Dynasty Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Week 12

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In case you are reading this, there is one bit of information to know before you start reading names. Just like last year’s series, we will be utilizing player rostership percentages, courtesy of real dynasty rosters from 1,700 MFL leagues. While this may not be entirely accurate for every individual league, it is very reflective of how managers view who is worthy or not of a roster spot. Now that that’s covered, let’s dive into the waiver wire after Week 11!

Players to double-check availability and immediately add:

• Dorian Thompson-Robinson, QB CLE
• Israel Abanikanda, RB NYJ
• Jeff Wilson, RB MIA
• Tutu Atwell, WR LAR
• Isaiah Likely, TE BAL
• Jonnu Smith, TE ATL
• Cade Otton, TE TB
• Luke Schoonmaker, TE DAL

Jake Browning, QB CIN

Let’s get the Thursday night stuff out of the way; Joe Burrow is out for the season with a torn ligament in his throwing hand and Browning is the backup for Cincinnati. Now, there’s good news and bad news here with picking up Browning. The good news: he is throwing to Ja’Marr Chase, maybe Tee Higgins at some point, Joe Mixon out of the backfield, the situation around him is solid and much better than other backups who have taken over this year. The bad news… Jake Browning is not good.

But that may not matter entirely because like I said, his situation is good with the talent around him, and we’ve seen bad backup quarterbacks do decently well against bad defenses. The Bengals do have games still against Jacksonville and Minnesota, who are both currently bottom-12 defenses against quarterbacks, and that Jacksonville game specifically comes in a really rough bye week for QBs like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Justin Fields, and Josh Dobbs, so you may be even more reliant on a spot-starter that week, especially if you’ve been hit by injuries this year.

Even if you’re not competing, Browning is a good add to then try to flip to a desperate team, maybe for a couple of thirds or even just a fourth is free draft capital off the waiver wire, so Browning should be added in every superflex league he’s available in.

Tommy DeVito, QB NYG

Next is one of the aforementioned bad backup quarterbacks against bad defenses: DeVito had a GAME against the Commanders – 250 yards and three touchdowns, he’ll finish as a QB1 on the week. But again, we have good news and bad news. The good news is DeVito is not entirely lost for fantasy and a completely unstartable player as a QB2 in superflex. The bad news is this came against Washington, who coming into the week was the only defense to allow opposing QBs to accumulate over 3,000 total yards and throw for over 20 touchdowns on them, and a large majority of that came BEFORE they traded away Montez Sweat and Chase Young. So I don’t think this means DeVito is now in consideration as a QB2 moving forward.

But DeVito does have one more juicy matchup against a bad pass defense in week 16 against the Eagles. Now, I don’t know what situation you would be in to start DeVito in week 16, but hey, it’s worth mentioning.

Jacoby Brissett, QB WAS

The last quarterback I want to highlight is Brissett as Sam Howell’s backup. Howell once again looked rough today after a string of pretty clean games, but three interceptions on the day and he also flirted with the injury tent mid-game. Brissett is actually one of the best backups in the league for fantasy, in my opinion, so if he’s still available in your league today, I would be scooping him up just as an insurance option, especially if you’ve been riding the Howell wave to a playoff spot.

Royce Freeman, RB LAR

At running back now, Freeman actually turned in a very nice day against Seattle and practically cemented himself as the Rams RB1 without Kyren Williams. He rushed for 73 yards on 17 carries and added another 28 yards on four receptions. Darrell Henderson stole a goal-line touchdown, but Freeman out-touched Henderson 21 to six in a competitive game script all game.

The only unfortunate part about adding Freeman now is that Williams is expected to be back this upcoming week 12, meaning Freeman will probably be relegated back to an RB2 role with minimal touches behind Williams. But, I think Freeman has established himself as a solid handcuff option for the playoffs, in case Williams gets re-injured and misses more time.

Handcuff Running Backs

This leads me directly to this PSA: now that we’re on the cusp of fantasy playoff season, it’s important to be rostering as many handcuff running backs as you can in case players get hurt. And this goes to all rosters, rebuilding and competing, because if you’re in a dynasty league that doesn’t have a trade deadline, as a rebuilder you can take advantage of a desperate playoff team by selling them a handcuff that suddenly becomes a starter late in the season. And contenders, if you don’t want to have to pay for that handcuff later or you’re in a league that does have a deadline, then you need to be prepared by rostering that handcuff now. So look through your waiver wire and find as many RB2s as you can, and pick those guys up as stashes for the rest of the year.

Jalen Guyton, WR LAC, Derius Davis, WR LAC, and Donald Parham, TE LAC

And finally, I wanted to highlight a trio of Chargers pass-catchers as this receiving corps is pretty empty behind Keenan Allen. I already talked about Guyton last week as a great add as the potential WR2 in this offense with the upside to be the WR1 if Allen’s shoulder injury takes a turn for the worst. Unfortunately, he was inactive this week with a groin injury from practice, but if he returns this week or next, he could be a valuable piece to a contender’s roster as a high-upside flex option in this offense.

The next player is Parham, who was actually second on the team in targets behind Allen this week, hauling in four receptions for 37 yards. Parham’s role was increased because of Gerald Everett being inactive, but should he remain inactive moving forward, Parham has a chance to replace Everett’s role directly, plus act as a huge body in the red zone, which we’ve already seen at times this season.

I will also give a shoutout to Derius Davis as a super deep stash. He hasn’t gotten much opportunity on offense this year, but he’s been really good on special teams for the Chargers, including being named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week a couple of weeks ago. Davis is a blazing-fast player who has been electric on kick and punt returns this season and he could see more usage on offense if LA wants to open up the field a bit more, especially if Guyton misses significant time. I also don’t want to pass up the opportunity to say that he’s the best rookie wide receiver out of TCU on their team currently.