Fantasy Football Panic Meter, Week 13: What should we really be worried about?

For a significant number of fantasy football managers, panic is simply their default state. It's home base. They are never not panicking. To panic is to care.

We made the questionable decision to engage with the most panic-stricken among you by asking who you're fretting about in Week 13, and, per the usual, you replied with plenty of big names.

Let's begin with the one submission that was actually a small surprise...

Tua Tagovailoa

Panic level: Moderate, but probably not for the reason you had in mind. 🤔

OK, this one caught me unaware, because A) Tua has actually been one of the best fantasy decisions you've made this year and B) he has the Commanders ahead on the schedule, which is obviously a gift. Tagovailoa is coming off a quiet week, sure, but no reasonable person expected an eruption against the Jets. The lone concern surrounding Tua entering the season (health) has been a complete non-issue to this point. You can already put this pick in the W column.

But since Ian's nature is clearly to worry about things that are actually going quite well, here's an un-fun fact about Miami: When we reach Weeks 15-17, they face the Jets, Cowboys and Ravens. That's as difficult a 3-game stretch as any team will face, and it hits in the most important weeks on the fantasy calendar. Not ideal. Combined, those three defenses have intercepted 35 passes in 34 games and they allow just 173.9 passing yards per week.

Basically, Tagovailoa is looking like he might be one of those guys who drags your team into the fantasy playoffs, then torpedoes your squad when losing is not an option. So a certain level of pre-panic is acceptable. Let's just try to live in the moment and enjoy the delights that Washington's defense can offer.

Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp

Panic level: Elevated if not yet dire. 🐏 😬

On the one hand, it seems wild that so many people now panicking about Puka Nacua had definitely never heard of him three months ago. This game is never short on plot twists. Whatever it cost you to originally acquire Nacua, you have clearly profited.

Puka has seen either seven or eight targets in five of his last six games, which is like 37 fewer chances per week (give or take) than he was seeing in September. So that's a bummer. He will not, in fact, shatter all known receiving records. But this is still a gifted rookie who is doing unspeakable things to defensive players and he's had some recent near-misses on potential big plays. It seems likely that some of this week's Nacua worry is really just anger about the fact that Matthew Stafford threw four TD passes on Sunday and none of them went to a wide receiver.

Aside from the messy matchups ahead with Cleveland and Baltimore, I can see no reason to be unusually worried about Nacua.

Kupp, however, is another matter. He was limping around Sunday almost as soon as he took the field, playing through an ankle issue he suffered the week before. Kupp is of course a phenomenal player when healthy, a man with one of the greatest individual seasons in NFL history to his credit. But he's clearly compromised at the moment. We can certainly forgive a quiet week while he's injured, just as we should overlook the quiet game against Green Bay when Brett Rypien was his quarterback.

And yet, well ... Kupp has finished with fewer than 50 receiving yards in five straight games. It's a problem, no matter the various causes.

Scott Pianowski went into detail on the Cooper Kupp problem earlier this week, for those who want a deeper dive. Realistically, in a week with six teams on bye, you may not have a playable alternative to Kupp right now — the WR ranks are an absolute minefield this week in the 20-40 range. But if you think it's prudent to sit him through the matchups with the Browns and Ravens, with the hope that he's fully operational for the Commanders game in Week 15, I am certainly not going to object.

We're just gonna need the Rams to remain alive in the playoff chase when we reach late-December, so we don't have to sweat the possibility of a shutdown.

Travis Etienne

Panic level: Meh. It's lower than the Tony Pollard and Derrick Henry panic from three weeks ago. We've seen worse. 🫤

OK, this one is personal, as I'm afraid my own fantasy happiness depends to some extent on Etienne's future performance. Every time he requires a moment with the training staff, I am certainly concerned. He's shrugged off a few potential issues in recent weeks, for which we should all be grateful.

Also, we should note that Etienne has handled 41 touches over the past two weeks (and we can overlook his workload in the previous game, when Jacksonville was stomped to dust by the Niners). Volume has not been an issue for him, even after his mid-year TD streak came to an end. This week's home matchup with Cincinnati is absolutely stellar — the Bengals allow 5.0 YPC — and game-flow should favor the run. The short-term outlook is quite good.

If you need a reason to worry, look ahead to Weeks 14-16 when he faces the Browns, Ravens and Bucs. That's a rough path for any back. If you can make it to Championship Week, however, you get a date with Carolina.

My other small concern with Etienne is that perhaps his team has finally figured out that their quarterback is actually a fantastic rushing option at the goal-line. Trevor Lawrence has delivered three rushing scores over the past two weeks while Etienne has produced none. Lawrence was a gifted runner at Clemson, so we know he has the potential to poach future scores. It's fair to remain on alert for any change in Etienne's goal-to-go usage.

Lamar Jackson

Panic level: Seriously? I cannot believe we're doing this again. 🥸

Friendly reminder that Jackson is actually performing at or near ADP, he's on pace to establish new career bests in multiple passing categories and he's gonna rush for 800-plus yards. But you can't please everyone. Whenever he doesn't deliver 25 points in a given week, the people rage.

I find it genuinely odd that almost no one has claimed panic-status with Patrick Mahomes, who's been scoring in the same roller coaster manner as Jackson and is back-to-back with him in year-to-date fantasy points. Mahomes, of course, was either the first or second QB selected in your draft, whereas Jackson went fourth or fifth.

Anyway, I think we should actually be cautiously excited about the fact that the Ravens face a series of legit opponents in the final weeks of the fantasy season (at Jac, at SF, Mia). We want Baltimore's offense to be something other than a parade of rush attempts. We need 30-plus dropbacks from Jackson. We need scrambles, designed runs and other goodies. A string of competitive, competent opponents is not actually a problem in this instance.