Manic Monday: Week 7
I can’t complain too much about this weekend, even if Sunday was…well, we’ll get to that. Friday night saw my Astros advance to their third World Series in five years. And before you mention buzzers or cheating just know that I fully embrace the villain role with my team and happily decorated my own personal trashcan. And quite handsomely, I must say. I also got to play golf with my son Saturday and as soon as we drove out of the parking lot it started to rain. Then, the Dodgers lost that night, so it started out being a very solid weekend. Until Sunday. Worst. Week. Ever How do you spoil National Tight Ends Day? Easy, by having a terrible Sunday. Additionally, most of the premier tight ends must have been hungover because the Week 7 leaderboard contains names like Foster Moreau, MyCole Pruitt, and Durham Smythe. I guess that probably worked out for the numerous fantasy football managers who were forced to go to the waiver wire and just plug in random names to fill out starting slots. Props to you if that worked. Another takeaway from this disaster of a week was the intricacies of scoring. Somebody was forced to start the Jets defense and got tagged with a (-11) hammer. Superflex scoring can be especially brutal. Imagine thinking you’re ok with Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson in your two starting spots and coming away with a sizzling 4.4 points. Worst. Week. Ever. When we all reviewed the 2021 NFL schedule, we knew Week 7 was going to be an issue. And it makes no sense, either. Why are six teams off this week but only two teams are absent in Weeks 8, 11, and 12? And don’t get me started on having byes as late as Week 14 when many leagues are opening their playoffs. Imagine getting through the gauntlet of the crazy 2021 season only to not be able to start Jonathan Taylor because, well, he’s off. The one positive about this slate is many teams may have stacked their bye week players and should now by close to 100% for every other week. Even if it was an accident, just take credit for your genius bye stacking if that was you. For the rest of us, we’re on to Week 8. Where We Were Right On National Tight Ends Day we boosted Foster Moreau up to TE13 once we heard that Darren Waller was questionable to play on Sunday. Moreau snagged all six of his targets for 60 yards and a touchdown and posted even better numbers than that. We were wary of Washington RB Antonio Gibson, ranking him outside of our top-20 backs. This is doubly impactful when you realize the brutal bye week took six starters out of the mix. Part of our trepidation was the shin injury that Gibson is nursing but also we projected a lot more passing down work would go to J.D. McKissic. Gibson was held to 51 rushing yards on 14 attempts and is currently outside of the top-30 PPR backs this week. Anticipating a shootout, A.J. Brown was out No. 3 wideout and Brown delivered his best performance of the season. It could have been even better if the Titans were forced to keep gunning the ball, but we’ll take an 8/133/1 outing for an overall WR4 finish. Where We Were Wrong Our initial projections liked Sam Darnold quite a bit in this slate going against a New York Giants’ secondary that had allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterback prior to Week 8. I’m glad I tweaked the projections down to where Darnold was just QB15, but even that ended up being way too high. Darnold managed to get outscored by Chad Henne, Mike White, Brian Hoyer, and even his own teammate, P.J. Walker. Ouch. Can we just say Chiefs? The Tennessee/Kansas City tilt had a whopping 57.5 over/under but was a one-sided disaster for the Chiefs. In what was probably the worst pro game of Patrick Mahomes’s career, the only good news that came was that apparently, Mahomes avoided a concussion on his final play, which involved a scary blow to the head. Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Darrel Williams….nothing went right for KC in what was a brutal miss all around. Kudos to the Lions for pulling out all the stops and playing the Rams much tougher than we’d anticipated. Our projections thought Darrell Henderson would get a ton of second-half carries in an effort to run out the clock, but instead, Matthew Stafford had to keep passing the ball and Henderson had a muted 15-carry, 45-yard effort and is outside the top-25 backs for the week. Far lower than the top-5 area we projected.
