Worst WR schedules, wide receivers to fade in the fantasy football playoffs

Most fantasy football leagues start their playoffs in Week 15 so it is time to make that playoff push for championship gold. The regular season no longer matters and fantasy football is now purely a week-to-week game where you play the best matchups you can and hope for the best. You want to avoid bad matchups and here are three players you should be fading as you get into the playoffs for your league.

Fantasy football playoffs: Worst WR schedules

Ja’Marr Chase (@DEN, BAL, KC)

Chase went on a tear between Weeks 3 and 7, finishing as a top-6 wideout in fantasy three times in that span. He then went into hibernation and didn’t wake up until Week 14 where he put up 23 points and finished as the WR4 on the week. Even with this recent resurrection, don’t let Chase charm his way back into your lineup this week.

In Week 15, Chase takes on the Denver Broncos defense who is giving up the 11th fewest fantasy points per game to opposing wide receivers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get much better for him as he takes on the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs in the following two weeks you rank 20th and 24th out of 32 teams in fantasy points given up to wideouts. His matchup against the Ravens would be the only one I feel comfortable starting him as he finished as the WR2 when the two teams met in Week 7. Otherwise, fade the rook.

Mike Williams (KC, @HOU, DEN)

In the first five weeks of the season, Mike Williams put up two WR1 performances. Not WR1 as in top-12 like I usually use it, I mean he was the top wide receiver in fantasy football in half-PPR scoring in Week 3 and in Week 5. Unfortunately, after that Week 5 performance, Williams finished in the top-20 of wide receivers just twice and more commonly ended up in the 40s.

Williams draws the Chiefs, the Houston Texans and the Broncos for his next three matchups. The Chiefs are the Thursday Night Football game of Week 15 and they were one of his WR1 performances back when they met in Week 3. But, the Chiefs' defense has improved since then and they have really started limiting wide receivers in fantasy football. The Texans represent his best matchup in Week 16 as they are giving up middle-of-the-road numbers to opposing wide receivers. Then it is back down against the Broncos to round out the fantasy football playoffs. Sit, start and sit for me when it comes to Williams over the next three weeks.

Marquise Brown (GB, @CIN, LAR)

Through the first seven weeks of the season, Marquise Brown was looking like a league winner and steal of the draft. The Ravens had their bye week in Week 7 and Browns came out in Week 8 with fire and an overall WR8 finish that week. Then something happened. Don’t exactly know what, but in the four games that he has played since then, Brown hasn’t finished higher than WR34 in a single week. It’s a bad time to get into a rut and his matchups won’t help him get out of it.

Over the next three weeks, Brown takes on the Green Bay Packers, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Los Angeles Rams. None of these teams present a great matchup for Brown ranking 17th, 18th and 13th in fantasy points given up per game to opposing wide receivers, respectively. The problem for Brown is that quarterback Lamar Jackson left their Week 14 game with some kind of ankle injury. At the time of this writing, it hasn’t been fully diagnosed, but it could limit Jackson going forward. That takes out a huge part of his game and his ability to open up the offense. Backup quarterback Tyler Huntley didn’t do a lot to target Brown and instead, hyper-targeted tight end Mark Andrews when he was filling in after Jackson exited. Fade Brown over the next three weeks because of his lack of usage and performances in the offense as of late.