Fantasy football projections, Week 11: Texans-Raiders featuring Lamar Miller, Derek Carr, Latavius Murray, more

The Week 11 matchup between the Houston Texans and the Oakland Raiders features teams looking to extend winning streaks. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Running back Lamar Miller has had a solid season so far, but he probably hasn’t produced the superstar numbers that fantasy owners were hoping for. He has just a single 100-yard rushing game since the opening week of the season. He also only has two rushing touchdowns this year. Against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 10, Miller ended up with 83 rushing yards on 15 carries. A yards per carry average of 5.5 is great, but he’s received 20 or more carries just once in six weeks. Perhaps the Texans should consider giving him the ball more. Whether he gets more touches against the Raiders remains to be seen. If the Raiders put up a lot of points, Miller’s usage may be limited in Week 11.

Perhaps a shootout scenario will benefit wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins’ fantasy performances have been more disappointing than Miller’s by far. Most fantasy owners will rightly attribute this to the subpar play of quarterback Brock Osweiler. Consider that Hopkins has been a top three receiver in each of the last two years. This season, he’s been held to 56 receiving yards or less in seven of nine contests. Who would’ve thought anybody would have even considered benching Hopkins at any point in 2016? It may be too late to trade him for value, and too insane to drop him, but it’s also crazy to expect him to surpass his projections against the Raiders. Even against a defense that gives up the second-most points in the league to fantasy wide receivers.

After an incredible 40 completions for 513 yards and four touchdowns in Week 8, quarterback Derek Carr was virtually shut out by the Denver Broncos in Week 9. He failed to throw a touchdown pass in the game and was held to a season low 184 passing yards. Coming off of a Week 10 bye, Carr now faces a Houston Texans defense that ranks fourth in the NFL at limiting fantasy quarterbacks. It’s tough to imagine him getting shut out of the end zone two weeks in a row, so he’s still safe to start. That said, Carr may not reach his projections for the second straight game.

The recent return of running back Latavius Murray may have something to do with that. Murray exploded for 114 rushing yards on 20 carries. He turned three of those carries into touchdowns, taking away potential scores from Carr. Obviously Murray isn’t going to score multiple touchdowns every week, but he will of course see a regular workload moving forward. Although he does have five rushing touchdowns over the last three weeks, fantasy owners should note that with the exception of his performance against Denver, Murray hasn’t rushed for more than 59 yards and a game this season. It’s tough to pinpoint whether or not he will surpass his projections in Week 11. He’ll likely need to score touchdowns in order to do so.