After a fun Sunday of football, it’s time to discuss the players who let us down. In this column, I’ll identify the biggest disappointments of the week, and I’ll assign each player a grade from 0 to 5 that corresponds to my strategy of choice. Of course, I’ll leave out those whose disappointing performances were to injury, as you can read about those players in our weekly injury report.
Since your league’s trade deadline has probably passed, here’s the revised version of the panic meter that we’ll be working with the rest of the season!
| Panic Level | Meaning |
| 0 | No fear. If you’re starting this player, keep doing so. |
| 1 | Some concern. Consider benching them if you have a better option. |
| 2 | Not startable. Leave them on your bench, but don’t drop them yet. |
| 3 | Droppable. Send them to waivers. |
So with the panic meter laid out, let’s get started!
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Matt Ryan (ATL): 3
Unsurprisingly, Ryan had another bad game without Julio Jones. In his four games without Jones this year, he hasn’t thrown for more than 250 yards once.
The veteran quarterback completed 65.6% of his passes for 224 yards, a score, and three picks. He also took two sacks. Two of those interceptions came in the fourth quarter; one came with less than a minute left and set up a game-winning drive from Justin Herbert.
vato came through ?@MikeyQuince | ?: FOX pic.twitter.com/KGQobMrFc2
— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) December 14, 2020
Ryan is unstartable when Jones sits. If you managed to start him and still win your playoff matchup, plan to use a different signal-caller next week, as there’s no guarantee that the Falcons will fire up Jones again with nothing to play for.
Todd Gurley (ATL): 3
Gurley is no longer the leader of Atlanta’s backfield. The Falcons ran the ball 20 times on Sunday, but Gurley only got six of their carries. Ito Smith led the way with 11 carries for 42 yards; Gurley only scraped together 19 yards on his six attempts. Brian Hill and Keith Smith both got carries as well.
The future doesn’t look bright for the ex-UGA star.
Todd Gurley hasn’t played more than 36% of the snaps in any of his last three games
He hasn’t carried the ball more than 8 times in those three games or rushed for more than 26 yards
He plays the top-ranked Bucs run defense in Week 15
I’d start Jeremy McNichols > Gurley
— Adam Koffler (@AdamKoffler) December 14, 2020
I gave Gurley a “2” in last week’s column, but we can upgrade that to a “3” at this point. You can’t start him in Week 15, and his Week 14 usage hasn’t convinced me that he’ll be worth starting again this year. His final matchup post-Tampa Bay is a Week 16 visit to Kansas City.
Raheem Mostert (SF): 1
Mostert hasn’t been his usual electric self over the past three weeks. He hasn’t been bad — he was the PPR RB31 from Weeks 12 to 13 — but he hasn’t been great. Mostert was the RB7 after Week 2 this season, after all. Both Kyle Juszczyk and Jeff Wilson outscored Mostert this week.
What happened? The veteran running back was evaluated for a concussion part way through the game, which kept him off the field for some plays.
I wouldn’t worry about Mostert’s volume; he’s getting comparable touches to what he got during his hot start to the year. Likewise, head coach Kyle Shanahan has committed to Mostert and Wilson as his top-two backs, so don’t worry about competition from Tevin Coleman or Jerick McKinnon.
That said, Mostert has been less efficient. That’s probably due to San Francisco’s broader offensive regression, and with their playoff hopes dwindling, don’t expect Jimmy Garoppolo and George Kittle to bail Mostert out for some high-end finishes later this year. Mostert will be a consistent but low-end RB2 for the rest of the year. If you have a higher-upside option, consider pivoting to them instead.
Giovani Bernard (CIN): 2.5
Bernard got benched against the league’s biggest run-funnel defense, and he ended the day with six touches for 23 yards. Both Trayveon Williams and Samaje Perine touched the ball more often and earned more yards.
The Bengals have the Steelers next week, and you can’t seriously consider throwing Bernard at the league’s second-stingiest defense against opposing rushers.
That said, Bernard has a much better matchup in Week 16, as the Houston Texans give up the second-most points to running backs. If you must drop Bernard to secure a key piece to win in Week 15, do it; if not, consider holding him on your bench for a week.
