Huskers in the NFL Week 16

Blowouts were the theme of Week 16 with several of our former Huskers playing roles in each of those games. Whether it was guys like Rex Burkhead and Randy Gregory helping rout their opponents or players like Carlos Davis, Dicaprio Bootle and Matt Farniok getting extra time to play. Here is a look at how each former Husker did in their Week 16 NFL games.

***The Saints and Dolphins play on Monday night, and Huskers in the NFL will be updated to reflect the participation of Brett Maher and Cethan Carter.***

Husker of the Week

Rex Burkhead, Houston Texans

After several weeks of struggling to produce with his touches, Burkhead finally broke through against the Chargers. Rex gashed Los Angeles, rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns for the upset win. Rex looked explosive once again and it showed as he averaged over 6 yards per carry.

Good Game

Dicaprio Bootle, Kansas City

Elevated from the practice squad because of teammates on the Covid List, Bootle made the his time, not only playing a career high 27 snaps, but he also lead the Chiefs in tackles with 8. All eight tackles came in the fourth quarter when the Chiefs were up big. However his performance hopefully will lead to increased looks and maybe making the playoff roster.

Solid Game

Randy Gregory, Dallas Cowboys

Dallas’ defense was all over Washington making it extremely difficult for them to do anything all game long. Gregory was a big part of that as he consistently put pressure on the Washington tackles and got into the backfield. Gregory was only credited with one tackle but did get a quarterback hit and took the time to recreate his infamous meme with Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke.

Andy Janovich, Cleveland Browns

While the Browns lost to Green Bay on Christmas Day, we got to see the most action from Janovich all season long. Not only did Jano finish with a tackle on a kick off, but he also caught both of his targets for a combined six yards.

Ndamukong Suh, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

It was another quiet day in the stat column for Suh as he only had one tackle in the Bucs win over the Panthers. But as we know stats don’t tell you the whole story as Suh helped to hold the Panthers to only 67 total yards rushing.

Jack Stoll, Philadelphia Eagles

The by-product of the Eagles blowing out the Giants was that meant they ran the ball more and that means more Jack Stoll. Stoll didn’t receive any targets but he did end up playing 46% of the Eagles snaps. Stoll also finished the game with a special teams tackle on a punt.

Sam Koch, Baltimore Ravens

Koch punted three times in the Ravens’ loss to the Bengals. He averaged 44.3 yards per punt and was able to pin the Bengals inside the 15 yard line on his third punt.

Rough Game

Ameer Abdullah, Carolina Panthers

Sunday was a game of what ifs for Ameer who had what looked to be two touchdowns that just didn’t happen. The first was early in the first quarter where Ameer tripped on his own left tackle but had a wide open lane for a touchdown. The second was on a blitz that left Ameer open but the pass was off and Abdullah couldn’t make the catch. Instead he finished with three catches for 8 yards and two carries for one yard.

Limited Snaps

Brenden Jaimes, Los Angeles Chargers

Even with the Chargers getting blown out by Houston, we didn’t get to see Jaimes get any action at guard and just played three special teams snaps as a part of the field goal and PAT units.

Stanley Morgan, Cincinnati Bengals

Morgan saw a season high 15 snaps in the Bengals route of the Ravens, however Morgan still didn’t get a single target and was still mainly used as a blocker. On special teams Morgan continued to shine and even finished with a tackle.

Carlos Davis, Pittsburgh Steelers

Even though the Steelers got dominated against the Chiefs, that didn’t mean an increase in playing time for Davis as he only logged 9 defensive snaps. But Davis made the most of those snaps as he had three tackles with one of them being a tackle for loss. Not too bad when you make a tackle on every other play.

Luke Gifford, Dallas Cowboys

Gifford played only on special teams, despite the Cowboys being up 42-7 in the second half. Regardless he did get plenty of time running down on kickoffs but only one of the nine was returnable, so there goes his chances to make tackles.

Matt Farniok, Dallas Cowboys

Blowouts mean that backups get some playing time and that was the case for Farniok who got seven snaps at right guard to end the game. Other than that Farniok played on field goal and PAT units.

Inactive or Did Not Play

Chris Jones, Tennessee Titans
Maliek Collins, Houston Texans - COVID

Injured Reserve

Lavonte David, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

David was put on Injured Reserve due to a foot injury this week ending his regular season. However David would be eligible to return for the start of the playoffs.

Nick Gates, New York Giants
Josh Kalu, New York Giants
Brent Qvale, Tennessee Titans
Richie Incognito, Las Vegas Raiders

Practice Squad

Devine Ozigbo, New England Patriots
Will Compton, Las Vegas Raiders
Khalil Davis, Pittsburgh Steelers
Lamar Jackson, New York Jets
Dedrick Mills, Detroit Lions
Nate Gerry, San Francisco 49ers
De’Mornay Pierson-El, Denver Broncos
Darrion Daniels, San Francisco 49ers