A lot just changed in week 12 of the fantasy football season. Some backfields completely shifted and some major players went down with injury. All of that and more is going to impact the rest of the fantasy season, which is important because we're heading into the playoffs right now. So these are the 10 key takeaways that you need to know from fantasy football this past weekend so you can stay on top in your league. And let's start with the takeaway that I was the most eager to see this week. And it had to do with Ramandre Stevenson returning from injury. And the reason why that was so important was Travion Henderson of late was absolutely dominating. The rookie, the second round pick for the New England Patriots, you've seen it these last couple of weeks. He had five total touchdowns over his last two games alone. He was averaging over 120 total yards per game during those two games, a Thursday night football game, a Sunday game, and even a game before that where he came in for Ramandre Stevenson who got hurt. So the question was, what will this role look like? Because if it was just one game, maybe Stevenson goes back to his normal usage. But it was two massive performances for Henderson where his coach, Mike Rable was praising him each time. Well, we got to this game and, oh my goodness, it was just the trivia on Henderson show. 18 carries 66 yards. Wasn't overly efficient, but the more important thing was Terrell Jennings just one carry, Romandre Stevenson, just one carry in this game. You scroll down, Henderson had three catches compared to just one for Ramandre Stevenson. Now, Ramandra Stevenson was coming off of a toe injury. They never clarified if it was turf, toe, or not. Usually this is an injury that for most players is going to linger over a month. He only missed about two and a half weeks or so. So there's a chance that they're ramping him back up, but there's also a chance that he'll never be 100% again this season. And obviously, if you're a Trayvion Henderson fantasy manager, you love that. Henderson in this game played 46 snaps, 22 for Stevenson, just three for Terrell Jennings. If this continues to be the trend that Henderson is going to come in here and see 65% of the snaps, see 71% of the backfield carries, obviously that's going to make him a league winner down the stretch. Over his past few performances, he's already a league winner in fantasy, but if indeed he continues this into the fantasy post seasons, weeks 15, 16, 17, maybe 18 for you, even better. Now, the one thing that didn't happen in this game for Henderson with Remandre back, and maybe moving forward, it does cap his upside in the fantasy postseason on a good offenses. We didn't see him become like the unquestioned leader when it comes to the goal line carries. The Patriots ran the ball three times at the one yard line in this game. Two of those went to Ramander Stevenson for zero yards and no touchdowns. One of those went to Terrell Jennings, believe it or not. He was literally subbed into the game. He only played three snaps in this entire game. One of them he was subbed into on the one yard line ahead of Tramion Henderson, who had zero carries in that situation. Now, it should be mentioned that these past two weeks, especially on Thursday night football in week 11, we saw Henderson command and have success in the red zone inside the five-yard line scoring touchdowns. So maybe this was just kind of like the way the game was flowing, but the fact that Terrell Jennings had a goal line carry, a one-yard-line carry out of his three snaps, one of them was there. That's a little bit concerned. It's also worth mentioning that in terms of like the performances that Henderson had this past week, he did face like the easiest matchup against the Bengals. They're allowing 161 yards per game, like 15 more yards than any other team is allowing per game. So Henderson having like 9.6 fantasy points. Ideally you would have liked to see more there. Part of that probably is that he didn't have that goal line roll against a pretty weak run defense. If he does have that goal line roll and just cashes in on one of those three goal line carries that the Patriots have, it looks like a much better fantasy day of like 16 fantasy points in around 100 total yards. So at the end of the day, your takeaway here, at least from this usage, is that Henderson still looks like the lead back right now. But moving forward, we're very much going to have to see if he does lock down that goal line in red zone usage.

It was just three snaps. the lead back right now, but moving forward, we're very much going to have to see if he does

lock down that goal line in red zone usage. It was just three snaps. Hopefully, we're not going to see an increase in usage for Stevenson moving forward as he gets healthier and more removed from his toe injury. So right now, Henderson looks like a lead back. If you have a trade deadline coming up, he's probably a hold right now. But as I always say, and as I said last week, if somebody is willing to overpay and you can sell high on a player like this for a more stable piece down the line of course look at the market and see what's out there and this is really important for these patriots running backs because their rest of season schedule is unbelievably good uh they're going to be facing at home on monday night the giants the second worst i believe let's look at it we just had NFL pro up right here. Yes, the second worst run defense, 150 yards per game. Let's not stop there. The week after that, at home, they faced the Buffalo Bills, who they've already faced this year. Oh, yeah, the third worst run defense. Oh, we're not going to stop there. We're going to have the Ravens the bottom 10 run defense. The Jets, arguably a bottom five defense after trading Quinn and Williams. And then if you play into week 18 in fantasy, January 18th game at home against

the dolphins, the Dolphins, the Dolphins, oh yeah, the fourth worst run defense. The Patriots have arguably the best rest of season schedule for running back. So that's why this is so important to see how this backfield shakes out. All right. The next situation I wanted to track was with Josh Jacobs ruled out on Sunday morning with his knee injury, potentially could play in week 13, short week, really short week playing at like noon on Thursday because of Thanksgiving. Packers running back Josh Jacobs was ruled out for week 12. So the question became quickly after this, what does life without Josh Jacobs look like for the Packers? We've seen Emmanuel Wilson and Christopher Brooks. They've been backing up

in previous weeks. They've been stepping in if Jacob steps out and goes like the blue medical tent,

especially Emmanuel Wilson. We've already seen him have past success. And that's exactly what

happened this past week. Emmanuel Wilson just continued to be an absolute dog.

