Week 2 is in the books and, well, it was kind of a bumpy ride for a couple of former Hawks. Let’s see how everyone fared…
Kaleb Johnson
Oh no. Oh no, Kaleb. It’s been a tough start to life in the NFL. Through two games, Johnson has just 2 carries for -1 yard. Not great, Bob. Is anything going well for him? Kickoff returns! He’s at 8 returns for 190 yards through 2 games. He’s averaging nearly 24 yards per return. That’s great! Sounds like the perf-
Oh my God. I don’t know if he just didn’t know the rule. I don’t know if he thought the ball would roll through the end zone instead of miraculously dying nine yards in. Either way, Steelers fans were very cool and calm about Johnson’s gaffe. Folks – go outside and touch grass. It’s a bad play, a horrendous error from a guy playing his second game. Pittsburgh was sloppy all day. Give this a little time.
Lukas Van Ness
I was out to dinner last Thursday with family before we trekked to Fort Collins and the Packers-Commanders game was on. There was no volume in the restaurant but they sure did show a ton of Hercules next to new Packers defender Micah Parsons. Those guys are going to mess teams up all year. Van Ness logged three tackles and one tackle for loss plus a quarterback hit as the Packers moved to 2-0 with a 27-18 win over the Commanders. It’s early but the Packers look really damn good through two weeks. They look like they are on a collision course with Philadelphia in January (they play Monday Night Week 10 in Green Bay. Speaking of Philly – eight tackles for Cooper DeJean in a 20-17 win in KC Sunday afternoon, which led the team.)
Tight Ends
It was a really quiet week for Iowa’s former tight ends. As noted last week, George Kittle is out with a hamstring injury suffered in last week’s win in Seattle. He missed this week, a 26-21 win over New Orleans, and will probably miss a couple more games.
The players available had quiet weeks. After scoring an opening week touchdown, Noah Fant had a relatively quiet second game, snagging three passes on four targets for 28 yards as the Bengals defeated Jacksonville, 31-27. This will be one to watch, as the Bengals lost Joe Burrow for potentially three months with a turf toe injury.
It was equally quiet for Sam LaPorta, though Detroit bounced back with an emphatic 52-21 win over the Bears. LaPorta also caught three passes on four targets for 26 yards. We’ll get back to Chicago in a moment.
Even more quiet was T.J. Hockenson. The Vikings might stink as they struggled for the full 60 minutes in their home opener, a 22-6 loss to Atlanta. Injuries quickly cropped up for the Vikes, with J.J. McCarthy and Aaron Jones both injured. Hock caught just one pass on three targets for 12 yards. This is a tough start for the Vikings – they’ve played one good quarter out of eight so far. Fortunately that was enough to get them past the Bears in week 1, but so far, they look awful.
Tory Taylor
Once upon a time, Caleb Williams sent a text message to former Iowa punting God Tory Taylor.
How it started:
How it’s going:
Taylor punted four times for 212 yards in the aforementioned rout at the hands of the Lions. But leading the league in punts since that tweet? No bueno.
Potpourri
Amani Hooker led the Titans with eight tackles last week, including a sack and a tackle for loss. But it wasn’t much good as the Titans fell to 0-2 with a 33-19 loss to the Rams.
Back to Cincinnati quickly – Geno Stone tied for the team lead in tackles for the Bengals Sunday, registering nine in their win over Jacksonville. It’s Cincy’s first 2-0 start since 2018.
Kaevon Merriweather logged three tackles as the Bucs scored with 6 seconds remaining to beat Houston, 20-19. Tampa also moved to 2-0 on the year.
I’m ignoring the Broncos gut punch loss to Indy. (Riley Moss picked up five more tackles and a pass defended in a game that definitely didn’t happen!)
