It’s been a roller coaster fantasy football season if you decided to draft any Cincinnati Bengals’ studs for 2023. The Bengals’ offense started the season slow and while there have been weeks QB Joe Burrow, WR Ja’Marr Chase and RB Joe Mixon have stepped up big, they’ve also fallen flat or have missed games due to injury. The Bengals enter a crucial game on the road vs. the rival Baltimore Ravens on Thursday Night Football in Week 11. With it getting into crunch time in your fantasy football league and with the margin for error shrinking, does that mean you should consider benching Bengals vs. the Ravens? We’re here to investigate.
Fantasy football start sit advice: Bengals players vs. BAL
Joe Burrow
If you asked us this question at the beginning of the season: Should you play Burrow vs. the Ravens in fantasy football? We’d almost always say yes, right? Well, that sentiment has certainly changed throughout the course of the 2023 NFL season. Burrow enters Week 11 as the QB17 in fantasy football with 138.4 fantasy points (15.4 per game). The Bengals QB was drafted among the top 6-8 QBs in fantasy in redraft heading into 2023. Relative to expectations and ADP, Burrow has been a major bust this season.
Burrow has been better the past five games, averaging 21.4 fantasy points per game. He also had a rough go at it last week in what was supposed to be a good matchup. Plus, Burrow and the Bengals lost to the Houston Texans mostly because of his mistakes. Now, Burrow is staring down a tough Baltimore defense on the road. WR Tee Higgins is out. In Week 2 vs. the Ravens at home, Burrow had just 15.38 FPTS. It’s a short week and the Ravens are coming off a rough loss to Cleveland. There is a case to be made for fading Burrow in fantasy football.
If you have a capable backup QB this is a conversation we can have. If you only have Burrow, it’s a “start your stud” type of situation. Even though Burrow has been far from a “stud” this season.
Ja’Marr Chase
Out of all the Bengals’ players, Chase is the easiest decision to make for tonight. You’re going to play him. You don’t really have much of a choice. The game script should play in his favor with Higgins still sidelined. Chase almost always plays a heavy amount of snaps. He only needed six targets to get to 23.4 FPTS last week vs. Houston. Had his target volume been heavier, Chase could have gone for 30+ fantasy points. That isn’t to say those numbers increase this week. The Ravens rank 4th in passing yards allowed (173.1 per game). Plus, Chase’s worst game of 2023 was Week 2 vs. Baltimore; five catches on eight targets for 31 yards.
There are a lot of factors that point to benching Chase in Week 11. But it’s still too difficult a decision to make. So the easy route is to play your stud WR and hope for the best. If the Ravens get an early lead, it should mean a lot of passing plays and targets for Chase. With that said, the Ravens can also blanket Chase and let Boyd, Trenton Irwin and the rest of the Bengals’ receivers beat them. Still, like we said, play Chase and pray.
Joe Mixon
Mixon enters Week 11 as the RB16 in fantasy football. He’s one of the few Bengals’ players who has lived up to expectations for the most part this season. Since Week 2, Mixon has played at least 70% of the offensive snaps out of the backfield in every game. There’s just not really any competition for carries on Cincy’s roster. As a result, Mixon has at least 11 carries in every game this season. He’s also scored in three straight games. There’s not much of a ceiling; Mixon’s high for this season is 20 FPTS in Week 8 vs. SF. But his floor in 2023 is 8.6 FPTS. So Mixon has sort of been the model of consistency at RB, a player you’ve played each week and he hasn’t failed you.
Baltimore ranks 11th in rushing yards allowed per game this season (100.5). The Ravens also haven’t faced many top RBs in terms of fantasy this season. The list includes Zack Moss, Derrick Henry, Jahmyr Gibbs and Kenneth Walker. Mixon as well. He managed 95 yards on 17 touches in Week 2 vs. Baltimore. So with that alone, there’s really no reason to fade Mixon on TNF in Week 11. His floor is fine for an RB2 or FLEX spot. Plus, this isn’t that bad a matchup considering Mixon should see double-digit touches.
Everyone else on Cincinnati
Tyler Boyd — He played 92% of the snaps last week and went for a season-high eight catches and 117 yards on 12 targets. The matchup isn’t great, but if we’re talking a FLEX play in PPR, Boyd isn’t that bad a play.
Trenton Irwin — He played 81% of the snaps last week with Higgins out. Irwin should see around the same amount of playing time, plus WR Andrei Iosivas is out. Irwin caught a TD vs. HOU but this is a risky play. Irwin is a FLEX in PPR only if you absolutely need to play him. You generally can’t win on TNF in fantasy but you can definitely lose with a dud.
