Yahoo Sports’ Fantasy Football Live crew looks ahead to Sunday’s matchup between Baltimore and Cincinnati – and how Derrick Henry, Isaiah Likely and Tee Higgins could impact fantasy managers.
Video Transcript
Let’s turn to our Fantasy game changers for this week powered by Ram Trucks where we’re identifying some of the most impactful players in one of the top Fantasy matchups on the schedule.
We took a look at the Baltimore at Cincinnati matchup here, which is a huge one for that division, huge one for the AFC Baltimore favored by 2.5.
The over under on this 1, 49.5 should be noted.
This game is in Cincinnati.
So we don’t care about all of this.
We just care about who can change the game no matter what Andy Barons.
I can’t imagine who you would pick first in this list.
Yeah, I mean, I gotta go, Derek Henry here, right.
He’s cleared 100 and 50 rushing yards in back to back weeks uh in games in which the Ravens haven’t even bothered to throw.
Lamar Jackson has attempted only 33 passes over these last two games.
You don’t need an expert to tell you to start Derek Henry.
Obviously, I’m just here to rave about what he’s doing at age 30.
Uh He’s averaging 100 and 20 rushing yards per game.
Leads the NFL in touchdowns and rushing yards and he’s averaging six yards per carry.
So, if that sounds like a vintage Derek Henry season, you’re not wrong.
That is what we’re getting.
Henry is about to face a Cincinnati defense that has offered very little resistance this season that currently ranks number 26 against the run.
Very good chance that we get another week in which Baltimore just tries to run in time of possession their way to a win in this one.
It has been a very good formula for the last two weeks that obviously shakes out very well for King Henry.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure we could put pads on producer Dan and he’d still get 100 yards against the Bengals defense.
Uh, so my, uh, my guy that I’m not worried about, no matter what my fantasy game changer, certainly in the same vein is Isaiah likely and hear me out because this sounds weird.
I know the numbers are way down, but what have we seen?
It’s like a Baltimore offense right now.
That is just running the football.
And I do believe that the Bengals knowing that will come in and commit absolutely everything.
They have to try to stop that run game.
The problem is you have two tight ends and Isaiah like and Mark Andrews that are capable of catching the ball out of blocking formation.
So I think there’s a real opportunity when eventually Cincinnati decides to invite like 47 people up to the line of scrimmage to try and stop Derek Henry.
That would be against the rules.
There’ll be a quick play action moment and Isaiah likely, I think it’s a lot of targets.
I, I know that they don’t throw the ball a bunch but throwing the ball to their tight ends in this game because of the way they’ll have to try and defend Derek Henry makes sense to me.
I like Isaiah likely to have a big breakout game.
So, who do you like?
Yeah, I’m looking at the Bengal side of this one with T Higgins, the Bengals offense the last two weeks looks a lot better.
And what do you know?
T Higgins came back two games ago.
Now, it’s not just that they had some nice matchups against the commanders.
They got Chase Brown unlocked last week as well, but Higgins being back does matter.
It takes the secondary’s attention off of just Jamar Chase.
It focuses, uh, as well on Higgins and we’ve seen Chase have a couple of huge touchdowns the last week, a couple of weeks he’s been getting going, but also T Higgins in week four got unlocked a little bit.
32% of the team’s targets led the Bengals.
He caught six balls for 60 yards on 10 targets and he looked good out there and now this week against the Ravens, like, yeah, their run defense has been solid.
You think about their secondary from last year and it was great, but they’ve lost pieces since then and you can actually get yours in the passing game against Baltimore.
If you have the talented pieces out there to do so, they allow the 12th most receiving yards per play.
I think T Higgins finds the end zone for the first time this year in this game and he is somebody that I’m looking at for the Bengals.
