Week 13 Waiver Wire Pickups: Best Fantasy Sleepers to Target on Yahoo

If you're scanning the fantasy football waiver wire for roster reinforcements for Week 13 of the 2023 NFL season, you need to know something.

The pool of potential pickups is perhaps as shallow as it's been all season.

At this point of the campaign, the fantasy community has mostly awakened to all of the sleepers already. Plus, the injury count feels like it's forever climbing. And if you're shopping for waiver wire help now, that means eight different rosters are out of the Week 13 equation, since six are on a bye (including the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills) and two already tussled on Thursday night (the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks).

Your waiver options are limited, but there are still a few who warrant some attention. We'll spotlight our top sleeper— rostered in fewer than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues, per FantasyPros—at each of the three marquee positions.

If you missed the waiver runs on Russell Wilson (70 percent) and Jordan Love (63 percent), then Gardner Minshew might be your best consolation prize.

That says plenty about the streaming options this week, but it says some good things about Minshew, too.

His play can be erratic, but his good games can be great. He had a two-week stretch earlier this season where he threw for 518 yards and four touchdowns (two interceptions) and ran for another 32 yards and two scores.

He was the QB4 for that stretch, and he faced better defenses then than he'll see now. Two of the past three quarterbacks to face the Tennessee Titans (Baker Mayfield and Trevor Lawrence) put up 19.3-plus points.

Assuming you missed the sprint to Zack Moss (85 percent rostered) that followed news of Jonathan Taylor's thumb injury, your only options are dart throws to fill the running back spot.

D'Ernest Johnson is trending up at least.

He has clearly surpassed Tank Bigsby as the No. 2 back in Jacksonville. While that role has a fantasy ceiling as long as Travis Etienne is available, Johnson is getting a few chances to flash his playmaking skills. He's had seven carries over the past two contests, and while they didn't yield much, his 4.9 career yards-per-carry average suggests more yards will come if he stays involved in the ground game.

Johnson is also doing everything he can to become a bigger part of this passing attack. Over his last three outings, he's had four receptions on five targets for 104 yards.

The wide receiver spot might be the closest thing your league has to a deep position on waivers this week. Christian Watson (67 percent rostered), Josh Downs (59 percent) and Jayden Reed (56) don't miss our cutoff by much and might be up for grabs in your league.

Beyond that trio, Curtis Samuel could be a good find.

Washington might have a crowded receiving corps, but there's enough volume in this passing game for multiple players to put up numbers. Samuel was just one of them, posting nine catches on 12 targets for 100 yards (all season-highs) against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

The Commanders might be airing it out Sunday to keep pace with the Miami Dolphins, so Samuel could again be involved early and often.