Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Week 12

This holiday season, we’re giving thanks for the waiver wire.

We didn’t even have time to fully assimilate the injury news from Thursday night’s game before Sunday’s games kicked off. Mark Andrews will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. Joe Burrow will also miss the rest of the season with a wrist injury and that will have wider fantasy football implications too.

The good news is that there are no bye weeks in Week 12. There should be no need to churn your roster for the sake of finding playable options this week unless one of your players suffered an injury. Of which there were plenty.

Aside from the big ones, here are a select few notable ones that might have fantasy impact.

De’von Achane might have hurt the injured knee that kept him out for the last four weeks but his status is uncertain. Salvon Ahmed would likely get a boost if Achane misses time.
For the first time since Daniel Jones went down, Tommy DeVito looked like the guy. He threw for three touchdowns and hit Darius Slayton for his first score of the year. Slayton, however, later exited with an arm injury.
Odell Beckham Jr. suffered a shoulder injury, which could compound the fantasy impact of Andrews’ ankle issues.
Green Bay’s Aaron Jones had to be carted off, but the injury is not thought to be long term.

NFL Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice

Check out our fantasy football rankings and fantasy football comparison tool if you’re in doubt about your lineup or a specific matchup going into Week 12.

Waiver Wire Pickups Week 12

Running Backs

Zach Charbonnet, Seattle Seahawks

Rostered: 44% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 12.9 (RB17)
Upcoming schedule: vs. 49ers, @ Cowboys, @ 49ers

The Seahawks face a daunting set of defenses in the coming weeks starting in Week 12 against the San Francisco 49ers. They play the Dallas Cowboys before coming back to their NFC West rival 49ers in Week 13. Kenneth Walker III suffered an oblique injury and his status it up in the air for the 49ers game on Thanksgiving.

Charbonnet has slowly started to out-snap and outperform Kenneth Walker III. He has seen more snaps than Walker in each of the last four weeks. Charbonnet finished Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams with 15 carries to Walker’s four. The rookie also added six receptions for 22 yards compared to Walker’s solitary catch for negative yardage.

Since Charbonnet was drafted, we knew his eating into Walker’s touches was a possibility. Charbonnet finished with minus-0.07 EPA (expected points added), which was worse than Walker’s 0.0 on four carries but he did add 0.23 on six catches. Pete Carroll didn’t draft Charbonnet for the fun of it and we are seeing his thinking behind it now. Geno Smith also hurt his elbow and Carroll might have to lean fully into Charbonnet with a short turnaround Thursday.

Ty Chandler, Minnesota Vikings

Rostered: 44% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 15 (RB14)
Upcoming schedule: vs. Bears, Bye Week, @ Raiders

The Vikings came undone late against the Denver Broncos, but Ty Chandler showed his chops with 73 yards on the ground on 10 carries. He also added four catches for 37 yards.

Alexander Mattison carried the ball 18 times for just 81 yards. However, Chandler looked far more dynamic and offers more in the passing game. The Vikings are just two games behind the Detroit Lions in the NFC North and have two very winnable matchups in their next two games. They have a bye week in between the Bears and Raiders too, who are giving up the 13th and eighth-most fantasy points to running backs this season.

Chandler added 2.41 expected points on his four catches compared to Mattison’s -0.28 on his only grab of the game. As for rushing the ball, it was far more pronounced with Chander’s 4.98 EPA to Mattison’s 0.45. Expect Chandler to continue to eat into Mattison’s touches as we approach playoff season in fantasy football.

Roschon Johnson, Chicago Bears

Rostered: 20% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 3.0 (RB47)
Upcoming schedule: @Vikings, Bye Week, Lions

Was that a heartbeat from the Bears offense we felt on Sunday? Justin Fields returned to the field and so did Khalil Herbert as the Bears almost beat the Lions on Sunday. And Johnson showed signs of life, too. D’Onta Foreman left the game with an ankle injury and Johnson showed what he can do against a Lions defense that ranked eighth in defensive EVE heading into the game.

The Bears play Minnesota and then Detroit with a bye week sandwiched in between and Johnson might have earned himself some additional touches with his production on Sunday. The severity of Foreman’s ankle injury might inform us a little more on Johnson’s reliability going in to Week 12. He only had six carries for 30 yards and he didn’t feature at all in the passing game but he looked good with the ball in his hands.

Johnson’s 0.31 EPA per play was the highest among all four Bears running backs to log a carry in Week 11. The Bears’ backfield hasn’t made a whole lost of sense this season and as they tank their way into oblivion, there’s a chance Johnson sees more of the field in the coming weeks. The Vikings give up 15.6 fantasy points per game to opponent running backs (24th in the league) and Johnson might be a flex play if Foreman’s ankle hasn’t recovered in time for Monday Night Football.

Wide Receivers

Jayden Reed, Green Bay Packers

Rostered: 36% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 19.2 (WR11)
Upcoming schedule: @ Lions, vs. Chiefs, @ Giants

We’ve been high on Reed and Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers was a case in point as to why. Matt LeFleur makes an effort to get Reed the ball in key areas – he has 11 red-zone targets this season, which is tied with DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Lockett.

Reed also carried the ball three times for 46 yards and a touchdown and caught another four for 46 yards during Sunday’s victory. It’s hard to foresee Reed’s role on any given week, which makes it a scary fantasy play – but he has finished as WR11 now in consecutive weeks.

The touchdown on Sunday was his second in consecutive games and his third in five since the bye week. Don’t bet against him finding the end zone on Thursday against the Lions.

