Fantasy Football Week 12: Top 5 Thanksgiving Performances

By Vincent Frank on November 23, 2012

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday. It is one of my personal favorites. Football, food, beer, friends and family. A guy couldn't ask for much more. 

Here is my look at the top fantasy-related performances from Thursday's slate of games. 

Tom Brady, Quarterback, New England Patriots

Brady has now thrown 14 touchdowns compared to zero interceptions in his last five games, all wins by the Patriots. He picked apart a talented New York Jets secondary to the tune of 323 yards and four touchdowns. In the process, Brady compiled an awe-inspisring 31.4 fantasy points. 

New England put up 35 points in the second quarter, three scores coming from Brady. He hit Shane Vereen on an 83-yarder as well as Julian Edelman for 56 yards in that quarter. Brady is averaging a robust 22 fantasy points per outing this season. 

Andre Johnson, Wide Receiver, Houston Texans

After putting up a whopping 273 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars just four days earlier, Johnson tallied another 188 receiving yards on Thanksgiving and now owns a two-game NFL record with 461 yards in the last four days. That is simply amazing. Despite another solid performance, Johnson didn't approach the top five in terms of fantasy production because he failed to score a touchdowns. Regardless, this performance needs to be noted. 

Robert Griffin III, Quarterback, Washington Redskins

RGIII became the first rookie quarterback in NFL history to throw four touchdown passes in two consecutive games when he lit up the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday. Equally as impressive, he is the first Redskins' quarterback to accomplish this feat. 

Overall, RGII tallied 311 yards on 20-for-28 passing. Over the course of his last two games, the talented young quarterback has completed nearly 80 percent of his passes with eight touchdowns and one interception in his last two games, accumulating a 146.1 quarterback rating in the process. Barring a huge game from Drew Brees or Aaron Rodgers on Sunday, RGIII will maintain his status as the No. 1 overall fantasy performer through 12 weeks. 

Tony Romo, Quarterback, Dallas Cowboys

Despite throwing two interceptions and losing a game that Dallas needed, Romo helped out his fantasy owners a great deal on Thursday. He put the ball up a whopping 62 times and compiled 441 passing yards in route to a three touchdown performance. After this 28 point performance, he is averaging nearly 20 fantasy points in his last four games. 

Dez Bryant, Wide Receiver, Dallas Cowboys

Well, Bryant might be on his way to actually living up to that WR1 billing. He has now put up 20 receptions for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns in his last two games after tallying 145 and two on Thursday against Washington. All of a sudden, Bryant is sixth among wide receiver in fantasy points this season. 

He now goes up against a couple lackluster pass defenses in the form of the Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals in the next two weeks. I would venture a guess and say that these performances will probably be repeated during that span.