The Week 14 matchup between the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos features two division rivals duking it out in what should be a closer matchup than where used to between the two teams. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 14: Raiders-Broncos featuring Derek Carr, Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas
We break down the Week 14 matchup between the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos.
Oakland Raiders
It’s hard to say what kind of game quarterback Derek Carr is in for as he heads to Denver to take on the Broncos this week. On the one hand, Carr has really put up some impressive fantasy numbers over the last six weeks. On the other he’s up against a Broncos defense that has allowed the fewest number of fantasy points to quarterbacks in the NFL this season. Picking Carr up off the waiver wire and benefiting from his success this year has been quite the ride for fantasy owners, but putting up big numbers in Denver is going to be a big challenge.
The same could be said for wide receiver Amari Cooper. Cooper leads all rookie receivers and receptions and yards. He’s got 62 catches for 920 yards on the season. This week he goes up against a defense that features the likes of Chris Harris and Aqib Talib. He was limited to just four catches for 47 yards when the two teams played earlier this year, so to expect him to do better than that this week may be a bit too optimistic.
Denver Broncos
Head coach Gary Kubiak has already confirmed that Brock Osweiler is going to start under center against the Oakland Raiders. Although he’s gotten praised in the media and by the fans for helping the team to three wins in his three starts, his fantasy numbers have been less than impressive. That makes it hard for fantasy owners to rely on wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders to produce. He did have six catches for 113 yards against the New England Patriots two weeks ago, but last week Sanders was held to just three catches for 19 yards against the San Diego Chargers. Oakland’s defense is mediocre at best, but don’t expect out-of-this-world numbers from Sanders.
Demaryius Thomas isn’t faring any better. Yes he does have touchdowns in two of the last three games, but Denver’s deep threat receiver only caught one of 13 targets two weeks ago. Altogether he’s got 10 catches on 27 targets in the last three weeks combined. The good news is that the Oakland Raiders give up 271 passing yards per game to opposing teams, so Thomas may only need a few catches to make a big impact in Week 14.
