Week 12 Recap: 20 Things You Need To Know

There were still some scary situations in Week 12, but after the fully loaded hospital wing that Week 11 gave us, it was nice to get through a week with only a handful of injuries to talk about. Beyond that, the normal names like Jahmyr Gibbs, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and … Jameis Winston (?!) ruled the slate while the fantasy gods gave us seven-one score games on Sunday.

Now comes the best football week of the year. Two weeks until the fantasy playoffs. No teams are on bye. Three games on Thanksgiving, and one on Friday. Bring on Thanksgiving Week!

Before we get to the Week 12 Monday Night Football game with the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers, let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the injured from a wild Week 12 in the NFL.

Stud Players

Which players put up the best performances in Week 12?

Jameis Winston put on a show against the Detroit Lions, throwing for 366 yards and two touchdowns, rushing for 13 yards, and catching a 33-yard touchdown. Add it all up, and you get 32.74 fantasy points, and the best quarterback score of the week heading into Monday Night Football. There is no quarterback controversy here as Jaxson Dart is clearly the quarterback of the future, but fantasy football managers sure would love to see more of Mr. Winston.

Dak Prescott engineered a 21-point comeback to beat the Philadelphia Eagles at home. He finished the game with 354 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and a rushing touchdown. Perhaps his best trait on Sunday was that he didn’t let an early 21-0 rattle him or the offense and methodically brought them back over three quarters.

Jahmyr Gibbs had one of those games where, if you’re facing him in fantasy football, you just close the laptop and go outside and touch some grass. It took him just 15 rush attempts to get to 219 rush yards and two touchdowns. But he also added 11 receptions, 45 receiving yards, and another touchdown on top of that. His 49.9 Half-PPR fantasy points doubled what any other running back scored on the day.

Emanuel Wilson did his best Josh Jacobs impression for Green Bay on Sunday. He touched the ball 35 times, had 125 total yards, and scored twice. He was the number one waiver pick-up of the week and rewarded those who emptied their wallets on him. If Jacobs misses more time, Wilson gets the Lions, Broncos, and Bears (oh, my!) the next three weeks.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba at times looked like he was toying with the Tennessee Titans’ secondary on Sunday. He finished with eight catches on 10 targets for 167 yards and two touchdowns. He was high-pointing the ball all over the place and frequently beat his man on any given route.

DJ Moore resurrected his fantasy football season for one week and caught five passes for 64 yards and two touchdowns. It seems that every four or five weeks, Caleb Williams and the Bears remember that they have a $100 million wide receiver on their team and decide to heavily utilize him. Moore had 21 points in Week 12 and 2.6 combined points in Weeks 10-11.

Hunter Henry had 21 fantasy points in Week 12, which is about the same number of total points he had from Weeks 8-11. He became the focal point for Drake Maye again and demanded 10 targets, which he converted into seven receptions for 115 yards and a touchdown. The Bengals are the worst team against tight ends this season, so this may not be predictive, but it was good to see Henry back in the positive column for one week.

Dud Players

Which players disappointed fantasy managers the most in Week 12?

Lamar Jackson has back-to-back weeks with zero total touchdowns. He told the media on Sunday that it is not due to any injuries, but just performances that he knows need to be better. Somehow, the Ravens keep winning and are now atop the AFC North, but this level of mediocre play after this amazing 2024 season is a major concern for fantasy football managers.

Jonathan Taylor has now alternated between dominant and poor performances over the last week. Unfortunately, Week 12 was a bad one, and Taylor finished with just 58 rushing yards and eight receiving yards for 7.6 Half-PPR points. He was playing a very tough Kansas City rush defense, but with the Texans and Seahawks up in two of the next three weeks, the schedule doesn’t lighten up much for a couple of weeks.

Romeo Doubs was an unfortunate byproduct of Jordan Love’s horrible passing line, and yet the Green Bay Packers still won 23-6, because J.J. McCarthy really is that bad. With Christian Watson back, Romeo Doubs has just seven receptions over the last three games and doesn’t have more than seven fantasy points in any of those contests.

Dallas Goedert couldn’t perform in Dallas, in a weird turn of irony. He caught just two of Jalen Hurts’ passes for 20 yards and now has three straight games with six or fewer fantasy points. It seemed that the Eagles were making a point to get A.J. Brown the ball in Week 12, so hopefully, Goedert gets back in the startable tight end column as the schedule opens up ahead of the fantasy playoffs.

Thud Players

Which players can we shove off our fantasy rosters after Week 12?

Joe Flacco, thank you for your service, but you can go back into semi-retirement now that Joe Burrow is about ready to return. Flacco did all he could while he was called in to start for Cincinnati, but he has been looking like all of his 41 years in recent starts. On Sunday, Flacco had 182 passing yards, one touchdown, and an interception. This was his second game in a row with just 10 fantasy points.

Jordan Mason has not scored more than 10 Half-PPR fantasy points since October 19, and Sunday was his fourth game in five weeks where he has fewer than five fantasy points. When Aaron Jones came back into action for Minnesota a few weeks ago, he boxed Jordan Mason out even more. Add this on top of the abysmal state of the Minnesota offense, and you can drop him easily.

Jerry Jeudy dropped an easy long pass from Shedur Sanders for a fumble on Sunday and may have dropped any chance he has at a productive rest of the season as well. Jeudy is now connected to one of the worst quarterbacks in the league and has fewer than 10 fantasy points in all but one game this season. Jeudy has just one receiving touchdown all season.

Rashid Shaheed was traded a few weeks ago to Seattle, and the Seahawks have basically put Rashid Shaheed on ice. Shaheed has under four fantasy points in three straight games and has 30 total receiving yards in his last three contests. The Seahawks want to run the ball and throw it to JSN. Other than that? You’re out of luck.

Bad Blood Players

Which players’ injuries are worth monitoring after Week 12?

Baker Mayfield suffered a left shoulder injury in the first half of Sunday Night Football. While he finished the first half, he did not return in the second half and had his arm in a sling while Teddy Bridgewater took over at quarterback. Mayfield will have more tests done on Monday to determine the severity.

Tee Higgins suffered what appeared to be a serious concussion on Sunday afternoon. He was down for several minutes before finally walking off on his own. He did not return to the game and now has a very steep hill to climb if he wants to be ready for Thanksgiving Thursday Night Football against the Ravens.

Alvin Kamara left the game against Atlanta after only five touches and did not return. It was reported after the game that he suffered an MCL sprain in his knee. He is likely to miss at least one week with this news, but at least it appears he avoided major injury.

Ashton Jeanty got his ankle twisted up on him in the second half of the Raiders’ game against the Cleveland Browns. There is speculation that this might be a high ankle sprain, but it really is too early to tell. Jeanty was able to rack up 25 touches and 108 total yards in the game.

Rashee Rice suffered some kind of hamstring injury late in the game against the Indianapolis Colts. Many have said it was just cramps, and he would have been out there in any kind of playoff game. Monitor his practice reports this week, beginning Wednesday.