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Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day full of family, friends and delicious food. Due to the Thanksgiving games the pool of players to choose from for the Sunday Million is thin. This week we are going with a QB/WR stack going up against a team with an abysmal defense but an offense that can put up points, taking value picks at RB and grabbing a TE on a team that is depleted on receivers. Good luck this week!

QB  - Brian Hoyer, HOU - $7,100 vs. NO:  Hoyer returns from a concussion and gets a cake match up against the worst defense in the NFL. This should be a high scoring game so look for fantasy points to be flying around in this one.

RB - Doug Martin, TB - $7,500 at IND:  Indianapolis has been torched by opposing running backs many times this season which makes Martin an extremely high upside play. It also helps that Martin has only had less than 20 touches in a game once in the past 7 weeks.

RB - T.J. Yeldon, JAC - $6,500 vs. SD:  The Chargers run defense is awful and they have also given up the most fantasy points to opposing running backs this season which makes Yeldon a great value play.

WR - DeAndre Hopkins, HOU - $9,400 vs. NO:  Stacking up the red hot Hopkins with Hoyer this week in a game that should see plenty of touchdowns coming through the air.

WR - Brandin Cooks, NO - $7,300 at HOU:  Cooks started the season off slow but he has been putting up double digit fantasy points 4 weeks in a row. Pairing him with the Hoyer/Hopkins stack to increase point upside.

WR - DeSean Jackson, WAS - $6,300 vs. NYG:  Amazing match up for the Redskins burner this week going up against a Giants team giving of the most receiving yards in the league.

TE - Antonio Gates, SD - $5,700 at JAC:  Gates looks to be fully healthy and the Chargers are running thin on receivers which should mean a heavy workload for him against a sub par Jaguars defense.

K - Cairo Santos, KC - $4,900 vs. BUF:  Santos is the only kicker to have at least 6 field goal attempts in a game this year and he's been in that range twice notching games with 6 and 7 attempts.

DEF - Cardinals, ARI - $5,300 at SF:  Easily the best match up for any defense this week, well worth spending top dollar on.

Week 6 will kick off with a west coast matchup between the Broncos and Chargers. Philip Rivers is going to have a rough day against Denver’s third-ranked pass defense. Flip offenses and Trevor Siemian is expected to return against a San Diego defense giving up almost 300 pass yards per game this season. Thursday night football can be weird and frustrating with a short week of preparation. So we are all here to help you make those roster moves that could save your week. Here are this weeks recommended starts amongst the trending and borderline players. Feel free to reach out with specific start sit advice!

Quarterbacks:

Brian Hoyer vs. Jac: It’s no secret that Jay Cutler’s career in Chicago is coming to a close. The Bears continue to be vague with their quarterback decisions and why shouldn’t they be. Brian Hoyer is playing well enough to keep the job and now reports from CBS Sports’ Brian La Canfora state that Cutler has “fallen out of favor” with Bears coaches. All rumors and guesses aside, Brian Hoyer looks to start at least one more week. The Jaguars matchup doesn’t lend itself to anything especially positive or negative. Brian Hoyer’s 300+ pass yards and 2 touchdown average per game over that last 3 weeks is a trend to ride in week 6.

Dak Prescott @ GB: Sure, he has yet to throw for over 300 yards, but he also had yet to throw an interception. Dak Prescott has led the Cowboys to a 4-1 start but will face his toughest test in week 6. Ezekiel Elliot is also going to face a tough test against the top rated Green Bay run defense and Dak will be called upon to do more than he has all season. I like that this one could turn into a shootout and that is always a good thing for fantasy owners. I even have a bold prediction that Dak will outscore Philip Rivers and Andrew Luck in week 6.

Wide Receivers

Cole Beasley @ GB: I made a bold claim just above that includes Dak Prescott beating out some pretty big names in fantasy heading into a matchup against Green Bay. That only happens if his supporting cast helps. Cole Beasley has been a reliable target for Dak in Dez Bryant’s absence. Reports, for now, seem to lean towards Dez missing the week 6 match up and if that is the case I think you roll with Cole in a favorable matchup. Again, this game is setting up to be won through the air for Dallas.

Willie Snead vs. CAR: A divisional matchup with the Saints coming off a bye week and Carolina reeling from a disappointing loss to Tampa Bay. One way or the other Willie Snead should be back to 100% after a toe injury. The Saints spread the ball around more than frat boys passing the discount vodka, but Willie was one of Drew Brees’ early favorites. Look for that to be renewed in a game setting up to be big for the Saints.

