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Patrick McGrath's five fantasy football bold predictions for Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season. Expert predictions for Brian Thomas, Omarion Hampton, Justin Jefferson, more.
Week 14 in most leagues marks the final week of the fantasy regular season. For some, this means the last chance to secure a postseason berth, clinch a bye, or simply avoid the embarrassment of finishing last.
With several fantasy-relevant teams inconveniently hitting the bye week, a lot of managers are about to roll out lineups featuring players they barely trust, hardly know, or actively resent.
Whether it's a veteran returning to health, a rookie set to swoop in and save your season, or a superstar working through the quarterback concerns that have muted him all year, these are five bold predictions you can trust in Week 14 to get you wherever you're trying to go.
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Trevor Lawrence Throws for 300+ Passing Yards
In Week 13's walkthrough win over Tennessee, Trevor Lawrence cleared a 100-quarterback rating for the first time in over a calendar year while showing complete command of Liam Coen's evolving offense. Since Jakobi Meyers became fully integrated into the game plan, Lawrence's average depth of target has jumped by more than two full yards, and he's strung together three straight top-10 fantasy finishes.
Trevor Lawrence passer rating before and after the arrival of Jakobi Meyers:
Before: 80.6
After: 85.8That number jumps to 88.7 if you exclude Meyers' first game in Houston pic.twitter.com/0F4tHY89ZL
— SleeperJaguars (@SleeperJaguars) December 2, 2025
In a week with no teams on bye, Lawrence was the QB5 and easily could have finished even higher if Jacksonville hadn't simply shut things down. Through the Jaguars' first drive of the second half, he sat at 214 yards and two touchdowns. From that point forward, he attempted only four passes beyond the line of scrimmage, including one throwaway and a bad drop by Austin Trammell or some other fifth-year receiver I could have just made up.
There will be no letting up in Week 14. The Jags face a Colts offense that is scoring more points than any team in the league. This game will not slow down. It will not stall. It will not resemble last week's second-half tryptophan slumber.
Because while the Colts can put up points on anyone, their lone flaw has been stopping the pass. In the six games leading up to the trade deadline, Indianapolis allowed 301 passing yards per game, prompting them to flip two first-round picks and apparently the best receiver in the world, Adonai Mitchell, for Sauce Gardner. Gardner is now week-to-week with a calf strain, and there should be no expectation of anything less than a 60-minute barnburner for the top spot in the division.
Brian Thomas Jr. Tops 100 Receiving Yards
Doubling down on the Jaguars, second-year wideout Brian Thomas Jr. is one week further removed from the ankle injury that cost him three games, and the early indicators against the Titans were encouraging: a 75% snap share and 77% route participation in a matchup that Jacksonville had in hand by halftime. BTJ didn't fill the box score, but he was running open constantly and delivered one of the game's defining effort plays on Meyers' 50-yard catch-and-run.
Brian Thomas Jr. was downfield hunting, while Parker Washington just seemed happy to be involved. pic.twitter.com/XeGZ2uApkd
— McGrumble (@FF_McGrumble) December 3, 2025
Liam Coen has shown a clear tendency to reward players who bring that kind of juice, as evidenced by his recent hot-hand approach with his running back room.
BTJ's sophomore season has been frustrating, but in a game that could determine the AFC South, history is on his side. In his two career games against the Colts, Thomas has hauled in 12 of 19 targets for 225 yards and a touchdown. While one of those games came with Mac Jones calling plays, his first career 100-yard game came against Indy, when Trevor Lawrence threw for a career-high 371 yards.
Sunday's matchup carries a 47.5-point over/under, one of the highest of the week, and with both defenses ranking inside the top seven against the run, the expectation is not for those points to come on the ground.
With Parker Washington potentially sidelined with a hip issue and Lawrence vaguely resembling the franchise quarterback that's been promised for half a decade, a fully healthy Brian Thomas Jr. with rising snaps in a pass-heavy game script should be in line for his first 100-yard game of 2025.
Darren Waller Scores Two Touchdowns
Early in the fourth quarter of Miami's Week 13 win over the Saints, Darren Waller found himself jogging uncovered across the back of the end zone. On an extremely catchable pass thrown by Tua Tagovailoa with perhaps a hair too much touch, Waller lost track of his depth, and the result was his first red zone target of 2025 that didn't result in points.
A player who's played more than five games in the past 23 months probably comes down with that throw, but the fact that Waller is already so devoid of rust is quite remarkable, as he's quickly reestablished himself as one of the league's premier red zone weapons.
