Originally I was going to use this space to extoll the virtues of Patrick Mahomes and Ryan Fitzpatrick, telling you all about the great throws that they've made through two weeks of the 2018 NFL season. This is opposite land from last year: instead of young star quarterbacks getting injured in Week 3, we have a young star quarterback returning from injury (Carson Wentz), a young star quarterback turning into an MVP candidate (Mahomes) and an old, stale retread doing the same (Fitzpatrick). The league is loaded with quarterbacks and it's never been easier to do the job. Which brings me to my new main point: if you hear someone blaming fantasy football for a dumb generation of football fans today, yell at them and call them stupid. Actually don't do that: just remind them politely how wrong they are. This is a thing that popped up on Wednesday night when someone noted on Twitter that Ryan Fitzpatrick has more touchdown passes than Troy Aikman. Aikman saw the tweet and said "who cares?," it got retweeted a ton of times and then on Thursday morning, a bunch of beat writers started blaming fantasy football for fans being dumb. A couple of things here: One, this all started because someone was trying to point out that Aikman is overrated as a Hall of Fame player. Eh, he might not be wrong. Aikman has a trio of Super Bowl rings and he's got some Cowboys Legend aura to him, but he also has the lowest number of passing touchdowns of any Hall of Fame quarterback who started their career after 1985 and second lowest in terms of passing yards of that group, ahead of only Kurt Warner. The yin/yang of Aikman and the Cowboys is obvious: his legacy was boosted by great teammates and it was also hurt by great teammates, because he was asked to do less and lost touchdowns to Emmitt Smith I'm not dogging Aikman: he is clearly a Hall of Fame quarterback, but relative to the other guys who played in his era, he had the most help and he had worse numbers. Two, of course Fitzpatrick has more touchdown passes than Aikman. How is this even controversial? So does Russell Wilson. So does Brad Johnson. So does Andy Dalton. So does Jon Kitna. Aikman is 71st all time in touchdown passes. This shouldn't be controversial. Modern offenses have created a world where quarterbacks are putting up huge numbers. Comparing Fitzpatrick, who started playing in 2005, to Aikman, who stopped playing in 2000, is absurd in the first place. Three, fantasy football hasn't made football fans dumber. It has introduced MORE fans into the nuances of football. Many of those fans are learning about the intricacies of the game and there's a learning curve there. That's fine. Four, I'll admit that fantasy causes people to focus on quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers more than ever before, but that's not different than it's been for the past 15-20 years. Skill position guys draw the attention. They always have and always will. Five, let's not make this about "stat nerds." That's a silly way to approach this. Stats are important -- and anyone propping up Aikman over Quarterback X will use a statistic (i.e. the number of rings he has) in order to trump the argument. Any meaningful discussion about sports involves statistics, and broadening your statistical base will generally be a net positive, if you're willing to blend those stats with observing the game. Box score scouting doesn't work but neither does ignoring statistics and analytics. Third down conversions ... that's an analytic whether you like it or not. Finally, fans aren't dumber. Fans are MUCH smarter. There is so much more analysis out there now than there was 10 years ago about both football and fantasy football. Not everyone is soaking in every single nugget, of course, but the amount of information available to everyone should be obvious in the death of the sleeper. A few years ago, a dude like Austin Ekeler is hanging out there on waiver wires. Now he's universally owned. You need someone like Philip Lindsay -- a guy the Broncos might not have even known was a sleeper -- to really come out of nowhere to find a sleeper. Football is covered more now than ever before. That's a good thing for everyone, especially fans, the majority of whom are