In what is likely his last season in the NFL, Roethlisberger
hasn’t been great, but his floor won’t kill your chances
to win a week. While he’s only thrown for 300-yards once
this season, he has cracked 200 yards in 10 consecutive games
and he’s thrown multiple touchdown passes in three of the
last four. Meanwhile, the Vikings defense has been one of the
poorest in the league this season, ranking 26th of 32 and getting
worse. Over the last five games they have allowed a league-high
12 touchdown passes. Wideouts Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool
are healthy and rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth has been top-five
at his position of late. Add in running back Najee Harris’
pass-catching ability (57 catches) and Ben has plenty of weapons
at his disposal.
I know all about Hill’s “mallet finger injury,” but he’s playing
the Jets and they made Gardner Minshew look good last week. Hill
threw for 264 yards last week against Dallas and a pair of touchdowns,
but got picked off four times. He’s thrown for more than 230 yards
in four of his last five starts. The advantage to using Hill comes
in the run game where he rushed for 101 yards last Thursday. He’ll
likely also have more weapons this week in the form of Alvin Kamara.
It’s a sad state of Mahomes’ game that he even has
to be on this list, but after five sub-20-point performances in
the last six games it’s necessary. The one good game in
that last half dozen was a 406-yard, five-touchdown game against
… these same Raiders. In seven career games against the
Raiders his average performance is 327 yards and 2.9 touchdown
passes. Since the Raiders moved out of Oakland it’s 365
yards and three touchdowns. Vegas baby Vegas. You have stayed
with him so far, don’t jump ship now.
The Panther’s defense has been solid all season and it’s
not going to suddenly falter now. They rank No. 3 against opposing
fantasy quarterbacks allowing just 18.5 FPts/G and over the last
five just 14.8 points per game. Ryan has been horrible the past
four weeks (10.7 FPts/G) and won’t get better here. He produced
just 11.6 fantasy points against Carolina in Week 8.
Jackson hasn’t done much the last three weeks (20.4 FPts/G)
and these AFC North divisional games tend to be low-scoring physical
battles. The Browns are coming off a bye week, rested and ready
to avenge a 16-10 loss at the hands of the Ravens in Week 12,
while Jackson & Co. lost a last-second heartbreaker to the
hated Steelers. Lamar hasn’t rushed for a touchdown since
Week 2 when he hurt his back on a game-winning scamper around
the right side into the end zone and did a backflip.
Carr’s numbers are still inflated by a great start and
he’s been inconsistent lately with three sub-20-point games
in his last five starts. The Chiefs defense, a sieve early in
the season, has turned it around allowing just 17 FPts/G since
Week 9 with more interceptions than touchdown passes allowed.
That’s normal for a Steve Spagnuola defense, improving as
the season progresses. They had five sacks against Dallas in Week
13 and are a defense to avoid.
