Fantasy Football Week 13 Preview

Welcome to the Week 13 Preview!  We will cover every game for the upcoming weekend and find the best matchups and the ones to avoid!  We are done with bye weeks and back to full slates, so this one should be fun!

 

Bears at Giants

The Giants mostly avoided sacks and turnovers last week with quick passes.  That should be the game plan again. Expect lots of short passes to Saquon Barkley and Odell Beckham to mitigate the presence of Khalil Mack.

The Bears offense should have a field day with the Giants defense.  They should be able to exploit the linebackers in coverage with Tarik Cohen, much like they did last week.  Janoris Jenkins will be shadowing Allen Robinson, giving the Bears true WR1, Anthony Miller, free run in the slot.  I also like Trey Burton this week. His targets are sporadic, but they continue to draw up red zone plays for him.

Cardinals at Packers

This sets up as a smash spot for Aaron Jones.  His usage has skyrocketed in recent weeks and he is favored at home by double digits.  Davante Adams has been shadowed by a gauntlet of top corners, but he has still managed to torch them all.  I’m not concerned about Patrick Peterson.

The Packers have faced many injuries in their secondary recently.  This is good news for Larry Fitzgerald, who scored early last week and was then shut out.  I think he’ll see enough targets to hit his value. David Johnson is still an elite play even if this game goes poorly.  

 

Colts at Jaguars

Blake Bortles is officially benched and I think this actually helps the Jaguars offense.  Leonard Fournette is out, however, and this certainly hurts the offense. I expect a heavy flow of Carlos Hyde and T.J. Yeldon.  The Colts have a solid front, but they are exploitable with pass catching RBs. I think Yeldon could put together a nice game facing negative game script.

The last time these teams played, Eric Ebron got three touchdowns.  I think he could do something similar with how poor the Jags safeties have been playing and the fact that Jack Doyle is out.  Luck is always a safe play, but I’m wary of T.Y. Hilton. He only caught three balls for 77 yards at home against the Jags earlier in the season.  

 

Browns at Texans

This game features two of the hottest teams right now.  I’m very excited to see how Nick Chubb fairs against this Texans run D.  He really struggled on the ground last week, but he saw a receiving game explosion that nobody expected.  If that keeps up, he’ll be a rock-solid RB1 the rest of the year. I also think Baker Mayfield can just shred this secondary.  I’m not interested in Jarvis Landry, but David Njoku came to life last week. I think he can have success again this week.

The Texans have been a very balanced team as of late with DeShaun Watson’s rib injuries.  Lamar Miller has also exploded onto the scene, and I think he can keep it going this week.  You always love DeAndre Hopkins to have a nice game, but with Keke Coutee out I’m expecting Demaryius Thomas’ targets to spike.  He had a nice game last week on limited looks, but this elevated target share should solidify that.

Panthers at Buccaneers

I think the Panthers smash the Buccaneers again.  Christian McCaffrey has been so hot lately and he should have a field day against this Buccaneers team that has no linebackers.  D.J. Moore should be solid out of the slot again as well. The Buccaneers have been abused by TEs as well, so I’m in on Greg Olsen again.  

On the Bucs side, Jameis Winston keeps putting up great numbers.  He’ll be without DeSean Jackson this week, but I think this just opens up more opportunity for Chris Godwin.  He won’t replicate the deep role that Jackson was in, but he’ll see more targets and get more receptions. Mike Evans was shut down by James Bradberry in their previous matchup, but it’ll be hard to do the same thing twice.  Evans is pretty close to an elite talent and he should be able to overcome these matchups.

 

Bills at Dolphins

This game does not excite me at all.  You could justify LeSean McCoy, but his touches are just so bizarre.  They love getting Chris Ivory involved for some reason that it’s just a headache.  

The Dolphins defense is interesting, and you could stack them with Kenyan Drake.  He continues to make explosive plays, but the Dolphins love three yard carries from Frank Gore too much to give Drake any extra work.  

 

Broncos at Bengals

It’s time for Jeff Driskel to take over as the Bengals franchise QB.  I’m semi-joking, but I think his rushing ability will give him a high fantasy floor in this game.  And he will have A.J. Green back. I think he has super sneaky streaming value.

