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Startem sitem 2020 Friday-Saturday Week 16

By Brad Kruse

In this Start Em / Sit Em column each week, I'm looking to find some fringe players that you might consider starting each week and comment based on their matchups. Early on, I'll base my selection of candidates on where they were with respect to ADP. I'm not going to try to pad my stats by suggesting your start Patrick Mahomes each week, but instead trying to dig deep and find some nuggets for players to avoid or to go after. These are coin flip guys and if I can finish the year at better than 60% I'll consider it a success. My metrics to get the start decision are: QB 20 pts or more, RB, WR or TE need to score 12 pts or more for a successful endorsement. Defense/Special Teams should put in 8 points or more to get those picks right. I'll look at ~3-6 players on each Thursday night's game and ~ 6 players for the rest of the week to get you going.

Player	Pos	Team	Opp	Start / Sit	Comment
Drew Brees	QB	NO	MIN	START	Brees shook off a rocky start to get the Saints competitive vs KC last week. This week, he gets the Vikings defense who struggled against the Bears and have now been officially knocked out of playoff contention. Look for Brees to leverage Kamara in the passing game along with his array of miscellenous receivers plus Jared Cook / Trautmen at TE>
Kirk Cousins	QB	MIN	NO	SIT	Cousins gets the Saints whose defense has fallen off of late, but probably will be enough to keep Cousins in check despite his strong WR weapons.
Tom Brady	QB	TB	DET	START	Not many better matchups than Detroit. Look for Brady to use all his weapons in route to a startable championship week.
"Marcus Mariota / Derek Carr"	QB	LV	MIA	SIT	The Raiders meet the Dolphins this week. The Dolphins defense has been legit. And, with if Carr is OUT, Miami will be more prepared for Mariota's use of his legs than the Chargers were last week. Mariota got 88 yds and TD on the ground which bolstered a solid fantasy day. The Dolphins, however, held Cam to less than half that rushing output without a TD.
DeAndre Swift	RB	DET	TB	START	The Bucs defense has been tough on opposing RBs, but I like Swift coming off a multi week absense to turn in a startable effort last week. He should be fresh enough and talented enough to be featured vs TB.
Leonard Fournette	RB	TB	DET	START	With Ronald Jones looking to be OUT again this week, Fournette looks like a strong play vs Detroit. His upside in the passing game should mitigate concerns if he scores a TD or not.
Salvon Ahmed	RB	MIA	LV	SIT	This isn't a bad matchup, but it sounds like Miles Gaskin is back. This will be the first game where both Gaskin and Ahmed are available. There's too much of a risk that Ahmed loses more touches here and doesn't get the requisite volume
Antonio Brown	WR	TB	DET	START	Brown finally found the end zone last week. He's looking like his share of the offense is sufficient to warrant flex consideration in week 16.