The big story out of the Chiefs-Niners game was the knee injury to Brandon Aiyuk, which is feared to be an ACL tear.
Brock Purdy looked like Mr. Irrelevant but he’s otherwise been great again this year, measured by YPA (8.8 heading into Week 7). He was sloppy on Sunday, though, and was down three All-Pros. Tom Brady was just killing him all day, even after his good passes.
Deebo Samuel was battling illness and was spotted inhaling oxygen on the sideline. Who knows when the Niners knew about his illness — he reportedly woke up Sunday feeling ill — but San Francisco is the most inscrutable team in the NFL by miles. You have to break ties against their players just because of how we have no idea what’s going on with them, ever.
George Kittle is the one really bettable thing in this 49ers offense going forward.
Patrick Mahomes is on pace for 14.5 TD passes and is the MVP favorite. Make it make sense.
Tough break for Jayden Daniels managers, as he was basically a no-show after having his ribs injured on an early big run.
Austin Seibert has 19 field goals and 19 extra points — just insane fantasy production. He’s on pace for 46 field goals and 46 extra points.
It’s got to be over for Andy Dalton in Carolina. There is just no reason to play him over Bryce Young. Beyond his first start, Dalton has been terrible. The Panthers say that Dalton is still the starter but this can’t be true.
Kyren Williams had two more TDs and has now scored a TD in nine straight games (13 TDs overall in the period). Blake Corum had three carries. Oh, and no punt returns for Williams.
Vikings–Lions lived up to the billing as the fantasy game of the week. Jahmyr Gibbs was the star, taking advantage of a David Montgomery knee injury (he returned but seemed limited). The passing volume wasn’t what we’d like, but Jared Goff (like Sam Darnold) was incredibly efficient. There were only eight incompletions by both teams in the entire game.
Brock Bowers was peppered with 14 targets (10-93) and if this is life without Davante Adams, it’s going to be a sweet, sweet ride. It doesn’t matter who the QB is.
Alexander Mattison is good enough for us to play, with 23 of the team’s 26 RB carries. Forget about Zamir White.
Amon-Ra St. Brown had a big game and now has scored a TD in four straight games — being a consistent TD scorer is not something we expected from him. We know Jameson Williams is boom or bust and we can deal with that given his cost, but Sam LaPorta was supposed to finish with 120 targets and he’s on pace now for 48 and has to be one of the biggest busts at TE in the history of our game. I thought he was a glorified ham-and-egger who was basically a short-area only target, but I expected 80-800-8, way under market but now seeming like a moon shot.
Daniel Jones has not accounted for a touchdown at home now in nearly two full years — 658 days and counting.
This PHI/NYG matchup was a two-man game, both Eagles, with Saquon Barkley starring and A.J. Brown also having a good game. Barkley averaging 10.4 yards per carry is probably the death sentence for the front office that decided that Jones was too highly compensated to invest a lot of money in a RB. Devin Singletary has barely more yards all year than Barkley had Sunday in his return. (The team’s GM then said, “Hey, we knew that Jones’ salary would be middle-market by now.” Well, which is it?)
Jalen Hurts is now being sacked over 10% — not good. The offense is so basic and you could argue that’s a reason for the sacks. Hurts does not seem to be a good fit for new OC Kellen Moore, once a hot property.
Tank Bigsby overcame whatever the hangup was with using him in pass protections and was the bell cow we needed. He delivered. But the passing game for the Jaguars was very low-volume as a result.
Brian Thomas Jr. is averaging 12 yards per target, which is just insane. He is also averaging 2.4 points per target. If he was reasonably targeted, he’d be THE league winner. Thomas jumps off the screen every week.
Kirk Cousins was awful against a Seattle defense that had been bad for a couple weeks, albeit with injuries.
Geno Smith finally threw more than one TD pass, though his yards were uncharacteristically down. Seattle ran only 56 plays.
DK Metcalf missed time after being carted off with a knee injury that is not believed to be serious.
Bijan Robinson had the kind of market share his drafters expected, with Tyler Allgeier shoved aside mostly, probably due to the score.
There was no reason to wait on Amari Cooper for proof. He rewarded the faith with a solid day. Keon Coleman overshadowed him, but there was one big busted play when the game was decided. I expect a clear delineation between Cooper and every other Bills WR over the rest of the season. Cooper will be around WR20, maybe higher. Josh Allen should again be the QB1 either way. But he has just three rushing TDs and hardly any rushing yards (for him).
The Titans don’t have a QB (Mason Rudolph started) and I don’t see how they’re going to get one without investing more years in the pursuit. Calvin Ridley is averaging 5.1 yards per target, which is atrocious. I don’t even know if it’s his fault, but the guy did it one year and not really even as the alpha. He’s made a lot of coin off that outlying season.
Well, Jameis Winston will be the QB for the Browns now with Deshaun Watson out with an Achilles injury. I think David Njoku will be the big winner in the offense. Get him if you can.
Nick Chubb found the end zone in his return to the field and that is certainly an accomplishment given the nature of his 2023 injury. But he is not remotely the same player he was before the injury and is unlikely to be in 2024 (and probably ever). He had 22 yards on 11 totes.
The Bengals offense seemed poised for takeoff two weeks ago but has been rolling with flat tires since.
C.J. Stroud is not the same player as last year. Obviously the loss of Nico Collins is terrible and his return is weeks away. But 86 yards passing for Stroud? There is no excuse. With the four sacks, the Texans averaged 2.2 yards per pass play. Disgusting. I still believe trusting the Texans to scout the player, given the trade and the subsequent contract, was the right move with Stefon Diggs, but the evidence is in and the dude is shot. Given his age and size, he should have been near peak for another year at least, but he’s washed.
Jordan Love was erratic but threw multiple TDs for the ninth straight game. He’s much more Brett Favre than Aaron Rodgers, however. You hold your breath with him a lot.
Romeo Doubs was the top WR again, with eight catches for 94 yards. He had almost twice as many targets as everyone else. I think you have to sit Christian Watson now, who is explosive but just too low volume for PPR formats. And Jayden Reed has just 38 receiving yards combined the past two games.
Please never say Mike McDaniel is an offensive genius. He had two weeks to figure something out for the meeting with the Colts and Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combine for two catches? You can’t have an offense that can only remotely function with one QB, who is the most fragile QB in the league (who is slated to return in Week 8). Don’t forget that the Dolphins offense was terrible this year with Tua Tagovailoa (as well as being meh down the stretch last year).
Anthony Richardson is not even completing 50% of his passes. He is averaging 16 yards per completion. So his yards per attempt isn’t terrible. But no one plays football this way today and it’s not really working. He did encourage with his running, but the offense is clearly better for fantasy with Joe Flacco (who has multiple TD passes in eight-straight starts).
(Top photo of Brock Bowers: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images)
