the offense was cooking here.
30:15And Jake Ferguson caught four balls and two went for touchdowns.
30:19Yeah. So, I mean, I don't think that there was any way that you could enter the week planning to start Jake
30:26Ferguson after what we saw in week one. But yeah, he wound up having a good, you know, fantasy performance.
30:33Yeah, 23 routes for Ferguson here on 36 DAC dropbacks.
30:36So, you know, his role is still worse with the floor noise stuff, you know.
30:41And Evan's talked about the span for it and all that.
30:45So, you know, 23 routes on 36 dropbacks is not sustainable unless you're scoring touchdowns when you have lack of explosibility like Jake Ferguson does.
30:54Lions. This was the Thursday night game. Lions lose to the Bills in Buffalo.
30:58They just could not stop Josh Allen. Offensively, though, no surprise from the Lions.
31:03You get Jared Goff into a trailing situation. He finishes with 327 passing yards and four passing touchdowns.
31:09Evan, what do you think of Lions loss in Buffalo on Thursday?
31:13Yeah, so the Lions have scored 62 points so far, and their defense has shown no signs of being able to stop anybody.
31:21So that's really good, you know, from a fantasy standpoint.
31:25That's going to be a fantasy bonanza. We were high on Jared Goff entering the season.
31:30We need to get Jamison Williams going. But Amon Raw is killing it.
31:35I think he's the number one fantasy receiver. Him or JSN, they're right there.
31:39But yeah, I mean, this is what we expected from the Lions.
31:43So I was really high on all the Lions, obviously, but definitely was high on Jamison Williams.
31:49And people are understandably worried about Jamison Williams through two weeks.
31:53He has a 17% target share through two weeks.
31:56I think that's fine. I was hoping he'd get up closer to 18, 19, 20 this year, but we can live with 17.
32:04The problem has been catch rate. You know, Jamo has only caught six of 13 targets this season.
32:10He's had bad drops. He's had some misconnections, but that's just a really bad catch rate.
32:15We need to get that up closer to 65, 70% of catches.
32:19And I do think Jamison Williams will be fine.
32:22Now, I know people don't want to hear it.
32:25The bet on Jamison Williams is this wild volatility.
32:29I thought the volatility would not be as bad this year just because of the schedule and the setup and how many touchdowns I expected them to score.
32:38But this is just the way this guy plays, man.
32:41I mean, so yeah, the Laporta splits are not great.
32:45Well, if he would have caught the ball in week one, no one would even be worried about him.
32:51Exactly. And that's my point. Like, you got to catch the ball when you have the opportunities.
32:57I would still consider Jamison Williams a buy low.
33:00I understand people are concerned right now. There is a long history of Jamison Williams having really quiet games and really massive games.
33:08And as Evan said, week one should have been massive.
33:11You can just catch the ball, get that catch rate up.
33:15And also, Amon Ra, you know, it's so, I don't want to say easy, but like it's predictable to project Amon Ra.
33:23He's so consistent. Last year, he was at 29% of the targets.
33:27That's typically where he is. This year, he's at 35% of the targets so far.
33:32So some regression there, a little bit more to Jamo.
33:35I think it makes sense. And by the way, Lions play Jets, Panthers, Cardinals their next three.
33:41I mean, my God. Let's score some points. Let's go out and put 40 on each of these three teams.
33:48Jets, Panthers, Cardinals. This is where the Lions schedule starts to get really, really good.
33:53Packers. Packers squeezed out an ugly overtime win in New Jersey against the Jets.
33:58In the process of that ugly win, though, they lose Jaden Reed to a scary, scary back injury.
34:04Got hit in the head in this game. Spent the night in the hospital, I believe.
34:09It is unclear if or when Jaden Reed will be able to return.
34:14Jordan Love ended up only throwing for 145 yards in this game.
34:18The running backs averaged 3.5 yards per carry. I don't really know how they won, Evan, but they did win.
34:24What do you think of Packers game against the Jets?
34:28Well, it's interesting. They're trying to incorporate Caleb Johnson now in the backfield.
34:32And so they wind up with essentially like a three-man backfield in this game.
34:37They still can't. They're dead last. The Packers are dead last in ESPN's pass block win rate.
34:43And they can't really get anything moving on the ground either.
34:47The ground game is not happening, I don't think.
34:50Also, Marshawn Lloyd put the ball on the ground, and he can't pass protect.
34:54So it's looking like a three-way timeshare for the foreseeable future.
34:58Yeah, Marshawn Lloyd did have a receiving touchdown here, but as Evan mentioned, he lost so much work to Caleb Johnson.
35:05He did fumble and then get benched after that.
35:08But even before that, Caleb was playing a ton.
35:11It finished eight Caleb carries, six for Lloyd, four for Chris Brooks.
35:15In the backdrop of this is that Josh Jacobs' case is proceeding.
35:20There's been speculation that the NFL could announce a suspension soon.
35:23In other words, the commissioner's exemplist now, maybe a four to six-game suspension, but you count the games already that he was already on the exemplist.
35:32So it's not crazy to think that Jacobs could be back sometime in the next month or so.
35:38And obviously, that would be a pretty big death blow here to Marshawn Lloyd, given that Caleb Johnson is already getting so much work.
35:46They just play the Falcons on Thursday night, though.
35:49Really, really good spot. Oh, so Jaden Reed's going to miss this game.
35:54Clearly, I don't know how long Jaden Reed's going to be out.
35:58Matthew Golden, Christian Watson. I think a long time, maybe.
36:01Yeah. I mean, Matthew Golden, Christian Watson usage through two weeks has been a smash, even before Jaden Reed went down.
36:08They combined, those two guys, Golden and Watson, combined for 17 targets out of 29 Jordan Love attempts here.
36:15I think they're going to use Sky more in the Jaden Reed role, and he won't earn targets at a very high rate.
36:23And so this is setting up really well for Golden, Watson, and Tucker Craft.
36:27Despite coming off the ACL, Tucker Craft was a full-time player in week two, 27 routes on 32 dropbacks.
36:34So a lot of exciting stuff. 58 of 59 snaps, Tucker Craft.
36:38And yeah, and we're going to consolidate the passing game.
36:41And this is an awesome matchup. So yeah, I'd be excited to play all these guys against Atlanta.
36:48Yeah, on Thursday. And you can read more about that Evans matchups Thursday night for that game.
36:53Let's go to the Rams. So the Rams get away from Australia.
36:57They get back home. They put a beat down on the Giants last night, 28 to 6.
37:03The big story was Devontae Adams. No Puka Nakua here due to a hip issue.
37:08Devontae Adams catches eight balls, 195 yards, and two touchdowns.
37:12Puts to bed any talk that he might be washed.
37:15I know this was a man versus machine debate.
37:18Evan, are you giving early capitulation on Devontae Adams here?
37:22Well, I mean, Leone didn't capitulate after Devontae Adams didn't do anything in week one.
37:27So no, I mean, it's just impressive that Devontae Adams has the ability to do that.
37:32He turns 34 in three months. That was the ultimate setup, of course.
37:36No Puka Nakua facing the Giants, who their secondary is one of the worst in the league.
37:42So it was an awesome, awesome setup for Devontae Adams.
37:46But for him to smash it like he did, definitely not washed.
37:50Yeah. Definitely not washed. And also, it was like a breath of fresh air to see the Rams play like that.
37:57Because the Rams kind of looked old and slow in week one.
38:01And McVay came out after the game and he was like, you know, we screwed up the travel thing.
38:07Going to Australia. But yeah, to see them perform that, you feel a lot better about all the Rams dudes.
38:14Yeah. And, you know, after week one, I talked about how I thought it was more formational than intentional that Devontae Adams
38:22was not on the field for a lot of important routes in that game.
38:26In Australia, there was also a report he was sick for that game.
