If you had “Carolina QB Bryce Young Drops 448 Yards On an Semi-Elite Defense” on your Week 11 NFL Winners & Losers bingo card, well…let’s be honest, here: You didn’t have “Carolina QB Bryce Young Drops 448 Yards On an Semi-Elite Defense” on your Week 11 NFL Winners & Losers bingo card.
And if you claim you did, I want notarized proof.
But Young’s outlying performance kind of tracks, as this Sunday — filled with walk-off wins and unexpected heroes — was arguably the weirdest Sunday of the 2025 season. And it would stand to reason that some of the weirdness led to some mind-blowing highs and mind-bending lows.
Some of which were, you guessed it, straight-up weird.
NFL Week 11 Winners & Losers
So who won, and who lost? Let’s break it down.
WINNER: Panthers QB Bryce Young
Not a single one of us handsome fantasy sports content creators ever thought that we’d have to dig up a Bryce Young photo for our hero graphic, because, well, Bryce Young. But yesterday, the diminutive former No. 1 pick earned his spot at the top of this article, dropping 448 yards (!), 3 tuddies (!!), and 31.5 fantasy points (QB2!!!) on a stellar Atlanta D.
The University of Alabama product wasn’t intercepted for the fourth time this season, and — credit where credit is due — he’s only been picked 7 times this season.
Dude walked out of Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a 123.2 passer rating. Is it possible — just possible — that Bryce Young is, gasp, good at quarterbacking? Whoda thunk?
LOSER: Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs
Man, when the Detroit Lions poop the bed, the Detroit Lions really poop the bed. Facing an admittedly bestial Philadelphia Eagles D, the Motor City maniacs could manage just 272 total combined yards — for context, in Week 8 in Detroit’s 24-9 dub over Tampa Bay, Gibbs accounted for 218 combined yards all by his lonesome.
Yesterday, fantasy’s RB3 managed just 146 total yards — a mere 39 of which came on the ground — and had it not been for a 42-yard reception, we’d have seen his third-worst fantasy performance of the season. (It’s worth a mention that twice this season, Gibbs has been held below 6.5 fantasy points. Yet he’s still RB3. The guy is pretty good at football, isn’t he?)
There is one silver lining: The Lions sit at second place in the NFC North. Okay, that’s a silver lining for this Chicago diehard, as the 7-3 Midway Monsters are in first. Bear down, y’alls. Bear down.
WINNER: Bills QB Josh Allen
Listen, Josh Allen is always a winner. He’s attractive, he has endorsements galore, he’s married to a lovely actress, and as a statistical monster, he’s beloved by most every fantasy player on the planet.
Sunday was his biggest statistical day of the season, as the reigning MVP accounted for all 6 of Buffalo’s TDs, 3 through the air and 3 on the ground, blowing up the fantasy box score with an absurd 44.7 points (QB1, duh), the most by a QB this season.
Note: In one of my fantasy leagues, I had a massive brain-fart and forgot to replace my kicker who was on a bye, but Allen was such a monster that I still won the week. Ta-freakin’-da.
LOSER: Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy
As I write this, I’m at a Starbucks, where the regulars know I’m a fancy-schmancy NFL scribe. One of my fellow Bears nerds said to me, “Man, J.J. McCarthy stinks.”
Despite the fact that in the fourth quarter of their tilt with Chicago, he almost pulled a win out of his butt with a magnificent last-gasp drive, he was a mess throughout the game, over- and under-throwing his receivers, looking uncertain in the pocket, and generally playing like a guy who needs more seasoning.
The numbers bear this out (see what I did there?), as the former Michigan Wolverine bumbled his way to 8 fantasy points, his worst outing of the season in which he played the entire game.
Throughout the contest, his genial WR1, Justin Jefferson, looked visibly irked, but if almost half of your 9 targets were virtually uncatchable, you’d be irked, too.
WINNER: Cardinals QB Jacoby Brissett and WR Michael Wilson
Here’s something else you didn’t have on your bingo card: journeyman Jacoby Brissett completing 47 passes — the most completions in a regular season NFL game, ever — racking up 452 yards in the process.
