The Ringer NFL Show - Week 1 Winners, Losers, and Awards

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

We recap Week 1 by giving out awards like Winner of the Week; the Player You Wish You Drafted More Of; I’m Not Mad Just Disappointed; Weird Flex But OK; the "They’re Real and They’re Spectacular" Award; the Rain Check; and we induct the first player of the season into our 2022 Fantasy Burn Book. We finish the show by saying a few words about our beloved colleague Jonathan Tjarks, who passed away on Saturday night. Check out our Weekly Fantasy Football Rankings for positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck The Ringer’s beloved friend and colleague Jonathan Tjarks passed away on Saturday night. Jon is survived by his wife, Melissa, and his son, Jackson. He was one of the first people hired at The Ringer, and was one of our most steadfast voices over the years. His loss is incalculable, and our thoughts are with Jon’s family during this time. If you want to help, we’ll direct you to this GoFundMe page, which directly assists the Tjarks family. We would also like to reshare Jon’s astonishing piece from March, in which he wrote with such clarity, humor, and wisdom about his cancer diagnosis, his family, and his future. Our futures are dimmer without him. Please keep his family in your thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everyone. This is Chris Ryan from The Ringer. As many of you have heard by now, we lost a treasured colleague and friend over the weekend. Jonathan Charks passed away on Saturday. John was 34. He leaves behind a wife and a son, and we are obviously mourning his loss and sending all of our love to his family right now. If you go to the ringer.com slash Jonathan Charks, that's J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N-T-J-A-R-K-S. You will find a memorial page for John, which has links to his GoFundMe that benefits his family. and the amazing writing he did throughout his experience. I encourage you to go there, and if you can, please support the Charks family. Briefly, I will just say that John was among the first people that we hired to work for the Ringer, so he was instrumental in defining the voice and perspective of the site. He has as much to do with what this place is as anyone else.

And throughout his experience with Cancer, John communicated eloquently about the challenges he was facing, both through his writing and his podcasting. You could never stop John from talking about his passions. It's one of the things I loved about him. Over the last few months, whenever we would talk, whenever I would reach out to see how he was doing, I would try to keep it very John focused,

and the next thing I knew we would be talking about James Hardin or Better Call Saul. He really loved this stuff. He loved talking about it, celebrating it, debating it, illuminating it. We're going to keep putting out our pods and writing while we grieve, but we wanted to let folks know that John was in our hearts and that his family was in our thoughts.

Thanks for listening. Hey, this is Danny Hyfitz. And as you just heard there from Chris Ryan, we lost our colleague Jonathan Charks today. We will share our thoughts on Charks at the end of this episode. But we have a link in this episode description to the GoFundMe for his family. You know, as Chris mentioned, he left behind his son Jackson, his wife, Melissa. We'll also have in this episode description a link to the just incredible piece

that Sharks wrote on dealing with cancer and fatherhood. He wrote that for The Ringer. It's an 11 out of 10. recommend. It's probably one of the absolute best pieces that's ever run on the ringer or anywhere. We didn't know what to do with today's episode amid learning this. I mean, this is not normal. We didn't know if we should do an episode, and we debated what to do. But the three of us talked, and we all came to this Bible quote that Charks' widow Melissa shared in the post announcing the news today. And that quote from the Bible is, I know that there's nothing

better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live, that each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil. This is the gift of God, end quote. And when I hear that personally, I think the point is to enjoy being alive. I mean, as stupid as fantasy football is at this moment in time, I mean, at some point, it's important to kind of pull joy at a thin air. And so the three of us talked, and we're going to do the show, and we're not just going to do it. We're going to have fun while we do it because I think that is the point. It's to not take being alive for granted. So we're going to do it.

We're going to have fun. We're going to get much more serious at the end of the show as we talk about sharks. But for now, we're going to have a good time. And we hope you guys have a good time with us. All right. Let's get to the show. For the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, my name is Danny Hyfitz and I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Horlebeck. And oh, my God, football is here.

It happened. Crazy. Week one. In the books, not really Monday, and football still has to happen. But we're going to get into it. Winners, losers, awards, all our dumb awards, way more arrested development quotes than I ever saw. So many arrested development quotes.

So many. We've made a huge mistake. Lean in into it, yeah. We're just getting to winners right off the bat. Craig, give us our first winner, week one. The dogs. The underdogs. A lot of underdogs prevail this week,

including my Pittsburgh Steelers, Hyphids' New York Giants, hopefully D.K.'s Seattle Seahawks on Monday night. But probably not. But who knows? The games are crazy today. A lot of upsets. Niners lost to the Bears.

Steelers beat the Bengals and OT. There was a tie between the Texans and the Colts. The Texans probably should have won that game. Like we said, the Giants beat the Titans. They came from behind down 13-0. The Vikings kind of destroyed the Packers. And then aside from that, the Falcons should have beaten the Saints. The Saints barely pulled that out.

The Lions almost came back and beat the Eagles. I watched about 10 seconds of the Brown Panthers games, but that was a really close one. There's a lot of close games. But I think where we have to start, if I'm speaking, is in Cincinnati, baby. That's the weirdest game. Oh, the Steelers should not have won that game.

The Bengals did everything in their power. Burrow threw four picks. They missed the PAT. They missed a field goal. I think Burrow fumbled. He had five turnovers, yeah. Five turnovers. T.J. Watt, unfortunately, looks like he's going to be out for a while.

Looks like he tore his peck. Najee Harris left the game hurt. Minka Fitzpatrick put the entire city of Pittsburgh on his back and somehow pulled out this victory over Cincinnati. My girlfriend's a Steelers fan. and for bad timing purposes, she had to take our friends to the airport with like three minutes left in this game.

And she actually got back in time to see the Steelers as they were lining up for the last kick of overtime. And she was like, what did I miss? And I was like, uh, uh, so Jamar Chase called like three touchdowns but only got credit for one. And then the Mick of Fitzpatrick like messed up with a pouty, but then he blocked the extra point.

And then they went to overtime and they got another kid. And I just, I mean, it was insane. Like T.J. Watt, one defensive player of the year in this game and then tore his pack. I don't... It was chaos.

You know how Stefan, the guy from Bill Hader plays him on Weekend Update? And he goes, this club has everything. That was really this game. Like, we had a doink in this game. Like, oh my God,

I forgot about the doink. The Boswell doink, we had a blocked P-A-T. Like the entire season's worth of antics in one game. Nate Tice pointed this out. Bengals ran 94 plays. It's the most since 2002.

I mean, you never see this. Joe Burr had 53 pass at attempts and got sacked seven times and ran six times since Joe Borough had 66 dropbacks and Joe Mixen at 27 carries. That doesn't happen. The whole slate was crazy. Like, this is why they got invented the Red Zone channel. Like, because the Bengal Steelers game was coming down. The Texans Colts was somehow 20, they were both 2020 and looked like they were going to be tied. And then at the same time, the Falcon Saints game, I remember looking over and being like, what is going on? Who has the ball? Like, how many times is Marcus Murray had fumbled? Like every, like,

it was one of those, like you look at the week one matchups, and you're like, none of these games are like the perfect matchup, right, in the one or four o'clock. But they always get you in week one because you're just so happy football's back. And even by the week one standard, I was like, this is insane. This is why the NFL is number one. I think I saw that the Saints had negative net passing yards at the first half, or like one passing yard.

