The Baltimore Ravens will face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 16. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Ravens skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 16 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Lamar Jackson, QB
Lamar Jackson earned his fourth “A” by way of our QB+ grading system, tying him for the most such games in a season on file (since 2019). I’m running low on superlatives when it comes to the reigning MVP …
- 10 games with 45+ rushing yards
- 5 games with 3+ touchdown passes
- Career-high 68.1% completion percentage
The Steelers have held the Ravens to under 20 points in eight straight games, but sportsbooks are penciling them in for 25. If that comes through, I like Jackson’s chances of giving us top-five QB production.
Derrick Henry, RB
Derrick Henry was scripted out of last week’s win, but in the opposite direction as you’d expect.
Usually, when “game scripted” is cited within a Henry write-up in the past, it’s been detailing a fall-beyond spot where the passing game is prioritized. Sunday’s bludgeoning of the Giants meant eight carries for Rasheen Ali and thus not a full workload for their bellcow.
In looking forward, I’m not at all concerned about the down Week 15 performance. The Steelers are an elite unit, but they do cough up rushing touchdowns to opposing running backs at the 10th-highest rate.
Henry is the best bet to run for 100 yards and score weekly — this week is no different.
Justice Hill, RB
Justice Hill has at least four catches or a rushing score in four straight games. He doesn’t have more than 10 touches in a game this season, so let’s not get crazy, but having him rostered in an in-case-of-emergency role makes a lot of sense.
I’d rather play him and his locked-in 6-8 touches than throw the dart on a receiver I don’t truly think has much of a path to opportunities (I’m thinking the Tyler Locketts and Alec Pierces of the world).
Hill saw a team-high seven targets in the Week 11 game in Pittsburgh. If this game is as nip and tuck as the industry is projecting, his versatility could again prove valuable.
Diontae Johnson, WR
This is a mess. Diontae Johnson was suspended last week, and while “this is not an extension of the suspension,” we have a situation where the team has “mutually agreed with Diontae Johnson to excuse him from team activities this week.”
It’s not rare for a trade made at the deadline to not work as scripted, but this?
Baltimore seems to have gone out of its way to acquire a cancer, and that is just a bizarre happening for a team with Super Bowl dreams.
This is a receiver with a 1,100-yard season on his résumé and is still on the right side of 30 years old. On the surface, that looks like a profile we should keep tabs on this offseason. But could this just be another example of a Pittsburgh receiver phasing out of the league earlier than expected?
Rashod Bateman, WR
I don’t think I need to sell or persuade you on Rashod Bateman; you know exactly what you’re signing up for. For his career, Bateman’s average TD reception length is 30.5 yards, and if you’re considering him, you’re very much relying on that double-digit point play.
Bateman has scored seven times this season, but six have come against awfully vulnerable defenses (Giants, Bengals, Buccaneers, and Cowboys). You can isolate the 40-yard score against the Chargers if you want and use that as ammo for Flexing him in a tough spot, but let’s not lose track of the fact that he had one catch for three yards in that game outside of the broken coverage.
Is that level of downside something you’re willing to take on?
Zay Flowers, WR
Zay Flowers is exactly the type of profile I’m comfortable losing with.
Now, that might not seem like the most ringing endorsement, but that’s not the case at all. I’m going to be higher on him this summer than the industry as a whole.
What’s not to like? He runs highly efficient routes with a creative offensive mind at the controls that wants to involve him and is directing the league’s third-highest scoring offense. I’m taking that every time.
The results haven’t been ideal (Flowers hasn’t been a top-30 receiver since his massive Week 9), and he was held to just two catches in the first meeting with these Steelers, but I’m betting on this profile 17 times a year and letting the chips fall where they may (targeted on three of Lamar Jackson’s first four passes in Week 15).
He’s Khalil Shakir with more pedigree. Either Flowers or Shakir (if not both) have finished 12 of 15 weeks as a top-25 receiver. It wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if either parlayed that level of success into tremendous value next season if they can put it all together.
I prefer Flowers to Shakir from a talent standpoint, and that’s where I’ll land next season. As for this week, I’m sticking to the process and playing both without a second thought.
Isaiah Likely, TE
Isaiah Likely played 66.1% of Baltimore’s offensive snaps last week, his highest rate since Week 8. That’s a step forward, but not one that is enough for him to rank as a viable option this week.
If you’re grasping for straws, Likely proved to be a tough cover the last time these two teams met (five targets and 75 yards on 19 routes in Week 11). That’s not nothing, but with essentially all of the red-zone usage non-negotiable at this point (Derrick Henry is the king, but Mark Andrews has established himself there at a high rate as well), Likely’s profile is too thin for my liking.
I have the Ravens winning this game, and in their past three victories, their TE2 has earned just three looks on 32 routes.
Mark Andrews, TE
On Sunday, Mark Andrews became Baltimore’s all-time leader in touchdowns. After that reception, his touchdown rate for the season stood at 18.2% (career prior: 10.5%). If we had numbers like this mid-season, I’d be preaching caution, but at this point, you don’t care about long-term concerns — you’re looking to survive this week.
The role isn’t stable. Over his past six games, Andrews has caught at least five passes three times and failed to reach three grabs three times. One of those duds came in this exact matchup, downside that you need to be aware of (Week 11 at PIT: 22 yards on a 9.7% target share).
That said, Lamar Jackson has completed 90.9% of his red-zone passes when targeting Andrews and 69.2% when throwing to someone else.
