Fantasy Football Week 14 RB Sleepers – Riding Ridley

Fantasy Football Week 14 RB Sleepers

It’s the fantasy football playoffs, and I am going to level with you. You probably shouldn’t be looking at this article. If you’re at this point in the season, you should have a solid roster, ready for glory. Still, things change, and the best-laid plans of mice and men, and whatnot. Your James Conner-Matt Breida one-two punch is dead, or Leonard Fournette wet the bed on TNF for you and you need some additional punch. We are here to help, with three RB sleepers available in at least 70% of Yahoo! leagues. One of these guys, for you deep divers, is out there in over 90% of leagues. RB sleepers and their ownership percentages are as of Wednesday morning when waivers ran. If they don’t match what your league says, then feel free to not bother me with your protests. 

Jeff Wilson versus Denver (50% owned)

I’m not overly optimistic for Jeff Wilson this weekend, but he should be able to get you 50 or 60 yards with a shot at a touchdown. If you lost out on the Jaylen Samuels Sweepstakes, you may be in luck with Wilson as a decent one-week fill-in. The Niners have the second most running back yards from scrimmage this season (and are top-five in yards per carry and yards per touch) with a hodgepodge of Wilson, Raheem Mostert, Alfred Morris, and Matt Breida. That’s Kyle Shanahan’s offensive brilliance squeezing blood from a stone after lead back Jerick McKinnon went down at the end of the preseason. That bodes well for Wilson, who slammed his fist down on the table and announced his NFL arrival to the tune of 134 yards last week. The Broncos haven’t allowed a running back to score against them in each of the last four games, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem with Wilson, who will get the majority of the load. They have, however, allowed nearly five yards per carry this season, and have allowed 161 running back yards per contest over the last five games. This is likely a one-week deal, but he’s one of the better RB sleepers this week.

LeGarrette Blount at Arizona (48% owned)

Blount was… just okay last week as one of my RB sleepers, but Kerryon Johnson is looking as though he will not play this weekend, and Blount and his 75 rushing yards per game over the last couple of contests (on 35 carries) travel to Arizona. Arizona is one of the worst running back defenses in the entire NFL, allowing the third-most fantasy points to RBs. Things haven’t gotten much better recently, either, as they have allowed five double-digit fantasy days to running backs in their last four games (since their Bye). Blount isn’t the most inspiring option, but if you’re floundering around on the free agency wire looking for a desperate plug-in, Blount is your man.

Stevan Ridley at Oakland (6% owned)

After Mike Tomlin announced that James Conner would miss this week’s game, everyone doused themselves in lighter fluid to run screaming, on fire, towards their waiver wire to get Jaylen Samuels. FAABs were exhausted, and priorities burned. Then we started to look a little closer at Samuels. Chris Towers of CBS crunched the numbers and found that the last time he had 13 carries (if ever) was in high school. Then we all realized he came out of college as a TE, and has more receptions than carries. He is a running back on the depth chart, but is more of a Tarik Cohen than a Jordan Howard… okay, bad example. Still, he’s not a banger, and that leaves Ridley. He will likely get somewhere in the 12-15 rush range, and against a next-level terrible Oakland Raiders rush defense, that should get him 60-70 yards, with a good shot at a score. He’s no slam dunk, as he has just nine carries since week six. He does have experience in a spot-start role, however, as he had 80 yards on 17 carries in week seventeen last year.

Need more sleeper help? Check out our weekly sleepers at every position!
All-In on Allen (QB Sleepers)
Forgot About Zay (WR Sleepers)
Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel (TE Sleepers)

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