Justin Jefferson goes down... again 😑

We start off our Monday morning wishing you good luck and good fortune in pursuing the miracles you need from tonight’s games to get into the fantasy playoffs.

What’s in store:

• The Texans are absolutely going through it with injuries 😬. One week after seeing Tank Dell go down, Nico Collins and C.J. Stroud are in jeopardy of missing Week 15.

• Justin Jefferson pulls a Devon Achane. We’ll see if he’s able to make a quick turnaround like Achane did.

• What’s going on with Zack Moss? Answers to that question and a few more in Faraz’s top takeaways from Week 14.

• Drake London is an outlier for the wrong reasons in Week 1. See what’s got the fantasy community infuriated with him.

• Texans rookie QB C.J. Stroud exits game Sunday vs. Jets with potential concussion, as does WR Nico Collins (calf)

  • The hits just keep on coming for the Texans offense. After losing Tank Dell last week for the season to a broken fibula, Nico Collins went down after reeling in just one catch on the day and left fantasy managers hanging in arguably the most important week of the fantasy season. C.J. Stroud would exit the game later with a suspected concussion in the blowout loss to the Jets, the rotten cherry on top of what was just an awful day all around for the Texans and fantasy managers alike. The primary concern is with C.J. Stroud, whose status will have to be monitored all week heading into their Week 15 game against the Titans. If Stroud is back, fantasy managers can rest assured that at least one Texans WR will be made fantasy relevant in a good matchup against Tennessee – whether or not one of those wide receivers are Nico Collins is secondary. If Stroud would miss, though, it would be difficult to trust any Texans pass catcher not named Nico Collins, and that’s if Collins even plays. It’s a fluid situation as of right now, but fantasy managers should pay close attention to the statuses of both Collins and Stroud closely.

• Vikings WR Justin Jefferson quickly exits first game back from IR vs Raiders with chest injury

  • It was very Devon Achane-esque, as Jefferson left the game in the first quarter of his first game back from IR. The injury appears to be one to his ribs that required him to be transported to the hospital after leaving the game, and his status for Week 15 is certainly in question. Regardless of whether or not he returns next week, the offense he’ll rejoin is a shell of the one Jefferson was thriving in early in the season with Josh Dobbs’ quarterback playing coming all the way back down to Earth – to the point where he was benched in favor of Nick Mullens towards the end of the game. At this point, it’s unlikely any of the quarterbacks on Minnesota’s roster will provide a spark to get the offense rolling strong enough to make Hockenson, Jefferson, and Addison all relevant - let alone any individual one of them - so fantasy managers should temper expectations regardless with all of the Vikings offensive weapons the rest of the way.

• Chargers QB Justin Herbert exits game early vs Broncos with finger injury, doesn’t return

  • The injuries to quarterbacks continue to pile up with Herbert suffering a fractured right index finger in the Chargers’ uninspiring Week 14 loss to the Broncos. The Chargers have now scored 10 or fewer points in each of the past three weeks, and the offense doesn’t appear to be in any better hands with QB Easton Stick replacing Herbert for the time being. No timetable has been placed on Herbert’s return as of the writing of this newsletter, but fantasy managers should be prepared to be without the strong-armed quarterback as they make their preparations heading into the fantasy playoffs. Despite the change at quarterback, fantasy managers should continue to fire up Keenan Allen as long as he has two legs and two hands and plays football games each weekend.

The Colts sputter and so does Zack Moss

• If you had Zack Moss, or picked him up after Jonathan Taylor went down, you were hoping that he would really come through for you - and he returned that confidence in him with two very underwhelming fantasy performances. Before you panic, just know that the volume has been there - 22 opportunities on 94% of snaps in Week 13, 21 opportunities on 84% of snaps yesterday… just extremely disappointing efficiency in these two games for Moss. 2.15 yards per carry for him isn’t going to cut it… and while the 8 targets were nice to see, you can’t help but wish it amounted to more production. If you’re in the playoffs, it’s almost like you have to start him next week… this type of utilization can lead to a 20 point performance pretty easily.

