2018 Fantasy Football Week 12 Rankings

I messed up with my rankings last week.  As usual, I published them on Wednesday, and then I updated them on Sunday morning (or at least I thought I did).  The problem was, I forgot to hit the "PUBLISH" button.

*FACE PALM EMOJI*

So I still had guys like Joe Flacco and Marvin Jones in my rankings.  My bad.  I thought I'd updated them, but I didn't.  I'll try my best to recap my picks versus the ECR last week, but so many of them will be off because of this screw up of mine.  I guess I'm still navigating this FantasyPros Expert Platform, but maybe I'll have it mastered by the end of the season.

Anyway, how about that Rams/Chiefs game, eh?!  What. A. Game.  I enjoyed watching that game SO much, but I was getting nervous toward the end because while I had Kareem Hunt in my money league, my opponent was chasing me down with Jared Goff in his lineup.  I obviously want to win my fantasy matchups every week, but I really didn't care that much at 11:30pm on Monday night.  That game was so fun to watch.  If I lost Week 11 because Goff threw another touchdown, so be it.  In the end, I squeaked out a win and got to enjoy one of the best NFL games I can ever remember watching.

Well, the Rams and Chiefs are finally on their bye this week (the last of the byes!).  So that means everyone else is playing this week, and all teams will be in action from Weeks 13 til the end of the season.  Just a couple more weeks until the fantasy playoffs...

To the rankings!

BYE: Chiefs & Rams

2018 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyProsECR ™ - Expert Consensus Rankings

QUARTERBACKS
In Week 11, I continued to rank Andrew Luck as a top-5 QB, but the ECR nearly had him outside of the top-10.  I'm not sure why the experts were afraid of the Titans, but Luck continued to roll.  He's my #1 fantasy QB in my ROS Rankings, which I've updated HERE (click the link!).  I even added tiers.  I know.  So fun.  :)

I was also high on Mitchell Trubisky (+4 vs ECR), and I had him inside my top-10.  While I was wrong with this pick, he continued to get points with his legs and showed his high floor (which is about 15 fantasy points).  He kind of feels like this year's Deshaun Watson.  I sure wish Deshaun Watson would be this year's Deshaun Watson, but for now I'm stuck debating him versus Tom Brady in my money league on a weekly basis.  I have a feeling this will be a tough decision for the rest of the fantasy season, and I have both guys barely ranked in my top-12 this week.  Ugh.

Anyway, I was slightly down on Aaron Rodgers last week (-4 vs ECR), but he had a good game on Thursday night (albeit in a loss).  I thought he'd have less than 20 fantasy points in this game, but I was wrong here too.  Of course everyone expected that random tight end to catch like a 60 yard TD from him though, right?  Rodgers will likely be a top-10 fantasy QB the rest of the season, but I'll likely continue to often rank him outside of my top-5.

This week, I'm high on Russell Wilson (+6) and down on Kirk Cousins (-5).  Wilson always seems to be a slow starter, but he's been a top-5 fantasy QB in his last 6 games.  He also hasn't scored fewer than 20 fantasy points in any of those games, so he's been consistent too.  The ECR doesn't even have him as a top-12 play as of right now, and that seems crazy to me.  The guy just keeps putting up fantasy points, and I don't see why you'd sit him against the Panthers.  As for Cousins, if you look at his last 6 games, he's only scored more than 20 fantasy points once in that span.  He did have a big game in Green Bay in Week 2, but I'm not counting on that again with Dalvin Cook being more involved in the offense now.  Cousins might have a hard time being a top-10 fantasy QB in Week 12.

RUNNING BACKS

I was actually kind of high on T.J. Yeldon last week (+10), but that didn't pan out.  I thought the Jags would be playing from behind in this game, but that was not the case.  Their defense dominated for 3 quarters before falling apart and allowing the Steelers to get the win in Jacksonville. Yeldon didn't finish anywhere near a top-30 RB where I ranked him, and Carlos Hyde actually had more fantasy points than he did.  I was down on Ito Smith (-9) because I was starting to see him as more of a lower volume/TD-dependent guy.  He looked like that against the Cowboys, and he's now had less than 3 fantasy points in back to back weeks.  He finished outside of the top-40 RBs and can't really be trusted right now. As of right now, I'm really high on Josh Adams this week (+10).  Since trading Snacks Harrison to Detroit at the end of October, the Giants have given up big numbers to Adrian Peterson, Matt Breida, and Peyton Barber.  I think that continues this week with the Eagles seeing what the rookie can do for them.  I want to rank Adams even higher, but I'm just not that confident he gets the majority of the touches in that backfield.  I don't think he'll need it though.  If he gets 12-15 touches, I think he'll be a top-20 RB this week.  I'm really low on LeGarrette Blount (-16), as I don't even see him as a top-40 play tomorrow.  I expect Zach Zenner to be active against the Bears, and I only see Blount as having value if he somehow falls into the endzone.  The Bears have only given up 2 rushing touchdowns all year (best in the league), so I'm down on Blount.

