Best Week 14 Moves From Our Experts: Stash the Saints Defense

Best Week 13 Moves

Whether you're playing redraft or dynasty, knowing what moves to make is crucial to success.

That's why we're having each of our fantasy football experts give you one move to take advantage of this week.

Stash the Saints Defense

Kevin English

The Saints are a bad team. That’s easy to figure out from their 2-10 record.

But what if I told you their D/ST is a respectable 13th in fantasy scoring? Or that they’ve finished top-12 in four of their past five games?

Here’s what’s even better: New Orleans’ fantasy playoff schedule. It ranks fourth-best behind the Giants, Texans, and Cowboys. 

The Saints are usable for all three matchups: Carolina, New York (Jets), and Tennessee. They’re also available in 89% of Sleeper leagues.

Stash All The Handcuff RBs

Jared Smola

It’s time for my annual plea to stash as many handcuff RBs as possible for the remainder of the season.

The Devaughn Veles and Evan Engrams? They’re not winning you a fantasy championship.

But guys like Keaton Mitchell, Ollie Gordon, and Malik Davis? They’re one injury away from being starters and potential difference-makers. And that’s what you want to fill your bench with at this point of the season.

Check this week’s Waiver Wire article for our top-10 handcuffs for the rest of the season. And use your Free Agent Finder to target the best available stashes in your league.

Pay Attention To Playoff Strength Of Schedule

Jody Smith

Week 14 is the last week to fortify rosters for the upcoming fantasy playoffs. Utilize our Strength of Schedule tool for Weeks 14-17 this week to help you make those difficult lineup and roster decisions. 

After this week, survival strictly becomes a week-to-week proposition, so getting out ahead of the best matchups for Weeks 16 and 17 can help you build up your depth and avoid worrying about waivers. This is especially useful if you’ve used up most of your free-agent budget.

As Jared said, be proactive and jettison players who don’t offer much upside or who have difficult schedules for Weeks 15-17. Target high-ceiling guys or handcuff your own RBs where applicable. 

And don’t occupy those final roster spots with a second defense or a QB you don’t need but didn’t want your league mates to have. 

Sell Adonai Mitchell in Dynasty

Matt Schauf

If you’ve been sitting on Mitchell the past couple years, then you might be thinking, “Finally.”

What you should be thinking, though, is: Finally, a nice sell window.

If you’re a pod listener, then you might have already heard me and Jared spar a bit over Mitchell on this week’s waiver show.

Now let’s dig into what not only makes Mitchell a sell, but a WR archetype you should generally sell in dynasty.

Pros: He Looks Good and Found Opportunity

It’s not difficult to find what’s likable about Mitchell as a football player. The guy stands 6’2, 205 pounds and ran a 4.34-second 40 time at the 2024 Scouting Combine.

Add an 89th-percentile vertical, and you get the kind of WR that makes a football coach’s shorts fit a lot more snugly.

Since his trade to the Jets, Mitchell has married that physical profile with a team that needs him. He has seen 28% of New York’s targets since arriving, a terrific number and encouraging stat for the rest of his season (and maybe beyond).

But Sunday also marked his first worthwhile stat line among those three, and that’s related to his downside …

Cons: Why Haven’t You Done More?

Let’s look at what such a physically gifted wideout accomplished in college:

• 1.8 receptions per game across two years at Georgia
• A Big-12 leading 11 TDs in his lone season at Texas
• Also 20 fewer receptions and 12.0 yards per game less than teammate Xavier Worthy

Mitchell finished closer in receptions to TE Ja’Tavion Sanders and WR Jordan Whittington than to Worthy on that Longhorns team.

It’s certainly not bad per se to trail a college teammate who wound up getting drafted in Round 1. But modest production relative to talent across two stops should make you question the player’s ultimate upside.

Limited Progress Before Leaving Indy

Mitchell landed with the Colts as the 52nd overall pick, the 20th player selected in Round 2 and 11th WR off the board. Among others, he trailed:

• Xavier Legette
• Keon Coleman
• Ja’Lynn Polk

He worked fourth among Colts WRs as a rookie, ranking last among that group in catch rate (41.8%) and receiving success rate (36.4%) as well as these PFF stats:

• Yards per route (1.51)
• Drop rate (14.8%)
• Passer rating on throws his way (65.2%)

It Gets Worse

This season began with Mitchell no higher on the depth chart and drawing just eight targets over the first three games (with 4 catches). 

Indy tried to elevate him for a Week 4 contest that missed Alec Pierce, and Mitchell seemingly showed his promise with a 3-96 receiving line. But he also lost a bad fumble and generally played his way to a role that actually shrank vs. the season’s first three weeks.

Mitchell didn’t reach 10 snaps or exceed one target in any of the remaining five games before his trade.

So the Jets can say what they want about targeting Mitchell “for a reason,” but he was clearly not trending up with the Colts.

What Makes This a Dodgy Archetype?

So I’m selling Mitchell in dynasty right now to the league mate most excited about his Week 13 production, the person who thinks the talent has finally met opportunity. Because I expect Mitchell to remain a flashy-but-inconsistent player.

And that’s where we zoom out to the broader point

It’s easier to be wary of a WR prospect for his college shortcomings when we’re immediately following an NFL Draft that saw such a promising physical talent go 11th at his point. 

It’s also easy -- once he flashes that physical ability in the pros -- to forget about those shortcomings and decide that he might finally be putting it together.

Maybe. But which of these do you think is more likely?

• A guy finally figures out how to maximize his potential in the NFL, the absolute highest level of football, after not doing so at lower levels.
• That guy flashes his physical gifts here and there while ultimately falling short of becoming anything special.

Buy Isaiah Likely in Dynasty

Shane Hallam

I outlined Likely a few weeks ago as a dynasty trade target with his upcoming free agency. Now, the Ravens have signed Mark Andrews to a three-year contract, meaning Likely should hit free agency.

Having Likely on your roster for the offseason gives you multiple outs. If he signs as the starting TE for a team, his value should instantly increase. If you are set at TE, you could flip Likely for profit immediately after he signs. If you need a starting TE, you just got one for cheap.

I also outlined Likely’s film, and he is capable of putting up much better numbers where he earns targets. But dynasty managers have had him rotting on the bench for years without being able to start him consistently.

Now is the time to strike. Offer a third-round rookie pick and a bench player to start the conversation. If you have to give up a late 2nd, that can still be worthwhile in a weak 2026 class.  

Next Up

Don't Trust The Box Score: Should You Bench Lamar Jackson?

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Shane Hallam, Writer

Shane has over 20 years of experience creating content and playing every fantasy football format, including redraft, dynasty, devy, C2C, IDP, CFF, and more. He is a multi-year winner of $500 dynasty leagues on the FFPC and a King's Classic Champion. Shane utilizes deep film and scheme study to enhance his fantasy performance. He led the industry in 2024 preseason Kicker Rankings and ranked second in preseason QB Rankings. He also ranked eighth in preseason IDP rankings.