Welcome to the Monday edition of the Daily Dose newsletter, our “Fantasy Fallout” day. In this article, you will get a quick rundown of the relevant things we learned from the week’s games from Thursday through Sunday. 

We won’t talk about every single player and we usually won’t spend time on studs who go nuts (no one needs to be told to start Saquon Barkley right now!), but rather, the idea is to update you on usage trends, injuries, and other relevant things to help your decisions with your teams.

Packers at Lions

• Jared Goff threw for 283 yards and three TDs as the Lions beat the Packers, 34-31, and secured a playoff berth.
• Tim Patrick saw seven targets and scored two TDs to go along with six catches for 43 yards. He’s operating as (at best) the fourth or fifth option in the pass game (behind Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta), and isn’t viable as a weekly WR starter. 
• Chris Brooks out-snapped and out-touched Emanuel Wilson for the second straight week and appears to be the preferred back-up option. If looking for RB insurance, he’s an intriguing waiver add.
• Jordan Love only attempted 20 passes as the Packers leaned on Josh Jacobs and the run game. Jacobs had three TDs.
• Jayden Reed was held without a catch for the first time all season. Unfortunate timing for this outcome, but Reed remains a volatile weekly starter for most fantasy teams. Reed should find easier sledding next week as the Packers face off against the Seahawks.

Saints at Giants

Bye weeks are finally over and we’re heading into the first round of the fantasy playoffs in most fantasy leagues. Make sure you understand your specific league to know what motivation your fellow league mates do or don’t have for this week and the rest of the year. Is there a consolation bracket? If so, is there a reward for winning it? Do some teams have bye weeks? Etc. 

This column will remain focused on this specific week and will be similar to how it has worked all year (assigning a % of FAAB to differentiate/prioritize and assuming you have something close to 11 teams you could potentially be bidding against) but make sure to make your own adjustments to your specific format. If two-thirds of your 12-team league mates won’t be bidding against you this week, it would likely change your waiver strategy.

These are the top players to consider adding from waivers this week. Unless otherwise noted, all players below are available in greater than 50% of Yahoo leagues (as of Sunday evening).

QB Streamer of the Week

Aaron Rodgers, NYJ, Week 15 at JAX

• Rodgers had his best game as a Jet in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Dolphins. He passed for 339 yards with an efficient 8.7 YPA. He supported huge games for both of his star WRs. Garrett Wilson had a season-hgh 114 yards and Davante Adams had 109 yards of his own and also caught a TD pass.
• Low-priority add. Rodgers seems to be heating up down the stretch of an otherwise lost Jets season. Traveling to Jacksonville against the Jags and their league-worst defense allowing nearly 400 total yards per game is worthy of a spot start of the future Hall of Famer this week, as needed.
• 5% or less of FAAB.

RB Pickups

At this point in the season, most trade deadlines have passed so the “Buy Low, Sell High” article no longer makes sense! In its place, on Wednesdays we will give you a quick summary of each game’s important information to know and pay attention to as you get ready for your lineup decisions in these key weeks to end the season and into the playoffs.

Rams at 49ers

• Spread/Total: SF -2, 48.5
• Weather: 55 and clear
• Key Injuries to Monitor:
  • Isaac Guerendo, RB, SF – Sprained foot on Sunday, uncertain status
• Matchup Notes:
  • Patrick Taylor Jr. will start at RB for the 49ers if Guerendo can’t play.
  • Both teams are coming off huge scoring outbursts in Week 14
  • This is the second meeting between these teams, but both offenses have much different personnel available this time around.

Commanders at Saints

This article is intended to highlight some players who may have a positive or negative weekly outlook relative to their baseline value. 

“Starts” are players who might generally be on fantasy benches but might have a terrific perceived matchup or game script/environment, or the potential for an expanded role due to past performance or injuries to teammates or opponents. 

“Fades” are players who were likely drafted as fantasy starters or have performed as automatic starters lately but face a particularly tough week due to a poor matchup or a lack of short-term role clarity due to an injury, etc. 

