Week 17 Quick Reads

With the 2020 regular season over, it's time to look back at the best and worst games of the year, with full-strength final opponent adjustments. Later this week, I'll be back with a rundown of the best and worst players of the season by DYAR, rather than analysis of Week 17.

Quarterbacks

Best Games

• Patrick Mahomes, Week 3 vs. BAL, 276 DYAR
• Patrick Mahomes, Week 12 vs. TB, 254 DYAR
• Kyler Murray, Week 9 vs. MIA, 234 DYAR
• Josh Allen, Week 2 vs. MIA, 226 DYAR
• Josh Allen, Week 13 vs. SF, 222 DYAR

Patrick Mahomes, to nobody's surprise, is good at the football. He was best at the football in Week 3, when he threw for 385 yards and four touchdowns against the Ravens, and in Week 12, when he threw for 462 and three against Tampa Bay. He wasn't intercepted in either game, and gave up only two sacks between them. He didn't run terribly often in those games, but when he did it was effective -- seven combined carries for 55 yards and a touchdown. He also got a boost in opponent adjustments both times, especially against the Buccaneers, who boosted his numbers by 58 DYAR.

Josh Allen, to everyone's surprise (coming into the year, at least), is also good at the football. Like Mahomes, he makes our top-five list twice: for his 415-yard, four-touchdown day against Miami in Week 2, and for his 375-yard, four-touchdown day against San Francisco in Week 13. Like Mahomes, he totaled zero interceptions and two sacks in his two big days. Given his stellar rushing numbers early in his career, you might expect that his best days would have included big gains on the ground, but that wasn't the case -- he only gained 32 yards on his seven carries.

Kyler Murray's best day did include several big gains on the ground -- he ran 11 times for 106 yards against the Dolphins, adding 283 yards and three touchdowns (on only 26 attempts) through the air with no interceptions and just one sack.

Worst Games

• Drew Lock, Week 10 vs. LV, -210 DYAR
• Jake Luton, Week 11 vs. PIT, -204 DYAR
• Derek Carr, Week 12 vs. ATL, -184 DYAR
• Justin Herbert, Week 13 vs. NE, -180 DYAR
• Joe Flacco, Week 6 vs. MIA, -176 DYAR

It was not a good year for bad quarterback games -- none of these performances would have made our bottom-five list in 2019. The worst, as you might have guessed, was by a Denver Broncos quarterback, but it wasn't Kendall Hinton -- DYAR is a counting stat, and Hinton only threw nine passes in his emergency start against New Orleans in Week 12. Instead it was Drew Lock -- who, unlike Hinton, is actually supposed to be a quarterback -- who threw four interceptions with a pair of sacks against the Raiders in Week 10, with only 257 yards gained on 47 passes. And since that came against the otherwise porous Las Vegas defense, Lock loses 41 DYAR due to opponent adjustments.

Patrick Mahomes single-handedly put the AFC West on top of the best games list, while Lock, Derek Carr, and Justin Herbert made sure the division took up most of the bottom five as well. Carr threw for only 215 yards with three sacks, a fumble, and a pick-six against the Falcons in Week 12; a week later, Herbert gained only 209 yards on 52 throws against the Patriots, adding three sacks and a pair of interceptions.

Obviously, those were the exceptions for Carr and Herbert; they'll be back to try again in 2021. Lock's status in Denver is uncertain; the Broncos will have the ninth pick in the draft this April and may look for his replacement. His future prospects still look brighter, however, than those of Jake Luton (a sixth-round rookie for Jacksonville who lost all three of his starts, the worst of them a 151-yard, four-interception day against Pittsburgh in Week 11) or Joe Flacco (who gained only 186 yards on 44 passes against Miami in Week 6, adding an interception and three sacks).

Running Backs

Best Games

• Derrick Henry, Week 12 vs. IND, 101 DYAR
• Dalvin Cook, Week 9 vs. DET, 87 DYAR
• Chase Edmonds, Week 7 vs. SEA, 86 DYAR
• Alvin Kamara, Week 16 vs. MIN, 79 DYAR
• Nick Chubb, Week 12 vs. JAX, 77 DYAR

As discussed at the time, Derrick Henry did finish with the third-best rushing DYAR ever recorded -- and the best since 2006 -- for his 27 carries for 178 yards and three touchdowns against the Colts in Week 12. The Titans won that game 45-26, and considering that Tennessee and Indianapolis finished with identical 11-5 records, it's fair to say that Henry's best day was the difference between a wild-card berth and a division championship.