Chris Godwin (TB): 0.5
Godwin drew the short end of the stick against the Vikings. While teammates Antonio Brown and Mike Evans both ended up with five targets, Godwin ended the day with just three. There just wasn’t much volume to go around, as Tom Brady only needed to attempt 23 passes for Tampa Bay to top Minnesota.
If Godwin’s bad day cost you a trip to the championship, well, at least you’re not Dan Bailey. His four missed kicks single-handedly (footedly?) ended Minnesota’s hopes of keeping up with the Buccaneers.
Dan Bailey today:
– Missed from 46 yards out
– Missed from 36 yards out
– Missed from 54 yards out
– Missed extra pointThe Vikings are currently down by 9. pic.twitter.com/Bartxxid9Y
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 13, 2020
The Buccaneers have a pair of easy matchups to end their season. They’ll play the Falcons (third-worst defense against wide receivers entering Week 14) and Lions (eighth-worst), and that’d usually be good news. Usually. The Vikings were the second-worst defense against receivers entering the week, and we saw what that meant for Godwin.
The lesson here isn’t to bench Godwin. Instead, you have to evaluate him (and the rest of Tampa Bay’s receivers) carefully — there are so many mouths to feed in this offense that any one player could bust in a given week. You need Tampa Bay to be up against a competitive opponent for them to keep their offensive playmakers engaged, and with games against the 4-9 Falcons and 5-8 Lions on tap, you have to wonder about how much passing volume these guys will get to split.
Chase Claypool (PIT) and Diontae Johnson (PIT): 1
Pittsburgh’s passing offense didn’t do much against the Bills. JuJu Smith-Schuster led the team in targets (7), receptions (6), receiving yards (55), and receiving touchdowns (1). Only Diontae Johnson equaled Smith-Schuster’s target share, and James Washington was the only other Steeler to catch a touchdown pass.
Johnson caught four of his seven targets for 40 yards. Head coach Mike Tomlin even benched him after multiple drops. Yet Johnson ended up with better numbers than Claypool, who caught three of his six targets for only 15 yards.
The good news for Pittsburgh’s wideouts is that their next opponent (Cincinnati) features an average defense against opposing wideouts. They won’t have to worry about coverage from Tre’Davious White, either, and I’m cautiously optimistic about a rebound.
The bad news is that Tomlin will follow through on his threats. He said before the game that he’d bench players for failing to “make routine plays routinely,” so if cold starts have consequences, you’d better hope that these guys hold onto the ball. They both remain high-upside plays at WR2/3, but this week showed us just how low their floors are.
Jonnu Smith (TEN): 3
I am not sure how to evaluate Tennessee’s tight ends for fantasy purposes. You should know that there are four of them: Smith, MyCole Pruitt, Geoff Swaim, and Anthony Firkser. You should also know that all of them get targets.
When Smith missed last week’s game with an injury, reserve tight end MyCole Pruitt scored a pair of touchdowns and was targeted twice. Backup Anthony Firkser got seven targets, caught five, and earned 51 yards. Geoff Swaim failed to catch his lone target. The week before, in a game the Titans played without Pruitt and Smith, Swaim caught all three of his targets for 30 yards, while Firkser failed to catch his only one.
The Titans had all four of their tight ends for the first time this week, and Ryan Tannehill targeted the position only six times. Swaim led the way with three. He caught all of them for 34 yards and a score.
SWAIM TIME! ??
?: Watch #TENvsJAX on CBS pic.twitter.com/rlKm2WDpxY
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) December 13, 2020
Meanwhile, Smith got two targets and caught them both for 20 yards. Firkser got one, and he pulled it in for a five-yard gain. Pruitt wasn’t targeted but was active.
I don’t think that you can trust any of these guys in fantasy. Smith’s appeal was his high-volume role in the red zone, but he now must compete with three other guys at his position — in addition to Derrick Henry, Corey Davis, and A.J. Brown — for red-zone work. Four of Smith’s seven touchdown receptions came in games that Davis or Brown missed.
You can safely return the boom-or-bust option to waivers for another streamer.
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Isaiah Sirois is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Isaiah, check out his archive and follow him @is_sirois.
