There are a lot of things I’m feeling grateful for this week.
I’m grateful that Greg Olsen is setting a new standard for NFL color commentary.
I’m grateful to live in a dog-walking paradise with two nature preserves and a giant park within a half-mile of our house.
I’m grateful to be experiencing Jack White’s prime as a guitar god.
I’m grateful for gruyere cheese and pineapple (but not together).
And, of course, I’m grateful for the “Holy F” Thanksgiving trinity of family, food and football.
The NFL on Thanksgiving is a very different experience for many of us. Rather than watching the games in a favorite bar or on a favorite spot on the couch, a lot of us are watching with family, explaining to an aunt why that last play drew a penalty flag, or hearing about an uncle’s gallbladder surgery while watching Javonte Williams pick his way through traffic.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t want to watch NFL games this way every week. But on Thanksgiving? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The older I get, the more I appreciate family. My family.
Friends I grew up with have lost one or both parents. I’ve been trying to impress upon my college-age kids that the only cast of characters they’ve ever known for Thanksgiving might look much different in a few years. Enjoy the company of these people while you can, kiddos.
Not everyone will sit at a big table for Thanksgiving. For some of you, it’s a one- or two-person holiday. A lot of folks will spend the holiday working. If you fall into any of these categories, just know that millions of people are jealous of your relative solitude.
Whether you’re spending the holiday with many people or few, I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.
Now, let’s get to the 10 most intriguing players of Week 13.
The 10 Most Intriguing Players of Week 13
1. Joe Burrow (QB – CIN)
He’s back, baby!
The greatest thing to happen to Cincinnati since Graeter’s ice cream returns to action for the first time since sustaining a toe injury in Week 2 that required surgery. Much to the chagrin of Bengals fans and Joe Burrow’s fantasy investors, Joltin’ Joe had left and gone away. Hey, hey, hey.
Burrow will make his return against division rival Baltimore in a fun nightcap to a terrific three-game Thanksgiving slate. Burrow went nuclear in his two games against the Ravens’ Three Mile Island pass defense last season, throwing for 820 yards and nine touchdowns.
Bengals wideout Ja’Marr Chase returns from a one-game suspension for spitting on the Steelers’ Jalen Ramsey, but Tee Higgins will miss Burrow’s comeback game with a concussion.
It will be fun to see what sort of numbers Burrow can put up the rest of the way with the Bengals’ abominable defense thrusting him into weekly shootouts.
Encore, encore!
Jahmyr Gibbs is making a second straight appearance in this article. It was mentioned last week that there was “perfect storm” potential for Gibbs against the Giants. Indeed, the Giants’ defense struggled in the stormy seas like the Andrea Gail.
Gibbs had 15 carries for 219 yards and two touchdowns and added 11 receptions for 45 yards and a touchdown. He scored 55.4 PPR fantasy points.
This week, Gibbs has a Thanksgiving Day game against the Packers. Gibbs didn’t fare well against Green Bay in Week 1, when he had nine carries for 19 yards and 10 catches for 31 yards. Gibbs’ performance in that game was a good argument against PPR scoring, since he was far less impactful than his 15 PPR points would suggest.
After Gibbs had 26 touches against the Giants last week, will he shoulder another heavy workload on only three days’ rest, or will Lions head coach and offensive play-caller Dan Campbell increase the workload of David Montgomery, who had eight touches last week?
Gotta admit that I didn’t see this coming.
My perception of George Pickens before this season was that he was a temperamental artiste with extraordinary ball skills but limitations to his game that would prevent him from ascending to superstar status.
Whoops.
The 24-year-old Pickens has turned into a monster. The remarkable contested-catch skills are still on full display, but now he’s showing off advanced route-running chops and physically overpowering any poor defensive back who dares to come between Pickens and a football.
Pickens hasn’t had a quiet game since Week 1, when he had three catches for 30 yards against the Eagles. Last week, in his second game against the Eagles, Pickens had nine catches for 146 yards and a touchdown. He’s now on pace for 104 catches, 1,629 yards and 12 touchdowns.
When CeeDee Lamb missed three games with a high-ankle sprain earlier this season, Pickens showed he could be an alpha receiver when needed, with 19 catches for 359 yards and four touchdowns in Lamb’s absence.
Pickens is thriving with Lamb around, too. In fact, Pickens is outperforming Lamb, who caught a case of the yips last week and dropped some very catchable throws. It would be premature to declare Pickens the Cowboys’ No. 1 receiver, but suffice it to say that Dallas has a potent one-two punch at the wide receiver position.
In 2024, Saquon Barkley ran for 2,005 yards, rolled up 2,283 yards from scrimmage, scored 15 touchdowns and averaged 21.2 half-PPR fantasy points per game to rank as the overall fantasy RB1.
Twelve games into the 2025 season, Barkley is averaging about 49 fewer scrimmage yards per game than he did last season. He’s the RB14 in half-PPR fantasy scoring, averaging 13.3 points.
Barkley is averaging 3.7 yards per carry this season and 2.8 yards per carry over his last three games. It doesn’t help that Eagles star right tackle Lane Johnson is out with a Lisfranc injury. (Damn those French foot injuries!)
But Saquon has a potentially favorable Black Friday matchup against the Bears. Last week, Chicago had to face Pittsburgh without all three of its starting linebackers, and Steelers running backs Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell combined for 227 scrimmage yards. Two of the Bears’ starting linebackers, T.J. Edwards and Noah Sewell, weren’t practicing as of Tuesday.
