🤪 This Season Is Officially Off The Rails

If it were me, I simply never would have been offsides…

In today’s Fantasy Life Newsletter presented by BetMGM:

I know every NFL season is bizarre and chaotic in its own way, but the 2023 season truly feels off the rails at this point.

When you combine the injuries, playoff plot lines, and subpar QB play, it feels like anything could happen down the home stretch.

If Week 14 was any indication of what’s to come, buckle up…

🤢 One of the worst games ever

We’ve seen historically low totals in a handful of games this year, but it was yesterday’s Vikings/Raiders game that actually delivered a rock-bottom matchup with an abysmal three combined points scored.

And it took 58 minutes just to get those three elusive points.

Surprisingly, the game had a respectable 40-point total, but no one seemed to get the memo. Alexander Mattison was the game’s “top” fantasy performer with 66 rushing yards.

It’s hard to imagine anything saving this toilet bowl, but Justin Jefferson’s early exit after suffering an ”chest internal injury” certainly didn’t help the cause.

🙏 The Bills are still live

After a controversial end to the game that left Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid seething mad (more on that from Kendall in a bit), the Bills moved to 7-6 and kept their playoff hopes alive.

We really need Buffalo to find a way into the dance, because we are a society that deserves not to watch the Steelers on Wildcard weekend:

The Bills will need to win out over the next three weeks to keep their playoff hopes alive. They face the Cowboys, the Chargers, and the Dolphins over that stretch.

🚑️ The injuries don’t stop

It wouldn’t be a weekend in the NFL without another rash of injuries to key fantasy contributors. In addition to Jefferson, here are the other injuries we’ll need to monitor this week:

* CJ Stroud (concussion) & Nico Collins (calf)

* Josh Jacobs (knee)

* Justin Herbert (finger)

* Alexander Mattison (ankle)

* Gardner Minshew (head)

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The Fantasy Life FREE Bet Tracker is already loaded with a handful of plays for Monday Night Football’s TWO games this evening. Looking for a peek behind the curtain? Mark Drumheller has you covered…

Per Drumheller, “There are only four teams that successfully put a lid on Hill to keep him under this number this year (KC, BUF, PHI, NE). The Titans defense ranks 21st in explosive pass plays allowed and 30th in dropback EPA allowed (28th since Week 9).”

Peter is here to share his six big takeaways from Week 14. Take it away, Pete...

💪 Deebo Samuel is an absolute beast

The 49ers fantasy bonanza continued on Sunday with Deebo Samuel going bonkers (7 catches, 149 yards, 2 TDs) for a second straight game.

His unbelievable stretch over the past two weeks—including 5 combined TDs (2 rushing & 3 receiving)—put him in rarefied air. 

As his teammate Brandon Aiyuk said, “That boy cold.”

I don’t know how anyone beats this Niners team when fully healthy.

🍷 Vintage Lamar returns

After a maddening stretch of losing precious fantasy points to Gus Edwards goal line TDs, Lamar Jackson blessed us with an explosive game—316 passing yards, 3 TDs, and 70 yards on the ground.

Jackson was slinging darts around all day, including this go-ahead TD to Zay Flowers deep into the 4th quarter.

I’d be pretty excited to have Lamar for the fantasy playoffs over the next three weeks—@ Jags, @ Niners, and at home vs. the Dolphins. When the Ravens get pushed, Jackson cooks.

😎 The TEs come out of nowhere

If there was a theme to Week 14, it was the revenge of the sleeper TE.

Hunter Henry kicked things off on TNF with 2 TDs, and Evan Engram, David Njoku, and Isaiah Likely kept things rolling yesterday:

Engram took full advantage of the vacated targets left by Christian Kirk and hauled in 11 receptions for 95 yards and 2 TDs and broke his own franchise record for catches in the process.

As for Njoku, he seems to like having Joe Flacco as his QB.

🌉 London bridges (not) falling down

It’s been a rough year for Drake London, but he gave us his best Mike Evans impersonation on Sunday with a gaudy 10 catches for 172 yards and a 2-point conversion.

Unfortunately, he came up just short of a game-winning TD that left him feeling very bummed after the game.

