Fantasy football free agents: Kyle Monangai and Bam Knight are essential pickups

Eric CarabelleDec 1, 2025, 11:33am ET
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Sunday the 13th of the NFL season was relatively quiet for fantasy purposes, with plenty of excellent performances in games early in the week, such as patrick mahomes, aj brown and a pair Chicago Bears Running back starred. Still, we were entertained on Sunday carolina panthers Is troubling Los Angeles Rams And imaginary manager An extraordinary outing was enjoyed by bijan robinson, davante adams And under-roasted wide receivers like adonai michel And devaughn vale,

Welcome to December! With the fantasy playoffs starting in Week 14 for many managers, an unfortunate wrinkle has been added to this season, including fantasy’s top option among those serving a very late bye week. Yes, Christian McCaffrey This time, through no fault of his own, he is not playing in Week 14. Plus, we’ll miss Monday’s excellent quarterback New York Giants,new England Patriots Lean in with valuable Panthers running backs. Good luck with the lineup!

Every Monday, before the current NFL weekend ends, we will identify the players available at least 50% ESPN standard leagues worthy of your attention, from standard formats to deeper options. The NFL is a weekly league, and player evaluations and roles rarely remain static. It doesn’t matter how you acquire players for your fantasy roster, it just matters that you acquire them!

quarterback

Jacoby Brissett, Arizona Cardinals (50.2% of rosters in ESPN leagues): Brissett continues to produce top-10 fantasy efforts on a weekly basis, averaging 19.64 points in Sunday’s loss. tampa bay buccaneersBrissett has made seven starts, and his worst The performance consists of 18.68 points. Sure, the Cardinals come in class to face the Rams in Week 14, but bryce young Scored 22.54 points to beat the Rams on Sunday. It certainly seems like we can count on Brissett in the fantasy playoffs.

trevor lawrence, jacksonville jaguars (33.9%): Lawrence scored 21.66 points in an easy win over tennessee titans on Sunday, although facing indianapolis colts Week 14 should be more difficult. The Colts are allowing quarterbacks 16.2 points per game in fantasy, which nearly matches Lawrence’s average this season. Although this is a different Colts defense than last season, Lawrence has had a lot of success against the franchise, including last season when he threw for 371 yards in a win.

Deep-League Options/Streamers/Random Ideas

Perhaps Washington Commanders star jayden daniels (71%) Not available in your highly competitive league (wink, wink), but look at that roster percentage. he is available someone’s League! Even if the 3-9 Commanders aren’t playoff bound, Daniels (elbow) is definitely a possibility to return to face minnesota vikings (who certainly have their own QB problems) in Week 14. If not, backup marcus mariota (9.3%), who highlighted denver broncos The one point loss on Sunday night is worth it.
New York Jets starter tyrod taylor (4.6%) scored 21.28 points in the team’s last-second win atlanta falconsHowever most of his production came with 44 rushing yards and one touchdown. Still, he faces miami dolphins This week, presenting a streaming opportunity. It is more favorable than going with tyler shaw (5.3%) against the Buccaneers or cancer cousin (4.8%) vs Mighty Seattle Seahawks,
Finally, four quarterbacks have their byes in Week 14. keep drake may, jackson dart And brock purdy rostered, while Bryce Young (11.7%), despite his Week 13 heroics and upward trajectory, could be gone.

running back

kyle monangaiBear (56%): Bears embarrassed philadelphia eagles With 281 rushing yards on Friday, as rookie Monangai and veteran d’andre swift Combined for 39.8 fantasy points. Monangai is available in numerous leagues. The Bears may not be able to replicate this rushing effort this week against green Bay Packers (or ever), but Monangai, with double-digit fantasy points in three consecutive games, certainly deserves more attention.

bomb nightCardinals (36.8%): We have guessed about when trey benson (57.6%) will eventually return from their knee injury. Benson, who last played in Week 4, is eligible to return for a few weeks but remains a limited practice participant. Perhaps Knight, who averaged 16.8 points in Sunday’s loss and has scored in double figures in three consecutive games, scored four in a row against the Rams. michael carter (10%) is a reasonable deep-league flex if Benson also sits.

Deep-League Options/Streamers/Random Ideas

Stefania Bell: Bijan Robinson is Atlanta’s only imaginary bright spot

Field Yates, Daniel Dopp and Stefania Bell explain why there seems to be no end to Bijan Robinson’s fantasy dominance.

