Fantasy Football Week 5 Reactions - Everything Changed Again!

Week five is complete, and boy, did everything happen. Some winless teams get a victory. Some teams that are like bordering on going three and two instead fall to two and three. What do you make of it? Six teams scored over 35 points. And yes, only one final team is left in terms of being undefeated on the season. Hayden, what a week. A lot to get into where we cover every single game and every single fantasy-relevant player.

And we kick things off with two quarterbacks from the 2018 NFL draft class. One in his fourth team, one in his 15th. That is the Tampa Buccaneers against the Seattle Seahawks, with the Bucs winning 38-35. I didn't see a single moment of this one. So, I cannot wait, based on this scoreboard, to hear what happened.

"Never let go of your pre-draft, uh, opinions." These two quarterbacks were sensational. It is a wild, wild way to get here, obviously. So, let's start around at halftime. These quarterbacks were 34 of 40 for 350 yards, zero sacks, zero turnovers. So they were starting off hot. But after that, Kenneth Walker rips off an explosive run, gets him out to the five-yard line. Zack Charbonnet scores a touchdown. A.J. Brown on the other side follows that up with a huge post-seam route touchdown, which he pretty much does like every single week at this point. That's like his signature route, and then afterwards, even gets a two-pointer, uh, on a little out route. The following possession, Sam Darnold's turn, rips a 53-yarder to JSN, who keeps winning downfield. That's now like, all of a sudden, his signature route, which is brand new stuff. That sets up an A.J. Brown touchdown. After that, back to A.J. Brown. 57 yards on this little double move post route. We're keep going back and forth. Rashad White scores a touchdown. Coming out of half, four drives, four touchdowns. Impressive stuff. The following drive, Sam Darnold goes back. He scores another touchdown. A.J. Brown with another one. He has this really cool robotic touchdown dance. He's like a real player. He can run block. Now, we're starting to see him pop up, you know, as a receiver. He's, he's one of the better tight ends in the league right now. I don't think that's an exaggeration. We finally get a punt. The Bucs pin the Seahawks down to their own one-yard line. Sam Darnold, 99 yards marching. They finally get down there. Uh, Tory Holt on a fourth and two. Sam Darnold buys some time out of structure. Touchdown. We are still going here. Baker answers with his own touchdown, this time to Sterling Shepard. We're all of a sudden back at 35-35. Sam Darnold's trying to have the game-winning drive. Ball ricochets off, uh, the defensive lineman's helmet. He's just trying to throw the ball away to Cooper Kupp's feet. Unlucky bounce. Sets up an easy game-winning field goal for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 38-35. Everybody balled out. To me, if you're taking like one player that like really stood out, aside from the quarterbacks who are phenomenal, it's A.J. Brown. The numbers are ridiculous. I went back through the first five weeks of an NFL career among all wide receivers, all-time. A.J. Brown is now third most in fantasy points through these five weeks. The only guys ahead of him, Randy Moss and Puka Nacua. That's the start that we're talking about with A.J. Brown. Chris Godwin was like barely even noticeable in the grand scheme of things. It was all A.J. Brown down the field. He's winning as an outside receiver. It's not like slot merchant stuff. He keeps winning in different ways. And right now, he should easily be the offensive rookie of the year favorite going into, uh, the rest of October.

"He's done it in multiple ways because in the opening few games of the season, Brown had to be highly efficient and win, you know, in the red zone for touchdowns. Here today, yes, it's just seven targets, but taking those for 163 yards. Yeah."

And one score. Uh, let's focus in on the Bucs mainly. Obviously, a huge talking point was Bucky Irving missing this game. It came out actually on Sunday morning or just before kickoff that Bucky Irving not only is dealing with a foot injury but also, I believe, a shoulder injury on top of it, and he is definitely out for the week six contest. So, for the fantasy players out there, how did this backfield unfold? Because I can read the stats. 14 carries, 41 yards, two scores to Rashad White compared to just three carries for three yards. But at the same time, it feels like neither team really got to run the football with, you know, 24 carries for the Bucs, 20 for the Seahawks compared to, you know, 33 and 35 dropbacks here.

"I don't know why you would run the ball when the passing numbers were so ridiculous. Both teams, by the way, uh, defenses-wise, were missing players in the secondaries, and like that was very evident. Like they, they just did not have enough corners to defend these, these wide receivers and quarterbacks. So, with the Rashad White, it was a complete no contest. Finishes with 80% snaps. He has two goal-line scores. He did not have an efficient outing. His longest run was only 12 yards downfield, but as he usually does, he catches all four of his targets for another 30 yards. So, he has that PPR floor. He's the goal-line back. And then for those counting at home, Shawn Tucker finishes with negative yards. So, this was a complete no contest. Um, and there's really no reason to believe that this is going to flip. This is like, for the third year in a row, they like Rashad White more than Shawn Tucker. The draft capital suggests that as well. There's like really no reason to believe that Shawn Tucker is going to flip this. Um, he might have an explosive run here or there. Uh, but right now, Tampa Bay just wants to throw the ball because they trust Baker Mayfield. Uh, with that, did want to also mention, out the offensive coordinator had a really, really nice game plan here. Super aggressive, but there was just like nice designs. Um, obviously Baker was like throwing darts, but, uh, John Lard had this number, uh, off of play-action dropbacks. He was 11 for 12 for 165 yards on the 13 dropbacks. That's as good as it gets. So, there was guys running wide open. Um, but this is a great game for Baker Mayfield. A lot of those throws were like fitting it in, uh, sometimes out of structure. So, this is like one of those games, man. Like I thought both these quarterbacks looked like potential top 10 NFL quarterbacks. Sounds crazy, but they're doing stuff with their arms, and they both of these guys make plays out of structure now. Um, so obviously they're going to have some like really untimely interceptions, and like they have to continue running hot with like all this downfield work, but when they're hot, these dudes are absolutely hot. So, this is like one of the games of the year."

4-1 the Bucs are right now. They've beaten the Falcons, the Texans, the Jets, and here against Seattle. Their only loss was by six points to the Philadelphia Eagles. We know how that one turned out last week. Coming up for them, it's San Francisco and Detroit over these next two weeks. So, those are some maybe playoff previews that we'll see in the future. Final question here for the Bucs. Uh, we know when we reviewed the game for Chris Godwin last week, he just had like hands problems. He was kind of running similar routes, outbreakers, just not coming down with the contested grabs. Only four targets here. Anything you want to say about Chris Godwin and if he looked any different than he did last week?

"No. A couple passes like underneath in the flats and maybe a ball or two over the middle. Nothing really stood out to me one way or the other. Like I thought last week, like maybe not quite as explosive. Uh, but really was just all the, the catch point stuff. He wasn't like super involved. Like you look at the, the targets at 75, 44, 53. It was like pretty spread out evenly aside from Brown, who's like clearly their, their downfield, uh, threat. TZ Johnson got in there for for four big plays. Um, that's maybe somebody that kind of stood out a little bit. Um, and then K.J. Osborn had some nice yards after the catch, uh, numbers as well. But, yeah, this is just like a, a crazy, crazy old-fashioned shootout."

Okay, let's talk about Seattle, because this game can rip your heart out. Uh, Geno Smith, obviously, goes 28 of 34, 341, four touchdowns, and that one interception at the end to give the Buccaneers a short field. JSN, nine targets, eight receptions, 132 yards, one score. My guy, AJ Barner. Sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, it pays off to actually watch the tape. Uh, because he goes seven for 53 and has caught four touchdowns in five games so far this season. And even Cooper Kupp popping up for six for 59 and Tory Holt with his three for 39 and a score. Talk through any of those that you want.

"Well, AJ Barner, he's, he's not a top 15 guy yet, but he was out there for 25 of the 39 routes. When you watch him, he's just like so physically impressive, and six offensive linemen that can also do things in terms of the receiving game. Like that is so meaningful in a Clint Kubiak offense, and why I advocated for him over, you know, Elijah Moore once the Noah Fant cut happened. Yeah. Uh, Elijah Moore got in there for for one, uh, reception, but, um, yeah, it's all AJ Barner right now, and he, he's just, he's just a really good real-life football player, and he's like good, uh, like off of play-action, which is obviously a huge focal point of this offense. Uh, Cooper Kupp had like an up and down day just because this was a huge crazy game. He did have six catches for 59 yards, but he, probably should have had a couple plays that, um, he didn't come down with. So, nothing really stood out on his end. I think the Kenneth Walker sharp stuff, just to kind of summarize this. It was about an even split in general. It was unfortunate. Kenneth Walker, I thought looked obviously much better, and the numbers, uh, suggest that as well, but his explosive got down to the five-yard line. The next play Zack Charbonnet scores. So, that was kind of like a vulture situation there. Um, and I just thought that Kenneth Walker was like making the most out of his opportunities."

"It's kind of frustrating looking at the box score again. Why would you run the football when you're averaging, you know, 10 yards per pass attempt?"

"But when a guy gets 10 carries and gets 86 yards out of those, in terms of averaging 8.6 yards per pop, you would think he would get more than 10 carries, and I guess that just did not happen in this game."

"Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at the same time, Sam Darnold averaged over 10 yards per dropback. Didn't he also didn't take a sack? Yeah. No, it's crazy. Uh, yeah, I'm not sure, man. They needed like to give Kenneth Walker a break after, you know, his 35-yard run, I guess."

Final point. Looks like Jalen Milroe popped in for a play and then fumbled. Why is Clint Kubiak popping in Jalen Milroe like for one play every single game for like a diagrammed run at this point if everything else is working?

"Well, I think it was the couple weeks ago, it was like a fourth and one where they had like Sam Darnold do the, the, um, zone read, and they got stuffed on that one. This time they go like full triple option where he's like waiting to like flick it backwards, and he just waited way too long, and then eventually somebody kind of hit him. The ball just like gets sprayed up too high to Kenneth Walker, and that resulted in into a fumble. So, like really, like that was like the, the true like kind of what the hell just happened play of the entire game was that one. Um, so I get like sprinkling him in for like a second or two, uh, in key situations, but like doing triple option with your, your rookie quarterback might be like extending it a little bit too far. I would understand it for a tush push, uh, just like a QB draw, something like that, uh, QB power, but once we're doing triple option stuff, I don't know, that might be too much."

Seahawks are three and two right now. They lost to the 49ers in week one. We know they just lost the Bucs here. They do have the Jaguars, the Texans, the Commanders, the Cardinals, and the Rams over these next five weeks. So, those five weeks kind of potentially define the rest of their season because, to me, this is one of the teams that you see their identity, you know, their identity, you feel it. And while it's, you know, Mike McDonald's second year as head coach and first year with Clint Kubiak calling plays, some of these other teams are kind of searching for that in year two, year three, year four of coaching staff. So, to me, I really hope that Seattle, and I know we're only five weeks in, uh, can make the playoffs and stay healthy because, uh, I really like enjoying watching their team.

"Good. They're on pace with their rebuild. That is for sure."

