NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - NFL Week 2 Rookie Report: BEST and WORST Rookie Performances

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers give you their second episode of Rookie Report! We go the BEST rookie performances in Week 2 of the NFL Regular Season. We also go into our top Rookie Surprises (good and bad) from week 2. We end by taking some burning questions from the addicts! APOLOGIES!!!! We had technical difficulties and had to end to show early.Subscribe and help us get to 100k subs! It's 100% free and helps us out a bunch. Thanks!WE HAVE A DISCORD!!!!! JOIN HERE! https://discord.gg/AjqamEUyEWhttps://discord.gg/AjqamEUyEW?feature=descriptionif the link doesn't work for you, just search 'NFLStockExchange' on discord and it'll pop uptimestamps: 0:00 Intro 5:04 Rankings Reveal 6:13 Austin Barber, OG Browns 9:23 Hezekiah Masses, CB Raiders 13:13 Dillon Thieneman, S Bears 15:46 Denziel Boston, WR Browns 21:11 Kahlil Benson, OT Chiefs 24:38 Emmett Johnson, RB Chiefs 28:15 Eli Raridon, TE Patriots 29:13 Nate Boerkircher 30:49 Monroe Freeling, OT Panthers 32:15 Germie Bernard, WR Steelers 35:00 Jake Slaughter, C Chargers 37:00 Big Tux Finally Got Us... Follow us on X:https://x.com/NFLSEshowhttps://x.com/TampaBayTrehttps://x.com/ConnorJRogersWe appreciate each and every one of you ADDICTS :)For business or other inquiries, reach us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did you see the Sam Levitt preparation graphic? Oh my god, the chef has it. Hold on, hold on, the chef has it. Nine and a half to 10 hours of sleep, including naps, EQ flux, electric wave, and full body flush. Systemic energy or relaxation bands. Organic food, and then in parentheses it says, Chef, concentrated seawater. This is where you lose.

And in parentheses, it says magnesium. Light said his bed is, and probably looks like the place they gave Captain America his super soldier serum. What happened to just go into Olive Garden the night before a big game? What happened to Little Caesars? That'd be my readiness routine for a game. It would just be one bullet point. Little Caesars and in parentheses, meat, lones.

Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange show. Trevor Secondman and Connor Rogers with you guys. On a Monday during the NFL season, which means it is time for the rookie report. Changing things up a little bit. took some constructive criticism and feedback from the attic. So we were doing sort of a yearly look at, well, at least I was. You were doing a little bit more of a short-term look for offensive defensive rookie of the year to try to have a good structure to talk about all these rookies.

But we're switching it up. What we're going to do is we're going to give away our offensive and defensive rookie of the week honor so it can actually empower us to kind of talk about the performances that we just saw this week. But it's not just proclaiming who the winners are. We're going to give you our top threes, top fives, honorable mentions, all that good stuff. We'll still have a surprise rookie, a rookie that really surprises in a good way. And then also a surprise rookie performance that was not so great here in week two.

Or maybe it's just a week one and week two combination for that one. Connor, how we doing, my friend? Feeling good. Feeling good. It was good. I do, we always try to adjust on the fly. And with this, what matters is right now. We were discussing that like a midseason rookie of the year actual check-in is something

that we would love to do. But this is a format that gives us a way to shout out more players. And that's always the goal of the show is that you guys don't hear the same exact topics week in and week out. And we know this show especially is the audience base is deep in the weeds. Like they want to hear about the fifth rounder that popped off for their team and it's a surprise starter. They want to hear about the UDFA that all of a sudden is an important player on their

team. And I think going through it week by week when we're doing rookie report is. you know, a way to give everybody a little bit of love. I think that that's just more true to the exercise of what we were doing. Because like last week, you know, I was doing it more of a long-term look. So it's like, okay, I still have Rubin Bain and I have a Reese at the top, even though they didn't really do anything or didn't really have good week. Mendoza hasn't played.

Yeah. And so it's like, okay, it just, it wasn't the best way to do it. And as you guys know on the show, we're very transparent. We're always very malleable. I feel like that's the theme word that we've had over the last couple weeks. And pliable. Yeah, truly. So what we're doing is we're switching it up a little bit.

