Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 14: Debating Difficult Fantasy Football Lineup Decisions

No pressure, folks, but your start-or-sit decisions in Week 14 of the 2020 NFL season just might make or break your championship dreams.

Hopefully, you sniffed out tricky matchups on Thursday night and shied away from Cam Newton, Jared Goff, Damien Harris, Robert Woods—well, pretty much everyone other than Cam Akers and the Rams defense.

But now comes the hard part: navigating the rest of this slate. Luckily, we're here to help with some of the top play-or-bench calls for Week 14.

Start: Ryan Tannehill, QB, Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars

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Ryan Tannehill isn't the most consistent fantasy contributor around, but he knows how to capitalize on an exploitable matchup.

Most recently, he blitzed the Cleveland Browns for 389 passing yards and three touchdowns. Earlier this season, he went for 366 passing yards and four scores against the Houston Texans and dropped four touchdown passes on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

With Jacksonville—fourth-worst in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks per game, per Yahoo—back on the docket, Tannehill should feast on a generous defense again. He had just six incompletions against those four scoring strikes the first time around. Fireworks could come early and often in the second showdown.

Sit: Baker Mayfield, QB, Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens

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Yes, we did see Baker Mayfield shred the Tennessee Titans for 334 yards and four scores his last time out, and put 258 yards and another two scores on the Jacksonville Jaguars the week prior. And yes, we're also aware he hasn't been picked off since Week 7.

So, what gives?

Well, those six touchdown passes mark all his scores in Week 7. Prior to this torrid two-game stretch, he managed a mere 458 passing yards in the three previous contests combined and didn't deliver a touchdown in any of them. He has six outings of sub-200 passing yards and five games with one or fewer touchdown pass.

He's basically a matchup play, and this isn't a particularly favorable one. The Ravens allow the 13th-fewest fantasy points to the quarterback position, and Mayfield helped drag that number down with a Week 1 dud against them (21-of-39 for 189 yards with one touchdown and one interception).

Start: Jonathan Taylor, RB, Indianapolis Colts at Las Vegas Raiders

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By-committee backfields are the worst for fantasy football managers to navigate, and it's part of the reason optimistic projections for Jonathan Taylor's rookie season haven't come true. There's only so much he can do with less than a featured role.

But talent matters in these crowded mixes, and Taylor has plenty of it. That looks like it will have him sprinting through the finish line of the 2020 season.

In Week 11, he turned 26 touches into 114 scrimmage yards. In Week 13, he needed just 16 touches to tally a season-high 135 scrimmage yards, plus a receiving score. His arrow should keep pointing up against a Raiders defense allowing the fourth-most fantasy points to running backs.

Sit: Miles Sanders, RB, Philadelphia Eagles vs. New Orleans Saints

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It's certainly possible Philadelphia's quarterback change to Jalen Hurts could be good news for Miles Sanders. After all, it probably can't get any worse, right?

But that's part of the rub. Sanders has been so brutal in consecutive contests that it's impossible to trust him with so much at stake. Would you feel comfortable getting 53 scrimmage yards from a running back right now? Because that's what Sanders has delivered—in the last two weeks combined.

He has the talent to someday right the ship, but this almost certainly isn't the matchup to do it. The Saints allow the fewest fantasy points to the running back position (by a wide margin). The last time someone rushed for 100 yards against them was Week 11 of the 2017 season. Stay far away from Sanders in anything but the deepest fantasy leagues.