38:31So yeah, I mean, we were above market on Devontae Adams in the best ball and the redraft stuff.
38:37Still feel pretty good about that. But Puka out clearly makes a massive difference.
38:42Puka missed one game last year. Devontae Adams had three touchdowns in that game.
38:47Two more here last night without Puka. The other important note from the past game, I thought, no Puka.
38:53Really good night for Terrence Ferguson. He got a little bit lost in week one.
38:58But in week two, he was second on the team in routes behind only Devontae Adams was Terrence Ferguson.
39:05Terrence Ferguson lined up in the slot 14 times.
39:08He lined up wide once, backfield five times, in line 16 times, six catches, 54 yards and a touchdown on nine targets.
39:15When we talk about, well, they don't really have a wide receiver three.
39:20Maybe Terrence Ferguson can do that. This is kind of what we're talking about.
39:25Just really, really versatile, short area, catches and can get downfield.
39:28So really encouraging for the Terrence Ferguson stuff. It'll be worse when Puka gets back, but really, really encouraging on Ferguson.
39:35Oh, last one on Rams for me. Backfield. So again, Kyron ceded a lot of work to Blake Corum.
39:42Opportunities were Kyron Williams, 14. Blake Corum, 13. But again, Kyron gets the touchdown.
39:47And that is not a coincidence. Carries inside the 20-yard line this season, Kyron six, Corum zero.
39:52Last season, inside the 20-yard line opportunities, Kyron Williams 60.
39:56Blake Corum 27. So I don't disagree. There's going to be a pretty even split here in terms of snaps, or at least in terms of touches.
40:05But pass catching red zone is Kyron's jam. I'll say this, man.
40:09If Kyron were to go down, Blake Corum would be like a top five asset.
40:14I mean, absolute turbo smash for Blake Corum if Kyron goes down.
40:18Vikings. Vikings and Carson Wentz go to a rainy and windy Chicago.
40:22Hold the Bears to three points. Win nine to three.
40:26Clearly, the conditions in Chicago affected this game. Wentz was just 11 of 20 for 143 yards.
40:32No touchdowns or interceptions. They ran it 23 times with Aaron Jones for 105 yards.
40:37Knocked Caleb out of the game somehow. Hold on against Bajan at the end.
40:41Evan, what do you think of Vikings' performance in Chicago?
40:45These games that are so weather affected, you know, it's hard to have solid takeaways from that because the weather can affect the play calling.
40:53You know, I don't think in a normal circumstance the Vikings would want to give Aaron Jones 23 carries.
41:00You know, they ran it 28 times in this game, the Vikings did.
41:04I think they want to throw the ball. Even when Carson Wentz is under center, they want to throw the ball.
41:11You look back at his starts last year. I mean, he had some where he was throwing the ball 45 times in
41:19a game, but the weather affected everything. So it's just it's hard to have takeaways from this.
41:25Kyler Murray's back this week. Yeah. Good spot for Kyler Murray to come back here as well.
41:30He gets to face Tampa, Miami and New Orleans in the next three games.
41:35Got some questions on Jordan Addison because that's a guy that we were above market on in the best ball stuff.
41:42Also, Jordan Addison has run 51 routes. On 54 Vikings quarterback dropbacks this season.
41:47He has seven targets for a 16% share. I think that can get to 18 to 20%, especially considering Jawan Jennings.
41:54There's something weird going on with him. He had a personal issue.
41:58There were some bad vibes around him in camp also.
42:02So it's not great for Addison. I'm worried maybe he's just not that good, but I do think he's going to play
42:09a lot and the offense will be effective in the right conditions.
42:13I think he's good. I think Jordan Addison is good.
42:17Last note for me on Vikings. Yeah, Evan mentioned it.
42:20I mean, they did not trust DJ Dallas or Damond Claiborne.
42:24Even with Jordan Mason out, DJ Dallas only played eight snaps.
42:27Claiborne only played two. Aaron Jones, 42. Maybe in better conditions, they trust those guys more.
42:33But we'll see. I mean, right now they're going full workhorse or at least in this game, they went full workhorse on Aaron Jones.
42:41Saints. Impressive win for the Saints. They went to Baltimore.
42:44They beat Lamar Jackson 24-17. Tyler Shuck balled again, you know, similar to what he did in the second half of week
42:52one in this game in week two at Baltimore.
42:55Tyler Shuck, 27 of 34, 252 yards, one touchdown here to Olave, who is absolutely balling.
43:00Evan, what do you think of Saints? Impressive win in Baltimore.
43:04Yeah, I'd like to see Tyler Shuck running again as well.
43:08That's something that, you know, that was a big part of his appeal last season.
43:13The Saints lost their starting left tackle, Kelvin Banks, to a high ankle sprain that's going to require surgery.
43:19So that is a long-term concern for the Saints.
43:22But Tyler Shuck, man, he can rip it, man.
43:26He's a naturally gifted passer and he can run a little bit.
43:30So, yeah. Olave is fantasy's number three wide receiver now behind only JSN and Amon Ra, St.
43:35Brown. But I think we're kind of burying the lead here, Evan.
43:39The lead of this story of the Saints, in fantasy at least, is the running back situation.
43:45I got to think something's going on. Like, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
43:50They signed Travis Etienne like an hour into free agency.
43:53He was like their primary target. First day of free agency.
43:57Four years. 48 million. 28 million guaranteed. Top 10 running back guaranteed money.
44:02On the very first day of free agency. In week one, Etienne splits carries evenly with Kendry Miller.
44:08In week two, Kendry Miller is a scratch. It's not that they were like, oh, we love Kendry Miller.
44:14We got to get him reps. He was a healthy scratch.
44:18In week two, Al was in favor of Alvin Kamara.
44:21Alvin Kamara, 31 years old. One of the worst running backs in the NFL by almost any metric last season.
44:28In week two, Alvin Kamara, 51, 15 opportunities. Travis Etienne, 11 opportunities.
44:32I don't get this. It makes zero sense whatsoever.
44:35There has to be something else going on that we don't know.
44:39Evan, do you have any thoughts or comments around the Travis Etienne usage here through two weeks?
44:45You know, it doesn't make sense. We just have to accept it and stop trying to make sense out of it.
44:52It doesn't make sense. Underhill agrees. It doesn't make sense.
44:56So we just have to accept it because this is what the team is doing.
45:01And, you know, we don't have to try to make sense of it.
45:05So. It's very disappointing. I mean, look, you know, I liked Travis Etienne as a fourth round pick RB2 throughout the summer.
45:13And it's just, it doesn't make sense. Yeah. So did I.
45:16You know, I liked him also. I am not giving up yet.
45:20Like, one of my main thesis is like coaches eventually are going to play the best players.
45:26Maybe you don't think Travis Etienne is that good.
45:29Whatever. That's been some people's knock on him. I promise he's better than Alvin Kamara.
45:34I promise he's better than Kendrick Miller. Like, we're not talking about all stars here behind Travis Etienne.
45:40So over the course of this season, it's going to get better for Travis Etienne.
45:46I would not drop him. I, if somebody was trying to give him away, I would certainly try to scoop that up.
45:53But yeah, it just feels really bad right now.
45:56We'll talk more about that on the rest of season top 150.
46:00And yeah, the Banks thing is certainly bad here also.
46:04But just really, really, really weird on Travis Etienne.
46:07Eagles. We talked after week one about how the Eagles beat the Commanders, but it was not an inspiring offense in the post-Petula era.
46:15Same thing this week. They go to Tennessee. Jalen Hurts threw a terrible pick six on the first drive.
46:21Saquon can't do anything. Gets hurt. Dallas Goddard gets hurt.
46:25They need a last second desperation, not desperation. They need a last second touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts to Darius Cooper in
46:32the back of the end zone to beat the Titans 24-20.
