Week 12 Wide Receiver Rankings - PPR Leagues

This is by far my favorite week of football in the NFL season. There is nothing better than the "Three F’s": Family, Food, and Football. It’s also a week you have to prepare for early because on Thanksgiving six teams will be in action. You have your entire lineup at your disposal because there are no byes this week so you have some decisions to make. Plus it’s the last week of the regular season for most leagues. There’s a lot going on in Week 12, but here are my rankings to help get you through this hectic week. I hope all you readers have a great Thanksgiving and you come away with full stomachs and a W.

BYE WEEKS: N/A

T.Y. Hilton/Donte Moncrief - ATTENTION: Andrew Luck has been ruled OUT. Suit up Scott Tolzien, I hope your arm is warm since your last start in 2013. It's gonna be rough a day for Colts receivers against a great Pittsburgh pass defense. If Luck was it Hilton would be a WR1, but with Tolzien he's a WR2. I think Tolzien will rely a lot on Hilton though to make him relevant throughout the day. As for Moncrief, he's riskier. Luck loved red zone touchdowns to Moncrief, but I think that ends this week. He's a WR3 in my mind.

Golden Tate - If I were Matthew Berry, I'd have Tate on my Love List this week (he doesn't). You may be thinking, "But Nick the Vikings defense is too good." And on any given day I would agree, but not on Thursday. On Thanksgiving Day the Lions offense comes to life, just look at Calvin Johnson. Last year in my rankings at this time, Johnson was fading and closing in on retirement, dreaming of his big break on Dancing with the Stars (he finished third by the way). But I pegged him as a top-5 guy and he delivered with eight catches for 93 yards and three touchdowns against my Eagles (Tate had seven catches for 50 yards and 1 TD on last year's holiday). In the last seven Thanksgiving games, Johnson scored in six of them. Who is going to take that production over? Golden Tate. I don't know what it is, but Matt Stafford becomes a gunslinger with the accuracy of a Navy Seal sniper on Turkey Day. So start that man with confidence.

Rishard Matthews - If Matthews isn't in your starting lineup yet you better put him in. He has shot up my rankings in the past weeks. In Week 9 he was #48, in Week 10 he was #27 and this week he has landed as my #15 receiver. He has scored six touchdowns in the last seven weeks as the Titans offense has surged to become one of the most potent offenses in the NFL. Matthews gets a shot at the Bears this Sunday and they have been awful at defending the pass. Matthews is a high-WR2 and a must-start in my mind.

Tyler Boyd/Brandon LaFell - With A.J. Green out Boyd and LaFell's fantasy has risen a considerable amount. But I'm tampering expectations. The two are not Green, not even put together. They don't possess the talent and athleticism to fill the role that Green left. Will the pair see an uptick in targets? Yes. But Andy Dalton will not be chucking it their way every other play. I think the Bengals are going to spread this ball out a lot and rely on many different receivers rather than put Green's workload on one guy. If anything the biggest benefactor from this is Tyler Eifert. I have Boyd at #39 and LaFell at #46 this week. The reason being is that this offense is deflated. With Gio Bernard out they are also missing a passing back. This is going to be a group effort to get this offense back on track, so I don't expect any Bengals WR's to go off this week.