No one wanted Josh Jacobs over the summer. That seemed to include the Raiders, who spent the offseason bringing in Josh McDaniels’ guys. They invested a fourth-round pick in third-down back Zamir White. They signed special teams legend and perennial change-of-pace nuisance Brandon Bolden. They spilled a not-insignificant amount of ink talking up Ameer Abdullah.
Fantasy managers took notice. Jacobs was the RB20 by ADP on ESPN, RB23 on Yahoo and RB27 on Underdog. Underdog, of course, is where all the most engaged players were drafting. They had the most information and it was telling them not to take Jacobs.
Then the Raiders started 0-3. McDaniels needed a backup plan. It was Jacobs, who no longer has a backup. He has handled 20-plus carries in three straight games for the first time in his career. It has produced the RB1, RB5 and RB1 finishes in PPR after the expected lack of commitment made him the RB29, RB22 and RB25 for Weeks 1-3. He has caught 13 passes and scored six touchdowns in the process, helping the Raiders to a 2-1 record where the lone setback was a one-point defeat in Arrowhead Stadium.
Poor usage has been only 1-of-2 things to hold Jacobs back on an annual basis. The other is injury. Although Jacobs missed just six games through his first three years in the league, he was compromised for countless others and often ineffective as a result. It will be hard for a back who invites the kind of contact Jacobs does to stay healthy under these workloads, but he will be a real-deal RB1 for as long as he can stay off the injury report. That includes Week 8 against a Saints run defense that has gone from allowing 3.7 yards per carry and 93.5 yards per game a season ago to 4.6 and 123.1, respectively, in 2022.
Five Week 7 Storylines
Breece Hall‘s rookie breakout extinguished by torn ACL. Hall was limited to 12 snaps in Denver. He produced the second most yards from scrimmage of any player on either team. That had been becoming a theme for the Jets’ big-play ripping, pass-catching second-round running back. He was having the rookie year fantasy managers had hoped for from J.K. Dobbins in 2020. Now he will be having the Dobbins career arc no one wanted. Although it is vastly overestimated how easy it is to return from a torn ACL, most players still have better luck than Dobbins. There is strong reason to believe Hall will be ready for next Week 1, even if it’s not a guarantee. Going forward this season, Michael Carter slides in as a 20-touch player for a backfield low on depth beyond its top-two runners. Ty Johnson defaults into No. 2 status and what should probably be a 6-8 touch role for this run-first offense. Neither player figures to have much Week 8 luck against a Patriots defense that won’t have to concern itself with the Jets’ nonexistent passing attack.
Travis Etienne finally commandeers Jags’ backfield away from James Robinson. Although he is coming back from a foot issue instead of knee, Etienne reminded Hall that it will be possible to return and ball out as a sophomore. Looking like the Jaguars’ best means of moving the ball coming into Week 7, Etienne was their only backfield means on Sunday, out-touching Robinson 15-0. Etienne out-snapped J-Rob 57-12. He rewarded coach Doug Pederson‘s faith with 119 yards from scrimmage, more than Robinson has managed in any game all season. He scored a seven-yard touchdown and contributed the Jags’ longest gain at 49 yards. Etienne has posted at least one 30-yard rush each of the past three weeks, and a 20-plus yard catch two of the past three. 15-0 probably won’t happen again, but Etienne’s takeover is complete. Robinson is no longer usable in fantasy.
Coach Arthur Smith makes it clear there is no game script where he will pass. The Falcons trailed the Bengals 21-0 at the 14:55 mark of the second quarter, 28-17 at halftime and 35-17 with 5:20 remaining in the third quarter. Joe Burrow had 345 yards passing at halftime. None of this mattered to Smith as he ordered all of 13 Marcus Mariota pass attempts. Smith embarked on a 16-play, 10-minute drive after the Bengals stretched their lead to 21-0. It resulted in a touchdown, but there was just one problem: The Bengals then took only four minutes to make it 28-7. This is not a serious offensive approach, and there are no silver linings for parked-Ferraris Kyle Pitts and Drake London. Smith isn’t about to see the light for Week 8, where he will go from facing Burrow to P.J. Walker. “Upside” is the only defensible argument keeping Pitts in the top 12 and London in the top 36.
