Sam Bowers

NFL Week 6 Preview Here’s what I’m looking at on this slate - Caleb Williams looks like he’ll be back. His offensive line is well positioned to mitigate Atlanta’s better than expected pass rush given the absence of both James Pearce and Jalon Walker off the edge. - Kyle Monangai will miss this week, but Bears pass catchers have a clean injury report. Chicago’s passing attack has plenty of upside in Atlanta, especially considering that Ben Johnson is absolutely a bounce back spot coach coming off an undesirable loss to Green Bay. - On the other side of this matchup, Michael Penix is in and Chicago’s defense is banged up, with their edge group in particular being down Montez Sweat and Dayo Odeyingbo. - Ultimately, this is a dome game, where both offensive lines are better than the opponent’s pass rush. Both offenses have considerable upside. - Jacksonville played in London last week, where they will essentially host rival Houston. That game’s trenches are the opposite of Bears at Falcons, as both the Jaguars and Texans’ fronts will have an advantage against the opposing offensive line. - David Montgomery is out, putting Woody Marks in position to see most of the Texans’ running back workload, as he did last week after Montgomery left. - This is a much more desperate spot for 1-4 Houston than it is for 4-1 Jacksonville, who could bury their primary competition for the AFC South crown with a win here. - The 2-3 Colts need to beat winless Tennessee, where Indianapolis’s clearest path to victory is to lean on their offensive line and Jonathan Taylor, keeping Daniel Jones in a game manager role where their defense plays well against what may be the most poorly coached offense in the league. - Going into the year I was very down on the Robert Saleh/ Brian Daboll hires, as well as Tennessee’s free agent decisions. I framed them as a dark horse to end up with the No. 1 overall pick in this coming draft. I had very low expectations, and this is somehow going even worse than I was expecting. - The Jets aren’t that bad. They have a good skill group, a solid offensive line, an intriguing young edge duo, and a secondary that is currently exceeding expectations. I expect the Jets secondary to fall off sooner than later, but overall they have a pretty good looking young core. - Patriots LT Will Campbell is banged up, as is running back TreVeyon Henderson. If one or both of those players missed it wouldn’t be a surprise, and A.J. Brown is still out. - I’d still call this a solid matchup for Drake Maye, because the Jets don’t have a game derailing front, but that gets a little dicier if Campbell is ruled out. Regardless New York’s defensive talent vs Maye’s current supporting cast is close to a draw, which I wouldn’t have said last year when these teams played each other. - I don’t have any confidence in Geno Smith having a strong game against Mike Vrabel’s defense, that’s the component of this game where even if New York’s defense plays up in this spot, I could still see Vrabel’s defense driving a victory. The Jets being down Breece Hall, Adonai Mitchell and maybe unique matchup problem Kenyon Sadiq doesn’t help on that side of the ball. - The Eagles are coming off a London game while the Panthers are coming off a bye, which is an absurd twist of the schedule. - Philadelphia’s offense has been steamrolled by injuries, including a blood clot that will indefinitely sideline Jalen Hurts, thrusting Tanner McKee into a starting role. McKee won’t have Saquon Barkley to lean on, but DeVonta Smith is back, who we can reasonably expect to see a pretty high target share, against a Panthers’ secondary that is still down their top two corners. - If the Eagles win this game, it’s on Vic Fangio’s defense to carry it against a Panthers’ coaching staff that has had two weeks to prepare for them. That said, this is a very good test for Bryce Young, who has been better than just about anyone outside of the Panthers’ organization expected so far this season. - The 3-1-1 Giants are slight home underdogs to the 1-4 Saints, who are still down their left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. - For New York both of their offensive tackles and difference making edge Abdul Carter have questionable designations. - Heading into the season, I suggested that opposing defenses aren’t going to let Tyler Shough get free yards over the short to intermediate middle this season like they did last year, they are instead going to make him beat them on the perimeter. Shough is avoiding the intermediate plus middle and isn’t really playing very well over the last several weeks, where his passing chart last week in particular was pretty unbelievable in just how much he avoided the middle of the field. I’d expect John Harbaugh’s staff is aware of this. - Barring a Jameis Winston meltdown game, which is probably coming in the relative future, New York’s pass rush and running games have good matchups, and Winston could conceivably have a good game against New Orleans’ defense. - Tyrone Tracy saw a little work last week, and it would be nice to see him form a relatively even timeshare with Cam Skattebo. I could see that helping both players. - Malik Nabers had 20 targets last week and has over 100 receiving yards in each of the last two games. He and Isaiah Likely are the top two options in this passing game by a country mile, and Winston does historically feed his favorites. - If you’re the Browns playing the Lamar Jackson-less Ravens, I think you load up the box to stop Derrick Henry and count on your secondary in a “make Tyler Huntley beat you” type macro game plan. If DT Mason Graham and LB Carson Schwesinger both play, it wouldn’t surprise me if Cleveland stole this game behind a good defensive effort. - I would expect that Declan Doyle will anticipate this and likely try to lean into some early Zay Flowers