An All-Time Fantasy Football Week.

Good morning, friends and enemies. This is the week 12 game by game recap for fantasy football. If you are new here, hello. Welcome to hell. I do this every single Monday around noon Eastern time. We just go game by game, through the box scores, through the stats, through the routes run, through all the good stuff. Uh letting y'all know what you need to know from the weekend of games as it pertains to fantasy football. We're talking injuries, we're talking depth charts, we're talking we're just talking a talk out here.

All right, so thank you guys for joining me today. We will hop right into Thursday night football. We've got the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Texans. The Texans rip off their third straight win with Davis Mills under center here. So they go to six and five. The Bills are seven and four.

On the Bills side of things, uh I mean James Cook comes through. Clear has a big day as always. That's just what Shakir does, you know, like he's going to finish as the wide receiver 30. He's going to have really bad games like we saw last week. He's going to have really good games like we saw this week. So, if you're trying to predict them, it's going to be whack-a-mole for you. The higher up in your lineup he has to be, the more the inconsistency is going to hurt you. Obviously, if he's just like your second flex, then you don't really have to worry too much about him. Just leave him in there. Don't think about it. But, you could tell that it's finally catching up to Josh Allen. Just the lack of playmakers that he has at the wide receiver position and just in this offense uh overall. So, he needs Dalton Kincaid back. I I don't think he'll miss too much more time uh with the hamstring injury. So, we'll see about that. But, yeah, bad game for Josh Allen. Obviously, two interceptions here. Get sacked eight times. Houston's defense is just clicking on all cylinders.

CJ Stroud, I believe, should be back next game. We do have Woody Marks continuing to dominate as the number one in the backfield here. 16 carries to Nick Chubb's sixes. I think Woody Mark's just been, you know, consistently involved, but just not a very very high-end producer right now. Um, kind of needs a touchdown to get him over the edge. I think I think he's a fine low-end RB2 flex play for you. Um, this should have been a good matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Like on paper, he should have smashed. You talk about a guy getting 16 carries, seeing the majority of touches, etc. Um, and it's kind of unfortunate that this was the day that he had, but I think process-wise, he's still like a a solid flex play for you. The only other takeaway I'd have here from the receiver position is that Jaden Higgins has clearly moved into the wide receiver two role. Let's go take a look at the snap counts over here for the Texans. Now, in week 12, uh we saw Jaden Higgins run up 68% of the routes here. Nico Collins at 77%. So, he's clearly taken that wide receiver two role here. He's, you know, that that obvious second half of the year rookie breakout is kind of upon us right now. 32% target share in this one. 13.3 air yards. 51% of the air yards here, 40% of the end zone targets. So, Higgins, you know, say what you want about Davis Mills going three and oh. Like, yeah, I'd rather have CJ Stroud at quarterback. And I think if he's running, you know, the second most routes here behind Nico Collins, he's kind of like the perfect compliment to Nico. He had nine targets in this one. Not a huge overly productive yardage day, but he did get into the end zone again. That's his fourth touchdown of the season as a rookie. They have two tough matchups over the next two weeks. They're at Indy, they're at KC. Uh but then they get Arizona and Las Vegas at home in weeks 15 and 16. So if he continues to be a 70, 75, 80% route guy, he's someone that might be flexy um towards the end of the season here.

Moving into the Sunday slate, we have the Bears beating up on the Steelers. Uh 31 to 28. Shouldn't even say beating up, but it was very very close game. Steelers could have came back and and won this one here, but the Bears end up uh covering the spread there. Two and a half points, 8 and 3 on the year. No Aaron Rodgers in this one. Very split backfield here between Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. Uh Warren 18 for 68 on the ground. Scores a touchdown. Kenneth Gainwell still very, very much involved. 16 touches in this one. Goes for 120 from scrimmage. Let's take a look at how the snaps are actually split up here. It's just a very clear divide between their two roles. And uh Gainwell might even have a little bit more of a valuable role considering the fact that he does get carries on top of it, you know. So the snap counts was actually in favor of Gainwell. 52 to 49. Might have been a little bit of an ankle thing coming back from it. Jaylen Warren of course, but he did get most of the rushing attempts in this one. 53% to 29% for Kenneth Gainwell. No surprise, but Gamewell still laps him in terms of routes run. We have 19 to 11. Sees a bunch of targets, gets all that kind of stuff. Um, so yeah, it is very much a split backfield. Both guys obviously need to be owned. I'd still rather own Warren going forward. Um, but yeah, in in non-obvious matchups where you can run the ball, it might be geared a little bit more towards Kenneth Gainwell.

DK Metcalf was kind of in and out of this game um with some lower body injuries. Did finish out the game though, so I don't expect any long-term misses. Not that like if you had him in your lineup, you're going to be missing him regardless. But we should have Aaron Rodgers, I believe, back for their week 13 game. No teams on bye in week 13. So big week coming up Thanksgiving.

