Tony Romo and Dez Bryant went all fantasy football championship crazy on all our faces. Yes, the Cowboys continue to find new ways to lose games, but these two have helped many teams win this season. Over the last seven games Bryant has caught 46-of-64 targets for 808 yards and 10 touchdowns and over the last five games Romo has averaged 354 yards passing a game and has 13 touchdowns to three interceptions.
They lost their real game to New Orleans, but Romo passed for 416 yards and four touchdowns with over half of those going to Bryant who had nine receptions for 224 yards and two 58 yard touchdown receptions. Remember when Dez couldn’t hit the 100 yard mark? Yeah, me either. The guy is now the number one fantasy receiver in the league. It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for him to breakout, but this is his third season and he’s the best fantasy receiver in the league. I’m not sure he’s all that far behind. Oh, and he has a broken finger. The guy is a beast and he’s now one of the best in the league instead of having the potential to be one of the best.
Game Balls
Calvin Johnson – The only reason Mr. Tron isn’t the lead story is because it’s old news by now. I mean really, who’s this Jerry Rice guy anyway? Oh, the best receiver to ever play? Very possibly the best player ever? And Johnson broke his single season receiving record? Wow, that is pretty good.
Johnson topped Rice Saturday night with 11 receptions for 225 yards, giving him 1,892 for the season, 44 more yards than Rice’s best year. He also broke the record for 100+ yard receiving games in a row with eight and 10+ catch games in a row with four. Maybe being on the cover of Madden now means you break records? Or maybe it just means you are on the cover of a video game and that’s it? Yeah, that last one.
Peyton Manning/Eric Decker/Demaryius Thomas – This triumvirate of terror just keeps keeping on. We saw from Week one that Peyton Manning was going to elevate both of their games if they stepped up and they both did. This week Decker caught his 10th and 11th touchdowns and Thomas caught nine passes for 102 yards and a touchdown. Thomas hit 1,312 yards and caught his ninth touchdown on the year and is sitting at fifth overall for fantasy wide receivers.
Manning threw for 339 yards and three touchdowns and now ranks third in touchdowns passes with 34, fourth in yards with 4,335, second in pass completion percentage with 68.1 percent and is fifth in quarterback fantasy points. Not too bad for a senior citizen.
Joe Flacco/Ray Rice/Torrey Smith – Just when you think the Ravens are cooked, they go and have one of their best games of the season. If Flacco could play anywhere near this level every week he’d be the baddest man in the whole damn town. He completed 25-of-36 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions while Ray Rice totaled 158 yards and a touchdown and Torrey Smith showed up with five receptions, 88 yards and a touchdown. Smith and Rice are who Flacco needs to get the ball to and he did that perfectly this week.
Aaron Rodgers/James Jones – The Packers played an intramural game with the Tennessee AV Club and it turned out as you might expect. Rodgers tossed for 342 yards and three touchdowns and now sits as the 3rd best fantasy quarterback on the season. Not worth a top 5 pick, but also not as poor as his up and down statistical season has seemed.
The touchdown reception leader this season is none other than James Jones who has 13, with five in the last four games. Even with just 722 yards receiving on the season he is the fifteenth fantasy receiver in the league.
Jamaal Charles – He may have knocked you out of the playoffs with his dud last week, but if you squeaked into your championship game JC Superstar most likely helped you win the title with 226 rushing yards and a touchdown. He’s sitting on 1,456 yards this season at 5.4 yards per carry. He just needs 11 yards to break his season high from 2010. Just think if he was on a good team.
Russell Wilson – After rushing for three touchdowns and throwing for another last week, Wilson had another four touchdown games against the 49ers, this time all through the air. If you’ve had the guts to start him the last two weeks you deserve a title.
C.J. Spiller – He carried the ball 22 times for 138 yards, caught four passes for 35 yards, and proved once again that he should have been getting the ball more often this season. He currently has 1,185 yards rushing on 183 attempts for 6.475 yards per carry. That currently is a higher yards per carry than Jim Brown’s 6.402 yards per carry in 1963.
