Welcome to this seasons final blog post. Even though the season isn’t over yet it has been a great run. In this post I will go over projections for week 11 as well as a season recap.
The predicted diamond in the rough player of the week for last week, Donavan Peoples-Jones, didn’t do too well. Donavan’s Browns lost 45-7 to the New England Patriots. With a score like that its no surprise that he failed to live up to the prediction. However for week eleven, I promise that this diamond in the rough will actually play like a diamond. It has been an interesting year for the Green Bay Packers with covid taking its tole as well an injuries. One of these injuries was to star running back Aaron Jones. Jones left last weeks game with an MCL sprain that will leave him sidelined for a few weeks. Luckily for the Packers, second year running back Aj Dillon stepped up and had a solid rest of the game after Jones’ injury. After a decent performance last week and a guaranteed twenty touches this week, that makes Aj Dillon my diamond in the rough player of the week for week 11.
With Fantasy playoffs starting soon this is as good of a time as any for a season recap. A year removed from the Covid wrecked season of 2020, its effects were still felt this year with many star players missing time due to testing positive. For the rest of the recap, we will go over the top projected players and how they have performed as well as a spotlight player that stood out this year.
The projected top players at each position were QB Patrick Mahomes, RB Christian Mccaffrey, WR Davante Adams, and TE Travis Kelce. Its been a rough year for Mahomes, Kelce, and the rest of the Chiefs. After reaching back to back Super Bowls the sky was the limit for this young team; however, they have struggled for the first half of the season looking nothing like what was expected of them. They seemed to find their rhythm in week 10 so hopefully there are big weeks to come for the players. Mccaffrey and Adams have both been affected by injuries and covid respectfully, but both have still been able to put up great numbers when they are on the field and haven’t let any of their fantasy owners down.
The first player I want to focus on is Browns RB D’ernest Johnson. Johnson was not drafted in the 2019 draft after a good college career. For the the first two years of his pro career Johnson bounced around the AFL and XFL (other small football leagues). He consistently performed and his talent was noticed by the Browns who offered him a practice squad contract. Joining a crowded backfield with all-pros Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, Johnson unexpectedly made the active roster and got a chance to prove himself when Chubb and Hunt were both out due to calf injuries. In his first career start Johnson recorded 160 scrimmage yards a touchdown, proving he belongs in the NFL. Chubb recuperated from his injury the following week and Johnson was pushed to the second string role. He had little production as a backup until Chubb contracted covid and missed this past week against the Patriots. In a game where the whole team was bad, Johnson managed to stand out and recorded over 100 scrimmage yards and a touchdown. Even though no one expected to make the NFL (and definitely no one expected him to play this well), Johnson worked hard for his goal and achieved it. This off-season he will be rewarded with a big contract as the starting running back somewhere else in the league. Johnson is the perfect model anyone that is trying to achieve their lifelong dream.