28 carries. They said, oh, there's no Josh Jacobs. It doesn't matter.

28 carries in this game, 107 yards, multiple rushing touchdowns in the red zone. You scroll down. This is a guy who had a touchdown last week for the Packers. He had a key two-point conversion against the Giants as well, so they obviously trust Emmanuel Wilson. He adds in two receptions for 18 yards. This dude, off the bench as a backup, and I get it, he filled in last week when Jacobs didn't come back for like the whole second half.

He had... for 18 yards. This dude, off the bench as a backup, and I get it, he filled in last week when Jacobs

didn't come back for like the whole second half. He had 30 touches in his first start this season.

They trust this guy with their lives, the Packers. Now, you could actually see when you look at

the snap counts according to player profile or according to PFF, it was like a split backfield.

37 snaps for Manuel Wilson, 29 snaps. Like watching the you wouldn't think that christopher brooks was getting 29 snaps now towards the end of the game this was a three-scored lead for the packers they put in malique willis in the fourth quarter with like six minutes left and then running back on the field during that time was christopher brooks so he did probably get out of these 29 like six to nine of them were garbage time, is what I would say. But it's not like he really did much with them. It's not like even though he saw snaps, he wasn't earning a larger role here. He only had eight carries for 21 yards in this game. He had three fantasy points. He caught a ball for five yards. But like the workhorse league winner type back in this game was Emmanuel Wilson. Now, i pause to say a true league winner because by all the reports josh jacob should be back on thursday but i will say with how well ammanuel wilson has played these past two games there's a chance that they say it's a short week get rested up for week 14 and we look like a playoff team at seven three and one i know it's a big game against the lines, but rest up again, Wilson's got this.

And if that's the case, obviously Wilson on a short week, even though it's not the greatest

matchup against the lines, he still becomes a must start for an offensive. It is going to move the ball for a guy who's going to be on the field in the Redsland like he was in this game. He just saw 77% of the backfield touches compared to Christopher Brooks like it wasn't a 7040 backfield that was

nearly an 80-20 so what does this mean It means that pretty clearly now moving forward, this is a player that needs to be rostered in fantasy everywhere. I know he's already rostered in like 64% of league, so he's not necessarily a waiver wire ad for the video, but he needs to be rostered. Josh Jacobs, though, very likely to play Week 13, would not anticipate major limitations

plus moderate re-injury, according to sports emdy analysis, a Harvard trained surgeon, a sports surgeon over on Twitter. And that's important because apparently they're saying it was like just a bruise. It wasn't a bone bruise to the knee, like just literally a bruise. So maybe there was just too much swelling for him to go out there and it would just make things worse and he would end up missing, would they consider probably a bigger game

against the Lions on Thanksgiving Day. So moving forward for Emmanuel Wilson, maybe he gets some extended playing time or even a start against the Lions, but he needs to be rostered in all leagues because we now know that if something happens to Jacobs, who's been dealing with so many different injuries this year, this knee injury, he was dealing with a cap strain earlier in the year for like four plus weeks. If something ever happens to him down the stretch, the Packers have a solid schedule for the fantasy postseason. They'll have the Bears twice heading in and to start the fantasy postseason, they'll get a matchup against the Ravens, and then they would also get a matchup at week to 18 again against the Vikings if your league plays that far. and we just saw Emmanuel Wilson against the Vikings, 30 touches, 100 plus yards, two touchdowns. And the next situation we have to talk about is very important. This happened in the 4 o'clock slate of games. Alvin Kamar, he got an MCL sprain in that game. This is according to Nick Underhill over on Twitter. He ended up leaving this game, not returning. So a knee injury. He did avoid a major injury but we we'll see how it progresses, he says. He could take a little bit of time, but we know that it's nothing serious or life or threatening, not life threatening, but of course not life threatening either long term. Now here's the deal. This is a team, this is a team that very much so is not playing for anything. Alvin Kamar for the most part is an older an older running back. It could take a little bit time for him to recover.

So I would say he's probably going to miss at least one week here.

So what that means is we have to see what else is left in this backfield. And truly, truly, Devin Neal is the only thing left in this backfield. Ken-Trey Miller is on IR, Audrey, Audra Guestime. I believe he might have been called up,

but he was on the practice squad

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