The big news in Week 15 was the apparent death of the Chiefs’ dynasty, which has fantasy implications. It may be the end of Andy Reid’s coaching tenure, as he may just opt to retire. Regardless, the game seems to have passed Reid by. His offenses have lagged in the past three years and now he has a team well over the cap and a quarterback in Patrick Mahomes who will be trying to make a quick return off ACL surgery, probably taking away the run/out-of-structure component that has been the team’s lifeblood of late.
So Mahomes likely is not a top 12 QB next year. Rashee Rice is a No. 2 WR posing as a No. 1. Travis Kelce is potentially going to hang up the cleats. There is little the club can do in free agency given its horrible cap situation. The defense is also getting long in the tooth.
The other big news with some fantasy implications is a similar injury suffered by Micah Parsons. His knee injury had not been declared an ACL tear as of Sunday night, but it’s seemingly as close as you can get to that as I write this — of course, we hope for the best.
His injury makes the Green Bay defense much less formidable heading into its matchup next week against the Bears. The offense likely will be without one of its most important player, the man who opens up the entire passing game, Christian Watson. His chest injury was examined at a hospital and the Packers will have more information about his status on Monday. Green Bay’s passing offense totally collapsed without Watson’s deep routes opening up options underneath.
Last, and certainly not least, Davante Adams is likely out for weeks with an apparent hamstring injury.
Early Games: TreVeyon runs wild; Burrow’s struggles continue
Buffalo at New England: This was a tale of two games, as the Patriots were unstoppable in the first half and then the Bills were that in the second. This was old-school running mostly, with the Patriots getting explosive plays from TreVeyon Henderson (52- and 65-yard TD runs). Drake Maye scored twice rushing but wasn’t very proficient in the passing game (35 yards in the second half).
There is now no chance Maye will be the MVP, but that talk was ridiculous anyway since he hasn’t even had a 300-yard game this year and came into Week 15 with two rushing scores. Don’t get me wrong, I think Maye is very good and could be great, and about 28 teams would love to have him. I’m just saying he’s not an MVP (yet). James Cook has been even better than last year, just without the 2024 touchdown luck (though he still has a dozen scores). Cook has to be a top-five pick in 2026.
Cleveland at Chicago: Shedeur Sanders was disappointing, but progress is rarely linear. He still owns last week. But fifth-round picks don’t have the leash first-round picks do. So this may hurt his 2026 starting prospects way more than if he were more highly drafted. He still has a few games to erase Week 15 (three picks, five sacks). On the Chicago side, the first-round fantasy playoff hero was D’Andre Swift, followed closely by DJ Moore (both scored a pair of TDs). Swift is a poor man’s Jahmyr Gibbs in this Ben Johnson offense. Will the Bears keep him at his current cap number or release him? They could actually extend him. He’s only 27 (in January).
Baltimore at Cincinnati: I don’t know if it was essentially being eliminated from the playoffs last week or Joe Burrow being so down that people were talking retirement or even worse — a trade to the Jets — but the Bengals seemed to sleepwalk through this game. In fairness, Burrow has been terrible all year — 6.1 yards per attempt. And his YPA was 6.3 in 2023. He’s worse than Justin Fields this year and was just ahead of Zach Wilson in 2023. Actually, maybe Burrow should be the new Jets QB. Lamar Jackson’s YPA was great, but he was dumped four times on 16 dropbacks — alarming. Zay Flowers finally scored after just about everyone in fantasy football who counted on him was eliminated. We have three more years of Mark Andrews, really? I’m out on him, forever.
Washington at NY Giants: The New York fans and Jaxson Dart are touchy about his frequent concussion checks. But I’d say the rational response is to stop getting your clock cleaned. After his fifth blue-tent check this year, Dart was awful and badly missed on some long throws — wasn’t even in the same area code as his receivers (especially on the final drive). I honestly don’t get the Giants’ optimism considering they can’t beat anyone. Their odds for the No. 1 pick dramatically increased however and they obviously could make a big trade. But who’s going to make it? Whoever was the Commanders’ featured back was bound to have a good day against this terrible New York run defense. With Chris Rodriguez out, that man was Jacory Croskey-Merritt, who did what everyone who drafted him hoped he would do in Week 15. It was just getting there that was the problem.
