Sunday Aftermath: Falcons' injury woes, Josh Jacobs' knee issue and more

It hasn't been an easy NFL life for Michael Penix Jr. He was drafted into a readymade quarterback controversy, one that placed undue pressure on both Penix and veteran free agent addition Kirk Cousins. Neither thrived in 2024, though unsurprisingly it was rookie Penix who ended up winning the battle and becoming the 2025 starter.

It hasn't gone according to plan. Penix is barely completing 60 percent of his passes and averaging just one touchdown pass per week. He is being asked to do little in a rushing-based attack and responding in kind.

Or at least he was before his rough football lifecame back to the fore on Sunday. Before Penix was party to the latest Captain Kirk drama, he was an elite college prospect battling persistent knee issues. He had only two healthy college seasons in sixyears and suffered twoACL tears. Not the way you would draw it up.

So you could say it's concerning he's dealing with a potentially season-ending knee injury during his age-25 campaign. There's another problem: His age. Penix's marathon college career meant he entered the NFL as a more-or-less finished product. There was extra pressure to hit the ground running - and not lose time to injury.

Now it is looking like he will have accomplished neither objective through his first two years in the league. Professional football lives rarely go to plan for even the most accomplished of prospects. Penix will undoubtedly get one more chance in Atlanta. But a career that was never going to be afforded much benefit of the doubt is getting late early after its rocky start.

Five Week 11 Storylines

Drake London's knee injury further darkens the picture for Atlanta. It would be one thing if just" Penix were hurt. Washed as he is, Kirk Cousins could probably still pepper London with looks. He won't get the opportunity against the Saints' soft defense, as London has already been declared out for Week 12 and perhaps beyond. It means an even more undignified end to Cousins' career, and absolute calamity for fantasy managers. There is no one stepping into London's targets void. Kyle Pitts can't get open by himself, and Darnell Mooney can't get open at all this season. There is no one lurking on the depth chart worth a sneaky" add on the waiver wire. If you are losing London, you are quite possibly losing your Week 12 matchup. That's not actionable advice, but it is the truth.

Josh Jacobs injures knee as Packers barely survive MetLife Stadium. Jacobs, who is always injured, almost never misses time. So that was the first red flag on Sunday, that he limped his way to the locker room in the second quarter and never returned. The second came afterward when NFL Network reported that, though the injury was not season-ending, it appears likely to cost Jacobs actual games. That is notable for a player accustomed to gutting it out, and devastating for a Packers offense hanging on by a thread right now. Jacobs has been their one stabilizing force. Even 1-2 weeks on the shelf would be awful news, including for fantasy managers. It is at least a clean waiver wire situation. Increasingly rare is the 1-for-1 running back replacement. Emanuel Wilson appears to be just that in Titletown. With the fantasy regular season drawing short and the playoffs nearing, you are free to empty the FAAB clip.

Aaron Rodgers and Jaylen Warren's injuries mar much needed Steelers divisional win. Rodgers is dealing with some kind of wrist fracture. Warren insists his ankle injury is minor. The uncertain updates leave fantasy managers in limbo heading into a Week 12 date with the Bears. The Bears" are why we care about Rodgers' status at all. The 41-year-old signal caller is now entirely matchup dependent, and they don't make them much better than Chicago. The same is true on the ground, where the Bears surrender over five yards per carry. It's a potential blow-up spot for Warren, but even if he's active, Kenneth Gainwell went off for the second time in as many Warren absences vs. the Bengals. Why shovel all the work onto a banged up Warren's plate? He's now an uncertain RB2 even if he gives it a go, while Gainwell is worth a desperation waivers add.

