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Week 14 Start/Sit: Rex in effect

Rex Burkhead is one of fantasy's top sleepers for Week 14. (Getty)
Rex Burkhead is one of fantasy’s top sleepers for Week 14. (Getty)

As we head into Week 14 of the 2016 NFL season (and, most likely, the first round of your league’s playoffs), here are 12 players to give extra consideration to when filling out your lineups – six that are looking better than usual, and a half dozen that are looking worse:

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STARTS

QB – Eli Manning, NYG ($30) – While Eli is fifth on my rankings of Week 14 quarterbacks, he’s just the 13th-most started QB in Yahoo leagues and just 16th-highest priced QB commodity in Yahoo DFS this week – this despite hosting a Cowboys defense that is one of five teams in the NFL allowing a QB Rating north of 100 (100.8). Eli has a streak of five straight games with at least 2 TD passes, and his 14 total TD tosses in that span (since Week 9) is at least two more than any other signal-caller in the league. And let’s not forget that Eli opened the season in Dallas, throwing for three touchdowns in handing the Cowboys their only loss of the season. Start the younger Manning brother with confidence.

RB – Rex Burkhead, Cin ($10) – You have to like any running back getting a meaningful workload in the Bengals backfield this week. After all, this backfield compiled 312 yards from scrimmage against Cleveland in its previous meeting (Week 7). In that game, Gio Bernard, whose role Burkhead is now filling because of Bernard’s ACL injury, picked up 87 of those yards and a TD. In Cleveland’s five games since that contest, it has yielded north of 150 YFS to its opponents’ backfield in four of them. Last week, Burkhead picked up a modest 66 yards on 12 touches, but with platoon partner Jeremy Hill managing just 33 yards on 23 carries (1.4 YPC) in the same contest, don’t be surprised if we see a little more of Burkhead in the running game. But, don’t think I’m advising against Hill, who ran nine times for 168 yards in that last meeting with the Browns. Both of these backs should be employed on fantasy rosters in Week 14, and Burkhead is a flat out steal in the Yahoo DFS contest.

RB – Rob Kelley, Was ($19) – Washington’s backfield, in its Week 6 meeting with Philly, nearly treated the Eagles as poorly as the Bengals did the Browns in their previous meeting, putting up 260 yards from scrimmage against its divisional foe. Matt Jones led the way in that one (135 rushing yards), but “Fat Rob” chunked it up as well with 59 yards on just five carries. Of course, Kelley is now in the driver’s seat in the Washington backfield, and head coach Jay Gruden came out this week talking about the desire to feed Kelley the pigskin more (Kelley has a combined 28 carries in his past two games). Kelley has a RB1 look for Week 14.

WR – DeSean Jackson, Was ($17) – Sticking with Washington, Jackson is another seemingly underpriced commodity this week. He’s coming off a one-catch performance against Arizona last week, but that catch went for 59 yards. The week before, he tallied 118 yards on four catches against Dallas, a 29.5 yards per catch clip. Big plays is Jackson’s specialty, and giving up big plays is Philly’s specialty. The Eagles have allowed the third-most pass plays of 40-plus yards (11), and lead the league with an average of 3.9 pass plays of 20-plus yards allowed.

WR – Donte Moncrief, Ind ($18) – Moncrief’s ridiculously underpriced considering that he’s scored a TD in five straight games and six out of the seven total that he has played this year. And in the seven games he played with QB Andrew Luck last season, he scored five touchdowns – that’s now 10 TDs in his past 13 games with Luck helming the Colts’ offense. Moncrief’s opponent, Houston, allows the fourth-fewest fantasy points per game to receivers, but it has struggled of late – five receivers have gone for 10-plus fantasy points against Houston in its past four games, and six receivers have scored TDs in that span. Houston is also expected to be without stalwart veteran corner Johnathan Joseph, who cracked ribs and brusied his lung last week against Green Bay.

