Fantasy Football Today - 09/09: Week 1 Takeaways, Injury Analysis and Key Stats (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

Our trio of guests provide three different Fantasy perspectives. First, Will Brinson talks about Dak Prescott's potential in this new offense, the biggest Week 1 disappointment, what happened to Jameis Winston and Cam Newton and more from Sunday. Then we're joined by Dr. David Chao (13:45). He's the former team doctor for the Chargers and he'll tell us about the injuries to Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes, Tevin Coleman and several others. Then Chris Towers hops on (26:51) with some snap counts, routes run and other fun stats that will help put Week 1 in perspective. What did we learn about the BUF and KC backfields? What about Corey Davis and Josh Allen?  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome to the first ever Monday afternoon, evening podcast in Fantasy today. History. Unbelievable. What's

going on? And we could not have a better guest than Will Brinson of the Pick 6 podcast and other CBS Sports properties. What's up, Will? How you doing? What's going on, Adam? I like how our bosses, after a decade plus of sort of treating us like, I don't want to say second class citizens, like one and a half class citizens are all in on podcasting. We're doing seven shows a week at the Pick 6 podcast. We have two Monday shows and two Thursday shows. So if people like the daily content, go over there and check it out on Apple Podcasts. Absolutely. Yes. And if you want all of our shows, you go to cbssports.com slash podcasts. We have college football. We have MMA and wrestling and boxing all in one.

We've got Canel and Bell kind of talking general sports, you know, in the mornings. It's great. So check it out. CBSSports.com slash podcasts. OK, let's get started. Will. After Will comes on, we're going to have Dr. David Chow at Pro Football Doc on Twitter. He will give us some injury info, and he's about as good as it gets in terms of that. But Will, what was your biggest week one takeaway? My biggest week one takeaway, Adam, and I'm sure that this is probably crossing over something we'll talk about later. But I think that Dak Prescott in this Kellen Moore offense is going to flirt with being a top five fantasy quarterback over the course of the 2019 NFL season. You were just on another podcast, right?

I was. Whose podcast? Bill Barnwell's. From ESPN. Yes, we did not talk about fantasy. But I did read his column about five surprising quarterbacks. You read that, right? The quarterback performances?

Uh-huh. And the first one he talked about was Dak. And he said that, you know, the thought of Kellen Moore and all this pre-snap motion stuff, it didn't really come into play that much with Dak's production. It was mostly just the Giants were awful and Dak was on the money with his throws. This is just a long con to tell you the Giants are awful. They are. They have the worst pass rush and they didn't get to him at all.

No, no, they're very bad. I do think though that here's the difference. I think that with Dak, first of all, Dak's playing for a new contract. We'll see if he signs the deal that Jerry Jones wants to give him. I don't think he should. I think he should wait until after the season and rack up as much as he can. But with Dak's situation, Kellen Moore is letting him throw deeper. Our colleague Jared Dubin noted this. Over the course of Scott Linehan's tenure, he threw deep 9.3% of the time, threw deep 18% of the time yesterday against the Giants. And so I think you're going to see a guy who is more willing to stretch the field. I think when you look at the weapons that they have, uh, this is a team

that can be really explosive. Um, you know, Randall Cobb looked like, like old school, Randall Cobb, Michael Gallup looks like an absolute second year breakout wide receiver. He was physical at the point of a point of the catch and physical afterwards, they had guys running wide open. I know that's the Giants. I get it. But they do have an offense. And of course, Murray Cooper there has looked very sharp as well. But they do have an offense

in terms of what it's constructed with Zeke Elliott that I think they're going to try to pass and then lean on the run to win. And if they let Kellen Moore do his thing, then I think Dak will flirt with being a top five fantasy quarterback. And I think Lamar Jackson might being a top five fantasy quarterback. And I think Lamar Jackson might join him.

Okay. There you go. Zach Prescott at Washington next week. Miami at home. So first three games, 3-0 for the Cowboys. And they honestly might outscore their opponents by 70 or more points. I mean. For sure.

He's going to crush everyone. Yeah. They're going to smash people. And I mean, like, this is, by the way i want to i know i think i'm supposed to rant on stupid things i did can i tell you the stupidest thing i did that was yeah that was gonna be one of my questions the worst roster decision you made well no this is this is like a bigger more collective point so this is my main league that i've been in for like 20 years with all my friends from college um i get crap because i haven't won it in like, it's been five or six years since I won it.

