November 26, 2015

RotoBaller's 2015 Week 12 fantasy football rankings analysis and tiered ranks, for both PPR and non-PPR leagues, and all NFL positions (QB, RB, WR, TE, DEF). Rankings advice for your Week 12 matchups.

What's up RotoBallers. Week 11 is complete and we hope you managed to secure the win! To celebrate, today we are bringing you our Week 12 fantasy football rankings to help prepare you for your Week 10 matchups.

Below you will find both PPR rankings and standard league rankings for Week 12, brought to you by Zach Wilkens (@LopsidedTrades) and Edward Gorelik (@EdwardGorelik). Lead fantasy football columnist Edward Gorelik also highlights some rankings analysis for Week 12, broken out by position, and draws some matchup conclusions. He tells you who he likes, who he doesn't, and most importantly who he thinks you should be starting in Week 12.

You can also check out our 2015 fantasy football ranking dashboard, for more in depth rankings analysis on all positions including rookies and dynasty leagues.

Rankings are subject to change leading up to the games.

Week 12 Fantasy Football Rankings - All Positions

Week 12 Quarterback (QB) Rankings Analysis

By Edward Gorelik (@Edward Gorelik)

We've been down this rabbit hole with Andy Dalton before, but it bears repeating again. Dalton has good stats against teams he doesn't see often, otherwise known as uncommon opponents. The man just defies logic in this sense, throwing nearly 3x as many TDs against uncommon opponents than he does against common ones (teams he's seen within the last year).

Well, the Rams are another uncommon opponent for Dalton to tear up. He's already put down the Arizona and Seattle defenses with 300 yard and two touchdown performances, so that's where the expectation is set for this one.

I wondered last week what effect losing Edelman would have on this offense and it turns out it's a noticeable amount because Tom Brady put up his worst quarterbacking performance to date. Things are bound to get worse as more injuries have taken hold of the Patriots offense and they see the Broncos this week- who are another very talented defense. Tom Brady's ranking is bound to fluctuate during the week as we balance our projections for him.

Jameis Winston has been on a tear recently and was amongst the headliners of my week 12 waiver wire piece, along with the next quarterback i'm going to talk about. After an incredible five TD performance, Winston now ranks amongst the low end QB1s for the season and has four 18 point performance in his last five games- and most of those were with only Mike Evans to throw to.

It shouldn't be a coincidence that the week Vincent Jackson returned was the week Winston put up more passing touchdowns than before and there's still a chance ASJ returns this week too. Indianapolis has been an average defense in all relevant metrics and is going through a tailspin season that Winston would love to take advantage of as his star begins to rise.

The other waiver headliner is Brian Hoyer, who faces the New Orleans Saints defense. You might be thinking: "But they fired Rob Ryan, right?" Well, Sean Payton was quoted as saying "Dennis Allen [the interim DC] was already calling the coverage before Ryan was fired" and that should've set alarm flags for his need to be fired too. Instead, now we have Hoyer facing a backup DC who was already making mistakes before he was the actual DC. I don't expect things to change.

Week 12 Running Back (RB) Rankings Analysis

By Edward Gorelik (@Edward Gorelik)

It seemed like Chris Johnson's job might be in jeopardy as he was slowly losing snaps to Andre Ellington. Instead, he saw nearly all 3-down work against the Bengals and was treated like an all out workhorse. Based on everything we've seen, that's something that is likely to continue and this week he faces one of the seasons worst run defenses in DVOA and fantasy points allowed. Johnson has top 5 potential this week.

Thomas Rawls had an incredible game against the 49ers, but the Steelers are a far better defense than that; most of the defenses in the NFL are, really. Rawls is still an expected RB1 but seems more on the low end side than the high end.

Although Kansas City has been on the low end of fantasy points allowed for running backs this year, their stats might be slightly padded from facing two horrible rushing performances from the Chargers and Lions in the last four weeks. In DVOA they're still ranked as just average against running backs, and lately LeSean McCoy has been on a tear as he's returning to real fantasy relevance. It wouldn't be surprising to see McCoy take over this game.

