Week 14’s NFL All-Star Team

By Rhys Knott

The 2023 NFL All-Star team is looking increasingly like the San Francisco 49ers. But there’s still 4 weeks left for the rest of the league to put their case forward. And then there’s the playoffs for Kyle Shanahan to negotiate.

Week 14’s All-Star Quarterback

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As much as I want it to be Desmond Ridder (who threw for 347 yards and ran for 15 more) it has to be Brock Purdy. That man is quite literally on fire. Ridder threw one scoring pass and a pick and he ran a touchdown in. Purdy threw two TD’s and a pick. 

Only Jake Browning had a better passer rating than Purdy, but he threw fewer passes (only three fewer, but still). Purdy completed 19 of 27 attempts. Trevor Lawrence attempted 50 passes! Don’t even get me started on playing your star QB with a high ankle sprain on a short week in a game that doesn’t really matter in the grander scheme of things. 

Week 14’s All-Star Running Back

Christian McCaffrey, if he isn’t the 2023 MVP something very strange has happened. He’s averaging 5.8 yards per touch in 2023, that’s his highest average since 2019! He’s also scored 17 touchdowns in 13 games, which put him on pace to beat his previous seasons’ best. 

This week he ended the game with 153 yards from the line of scrimmage, his most since Week 4. 

Week 14’s All-Star Wide Receivers

Drake London. He’s very good, but the Falcons aren’t (they’re sort of good, with the ever present chance of making a disastrous mistake). And they rarely use him effectively. London has only had 3 games with 100+ in his career (two of them have been against Tampa Bay though) and he’s only caught 6 touchdowns in 29 games. This week he had 10 catches for 172 yards, that’s AJ Brown numbers. The Falcons just need to figure out how to use him like AJ Brown. 

Deebo Samuel, the 49ers only beat the Seahawks by 12 points, but they put up some massive numbers. Samuel had 7 catches for 149 yards, and he caught a touchdown too. 

As if to prove the ‘9ers put up numbers the third All-Star receiver is Samuels’ teammate, Brandon Aiyuk. Aiyuk only caught 6 passes, but he still racked up 126 yards at an average of 21.1 yards per catch.

Week 14’s All-Star Tight End

Despite the Jaguars being well below par with an injured Trevor Lawrence trying to run the show (but if you haven’t been healthy enough to practice you should you really be playing on a Thursday?) Evan Engram is the All-Star tight end. Engram had 11 catches for 95 yards and 2 touchdowns. Engram didn’t catch a touchdown in the first 11 games of the season, but he’s caught 3 in the last 2 games. 

Week 14’s D/ST

It’s not often you can choose a defense that allowed 27 points as the best of the week, But the Titans offense won them the game in Miami. They created 3 turnovers and sacked Tua 5 times! All without Jeffery Simmons too. Harold Landry stepped up and provided the pass rush this week. He sacked Tua 3 times, his first 3 sack game of his career. T.K Mclendon recovered a fumble on the Titans 9 own yard line which later proved decisive.  

Special teams played their part too, Nick Folk kicked both extra points and two field goals. And rookie punter Ty Zentner averaged 48.8 yards as he punted 5 times. 

RHYS KNOTT

NFL/FANTASY FOOTBALL ANALYST

Rhys has been watching the NFL for 30 something years and still hasn’t managed to pick a team to support. When he’s not fixatED on pass rushers you can find him blithering on about most sports on Twitter @wrhys_writes

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