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Unexpected fantasy football performances and waiver wire sleepers and trade targets for Week 12 (2023). Will these NFL players sustain their Week 11 success?
Injuries, injuries, and even more injuries. If you partake in fantasy football, there’s a decent chance you had some sort of injury affect your roster directly or indirectly. This year has been on one with the amount of season-enders to relevant players, so here’s to hoping the guys hurt today aren’t out for too long.
Outside of the injuries, though, Week 11 was pretty goofy. There were blowouts, unexpected upsets, and just strange plays all over the board. Even with this strange play, there seemed to be a lack of unexpected boom performances this week. That’s not to say the ones that happened weren’t completely unexpected, but there are normally many more to sift through.
All in all, it was an entertaining week, but let’s try to do without the numerous injuries in Week 12. With Week 11 mostly behind us, let’s get into some unexpected boom performances.
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Surprise Fantasy Football Performances
Tommy Devito, New York Giants
Why not? Why not Danny DeV–I mean, Tommy Devito? Coming into Week 11, if you gave any knowledgeable football fan a chance to name who they thought the worst starting quarterback in the NFL was, I’m sure over 50 percent would name New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito.
With funny stories circulating about him living with his parents or wanting to have a nightmare dinner with Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Floyd Mayweather, he seemed to be turning into more of a meme than a football player. But in Week 11, he gave a miserable Giants fan base something to celebrate.
While leading New York to a much-needed win over the Washington Commanders, DeVito had an impressive performance. The rookie completed 18-of-26 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns along with one carry for seven yards. That led to 22.54 fantasy points and a QB5 finish in Week 11.
Saquon TD!
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/BObOTvWyMl
— New York Giants (@Giants) November 19, 2023
Now, this doesn’t mean you should go all out and pick up Tommy DeVito as your savior at quarterback. Most people probably knew that already.
What this does mean is the Commanders might have the most exploitable defense in the NFL. It’s nice that the New Jersey native showed he can actually play, but let’s remember the awful defensive unit that he torched.
Khalil Shakir, Buffalo Bills
In a nearly unwatchable game, the Buffalo Bills put on a true beatdown of their division rival New York Jets. It certainly wasn’t the most entertaining action, but what we did have the privilege of seeing was the Bills offense returning to form.
During Week 10, the team looked broken with how disconnected their offensive unit was. However, after some changes to the coaching staff, the group had some new juice and a lot of that came from wide receiver Khalil Shakir.
Shakir has been a player that has had a few splashes here and there for this offense. But no splash he’s had previously lives up to the one he had in Week 11.
.@KING_KHALIL2‼️ Let's go‼️
📺: @CBS pic.twitter.com/j4ICq4jfTN
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 19, 2023
Against the Jets, Shakir caught three of four targets for 115 yards and a touchdown. Those stats led to 19 half-PPR points, making him the WR7 in Week 11.
Now, a lot of that production clearly came from an 81-yard receiving touchdown, but the second-year receiver is still an interesting player to consider off waivers. The Bills seem to have gotten themselves back together, and Shakir could be a solid contributor to this revamped group.
Darius Slayton, New York Giants
It seems like Saquon Barkley and Tommy DeVito were the only players being given any credit from the New York Giants offense during their Week 11 win. While both had a huge role, wide receiver Darius Slayton is the forgotten man here.
Despite not being much of a threat for most of the season, Slayton showed out in Week 11 as the leading receiver for the Giants.
Against the Commanders, the fifth-year receiver caught four of five targets for 82 yards and a touchdown. That led to a solid 16.2 half-PPR fantasy points which ranks as the WR12 in Week 11.
DeVito deep to Slayton for six!
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/u9T77KV9oj
— New York Giants (@Giants) November 19, 2023
Now I know what you’re thinking, but no, DeVito to Slayton is not the new Montana to Rice.
It was nice to see the Giants play well after so many setbacks, but the Commanders are legitimately putrid against the pass. Slayton could be an interesting speculative add for deep league rosters, but this kind of outing is not one we’ll see too often given the circumstances in New York.
Ty Johnson, Buffalo Bills
One of the more under-the-radar, maybe even nonexistent, storylines from the Bills vs Jets matchup was that there was a revenge game in play for Buffalo running back Ty Johnson.
Johnson, while not the most prolific contributor, was with the Jets for the past three seasons. Interestingly, he was actually cut from the roster in the offseason despite getting surgery performed on him that the Jets requested. So, while this probably meant little to most people, it likely meant a lot to Johnson.
In his own revenge game, the fifth-year back had three carries for 11 yards along with three receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown. That stat line resulted in 13.3 half-PPR points, making Johnson the RB14 in Week 11.
Turning a fourth down into a touchdown! 💪
📺: @CBS pic.twitter.com/44TzhutkuO
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) November 19, 2023
While this wasn’t the most insane performance of the week, it’s a pretty good storyline when you look at Johnson’s background. However, for fantasy, he probably isn’t a player that you need to bother with off the waiver wire.
Consider him a pickup in only the deepest of leagues.
Josh Oliver, Minnesota Vikings
You’re probably tired of reading about players from the Giants and Bills, so here’s Minnesota Vikings tight end Josh Oliver to shake things up.
The Vikings signed Oliver in the offseason as the TE2 behind T.J. Hockenson. However, in Week 11, he ended up playing a larger role during Minnesota’s Sunday night matchup with the Denver Broncos.
During the Vikings’ close loss to the Broncos, Oliver caught all four of his targets for 47 yards and a touchdown. That output resulted in 12.7 half-PPR fantasy points, making Oliver the TE2 overall in a pretty lame week for tight end scoring.
.@josh_dobbs1 are you kidding me?!?
📺: @SNFonNBC pic.twitter.com/xvdhQpS5k8
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) November 20, 2023
There’s a pretty low chance this translates to anything fantasy-relevant. When playing behind a tight end like Hockenson, there usually isn’t much room for substantial production.
It was a nice outing, but Oliver is a player that should probably stay on waivers heading into Week 12.
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