Demario Douglas, New England Patriots

Rostered: 32% on Yahoo
Week 10 PPR fantasy points: 14.4 (WR23)
Upcoming schedule: Bye Week, @ Giants, vs. Chargers

Douglas was coming off his most productive game of the season before New England’s Week 11 bye. He had nine targets, six of which he caught for 84 yards.

Their next three games are against three of the five worst defenses against wide receivers in the league. The Giants, Chargers and Steelers units are like swiss cheese, so expect Bill Belichick to have something special in store for the Giants coming off the bye.

Kendrick Bourne is done for the season, DeVante Parker is questionable with a concussion and JuJu Smith-Schuster had just one reception for nine yards in Week 10. Douglas is on the rise, and with Mac Jones and the Patriots struggling to find their groove, they’ll lean into the hot hand in the coming weeks.

Tutu Atwell, Los Angeles Rams

Rostered: 26% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 2.7 (WR77)
Upcoming schedule: @ Cardinals, vs. Browns, @ Ravens

Cooper Kupp hasn’t been himself in the last four weeks, catching more than two passes just once in those four games. He only managed one catch for 11 yards before being knocked out with an ankle injury against the Seahawks.

Atwell is likely to step back into the role he filled during Kupp’s spell on injured reserve to start the season if the Rams’ main threat is to miss time. In the opening four weeks of the season, Atwell was targeted nine times in three of those games. He remains a red-zone threat.

Atwell had just one catch in the game and won’t need adding if Kupp is good to go.

Elijah Moore, Cleveland Browns

Rostered: 42% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 12.0 (WR26)
Upcoming schedule: @ Broncos, @ Rams, vs. Jaguars

Deshaun Watson is done for the season, but that doesn’t mean the Browns are too. Dorian Thompson-Robinson stepped up in place of Watson and had a woefully inefficient performance. However, Moore still had six catches for 60 yards.

Moore’s 1.40 EPA – 0.23 per play – was third on the Browns in terms of receiving. He’s also averaging 6.4 targets per game. He only had two during a blowout victory over the Arizona Cardinals a couple of weeks ago. He caught his first touchdown in Week 10 and reached a season-high 60 receiving yards in Week 11.

Could Week 12 bring with it another milestone for Moore?

Khalil Shakir, Buffalo Bills

Rostered: 11% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 20.5 (WR9)
Upcoming schedule: @ Eagles, Bye Week, @ Chiefs

The Bills continue to confuse everyone and made moves to fix the ambiguity last week when they fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. They replaced him with Joe Brady and the early signs were good. Josh Allen bounced back with three touchdowns in a 32-6 win over the defensive-minded New York Jets.

Shakir finished the game with three catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. Shakir had shown signs he could play a role with two WR3 finishes in the last three weeks. Gabe Davis has failed to live up to the billing as the Bills’ big-play threat. He wasn’t targeted on Sunday for the second time in three weeks.

Shakir added 6.95 expected points on his three plays and if the Bills are to continue to climb their way back into contention, they’ll have to lean on Allen’s arm. Shakir is widely available and could be a no-brainer flex play in the coming weeks.

Tight Ends

Michael Mayer, Las Vegas Raiders

Rostered: 11% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 8.6 (TE14)
Upcoming schedule: vs. Chiefs, Bye Week, vs. Vikings

Is Antonio Pierce the long-term solution for the Raiders as the head coach? Does it really matter? For now, Pierce is getting something out of a previously floundering offense. The unit even went toe-to-toe with the Dolphins on Sunday night before losing for the first time under Pierce.

Mayer, a rookie out of Notre Dame, finished behind just Davante Adams in total EPA on his four plays. The Chiefs are incredibly stingy against opposition tight ends, giving up just 6.6 fantasy points per game. If you’re reeling after the Darren Waller and now Mark Andrews news, Mayer has a shot to emerge on an improving offense.

Isiah Likely, Baltimore Ravens

Rostered: 3% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 0.0 (TE49)
Upcoming schedule: @ Chargers, Bye Week, vs. Rams

Likely didn’t see a target once Mark Andrews went down on Thursday night against the Cincinnati Bengals, but he is the most, ahem, likely candidate to replace the All-Pro tight end in the Baltimore offense. If you’re in desperate need of a tight end, adding Likely for his ceiling while taking a flyer on another tight end might be the best decision.

Andrews had 61 targets and six touchdowns in 10 games this season. We caught a glimpse of Likely’s credentials during the Ravens’ 37-3 victory over Seattle in Week 9. Likely caught all four of his four targets for 42 yards and could easily double that

He caught 36 passes for 373 yards and three touchdowns last season and had two top-five tight end finishes. Likely has proven he has big-play ability and the Ravens have one of the top three offenses in the league according to our EVE metric.

Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers

Rostered: 53% on Yahoo
Week 11 PPR fantasy points: 1.7 (TE40)
Upcoming schedule: @ Bengals, vs. Cardinals, vs. Patriots

Freiermuth is back, baby! Well, if you consider one catch for seven yards as back then that statement is true. The Pittsburgh tight end missed five games (six weeks) with an ankle injury and returned from injured reserve against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

He started the season with two touchdowns in four weeks, and while he only had eight receptions on 13 targets for 53 yards during that stretch, he might be worth considering if you’ve been a victim to the injuries at tight end. Kenny Pickett is checking down on 10.4% of his targets and needs a safety blanket. Freiermuth can at the very least be that player.

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