Team of the Week

 

QB: Deshaun Watson

Unsurprisingly, Watson shined on the national stage to kickoff Thanksgiving Day action—throwing for 318 yards and four scores on just 17 completions with an aerial assault versus Detroit. We’ll see if Houston’s offense can stay hot for a tougher upcoming schedule (v IND, @ CHI, @ IND).

 

RB: Derrick Henry

Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus had “STOP THE RUN” written in bold as the No. 1 priority on his play sheet yesterday, but it didn’t matter against Henry, who rushed 27 times for 178 yards and three touchdowns to continue his history of late-season dominance. The monster runner is now on pace for 1,828 yards and 17 touchdowns.

 

RB: Antonio Gibson

Gibson entered Thanksgiving with five touchdowns over his past four games, and he caught fire even more with a three-score performance to essentially introduce himself to the general population. Even in difficult upcoming road matchups (@ PIT, @ SF), the versatile rookie looks like a must-start.

 

WR: Tyreek Hill

Tampa Bay simply had no chance to stop Hill on Sunday with a single-high safety being unable to get over the top on him, and Patrick Mahomes throwing pinpoint passes led to 13 receptions, 269 yards, and three scores—most of which came in the first quarter. Kansas City’s No. 1 receiver has seen 15.7 targets per game over the past three weeks.

 

WR: Will Fuller

Fuller felt like a bad matchup for the Lions, and that turned out to be the case with the Notre Dame product going for a 6/171/2 line on just seven targets. Having not missed a game so far for the first time in his career, Fuller has already set new highs in yards (879) and touchdowns (eight).

 

TE: Robert Tonyan

He went through a bit of a midseason slump, but Tonyan has caught all ten of his targets for 111 yards and two touchdowns over the past two weeks—including a 5/67/1 line on Sunday night to put him atop the tight end leaderboard for Week 12.

 

FLEX: Nick Chubb

Cleveland might have had an easier time knocking the Jaguars to the mat if Chubb saw more work—mainly in short-yardage situations—but he still rushed for 144 yards and a score while also adding three receptions for 32 yards. Chubb is somewhat quietly averaging 6.3 yards per carry this year with 102.7 rushing yards per game.

 

D/ST: Washington

An out-of-nowhere performance by the Falcons (27 fantasy points) leads the D/ST options heading into Monday night, but Washington was more widely started and contained the Dallas in a 41-16 victory. The team will hope Chase Young and the defensive line can lead the way down the stretch in a division race.

 

K: Younghoe Koo

Koo is an absolute weapon at kicker, and even an injury couldn’t stop him from hitting all five field goals and all four extra points on Sunday.

 

Surprise of the Week: Austin Ekeler

We had high expectations for Ekeler in his return to the lineup as a top-15 option, but it was a surprise that Los Angeles wasted zero time making him the focal point on offense with a career-high in combined carries/targets (30)—breaking the previous high of 23. Ekeler should be firmly back in RB1 range for the fantasy playoffs.

 

Disappointment of the Week: Ezekiel Elliott

There were again plenty of disappointments this week—particularly at running back—and Elliott is the clear leader with just 2.4 fantasy points on Thanksgiving. Zeke has now been held to the single digits in five of the past six games, and the schedule doesn’t lighten up any for a matchup against the Ravens next Monday evening.

 

Rookie of the Week: Antonio Gibson

It’s impossible to give Rookie of the Week to anyone other than the guy that became the first rookie to score three touchdowns on Thanksgiving since Randy Moss in 1998.

 

Week 12 MVP: Tyreek Hill

The weekly MVP award looked locked up for Derrick Henry after the early slate yesterday, but the 51.4 fantasy points for Hill was the highest score of 2020, and it will end up going down in history with 50-point performances from Jamaal Charles and Doug Martin last decade.