Las Vegas at Philadelphia: The Eagles needed to put a hurting on someone and they got the sad-sack Raiders. Dallas Goedert now has nine TDs. He scored twice after failing to find the end zone in five-straight games. So he’s been explosive. He’s been what we drafted Andrews to be. Ashton Jeanty is a sixth-round pick next year. I can’t believe how he’s bombed with that draft capital and a QB we figured would be average at worst.
NY Jets at Jacksonville: Trevor Lawrence just crushed it with five passing TDs and a rushing score (plus 51 rushing yards). You would have figured in August a game like this from Lawrence would also mean an explosion from Brian Thomas, but BTJ scored just 16.4 points. His play has been so uninspired. There’s not a player in fantasy football who has taken as big a hit in my estimation than Thomas. I can’t see him being drafted in the top 50 in 2026. The Jets should just let Breece Hall leave in free agency. He’s been a perennial disappointment for one reason or another.
Arizona at Houston: Nico Collins is a lot like Thomas. He had just three targets in Week 15, which troubles me more than his two touchdowns give me hope. Woody Marks probably would have helped you win if he could have stayed healthy, but he seems to get hurt a couple of times every game. He’s not built to be a featured back. Jacoby Brissett just cannot be stopped. I thought he was out of the QB12 bucket given the stiff competition, but he threw for three more scores. Trey McBride was a week winner (37.4 points) and Michael Wilson had a 16.4-point day. McBride had one TD in five games with Kyler Murray and has nine in nine games with Brissett.
Late Games: Stafford dissects Detroit; Pollard doubles down
Detroit at Rams: The Lions have been destroyed at the safety position and Matthew Stafford took advantage. The Lions and Jared Goff tried to keep up, leading to Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams having huge days. If you roster Jahmyr Gibbs, I hope you earned a first-round bye. Colby Parkinson had a very solid day and has come on as a third option in the Rams’ passing game — probably the second option next week with Adams likely out.Parkinson has scored 85 PPR points in the past six games (six TDs). The 6-7, 265-pounder should get middle-round consideration in 2026 drafts. I give up: You have to start Blake Corum.
Indianapolis at Seattle: I’m sure many wanted Philip Rivers to be the top story here. He almost won the game. But he was pretty awful, making two NFL throws all day and living for the next play otherwise. He averaged 4.4 yards per attempt. This wasn’t some Disney movie. Sam Darnold struggled again and this is now the same story for most of the past three weeks. He’s playing for his reputation on Thursday against the Rams in a game that will probably decide the NFC West. He’s at home. Jared Goff just had a great game against the Los Angeles defense. Darnold must step up.
Carolina at New Orleans: Tyler Shough is taking the Saints out of the QB market in the 2026 NFL Draft. He has not been great, but there is something to work with here. Is he that much different than Dart? Giants fans have Dart in Canton already — assuming they have a blue tent there. Bryce Young had his 10th game with under 200 yards passing. Broom this guy already. If he’s the QB again in 2026, I wouldn’t consider drafting Tetairoa McMillan until about Round 7.
Green Bay at Denver: I want to give a hat tip to a guy I’ve mostly trashed all year as a game manager — Bo Nix. He finally made some downfield plays. Courtland Sutton was outstanding. Troy Franklin was given a more prominent role after being benched for his blocking. But 302 yards passing on 34 attempts with no sacks is outstanding work by Nix. Josh Jacobs made a touchdown catch in the end zone that I didn’t think he was capable of making. He should probably be used more as a receiver, but the screen pass and check downs are not in the Green Bay playbook.
Tennessee at San Francisco: San Francisco’s three-man passing game we envisioned (sans Christian McCaffrey) was finally firing on Sunday. Ricky Pearsall seemed fully recovered from the knee injury that has been hampering him most of the year. George Kittle and Jauan Jennings shined. For Tennessee, Tony Pollard did it again. He was a forced start off of last week’s impressive effort. He’s one of those out-of-nowhere players who get talked about with championship stories. The Titans play the Chiefs next week and the Chiefs probably are just done with the year and could be playing out the string. So play Pollard.
