Deep in the nacho cheese-smelling depths of NFL Headquarters somewhere under the Mojave Desert, one of the expert schedulers thought, “Russell Wilson vs Ryan Fitzpatrick…the Chef versus the Magician in Prime Time!” And then 2 months later Fitzmagic is benched for an undrafted QB who wasn’t in the league for two years…that’s Taylor Heinicke bee-tee-dubya. OK, the Magic Man is dealing with a messed-up hip, but it’s tough to argue that his NFL career isn’t over. Meanwhile, Russell Wilson broke a finger and the resulting surgery took him out of commission for a month. When he returned to action, Gordon Ramsey would have kicked him out of the kitchen immediately. In the two games since returning to the field, Wilson had completed a combined 51% of his passes with no TDs and 2 INT. With so many fantasy teams staring down the playoffs and one of the top quarterbacks failing, did we see a resurgence of Russ’ skills? Let’s check in to see how Monday Night Football went.Â
Antonio Gibson: The guy’s been playing through a wooden leg half the year like he’s some sort of Buccaneer or something. Every week we’re worried about Gibson being injured, and all he’s done is be the most valuable Antonio in the NFL this year. [checks to make sure Jonathan Taylor’s real name isn’t Antonio] After 29 carries and 111 yards on the ground and another 35 yards (on 7 catches!) through the air, Gibson suffered a pretty nasty injury that I honestly don’t want to link in this article. News will come out about the injury, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re hearing about him in the Week 13 injury report with a status of “Don’t make me watch that video again.”Â
Logan Thomas:Â 31 yards receiving and nearly snagged a TD at the end of the game. If the grass was softer or maybe his body not so ripped, he coulda held on to the ball. Also, Logan Thomas is back! You thought Ricky Seals-Jones was going to be a thing, didn’t cha?Â
Taylor Heinicke: Yeah, Vikings fan here. Heinicke started his career in the Vikings system as an undrafted free agent and was let loose in favor of noted backup QB Shaun Hill, who was 36 years old or something like that. Basically, me going out there and throwing the ball. Whatever. Somewhere between Covid 15 and Covid 21, Heinicke “figured it out” and became a vaguely relevant fantasy asset. He came into the game as QB 14 on the season on a per game basis, and QB 15 overall. As a comparison, that’s a typical QB streamer like Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, or Matt Ryan (remember when he was good?). Heinicke was that Logan Thomas hard body away from a respectable 223 yards and 2 TDs, but he got that 1 TD that just screams “I shoulda watched Bobby Flay.”Â
Russell Wilson:Â Absolutely nothing was happening, with 160 passing yards and a TD going into the final drive. He made a “big play” (read: pass interference) and finally started making some short passes that moved them down the field. Last week, I asked readers to look elsewhere for a QB after Russ had put together a string of very poor fantasy performances. Nothing was happening…until Freddie Swain broke through the zone and saved Russ with a TD with 15 seconds to spare. Although Russ’ 247 passing yards and 2 TDs looks good on our digital screens, it was a Logan Thomas heavy body or a Landon Collins injury or that pass interference away from being a 170 yard 1 TD performance. Even after that final drive, Russ threw an INT on the 2-point conversion. Blerg. Wilson is still an avoid until he shows more stability.Â
Alex Collins:Â The Seahawks kept saying they wanted to establish the run and they gave Collins 7 attempts for 14 yards. That’s like saying I want to establish a healthy diet and then I spend the evening eating an entire pizza. I wish I had useful recommendations here, but the Seahawks are a mess of a team and every player is dismal for fantasy right now.Â
Hope you’re having an awesome week, and let’s see if we can’t help out some of those teams you’ve got. Let us know how your teams are doing down in the comments, and give DT a big pat on the back from me.Â
