Quick Grades Week 13 (Fantasy Football Start or Sit Advice)

Welcome back, and thanks for joining me as we go through this week’s quick grades!

A COVID-impacted schedule allows us to include players from every Week 13 game, since we won’t have any NFL action on Thursday. Instead, we’ll be treated to a MNF double-header and a Tuesday showdown.

Last week, we set up our Christmas tree. As we do every year right after Thanksgiving, my wife and I got out the tree, the decorations, and the lights and got to work making the house look festive. This year was especially enjoyable because all four of the kids are old enough to understand what’s going on and participate in hanging ornaments. It was an awesome night for the six of us, but toddlers and Christmas trees usually lead to some mishaps.

There were plenty of broken ornaments and a couple of snapped branches, but of course, we made it work. After gluing, drying, re-breaking, and re-gluing, we got most of the damaged ornaments back in shape. Some of the lights had gone out on the top section of the artificial tree, so we grabbed a fresh strand, added it in, and prettied it up. The kids were thrilled to decorate their tree, which is now set for a visit from Santa in just a few weeks.

While sipping my coffee and looking at the tree this morning, I realized that setting it up and decorating it with my kids has been a lot like playing fantasy football this season. We’ve dealt with so many injuries to high-profile players that many a lineup has been ravaged with glaring holes. But just like a damaged Christmas ornament, we can glue it back together and make it look nice. That’s true of our lineups this season. We’ve made trades and combed the waiver wire for suitable replacements, and many of us have come away unscathed. Mike Davis, Wayne Gallman, and Giovani Bernard have all been fine additions to any fantasy team in need. We’ve endured scheduling changes, unpredictable performances, and oh so many surprises along the way. It was truly an unforgettable season.

We’ve reached the last week of the fantasy regular season for most leagues, and even if you’re not in playoff contention, you can look back at the season and realize that – win or lose – you made it through. You rolled with the punches, made adjustments on the fly, improvised, glued and re-glued, and made something look nice that may have gotten damaged – just like decorating a tree with toddlers. And just like decorating the tree, you had a blast doing it, and you’ll be ready to do it all over again next year.

Once the season begins, the most difficult part of any fantasy manager’s week is start or sit decisions. These lineup choices can make or break a week, but unfortunately, not everyone has time to sit down and read lengthy fantasy advice articles. That’s where Quick Grades comes in. Each week of the football season, I’ll be providing a condensed and easily digestible chart of grades for over 250 fantasy-relevant players based on the following four criteria:

Fantasy Ability
Despite a tough matchup, Derrick Henry broke through on a long run last week

Expected Volume
Travis Kelce is always heavily targeted as one of Kansas City’s top pass-catching options

Matchup
Tyreek Hill got loose for 200 yards against Cincinnati’s porous secondary

Surrounding Talent
Sam Darnold has one of the weakest receiving corps in the league

Each of those criteria will be graded on a scale of 1-25, with the cumulative total resulting in a final grade (A+ to F) and a recommendation based on that grade. The criteria are weighted differently based on position, so it’s not a direct 1-for-1 conversion. Surrounding talent refers to offensive line for RB, quarterback play for WR and TE, and skill-position talent for QB.

The players are sorted by grade in descending order with the highest grades at the top and the lowest at the bottom. The highest-graded players receive A+ (Must start), and the lowest receive F. However, there are varying degrees of the F grade, and some players with this grade are flex plays, desperation plays, Hail Mary plays, or should remain on your bench, depending on the grade and position.

I’ll also include D/ST grades, and just like the skill-position players, there will be four criteria used for grading on a scale from 1-25, and final grades will be from 1-100. The four criteria for a D/ST grade are: Matchup, Turnovers, Sacks, and Points Allowed.

The charts are screenshots of a spreadsheet, but the link to the original can be found below. Because players are not searchable within the sheets in this article, they’ve been added to the bottom of the page so that they can be searched and referenced quickly. In addition to the player grades, I’ll provide:

  • Start of the Week: A player outside of the elite, weekly must-starts who could have a big week
  • Stream of the Week: The best player who will likely be available on your waiver wire
  • Deep-League Stream of the Week: The best player who is less than 5% rostered in Yahoo leagues
  • Fade of the Week: A notable player who could be in for a let-down performance
  • Tough Calls: Two similarly valued players who may give fantasy managers difficult decisions

Link to Full Quick Grades Document

It’s easy to see that an ‘A+’ or ‘A’ grade makes a player a must-start, but it might not make sense at first glance why some players are rated ‘C’ or worse and still have ‘Start,’ ‘Strong Start,’ or ‘Flex’ attached to their names. Because of all the different variables that go into a player’s performance in any given week, only those players with the absolute highest potential, best matchup, and strongest talent get ‘A+’ or ‘A’ grades. Therefore, even solid plays will earn grades that may appear sub-optimal on the surface, but it’s all relative from position-to-position. The hard cutoff is 50 for every position, as grades lower than this will earn a ‘Desperation’ or ‘Hail Mary’ tag in every situation.

Now that I’ve covered the basics, let’s get to the grades. Best of luck in all your matchups this week, and if you have any questions, please hit me up on Twitter @ZaktheMonster.

