Who Should I Start? Kirk Cousins or Patrick Mahomes

Thursday, December 11, 11:57 PM

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins completed 30 of his 44 pass attempts for 373 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions during Thursday's Week 15 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He also took one sack and recovered his own fumble. Cousins led five scoring drives on Thursday, including the game-winner with less than two minutes left to play. The veteran quarterback shook off the old narrative that he's incapable of thriving in the primetime slot, and in doing so, he kicked off his candidacy for the top-scoring fantasy quarterback in Week 15. It's unlikely that many managers started Cousins in the first week of the fantasy playoffs, but his big game could be enough to justify deploying him as a fringe top-12 fantasy option heading into a favorable matchup against the Arizona Cardinals next week.

Friday, December 12, 3:54 PM

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is coming off his worst game of the season in last week's 10-20 loss to the Houston Texans. Mahomes completed 14 of 33 pass attempts (42%) for 160 yards and three interceptions. Despite his ineffectiveness through the air, Mahomes was the team's leading rusher with 59 yards on the ground. The Kansas City Chiefs now sit at 6-7 with an 11% chance of making the playoffs, which hinges on them winning out the rest of the season. The Chiefs superstar will have to pull off a miracle to bring the team back from the brink of elimination, and he will have to start with the Los Angeles Chargers this week. The Chargers defense has allowed the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season, which means another difficult matchup for Mahomes this week. Mahomes was also listed on the injury report with a knee injury, but he practiced all week fully and does not have an injury designation for the game. Mahomes is ranked QB10 in our RotoBaller rankings, making him a low-end QB1 in a make-or-break game.