Speaking of three and two in the NFC, let's go to the Washington Commanders on the road in SoFi Stadium, beating the LA Chargers 27-10. There were 120 plays in this game, but I'm convinced that one changed the outcome. After the Chargers opened up with a 10-point lead with a short Ladd McConkey touchdown, the Commanders were dangerously, and I mean dangerously close to basically going three and out for a third straight drive to open this contest. They were staring at a third and 16, but rookie Jaylen Lane, who is filling in for Terry McLaurin, comes down with a tight-window catch to kickstart the Commanders offense on their way to 27 points after that. While the Chargers didn't score another one after that single moment. So, who shined for Washington here? Well, rookie, seventh-round pick, Bijan Robinson. Breakout game. I only think he played like 28 of 59 snaps, something like that. He had gains of 13, 15, 27, 10, 15, 21, 28, 11, 18 yards. He had two touchdown runs untouched on the left side. I am not sure what was going on with this Jesse Mentor defense. That is not something you're accustomed to seeing with this Chargers unit. But off the left side, somehow, someway, he just was able to waltz into the front pylon for two scores. And in fact, he even fumbled in this game to give the Chargers an opening, a keyhole back to close the scoreboard. And after that fumble, Cliff Kingsbury said, "No, you're not on the bench. You're not sidelined. We're going to give you a touch on the very next snap on the very next drive," which to me is incredibly promising. Uh, Jaden Daniels went 15 of 26 for 231 and a touchdown to go with eight for 39 scrambling, uh, in his return from injury. The one touchdown was a fourth down with like two minutes to go. I'm not even sure, and maybe Commanders fans will get mad at me here, uh, I'm not even sure he was actually trying to throw this football for a score or for there to be like a positive outcome here for Washington and Cliff Kingsbury. There was a minute and eight left. He basically runs on a fourth and seven even further away from the goal line and then just lobs it up to the right kind of sideline corner of the end zone, and Deebo Samuel comes down with an eight-yard touchdown catch. But they were going to win that game anyways because they were up by 10 points with just a minute left. Uh, so it's a nice day all around here for the Commanders. And as for the Chargers, Hayden, many of their same issues popped up in a big way. And it doesn't give me a lot of confidence moving forward that they can sustain the greatness that we saw in the opening four games of the season.

"Yeah, it looked like that the build touchdowns looked the exact same play design, pretty much walking, uh, all the way through. Obviously, not having, uh, Khalil Mack is going to make an impact, not having Joey Bosa is going to make an impact, but, yeah, it's a pretty ugly loss at home to only have 10 points there. So, uh, question for you. Uh, just looking at the box score, it was Deebo Samuel with 48% of the targets here. Terry McLaurin, I'm guessing still week to week. Didn't practice with a quad injury. Um, so like, just temper check, temperature check on Deebo Samuel, like, rest of the season. Like when Terry McLaurin comes back and stuff, how much does he even matter? Because every single time they get him the ball, it is going pretty much for a first down. So, like, are we talking like top 15 rest of the season? Like him versus Terry McLaurin? Like, probably not even a question. You'd rather have Deebo."

"Oh, easy. Deebo's my guy. 11 targets, eight receptions, 96 yards, a score. He's winning in traffic. It's like those slant routes that they run constantly that Jaden Daniels loves to attack near the hash marks. Uh, and he's just right there all the time. And like I said, he's even coming down with some red zone stuff that isn't rushing, and it's actually as a receiver. Yeah. I mean, after that, Luke McCaffrey had one catch for 50 yards, which set up a field goal just before halftime. Uh, obviously J.C. Jackson goes two for 39. And after that, Jaylen Lane has one catch. Jerry McNichols makes people miss in the open field for one catch. Zack Z. doesn't even record a catch in this game. So, uh, yeah, all wheels up for Bijan for me. Even if we look at it and in the formulas, it says he's only a 50% snap player, it is so clear, and it was clear to me heading into this game that he is the best ball carrier on this offense. And like when they needed a spark in this game, uh, he delivered. And just having Jaden out there, you know, they were holding edges. Defenses have to account for, uh, Jaden Daniels and his movement, and that just allowed Bijan with like to slither. I mean, he really does slither between these cracks between the tackles and just make things happen. Okay, this is the issue for the Chargers. All right, the offensive line issues hit another wall. Trey Pipkins left for a quarter, who is their fill-in right tackle. Mai Becton basically missed a quarter as well. So, I believe Jamari Sailor had to play both right tackle and then right guard. Justin Herbert took four sacks. He nearly had another one on the very first drive when he ran for 41 yards. There was this sequence in the second half. First and 10. He takes a sack. So, we get to second and 19. This unreal conversion that he makes to Quentin Johnston, but it's holding on basically both Amari and Hampton and Trey Pipkins. So, then that turns into a second and 28. Guess what? Justin Herbert converts that to Keenan Allen, but again, it's a penalty on right tackle Trey Pipkins that they bring it back to force a second and 33, and they ultimately punt. So, this was certainly not a bad Justin Herbert game. He tried to do everything that he could, even if it says 22 of 29 for 166 and a touchdown, and an interception. He did run the football for four for 60. And you'll see that Omarian Hampton was kept to 18 touches for 70 yards. It's because he basically didn't play the entire fourth quarter with an ankle injury and left the game in a walking boot. So, we will see what happens and what his future has in store. Yeah, looks like it's a 40% pressure rate allowed for Justin Herbert up front. Yeah, Joe Alt's going to be out for probably about a month or so. So, yeah, this is just the, the status quo. If they're not going to have Amari Hampton, it's Kamani Vidal and Hassan Haskins as the backup running backs. So, the team's just going to continue to drop back. So, like everything's just going to be focused on, uh, the pass game. It's nice to see Herbert, I saw that 41-yard run, but had a couple other runs as well. That's been kind of like a, a quietly like new part of Justin Herbert's fantasy profile, just some more rushing statistics this year. Um, but the big storyline for the, the Chargers wide receivers heading into this, you're like, what the hell is going on with Lad McConkey? So, he does score a touchdown. Seven targets here. Or is it anything to kind of glean from the situation or like right there at the right time for that end zone touchdown?

"He scored a touchdown on the first drive. It was basically a sprint out with Amari and Hampton that kind of pulled the coverage, and then it's just this little sit route, two yards, find a little soft area, and Herbert rifles it in for him. The other big turning point was he had a punt return touchdown, but at the same time, the Chargers roughed the punter, I believe Trese, which was actually a really good call. So, Lad could have had two touchdowns in this game. Sick punt return, but, uh, it doesn't count, rightfully so. Uh, so, yeah, I mean, there was nothing added on top of here. It kind of just got to a point, and it's not like, you know, this Commander team has incredible pass rushers, especially on the edge. Just the Chargers could not hold up to it. The four sacks plus all the holding penalties plus they nearly had a goal-line touchdown. The Chargers did. They were at the two-yard line, and Herbert tries to throw a pass over the middle. Bradley Bozeman is opposite Johnny Newton, and Johnny Newton just bats the ball, and it's intercepted at the goal line by Mike Santos. So, just like all these opportunities that these other normal teams with adequate offensive lines would have chances, the Chargers are like just taking those away from themselves. And look, if Amari Hampton was in the game for that, he probably would have gotten the football because like Kamani Vidal and Hassan Haskins got some opportunities before, and they didn't convert."

"Yeah, it's going to be really hard. They get the Dolphins next week. Great spot for all these pass catchers. Ranking. I mean, even I don't even know who to rank first from the Chargers wide receiver group, though, because like Quentin Johnston was first in my rankings, but he finishes last in target share in this one. Um, man, it's, they're all going to be in the teens. So, I would guess."

"Luckily for the Chargers, they do have the Miami Dolphins next, which is a nice bounce-back spot for them to hopefully be four and two. Then after that, it's like the Colts, and then the Vikings and the Titans. So, it's certainly not one of the most difficult schedules that the Chargers have. Uh, and as for the Commanders, after going win, loss, win, loss, win, it's the Bears, Cowboys, Chiefs, Seahawks, Lions next here for the Commanders. Speaking of good teams, Hayden, we got to talk about it. Denver Broncos 21. Go to Philly and make it a miserable weekend for that entire, entire Philadelphia community who only put up 17 points in this game. 10 of those in the first half, the other seven in the third quarter. What the hell happened to this Eagles offense? And how the hell did the Denver Broncos score 18 points in the fourth quarter for a comeback victory?"

"Yeah, through the first like, what, 35 minutes of the game, this was pretty lopsided. Uh, the Broncos were kind of playing a lot of like Cover 1 man coverage looks, like based off the broadcast, and the Eagles just kept making big plays. It was kind of going to everybody. Uh, Devonta Smith had probably the most impressive rep where he just ran right by Riley Moss, uh, on the outside for a really big downfield shot. Uh, A.J. Brown was involved early, a little bit of a broken play reception, a couple underneath routes, uh, got a DPI, uh, called on Carter Tan near the goal line. Um, but he also didn't have like a pretty important part of the game where, uh, he kind of has some space runs by a free safety. There's nobody between him and the end zone. He kind of pulls up and like slows down. Jalen Hurts throws the ball over the top. We don't know if that was a missed throw or if A.J. Brown shouldn't have stopped running there. But either way, that could have been one of these long touchdowns, and that's just been the kind of the whole thing with A.J. Brown, who finishes with five for 40, 43. Uh, right after halftime, the Eagles catch the Broncos in that Cover 1 look again. They get Saquon Barkley lined up in a complete mismatch. Throws the ball over his head, catches it for a 47-yard touchdown. They've got the lead. After that, the Broncos changed up their defensive looks, and the offense got completely sideways."

"They were really throwing the football. Um, in this one, they had 11 carries and 44 dropbacks. That was probably the craziest split I've ever seen with Jalen Hurts. And keep in mind, they were, they were winning. So, they kind of gave up with the whole try to run the ball. And for most of the game, it was working, but after that touchdown to Saquon Barkley, it is just three and out, three and out, three and out, punt, punt, punt, punt situation, and they were passing the ball. It's just they did not have the answers after it was no longer just Cover 1, uh, reading things out. So, they have some questions there. And one key difference here, once again, Landon Dickerson, early or about halfway through this game, gets rolled up on with his ankle injury. This offensive line is just not the same. And when Jalen Hurts isn't reading things out, he doesn't have as much time. His efficiency goes sideways. So, it was good to see Devonta, eight for 114, big game, 10 targets. A.J. Brown just missed, but that's been the entire storyline with him. And then after that, once they changed up the defense, everything stagnated. And that's when we can get to the Courtland Sutton, uh, Bo Nix, J.K. Dobbins part of it. But obviously, this is the first game the Eagles have lost when everyone's been healthy. And boy, did they earn it. That second half was very, very ugly."

"Look, I don't want to pile on the area of Philadelphia. They've had a tough weekend. I mean, UCLA beats Penn State, right? The Phillies lose as well, and now you have the Eagles in this game. I don't want to be that guy. But Hayden, this is now like, you know, going back to the second half of last week when Jalen Hurts didn't complete a single pass in that game, to now the second half of this game where I think they had 24 plays in the second half, one run, and 23 passes after that touchdown that you said to Saquon Barkley. They went six plays, 33 yards, punt, three plays, three and out, end of half, touchdown, four plays, 74 yards. Then it's the five-play, 23 yards, three plays, negative 16 yards, three plays, six yards, three plays, two yards, and then end of game with a minute and 11 with a chance of winning this game, and they just can't do anything with it on a Hail Mary. Um, if it's as simple as, oh, we can't play Cover 1 against Jalen Hurts, and if we just do some split safety looks, and they have no answer, like that's a huge red flag. That brings me back to 2023, and I don't really care that you're Super Bowl champions right now because, uh, this has been for the vast majority of the season, miserable offensive football. Has it worked? Are you 4-1? Yes. But at some point, it catches up to you. And it caught up to you in the second half of last week. It caught up to you, it feels like, for this entire game. And it's only week five. There's plenty of time to fix it. But it's not one of these simple things of, oh, they're winning, it's okay. Like, it is worth bringing up because they were winning back in 2023, and then it sputtered into a terrible, terrible halt in the playoffs after losing in that first round. So, since the beginning of 2024, so including the Super Bowl run and then this year, they're sixth in EPA per play, but they're 16th in success rate. That's run and pass, pass. So, this is a team that's been explosive, but the down-to-down consistency is no longer there. And that makes me nervous because the offensive line is no longer like a great unit. It's still a good unit, but it's not the elite great units that we've seen with Philadelphia. And I think that difference does make that this Eagles team a little bit less potent than last year's. And I think the defense has also taken a slight step back as well. So, um, yeah, they still got some explosive plays down the field. They nearly connected on some big ones, but the down consistency, especially in the second half, uh, uh, Brett Coleman noted that they had eight straight plays in the second half, and those were the drives that resulted in punts. So, just like a really, like bizarre. I'll have to watch this again on the, the All-22, like see what the Broncos were doing at that point. But you never see the Eagles abandon the run, and that's just kind of the state of, I think, of the offensive line, and then with Saquon Barkley, who I think still looks extremely explosive. Nobody can tell me on some of these runs where there's like some holding plays where they were called back, or the Saquon where he actually had all the space to run on the, the wheel route, he looks still super explosive. I don't think they trust the offensive line to run block right now, and that's that's a pretty big deal."

