Fantasy Football Waiver Wire, Week 13: David Johnson Gets His Chance to Shine in Arizona

David Johnson has shown flashes of his potential at times this year, playing behind Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington when both are healthy. With Chris Johnson’s leg injury that will keep him out for an extended period of time, David Johnson will take on a much bigger role. Andre Ellington also left the game Sunday with a turf toe injury.

The pickings are pretty slim this week. Other than Johnson, who projects as a top 12 start at RB this week, and Scott Chandler playing in place of Rob Gronkowski, most other plays are borderline starting options.

Week 13 is upon us. This is the final regular season week for plenty of leagues. Johnson may be the boost some of them need.

As always, I list the rest of the potential pickups by likely availability in Shallow Leagues (50-69% owned), Average Leagues (30-49% owned), and Deep Leagues (owned in less than 30%).

QUARTERBACKS

Shallow Leagues: Ryan Fitzpatrick (52%) against the Giants is a pretty good matchup if you need to plug and play someone.

Average Leagues: Brock Osweiler (44%) has a great matchup against the Chargers and will be in the top half of starting options this week.

Deep Leagues: Matt Hasselbeck (25%) might get another start against a Steelers’ secondary that struggled on Sunday.

RUNNING BACKS

Shallow Leagues: Shaun Draughn (54%) continues to get a high volume amount of work with Carlos Hyde out. If he is out again, this is a good matchup against Chicago and Draughn is a top 16 option this week.

Alfred Morris (61%) got a decent amount of carries last week with Washington winning. They get Dallas this week with Matt Cassel at QB. Expect more ball control offense making Morris a flex start.

Theo Riddick (57%) continues to be valuable in PPR leagues and should again see targets on third down and when trailing, going against the Packers for a second time.

Average Leagues and Deep Leagues: Pickings are slim. Bilal Powell (16%) is the best of a limited number of options as a low-end flex play.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Shallow Leagues: Marvin Jones (67%) at CLE, Anquan Boldin (60%) at CHI and Kendall Wright (58%) vs JAX are all emergency starting options if you need someone. But then again, I would probably go with …

Average and Deep Leagues: DeVante Parker (7%) has a great matchup against Baltimore, and should be in line for a much bigger role with Rishard Matthews’ injury.

Dontrelle Inman (9%) had a much bigger impact last week for San Diego, though the matchup this week vs DEN isn’t great.

TIGHT ENDS

All Leagues: Scott Chandler (8%) provides a top 5 option at TE with Gronk out. He was targeted 11 times last week and should be a big part of the Patriots’ offense against the Eagles.

If you miss out on Chandler, Luke Willson (1%) at MIN will be replacing Jimmy Graham. Vance McDonald (0%) at CHI is another good matchup, and McDonald has been putting up decent numbers since Vernon Davis was traded.

Kyle Rudolph (42%) vs SEA is another matchup play.

OVERALL

David Johnson, RB ARI
Scott Chandler, TE NE
Luke Willson, TE SEA
Shaun Draughn, RB SF
DeVante Parker, WR MIA
Alfred Morris, RB WAS
Dontrelle Inman, WR SD
Kyle Rudolph, TE MIN
Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB NYJ
Theo Riddick, RB DET
Brock Osweiler, QB DEN
Kendall Wright, WR TEN
Matt Hasselbeck, QB IND
Bilal Powell, RB NYJ
Marvin Jones, WR CIN