Byes: Arizona, Detroit, Jacksonville, LA Rams, Las Vegas, Seattle

Truths

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

1) Drafters of Justin Jefferson have every right to be unhappy the team chose J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz over Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones.

Darnold is ninth in passing yards with Seattle (1,541) and Jones is fifth in Indianapolis (1,790) while McCarthy and Wentz have combined for 1,373 yards. Additionally, Darnold has 11 touchdown passes, Jones 10 and the Vikings' combo has seven. Even if McCarthy turns out to be the "right" long-term answer for the team, he's wrong for 2025. Jefferson, who has finished no worse than sixth in fantasy points-per-game since 2021, is currently mired in 17th place, producing a career-low 15.5 FPts/G.

2) The Pittsburgh Steelers went 10-7 last season with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields starting at quarterback.

True, and that fact makes Mike Tomlin a genius coach in season, but he and Omar Khan horrible talent evaluators. Both these quarterbacks have gotten a well-earned benching in 2025 for their respective New York teams. Wilson actually had one huge game against the defenseless Cowboys, but went 0-3 and had no future with the Giants. Fields is proving he's a great runner and was carried at Ohio State by Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson. Also on those teams, but not contributing in a big way were; Jameson Williams and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

3) Have you noticed how much better Patrick Mahomes is with Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice back in the lineup?

The numbers say it much better than I could. He averaged 23.3 FPts/G when neither wideout was on the field and 31.3 when at least one of them was on the field for a full game. The team went 1-2 in the first three games and they are 3-1 since the return of a quality wideout. Yes people, a quarterback doesn't win a game all by himself... even the best one needs help.

4) If you waited for the return of Rashee Rice, refused all trade offers and started him in Week 7, you were handsomely rewarded.

True. After a month and a half of sitting at the end of your bench, Rice saw 10 targets, grabbed seven of them for two touchdowns and 23.2 fantasy points. The snap counts were relatively similar for five receivers (Worthy - 48, Rice - 33, JuJu Smith-Schuster - 29, Marquise Brown - 27, Tyquan Thornton - 27), but Rice staked out his claim as THE guy. JuJu and Tyquan should return to your bench likely to never be heard from again. Hollywood and Worthy will be low-end WR3s.

5) Despite six teams on bye this weekend, it's not the worst situation for starting quarterbacks.

Fact. Assuming Lamar Jackson returns to the lineup, only Brock Purdy (toe) and Matthew Stafford among the top-10 (based on FPts/G) will be missing from lineups. Kyler Murray has been a huge disappointment, Goff ranks 15th, but the Lions are still a run-first club, Trevor Lawrence is still Trevor Lawrence, Geno Smith isn't in the top-30 and Darnold ranks 19th-best in 2025. The quarterback byes are spread pretty evenly this season. Week 9 will see Hurts and Baker Mayfield sitting, Week 10 has Dak Prescott and Mahomes on the couch, Week 11 is Daniel Jones' turn, Week 12 is Bo Nix and Justin Herbert and Week 14 takes out Drake Maye and the 49ers quarterback.

Lies

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” - Mark Twain

1) “I’m convinced the Indianapolis Colts are trying to tank for Arch Manning,” tweeted Robert Griffin III on August 19th.

Just because a guy can play football, doesn't mean he would make a great analyst. Through Week 7 the Colts have the best record in the NFL (6-1) and have scored the most points (33.1 ppg). Also, Arch Manning is really good at beating up on bad college teams (see Sam Houston and San Jose State), but he's not the best QB in college football. In fact, he should NOT come out after the 2025 season and should return to Texas next fall to develop further.

2) A week ago, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said, "I would like to balance the backfield (Gibbs and Montgomery) out."

If you "bought" that malarkey and started Monty, I'm sorry you got snookered by "coach speak." When you have a talent like Gibbs, you feed him. And then feed him some more. With the game up for grabs, Gibbs out-touched Montgomery in the first half 13-6. The only reason the final workload was close (20-15), was Montgomery saw seven touches late, after the game was essentially over.

3) Chargers tight end, Oronde Gadsden II, is a mirage, who will quickly disappear into the haze after a one-off great game (7-164-1).

Mostly false. As long as the Los Angeles Chargers OL is injured and under duress, Gadsden will have an opportunity to perform. Here's how it works. With an offensive line missing major pieces like Joe Alt (ankle), Rashawn Slater (knee), Trey Pipkins III (knee) and Mehki Becton, quarterback Justin Herbert is forced into throwing quickly and mostly shorter patterns. That takes deep threat Quentin Johnston out of the equation and means Keenan Allen, Ladd McConkey and Gadsden will see most of the workload. Last weekend, behind the Colts for most of the game, Herbert targeted McConkey 15 times, Allen 14 times, Gadsden nine times and Johnston just six times. It probably won't change much in Week 8 against a heavy blitz team like Minnesota.

4) Jake Ferguson will suffer with the return of CeeDee Lamb.

Lamb saw plenty of work in his return after missing four games (5-110-1), but Ferguson was still a huge factor. He saw seven targets, caught all of them for just 29 yards, but two touchdowns and 21.9 fantasy points. The dangerous duo of Lamb and George Pickens will always garner the most attention from defenses leaving Ferguson to roam free. He leads all tight ends with six touchdown catches and looks like a lock for double digits.

5) Quinshon Judkins (selected No.36 overall) is a great story and the best fantasy running back out of the 2025 draft class.

True, he is a great story, but no, I'm going to have to go with Cam Skattebo as the best story and so far the best of an up-and-down running back class. Skattebo, a fourth-round selection is averaging 16.8 FPts/G which is good enough for 10th-best among all running backs and just ahead of Judkins at No.15 (15.3 FPts/G). Skattebo has produced double-digit fantasy points in six consecutive games and along with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart has breathed life into the New York Giants.