volume, who also happens to be off the injury report. - Deshaun Watson has been better this season, but he took 8 sacks last week against the Jets. This offense still isn’t trustworthy. - The Dallas Cowboys made Jalon Daniels look like a real NFL quarterback in primetime last week, but the Steelers are an entirely different animal than Dallas on defense. - I wasn’t crazy about Aaron Rodgers opening day performance, and he was in a no win situation against New England in Week 2, but he’s been quite good since, where I could see him playing well in Tampa. - If DK Metcalf was ever going to have a spike game, it would make sense if it happened this week. That said, I was impressed with how well Tampa’s corners played against CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens last week, who are both bigger receivers. - The Rams pass rush can derail Arizona’s offense with LT Paris Johnson sidelined, and Matthew Stafford could realistically carve up the Cardinals defense. I’d be quite surprised if semi desperate 2-3 Los Angeles lost this game. If the Rams offense and pass rush play up, I could see this one getting very out of hand. - Jerimiyah Love is out, and while I’ll say that it looks like he’s been playing through an injury, given what he’s done this year I don’t think it really matters that he’s out. - Right now, with their starting offensive tackles sidelined, the Chargers have the worst offensive line I’ve seen in recent memory. Justin Herbert played well at times last year behind the Chargers’ injury-reduced offensive line, but he also hasn’t played very well this year, even though the environment he’s in is truly bad and his coaching staff isn’t helping at all. - To be more specific, I have seen a number of throws (and decisions) that Herbert normally wouldn’t make. I’m not sure if he’s uncomfortable with the new offense or if it’s simply that playing behind an unreliable offensive line is starting to mess with his playstyle, but I’ve definitely noticed that this year it can’t all be pegged on the bad offensive line. - I would think lots of short in breakers for Ladd McConkey right from the jump would make a lot of sense. - Otherwise, Andy Reid off a bye, against a talent-poor Chargers defense, looks like 0-6 for Los Angeles. - If the Chargers lose this game, not only should they have a fire sale, but I’d like to see Derwin James with Brian Flores in Minnesota. That would be an absolutely fascinating combination. - Back-to-back road games for Buffalo, with the Raiders coming off a very lopsided loss to New England. - Kirk Cousins has played very well, and Vegas is a fairly unique offense in the sense that their two best pass catchers are tight ends. I might argue that running back Ashton Jeanty is the third. - Both of the Raiders’ perimeter corners are over six feet tall, so I’m curious if Josh Allen still gives Keon Coleman a 50/50 ball or two against them. A couple years ago I noticed a run where Allen was giving Coleman contested catch opportunities, where it struck me as if he was, in part, trying to develop him. One of the reasons I’m curious to see if Allen will give Coleman these kinds of shots against bigger corners is because I’ve noticed this same kind of trend this year. - Monday Night Football is the undefeated team with the better coach, the better roster, with a perennial MVP factor at quarterback in the 49ers, at home, against a 1-3-1 Washington team whose season is starting to slip away. The Commanders’ most realistic path to victory in this game is if their dynamic quarterback, Jayden Daniels, puts the team on his back and carries them to an upset victory. - One genuine positive for Washington is injuries and a suspension have narrowed the talent gap some, as the 49ers wide receiver room has been ravaged by injuries, their secondary is banged up, and linebacker Dre Greenlaw is suspended for this contest. - When Kyle Shanahan was Atlanta’s offensive coordinator around a decade ago, Dan Quinn was the head coach of the Falcons. While Shanahan has evolved since then, Quinn is uniquely aware of how Shanahan operates. - Packers vs. Cowboys is an interesting Sunday Night Football matchup, where Dallas is coming off a bad loss and a long week, while Green Bay is coming off a spike game against the Bears. - I have my eye on Cowboys defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, because if he doesn’t create havoc in this game against a better, but still very beatable Packers’ offensive line, Jordan Love could march his offense up and down the field against Dallas. Former Packers Kenny Clark and Rashan Gary could also be impactful, but Williams is the guy that has to play up here. - I’m sure Cowboys fans are thinking that it would be nice if recently acquired cornerback Joey Porter Jr. is available this week, because if he’s not Christian Watson and Matthew Golden are going to be a real problem for Dallas. - Green Bay’s defense is down their two best players in LB Edgerrin Cooper and former Cowboy Micah Parsons, making the Packers a bottom tier pass rush that’s mediocre at best in their linebacker group without Cooper. - Javonte Williams has a good matchup, but along with Quinnen Williams, I’m putting this one on Dak Prescott. Dak didn’t do very much against the Giants on Opening Day, and he played most of last week’s game against Tampa throwing off his back foot. Green Bay has a similarly talented quarterback and they definitely have the coaching edge, but ultimately Prescott has to play a plus game for 2-3 Dallas against a bottom tier pass rush. I have watched every NFL game for roughly a decade. I have done this for the purpose of sports speculation. I run a reality-based program here. Engagement is how I reach new users. So as long as engagement remains strong (comments/ shares) I’ll continue pumping this and similarly detailed insights out every week.

