Fantasy Fridays roll on here at DKNetwork, and we’re just about done with the regular season in fantasy football. Here we are, unlucky no. 13—the penultimate week before the fantasy playoffs. Seedings are on the line. Bragging rights and, potentially, legacies. Questions surround players like Amari Cooper, Keon Coleman, DK Metcalf, and more. We need fantasy football must starts, sleepers, breakouts, all of them. And we need them now.
We’ll kick this week’s Five Lists of Five off with my top five fantasy football smash starts for NFL Week 13.
Smash ‘Em
Tony Pollard, RB, Tennessee Titans (vs. Washington Commanders)
Hard, really, to tell whether or not it’s the stellar play of Tony Pollard or the improved discipline of Will Levis that has the Titans’ offense in a more efficient state. And I wouldn’t bemoan anyone for running Levis out against the Commanders on a flier. All teams, however, play this week, so he’s more of a streamer than a smash start.
Pollard, however, just won’t stop being the guy. And the matchup is just too good. The Commanders allow the most fantasy points to running backs, and rank 28th in the league in defensive rushing DVOA at 1.4%. Even if Tyjae Spears (concussion) returns to action, expect Tennessee’s only year-long bright spot to exceed his average of just over 14 PPR points per game. Washington’s in a bit of free-fall, and the Titans have just started to show signs of tightening up.
George Pickens, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers (vs. Cincinnati Bengals)
It has a lot to do with the Bengals matchup, sure. But it also is just another opportunity to laud George Pickens’s contested catch-point ability. Statistically, his 29.4% contested-catch rate is down from his rookie year, but I wouldn’t let that deceive any of what our eyes know to be true. Not to mention, Pickens has had multiple contested catches called off because of penalties, and some of them for touchdowns.
I don’t see the Bengals’ woeful secondary having taken any notable step-up in between Weeks 12 and 13; neither do I expect their scoring offense to be utterly stifled by the Steelers’ defense. I’m thinking Pickens is a surefire WR1 this week, given both the matchup, and expectation for some positive regression.
Will Dissly, TE, Los Angeles Chargers (vs. Atlanta Falcons)
It may seem like I’m late to this train, but I added Dissly here because of J.K. Dobbins’s injury. I think it means a lot for what the Chargers are going to do going forward at tight end, simply because we’ll expect their explosive plays out of the backfield to take a significant hit. Unless, however, Kimani Vidal suddenly dresses. Which, for the record, is likely. But I’m unsure he’ll be the X-factor.
Dissly, however, has been every bit of a Justin-Herbert-unlocked weapon. He’s only seen fewer than four targets once since the Chargers’ Week 5 BYE; Herbert’s looked for Dissly at least six times in four of those games. I don’t think the Chargers will have much of a choice but to find ways to more-or-less look for the explosive plays Dobbins would normally give them via play action and passes to the flat.
Dissly ranks just inside the top-ten in fantasy scoring among tight ends over the last five games. He’ll clock a great game here.
Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, New England Patriots (vs. Indianapolis Colts)
Other than Drake Maye, it’s hard to write about New England Patriots with any excitement. Rhamondre Stephenson, though, used to be one of fantasy football’s most exciting 1B running backs in the New England backfield. And he’s scored over 12 PPR points in four of his last five games.
Also in the time-span, the Colts defense has allowed seven touchdowns to their opponents’ backfields, and rank among the league’s susceptible (fifth-susceptible, to be exact) in running back points allowed.
Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (vs. Carolina Panthers)
Mike Evans absolutely roasts cover-three defenses. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, his 2.62 success rate figure against such coverages rank 16th in the NFL. The Panthers deploy cover-three quite a bit, and everyone’s expecting Baker Mayfield to have one of the best games of his career this week. Added revenge against a former team, etc.
Evans has a fantastic matchup, and has all that added incentive to rack up yards to reach his eleventh-straight 1,000-yard season.
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