We're going to talk about these guys in a different light. Buddy, really quick, before we get into the rookies, our teams did not have Curtis in the office. What happened? I missed it. Lord. The Jets grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. That's right. That's exactly what it was.

I guess the Panthers. and the Buccaneers lost the Browns. Yeah, the Deshaun Watson led Browns, by the way. They did something that nobody has done in a couple of years. They made Deshawn Watson look like a capable starting NFL quarterback again. That is a wild resurrection. I'm biting my tongue right now. That's beyond Game of Thrones sorcery.

Meanwhile, if I'm going to fire shots that way, Aaron Glenn. he he woke up today it's still dependent his decisions oh man it's tough man it's tough the game the game is too difficult at the pro level for you to not take advantage of every advantage that you possibly can and uh there are some coaches that just sort of refuse to do that in a lot of ways. Honestly, like Todd Bowles was that way yesterday as well. Todd Bowles had an opportunity where it was like, hey, man, it's a fourth and two. You're going to go for this, right? Right. And they kicked the field goal and it ended up obviously not mattering at all that they kicked the field goal and they should have gone for it. And so it's, you need a head coach

that is going to be able to give you a plus in the margins when it comes to decision making. But this podcast, not just therapeutic session for our two teams here with the Bucks and the Jets. We're going to talk about a lot of teams. We're going to talk about a lot of rookies. Connor, I will let you kick it off first with maybe some honorable mentions because I had a little bit more time this morning. So I was able to get five and five for each one of these categories. Well, flex, flex God. But to be honest with you, like, your honorable mentions are probably just the five.

So it was just set up a little bit differently between the two of us. So I actually don't know exactly what the animation is. Is it just all going to release? It might be a giant title wave. Okay, all right. The chef that our producer is telling us that it's all just going to release it once. So let's release all this stuff at once. And then we can kind of talk about the most interesting points here.

So, wow, look at that. We both have Denzel Boston as our rookie of the week here in that number one spot for the offensive rookie of the week award. But I don't want to go too far down from here because I want to kind of of work our way back up. You've got Austin Barber as the honorable mention here for the Cleveland Browns. You also have Spencer Fano there at your three spots. So talk about the Browns offensive linemen, the rookie offensive lineman, and how you felt like they played yesterday.

Well, they didn't allow any pressures. So when you see that, you know, kind of jump out on the advanced stats before you jump into the tape, you love to see that. And it kind of explains how Deshaun Watson was able to have the day he had. and of course it's a giant trickle effect of Denzel Boston having a, having a really good day, you know, as a receiver. And we've had real big questions about how this Brown's passing attack was going to be able to do anything this year.

And when you could protect up front, anybody's got a shot. And when you could protect up front on the backs of two rookies, I mean, you got to tip your cap to them because we know what they drafted Spencer Fano to do. And those expectations are justifiably massive. but to also get that from, you know, when they took Austin Barber in the third round, I think it went actually a little under the radar because the Browns, we knew before the entire offseason even started, that they had to kind of remake their offensive line.

And you and I had a lot of discussions of like, that is really hard to do in one off season, counting the pro market and counting the NFL draft no matter how many picks you have. And they played Barber at right guard. where obviously you look at his draft profile, you know, more of a tackle profile. So for him to have that kind of clean sheet and pass pro is really, really impressive.

I think that, yes, there are things that, you know, growing pains that these guys will have in the run game. And you know that with both of their playstiles coming out of college. But if they can give you a clean sheet and pass pro, each playing on a different side, it really, really just gave the offense such a shot in the arm. and I'm not surprised about it with Spencer Fano. I give Austin Barber a lot of credit, man,

for kicking inside and being all to hold his ground. So shout out to the Browns. That's not only good coaching, but good scouting as well to have that kind of day in week two from two rookie offensive linemen. I thought it was kind of difficult to pick some offensive standout players this week. It was more difficult than it was last week. Ugly.

