Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Saturday Edition

Jimmy Garoppolo Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 16 Saturday

Getty Jimmy Garoppolo of the San Francisco 49ers

Welcome to our Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em Saturday edition for Week 16 of the NFL season. In this column, we feature all the toughest decisions from Saturday’s slate of games, featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers, and the Los Angeles Rams.

* Reminder: Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em is intended to present you with the non-obvious choices for your fantasy lineup. We dig deep into player matchups, scoring trends, and other factors to best help you with your fantasy decisions. Superstars such as Christian McCaffrey will not be found in this column. If you’re looking for players of that caliber check out our weekly fantasy football positional rankings.

  1. Positional Start-Sits for Week 16
  2. [QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | DEF | Ks]

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Start ‘Em

Start of the Day: Jameis Winston vs. HOU

Winston leads the entire NFL in passing yards, the Texans allow the third-most passing yards in football over the last three weeks. Don’t allow the unavailability of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to detour you from rollin’ with Winston, he’s put up back-to-back 455+ passing yard, four-touchdown performances without them in the lineup for the majority of those games. *(See Winston’s in-depth Week 16 fantasy outlook here)

Breshad Perriman vs. HOU

Perriman is fresh off of a three-touchdown explosion and has now averaged 90 receiving yards over his last three contests. Houston has allowed two 105+ yard receivers over their last three games and eight 80+ yard receivers since Week 4. *(See Perriman’s in-depth Week 16 fantasy outlook here)

Will Fuller at TB

Fuller owners can expect to receive more boom than bust from the Jekyll and Hyde of the NFL on Saturday. Fuller has averaged nine targets and 16.05 fantasy points over the last two games that he’s started and finished healthy. The Bucs allow the third-most passing yards this season, along with the most fantasy points to opposing WRs.

Tyler Higbee at SF

How can you bet against Higbee at the moment? The guy has eclipsed 100-yards receiving in three straight games and has become the one true constant on an otherwise up and down Rams roster. The 49ers have allowed four receiving TDs to tight ends over their last three games.

Sleeper: Deebo Samuel vs. LAR

Deebo saw his five-game streak of at least 13 fantasy points come to an end a week ago. However, he has a chance of kicking off a new streak vs. the Rams. Cornerback Troy Hill will be out on Saturday, meaning Darious Williams will more than likely draw Samuel for the majority of the day. Williams has impressed this season, but Samuel should be able to use his thick frame to body the 5’9” cornerback.


Sit ‘Em

Sit of the Day: Carlos Hyde at TB

Hyde found the endzone a week ago, however, he’s scored touchdowns in back-to-back weeks just once all season. The Bucs have allowed an average of just 55.3 ypg over the last three weeks, the fewest in the NFL.

Josh Allen at NE

Allen has not eclipsed 185 passing yards in three of his last five games. The Patriots surrender an average of less than 155 passing yards per game, along with 11.46 fantasy points per game to opposing QBs. Allen tossed three interceptions and finished with just 11.72 points against the Pats earlier this season.

Sony Michel vs. BUF

Michel has carried the ball 10 times or fewer in four of his last six games. He remains virtually non-existant in the pass game, and hasn’t found the end zone since his three-touchdown performance back in Week 7. Buffalo has allowed just one rushing TD to an opposing RB since Week 8.

Jimmy Garappolo vs. LAR

The 49ers’ offensive struggles a week ago have been well documented. What has not been is the fact that Jimmy G has thrown for 200 yards or fewer and averaged just 10.85 fantasy points in two of his last three games. Los Angeles has held four of their last five opponents at the QB position to 212 passing yards or fewer, and three of the last five to 190 yards or fewer.

Buyers Beware: Raheem Mostert vs. LAR

The Rams allowed two 100-yard rushers a week ago, true. However, it’s also true that from Week 6 through Week 14, Los Angeles held all but two opposing starting RBs to a 3.8 ypc average or fewer, and allowed just one rushing touchdown to the position from Week 7 through Week 14. Mostert is coming off his first sub 4.0 ypc game of the season where he touched the ball at least nine times on the ground. *(See Mostert’s in-depth Week 16 fantasy outlook here)


  1. *Check out our other Week 16 Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Ems to further optimize your lineups
  2. Start-Sit [QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | DEF | Ks]

READ NEXT: Raheem Mostert Fantasy: Start or Sit 49ers RB in Week 16