Waiver Wire Rankings: Expert Pickups for Week 12

Jonas Gray ran himself onto everyone’s claim list with a 199 yard, 4 TD performance

After a couple of slow weeks with waiver wire prospects, there is probably no bigger sought after candidate than Jonas Gray who erupted for 199 yards and 4 TDs on Sunday Night Football. The country was watching and now, so will fantasy owners who put in waiver claims for him. Of course it’s not as simple as picking up Gray and winning a fantasy championship. Depending on your needs and goals, there are quite a few waiver wire candidates to go after.

Whether one of your players went down with an injury (Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandin Cooks, Julius Thomas, Dwayne Allen) and you’re looking for his replacement, or you’re looking for players with high rest-of-season upside, we have those options listed here. Each week, we ask our featured experts to rank this week’s top readily available players (rest of season value). Read on to view the pundits’ consensus advice as well as their top D/ST rentals for Week 12.

Featured Pros

Adrian Pereira (eDraft)
Jeff Paur (RTSports)
Kevin Hanson (EDSFootball)
Nathan Miller (Revelation Sports)
R.J. White (CBS Sports)
Tony Mauriello (ProjectRoto)

Waiver Wire Rankings (STD Scoring)

Week 12 Waiver Wire Advice

Each expert was asked to share advice about a target or two they like this week along with any other waiver wire suggestions they have. Here’s what the experts had to say.

Q1: Give us your thoughts on a waiver wire target (or two) you especially like as a pickup.

Adrian Pereira – eDraft
There is no Gray area as far as who should be your top waiver wire pickup.  If you’re not in the basement in your league, then you’re likely out of luck and won’t be able to grab the 4 TD + 200 yard monster. At this stage of the season, you should be focusing on the position you are the weakest, and not necessarily the best player available. For many, this will be the TE position. Some of the tight ends that started the season hot have begun to cool off. Enter Coby Fleener. Indy’s 2 TE system may be cut in half for a few weeks and Fleener will see an increased number of targets. His 144 yard performance against New England may foreshadow his upcoming matchups against Jacksonville and Washington. Take a leap of faith – bench your inconsistent TE and roll with Coby.

Nathan Miller – Revelation Sports
At this point in the season managers are either looking to shore up depth or fix problematic situations. Be sure to know which you are trying to accomplish. Jonas Gray is an interesting prospect this week. While placing heavy bets on the NE backfield is a clear-cut route to insanity, a manager hanging by a thread would be wise to spend heavily on him if they are weak at RB heading into the playoffs. If you’re just looking for depth, tempter spending (expectations), as we all just witnessed the best game of Gray’s career and it’s all downhill from here. If Isaiah Crowell, Bryce Brown, or Charles Sims are available, spend cheaply to acquire them as well/instead. All of the above are equally as risky and have similar upside.

R.J. White – CBS Sports
Obviously, Jonas Gray is going to be the No. 1 claim in any league where available after a massive Week 11 performance in a Sunday night rout of the Colts. But don’t sleep on Charles Sims. Though the Buccaneers couldn’t get much going on the ground against a tough Washington rush defense, the rookie out-touched former No. 1 option Bobby Rainey 16-5 and looked much more impressive than Rainey despite his low totals. Sims should get a chance to establish himself as the RB of the future over the remainder of the season, and he has just one tough matchup left on the schedule. Gamble on his upside.

Jeff Paur – RTSports
Coby Fleener isn’t going to produce every week like he did in Week 11, but you have to like his potential in a starting role in this offense. With teams rolling their coverage to T.Y. Hilton, Fleener could be setup for a lot more targets going forward. He is more of a spot starter than anything, but is worth adding for all those teams struggling at the tight end spot.

The Browns running back spot has been all over the place this season, so it is hard to trust any of these guys. But at the moment, Isaiah Crowell seems to be the guy to own. He started and dominated carries last week. Josh Gordon is set to return this week, which should help the running game and the entire offense. If Crowell keeps getting double-digit carries, he’ll have value as a low-end No. 2 back or top flex play.

