Week 16 Booms and Busts: Josh Allen posts worst fantasy football score since 2018 with trips to the championship round on the line
- - Week 16 Booms and Busts: Josh Allen posts worst fantasy football score since 2018 with trips to the championship round on the line
Scott Pianowski December 22, 2025 at 2:21 AM
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Josh Allen is probably the best offensive player in football. He might be the best player in the NFL, period. Obviously he’s the reigning MVP, and he has an outside shot to win it again for 2025. The Buffalo Bills ride or die with this Hall of Fame-tracking player.
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But in Week 16, the semifinals of the fantasy playoffs, Allen was just another guy struggling to put up points.
Buffalo will take the ugly 23-20 win at Cleveland, that’s for sure. No givebacks, no apologies. But Allen was a complimentary piece for this one, throwing for just 130 yards and failing to account for a touchdown. He scored fewer than seven points in Yahoo standard leagues, his worst fantasy score (not counting cameo games) since 2018, his rookie year.
The poor performance had a lot of root causes. Allen obviously isn’t playing with special receiving talent — there’s no one to drag him to passing glory, no one taking the top off the defense. Dawson Knox dropped a catchable pass in the end zone. Khalil Shakir was the best of the wideouts, and had just 34 yards on five targets. Keon Coleman wasn’t even active, a lost sophomore season.
Allen’s most talented offensive teammate is James Cook, and he and Allen generally can’t score at the same time. Cook rushed 16 times for 117 yards and two scores, including a 44-yard jaunt. When Cook gets rolling, it’s often at the expense of Allen’s fantasy score. Cook has a modest 32 catches for the year, that’s not Buffalo’s primary pitch.
Allen also had a foot injury in the first half, necessitating X-rays. He was cleared to return to the game, but the Bills managed just 62 yards in the second half. This was one of those games where you huff and puff to the finish line, do just enough to win and exhale. Not everything is a Picasso — sometimes you need to draw something on the Etch-A-Sketch.
Most leads are going to stand up against the Cleveland offense, which doesn’t offer much pushback these days. Rookie back Quinshon Judkins has been in a two-month funk (coinciding with Cleveland’s cluster injuries on the offensive line), and he broke his fibula in the middle of Sunday’s game. Judkins struggled to 22 yards on eight carries, checked by a Buffalo rushing defense that’s been exposed by most other opponents. At least Judkins tacked on 5-29-0 receiving before his unfortunate injury.
Harold Fannin Jr. is the undeniable offensive star for the Browns, and turned five touches into a pair of touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving). Imagine what he could do with a bona fide quarterback. Alas, Shedeur Sanders (two picks, 64.9 rating, 5.4 YPA) did not resemble a credible starter on Sunday.
Maybe Allen and friends will find themselves in a shootout next week against the Eagles. Then again, the Eagles don’t have much to play for, so that could also complicate the assignment.
While Allen has been a star for a long time, this Trevor Lawrence stardom stuff is fairly new. Expectations were reopened during the summer, with Liam Coen taking over the offense and exciting WR Brian Thomas Jr. entering his second year. But Lawrence was fairly erratic for most of the first two months, leaving some to close his file for good.
Fast forward to December, where Lawrence has become one of the breakout stars of the league. He had a six-touchdown explosion last week against the Jets — en route to the rare 40-plus point game — and he backed that up nicely with a signature game against the vaunted Broncos on Sunday. Lawrence produced four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) and chased up to 31.16 points by the end of the day.
Going off against a defense like Denver is a validating performance. The Jaguars seem to have the pieces in place for Lawrence to succeed — Thomas is healthy again, Brenton Strange has come back and produced, Jakobi Meyers was a smart acquisition, Travis Etienne Jr. has surprised the world. And when Lawrence doesn’t have something downfield, he’s proven to be a resourceful scrambler.
Lawrence has now beaten his projection in 10 of 11 games. The points should keep flowing next week at Indianapolis, and the Jaguars will be a difficult out in the NFL playoffs.
