Fantasy Football Saturday Mailbag for Week 15

Welcome to this weekly mailbag series! This article will take selected questions from The Footballers’ Discord that you can join here. In it, you can find a dedicated channel for start/sit questions, public fantasy advice, and a general channel for all things fantasy football. There are also exclusive channels only available to Footclan members. Discord members are great at answering questions and you never know when your questions will appear here.

Playoffs are here and this is when you really want to be looking at matchups coming up to both optimize your lineup and block your likely playoff matchups from picking up players that can be played against you. Good luck this week and if you have start/sit questions, I highly recommend posting them in the start/sit Discord channel to get some feedback.

Question #1 – Streaming Defense

I have Cleveland, Philly, and Denver defenses. I’m gonna be in the playoffs which start next week in my league. I need to drop one defense to pickup a kicker. What should I do? – Brooks Wheeling

Answer: It’s a bit odd to carry three defenses although there is a case for picking up extra QBs and defenses to stream. Regardless, let’s take a look at what each defense has done over the year, in their last three games, and their upcoming schedule with offensive ranks in yards per game and scoring (I know Brooks doesn’t need them until next week, but maybe you do need a defense this week):

Cleveland
Overall defensive rank: 5th
Last three defensive rank (Avg scoring): 28th-Tied
Next three opponents (Y/G rank):
vs Chi (21st)
@Hou (9th)
vs NYJ (32nd)

Philadelphia
Overall defensive rank: 23rd
Last three defensive rank (Avg scoring): 26th-Tied
Next three opponents (Y/G rank):
@SEA (20th)
vs NYG (31st)
vs ARI (26th)

Denver
Overall defensive rank: 12th
Last three defensive rank (Avg scoring): 3rd-Tied
Next three opponents (Y/G rank):
@DET (3rd)
vs NE (28th)
vs LAC (17th)

The answer looks pretty obvious when putting these ranks side by side. Denver is clearly the best defense with easy home matchups against New England next week followed by a coach-less and Herbert-less Chargers team championship week. This week is a little bit tougher to decide, but Cleveland has lost a bunch of defensive starters to injury so it’s a toss-up between a poor Philadelphia defense with a decent matchup or a better Denver defense against a very good offense.

Question #2 – Start/Sit

Really torn between Chandler or Gibson in full ppr? – Angus Macgyver

Answer: This exact debate seems to be a hot topic this week. Both Alexander Mattison and Brian Robinson have been ruled out this week leaving the door wide open for Ty Chandler and Antonio Gibson. I’m not sure when this article will be posted but keep in mind Minnesota faces Cincinnati at 1:00 EST Saturday afternoon, but I go Gibson here. He’s consistently been involved in the passing game. You can pretty much pencil him in for five receptions and something approaching double-digit carries. Ty Chandler is a bit more of a mystery and we just don’t know what to expect out of a Minnesota offense that’s welcoming back Justin Jefferson again and switched to Nick Mullens at QB.

Question #3 – Start/Sit

Start Ty Chandler over Diggs? Ik it seems insane but Diggs ain’t it – TankDellSZN

Answer: This is crazy. I get that Stefon Diggs has disappeared in the last few weeks, but that pretty much means he’s due given his connection with Josh Allen. If the Buffalo matchup against Dallas starts to go south at all, Diggs is going to get peppered with targets because a loss means Buffalo is virtually out of the playoff race and Sean McDermott’s seat starts getting really hot. If Buffalo loses and McDermott needs to explain why Diggs wasn’t targeted more, he’s as good as gone. Even if Buffalo dominates the game, they’re going to have to keep pace with Dallas’ offense. That will require Diggs, so either way, Diggs is a good play this week.

Question #4 – Start/Sit

God help me for asking this. Howell or Mahomes? – LemonYeti

Answer: LOLOLOLOL. This is why I like SuperFlex – you don’t need to make as many weird decisions like this. This reminds me of the woman who tastes kombucha for the first time and can’t decide if she likes it or not. I’ve changed my mind three times already – Howell is coming off a bye (hmm), KC is without Isiah Pacheco (interesting), but Brian Robinson is also out (maybe?), Washington has an easier matchup against the Rams’ defense (no, no)…

This is one of those, which decisions could you live with better if you’re wrong? If you bench Mahomes and he goes off, you’re going to feel really stupid. If Howell has the better week, at least you went down with Mahomes. I think for regular leagues, I go Mahomes. In DFS, I probably like Howell better.

Question #5 – Waivers

Should I drop Mattison or Tyjae spears? Have to drop one of them so I have a pivot option just in case Olave or Hill doesn’t play – Bechen92

Answer: I would keep Alexander Mattison as a desperation flex option down the road. Tyjae Spears was one of my favorite insurance policies earlier in the season just in case something happened to Derrick Henry but it doesn’t seem like Spears is going to see enough touches to be fantasy viable this year.