Top fantasy football waiver wire pickups for Week 12

Every Monday morning I set my alarm for 7:30 am with the intended purpose of waking up and getting this article out to you all in a timely manner. Sometimes I abide by my screeching cellphone. Most of the time, I tell the thing to shut up and smack it back to Snoozeville, where I quickly join it. Today was the latter. If you’re just now getting your waiver wire search on, hope this finds you well.

Week 12 certainly stayed on #brand for The 2017 NFL Season: The Weird One. Nate Peterman did exactly what everyone expected him to do which was not lead the Bills to a victory over the Chargers, but in a far more spectacular fashion. The Patriots blew out the Raiders in Mexico (probably expected). The Eagles blew out the Cowboys in Dallas (much less expected). The Giants beat the Chiefs in overtime in a riveting 12-9 game (I can count on one finger how many people expected that).

Weird season or not, there’s still fantasy football to be played and fantasy games to be won. I need to work some magic on this roster before I finish with the worst record in the league that I care about. WHY DID DESHAUN WATSON HAVE TO GET INJURED????

Anywhos, here are the guys you should be instantly trying to add to your fantasy team (percent owned in Yahoo leagues).

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9 percent owned)

Are you in dire need of a quarterback? Are you playing in a dynasty league and at this point are completely out of playoff contention so you’re like “Eh, eff it, let’s trade away Ben Roethlisberger for some young pieces and I’ll just stream a QB rest of the season”? Well, if you said yes to either of these questions, go get yourself some Fitzmagic. In his second start for the Buccaneers, Fitzpatrick was much better thanks in large part to the return of Mike Evans. If you really need a signal caller, Fitzpatrick is your guy.

RB Damien Williams, Miami Dolphins (35 percent owned)

Ah, some long awaited clarity in Miami. After two weeks of not knowing if Kenyan Drake or Williams was the right start, we finally have at least a better sense after Sunday. Williams finished with 10 carries for 78 yards and a catch that went for 24. Meanwhile, Drake mustered four yards on seven carries (yes you read that right) and had one catch for 10 yards. Hopefully the Dolphins will react so aggressively to this that Williams will get 20 touches next week and Drake will get zero. Wouldn’t that be nice?

RB Austin Ekeler, Los Angeles Chargers (35 percent owned)

Stone Cold Ekeler is here to stay. While he didn’t break the fantasy world again, he did rack up 40 yards on six carries and ran in a touchdown, his fourth in as many weeks. Clearly his scoring ability is here to stay in LA and that’s enough for me to give him a roster spot.

RB Samaje Perine, Washington (34 percent owned)

The Fantasy Gods again decided we had too many nice things Sunday and took Chris Thompson away from us. The running back is said to have a fractured fibula and will need surgery. Let’s recap on who the team from Washington now has in their backfield: Perine and Bryon Marshall. Sooooo yea, get ready for a lot of the rookie. While Perine has been inconsistant this season—and been on this list a few times now—he put together the best game of this career against the Saints, rushing for 117 and a touchdown on 23 carries. He’s likely to continue to see that workload so he likely to should be on your team.

RB Devontae Booker, Denver Broncos (7 percent owned)

I’ve been waiting for the Devontae Booker emergence for quite some time now and it seems like we might just ever so slightly be stumbling upon it. While the Broncos have been using the dreaded running back committee (I’m starting a petition to make the committee stop), it seems in their floundering season, they want to get the young back more involved as he got 19 touches to C.J. Anderson’s 15 Sunday. Booker had 14 carries for 44 yards and five catches for 54. He’ll have value moving forward especially in PPR.

WR Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams (51 percent owned)

I’ll keep this short as we all know what I think about Kupp. (Oh, you don’t know? Well, might I suggest you read THIS beautiful piece of writing then.) Kupp will look to rebound from his costly fumble against the Vikings versus a Saints’ defense that has allowed nearly 60 yards per game to slot receivers (which is where Kupp operates from). Do it.

WR Kenny Stills, Miami Dolphins (37 percent owned)

Let me tell you a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down. In one of my leagues I needed a receiver and so was debating between adding Kenny Stills or Ted Ginn off the waiver wire. As this is a story that flipped my life upside down, you can guess I added Ginn instead of Stills. Ginn scored me a respectable 13.5 points. Stills scored 31. While this level of scoring is likely an outlier, Stills has still scored double digit fantasy points in four of the last five weeks and is the big play guy in this Dolphins offense.

WR Corey Coleman, Cleveland Browns (32 percent owned)

There might not be a more difficult situation for a wide receiver than what Coleman just fought through. He a) plays for the Browns, b) was coming back from injury and c) playing the Jaguars’ secondary. However, despite all those card stacked against him, he still managed to catch six balls on 11 targets for 80 yards. Get him on a team right now. If you don’t want him, just put him on your friend’s team then. He deserves to be on a fantasy team.

WR Josh Doctson, Washington (27 percent owned)

Ladies. Gentleman. Dudes. Gals. People. Dogs. Josh Doctson is here. The Josh Doctson is here. This Josh Doctson is here.

Doctson as quietly been ascending to number one receiver status in Washington and his big breakout game is just around the corner. After all, Washington plays the Giants Thanksgiving night. I’d put money on that being Doctson’s night to shine.

TE O.J. Howard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (22 percent owned)

Here’s what you need to know about the tight end situation in Tampa: Howard out targeted Cameron Brate and it’s starting to look like Fitzpatrick might be establishing some chemistry with the rookie. He also caught his fourth touchdown of the season. If the Howard revolution is happening, you don’t want to miss it.