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Top 10 potential lineup busts to avoid starting in fantasy football. Justin Carter lists NFL players to consider sitting or benching as Week 13 lineup disappointments.
Bye weeks are over. The fantasy playoffs are just around the corner. This crunch time for you, readers, and one goal of crunch time is to avoid making any egregious mistakes. Sure, some dudes are matchup-proof, but a lot of others aren't.
Sadly, we have to say goodbye to one of the mainstays of this column, as the Jacksonville Jaguars have finally drawn the curtains on the Blake Bortles era. His replacement, Cody Kessler, isn't on this list, because even though he probably isn't much better, he has a pretty good matchup against the Colts/
Below are 10 lineup busts and avoids for Week 13 of NFL action.
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Top 10 Busts - NFL Week 13
Baker Mayfield (QB, Cleveland Browns)
Mayfield has been hot lately, throwing seven touchdowns and no picks over the past two games. But those games came against the two teams that are allowing the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this year, so I'm taking Mayfield's success with a grain of salt.
This week, he gets Houston, who allow an average of 16 points per game to opposing quarterbacks, the league's seventh-lowest mark. Mayfield's played one team that's allowed less than per game than Houston (the Chargers) and one that's barely allowed more (the Ravens). In those two games, he threw three combined picks and completed under 60 percent of his throws both times.
Ryan Tannehill (QB, Miami Dolphins)
Tannehill is back!
Don't play him, though. He's likely to be rusty and he's facing the best defense against fantasy quarterbacks, the Buffalo Bills. That fact might sound wrong, but Buffalo has held opposing to single-digit fantasy points in three straight games. This could go very, very poorly for the Dolphins.
Marlon Mack (RB, Indianapolis Colts)
Maybe this wasn't actually the dumbest thing I've done in fantasy football, but after Mack's huge Week 8 games, which came after an also huge Week 7 game, I turned down a late first round pick in next year's rookie draft in the staff dynasty league. I thought well, this other team is the best one in the league, so Marlon Mack has to be worth more than the 12th-best rookie will be.
Now...I don't know. Probably messed that up. (By the way, if Mack is cleared to play after suffering a concussion, he'll take on the best defense against opposing fantasy running backs.)
Tevin Coleman (RB, Atlanta Falcons)
Take away his touchdown catch and last week was not kind to Tevin Coleman, who finished with six rushing yards on eight carries. Now, factor in a meeting with the Ravens run defense, which allows the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing running backs. I would not feel very good about starting Coleman this week.
LeGarrette Blount (RB, Detroit Lions)
I listed Blount here last week and I'm not going to talk about the results of that decision, but I am going to keep Blount on the list this week for similar reasons: he's a fairly one-dimensional back who isn't a big threat other than in the red zone, and you're betting on him getting those opportunities in a game against the Rams. Detroit is going to have to throw the ball a lot to try to keep up with Los Angeles, and that's not conducive to strong play from Blount.
Tyler Boyd (Cincinnati Bengals)
Let's see: A.J. Green is back to take targets. Jeff Driskel is throwing the ball. The Broncos were shredded by the Steelers last week, but this Bengals team isn't the Steelers. I'm also pretty low on Green this week as well, but not as low -- Driskel likely will lean on his best receiver.
Those Non-Michael Thomas Saints Receivers
Did you know that the Cowboys allow the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing receivers?
Now look, I don't expect the Cowboys to, like, stop the Saints. But I also don't expect to see guys like Tommylee Lewis and Keith Kirkwood be factors this week either. Thanksgiving gave a lot of new faces a chance in New Orleans, but this week I'm expecting to see the studs be what New Orleans relies on.
Jarvis Landry (WR, Cleveland Browns)
The Texans allowed a touchdown to a wide receiver on Monday night, but before that, they hadn't allowed that to happen since Week 6. Houston's strong defense has been an underrated story in their meteoric rise from the cellar after three games to the firm-ish grasp on the division they have now.
And Landry hasn't been that good either. Two touchdowns all year plus he's averaging just 41.5 yards per game over the past six games.
Chris Herndon IV (TE, New York Jets)
Herndon has been a pretty solid tight end over the past couple of months, but the Titans have allowed a grand total of one touchdown to the tight end position all year. You can find a more reliable streaming option in shallow leagues and you hopefully have a second tight end on your roster in deeper leagues.
Ricky Seals-Jones (TE, Arizona Cardinals)
Speaking of bad matchups for tight ends, the Packers have allowed just one touchdown to the position all year and have allowed just one team to rack up a 100-yard game to the tight end. Seals-Jones has two catches for 10 yards over the past two weeks and a lot of the hype and the hope that came after his Week 10 showing against the Chiefs is fading fast.
