NFL Week 14 Fantasy Football Recap: Las Vegas Raiders vs. Los Angeles Rams

• Baker Mayfield leads the Los Angeles Rams to victory: Mayfield was released from the Carolina Panthers on Monday, picked up by the Rams on Tuesday and played the vast majority of the game for the Rams on Thursday night.
• Las Vegas Raiders lean on Josh Jacobs: Las Vegas fed Jacobs the ball on most of their plays, and it led to the Raiders' only touchdown.
• Davante Adams brought the highlight catches: The Raiders weren’t passing the ball often, but when Adams saw anything akin to a catchable target, he made a play worth remembering.

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Las Vegas Raiders @ Los Angeles Rams

• Josh Jacobs: 27 carries, 99 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 receptions, 15 receiving yards
• Van Jefferson: 2 receptions, 44 yards, 1 touchdown

Baker Mayfield plays but doesn’t start: John Wolford started for the Rams and handed off three times before Mayfield took over.

• Mayfield was picked up off waivers by the Rams on Tuesday.
• He played the rest of the game starting with the second drive, completing three passes for over 20 yards in the first half.
• That early success didn’t carry on into the second half until the fourth quarter. He didn’t surpass the 100-passing-yard mark in the game until the middle of the quarter but then reached the 200-yard mark and scored the game-winning touchdown before the game was over.
• The Rams have the worst schedule during the fantasy playoffs.
• Mayfield should be able to play better with more than three days with the team, but he’s probably not worth a waiver wire target unless he is still available in Superflex leagues.

Monitor the Rams' backfield: The Rams seemed set to use Cam Akers as their running back, but Kyren Williams was more effective in the second half.

• Williams had been the Rams' third-down back since returning from injury in Week 10.
• His playing time increased in his first two games back, and he was the team’s primary rusher in Week 12.
• Williams was ineffective, gaining 35 yards from 11 carries, which left the Rams to turn back Akers as the lead rusher in Week 12.
• Williams’ role was reduced even further in the first half Thursday night because Malcolm Brown came off the practice squad and took the third down role.
• Akers was the ineffective back Thursday night, leading the two running backs to split snaps on early downs in the second half.
• Williams led the backfield in yards per carry.
• Starting either running back next week would be risky, as they could easily go with the hot hand, leaving the other back with little to no touches.

Josh Jacobs leads the Raiders: The Raiders' game plan was to get the ball to Jacobs over and over despite the short week.

• He ran the ball 26 times last week and 33 times two weeks ago.
• He was limited in practice all week due to quad and calf injuries, so he was considered questionable coming into the game.
• Nevertheless, Jacobs ran the ball 18 times in the first half, tying for the most carries by any player in a first half this season.
• Ameer Abdullah has pretty consistently been the Raiders' third-down back in recent weeks, but Jacobs took more of those snaps Thursday night than he has in months.
• He suffered a hand injury in the middle of the third quarter but was back before the end of the quarter.
• He will have some extended time for some much-needed rest and recovery before facing the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers, who rank second, 14th and first in preventing fantasy points to running backs this season.
• Jacobs will still be a fantasy starter in those matchups thanks to volume, but his days of RB1 performances might be over with this season thanks to those strong run defenses.

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.