"Can I put the offensive line in perspective? I see that Jalen Hurts takes six sacks here. Are those short sacks? Are they on Jalen Hurts? Are they on the offensive line? Like, what's going on there? Because like, when I look across the league, like we just talked about the Chargers, that's a rough offensive line. Okay. When I look at the Eagles, they still have Jordan Mailata. They still have Lane Johnson. They still have..."

"Yeah."

"Right. They, they still have, you know, really solid offensive linemen. This isn't one of like the bottom-tier offensive lines. So, is it a case of we have to have a top-five offensive line or else we like can't function? Like, what is going on here?"

"Well, I think this week the offensive line is probably better than the last couple weeks, but like Ben Brett Toth had a pretty bad game in replacement for for Landon Dickerson in this one. So, and this is also the Broncos defense. They just, consensus-wise, one of the best defenses in the league. So, uh, yeah, it was a sloppy game. They're four and one. Not every team's going to go undefeated. This team will look better. Hopefully, uh, they have some work cut out. I would be curious to see what this trend is between the pass to run splits because like we've never seen that. I think that's a pretty big takeaway. Like, if they're going to, don't trust that they could run the ball as well, then a lot of the play-action stuff and the downfield threats and loading up the box and winning over the top, that becomes a little bit harder. So, they're going to have to figure this, this thing out with a new, uh, offensive coordinator, that's for sure."

"Okay. This is my challenge to Patullo, the new OC, if I'm even saying that correctly, who I'm sure doesn't have a lot of fans going right now, and, uh, the Eagles at large. In two of the next three games, they face the New York Giants."

"Those are perfect opportunities to figure this out. One, because they have a good pass rush and a good defensive line. So, you're going to be tested in that same way, but you can attack them in the secondary, right? So, those are like two dress rehearsals for the remainder of the season for this team to look like the juggernaut that the talent that they have on both sides of the ball that they can be. Because I think that's my frustration. I think the Eagles are freaking awesome. They're just not playing to the talent that they should right now. Like, we know what happened in that Rams game. The first half was abysmal, and they turned it on the second half. The Buccaneers game. The first half was good, and the second half was abysmal. And in this game, they only put up 17 points. So, it's like in each of these last three games, I know that they're two-one, but you can't tell me that this looks like a 4-1 ball club in the last three games. Like, in my eyes, they do not."

"They got the Cowboys, Chiefs, Rams, Bucs, Broncos, probably all playoff-caliber teams, too. So, yeah, it's just one of those where you're not going to the NFL. It's not every team goes, you know, has big stretches where they're winning all the all the all the games. So, you're gonna have some bad games. Yeah, there, there's, there's definitely some weaknesses. This unit's worse than last year's team, for sure."

Let's talk about Denver, then. Uh, because if it was a rocky second half for the Philadelphia offense, it looks like it was a rocky three quarters here for the Broncos offense, and they turn it on again with 18 points in the fourth quarter. How did that happen?

"Corland Sutton was just beating Quinn Mitchell one-on-one. Like, I think that's pretty much kind of sums this thing up. Bo Nix had some opportunities, some like half-field reads down the field were just like some near misses. I thought J.K. Dobbins played fairly well. Had some like nice chunk gains. Goes 20 carries, 79 yards, and a touchdown. He's like, just separated himself from R.J. Harvey, and, uh, the day that they, I know that they have like similar snap counts, but it's all J.K. Dobbins right now. The pass game is all Courtland Sutton, as it should be. You have some like underneath stuff to Evan Engram late for a little touchdown. Um, Troy Franklin with a couple passes, but really like all the big plays and like the MVP of this game was Courtland Sutton. Like he had to go beat Quinn Mitchell who was in his hip pocket for a lot of the game at the catch point. He was able to do that. A couple jump fade routes. Uh, a nice like quick little dig route where Sutton catches it quickly and gets up field too. So, he was just a monster in this one. Goes eight for 99 on 10 targets. Everybody else was inefficient. Courtland Sutton was crazy, and that was in a very difficult matchup on the road. A lot of that stuff happened in, in the second half. So, this is just like a stamping that like Courtland Sutton's like one of the better X receivers in the game, and they ask him to do a lot because they don't have a normal dropback game, really. So, a lot of their reads are half the field, and it's the same kind of routes, uh, jump ball routes, uh, dig routes, post routes with with Courtland Sutton, and he's just really good at them. So, I know he didn't score a touchdown in this one, but he had a very difficult matchup, and in the second half, they just kept throwing him the ball, and it was working."

Okay, talk to me about Nix, because it's been a roller coaster start to the season. You know, in fantasy, at least, quarterback 27, 12, 19, these last two weeks, quarterback five and quarterback 12. There's also been, you know, two wins for this team. Are we back to, oh, this is the Nix that we expected to be here in week one, or is there like still some room to get there?

"Oh, yeah. There's definitely plenty of room for improvement with Bo Nix. I think when he was red-shirted in the back half of last year, a lot of those like roll-out plays where they'd throw it across the field and stuff, he's been barely missing those this year, where last year those were very automatic. And I'm sure that those are like the teams are like kind of prepared for that at this point. Um, so, yeah, a lot of this stuff would just like jump ball to Courtland Sutton. So, like, you can only give, you know, Bo Nix so much credit for that. Um, it was not a very sophisticated, uh, offense, in my opinion. I thought that Sean Payton called a great game and kept this thing like obviously very tight. Um, so, big credit to him. I thought that the coaching staff difference here was was another big takeaway here. But on the road against Philadelphia in comeback mode, this makes the Denver Broncos. This is probably the biggest, like win, uh, for Sean Payton. Just like, what does this mean? Oh, we can beat like the big boys on the road. Um, and they get the Jets, uh, the Giants, the Cowboys, and then another week passes, then they get the Raiders. So, their schedule is is looking pretty nice. So, this team with the Chiefs and the Chargers kind of having some up and down moments, I would not rule this team out in the division. I wouldn't make them the favorites, but, uh, they got a good defense, and hopefully, as we saw last year, Bo Nix, his October and November look a lot better than the September, right? Because their other two wins this season are against the Titans and the Bengals. For, yeah. So, that's a pretty big step up going from those teams to winning this one on the road. Uh, like you said, it's the Jets and the Giants for them, uh, over the next two weeks."

All right. I saw a statistic today that if you are two and three, you have like a 22% chance of making the playoffs. And if you're one and four, you have a 7% chance of making the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Miami Dolphins, they fall to one and four in that 7% category. And somehow, someway, the Panthers are two and three on the season and win this one in comeback fashion, 27 to 24. They're basically three players to talk about here at large. The first two are on the Dolphins' end. Darren Waller in the first half and really in the first quarter goes absolutely bananas. Something like three catches for 53 yards. In the first half alone, it's five receptions, 78 yards, and a touchdown. He was the go-to player. Now, you can tell in the pre-production meetings that Mark Schlereth asked Mike McDaniel how much he was going to play. I don't know if you have the snap counts in front of you, but they said that Darren Waller, after playing 16 snaps last week in his return and still making a major impact, but I'm going to play 30 snaps here today. What was the tally?

"32. 27 of them were routes. So, he, he's a slot receiver."

And unfortunately, if this was, I don't know, week four, week five that he was back in the fold, then Darren Waller probably would have had a much bigger game despite having again five for 78 and one because he didn't have a catch in the entire, I believe, second half of this contest. The other person, Jaylen Waddle. I'm not going to say it was a slow start, but he really broke it open to give the Dolphins 24 points from 17 on a 46-yard touchdown that he just straight up burned Mike Jackson on. Finishes the day with six receptions, 110 yards, and a score. But the headliner, the headliner is double calf cramp Rico Dowdle himself on a cool 26 touches for 234 total yards and one score. Rico Dowdle, yes, the man, the castaway, who only signed like a $5 million deal. Had a gain of 43 yards in this game. Had a gain of 53 yards in this game. He put the team on his freaking back, and that was even missing multiple drives because he literally couldn't move because both of his calves were cramping like me after a spin class with all the 35-year-old moms out there in Charlotte. All right.

"I know how he felt. I certainly didn't go for 234 yards in week five of the NFL season. Uh, as for other people on the Panthers offense, Bryce Young had his customary, I guess, two early turnovers in this game. It was like an RPO action that he just fumbled it because the presence of Bradley Chubb was there. And then there was another, uh, middle-of-the-field safety look that he just threw directly into on a crossing route to Xavier Legette. But at the same time, like there were multiple big plays that Bryce Young made in the second half of this game. Like a fourth and four conversion extended, avoided out of structure to Terrace Marshall Jr. who finished with six for 73. There was a third and four touchdown to Xavier Legette in the back corner of the end zone, which was all timing, anticipation throw. There's another sweet throw to again Xavier Legette, who you can't count on, but you have to on the game-winning drive for 30-plus yards. And then on that same game-winning drive, a fourth and five to Jimmy Horn, uh, on a got-to-have-it play for a player in Jimmy Horn, who had been inactive for the first four games, had to go through contact in order to get there, and then comes out on top here. So, yeah, didn't anticipate it when the Dolphins are up like 17 to nothing in this game, but the Panthers win 27-24."

"Yeah, Rico Dowdle was the best of all the, uh, new running backs that we got in our lives, and we'll probably get maybe another game, um, uh, with Rico Dowdle. That's pretty encouraging for him. Yeah, Bryce Young, he, those are his two signatures. He has a fumble. He throws the ball over the middle for an interception. But when he has space and he can pre-snap, throw the big, you know, hole shots. And I saw a couple to Terrace Marshall Jr. here. That's like his best moments. Like we saw that in the second half. We see that in like a garbage time or comeback mode with Bryce Young. So, like, good on him for for hanging in. This team, like, easily rolling, rolling over to be one and four, and no one really cares about this. So, um, good to see them show a little bit of fight here. And Terrace Marshall Jr., I think once again, standing out."

"Yeah, and T-Mac nearly had another downfield shot. Uh, he was going up for it. Got two hands on the football. Would have been a cool acrobatic catch that he probably frequently comes down with. He was being pulled down by his jersey. The, uh, officials threw a defensive pass interference, but then somehow picked it up, even if the replay showed that he was literally being pulled down to come down with this catch. Um, and yeah, for Rico Dowdle, if you picked him up, you're also starting him next week. It is a massive revenge game spot against the Dallas Cowboys defense for Rico Dowdle out of a 234-yard game. And we know that Chuba Hubbard is going to miss next week at the exact same time."

"Uh, so, yeah, I mean, this one's crazy. I would even say that like the Panthers coaching wasn't even that great in this one, too. Like they narrowed it down to 17-13 after a field goal at the start of the third quarter, and then after that, they went four plays, punt, six plays, punt, three plays, punt. And in those three drives after already rushing for about 200 yards, they had called three running plays. Now, again, some of that was because Rico Dowdle was on the sideline getting his calves vibrated. Uh, but look, we see other teams pull running backs off the street and get them ready for start. So, if you like, can't trust Travis Etienne, who's been in your roster since April, or D.J. Dallas to carry the rock, uh, to like, again, demolish this Dolphins defensive front, then like, what are we doing? So, yeah."

