Lance's 2021 Week 11 Recap and Week 12 Waiver Priorities
RECAP
-New England is rolling. Can they be an actual threat in the playoffs? Yes. Mac Jones may be a rookie, but he’s playing efficient football, and that defense is playing well enough to keep any offense in check. Plus, the AFC really is wide open.
-The Ravens winning with their backup Quarterback says a lot more about Chicago than it does about the Ravens. It’s time Bears, it’s been time for over a year (I don’t care how your season finished out in 2020), Nagy needs to go.
-The Vikings tried their best to give me a heart attack again, but they got the win! This has been a difficult four game stretch (Baltimore, Dallas, LAC and GB) but they managed to get through it with two wins, which definitely gives them hope for making a run into the playoffs.
-Indy and the Pats might legitimately be the best two teams in the AFC. The Colts defense is playing good football, and Jonathan Taylor looks like he could single-handedly carry Indy to the Super Bowl.
-I listen to a lot of sports talk radio and read a lot of football articles, so believe me when I say I cannot remember who it was that said/or wrote this, but last week someone I read/listened to said that Houston could pull off the upset because Tennessee just finished a difficult five game stretch in which they beat Buffalo, KC, Indy, the Rams and the Saints. This game had letdown written all over it and we ignored it.
-Philly can run the ball, they’ve proved that. I mean they just posted 242 rush yards on one of the best rush defenses in the NFL. If they can keep this offensive game plan working in their favor they’ll keep winning, but it’s important to remember the defense plays a major factor in that too.
-Alright Kansas City, credit where credit is due. This game was an important display for one big reason: Even though the offense was basically non-existent they still won because the defense played out of their minds. They shutdown a legitimate offense and now we have to respect that unit going forward. Surprisingly, the question is now, can Mahomes get on track?
-Seattle is hurting in a bad way. I’m not going to say they need to do anything drastic like trading away Russell Wilson or firing Pete Carroll (or both), but is it really out of the realm of sane moves? Wilson probably has another 6-10 years left in him, but why not send him out and start stockpiling picks or young talent so you can go full rebuild? And as for Carroll, sure the Seahawks have stayed a playoff caliber team, but they haven’t been a Super Bowl contender since they last went to the Super Bowl in the 2014-15 season. Maybe it is time to cut ties and bring in new blood. Of course, next year they don’t have a first and that QB class doesn’t inspire much anyway, so perhaps they wait another season.
-That Chargers-Pitt game did not play out at all how I expected. If you had asked me what I thought the final score would be prior to the game, I would’ve been far more likely to say 17-14 than I would’ve been to say 41-37. Also, Austin Ekeler proved that with his dual-threat ability he at least deserves to be talked about when discussing the top five backs in football right now.
FANTASY WAIVER WIRE TARGETS
QB: Mac Jones (New England)
He’s been playing well and he has a plus matchup against the Titans this week, so if you’re in need of a streaming option he should be target #1.
RB: Devonta Freeman (Baltimore)
If he’s still available now would be a good time to jump on the Freeman train. He’s getting a good amount of touches and he still saw goal line work even with Latavius Murray back.
WR: Darnell Mooney (Chicago)/Elijah Moore (NY Jets)
If no one in your league has gone after Mooney or Moore yet, why haven’t you? Prior to this past week Mooney had seen 5+ targets in every game but one. Last week he saw 16! And Moore has seen a nice uptick in work since the Jets week 6 bye, likely a sign that he’s gotten over that weird rookie hump Receivers tend to deal with.
TE: Logan Thomas (Washington)
Thomas landed on IR back before week 4, he’s expected back shortly though, which means he could provide a nice boost to the position for you just in time for the playoffs.
K: Brandon McManus (Denver)
He’s having a solid season and the Chargers have been allowing a lot of scoring opportunities lately. The Chargers also struggle against the run, something the Broncos have been able to do well, which means they should be able to move the ball easily enough.
D: Chicago Bears
The Bears defense has scored 20 points in their last two outings, they’re only rostered in 26% of Yahoo leagues, and they’ve got a great matchup against the lackluster Detroit offense.