Matt Ryan/Roddy White/Julio Jones – Ryan went through a bit of a slump in Weeks 11-13, but came on strong these last two weeks averaging 275 passing yards and 3.5 touchdowns, while White caught eight passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns and Jones caught seven passes for 71 yards and a touchdown Saturday night against the Lions. Jones is the star in the making, but White isn’t going to give up the ghost anytime soon.
Jeremy Maclin – The bar was set fairly high for Maclin this season, but the Eagles imploded and hopes were quickly dashed. But over the last three games with Nick Foles under center he has caught 21 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns. He’s the no doubt number one receiver in Philadelphia and the bar will be set high once again in 2013.
Alfred Morris – I’ll admit it once again, I was unbelievably wrong about Alf. The rookie is powerful and nearly impossible to take down and with the threat of RG III running it must be a scary proposition for any defensive line facing the Redskins. He ran for a tough 92 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles and now has 1,312 rushing yards on the season, ranking him fourth in the league to go along with nine rushing touchdowns, ranking him 7th. Not too shabby.
Antonio Brown – His breakout season never truly materialized, but after coming back from injury three weeks ago he’s found the end zone each week. Against the Bengals he caught 5 passes for 97 yards and a touchdown. With Mike Wallace most likely gone this offseason, Brown should be the go-to guy for Roethlisberger in 2013.
Jason Witten – He didn’t have the crazy numbers of Dez Bryant and Tony Romo, but he did just break the record for most receptions for a tight end for a season. He caught six passes for 60 yards which puts him at 103 receptions on the season, topping Tony Gonzalez’s mark of 102 in 2004.
Drew Brees/Marques Colston – Well, they aren’t going to the playoffs, but the Saints are still putting up fantasy numbers, especially over the last two weeks. This week Brees hooked up with Colston 10 times for 153 yards and completed 37-of-53 passes for 446 yards and three touchdowns on their way to an overtime win over Dallas.
Brees isn’t breaking records this season, but his numbers are still incredible. He leads the league with 4,781 passing yards, well on his way to his third 5,000 yard season. He’s also leads the league in touchdowns passes with 39, which is his second highest total ever and should get him to 40+ for his second straight season. Depending on your scoring, there’s a good chance he’s also number one in fantasy points. That’s nothing to shake a stick at!
Reggie Bush – Bush’s matchup and role were good enough that if you owned him, you started him and that means you got 107 total yards and three touchdowns out of him.
Tony Romo and Dez Bryant went all fantasy football championship crazy on all our faces. Yes, the Cowboys continue to find new ways to lose games, but these two have helped many teams win this season. Over the last seven games Bryant has caught 46-of-64 targets for 808 yards and 10 touchdowns and over the last five games Romo has averaged 354 yards passing a game and has 13 touchdowns to three interceptions.
They lost their real game to New Orleans, but Romo passed for 416 yards and four touchdowns with over half of those going to Bryant who had nine receptions for 224 yards and two 58 yard touchdown receptions. Remember when Dez couldn’t hit the 100 yard mark? Yeah, me either. The guy is now the number one fantasy receiver in the league. It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for him to breakout, but this is his third season and he’s the best fantasy receiver in the league. I’m not sure he’s all that far behind. Oh, and he has a broken finger. The guy is a beast and he’s now one of the best in the league instead of having the potential to be one of the best.
Game Balls
Calvin Johnson – The only reason Mr. Tron isn’t the lead story is because it’s old news by now. I mean really, who’s this Jerry Rice guy anyway? Oh, the best receiver to ever play? Very possibly the best player ever? And Johnson broke his single season receiving record? Wow, that is pretty good.
Johnson topped Rice Saturday night with 11 receptions for 225 yards, giving him 1,892 for the season, 44 more yards than Rice’s best year. He also broke the record for 100+ yard receiving games in a row with eight and 10+ catch games in a row with four. Maybe being on the cover of Madden now means you break records? Or maybe it just means you are on the cover of a video game and that’s it? Yeah, that last one.
Peyton Manning/Eric Decker/Demaryius Thomas – This triumvirate of terror just keeps keeping on. We saw from Week one that Peyton Manning was going to elevate both of their games if they stepped up and they both did. This week Decker caught his 10th and 11th touchdowns and Thomas caught nine passes for 102 yards and a touchdown. Thomas hit 1,312 yards and caught his ninth touchdown on the year and is sitting at fifth overall for fantasy wide receivers.