46:36So Evan, how concerned are you with Eagles offense right now after two weeks?
46:41Well, they're losing guys. You know, they lost Landon Dickerson in week one.
46:45And now Saquon goes down. And Dallas Goddard was a huge part.
46:49He was their leading receiver in week one. And he is going to be MCL sprain week to week.
46:56They'd already placed their number two and three tight ends on IR, Eli Stowers and Grant Calcaterra.
47:01So the next man up at tight end is Johnny Munt.
47:05They are so desperate at tight end that they signed Zach Ertz to their practice squad.
47:11He turns 36 in two months and is coming off a torn ACL that he suffered in December.
47:17So the Eagles are losing guys and that's hard to recover from.
47:21Yeah, the big injury was the Saquon one. So it was reported as a stinger.
47:26Stingers don't usually knock guys out for that long.
47:29He came back for a little, was ineffective, went back out.
47:33Now they're calling it. He's going for an MRI on his shoulder slash neck is Saquon.
47:38I have not seen the results of that yet.
47:41As we're recording this Tuesday midday, we did get a look at the running backs without Saquon in this game.
47:48Tank Bigsby, 13 carries, 33 yards and a touchdown, two targets on 26 snaps.
47:53Will Shipley got seven carries and two targets on 39 snaps.
47:56So certainly prefer Bigsby, but it does not look like they're going to go workhorse on Bigsby if Saquon is out, which
48:04is a little bit disappointing to me, at least on early downs, because I thought Bigsby would take over all of that.
48:11But yeah, he did get the touchdown. He got a bunch of carries from inside the 10 yard line and they play the Bears next.
48:20If Saquon misses that game, I think Tank Bigsby can be a start.
48:24Yeah, Johnny Munn and EJ Jenkins are the tight ends now.
48:28And that flows through to the Makai Lemon stuff.
48:31Makai Lemon ran 34 routes in this game, nearly a full-time player.
48:35If they're not going to have Dallas Goddard and they're going to go to more 11 personnel, which given the state of
48:43their tight end room, they probably have to. They have to.
48:46It's good for Makai Lemon, you know. I think we'll see a lot of Makai Lemon on Monday night.
48:53Yep. And Dontavian Wicks did bang up his leg briefly.
48:56He came back into the game. But yeah, you're going to see a lot of Devonta Smith, Wicks, Makai Lemon targets here coming up for the Eagles.
49:0549ers. Niners got to play at home against the Dolphins.
49:09So you know what's going to happen here. Brock Purdy absolutely shredded.
49:1320 of 22. 287 yards. Two touchdowns. No interceptions.
49:16Also ran it three times for 30 yards and a touchdown.
49:20Brock Purdy is just an underrated fantasy quarterback all the time.
49:23Evan, what do you think of 49ers' performance against the Dolphins?
49:27Hyper, hyper efficient Brock Purdy. And that's how that offense is made to be.
49:32He's become just an executor of the Kyle Shanahan offense.
49:35Mike Evans got a little banged up in the game.
49:39DeMarcus Robinson, high ankle sprain. George Kittle balled out.
49:42So yeah, I'll start with Kittle. So with Jake Tongass out for season, I was hopeful that George Kittle would be like a full-time tight end.
49:51I didn't think that was likely considering how old he is and coming off the Achilles.
49:56Kittle ended up running 14 routes on 25 Purdy dropbacks.
49:59They used Luke Farrell in a version of the Jake Tongass role.
50:04Maybe in a closer game, Kittle plays more. You know, but he looked really good.
50:09You know, four catches for 80 yards here for Kittle with the touchdown.
50:13Other pass catcher news, Evan mentioned it. I mean, Demarcus Robinson injury, I think, is sneaky important.
50:19He joins Ricky Pearsall and DeJong Stripling on the sideline.
50:22Now they're going to have to play Debo a ton.
50:26They're going to play Mike Evans a ton. And I think Mike Evans is fine, just a little bit banged up.
50:33Because behind Debo Samuel and Mike Evans now, they only have Jacob Cowing and Cardero Hodge.
50:38So it's been a really good run out for Debo, especially here.
50:42I did not think he was going to have this big a role, but he'd have no choice right now.
50:49Last thing for me, the CMC-Kaelin Black split. In week one, the Australia game, it was weird.
50:55Kalin Black got more carries than CMC. In this game, CMC 10 carries.
50:59Black 7. Snap CMC 27. Black 17. CMC very inefficient as a runner again.
51:04And like, I kind of think the 49ers like this split where 10 carries for CMC, 7 for Black.
51:10But it doesn't really matter that much because CMC is the goal lineback and he's their pass catcher.
51:17So I'm still not that worried about CMC. We went to 10th overall in the rest season top 150 after last week.
51:24We'll probably stick around there for this week here.
51:27Evan, any thoughts on the backfield before we move on?
51:31The backfield is starting to remind me a little bit of the Rams backfield with Kalin Black sort of in the Blake Corum role.
51:39And CMC is still getting all the high value stuff.
51:42But, you know, kind of like the Rams need the juice that Blake Corum brings.
51:47The 49ers kind of maybe need the juice or at least they feel like they need the juice that Kalin Black brings.
51:55You remember last year, Christian McCaffrey didn't have a 20-yard run until like week 15 or week 16 or something like that.
52:02And he was under four yards per carry on the season.
52:06I think that maybe the 49ers have just decided we need the juice that Kalin Black brings.
52:12Yeah. And I mean, like, CMC can still catch 90 balls even in this role.
52:17Like, even not a full-time role. He can catch 90 balls and run for 10 touchdowns.
52:22There's absolutely no doubt in my mind. So I'm not that worried.
52:26I will say, like, home against Dolphins, home against Cardinals in week three.
52:31Like, those are the spots where you can get more rest for Christian if you want to.
52:36They have some tougher games coming up after that.
52:40Broncos, Seahawks in week four and five. Let's go to those Seahawks.
52:44It was a, I would say, a sluggish first half for Drew Locke and the Seahawks in Arizona.
52:50But they turned it on in the second half.
52:53Beat the Cardinals 31-7. The injury in this game that caught my eye was Jadarian Price.
52:58Hurt his chest. X-rays were negative. I don't have any other details right now.
53:03But the Seahawks closed the game out with their short yardage specialist, Emmanuel Wilson.
53:08Emmanuel Wilson had 21 carries. He now has four carries from inside the five-yard line.
53:13This season, Jadarian Price has zero. Evan, any thoughts on Seahawks' backfield or their performance against the Cardinals?
53:19I think we're just going to have to see on how Jadarian Price's health goes.
53:24Emmanuel Wilson is kind of decent. I mean, you know, he had some games in Green Bay where he would fill in for Josh Jacobs.
53:33And, I mean, he can carry the rock. He's 226 pounds.
53:36They obviously like him in their short yardage situation.
53:39He's got the ball a ton here because, you know, the blowout.
53:43But, I don't know. We'll have to see how it goes with Jadarian Price's injury.
53:49Also, Sam Darnold's injury. It sounds like they expect him to practice on Wednesday, you know, dealing with this glute injury.
53:56That would be good news. Although, Drew Locke got the job done.
54:00JSN is just on a different freaking planet. I mean, you know, we talk about who's the best receiver in the NFL.
54:07Is it Justin Jefferson? Is it Jamar Chase? Is it JSN?
54:11I mean, they all have good arguments. JSN's right there.
54:14Undoubtedly. And, like, you know, JSN saw 34% of the Seahawks' targets last season.
54:19Half the thought or thought there would be a little bit of regression off that.
54:24Nope. 42% of the targets here for JSN. I mean, absolutely crazy stuff.
54:29Yeah, Sam Darnold. I think he's going to be back week three.
54:33But if not, it seems like definitely week four.
54:36So that's good. They play at Commanders with Marcus Mariota starting in week three.
