Top 3 Fantasy Football Storylines of Week 11 (2025)

A fantasy football star-studded NFC West battle has an intriguing storyline this week. Additionally, byes are an opportunity for teams to self-scout and make changes that impact fantasy value the remainder of the year, and two teams coming out of their byes in Week 10 will be interesting to track this week.

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Fantasy Football Storylines

Can Sam Darnold Exorcise Some Demons Against the Rams?

Sam Darnold has thrived in Klint Kubiak’s offense this season. In his first year with the Seahawks, Darnold is tied for the QB15 in points per game (17.8). However, he was also the QB9 in points per game (18.8) among quarterbacks who played more than one game last year, and his season ended on a sour note.

The Rams gave Darnold fits in the Wild Card round, sacking him nine times, picking him off once, and forcing a fumble. In a Week 8 matchup against Los Angeles last year, Darnold completed 18-of-25 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t turn the ball over, but he took three sacks, and the Rams beat the Vikings 30-20.

Darnold has been sacked only 10 times this year, just once more than he was sacked in the NFL Wild Card loss to the Rams last year. Yet, Darnold has also thrown an interception in three straight games and in four of his previous five. Can he play well enough to make the matchup against the Rams a fun, back-and-forth, fantasy-friendly affair? The Seahawks are just 2.5-point underdogs, and the game’s total is 48.5 points. That suggests the game can be a shootout. Darnold is in the QB1 mix in 12-team leagues this week.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a world-beater. Can Darnold do enough to support Cooper Kupp or Rashid Shaheed as viable Flex plays or WR3s this week? The Rams are a mid-pack matchup for wide receivers this season. The Seahawks attempted only 12 passes in last week’s blowout victory, creating a small sample to analyze for Shaheed’s debut with the Seahawks. Additionally, Tory Horton was out.

Regardless, according to the Fantasy Points data suite, Kupp and Shaheed were tied for the second-highest route participation rate (61.5%) in Week 10. Shaheed had a 50% slot rate, and Kupp had a 25% slot rate last week. The Rams have faced the third-highest slot target rate (39%) since Week 6, which gives Shaheed the leg up as the more intriguing Flex option between him and Kupp.

Meanwhile, the coverage data is an encouraging data point for Kupp’s outlook this week. According to the Fantasy Points data suite, the Rams have the seventh-highest zone rate (77.7%), the 10th-highest single-high coverage rate (54.6%), the ninth-highest Cover 2 rate (18.1%) and the fifth-highest Cover 3 rate (38.2%) this season.

Kupp has 0.25 targets per route run (TPRR) and 1.90 yards per route run (YPRR) against zone coverage, 0.19 TPRR and 3.10 Y/RR against single-high, 0.31 TPRR and 2.46 Y/RR on 13 routes against Cover 2 and 0.17 TPRR and 3.29 YPRR on 59 routes against Cover 3 this year. Thus, Kupp isn’t a terrible Flex option in half-PPR or full PPR 12-team leagues or larger.

What Will the Post-Bye Chiefs Look Like in a Critical AFC West Matchup?

Rashee Rice was suspended for the first six games of the year, allowing him to play three games before Kansas City’s Week 10 bye. He immediately stepped in as a target hog, and he’s a no-brainer WR1, despite getting eased into action with just a 63.6% route participation rate. Xavier Worthy (78.0% route participation rate) and Travis Kelce (73.7%) were Kansas City’s only players with a route participation rate higher than Rice’s during that three-game stretch.

Worthy had a 17.5% target share and 23.7% air yards share, but he converted that usage into just 11 receptions (3.7 per game), 111 receiving yards (37 per game), 1.21 Y/RR, 7.1 half-PPR points per game and 11.6 expected half-PPR points per game. Can the second-year wideout carve out a bigger role or at least play closer to his expected fantasy production out of Kansas City’s bye?

Kelce had a 15.5% target share, 15.3% air yards share, 13 receptions (4.3 per game), 219 receiving yards (73 per game), one receiving touchdown, 11.8 half-PPR points per game and 8.6 expected half-PPR points per game in the three games Rice was active for the Chiefs. Can Kelce continue to outkick his expected fantasy scoring?

