Fantasy football preview: Week 12

Week 12 is upon us as the Atlanta Falcons are set to travel down the road and face the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Falcons have not been a good team on the field and have definitely been one to avoid in fantasy football, which we are here to discuss today.

Every week we’ll be previewing the fantasy matchups and who you may want to consider starting and also benching. Additionally, if you have any fantasy questions you’d like answered, you can submit them every week.

With that, let’s get started.

Keep Matt Ryan Benched

At times this year, Matt Ryan has been a quality fantasy football starter. From Weeks 4-9, Ryan had four top 15 finishes, with two games landing in the top three. In the last two weeks, however, Ryan has finished 33rd and 30 respectively, as he’s had a combined roughly six fantasy points. That’s awful, and in a struggling offense such as the one Falcons are currently rolling out, Ryan should remain on your bench and possibly dropped in redraft leagues. Even against a Jaguars unit that’s allowing 8.0 yards per attempt to opposing quarterbacks, you just can’t trust Ryan to deliver the production we’ve previously seen. I hope I’m wrong, but the Falcons not scoring a touchdown in the last eight quarters basically sums it up.

Drop Mike Davis

I really, really wanted to believe in Mike Davis this year. He started the season decently in fantasy, as from Weeks 1-5, Davis had a no more than 13.3 fantasy points and no fewer than 10.2 fantasy points. That quickly went downhill after has Davis has finished no higher than 40th among all fantasy running backs over the last three weeks and his carries per game have decreased mightily.

In a Thursday night game where the Falcons knew they would be without Cordarrelle Patterson, Davis received only three carries and finished with one rushing yard. It’s hard to see any path for Davis to return to a low-end play, and he can be sadly dropped in redraft formats.

Kyle Pitts is the only Falcon you can play (outside of Patterson)

I’m not even going to bother telling you, as by now you know that if Cordarrelle Patterson is playing, he’s a must-start. Outside of Patterson, the only must-start on the Falcons is Kyle Pitts who has shown in past games that he can dominate a game. It hasn’t happened in a few weeks, but it speaks volumes of how thin the tight end position is in fantasy football. Pitts is by far Ryan’s best receiving option with Ridley and Patterson not playing. The Jaguars are currently allowing 5.1 receptions to opposing tight ends this year, and Pitts has a chance of scoring his first NFL touchdown on U.S. soil on Sunday.

That about does it for the Week 12 fantasy football preview. As I say every week, when it comes to fantasy football – always go with your gut!