Manic Monday: Week 6
I love late October. Around here, there are only about two weeks during the year where I can open the windows and let the air in. It’s generally the last two weeks of October when the plants are all still blooming and I’m not quite yet having to climb up a ladder and clean out my gutters daily. Of course, the local air show is also usually taking place on one of those open-air weekends, which has its own ups and downs. Backup Bonanza Speaking of ups and downs, Week 6 had plenty of them. A lot of the ups came from backup running backs. I think backup backs scored the first four touchdowns of the slate. And how about the Baltimore backup backs…not one, not two, but three different Ravens’ reserve runners punched in scores, and these weren’t even normal backups. None of these guys were even on the roster this summer. There’s just something heroic about a player normally spending his time on the bench coming in and making a heroic play. As impressive as Baltimore’s feat was, they still have nothing on my guy Jon Moxon, the greatest backup performance in football history. Mox was really dedicated to his team. Not only did he lead the revolt against Bud Kilmer’s tyranny, but he was also so loyal to Lance that he turned down the whip cream bikini. I’ve always wondered why football movies are so bad. Don’t get me wrong, some are serious and well done, but mostly there’s a goofy comedy approach to football films. Baseball movies are almost always better. I guess it’s the history of that sport or that there’s so much downtime in a game that it’s easier to write a believable love story. Football movies almost always have zany lineman or whacky antics that make it hard to take the film seriously. For every Love of the Game there are 2-3 The Replacements or The Waterboy. I wonder if an NFL club found a gig for Shane Falco? As a backup, of course. Where We Were Right Our tight end projections overall were very good. We like Mike Gesicki as a top-5 option and were much higher than the consensus on Noah Fant, Hunter Henry, and Mo-Alie Cox. We also had Zach Ertz as our No. 9 tight end for the week, and that’s precisely where he stands. Once it was confirmed that Damien Williams would miss Week 6, we boosted Khalil Herbert into RB1 territory and Herbert delivered. He was the only Chicago running back to touch the ball against Green Bay and currently stands as the RB10 heading into Monday. In all, Herbert turned 21 touhces into 112 yards and a score. We were cool on the Vikings traveling to Carolina, with mixed results. One that hit was Justin Jefferson, who we had all the way down at WR22. Jefferson currently stands as the WR20 after only corraling 8-of-14 targets for 80 scoreless yards. Where We Were Wrong Other than Ertz, that Eagles game was rough. We were way too high on Philly’s offense. As bad as Jalen Hurts was for real, he had a decent fantasy outing thanks to a pair of rushing scores. But 115 passing yards isn’t going to get it done any week. DeVonta Smith took the biggest brunt of that performance, and we took it on the chin. Should have known that we’d see the Chargers drop off quite a bit but we weren’t expecting THAT bad of a performance. Justin Herbert was poised to shred a Ravens’ secondary that just submitted 402 passing yards to Carson Wentz six days ago. Nope. Herbert was ineffective, which led to a lousy outing not just for him, but for Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, and Austin Ekeler who we pegged as out RB4. I personally listed Ekeler as my RB1. I struck out worse than Sam Tuttle with that one….that was a hidden baseball movie reference. No team had allowed more points than Kansas City, so we were expecting Washington to light up the scoreboard. With that, Terry McLaurin topped out wideout projections but that isn’t exactly how things played out. McLaurin had his worst game of the season and the Football Team just couldn’t keep up with the Chiefs. Maybe things will improve if/when Ryan Fitzpatrick returns and sends Taylor Heinicke back to the bench. Potential movie idea… The 2021 NFL season is well underway but it’s not too late to get access to the best help out there! All FullTime Fantasy members get exclusive access to our 24/7 Chat Room on Discord! All morning on Sunday, Senior Analyst Jody Smith will be standing by to answer all your crucial start/sit and keep you updated with all the latest news and injury updates. JOIN OUR MAILING LIST! GET THE LATEST ARTICLES & UPDATES Subscribe to our FREE newsletter – Breaking Fantasy news & site updates! Like and share our new Facebook page! Be sure to pay attention to our giveaways for your shot at some sweet prizes!