And they still won this game. Yeah, that was, I mean, obviously every game was just wild. It's always tough because when there's so many games in the early slate and all of them are good, it's like hard to concentrate and figure out which ones to watch. And they all get kind of cluttered together. Like there was like literally seven games going on that we like had to watch and like, you know, be very tuned in on. But I guess that's a good sign though.

It was a really bad week for, for, you know, the significant others of the people who watch football all day because you couldn't, there was not an hour that you could have gotten away to go to lunch. know, the Steelers game went like a quarter into the one o'clock games, and then the Chargers and Raiders game went down to the very end. So, like, there was no time to leave. There was no 20-minute period where I was like, oh, I will leave that. There was no, there was no downtime. But I spent a Giants fan here, like the Giants Titans game, I, I, the feelings that stirred within me, I was worried had withered and evaporated into the ether a long time

ago. And I just am happy I can still feel. But one, the Giants are above five. for the first time in five years. So if I could get a little golf. And they were down 13-0 and I was texting my best friend who is a diehard Giants fan and we were just like, man, the Giants suck again. They looked like dog shit to start the game too. Like Daniel Jones was doing the same shit he always does. Like he got a strip sack in this game at one point.

I'm like this same old, same old. But to their credit, they came back. I was one score away from like, oh my God, thank God they're going to go like three and 14 again and just like get the first pick. This is perfect. And then they won the game. But the other winner, I mean, again, to go to fantasy for a second. Yeah.

Sequin Barclay. Let's go, baby. He's back. We do a little tutte-toot for ourselves. Tute her own horn. Sequan, number one fantasy running back of the week. 194 total yards. Most yards Sequins had in a game in three years.

Sequin had almost as many yards as all of the rest of the New York Giants combined. Love it. He had a touchdown. He had the game-winning two-point conversion, which was epic. He basically made three people. miss within two-yard span. And like most, like he made guys miss, but he has the extra gear.

The extra gear is back and Sequin is back. And it is just a wonderful feeling. I spent so much money across all of my leagues. I put my, all of my eggs were in the Seekwon basket in 2022. And I am atop the mountain right now. I feel so good. Perhaps we're in cell high range.

I will never do it. But Sequin's back. We did it. I don't think he's a, how high though because I think he played 83% of the snaps. Like he is their three down back. That is,

I think, illuminates how they want to utilize him. It tells us that he's like a big focal point in their offense, like what we saw here. Really the only worry is not the usage. It's like, is he going to get hurt again, I guess?

That would be the only thing. Why don't say that? Don't put that out in the world. I mean, you have to be honest. Like, all running backs have that worry. So like,

why trade the guy who's going to be utilized like that? I thought the offensive line looked really good, or at least relatively good compared to what I'm used to seeing out of the Giants and he had a lot of holes to hit and that's when you give Sequin the hole when you make it so he doesn't have to dance

three yards behind the line of scrimmage to avoid three guys just to get to the line of scrimmage like you know they was talking about like running backs like when do they first get touched and it felt like Seacquon finally didn't like get touched until he was five yards past line of scrimmage and then-

it's just Jason Garrett's on TV now it's like he looks incredible when he actually has room to breathe dude I it's amazing what you you do and Jason Garrett's not involved in your life anymore. It's incredible. You lose 10 pounds. You get, you know, you get fast. You get younger, everything. Okay. I mean, that's, honestly, I'm like the winner of the week just forgetting to like watch

Seekuan, never mind Seekuan being the winner of the week. D.K., who's your winner of the week so far? Justin Jefferson. I mean, this was like, we took a little bit of flack, I think, because we had a number one, ranked number one at receiver on our rankings prior to the season over Cooper Cup, who obviously put together a historic historic season last year. And then obviously, after. Cooper Cup's first game started to like tug at the old like neckline a little bit.

Like, oh God, maybe that wasn't the best idea. Well, yeah, we were like, are we idiots? Are we stupid? Cooper Cup obviously is still really ridiculously good. But I think we saw, you know, the ceiling and we saw the vision of what we had for Justin Jefferson in this game. I mean, he was like absolutely going bananas. I think he had like 150-something yards in the first half.

He was wide. He had 168 yards in the first half. He had, he almost set, he almost had his. most receiving yards in a single game in his career in the first half. He was really close. He was just wide, wide open, which is what you love to see.

And it was, it always seems to be like that. He reminds me of Antonio Brown. We're like, you don't know where the ball is going when the quarterback releases it. And then the camera pans and there's just just no defender alone. It's funny. You guys say that.

If you go to ESPN.com right now, the actual headline on top of, like the NFL page, the main ESP.com, it's Jefferson, parentheses 184 yards surprised at open looks and he literally said

I was thinking somebody was going to come from on and tackle me and he's like but I'm I was alone dude there's actually on his touchdown catch you see him catch the ball and he takes a step backwards he runs in the wrong direction instinctively thinking there must be a safety here

to drill me and then you see him kind of look around he's like oh no one's here so he like Jefferson was the number one fantasy points was the number one player I guess the four o'clock games, Sequin eventually surpassed them in yardage, but he had the most yards and fantasy points of any player that wasn't a quarterback this week.

And he did that by half time. And it was interesting. They had during the broadcast that a great stat. It is exactly what we kind of said all year. He was being motioned twice as much as they did last year. They was in motion five times a game last season, and they motioned like eight or nine times in the first half. And it's, I mean, it's everything.

The other thing, so yeah, that I think is one big thing. And that was why we were, you know, we mentioned like skating to where the puck is going with Justin Jefferson. Like we think this is a great match with coaching staff and coaching style and offensive style and philosophy and all that with his talents, which are obviously very, very clear like the last few years. The motion thing, I think was very interesting. They were motioning him in and basically doing exactly what Sean McVeigh has done for Cooper over the last few years. Like getting him matched up. There was one play. And it didn't like go for a big play.

He motioned from one side to the other and got matched up against Preston Williams, like a defensive end in the slot. Like that's exactly what you were looking for. And he like the outcome was very obvious. He broke him off with like a, you know, like a faked inside, went to the outside, caught an easy pass. Like this is exactly what we were hoping would happen. And so did he have, did he have another like almost touchdown where he just barely couldn't get his foot down to? Like he could have even gone more nuclear. The other thing I want to point out.

He should have had 200 yards and three touchdowns, obviously. Yeah. Well, it's funny, too. We're talking about this motioning thing. Like, it's like, you know, far-florn concept. It's just the NBA, which has been doing this for years. It's just switch everything. It's like, oh, we're just going to keep setting picks until Steph Curry is on like the worst defender.

And like some teams just don't do this for the receivers yet. Yeah. And the other thing I think that was cool was, I think Adam Thieland said it after the game. He was like, I've never played for an offense that just kept attacking, attacking, attacking, attacking, attacking. I'm just paraphrasing what he's saying. Attacking, attacking, attacking, attacking the entire game. A lot of coaches, honestly, if you get like a two touchdown lead or whatever,

then you'll like ease up. You don't want to turn it over, start to run a lot. Like they just kept their foot on the pedal. So everything about this first game was what we'd hoped and visualized with the, with the Vikings. Why the Vikings were one of our, I guess,

like sleeper teams coming into the season. And Justin Jefferson obviously delivered what we were, you know, expecting him to do and more. Craig, who's your fantasy wise? Who's your winner of the week? It's all of the first round wide receivers.

The guys that you drafted in the first. first round, it was Justin Jefferson, Cooper Cup, Jamar Chase, Stefan Dakes, and Devante Adams. Those were the kind of consensus top five wide receivers by ADP this year. Of those top five, they were all in the top six in scoring at the position this week. The only other guy was Michael Pittman. Too, too. We all love Craig, like you love Michael Pittman, like we all love Michael Pittman this year too. Meanwhile, and we were preaching this as well, get a receiver in the first round. The top five running backs from ADP, they finished, and this is overall at their position this week. second, 16th, 26th, 30th, and 18th.

Basically, it was Jonathan Taylor and every other first one running back kind of shit to bed this week. I'm so happy Justin Jefferson didn't make us look dumb. I'm probably honest. I'm happy he's good, but I'm more happy. He's not bad. Cup had like 11 catches for 120 yards at a touchdown, and we were like, oh boy.

Jefferson needs to have a day. He better. He got it immediately. I was like, thank God. Like the first, not the first play of the game, but the first drive, they were like, here, here, good touchdown. Touchdown. His first touchdown.

The touchdown was very Cooper Cup S. They motioned him behind the line of scrimmage. It was like a little jet sweet pass. It was like an exact Rappell Cup, how they get cut the ball in the red zone. All right. Let's flip side here. It's an arrested development season. Look, it's a good show, folks, all right?

It's a top-notch comedy writing. But you haven't seen it. It's still funny. I've made a huge mistake. I've made a huge mistake. The ultimate quote, just I've made a huge mistake. By the way, that was suggested to us by someone on Twitter. So shouts to you.

It was. Shout out to someone. I mean, the Packers trading way Devante Adams. We're talking about Devante Adams having the day. Ten catches, 141 yards, a touchdown. Meanwhile, Devante Adams had more receiving yards than all the Packers receivers combined. I'm taking out the running backs and tight ends, but the wide receivers and the Packers had 20 yards less than Devante Adams did. The Packers scored seven points.

I wouldn't say they got rocked by the Vikings. I would definitely say they were embarrassed by the Vikings. Like they were, I mean, the Packers' offense was pitiful. was 23 to 7. And on the one hand, if I'm being honest, I don't know what to do with this Packers loss because literally one year ago, the Packers were indeed rocked by the Saints.

They lost 38 to 3 to the Saints one year ago in week one. And then the Packers won 13 games and got the number one seat in the NFC again. So I'm not out here like trying to like eliminate the Packers. However, man, it's one of those like, it's kind of weird. They didn't add any receivers.

And then you watch the game. Yeah, no secret sauce. They should have added freaking receivers. I mean, they did add a receiver, Christian Watson, in the second round, and he dropped what would have been a 75-yard touchdown. It was a perfect pass. He was wide open,

could have waltzed into the end zone, and went right through his hands. I don't think this will happen continuously. And honestly, like, Romeo Dobbs, Dobs, Dobs? Dobs? What is it? Dobs, Dobbs. Is it Pam?

I'm saying pan? Two, oh, there's two webs. Bland. He looked pretty good. He had four catches for 37 yards. But the bottom line is the running backs were like the leading receivers for this team. Like, AJ Dillon literally led the team in receiving guards. So that's disconcerting from a team that, you know, has an MVP quarterback.

Well, it's good though for, we liked Aaron Jones and Agent Dillon this year. And I think that we're on that money. We kept, we liked Eric, I can't speak English. Well, it's tough because they're both running backs in A and. it's like late at night and I'm just going to get it. We should just give them one name, AJ Jones. Aaron Dylan. That actually is it. It's the J. He's messing it up.

Yeah. Well, you know what? It's because Aaron Jones's initials are AJ. Yeah, yeah, it is. I get it. It's actually a tongue twister. The point is the AJ's just like, they're going to catch a lot of passes and like, people get it.

They don't need to be hearing anything to say anything. D.K. All right. So the other, I've made a huge mistake. And I'm just going to, I'm going to coin a new expression for this group of receivers. these are the second sons of the NFL. These are the second receivers on mostly good teams. Alan Robinson, Mike Williams, Adam Thielen,

Devante Smith, Hunter Renfro. All of these number two receivers did fucking jack shit today. And it was pretty, well, Al Robinson was a few days ago. But you get the point. Alan Robinson, 1.7, half PPR points. Mike Williams, two catches, 10 yards. And this was in a game that Keenan Allen missed more than half of the game. That's the worst part.

Adam Thielen, five points. Devante Smith, big old goose egg, did not see that coming. Hunter Renfro, which I think was a big worry of ours, but he had three catches for 21 yards. Like, basically all the, the second sons of this, of these teams of the NFL, like they're not getting any of the inheritance. They don't get jack shit. All the firstborn sons are getting everything. Well, it's like the king. It's like, who's Charles's younger brother?

I should know this. I don't know. That's not my forte. Yeah. King Charles younger brother. I guess I could look. I don't know why. asked you guys. Andrew, the creep.

Oh, yeah. If I say that, am I getting sued? I don't know how they're, are they powerful? The royal family? Yeah. They won't listen to this, right? I would think no. Although Prince Harry had a Spotify pod for a while, so does Markle. Who knows? Who side do you think they're on? They're with us, like twice over.

Anyway, the point is the number two's are not doing well. Yeah, this makes me worried. I don't think this is something that's going to happen every year, or every week, I should say. Like, obviously, you know, Alan Robinson was in for almost every step and he ran a ton of routes. I think his numbers will get better. But this start was extremely disconcerting for a guy that we had ranked pretty high. Adam Thielen is another guy that I really liked coming into the season. And like he was barely involved.

Everything was going to change. Is that going to change probably? But, you know, I don't, I'm starting to have some doubts that like these guys are going to have as big of a role as I was thinking they would, just like point blank. Well, so you're already scared off. Like Alan Robinson, like he couldn't have been worse. But like he was also targeting the end. a couple of times.

It just felt like Stafford. I know we're talking about Thursday, but it felt like Stafford and him just didn't get quite enough practice time in August, but it seems like things you iron out. Like, I don't, I'm not, I'm not off these guys completely. I'm just saying it's starting to make me a little bit worried. Renfro concerns.

Like it's Job sitting in the hospital bed. I've made a huge mistake. Yeah, D.K., of these five, you named Alan Robinson, Mike Williams, Adam Thieland, Devonte Smith, and Hunter Renfrew. Who are you the least? Who are you the most scared of? I guess Devonte Smith, because he's, he's on an offense that, well, I guess actually,

I take that back because this is actually a storyline that we should probably get into. The Eagles passed a ton in this game. And I think coming into the season, there was this worry that there's not going to be enough to go around. There's not going to be enough passing to go around in this offense, but that's not the case.

The only problem is he just didn't get any of the passing game work. So I think that'll probably change. But the flip side of the Eagles thing is we were like, well, what's going to happen with the rushing? And then all three running back scored and Jalen Hurts scored a rushing touchdown. and all of them scored in this game. Yeah.

I think I'm the most worried about Hunter Renfro. I mean, Devonte Adams is there now. Things are different. It's the only situation where, you know, I guess Devonte Smith has AJ Brown, which is a factor, but Adam Thielen's in the same situation. Keenan Allen's now gone probably for a week or two. Mike Williams should be fine.

