With the playoffs set to begin in just a few weeks -- if they aren't already for those of you in bigger leagues -- there isn't a lot of time to fix your mistakes. With just five games left in the NFL season and one or two before most playoffs begin, it kind of makes sense to overreact. Even if you expect your struggling star to turn things around, you might be one more bad game away from having your season ended, which makes it hard to justify patience.

That doesn't mean you have to overreact to every one-week trend, of course. He are my takes on the latest big storylines around the league, and whether you should buy into them.

Demaryius Thomas is a bust

For a player who required as much an investment as Thomas did, ranking 22nd in Fantasy scoring certainly makes him a bust. And, though he was on pace for respectable numbers before last week, his 0ne-catch game against the Patriots in Week 12 puts him well behind what was expected for a player coming off three consecutive 1,400-yard seasons. Thomas' poor performance against the Patriots is even more troubling because it came on 13 targets, an inconceivably low success rate given that Thomas has caught 60.3 percent of the passes thrown his way in his career. Of course, Sunday's game was hardly all about Thomas playing poorly, as the weather and Brock Osweiler's inaccuracy also played as much a role in the poor performance. Thomas is almost certainly going to end up with his worst numbers since Tim Tebow was throwing ducks at his feet, but it's also hard to see him having another performance nearly as ineffective as Week 12. He is still due for some major touchdown regression -- two scores on 72 catches and 124 targets -- and you can see a silver lining in Week 12 if you focus more on the 13 targets, a much more sustainable number than the one catch. If he keeps seeing that big of a role, Thomas should have much better days ahead of him, and you shouldn't even think about benching this kind of talent heading into the playoffs.

Todd Gurley was crowned too soon

Gurley was so good, so fast, that it seemed inevitable that he would supplant Adrian Peterson as the consensus best running back in football. After stepping into a full-time role in Week 4, Gurley racked up 566 yards and three touchdowns in four games, while averaging a robust 6.4 yards per carry, with games on the road against Arizona and Green Bay to prove it wasn't just a fluke against some soft schedule. However, he also racked up 88 carries in his first four full games, a total only six running backs have matched in their first four games. Coach Jeff Fisher leaned heavily on his stud rookie, and it's hard to blame them because they went 3-1 in that stretch and have had shaky play at the quarterback position all season. Unfortunately, that heavy workload might have taken a toll; Gurley is averaging just 3.1 yards per carry over his last four games, and rushed for only 19 yards in Week 9. What makes it worse is he has played just one top-12 rushing defense in that span, and has gone against two of the five worst in the league, per FootballOutsiders.com's DVOA rankings. Gurley hasn't lost the ability to run the ball, but it's fair to wonder if the Rams asked too much too soon from him, less than a year removed from his gruesome knee injury in college. His overall numbers are still solid, and the upside is too great to consider sitting, but with a tough schedule down the stretch, Gurley may continue to disappoint moving forward.

The Seahawks won't even miss Jimmy Graham

Because he has been a disappointment for Fantasy, there might be a tendency to assume the Seahawks offense, finally starting to hit its stride, will keep right on rolling down the stretch. However, even though Graham hasn't lived up to expectations, he also hasn't been bad for the Seahawks, ranking second on the team in both receptions and yards with 48 and 605. He wasn't the red zone target we expected, but Graham is averaging 8.2 yards per target, in line with the 8.6 Y/T mark he posted in 2013 and well ahead of the 7.3 mark he had in 2012, both with the Saints. The perception is that Russell Wilson hasn't really been helped by the addition of Graham, but he is posting his highest yards per attempt and yards per game ever, and Graham was his top target. Wilson is playing some of the best ball of his career over the last few weeks, and Doug Baldwin's emergence as something like a No. 1 receiver has certainly helped. However, Graham was an integral part of this offense -- at least between the 20s -- and they will miss him more than some expect.