On the Bears side of things, two takeaways here, actually maybe three. Um, almost all concerning rookies. So the Bears went rookie heavy in the draft this year, right? Took Burton, took Lovett, took Khalil Herbert. This was the very first week that Khalil Herbert outsnapped DeAndre Swift. Had more carries, had more touches, had more snaps, was more involved. That being said, it was still completely just a drive-by drive split here for the two of them. Um, this was not an overtaking in the backfield. Swift did fumble, but it just so happened to be that the drives that Khalil Herbert was in on, they were longer drives. Was he better on the ground in this one? Yes. But there's been plenty of games where Swift was a lot better. So, this to me does not signal a changing of the guard, but it just signals the theme that's kind of been going on for the last month or so is they are a 50-50 split in terms of drives and whoever's in on the longer drives, whoever's in on the lucky drives where they get down to the end zone, etc. Um, that's pretty much who's going to end up having a bigger day. So, it's not as much that I'm like overly enthusiastic about Herbert like how everyone was about Bijan last week, but it definitely makes me nervous to to have to start DeAndre Swift and I feel like this is kind of like a week-to-week play. And the scary part is Chicago's schedule over the next five, six weeks is brutal. They get uh the Eagles, they're in Philly next week. I think that's the Black Friday game. They're in Green Bay the week after that. They play Cleveland and then Green Bay again. And then week 17 they're at San Francisco. So San Francisco is actually the weakest defense, but that's not until week 17 and they're on the road. Um, so really tough slate. It's going to be difficult to decide who to start in that backfield. I think for the most part I'm probably still going to be leaning DeAndre Swift in my rankings, but they're going to be close to back to back going forward.

Um, for all the talk that happened throughout the week about Luther Burden getting more run, he did he still ended up playing uh only around 60% of the snaps in this one or running 60% of the routes in this one because he's still behind DJ Moore. He's still behind Rome Odunze. I know it's exciting to see him make plays. He's finally jumped Zay Flowers. Feels like it's a long time overdue. Problem is like again, he if he's a 60% snap guy and they have that schedule that I just mentioned here um Philly, Green Bay, Cleveland, Green Bay, San Francisco, like I don't I I don't really have an upside case for you for Burden. He would need another Rome Odunze to get hurt, one of those guys to get hurt for him to have like a real real role in this offense because we also see Cole Kmet taking more of a role here too. Finally jumped up to 70% of the routes, had a big game, but honestly still with Cole Kmet running half the routes, I don't know that I'm like overly optimistic that Kmet is an every week starter here going forward. So, they're getting the rookies involved. They all had good games against the Steelers defense, but am I overly optimistic about any of them going forward? Not really as like surefire fantasy guys. Um, just so happened that DJ Moore ended up scoring the two touchdowns here. It could have easily gone to Burden or Rome or whoever. Uh, but it didn't. And I think that's kind of like reminiscent of what the Bears offense has kind of been all year. It's just different guys kind of having big games, whether it's Swift or Herbert or Kmet or uh Rome or Moore or whatever. There's just a lot of guys that that can make plays in this offense which makes them a very very tough sit/start decision for the most part.

Patriots Bengals. Patriots escaped here 26-20 over the Bengals. Uh Drake Maye had a pretty bad game in this one at least relative to what he's been doing all year. Now big news on the injury front for the Patriots. Will Campbell's going to be sidelined for multiple weeks. Um, they also just lost an interior offensive lineman as well with an ankle sprain that's going to be out for I think he's week to week as well. So that was their weak point last year and it was uh brutal for like Jacoby Brissett and and Drake May when he was back there last year. So they're going to be challenged on the offensive side of things going forward. The Patriots are they play uh let's see they play the New York Giants in week 13. So not a tough matchup. Then they get a bye, Buffalo, Baltimore, New York Jets. So not a crazy slate of games. Um, but yeah, it's just going to be a little bit of a struggle without their offensive line, especially Will Campbell.

Now, the backfield, this is Rhamondre's first game back here. Trevon Henderson still dominated the touches, still dominated the carries, dominated uh most of the work back here. Didn't score a touchdown. They just kept rotating guys on the goal line here. Terrell Jennings got a goal line carry. Uh Rhamondre Stevenson got multiple goal line carries, just converted it into absolutely nothing. Um, it seems like they want to roll with Trevon Henderson a little bit more over Rhamondre, but I still think it's probably a little bit more due so to the fact that it's Rhamondre's first game back from the turf toe. So, we'll have to see what that split looks like with the Giants game next week. You're still rolling Henderson over Rhamondre, obviously. And I think Henderson, you know, you look at a guy that just got 21 touches again. Even with Rhamondre back, he's still a pretty solid running back, too. Especially in a matchup against the Giants next week that were just torched, set on fire by Jahmyr Gibbs, a guy that, you know, similarish play style to Trevon Henderson here. So, um, good news for Trevon Henderson in the backfield.