much smarter about the game than they were a few years ago. ANYWAY, that's all I've got. Football is awesome this year, don't let it get bogged down by people making asinine assumptions about football fans or comparing Ryan Fitzpatrick and Troy Aikman. Let's compare modern quarterbacks instead! Yell at me on Twitter @WillBrinson with your complaints, questions and (unlikely) compliments and make sure to check out my DAILY NFL PODCAST, the Pick Six Podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes here. To the rankings: THE ELITE 1 Aaron Rodgers Green Bay Packers QB Still the best in the game, even with only one leg, although if he's concerned it's doing damage, color me concerned too. 2 Tom Brady New England Patriots QB Not Brady's finest effort in Week 2's loss, but the Jaguars are a very, very good defensive team. 3 Philip Rivers Los Angeles Chargers QB Huge test for Rivers in Week 3 against a dangerous Rams secondary. Keenan Allen has lots of experience against Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters. This is a fun game to watch. 4 Drew Brees New Orleans Saints QB I have no qualms about moving Brees down a peg here, although it might ultimately be more about the Browns than Brees. I expect a VERY big outing from him against a banged-up Falcons team on Sunday. The best ... arrrrrrrround. Nothing's ever going to keep them down. Or something. I bumped Brees down one spot and put Rivers up because of how they've played the first two weeks, but it's mostly nitpicking. Things are still stable up top for the most part here. It's below where things are going to get a little nuts this week. EYEBALL EMOJIS 5 Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs QB If I promised to not take a knee-jerk reaction to what happens early, then I was lying. But Mahomes has been incredible the first two weeks and shouldn't slow down much against the 49ers. He's legit. He won't stay here forever but he's here for right now. 6 Ben Roethlisberger Pittsburgh Steelers QB The Steelers got outdueled by the Chiefs in a wild game, but ultimately Roethlisberger ended up going bananas, with a three-touchdown and 452-yard effort. He threw 35 times in the first half alone. That might not be the last time he has to go huge to keep the Steelers in a game. 7 Cam Newton Carolina Panthers QB Cam caught grief for his performance against the Falcons, apparently? I don't get that. He made some questionable throws but welcome aboard the bus, pal. Newton did everything he could to bail out a bad effort from the Panthers defense. 8 Andrew Luck Indianapolis Colts QB Luck's numbers aren't eye-popping from the Redskins game, but he played very well and he got the sneaky Colts a dangerous road win. 9 Ryan Fitzpatrick Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Who knows how long he'll be up in this list, but he's here now after two incredible performances that gave the Buccaneers big wins. Fitz might melt against the Steelers on Monday night, but it wouldn't be shocking if he had a big outing either. 10 Kirk Cousins Minnesota Vikings QB Cousins deserves this list based on his game-tying touchdown throw to Adam Thielen alone. He's starting to show the upside the Vikings might have in their offense. 11 Matt Ryan Atlanta Falcons QB I'd like you to meet Matt Ryan, red zone rushing threat! The Falcons quarterback was efficient near the end zone and elsewhere. It was a nice bounceback performance after Ryan struggled in Week 1 against the Eagles. 12 Alex Smith Washington Redskins QB Ugly effort by the Redskins offense, but I don't blame Smith for it.<doc-sep>People tend to like touchdowns and close games, so this N.F.L. season has truly delivered. The N.F.L. has produced the most touchdowns, and the second most overall points, through two weeks of any season in its history, and according to the league, 25 of the 32 games have been within one score at some point in fourth quarter. For those who like to factor in drama, there have even been nine fourth-quarter comebacks. [Follow our live coverage of N.F.L. Week 3] This week the Rams are trying to prove they are the team to beat in the N.F.L., while Patrick Mahomes and Ryan Fitzpatrick are trying to show their hot starts are not just a