Week 13 Top Performers At Each Position

Now that all but the Monday night game has been played, it is time for a weekly look at the top performers from the games on Sunday, and on Thursday. After going over my thoughts, I will select a few other players who either performed above expectations, or maybe have you questioning whether you should continue starting him or not.

The goal of this article is to highlight those top guys, and if you can expect similar performances in the future. If you can’t though, I will detail what you should do with that player, and what expectations are going forward. Let’s get right into the top performers from week 13.

QB - Joe Flacco 381 Passing Yards, 4 TD’s, 1 INT, 29 Fantasy Points

Every year it seems we see a game like this from Flacco. He will go out and absolutely tear apart a defense in the first half, leading to a monster performance. The problem is that he just isn’t someone you can trust to start in most leagues. He is a great guy to have as your 2nd guy in 2QB leagues, but outside of that he is a waiver wire fill-in if your guy gets hurt.

QB - Carson Palmer 300 Passing Yards, 3 TD’s, 24 Fantasy Points

This is only Palmer’s third game where he has eclipsed the 20 point mark. This has been a forgettable season for him, and I am not quite sure we can fully buy into what he just did. The prevailing evidence is saying that this just simply isn’t a guy you should be starting in 12 team leagues. Yes he plays the Dolphins next week who Flacco just picked apart, but I don’t think Palmer will be able to do the same. He has only one good matchup the rest of the way and that is in week 15 against the Saints.

QB - Matthew Stafford 341 Passing yards, 2 TD’s, 22 Rushing Yards, 23 Fantasy Points

Speaking of the Saints, Stafford went out and did what he was supposed to do in this one. After getting off to a strong start, Stafford hadn’t scored above 17 points since week 6. He had gone from being a potential top 5 guy to the person you were using begrudgingly because there was no one better on the waiver wire. Moving forward I think this happens in another game or two, but he is only looking to be a top 12 guy at the moment.

RB - David Johnson 18 Carries for 84 Yards and 1 TD, 9 Receptions for 91 Yards and 1 TD, 29 Fantasy Points

This now marks the fourth consecutive week that David Johnson has scored over 20 fantasy points. That is an impressive feat. Next week he has a slightly tougher matchup against the Dolphins, but really it doesn’t matter. Johnson is just too good for all defenses.

RB - Jordan Howard 32 Carries for 117 Yards and 3 TD’s, 29 Fantasy Points

The San Francisco 49ers defense is really bad at stopping the run. They even knew because of the weather and Matt Barkley starting that the Bears would just feed Howard. Even with that knowledge they couldn’t shut him down. With a nice schedule of the Lions, Packers, and Redskins coming up, Howard is looking like a strong top 10 option the rest of the way.

RB - Thomas Rawls 15 Carries for 106 Yards and 2 TD’s, 1 Reception for 12 Yards, 23 Fantasy Points

Pretty much all of the damage was done in the first half of this one. There was a scary moment though when it was thought he could have a possible concussion. His returning to the field though later on though showed us that it was just a scare. While the Panthers defense isn’t great, having Rawls do this in pretty much one half gives us a taste of what he might do down the stretch here. Like Howard, he is a top 10 guy the rest of the way. Oh and I hope you play through week 17 as he gets the 49ers that week.

WR - Golden Tate 10 Targets, 8 Receptions for 145 Yards and 1 TD, 20 Fantasy Points

Once Marvin Jones was ruled out, Tate was bound to have a great game. It has seemed that Jones had fallen out of favor with Stafford, but was still getting some targets and downfield looks. Sunday though against a weak Saints defense Tate was called upon to do even more than usual. His schedule is decent for the rest of the season and should produce like a WR2.

WR - Tyler Lockett 6 Targets, 5 Receptions for 63 Yards, 1 Rush for 75 Yards and 1 TD, 19 Fantasy Points

I am going to keep this short. It took a 75 yard run for him to get on this list. He just isn’t getting targeted enough to warrant consideration. Maybe you pick him up, but I would not be close to starting him yet. There are just too many mouths to feed in Seattle.

WR - Jordy Nelson 10 Targets, 8 Receptions for 118 Yards and 1 TD, 17 Fantasy Points

This is Nelson for you. Been playing great and has scored in 5 of his last 6 games. This is a borderline top 5 guy the rest of the way. Just continue to enjoy the consistency that he is bringing to your team.

TE - Dennis Pitta 11 Targets, 9 Receptions for 90 Yards and 2 TD’s, 19 Fantasy Points

This was a byproduct of that Flacco game. Feel free to ignore this moving forward as it won’t happen again. He is barely used in the offense usually, so he will struggle to even get 5 points in a week moving forward.

TE - Ladarius Green 11 Targets, 6 Receptions for 110 Yards and 1 TD, 17 Fantasy Points

Well it appears that something a coach said actually happened. Mike Tomlin had been talking up Green recently saying how he was going to have an expanded role in the passing game to help open up more options for Big Ben. Well for now it seems like this may actually be something that sticks. He is worthy of starting moving forward in hopes that this really is going to continue.

Now a look at a couple of other performances that stood out to me from Sunday’s games:

RB - Jeremy Hill 23 Carries for 33 Yards and 1 TD, 2 Receptions for 12 yards, 10 Fantasy Points

This is the second straight week that Hill has failed to average over 2 yards per carry. Luckily this week he salvaged his game with a short yardage score. If it wasn’t for that, he would have just been a plodder who barley moved the ball. I do have faith in Hill though for a couple of reasons. First is that there is really no one behind him to take his role. Second is that the matchups the next two weeks are great against the Browns and the Steelers. Keep using him for now as the workload is there.

WR - Kenny Britt 6 Targets, 2 Receptions for 67 Yards and 1 TD, 12 Fantasy Points

I am absolutely scared of Jared Goff for Kenny Britt right now. This has been a disaster the last three weeks. Luckily the last two weeks have been salvaged by TD’s, but that doesn’t make me feel much better. Goff just isn’t the the guy right now who can maximize Britt’s potential. This offense looks even worse with Goff under center than it did with Case Keenum. He is outside of my top 35 moving forward.

WR - Paul Turner 8 Targets, 6 Receptions for 80 Yards, 8 Fantasy Points

So usually I will do one guy from each position, but Turner intrigued me enough to put him down with Kenny Britt in this section. He was an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana Tech who signed on to the Eagles practice squad this season. With an injury to Jordan Matthews and a struggling Nelson Agholor, he was called up for last weeks Monday night game. He wasn’t targeted in that matchup though. This week was a different story. With Dorial Green-Beckham going down early with a rib injury, Turner was thrust into a bigger role. All that he did in this role was do exactly what he was supposed to do. This game shows me and hopefully the Eagles that he is better than Agholor, and deserves to keep getting looks. If both Green-Beckham and Matthews are out for an extended period of time, look at Turner as a waiver wire fill-in. I would use a speculative add on him if you have the space, and in deeper leagues he is a must own.