Fantasy football projections, Week 13: Bills-Raiders featuring LeSean McCoy, Derek Carr, Amari Cooper, more

The Week 13 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Oakland Raiders features one team looking to get a winning streak going while the other looks to solidify its playoff positioning. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Running back LeSean McCoy only needed 21 touches to total 134 yards against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 12. He finished the game with two rushing touchdowns. Fantasy owners had to be ecstatic about the performance. It ranked as his second best fantasy stat line of the season. As good as the Oakland Raiders have been in 2016, they are fairly generous to opposing running backs. McCoy is the engine that drives Buffalo’s offense. He should be in top form even as the team flies across the country and changes time zones to play. Fantasy owners can count on him rising above his projections and should cross their fingers that he remains healthy going into the fantasy playoffs.

If Oakland does manage to stop the running game, perhaps wide receiver Sammy Watkins can help the cause in the passing game. Watkins returned to action in Week 12, catching all three of his targets for 80 yards. He had missed the team’s previous eight games thanks to a fractured bone in his foot. Fantasy owners starting Watkins this late in the season coming off of the injury have to hope that he can get up to speed quickly. He’ll need more targets on Sunday in order to instill some confidence in his fantasy owners heading into the playoffs. Watkins however should be able to surpass his projections in Oakland once the Bills find themselves playing from behind.

Even in facing off against a rejuvenated Carolina Panthers defense, the Oakland Raiders still managed to come out on top in Week 12. Quarterback Derek Carr played through two dislocated fingers and still managed to complete 26 passes for 315 yards and two touchdowns. He did also throw an interception in the game, marking the second straight week that he’s managed to throw a pick. Fantasy owners have to be a bit nervous about the fact he’s playing with broken fingers. He’s also facing a Buffalo defense that is fairly good at limiting fantasy points at the quarterback position. Week 13 may see Carr cool off a bit. If that’s the case it would be happening at exactly the wrong time for his fantasy owners.

Hopefully he doesn’t. And hopefully Amari Cooper can help keep Carr going. Despite the fact that the Raiders put up 35 points on the Panthers last week, Cooper only managed four catches for 22 yards in the game. The yardage total represented his lowest of the season. Despite the effort, Cooper is still considered a high level fantasy option heading towards the postseason. It should be noted however that he’s been held to less than 60 receiving yards in four of the last five games. Hopefully Cooper can buck that trend against the Bills. If he doesn’t hit his projections in Week 13 it will be hard to trust him going into the playoffs.