hit rate has been in this column and 2) feel an immense amount of pressure to select the right fantasy football streamers this week. After all, it is a pretty terrible feeling to get to the fantasy playoffs and/or championship and end up falling short. Of course, we cannot claim 100% accuracy but in many of my own personal leagues, these are the decisions that I am making. The best we can do is dig into the data and make the right process choices. Let us get after it and win some trophies!
The RotoExperts rankings and projections will guide you in making streaming and start/sit decisions, and the RX staff will be in the Daily Roto slack to answer questions for RotoExperts subscribers as well.
Streaming Notes: All players in this weekly column will be under 50% owned in Yahoo! Fantasy Football. A given player might be owned in your league but is not owned in all leagues. FAAB bids will be listed during the regular season but you know your league better than I do. FAAB dollars are also worth more the earlier they are spent in the calendar, so keep that in mind while streaming QB/K/TE/DST.
Week Sixteen Fantasy Football Streamers
Week Sixteen Quarterback Fantasy Football Streamers
Ryan Fitzpatrick– Ryan Fitzpatrick’s fantasy value has been blessed by two things this season: his willingness to scramble when things break down in the pocket and DaVante Parker. Fitz has seven passing touchdowns in his last five games and is also the Dolphins’ leading rusher over that timeframe. While that doesn’t speak too kindly to Patrick Laird or Myles Gaskin, it is evidence why we want to start him for streaming purposes this week (and, honestly, Andy Dalton is a legitimate option this week as well). The Bengals have the 30th ranked pass defense by DVOA this season and are also a low blitz rate/low turnover team.
That is essentially the script that unlocks the game for Fitzpatrick. If he is not going to be taking horrible sacks or throwing risky interceptions, then the chances are that he is going to be successful. Fitzpatrick is the archetypical three-true outcomes quarterback were on every drop back he is either creating a positive play, throwing a risky pass/interception or taking a sack. It is going to feel gross to roll Fitzpatrick out there with your season on the line but the team total, matchup and upside all make it a defensible decision.
Mitch Trubisky– Trubisky started the season off not running the ball or scrambling at all; he also went through the worst stretch of his career in terms of passing efficiency. While he as not efficient last week, the Bears let him run free in garbage time and it continued a streak of three straight QB1 games for Trubisky. Over the last month, Trubisky has also been scrambling over six times per game and added two rushing touchdowns. He is not Lamar Jackson all of a sudden but in this matchup against a tough Chiefs passing defense, we should expect the Bears to get down rather early and abandon the David Montgomery-centric game plan that they always think is going to work somehow. If we project Trubisky for a reasonable rush rate, he is a low-end QB1 in this spot.
If You Are Desperate: Andy Dalton
Week Sixteen Kicker Fantasy Football Streamers
Younghoe Koo- Koo’s short career with the Atlanta Falcons has basically had him be the best kicker in fantasy since he joined the team. He has attempted four field goals in three separate games and had three field goal attempts or more in all but one of his starts with the Falcons. The Falcons now get to play at home against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, who were on one of the worst point-differential losing streaks in the NFL before their win against the Oakland Raiders. Koo is also playing indoors which is one of our biggest factors in picking streaming kickers.
Dan Bailey– Dan Bailey is a home favorite, playing indoors in a must-win divisional game. Other than a full-on domed onslaught a la the mid-2000’s Indianapolis Colts, I am not sure if I could pick out a better game script for a kicker than the one that Bailey has on Monday night against Green Bay. Bailey has been one of the best and most accurate kickers over the course of his career and has all of the requisite elements needed to be ranked as a top-12 kicker this week.
Week Sixteen Tight End Fantasy Football Streamers
(Note: Tyler Higbee and OJ Howard are under 50% but is owned in all competitive leagues; they are clearly the best streaming option if out there in your league)
Cam Brate – When Jameis Winston came into work on Tuesday, it was reported that he told Cameron Brate and OJ Howard that they “better be ready to get the ball” and if you look around at the Buccaneers offense, you would see why. They are down Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and neither Ronald Jones nor Peyton Barber are proto-typical pass-catching backs. The Bucs will also be without Scotty Miller, their rotational fourth wide receiver in this weekend’s game against the Texans who have been a bottom-third passing defense this season. In short, the Buccaneers are one of the league’s best passing teams and will now be diverting targets towards their tight ends instead of just their perimeter wide receivers. Brate is a very sneaky start this week.
Kaden Smith – Of all tight ends who have been active the last three weeks, only one player has seen more total snaps than Kaden Smith and the same goes for the percentage of his teams’ snaps. The rookie from Stanford has seen eight, five and three targets over his last three games. He is not a core part of the Giants’ gameplan but he is always out on the field and plays a very important position in the Giants offense as they spent the whole offseason planning on being able to target Evan Engram.
If You Are Desperate: Ricky Seals-Jones
Week Sixteen Defense/Special Teams Fantasy Football Streamers
Structural DST Streaming Philosophy: The core tenants of finding a good streaming defense are finding a home defense that is going to face a lot of passing attempts. While your league settings might differ, in general, what we are chasing is sacks, turnovers and the main goal is finding DST touchdowns. DST touchdowns happen most often on passing plays as opposed to rushing plays.
Denver Broncos – The Detriot Lions have the lowest team total of the entire slate, they are playing on the road in a notoriously difficult environment (the altitude of playing in Denver matters to point spreads and to fantasy) and have scored three touchdowns total in their last two games with David Blough under center. Blough has an adjusted yards per attempt under five in his short career and there is little reason to think that it will get better with a solid secondary defending against Kenny Golladay and Danny Amendola. The Lions are just running out of gas and the Broncos have played much better on offense with Drew Lock at the helm. This is a slam dunk streamer.
Houston Texans – As much as I think that Jameis is not a bad quarterback and deserves a contract extension in Tampa Bay, he still leads the league in interceptions and takes over two sacks per game. He is a DST streamers best friend and while the Texans are actually underdogs in this game against the Bucs, there is no denying that the Texans are one of the best streamers. DST scoring is not so much about eliminating points scored against but about finding sacks, turnovers and DST touchdowns. No one provides those like Jameis does, especially without his top two wide receivers.
If You Are Desperate: New York Jets
