Rap: Evans (hip) has ‘pretty good’ chance to play

Freierumuth is the Steelers’ designated tush push option, which will give him a little added fantasy value here and there. Despite the fact that Darnell Washington outproduced Freiermuth today, Freiermuth ran a route on 11 of the team’s 26 dropbacks, compared to just five for Washington. This simply wasn’t a big day for the Steelers’ passing attack, but we’d expect Freiermuth to remain a mid-range TE2 option going forward.

The Bucs became the first team in over 50 years to not complete a pass for an entire game. In turn, Irving was able to rack up a career high in rush attempts. He then turned that into a career high in yards by averaging over six yards per carry. He could have posted even better numbers, but the Bucs put him on ice after his third-quarter touchdown. With the exception of one attempt from Irving, Gainwell saw 18 consecutive rush attempts to close the game. Gainwell wound up running for 140 yards on 25 attempts. To the Bucs’ credit, Gainwell was picking up chunk gain after chunk gain and Irving had already earned a massive workload. Irving failed to hit 100 yards on the ground in any of his first three games. He has since reached triple digits three times in his past four outings. Playing some of the best football of his career, Irving is pushing for an RB1 rank headed into Week 9 versus the Bears.

Washington made a nice 58-yard catch where he broke two tackles, and then tight-rope walked down the sideline before being pushed out of bounds at the one-yard line. It was an impressive display of athleticism from a large human being. Washington was tied for second on the team in targets and played the third-most snaps of any non-offensive lineman or Aaron Rodgers today. However, early data says he ran a route on just five dropbacks, which means he was targeted every single time he ran a route. That type of production can’t hold up in that limited a role.

With the Fernando Mendoza chatter increasing as the Raiders were mired in a four-game losing streak, Cousins responded with his fourth three-touchdown effort, albeit his first since Week 3. Cousins has now provided multiple scores in 7-of-8 starts, and is up to 19 overall on the season. This, with Tre Tucker as his No. 1 receiver. Of course, Tucker is merely Cousins’ No. 1 wideout. Brock Bowers is his No. 1 pass catcher, and the elite tight end stacked up 7/92/2 in the new Meadowlands. Cousins seemed to look Bowers’ way on all the most critical downs, and he was richly rewarded. Fantasy managers also continue to be rewarded with Cousins in streamer spots, though that will be put to the test in Week 9 against the 49ers on the road. With only two teams on bye, we would be looking elsewhere in our quarterback spots.

Minshew appeared to get better blocking and be more accurate and on-time with his passes than Jacoby Brissett. He also got a few major long gains from Tyler Allgeier en route to rallying the Cowboys from a 17-3 lead. Minshew should have had a walkoff 13-yard touchdown pass to Michael Wilson with six seconds left, but kicker Chad Ryland missed the extra point. In overtime, after an initial three-and-out, Minshew completed just one pass as Wilson and Allgeier ran the Cardinals into field-goal range for the win. Hard to see how the Cardinals would bench Minshew after how this looked, though he certainly shouldn’t be considered a firm rest-of-season starter just yet. Minshew Mania will likely figure into the QB2 superflex mix in Week 9.

This wasn’t a big day for Bernard, but it wasn’t a big day for the Steelers’ passing attack either. Pittsburgh was able to control this game on the ground and with its defense. The good news for Bernard is that he was second on the team in targets and ran a route on 22 of Aaron Rodgers’ 26 dropbacks. Bernard is going to be more valuable in PPR leagues because of his shorter route tree, but he should be rostered in most formats given his ability and role.

This was not a great game for Metcalf. He and Rodgers struggled to connect all day, and one of Metcalf’s drops was a near-40-yard pass that hit him square in the chest. The receiver simply dropped the ball and wound up hitting it forward directly into the cornerback’s hands. The good news is that Metcalf ran a route on every single dropback today, but he and his quarterback are not on the same page. Maybe the bye week will help, so don’t drop him yet.

Jeanty was benched as the Raiders’ early-down back, getting out-carried 25-2 by Mike Washington Jr. For his part, Washington was not effective, churning up just 3.3 yards per carry and getting stoned on a bevy of goal-line handles. Speaking afterward, coach Klint Kubiak said the move was his call but that "(Jeanty) is still going to be a big part of our team.” Jeanty made waves during the week when he said the Jets could not tackle. Rather than let the struggling second-year back prove his theory on the field, the Raiders made the takedown themselves for the Jets. While it’s clear Jeanty is now in a true timeshare, we do also take Kubiak at his word that Jeanty will remain a “big part” of the team, almost certainly with double-digit carries more weeks than not. The question is if he can keep catching enough passes to hold RB2 status. Washington is now the preferred short-yardage back, but his failures in Sunday’s highest-leverage spots could keep the door ajar for Jeanty.

When asked if this is a potentially season-ending injury for Jackson, Minter’s response was, “We’ll see.” After seeing Jackson’s injury on replay, it was easy to assume the Ravens’ QB1 would be looking at another multi-week absence, but this sounds like the worst-case scenario. If Jackson doesn’t land on season-ending IR, he would be required to miss at least four games before he could even consider a return. Adding insult to injury, the Ravens also lost backup Tyler Huntley in this game to a toe injury, meaning rookie UDFA Joe Fagnano could be in line to start on Thursday night against the Jaguars in Week 9.