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You've advanced to your Fantasy Football semi-finals. It's all cake from here, right? Well, maybe not. Especially at quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers continues his subpar Fantasy season at Chicago. Drew Brees is on the road outdoors again. Cam Newton doesn't look like the same player. You may want to consider streaming quarterback if you have one of those three and there's one available quarterback I love. Let's just hope John Harbaugh and Joe Flacco don't ruin it.
QB
You can't talk about streaming Lamar Jackson without first addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, Harbaugh has talked about playing Flacco. Now read the quote:
The latest on Joe Flacco’s status ... pic.twitter.com/cQ9OSM8fe8
— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) December 10, 2018
You can interpret this a variety of ways. What it sounds like to me is a coach protecting his veteran quarterback and trying to say the right things. The Ravens have been markedly better with Jackson playing quarterback. That shouldn't change because of a loss to the best team in the AFC.
Now, about why I like Jackson: His Week 15 matchup against the Buccaneers (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, available on fuboTV). They have one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL. They aren't much better stopping the run. We've seen Jackson's floor over the past month, but I still don't believe we've seen the ceiling. Week 15 would sure be a good time for it to come out. I expect 180-plus yards through the air and another 70 on the ground. More importantly, I think we get our first three-touchdown game from Jackson. He's a top-10 quarterback for me this week.
Josh Allen has actually been better than Jackson running the ball. But he's almost been a little too good. That sounds weird, but he's averaged 10.8 yards per carry the past three weeks. That's both awesome and entirely unsustainable. I worry about what happens with him if that falls to six or seven and the passing doesn't get better. Allen has just as much upside as Jackson, but with a worse matchup his floor is a lot lower.
Finally, if you're truly desperate you could look to Derek Carr or Jeff Driskel. This profiles as a wild game between two truly terrible defenses. Driskel is at home and has more talent around him, but Carr has been in better form as of late.
TE
Ian Thomas stepped into Greg Olsen's role and really excelled. Over the past two weeks he's caught 14 passes for 123 yards. While he hasn't found the end zone yet, the 16 targets in less that two full games are enticing at this position. This is a tough matchup against the Saints, but I don't believe Cam Newton's arm will allow him to go down the field. That should lead to another high target outing from Thomas, and hopefully a score.
With Jordan Reed on the shelf again, Vernon Davis becomes relevant. He's performed well over the last year and half when Reed has missed time and Washington is desperate for playmakers. This isn't a bad mathcup in terms of the position, but it's hard to imagine Washington scoring very much in Jacksonville. I like Davis over someone like Kyle Rudolph or Jimmy Graham, but he doesn't quite make my top-12 tight ends.
DST
Washington at Jacksonville Jaguars
It's a terrible week for streaming defenses, as Washington is the only defense to rank in my top 12. They should be able to get after Cody Kessler due to Jacksonville's offensive line problems. The only concern is that Jacksonville runs the ball 50 times because Washington can't score.
Detroit Lions at Buffalo Bills
The Bills have allowed the second most Fantasy points to opposing DSTs, though they have improved since Allen returned. The Lions defense has been much improved in the second half and has a lot of upside with the way Josh Allen has turned the ball over.
Atlanta Falcons vs. Arizona Cardinals
The only offense allowing more points to DSTs than Buffalo is Arizona. That, and the Falcons are at home, is what you should like about Atlanta. The rest isn't that encouraging; this defense still isn't very talented.
K
Matt Bryant vs. Arizona Cardinals
Brett Maher at Indianapolis Colts
Jake Elliott at Los Angeles Rams
At this time of year I'd really like to avoid bad weather with kickers. That's why I have two in a dome and another in Los Angeles. I really thought by now Bryant would be a universally owned kicker. He definitely should be at home against Arizona. Maher and Elliott should both be in high scoring games against suspect defenses in good environments.
So who should you sit and start? And what shocking quarterback could win you Week 15? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy football rankings for every single position, and see which shocking QB finishes in the top 10 this week, all from the model that out-performed experts big time last season.
