The Defending Champions Are Holding Open Auditions

By GH | thegavfather.com

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On Monday, the Seattle Seahawks held a tryout for Joe Mixon.

I want to give you the context, because without it this sounds normal. The Seahawks are the defending Super Bowl champions. They are 3-1. They are, by any reasonable definition, a team that already has what it needs. And on the first Monday in October, they looked at their running back room, made a phone call, and asked whether Joe was home.

Joe was home. Joe has been home for a while. He missed all of 2025 with a foot injury, and the Houston Texans released him in March. (In the NFL, "released" is the polite word for "we changed the locks and left your cleats on the porch.") Seattle watched him work out, liked what it saw, and signed him to a one-year deal, starting on the practice squad pending a physical. If he plays Sunday against the 49ers, it will be his first game action in 21 months.

This is not July. Nobody is in the best shape of his life. The season is a quarter over. The champs are holding open auditions.

I am not making this up.

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An anthropology of the running back room

Every NFL team has a "running back room." It is called a room in the same way the space under your stairs is called a room.

Here is how Seattle's got to the point of phoning people at home:

• Jadarian Price, the first-round rookie, went on injured reserve Saturday with a chest injury. He misses at least the next three games.
• Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL in January. He is practicing inside his 21-day PUP window, and head coach Mike Macdonald said Monday he will not be activated for Sunday.
• That leaves Emanuel Wilson, who leads the team with 53 carries for 190 yards, and who on Sunday ran 21 times for 81 yards and a touchdown and caught 3 passes for 39 yards and another touchdown in a 30-23 win over the Chargers.

Our weekly board has Wilson at RB84. That is the model's way of saying it has not been formally introduced. It has Price at RB89 against a preseason consensus of RB15, because the model reads "injured reserve" the way it was meant to be read, which is more than I can say for some of my league mates.

The call: Wilson is the Seattle back who has a job this Sunday. Mixon is a stash, not a mortgage. Do not spend real waiver money on a practice-squad signing who has not played in a game since January 2025. (That was so long ago that Wednesday Night Football was still a joke I made at parties.)

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Meanwhile, in London

The Washington Commanders flew to London to play the Colts, lost, and came home with a different quarterback situation than the one they packed. Marcus Mariota sprained the MCL in his right knee and has no timetable. Jayden Daniels (left elbow) is the plan: Dan Quinn said the team is aiming for a full practice week and a start Sunday against the Giants.

In superflex, that is the whole ballgame. Our board has Daniels QB14 right now, which is the price of an elbow that has not practiced yet. If he is full go by Friday, he starts in every two-QB league on Earth.

And this Sunday the Jaguars play a home game against the Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. A Jacksonville home game. In England. At breakfast. (Next week, they do it again against Houston, also at 9:30. The Jaguars are now a London team that winters in Florida.)

This matters because Saquon Barkley has a new hamstring injury, and when Nick Sirianni was asked about it Monday, his full medical report was: "We'll see." He promised more answers Wednesday. Our board has Barkley RB9 this week, assuming he is a person who plays football Sunday morning. Inactives come out 90 minutes before kickoff, which in this case is 8 a.m. Set an alarm. Have a backup from a later game. Do not be the guy who wakes up at 11 and discovers he started a hamstring.

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The calls, graded by the man who has to live with them

Josh Jacobs (GB). On September 1 we put him at RB53 while consensus ADP had him RB14, because he was on the Commissioner's Exempt List and Roger Goodell does not return texts. He has now missed all four games. He entered a no-contest plea in September; the NFL's review is still going. That call hit. It also required no football knowledge whatsoever, which is my favorite kind.

Here is the embarrassing part, because you deserve it: this week our own model, in an act of pure innocence, moved him back up to RB8, because his status came back from the data feed as "NA." I am not making this up. The computer looked at a man on a league-ordered leave and decided the safest assumption was that he would play. I have overruled the computer. He is a zero until the league says otherwise, and we are fixing the file.

Ashton Jeanty (LV). Still a BUY in spirit and RB6 on the board. Through four weeks: 78 carries, 264 yards (3.4 a carry), zero rushing touchdowns, and 19 catches for 155 yards and two receiving touchdowns. He is the most reliable slot receiver the Raiders have, and he plays running back. Week 4 he had 6 catches on a career-high-tying 8 targets for 126 total yards. Inefficiency is still a mood. The workload is still a job description. Start him at New England.

TreVeyon Henderson (NE). The Week 2 debut (16 for 76 and a 39-yard TD) has been followed by 8 for 23 in a 35-6 loss at Jacksonville and 14 for 42 in a 29-26 win at Buffalo, where he played 25 of 70 snaps to Rhamondre Stevenson's 49. That is not a takeover. That is a timeshare that occasionally lets him hold the remote. He is RB15 on our board; Stevenson is RB24 against a preseason consensus of RB14, so we still prefer the younger half. Stevenson may have hurt his knee on the final drive. Watch Wednesday's practice report. If Stevenson sits, Henderson jumps from flex to RB2 against the Raiders, which means Jeanty and Henderson are in the same game, and I will be rooting for a 41-38 shootout like a man with no allegiance to defense.

Brian Thomas Jr. (JAX). Two weeks ago I called him the quiet 17-spot BUY gap and told you to take the discount that kept playing. Since then: 1 catch for 8 yards against the Patriots, then 2 catches for 17 and a touchdown in Cincinnati. Season: 9 catches, 105 yards, one touchdown on 15 targets, and he is third among Jaguars receivers in snaps. The board still has him WR18, which is the model being loyal, a quality I admire in dogs and not in spreadsheets. He is a WR5 who scores sometimes. Bench him at breakfast against the Eagles unless you are out of options.

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What you do before Week 5

1. Jacobs: bench. Still on the list. Ignore any ranking, including one I know personally, that says otherwise.
2. Seattle: Wilson is the active back. Mixon is a cheap stash, if your bench has room.
3. Daniels: start him in superflex if he practices fully. Check Friday.
4. Barkley: 9:30 a.m. kickoff, "We'll see" hamstring. Line up a later-game backup before you go to bed Saturday.
5. Jeanty: start him.
6. Henderson: flex, upgraded if Stevenson's knee keeps him out.
7. Brian Thomas Jr.: sit. I was early. Early is starting to look a lot like wrong.

Full rankings at thegavfather.com/rankings.

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