Issue #278: Go to Jail

By Derrick Ernst

May 28, 2026

1587

If you’re anything like me, it takes you awhile to find your groove after taking time off. Yesterday was the first time I wrote anything for TDF in a week. I haven’t taken that much time off in…ever? Feels like I’m rebooting. My intention was to get right back into our divisional series (we only have three left), but I figured we’d ease back into it and pick that back up on Sunday. I’ll likely keep things light today. I hope you don’t mind.

If you were wondering where my travels took me for the wedding, I spent Memorial Day in and around Kansas City. It was a jammed packed couple of days. Outside of the wedding, the highlight was being able to dine in P. Mahomes and T. Kelce’s restaurant, 1587 Prime.

There are mixed reviews, but I have to think a majority of the negative ones stem from being overly critical given who the restaurant is centered around. If you didn’t know it was tied to Mahomes and/or Kelce, there’s nothing in the venue that suggests it’s tied to them. Unless…you get access to their private dining area. My wife is in the business of event planning and was making small talk with our waitress about what they offered in that capacity. Rather than tell us, she showed us! You’ll need to zoom in, but towards the back of the room you’ll notice trophy selves. Those aren’t just any trophies, they’re trophies outside of the NFL that Mahomes and Kelce have collected throughout their lives. I’m pretty sure I saw ones from their days of playing Little League baseball.

Also, each of those posters are a one-of-a-kind piece. A local artist created them and used the ticket stubs of each of the Super Bowls wins as inspiration. As you can tell, I’m a bit biased, but our experience couldn’t have been better. Yes, the prices are steep, but we didn’t leave hungry. If you’re in the area and can snag a reservation, just do it — don’t overthink this one.

Gauntlet

Perhaps it’s my algorithm trying to tell me something, but I’ve been getting a ton of ARI content pushed my way. Most of it is slow-mo videos of C. Beck and J. Love, but this caught my eye long enough to really make me think.

How many wins do you see?

Source: X (@PHNX_Cardinals)

Take about a gauntlet. I get there’s turnover in the NFL, but not this much turnover. There’s good reason to bring this up. What do teams do when they struggle? Experiment. Experimentation is also synonymous with “finding a spark.” I’m starting to like C. Beck’s chances of being more fantasy-relevant than F. Mendoza this season. I do think there will be resolve to J. Brissett’s holdout, but even then I’d expect ARI to try something new sooner than later if midway through the season they’re something like a two win team. I hate to always be talking about NYG, but look at the spark Dart was for them a third of the way into last season. I believe Beck can be this.

The moral of my thoughts is that you’re going to need to have patience with ARI players. A core rule of fantasy is allowing your team to have room to run. Giving up on players too early is a recipe for regret. Don’t lose sight of that with ARI this season despite their schedule.

Useless Planning

We’re getting into that time of the year where you’re going to start seeing useless posts like this:

What about weeks 1-14? Imagine making your draft decisions on information 4/5 months down the road. The chances SEA and/or HOU are the same stout defenses this season as last are not as likely as you think. Especially by week 15 too. Way too many things can happen between now and then to each of these defenses, as well as Saquon. When it comes down to it, no matter who Saquon is lined up against, he’s still going to get his 20+ touches. Will he be as productive with these touches against SEA or HOU? Maybe. Maybe not. But they’re still touches and they’re at a level not many in the league reach on a regular and predictable basis.

Violence

Well, I didn’t want to bring this up, but I felt compelled to after the little research I did. By now I’m sure you’ve seen this (next column). Whether Jacobs did this or not is not the point. The point is that a man shouldn’t be accused of things like this in the first place. Quite frankly, we’re exposed to too many of these headlines involving NFL players.

Athletes are looked upon as being idols, role models, and heroes by so many, primarily our youth. Headlines like these are reminders on how flawed that thinking is and where/how we should be grounded. We just got done celebrating Memorial Day. I’d guess that a good % of our youth didn’t know what holiday Monday represented. How do I define a hero? Monday was and is my definition:

One’s willingness to risk their life for the freedom of others. To be brave when others won’t. To choose to protect without seeking anything in return. To fight the good fight and sacrifice everything.

99.9% of athletes aren’t heroes. 100% of soldiers risking their lives for our freedom are and always will be heroes. For those of you who are, have been, or know someone who is a service member, THANK YOU. You/them make the world a better place. It means everything that you choose to be a part of TDF family.