Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. Riding Will Levis is a fantasy championship. Breaking tie for wild-card spots. Parking Breece Hall on the bench. And more.
Question 1
Having already clinched a first-round playoff bye, I don’t have a meaningful game in one league until Week 16. I have been using the Kansas City defense with little success. The week 16-17 schedule appears extremely favorable for the Indianapolis defense (against Tennessee and NY Giants). Make sense to pick them up for the home stretch?
STEVE BORENSTEIN (Thiensville, WI)
Sounds good to me. Kansas City might have a top 5 defense, but it’s not making any big plays. Only three teams have fewer takeaways, and only five have fewer sacks. I think you’re more likely to hit on something with the Colts, with them playing against two of the five most sack-friendly offenses in the league. Will Levis has been a comedy of errors for the bulk of the season. He’s played in about eight games, with 37 sacks, 9 interceptions and 4 lost fumbles, with 3 of his turnovers returned for touchdowns.
Question 2
I have a tiebreaker question. Say we have 3 teams finish 7-7, competing for the final playoff spot. You break ties in division first, right? So we have Team A (7-7) in the West, and then Team B (7-7) and Team C (7-7) in the East. Team B holds the tiebreaker over Team C, so they would advance, but they lose the tiebreaker to Team A. Team C is upset because they hold the tiebreaker over Team A, but since they lost tiebreakers to Team B, they are out. This is the way it works, right?
Scott Anderson (Las Vegas, NV)
Correct. Break that East Division tie first. Once that’s handled, the winner of that tie breaker (Team B, apparently) would advance to a separate tie breaker against the team from the West Division. After that’s settled, start over, if necessary, to settle the tie between the two remaining teams.
Question 3
Who do I play (2 choices) Pacheco, Pollard or Tracy? Standard scoring.
Jeff Brace (Carignan, QC)
I have Pollard as the best of those guys, and I like Tracy more than Pacheco right now. Tracy has had a couple of key fumbles recently, but I think he’s a talent who’s going to be a real nice back. With the Fight Doctor, I’m not sure he’ll be playing a lot more than Kareem Hunt, and they’ll be working against a good Chargers defense.
Question 4
What do you think of Addison and Rico Dowdle this week? I also have D Smith and B Hall but their production has been terrible.
Robert Green (San Francisco, CA)
I’m in on Dowdle. He’s been playing fine, and he’ll be working against a pretty awful Cincinnati defense. I’ve got Dowdle as a top-10 running back on my board this week. While Breece Hall is a better player, I would start Dowdle over Hall this week. Definitely. The receivers are more similar in value. But with the way the Eagles have been running the ball, they haven’t been passing much, I’ve got Addison higher than Smith.
Question 5
Both Patrick Taylor and Israel Abanikanda are available in my main league (full ppr). Either one worth grabbing (dropping Mattison or Abdullah)?
Scott Anderson (Las Vegas, NV)
I have seen Abanikanda pop a couple of runs in the preseason, making me wonder if he might someday develop into something. I thought it made a ton of sense for the 49ers to grab him off waivers, allowing them to get a month-long look him, gauging whether he might fit into their plans next year. But extremely unlikely that he’ll be doing anything relevant enough that you would want to put him in a fantasy lineup. I think the 49ers will instead be feeding Guerendo a bunch of carries. With Mattison and Abdullah, those guys are better pass catchers, and with more potential to go into a few games as the expected main backs on their team.