NFL Week 15 Fantasy Notes

NOTE: Our advice, as it does on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER weekly program (Thursdays, 9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), is based on helping you determine which of your marginal starters are worth a play this week. Hopefully, your initial draft/auction efforts were successful, because frankly, “playing the matchups” is far from an exact science regardless of what you will be told by other advisory services claiming to possess a crystal ball. But our weekly game notes are designed to try to help you maximize the potential of your situation. We will post this preface to the notes every week to remind you of the context of our advice.

Thursday, Dec. 13
Denver at Houston, 8:15 pm RB Walker had his coming-out party last week and will continue to rack up pointage against Denver's poor run defense. QB Cutler will have a good opportunity also against a porous Texan pass D.

Saturday, Dec. 15
Cincinnati at San Francisco, 8:00 pm Cincinnati is usually an all-in team, regardless of how poor the record on the field is. Even against a bad Bengal D, we can't recommend any marginal San Fran receivers with Shaun Hill at the helm.

Sunday, Dec. 16
Arizona at New Orleans 1:00 pm You could probably do worse than TE Patrick given Warner's fondness for use of that position. No marginal Saint players (with Brees and Colston not included) are consistent enough to warrant consideration.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay 1:00 pm With or without Petrino, the Falcon offense is worthless (and yes, WR White is still not to be trusted in terms of production). With Garcia back, he merits a start, as do Hilliard, Galloway and Graham.
Baltimore at Miami 1:00 pm Even with bad defenses (except Baltimore vs. the run), this is an all-out game for marginal players because of the even worst offenses.
Buffalo at Cleveland 1:00 pm The Browns' defense is slowly improving and the Bills' defense is completely fraudulent, so all-in!
Green Bay at St. Louis 1:00 pm With Bulger back, this looms as an all-in shootout in the dome.
Jacksonville at Pittsburgh 1:00 pm The token vulnerability for either defense is Jacksonville vs. the pass, so Ward and Holmes stand out here. RB Taylor joins Jones-Drew as a decent scoring option out of the Jax backfield. Both QBs have been efficient statistically and should have decent but not explosive games.
N.Y. Jets at New England 1:00 pm Cotch and Coles aren't healthy, but they'll be seeing a lot of action as the Jets battle back from a big early deficit.
Seattle at Carolina 1:00 pm The Seattle RB situation is still muddled, so Alexander has fallen from the ranks of the must-starts. We can't recommend Foster or Williams to run on the Seahawks.
Tennessee at Kansas City 1:00 pm Only the young and relatively unproven stand out here, as RB White and WR Bowe look the strongest.
Indianapolis at Oakland 4:05 pm Not too many surprises here: Fargas yes as well as all of your Colts.
Detroit at San Diego 4:15 pm The poor Detroit passing D makes Chambers and Jackson more valuable than usual -- the same for Rivers.
Philadelphia at Dallas 4:15 pm Philly will struggle to keep up, driving up the value this week of inconsistent WRs Curtis and Brown.
Washington at N.Y. Giants 8:15 pm Toomer looms as the best matchup play in this game against a depleted Redskin secondary.

Mon., Dec. 17
Chicago at Minnesota, 8:30 pm Don't buy into the Minnesota passing game just yet. With the bad Viking pass defense, Berrian should get a look.