His 400-yard, 4-touchdown streak came
to an end in a crash and burn performance last week against Houston.
After losing his top two targets, Winston had timing issues with
a few of his new guys and it led to his third 4+ interception
game of the year. Luckily for us fantasy fools, Winston is piling
up stats at a frenzied pace, and despite their improvements in
the last month, Atlanta is still an attackable defense. This is
Winston’s final chance to prove to the franchise he’s
worth a future investment. With the uncertainty surrounding Week
17, I have to run out the guy leading the league in passing yardage
and 2nd in touchdowns.
Vegas seems to think this game is going to be
the highest scoring of the week, so naturally I want Ryan this
week as well. Ryan is one of five quarterbacks already over 4,000
yards, and he’s combined that by currently being in the
top-10 with 25 touchdown passes. Ryan struggled mightily earlier
this year against Tampa, but has historically been pretty great
against the Bucs. If you are playing meaningful fantasy games
in Week 17 focus on ascending teams trying to set the tone for
the offseason. This fits Atlanta perfectly.
This one admittedly scares me a bit. Jones is coming off a monster
5-touchdown game, easily the best of his young career, but he faces
a desperate Eagles team playing in a “win-and-in” game.
Although it looks like the Eagles pass defense was solid last week,
holding the Cowboys offense in check, it was more about Dallas missing
plays than the Eagles preventing them. Prescott and the receivers
left a ton of yards on the field because of misthrows or drops,
and the Giants offense has frankly been pretty explosive all year.
Look for Jones to rely heavily on the play action and screen game
to slow the Philly rush and make plays downfield. Trying to save
their coach, and rewrite the season narrative, I expect the Giants
to compete in this one.
These are the type of decisions that
make playing games in Week 17 a nightmare. Coach O’Brien
has stated his team will “play to win the game”, but
I’m not really sure what that means. Sure, Houston has a
chance to move up to the #3 seed, but only if the Chiefs lose
at home to the Chargers. I frankly don’t see that happening,
so that means by kickoff at 4:25 Houston will likely have nothing
to play for. In that scenario, Watson could be resting on the
bench by halftime. Doesn’t sound like a situation I want
to get into.
It sounds like we’ve seen enough
from Brissett this season to come to the conclusion that he’s
not the franchise quarterback capable of leading the Colts into
the post-Luck era. Limited athletically, Brissett lacks the elite
tools to be a frontline NFL starter. He’s hovered right
around 50% completion rate over the last three weeks, and has
failed to even sniff 200 yards in the last two. A mid-season knee
injury has sapped some of his mobility, and his numbers are way
down from where they were early in the year. I know Jacksonville
has basically been walking dead for weeks now, but they would
love to finish the year with a win at home, so I think they make
things difficult for the Colts.
Murray has proven the skeptics wrong all season.
As the only player in the NFL with 3,300+ yards passing and 500+
yards rushing, his playstyle as a poor-man's Lamar Jackson has
put the NFL on notice. But bothered by a hamstring injury that
caused him to miss the 2nd half of the game last week he’s
tough to trust in the season’s final game. Even if the hamstring
injury is minor, it should still limit his mobility, and that’s
scary against an aggressive Rams defense. He’s been a fringe
low-end QB1 this season, but I’m shying away this week.