One of the trendy waiver pickups will be Javorius Allen (Buck Allen), but expectations should really stay low for him. He isn't much of a talent at running back and the Ravens are not looking like a team that will be in position to run often even against one of the worst rushing defenses in football.

Remember this: running backs are tied to game script far more than any other position in football. If the team a running back is on is down, they're going to run less. Even against the lowly Browns, the Ravens are entering this game with an incredibly weak offense ran by a backup QB, no #1 WR, and a committee running back as starter. Allen is lucky to be a receiving back, and the hope will be that his receiving yardage helps keep him at a decent floor.

Week 12 Wide Receiver (WR) Rankings Analysis

By Edward Gorelik (@Edward Gorelik)

Will Antonio Brown suffer at Seattle? What about Martavis Bryant? I'm going to go with no for both. Brown is the exact kind of receiver that the Seahawks have struggled with ever since creating the legion of boom and Martavis Bryant is the kind of mismatch that is difficult for every corner to cover.

If Bryant owners are especially lucky- he might see a lot of Cary Williams in this game, who has been amongst the leagues most easily burnable corners for years. I expect, at worst, WR2 production out of both of them.

Calvin Johnson has a real case to be this weeks WR1 entirely, even over DeAndre Hopkins in his cake matchup. The Eagles have allowed the 2nd most fantasy points to wide receivers in the league and 94 yards per game on average to opposing WR1s. That's the 2nd highest yardage in the league to WR1s. In Megatron's career he's averaged 85 yards and 1 touchdown per game on Thursday night.

T.Y. Hilton's return to relevance didn't quite hit last week as shutdown corner Desmond Trufant got to handle him all game. Well, this time Hilton sees a far weaker CB tandem that is allowing just around league average to opposing WR1s in yardage and fantasy points. Hilton faces a really good opportunity to bounce back with the quarterback he's been most effective with this year.

The Chiefs are still the leagues worst defense against WRs for fantasy points and are giving up the fourth most yards to opposing WR1s. After a week where we all watched Sammy Watkins get shunned by his offense's game plan until the final moments of the game, Rex Ryan was quoted saying "Sammy Watkins deserves more targets." Yeah, everyone already kind of had that figured out before. Watkins is another potential bounce back candidate this week with a great matchup.

Meanwhile, on the dark side of matchups, Dez Bryant and Stefon Diggs will both be seeing a lot of time with some shut down corners. Josh Norman and Desmond Trufant have not made things easy on wide receivers this year, and it should be expected that both of these players will be putting up sub-par performances.

The same can likely be said of the Patriots receivers, Danny Amendola and Brandon LaFell - although Amendola does see a light at the end of the tunnel in his matchup, since he still runs mostly out of the slot. The variable of injury makes him hard to predict though, and he'll be another player who will see fluctuations in his rankings until game time.

Week 12 Tight End (TE) Rankings Analysis

By Edward Gorelik (@Edward Gorelik)

The Raiders got lucky last week that Eric Ebron dropped a sure touchdown against them, otherwise they would've continued to be the worst defense in the league against tight ends. Instead, a big zero helped drop them to only third worst.

But that doesn't mean they're playing better, just that their opponents are playing worse. Delanie Walker has built a great chemistry with Marcus Mariota and will be their next opponent. He's not showing any signs of issues and should be treated as a high TE1.

Antonio Gates comes out of a matchup against the leagues best tight end defense in DVOA and fantasy points allowed and now faces one of the leagues worst. Gates 2 touchdown return may be a thing of the past, but he's still shown the ability to put up 50-70 yards every week outside of last and should be expected to put up TE1 numbers against a defense allowing 71 yards per game to the position on average.

Speaking of the Chiefs, Charles Clay goes up against them this week. I'd fade Clay altogether, The already unreliable Bills tight end now faces the leagues best TE fantasy defense and is better off benched.

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