The Saints vs 49ers game ended with an outrageous 94 points scored, leading to great fantasy results for each team’s QB (1st and 10th), and WR1 (3rd and 8th). That was the highlight of high-scoring fantasy day leaguewide.

Sharp Football Betting Package
Take 15% off NFL Betting + Props

Drew Brees had a vintage ceiling performance, going 29/40 for 349/5/0 and adding another TD on a one-yard QB sneak (40.1 points). This is his first time eclipsing 25 on the season, though he did miss some time with a thumb injury, which he has fully recovered from. With gadget-player Taysom Hill always a threat to steal valuable QB snaps and red zone work, Brees has not been an elite fantasy QB for over a season. Just last week, Hill had two TDs against the Falcons, scoring 18.5 while Brees only managed 11.3 fantasy points.

Brees is not the only casualty of Hill’s usefulness in coach Sean Payton’s play-calling; Alvin Kamara has not scored a TD since Week 3 when he scored his only two of the season thus far. As for Brees, in spite of his fall from the top-tier, he still ranks second in completion percentage (74%) and fourth in QBR. He has the top WR in the game with Michael Thomas and has found strong chemistry with his new TE Jared Cook who has scored double-digit points in each of the last seven weeks with six TDs in that time.

Next, we have Jameis Winston, who salvaged a good-Jameis week after starting out as bad-Jameis with an interception on his first throw. He completed 33-of-45 attempts for 456/4/3 and five yards and a TD on six rush attempts, his best fantasy day all-time (34.7 points). Winston is a prime example of a QB who is much better for fantasy than reality. Whereas most fantasy-friendly QBs produce more based on efficiency than attempts, Winston bucks that trend. He is second in attempts, TDs, and passing yards, but he is 37th in completion percentage and 31st in QBR. He has thrown an unfortunate 23 INTs, eight more than second-place Baker Mayfield.

Winston’s high number of attempts has helped his stud WRs, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, to fifth and second in fantasy points at the position. While he is technically underperforming his expectation (first in expected points / seventh points per game), his production is likely benefiting from his mistakes. He digs himself and his team in a hole and is forced to throw his way out of it, which leads to these shootouts and large yardage totals. Plus, he has utilized his legs more this season, sitting at seventh in rushing yards among QBs. He wouldn’t be my top choice for a franchise QB but I’d be happy to roll with Winston any week in fantasy. Note that Mike Evans left the game with a hamstring injury and is questionable. Winston has spread the ball around more in recent weeks, but his outlook is diminished without Evans.

In third place, we have another participant in the shootout at the Superdome. Emmanual Sanders went 7/159/1 on nine targets and added a 35-yard throwing TD on a trick play (34.1 points). Since arriving in San Francisco via trade after Week 7, he has shown great chemistry with Jimmy Garoppolo and produced two strong scores, his other being 24.2 points in Week 9. The 49ers passing game has greatly improved since acquiring Sanders, but he is not a consistent beneficiary.

George Kittle is the team’s top receiving option, and arguably the top TE in football. Additionally, rookie Deebo Samuel has emerged as an explosive option and reliable fantasy asset, averaging 15.1 points per game since Week 8 compared to only 8.1 previously. Garoppolo’s improvement is also stark, as he averaged 15.5 before Sanders arrived, now 23.2 since. The 49ers traded for Sanders in hopes to improve their pass game for a Super Bowl run and so far it has paid off in spades.

The fourth-highest scorer this week was rookie A.J. Brown of the Tennessee Titans, who had 5/153/2 on only seven targets and rushed once for 13 yards (33.6 points). He has shown flashes of brilliance, having now managed three WR1 performances this season and rewarding best-ball drafters. He has scored over 23 points in all three, two of which have come in the last three weeks with passes coming from QB Ryan Tannehill, who I wrote up last week.

Much like the aforementioned fellow rookie, Deebo Samuel, who ranks 4th in YAC per reception with 7.3, Brown has made the most of his opportunities to the tune of second in YAC per reception with 9.5. In the three games where Brown had his best results, he was only received targets of 3,5,7 respectively. The other 77% of his games ended with him as a WR3. With the ball in his hands, he is second-best in the league this year, but he is not receiving the volume necessary to be a reliable starter in fantasy. The Titans have become very similar to the Ravens with Tannehill at QB: high efficiency with low volume. The boom weeks will happen but they have been tough to predict up to this point. If Brown becomes a more featured part of the offense in the future, his recent results suggest he could likely be a top 10 WR.

Lastly, we have Mitchell Trubisky, who out-dueled Dak Prescott on Thursday night. He completed 23 of 31 attempts for 244/3/1, adding 10/63/1 rushing (32.1 points). Many had been wondering why Trubisky had not been utilizing his legs after much success doing so last year. It was the main contributor to his success in both fantasy and real life. After looking anemic for most of the year, the Bears offense has finally begun clicking since Week 10. Trubisky was on Millionaire-Maker winning lineups at least three times last season, but was making a strong case to be benched earlier this year with four games below 10 fantasy points.

His rush attempts are trending upward and his fantasy scores have followed suit, with four of his last five coming in as QB1 performances of 18.9 or higher. I’d prefer to take a wait and see approach in this case, as this was the first game where he gained over 18 yards on the ground, but he now has two rushing TDs in his last three games which does give me optimism. He ranks outside of the top 15 in every metric, but he has at least returned to worthy start consideration and shown that he still possesses 30+ point upside.