Week 9.
Off the list: Trevon Diggs, Derek Carr, Aaron Rodgers
8- Cordarrelle Patterson- It took way too long to get this guy on the list. Patterson is doing everything for the Falcons. RB, WR, TE, Slot…and this past weekend he led the NFL in receiving yards with 126. Patterson Swiss army knifing his way into the top 8.
7- Justin Herbert- He is back. And damn, when this guy is good – he is great. 32-38 for 356 and 2 TD’s. Chargers games are pretty easy to figure out, when he’s lights out, they don’t lose. His team sits atop the AFC West and he is the #1 reason why.
6- Jonathan Taylor- With Derrick Henry on the shelf, Jonathan Taylor becomes the new #1 RB in the NFL between the tackles. He is #2 in the league (behind Henry) with 821 yards and 8 TD’s on the ground. He’s already over 1k scrimmage yards when you add in his receiving #’s. This is the Taylor I thought we’d get out of Wisconsin, beast mode.
5- Matt Stafford- Not impressed Stafford! But, he was #2 on my list last week so I didn’t feel comfortable free falling him off the list entirely. He still leads the league in passing yards and is 2nd in TD’s. And his team is 7-2. We’ll give him one more pass for the stinker on Mon.
4- Tom Brady- Stafford is #2 in TD’s and guess who #1 is…Tom Brady…even more impressive when you consider he didn’t play this week. Brady moved up from #8 to #4 without playing a game…that’s an indictment on the play in the NFL amongst the star level players this week and a credit to him for being the leader that Aaron Rodgers is not.
3- Cooper Kupp- Kupp is the first player to surpass 1k receiving yards this season and his 95 yards on Monday night was a 5 week low for the wide-receiver. He has been on another planet, completely uncoverable this year.
2- Kyler Murray- Another riser on my list despite not playing in a game this weekend, and in fact, his team won without him! I’m going to reference again the fact that the stars didn’t step up this weekend and the fact that the Cardinals have clearly had an organizational shift in their approach, they believe in themselves at a level I have not seen from this organization in quite sometime. Kyler has changed things for the Cardinals and that goes a long way with me.
Number 1!- Lamar Jackson – Answer me this…who is #6 in rushing and #9 in passing in the NFL? Lamar Jackson. Who has led his team back from the dead to win in OT twice this season? Lamar Jackson. Who doesn’t have a legitimate #1 WR and is on his 5th RB this season? Lamar. He is BY FAR the leagues MVP right now and it is not even remotely close. According to ESPN Stats & Info: Lamar Jackson is the 1st player in NFL history with 2,000 pass yards and 600 rush yards through 8 games of a season. Jackson is on pace for 4,694 pass yards and 1,275 rush yards.
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