Well, we won’t have Lamar Jackson, Bo Nix, C.J. Stroud, Jayden Daniels, Anthony Richardson, Drake Maye, Derrick Henry, Javonte Williams, Brian Robinson, Jonathon Taylor, Rhamondre Stevenson, Zay Flowers, Rashod Bateman, Courtland Sutton, Devaughn Vele, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, Terry McLaurin, Michael Pittman, Josh Downs, Mark Andrews, Dalton Schultz, Zach Ertz, or Hunter Henry. But other than that, we have plenty of options this week! So, if the last bye week of the year has you down in the dumps, we have the solution for that! Three guys at every position who are available in at least 50% of Yahoo! leagues to plug those roster holes. For you deep league folks, we highlight at least one player at each position who is on rosters in 10% of leagues or fewer to help you out this week.
Quarterbacks
Jameis Winston at Pittsburgh (33% rostered)
On paper, this isn’t a great matchup for Winston. But, Jameis can make up for the difficult matchup with pure, unadulterated volume. Since he took over in week eight, he ranks second in pass attempts per game, first in yards per game, and sixth in passing touchdowns per game. But, he is still Jameis Winston, so he has 7 interceptions, the most in the league since he entered the starting lineup. He’s doing all of this by having the third-highest average depth of target among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks in the last five weeks.
This sheer volume is enough to overcome bad matchups, especially lately. Since their bye, Jameis is averaging 25.7 fantasy points while finishing three different teams in the bottom ten in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. While Pittsburgh held him to “only” 14.5 fantasy points, that also came in a snow game, and before the Steelers gave up 300 and 3 to Joe Burrow last week.
Will Levis versus Jacksonville (17% rostered)
Will Levis rejoined the Titans’ lineup in week 10, and since then, all hell has broken loose. Levis finished as a top-12 QB twice in the last four weeks and has finished with at least 16 fantasy points in all four games since his return. Levis just chucks the ball all over the field, which leads to his success. He has the sixth-most deep throw since his return and the seventh-most air yards. He takes on the perfect defense to exploit in his all-or-nothing pass style.
Over the last five weeks, the Jags allow the eighth-highest deep throw rate. And not only are teams passing deep on them, among the highest rates in the league, but teams are finding success throwing deep against them. Over the last six weeks, the Jags allow the third-highest yards per attempt, the second-highest quarterback rating, and the second-highest completion percentage (and second-highest completion percentage over expectation) on passes traveling at least 20 yards downfield.
Cooper Rush versus Cincinnati (6% rostered)
Much like Jameis Winston, this is a bet on volume. Cooper Rush has 55, 32, and 36 pass attempts in the last three games, giving him a guaranteed floor. After all, the only certified good players on the Cowboys’ offense are CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks, so it makes sense that they would sling it out. Rush has at least 17 fantasy points in two of his three games thanks to this volume. But, unlike Winston, Rush has a strong matchup this week. The Bengals allow the third-most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks on the season and have given up 24+ fantasy points to three-straight quarterbacks (including Justin Herbert and Russell Wilson), and 20+ points to quarterbacks in five of the last six, and six of the last eight, games. They’re a sieve, and Cooper Rush will throw enough to take advantage of the terrible defense across from him.
Wide Receivers
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine versus Jacksonville (37% rostered)
We lost Taysom Hill for the season last week, but we found a new BS artist to carry our fantasy teams in his stead. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine is on a crazy tear: he has eight touchdowns in his last eight games, and those eight touchdowns represent 40% of his receptions for the season. NWI is making the best of it, and his 12.3 average depth of target, and 5.3 yards after reception per catch are adding up for a deep threat to take advantage of this bad Jacksonville pass defense. See above in the Will Levis section of this article for more details, but in short: the Jags cannot stop giving up big plays, so teams refuse to stop throwing the ball deep.
Brandin Cooks versus Cincinnati (13% rostered)
With Cooks returning to the lineup last week, Cooks passed six targets for the third time in the four games that he played without succumbing to an injury. That’s guaranteed volume that you simply cannot find elsewhere on the waiver wire (this side of Isaac Guerendo). Cooks will once again get at least six targets in this one, as the Bengals are a pass-funnel defense, and Rico Dowdle is not a game-breaking talent. Cooks’ seven targets last week were especially intriguing, as he played only 39% of snaps, but garnered 19% of the targets. With CeeDee Lamb battling a shoulder injury, Cooks has a chance to dominate the volume against the woeful Bengals’ pass defense.
Parker Washington at Tennessee (4% rostered)
The Jags are down to the mat for passing game options, with only Brian Thomas Jr, Evan Engram, and Parker Washington getting any sort of target volume last week. Those three combined for 31-of-42 targets last week, with Washington leading the way with twelve targets. He hauled in six of them for 102 yards while scoring a touchdown. The matchup is bad on paper, with the Titans getting Bad Matchup Red in fantasy apps and sites, but they’ve been low-key exploitable lately. Over their last four games, six wide receivers had at least ten PPR points. This is a massive change from the beginning of the season when it took them until week seven to get six double-digit PPR wide receiver games against them.
