Best:
Aaron Rodgers, Quarterback Green Bay Packers
There's a reason why he's one of the elite quarterbacks in all of football. This, after a slow start for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense. They looked out of sync for a while at the start of the season, but now it appears that they have found there groove again. Green Bay came away with a 38-25 win over Minnesota over the weekend, allowing them to stay on pace with the Detroit Lions for the NFC North crown! Rodgers was back to his mercurial best against the Vikings, completing 73.7 percent of his passes, despite three drops from his receivers. He finished the day going 28 of 38 for 347 yards and four, yes four, touchdowns. Under pressure, his passer rating was 139.2. Oh yeah, it was Rodgers third time this year that he has thrown for four touchdowns and his 13th multi-scoring effort of the year. He will take on the Lions in week 17 as he tries to march Green Bay into their eighth consecutive postseason appearance.
Worst:
Matt Barkley, Quarterback Chicago Bears
People have been really believing in Matt Barkley to help turn the Bears around after what was going on with Jay Cutler. Well, I'm sorry to have to say it but it looks like the Matt Barkley hype train came skidding off the rails in spectacular fashion in Week 16. Barkley’s touchdown-to-interception ratio this year has always been a little harsh on his performance, given the play of his receivers, but this week, it was entirely fair, as he threw five picks. Yeah, that's not good. He finished the day going 24 of 40 for 323 yards and two touchdowns to go along with those five picks, in a Bears 41-21 loss to Washington. There was the occasional flash of nice play, but this was the poor game that he had previously avoided in his run of starting games this year, and probably removes any shot he had at fighting for a starting spot in 2017.
Best:
David Johnson, Running Back Arizona Cardinals
If you didn't know it already, David Johnson of the Cardinals is kinda good. For the 15th straight game, he racked up 100 or more yards from scrimmage in the Cards 34-31 win over the Seahawks in Seattle, which is a very tough thing to be able to do. Johnson had a huge day once again, finishing with 136 total yards on the day. He had 28 carries for 95 yards and three touchdowns. To make his day better, he added 4 receptions for another 41 yards. Johnson is the first back since Barry Sanders in 1997 to total 100 yards in 15 games and the only player to do it in 15 consecutive. Last week Johnson topped Edgerrin James’ 13-game streak, setting an NFL record with 14 such performances in a row, and with Saturday’s performance, he added his 15th.
Worst:
New York Jets
There's no real easy way to say this but here it goes. The New York Jets flat out and out suck. They get blasted by the New England Patriots 41-3 and showed no life what so ever against New England. It was an embarrassing thing to really look at. New York got no really offense at all in this football game, finished with 136 passing yards and 111 yards on the ground. Tom Brady finished with 214 yards passing. he came up 33 yards short of the entire Jets offense all by himself, which is a sad statement to make if your the Jets. That game was just embarrassing and something needs to be done with this Jets team because this clearly isn't working
Best:
Cleveland Browns
It's only happened once in the history of football. The 2008 Detroit Lions were the only team ever to go winless on the year, finishing the season 0-16. Cleveland came into the game on Sunday against the Chargers, sitting at a record of 0-14. But that's where the winlessness stopped. Cleveland picked up their first victory of the season, pulling out a 20-17 win over the San Diego Chargers. The Browns narrowly avoided infamy as Chargers’ kicker, Josh Lambo, pushed a kick wide right in the closing seconds of Saturday’s contest. With the celebration that ensued, it was as if the Browns were headed to the Super Bowl. They will try for their second win of the year when they close out the season in Pittsburgh.
Worst:
Minnesota Vikings Defensive Backs
Not only did the Vikings’ secondary get picked apart by Rodgers and Nelson, it was of their own volition. Rodgers threw for 347 yards, while Nelson caught 154 of those yards. Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer had a game plan in place for this one against the Packers, but the defense collectively decided to stick to their sides, instead of their assignments. Nelson shredded the Vikings’ secondary for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. In what was supposed to be a whole game of Xavier Rhodes shadowing Nelson, turned into just the second half, in which he was held to just two catches for nine yards. By the time the Vikings made an adjustment, the damage had been done. The concern is growing in Minnesota, leading many to question, “What is going on?”
Best:
Adam Thielen, Wide Receiver Minnesota Vikings
As a whole, this week wasn't exactly a very fun one for the Minnesota Vikings. There was one big bright spot for the Vikings was Adam Thielen, who went off in the Vikings loss to the Packers. Thielen was thrown at 14 times, catching 12 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns against a porous Green Bay secondary. Those 202 receiving yards were tops for any pass catcher in the league this week, 31 more then the next top receiver, Doug Baldwin of the Seahawks. Thielen spent the day victimizing Quinten Rollins, in particular, destroying the second-year corner with a succession of double moves to get open. He was also overthrown in the end zone by Sam Bradford on what could have been a third touchdown score. Yeah that's a pretty good day.
Worst:
Quarterback Injuries
Talk about a bad week to play Quarterback in the National Football League. Two of the NFL’s best, and most promising, young arms suffer season ending injuries. Oddly enough, both Derek Carr of the Raiders and Marcus Mariota of the Titans, were forced from their respective games on Saturday with broken fibulas. Matt Cassel took over for Mariota in the Titans’ loss to the Jaguars and is expected to start in Tennessee’s season finale with Houston. With Carr out, Matt McGloin came in and held the Raiders’ lead over Indianapolis. McGloin is expected to fill-in under center for the Raiders in week 17 and throughout the postseason. The injury to Carr is seen as a major hit to Oakland’s chances of winning in the playoffs.
Best:
Jay Ajayi, Running Back Miami Dolphins
He started his career off like a house of fire, then seemed to cool off a bit. Now Jay Ajayi is back to those dominating ways once again. Miami's new stud back went off in a 34-31 win over the Buffalo Bills. This was the most evident case of him carrying the Dolphins on his back this season. Not only did Ajayi rack up 206 rushing yards on 32 carries, but 143 of those yards came after contact. Oh yeah, Jay came up big when the team needed him to save this game from reaching a seemingly inevitable tie in overtime. Ajayi rattled off another big gain deep in overtime before forcing his way for another couple of good carries to set up the easy winning kick.
Worst:
Tracy Porter, Cornerback Chicago Bears
Lets face the facts here, its been a tough year for the Bears this season. Chicago got spanked 41-21 by the redskins and Tracy Porter was a big victim in this ballgame. Porter surrendered four catches for 157 yards, meaning, on average, he was beaten for almost 40 yards per reception by Washington receivers. Porter was also flagged for defensive pass interference on a deep ball intended for DeSean Jackson in order to prevent another huge gain that would have made those numbers look even worse, and he missed a pair of tackles after the catch. That my friends is a day to forget.
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