On Sunday, we sports fans all lost.
I don’t care who your team is, but if you don’t feel for Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes or Packers DL Micah Parsons, you have no football soul.
Two of the era’s generational players — you could go so far as to say two of the best of all time at their positions — went down with severe knee injuries.
Mahomes tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season. Recovery time is anywhere between six and 12 months, so the former MVP and Super Bowl champion could return to the field for training camp — knowing him, he’ll make it happen — but then again, he might not make it back until somewhere around November or December.
As of this writing, the severity of Parsons’ injury has yet to be made official, but it’s feared that he, too, tore his ACL.
Listen, I’m a lifelong Bears fan, and my wife is a lifelong Bills fan, but we’re both football fans — as well as fans of professional athletes who carry themselves with dignity and class — but despite our respective rooting interests, we’re sending positive vibes to these two greats.
Sunday was rough, but we can still have some fun with our NFL Week 15 winners and losers.
NFL Week 15 Winners and Losers
Here’s who crushed Sunday, and here’s who got crushed.
WINNER: Bears WR D.J. Moore
In July of 2024, Moore inked a four-year, $110 million contract extension, as the entire football-viewing public enjoyed on HBO’s Hard Knocks.
Has the eighth-year man lived up to his fat deal? Meh.
Last season, his 6 receiving touchdowns were his fewest since 2021, and this season, he’s delivering career-worsts in yards per game (40.5) and receptions per game (3.1).
Granted, he’s playing in head coach Ben Johnson’s spread-the-ball, run-heavy offense, but when Johnson was calling plays as offensive coordinator in Detroit, their WR1, Amon-Ra St. Brown, put up some not-so-bad numbers.
Yesterday in Chicago’s 31-3 beatdown of the Cleveland Browns, D.J. Moore had himself a D.J. Moore game, twice finding paydirt in spectacular fashion, and finishing tied with Rams’ stud Puka Nacua as fantasy’s WR4, with 18.9 points.
The Bears were also among the week’s winners, wresting the NFC North lead from the Packers, something nobody ever thought they’d hear in mid-December, let alone Week 4.
LOSER: Browns RB Quinshon Judkins
Meanwhile on Soldier Field’s other sideline, choosing a losing Brown was tough, as aside from DL Myles Garrett — who can sniff the NFL all-time single-season sack record — virtually the entire team, in a word, stunk.
But Judkins, who eked out 21 yards on 12 carries — an average of 1.8 yards per rush — was the stinkiest, managing a season-low (by far) fantasy point total of — wait for it, wait for it — 1.7 (RB58), landing him behind the likes of Dallas’ Hunter Luepke (RB49), Houston’s Dare Ogunbowale (RB46) and New Orleans’ Audric Estime (RB38).
This dips him down to RB19 for the 2025 fantasy season, but he can’t take the entire blame, because, Browns, amirite?
WINNER: Colts QB Philip Rivers
I don’t care that Rivers delivered Week 15’s third-worst fantasy performance for a starting QB — his 7.3 fantasy points landed him ahead of only Cleveland’s Shedeur Sanders (6.5, QB29) and I don’t care that his Colts were devastated by a last-gasp 18-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The fact that the 44-year-old (likely) future Hall of Famer played a competent game after last seeing an NFL field exactly 1,800 days prior makes us all winners.
And unless he purposely kicks an opposing linebacker in the nards, he’ll be a winner for the remainder of the season. And beyond.
LOSER: Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka
There’s a teeny, tiny chance that the rookie out of THE Ohio State University hoped that his fellow Tampa Bay WR Mike Evans had remained in the trainer’s room, where he’s been decamped since Week 8. But the uber-productive 32-year–old started Thursday’s gnarly 29-28 upset loss to Atlanta, hauling in 6 of his 12 targets for 132 yards.
Egbuka, for his part, saw just 7 targets, nabbing 4 for 64 yards.