I write about football professionally. I should win it. And in our draft at Pinehurst Live altogether, I didn't take Marlon Mack and I took George Kittle in the third round instead, even though I was all in on Mack. And then I came back in the fifth round. I took Aaron Rodgers. And I don't think it's a bad value to take Aaron Rodgers in the fifth round because he could be QB one.

But this is why you don't take quarterbacks early. I mean, I could have had Dak Lamar. I mean, any number of quarterbacks. You're overreacting a little bit. You are overreacting. You're talking about Rodgers went up against the hardest matchup in football and Dak and Lamar Jackson at the end of the day may have gone up against the two easiest matchups in football. I would trade Aaron Rodgers. I would probably trade him straight up against the two easiest matchups in football. I would trade Aaron Rogers. I would probably trade him straight up for Lamar Jackson right now.

No. Oh my God. I know they said that you're supposed to come out here and be kind of crazy, but you can't be crazy. I would. I think I like, I would like something in return.

I would want like a, a running back or a wide receiver in return. I would do that in a heartbeat. Okay. What running back would you trade Aaron Rodgers for Lamar Jackson and Matt Breida now that Tevin Coleman's going to miss some time? Yeah. As our old friend, Mr. Costas

points out, Matt Breida is like the living example of the knight from Monty Python. He's just like, it's just a show. It's just a flesh wound. He's like going back out with this knee dangling out, like a bone sticking out. He's like, I got this, coach. I got this, Kyle.

Yeah, yeah. I would do that in a heartbeat. If you give me any viable starting flex option, I will give you Aaron Rodgers, and you just give me Lamar Jackson, that flex option, back. Okay. I think I'm going to have to disagree. I think I'm going to have to disagree.

It's fine. I'm petrified to offer it, but look, Aaron Rodgers has tough games. Yeah, he does have a tough schedule. Who's your biggest week one disappointment? Oh, God. Let's just look at this team and see how this team scored, because I'll tell you, I'm sure it's on this squad. I would say that my biggest week one disappointment,

it's the aforementioned George Kittle. 5.4 points. He had 54 receiving yards. Two touchdowns negated by penalty. Two of them. I think you could also throw in, if you wanted to, for injury purposes. No, actually, Ben Roethlisberger, Juju Smith-Schuster, James Conner, all three of those guys would qualify. I was giggling with my buddy Nathan. We own a team together. I was like, well, time to sit back, kick up our feet and enjoy this Ben Juju stack we're going to enjoy all year. And then it's like, oh God, this is a problem. I do think... Well, Juju had six catches for 78 yards

being shadowed by a very good cornerback in Gilmore. So I'm willing to forgive... That's not that bad of a game. It's basically the same game that Beckham had. Yeah? Yeah. Beckham could qualify. Julio Jones can qualify. I think Julio Jones caught a touchdown. These guys are not the biggest disappointments. There are bigger, like James Connors, a good answer. He, he, well, but he had four catches for 44 yards. Uh, there are a bit like Joe Mixon, even though he got hurt before the injury was terrible. You're being a little harsh.

Austin Eckler? Austin Eckler? It was incredible. I'm joking. I'm joking. Did you watch football yesterday? I would say that my point about the Julio and Odell and who else did I mention?

Juju. And then you can throw Devontae Adams in there. I don't own a single share of him, but if I owned Antonio Brown, I am going to the owner of all four of those wide receivers, and I am offering Antonio Brown straight up for Julio, Odell, Devontae Adams, and Juju Smith-Schuster. And I told people on the Pick 6 podcast to do this. I've had a couple of listeners DM me and say,

Hey, look, I just flipped Antonio for Devante. Oh, beautiful. Yeah, but I think it'll work 50% of the time because people think Antonio Brown is going to be Randy Moss in 2007. I just don't think the target share is going to be there because of how the Patriots run the ball. And I think Devante Adams, Julio, Odell, and Juju are the perfect buy lows in this particular situation.

I got three more questions for you. Here we go. Rapid fire. Why don't coaches let rookie running backs do their thing? Because coaches are coaches and they're annoying. David Montgomery, run the guy. Miles Sanders, run the guy. They're both better than the other guys on the roster.

Just play them. They're good by-lows, too, by the way. Yeah. Sanders didn't really do that well, but it was Devin Singletary that was the, too, by the way. Yeah. Sanders didn't really do that well, but it really was Devin Singletary. That was the one that would be the craziest. Yeah. So he's come alive. Sanders had a touchdown call back on a penalty, too. He did. Yeah. And I think his game would look a lot different there. They're not. Jordan Howard got most of the carries after they got after they took a double digit lead against the Redskins.

