Fantasy football projections, Week 16: Ravens vs. Steelers featuring Terrance West, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, more

The Week 16 matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers features division rivals battling each other for playoff positioning. We have the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Running back Terrance West was supposed to concede the starting job to teammate and rookie Kenneth Dixon quite a while ago, but he’s played well enough to keep earning touches. West posted 122 total yards against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15. He did that on just 17 touches while playing just 45 percent of the team’s offensive snaps.

While his role seems diminished in terms of time spent on the field, West is still finding a way to produce. Perhaps in 2017 he’ll officially lose the starting job to Dixon, but for now it’s still worth starting the veteran over the rookie. Pittsburgh ranks in the bottom five of the NFL against fantasy running backs this season. West has a great opportunity to surpass his projections in the fantasy finals.

Wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. may just do the same. After being held out of the end zone in three straight games, Smith caught his fourth touchdown of the season against the Eagles last week despite catching just two passes for 40 yards in the game.

In what could be one of the last games of his illustrious career, Smith faces a Steelers secondary unit that has given up the fourth-fewest number of fantasy points to the wide receiver position. Even with that in mind, it takes only one or two big plays for a guy like Smith to blow his projections out of the water. He’ll be a big key to success for the Ravens on Sunday, and he’s still capable of helping fantasy owners, too.

Le’Veon Bell managed only 70 total yards when the Steelers faced the Ravens earlier this season. The difference between then and now is that he’s been on fire recently. Despite failing to score a touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals last week, Bell still put up 131 total yards on 28 touches. It’s clear that the Steelers are focusing their offense around him more than any other player on the roster. He will almost certainly get more than 70 total yards against the Ravens this week. Bell is a shoe-in to outperform expectations in the fantasy finals.

His heavy workload, however, has negatively affected the fantasy value of wide receiver Antonio Brown. Brown is perhaps the best receiver in the NFL, but there’s no need to give him as many looks when Bell is dominating.

Brown saw just five targets last week, catching three passes for 58 yards. The good news is that every time this season Brown has been held under 60 receiving yards, he’s increased that total considerably in the next game. With Baltimore’s Jimmy Smith likely to play hurt on Sunday, Brown could expose a strong Ravens secondary for 100 yards and a touchdown in Week 16.