Week 15 Reactions: Rumbling Into the Next Round

Well, that touchdown helped nobody.

This phrase, or some variation of it, is one we've all heard when an unpopular/lesser-known player scores a touchdown. But if there's one thing we've learned over the years it's that every touchdown, literally every single one, helps somebody.

One of the first places we look when a "nobody" scores a touchdown is the opposing defense. Nearly every fantasy format that uses defense/special teams has a scoring system based on points allowed, so any touchdown, regardless of who scores it, will hurt that unit. But it doesn't end there: not only does the defense take the point knock, but fantasy owners of more popular players are left cursing at their TVs wondering why their player didn't get the end-zone target.

We saw plenty of those situations in Week 15, as fantasy owners and NFL watchers were constantly left sitting at home wondering "who!?"

It all started Thursday night during the Broncos' 25-13 win over the Colts. With Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders the two leading receivers for Denver over the past few seasons, including this one, we saw receiving touchdowns scored by Cody Latimer and Jeff Heuerman on passes from Brock Osweiler, who came in for the injured Trevor Siemian. Coming into the week, Latimer and Heuerman had combined for two touchdowns this season. Sure, Thomas and Sanders were targeted 17 times, catching 12 passes for 137 yards, but fantasy owners need touchdowns this time of year.

It carried over to Saturday, with Matthew Stafford throwing two touchdowns but neither to Marvin Jones nor Golden Tate. Instead, Stafford threw his scores to Eric Ebron and TJ Jones, who came in with two touchdowns (both by Ebron) combined this season. And with all the weapons available to Philip Rivers in the passing game, his lone touchdown pass during the Chargers' 30-13 loss to the Chiefs went to Antonio Gates and not Keenan Allen, nor Hunter Henry, nor Tyrell Williams, nor Melvin Gordon, though he did have a rushing touchdown.

The "good" times kept rolling Sunday, as only the most hard core fantasy football players could say they had heard of all the players who found the end zone. To show the ridiculousness of some of these players, let's check out their ownership percentages in DraftKings' weekly millionaire maker, which consists of 176,470 entries:

• Keelan Cole: seven catches on nine targets for 186 yards and one touchdown at 4.29 percent
  
• Damiere Byrd: three catches on four targets for 25 yards and two touchdowns at 2.82 percent
  
• Eli Rogers: one catch on two targets for 18 yards and one touchdown at 0.16 percent
  
• Richard Rodgers: four catches on four targets for 77 yards and one touchdown at 0.11 percent
  
• Tavarres King: two catches on three targets for 70 yards and two touchdowns at 0.06 percent
  
• Jaydon Mickens: four catches on five targets for 61 yards and two touchdowns at 0.00 percent (yes, not a single entry had him)
  
• Kapri Bibbs: four catches on four targets for 47 yards and one touchdown at 0.00 percent

And what to do about the quarterbacks who were either making their first starts in a while or had been horrible all season? You couldn't possibly start them in your fantasy playoffs, right?

The biggest example of this was Aaron Rodgers, making his first start since fracturing his collarbone in Week 6. Rodgers came in without an injury designation, but he also returned a number of weeks earlier than expected. If you had Rodgers on your fantasy team then you likely had to pay up for him, either with auction dollars or a higher-round draft pick. Back from injury and at home against the Panthers, could you trust him enough to start him in a win-or-go-home situation? Thanks to some volume, starting Rodgers didn't turn out to be all that bad, even if he looked pretty poor by his standards. Completing 26 of 45 passes for 290 yards and three touchdowns while also adding 43 rushing yards, Rodgers was probably good enough for fantasy owners despite also getting picked off three times. Then again, if you lost by a few points and had either Eli Manning or Blake Bortles on your bench, then the Rodgers decision felt wrong.

The earlier mention of Tavarres King catching two touchdown passes had to mean Manning had a good game, which was the case just two weeks after being benched for Geno Smith. After struggling last week against the Cowboys, Manning completed 37 of 57 passes for 434 yards and three touchdowns Sunday against the Eagles, making him the second-highest scoring quarterback of the week. It was an especially shocking line given that he hadn't thrown for more than 300 yards since Week 3, though coincidentally that also came against the Eagles. And with Keelan Cole scoring a touchdown while racking up 186 yards, it was all thanks to a huge game from Blake Bortles, who completed 21 of 29 passes for 326 yards and three scores, his third consecutive game with more than 250 yards and multiple touchdowns without an interception. Were you going to play either of them ahead of Rodgers?

Or maybe you could have skipped all of them in favor of Nick Foles, who got his first start since 2015 after Carson Wentz suffered a season-ending knee injury last week. Foles looked like his former dominant self, completing 24 of 38 passes for 237 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-29 win over the Giants that clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. But really, who was starting Foles in a fantasy playoff matchup, even against a Giants defense that had allowed the most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks this season?

On the other side of it all, fantasy owners who relied on work-horse running backs likely booked their tickets to the next round of the playoffs, as a number of big-name players put up huge performances this week. Saturday's Chargers-Chiefs game gave us two such players, as Melvin Gordon rushed 19 times for 78 yards and a touchdown and caught six of eight targets for 91 receiving yards, while Kareem Hunt rushed 24 times for 155 yards and a touchdown and caught seven of nine targets for 51 yards and another score. Gordon became just the third Charger in team history to have at least 1,200 scrimmage yards and 10 touchdowns in back-to-back seasons, joining Lance Alworth and LaDainian Tomlinson.

Meanwhile, Mark Ingram had 12 carries for 74 yards and two touchdowns while catching five of six targets for 77 receiving yards against the Jets, who also couldn't stop Alvin Kamara from racking up 89 total yards and a score. Ingram and Kamara have been such a dominant duo, and Sunday's game allowed them to become the third pair of running back teammates in league history to have more than 1,200 scrimmage yards and 10 touchdowns in the same season, and the first since 1988.

Pushing his name up the record books, LeSean McCoy had 96 total yards and two touchdowns against the Dolphins, passing 10,000 career rushing yards in the process and becoming the 30th player in league history to reach that threshold. And while Le'Veon Bell is just more than half way to that mark, he got closer Sunday by rushing 24 times for 177 yards and one touchdown while adding five catches on six targets for 48 receiving yards against the Patriots.

But the man who stole the show this week was the Rams' Todd Gurley, who absolutely punished the Seahawks in Seattle with 21 carries for 152 yards and three touchdowns while also adding three catches for 28 yards and another score. The Rams' offense has been absolutely electric this season, in large part due to Gurley, who now has 17 touchdowns, including six in his last two games. Fantasy owners who relied on Gurley all season have been rewarded by stellar play in the fantasy playoffs, something those who drafted Tom Brady can't say, as the Patriots' signal caller failed to reach 300 yards or throw for multiple touchdowns for the third straight game Sunday despite New England getting a huge win in Pittsburgh. But really, were you going to start Eli Manning over Brady this week?