One of the premier options at the quarterback position two weeks ago against the New Orleans Saints, Jameis Winston proved to be one of the season's bigger disappointments. This dud of a performance may have pushed him off of many players' radars, but he actually played quite well last week on Thursday night.
On paper, this matchup seems destined to become a Doug Martin game, as the Chicago Bears are the owners of the 31st ranked rush defense (in terms of our Adjusted Defensive Rushing NEP metric). However, over the past three weeks this unit has stepped up their game, allowing only 3.06 yards per carry to opposing running backs. This includes holding Adrian Peterson and Jerick McKinnon to a combined 72 rushing yards and a 2.88 yards per carry average last week, despite being blown out.
Over this same three-game stretch, they've allowed opposing passers to average 242 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown. While quarterback rushing touchdowns are not necessarily something we can predict with great accuracy outside of Cam Newton, at least we know that Winston is always a threat to run one in -- he has five rushing touchdowns this year.
I'm not sure he has an elite ceiling this week, but his floor should be reasonably safe.