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Top five fantasy football sleeper wide receivers to start in NFL Week 13

Top five fantasy football sleeper wide receivers to start in NFL Week 13

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By: Zach Thompson

Wide receiver is always a fun position to attack during the NFL season. Every week, new options emerge as workloads shift and matchups change, which gives aggressive fantasy football owners an opportunity to grab fantasy football sleepers at the position.

In week 13, the main DFS slate has 10 games on Sunday afternoon for the second week in a row. There are no teams on a bye week this week, but six teams already played on Thanksgiving. The biggest DFS contest is the NFL $2.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st]. I’ll keep my fantasy football sleepers to that 20-team player pool to make this post as versatile as possible.

Earlier this week, I listed my top-25 plays at wide receiver, and the options highlighted here don’t quite crack that list. However, I love the upside they bring at their DFS salary, and they also make sense as a last-minute grab-and-play option off the waiver wire.

My five sleeper wide receivers last week were Nick Westbrook-Ikhene ($4,100; 12.8 FPTS), Kayshon Boutte ($3,500; 1.6 FPTS), KaVontae Turpin ($3,300; 7.8 FPTS), Devaughn Vele ($3,900; 14.0 FPTS) and Marvin Mims Jr. ($3,200; 7.2 FPTS). NWI and Vele were both big hits with double-digit fantasy points but Boutte was a miss with just one catch on four targets in the Patriots loss to Dolphins.

Looking at the 20 teams in the player pool, here are my top five sleepers for Week 13:

David Moore, Carolina Panthers ($3,500)

The Panthers won back-to-back games before their bye week over the Saints and Giants, and then they almost beat the Chiefs in Week 12. With Bryce Young ($4,700) looking much better, there is some solid value in the Panthers game coming into this week’s home game against the Bucs.

Moore has been on the fringes all season but hadn’t really been able to make a splash until Week 12. Rookie Jalen Coker (quad) was out for that game, and he’ll miss this week’s contest as well. Adam Thielen ($4,800) returned from IR an Xavier Legette ($5,100) was available, but it was Moore that led the Panthers with a 32% target share in Week 12.

He caught six of his team-high ten targets for 81 yards and a touchdown on his way to a season-high 20.1 fantasy points. He got four red-zone targets as well.

While it was definitely his top performance of the year, it may not be a one-off. He had multiple catches in three straight games and totaled eight catches on 13 targets in the three games before the bye week.

With Coker still sidelined, Moore should operate as a normal part of the team’s three-wide sets, and he seems to have built a strong rapport with Young. The Bucs have allowed the sixth-most fantasy points to wide receivers this season

Moore brings a ton of upside at his DFS salary, and he’s still available in over 95% of leagues. If you need a stash option who could be getting ready for a hot finish, Moore deserves a look. In the fantasy playoffs he faces the Cowboys, Cardinals and Bucs again with a very favorable schedule if he stays so involved.

Michael Wilson, Arizona Cardinals ($4,200)

No team in the NFL has given up more fantasy points per game to opposing wide receivers this season than the Vikings. While Marvin Harrison Jr. ($6,000) is a good start and a solid mid-range DFS option, there’s also an opportunity to save salary and go with Wilson.

Wilson has been the Cardinals’ No. 2 WR most of the season, but the second-year receiver has gotten inconsistent targets with Trey McBride ($5,800) and Harrison both getting more regular looks.

Wilson does have multiple catches in three of his last four games and hauled in two of four targets for 54 yards last week. One of his catches was this impressive highlight:

Wilson does have three games this year with at least five catches and has reached double-digit fantasy points in four of his 11 games while averaging 7.7 fantasy points per game. He has at least four targets in seven of his last nine contests, dating back to Week 3.

He’s boom-or-bust due to his fluctuating usage, but the matchup gives him big-time upside at just over $4,000.

Adonai Mitchell, Indianapolis Colts ($3,900)

The Colts receiver room could also be a huge source of value since Josh Downs (shoulder) and Ashton Dulin (ankle) are already ruled out and Alec Pierce ($4,900; foot) is questionable. Pierce could end up a good value in addition to Michael Pittman Jr. ($5,200), who should be the clear No. 1 receiver. The other player who could have a breakout day is rookie wide out Adonai Mitchell, who will likely work out of the slot.

In Week 1, when Downs was out, Mitchell ran over 50% of his routes from that spot. He looked good working with Anthony Richardson ($5,500) in preseason and had this touchdown, but he hasn’t found the end zone yet in the regular season.

His best game was in an expanded role back in Week 10 when he had six catches on six targets for 71 yards and 13.1 fantasy points. He has been regularly involved most of the season, but not heavily with one or two catches in six of the last seven weeks with the one exception being that big game against Buffalo.

Mitchell leads the team in separation and route win rate against two high, which the Patriots rely on heavily. Among 94 qualifying receivers in the NFL, Mitchell ranks seventh in separation and fifth in route win rate against two high.

The Patriots are a favorable matchup overall since they have allowed the ninth-most fantasy points per game and the tenth-highest fantasy points per target to opposing slot receivers.

Mitchell’s breakout game could be coming, and he only needs to hit one or two big plays to vastly out-perform his salary under $4,000.

Nick Westbrook-Ikhene, Tennessee Titans ($4,300)

Even after multiple weeks returning outstanding value, NWI is still very affordable and available in 80% of season-long leagues.

Westbrook-Ikhine has scored an incredible six touchdowns in the last seven weeks despite not getting a ton of catches overall. He has just 17 catches over that span, meaning over one-third of his catches end up with him in the end zone.

He has caught both long passes and short passes for scores and has found all kinds of ways to get to the end zone.

While the number of his catches hasn’t gone up in the past few weeks, he has at least five targets in three of the last four weeks, and he has emerged as the team’s No. 2 receiver behind only Calvin Ridley ($5,700).

This week, he has a slightly favorable matchup against the Commanders, whose secondary has improved as the season goes along.

It seems like scoring so many touchdowns would be unsustainable, which may be why so many people are out on him, but he just keeps converting catches to touchdowns every week. At some point, his touchdown-per-catch percentage will go down, but I think it will be due to more catches instead of fewer touchdowns. He’s developed a very solid connection with Will Levis ($5,000) and is a solid fantasy football sleeper this week.

Calvin Austin III, Pittsburgh Steelers ($3,300)

If you’re looking to catch lightning in a bottle with a punt play this week, Austin is a good place to look. Even with Mike Williams ($4,000) working his way into the offense, Austin continues to get enough targets to be a factor.

Last week in the snow in Cleveland, Austin caught all three passes thrown his way and finished with 78 yards, a touchdown and 16.8 fantasy points.

That was Austin’s third game this season with over 15 fantasy points, and if this AFC North game turns into a high-scoring, back-and-forth contest, Austin could be set for a big game. He’s higher risk than the other options on this list, but I like him as a “Swing for the Fences” bargain in Week 13 as a fantasy football sleeper.

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All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.

I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is z.thompson) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.

Zach Thompson
Zach has been part of the DraftKings team since 2017 and covers baseball, basketball, golf, football and any other sport that offers DFS fun. He has been playing fantasy sports since box scores were only available in the newspaper the following day. Even though he grew up almost 8,000 miles away in Guam, he is a diehard Boston sports fan but will take a fantasy value play wherever he can get it, even if it’s from the Yankees.
Disclaimer

I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is z.thompson) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.