play1:53Stephania Bell gives an in-depth look at Joe Burrow’s turf toe injuryStephania Bell uses virtual reality to analyze Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s turf toe injury.
play1:54Stephania Bell explains Michael Penix Jr.’s decision to undergo ACL surgeryStephania Bell breaks down Michael Penix Jr.’s decision to have surgery on his partially torn left ACL.
Stephania Bell gives an in-depth look at Joe Burrow’s turf toe injuryStephania Bell uses virtual reality to analyze Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s turf toe injury.
Stephania Bell explains Michael Penix Jr.’s decision to undergo ACL surgeryStephania Bell breaks down Michael Penix Jr.’s decision to have surgery on his partially torn left ACL.
Stephania Bell breaks down Michael Penix Jr.’s decision to have surgery on his partially torn left ACL.
Always insure your top RBs: Wilson shines as fill-in for Jacobs
Is Thanksgiving still Joe Burrow’s likeliest return date?
Which Bills, Texans players should be rostered going forward?
Beyond the numbers: What Stevenson’s return means for Henderson
Everything that happens in the NFL has additional context when viewed from a fantasy football perspective. From position battles to injuries and so much more, the news cycle will constantly affect player values in fantasy football.
Our Fantasy Football Buzz file, with contributions from our ESPN fantasy writers and our NFL Nation reporters, aims to provide fantasy managers with the intel they need as news breaks around the league.
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Emanuel Wilson’s 26.5 fantasy points on Sunday, a career-best number posted in his first NFL start as an injury fill-in for Josh Jacobs (knee), served a reminder of a critical fantasy football mantra: Always insure your top running backs for these important weeks of the season.
Wilson’s outburst isn’t alone in reiterating that point. Before him, Sean Tucker (34.0 fantasy points in Week 11) and Kyle Monangai (22.8, Week 9) were fill-in starters who enjoyed big scores, and TreVeyon Henderson (73.0 points in Weeks 9-11) proved the same in his three weeks as Rhamondre Stevenson’s stand-in, ultimately claiming the role for himself this week.
Keep Wilson on hand in your fantasy league, as there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing more of him in that Thanksgiving divisional showdown, though the matchup is challenging enough that he’d warrant your start only if the backfield is again all his.
Stephania Bell gives an in-depth look at Joe Burrow’s turf toe injury
Stephania Bell uses virtual reality to analyze Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s turf toe injury.
Burrow (turf toe) won’t be activated off IR for Week 12’s game against New England after putting in back-to-back full practices this Wednesday and Thursday, the first time he had done so since undergoing surgery in September. Burrow was limited on Friday, ceding the full reps to Joe Flacco. With the Bengals playing on Thanksgiving Day against Baltimore in Week 13, there are only three recovery days between their next two games, which factored into the decision to hold Burrow out on Sunday.
There is no question Burrow is ready to return as it relates to medical clearance. After all, his clearance to participate in practice last week was the first indication that his surgeon and the Bengals medical staff were satisfied he had met the criteria to begin football activity. His ability to practice all week and then ramp up to full practices this week shows he has checked all the boxes necessary to progressively increase his workload. So what’s left?
The final test is return to play, and, as with any return from injury, there is no way to fully replicate the demands of being chased by opposing defenses whose goal it is to bring a player to the ground or the endurance of four quarters of football.
But Burrow can help himself by avoiding the takedowns that would have him caught in a pile, particularly in a position that would reproduce the same stress that caused his initial turf toe injury. Burrow has proved he is ready to return, but taking all the factors into consideration surrounding his recovery, pushing it back to Thanksgiving and buying a little extra time makes sense.
With the news that Rhamondre Stevenson (toe) is expected to practice Wednesday, and perhaps return to action in Week 12, TreVeyon Henderson’s fantasy managers can’t help but let out a collective groan.
Henderson has been outstanding in his three starts filling in for Stevenson, totaling a third-best-among-running-backs 73.0 fantasy points and joining De’Von Achane, Christian McCaffrey, Travis Etienne Jr. and Kyren Williams as the only running backs to finish in the top 15 at the position in scoring each week. It’s a dramatic turnaround for the rookie, who totaled only 52.7 points in his 154 offensive snaps played across his first eight NFL games (he has played 156 snaps the past three weeks).
Tuck that away if you’re evaluating trades over the next week, as Henderson isn’t at all the sell-high candidate he might seem due to Stevenson’s impending return as well as the bye week stealing one of his six remaining weeks.
