With twelve weeks of football in the books, things have mostly settled down. There are no real surprises anymore, and no players are popping up out of nowhere with big games. Psych! I’m just kidding. The NFL is as hectic as ever, with someone called “Bam Knight” suddenly having fantasy relevance, Olamide Zaccheaus outscoring Drake London, and Mike White going for 300 and 3 last week. Never fear, however, as we can try to see what is going to happen and forecast some good pickups for this weekend. Let’s get into week thirteen’s streamers! To make this list, a player must be available in at least 50% of leagues after waivers ran this week. For the, “oh wow what easy leagues you must play in, I’ve had Bam Knight for six weeks,” jokesters, we have a player at each position that is available in at least 90% of leagues.
Quarterbacks
Jared Goff versus Jacksonville (48% rostered)
Jared Goff turned it around a bit on Thanksgiving. He took on a strong Buffalo Bills defense and walked away with 17.6 fantasy points thanks to finishing with 240 yards and two touchdowns on the day. It was his first time topping 15 fantasy points in four weeks when he took advantage of a questionable Miami defense the day before Halloween en route to 18.64 fantasy points. This week, he gets a questionable Jacksonville Jaguars’ defense that has given up at least 18 fantasy points to three-straight quarterbacks, and at least 18 points to five of their last six opponents. It probably would have been six-for-six if it weren’t for Russell Wilson Russell Wilsoning everywhere. The Lions and the Jags should be a good old-fashioned catfight, and Jared Goff will reap all the rewards.
Mike White at Minnesota (14% rostered)
Any defense that lets Mac Jones score over 16 fantasy points immediately makes a defense suspect in my eyes, mostly because only one team (the Minnesota Vikings last weekend) has allowed him that many points this year, and they let him have 23 fantasy points on his first game over 325 passing yards on the year and his only game with multiple passing touchdowns. I cannot underscore how terrible Mac Jones has been this year, and Minnesota let him finish last week as QB7.
This week, Minnesota gets one of the six quarterbacks who finished ahead of Mac Jones last week, Mike “300 and 3” White, who dismantled the terrible Chicago Bears defense. This week, he should be able to keep that ball rolling as he and the suddenly competent (hmm wonder why) Jets’ offense flies into town.
Kenny Pickett at Atlanta (10% rostered)
Don’t look now, but Kenny Pickett looked not terrible on Monday Night Football, though the strong Colts’ pass defense held him to just 12 fantasy points and a QB25 finish on the week. This came after a strong Bengals defense held him to 16 fantasy points and a QB16 finish. The last time he took on a bad defense (week ten, the Saints), Pickett finished with 250 total yards and a touchdown, and a QB12 finish. Well, the Atlanta defense that Pickett gets this week makes the Saints look like the Colts. The Falcons have given up the tenth-most fantasy points on the season to quarterbacks, with disastrous efforts from P.J. Walker and Taylor Heinicke dragging that average down.
Pitt-Fall Streamer: Marcus Mariota versus Pittsburgh (36% rostered)
I feel like I need to put out a PSA for Marcus Mariota. On paper, it looks like he has a good matchup, and some folks might tell you that is the case. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be reality. While the Steelers are top-ten in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks for the season, they recently saw T.J. Watt return from an injury that caused him to leave week one and not return until week ten. Since Watt’s return, they are 20th in fantasy points allowed to opposing quarterbacks, with most of those points coming from a massive Joe Burrow 28.7 fantasy point effort. The other two quarterbacks in that span (Andy Dalton and Matt Ryan) failed to pass 200 yards and threw 2 touchdowns to 3 picks combined. The vaunted Steelers pass defense isn’t one to pick on this week.
Wide Receivers
Zay Jones at Detroit (46% rostered)
There’s no better way to put this than this: Zay Jones has 24 targets in his last two games, and he finished with 19 receptions for 213 combined yards. He did this against two iffy defenses, with Kansas City and the Baltimore Ravens as his opponents. The also finished as a top-24 wide receiver both weeks, finishing as WR24 and WR4. Trevor Lawrence should have his way against this questionable Detroit Lions pass defense that allows the fifth-most receptions, the sixth-most receiving yards per game to wide receivers, and the seventh-most touchdowns on the year to the position. The Jags should throw all over the Lions this week in a shootout, and Zay Jones will reap a ton of the rewards.
Elijah Moore at Minnesota (30% rostered)
The squeakiest wheel in the NFL is about to get the grease. After trying to rage quit on the Jets, he was a locker-room star last week after he took two targets for 62 yards and a score. He showed every bit of his skills on those two targets, and with Mike White (and not Zach Wilson) at the helm this weekend against the Vikings, he should be able to have a ton of YAC again. The Vikings allowed Mac Jones and the Patriots the most yards after the catch of the season, mostly because their 117 yards after the catch allowed per game ranks tenth in the league, just three yards per game from being in the top seven in the stat. White and the Jets should throw all over the Vikings, and Elijah Moore will get his squeaky wheel fully greased en route to a big fantasy day.
