Fantasy Football Week 14: Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em

Welcome to The Big Lead’s weekly start ’em, sit ’em column. We are here to dig into the toughest decisions you may be facing for your fantasy matchup in Week 14 of NFL action and give you answers. Some of those answers may even be right!

Presenting our Week 14 start ’em, sit ’em calls.

Samuel hasn’t really been a fantasy lock this year as he’s dealt with injuries and occasionally gotten lost amidst the sea of talent on the San Francisco offense. He reminded everybody what he can do with a season-best performance against the Eagles, putting up north of 30 points thanks to a pair of receiving touchdowns and an extremely high 29 yards per reception mark. The Niners play the Seahawks for the second time in three weeks on Sunday and Samuel put up a good performance the first time, so we’ll believe he’s hitting his stride. START ‘EM

The few of you who have had Hubbard stock since the beginning of the season, congratulations! You were proven right. Eventually. After Frank Reich got fired, interim head coach Chris Tabor did away completely with the RB-by-committee style that split carries between Hubbard and Miles Sanders. Instead he’s just giving all the touches to Hubbard, who had 25 carries for two touchdowns against a stingy Tampa Bay front this past week. However, volume isn’t everything. Hubbard faces a Saints defense that is usually pretty solid against the run and ratchets up the competitiveness when playing within the division. We wouldn’t put our money on him quite yet. SIT ‘EM

Outside of the untimely ejection that might’ve lost his team the game, Pacheco had a great fantasy day on Sunday, totaling over 20 points for just the third time all season and the second straight week. He is the undisputed top back in Kansas City, which we’ve known for a while, but he’s gotten more involved in the passing game as the season has gone on and effectively pushed Jerrick McKinnon to the sideline permanently. He’s still hit or miss in that category, but the combination of a favorable matchup with a shaky Bills defense and the lack of production the Chiefs are seeing from the passing game means he’s in line for another big day. START ‘EM

Swift, along with most of his teammates, had a brutal performance against San Francisco. The breakout fantasy star of 2023 managed fewer than five points on six carries and two catches before exiting with an injury. There’s been no update on his status but he is included in this story because, even if he is good to go, we’d recommend going a different route. Swift had less than 10 fantasy points in the Eagles’ first matchup against Dallas and the offense hasn’t exactly gotten much better since. SIT ‘EM

Waddle has been a frustrating fantasy player this season. His speed and YAC ability made everyone think he could be the 1B to Tyreek Hill’s 1A, but instead Hill has emerged as the far-and-above No. 1 wideout and Waddle is putting up No. 2 option numbers. That is more due to Hill’s greatness than it is anything Waddle is doing wrong, but the fact remains that Tua Tagovailoa is now looking for Hill first and second instead of spreading the love. They have a favorable matchup this week against a weak Titans secondary but nothing we’ve seen so far suggests Waddle is about to put up anything more than FLEX numbers, which means you can probably find a better option. SIT ‘EM