Manic Monday: Week 5
Everything is so polarizing these days. I’ve been trying to engage in conversations with people I know and I often find myself shaking my head, like…really? What happened? I guess the guy that created the prove me wrong meme is happy but I find it fatiguing. In a locker room full of NFL players, there must be so outrageous disagreements, but those guys can make it work. Then again, that paycheck probably helps. I guess it’s just a product of the times. We aren’t allowed to sort of remain neutral, you have to choose sides. Everything this is hit or miss. Take this week’s NFL action…we had lots of hits, and (especially) lots of misses. Hits I was beyond excited to see what Lawrence from Office Space was up to. Turns out, he’s the Cincinnati Bengals long snapper. Guess that construction gig didn’t work out, but can’t blame him for taking those NFL bucks and still getting some fresh air. F***ing A. Whew, there were some brutal helmet-to-helmet hits on quarterbacks this week. Taysom Hill get knocked out early on a downfield catch attempt, then Daniel Jones had a scary collision near the goal line that knocked him out of the game. I’m glad the NFL has tried to clean these hits up but they’re still hard to watch when they occur. No team took more hits than the Giants. Major props for New York staying in the game after losing Saquon Barkley to an ugly-looking sprained ankle, Daniel Jones to that head injury, and then lost No. 1 WR Kenny Golladay to an already thin receiving corps. Misses You had one job. Dude, what was with the place kicking this week? The Sunday slate was just loaded with terrible kicking performances but the end of the Cincinnati Green Bay beats all. In the final 2:12 of the 4th quarter and overtime, Mason Crosby and Evan McPherson combined to miss 5 kicks. It was so awesome, that the Bengals started celebrating the misses! In all, kickers missed 12 extra-point attempts and 12 field goals on the day, the first time that’s occurred since 2015, when PAT’s were pushed back to their current range. Some pass-catchers had some egregious misses too. Dalton Schultz and Dallas Goedert dropped easy touchdowns. Darren Waller and Bryan Edwards didn’t do Derek Carr any favors with perfect passes bouncing right off their hands. I can just imagine poor Trey Lance saying “we got about 200 yards” and Deebo correcting him “I got about 200 drops…” Davis Mills, fresh off a 40-0 debacle and facing Bill Belichick, just had 24.68 fantasy points- the most produced by any rookie quarterback so far this season. Everyone missed on that one. Where We Were Right We were the highest on QB Tom Brady in the entire industry. Brady delivered for 411 passing yards and five touchdowns. Miami boasts a pair of solid cornerbacks but the Dolphins made the mistake of trying to play Cover 1 against Brady. Switching to zone didn’t help either. Our award-winning projections also loved RB Alexander Mattison filling in for Dalvin Cook at home against Detroit. Mattison racked up 32 touches for 153 total yards and a receiving touchdown, right en route to top-5 fantasy numbers. We had Mattison as our RB5. Speaking of the Lions, despite the appealing matchup, we were wary of TE T.J. Hockenson this week due to concerns about his lack of consistency and knee. Hockenson came in as a fringe TE1 in our projections and was held under 45 receiving yards and without a touchdown for the third consecutive game. Bonus bragging rights: in our FullTime Discord, WR Kadarius Toney was a recommended play and came through huge. Where We Were Wrong It was Bizarro quarterback week, so not taking things too hard here, but we had Sam Darnold and Kirk Cousins as fringe QB1 options in good matchups. But seriously though…Davis Mills? Myles Gaskin was predictably bottled up as a runner but we didn’t properly anticipate that Gaskin would play such a huge role in the passing game after entering the game with just 12 grabs all season and zero targets last week. Gaskin wound up nearly doubling his season-long catch numbers in a huge game. We thought Philadelphia’s secondary would be a huge, top-10 blow-up spot for Carolina WR D.J. Moore, who we ranked as a WR1. Instead, Sam Darnold wanted to make sure the Eagles stayed in the contest by throwing the ball to Philly defensive backs and Moore was held to just 38 scrimmage yards on six touches. The 2021 NFL season is well underway but it’s not too late to get access to the best help out there! All FullTime Fantasy members get exclusive access to our 24/7 Chat Room on Discord! All morning on Sunday, Senior Analyst Jody Smith will be standing by to answer all your crucial start/sit and keep you updated with all the latest news and injury updates. JOIN OUR MAILING LIST! GET THE LATEST ARTICLES & UPDATES Subscribe to our FREE newsletter – Breaking Fantasy news & site updates! Like and share our new Facebook page! Be sure to pay attention to our giveaways for your shot at some sweet prizes!
