Cole Beasley did it again, and I’m still not sure how he’s doing “it.” Cole caught five passes for 59 yards in a score, a line that is becoming freakishly the norm. In 5-of-6 games he’s caught five passes or scored, and in 9-of-10 this season he’s produced at least 53 yards. He’s never hit 80 this season, and isn’t likely to keep up this scoring pace, not close, but Dak Prescott sure seems to find him five times every game.
Odell Beckham Jr. caught five passes for 47 yards in Week 11. For all the talk about him being an elite player… the numbers simply don’t support that. In 3-of-4 games he’s failed to produce 50-yards. In 5-of-7 he’s failed to reach 60 yards. #IsThatElite?
Le’Veon Bell has caught at least five passes in all seven games he has played. At his current pace of 7.6 receptions a game a 16-game season would equate to 121 receptions. If I’m not mistaken the running back record belongs to Matt Forte (102).
Sam Bradford has completed at least 71 percent of his passes in 3-straight games. In three of five games he’s failed to throw for 230 yards. In 4-of-5 he’s thrown one touchdown pass.
John Brown went over 1,000-yards last season for the Cardinals. Since Week 4 this season he has 144 yards. He’s scored once all season. #ToldYaToBeCautious
Corey Coleman saw 12 targets against the Steelers which is exciting. However, he caught four for 39 yards which is downright negligible production. As of this writing there is no clarity whatsoever as to who will be throwing passes at Coleman in the Browns next game.
Isaiah Crowell is the Marvin Jones of running backs (see more on Jones below). Crowell averaged 98.5 yards the first four games of the season while scoring three times. Since then he has scored twice and has run for 30-yards once in seven games. Read that again. And then read it again. Might want to read it a third time. Despite all that, Crowell still out snapped Duke Johnson 35-to-32. I really don’t get what the Browns are doing. Don’t start Crowell in any league in Week 12.
Given the Vikings offensive scheme, there just aren’t likely to be many big yardage games from Stefon Diggs. Still, the guy has caught 13, 13 and six passes the last three games even if his Week 11 effort was a 6-37 line against the Cardinals. Hard to down a guy when he has 32 receptions in three games, ain’t it?
Ezekiel Elliott has 1,102 rushing yards through 10 career games. Only two men can better that: Erick Dickerson 1,223 and Adrian Peterson 1,197.
Joe Flacco has one touchdown pass, or none, in 7-of-9 outings. He threw for one score in Week 11 despite being blitzed just five times by the Cowboys. #DesperationThyNameIsFlacco
David Johnson is the third player in NFL history with 100-yards from scrimmage in each of his first 10 games. He joins Edgerrin James and Larry Brown. Johnson also joined Roy Green and Larry Fitzgerald as the only players in Cardinals history with 12 touchdowns in back-to-back seasons. #DudeIsAnAbsoluteMonster
We keep pushing Marvin Jones at Fantasy Alarm folks... and we continue to be wrong. Period. Jones hasn’t scored in four games. He hasn’t hit 35-yards in three games. In fact, over those three games he has five receptions and 53 yards. He’s vanished. Can't drop him, but can't start him either. #MyApologies
Jared Goff attempted just five passes that were in the air for more than 10-yards in his first NFL start. He predictably failed to complete any of them. #RookieQuarterbackPlay
A.J. Green tore his hamstring Sunday though he still became just the second player in NFL history with 1,000 receiving yards in each of his five seasons.
Why do folks still talk about Ladarius Green? I simply do not get it. He didn’t catch either of his two targets Sunday and has a total of 59 catches and four touchdowns his last 29 NFL games. #PleaseMoveOn
Todd Gurley had 11 runs last season of 20+ yards. It took him until Week 11 this season to get his first this year. He carried the ball 20 times for 76 yards and a score against the Dolphins in Week 11 though he failed to catch a pass.
Chris Ivory had another snooze fest as a runner with 17 carries for 39 yards. However, he channeled his inner Darren Sproles on his way to six receptions for 75 yards against the Lions after T.J. Yeldon went down with an ankle injury. Ivory had nine receptions entering the game.
