by Championship week in the world of fantasy football was much like every other week this season… wacky and often unpredictable. A number of “unstartable” fantasy quarterbacks like Jarrett Stidham, Russell Wilson (he was unstartable), Deshaun Watson and Sam Darnold were among the top 10 players at the position based on fantasy points. Stidham beat all but two quarterbacks heading into Sunday night’s game, and he did it against the San Francisco 49ers defense!
Running back wasn’t any better either, as top 30 picks like Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Leonard Fournette, Josh Jacobs and Nick Chubb all posted middling totals at best. Rhamondre Stevenson, Miles Sanders and David Montgomery didn’t help us either! At least Christian McCaffrey and Austin Ekeler lived up to expectations! We saw a huge performance from a wide receiver (no one saw it coming), and one of the best superstars in the position did a Houdini number.
With that being said, let’s begin our fantasy football whip around Sunday’s action in Tampa Bay, where Tom Brady and Mike Evans have gifted a host of managers with a title.
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Tom Brady and Mike Evans complete the stat slides against the Panthers. Heading into Fantasy Championship week, Brady and Evans had been anything but reliable for managers. Brady had scored less than 18 points in nine of his last 10 games, while Evans hadn’t scored a touchdown since Week 4. So much for those stats. Brady scored four total touchdowns and a season-high 37.7 points, while Evans scored three touchdowns and had a career-high 48.7 points in a win over Carolina. This total is more than Evans had scored in his previous six games. combined. If you’ve kept faith in this duo, there’s a good chance you’ll win a fantasy league championship.
Justin Jefferson disappears in a bad loss against Green Bay. Jefferson entered this week on absolute fire, scoring more than 30 fantastic points in each of his last three games. Unfortunately, he was invisible in the stat sheets during Fantasy Championship Week. The talented wide receiver caught a pass for 15 yards and scored a fantastic 2.5 points in a blowout loss. The performance came after Packers CB Jaire Alexander said Jefferson’s huge numbers in Week 1 against Green Bay were “a fluke”. Whether this is the case or not, it does not change the fact that 79 wide receivers scored more points than Jefferson going into Sunday night’s game. It’s a fantastic backbreaker.
Austin Ekeler leads fantasy fans to a championship. Ekeler, the No. 1 running back in fantasy football, led countless managers to a title with two touchdowns and 32.1 points in a win over the Rams. He has found the end zone 18 times this season, two less than he scored a season ago. In an ironic twist, Alice in Chains’ Mike Inez, who drafted Ekeler first overall in the Fabiano Invitational Celebrity League (so Ekeler couldn’t draft himself), rode the Chargers to a title. In the Alice in Chains & Friends League, WWE Superstar The Miz also led Ekeler to a title. Inez and Miz beat me in every league. I should have drafted Ekeler!
Who needs Derek Carr? Not Davante Adams, apparently. Derek Carr’s bench in Las Vegas stressed a lot of fantastic managers over Adams’ chances of posting a great stat line in Week 17. Well, he proved he doesn’t need his best friend against the 49ers as he posted a pair of touchdowns and 34.3 fantasy points. That’s more points than Adams had scored in his previous three games combined. We don’t know what the future holds for Carr (or Adams), but we’ll take the DA points for the ship!
Christian McCaffrey scores a fantastic 31.3 points in Vegas. McCaffrey may have put up 13.8 points last week, but those who survived that stat line likely won a title this week. That’s largely down to CMC’s 31.3 points in a win over the Raiders. He rushed for 121 yards with a touchdown and caught six passes for 72 yards in the contest, and he’s now produced more than 25 points in four of his last five games. Fantasy fans who trusted McCaffrey to avoid the injury bug that had bitten him in each of the past two seasons have been handsomely rewarded in 2022.
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Daniel Jones smashes the Colts; Saquon breaks our hearts. Jones was a star in the final two weeks of the post-fantasy season, scoring a total of 57 points. That includes a performance of four touchdowns and 36.2 points in a win over the Colts. Two of his scores were on the ground and he rushed for 91 yards in the contest. His stats and a positive game storyline unfortunately made Saquon Barkley an afterthought. He was limited to 53 total yards, no touchdowns and 7.3 points. It was the third fewest points Barkley had scored this season, and it was a real league killer.
