Fantasy football advice, Week 14: Who to start/sit for Chicago Bears vs. Detroit Lions

The playoffs continue on Sunday for many fantasy leagues, and those owners don’t have any more room for error. Luckily, fantasy owners will have more than a few options to choose from in a showdown between two NFC North foes. Let’s take a look:

Matthew Stafford has quietly had an MVP-caliber season, and the opportunity to build his case presents itself against a burnable Bears defense. Though the Bears have the NFL’s No. 6 pass defense, a game script at hand with an offense helmed by Matt Barkley bodes well for Stafford and company to get several chances to put up points. Even in matchups that could be better, Stafford remains a QB1. Golden Tate and Theo Riddick can also be penned into lineups, along with Eric Ebron, who presents upside at a shallow tight end position. Before facing the 49ers in the snow, the Bears had allowed touchdowns to tight ends in three consecutive games.

Marvin Jones remains untrustworthy since his strong start to the season, and Anquan Boldin doesn’t present the upside to garner fantasy consideration with zero teams on bye. Dwayne Washington will likely draw early-down work once again, but not enough to warrant a second look from fantasy owners.

Jordan Howard remains the lone bright spot in an offense ravaged by injury and ineffectiveness. It will be no secret to the Lions that the Bears’ game plan begins and ends with Howard, but defenses have known that for the past five weeks. In that span, Howard has at least 99 total yards in each game and remains an RB1 for Week 14.

Barkley, Josh Bellamy and Marquess Wilson are all that remains of the Bears’ passing game, and it’s one that fantasy owners shouldn’t want anything to do with for the first week of the fantasy playoffs.