Then there are those who are still on the brink of a playoff berth. Many fantasy managers will have a shot to earn their way into the fantasy postseason over the final few weeks, but it will be critical to nail their streaming options entering Week 13.

There won’t be an NFL teams on bye in Week 13, as the league prepares for its annual Thanksgiving slate. That will give fantasy managers seeking help on the waiver wire plenty of options who can potentially help their teams down the stretch of the season.

Here’s a look at the best players fantasy managers can target on waivers ahead of Week 13.

Week 13 fantasy football waiver wire targets

RB Devin Neal, New Orleans Saints (Rostered in 3% of Yahoo leagues)

Alvin Kamara exited Sunday’s game with a knee injury. The Saints already lost backup running back Kendre Miller for the season to a torn ACL, so if Kamara has to miss time, Neal will likely emerge as the de facto workhorse in New Orleans’ offense.

Neal had just 18 yards on seven carries against the Falcons but he generated an addition 43 yards through the air on five catches. He should be a particularly good PPR option, as the rookie caught 77 passes during his four-year college career at Kansas.

TE Taysom Hill, New Orleans Saints (Rostered in 1% of Yahoo leagues)

If Neal is the safe option to get work in New Orleans, Hill is a big-time wild card. The 35-year-old gadget player led the team in carries Sunday with 10. He turned them into just 17 yards, but his usage is encouraging for those looking for a tight end with scoring upside.

Hill has always been a red-zone weapon during his career, and the 6-2, 221-pounder may be treated as a goal-line bruiser in tandem with the 5-11, 213-pound Neal. Feel free to scoop up Hill if you need scoring upside at tight end – or are just looking to have a good time as fantasy season ends.

RB Chris Rodriguez Jr., Washington Commanders (Rostered in 16% of Yahoo leagues)

Rodriguez didn’t play in Week 12, as the Commanders were on a bye, so he could be a sneaky-good add for those looking for help at running back.

Rodriguez has seemingly emerged as the leader in the Commanders’ backfield-by-committee approach. The Kentucky product has touchdown upside thanks to his 5-11, 224-pound frame and had 79 yards on a team-high 15 carries in his last outing in Week 10. Rodriguez may not always get the volume needed to be an RB2, but he profiles as a rock-solid flex with touchdown upside.

QB C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans (Rostered in 36% of Yahoo leagues)

Before getting hurt against the Broncos, Stroud had averaged 256 yards and 2.3 touchdowns over a four-game span. Davis Mills kept the seat warm for him, going 3-0 in Stroud’s absence, but the third-year quarterback should be on tap to return to action in Week 13.

Houston’s offense appears to be getting better with rookie Jayden Higgins developing into a solid No. 2 receiver and both Nico Collins and Dalton Schultz playing consistently. That should allow Stroud to become a solid streamer, especially entering two potential higher-scoring game against the Indianapolis Colts and Kansas City Chiefs.

WR Andrei Iosivas, Cincinnati Bengals (Rostered in 20% of Yahoo leagues)

Iosivas saw increased action in Week 12 with Ja’Marr Chase suspended. He was targeted a team-high seven times and led the team with 61 receiving yards on four catches in a solid showing.

While Chase will return in Week 13, the Bengals lost Tee Higgins to a concussion at the end of the team’s loss to the New England Patriots. Cincinnati is playing on Thanksgiving, so Higgins isn’t likely to return for that game. That, plus the potential return of Joe Burrow, could open the door for Iosivas to again emerge as a fantasy factor on Thanksgiving.

WR Chimere Dike, Tennessee Titans (Rostered in 14% of Yahoo leagues)

With Elic Ayomanor out, Dike tied for the team lead in targets (7) with Gunnar Helm. The rookie wide-out caught five of those targets for 44 yards and a touchdown while also adding a score on an impressive 90-yard punt return touchdown.

Dike figures to be a big part of what Tennessee does on offense down the stretch with Calvin Ridley out for the season. Feel free to scoop Dike up and hope he can become a high-upside WR3 as he develops more chemistry with Cam Ward.

TE Brenton Strange, Jacksonville Jaguars (Rostered in 13% of Yahoo leagues)

Strange returned to action for the first time since Week 5 in the Jaguars’ win over the Cardinals. He largely picked up where he left off, catching all five of his targets for a team-high 93 receiving yards.

