Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  As we enter Week 13 we encounter every fantasy player’s favorite pastime of piling food onto a plate and ignoring the majority of your family members. You’re far too busy cursing out the players on your fantasy team who are letting you down and praising the gods for those who find the end zone.  This week’s Stock Watch will focus on the risers and fallers following Week 12, including a running back who made his return to his former team in impressive fashion and a QB who will likely be a major let down on Turkey Day.

Rising

, RB NE- Blount returned to New England last week after being cut by the Steelers for disciplinary reasons and he seemingly picked up right where he left off for the Patriots last season, powering through Detroit’s  top-ranked run defense for 6.5 yards per carry and two scores.  Obviously, this performance was very much unexpected seeing that in the previous week, Jonas Gray gashed the Colts for 201 yards and four touchdowns. But Gray ended up getting benched in Week 12 due to a “faulty” alarm clock which caused him to be late for Friday’s practice.  As I write this I know very well and am almost expecting Brandon Bolden to have a big game because, well, the Patriots like to keep us fantasy players on our toes.  The Patriots travel to Green Bay this weekend in what everybody figures to be a high scoring, gun slinging affair between two of the league’s top QBs. So obviously that can only mean that Patriots coach Bill Belichick will utilize the power running game to control the clock against a defense that has struggled against the run to the point that they had to move their best pass-rusher and defensive player, Clay Matthews, to middle linebacker to help the cause.  In my mind there is no doubt that Blount is the better back between him and Jonas Gray. That is based off of track record and Blount’s familiarity with the offense, along with past success in New England which should allow him to maintain a legitimate role in this offense.  At the very least I would expect Blount and Gray to split early down work with Blount getting the call around the goal line which gives him the better upside.

, WR MIA- I have been on the Landry bandwagon for a few weeks now as the rookie out of LSU has seemingly surpassed Brian Hartline, who led the team in yards and catches in each of the past two seasons, on the depth chart.  Since Week 6, Landry has caught a team-high five touchdown passes including three over the past two games.   Similar to his counterpart, Mike Wallace, Landry rarely surpasses 50 yards receiving per game, but his ability to find the end zone and the recent increase in the number of targets he sees bode well for him moving forward.  The Dolphins will be facing a putrid Jets defense this Sunday, a secondary which Ryan Tannehill should have no problem shredding. Landry should be a huge beneficiary of that production.

Falling

, WR CIN- Well, A.J. Green is officially back and I know he has been back for a few weeks now but he has now posted back to back games with over 120 yards receiving and saw a ridiculous 16 targets come his way in Week 12.  The downside to A.J. Green being A.J. Green is the decline of Mohamed Sanu who, since Green’s return, has struggled to maintain the No.1 WR production he had once provided.  Sure, you can say “Hey Jon, Sanu scored a touchdown last week,” and while I can’t argue with the facts I can also point out that he saw less than half the targets Green had and has yet to top 50 yards receiving in any contest since Green’s return.  Of course Sanu is still going to be involved in the offense as the Bengals literally have no one else who can challenge him for No.2 targets, but a healthy Giovani Bernard adds another dimension to the Bengals offense that already utilizes the power-run game in Jeremy Hill very effectively.  The Bengals do find themselves with a great match-up on Sunday against the Buccaneers so it is very likely that Sanu puts together a fine performance but it wouldn’t surprise me if his five catches for 48 yards and score performance of last week becomes closer to his ceiling than his floor for the remainder of the year.

, QB SF- If there was ever a stretch of games on the 49ers schedule where you could have expected big games from Kaepernick it would have been over the past three weeks as he faced the Saints, Giants and Redskins, all of whom do not boast particularly strong defensive backs.   Unfortunately for Kaepernick owners though, he was a huge letdown as he averaged just 12.6 fantasy points in standard leagues.  The 49ers now enter the toughest stretch of their season as they face the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks twice in the next three games.  Seattle has allowed the second fewest fantasy points to opposing QBs this season and owned Kaepernick last season holding him to 302 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions in their two regular season meetings, not to mention picking him off two more times in the NFC Championship game.  Kaepernick ranks outside the top 10 of fantasy quarterbacks and he should continue to fall which will make him a non-factor as fantasy playoffs begin.