2021 Week 12 Fantasy Football Sleeper Wide Receivers: Gaging Sleeper Appeal

This week, I am giving thanks for fantasy football managers who have given up on their leagues. These turkeys have made it easier for the rest of us to mash fantasy football players off the waiver wire, stuffing them into our lineup. Over the last few weeks, matchups have solidified and roster moves have rolled off of a cliff. This makes it easy as pie to jam some sleepers into our rosters. To make this list of fantasy football sleeper wide receivers, the player must be unrostered in at least 50% of Yahoo! leagues. For you deep leaguers, we feature one sleeper fantasy football wide receiver available in at least 90% of leagues. Without any further ado, let’s go ham on some week 12 fantasy football sleeper wide receivers.

Robby Anderson at Miami (47% rostered)

To paraphrase Cam Newton, “He’s BACK!” Robby Anderson once again freed from the nefarious clutches of the demonic Sam Darnold has once again returned to fantasy football relevance. At this point, we have to concede that Robby and Darnold just don’t work together, as we are now 2/2 with Anderson thriving once he’s out from under Darnold’s thumb. Anderson has six targets in each of his last two games, turning in four and five catches (the five tie a season-high, and the four catches are his third-most catches in a game this year). He has just 67 total yards in the last two games, and just score. But, I still feel good about Robby this weekend.

The Panthers get the Dolphins this weekend, and much like Cam exclaiming that he was back against the Cardinals, so too will Anderson declare his return against the Dolphins. The Dolphins allowed two different Jets double-digit half-PPR points last week. Two! Different! Jets! The Jets, who can’t find points with both hands, no defense, and a map pointing at the end zone torched these Dolphins. They stymied the Ravens on Thursday Night Football, but that had more to do with the Ravens than anything else. But they’ve allowed eighteen instances of half-PPR wide receivers this year in eleven games; over one per game.

Russell Gage at Jacksonville (17% rostered)

Sometimes I go out looking for players to fit my weekly sleepers, and sometimes the players find me. I want to be clear about one thing right off of the top: I don’t think that Russell Gage is good. But I do think that he’s good enough to take advantage of a good matchup. Gage has played in six games this year and has at least six targets in four of them, including eight targets in two of the last three games since Calvin Ridley stepped away from the league. He did literally nothing with his three targets against Dallas, but in his last three games with at least six targets (weeks 7, 9, and 11), he averages exactly 60 yards per game and has hauled in just over five catches per game.

When I say this is more about his opponent, however, I mean it. The Jaguars allow the eleventh-most fantasy points to wide receivers and let both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk turn in 15+ half-PPR fantasy point days against them last week. They are truly dreadful and circling the drain. The Falcons are also dreadful, but they still aren’t quite sure of it yet. That leads me to believe this will be a drubbing, with Russell Gage at the center of that drubbing.

DeAndre Carter versus Seattle (3% rostered)

Carter is quietly the WR20 in half-PPR leagues per game over the last four weeks. He has touchdowns in three-straight games, which certainly helps. More importantly, he has six targets in two of the last three games, and he didn’t even need those to score his touchdown last week. With a Logan Thomas return looming on the horizon, it might be a situation where those targets dry up. But, I am hoping the Washington brass let Thomas sit just one more week so we can squeeze some value out of this matchup.

The Seahawks are league-average against the deep ball, allowing about three 20+ yard plays per game so far this season, to go with a 40+ yard pass play every other game. These are where Carter will shine this weekend.