Ray Flowers breaks down the players that you might be on the fence about. Is it better to start them with confidence or look in another direction in the fantasy football playoffs?

QUARTERBACK 

Joe Flacco, Ravens
Remove the five score effort against the Buccaneers and Flacco has 15 passing scores in 11 games which equates to 22 touchdown passes over 16 games. The last three years he's thrown for 20, 22 and 19 touchdown passes, a three year average of 20.3 scores. The last two seasons Flacco averaged 241.6 yards a game through the air. This season that mark is 249.1 per game. Conclusion? This is the same old Joe Flacco, a better real world QB than fantasy option. 
Verdict: SELL

Tony Romo, Cowboys
To me this is obvious, but given the volume of questions I'm receiving this week about whether or not to start Romo it seems like a given that I should discuss why you should still have total faith in Romo. Last week was awful and the nation saw it on Turkey Day: 199 yards, two picks, no scores. Knowledge drop. (1) The last three weeks Romo has seven passing scores. (2) The last four games Romo has thrown only two interceptions. (3) Romo is on a 16 game pace of 32 passing scores and just about 4,000 yards. That would be the second best TD mark of his career by the way. He is what he always is, a low level QB1. 
Verdict: BUY
 

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RUNNING BACK

Mark Ingram, Saints
Pierre Thomas is back. Khiry Robinson returned to practice Wednesday. Travaris Cadet is around. The point being that the Saints backfield is about to be complete for the first time in two months. What will that do to the workload of Ingram who has carried the ball 23 or more times in five of his last six games? Have to figure he sees a bit of a pull back (maybe in the 18-20 range?). That's a concern. It's also disconcerting that Ingram has not scored in four games. That's a quarter of the season. That's substantial. There's also his yardage marks. In two of his last three games he's failed to reach three yards a carry. In three of the last five games he's failed to reach 3.4 yards a tote (he has one carry of 20 yards the past five games). The last month his production has been much more about the volume of the work than it has been about stupendous running. 
Verdict: SELL

Frank Gore, Niners
Gore has seen his carry total decrease the last three games: 23, 19, 13 and 10. Gore has carried the ball 23 times for 64 yards the past two weeks. He doesn't have a run of 20-yards in his last eight games. He hasn’t scored in three games. Hell, he's got two rushing scores this season. He's fumbled twice in three games. There ain't nothing to to like here. NOTHING. Don't take that to mean that Carlos Hyde is a good play. He too is being sucked into the black hole that is Niners football (Hyde has two scores in four games but he's also run for 30-yards just once in seven games).
Verdict: SELL

Tre Mason, Rams
Mason has led the Rams in rushing all eight games he has played this season. He's coming off a 117 yards, two touchdown effort (he caught 47 yards of passes and scored a third time against the Raiders in Week 13). Let's be real here though. Only twice in his last six games has he run for more than 65 yards. The only rushing score Tre has in his last six games came last week. He has one receiving score all season (last week). Remove the 89 yard run he has last week and it's 13 carries for 28 yards in Week 13 (that long run is his only scamper over 28 yards this season). That's awful. The next two weeks he faces the Redskins and Cardinals, teams ranked as the 3rd best and best in all of football at holding runners out of the box score in fantasy (PPR setup). That's awful. Starting him the next two weeks is fraught with substantial danger. 
Verdict: SELL

WIDE RECEIVER 

Mike Evans, Buccaneers
The first three games of November Evans caught seven passes each week. He's caught seven balls the last two games. The first three games of November Evans had 124, 125 and 209 receiving yards a game. The last two games he's produced 96 yards. Evans has played 11 games. In the eight "other" games - not counting his three massive efforts - Evans has caught 32 passes for 432 yards. In those "other" eight games an average effort is four receptions for 54 yards. In his three "big" games he averaged seven receptions for 153 yards. For three quarters of his rookie season he's been blah, and for three weeks he's been the best rookie wideout ever. Which guy is he? Given the totality of the data, it's a better bet that he is the "other" guy, especially with Josh McCown throwing passes. 
Verdict: SELL

T.Y. Hilton, Colts
Hilton is 5th in football with 1,145 receiving yards. That's a career best mark. He's also on pace for 91 receptions which would best his mark of 82 from last season. He's also scored twice in the last two games. All good. But there is also some concern. In two of his last three games he's caught three passes and in three of four games he's been held to four of fewer. Moreover, his last four games have produced an average of 3.75 receptions a game. As concerning is the lack of targets the last month. On the year he averages 8.4 targets a game. The last four games that number is 5.75. That's a huge workload decrease. Could be matchup based, or just the natural ebb and flow of things, but when a 5'9", 180 lbs speed burner starts to struggle for looks I start getting a bit nervous. 
Verdict: SELL

Sammy Watkins, Bills
Watkins has 51 receptions, 695 yards and five scores. That's more catches than A.J. Green, more yards than Brandon Marshall ans move scores than Keenan Allen. It's been an extremely productive rookie season with four games left for Sammy. However, dude's face is on a milk carton right now. The last four games Watkins has caught 13 passes for 105 yards and no scores. Against the Vikings on October 19th he caught nine balls for 122 yards and two scores. Over the last four weeks, be it a groin or hip issue, poor QB play, or hitting the "rookie wall" Watkins has been unable to reach seven points in a single outing in a PPR setup. That's three catches for forty yards or four catches for 30 yards folks. Hell, a catch for one yard that is a touchdown gets you 7.1 points in a PPR setup. You cannot under any circumstance trust him in the fantasy playoffs. 
Verdict: SELL

TIGHT END

Travis Kelce, Chiefs
As soon as I tell you to move on I know he will blow up. Still, I'm suggesting you move on. Talent means nothing without production - ask guys like Michael Floyd and Cordarrelle Patterson - so we can all drool at the talent that Kelce possesses but we must note that he simply is not getting it done on the field. In a PPR setup this season, Kelce ranks 10th at tight end in total points. He's a weekly starter.  At the same time check this out. (1) His per game average is 10.3 points. Out of 12 games he's hit that mark five times. More than half the time he hasn't gotten there. (2) The last eight weeks he's averaged 3.7 targets a week. TARGETS. (3) In his last eight games he's hit 40-yards three times. (4) In his last seven games he's scored once. Remove the name and the hype. Is that production something you start with confidence each week?
Verdict: SELL

Heath Miller, Steelers
He's scored twice this season. Yuck. He's averaging 4.25 catches a game. Ho hum. He's averaging 48.6 yards a contest. Stop me before you fall asleep. However, the Steelers continue to thrown the ball all over the field each week and it seems like Big Ben finally remembers who is security blanket is. The last two weeks Miller has caught 13 passes for 153 yards and three times in his last five games he's caught at least five passes for 71 yards. Trending in the right direction for the fantasy playoffs no doubt. 
Verdict: BUY


Make sure you tune in to the Drive at 7 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87), to hear Ray Flowers pontificate about the world of sports.