I do like Phillip Lindsay.  The Bengals are thin at LB and Lindsay has been dominating lately.  Emmanuel Sanders has serious upside as well. Darqueze Dennard is exploitable in the slot and Sanders has seen elite target totals recently.

Ravens at Falcons

The Falcons are getting back Deion Jones for this one.  It’ll be his first game in months, but his speed with instantly have an impact on this game.  Lamar Jackson will likely get plenty of carries, giving him a high floor. Many people will be on Gus Edwards, but he is an extremely thin play to me.  He gets no passing game work and he hasn’t had a goal-line role. He could top 100 yards again, but that would be three in a row for an undrafted rookie.

Jimmy Smith is a good cover corner, but Julio Jones is a man.  I think he explodes this game. I’m not too excited about the running backs for the Falcons, as the Ravens have routinely shut down running games and limit pass attempts to backs.  Austin Hooper is very interesting, as he has seen eight targets per game in the last three weeks.

 

Rams at Lions

This game could get ugly, and that is never good for the losing team’s fantasy outlook.  Kenny Golladay and Bruce Ellington are good plays. Golladay has the skills to beat Marcus Peters and Matthew Stafford should be able to exploit that.  Ellington should be facing Troy Hill. He has also seen nine and seven targets in his last two games operating out of the slot.

I’m comfortable starting any Rams player except the TEs.

 

Chiefs at Raiders

As I am writing this, the video of Kareem Hunt shoving a 19-year-old girl has just surfaced.  This happened in February, so I doubt it affects his availability in this game or for the season.  I have no other comments on him.

I would start any Chiefs player against this Raiders team.  They don’t generate any pressure and Patrick Mahomes will probably have an MVP game in the wake of Drew Brees fumbling the Thursday night matchup.  

The Raiders are banged up and just bad.  I’m not really interested unless you need to start Jared Cook.

 

Jets at Titans

Quincy Enunwa and Jermaine Kearse came alive last week.  They didn’t have monster games, but you really can’t set the bar too high for the Jets.  I would be interested in Enunwa, as he saw the higher snap share between the two and should play the slot more.  The Titans have been trotting out Malcolm Butler in the slot, and he has been atrocious.

I think the Titans are sneaky DFS plays.  They are reasonably cheap coming off of a nice showing, albeit in a losing effort.  Corey Davis should move around enough to avoid Morris Claiborne. He is seeing an absurd 28 percent target share.  The running backs scare me, though. They really don’t know who they want to feature until they are in the moment, so it is too hard to trust for fantasy.

Vikings at Patriots

Stefon Diggs being active protects Adam Thielen from Stephon Gilmore.  Thielen is my favorite player from this game, and I honestly think that the Vikings could upset the Patriots.  Dalvin Cook was active in the screen game last week, and that is something to exploit against the slow linebackers of the Patriots.  

Xavier Rhodes shockingly returned to practice and should be good to go for Sunday, so he’ll likely be on Josh Gordon for most of the game.  This would give Julian Edelman a bump in the slot, and I think he’ll be heavily targeted with how much pressure the Vikings will likely bring.  That will be the key to the game: How well will Brady hold up against the blitz?

 

49ers at Seahawks

49ers are simple.  You start Matt Breida and George Kittle and don’t worry about anyone else.

Any Seahawks seem to be a good play.  David Moore and Tyler Lockett have seen few targets, but they have been incredibly efficient.  They are good plays, along with Doug Baldwin and Chris Carson. This game is relatively straightforward though.  

 

Chargers at Steelers

With Melvin Gordon out, the Chargers will have to turn to Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson in the backfield.  Ekeler is awesome, but Jackson has the prototypical size that we want to see from a featured back. Don’t be surprised when he has a passing game role as well.  Keenan Allen should dominate out of the slot and Phillip Rivers has been sharper than ever.

The Steelers are coming off of a very disappointing road loss.  But the one thing that is automatic is Big Ben at home in primetime.  He will be slinging the ball with a chip on his shoulder. The Chargers have also been weak against running backs, so I’m fine with starting anyone on this offense.  The TEs keep splitting work, but I’m giving the edge to Vance McDonald. This game should be really exciting.

 

Well, that’s it for this week!  Thank you so much for reading and I hope I helped you all with your lineups.  If you have any questions or comments, let me know on Twitter! See you next week.

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