Week 13 Quarterback Starts & Sits: It's Trevor Lawrence Week
Welcome to Week 13. I’m not sure how we got here already, but there are only six more weeks left in the NFL regular season! And that means we’re only a couple of weeks away from the fantasy football playoffs – which makes Week 13 infinitely important.
In case you’re new to the column, here’s a quick explainer of what we’re trying to do here (skip down if you’ve been here before). We’re here to wrestle with the decisions that are keeping us up at night. Do you bench a struggling player you took in the second round? Do you take a chance on the guy who has seemingly been playing over his head? Do you sit the high-floor/low-ceiling player for the low-floor/high-ceiling player? We won’t know the “correct” answers until the games are over. But we’re going to do our best to talk through it.
With no time to spare, let’s dig into the Week 13 quarterback start/sit decisions that are keeping us up at night.
Start ‘Em
START OF THE WEEK: Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars
I’m hoping this is the last time I’ll have to write about him this season (he should be a no-brainer by now), but I still see people doubting Lawrence. While he’s had a few clunkers this year (what quarterback hasn’t, really?), Lawrence is getting hot at the right time and has turned in a top-12 quarterback performance in five of his past seven games. With a matchup against a bad Lions defense on tap this weekend, Lawrence is an absolute must-start. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he finishes as a top-5 quarterback this week.
Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders
Don’t look now, but Derek Carr looks like a serviceable fantasy quarterback again. After a meh start to the season, Carr now sits at QB15 on the year and has finished as QB9, QB15, QB10, and QB10 over his last four starts. He gets a nice home matchup against the Chargers this week and should be able to do some damage against a defense that tends to give up fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. I’ll never feel *great* about starting Carr, but I feel good about him this week.
Mike White, New York Jets
I don’t really like playing this game, but the Jets could potentially be sitting at 9-2 if they had benched Zach Wilson sooner. White looked great against the Bears last week and was able to take advantage of the Jets group of talented young receivers in ways that Wilson struggled to. There’s a big caveat here in that White looked awful after a big game last year (so buyer beware), but he has a nice indoor matchup against a Vikings defense that made Mac Jones look good last week so I’m buying.
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Sit ‘Em
SIT OF THE WEEK: Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings
While Cousins looked great on Thanksgiving, he also threw a few balls that should’ve been picked and was able to take advantage of the Patriots somehow forgetting that Justin Jefferson existed. He has a much tougher challenge this week against a really good Jets defense and will likely come back down to Earth a bit. Cousins is QB13 on the season after a QB9 performance last week, but I expect him to be closer to the QB15-18 range this week.
Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I’ll preface this by saying Brady isn’t an automatic bench, but he’s not an automatic start either. The 45-year-old has looked shaky this season, but he also hasn’t had a whole lot of help from his supporting cast (and coaching staff). Brady has typically struggled against the Saints during his Bucs tenure and is a strong candidate to put on your bench this week if you have any semblance of another viable option.
Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
If it seems like a lifetime ago that Goff was putting up top-10 QB performances, that’s because it basically was. Week 4 is the last time he put up a top-14 week at his position, and he’s been struggling with a capital S ever since. While the Jaguars are a nice matchup on paper, they’ve been playing better as of late and limited Lamar Jackson last week. I’d stay away from Goff this week if you can.
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