NFL Week 14 Recap: Immediate fantasy football takeaways from Monday Night Football

• Star running backs struggle but score: Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry combined for three touchdowns, but they both averaged around 2.0 yards per carry on double-digit carries. Barkley broke away from his 2.0 yards per carry with some big fourth-quarter runs but lost a fumble on his longest play.

• Tyreek Hill shines despite picking up an injury: Hill missed almost half the game due to an ankle injury but was still one of the most impressive receivers of the night, catching four passes for 61 yards.

• Raheem Mostert scores twice late: The Dolphins running backs were efficient but failed to put up many fantasy points until Mostert scored twice in the last six minutes.

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2023.

Green Bay Packers @ New York Giants

Saquon Barkley: 20 carries, 86 yards, 2 touchdowns; 3 receptions, 15 receiving yards
Jayden Reed: 8 receptions, 27 yards; 4 carries, 38 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown

Monitor Dontayvion Wicks’ health: The Packers are already without receiver Christian Watson (hamstring).

Wicks served as Watson's direct replacement for most of this game, just as he did at the start of the season.
Wicks was even playing more than Watson typically would, given that he would often rotate with Watson in games. On the few plays Wicks was out, Samori Toure took his place.
Romeo Doubs usually loses some snaps to Wicks, but in this game, Malik Heath played a little more often, allowing Doubs to rest on several run plays and a few pass plays.
Wicks suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. After the injury, Toure took his place in the lineup.
The Packers receivers struggled in this game. The Giants run more man defense than any other team, and Christian Watson was the one Packers receiver who was noticeably better against man than zone. The rest are much better against zone.
This left tight end Tucker Kraft as the only receiver with more than 32 receiving yards, largely because of a 43-yard reception.

Giants use only four wide receivers: The Giants have typically used a six-man rotation at wide receiver.

Backup slot receiver Parris Campbell (knee) popped up on the injury report on Saturday. He was initially deemed questionable but was inactive on Monday night.
This allowed Wan’Dale Robinson to get more playing time than usual. He led the Giants in receiving, with six receptions for 79 yards.
Sterling Shepard also played a limited role tonight. He had played at least 30% of the offensive snaps over the last two weeks but didn’t play a snap tonight. Still, he has just 39 receiving yards this year, so it wasn’t too surprising that he wasn’t involved.
Darius Slay ton rarely left the field, but he was barely involved in the passing game.
While this generally helped the receivers' playing time, we are still far from a point where any of them can be trusted in fantasy starting lineups.

Miscellaneous Notes

Aaron Jones (knee) missed his third consecutive game and sixth game of the season. As usual, A.J. Dillon was the primary replacement, with Patrick Taylor mixing in for passing situations.
Kenyan Drake was recently added to the Packers practice squad and was elevated to the active roster for this game. He wasn’t involved on offense.
Tyrod Taylor returned from injured reserve for this game, but he was the backup.
Darren Waller is expected to return to practice next week after spending time on injured reserve. There is no guarantee he will play next week. All three of the Giants' remaining games are against teams in the top 13 at allowing fantasy points to tight ends, so it’s worth keeping him on the fantasy roster.

Tennessee Titans @ Miami Dolphins

Raheem Mostert: 21 carries, 96 yards, 2 touchdowns; 1 reception, 4 receiving yards
DeAndre Hopkins: 7 receptions, 124 yards, 1 touchdown

Monitor Tyreek Hill’s health: Hill suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter but returned late in the third quarter.

Hill played 13 of 19 snaps on the first two drives, mostly getting rotated out in running situations — which is relatively common for him.
Cedrick Wilson Jr. took Hill’s spot in the starting lineup while Hill missed nearly half of the game.
Wilson ended up playing more than Hill would have because Wilson didn’t have a direct replacement.
Hill returned late in the third quarter and significantly improved his receiving production.
He took more trips to the medical tent after returning, but his playing time was relatively normal for the rest of the game. He wasn’t in to start the final two-minute drill, which was his only noteworthy absence in the last 20 minutes.
It will be worth monitoring the injury reports this week, but if Hill is playing next week, he needs to be in fantasy starting lineups.

Second game back for De’Von Achane: Both Achane and Mostert received significant playing time for the Dolphins.

Last week, Mostert played significantly in the first half as the Dolphins gained a lead. And Achane played significantly in the second half as Miami closed out the game.
This week, Achane received more playing time in the first half, but not at Mostert’s expense.
More than half of Achane’s first-half snaps were in a receiver alignment.
Mostert was the clear leader in carries, while Achane was more involved in the passing game — a predictable split.
Miami’s philosophy changed in the second half, with the team rarely using both on the field at the same time. Mostert was the clear leader in the second half, scoring two touchdowns late in the game.
While Achane averaged more yards per carry, he might need more playing time than just the last five minutes to put up huge fantasy numbers.
The Dolphins face the New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens over the next three weeks. None of those are ideal matchups to maximize running back fantasy value.

Treylon Burks regains starting job: Burks handled a majority of passing-down snaps after seeing the field for only 10 plays last week.

Burks returned to the role he had to start the season as one of the clear lead wide receivers alongside DeAndre Hopkins.
He largely took playing time from Chris Moore, who mostly played in clear running situations.
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine was basically the Titans' third wide receiver despite his significant snaps. He remained the third wide receiver in three-receiver sets but also played a lot in run-blocking situations in two-receiver sets with Moore.
While Burks received much more playing time this week, he was still held to one reception for one yard.
Burks probably won’t reach a point where he is fantasy-relevant again this season, but this is a positive sign for him being a starter and a breakout candidate in 2024.

Miscellaneous Notes

Raheem Mostert and Jaylen Waddle looked shaken up after the Dolphins’ first and second offensive plays, but both players were back by the end of their first drive.
Second-year receiver Kyle Philips was a healthy inactive last week. He was back to being active this week as a fifth wide receiver. He didn’t receive nearly as many offensive snaps as usual, recording three snaps in the first half and none in the second.
Chigoziem Okonkwo received a noteworthy increase in offensive snaps with Josh Whyle out due to injury. He caught five passes for 46 yards as the Titans' third-most productive receiver.

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.