Welcome to week 16 of the National Football League season. If you are reading this you probably are in your championship game, congrats! Last week was a tough week for good matchups on paper, but hopefully they’ll follow a little closer to the script this week. Here are some guys who you should think about starting and sitting this week.
Start
Quarterbacks
Tony Romo – Romo has been playing very well of late and gets to face the New Orleans Saints poor pass defense. Of course they unexpectedly shut down Josh Freeman in week 15, but it looked like Freeman was more to blame than the Saints defense. Romo should have no trouble putting up numbers. In the last four weeks he’s put up three games of 20+ fantasy points. Just last week against the Steelers at home he threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns. All signs point to a big game in big D.
Cam Newton – Newton has been the number one fantasy quarterback over the last seven weeks. He’s averaged 250 yards passing and 48 yards rushing to go along with 13 passing touchdowns, 2 interceptions and 4 rushing touchdowns during that span. This week he faces the Oakland Raiders who have been awful against opposing quarterbacks this season, giving up 66% completion rate, 260 yards passing per game and 25 passing touchdowns. And that includes playing against whoever was quarterbacking the Chiefs at the time, twice. Oh and Blaine Gabbert too!
Running Backs
Matt Forte – Forte has had trouble scoring this season, but he’s still putting up decent total yards, with 93 per game. The Cardinals are giving up 132 rushing yards a game since week four, which leads the league. I believe the Bears will slow this game down and let their defense shut down Ryan Lindley (which shouldn't be hard) and let Matt Forte help keep Jay Cutler from turning the ball over by running more than usual.
DeAngelo Williams – With Cam Newton coming on strong and Jonathan Stewart hurt, Williams has been playing well in turn. He’s averaging 128 total yards and a touchdown over the last two games and faces a Raiders’ defense that is giving up the most fantasy points to running backs over the last seven weeks.
Wide Receivers
Danny Amendola – The Buccaneers are having a tough time keeping opposing receivers at bay this season. They’ve given up the league high in yards and receptions to opposing wide receivers. Amendola is finally back from his foot injury and posted six receptions, 58 yards and a touchdown last week against the Vikings. With a week under his belt and another poor pass defense to face, he should do well.
Pierre Garcon – Garcon has 32 targets in his last three weeks and showed that even with Kirk Cousins under center he will get plenty of opportunities. The Eagles have played better of late, but the Eagles can’t have improved from their league worst play, to one of the league’s best pass defenses in just a few weeks. Play Garcon and if RGIII plays, play him a lot!
Sit
Quarterbacks
Ben Roethlisberger – The Cincinnati Bengals have been playing great pass defense of late. Over the last six games they have allowed just three passing touchdowns and had six interceptions. This game is a big one for each team, so it will be intense. It’s hard to predict rivalry games like this, but there’s a good chance it will be a low scoring affair.
Josh Freeman – If you throw no touchdowns and four interceptions against the Saints you can’t be started ever again. Well, especially in your fantasy championship game. Plus their matchup with the Rams isn’t great. They’ve held opposing quarterbacks to just three touchdown passes over the last six weeks.
Running Backs
Trent Richardson -- Richardson’s big workload seems to be catching up with him. He’s been getting into the end zone, but his yardage totals have been falling. Over the last five games he’s averaging just 64 yards rushing at 3 yards per carry. Of course with his touchdowns not slowing down, he’s been fantasy worthy, but the bad news is the Broncos rush defense has been lights out lately. Since week six the Broncos are giving up just 68 rushing yards per game, 3.4 yards per carry, and one rushing touchdown to opposing running backs.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis – Law Firm has been playing well of late, but the Steelers have only allowed one rushing touchdown at home this season and with their playoff lives in jeopardy, they should be ready to play. The last time Green-Ellis faced them was in Cincinnati and he had just 69 yards on 18 touches.
Wide Receivers
Danario Alexander – The Jets are still the only team to have not given up 100 yards to an opposing wide receiver this season. Alexander had been on a tear until last week’s no-show. He’ll most likely be covered by Antonio Cromartie and if you add that to his poor showing last week, it’s going to be tough starting him.
Josh Gordon – He’s played well of late, but going to Mile High and facing Champ Bailey is an almost impossible task for the rookie. Add that to Brandon Weeden not looking good last week, the Browns will have trouble moving the ball at all.
Chet Gresham writes for Rotoworld.com and is the founder of The Fake Football, where you can get all your start/sit questions answered in the comments.
