Matthew Freedman highlights the top wide receiver plays for fantasy football in Week 13. 

It's the week of Thanksgiving, which means it's time for my annual (and highly official and by no means idiosyncratic and arbitrary) pie rankings.

In previous seasons, I have provided rankings and notes for the top 25.

This year, I'm sticking with just the top five: Freedman's favorites (pie edition). 

And, of course, I'll provide brief thoughts on some honorable mentions as well as the stone-cold worst pie type in existence.

If you're into this kind of stuff, my esteemed colleagues Cooterdoodle and Jake Trowbridge ranked… basically everything else for Thanksgiving. 100% worth a read here after you get your WR fix. 

Worst Pie Ever: Mincemeat

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who invite others over for Thanksgiving and then proceed to foist upon them the most disgusting culinary concoction ever conceived.

And then there are the normal people. Everyday folks like you and me.

I pray you never find yourself at the house of an acquaintance needing to pretend that mincemeat pie is not, in fact, a crime against humanity.

I once had to navigate such dangerous waters. I survived. I'm no hero. Just a guy with a medium-strong stomach and the willingness to lie.

By the way, have I mentioned how great you look today?

My Pie Rankings

No. 5: Apple Pie

A case could be made for apple as high as No. 1 and low as No. 7. A great apple offering is hard to beat, and even a bad one is average.

It's almost impossible to have too many apple pies at a gathering.

No. 4: Key Lime Pie

You might not think of this as a Thanksgiving dessert—but it is if you pour some cranberry sauce on it.

But really any season of year is a fine time for key lime.

No. 3: Pecan Pie

Easy to get wrong, but perfection if gotten right.

  • Pecans from Texas
  • Bourbon from Kentucky
  • Recipe from Louisiana

Best when baked by a grandmother and accompanied by vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel.

I've recently been informed that I should expect to enjoy a top-tier chocolate pecan pie at one of the Thanksgiving meals I plan to attend this year.

Reader, I am beyond hopefully enthusiastic.

Wish me good fortune.

No. 2: Pumpkin Pie & Sweet Potato Pie

Pumpkin and sweet potato aren't the same … but I can barely taste the difference. An unsophisticated palate I have.

Both are good … but if they were so good then people (other than Mel Kiper Jr.) would be eating them all year long.

And, sorry, as much as I love pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas, there's zero chance I'm eating a slice of it during the summer.

But this next pie—I could eat healthy servings of it at any point of the year.

No. 1: Cherry

For too long I have kowtowed to the orthodoxy that insists upon having pumpkin and/or sweet potato at the top of pie rankings.

No more.

If cherry pie is No. 1 outside of the holiday season—and it is—then it should be No. 1 even in the colder months.

I have decided.

In the words of Warrant, “Tastes so good, make a grown man cry: Sweet cherry pie.”

Honorable Mentions

  • Lemon Meringue: Mom's favorite
  • Banana Cream: Above-average palate cleanser between other, better pies
  • Peanut Butter: With milk
  • Any Non-Strawberry Berry Pie: Standard
  • Peach: My go-to high-school favorite

Best of luck with all your pie-eating and fantasy-dominating endeavors this week.

Freedman's Favorites

As of Tuesday afternoon, here's an early look at my (preliminary) favorite Week 13 fantasy plays—the guys who (in some combination) …

  • Might be high in my fantasy rankings relative to the industry consensus.
  • Need to be started in most season-long leagues.
  • Must be added if they are on waivers.
  • Possess underappreciated upside.
  • Have advantageous matchups.
  • Should be considered in daily fantasy.
  • Make for desirable dynasty acquisition targets.
  • Are on teams with player-friendly betting odds.
  • Stand out in our Fantasy Life Player Prop Tool.

Some customary notes.

Updates: After I submit this piece, any changing opinions I have will be reflected in my rankings and my projections (accessible with a FantasyLife+ subscription), which I will update throughout the week.

Scoring & Ordering: All fantasy points are half-PPR scoring unless otherwise stated. Players in separate sections are ordered within position roughly (but probably not precisely) according to my rankings.

Abbreviations: Check out the end of the piece for abbreviations I might use.

Bye Week: This week, we have a full slate of NFL games. No excuses.

Sports Betting Data: Odds are as of 4:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 26, and based on the consensus lines in our Fantasy Life Odds Page.

Freedman's Favorites: Although we publish this piece as four separate articles broken out by position, I think of it as one cohesive whole and write it as such. With that in mind, please be sure to check out the rest of my favorite Week 13 fantasy football plays in the other positional previews.