TE – Ladarius Green, Pit ($13) – Up only $2 from last week’s DFS price despite a 6/110/TD line against the Giants, Green is a no-brainer DFS option, and should be started across the board in Yahoo standard leagues. An athletic, towering target, Green is an excellent compliment to go-to wideout Antonio Brown, and there’s little chance that he won’t be heavily scripted into the Steelers’ game plans going forward. Facing a Buffalo defense that has allowed three 100-yard tight ends this season, I expect Green to once again be one of the top tight end plays in fantasy this week.

[Week 14 rankings: Overall | FLEX | QB | RB | WR | TE | DEF | K]

SITS

QB –Matt Ryan, Atl ($37) – Ryan is facing a Rams defense this week that has been tough on quarterbacks in fantasy, allowing just three QBs to finish inside the top 15 in fantasy scoring at QB the week they faced them. Last week, Tom Brady posted the 16th best QB fantasy line against them. Other QBs to be held well out of the QB1 neighborhood include Eli Manning, Carson Palmer, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson. That resume speaks for itself, but it should also be known that in home games, this is the second-toughest defense in fantasy for opposing QBs. With Ryan’s go-to guy, Julio Jones, dealing with a turf toe injury (looking like a game-time decision), there’s strong chance that Ryan becomes the latest QB to fail to crack the top 15 against the Rams.

RB – Doug Martin, TB ($23) – Dougie is not looking so fresh this season, averaging a mere 3.0 yards per carry, lowest among all RBs with at least 100 carries. This week, Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken publicly expressed his displeasure with the state of the Bucs’ running game, admonishing all facets of the team’s rush attack, including saying that the running backs need to do a better job of seeing the holes. Considering Martin has been the backfield leading man the past month, that can only be interpreted as an indictment of Martin. There’s rumors swirling that backup Jacquizz Rodgers will get more run (at Martin’s expense) this week, and the expected return of Charles Sims is likely to curb Martin’s involvement on passing downs. With all these storylines in play against a New Orleans defense allowing a surprisingly stiff 3.9 YPC to RBs, Martin is an avoidable fantasy option this week.

RB – LeGarrette Blount, NE ($24) – Baltimore has allowed one running back rushing TD in its past 10 games, and allow the second-lowest YPC rate to opposing RBs (3.4) – only three running backs have managed to top 61 rushing yards against the Ravens. Opposing backs have had success against the Ravens in the passing game, but that’s not applicable to Blount, who has just six catches on the season. If you are starting Blount this week, you’re doing it in hopes that he’ll find the end zone, as it is really hard to be optimistic about his rushing yards upside.

WR – Brandon Marshall, NYJ ($25) – I expected to be the last one off the Marshall bandwagon, but as I exit it, I see that he’s still top 15 in Start% at WR in Yahoo leagues this week and he’s the 12th-highest priced WR option in DFS. So let’s just review what Marshall has been offering fantasy owners of late: in his past seven games, B-Marsh is averaging 49.6 yards per game and has a grand total of one touchdown. And now he has Bryce “I only have eyes for Robby Anderson” Petty as his quarterback. Even in a soft matchup against San Francisco this week, it’s time to stop pining for the Marshall of ’15. The magic of that campaign vanished a long time ago.

WR – Davante Adams, GB ($26) – I’d hate to have my fantasy playoff hopes riding, in part, on the performance of Adams this week going against a Seattle defense allowing the seventh-fewest fantasy points to the WR position. Adams, as his owners are certainly aware of, is coming off a one-catch, 17-yard performance against Houston last week. It was the fourth time this season he’s delivered 4.2 fantasy points or less, and the seventh time he’s posted 50 yards or less. And his track record against Seattle has been similarly fruitless, as he’s combined for just six catches for 40 yards (0 TDs) in his two meetings with the Seahawks in the past two seasons.

TE – Eric Ebron, Det ($17) – Despite the fact that he hasn’t recorded a receiving TD since Week 1, and was a modest 4-for-42 against Chicago in a Week 4 meeting with the Bears, Ebron is currently getting TE1 status in both the Yahoo standard leagues and DFS. There are plenty of waiver wire options (available in roughly 50 percent of leagues or more) that I’d feel much better about this week – Ladarius Green, C.J. Fiedorowicz, Dwayne Allen, Hunter Henry, for example.