Saints-Lions tops Week 15 Fantasy Football Power Rankings

Let’s put a fantasy spin on the this week’s action by ranking the games in expected order of point-producing relevance using the over/under totals from Las Vegas, specifically as listed at VegasInsider.com.

Note: Dollar values in parentheses denote a player's current week price in the Yahoo Daily Fantasy game. It is displayed for point of reference.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy: $10 could win you $30K in our $300K contest for Week 15]

The Fab Four

Lions at Saints, Monday, 8:30, O/U 51: Calvin Johnson ($33) basically eliminated his owners last week. The Saints should be a good play at home unless they have decided their leader Sean Payton will not be back. I consider Drew Brees ($33) a top play and it’s nice having something in reserve come Monday. The Lions defense has been all over the map but as I keep saying, matchups are just a tiebreaker. There are not many and perhaps not even any quarterbacks you should play over Brees at home.

Cardinals at Eagles, Sunday, 8:30, O/U 50.5: David Johnson ($17) was hurt last week when the team was on the goal line courtesy of one of his better runs. He has nine touchdowns already and should get 25-plus touches again. Andre Ellington ($17) was not practicing at all early in the week but I would not worry about him either way. Johnson is a top five back next year. The broken leg has probably scrapped the bad idea of signing Chris Johnson. There is little clarity in the Cardinals’ passing game, with no discernible target-allocation order. But Carson Palmer ($35) is highly efficient despite throwing a lot of lower-percentage deep passes. Arizona’s defense is pretty ordinary. I would not be more adverse than usual about playing Eagles but none are really worthy of being in a playoff lineup. Darren Sproles ($16)? Zach Ertz ($14)? No way with Sam Bradford ($25). 

Falcons at Jaguars, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 49: Matt Ryan ($29) is not this bad. Blake Bortles ($33) not this good. I heard someone bragging about him throwing 30 passes in most games but that’s 480 on the season and thus below average. 33 is about average. You want to load up on Jaguars including Bortles because he has 30 TDs despite the qualitative issues I have with his general play. Allen Robinson ($30) probably sneaks into the first round next year. I should like Allen Hurns ($18) more, but don’t. He’s not freaky enough but I overrate this.

Panthers at Giants, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 48: The Giants give up more yards than just about anyone. Can Odell Beckham Jr. ($35) be shut-down? No but will the Panthers try? The play is to stop the No. 2 WR with your top corner and double the No. 1 WR on every play with extra man that gives your defense. But only Bill Belichick plays it this way. What does that tell you?

[Week 15 rankings: Quarterback | Running Back | Receiver | Tight End | Flex | All Positions]

Middle Ground

Titans at Patriots, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 47: Another week, another Patriots starter lost — LeGarrette Blount, who I could have sworn was killed off this year in an earlier episode. Either way, he’s done for the season now. The only guys who should be played in this game are Tom Brady ($35) and Rob Gronkowski ($25). 

Packers at Raiders, Sunday, 4:05, O/U 47: Eddie Lacy ($17) is back in our good graces which means he's going to self-destruct this week on or off the field. Lacy is so volatile and we don’t need that with our running backs when we can take premium wideouts who have higher highs in PPR. Amari Cooper ($22) is dropping a ton of passes. But I’ll forgive it. I’d love to grab him in the third round next year. 

Dolphins at Chargers, Sunday, 4:25, O/U 45.5: Yuck. What a garbage game. Let’s think about Kellen Winslow and Dan Fouts instead and that great playoff game in Miami more than a generation ago. Why don't teams have any stylistic diversity in their play? Doesn’t every team pretty much look the same, especially on say third-and-6? Even on first-and-10. I think teams could play multiple backs who can run like back in that era with a quarterback under center and the backs able to take one or two steps to get through the line of scrimmage instead of four or five. 

Broncos at Steelers, Sunday, 4:25, O/U 44.5: So Brock Osweiler ($26) is just bad, at least right now. But he’s been watching for only four years. Maybe if he watched for five or six more, the game would come easy to him. We pulled a bunch of data at the Wall Street Journal on whether quarterbacks should sit or play right away and there was no difference. There’s basically no way to create a good quarterback. No secret sauce. They just happen. 

Bills at Redskins, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 44: The Bills’ defense has really fallen back under Rex Ryan, which is shocking. I think Ryan is a good defensive coach but do you ever want to bring in a coach whose strong side of the ball is the one your team is currently dominating? I think that’s begging for trouble because he will want to change stuff. Is Tyrod Taylor ($31) good? He looks it but is not excelling in key moments when he has to pass. So is he kind of like the hitter who can only really hit against bad pitchers in hitter counts? When behind this year by 1-8 points, his passer rating is 67.7 in 73 attempts. It’s 100.9 overall. 

Points challenged

Bears at Vikings, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 43: The scouts I talk to are mixed on Alshon Jeffery ($26). Some question his ability to be a No. 1 receiver and think he’s more complementary. I disagree. But you can question the value of receivers, period, when you look at how some who we think are elite (Demaryius Thomas, $24, and Dez Bryant, $20, to name just two) have done with subpar quarterback play. So to what extent is it the quarterback driving the receiver and how good do you need to be for this level of talent to express itself? Merely average, like Ryan Fitzpatrick ($30)? 

Browns at Seahawks, Sunday, 4:05, O/U 43: Johnny Manziel ($22) does not respect currency. Bench him, Cleveland. I sorta trashed Russell Wilson ($34) as a quarterback who was hurting his owners in fantasy and not rising to prior levels in reality. But he immediately made a monkey out of me by going on an all-time run. Ride the wave, kids. I’d play Doug Baldwin ($26) and Tyler Lockett ($15), too. Both have a rating of 140-plus on passes thrown to them this year. That’s nearly perfect.

Jets at Cowboys, Saturday, 8:25, O/U 42: Matt Cassel ($22) shut-down quarterback. Or is Bryant not quite elite? I’d take him over Demaryius, who has been disappointing without such an obvious deficiency at quarterback. But Dez is playing hurt, too. I believe more in Dez than Demaryius. 

Chiefs at Ravens, Sunday, 1:00, O/U 41.5: Matt Schaub ($21) is likely to start. What do we do with Buck Allen ($24)? I think he’s top 15 if Schaub plays. Schaub has at least a chance to be average. The Chiefs ‘offense seems completely boring but they are eighth in yards per play. That’s actually shocking until you see they’re 29th with just 60.3 plays per game. 

Bengals at 49ers, Sunday, 4:25, O/U 40.5: More injuries wrecking a good thing for the Bengals. I can’t play anyone with confidence here though you have to ride A.J. Green ($27). Neither Cincy back is worthy of a start in a playoff game — I’d play Shaun Draughn ($15) over either. Tyler Eifert ($20) is hurt with another injury above the shoulders. He’s a fluke anyway with his incredibly lucky touchdown rate and ability to convert red-zone and end-zone targets. 

Texans at Colts, Sunday, 1:00, O/U No Line: Who is going to start this game at quarterback? Indy may be down to the third string. Brian Hoyer is out after another concussion. This seems like tough luck for DeAndre Hopkins ($36) owners, if they somehow survived Week 14 (bye, I guess). But Hopkins produced against a good Jets defense with T.J. Yates ($20) at QB so you have to run Hopkins out there, obviously.