By James Reagan (@James__Reagan)
With Week 15 at a close, the fantasy football playoffs are still in full swing, as many leagues still have one championship round to go.
Here’s a look at some of the studs from this past weekend whose winning efforts could very well contribute to a fantasy title for many, or for almost nobody, if they are random players that were left on the waiver wire this week. Of course, there’s also duds to talk about. Those players whose no-shows were so frustrating that they may have had you breathing heavily and reminding yourself that fantasy is just a game (with lots of luck involved).
Note: Points in this article are based on ESPN standard scoring.
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Surprise of the Week: Eli Manning, NYG QB.
Who in the world could have seen this coming? Two weeks after his infamous benching that ended a streak of 210 consecutive starts, Manning is back under center for the New York Giants and he just submitted arguably his best performance of the 2017 season. Manning’s 27 points were the second most among all quarterbacks this week and put him at third place on the leaderboard. He went 37-of-57 for 434 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.
Manning and opposing quarterback Nick Foles both topped 25 fantasy points and finished the first 15 games of Week 15 as two of the top three players at the position. This of course coming after many experts urged avoiding Manning entirely and only starting Foles if being in a desperate situation. Both performances were surprising, but Manning’s was more so because of the trainwreck that is the 2017 Giants season and also due to the unfavorable matchup presented by the Philadelphia Eagles defense.
For the second week in a row, the Giants showed that they were game for an upset against a tough divisional opponent. For the second week in a row, they came up just short. But you can’t exactly fault Manning and his injury-ravaged offense, which had another major surprise in wide receiver Tavarres King, who had 70 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
While King had 19 fantasy points, the Giants’ clear-cut top wide receiver for the rest of 2017 helped out tremendously as well. Sterling Shepherd had been struggling a bit with a hamstring injury the past few weeks, but he came back with a big performance that also gave him 19 fantasy points. Even with decent play from players like King and Roger Lewis, Manning really needs Shepherd in there as his top target.
The Giants will take on the Arizona Cardinals next week, giving Manning a slightly more difficult matchup for most fantasy championships. Prior to this week’s breakout, he’d had three consecutive games with fewer than 10 fantasy points. His game Sunday was great, but it’s still hard to trust that both Manning and the Giants offense will be able to follow up with another solid performance next week.
Verdict: Fiction.
Studs
Melvin Gordon, LAC RB.
While it may be inaccurate to say that Gordon was in a full-on slump, he had disappointed a little over the last month. Three of his last five games had actually seen him finish with fewer than 10 fantasy points. Fantasy owners were therefore more than a little justified in feeling worried that Gordon could disappoint in the fantasy playoffs.
For Week 15’s Saturday night game, Gordon was every bit the workhorse for the Los Angeles Chargers offense. Though the Chargers lost 30-13, Gordon racked up 22 fantasy points, good for fourth among running backs this week. Gordon rushed 19 times for 78 yards and a touchdown and caught six passes for 91 yards on eight targets.
The receiving performance really stands out as it comes after several weeks where it looked like Austin Ekeler had taken over as the team’s top pass-catching back. That was not at all the case Saturday with Ekeler recording a reception for six yards on his only target of the game. He had two carries for 13 yards too, showing that he is not at all a threat to overtaking Gordon in the backfield at the moment. More than just being the Chargers’ top rusher, Gordon’s eight targets tied Keenan Allen for the most among Chargers this week.
Allen was carted off the field late in the loss, which could have serious ramifications for the Chargers next week if he is still hurt. Tyrell Williams was the only other Chargers receiver to reel in more than one reception, though both their tight ends had decent games. All this goes to show that Gordon is a vital part of the Chargers offense and that he should get a ton of touches in their week 16 game against the New York Jets.
Verdict: Fact.
Robbie Gould, SF K.
Kickers don’t often get a whole lot of attention in fantasy recaps, but Gould should be the exception thanks to his hot streak over the last three weeks. With Jimmy Garoppolo leading the San Francisco 49ers to three straight wins, Gould was able to top 15 points in all three of those games. He had a masterful performance in Week 15, where he easily led all kickers with 24 points. Gould went 6-of-6 in his field goal attempts and 1-for-1 in his extra point attempts.
Gould’s final attempt of the game was a 45-yard kick that gave the 49ers a 25-23 win over the playoff-hopeful Tennessee Titans. The 49ers have scored 15 or more points in every game of this current win streak, something they did only five times in the previous 11 games. With Garoppolo revitalizing the offense, 49ers fans have to feel good about a team that is good enough to play spoiler down the stretch and that actually could be good next year once their shiny new quarterback has had a full offseason with the team.
