Kyle Yates’ Week 14 Thursday Night Football Projections (2020 Fantasy Football)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the fantasy football playoffs!

If you have made it to the playoffs in your league, take just a second and give yourself a pat on the back. You thrived in one of the ridiculous, crazy, absurd, and downright stressful fantasy football seasons I can ever remember. Injuries and/or COVID issues may have derailed your roster, but you found a way to keep fighting and you now have some tough lineup decisions to make heading into Week 14.

As always, my weekly Fantasy Projections article that highlights every single player will come out Friday. But in preparation of the Thursday night game, I’m releasing my projections and player notes here for you to read! If you’re considering any of the players in this game, it’s important to know what to expect and whether or not you should even be looking their way.

You’ll find my projections below that now include fractional touchdowns. If you missed it, in last week’s Fantasy Projections article, I highlighted a significant change that would hopefully render my article even more helpful. With whole touchdown projections, it creates too much of a swing in the overall projected fantasy points, which is what is most important to fantasy managers. Going back through last week’s article to check, the change made my projections much more accurate and hopefully you were able to lean into this article and use it to help set your lineups!

With all that being said, it’s time to dig in and take a look at the players in the Thursday Night Football game that you should be considering.

New England Patriots vs Los Angeles Rams

Date/Time: December 10, 8:20pm ET
Spread: Rams -5
Over/Under: 44.5 points
Implied Vegas point totals: Rams 24.75, Patriots 19.75

New England Patriots

__________

Los Angeles Rams

__________

Quarterback

New England: Newton’s been inconsistent this season, but when he’s utilized heavily in the running game, he’s coming through for fantasy purposes. This is a tough matchup against the Rams defense, but Newton should be in the mid-range QB2 conversation. He might not be able to get much done passing against this defense, so you’re betting on him finding the end zone again as a runner.

Los Angeles: If Goff throws the ball more than 40 times, he’s a solid bet to finish in the top-12. Unfortunately, there’s no consistency with this offense to be able to predict exactly what the passing volume is going to be any given week. The Patriots secondary has dramatically improved with Stephon Gilmore back in the lineup, which makes Goff a risky mid-range QB2 play. He’ll need to throw the ball 45+ times and not turn the ball over to crack the top-10.

Running Backs

New England: Harris is the only Patriots RB that you should be considering this week, but he’s merely just a floor play. He’s playing well, but with Cam Newton being the goal-line option in this offense, Harris offers very little upside. Against the defense that’s allowing only 93.1 rushing yards per game, which is among the best in the NFL, it’s hard to see how Harris finishes within the top-24 at the RB position. He can be viewed as a high-end RB3 play this week with little upside.

Los Angeles: Henderson left last week’s game with an injury. Although he did return, Akers stepped in and got the significant workload. While he wasn’t particularly efficient in Week 13, Akers has now scored in three straight games. If a large workload was guaranteed for Akers, he’d absolutely be in consideration for a low-end RB2 ranking. However, with little to no involvement in the receiving game, plus the unknowns of what Sean McVay is going to do with this backfield any given week, Akers should be viewed as a high-end RB3. It’s probably best to completely avoid this backfield if you can.

Wide Receivers

New England: Last week, no Patriots WR had more than two receptions. Harry was able to find the end zone, but that’s not something that you can comfortable predict any given week. Against the defense that’s allowing 5.5 yards per attempt on average to opposing offenses, it’s best to just avoid this WR room completely.

Los Angeles: Woods now has 38 targets over the last three weeks and he’s firmly cemented himself in the low-end WR1 conversation. Even if Goff doesn’t throw the ball 40+ times in this game, Woods is the clear lead option and he should be an extremely safe option for the first week of the fantasy playoffs. Kupp has taken a back seat to Woods recently, but he’s still providing a safe floor every week for fantasy managers. While the Patriots secondary has improved as of late, it’s still not a matchup that should push you away from rolling out Kupp as a low-end WR2.

Tight Ends

New England: None of the Patriots TEs should be considered for fantasy football.

Los Angeles: Everett and Tyler Higbee benefit when Jared Goff throws the ball a large amount, but that hasn’t been predictable recently. They’re still worth viewing as low-end TE2s this week.

FantasyProjection Buster: Newton’s been a difficult player to project lately. If he doesn’t find the end zone as a runner, he falls well short of my projection totals for him. Or if he does find the end zone multiple times, he finishes much higher. He can easily break my projections tonight either way.

__________