Fridays are for Five Lists of Five here at DKNetwork, and for Week 12, we want that partridge in a pear tree kinda win on Sunday, you know? What with the twelve days of Christmas just around the corner. The duration of which will be decidedly different for Daniel Jones, freshly released from the New York Giants per his own request. And that’s not even the most breaking fantasy news of the weekend. We’re waiting to hear statuses on CeeDee Lamb, Ladd McConkey, Malik Nabers and more.
Keeping it rolling this week with my top five fantasy football players to stash ahead of Week 12.
Also available from this week’s Fantasy Fridays Five Lists of Five:
- Top five fantasy football must-starts and smash spots for NFL Week 12
- Top five fantasy football players most likely to score a touchdown in NFL Week 12
- Top five wide receivers due for fantasy football breakout games in NFL Week 12
- Top five fantasy football streamers for NFL Week 12
Quentin Johnston, WR, Los Angeles Chargers (47% rostered)
47% rostered! Still?! How does he justify making it on this list? This is just egregious. Get him on your rosters immediately, and start him this week. If Ladd McConkey is whatsoever injured, Joshua Palmer figures to vacuum a lot of his targets. But it’ll be Johnston who has the biggest game against the Ravens.
Frankly, I think both Ladd and Johnston are due for big games against this bottom-tier-passing-DVOA Ravens defense. In the last five weeks, Justin Herbert has targeted Johnston twice in the end zone, and Johnston’s caught both passes. His yards per target of 23.9 is an absolute hot air balloon.
He’ll pop off in the Harbaugh Bowl.
KeVontae Turpin, WR, Dallas Cowboys (1.1% rostered)
It’s sounding like CeeDee Lamb is leaning toward playing against the Commanders on Sunday, even though TE Jake Ferguson definitively is not. Ferguson was ruled out Friday afternoon by the team on their official injury report.
It would have been my initial instinct to list Jalen Tolbert here, as he’s seen 19 targets in the last five games to Turpin’s 11. But Turpin has actually been the more efficient receiver (and the more explosive one; hello, Week 11!): his NFL NGS receiver score of 97.6 over the last five weeks blows Tolbert’s 67.4 figure away.
Turpin has more yards than Tolbert (137 to 98) even though Tolbert has more expected yards (123 to 117). Turpin is simply outperforming Tolbert right now. And he’s much more widely-available. Stash whomever you want between them, but it’s Turpin for me.
Blake Corum, RB, Los Angeles Rams (14.4% rostered)
He’s slowly getting more and more offensive drives to himself (he had two against New England in Week 11), and the Rams enter the game against the Eagles on Sunday Night Football with a 15% chance to make the playoffs. Should they lose, it’s evaluate-for-the-future time!
Having said that, I don’t think Kyren Williams’s performance has warranted ceding too many touches to Corum, even if the Rams’ season becomes lost sooner than later. But you never know. And it’s a barren waiver wire out there.
Alec Pierce, WR, Indianapolis Colts (15.1% rostered)
Our blue prince is still out there balling. Josh Downs and Michael Pittman keep vacuuming targets, but it’s Pierce who’s been the most impressive receiver of the three over the last five weeks. His NFL NGS receiver score of 85.9 is second on the team during this timespan, only to Adonai Mitchell, whose score of 102.3 would have warranted him a spot on this list had he run more than half the routes Pierce has. Pierce has run 134 routes to Mitchell’s 62.
Pierce is a true 50/50-ball guy (his expected catch rate since Week 7 is 53.9%; his actual catch rate is 56.3%) on the barrel end of a quarterback who loves throwing up a contested pass. We all know his upside, as we’ve seen four WR1 games from him so far this year. We just never know when it’s going to happen.
Should it happen in the fantasy playoffs, though, you’ll want it to be on your roster.
Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals (27% rostered)
For all the reasons you’d want to buy on James Conner right now (they are many), you also want to get in on Benson. His 27% ownership is far too low. This 70/30 split between Conner and Benson right now suggests the organization would have Benson play lead back should Conner miss time.
Benson has 43 receiving yards on three receptions over his last two weeks; he had 12 receiving yards the entire season before that, and only two receptions. He’s also run the ball 18 times for 99 yards in that span. His EPA/touch figure ranks in the elite ranks of backup running backs. He should be on far more than 30% of rosters.
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