You’re not playing fantasy football right if you’re not streaming in any of your leagues. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, streaming is the act of rotating starters at a position and playing someone off the waiver wire based on a favorable matchup.
I’m almost always streaming defenses in all my leagues during the season so I highly encourage you to check out Justin Varnes’ weekly streaming defenses piece. I’m also not afraid to stream at the typical one-starter skill positions like quarterback and tight end given how much parity there often is at the bottom-half of both positions. Every week, I’ll take a look at some lesser-owned QBs and TEs you might want to start based on a matchup, increased opportunities, and/or other factors that might boost their value in a given week. I’ll also highlight some typical weekly starters that you might want to shy away from because of a tougher matchup, an injury, and/or playing time issues.
QB Streamers
Players To Consider Benching This Week:
Tough matchup: Justin Herbert (AT DEN, 16.0 FPG allowed)
Top Streaming Options:
Tua Tagovailoa (MIA) (VS. CAR, 44%)
In full games this season, Tua is averaging 19.4 FPG. Over the full season, 19.4 FPG would make Tua the QB12. Better yet, he’s been remarkably consistent, scoring no less than 15.2 fantasy points in a full game this year. For reference, there are 9 QBs with more than 7 games played who average less than 15.2 FPG over the entire season. Carolina is one of the tougher matchups for QBs this season, allowing the 4th-fewest schedule-adjusted FPG (-3.3). Even so, with the way Tua is playing, he can be considered a high-end QB2 despite the tougher matchup.
Taylor Heinicke (WAS) (VS. SEA, 15%)
There are volatile QBs, and then there is Taylor Heinicke. In his 9 full games this season, Heinicke is averaging 17.6 FPG, and impressively, has eclipsed 20 fantasy points in over 50% of those games (5 times), but failed to score more than 10.0 fantasy points another two times (22%). Still, his floor isn’t as low as that may make it seem, as Henicke is averaging 3.5 rushing FPG — a top-10 mark among QBs. Heinicke is a high-end QB2 this week, similar to Tua, but he is more volatile, thus making him my 2nd favorite streaming option of Week 12.
Andy Dalton (CHI) (AT DET, 1%)
This play is only for QB needy teams in deeper or SuperFlex leagues, but I do actually like Andy Dalton this week. Detroit is a plus matchup, as they’ve given up the 10th-most passing FPG to opposing QBs (16.8) and are PFF’s worst-graded coverage unit (33.3). The Lions are also vulnerable to the deep ball, as they’ve allowed the most YPG on deep passes (77.4) and the 2nd-most FPG on deep passes (11.1). But, that does come with the caveat that Dalton has hardly thrown deep over the last two seasons, ranking bottom-8 in deep ball rate in each of the last two years. Still, this is a vulnerable secondary, and Dalton is certainly competent enough to take advantage.
TE Streamers
Players To Consider Benching This Week:
Tough matchup: T.J. Hockenson (VS. CHI, 8.4 FPG allowed)
Top Streaming Options:
Dan Arnold (JAX) (VS ATL, 41%)
After I pumped up Arnold as the top TE streamer of Week 11, he posted 0 targets and 0.0 fantasy points. While that performance would put a bad taste in any streamer’s mouth, I have no problem going back to the well given what Arnold did in the 5 weeks prior. From Weeks 6 through 10, Arnold ranked 10th among TEs in FPG (10.7), 6th in targets per game (7.4), and 6th in yards per game (57.2). And he did all of that without finding the end zone. And with Jamal Agnew (the 2nd-most targeted Jaguar over that 5 week stretch) now on IR, there are about 5.6 more targets per game to be distributed amongst the remaining receivers. That should absolutely help Arnold in keeping his low-end TE1 production going. Arnold is once again the top streaming option of the week in a rather neutral matchup against Atlanta.
Tyler Conklin (MIN) (AT SF, 36%)
Conklin is the TE15 by FPG (9.5) this season, but is still much lower owned than TEs with comparable numbers like Hunter Henry (TE13, 10.3 FPG) or Dallas Goedert (TE14, 9.7). Conklin’s role is about as consistent as they come, as he hasn’t seen at least 4 targets in 9 of his 10 games this season, and is averaging 5.2 targets per game (12th-best among TEs). And, in Week 12, he draws one of the top scoring environments - as this game against San Francisco offers a total of 48.5, the 2nd-highest of the week. Coincidently, both of Conklin's highest-scoring games this season have come in contests with a total over 47.5 (VS. LAC and SEA). So, I’m viewing Conklin as a low-end TE1 given the plus scoring environment, but I do think he’s a slightly worse play than Arnold this week, albeit just slightly.
Evan Engram (NYG) (VS. PHI, 32%)
Engram has averaged 9.2 FPG over his last 4 games, a mark that would rank 17th among TEs over the full season. While he’s surely soured some fantasy players with his lack of ceiling performances this season, Engram does draw the best Week 12 matchup of any TE, and that absolutely puts him in the streaming conversation for this week. The Eagles have allowed the most schedule-adjusted FPG to opposing TEs this season (+5.9), and even if we exclude TDs, Philadelphia has still given up the most FPG to opposing TEs this season (14.8). In a fairly neutral scoring environment with a 46.0 total, it’s safe to fire up Engram as a high-end TE2 in an excellent matchup.
