Fantasy football projections, Week 14: Saints-Buccaneers featuring Drew Brees, Brandin Cooks, Mike Evans, more

The Week 14 matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a pivotal divisional matchup with playoff implications. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

After scorching the Los Angeles Rams for five touchdowns in Week 12, quarterback Drew Brees had arguably his worst fantasy day of the season and a loss to the Detroit Lions last week. While he did it complete 31 passes for 326 yards, Brees failed to throw a touchdown in the game and instead tossed three interceptions. Until the losing effort in Detroit, Brees had been building on his own NFL record for consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass. Hopefully his awful performance doesn’t extend to the fantasy postseason. There’s a good chance he bounces back against the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay has allowed 22 touchdown passes this season and Brees leads the NFL in that category. Expect a huge performance from him in Week 14.

If he indeed gets back to his old ways, it should benefit wide receiver Brandin Cooks. Cooks complained earlier this season about the way he is being used in the offense. Such is life on a ball club that employs quite a socialist strategy when it comes to spreading the ball around. As much is the Buccaneers have given up their fair of touchdowns this season, they have not allowed a 100-yard receiving game since Week 9. The good news for Cooks is that he’s caught at least seven passes in the contest five times this year. He should perform well in PPR formats this week, though he has admittedly fallen behind Michael Thomas in the pecking order this season.

Only one team has allowed more net passing yards this season than the New Orleans Saints. That bodes well for fantasy owners of quarterback Jameis Winston. Winston only threw one touchdown pass in the team’s Week 13 victory over the San Diego Chargers. He still did finished with 20 completions and 280 passing yards and more importantly put the Buccaneers in position to win their division should they play well down the stretch. Winston is a right on the cusp of becoming a top tier fantasy quarterback. While he hasn’t proven it yet, a match up against the defensively challenged Saints should bring out the best in him in Week 14.

Seeing Winston perform at his best will obviously benefit wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans can put points on the board even when the rest of the team isn’t playing well, including the quarterback. Evans had a really quiet day against the Chargers last week catching just three passes for 38 yards. He did somewhat salvage his fantasy day by catching a two-point conversion. He’s on pace to finish the 2016 season with career highs and catches, yards and touchdowns. With two games left against the Saints, Evans should have no problem reaching those new heights during the fantasy postseason. He’ll beat his projections on Sunday.