On the flip side, uh, Tee Higgins, I mean, the biggest takeaways here, Higgins gets a concussion. They play on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. So, I believe there's pretty much a 0% chance he can clear the concussion protocol, but Ja'Marr Chase will be back for Thursday's game against the Ravens. Those were two games that Ja'Marr Chase went crazy uh last year in fantasy. So hopefully we get, you know, 20 targets for Ja'Marr Chase. It does look like it's trending towards Joe Burrow returning for that Thanksgiving game. They didn't want him to play in this one and then have to turn around four days later and play again on Thursday Night Football. So they play Thursday and then he'll have 10 days of rest until their next game Sunday. Cincinnati over the next five games. Great schedule for fantasy. You've get you get Baltimore in week 13, Buffalo week 14, Baltimore again in week 15, Miami and Arizona in week 16 and 17 for the fantasy semis and championship. So really good run out for a schedule there.

Andre Iosivas, you you can start him again. I guess he's not overly talented. I think the Patriots kind of sold out to stop Higgins in this game. No surprise there. I would imagine the Ravens and every team that plays them going forward will do that for Ja'Marr Chase as well. So maybe it opens up a little bit more for Iosivas. But yeah, I'm not like overly excited to to get him into that lineup. The other thing I will say is literally anyone who's playing the Bengals, you could start their tight ends against them. They have been historically horrific against fantasy tight ends this year. It is so so bad. So Mark Andrews next week, great. I'm playing him. Um those types of guys, maybe Kincaid back the week after that.

Lions Giants. Lions also lucky to sneak away with an overtime victory here. Uh you have a thousand total yards of offense. You've got 61 points scored in this one. And I mean the story of this game was Jahmyr Gibbs over 55 PPR fantasy points. One of the all-time top performances ever in fantasy football. It's kind of interesting. I know like I was talking to like three people who had Jahmyr Gibbs yesterday and they all lost their matchups in fantasy which is I don't know why that's like a a weird theme of this week. Obviously very uh anecdotal and very just you know subjective evidence there but it just it's ridiculous. If you have a 55 point score, you should never lose a fantasy game. But hi, Renegade.

Goff, 279, two touchdowns. Really, the only guy who gets home here outside of Gibbs is Amon-Ra St. Brown. Like, I mean, if I I I don't know what to tell you with Jameson Williams. Like, it should have been a good day. It just wasn't a good day. I I believe I saw something. It was said uh one of the Giants beat reporters tweeted out that with Adoree Jackson out, they elevated some cornerback. I I don't even know his name. I've never even heard of him before, but he shadowed Jameson Williams the entire game. I can't imagine some random quarterback shadowing Jameson Williams was the thing where this guy's like having some crazy breakout, but Jameson Williams was shadowed in this one. And I mean, all listen, when Jahmyr Gibbs just has five plays of 60 yards, those are drive enders, you know what I mean? So, I don't know. I I don't know what to tell you. Just a bad game for Jameson Williams, but continue to fire him up as a nice wide receiver, too.

On the flip side, probably the last game for Jameis, just an unbelievably fun game from him. Uh catches that touchdown, like the most ridiculous touchdown catch maybe ever. Uh the the the pass from Gunnar Olszewski or whatever the [ __ ] his name is. Jameis Winston, Jameis Winston's like draped in coverage, still catches the ball, breaks a tackle. That guy's going to be eaten apart in the film room. Um, good times. Jameis Winston just going down as one of the all-time most likable human beings in history of of of human history. Just just good good vibes every time that man is on our TV.

Rachaad White, another 23 touches in this game. Huge huge workload. Gets it done through the air. Ends up going for a buck 30 from scrimmage. Devin Singletary relatively involved. But the story of the game was D.J. Chark, of course, 9 for 156 and a touchdown. When Jameis Winston is under center and you got a matchup like the Detroit Lions. He was borderline a must start this week. I think he was like my wide receiver 20 or something. So felt good. Um, yeah, I mean, Higgins is getting involved a little bit but Darius Slayton I feel like is kind of easing back from the hamstring strain. I don't expect him to be like a long-term contributor but yeah we move on. But yeah, Jake Luton should be back next week.

Vikings Packers. Yeah, I I don't really have much to tell you on the Viking side of things. J.J. McCarthy is horrendously horrendous right now and it is absolutely tanked the stock of everyone on the Vikings. No one scores touchdowns. Uh Justin Jefferson is being held to like wide receiver three status. It's it's bad over there.

For the Packers, Jordan Love didn't have to do much. 14 for 21 because Emanuel Wilson went crazy. 28 for 107, two touchdowns on the ground, two for 18 through the air. So he puts up a quick uh what is that like 27 fantasy points for you or so. So, huge plug-and-play for him. They play on Thursday against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Um, all accounts point towards Josh Jacobs being back. That being said, I think there's a chance that Emanuel Wilson gets a little bit of run there. I think there's a chance they don't just put Josh Jacobs back into a 20-touch role here. Uh, we saw him, you know, see a little bit of a dip in snap count um when he was dealing with the calf strain. So, you know, I I think he should be back from the knee thing. Everything again that he said is that he's playing on Thursday. Uh would be, you know, a huge huge get for Emanuel Wilson owners if he does not, but I don't expect that to be the case.

