The Week 13 NFL schedule for the 2021 season is stacked with great matchups, and we got you covered with what you need to know heading into the weekend.
Additionally, ESPN Stats & Information provides a big stat to know and a betting nugget for each contest, and our Football Power Index and a game projection.
Let’s get into the full Week 13 slate, including Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow in a 2020 NFL draft showdown, a big AFC North matchup between the Ravens and Steelers and a Sunday night meeting between AFC West foes.
Rarely targeted by opponents and beat for a completion infrequently , he has a chance to garner attention facing one of the league’s top receiving duos in Tampa Bay with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
Over the past three games, Ryan has produced a total QBR of 21.7 — the lowest in the NFL — and he was sacked four times by the Patriots last week.
Stat to know: Tampa Bay tight end Rob Gronkowski had a season-high 123 receiving yards in his last game, which gives him 30 career games with 100-plus receiving yards.
What to watch for: This game is a matchup of two of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL, both from the 2020 draft class.
Bold prediction: Chargers running back Austin Ekeler will go for 200-plus yards from scrimmage, as the Chargers bounce back to beat the Bengals.
Stat to know: Bengals running back Joe Mixon has recorded multiple touchdowns in four straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL and longest in Bengals history.
What to watch for: Can the Cardinals slow down Bears edge rusher Robert Quinn? The best — and perhaps only — shot of Chicago winning on Sunday comes down to quarterback pressure and forcing turnovers.
Bold prediction: It’s looking like Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray and receiver DeAndre Hopkins will be back against the Bears, and they will make their presence felt with 125 yards and two touchdowns between them.
What to watch for: The Dolphins rank second in the NFL in defensive expected points added .
Bold prediction: Miami will pressure the Giants’ quarterback — either Daniel Jones or Mike Glennon — at a rate over 50%.
What to watch for: Will Colts running back Jonathan Taylor continue his dominance? With a rushing touchdown on Sunday, Taylor would become the fifth player in NFL history with 10 straight games with a rushing touchdown in a season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Hilton’s last 100-yard receiving game was when he had eight receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown against the Texans on Dec.
Stat to know: Colts quarterback Carson Wentz has 21 touchdowns and five interceptions this season, the fourth-best TD-INT ratio in the NFL.
What to know for fantasy: Don’t look now, but Indianapolis tight end Jack Doyle has a score or at least five targets in five straight games.
What to watch for: Detroit’s defense will have to find a way to slow down Minnesota wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for November.
Bold prediction: This feels like the perfect scenario for Jefferson to be a game wrecker, and he will have 160 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Hurts, who leads the Eagles with 695 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on the ground, is “almost Lamar-esque,” as Jets defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said, comparing him to the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson.
The Eagles will throw some disguises Wilson’s way to confuse him, and the secondary will be licking its chops — particularly cornerback Darius Slay, who already has three defensive touchdowns this season.
What to know for fantasy: A hefty 100.5% of Hurts’ fantasy points over the past two weeks have come on the ground.
What to watch for: The Super Bowl hopeful Rams enter Sunday’s game amid a three-game losing streak for only the second time in Sean McVay’s five seasons as coach.
Jacksonville center Brandon Linder and left guard Andrew Norwell rank eighth and 17th, respectively, in pass block win rate at their positions, but offensive tackles Jawaan Taylor are struggling.
Stat to know: Los Angeles receiver Cooper Kupp has seven straight games with seven or more receptions, tied for the longest streak by a Rams player in franchise history, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
What to know for fantasy: Not one, not two, but three Rams receivers finished last week tucked inside the top-15 at the position.
The two were thick as thieves when Del Rio was the Raiders’ coach from 2015-2017, but an awkward social media exchange between the two occurred when Del Rio, then an analyst for ESPN, pointed out Carr’s difficulty in cold-weather games.
Washington has some injury concerns, so there will be questions entering this game, but assuming some of those questions are answered in the affirmative, the run game will have a day.
What to watch for: Can quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seahawks’ offense snap out of their slump? That group has scored only 26 points during the three-game losing streak that began when Wilson returned from finger surgery.
Seattle has the worst time of possession margin in the league by a substantial amount and the Niners have had 37-plus minutes time of possession in each of their past three games.
Stat to know: Niners running back Elijah Mitchell has four games with 100 or more rushing yards this season, the most by a rookie in 49ers history.
What to know for fantasy: Is it a Tyler Lockett week? In 2019, the Seattle receiver scored 11.2 more points in the second meeting with the divisional rival 49ers than he did in the first.
But one of the Steelers’ biggest weaknesses is their run defense — something Jackson is more than capable of exploiting — and the unit hasn’t been great at containing mobile quarterbacks this season.
The Ravens, who lost their top two running backs to season-ending injuries before the start of the season, are one of just two teams to not have a running back eclipse 80 yards rushing in a game this season in at least two decades.
The Chiefs haven’t been scoring a lot of points in their current four-game winning streak but have been jumping out ahead of opponents early.
But it is dependent on the Broncos actually using play-action to push the ball down the field in the passing game and putting Bridgewater under center more.
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s already the most since 1950 in a QB’s first 20 career prime-time starts.
What to watch for: While the absence of cornerback Tre’Davious White will be big for the Bills’ defense, it’s the recent trend of turning the ball over that is the key to watch when the Patriots and Bills face off.
But that streak — which is the second longest in NFL history behind Ryan Succop’s 56 — will be snapped in Western New York, where the weather conditions are often unpredictable with wind and snow.
What to know for fantasy: Did Allen crack the Patriots’ puzzle in Week 16 last season? In that game, he completed 75% of his passes for 320 yards and four touchdowns.