| |  | | Tuesday, December 19, 2023 | At least from a Fantasy perspective, Monday night's game wasn't necessarily a great one, though it ended up being a pretty fun game, as Drew Lock led an unlikely game-winning drive that is going to send Eagles fans to smash the panic button. | Lock wasn't great overall Monday, but he came up with maybe the drive of his life in the game's final minutes before hitting Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a 29-yard touchdown grab, followed by one of the most incredible interceptions of the season by Julien Love to cost the Eagles their third straight game. It was a wild ending to what was a pretty sleepy game for the first 55 minutes or so, and the Fantasy production mostly reflects that: Jalen Hurts and Kenneth Walker were the only players to even reach 15 PPR points. | | And now we're on to Week 16. Well, some of us, and if you opened this newsletter this morning, I'm going to assume you're one of the lucky ones. I did not have a great Week 16, losing in five of my eight remaining leagues, but hey, that still means I've got three leagues to care about. And in two of them, I'm the defending co-champion – in the third, a Dynasty league with Heath Cummings, Dave Richard, Dan Schneier and a few other FFT friends, I'm going for my third championship in seven seasons. So, I've still got plenty to play for, both for championships and, more importantly, bragging rights. | | | If you need replacements for those two, we've got some wide receivers to look for in this week's breakdown of the top waiver-wire targets in today's newsletter, along with the first look at my rankings for Week 16. Let's get to it: | | | | | | |  | In addition to Chase and Olave's injuries, we're monitoring Michael Pittman (concussion), Keenan Allen (heel), Isaiah Pacheco (shoulder), Rhamondre Stevenson (ankle), and Alexander Mattison (ankle), among many others this week. We'll have updates by Wednesday at the latest on most of them, though it's worth noting that the Raiders, Chiefs, Giants, Eagles, Ravens, and 49ers all play Monday this week so we won't have full updates until Thursday on those games. | One bit of unfortunate, but expected news, did drop Monday: Keaton Mitchell 's season is over due to a torn ACL. Mitchell forced his way into the Ravens RB rotation as an undrafted free agent, and he had the look of a guy who might have turned into a league-winner for Fantasy if he got the chance. He won't get that opportunity now, and he might not be ready for the start of the 2024 season as a result of the late injury, which is just a huge bummer. He finished his rookie season averaging a ridiculous 8.4 yards per attempt on 47 carries, and hopefully this only delays what looked like his inevitable breakout. Every week, try to wait as long as possible before locking in your claims this week. That extra time could be valuable. | | | | | | Jamey Eisenberg's top targets | - Darren Waller , TE, Giants (61%) – Waller hasn't been the same game-changing, must-start tight end he once was over the past few seasons, and you have to wonder how much his annual lower-body injuries over the past three seasons have robbed him of his special athleticism. On the other hand, he returned from IR last week to catch four passes for 40 yards on six targets, while playing just 42% of the snaps, and his role should grow this week. I like him as a low-end TE1 if you don't have one.
- Justice Hill , RB, Ravens (19%) – The primary beneficiary of Mitchell's injury is likely to be Gus Edwards, who moves up a bit in the rankings. But we should see more of Hill, who has looked like a more dynamic runner than Edwards and could potentially replace Mitchell a bit more naturally in his role. That doesn't mean Hill is going to be a must-start Fantasy option, though if something happened to Edwards over the next two seasons, it's possible. That upside is worth chasing, even if the likeliest outcome for Week 15 if just 8-10 carries.
- Josh Palmer, WR, Chargers (47%) – Palmer has genuinely been one of the most pleasant surprises in the league this season, and I'm glad he was able to pick up where he left off after coming off IR last week. He had 113 yards and a touchdown on four catches, and he did that with Easton Stick at QB. Yes, he also did it without Keenan Allen, but I don't actually know if that helps or hurts, given the lack of other weapons to draw defensive attention. Palmer will be in the WR3/4 range for me, whether Allen plays or not this week.
- Curtis Samuel, WR, Commanders (62%) – Samuel is on some kind of roll. After combining for just 11 yards in Weeks 11 and 10, he has 206 over the past three games with a pair of touchdowns on 26 targets. The Commanders offense looks like kind of a mess right now, and the Week 16 matchup against the Jets is a tough one, but Samuel's production of late has to have him on your radar if you need WR help.
- Tyler Boyd, WR, Bengals (55%) – We saw Boyd play four games without Chase last season, and the results were not particularly inspiring – he had just 12 catches across the four games and averaged 8.0 PPR points. And that was with Joe Burrow. Still, if Chase is out, Boyd is going to play a bigger role in this offense, and he's still shown the ability to be a solid playmaker in this offense. I wouldn't trust him as more than a WR4, but he's probably more likely than most in that range to have eight-plus targets if Chase is out, and the Steelers have a beat up secondary to try to slow him down.
| | | | My Week 16 Rankings | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | | | | | Catch up and stream all episodes from Season 1 of Fire Country, only on CBS and Paramount+. Stream Now
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