For the receivers, I mean, not much was done here. Christian Watson continues to be kind of the number one now uh with Tucker Kraft out. Romeo Doubs missed this game, but I don't think it should be a long-term absence. And then Jayden Reed should be back any minute now. I don't I don't know when that's going to be. If not Thursday, then it should be in week 14 for Green Bay.

Seahawks and Tennessee Titans. Uh I mean this was just the Seahawks. Honestly, the Titans made this a little bit of a they made it a game for like a quarter and then JSN just decided to to be like, "Hey, I'm here. I'm going to play some football today." Actually, um Sam Darnold 244, two touchdowns. JSN 8 for 167, two touchdowns. Breaks the Seahawks all-time or the uh single season receiving yardage mark with his game. Today we are in week 12. um on pace for 2,000 receiving yards. Ridiculous feat. Biggest fantasy takeaway here is that there was finally a little bit of like a backfield flip here. Uh Kenneth Walker was dominating touches and snaps, at least in the first half until the two-minute drill when they put Zach Charbonnet in. But overall, the snap counts finished 64% in favor of Walker, 32% in favor of Zach Charbonnet. Had more carries, ran more routes. I think, you know, you just watch the game and you could see that Walker is a much better player. That being said, inside the five 50/50 split there, still tough to see who ends up getting the touchdown. Charbonnet did get the touchdown in this one, but they'd probably like to use Walker. I know if you started Walker, uh, you were probably expecting a bigger day. He does call for like a 100 from scrimmage, but no touchdown really puts a damper on that one, unfortunately. Seattle next week plays Minnesota, um, which can definitely be had on the ground. They play Atlanta after that. Could definitely be had on the ground. Indy and then LA Rams in week 15, 16. So, a little bit tougher there.

But Cam Ward had a pretty good game. Um, the one point out I will have for the Tennessee Titans is that uh Treylon Burks, their rookie, first pick in the fourth round this year by the Titans, had another really good game. His volatility, he's going to be very volatile if Treylon Burks is playing and they're at full strength in the receiver room, but DeAndre Hopkins is dealing with a hamstring strain. He was a DNP all of last week. So, it does feel like it might be a multi-week absence for him. And in his place, Burks is a full-time route runner. He's playing every single snap. Goes 5 for 44 and a touchdown in this one. Also returns a punt for 90 yards. That is his second punt return touchdown this year. He is really explosive. I mean, he's like 6'1, 200 lbs. Ran like a 4.35 40 yard dash. Really, really fast, especially given his size. Seeing a lot of targets. And again, Tyler Lockett's in Vegas. Uh Calvin Ridley's out for the season. DeAndre Hopkins if he's out for an extended period of time. Treylon Burks I actually think is like a really viable flex play given their lack of uh receivers and their lack of receiving options. Xavier Gipson six targets in this one. Had a very he didn't run a ton a ton of routes, but first time elevated to actual game day action here. He played with Cam Ward at Miami obviously a really highly touted undrafted free agent. um in this one. So, six targets. I I I think like deeper leagues, keep an eye on that one if if Hopkins keeps missing, but yeah, that's it.

Colts Chiefs. Uh somehow the Colts gave this one away in overtime. No massive takeaways on the fantasy side of things from the Colts. Just a pretty bad day from Daniel Jones and the offense overall. The Chiefs defense just really stepped up in this one.

Kareem Hunt, baby. 33 touches. That man just rumbled and stumbled and ate his way to what do you have? 130 total yards, a touchdown, 30 carries. We'll see if Pacheco returns. Um Pacheco like got back to a full practice on Wednesday last week and then didn't end up playing or didn't. Yeah, I I don't know if there was a setback or what, but I do think it it it made sense last week. Kareem Hunt was running well and then it felt like their game plan should have been to at least try to allow him to like establish a little bit of a run game here and they did and he had a big game. Uh Rashee Rice didn't do much early on but ended up finishing with a huge game because they just had to pass the ball a million times in the second half. Eight for 141 uh 12 targets. Nothing much else to take away here. It's really just Rashee Rice and then pick your poison of who's going to have a good receiving game. Kelce's been relatively consistent. But for right now, the only real takeaways are whether or not Kareem Hunt um maintains that role. They play Dallas next week. Dallas is obviously a very very soft run defense. But they've looked a lot better as of late since they made those trades and put Quinnen Williams' ass in the middle of that defensive line, which should not be a surprise to anyone. Um but if Pacheco is out again, which again I I don't expect that to be the case, like he should be back this week, they should I mean they play they're playing Dallas, so that means that has to be a Thanksgiving game. No. Who are the Thanksgiving games? I should know that. It's almost like I do this for a living. Yep. So, Packers Lions is the first game on Thanksgiving. Chiefs at Cowboys second game. Bengals at Ravens. All right. Short week. Short week. It's possible that the Chiefs don't have Pacheco. But yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Um, but yeah, those three games. So, anyone on the injury reports there? Jacobs on the short week. Uh, Pacheco on the short week. Who else got banged up? Anyone else really? Nah, no one else. T. Higgins going to be out because of concussion on a short week. So, we'll see. We shall see.

