After the 11th full slate of regular season action, the NFL and fantasy football are into the back half of the season.
If you had a tough injury in Week 11, or you have a player hitting their bye week at an inopportune time, we’ll scan the waiver wire. For potential pickups, we’ll consider players who are available in at least 50% of ESPN fantasy leagues.
Let’s take a look at some of the potential waiver wire pickups that could help your teams heading into Week 12 of the NFL campaign.
Deshaun Watson, QB, Cleveland Browns (43.1%)
Watson is returning to his first action since Jan, 3. 2021. That’s a long stretch to not play football. There’s likely going to be some rust there, but there’s a chance that he comes back and plays like the quarterback he was before his off-field issues came to light.
Van Jefferson, WR, Los Angeles Rams (14.7%)
The Los Angeles Rams haven’t had nearly the success that they hoped to, coming off of a Super Bowl victory. Now, Allen Robinson will miss the rest of the season, and Cooper Kupp won’t be back until at least the fantasy playoffs.
In the meantime, Jefferson should be Los Angeles’ top target. There’s value in that.
Zonovan Knight, RB, New York Jets (0%)
With Michael Carter going down with an ankle injury this past week, it would’ve been presumed that James Robinson, who New York traded for this season, would step up as the lead back. Robinson only recorded 10 yards on seven rushes.
It was Knight, the undrafted rookie, who stepped up to take on that role, as he totaled 103 yards on 17 touches. If Carter is out again, White could be an interesting one-week flier.
Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots (24.7%)
Mac Jones’ and New England’s offense looked better on Thanksgiving against the Minnesota Vikings, as Henry scored once (twice if you believe Patriots fans). If they want to give Buffalo a run for their money in Week 13, they’ll need to start using Henry like they did last year – as a touchdown-scoring machine.
Cleveland Browns, D/ST (9.3%)
There’s a chance that there may be some more buy-in in Cleveland now that Watson’s back. However, the real reason for their mention on this list is that they’re playing a Texans offense that couldn’t do a lot against Miami’s defense last week. This unit should be able to get after Kyle Allen and force him into some mistakes.
