Heading into the semi finals of the fantasy football playoffs as most leagues are this week is clearly a pivotal part of the year as you go for your championships. So why not take a look at who’s shining in the most critical part of the field, the red zone? As the Niners showed us on Thursday night, producing points and not turnovers in the red zone makes all the difference.
Red Zone Passing
Tyler Huntley, QB BAL - In the last few years that we’ve been doing this piece, we’ve never seen anyone with the number of red zone touches that Huntley had last week against the Packers. 17. That’s not a typo, SEVENTEEN. That’s actually just the passes as he also rushed it a few times and put up two more touchdowns. All told he had four touchdowns on 20 touches inside the 20. Lamar Jackson isn’t playing this week so Huntley is in another good spot to have a good day passing and rushing the ball which makes him the top streaming option for your DFS and fantasy match-ups.
Justin Herbert, QB LAC - Herbert lived up to the billing of the two top young quarterback duel that took place Thursday night. That included inside the 20 as well. The 12 red zone passing attempts that he posted against the Chiefs are the most he’s had in a game all season with seven of those coming inside the five-yard line with two of them being touchdowns. He also ran it four times with one rushing touchdown. Down the stretch the Chargers have some tasty match-ups for Herbert to keep having huge days for the rest of the fantasy playoffs.
Ryan Tannehill, QB TEN - The Titans’ offense this year has been able to flip and be plug-and-play about as good as anyone this year, just like the team their head coach used to play for. In Week 15, Tannehill had the most red zone passing attempts in a game he’s had all season, and that was before A.J. Brown came back as well. The nine passing attempts didn’t exactly produce a touchdown, but it did give him that shot to rush in a score in the red zone on a few carries. The return of AJ Brown solidified their offense on Thursday night and should keep Tannehill as a more than viable fantasy option for the next few weeks.
Red Zone Rushing
Devin Singletary, RB BUF - We’ve been waiting for Singletary to be the lead back basically his whole career to this point and while it’s still up in the air, he was able to take advantage of no Zack Moss last week. He got five red zone carries with one going for a score. He’ll continue to be a match-up based play and really only shines in weeks without Moss on the field. At best that makes him a streaming option the rest of the way.
Darrell Williams, RB KC - The Chiefs’ offense is starting to kick into high gear once again and that means the rushing attack is also getting a boost. With that comes split carries and touches for Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Williams but Williams appears to be getting them more in the red zone. In Week 15, Williams saw five carries inside the 20, the most he’s had in a game all year. While it didn’t result in a score against the Chargers, it was good to see that much volume even with Edwards-Helaire active and on the field for 30 more snaps. When the Chiefs are trying to lockdown games in the next few weeks, expect the bigger Williams to be the key one getting looks in the red zone which ups his value and scoring potential.
James Robinson, RB JAC - Imagine that, Urban Meyer is fired and Robinson gets his best red zone workload of the year the very next game. He had four carries and one catch inside the 20 with one being for a score last week, which along with the rest of his workload is putting him back in RB1 territory, like he was drafted as. He’s got the backing of the coach and the absolute clear path to all the workload he can handle going forward giving him the shot to be a key factor going into the two biggest weeks of the fantasy football season.
Red Zone Receiving
Mark Andrews, TE BAL - Four targets, four catches, two scores. That’s a season-high targets inside the 20 for Andrews which might not be a coincidence as it came on the weekend with Huntley having 17 attempts inside the 20. The production was spectacular too which isn’t always guaranteed even with a player of Andrews’ skill level. He’s already a top-three tight end option in fantasy but if he keeps seeing this much volume in the scoring zone, his value will only go up in the last few weeks of the fantasy playoffs.
Tyreek Hill, WR KC - Hill has been a great receiver all year and came into last week with the second-most receptions but hasn’t necessarily seen the looks inside the red zone, until last week that is. The four targets he saw last week are more than a quarter of his targets inside the 20 on the year. He caught three of the passes with one being a touchdown. We think of Hill as a big play type receiver but he is still capable of being a go-to guy in the red zone for this offense as well and that, as hard as it is to believe, ups his value if they keep leaning on him down the stretch.
Darnell Mooney, WR CHI - This is an inclusion on the list simply because of the volume he had being notable. The three targets from last week are nearly 40-percent of his targets inside the 20 on the year and they also accounted for half of the red zone passing attempts in the game for Chicago. Having Nick Foles at quarterback this week is neither a help nor a detriment to Mooney’s red zone chances as it’s more on Matt Nagy’s terrible play-calling which negatively affects every quarterback equally. He’ll need to see those targets if the Bears hope to keep putting up points on a regular basis to finish out the year.