NFL Week 15 Fantasy Football Recap: Baltimore Ravens vs. Cleveland Browns

• J.K. Dobbins dominates on his birthday: Dobbins celebrated his 24th birthday with his second-straight performance with 120+ rushing yards.
• Waiver targets at wide receiver: Two of the biggest waiver wire targets at wide receiver for Week 16 were the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns‘ leading receivers in fantasy points.
• Browns dig deep on the depth chart for WR3: The Browns have suffered multiple injuries in recent weeks, leading to Michael Woods II playing a big role on Cleveland's offense.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.

Baltimore Ravens @ Cleveland Browns

• Donovan Peoples-Jones: 4 receptions, 31 yards, 1 touchdown
• J.K. Dobbins: 13 carries, 125 yards, 1 reception, 3 receiving yards

Ravens backfield continues to evolve: J.K. Dobbins was back for his second game since his return, and the Ravens made some adjustments to their running back usage.

• Kenyan Drake was a healthy inactive for the first time since early October. He was barely used last week, as Baltimore seemed happy to just use three backs.
• The Ravens used all four of their running backs on passing downs last week. Justice Hill seemed to return to his role as the Ravens’ passing-down back. which is a role Hill has maintained most of the season. Baltimore rarely passes to its running backs, so this doesn’t matter too much for fantasy purposes, but it does hurt Dobbins’ ceiling a little bit.
• Both Dobbins and Gus Edwards can provide fantasy value over the next two weeks. They both played well Saturday given their opportunities, and the game scripts over the next two weeks should be much better if Lamar Jackson is ready to return.

Add Demarcus Robinson: He remains the Ravens' top wide receiver, leading the wide receivers in targets (six), receptions (six) and yards (29)

• This was his third-straight game with at least five receptions.
• His stat line isn’t great, but it should be better assuming Jackson is ready to play by next week.
• Baltimore plays the Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers over the next two weeks. They rank sixth and fifth, respectively, at allowing fantasy points to wide receivers.
• He has a high floor due to his recent targets and opponents. He also had a nine-catch, 128-yard performance within the last month, so he also has a proven decent ceiling.

Add Donovan Peoples-Jones: He caught the game's only touchdown and has been Cleveland's favorite target the last two weeks.

• He is coming off a game where he caught eight passes for 114 yards.
• The Browns rotated him out for one drive Saturday, but outside of that, he rarely left the field. 
• He ranked top 20 in routes run this season coming into Week 15, which is impressive considering how much the Browns run the ball.
• His touchdown against the Ravens was his second of the season.
• Cleveland has average matchups over the next two weeks.

The Browns without David Bell: He missed this game due to thumb and toe injuries that kept him out of practice all week.

• The third-round rookie has served as the Browns' third wide receiver for most of the season.
• Anthony Schwartz has been the backup slot receiver this season, but he landed on injured reserve over a week ago.
• Sixth-round rookie Michael Woods II took over as the Browns' third receiver. He had played between five-to-20 snaps per game in most games over the last two months. This was by far his most snaps in a game.
• Cleveland didn’t have a clear slot receiver, so all three players at the top of the depth chart took double-digit snaps in the slot.
• Woods caught one pass for four yards, which mostly led to a higher target share by the other starters.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.