Turkey Day has come and gone, so many big time fantasy players have already played this week. Here’s a few thoughts on a couple that haven’t.
Starts
Rashad Jennings, RB, New York Giants – The last thing I expected to happen this season was a Rashad Jennings renaissance, but here we are. Jennings has put up at least 85 yards rushing in each of the past two games and has eclipsed 100 total yards in both. He should see plenty of work against Cleveland this week and owners should expect similar production.
Thomas Rawls, RB, Seattle – It should be obvious to most Rawls owners at this point, but he’s become a must-start due to how his situation has played out. In the past week the Seahawks had Rawls return to the field, cut leading rusher Christine Michael, and lost current starter C.J. Prosise to injury. Rawls is all systems go and there really isn’t a backup plan. The Seattle passing attack has been on fire the past few weeks and that should open up plenty of holes for Rawls. He’s a borderline RB1 this week.
Tyler Boyd, WR, Cincinnati – 2016 first round pick Tyler Boyd will be in the spotlight Sunday. The Bengals lost AJ Green and Giovani Bernard due to injury last week, opening up plenty of targets to be given out to other players in the passing attack. Boyd grabbed six receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown filling in for Green after the injury. He’s a talented player that should see plenty of targets from Andy Dalton in a great matchup against the Ravens this week.
C.J. Fiedorowicz, TE, Houston – Owners set at tight end shouldn’t be benching their starters for Fiedorowicz, but he makes for a low-end TE1 this week and likely for the rest of the season. He’s one of the only Texans that has chemistry with Brock Osweiler and has put up pretty decent numbers in recent weeks. He’s also has seen a lot of volume, with at least 7 targets in five of his last six games. He’s only owned in 34% of Yahoo leagues.
Sits
DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Houston – None of you are going to listen to me here. If you’re still in contention in spite of Hopkins, congratulations. You’ve come this far with arguably the biggest draft bust of the year. But if you have other options at the position, it’s time to place Hopkins on your bench.
Hopkins was thought to be quarterback proof, but Brock Osweiller is so bad he’s ruined this statement. Hopkins has just one game with over 100 yards receiving and only three touchdowns through 10 games. He’s consistantly nabbed 4-5 catches a game, so in full point PPR he isn’t abysmal, but it’s still not very good stats. It’s crunch time in the fantasy football season. The Brock and Hop Connection does not exist. Do you really want to trust them to lead you to the playoffs?
Ryan Tannehill, QB, Miami – Tannehill is an interesting consideration for owners looking to stream a quarterback this week, but he’s not an ideal play. Yes, the San Francisco 49ers have a brutal pass defense. But their run defense is even worse, and the Dolphins have been feeding Jay Ajayi in recent weeks. Look for Ajayi to be a top five back this week and torch the 49ers on the ground. Tannehill will spend most of his day handing it off to Ajayi.
Jarvis Landry, WR, Miami – See above. Also, Landry just hasn’t performed well in recent weeks. He hasn’t had 100 yards since September and his very flukey touchdown last week was just his second of the year. I don’t see this being Landry’s comeback game.
Dennis Pitta, TE, Baltimore – Dennis Pitta is a talented starting tight end that is playing against a defense that has given up thew third most fantasy points to tight ends this year. Here’s a few reasons why you shouldn’t even consider using Pitta in your lineup:
- Despite seeing a decent amount of targets this year, Pitta has been useless in fantasy football this year. He’s only had over 60 yards once and hasn’t scored a touchdown.
- Pitta’s name recognition led to many people picking him up and starting him after a huge Week 2 performance, myself included. He really hasn’t done anything since and probably doesn’t even have a reason for being owned.
- Cincinnati’s defense against tight ends isn’t as bad as it seems. The majority of the points came from Rob Gronkowski and a Jordan Reed/Vernon Davis combination. Other than those two games, the most yards a tight end has had against the Bengals was 66 by Gary Barnidge. Any tight end who has scored against the Bengals this season (Gronk/Reed excluded) didn’t even reach 10 points in standard leagues.
- Dennis Pitta isn’t Rob Gronkowski or Jordan Reed.
So no, I’m not considering Pitta as a viable option by any means this week.
Steve Rebeiro is a staff writer and podcast host for Rams Talk. He graduated from Marquette University in 2016. For more of his opinions, follow him on Twitter here.
