Manic Monday Week 16
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, friends. One of the things that makes Thanksgiving stand out is the full day’s worth of NFL and fantasy action that gives football fans even more to look forward to. As luck would have it, we got another day of NFL action on Christmas this year, which makes it two in a row if I remember correctly. There was certainly plenty of memorable plays throughout the 2021 Xmas slate, but nothing quite like Alvin Kamara’s legendary six-score showing one year ago. Still, it was nice to have fantasy action on the day, but for some of us, it was challenging to prepare and take advantage of. Between preparing food, traveling, opening presents, cleaning up wrapping paper, and other dad duties, squeezing in that Week 16 research was challenging. Another potential distraction was A Christmas Story being on in the background. Granted, it’s annually on for 24 hours, but it’s always been the best Xmas movie. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is the best holiday movie, by the way. But I used to love watching Ralphie eagerly anticipating getting that official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. Watching it makes me miss being young when the entire kid calendar revolved around Christmas. I never did get my own BB gun but when I got the original Nintendo Entertainment Center back in 88, that was equally as impactful on me. A couple of years later the pink and white Mike McGill Powell & Peralta skateboard was also a game-changer. Once you’re a teenager and stop believing in Santa, Christmas just doesn’t mean as much and you never get it back. While being a parent and watching your own kids have those memories is in itself a treat, having fantasy football action to enjoy during this challenging year brought a little something extra to the 2021 holiday season. And it was very welcomed. Where We Were Right Back-up backs were a hit in both our projections and on the field. Justin Jackson, Ronald Jones, and Chase Edmonds were all inside out top-15 Week 16 projections and all finished as top-12 PPR running backs for the week. Jackson, in particular, won a ton of playoff matchups finishing as the overall RB1. Sometimes going against the grain pays off. Despite the solid matchups for George Kittle, we ranked Mark Andrews as our No. 1 tight end and that’s precisely what Andrews was. Andrews led the position with eight grabs, 125 receiving yards and secured his ninth touchdown of the season. Amon-Ra St. Brown ended up as our WR20 in PPR projection, which seemed alarmingly high at the time. Instead, it ended up not being high enough as St. Brown hauled in nine grabs for 91 yards, a touchdown, and chipped in another 11 rushing yards en route to a PPR WR6 finish on Sunday. Where We Were Wrong I’m still not exactly sure what happened to the Chargers. Justin Jackson came through in his spot start but Justin Herbert was our No 1 quarterback and was a big disappointment. Now Herbert accumulated over 300 passing yards against Houston’s awful defense but a big portion came in the fourth quarter when the Chargers were getting their doors blown off by the hapless Texans. That game was the biggest head-scratcher from the week. Denver sure didn’t take advantage of the Raiders’ questionable run defense. Javonte Williams (RB12) somewhat salvaged some fantasy value with a short-yardage TD but Melvin Gordon, our No. 21 running back, wound up putting up negative zero scrimmage yards on eight touches in a horrendous day for playoff lineups relying on RB2 value. Everyone missed on Tyreek Hill this week but Hill’s feeble 3.9-point showing on Sunday afternoon will go down as one of those painful memories for people that had to scramble all week only to get late word that Hill would be active. In retrospect, all of us would have probably been better off going with whoever we were going to play instead. Those kinds of terrible performances tend to linger for a long, long time. ENTER OUR WEEK 17 DRAFT CONTEST! How it Works: Draft your team using our On-Demand Simulator. Try to stack the team with players you think will do well in Week 16! The highest Week 17 Score wins! (PLUS: You get to see the Thursday Night game and then draft!) Here’s our Week 17 Player Rankings to help. It’s a bestball contest, so no need to submit a lineup. We’ll optimize the best one! Just sit back and watch your team climb the leaderboard! Weekly Prizes and a Grand Prize at the end of the season! The Grand Prize Winner (highest individual week of the season) gets to choose from the amazing prizes below. If you don’t know just how awesome and amazing the Panini Flawless Football briefcase is, make sure and watch the video starting at the 8-minute mark! Trading cards are back! MEMBER PERK! Fulltime Members get 5 Free On-Demand Drafts each month in our contest! DRAFT YOUR WEEK 17 TEAM and enter your REDEMPTION CODE you received by email.
Fantasy Football Start ‘Em Sit ‘Em Week 16
Advancing past the apocalyptic Week 15 was a major accomplishment in itself. But it’s likely no team escaped the madness unscathed. Many fantasy managers will need to dig deep to find healthy bodies to insert into their semi-finals lineups. That puts a huge emphasis on the Week 16 waiver wire and finding new options to start and sit. Here are some of the players to keep in mind for Week 16. Start Tom Brady (QB) Tampa Bay Buccaneers As great as Brady has been this season and for as long as most people have been playing fantasy football, this has been a popular question this week. He is coming off an atrocious game against the Saints which cost many owners their season, lost both Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, and has a terrible matchup this week against the Panthers. I understand the hesitancy to start him, but if you survived last week you have to continue to roll with him. He gets Antonio Brown back this week and still has Rob Gronkowski. Sure, it may be a much scarier start than you expected it to be just a few days ago, however, you can’t get cute here. Don’t bench Brady. D’Onta Foreman (RB) Tennessee Titans Foreman has separated himself as the clear RB1 in Tennessee while Henry is out and is going to win a lot of owners their championship this season. He overwhelmingly led all running backs on the roster last week with 22 carries and 108 yards. He also led all running backs in receiving yards. The Titans have no choice but to ride him from here on out. Now coming off three straight strong fantasy performances he needs to be in your starting lineup. Any of the other Titans’ running backs conversely are very risky starts. Melvin Gordon (RB) Denver Broncos Fantasy owners have been desperate for weeks for Javonte Williams to take over the lead back role in Denver and that thirst only grew when he shined in Gordon’s absence a few weeks back. No matter how much we may want it, it’s just not the case. They once again split the rushes evenly last week with 15 carries each. With the bad news that Williams isn’t the superstar you want comes the good news that Gordon is still the flex you need. This week the Broncos are likely without starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and play the Raiders who are allowing the third-most points to fantasy running backs. This is a recipe for success and you should plug him into your flex spot this week. He has all the upside Williams has in this offense. Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR) Detroit Lions We waited all year for a WR1 to emerge in Detroit and it looks like we got it. St. Brown has been nothing short of spectacular the past three weeks. During this three-week run, he has amassed 26 receptions for 249 yards and two TDs on 35 targets. He’s also been utilized in the running game. It hasn’t amounted to much, but the opportunity is present. The young wideout is coming into his own and needs to be started when he’s being targeted and producing like this. Forget that he’s a Lion and get him in your lineup this week. Christian Kirk (WR) Arizona Cardinals Kirk is another receiver who looks to be establishing himself as a WR1 with DeAndre Hopkins sidelined, although, AJ Green is still looming over him. I prefer Kirk’s upside coming off a 12 target game when he snatched nine receptions for 94 yards and a touchdown. What this comes down to is the fact that I want Kyler Murray’s top wideout and I’m putting my money on Kirk over Green. Both are viable flex options with Hopkins out. This comes down to preference. Evan Engram (TE) New York Giants This one doesn’t feel good, however, all signs point to getting Engram into your lineup this week. The Giants seemingly don’t have anyone else that’s ever healthy to throw to and he has the best possible matchup against the Eagles who are allowing the most fantasy points to tight ends. As much as you may not want to rely on him in your fantasy playoffs you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better option this week on the waiver wire. Sit Derek Carr (QB) Las Vegas Raiders Carr has been a fringe QB1 this season currently sitting as the QB13. A big part of that was a hot start though. This week he takes on the Denver Broncos and that’s a bottom-three matchup for quarterbacks. Beyond that, the Raiders are just a complete disaster and outside of Josh Jacobs and Hunter Renfrow, there is no one you should be starting on this team assuming Darren Waller is sidelined. As usual, everything has gone sideways for Vegas this year after a hot start. Avoid Carr this week and for the rest of the season. Find a better option. Myles Gaskin (RB) Miami Dolphins After being sidelined with Covid over the Dolphins Week 14 bye week, Gaskin returned to an offense that featured Duke Johnson at running back as he out-carried Gaskin 22-10. Granted Gaskin performed well and averaged an impressive 5.4 yards per carry compared to Johnson’s 4.9. Johnson did rush for 100 yards, look good between the tackles, and most importantly dominate the snaps. It’s unclear if this was due to Coivd or some other reason, but either way, you can’t trust Gaskin or any Miami runner this week. The atrocious matchup against the Saints only solidifies this stance. Ronald Jones (RB) Tampa Bay Buccaneers This is a trap if I’ve ever seen one. With Fournette sidelined for the remainder of the fantasy playoffs and Bruce Arians building up Jones as this year’s “Playoff Lenny” for the Bucs, plenty of fantasy owners are going to turn to him this week. They will be disappointed as they almost always are when they start Jones.