Thanksgiving Day Fantasy Picks: Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Saints vs Falcons in Week 13

Week 13 brings us an unusual week for fantasy football, as Thanksgiving Day leaves us with three games on Thursday instead of the typical one.

With a short week to track injury news and think about start 'em, sit 'em options, Thursday games can be tougher to handle than Sunday contests are.

With that in mind, here's some start 'em, sit 'em advice for Thursday's Week 13 Thanksgiving day matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons.

Start Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage, WR, Atlanta Falcons: With Julio Jones banged up, Calvin Ridley (14) and Russell Gage (10) both saw double-digit targets in Week 12. Jones missed the Falcons' practices on Monday and Tuesday, calling his status into question with a short week to prepare for this one, giving both Ridley and Gage a nice boost.

Start Jared Cook, TE, New Orleans Saints: After a disappointing start to the season, Jared Cook has been producing some consistently strong fantasy numbers in recent games. He has scored double-digit PPR fantasy points in each of his last five, averaging 14.7 per game in that stretch. The Falcons aren't likely to slow him down much, sitting 29th in Football Outsiders' pass defense DVOA rankings, and Cook checks in at TE7 in our Week 13 PPR fantasy football rankings.

Sit Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta Falcons: Ryan ranks 12th among QBs in fantasy scoring this season, but his recent production has been underwhelming. In three games since returning from a brief injury absence he's averaged 12.9 fantasy points per game, which includes a middling 14.6-point performance against these same Saints in Week 10 and a 7.6-point dud in a usually-terrific matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week.

Sit Latavius Murray, RB, New Orleans Saints: Latavius Murray is coming off a big game, rushing for 74 yards and a TD in Week 12, but his underlying volume is still a concern. He had just seven carries in that game, and he hasn't played more than 40 percent of the Saints' offensive snaps in any of the three games since Alvin Kamara returned, averaging 7.3 carries and 1.7 targets per game in that stretch. Even in the Saints' high-powered offense it's tough to count on a back that's not even averaging 10 opportunities per game.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.