Who To Start And Sit For Your Week 13 Fantasy Lineup: Running Backs And Wide Receivers

Week 13. Do or die. It all comes down to this. Weeks of preparation, months of agonizing over injury replacements in an especially cruel year, and hours pouring over crapshoot fantasy columns with a depressed, yearning subtext stops here. Next week, the fantasy playoffs, it’s a whole new season: win three games. That’s it. For now, you’re mitigating whatever damage you can, trolling people in your league with waiver wire pickups, or one last meaningless win for you that will screw their seeding.

Week 13 waiver wire pickups

Start/Sits

WIDE RECEIVER STARTS

Cooper Kupp: If Robert Woods is out again, Kupp is the high-volume receiver in Jared Goff’s offense. It’s still weird to write this even 13 weeks into the season but it’s true. I was high on Kupp coming into the year, but this Rams offense has only improved by leaps and bounds since then, and if you need a FLEX, Kupp could come through (if Woods is out).

Devin Funchess: Even without Greg Olsen for much of the game, Funchess turned in yet another great performance with a career high 12 passes thrown his way. He didn’t get into the end zone, but his 7 catches for 108 yards feels like the tip of the iceberg for what this guy can do when the entirety of the Panthers offense is clicking. Keep in mind that his career games are coming on days when Cam Newton is looking inaccurate, and he’s literally the only wide receiver catching passes. He’s a WR2 in the 2017 playoffs.

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Zay Jones: If Kelvin Benjamin remains out, Jones should be able to get open in the middle of the field against the Patriots. It likely won’t be pretty. But if Tyrod Taylor can throw the ball his way another ten times like he did in Week 12, he’ll likely find the end zone for the third time in the last four games.

ALSO HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?

WIDE RECEIVER SITS

Dez Bryant: Once one of the best WRs in the game, Bryant is beholden to Dak Prescott’s ability to survive behind a porous offensive line and his proclivity to not throw deep. Bryant is simply not that great for fantasy anymore, and it takes a lot to make him relevant. Aside from one game this year (in which he had 8 targets, 5/52/1), it takes double-digit targets to get Bryant above ten points in PPR leagues. That’s insane, and with Josh Norman on him this week, is that a guarantee. He also isn’t playing like his old self either.

Josh Gordon: He’s active, the coaches say he’s going to play a “lot” and there’s a lot to love about his old game. Fresh, new Josh Gordon? On paper, it looks good. But please don’t do this to yourself. Maybe this is what fantasy dreams are made of, but don’t do it. Not if you absolutely need a win to make the playoffs or cement a crucial seeding. You should get Gordon on the waiver wire if you can (especially for keeper leagues), but don’t play with something tangible.

TY Hilton: Go ahead and sit him again, the top ten receiver that’s scored a total of 7.8 points in PPR leagues over the last two weeks. The Jaguars might not let Brissett get off a pass, let alone allow Hilton to catch it.

RUNNING BACK STARTS

Jordan Howard: The Bears will run on San Francisco because it’s all they can do. Jordan Howard will get the majority of those carries because he’s the best Bears running back, and only rushed the ball seven times for six yards against the Eagles. This is a redemption game for my pathetic hometown team. The Niners are a bottom-ten rushing D, and the Bears play well at home. Don’t be afraid by these on-again, off-again bad games by Howard.

This is terrible.

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Samaje Perine: In standard and PPR leagues, Washington’s only option at RB could be the cork that stops your ship from sinking away from the fantasy playoffs. The Cowboys are holding opponents to under 100 yards per game on the ground, but Perine had four targets last week, and he was the go-to at all times in the running game. He’s a lock for 20 touches, and you can’t sniff at that. He’s putting together a run.

Joe Mixon: Since Week 3 we’ve been waiting for that Joe Mixon Breakout Game to happen, and we’ve gotten close at times, and I guess technically it may have already happened last week, but this cemented it — Mixon is the RB we thought he was. 23 rushes for 114 yards and a touchdown had 51 yards through the air on three catches added on top. The Browns are a sneaky stingy defense, but Mixon is proving that he can handle a big workload and the Bengals are giving one to him. He has a tough matchup against the Steelers, so he’s still in the RB2-3 range just in case, but it’s Week 13 and you’re not benching someone who could very well get 25 touches this week.

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RUNNING BACK SITS

Kareem Hunt: All is lost. Hunt had 17 yards on 11 carries against Buffalo, a team that’s giving up the most rushing yards to opposing defenses over the last five weeks. The Hunt love-fest is over and everything is terrible. The Chiefs have completely forgot how to play football. Andy Reid.

Jacquizz Rodgers: Doug Martin could miss Week 13 with a concussion, leaving ‘Quizz as the heir to most of his touches. When he had this role to start the season as Martin was serving his suspension, Rodgers averaged over 12 touches a game but wasn’t getting much done with them. He needs a touchdown or catches in a PPR league to be relevant, and it’s not a guarantee that he gets all those touches back. Besides, the Packers, surprisingly, are playing well against the run over the last month holding three opponents under 90 yards.

Adrian Peterson: His volume is nice, but he’s getting nothing done and the Rams seem revitalized after losing to Minnesota. They need this division win. Peterson’s ridiculous volume is no guarantee, either. Gameflow could lead to disaster, and even when he’s had 20+ carry weeks against the likes of Seattle, he only scored 3.2 points. It took 37 carries against San Francisco for AP to net 16 points. Not good.

We see so much of this: