Monday Night Football preview: What to expect fantasy-wise from Bears at Rams

The Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams face off on Monday Night Football tonight and I’m here to breakdown the two teams and who offers the best fantasy football value this week.

Bears

Bears’ quarterback Nick Foles has been a consistent non-factor in fantasy football since taking over for Mitchell Trubisky in Week 3, totaling numbers worthy of mid-to-low QB2. With the NFL overlords setting up a defensive slug-fest for Monday Night Football, expect more of the same. He’s the overall QB23 this week.

All World wide receiver Allen Robinson sits on the WR1/2 borderline in .5PPR scoring through six weeks—an appropriate expectation for this week as the stud receiver squares off with Rams’ lock-down cornerback Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey should trail him for much of the game, making for an exciting wide receiver/cornerback battle.

Downfield receiver Darnell Mooney continues to entice with his exciting usage, on a weekly basis. No. 2 on the team in Weighted Opportunity Rating (0.34) behind Robinson (0.65), Mooney has struggled to haul in the errant passes coming from Trubisky and Foles—both of whom have registered negative Completion Percentage Above Expectation marks on the year. Mooney is just a boom/bust flex option who’s likely to bust this week against the Rams’ stout secondary.

Slot receiver Anthony Miller’s ceiling is so low, he’s not worth considering.

24 of tight end Jimmy Graham’s 55.3 .5PPR points this year can be attributed to his four touchdowns and his team-leading 28.95% red zone target market share provides some reassurance as to said touchdowns continuing. Furthering said reassurance is his 15.32% overall target market share—second-highest on the team. Although Graham is a shell of his former self, that kind of usage is exactly what we’re looking for at the barren fantasy position. Fire him up as a decent TE1 option.

Gadget man Cordarrelle Patterson has taken over as the team’s No. 2 back with Tarik Cohen out for the year. It hasn’t resulted in much production though. Lead back David Montgomery’s massive jump in snap share since Cohen’s injury has solidified his fantasy floor though. Perhaps surprisingly, Montgomery—not Patterson—is the one who’s taken on Cohen pass catching role, totaling 28 thus far (8th-most in the league). Even in a decently tough match-up, that kind of usage keeps Montgomery locked in as a mid-tier RB2.

Rams

Rams quarterback Jared Goff has had a much more effective year than his Week 7 counterpart, but facing a Bears’ secondary that’s allowed the fewest touchdowns on the season (4), he finds himself just one spot ahead of Goff in this week’s rankings as the overall QB22.

In such a tough match-up, Rams 1-2 punch receivers, Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp cannot be expected to hit their fantasy ceilings. That said, with tight end Tyler Higbee’s availability up in the air (hand injury), Kupp’s has less competition in the Goff-safety-blanket role. Consider Cooper Kupp and high-floor WR2 and Woods on the low-end of the WR2 spectrum.

Although No. 3 receiver Josh Reynolds has resolutely relegated Van Jefferson to the No. 4 spot, his one-trick-pony downfield role just isn’t strong enough to garner fantasy consideration this week.

Should Tyler Higbee miss this week’s game, Gerald Everett would be a viable TE1 streamer, even in a tough match-up. As it currently stands, the tight end duo completely sap each other’s fantasy value. If one were to get the No. 1 job all to himself, they’d be worthy of a start. If it’s a platoon again this week, Higbee could be started as a TE2.

The Rams’ three-headed monster at running back offers a heart-breaking floor for fantasy purposes. Darrell Henderson is the team’s nominal—and sometimes actual—lead back. Leading the team in snaps for two of the last three weeks, Henderson can be started as a low-end RB2/flex play by fantasy managers acknowledging that the bottom can drop out at any moment. The Bears’ front-seven offers decent resistance to opposing backfields, which doesn’t help the situation. Malcolm Brown is more likely to see work than Akers is but the latter’s dynamic athleticism has to have the coaching staff dreaming of deploying him. Neither one are recommended starts this week though.