Island Robinson, I don't have any, I don't have any problems just yet. So, yeah, I'd say Renfro. I think his ceiling is just pretty low. I think that's the right answer. Yeah. All right. I want to go through. It's the Cooper Cup Award for the player

you wish you drafted more of. I mean, it's Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey, right? Dude, Mahomes? Mahomes looks absolutely ridiculous. Do you think Mahomes had like a little bit of a chip? Like, I'm going to show these fuckers. Everyone's talking about Tyree Kil being gone

and that I'll stick it to him. I'm going to keep saying this every year until it's not incredible. Patrick Mahomes, current status, 46 passing touchdowns in September in his career, 46, three interceptions. If it was a lot of, a season, it would just be like one of the best seasons ever, period.

And then Travis Kelsey, Craig, you are the king of every year. It's like, you should take Kelsey. You don't do it. And then you're like, why didn't I do that? Here's the list of the top 10 tight ends this week. Travis Kelsey was number one. And here are some other tight ends who were top 10 scoring this week. O.J. Howard was number two.

Tason Hill was number three. Gerald Everett is on this list. Tyler Conklin. There's no, it doesn't just, it's Travis Kelsey and then there's everybody else. And we'll get to Kyle Pitts. Yeah. Well, he literally had 10 times as many points. I don't like him. He said that, Craig.

He doubled up Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews plus Darren Waller did not equal Travis Kelsey. George Kittal didn't play. Kyle Pitts was literally one-tenth of Travis Kelsey. It's just... Was O.J. Howard second among tight ends this week? Yes, he was. He had two targets.

He had two catches. He had two targets. This is why I hate the tight end position. We should just eliminate the tight end position and make it a flex. I think they should make it so Travis Kelsey is the only, eligible tight end to draft, but he's a receipt. And we just like, we grab Travis Kelsey, we put him in the receivers and then we get rid of the tight end position.

Yeah. Fade them away. DK., any other players other than the chiefs that you wish you drafted more of? Yes, I have three and I'll go quickly through them. Oh, okay. Cool. He's like, yeah, I did a pretty bad job in my draft this year. I wish I drafted all three of these guys.

Well, I have all three of these guys on teams. I just wish I had all three guys on every, no, I just wish I had all these guys on every team. Because you could have gotten them. Like Dandre Swift, you would have had to taken him early, but he looked incredible. He looked amazing. He had 144 yards and three catches for 31 yards, 25 half-p-hour points, scored a touchdown. But the two guys really that I think fit this category the most, because you could literally have had these guys on like every team if you really wanted to.

Cream Hunt, who had 46 yards in a touchdown plus 24 yards in a touchdown receiving, 21-half ppr points. And then Cordero Patterson, who we just forgot that he was like the RB7 last year. and we were drafting him, I don't even know what, like the eighth or tenth round or something? We didn't forget. We just didn't believe.

He's a boy, he's an old... He's a 30-year-old kick returner. We're like, we don't know what to do. For a shitty team. But he had 120 yards in a touchdown plus three catches, 21 half pb-r points.

Like, he looked amazing again. So I'm just like, basically just hitting myself for not drafting more of these... Because you had the opportunity to draft him in every draft if you really wanted to. D.K.,

how many leagues were you in last year? Was it 22, right? because we called it the All-22. Yes. Yeah, something like that. I know you're in a new dynasty league with us this year, so are you in 23 now? How many more did you add?

I mean, like, 25 or so. I want to check every roster and find out who you have the most and the least of and keep that. That is a good idea. I should do that. Because the only thing more interesting than fantasy football

and someone else's team is someone else's portfolio of players. Well, I'm just wondering if D.K. literally has like every starting running back in the league. That's what I want to know. I don't. I don't.

He has everybody, except the good ones. Except DeAndre Swift. No, I have all these guys on teams. I just wish I had them on every team, is what I'm saying. What about diversifying your portfolio? Yeah, that's, well, that's why they're not. I wish I had the 30-year-old kick return on every one of my 25 team.

Imagine playing so much fantasy football and being in so many leagues that you can say, I wish I had more shares of DeAndre Swift. You guys, you're missing the point. Like, they're good values, so I'm saying. I think you're missing the point. But anyway, the DAD Award, which is, we're not mad. we're just disappointed. Look, Damien Pierce,

I'm not mad. I'm not mad at you. You're a rookie. This was your first game. Like, maybe the coaches just wanted to go with the more experienced 32-year-old journeyman running back in Rex Burkhead. I get it. I'm not actually mad at you. Just a little disappointed that you scored 4.4 half PBR points after all the hype that we had for you in the preseason after how amazing you freaking looked in the preseason.

And then you just get completely, taken over by Rex Burkhead, who's 32 years old. Jamie Pierce, 33 yards on 11 carries, one catch for six yards. As Calvin gets older and older, D.K.'s going to get better and better at this category. I was thinking the exact same thing. I was like, wow, he really felt like he said that in earnest right there. And I was like, oh, it's because Calvin's three years old now. Yeah.

He's starting to do things. God, Calvin better never get outstap by Rex Burkhead at a game where D.K.'s going to be really disappointed. The low point, yeah. Craig, who are you? You're not mad, just, you know, who you're disappointed with. I'm not mad at Kyle Pitts. You know what? I am mad at Kyle Pitts. I'm mad. If it was his rookie year, I'd be disappointed. It's not anymore. I'm mad. Like, at a certain point, like, this can't happen. Travis Kelsey doesn't do this. You know what I mean? There are no just 20-yard Travis Kelsey games. I wanted to play a game with you guys. Kyle Pitts, I hate these games. He had two catches for 19 yards today. That's not good. And the Falcons had a lot of points, too, which is,

annoying. We're going to play a game called two players who outscored Kyle Pitts and one who didn't. A version of, uh, right. Of, yes, two truths one lie. Okay, so here we go. Here are the three names. Two of these guys outscored Kyle Pitts, one did not. John, and they're all tight ends. Are they all real? Or is one of them fake? No, they're all real. They're all real. They're all real. Just one of them didn't outscore cow pits. Oh, okay, okay. Okay. Johnny Munt. God damn. No, that's not real. Josiah Deguara. And Trey McKitty.

So, Deguara did, because I think I had to subtract his receiving yards from the Aaron to get the receiving numbers for the Aaron Rogers receivers one. Munt is not a person, right? No, he's definitely a person. He can't make that. I heard Trey McKitty's name a few times today, so that worries me. Because he's like the third, he's like the third tight end on the chargers. How do you spell Munt?

M-U-N-D-T. Like bun-k-k-k-k. It's like bun-k-k-k. Like butt cake. Yeah, so who's your pick? I'm going Johnny Munn's, not the real one. I think my kitty didn't do it, actually. Trick question, they all did, because Kyle Pitts sucks.

