Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: WR & TE (Week 13)

Welcome to Week 13’s breakdown of wide receivers and tight ends to stash on your fantasy football rosters. I hope you took my advice and stashed Adonai Mitchell last week, as he should now get his shot with Josh Downs week-to-week with a shoulder injury.

While we never want to root for injuries, the opportunity that arises when a starting player gets hurt is often what turns a speculative stash into a league winner. With that in mind, let’s break down the top wide receiver and tight end waiver wire stashes for Week 13.

Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: WR & TE (Week 13)

Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Stashes: Week 13

Xavier Legette (WR – CAR): 39.8% Rostered

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve featured Xavier Legette in this column. I don’t know if fantasy managers simply ignore any player with the CAR label next to their name, but the fact he is still well below 50% rostered is insane. With that said, I stopped writing up Legette in recent weeks as there wasn’t much more to say about his situation. Now, that is changing, and he is somehow an even more appealing stash than he was previously.

One of the key changes for Legette in recent weeks is that his usage has been pristine. Even with Adam Thielen back in Week 12, he easily led the Panthers with a 90% route participation rate — and that was a step down from the previous week, in which he posted a near-perfect 96% participation rate.

The second big development for Legette is how well Bryce Young has played recently. The 2023 first-overall pick has been much better since returning in Week 9, and he took his game to another level against the Chiefs.

Young gave the defending champs a scare, finishing with 21 completions on 35 attempts for 263 yards and a touchdown. His 83.9 Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade was by far the best of his career thus far. If Young can keep that up, it will be a massive boost to the potential fantasy viability of Carolina’s receivers. And Legette, a 22-year-old first-round rookie with unknown upside, is the player we want to stash in case that happens.

Noah Brown (WR – WAS): 8.4% Rostered

Noah Brown is a waiver wire stash for different reasons than Legette. He’s not particularly exciting as a player, having spent seven years in the league without once eclipsing 600 yards in a season. What is exciting is his role. Over the last four weeks, Brown has posted a 77% route participation rate, a 20% target share, a 34% air yards share and a 26% first-read target share. Every single one of those numbers leads the Commanders over that span, ahead of even Terry McLaurin.

So far, that role hasn’t led to much fantasy scoring for Brown, as he is averaging just 6.4 half-PPR points per game. However, it’s no secret the Commanders’ offense hasn’t exactly been performing over the last few weeks. Jayden Daniels is averaging 6.4 adjusted net yards per attempt per game over his last six outings. That’s not terrible, but it is significantly worse than the 7.5 mark he posted in his first six games. If Brown maintains his role while Daniels (hopefully) returns to form, he could find himself a weekly fantasy start sit Flex play in the fantasy playoffs.

Devaughn Vele (WR – DEN): 5.1% Rostered

Devaughn Vele is coming off three consecutive solid weeks, with at least four receptions and 8.6 half-PPR points in each game. However, it’s hard to get too excited about the seventh-round rookie as a fantasy play just yet, as his 21% target share in Week 12 was his first time above 15% since Week 1.

What is exciting about Vele is his per-route numbers and the fact he still has tons of room to grow his role. His 2.10 yards per route run is the highest among Broncos receivers, as is his 78.0 PFF receiving grade. While he has been second to only Courtland Sutton in terms of routes in each of the last three weeks, Vele has still never posted a route participation rate above 67%, thanks to Sean Payton’s wide receiver-by-committee approach.

With the way Bo Nix is playing, Vele would be a very intriguing play if he started posting average WR2-level route participation rates. Only Payton knows whether that will happen. But it’s worth stashing a rookie with good peripherals on an open depth chart, just in case.

Fantasy Football Tight End Stashes: Week 13

Jonnu Smith (TE – MIA): 32.2% Rostered

Jonnu Smith isn’t a stash by any definition of the word at this point, but I just have to point out he is still rostered in under a third of leagues. He has finished as a top-three tight end in both of the last two weeks, to go with a TE1 overall finish back in Week 7.

In games with Tua Tagovailoa under center, he is averaging an 18% target share (6.1 targets per game) as well as 10.1 half-PPR points per game. If you need tight end help, he can be added and plugged into your lineup straight off the waiver wire.

Ja’Tavion Sanders (TE – CAR): 5.0% Rostered

OK, including Smith was cheating, but you can’t deny Ja’Tavion Sanders is a true stash option. You most likely can’t put him in your Week 13 lineup even if you wanted to, as the rookie will almost certainly be out this week after suffering a scary-looking injury that was eventually diagnosed as a concussion in Week 12.

However, before his injury, Sanders was well on his way to a breakout game. He had racked up three targets on just 11 routes for an elite 27% target per route run rate, catching all three for 49 yards. It is worth noting that with veteran Tommy Tremble back in the lineup for the first time since Week 8, Sanders was not trending to match his 86% route participation rate from the Panthers’ last outing.

There’s a chance that between his injury and the presence of Tremble, Sanders never truly arrives this season. But, especially in leagues where you can stash him in an injured reserve (IR) spot for free, it’s worth holding him just in case. As with Legette, Sanders’ stock gets a bonus boost thanks to the improvement we’ve seen in Young’s play.

Noah Gray (TE – KC): 3.0% Rostered

It may seem ironic to be calling Noah Gray a stash coming off his second straight finish inside the top five of fantasy tight ends. However, outside of the last two weeks (in which he scored four touchdowns), Gray has averaged just 3.7 half-PPR points per game. We have no reason to believe those big games are anything more than a fluke. He did post his season-high in route participation rate at 66% in Week 11, but that number promptly fell right back to 49% on Sunday.

At a season average participation rate of 42%, Gray is not a startable player. However, these two big weeks were a reminder of the fact he is one of the best No. 2 TEs in the league. Gray’s 76.8 PFF receiving grade ranks eighth among all tight ends, above plenty of starting tight ends (including teammate Travis Kelce).

If Kelce were to miss time — which becomes more and more likely as the Chiefs start looking toward the playoffs — Gray would immediately be a TE1. In deeper formats where you can afford to stash a handcuff tight end (which I usually wouldn’t recommend, for the record), Gray joins Isaiah Likely and Mark Andrews in the top tier of one-injury-away options.

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.

Articles NFL Sleepers Waiver Wire NFL Weekly Advice Adonai Mitchell Josh Downs Xavier Legette Adam Thielen Bryce Young Noah Brown Terry McLaurin Jayden Daniels Devaughn Vele Courtland Sutton Bo Nix Jonnu Smith Tua Tagovailoa Ja’Tavion Sanders Tommy Tremble Noah Gray Travis Kelce Isaiah Likely Mark Andrews