Marquise Brown was fourth on the Chiefs in route participation rate (47.5%) from Week 7 through Week 9, but he’ll need a sizable uptick in playing time and usage at the expense of others, such as JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton, to emerge as a viable option, even in deeper leagues. The Chiefs have had no problem with rotating wide receivers in prior years. Therefore, gamers shouldn’t hold their breath for Brown to secure a larger share of the pie.

It will also be interesting to see if Andy Reid makes any changes to the backfield. Sadly, Isiah Pacheco is unlikely to return this week.

Chiefs’ personnel updates from Andy Reid

– Reid confirmed Josh Simmons is indeed back. He said “we’ll see” in terms of his return to the lineup
– Reid nudged that RB Isiah Pacheco (knee) may take more time, while RT Jawaan Taylor (ankle) felt OK by the time he returned from…

— Pete Sweeney (@pgsween) November 10, 2025

Kareem Hunt had a backfield-high 78% snap share without Pacheco in Week 9, followed by Brashard Smith‘s 20% snap share and Clyde Edwards-Helaire‘s 3% snap share. Hunt also led the backfield in rush attempts, with 11 out of 14, and route participation rate (50%).

The veteran running back turned his stellar workload into 49 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown, one target, one reception and six receiving yards. Hunt is an acceptable RB2 for running back-needy gamers this week. Yet, Smith could also get a post-bye rookie bump, especially if the pass-happy Chiefs decide to utilize Smith’s receiving prowess instead of feeding Hunt the ball as a runner.

The Chiefs opted to call up Edwards-Helaire from the practice squad instead of making Elijah Mitchell active in Week 9, but they could conceivably shock everyone by playing Mitchell this week. Nevertheless, Hunt is the only option gamers can consider using this week based on pre-bye usage. Gamers with a bench spot to work with could make a speculative addition of Smith to see if his role is more expansive this week.

Will the Titans Make Sweeping Changes After the Bye?

The Titans certainly aren’t in the same offensive tier as the Chiefs. Nevertheless, they’re also coming out of their bye. Moreover, the bye awarded interim head coach Mike McCoy an opportunity to tinker and tweak things. McCoy can’t realistically overhaul the playbook of former head coach Brian Callahan, but he can accentuate the elements he likes and adjust personnel usage.

One obvious change is pivoting from Tony Pollard to Tyjae Spears as the club’s lead running back. Pollard’s name was in the rumor mill before the NFL’s trade deadline, and the Titans can save $7.25 million by cutting him in the offseason, per Over the Cap. In McCoy’s three games as Tennessee’s head coach, Tennessee’s running backs recorded the following statistics:

Spears has been the more efficient and effective running back. He’s also younger and could be the team’s featured running back next year after they almost certainly take the cap savings from cutting Pollard. The Texans are a challenging matchup for running backs, but Spears isn’t an outrageous emergency RB2 or Flex against them for his passing-game prowess.

According to Pro-Football-Reference, the Texans have allowed only 3.78 receptions per game and 26.8 receiving yards per game to running backs this season. However, Houston has played zone coverage at the sixth-highest rate (78%), Cover 3 at the 11th-highest rate (32.6%) and Cover 4 at the third-highest rate (24.6%).

Spears has 0.20 TPRR and 1.54 Y/RR on 56 routes against zone, 0.18 TPRR and 2.12 Y/RR on 17 routes against Cover 3 and 0.18 TPRR and 2.36 YPRR on 11 routes against Cover 4 this year.

Calvin Ridley, if he’s healthy, Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor should dominate the routes at wide receiver for the Titans. However, McCoy could shake things up at tight end. Chig Okonkwo had a 53.7% route participation rate, and Gunnar Helm had a 37% route participation rate in McCoy’s first three games as Tennessee’s interim head coach.

Okonkwo is in the final year of his rookie contract, and the club drafted Helm in the fourth round of this year’s NFL Draft. Helm isn’t someone gamers should stash. Still, Helm could emerge as a fantasy-relevant player if he has a full-time role.

Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.