Manning threw for 339 yards and three touchdowns and now ranks third in touchdowns passes with 34, fourth in yards with 4,335, second in pass completion percentage with 68.1 percent and is fifth in quarterback fantasy points. Not too bad for a senior citizen.
Joe Flacco/Ray Rice/Torrey Smith – Just when you think the Ravens are cooked, they go and have one of their best games of the season. If Flacco could play anywhere near this level every week he’d be the baddest man in the whole damn town. He completed 25-of-36 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions while Ray Rice totaled 158 yards and a touchdown and Torrey Smith showed up with five receptions, 88 yards and a touchdown. Smith and Rice are who Flacco needs to get the ball to and he did that perfectly this week.
Aaron Rodgers/James Jones – The Packers played an intramural game with the Tennessee AV Club and it turned out as you might expect. Rodgers tossed for 342 yards and three touchdowns and now sits as the 3rd best fantasy quarterback on the season. Not worth a top 5 pick, but also not as poor as his up and down statistical season has seemed.
The touchdown reception leader this season is none other than James Jones who has 13, with five in the last four games. Even with just 722 yards receiving on the season he is the fifteenth fantasy receiver in the league.
Jamaal Charles – He may have knocked you out of the playoffs with his dud last week, but if you squeaked into your championship game JC Superstar most likely helped you win the title with 226 rushing yards and a touchdown. He’s sitting on 1,456 yards this season at 5.4 yards per carry. He just needs 11 yards to break his season high from 2010. Just think if he was on a good team.
Russell Wilson – After rushing for three touchdowns and throwing for another last week, Wilson had another four touchdown games against the 49ers, this time all through the air. If you’ve had the guts to start him the last two weeks you deserve a title.
C.J. Spiller – He carried the ball 22 times for 138 yards, caught four passes for 35 yards, and proved once again that he should have been getting the ball more often this season. He currently has 1,185 yards rushing on 183 attempts for 6.475 yards per carry. That currently is a higher yards per carry than Jim Brown’s 6.402 yards per carry in 1963.
Matt Ryan/Roddy White/Julio Jones – Ryan went through a bit of a slump in Weeks 11-13, but came on strong these last two weeks averaging 275 passing yards and 3.5 touchdowns, while White caught eight passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns and Jones caught seven passes for 71 yards and a touchdown Saturday night against the Lions. Jones is the star in the making, but White isn’t going to give up the ghost anytime soon.
Jeremy Maclin – The bar was set fairly high for Maclin this season, but the Eagles imploded and hopes were quickly dashed. But over the last three games with Nick Foles under center he has caught 21 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns. He’s the no doubt number one receiver in Philadelphia and the bar will be set high once again in 2013.
Alfred Morris – I’ll admit it once again, I was unbelievably wrong about Alf. The rookie is powerful and nearly impossible to take down and with the threat of RG III running it must be a scary proposition for any defensive line facing the Redskins. He ran for a tough 92 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles and now has 1,312 rushing yards on the season, ranking him fourth in the league to go along with nine rushing touchdowns, ranking him 7th. Not too shabby.
Antonio Brown – His breakout season never truly materialized, but after coming back from injury three weeks ago he’s found the end zone each week. Against the Bengals he caught 5 passes for 97 yards and a touchdown. With Mike Wallace most likely gone this offseason, Brown should be the go-to guy for Roethlisberger in 2013.
Jason Witten – He didn’t have the crazy numbers of Dez Bryant and Tony Romo, but he did just break the record for most receptions for a tight end for a season. He caught six passes for 60 yards which puts him at 103 receptions on the season, topping Tony Gonzalez’s mark of 102 in 2004.
Drew Brees/Marques Colston – Well, they aren’t going to the playoffs, but the Saints are still putting up fantasy numbers, especially over the last two weeks. This week Brees hooked up with Colston 10 times for 153 yards and completed 37-of-53 passes for 446 yards and three touchdowns on their way to an overtime win over Dallas.
