Team-by-Team: Everything To Know Heading Into Week 3 (Episode 1025 with Evan Silva and Adam Levitan)

Adam Levitan (0:15)

Hello, and welcome to Episode 1025 of the official establishtherun.com Podcast. My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR, as always joined by fellow co-founder Evan Silva.

Week two is in the books. Everyone is hurt. Evan, how's it going today?

Evan Silva (0:35)

Coming off a humbling week two for me, I know that you had a really good week.

The weather and the injuries and thinking that you knew stuff after week one, and then week two hits and it's like you didn't know anything. This is a humbling game that we play.

Adam Levitan (0:50)

Indeed, it is. We will talk about all of it today because on today's show, we are going to go team by team through all 32 NFL franchises discussing the most important things we saw in each and what it means going forward. We'll touch on usage, injuries, performance, everything.

Reminder, for anyone serious about fantasy football or anyone interested in DFS this season, clearly I'm biased, but I just could not imagine trying to play this stuff seriously without our in-season product. I pour over our projections for every decision that I make in any football related venture.

Read Silva's matchups for his take on every player in every game. Consult Thorn's rankings for things like knowing to play, Panthers defense against Falcons, 23rd ranked offensive line, tons more. Plus, with in-season, which is about $13 a week, with in-season you get all our premium shows, Silva vs. Leone, Weekly Man vs. Machine, myself, Silva and Wiggins on Friday nights, me and Silva last made livestream on Sunday mornings. So head to the content schedule in the NFL tab for a full list. That is the in-season product at establishtherun.com.

All right, going to start with the five biggest stories of the week and then we'll go team by team in alphabetical order after that. Story number one has to be the Chicago Bears. Just an awful day for the Bears, raining, windy. They're facing a very good Brian Flores Vikings defense. Caleb Williams musters just three points through the first three and a half quarters, then goes down with what looked like a horrible injury. He's screaming in pain, looks like he's crying. Everyone assumed Achilles. And then it turns out he may have just pulled the hamstring. So a shred of good news there, Evan, but how concerned with you with what you saw from the Bears for the first three and a half quarters and then any thoughts on the Caleb injury?

Evan Silva (2:52)

Yeah, grade one hamstring injury. So that's probably a best case scenario, all things considered. He was apparently, a reporter said that he was not, he didn't even have a pronounced limp after the game and he wasn't on crutches. And the Bears play on Monday night in week three. I mean, it feels like a stretch to think that Caleb Williams could play. I mean, you don't want to aggravate a hamstring injury and then it's bothering you for the entire season.

But I think it is a best case scenario run out for Caleb Williams considering how bad it looked at first. Everybody on the internet thought it was a torn Achilles.

Adam Levitan (3:27)

Maybe you can give the people a little background on Tyson Bagent since he probably has to start this game on Monday night. They play Eagles in week three at home and then Jets at home in week four. What is your report here on Tyson Bagent?

Evan Silva (3:42)

I think he's a stand and deliver pocket passing quarterback who's very, very familiar with the offense before last season. The Bears gave him an extension, so they're certainly high on him. The rhetoric around here, we haven't seen him play a lot, but the rhetoric around here is that they think that Tyson Bagent is one of the best 40 quarterbacks on the planet.

Remember, there were some rumors that maybe the Cardinals wanted to trade for him. At one point, I think he'll be able to deliver the ball to the pass catchers enough so that we don't have to worry too much about the production. Although Philadelphia coming up, that's going to be a really difficult matchup on Monday night.

Adam Levitan (4:26)

For sure. And Ben Johnson is very willing to be run heavy anyways, maybe lean a little bit more that way. With Bagent, people are going to be very worried about Colston Loveland here, Evan. I mean, Caleb played the first three and a half quarters. Colston Loveland had one catch for three yards in that span. And then he had the air ball in week one when they scored 59 points. Now, I will say this, when you play a Brian Flores defense, it is not the spot to play tight ends. Like when I'm playing DFS, I try not to play tight ends when they're playing the Vikings. So it certainly was not a great spot, but still through two games, Evan, one catch for three yards for Loveland. How concerned are you there?