Stephania Bell explains Michael Penix Jr.’s decision to undergo ACL surgery
This isn’t to say that Wilson has now “Wally Pipp-ed” Jacobs in Green Bay, but Wilson proved effective enough on Sunday that the Green Bay Packers might feel more patient in working their veteran running back into the lineup, especially with the short week ahead of them heading into their 1 p.m. ET Thanksgiving Day game against the Detroit Lions. Wilson’s 107 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, 30 rushing yards over expected (per Next Gen Stats) and four explosive runs all matched or exceeded Jacobs’ best single-game numbers in 2025, and Wilson’s five missed tackles forced were within range of Jacobs’ 2025 single-game best of seven (Weeks 2, 6, 9 and 10).
Additionally, with the fantasy playoffs now two weeks away — they begin in Week 14 in ESPN standard leagues — insuring your most critical players is effectively mandatory, certainly so if you have the bench space to burn. Wilson, Tucker and Monangai are still must-stash running backs, and it’s important to also roster Tank Bigsby (Saquon Barkley’s backup), Tyler Allgeier (Bijan Robinson), Ray Davis (James Cook III), Blake Corum (Kyren Williams), Brian Robinson Jr. (Christian McCaffrey) and Ollie Gordon II (De’Von Achane), if you have their corresponding starter.
The concern with that type of stress so soon after returning might not be so much for the repair but rather for the risk of secondary injury as a result. An average recovery from turf toe repair — which includes reconstruction of the fibrous plantar plate that reinforces the joint at the base of the big toe — ranges from 10 to 14 weeks, if all goes well. In other words, range of motion at the big toe has to be adequately restored to allow for push-off, the calf strength has to be at least 90%+ of the opposite side, and the functional ability to play football has to be in place.
For Burrow to be this far along at just shy of 10 weeks is a testament to everyone involved in his case, but especially Burrow himself — his work ethic is well established. Reports out of practice indicate he looks like his pre-injury self and is throwing the ball well. One advantage for him was that his injury was to his left foot, not the right foot, where he would be required to drive the ball through his repaired toe. He also will likely be wearing a carbon-fiber insert that increases the rigidity of the shoe, particularly along the medial side, where the repair is, helping mitigate hyperextension stress.
James Cook III finished with 20 touches and 21.9 fantasy points, but even with Cook getting 17 rushing attempts, Ty Johnson continues to play a similar number of snaps and run a similar number of routes. As a result, Johnson keeps taking targets away, and he finished with three receptions for 45 yards. Johnson doesn’t carry standalone value, but he does cut into Cook’s upside and is the insurance back to roster in case Cook were to miss time, so he belongs on benches.
The Texans used single-receiver sets against the Bills more than they had in all of their previous games combined. Nico Collins remains a must-start, but Jayden Higgins should be rostered in more leagues after running the second-most routes among Houston’s wideouts on Thursday. Higgins has seen at least seven targets in three straight games and has scored 13 or more fantasy points in two of his last three.
Woody Marks dominated the Texans backfield in snaps played, routes run and touches (17). Nick Chubb finished with only seven touches. Over his last three games, Marks has averaged 17.3 touches per game. He’s the clear No. 1 in the Texans backfield.
Lamar Jackson finished with fewer than 10 fantasy points for a second consecutive week, totaling 7.22 against a much better matchup in the New York Jets than the one the week before (Cleveland Browns, and 4.72 points). It’s the first time since he took over as starter midway through 2018 that he has fallen short of that threshold in back-to-back games. Jackson has looked tentative on rushing plays the past two weeks, totaling only 21 yards on 11 rushing attempts in that time with an average speed of 9.3 mph, per Next Gen Stats (he averaged 13.6 in his first six games of 2025), which could point to the effects of the ankle issue that has hampered him during the practice week. A fully healthy Jackson is capable of carrying fantasy teams on his back, but that’s somewhat more in question now. Fortunately for him, he has a dream matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals up next, but he’ll need a big bounce-back score in that one in order to recapture his managers’ faith heading into our playoffs.
Fantasy managers love those high-scoring, overtime games, and the New York Giants-Detroit Lions meeting didn’t disappoint in that regard. The two teams accounted for four of the top five scoring totals, as well as a 55.4 point performance by Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs, tied for 12th-best all time at the position and tied for 22nd-best among all skill positions. Gibbs carved up the Giants’ defense for 145 more rushing yards than expected, four explosive runs and two clocked at least 20 mph. More than anything, the game continued to expose the Giants’ issues defending the run, and the Lions’ problems stopping the pass, things fantasy managers should tuck away for the upcoming playoff weeks. The next three weeks see Jordan Love, Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford as the Lions’ three opposing quarterbacks, while TreVeyon Henderson faces the Giants next week before New York hits its bye week.