Jonathan Taylor tags in for Zack Moss🫸🫷

Week 16 is about to kick off, and this is your friendly reminder that we’re not going to have 💩 to do in just one short month. Better start mentally preparing now.

What’s in store:

• Jonathan Taylor tags in for Zack Moss🫸🫷. It’s been a bg game of back and forth in the Colts’ backfield this season.

• Josh Jacobs is set to return for Week 16. Zamir White can go back up onto the shelf for now.

• Zach’s notable wide receiver matchups for Week 16. The Eagles and Giants both have great matchups, but we’re only starting one team’s pass catchers this week - lol.

• Brighter days ahead for Dak Prescott? History says that Dak will avenge his seven-point outing in Week 15 against the Bills.

• Colts RB Jonathan Taylor practices in full on Wednesday, Zack Moss listed as DNP

  • The script has totally flipped from the backfield the Colts deployed in their Week 15 win over the Steelers, with Zack Moss exiting with a forearm injury while Jonathan Taylor is set to make his return to action against the Falcons. With Taylor fully on track to play in Week 16 and Zack Moss likely to miss the game this weekend, it should be full steam ahead for Taylor and his fantasy managers. Backup RBs Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson figure to have very limited roles, if any, with Jonathan Taylor ready to help the Colts make a playoff push - both should remain strictly on benches for the week, but not dropped given the potential for Zack Moss to miss an extended period of time with his injury. In that case, Sermon and Goodson could both have value in a split backfield if Taylor would happen to go down again in the next three weeks,

• Raiders RB Josh Jacobs on track to make his return to action in Week 16 vs Chiefs coming off of quad injury

  • After missing a game where the Raiders scored 63 points against the Chargers, Jacobs is set to make his return against a tough Kansas City defense that he actually played quite well against in Week 12. The primary takeaway from Jacobs’ absence last week is that Zamir White is officially a true strong handcuff to Jacobs in the event that he would miss any more time, but fantasy managers should expect things to get back to the regularly scheduled programming for Jacobs in Week 16 – that being a full workload for him moving forward. With rookie QB Aidan O’Connell at quarterback, the upside for the offense remains limited against non-Chargers opponents, and he’ll likely rank as a low-RB1/high-RB2 in his first action back from his one game hiatus.

• Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson opens this week of practice on Wednesday as DNP

  • While there wasn’t necessarily a target date set for Stevenson’s return to the starting lineup, fantasy managers would likely be disappointed if he were unable to get in at least a limited practice at some point this week. Starting off the week as a DNP is both not a good start and not something you need to worry about just yet, so treading lightly with him and playing the situation by ear will be key heading into the semifinals of your league’s fantasy football championship. In the meantime, RB Ezekiel Elliott can be trusted to shoulder the load for the Patriots while Stevenson is out as he’s been doing. Zeke has played just under 90% of snaps over the past two games in his absence and will be the obvious preferred start if Stevenson is ultimately unable to go. If Stevenson plays, Elliott would likely be relegated to low-RB3/high RB4 production.

• At the top of my wide receiver rankings I have Ceedee Lamb and A.J. Brown at 1 and 2. Brown would probably be at 1 if the Eagles offense looked like it did earlier in the season, but with Philly having trouble finding the end zone, the top honor goes to Ceedee for a second straight week. Lamb was able to overcome a disastrous offensive performance by the Cowboys and score that game-saving garbage time touchdown, and he had another 10 targets against the Bills in a game where nothing was going right. He’s the overall 1 on the week with Tyreek a bit banged up yet.

• Speaking of Tyreek, he follows Amon Ra St. Brown - who’s at 3 - as my WR4 this week, and that’s based essentially purely on the fact that Tyreek could end up playing in this game a bit banged up. When we know he’s going to be healthy, Hill is the easy WR1 any given week regardless of matchup. As for Amon-Ra St. Brown, he was able to get back on track against the Broncos last week and now faces a solid matchup against the Vikings at home. His 0.342 consistency rating on the Upper Hand Fantasy website ranks third among WRs this season, and a return trip to the end zone was exactly what the doctor ordered after two straight down weeks for him before Week 15.

• If there were ever a week for Stefon Diggs to get back on track, it’s this one. A matchup with the Chargers should have his fantasy managers on comeback watch, who are allowing the most fantasy points to wide receivers lined up on the right side all season. With Gabe Davis a mere afterthought in the passing attack, Diggs should be locked in as a WR1 play against the Chargers. 

• D.J. Moore has a very nice matchup on that left perimeter against the Cardinals - Arizona is allowing receivers to score the ninth-most fantasy points on that side and the fourth most on the season. With Josh Allen playing lights out and the expectation being that the Bills WON’T be able to rush for 200+ rush yards in back to back games, Diggs should be able to make this a get right spot.

There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it: the Bills utterly dismantled the Cowboys in Week 15, handing Dallas their first loss in five weeks and Dak Prescott his first single-digit fantasy performance since Week 5. After seven straight games of two or more passing touchdowns for Dak, he was held to zero on the afternoon in Buffalo and threw his first interception since Week 10. Dak finished as the QB32 on the week, which was his lowest finish all year. But based on what we’ve seen from him in recent years, we shouldn’t have to worry about a second straight dud in Week 16 against the Dolphins…

Since 2022, Dak Prescott is averaging a whopping 25.5 fantasy points per game in five regular season games coming off a regular season loss. Of those five games, Prescott has finished as the overall QB1 on the Week in three of them, including two such finishes this season - the first coming against the Chargers after the loss to the 49ers, and the second against the Giants coming off the loss to the Eagles.

In those games, Prescott is averaging 312 passing yards and over two touchdowns per game. The numbers above don’t reflect the weeks following Prescott’s loss in Week 1 of 2022 where he exited the game early and missed the next five weeks, or the final game of the year in 2022 against the Commanders. However, Prescott would go on after the loss at the end of the regular season to the Commanders to score five total touchdowns the next week against the Buccaneers in the wild card round of the playoffs - one week after the loss to Washington.