A Running Back "Moss" Start

Man, after all that food from Thanksgiving, I’m still recovering. There’s been so much football to digest over the past week, it’s been tough to keep up with everything. Especially when your favorite team is struggling with injuries. But I won’t go into Cleveland’s woes once again.

There are six teams on bye this week, with Buffalo, Chicago, Minnesota, New York Giants, Las Vegas, and Baltimore all getting the week off. We have even more byes next week. It’s too late in the season for bye weeks, in my opinion. At this point, you’re hardly giving teams a break to “regroup”. But, that’s my two cents. Maybe that is what the Thursday night game “mini-byes” are for, so teams get 10 days rest.

I had intended to write this up during Thursday night football and send it much sooner, but my eight-month-old had other ideas. So here we are, a little late but still here! Better late than never!

So I went 1-1 this week. I took Thursday night football, but my wife managed to steal Monday night. After all the good things Josh Dobbs has done in Minnesota, I thought, surely he’ll be fine against Chicago of all things, right?

Famous last words. Four picks later, my wife’s Chicago DST was doing just fine. I was not. The only thing that kept her from a huge night was having Justin Fields as captain instead of DJ Moore. With the score being so low and the game so bad, it didn’t matter that Mattison and Mooney combined for 10.9 PPR points.

After our Thanksgiving break, I believe I stand at 11-5.

Thursday Night Fantasy Recap

What. A. Game. Instead of being beaten to a pulp, Seattle put up a valiant fight against Dallas. Dallas ended up on top but for a while, it could have gone either way. DK Metcalf has his best game of the year by far, racking up 134 yards and three scores on six receptions. Zach Charbonnet played well but bruised his knee. His situation will be one to monitor going forward. He’s much more of a bruising (oh the irony) back than Kenneth Walker, but showed some explosiveness on his 39-yard catch and run.

What’s interesting is Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the Seahawks in targets and receptions, with 11 and seven respectively. He nearly had a touchdown as well but upon further review (much to the surprise of the commentators, rules analysts, and myself) it was ruled incomplete.

For the Dallas side, Tony Pollard has put together back-to-back good games. A big reason for that is he’s finally finding the endzone. His efficiency has gone down but if he can keep scoring he’s a low-end RB1/high-end RB2.

Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb look unstoppable at this point. Brandin Cooks has emerged as a late-season WR2. Since week 6, he’s been the WR13 in half-PPR points per game (pending the results of this weekend of course). Jake Ferguson isn’t quite a sit-and-forget tight end, but those hardly exist. He’s a fine TE1 option for your team.

Things to look out for in Week 13

• 🐴 I’m sure this will not be the first or the last time you see these stats, this week, but the last time Zack Moss played the Titans, he rushed for 165 yards and two scores on 23 carries and caught two passes for 30 yards. Tennessee has allowed at least 128 rushing yards in five of their last seven games, and 96 rushing yards in six. 🔒️ Lock him into your lineups however you possibly can.

• ⚡️ The Chargers are a perennial story of unknown potential. So many injuries derail offensive and defensive hopes and dreams. But here they are, with only two more wins than the lowly Patriots. Keenan Allen should be his usual self, but after that, it’s tough to talk yourself into any Charger, even Austin Ekeler. He’s scored a combined 12.9 half-PPR points in the last two weeks. Could it just be a slump? Maybe.

• Continuing with Ekeler, he’s averaging a career-low 3.8 yards per carry this season and has only two games all year where he’s averaged more than 3.5 yards per carry. ⚡️ 

• ⛪️ If Chris Olave misses, A.T. Perry is an intriguing start against Detroit. Even if Olave does start, Perry could still see an uptick in snaps with Shaheed looking like he will miss. He’s only caught three of six targets for 45 yards in the past two weeks. On the bright side, he’s played at least 74% of snaps in that stretch.

• So, you’re going to start Christian McCaffrey. Just temper expectations against the Eagles’ run defense. If he catches passes, he’ll be fine. ⛏️ Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk make for fine stars against Philly’s suspect secondary.

• Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris both interest me against Arizona. The Cardinals have allowed the second-most rushing yards and touchdowns this season. They’ve allowed six receiving scores to running backs, most in the NFL.

• 🐬 Just start all of your Miami players against Washington. Ok, if De’Von Achane plays maybe consider sitting Jeff Wilson. Other than that, just start them.

• 🐎 The Broncos vs. 🐄 Texans is going to be a fun game. C.J. Stroud, Russell Wilson, Courtland Sutton, Tank Dell, and Nico Collins, are all startable. You have to keep trotting Javonte Williams out there, and I think Devin Singletary has become the back-to-own in Houston. It’s possible Dameon Pierce is just being eased back in after his injury, but Singletary has played better regardless.

• 🏴‍☠️ Rachaad White has been the embodiment of volume > efficiency. He ran well against the Colts, but it was his receiving game that was leading the way before then. Carolina is allowing the third most fantasy points to running backs and has allowed a league-leading 16 rushing touchdowns to the position this season. Fire up White.

• 🐈‍⬛ If you have a Panther, it’s best to wait a week. Adam Thielen may be fine, but after his one-catch, two-yard performance last week, I can’t comfortably start him. It’s not that he’s even been that bad recently, finishing with six receptions for 42 yards in two of the past four games. It’s the other two games in that sample that are worrisome, where he combined for 31 yards.

• 🐏 The matchup for Kyren Williams might scare some people off, but remember, Williams is the only back there. He is utilized on the ground and through the air. He had nearly 200 yards from scrimmage in his first game back from injury. Cleveland just gave up 169 rushing yards to Denver last week, and 172 to Pittsburgh the week before. They can be beaten on the ground.

• 🟠 Speaking of Cleveland, Jerome Ford is the one person I can consistently feel ok starting on that team. I was getting there with David Njoku but with the potential for yet another quarterback starting for the Browns, I just can’t get there.

• 🏹 It will be interesting to see how Rashee Rice progresses after having his breakout game against the Raiders. Green Bay has kept wideouts mostly contained so far this year, but I think Rice is a solid WR3 during Sunday Night Football.

• 🧀 Also, can Christian Watson continue his Thanksgiving success? What about Jayden Reed? The Cheifs are almost in lockstep with Green Bay with their ability to limit wide receivers, but I’m comfortable starting Watson as a fringe WR3/4 and Reed as a WR3 given his consistency.

• 🐆 Start Christian Kirk, Calvin Ridley, and Trevor Lawrence. Travis Etienne looks like he will play, but if not, D’Ernest Johnson is an interesting play. Evan Engram is well past due for a receiving touchdown, and the Bengals give up the second-most fantasy points to tight ends.

That’s all for this week! Go set your lineups and have some fun!