Tag: Tyler Boyd

9 fantasy football sleepers for Week 16

Jameis Winston and Kyler Murray top Touchdown Wire’s list of nine fantasy football sleepers for Week 16.

Arizona rookie Kyler Murray and Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston aren’t quarterbacks that will be starting in the real-life Super Bowl. But we’re talking fantasy football here and that’s a whole different story.

If you’ve got Winston or Murray on your roster, start them. They just might be good enough to win you a championship. That may sound strange about two of the league’s more inconsistent quarterbacks. But it’s the truth.

With everything on the line in Week 16, you have to look for guys on hot streaks and guys with favorable matchups. Winston is on the hottest streak of any quarterback in the league right now and, although Murray has struggle recently, he’s got a favorable matchup against a Seattle defense that hasn’t been good against the past.

Winston and Murray headline Touchdown Wire’s Week 16 fantasy sleepers. Here’s the complete list:

9. Tarik Cohen, RB, Chicago Bears

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

The Bears probably will be playing catch-up ball against Kansas City. That means Cohen, who has emerged as a receiving threat out of the backfield, could put up some serious fantasy numbers. He’s averaged 5.5 catches per game over the last six games.

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Fantasy football: 5 sleepers to start, 5 starters to sit in Week 15

Five starters to sit and five sleepers to start in fantasy football Week 15.

It’s crunch time in fantasy football.

A little scouting and you can avoid a crucial late-season loss or do just enough to cross the finish line with a win this week in the playoffs. We’ve got you covered with a quick scouting report to help you out.

Here are five sleepers to start and five starters you’ve got to sit in fantasy football Week 15:

Starts
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

QB Jimmy Garoppolo

49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is fresh off the best game of his career when his team edged out the Saints 48-46 on the road. Garoppolo had 349 yards and four touchdowns with an interception. The Saints defense over the years has been terrible, but this year they’ve been average. En route next for the 49ers is the Falcons, who’ve been a bottom-feeder defensive team all season. That, and the 49ers have home-field advantage this time around.

RB Kareem Hunt

In PPR leagues, Kareem Hunt is a solid starter as the Browns face the Cardinals this week. This meeting pins two poor defensive units up against each other and Hunt has shown production over the past few games, even with Nick Chubb, scoring a touchdown in three-straight. This game could even turn into a shootout.

RB James White

Like Hunt, James White will be more productive in PPR leagues but he still has value, regardless. The Patriots have the lowly Bengals en route. Cincy is bad all-around, but particularly bad against opposing running backs, who grab an average of 45 yards in receiving against the Bengals. While White does most of his damage in the air, the Bengals also sport the NFL’s worst run defense heading into this one as well.

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Stopping DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki among keys to Jets defense vs. Dolphins

The Jets defense must lock in on the Dolphins top receiving threats in this rematch of their Week 9 loss.

The only thing more demoralizing than losing to a previously winless team is doing it twice in one season.

The Jets accomplished just that in their loss to the then-0-11 Bengals in Week 13, just four weeks after they deliver the Dolphins’ first win of the 2019 season. This time the Jets will get the chance for revenge at home against a team that’s riding an offensive hot streak.

New York is severely depleted with a bevy of injuries including safety Jamal Adams, who’s recovering from an ankle injury. New York will likely lean on its dominant run defense again, though the Dolphins average the fewest rushing attempts and rushing yards of any team in the league. Miami will utilize its passing game, so the Jets should expect to see a lot of Ryan Fitzpatrick, DeVante Parker and Mike Gesicki.

With that being said,here are four keys to the Jets defense against the Dolphins.

Focus on DeVante Parker

(Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)

The Dolphins’ recent uptick in offensive production is due in large part to DeVante Parker finally breaking out and realizing his potential.

The wideout already reached career-highs with 854 receiving yards and six touchdowns and he’s secured at least six receptions and more than 90 yards in three consecutive games. He and Preston Williams tortured the Jets secondary when the two teams met back in Week 9. Now he’s the focal point of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s targets with Williams on injured reserve. 