Sam Darnold suffers another big game collapse. Surely Darnold won't instantly get exposed the second the lights get bright, anddddddddddd he is instantly exposed. Darnold's scoreless Rams tilt being accompanied by four picks was the definition of too on brand." Perhaps the only difference between this collapse and his 2024 fiascos is that the Seahawks still almost won the game. It was no thanks to the quarterback, who needs to hope other teams lack the personnel and coaching sophistication to implement the plan Sean McVay keeps running to perfection to shut Darnold down. As for fantasy, the implosion shatters all hope Darnold will be leaned on for more attempts down the stretch. He remains a pick your spots" QB2 streamer who has to get home on efficiency rather than volume.

RJ Harvey latest victim of Sean Payton rug pull. The good news: Harvey was on the field for 38-of-62 plays, good for a season high snap percentage, by far. The bad: Jaleel McLaughlin somehow returned and was the featured option in the red zone. You live, you (re-)learn. Payton simply has a chemical aversion to making things easy, either for himself or fantasy managers. McLaughlin has spent years proving he ain't it." It just doesn't matter, because in Payton's eyes, Harvey apparently hasn't proven anything. Maybe,just maybe, the ol' ball coach will rethink things during the Broncos' Week 12 bye, but in his mind, he's 9-2 and a genius. Harvey is a low-end RB2 and a dart throw, though he will admittedly have the upside for more vs. Washington's awful defense.

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Five More Week 11 Storylines

We see Shedeur Sanders, if ever so briefly. He's the biggest name in football - who never plays and probably isn't good. Sunday against the Ravens was certainly the rudest possible welcome to the NFL" moment the young man could have envisioned. Facing a resurgent Baltimore defense, Sanders completed 4-of-16passes for 47 yards while throwing a ghastly pick and somehow losing 27 combined yards on his two sacks. That latter fact is the most scary. A known pocket departer always trying to extend plays, Sanders lacks the athleticism to evade NFL EDGE alphas. If he doesn't get rid of the ball or go down after only one spin, he is going to take drive-ending sacks basically every time he gets pressured. It's one of many reasons coach Kevin Stefanski immediately confirmed he will be sticking with Dillon Gabriel for Week 12 as long as he clears the concussion protocol. Sanders is a fascinating story nevertheless going nowhere fast in 2025 fantasy.

Jacoby Brissett and Michael Wilson go insano mode in 2012 Lions-style loss. A career arc Sanders would do well to emulate? Brissett, who paid his dudes as a backup, spent a few years as a pseudo starter, and is now an elder statesman backup. A throwback to the Eli Manning past, Brissett does not lose his nerve in the face of negative game script or oncoming pass rushers. He throws - and throws some more. That's how you get a 32-year-old backup journeyman setting the single game record for completions.It's how you get Michael Wilson suddenly exploding for a bigger afternoon than Marvin Harrison Jr. has ever had. It's how you get Flacco 2.0 in your streamer or superflex spots. Brissett is the kind of fantasy comet that always burns out, but we can ride it for the fantasy playoffs with the Cardinals lacking other options (I.E. a running game) and Brissett having only one mode - throw first, think later.

Brock Purdy looks good in return. Ricky Pearsall, not so much. Purdy entered Sunday having played eight football games in the past calendar year. He exited it having not missed a beat, completing 19 throws for 200 yards and three scores and finishing as the QB5 on the week despite a non-competitive contest. That's a touchdown total Mac Jones reached twice in eight starts. Not bad, but not Purdy. It came in spite of Pearsall, who continued his career-long inconsistency with a one-catch, zero-yard outing on a disappointing three targets. Pearsall has largely proven incapable of contributing when players like George Kittle and Jauan Jennings are healthy, and they both are right now. Purdy can be fired up for Week 12 against the surprisingly feisty Panthers. Pearsall, not so much.

Bryce Young plays the game of his NFL life. And we do mean feisty for the Panthers. The one thing you can say for Young's young, disappointing career is that the greater the adversity, the more he seems to dial in. Sunday's problem arrived in the form of a painful ankle injury. It was no matter as Young set the Panthers franchise recordfor passing yards against a Falcons defense that had previously been amongst the league's stingiest through the air. He did it by locking onto his young weapons, finally spiking a week for Tetairoa McMillan and striking up connections with Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker. Once seemingly destined to be a mega-bust, Legette has at least succeeded in achieving WR4 relevance. Coker, an end-of-bench WR5 stash. Young's momentum" has had a way of lasting only as long as the next week's opponent. San Francisco? Well, they just allowed a Young-ian yardage total to Jacoby Brissett. Young is firmly back in the streamer mix.