"Yeah, they got back to what they wanted to do in terms of running the football and had some huge plays in in the second half. What I was most shocked by, Hayden, we always talk about the misdirection and all that stuff with this Dolphins offense. Devon Achane only getting 10 carries for 16 yards. His day was saved by the first touchdown in the game, or maybe the second. That was a 10-yard toe-tapping effort along the right side. I mean, amazing, amazing grab. But, you know, the Panthers don't have finesse or speedy edge rushers. They're just all so powerful. And what they were doing, by the way, this left guard, 72, Sivarana, whoever, that dude might..."

be the worst guard in the NFL at this moment. And he was a second-round pick. He doesn't move his feet. He gave up multiple sacks in this game.

But to combat the misdirection and kind of to force the Dolphins, like they just totally went away from the rushing attack despite being up by multiple touchdowns. Uh, it's because they knew that like they couldn't even get to the edge. They couldn't get out in space just because of the powerful, uh, rushes on the outside.

Yeah, that second-round pick was a right tackle out of Arizona. It was like very clear that he did not have like the functional movement skills to play tackle. So now he's playing on the other side of the field and kind of switching positions. So, tough look for him.

Um, I, I gotta ask you, just the Darren Waller stuff because if on a per-route basis, and eventually he's going to be playing full snaps, we start, you know, carrying that over and do some a little bit of multiplication. How high are we going with this Darren Waller stuff? Because I'm not ruling out a truly sensational run here coming out because he, he looks very fast. He's obviously can always jump really high. He's massive out there and he seems like a focal point. Like there's a lot of times where they're motioning him into clean looks and then he obviously had that one against Sauce Gardner the previous week. So if you start multiplying his his routes and we can have any semblance of this per-route numbers, we're looking at a truly like an elite tight end. Like my question to you, like start naming how many guys you would rather have rest of the season over Darren Waller. It cannot be that many.

He's already the tight end 12 on the season and has only played two games because he scored 14.7 last week. Well, this isn't standard. Let me go over to half PPR. Um, because that that'll be slightly different because we know he scored a touchdown. He's the tight end 19 in half PPR with 16.2 last week and 16.3 this week. Uh, let's start naming him. Okay. Jake Ferguson, Tyler Higbee.

Trey McBride's last two weeks have not been great. No.

We'll see what Hunter Henry does on Sunday Night Football. Waller.

Uh, and then Sam LaPorta had a massive day. Tucker Kraft as well on a bye week. Waller. I think after that, I would go Darren Waller. Uh, with Brock Purdy, you know, being injured and if they sent him this week, they might send him in the future based on how the Raiders are doing at this moment, too.

Yeah, I think some of those names that you mentioned, I think I would take Waller ahead. I, I think this is very real. They desperately need him. You know, now like the Dolphins, you can have a rug pull to us out and then things are going to go sideways. Waller could pick up a hamstring injury at any point, but my weekly rankings upcoming for Darren Waller, like it could be second, like depending on the matchup. The crazy part of this is he looks better now than he did when like the New York Giants traded for him after that Raiders run when we anticipated him unlocking the dayball offense.

Uh, and he was abysmal that season. He looks better right now than he did after and pre-retirement and post-trade from the Raiders.

It's that high rock competition. He saw my brother and knew he had to whip it, whip it into shape.

It absolutely is. Let's talk about the Dallas Cowboys and the garbage time New York Jets because on the scoreboard, Hayden, this looks like it is 37 to 22. However, entering the fourth quarter, it was 30 to 6. Uh, some of your Jets got there because of that garbage time, yet they were still 0 and 5 on the season and literally looked like one of the most abysmal franchises in the NFL after Aaron Glenn just took over.

Yeah, I just wanted to sum this stuff up on one play going into, uh, a little like a two-minute situation, but there's only like 30 seconds left after the Jets punted the ball. The Cowboys are on like on their like 30-yard line and they wanted just to run the ball just to set up like potentially the longest Brandon Aubrey attempt of all time, you know, which he probably would have hit. And after running the ball, there's just no Jets over the middle. He takes it for 66 yards. It was a disgusting performance. That sets up a touchdown to completely blow this thing out. If you got multi-view on YouTube TV, you're changing it to a different game. At that point, it was over.

But how we even got there to the first for the first like couple touchdowns, this was just another one of these Dak Prescott games where without your left tackle, your left guard, your center, your right guard, and maybe one of the best wide receivers in the game in CeeDee Lambs. We're talking about five very key starters on this team. And Dak Prescott had a bunch of time, was managing things well, and I think this is one of the best-designed games just from any coaching staff across the league. Schottenheimer, I think he's done really well. Klayton Adams, their new offensive coordinator, who, by the way, the Cardinals are really missing. I think that Klayton Adams probably going to be one of these names where we get to head coaching interviews and he might not get one right away, but he's definitely a name that matters. Super impressive. We talk about 90th percentile EPA per play without four of your starting offensive linemen. One thing that stood out with Dak Prescott, he had seven carries for 28 yards. There was a couple like first-down scrambles. That was his most carries and yardage in his last 24 games. Like that's just like a new little wrinkle.

Uh, and George Pickens gets home. Sauce Gardner was traveling with him like even into the slot. But Sauce allows George Pickens to get over the top just for one half-yard. Pickens makes the most of it to save his day. Jake Ferguson, he had a screen opportunity that went to the house. They also leaked him out. Uh, and just one little note on the Klayton Adams stuff on that Ferguson touchdown. The screen, it's a play-action to the left and then the SC and with pullers going to the left and now the off the the entire defense is going that way and then now the screen and the other remaining offensive linemen that were not pulling are now going to the right and you can see that there's nobody even near Jake Ferguson. So that was just something where you're using just complete misdirection, setting things up. Everything felt on time. This is like a team that seems like they're practicing well, hitting their marks and going. So Ferguson's been playing well, Pickens playing well, Dak, Javonte. But I think everything is really Klayton Adams and Schottenheimer deserve a lot of credit, and you can see that in the the design from some of their explosives in this one.

I mean, we talked about the Eagles offensive line. We talked about the Chargers offensive line. Yeah. Just dealing with backups, not having the starters that you're paying a lot of money to or that you drafted highly. This Cowboys team is up there, too, in terms of all the talent that they're missing. And yet, over these last two weeks, scoring 37 points in this game, turning into your identity, and scoring 40 points last week against the Packers, that is like no excuses, no nonsense. We're still going to have an awesome offense. And, uh, that deserves a ton of praise in this league where it's very easy again to make excuses, especially from fan bases, and the Cowboys aren't doing that. And they are they put 77 points on the board over the last two weeks.

They've been lights out. I'm looking at the pass protection numbers. Dak was only under pressure on 15% of his dropbacks. So that's equally as much of a Jets defensive stat, which, by the way, this team has invested a lot into the defense over the last couple of offseasons. It is gone. Sauce Gardner played an excellent game. Really did shut down George Pickens for 95% of the plays. Only had the one down the field, but they have no pass rush juice. They have no linebackers right now. And there was a bunch of plays where there was just nobody in sight with the Cowboys guy with the ball. It was it was a pretty lackluster performance. And that's just on their defense. The Jets offense is like a whole other discussion, too.

Okay. How did Because people love to just look at scores and stats. How did Ryan Tannehill go? Nine targets, six receptions, and 114 yards.

Yeah, he had a 46-yarder. There was a big play down the field that kind of sprung that. I was kind of projecting it was going to be Jaylen Tolbert to kind of take off because the the the difference between the Jets cornerback one and Sauce Gardner and the rest of the unit, it's it's very steep. So, whoever is like the other corner or the other wide receiver, you want to like this is like something to note because I think that Sauce is like playing fairly well. Uh, but the drop-off, like they don't have DJ Reed. Like he used to always be DJ Reed. He's no longer with the team. So, uh, yeah, they got some issues back there. So that's how Ryan Tannehill, uh, went crazy.

We're going to talk about this in this game and the next game that we talk about. Fantasy football is a made-up thing, a hobby that we all partake in, and that somehow we've made a career out of. Do you ever feel like slightly icky when a team plays so miserable for three quarters and yet it kind of doesn't matter because then they can score 16 points in the fourth quarter and actually look like on a stat sheet that they played a good game for the entire time where Justin Fields, you know, has 283 yards, two touchdowns to go along with 26 rushing yards. Like if you just took that, oh, great fantasy day, Justin Fields. I know Breece Hall actually from start to finish probably did well. 14 carries, 113 yards, and then Garrett Wilson, uh, again has a garbage-time touchdown as like the wide receiver nine on the week with six catches for 71 yards and a score.

Uh, it's our job to navigate the ickiness and know a PPR scam, know a garbage-time scam, and and adjust for that. Um, I did think that there was a chance that Justin Fields was going to get straight up benched in this one. They just never went with that. I think that might have been like too much of a storyline. The big caveat here is like the Cowboys defense like was not impressive to me at all. Like there was there was times on Breece Hall runs where I was like, is there 10 people on the field for Dallas? Like where is the other linebacker? Where's the safety? It's just like Breece Hall like running right up the middle over and over and over again. There was a pretty tough sequence early on. Uh, Breece Hall, uh, gets hit behind the line of scrimmage at the goal line, like five yards behind the goal line or, uh, behind the line of scrimmage. The next play on a third down, they throw a screen to him which gets batted and actually hits the sky cam. The ball got batted so high it hit the sky cam behind the quarterback on that one. So things were getting weird for the Jets offense. Garrett Wilson, uh, stacked his corner down the field. It should have been a 44-yard touchdown. Justin Fields just like straight up missed him. So like that could have been an explosive play for Garrett Wilson. Uh, but he does score in garbage time. Justin Fields does, uh, do a little garbage-time masterclass here. Uh, one, like new name was Mason Taylor. He had three targets in the first quarter. So this was not like total scam stuff. Obviously.

Back-to-back weeks. He's just at, I think it was like 26% target share last week. 27% target share this week. Every single time, he's not like going to wow you. He's not going to be like the Tyler Higbee stuff or Trey McBride. He's just like catches the ball, no wasted movement, get upfield, decent athlete, like he's not overpowering in any way, but he's just seems like he's going to be lined up in the right spot, consistently catch the ball and turn upfield and win the race to the first down marker. So, I think he's very real. Like, this team is desperate for.

Yeah, I think they're desperate for him to show up. He looks like he's showing up. The defense, I think, is terrible. They're always going to be in these garbage-time situations. So to answer your question, like I'm rooting for Mason Taylor because I know that the the fourth-quarter scam coming and I want to be signed up for it.

I'm not picking on the Jets and this is just a bigger topic at large. But Justin Fields, other than week one, has been bad. Yes.

Abysmal. Okay. But then you look, and I understand if you don't want fantasy football to just be, you know, a recreation of what happens on an actual football field, but the two are kind of linked to me in a certain way. And maybe they shouldn't be, but they're kind of linked. You know, he's the quarterback four in points per game right now. And that's even including a week two where he's only scored four points before exiting in that one. He's averaging 22.4 points right now.

Is that? I got a solution. I got a solution for you. I'm going to call up the product team over at Underdog and get the engineers online and we're going to start the first ever EPA-based fantasy football league. You know, we're just aiming for EPA. Totally.

I'm, I'm even like sometimes anti-EPA to all of these things. I just don't know. Like, I, I don't know if I have an answer.

Uh, it just kind of feels icky to me.

Yeah, of course. It's all it's a game on top of a game on top of a game when we're on a freaking rock in the middle of the solar system. It's all, it's all fugazi.

Well, to continue on that path, let's talk about the uh Detroit Lions absolutely obliterating the Cincinnati Bengals, even though the scoreboard only says a 13-point difference as a Lions post 37 and the Bengals 24. Uh, the first touchdown this game went to Sam LaPorta on a little check and release. Barrel roll across the goal line. Sam LaPorta goes five for 92 and a score. Uh, David Montgomery is the second touchdown here, but on a Wildcat pass to the back of the end zone to Brock Wright. David Montgomery later on does score a rushing score, 18 carries, 65 yards, and then his passing and rushing touchdown. Amon-Ra St. Brown, eight for 100, and then Jahmyr Gibbs also gets a receiving touchdown on top of this to go for over 80 total yards.