Excluding the game in which Strange was hurt, he is now averaging 4.8 catches for 55 yards per game. He hasn’t yet found his way into the end-zone this season, but his volume is enough to make him a matchup-based starter at tight end who could be a top-10 tight end if he can earn more scoring opportunities.

TE Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears (Rostered in 43% of Yahoo leagues)

Loveland is another tight end who appears to be breaking out. He had a 118-yard, two-touchdown game against the Bengals in Week 9, but since then he has averaged 3.7 catches and 48 yards across three game while finding the end-zone in Week 12.

Loveland appears to have overtaken Cole Kmet as the No. 1 tight end in Chicago’s offense, so adding the rookie first-rounder could pay dividends down the stretch.

The Dallas Wings were awarded the first pick during the 2026 WNBA draft lottery on Sunday, Nov. 23, and will have plenty of options available to bolster their roster.

The Wings won the lottery for the second year in a row after selecting Paige Bueckers in 2025. The 2026 WNBA draft will be held on April 13.

UConn’s Azzi Fudd has been projected to go No. 1 in many mock drafts. The Wings could also choose Spain’s Awa Fam, UCLA’s Lauren Betts, TCU’s Olivia Miles or LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson.

“We want someone who wants to win,” said Wings forward Maddy Siegrist, who represented the team at the lottery.

Fudd and Bueckers were teammates at UConn, winning the national championship during the 2024–25 season.

Bueckers helped provide some level of hope for Dallas, winning the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year award and being named an all-star, but the Wings finished with an overall record of 10-34.

The Wings will be in their first season with coach Jose Fernandez after firing Chris Koclanes after one year.

The Minnesota Lynx will pick second in the draft, followed by the Seattle Storm.

2026 WNBA draft order

1. Dallas Wings

2. Minnesota Lynx

3. Seattle Storm

4. Washington Mystics

5. Chicago Sky

6. Toronto Tempo/Portland Fire

7. Portland Fire/Toronto Tempo

8. Golden State Valkyries

9. Washington Mystics

10. Indiana Fever

11. Washington Mystics

12. Connecticut Sun

13. Atlanta Dream

14. Seattle Storm

15. Connecticut Sun

A coin flip to determine the sixth and seventh picks will be done at a later date.

Tyler Herro is expected to make his season debut on Monday, Nov. 24 when the Miami Heat host the Dallas Mavericks, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Herro was dealing with a foot injury last season before suffering an ankle injury during an offseason workout. Herro underwent surgery on that injured ankle in September.

Herro started all 77 games he played in and served as Miami’s leading scorer for the 2024-2025 season. The All-Star guard averaged 23.9 points, 5.5 assists and 5.2 rebounds.

The Heat added Norman Powell during the offseason. He currently leads the team in scoring, averaging 24.9 points per game.

The Heat have won their last four games, including a 127-117 road victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, Nov. 23.

AI-assisted summary
• Sanders shared an embrace with his son on the field before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
• Deion Sanders had been undecided about attending due to his Colorado football team’s schedule and him not wanting to be a distraction
• Family considerations ultimately led Sanders to make the trip to support his son in person.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders made a special trip to Las Vegas on Sunday to watch his son Shedeur make his debut as starting quarterback of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

And what a time it was for them. Cleveland beat the Las Vegas Raiders, 24-10. Shedeur completed 11 of 20 passes for 209 yards and one touchdown with one interception.

Sanders’s Instagram account shared a video of them embracing before the game.

‘Prime Time!’ Shedeur said as he greeted his dad in a tunnel to the field at Allegiant Stadium.

A group of friends and family also came out to show their support for Shedeur, including Shedeur’s private quarterback trainer Darrell Colbert Jr., his older brother Deion Sanders Jr. and Deion Sanders’ business manager Constance Schwartz-Morini.

After Shedeur completed a 53-yard pass early in the game, CBS cameras showed the cowboy-hatted father smiling, cheering and animated in his perch at the stadium. He later was seen enjoying the game with former NBA player Matt Barnes.

‘Being able to see my family, that was important,’ Shedeur Sanders said after the game. ‘I’m happy they was here to be able to witness it.’

His mother Pilar also attended the game, leading Shedeur to tell a CBS reporter he was thankful that both of his parents are in his life. Deion Sanders filed for divorce from Pilar in 2011, but the two have been present for Shedeur’s big moments, including the NFL draft in April at the family estate in Texas.

‘That’s what life is about − just family,’ Shedeur said afterward.