Running Backs

Frank Gore @ HOU: I don’t know what the coaching staff in Indianapolis is doing, as they seem to completely change schemes every week. That being said, Frank Gore put up a solid performance last week. The only thing holding him back from a better fantasy day was his lack of involvement in the passing game; something he saw a lot more of the previous week in London. The matchup with Houston should force the Colts to utilize Gore more in week 6. I also fully expect him to be moderately involved in the passing game, at least more than we saw in week 5.

Tight Ends

Hunter Henry vs DEN: There is plenty to be wary about with Hunter Henry in week 6. The matchup, Thursday Night Football and the return of Antonio Gates are some pretty scary factors for Henry owners heading into week 6. Honestly, I like him for all the same reasons. First of all, the matchup with the Denver defense means Philip Rivers and the Chargers will have to utilize mismatches to move the ball through the air. While Antonio Gates will eat away at some of those targets and yards, he is also the perfect decoy in two tight end sets. I mean which one do you cover!? The kid has put up some big numbers and that wasn’t affected by Gates’ return. He just found more room to run on fewer targets.

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are half PPR scoring unless otherwise noted.

36.24 Fantasy Points

Patrick Mahomes put up his highest fantasy total in over a year (Week 8 of last season). It looked like the Chiefs offense got back on track, putting up 41 points and really taking it to the Raiders, the team that he really loves to play against. Going into this game, he already had more passing yards and passing TDs against the Raiders than any other team in the league (and it's only the first time they play this this year). This week, Mahomes was the top fantasy player in the league, putting up 406 yards and throwing 5 TDs, good for 36.24 points. This was his 3rd game with 400+ yards and 5+ touchdowns in his career, now tied for the all time lead for games with those stats with Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, and Joe Montana. That’s some impressive company.

8 Players with at Least 20 Carries

As the season moves on, the balance of run to pass always seems to shift to the run. Combine that with injuries and less depth, leading to fewer players to split carries, resulting in the most players getting 20+ carries all season. We had 8 players with at least 20 carries this week, and 11 of them with at least 15 carries. Having an RB who receives such a large cut of the carries on a single team is extremely valuable in fantasy football. Three players got 26+ carries: D’Andre Swift, Elijah Mitchell, and Najee Harris. Unfortunately, none of them found the end zone, keeping all of them from really having a big fantasy day.

9 D/ST With 10+ Points

It was a week for defenses to shine through. Offenses struggled - only two QBs had 3+ TDs, and only 2 QBs had 300+ passing yards. This week would have been even more underwhelming if not for Patrick Mahomes, but I digress. The defenses that scored at least double digit points are owned in 61% of Fleaflicker leagues - an ownership rate that actually isn’t that bad when you consider the top 6 only average out to 39% ownership. None of the teams in this top 9 gave up more than 17 points, so they earned their points the hard way. This, like most weeks, shows that D/ST is a position to go ahead and stream on a weekly basis unless you have one of the very top teams, and still their matchup is going to dictate if you want to start them or not.

33 Carries 

To elaborate on the rushing attempts mentioned earlier, it’s worth mentioning that D’Andre Swift had 33 carries for the Lions in Pittsburgh on Sunday in what we can all agree was the least inspiring end to a football game in quite a while. Swift’s 33 carries is the second highest total for any player in the NFL this year. In fact, he’s the only one not named Derrick Henry (33, 35) who has gone over 30 carries in a single game this season. Swift also more than doubled up his previous career high water mark, which he also coincidentally received in week 10 last year. Sunday also saw Swift run for 130 rush yards, another career high mark. Swift is on pace for almost 800 rushing yards this year, which would surprisingly be the most on the Lions since Joique Bell in 2014. The Lions’ last 1000 yard rusher came in the form of Reggie Bush (1006) in 2013, who had done it for the first time in 9 years. It’s really been downhill since Barry Sanders put up 10 straight 1000 yard seasons, 7 of those being over 1400 yards.

158.3 QB Rating

Two backup QBs took the field on Sunday and posted perfect QB ratings, but they were in very different situations. First off was Brian Hoyer, the man who has started at QB for 7 different teams. Hoyer came in during garbage time against the Browns and went a cool 3/3 for 85 yards and a TD while leading the Patriots on a quick 95 yard drive late in the 4th quarter to help pad everyone’s stats. Joe Flacco also saw action for the Jets, and apparently it was so refreshing to see him in there over Mike White that he might earn the start this week. Flacco also went 3/3, this time for just 47 yards and also had a TD. The best actual starting QB rating this week? Mac Jones and his 142.1 on the way to the Patriots’ 4th win in a row. The Pats are now 6-4, in the 6-seed for the playoffs and Jones is looking like the best rookie QB this year, though his fantasy numbers leave a lot to be desired - he has just one game over 20 points all season.