Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 11: Raiders vs. Texans

Two struggling teams enter Sunday’s game with a combined 5-13 record. This could get ugly, folks.

Nov 17, 2013, 12:45 PM UTC

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It's not often the Oakland Raiders are in a better situation than their opponent these days, but they will be Sunday as they travel to Texas for a 1 p.m. ET game against a Houston Texans team on a seven-game losing streak. A pair of bad teams don't yield a lot of valuable fantasy studs, but there are some to watch:

Raiders

Start in every league: Defense/special teams

Start if you're desperate: Rashad Jennings, Denarius Moore

Bench: Terrelle Pryor, Darren McFadden, Rod Streater, Sebastian Janikowski

It seems weird to suggest the Raiders’ defense as a must-start, but it has actually been a solid unit this season, with its only two bad games coming against the great offenses of Denver and Philadelphia. The Raiders’ D has double-digit fantasy points five times in nine games, and few teams are more generous to opposing defenses than the Texans.

Jennings has been trusty in games that McFadden has left or missed altogether. Sunday is shaping up as another. He has topped 100 yards from scrimmage in two straight games, and in all three that he has spelled McFadden on the season. He’s close to a must-use. Moore scored four touchdowns in his first six games and topped 80 yards three times. Since the bye though, he has no scores and only one 80-yard game. As Pryor has started to struggle, so has Moore.

Early in the year, it looked like the rushing ability of Pryor would keep him reasonably strong in fantasy value as a sort-of Tim Tebow type. That has fallen away lately, and Pryor had his worst start of the season last week, with only seven fantasy points and his first fumble. His stock is falling. McFadden is still hurt and is unlikely to appear in Sunday's game. Streater has been considered a sneaky sleeper all season, but it's Week 11, and he's still just a sleeper. Move on. Janikowski is having his worst season, due largely to a lack of opportunity.

Texans

Start in every league: Ben Tate, Andre Johnson

Start if you're desperate: Case Keenum, Defense/special teams

Bench: Dennis Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins, Garrett Graham, Randy Bullock

With Arian Foster done for the year, even a banged-up Tate should be good, though he is still looking for his first double-digit outing of the year. Regardless, he’s getting healthier, and he’s going to dominate the team’s rushes. Hi, Andre Johnson, you’re really good at football. Thank you for appearing in this sentence.

Keenum still hasn’t thrown an interception yet and is averaging almost 17 points in his three starts. He’s still a new starter and still hard to trust, but there’s potential there. The Raiders love to give up points to opposing defenses, and the Texans’ defense, while not as good as it once was, should take advantage of that.

Johnson is a good handcuff to Tate, just for the sake of being the next man up, but unless and until something happens, he's not worth using. Hopkins has only had one good game since his strong Week 2 outing, hovering in the low single-digits otherwise. He's tough to use. Graham hasn't done much since the injury to Owen Daniels, and at this point no one can expect him to. Bullock has been the worst kicker in football.