Mike Williams sufferers sprained ankle in latest humiliating Chargers defeat. With everything having already gone wrong in what ended up a home loss to Geno Smith, Williams severely sprained his right ankle on a fourth quarter fourth down. Williams has defiantly declared he will be “back,” but that could mean anything with an ankle issue. Even if Williams rushes back and misses only a game or two after the Chargers’ Week 8 bye, ankle injuries are perhaps the easiest issue to aggravate for wide receivers. Williams’ loss comes as Josh Palmer recovers from a concussion and Keenan Allen remains on a “pitch count” from his Week 1 hamstring injury. Perhaps Allen will be full-go following the Bolts’ bye. Yet another promising Chargers season appears near the bottom of the drain.
DK Metcalf mysteriously exits game with knee issue. On a cart before the television booth or assembled press corps knew what happened, Metcalf was quickly ruled out for the remainder of the game. Especially with a knee, that typically suggests a serious issue, though Metcalf’s X-rays were negative. A Monday MRI will tell the full tale, but there is a chance Metcalf escapes with only a hyperextension or minor sprain. In his Sunday absence, the Seahawks finally had a viable No. 3 receiver emerge in Marquise Goodwin, who popped up for one of the best games of his lengthy career. Goodwin still isn’t worth a Week 8 flier as a player who has had nine seasons to earn a bigger role and never done so. Were Metcalf to miss time, fantasy managers will have to look to other offenses on the waiver wire.
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Five More Week 7 Storylines
Packers find a new rock bottom in loss to Commanders. It does not get worse than losing at home to the Jets … until you lose on any field to the Commanders. Amidst the backdrop of “sell the team” chants by the home team fans in Maryland — when they managed to get in a word edgewise on the traveling Packers faithful — the Packers continued to display an incoherent offensive identity while struggling to get the ball into the hands of the few playmakers they have. Finally leaned on in the passing game, Aaron Jones still received only eight touches on the ground. Coming off a 10-catch day against Gang Green, Robert Tonyan drew four targets in FedEx. If fantasy managers wondered what the Packers were doing, they were not the only ones. Aaron Rodgers was caught quite literally mouthing “what are we doing?” It all seemed so easy with Davante Adams to move the chains. It now feels impossible ahead of an actually difficult Week 8 date with the Bills.
Ravens immediately commit to a returning Gus Edwards. The Gus Bus played 23 snaps and got 16 carries. It would seem coach John Harbaugh had been waiting for this moment. Edwards’ successful return came as Week 6 star Kenyan Drake rushed 11 times for five yards. Neither back caught a pass. Just as last week was probably a high-water mark for Drake, the same could be true of Sunday for Edwards. 16 carries is a mark he never surpassed in 2020, and the Ravens will likely be hesitant to add too much mileage to his surgically-repaired knee. But there is zero debate over who will be leading the Week 8 committee against Tampa. Edwards will be approaching RB2 status vs. a Bucs defense fresh off getting slaughtered by the Panthers’ post-Christian McCaffrey ground game.
D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard split work, as expected. Speaking of those Panthers, they dialed up 27 rushes for 173 yards and a score. All it took for Carolina to finally have a difference-making day on the ground was to trade the best overall back in football and face one of the most imposing run defenses. I won’t pretend to know what is going on with the Bucs, but it is obvious there won’t be a sorting in Carolina’s backfield any time soon. That is especially true since Hubbard, who maintained a slight advantage over Foreman for quarters 1-3, missed most of the fourth frame with a supposedly minor ankle issue. This, after Hubbard was announced as the nominal starter and then operated as such. Foreman won the production war — 15/118/0 to 9/63/1 — on the back of a 60-yard rush. The inconclusive usage coupled with Hubbard’s nick make both backs shaky Week 8 FLEX options vs. the Falcons despite Sunday’s surprisingly strong effort.