  • QBs for Fantasy Football Week 13
  • RBs for Fantasy Football Week 13
  • TEs for Fantasy Football Week 13

Best WRs for Fantasy Football Week 13

A.J. Brown (Eagles) at Ravens

  • Eagles: +3
  • O/U: 50.5
  • TT: 23.75

A.J. Brown exited Week 9 early with a knee injury (47% snap rate), so I think it's fair to remove that one unrepresentative contest. 

In the seven full remaining games this year, Brown has 37-691-4 receiving on 52 targets.

Unquestionably, I wish Brown had more volume. In only one game this year has he had double-digit targets, and since returning from his Week 9 injury he has averaged just 7.3 targets per game. Gag me with a spoon.

Even so, Brown is still No. 1 in the league with a 51% share of air yards, and he's No. 2 with an 87% WOPR, so the targets he is getting are very much of the "big boy" variety. 

("WOPR" stands for "weighted opportunity rating," and it measures the overall quality of a player's aerial role in his offense by considering his share of targets and air yards.)

And Brown's efficiency (13.0 yards per target this year, 10.2 for career) speaks for itself and more than mitigates potential usage concerns.

The Eagles might once again be without No. 2 WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring), who neither practiced nor played last week, so Brown could see a bump in usage, and the Ravens are No. 1 in most fantasy points allowed to WRs (34.7). 

Mike Evans (Buccaneers) at Panthers

  • Buccaneers: -5.5
  • O/U: 46
  • TT: 25.75

Mike Evans suffered a hamstring injury early in Week 7 and missed Weeks 8-10 before returning to action out of the Week 11 bye.

How did he look in his first game in over a month? Meh. He turned six targets into 5-68-0 receiving. Nothing special — but he didn't have a setback, and the team cruised to a 30-7 victory, so the Bucs didn't need to push his usage.

This week, I expect him to be more involved in the game plan, perhaps aggressively so, because — stop me if you've heard this before — Evans has opened his career with an NFL-record 10 straight seasons of 1,000 yards receiving.

That remarkable run is a major part of Evans' Hall-of-Fame case, and I imagine that he and the organization are desirous to keep the streak intact … and right now, with just six games remaining in the season, Evans has only 403 yards receiving.

Especially with WR Chris Godwin (ankle, IR) unavailable, the Bucs could drastically tilt the passing offense in Evans' direction to give him every opportunity to hit the 1,000-yard milestone, just as the team did in the 2022-23 season, when he got 10-207-3 receiving on 12 targets in Week 17 to put him over the millennial threshold.

The Panthers are No. 31 in defensive dropback EPA (0.203), and in his two games against DC Ejiro Evero's unit last year Evans had 10-184-1 receiving on 20 targets.  

Jerry Jeudy (Browns) at Broncos

  • Browns: +5.5
  • O/U: 42.5
  • TT: 18.5

"Revenge should have no bounds."

  • Claudius, Hamlet

This week, Jerry Jeudy returns to Mile High, the place he called home for the first four years of his career before the Broncos traded him this offseason to the Browns.

While Jeudy wasn't an all-out bust with the Broncos (he had 3,053 yards and 11 TDs receiving with 8.6 yards per target in his tenure with the team), he didn't live up to the hype that accompanied him to the NFL as the No. 15 pick in the 2020 draft.

But now with the Browns he has started to shine. I don't want to read too much into a small sample, but since Week 8 — in his four games without former No. 1 WR Amari Cooper (traded) and with Jameis Winston as the starter — Jeudy has 24-379-1 receiving with 36 targets.

Jeudy's matchup is tough. The Broncos are No. 1 in defensive dropback EPA (-0.105), thanks in part to the fact that they aggressively get after QBs (30.4% blitz rate, No. 3) and they have one of the league's best shutdown defenders in CB Pat Surtain (84.7 coverage grade, per PFF).

But the Broncos could be without No. 2 CB Riley Moss (knee), and Winston is the kind of teammate-focused YOLO passer likely to give Jeudy multiple opportunities downfield to hit a big play against his former team — even if he is shadowed by Surtain.

And if Winston doesn't force the ball to Jeudy for revenge-forward reasons, he still could gift extra targets to him out of necessity if WR Cedric Tillman (concussion) is unable to suit up.

Revenge is rarely a sustainable long-term motivational tactic, but in the short term it can be quite satisfactory.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling (Saints) vs. Rams

  • Saints: +3
  • O/U: 49.5
  • TT: 23.25

Sure, the guy never really made it work with Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen… but when you put Marquez Valdes-Scantling next to QB Derek Carr: Magic. Inevitable.

It might be easy for you to look at the seven targets he has gotten over his past two games and say, "That's not a lot." Right you are.

You're smart. And handsome. (Consult intro for context.)

