Erase the ranks. Every season is strange in its own way, I concede, but this one seems extreme. There is just a paucity of points and many of those that come are from our benches or the waiver wire. The inefficiency measured this way is off the charts.

The Dolphins offense was as “frag-i’lay” as the leg lamp in “A Christmas Story.” Yet the Dolphins had no Plan B for life without Tua Tagovailoa. I did not get the De’Von Achane victory laps last week after his heavy workload. Those touches just don’t mean much if the offense can’t function, and this one can’t without Tua.

Plan C is Jets 2023 castoff Tim Boyle. You probably have to play Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle given they still rank somewhere in the top 40 at their position, but it’s brutal. There’s no guarantee that Tagovailoa is going to be back after three more games, either. The NHL’s New York Rangers had a player who missed 70 games after repeated concussions. It’s in the doctor’s hands now.

Miami averaged 3.7 yards per play against a defense that could not stop New England last week.

There should be a running back change in Tampa Bay. Rachaad White is terrible. Bucky Irving has been solid.

Bucs RBs this season:

Rachaad White:
31 ATT, 66 Rush YDS, 2.1 YPC

Bucky Irving:
25 ATT, 154 Rush YDS, 6.2 YPC

— Frank Ammirante (@FAmmiranteTFJ) September 22, 2024

Some people thought Denver’s Javonte Williams scored from in close but the play was reviewed. After that, on fourth down, Jaleel McLaughlin had one of the best runs I’ve seen in that situation. Williams later fumbled, leading to a Bucs TD. But a third RB, Tyler Badie, was inserted into the mix, and he was by far the most effective. So this is a mess.

I may as well concede defeat with Malik Nabers. Clearly the Cardinals made a bigger mistake than me in not drafting Nabers over Marvin Harrison Jr. in reality. But I thought the price for Nabers was WR25, at best, and he was going at WR19 at the end of draft season. That was clearly a bargain. Last week, we could have discounted the volume for (lack of) quality of the opponent (the Commanders). But the Browns are a good defense.

Daniel Jones looked competent. A lot of this had to do with Nabers, of course. Usually the receiver has to be the last piece, a mantra first preached by Bill Walsh. But Nabers seems to be a rare exception to that rule.

Devin Singletary managers lost a walk-in touchdown when Singletary took a knee at the 1-yard line outside the two-minute warning.

Sticking with Amari Cooper was the right move given he entered the week on pace for 145 targets. But Deshaun Watson is so bad. When you add the sacks, the Browns averaged a pathetic 3.3 yards per pass. Watson should be benched, but I can’t see the Browns doing it as Watson’s dead cap next year is $172.7 million. Just his cap number next year for 2025 alone is $72.9 million.

Derrick Henry did what everyone expected him to do against the Cowboys, who are soft against the run. I don’t get the Ravens not wanting to use Henry regularly coming into this week just because teams assumed they’d run when Henry was on the field. Fine. Now you’ve dictated the defense and should work off that.

Dallas showed spunk. I do think Dak Prescott is a good QB. But they just can’t play with any kind of balance because their defense won’t let them. The Dallas defense is “doomsday” now for its offense. I’m not going to read too much of anything into all the fourth-quarter mad scramble stats.

We’re learning a lot about the quarterback position. Sometimes the team can sink the QB and other times the QB can sink the team. It can be hard to tell the difference. We saw evidence of the former with Andy Dalton replacing Bryce Young and the Panthers putting up 437 yards against a Raiders defense that is okay.

As for Dalton, I have few values in life, but a QB throwing for 300 yards with three TDs and no picks being a waiver-wire pickup is definitely one of them.

That Rams comeback against the Niners is a testament to the greatness of their coach Sean McVay and QB Matthew Stafford. It was like Stafford and Kyren Williams were playing with the Week 2 preseason roster. But they somehow created 27 points.

Oh, 26 touches and three TDs for Williams. No punt returns, BTW. (Xavier Smith won the game with one late.)

