A trip to the fantasy championship game next week rests on making the correct start-or-sit decisions and getting some help from Lady Luck this week. The excitement and anxiousness in this week’s AMA were palpable, and a few players came up in multiple questions. Specifically, one No. 1 wide receiver and a pair of running backs were included in a handful of questions and will be the focus of this week’s Discord AMA recap.
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Friday’s Fantasy Football Discord AMA Recap
Will Michael Penix Help or Hurt Drake London‘s Fantasy Value?
The Falcons pulled the plug on the Kirk Cousins experiment. The veteran signal-caller was dreadful against everyone but the Buccaneers this season. According to the data suite at Fantasy Points, in his other 12 starts, he had a 65.0% completion percentage, 226.9 passing yards per game, 5.39 adjusted net yards per pass attempt, 8.0-yard average depth of throw, 10 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and 10.9 fantasy points per game.
Drake London has overcome Cousins’s ineptitude to tie for the WR19 in half point per reception (half PPR) points per game (12.3). Should gamers be concerned about the switch to Michael Penix? I don’t think so.
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), in 2023, Penix had a 65.5% completion percentage, 4,906 passing yards (327.1 per game), a 10.7-yard average depth of throw, 36 passing touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 15 games in his final collegiate season. Penix has a big arm and slings it deep. London will provide him with a big-bodied option, while Darnell Mooney is a field-stretching speedster. Fortunately, Penix peppered his talented trio of wide receivers in college. Even if Penix has some hiccups in his first professional start, it’s unlikely to result from a lack of aggressiveness, which is good news for London and Mooney. Gamers should have confidence in London this week and treat him as the WR2 he’s been this season.
Is Jerome Ford a Priority Flex Option?
Any time a running back has a chance at an enhanced role, the fantasy football community justifiably takes note. Nick Chubb is out with a broken foot for the rest of the season. Nevertheless, I’m reluctant to believe Jerome Ford will be used as a bell-cow running back.
In the first six games of the season, without Chubb, Ford handled 50 of Cleveland’s backfield’s 101 rush attempts (49.5%) and had a 46.2% route participation rate. He parlayed his lead-back duties into only 44.0 rushing yards per game, one rushing touchdown, 3.3 receptions per game, 14.5 receiving yards per game, zero receiving touchdowns and 8.5 half PPR points per game (tied for the RB36).
Ford would be more exciting if Jameis Winston remained Cleveland’s starting quarterback. Instead, Dorian Thompson-Robinson is starting. The Browns are 8.5-point underdogs in Cincinnati, and the game’s total of 46.5 points leaves Cleveland with a puke-inducing implied total of 19 points. DTR hasn’t provided any reason to believe he’s an NFL-caliber quarterback, undercutting any reason to roll the dice on Ford in most start-or-sit questions in 12-team leagues or smaller. Ford is ranked as the RB20 in the half PPR expert consensus rankings (ECR), but I’d start Rachaad White (RB22), Rhamondre Stevenson (RB23), Kendre Miller (RB24), Tyrone Tracy (RB25), Isiah Pacheco (RB26), Travis Etienne (RB27), Tank Bigsby (RB30) and Tyjae Spears (RB34) — even if Tony Pollard is active — over Ford.
Should Fantasy Gamers Bench Joe Mixon in Week 16?
A few Discord users were unenthusiastic about Joe Mixon’s outlook this week. The Chiefs have allowed the fewest half PPR points per game (13.6) to running backs this year, and Houston’s offense has mainly stunk this season.
I can empathize with the lack of comfort in using him. Nevertheless, volume is the king at running back, and Mixon’s standing atop Houston’s depth chart isn’t in question. Houston’s lead running back has had at least 16 opportunities (rush attempts plus targets) in nine straight games, besting 20 seven times in his past eight games.
This is a classic hold-your-nose-and-start-him situation with Mixon. It probably won’t be pretty, but Mixon’s massive workload is too big to bench on most teams. I’m pessimistic about his outlook, but I can’t view him as worse than a mid-tier to low-end RB2 in Week 16.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.