Other Week 16 Booms
I didn’t expect the Chargers to be an aerial circle at Dallas, and that fit the script — Justin Herbert attempted just 29 passes. But that was enough to rack up 300 passing yards and two touchdowns, and he also scrambled for 42 more yards and a third score. The Cowboys' pass rush has been invisible for weeks — they had zero sacks for the second straight game. Omarion Hampton (16-85-1) took control of the LAC backfield, while Kimani Vidal was rarely used (5-11-0) after exiting due to a neck injury.
Dak Prescott was good, not great, on the other side (244 passing yards, two scores). George Pickens came back to the living after a few off weeks (7-130-1). CeeDee Lamb was less involved (6-51-0), as it’s hard to have both receivers come in at the same time. Dallas gets a favorable Washington draw next week.
The Saints backfield didn’t have an actionable right answer this week, as Taysom Hill had one of his unpredictable hybrid games (16 touches, plus a touchdown pass). But Tyler Shough was solid for another week, and the ball went where fantasy managers wanted — Chris Olave had a 10-148-2 explosion (Hill threw one of the TDs) and Juwan Johnson was useful with his 8-89-0 log. The Saints' passing game is credible in front of Tennessee next week.
Tony Pollard (21-102-0) was effective for the third straight week, though he had to share more than usual with Tyjae Spears (18 touches, 105 yards, one touchdown). Cam Ward posted a solid 8.4 YPA and didn’t have any many negative plays (no turnovers, just two sacks). Rookie WR Chimere Dike (3-40-1) will be a fun sleeper pick next year.
It’s hard to trust the Pittsburgh passing game, given modest volume — Aaron Rodgers can throw for more 200 yards but he never passes 300. The passing game seems to use 27 tight ends, too. But two Pittsburgh running backs came in at Detroit — Jaylen Warren (14-143-2) had two long touchdown runs and Kenneth Gainwell shined in the passing game, en route to 128 total yards, five catches and a score. The Browns defense has started to lose steam, which puts Warren and Gainwell in play for Week 16.
Comeback mode was good to Jared Goff (364 passing yards, three touchdowns) and Jahmyr Gibbs (10-66-1 receiving, nothing as a runner). But David Montgomery was scripted off the field (four touches) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (4-54-0) and Jameson Williams (5-70-0) underperformed, given they didn’t score a touchdown. The Detroit carnival is still alive with the Lions clinging to playoff hopes even though it's extremely unlikely they make it. Expect points to flow at Minnesota next week, while fully respecting the challenging Brian Flores defensive scheme.
If you saw Ashton Jeanty’s career game coming against the ballyhooed Houston defense, you’re a legend. Please share the winning lottery numbers. Jeanty finally got untracked on the ground (24-128-1), including a 51-yard scoring rush. And while the Raiders largely ignored him as a pass-catcher (that’s been Jeanty’s salvation of late), he added a 60-yard touchdown catch. The Raiders couldn’t finish off Houston, but at least they looked like a competitive outfit. Jeanty gets the green light next week against the Giants.
Other Week 16 Busts
After nine glorious weeks of garbage time, the Arizona offense finally crapped out. Jacoby Brissett struggled against an ordinary Falcons defense (203 passing yards, one touchdown, one pick, 6.5 YPA), and most of the key Cardinals did not produce as expected. Brissett tried to get Trey McBride going, it didn’t work (4-27-0, eight targets). Only three passes were aimed at the enigmatic Marvin Harrison Jr., just one was complete (1-14-0). Michael Wilson had a 32-yard touchdown and a 20-yard catch but that was it, on three paltry targets. Michael Carter cobbled together 65 yards on 11 carries, not a brick but not much help, either.
If you played Brissett or McBride or even Wilson, I get it. They’ve been so reliable. When something happens for two months in a row, you start to trust it. Sometimes you do the right thing and it just doesn’t work out. The other team gets paid, too.
The less we say about the Kansas City offense, the better. Obviously Patrick Mahomes and Rashee Rice were not available, and Gardner Minshew was injured in the loss at Tennessee. The Chiefs managed just nine first downs and 133 total yards against one of the worst teams in football. There are no right answers here.
Source: “AOL Sports”