This was supposed to be the Brandon Aiyuk “to the moon” game but that was Jauan Jennings, who was mostly on our benches or on waivers instead. He scored 50 points. Aiyuk scored 9.8. It defies reason.

James Conner had averaged 22.4 points in his past seven games with Kyler Murray, but the Arizona offense had a big bite taken out of it by the Lions. By the way, do you know cats kill 1-to-4 billion birds each year in just the United States? Add one more to that given what the Detroit cats did to the redbirds.

It was a bad day for Jameson Williams managers. He was just not seriously involved in the game plan. It’s troubling. He’s the prototypical flex10 flex WR because he’s so volatile. The Lions clearly want to run the ball 40 times a game. I don’t blame them.

Malik Willis has been amazing and you have to tip your cap to the coaching staff and play calling. I would have thought his chance of success was about zero given he just arrived in Green Bay and had been awful in Tennessee.

It wasn’t just garbage time for Emanuel Wilson. He looked better than Josh Jacobs, it’s fair to say. But Jacobs is getting paid so don’t worry if you roster him. Jacobs managers have to get Wilson though. I don’t even like handcuffs; but this one is a must.

Great day for Zach Charbonnet and who knows when Kenneth Walker will be back with his repeated groin/abdominal injuries. (He’s week to week.)

Caleb Williams wasn’t good in a real way but put up numbers. Baby steps. I consider that very encouraging. Cole Kmet is another monster scorer we wasted because the Bears are so stupid that they mothballed Kmet all summer and the first two games — the new OC loves the lifeless corpse of Gerald Everett for some reason. Even with Keenan Allen out, you couldn’t count on snaps until you saw them. Now we have, but what a needless waste.

Yes, Rome Odunze looked good, but remember this Colts pass defense is probably the worst one in the NFL. Would Williams have been better off right now with an offensive lineman in the top 10? Probably. There’s also no running game.

No, I’m not apologizing for saying to draft D’Andre Swift at ADP. The Bears made the mistake, not me. I’m not qualified to scout running backs changing teams in March, and I believe the job is the most important thing. They paid for a 60% snap guy and his ADP was 50% tops. Now he looks like the worst running back in football, so clearly Chicago had no vision for the player. Swift had 13 carries, with a long of four yards, incredibly.

Anthony Richardson is awful in reality and thus can easily be awful in fantasy against anyone, anytime. Sunday was one of those times. The Colts average a gross 50 plays per game.

Sam Darnold is the MVP so far with eight TD passes for the unbeaten Vikings, including four on Sunday against Houston. Darnold had a fifth TD called back by an illegal pick which was just poorly executed by Aaron Jones but otherwise legal (he just stood there instead of continuing a “route”).

C.J. Stroud is still a young player and just could not deal with the defensive looks Brian Flores was throwing at him. The same thing happened to Brock Purdy in Week 2. I would not worry. But another bad week for Tank Dell is worrisome despite everyone telling you not to worry because they just hate Stefon Diggs (team-high 12 targets) and want Dell to happen SOOOO badly. Dell is a fourth WR in your flex, too, if you play that deep. Nothing more.

Did we start Dallas Goedert? Probably not the way we’re rolling. He had three catches over 30 yards, which is unreal for a tight end. Only Rob Gronkowski and George Kittle have a game with three of these receptions as a tight end since 2010, according to TruMedia.

Saquon Barkley could not look any better right now. His expected value goes up or down about 15% depending on whether the “Tush Push” is effective. It was not vs. the Saints. It was last week. It should be scrapped, in my opinion.

Derek Carr showed us we can never really trust him.

I have to give Justin Fields credit for doing what needs to be done. He’s not taking as many sacks. He’s not hurting the team. He’s letting the defense win the game. It helps when the opponent loses its three best offensive players like the Chargers did. Justin Herbert has a high ankle sprain and was in a walking boot, so he probably should not go next week against the Chiefs. Tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater may also be out, and Slater (pec) could be out a while.

(Top photo of Sam Darnold: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)