So I would I would say by low a mile, buy low on Devin Singletary, buy low on David Montgomery. I think all pick-up workload steam as we go along in the season. Why was Cam Newton so bad? I don't think he had a lot of time to get no preseason action. He didn't have any time to get the rapport down with his receivers. DJ, the Panthers should have won that game. They really should have won the game. DJ Moore had

two terrible fumbles. That was a misleading game. There were a lot of points scored in that game, and the offenses weren't very good. Didn't come through. I will tell you this. I don't know if the fantasy football today people gamble. Oh, none of us.

I said none, but I was joking. Like Austin Eckler's bad game. Okay, sorry. We'll get our sarcasm down by week two, Adam. I would take the Panthers minus six and a half on Thursday against the Buccaneers. Tampa stinks. Jameis is bad, and Carolina's

going to stomp it. Last question. Why is everybody freaking out about Jameis Winston? Because he's not good. Yeah, he's not good, but he's the same quarterback he's been. He's a not good quarterback who happened to have an even worse game. But on a per-game basis, he was about QB 12 last year. So if you only look at his starts. Here's the problem.

A Bruce Arians quarterback needs to be able to handle pressure and be protected, and he needs to be accurate down the field. Jameis can throw the ball down the field. He's not accurate down the field, and he misses guys left and right. His no-risk-it, no-biscuit involves not seeing linebackers who are near the line of scrimmage instead of just chunking it down and trying to throw dimes to a receiver who's battling in single coverage. I think that we think he might be a good fit for Bruce Arians,

but he's really not a good fit for Bruce Arians. I would much rather over the course of the rest of the season have Lamar Jackson or Dak Prescott than Jameis Winston. That's totally fair. I wasn't fully buying the Jameis Winston breakout because people act like Dirk Cutter was Jeff Fisher, but he was in a good system before, and the schedule is just not that good. You know, it's, other than the Giants in week three, before his

bye, which is in like week eight or nine, he's got Carolina twice, at the Rams, at the Saints, and then comes after the bye at Tennessee, at Seattle, Arizona, New Orleans, at Atlanta, at Jacksonville, Indianapolis, at Detroit, Houston. It's a below-average schedule for Jameis, and he's a below-average quarterback. But it was week one in a new system.

Maybe we should give him a little bit of slack. People are freaking out. This is Jameis. He's not that good of a quarterback, but he could still be a good fantasy quarterback. He'll throw a lot. Maybe. I would. I mean. I just think there's

when you look at guys who are available, I would rather have Kyler Murray moving forward. I'd rather have Dak. I don't know about Jimmy Garoppolo. I'd probably rather have Mitchell Trubisky even though he looked bad. I think the volume will be there for him.

I don't think the volume will be there for him. They're a running team. Let's see. I'm looking at it. Why is our Stafford? Would you rather have Matthew Stafford than Jameis? I wouldn't. I still think Jameis.

I don't love Jameis, but I still think he has that upside. I'll tell you who the sneaky guy that you the two sneaky guys that might be worth adding. If you're a Jameis owner and you're paranoid about your backup. Andy Dalton, who looked awesome against a pretty good Seattle defense in Zach Taylor's system. John, he unlocked big boss John Ross somehow. I could buy it if AJ Green were there, but he's going to be back eventually. And then Marcus Mariota. Oh, no, he sucks.

He was better than Baker Mayfield yesterday. Yeah, but he's not better than Baker Mayfield. And he's not he's not a better fantasy quarterback than Jameis. I cannot buy the Titans. No, I'm saying grab them as a backup. So Tennessee, they get Indianapolis

in week two. And who was the other guy you said? The other guy to get? Jacoby Brissett. He looked awesome. Yeah, that's a fun one. All right.

Will, thanks for coming on, man. Good first show. That's a short podcast i like it thanks that's all it is man check out the pick six podcast um and will brinson and by the way let me give a shout out to a new a newish podcast app the bullhorn podcast app thank you to them we are the podcast of the week on the bullhorn app and unofficially I heard pick six was actually number two. But FFT. Are you messing? I don't know if you're kidding. Congratulations. Thank you.

I messed up. By the way, you're top ten. You guys are top ten. You've been running hot in top ten in the sports category. So congratulations to that. Well, that's actually a thank you to the listeners. That's what it is. Thank you to the listeners for giving us the reviews and all that.

