There are two paths to take with this intro.
The depressing part is that, in roughly 25 years of playing fantasy football, I have never had a week like this one—complete decimation. I'm in far too many fantasy leagues, which resulted in 11 semifinal matchups. My record as it stands on Monday morning: 1-10 with one game hanging on Monday Night. Bestball? Wiped. 26-2 home league team? Gone. Multiple first overall seeds? Eliminated. It was not fun. It happens. You do not care about my fantasy teams. Josh Allen and Josh Jacobs were key in getting my season to this point. All I can do is say "thank you."
The depressing part is over; in many ways, the week symbolized the Christmas season.
Thursday night football set the theme, as it so often does. The Seahawks trailed 30-14 as the Rams looked to lock in the NFC West and control of the NFC's top seed. We know the story: a dramatic comeback that included one of the most bizarre 2-point conversions in history.
The Bears carried a similar script into Saturday night. Trailing the Packers by two scores late in a crucial NFC North game, a successful onside kick was key. Caleb Williams delivered the overtime dagger with a throw that showcased a ceiling few quarterbacks possess.
The Patriots continued the theme into Sunday night, another key matchup with playoff impact, another double-digit fourth-quarter comeback.
We joke so often about NFL scriptwriters. Weekends like this are why. Unexpected comebacks when the situation looks hopeless. Over and over.
All the unlikely events colliding have pushed 2025 into the most unexpected season in recent memory.
Most of the league's past decade was dominated by sameness. We are closing in on ten full seasons of Patrick Mahomes II, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, the 49ers, and the Eagles. That group picked up the torch from the Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees generation, pushing the league forward.
2025 has been the season of rebirth.
Drake Maye, Bo Nix, Trevor Lawrence, C.J. Stroud, and Caleb Williams are the new generation looking to build their legacy.
Given all the rebirth angles and the league looking at a potential reset, it seems fitting that Matthew Stafford looks headed for an MVP award capper on his Hall of Fame resume.
Stafford started the year with questions about even starting. Remember the Ammortal chamber? The back injury that may have prevented his season from happening?
Stafford represents a lost quarterback generation.
Between the 1998 and 2005 drafts, the NFL was blessed with Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Aaron Rodgers. That group rescued a quarterback position that had not drafted a Hall of Fame-caliber quarterback since Brett Favre in 1991.
Mahomes arrived in 2017, followed by Allen and Jackson in 2018, then Burrow.
Between 2005 and 2017? Only three quarterbacks come close to a Hall of Fame resume: Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, and Stafford. That generation had two phenoms who ended early, with Andrew Luck and Cam Newton, but was otherwise defined by disappointments like JaMarcus Russell and Sam Bradford.
Stafford has been the lost name. He came up in the shadow of the previous generation, often hidden on a Detroit franchise that failed to make playoff waves and took a backseat to Rodgers in the NFC North. By the time he landed in a position to compete at the top, the Mahomes generation had taken over.
Stafford did break through, winning the Super Bowl in 2022, and in fitting narrative fashion, capping Brady's run while holding off Burrow and the next generation. But the Rams were viewed as a one-and-done team that had taken shortcuts to stockpile talent.
This final run was never supposed to happen.
The league is at a crossroads. Rivers' shocking unretirement and Rodgers giving the Steelers his one last push provide a fitting finale for the generation that has arrived at the Hall of Fame portion of their careers. The collapses of Mahomes, Jackson, and Burrow dominate the headlines of their era. The young quarterbacks of the future are pushing to establish their names.
But Stafford stands alone among it all.
And now, The Roundup.
Blind Resume
| Player | Rushing Yards | Receiving Yards | Touchdowns |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 100 | 64 | 1 |
| B | 132 | 0 | 1 |
| C | 0 | 145 | 1 |
| D | 128 | 60 | 2 |
| E | 0 | 97 | 1 |
| F | 0 | 104 | 1 |
The theme of Week 16 is redemption. A handful of players came through with some of their biggest games of the season. Can you name them?
Stats Of The Week
Matthew Stafford, LA Rams - 457 Passing Yards, 3 Passing Touchdowns / 4,179 Passing Yards, 40 Passing Touchdowns
Puka Nacua, LA Rams - 12 Receptions, 225 Receiving Yards, 2 Touchdowns / 114 Receptions, 1,592 Receiving Yards, 8 Touchdowns
Stafford is up to 40 passing touchdowns on the season, one away from his career high, which is also the Rams team record he shares with Kurt Warner. With 4,179 yards, he has a chance to break the team's single-season mark, which he holds at 4,886, needing to average 354 yards per game.
His 457 yards were the third most of his career, and he topped 400 yards for the first time as a Ram. It was the fifth-highest game in Rams history. Stafford sits just 100 yards behind Ben Roethlisberger for sixth place on the career passing list and 1,824 yards behind fifth-place Aaron Rodgers. Stafford is in ninth on the career passing touchdown list at 417. Roethlisberger (418), Dan Marino (420), and Philip Rivers (422) are the next three spots, allowing Stafford the opportunity to jump into sixth place over the next two weeks. Stafford has 135 passing touchdowns as a Ram, trailing second-place Jim Everett by seven on the franchise list. Roman Gabriel holds the record of 154. Stafford is in fourth on the franchise passing yardage list, with 18,879, though Everett's franchise record of 23,758 is potentially obtainable in 2026.
