Week 13 Observations

Bad Football

The games were pretty bad Sunday, just low quality without a lot of scoring or great plays. The Seahawks were playing a JV team, JSN and and Justin Jefferson were irrelevant, there was no point to it. Why are the Raiders bothering to field a team? The best games were Broncos-Redskins, Jets-Falcons and Dolphins-Saints!

It wasn’t a great day for me, either. Imagine having a fantasy team on the bubble, your two best players are JSN and ARSB. Some other players stepped up, but I need a huge Week 14 to get in now. My Chiefs stack team had 133 points from Thanksgiving with four players left and finished with 163, thanks in part to Chris Boswell getting only one. I’m currently slated to qualify for the playoffs in that one, but guess who the Chiefs stack is up against in Week 14? The Texans. Good chance that game is a field-goal fest, and I get bounced.

After starting 2-0 in Circa on Thanksgiving, I went 1-1 the rest of the weekend, winning with Texans +4.5 and losing with Eagles on Friday night. I’m 13-5-1 for Q3 with the Giants pending tonight, a nice run, but a few games short of winning money.

• The Rams loss to the Panthers just proves there are no good teams in the NFL. Stafford had the team in range to tie too, but a sack fumble sealed it.

• I keep seeing people put Puka Nacua in the top-three WR ROS, and it’s like they’re watching a different player. Ever since he got hurt, he’s been solid, but nothing special, and Davante Adams gets most of the TDs too. Nacua made a nice one-handed grab at the sideline, but so did Treylon Burks. Top 3 are clearly: Chase, JSN and Rashee Rice in some order. If I had to pick a fourth, I’d go CeeDee Lamb ahead of Nacua too.

• Adams has 14 TDs now, but not exactly lighting it up otherwise — almost in the Jimmy Graham phase of his career.

• Blake Corum is inching into a bigger timeshare with Kyren Williams, not that it’s really hurting Williams much.

• I had left Bryce Young for dead again, but maybe he has a future yet. I can’t tell.

• Chuba Hubbard split carries with Rico Dowdle and outproduced him. Back to a true timeshare again.

• Tet McMillan caught one pass, but he made it count — 43-yard TD. Jalen Coker led the team with six targets and 74 yards.

• The Cardinals are just good enough to lose by three to slightly above-average teams. Jacoby Brissett has got to be like QB5 since he took over.

• So much for Michael Wilson’s run with Marvin Harrison back. In fairness, Wilson saw seven targets (same number as Harrison). Trey McBride is the true No. 1 anyway.

• Bucky Irving passed the eye test for me (and apparently the Bucs), looks all the way back in time for the fantasy playoffs. Chris Godwin showed a pulse too.

• Emeka Egbuka has done very little since he got banged up more than a month ago. I traded him in a dynasty league for a king’s ransom of old players, and so far I feel good about it.

• Of course Kyle Pitts goes off after I finally bench him. Just lives to rug you.

• Bijan Robinson disappoints for short stretches, but every year massive numbers are there at the end. He had 23 carries and seven targets yesterday, another 193 YFS.

• Adonai Mitchell put up a 12-8-102-1 line the same day Sauce Gardner got knocked out by a calf strain. So far that trade looks pretty good for the Jets who gets first rounders in 2026 and 2027.

• The Jets showed some heart to pull off that win. Nick Folk had his first miss of the year on a 55-yard attempt before drilling the 56-yard game winner.

• I had the Dolphins in Survivor, and the ending to that game was bananas. The Dolphins were up 11 with 3:23 left, but the Saints new Irish kicker in his first game drills a 56-yard field goal to cut it to eight. The Saints get the ball back, score a TD, but not only fail the game-tying two-point try, but the Dolphins return it for a score of their own to put them up four, i.e., a “pick-two”. Then the Saints recover an onside kick (which looks like it was touched before 10 yards, but they ruled it touched a Dolphin first even though replay couldn’t show it.) The Saints get the ball down to the Dolphins 36, 2nd-and-1, with 44 seconds left then failed to gain a single yard on second, third and fourth downs. Game over. Enjoyable sweat, got my money’s worth.

