Titans vs. Chiefs Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 16

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 16 matchup between the Titans and Chiefs.

Find a breakdown of every Week 16 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Gardner Minshew: To add injury to the insult of being knocked out of the playoffs for the first time since 2014, the Chiefs will end the season with Minshew at quarterback after Patrick Mahomes suffered an ACL injury at the end of the game on Sunday.

Minshew is an experienced option who may be able to keep things afloat for the rest of the offensive pieces, but things had already been running south here under Mahomes.

We can’t expect Minshew to make it better, especially since the offensive line remains a concern, and we are expecting Rashee Rice to miss this game.

It is hard to be overly bullish on spike-week potential, but this matchup gives Minshew some runway as a floor-based QB2.

Minshew has started 22 games the past two seasons for the Colts and Raiders.

His highest scoring week last season with Las Vegas was QB16 (18 points), but he did register three QB1 scoring weeks with the Colts in 2023.

Perhaps the largest ray of optimism for Minshew comes from logging a pair of QB1 scoring weeks in relief of Jalen Hurts with the Eagles.

The offense is going to change under Minshew.

Mahomes had been pushing the ball downfield at an increased rate this season.

His 8.1 air yards per attempt ranked 15th, with 13.1% of his passes going 20 or more yards downfield (12th).

Since entering the NFL in 2019, Minshew’s 7.2 air yards per attempt rank 41st out of 46 passers.

29.9% of his career passes have been 10 or more yards downfield, which is 40th on that list.

There is some optimism here, given the matchup.

The Titans have allowed a QB1 scorer in eight consecutive games, which includes players such as Davis Mills (16.4 points) and Shedeur Sanders (33.5 points).

They are allowing 16.3 passing points per game (28th), a 68.2% completion rate (29th), 8.1 yards per attempt (30th), and a 5.8% touchdown rate (26th).

The Titans have been excellent against the run, which has pushed opponents to pass against their poor pass defense.

We will see how Andy Reid approaches things with Minshew, but he does not need much coaxing to dial up passing plays.

Opponents are passing the ball 6.2% over expectations against Tennessee, the highest rate in the league.

That is saying something, considering how bad the Titans have been with negative game scripts.

The last time a team was below pass rate expectations against Tennessee was back in Week 6.

Cam Ward: Ward completed 18 of 29 (62.1%) passes for 170 yards (5.9 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns against the 49ers.

He finished as the QB20 (15 points).

While Ward remains a back-end QB2, he was not sacked for the first time in a game last Sunday, and he has thrown multiple touchdowns in back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Maybe we see the Chiefs let up to close the season, but this is not a matchup where we are pushing Ward for ceiling potential.

The Chiefs are eighth in passing points allowed per game (11.8) and have allowed multiple passing touchdowns in only four games.

Running Back

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