54:41So I don't think they have to force it.
54:44But yeah, it sounds like Darnold is relatively close.
54:47Just to circle back on Jadarian Price. This is, like, not what you wanted to happen if you drafted Jadarian Price.
54:54He lost goal line work to Emmanuel Wilson. And now he's hurt at the time when Zach Charbonnet is also hurt.
55:01Because the concern was always Zach Charbonnet would come back and have a bigger role than we want him to.
55:08And Price not separating here early when Charbonnet is out.
55:11It's just, it's not the best. Not the best.
55:14And now he's hurt. It's just not the best.
55:17Lost a fumble too. Last NFC team here is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
55:22Really, really, really bad loss for the Bucs to the Browns.
55:25Baker Mayfield was supposed to have vengeance in his heart.
55:29He was supposed to have revenge on his mind against the Browns team, which gave up on him.
55:35But instead, Bucs fall to 0-2. They lose to Deshaun Watson somehow.
55:39Out here. Evan, what do you think of Bucs' performance?
55:42Yeah, the Buccaneers are another team that look like a genuinely bad team right now.
55:48They can run the ball with Bucky Irving. But they have not been able to do anything consistently with the passing game so far.
55:56And if you go back and look, all right, so Baker Mayfield kind of started last season kind of hot.
56:02People were talking about him as MVP actually through about four or five weeks.
56:07And I understand that he was dealing with a bunch of injuries.
56:11But we have a sustained, extended period of time here where Baker Mayfield has not played good football.
56:17And that's starting to become increasingly a concern for me.
56:21Yeah, Baker is 26th in QBR through two weeks.
56:24That has flowed through to Emeka Egbuka. Now, Emeka Egbuka had the toe thing.
56:29He did have a touchdown catch here, but only three catches for 16 yards against the Browns.
56:34And then the other thing I was worried about before this season, Chris Godwin has had so many injuries.
56:41He's old. Just seemed like always a really tough bet to me.
56:45Does not look like he has it. Jalen McMillan returned here.
56:49We're supposed to play a decent amount. He only ran two routes.
56:53So it's not like the weaponry is good. And Kate Otten is just like a dad runner running routes out there.
57:00The weaponry does not seem great if Egbuka is not going to be a star.
57:05Oh, good news. Evan mentioned it. Bucky Irving is separating from Kenny Gainwell here.
57:10Outsnapped Bucky 51 snaps. Gainwell 23 in that game against the Browns.
57:14Carries were 17-2 in favor of Bucky. Routes were 22-12 in favor of Bucky.
57:19Through two weeks, Bucky 36 opportunities. Gainwell 12. Now, they're 0-2.
57:22So maybe they try to make some changes here.
57:25But I think Bucky's played well. I expect him to continue to have that separation from Gainwell.
57:31And another good note for Bucky. Sean Tucker was active yesterday.
57:35Did not play an offensive snap. Bucks do have to play the Vikings next on the road.
57:41Very, very tough spot. Reminder, this free show is brought to you by Polymarket.
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57:51state. You can go back to episode 1018 for more on my take.
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58:19It was 6-1 on sportsbooks. It doesn't sound like that much, 6-1 to 7-1.
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59:19Let's flip it over to the AFC now. We'll start with the Baltimore Ravens.
59:24Ravens were playing in week two without Zay Flowers due to a hamstring injury.
59:28They mustered just 17 points at home against the Saints.
59:32Lose 24-17. I guess if there was a bright spot, Evan, it was Rashad Bateman.
59:37Seven catches, 88 yards, and a touchdown on nine targets.
59:40Wasn't really sure he could step up like that.
59:43Was Zay Flowers out, but good to see on Bateman.
59:47Evan, any thoughts on what happened to the Ravens here lost to the Saints?
59:52Yeah, and I think that that was Dinkmeyer's flag plant for week two.
59:56So another great call by Drew Dinkmeyer. Yeah, so it makes you wonder, you know, again, we're still in very, very small sample sizes.
60:04But to add context here, like week one, the Ravens just destroyed the Colts' defense.
60:09And then the Ravens look, you know, normal in week two against a Saints' defense that we really don't find particularly imposing.
60:17And then we see the Chiefs crush the Colts' defense.
60:20It looks like the Colts' defense is going to be a big problem for that team, something to file away as we look forward.
60:28Yeah. One thing I've noticed with the Ravens under Declan Doyle, we already talked about the under center stuff.
60:35I think everybody knows that. They are trying to get Derrick Henry more involved in the pass game.
60:41And people have been saying that for 10 years.
60:44They've actually done it to some degree. In week one, they had a 19-yard screenplay to Derrick Henry.
60:50In week two, they tried it again. He had three targets here.
60:54He caught all three. And I think he had another catch, actually, that was called back by penalty.
61:00So that's really good to see on Derrick Henry.
61:03He's not going to turn into, like, what they've turned Jonathan Taylor into.
61:08And we talked about Kenneth Walker getting a bunch of targets on early downs.
61:12He's not going to do that. But even, like, one or two catches per game goes a long way for Derrick Henry.
61:20They have Cowboys, Titans, Falcons, Browns, Bengals in their next five games do the Ravens.
61:25So, say, Flowers sounds like he's got a pretty good chance to come back here this week.
61:31Not a serious hamstring pull. So, really good spots coming up for the Ravens.
61:36One thing to keep in mind about Zay Flowers, and my God, he looked like a difference maker in week one, and
61:43he barely played, and he had 150 yards in the first half, is that that injury has lingered.
61:49I think he originally suffered the hamstring injury during, like, a joint practice or something like that.
61:55So it has been aggravated before. I hope they take it easy on him.
62:00But, yeah, I mean, I want him out there for these sick matchups that are upcoming.
62:05Going to the Buffalo Bills. This was the Thursday night game, the first game ever at the Bills' new stadium in Buffalo.
62:13Predictably, Josh Allen and the Bills came to play for the event.
62:17They hang 41 points on the Lions. Josh Allen accounts for five total touchdowns.
62:21The Bills are 2-0. Allen is the overwhelming MVP favorite here through two weeks.
62:26Evan, pretty impressive performance from the Bills. What do you think?
62:30Yes, and another massive performance from Dalton Kincaid. And after a fairly slow week one, James Cook really got it going.
62:37DJ Moore left with a shoulder injury in the second quarter of that Thursday night game, and he was ruled out.
62:44And then Keon Coleman became a pretty big factor, and Josh Palmer scored another touchdown.
62:49So that'll be a situation that we are monitoring this week.
62:53DJ Moore. Do you have any read on that right now?
62:57Yeah, they're calling him day-to-day. It does not seem like it's serious.
63:01I would call him questionable for week three, but he definitely has a chance to play here.
63:07Keon Coleman as the direct backup to DJ Moore, or the guy that picks up the most slack, makes plenty of sense to me.
63:15I'm just, I've seen flashes from Keon Coleman before and has never sustained it, and I'm not going to bet on him
63:22to sustain it even if DJ Moore was out.
63:25But certainly he'd be worth a pickup if DJ Moore was out long-term.
63:30I just don't think that he will be here.
63:33Big change, though, and I know we talked about it on Man vs.
63:37Machine on Thursday with Leonie. They are being under this new staff, I guess you could call it new staff, at least new positions.
63:45They are being much more aggressive throwing. They are top three in pass rate over expectation through two weeks, and they are being much more vertical throwing.
63:55I mean, this could be a historic season for Josh Allen, and I mean, their defense gave up a ton of points
64:02to the Texans, and they gave up a ton of points to the Lions.
64:07Like, historic season for Josh Allen. Yeah, and I think that they might be a pass funnel on defense because they've been going out of their way.
64:16The Bills have to stop the run this year.
64:19Leonie talked about this. Leonie's a Bills fan. You know, under Sean McDermott, the Bills would play dime defense all the time.
