Week 13 Sleepers, Potential-Emergent Players, and Opportunistic Plays
This article is contributed by Brad Kruse
This column is NOT intended to provide Week 13 waiver claims lists. Instead, the purpose is to look at young players whose opportunity could emerge and should be monitored. I will also look at potential injury replacement players, but I will try not to focus on the obvious choices for this week’s slate of games as that is covered elsewhere on the sight. My goal is to help look around corners for the season which might give some ideas for pre-emptive adds to your roster with Week 13 Sleepers & Emerging Players.
This week I’ll focus exclusively on the young receivers and review how they’ve performed using targets per route run and yards per route run metrics. A minimum of ten targets is required to be included in the list below.
Young Breakout Receivers (through Week 12)
The above table looks at all first and second-year WRs who have at least 15% targets per route run (TPRR) and 1.5 Yards per route run (YPRR) through ten weeks this year. Below are some comments on players who stood out in Week 12.
Second-Year Players
Jordan Addison: Addison turned in a huge week collecting eight receptions for 162 yards and one touchdown. He did this on nine targets and earned a 25% targets per route run (TPRR) and an incredible 4.5 yards per route run (YPRR). For the year, Addison earned a respectable 20% TPRR and 2.1 YPRR.
Puka Nacua: Nacua continues to deliver for fantasy teams. He recorded 37% TPRR and 3.3 YPRR this week. He caught nine balls for 1117 yards scoreless yards. For the year, Nacua has recorded 35% TPRR and 3.2 YPRR over his six-game sample.
Demario Douglas: Douglas had a useable week catching six balls for 62 yards. That amounted to 22% TPRR and 1.9 YPRR. For the year, he’s recorded a 22% TPRR and 1.6 YPRR. He’s a fringe start decision each week as a flex and an excellent bye-week replacement.
Quentin Johnston: Johnston only caught two of eight targets, but did get 48 yards and a touchdown to salvage his fantasy day. He’s averaging 12 ppg which is a solid bounce back from a difficult rookie campaign. Additionally, he also collected a 21% TPRR and a 2.1 YPRR on the year. He appears to be a piece of the rebuilding receiving room for the Chargers.
Rookies
Ladd McConkey: McConkey played on Monday night, so the route data isn’t available at the time of this writing, but he continues to look like the top option in the passing game.
Devaughn Vele: Vele is getting used more by the Broncos and has demonstrated an ability to earn targets for Bo Nix. This week he caught six of nine targets for 80 yards giving him a 41% TPRR and 3.6 YPRR for the week. For the year, he’s collecting 24% TPRR and 2.1 YPRR.
Malik Nabers: This wasn’t a peak Nabers performance week. He caught six of nine targets for 64 yards. That equated to a 24% TPRR and a 1.7 YPRR. That brings his YTD performance to 31% TPRR and 2.0 YPRR.
Rome Odunze: Odunze didn’t enjoy the fantasy day of his fellow receivers. However, he earned 10 targets, catching five of them for 39 yards. The offense shows some signs of improvement, and Odunze is a full-time receiver for the Bears. He did manage a 22% TPRR this week for a woeful 0.8 YPRR. That brings his YTD metrics to 19% TPRR and 1.4 YPRR.