So, all right, Will, we'll talk to you next Monday. Thanks, man. All right, buddy. And for the first time on the Fantasy Football Today podcast, we're getting some real awesome injury insight and analysis. It's from Dr. David Chow, an injury analyst for Profootballdoc.com. He's well known for his quick diagnosis and assessment of injuries on Twitter, at Profootballdoc.

And Dr. Chow was the San Diego Chargers team doctor for 17 years. So thank you for coming on. We're so excited to have you. Welcome to Fantasy Football today. Thanks a lot for having me on. I appreciate it. Yeah, we spoke last week, and you just have a wealth of knowledge. So can you explain to us?

We spoke personally is what I meant. Can you explain to us what's going on with Tyreek Hill and how long you think he might miss? Well, I always say things make sense in the end. And if they don't make sense, it's because we on the outside don't know the details. So when it was first reported that he injured his shoulder and was taken to the hospital, I was tweeting out, that doesn't make sense to me. I'm not saying they were wrong. It just doesn't make sense.

You rarely send anyone to the hospital. And in my almost two decades, never for a shoulder. As it turns out, he fell on his shoulder, but injured his SC joint, which is the other end of the collarbone, the clavicle away from the shoulder near the sternum or your breastplate. And that joint, SC joint, was dislocated where the end of the clavicle was then shoved in back of the sternum, putting at risk the great vessels and other structures in what we call the mediastinum or behind the mid chest. And that can be an emergency, which is why he was sent to the hospital as a precaution. And he had a reduction procedure, not technically surgery because no one cut on him, but basically someone

pulled on him to pull the clavicle back into place and was kept overnight there. And in theory, he is going back home to Kansas City sometime today. When you read that, were you impressed? What was your reaction? Did you say, oh, wow, that's a great job by the medical staff? Or is that something fairly routine that you're not surprised they got right? Well, a little bit of both. It's not exactly a common injury. There was, it was early 2012, maybe when Danny Amendola was still with the St. Louis, then St. Louis Rams. Those doctors did a case report about this injury. And in their case report, they didn't recognize it until the next day. So it's not always something that you pick up. And it's not a criticism. It's just an observation. But so it's not always recognizable. And I do think they did a good job to make sure that they took good care of him, etc. Because it is an unusual injury. It doesn't happen every week or every month, even across the NFL.

Do you have any idea what kind of timeline we're looking at for Tyreek Hill? What we've seen so far is he could miss several weeks. Well, here's what I said yesterday when it happened. And it was really, whenever you have this with the dislocation, it makes it dicier because you can't risk those vessels behind the chest there. And so I said, there is no way in the world that he will play in September. He would be pretty darn lucky to play any time in October. And let me tell you, injured reserve missing eight weeks and then coming back off injured reserve is on the table. And this morning, Ian Rappaport kind of echoed that saying they haven't made a decision on IR yet, but it's a possibility. And that's kind of where we're at. So certainly not for four weeks, if lucky, maybe in six and hopefully not eight. But that's kind of where we're at.

We have followed the offseason saga of Todd Gurley, who dominated snaps yesterday but did not score. Instead, Malcolm Brown got two touchdowns. Gurley averaged more than seven yards per carry. Did you see anything in him that would lead you to believe anything at all about his health? Yeah. I mean, to me, it was like I've been thinking. You have to remember, even back to the Super Bowl, when there was all this talk and he played a very limited amount, at the game, a stat tracker, whatever the stat is, he was the fastest man on the field that day in terms of miles per hour. And I've been saying all off season, Todd Gurley will be the same Todd Gurley, the same effectiveness, obviously at 14 carries 97 yards, 6.9 yard average, no touchdowns.

Otherwise everyone be hailing it as a, as a great day. So he's the same guy with the same effectiveness, but he will not have the same usage. He had 14 carries and Malcolm Brown had 11 and Malcolm Brown ended up with the two touchdowns. This is about where I see him going forward. The Rams want him there and are smart to want him there in the key moments. But from a fantasy perspective, he's no longer a bell cow running back. He's still a very effective one, just not a bell cow anymore.

Well, a couple of running backs nursing ankle injuries right now are Joe Mixon and Tevin Coleman. We'll get to Coleman in a bit, but I actually want to mix, I want to combine Mixon and Mike Williams. Mixon has an ankle injury. Mike Williams has a knee injury. There's some optimism for both of them that they'll be able to play in week two.

