Hey folks! We cannot understate the importance of being in on Week 13’s waiver wire players early while the free agency acquisition budget (FAAB) price is cheapest (or free!), so you can add them to your roster. This is not just for adding them to your roster so your league mates don’t get them first; this will help you build a strong roster that has depth and can provide some additional cover from the chaos of the NFL season.

As we know, nothing goes exactly to plan in the NFL, so we want you to be as prepared as possible to weather the uncertain storm of injuries, role changes, scheme changes and any other general chaos that can happen in a given NFL season.

I’m Kevin Tompkins, and while I may not have drafted a running back ever, I have picked up quite a few in my day as a noted “Zero-RB” guy; luckily, it won’t just be the running back position I’ll be helping you all with this season.

Each week, I’ll provide five players as look-ahead players for the next week, who could be THE waiver wire claims for the following week. But they won’t be available in your league because you already have them.

We’re already looking ahead to Week 13’s players, so you can be ahead of the game with a gap in bye weeks as every single team will be playing.

Note: I cannot be held responsible if these players get hurt in Week 11, so please don’t message me @ktompkinsii.bsky.social if that happens.

Note 2: These early waiver wire pickup suggestions are meant for general fantasy football leagues. Some of these players may not be available in your leagues.

~ Check Out Our Week 12 Fantasy Football Rankings ~

Week 13 Waiver Wire QB

Drake Maye (QB – NE)

ESPN Rostership (19.9%)

I’m bringing back the Drake Maye discourse as my given right as a U.S. American.

Drake Maye has been a revelation for the Patriots this season, and they are so bereft of wide receiver talent to make him pop off the chart more, and when you consider what Maye has to work with, he looks even better. Of course, Maye can shine with his legs, and the Patriots are letting him pass through it with three of his last four completed games above 37 pass attempts. In Maye’s last six starts, he has averaged 41 yards rushing.

In Week 11, Maye was 11th out of 28 quarterbacks in EPA per play, and in the EPA plus completion percentage over expected (CPOE) composite, Maye jumps to eighth. Take out the two turnovers he had, and Maye’s positive stuff REALLY shines, as his EPA per play jumps to eighth and his EPA+CPOE darts up to sixth ahead of names like Anthony Richardson and Josh Allen.

Simply put, the level at which Maye is playing right now is beyond his years. But the weapons are subpar. That will hopefully change this offseason, but everything you want from a franchise quarterback is there for the Patriots. With how he’s playing, he needs to be rostered in many more leagues. Did you perhaps lose Brock Purdy to an injury? Go get Maye, and then keep him for the next week against the Indianapolis Colts.

Week 13 Waiver Wire RB

Keaton Mitchell (RB – BAL)

ESPN Rostership (17.3%)

Keaton Mitchell has been on injured reserve for much of the season as he recuperated from a torn ACL in his left knee last December and was activated just before Week 10’s game, where he played two snaps and ran one route against the Cincinnati Bengals and then did the same thing (two snaps, one route) last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. So what’s the hubbub with Mitchell, then?

Well, the upside he showed right from the jump should get everybody excited, as he averaged a whopping 8.4 yards per carry with 396 rushing yards on just 47 carries, which is absolutely absurd—all of this capped off by a 138-yard coming-out party in Week 9 last season.

With this kind of upside, he’s a great stash, but of course, Derrick Henry exists. But what if the Ravens clinch their playoff destiny during your fantasy playoffs? What would be the incentive to continue to play Henry? That’s where Mitchell comes in because Justice Hill has never been that type of volume-carrying back in his career. To be fair, in a limited sample, neither has Mitchell. However, with Mitchell’s tantalizing explosive-run skills, he’s somebody who could break a slate in the way De’Von Achane can. Those are the players you want at the end of your bench.

Week 13 Waiver Wire WR

Devaughn Vele (WR – DEN)

ESPN Rostership (1.3%)

Sure, it’s a bit risky to roster any Denver Broncos wide receiver in fantasy football. But for fantasy, modern problems require modern solutions. There are fantasy points to be had here with Bo Nix playing lights-out football right now, so how can we extract the most possible points? Grab the player who is trending up in routes and tends to earn some consistent volume.

Vele is a soon-to-be 27-year-old rookie (no, really) and has earned time in the field in sort of a Khalil Shakir-ish kind of way: short, low-aDOT receptions with some compiling. That’s not a bad thing; Jarvis Landry made an entire career out of it. Shakir is doing that with awesome YAC ability to make himself a fantasy mainstay. Vele might not have the YAC ability, but at the very least, the efficiency, thanks to the shorter throws, is there.

Last week against the Falcons, Vele earned a season-high 29.4 percent of Nix’s first-read targets, and in his last two weeks, he’s run the two-highest routes per dropback of the season with 82 percent and 74 percent. He’s getting on the field with Nix, and most importantly, the offense is showing intent when calling plays to get him the ball. Make no mistake, Vele is a floor play, but with the upward trend of the Denver offense, it makes sense to be in on the guy who’s still a bit of a mystery in Vele, who is seemingly earning more trust by the week.

Kendrick Bourne (WR – NE)

ESPN Rostership (2.2%)

It’s been an odyssey for Kendrick Bourne in 2024 and even more so in the past few weeks. The Patriots brought back Bourne on a three-year deal after he tore his ACL. Bourne then made his return to the Patriots’ lineup in Week 5 and was ramped up in time on the field, culminating in 79 percent routes per Drake Maye’s dropbacks in Week 9. Then suddenly and without warning, Bourne was dressed but benched in Week 10. Likely for the team to get a look at some of the younger players.

That lasted all of one week as Bourne dressed, played and scored more fantasy points (18.0) than he had in all of his previous games combined. Perhaps, with Ja’Lynn Polk simply not producing anything but headaches, Bourne has taken hold of a meaningful role in the offense.

That’s the play here, as Bourne provides a veteran stopgap, and he’s one of the better options out there for that. We need to see Bourne get back to running more routes (just 50 percent in Week 11), but if he does? It’s wheels up for a solid late-season utility piece that can be thrown into a flex if needed.

Ray-Ray McCloud (WR – ATL)

ESPN Rostership (12.9%)

We talked about the “routes-based upside” of Ray-Ray McCloud a couple of weeks ago in this article, and the same continues to hold true for McCloud. Off the waiver wire, there are very few opportunities left to grab a league-winning player, so we’ve got to adjust. Finding solid contributors to rosters is a lost art, with everybody chasing upside, and rightly so.

Darnell Mooney has been a bit banged up over the past couple of weeks. He’s gone on the injury report with an Achilles injury, but clearly, that wasn’t anything more than something very minor, as he played in Week 11. He also picked up a mild hamstring injury in that game, but with the Week 12 bye, the Falcons should continue to let Mooney rest and recuperate.

In case Mooney’s lower-leg injuries do make him more limited, McCloud would stand to benefit. Over the last two weeks, McCloud has full 100 percent route participation in both games with five targets per game for a 38 receiving-yard average; admittedly, these are not the best per-game numbers. But if Mooney or London were to miss time? That uptick in production would definitely make him much more startable in fantasy. McCloud is a bonafide floor play as it stands knowing that you can set your watch to him being always on the field. But he’s also one of the few contingent plays at the wide receiver position that’s worth a damn to roster.

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Kevin Tompkins is a contributor to Optimus Fantasy Football. Find more from Kevin on Bluesky @ktompkinsii.bsky.social and right here on Optimus Fantasy.