Bjorn Yang-Vaernet examines which players on the waiver wire are worth prioritizing for Week 13 and highlights others to preemptively stash.

Week 13 is the final “mega” bye week with six teams on break. Coincidentally, most leagues are coming down to the final or second-to-last game before the start of fantasy football playoffs. In this article, I have highlighted both players who can make an immediate contribution to a starting lineup and ones who could potentially step into massive down the stretch. It’s difficult to lose a season because of waiver wire pickups in Week 13, but leagues can definitely be won with the right pickup. Let’s get into it! 

The waiver wire is one of the most important pieces of season-long draft leagues. It is the easiest way to acquire new players and every year there are gems to be found. The goal of this article will not only be to highlight which weekly breakout players to prioritize but find others to preemptively pick up before the breakout happens.

This article will only reference players that are less than 50% owned in ESPN leagues. The players are categorized by position group and within each group is the order of how I would prioritize them. 

Quarterback

Jordan Love (Available in 52% of ESPN leagues)

With 20 QBs rostered in over 50% of ESPN leagues and several QBs sustaining season-ending injuries, the pickings are slim for a pickup-and-play QB off the waiver wire. With that in mind, my waiver wire streamer of the week is Jordan Love.

Playing Love has nothing to do with the matchup — which is actually quite tough — but more to do with Love himself, who has played much better during the past two weeks. There are a variety of metrics to cite regarding Love’s play, but I want to focus on accuracy, which has been a struggle for Love throughout the season. 

During the last two weeks, Love’s expected completion rate over expected has been +1.0% and +7.3%, according to Next Gen Stats. This was much better than his season-long average of -3.4% (which includes the two most recent weeks as well). In fact, in the first nine games of the season, Love only had three games with a completion rate higher than expected. Altogether, Love put together back-to-back weeks of a 68% or higher completion percentage in Weeks 11 and 12.

The increase in accuracy probably stems from a combination of Love getting better with more reps and becoming more comfortable with what the playbook is asking of him. Either way, the end result is more consistent fantasy points, either through hitting on a higher percentage of chunk plays or sustaining drives.

Love has a tall task in Week 12 against a Kansas City defense that ranks pretty good against the pass. However, Love should have to throw a lot in order to keep up with the Chiefs — raising his floor. If Love can keep up his recent quality of play, I would not be surprised if Love puts up more than 20 fantasy points. This would be more than good enough for managers dealing with bye weeks from Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, or Justin Fields in Week 13.

Running Back

Keaton Mitchell (Available in 66% of ESPN leagues)

Keaton Mitchell continued to earn more work in the Baltimore backfield. Over the past three games, Mitchell has played on 22%, 37%, and 46% of snaps. His 46% snap share in Week 12 led all Baltimore RBs. The number of opportunities Mitchell received also increased from two to nine to 11. On the negative end, Mitchell still did not get any of the green zone RB touches (0-2) in spite of his increased role. Although disappointing, this is not surprising given his size and the presence of reliable, veteran RBs in the RB rotation.

Mitchell is a solid pickup and now that he has taken the lead in the backfield, he can be started in lineups. However, given that the backfield workload is still split three ways, on top of Lamar Jackson’s rushing load, there will be more volatility week-to-week. I see Mitchell’s role as comparable to James Cook in Buffalo, albeit slightly worse. There is not much ceiling (lack of role near the end zone), but the floor is decent because of the yards gained between the 20s. Cook’s game log highlights this role and the production one can expect.