What can you tell us about Mixon and Mike Williams? Well, you know, of course, I'm going off of video. And by video, he got, Mixon got his left foot trapped in standard inversion, low ankle sprain, which does give him a chance to play next week. Not a guarantee, but certainly gives him a reasonable chance. Williams, I looked at his injury. I didn't see a whole lot, which hopefully is good news, means that there's not a whole lot there. I'm not saying he was feigning injury. I'm just saying that I didn't see anything significant that would alert me or alarm me. So hopefully he will be back as well.

Yeah, I hope so. And he's optimistic. I think he said he plans on playing in week two. Tevin Coleman, a little bit more of a long-term injury. And Darius Geis as well. So, man, it was a rough week one for running backs. But Coleman and Geis, are they going to miss significant time? Coleman with an ankle, Geis with a knee.

Well, Coleman has been said that he's going to miss some time. Some, is it significant? Some is in one or two or some is in four or six. Don't know yet. So far, unless your listeners can help me out, I haven't found a particular video that points out where Tevin Coleman's injury was. So it's a little bit of a mystery to me. I don't want to come up with stuff out of thin air. I try and base it off of medical knowledge, etc. As far as Darius Geis, I've been saying all along, I don't know that he looked 100% on his left ACL knee yet. And that would fit with the timeline of recoveries from ACLs, especially one that got infected and had multiple subsequent surgeries.

And I don't know if now with his new injury to his right knee, it was something from compensation or favoring or not, but now with a left knee, that's not a hundred percent. And now something with the right knee. I mean, you might be able to get by with one knee less than a hundred percent, but as a running back in the NFL with both knees at less than 100%, I think he's going to miss a little bit of time here.

The MRI is pending on the right side, but Adrian Peterson is no longer going to be healthy and active anymore. Sure. And, guys, maybe he looked at the schedule and he said, Dallas and Chicago? Yeah, I think maybe I'll take the next couple weeks off. And I don't know how long it's going to be, but Peterson certainly is in play. But when you talk about watching film and seeing that Geis maybe didn't look healthy

coming off that left ACL surgery, what is it that you saw that led you to think that? Well, first of all, it's just opinion. It's looking at video. It's no different than a scout or a GM saying this is my number one pick in the draft versus this is a guy that I don't like. Right. I mean, so there's some opinion in there. Let's not get too overboard with with opinion. But medically, we know that in the Adrian Peterson ACL recovery, getting getting 2000 yards in the next season is the abnormal, not the normal. And usually, let's look at Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook, I said at the beginning of last year, would not necessarily have a banner year, and he didn't. And he ended up with a compensation hamstring injury.

He was down. But all offseason here, I've been saying he's my sleeper pick, as we discussed in a couple weeks ago. He's my sleeper pick, as we discussed in a couple weeks ago. He's my sleeper pick to light it up this year, and obviously, he did pretty well in week one. That's just one week, obviously, but you know, Darius Geis in the third preseason game played a whole half, and he had 11 carries for 44 yards, four-yard carry average. And he had some good runs, but there were spots where I felt like he didn't look explosive and he didn't want to stick his left foot into the ground to, and on one carry in particular, I believe it was the third, if not fourth carry, he bounced out to the

left and his outer leg where he would need to plant to really definitively cut it up field. That was his interest. He didn't really do that. And so that led me to believe that he's not 100%. That doesn't mean that he couldn't play. Obviously the Redskins felt he could play and who knows why he didn't perform well. Maybe it was the other knee,

but to me it was clear he wasn't 100%. Yeah. That's really interesting. As you see things that obviously we would never see, so I love that insight. Alright, Doc, I've got a couple more guys for you. They're both quarterbacks. They hopefully have minor injuries. Mahomes hurt his ankle, and then he came back in,

and he obviously was amazing against Jacksonville. And Baker Mayfield had tests done on his wrist, and I haven't seen anything bad. I think the results were encouraging, but what do you know about Mahomes and Mayfield right now? I think you've got to watch out on both of these guys here. I'm not saying doom or gloom.