Moving on to Ravens at Jets. Yeah, I mean, just a disgusting game all around by honestly both teams. Tyrod Taylor, whatever. Breece Hall four for 75 through the air, so he saves your day if you're in PPR leagues, but overall 110 from scrimmage, under 120 from scrimmage, no touchdowns, unsurprisingly. Um, the receivers here. So, with Garrett Wilson out, we're seeing Jason Brownlee and Allen Lazard run full-time routes here. As you could see, they're both like 90% route guys right now. Now, couple things I'll point out. Over the last two weeks, we have Lazard running 75%. We have Brownlee running 82%. Lazard has outtargeted um Brownlee 13-10 in that time. The difference here is this, like it's easy to make fun of Lazard and he can't catch the ball and he does all this dumb [ __ ] but the real story is this that Lazard's average depth of target is 6.5 yards downfield. Allen Lazard's is 22 and a half. He's got 62% of the team's air yards and 100% of the team's end zone targets since being activated two weeks ago. And because his targets are so far downfield, his catchable target rate dips to 54%. Like, if you're getting targets and only 54% of them are deemed catchable, it's not entirely your fault. So, I think that's another reason why like I could see this production kind of flip. That being said, and it's crazy to say this, but I do think they're both probably worth being rostered. Lazard has now put together back-to-back strong games, has scored a touchdown in back-to-back games. The Jets will continue to trail basically every team they play. They get a couple solid matchups uh over the next few weeks. They get Atlanta and Miami at home back-to-back, Jacksonville, and then they're at the New Orleans Saints, which is indoors in the dome, obviously. So depending on when Garrett Wilson gets back, I mean, listen, these guys aren't going to be like top 35 guys for me, but I do think, you know, in a pinch, you could start one of these guys.

Uh on the flip side, Lamar continues to struggle. It's not really running, not running successfully, not making a lot of plays. Do we want to say it's still the hamstring uh hurting him? Possibly. I I I don't really have a good explanation here for you. I think he's missing some throws that he's really uncharacteristically uh not used to missing. They are now tied for the uh first place spot in the AFC North and are going to win this division of course because of course and they get the Bengals, the Steelers, the Bengals, the Patriots, and the Packers over the next fiveish weeks through week 17. So, good schedule. Um, you know, it's obviously not great for them right now, but I'm not really hesitant to start Lamar against the Bengals in two of their next three matchups. Derrick Henry, you continue to run him out there. Zay Flowers, he's a high floor guy, so kind of is what it is.

Browns Raiders. Dorian Thompson-Robinson, shout out Dorian, man. He's I I as much flack as he gets for being like the level of quarterback he is, I actually think he's a likable person. I actually really do think he's a likable person. Um, and I do like Sanders and I'm glad he got the win. That being said, he didn't really do much. He had he had probably like two or three really nice throws and you have to give him that for sure. The rest of it was, you know, a lot of playmaking after the catch. Jerome Ford scoring the 66-yard touchdown catch and run. The shot to Isaiah Bond was beautiful. That was honestly one of the throws of the year. Quarterback uh irrelevant. That was beautiful. But it was Judkins scoring two touchdowns there. Um it was the big play from Ford. So it was the Raiders defense which is bad. So let's not let's not go crazy here obviously with Dorian Sanders, but good to see him get a win. 11 completions. Um, Judkins getting back into the end zone twice was good to see obviously, but you know, realistically you can't trust any of the pass catchers here as long as Dorian is starting for Cleveland, which we don't know because last week Stefanski said as long as Deshaun Watson is healthy and clears protocol, he's going to be the starting quarterback. Dorian goes out and wins a game wins a game. It kind of feels like you almost have to start him again, right? Just see what you have. They have San Francisco at home next week, so I don't think it's going to matter who's under center for him. It's going to be a tough game. Although San Francisco's defense is kind of [ __ ] right now. Um, so we'll have to see who's a starter. Regardless, it's like I'm not excited about anyone playing. I will say Harold Fannon ran about 80% of the routes in this one, which was a season high with David Njoku being healthy and a season low for David Njoku while he was healthy. And you could see the disparity here. This could just be a Dorian thing of course, but I do think Deshaun Watson loves to use his tight end. So, if Fannon's running 80% of the routes and Njoku takes a dip down there, Fannon could be a top 10-12 guy going forward if Watson's under center there. Just something else to to throw on your radar if you're looking for a streaming tight end right now.

