5 Fantasy Football Takeaways for Week 14
With the last week of the fantasy football regular season in the books for most, and the playoffs starting for the majority in Week 15, I just want to say that if you’ve been tuning in weekly and taking my advice, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Without further ado, this is the most pivotal week for many managers, so let’s get straight to it.
1. IT’S TIME TO BUY INTO THE TREVOR LAWRENCE AND JAGUARS HYPE
From Weeks 10–14, Trevor Lawrence has been the QB6 in fantasy, and is coming off a finish as the QB1 during Week 14 against the Titans. Lawrence has a tough stretch coming up for the playoffs, with his only easy matchup against Houston, but he could still prove valuable as the Jaguars will likely need to throw the ball a ton against the Cowboys and Jets. As a result of Lawrence’s rise, Zay Jones has entered a weekly WR3 start and Evan Engram has become a TE1, especially after a 39.2 PPR finish. (By the way, just to prove how bad the TE position has been this season, with Engram’s Week 14 finish, he went from the TE15 to TE4.)
2. DON’T BUY INTO THE RAVENS RBS
JK Dobbins comes back from the IR and finishes as the RB10 on the week, but I’m telling you to not buy into him or any of the Ravens RBs. Currently, the Ravens QB is third stringer Anthony Brown, so you may think that in order to win games they’ll have no choice but to run the ball, however, with the Ravens still utilizing a three man backfield, and none of the RBs really doing much in the passing game, there’s not a ton of value for any of them moving forward.
3. IS IT TIME TO PANIC ON SAQUON, COOK, AND CHUBB?
Finishing outside the top 24 RBs this week, is it time to worry about Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook, and Nick Chubb, who were locked in RB1s over the course of the season? The answer is yes, and no. Both Barkley and Cook, despite tough schedules coming up for the fantasy playoffs, still hold high value due to their passing down ability. They continue to dominate the red zone usage as well. However, Chubb needs to be downgraded. He has a rough schedule coming up with the Ravens, Saints, and Commanders, and with Deshaun Watson continuing to perform underwhelmimgly, and the lack of passing down usage, Chubb is more of an RB2 than a RB1 start now.
4. AFC WEST WRS DOMINATE THE WEEK
Out of the top 10 WRs this week, four of them were WRs from the AFC West. Jerry Jeudy had a hat trick touchdown day, and moving forward he’ll be valuable if Courtland Sutton remains out with his hamstring injury. Jeudy is a must start WR2 if Sutton misses. JuJu Smith-Schuster needs to be locked into lineups as a WR2/WR3 as he’s now getting the alpha WR1 treatment from Patrick Mahomes, and the schedule moving forward is one of the easiest for him. Mike Williams and Keenan Allen are both top 15 options weekly and with the Chargers currently right in the midst of the playoff picture, best believe that they’ll be drawing a lot of targets every week.
5. WHAT TO MAKE OF THE DEEBO SAMUEL INJURY
With Deebo Samuel out for multiple weeks after suffering an ankle sprain, first of all, you could probably drop him for someone on the waiver wire, but his injury of course plays an impact as well. Christian McCaffrey is a top 3 RB, and even potentially the RB1 on the week, as he’s going to continue to draw targets and a massive opportunity share, since Samuel won’t be there to take away carries from him now as well. Brandon Aiyuk is a must start WR2, and he was already someone you were starting every week as a WR3/FLEX. He should get peppered with targets. George Kittle for me continues to be a boom or bust TE1 however, since the offense just really doesn’t funnel through him.