I think you need to watch out. Maybe more so on Mahomes. Mahomes, by video, had a high ankle-type sprain. It wasn't necessarily severe. It wasn't A.J. Green-like. But it's in the same family of injury, a high ankle sprain on the left. He had it taped and he finished the game. To me, it looked like he got stiffer as the game went on,

and he still got it done because he's just a supreme talent. He wasn't stepping into throws, but he has the arm strength to follow through. Maybe being hypercritical, one or two throws were a little high because he didn't follow through, but he has the ability to keep playing, and I think he will, but don't be surprised if he misses some practice time. Don't be surprised if he's not his mobile self for the next few weeks. This is a high ankle sprain variance.

So to slough it off as just an ankle sprain, the way Andy Reid portrayed it, I don't think is exactly correct. So it's just something to watch. And as for Baker Mayfield, Reed portrayed it, I don't think is exactly correct. So it's just something to watch. And as for Baker Mayfield, there was talk about a contusion of his wrist, etc. It's just a bruise, so to speak. But the rap that he had leaving included his thumb. And that's what has me worried. The play that he heard it on apparently was the safety, but I couldn't see much on video once again, because it was sort of a pile of bodies.

But from my perspective, whenever the thumb is involved in a wrap, especially on the throwing handle of a quarterback, I'm concerned because obviously that affects grip, your ability to spin the ball, which translates to accuracy. I am not blaming the thumb for the three interceptions in the fourth quarter, but certainly three interceptions in one quarter down the road after this thumb-slash-wrist injury raises some questions. So we'll just have to keep an eye on that. I'd like to blame the thumb on the three interceptions. It would be a nice, convenient excuse.

Final question. You mentioned Mahomes' ankle, and if it is a high ankle sprain and he might have some trouble for the next few weeks being mobile, is that something that he can play through and it will still heal and eventually, you know, he'll get that mobility back or does he need to rest to really heal it? Well, you know, if he plays through, he runs the risk of tweaking it, making it worse, right? But I'm sure the Chiefs will make the right decision for him. And knowing Mahomes, look, yesterday, he had enough of a high ankle sprain to warrant sitting out. You saw him

limping around there, but that kid just isn't going to do it. And the coaching staff and the team, I think, were smart. They gave him some good protection, and he became a really effective pocket quarterback as opposed to his usual dynamic self running around out there. So I think he can continue to play, but he's going to have to change his game a little bit to, to suit, you know, the limitations of his ankle and to not make it worse. But you know, this isn't going to be season long. It's probably going to affect him the rest of this month, but come October barring any setback, hopefully it'll be behind him.

That's Dr. David Chow. Follow him on Twitter, at ProFootballDoc. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for the time. All right, let's get nerdy on fantasy football today. Let's talk about snap counts and routes run.

And they're not like advanced stats. They're just stats. Let's get statistical. With Chris Towers, you need some statistical music. What would statistical music sound like? I know what it's going

to sound like. I just need you to talk while I get my iPad out and find the song. I'm hoping it's like... I was thinking just like the sound of a calculator. Maybe things being typed into that. I'm not exactly sure where you're going. She blinded me with science, maybe.

Oh, that's not a bad idea. So while I look this up, although you may have just topped me with she blinded me with science, what was the most interesting statistic you came across this week, this weekend? The most interesting statistic that I came across this week, this weekend? The most interesting statistic that I came across this week, it might have been Devin Singletary's usage. I'm not sure exactly how it happened because I didn't get to see

every single snap of this game, but he played, I believe, 48 snaps for the Buffalo Bills. He had four carries and six targets. He ran 36 routes. He was on the field all of the time for them. He was on the field early. He was on the field late. He didn't get a carry, I believe, until the second half of that game, but when he did, he really helped them move the ball. And I just think it's a great, great sign that he was on a route 82% of the time on Josh Allen's dropbacks, including four routes out of the slot

and eight split out wide. That's a really good sign. They trusted him immediately. Yeah, well, they didn't trust him until the second half, basically, at least on the ground. Yeah, but that was one of my biggest takeaways is that he changed the game. So we talked about it with willer earlier in this show we talked about it yesterday arrow pointing up for devin

singletary for sure just uh getting my internet connection flowing here on the ipad all right let's go through some snap counts for some backfields and just talked about todd girley with dr chow todd gir 70% of the snaps. Malcolm Brown, 27%. Daryl Henderson, 2%. That's pretty good. You know, if he had just gotten the goal line work, I'd feel perfectly fine about Todd Gurley. Yeah, basically, Malcolm Brown played three drives

in this game. He got the one early touchdown where he had, I think it was Kim Newton was sacked, he fumbled, and the Rams got the ball on the 10. He got two carries and scored the touchdown. He had another drive where he got all the touches and scored. And then he had another drive where I think he got three carries at the beginning of the drive and then didn't touch the ball again. That was basically all Malcolm Brown did. So the question question is did they bring him in inside of the 10 when they got the ball there because they don't want Gurley to be working inside of the 10

because later on in the game when Gurley looked awesome they took him out again late in the drive and it was Daryl Henderson the only time he got on the field, was one carry inside of the 10, and then I think the Gerald Everett touchdown was Daryl Henderson was on the field for. Todd Gurley did get one carry in the red zone. It was from the 11-yard line, and it was called back for an offensive holding, but he got 70% of the snaps.