I watched both of these guys as well. I do think that they had good. I thought they had fine weeks. I did. So you picking them, especially because they didn't give up anything that was terrible, which is often job number one as a rookie, just don't have those catastrophic failures. I think you could see that as a win. They were able to neutralize a Buccaneers defensive line that we have now back-to-back

weeks where, okay, the Bucks offensive, their defensive line is not what we thought that it was good. There's questions now. When you get it almost shut out by this group and I don't think both of these guys dominated, like I said, they weren't. They didn't really do a lot in the run game. But for them to not be liabilities at all in pass protection against the bucks is, you're right.

It raises your eye and you're concerned about the bucks up front because this is two weeks now. But the fact that they're ready to both play this early and play efficiently in a week or weak offensively, I thought there was a lot of guys on my defensive list that I was like, ooh, I kind of want to talk about him. I kind of want to talk about him. It was a more shallow pool offensively. Yeah, like I'm getting yelled. that in the comments right now because I don't have Hezekiah Massis in my rankings at all. He was the next guy that I had in.

Well, I guess we can't bounce around if you want. You gave Hezai Mascus, you gave Hezai Massis your defensive rookie of the week. He had a really good week, especially on the stat sheet. He had five total tackles. He had four solo tackles. He had a tackle for loss. He had a pass defended. And when I went back and I watched him, I saw a lot of the things that I liked about him.

I had him as a top 100 player coming into this class. Yeah, yeah. I thought Massis was in the right scheme with him playing a lot of off coverage stuff. I felt as though he could really be an impactful player. And it's great to see him standing out early on. I don't mean to be a hater for somebody that I feel like I was a champion for before the draft season. But I went back and I watched all of his snaps from this past week. And the good was really good.

but there were also, sure, I thought a good amount of snaps where he wasn't as close as he needed to be, he wasn't as sticky as he needed to be. And I think that was just an anticipation thing. That's totally fine. But just wanted to be clear, like, I recognize the good week that I Kazakaya Mass has had. But the reason why I had him a little bit lower after watching all of his snaps is, yes, the statistical stuff was definitely there. But I thought it was, I thought it was more of an up and down week than some people are saying in the chat from him. Well, because he was targeted six or seven times. There you go, kids. Chew on that one. Nice. But, and you're right, it's not a perfect day. Like, there was times where he got beat or he was a little far away, whether he was, you know, kind of dropping in zone.

But I just gave him a massive amount of credit for the second interception. Because the first one was a tip to play and arguably just a bad play by the offense. Right. First one doesn't really count. Second one was awesome. Second one is a phenomenal. football play with game on the line kind of stuff and or like the pivotal moments of finishing a game and I thought he was a instinctual I thought he was aggressive in a place where a lot of rookies

are you know kind of questioning is that the time to be aggressive so I definitely uneven day but when you have that kind of moment he's my defensive rookie of the week because that's big time stuff especially for a guy that was taken in the fifth round of the draft and going against a passing offense that, yeah, the Chargers have a lot of problems right now. But if you told somebody three weeks ago, like, you know, he's going to have to play against the Chargers passing attack. You're like, ah, it makes me a little nervous. But credit to him, confident. Really, really great play of reading the quarterback, sitting on the quarterback, and moving backwards and then charging, clicking and closing forward.

So, and you know, Rister. I see Ryster and Shere like, Uneven Day, Y'all Wilden. He's my defensive rookie of the week. Yeah, right. You were, you gave him the award. Pat Sertan has uneven days. Corner is probably the hardest defensive job in the entire NFL right now. So I'm not going to put him on an all pro spot yet,

but I was really, really impressed and thought he, because of some of the big plays, he stood out above everyone else. Yeah. So you got him at number one. He's got your defensive rookie of the week on her here. I guess we'll just mention mine because now we've talked about the guys who we both had Denzel Boston. Well, I guess we didn't touch on Denzel Boston yet.

touch on him in a second. But, well, okay, chef. All right, okay, all right, okay, all right. Okay, okay, all right. The chef is trying to read our mind here, and he's trying to get ahead of things with the graphics. He's running a tight control room. He is.

