Week 15 of the 2021 NFL season starts with Thursday Night Football as the Tennessee Titans play host to the San Francisco 49ers Here’s a break down of the fantasy football starts and sits and DFS plays for Thursday night’s action.
San Francisco 49ers at Tennessee Titans
Over/Under Points Scored: Not yet available
San Francisco 49ers
QB Jimmy Garoppolo — Garoppolo should experience largely comfortable pockets against Tennessee. The Titans’ defensive front has played well from time to time but they are not consistently generating a strong pass rush and the team’s DB group is nothing special. Jimmy G remains a high-floor/high-ceiling QB2 with back-end QB1 upside.
WR Deebo Samuel — RB Elijah Mitchell (knee irritation) is a game-time decision and has a real chance to return to action this week. Kyle Shanahan has continued feeding Samuel at least nine opportunities per game, with many coming on the ground during Mitchell’s absence. No matter what, Samuel is a fantasy WR1. If Mitchell returns, Samuel’s nine-plus touch workload would become even more valuable as it will come more so through the air, against one of fantasy’s most WR-friendly defenses.
WR Brandon Aiyuk — Aiyuk is a full-time offensive player, operating both as a receiver and a return man, but his production has been extremely volatile over the last few weeks. He’s got a much better chance of booming than busting this week against the Titans though. He’s a top-36 WR play.
WR Jauan Jennings — The Titans’ clown car of slot DBs (Elijah Molden, Chris Jackson, Buster Skrine, etc.) have rolled out the red carpet for opposing slot receivers all year. Jennings is a fantasy WR5 and a sneaky MVP/Captain DFS option.
TE George Kittle — Fantasy’s No. 1 .5PPR scoring TE since he returned from injury in Week 9, Kittle’s an elite TE1 with slate shattering upside.
RB Elijah Mitchell — If Mitchell is active, he’s a safe fantasy RB1. His high-volume, dual threat workload combined with the Kyle Shanahan run scheme makes him format-proof.
RB Jeff Wilson Jr. — Wilson would be unstartable if Mitchell is active and a top-15 RB play if active. He’s a rush-centric player but volume keeps him afloat.
RB JaMycal Hasty — Not redraft relevant.
Tennessee Titans
QB Ryan Tannehill — San Francisco’s front-seven has been hampered by injury but this passing game leaves a lot to be desired. High-floor/low-ceiling QB2.
WR A.J. Brown — Brown was activated from Injured Reserve this week (chest) but has not yet been activated to the active roster. With Julio Jones (hamstring) once again unlikely to play, Brown would assume target-hog duties if active. He’d be a high-floor WR2 with excellent upside.
WR Chester Rogers — Tennessee resumed giving Rogers return duties, which adds deep format upside against San Francisco’s bottom-3 punt coverage unit. Their slot coverage is very good though, which hurts Rogers’ prospects on the whole. Fantasy WR5.
WRs Cody Hollister and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine — The two will likely share time on the perimeter this week, rendering both useless for our purposes.
TE Geoff Swaim — Anthony Firkser and MyCole Pruitt are just too involved for Swaim to be relevant.
D’Onta Foreman — Foreman has soundly taken hold of the lead back job (22 carries and 3 targets last week) and he should be able to pickup yards against San Fran’s injury-dampened front-seven. Back-end RB2.
RBs Jeremy McNichols and Dontrell Hilliard — The two men continue to share time, frequently subbed in and out as dual threat, change of pace backs. Neither has separated from the other, nor are they usable for Week 16 of the fantasy season.