Deion Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, had been undecided as recently as Nov. 20 about whether to attend his son’s NFL starting debut in person. His team just dropped a 42-17 loss at home against Arizona State the night before to fall to 3-8 this season. His team also often practices on Sundays. But family won the day in the end, with Sanders noting Shedeur came back to Boulder to surprise him during the Browns’ recent bye weekend.

Deion Sanders said on the “Colorado Football Coaches Show” Nov. 20 he was urged to attend the game.

“You don’t want to be his distraction, but not that I would ever would be,” Sanders said on the show. “But then you think, ‘You know, he came all the way up here to see you?’ So that’s even (a) shorter trip to see him. You start thinking that as a dad, you know. Because you know what it means to him if he just catch a glimpse of him before he walks out.”

That’s what the video showed, a short moment between father and son before he took the field in Las Vegas.

Deion Sanders misses his youngest son and not just as a father. His team has struggled without him in Colorado. The Buffaloes finish the season at Kansas State on Nov. 29.

Shedeur is the first of Deion Sanders’ three sons to play in an NFL game. His eldest son Deion Jr. played college football at SMU. His middle son Shilo played for his father at Colorado and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent after not getting drafted in April. But Shilo Sanders was waived by the team before the season.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

For much of the 2025 college football season, the Big 12 has been wildly unpredictable.

Though Texas Tech — with a 10-1 record and a 22-point win over its fellow first-place team BYU to its name — has established itself as the class of the conference, there was a packed cluster of teams behind the Red Raiders and Cougars entering Week 13 of the season, with four teams with two losses in league play.

This weekend offered some much-needed clarity.

While Texas Tech was enjoying its bye week, several other teams near the top of the conference standings either greatly enhanced their Big 12 championship game outlook or saw it get severely diminished.

No. 11 BYU went on the road and knocked off Cincinnati 26-14, improving the Cougars to 7-1 in conference play while knocking the Bearcats down to 5-3 and eliminating them from title game contention. No. 14 Utah kept its championship game and College Football Playoff dreams alive with a thrilling, come-from-behind 51-47 victory against Kansas State.

Arizona State stayed among the group of two-loss teams in Big 12 play by thumping Colorado 42-17 while No. 24 Houston missed what would have been a game-tying kick in the final minute in a 17-14 loss to TCU, knocking the Cougars out of the Big 12 championship race.

Barring massive upsets next week, with Texas Tech playing 4-7 West Virginia and BYU taking on 5-6 UCF, it will be a rematch between the Red Raiders and Cougars with a conference championship on the line.

So where do things stand now?

Here’s a look at the Big 12 standings after Week 13:

Big 12 football standings after Week 13

Here’s a full look at the Big 12 football standings after Week 13:

• T-1. Texas Tech (10-1, 7-1 Big 12)
• T-1. BYU (10-1, 7-1)
• T-3. Utah (9-2, 6-2)
• T-3. Arizona State (8-3, 6-2)
• T-5. Houston (8-3, 5-3)
• T-5. Arizona (8-3, 5-3)
• T-5. Cincinnati (7-4, 5-3)
• T-8. Iowa State (7-4, 4-4)
• T-8. TCU (7-4, 4-4)
• T-8. Kansas State (5-6, 4-4)
• T-11. Baylor (5-6, 3-5)
• T-11. Kansas (5-6, 3-5)
• T-13. UCF (5-6, 2-6)
• T-13. West Virginia (4-7, 2-6)
• 15. Colorado (3-8, 1-7)
• 16. Oklahoma State (1-10, 0-8)

Instead of providing answers, Week 13 of the college football season brought more confusion for the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.

With Pittsburgh pulling off the 42-28 upset win over No. 12 Georgia Tech, the final week of the regular season will determine who is headed to the ACC championship game on Saturday, Dec. 6, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

If the Yellow Jackets had beaten the Panthers on Saturday, Nov. 22, they would have clinched a spot in the championship game. Instead, Pitt now needs to beat Miami — and needs one of SMU or Virginia to lose in Week 14 — to get into the conference title game. All three teams enter the final week with one ACC loss.

Meanwhile, two-loss teams Georgia Tech, Miami and Duke all remain alive, but will need serious help to have a chance to get to the championship game.

Here’s a look at the ACC standings after Week 13:

ACC football standings after Week 13

Here’s a full look at the ACC standings after Week 13 of the college football season.