Like camera five, and he's just screaming at somebody imaginary in the controller. I'm too loose about it. My defensive rookie at the week is Dylan Thieneman. And not only did I think that Dylan Thieneman had a really good week this week. I also thought that he had a really good week last week as well. I didn't really get to watch all of his snaps from last week, but I watched all of his snaps from week one and week two this morning.

He's already playing at an incredibly high level. They have him at single high. They have him as a strong safety in the box. They have him as a slot defender. They're asking Dylan Thineman to do a lot. And what I love the most about him is that he has made so many plays. So many of his tackles already are in wide open space. Like it's not even, okay, I'm attacking the pocket.

I've got a linebacker or a defensive lineman next to me. It's kind of a gang tackle thing. He is doing what he did. Oregon that was so impressive where he is coming downhill from a deep alignment meeting ball ball carriers in space where they have all the room in the world to put a move on him and make him miss and he was coming down with tackles now hasn't been perfect i think he has one mistackle maybe two i can't remember but to me the good play is far outweigh the bad and when you watch all of what dylan theanman is doing from a snap to snap basis yes he didn't have like these

crazy interceptions or force fumbles or sacks or the common stack sheet isn't as impressive with him but go watch all of his snaps and he is a force any time he is around the ball and he puts himself around the ball a lot so to me he has been the consistent playmaker in what he is asked to do in a variety of different alignments i have loved what i have seen already from dylan then and i think the early returns on him are fantastic i was i was shocked that he was picked as late as he was in the draft, I thought he was one of the top 10 players in the class. And to me, he is already playing like it two weeks into the season. And it's a good shout by you, especially the importance put on his shoulders after they lost

Kobe Bryant. Because when I looked at this team after the offseason, I said, man, that could be the best safety duo in football within two years. And when you lose the big veteran edition, you get, it only puts more responsibility on the men's shoulders. And that was my big question about him coming out of college is he's fearless. He's a great athlete. Sometimes he would head downhill against the outside run and the physicality would just be a little bit too much for him. But what you got to remember with a guy that was a three-year player in college, he's

still getting bigger and stronger and he's already got the mindset. So a lot of those things are, you know, on the right trajectory and do get better at the NFL level. Yeah, love the way that he played so far this week. Let's talk about Denzel Boston. Jeff will get to it. Throw up the Denzel Boston graphic. This is the player that you and I had as our number one offensive player,

winner of offensive rookie of the week for both of us. He had five receptions, 95 yards, almost a 20.0 yards per reception average, had that receiving touchdown. He also almost had another touchdown that was knocked away at the very last second by Benjamin Morrison in that game. Denzel Boston is, we talked about this when he was drafted. And then also we kind of have talked about this a little bit leading into the season. Denzel Boston maybe wasn't going to lead the team in targets, depending on how they really wanted to use Casey Concepcion.

But there were specific targets for Denzel Boston. When you look at the depth chart, you go, he's kind of the only receiver that's going to get these targets. Big slot targets, Harold Fannickety, some of them, but X receiver targets, a lot of the slot red zone fade targets those kinds of and you know we've seen over the last couple of weeks they're not afraid to send him vertical they're not afraid to let him let a rip and get 20 plus yards down the field so Boston so far through two weeks has been the go-to guy in the brown's passing game and i thought that this week versus a variety of different corners that tampa bay tried to cover him with he did excellent against all those guys and i mean he he barely missed out on a

a 100-yard two-touchdown game. Because like I said, like, if it weren't for Benjamin Morrison at the last second knocking that ball out of his hands, that would have been his stat sheet there. So great week from Denzel Boston. And it's really the second week in a row that he's been able to stand out. Yeah, he looks real. I mean, I'm not going to lie. It's only two weeks into their careers.

But I sit there and I go, man, because I had the- He's Randy Moss. Yeah, yeah. I was going to go with Terrell-Ones. No, yeah, I'm right there with you. Yeah, some sort of combination of both those guys. But it's one of those ones where I sat there and I go all draft season. I just kept saying, I think I like this guy like a little bit more than Mackay Lemon.

And then I don't put him over McKay Lemon on the big board. And it's a cowardly move. But I had him 22nd. I had McKayleven 21st. And but this is a good example of a guy of why it's easier at times to gravitate towards bigger wide receivers in today's NFL. And him going over the middle and running through. through contact and breaking tackles while finishing at the catch point on that 55-yard touchdown yesterday. It just gives your offense a different edge when you have receivers that'll do that.