• Michael Pittman was able to have a solid game, right on schedule - 8 for 95 on 11 targets - but Josh Downs only had 3 targets in this one. He ended up going 3 for 32 scoreless yards… Gardner Minshew missed him on a wheel route that would’ve been a TD, and he was wide open on that one… but only 3 targets wasn’t anything close to what I expected. He had an amazing matchup, but instead Zack Moss ended up with 8 targets, and the TEs combined for 12 targets. By the way, can someone tell me how 4 different tight ends get targets for a single team, and someone like Josh Downs gets 3? Really iffy performance by Gardner Minshew in this one, but I was just too high on Josh Downs… had him as my WR30 this week.

The Falcons actually used their top weapons?!?

• Drake London showed us exactly what he’s capable of against the Buccaneers: 10 catches for 172 yards. It’s great to see that London is, indeed, capable of this type of performance, but how many people started Drake London this week? He’s been a disappearing act for most of the season, so of course you’re going to have this kind of big game on the bench when people lose faith in him. He has Carolina next week and that’s a tough matchup - he’s probably a WR3, but he’s just tough to trust.

• Also, Kyle Pitts ended up scoring - 3 catches for 57 yards on 6 targets with that TD. And newsflash: his against the Bucs was somewhat meaningful. Why? Because in Week 13, his route participation jumped from a consistent 65% route participation or so to 90%, and he ended up with 8 targets against the Jets, and then this week it was at 91%… so we’re now seeing 2 weeks in a row of intentional increased usage for Pitts. Not the best matchup in the world next week against Carolina, but still startable - and has two solid matchups in Weeks 16 and 17. If you were having TE trouble, Pitts is a lot more startable now than he was a couple of weeks ago.

Veteran WRs Dominate in the Rain in Baltimore

• Remember this guy Cooper Kupp? 8 catches on 10 targets for 115 yards and a TD… he looked eerily similar to the Cooper Kupp that we all know and love. Not really sure what Demarcus Robinson is doing with 10 targets, but I’m gonna carry on assuming that will not continue. But Kupp is heating up at the right time — him and Puka are both getting the target shares and Matthew Stafford is playing very well right now. Look at how he’s looked against two of the best defenses these last two weeks… and now these WRs have Washington next week at home! They’re absolute must starts for that matchup… and Stafford is 100% in play as well. He’s had three straight big fantasy days and he’s thrown 10 TDs over these last three games.

• Zay Flowers and OBJ ended up leading the Ravens with 10 targets apiece, and Isaiah Likely also got it done - 5 for 83 with a TD. But OBJ had that long 46 yard TD and finished with 97 yards and a TD on the day. I mentioned last week that his target share has been creeping up - 23% in this game, but I think the biggest development was his route participation has finally gone up to 60%. According to FantasyLife.com’s free utilization report, it’s the highest it’s been since Week 9, and I think that makes him a little more trustable moving forward. I liked him this week as a high-end flex play, but he just might enter the WR3 conversation in a good matchup against the Jaguars next week. We know that Lamar loves targeting OBJ deep, and coming into Week 14, the Jaguars are allowing the 3rd-highest rate of 40+ yard receiving plays. He’s in heavy consideration for some upside in my lineup in Week 15.

Jalen Hurts is one of the foremost elite players that fantasy football has to offer, and stopping him from dominating on a weekly basis has been near impossible since he took control of the Eagles’ offense back in 2021. However, for the first time this season and just the third time in his career, Hurts failed to eclipse double digit fantasy points in the Eagles’ Week 14 demolition at the hand of the Cowboys - making the wrong kind of history by his own standards last night.

Coming into the game against the Cowboys, Hurts had scored at least one touchdown in every game this season and posted double-digit fantasy points in each game he played in, as well. That streak came to an end on Sunday night, with Hurts throwing for just 197 scoreless yards and adding another 30 on the ground, plus a fumble early in the first quarter. The game also marks just Hurts’ second finish outside the weekly top 12 in 2023.

Dominance, of course, is a double-edged sword – the fact that this was Hurts’ first time scoring fewer than 10 fantasy points this season says more about how good he’s been than how much he struggled last night. Since 2021, Hurts has scored a touchdown in all but three regular season games, and has scored 20+ fantasy points in 32 of 42 games. Even with the Eagles’ struggles as of late on the offensive side of the ball, fantasy managers should have no trouble slotting Hurts right back into their lineups this week against the Seahawks.