Who Should I Start? Amon-Ra St. Brown or Jaleel McLaughlin

Monday, January 6, 12:59 AM

Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown caught six of his seven targets for 77 yards during Sunday's Week 18 win over the Minnesota Vikings. St. Brown had been riding a three-game touchdown streak, so fantasy managers will be understandably disappointed he didn't find the end zone on Sunday night despite leading the Lions in receiving yards. He finished the regular season as the overall WR3 in PPR leagues, and he was just 1.3 points behind the No. 2 wide receiver, Justin Jefferson. All in all, it was an impressive year for the 25-year-old, who totaled double-digit touchdowns for the second year in a row and set a career-high for number of visits to the end zone. Even with the Lions' offense placing attention on Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs, and David Montgomery, fantasy managers were able to enjoy the fact that St. Brown carved out an enormous role for himself and delivered a terrific season once again, playing in all 17 games. He should be a mid-first-round pick in 2025 fantasy drafts, and managers could absolutely justify making him the second wide receiver off the board after Ja'Marr Chase.

Monday, January 13, 10:50 AM

Denver Broncos running back Jaleel McLaughlin was a complete non-factor in the team's 31-7 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday on wild-card weekend. Like most of the season, Denver's backfield was stuck in the mud and couldn't get anything going to control the game, with rookie quarterback Bo Nix leading the team with 43 rushing yards on four carries. McLaughlin, who had been the leader of a committee backfield late in the season, had only two rushing attempts for minus-two yards while catching his only target for no gain. It was a dismal end to the 24-year-old's second season in the NFL. He finished with 113 carries for 496 yards (4.4 yards per carry) and only one rushing touchdown in 16 regular-season games while adding 24 catches for 76 yards and two more TDs through the air. Denver will surely look to upgrade their backfield in the offseason to give more help to Nix in 2025.