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Fantasy Football Week 14 Waiver Wire Pickup: WR Brandon LaFell

By @writered21

LaFell

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Any discussion about the fantasy football value of New England Patriots wide receiver Brandon LaFell begins with this one major point — if LaFell is still available on the waiver wire in your league, you play in a league filled with coaches who don’t pay any attention to what’s going on in the NFL week after week. But if you are in such a league, and you have any doubt at all about your wide receivers moving toward the playoffs, then LaFell should be your top waiver priority this week.

LaFell was solid again on Sunday in New England’s 26-21 loss at Green Bay. LaFell was targeted seven times and caught five passes. He only amassed 38 yards, but he caught two touchdown passes to give him a solid 15.8 score in standard leagues, and 20.8 in full PPR leagues. LaFell has been targeted at least seven times in four of New England’s last five games, including games of 11, 12 and 13 targets, respectively. He’s now pulled in seven touchdowns this season and today’s scores, both of which came on plays in the red zone (two and 15 yards) show that quarterback Tom Brady has solid trust in LaFell to get open in the cramped defensive conditions near the goal line in a big game.

New England is taking on the San Diego Chargers this week, facing a team that gave up 225 yards passing and two touchdowns to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco in a 34-33 victory. But Flacco wasn’t forced into any turnovers and wasn’t sacked. So if Brady is given a similarly clean pocket to throw from next week, you can expect his and LaFell’s numbers to be just fine. LaFell has made tremendous progress this season, considering he was targeted six times in New England’s season-opening loss to the Miami Dolphins without catching a single pass.

LaFell now has 42 receptions in his last seven games on just 58 targets, so LaFell is catching nearly three-quarters of the passes coming his way from Brady, to go with 527 yards and six touchdowns in that span. LaFell could particularly be valuable to your team if you make your league’s championship game (assuming it’s played the next-to-last week of the season like it should be), as New England plays the New York Jets that week and that could be a nice matchup for LaFell.

With trade deadlines having past in most leagues and waiver talent hard to find, if you are in a league where LaFell has slipped through the cracks and is still available, you should pick him up this week. He’s proven his worth. LaFell is still available in 22 percent of Yahoo leagues and a full one-third of NFL.com leagues.

Ed Morgans is an ACC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @writered21 and add him to your network on Google.

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