Every Saturday morning, I'll take a quick look at all the week's games, offering my own brief take on what I think will happen, as well as touching on significant injury news since our Weekly came out. I'll check in every so often over the course of the day to answer lineup questions, too.
What follows is a brief look at all the games with how I'd react in my own lineups to injury developments or other news. The official rankings are the ones in the Weekly. Those take precedence. But sometimes players are very close, and in those cases I'm glad to offer opinions on how I'd approach those situations. Sometimes I like certain players more or less than Ian, and sometimes I have different risk tolerance with injuries etc.
If your question doesn't get answered, it's possible the rankings are very clear on those choices. I'm not going to disregard all our work to recommend somebody 15 spots below somebody else. Fair? OK, on to the games.
Colts at Bucs: Gotta upgrade the Colts passing game, particularly known targets like Zach Pascal and Jack Doyle. Marlon Mack returns, but the Colts will have problems running on the Bucs, nobody really does. For the Bucs, their running back rotation is unpredictable, no one can promise how Barber and Jones will or won't be used. Quarterback and wideouts look good.
Dolphins at Jets:Neither defense is good. Well the Jets run defense is, and Miami has no running backs. But both passing games have potential. And LeVeon Bell. Illness issue involving Ryan Griffin but I'm assuming he'll be fine. I don't think anyone needs to ask DeVante Parker questions. He's having a great year and facing a weak pass defense. He's a starter. Weather not expected to be an issue, rare for MetLife this time of year.
49ers at Saints:Hurts to bench the 49ers defense, but I am. Hurts to start Matt Breida in what could be a three-back committee, but it's him or Bo Scarbrough for me in a playoff game (yeah), and neither choice feels good. At least I know Breida is talented and might catch a couple of passes. 49ers passing game looks better than ground game, Saints running game looks better. Yes, I'd bench Drew Brees.
Lions at Vikings:We're really, really high on all Vikings. Uncomfortably so, since I'm starting Dan Bailey, Vikings Defense, Kyle Rudolph and Kirk Cousins in a lot of places. Not all on the same teams, but they're all streaming options. For the Lions, they did have some good offensive numbers in the earlier meeting. With Matthew Stafford starting. So I'm benching say Marvin Jones for someone like Zach Pascal. Doesn't feel great, but I think it's the right call, we'll see. No Adam Thielen, one of the world's longest hamstring injuries it seems.
Broncos at Texans:Denver is playing pretty sound defense these days. I'd certainly use Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins, but the list pretty much begins and ends there. Unless I needed to use Carlos Hyde. For Denver, Courtland Sutton is tearing it up these days. Can't sit him down, but that's basically it.
Washington at Packers:Maybe the Packers do something kooky like featuring Aaron Jones in this one. He'd been great all year until for some reason Green Bay decided to use Jamaal Williams and the passing game more. Washington obviously will also be running the ball for as long as they can. If you're using anyone in their passing game, I can't help you. I don't think garbage-time is enough to make them viable. Things are set up nicely for Green Bay to sneak up and steal the top seed in the NFC. If they can in Minnesota in Week 16.
Bengals at Browns:Both this game and Ravens-Bills should feature high winds. More running than passing. I think that was the plan anyway, and if reports of 19 mph winds are correct, it might be inevitable. I don't think you sit down Jarvis Landry, for example, but could be useful for breaking ties between close players. Nick Chubb looks great and I'd probably consider Kareem Hunt too. Joe Mixon, yes.
Ravens at Bills:Another windy day. Bills tough on the pass anyway, and Marquise Brown questionable. So for me it's Mark Andrews and the Baltimore running game (which includes Lamar Jackson). For Buffalo I'm leaning toward Matt Ryan over Josh Allen, back to back in rankings I believe. I don't see how this is anything but a lower-scoring game.
Panthers at Falcons:More offense than defense in this meaningless game between a team that just fired its coach and a team that probably soon will. Devonta Freeman against a struggling run defense looks promising. Julio Jones and Austin Hooper are playing. I'm using them, can't really argue against it. Hooper carried me most of the season, gotta get him on the field in the fantasy playoffs.
Chargers at Jaguars:Another meaningless game. Seems like a lot of them for Week 14, no? Especially with these teams beginning the year looking like playoff contenders. Melvin Gordon, Leonard Fournette, those are the best options here. I guess you need to use main wideouts too, but hard to get excited about any of them.
Titans at Raiders:I've already seen some A.J. Brown related questions on the site. He's ranked in the top 15, so for most leagues starting 2 or even 3 wideouts, he's a starter. Raiders aren't good against the pass and Ryan Tannehill playing well. Trickiest start here is Josh Jacobs. Playing with a fractured shoulder. He's apparently been dealing with it for a few weeks, but this is the first week he's missed a lot of practice time, so presumably it's worse now than it used to be. So he's ranked pretty low. Might be best if he winds up inactive, but if he's active you need to brace for the possibility of limited snaps.
Kansas City at Patriots:Should we be benching Patrick Mahomes for say Kirk Cousins? Rankings say yes, and I respect that New England defense a lot. But...Deshaun Watson had a really nice game against it. Tough one. I'm using Mahomes in the league I have him, but Cousins isn't available. For New England, they should/will probably run more. These recent games have been high scoring, so there's that. James White, Julian Edelman, Sony Michel looks good, other options are sketchier. For Kansas City, it's a week I'll recommend LeSean McCoy, and there haven't been many of those.
Steelers at Cardinals:Cardinals softest against the pass, so I have interest in James Washington, Vance McDonald, and to a lesser extent Devlin Hodges. Steelers defense playing very well, so not a week I'm excited to use any Cardinals, including Kyler Murray and Kenyan Drake. I even dropped Zane Gonzalez to use a different kicker.
Seahawks at Rams:Big game, especially for the Rams. I think the NFL schedule makers have done a great job of giving us important games these late weeks, but I also think we've had too many of the same teams in primetime in a two- to three-week span. The Bears, the Rams and the Seahawks leap to mind. I'm expecting a higher-scoring game and fine with most key starters from this one, with the exception of Jared Goff. But better matchup for passing than rushing.
Giants at Eagles:I can't shake the small thought that Eli Manning rises up off the bench and has a great game for the Giants. Eagles softest against the pass, and Manning seems to have his full complement of receivers back. Only thing working against it is the Eagles have a good pass rush and Manning is probably going to be a tree out there behind a poor line of scrimmage. But I'm fine using receivers from both teams, including Alshon Jeffery from the Eagles. There's a "100 percent" chance of rain according to weather.com, and as we know from our statistics classes, 100 percent is not exactly "chance," it's a certainty. But the teams should be favoring short passes anyway.
Enjoy the games.