Prop Points | August 21, 2026

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is Prop Points on VSiN, the SportsBetting Network.

**Jeff Erickson** (0:09)
Prop Points, Jeff Erickson here with Nick Whalen, live from Bar Canada at the D. I'm here for National Fantasy Football Draft Day. I can't wait. You can follow everything, all the goings on at National Fantasy Football Draft Day at Draft Nation 2026
I'm here with Nick Whalen. We are with rotawire.com. We have got a fun, fun show for you today. Howard Bender is going to join us live. That's right. The Gravy Boat.
He, he, he, he, a fantasy alarm is going to join us. Happy to have him here in person here at the D. Adam Burke is going to join us. Going to talk all about some of his baseball bets for today's slate. Going to be an awesome slate. The game's got an early awesome game today, by the way. 410 Eastern Time, The Miz against Chris Sale. Really excited about that one. We'll have updates on the BMW.
And, of course, it's Dinger Friday. Live Dinger Friday at that. Can't wait for that. Make sure to download the Prop Points Podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Nick Whalen, how are you doing, my friend?

**Nick Whalen** (1:09)
Look, I'm doing fine here in Milwaukee, where it is once again, just pouring rain. It's like 67 degrees. I don't think I'm doing as well as you, Jeff. I'm very envious that you're out at Bar Canada, get to take part in the Draft Nation event. You're looking crisp. You're looking tan on camera here. And like you said, we are set for a great show over the next 60 minutes. Two awesome guests excited to have Howard Bender in studio. And of course, Adam Burke, who always gives us excellent intel. We'll talk a little bit about the NFL betting guide version 2.0, by the way, which will be coming soon to VSiN. Before we dive in on a couple of the NFL preseason games last night, we'll give you a quick update at the BMW.
JJ spawn now 11 under Jeff. He is your solo leader, five under through eight after firing to 64 on day one. So he's got a three shot lead over Michael Thorbjornsson, Rory McElroy, very much hanging around. He's only one under today, but seven under for the tournament after going low yesterday.
Scotty Schaeffler, though, you have one of these stories so far of the weekend. He's even through four shot plus two yesterday. He is currently tied for 44th place and the betting odds have adjusted accordingly. Schaeffler, currently 74 to one to win the tournament. Spawn is your heavy favorite as of this moment at DraftKings plus 240

**Jeff Erickson** (2:26)
Yeah, pretty wild. And hey, Scotty won last week and he won going away. I think psychologically, naturally, there's a little bit of fallback there. A little bit of even for Scotty, who, you know, has proven to be mostly human this year that this is likely to happen. It's kind of funny. He's struggling this week. Rory was terrible last week at plus eight. So, of course, Rory's playing well shot 64 yesterday. So that's how that goes. We had a couple of interesting preseason games yesterday.
We saw the Niners blow out the Chargers and we saw the Raiders come back and beat the Texans. Let's start off with the second one there, a closer game, 22-20. What do you see out of that Raiders-Texans game that caught your eye?

**Nick Whalen** (3:03)
Well, I mean, how can we not start with Aiden O'Connell leading the Raiders on a 96-yard drive to ultimately win this game? But I think the primary takeaway has to be saw a lot of Fernando Mendoza. No Kirk Cousins last night, so Mendoza got the start, played the entire first half. Now, it did not start great for Fernando Mendoza. He was coming off of a preseason debut where threw a touchdown on his first possession. Everybody's feeling great. Pick six on the first possession, this time around an 80-yard return by the Houston-Texans, second drive, three and out punt, third drive, started to get it going a little bit, eight play field goal drive. It was only 26 yards. However, there's a big penalty on the kickoff that set the Raiders up. Then fourth drive also ended in a punt that was nine plays and 50 yards, fifth drive, another three and out punt.
Some good, some bad last night for Fernando Mendoza.
On the Houston side of things, we did see CJ Stroud played only the first drive of the game. That was capped off with a Woody Marks 20-yard touchdown run. No David Montgomery, no Nico Collins, no Dalton Schultz, didn't really see even the secondary receivers for the Houston Texans. So still a lot of question marks as far as who's going to step up now with Jaden Higgins out for the season. Then the last thing I'll mention in this game, Jeff, we did not see Astro Genti, but I did see a lot of talk late last night on Twitter about Mike Washington, who ended up being the number one running back for the Raiders. Nine carries, 56 yards, a couple highlight plays at two catches for 18 yards. Started to be some talk of, okay, is this for sure going to be one of the biggest splits that we'll see in the NFL in terms of workload in favor of Ashton Gentey? Could Mike Washington maybe have something to say in this Raiders backfield?