Week 14 Fantasy Football Duds
It’s all fun and games until someone gets eliminated from the playoffs. With any luck, it is still fun and games for you. Meaning that you are wholly unfamiliar with this list of players. For those of us who are less fortunate, the game may be over. These players pooped in their big boy pants right in front of the entire class, on picture day. It was not pretty and now we, as their owners, will have to smell that stink for the entire offseason until our redemption tour starts in 2018.
Quarterbacks
Josh McCown @ DEN
46 passing yards, INT, 7 rushing yards, fumble lost
If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we were all just waiting for the other shoe to drop. McCown had to have a bad game eventually. He had to get injured eventually. Unfortunately, both occurred in the same week; the first week of the playoffs.
Tom Brady @ MIA
233 passing yards, TD, 2 INTs
It looked worse than this. I’m not calling for the demise of Brady just yet, but he underthrew a few deep shots that could’ve been big completions.
Marcus Mariota @ AZ
159 receiving yards, 2 INTs, 11 rushing yards
Mariota hasn’t been himself all season. This game was especially uncharacteristic as he turned the ball over and wasn’t as effective with his legs.
Matt Ryan vs NO
221 passing yards, TD, 3 INTs
The interceptions really did Ryan in this week. You can survive with a mediocre to poor day from a QB. That would’ve been Ryan, if not for the 3 INTs. He really crapped your team.
Running Backs
DeMarco Murray @ AZ
11 carries, 34 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 13 receiving yards
Murray is cooked. If you survived this poor performance you need to find help elsewhere at the RB position for Week 15.
Latavius Murray @ CAR
9 carries, 14 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 6 receiving yards
The Vikings could not get the ground game going against Carolina’s front seven. Murray is a good runner, but he isn’t the type of player that will make something out of nothing. Instead, he just gives you nothing.
Jerick McKinnon @ CAR
7 carries, 46 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 9 receiving yards
As the superior athlete of the two, McKinnon fared a little better than Murray, but not much.
Christian McCaffrey vs MIN
8 carries, 35 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 18 receiving yards
McCaffrey looked pretty good as a runner in this game, just not as good as Jonathan Stewart. Also, his 4 targets in the passing game are a disappointment. That’s been where he has had the most success this season.
Lamar Miller vs SF
17 carries, 53 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 7 receiving yards
The Niners seemed content to let the platoon of Savage and Yates try to beat them. They sure weren’t going to let Miller do it.
Tevin Coleman vs NO
9 carries, 32 rushing yards
Unfortunately, I think Coleman is just a very high-end handcuff with Freeman healthy.
Orleans Darkwa vs DAL
10 carries, 29 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 15 receiving yards
I’m concerned. Darkwa was out-touched by Wayne Gallman 19 to 12. Gallman also out-gained Darkwa by 55 yards.
Wide Receivers
Mike Evans vs DET
2 receptions, 25 receiving yards, 5 targets
I’m not a defensive coordinator or playcalling expert, but I don’t need to be one to come up with the radical idea of trying to gameplan to try to take away Tampa Bay’s best playmaker. That’s exactly what defenses have been doing.
Brandin Cooks @ MIA
1 reception, 38 receiving yards, 7 targets
From Week 10 to Week 12, Cooks had 18 receptions for 306 yards and 2 TDs. Since then, 3 receptions, 55 receiving yards.
Robby Anderson @ DEN
3 receptions, 27 receiving yards, 6 targets
Anderson had been red hot, but he popped up on the injury report Thursday with a hamstring injury. That, combined with a trip to Denver and an injured QB, led to disaster.
Jermaine Kearse @ DEN
1 reception, 4 receiving yards, 6 targets
The entire Jets offense was a lost cause.
Sterling Shepard vs DAL
2 receptions, 16 receiving yards, 3 targets, -9 rushing yards
Eli Manning‘s return was supposed to be good for Shepard. It wasn’t.
Emmanuel Sanders vs NYJ
1 reception, 16 receiving yards, 4 targets
The clock is ticking for the Denver Broncos. They are wasting a lot of talent with their bad QB play.
Kenny Stills vs NE
2 receptions, 18 receiving yards, 4 targets
Jay Cutler just doesn’t look for Stills the same way Matt Moore does. It is time to move on if your time hasn’t run out already.
T.Y. Hilton @ BUF
2 receptions, 20 receiving yards, 4 targets
T.Y. Hilton is the fantasy football equivalent of a Hail Mary this season. If it connects, children will be singing songs about you for years to come. When it doesn’t… well… the kids just point and laugh.
Tight Ends
Jimmy Graham @ JAX
Nothing, 2 targets
It’s really miraculous that Wilson, Baldwin, Lockett, and Richardson salvaged their fantasy days as late in this contest as they did. Jimmy Graham wasn’t so lucky.
Cameron Brate vs DET
1 reception, 11 receiving yards, 1 target
I’m telling you guys, Brate is the perfect example of a “barfy TE”.
Austin Seferian-Jenkins @ DEN
1 reception, no yards, 2 targets
I’m starting to wonder if it’s a conditioning issue for ASJ. He has faded significantly over the back half of the season. Though as mentioned before, no one on the Jets had a good day this week.
Stephen Anderson vs SF
2 receptions, 16 receiving yards, 2 targets
The Stephen Anderson hype was a runaway train last week. It derailed in epic fashion.
Dishonorable Mentions
Andy Dalton vs CHI
141 passing yards, TD, INT
Alex Smith vs OAK
268 passing yards, INT, 24 rushing yards
Samaje Perine @ LAC
17 carries, 45 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 17 receiving yards
Matt Forte @ DEN
6 carries, 13 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 21 receiving yards
LeGarrette Blount @ LAR
7 carries, 12 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 11 receiving yards
Jamison Crowder @ LAC
3 receptions, 34 receiving yards, 6 targets
Jordy Nelson @ CLE
4 receptions, 33 receiving yards, 5 targets
Charles Clay vs IND
2 receptions, 11 receiving yards, 5 targets
Ricky Seals-Jones vs TEN
1 reception, 20 receiving yards, 3 targets