🏈 You know what time it is

Goooood morning legends. This morning, we’ll look at some mid-week storylines with implications on Week 3. It’s Jon again, your resident Jonathan Taylor truther and chief adversary to Matt Nagy.

Grab your coffee, or enjoy your morning appointment with your toilet, and allow me to ease you into the day with the soothing tones of my written words.

Let’s get at ‘er.

It might finally be Justin Fields time

Remember last week? When I went off about Justin Fields being an elite prospect and what a moron Matt Nagy is for not playing him?

Well, Nagy doesn’t have a choice now. According to Adam Schefter, entrenched “starter” Andy Dalton is dealing with a bone bruise on his knee and is considered week-to-week. While Dalton isn’t officially ruled out, we’re expecting Fields to finally get his first career start Sunday.

Once Fields takes the reins, Nagy can’t look back. However:

• Fields wasn’t great Sunday, going 6/13 for 60 yards, 0 TDs, and 1 INT.

• Justin needs a week to prepare with the starting offensive players. He also needs game experience to grow as a professional. This week, even against the Browns’ tough defense, I expect a better showing from Fields. His rushing ability makes a Jalen-Hurts-esque 20+ game probable.

Your Justin Fields buy-low window closes in the next couple of days. Seize it while you can. Grab him Justin time. 

BONUS - We’ve updated our rankings (QB & RB today - WR & TE tomorrow)

Risers

Kyler Murray (QB2): Moving into the first tier, Kyler is showing us his upside, averaging 34.7 points per game this season - tops among quarterbacks. He combines volume with rushing upside in a way no other QB does.

Darrell Henderson (RB17): Moving up a tier, Henderson has seen incredible volume and stayed healthy. In an explosive offense, don’t be surprised if he enters the top-15.

Devin Singletary (RB35): We didn’t like any of the Buffalo RBs (for good reason). But if Devin Singletary keeps seeing the field more often than Zach Moss, he could move higher. But, Singletary remains difficult to trust with the Bills pass-heavy gameplan & Josh Allen as TD vulture.

Tom Brady (QB7): With the most lethal WR core in the entire league, and a Ronald-Jones-led run game, the Bucs are counting on Brady to matriculate the ball down the field. And he’s delivered, with 9 TDs in two weeks; We’ve moved him into tier 2 to account for the resurgence of Antonio Brown and GRONK.

Fallers

Ezekiel Elliott (RB 13): Zeke didn’t look good last year, and he’s been outplayed by Pollard through two weeks this season. It’s at the point where Zeke’s most valuable role is passing-blocking (and he’s damn good at it). Damn Zeke. Now go find Tony Pollard in our rankings. (Zeke was formerly 3rd overall, our biggest miss).

Click here to see our updated RB & QB rankings as of Sept 22, 2021.

Tweet of the Day

Rondale Moore looks amazing

Holy smokes, Rondale. The undersized but unbelievably athletic wide receiver out of Purdue has burst onto the scene, looking already like a favorite weapon for Kyler Murray (who is playing out of his mind). We highlighted more in yesterday’s Huddle as the Top Waiver Pickup - hope you got him. If you did, you’ll enjoy this.

Moore had 7 receptions for 114 yards and a touchdown, including this highlight:

This Arizona offense is the next great fantasy offense - you want whatever WR you can get. Much like Tampa Bay, Rondale Moore, DeAndre Hopkins, (and maybe even Christian Kirk) will feast together, just like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin (and sometimes Antonio Brown). All aboard.

Sterling Shepard is a thing

With the addition of Kenny Golladay in free agency and Kadarius Toney in the draft, many overlooked veteran WR Sterling Shepard. He’s been nothing short of spectacular to start the season. Through the first two weeks, Shepherd is tied with T.J. Hockenson, Amari Cooper, and Cooper Kupp for the most receptions in the entire NFL (16). 

And Shep (ya, we call him Shep) has produced consistently. His stat lines:

Week 1: 7 Receptions, 113 yards, 1 TD

Week 2: 9 Receptions, 94 yards

He’s the WR9 in PPR scoring through two weeks… While I wouldn’t expect him to be a top-10 WR on the year, he looks poised for a career year and could be a massive bargain as a solid WR2. 

If you drafted Shepard, congratulations. If you can trade for him, do it. If he’s a free agent, don’t let him be.

Quick Hits:

• Jarvis Landry to IR — Landry goes to IR with a sprained MCL, meaning he’ll miss at least the next three weeks. It’s wheels up for the running back duo of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, and maybe second-year receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones finally gets his chance.

• Davis Mills to start Week 3 — Marred by the haze of Deshaun Watson, rookie and former top quarterback prospect Davis Mills will get his first career start with Tyrod Taylor on the IR (along with Nico Collins). Mills is worth a look in dynasty leagues as a former top quarterback prospect that overcame multiple injuries at Stanford. This is a Carolina Panthers tweet.

• Jerry Jones 'hopeful’ Amari Cooper will play this week — Cooper is dealing with bruised ribs, and Jones is hoping he’ll play on Monday Night Football against the division rival Philadelphia Eagles. Keep an eye on his status throughout the week and make sure you have a contingency plan. As it’s a Monday night game, strongly consider starting your next-best player - or better yet, grab Cedrick Wilson if he’s available.

• Big Ben Roethlisberger is dealing with a pec injury — it seems like Big Ben can’t avoid the injury bug at this point in his career. According to head coach Mike Tomlin, the injury will affect Roethlisberger’s preparation, and they “better be ready to be adjustable.”

Thanks for joining me this morning - have an epic day!

- Jon

As always, feel free to harass me on Twitter @jonhelmkamp, and follow our main account @draftwredzone, where we share the most important tweets of the day.

The Morning Huddle: an (almost) daily newsletter full of fantasy football news, memes, and stats - giving you the edge to win titles and the laughs to enjoy every minute of it.

Click here to see our updated RB & QB rankings as of Sept 22, 2021.

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