DJ MOORE - WR CAROLINA PANTHERS
Sit Him
This is the most important week of the fantasy football schedule. It is the time of year where friendships can be destroyed over the slimmest of losses and the winner of your league might come into some much needed cash for their last-minute Christmas shopping. Regardless of who wins and who loses, this week provides the most crucial lineup decisions so far. I’m not going to make the easy comparison to it being like deactivating a bomb where one false move could be fatal because let’s be honest, if you bench a player who goes off and lose the championship, you’ll be fine. That is of course unless you bet your life savings on it to the Russian mob who will send you to the Gulag upon a loss, but since I can’t imagine many of you are in that situation, it would be frivolous for me to compare it to that aforementioned explosive situation since safety is actually at stake there. However, given all of that, we at the Fantasy Daydreamers do are best to help make that job the tiniest bit easier by giving you some key people to sit and start.
This week, I am suggesting a player to sit because in these times where the line between total failure and utter victory is razor thin, sitting a player is a much tougher choice than starting one. My sit ‘em player for this week is going to be DJ Moore of the Carolina Panthers. If you are a DJ Moore owner, this might be a little frustrating since you just got him back after two games where he didn’t play, but there are numerous factors in this game that make him a guy I think you should sit.
First off, he is facing a Washington Football Team that is playing really well on defense. Chase Young is in contention for defensive rookie of the year and has been selected to a pro bowl in his first year. He is a dynamic threat that I see disrupting that offensive line and specifically Teddy Bridgewater all day. In terms of overall defense, the Washington team has allowed the second fewest receiving touchdowns with only nine, they have allowed the fifth fewest amount of receiving yards at 2,057 and have allowed the second fewest amount of fantasy points to opposing receivers this year with only 19.0 points per game. On top of that, in half their game this year, the team has not allowed a receiver into the endzone including the past two games.
Secondly, Moore is going against his former coach in Ron Rivera, so Rivera will know the best way to isolate and eliminate Moore as a threat. Rivera knows his opponent and as GI Joe said, “knowing is half the battle.”
Lastly, the Panthers offense has struggled in a lot of games this year and has had a tough time of scoring a decent amount of points without the likes of Christian McCaffrey to give them a boost of adrenaline. The Washington offense can be like that as well and with Alex Smith probably out, this game might be close which lends to Mike Davis being involved throughout the entirety of the game. Basically, what I mean by this is, I don’t see the Panthers trailing which would force them to pass and do so for large chunks of yards.
In a week where numerous factors seem stacked against him, Moore is a guy I am looking to replace with a solid streamer or one of my reliable bench guys. Good luck, and I hope you do well in your championship games everyone!
