New Orleans Saints @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 17 Game Preview
Jonathan Fuller breaks down the Week 17 matchup between the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers from a fantasy football and betting perspective.
New Orleans Saints @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This matchup is far more important than it is exciting, as the Buccaneers have a chance to really put themselves in control of the NFC South with a win over the Saints.
Baker Mayfield and Co. put on an impressive performance in their Week 16 win over the Jaguars and would be the most fun team to have in the playoffs out of the contenders in their division. A win in this game would go a long way to securing their playoff spot as they get to face the 2-13 Carolina Panthers in Week 18 for what should be an easy win.
Tampa has won four in a row, so finishing with two more wins would definitely put them among the hottest teams in the league entering the playoffs. With some of the recent stumbles by teams at the top of the NFC, the Bucs should like their chances to make some noise in the playoffs if they can finish the regular season strong.
While this matchup offers plenty of intrigue for real football purposes, it isn’t the most exciting on paper from a fantasy perspective. Both Tampa Bay and New Orleans have been in the bottom 10 teams for situation neutral pass rate over the last four weeks despite both offenses showing the ability to create big plays when they do pass.
New Orleans has two of the better deep ball threats in the league with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, and they will likely need both of them to move the ball against a Buccaneers defense that is much better at defending the run than the pass. Olave is a top-10 WR option on the week, while Shaheed is a risky but high-upside FLEX play.
In the New Orleans backfield, Alvin Kamara continues to see the majority of the work but his fantasy production has really cooled off following a hot start to his 2023 campaign once he returned from suspension. He still ranks as an elite option at the position due to his workload, but he has the potential to end the fantasy season with two dud games, which could meaningfully impact his ADP going into next year.
For Tampa Bay, fantasy managers have learned to just leave Rachaad White and Mike Evans in their starting lineup, as both players have been incredibly consistent this season and are top-10 options at their respective positions this week.
The Saints' defense is solid, but not elite, so there is no reason to hesitate around rolling out your Tampa Bay pieces in Week 17.
That includes Chris Godwin, who is averaging more than 10 targets per game over his last three contests and is on the WR2/WR3 border in the Fantasy Life consensus ranks.