Can Barkley ring the cash register on America’s favorite shopping day?
We think Bucky Irving is going to be back this week after missing seven games with shoulder and foot injuries. He was back at practice last week. He didn’t play in Week 12, but all indications are that he’ll suit up on Sunday when the Buccaneers host the Cardinals.
The Bucs need him. Baker Mayfield is questionable with a shoulder injury. If Mayfield can’t go, Teddy Bridgewater will start at quarterback for Tampa Bay. Even if Mayfield plays, he’s been in a tailspin, averaging 5.3 yards per pass attempt over his last five games.
Irving is electric when healthy. As a rookie in 2024, he averaged 5.4 yards per carry and 3.93 yards after contact per carry (most among all running backs with 60+ carries). The Buccaneers slow-rolled Irving last year, and when they fully unleashed him late in the season, he averaged 127.3 yards from scrimmage and scored six touchdowns in the seven games in which he played more than half the offensive snaps.
It’s possible Irving doesn’t see a 50% snap share in his first game back, but it’s hard not to like his outlook against an Arizona run defense ranked 21st in DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average).
With Alvin Kamara sidelined by a sprained MCL and Kendre Miller out for the season with a torn ACL, sixth-round rookie Devin Neal is now the Saints’ lead running back. The other backs on the roster are ex-Bronco Audric Estime and the newly acquired Evan Hull.
It’s not clear whether being the lead running back in New Orleans means anything for fantasy. Kamara has averaged 59.7 scrimmage yards a game this season and has scored one touchdown. He’s an uncharacteristic RB31 in PPR fantasy scoring. The Saints’ offensive line has been ravaged by injuries.
And then there’s everyone’s favorite hybrid, Taysom Hill, a parasitic fantasy presence known for poaching goal-line touchdowns and sapping the value of Saints running backs. Hill out-carried Neal 10-7 last week, even though Hill is averaging 2.2 yards per carry this season.
Neal was wildly productive during his college career at Kansas, rushing for 2,546 yards and scoring 34 touchdowns in his final two seasons with the Jayhawks. It will be interesting to see what Neal can do Sunday against a Falcons defense that’s giving up the sixth-most fantasy points per game to running backs.
Drake Maye is having a magical season. He’s the overall QB2 in fantasy scoring behind only Josh Allen and is on the shortlist of NFL Most Valuable Player candidates.
But can Maye still be magical without the left side of his offensive line?
Rookie left tackle Will Campbell, the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, sprained his MCL last week and was placed on injured reserve (IR). Starting left guard Jared Wilson has a high-ankle sprain and could miss multiple games.
The Patriots are heavily favored to beat the visiting Giants on Monday night, but Giants EDGE rusher Brian Burns, who has 13.5 sacks, could make things hard on Maye. It’s possible that with his offensive line in tatters, Maye could be less dazzling than he’s been for the first 12 weeks of the season.
Second-round rookie Jayden Higgins is starting to assert himself in the Houston offense. Over his last three games, Higgins has 13 catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s hard to confidently start Higgins for fantasy when Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley insists on having Higgins split snaps with former sixth-round pick Xavier Hutchinson. But maybe Caley is starting to get it: Hutchinson had a season-low 35.6% snap share last week in the Texans’ 23-19 win over the Bills.
The king-sized Higgins is 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds. He has surprising speed for a bigger receiver and is a crisp route runner with reliable hands.
Higgins’ time is coming, and we might see him surge down the stretch. If Higgins pops this week against the Colts’ dynamic outside cornerback duo of Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward, consider it a sign of impending stardom.
They say living well is the best revenge. But letting your former employer languish with J.J. McCarthy as its starting quarterback is a pretty good form of revenge, too.
Sam Darnold is living pretty well these days. He has the NFL’s fifth-best passer rating and leads the league with 9.3 yards per attempt. His Seahawks are 8-3 and have the third-best point differential (+107) in the league.
Darnold has a chance to twist a knife in the backs of the 4-7 Vikings, who had both Darnold and Daniel Jones on the roster last season but opted to roll with McCarthy, their first-round pick in 2024, who missed his rookie season with a knee injury. McCarthy has been a train wreck this season, although train wrecks are sometimes less disastrous.
The question is whether Darnold even needs to have a big game against the Vikings. Seattle is an 11.5-point home favorite against Minnesota. The Seahawks have shown they’ll go with a run-heavy game plan if they can. Darnold has thrown fewer than 30 passes in seven of his 11 starts.
10. Kenneth Gainwell (RB – PIT)
Over the last two weeks, Kenneth Gainwell has been the RB3 in PPR fantasy scoring behind only Jahmyr Gibbs and Christian McCaffrey.
Gainwell has 19 carries for 116 yards over his last two games, but he’s done most of his damage as a pass-catcher, with 13 receptions for 111 yards and two touchdowns.
Jaylen Warren is still the Steelers’ lead back, but Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is keeping both of his top two running backs heavily involved. (Sorry, Kaleb Johnson investors — I’ve got nothing for ya.)
Gainwell undoubtedly benefitted from plum matchups against the Bengals and Bears the last two weeks, but he has another good matchup on tap Sunday against the Bills, who’ve yielded the third-most fantasy points per game to running backs.
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