Obviously, all the tight ends are doing that. But, yeah, Boston, he can play above the rim. He can go over the middle of the field in the really, really scary areas of the field. He has the profile of an outside number one wide receiver. Now, he has a long ways to go before he establishes himself as that. But man, you got to feel really, really good if you're a Browns fan about this guy being a big answer for you in your wide receiver room for the future. Yeah. Optimisticos fan said he's Moss and Owens combined.

Yeah, that's good. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Not a little bit of each. He's both of those guys combined. Really quickly, Kevin's asking, would you rather have Boston or stribling in dynasty for fantasy football leagues? I would still rather have stribling.

Interesting. Just because it's a better offense, right? I think Boston is just way too much of a better player. I don't close for me in the draft. I don't know how much I would say that given their landing spots at this point. Because Stribling is going to have good opportunity when he gets back from injury this year. He has Brock Purdy as his quarterback. He has Kyle Shanahan as his offensive play caller.

The Browns, I love Munkin, and we can say that they're going to draft the quarterback. they're going to have another quarterback in there. I would say stripling, not because I think he's far and away better of a talent that Denzel Boston. I just trust the situation way more. Yeah, I get that. That's why I would say stripling.

But it sounds like you would say Boston. History is on your side with the recent history of the Browns offense and Kyle Shanahan since he took over in 2017, the receiving production. But I don't know. The pendulum swung a little too far one way for stribling for me.

And I know that's a high. hot take now because it felt like by July, the fantasy community had anointed him. And I know he's hurt, so it's easy to say this now. I just, I'm, and yes, having Kyle Shanahan as your play caller is going to help. I just thought it went a little overboard at some point. I didn't. I love stribling. I know you do.

Yeah, but you had Boston as a top 21 player. I did. No, no, no. 100% I did. I'm not trying to say like I would have taken D'Son's stripling over Denzel Boston. when it came to the real draft. I would have absolutely, if you put Denzel Boston where Deshaun's stribling is,

like if the situation's exactly the same, I'd rather have Denzo Boston, 100%. But the situation is too different for me right now with so much unknown in Cleveland for so many years that I would take scribbling just because of the landing spot. And I think that stribling is a good receiver. Okay. Okay, so you have Khalil Benson.

from Kansas City at number two. Let me pull up my notes. I'll let you go off about Colette Benson. Because I did not, I had another Chiefs player at number two. I actually had Emma Johnson at number two. Nice. Bill Benson filling in at left tackle for Josh Simmons, who is not starting in this game.

What did you think about Benson? Let's talk about it here. I mean, this is just crazy at this point. I mean, having to do what he did after being a U.S. UDFA and step in and be the chief's left tackle. And you see the numbers from Sunday night football, 80 offensive snaps and what was a wild game. Mahomes at Kelsey turned back the clock. I thought Mahomes looked really good throwing in this game after he really didn't have to week one.

And when he did, it wasn't great. And that's understandable coming off the injury he suffered. But Benson, when you're starting a UDFA to open the season at left tackle. and you know one of your early games could be a shootout, you're really just asking the guy to not sink your offense. And he got beat a couple times in Pass Pro, of course. But he's moving people in the run game. He looks calm and confident.

I'm just blown away by him not only, like you're really just hoping for mediocrity. and I think he was a solid player for them these first two weeks. Yeah. Go ahead, Trev. I was just kidding. I didn't mean, I need me to cut you up.

