Week 14 QB Waiver Wire Pickups & Adds: It’s Time To Play Philip Rivers

Lineups.com is your one-stop fantasy football shop! We have stats, projections, offensive, and defensive rankings. If you play daily fantasy sports, check out our DFS projections as well. Week 14 is looming, and many of us are still unsure of who we are starting at quarterback. Look no further! Here are five options with positive matchups in week 14 and beyond.

Philip Rivers

Over his last seven games, Philip Rivers has scored at least 15 fantasy points in all but one of them (week 9 against Baltimore). Outside of this clunker, Rivers averaged just over 20 points per game. That’s tough to beat for a streaming quarterback, owned in approximately 10-percent of leagues, with a juicy remaining schedule. First, the baseline will likely be there as the only time Rivers has not thrown at least 30 times was in weeks two, three, and four. Additionally, he’s only gotten better as the year progressed. He threw four touchdown passes in the first five weeks. Since, he has thrown 14 of them in seven games. Most recently, he has thrown at least two in each of the last three games. Rivers will take on the raiders this week, the league’s 23rd-ranked team against opposing quarterbacks. Rivers and Indianapolis will follow up the Raiders with another matchup against Houston, followed by Pittsburgh and Jacksonville. If you’re counting, three of his next four games are against opponents ranked 20th or higher against opposing quarterbacks (just have another option to pivot to week 16 against Pittsburgh).

Kirk Cousins

It’s become increasingly more difficult for fantasy owners to keep Kirk Cousins out of their lineups, and for good reason. Over his past four games, Kirk Cousins has thrown for 1218 passing yards and 11 touchdowns to just two interceptions, averaging just over 22 fantasy points per game. To be fair, the matchups were positive (Detroit, Dallas, Carolina, and his worst game of 17.58 points coming against Chicago). However, one way or another, Cousins has been an adequate streamer for most of the season. He has scored at least 19 fantasy points in seven of 12 games, and failed to score at least 14 only twice (the week 2 debacle against the Colts and a Dalvin Cook dominated game against Green Bay in week 8). The truth is, Cousins leads an above average offense, is surrounded by elite playmakers, and has a defense that will never game-script away the pass. Admittedly, the schedule gets tougher. The next three games are against Tampa Bay, Chicago, and New Orleans. However, Tampa Bay is not as scary as they are perceived to be, as they’re just the 17th-ranked team against opposing quarterbacks, and have an offense that will force Minnesota to keep up all game. Cousins follows up week 14 with a week 15 matchup against Chicago, an opponent in which he just scored 17.58 points against in week 10. Consider riding the hot hand and play Cousins for the next few weeks.

Matt Stafford

Matt Stafford has been the model of inconsistency in 2020. He’s been mostly passable, with a few duds and gems sprinkled in. Most recently, he recorded his best game of the year this past weekend against a tougher Chicago matchup (27/42-402-3-1), finishing with 26.08 points in standard NFL scoring formats. Ironically, over the last six games, Stafford has performed well against tough matchups (Chicago, Washington, Indianapolis) and disappointed in positive matchups (Minnesota, Carolina, Houston). This is partially due to Detroit’s increased willingness to run the ball more often, taking away scoring opportunities from Stafford. One way or another, Detroit will host Green Bay in week 14. On paper, the matchup is not great. Keep in mind though that Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Jones are likely to torch through Detroit’s defense, forcing the Lions to play catchup all day. His week two line of 20/33-244-2-1, which produced 16.16 fantasy points, should be the baseline here. Stafford might have a healthy D’Andre Swift and Kenny Golladay for this matchup as well. Even if you want to stray away this week, consider Stafford’s remaining schedule and their rank against opposing quarterbacks: Green Bay (8), Tennessee (28), Tampa Bay (17), Minnesota (15). At the very least, try to pick up Stafford for his week 15 matchup against Tennessee, as he’ll be at the top of everyone’s streaming lists a week from now.

Teddy Bridgewater

DISCLAIMER: Be ready to bail on this streaming option, or have another quarterback on your roster just in case. Carolina placed eight players on the COVID-19 list on Monday, including DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel. If this was for close-contact purposes, they could be eligible to play Sunday. If they forced to sit, I’d pivot away from Bridgewater without two of his three main wide receiver options.

Teddy, Teddy, Teddy. Understandably so, we simply cannot decide if we want to keep Bridgewater on our rosters. He is currently just outside the QB1 range on the season, having been flirting with that label all year. Most recently, his positive matchup against Minnesota was wasted in week 12 before having a bye in week 13. A couple badly thrown deep balls (one to Moore and one to Anderson), as well as a misfire to a wide open DJ Moore in the end zone tampered Bridgewater’s final line against Minnesota. Otherwise, he would have once again been a solid start. Nonetheless, Teddy has averaged 18.48 points over his last five games, a high enough mark to be considered in every streamer’s lineup on a weekly basis. Now, Carolina takes on Denver, currently the 18th-ranked team against opposing quarterbacks. With a positive matchup, and two weeks to prepare for Vic Fangio’s defense, expect a solid day from Bridgwater. Don’t count on him the rest of the way however, as his schedule quickly turns into a gauntlet after Denver. Here is his remaining schedule with each opponent’s rank against fantasy quarterbacks in parenthesis: Green Bay (8), Washington (10), New Orleans (4).

Daniel Jones

Last and possibly least, to spice things up, we have Daniel Jones. If he plays, of course. He sat out week 13 with a hamstring injury, although he was around at practice and had an “outside chance” of playing. Barring a setback, it seems likely the Giants will do what they can to get their starting quarterback on the field to defend their division lead. It’s not often a quarterback is not only leading their division, but auditioning for a job as well, which seems to be the case for Jones. I can’t sit here and say Jones has been reliable for fantasy, because he has not. Here are his last six games (in NFL Fantasy standard scoring): 10.42, 22.16, 12.88, 16.24, 20.68, 13.88. However, two of those sub-15 games were against a tough Washington defense. This week, the grass looks much greener for Daniel Jones and the Giants, as their opponent Arizona is currently giving up the 13th-most points per game to opposing quarterbacks. Most recently, Jared Goff completed 37 of 47 passes for 351 yards, one passing touchdown, and one rushing touchdown against the Cardinals. It’s no guarantee, but Arizona is giving up serviceable or better fantasy games to opposing quarterbacks more often than not. The enticing thing here is the Giants follow up Arizona with another positive matchup, Cleveland. If he’s healthy, not many available quarterbacks have a better schedule over the next two weeks than Daniel Jones.