64:27They would let you run the ball on them.
64:30If they're not going to do that anymore, you know, I mean, they could turn into a pass funnel on defense.
64:37Yeah, and sets up really well for shootouts, and they've kind of been in two of them here already this season.
64:44The Bengals. The defense, Evan, yes. The Bengals defense leads them to a win in Houston.
64:49Hold the Texans to just six points. Bengals are now 2-0.
64:53They do it with a quiet day from Joe Burrow.
64:56Certainly makes them feel good from a real-life perspective that Joe Burrow doesn't have to go nuts for them to win games anymore.
65:04Evan, what do you think of Bengals' win in Houston?
65:08Well, yeah, after a quiet week one in the passing game, particularly from T.
65:12Higgins and Jamar Chase, they both got it going here.
65:16Chase is just, I mean, he moves different than other dudes on the field.
65:21And that is against a defense in the Texans that although they haven't played their best so far this season, I mean,
65:28there's certainly still a defense that we respect. So just a solid offensive performance across the board from Cincinnati, creating explosive plays in the passing game.
65:37Yeah, I mean, Jamar in his second straight year, and it seemed like he does this all the time.
65:43Jamar Chase, horrific in week one, very good in week two.
65:47If they had to throw more, I mean, despite the talent that Texans have in their secondary, if they had to throw
65:55more, Jamar Chase was going even more nuts, 775-2 on nine targets here for him.
66:00Earlier note I had on Bengals, 25 opportunities for Chase Brown in this game versus just three for Samajay Pirine.
66:06Now snaps were much closer, 42-24 Chase Brown. In snaps, but they really leaned into the opportunities here for Chase Brown, good to see at Steelers next.
66:16Browns. You know, I got to say, Evan, maybe we owe our old friend, one of the goats, Todd Monken, maybe we
66:23owe him an apology because I made fun of Todd Monken for saying he saw good things on tape from Deshaun Watson
66:31in week one, and then in week two, Watson did play well.
66:35Like, credit to Todd Monken. He stuck with Watson.
66:38He went out and played well, and they win.
66:41They win at Tampa. Deshaun Watson, 24 of 30, 238 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, only took two sacks.
66:47Pretty impressive, Evan, what do you think of Deshaun Watson sending the Browns out of nowhere stunning the Bucs?
66:54Yeah, you weren't the only one that was making fun of Todd Monken.
66:58You know, everyone was making fun of him for saying that.
67:02I do want to have a little bit of context here because I think that the Buccaneers are not in good shape defensively.
67:10But no question. I mean, this is the best that we've seen Deshaun Watson play since he was a Houston Texan.
67:17And now he's definitely going to start in week three.
67:20That had been sort of our expectation. Oh, they're going to...
67:24The Browns are starting the season with two road games.
67:27Once they get back home, they can't trot him out there.
67:31Deshaun Watson's starting the Browns' home opener. And he has shown a connection with the rookie Denzel Boston.
67:37Yeah. I mean, he's starting their home opener because he won their last game, and they're not going to storm the facility.
67:45They're going to be happy because he won a game.
67:48There's no need to storm the facility. Stand down.
67:51Stand down. David Boston... I'm sorry, Denzel Boston. Another long TD catch in this game.
67:56That's two in two weeks. Denzel Boston also led the team in targets with seven.
68:01He ran 33 routes on 35 dropbacks. It's not going to be consistent because of the way Denzel Boston plays, contested catches, deep catches.
68:09But yeah, like the best ball stuff is awesome on Denzel Boston right now.
68:14The other thing is, this was the first game without Dylan Sampson.
68:18And so, Quinshawn Junkins caught five balls. He only ran 12 routes.
68:22Five catches on 12 routes, though. Impressive. Raheem Sanders ran seven routes.
68:26Jaleel McLaughlin, former Bronco, he ran four routes. Junkins has to get this pass game stuff because he's just so inefficient, you know, on the ground.
68:352.3 yards per carry this season on 24 carries.
68:38Home against the Buck... I'm sorry. Home against the Panthers here this week.
68:43Really good spot. One of the better spots the Browns will have this season.
68:48Broncos. Broncos bounced back from their dreadful week one performance.
68:51They beat the Jaguars at home 20-13. Story to me of this game was at running back.
68:57RJ Harvey was inactive due to a hamstring injury.
69:00J.K. Dobbins left with a hamstring injury of his own after 21 snaps.
69:04That allowed us to get a good look at Jonah Coleman, who played 25 snaps.
69:09Jonah Coleman, 10 carries, 39 yards and a touchdown.
69:12Also caught three balls for 19 yards. So good to get a first look at him.
69:18And what do you think of Jonah Coleman? Any other Broncos thoughts?
69:22Like Jonah Coleman. You know, I've liked him throughout the process.
69:26J.K. Dobbins' hamstring. Yeah, so... I mean, I think he's a good player.
69:30He was good in the passing game in college.
69:33He's built like a bowling ball. He's like 200...
69:36He's like 5'8", 220. Kind of reminds... You know, making the Sean Payton connection.
69:41A little bit of Deuce McAllister. If you remember him for the Saints.
69:45Yeah, I like Jonah Coleman. I mean, I drafted a ton of them.
69:50The big story here to me was Jalen Waddell getting it going because people were really, really upset about Jalen Waddell after week one, understandably.
69:58What do you have? One catch for two yards.
70:01And the Broncos made sure to get him the ball here.
70:05I mean, they paid a first and a third round pick for Jalen Waddell.
70:10They're not going to forget about him. He's their number one receiver.
70:14Yeah. Ten targets for Jalen Waddell here on 31.
70:17Bo Nix pass attempts. Played a really, really difference-making game did Jalen Waddell.
70:21I don't think J.K. Dobbins' hamstring injury is overly serious.
70:25And I don't think R.J. Harvey's hamstring injury is overly serious either.
70:29It'll just be something to keep an eye on though.
70:32But Coleman handled himself well enough here where he could eat into those guys regardless.
70:37Texans. As I mentioned, Texans scored just six points in a home game against the Bengals.
70:43Two field goals. Maybe, I guess, Evan, that's what happens when you don't have Nico Collins.
70:48You don't have Jaden Higgins. You have to throw the ball to Dalton Schultz 14 times.
70:54They threw the ball to Dalton Schultz. So, Evan, I don't know how long Nico's going to be out.
71:00I don't think he'll be back this week. I don't know for sure.
71:05But this is a tough offense without him. What do you think of Texans' game against the Bengals?
71:11You know, I mean, I do have some respect this year, I think, for the Bengals' defense.
71:16I think that maybe middle of the road or top 15, somewhere in that range.
71:22But no offensive coordinator in the NFL wants to run their offense through Dalton Schultz.
71:27And I mean, he's a fine little possession tight end.
71:30But no one wants to play that way. And that's what they're being forced to do.
71:35The Texans are missing their numbers one and two receivers.
71:39And, you know, David Montgomery is a good football player.
71:42But he has, you know, very little explosive playability.
71:45The Texans don't have a particularly great offensive line.
71:48So, it's just going to be tough for them offensively until Nico Collins comes back.
71:53They've got the Colts next. I mean, is Nico Collins going to miss that opportunity to go up against the Colts?
72:01That would be disappointing. Yeah, I don't know. I'd call it 50-50 right now on Nico for Week 3.
72:07I do think he'll be back by Week 4 or 5 at the latest, though.
72:12I will say it was good to see them give Jalen Knoll 40-plus routes in this game.
72:18The three wide receiver set was Hutchinson, Booty, and Knoll.
72:21Knoll played a lot. He only caught one of five targets.
72:25That's not great. And nobody really played well in the receiving core.
72:29But at least good to see they were out there.
72:33And yeah, Evan mentioned Dave Montgomery's stuff, you know.
