Week 16 Fantasy Football Quarterback Preview: Bench Aaron Rodgers but start Gardner Minshew

Fantasy Football gets much more simple this time of year. Survive. Advance. That is all there is. Average draft position and rest of season value are irrelevant. You need one win in Week 16 for all of the marbles. With that in mind, here are three quarterbacks I'm sitting and three I'm starting that may just surprise you.

Sit Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins. Murray has all the potential in the world and I can't wait to draft him in 2020, but I can't bet on the Cardinals figuring out their red-zone woes with my season on the line. Cousins has been outstanding this season, but he's at home as a 4.5-point favorite. In five home wins this season he's averaged 25.1 pass attempts and 19.5 Fantasy points. His opponent, Rodgers, just hasn't been that good this season. He's only topped 16 Fantasy points once since Week 8 and he's averaging 209 passing yards per game on the road.

Start Ryan Fitzpatrick, Gardner Minshew and Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill shouldn't be much of a surprise. He's the No. 2 quarterback in Fantasy since he became the starter. Fitzpatrick has been top 10 himself since returning as the starter and he gets the Bengals. Minshew just scored 22 Fantasy points and should be chasing the score at Atlanta.

Week 16 QB Preview

• 33.8 -- Aaron Rodgers' pass attempts per game. That would be his lowest average over a full season since 2014, and he hasn't been near as efficient as he was that year. 
• 10.3 -- Average intended air yards for Jameis Winston. That leads the NFL.
• 98 -- Rushing yards for Ryan Fitzpatrick the past two weeks. He has let his hair down and it's paying off for Fantasy managers.
• 9.5 -- Yards per attempt for Ryan Tannehill. That's the best mark in the league and also probably unsustainable.

Matchups that Matter

Projections powered by Sportsline

Ryan Fitzpatrick QB WAS Washington • #14 Age: 41 • Experience: 18 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs CIN MIA -1 O/U 46.5 OPP VS QB 24th PROJ PTS 20.6 QB RNK 16th YTD Stats PAYDS 2790 RUYDS 219 TD 18 INT 12 FPTS/G 15.7

Josh Allen QB BUF Buffalo • #17 Age: 28 • Experience: 7 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP @ NE NE -6.5 O/U 38.5 OPP VS QB 1st PROJ PTS 14.8 QB RNK NR YTD Stats PAYDS 2876 RUYDS 467 TD 27 INT 9 FPTS/G 20.7

Tom Brady QB TB Tampa Bay • #12 Age: 47 • Experience: 23 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs BUF NE -6.5 O/U 38.5 OPP VS QB 2nd PROJ PTS 14.6 QB RNK 18th YTD Stats PAYDS 3565 RUYDS 30 TD 24 INT 7 FPTS/G 19.1

Top Streamers

Ryan Fitzpatrick QB WAS Washington • #14 Age: 41 • Experience: 18 yrs. Ownership 42% Fitzpatrick has 300 total yards in three straight games and multiple touchdowns in three of his past four.

Gardner Minshew QB LV Las Vegas • #15 Age: 28 • Experience: 6 yrs. Ownership 24% The Jaguars should be in a pass-heavy game script in a dome. I'll like Minshew even more if Chark comes back.

Top Play

Lamar Jackson QB BAL Baltimore • #8 Age: 27 • Experience: 7 yrs. Week 16 Prices FanDuel $9,300 DraftKings $8,000 Jackson's price seems too high until you look at his game logs.

Top Contrarian Play

Gardner Minshew QB LV Las Vegas • #15 Age: 28 • Experience: 6 yrs. Week 16 Prices FanDuel $6,800 DraftKings $5,500 Minshew's price actually went down after last week's solid performance.

So who should you sit and start this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 16 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big time last season.