In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Underdog:
By the time you are reading this, you likely already know the outcome of your championship fate.
Outside of tonight's Lions-49ers MNF tilt, Week 17 is in the books.
And it ended up being one of the weirder championship weeks that I can remember.
The staggering of the games made things both difficult from a start/sit standpoint and tricky to sweat. Chiefs-Steelers feels like an eternity ago.
Then yesterday's main slate had big Week 18 energy …
The Dolphins rolled out their JV squad. The Jets didn't even show up. Drew Lock had a near perfect game? A.J. Brown caught a TD pass from a QB named Tanner McKee?? Ameer Abdullah was a Top-5 RB??? There was a duck on the field in Tampa at one point and then some Duck Dynasty-looking dude came out and rescued it????
I don't know if I'm hallucinating or if all that really happened, but I think I'm ready for the playoffs.
Regardless, I have a full recap of yesterday's dizzying action below.
May all your Monday night miracles comes true tonight …
What else is in today’s newsletter?
- Pete’s Pick 6: Bucs go brrrr.
- Watercooler: How do you pronounce “sacks?”
- Fantasy Life Trivia: Malik Nabers joins exclusive company.
Week 17 Fantasy Football Takeaways
by Peter Overzet
It's time for Pete's Pick 6—a weekly recap column where I spotlight the best and the worst (I'm looking at you, Jets) performances from Sunday's games.
Let's dig in…
🏆️ The Bucs deliver championships
When I wrote up the Bucs offense in my DFS piece on Friday I mentioned Carolina as "the matchup you dream of your players getting with fantasy championships on the line."
Even then, I didn't think it would be this good.
Baker Mayfield torched the Panthers secondary for 359 yards and 5 TDs. Mike Evans stayed on pace for his 1K streak with a stat-stuffing 8-97-2 line. Bucky Irving put up 190 total yards from scrimmage. You think I'm done? I'm still going …
Fellow Bucs rookie Jalen McMillan found the box twice and finished with 5-51-2. Even backup TE Payne Durham, a man who looks like he should be in Super Troopers, scored a TD.
Let the record show that Mayfield is having what would be the Browns’ best QB season of all-time with 4,279 passing yards and 42 total TDs. LOL.
🏅 Barkley hits 2K
OK, maybe I buried the lede. That's what happens when you ask a Zero RB bro to write a weekly recap column.
Anyway … Saquon Barkley is now the ninth RB in NFL history to go over 2,000 rushing yards in a season. Here was the run vs. the Cowboys that did it.
It's an absurdly impressive feat in a vacuum, but even more impressive in this current era of the NFL where teams don't saddle their lead backs with enough carries to put up record-breaking yardage totals.
Of course, Barkley isn't done yet. With 2,005 rushing yards he now has his sights set on breaking Eric Dickerson's record of 2,105 yards, which was set in 1984.
He'll have a pristine opportunity to do so next week vs. the hapless Giants. Just don't expect Dickerson to be rooting for him.
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AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
The latest analysis and insights from our merry band of football nerds:
🥊 The Jags might need to check the algo … on this boxing game.
🤝 Week 17 isn’t over yet. DFS projections for Monday Night Football.
😆 I can’t stop listening to Tom Brady say “sacks.” It’s growing on me.
🤝 A.J. Brown got the ball back. And made it worth the guy’s time.
🤮 Trigger warning for Justin Jefferson managers. What a weird trend.
🤪 This Kenny Pickett “throw” was wild. Um, what?
We’re back with another edition of Fantasy Life Trivia! To submit your answer, simply click your selection and you will be redirected to the submission page.
*The correct answer will be revealed here in tomorrow’s Fantasy Life Trivia segment.
Q: Malik Nabers went off in Week 17, racking up 171 yards and 2 touchdowns vs. the Colts. He becomes the most recent receiver to have at least 150 yards and two scores in a game as a rookie, joining an impressive group. Which of these receivers did NOT pull it off in their first season?
