Week 2 Matchup Previews

Dave Kluge (0:11)

An entire week of football has happened, and we are already on to week two. And Jeff, an amazing game last night. I mean, your Buffalo Bills just absolutely trounce the Detroit Lions. We'll talk about that game a little bit at the end of the show, but we want to look ahead at this week's matchup. And I think one of the best games that we can look forward to is the Minnesota Vikings traveling to Chicago to play against the Bears. And what should be a bit of a shootout here, what we do on this show is we kind of open up the conversation for every single game, talking about the injuries and the players who are dealing with injuries. So let's go ahead and do that.

Juwan Johnson has not, I'm sorry, Juwan Jennings has not practiced this week due to personal reasons. Kyler Murray, in a limited fashion, as he's coming back from the concussion, has yet to log a full practice yet. And then Kyle Menungai and Deandre Swift, both limited with a hamstring and then an ankle and knee injury for Deandre Swift. But let's start with the quarterback situation for the Minnesota Vikings here, Jeff. Carson Wentz, the presumed starter for week two. How do you feel about the Vikings running back room, or I'm sorry, just the Vikings offense as a whole with Carson Wentz there?

Jeff Bell (1:16)

I mean, they're facing the team, maybe they would be wanting to face with injuries at the running back and quarterback position.

Chicago really got shredded last week against Carolina. I think Carson Wentz is, so I have views of backup quarterbacks where there's a backup quarterback in fantasy that you want to get into your lineup, then there's the ones that can at least support the pieces, and then there's the ones that read alert, nothing to do with them. And I think that Carson Wentz firmly sits in that second tier. I think I'm pretty confident in his ability to support Justin Jefferson. I mean, I think Aaron Jones is going to be in a good spot. Other than that, we saw a zero last week from Jordan Addison. The lack of Juwan Jennings potentially. I don't know that it even really affects that. It seems like they're very, very intentional on getting Justin Jefferson a bounce back season out of Jefferson this year after the struggles last year. And I think that that's where Wentz comes in capable. He might throw for 180 yards, and then Justin Jefferson gets 110 of them.

Dave Kluge (2:14)

Yeah, and we kind of saw that. That was the offense last week was like, get the ball to Justin Jefferson. If Justin Jefferson's not open, hit TJ Hockinson in the flat. That's pretty much all that they had going for them.

And I talk about the injuries, and I do that by looking at the injury report, but not on the injury report because he went on IR early in the week, is Jordan Mason. So he's going to be out with a finger injury, I believe. Aaron Jones is the presumed starter here. Now, I know there's a lot of excitement right now for Devon Claiborne. Jeff, are you buying into that at all? Because I have not heard the best things about Devon Claiborne. I actually listened to a serious show that you did a couple of weeks ago with my friend, Tom Kessenick, where you guys talked to a Vikings beat reporter who said, if Devon Claiborne is on the field as a rookie, things have gone terribly wrong for the Minnesota Vikings.

Jeff Bell (2:57)

Yeah, I do feel bad not having that Vikings beat reporter's name at the ready right now. But I do want to give an acknowledgement that basically the report that he provided was that Claiborne looks fantastic in many camps, but the moment the pads came on, he just really disappeared and the physicality, he's just not there on the physicality. I mean, we see desperation force the hand there. But DJ Dallas, we know last week, he's the kick returner, played a little bit on offense last week.

He can be physical in this offense and he can be an approximation. I think that's the part of DeMond Claiborne.

If you're pairing a backfield to DeMond Claiborne and Aaron Jones, you've got two lighter backs there that are not exactly complementary skill sets, kind of bring the same thing, whereas Dallas has a little bit more. I think he's closer to 215, 222 range, which is a little bit more in that Jordan Mason mold. And so that's where it becomes a little bit more of a natural complement. I completely understand where Claiborne, and I mean, I have a lot of 20th round DeMond Claiborne. I'd love to see him be a thing. But again, mentioning that when the pads came on, the physicality of Claiborne just really didn't show up for the physicality throughout training camp. And so I think that that's probably the big concern on Claiborne there. And I mean, Mason being on IR changes the conversation likely a little bit, because I think if you were to see a short-term injury, hey, we need another week here on Mason, you might see more volume go to Aaron Jones. But it being an IR stint, that's where they probably want to preserve Jones at least a little bit and recognize. And so, I mean, is DJ Dallas a sneaky play out of here? It seems wild to think that DJ Dallas might be a sneaky play in the Minnesota backfield.