The Week 14 matchup between the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs features two teams looking towards next season. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 14: Chargers-Chiefs featuring Philip Rivers, Jeremy Maclin and Spencer Ware
We break down the Week 14 matchup between the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs.
San Diego Chargers
If anybody needs to put together a bounce back performance this week to regain the confidence of his fantasy owners it’s Philip Rivers. Rivers has put together two of the worst fantasy performances of his career in the last three weeks. Unfortunately one of them came against the Kansas City Chiefs. He threw for just 178 yards, no touchdown passes and an interception at home in Week 11. It’s not all Rivers’ fault because the offensive options around him are limited, but a fantasy postseason game against the same team on the road this week may be a cause for concern for any team considering starting Rivers in Week 14.
Perhaps tight end Antonio Gates represents the best bang for your buck if you’re going to start a Chargers player in the lineup this week. He like the quarterback has struggled in two of the last three games. The difference is that Gates played a decent game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 12. Gates only caught four passes for 53 yards, but he did manage to score two touchdowns. He might have a tough time in Kansas City, but at least fantasy owners of Gates can blame it on the quarterback if it happens to be a rough week.
Kansas City Chiefs
After being almost completely silenced for three straight weeks, all of a sudden wide receiver Jeremy Maclin is blazing hot. It couldn’t have happened at a better time for his fantasy owners. Maclin has 18 catches for 255 yards and three touchdowns in the last two weeks combined. The output more than doubles his season total of five touchdowns. To produce those kind of numbers on just 21 targets is fantastic, but the buck may stop this week against the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers are ranked third in the NFL at limiting fantasy points to the wide receiver position. Fantasy owners can’t ignore what Maclin is doing, but repeating his success for a third straight week is highly unlikely.
Running back Spencer Ware could be a star under the radar on the other hand. Ware only carried the ball seven times last week and finished with just 26 rushing yards, but he has now scored five touchdowns over the last five games. As good as San Diego is at limiting wide receivers, the team’s almost equally as bad against running back. Ware has been able to produce no matter how many carries he gets. Hopefully the coaching staff sees that and gets him more work in Week 14.
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