Fantasy Football Player Notes

With D'Andre Swift potentially out for this week, Williams becomes one of the must-add options off of the waiver wire. While Williams should only be considered for fantasy lineups if Swift misses action, he does have plenty of upside if he gets the starting nod. Last week, in relief of Swift who went out early, Williams went from playing 27% of the snaps the week prior to 63%. Additionally, Jermar Jefferson and Godwin Igwebuike only played 10% and 8% of the snaps respectively. Williams would walk into a massive workload if Swift were to be out this week against Minnesota and the Vikings are surrendering just over 100 rushing yards per game. He could have a fine day in a favorable matchup, which is excellent for someone that still might be on the waiver wire in your league. The offense isn't great, but that won't stop Williams from seeing north of 15 touches. He can be viewed as a mid-range RB2 if Swift were to sit. We'll continue to update throughout the week as more information becomes available.

At the beginning of the 2021 NFL season, fantasy managers were jumping up and down with excitement due to what Hockenson was doing on the football field. He started off the year with back-to-back top-5 fantasy finishes and appeared to be well on his way to helping people win fantasy championships. Unfortunately, since that point, Hockenson has only finished inside the top-5 again on the week just once! Additionally, he has also finished outside the top-12 TEs in six other games so far this season. With the team performing so poorly around him and the QB play being less than ideal, Hockenson has struggled to produce the types of numbers that we saw at the beginning of the season. With that being said, he's still absolutely worth playing every single week at the TE position due to his talent and his role in this offense. He only saw a 12% target share in Week 12 against the Bears, but he was able to cash in and find the end zone for the first time since week two. We shouldn't be expecting Hockenson to start finding the end zone regularly again, which means that he doesn't necessarily have top-5 upside every single week, but he's absolutely worth plugging into your lineup as a low-end TE1 in this matchup against the Vikings.

Reynolds spent time earlier this season in Tennessee, but was never able to work his way into the starting lineup. While I'm sure Tennessee wishes that they had him on their roster now, he's in Detroit and reunited with his former QB from the Rams, Jared Goff. Reynolds stepped into the starting lineup in Week 12 against the Bears and immediately made everyone aware that the chemistry was real with a 3-70-1 stat line. It's nearly impossible to confidently trust any Lions receiver, but Reynolds certainly has the big play ability that could lead to fantasy production week after week. He's probably not worth playing this week - despite the favorable matchup - but he's worth picking up and seeing how this week goes if you have the space on your bench.

The anticipation keeps building for St. Brown and what he can be for fantasy purposes, but it looks like we're going to have to wait until 2022 when we get a major QB upgrade. At this point of the season, players that have major upside are worth rostering versus safe floor plays. St. Brown can be dropped in your league if you're still hanging onto him.

At the time of writing, Swift is listed as day-to-day by Dan Campbell. He got banged up on Thanksgiving and it's unclear whether he's going to be able to return to action in Week 13. If you're the Lions though, what incentive is there to playing Swift at this point of the season? The Lions are clearly in the running for the No. 1 overall pick this next off-season and they're not going to be competing for anything meaningful down the stretch this year. Swift is a key piece of their future and there is literally zero incentive to rushing him back onto the field. We'll see how the situation unfolds as we move throughout the week, but I'd expect to be without Swift for the next week or two.