The Week 12 matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Houston Texans features a normally solid offense against a red-hot defense. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 12: Saints-Texans featuring Drew Brees, Mark Ingram and DeAndre Hopkins
We break down the Week 12 matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Houston Texans.
New Orleans Saints
A bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the New Orleans Saints. The team is coming off of two straight losses at the hands of lowly teams like the Tennessee Titans and Washington. Drew Brees put up big time numbers in trying to lead the team to a comeback win over the Titans in Week 10, but Washington held him to just 209 yards, two touchdown passes and two interceptions. Brees will need to be much better against Houston, a team that has allowed just 29 points combined in the last three weeks.
If Brees struggles, don’t expect running back Mark Ingram to fare any better. He has one 100-yard game to his name this year and the Texans have only allowed one such game to opposing rushers in 2015. Things don’t look good for Ingram on paper. Then again you never know, Brees might have to throw early and often and Ingram has decent pass-catching skills. That just might save his fantasy day in Week 12.
Houston Texans
After sitting out last week’s game against the New York Jets, Coach Bill O’Brien has confirmed that Brian Hoyer will start against the Saints this week. No team in the NFL has given up more fantasy points to quarterbacks than New Orleans, so although Hoyer wouldn’t normally warrant a start outside of deeper leagues, this may be the week to give him a shot. Be warned however, even in beating the Cincinnati Bengals two weeks ago, the veteran threw for just 123 passing yards and an interception. He did not find the end zone.
If he does this week, it seems as if there’s a 90% chance the ball will fall in the hands of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. With running back Arian Foster out for the season thanks to a torn Achilles tendon, nobody else on the team’s roster comes close to Hopkins in terms of talent and explosiveness. Even with T.J. Yates starting at quarterback last week and filling in two weeks ago, Hopkins has managed to catch 10 passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns since returning from the team’s bye week. Hopkins should be one of the top wide receivers in fantasy football on Sunday whether the Texans beat New Orleans or not.