I thought you were, I thought you were just, hey, solid player, there we go. Boom. I'm into the state. He's factoring into the run game for this offense that is very,

very run heavy. And this is a run game too that, you know, it's not just like, hey, be the bigger, stronger guy. They're running a lot of zone,

obviously. And I think he's shining in zone. I mean, there's some real standout plays, both an inside and outside zone for him when this guy was not really any kind of topic of conversation in the NFL draft. And that's why he ended up being a UDFA. Yeah. And honestly, that's, I sort of had him in that honorable mention category because I thought he was, you mentioned it, and I'm with you 100% of the way. His zone reps were awesome. The outside zone, the outside zone run reps, the inside zone run reps were really.

nice. He was able to get off the ball and when they wanted to move the line of scrimmage and the rushing lanes horizontally, I thought that he executed that at a very, very good level. The pass protection stuff and the true like downhill run game, not nearly as effective, but I think that the chiefs realized that they needed to run more zone stuff because he was probably executing that a lot better in practice. So they made that a mainstay of their game plan. Kenneth Walker is obviously good about it. Back-to-back weeks of him looking incredible. But he was an honorable mention for me because I'm glad that you just shouted out the fact that he was great on those zone rushing schemes.

The rest of it, I wasn't as hot on. That's why I didn't make my top five. But I like the shout out here because for an undrafted free agent to come in in your second game starting at left tackle in the NFL, it's pretty good. It's pretty dang good. So he at least deserves the shout out here for his performance this week. I had another Chiefs player number two for me. One of my favorites. Yeah, mine was Emmett Johnson.

And Emmett Johnson didn't have a huge week. Two carries, 15 rushing yards, two receptions, 20 yards. But I was so impressed with his confidence. And every time that he was on the field, he felt like a difference-making presence. And for the Chiefs specifically, Kevin Kenneth Walker, obviously amazing in and of his. itself were them to also be able to put this guy in the game, especially in the more obvious

passing situations, second and long, third down responsibilities, and to know that this is not just a third down back who happens to be on the roster because he's our best past protector and we can't really trust him with anything else. They can run whatever they want with Emmett Johnson. And he has shown them that. His playmaking was he is in space, forcing mistackles, being able to take off the threat that he is. I watched so many, I don't want to say so many. I watched a handful of plays from him in week two

where he was the back next to Mahomes and the shotgun. And they send him off in the flat as, I don't even think a decoy, like a legitimate threat to get the football. And the defense has to pay attention to it because they know the playmaker that this guy is. And when he fires off into the flat, it's a legitimate threat.

So when he talk about these concepts that are, okay, we're reading the flat route first and then it could be, I don't know, some sort of an out route, a comeback, whatever, like some sort of high, low combination where you're watching one defender and wondering, okay, is he going to commit to the flat? Is he going to sink deeper? You're reading that as short of the passing concept there. Emmett Johnson's the legitimate threat. He's not just somebody who's out there as a decoy to try to get somebody else open. So again, it's a quiet day from him on the stat sheet. But when I went back and watched all of his snaps, I loved what I saw. I thought it was very, very impactful. And I thought it meant a lot in the little areas to the Kansas City Chiefs being a better

offense and even winning that game that we saw on Sunday night football. So I like what I saw already from Emmett Johnson. I think they're going to lean into him into him in a big way this year. That was the thing when Emma Johnson at Nebraska, he had the big year run in the football. But I thought what mattered as his prospect profile, because obviously the testing didn't go the way he wanted it to. and he was a factor at all three levels of the field in their past game. And there's just not a lot of college backs that you see them running the wheel or you see them working down the field and tracking the ball over their shoulder

or off the screen game in space he could make people miss. And when you're asked to handle that in college, it gives you such a leg up as a rookie in the NFL compared to a lot of guys that can't get on the field because they didn't do any past game work in college. And it's a really interesting test for you're, I don't think you're getting immense upside with him as a rusher. But that's why the chiefs took him in the fifth round. They paid Kenneth Walker a billion dollars to be their incredible running back. Not quite.

It is still the running back market. Even though it's going up, it's not quite a billion. It's just a shade under a billion. Shout out to Dan Moore. But yeah, it's why it's so easy to like a player like this because you just not. know exactly what they bring to the table to your stable of running backs. Yep. So I think we touched on your offensive guys.

So I'll kind of run through the rest of the offensive guys that I have here. I had Eli Rairden at my number three spot. Now, he didn't play the whole game. That was my only problem. I thought the tape that he played was good. I thought the tape that he played this week was good. I thought the tape that he played last week was good, too. So I know what we're talking about just like week two,

but I kind of cheated a little bit here. and I wanted to give him a lot of props because, yes, he got hurt in that game. It didn't sound like it was too bad from him. What was the injury? I think it was like a thigh. Rayble said, I thought it was a thigh. Yeah.

