You may have thought we made it through the heat of the bye weeks now that we are down from 6 teams on bye to just 4, but those teams consist of plenty of strong fantasy options. We are missing Carson Wentz, Michael Crabtree, Amari Cooper, Tyreek Hill, and Kareem Hunt among many other every week starters. I’ll help you figure out the mess for your teams by giving you my rankings for your start/sit decisions. First, I’d like to tell you about the four players where I most differ from the expert consensus and why I feel strongly about them. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to let me know on Twitter.
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Jared Goff (QB #13): LAR vs HOU
It isn’t that Houston’s defense has been as good as years passed. In fact, they have been easy to throw on this season. With that said, Goff has thrown just 21 and 22 passes in two of the last three weeks. Last week was only the second time this season that he has thrown for over 300 yards. So what we are relying on is for him to throw at least 1 TD per 15 passes to be a startable QB. While he has done that for a number of games this year, that type of touchdown rate is only sustainable for superstar quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Tom Brady. I don’t need to tell you that Goff doesn’t fit into that category yet.
Bilal Powell (RB #24): NYJ @ TB
Most of the industry thinks Powell is just outside the border of being a startable flex play this week. I recommend plugging him into your lineup anyway. If a run hadn’t been called back, he would have been over 100 yards last week on less than 10 touches. While you may think Matt Forte won this job for good, consider that he saw just 48% of the team snaps. In the past 8 games that Powell has at least double-digit touches, he has 80+ yards in 6 of them. Seeing that he is healthy now and that the Bucs are the worst team in football against the run over the past five weeks, it is safe to say Powell has a good chance at 80+ yards once again.
Adam Humphries (WR #40): TB vs NYJ
I am not suggesting that Humphries is a must-start, but he is a solid flex play this week with Mike Evans out of the lineup. He should see a huge increase in target share this week as a result of the Evans suspension. When you consider that in the five games that he has at least 5 targets this season, Humphries has posted 50+ yards in four of them, it seems like a good bet to play him as a starter against the Jets, who are a bottom quadrant pass defense.
Garrett Celek (TE # 12): SF vs NYG
As Mike Tagliere explained this week, every single game the Giants have played this season, they’ve allowed a top 12 fantasy tight end. It isn’t though Celek is a solid tight end or even ever startable outside of this week, but with the matchup, George Kittle‘s injury and Pierre Garcon‘s season-ending injury, Celek is a strong bet to see a handful of receptions and has a good shot at a touchdown.
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