The fantasy football playoffs have officially arrived, so if you’re still playing this game, you probably have a pretty good roster. Surely too good a roster to have to start Jonathan Stewart, Rod Smith, or Theo Riddick, who all went bananas this week. But if by some chance you were carried to victory by an unlikely fantasy playoff hero, be sure to remember your good fortune the next time you get a raw deal.
And speaking of raw deals, we begin in Philadelphia:
The secret to winning college bowl pick’ems 
Football can be so cruel (Philadelphia Eagles edition)
Carson Wentz has been one of the biggest stories in football this year, performing like a real MVP candidate for both the Eagles and his fantasy owners. The only thing that could stop him was an injury, and unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened late in Sunday’s huge victory over the Rams. Eagles officials confirmed that Wentz tore his ACL, ending his season.
The ramifications of Wentz’s injury are severe for the Eagles, who have established themselves as the class of a loaded field of NFC contenders. Philadelphia fans will have to hope that backup Nick Foles can recapture the magic of his incredible 2013 season — rather than his subpar 2014 and 2015 seasons.
From a fantasy perspective, it’s wise to expect a sizeable drop off from Philadelphia skill position players, although the Eagles’ soft remaining schedule (@NYG, vs. OAK) does lessen the blow. Wentz’s absence will likely drop Alshon Jeffrey from the WR2 to WR3 range, make Nelson Agholor a dicey flex option, and leave whoever starts at tight end (Zach Ertz, if healthy, or Trey Burton) as a fringe TE1.
Blizzards are good for fantasy RBs
In one of the most entertaining games of the day, the Bills gutted out a 13-7 overtime victory over the Colts in a massive snowstorm, keeping their playoff hopes alive. While both of the touchdowns in regulation surprisingly came through the air, the story of this game was the enormous workloads for veteran RBs LeSean McCoy and Frank Gore.
Both RBs set a career high in carries that exceeded their age — the 29-year-old McCoy carried the ball 32 times for 156 yards and a score, while the 34-year-old Gore handled it 36 times for 130 yards. It was a classic reminder of how Mother Nature can impact fantasy matchups late in the season, so keep an eye on those forecasts for Week 15!
The Aaron Rodgers dream is still alive
All of the reports on Rodgers’ recovery from a broken collarbone have been incredibly positive, but it might not have mattered if the Packers lost on Sunday to the winless Browns. A loss in Cleveland would have shattered Green Bay’s slim playoff hopes and removed any incentive to bring Rodgers back if there is even the slightest concern about his health. Thankfully for Packers fans, the Browns are masterful at losing, and allowed Green Bay to come back from a 14-point deficit to win the game in overtime.
Now the only thing standing between Rodgers and a Week 15 return is the CT scan he is scheduled for this week. If the results show that his collarbone has healed, expect to see Rodgers out there next week in Carolina.
His return could provide a massive upgrade at QB for managers who stashed or held on to him, and it would also be a huge boost to Jordy Nelson, who has been a total non-factor with Brett Hundley under center. Davante Adams has been putting up terrific numbers with Hundley, but even his owners can’t complain about the return of arguably the best QB in football.
Alex Collins looks like a young Marshawn Lynch
At 5’11” and 216 pounds, Collins is certainly built like Lynch. And while the comparison would be even more apt if he were still wearing a Seahawks uniform, Collins made his best Lynch impression on Sunday night, ferociously running through and over the Ryan Shazier-less Steelers defense to the tune of 120 yards and a score. He even added 46 yards receiving for good measure.
Collins now has five touchdowns over his last four games, after failing to score through the first eight games and his 5.1 yards per carry trails only Alvin Kamara and Dion Lewis among running backs. He has become the cornerstone of a playoff-contending Ravens team built around its running game and defense, and he’s only getting better as the season goes along.
Sterling Shepard is a Giant-sized enigma
Owning Shepard in fantasy leagues has been an exercise in extreme frustration, and it reached its tipping point in Week 14. When the Giants bizarrely lost their top four WRs to injury in the same Week 5 game, it looked like Shepard was the one who would eventually recover from his injury and become the Giants’ clear number one receiving option. That is more or less what happened initially, as Shepard sat out the next two games and the Giants’ Week 8 bye, and then returned to put up nice numbers in Weeks 9 and 10 while being heavily targeted.