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Flip side. Geno Smith literally takes 10 sacks. It's unbelievable. Has to be a season high on the year for any quarterback. Myles Garrett, another three. He's up to 18. Ridiculous. Kenneth Walker struggling behind the offensive line, but he's so involved in the passing game at this point that it doesn't matter. Eight for 58 through the air and a touchdown. So, he continues to get as much work in the passing game as pretty much any running back in the NFL, not named Christian McCaffrey right now. So, he continues to be a guy that you could start obviously just based off of that and Geno Smith having to throw the ball a ton of times. Brock Bowers, unfortunately, I think it's just a product of his offense right now. you're going to get a lot of like really uninspiring games um out of Brock. Six for 55 in this one coming off of a you know a decent game last week, but that that feels like it's been the case more often than not.

Jaguars and Cardinals. Trevor Lawrence, four turnovers here, three interceptions, a lost fumble, but they still win in overtime. And you know, you got to kind of give it up to Liam Cohen just getting this [ __ ] done. I would say the trade for Calvin Ridley has been uh a huge win for them despite them giving up, you know, a decent amount of draft capital for a guy that they might not even resign next year, an older veteran, but he's been really good for them since he's stepped on the field, made a difference, especially while they're dealing with a bunch of injuries at wide receiver.

Travis Etienne Jr., honestly, a decent amount to take away here. So the backfield split, you know, people were very very hyped about Tank Bigsby in after last week's game where he got more carries than ETN before getting hurt and then he suits up in this one despite the ankle sprain from last week and maybe this was an ankle thing, but ETN was also playing really well. So 5.7 yards per carry. This is the this is the problem with the Jacksonville backfield getting overly hyped about anyone is they just do the hot hand approach and this week it was ETN 15 for 86 on the ground played great. Bigsby with just seven for 17. Um, so in that case, you're not going to give him a lot of touches. So, it was completely ETN's backfield. Again, I I want to say he played on uh like 70 to 75% of the snaps in this one. Uh 64% to 21% for Bigsby, 15% for Allen. So, yeah, still dominated by ETN. He's still definitely the guy to own in that backfield. I'm going to hold on to Bigsby. I don't think he's playable right now, but he's obviously very very high-end handcuff at this point, which are, you know, there's like 20 of them at this uh at this rate of the season.

The other big storyline here was Brenton Strange's return. He's been on the IR for forever, but he comes back five for 93 making big plays. He's obviously a very big part of this passing offense. So, if you need a tight end and he's on the waiver wire, he's a pretty damn good pickup. Um, I will say a lot of teams are just shredding the Cardinals through the air at this point. So, it could be a defense thing, but Jacksonville gets Tennessee next week. They get Indy, then they get the New York Jets. So, three pretty good matchups for uh tight ends over the next couple of weeks. Um Brian Thomas Jr. is expected to return in week 13. He's been practicing for like three straight weeks. Just get onto the field, my guy. So, we'll have to see how the targets disperse. It will be a little bit more um a little bit more difficult to to predict these targets. Now, with Brian Thomas Jr. back with Brenton Strange back. It's like, you know, between them two, Parker Washington, Calvin Ridley, the running backs, like who really gets the upside days? I I I don't know. Um I don't know. I think they're all going to take a little bit of a hit with all the target competition there.

On the flip side, Jacoby Brissett, another 50 attempts, 317 through the air. Backfield's still a mess. We are hoping that Trey Benson can come back next week. Um if he does, I expect him to be a relatively strong RB2. Like, I think he gets a ton of work. They play Tampa Bay Buccaneers next week. They do get the Rams and then Houston over the two weeks after that. So that's brutal. But then they get Atlanta and Cincinnati in 16 and 17. So that's a a great playoff schedule for Trey Benson if he's healthy. Uh if Benson misses another week, I don't hate Bam Knight. He continues to score touchdowns. He's splitting the backfield with Michael Carter, but um he is the goal line back there. Wide receivers, Michael Wilson continues to be the absolute goat. 15 more targets, 10 catches, 118 yards. We have no reports, no clue about Marvin Harrison Jr.'s return. So if he continues to be out, you continue to fire up Michael Wilson as honestly at this point a high-end wide receiver, two. I mean, they play Tampa Bay next week. They overunder that game. Well, assuming Baker Mayfield is healthy. We'll have to see with his shoulder injury if Baker's good to go. It was his non-throwing shoulder, so I feel like they could probably just jab his ass and let him play. Um, if he's there, I I'd imagine the overunder in that game is going to be like 50 points at least. So that's another Mike Wilson probably spike game. McBride's a goat. Greg Dorch is another very very viable PPR option now. Scored in back-to-back weeks, six catches in back-to-back weeks, running 65-70% of the routes. With the amount of passing volume Jacoby Brissett is getting on a weekly basis, like you know, Dorch, I think is a flex worthy option as long as Marvin Harrison Jr. is out. With Marvin Harrison Jr. returning, I think the discussion between him and Michael Wilson is going to be interesting. Um, I do think Wilson probably takes a backseat. It's unfortunate, but I do think it's probably gonna happen. You know, I think most of the plays that they're running for him, even though Jacoby Brissett might just really trust Michael Wilson at this point, a lot of the plays that they might be drawing up for him will probably go back into favor of Marvin Harrison Jr., unfortunately.

