RADIO
There were some serious point totals turned in this weekend by many studs, but nothing is ever perfect. There were still several letdowns and games that really are giving owners pause heading into the playoffs (or maybe it killed your playoff hopes, if so I'll pour one out right now).
Some poor performances were rather predictable (Philip Rivers against Denver) and some were just rude and uncalled for (Jarvis Landry against the Ravens). I try not to repeat here, but please know that Matt Ryan deserves to be here again in the worst way.
Without further ado, let's check in on some players who saw their stocks fall with their Week 13 performance.
Week 14 Fantasy Football Fallers
Jay Cutler - QB, CHI
To Cutler's defense, he came into this game without Eddie Royal, Marquess Wilson, and Martellus Bennett and Zach Miller playing banged up. However, he still had a fully healthy Alshon Jeffery along with his great stable of running backs who are pretty good receivers in their own right. The 49ers aren't that threatening to the naked eye, but they were just coming off of a good effort against the Arizona Cardinals, and they followed that up by doing well against the Bears too. The 49ers won the game and Jay Cutler could only muster 18-for-31 passing for 202 yards with zero touchdowns and an interception that was taken back to the house.
Cutler was riding hot a few weeks ago until he matched up against the Broncos defense, and he's now had three very underwhelming games (vs. DEN, @GB, vs. SF). The rest of the season has Cutler and the Bears facing Washington, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, and Detroit. Tread carefully.
Adrian Peterson – RB, MIN
The Minnesota Vikings looked pretty broken from the get go against Seattle on Sunday, and Adrian Peterson was not immune to this. All Day only mustered 18 yards on eight carries, alongside four catches for a measly six yards. Seattle had been giving up a decent amount of yards on the ground in the past few games, but they tightened up all over on Sunday.
Peterson's had great games pretty much all year, but he's had three that were really not worth playing him. Week 1 when the Vikes lost 20-3 to the 49ers (feels like a lifetime ago), when they lost 30-13 to the Packers, and this Sunday when they lost 38-7 to the Seahawks. When the Vikings get blown up he simply isn't part of the plan, and unfortunately they are really fading right now.
Their defense is also extremely beaten up right now, which doesn't bode well for Peterson and the Vikings. Linval Joseph, Anthony Barr, and Harrison Smith are all reportedly out for the game against the Cardinals on Thursday night. The Cardinals could run away with this game and leave Peterson in the dust without much of a chance to fight back. After that though, AP gets to face the Bears, Giants, and Packers. The matchups against the Bears and Giants should bode well for him, though you'd like to see the defense get healthy to feel supremely confident. Regardless, you're playing AP.
DeMarco Murray – RB, PHI
DeMarco Murray stunk on Thanksgiving, rushing for 14 carries for 30 yards against a much improved Lions defense. He didn't see a single target in the passing game either. Murray followed this up with eight rushes for 24 yards and another zero target game. That is horrible.
The Philadelphia Eagles somehow beat the New England Patriots, but their team really isn't doing all that well. Everyone is suffering. Murray is easily the most talented offensive player that the Eagles have, and as such he appears to be the most criminally misused. He isn't really a lateral runner, but the Eagles don't pound the ball and design for north-south runs. When you combine this with him not getting any looks in the passing game, you're going to have a bad box score for the guy. Ryan Mathews has been out and Murray has had terrible games, which doesn't seem like it should correlate. Darren Sproles was the guy for the Eagles in Week 13. The snap count was 35 for Sproles, 14 for Murray, and 12 for Kenjon Barner.
Frustration has to be everywhere for Philadelphia, and we already saw Murray chirp earlier in the year about his usage, so there's no way spirits haven't just fallen further. Murray apparently expressed his frustrations to team owner Jeffrey Lurie. Now they face the Bills, Cardinals, Redskins, and Giants to finish up their regular season. Perhaps the divisional games will go well, but the next two games don't profile all that well for Murray. I said it last week, and I'll say it again: if you can bench him, it's a smart move.
Brandon LaFell - WR, NE
LaFell's 2015 started in Week 7, but outside of putting up a 102-yard game in Week 9 he hasn't done anything of note. He has 56 targets on the year and only 25 receptions. Many owners (myself included) circled the date with the Eagles as LaFell's best chance to come out of his shell for the year given the Eagles' struggles and the Patriots' depleting pass catching corps. He LaFell on his face. He saw nine targets, but only caught four of them (same as last week) for 27 yards. Brady clearly trusted his check down option in James White a lot more than his throws to LaFell.
The Pats face the Texans, Titans, Jets, and Dolphins to end the season, so LaFell may also square up with Darrelle Revis in most league's championship weeks. His stock is free falling right now and if you own him, you and Brady probably have very similar trust levels in LaFell. He's tough to let go of because he's a part of an offense with great potential and one of the best quarterbacks in the game throwing the ball, but I can't blame you if you pull the trigger.
Emmanuel Sanders - WR, DEN
Most owners know the deal by now. Sanders is more boom/bust than your average wide receiver. The real kicker here is that Sanders is dealing with a Brock Osweiler-led offense that, if it can be helped, goes through the running game and leans on its defense. The idea seems to be to ease Brock into the offense and not put too much on his shoulders. The game against the Patriots was an exceptional game that saw the Broncos really have to fight, but this most recent game against the Chargers shows how little Denver needs to throw sometimes.
Their next game against the Raiders might be closer, but it's still murky. They then face the Steelers and Bengals before ending the regular season against the Chargers again. Most of those games (sans the Chargers rematch) might actually call for some offense to really need to be cranked up, but all the same it isn't encouraging for Sanders' owners to see how Osweiler and Kubiak are running this offense.
Travis Kelce - TE, KC
One would have thought that a matchup with Oakland would benefit Travis Kelce greatly, especially since Alex Smith has been opening up the passing game a bit more lately. Unfortunately, Kelce only saw three targets, catching two of them for 42 yards and a fumble lost. There's not much to say here, Kansas City is just not going to really provide you with a consistent producer in Kelce. For what it's worth, Kelce gets to pick on the Chargers, Ravens, Browns, and Raiders in his last four games. That's a cake walk. As usual, Kelce's biggest enemy is Andy Reid and Alex Smith. His ceiling is so mighty, but boy the bell curve of his outcomes is depressingly skewed towards the lower end.
Other Fallers to Note: Ryan Tannehill (QB, MIA), LeGarrette Blount (RB, NE), Danny Woodhead (RB, SD), Martellus Bennett (TE, CHI).
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