NFL Week 13 Fantasy Football Recap: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints

• Alvin Kamara disappears: The New Orleans Saints‘ former All-Pro hasn’t played as well in recent weeks or seasons, which has pushed New Orleans closer to a two-back committee.
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back rotation returns: Leonard Fournette returned after missing a game as a backup, and the Buccaneers went back to rotating by drive, which they did before Fournette’s injury.
• Rashid Shaheed leads the Saints: The undrafted rookie from Weber State continues to get more involved in the Saints' offense while making big plays in the passing game as a returner.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.

New Orleans Saints @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Rachaad White: 9 carries, 28 yards, 6 receptions, 41 receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdown
• Taysom Hill: 2 receptions, 35 yards, 1 touchdown, 3 carries, 10 rushing yards, 1 pass attempt, 1 completion, 21 passing yards

Alvin Kamara’s role continues to decline: Kamara has been relatively ineffective this season, which carried on into Monday night.

• His yards after contact per attempt and avoided tackles per rushing attempt have both declined in each of the last four seasons.
• His quality of play has led his percentage of snaps to decline over the last month, with more snaps for Mark Ingram.
• He averaged just over 2.0 yards per carry, which led to a more dramatic decline in snaps Monday night.
• Ingram also served as the team’s third-down back, which is something he did at times early in the season.
• Ingram suffered an injury in the middle of the fourth quarter. He was able to return to the game, but still didn’t seem 100%.
• The Saints have their bye week next week and then a relatively easy schedule during the fantasy playoffs. Kamara should still be in fantasy starting lineups, but he might not be a league winner.
• Between his quality of play and off-the-field legal issues, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Saints move on from Kamara in the offseason.

Rashid Shaheed’s role in the Saints offense grows: Shaheed’s role in the Saints offense has expanded throughout the season and reached a new peak Monday night.

• He first started seeing playing time on offense in Week 6. 
• He eventually surpassed Tre’Quan Smith, Marquez Callaway, Kevin White and Keith Kirkwood to become the Saints' third wide receiver by Week 11.
• He was still involved in a heavy rotation the past two weeks, but he was rotated out less often in this game than the last two.
• He was arguably ahead of Jarvis Landry on the depth chart tonight.
• Shaheed caught all four passes thrown his way for 71 yards.
• The undrafted rookie could be OK to pick up in some deep leagues, but he’s definitely someone to add in dynasty leagues, as he could remain a starter in 2023 and continue to grow in the Saints offense.

The Saints without Juwan Johnson: Johnson didn’t practice all week due to an ankle injury and was inactive. This was his first missed game of the season.

• Adam Trautman became the Saints' primary tight end.
• Trautman has primarily been a blocking tight end during his career. He appeared to become a target in the middle of the 2021 season, but injuries derailed the second half of his season, and Johnson became the receiving tight end this season.
• Trautman caught both passes thrown his way.
• Taysom Hill’s role remained similar to recent weeks despite the injury, but that didn’t stop him from scoring the Saints’ only touchdown.
• Undrafted rookie Lucas Krull was elevated from the practice squad for the first time Monday to serve as the team’s third tight end. The Saints chose Krull over J.P. Holtz, who had been on the active roster at times early in the season.
• Trautman is probably a player to avoid if Johnson needs to miss more games. Hill’s fantasy value remains the same regardless.

Leonard Fournette‘s return: The Bucs RB missed Week 12 but was able to return as a contributor Monday night.

• Rachaad White started as he has in their last three games, but Fournette rotated in on the second drive and continued to rotate in throughout the game.
• Those two largely rotated by drive over the rest of the game, and both were used interchangeably, which was similar to their usage in Week 10.
• This makes White the more valuable fantasy asset between the two. He starts, which means he’s more likely to play more snaps.
• The two saw near-identical opportunities. Fournette gained a few more yards. White had a dropped pass and lost fumble but also scored the game winning touchdown. This will likely keep the backfield in a similar place next week.

Russell Gage‘s return: Gage returned to the Buccaneers lineup after being out since Week 7.

• This was just the third game this season where Tampa Bay had all four of its top wide receivers healthy.
• Gage was a clear fourth on the Buccaneers' depth chart. Julio Jones played well enough over the last month to keep the third role.
• Gage primarily took snaps away from Breshad Perriman, who was a healthy inactive. He also slightly cut into Jones' playing time.
• Neither Gage nor Jones was a reliable fantasy asset when the other was out with injury. It’s even less likely either can be valuable to fantasy managers while competing for snaps.

Cameron Brate was a surprise inactive: Brate didn’t practice for most of the week due to an illness. He was a full participant in Saturday's practice but apparently got worse since.

• Cade Otton returned to full-time tight end role for Tampa Bay
• He had a few short catches throughout the game and then scored a touchdown with three minutes left in the game.
• Otton had played in over 80% of Tampa Bay's offensive snaps in multiple games in October and early November when Brate missed time with an injury.
• Ideally, Brate will be healthy again by the Bucs' next game. Brate and Otton split time when both are healthy, and neither sees enough targets to be worth considering in fantasy leagues.
• Otton could be a waiver wire target if we find out Brate’s illness is serious enough for him to miss more time.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.