Fuck you, man. Craig, I'm not, I'm not mad and I'm not, I'm not disappointed. I'm just like straight, straight up sad. I'm sad about what happened today. Because it's not like nobody, like Drake London had a good game. He barely had a banged up knee and he came in, put up 70, five yards on five catches like what's going on with Kyle pitch he had two catches for 19 yards the silver lining in all this and this is what I always like default to in situations like this

where I'm legitimately sad about a player's performance I saw this from jane McFarland he posted a 72% route so he was he was running routes on 72% of his snaps which is great and a 22% target share he had seven targets in this game uh he's gonna be fine I think he's gonna be fine this was just He's going to be fine or is he going to be good? Is he going to be fine or is he going to be amazing? No one drafted him to be fine. They drafted him because he's supposed to be a Hall of Famer. There is no Amendoza line for Kyle Pitts.

It's at the tippy top. It's only below Travis Kelsey. That is kind of where he's allowed to land. Yeah, well, I don't think he's getting there. Then he won't be fine. I'm also not like panicking like he's going to have two catches every week. It's kind of my point. Okay.

Four's not enough either. Spoiler alert. Yeah. All right. Well, that's the whole point, though. Kyle Pitts, not a rookie anymore. However, we're going to do now a rookie mistake award, which is presented by Snickers. Sometimes you're out of sorts. You make a mistake. Could have been avoided if you just had a Snickers. DK. Yeah. What is your rookie mistake of this week? Guys, I should have done better. I decided to tell and even start in several of my own personal

links, since you guys are definitely very... How many of your 25 leagues did you start this player? I can think of at least three off the top of my head. Okay. I decided to start Bears running back, David Montgomery, despite Craig telling me I was an idiot for doing so. I did this despite the fact that he was going up against a defense that gave up the seventh fewest rushing yards last year, a defense that gave up the fifth fewest rushing yards per attempt last year,

and a defense who like just easily and obviously outclass the Bears patched together offensive line. I got what I deserved. Look, the Bears did win the game. I think that we need to point that out. Go Bears. Okay. However, did you also point out the 17 carries for 26 yards that David Montgomery

had? Did you also point out the 17 inches of rain that poured down in Chicago today? Oh my God, it was a monsoon out there. It was like they were playing in like a kiddie pool. He tallied 6.5 points in half ppr, 26 yards on 17 carries. It's not getting it done. That was a rookie mistake on my part. I have never in my life seen a professional football game that looked like the Bears

Niners 1-1. You know how like a light drizzle isn't really easy to see on camera? You could see it. Like the blur was crazy. It was the weirdest looking game. Did you see the field? It was like all blurry.

Well, so what happened? So much rain came down that the field was so wet. Like the actual lines blurred. One of the Bears writers pointed out that the field looked like a Van Gogh painting. Like it was just so trippy. And then eventually it stopped looking like that

like the paint actually dissolves off the field. So the camera, like they had to do like a digital altering. Yeah. Yeah, the way they add the tent like the yellow line for the first down. They had to add the line markers and the numbers onto the field digitally. I didn't know they could do that. But that's not normal.

So it just looked like you were playing like TechMobile. And it was it was like it was crazy. This is their new field by the way. This is a new field. Rookie mistake, Chicago. Gonna take a rain check on Tray Lance, David Montgomery. that's a rookie mistake. Maybe you just need a Snickers.

Snickers, the official chocolate bar sponsor of the NFL, check out Snickers.com slash rookie mistake. I love Snickers. Oh, yeah? Snickers loves us, which is the only thing better than loving Snickers. Very good. Craig, you beat me in our bet this week.

We made a bet. Damn right. I bet Craig that David Montgomery would outscore Josh Jacobs. I will admit, it was a bit of a pillow fight. Josh Jacobs, I think, scored like seven points. and David Montgomery scored six and a half. So, I mean, it was more, I felt like it was more separated than that.

Regardless. No, it wasn't. It wasn't even, like it was very close. They were both pretty bad. Josh Jacobs also looked way better. But yeah, you're right. He wasn't playing in a three inches of rain. There was, yeah, they had like 17 inches less rain.

Whatever, you went. You win. I'm going to get you one of those giant checks, like in from Happy Gilmore for 10 months. Give me one of the big ones. They gave him one. Do you think the check costs more than $10, though? Oh, probably. You've got to be a huge loss.

You got a check like that on like, you know, big like cardboard is that's going to cost me like a hundred bucks. You know what's funny is like what age does that just go out of style? If you handed some kid a big check, they'd be like, what is this? That would have been, if we did like some type of contest this year, it would have been really funny at the end. We sent the winner like a giant check from like Happy Gilmore. That would be good.

I just throws him in the back of his car. We still have time. He just the back. There's like no windows in that car. Well, speaking of 90s movies, I'm giving the Office Base Award to Mike McCarthy for the Cowboys because it's the... This is a dark day for the Cowboys, by the way.

Well, it's like, that scene was just like, what is it you'd say you do here? I'm like, let me get this straight. So Mike McCarthy doesn't call the offense, doesn't call the defense. team has the most penalties, and I can say that word, most penalties of last season, good job. Goes in the regular season, goes to the playoffs, has the most penalties in a playoff game, comes

to the preseason, almost like, what, am I still saying? You fucked it up the second time, that's fine. Well, you know, at the first time I, like, thought about it, and then I just let it rip. The point is, he doesn't do the offense. He doesn't do the clock management. He doesn't do the penalty, the fouls. Fowls. They come into this game.

They score three points. Dak Prescott has maybe the worst game of his career. They cut their tackles and the Mark Cooper. And then they come in and they get rocked because they have no receivers and tackles. It's like, what does Mike McCarthy do for this team? Like if he was gone, would there be a difference? Presence. So you physically take the TPS reports down to the other department.

Well, no, my secretary does. wasn't he also like letting someone else be the head coach at practice? Yeah, yeah. No, not head coach. He cycles through them, doesn't he? Yeah, wait, I got to find the term. Every week he lets somebody call, be the head coach for a day or something like that. Yeah, the guy gets through head coach for the week, but it's general of the week.

And Kevin Clark nailed it, which is Mike McCarthy's quiet quitting. Yeah. He was the first person to quiet quit. All right. Next one, let arrest of development. Going back to arrest of development, this is the,

I don't understand the stat line and I won't respond to it award. This is Lucille, like talking back to the waitress. I looked this video up, Craig. She goes, do you want to platter or, I can't even remember what she says?

You want to platter or a plate? And Lucille's just like, I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it. It's just like, what is that? I have the. Ike and Tina Tuna. Plater platter.

I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it. So this is, I don't understand the stat line and I won't respond to it. Carson Wentz, 27-41, 313 yards, four touchdowns. The QB3 so far, 29.7 points. I don't understand it and I won't respond to it. Carson Wentz is going to cobble together like a legitimate career. And then in like 20 years people are going to look back and be like, That guy must have been pretty good, huh?

And we were like, no, he actually sucked every year somehow, but had good stats. Last year, he had 27 touchdowns and seven picks. If you want to see media bias in action, it's going to be everyone being like, wow, Jahan Dotson, great job, and everyone just absolutely ignoring Carson Wentz at a good debut for Washington. Including me. I won't respond to it. The media doesn't want you to know about Carson Wentz. The media does not want you to know that Carson Wentz was okay today.

He was the QB3. He was the third best quarterback in fantasy. He was four touchdown. You know what the best part is the absolutely dead conversation of his DAC better than Carson Wence revived today. Ooh. Carson Wrenz was so much better than DAC. Oh, no. Dude, Wence was dropping dimes all over the field today.

