Lamar Jackson

Lamar Jackson isn't playing good football. There, I said it. He is the QB14 in fantasy points per game this season. The last time that he cleared 40 rushing yards in a game was Week 4 against the Chiefs, and he's done it only twice this season. After his four passing touchdown performance against the Dolphins in Week 9, Jackson has had only one passing touchdown. Across his last four games, he has finished as the QB15, QB29, QB25, and QB27 in weekly scoring. Since Week 10, among 35 qualifying passers, he ranks 16th in yards per attempt, 35th in highly accurate throw rate, and 29th in catchable target rate. It has been horrible. There's no way around that, and if Jackson can't supplement his struggling passing production with rushing equity, it's tough to trust him in fantasy. Now, as I write this, watch Jackson go out and have a massive bounce-back game against a struggling defense in a divisional game and spike everything I just said in my face. That's the risk of benching Jackson this week, but we can also say that he hasn't played well over the last four games. Since Week 9, Pittsburgh's pass defense has picked up the slack, allowing the seventh-fewest yards per attempt, the ninth-lowest passer rating, the fourth-lowest CPOE, and the eighth-lowest success rate per dropback.

Fool me once, fool me twice, fool me three times, and you bet I'm ready to get hurt again. Last week, I was too optimistic about Jackson being a full participant in practice and removed from the injury report ahead of a great matchup against the Bengals. Unfortunately, this led to his fifth career performance under 10 fantasy points and his third one in a row. Yikes. So what do we do with Lamar Jackson? Firstly, he isn't healthy. Regardless of what the reports say, he is not the same player we saw at the start of the season. Having said that, he appeared to be more mobile than in the previous two weeks and had a few big plays called back. The first was Isaiah Likely fumbling across the goal line, then Zay Flowers had a questionable offensive pass interference call on a long touchdown, and Devontez Walker dropped two long bombs. All this to say, this game could have gone differently. However, as my brother elegantly reminded me, as soon as we start counting "what ifs," you're already too far gone. This week, they face the slumping Steelers in a massive divisional matchup. Jackson will need to be on his game for the Ravens to keep their playoff hopes alive. As a result, I have him as a low-end QB1, and would be willing to sit him if there is a better option available.

BUY Lamar Jackson. It hasn't been the same since returning from injury. Struggled against the tough Browns defense on the road, at home versus the Jets and most recently versus the Bengals. But the schedule is salivating for him and all of his pass-catchers to get back on track from now throughout the fantasy playoffs.