Fantasy football owners have no choice in the playoffs: Start Lamar Jackson vs. Jets

C’mon.

It’s the question I’ve been asked and seen asked everywhere.

If you have Lamar Jackson on your fantasy football team, should you start the Baltimore Ravens QB and NFL MVP front-runner against the New York Jets on Thursday night?

It’s not as simple as it seems. Jackson has a quad injury that has him listed as questionable, not great when you consider how much he uses his legs to dominate. The Ravens are on the hunt for a first-round bye in the playoffs and the AFC No. 1 seed, but you would assume that if they go up big on the 5-8 Jets, they’ll tell Jackson to take the rest of the night off and let Robert Griffin III play, something they’ve done a handful of times this season.

For fantasy owners in the playoffs, it’s a nightmare scenario. The clear-cut fantasy MVP could end up with fairly pedestrian totals in a must-win. He could hurt himself more and miss the rest of the game. He could run less than usual.

But the answer is right there in front of you. In this situation, you have to play Jackson.

As I’ve written before, fantasy football is all about mitigating risk. Jackson carries more risk this week than he ever has before, which could cap his always-high ceiling.

But his floor is what to focus on here. You can count on two fingers the number of times he’s score under 20 fantasy points this season, and in one of those games, he still rushed for 70 yards against the Steelers and threw three interceptions, the only time he’s tossed more than two this year.

You’re getting a good bet on a solid floor of production. To me, that means even if he gets in a first half of good work, it’s going to be a REALLY good half. Plus, the Jets are really good against the run, so what if Jackson is forced to do more of the rushing if Mark Ingram is ineffective? And if Jackson says he’s 100 percent, we have to believe him.

So don’t hesitate. The riskier thing would be to bench Jackson for a player you think might be a better streamer in a good matchup — Baker Mayfield (who has thrown more INTs than TDs and who fizzled last week against a very vulnerable Bengals defense) vs. the Cardinals? Ryan Fitzpatrick against the Giants?

C’mon.

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