72:36Yes, in Week 1, he scored three touchdowns. He was inefficient.
72:39He was inefficient here again. In Week 1, he lost a ton of snaps to Woody Marks.
72:45In this game, he didn't just lose snaps to Woody Marks.
72:49Woody Marks had eight carries. Montgomery had six. Woody Marks had five catches on six targets.
72:54Dave Montgomery only had two targets. When they get behind in games, you're going to see even more Woody Marks here.
73:01And when they were winning in Week 1, you know, Woody Marks still played one more snap than Dave Montgomery.
73:08So we know Dave Montgomery's not going to make big plays.
73:12We know their run game is broken. He needs touchdowns.
73:15I mean, he needs touchdowns. And you can get them against the Colts.
73:20There's no doubt about that. Speaking of the Colts, this was the Sunday night game, as I mentioned.
73:26Colts certainly played well enough to win in Kansas City here, Evan.
73:30They lose an insane overtime game, 33-30. Big story to me was the Alec Pierce injury.
73:35We talked about this injury so much in the offseason.
73:39He hurt his left ankle, heel, foot, whatever it is.
73:42He hurt it again. Sounds like he's not going for more surgery.
73:46He's going to try to rehab it and come back sometime around midseason.
73:51But it's really bad for their offense not to have a vertical field stretcher and the guy they paid $114 million for.
73:58Evan, thoughts on the Colts? And anything on Pierce's injury?
74:02The Colts did sign Darius Slayton, formerly of the Giants.
74:05So I think that they'll maybe try to ramp him up and get him to play that, you know, the X receiver
74:12role where he's just running wind sprints down the sideline.
74:16The runout has been really good, I think, for Josh Downs because you have a situation where Alec Pierce is hurt.
74:23Obviously, Michael Pittman is gone. You know, the Colts defense looks like it could be really, really bad.
74:29And Keenan Allen doesn't look good at all. So, you know, we saw Josh Downs.
74:34He had a slower week one. He had two early catches and then he kind of vanished.
74:40But in this game, he had seven for 72 against Kansas City.
74:44I like to see that. Yeah. I mean, Keenan looks like a joke out there and they don't need him because he
74:52runs routes in the same place that Josh Downs and Tyler Warren runs routes.
74:56What they need is Alec Pierce. And, you know, Darius Slayton is like a bad version of Alec Pierce.
75:03So I thought it was a good signing for them to at least try to stretch the field, open things up for Downs and Warren.
75:11I just got to say, you know, the Colts gave Alec Pierce $114 million contract when they knew about the foot thing.
75:19It was a known injury. They knew about it.
75:22And then he gets surgery later and now he aggravates it.
75:26Just, I mean, punting that much part of it.
75:29Like, I don't even care about the money, whatever.
75:32It's the salary cap. You burn so much of your cap to get Alec Pierce signed.
75:37Looks like a total disaster. What's not a disaster is Jonathan Taylor.
75:41Roll is absurd. 28 more touches here, 132 total yards, two touchdowns.
75:45Playing in all situations, just a total freak. Does have to play the Texans next.
75:50But JT is an awesome, awesome asset, no matter how the Colts are playing.
75:55It's going to be interesting to see what happens with the Colts.
75:59You know, dating back to last season, they've lost nine games in a row.
76:04And they have an owner who, you know, heads might roll at some point if this keeps up.
76:10Their defense is a big problem. You know, and they made these decisions to pay Daniel Joes, to pay Alec Pierce, and these things are not working out.
76:20Jaguars. Jaguars went to Denver for a very tough matchup.
76:23They scored 13 points, lose the game. Trevor Lawrence started throwing to anyone except Parker Washington, who continues to just be an outrageous beast.
76:31Parker Washington, 34.6% target share so far this season.
76:34That is truly, truly elite stuff. And it's not just the first two games.
76:39Once he broke out late last year, he was getting target shares in the 30 to 40% range regularly in that span also.
76:47So really good for Parker Washington. Not great for everyone else in the past game.
76:52Evan, what do you think of Jaguars? Yeah, Parker Washington is just on a freaking mission.
76:57And he's got a contract coming up. I think he's going to get a big extension pretty soon.
77:03I think that Bashul Tootin has looked pretty good through two weeks.
77:08You know, clearly giving the Jaguars more juice than Chris Rodriguez.
77:11We knew that that was probably going to happen.
77:14But I think Bashul Tootin, you know, he's the guy that the Jaguars want to get the ball to.
77:21He had a really nice week one and a nice week two.
77:25Yeah. I thought it was a bit disappointing that the Jaguars had four running backs active for this game and played all for it.
77:33We couldn't. Allen came back. Amir Abdullah was active also.
77:36Those two guys combined for 16 snaps. Searod played 13 snaps.
77:40It left 30 for Bashul Tootin. He got 15 opportunities versus six for Searod did Tootin.
77:46I'd love to see more Tootin. You know, I talked about there's no script.
77:50Guys are going to earn it. But I think Tootin has earned it to get it wider here between the rest of those guys.
77:58We'll see if the Jaguars see it the same way.
78:02I hate to give a ball knower take or a tape bro take here, Evan, but it's a tough watch on Brian Thomas Jr.
78:10Like, he jumps when he doesn't need to. He kind of shies away from contact.
78:15I don't know, man. Like, I don't know how he did that as a rookie.
78:20He looks so much worse now. And maybe it was a Mac Jones thing.
78:25I don't know. But he looks so much worse now.
78:28It's tough for me on BTJ. Yeah. I mean, I think he felt like last year he developed the yips and he hasn't gotten over that this season.
78:38Very unfortunate. He was also an awesome receiver at LSU.
78:41I mean, I think he only had one really big year at LSU.
78:46But I don't think it was a Mac Jones thing.
78:49I think that he's a different player now than he was as a rookie, unfortunately.
78:54Speaking of bad decisions. Remember the Jaguars traded up to two overall to take Travis Hunter?
79:00Now, we knew he wasn't going to play on offense, right?
79:03Like, that was obvious to anyone paying attention all offseason.
79:07He only played seven snaps here on offense. I think he played three or four snaps on offense in week one.
79:14On defense, though, Evan, in this game, Travis Hunter only played 37 out of 62 snaps.
79:19They didn't use him as a full-time corner. They barely played him at wide receiver.
79:24They traded up a ton to get him at number two overall.
79:29That is looking like a horrific, horrific, horrific decision.
79:32I mean, worse than the Alec Pierce thing, for sure.
79:35I mean, it just looks horrific. I'm not giving up on Travis Hunter, but I'm just saying, like, that's going to be the usage.
79:43It's absolutely terrible, terrible. Chiefs. This was the Sunday night game.
79:47Chiefs offense, very good in the crazy overtime win.
79:50Story, of course, remains Kenneth Walker, the king. Not only did Kenneth Walker get 24 more carries here for 117 yards.
79:57But 10 targets for Kenneth Walker. 21% share. He caught six of them for 61 yards.
80:03He got three carries from the going. Now, he didn't convert any.
80:07I'll talk more about that in a second. But three carries from the one-yard line.
80:12I mean, this is what dreams are made of on Kenneth Walker.
80:16Evan, thoughts on him or any other Chiefs thoughts?
80:19Kenneth Walker looks like the best running back in the NFL right now.
80:23Yeah, he just unbelievable. I think he's energized the offense in general.
80:27Patrick Mahomes looked awesome against Indianapolis. Travis Kelsey looked good against Indianapolis.
80:31Again, maybe that's partly a function of the Colts having one of the worst defenses in football.
80:37That's a distinct possibility after their Weeks 1 and Week 2.
80:41But Kenneth Walker has done it. I mean, he did it against Denver, too.
80:46In Week 1, Kenneth Walker set a career record for missed tackles.
80:50He had 14. And in Week 2, he had 15.
