Fantasy Football: Start/Sit Options for Panthers @ Bucs

ONE TO START, ONE TO SIT
One to start, One to sit is a weekly column where each NFL game will be evaluated and the best/worst fantasy match-ups will be listed.

Today’s Matchup: CAROLINA PANTHERS @ TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS

Best Option
CAR- Steve Smith
TB- Mike James

How do you pick the top WR in Carolina when he’s going against Revis? Easily! Have you seen the Bucs secondary in the past weeks? Last 3 games- Larry Fitzgerald 6 catches for 68 yards and a TD, DeSean Jackson- 6 catches for 64 yards and 2 TD’s, finally, Harry Douglas (WR for Atlanta playing without Roddy White and Julio Jones)- 7 catches for 149 yards and 1 TD… Has someone nuked Revis Island? Sorta, due to the Bucs switching over to a zone defense which has done wonders for opposing WR’s this season (7 TD’s to opposing WR’s in 4 weeks) Steve Smith is the third ranked WR when it comes to red zone targets, and while he hasn’t amassed that many yards this season (his highest is 69 vs the rams last week), he still leads the Panthers in targets and is 2nd on the team in receiving yards, with how poorly the Bucs defense has been, and Cam getting better and better as the season progresses, expect a nice outing from Smith tonight.

Obviously Vincent Jackson would be the overwhelming choice to put here (47 targets since Glennon took over at QB), at this point he is the Bucs entire offense. However, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say Mike James has the biggest fantasy night of all Bucs players. Granted the Panthers running defense is as tough as their passing (84.5 yards a game, only 2 rushing TD’s allowed), but recently
the Panthers defense has given up nearly 11 points to opposing running backs in the last 3 weeks. With 2 weeks of RB’s scoring a TD off of them (rushing and receiving). James wasn’t overwhelmingly impressive in his time vs. Atlanta, but he did manage to show value in PPR formats (3 catches), with a full game to produce, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up with 18-20 touches tonight and totaling a 100 yards.

Worst Option
CAR- DeAngelo Williams
TB- Mike Glennon

Tampa Bay has not allowed a RB to score a rushing TD all season. DeAngelo Williams does not get goal line carries… DeAngelo Williams also has yet to produce a single TD this year. I figured his best chances to break one off were last week vs STL but once again, Mike Tolbert comes in and vultures another TD. So this leaves the question, what value does Williams have? Jonathan Stewart could be returning in just a couple of weeks, which will eat into Williams’ time. Williams isn’t on the field in goal line situations, and has produced 6 or less points in 2 of his last 3 games. Tampa has held opposing lead rushers to an average of 54 yards on the ground a game in the past 4 weeks (only LeSean McCoy has broken the 100 yard rushing marker in that span). With all these obstacles in Williams way, does it change your way of possibly starting him? Maybe. But at the most you have to see it does give him a ceiling of what you’d expect from him in this game.

I know you had no intention of starting Mike Glennon this week, so I’ll be speaking to those that are either (A) Huge Glennon Supporters, (B) Looking for a bye week QB to fill the shoes of a starter, or (C) are somewhat insane. While Glennon has looked good the past 2 weeks (35 fantasy points in that span), starting him against the Panthers defense is NOT the way to go. This season, QB’s have averaged 9.8 fantasy points against this defense. Recently, that number has gone down to close to 7 points in the past 4 weeks. The Panthers are a middle of the pack team when it comes to pressuring the QB (19 sacks), but are a top 10 squad in interceptions (9), and yards given up (218). They’ve also only given up 5 TD’s through the air this season. Carolina’s secondary is good enough to shut down Vincent Jackson and force Glennon to throw elsewhere (BTW V.Jax is also up for this situation, but no one in their right mind is going to bench him after the last 2 weeks), something he has only done once this year (vs Zona) and which also produced his worst fantasy stats (7 points).