Here are a few of my notable starts and fades for Week 15 of the 2024 NFL season, likely the first round of your fantasy playoffs, with some notes on my thought process included:

QB

Start: Jordan Love, GB (at SEA)

• Love missed two full games and half of a third before the team’s bye week, but he has performed as a top-10 fantasy QB on a per-game basis. He has multiple TD passes in seven of his 11 starts this year, and his 6.4% TD rate is tied for the fifth best in the league. GB has spread the ball around, with six Packers recording at least 25 catches and 260 receiving yards on the season.
• The Packers head to Seattle for Sunday Night Football as three-point road favorites in a game with an implied point total of 46.0. It’s one of three games this week between two teams with 8+ wins. The Seahawks have been a tough pass defense this year, allowing the 10th-fewest passing yards per game, but they’re been closer to the middle of the pack in scoring defense (21.8 PPG allowed), TD passes allowed (19), and red-zone TD rate (52.2%).
• Love’s big fantasy games come when he can pile up the TDs, which he does often, throwing for 2+ TD passes in 18 of his 28 career regular-season starts, including eight games with 3+. I like him to pass for multiple TDs this week in what profiles as a back-and-forth game against the Seahawks.

Fade:  Baker Mayfield, TB (at LAC)

Some things in fantasy football are easy. We know we should start Ja’Marr Chase and Saquon Barkley. We know we should bench the backup running back who is only on our roster in case of injury. A lot of the decisions are made for us. However, there are a lot of things that are not so simple. All of the “in between” situations are what can make the difference between a few wins and losses, and therefore it can be the difference between a successful season or a failed season. Every Friday, we are here to help!!

I’ll take questions each week in our #fantasy-football channel in our Discord from people looking for Start/Sit advice and give my thoughts. This article on Fridays will feature a few of those questions and responses, so join our Discord to be a part of the conversation or ask questions of your own!!

Question 1:: Full point PPR. I have Njoku and his hammy sounds iffy. Do you prefer Tucker Kraft or Dalton Schultz? (here2win)

Answer:: This one is really close as I am sort of high on both players this week. I like both offenses and they each are playing good offensive opponents (Seattle and Miami) who could produce high-scoring game environments. Ultimately my lean is to Schultz, as he has less target competition and is coming off a very strong game, while his team also passes at a higher rate.

Question 2:: Need two of Rico Dowdle, Tyrone Tracy Jr., Isiah Pacheco, and Sincere McCormick.

And two of Terry McLaurin, CeeDee Lamb, Jaxon Smith-Njigba? (khcpa)

The weekend is here and it’s time to get our lineups set before Sunday’s full slate of games. Each week, the Saturday edition of the Daily Dose will feature my rankings for all players who have yet to play a game this week. Obviously this will not include the Thursday games, but feel free to hit me up in Discord if you have some tough decisions around guys who play on Thursday. 

Most of the leagues I play in are full-PPR, 12-team leagues and these rankings are designed for those settings – you may need to make some slight adjustments based on your own league settings.

QB:: 

1. Josh Allen 
2. Lamar Jackson
3. Joe Burrow
4. Jayden Daniels
5. Jalen Hurts
6. Kyler Murray
7. Sam Darnold
8. C.J. Stroud
9. Justin Herbert
10. Bo Nix
11. Patrick Mahomes
12. Tua Tagovailoa
13. Jared Goff
14. Jordan Love
15. Drake Maye
16. Geno Smith
17. Baker Mayfield
18. Aaron Rodgers
19. Anthony Richardson
20. Jameis Winston
21. Caleb Williams
22. Kirk Cousins
23. Bryce Young
24. Cooper Rush
25. Will Levis

RB:: 

The theme of this article is, “Work smarter, not harder.” Every week we will give you the top Waiver Adds in our Tuesday article. However, you can make things a lot easier and less stressful by getting ahead of things with some players and situations. Doing so in a smart way can help you save FAAB or preserve high waiver priority in your league. 

Every Sunday I will give you a few players who stand out to me as great potential additions that can give you a leg up on your league mates. Look to add these players if you have players you are willing to drop, who get late-week injuries, or who are ruled out of their games and allow you to move them to an IR spot once they are officially inactive on Sunday morning.

Geno Smith, QB, SEA

• Geno faces the Vikings in Week 16, a team who faces the highest pass rate in the NFL and blitzes at a high rate. That game has high scoring potential and Geno’s stronger games this season have usually had some rushing contributions as well, while the Vikings blitz at one of the highest rates in the league, which could have him flushed from the pocket and adding a few points on the ground. 

BACKUP RBs