With bye weeks in the rearview mirror and the fantasy football regular season behind us, it’s time to get ready to make a playoff run.
The stakes have been turned up a notch and who you play this week carries even more weight.
Make sure to check out our Fantasy In Frames IDP waiver-wire article every week to fill in your open roster spots or replace injured players. Below are my educated guesses of players to Play and others to Fade for Week 15 of the NFL season.
As always I am going to give you some players I think could have a better week than expected or might have a worse game than predicted.
Here we go!
Defensive Linemen:
Plays
- Joseph Ossai, DE, Bengals at Titans
- Williams is on an absolute two-game tear. He is the DL1 the past two weeks with 25.8 and 33.3 points in Weeks 12 and 13. Williams has a combined 10 tackles, 4.5 sacks, two passes defended, and a 90-yard interception returned for a touchdown.
- With his recent success, Williams has jumped into the top 20 in scoring on the season for defensive lineman according to Fantasy Pros scoring. Will it continue? Who knows, but you have to play the hot hand while you can.
- Zach Sieler, DL Dolphins at Texans
- Sieler is the DL7 this season with 13.5 points per game per Fantasy Pros scoring.
- He has a great matchup against the Texans’ offensive line that has given up 14 sacks on the season between both of its’ offensive guards. Shaq Mason, in particular, over the past month has allowed seven pressures and three sacks.
- Odafe Oweh, DL Ravens at Giants
- Oweh has 3.5 sacks in the last two games with eight sacks on the season.
- The Giants are likely to be playing from behind most of this game. Should see a lot of pass rush opportunities.
Fades
- Greg Rousseau, DE Bills at Lions
- I know on the surface this seems like an odd pick as a fade for the week. Rousseau is DL8 on the season according to Fantasy Pros scoring. He has been hot lately with sacks in three straight games.
- But I’m not optimistic he gets one against the Lions this week. Detroit’s offensive line has only given up six sacks in the last six games and one sack or less in five of those games.
- Za’Darious Smith, DL Lions at Bills
- Much like Rousseau, Smith has been good lately. He has 20 pressures over the past month with four sacks. He has a good pressure rate of 18.5%, and faced a good pair of offensive tackles for the Packers last week.
- This is a poor matchup against the Bills. Quarterback Josh Allen who hasn’t been sacked the past three weeks and has only been sacked multiple times in a game four times this season. It’s going to be tough for Smith to put up big numbers this week.
- Dallas Turner, DE/LB Vikings vs Bears
- The rookie edge rusher has a bunch of ability. I don’t think there is a question about that. He is going to be a player that you want to think about trying to acquire sooner rather than later. But so far this year, Turner has had trouble breaking through. He has just 11 tackles and one sack this season. A big reason for the lack of production is the guys in front of him on the depth chart. Jonathan Greenard (DL1) and Andrew Van Ginkel (LB3) have been playing lights out, and are two of the top scoring IDP players this season according to Fantasy Pros scoring.
- The Bears are a great matchup this week. Quarterback Caleb Williams has been sacked more than any QB in the league this year. But Turner is seeing just a 35.1% snap share and will have to do a lot with little playing time. His time will come, but it’s too early to be relying on him just yet.
Linebackers:
Plays
- Tyrice Knight, LB Seahawks vs Packers
- The rookie linebacker out of UTEP has finally broken into the starting lineup the last four weeks. He has seen an 80% snap share during that span playing next to newly acquired Earnest Jones. Knight has 35 tackles, one sack, one fumble recovery, and two passes defended since becoming a full-time starter.
- Knight gets a solid matchup this week. The Packers have been pounding the rock with running back Josh Jacobs. There should be plenty of tackles to go around for Jones and Knight.
- Josey Jewell, LB Panthers vs Cowboys
- Over the last month Jewell has a 12.7% tackle rate. He has been LB1 in Fantasy Pros scoring in that time, averaging 20.4 points per game. He has also been an asset rushing the passer. He has 3.5 sacks during that time span.
- This week he faces the Cowboys, who have focused on getting the ball in the hands of running back Rico Dowdle, giving him plenty of opportunities to add to his recent statistics.
- Jamien Sherwood, LB Jets at Jaguars
- With TJ Mosley going on the injured reserve, there is no more reservations about whether Mosley will start to steal back snaps from Sherwood. He is coming off one of his best performances of the season in Week 14. Sherwood had 18 tackles, 13 solo stops, for 29.8 points in Fantasy Pros scoring.
