Immediate fantasy football takeaways from NFL Week 12 Monday Night Football

The Washington Football Team defeated the Seattle Seahawks 17-15 to finish off Week 12 on Monday Night Football.

Washington had both Logan Thomas and Curtis Samuel returning from injury, which helped the Football Team put together multiple double-digit play drives that led to scores. Seattle's offense struggled all evening outside of the last minutes of the game and two long passes to Tyler Lockett. D.K. Metcalf didn't catch a pass for the first 59 minutes of the game, which highlighted the Seahawks' deficiencies on offense.

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Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties like offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.
• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.

Seattle Seahawks at Washington Football Team

• J.D. McKissic: 7 carries, 30 yards, 1 TD, 5 receptions, 26 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD (31.3% threat rate)
• Tyler Lockett: 3 receptions, 96 yards (20.2 aDOT)

Monitor J.D. McKissic‘s injury: McKissic took a knee to the head late in the fourth quarter and needed the cart to exit the field. Hopefully, he is OK. If he misses time, we could see Jaret Patterson in McKissic’s role. It was a small sample size, but after McKissic left, Antonio Gibson continued his early-down work while Patterson played more on the later downs. Regardless of how the snaps are distributed, Patterson is a waiver-wire target if McKissic’s injury is serious.

Washington was getting healthier at running back prior to McKissic's injury. Gibson was limited in practice, as he has been for over a month with a shin injury, but you wouldn’t notice from his play. He gained 111 yards on 29 carries and caught seven passes for 35 yards. Both his number of carries and total receptions were career highs. Patterson typically gives Gibson more of a break on early downs, but that wasn’t needed until the fourth quarter after the potential Pro Bowl running back touched the ball 28 times. 

Gibson managers probably weren’t happy that McKissic scored two touchdowns while the former third-round pick didn’t, but it was good to see him used more than in any other game in his career.

A broken Seattle backfield: Seattle already lost Chris Carson for the season and didn’t have Rashaad Penny or Travis Homer tonight. This left Alex Collins as the early-down back and DeeJay Dallas as the receiving back. Collins averaged two yards per carry, and his most notable play was a fumble. Most of Dallas' yards came in the final three minutes. It would be best to avoid Seattle running backs for the rest of the season, as the touches will only be split more once Penny or Homer is healthy. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Seahawks invest in a new running back this offseason.

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Logan Thomas‘ return: Washington’s 2020 breakout tight end last played in Week 4 after scoring two touchdowns in the Football Team’s first three games. Ricky Seals-Jones took over when Thomas was out, but Seals-Jones missed Monday's game with an injury. Washington typically gives its lead tight end close to 100% of the team's offensive snaps, but that didn’t happen tonight, as Thomas was on a pitch count. He still played most of the snaps and caught three passes for 31 yards. He is potentially a starting fantasy tight end the rest of the way, but that will depend on how Washington uses the tight ends once Seals-Jones is healthy again.

Curtis Samuel‘s return: Samuel was Washington’s high-priced free-agent addition on offense, but he only played in 30 offensive snaps prior to tonight. Samuel was on a much stricter snap count than Thomas. He was part of a five-man rotation for the wide receivers opposite Terry McLaurin. Chances are Washington will continue to ease him in the rest of the season, making it unlikely he will be on fantasy radars the rest of the season. Ideally, he will be healthy and a full-time starter in 2022.