Also, Jahan Dodson, is that guy like a superstar? Nobody cared about him. He was the first round. He was like the ugly stepchild. I was like the ugly stepchild of the first round wide receivers. He looked incredible today, made two like highlight real catches. Well, we did tout him a little bit as a sleeper because he was getting overloaded. looked way, way too much.

He was, I think, like, the 18th pick or something, the 16th pick in the draft. Yeah. Like, anytime anyone is going that high in the first round, he had really good, you know, college production. Like, we should pay attention to that a little bit more, I think. And he looked really great. Also, by the way, he was getting a ton of hype in preseason and training camp

because he had a really good connection with Carson Wentz. And guess what? Showed up. Well, what was good was the reason we plugged him was exactly this. Like, it wasn't like this was a surprise. It's like, Wenz's style of chucking it around is perfect for this dude. is like a nine out of 10 jump ball receiver. And that's exactly what happened today.

He just, I mean, he made what he just, I don't know, he's got like spider senses. Like he just has, dude, Dotson has the craziest hands. Like, he's the best past, literally like he's a good catcher. Like, one of the best catchers I've ever seen. Like, he's literally like a receiver. Like, he receives it very well. Yeah, man. I don't know.

It's like, there were a lot of good players in Washington. I get, maybe the media doesn't want us to, like, praise the Washington commanders, which I 100% understand. I feel like if Chris Olavet or Drake London had two touchdowns today, we'd all be freaking out. Nobody cares that Dodson did it. They played the Jaguars. They played the Jags.

So let's just mention that. Let's put that out there and acknowledge it. They're not going to play the Jags every week. But yes, a lot. There was a lot of fantasy production from this team that we kind of, I think, had overlooked in the preseason a little bit. Well, let's be honest. If Trevor Lawrence had did this the same game, we'd be like, oh, my God.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But we just want him to succeed. All right. Brandon Cook's award, same vein. Brandon Cook's award for the player you don't want to acknowledge is good at fantasy. Which I should just gave to Brandon Cook seven weeks in a row last year. This year couldn't be easier. It's Tasem Hill this week.

Freaking Taysam Hill. I mean, Tassum Hill's good at fantasy. Third, number three tight end in fantasy this year. Four care, the week, I guess it's the same thing. He had four carries for 81 yards in a touchdown. Dude, this guy's like fucking COVID, dude. He just keeps mutating and coming back. He did, dude, on it, he had like a 51.

or 57-yard run. And he looked hobbled on the, like, he was missing time in the preseason with some injury. And he still managed to, like, run for 50-something yards. So, yeah. How did you, I can't believe you, I just called him COVID. He's right. He is, dude. He's COVID.

I'm a rashly angry. This is Tays of Hill, Amacron. Yeah, there was, well, there was the quarterback one. There was the tight-end one. Then there was the weird quarterback extension one. That was like Delta. Defenses can't account for the Amacron variant. Yeah, there was like the tight end, Taseham Hill with you breeze.

Now it was like the tight end Taseom Hill with James Winston. And when he first showed up, you were like, what's this? This probably won't affect my life. I don't want this anymore. At the beginning, it was very easy to ignore. Like, it's just like an auditing I'm reading about. Boom, it's everywhere. That's really good.

All right? Well, I'm sure it'll go away, right? Well, here's the thing. I think it will, actually. I don't think this is real. I don't think this is real. I'm a denier. I'm a Tassum Hill. Nyer.

What? I feel like last year you were all in on him. Well, I'm trying to throw a little cold water on the idea that this is going to be like an every week thing. He was on the field for 16 plays and he blocked on half of them according to PFF.

He only ran four. Who cares? I just feel like they give him like five. He's not going to do this every game on like five plays. Taseem Hills. Like, all right, yes. Generally speaking, that's like the most important stat.

I kind of don't think it matters for Asim Hill. Like, unless you're going to get, we'll have a whole episode of more about like waivers and stuff. And like, sure, Gerald Everett for the Chargers, definitely want him on waivers. But like, man, like, do you want Tayson Hill on 20 steps or Mike Gisciki on 40? It's not Mike Gisickey. Like, first of all, those plays he's on the field for are so specific to the gameplay in one.

Two, the week to week, yes, sometimes he could play eight snaps. Sometimes he could do 40. Like you don't know. He's going to be on the field. It's specifically to exploit. a situation and get him the ball in some weird way. You're going to talk me into starting him next week, Highfits? And I'm going to be mad about it.

Dude, when we do the waivers tomorrow, there's no reason anybody who needs a tight end should not pick up Taysom Mell. Like, all right, if you have, we've loved David and Joku. Let's be real talk. They're playing the Bucks next week. Do you want Taysam Hill or David and Joku? I will edit out any recommendation of Taysam Hill tomorrow. I won't allow it.

We're not in week one recommending Taysam Hill as the top waiver ad. Man, I mean, I kind of think Kaifitz is going to. Oh, no. 41. Oh, my God. Anyway, I had, we can edit this out, so it doesn't matter. My friend who watches a lot more baseball and football was like, so is Tayson Hill like show Hey Otani? And I was like, no.

No. Otani's like if like Mookie Betts and Justin Verlander were the same person. And Tatea Hill is like if Kyle Freeland and like Harrison Bader were the same person, you just don't watch baseball. No, I don't know. But you know what, whatever. Let's move on. You got to compare him to two football players.

Yeah, Tasem Hill is like if, who's a horrific quarterback? Who took him for Dak Crescott? It's like if Cooper Rush and Mike Gisicki were the same person. It's like if Duck Hodges and Kyle Eusecheck had a baby. Ooh, I like that. Duck Hodges, good reference. Remember him? Yep.

They're real and their spectacular award. Shouts out Seinfeld. Michael Thomas, baby. He's back. Zero catches at halftime. I was terrified. I tweeted out at a poll this morning. I was like, who's the player who's going to F us the most today?

And Trey Lance was the one people voted for, but Michael Thomas was the second highest voted option. Zero catches at halftime. I was really scared. And then he just flew back, along with the entire Saints offense. Like D.K. said, they had negative two yards passing at halftime. Came back. Michael Thomas had 57 yards receiving.

He had two touchdowns. He was the number eight wide receiver on the day. He looked great. he looked angry, happy to be back. James played well, and this three wide receiver set in New Orleans, they all paid off. They all played a ton of snaps.

They ran a ton of 11 personnel. Jarvis had a huge game. Olavis cut a touchdown, and Michael Thomas caught two, Saints. I'm excited to go back and watch this game because of the one o'clock, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't that excited to watch Saints Falcons

as opposed to a lot of the other one o'clock games going on. Wait, Alave didn't have a touchdown. Sorry. Alave caught the really important two-point conversion, I think. Oh, sorry, two-point conversion. Gotcha. Gotcha. But this, I just looked up and the Saints were down a lot.

And I was like, what is going on here? And then I looked up again and Jarvis Landry had like, sameish amount of points as like A.J. Brown. And I was like, this is weird. If Michael Thomas can stay healthy for the whole season, like, where do you guys think he ranks? Like, is he a top 15 guy? Probably. Yeah. It's tough because what we were talking.

about earlier of like the top 15. It's like what does that mean? It's like the top five guys, you know, Cooper Cup, Jefferson, you know, Diggs, DeVante, those guys are so elite. And then like the seven to like 20 range, there's so many people in that range. And it's like the next group is like Pittman, AJ Brown, like the sub elite guys are so exciting. Is Michael Thomas really in that group with like Michael Pittman and AJ Ground? I'm probably. not. He's probably one tier below to me. At this point in his career? Yeah. DJ Mori, Terry McLauran range.