Note: As always, remember to check back on FantasyPros ahead of kickoff to get the latest injury news. I’ll provide “what-if” grades in the event that an injured player doesn’t suit up, but otherwise, these grades assume full health at the time the article is published on Friday morning. 

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Running Backs

As Men at Work once sang, “Who can it be now?” It’s Dalvin Cook of course, as he ends up as our top-graded back of the week. Coming off three straight 100-yard games, Nick Chubb comes in next, with powerhouse Derrick Henry just behind him. James Robinson and David Montgomery round out the top five, with the latter having notched his first 100-yard rushing game of the season in Week 12 against Green Bay.

There is no recommended deep-league stream of the week here, as the running backs who are less than 5% rostered do not have grades higher than ‘F Desperation.’

Start & Stream of the Week: Frank Gore

Fade of the Week: Gus Edwards

Tough Calls: Despite a monster 25-touch showing in his first game back from IR, Austin Ekeler gets a slightly lower grade than Miles Sanders, who gets a tasty matchup with Green Bay – one of the weakest run defenses in the NFL. 

*If Dalvin Cook is out, Alexander Mattison becomes a ‘C+ Start’
*If D’Andre Swift is out, Adrian Peterson becomes a ‘D Flex,’ and Kerryon Johnson becomes an ‘F Desperation’
*If Clyde Edwards-Helaire is out, Le’Veon Bell becomes a ‘C+ Strong Start’

Wide Receivers

A 200-yard first quarter will cause a guy to get pretty high marks. In this week’s Quick Grades, it causes that guy to get the best marks. Tyreek Hill grades out over every other wideout this week, with target hogs Davante Adams and Keenan Allen just behind him. Calvin Ridley is in for a big workload if Julio Jones is out, and both Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp could provide big performances for fantasy managers in an important divisional showdown with Arizona.

Start of the Week: Sterling Shepard

Stream of the Week: T.Y. Hilton

Deep-League Stream of the Week: Keke Coutee 3% rostered

Fade of the Week: Travis Fulgham

Tough Calls: Calvin Ridley gets less than a point advantage over Stefon Diggs because of a more favorable matchup and an increased target share with Julio Jones unlikely to suit up.

Quarterbacks 

Just as we’ve seen with the RB and WR positions, the usual studs make up the top-graded options of the week. Lamar Jackson climbs back into the top-5 thanks to a tasty matchup with Dallas, and Kirk Cousins is the biggest surprise in the top-10. He’s been hot as of late, and a Week 13 date with Jacksonville could keep that hot streak going.

Start of the Week: Taysom Hill

Stream of the Week: Philip Rivers

Deep-League Stream of the Week: Mitchell Trubisky 5% rostered 

Fade of the Week: Matthew Stafford

Tight Ends

Kelce, Waller, Hockenson, and Engram. Notice a trend yet? The four highest-graded tight ends should be shocking to no one, but there are some shakeups after that. Eric Ebron and Hayden Hurst come in just behind that elite foursome, and Jordan Reed and Kyle Rudolph round out the top-15 thanks to excellent matchups and increased opportunities.

Start of the Week: Kyle Rudolph

Stream of the Week: Jordan Reed 

Deep-League Stream of the Week: Richard Rodgers 4% rostered

Fade of the Week: Jared Cook

Tough Calls: Despite a tough matchup with Seattle, Evan Engram edges out Eric Ebron in the battle of the EE tight ends this week thanks to a steady target volume and some explosive showings as of late.

D/ST

Stud D/STs Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Miami make up three of our five highest-graded options of the week. Kansas City, Buffalo, Seattle, Green Bay, and Las Vegas all work their way into the top-10 thanks to excellent matchups.

Start & Stream of the Week: Las Vegas Raiders

Fade of the Week: Washington Football Team

Player Search, Find

Running Back

Wide Receiver

Quarterback

Tight End

D/ST

  • Pittsburgh Steelers A Must Start
  • Baltimore Ravens B+ Must Start
  • Kansas City Chiefs B+ Must Start
  • Miami Dolphins B+ Must Start
  • Buffalo Bills C Strong Start
  • Seattle Seahawks C Strong Start
  • Green Bay Packers C Strong Start
  • Las Vegas Raiders C Strong Start
  • Arizona Cardinals D+ Strong Start
  • Indianapolis Colts D+ Start
  • Minnesota Vikings D Start
  • Chicago Bears D Start
  • Los Angeles Rams D Start
  • New Orleans Saints D Start
  • New York Giants D Start
  • Tennessee Titans D Start
  • Detroit Lions F Desperation
  • New England Patriots F Desperation
  • Los Angeles Chargers F Desperation
  • Cleveland Browns F Desperation
  • Dallas Cowboys F Desperation
  • San Francisco 49ers F Desperation
  • Jacksonville Jaguars F Desperation
  • Philadelphia Eagles F Desperation
  • Houston Texans F Bench
  • Washington Football Team F Bench
  • Denver Broncos F Bench
  • Cincinnati Bengals F Bench
  • New York Jets F Bench
  • Atlanta Falcons F Bench

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Zachary Hanshew is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Zachary, check out his archive and follow him @zakthemonster.

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