Boost Watch, Week 2: twelve of fourteen, again

Week 2 closed Monday night with the same split as Week 1: twelve Future Stars played, two did not. Nobody new missed a game, so every card that was on +3 is still on +3. The first cracks are in the twelve: a lost fumble, a shoulder, and a snap into a receiver’s legs.

Week 2 is complete. The Giants at the Rams on Monday night was the last fixture with a Future Star in it, and it closed the week the way Week 1 closed: twelve of the fourteen cards in the pack were on the field, one dressed and never played, one is on injured reserve. Two weeks in, twelve rookies are two-for-two and two are zero-for-two.

The tracker below says the same thing it said last week, which is the point of a tracker. What changed is underneath it. Three of the twelve had the kind of week that does not cost a boost but tells you something about the job: a lost fumble and a shoulder, a snap that went into a teammate’s legs, and a snap count that is still being managed. Those are below, in the order they matter.

The twelve who played

JADARIAN PRICE — RB, Seattle Seahawks. The one to read twice. He carried 13 times for 52 yards at 4.0 a carry and caught a pass for eight in a 31–7 blowout of Arizona, which is a lead back’s workload. He also lost a fumble, stripped by Zaven Collins, and left the game with what was announced as a chest injury. Mike Macdonald cleared that up the next day: it is a shoulder, the X-rays were negative, and in his words “nothing serious, it seems like.” Emanuel Wilson ran for 92 yards filling in behind him. For the boost, a game he starts and leaves early is still a game played. The question is whether he is in the lineup next week, and the coach’s answer is a soft yes.

JAKE SLAUGHTER — C, Los Angeles Chargers. Every snap, and one that made the national roundups. On third-and-1 late in the third quarter, trailing by three, he snapped the ball into Tre Harris’s legs as Harris went in motion. The Chargers lost to the Raiders. A center who plays every snap of a loss is exactly what the boost wants, and the job is not in question this week, but this is the first self-inflicted error from anyone in the pack and it came in a spot that decided a drive.

CALEB DOWNS — S, Dallas Cowboys. A second straight excellent game. Nine total tackles, tied for the team high, a pass breakup on Terry McLaurin, and he tripped up Jayden Daniels on a scramble in a 37–20 win. Set that beside Week 1, where he allowed one reception across 29 coverage snaps, mostly from the slot, and he is the best defender in the pack on the evidence so far. Nothing here is a boost question. He plays every down.

KENYON SADIQ — TE, New York Jets. Two catches for 17 yards on three targets in a 20–17 overtime loss to Green Bay, one of them finished with a hurdle over a defender. He is still behind Mason Taylor in snaps and routes. Two things happened to Taylor in the same game, though: he was not targeted once, and he left with a thumb injury. If that keeps him out, Sadiq’s role in Week 3 is a starter’s, and this is the card in the pack whose usage is most likely to rise.

ANTHONY HILL — LB, Tennessee Titans. Active throughout a 24–20 loss to Philadelphia, with tackles on DeVonta Smith and Will Shipley. After the 16-tackle debut, this was the ordinary week that shows the role is his: he is a full-time defender now, not a fill-in. The Week 1 worry was that his start existed because a veteran was out. Two games of every-down usage is the answer to that.

VEGA IOANE — OG, Baltimore Ravens. Started at right guard in a 24–17 home loss to the Saints. Baltimore led 14–3 and managed three second-half points, and the team was flagged seven times, one of which wiped out a stop on the game-tying two-point conversion. The Ravens are 1–1. None of the penalties are pinned on him in the reporting, and a lineman who starts is a lineman who counts. Two-for-two.

AVIEON TERRELL — CB, Atlanta Falcons. Twenty-six defensive snaps in a 34–3 loss to Carolina, in which the Falcons failed to reach the red zone for the second straight week and dropped to 0–2. He out-snapped his brother, who played six snaps before going down. If you hold both Terrells, the New Season A.J. and the Future Star Avieon, this was the week the rookie was the one on the field.

ARVELL REESE — LB, New York Giants. Played Monday night at the Rams, and the role is unchanged. The Week 1 line was five tackles and a tackle for loss, and the one flag on it is coverage: he allowed three receptions on three targets and a touchdown in the opener, which the Rams were reported to have planned to attack. For the boost none of that matters. He is on the field every week, and that is the whole mechanic.

MAKAI LEMON — WR, Philadelphia Eagles. Quiet again: one catch for 14 yards on his only target, plus a rush for minus five. The catch was a contested third-and-8 conversion, and the play of his day was not a catch at all. He ran down Amani Hooker from behind on a 92-yard interception return and kept it from being a pick-six. The Eagles are 2–0. A one-target afternoon is a role question and not a boost question; he was on the field, and that is a game played.

PETER WOODS — DT, Kansas City Chiefs. Played in the Chiefs’ 33–30 overtime win over the Colts on Sunday night. Kansas City is 2–0 and Patrick Mahomes threw for 382 yards. No stat line for Woods, as in Week 1, and the same verdict: a rotation lineman who appears every week is a card that keeps its +3.

MAX IHEANACHOR — OT, Pittsburgh Steelers. On the field in the Steelers’ loss at New England, still behind Dylan Cook at right tackle. That is two games in a row where the snap came without the start. It counts. It also leaves him where he was last week, one quiet Sunday from a missed game, because a reserve tackle has no rotation to fall back on.

DERRICK MOORE — DE, Detroit Lions. Played, but on 17 defensive snaps, the lowest usage of anyone on this list, with Tyler Lacy taking 49 percent of the snaps ahead of him and reporting that he is still being “eased into his role.” Availability is all the mechanic needs, and he was available. If the snap share keeps shrinking, though, he is the one card whose played games could start to depend on the game script.

The two who sat out

FERNANDO MENDOZA — QB, Las Vegas Raiders. Active, and zero snaps for the second straight week. Kirk Cousins played the whole game in the win over the Chargers, going 8-of-12 for 181 yards with three touchdowns on deep and intermediate throws. A backup behind a starter throwing like that does not see the field in September, and this card is now zero-for-two with no sign of the number moving.

JORDYN TYSON — WR, New Orleans Saints. Still on injured reserve. The Saints won, which changes nothing for this card, though it matters if you are also holding playoff-boost cards. November is still the first month his card can score in.

What it means for your database

Two-week totals: twelve rookies at two-for-two, Mendoza and Tyson at zero-for-two. Nobody is pending, so the week is closed.

September does not score. The four boost windows are October, November, December and January, so two weeks of games have not moved a single rating, and all fourteen cards are still in the Player Database at 82. What the two weeks have given you is a sharper read than last week’s on who holds a job.

The safe group is the same as last week and a little safer: Ioane, Slaughter, Downs, Reese and Terrell hold starting jobs, Hill has joined them, and Woods and Sadiq sit just behind on roles that fire every week. Price stays in that group on usage, with one asterisk that reads “shoulder” and a coach saying it is nothing serious.

The watch list has three names on it. Iheanachor needs an injury ahead of him to start, and has taken his snaps so far without one. Moore’s snap count is heading the wrong way even though he is dressing and playing. Mendoza needs Cousins to falter and Cousins just threw three touchdowns. Tyson is a known loss until November, not a risk.

An 82 still spends like an 82 on a challenge today. Two weeks in, ten of these fourteen are cards more likely than not to be an 85 by December, and submitting one of them now is the same mistake it was last week.