One Thing We Learned From Every Week 14 Game: Christian Watson Highlight The Sunday Slate

Injury optimism tends to result in disappointment. Oftentimes, people stash players on the injured reserve and hope they can return in the middle of the season to help a fantasy football team. There are a few outliers where it works, and Christian Watson is a prime example.

Watson tore his ACL in January and made his return on October 26th. The Packers wide receiver has looked better every week and helped lead the Packers to a 28-21 win over the Bears. Watson caught all four targets for 89 yards with two TDs. Watson has at least 9.9 PPR points in four straight games.

After 17 targets in the last two games, Watson only had four with the return of Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden, but Watson has shown he doesn’t need a lot of targets to produce. Jordan Love, who passed for 234 yards with three TDs, targeted 10 different receivers. Watson is the best Packers wide receiver and will be a WR2 going forward. While there is concern about the target share with all the receivers healthy, Watson is making big plays and getting open, and outside of the elite receivers across the NFL, many are inconsistent. Start him every week.

Let's dive into who else highlighted the Week 14 Sunday slate.

RELATED: Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

Rams 45, Cardinals 17

While Blake Corum had the better stats, don’t get alarmed. Kyren Williams played 52% of the snaps, while Corum was at 31%. The game was out of hand on Corum’s second TD run of 48 yards in the fourth quarter. He finished with 12 carries for 128 yards with two TDs, and Williams had 13 carries for 84 yards with a TD and two catches for 13 yards. Corum did get a goal-line score early in the game, and while he’s getting mixed in, Williams is still the main back.

Bills 39, Bengals 34

There haven’t been many consistent things in fantasy this season. The one thing to always come through is tight ends against the Bengals. The Bills wide receivers disappointed again, with none getting more than 21 receiving yards. Enter the tight ends. Dawson Knox had six catches for 93 yards and came close to scoring, and Dalton Kincaid had four catches for 41 yards with a TD. The Bengals have allowed 14 TDs to tight ends this season. The Ravens, Dolphins and Cardinals face them the next three weeks.

Titans 31, Browns 29

Shedeur Sanders had his best game of the season and likely led many super flex teams to a win. Yes, I started him in one. He passed for 364 yards with three TDs and one INT and rushed for 29 yards with a TD. He averaged 8.7 yards per pass attempt and clearly is better than Dillon Gabriel. Sanders has made Harold Fannin a TE1. Fannin had 11 targets, catching eight passes for 114 yards with a TD.

Jaguars 36, Colts 19

Every few weeks, there’s a call for Bhayshul Tuten to take over the backfield. Travis Etienne had a down game in Week 13, and Tuten scored on a goal-line carry. The last time a similar scenario occurred, Etienne went off the following week. It happened again. Etienne has had a very good season, and he’s the feature back. Etienne rushed for 74 yards on 20 carries with two TDs and caught an eight-yard pass. Tuten had two fumbles, losing one. Start Etienne every week.

Steelers 27, Ravens 22

Just when everyone gave up on DK Metcalf, he had a big game. Metcalf had 12 targets and caught seven passes for 148 yards. It’s the first time he’s had double-digit targets this season and only the second time he’s had 100 yards. Metcalf had 55 receiving yards or fewer in seven straight games entering Sunday.

Broncos 24, Raiders 14

The Broncos are clearly committed to RJ Harvey and he’s an RB2 the rest of the way. The efficiency hasn’t been great, but this was one of his better games with 74 rushing yards on 17 carries with a TD and he caught all six targets for 25 yards. The passing game continues to spread the ball around with 11 different players catching a pass. Courtland Sutton led the team with 10 targets and is the lone receiver to start weekly.

Seahawks 37, Falcons 9

It’s the same thing every week for the Seahawks. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the lone player reliable for fantasy. He caught seven passes for 92 yards with two TDs on 10 targets. He has 1,428 yards and nine TDs. That’s all the offense needed with the defense shutting down the Falcons. The backfield remains a split with Kenneth Walker getting the slight edge over Zach Charbonnet. Walker played 52% of the snaps and Charbonnet was at 43%. Walker had 10 carries for 29 yards with one catch for negative one yard, and Charbonnet had seven carries for 46 yards and two catches for 20 yards.