Manic Monday: Week 4
I absolutely hate talking on the phone. It’s so bad that I sometimes won’t even patronize a business or service if I actually have to speak to a live person. I had to do that this weekend due to a mix-up on a floral arrangement I ordered, with predictable frustrations. Just goes to show how different things are. When I was a kid, a knock on the door or the sound of that wall-mounted telephone ringing were instant highlights at our house. It could be somebody looking for me! Now, about the only time my phone rings, it’s this Spam Likely person who won’t take a hint, and if the doorbell rings, I literally try to duck down and hit mute on the tv. Sure, I’m risking missing out on Girl Scout cookies, but it also could be a local politician or somebody soliciting a service that nobody actually needs. Keebler makes the same thing as Girl Scout cookies, BTW, and they’re like $2. Just goes to show how things change over time. Speaking of time, a general rule to follow is that teams are who they are after four games…one-quarter of the season. It’s not a firm rule, but usually, teams that are terrible defending the run or incompetent on offense pretty much stay that way. Four games seems to be enough of a sample size. Of course, like everything else, things can change in time. If you’re off to a 1-3 start or worse, remember how things can change in time. 2021 has been one of the most challenging years ever, but I’m also blessed to be here still, writing Manic Monday every week. Thanks for sticking with me through the turbulence. I hope that’s one thing that doesn’t change. Did I Mention Change? While we’re on the topic of things changing, not just the weather was dramatically different in Week 4. Watching all of the Sunday games brought to mind just how different things can be from week-to-week in the NFL. Last week, I pointed out how awful Hollywood Brown looked dropping multiple would-be touchdowns and the Ravens barely beat the Lions on a record-breaking last-second field goal. This week, Brown made an exquisite diving touchdown grab in the end zone and the Ravens walked into Denver and pummeled the formerly undefeated Broncos. Credit where credit is due, Zach Wilson looked substansically better this week. The No. 2 overall pick got this first win while throwing for 297 yards and a pair of scores against one pick. Wilson completed some beautiful passes and easily had his best game as a pro. Quite a contrast to his first three games, and encouraging for disgruntled Jets’ fans. Minnesota’s offense looked quite impotent after the first quarter. Kirk Cousins entered Week 4 as one of the steadiest signal-callers around and drove his team to a first-quarter score but that would be if for the Vikings. Dalvin Cook returned after a one-week absence and was held to 44 total yards on 11 touches. We’ll see if it was an anomaly or Cleveland’s defense quite soon as the Vikings host Detroit Sunday. Where We Were Right We projected WR Deebo Samuel to have a WR1 performance against Seattle and Samuel certainly didn’t disappoint. Samuel snagged 8-of-12 targets for 156 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 75-yarder. Samuel has led San Francisco in targets each week and gets an appealing matchup with Arizona next. Terry McLaurin was out WR7 on the slate and came through in a big way. Entering Monday, McLaurin is sitting as the No. 4 wideout for the week after putting a 6/123/2 line of the Falcons. Despite the uncertain quarterback situation, our projections loved David Montgomery this week, ranking him eighth. I almost blew this on in Discord but Deebo saved the day in the afternoon slate. We’ll keep an eye on Montgomery’s health this week as he was forced to exit Week 4 early. Where We Were Wrong That lackluster showing by the Vikings wreacked havoic on our projections. I already mentioned Dalvin Cook’s quiet return, but WR Adam Thielen was held to three grabs and 46 yards. The Brown allowed a WR1 performance in each of their first two games but have been excellent since. Our projections were far too low on Atlanta QB Matt Ryan. Knowing how bad that Washington’s secondary has been all season, this is something I should have caught. Granted, Ryan’s play in Weeks 2 and 3 didn’t exactly inspire much confidence but Ryan generally plays better at home and had a big four-score outing. Everyone whiffed here, but what happened to Chris Carson? He wasn’t hurt and the game script was about what we expected, yet Pete Carroll gave Alex Collins 10 carries, and Collins out-rushed Carson. Nothing seemingly happened to warrant a sudden committee, which makes it doubly frustrating for Carson, who we had ranked as a solid RB2. The 2021 NFL season is well underway but it’s not too late to get access to the best help out there! All FullTime Fantasy members get exclusive access to our 24/7 Chat Room on Discord! All morning on Sunday, Senior Analyst Jody Smith will be standing by to answer all your crucial start/sit and keep you updated with all the latest news and injury updates. JOIN OUR MAILING LIST! GET THE LATEST ARTICLES & UPDATES Subscribe to our FREE newsletter – Breaking Fantasy news & site updates! Like and share our new Facebook page! Be sure to pay attention to our giveaways for your shot at some sweet prizes!