Cowboys Eagles. What Oh, nope. That ain't it. Um, Cowboys Eagles, what a game. Cowboys come back being down 21 nothing to win 24-21. Uh, the ground game is abysmal in Philly right now. No Lane Johnson. Jalen Hurts does have a really big fantasy day. Two rushing two rushing scores. Almost 300 through the air and a touchdown. Big day for A.J. Brown. Really good day for DeVonta Smith. So, if you started either one of them, good for you. Um, yeah, I mean, it's it's not great for Philadelphia. I will say the Dallas Cowboys defense has has just been a little bit better. Um, they're not like the the uh you know the absolute pushover they've been for the first 10 weeks. Now that they have had some of their players back, now that they have um Quinnen Williams on the line. We'll see over the next two weeks. I mean, they get Kansas City on Thanksgiving and then they get Detroit. So, two very high-powered offenses. We'll see how they hold up, but for now, yeah, I mean, I I'm not really sure what they do with the Philly offense at this point. It's like playing whack-a-mole with the receivers. Good games for them this week. But Dallas secondary, Chicago, uh they get Chicago on Black Friday and we'll see what happens to the Chicago defense because right now they were without their top three linebackers. They all missed the game against the Steelers. They were without Jaylon Johnson. They were without Kyler Gordon. Um I think it's possible both of them return for their Black Friday game, but we'll see.

Uh for Dallas, I mean, Dak is a beast. CeeDee Lamb, 20 more carries. Story of the game here has to be George Pickens though. Like I there's a lot of discourse about Pickens being the number one in Dallas right now. CeeDee Lamb just continues to drop too many passes and George Pickens just continues to be just like the most fun player in fantasy football to watch right now. He is just he's springy. He's got ridiculous hands. He's so good with the ball in his hands after the catch. Just like every time the ball is thrown in his vicinity, he's making the play. So yeah, I mean, I'm firing both of them up with with confidence obviously in pretty much every matchup. This was supposed to be the bad matchup. Remember week one where Pickens kind of got shut down and Dallas lost and everything like this was going to be the bad matchup and they do play Kansas City next week. So that's a tough matchup. But I mean obviously you're just starting those guys every single week. It's incredible. I think Pickens is up to I think Pickens might be the wide receiver two in fantasy football right now. He is the only receiver outside of Jackson Smith-Njigba that has 1,000 yards on the season. Just what a baller.

Falcons Saints. Falcons win 24 to 10. We're the GOAT. Literally the Super Bowl runs through Atlanta this year. I'm just saying this. I'm just going to leave it here right now. If you look at all rookies, all rookies drafted this year, sack leaders, Arnold Walker, number one amongst all rookies. James Pierce Jr. number two amongst all rookies. We have the two highest sack rookies in the game. We literally drafted Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis this year. And the Rams don't even get a top 10 pick back from us. That's embarrassing. That's imagine being a Rams fan. Embarrassing. Brutal to be a Rams fan right now and not be a Falcons fan. Thoughts? Yeah, Kirk Cousins gets it done. 202 through the air. Bijan okay day. You would think he would score against the Saints, but just didn't happen there. Uh Darnell Mooney finally had the bounceback game. Just three targets, but three for 74 and a touchdown. that felt obvious like he's going to run every single route here and he's gonna have some good games with Kirk Cousins against these matchups is kind of what I've been saying for most of the week. Like they get New Orleans, get the Jets next week. Um Seattle's tough, but then Tampa Bay, Arizona the weeks after that. So again, I think like Kirk's a viable QB2 and superflex if you're desperate. And then Darnell Mooney is a you know, he's a flex option as well just because he's going to see a high number of targets. Kyle Pitts, you suck. You're the worst player in the NFL.

