Takeaways from Week 14 as told through
@MarcasG's tweets.
Injuries suck no matter what time of year they happen. They're especially magnified during the playoffs. Losing the likes of Mike Evans, Mark Andrews or Derrius Guice in the regular season is tough but at least you always have hope for future weeks. Losing them in the playoffs could mean the end of your season. If you somehow survive despite losing one or more of those players, you still have to figure out how you can fill those (likely) huge holes in your lineup for Week 15. Survive and advance is the name of the game but it just got a hell of a lot harder.
If you didn't believe that #Shanahanigans were in effect in San Francisco, let this serve as the official announcement. For the second straight week, Raheem Mostert led the team in snaps -- this time despite Matt Breida being back available. That was one part of the confusing equation. The other part was that unforeseen was Mostert eating against one of the league's tougher defenses. The Niners back racked up over 100 scrimmage yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 35-yard TD catch from Emmanuel Sanders. With a date against the Falcons next week, you almost have to believe in Mostert for Week 15. And that's when Shanahanigans really get you.
The Taysom Hill plays are certainly very annoying but if you really want something to be mad about in the Saints offense, maybe we should point several fingers in the direction of Alvin Kamara's season-long stat line. In his first two seasons, Kamara scored 31 combined touchdowns. This year, he has two. I'm fond of saying touchdowns are fickle beasts ... but this is ridiculous. It's easy to blame it on Taysom Hill but he has just three carries inside the 10 yard line entering the week. The bigger culprit has been Latavius Murray, who leads the Saints with 13 carries near the end zone. This week, it didn't help that Kamara got stuffed at the goal line only to have Drew Brees take it over on a sneak on the next play. The touches and yards per touch are about where they were last season -- but the touchdown disparity is frightening. A game against the Colts next week doesn't figure to help.
The last three weeks for Robby Anderson have been really good. Too bad that 10 of the first 11 were as exciting as caffeine-free diet cola. By this point in the season, a lot of people had given up on Anderson. Many had probably put him back on the waiver wire. In fact, chances are pretty good that if you started him this week, it was at the expense of someone else in your league who pulled the 'chute earlier in the year. You should send that person a thank you card. It's the polite thing to do. That's the upside. The downside is that with the Ravens and Steelers over the next two weeks, Anderson gets a lot harder to trust.
This probably isn't totally fair. Mixon has sneakily played well over the past five or six weeks. But he's definitely turned it up a notch recently with three touchdowns in his past four games. In the end, he's starting to look like the running back we thought could crack the top 10 this year. Too bad the Bengals' offense has been a roaring tire fire for most of the year, likely burning down your fantasy season in the process.
At this point, the tight end position is just trolling us. Here's a partial list of the players who scored touchdowns this week -- most of whom you're not starting:
I mean ... what are you going to do with that? Also, I'm no longer buying into the hope that we will have depth at tight end. Best case scenario, we have 10 potentially startable players at the position in 2020. But if one or two get hurt and another couple underperform, we're going to be right back in this situation next year. This is our life now.
Wait...what?
- Christian McCaffrey had a season-low in carries (11) and tied a season-high in catches (11).
- 25 of Tim Patrick's 28 career receptions have come in the months of November and December.
- David Johnson's 53 scrimmage yards were more than he posted in his previous four games combined.
- Terry McLaurin has had just one game with more than five catches since Week 3.
- Jameis Winston has at least one turnover in 11 of 13 games. He has multiple giveaways in seven of them.
- Tevin Coleman has played 10 snaps in back-to-back games. He has nine touches for 21 yards.
- Lamar Jackson's 40 rushing yards were his fewest since Week 1.
- Derrick Henry's last four games: 641 scrimmage yards, nine total touchdowns.
And one for the road...
Marcas Grant is a fantasy analyst for NFL.com and a man who sees a light at the end of a tunnel. Send him your optimistic tropes or fantasy football questions via Twitter @MarcasG. If you read all of that, congrats. Follow him on Facebook, and Instagram.
