Arguably, the most frustrating thing in fantasy football is seeing someone in your starting lineup struggle that week. Therefore, the logic behind this article is simple – identify fantasy football lineup landmines.
These are players you’re leaning towards starting this week but could end up being a landmine that blows up and destroys your starting lineup, potentially costing you your matchup.
Fantasy Football Lineup Landmines
Tua Tagovailoa (QB – MIA)
Tagovailoa has been an MVP candidate this year and a top-five fantasy quarterback. However, he comes with boom or bust production. The star quarterback has thrown two or more touchdowns in four matchups, averaging 23.7 fantasy points per game in those contests. By comparison, Tagovailoa has averaged only 12.2 fantasy points per game in the three games with only one passing touchdown, scoring 14 or fewer in every matchup. More importantly, one of those games was against the New England Patriots in Week 2. The star quarterback played well but only scored 12.3 fantasy points in an easy win for Miami.
New England gave up 265 passing yards, two touchdowns, and 24.3 fantasy points to Josh Allen last week. However, they have shut down all other quarterbacks this season, surrendering 217.3 passing yards, one touchdown, and 12.3 fantasy points per game. Furthermore, Tagovailoa has the second-fewest fantasy points scored by a quarterback against New England, only behind Zach Wilson. This matchup between AFC East rivals will be a blowout win for the Dolphins, limiting Tagovailoa’s need to throw the ball, or a low-scoring defensive slugfest. Either way, it’s bad news for the star quarterback’s fantasy production.
Josh Jacobs (RB – LV)
After a slow start this year, Jacobs had a couple of impressive performances in Week 4 and Week 5. However, the past two weeks have been a nightmare for fantasy players. The star running back has gotten the volume over the past two weeks with 39 touches but has scored only 14.9 total half-point PPR fantasy points. More importantly, Jacobs has seen his yards per rushing attempt drop. The veteran averaged 3.43 yards per rushing attempt and two yards after contact per attempt in Week 4 and Week 5, compared to 3.11 and 1.69 over the past two weeks.
Unfortunately, Jacobs won’t bounce back this week even if Jimmy Garoppolo is under center. Last week, Jahmyr Gibbs had 23.1 half-point PPR fantasy points against the Baltimore Ravens. However, he scored 44.6% of his fantasy points in the passing game. Furthermore, the rookie needed a 21-yard rushing touchdown in garbage time to score over 15 fantasy points despite his 17% target share. By comparison, the Ravens have held running backs to 47.2 rushing yards and 10.1 fantasy points per game, surrendering only two rushing touchdowns to the position. Jacobs will disappoint fantasy players unless he has a 10-target performance like Gibbs.
Aaron Jones (RB – GB)
Week 1 seems like forever ago, but that’s the last time we saw Jones healthy. The veteran running back has missed three games since opening weekend and played two others at less than 100%. In those two games, he has averaged only 8.5 touches for 35.5 scrimmage yards and 4.6 half-point PPR fantasy points per contest. More importantly, AJ Dillon outperformed Jones last week. The former Boston College star played more snaps (36-23), had more touches (17-11), and averaged a higher missed tackles forced per rushing attempt (0.33-0.25) than the veteran (per Fantasy Points Data) in Week 7.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings have had an excellent run defense this year when they aren’t facing the Philadelphia Eagles. They have held running backs to only 58 rushing yards and 12.3 fantasy points per game in the other six contests this season. Furthermore, Christian McCaffrey had all but one of his team’s backfield touches in Week 7 and still needed both San Francisco 49ers touchdowns to score 21.1 fantasy points against the Vikings. Until Jones is 100% healthy and the Packers put him back into a featured workload, fantasy players should avoid starting the veteran.
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Mike Fanelli is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @Mike_NFL2.