- Sherwood is playing 96.8% of snaps with a tackle efficiency of 25.4%. Those types of numbers should continue against a Jaguars team that is losing offensive weapons weekly at this point. In what is likely going to be a low scoring game, the Jaguars are going to try to run the ball as much as possible. They ran the ball 26 times in Week 14 against the Titans and 25 times in Week 13 against the Texans.
Fades
- Jerome Baker, LB Titans vs Bengals
- After getting traded from Seattle to Tennessee during the season, Baker saw decent usage when he finally got into the lineup. Then he didn’t see a snap in Week 14. At first it was thought that he might be injured, but later it came out that Baker just straight out got benched. Ouch.
- Baker already was putting up average fantasy numbers before this. Now he is barely ownable in most formats.
- Cody Barton, LB Broncos vs Colts
- Barton is the LB20 in Fantasy Pros scoring this season, but his tackle rate is concerning. While he has amassed 80 tackles this season, 41 are assists, and his tackle rate has been just 7.8%.
- The Colts have given up the sixth fewest points to linebackers this season. While Jonathan Taylor is still getting a good amount of carries, quarterback Anthony Richardson is starting to become a bigger factor in the running game. AR has been tough to bring down this season. This isn’t an ideal matchup for Barton in the first round of the fantasy playoffs.
- Tyrel Dodson, LB Dolphins at Texans
- A couple weeks ago it looked like Dodson was set to take over one of the starting off-ball linebacker jobs in Miami. When Anthony Walker injured his hamstring, Dodson came in and played a lot of snaps and played well. But Walker returned to the lineup in Week 14 and took back the full-time role. Dodson saw just six snaps on the day with all of them coming when Walker was getting his hamstring injury checked out.
- At this point, Dodson can’t be played at all unless Walker or Jordyn Brooks go down with a long term injury.
Defensive Backs:
Plays
- Tre’Von Moehrig, S Raiders vs Falcons
- After a few down weeks, Moehrig returned to high-end IDP production in Week 14. His usage and playing time have been there, the stats just haven’t followed. But they are back. He had eight tackles, a half-sack, a fumble recovery, and three pass breakups against the Buccaneers.
- Moehrig played half of his snaps in the box again, which he has been doing for the large majority of this season. He should see plenty of action again this week against the Falcons, who have struggled with turnovers lately.
- Julian Love, S Seahawks vs Packers
- Love has been extremely consistent this season. He is currently DB11 in Fantasy Pros scoring averaging 11 points per game.
- Love leads Seattle in box snaps this season. Against a run heavy Packers team, the increased upside is there this week. Feel confident with Love in your lineup.
- Ja’Quan McMillian, CB Broncos vs Colts
- Denver had a bye in Week 14, but before that McMillian had a monster game against the Browns. He had five solo tackles, four pass breakups and an interception returned for a touchdown.
- With Pat Surtain on the other side of the field, Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson is likely to test McMillian when he does throw the football. Richardson threw two interceptions in his last game versus the Patriots and has thrown four picks in his last four games.
Fades
- Minkah Fitzpatrick, S Steelers at Eagles
- It’s a sad day for IDP owners when you are staring at your lineup and you see Minkah Fitzpatrick’s name, and you have to really think hard about whether he should be in your lineup. Well those days are here. He is currently DB61 in Fantasy Pros scoring, averaging 7.6 points per game.
- Fitzpatrick has been a non-factor for IDP purposes this season. Only 2 double-digit performances happened in Weeks 4 and 5. He hasn’t been making any impact plays, 0 INTs, 0 Sacks, 0 fumble recoveries, and just 1 forced fumble.
- Jordan Fuller, S Panthers vs Cowboys
- Fuller looked like he was going to be a nice play down the stretch this season, but that no longer looks like the case. Fellow safety Xavier Woods is producing at a high clip the last four weeks for the Panthers. Woods has been a top 10 DB over that time span.
- With the acceleration of Woods play, it has been met by a dip in production from Fuller. Woods is seeing 50% of snaps in the box, 20% in the slot, and just 26% at deep safety. Fuller is now playing mostly deep safety (72%) while his box snaps (15%) have greatly decreased.
- Von Bell, S Bengals at Titans
- It has been a difficult season for Bell, and now it has gotten worse. He lost his starting safety spot in Week 14 to Jordan Battle.
- Bell saw just 13.3% of snaps with 63% of those coming at deep safety. Bell is a player to avoid the rest of the season.