My dad is 75 and lives in Iowa. He got the MLB Extra Innings package to watch the Tigers again this year - something he plans his whole day around. Tonight, Detroit (664 miles from his house) hosted Milwaukee (360 miles from his house). Couldn't watch. Blacked out. (1/2)

View from the highest point on Earth. This is the closest a human can get to space while still touching the ground. From here, the Earth ceases to be a landscape and starts to look like what it actually is.

Pro athletes are literally built differently. I went to high school with 2 successful MLB pitchers. Craziest story came from freshman year: During tryouts, one of the tests they had us do was to see how far we could throw a baseball. We walked out to the football practice field and lined up in the end zone. I threw 60-65 yards. Then a kid (the future pro) threw a ball out of the other end zone. As. A. Freshman. Every coach stopped what they were doing, handed him another ball and said “do it again”. And he did. By sophomore year he was throwing in the mid to upper 90’s. You cannot teach that kind of arm talent. You’re either born with it or you’re not. I was not.

TRANSPORTATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feel for all the sports reporters out of work. I was a journalism major in college, started my "career" wanting to be a NBA beat reporter. Loved and still love actual newspapers. Putting this out there: If you start a site that investigates and answers the questions people with actual money on the line want to know, we will pay you actual money. In other words, no one cares about "3 keys to Sunday's game" or that "X player is in the best shape of his life." But a ton of people are willing to pay for "In practice this week, Rhamondre rotated more with TreVeyon than he did ahead of the AFCCG." Or "Elijah Arroyo again was behind Saubert and Kallerup in TE drills this week." (no idea if these are true, just examples) Maybe it's a dumb idea, maybe it's not possible, maybe I'm alone in willing to pay a lot for this. But if looking for a financial model that works in sports journalism, I'd be looking to serve the people with financial incentives.