Fantasy Football: 4 Unexpectedly Great Week 13 Performances

Alex Smith, QB, Kansas City Chiefs

NFL.com Start Percentage: 36.3%
Week 13 Fantasy Points: 37.64

Say hello to Alex Smith, the top fantasy quarterback of Week 13. He threw for over 360 yards, tossed 4 touchdown passes, added another 70 yards rushing, and still lost.

The fantasy owners that started him don't care about the loss, they're just happy with the massive production. Smith outscored the second-best quarterback (Josh McCown) by six points, and the third-best quarterback (Blake Bortles) by over 12 points. That's the kind of performance that can win a head-to-head matchup. So why wasn't Smith started by more of his owners?

He did have two relatively poor outings prior to Sunday, and many fantasy football players probably still think of Smith as a low-ceiling game manager. Poor outings happen to most quarterbacks, so that shouldn't have kept him on the bench. And the game manager stigma is unwarranted this year. Smith has four 300-yard passing performances and another three over 250 yards. He's also produced six games of multiple passing touchdowns and has rushed for over 30 yards on four separate occasions. For fantasy purposes, he's been a weekly QB1 eight times and just missed on a ninth.

numberFire has already projected Smith as the third-best fantasy quarterback for Week 14, based in part on his matchup with the Raiders, our 31st-ranked defense.