Running Backs in Week 15 of Fantasy Football
Running runner Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants has now had two good games in a row, followed by a bad game against the tough New England Patriots defense.
Unfortunately for his fantasy owners, Barkley will now have to play three tough games in a row, starting against the Saints in Week 15.
It’s not always easy to tell how well a player is doing just by looking at their box score or fantasy categories.
Dalton Del Don tries to find numbers that aren’t what they seem to be and should be looked at more closely.
When Joe Brady became offensive coordinator, Cook’s snap rate never went above 46% in any of the three games. However, the change has been very good for his fantasy worth.
Cook has had 19.7 touches per game, 114.3 yards from scrimmage, and the sixth-most RB fantasy points during that time.
Cook still doesn’t play a part at the offensive line, but his 31% target per pass run rate via Brady is top-notch.
During the fantasy playoffs, Cook will face two of the league’s toughest run defenses and then some good ones.
However, his role as a receiver will help. Cook can be a top-12 fantasy running back in the end, even though he doesn’t play many snaps and only gets 20 chances per game upon a top-five offense.
Browning threw 91 touchdowns as a senior in high school, and he should be praised for winning consecutively games, however his fantasy production has been nothing but a dream.
In the past few weeks, Joe Mixon has been stopped three times at the 1-yard line, which has helped him.
The quarterback has scored twice at the goal line. If Browning was in the league, he would have the worst air yards each attempt by a long shot.
Also, Browning already has the highest number of passing yards of any quarterback this season on backfield screens. He blames Chase Brown’s big play last week for that.
Browning also had two very good games in a row (against Jacksonville and Indiana) in the last two weeks. However, his schedule took a bad turn during the fantasy football playoffs.
This week, the Bengals play the very good Minnesota defense. Then, they go on the road to play two defenses (Pittsburgh and Kansas City) that are ranked in the top 12 within fantasy points given to quarterbacks.
In their last 10 games, the Vikings have only let one opponent beat their implied team total. Since Kirk Cousins got hurt, they have also run the sixth-fewest plays on average.
Before beating Detroit in the second half last week, the Bears gave up the eighth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks.
Their number should keep going up. Since moving for Montez Sweat, Chicago’s defense has been one of the best in the league. They give up the fifth-fewest touchdowns per game (180.6).
Before Sweat got there, the Bears had given up 262.3 passing yards, which was the third-most in the league.
Even though they had a bye in Week 11, Chicago has had more giveaways (11) than any other team in the NFL since then (10). In fantasy football games with Chicago since Week 8, no quarterback has scored 17 points.
When fantasy football title weeks are going on, the Bears play the Cardinals and the Falcons at home.
Kyler Murray has had trouble throwing since he came back from knee surgery, and Desmond Ridder has had 20 sacks and only thrown two scores in six away matches this season. Chicago’s D/ST is a sneaky player to add to your playoff fantasy team.
This season, Mingo is only averaging 31.4 catching yards and hasn’t scored a touchdown yet.
However, given his role, the rookie’s output is sure to rise as the game goes on. 90% of the snaps are his, and in both of his most recent games, he’s seen 19 passes, one of which was at the goal line.
But Mingo has to deal with Bryce Young, a rookie wide receiver who is third in the league in air yards lost from pass attempts that were not caught when the receiver was open.
Young missed Mingo, who was wide open for a 45-yard score last week. The quarterback had a -21.2 completion rate over expectation, which is in the second percentile.