Nacua posted the highest single-game yardage total of any receiver in 2025. His 114-1,592-8 are all career highs. He leads the NFL in receptions (Ja'Marr Chase is second at 110) and is second in yardage, trailing Jaxon Smith-Njigba by 45.
Nacua will not catch Cooper Kupp's Rams record of 145 catches. He can move past second-place Isaac Bruce's 119. He would need 355 yards to catch Kupp's record of 1,947 and 372 for Calvin Johnson's NFL single-season record of 1,964. Given he is coming off a 225-yard game, those numbers do not feel impossible. Bruce holds the second-highest yardage season in Rams history, 189 yards away at 1,781.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle - 104 Receptions, 1,637 Receiving Yards, 10 Receiving Touchdowns
Smith-Njigba removed any doubt and has delivered the best receiving season in Seahawks history, setting a new team record of 104 catches to accompany his still-growing record of 1,637 yards.
As mentioned, he leads Nacua by 45 yards, and Johnson's record is in play, needing 327 yards.
Nacua and Smith-Njigba are linked together both in proximity to the league lead in receiving but also in the playoff picture. The Seahawks lead the NFC at 12-3 while the Rams and Bears sit one game back at 11-4. San Francisco could join the pack at 11-4 with a win on Monday night. Week 17 could swing the race entirely, but the competitive outlook currently pushes both receivers to keep producing.
James Cook, Buffalo - 117 Rushing Yards, 2 Rushing Touchdowns / 1,532 Rushing Yards, 12 Rushing Touchdowns
Cook moved into the lead in the NFL rushing yardage race with Jonathan Taylor playing on Monday night. He leads Taylor by 89 yards. Taylor has not hit 89 rushing yards since his 244-yard European explosion on November 9th.
His 1,532 yards are the third most in a Bills season. The Bills' previous Top 4 were O.J. Simpson (2,003 - 1973 / 1,817 - 1975 / 1,503 - 1976) and Thurman Thomas (1,487 in 1992). Cook is up to 12 rushing touchdowns, four short of his team record 16 from 2024. Most of Cook's yardage came in the first half, where he topped 100 yards. The offense was very conservative following Josh Allen's X-ray at halftime, which came back negative for a potential broken foot, gaining just 62 yards of total offense on 27 plays following the half.
Cameron Ward, Tennessee - 2,866 Passing Yards
Tony Pollard, Tennessee - 102 Rushing Yards
Ward set the Titans' rookie passing yardage record, passing Marcus Mariota's 2,818 from 2015. Ward needs six touchdown passes to tie Mariota's rookie record of 19.
Pollard has topped 100 yards in three straight games. He is up to 949 yards on the season, 51 away from extending a four-season 1,000-yard streak. Four seasons would tie Derrick Henry for the longest active streaks. De'Von Achane and James Cook are the only other backs with three-game streaks of 100 rushing yards in 2025. Barry Sanders has the longest streak in NFL history, hitting 14 straight games, while Chris Johnson holds the Titans franchise record with the second-longest streak at 12 games.
De'Von Achane, Miami - 1,267 Rushing Yards, 8 Rushing Touchdowns, 64 Receptions, 459 Receiving Yards, 4 Receiving Touchdowns
Achane is the 8th player in NFL history with 1,250+ rushing yards, 8+ rushing touchdowns, 60+ receptions, 450+ receiving yards, and 4+ receiving touchdowns. Bijan Robinson would need two rushing and two receiving touchdowns to join the group. Jahmyr Gibbs needs 98 rushing yards and a receiving touchdown. Christian McCaffrey's 2023 season was the last.
Achane is up to fourth on the Dolphins' single-season rushing list. Jay Ajayi is just 5 yards ahead, while Ricky Williams' 2023 season is 105 yards away.
Taysom Hill, New Orleans - 36 Passing Yards, 1 Passing Touchdown, 42 Rushing Yards, 4 Receptions, 36 Receiving Yards
Shame on us. We should have realized that a Saints backfield of Audric Estime and Evan Hull would be our chance for 2025's Bizzaro Taysom Hill statline. Hill became the 8th player in NFL history with 35+ passing yards, 1+ passing touchdowns, 40+ rushing yards, 4+ receptions, and 35+ yards. Christian McCaffrey did it in 2018; he is the only other player since James Jones in 1984. The others: Marcus Allen, Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Tom Tracy, and Billy Ray Barnes.
Chris Olave, New Orleans - 10 Receptions, 148 Receiving Yards, 2 Receiving Touchdowns / 92 Receptions, 1,044 Receiving Yards, 8 Receiving Touchdowns
Olave was on the receiving end of Hill's touchdown pass as he delivered the best game of his career, setting a new high in yardage and tying previous highs in receptions and touchdowns.
Olave needs eight catches to record the fourth 100 catch season in Saints history. He needs 79 yards for a new career high and 158 to crack the Top 10 for a Saints season. His eight touchdowns are three away from the second-highest mark in team history, shared by Joe Horn, Jimmy Graham, and Marques Colston.
Derrick Henry, Baltimore - 128 Rushing Yards, 2 Rushing Touchdowns / 1,253 Rushing Yards, 12 Rushing Touchdowns
Henry is inevitable. His 128 yards were the second-highest total of his season, and he has the fifth-highest yardage total of his career. He is bumping against history, needing 63 yards to catch Tony Dorsett for the Top 10 in career rushing yards, and two touchdowns away from fourth-place Adrian Peterson on the career list.
Henry is 221 yards from Gus Edwards for fourth place on the Ravens' career rushing yardage list.