Lamar Miller should be benched

You can probably find someone willing to make the case for this one both in Fantasy and in real life, where rookie Jay Ajayi has showed flashes of real potential in all facets of the game in very limited playing time since making his debut. Ajayi is a talented young player who could make a case for more playing time down the stretch, but this strikes me as 'Shiny New Thing' syndrome; Miller's track record should be enough to keep him in the driver's seat through the end of the season. The bigger question for our purposes is whether Fantasy players should be looking to outright bench Miller down the stretch of your Fantasy season, and it's hard to justify that one too. Miller's usage has been frustrating for his Fantasy owners, but you have to imagine the firing of Bill Lazor was at least somewhat connected to his inability or unwillingness to use one of his best offensive weapons. The Dolphins are playing for next year, which might mean Miller's job security isn't what it might otherwise be, but I would bet on Miller's role growing down the stretch, not shrinking. With solid matchips on the way against Baltimore, the Giants and San Diego, I would still leave Miller in my starting lineup.

Kirk Cousins is a starting-caliber Fantasy quarterback

With three 300-yard games in his last five, Cousins is looking like a much better passer than most expected when he won the starting job this preseason. He is now completing 68.4 percent of his passes for 253.4 yards per game, and hasn't thrown multiple interceptions in any of his last five games, a huge improvement given the way he started the season. Of course, his recent 300-yard games have come against Tampa Bay, New Orleans and the Giants, teams that rank 20th, 32nd and 21st in pass defense DVOA, per FootballOutsiders.com. In that same stretch, he has struggled predictably against the No. 2 Panthers and N0. 12 Patriots, and faces just one bottom-12 passing defense in his next three games. Toss in the fact that he has just one multi-touchdown game in his last four -- and only two all season -- and Cousins is still the very definition of a matchup-dependent, streaming QB option.

Matt Ryan should be dropped

When it comes to his standing among the league's premier quarterbacks, Matt Ryan has always been a bit out of place. He's more Matthew Stafford than Tony Romo, mostly because despite having one of the five best receivers in the league for basically his entire career, Ryan has never been a particularly efficient quarterback. He has never posted a touchdown rate higher than 5.2 percent (back in 2012), and only has one season in the top-200 in yards per attempt, despite playing his entire career in the easiest passing era in NFL history. He has been a lot closer to average than elite, and that has remained true this season. His interception rate is up a bit, at 2.8 percent, but that isn't totally out of whack with his career rate; neither is his 7.4 yards per attempt. However, even for him, a 3.7 percent touchdown rate is too low, and one that should improve moving forward. We've seen Russell Wilson and Drew Brees benefit from touchdown regression, and Ryan is another candidate. That doesn't mean he is a must-start Fantasy quarterback, but he deserved one more chance in Week 13 against the Buccaneers, the 20th ranked passing defense in the league. If he can get going against them, hanging on to him for a Week 15 tilt against the Jaguars makes all of the sense in the world; if not, dump him, because there's no way you will be starting him in Week 14 against the Panthers either way.

The Browns offense is even more of a Fantasy black hole

The Browns' offense has two players you can consider starting in most weeks, in Gary Barnidge and Travis Benjamin. Duke Johnson is in there in PPR leagues and Isaiah Crowell merits mention if only because somebody in your league probably has to start him, but for the most part, this Browns' offense has left a lot to be desired. And now they're on to the third-string quarterback, with Johnny Manziel benched and Josh McCown out for the season. We might as well write them off entirely, right? I'm not so sure about that. Call me crazy, but I'm not convinced Austin Davis is much of a downgrade on what they've been throwing out there so far this season. Davis did well enough on his 10 pass attempts Monday in relief of McCown, connecting with Benjamin on a 42-yard score and completing 7 of 10 passes overall, and acquitted himself reasonably well in eight starts with the Rams last season. He tossed 12 touchdowns, complete 63.4 percent of his passes and averaging 7.0 yards per attempt, solid, if wholly unspectacular numbers. I'm not saying Davis is even a good backup, but he showed enough competence last season that he shouldn't change the outlook for the Browns' offense down the stretch; they were bad before and should continue to be so, but Benjamin and Barnidge should at least be useful still.