Jordan Love or Geno Smith, Start 'Em Sit 'Em: Fantasy outlooks for QBs in Week 12

This week, there are a lot of potential streaming options for quarterbacks in fantasy football, with Geno Smith and Jordan Love among them. With those two players, you have the chance to pick the right one and perhaps propel yourself to victory. They're both Thanksgiving starters, but which one is the better choice?

Should you start Geno Smith?

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Is Jordan Love a good fantasy option?

Jordan Love has been a decent fantasy quarterback this year, averaging 17 points per game in standard scoring. He gets to face a really good team in the Detroit Lions. The good news is, their defense struggles in the air.

They have one of the league's best run defenses, and the Green Bay Packers are to be without Aaron Jones and Emmanuel Wilson this week. That will force them to throw, which could be a smart gameplan anyway.

Love hasn't been a great player this year and he's prone to mistakes. Being forced to pass may allow the Lions to sit back and wait for those mistakes, but their secondary is porous enough that a good game could certainly happen.

Love doesn't have elite weapons available to him, even more so without his star running back. Jaydeen Reed is banged up but is expected to play. Christian Watson is playing, too, and they will need to be at the top of their games to help Love succeed against the vaunted Lions.

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Is Geno Smith a good fantasy option?

Geno Smith has been a pretty good fantasy player this year. He's been a bit up and down, but he's certainly good for taking advantage of good defensive matchups. Unfortunately, that's not at all what he has this week.

He gets to face the San Francisco 49ers, the team giving up the third-fewest points to quarterbacks this season. They've made almost every quarterback struggle mightily, and that doesn't bode well for the Seahawks QB.

He's also banged up. The quarterback had to exit last week's loss to the Los Angeles Rams with an elbow injury. It's expected that he will play, but the short week almost guarantees that he will not be 100%.

The 49ers defense isn't to be trifled with. While Smith is a good player, he will also be without star running back Kenneth Walker. That may make the offense one-dimensional, which won't help Smith's cause.

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Jordan Love vs. Geno Smith: Who should I start?

Our fantasy football start/sit optimizer suggests that Jordan Love is the better pick this week. Based on the above analysis, it's hard to disagree with that idea. Love just has a far better matchup.

Start Jordan Love over Geno Smith this week

It's not to say that Love is a better player than Geno Smith, because that might not be the case. It's the simple fact that the 49ers defense is ferocious against the pass and will likely shut anyone down. It's hard to trust even Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts against San Francisco, let alone Smith.

The Lions, for all their good qualities, have struggled defending the pass. They're 27th in QB points allowed, so it's a very friendly game that will most likely give a slight edge to Love this week.