It’s fantasy football playoff time, which means it’s very crucial now more than ever to start considering streaming some better options for your team that’s on the hunt for a virtual championship. On the flip side, and if you own a non-playoff team, you can still make some nifty moves as well in hopes of spoiling another manager’s title bid, and that should spell for even more thrills for all players involved regardless of your respective standings in the league.
With that out of the way, let’s hear it from a handful of fantasy football gurus below as for who they believe are the most viable waiver-wire targets in Week 14.
Michelle Bruton of Bleacher Report strongly recommends picking up two Baltimore Ravens players that broke out this past Sunday: quarterback Joe Flacco and tight end Dennis Pitta.
While Flacco has put up pretty mundane numbers this season, he did just explode for 381 passing yards and four touchdowns the past weekend against a pretty solid Dolphins defense, and that amounted to a sweet 29-point day in standard leagues. The former Super Bowl MVP even has a rather favorable schedule the rest of the way, so maybe it’s about time to start investing in Flacco again, especially if you’re in a two-QB league.
Meanwhile, Pitta’s had an even longer lull fantasy production-wise than his QB, but then he also suddenly went bonkers in Week 13 for 90 receiving yards and a pair of trips to the end zone. Bruton stated that the likelihood of Pitta being Flacco’s top red-zone target is back in full swing, so now’s the opportune time to snag Pitta for the tight end position that’s been nothing but slim pickings throughout this entire season.
CBS Sports
Position
Pick
QB
Joe Flacco
RB
Charles Sims
WR
Malcolm Mitchell
TE
Ladarius Green
Sticking to the topic of tight ends, perhaps CBS Sports‘ Jamey Eisenberg has an even more enticing proposition from that very thin field: Pittsburgh’s Ladarius Green.
At 6’6″, 240 pounds, Green’s presence downfield can definitely be imposing, and Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had only made the most out of his relatively new target these past couple of weeks – just in time for the fantasy playoffs at that. Green scored his first touchdown of the year last week and now has back-to-back outings of no less than 60 receiving yards, which makes him a must-start this Sunday against Buffalo. Even more so when you also consider that the Bills have given up an average of 13.96 yards to tight ends this season, the most in the NFL.
And let’s hope that you’re not too late to the Malcolm Mitchell party just yet, as Eisenberg cannot stress enough that the rookie out of Georgia must be owned immediately. Without Rob Gronkowski in the starting lineup (again with the tight ends!), Mitchell has again picked up the Pats’ offensive slack by finishing with season-highs of 10 targets and eight catches for 82 receiving yards on 67 snaps last Sunday. While the 24-year-old wideout failed to find the end zone in Week 13 unlike his past couple of outings, he has still registered no less than eight fantasy points (in standard-scoring formats) in each of the past three games.
Heavy
Position
Pick 1
Pick 2
Pick 3
QB
Trevor Siemian
RB
Charles Sims
Alfred Morris
Adrian Peterson
WR
Alshon Jeffery
Brandon LaFell
Last but not least, we’d be wise to mull over Tim Keeney of Heavy‘s suggestions on a couple of former fantasy studs that should be available right now in your virtual free-agency pool.
First off, there’s Chicago’s Alshon Jeffery, who had been dropped by a lot of managers in the wake of the news regarding his four-game suspension for his use of PEDs back in Week 10. Although the perennial WR1 option in fantasy has not been great this season, Bears backup quarterback Matt Barkley hasn’t been as horrible as we all thought starting in place of Jay Cutler, either. And while Jeffery’s return is still slated for Week 15, he will be greeted with a superb matchup against Green Bay’s very leaky secondary. As such, nab him from the waiver wire right now for that much-needed upgrade at wide receiver before anybody else does.
Then there’s running back extraordinaire Adrian Peterson, whose return from a torn meniscus might be earlier that what the Vikings initially presumed. However, Keeney also pointed out there’s no guarantee that Peterson will indeed be back in time for the last few weeks of the regular season, so All Day should be only taken if you have room to spare on your bench.
Then again, given how Minnesota is still well-within the playoff picture, the team certainly needs a massive boost for the league’s worst rushing offense. And in the end, there’s really no one better in Minny than AP that can somehow fix their problems on the ground ASAP.
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