Week 12 Quarterback Rankings

Week 12 is upon us and we are still left wondering what we have in most of these quarterbacks. There has been very little consistency throughout the entire league at the position.

Disregarding this past week against the Rams for Peyton Manning, he, Andrew Luck, and Aaron Rodgers have been consistently elite, Colin Kaepernick and Matt Ryan have been consistently average, and Derek Carr and Robert Griffin have been consistently horrible for fantasy. Throughout the rest of the league, there has been very little congruency from week to week.

One of the most drastic variances has been Andy Dalton. He had one of the worst performances in NFL history against the Browns in week 10, while following it up with one of the best games in his career against the Saints. A lot of this had to do with getting back into a rhythm with A.J. Green. This should help him this week against a Texans defense that has been prone to giving up big plays.

Russell Wilson has struggled throughout the season as he continues to lose weapons and offensive linemen seemingly every week. If he can make up fantasy production by putting up over 50 rushing yards, he has posted some great fantasy days. However, if you are forced to strictly rely on his passing numbers, it has not been pretty starting the Seahawks' QB. I would try to avoid playing him this week as they head to Arizona.

Jay Cutler looks to have found his mojo again just in time to be facing the Buccaneers. It is unlikely that the defense will be able to muster up a similar turnaround, so I expect Cutler to be involved in many shootouts throughout the rest of the season.

Mark Sanchez earned the "Sanchize" nickname after completely dominating the Panthers, but regressed back to the "Butt Fumble" after the disaster in Green Bay. He still, however, posted good fantasy numbers, and I expect that to continue as they face the Titans this week.

As we search for consistency to help give us comfort in our lineup decisions, more variables enter into the equation this week to bring about more uncertainty.

Kyle Shanahan came to the Browns' with the intent of creating a very run-heavy scheme. The loss of center Alex Mack, has hindered this game plan entirely. Against the Texans, Brian Hoyer was forced into 50 pass attempts. This is great news for his owners as the long awaited return of Josh Gordon occurs this week. Hoyer could be a great streaming option as he already leads the league in downfield passing efficiency. Gordon would obviously only help Hoyer to improve in this category.

Ryan Mallett was successful in his first start, and Arian Foster, one of the best pass protecting/receiving backs in the league, could return as soon as this week. Will this help him to continue his success as a passer to be worth adding in fantasy leagues? He does have a nice schedule in the coming weeks, but I doubt he will be fantasy relevant for 12-team standard leagues. The Texans will continue to stick to the run and try to limit Mallett's passing attempts. This was very evident in the last two minutes of the first half as the Texans opened their series with three straight runs and didn't allow him to pass the ball until they passed midfield.

The inconsistency has brought an extreme amount of doubt and discouragement as fantasy owners try to set their lineups from week to week. This factored in heavily into my rankings as I ranked the players in the order of how comfortable I would be starting them this week. For many, the playoffs are on the line and while there are a few upside plays like Andy Dalton, Brian Hoyer, and Zach Mettenberger, there is just as good of chance that they could have one of their historically bad games and ruin your chances of a playoff bid.

Quarterbacks on bye: Ben Roethlisberger, Cam Newton