And the routes. The routes run. 29 routes. Yeah, right. I think he was the only he might not have been the only rams running back to run around but it was something like close to 90 percent of uh jared goff's dropbacks todd girley was out there for yeah that's good stuff i mean it's encouraging for girley just get him some damn touchdowns here's your music see if we can get it let's talk stats

let's get let's get data here uh friend of nerds song yes how did you know that good for you It was perfect. Yes. You know, Point Dexter on the violin there went on to be the home run hitter, the best player on the team in Little Big League. Okay, let's move on. Other backfields where you thought the snap count was particularly relevant.

How about the Chiefs with Damian Williams getting 66% of the snaps and McCoy 29%, Darwin Thompson barely playing, but McCoy was a lot better on the ground. So what do you make of that? Yeah, it was interesting. And this is one of those games where it might be hard to say exactly how much that split matters because LeSean McCoy had been on the team

for six days, seven days. But Damian Williams did get 66% of the snaps to 29% for Leshawn McCoy. And Damian Williams also dominated the passing downs. I think Leshawn McCoy ran like eight routes. So for the most part in the passing game, it was Damian Williams. So if you're telling me Damian Williams is going to get something close to two thirds of the snaps in the best offense in the NFL and get most of the passing downs work. And I think he got most of the goal line work. He scored that short touchdown, and I think he had a carry inside the five on that drive as well. That sounds like someone who could be a borderline number one running back to me.

It's just what LeSean McCoy's role will be as he gets more comfortable. Yeah, and you're singing a different tune than what the guys were saying yesterday on the show. I'm not sure if all three of them were feeling that way, but I sort of felt like they swung a little bit too far in LeSean McCoy's favor and were downgrading Damian Williams a little bit too much, especially since he had six catches. And that role in this offense is just so important. When you look at Seattle and you look at the Chargers,

both Chris Carson and Austin Eckler had about 75% of the work. The Falcons, or the Snaps, the Snaps. The Falcons, Devontae Freeman 50% and Ido Smith 50%. But Freeman dominated the carries early in the game. And then he fumbled. Yeah, this was such a weird game, too, just from both sides. I'm not sure how much we can even take away

from the Falcons or the Vikings in this one. Yeah, they split the work. Ido Smith got a lot late, but... I don't know, man. That seemed like just a weird game. They were down 28-0, I think, entering the fourth quarter. They scored two late touchdowns.

I'm not 100% sure that we can take anything away, except that Ito Smith clearly does have a role. There was some concern after maybe the first preseason game or the second preseason game that maybe Brian Hill was coming to take that backup job. It's Ito Smith, and we know this is a team that's going to use two running backs. I don't think it'll be 50-50 moving forward, but if it's 65-35, there could be enough there for Edo to be a flex play. What I didn't realize as the game was unfolding was that Freeman fumbled and then Smith got a lot of work. But I try to go back and look. I mean, I want to say something like the first six or seven carries went to davante freeman over several possessions and i was surprised by that but something to kind

of keep an eye on here and then before we go to just some other notes about routes run and things of that nature was there any other backfield where you looked at the snaps played and said whoa what's that all about the patriots i don't know if you guys got to this on Sunday night's podcast, but Sonny Michel was technically fourth amongst backs because James Devlin did play 46%, but it was 47% for James White. That's not surprising. Rex Burkhead got 46%, and he was in the game early. It wasn't just like he got in the game because it was a blowout. Sonny Michel ended up playing just 33% of the snaps.