Um, yeah. I mean, the Lions early on this game actually looked like they could have, you know, total freedom against the Bengals. I will say something to keep in mind moving forward is that Trey Hendrickson was lining up over this backup left tackle for the Lions and wreaking havoc at times. And so, we'll see how long Taylor Decker misses for multiple weeks. But against better teams and better defenses, albeit I actually thought the Bengals defense played well in the first half. They were just being set up to fail because of their offense. That is an area that other, you know, defense coordinators are going to target is that left side in that pure dropback game. Okay. Oh, and by the way, Isaac Rochell, all he does is catch touchdowns as a late one here as well. The Jameson Williams stuff. I mean, he caught, he got a carry on the very first snap and then another reception and then didn't touch the football the rest of the game. So,

What am I supposed to do with this guy in rankings? You know, like I just give up. You spin the wheel. It's on you guys. I, I'm done.

Yeah, I mean, this was not a real football game, so it can be tough, but like everyone else gets there except for him.

Yeah. Well, score 37. He wasn't participating. That's something.

Let me talk about the ridiculousness of the Bengals, cuz this was literally pitiful.

Yeah. Maybe the worst quarterbacking performance I have seen over the last two, three seasons.

Is from Jake Browning. Um, just arm punts, no pressure around him, throwing it directly to linebackers, corners, safeties, all that type of stuff. And yet they score 21 fourth-quarter points and so it looks like totally fine on on the scoreboard and in the box score. Um, yeah. I mean, it was absolutely abysmal. And there's like a two-play sequence that works out perfectly where for some reason down like 30 points in this game, they try a flea flicker and he got.

Oh, I saw. Jake Browning gets absolutely demolished from his blind side, fumbles it. It is recovered though by the Bengals. Looks like he is going straight to the sideline and never to play another snap. The very next snap on like a third and 16, Ja'Marr Chase runs a double move and scores on a 64-yard touchdown. In the end, Ja'Marr Chase is the wide receiver two on the week with six receptions, 110 yards. All of that outside of 31 yards is from the final 20 minutes when down by 30 points on the scoreboard. Uh, so the Ja'Marr Chase experience is fascinating because when you look at his points on the season, he scored 3.6 in week one, then 29.5 to make him the wide receiver three, then 6.4, then 4.8 as the wide receiver 43 and 60, and then this week he's the wide receiver two at 26. So, it's all or nothing at this point. It's all or nothing. It's either he's gonna help you win your matchup or he's going to be a reason why you lose your matchup. And I understand like the Lions' Terry Arnold left and he was doing quite well. Amik Robertson actually had nice coverage on Ja'Marr Chase and, uh, along with Jake Browning throwing it on like the inside placement of the shoulder versus the outside makes a huge difference. Um, but yeah, next week they have the Green Bay Packers defense too. So it's like totally up to you if you want to ride this roller coaster, you want to depend on this high variance stuff. Just don't watch it. Yeah, this is a complete refresh the box score situation, but Ja'Marr Chase creates a bunch of explosive plays and this team's going to be in garbage time a lot because their defense is no good.

Uh, I don't even know if like if if they'll be good at it because they haven't been good at it in other weeks. Like they were terrible at it last week against the Broncos.

Yeah. And then the Vikings. So, it's Broncos and Vikings versus the Lions. One of my takeaways from this, this Lions defense is extremely banged up. Like, you name a position, they have somebody on IR or that's ruled out. And then you just mentioned a player who they've been relying on on the outside, uh, and he left this game too. So this Lions defense, they'll battle and they're well-coached, but they're losing a lot of bodies at this point. So I do think it's a, it's a team to kind of pick on. Um, and that the Lions should be in a bunch of high-scoring games. And then after this one, because of those interceptions were so terrible in this one. This was for the first time Zack Taylor did not say that they were not going to look at quarterback options. So, I don't know if that means the quarterback three on the team or if that means Russell Wilson or Kirk Cousins or whatever. I know that the all the reports are saying they haven't looked into the situation. You don't do that after two weeks, but after three weeks of looking like crap, I do think that you start looking at this thing. The context with the Bengals though, they're two and three. The Ravens are one and four and they're not going to have Lamar for another game here. And the Steelers, uh, they're in, in, in the lead right now, but I think that's a team that like you can go toe-to-toe with the rest of the season. So, they just have to get the quarterback situation right. So, we'll see if they go make a move for Russell Wilson or somebody like that. Um, in the meantime, we're going to be hoping for explosives in the fourth quarter, which like I'm okay signing up for, but it's going to be volatile.

Yeah, Chase Brown gets seven catches for a whopping 21 yards. Andre Yoshibas actually was like the most impressive player on the Bengals here, making some really tough grabs to set up those Ja'Marr Chase touchdowns. And then, yeah, Tee Higgins was the final of the ridiculous touchdowns here at the front pylon, but he goes three for 22 and one. Yeah. I mean, there are other teams like with the Saints, even if I enjoy watching them, they are the type of, hey, don't watch them and just refresh the box score. That's like different advice than I would give with these Bengals players because it's all or nothing. And it's just up to you if you want to be in the all or nothing experience like or if you just would rather go for like the seven for 80 that some of these other pass catchers that we are getting. Show me those with Ja'Marr Chase. Well, I mean, in pre-like this week we were being asked Ja'Marr Chase or Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ja'Marr Chase or or Quentin Johnston or Ja'Marr Chase or these other guys and I can like see the pathway for those from quarters one through quarters four. Right now for the Bengals, it's okay, cross your fingers and pray that the final 20 minutes they actually like get it going where in the first,

You know, 35 minutes they could do absolutely nothing.

Yeah, I think we just see this one different. I, I just think that Ja'Marr Chase is too good that he, he's always going to be 60, 70 yards in the pick.

But he's been bad except for two games this this season. Like he's made you lose contests with being the wide receiver 71, 43, and 60 in other ones. And,

There's a lot of players. There's a lot of players that make you lose in fantasy. There's only a couple players that make you actually win games in fantasy. And he's.

Okay. So, let's talk through this the next four weeks cuz I think this is like a huge talking point and we'll do it more this week. Are you going to treat Ja'Marr Chase on the road against Green Bay the same as you did against the Lions this week? Or is that closer to the Minnesota defense and the Broncos defense went on the road? I'll probably start with my rankings not knowing by-weeks injuries as like the wide receiver 12.

And then after that it's the Steelers, the Jets, and the Bears. So to me, those are ones that I would want to attack that maybe he'll have his third top 30 game with Jake Browning in those. And I'm not sure with the Packers one if that's possible here.

So like it's like a game-to-game for four quarters. If I think a defense can keep the Bengals terrible, which they will start terrible in the first,

Yes. And hopefully they trade for Russ soon enough.

Yeah, they they have a week 10 bye. So maybe something around then.

Hopefully. The question of when the Tennessee Titans would win their first game of the 2025 season has been answered. And in I think spectacular fashion, Brentley Wiseman as the Tennessee Titans beat the Arizona Cardinals on the road 22-21. Another 16-point fourth quarter here, but maybe in the most uncharacteristic craziest way 16 points can be scored.

Yeah, guys, this was really a tale of two halves. I mean, for the first half, the Tennessee Titans couldn't do anything with the football. I was getting ready to come on here and just kind of bash Will Levis. He looked awful for a large stretch of this game, but then the Arizona Cardinals just wanted to give this game away. And you know, when the when the Titans had an opportunity to do something, Will Levis came through clutch in the fourth quarter. He made two incredible passes down the field to DeAndre Hopkins. Um, finally that duo is uh getting going. He made the plays needed to win the game and it was a really, really gritty performance for the rookie and one that I think they can build around as we move forward for the season.

With Will Levis, he's just going to be a gunslinger type. So when he catches, you know, a little soft spot in the zone and he can pull the trigger and release it, he's going to have some like wow moments in stretches of half. Was there anything like different about DeAndre Hopkins? Because he's he got buried in my rankings cuz he was coming in with an elbow and a knee injury. His numbers were terrible. He pops here for 10 targets in this one. Was there like anything new about DeAndre or was it just simply he caught the damn ball this time versus caught the ball and I would say he looked a lot more explosive than I than he did really in kind of weeks one and week two. You saw him get vertical multiple times. That's really encouraging to see. Had a some good yards after the catch. Made made a couple players miss. So the talent's always been there for DeAndre Hopkins which we all know. We know how talented he is. But it felt like finally the timing, the chemistry, the rhythm with him and Will Levis really began to show. And so I wouldn't be surprised as we go on into the season that that duo, that connection only gets better, only gets more consistent.

Yeah, I think we're bearing the lead here. There are some unreal moments that led to this Cardinals loss, and I'll put it on the Cardinals as a loss rather than like the Titans winning this game. Okay, the first one with I don't know 4:39 left in the fourth quarter. Kyler Murray throws an interception, right? The Cardinals are trying to run it back, uh, and get some better field position, yet the returner fumbles it. It gets knocked around into the end zone and Tyler Lockett recovers it for a touchdown. All right, so that brings it to 21-19 Arizona. Even before that though, all right, there was another moment when the Cardinals were up 21 to 6. Third and one. There's a photo, an incredible photo of Emari Demercado on a 70-plus yard run two feet from the end zone. 12:42 left on the clock to take this one to 28-6. Putting it away, no chance. And yet in back-to-back weeks, we have a player who drops the ball before he crosses the goal line and then the Titans get the ball. We know after that. And then Brentley, this Cardinals coaching staff is on my radar. You know, the ball knowers love them. I understand they do some really cool things on defense like Nick Rallis and Jonathan Gannon can really fire him up and he only cares about fiery personalities. Well, up 21 to 9 with 3:06 to go at their own 35-yard line. The Cardinals, instead of trusting Kyler Murray, who was in and out of this game with an injury, or Trey McBride, one of the best tight ends in the league, or Marvin Harrison Jr., who they just spent a top five pick on, who had a great contested grab earlier. They have a run, they gain two yards. Second and eight, run, gain him no yards. Third and eight, run, gain of one yard. And then they punt the ball back to the Titans with two minutes to go, only needing two points and having a timeout in their pocket. That is terrible, gutless, spineless coaching from a staff that prides itself in being the hammer, being like talking the talk and walking the walk. They haven't done that this season and I don't know like what their identity is. And right now it's like rolling over in their back and allowing the Tennessee Titans to come back in and maybe spouting out the worst loss in franchise history.

I mean, look, this loss was directly on the coaching staff. It was pitiful. So, not just that, what that last drive where you, where you illustrate, you know, the three straight runs when they're trying to close out the game, keep the ball out of Kyler's hands, keep the ball out of McBride's hands, and really just give the ball to the Titans offense. The entire second half when they were up 21 to 6, they played the game not to lose instead of trying to win. Just so conservative, so vanilla. And with that, this team is might be the most undisciplined football team in the NFL. Penalties that were just at the worst time, giving killing penalties. They had an errant snap which led to a turnover. I mean, it was just a death by a thousand cuts. It was brutal to watch. And it all to me stems from Jonathan Gannon, his leadership, Drew Petzing, who I think might should be fired basically off after today. It was that bad. Um, I think it was an abomination from the coaching staff to have a 21-6 lead at home against Brian Callahan and Will Levis and to lose in this fashion. I mean, look, the loss last week to Seattle was, I thought it was tough as well. I think they've I saw I saw a tweet in three straight weeks they've lost on the final play of the game, which shows they cannot close football games and that to me is a directly reflection on the coaching staff. And their next games, you got the Colts, Packers, Cowboys, Seahawks, Niners. It's tough. I mean, the two games that they won, it was the Saints, who they beat him by a touchdown. Congrats. And they beat the Panthers by five points. Congrats. So.

They almost lost that one.

Yeah. I know. Yeah, they're they're in last place in a division that's very good. All three of the teams ahead of them are just better football teams and I know they got the explosives in this one, but the Titans can't stop anybody on defense and just like the throughout the whole season, they've not been able to consistently run the ball. So, you're putting a lot of pressure on Kyler Murray and I'm not sure what the end result is. I know that he left with like a foot injury. If we don't have like explosiveness out of Kyler Murray, then what exactly are we going to be doing at this point moving forward?

