The Week 15 matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and St. Louis Rams features two teams with talented running backs. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 15: Buccaneers-Rams featuring Doug Martin, Mike Evans and Todd Gurley
We break down the Week 15 matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and St. Louis Rams.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Whatever the result happens to be in Thursday’s game, rest assured running back Doug Martin will be a key part of the Bucs’ game plan. After slumping for a little bit in the middle of the season, he’s once again put together four straight solid efforts. To be exact, The Muscle Hamster is averaging 127 yards per game over that span, thanks in large part to a 235-yard effort in Week 11. Still, he’s got touchdowns in back-to-back games and the Rams organization has been awful against the run for years now. This year is no different. Martin could catapult his owners in the semifinals with a big game this week.
If the Bucs have trouble making holes for him on the front lines for any reason, wide receiver Mike Evans should be a busy man, at least hopefully. He’s actually struggled over the past month, failing to surpass more than 64 receiving yards in any game. Even with teammate Vincent Jackson on the sidelines last week, Evans caught three passes for just 39 yards. The Rams are pretty good at limiting receivers. It could be a fifth straight subpar week for the Bucs’ best pass catcher.
St. Louis Rams
Todd Gurley is officially out of a month-long slump. He busted out of it with a vengeance against the Detroit Lions last week. Gurley carried the ball 16 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns. Detroit’s defense, while struggling most of the year, had recently been on a tear. The fact that Gurley was ablaze last week is a great sign going into the game against the Bucs. That said, performing against Tampa is going to be a challenge given Gurley has been limited in practice and his opponents have been solid against the run this year.
If you must, the only other Rams player worth looking at from a fantasy standpoint is Tavon Austin. Fantasy owners who take a chance on him would generally be perceived as nuts at this point, but Austin did return a punt for a touchdown last week. Too bad it was called back thanks to a holding penalty. He’s electric, but the offense around Austin is absolutely anemic. He has value only in really deep leagues as the top receiver in a clear cut run-first team.
