The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Cincinnati Bengals players heading into their matchup with the Miami Dolphins to help you craft a winning lineup.
Joe Burrow, QB
Joe Burrow sounded just as disappointed in his performance as fantasy managers on Sunday, and his future in Cincinnati doesn’t appear to be a certainty.
The Ravens pressured him 14 times: four completions, three sacks, and two interceptions.
He tried to implement the Joe Flacco strategy (44.4% target share for Ja’Marr Chase), but he just couldn’t find a rhythm (5.8 yards per pass), and that has him sitting as more of a Tier 3 QB this week for me.
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If you could guarantee me four quarters, I’d have Burrow flirting with top 5 status in this spot, but you have to acknowledge the risk that comes with betting on this team keeping him out there in any meaningless spot (seven DNPs in 2023 and nine so far this season)
We have five starts from Joe Cool this seaso,n and he’s been held under six yards per pass in four of them (for reference, that’s a higher rate of efficiency duds than Justin Fields this season).
Yikes.
Chase Brown, RB
This is getting uncomfortable, and with the Bengals officially eliminated from the playoffs, I fear that things may worsen before they improve.
On Sunday, a must-win spot for Cincy, Samaje Perine handled four of their first six carries. For the game, Chase Brown ended up with a 20-15 touch edge and played 62% of the snaps (Perine: 45.1%). His seven catches gave you the type of final stat line that you were looking for (16 PPR points), but the backsliding role is a concern now that the Bengals are looking beyond just the next three games.
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I think Brown owns the type of skill set that could make him an RB1 next season, but he’s sliding more into the RB2 role down the stretch of this season, with no more than 13 carries in nine of his past 12 games.
The targets are nice, but Perine is also fluid in that regard, and relying on that skill is a concern if Cincinnati were to lean into a traditional ground game against a Dolphins team that played in Pittsburgh on Monday night.
Long story short: I’m going to like Brown in the final year of his rookie contract next season than I do for the final few weeks of 2025.
Ja’Marr Chase, WR
Ja’Marr Chase has 100 catches in three straight seasons and needs two more TD receptions to hit seven, a threshold he’s hit every season since Cincy made him the fifth overall pick out of LSU.
He’s special, but it’s natural to worry about the status of any player on a team that has nothing to play for.
Don’t.
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This will be the third consecutive season the Bengals finish in the bottom half of the AFC North, and Chase has cleared 18 PPR points in each of his past four games played during the fantasy postseason. We are going to assume that Burrow is throwing passes for this team in Week 1 of next season, and if that’s the case, Chase deserves to again be in the 1.01 conversation.
Tee Higgins, WR
Tee Higgins has missed two of the past three games due to different concussions, and given the nature of this season for the Bengals, it’s hard to see them putting him at any risk for the remainder of this season.
The drama surrounding his contract was loud this offseason, before he secured the four-year, $115 million deal he was seeking in March. He turns 27 next month, has scored 19 times in 24 games over the past two seasons, and is averaging 14.0 yards per catch over the course of his career.
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Higgins is pretty clearly a top-20 receiver when healthy, but he’s currently stuck on a dozen games played for a third consecutive season. You’re keeping him on IR right now because it costs you nothing, and we saw his potential to impact the box score in a significant way in between the two head injuries (Week 14 at Buffalo: 11 targets, 92 yards, and two touchdowns).
But I’d approach this week as you did last: it’d be nice to have Higgins active, but it’s not the expectation.
Mike Gesicki, TE
I think we can safely be done here.
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Mike Gesicki was the top tight end in Cincinnati without much of a question in terms of routes run (33, more than double that of any other player at the position for the Bengals). Still, after recording the first catch of the game, he was a complete afterthought against the Ravens.
Bengals TE’s in Week 15
- Gesicki: 33 routes, 2 targets
- Tanner Hudson: 16 routes, 5 targets
- Drew Sample: 15 routes, 2 targets
- Noah Fant: 6 routes, 0 targets
And Higgins (concussion) didn’t play last week. The Bengals are now officially eliminated from playoff contention, making it a bit challenging to project their future performance. Still, with Gesicki inked for two more seasons, it’s hard to see them extending his role in a meaningful way as they play out the string of 2025.
