Week 12 is in the books. In most fantasy football leagues, there are two games left in the regular season. These are the 10 storylines you need to know with the playoffs just around the corner.
1) Davante Adams, goal line back
Adams is on pace for 19 receiving touchdowns, which would land him at No. 3 overall on the all-time list for a single season. He is on pace to finish just behind Jerry Rice’s best season and just ahead of someone named “Davante Adams”, who hit 18 receiving touchdowns in 2020. To say he is operating as the team’s goal line back would not be an exaggeration. Kyren Williams has 11 carries inside the five-yard line. Adams has 12 targets inside the five. The record for I5 targets since 2000 is 13, which Ja’Marr Chase tied in 2024. Adams has six weeks to log two more goal line targets and claim the record outright. With seven goal line scores to Williams’ five, throwing to Adams has a higher success rate than putting the ball in Williams’ hands. The Rams won’t be going away from this strategy anytime soon.
2) Lamar Jackson’s struggles
From a fantasy perspective, Jackson’s downturn in 2024 can be chalked up to one thing: a lack of rushing production. Jackson missed a handful of games with a hamstring issue earlier in the year. He has since missed practices with knee and ankle injuries. The Ravens, in turn, are making a concerted effort to protect him with their play-calling. Jackson is seeing 2.4 designed carries per game. That is down from 4.1 last year. This is a full breakdown of Jackson’s rushing stats from 2025 compared to 2024 and 2019, which is his best rushing season as a pro.
Carries per Game YPC Yards per Game Designed Carries per Game
2025 5.8 5.2 29.6 2.4
2024 8.2 6.6 53.8 4.1
2019 11.7 6.9 80.4 6.1
The most stunning number of all is one: the number of 15-yard carries Jackson has this year. That came all the way back in Baltimore’s thrilling Week 1 shootout with the Bills. Jackson is currently the QB11 by points per game.
3) J.J. McCarthy’s woes continue
If you’ve been on the internet lately and care about football, the algorithm has undoubtedly shown you some of the horror story stats on McCarthy.
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McCarthy is not hard to find on this chart because he ranks dead last in both CPOE and EPA per play. Pro Football Focus has him ranked as their No. 38 overall quarterback, three spots ahead of last place. McCarthy quietly has the third-highest Big Time Throw rate among quarterbacks. That, however, has been more than offset by him holding the second-worst mark in both Turnover Worthy Play rate and Pressure to Sack rate. As you might expect, both Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison have been crushed by McCarthy’s play. This year, Jefferson falls from 16.4 PPR points per game without McCarthy to 11.7 with him. Addison’s plummet is even worse, going from 16 points to 6.2. McCarthy is in concussion protocol this week, meaning Max Brosmer will likely draw the start. Our expectations should be low for Brosmer, a rookie UDFA making his first start in the middle of a season. They cannot be this low.
4) Jahmyr Gibbs pushing for RB1 overall
Gibbs entered Week 12 as a strong RB1 bet, but not someone who was contending for the RB1 overall crown. Jonathan Taylor’s weekly rushing output was too great and Christian McCaffrey’s receiving role remained unmatched. Gibbs, for one beautiful week, put both of those traits on the field at once. A 69-yard touchdown sprint in overtime propelled him to a 15/219/2 line on the ground. Trailing game script boosted him to 11 receptions, which he turned into 45 yards and a touchdown. He is the third running back to hit 200 yards in a game on just 15 attempts in modern NFL history. Gibbs’ role has notably increased in the three games Dan Campbell has served as the Lions’ play-caller.
Snap Share Carry Share Route Rate Target Share
Weeks 1-9 62% 52% 52% 14%
Weeks 10-12 65% 59% 60% 24%
David Montgomery isn’t being phased out, but Gibbs’ usage is on the rise. There might not be enough time left in the year for Gibbs to surge into the top overall fantasy spot, but he could at least close out the season as the RB1 for a month or two.
5) Shedeur Sanders check-in
After writing about Sanders’ struggles last week, I have to check back in after he and the Browns upset the Raiders in Week 12. The box score is superb. Sanders threw for over 200 yards at 10.5 YPA. He scored once and was picked off once. For a Day Three rookie making his first start, that’s a win. The film and data are both less than favorable. PFF graded Sanders as their No. 23 quarterback out of 29 qualified passers. His completion percent over expected was in lockstep with those numbers and he ranked 25th in success rate. Sanders’ numbers were largely juiced by one play.
