Every week, we examine players that may be available on your league's waiver wire that could help your team in the short and/or long term.
For a player to be listed, he must be owned in 50 percent (or less) of Yahoo! leagues. The goal is to provide recommendations of players that have a greater chance of being available on your league's waiver wire. Of course, your league's size and settings could significantly impact whether these players (or better options) are available in your particular league(s).
With that said, here are some quarterback waiver-wire options to consider heading into Week 13 (Yahoo! % rostered in parenthesis):
[Note: Players listed below are sorted by our preference to add.]
1. Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings (40%)
It wouldn't be a surprise if Cousins threw only 14 passes in Week 13 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it's a favorable matchup and he's been playing well. Even without Adam Thielen last week, Cousins led the Vikings to a come-from-behind win over the Carolina Panthers as he threw for 307 yards and three touchdowns on Sunday.
Scoring 20-plus fantasy points in three of four games, Cousins has thrown 11 touchdowns and only one interception in that four-game span. In addition, he has back-to-back 300-yard games and at least 292 passing yards in three straight.
The Vikings are double-digit favorites in a game with a total north of 50 points, which will give Cousins & Co. one of the highest weekly implied totals.
2. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Miami Dolphins (20%)
Not that you care about my Scott Fish Bowl team (can start two quarterbacks), but my two Week 1 starters (Dak Prescott and Joe Burrow) were lost for the season and my high-upside QB3 (Fitzpatrick) had already been benched a top-five pick. That meant that I had to resort to starting Nick Mullens and Joe Flacco a couple of weeks ago.
Fortunately, I didn't drop Fitzpatrick (after he was benched) and if he's available in your league, he's a viable streamer in single-QB leagues until Tua Tagovailoa (thumb) is reinserted as the starter.
While it wasn't needed for him to do much in a 20-3 win over the Jets, Fizpatrick threw for 257 yards and two scores. If we only consider his starts this season, he has scored 18-plus fantasy points in six consecutive starts. Week 1 was the only exception. The Dolphins face the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs over the next couple of weeks.
3. Philip Rivers, Indianapolis Colts (33%)
Early this season (Weeks 1-5), Rivers threw less than 30 pass attempts in three of his first five games and averaged only 30.8 attempts over that five-game stretch. Since then, he has a minimum of 33 pass attempts in six consecutive games and is averaging 39.5 per game over that span.
Over the next three weeks, Rivers and the Colts have favorable matchups against the Houston Texans, Las Vegas Raiders and Texans again. While Houston started slowly, they have been playing better lately and Deshaun Watson is playing as well as he's ever had. In other words, it may not be a handoff-laden game plan for the Colts as the team may need to keep pace with the Texans' offense.
Because of passing volume, Rivers has scored 22-plus fantasy points in half of his past six games and 18-plus in four of six. Given the upcoming schedule, Rivers should be a high-end QB2 in each of his next three games.
4. Colt McCoy, New York Giants (0%)
If you're in a 2-QB or Super Flex (QB-eligible) league, the quarterbacks listed above are already owned. McCoy (most likely) isn't. With Daniel Jones (hamstring) expected to miss some time and a matchup against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 13, McCoy could be a plug-and-play option off the waiver wire for you as a top-24 play.
+ More Fantasy Football Waiver-Wire Advice Heading Into Week 13
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