5 Fantasy Football Takeaways for Week 13 (+ A Lamar Jackson Replacement)

As you could tell, this weekly series has now shifted from “overreactions” to “takeaways” as we’re almost at the midway point of the regular season. Although this NFL season has been a bit disappointing for fantasy football, with scoring going down by 22% compared to last year, there’s still plenty of things to dive into. As ya’ll know, I will be doing this takeaway article over the course of the 18 weeks of the NFL season, so let’s jump right into it.

1. GO PICK UP MIKE WHITE (ESPECIALLY IF YOU LOST LAMAR JACKSON)

Mike White continues to impress since earning the starting job over Zach Wilson. This week, he finished as the QB9, and he has one of the most favorable playoff schedules with matchups against the Lions, Jaguars, and Seahawks, which all look destined to be shootouts. He’s avaliable in 80% of leagues, so if you lost Lamar Jackson due to injury this week, make sure to snag White up. He’ll be a high end streamer over the course of the next month with top 10 upside.

2. WHAT TO MAKE OF THE JIMMY G INJURY

With Jimmy Garappolo out for 7–8 weeks with a foot injury, it looks like it’s Brock Purdy time in the Bay. The Mr. Irrelevant of this year impacts all of the skill players for the 49ers. Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle should be slightly downgraded, but Christian McCaffrey should be rising up rankings. The reason why is because he’ll be the safety blanket for the rookie QB and should see a minimum of 6 targets per game. With the 49ers likely to be in close contests, we’ll see plenty of CMC on the field, who’s easily a top 3 RB rest of season.

3. CAM AKERS COULD BE A LEAGUE WINNER

Now this seems like an overreaction, but after finishing as the RB8 this week, Cam Akers’ career could be rejuevenated through the rest of the season. He has great/decent matchups over the course of the next month, and faces a porous Raiders run defense this week — a game where the Rams could put more points on the board than most expect. Start Akers this week as a high end FLEX, and if he performs well again, he’s an RB2 rest of season.

4. THE SEAHAWKS WRS CONTINUE TO IMPRESS

One of the biggest surprises this season has easily been the Seattle Seahawks, a team which most projected to finish last in their division. Well, they’re currently in actual contention with the 49ers for the NFC West right now, and a big part of that has been the stellar play of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, the WR15 and WR10 on the season, who just finished as the WR6 and WR5 respectively against the Rams this past week. Both of them are easily high end WR2s against a horrible Panthers defense this week.

5. MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR WAIVER WIRE FOR THE DEFENSES THAT PLAY THE TEXANS

At this point, especially if you are a playoff contender, you should be hunting for the defenses that play the Houston Texans. After the Browns put up 31 points against them and single handedly won people matchups this week, it’s safe to say that whatever team plays the Texans will be massacring them. The Cowboys play them this week and should boatrace them, then the Chiefs, Titans, and Jaguars. Go pickup those defenses ahead of time!