Awful Calvin Ridley season ends with broken leg. It would be inaccurate to say nothing" has gone right for Ridley since his one truly good season in 2020. He did get paid, after all, and somehow backdoored a pair of additional 1,000-yard efforts. But no one is going to sit here and tell you things have gone right." It's all been wrong in 2025, right down to Ridley's Week 11 return from a five-week absence ending almost literally immediately with a season-ending leg break. We would speculate on who might pick up the slack in Ridley's absence, but we already know the answer from Weeks 7-10: No one. This is a broken offense with precisely zero upside. You weren't starting Ridley, and you won't be starting any of the players left behind in his aftermath.

Questions

1. Why does Nick Sirianni keep trying to lose via late fourth-down decisions and why is no one else taking him up on the offer?

2. Would you say in hindsight it was a massive red flag that J.J. McCarthy asked Justin Jefferson not to give up on him" in Week 1?

3. Could Sam Darnold at least inject some drama into his choke jobs?

Early Waivers Look (Players rostered in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues)

QB: Jacoby Brissett (vs. JAX), Bryce Young (@SF), Trevor Lawrence (@AZ), Justin Fields (@BAL)
RB: Emanuel Wilson, Kenneth Gainwell, Chris Rodriguez Jr., Bhayshul Tuten, Tyler Allgeier, Tyjae Spears, Sean Tucker, Devin Singletary, Ollie Gordon II
WR: Michael Wilson, Alec Pierce, Christian Watson, Jayden Higgins, Xavier Legette, Greg Dortch, Josh Palmer, Mack Hollins, Jalen Coker, Adonai Mitchell, Pat Bryant
TE: Dalton Schultz, Colston Loveland, Juwan Johnson, Harold Fannin, Mason Taylor, AJ Barner
DEF: Browns (@LV), Bears (vs. PIT), Jaguars (@AZ), Raiders (vs. CLE), 49ers (vs. CAR), Saints (vs. ATL)

Stats of the Week

RB2. That was Sean Tucker's Week 11 PPR finish. Bucky Irving appears poised to return for Week 12, but considering the marathon nature of his absence, it's reasonable to believe he could be paired with Tucker to take some of the pressure off his knee and shoulder on early downs.

Drops, of course, were a factor, but J.J. McCarthy was 4-for-16 on passes 10-plus yards past the line of scrimmage." There are a million different stats that tell the tale of McCarthy's second-year struggles, but he is simply not making the throws.

One. That's how many more touchdowns (three) Keon Coleman has than disciplinary benchings (two) this season. This is how you approach the opportunity to play with Josh Allen?

Awards Section

Week 11 Fantasy All-Pro Team:QB Josh Allen, RB Christian McCaffrey, TreVeyon Henderson, WR Tetairoa McMillan, WR Nico Collins, WR Michael Wilson, TE Trey McBride

Week 11 All Bank Examiner Squad:QB Justin Herbert, RB RJ Harvey, RB Kimani Vidal, WR Ja'Marr Chase, WR Ladd McConkey, WR Khalil Shakir, TE Cade Otton

The Somehow Gets Dumber Every Week Award:The tush push. This is especiallytrue for non-Eagles tush pushes, which can only really be described as tight end performance art."

Tweet of the Week, from @Jaguars:CURDS ACTIVATED @culvers | #LACvsJAX

The Why Can't You Just Be Normal Award:The Chargers being the lone team to suffer a blowout loss in the 1PM ET window.

The It's Not Too Late Award:The Packers re-hiring Mike McCarthy.