WIDE RECEIVERS
I stayed high on Adam Humphries last week (+17), and he found the endzone yet again.  The experts continue to rank DeSean Jackson and Chris Godwin well ahead of Humphries, but all of these guys should be in consideration with Jameis or Fitzmagic throwing the ball 40+ times a game.  I was also high on a pair of Joshes: Reynolds (+9) and Doctson (+14).  I said you'd want to start someone in this Rams/Chiefs game, and Reynolds contributed a touchdown (and a top-20 WR finish) to the 105 total points scored.  With Cooper Kupp out for the year, I expect Reynolds to have a ton of value in Weeks 13-16.  As for Doctson, he had found the endzone in back to back games, but that mini-streak ended in Week 11.  Alex Smith had a terrible leg injury in this game and is lost for the season, but Doctson has shown some chemistry with Colt McCoy.  I'm not dropping him down my rankings too much just yet. I was down on quite a few WRs versus the experts, but focusing on the top of my rankings, I was low on Alshon Jeffery (-8) and Emmanuel Sanders (-7) due to their cornerback matchups: Marshon Lattimore and Desmond King.  That turned out to be right because both receivers were held in check and finished outside of the top-30 WRs in Week 11, even though the ECR had both guys as top-20 plays.  I've moved both back up my rankings this week, as both have much better matchups. If you look beyond my top-50 WRs this week, I'm high on a lot of guys versus the ECR.  But if you focus on my top-40, I'm highest on Dontrelle Inman (+25) and John Ross (+29).  Inman has emerged as the #2 WR in Indy, and Luck has been on fire this season.  I expect him to have a solid day and finish in the top-40.  As for Ross, he's found the endzone in back to back weeks after getting healthy over his bye week.  A.J. Green might return this week, but even if he does, I think that might only help John Ross.  I expect him to get loose for a big play in this game and finish in the top-30.  I'm not down on a ton of receivers near the top of my rankings aside from Chicago WRs and some of the usual suspects (i.e. DeSean Jackson), so let's move on to the tight ends... TIGHT ENDS Last week I was high on Michael Roberts on Wednesday because I thought it was very possible Marvin Jones didn't play.  It turned out both Roberts and Jones were inactive...and I forgot to update my rankings to remove either of them.  Ugh.  Still kind of mad about that because it's going to impact my accuracy rankings.  Oh well.  Time to tighten up, Wheeler!  In the end, I wasn't really high/low on any tight ends versus the ECR, so let's talk about this week. In my top-15, I'm high on Cameron Brate (+4) and Jonnu Smith (+6).  I think the ECR will catch up on my ranking of Brate with the O.J. Howard news breaking late on Tuesday, but we'll see.  As for Jonnu, he's been a top-10 TE in his last three games and has scored in two of them.  Regardless of the Titan quarterback, I like for him to be a top-15 play on Monday night.  I'm down on Austin Hooper (-4) who I don't see as a top-10 TE against the Saints tomorrow night.  Hooper has scored more than 5 fantasy points just once in the last 5 weeks, and he didn't hit the 5 point mark against New Orleans in Week 3.  I don't trust him against a defense giving up the 2nd fewest fantasy points to the tight end position this year. DEFENSES

With 6 teams on a bye last week (and 5 of those teams being pretty crappy), it really impacted my D/ST rankings.  But I was high on the Saints (+9 on Wednesday, only +5 on Sunday) and down on the Jags (-9).  Basically I saw the Saints as a top-12 fantasy defense, and the Jags no where near that (and the ECR was the opposite).  I pointed out that New Orleans had held every opponent except the Rams to under 24 points in their previous 6 games, and the Eagles had only scored more than 24 points once this entire season.  That held up in Week 11, and the Saints were a top-5 fantasy defense.  As for the Jags, they actually had a good game against the Steelers and were a top-10 play themselves.  They're one of my top plays this week as they travel to Buffalo to face one of the most turnover-prone offenses in the entire league.

Back to the Saints defense for a minute though because I like them again versus the ECR this week (+8).  I realize this game is expected to be high scoring, but I think it could end up looking a lot like the game last week when they blew out Philadelphia.  I don't even have them ranked that highly (15th), but I think they could be a decent play tomorrow night if you want to have someone playing in this game.  I'm down on the Panthers (-4), but I don't have much to say about that.

I'm done.  Time to get ready for Thanksgiving!

Good luck to everyone in Week 12!  

(Except you, Carl...)

Cheers,

Bart