In Week 14, the Dolphins face the same Jets team that Waller made his 2025 debut against, back in Week 4, when he played under 28% of the team's snaps while seeing 33.3% route participation and still scored two touchdowns on three catches.
Waller played only 27 offensive snaps in his Week 13 return from a pectoral injury that caused him to miss more than a month, but if his early-season ramp-up is repeated, it's reasonable to expect a jump to the 60-70% snap range and something closer to full-route participation.
Once Miami gets near the goal line, don't expect much resistance. Over the last three weeks, the Jets have allowed touchdowns on 61.5% of opponents' red zone trips. At home, where they'll be on Sunday, they've been even worse, preventing a touchdown only 31.6% of the time, a rate only three other teams fail to clear.
In recent weeks without Waller, Miami has struggled to end drives with touchdowns, but he is back, healthier, and already tied for seventh in the league with four touchdowns from inside the 10-yard line while essentially being a full-time player in only three games. If Miami gets into the red zone on Sunday, he's as strong a bet as anyone to come down with one (or two) more.
Omarion Hampton Puts Up 100+ Total Yards
After missing seven games with an ankle injury, first-round pick Omarion Hampton is finally expected to return for Monday Night Football against the Eagles, and fantasy managers everywhere are staring at their lineups like they're deciding between the red or the blue wire. While not exactly apples to apples, the wait-and-see crowd learned a painful lesson last week when Bucky Irving returned from his own seven-game absence and immediately finished as the RB12.
The best argument both for and against Hampton's instant usability is the emergence of Kimani Vidal, who has ripped off 100+ total yards in four of seven starts despite running behind the Chargers' paper-mâché offensive line.
It's entirely possible L.A. chooses to ease Hampton back, but that would be a complete 180 from the last time we saw him at full health. Through the start of the season, before exiting the Week 5 loss to Washington, Hampton handled a ludicrous 78.6% of the team's running back carries while finishing as a top-seven fantasy back in his last two full games.
Even if Vidal maintains a role, the Eagles just surrendered a combined 268 yards and two touchdowns to D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, and that was with Jalen Carter on the field.
Carter has since undergone a procedure on both shoulders that could keep him out for the rest of the regular season. With Carter ejected in Week 1 after setting a salivary theme to the season, Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders combined for 114 yards and two scores, while a heel issue kept him out of a Week 6 loss to the Giants that saw Cam Skattebo rumble his way to 110 yards and three scores.
Trey Lance, #Chargers QB1 at practice today, while rookie RB Omarion Hampton is also practicing in a yellow, non contact jersey as he continues his ramp up toward a return. He’s missed the last 7 games with an ankle injury. pic.twitter.com/Ck7gAAiFtC
— Omar Ruiz (@OmarDRuiz) December 3, 2025
Justin Herbert underwent his own surgery this week, and whether it's Trey Lance or a one-handed Herbert under center, the Chargers' game plan will likely be to lean on the run and get the ball out quickly. Hampton has the game-breaking ability to hit 100 even in a committee, but if he sees anything close to his early-season workload, that very well could be his floor against a suddenly susceptible Philly front.
Justin Jefferson Has His Best Game of the Season
Justin Jefferson is coming off the worst game of his professional career. A Max Brosmer-led disasterpiece in which he caught two of six targets for four yards. It was the low point of a season that’s seen Jefferson regularly held underwater by some of the league's most unwatchable quarterback play.
Now J.J. McCarthy returns after a one-week benchcussion, and the arrow seems to have no place left to point but up. As seemingly out of touch as he has been to start his young career, McCarth-- err, uh… "Nine" has to realize that these next five weeks are an open audition for his future. When a quarterback is playing for his job, the smart ones funnel the ball to the most reliable, unstoppable force on the field. Jefferson is still that guy.
The underlying metrics swear that nothing about Jefferson has changed. His usage, drop rate, and contested-catch numbers are all in line with his career averages, but his 17-game pace of 149 targets would be the lowest since his rookie season. With him continuing to do everything right, the only thing keeping him from a vintage JJettas performance is a steady stream of quality targets.
The Vikings draw a Commanders defense in Week 14 that trails only Cincinnati's sieve of a secondary in passing yards allowed. With McCarthy fighting for his claim to the top of the depth chart and the path forward as simple as throwing to the best player on the planet (aside from AD Mitchell), everything lines up for a Jefferson get-right game and the kind of performance that allows fantasy managers to unclench heading into the playoffs.