fluke, and Matt Patricia is going up against his old boss, Bill Belichick. A reasonable assumption: Lots of touchdowns, lots of points and more than a few close games. Here is a look at this week’s schedule, with all picks made against the point spread. Last week’s record: 10-6 Overall record: 21-10-1<doc-sep>Need Fantasy Football lineup advice? Talk to CBS Sports on your Google Assistant to get insights on the best sleepers and to help decide between players. Just start with, "Hey Google, talk to CBS Sports. "What is the Trade Chart? The Trade Chart is designed to help guide you in making fair trades in your standard-scoring, PPR and two-quarterback leagues. The values assigned to the players below are a long-term measurement of their Fantasy value. By adding two players' values you could determine what one player you should be able to get in return. This list also works as a "Rest of Season" rankings. Also, any player not on the chart should be considered valued at no more than four points. Running backs Non PPR Todd Gurley, LAR 42 45 Ezekiel Elliott, DAL 39 40 Melvin Gordon, LAC 38 41 Alvin Kamara, NO 35 39 David Johnson, ARI 30 33 Saquon Barkley, NYG 29 33 Christian McCaffrey, CAR 26 30 Dalvin Cook, MIN 24 27 Kareem Hunt, KC 24 26 Leonard Fournette, JAC 23 26 Jordan Howard, CHI 21 23 James Conner, PIT 20 23 Joe Mixon, CIN 19 22 Le'Veon Bell, PIT 17 20 Kenyan Drake, MIA 15 18 Devonta Freeman, ATL 15 17 Carlos Hyde, CLE 13 15 Jay Ajayi, PHI 13 14 Tevin Coleman, ATL 12 14 Marshawn Lynch, OAK 12 13 Lamar Miller, HOU 11 14 Mark Ingram, NO 11 14 LeSean McCoy, BUF 11 14 Alex Collins, BAL 11 13 Matt Breida, SF 11 13 Adrian Peterson, WAS 11 12 Dion Lewis, TEN 10 13 Chris Thompson, WAS 10 13 Derrick Henry, TEN 10 11 Phillip Lindsay, DEN 9 11 Giovani Bernard, CIN 9 11 Royce Freeman, DEN 9 10 Rex Burkhead, NE 8 10 Kerryon Johnson, DET 8 10 Austin Ekeler, LAC 8 10 Bilal Powell, NYJ 8 10 Sony Michel, NE 8 10 Corey Clement, PHI 8 10 Isaiah Crowell, NYJ 8 9 Peyton Barber, TB 8 9 Aaron Jones, GB 7 9 James White, NE 7 9 Jamaal Williams, GB 7 8 Chris Carson, SEA 7 8 Alfred Morris, SF 7 7 T.J. Yeldon, JAC 6 8 Rashaad Penny, SEA 5 7 Javorius Allen, BAL 5 7 Wide receivers Non PPR Antonio Brown, PIT 33 37 Michael Thomas, NO 32 36 Julio Jones, ATL 31 35 DeAndre Hopkins, HOU 29 33 Odell Beckham, NYG 28 32 A.J. Green, CIN 28 32 Mike Evans, TB 27 31 Davante Adams, GB 27 31 Tyreek Hill, KC 26 30 Keenan Allen, LAC 25 29 T.Y. Hilton, IND 22 26 Stefon Diggs, MIN 21 25 Adam Thielen, MIN 20 24 JuJu Smith-Schuster, PIT 18 21 Brandin Cooks, LAR 16 19 Amari Cooper, OAK 14 17 Emmanuel Sanders, DEN 12 15 Larry Fitzgerald, ARI 11 15 Jarvis Landry, CLE 11 15 Golden Tate, DET 11 15 Josh Gordon, NE 10 13 Chris Hogan, NE 10 13 Marvin Jones, DET 10 12 Allen Robinson, CHI 9 12 Demaryius Thomas, DEN 9 12 Nelson Agholor, PHI 9 12 Will Fuller, HOU 9 12 Michael Crabtree, BAL 8 11 Julian Edelman, NE 8 11 Alshon Jeffery, PHI 8 11 Kenny Golladay, DET 8 11 Quincy Enunwa, NYJ 8 11 Sammy Watkins, KC 8 10 Marquise Goodwin, SF 7 11 Kenny Stills, MIA 7 10 Cooper Kupp, LAR 7 10 Chris Godwin, TB 7 10 DeSean Jackson, TB 7 9 Tyler Lockett, SEA 7 9 Corey Davis, TEN 6 9 Robert Woods, LAR 6 9 John Brown, BAL 6 8 Devin Funchess, CAR 6 8 Keelan Cole, JAC 5 8 Robby Anderson, NYJ 5 7 Doug Baldwin, SEA 5 7 Randall Cobb, GB 5 7 Mike Williams, LAC 5 7 Brandon Marshall, SEA 5 7 Tight ends Non PPR Rob Gronkowski, NE 22 25 Travis Kelce, KC 17 20 Zach Ertz, PHI 15 18 Jordan Reed, WAS 8 11 Jimmy Graham, GB 7 10 Trey Burton, CHI 7 10 Kyle Rudolph, MIN 7 9 George Kittle, SF 6 9 Evan Engram, NYG 6 9 Eric Ebron, IND 6 8 Jesse James, PIT 5 7 Will Dissly, SEA 5 7 Quarterbacks 1QB 2QB Patrick Mahomes, KC 16 32 Tom Brady, NE 14 28 Aaron Rodgers, GB 13 26 Drew Brees, NO 12 24 Deshaun Watson, HOU 12 24 Cam Newton, CAR 12 24 Russell Wilson, SEA 12 24 Ben Roethlisberger, PIT 12 24 Kirk Cousins, MIN 10 20 Philip Rivers, LAC 9 18 Ryan Fitzpatrick, TB 6 12 Carson Wentz, PHI 6 12 Andrew Luck, IND 5 10 Andy Dalton, CIN 5 10 Jared Goff, LAR 5 10 DSTs Player Non PPR Rams DST 6 6 Vikings DST 6 6 Jaguars DST 6 6 So who should you sit and start this week? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 3 Fantasy football rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big time last season.<doc-sep>
