What We Saw: Week 16

The QB List staff catches you up on everything you missed during Week 16 of the 2020 NFL season.

Ben Brown
What We Saw 3 Years Ago
Series Navigation
Introduction
Vikings @ Saints
Buccaneers @ Lions
49ers @ Cardinals
Dolphins @ Raiders
Giants @ Ravens
Falcons @ Chiefs
Browns @ Jets
Bears @ Jaguars
Bengals @ Texans
Colts @ Steelers
Broncos @ Chargers
Panthers @ Washington
Rams @ Seahawks
Eagles @ Cowboys
Titans @ Packers
Bills @ Patriots

Browns @ Jets

 

What an ugly game for two franchises who are going in completely opposite directions. Both teams came out of this game disappointed. The Browns, needing a win to clinch their playoff spot, lost to a Jets team who still had an outside chance at acquiring the 1st overall pick in the draft. Instead, the Jets are now 2-13 and will be drafting out of the 2nd slot.

As for this game, the Jets used some trickery to get up big and ended up with a 20-3 lead in the third quarter. The Browns, with their backs against the wall, forced a punt but then took a roughing the kicker penalty to give the Jets a fresh set of downs at the Browns’ 35. This could have easily been the dagger in the Browns’ hearts, but the defense held true and Sheldon Richardson blocked his second kick of the game to keep the Jets off the board. The Browns would go on to score rushing touchdowns on each of their next two series, one each by Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb. Of course, kicker Cody Parkey doinked one of the extra points, so the Browns needed a touchdown to win. Baker Mayfield would go on to get strip sacked deep in his own territory, leading to a Jets’ field goal with 2:52 to play, and then fumbled it once more on a 4th and 1 try on their last series as they were in Jets’ territory looking for a score.

With their 23-16 loss on Sunday, the Browns are now in the 7th spot and need a win over the AFC North division winning Steelers (or a Colts loss) in Week 17 to make it to the postseason.

 

Cleveland Browns

 

Quarterback

 

Baker Mayfield: 28/53, 285 yards, 4 sacks, 2 fumbles lost | 3 carries, 6 yards

 

Baker Mayfield struggled all day in this one, and he clearly missed top wideouts Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins, and Donovan Peoples-Jones, all of whom missed the game after being placed on the COVID/restricted list earlier in the week. He targeted his tight ends Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant early and often, later looking the way of Ja’Marcus Bradley, but they all struggled to gain separation and Baker was constantly trying to fit it into tight windows with no luck. He also faced significant pressure from the Jets for a good chunk of the day, though he did a pretty good job of scrambling to avoid it for the most part.

It wasn’t until the 2nd half that both Hunt and Chubb were targeted more in the passing game, but even then it wasn’t enough as Baker continued to look downfield and try forcing in throws to subpar receivers with no luck. Coverage was either too tight or, specifically on one play where Marvin Hall was wide open late in the 2nd quarter, the ball was simply under thrown. Baker wasn’t intercepted on the day but there was one close call where the defender dropped what should have been a pick.

As I mentioned above, Baker had two costly plays at the end of the game that sealed the Browns’ fate. The first was a strip sack with just over three minutes left, down four, deep in Jets’ territory. The Jets recovered the ball and kicked a field goal to go up by seven. It wasn’t entirely Baker’s fault, as he was scrambling to avoid pressure and make a play, but the defender came up behind him and knocked the ball out of his hands to force the turnover. Better ball security is an absolute must in this situation.

 

 

Finally, Baker fumbled the ball on a 4th and 1 sneak that ended up sealing the game. The ball was recovered by Hunt and looked to be a first down, but by rule the ball returns to where it was fumbled and Baker hadn’t broken the line to gain, so the Browns turned it over on downs. For a Browns team needing a win, and a Jets team needing a loss, both sides came away unsatisfied in this one.

 

 

Running Backs

 

Nick Chubb: 11 carries, 28 yards, TD | 5 targets, 5 receptions, 38 yards

Kareem Hunt: 4 carries, 11 yards, TD | 5 targets, 3 receptions, 41 yards

 

Once we learned that the Browns’ top receivers were out this week, we all kind of assumed that both Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt would be great plays in fantasy championship matchups. Well, that did not exactly pan out as we expected. A rushing touchdown by each and some late passing game work salvaged what would have been an awful day for both players, as there was no running room to be had on the ground against a Jets defense that showed up to play on Sunday. Overall, you should be satisfied with their output, but it was not a banner day for either runner. I’ll leave you with two ho-hum unspectacular touchdowns that hopefully helped contribute to your fantasy championship.