• T-1. Southern Methodist (8-3, 6-1 ACC)
• T-1. Pittsburgh (8-2, 6-1 ACC)
• T-1. Virginia (9-2, 6-1 ACC)
• T-4. Georgia Tech (8-2, 5-2 ACC)
• T-4. Duke (6-5, 5-2 ACC)
• T-4. Miami (9-2, 5-2 ACC)
• 7. Wake Forest (8-3, 4-3 ACC)
• 8. Clemson (6-4, 4-4 ACC)
• 9. Louisville (7-4, 4-4 ACC)
• T-10. California (6-5, 3-4 ACC)
• T-10. North Carolina State (6-5, 3-4 ACC)
• 11. Stanford (4-7, 3-5 ACC)
• T-12. Virginia Tech (3-8, 2-5 ACC)
• T-12. North Carolina (4-7, 2-5 ACC)
• 15. Florida State (5-6, 2-6 ACC)
• 16. Syracuse (3-8, 1-6 ACC)
• 17. Boston College (1-10, 0-7 ACC)

They could’ve avoided all this drama. Could’ve hired Lane Kiffin last year, and been a year ahead of the rebuild. 

Maybe even where Ole Miss is right now. 

If what should have been done last year at Florida was done immediately — Billy Napier fired, Kiffin hired — none of the crazy suffocating college football is playing out day after day.

The beauty of the College Football Playoff demolition derby is in full bloom, and the Heisman Trophy race — can you remember one with less juice? — would be at front of mind. 

Instead of where Kiffin, who has never won a Power conference championship, will coach in 2026 and be paid at the top of his profession.

Instead of Florida and LSU throwing around Monopoly money, desperately trying to recapture the magic of lost glory.

Instead of Florida, for the second time in four years, kicking a field goal in the second half of a blowout loss to extend its NCAA-record streak of avoiding a shutout. It was Tennessee last night, and Oregon State in Napier’s first season, and the record is now at 472 and counting.

But that Florida had to do it twice within the four-year Napier framework tells you all you need to know about the spectacular fail of a hire. 

Yet Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin doubled down last season after the Gators got hot and beat, ironically, LSU and Ole Miss. He ignored the obvious signs of ineptitude — too many to even explain now after the fact — and threw more good money after bad. 

If Stricklin makes the tough decision last fall, 2024 would’ve been the second-half collapse with an interim coach, and 2025 would’ve been Year 1 under Kiffin.

Think about the talented Florida roster with a coaching staff that includes Kiffin, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Charlie Weis Jr. (who Napier tried to hire after the 2023 season), and former Florida coach Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator (he was interested in the DC job this season). 

It’s not a stretch to think Florida could be the team in the CFP hunt, not Ole Miss. Florida could be the team, organically built through high school recruiting and supplementing from the portal (the one thing Napier crushed), as the team no one wants to play in December.

Instead Florida sustained its first home loss to Tennessee since 2003, and worst loss to Tennessee since Steve Spurrier’s first season at Florida in 1990. And we’ll go through the next seven days — Rivalry Week, no less — debating what Kiffin will do and how it will impact three programs.

Ohio State vs. Michigan. Texas vs. Texas A&M. Georgia vs. Georgia Tech. Alabama vs. Auburn. Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt.

Significant games, with significant CFP impact. All overshadowed by the Kiffin decision.

If only what should’ve been done eventually was done immediately.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

AI-assisted summary
• Despite a previous blowout loss, the Texas Longhorns’ playoff hopes are not entirely extinguished.
• A decisive 52-37 victory over Arkansas, led by Arch Manning’s four touchdowns, keeps Texas in the conversation.
• The team’s chances rely on a potential upset of undefeated Texas A&M and chaos among higher-ranked teams.

If you thought Texas’ blowout loss at Georgia served as a playoff extinction-level event, you’re confusing this 12-team bracket with a beauty contest.

It’s not.

At the tail end of the bracket, it could be much more of a they’d-do-in-a-pinch type of affair.

If the selection committee finds itself in a pinch in a couple of weeks, facing a dearth of beauties, well, Texas still lurks.

And if the Longhorns don’t look like a grand prize, just knock back a six-pack and flip on game film of this 52-37 rout of Arkansas. This didn’t look half bad.

Let’s not turn this result into more than it is. This win serves as a blowout of a bad team, an opponent with an interim coach, a rival that lost to playoff-bound Notre Dame by 43 points.