Manic Monday: Week 3
As the Dolphins and Raiders overtime wraps up, normally I’d be looking at my notes and getting ready to try to bring a humourous opening to Manic Monday. To be honest, I’m exhausted. I didn’t sleep well at all and I’m emotionally drained after Saturday. By now, I’m sure you all heard that we lost Mike Tagliere on Friday night. Mike was my best friend in this space and I had the pleasure to spend a few days with him and his wife Tabbie back in 2016. Tags was truly a credit to this profession and one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. To get a better idea of what kind of person Mike was, I published this tribute on Saturday. So many people reached out and were touched by my writing and it means a lot to me. I hope those of you who appreciated Mike and are in a position to help his family will. Mike’s signature piece, The Primer, was one of the finest pieces of analysis ever conceived and deployed, and man, was it a beast. Nobody could ever fill Mike’s shoes and my attempt to have my own weekly article seems so feeble by comparison. Everyone who met Tags or read his work is better off for having known him. And as difficult as it is for those of us left behind, we must push forward. Ultimately, I think that’s what Tags would have wanted in the hobby that he loved so much. Missed Opportunities The theme for the early slate of games seemed to be missed opportunities. I’m sure the under bettors loved the way Sunday began. • Hollywood Brown dropped a pair of would-be long touchdowns. • Matt Prater missed what would have been an NFL record 68-yard field goal that was then returned for and NFL record 109 yard Jacksonville touchdowns • It seemed quarterbacks threw an inordinate amount of reckless pass up for grabs, yet one of the few that actually worked was from….Jameis Winston? • Good to see Jaylen Waddle snap a dozen balls, one of which was in the end zone. Of course, it was the wrong end zone and netted the Raiders a safety. • Chicago’s offense missed their fight to Cleveland. • The Jets apparently missed with the No. 2 draft pick, that doesn’t surprise anyone Where We Were Right We had Pittsburgh’s Najee Harris as a top-5 option in Week 3 and the rookie rusher enters Monday as the No. 1 fantasy running back in PPR scoring thanks to snagging a whopping 14 passes. Harris was about the only good thing that came out of the Steelers’ offense on Sunday. FullTime’s projections dropped QB Aaron Rodgers out of our top-10, just for one week. Turns out, that was spot on as Rodgers didn’t have a bad game and his club won in San Francisco, but Rodgers was comfortably outside of the top dozen QBs from Week 3. After his blowup game last week, we were cool on WR Terry McLaurin‘s matchup with Tre’Davious White and Levi Wallace. McLaurin was limited to 4-of-7 targets for 62 scoreless yards. Not a bad day at the office, but well outside the top-30 wideouts ranks for the slate. Where We Were Wrong Russell Wilson should have rolled to a top-3 performance against a Vikings squad that was allowing the fifth-most fantasy points to opposing signal-callers entering the week. And it looked like a good call at halftime but the Seahawks didn’t mount any credible offense in the second half, leading to a lackluster overall outing for Wilson, and a total miss for Tyler Lockett. Can I get half credit on this one? Out projections really liked Chase Edmonds against the Jaguars and he did rack up 18 touches. However, it was my guy James Conner, who I hyped up all preseason, that punched in a pair of goal-line scores, right after I reluctantly started moving him down my rankings. Outside of Conner, it was a pretty modest outing for an Arizona offense that looked like the top unit in the league in the first two weeks of the season. At least I wasn’t too high on Rondale Moore….see, I found another way to sneak him into every article. Knowing how impotent the Jets’ offense has looked, ranking Courtland Sutton as a top-15 wideout wasn’t without risk. Sutton did tie for a team-high five grabs, but only accused 37 receiving yards. The Broncos coasted to an easy win, and Teddy Bridgewater was able to simply grind out the clock without the need to push the ball downfield. It would have been nice to see Sutton break one early after last week’s huge outing, but it just didn’t come to fruition. Moving Forward This weekend was an odd blur. Losing Tags hit me harder than I thought it would. Maybe it brought back residual pain from my dad’s passing back in June, but I just wasn’t prepared to have to move on without another important person in my life. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in this space, but Tags was, and is, so much better than me. And he always did things the right way. Mike was an inspiration to me and countless others and we forged a real friendship, were there for one another ‘off the clock,’ and cared about each other’s families. Please take the opportunity to let the people that matter to you know that they do. I consider it an honor and privilege to be able to do this for a living, and I care about people willing to take the time out of their busy lives to read my ramblings. Thank you for the support, and one more time….#TagsStrong.
