Week 12 Fantasy Football Studs and Duds
Thank you for clicking on the Week 12 edition of the Mahomes-Bradford Index. In this series, we take a look at the players who were fantasy football studs and separate them from the fantasy duds. In this fashion, they land somewhere on the spectrum between Patrick Mahomes (stud) and Sam Bradford (dud). Listen to all of the Studs and Duds discussed on today’s podcast.
Studs
Quarterbacks
Dak Prescott vs WAS
289 passing yards, 2 TDs, 18 rushing yards, TD
The big guns for the Cowboys absolutely feasted on Thanksgiving with Dak leading the cattle drive.
Josh Allen vs JAX
160 passing yards, TD, 99 rushing yards, TD
Josh Allen nearly had more rushing yards per carry (7.62) than he had total completions (8). Not the sort of statistical achievement you generally want from a QB.
Baker Mayfield @ CIN
258 passing yards, 4 TDs
There was an extra-poetic hue to this game. Maybe it was the rose colored glasses I’ve been viewing Baker Mayfield through. Then again, it might’ve just been Hue Jackson losing another game.
Andrew Luck vs MIA
343 passing yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs, 5 rushing yards, 1 reception, 4 receiving yards
Andrew Luck did it all. He even threw a couple interceptions which is more than any of our other stud QBs can say.
Kirk Cousins vs GB
342 passing yards, 3 TDs, 17 rushing yards
#Skol
Running Backs
Christian McCaffrey vs SEA
17 carries, 125 rushing yards, TD, 11 receptions, 112 receiving yards, TD
Avert your eyes, children. What McCaffrey did on Sunday is borderline obscene.
Saquon Barkley @ PHI
13 carries, 101 rushing yards, TD, 7 receptions, 41 receiving yards, TD
Saquon Barkley’s receiving numbers and game-breaking abilities are allowing him to bust through the cap I thought this offense would hold over him. There’s no ceiling for Barkley.
Nick Chubb @ CIN
28 carries, 84 rushing yards, TD, 3 receptions, 44 receiving yards, TD
The Browns ran 61 total plays on offense. Chubb touched the ball on 31 of those plays. That’s what a featured RB looks like, folks.
Leonard Fournette @ BUF
18 carries, 95 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 3 receptions, 13 receiving yards
All of this and Fournette got himself thrown out of the game in the 3rd quarter for punching a dude who was wearing a helmet. Knucklehead of the Week.
Kenyan Drake @ IND
8 carries, 32 rushing yards, TD, 5 receptions, 64 receiving yards, TD
If you needed to explain Kenyan Drake to someone, all you’d have to do is show them this game. Limited touches. Electric with the ball in his hands, but fragile too.
LeGarrette Blount vs CHI
19 carries, 88 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 1 reception, 15 receiving yards
The support group for Kerryon Johnson owners meets on Wednesdays.
Ezekiel Elliott vs WAS
26 carries, 121 rushing yards, TD, 5 receptions, 22 rushing yards
Part 2 of the 3 part domination of the ‘skins.
Sony Michel @ NYJ
21 carries, 133 rushing yards, TD, 2 receptions, 12 receiving yards
Sony Michel, when healthy is living up to the preseason hype. He is simultaneously living up to the injury concerns.
Melvin Gordon vs AZ
10 carries, 61 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 2 receptions, 5 receiving yards
Speaking of injury concerns…
Austin Ekeler vs AZ
5 carries, 35 rushing yards, TD, 10 receptions, 68 receiving yards
The good news is that if any Melvin Gordon owners pivoted to Ekeler out of concern for Gordon’s injury, they weren’t left holding the bag.
Wide Receivers
Amari Cooper vs WAS
8 carries, 180 receiving yards, 2 TDs, 9 targets
Part 3 of the trifecta of domination. Go west, young man. Get paid.
JuJu Smith-Schuster @ DEN
13 receptions, 189 receiving yards, TD, 17 targets
Remember when all USC WRs were trash? Good times. Somehow, JuJu put together this stat line on a day when the Steelers only scored 17 points.
Adam Thielen vs GB
8 receptions, 125 receiving yards, TD, 9 targets
Through 12 games, Thielen has 85 receptions, 1,013 receiving yards, and 7 TDs. His base salary this season is less than 4 million dollars.
