Thursday night did the heavy lifting this week. The Falcons beat the Packers 35-14 at Lambeau Field, Green Bay fans booed their own team, and former Packers receiver Greg Jennings summed it up with "I may end up going into witness protection." Ex-players say this stuff because it plays, but Jennings isn't reaching. A 21-point home loss in Week 3 is an effort problem, and effort problems don't stay contained. Booing in September is early. It's also warranted.
Green Bay's response was to go get help up front, signing veteran guard Laken Tomlinson off the Cowboys' practice squad, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo. That the fix comes from another team's practice squad tells you how thin the Packers' interior has gotten. Fantasy managers should read this as a run-game signing first: guards don't score points, but backs don't score points without them. If Tomlinson is starting Sunday, whoever's carrying the ball gets a small bump, and Jordan Love gets a pocket that isn't collapsing in his lap.
Love needs it. He entered Week 3 with the lowest completion percentage among qualifying starters, at 52.1. That's not a receiver problem and it isn't a scheme problem. It's protection and timing, and those are the same problem when a quarterback is rushing his feet. My call: Love is a sit until the interior settles. I'd stream a quarterback against Green Bay before I'd start Love in a lineup.
The Jets made their own patch job, elevating Sterling Shepard with Adonai Mitchell in question for the week. Shepard is a competent slot body and a nothing fantasy add. Even with Mitchell out, Shepard is a floor play in deep PPR leagues and nothing more. What matters for New York's target distribution is Mitchell's status, not Shepard's promotion.
The NFL's Rio problem got a public vote of confidence. Field director Nick Pappas said Saturday the league made additional improvements to the Maracana Stadium surface and that "things check out" ahead of the Ravens-Cowboys game Sunday, Sept. 27 on CBS. The league is being proactive for obvious reasons. Field quality at international venues has burned it before, and the NFL would rather answer questions in September than investigate a knee in October. Sunday's surface is the only verdict that counts.
Houston linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was fined $11,941 after the Texans' Week 1 game against the Bills for having "Hind Rajab" on his eye black, and was told to remove the name in Week 2. The fine schedule is fixed. The instruction to remove it was discretionary, and the league chose to use it. That's a statement about what the shield will carry, and it's one the league should expect to keep answering for.
The NFLPA is fighting a different set of fines, saying "the players nor the union were given notice that these acts would constitute a fine" regarding penalties for drinking celebrations. That's a notice fight, not a celebration fight, and it's the union's strongest ground. Fining players for spontaneous acts they had no way to know were punishable is exactly the category an arbitrator can wipe out. My prediction: the league issues a memo within the week and lets the already-levied fines stand. Process beats outrage every time.
My verdict on the day: Green Bay's problems are structural, and a practice-squad guard is a bandage. Love stays on my bench until the pocket does.