DJ Chark versus Jacksonville (10% rostered)
If you’re sensing a theme here with the players I am recommending in the passing game, then you are right. DJ Chark will be a beneficiary of the big game I anticipate Jared Goff to have this week against the Jags. Chark fully returned from injury last week and turned 5 targets into 2 catches for 16 yards and a touchdown. I expect a lot more from Chark this week, as the Lions are a prime vibes team and know that Chark wants nothing more than to go off against his former team, so I expect Jared Goff and the Lions to feature Chark. The Jags have allowed eleven-of-fourteen receivers with at least 6 targets against them to score double-digit fantasy points this year. This is a prime matchup for a deep streamer in Chark.
Running Backs
Kyren Williams versus Seattle (46% rostered)
I want to get one thing out of the way right now: this is not me cosigning Kyren Williams as a talent. This is me cosigning Kyren Williams’ talent respective to the other players on the Los Angeles Rams right now, especially in their running back room. After they released Darrell Henderson, they turned to Cam Akers and Williams. Akers continued to be terrible, posting 37 yards last week, and Williams caught some balls and ran it a little bit, cobbling together a 9 PPR point fantasy week on the back of all his efforts. This is the niche I can see Kyren Williams filling this year, one previously filled by J.D. McKissic and Nyheim Hines in years past: a guy who will do a bit of this, a bit of that, and in good matchups, can make for a good fantasy football play. This week is one of those times. The Seahawks have hit the skids just a little bit, and those skids have left them losers of two straight games. One of the major reasons for their struggles is their front seven and more specifically, their defense against running backs. They’re second in the league in fantasy points allowed to running backs and sixth in fantasy points per touch to running backs. Teams just don’t want to test their secondary (bottom-ten in highest catch rate and yards per reception allowed) so they run the ball and dump it off to their running backs a ton, which leads to them ranking second in running back touches per game. Everything is set up for Kyren Williams to take advantage of his situation, and you can get him in over half of fantasy football leagues.
JaMycal Hasty at Detroit (19% rostered)
While the Jags expect Travis Etienne back this week, JaMycal Hasty showed the Jaguars that they have a capable replacement behind Etienne. While Hasty struggled to run the football (12 carries for 28 yards), he finished with 5 targets, 5 catches, and 67 yards (and a touchdown) against the Baltimore Ravens. While the Lions have had a stouter run defense as of late, you can still beat them through the air. While teams haven’t tried to attack them with running back passes, the Detroit Lions’ pass defense remains one of the most suspect in the league, in part thanks to injuries, but also an overall lack of quality depth on the defense outside of the defensive line. Hasty should get a mini-Kyren Williams role, and he should flourish with his targets this week while the newest Jaguar (Darrell Henderson) spells Etienne’s carries.
Tyrion Davis-Price versus Miami (3% rostered)
Elijah Mitchell is out for the regular season, and Christian McCaffrey is banged up, so everyone is rushing to Jordan Mason. You can zig when everyone else zags and snag a guy who was a healthy scratch last week: Tyrion Davis-Price. Price was a healthy scratch while Mason was active due to Mason’s special teams’ prowess (and let’s be clear, this is why he’s active on game days). With Mitchell on the shelf, the 49ers can turn to Tevin Coleman or TDP to supplant a hobbled Christian McCaffrey. While you can’t discount the googly eyes and Tex Avery wolf howls that Kyle Shanahan does whenever he’s near Tevin Coleman, I would snag TDP just to see what happens in Santa Clara this weekend.
Tight Ends
Juwan Johnson at Tampa Bay (43% rostered)
Last week, I said to not start Juwan Johnson under any circumstances, as the 49ers are one of the best teams in the NFL at defending against opposing tight ends. We saw exactly what I was talking about when a 49ers’ defender smacked down a would-be touchdown catch right before it hit Juwan Johnson’s mitts. They’re good, folks, and I am chalking up Johnson’s goose egg to taking on the league’s hottest defense. This week, Johnson gets a much better matchup against the Buccaneers. The Buccos allow the fifth-most fantasy points to tight ends on the season, thanks in part to their seventh-highest catch rate allowed. The Buccaneers have also allowed five touchdowns in eleven games to tight end, a touchdown-per-game rate that has them tied for eighth in the league in that statistic. Prior to the 49ers matchup last week, he finished top-eight in three straight games, and Johnson is set up for another nice game after getting tossed aside by the 49ers last week.
Tyler Conklin at Minnesota (21% rostered)
The Vikings are terrible against opposing tight ends, allowing the ninth-most fantasy points per game to the position thanks to allowing the fourth-highest fantasy points per target to tight ends. This comes not thanks to touchdowns (though they rank eighth in the league in touchdowns per game to the position, tied with the Buccaneers), it has to do with the wonderful floor they give tight ends; tight ends average 4.5 receptions for 50 yards per game. This gives us the 4/40 floor that we look for when streaming tight ends, and Conklin ended up with 3/50 last week, making them a match made in heaven. In fact, Conklin has reached (or more than surpassed) these criteria in three of his four games without Zach Wilson this season.
Jelani Woods at Dallas (4% rostered)
Keep it rolling, why not? Deep tight end matchups are a dreadful mess this week, and instead of chasing touchdowns, I’ll chase the targets. Jelani Woods, the only tight end to ever get a perfect RAS Score, is just okay in terms of tight end skills, but his athleticism is off the charts. That’s why I’m casting aside this bad matchup and chasing the nine targets, eight catches, and 98 yards he had last week. I want to chase targets, and there’s no better target receiver to chase this deep.
Of course, now that I highlighted him, he will get 1 catch for 8 yards.
