Jonathan Stewart was a fantasy football stud in Week 14
Before Week 14 fantasy football playoff chaos ensued, I hopped on a local fantasy football radio show to share my thoughts on the weeks ahead. The show’s host, Dan Clasgens (@DanClasgens), started with a great topic that is often overanalyzed by overanxious owners this time every year – which players will rise from the unknown or unproductive and shock us during the 2014 fantasy football playoffs.
Failing to make my short-list of notable nominees was one Jonathan Stewart or J-Stew to some. Now, for those unfamiliar Stewart possesses an ankle similar to Grant Hill’s and an injury rap sheet several inches think. In other words, for the past four seasons, he’s failed to live up to any existing threads of expectations some owner unfairly placed on him heading into the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons.
During that stretch, Stewart has averaged 10 games played, approximately 421 rushing yards with less than two touchdowns per season (through Week 13 of 2014). Now, you can blame Cam Newton, DeAngelo Williams and, at times, Mike Tolbert for creating one of the most frustrating running game committees in fantasy football history, but Stewart (and his beat-up 27-year-old body) shoulders some of the blame.
With all the negative, comes a fantasy football script-flip of epic proportions. Stewart rushed for 155 yards with a touchdown against the Saints in Week 14 – his second-highest rushing total of his career and most rushing yards in a game since January 2011. The 20 carries for Stewart were the most for him in a game since December 2010. When you added it all up, J-Stew scored 21.5 fantasy points for those who rolled the dice on the FLEX start.
Cam Newton – 41.3 fantasy points
Heading into Week 14’s game against the Saints, Newton had averaged less than 18 fantasy points per game (11 games) this season. However, true to form, Rob Ryan’s porous pass and rush defense got punished by the Panthers’ quarterback. After holding Newton to 12 fantasy points in Week 9, he completed 21-33 passes for 226 yards with three touchdown passes for the first time since November 2013. Newton also racked up 83 rushing yards on 12 carries with another score. This was the guy fantasy owners used their fourth-round draft pick on in August.
Percy Harvin – 24.7 fantasy points
For the first time since October of 2012, Harvin scored a receiving touchdown – a 35-yard pass play from Geno Smith. Harvin finished with six receptions (nine targets) for 124 yards with the score. It’s his second game with more than 100 receiving yards since joining the Jets in late-October. With the Titans up next, Harvin could rack up his third.
Odell Beckham – 30.9 fantasy points
The guy is a fantasy football machine. He set a career-high with 11 receptions – albeit nine of which came in the first half – for 130 yards with a touchdown. Since being activated and joining the receiving corps, Beckham Jr. is averaging 20-plus fantasy points per game (nine games – PPR). He’s averaging 120.5 receiving yards per game over the Giants last six games.
Andre Williams – 23.7 fantasy points
The Titans rush defense – exploit it! Rashad Jennings’ (ankle) owners got hosed with the prime match-up against the league’s worst defense against the run (145.5 RYAPG). Instead, Williams received 24 carries and racked up 131 yards - nearly double his previous career high – with a touchdown against the Titans.
FYI – the Chris Johnson / Chris Ivory Jets’ tandem has dibs on the Titans in Week 15.
Joique Bell – 30.3 fantasy points
Reggie Bush returned and it didn’t matter. Before we get to Bell’s Week 14 domination of the Buccaneers, a brief review of his 2014 season. If we divided Bell’s game logs into quarters, owners experienced at least one single-digit fantasy-point performance from the Lions’ running back. Here are the average fantasy points per game within those three-game segments (Bell missed Week 5 vs. BUF):
Segment 1 = 9.8 fantasy points per game
Segment 2 = 12.8 fantasy points per game
Segment 3 = 10.9 fantasy points per game
Segment 4 = 20.3 fantasy points per game
Bell has scored 55 fantasy points combined in his last two games. Perhaps the Lions have found their answer in the backfield for 2015 and can remove the oft-injured Bush from the confusion. Granted, they could just as easily incorporate under-utilized Theo Riddick into the mix next season. The point is, when featured heavily, more times than not Bell will perform for the Lions and fantasy owners.
Kamar Aiken – 18.5 fantasy points
Joel Beall predicted it last week and Kamar Aiken delivered against the Dolphins. Torrey Smith was actually listed as ACTIVE in Week 14, but that knee injury swelled during pre-game warmups and kept the veteran receiver locked on the sidelines. Aiken stepped up in place of him and caught six of seven passes for 65 yards with his second touchdown of the season.
Mychal Rivera – 23.9 fantasy points
Football makes no sense sometimes (all the times?!). A week after getting routed by the St. Louis Rams, the Raiders beat the playoff-hungry 49ers. Leading the offense was Derek Carr and his favorite target, Rivera, if you are thinking ahead to 2015 tight end analysis. Rivera caught all seven passes tossed his direction for a career-high 109 yards with his fourth touchdown of the season.
Latavius Murray - 10.5 fantasy points
Kerwynn Williams - 10 fantasy points
Jimmy Graham – 5.5 fantasy points
Once again, Drew Brees spread the wealth hitting 10 different receivers in the Saints loss to the Panthers, but once again Graham couldn’t get loose. One of Graham’s worst two-game stretches has come at the worst possible time with fantasy football titles on the line. He finished with three receptions for 25 yards and no touchdowns against Carolina. After goose eggs across the board last week, fantasy owners have been uber-frustrated with Graham’s untimely two-game skid.
Note: Graham caught seven passes for 83 yards with a touchdown against the Panthers in his first meeting this season.
Peyton Manning - 2.9 fantasy points
Josh Gordon – 3.5 fantasy points
The Browns late-game meltdown against the Colts included a surprisingly accurate deep ball by Brian Hoyer that Gordon should have caught to set-up a possible game-winning field goal. Regardless, Gordon’s third game back from suspension fell flat in fantasy circles with only two receptions for 15 yards.
Denard Robinson – 3.0 fantasy points
Regression was expected and has arrived. After averaging 17.2 fantasy points per game during a four-game stretch, Robinson has only managed 6.8 fantasy points per game (PPR) over his last three games. The only silver lining is that Robinson has a shot at the Titans rush defense in two weeks if you can survive mediocre play until Week 16.
Alfred Morris – 2.7 fantasy points
Eight carries … six yards … in Week 14. Morris averaged 17.4 fantasy points per game in his previous five games.
Gio Bernard – 6.6 fantasy points
Before injury, Bernard was averaging 16.3 fantasy points per game. In the three games played since returning to the Bengals, Bernard – now sharing time with Jeremy Hill – is averaging 7.2 fantasy points per game.
Meh. Five carries for 22 yards. Welp, he was better than Charles Sims five carries for negative four yards on the ground.