Will Levis Dots Up the Falcons! ⚔️

Make sure to ask for a double shot of mayo in your coffee on this fine Monday morning! ☕️

What’s in store:

• Another QB’s season is claimed by an achilles injury ☹️. Kirk Cousins joins Aaron Rodgers on the road to recovery.

• Jahan Dotson is suddenly relevant again! It helps when your quarterback throws for ~400 yards and 4 TDs, but it was enough to put him back on the map.

• Will Levis explodes onto the NFL scene! Could this be the start of something big in Tennessee?

• Ceedee Lamb is walking down a familiar path… See why there might be reason for optimism following Lamb’s WR1 finish.

• Giants QB Tyrod Taylor exits game and is sent to hospital with apparent rib injury vs Jets

  • Unless Daniel Jones is able to return in Week 9 or Tyrod Taylor can come off the gurney to play in New York’s next game, it’ll be rookie QB Tommy DeVito reprising his role as captain of the dysfunctional Giants offense we saw against the Jets in his first career start. Taylor left the game having attempted just seven passes on the day, and with DeVito as starter, the Giants completely abandoned the passing game. Saquon Barkley logged 44 opportunities, and contrary to popular belief, cannot be the only player to contribute on offense if New York wants to win football games. As if there weren’t enough reasons this season to avoid starting Giants pass catchers even with Daniel Jones under center, having an undrafted rookie at quarterback makes all of New York’s weapons not named Saquon unstartable.

• Falcons QB Desmond Ridder exits game vs. Titans on suspicion of concussion, doesn’t return

  • The Falcons were struggling mightily in the game with Desmond Ridder in at QB, and when Ridder left the game without an apparent injury to justify it, speculation swirled that Arthur Smith had benched his starting QB. It was later revealed that Ridder was evaluated for a concussion during the game and that Arthur Smith was just ‘playing it safe’ by holding Ridder out of the rest of the contest. After the game, Smith reiterated his confidence in Ridder as the starter heading into Week 9. Regardless of who’s under center for Atlanta, the offense will likely operate almost identically whether its Ridder or Heinicke. Also injured in the game was WR Drake London, who was on his way to a solid day before he left with a groin injury. That injury will be the most consequential development for the Falcons offense moving forward and should be monitored in the coming days.

• Vikings QB Kirk Cousins suffers apparent achilles injury, expected to miss the remainder of the 2023 season

  • A devastating blow to the entire Vikings offense that likely derails any upside for its most notable pass catchers – those being Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, and Justin Jefferson when he eventually makes his return. Rookie QB Jaren Hall figures to be the starter for the foreseeable future in relief of Kirk Cousins, but with less than a game of NFL experience, he’s unlikely to be fantasy relevant barring a Will Levis-type debut next week against the Falcons. Cousins’ injury raises questions about what the rest of the season could mean to the Vikings as a team with their starting QB and top receiving weapon missing significant time. If the Vikings would mail it in for the final stretch of games, that could spell bad news for Minnesota’s top fantasy options.

• We really liked Nico Collins this week against the Panthers, but he didn’t come through. This Texans offense just didn’t show up in what was probably CJ Stroud’s worst game as a pro - he threw for only 140 yards, which is not what you want to see. I had Tank Dell outside my Top-36 WRs but did like him as an upside flex, but the Panthers defense came through and kept him quiet on the day. I’m going to continue to start Collins as a WR2 - they should bounce back next week against Tampa.

• We were also wondering about this Texans backfield, and it was in fact a 50/50 split between Pierce and Singletary with Mike Boone getting snaps here and there. Despite the great matchup, neither Singletary nor Pierce could come through with only about 11 opportunities for each of them. It’s probably in your best interest to stay away from this backfield right now if this continues to be this type of split.

• I talked about Sam Howell as a start this week, and he ended up throwing for 397 yards and 4 TDs. He came through, and he’s a QB who can put up big fantasy numbers any given week. As of the writing of this newsletter, he’s the overall QB1 in week 8 - and he now has three top-8 finishes in his past four games.

• Jahan Dotson’s starting to finally show something - he reeled in 8 catches for 108 yards and a TD on 10 targets. McLaurin had a solid game as well on 12 targets… but 8 targets last week for Dotson and 10 this week has things looking a lot better for the former 15th overall pick in 2022. Can we trust him, or was this just a good matchup? That’s the question… he’s very talented, and we’re hoping this is the start of some consistent dependability for Dotson. But it is worth noting that Jamison Crowder also had a big game - 7 for 95 and a TD - so maybe it was just the matchup.

• Curtis Samuel ended up leaving the game with a toe injury - he was already dealing with the foot before the game, so maybe there will be more opportunity for Dotson moving forward - but it also looks like Howell just loves targeting his slot receiver given that Crowder got all those looks today.

• Also, remember we were talking about Chris Rodriguez working his way into this backfield? Well, he didn’t play one snap in this game. So we might be back to a Brian Robinson/Antonio Gibson backfield. That was fun.

• What a surprising performance from rookie QB Will Levis! 238 passing yards with 4 passing TDs… quite the debut. That led to DeAndre Hopkins catching 4 balls for 123 yards and 3 TDs - Hopkins was left for dead this week given the QB situation, but it looks like we all underestimated Levis. Levis can run the ball as well, and he’s a big body similar to Josh Allen, so I think he should be picked up even in 1 QB leagues. Not sure he has to be started, but at least put him on your bench for now. This is a huge boost for anyone who got Levis late in dynasty rookie drafts.

• If this actually turns into a good offense and Levis turns out to be good, this would be a huge boost for Derrick Henry as well. This offense with Tannehill has been terrible. What Levis offers the Titans is something Tennessee hasn’t had at QB in a long time, and that’s youth. There was never a question about Levis’ arm talent, but seeing his deep ball accuracy in this game and his poise should be enough to have you excited about what this could mean for the rest of the Titans’ offense, including Treylon Burks. It’s one game, but the range of outcomes for Levis is very wide.

The Cowboys and WR Ceedee Lamb came out of the bye on fire in Week 8 against the Rams, with Lamb earning his highest target share (45%) of the season en route to a 12-catch, 158 yard receiving performance capped with two touchdowns. Lamb’s 41 PPR points constituted his highest single-week output of his career, but the timing of his explosion is particularly interesting when we look at what we saw from him last year and compare it to this year…

Through eight games before the bye in 2022, Ceedee Lamb was averaging just 14.6 PPR points per game with just three touchdowns total. In his first game back after the bye last year against Green Bay, Lamb put up double-digit targets and receptions (15 targets, 11 catches) for 150 yards and two touchdowns - and went on to average 20.5 PPR points through his final nine games in 2022.

This year? Through six games in 2023, Ceedee Lamb is averaging 14.9 PPR points per game over the first six games of the season, and returned from his bye week with double-digit targets and receptions (14 targets, 12 receptions) for 158 yards and two touchdowns – a near identical performance to the one he had coming off the bye in 2022. Could post-bye week Ceedee Lamb become part of fantasy football mythology and turn things up a notch this year like he did last year? Time will tell, but the parallels are pretty surprising.