Fantasy Football: 5 Things We Learned in Week 11

Lamar Jackson Can Seriously Run

Perhaps the craziest thing to happen all weekend went down in this week's divisional matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens' starting quarterback, Joe Flacco, was sidelined for this week, which gave the team a perfect chance to start the 32nd pick in this year's NFL Draft -- Lamar Jackson.

Jackson -- owner of the seventh-most yards in a single season in college football history -- was a bit of an enigma heading into yesterday's game. He'd seen occasional gadget usage so far this season, but we hadn't seen much out of him as a passer in the regular season.

Well, after Jackson's start Sunday, we still haven't seen much from him as a passer -- he attempted just 19 passes, the third-fewest this week -- but what we did see was encouraging. He did not log a touchdown pass and did throw an interception, but he managed a decent 68.4% completion percentage and a solid 7.89 yards per pass attempt. Not bad for a first start.

But what Jackson did on Sunday that was truly remarkable is what he did with his legs. Jackson rushed the ball 27 times in the victory, the most for a quarterback in any single game since at least 1970. He took those carries for 117 yards, the 11th-most of any quarterback in that same time span.

It was a truly unique quarterback performance and exactly what we could have hoped for from one of the most special talents from this year's draft. Obviously, we can't expect Baltimore to give Jackson 27 carries in every game he starts -- not even elite running backs could hold up while taking that kind of a beating -- but yesterday's game showed that the Ravens weren't afraid to maximize Jackson's strengths.

If Flacco misses any more time -- and he's looking unlikely for Week 12 -- Jackson immediately becomes a QB1 option, especially for Week 12, when the Ravens host the Raiders.