Sleepers - Daily Fantasy Football Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, DraftDay and Draftster for Week 13

Could you be luckier? We're prepared to send you a free eBook on how the pros set both daily fantasy basketball AND football lineups, free of charge! Check out the details, and get your copies now! Don't make another lineup before reading these books! Each contains crucial mistakes your competitors, and maybe you!, are making.

 

Ready to make the leap and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks? Sign up now and get a free 3 day trial to our lineup construction tool for FanDuel, Draftster, and DraftKings. And now - for the next month - you can get access to our Football projection tools AND our baseball projection tools for the same price! Sick deal.

A peek ahead at week 13

Looking for the week 13 picks? Follow the link! I go position by position and give you whom I believe to be the best plays, dollar for dollar, for Week 13's games. This article is going to be a little bit different. Instead, WI'm going to focus on particular lineup formation strategies that might help you get some separation from the field and get those value plays and sleepers that will let you spend money elsewhere while cashing in for cheap.

 

Sleepers

Weekly disclaimer:
The whole concept of a sleeper in one week fantasy football games needs to be adjusted. First of all, there's no real such thing as a "sleeper," in that you're not really going to sleep on a guy until he wakes up. What you're looking at with cheap plays are guys who are priced very reasonably who could go off if all things break right. Sniffing out the best cheap plays with upside is really the only way to have a chance in hell at taking down some of these utterly massive NFL tournaments. You'll pay up for the big names, and then hope your bargain plays pay off. That's where we come in - here are some sleepers that we love for Week 13.

We also talked about a lot of these plays in our week 13 podcast, but there are some new faces as well!

On to the picks

Ryan Fitzpatrick - FD 5000 DK 5400 DD 10850 DFSTR
Whoa, it's like a trip into the DFSR time machine! With Mallett tragically doing down with a torn pectoral muscle just a couple of weeks after losing the job, the Texans will turn to spurned ex-girlfriend Ryan Fitzpatrick. While Fitzy didn't inspire any ballads to be written about his time earlier this season, these are TRULY bare-bones prices. The thing about saving on Fitzpatrick is that you can spend a fortune elsewhere. And if he gets you 225 yards, a TD, and a pick, you're dancing in the street. Seems like a really easy GPP play. And one I'll hate as soon as I make it.

Kenny Stills - FD 5100 DK 4800 DD 7250 DFSTR
This is going to look like one of the more egregious pricing mistakes of week 13, and I doubt it will be close. In the first game since Brandin Cooks was done for the season, Stills led the team in both catches and yards receiving. With Graham still not looking like himself, and Colston a pale imitation of his former glory, it looks like Brees is comfortable trying to find upside with Kenny Stills. The Steelers have been a middle of the road passing offense this season, and the upside that Stills possesses on a points per dollar basis might be the very highest in all of daily fantasy football for week 13.

Matt Asiata - FD 5800 DK 3300 DD 7450 DFSTR
One of the more interesting storylines from an injury perspective should be the potential re-emergence of Matt Asiata. As is well documented, Asiata is the clear goal line back in Minnesota - but he might now be re-adding the rest of the running attack to his opportunity to put fantasy points on the board as well. While Banyard and Tate might grab some of those carries, Asiata is the best bet to put a decent game together, in spite of his total lack of explosiveness. Carolina's 9th worst passing defense should give him plenty of opportunities.

Charles Johnson - FD 6300 DK 4000 DD 6600 DFSTR
If you've kept up with our normal picks articles, and our week 13 picks article in particular, you'll have noticed how seriously we take recent sample sizes when it comes to dealing with rookie wide receivers. Well, Charles Johnson may be exhibit A by the time the season is over. In the last two weeks, he's averaged almost 70 yards a game on 9 targets per game. And he snuck one of those into the end zone, as well. With Bridgewater looking for comfort anywhere he can find it, Johnson seems as likely a guy as any to put up to put up a decent week. The reason he's not ranked higher? The price isn't as perfect as some others. But he may have more safety.

Dan Herron - FD 5800 DK 5000 DD 7850 DFSTR
With 17 touches last week, it seems clear that Dan Herron will fill the role once occupied by Ahmad Bradshaw. Now, it's not a totally fair comparison. Bradshaw is certainly the more polished runner and pass catcher - but I'd argue that Herron might wind up with more opportunity due to the (justifiable) lack of injury concerns that he presents. The Redskins have been fairly stout against the run this year, but Herron will be used in both the passing AND running game, and there's tremendous upside here if he's used in the receiving game in the red zone the same way Bradshaw was. A lot of people wrote Bradshaw's TD-happy tendencies off as "luck," but his 30 red zone touches before injury were among the very highest in the league. If Herron inherits only 70% of those, this price will jump by ~%25 before the season is over.

Tre Mason - FD 6000 DK 4600 DD 7550 DFSTR
I wrote this about Mason last week, and not a TON has really changed:
Mason is my favorite cheap guy this week by a country mile. Since he's been the starter, he's had the displeasure of going up against the run defenses of Denver, Arizona, San Francisco, and Seattle. Those are the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th run defenses in the league. So you can't kill him for putting together a horrendous YPC. With San Diego's offense sputtering badly the last few weeks, I think Mason will get 20+ carries. There's TD upside here as well, but he's the safest RB on the board below $7k on FanDuel.

What's really changed? He has an even better match-up this week. If the Rams can score against anyone, it will be the Raiders. One time, fantasy football Gods!

Rashad Jennings - FD 7100 DK 6700 DD 10550 DFSTR
Sort of hard to call Jennings a sleeper, but after a couple of underwhelming performances, his price probably isn't exactly where it should be. With Andre Williams underwhelming (and that's an understatement) in his time in the feature back role, I think Jennings will be in a position to re-assume some of the fantasy glory he flexed earlier this season. If he does, this week against the lowly Jags will be the week he does it - and his price will climb back up into the high $7000s on FanDuel quite quickly after that.

Justin Hunter - FD 5900 DK 4000 DD 6300 DFSTR
This one is certainly more of a long shot than my other recommendations, and purely an upside flyer. But here's the deal - Hunter has been getting a lot more downfield looks now that Mettenberger is at the helm. Now, he'll have a lot of 3-10 games where you're banging your head against the desk, but if Mettenberger can find him on 1 or 2 of those long balls, Hunter will be a guy who could win you a huge GPP. Don't be dissuaded by his lack of big plays this season. He hasn't had a QB with Mettenberger's arm throwing to him until very, very recently.

I'm off:
Isaiah Crowell - FD 6900 DK 4600 DD 8950 DFSTR
I'd like to be kind when speaking about a guy who could tie me up into a pretzel and put me in his lunch box, so I'll put this delicately: I won't play Isaiah Crowell last week. A lot of daily fantasy football players were rewarded when Crowell punched it in twice against the Falcons, but it could have easily gone the other way. Crowell touched the ball just 12 times, and was clearly in a time-share with Terrance West. If that continues, the scoring opportunities will not sustain the drag caused by the lack of other opportunities, and the match-up with the Bills is bad enough to more than make up the difference even if he is still getting the RZ carries.

 
Give a follow on Twitter @dailyfantasysr and @dougnorrie.

Ready to make the leap and get access to the exclusive projection system that produces these picks? Try a free 3-day trial to our Lineup Construction Tools for FanDuel, DraftKings, and Drafster - AND you'll get 'em for Football as well, all for the same price!

Did you know that our new Football eBook is live just in time for football season? You can get a free copy in your inbox by filling out the form below.

A quick note - if you're only interested in Football related content getting emailed to you, be sure to check the "DFSR Football Newsletter" box on the signup form below.

Thanks, and good luck!