NFL Player News
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Aaron Rodgers QB | PIT
Packers' Aaron Rodgers: Efficient against Bears
Rodgers completed 19 of 25 passes for 234 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday's 27-10 win over the Bears. He added 10 yards on five rushing attempts and lost a fumble.
Rodgers was briefly credited with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Jones in the second quarter, but the play was later deemed a run. The veteran quarterback's first touchdown pass of the season finally came later in the second quarter on an eight-yard touch pass to Jones, and Rodgers added a five-yard touchdown to Allen Lazard to give Green Bay a 24-7 halftime lead. Green Bay went run-heavy on offense while nursing a big lead for the entire second half, so Rodgers finished the night with another modest stat line. Rodgers will bring a 2:1 TD:INT into a high-profile Week 3 showdown with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.
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Matthew Stafford QB | LAR
Rams' Matthew Stafford: Three touchdowns against Atlanta
Stafford completed 27 of 36 pass attempts for 272 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions in Sunday's 31-27 win over Atlanta.
Stafford led the Rams on touchdown drives for three of the team's first four possessions. He capped two of those three drives with touchdown passes of one and three yards. Despite the positive portions of his performance, Stafford also turned the ball over twice and was far less efficient from a scoring perspective in the second half. While the Rams walked away with a win Sunday, Stafford has thrown three touchdowns as compared to five interceptions across his first two games of the campaign.
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Russell Wilson QB | NYG
Broncos' Russell Wilson: Underwhelming performance in win
Wilson completed 14 of 31 passes for 219 yards, one touchdown and one interception while adding two rushes for three yards in Sunday's 16-9 win over the Texans.
Coming off a loss to his former team in Week 1, many expected Wilson and the Broncos to have a huge resurgence against the Texans on Sunday. Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards, as the offense is still trying to find its footing under the tutelage of head coach Nathaniel Hackett. Wilson focused on Courtland Sutton throughout the contest, targeting the wideout a team-high 11 times. Jerry Jeudy exited the game with a rib injury, complicating matters for the veteran signal-caller with KJ Hamler (knee/hip) already sidelined. Wilson's lone touchdown came early in the fourth quarter to give Denver the lead. The 33-year-old's struggles through the first two weeks are certainly concerning for fantasy purposes, but the Denver offense is too talented for matters not to improve substantially moving forward. Wilson will have the chance to get cooking against a familiar foe when the Broncos host the 49ers in Week 3.
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Cooper Rush QB | BAL
Cowboys' Cooper Rush: Mistake-free effort in Week 2 win
Rush completed 19 of 31 passes for 235 yards and a touchdown in Sunday's 20-17 win over the Bengals.
The backup quarterback remarkably won his second straight start for Dallas after he guided the team to a Week 8 victory last year against Minnesota. Much of Rush's production came in a dynamic first quarter that saw the Cowboys jump out to a 14-3 lead, including a nine-yard TD strike to Noah Brown, but after the Bengals rallied to tie it 17-17 late in the fourth, he led his squad on a final scoring drive with less than a minute left to set up a game-winning field goal by Brett Maher. With Dak Prescott (thumb) sidelined for at least a couple more games and probably longer, Rush will get a chance to prove he's more than a one-game wonder in Week 3 against a Giants defense that just held Baker Mayfield to less than 150 passing yards.
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Joe Burrow QB | CIN
Bengals' Joe Burrow: No protection again in Week 2
Burrow completed 24 of 36 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown while gaining 26 yards on four carries in Sunday's 20-17 loss to the Cowboys.
After getting sacked seven times in a Week 1 loss to the Steelers, Burrow was running for his life once again in Dallas and got taken down six more times. Despite the issues in front of him on the offensive line, the third-year QB still rallied the Bengals in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 17-17 with less than four minutes left, only for the Cowboys to kick a game-winning FG as time expired. Cincinnati is a surprising 0-2 to begin the season, but Burrow may have a little more time to operate in Week 3 against a Jets defense that has managed only three sacks in two games so far and has surrendered 27.0 points a game.
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Jimmy Garoppolo QB | LAR
49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo: Leads team to win off bench
Garoppolo completed 13 of 21 passes for 154 yards and a touchdown while adding five rushing yards and another TD on four carries in Sunday's 27-7 win over the Seahawks.
Taking over late in the first quarter after Trey Lance (ankle) was carted off the field with what Adam Schefter of ESPN reports is a season-ending injury, Garoppolo guided the 49ers to a relatively easy win thanks to a defense that kept the Seahawks' offense from scoring any points at all. San Francisco's decision to work things out with Garoppolo in the offseason rather than trading him is now looking prescient, and the veteran QB will have a week of first-team reps to prepare for a Sunday night clash with a Broncos defense that has held two straight opponents to 17 points or less.
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Kyler Murray QB | MIN
Cardinals' Kyler Murray: Rises to the occasion
Murray completed 31 of 49 pass attempts for 277 yards, one touchdown and one interception against Las Vegas on Sunday, adding five carries for 28 yards and one touchdown.
Murray did some extended heroics to secure the 29-23 overtime victory, but the peripheral stats are still concerning. Murray should have been able to do better than 5.7 yards per pass attempt in this game, but just as in many other games, Murray had to scrape and claw for his still-meager production. DeAndre Hopkins (suspension) can't return soon enough, and Murray gets a tough Week 3 test against the Rams in the meantime.
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Geno Smith QB | NYJ
Seahawks' Geno Smith: Little production against Niners
Smith completed 24 of 30 passes for 197 yards and an interception in Sunday's 27-7 loss to the 49ers.
He also gained two yards on two carries. For the second straight start, Smith was accurate but didn't produce much yardage. Unlike Week 1, however, he wasn't able to get the ball into the end zone while also committing a turnover. The veteran QB is proving to be competent game manager as Seattle's starter but little more, and he may need to step things up in Week 3 against a Falcons team that's averaged 26.5 points through its first two games.
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Trevor Lawrence QB | JAC
Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence: Precise in victory
Lawrence completed 25 of 30 passes for 235 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in Sunday's 24-0 win over the Colts.
Lawrence was sharp early, as he led the Jaguars on a 15-play, 68-yard drive that concluded with a 10-yard touchdown toss to Christian Kirk. The Jaguars jumped out to a big lead from there, so Lawrence was largely asked to manage the game. However, he did well with that task, accurately finding Kirk deep down the field on a few occasions. Lawrence's performances haven't been perfect to begin the season, but he has looked far more comfrotable as a professional quarterback.
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Derek Carr QB | NO
Raiders' Derek Carr: Modestly productive
Carr completed 24 of 39 pass attempts for 251 yards and two touchdowns in an overtime loss to the Cardinals on Sunday.
Carr could have done better against this vulnerable pass defense, but disappointing or not, the box score should be fine for most fantasy investors. The problem is Carr's Week 3 matchup with the Titans might feature a more fundamentally sound defense, and if Carr can't tighten things up, he might find that a challenging matchup. The good news is the Raiders improved their pass blocking a bit in Week 2, allowing just five hits and one sack on Carr.