Fantasy football projections, Week 16: Giants-Eagles featuring Odell Beckham, Darren Sproles, Jordan Matthews, more

The Week 16 matchup between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles features one team looking to solidify its playoff positioning while the other plays for pride. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Last week wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was the driving force that helped win the game. He caught six of eight targets for 64 yards and a touchdown against the Lions. Beckham is in top form and ready for the fantasy championship and the NFL playoffs. He only caught four passes against the Eagles back in Week 9 but finished the game with 46 yards and two touchdowns. He gets targeted lots, he has world-class talent and he finds the end zone consistently. For those three reasons Beckham should have no trouble surpassing his projections against a struggling Eagles team.

In order for Beckham to perform on Thursday, quarterback Eli Manning has to lead the charge from the line of scrimmage. Manning completed 20 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions last week. His performance was nothing spectacular from a fantasy standpoint, but Manning did take good care of the football refusing to turn it over. He threw for a season-high four touchdowns against Philadelphia in Week 9. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Manning put up similar numbers in Week 16. Although he likely won’t be a top five fantasy quarterback this week, a spot in the top 10 is a strong possibility.

Running back Darren Sproles is expected to be in the lineup against the Giants after missing Week 15 while he awaited clearance in the NFL’s concussion protocol. Sproles faces a Giants run defense that has allowed the seventh most points to the running back position this season. Sproles wasn’t going to rack up the rushing yards anyway. At the same time, he’s got considerable value in PPR formats catching enough passes to warrant starting in the fantasy finals. He totalled 71 yards on 16 touches against the Giants in Week 9. He’ll need to do a bit better than that to beat his projections on Thursday. Expect him to do just that.

Teammate and wide receiver Jordan Matthews is less likely to hit his projections against the Giants. New York has a pretty solid secondary unit. Add that to the fact Matthews has surpassed 59 yards just three times in the last six games and it’s hard to count on him in this week’s finals. The one bright spot that benefits fantasy owners of Matthews is that he’s been targeted at least 10 times in all but one of the last seven games. He likely won’t top his projections but he won’t embarrass fantasy owners either. Matthews’ floor is relatively high.