Heading into the third week of the NFL season, it's time to begin wondering if we're experiencing mere tremors to the league's power structure or actual seismic shifts as unfamiliar players make claims to greatness and once unsung teams position themselves to overtake last season's Super Bowl entries, the Eagles and Patriots, both Week 2 losers. Here are the eight biggest remaining questions entering Week 3: 1. Will Florida stay undefeated? Once upon a time, news of the Sunshine State's top three teams being unscathed after two weeks would have engendered a yawn — the assumption, of course, being that Florida State and the Universities of Miami and Florida formed the state's premier football trio. But while the Seminoles, Hurricanes and Gators have all suffered losses in 2018, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are off to a collective 6-0 start for the first time since 1997. All three clubs are home in Week 3 and have a reasonable shot at their first 9-0 cumulative burst. The Dolphins will host the Raiders, who draw the unenviable combo of a 1 p.m. ET start coupled with a cross-country flight. Upstate and riding high after spanking New England, the Jags will welcome the battered Titans. But Monday's matchup is the most compelling as Bucs quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick tries to cement his grip on the starting job during the final week of suspended Jameis Winston's absence. But can he sustain "Fitzmagic" against what's sure to be a desperate Steelers (0-1-1) squad that tends to overcome its oft self-inflicted turmoil? We'll soon see while finding out if Fitzpatrick makes history as the first player ever to pass for 400 yards and four TDs in three straight games. Agree? Disagree? :Talk about it with our NFL staff and other fans in The Ruling Off The Field More:Ranking NFL's seven 2-0 teams from lucky to legit More:Which of NFL's 0-2 teams still could make playoffs this season? 2. How many TD passes will Patrick Mahomes throw? Dan Marino threw a then-record 48 touchdowns in 1984, his second season. Mahomes is on pace for 80 in his sophomore campaign. (Yes, it's entirely premature to project this kind of thing after two weeks.) So let's shift the September hyperbole — Sunday will be the most highly anticipated 49ers-Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium ... since Steve Young and Joe Montana square off 24 years ago. (Sorry. Again.) Still, the Kansas City faithful will be revved up for their prodigy's first regular-season start at home. Mahomes and his undefeated mates will be taking aim at a San Francisco pass defense ranked 25th after being carved up by Matthew Stafford in Week 2. And if Mahomes connects for three more TDs to boost his total to 13, he'll break Peyton Manning's record for the most in his team's first three games. 3. How will Carson Wentz look? The Eagles get their franchise quarterback back for the first time since he tore two knee ligaments Dec. 10. Wentz, who only received clearance to return Monday, should get a boost playing in front of Philadelphia fans for the first time since Nov. 26. The reigning champs' offense could certainly use a lift after generating a middling 39 points (and just one TD through the air) so far. A matchup with the Colts initially looked inviting. But Indianapolis rolls into town with a top-10 defense and coach Frank Reich, Philly's offensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017 and a man who will have deep state knowledge of Wentz's tendencies. Still, this is a necessary step for Wentz, who is going to face even tougher defenses (Minnesota, Carolina, Jacksonville) in October. 4. Who wins the Battle of Los Angeles? The Rams host the Chargers at the L.A. Coliseum on Sunday for what could be a Super Bowl LIII preview. The Rams, metrically, are settling in as early front runners after winning their games by a collective 54 points (three TDs better than the next-best differential). But the Chargers (1-1) will present their first legitimate test, featuring the league's third-ranked offense and a trio of weapons (Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon, Keenan Allen) rivaling the Rams' skill players.