Keys to a fantasy football victory in Week 16

On By Littum

Dominate Week 16 with Sal Vetri’s keys to a fantasy football victory.

Pick-up-and-play: Brenton Strange @ LV

Evan Engram was ruled out for the season prior to Week 15. This opened up a starting spot for Strange, who has been solid this season given more opportunities. In four games earlier this season when Engram was out, Strange was a top-10 TE in three of those four starts.

Strange is a big, athletic TE out of Penn State who was drafted in the second round last year by the Jaguars but was buried behind Evan Engram on the depth chart as a rookie. Jacksonville has worked him more into the offense this season, especially since Christian Kirk went down with a season-ending injury in Week 8. In Week 15, in his first start with Mac Jones under center, Strange caught a career-high 11 passes on 12 targets . He averaged 12.8 fantasy points and finished as a top-five TE on the week.

Plus, Jacksonville’s starting TEs have averaged 8.4 targets per game. battle with Mac Jones this season. Now, Strange will face the Raiders in Week 16, who allow the fourth-most yards and third-most fantasy points to TEs. You can pick up and play the Jaguars second year TE this week.

Best Spot of the Week: James Conner @ CAR

Don’t look now, but Conner is on pace to play all 17 games for the first time in his career. He remains one of the Cardinals’ best players this season and again threatens a top 12 finish at the position. Despite being nearly 30 years old, Conner ranks first in broken tackle rate and fifth in breakaway runs according to Player Profiles. You might think that as an older back he would slow down to finish the season, but the opposite is happening. Conner is coming off his best two fantasy days of the season, and in Week 15 he finished as the RB1 overall, producing 138 total yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots.

This week Conner gets another strong matchup. He will face the Panthers, who are allowing the most rushing yards per game and the second most rushing touchdowns this season. Carolina just allowed a career-high 149 rushing yards to Rico Dowdle in Week 15 and 124 yards to Saquon Barkley in Week 14. In fact, starting RBs have averaged 125 rushing yards against the Panthers in the last six weeks. Conner is a top-five back in this great matchup.

Sketchy Spot of the Week: Najee Harris @ BAL

Harris is coming off a worrying performance. In Week 15 against the Eagles, he produced just 21 total yards on seven touches. We knew this matchup would be tough, but it turned out to be the worst case scenario. Harris had a bad fumble in the third quarter and didn’t play another snap after that. He has now played 50% or fewer snaps in four straight games and has dropped carries to not only Jaylen Warren but also Cordarrelle Patterson in every game during that stretch.

This week’s matchup goes from bad to worse as Harris takes on the Ravens on the road with a Steelers six-point underdog. Baltimore allows just 3.5 rushing yards per game, the fewest in the NFL. Other than Saquon Barkley, no running back has topped 65 rushing yards against the Ravens this season, and only three backs have earned 50+ rushing yards against Baltimore. Harris is a sit this week if you have any viable replacements.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Subscribe to Yahoo Fantasy Forecast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Mattison returned from injury in Week 15 and went on to play 32% of the Raiders snaps, earning 11 opportunities. He turned those opportunities into just nine touches for 24 yards in a game where Las Vegas totaled just 249 yards of offense. This isn’t the most appealing offense to target, but Mattison has a few things working in his favor.

First, Sincere McCormick was placed on IR Wednesday and will miss the rest of the season. McCormick had taken over the Raiders backfield the last few weeks and even started over Mattison in Week 15. But with McCormick out, Mattison is shaping up to be the team’s early back. Another positive in Mattison’s favor is that QB Aidan O’Connell tends to play this week. This matters because Desmond Ridder started in Week 15 and wasn’t great. Ridder averaged just 5.3 yards per carry. attempts across his 39 passes, including two interceptions.

Mattison starts this week for Las Vegas and it’s a good matchup. The Raiders are actually favorites at home against the Jaguars. Jacksonville is allowing the ninth-most rushing yards per game and the fifth-most explosive runs of 10+ yards this season. If you’re in a pinch this week, Mattison could be a FLEX option worth considering.

Must-start the week: Bucky Irving @ DAL

Irving turned in a strong performance in Week 15 despite battling multiple injuries. Irving missed practice Wednesday and Thursday before Week 15 with a back injury, but was able to suit up and racked up 17 strong opportunities. Irving cleared 100 rushing yards for the second time this season and continued to be efficient, averaging 7.8 yards per carry. touch. The Bucs rookie now ranks fifth in the NFL in yards per touch and sixth in broken tackle rate. He is already one of the most dynamic backs in the league.

This week, Irving finds himself in a strong matchup as the favorite against the Cowboys. Since gaining a bigger role in Week 6, Irving has played four games as the favorite, and in those contests he’s averaging 95 total yards on 16.8 touches per carry. according to the RotoViz game breakdown tool. That production has translated to 17.5 fantasy points per game. game during that stretch, which would be sixth among all RBs since Week 6. His matchup this week is great as Dallas allows the fifth-most rushing yards per carry. game and the most rushing touchdowns this season. Continue to start Irving this week.

In Week 15, Hubbard played his first game of the season without either Miles Sanders or Jonathon Brooks. The lack of credible RB depth led to the Panthers leaning on Hubbard more than usual. Hubbard played 94% of the team’s snaps and handled 15 of the 17 RB opportunities (88%). This was one of the strongest utility plays Hubbard has seen this season, but it went under the radar due to the Panthers losing by 16 points and trailing most of the game to the Cowboys. Hubbard was only able to total 49 yards on his 14 touches. But he is poised for a bounce-back performance in a solid game this week.

Hubbard and the Panthers will face the Cardinals in Week 16. The Panthers are four-point favorites at home. This game is shaping up to be close, which should help Hubbard earn more carries in the second half. Arizona ranks in the bottom half of the league in rushing yards allowed per game. tackle and explosive runs of 10+ yards allowed this season. Expect Hubbard to see elite usage again and threaten a top-12 finish this week, something he has done in seven of his 14 starts this year.

On the surface, the Titans backfield may have looked like the status quo in Week 15. Tony Pollard earned 17 carries to just four for Tyjae Spears. But we need to take a closer look, because Spears played eight more snaps than Pollard, and he ran 27 routes to just seven for Pollard. Pollard left this match with an ankle injury, but he was able to return. However, it is unclear how much this injury may have affected his effectiveness. Spears took over later in the game when the Titans were down by several scores and found success mostly as a pass catcher, catching six balls for 87 yards and two total TDs.

Spears has spent most of this season breaking up. He has been on the injury report for six weeks and missed four games this year with a concussion and a hamstring injury. This, along with a poor offense and o-line, has lowered Spears’ efficiency to 4.7 yards per touch compared to his impressive rookie season of 5.5 yards per touch last season.

Heading into Week 16, we’ll be watching this Pollard injury closely. We’ve seen guys return to action with ankle injuries in the past and then miss games the following weeks. A big example of this was Joe Mixon earlier this season. He suffered an ankle injury in Week 2 but was able to return to action. But after the game, the injury flared up and he went on to miss the next three games for Houston.

So far, Spears is moving up the RB stash rankings, especially in a week where Zach Charbonnet was added everywhere and Trey Benson sprained his ankle for the Cardinals. Spears now becomes a top-five stash in the final two weeks of the fantasy season with even more upside should Pollard miss time.