One of the more eventful Thursdays in recent NFL history, though last night's contest against two flailing franchises wasn't the highlight. That said, the game played out largely as expected, which is easy with so few impact players on either side of the ball.
Denver fed Melvin Gordon on each of its first five offensive plays, as the overpaid back came up a little bit short of my "14 touches for 70 yards and a score by halftime" prediction. But he did earn 25+ touches and had his best fantasy day of the young season. So what did I say yesterday? The same thing I'll say today: sell high. Take out Gordon's late-game TD run, and he was pretty abysmal--or to be fair, Phillip Lindsay arguably would have been better. With Lindsay sidelined, and facing one of the league's worst teams in quite some time, Gordon did what he was supposed to do. Cash out at hopefully a mid-range RB2 value (if you're lucky), but for god's sake, cash out.
Noah Fant's injury was huge, as he was the reception leader before going down and probably would have been targeted all night. His and K.J. Hamler’s absence opened the door for the perennially underappreciated Tim Patrick. As most of you know, Patrick is no fluke, despite being a late bloomer by NFL standards. I've long wondered why savvier teams like the Patriots didn't trade some fake magic beans for him. If Fant and Hamler sit next week, Patrick's a good bet to lead this aerial attack and would be a cheap pickup in deep leagues.
Meanwhile, Jerry Jeudy did about what was expected of him, while Brett Rypien simply outlasted an awful defense. Rypien would be taking a lot more heat this morning if they'd lost. But the victory might earn him another start.
As for the Jets, who else wants to see Sam Darnold run more? A no-brainer. The running game is atrocious, the defense is awful, and the passing game--outside of consummate professional Jamison Crowder--is probably 33rd in the league behind the Chiefs' B team. So why not get Darnold moving? To put yesterday in perspective, he entered the game with 233 rushing yards in 29 contests. So in three hours he increased his career total by 36%.
Oh, and Frank Gore's down to 3.16 YPC on the year. I don't see the Jets riding him much longer; it's time to see what they have in Lamical Perine, at least until Le'Veon Bell returns.