Manic Monday: Week 2
You’d be surprised at how many hours a week I put into this finest of hobbies. I’m not just talking 10-plus glorious hours of watching football every Sunday from September through January, but many hours every day writing, researching, and adjusting. To stay sane, I need background noise. Music is always a good choice but I’ve been known to just let the TV provide that distraction for me. The Office reruns are always a good choice. Well, until Michael Scott leaves then it’s back to Spotify for me. With those myriad hours of television comes the unfortunate run of commercials. Hey, I get it- gotta get that ad revenue. I’ve read podcast spots for grooming things I’d rather not mention here or anywhere. But one commercial lately has been absolutely killing me. I went to Twitter to give my thanks to the NFL Red Zone Channel for allowing me a seven-hour break from that obnoxious Applebee’s Oreo shake song. I can’t escape it- no matter what is on, what time of day, day of the week, it’s non-stop whip cream two straws….I can’t even avoid it and I’m writing. Under World Speaking of things that happen often, scoring hasn’t been one of late. Older fantasy fans might remember the “Where’s the beef?” lady from Wendy’s but I’m thinking we should revamp that ad campaign for points. In 2020, the lack of preseason hit defenses hard and overs were hitting early and often. In 2021 the points have been much harder to come by. In Week 1, underdogs went 12-4 ATS, and the under hit on 9 of the 16 matchups. This week, seven teams in the early slate failed to score a touchdown in the first half and what few touchdowns scored went to illustrious fantasy standouts like Brandon Zylstra, Jauan Jennings, and Andy Janovich. Rough start, but if we learned anything from Frank the Tank, we just need to keep our composure and not panic. Except for Jets fans. You may. On the bright side, play and scoring picked up considerably during the afternoon slate. Quarterback injuries A trifecta of early injuries to starting quarterbacks really shook up the Sunday slate. First, Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa got hit in the ribs on a fourth-down pass attempt and was eventually carted to the locker room. Jacoby Brissett came off the bench and was adequate but the Dolphins couldn’t overcome the loss of Tua. Andy Dalton briefly left the game in Chicago, which briefly caused excitement that we might get to see first-round rookie Justin Fields featured, but Dalton returned to the game. Then, after halftime, Dalton exited with a knee injury and Fields finished the game with mixed results. Houston’s Tyrod Taylor was having another brilliant first half before suffering a hamstring injury and exiting the game. Davis Mills played the entire second half and had a decent showing but is an obvious downgrade for Houston’s offense. Houston hosts Carolina on Thursday and Taylor has already been ruled out. Expect Mills to get his first start. Carson Wentz overcame an interested shovel pass to keep the Colts in the game but injured his ankle late in the fourth quarter. Jacob Eason relieved Wentz and tossed a costly interception on his first attempt. Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield tossed an interception and hurt his shoulder trying to make the tackle. Mayfield headed to the locker room but fortunately was able to return in the first half. Also, Zach Wilson had his spirit broken by Bill Belichick. In the FullTime Discord chat, one of our astute members brought up his hesitation to rely on any part of the Jets’ offense due to Belichick’s tendency to shut down rookie signal-callers. That was a great call and Wilson’s first two passes were intercepted and he went to halftime with as many completions to the Patriots (3) as to his teammates. This is the second straight brutal first half for Wilson and Jets fans have already hit the panic button. Oh, and nice job “tackling’ Damien Harris. Where We Were Right The FullTime Week 2 projections had Tennessee Titans RB Derrick Henry as the No. 1 running back and Henry ran all over Seattle. In all, Henry churned out 237 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns on a whopping 41 touches, including a career-best six(!) receptions. Check out this chart. Our projections had Mike Williams firmly inside the top-25 again and Williams came through for the second consecutive week. Williams is building a solid rapport with QB Justin Herbert and is starting to look like an every-week WR2. I spent the whole summer talking about Rondale Moore. Reminder: pic.twitter.com/z1izAeNMRD — #TagsStrong💪 (@JodySmithNFL) September 19, 2021 Recall how we named Saquon Barkley as our bust of the year? Barkley was our RB27 for a tough matchup with Washington and he was limited to just 57 rushing yards. When Josh Jacobs got ruled out, rumors started that Peyton Barber could take over lead-back duties for the Raiders. Nailed it. If you start Peyton Barber this week, get ready for 13 carries for 23 yards. If you don’t start Peyton Barber this week, get ready for 13 carries for 23 yards and 2 1-yard touchdowns. — #TagsStrong💪 (@JodySmithNFL) September 19, 2021 Where We Were Wrong I badly missed the Thursday game. New York traveling on a short week to face a stout Washington offense. Plus, the Football Team was under the tutelage of their No. 2 quarterback. Seemed like a matchup to avoid and one to lower all projections on. Whif. Ben Roethlisberger was PFF’s lowest-graded quarterback last week. We banked on a big rebound that didn’t come to fruition. While Big Ben was marginally better in Week 2, he still should have been much better against a questionable Las Vegas defense. In the same game, way too low on Henry Ruggs. The Bears’ passing offense looked even worse. We thought TE Cole Kmet had the potential to have a breakout game against the Bengals, but Kmet racked up a