WR injuries, Josh Jacobs’ pending return + Giants QB change?

Patrick Daugherty (0:22)

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Rotoworld Football Show. It is Tuesday, October 20th, 2026 I'm Patrick Daugherty, joined by, of course, Mr. Denny Carter. We're joined by an interesting Monday night football game where the 49ers got out to a huge early lead against Washington. Almost bled it away, Denny. Unfortunately, a lot of bad things happened in between. Terry McLaurin, a potentially serious knee injury, likely season ending. We're not doctors, but didn't look good. Mike Evans appeared to maybe have a torn Achilles, thankfully not torn. Looks like he's out a while, though. A commander's backfield beset by injury. A lot of stuff to break down there. Then we're going to preview Thursday night football, a huge game between the Patriots and the Bears. So many fantasy relevant players. We're going to break them all down, and then in between the news of the week, Davante Adams' injury, the Packers and the impending return of Josh Jacobs and a potential switch from Jameis to nine times two in New York City. All that and more when we come right back after this.

Denny, we're back and we got a lot of news to get to talk to. A lot of good stuff today. But we would be remiss.

We're going to talk about this topic a little more on Thursday. If we didn't mention, the analytics finally worked.

They finally at long last.

Denny Carter (1:34)

We've been waiting decades.

Patrick Daugherty (1:36)

I mean, analysts, of course, taking over baseball, but the analytically minded teams, only the rich ones have ever won anything. Now, the actual poor ones are going to win something dramatic, awesome World Series coming up between the Brewers and Rays. So analytics won there. It's keeping people's jobs in those places. Troy Aikman, though, said not so fast Monday night. Because you know I love my guy Troy. Troy is going through a hard time. It is. It's really rather unfortunate. They were very professional, I must say, in the booth Monday night. Troy and Joe. But you know, Troy is a professional, Denny. Once the game gets going, it's like any other game.

Any other game, Troy, you know, is going to just bleep on analytics.

He's not a fan and he ain't reading all that. What happened with the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays? What did my guy, not your guy, Troy Aikman say about analytics?

Denny Carter (2:27)

I don't mind Troy Aikman so much, but the anti-analytics thing, I feel like he's just taken it to an entirely new level over the past year or so.

Patrick Daugherty (2:35)

He has.

Denny Carter (2:35)

Where every-

Patrick Daugherty (2:37)

It's eating him up inside.

Denny Carter (2:39)

Every single time a team has a choice, and it's like 50-50, and the ESPN analytics, they go.

Patrick Daugherty (2:47)

Well, Denny, have you noticed, by the way, I know you got to keep your train of thought. Have you? They've bowed to Troy, where they have actually started showing the kick graphic.

Denny Carter (2:57)

Oh, really? We used to joke.

Patrick Daugherty (2:58)

We used to always say, green, go.

Denny Carter (3:00)

Yeah.

Patrick Daugherty (3:01)

I had never once seen- Until this year, they've been showing kick graphics, actually, which I think is trying to play Kate Troy. Maybe. It's not working though, not working.

Denny Carter (3:10)

Yeah. He said, Kyle Shanahan was going back and forth for a moment, early in the game on fourth and short inside the red zone. Honestly, when they had, I think it was fourth and three or four, and I was watching with my son and I said, he's kicking it. Shanahan loves field goals. This is a lock. Then they went for it, and Troy instantly became upset. He said, analytics is a great way to lose your job. I think that's NFL head coach. That's a quote. Now, he said this about Kyle Shanahan, who has the most job security of anyone alive.

He could go one and 15, one and 16, whatever it is, and still hang on to his job. He goes for it, they convert Troy's quiet as usual.

But in the interim, Joe Buck chimes in, he says, we talked to Kyle about how he approaches these analytical decisions. Kyle Shanahan said, look, I've been coaching for 20 years in this league, the analytics come from my gut.

Patrick Daugherty (4:25)

We've come full circle.

Denny Carter (4:28)

So we have we have guttalynics.

Patrick Daugherty (4:30)

We have guttalynics and we're like, we finally after 25 years of hard work, we have internalized analytics is what it sounds like.

Denny Carter (4:38)

I think it's in our bloodstream now. Like micro-bots, like micro-plastics. Yeah, it's just in there now.