Kevin Hanson – EDSFootball
Given the injuries to Dwayne Allen (possible high-ankle sprain) and Ahmad Bradshaw (broken ankle), Coby Fleener has the potential to be a top 5 fantasy tight end the rest of the way. Even with both players healthy, Fleener has scored the 11th-most fantasy points among tight ends through Sunday’s games. Of Andrew Luck’s 28 pass touchdowns, no position group has been the recipient of more touchdown passes than tight ends (12) and Allen (seven) and Bradshaw (six) individually lead the team in that category. Fleener has the third-most receiving scores (four) and led the team Sunday night in yardage (144), I’d expect Fleener’s red zone targets to increase significantly going forward.

Tony Mauriello – ProjectRoto
When Coby Fleener was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in April 2012 in the same year that the Colts selected Andrew Luck first overall, the fantasy football industry salivated over the Stanford tight end because a “young quarterback always uses his TE as a safety valve”. Until this season (read: Sunday Night Football after Dwayne Allen was carted off the field with an ankle injury), that had not happened. Fleener finished Sunday night’s game with 7 receptions for 144 yards (on 7 targets) and should step into Allen’s role in the Colts offense seamlessly. Luck has relied on his TE in the red zone this season and with matchups against the Jaguars, Redskins and Browns on the schedule (with each team being in the bottom half of the NFL in defending the TE), Fleener should return top 10 TE fantasy value over the remainder of the season as long as Allen remains out.

Q2: For owners looking to rent a D/ST in Week 12, what readily available option should they target first?
*Note: Experts were asked to pick a team other than the Jaguars’ opponent (Indianapolis) since they’re an obvious choice

Jeff Paur – RTSports
The Chargers defense rebounded in a big way last week, having a dominating performance against the lowly Raiders. San Diego gets an improving Rams team this week, but the Chargers are at home, a place they have allowed fewer than 20 points four of five games. The Chargers are a good, cheap option for Week 12. They are set up for a second straight solid showing.

R.J. White – CBS Sports
I’m trying to get my hands on the San Diego defense in Week 12. They looked much better and healthier coming out of their bye, and while many will point to an easy matchup against the Raiders as the reason for their success, the Rams certainly haven’t been blowing up scoreboards this season, especially on the road. The Chargers may not have the highest of upside in Week 12, but I think they possess a very high floor, making them the perfect streamer for a team just looking for a solid point total out of the D/ST position.

Kevin Hanson – EDSFootball
The Packers have scored 50-plus points in back-to-back games and while Aaron Rodgers and the offense is obviously playing at an extremely high level, so is their defense. The Packers D/ST have scored a total of four touchdowns in their past two games. Along with the past two games, the other time that the Packers D/ST scored double-digit fantasy points this year was their first matchup against the Vikings in Week 5. In that game, they had six sacks, two interceptions, a fumble recovery and a defensive score. Given how well the offense is playing, Teddy Bridgewater could be forced to drop back more than the Vikings would like, which gives Green Bay increased opportunities for sacks and interceptions.

Tony Mauriello – ProjectRoto
Week 12 is the last week of the fantasy football season that owners must scramble to the waiver wire to grab a top D/ST before bye weeks end and there should be a handful of D/STs readily available. Outside of daily fantasy football, the Green Bay Packers are likely on your waiver wire as they just came off a week in which they faced the high-flying Philadelphia Eagles offense and no owner was likely to own or start the Packers. Well, the Packers defense slowed down Chip Kelly’s offense and scored on a pick-six as well as a fumble recovery. The Packers now head to Minnesota to face a struggling Vikings team in Week 12.

Nathan Miller – Revelation Sports
Get Green Bay now if they’re available. Aaron Rodgers has entered God-Mode on the field and the Packers defense looks legit in all facets of the game over the last two weeks. Facing a vulnerable Minnesota offense in Week 12, the Pack will pay dividends to their owners.

Adrian Pereira – eDraft
The Chicago Bears have a plus matchup in Week 12 against Tampa Bay. The opponents of the Buccaneers have generally been a great D/ST choice as Tampa Bay have given up the 4th most interceptions and the 9th most sacks. Vegas also has the Bears winning the game with a total of 26.5 points being scored. That means the Bucs are not likely to hit the end zone more than once.

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Thanks to this week’s Featured Pros for sharing their advice! You can check out more picks from the pundits as their weekly rankings are unveiled soon.