Jerick McKinnon leads fantastic managers to a championship. McKinnon may not be the hero we asked for this season, but he is the hero we received. He went on an absolute touchdown tear at the end of the year, scoring eight times in his last five games. That includes two visits to the end zone and a fantastic 22.6 points in a win over the Broncos. What’s crazy about that stat line is that McKinnon only saw 15.6% of backfield touches for Kansas City, his lowest total since Week 11. Anyway , the fantastic managers who landed McKinnon got a real league winner.
Trevor Lawrence goes icy in the win over the Texans. Lawrence became one of the top 10 fantasy quarterbacks this season, but his recent blistering streak came to an end in Championship Week. He threw for 152 yards without a touchdown and scored just 4.5 points against Houston, which is his worst stat line of the year. In a meaningless game for the Jaguars, Travis Etienne was the only bright spot with 23 points. Zay Jones, Christian Kirk and Evan Engram were all held under six points.
D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams combine for 50.4 points. The Lions backfield was enough to drive you crazy in the second half of the season, but this duo proved important when we needed them most. Swift had 117 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns, which was good enough for 27.7 points, while Williams had 157 total yards, one touchdown and 22.7 points. It was Swift’s best fantasy performance of the entire season, and it’s the best stat line Williams has had since Week 11.
A number of unnamed tight ends fill out the top 12…again. Has anyone started Trey McBride this week? How about Brock Wright or Colby Parkinson, Robert Tonyan or Albert Okwuegbunam? And Tommy Tremble? If you did, you’re brilliant. These six players were among the top 12 tight ends based on fantasy points as we head into Sunday night’s game. That’s been par for the course this season, as the tight end has been a virtual landmine for fantasy managers without Travis Kelce or TJ Hockenson. Look for the position to devalue in the 2023 drafts.
Remarks
- A number of big-name fantasy wide players fell short of expectations this week, and it cost many managers a title. Aside from Jefferson, we’ve seen the likes of DK Metcalf, Christian Watson, Adam Thielen, Tyler Lockett, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Christian Kirk, Garrett Wilson, Zay Jones and Terry McLaurin all held within six fantastic points in PPR formats. No bonus.
- Deshaun Watson looked like a fantasy star for the first time this season, throwing three touchdown passes in a win over Washington. Two of those scores went to Amari Cooper, who also had 105 yards. Watson, who finished with 21.9 fantasy points, had just nine achievements throughout the game.
- Alvin Kamara posted another stench, scoring just a fantastic 9.1 points in a shock win over Philadelphia. It was his seventh single-digit game in 14 games, and he finished the fantastic season with four touchdowns (including three in a part). His time as an elite fantasy player ended last season, and his disappointing totals in 2022 put a dagger in his future value.
- Russell Wilson, one of the biggest misses of the fantasy season, scored 23.6 points in a loss to the Chiefs. Strangely, he averaged 24.6 points in his two games against the Kansas City Chiefs… and 12.8 points against everyone else. Wilson also scored 20+ points against only one other team (Las Vegas Raiders). Wilson will be a No. 2 ho-hum option in the 2023 draft.
- Rhamondre Stevenson has been one of fantasy football’s best running backs for most of the season, but he let us down when we needed him the most. The talented runner scored just a fantastic 7.1 points in a win over the Dolphins, and he’s failed to score more than that total in three of his last four games. He was also held at catcher in those four games, catching just eight balls combined. Stevenson will be a top 30 pick in the 2023 draft, but it was a very tough end to his breakout season in the league.
Michael Fabien is awarded fantasy football analyst on Sports Illustrated and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Hall of Fame. Click here to read all his articles here on SI Fantasy. You can follow Michael on Twitter, Facebook, Youtubeand instagram for your breaking fantasy news and the best analysis in the business to help you win a fantasy championship!
