Best Week 16 Moves From Our Experts: Is Tyler Shough Your Playoff Hero?

Best Week 16 Moves

Whether you're playing redraft or dynasty, knowing what moves to make is crucial to success.

That's why we're having each of our fantasy football experts give you one move to take advantage of this week.

Tyler Shough To The Rescue?

Jared Smola

There are plenty of fantasy teams hurting at QB this week. Daniel Jones and Patrick Mahomes are out. Justin Herbert is struggling. Even Matt Stafford faces a short-week road game against a tough Seahawks defense – and likely won’t have WR Davante Adams.

If you’re one of those teams, consider grabbing Shough and plugging him into your Week 16 starting lineup.

The rookie is rolling. He ranks 12th among QBs in fantasy points per game over his last five. Shough has finished as a top-13 QB in three of those five weeks.

He gets a great spot this weekend. The Saints are at home, so weather won’t be an issue. And they get a Jets defense that was bad to begin with – and now looks checked out. New York has coughed up 34 points to the Dolphins and 48 to the Jaguars over the last two weeks.

New York sits 31st in my Pass Defense Power Rankings and 28th in adjusted fantasy points allowed to QBs.

Don’t Overthink Things In The Playoffs

Jody Smith

Congratulations if you’re still playing in Week 16. You overcame an injury-riddled season and advanced to your league’s semi-finals. 

Every year, we see people make it this far, then depart from what got them there in the first place. They start overanalyzing matchups or try to get cute by sitting established starters for a fleeting player with a “better matchup”. 

This isn’t the time to do that. Generally, you want to stick with what has gotten you here and what has been working. This week, no NFL teams have locked anything up, so we won’t see starters being rested or reserves seeing a boost in playing time to showcase what they can do next season. 

Keep doing your due diligence and using the same references that led you here. Jared’s Matchups That Matter is one of the most valuable pieces of information you can get and has helped me make tough lineups decisions throughout the year. 

I’m not saying to ignore tough matchups and stick with your studs no matter what. Just don’t put added  emphasis on them becaue it’s a must-win week. 

Keep doing what has been working for four months, and let us help you with those tough decdions. We’re all in this together. 

Play an IDP League

Matt Schauf

Fantasy football is awesome … and pretty unfair a lot of the time.

Have you had the joy of carrying the league’s No. 1 team into the playoffs, only to lose in the first round and get nothing out of it?

Or maybe you’re still smoldering over the year(s?) you led your league in points but failed to even make the playoffs because of your unlucky record.

That’ll always be part of this game. But you can mitigate that effect by playing with IDPs.

Mo’ Starters, Less Problems

I’m using the IDP format as somewhat of a placeholder, a representative example -- but it’s also the best example of this method.

The more players you start every week, the more the luck effect gets spread out and diluted. You can accomplish that by adding more offensive players instead of defenders, but at some point there your whole league starts reaching for, say, fringe receivers and inviting the weekly fortune of who happens to score a TD.

The IDP format presents a whole cadre of new starting options, actual full-timers compiling stats in normal ways. And the defensive side of the ball holds even more options than the offense.

Eleven is Greater Than Six

On offense, five dudes have to block on essentially every play. That leaves -- at most -- six offensive players capable of scoring any points on that play. And nearly every instance finds those points confined to a player or two.

On defense, all 11 players begin the play capable of compiling some stat. And plenty of those plays wind up with points for multiple players.

Two pass rushers could split a sack. There are assisted tackles. And if you really want to get into it, you could have one guy generate a pressure, another make a tackle and force a fumble, and yet another guy recover it.

Why Do You Want More Scorers?

Have you ever given someone a hard time for playing in an eight-team league? Why? Because there are plenty of players to go around and fill out every roster, with more left over on waivers.

That doesn’t make this a bad format, of course. It’s just easier, and more luck driven because filling out your roster and weekly lineup requires less skill.

Well here’s the corollary of that: The more positions you have to fill each week, the more skill involved and the less left to luck.

Pair your offensive lineup with a full lineup of defenders, and you’re much better prepared to absorb that Kyle Pitts explosion or make up for Chargers WRs going missing.

And if your reason for not adding IDPs to your existing league is that none of you has ever played the format before? All the better.

Starting everyone at the same level will likely reward those managers who put the most into figuring out the new angle.

So lobby your existing league to add IDPs for 2026. And if that fails, find an IDP league to join.

Trade for 2027 Picks In Dynasty

Shane Hallam

Readers will get sick of me saying it (and I know the staff already is). But the 2027 NFL Draft class is shaping up to be worlds better for fantasy football than the 2026 class. That applies to Superflex leagues too.

2026 still has some strengths (as I outlined in our 2026 rookie rankings, which will be updated next week). There will be a first-round RB in Jeremiyah Love and a few WRs with WR1 potential (Jordan Tyson, Makai Lemon, and Carnell Tate). Add a Heisman trophy-winning QB (Fernando Mendoza) and athletic TE (Kenyon Sadiq) to the mix, and the top half of the first round looks very good.

But after that, it falls apart very quickly.

Compare that to 2027, which already boasts a generational WR in Jeremiah Smith (and I don’t use the “generational” label lightly). Plus a handful of other high-end WRs like Ryan Williams and Bryant Wesco.

The RB class has emerged as a strength with SEC RBs like Ahmad Hardy and Jadan Baugh breaking out this past season. And none of this takes into account players returning to school instead of opting for the 2026 class.

The QB group has tons of potential with Arch Manning, LaNorris Sellers and maybe more staying an extra year. Plus Julian Sayin will be the early favorite for the #1 overall pick.

There will be plenty of 2026 hype when the time comes. It’s hard to convince yourself a whole class is subpar, but the 2027 class could truly change the face of dynasty and skill positions in the NFL. If you start moving players for picks this offseason, take a chance on 2027 picks before getting convinced the 2026 class is deeper than it actually is.

Next Up

Don’t Trust The Box Score: Don’t Be Fooled By Kyle Pitts Again

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Shane Hallam, Writer

Shane has over 20 years of experience creating content and playing every fantasy football format, including redraft, dynasty, devy, C2C, IDP, CFF, and more. He is a multi-year winner of $500 dynasty leagues on the FFPC and a King's Classic Champion. Shane utilizes deep film and scheme study to enhance his fantasy performance. He led the industry in 2024 preseason Kicker Rankings and ranked second in preseason QB Rankings. He also ranked eighth in preseason IDP rankings.