Saints. Taysom Hill. Tough outing here, but he does keep the fantasy players relevant. A 13 more targets. Juwan Johnson has a big game. So, biggest story from this side though is Alvin Kamara's knee. Apparently, it's looking like an MCL sprain. And I don't, you know, they're going to get some MRIs today. From what I've heard, they're not overly concerned with it being like a long-term issue, but it's possible he misses some time. And the tough part is their matchups are so good down the stretch. Like you couldn't get a better five-game slate, I don't think. I don't think there's anyone with a better matchup slate going forward. It's Miami in week 13, Tampa Bay, Carolina, New York Jets, Tennessee. That's from next week through week 17. So good. In his spot, if Alvin Kamara misses time, Jamaal Williams is the next guy up hypothetically. Uh, if we look at his player profiler page, he's a rookie this year from Kansas. He's 5'11, 213, kind of unathletic, 4.58, even though the speed's not like a huge deal. Sixth round pick. I think he's fine. I I didn't love him, but I don't know that it's going to matter if Kamara is out. Uh, Jamaal Williams is a good pass catcher. Five catches in this one on seven targets. The tough part about this evaluation is Taysom Hill being here. Like they're just going to give him an obnoxious unnecessary number of carries, especially especially when they're down by the goal line. Like it'll be all Taysom Hill down there. Um you could see he outcarried Jamaal Williams in this one 10 to seven. Jamaal Williams definitely needs to be picked up in case the Kamara injury is long-term. He probably would be the next guy up, but we'll see what that backfield split looks like. They might call up someone else. like there wasn't another running back who got a touch here obviously, but they'll probably call someone up from the practice squad or sign a veteran or something like that. But we'll have to wait on news from Alvin Kamara's uh MRI here.

And then last night, Rams Bucs. As I already said, Baker got banged up. Just an awful I mean, the Rams are just like they they have to be the Super Bowl favorites at this point. They've they they have uh the offense that is functioning easily the best right now in the NFL. a defense that I won't say they're outright the number one defense because Houston and Denver are both awesome defenses, but top three at worst. You got a top three offense, a top three defense, the best coach in the NFL. Matthew Stafford is playing easily as good as any quarterback in the NFL and probably the best right now. Um it might not even be close. You got Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp playing out of their minds. Like just insane what the Rams are doing right now. They are so good in every facet of the game. Like nothing about what they're doing feels fluky at all. They just tore apart the Bucs from start to finish last night. Um, yeah, Baker left, Teddy Bridgewater came in, and then it was just, you know, the entire second half was just both teams milking clock trying to get the zeros across the scoreboard there.

Sean Tucker did end up outcarrying Rachaad White, got more touches overall, all that kind of stuff. But Tucker was like my RB28 in rankings this week. As much as I wanted to buy into the hype over the week, it was just so hard while he was playing against the Rams. And from what we've heard, Todd Bowles came out and he said he does expect uh Bucky Irving to play this upcoming week. They play against the Arizona Cardinals at home. Then they get the Saints at home, Atlanta at home, Carolina, Miami. So, you want to talk about another really soft playoff schedule if Bucky's back. And we don't know what the splits are going to look like. I can't imagine they just give Bucky 90% of the snaps coming off of like a two-month injury. Um but, you know, I think Tucker should probably remain owned. Uh, I think Rachaad White will probably continue to have a pass-catching role when Bucky's back, but the schedule is so good. Puka has really kind of fallen off honestly over the last like month or so of the season. I think there's a lot of defensive pressure on him. Godwin did return, didn't do [ __ ] Two catches, nine yards. Trey Palmer three for 21 does get into the end zone again. Had another play overturned that looked like a catch, a clear catch to me, but whatever. Um, yeah, just not a great run out from the from the Bucs. This is one you just burn the tape. Biggest news will be whether or not Baker Mayfield can suit up going forward because if it's Teddy, I mean, this offense is going to struggle even in a game at home against the Arizona Cardinals.

Um, flip side, I think the only takeaway I would have here is with Tyler Higbee on the IR, the Rams have been running that 13 personnel at a crazy high clip where it's three tight ends on the field. With Higbee out, they did that at a season low, just six of 56 snaps. and most of it was at the very end when they were running the ball out. So, it did turn to a two tight end um grouping here. And the reason that's kind of important is because they used Cooper Kupp like a goal line back, but they also used their tight ends down there a little bit like a goal line back. And now Colby Parkinson, who ran 53% of the routes in this one, also has scored in three straight games. So, it's not like important like you're not starting Colby Parkinson over anybody relevant, but just just worth throwing on uh onto your radar here. And I think that's it for week 12. Did I miss any injuries? You had T. Higgins, you had Kamara, you had Baker. I think that's it. And again, go check out Fantasy Life, fantasylife.com. If you get any of their subscriptions, they have the utilization report in here. Most useful tool in fantasy football. Use code BDGE when you check out there and you'll get 20% off your subscription. Tomorrow I'll hit you with the waiver wire video of course. Wednesday I'm going to try to get the running back and wide receiver rankings out both on Wednesday because obviously got three games for Thanksgiving. Um but unlikely to have any other videos for the rest of the week. Probably no Q&A or QA over the weekend because I'll be home with fam for Thanksgiving. Um but I'll see you a few times before then.

All right. So, uh if you enjoyed the video, make sure you hit the button that looks like this, the thumbs up. The ratio is horrendously horrendous right now. 560 people in here and only 71 thumbs up. I take that personally. I take that disrespectfully. Um but I'm still going to give you smooches and say goodbye. Smooches.