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Many fantasy football championships ended in confusion after the Bills/Bengals game on Monday night was canceled due to Damar Hamlin’s awful health event. Fantasy leagues that utilize a Week 18 championship will avoid that headache and have a chance to finish the season on a less controversial note.
Unfortunately, a Week 18 championship presents different challenges. Plenty of teams around the NFL decide to rest starters either to protect them for the playoffs or secure better draft positions in the spring. Fantasy managers are stuck trolling the waiver wire to find options to potentially replace the top players that got them to the final game of the fantasy season.
One player that potentially falls in that designation is Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner. Is James Conner playing in Week 18? Should I pick up Keontay Ingram or Corey Clement for fantasy football? Find your answer below.
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Is James Conner playing in Week 18?
James Conner continued with his typical workload and production in Week 17, helping fantasy managers get to the fantasy championship. Conner totaled 16 carries for 79 yards and caught all three of his targets for 31 yards. It was the seventh straight game where Conner racked up at least 14 carries and three targets.
Unfortunately, Conner suffered a shin injury during that game. Since the Arizona Cardinals are definitively eliminated from the NFL playoffs, that put him at serious risk to miss Week 18. Unfortunately, fantasy managers saw their worst-case scenario play out on Friday.
Fantasy managers relying on Conner in the championship will now need to pivot.
Should I Pick Up Keaontay Ingram or Corey Clement for Fantasy Football?
The lack of James Conner means that rookie Keaontay Ingram and veteran Corey Clement will be in line for bigger workloads during Week 18’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco finds itself in a weird place in football heading into the final week of the season.
Heading into the week, San Francisco still has a chance to get the top seed in the NFC, but they can’t finish worse than third in the playoff picture. However, the 49ers need the Eagles to lose against a team that could rest starters (the New York Giants) since they are locked into the sixth seed.
The Eagles will likely win that game, meaning the 49ers could be incentive to rest their starters once they know their playoff fate. That adds further complexity to fantasy managers trying to decide whether to snag Ingram or Clement off the waiver wire.
Managers that want to take that chance (or just handcuff James Conner to make a gameday decision) should probably focus on Ingram. Ingram had his biggest role in a big loss to the 49ers in Week 12, carrying the ball five times for 19 yards in the game. Arizona will likely want to see what the rookie can do in a bigger role before the offseason, giving him a chance to shine. He’s worth an add, but may not be worth starting depending on the result of the Eagles game earlier in the day.
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