Bill Belichick benched Jonas Gray for a team infraction. I shudder to think what awaits Jakobi Meyers.
In a weekend filled with historic feats, Meyers' lateral stands on its own. This is a fantasy blog, so I don't want to dwell on it. But many of you have at least one Patriots player on your team. Meyers is the most heavily rostered of all New England WRs. His unfortunate decision -- arguably 10x worse than J.R. Smith's notorious Game 1 mistake in the 2018 NBA Finals -- could have ripple effects in Week 16. Or maybe all will be forgiven. But if the Patriots miss out on the postseason because they lost this weekend, it will go down as one of the most consequential regular-season blunders in decades.
A huge congratulations to those of you who won this weekend. If you didn't, extending empathy (or sympathy, or both). And if it all rests on tonight, lemme know who to root for. I've got the Packers winning 23-11. Share your prediction below.
Some fantasy takeaways from yesterday: Royce Freeman appears to be "the guy" in Houston. RB-needy fantasy managers: we all know he's not the answer to life's problems. But at his best, he can get 15 points in this offense. Freeman caught 43 passes in 2019. He had six catches in Week 15 last season. There's some pop if you're comfortable with his low floor (or if you don't have much choice).
Trevor Lawrence now has four games this year with 3+ TDs (rushing + passing). It's a remarkable turnaraound, and clearly the additions of Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, and Evan Engram have had a monumental impact. A stable coaching situation and the often brilliant Travis Etienne also have been critically important. He's now the overall QB6. On June 15th I explained why "this franchise QB is a screaming buy" at his QB19 preseason ranking. But in fairness, I didn't have the guts to rank him in the top 10. There were too many other "safer" quarterbacks. Well, Lawrence could be a top-6 QB for the next decade. Congrats to you dynasty managers who invested.
Caleb Huntley's ankle injury could keep him out for the rest of the season. If that's the case, Tyler Allgeier and Cordarrelle Patterson would get decent bumps. On the flip side, Austin Ekeler got banged up, giving Joshua Kelley more run than usual. This is a sitution to track closely, because as great as Ekeler is, he's mostly struggled on the ground in recent weeks. He's also approaching 300 touches. The team this offseason wanted to reduce his workload, not increase it.
Finally, three of the top six WRs this week were teams' #3 wideouts: K.J. Osborn, Russell Gage, and Noah Brown. When we tack on Zay Jones (who led all Week 15 receivers), it's yet another reminder that while #1 WRs are usually the best bets, there are exceptions every week. And sometimes a large number of those exceptions collide in the same week. There's usually no clear sign beforehand. And it usually doesn't carry over into the next week. But it wreaks havoc regardless.
In a weekend filled with historic feats, Meyers' lateral stands on its own. This is a fantasy blog, so I don't want to dwell on it. But many of you have at least one Patriots player on your team. Meyers is the most heavily rostered of all New England WRs. His unfortunate decision -- arguably 10x worse than J.R. Smith's notorious Game 1 mistake in the 2018 NBA Finals -- could have ripple effects in Week 16. Or maybe all will be forgiven. But if the Patriots miss out on the postseason because they lost this weekend, it will go down as one of the most consequential regular-season blunders in decades.
A huge congratulations to those of you who won this weekend. If you didn't, extending empathy (or sympathy, or both). And if it all rests on tonight, lemme know who to root for. I've got the Packers winning 23-11. Share your prediction below.
Some fantasy takeaways from yesterday: Royce Freeman appears to be "the guy" in Houston. RB-needy fantasy managers: we all know he's not the answer to life's problems. But at his best, he can get 15 points in this offense. Freeman caught 43 passes in 2019. He had six catches in Week 15 last season. There's some pop if you're comfortable with his low floor (or if you don't have much choice).
Trevor Lawrence now has four games this year with 3+ TDs (rushing + passing). It's a remarkable turnaraound, and clearly the additions of Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, and Evan Engram have had a monumental impact. A stable coaching situation and the often brilliant Travis Etienne also have been critically important. He's now the overall QB6. On June 15th I explained why "this franchise QB is a screaming buy" at his QB19 preseason ranking. But in fairness, I didn't have the guts to rank him in the top 10. There were too many other "safer" quarterbacks. Well, Lawrence could be a top-6 QB for the next decade. Congrats to you dynasty managers who invested.
Caleb Huntley's ankle injury could keep him out for the rest of the season. If that's the case, Tyler Allgeier and Cordarrelle Patterson would get decent bumps. On the flip side, Austin Ekeler got banged up, giving Joshua Kelley more run than usual. This is a sitution to track closely, because as great as Ekeler is, he's mostly struggled on the ground in recent weeks. He's also approaching 300 touches. The team this offseason wanted to reduce his workload, not increase it.
Finally, three of the top six WRs this week were teams' #3 wideouts: K.J. Osborn, Russell Gage, and Noah Brown. When we tack on Zay Jones (who led all Week 15 receivers), it's yet another reminder that while #1 WRs are usually the best bets, there are exceptions every week. And sometimes a large number of those exceptions collide in the same week. There's usually no clear sign beforehand. And it usually doesn't carry over into the next week. But it wreaks havoc regardless.