NFL Today: Jacksonville’s Amazing Turnaround

This week, Cleveland axed head coach Kevin Stefanski after four losing records in six seasons with him at the helm; after another disappointing season in Atlanta, both head coach Raheem Morris and GM Terry Fontenot were shown the door; and the Giants – despite struggling through a third straight losing season – have opted to retain GM Joe Shoen. Other Fantasy football stories we’re tracking include…

Brenton Strange Making Strides

After their season debut, we suggested that the Jacksonville Jaguars looked like a far better team than the one that crashed and burned in 2024. But, we didn’t see them reversing their record to finish 13-4 thanks to massive improvements on both sides of the ball and an impressive eight-game win streak to end the schedule.

The result is that Jacksonville won the AFC South and is back in the postseason for the first time since 2022, hosting Buffalo in the early game on Sunday.

One of the many bright spots on this offense has been the development of third year tight end Brenton Strange. Despite missing five games with a hip woe, he enjoyed a career season with 540 yards receiving on 60 targets. On Sunday, he hauled in all six of his targets to match his season-best in receptions, topping 50 yards for the fifth time while catching his third TD of the year – all within the last six games.

One of several receiving options the Jags have collected for QB Trevor Lawrence (including Parker Washington, Brian Thomas Jr., Jakobi Meyers, Travis Etienne Jr., Dyami Brown, and Travis Hunter Jr.), Strange has developed into a useful streaming option since returning from injury (especially with Hunter out for the year).

Coming out of Penn State, Strange was projected to ultimately become an average starter thanks to his toughness and athleticism. Consider him a top four TE option for Wildcard Weekend.

Finding Hope in the Big Easy

After Week One, we thought the New Orleans Saints could be a bit better than expected. And sure enough, driven by big gains on defense, they improved slightly, gaining one win over 2024 to finish 6-11.

But behind that meh record was a story of a team that looked pretty good down the stretch. Before its close loss to Atlanta in Week 18, New Orleans had rhymed off four straight wins.

And while the Saint offense looked even worse this year, there was a big glimmer of hope in quarterback Tyler Shough, whose strong performance in the second half made him a candidate to win AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honours (+2200 as per FanDuel).

When he was in college, he made steady work of the transfer protocol, ultimately winding up as a sixth year senior at Louisville, where his breakout season prompted New Orleans to take him in the second round (40th overall) in last year’s NFL draft.

Shough had only thrown two passes before we took over as the starter in Week Nine, and showed steady improvement from that point on, really hitting his stride in December when he completed 71.1 per cent of his passes for over 1,050 yards with four TDs against just one pick.

He wasn’t at his best in the season finale, but wound up hurling 10 TD passes against six picks in 11 games overall (with five TDs and just one interception over the final four weeks). If Shough had played the entire season, there’s a very good chance he would be walking away as the Offensive Rookie of the Year. He finished the season with 25th highest average Fantasy points per game among QBs, and you can argue that he had the best performance of any QB from the 2025 draft class.

The bottom line is that it seems the Saints have their starting quarterback for 2026.

RotoRob Tune of the Day

Before they formed Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, founders Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes were high school friends, with Hayes ultimately moving in with the Been family given his less than ideal home life. In 2010, they released their sixth album, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo, and among the deep cuts from this effort is “Aya.”