Thanksgiving week! Always both a great week (We have 3 games on Thanksgiving! A fourth on Friday! A full slate on Sunday!) and an awful week for those of us who do content as we have to cram a week’s worth of content into basically three days.
As long as we are talking Thanksgiving, I am thankful for you reading this column, specifically. I know many, many people miss Love/Hate (even, occasionally, me) but I have to tell you my life is so much more manageable these days. But I did not want to leave you guys without some written advice every week. People were dubious when I started this column and I would be lying if I said the traffic for this column is as significant as it was for Love/Hate.
But it still does really well, NBC is happy and I’m happy. And grateful. So thank you, truly, for sticking with me, giving this column a chance and continuing to read it every week. Much love!
Before we start, a quick reminder – any Utilization stats you read below come from Dwain McFarland and his incredible Utilization Report on FantasyLife.com.
Short week for Fantasy Football Happy Hour, as today (Wednesday) is our last show of the week, where we will preview Week 13, on YouTube and of course, it’s also available on Peacock, NBC Sports NOW, and wherever you get your podcasts. We are back to a normal schedule next week. But we will be back on Sunday morning for Fantasy Football Pregame from 11am et – 1pm ET on Peacock and the NFL on NBC YouTube channel.
Lastly, a Thanksgiving gift for you. We are doing a Black Friday sale on FantasyLife.com because of course we are. Everyone does one and we are no different. So our Black Friday sale starts today and goes through the weekend and GETS YOU 40% OFF ON A 12 MONTH FANTASYLIFE+ SUPSCRIPTION. It covers the rest of this season, playoff fantasy and picks pools, all off-season with Dynasty and Best Ball and then of course all the fantasy draft tools and ranks and analysis you need next August. 12 months – make a great gift for the fantasy player in your life. You can buy it here:
Let’s get to it.
Incredibly thankful as always to my producer Damian Dabrowski for his help at various points in this column. Here we go.
Jalen Hurts, Christian McCaffrey, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Trey McBride highlight positional rankings for Week 13 of the 2025 NFL season.
These are the 10 Facts You Need to Know Before Week 13:
1 The only quarterback to score FEWER than 17.7 fantasy points against the Dallas Cowboys this entire season is…. Geno Smith.
1A. In fact, 8 of the 11 quarterbacks to face Dallas this season have scored at least 23 points.
1B. Patrick Mahomes has had back-to-back games with at least 45 pass attempts.
1C. Patrick Mahomes is not Geno Smith.
1D. Please see fact 1.
2. In all six of his starts this season, Jacoby Brissett has scored at least 18 fantasy points.
2A. As a starter, he is averaging 314.5 passing yards per game.
2B. He has had at least two touchdown passes in five of six games.
2C. Since Week 6, Jacoby Brissett is the fifth-best QB in fantasy.
2D. Over the last four weeks, no team has given up more passing yards per game than… the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
2E. This week, Jacoby Brissett faces the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
2F. Is Jacoby Brissett the hero we want? No. But he might be the hero we need.
3. Over the last four weeks, the seventh-best RB in fantasy football is… Travis Etienne.
3A. He’s had four straight games with at least 18 touches.
3B. I mean, would YOU want Trevor Lawrence throwing it?
3C. But when the Trevler does, in fact, throw, sometimes it goes to ETN. Travis Etienne has at least a 13% target share in three of his past four games.
3D. By the way, since Week 9, no RB has more red zone touches than… Travis Etienne.
3E. Only one team has allowed more rushing touchdowns to opposing RBs this season than… The Tennessee Titans.
3F. The Jaguars play the Titans this week.
4. Since Week 4, only two teams in the NFL allow more fantasy points per game to opposing backfields than… my Washington Commanders.
4A. For the season, only one team allows more yards per reception to opposing RB’s than.. my Washington Commanders.
4B. Is this set of facts me just using my column to express more frustration about my beloved Commanders? Or is this a sly way of saying RJ Harvey is a top 20 play this week?
4C. Why does it have to be one or the other?
5. Last week, Ken Walker played 61% of the snaps. It was a season-high.
5A. His snap share has increased for three straight weeks.
5B. He’s also now had four straight games with at least one goal-line rush attempt.
5C. And he’s now had back-to-back games with three receptions. He had only one such game in Weeks 1-10.
5D. This week, the Seahawks are 10.5 point favorites and have a top-five implied team total on the Week 13 slate.
6. Over the past four weeks, no team has allowed more yards per game to opposing wide receivers than… the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
6A. Michael Wilson has had a 32% target share in back-to-back games.
6B. He’s scored 20+ points in each of them.
6C. Here’s the entire list of wide receivers in the NFL this season with multiple games of at least 10 receptions and at least 100 yards receiving: Ja’Marr Chase, Puka Nacua and… Michael Wilson. That’s it. That’s the list.
7. In four of the past five games, Khalil Shakir has at least a 23% target share.
7A. He’s been above 30% in three of them.
7B. The Steelers allow the sixth-most yards per game to slot receivers this season.
8. So far this season, no team allows more yards per game on deep passes than… the Dallas Cowboys.
8A. Over the last four games, 40% of Xavier Worthy’s targets have come on deep passes.
8B. Rashee Rice is dealing with a hamstring injury on a short week.
8C. Xavier Worthy played his college ball at Texas and this game is in Dallas.
8D. I mean, I have Worthy as WR30 this week, let’s not get crazy, but if you’re looking for a sneaky upside flyer on Thanksgiving I have a gut feeling Worthy could surprise.
9. No team in the NFL has allowed more touchdowns to opposing TEs this season than.. the Cincinnati Bengals.
9A. They’ve given up 13 touchdowns to the position.
9B. That’s six more than any other team.
9C. Dude. SIX.
9D. Mark Andrews has seen an end zone target in each of his past four games.
9E. Is this just as simple as Mark Andrews qualifies at tight end and plays Cincy this week? Yeah, kinda.
10. In each of Tyler Shough’s starts. Juwan Johnson has finished as a top-12 fantasy tight end.
10A. He’s averaging 14 points per game.
10B. So far this season, Miami allows the fourth-most points per game to opposing tight ends.
10C. He’s not amazing but you could do worse and probably have.
