Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 13: Flex, PPR Advice for Fringe Fantasy Football Stars

The fantasy football playoffs are coming soon.

If you haven't secured a postseason spot yet, your chances may soon run out.

It's imperative, then, that you ace your upcoming start-or-sit debates for Week 13 of the 2023 NFL season. We'll help settle some of them here by spotlighting one bench and one play recommendation at each of the three marquee positions.

The full-strength 49ers are grooving again, and Purdy is smack dab in the middle of their success. He is QB7 during San Francisco's three-game winning streak, per FantasyPros, tallying 838 passing yards with seven touchdowns against a single interception over this stretch.

If the Niners hope to avenge their loss in the NFC Championship game, they'll need to put up points to knock off the Eagles. That should mean a big day is in the works for Purdy, as Philadelphia has allowed the second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks, per Yahoo.

Stafford was overdue for some correction in the touchdown category, and he finally found it on Sunday. He wound up throwing four scoring strikes—his first outing with more than two touchdowns and just his second with multiple scores—although none of the four went to wide receivers.

That contest looks like an outlier on his game log, and fantasy managers shouldn't try chasing those numbers. Especially not with Stafford and Co. set to tussle with a Browns defense that's been the stingiest against fantasy quarterbacks all season.

This matchup may not look great for Williams' quarterback, but he should be good to go. If he was remotely rusty after missing four games with an ankle injury, he didn't show it Sunday, when he turned 22 touches (16 carries and six receptions) into 204 scrimmage yards and a pair of scores.

He is clearly the best option in this backfield, if not the Rams' best playmaker at the moment. L.A. should give him every opportunity to control this contest, which should be a low-scoring affair given Cleveland's questions at quarterback.

Normally, a date with Denver's defense makes a running back an automatic start. After all, the Broncos have allowed more fantasy points to the position than anyone.

However, Singletary is back to splitting touches with Dameon Pierce, and Houston's pass-first offense isn't built to sustain two fantasy-relevant running backs. Both are best avoided here.

While rostering any Chiefs pass-catcher not named Travis Kelce is often a frustrating experience, there's a reason fantasy managers keep doing it. If anyone ever emerged as a primary receiver for Patrick Mahomes, that'd be a player you want to have on your roster.

Well, Rice might be on the cusp of doing just that following his Week 12 breakout. The rookie second-rounder had posted a few intriguing stat lines before, but nothing like this: eight receptions on 10 targets for 107 yards and a score. If that's a sign of things to come, he could be a fantasy juggernaut down the stretch.

This has largely been a season to forget for Metcalf, and it may have hit a new low point on Thanksgiving. That's when the normally sure-handed receiver collected just three of the nine passes sent his way for 32 yards. It was his fourth game with 50 or fewer receiving yards and seventh (out of 10) without a touchdown.

He is talented enough to get going at any moment, but don't bank on that happening in Dallas. The Cowboys, who can throw DaRon Bland or Stephon Gilmore at Metcalf, have allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to the position.