Patrick Mahomes’ fantasy magic, NFL in London reaction and the quarterback carousel spinning | NFL News
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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has had a superb start to the 2022 season
Well, that Vikings-Saints game on Sunday was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?!
A few days after I’m still buzzing from the way it ended and the incredible atmosphere in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the sidelines for a few of the International Series games in London now, and I can safely say that was the most entertaining, back-and-forth contest I’ve witnessed.
We had sacks, interceptions, questionable flags, we had ‘the Griddy’, a 60-yard field goal and even a double-doink! We really couldn’t have packed much more into it, could we?
Side note: from my ‘reporter position’, I could only see the first doink, which looked like it was doinking over the bar, so for half a second I thought we were going to overtime. Which was fine by me, but fear-inducing to the rest of the Sky Sports NFL crew who were already in for a three-game, 12-hours-on-air marathon of a day.
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Wil Lutz, who earlier nailed a 60-yarder, steps up for a 61-yard field goal but watches the ball bounce off the upright twice and land short as the Saints lose to the Vikings in London.
It really was the perfect start to this year’s International Series which will see a total of five games played outside of the US: three here in the UK this month before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks face off in Munich in November, with the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers headed to Mexico City later that same month.
We also find ourselves a quarter of the way through the 2022 season. Yep, really. Only the Philadelphia Eagles remain unbeaten, the Miami Dolphins top the AFC East, the Jacksonville Jaguars lead the AFC South, and four divisions don’t have a single team with a winning record. In fact, 15 teams are 2-2 through four weeks of the season, the most teams with that record ever at this stage of a season in NFL History.
Have we finally achieved parity in the sport? Maybe. We’ve had 50 one-score games in the fourth quarter so far this season, with only the Kansas City Chiefs having greater than a one-score lead in the final 15 minutes of the matches this last weekend.
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Highlights of the Kansas City Chiefs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week Four of the NFL season.
It’s hard to identify exactly why – and that’s a job for analysts much smarter than me – but it makes for wildly entertaining games and never has « any given Sunday » rung truer in the NFL than this season.
Five things to look out for in Week Five…
1) Mind the Pack
The Green Bay Packers are in London baby! For the first time ever, Green Bay are making the trip across the pond, becoming the 32nd and final team to play here in the UK.
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NFL Head of Europe & UK, Brett Gosper, says Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is very excited about playing a regular-season match in London this year.
Not only are the UK Packers faithful finally getting their dream come true, for the neutral it’s also a tantalising prospect: with the arrival of Aaron Rodgers, it’s the first time we’ve seen the reigning MVP start a game in London.
Their opponents, the New York Giants, lead the NFL in rushing thanks to the long-awaited resurgence of Saquon Barkley and the rush defense is a real weakness of the Packers’. Passing is a whole other ball game (pun intended) so this is set to be a fascinating tussle in Tottenham.
2) The QB Carousel is spinning
Kenny Pickett came in for Mitch Trubisky in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ four-point loss to the New York Jets on Sunday and has since been named as the Steelers starter ahead of a difficult four-game run that sees them first play the Buffalo Bills, then the Bucs, Dolphins and Eagles. A baptism of fire as a starter which arguably comes with low expectations.
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Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quaterback Kenny Pickett ran in a pair of touchdowns on his NFL debut against the New York Jets.
Pittsburgh are on a three-game losing streak and there’s absolutely no harm in getting the rookie in now for some game experience in what is very much a mulligan of a season. Let’s just hope that Bills defense doesn’t destroy his confidence straight out of the gate.
Meanwhile, Blake Bortles has officially retired after an eight-year NFL career having earned $48 million, getting his team to an AFC title game in the 2017 season. He played 78 games and threw 75 interceptions (make of that what you will); while Cam Newton is rumoured to be trying out with the Washington Commanders, with the team concerned about how Carson Wentz has fared through four weeks.
3) If you’ve got Mahomes in Fantasy, you’re going to win this week
It was flea-flicking, pirouetting brilliance from Patrick Mahomes against the Bucs on Sunday night, and he now heads into a matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders where Patrick Mahomes is 7-1 throughout his career. Sure, he plays them twice a season, so the numbers are naturally inflated, but the passer rating doesn’t lie and Mahomes is 112.4 against the Raiders. That’s really good. Like, really, really good.
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Patrick Mahomes came up with more magic as he flicked a touchdown pass to Clyde Edwards-Helaire after a 360 spin move.
I know that ‘Patrick Mahomes is a good quarterback’ is no hot take but I refuse to let his level of talent become a thing we don’t celebrate on the regular. He’ll get a ton of points (both real and fantasy) against a Raiders defense with a seeming inability to sack a QB and we should all take a moment to enjoy the spectacle.
4) Health is wealth in the NFL
Naturally, there has been a huge amount of discussion regarding Tua Tagovailoa, the concussion protocol and general player safety over the last 10 days. It’s a bigger topic than I’m qualified to dive into, but suffice to say the review of player safety and concussion protocol must be, and looks like it will be, rigorous.
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Pittsburgh Steelers rookie quaterback Kenny Pickett ran in a pair of touchdowns on his NFL debut against the New York Jets.
Additionally, it was utterly remarkable to see J.J. Watt reveal that he had been treated for Atrial fibrillation (when the heart is beating too quickly, too slowly, or irregularly) last week before then playing for the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Now, obviously, Watt wouldn’t have taken to the field without medical clearance, but given his emotion in the post-game news conference it was impossible to not think of just how much these players risk week in, week out, and the toll it takes physically and emotionally.
5) Me, at Spurs, on Sunday
I won’t lie I started this article writing « Four things to look out for in Week Four », having been so swept up in the fun of a London Game week I completely lost track of where we were in the season. As a result, I don’t have a fifth point here, other than to let you know I’m in full fan mode on Sunday for Giants vs Packers, so say hello if you’re there!
Fantasy Tips of the Week
Buoyed by the fact that I’m 4-0 in our Sky Sports league (which I was attempting to keep cool about, but that’s ultimately not my style – GO ME!), I’m feeling entirely overconfident when it comes to Fantasy Football. Further boosted by a smart Waiver Wire pickup of Nyheim Hines, history indicates that it really will all fall apart this week, but in the meantime…
Caleb Huntley of the Atlanta Falcons (yep, until five minutes ago, I didn’t know the name either) is a wise pickup with Cordarrelle Patterson out, you wouldn’t be entirely bananas to consider Geno Smith as cover at QB with bye weeks approaching (available in almost 80 per cent of leagues) and Josh Jacobs owners should proceed with caution ahead of his trip to Kansas City – the Chiefs defense is number one in the NFL against the run.
Her Huddle is a new show for the 2022 season to celebrate the stories of women working in and around the NFL; listen to the podcast on Spotify or watch the bi-weekly show on Sky Sports NFL, Thursdays at 9pm.
