Fantasy Football: Week Sixteen Staff Must Start, Must Sit and Sleeper Picks

Connor Wilcoxen

START: Calvin Johnson, WR – Detroit Lions

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Calvin Johnson has not performed as well as he has in previous seasons. He is no longer the most dominant receiver in the league, partly because cornerbacks are getting bigger, and height is not enough to beat every cornerback. However, the main reason Megatron has not been performing to his standards this season is because he missed three games due to an injury. Without those three games, Johnson still has had 935 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns so far this season. He’s also on a hot streak, with 357 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns in the past three games. Plus, the Lions play the Chicago Bears this Sunday. The Bears have the second worst pass defense in the league, allowing 272.2 passing yards per game. The last time Megatron played the Bears, he had one of his best games of the season. If you are in a playoff game this weekend, expect him to have another.

SIT: Jimmy Clausen, QB – Chicago Bears

Hopefully if you’ve made it this far into your fantasy season, you aren’t even considering starting Jimmy Clausen. If you are, I hope you have a fantastic team surrounding him. Clausen has not played in a full regular season NFL game since 2010. The only reason he is playing this week is because Jay Cutler leads the league in turnovers, and the Bears don’t know what to do with him. Clausen has also been thrown into the fire this week because he is playing the Detroit Lions this Sunday. The Lions need to win this week in order to stay in first place in the division, and hold the Packers at bay until the two teams meet next week. The Lions also have the best running defense in the NFL, so Clausen can’t rely on Forte to carry the team this week. Any owner that desperately needs a quarterback would be better off with Geno Smith or Mark Sanchez than Jimmy Clausen.

SLEEPER: Heath Miller, TE – Pittsburgh Steelers

Heath Miller is not the average modern tight end. He isn’t abnormally huge like Gronkowski, and he isn’t a tremendous athlete like Jimmy Graham. However, he has been playing well recently. As a matter of fact, there has only been one game he played poorly in during the past four weeks, and that was two weeks ago against the Cincinnati Bengals. In that game, he only had one reception for one yard, but that single reception was for a touchdown. He’s put up at least six fantasy points in the last four games, which is pretty good for most tight ends, excluding the ones I mentioned earlier. If you are playing for your fantasy Super Bowl, and you need a tight end to give you those few extra points, then I highly recommend playing Heath Miller to help your fantasy team win a championship.