Walter's Sunday Nuggets 🤖

These are Walter’s Sunday Nuggets featuring:

• A compilation of recommended reading for the serious football fan/fantasy player

• A summary of important news from this week to be aware of

• A non-football thing to fixate on as the wait for the NFL season continues

📚 Recommended Reading 

🧵 Very cool thread about some markers to look for when predicting target share (via @KoalatyStats)

@walterpicks

3 Players your leaguemates have forgotten about for fantasy football 2025. HM Evan Engram, Davante Adams, Rashee Rice and Ceedee Lamb are ... See more

🏈 The Newsroom

The Big Stuff

This was the outcome most people expected (we were already projecting the Steelers offense with Rodgers as the likely QB). Still, removing doubt about the QB situation in Pittsburgh is big news.

Something to watch: Jets had the 4th highest pass rate of any team last season and the Steelers had 5th lowest. It will be interesting to see if this holds with Rodgers now in the fold. The Jets had only 21.4 rushing attempts per game last year (lowest in NFL), and averaged over 35 pass attempts per game.

Could be something, could be nothing…

This far out from the season it can be difficult to parse what stories will have a meaningful impact on the NFL season. Here are some stories we are monitoring: 

• The Dolphins have had trade discussions with the Pittsburgh Steelers about Jonnu Smith

• Stefon Diggs is looking spry for a guy 7 months removed from an ACL tear…could he be ready for Week1? (clip)

• J.K. Dobbins visited the Broncos on Thursday

• Colts QB Anthony Richardson is dealing with a shoulder injury and will not participate in mini camp next week (same shoulder he had surgery on in 2023)

• There is lots of buzz about second year Broncos Wide Receiver Devaughn Vele at OTAs (clip)

• Amon-Ra St. Brown underwent knee surgery after 2024 season; he expects to be ready for training camp

• Terry McLaurin and the Washington Commanders appear to be in a contract dispute that will affect his offseason participation in team activities

• Kyle Pitts has been absent from OTAs with a strained foot muscle

A Non-Football Something 🎥⚾️

This is section where I plan on highlighting something non-football related each week. It could be a movie, a podcast, a story from another sport, a book, a concept etc. Its an experiment really in an effort to add more personality to the piece and expand my repertoire as a writer (personally).

Baseball is Cinema: Why I Can’t Stop Watching Mets Games

The New York Mets have the most interesting local broadcast I’ve ever seen.

The team itself has won the most games in baseball over the past 365 days, and they have one of most respected play-by-play/color commentary duo in all of baseball.

But the most compelling reason to watch the Mets on a nightly basis is John Demarisco.

John is the director of the Mets broadcast for SNYtv and a self proclaimed film junkie. And he is constantly inserting homages to iconic cinema into the broadcasts of the games.

This kind of thing unbelievably tailored to my interests. Baseball is my first sports love and I spend every summer with the buzz of random baseball games constantly playing from tv. I’m also an avid film fan who has obsessed over movies for as long as I can remember (trying to be more active on Letterboxd).

This infusion of passion and creativity into something as traditional and seemingly mundane as a baseball broadcast is inspiring. John’s broadcasts have ignited even more appreciation for the pace of baseball, and his flourishes add so much intrigue to a sport whose broadcasts have such an abundance of negative space.

If any of this is interesting you to you I highly recommend you:

• Follow John on social media where he often shares his proudest highlights from the broadcasts (often with a #baseballiscinema tag)

• Tune into some Mets games to see and appreciate John’s direction in real time (you might find a whole new way to experience baseball)

Baseball is awesome, and very cinematic. Check it out!