Week 15 Fantasy Rankings: Projecting the Top Fantasy Performances

If you're still alive in your fantasy football league, that likely means you've a solid roster that includes at least one of the more studly players of the season.

If that's the case then you're in luck this week, as some of the league's top performers have found themselves faced with advantageous matchups that are good not just for their respective teams but for your fantasy roster as well.

In the following four slides, I detail four players who have been performing well all season but are primed for some serious success in Week 15.

TE Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots (at Denver Broncos)

If you are fortunate enough to have New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski on your fantasy roster then you not only got a steal in the draft (or even perhaps the waiver wire), but you likely have notched more than a few wins thanks to his amazing performance this year.

With 71 catches for 1,088 yards and 15 touchdowns and one running score, he's outperformed—from a fantasy perspective—every wide receiver and all but four running backs this year.

He's had the best season a tight end has ever had in NFL history, and he's the single most important weapon on a Patriots offense riddled with them.

This week, Gronkowski will face the Denver Broncos' ever-stiffening defense.

Though they've been improving every week, they're still just No. 18 overall, rank 23rd against the pass and near the bottom of the pack when it comes to defending the tight end.

But defending a tight end and defending Gronkowski are two different concepts, as has been proven all season long. There's little chance the Broncos have anyone capable of consistently stopping Gronkowski this week.

As long as quarterback Tom Brady can evade pressure, he'll be certain to target Gronkowski at least eight times.

I wouldn't be surprised if he puts up nearly 100 yards and scores two touchdowns this week.

RB Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans (at Indianapolis Colts)

Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson got off to a slow start this season, drawing the ire of his fantasy owners who drafted him high in hopes that he'd have a repeat of his successful 2009 and 2010 years.

As the season wore on, however, Johnson finally fell back into form.

Though he's no CJ2K this year, he is on pace to rush for more than 1,000 yards, and this week's matchup against the Indianapolis Colts and their dead-last defense should significantly help the cause.

So far this year, Johnson has rushed 217 times for 875 yards and four touchdowns and has caught 45 passes for 315 yards.

At the same time, the Colts are giving up more than 140 yards on the ground per game, setting Johnson up nicely to notch his sixth game with 100 or more all-purpose yards.

WR A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals (at St. Louis Rams)

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green is having an excellent rookie season, catching 55 passes for 891 yards and seven touchdowns and marking six games with 80 or more receiving yards thus far this season.

Green has a great chance to add another game to that total this week when his team travels to St. Louis to take on the Rams and their injury-decimated secondary.

With five defensive backs on injured reserve, the team's pass defense is running on fumes and should have plenty of trouble covering a wideout as dynamic as Green.

While it's true that the St. Louis defense is far stronger at defending the pass than the run, it's more about their ability to put pressure on the quarterback than properly covering receivers.

As long as Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton receives adequate protection, there will be little stopping Green this week. Look for 85-100 yards from the rookie and a touchdown.

QB Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers (at Kansas City Chiefs)

Though the Kansas City Chiefs defense is giving up just 209.3 passing yards per game, it's what opponents have been doing with those yards that's the most telling.

In their last six games, the Chiefs have been outscored 142 to 37 and have notched just a single win over the troubled Chicago Bears.

In the same span, the Green Bay Packers have scored 241 points, most of which came via the arm of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers, one of three quarterbacks on pace to break Dan Marino's single-season passing record, has completed 69.6 of his passes for 4,125 yards, 39 touchdowns and six interceptions, and he's also scored two rushing touchdowns.

Rodgers is averaging 317 passing yards per game this season, and he's sure to meet or exceed that mark this week against a Chiefs team in transition.

Three touchdowns or more should also follow from this Sunday's effort.