Tight Ends
Eric Ebron vs MIA
5 receptions, 45 receiving yards, 2 TDs, 7 targets
Ebron has scored 12 TDs this season despite only playing on 54.53% of the offensive snaps.
Zach Ertz vs NYG
7 receptions, 91 receiving yards, TD, 8 targets
I’ve run out of praise to heap on Zach Ertz.
David Njoku @ CIN
5 receptions, 63 receiving yards, TD, 5 targets
Considering the day the Browns had, its a wonder the whole team didn’t find their way onto this list.
Vernon Davis @ DAL
2 receptions, 73 receiving yards, TD, 4 targets
Generally, TEs don’t score 53-yard TDs, especially from a backup QB. Vernon Davis isn’t like most TEs though, he’s more of a giant, ageless WR.
Rob Gronkowski @ NYJ
3 receptions, 56 receiving yards, TD
There was only one thing that was going to save Gronk from this stinky stain of a pooped in his big boy pants performance. And no, it isn’t Tide Pods. It’s a 34-yard TD.
Duds
Quarterbacks
Matthew Stafford vs CHI
236 passing yards, 2 INTs
No Golden Tate. No Marvin Jones. No Kerryon Johnson. Short week. Tough opposing defense. The script writes itself.
Running Backs
Mark Ingram vs ATL
11 carries, 52 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 14 receiving yards
Usually, when we see numbers like this from Ingram it means that it was an Alvin Kamara week. But it kind of wasn’t.
LeSean McCoy vs JAX
17 carries, 46 rushing yards, 1 reception, 7 receiving yards
I mean, McCoy is averaging 62.6 total yards per game. He got 53 this week. Can you really be that disappointed?
Adrian Peterson @ DAL
12 carries, 35 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 9 receiving yards
With Colt McCoy filling in for the injured Alex Smith, the Redskins were in shotgun formation on 43 of 61 total snaps. That is not the kind of offense, or game script, that Peterson is going to thrive in.
Jalen Richard @ BAL
1 carry, 1 rushing yard, 2 receptions, 15 receiving yards
I think it’s safe to say that no one will be mistaking Jalen Richard for Charlie Garner based on this performance.
Jordan Howard @ DET
7 carries, 13 rushing yards, 1 reception, 2 receiving yards
Look what you’ve done, Howard. You made Jay Griz cry. Are you happy now?
Wide Receivers
Michael Thomas vs ATL
4 receptions, 38 receiving yards, 6 targets
I guess he is human after all, just barely.
Jarvis Landry @ CIN
3 receptions, 30 receiving yards, 5 targets
This means that Baker Mayfield completed 16 passes for 228 yards and 4 TDs to receivers not named Jarvis Landry. The math boggles the mind.
Doug Baldwin @ CAR
5 receptions, 39 receiving yards, 7 targets
Baldwin told everyone. He warned us he wouldn’t be healthy all season. We have only ourselves to blame.
Alshon Jeffery vs NYG
3 receptions, 39 receiving yards, 3 targets
The Eagles got a win this week but there still seems to be something wrong with the defending champs.
Golden Tate vs NYG
4 receptions, 30 receiving yards, 8 targets
Maybe it’s because they are trying to force the issue on getting Golden Tate up to speed. They said themselves that they are having a hard time integrating him into the offense. So why force feed him 8 targets?
Allen Robinson @ DET
2 receptions, 37 receiving yards, 4 targets
Anthony Miller @ DET
3 receptions, 41 receiving yards, 4 targets
For as good as the Bears offense looks, there are simply too many mouths to feed on a team that doesn’t need to demand too much from their offense. It’s going to lead to some inconsistent results.
John Brown vs OAK
1 reception, 25 receiving yards, 7 targets
You just can’t trust receiving options for Lamar Jackson. Yet.
Tight Ends
Greg Olsen vs SEA
2 receptions, 11 receiving yards, 4 targets
Given the current TE landscape, what were you going to do? Sit Greg Olsen?
Trey Burton @ DET
4 receptions, 28 receiving yards, 7 targets
Given what I said about the Bears offense, 7 targets for Burton is a pretty decent slice of the pie.
Vance McDonald @ DEN
3 receptions, 27 receiving yards, 5 targets
As is the case with many TEs, all it takes is for them to catch a TD to make them fantasy viable. They don’t usually come as close as McDonald did in Denver, though.