But, the Razorbacks have had a way about hanging close against SEC opponents, before ultimately losing, and Texas changed the script by burying the Hogs.

“The season’s not done,’ Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said afterward on ABC. ‘You never know what can happen.”

Don’t take this as me stumping for Texas’ playoff bona fides. I had an eyewitness view of the Longhorns’ fourth-quarter meltdown in Athens, Georgia. Sarkisian did my job for me when he called his team’s disintegration against Georgia ‘a disaster.’ Couldn’t have said it any better.

The Longhorns did not resemble a playoff team that night, much as it did not in a loss at Florida or in white-knuckle victories at Kentucky and Mississippi State.

Texas languishes on the road. It’s pretty good at home, and it boasts wins against Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, a pair of top-15 teams.

The committee suffers from an affliction known as recency bias. If Texas’ final trip down the catwalk before Selection Sunday is an upset of undefeated Texas A&M in primetime on Black Friday, well, let’s just say hold off on shoveling the dirt on this season.

‘All eyes will be on us,’ Sarkisian said. ‘We’ve got to go compete.”

Need I remind you the first-team-out last season was three-loss Alabama? If Texas reaches 9-3, it’ll tout a resume superior to that of the 2024 Tide.

Texas checked in at No. 17 in the latest CFP rankings. Its playoff hopes would benefit from a dash of chaos inflected upon teams ranked ahead of it. Southern California losing this weekend helps. Look for Texas to be ranked no worse than No. 15 in next week’s pecking order. Add in a victory against Texas A&M, and you never know. If the committee finds itself in a pinch, the Longhorns might look fine.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Georgia Tech entered its Week 13 matchup against Pittsburgh with a straightforward goal: Beat the Panthers and you’re in the ACC championship game.

The Yellow Jackets left the game not with a guaranteed conference title game berth, but with regrets about what could have been.

Pitt’s Ja’Kyrian Turner rushed for 201 yards and a touchdown and Georgia Tech’s Haynes King threw a pair of interceptions — including a backbreaking 100-yard pick-6 that caused a 14-point swing in the third quarter — as the Yellow Jackets fell 42-28 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.

The loss was Georgia Tech’s second in its past three games after an 8-0 start that had vaulted it into the top 10 of the major national polls. More consequentially, though, the setback knocked the Yellow Jackets from the ranks of ACC teams with only one loss in conference play, a crowded group that now includes Virginia, SMU and Pitt, the last of which now owns a critical head-to-head tiebreaker against Georgia Tech. Without a chance at a conference championship, coach Brent Key’s team will have a meager chance at an at-large berth to the 12-team College Football Playoff field.

What does the loss to the Panthers mean for the Yellow Jackets’ short-term outlook? Here’s a look at where Georgia Tech may fall in the US LBM Coaches Poll:

Georgia Tech rankings: Where will Yellow Jackets drop after Pitt loss?

Even before Saturday’s loss to Pitt, there were signs that Georgia Tech wasn’t being valued as much by voters in the major national polls as other teams with similar records.

With a 9-1 record, the Yellow Jackets were No. 12 in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll, making them the lowest-ranked Power Four team with one loss or fewer.

At least some of that had to do with Georgia Tech’s propensity for close games, even against subpar competition. Four of the Yellow Jackets’ nine wins had come by one score, a run that included a 27-20 win against a 3-7 Colorado team, a 24-21 victory against 6-5 Clemson and a 36-34 win last Saturday against 1-10 Boston College. What appeared to be good wins in the moment haven’t held up well over time, either. Wake Forest, at 8-3, has the most wins of any FBS team they’ve defeated this season.

Georgia Tech’s lone loss before Week 13 wasn’t easy to shake off, either, as it came against a North Carolina State team that had been 1-3 in ACC play entering the matchup.

It wasn’t just human voters that were skeptical of the Yellow Jackets, either. Georgia Tech entered this weekend at No. 36 of 136 FBS teams in ESPN’s SP+ rankings, with the No. 17 strength of record and No. 88 strength of schedule.

Key’s squad has gotten some help this week, which may mitigate the impact of the Pitt loss a bit. Three of the teams behind it in the Coaches Poll — No. 16 USC, No. 21 Missouri and No. 24 Houston — lost this week.

The Yellow Jackets are a tough-minded team that has consistently found ways to win, but it may see a sizable drop in the polls, especially since voters will likely try to contort their rankings so that an unranked Pitt team is ahead of them.

Final ranking prediction: No. 21