Most of the other games here had tremendous fantasy numbers -- you've got Dalvin Cook with 252 yard from scrimmage with two touchdowns against Detroit, Alvin Kamara's half-dozen touchdowns against Minnesota, and Nick Chubb's 176 yards from scrimmage with a touchdown against Jacksonville. In that company, Chase Edmonds' 145 yards from scrimmage without a touchdown against Seattle may not seem like much … until you realize he picked up first downs on four of his five rushes and five of his seven catches.

Worst Games

• Ezekiel Elliott, Week 6 vs. ARI, -65 DYAR
• J.D. McKissic, Week 10 vs. DET, -64 DYAR
• Cam Akers, Week 17 vs. ARI, -60 DYAR
• Melvin Gordon, Week 7 vs. KC, -53 DYAR
• Todd Gurley, Week 7 vs. DET, -53 DYAR

There are two games here against Arizona and two more against Detroit -- having a bad day against a bad defense is a sure way to end up on this list. The most recent of those belongs to Cam Akers, whose Week 17 outing against the Cardinals included 21 carries for only 34 yards. He only ran for two first downs, was stuffed eight times, and lost a fumble at the goal line. That's -68 rushing DYAR -- worst in a single game since 2009, when Houston's Steve Slaton gained 35 yards on 17 carries against Tennessee.

You can follow the links for details on Ezekiel Elliott's 80-yard, two-fumble day against Arizona; J.D. McKissic's 49 yards on 23 handoffs and targets against Detroit; Todd Gurley's accidental touchdown that cost the Falcons a win, also against Detroit; and Melvin Gordon's 65-yard, two-fumble day against Kansas City.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

Best Games

• Tyreek Hill, Week 12 vs. TB, 121 DYAR
• Davante Adams, Week 16 vs. TEN, 98 DYAR
• Will Fuller, Week 12 vs. DET, 92 DYAR
• Davante Adams, Week 9 vs. SF, 88 DYAR
• Corey Davis, Week 13 vs. CLE 84 DYAR

Back in Week 12, we wrote about Tyreek Hill's 269-yard, three-touchdown day against Tampa Bay, and how it somehow failed to make our top-30 list of wide receiver games. Opponent adjustments have shifted quite a bit in the ensuing five weeks, however, and Hill's day has climbed from 111 DYAR to 121. That puts it 15th all time, and the most since Julio Jones had 126 DYAR for 253 yards and two touchdowns against Tampa Bay 2017.

Davante Adams was perhaps the NFL's best wideout in 2020, and he was at his best against Tennessee and San Francisco, catching a combined 21 of 24 targets for 315 yards and four touchdowns. Will Fuller comes in third for his 171 yards and two touchdowns (on only six catches!) against Detroit, while Corey Davis finishes sixth for his 182 yards and a score against Cleveland.

Worst Games

• DJ Chark, Week 6 vs. DET, -64 DYAR
• Jeff Smith, Week 5 vs. ARI, -59 DYAR
• A.J. Green, Week 2 vs. CLE, -59 DYAR
• Mark Andrews, Week 3 vs. KC, -58 DYAR
• Jamison Crowder, Week 6 vs. MIA, -55 DYAR

The real headliner here is actually the fourth name from the top -- congratulations, Mark Andrews, you officially have the worst single-game DYAR for a tight end on record! The Ravens threw eight passes to Andrews, and he caught three of them for all of 22 yards with a fumble. His updated total of -58 DYAR surpasses the -53 DYAR Jeremy Shockey had for the Giants against Tampa Bay in 2006, when he turned 10 targets into three catches for 15 yards.

The top three names here are pretty mundane, really. You've got DJ Chark's 14-target, seven-catch, 45-yard day against Detroit, plus appearances by Jeff Smith (11-3-23 --though not, obviously, a contender for the worst game on record, as we wrote in Week 5) against Arizona and A.J. Green (13-3-29) against Cleveland. Jamison Crowder's nightmarish outing against Miami in Week 6 was overlooked because Chark's day was even worse, but he turned 13 targets into seven catches for 48 yards. Only two of those completions picked up first downs; only two more counted as successful plays.