But it’s been all downhill since then. Shepard surprisingly missed two more games due to migraines, and meanwhile his QB Eli Manning was shockingly benched in favor of Geno Smith. But just when it looked like Shepard was a lost cause, he and Manning both returned to the lineup in the nick of time for the fantasy playoffs.
As if that wasn’t enough drama, Shepard was listed as questionable for Week 14 due to a hamstring injury, and there were conflicting reports on Sunday morning as to whether he would play. Ultimately, he did play, but his owners probably wish he hadn’t — he gained a total of just seven yards on two catches and one run and was a complete afterthought in a continually disappointing Giants offense. Owners who patiently waited for Shepard for two months were rewarded with a Giant lump of coal in their stocking.
Jonathan Stewart is back from the dead
Somehow, someway, Stewart is forcing his way back into our lineup decisions for the most crucial weeks of the fantasy season. Through the first nine games of the season, Stewart never topped 70 yards rushing and scored just two touchdowns. But over the last four weeks, he’s come alive, rushing for over 100 yards twice and scoring five times.
Stewart is still best viewed as a touchdown-dependent plodder who is uninvolved in the passing game and whose YPC has now declined for four straight seasons. It would be unwise to expect more 100+ yard games.
But Stewart is getting about 15 carries each week in an offense that ranks fifth in the league in rushing (albeit largely thanks to Cam Newton), and more scoring opportunities could be on the way with juicy home matchups with Green Bay and Tampa Bay on tap. Stewart is about as unsexy a flex option as they come, but he’s a legitimate flex option nonetheless.
Travis Kelce suffered the no touchdown trifecta
Kelce is having a great season, ranking second only to Rob Gronkowski in fantasy points per game among tight ends in standard leagues. He even had a decent game on Sunday, catching seven passes for 74 yards. But what he didn’t quite manage to do on Sunday was score a touchdown, and that fact will forever torture his owners who were booted out of the fantasy playoffs.
Kelce had one touchdown overturned on a review, dropped a second, and had a third called back due to a penalty. So what exactly did we learn here? How about that sometimes it’s better to just look at the box score and be ignorant of what actually happened.
DeAndre Hopkins is QB-proof
We already knew Hopkins was a supremely talented WR, but he was coming off a 2016 season where poor QB play sabotaged his fantasy numbers. Concerns about the Texans’ quarterback play caused Hopkins to fall to the third round in fantasy drafts this year, where he became quite a bargain as Deshaun Watson quickly emerged as a superstar. But then Watson was lost for the season in Week 8, and Hopkins owners once again faced the prospect that poor QB play could ruin Hopkins’ fantasy value.
Instead, Hopkins has taken his game to another level, continuing to put up WR1 numbers even as Tom Savage has predictably struggled. In six games without Watson, Hopkins has averaged 104.5 yards per game and caught four touchdowns.
Savage left Sunday’s game with a concussion, and T.J. Yates could prove to be an upgrade — he quickly threw two touchdowns to Hopkins. But the bottom line is that no matter who is under center, Hopkins will find a way to produce.
Marcus Mariota isn’t living up to the hype
Mariota was drafted in most fantasy leagues as a starting quarterback, and many people expected a significant breakout from the third-year QB. Instead, Mariota has poorly regressed, tossing 14 interceptions and failing to produce more than two touchdowns in any of the 12 games he’s played in. He’s been particularly bad of late, with a three-to-eight TD-to-INT ratio through the air over his last four games and less than 185 yards passing in each of his last three games.
Mariota hasn’t been nearly as effective as a runner since he suffered a hamstring injury in Week 4, and perhaps the lack of a dual-threat component to his game is also hampering his passing numbers. But the bottom line is that he is barely performing like a top-25 fantasy QB, let alone a top-12 option, and is droppable in fantasy leagues. If your team is still alive, you probably have someone better anyway.
The Jets’ passing offense has been grounded
The Jets’ passing game has been one of the biggest surprises in fantasy football this year, with Josh McCown performing like a serviceable starter in 12-team leagues, Robby Anderson putting up low-end WR1 numbers, and Jermaine Kearse serving as a decent WR3/flex option. But McCown broke his left hand in Week 14, and it looks like the team will be relying on Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg for the remainder of the season.
Anderson and Kearse owners might want to hold onto them to see how Petty and/or Hackenberg do next week, but McCown’s absence will make it virtually impossible for fantasy owners to trust either Jets WR in a crucial Week 15 playoff matchup.
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Andrew Seifter is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his archive and follow him @andrew_seifter.