But the Saints are without WRs Chris Olave (concussion, IR), Rashid Shaheed (knee, IR), and Bub Means (ankle, IR), so Valdes-Scantling has drastically limited competition for opportunities, and in his two Olave-less games since Week 10 he has functioned as the team's No. 1 WR with more-than-sufficient results.

  • Utilization: 77% route rate | 48% air yards share | 33% endzone target share
  • Production: 5-196-3 receiving | 28.0 yards per target

Without doubt, Valdes-Scantling will experience regression soon… but a dude with a 26.6-yard aDOT and no other established WRs on the team will always have a chance to go off, and the Saints might have more designed plays for him in the offense coming out of the bye. Given that he just joined the team at the end of October, there's still plenty of room for his role to grow.

The Rams are No. 4 in largest fantasy boost allowed to WRs (+5.5).

The Deep Route

CeeDee Lamb (Cowboys -3.5, TT: 20.25) vs. Giants: In backup QB Cooper Rush's three starts this year, Lamb has averaged just 5.3 yards per target and been held out of the end zone — but he's also had 34 targets (and three carries), and for the season he still leads the league with 77 receptions. On a short week, the Cowboys could once again be without No. 2 WR Brandin Cooks (knee, IR) and TE Jake Ferguson (concussion), so Lamb could see double-digit targets for the… counts notes… sixth game in a row. The Giants are No. 32 in defensive pass DVOA against No. 1 WRs (32.4%).

Courtland Sutton (Broncos -5.5, TT: 24) vs. Browns: Sutton almost dementored me in Week 7 with his zero-target disappointment, but in the five games since then he has 36-467-3 receiving on 48 targets as well as 30 yards and a TD passing on two attempts. Indeed, since Week 8 he is No. 2 at the position in our Fantasy Life Utilization Score (9.7). Against the odds, Sutton has morphed into an alpha receiver. The Browns are No. 3 in largest fantasy boost allowed to WRs (+6.1).

D.J. Moore (Bears +10, TT: 19) at Lions: Playing with limited recovery time, the Lions could be without No. 1 CB Carlton Davis (knee, thumb), who exited Week 12 early. In his two games with interim OC Thomas Brown, Moore has converted 100% of his 14 targets into 14-168-1 receiving, to which he has added 2-18-0 rushing and a pass attempt. In two games, against DC Aaron Glenn's unit last year, Moore had 13-164-2 receiving on 19 targets with 3-20-1 rushing.

Jaylen Waddle (Dolphins +3, TT: 22) at Packers: In the words of Cornelius Fudge, "He's back!" Waddle's had a disappointing campaign primarily due to the emergence of RB De'Von Achane and midseason absence of QB Tua Tagovailoa, but last week he looked like his former self with a season-best 8-144-1 receiving on nine targets. As road underdogs, the Dolphins could give Waddle another healthy workload this week with a pass-leaning game script against the Packers, who are No. 29 in defensive dropback SR (49.8%) and could be without No. 1 CB Jaire Alexander (knee), who missed last week and has been in and out of the lineup all season with a lingering injury.

Amari Cooper (Bills -7, TT: 26) vs. 49ers: Cooper's time with the Bills has been unremarkable (7-124-1 receiving, 10 targets in three games), but in Week 7 he had just joined the team, in Week 8 he suffered a wrist injury, in Weeks 9-10 he was out, and in Week 11 he was returning from injury after having only limited practices. Coming out of the Week 12 bye, I expect him to have a larger role in the offense, especially if WR Keon Coleman (wrist) and TE Dalton Kincaid (knee) are still out. For the 49ers, perimeter CBs Charvarius Ward (personal) and Renardo Green (neck) could be out.

Adam Thielen (Panthers +5.5, TT: 20.25) vs. Buccaneers: Thielen's Week 12 return from hamstring injury was forgettable (3-57-0 receiving, four targets), but this week I imagine he will have a larger role (68% route rate), especially if WR Jalen Coker (quadriceps) and TE Ja'Tavion Sanders (neck) remain sidelined. The Bucs could be without slot CB Tykee Smith (knee), who has been out since Week 10.

Abbreviations

  • Fantasy Points per Game (FPPG)
  • Against the Spread (ATS)
  • Over/Under (O/U)
  • Team Total (TT)
  • Moneyline (ML)
  • Return on Investment (ROI)
  • Adjusted Yards per Attempt (AY/A)
  • Expected Points Added (EPA)
  • Success Rate (SR)
  • Completion Percentage Over Expected (CPOE)
  • Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA)
  • AirYAC (Air Yards + Yards After Catch)
  • Weighted Opportunity Rating (WOPR)
  • Average Depth of Target (aDOT)
  • Short Down and Distance (SDD)
  • Long Down and Distance (LDD)