Fantasy-wise, Egbuka owners are likely, in a word, cheesed, as Evans’ return could guarantee that his streak of single-digit continues into their playoff run. After a brilliant early-season run — between Weeks 1-5, he averaged 17.5 fantasy points — the 22-year-old has been a liability, managing just 3.4 fantasy points per game.
Yikes.
With Evans, Chris Godwin, and Jalen McMillan healthy, Egbuka could be considered, at best, a low-end fantasy WR2 — but realistically, he’s a high-end WR3 both on the field and in the box score. This, Bucs fans, is a rough way to wrap up what once looked like a Rookie of the Year campaign.
WINNER: Falcons QB Kirk Cousins
Meanwhile on the opposite side of the field on Thursday night, 82-year-old Kirk Cousins went bananas.
Okay, first of all, the journeyman signal caller is only 81. Second of all, his QB3 fantasy masterpiece (26.9 fantasy points) topped relative young’ns like Buffalo’s Josh Allen (QB6), Matthew Stafford (QB11), and Drake Maye (QB13).
Not bad for a team playing out the string.
And he’s only 80.
LOSER: Bengals QB Joe Burrow
Here, ladies and gentlemen, is your leading candidate for this season’s NFL DGAF Award.
Last Tuesday — in an ideal example of checking yourself before wrecking yourself — Burrow told an assembled press gaggle, “If I want to keep doing this, I have to have fun doing it.”
Not a good look.
Yesterday, he walked back the statement, but only after delivering a less-than-good performance that saw him chuck a pair of INTs and compile a lousy 21.4 QBR in an embarrassing 24-0 loss to an average-at-best Baltimore team. (Sorry, Ravens fans, but you know I’m right.)
And his 7.5 fantasy point total (QB28) didn’t make him too many friends in FantasyLand.
The 4-10 Bengals wrap things up with a visit to Miami, then a couple of homers against Arizona and Cleveland. On paper, those are winnable games. But with an unhappy QB, an oh-fer is a distinct possibility.
WINNER: Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence
When Lawrence and his lovely locks came out of Clemson in 2020, his floor was believed to be Andrew Luck and his ceiling was G.O.A.T.
Before Sunday, he was more in Kirk Cousins territory. But if he starts delivering genius outings similar to Sunday's on even a semi-regular basis, well, Luck, here we come.
In Jacksonville’s 48-20 laugher over the Jets, Lawrence connected on a career-high 5 tuddies and played a clean game, taking nary a sack and tossing nary an interception, which adds up to a 136.7 passer rating and 44.3 fantasy points, the season’s second-best fantasy performance by a QB, 0.4 points behind Josh Allen’s Week 11 bombast.
This was the Jags’ fifth consecutive win, and with the Colts and Titans remaining on the schedule, those lovely locks could fly into the playoffs on a high.
LOSER: Every Raider, as Well as Every Dumb Fantasy Manager Who Drafted TE Brock Bowers and RB Ashton Jeanty
In this instance, I'm allowed to say “dumb fantasy manager” because I’m one of those dumb fantasy managers.
I walked away from my fantasy draft, Bowers and Jeanty in tow, thinking, “I suckered all nine of my league mates. Metaphorical championship trophy, here I come!”
Fact is, I should’ve walked into my fantasy draft thinking, “With Geno Smith as Las Vegas’ QB1, I should avoid all Raiders at all costs.”
With three weeks left in the season, Jeanty is fantasy’s RB25. And even though Bowers is TE3, he’s managed single-figures in fantasy points in six of his 11 games.
If it wasn’t for waiver wire pickups like Cardinals WR Michael Wilson, Bears RB Kyle Monangai, and Cleveland TE Harold Fannin Jr. my fantasy season would’ve been toast weeks ago.
So thanks a lot, Raiders. Thanks a lot for nothing.
BONUS WINNER: Colts QB Philip Rivers
Enough said.
Regardless of whether your Week 14 PrizePicks picks were good (CeeDee), bad (Stafford), or ugly (the entire Minnesota offense), 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.
