It’s crunch time in the fantasy football season. The playoffs are here, and the stakes are higher than ever. If you were one of the lucky few to earn a first-round bye, sit back and enjoy Week 14 stress-free. For everyone else, there’s work to do.
Fantasy football start/sit advice, Week 14: Quarterback
The fantasy playoffs are here, and the start/sit decisions get ever more crucial. Here are three recommended QBs and three to stay away from this week.
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With the bye weeks over, owners should be rolling with the top starters who got them this far in the first place. However, some people still have tough decisions to make about which players they should trust in their lineup and who will push them to the next round.
With that in mind, here are some recommended starting options at quarterback, along with some players you should avoid.
Start
Jameis Winston, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (vs. New Orleans Saints)
The Bucs are firmly in the playoff race, and although Winston has been better in real life than in fantasy football, he has a great matchup with the Saints defense, which is tied for 30th in passing yards allowed per game. The Bucs play the Saints twice in the next three weeks, so Winston will be a popular streaming option during the fantasy playoffs.
Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers (@ Carolina Panthers)
Rivers has been hard to trust with all the turnovers he’s been racking up. He has seven interceptions to eight touchdowns in his past three games. His fourth-quarter meltdowns have torpedoed the Chargers’ playoff hopes. Having said all that, Rivers should be in the QB1 mix against a brutal Panthers defense that’s missing Luke Kuechly once again.
Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers (vs. New York Jets)
OK, maybe we should’ve checked the weather forecast before putting Kaepernick in our lineups last week. He was a horror show in snowy conditions at Soldier Field, completing just 1 of 5 passes against a middling Chicago Bears defense before getting yanked for Blaine Gabbert in the third quarter. It was an epic dud that likely cost fantasy owners games, but there’s little reason to believe he’ll repeat that performance. Although Kap’s fantasy risk is now well established, he’s in a perfect bounce-back spot against the Jets’ bad pass defense. As an added bonus, the weather in Santa Clara should be just fine.
Sit
Sam Bradford, Minnesota Vikings (@ Jacksonville Jaguars)
Although the Vikings offense is hard to watch, Bradford has been a useful QB2 this year by avoiding turnovers and throwing the ball a bunch, with the run game doing nothing. He has a safe floor but almost no ceiling to speak of. Bradford could be in for a down game against the Jags’ second-ranked pass defense.
Ryan Tannehill, Miami Dolphins (vs. Arizona Cardinals)
Tannehill ran into the Baltimore Ravens’ buzzsaw of a defense, and the results were predictable: 226 yards, three interceptions, 5.7 yards per attempt. It was one of his worst games of the season, and he won’t have an easy shot at rebounding this week. The Cardinals sport the league’s third-ranked pass defense and should continue playing at a high level even without Tyrann Mathieu this week. Tannehill is a hard sell in 12-team leagues.
Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles (vs. Washington)
The good news is that last week Wentz reached 300 yards for the first time since Week 9. The bad news? He got those yards on a ludicrous 60 passing attempts, averaging a pitiful 5.1 yards per throw. He also threw three interceptions. The 5-7 Eagles certainly look as though they’re packing it in for the year, and Wentz shouldn’t even be on your roster right now. His fantasy moment came and went a long time ago.