Yeah, he came back. So, like it was it was a really, really weird injury. So like they, it was on the play where the center snapped the ball early. Uh, it was it was kind of a pile to get the football. Kyler dives in super late, like really unnecessary dive to the football and he gets up and you can kind of see him favoring his, I think it was his right foot and the booth had no idea what it was. He thought they thought he was concussed. We come to find out it was a foot injury, but then he came back the next series. So I think, um, the backup quarterback, oh gosh, the Brissett, he had one drive, then Murray came back, but to your point, Hayden, there was no more use of his legs. He was super one-dimensional in the pocket, and that again just really stalled out the whole offense. It was, it was tough.

Yeah, this team just folds.

I mean, it's that I understand last week against Seattle, there's like 30 seconds to go. So maybe you don't want to go for two at home to try to win it in regulation, even if you just scored a touchdown. Now, again, just allow an explosive play takes you and allows you to lose that game in regulation. Um, so yeah, I mean, this Cardinals team, I don't know what they're good at. We see moments of it. Trey McBride's really good. They try to funnel it through, mill the field receptions to the tight end, but you can't say all this stuff. You can't try to add all these pieces and just play this way and we're in year three of this and it's frustrating and like you said, Hayden, the schedule only gets more difficult after this. I do want to ask you, yeah, some specifics here because a huge fantasy conversation heading into this game was okay, what is the running back room going to be between Michael Carter, Bam Knight, and Emari Demercado? How did it actually?

Yeah, it was the Michael Carter show from the first snap really to the last. I mean, I think he outsnapped Demercado. So, not a lot of production, but the volume was certainly there. Um, to me, he he was just in all the got-to-have-it downs. It was 22, Michael Carter in the backfield. When they were trying to to run the ball, kill the clock, it was Michael Carter. So, he is the RB1 for this offense. Demercado, very much the third-down back. He finished with game of the.

I mean, are we sure he's going to be here next week?

Because he only had four carries, obviously the one went for 81 yards and the boneheaded play dropped the ball at the goal line, back of the end zone, a touchback. However, he looked explosive. I mean, he did. He looked explosive on that run. And to me, Michael Carter doesn't have that in the bag. So that's where I struggled with outright cutting him because I do think he is probably the most talented runner on the team. But the lack of touches for him earlier in the game I thought was surprising, but it was very much Michael Carter and then everyone else falling in line.

Yes, we have like at least what four or five more games of this. We mentioned the schedule's not looking good. The offensive line's not very good either. Like that's I think a big whole part of the Cardinals problem for the last couple years. Um, but Michael Simmons, right? And the interior is bad. Yeah. And it's just been the case for Arizona for, I mean, the last entire decade, you know. So, uh, that's not going to get fixed. Michael Carter, like you said, he's just not as explosive. Like he, he's so tiny and you play in the NFL for a couple years and you're that tiny and things are just not going to go your way. That said, he's just so clearly like their top guy. So, you can do worse, uh, moving forward, but I think it's only two teams on bye next week. Um, so he'll be in my RB 26, 25 range. Uh, but I just don't have any faith in this entire organization, obviously.

All right. I was about to ask if the Titans are going to win another game this season. And then I look on their schedule next week. It's in Vegas against now the one-4 Las Vegas Raiders who only put up six points in week five of the season as they lose 40-6 against one of the best offenses in the league. Yes, the Indianapolis Colts. Uh, Brentley, talk us through this one. Is it as simple as, uh, Jonathan Taylor when facing a bad defense runs for three touchdowns and then, uh, Daniel Jones dices him up for two scores in the air, too?

Pretty much, honestly. Pretty much mixing some Geno picks. You got the game right there. Uh, Jonathan Taylor, guys, I mean, he should be talked about in the MVP conversation. He's unbelievable. Um, I know the Raiders run defense isn't nothing to write home about. I get that. But when you watch Jonathan Taylor, his ability to break tackles, his ability to make defenders miss in the open field, he is just one of the best running backs in all of the NFL. Um, and so it was really odd. They didn't rely on him early in the game, guys. They were really, uh, passing the ball early in the game, really trying to open up the quick game, get the ball out of Daniel Jones' hands fast, really minimize Max Crosby's impact in the game, and that worked. Then the Colts had a couple interceptions, a blocked punt, which set them up close to the end zone for for first and goal. Went to the half 20 up 20 to three, and then it was JT time in the second half. They rode him like a horse. Three touchdowns. He was really involved in the passing games, which I thought was really encouraging. He had four targets. I think he converted three of those. So, he's a full, just three-down running back who can do everything. He's a complete bell cow. He's just a RB1 seven days out of the week. So, he's awesome.

Yeah, he's like, uh, in this one in the first three quarters played 54 or 50 of the 59 snaps. So, you just don't see any running backs do that with that efficiency right there. Um, looking at it, we did not get, uh, the ascendance of Josh Downs into, uh, three wide receiver sets, but

Two wide receiver sets.

Or, yeah, two wide receiver sets, but he did have eight targets, a team-high, uh, for Josh Downs. So, with Alec Pierce, I thought he's going to come back, but that's like another week missed with a concussion. You just never know. Uh, I don't see much Adonai Mitchell. No catches in this one. What was like, was there anything to take away missing Alec Pierce? Adonai Mitchell, like Ashton Dulaney mixing in. Is that who, who popped in?

Yeah, Ashton Dulaney started. So in 12 personnel, it was Michael Pittman and Dulaney obviously with the two, then the two tight ends, and then 11, it was Dulaney, Pittman, and Josh Downs. Mention, I think he saw maybe six, seven snaps so he was like very much benched from last week's debacle, like it was sending a message. It is Dulaney, Pittman, like Mitchell is nowhere to be found in the offense at this point in time. Um, but Josh Downs, his stats, I mean, weren't that crazy, but when you watch the game, he was a big part of this passing offense. He ate early on, finished the game with six catches, 54 yards on eight targets. But two of those guys were like massive third down, got to have it moments, able to find him and sit, sit in the zone. One of them he made a guy miss to get to the sticks. Like Josh Downs, I thought was really impressive today. Then Tyler Higbee, obviously just rinse and repeat every single week, just God, he's he's just amazing. Just a top five tight end in real football and in fantasy. So, he's just an unreal first-round pick.

Yeah. And Pittman gets a red zone touchdown, too. And I even see Anthony Richardson completing a pass to himself for nine yards.

It was crazy.

On brand.

Yeah. We, we got to talk about the Raiders here. Uh, let's first start with the running back because he actually matters.

Um, Zamir White, 14 carries, 67 yards, a long run of 12. Then in the receiving game, he has a 29-yarder that ends with five catches for 42 yards and seven targets. So at least we're getting seven targets here for Zamir White, which is a lot better than the first two weeks when, you know, Dylan Lawi was getting more targets than him. How did it look? We know we didn't have Kolton Miller in this game. Uh, could you feel that impact? Was there anywhere for Zamir White to run? Because even last week after an explosive game, he still was, you know, contacted at or behind the line of scrimmage on like 13.

Yeah, when you guys go back to watch the game for stats versus film, you'll see I mean White's talent is very evident. Like he made a couple guys miss. Um, I thought it was really impressive in the passing game. Josh, as you mentioned, that wheel route was pretty nice. Able to track the football across over his shoulder. Like that looked really natural to me. Really confused why it took so long to get him involved in the passing game. Like that's just neither here nor there. But he looked explosive, made some good cuts. I, I thought he ran the ball fine. But yeah, the issue is this offense is so one-dimensional at this point because there's truly no threat for Geno to pass the ball down the field. The Colts just stacked the box. Just stacked the box throughout the whole game. And yeah, there wasn't a ton of room for White, um, late, later in the game, and then come the fourth quarter, he's he's on the sideline, guys. He didn't play the whole fourth quarter because the game was that out of hand. So early in the game, he had some success, but this game script really killed any opportunity for him to have a really big game.

Yeah, that's a good note. I was just looking at the snaps. Uh, White played 20 of 31 in the first half and then obviously it was a blowout, but that's like an upgrade for for Zamir White moving forward. The Raiders just anemic right now. I don't know what football freaking Geno Smith has been studying this year, but the drop-off from like the last couple years to this year has been completely substantial. He seems like he's like in the seeing ghosts category. Like a lot of these interceptions just like defenders breaking on it, he just has no sense of it. So, they're just they're just going through and I think it's a good note that they don't have like the downfield threat. Like the best thing they have right now is is Trey Tucker in that in that department. He had four for 62, but, um, in complete garbage time. And then last note, Brentley, Raiders defense, they've given up obviously 40 this week. The Bears got him for 25 and the Commanders before that got him for 41. I mean, this, they're going to be in this negative game script a lot because it's Max Crosby, who was sensational when I went back and watched the Bears. I'm sure he was fantastic on this one, too, but nobody else. I mean, like nobody else. So,

We're going to be stuck in this environment where Geno Smith's just going to be like, "F it, like YOLO ball." Which he can get hot and put up some numbers, but he also is going to throw these interceptions.

The interesting part of this too is, you know, they didn't treat this as a rebuild going into the season other than, you know, bring in new head coach and general manager. With a head coach, it's a what? 79-year-old Pete Carroll?

How dare you?

And Chip Kelly, who has experience calling plays in the NFL. And then instead of going with a young quarterback when you have, you know, a top 10 pick, it's instead going with Geno Smith, who I like, but over his last four games has eight interceptions and they've lost all four of those games. So,

They did not expect to be one and four based on their actions, even having a totally new regime come in. They did this to like hit the ground running and to win games right now. And I'm certain Tom Brady had an impact on that. And here they are just like his Birmingham City team because they suck. The Villa and the Raiders score six points in this game and nine points against the Chargers. And like what are they going to do? What are the Raiders going to do the rest of the season?

This team needs to be a team that embraces the tank to try to get a quarterback next year as they should have got one this past year as you mentioned. But they have a 73-year-old head coach, a, a top 10 running back. Like, this team isn't a team that's going to try to tank. They want to win football games, but you can't win with this defense and this type of Geno Smith. Like, it is literally a losing proposition. Geno should have had three picks today. He was abysmal. It was honestly like jarring how bad he was. I was at the game last week with in Vegas and I saw I saw it live and I was just like, "Holy crap." Max Crosby's playing at a Hall of Fame level right now and this is the Geno we're getting week in to week out. It is just really bad. I, I will say obviously Brock Bowers didn't play today and certainly that had an effect on Geno, I'm sure, but this is just not sustainable moving forward and I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, they wouldn't go to the bullpen, but I mean.

I'm not sure what more they can do at this point. He's he's a turnover machine.

Well, Gino's got $18 million guaranteed next year. So, it's too we're we're months away, I think, from any Gino Smith benching at this point. And he's still going to have some past game numbers, so I don't want to like completely bury like the Jacobe Myers tier. I I did want to note though before the game, um, we got a news update on Brock Bowers that it's a PCL injury, but also a bone bruise.

Oh, wow. We did not know about a bone bruise. Bone bruise is like not something that you just like go tough it out. Like bone bruise could like escalate and that's the reason why he didn't play. So, he has not been the same. Who knows what's going to happen with Brock Bowers, but if this knee injury like lingers like and they're two and seven and stuff like that, you're going to have some like interesting discussions. So, I'm fairly nervous about the Brock Bower situation. Like we obviously couldn't predict that he's going to take this knee injury, but like all of a sudden like this team's looking pretty suspect. Um, and we don't know if he's going to play this this next week or if he's going to miss like the next couple games.