80:53So everything is clicking right now for Kansas City with the K9 at the fulcrum.
80:58Yeah, we went to three overall on Kenneth Walker in the rest of season top 150 last week after Week 1.
81:05You know, that was a jump. I think we had him like 11 or 12 before the season started.
81:12And people push back on that some. I think it's right, man.
81:16Behind only Gibbs and Bijan. You know, if I was redrafting today, you could throw the main case with some of the receivers.
81:24But structurally, I think I would take Kenneth Walker third overall.
81:28I will say it scared me a little that he didn't convert any of those three carries from the one-yard line because
81:35Seattle took him out in those five. I don't think Kansas City will, but it's just not great because he's failed in
81:42those situations before the goal line's done. They got Miami coming next.
81:47Just Kenneth Walker, just please stay healthy. Yeah, what a joke.
81:50They're going to just destroy Miami. Emmitt Johnson, again, I know we talked about it last week, looked very, very good.
81:57And this game should be 100% owned as a handcuff.
82:01Taequann Thornton is playing a ton. The three-wide receiver set is Xavier Worthy, Rasheed Rice, Taequann Thornton.
82:07Rasheed Rice does not look great. I thought Taequann Thornton looks really good.
82:11They are not playing Jalen Royals or Cyrus Allen, those guys combined, for just nine routes.
82:16So Taequann Thornton as like a deep threat, he looks good, man.
82:21He can run. He ran 4-2 coming out. We talked about the panic level on Rasheed Rice.
82:26This was a guy that we both had a fade on before the season.
82:31So I guess we could say it's somewhat expected.
82:34I did not expect it to be this bad though, Evan.
82:38Through two weeks, Rasheed Rice has a 10.8% target share.
82:41That is really, really, really low for a player who runs routes where he runs them.
82:47Travis Kelsey, the corpse of Travis Kelsey, played a good game and led the Chiefs in targets in this one.
82:54Any more worry for you than last week on Rasheed Rice?
82:57No. I mean, I think that you summed it up pretty well.
83:01You know, we kind of anticipated that the move to go get Kenneth Walker was going to directly impact Rasheed Rice.
83:08And, you know, the good news is that Rasheed Rice hasn't killed you so far if you've been starting him.
83:15I'm just not sure that it's going to get better for him.
83:19I think his targets will rise. I mean, Kelsey, this is not sustainable how many targets he's getting at his age.
83:26Josh, Rasheed Rice, given the where he runs routes, 11% is just not going to stick.
83:32But he needs so many targets. He needs like 25, 28% because he's just not that dynamic of a player and needs so much volume.
83:40So, not great. Raiders. Raiders win again. This time at the Chargers.
83:44They do it on the back of the defense.
83:48And Trey Tucker. Trey Tucker turned seven targets into five, 119-1.
83:51It was a little lucky. There was a crazy 50-50 ball deep down the field he caught surrounded by some defenders.
83:58But regardless, Raiders are 2-0 and they probably will get Brock Bowers back here for week three.
84:04Evan, thoughts on Raiders win over the Chargers? Yeah, that's the nice thing about the Raiders right now is that, you know,
84:12the trajectory is still upward because Brock Bowers is going to come back because, you know, at some point they're going to
84:19turn over the offensive reins to Fernando Mendoza. There's a lot of untapped upside that we haven't seen.
84:25They're sitting here at 2-0. And the Raiders, according to ESPN, have the number one pass block win rate in the NFL.
84:33Clint Kubiak working some magic in Vegas. Yeah, and they play the Saints here on the road in week three.
84:40Really interesting matchup. Yeah, just on Trey Tucker, because I know a lot of people are going to talk about him for waiver wire.
84:48Trey Tucker moved ahead of Jalen Naylor this offseason despite Kubiak going out and getting Jalen Naylor in free agency.
84:54Tucker, the incumbent, has outplayed him throughout the preseason and is outplaying him now.
84:59Trey Tucker had some, like two or three really big games last year and then disappeared for huge stretches.
85:06So I'm not going to go overboard on Trey Tucker with Bowers coming back.
85:10But I think he's like in a deep league.
85:14Okay, you know, he's ahead of Naylor. He's their normal receiver.
85:17Like, it's okay. You saw what can happen in week one, though.
85:21He totally airballed. And that's what can happen when you're Trey Tucker and you play for the Raiders.
85:27Last thing for me on Raiders. So Gentey went nuts in week one, a home game against the Dolphins.
85:34That was like effectively against the college team. Now against the Chargers, Gentey was not efficient at all.
85:4021 carries for just 48 yards, four catches for just 15 yards.
85:44So, you know, still remains, like just because you beat up on the Dolphins doesn't mean you're some superstar.
85:51I still think Gentey is very, very good. But again, he's not showing efficiency outside of some really good matchups.
85:57They are giving it to him, though, in terms of opportunity.
86:01Through two weeks, Gentey 57 opportunities. Mike Washington just 11.
86:05So big gap there between Gentey and Mike Washington.
86:08Dolphins. Dolphins take their talentless team to San Francisco, lose 35-13.
86:11I didn't really have many takeaways here, Evan. I guess the big thing for me is that the Devon A-Chan clingers, people still clinging to Devon A-Chan.
86:20They came into week two saying, oh yeah, but you don't realize, Adam, he just didn't get enough volume in week one.
86:28Well, in week two, A-Chan got 26 opportunities. But the whole point is when your team can't get near the end zone, your team can't get first downs.
86:37It's going to be hard to score fantasy points.
86:41A-Chan is now fantasy's number 23 running back through two weeks.
86:44Evan, what do you think of Dolphins' game in San Francisco?
86:48And this was the fear. You know, that this offense, that this team was going to be dysfunctional.
86:54The Miami Dolphins. And the Dolphins have allowed the most sacks in the NFL.
86:59You know, and they've really gotten, there's not going to be any kind of like consistency to their passing game this season, I don't think.
87:07So that's the problem for Devon A-Chan is just the offensive operation is not functional.
87:12Yep. A little disappointing that Caleb Douglas went down here.
87:16He left the stadium in a boot. Also, Chris Bell only got 11 routes.
87:21I'd love to see more from him. But you know how this is going to go.
87:26I mean, clearly a tank job going on. Let's see the young guys play.
87:31And I think they'll continue to do that. Bell and Caleb Douglas are really the two that I want to see most out there.
87:39It's going to be a tough click on any of these guys, though.
87:43I mean, any of them on a week-to-week basis.
87:46Patriots. Patriots beat the Steelers 20-3. Big story was the Travion Henderson 2026 debut.
87:51First drive of the game, Ramondre Stevenson fumbles. And Henderson immediately takes advantage.
87:5639-yard touchdown run. Doesn't look back. When the dust settled, Travion outcarried Ramondre Stevenson 16-6.
88:01And he out-snapped Ramondre Stevenson 33-20. Given how many fumbles Ramondre has had over the last couple years, people are now taking
88:08this that Travion's just going to run away with the backfield.
88:12I'm not sure I see it that way. Evan, how do you see the backfield playing out?
88:18And any more thoughts on Patriots? Yeah. Well, I mean, Ramondre Stevenson is a solid all-around back with the exception.
88:25I mean, this has been an ongoing problem. The ball security for Ramondre Stevenson.
88:29But the Patriots need the explosiveness that Travion Henderson brings to the table, especially with A.J.
88:35Brown sidelined. So it's going to have to be a two-way committee.
88:39I don't know. Is there a scenario where Travion Henderson really, really, really runs away with it?
88:45I'm not sure because they still have these issues with him in regard to his pass blocking and trustworthiness on the field.
88:52But they're going to have to suck it up and play him because Travion Henderson is a difference maker in terms of his explosive playability.
89:01And they need that because they don't get that from any of their other players, really.
89:06Ramondre has been punished before in-game. It usually doesn't carry over.
