2021 Dynasty/Fantasy Preseason Wk2 Game Analysis: Ravens 20, Panthers 3
We were graced with the presence of Lamar Jackson for a few plays strictly handing the ball off. And we saw Sam Darnold for a series throw to passes. After their brief appearances this game devolved into backup QBs flailing away…including one QB going a robust 1-fer-8 passing.
Hard to scout receivers under these conditions. But the other backup QBs completed passes and we have some scouting notes to share…
Dynasty/Fantasy Player Notes…
— I watched all the Chuba Hubbard (9-24-0, 2-29-0/2) touches intently, because we need to evaluate how good he would be if CMC goes down. What’s it matter if you have a great handcuff situation, but the player sucks?
So far, through two games, I’ve not been overly impressed with what I’ve seen of Hubbard. He’s OK. He’ll do in a pinch. He’s got good instincts, but he is a very soft runner (so far). He’s thinner framed and too often tries to avoid contact…i.e. he will try to cut out and away from congestion up the middle and he’s not a strong enough speed/agility guy to do it against 1st-team defenses (I suspect).
There’s a little something of hope with his instincts but you’re not getting CMC 2.0 here…not even Mike Davis 2.0…and Reggie Bonnafon is better, but Matt Rhule’s wife doesn’t know who Bonnafon is – Hubbard she knows, so Hubbard it shall be as the #2.
-- Terrace Marshall (3-50-0/3) is producing in the preseason. He is showing signs of a legit starting NFL WR. But I can see a minor problem already…something that doesn’t mean he won’t impact on the field, per se, but it’s a window into his soul that I don’t like…that could foretell some issues ahead that worried me from college.
So, in this game, Marshall makes a 2nd & 10 catch for like 8-yards and rolls/slides forward from getting tackled and is past the 10 yards after the tumble/roll, but he was down after 8 yards…obviously. He then gets up, in the 1st-quarter of a meaningless preseason game, playing with a backup QB, and stands up and folds his arms and poses demonstrably like he is ‘the man’…showing for the crowd/opponents…and then slickly (so he thinks) gyrates his arm to point it like Michael Irvin used to do, to show ‘first down’. The thing is…no one is paying attention. The opponents could care less. The fans were likely looking at their phones. It was the most harmless 8-yard, 2 yards short of a 1st-down catch of any preseason and Marshall got up like he just won the title at WrestleMania and was posing for the crowd’s adulation.
He struck a pose again on his next catch.
He’s a solid B-C grade wide receiver prospect.
…and he’s a jackass.
-- The RB any GM in need of a running back should be claiming when Baltimore cuts him is Ty’Son Williams (10-47-1, 2-15-0/2) – clearly better than Chuba Hubbard or any RB in this game.
I will bet my lunch money that he is cut and then unclaimed and then put on the practice squad.
FYI, Alex Collins is an active NFL RB drawing a paycheck to this day. Ditto James Conner.
Keep an eye on Ty’Son Williams’s next landing spot.
-- Josh Oliver (7-50-0/10) flashed the capable skills that made him a top 100 draft pick a few years ago, but Jacksonville had to release him after multiple injuries/ACLs, etc. Well, Baltimore has him…and he looks like a legit #2-3 TE for an NFL team. He is playing his way onto the roster.
Or…he’ll be released, unclaimed, and onto the practice squad while you can’t name the Jaguars starting TE, or most of their depth chart at TE.
-- Guys who didn’t impress me…
Ravens RB Nate McCrary (15-64-1, 2-19-0/3) or rookie WR Tylan Wallace (2-36-0/4). How far Wallace has fallen…
-- P.J. Walker went 1-of-8 passing, while Will Grier came in and looked like a real QB…maybe the best QB the Panthers have. But it won’t matter – this is the Darnold/Walker 1-2 show that will ruin what could be a playoff team otherwise (Grier wouldn’t really help it either).
-- Why a playoff team otherwise? The Panthers have a ton of defensive talent. You could see it coming on late last year, but now they’re even better – a top 10 NFL defense, in talent terms. BUT they have a bottom 5 QB situation and bottom 5-10 O-Line…and thus they will be just a tough out NFL team who is drafting top 10 again next year.
-- To make future matters worse, the Panthers gave Robby Anderson (1-16-0/1) a big contract extension…which is incredibly bad business – the guy is average-good at a position with more talent floating around the league than ever in NFL history, and Robby is a notorious problem off the field. He’s a talent, but it’s a spend they did not need to make – but two of the highest paid players next year will be Darnold-Anderson…how can they make progress with that 1-2 punch? And their highest paid player will be a running back?
I thought David Tepper was some kind of financial genius?
