Fantasy Football: 5 Things to Watch for in Week 12
Wow! That Monday Night game was terrific! 105 points, ten passing TDs, three Defensive TDs, and a partridge in a pear tree! If you had the QBs, you were happy. If you faced one….sorry. Same goes for Tyreek Hill who, depending on scoring, has three of the top 10 single game scores of the year. Todd Gurley owners were none too pleased to see 54 points on the board and no TDs from their stud.
But that was last week. What are we looking forward to in Week 12
1. Thanksgiving Games
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I enjoy Christmas with my kids, Valentine’s Day with my wife, Mother’s and Father’s day with my parents, but Thanksgiving has always been my favorite. I love the food. I love family time. I love the football. This year has some classic matchups in store for us. Chicago at Detroit, Washington at Dallas and, what we all hope to be a shootout, Atlanta at New Orleans.
While each of these game appears to be between teams heading in opposite directions, these three divisional rival games should be interesting.
Chicago at Detroit has a suddenly exciting storyline with the red-hot Mitchell Trubisky suffering a shoulder injury late in last week’s game. Detroit appears to be heading in the opposite direction, yet this could be an exciting game and a chance to stay in the hunt for a Wild Card spot.
NFC East division leader Washington just lost their starting QB to a gruesome leg injury, which has way too many odd similarities to Joe Theismann‘s injury exactly 33 years earlier. Can Colt McCoy keep them on track? On the flip side, Dallas starting to come together and is right on the heels of Washington. A win on Thursday will push them into the division lead.
Much like the other two games, the Falcons have been flailing, but are still in the hunt for a Wild Card spot. Nothing would satisfy them more than to come into New Orleans and give the Saints an unexpected loss. Let’s hope they can provide us with a high scoring game similar to Monday Night.
2. Fantasy Playoff Push
The NFL may have quite a few weeks to go before their final push, but fantasy leagues are in the final throws of the playoff push. At this stage, some teams have likely gone dormant or at least into the set-it-and-forget-it mode, so there is possibly a little less competition on the waiver wire. Don’t be afraid to make the bold moves. The key to winning the championship is making the playoffs.
3. Lamar Jackson
Many casual owners may dismiss Lamar Jackson’s first career start as a bad game. For those hardcore fantasy owners, the 13/19 for 150-yard passing line gave us a nice yard per attempt number. What really stood out was the 27 carries. Will the Ravens continue to run him this much moving forward? It’s probably safe to assume he will have fewer rushing attempts moving forward, but they will not disappear. For fantasy purposes, we want to see that yards per passing attempt stay up, and add in a few more passing attempts. This scenario feels a lot like the Tim Tebow era in Denver when he was a QB1 based on his legs and not his passing. The running alone makes him a high-upside QB2.
4. Return of the Gronk?
It’s been a quiet season for Rob Gronkowski, and fantasy owners are likely regretting the draft pick of Gronk. After a few weeks on the sideline and a bye week, the expectation is that Gronk is going to be back on the field for the stretch run. If you have Gronk rostered and he’s active, you need to use him. The late bye week was perfect timing for the Patriots as a whole, but especially Gronk. I’ll be looking forward to getting him back in the lineup for a playoff run.
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5. Giving Thanks to the Fantasy Community
This last one is going to deviate from the team/player focus I normally touch on. With this being Thanksgiving week, I want to give thanks to the fantasy community. There is an amazingly strong bond created by Fantasy Football. Whether you’re in league with your life-long friends or with people you just “met” online, we have that common bond. You can get stuck next to someone on a plane, train, waiting room or where ever, and a simple comment can lead to a nice long conversation about fantasy football.
As someone who writes fantasy football articles, I want to thank you for reading. I want to thank the Fantasy Footballers, Andy, Mike, Jason, and Brooks for giving me this platform to share my fantasy football experience. I want to thank my fellow writers for pumping out great content every week and genuinely being a great group. I want to thank my league mates for making this game one the most enjoyable endeavors we can pursue.
What I’ll be watching for this week is to see people connecting and reaching out to each other. If you have a favorite article, series, twitter follow that you trust and enjoy their advice, reach out to them and simply say thanks. The fantasy community is a great group of people and a simple “thank you for your work” can go a long way. Most fantasy writers/analysts don’t do this for the money; they do it because they love it. Reach out and say thanks.