NFL Week 14 Fantasy Football Recap: Cincinnati Bengals vs. Cleveland Browns

• Ja’Marr Chase: 10 receptions, 119 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 carry, 6 rushing yards

• Donovan Peoples-Jones: 8 receptions, 114 yards

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Monitor the health of the Bengals’ wide receivers: Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd combined for three offensive snaps against the Browns.

Higgins popped up on the injury report Thursday with a hamstring. He was limited in practice both Thursday and Friday but wasn’t given a game status.
He didn’t start the game but did play on the first third down. That ended up being his only snap. He was then ruled questionable to return with his hamstring injury.
Boyd started the game and played the first two snaps before suffering a finger injury. He went to the locker room and was later ruled out.
Trenton Irwin started the game in place of Higgins, while Trent Taylor took over as the team’s slot receiver.
The Bengals also didn’t have tight end Hayden Hurst with a calf injury. Mitchell Wilcox was the receiving tight end, as expected.
These backup receivers should be left on the waiver wire. This mostly meant more targets for Ja’Marr Chase. Both Irwin and Taylor made a big play, but their targets were too limited to trust them.

Joe Mixon’s return: Mixon returned to the Bengals after missing the past two weeks with a concussion.

Mixon played the majority of snaps on early downs but didn’t dominate as much as he has in the past.
Samaje Perine had played well in past weeks, but he ran the ball only four times for 22 yards, albeit with a touchdown.
The Bengals have the hardest schedule remaining, so we should see some competitive games where Cincinnati won’t be running as much to run out the clock.
Mixon will still be a fantasy starter, but we can still expect to see a decent amount of Perine, particularly in passing situations.

David Njoku’s return: Njoku played his second game in a full-time role since Week 7 due to various injuries.

He saw playing time similar to his peak at the beginning of the season.
Njoku caught seven passes for 59 yards and a touchdown.
He has a fine matchup against the Ravens next week but finishes the fantasy playoffs with games against the Saints and Commanders. They have been the top two teams at preventing fantasy points to tight ends.
That makes him a fantasy starter next week, but it could be hard to start him the following two weeks unless the offense starts playing notably better.

Add Donovan Peoples-Jones: Peoples-Jones put up a career-best eight receptions and 114 receiving yards in the Browns' loss to the Bengals.

He played 100% of offensive snaps for the first time of his career.
Cleveland attempted five deep passes, and Peoples-Jones was the target on all five.
This marked the most deep targets for a Browns receiver in a game this season.
Cleveland has the fifth-easiest schedule for wide receivers over the rest of the fantasy season.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.