#Browns Dylan Sampson broke free for a 66-yard touchdown against the Raiders. It was a moment he's has been waiting—and working—for since the spring.
Sampson believes for a duo like him and Quinshon Judkins, the sky's the limit.
He's likely earned more chances to prove that. pic.twitter.com/25HAuK6Psv
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) November 24, 2025
Sanders’ box score likely matches the eye test without this sprint by Dylan Sampson. He still deserves props for his deep ball. Sanders went 2-of-4 on deep shots for 91 yards. He has officially completed more deep passes than Dillon Gabriel this year. It took him one and a half games. Sanders was named the starter even with Gabriel clearing concussion protocol ahead of Week 13. The ability to make big plays through the air is one of the biggest differences between Sanders and Gabriel.
NFL: Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints
Alvin Kamara went down with a knee injury in Week 12. Rookie running back Devin Neal and Swiss Army Knife Taysom Hill are now the next men up to replace his production in the Saints’ offense.
6) Kyle Monangai flips the backfield
The Chicago rookie finally appeared to take over the backfield in Week 12, out-carrying D’Andre Swift 12-8. He ran for 48 yards and a score compared to 15 yards and a fumble for Swift. That fumble, which happened early in the second quarter, shook things loose for Monangai. He saw nine carries after Swift’s fumble while the veteran back ran just two more times. Monangai out-snapped Swift 27-10 after the turnover and ran one more route. Week 13 will be the true test of this flip. If Monangai can hold the lead job after a week of practice, he may truly have wrestled it away from Swift.
7) JSN is chasing history
There won’t be any fantasy takeaways in this section. You’re already starting Jaxon Smith-Njigba. I just want to emphasize how special he has been this year. These are just a few of his season-long stats, and where they rank over a given timeframe.
Yards per route run: 4.42 - 1st (since 2000)
Target share: 37 percent - 2nd (since 2000)
Yards per target: 12.3 - 2nd (since 1978)
Yards per game: 119.7 - 5th (NFL history)
No wideout has cracked four YPRR in a single season. If JSN can hold this pace through the end of the year, he will likely set a record that won’t be broken until something about football fundamentally changes. He is on pace for 2,029 yards, which would easily go down as the single-season record.
8) Geno Smith takes 10 sacks
Speaking of chasing history, Geno was doing that in the worst way possible on Sunday. The veteran passer was taken down 10 times. The NFL record for sacks in a game is 12. The Browns came up one sack shy of their single-game franchise record as well. Smith suffered a quad contusion in Week 10. He was already fairly immobile. The injury poured concrete in his cleats. Geno has taken 20 sacks over the past three weeks. He leads the NFL in pressure-to-sack rate (32.3 percent) since Week 10. Smith was only converting 21 percent of his pressures into sacks before suffering the quad injury. It would not be surprising to see the Raiders bench Smith before the end of the year.
9) Prayer yards world champion Adonai Mitchell
I just can’t quit this guy. Mitchell flamed out in Indy and was sent to New York as a throw-in piece to the Sauce Gardner trade. It took him two weeks to become the team’s top wideout. Mitchell led the Jets’ wideouts with six targets two weeks ago. He tied for a team-high in targets last week with seven looks. Has this resulted in any fantasy production? Of course not. PFF has deemed just 54 percent of his targets as catchable over the past two weeks. Mitchell has not done himself any favors. He has dropped 23 percent of his targets as a Jet. Still, I cannot help but think that a player who can join a team and rack up 292 air yards in his first two starts with the team has an uncanny ability to get open. Getting open was never the issue in Indy. Converting those air yards into edible, nutritious, real yards has always been the problem. Mitchell currently ranks second-to-last in the league in RACR (air yards conversion rate). He has turned 32 percent of his air yards into actual yards.
10) Business as usual for Ken Walker
Walker is, of course, in the business of selling goal line touches to anyone with a pulse in Seattle. The shop briefly closed in Week 11 and Walker scored his first touchdown in roughly two months. Things reverted to normal on Sunday with Zach Charbonnet plundering a five-yard score. The good news for Walker backers is that he was still involved at the goal line. He and Charbonnet each saw one carry inside the five. Walker set a season-high in carry share at 61 percent and tied his season-high in route rate at 50 percent. His 17 percent target share? Also a high-water mark. It was his first game with a target share over eight percent since Week 1. Better days should be ahead for Walker.