Fantasy football playoffs are some of the most intense virtual competitions between friends. In some cases a fantasy championship means a nice pay day, for others possibly a trophy, but for all it brings immense bragging rights. Any fantasy football player can attest that there is minimal room for error come playoff time, and I hope to provide some assistance for those difficult decisions.
Start
Ryan Tannehill
Ryan Tannehill has proven to the Titans that he was deserving of the 4 year, $118 million contract he signed at the beginning of free agency, posting strong numbers all season. The Jaguars have allowed the fourth most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season. The last time these two teams met Tannehill threw for 239 yards with 4 touchdowns and finished with 26.76 fantasy points. Tannehill is coming off a season high 389 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Browns and will look to follow up with another strong performance against a weak Jaguars defense.
Corey Davis
We’ll stick with the Titans here with one the most underrated players in fantasy football. Often times overshadowed by Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown, Corey Davis has been a pleasant find for fantasy owners. Usually when the quarterbacks are putting up fantasy points, as are his receivers, and the Jags are allowing the sixth most fantasy points to wide outs this year. Davis comes into this match-up after hauling in 11 passes for 182 yards, and a touchdown. Davis is averaging 15.7 fantasy points in PPR formats, and is available in 27.5% of ESPN leagues. If Davis is available in your league, definitely be sure to scoop him up.
Ronald Jones
Rojo’s 37 yard catch and run salvaged his fantasy day against the Chiefs 2 Sundays ago. Jones has a combined 19 carries for just 90 yards on the ground in the last two games, so I under the skepticism in starting Jones. Rojo has a favorable match-up coming off the bye week this week against the Minnesota Vikings who have allowed an average of 137 yards in the last 3 games. Jones should see enough of a workload against this middle of the pack defense of the Vikings to warrant good numbers.
Sit
Miles Sanders
Sanders has not scored double digits in any of his last 3 games. In a favorable match-up last week against the Packers, who are allowing the third most fantasy points to running backs this season, Sanders rushed the ball 10 times for just 31 yards and did not have any receptions. Now going into a game with Jalen Hurts making his first career start against the New Orleans Saints who have allowed the fewest fantasy points this season. Sanders is best left on the bench.
Zach Ertz
Staying in Philly here, another Eagle to avoid is Zach Ertz. In his first game back since week 6, Ertz only saw 27 snaps. Ertz is typically one of the best tight ends in fantasy football, but he has not given fantasy owners any reason to trust him this season. In his 7 games this season Ertz has only 26 receptions for 209 yards, and 1 touchdown that came in week 1. As mentioned above, the Saints defense has been tough on fantasy players all year, and playing Ertz based off past years numbers certainly is not worth the risk.
Jarvis Landry
Juice has put up some impressive numbers in his last 2 games topping 20 points in both games in PPR formats. But I would pump the breaks on Landry in this one. Landry has just 2 receiving touchdowns on the season both coming in the last 2 games, and has only one 100 yard game. As I mentioned in the intro, there is not much room for error in the playoffs, and I believe there is too much risk involved with Landry especially against this tough Ravens secondary. Don’t be fooled by Landry’s last 2 games and leave him on the bench.