Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

It’s Thanksgiving Week!

What that means is that there are NO more bye weeks and we get extra football earlier in the week. You know, just as players are really starting to hit home on their protest against Thursday Football. Ah well, sooner football  - YAY!

Week 12 – HERE WE GO!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN CAPS)

16 – PHILADELPHIA over Chicago – The Bears have been able to hold their own the last few weeks. Hard to see that happening this week though.

15 – NEW ENGLAND over Miami – The fact that the Patriots’ defense is really starting to come around is just a scary thought for the rest of the league.

14 – PITTSBURGH over Green Bay – I’m pretty sure that NBC thought they would be getting a better matchup when they scheduled this in the off-season.

13 – CINCINNATI over Cleveland – Congrats, state of Ohio…these are your football teams.

12 – WASHINGTON over New York Giants – On Thursday, we’ll all have our big turkey dinner which will make us pretty sleepy – we should get a great night’s rest! If that isn’t enough, don’t worry, the Giants will be on in primetime.

11 – KANSAS CITY over Buffalo – A month ago people were calling Alex Smith the MVP – now they’re calling for Patrick Mahomes to take the helm in KC? I’m not buying it.

10 – Seattle over SAN FRANCISCO – Remember when this was the hottest rivalry in the league?

9 – BALTIMORE over Houston – After a shutout win in Green Bay, the Ravens continue their “lucky to be playing teams who have lost their quarterback” stretch of the schedule.

8 – Tennessee over INDIANAPOLIS – Until Andrew Luck gets back, its hard to see the Colts winning many games.

7 – ATLANTA over Tampa Bay – Ryan Fitzpatrick has been more than serviceable since replacing Jameis Winston – but the Falcons are starting to look like last year’s team…blowing leads and everything.

6 – Minnesota over DETROIT – Thanksgiving kicks off with a matchup that could go a long way in determining the NFC North – especially when the Vikings pick up the huge road win.

5 – OAKLAND over Denver – It seems like Denver hasn’t won a game since Elway was under center and they will be starting a new quarterback…again. It’s still not naïve of me to pick the Raiders, right?

4 – DALLAS over Los Angeles Chargers – Unfortunately for the Chargers, you can’t play a team that makes horrible quarterback decisions every week.

3 – New Orleans over LOS ANGELES RAMS – This could be an NFC Championship Game preview … … … I really don’t know how to follow that up.

2 – Jacksonville over ARIZONA – The Jags are clearly the better team, but playing in Arizona has me a little skeptical.

1 – NEW YORK JETS over Carolina – My gut says the Panthers will win this one, but both Carolina and the Jets have done a great job of doing what I thought they wouldn’t this season.

It was definitely one of the most entertaining Monday Night Football games that I've seen in a while, with the Russell Wilson and the Seahawks struggling to keep up offensively with the Falcons throughout the game, and almost coming through at the very end with a Blair Walsh field goal to send it to overtime. Looks like Seattle's defensive woes are not going to bode well going into the rest of the season's match-ups - after what should not be a difficult win against the 49ers this week they have some tough games ahead against the Eagles, Jaguars, Rams, and Cowboys (with Zeke returning). Anyway, onto the rankings for Week 12 and to pick a few players out of the bunch that I think will outperform expectations: Alex Smith, Samaje Perine, Joe Mixon, Devin Funchess, Sammy Watkins, Corey Davis, and C.J. Fiedorowicz. Good luck!

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It's the end of another exciting week of football which means it's time to put your claims in for available free agents in your fantasy league to strengthen your team. I'll be going over who I think are the top five picks for you to target this week so don't miss out on them. Good luck!

Note: %owned is based on Yahoo! leagues at the time of publication.

5) Cincinnati Bengals (CIN) - 41% owned - A great streaming option for week 12 as the Bengals play against the Browns who give up the second most fantasy points to opposing defenses.

4) Charles Clay (BUF) - 33% owned - Clay is fully healthy in an offense starving for pass catchers. He should squeeze into the TE1 conversation each week so he is a great grab if you are desperate at the position; unless Buffalo decides to bench Tyrod Taylor again...

3) Kenny Stills (MIA) - 38% owned - Stills has been putting up huge points in recent weeks and should be owned more than he is. The past 6 weeks he has caught 30 of 43 targets for 474 yards and 4 TDs. He draws a great matchup against New England this week as they will most likely be scheming against Landry.

2) Devontae Booker (DEN) - 8% owned -  Denver looks to be shaking things up on offense to find a spark. Booker looked to be in an almost even timeshare with C.J. Anderson last week while outperforming him. Look for this timeshare to continue in the short term with a chance of Booker taking over if he plays well.

1) Samaje Perine (WAS) - 35% owned - Washington has now lost both Rob Kelley and Chris Thompson for the year which means Perine should be a volume RB2 the rest of the season. Look for him to build upon his week 11 performance where he rushed 23 times for 117 yards and a score.