 

 

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

Austin Hooper: 15 targets, 7 receptions, 71 yards

Ja’Marcus Bradley: 11 targets, 5 receptions, 60 yards

Harrison Bryant: 7 targets, 3 receptions, 37 yards

David Njoku: 4 targets, 4 receptions, 26 yards

Marvin Hall: 2 targets, 1 reception, 12 yards

 

Austin Hooper‘s 15 targets were a result of Baker Mayfield simply having nobody else to throw it to, and Hooper didn’t really do much with any of them. He was targeted in the end zone once but the ball was overthrown, so it could have been a bigger day, but 14.1 fantasy points should be good enough to finish as a TE1 this week. It wasn’t spectacular but it should do the job.

Ja’Marcus Bradley was actually pretty impressive for a guy who was just called up from the practice squad the other day. He made a couple nice catches on the sideline, including one toe-tapper with a foot drag that converted a third down, and he also nearly had a TD but the ball was thrown a bit too long and the defender jarred it out of his fingertips with a big hit. Bradley likely won’t be a factor in Week 17 once Landry and the rest of the crew return to the field, but it was a nice debut for him and we may see his name pop up here and there moving forward if he latches on with another team this offseason.

It was Harrison Bryant, not David Njoku, who took on the majority of TE2 snaps in this offense on Sunday. I was actually shocked to see that Njoku caught all four of his targets, because I don’t remember seeing him in the game even once. If Hooper were to go down with an injury, Bryant would likely be the one to step up and take over TE1 duties in this offense.

 

New York Jets

 

Quarterback

 

Sam Darnold: 16/32, 175 yards, 2 TD, 2 sacks | 7 carries, 20 yards

 

Sam Darnold didn’t make any mistakes in this one, and he did just enough to lead the Jets to a victory. He had a nice scramble for a 1st down where he ran over former Super Bowl MVP Malcolm Smith, and he also made some nice third down throws that helped keep drives moving.

 

 

He was nearly strip-sacked for a fumble at one point, but it was called an incompletion on the field. It initially looked like a fumble and Browns’ football on replay, but the officials determined that there wasn’t enough evidence to reverse the call and it stood as incomplete. You likely didn’t start Darnold in your fantasy championship this week, so I’m not going to waste any more of our time, but he wasn’t anything special on Sunday.

 

Running Backs

 

Frank Gore: 14 carries, 48 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 5 yards

La’Mical Perine: 9 carries, 30 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 14 yards

Ty Johnson: 2 carries, 13 yards

 

I usually take notes as I watch these games so that I have something to write about in these blurbs. I had nothing for any of the Jets’ backfield today because they were simply unspectacular and didn’t really do anything of note. We learned nothing about any of them today that we didn’t already know. Actually, Frank Gore became the third RB in NFL history to eclipse 16,000 rushing yards. That’s pretty notable for historical purposes, but for fantasy purposes it doesn’t mean a thing.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

Jamison Crowder: 9 targets, 7 receptions, 92 yards, TD | 1 carry, 14 yards | 1/1, 43 yards, TD

Chris Herndon: 4 targets, 4 receptions, 34 yards, TD

Braxton Berrios: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 60 yards, TD

Daniel Brown: 1 target, 1 reception, 13 yards

Breshad Perriman: 6 targets | 1 carry, 6 yards

Denzel Mims: 2 targets

 

Jamison Crowder was the star of the show on Sunday. He threw a 43 yard touchdown to Braxton Berrios on an end-around trick play, and later caught a wide open touchdown pass from Darnold.

 

 

 

He’s the only fantasy-relevant player on the Jets right now and he’s also probably their most talented skill player. The Jets look to get the ball in his hands anytime they can, and as long as he’s healthy he’s a WR2 with WR1 upside no matter the opponent.

After Baker Mayfield’s first of three fumbles was recovered by the Jets in the 2nd quarter, Darnold found Chris Herndon for a touchdown on a broken coverage by the defense. Herndon caught all four of his targets on the day, providing solid value for anyone who took a chance on him.

 

 

Breshad Perriman put up a goose egg on Sunday, but there was one notable deep ball which he nearly caught for a long gain. That was about it though, and I don’t recall seeing him much at all in this one.

 

— Ben Brown (@FelixTheDog23 on Twitter, iamatechnician on Reddit)

Series Navigation
Introduction
Vikings @ Saints
Buccaneers @ Lions
49ers @ Cardinals
Dolphins @ Raiders
Giants @ Ravens
Falcons @ Chiefs
Browns @ Jets
Bears @ Jaguars
Bengals @ Texans
Colts @ Steelers
Broncos @ Chargers
Panthers @ Washington
Rams @ Seahawks
Eagles @ Cowboys
Titans @ Packers
Bills @ Patriots

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