Week XVI

There were a few snickers around the NFL on draft day when Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks selected undersized former Wisconsin and North Carolina State QB Russell Wilson in the 3rd round. There were even more snickers when the Seahawks named Wilson their starting QB prior to the start of the season. Nobody is laughing now, though, as Wilson has led the surging Seahawks into the playoffs. Indeed, Seattle, which has averaged a remarkable 50 points per game over the past three weeks, is be the league's hottest team right now with a chance to actually win the division once the dust has settled this coming weekend. Certainly, no team was hotter last week than Seattle which throttled divison-leading San Francisco 42-13 on Sunday night with Wilson leading the way. Wilson didn't put up huge numbers as he only had a total of 171 passing yards, but as he has been all year, he was very efficient completing 15 or 21 passes, including 4 for scores against arguably the league's best defense. And that was more than enough to earn Wilson his second nod this year as the GBN 'Rookie of the Week' award winner.

It was also a big week for Indianapolis QB Andrew Luck, the first player taken this past April, who also led his team to a playoff clinching win with a 20-13 victory over Kansas City. And while Luck's numbers were nothing to write home about - he completed just 17 of 35 passes for 205 yards and a TD - in the process, Luck became just the second rookie ever to pass for over 4,000 yards, in the process breaking the rookie single season passing yardage record that Carolina's Cam Newton set last year.

And while the rookie passers grabbed most of the headlines last week, it was also a remarkable week for first-yeardefenders who combined for 14.5 sacks across the league. Leading the way was San Diego 5T DE Kendall Reyes, a  second round pick this year, who had just 2 sacks on the season heading into the week, but had 3.5 in the Chargers' 27-17 win over the New York Jets. In addition to Reyes, fellow San Diego rookies Melvin Ingram, the Chargers top pick this year, and FS Brandon Taylor, a 3rd rounder,each had a 1/2 sack in the game. At the same time Meanwhile, if there was any consolation for the Jets it was that DE Quinton Coples, New York's #1 pick this year, had 1.5 sacks of his own going the other way. Meanwhile, other rookies with sacks this past weekend included Tennessee DT Mike Martin, Green Bay DE Dezmon Moses, Miami DE Olivier Vernon, Philadelphia CB Brandon Boykin, New England LB Donta' Hightower, Minnesota FS Harrison Smith, Denver DT Derek Wlfe, and Baltimore SS Omar Brown, while Oakland LB Miles Burris had a half sack, and an interception, in the Raiders' loss to Carolina.

Past weekly winners in 2012

Week I: Washington QB Robert Griffin
Week II: Cleveland QB Brandon Weeden and RB Trent Richardson
Week III: Minnesota OT Matt Kalil
Week IV: New England RB Brandon Bolden
Week V: Indianapolis HC Chuck Pagano
Week VI: Seattle QB Russell Wilson
Week VII: Washington QB Robert Griffin
Week VIII: Tampa Bay RB Doug Martin
Week IX: Indianapolis QB Andrew Luck
Week X: Tampa Bay OLB Lavonte David
Week XI: Jacksonville WR Justin Blackmon
Week XII: St. Louis CB Janoris Jenkins
Week XIII: St. Louis PK Greg Zuerlien
Week XIV: NY Giants RB David Wilson
Week XV: Washington QB Kirk Cousins

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