Issue #305: Hook 'em Horns

By Derrick Ernst

September 13, 2026

Austin, TX

Never been. That’ll change this weekend when my wife and I travel there for, you guessed it, the Ohio State vs. Texas showdown. This has been a long time coming too. We pretty much booked the entire trip back in January, long before the announcement that College Gameday would be broadcasting on campus too. All the stars aligned. There’s something about booking trips far out in advance — you get to envision what your time will be like. Those visions are best/perfect case scenario, but the act of dreaming puts you in a good mood, at least for us it does. Perhaps I should’ve been asking you guys for suggestions over the past few months, but we do have some good things lined up outside of the game:

• Terry Black’s Barbecue

• Still Austin Distillery

• Bat bridge

• The original Tecovas store

• College Gameday

• The game!

For those of you who have been, what do you think? Let me know what we missed out on and we’ll make it a priority to change that the next time we’re in town. As usual, I’m writing this mid-week so you’ll need to come back next week for reviews and photos!

I told my wife that Saturday’s game could very well be the biggest sporting event we ever attend in our lives. It’ll certainly be the most people we’ve ever experienced a sporting event with. 100,000+ of screaming fans. And to think it even isn’t the largest.

Too Perfect

Sam Darnold goes down on SEA’s first drive and Mike Tirico says something along the lines of, “You could’ve mocked up a million scenarios of how this game played out and Darnold getting injured on the first drive wasn’t one of them.” Clearly Mr. Tirico isn’t a reader of TDF. For months I’ve been pounding the table about the importance of drafting a backup QB and five minutes into the season we see the reason why. You can’t make this stuff up.

When you draft a WR, you’re also drafting the competence, skillset, and ability of their QB. Actually, as yesterday proved, their QB room.

Draft Puka and you get Stafford, Simpson, and Bennett. Draft Chase and you get Burrow, Flacco, Johnson, and Clifford. Draft Jefferson and you get Murray, Wentz, and JJ. You get the picture. The more you play this out, the more you realize its importance. And these WR’s are the best of the best. Think about drafting or picking up a team’s WR3 and their reliance from a fantasy perspective is stretched so thin and even more so in the event their starting QB goes down.

Some of you may be wondering how my drafts went. There’s one that I care for most that I’ll give you visibility to. I try to avoid roster bragging, but sometimes I need to give you guys the assurance that I practice what I preach and this is one of those times.

I drew the 4th pick and was happy to have Puka fall to me. His performance Thursday night was as lackluster as they come (at least for him), but then again, the entire LAR roster looked unprepared. Say what you want about the travel arrangements, but SF showed up and cleaned house. The game wasn’t even close. ESPN released a “predictions” article the other day about all things NFL for the upcoming season. Predicting a Super Bowl champ was one of them. With 60+ “experts” on the panel, 37 of them picked LAR to win it all: 2026 NFL predictions: Experts pick Super Bowl winner, MVP

When the crowd is for something, that’s when you know it’s time to run the other way. If picking a season-long winner was that easy, we’d all be rich. Oh wait, that’s what’s happening, which means it’s probably wrong. I digress.

You already know I wasn’t going to leave R2 without Allen and I hope I was able to convince some of you to do the same. Despite this, it didn’t make me immune from drafting a backup! Here we go, we have another QB room in shambles after this breaking news:

Draft Drake London and you get Tua, Penix, and Rush. Etc. Etc. Etc.

We won’t go through the entire roster, but as I said during the offseason, Allen, Puka, and Warren all have realistic shots at being the top-ranked player at their respective positions come season’s end. Although my group of RB’s aren’t the flashiest, they are a gritty bunch with under-appreciated value. We’ve talked about what a name does from a clout standpoint and there’s no better place than the draft to see that play out.

Let’s be honest, it takes a bit of guts to select someone who doesn’t jump off the page. For some reason we’d prefer to draft the name that makes the most people jealous than the player who will actually produce. The draft is simply a chest puffing exercise. The season is where it actually matters.

If you think about it, players are like brands. I mean, all these guys have their own logos so there’s more truth to this than most probably realize, but all of those brands are vying for your attention on draft night. Read through these five levels and tell me I’m not onto something.

Source: Clay Global

Call it guts or call it bravery, going against the grain is unnatural. Why put in the work all offseason just to shy away from displaying courage when it matters most? You wouldn’t. Week one is here — let’s go get ‘em!