Running Backs
I am not going to pussyfoot around with this: this week stinks for streaming running backs. The most streamable running back is only going to be visible in retrospect since he falls in the end zone. That being said, these guys have some volume coming their way this week.
Jerome Ford at Pittsburgh (40% rostered)
Ford outsnapped Nick Chubb last week, playing on 66% of snaps, whereas Chubb played on just 34% of snaps. That makes complete sense for the Jameis Winston Browns. Chubb is a grinder, one who has not yet fully recovered from his disastrous knee injury last season. Ford is a pass catcher and a more versatile running back, which fits him with Jameis better than the grind-it-out Browns regime that brought Nick Chubb to prominence. Ford had 10 touches last week, to Chubb’s 11, but Ford played more in the second half and out-gained Chubb 62-44 on one fewer touch. The Browns will likely lean on Ford again in this one and are also likely to play from behind. That makes for more Jerome Ford target opportunities.
Ameer Abdullah at Tampa Bay (17% rostered)
The Raiders are getting every running back into the fold this week, with Alexander Mattison & Zamir White likely returning from injury, and Sincere McCormick garnering a real, full-time roster spot. That leaves Abdullah on the outside looking in… or does it?
Let’s start with Mattison and Zamir White. They’re both plodders, whose pass-catching abilities are as vestigial as a human appendix. That means they are likely to split carries, cannibalizing each other’s meager volume (and even more meager production). McCormick likely also insinuates himself into that mix. That leaves Abdullah alone to soak up the pass-catching opportunities. Among running backs playing this week, Ameer Abdullah is seventeenth in targets over the last four weeks. The Raiders also don’t have much going on in the passing game, with Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers as the only viable targets. That makes Ameer Abdullah a good bet for an (extremely nasty) 8 PPR points.
Travis Homer at San Francisco (2% rostered)
The Chicago Bears have a massive problem in their running back room: none of the good ones are healthy. Both D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson are battling injuries in practice this week. Swift has a quad injury that held him out of practice all week this week. Roschon Johnson is in concussion protocol and showing no signs of clearing it before Sunday’s tilt with the 49ers. The Niners have most recently been seen getting the snot kicked out of them by running backs, with Bucky Irving, Rachaad White, Ken Walker, Josh Jacobs, James Cook, and Ray Davis all getting at least 13.7 PPR points against them in the last four games.
Tight Ends
Will Dissly at Kansas City (38% rostered)
Will Dissly let us down last week, but I am willing to give it one last run with the Dissler. He gets the Chiefs, who are a bottom-five tight end defense, on Sunday Night Football. The Chiefs let Brock Bowers obliterate them last week and were well on their way to allowing Ja’Tavion Sanders (3/3/49) a good game before he left late in the first half in their matchup, and gave up 8+ PPR points to tight ends in four of their previous five games, going back to their bye. The Chiefs are exploitable on the defense, and Dissly will see increased opportunity this week. The Chargers will have, at best, a compromised Ladd McConkey, who might miss Sunday Night’s game entirely. That, to me, means building a Dissly-heavy game plan. Why? The alternatives are Quentin Johnston (who can’t catch), Gus Edwards (who can’t run), or Kimani Vidal (who can’t exist, right?).
Juwan Johnson at N.Y. Giants (7% rostered)
The Giants are not a good matchup, allowing the second-fewest fantasy points to tight ends on the season. But, I feel okay about Johnson as a deep desperation play this week. First, the Giants haven’t played anybody at tight end this season. The highest-ranked tight end that they’ve played was Zach Ertz, and he reached double-digit fantasy points. They also let Jake Ferguson drop 11.9 PPR points on them. Those two, and Luke Schoonmaker (8.3 PPR points) are the only tight ends who did anything against them because they’re the only reliable tight ends to touch them this season. Pat Freiermuth and Cade Otton also played against them, but they ended up with a combined five targets. The Giants are paper tigers against tight ends.
As for Johnson getting targets: the Saints have no other choice. Their wide receiver room consists of bombs to Marquez Valdes-Scantling and that’s it. Go ahead and name another Saints wide receiver who will play on Sunday. Nope, Bub Means is on IR. Mason Tipton was a healthy scratch two weeks ago. Cedrick Wilson is the only guy who has played lately, and he doesn’t even have 20 targets on the year. So, that leaves Juwan Johnson. That’s pretty much it: the Saints have nobody else.
Grant Calcaterra versus Carolina (1% rostered)
Shout out to Walker Kelly, who mentioned Calcaterra on the Football Absurdity Podcast. The math on this one is simple, but based on exactly nothing that Grant Calcaterra himself has done. Here’s the basis for this one: no DeVonta Smith, no Dallas Goedert, and nobody else worth anything in the passing game outside of A.J. Brown. Pair that, with the #1 most exploitable tight end matchup, and you have this week’s nastiest streaming tight end.