He's not, no, I'd rather have him, but I'd way rather have AJ Brown. Like, he's not AJ Brown to me. But yes, he's definitely... That's because he's older. It's not that old. It's like 29. Well, I mean, for D.K, that's not that old, but for us... He's got 27-year-old legs. He hasn't run in two years. He's been hurt all preseason, man. Anyway, all right, wait, the weird flex but okay award, which is the guy that nobody expects to do well and could have flexed them.

Yeah, this is the other forgotten man in Washington. Curtis Samuel out of nowhere, he had four carries for 17 yards, eight catches for 55 yards, 15 and a half PPR points or half PPR points. He, it's weird because he hurt, I think he was basically hurt all of last year.

All of the last three years, his whole career. No, he was the wide receiver 25. So like a borderline wide receiver two in 2020, so not last year, but the year before. like this isn't that ancient of history that this guy was a really good fantasy contributor player

I mean it was pre-pandemic so it kind of is ancient it all bleeds together it was pre-tasem Hill but he's only really had one season where he's like to actually put it all together but he's done it I mean like that's what I'm saying is like he was a borderline wide receiver two two years ago in half PPR

and I don't know like maybe he's actually good now that he's healthy he looks really good in this game and the way that they were utilizing was like they were manufacturing touches for me He seemed to be a clear focal point in their passing game. So I don't know. He's just a guy.

I think he's going to be a waiver wire pickup this week. I don't know if I'm going to trust him, but he's someone to monitor. I was wrong. It was 2020 that he did it, but I just have lost all sense of time. So the question of this episode really is, are the commanders good or did they just play the Jags? No. No, they play the Jags. No, no.

But like, sorry, not good. Are the commanders more fantasy relevant than we previously thought? Or were they just playing the Jazz? Yes, because, yeah, maybe. That's a better answer. Maybe. Dotson is a great dart throw. Literally.

Excellent. My weird flex, but okay, it's Don Trill-Hillard for the Titans. I mean, especially watching this Giants Titans game. He had five touches. It felt like he had 70. Literally at one point was like, is he just starting over Derek Henry? Like, what's going on? Like, Don Trill-Hillard had such a larger impact on the first half of this game than

Derek Henry did as like an opposing fan watching. He had, I mean, 69 yards, which is funny. And he had two touchdowns. And I just was like, it's, it's, it's. It's so weird to look at the box line and see that he had five touches because I wondered if Donchrelle was just going to be like James White. It's so tempting to say just sacrilege things right now that he's like better than Derek Henry. 22 points in PPR.

I know that. Derek Henry had eight. I know it's not true in my heart, but like it's really tempting to say something like that. Like Derek Henry just looks slow compared to Hilliard. I know that he's not. I know that he's not slow. I'll say this and this isn't sacrilege

this is just how I felt at one point I was like oh my God thank God Derek Henry's in not Haley I actually had that thought at least Hilliard can't torch us we got the plotting Henry in the back oh because you're a Giants fan

I didn't get that I didn't put that together yeah yeah that's tough speaking of the Titans also Kyle Phillips just was better than Trail on Barks that's my weird flex like that just rookie on the Titans he was the leading receiver on the day for them over Woods,

Burks, everybody. I do think it's very, yeah, it's interesting because he was a fifth round pick. Burks was the first round pick. Burks didn't look bad,

though, to me. Like, Burks looked pretty good. He didn't, he played, like, I think one third of the snaps

because he's clearly still behind, like after having an atrocious preseason. But Kyle Phillips is legit. I think that's the bottom line here. He had six catches, six yards. He had one really big catch late in the game.

29% target share. That's a lot. I mean, he also blew the game for them because he muffed a punt. Well, yeah, And he's a rookie.

But I think he's here for real. I think the problem with him, though, like, and the question I think a lot of people had coming in is, you know, he's a slot receiver on a heavy personnel team. So he's not going to be playing, you know,

full amount of snaps. So I think that's like the only worry I have going forward. Otherwise, he looked really, really good. Well, we're here,

tutute. I think we got a tutute about Michael Pittman. Yeah. Michael Pittman, I have to say on our Friday episode, we were, Craig actually thought of the category and was like every year.

There's a guy in week one where like thank God he arrived. And we were like, well, it's Pittman. Craig said Michael Pittman and I was like Kyle Pitts. Kyle Pitts did not arrive. But Michael Pittman, good job, Craig. Yeah, Kyle Pitts is stuck in traffic, I guess.

But Michael Pittman arrived. 13 targets. He was the wider receiver 5 on the day, 121 yards, a touchdown. Look great. He had the fourth most targets in the league today. It's kind of everything we've been saying.

There's no one else on Indy catching passes. I mean, it's Jonathan Taylor. and it's Michael Pittman and is exactly what happened today. I saw J.J. Zacharisen tweeted this stat that Michael Pittman hasn't seen a target share south of 23% in a single game since week 10 last year.

He's just getting elite amounts of targets. His volume will keep his floor so high that this guy is a top 10, 12, our receiver as long as he's healthy, I think. And Matt Ryan didn't even play that well today and the Colts had a shoot a game. I was actually going to ask that. Were the Colts way worse

than you expected or were the Texans better than you expected or both? I mean, what world is cults not worse than you expected? The cults were down 17 to the Texans. They just didn't look good for a long time. The Colts just have a horrible history of dropping games in week one. The Colts are never good out of the game in week one. It's a really strange habit. Like, a tie is almost more insulting because, like, how long has it been since the Colts even

won in week one? It's been years. Yeah, I mean, they tied the Texans today. It's pretty pathetic. All right. The reason everyone's here. Burn book. We thought long and hard about this.

Yeah, it's a tough one. It's hard in week one. It's hard in week one. But in the spirit of the burn book, which how would we describe the spirit of the burn book? It's from Mean Girls, which is people who may not deserve it or not, but are spiritually,

not dead to us. Dead to us? Yeah. The way that I interpreted is like, save me from me from, myself. So I feel like it has to be Cammakers for the Rams. Like it has to. And it's not fair because coming off the Achilles, he like maybe had a hamstring injury, but like

Cammakers had three carry zero yards barely play on Thursday football. And it's more like how do you put Cammakers back in your lineup and play him within like the next four weeks and like not be terrified of that? I don't think he got a touch until the second or third quarter. Daryl Henderson. was playing like the exclusive leadback role for the first 30 minutes of the game and we were all texting like, where the hell is Cam Acres? Well, we texted, yeah, and we were like,

oh, Darryl Henderson got the first play. And then DK was like, oh, yeah, I bet they're like alternating drives. And then the quarters went by. And it was almost like Camakers came in by accident. So what do we think happened here, though? Like, I think that it's going, Camerakers will probably play more

as the season goes on. I do think it had hamstring injury. But I mean, how many games do you see KMakers play in a row and be productive until you put him back in? It's realistically like three. Right. Well, McVeigh said after the game that they need to see more urgency from, from, from, uh, from acres.