That's usually a contusion. Right. When you say thigh? Like if you say hamstring, you would just say hamstring, but a thigh sounds like more of a bruise. Right. Hey, who am I? I'm no medical expert.

But I just play one on TV. That's right. I think they're using Rared-Diener. in so many different ways. They use him on the line of scrimmage. They use him as a wingback. They use him as a lead blocker. They use him as a split zone blocker.

And then he will also be out there catch and passes as well. Nate Borchurcher for the Jacksonville Jaguars was an honorable mention that I had for this week because, man, second week in a row, Borchurcher looked awesome. I mean, they leave this dude one-on-one against defensive linemen. So as a blocking tight end, he was excellent. But you see from Borchurcher seven routes run. I mean, they're not using him at all whatsoever in the. the passing game.

He's a lineman. They are using him as a blocker. And I'm not saying that that's valuable. Obviously, they drafted it to be very valuable. It is very valuable to their team. It allows them to stay flexible. But he is fantastic in the blocking game. I just didn't have him in there because Rairden is a little bit more versal in how he was

impacting things for the New England Patriots. So again, he looked great in week two, didn't play the entire game, got hurt and couldn't finish the game. But even week one, man, I thought that Rarden looked really good. good and he's ready to produce. And you had him as a, you had him as a top 70 player. You had him right there at number 70 overall in your big board. So man, you got to love that.

I really do. Even if it's for the Patriots, you got to give credit where it's due. It's so funny because in the opener, I felt like on one of the first series, he had that welcome to the NFL moment where they asked him to like slice against somebody and he just got rocked. And it's like, guys, that's going to happen. And that he's been really good ever since that bad play. And it's called a bad play.

Sometimes you got to recognize what a guy can and can't do in his matchups. But yeah, Raritan looks like an absolute player. And Josh McDaniels, there aren't a lot of play callers better than him that kind of know how to find that second tight end and how to use him in his offense. The other two guys that I have on here at number four for my offensive rookie of the week, I have been rowed Freeling. It wasn't a perfect day for Freeling, but man, I thought the athleticism really shine for him against the Falcons.

And again, I think there's a lot of people who would watch just be like, yo, it's against the Falcons. But against opponents that you would want somebody to play good against, he played good against them. And I think that that's really, really important. There were, I can't remember who the Russia was. But there was just one rap where he was left one on one. He was going to be left one on one with the edge.

It was, it was clean, it was explosive, and Freeling was just so easily able to anticipate and then recover. Right when that cross shop was happening and the defensive end was trying to execute the move. Monroe Freeland got his hands up underneath and inside of that player to where he was able to just totally mirror what they were doing and totally neutralized what I thought was a really nice pass rush move. And I thought that was an encapsulation of his day. There were times when he guessed wrong. But the athleticism has been really shining for him, especially in a recovery sense. Even when he doesn't anticipate it 100% clearly right away, he is able to recover. And that's why

you draft great athletes at offensive tackle, not just for what they can do when they see it, but also when they don't, it allows them to not get beat too bad. So it was a week where you wanted to see Freeling stand out. I think he absolutely did. And the number five of my list was Jeremy Bernard, because in an offense where the Steelers don't have a lot going right now, D.K. Metcalf has been really unreliable. Aaron Rogers and, man, that offensive line seems to be really struggling in front of him. There's not a lot of trust going on between Rogers and a lot of the passing attack.

I feel as though Jeremy Bernard, who had four catches. had 35 yards. I think he ran the second most routes, if not the third most routes, on the team this past week. I see a world where this is a building block type of a week for Jeremy Bernard. And I wonder if he becomes Aaron Rogers go to target very soon and could start leading this team in targets

because of how reliable he has been. And I feel like he was able to really stand out in a game where there was not a lot going on for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense in the passing game. Yeah. I mean, that's a tough part to evaluate Bernard is that basically when the Steelers got blitz yesterday, it ruins the play with this state of Aaron Rogers and whatever's going on between him and the play calling. Freeling has been, you know, up and down in my eyes.

