Week 12 Rankings
At wide receiver the big news is Josh Gordon is bizzack! Josh Gordon was fantasy football’s number one receiver last year in standard leagues and he accomplished that in just 14 games due to his previous suspension. He will be an immediate WR1 who is capable of single handedly changing the tides in fantasy leagues especially for those of you shallow leaguers who did not spend a draft pick him. In other news T.Y Hilton is being respected as the Colts number one finally and is drawing the coverages that come with that role leading to some inevitable bouts with inconsistency. Odell Beckham remains a WR2 option as one of the league’s most talented and exciting receivers and Mike Evans has officially become a household name following his 200 yard outburst as a rookie. His 200 yard outing was one of the only in the past two decades for a rookie and is the first since Anquan Boldin did it in 2003 and Randy Moss before that; he also became the youngest player even to accomplish that feat. The year of the rookie receiver has also finally been realized as we have a record four rookies in our top 20 this week in Evans, Beckham, Watkins and Matthews.
At running back we have Demarco Murray as the king of the hill with Jamaal Charles just behind. We currently have Arian Foster as our sixth ranked runner this week but he could rise if he gets through the week of practice healthy. With Jerick Mckinnon banged up Ben Tate could get the start this week and would rise to borderline RB2 territory and would be higher if he had more familiarity with the system. Tate is arguably the most talented runner in this backfield and despite what some other may be espousing he is a much better fantasy situation as West and Crowell have more talent than Mckinnon at this point in their careers. Lesean McCoy has been a major disappointment this year but is still one of the most talented running backs in the NFL and remains a low-end RB1 option. Mark Ingram has solidified his top ten status and his seven targets in the pass game make him a threat to become a weekly top-5 lock if he continues to see that much action in that facet of the game. We really like Charles Sims this week and have him as a borderline RB2 against Lovie Smith’s old team in the Bears. The emergence of Mike Evans will do wonders for the Bucs run game. We have Jeremy Hill as an RB1 this week as we see both him and Gio getting 15 plus touches with Hill probably getting the nod in the end zone as the Bengals look to save Gio from aggravating his injury.
At the quarterback position this week the top five looks like it usually should with the top five QBs in the game and when it all is said and done, five of the top probably in history, with Rodgers, Luck, Manning, Brees and Brady atop our board. After that we have Mettenberger all the way up at 16th after a strong start and the chances for points in bunches in garbage time against the Eagles. Matthew Stafford has the elite tools from a physical standpoint but as we all know the mental consistency is not their from week to week and we expect him to have trouble with the Patriots outstanding cornerbacks knocking him down to 12th overall this week. We have Vick down at 26th this week until such a time that the snow forces the game to be moved to another time or location and the underrated Brian Hoyer gets some top-15 love this week with stud receiver Josh Gordon finally returning from suspension.
At tight end it is always Gronkowski and atop the board but with Julius Thomas still not practicing and Vernon Davis being used as a blocker and Jordan Cameron still in concussion protocol the rankings after that get a little murky. One one side we have our ageless wonder and future HOFer at number three this week as we expect a bounce back game from Philip Rivers and on the other side we have Coby Fleener at number four, he has been targeted heavily in recent weeks and if Dwayne Allen is out he should remain a focal point of the offense as opposing defenses have wised up and started scheming to stop T.Y Hilton from putting up WR1 numbers every week. We have Larry Donnell at 8th overall who is just a week removed from being a suggested sit due to his inconsistency so those same issues should be factored into lineup decision this week. Kelce failed to impress when handed the featured tight end job but has too much talent to rank outside the top-12 while Delanie Walker finds himself on the outside looking in as he rounds into health and tries to develop a stronger on-field rapport with Zach Mettenberger. Mychal Rivera had been on a seven reception, touchdown per game average over his last three before last week and is a top five option this week for Thursday Night Football.
With all of that said, without further adieu here are our constantly updated rankings for week 12 of the 2014 fantasy football season:
