Our own Pat Fitzmaurice has been among the most accurate fantasy football experts in the industry over the last several years. Fitz was THE most accurate in-season ranker in 2020. What better way to prepare for your fantasy football start/sit lineup decisions than by reviewing his rankings? You can do just that below.
You can also find our expert consensus fantasy football rankings for the week here. And you can sync your fantasy football league for free using our My Playbook tool for custom advice, rankings, and analysis.
Fantasy Football Rankings
Fitz’s Fantasy Football Takes
Jordan Love laid an egg against the Giants on Monday night, but don’t let that deter you from rolling out Love in a home matchup against the Buccaneers. Until his clunker against the Giants, Love had produced multiple touchdown passes and at least 267 passing yards in four consecutive games. Tampa Bay has allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks and just gave up 347 passing yards to Atlanta’s Desmond Ridder.
James Conner is coming off a 100-yard, two-touchdown rushing day against the Steelers back in Week 13, before the Cardinals went on bye. Conner had a season-high 25 carries in that game. But Conner has played nine games this season, and he’s had 20 or more carries twice. In the other seven games, he’s had 16 or fewer carries, and in six of those games he’s had 14 or fewer carries. It averages out to 14.3 carries a game for Conner this season. That’s solid usage, but it falls below the threshold for the definition of “workhorse.” What worries me is that Conner is a zero in the passing game: He has 14 catches for 36 yards and no touchdowns this season. So whatever Conner is going to do for you this week, he’ll have to do it on the ground, and he’ll be going up against a San Francisco defense that has allowed a league-low 743 rushing yards and only five TD runs to running backs. The Cardinals are nearly two-touchdown underdogs to the 49ers, so Conner probably isn’t getting a very run-friendly game script. I’m more than a little concerned about his fantasy outlook for Week 15.
If someone had told you before the season that Sam Howell would lead the NFL in pass attempts and completions through 14 weeks, where would you have drafted Terry McLaurin? Probably pretty early, right? It’s wild that the Commanders have been so pass-heavy and yet McLaurin is still only WR37 in PPR fantasy scoring despite missing no games due to injury. McLaurin hasn’t had double-digit PPR points in a game since Week 9. His matchup against the Rams this week is neutral at best. Start McLaurin if you must, but hopefully you have better options.
In the Jaguars’ first game since losing WR Christian Kirk to a core injury, Evan Engram drew a season-high 12 targets and had 11 catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns — good for 32.5 PPR points and TE1 status for the week. Engram has a tricky Week 15 matchup against the Ravens, who have allowed the eight-fewest receiving yards and eighth-fewest fantasy points to tight ends, but Kirk’s injury should continue to funnel extra targets in Engram’s direction and inflate his fantasy value.
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