When the games conclude this week, we will officially be 75% of the way done with the fantasy football season, and the bye weeks. Things should get better, and easier for you going forward. However, what if you need a wide receiver sleeper this week? Well, we have you covered. To qualify for this list, you must be unowned in over 50% of Yahoo! leagues. But, as luck would have it, nobody topped 16% ownership. For deep leagues, we offer you one player available in over 90% of leagues. As always, check to see if there’s a guy available in Waleed’s Waiver Wire Cheat Sheet. If not, enjoy!
Week 12 Wide Receiver Sleeper:
James Washington at Cincinnati (16% Owned)
No JuJu. No Diontae Johnson. And, most likely, no James Conner. This is the situation that James Washington inherits this week against Pittsburgh’s AFC North rival, the Bengals. Now, the Steelers offense hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire this season (they have just eighteen touchdowns in ten games this year). However, look at all that firepower gone. There’s not much left for the Steelers to go to except Washington, Vance McDonald, and the stable of below-average running backs that are left. This week, he gets a Bengals defense that has allowed at least 9 half-PPR fantasy points to seven wide receivers in their last four games. With the Steelers having just one wide receiver, I can guess who that might be this week.
Week 12 Wide Receiver Sleeper:
Hunter Renfrow at New York Jets (15% Owned)
Renfrow has taken over for Darren Waller as the designated favorite Derek Carr target since entering the starting lineup in week eight. He leads the team in targets, catches and receiving yards since Gruden made the switch. He’s been a somewhat reliable PPR floor guy in the time in the lineup, but he gets a juicy matchup this week. The Raiders take on the Jets this week, who are cruising past leaguewide joke straight into dumpster fire status. The Jets give up the third-most fantasy points to WRs on the season, but it’s worse than that. Before they ran into the Washington “passing game” last week, they allowed two double-digit fantasy days to wide receivers in four straight contests.
Deep Dive Week 12 Wide Receiver Sleeper:
Russell Gage versus Tampa Bay (5% Owned)
Gage has eighteen targets over his last three games. Sure, nine of those were three weeks ago, but Falcons took on two strong pass defenses in a row after that. This week, they return to passing game glory with a matchup against the lowly Tampa Bay secondary. Devonta Freeman is likely to miss this game, and Brian Hill sucks, so that means lots of passing. Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley are locked in as Matt Ryan’s top receiving targets, but without Austin Hooper, those extra targets likely go towards Gage. He lost a touchdown last week on review, so he’s getting end zone targets. He just has to convert them against the best possible fantasy matchup for wide receivers this season.
For more free fantasy football advice, join our Discord and follow us on Twitter
You can find the rest of our Week 12 advice here (be sure to check back as the week develops!)
(Header Image Source: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/250000/velka/hunter-aiming-shotgun.jpg under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)