Now you put all that together and the Patriots did have multiple running backs on the field for quite a few plays. There was actually a note. They ran 25 plays yesterday with no tight end on the field. They ran 24 all of last season, which is kind of incredible. Well, I will just say this about Burkhead. He's 5% owned. He had eight carries, 44 yards, five catches, 41 yards,

but six of his carries of the eight, six of the eight came in the second half. So in terms of the work, like Sonny Michel, Sonny Michel was awful, 15 carries for 14 yards, but I think the score had something to do with the snap count and the carries for Burkhead. But man, you can't keep screwing up like that if you're Sonny Michel. That's you got to be on high alert there. OK, what else we got here? We got Josh Allen,

four drop passes by the Bills. So that didn't help him. Continued. That was an issue in college for him. It was an issue last season. They did upgrade the wide receiving core, but maybe he throws the ball real hard. It could be a little hard to catch. Maybe. And the pick six was a drop. Cam Newton only attempted one pass beyond 20 yards. Weird.

And Will already talked about Dak Prescott being able to throw deep, but he was five of six on deep passes and just so, so improved there. Running back notes, Le'Veon Bell ran 46 routes. He played every snap. Adam Gates is a liar.

Yeah, all coaches are. Coaches lie. Looked us in the eyes with those weird eyes and lied to our faces. Yeah, absolutely. Coaches lie all the time. It's ridiculous. And then your wide receiver notes. Sterling Shepard played a lot out of the slot, 35 slot routes. I don't know.

What does that mean to you? Well, it may not mean anything for Week 2. I don't know if you saw the note, but he may have a concussion. Oh, I didn't see that. They're putting him through the protocol now, so that'll be something to watch. But it's interesting because that was what we assumed golden tate's role would be on this team and he suspended for the first four games of the season

but it'll be interesting to see because those are going to be you know easier plays to make for eli manning especially because he's not the strongest passer in the world uh and you would think you know maybe a few more efficient routes for Sterling Shepard out of the slot than trying to win out wide. Curtis Samuel only ran 21 routes. I did see that, but he played 74% of the snaps for the Titans, Corey Davis. That's the most of any non-quarterback or offensive lineman. No other wide receiver played more than 49% of the snaps. That was Tajay Sharp. A.J. Brown played 43%. So, you know, he was on the field a lot, didn't run a ton of routes.

They must not have thrown the ball that much, and he didn't have a catch. And just to be clear, you said Curtis Samuel. That's Corey Davis. Oh. They only threw the ball 24 times. Corey Davis, sorry. Really bad game for Corey Davis. I benched Sammy Watkins for Corey Davis.

Today League, which was the worst possible decision you could have made for week one. So that was really fun. Yeah, I don't know. The fact that he was still, Corey Davis was so dominant in terms of routes run compared to the rest of the team does make me think that things will be better moving forward. Uh, but for me, it's more tempering expectations for Brown,

who only ran 43% of the snap, uh, routes then, you know, a good sign for Corey Davis. Maybe Brown is at least the third wide receiver that you'd want to go get among the rookies, Terry McLaurin and Marquise Brown ahead of him. Excuse me. Wrong. You forgot about DK Metcalf. Sure. Sure.

Yes. There you go. Among the guys who had 100 yards. I don't think DK Metcalf had 100. He had 89. He set a record for a Seattle rookie. I think it was a rookie record for most in the game, but maybe it couldn't have been most in a week. Maybe it was a week one thing, but...

It was most in week one. Steve Largent. Steve Largent. He showed up wearing a Steve Largent jersey at the game, which is an incredible flex by DK Metcalf. The way they talk about Metcalf in Seattle, and they talk about everybody that way. That's what Pete Carroll

does, but everybody seems to be talking about Metcalf this Seattle, and they talk about everybody that way. That's what Pete Carroll does, but everybody seems to be talking about Metcalf this way, is the way the Vikings were talking about Stefan Diggs when he had a breakout game as a rookie and nobody really knew about him. So I'm excited. Did Metcalf look a lot better than I certainly expected him to look? Like he had, you know, it wasn't just go routes,

which was the kind of knock on him. He had a really nice, uh, like 15, 20 yard gain on a slant, um, flexed after every single catch that he made, which if I looked like him,

I would do the same thing. He's got the attitude that we know. All right, Chris. Uh, Hey, this was fun, wasn't it?

Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was a fun, fun little segment. All right. We're going to play you out with some music. That's Chris Towers. Thanks a lot to Dr. David Chow, to Will Brinson.

Hope you enjoyed this Monday special. Have a nice commute home, and we'll get you with the waiver wire on Tuesday. And if you haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds, go see Revenge of the Nerds. It holds up. Later, everybody. and if you haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds go see Revenge of the Nerds it holds up later everybody