One one last note for me for the Raiders and just to file away for deeper fantasy leagues. Uh the second round pick, Jack BCH from TCU. He and he finally played today a lot. He and Dante Thor were pretty much uh evenly snapped for the third receiver role. So certainly that's a promising sign for him cuz I know the team really likes him and I think, you know, with Brock Bowers, you know, potentially missing m multiple games, I think BC could be a candidate for more targets moving forward. I thought he looked good today. So just wanted to mention that as well.

The O must go in week five. And yes, the New Orleans Saints, our frisky, feisty Saints, knock off your New York Giants. They're both one and four right now. 2614. Uh Hayden, tons of turnovers here for this youthful young Giants team. Jackson Dark, two interceptions. Cam Scataboo, one fumble. Darius Sllayton, one fumble. Jackson Dart, also a lost fumble in this game. Meanwhile, the Saints seemingly play clean. Spencer Rattler 21 to 31, 225 and a score. Kendra Miller leads this team in carries. I'm sure we'll get to that with 10 for 41. And yes, Rasheed Shahed an 87yd catch and run. We've been waiting years and years for that since like week three of last year and we got it four for 114 and a score. Talk us through it.

I had eyeballs on this one. Uh and boy did they need them. The Giants were one of the maybe the one of the first teams ever to have I think five straight um turnovers. Uh and I think they also had a turnover on downs on well to extend that streak as well. So it was really sloppy in the second half. In the first half they got hot like Jackson Dart marched down the field. Uh used his legs a little bit 7 for 55 on the ground. We should just get used to that. Like he's just going to be one of these guys that's going to average 20 30 40 uh rushing yards per game. That's going to help him out in fantasy. But in terms of the normal drop back game, not a lot down the field at all. The longest completion here was only 18 yards down the field. And when I was watching this, it's just one of those where it kind of reminds me of the Bow Knicks situation. And like there's a lot of over overlap between Jackson Dart and Bone Knicks. But uh Brian Dable has not been as good as Shawn Peyton at creating the like explosive half field reads. Roll them out, throw the ball on the other side of the field. They're just not there yet as a team. So hopefully as we saw with Bo Knicks that like a month into the season, you can start seeing some like real stuff from Jackson Dart in the normal dropback game, but unfortunately no Malik Neighbors, Darius Sllayton leaves with a hamstring injury on about halftime as well. Uh so by the end of the game, they're throwing out like Wanda Robinson who we know who he is, a slot guy, and it's like Bo Collins, Jaylen Hyatt, like a bunch of tight end looks. It was getting sloppy and they only I think had five active uh wide receivers on there. So, by the end of this game, the normal drop back game was just disgusting. We got Cam Scataboo a bunch of receptions, six uh for 45 uh through the air and then had 15 carries. So, it's still like he's clearly the bellcow, but this team is stuck in that they don't have the normal drop back game and you obviously can't win too many football games there. So, it's a work in progress here. At least you get some fun plays out of Cam Scab Jackson Dart and then Theo Johnson. So, some young guys pitched in, but at the same time, it's a very young team without a proven outside wide receiver at this point. And sounds like Darius Sllayton with a hamstring injury. He's not going to be out there. It's like it's the easily the worst wide receiver group in in the NFL.

Without wide receivers, do you think they run more 12 personnel?

They ran a ton of tight ends.

Okay. But that's not, you know, what we saw last week with this offense where they, you know, spread it out, kind of did old miss things in terms of attacking the perimeter and then obviously that spacing allows you to have some stuff down the seam, too. Uh, you know, Daniel Bellinger four for 52 and then Theo Johnson 6 for 33 and two.

Yeah. And they got Chris Manhertz in there going a little bit, but yeah, they just don't have wide receivers. And then they only had I think the five active wide receivers and Brian Dable said that they didn't have a six guy because they were going to use more tight ends and they wanted more tight end depth. So it's just it's a mess. Theo Johnson made a couple plays like at the the catch point which was like nice for our round 18 um shares. Uh Jackson Darts is going to be a better fantasy asset than real uh life asset and hopefully he can start throwing the ball downfield with some consistency. there's like not enough downfield shots at all and then when you're fumbling the ball like he had that Bryce Young um just dropped the ball and then um Scaboo had one as well. So it's and then even Darius Sllayton had one. So you can't lose the turnover battle five to zero.

So yeah, I see like six attempts 20 plus yards on the field, five went incomplete and then one was an arm punt uh interception.

Okay, let's talk about the Saints end of this. Uh look, they're one and four. I know I like say good things about the Saints every single week, but they're a fun watch, man. Like Spencer Rattler even popping up here with like 21 rushing yards and 225 passing yards. Olave getting his for seven for 59. Rasheed Shahed for four again for 114 and a score in the 87 yard. I think the thing that stood out to me is even with this new coaching staff, they still did some trickeration things with Taes Hill in his return.

They did. I know. They can't knock it off. They really can't. It's insane. Uh, I don't have this the snap counts in front of me right now. Um, we have Taesm Hill. You want to give me a guess? So, okay, we had nine nine snaps, but he was out. He made the most of him. When he's on the field, the ball is going to him. So, that's insane.

Yeah. Yeah. And then I don't know if that takes away from Jawan Johnson again. Also, Fostam Maro uh was back for this game as well, but this is like kind of the bottoming out so far this season for Jawan Johnson, who has been a big target getter so far with four targets, two receptions, and 17 yards. So, he was kind of if you had flipped Jawan Johnson and Mason Taylor at that point, it was probably a nice a nice move.

This morning, I think I said that they were I saw the chat was was kind of surprised by that. Uh before we go to the other players, just the Rasheed Shahed stuff I I do think is kind of notable. looked back, he's played 11 games since the beginning of 2024. He's on pace for almost a thousand yards. Like he's one of these players who I think in a better offense would be putting up like crazy numbers. Like if he happened to just be signed by the Chiefs, he would be putting up fantastic numbers. His speed is fantastic. And oh yeah, he's a he's a good route runner on top of that. He's like not just like some like go ball guy. He can kind of do a very good Tank Dell impression. So I'm going to have him ranked higher than a lot of people. Um it's going to be volatile week to week, but you're going to have this will not be his only hundred yard uh in a score game this season.

Yeah. Taesm had six carries for negative one yards uh on nine snaps, but the dog levels the inspiration.

Speaking of carries, anything you want to say about this backfield? Is that something we'll talk about in stats versus film with Kendra Miller versus Alvin Chimera?

Yeah, I wasn't watching close enough to know that the the split makes me nervous. I think they were mentioning Alvin Kamar in the trade markets as well and you know like they're one and four. The trade deadines's approaching. So, I think really like he's a bust where you're drafting him and the only way they're going to get bailed out in the situation is with a trade. And we'll see there there's some very intriguing teams that if he goes to the Bears and the Chiefs and you name some others, it would be very interesting. But he can also just end up

Please make that move. Chicago, please make that move.

I mean, that would be ideal.

Uh, whenever I posted this question when the Giants are going to win a game, it was always the Saints contest. Now, no one expected them to beat the Chargers last week. But the reason being is the Saints one was a nice little star when you look at coming up for the Giants. It's Philly, Denver, Philly, San Francisco, Chicago, Green Bay, Detroit.

Yeah.

In that stretch.

Yeah. And since then, Neighbors out for the season, you know.

Correct. Correct. Uh as for the Saints, they get the Patriots and the Chicago Bears.

Okay. We did not get eyeballs on the Texans devouring the Baltimore Ravens 44 to10, but I think we can sum this one up quite easily. Uh CJ Stra 244 and four scores at this point. Obviously, a lot of the conversation was about Lamar Jackson missing on offense. Even bigger, it seems, is the respect that the Ravens have generated over recent seasons on defense with all of you know the investments that they made. everyone is injured and you they like cannot function on that side of the ball right now.

Yeah, they have like six Pro Bowl level guys that aren't playing. We'll see what happens next week. Some of these guys were questionable and then ruled out. So hopefully they get a couple of these guys back. Like their defensive tackle is out for the season with a neck injury. Lamar Jackson's not expected to play this next week with a hamstring and then they're going to have the bye-week after that. So I'm guessing that they're going to take their lumps for one more week and then just try to go on a run uh after they hopefully get some of these guys back. But yeah, there's been coverage bust. Like I think it's like not even just the personnel. Like you know, Mike McDaniel's having a hell of a defense in Seattle and like they're missing him. So, uh, yeah, I mean, they're just too injured. Like right now, this team on paper is it's one of the worst in the NFL. Ronnie Stanley's in and out of the lineup. Cooper Rush is at a quarterback and their defense just gets chunk game after chunk game. Like next week, the Ravens are one of the worst teams in the league. And then hopefully they go on a run afterwards. Z Flowers does get five for 72, but no one else does anything other than I think a Derrick Henry uh touchdown in the third quarter here. I am a little peeved that when you win by 34 points and you score 44 in total that Woody Marks only manages like seven carries compared to Nick Chubb's 11 and then even Damen Pierce like major garbage time gets seven carries. Some guy named British Brooks, British Brooks pops up here for two carries for 15 yards. So like the game I

for stats I want to look into cuz I just like out of the corner of my eye I did see a lot of Nick Chub early. Uh it was so that was a bit unsettling after the end of the game that we just saw for Woody Marks and like this ascension that we expected but this was not a normal game obviously. Yeah, obviously it was like what we had Rico Dattle, Michael Carter, Rashad White, and Woody Mars were like kind of like the four new names we had to get right. And crazy enough, Woody Marks, who I thought looked the best out of all those guys in the previous weeks, was the one to not get home despite putting up 44 points. It's definitely concerning. He was it was a one-two punch in the first half, and there was like no rhyme or reason. So, we'll we'll have more in details with that, but um, you're not going to face this level of Ravens defense every week.

Okay. During our Sunday morning live stream to answer your start set questions over in Hotspur Tottenham Stadium in London, the Vikings beat the Cleveland Browns 21 to 17. Vikings 3 and2 on the season. Um Carson Wentz 25 of 34, one touchdown. Jordan Mason 13 carries, 52 yards, one score. Uh Justin Jefferson 7 for 123. And yes, Jordan with that gamewinning touchdown at the end in that front right corner of the pylon. I think Hayden though the big conversation here is about Cleveland and like if they looked any better. I know Dylan Gabriel near the goal line got two touchdowns, one to Harold Fannon, one to David and Jooku. I saw him sail a number of passes. Um they were more competitive in this game. We kind of know like what the Vikings are on offense a little bit at this time. Uh, so it also was on my radar heading into this game that Ian Rapaort and I think some others mentioned that at some point in the season Shidor Sanders is going to play. So like I understand that, you know, as I've said this entire time, I'm really don't care about this Dylan Gabriel versus Shador conversation because there's another quarterback that's going to come in here in 2026.

Yeah. But that's either coming from ownership that we definitely want to see Shadore play this season no matter what or it's oh we don't expect Dylan Gabriel to play well and so these guys are like each going to get four games to start and that's how we're going to roll

or option C somebody just like yeah we plan to play Shador just to try to shut everybody up over the conversation you know it could just been like yeah we'll we'll we'll see some shador no problem yeah I mean the the results are going to be pretty mediocre This offensive line is really bad. So, the fact that Dylan Gabriel had any, you know, production in this one, I think, is uh fairly promising. I did watch him like try to take off and run for a first down, get hawked, he's just like physically limited, and that's why he he failed to where he did. Um I I do think that he's

But he's a long-term backup. Like that's just

But I think that he's gonna be one of these guys where like the successor is not going to wow you, but I think that they're going to be like functional enough in garbage time and they're gonna be in these two tight end sets with Ninjoku and Fannon and they're going to like make just some positive first downs. Nothing too wowy. Um so and then they're going to run the ball with Quincho Judkins. I mean

the Judkins stuff is phenomenal. I mean that's every single week. Every single week. I mean, he looks like one of the best backs in the league. Like, and he didn't even

terror to tackle.