The Jets could have a tough time against the physical Parker, especially after giving up nine receptions for 125 yards and touchdown to the Bengals wideouts Tyler Boyd and Auden Tate a week ago. This will another good test for rookie Bless Austin to see if he’s truly capable of being a starting cornerback.

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Adam Gase, offensive line among Jets’ Studs & Duds in loss to Bengals

The Jets dropped their second game to a winless opponent this season and are now 4-8 with four games remaining after their 22-6 loss in Ohio

The Jets lost to a team that is 1-18 in its last 19 games on Sunday.

Adam Gase’s squad was a no show in Cincinnati, thinking they already had the game won when they arrived. Instead, New York was on the wrong side of NFL history for the second time this season.

The Jets gave the 0-7 Miami Dolphins their first win. No NFL team has ever given two teams who started 0-7 or worse their first wins of the season. New York became that team Sunday, handing Cincinnati its first win of the season and giving Zac Taylor the first win of his head coaching career.

For the Jets, it was two steps back in the wrong direction. Sam Darnold ended the game with a pronounced limp and the Jets offense didn’t sniff the red zone once.

Here are the best and worst players from the Jets’ sluggish and embarrassing Week 13 loss.

Dud: The Offensive Line

(David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports)

Pass protection has been an issue all season for the Jets, but it reared its ugly head in the 22-6 loss.

The Jets offensive line was guilty of six holds and several back-breaking penalties. The Jets offense had no chance with the Bengals defensive front wreaking havoc on the backfield on every play.

Offensive line play has been key to the Jets’ success all season, so it didn’t help that Kelvin Beachum and Tom Compton were penalty machines while Brandon Shell was a turnstile.

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Watch: Tyler Boyd’s two big plays give Bengals lead over Steelers

Tyler Boyd put up two highlight grabs to help the Bengals take the lead.

A week removed from catching jsut one pass in a loss, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd decided to put on a show against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Boyd, who wasn’t happy with his lack of targets during last week’s loss to the Oakland Raiders, had a bunch of early looks from rookie quarterback Ryan Finley on Sunday during the first half against the Steelers.

The first of two major gains for Boyd in the second quarter was of the 47-yard variety, where the No. 1 wideout didn’t give up on a route despite great coverage.

From the team’s official twitter account:

Boyd was hardly done there. Right after, he beat coverage for a score, then lept into the stands:

It’s a gigantic bounce back for Tate, who wants to help the Bengals avoid an 0-11 start.

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Tyler Boyd isn’t happy with his lack of targets vs. Raiders

The Bengals WR had some choice comments after the loss to Oakland.

Tyler Boyd isn’t thrilled coming out of Sunday’s loss.

The No. 1 wideout for the Cincinnati Bengals was oddly not part of the gameplan often. Zac Taylor’s attack in the seven-point loss doled out four or more targets to four different players.

Boyd wasn’t one of those.

“I feel like I’m a game-changer and I can use my talents any way that comes my way,” Boyd said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “They were playing a lot of zone coverage. I felt like I should have the opportunities in the red zone, especially that second-to-last-drive.”

Now, Boyd isn’t the type to cause a ruckus. He’s a quiet leader and like anyone else on the team, he’s had some down games this season.

But Sunday’s debacle was strange. The Raiders entered the game with one of the NFL’s worst pass defenses statistically. Ryan Finley attempted 31 passes and only three of those went to Boyd. He also completed just 13 overall for 115 yards.

Most notably, a key fourth-down target late in the game went to Damion Willis. Not Boyd, or even two of the tight ends or running backs, but Willis, who had just gotten called back up from the practice squad days earlier.

We’d be remiss not to mention Taylor’s play-calling has seemed spotty for most of the season. And while this isn’t Boyd railing against his coach, he can’t ignore what everybody else knows — he should’ve been more involved in a close game.

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