Brees isn’t breaking records this season, but his numbers are still incredible. He leads the league with 4,781 passing yards, well on his way to his third 5,000 yard season. He’s also leads the league in touchdowns passes with 39, which is his second highest total ever and should get him to 40+ for his second straight season. Depending on your scoring, there’s a good chance he’s also number one in fantasy points. That’s nothing to shake a stick at!
Reggie Bush – Bush’s matchup and role were good enough that if you owned him, you started him and that means you got 107 total yards and three touchdowns out of him.
Game Busts
Danny Amendola – Mr. Amendola caught two passes for five yards and lost a fumble. This of course happened against Tampa Bay’s worst pass defense in the league. He made me sad.
Arian Foster – Foster had 10 carries for 15 yards before sitting with an irregular heartbeat. The Vikings played great defense and truly shut the Texans down in this one.
Cecil Shorts – Shorts left the matchup with the Patriots in the fourth quarter after catching six passes for 54 yards with his second concussion in three weeks. This is a tough way for the second year phenom to go out.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis – He had been on fire of late, but the Steelers have his numbers and they are 15 carries for 14 yards.
Aaron Hernandez – After helping plenty of teams into the finals, Hernandez didn’t help many win said finals with his one reception for 13 yards.
Chris Johnson – He’s been a roller coaster ride all season and derailed in the fantasy finals to the sound of an 11 rush, 28 yard “effort.” It will be hard trusting him next season. Right now he is the 12th best fantasy running back on the season, but his inconsistency is hard to take some weeks.
Darren McFadden – He teased us with a couple good games in a row after coming back from injury, but then had 17 carries for 33 yards against the Panthers. That’s not helpful.
The New York Giants – Eli Manning, Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Martellus Bennett put up their second horrible game in a row. The fantasy football playoffs weren’t the best time to do such things.
Early Waiver Look
QB: Russell Wilson
RB: Bernard Pierce, Ben Tate, Montell Owens, Mark Ingram
WR: Jason Avant, Jordan Shipley
TE: Delanie Walker, Dennis Pitta, Tony Scheffler
Awards
Fantasy MVP of Week 16: Dez Bryant
Fantasy Breakout Player of Week 16: Dez Bryant
Fantasy Rookie of Week 16: Russell Wilson
Fantasy Disappointment of Week 16: Danny Amendola
Fantasy Fluke of Week 16: Ryan Grant
Numbers Game
7 – The number of game winning drives for Andrew Luck this season.
9 – The number of 50+ yard field goals Blair Walsh hit this season, a new NFL record. Oh, and he’s a rookie.
10 – The number of team wins for Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck, the fifth and sixth rookies to ever reach 10 wins.
17 – The number of field goals Kai Forbath has hit in a row to start his career, a new NFL record.
34 – The number of touchdown passes for Peyton Manning, the second most in his career.
72 – Number of games Peyton Manning has thrown for three or more touchdowns, tied with Brett Favre.
82 – The number of career touchdown receptions for Antonio Gates which breaks Lance Alworth’s Chargers record.
150 – The number of points the Seahawks have scored in the last three games. The most in a three game span in the Super Bowl era.
Twitter Talk
@RotoPat -- Hearings for the Congressional Committee on Chan Gailey and the Use of C.J. Spiller begin January 8.
@CDCarter13 -- Russell Wilson has eight more passing TDs than Matthew Stafford. #deliverme
@kentsomers -- Kevin Kolb: 8 TDs, 3 ints. Every other #azcardinals QB: 2 TDs, 21 ints.
@RotoPat -- Maybe Drew Brees can get Jason Garrett a tryout for One Direction.
@CaptainComeback -- This is the first time ever a conference repeated all 4 division winners (BAL, DEN, NE, HOU).
@SC_DougFarrar -- Unless he coaches sans pants, I don't know how Rex Ryan could further embarrass himself.
@MikeTanier -- By now, I am sure it has been much noted that Jeremy Kerley has 3 more passing yards for the year than Tim Tebow. But it bears repeating.
@MoveTheSticks -- Cincinnati rushed for 14 yards, allowed 6 sacks and still beat the Steelers. The longest run for the Bengals--4 yards.
@fbgchase -- Say what you want about Greg McElroy, but he's a student of the game. Just perfectly nailed the Sanchez strip-sack-turnover.