And you said that. I didn't feel strongly to have him as a big mention today. I think especially the state of the Falcons, what they're dealing with personnel-wise. I thought, you know, in that game with what they got from their quarterback play, Atlanta, it just put the defense in a spot where like what did you even want them to do eventually. And I thought Freeling didn't have to do a whole lot. He had some leaky moments in past where I was expected, especially playing on the right side. But yeah, I mean, you know, I'll give another honorable mention here.

And I saw it in the chat and it's a good call because the stats weren't sexy. But I think the what he was able to do when called upon helped them close out the game. Jonah Coleman, he's just going to be the lead of the Broncos backfield. It's only a matter of time. It's here. I mean, J.K. Dobbins, love the guy. He's her every single year, and now he's hurt early. So now you're looking at Harvey, got banged up week one,

and he's just not that kind of running back anyway. Jonah Coleman, if you need four yards, he just gets you four yards. He's so low to the ground. He runs with power and confidence. I love his energy. I don't bias because I love the player. But you got to give him a little love when he was called upon. after injury to help Denver close out a game that they had to play their ass off in the fourth quarter to

come back and win. Yeah, Coleman just felt like an overthought player and people who have listened to this podcast over the last couple of years know that we've really liked Jonah Coleman and he was somebody who I just, I think it was only a matter of time before he takes over the backfield and we may already be there like you mentioned. I also watched a little bit of Jake Slaughter. I know Chargers fans don't really want to hear this because like the team is not very good and they don't really want to hear praise at this point of time. But I thought Jake Slotter was fine. I did.

I didn't, I didn't think it was, you know, reminiscent of like the best Florida games that he played when he was in college. But I thought, man, I thought it was getting off the ball really confidently. They were asking him to reach block and climb to the second level and have some tough assignments. And I thought he was able to execute that pretty well. So I do like what I saw from Jake Slater this week as well. I feel like Center is his best position. I feel like him holding the ball and snapping the football allows him to fire off the ball

and get either into a defensive lineman or horizontal for his own rushing concept or even to the second level. I feel like when he is at center, he feels more in command of how quickly and explosively he can do that. And I just think that that confidence is there when he plays that center position. I know they drafted him to like may play guard, may play center type of a thing. Obviously with Tyler Beautish out, he's been able to step into that. but I just, I feel like he's best at center. So I think that we're seeing the rewards there for that. Defensively.

Bonus points, Jake Slaughter, by the way. What? It's good to have somebody that looks like an accountant playing a line in the NFL. It is truly, I mean, look at this aesthetic right here. It's true. He is absolutely making sure everything is buttoned up for your tax day. And then he's going out there and what a bad ass and is on running game. Mick is asking us about Anthony Hill Jr.

The linebacker from the Tennessee Titans who you shouted out in week one. He was great in week one. One of your top defensive players in week one. The comment here is why is nobody talking about the fact that Anthony Hill had to fill in for Cedric Gray and leads the whole NFL in tackles after two weeks. That was after the show last week. Right, right. It's your fault. You weren't here.

You did a good job. You did a good job highlighting Anthony Hill Jr. I watched him for. for week two as well. And what's up, Addix? This is the chef speaking. So at this moment in our live show today, the internet completely went out on my end.

And it caused the whole stream to crash. And it was this mess. And so the show is unfortunately short today. But I'm going to leave in a little section of the mayhem because it was a little funny. So enjoy that. And apologies for the shorter episode today. but I hope you guys enjoy this next part. This is Big Tuck's firing back, and it might be.

We should have been prepared for the Internet Wars, the Big Web Wars. I don't know really what to do. This is Peter's fault somehow. Well, yeah, you didn't put the Internet bill for us. So that's what happens. Somebody said, I just got here. We got here just in time. Just in time.

This is the meme of the person opening up the door and just the room is on fire, the entire room. the pizza. Yeah, right. I brought pizza. Good Lord. Well, the chat, it shows in your hands now. There's not really a lot of buttons we could press. Yeah, yeah. I think we might have to cut it.