falcons backup tyler alger (32.9%) scored his eighth touchdown of the season on Sunday, reminding fantasy managers that even if Bijan Robinson is amazing and we can’t rely on volume to backup him, at least Alger has value heading into the bye week. rams backup black quorum (12.6%) only has two touchdowns, but his situation somewhat matches that of Algier. Ahh, I wish these guys had a volume.
chris rodriguez jr, (12.3%) scored another rushing touchdown Sunday night, his fourth in six games, and he’s clearly in the running to return to the roster in Washington. This may not make much sense, as Rodriguez has only caught one pass all season, but the starting running back shouldn’t be available either.
vikings can go together Jordan Mason (53%) against commanders because Aaron Jones Sr.(Shoulder) continues to be a problem in remaining on the field, Mason is averaging 4,7 yards per rush,
we don’t know that New Orleans Saints you will get a starter Alvin Kamara (Knee) Back for Week 14, but newbie devin neal (42%) Was the only running back to record a rushing attempt in Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins. He averaged 9.9 points and could possibly do so again this week against the Buccaneers.
In addition to maintaining the wonderful McCaffrey and capable Tyrone Tracy Jr.During their bye weeks, fantasy managers should maintain all four options for the Panthers and Patriots timeshares (Rico Dowdle, Chuba Hubbard, traveyon henderson, Ramondre Stevenson) Too. Hubbard (63.5%) may be available in your league. If her annoying timeshare with Dowdle is back up again, why not pick her up this week before Week 15?

wide receiver

Adonai Mitchell, Jets (2.7%): A week later we discussed the relatively new jet John Mechie III (10.1%), Mitchell (a former Colt) had a stellar performance, averaging 24.2 points, catching passes for 102 yards and scoring his first touchdown. Tyrod Taylor is a passing upgrade over Justin Fields On the QB. Which Jet WR do you want? Well, the Mechie is a low-yardage option, which has upside. The Dolphins, and beyond, go with Mitchell, a young, speedy deep threat who averaged 14.0 yards per reception.

Christian Watson (52%) and dontevian wicks (1%), Packers: Wicks was the Thanksgiving Day star with 28 points, his first game with double-digit points all season. Watson took 10 shots in that game. Possibly including all three Packers WRs Romeo Doubs (72%) are worth watching for the important Week 14 game against the surprising Bears, but no one will ever know which receiver to play.

Alec PierceColts (53.7%): Pierce scored 17.8 points in Sunday’s loss. houston texansBut he continues to make his case as the top option for QB Daniel JonesWhich suddenly isn’t so reliable. Michael Pittman Jr.Caught only one pass Sunday, and the last time he surpassed 30 receiving yards was in Week 9, Blame Jones if you want, downgrade Pittman a bit, and bring the undervalued Pierce into the lineup for Week 14 against the Jaguars,

Deep-League Options/Streamers/Random Ideas

Is Devagh Vale a future fantasy star for the Saints?

saint star Chris Olave Is one of the top 10 fantasy wide receivers for the season, and he scored his fifth touchdown on Sunday, but the second-year man devaughn vale (0.6%) had a better game with 23.3 points, including his second touchdown. Vale has claimed 15 goals in the last two matches, and he could continue his success against the Buccaneers this week.
detroit lions star Amon-Ra Saint Brown (Ankle) Will likely miss one or more games, so deeper draft picks may want to consider isaac tesla (1%). The Arkansas rookie is having a strange season, with touchdowns on half of his six receptions (11 targets), which is quite unsustainable. Still, if he gets more goals in the coming weeks, he’s probably a legitimate sleeper.
Here are the leading WRs for each Week 14 bye team: tetaroa macmillan, stefon diggs, van’dale robinson And john jenningsBut that’s it. Although that’s a great story, it’s time to move on Ricky Pearsall (64.6%), as he hasn’t scored well since Week 3.

tight end

Brenton StrangeJaguar (22%): Strange scored 13.5 points on Sunday, including his first touchdown of his shortened, seven-game campaign. In Week 14 Strange faces a Colts defense that is leading in fantasy points allowed to tight ends. This tight end is moving towards TE1 territory.

Dalton SchultzTexas (51.6%): Schultz scored 12.5 points Sunday, the sixth time in eight games he’s reached double figures — and he didn’t rely on the TD, as he has only one this season. He’s doing it with volume and receiving yards.

Why is Brock Bowers’ fantasy stock rising?

Tristan H. Cockcroft explains why Brock Bowers is a must-have for fantasy managers heading into the playoffs.

Deep-League Options/Streamers/Random Ideas

protect

Buccaneers D/ST (23%) Hosts the Saints in Week 14. Some of us remember the last time these teams met, when the Buccaneers held the Saints to just three points in Week 8 and the D/ST unit scored 25 fantasy points. Recurrence is certainly possible.
Commander D/ST (2.7%) is one of the worst in fantasy this season, averaging 2.1 points per game, ahead of only the Giants and Bengals. Anyway, did you watch Minnesota’s offense in Week 13? This did not score.
For those looking for D/ST units with a little more pedigree bill d/st (45.2%) scored 17 points against the Steelers but will face a tough test with the Bengals. Eagles D/ST (53.5%) Losing to the Bears felt terrible, but it was worth it los angeles chargers a crime that could potentially occur without Justin Herbert (hand), although the quarterback may attempt to play after surgery.
Dolphin D/ST (13.6%) scored 13 fantasy points against the Saints on Sunday, and the Jets are next. This is a major streaming opportunity in fantasy. If the Dolphins have moved to your league, also consider the Jets (8.8%). While the first matchup between these teams in Week 4 was a relatively high-scoring affair, we shouldn’t anticipate a repeat in this case.