Yes. So, I mean, they're getting it done. I mean,

if Dylan Gabriel's a long-term backup, which I think that he can be he can beat that, that's still a decent like late third round pick. Uh, totally. Swinginger early in second round. Judkins early in the second round. Fannon's been making plays. Isaiah Bond is on the field as an undrafted free agent. Mason Graham as well. Like there that's a lot of like intriguing offensive and defensive pieces. and they still lost this game to the draft picks better. So, I think this is like relatively like great news throughout. They competed. They almost upset the Vikings and they also lost. So, they're going to have a better draft pick.

And look, they've scored 16 points, 17 points, 13 points, 10 points, and 17 points.

Get used to it

so far this season.

Yeah.

Now, saying all that, their schedule coming up, it really can't get easier than this.

Okay.

It's the Steelers defense, then the Dolphins, then the Patriots, then the Jets. Oh my god.

Then this Ravens defense and then the Raiders defense

and then the Titans and Bears shortly after that even

I mean this Browns schedule is as cupcake as it can get. If they don't win four games this year then that's like pretty rough.

Like not that it matters but I'm just saying like at some point other than the offensive line and other than Jerry Judy which by the way has been a miserable selection so far. Maybe next ex receiver. He's like no longer playing like a flanker exciting role. He's playing like exceed. It's not good. Look, I think Kevin Fans is a good coach. I think Dylan Gabriel was sailing too many passes today. The Quinch Judkins stuff is what matters each week. And based on tight end, you're starting Harold Fannon, and then if you really need to, maybe David and Jooku, but after that, I understand that these matchups are coming up. It It's just

I have this battle with a team that I know is bad, but are they good enough against bad defenses to score more than 17 points like they been capped at this year? Yeah, the I think they're more the PPR garbage time stuff. I I feel like I trust Stfansky and Gabriel with this collection of weapons just enough like during by-weeks like I'm not going to say it's every week starters and it's not the receiver.

Judkins is an every week starter and then Fannon's a top 12 tight end but like other than that

Fannon's like maybe a top 12 tight end like we like Mason Taylor and you know all those guys Darren Waller pass him and then David and Jojoku goes in for nine targets in this one. So, I think those guys you can do worse as streaming options and we'll see. This is also a team that could be making some moves at the trade deadline. David and Jooku is in the final year of his contract and I think they're getting some good things out of Harold Fannon. So, if David and Jooku gets moved, maybe he goes to a contender that's good news for him and then Fannon could actually like ascend like you know 25% target something like that. So, this is one of these teams where like we're starting to see the separation of the NFL and it's like very predictable which teams are doing really well and which teams aren't and then all of a sudden some trades start happening and like things could flip like over the next month. So, um, hold the line.

Yeah, it's not a surprise that they're only scoring 17 points at best per game. That was like their projection heading into the season,

you know.

And they already won a game doing that.

Uh, yeah. I mean, score 21 or 24 points one of these weeks, Browns.

Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about the Vikings because they're about to come back from their double week across the pond. Carson Wentz. these last two games they have won one and lost one. Um and then coming up next is the Philadelphia Eagles, the Chargers, and the Lions. Hayden, I think this is a big crossroads moment during this bye for Kevin Okcono to decide if he's going back to JD McCarthy or if he's sticking with Carson Wentz.

Yeah, they no longer can say that the ankle injury is like uh the reason why he's not playing. They're coming out of the by-week. All the reports were coming out of the by-week. It's going to be him. They did not put him on injured reserve. you would assume they did not put him on injured reserve because they were going to play him um within the four weeks. Well, that's this next game. After the game, they talked uh to Kevin Oonnell who was like non-committal on the whole situation on who's going to start. So, it was not like JJ McCarthy is coming back and he's our guy. And I just looking at it obviously no Jordan Addison Darasaw was not out there, but Carson Wentz has been dealing with a bunch of offensive line injuries himself and the EPA numbers, it's not even close between Carson Wentz and JJ McCarthy. So, he has to make the decision. Are the Minnesota Vikings about the future and you were going with JJ McCarthy or do they think that Carson Wentz is good enough for them to kind of go compete uh down the stretch? I don't have a good answer. He seemed to handle pressure better in this one than what I saw from this last week. Um obviously you're playing Miles Garrett and you only take three sacks and it's a backup backup center. Your left guard's out and your right tackles out. So I think all in all he probably played fairly well. I didn't watch the entire second half, but I watched the last drive there. And it's easy if you just throw the ball to Justin Jefferson. But no longer could Kevin Oonnell play behind this this injury. Like if it's not this this next game, then he was benched. You know, it's as simple as that.

And if you go with JJ McCarthy, to me, you kind of have to do it the rest of the season because if you start JJ McCarthy after this, after the by-week, and then you bench him later on, that is a signal of,

hey, man, you're just not going to be our quarterback.

Yeah, it's a tough decision because this entire off seasonason was about we are grabbing a bunch of veterans, you know, uh, in the trenches

and Ryan Kelly is on injured reserve, so he's going to miss the next three games after this.

That's a big deal. And then, yeah, and right tackles out week to week and their left guard had um, a wrist surgery and Brian Flores at any point can no longer be the defensive coordinator and another team gives him a head coaching job. So, like you have to look up all these men in the face and be like, "Yeah, we're going to go back to the J.J. McCarthy stuff." And like that's I think you that's a justifiable decision. Um, but I'm not sure if it's as easy as people are saying. Like if he if they think Carson Wentz is better, most teams play the quarterback that they think is is better.

These quarterbacks aren't treated with like kid gloves anymore. But at the same time like JJ McCarthy behind the scenes went through some like difficult things last year. Like it makes sense. You're in a quarterback competition in preseason. You play a couple series then you're out for the entire year after being a first round pick. awesome at Michigan and then you have to just sit there and like go to meetings every week and rehab and you know work back from this knee injury and then come in to the season this season as a starter fourth quarter comeback and then don't play well get injured and then now it's at this point and if he goes with Carson Wentz then it's another season potentially of oh I'm just going to sit in the meeting room I mean that would break some people let's put it that way

we'll see it's a tough it's a tough decision, man. Like

I I I understand both sides of it, but I think the people that are like it's for sure going to be JJ McCarthy, I don't think it's that, you know, like they could go back to him, but I don't think it's as simple as like they have to go to JJ McCarthy. If they think Carson Wentz is the better quarterback and they think the roster is good enough to go compete, then like that's like not an easy thing to to turn down.

We'll close things out with Thursday Night Football. I don't even know if I remember this game. The 49ers win at 26-23. just laser shows from, you know, two elites at the position, Matthew Stafford and M. Jones. I mean, what an effort here from Mac. This is the season of like one team's trash is another team's treasure in a way. We've obviously seen that in previous seasons with Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold. And Mac Jones is just another example. 33 of 49, 342, two touchdowns, getting his knee brace stuck into the back of his knee and then coming back and throwing darts over the middle of the field. Uh, and yeah, I mean, our buddy Coach McAffrey remains a borderline running back two with 22 carries, 57 yards, but an elite wide receiver one with eight catches, 82 yards, and a score. And then off the freaking couch between teams, Kendrick Borne popping in with Ricky Pearl, Jawan Jennings,

George KD out, 11 targets, 10 catches, 142 yards.

Yeah. Uh, apologies for the Kendrick Bourne ranking. I just got that one wrong. You know, it happens. You're ranking a bunch of dudes. You're going to get some of these wrong. And he went crazy. He dropped a pass, too. You know, like he he was dealing with drops before this. Drops a pass. Mac. Jones like taps him on the butt and then turns into Jerry Rice for the rest of the game. So, that was really impressive. the M. Jones stuff. He was like coughing up on the sideline like you were on the previous episodes. He was not having fun out there, but grinds out a very impressive win. He's He's letting the ball go. It's like back when like Jimmy G and then early stage Brock Pury would just like, you know, just trust the freaking process. You're going to maybe throw a couple bad interceptions.

Coach, you know, you have some players out there and like you trust your environment and like this is why again environment play is such a big deal.

Yeah. Um, I have seen some people because of, you know, the history of Shanahan and M. Jones and flirting between before that draft class say, "Well, now it's a quarterback competition." To me, this is so much different in San Francisco than what we just talked about in Minnesota. So, I am not of the belief that Brock Party and M. Jones are on the same level. Now, we're dealing with an injured Brock party at this point. And maybe what M. Jones allows them to do is hopefully get Brock to like 90% versus what he was when he returned which wasn't close to that. I mean it was very obvious that you know he was digging with the toe and all these other things but

once Brock Py is 90% healthy he

he is the top starter for the season but just other people are going to disagree that statement.

Yeah. I just think the difference between this and the Viking situation is Brock Pie is better than like the other guys he's competing with. Like it's it's undeniable. Brock Birdie when he's healthy just adds a layer of, you know, like rushing threat that M. Jones can't. So, it's very cool that M. Jones is like trusting the process and has enough arm strength and is just willing to let it rip. Um, and I'm not even going to say like the the skill group's like not in this game like not good. You throw to Tonis and Demarcus Robinson, Kendrick Bourne, it's not a good situation. And this offensive line, they're going through it. Trent Williams is not the same player. like he keeps getting beat inside. Like Jared Verse got him multiple times and you really see that in the run game. There was a critical fourth down and if you screenshot where Christian McAffrey got hit like they went like 0 for five and obviously when you don't have George KD that's going to also hurt your run game as well. Um but this offensive line can't block anybody up front like pushing the pile. So we're we're thankful that Chris McCaffrey is catching all these passes here. So

and yet they're four in one.

I know I know I know. Uh it sounds like George K is not going to return for the first time as opportunity from injury reserve, but week

seven is the goal here I believe.

Yeah, that's what they said. But I think Pawol and Jawan are going to come back. Brock Pury is questionable, too. So it's not like they're getting everybody back. They play uh in Tampa Bay this next week. So maybe when they come back home against the Falcons, hopefully they have everybody back then. Um, so yeah, I mean, Shan, this is just like Shanahan, like Shanahan with with the controller is just as good as it gets. So I think he's the runaway favorite for um coach of the year. I I don't know the odds, but he should be you're four and one with backup quarterback. That's that's pretty impressive.

Okay, on the Rams end real quick. I mean, Matthew Stafford continues to play at an incredible level. Three touchdowns, does have a fumble here. Uh, and then Puka Nakua, 10 receptions, 85 yards, a touchdown. Kairen Williams gets two scores, but he has a mistimed fumble here as well with 14 carries, 65 yards. Blake Cororm only one carry here. So, uh, the running back split that we thought was tighter did not factor in.

Well, Corin Corin fumbled and then they didn't go back to him and then Kairen fumbles and he stays in the game. Oh, they they counted the Cororum one for Stafford because of like a fumbled exchange.

Yeah, that like Cor. It was the pitch

because Yeah, the defender was in his face and then he just looked away. Um, so that was

and the current one was at the goal line. Now it's all coming back to me.

But that Kirn play

for Alfred Collins, one of the best defensive plays you'll see the entire year. He was double team. So sometimes even tackles you have to eat a double team. He fought through it and then saw Kairen flash in front of him and punch the ball out. That was an incredible play that you will not find like a better defensive tackle rep given the circumstance like that actually won them the game.

That would have y

Yeah, it's insane. That was that was insane play.

The puka ceiling is totally unlocked here. We are backto-back weeks of red zone touchdowns after he had like two in his entire career prior to this.

So getting that stuff is he's just on another planet. We had like a real three for one. I won't go into it, but three for one conversation of like these really solid starters that were like the Mech Bukah.

Um I can't remember all of them.

Yeah, it was like three borderline wide receiver ones for Puka,

right? For you were like I got to think about

think about you got to think about that. He's he's insane. He's insane.

Uh okay, that's going to do it. Monday night, I think a lot to go through on waivers. Uh, you and Jacob will cover that after Monday Night Football. That'll be on the channel. And then we're back at it. Tuesday evening stats versus film. Thank you all for tuning in. Thank you to Motion and Weaves behind the scenes. Hayden front the camera. Up the villa everyone. We'll talk to you'all soon. See you.