Fantasy Football Week 14 Running Back Preview: Playoff stashes, projections, DFS plays, and more

Week 14 is a strange week in Fantasy Football. In my leagues, it seems about a third to half of the league has something to play for. The rest of the league is either eliminated or has already locked up their bye or playoff spot. I can't help those of you eliminated, and the rest of this article is for those teams that are fighting for position in Week 14. But at the top, I would like to offer some help for those teams who have already locked in their playoff seeding.

For starters, congratulations. Now, let's take a look at the playoff schedule at the quarterback position.

At running back, we are mostly looking for backups who could become starters. Last week in this column, I told you to stash Brian Robinson, and I still believe he may have the most upside of all the stashes who are widely available. He wouldn't get the Christian McCaffrey workload, but I do believe he would see more than 15 touches per game without McCaffrey. 

After Robinson, Blake Corum would be my favorite target. He's rostered in fewer leagues now and has a bigger role right now. If Kyren Williams were to go down, I would suspect Corum would dominate running back touches and be a top-12 producer. He has averaged 4.7 yards per carry this year and has proven the ability to handle a series on his own, so I don't think the Rams would hesitate to hand him a game or two. Williams is currently dealing with an ankle injury, which makes Corum a priority.

Frustrated because these guys are already rostered? Keaton Mitchell is only rostered in 10% of leagues. Justice Hill is already on IR. If Derrick Henry goes down, Mitchell could regularly see 15 touches, and he has averaged a remarkable 7.3 yards per touch for his career.

Other playoff stashes I would target in deeper leagues are Tank Bigsby, Samaje Perine, and Isaiah Davis.

Now let's get to the rest of the Week 14 RB Preview:

Week 14 RB Preview

• 49.2% -- TreVeyon Henderson's 49.2% snap share in Week 13 was his lowest since Week 8. It sure looks like Mike Vrabel trusts Rhamodre Stevenson more despite the fact that Henderson has been the better rusher and Stevenson has ball security problems.
• 29.5 -- Breece Hall has scored 29.5 PPR Fantasy points in two games with Tyrod Taylor since Justin Fields got benched. View Hall as a must-start running back.
• 1.44 -- Saquon Barkley is averaging 1.44 yards before contact per rush attempt. That's 1.2 yards worse per rush than 2024.
• 63% -- Bucky Irving led Tampa Bay with a 63% rush share in Week 13. He's back.
• 5 -- Isiah Pacheco only had five touches in his first game back. Kareem Hunt looks safe in the lead back role.
• 71.1% -- Devin Neal ran a route on 71% of Tyler Shough's dropbacks in his first game without Alvin Kamara. He's a borderline RB2 in full PPR.

Week 14 Adds (RB Preview)

Chris Rodriguez Jr. RB WAS Washington • #36 Age: 26 • Experience: 3 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP @ MIN MIN -1.5 O/U 42 OPP VS RB 13th RB RNK 28th ROSTERED 47% YTD Stats RUYDS 320 REC 1 REYDS 6 TD 4 FPTS/G 5.8 You are not going to find an RB2 on the waiver wire. But you can find a lead running back in Chris Rodriguez. He leads the team in rush share over the last month and has the goal-line role locked up. The Commanders could be more run-heavy in Week 14 against the Vikings' anemic offense. He still needs a TD to be a good start, but he is the most likely back on the waiver wire to score this week.

Tyjae Spears RB TEN Tennessee • #2 Age: 24 • Experience: 3 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP @ CLE CLE -4.5 O/U 33.5 OPP VS RB 8th RB RNK 33rd ROSTERED 62% YTD Stats RUYDS 158 REC 28 REYDS 173 TD 1 FPTS/G 8.4 Spears scores eight PPR points almost every week. The Titans aren't going to have any success running the ball this week, so they may have to go more pass-heavy, which favors Spears. As good as the Browns defense has been, they have only been league average against running backs in the passing game. And they have given up 22 catches to the position in their last three games.

Top DFS Play

Projections powered by Sportsline

De'Von Achane RB MIA Miami • #28 Age: 24 • Experience: 3 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP @ NYJ MIA -2.5 O/U 40.5 OPP VS RB 28th PROJ PTS 18.8 RB RNK 1st YTD Stats RUYDS 1034 REC 54 REYDS 370 TD 10 FPTS/G 21.2 Achane has at least 20 touches in five straight games. He is completely game script insulated because of his role in the passing game, but we expect the Dolphins to play from ahead in this game. The Jets are top five in missed tackles this year, with 89, and Fantasy points per game allowed to running backs with 23.58. It should surprise no one if Achane is RB1 overall this week.

Contrarian DFS Play

Projections powered by Sportsline

Ashton Jeanty RB LV Las Vegas • #2 Age: 22 • Experience: Rookie Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs DEN DEN -7.5 O/U 40.5 OPP VS RB 3rd PROJ PTS 12.8 RB RNK 11th YTD Stats RUYDS 635 REC 43 REYDS 251 TD 8 FPTS/G 14.8 Jeanty has no offensive line and is facing one of the best defenses in the NFL. That's why he's contrarian. But his price is all the way down to $6,800, and he has eight targets in each of his last three games. I still believe in his talent, and with the Raiders consistently getting him the ball in space, it is only a matter of time before he breaks a big play.

My full set of Week 14 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 14. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.