Fantasy Football: Week 16 Biggest Winners & Losers

In his Week 16 Biggest Winners & Losers, senior fantasy football expert Shawn Childs highlights his first reactions to the latest NFL developments.

2, 2019; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles running back Miles Sanders

Biggest Winners

RB Miles Sanders, PHI

The Eagles came up big on Sunday, and they couldn’t have done it without Sanders. His star rose in Week 15 (172 combined yards with two TDs and six catches on 25 touches). In a must-win game vs. the Cowboys, Sanders had his second straight impact game. He gained 156 combined yards with a TD and five catches.

Over the last two games, Philly gave him 50 touches. Sanders will finish as a top 15 RB in 2019 with over 1,300 combined yards with 6-plus TDs and over 50 catches. He did all of this despite starting the season as a rotational player with Jordan Howard, and no chances at goal-line carries over the first half of the season.

His three-down ability will draw plenty of attention from Fantasy owners in 2020, plus the Eagles’ offense should be better if/when they add some trusted healthy wide receivers.


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TE Dallas Goedert, PHI

Dallas GoedertWith Zach Ertz battling a rib issue, Goedert emerged as a star for the Eagles on Sunday. It was almost comical watching the Cowboys continually fail to defend Philly’s TE when they add weaker options at the WR position. Goedert finished with a career-high in catches (9), receiving yards (90), and targets (12) while adding his fifth TD of the season.

Over his previous ten games, Goedert caught 49 of his 67 targets for 499 yards and four TDs. The Eagles needed him to play well after suffering multiple injuries to their top three WRs in 2019.

Next season, Goedert should continue his push up the TE ranking even with Zach Ertz on the roster.

QB Carson Wentz, PHI

Coming into the 2019 Fantasy football season, Wentz was a QB that I thought had a chance to bounce back for a big season based on his WR and TE talent. In 2017, he helped pave the way for the Eagles to win a Super Bowl after passing for 3,296 yards with 33 TDs over 13 games. Unfortunately, an injury cost him the final part of the regular season and the Super Bowl ride in the playoffs.

After four games this year, Wentz had ten TDs with over 1,000 combined yards. Midseason, the Eagles struggled to find their identity on offense, which led to a poor five-game run (1,072 passing yards with five TDs)by their QB. Over this span, Philly struggled to make plays downfield at wide receiver while trying to run a ball-control offense to keep their defense off the field.

Over the previous month, Wentz played at a high-level. He passed for 1,220 yards in four games with nine TDs and one Int, helping the Eagles to three straight wins after a disastrous loss in Week 13 vs. the Dolphins in Miami.

On Sunday, he played will heart and toughness in a great win over the Cowboys. He finished with 341 combined yards with a TD while continuing to make plays to help extend drives.

When the season is over, he should finish with over 4,000 passing yards with a chance at 30 TDs. Considering the Eagles injuries at WR, Wentz should gain momentum in drafts next year if Philly can solidify their wide receiving core.

Biggest Losers

WR Amari Cooper, DAL

Dallas Cowboys WRs Randall Cobb and Amari Cooper

When the 2019 football season is over, Cooper will rank in the top 15 in WR scoring with over 80 catches for over 1,100 yards and possibly ten TDs. As great as it may look, he is almost a must avoid on draft day due to his disaster games. Each year, he tends to disappear in the most significant moments of the year while teasing his explosive upside earlier in the year.

Over his first nine games, Cooper picked up 53 catches for 848 yards and seven TDs on 71 targets. His light shined the brightest in four home games (6/106/1, 6/88/2, 11/226/1, and 11/147/1). He only had one poor showing (1/3) to start the season, which came after an early exit vs. the Jets in New York.

His downturn started in Week 11 (3/8 on eight targets) followed up by a no catch performance in New England on two targets.

In the high-stakes market, Fantasy owners need three big games from their star players to win overall championships. Cooper showed a spark for the Cowboys in Chicago (6/83/1) in Week 14, but he limped home over his previous two games (1/19 and 4/24). On Sunday vs. the Eagles, Dak Prescott looked his way 12 times. In Cooper’s defense, there were times he was open for some big plays, but the ball wasn’t on time or catchable.

QB Dak Prescott, DAL

In a way, I felt terrible for Cowboys’ fan on Sunday. They came into a big game loaded with talent on offense. Their so-called “star QB” that wants to be paid like one of the top QBs in the game missed multiple wide open WRs downfield while continuing to make bad mental decisions in the biggest moments of the game.

With the game on the line in the fourth quarter (twice on third down and short yards), Prescott chooses to make a long play in the end zone while testing tight one-on-one coverage. His job on both of those possessions was to extend drives. In the end, he passed for 265 yards on 44 passes with no TDs while gaining only 6.0 yards per pass attempt. His last rushing TD came in Week 7.

His stats this year will get him paid, but Prescott went 4-8 after 3-0 start to the season.

Jason Garrett, DAL

Your coaching career for the Cowboys should end next week unless the Giants save you from your own misery by beating the Eagles in New York. Over ten seasons as the head coach for the Cowboys, he went 84-67 with three playoff appearances over the previous six years.

This season the Cowboys had the best offense in the league in yards gained, but their defense moved in the wrong direction. Dallas had talent at CB, which led to 6.9 yards per pass attempt by opposing QBs. They allowed RBs to 4.1 yards per rush (better than the league average). Their demise was stopping teams in close (14 rushing TDs) with failure defending RBs (93/708/2) and TEs (97/936/6) in the passing game.

Garrett can’t control the poor play of his starting QB, but he has to take the blame for the Cowboys’ string of losses over the past three months. Playcalling and gameplan were significant issues in many of their recent losses (@NYJ, MIN, @NE, BUF, @CHI, and @PHI).




About Shawn Childs 970 Articles
Shawn Childs has been a high stakes Fantasy baseball and football player since 2004 where he had success in his first season (three titles and $25,000 in winnings). In early years of the high stakes market in Fantasy baseball, he was ahead of the curve in player evaluation, draft value, and free agent bidding setting up four top-five finishes in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. He has four AL-only Auction titles, one NL-only title, and five Main Event titles plus an overall title in 2012 at RTFBC (netted $10,000). This success led to an induction into the NFBC Baseball Hall of Fame. His success in the high stakes market led to a career in providing Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football content. On the football side, he’s competed and won in all different formats – auctions, draft championship, main events, and high-dollar leagues. He won 2nd place overall in the 2014 Most Accurate Salary Cap Expert contest at FantasyPros. As a dual-sport player, it was natural to transition to the daily games where he is a “swing for the fences type of guy.” Childs has appeared in one FanDuel NFL Live Final and one DraftKings NFL Live Final, a season-ending tournament which led to a couple of chances to win over $1,000,000.