Week 15 Monday Night Start Decisions and Rankings for QBs and TEs: Falcons' Kirk Cousins or Bears' Caleb Williams? Vikings' T.J. Hockenson or Raiders' Brock Bowers and More

Week 15 of the NFL regular season wraps up with two Monday night games.

We’re going to switch things up with the final start/sit story, instead splitting things up into two stories to make sure we cover everyone thoroughly. We’ll cover quarterbacks and tight ends in this story - check back for the writeup on running backs and wide receivers.

Looking for start/sit help? Be sure to check out the FantasySP Who Should I Start tool.

Quarterback Options

Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins, Las Vegas’ Aidan O'Connell or Desmond Ridder, Chicago’s Caleb Williams and Minnesota’s Sam Darnold will be leading their teams on Monday.

Darnold has been the best fantasy quarterback in that bunch this season. He has 3,299 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 68.4% passing. Darnold also has 194 rushing yards and a score. He scored 35 fantasy points last week, and has at least 20 in four straight.

Williams now has 2,746 passing yards, 16 touchdowns, five interceptions and a 62.2 completion percentage for the season. He has 399 rushing yards, but no scores. Williams scored 14 fantasy points last week, his lowest mark over the past four games.

Cousins has 3,396 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He has zero rushing yards on the season. Cousins hasn’t scored over 10 fantasy points in any of the past four contests, and has no touchdowns and eight picks over that span.

O’Connell is questionable with a knee injury. He has completed 63.2% of his passes for 899 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. AOC has six rushing yards and a touchdown. He scored 20 fantasy points in week 13 before getting injured in week 14.

Ridder has 239 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions on 63.6% passing this season. He has eight rushing yards as well. Ridder had 101 passing yards while filling in for O’Connell in week 14.

The Raiders’ quarterback will have the best fantasy matchup tonight. Cousins also has an above-average matchup, while Williams has a below-average test and Darnold has the toughest test.

If you still have a starting spot to fill, I’m taking Darnold over everyone else tonight. Even in the tougher matchup, Darnold feels like the safest play.

Cousins and Williams are close in my book. It might be risky given what we’ve seen the past couple weeks, but I like Cousins slightly more because of his more favorable matchup. 

I’d shy away from O’Connell or Riddler, even in the super favorable matchup. AOC is risky because of his injury, while Ridder is super risky because he simply hasn’t shown anything as a starter in his career.

QB Fantasy Rankings

1. Sam Darnold

2. Kirk Cousins

3. Caleb Williams

4. Aidan O’Connell

5. Desmond Ridder

Tight End Options

Minnesota’s T.J. Hockenson, Chicago’s Cole Kmet, Atlanta’s Kyle Pitts and Las Vegas’ Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer are all worth talking about going into the Monday games.

Across six games, Hockenson has 299 yards, but no touchdowns, on 27 receptions and 36 targets. He scored nine fantasy points last week, had six before that and a season-high 18 before that. Hockenson has at least five targets in three straight games.

Kmet has 448 yards and three touchdowns on 42 catches and 50 targets this season. He didn’t score a fantasy point, or even get a target last week. Kmet had six fantasy points the week before that, and then 13 the week before that.

Pitts has 508 yards and three scores on 36 grabs and 60 targets. He’s scored two or less fantasy points in four of the past five games - Pitts scored 10 fantasy points in the other contest. Pitts did get six targets last week, which was a good sign after just five over the previous two games combined.

Bowers has been one of the best fantasy tight ends all season, amassing 933 yards and four scores on 87 receptions and 118 targets. He scored eight fantasy points last week, which is his lowest mark over the past nine contests - Bowers has 11 or more fantasy points in seven of those games.

Mayer has 110 yards on 15 catches and 23 targets for the season, but went for 68 yards on seven grabs and nine targets last week. It was Mayer’s first time over three fantasy points in a game this season.

The best matchup of the night belongs to Pitts. Hockenson and Kmet have pretty average matchups, while Bowers and Mayer have the toughest matchup.

Even in the tough matchup, and regardless of who is at quarterback, I’d trust Bowers. He’s got your fantasy team to this point of the season, and you have to keep trusting him to deliver. 

I’d take Hockenson second - he’s probably the next best bet to finish as the top fantasy TE tonight. The only reason I don’t rank him first is because Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are there to steal targets and production.

Give me Pitts third. It’s hard to trust him after what he’s accomplished of late, but the super favorable matchup gives him the edge over anyone else left.

Kmet gets the edge over Mayer for me. Kmet just hasn’t done anything consistently, and in an average matchup, I don’t trust him. If Mayer had a bit better matchup, he’d probably slip ahead of Kmet.

TE Fantasy Rankings

1. Brock Bowers

2. T.J. Hockenson

3. Kyle Pitts

4. Cole Kmet

5. Michael Mayer