Fantasy football Week 11 takeaways: Jared Goff has best MVP case, Bo Nix has turned a corner and more

I tip my hat to Josh Allen , who really was a grinder on Sunday against a tough Chiefs defense. The fourth down run to win the game was spectacular, and kudos to the Bills for trying to win the game right there instead of daring Patrick Mahomes to pull another one out of the fire — he would have.

Mahomes is so basic now when his back isn't up against the wall. For 50-to-58 minutes of game time every week, he's just another QB. Yes, he had three TDs, but I'm about yards and efficiency, and it's just not there. The past two years, he's 7.0 yards per attempt. Prior to that he was a scintillating 8.0.

As for DeAndre Hopkins , throw out the Bucs game, since everyone eats up their pass defense. Then you have basically a 5-50 receiver, and you pray for the touchdown.

I know that Mike Tomlin is a great coach and the Steelers have a good defense. But the way they shut down Lamar Jackson year after year with all different players while no one else can do it is just absurd. Jackson couldn't even complete half his passes. So it wasn't shutting down his running. The Steelers have a culture and veteran leadership, and they are just able to seamlessly pass down the Steelers defense from year to year.

The less said about Pittsburgh's offense on Sunday, the better.

I was joking all week about all the QBs I would play Bo Nix over, not as a slight to Nix, but as an indictment of fantasy QBs in 2024. But Nix has turned a corner where it's not just running juice that's sustaining him. For the season, he's one of the best QBs in QBR when not facing pressure. That's viewed as the true measure of quarterbacks because most plays are non-pressure and pressure stats tend to be very random.

I did expect — or at least didn't severely discount the odds that — Sean Payton would throw us another curveball with his running game and coming out with Javonte Williams as his starter. That indeed happened.

I have no explanation for Taysom Hill 's game, and I really don't know how to even tout him as he's only a QB in many leagues, but my god, what a performance that was wasted on many of our benches.

You have to give Derek Carr credit for what he's done the past couple of games with his starting receivers out. With all the "all-time" QBs Marquez Valdes-Scantling has played with, the fact that he's seemingly finally found chemistry with Carr (another long TD) is hilarious.

You look at the box score and you can't figure out how the Browns only had 14 points — no turnovers, 7.5 yards per pass and 6.3 per play. But then you see it — 3-for-13 on third down. Murder She Wrote.

Kirk Cousins has seven games with one TD pass or less, and eight with under 250 passing yards. He's a starter if he plays Tampa Bay every week. But on the back of the football card, it's going to look like a decent year. He's like Carr was last year (look at Carr's 2023 season stats and you'll be shocked since he didn't win anyone a thing).

Deebo Samuel has one TD. He's had more than 71 yards receiving twice and more than five catches once. He's been replaced by Jauan Jennings as the No. 1 WR for the Niners, and Jennings is pretty darn close to a No. 1 WR in fantasy now. He's what we wanted Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk to be.

This was a great game for Jaxon Smith-Njigba and it's noteworthy that all the Seahawks receivers were healthy. However, JSN has seven TDs in 27 career games, and that's not going to cut it.

Caleb Williams looked like a professional on Sunday. He was sacked three times, which is still bad but not awful. And the Bears lost another offensive lineman, so that wasn't the critical issue last week (you can blame three sacks on an OL, not nine). The problem with Williams is he's going to have his second head coach, second GM and third offensive coordinator when he starts Year 2. This is how busts happen – organizational failure, not player failure.

Jordan Love converted one third down and won. But the bigger story was only having five third downs, which is great.

I'd love to trust Christian Watson , who is the most talented Green Bay WR. The Packers only had 43 plays. So with a normal allotment, is Watson a six-target WR? That's the question.

The Lions are just running up the score. They're trying to embarrass teams and doing a good job. Jared Goff had a perfect rating and over 400 yards on just 29 attempts. Given he won his five-pick game, Goff's probably the most deserving MVP at the moment.

Sam Darnold had his eighth game with a rating of at least 103.5 and seventh with at least two passing TDs (he also ran one in). But if I'm being totally honest, I'm still not sure he's good.

You don't see a 98-yard TD every day.

Nick Westbrook-Ikhine scores touchdowns. He just doesn't get targets. Something has to give here.

It's amazing that the only guy overachieving in the Miami offense is Jonnu Smith , who was my sleeper tight end in August, but the thought process was, "What if one of the WRs gets hurt?" But he's excelling when everyone is healthy, too.

All of the De'Von Achane competition has vanished into the ether. Raheem Mostert seems washed finally and Jaylen Wright is showing why he was a fourth-round pick.

Just a monster game from Brock Bowers , who can't block, but who cares.

Matthew Stafford has four games with zero TD passes and two games with four TD passes. What are we supposed to make of this? And one of the duds was last week with everyone healthy.

Drake Maye was impressive. He and Nix have been the best rookie QBs the past few weeks. And unlike with Williams, everyone is coming back for Maye (and obviously for Nix, too).

Anthony Richardson threw the ball well and made plays with his legs against a Jets defense that has generally been good, though it again collapsed in the biggest moment. They wasted a lot of plays with Jonathan Taylor or they would have scored more.

Garrett Wilson is suffering from Aaron Rodgers refusing to throw the ball downfield, especially over the middle. Rodgers no longer goes through progressions and thus can't find secondary targets who are often open. He's in total self-preservation mode. You can't function offensively if you're not willing to extend plays. At best, Rodgers checks down immediately to a running back at the line of scrimmage for little or no gain.

(Top photo of Jared Goff: Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images)