Fantasy football projections, Week 16: Bengals vs. Texans featuring A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert, Lamar Miller, more

The Week 16 matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Houston Texans features the return of a superstar receiver just in time for the fantasy finals. We have the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Wide receiver A.J. Green is expected to play against the Texans this week after missing the team’s previous five games because of a hamstring injury. While fantasy owners may be a little bit hesitant to start him right away, the fantasy finals are as good a time as any to do that.

Green was averaging a career-high 96.4 receiving yards per game before getting hurt and would have easily eclipsed his career high for receiving yards in a season, which is 1,426. He’ll step right back to being Andy Dalton’s top target in Houston. Assuming his number of snaps isn’t limited, there’s no reason Green can’t catch six passes and surpass 100 yards against the Texans in Week 16.

If Green’s return negatively affects somebody else’s fantasy production, that somebody else will be tight end Tyler Eifert.

Eifert caught only one pass for 9 yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. His lackluster box score broke the streak of three games in which Eifert scored a touchdown. Make no mistake about it — he’s among the NFL’s best tight ends, but with Green back in the lineup on Saturday, Eifert will be the only red zone target. It’s going to be hard to expect him to surpass his projections given that he’s also facing a Texans defense that has allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points to the tight end position this season.

Running back Lamar Miller struggled to participate in practice leading up to the game against the Bengals, but he still expects to play. Miller limped off the field late in the team’s Week 15 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It would be a shame if Miller didn’t play in Week 16. He’s found the end zone via the ground game in each of the last two games and is the one player on the Texans with the highest floor.

The Bengals rank in the bottom third of the league against the run this season. For that reason, Miller has a good opportunity to find the end zone for the third straight game. Should he not be able to play, fantasy owners in deeper leagues may want to pick up Alfred Blue as an insurance policy.

Perhaps, for once, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins may actually be a better play than Miller in the final week of the fantasy season. With backup Tom Savage under center, Hopkins was targeted a season-high 17 times last week. He turned those targets into eight catches for 87 yards. As hard as it is to believe, that’s one of the best performances of his season.

If Hopkins gets anywhere near 17 targets against the Bengals, he’ll come up with a fantasy box score that could get him beyond expectations. Fantasy owners wouldn’t be out of line to give him the opportunity, even though Hopkins has had a subpar fantasy season.