Rashad Jennings has carried the ball 36 times the last two weeks for the Giants while catching eight passes. That 18 carries and four receptions as the average effort ladies and gents. He’s also run for 85-yards in both games and he scored in Week 11. #SorryIfYourCountingOnPaulPerkins
Don’t worry about Jeremy Langford stealing work from Jordan Howard. Langford got a lucky score coming on the field for a winded Howard, and he saw only 17 snaps to 46 for Howard. This is still Howard’s backfield.
Marqise Lee had a 42-yard kick return at one point, carried the ball once for six yards (forcing a missed tackle), and caught four passes for 52 yards and a touchdown. That’s three straight outings of at least 4-50, and Less has caught at least four passes in 8-of-9 games. The score was his first of the season by the way.
Dion Lewis love… totally unfounded as predicted. He carried the ball five times for 24 yards and caught three balls for 25 yards. Meanwhile, James White caught six balls for 62 yards a score. I literally wanted you all about this back in Week 6. I don’t have any clue as to why so many people
ignored the advice. White saw 24 snaps, Lewis 21 if you care. Meanwhile, LeGarrette Blount saw 35 snaps on his way to a 19-124-0 line against the hapless Niners.
Marcus Mariota laughed at the blitz Sunday as he hit 9-of-11 passes for 131 yards and two scores on his way to a 155.9 QB Rating. I’ve rarely see a player do what Mariota has done. For the first month he looked like one of the worst quarterbacks in the league. As I write this sentence he is currently a must start in fantasy. #TrulyShockingAscension
Doug Martin ran the ball 24 times for a mere 63 yards. That’s flat out bad. But consider the context that shows Martin to have run for 69 yards after contact. He performed light years better than the 63 raw yards makes you think.
LeSean McCoy injured his thumb leading to a lot of work for Mike Gillislee. Though Mike only carried the ball 14 times for 72 yards, he impressive gained 61 of those yards after contact.
Malcolm Mitchell entered Week 11 with 95 receiving yards. He caught four passes for 98 yards and a score against the Niners.
Carson Palmer once again played like doo-doo (a scientific term). He can blame his o-line which did nothing to set the pocket for him at any point in Week 11. On the 22 pass attempts when he was under pressure Palmer hit seven for 72 yards, was picked off once, and sacked four times. He’s a total mess at this point.
DeVante Parker caught eight balls for 79 yards and a score in Week 11 to give him a 13-182-1 line the last two times out. Parker only has one scored since Week 3, and is in a conservative offense, but he’s trending to WR3 status.
Dak Prescott is trending toward stardom in his first NFL season. Quick to put him down early on, I gotta admit that the kid is impressing week after week. He’s thrown for 300-yards in two straight now, but it’s how he is doing it that is so impressive. Dak hit 11-of-16 passes for 159 and two scores against the solid Ravens defense in Week 11… when he was blitzed. That’s impressive even if the name on the back of your jersey is “Brady.”
I was wrong about Steve Smith in week 11 as he went 8-99-1 against the Cowboys. #BlewThisOne
Tyrod Taylor lost Robert Woods in Week 11 and that left him no one to throw the ball too. Of his 25 aimed throws only five of them were in the air more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. It was dink and dump all afternoon. That’s 4-of-6 games in which Taylor has failed to throw for 185 yards, and he has two passing scores in three games (luckily he has three rushing scores in four games).
Julius Thomas stinks. I’ve been saying that for five years, yet every single week – at least those in which he can drag his weary body out onto the field – people want to start him. Why? He stinks. Did I already write that? Thomas caught three balls for 12 yards in Week 11. That’s, and make sure you read this carefully, seven straight games without him attaining 30-yards. #JustStopAsking
Dwayne Washington ran for six yards on 13 carries in Week 11. The Lions ran the ball 21 times for… 14 yards. #HowIsThatPossible?
Jameis Winston is up to 42 touchdown passes. That total ties him with Jeff Garcia and Otto Graham for the 9th most in history for a player through two seasons.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).