Our own Pat Fitzmaurice has been among the most accurate fantasy football experts in the industry over the last several years. Fitz was THE most accurate in-season ranker in 2020. What better way to prepare for your fantasy football start/sit lineup decisions than by reviewing his rankings? You can do just that below.
You can also find our expert consensus fantasy football rankings for the week here. And you can sync your fantasy football league for free using our My Playbook tool for custom advice, rankings, and analysis.
Fantasy Football Rankings
Fitz’s Fantasy Football Takes
I know that some fantasy managers are facing a QB choice between Patrick Mahomes and either Brock Purdy or Justin Fields. I’d start Purdy or Fields over Mahomes. Last week in this space, I postulated that Mahomes struggles are largely due to a dire shortage of pass-catching firepower. Travis Kelce is getting older. Rashee Rice is more of a gadget player than a classic receiver who can get open and make plays downfield. The rest of Kansas City’s wide receivers are, to use a technical term, hot garbage juice. Over his last eight starts, Mahomes is averaging 240.1 yards and 1.4 TD passes per game and 6.36 yards per attempt. Mahomes’ matchup against the Bengals isn’t bad, and I would still start Mahomes over most other quarterbacks, but it’s not inconceivable that benching Mahomes in your championship game could be the right move.
In Ty Chandler‘s first start of the season, he had 23-132-1 rushing and 3-25-0 receiving in the Vikings’ Week 15 loss to the Bengals. In Chandler’s second start, he had 8-17-1 rushing and was held without a catch in a Week 16 loss to the Lions. Chandler’s investors might be feeling trepidation about starting him this week after last week’s disappointment. But Chandler’s anemic rushing totals against Detroit were largely the product of a game script gone awry for Minnesota. The Vikings ran only 47 offensive plays, mostly because QB Nick Mullens kept short-circuiting drives with interceptions (four of them). The Lions also have one of the better run defenses in the league. But Chandler gets a much easier matchup this week against a Green Bay run defense that ranks 25th in DVOA and has allowed the ninth-most fantasy points to RBs. Chandler shareholders needn’t worry about the presence of Alexander Mattison. The Vikings’ former starting RB returned from his ankle injury last week, but Chandler out-snapped him 36-5. It’s Chandler’s show now.
Over the first 13 weeks of the season, there were only two games in which Chris Godwin had double-digit targets. He’s now drawn double-digit targets in three consecutive games, averaging 7.0 catches and 95.3 receiving yards over that stretch. Godwin has scored only one touchdown all season, but now that he’s getting robust target shares again, he should be in fantasy lineups. Godwin has a favorable matchup this week against the Jaguars, who have allowed the eighth-most fantasy points to WRs.
If you need to stream a TE this week, Logan Thomas might not be a bad option. Thomas, who’s currently rostered in only 38% of Yahoo leagues, gets a Week 17 matchup against a 49ers defense that suddenly can’t seem to cover tight ends. Over their last three games, the Niners have given up 24-311-2 to opposing TEs. Thomas is coming off a solid 5-36-1 game against the Jets in which he logged a respectable 17.1% target share.
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