Well, some of you might be reading this because you want to read about players who let you down in your Week 16 Championship, but we just want to say we haven't forgotten about you Week 17 warriors who have their fates still to be decided. Let's peek in at some players who didn't do so hot in Week 16 and look shaky going into the last week of the regular season, and talk about their trust levels for Week 17.
Since I've dedicated this line for the past several weeks to honoring Matt Ryan's being stinky, I'll give him some props here for beating the Carolina Panthers. Good Matty Ice.
Championship Week's Fantasy Football Fallers
Aaron Rodgers - QB, GB
Well, Rodgers and the Packers' offense have earned a repeat appearance here with an absolutely disgusting effort against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The Packers' offensive line could not hold back the pass rush to save their lives (or the life of their quarterback) and Rodgers himself was visibly shaken all game. He made some decent throws but he was done in by a shaky offensive line and having his receivers not really show up for him. Now he gets to face off against a red hot Minnesota Vikings team that is thirsty for that NFC North title. This is going to be a gritty divisional battle and the Vikings can see the blood in the water. With Minnesota's team fully healthy, Rodgers and the rest of the Packers' offensive players cannot be trusted.
Chris Ivory – RB, NYJ
Said it last week, and it's still true: Bilal Powell is rising and Chris Ivory is falling. The Jets seem to have found a different blueprint for success lately, going through Ryan Fitzpatrick and their passing game more often than leaning on the ground and pound. To be fair, even when they do run the ball, it appears that Powell is just more effective right now. Not to take away from Ivory's strong style of running and its place in an offense, but he seems to be a lot more complementary than feature now. Now the Jets will go into a matchup with the Bills with their playoff destiny in their hands. I don't see them switching things up and attacking defenses with any significant change in gameplan for this one. He's a flex play at best.
Denard Robinson - RB, JAC
Jacksonville fell behind very early in this game and Denard Robinson really didn't get much of a chance to establish any sort of running game. That isn't why he's here though. Many people saw him as the locked in RB1 for Jacksonville so long as he could play, and after logging full practices this week while T.J. Yeldon sat and watched, he looked to be in a great spot. Jonas Gray ended up getting a few snaps to screw up our fantasy plans, but he looked good on them, rushing for 31 yards on only five carries. Luckily Robinson was able to get a few receptions as the Jaguars tried to comeback. Keep an eye on Yeldon's status for Week 17 (though it doesn't sound promising at this point), but Gray looks to be pushing Robinson a little and given the running back profiles, he could usurp the goal line looks against Houston. Robinson is still a RB2 in PPR formats.
Martavis Bryant - WR, PIT
Don't overthink this one, you're still rolling out Bryant in a must-win Week 17. The Steelers screwed up in a major way against Baltimore, but Bryant is not going on your bench.
Julius Thomas - TE, JAC
It really stunk to see Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, and Marqise Lee get theirs while Julius Thomas was outgained by Marcedes Lewis. Julius Thomas only saw two targets, catching both of them for 12 yards (Lewis had a 13 yard catch). You're still firing up Julius Thomas as a top 12 TE option in Week 17, but you're feeling a little hurt coming out of this one. He played in 40 of 57 snaps against the Saints, and he should see more than two targets come his way next week when the Jags aren't facing a team that practically lays out the red carpet for wide receivers.
Other Fallers to Note: Tom Brady (QB, NE), Doug Martin (RB, TB), Demaryius Thomas (WR, DEN), Ted Ginn (WR, CAR), Amari Cooper (WR, OAK), Antonio Gates (TE, SD), Benjamin Watson (TE, NO)
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