Isiah Pacheco finds a new way to disappoint fantasy managers. Breathlessly announced as the Chiefs’ “starter” Sunday morning by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Pacheco ended up handling only eight carries in a game the Chiefs won by three touchdowns and controlled for the entire second half. He was held out of the end zone as Clyde Edwards-Helaire scored yet again and Mecole Hardman made like Deebo Samuel with two TD runs. Pacheco did out-snap CEH but both were out-repped by Jerick McKinnon. Whoever was talking to Rapsheet wanted the word out of a changing of the guard, but it sort of felt like CEH was just getting a bathroom break. Now headed on bye, the Chiefs will return in Week 9 against a Titans defense that is better on the ground than through the air.
Daniel Jones’ first career 100-yard rushing effort sparks Giants to 6-1. Three of the top-six rushing efforts of Jones’ career have come in the past four weeks. The Giants don’t have receivers so coach Brian Daboll is — gasp — playing to his existing players’ strengths. Saquon Barkley is put in space and given home run opportunities. Jones isn’t forced to attempt endless throws outside the numbers and be something he’s not. Daboll is coaching the team he has, not the one he wishes he had. With only six passing scores all year, it’s a little hard to bill Jones as a “dual threat,” but the rushing usage has made him a streamer fixture. The Seahawks’ bottom-barrel defense represents an A+ matchup for Week 8.
Questions
1. Why is every single NFL punt returner a former seventh-round pick of the Patriots?
2. Is there some reason the only field goals coaches still attempt are 60-plus yards?
3. Can Zac Taylor remember not to wait half the season to activate Joe Burrow‘s “LSU mode” in 2022?
Early Waivers Look (Players rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues)
QB: Daniel Jones (@SEA), Jameis Winston (vs. LV), Mac Jones (@NYJ), Justin Fields (@DAL), Kenny Pickett (@PHI)
RB: Gus Edwards, Tyler Allgeier, D’Onta Foreman, Chuba Hubbard, Kyren Williams, Latavius Murray, Rachaad White
WR: Wan’Dale Robinson, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Parris Campbell, Elijah Moore, Tyquan Thornton, Robbie Anderson
TE: Greg Dulcich, Cade Otton, Evan Engram, Hunter Henry, Will Dissly, Juwan Johnson
DEF: Bengals (@CLE), Titans (@HOU), Raiders (@NO), Jaguars (vs. DEN), Colts (vs. WAS), Panthers (@ATL)
Stats of the Week
Three. The number of points the Broncos have scored in the third quarter this season. Literally Nathaniel Hackett, you must adjust.
The Bengals have not allowed a second half touchdown in seven straight games. Now that is how you adjust.
Justin Herbert has generated just 531 yards on a ridiculous 108 attempts over the past two weeks. That comes out to 4.92 yards per pop. Something has to change with this passing approach.
Ja’Marr Chase has multiple scores in 4-of-24 career appearances. That is not easy for a wideout to do.
10. That’s how many touches Kyle Shanahan gave Christian McCaffrey after surrendering four draft picks for his services. Yes, CMC had only three days to “learn the playbook,” but we would like to think minds of Shanny and CMC’s ilk could have figured out a way to get a sixth-year veteran more looks. Hopefully Shanny doesn’t think his offense is too complicated for McCaffrey to actually play a full complement of snaps 10 days after the fact in Week 8 against the Rams.
Awards Section
Week 7 Fantasy All-Pro Team: QB Joe Burrow, RB Josh Jacobs, RB Austin Ekeler, WR Ja’Marr Chase, WR Tyler Boyd, WR Mecole Hardman, TE George Kittle
The Well I Hope You Never Needed To Speak To Aaron Rodgers Again Award: Amari Rodgers losing two fumbles against the Commanders.
The This Isn’t Helping Award: Mike Evans dropping a wide-open 75-yard touchdown.
The Maybe You Should Have Caught That Award: One of the five Tua Tagovailoa interceptions the Steelers dropped.