• Tyler Shough got roughed up, but he threw a beautiful pass to Devaughn Vele to set up the two-point conversion pick-two. Vele had eight targets and outperformed Chris Olave who had seven.

• De’Von Achane looks very smooth and surprisingly durable at his size. For whatever reason (maybe because I traded away my only share) I don’t hold my breath when he gets tackled. Always seems to bounce right up, no worse for the wear. But the team’s passing game did next to nothing.

• I have Woody Marks everywhere, which has been rough. Nick Chubb scored the short TD, and every time Marks gets the ball it seems like he’s met behind the line of scrimmage.

• Davis Mills is better than this version of CJ Stroud.

• The Colts have stalled offensively of late, though I’ll give them a pass against the Texans.

• Dimes is playing through a Theismann but he’s so tough you don’t even notice.

• Jonathan Taylor has crashed down to earth of late but still had 21 carries, five targets and 121 YFS. Not bad against the league’s top defense.

• I actually did get some Strange this week (in one league). I also started Brian Thomas unfortunately. Jakobi Meyers is getting the targets that would have gone to Travis Hunter, so Thomas is probably unstartable until that changes.

• The Titans just don’t have a usable player on the entire offense. No one even close. That’s rare.

• The 49ers-Browns was ugly, but it suited the Niners who are fine to play that way.

• Shadeur Sanders didn’t do much, but it was windy, and he was facing a solid defense. Hard to evaluate him thus far.

• Quinshon Judkins had a good game, running hard and catching three passes.

• Max Brosmer is probably not the answer.

• I left Kenny Walker on by bench again, and though he outscored Woody Marks by a few points, I don’t regret it. Chardonnay is a poor man’s Kareem Hunt, while Walker is a rich man’s Isaiah Pacheco.

• What are the Raiders trying to accomplish? At least Brock Bowers got me something in the Steak League, but still only four catches for 63 yards.

• Justin Herbert broke his left hand, and it didn’t really affect the game. He plans to have surgery and play next week.

• Kimani Vidal looked great and is not going anywhere even after Omarion Hampton returns. At best Hampton will be 50/50 in my opinion.

• Ladd McConkey got me *something* in the Chiefs-stack league. The Chargers didn’t need to throw much, especially with Herbert nursing the injured hand.

• The Bills struggled to get anything going until the strip-sack TD on Aaron Rodgers. Then it was easier playing with a lead in the second half.

• James Cook was their leading receiver with 33 yards. It’ll be hard to win in the playoffs with no passing game. Maybe when Dalton Kincaid returns, it’ll pick up.

• Speaking of no passing game, what are the Steelers even thinking with that crew after dealing George Pickens for peanuts? Their leading pass catcher is north of 300 pounds! What a bunch of scrubs.

• I didn’t realize this at the time, but the overtime rules basically force you to go for two if you’re the second team to score the TD. If you kick the PAT, the other team gets the ball with the new kickoff rules in sudden death (and only a few minutes left on the clock.)

• RJ Harvey scored twice and had three catches, but wasn’t that impressive.

• Bo Nix is hard to evaluate — is he good, very good or just a guy? Not sure yet, but he does spread the ball around everywhere and move well.

• Evan Engram (nine targets) had a good game after a slow start. He’s probably a pickup for the fantasy playoffs on whom you absolutely cannot count, but could deliver.

• Courtland Sutton showed up too, but it’s tough with only six targets when guys like Pat Bryant (7) and even Adam Trautman (4) are also involved. You never know with the Broncos.

• Marcus Mariota looked great against a tough defense, almost like he’s going down the Geno Smith career path and will wind up starting somewhere next year for cheap.

• Zach Ertz, a year younger than Travis Kelce, went 13-10-106-0 and Terry McLaurin 14-7-96-1. Even Deebo Samuel went 7-5-64-0 — against the Broncos that’s pretty good. It’s almost like they have a credible passing game even without Jayden Daniels who might be back next week against the Vikings.

• It’s just an odd year trying to figure out which NFL teams are actually good. If I had to pick a team to win the Super Bowl right now I’d say the Packers, but there are probably 12 teams for which you could make a case. And all the good teams in recent years like the Chiefs, Ravens, Eagles, Lions and Bills are seriously flawed.