It’s the month of Halloween, so it’s fitting that Sunday was a “Night of the Living Dead” day.
The corpse of D’Andre Swift has been reanimated into the dreaded running zombie. He suddenly looks like zombie Barry Sanders. Make it make sense. I was getting pummeled here in September for liking Swift in August and would have conceded his death knell bell had been rung. I merely wanted final confirmation (that never came). But, honestly, I had no hope.
Speaking of the Bears, probably the most annoying team of the year, Cole Kmet was famously lowered into his grave by many in August for losing first-team preseason snaps. Then Gerald Everett did the same to him the first two regular-season weeks. But in the past four games, Kmet has gone for a combined line of 23-258-3, including two TDs. Sunday’s game was in London, though, so maybe more “Shaun of the Dead” for the Kmet zombie.
Mark Andrews was at least benched in many leagues, and cut in some (85% rostered in Yahoo leagues). I said not to do that, not that I thought the idea was crazy. My stance on these TE cuts is that the replacement value is so low that you’re just anger dropping. Perhaps, like in Baltimore native Edgar Allen Poe’s story, I swore I heard Andrews’ “Tell-Tale Heart” beating after we thought he died.
And Romeo Doubs looked like a cut when he pulled the classic mistake of acting like a diva without having yet earned diva status. But guess what? The Packers seem to have played along and have given Doubs the diva treatment (after a slap of the wrist). The result was two Week 6 touchdowns and a game ball from the coach. Parents today… (smh). Let’s call the Doubs affair a “Zombie Honeymoon.” (My horror movie game is unrivaled).
And then, of course, there’s Najee Harris, dead enough to be shuffling around the Monroeville Mall in green skin. And Jaylen Warren was back. But Harris had perhaps his best-looking game ever, with a TD and 106 yards on 14 carries on this “Day of the Dead.” (Yeah, yeah I’m mixing my Romero sequel metaphors).
No one wanted Stefon Diggs, who fell into the sixth or seventh round at the end of draft season. In his past four weeks, he has 27 catches — he’s a WR1 for as long as Nico Collins is out. On Sunday, he had over 20 PPR points.
Brian Thomas Jr. was missed for a wide-open 45-yard TD and then dropped a perfectly thrown ball in the end zone on a subsequent drive. That’s minus-two TDs for the day for his managers.
I think Tank Bigsby got benched for fumbling a kickoff. That makes no sense. Bench him from kickoff returns, not running back. Fumble jail is stupid in all cases. If a starting WR fumbles a kickoff, he’s not getting benched ever. Why is that okay? We need written rules on fumble jail.
Jordan Love has thrown at least two TDs now in eight-straight games. He threw four against the Cardinals on Sunday. Christian Watson looked fine on his 44-yard bomb, flying past defenders as he always seems to do when healthy. Dontayvion Wicks hurt his shoulder. It’s been a nightmare for his waiver-wire winners.
Josh Jacobs is under 4.0 yards per carry in three of the past four games, but Emanuel Wilson will 100% need an injury to Jacobs to see meaningful volume. Jacobs managers should relax… you’re fine.
The Colts–Titans game was just brutal. Will Levis should lose his job for being so bad against the Colts, who allow a ton of big plays on defense. I can’t believe the Titans reportedly fired Mike Vrabel, a definite top coach, because he didn’t believe in Levis, who has since proven Vrabel to be prescient.
Tony Pollard netted 2.5 PPR points on minus-5 receiving yards but ran well.
The Colts don’t seem to want to play Anthony Richardson but probably have to. As long as Joe Flacco is the QB, his WRs — like Josh Downs — are live. Flacco was not good on Sunday though, to my eye. He missed some easy throws, like a long one to Alec Pierce.
Drake Maye showed some mixed league relevance. He battled, mostly in garbage time. I know people thought he’d kindle some chemistry with Ja’Lynn Polk, but you can’t bet on a rookie WR with a rookie QB, historically.
Rachaad White managers had the worst day. The backup to the backup had the highest-scoring RB day of the week. Sean Tucker finished with 34.2 points. The backup, Bucky Irving, had 18.5 points himself. Irving also had the run of the day.
What a run for Bucky Irving!#WeAreTheKrewe | #RatedRookie
— The Draft Network (@TheDraftNetwork) October 13, 2024
Chris Godwin’s long TD, one of two by him, also deserves some highlight love.
How the #Saints defense allowed Chris Godwin to score a TD on this play is beyond me. pic.twitter.com/SH16oe307Z
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 13, 2024
A.J. Brown being back at peak powers was good to see.
I know the Kimani Vidal crew wants the victory lap over the fluke receiving TD, but he had four touches and J.K. Dobbins had 27. They’ll say this was an investment. I say we’re past the time for investments. August is the time for that. After the byes, too, if you’re a playoff team and want to handcuff your own backs. When roster spots are not valuable, invest. When they are valuable, like in the meat of the bye season (right now), you play for this week. We mostly play a today game, not a tomorrow game.
Vidal is a sixth-round pick, so there is zero insurance he’d get carries even if Dobbins got hurt. And there’s zero chance he’ll win the job if Dobbins doesn’t get hurt. You’re going to carry this weight around your team for how long? It’s your journey, though.
Like Drake Maye, Bo Nix was SuperFlex gold in Week 6. He’s a pretty electric runner, which few really highlighted in draft season (even though he had a ton of rushing TDs in college).
The David Montgomery extension for pretty massive RB money tells us we’ll never get Jahmyr Gibbs as a bell cow. And that’s okay. Both of these guys are valuable. But they’re going to be so close in scoring. Yet we keep drafting Gibbs so high that anyone with any sense has to pass and grab Montgomery at his ADP. I bet this does not get corrected next year, either.
The Dallas defense was lacking six starters but this was still an unprofessional effort against a team that clearly was trying to embarrass the Cowboys in front of their fans. They damn well did.
(Top photo of Mark Andrews: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images)