As the 49ers offense goes, so does Gould. Garoppolo is still working out some kinks in his game and he’s still having some drives stall out in the redzone. This bodes very well for Gould’s fantasy prospects and even though the 9ers play a tough Jacksonville Jaguars defense next week, Gould should still be a great start for that game.
Verdict: Fact.
Baltimore Ravens D/ST.
Just one week after their worst game of the year, the Baltimore Ravens defense/special teams rebounded in a major way in Week 15 (playing the Cleveland Browns has a way of doing that for you). The Ravens allowed just 10 points, picked off two passes, forced two fumbles, got two sacks and saw big defensive tackle Brandon Williams score a touchdown on one of the fumble recoveries. Their defense’s dominance was enough to score an easy 27-10 win over a winless Browns team that is two losses away from 0-16.
The Ravens defense has topped 20 points five times this season. On the season, they rank second in points among defense/special teams with 142, with only the otherworldly Jaguars defense ahead of them. However, even the Jags can’t top the Ravens’ league-leading 22 interceptions. Add on nine forced fumbles for the season and it is clear that the Ravens have become a turnover-forcing machine.
Now, there have been some lowlights with the Ravens defense finishing with two or fewer fantasy points four times this season. Two of these games saw them descend into negative points. But overall, this is one of those rare defenses that can be trusted almost every single week in fantasy. They have an extremely favorable matchup against a struggling Indianapolis Colts offense in Week 16 and should easily be viewed as one of the top defenses to start for fantasy championships.
Verdict: Fact.
Duds
Seattle Seahawks D/ST.
While it was not at all shocking to see the Ravens defense/special teams dominate in Week 15, it was incredibly shocking to witness what happened to the once mighty Seattle Seahawks defense/special teams. On Sunday, the Seahawks hit rock bottom at the worst possible time as they were thrashed at home 42-7 by the division rival Los Angeles Rams. This game was easily the worst loss of the Pete Carroll era as it was their worst home loss since a 41-7 loss to the New York Giants in 2010.
Making this loss even worse is that it was a de facto NFC West championship. Carroll has been one of the best coaches in the league for awhile now and it was very strange to see his team utterly fail to show up for a game that had a ton of playoff ramifications. While the Seahawks are now looking very unlikely to make the NFL Playoffs for a sixth straight season, fantasy owners who started their defense would have been just as well off starting no defense thanks to the Seahawks scoring exactly zero points this week. Really in all fairness, the 40+ points allowed should have resulted in negative points, but the Seahawks barely escaped that fate thanks to an interception and two sacks.
This loss is another strong argument that the Seahawks are just not the defense that they were a few years ago. Pretty much from 2013-2016, they have been locks to be one of the top three defenses/special teams drafted in most fantasy leagues. After the fantasy donut this week, the Seahawks have scored five or fewer points in four of their last five games. With the Legion of Boom members all sidelined except for Earl Thomas, this is a defense that is going nowhere however long their season continues and with the Dallas Cowboys and the recently reinstated Ezekiel Elliott up next, the Seahawks defense would be an extremely risky start in Week 16.
Verdict: Fact.
A.J. Green, CIN WR.
Though expectations were tempered due to a tough matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, it’s still fair to say that A.J. Green let down fantasy owners in Week 15. He had just three fantasy points, his second worst fantasy performance of the year, though his worst came in a game where he was ejected in the first quarter. This was therefore his worst game where he was able to play the whole game, which isn’t that surprising considering that the Cincinnati Bengals as a whole looked shell-shocked in a 34-7 loss to the now NFC North Champion Vikings.
Green totaled just two catches for 30 yards on a disturbingly low four targets. Brandon LaFell instead led the Bengals in targets with six, likely due to Xavier Rhodes’ excellent coverage of Green. Still, it’s not like any Bengals did anything noteworthy in the receiving game or that Andy Dalton did much of anything in the passing game. Their highest scoring offensive player this week was Giovani Bernard with 10, though his numbers were massively inflated due to a garbage time touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.
Fantasy owners with Green on their team have to be feeling a little frustrated over how he’s been playing recently. Green has had six or fewer points in three of his last five games. It’s really hard to tell whether he’ll be good or bad, considering that he’s had six double digit games spread out throughout the year. The rest of his games have been just as disappointing as the Bengals’ dreadful 5-9 season.
If you drafted Green, it had to have been in the first or second round, meaning that he’s likely still one of your top wider receivers. The week 16 matchup he draws is a pretty favorable one with the Detroit Lions. It’s an opportunity for the Bengals to play spoiler against a team with faint playoff aspirations and it’s also one last chance for Green to have a massive game in 2017. Given the Bengals’ offensive struggles of late, it’s a risky move, but one that I think you would have to take given Green’s pedigree and the fact that it’s finally championship time.
Verdict: Fiction.