I don't know what that really means, but like, yeah, I mean. Sounds like he's in the doghouse for some reason. Yeah, and I didn't honestly like Henderson had one or two good plays, but like Henderson didn't look all that great to me either. Like the Rams offense generally just wasn't good, but, um, I don't know. This is tough. It's tough because there, in addition. to the fact he got demoted and didn't play

and had zero points on three carries you know like there's still the worry that he's just never going to be as explosive he used to be without the after the Achilles injury so you know all those things together it's just like I have very hard time trusting Aker's ever again we could have done Alan Robinson here too

he only had two targets but the difference is it's much much much easier for me to see Alan Robinson like being integrated like next week and being fine than Kim Akers. You know why? Because he was literally on the field during the game yeah right. It's always good. All right. So if you guys want help with waiver claims, we're, we're pretty good at picking waiver players. We also make it fun. It's trivia. We do trivia. If you haven't listened,

trust me, it works. We do trivia, waivers. We make it fun. We make it interesting. And it's, and it's very helpful. So check that out tomorrow. We're going to have a lot of help for you guys, who to add, who to cut. We can help with all that. Right now, we're going to talk about our colleague Jonathan Charks, who passed away this weekend. It's a really sad story. I'm not going to live, but we wanted to share some of our thoughts on it. I started at the ringer. I've been, this is my sixth season at the ringer, which is crazy to think about, but I started as an intern, and I was a fact checker. That was the first thing I did here. And fact checking, I mean, you really, really get to know the site a lot when you are fact checking, you're editing. And I,

this, my favorite person writing on the website was Jonathan Sharks. He, I mean, he wasn't using, like, he's not David Foster Wallace. And like he was the epitome of like, you don't need big words to big ideas. And I think that what was true, I didn't know it at the time. But the reason I love Jonathan Sharks was just numb, one, I was learning from what he wrote better and easier than the,

than anyone else, not just the rear on the internet. Like when he was writing a scouting report for a Kentucky basketball player, I just got what he was trying to say. And only later did I realize it was because he was not trying to sound smart to anybody. He's just trying to talk to you. He wrote the way he spoke. And he just, well, everyone else is using big words to sound smart.

Charks is always just trying to use simpler words to communicate the idea better. And then later, I was an intern and I really wanted to get a job here at the ringer. And eventually they gave me a chance to write my first big, like, column. My first big analysis was about Jared Goff in the NFC championship game. And I was a little nervous and I didn't know what I was going to do. I'd never written, you know, a column like that. It was a little intimidating to do at the ringer. and it was like, I'm just going to rip off sharks

because I just loved how Charks wrote. And it worked. And actually, we have a little Slack channel that people put in for stories they like and Charks put it in. And I was so, like, blown away that Charks liked my shameless ripoff of his style.

I actually called him and then I told him that he laughed. And he was like, oh, that makes sense that I liked it. But I like what Chris said in the Topper about, like, sharks setting, like, professionally, like the voice of the site and the company. I think about all the time, like, the advice.

That was like the beginning of a really, relationship. And then like much more importantly on the personal side, that was the beginning. Like, the pandemic began. And Charks had just had a kid. And I think that Charks was the first person that really started talking because he was right at the beginning of the pandemic yet a baby. And he was the first person that really be like, you know, protecting mental health and all this. And so I called him. And we just started talking a lot about God, about what matters in life. And the I'm not a very religious person, but what I loved about sharks was he's not preachy.

He was like the actual, like if the youth pastor was actually cool, like that was sharks. And we just had conversations about what was important in life and what was not. And then also how annoying it was to root for Jason Garrett because he was a Cowboys fan and talking me through being a Giants fan.

And we were like, we could just seamlessly intermix. Like, you know, he was telling me, you know, just don't build, you know, your identity on sand. You want to build your identity. on rock. And also, Jason Garrett sucks. And I just, I just, I, I, I, um, I miss him dearly. And, uh, I am very fortunate that I caught him at a time in life where he could really help me with, um, a period in my, my, my, my 20s where I felt like I was needing to recalibrate what mattered to me. And he helped

me a lot with that. And I'm glad I said he's gone. And, and, it's tough. And he leaves mine a, a kid, a really young kid. And yeah, I mean, he, yeah, he was. was just the nicest person. Every time I interact with him, he was just so nice and, like, you know, supportive and just like lifting you up in any way that he can. It definitely hits very close to home because he had, he has a son that is my son's age. And obviously, it just breaks my heart to think about the fact that he won't get to see his son Jackson grow up. I mean, that is the part that kills me the most, his son. I wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, the article that he wrote at the ringer, I think, was really pointed and powerful

it talked about how when his dad died, you know, he had a lot of his dad's friends that would come and talk to him, but he didn't really know those friends. They weren't a big part of his life. Because his dad died when he was a kid, yeah. Yeah. And so he talked about how he wants, he has over the last, let's see, found out that he had cancer. He wanted to talk to a lot of his friends and make it known how important it was that these people are in his son's life, that they are, that his son's. son knows them, that his son can rely on those people and these people in some way can help to fill the hole that, you know, obviously Jonathan's death will surely create in his life.

To me, that was just really powerful. And it's very close to home because I have a son and I would hope for the same, you know, with my friends if I ever died and with Calvin, obviously, and, you know, them helping Calvin through everything. So I think if there is anything that gives me solace about this whole situation. It's that, you know, he did such a good job of, you know, expressing that and, you know, talking to his friends about that and how important it was that to him that all these people are in his son's life. So that to me, that is the big thing that I'm thinking about tonight. And yeah, it's just, it's very sad, but that's what I take solison. Yeah, I didn't know him very well, unfortunately. I think I only maybe met him in person a few times and didn't know him very

well. But, you know, he seemed like just one of the most wonderful, lovely people to be around. And just, it's been very touching just to hear and read just all the nice things that everybody who has worked with him, who has known him, has said about him. I mean, that just really speaks to the character of who he is, just how many people he has touched and influenced in his life. And he's a stronger person than I will ever be hearing him go through what he's been through over the last two years and write about it and still go on podcasts and bring a positive spirit when he was in a dark place. It is one of the most,

I don't even know the word, one of the most impressive things I've ever seen anybody do. And yeah, it's a terribly sad day. We'll pose the episode description. There's a go-fund me for his, you know, for the, you know, his widow, Melissa, and his son Jackson.

But we'll also put the link to the story. I couldn't recommend. I literally could not recommend the story higher that he wrote. It's about fatherhood and character. answer, but I will just read one excerpt from it. And he says, he's quoting James 413, and it begins, you know, what is your life, you are a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes, end quote, and then sharks, says, there are some things from the Bible that I have been leaning on over the past year. James 127, religion that God our father accepts is pure and faultless, is this, to look after

orphans and widows in their distress. Isaiah 117, learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow, and then Exodus 22, 22, you shall not mystery any widow or fatherless trial. And Chark says there's hundreds of verses like that. I've already told some of my friends, when I see you in heaven, there's only one thing I'm going to ask. Were you good to my son and my wife? Were you there for them? Does my son know you? And what me, Danny, will say is, you know, I would love people donate to Charxas GoFund me, you know, whatever you can contribute is plenty. But I will say, beyond that, think about those people in your own life and your own circles. Take care of each other.

So with that said, thank you for everyone for listening. And thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, Jonathan Sharks. Goodbye, everyone.