Vikings 31, Commanders 0

J.J. McCarthy had a good game, passing for 163 yards with three TDs, so Justin Jefferson finally had a good game, right? Not quite. Jefferson got a lot of defensive attention and caught two passes for 11 yards. He gets the Cowboys and the Giants over the next two games. At least the matchups are favorable.

Dolphins 34, Jets 10

De’Von Achane left the game early with a rib injury and did enough to have a good fantasy day. Achane rushed for 92 yards on seven carries with a TD. Mike McDaniel said Achane was available to come back in the game in an emergency situation, which is good news. Jaylen Wright was the lead back with Achane out. He rushed for 107 yards on 24 carries with a TD, and Ollie Gordon rushed for 17 yards on five carries with a TD.

Saints 24, Buccaneers 20

At least the Saints are committed to Devin Neal as the feature back with Alvin Kamara out. Neal had 19 carries for 70 yards with a TD and caught a 14-yard pass. He’s a low-end RB2.

Ronis Bonus: What Else We Learned In Week 14

Outside of Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts is the only other Falcons player to consider as a starter with Drake London out. Kirk Cousins has made Pitts his go-to receiver. He had 10 targets, catching six passes for 90 yards. Last week, Pitts had eight targets and caught seven passes for 82 yards.
Michael Wilson is an elite receiver when Marvin Harrison is out and Jacoby Brissett is the QB. For the third game without Harrison this season, Wilson went off, catching 11 passes for 142 yards with two TDs on 16 targets. In the three games, Wilson has 36 catches for 445 yards with two TDs on 49 targets.
Joe Burrow was in control before throwing INTs on consecutive plays. He passed for 284 yards with four TDs and will be a top-five QB the rest of the season. Tee Higgins returned from a concussion and led the team with 11 targets, catching six passes for 92 yards with two TDs. He’s a high-end WR2.
Congrats to the teams that haven’t set a lineup since Week 4. Tony Pollard finally came through for you with 161 rushing yards and two TDs. The Titans scored 31 points with Cam Ward passing for 117 yards and Tyjae Spears leading the team in receiving yards with 28.
Jayden Daniels returned from injury, but took a big hit on an interception return and fell on his left elbow. The Commanders didn’t put him back in the game, although Dan Quinn said he was fine and could have returned. It’s a tough break for those who started him.
The Jets’ offense fell apart after Tyrod Taylor left in the first quarter with a groin injury. Brady Cook replaced him, going 14-for-30 for 163 yards with two INTs while taking six sacks. Adonai Mitchell had one catch for 24 yards on six targets after a breakout game last week.
Emeka Egbuka has fallen off in a big way. It’s a struggle to even catch a pass from Baker Mayfield. Many of the passes thrown his way recently have been uncatchable, but he’s also dropped passes. While this pass was high, he should have caught a TD. He was targeted nine times and caught two passes for 15 yards. He has 42 yards receiving or fewer in five of the last six games.
At least Brian Thomas has shown positive signs. He made a nice one-handed catch and caught three passes for 87 yards on six targets. Jakobi Meyers led the team with 10 targets, catching four passes for 39 yards with a TD. He will be the highest-ranked receiver on the team each week, but Thomas is in the WR3 range.
Daniel Jones tore his Achilles and was replaced by Riley Leonard. It’s a tough break for Jones, who was having a good season. The Colts offense has to be downgraded with the Seahawks, 49ers, Jaguars and Texans to close the season.
If you rolled with Lamar Jackson despite his struggles the last three games, it worked out and could have been better. Jackson passed for 219 yards with a TD and rushed for 43 yards on seven carries with a TD. This controversial call could have made his day better, but it was ruled incomplete.