Week 12 Fantasy Football Risers and Fallers

Week 12 around the NFL and fantasy football was a big quarterback/running back week, with receivers and tight ends taking a backseat. Four quarterbacks (Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Jordan Love) have already topped 30 fantasy points entering Monday, with four running backs topping 25 (including Kyren Williams and Christian McCaffrey topping 30). Meanwhile, only Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans topped 25 at receiver (and just barely — 25.4 and 25.0, respectively), and at tight end, Pat Freiermuth’s 21 was the only total over 20.

So with that in mind, and with eyes turning toward Week 13 as soon as Monday’s Bears/Vikings game wraps up, let’s take a look at the fantasy football risers and fallers from Week 12 of the fantasy football season.

Week 12 Fantasy Football Risers

Dak Prescott, QB, Dallas Cowboys

Through Week 5, Dak Prescott was QB24 in points per game, with no games over 20 points and two under 8.0. There were “will the Cowboys move on?” murmurs. Since then, Prescott has averaged 28.3 points per game, comfortably the QB1, with at least 24.9 points in five of six games. He’s accounted for 21 touchdowns in those six games, with 312.3 passing yards per game. Just since the Dallas game Thursday, the “Dak for MVP?” whispers have started, and they’ll only grow if they can close hot against an admittedly tough stretch of Seattle-Philadelphia-Buffalo-Miami-Detroit. Still, Dak’s solidly a top-five fantasy QB going forward.

Jordan Love, QB, Green Bay Packers

Jordan Love is the QB12 in fantasy points per game on the season at 18.9, but the arc of that production has been positively wacky. He opened with three straight 20-point outings, then fell below 20 every game Week 4-10, with the Packers going 1-5 to all but render themselves irrelevant. Two wins against two theoretically good teams (the Chargers and Lions), with 20.9 and 26.6 fantasy points from Love, and the Packers are relevant again, and Love is forcing his way onto the fantasy radar.

Kyren Williams, RB, Los Angeles Rams

If you waited a month-plus for Kyren Williams to return from injury, you probably had him back in your lineup for Week 12. But if you had stumbled into a few productive running backs in the absence — say, Devin Singletary — you would be forgiven if you wanted to see Williams produce a bit before immediately relying on him again. And if that is the case, then you missed out on 38.4 PPR points, the fourth-best fantasy score from a running back all season. Williams is an every-week must-start at this point.

Rashee Rice, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

We’ve all been waiting. While the Chiefs muddle around with Justin Watson and Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney and Marquez Valdes-Scantling and even a Mecole Hardman redux, the fantasy community was clamoring for Rashee Rice to get more of a look. He had at least 5 targets seven times in his first 10 games but never topped 7 and never topped 72 yards. Well, it happened Sunday, with the Chiefs looking Rice’s race 10 times (no other Chiefs receiver topped 3), and Rice responded with 8 receptions for 107 yards and a score. The Chiefs should absolutely lean on the Rice/Travis Kelce duo the rest of the way, and that makes him a fantasy factor.

Brandin Cooks, WR, Dallas Cowboys

The first nine weeks of the season, Brandin Cooks averaged 2.4 receptions on 4.1 targets for 23.6 yards. He looked done, and the Cowboys looked like they had made a disaster trade. The last three weeks, Cooks has averaged 5.3 receptions on 6.3 targets for 95.7 yards, including Thursday’s 4-5-72-1 line. This is still CeeDee Lamb’s offense first and last, but Cooks has become a flex option.

Pat Freiermuth, TE, Pittsburgh Steelers

Pat Freiermuth set career highs in receptions (9) and yards (120) Sunday in the Steelers’ win over the Bengals. He had 11 targets, behind only a 12-target game last year. Freiermuth was averaged under 2 receptions and only 12.0 yards per game this season before Sunday’s explosion. And considering that was Pittsburgh’s first game after firing OC Matt Canada, there’s reason to believe the scheme could be working through Freiermuth over the middle more than it had. He’s back to a low-end TE1, with upside for more.

Week 12 Fantasy Football Fallers

Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Miami Dolphins

Tua Tagovailoa isn’t a runner — he has 6 career rushing scores (none since 2021) and 347 total rushing yards in four seasons. So you need him to be a passing monster to be worth the big fantasy investment. Early in the year, it was happening often enough (28.1 fantasy points in Week 1, 28.4 in Week 3). But lately, the upside has disappeared. Since Week 7, Tagovailoa is QB22 in points per game with only one game over 18.6, only two over 12.4. For floors, there aren’t many better quarterbacks, but Tua’s ceiling is lacking.

Gus Edwards, RB, Baltimore Ravens

Gus Edwards was RB11 in PPR leagues, RB5 (!) in standard leagues entering Week 12. But everyone knew it was smoke and mirrors — he had 9 touchdowns in five games Weeks 7-11 despite 131 total snaps over those weeks. Now, of the top 25 fantasy backs, Edwards’ 720 scrimmage yards is the lowest total, and his 151 touchdowns is the third lowest. With Keaton Mitchell ascending, Edwards had only 8 carries and 1 reception for 37 scoreless yards Sunday. The touchdowns just couldn’t continue at that pace.

Devin Singletary, RB, Houston Texans

Dameon Pierce missed Weeks 9-11 to injury. In his absence, Devin Singletary had 65 carries for 288 yards in three games. Pierce returned for Week 12. Singletary had 6 carries for 18 yards. That’s not the entire picture, of course — with Mike Boone out, Singletary took over as the receiving back, with 6 receptions on 7 targets for 54 yards, so he still had a respectable 13.2 PPR points — but Pierce being around definitely lowers the Singletary ceiling.

Adam Thielen, WR, Carolina Panthers

It’s just one down week, but Week 12 was a real down week for Adam Thielen, with him only having 1 reception on 3 targets for 2 yards, his worst game since a 2-2-12 in Week 1. He had back-to-back games with 10-plus targets and had averaged over 10 targets from Week 2 to Week 11, so maybe it was a one-off, but with the Panthers extremely done and Thielen 33 years old, there’s an argument that either the team should look to younger options and/or that Thielen is slowing down as the season goes on. Tread very carefully around the veteran.