Ladarius Green was supposed to be a fantasy football savior coming into this season. He’d spent years as the heir apparent to Antonio Gates, who just won’t retire. He finally moved on to Pittsburgh, a team that has used Heath Miller to great effect for many seasons. It seemed like a match made in heaven until an ankle injury (or was it a leg injury, or a foot injury, or lingering post-concussive symptoms?) saw him set to miss much of the season. Now the Steelers and the Ravens are set to continue their best-in-football rivalry, and he may miss this week. He has not practiced with post-concussive symptoms, which means that you have a serious decision to make with Ladarius Green if you had planned on starting him. There’s a ready-made backup in Pittsburgh, but with the Ravens on the docket, neither may be a good option.[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]
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Ladarius Green is in the league’s concussion protocol as of writing this. While he may be cleared by the Ravens-Steelers tilt on Sunday, that may be too late a prospect to wait on. With most of the games already done by the time the Steelers kick off on Christmas (most are being played on Saturday, Christmas Eve), if Green is ruled out, you may have no other backup other than Jesse James. Green and James represent a package deal; if you plan on going with Green, you must plan on having James as a backup plan.
The only issue with that plan is that it doesn’t really matter which tight end starts for the Steelers, they shouldn’t be starting for your fantasy team. The Ravens have completely shut down the tight ends they’ve played this year, allowing the seventh-fewest fantasy points per game to the position on the year. While they’ve allowed more than seven fantasy points to three tight ends recently, those are the other three tight ends to do so against them (and one of them was a fluky tight end to Seth DeValve). The Ravens are in the position they are in thanks to their defense, and this is a defense that will continue to light up the opposing offenses until something changes. With the question marks surrounding Green, and the low talent level of Jesse James, this is a situation to avoid this week. The Ravens are the exact opposite of a juicy matchup, and this is a situation to avoid.