89:10I do think, though, to Evan's point, Evan's been all over this.
89:14I used it as my move to make in rest season 150 was by Travion Henderson last week.
89:20With A.J. Brown out, they have no weapons whatsoever.
89:23Like Evan said, they have to expand Travion's role.
89:26And they did that in this game. They also have some potential shootouts and some good matchups coming up for Travion.
89:33Jaguars, Bills, Raiders, Jets, Bears, Dolphins. So I think we're all going to be guessing.
89:38This is going to be a really big question.
89:41I think my gut right now is I would project it like even, like almost dead even between Ramondre and Travion here
89:49at least for week three and then reevaluate after that.
89:52I will say Drake May was not great again in this game.
89:56You know, it's tough without A.J. Brown. Hunter Henry leads the team in targets with five.
90:02But like when your three wide receiver set is Mack Hollins, Romeo Dobbs, and Pop Douglas, it's not going to be easy.
90:09You know, he did it last year in a lot of really good matchups.
90:14I'm willing to use Drake May in DFS in really good matchups.
90:18But as we talked about Sunday, you know, or Friday or whatever it was, you know, Evan warned well that Steelers was
90:26not a great matchup for Drake May. Yeah. I mean, the Patriots, you know, in fairness to them, it's tougher to have
90:33a worse draw than in weeks one and two than Seattle and Pittsburgh.
90:37You know, not starting off easy for the Patriots.
90:41All right. Let's get to the dust balls here.
90:44The Jets. Jets put up a good fight against the Packers but lose 20 to 17 in overtime.
90:50As expected, you know, Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson are the horses.
90:54But I did want to note, Evan, 12 targets for A.D.
90:57Mitchell, 29% share. I just thought A.D. Mitchell played a good game in week one, only saw three targets in that game.
91:05But my point is that A.D. Mitchell is an every down player.
91:09He has some spike weeks in him. I wouldn't be comfortable starting him in most spots depending on league size.
91:16But he's out there a ton and dude can get deep and get open.
91:21And Gino threw it to him 12 times in this game.
91:24Evan, any thoughts on Mitchell or any other Jets?
91:27I think that you talked about it right. I mean, he's going to be locked into three receiver sets or into two receiver sets, A.D.
91:36Mitchell is. You know, and I think that it's – the Jets have gotten off to like a better start, I think, that you could anticipate.
91:45We were all worried about Frank Reich, you know, what was Gino Smith going to look like.
91:51And I think that we can treat them as a – whereas the Dolphins are a dysfunctional operation.
91:57The Jets, at least for now, look like they are a functional offense.
92:01And they got the Lions coming up next. People are going to want to play Gino Smith this week.
92:08Omar Cooper landed on IR with that ankle sprain.
92:11So the three wide receiver set is Garrett Wilson, A.D.
92:14Mitchell, and then Isaiah Williams comes on to play the slot in three wide receiver sets.
92:19They're going to keep getting Kenyon Sadiq ramped up.
92:22You know, he's not playing a ton. But as we talked about last week, dude can clearly play.
92:29And I'm watching his usage closely to see if he can get a big spike here at some point.
92:35They really have three good matchups coming up. Lions, Bears, Browns.
92:39Next three here for the Jets. We'll be talking plenty about Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson on Friday.
92:45Steelers. Just a brutal offensive performance from the Steelers here.
92:48Aaron Rodgers has now dropped back 86 times this season.
92:52That's the third most in the NFL. It's resulted in just 408 passing yards.
92:56The 20th most in the NFL. I mean, it's really rough right now for their pass game.
93:02I get that Christian Gonzalez and Patriots defense is very good.
93:06But I have plenty of worries around Steelers pass game right now.
93:10Evan, what do you think about Steelers after this one?
93:13Aaron Rodgers on passes of 20 plus yards downfield is 0 for 9 on the season.
93:19Now, DK Metcalf has had some drops. But they're not doing anything down the football field in the passing game.
93:26I mean, yeah, Aaron Rodgers, he's 42 years old or 43 years old, I think, now.
93:31So, I mean, you can't be surprised. Other big story here was Rico Dowdle.
93:36Leaves the game with a toe injury on a cart.
93:39He did return, but then he left again. I'm not sure the severity on this.
93:44I worry about toe injuries a lot. If Rico Dowdle misses, it's a really good chance for Jalen Warren to be a PPR scam kind of play.
93:54Like, he'll dominate Travis Homer in snaps if Rico Dowdle is out.
93:58And Aaron Rodgers needs to be checking down. Like, right now, he's throwing deep a ton.
94:03Just strikes me he's so much more comfortable getting it out quick and checking down.
94:08Jalen Warren is excellent, excellent, excellent at that. So, I just wanted to flag that as an injury to watch.
94:15Oh, Michael Pittman didn't play in this game due to his foot injury.
94:19Pittsburgh still stuck with three wide receiver set. Metcalf, 46 routes.
94:23Roman Wilson, 42 routes. Jordan Bernard, 39 routes. So, they're all in on three wide receiver set stuff here, even when Michael Pittman is out.
94:32Last team here today, the Tennessee Titans. So, Titans had a really good chance to upset the Eagles on Sunday.
94:38Can not get it done late. Lose 24 to 20.
94:42I don't know. Like, a lot of people I respect continue to say good things about Cam Ward.
94:48The truth is, he's thrown for fewer than 200 yards in 10 of his 18 full NFL games.
94:54And he's 3 and 15 as an NFL starter.
94:57I get the coaching's probably been bad. I get the weaponry has been bad.
95:02Weaponry's better this year. It still does not look good.
95:05Evan, thoughts on Cam Ward and Titans? These last few teams here in the AFC are just rough to talk about, you
95:13know, to try to say something, anything interesting about.
95:16No, I mean, you know, I think that we've seen it.
95:20It's not pretty. And, I don't know, maybe it'll get better.
95:23But, you know, we can't even use Wondale Robinson.
95:26Like, there's not any pass catchers that have any value whatsoever in Tennessee right now.
95:31They've still got the backfield committee. TyJ Spears did have some nice runs in this game.
95:37But, I mean, it's going to be a committee on a low-scoring team.
95:41And that is not a recipe for fantasy running back success.
95:45Yeah, I mean, Carnell Tate has 65 yards and no touchdowns here through two games.
95:50And, like, lack of production in the box score from Carnell Tate relative to his status as a number four overall pick was always my issue.
95:59Like, he never did it. Like, he never had huge games or huge seasons.
96:04And I get Jeremiah Smith was there. If you're going to take guy number four overall, you better be damn sure that he can actually really play.
96:13I don't know, man. Certainly has not been the spark that this pass game needed.
96:18Last notes for me on Titans. Elik Iomaynor ran 13 routes in this game.
96:23That was the same number as Calvin Ridley. Carnell Tate, 20 routes.
96:27Wondale Robinson, 18. I kind of think Iomaynor can play.
96:30And, like, if they're just going to suck, I'd rather see Iomaynor out there than Ridley.
96:36Like, let's see it, man. Iomaynor has had some pretty impressive clips that I've seen out there.
96:41And Gunter Helm, 18 routes versus Bellinger's four. So the whole narrative that it's Dable's guy, Bellinger's going to play a ton.
96:49Helm, 18 routes, Bellinger, four. That was similar in week one.
96:53All right. Now that we've reached the Helm-Bellinger split portion of the program, I think it's time to get out of here.
97:00Appreciate everyone being here and hanging out. Hope this show has value.
97:04It is free. All we ask is that you hit subscribe on the YouTube here machine so you can be alerted anytime we post new videos.
97:13Helps us keep this show free for sure. For Evan, producer Ryan, producer Luke.
97:18We will see you tomorrow for rest of the season top 150 and Friday night for in-season subs on Establish the Show.
97:25I'm Adam. Good luck, everybody.
