Fantasy football projections, Week 15: Lions-Giants featuring Matthew Stafford, Odell Beckham, Eli Manning, more

The Week 15 matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New York Giants features two teams looking to stay in playoff contention as the NFL’s regular season reaches its final weeks. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Only one team has given up more touchdown passes this season and the New York Giants. Combine that with the fact quarterback Matthew Stafford is going to play the rest of the season with a dislocated middle finger and he may not reach his projections in Week 15. Though the Giants have given up a fair amount of passing yards per game this season, ranking 23^rd in the league in that category, Stafford is still in tough shape. He threw two interceptions against the Chicago Bears last week. If he can take better care of the football moving forward, perhaps he gives fantasy owners enough value to warrant starting him now that the fantasy postseason has advanced to the next round.

Stafford will look to get the ball to wide receiver Marvin Jones against the Giants. Jones returned to the lineup last week after missing the team’s previous game thanks to an injury. He corralled four out of five targets for 67 yards against the Bears. Since stringing together more than 400 receiving yards in the first three weeks of the season, Jones has posted more than 70 yards in a game just twice since. It’s hard to trust him at this point in the season. Perhaps Golden Tate or tight end Eric Ebron will make for a better value play in Week 15.

Wide receiver Odell Beckham continues to be in top form as the NFL’s regular season winds down. That’s music to the years of fantasy owners looking to contend for the championship this season. Beckham has at least 94 receiving yards in four out of the last five games. He’s also scored all of his nine touchdowns on the season in the last nine weeks. The Lions have been pretty good at defending fantasy wide receivers this season, but fantasy owners are going to expect nothing but the best from Beckham this week. It would be foolish to think he won’t challenge his projections in any game for the rest of 2016.

Fantasy owners of quarterback Eli Manning shouldn’t be as confident that he can do the same. Manning has been held under 200 passing yards five times this season, including each of the last three games. Last week against the Dallas Cowboys, he fumbled the ball twice in the first half, killing two promising drives. He finished the afternoon with just one touchdown pass to go with an interception. If Manning doesn’t turn things around for fantasy owners this week, they’ll likely be falling short of a championship.