Who Should I Start? David Montgomery or Tony Pollard

Thursday, December 25, 3:30 PM

Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery (illness) will be active for Thursday's road bout with the Minnesota Vikings on Christmas Day, per the team. The veteran appeared on Detroit's practice report on Tuesday, missing the session due to illness. After logging a limited practice on Wednesday, it would seem Montgomery will be able to play anyway, and figures to assume his typical allotment of snaps behind teammate Jahmyr Gibbs as the Lions attempt to keep their playoff hopes alive. Notably, the seventh-year pro has seen his snap count steadily dwindle since Week 11, dropping under 20 plays in each of his last three appearances, compared with just once over the season's first 13 weeks. Correlatively, he'll offer little more than flex appeal with Gibbs dominating time and touches in the backfield.

Friday, December 26, 9:50 AM

Tennessee Titans running back Tony Pollard has been on a heater the last three games, scoring three touchdowns, rushing for 367 yards (6.12 YPC), and averaging 18.6 fantasy points per game during this stretch. It's by far the best stretch of the season for him, as in the previous 13 weeks, he had only rushed for 582 yards (3.88 YPC) and two touchdowns. Because of the recent surge in production, Pollard has worked his way up the running back ranks to become more of a lower-end RB2 compared to the RB3 rankings, where he has been a majority of the season, considering he is playing about 50 percent of the team's snaps, and splitting work with Tyjae Spears. The young Titans offense as a whole has looked much better the last few weeks, so it should not come as a surprise that Pollard's production has been better of late as well. Week 17 presents a mediocre matchup, as the Saints rank 17th overall in fantasy points allowed to the running back position, keeping Pollard in the low-end RB2 ranks. RotoBaller ranks him as the RB22 for the week.