8 FanDuel Studs to Target in Week 16

Blake Bortles, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars

FanDuel Price: $8,200
numberFire Projected Points: 22.21

I (and just about every other fantasy football analyst) has said this and will continue to do so until the season ends, but targeting your quarterbacks against the Saints' 32nd-ranked pass defense is just good process. Allowing three more fantasy points on average to quarterbacks than the second-worst team in the league per that statistic, the Saints make any kind of competent quarterback is start-worthy.

Enter Blake Bortles. Bortles has become the face of the argument between casual fantasy football fans, who love his raw stat lines, and football analytics, which argue that Bortles just isn’t that good (yet). And while I fall in the latter camp, that doesn't mean I'm averse to using him and the Jaguars' eighth-highest pass-to-run ratio to squeeze fantasy points out of him.

With Denard Robinson putting two balls on the ground against the Falcons last weekend (which the Jags recovered) while also spraining his foot, the team may be apt to throw the ball even more often than they ordinarily would, even against the Saints' 24th-ranked run defense. And Vegas seems to agree, pegging the Jags/Saints tilt with the highest over/under of the weekend at 52 points, so there's real potential for a shootout.

With the Jaguars sporting an implied point total of 27.75 in a projected shootout, this game has the making of a big performance from Bortles. Roster him in cash or tournament lineups with confidence.