Fantasy Football Dating App Week 14

Every Sunday morning, fantasy owners face similar choices to the ones "dating" app users do on Saturday night. When faced with lots of options, do you want to swipe left and pass on potential opportunity or do you want to swipe right and open the door for exciting possibilities? Each week, we'll talk about specific players and what you should do with them (particularly when setting your daily fantasy lineups).

Swipe Left

Drew Brees

Following a cool start to the 2015 campaign, Brees became a popular play again after a mid-season explosion against the Giants and the Titans. Those paying to see him replicate those games are more likely staring at credit card statements right now than winning tickets, as he regressed immediately, scoring less than 20 points combined in his next two games. This boom-or-bust nature makes it hard to pay a premium price for his services. It's like ordering a beer with the labeled peeled off, but paying $7 for it. Sure, sometimes it might be a craft Belgium bottle of heaven. But it could also be straight spit. Not only am I staying away this week against a surprising Bucs D that has held opposing QBs under 15 fantasy points four of their last five games, I'll be avoiding Brees the rest of the season as long as I can get Rodgers, Newton or Big Ben at a similar price.

Julio Jones

After starting the season as a borderline must-play, Jones' recent numbers have been frozen by Matty Ice's poor performance. Jones is openly complaining about his use in the red zone after failing to score in four consecutive weeks. Considering he received a blizzard of targets last week (17 in all), it's not like the Falcons have lost confidence in his ability, they just have a quarterback who is really struggling to take advantage of his weapons. Until we see the offense click again for at least a week, it's difficult to justify tying up $8,900 of your budget on Julio, as that level of investment will likely cause your chances of winning to melt away if he puts up another subpar performance.

Tyler Eifert

We talk about it regularly in this space, but the TE position continues to have wild swings week to week. As a result, it's natural for fantasy players to look to Eifert as soon as he's able to step back on the field after suffering a neck stinger—he's been great most of the season. However, his price tag makes him a risky play since any awkward contact could knock him back out of the game, and football is a sport entirely built upon an endless series of awkward contacts. Plus the Steelers have been great against tight ends this year after getting Gronk'd in the season opener. Similar to Jones and Brees, the prudent thing to do here is take a cheaper option and invest in players more likely to justify their high sticker price.

Swipe Right

David Johnson

Players involved in the Thursday night games are usually stay-aways, but Johnson's upside and price point is too great to ignore. Similar to Phil Miller, he's the last man standing in Arizona, which led to him getting 24 touches last week for an offense leading the league in points per game. He turned the opportunity into 120 yards and a score, meaning you are getting RB1 potential at a bargain $4,300 cost. It's like Black Friday came to fantasy a few weeks late and presented a deal too great to pass up.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins

Selecting Seferian-Jenkins is far from a sure thing, as he's missed most of the season with a shoulder injury he suffered during Week 2. But there are an unusual number of risk-mitigating factors at play here. We know he is capable of putting up big points, as he did in nabbing 23 points in week 1, which ignited a waiver wire war. Since then, Jameis Winston has steadily improved, providing quality balls for his targets. Speaking of targets, ASJ only played 21 snaps last week, but still got 6 looks. The Bucs are still fighting for a playoff spot and can really use someone to take the pressure off Mike Evans. Finally, they play the Saints, who are the worst team in the league at defending tight ends. Combine all that with a rock-bottom $2,700 cost that fully prices in the inherent risk (and then some) and it's easy to see how the second-year pro could lead to first-class returns.

Tyrod Taylor

He. Is. Playing. The. Eagles. I should be able to stop right there, as games involving Chip Kelly are finally full of offensive brilliance—it just happens to come from the opposing sidelines. They've given up 13 TD passes in the last three weeks and have taken more punches than Adonis Creed. But there is more to like here than just the match-up, as Taylor has been on his own hot streak, posting 55 points over the last two weeks. He's done it by rediscovering Sammy Watkins. So now look for a Taylor/Watkins stack to replace meat/cheese wiz and broken jumper /Sixers jersey as the most prevalent combo in Philly this weekend.