It’s not hard to do the Garrett Wilson-esque hypotheticals with him and wonder what kind of stats he could be producing in a more functional offense.

✈️ The Jets did what?!

Speaking of Wilson, Zach Wilson played one of the best games of his career (low bar, I know) while leading the Jets to an impressive 30-6 win.

In doing so, he was able to do the unthinkable—support solid fantasy days for both Garrett (9-108, 1-3) and Breece Hall (10-40, 8-86-1).

Even better, the two are now feuding over who is the best player on the offense:

👋 Don’t write Cooper Kupp off yet

Fantasy football can be so cruel.

Here are Cooper Kupp’s stat lines heading into Week 14:

Those are bench-worthy numbers, but he said not so fast on Sunday with a solid 8-115-1 line.

I think it’s safe to say Kupp was not 100% through that stretch, but he looked fully back yesterday. Here’s to hoping he can deliver some fantasy championships to those who have been patient.

📺 More injuries, boom games, and duds. Dwain and Ian recap a wild Week 14.

🤷 So much for all of those Zack Moss fantasy points? This is cruel.

🤦 Do you think Denver would like a do-over on this draft pick? Yikes.

💍 Wait, does Tony Romo have inside intel about Swift & Kelce? Hmm.

😱 The Saints don’t like each other. That doesn’t look good.

⚔️ Two games for the price of one? Everything you need for MNF betting and the DFS slate.

🔎 Staying one step ahead. Week 15 early betting lines to target.

🐬 Can anyone stop the Miami offense? Good luck, Tennesse…

🍺 Another epic TD celebration. KEG STAND!

💰 When they score, you score. The best TD bet for Monday Night Football.

🙌 The catch of the week. Courtland Sutton does it again.

We're humans who play fantasy football, so we are prone to overreact. Today, Kendall overreacts to some WRs who will ruin playoff runs…

The playoff picture is coming into view, even after a nutty Week 14 — but some playoff-bound teams are really going to have to step up their games if they want to make it far.

🗑️ Chiefs

Let’s start with the Kansas City Chiefs.

I know, I know this could be a copy-and-paste tweet from mid-June, but here we are again saying that the Chiefs’ wide receiver room is sometimes what hurts them the most in these outings.

Patrick Mahomes put his team in a position to win with a 25-yard pass to Travis Kelce – and then in a wild turn, he laterals the ball to Kadarius Toney who walked into the endzone. Except, OH YEAH, TONEY MESSED IT ALL UP.

The officials called Toney for lining up in the neutral zone and thus brought the play back. And yes, this was the right call.

Mahomes was upset (at the officials) after the play, but honestly, the frustration has to go somewhere when you’re left with this receiving group.

Rashee Rice has stepped up these last few weeks, but Sunday was a mind-blowing mistake. They’re still in good standing for the playoffs with four weeks to go, but now they are only one game up on the Broncos and have lost two straight.

Don’t believe that there’s been a problem with these Chiefs receivers? Let’s listen to Tony Romo…

Entering this game, the Chiefs were averaging 22.9 points, 362.6 yards and 1.7 giveaways per game, which were the worst numbers for Kansas City since Mahomes became the starting quarterback in 2018, according to NFL.com.

Like I said, Rice could become a big part of this team moving forward, but for Toney and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (who has totaled 47 yards in the last nine halves), the Mahomes magic may not be enough to fix this. I hope I am wrong, though.

🗑️ Jaguars

The other team I am nervous about is the Jacksonville Jaguars without Christian Kirk.

This is tough because I know Trevor Lawrence started despite having a high-ankle sprain, but it was obvious they were missing the Lawrence-Kirk connection.

Lawrence had three touchdowns and three interceptions and finished with a 65.2 passer rating. There were obvious miscommunications, which he talked about — specifically on the interception that was intended for Calvin Ridley.

Also, check out these numbers. YIKES?

All I can say is thank goodness for Evan Engram. He had 11 receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday and it was truly impressive.

The Jaguars remain in first place in the AFC South since the Texans and Colts lost, but one does have to wonder how far they can go.