And this was all without his ostensible WR1, Marvin Harrison Jr., who was on the shelf after appendix surgery. With Harrison out, logic would dictate that somebody would have to catch some passes, and that somebody was one Michael Wilson, who had the game of his NFL career — likely the game of his life — hauling in 15 passes for 185 yards. Somehow, he didn’t pull in a TD, which is, in a way, impressive.
The lack of paydirt is why he finished the day as WR2 (18.5 fantasy points), but even so, if Harrison remains out for Arizona’s Week 12 tilt with Jacksonville, get this Wilson guy off the waiver wire (if he’s there, which he damn well shouldn’t be) and into your lineup.
LOSER: Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers
Normally we avoid putting an injured player into the loser column — it’s just not classy, and we’re nothing if not classy — but this is Aaron Rodgers, and whenever a Bears nerd like me can call Rodgers a loser with facts to back it up, we do it.
The facts here tell us that after Rodgers’ left hand got dinged up in the second quarter, eternal Steeler QB2 Mason Rudolph took over and proceeded to outplay Rodgers, as witnessed by his 118.5 passer rating.
Granted, that was only 12.0 points better than Rodgers’, but we anti-Rodgers guys take his small losses as big wins.
WINNER: 49ers QB Brock Purdy
Welcome back to the NFL, Mr. Irrelevant.
Arguably the best underrated quarterback of his era, Purdy balled out in his first game action since September 28, connecting on 19 of his 26 pass attempts, 3 of which went for touchdowns. In typical Purdy-ian fashion, the fourth-year man played clean football, taking just 1 sack and throwing exactly 0 interceptions.
This performance warmed my heart, as fantasy-wise, Sunday’s QB4 (19.3 fantasy points) has been clogging up my IR spot since September. Unfortunately, I left him on my bench — hey, he’d been out for a month, so it kinda made sense — choosing to roll with Justin Herbert (more about him momentarily). On the plus side, I had Michael Wilson and Josh Allen in my lineup, so all good.
LOSER: Browns QB Shedeur Sanders
Remember on NFL Draft Day 2025, when Sanders fell down everybody’s draft board, then fell some more, and some more, and some more? Some thought, “College stud, NFL bust,” while others felt that some team would be super-lucky that the Colorado product landed in their lap.
I was in the first group. And it looks like I nailed it.
A third-quarter concussion forced Browns starting QB Dillon Gabriel to the locker room, giving Sanders his first real shot at NFL football, which he proceeded to blow spectacularly. Baby Prime hit 4-of-18 passes for 47 yards, threw a pick, and took 2 sacks, all of which added up to a 2.4 QBR and a 13.5 passer rating.
And his 2.5 fantasy points landed him as fantasy’s QB7843278. Okay, he was actually Q31, but you get the point.
I think I echo the sentiments of Cleveland fans when I say, “Get better, Dillon…and fast.”
WINNER: Kickers
Broncos kicker Will Lutz: Walk-off FG, 18 fantasy points.
Bears kicker Cairo Santos: Walk-off FG, 16 fantasy points.
Texans kicker Matthew Wright: Walk-off FG, 12 fantasy points.
Panthers kicker Ryan Fitzgerald: Walk-off FG, 10 fantasy points.
And to think that on your fantasy draft day, you said kickers were useless.
LOSER: Chargers QB Justin Herbert
Rolling into Week 11, the Bolts signal caller was on a heater, topping 26 fantasy points in three of his previous four contests.
Yesterday, the wheels fell off, as the Jaguars D — who, it should be noted, racked up 12 fantasy points (DST3) — straight up abused the former Oregon Duck, holding him to 81 passing yards, 21 rushing yards, zero touchdowns, and, much to my chagrin, 4.3 fantasy points.
If you’re keeping score — and I am — that’s 1.8 more than Shedeur Sanders. Do with that information what you will.
Regardless of whether your Week 10 PrizePicks picks were good (Bryce Young...yay), bad (Justin Herbert...boo), or ugly (Baby Prime...yikes), you had a ton of fun making your selections, and will continue to do so as the NFL season progresses.
And if you enjoyed our NFL Week 10 winners and losers, stick with Playbook all season for advice, predictions, takes, winners, and losers.
