Fantasy Football Week 16 Start/Sit: Derek Carr vs. Matthew Stafford

The first game of Week 16 is only a few hours away as the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints are set to kick off. For fantasy football, there are plenty of must-start players in this game like Alvin Kamara, Kyren Williams, Cooper Kupp and Chris Olave.

However, the quarterback position isn't so straight forward when looking at Matthew Stafford against Derek Carr. Over the past month, Stafford has been playing great and been a Top 10 option most weeks with 12 passing touchdowns and only one interception over the past four games.

What makes the production really impressive is that he was able to do it against good defenses like the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens. However, it has been a little more inconsistent for Derek Carr but he also has turned it around recently with six passing touchdowns and two interceptions in the last three games.

Should fantasy football managers start Matthew Stafford or Derek Carr in Week 16?

While Matthew Stafford has been better recently, this week I would actually start Derek Carr over the Rams' quarterback for two reasons. The first is the return of Chris Olave and this will be a big boost for the Saints' quarterback and should help him have a good score this week.

The other reason is the defenses as the Saints' defense has been much better against quarterbacks than the Rams' defense over the past month. The Saints' defense is allowing the seventh fewest points to quarterbacks and has done a good job keeping them out of the end zone with only three passing touchdowns.

As for the Rams defense, they are allowing the third most points to quarterbacks over the same time period and have allowed nine passing touchdowns. When considering these factors, I believe Derek Carr should have the better week than Matthew Stafford.