While we are all thankful for YOU for being part of the Family, we aren’t thankful for injuries in fantasy football and Week 12 brought us a few. On Thanksgiving alone, D’Andre Swift injured his shoulder early in the Lions game and then Darren Waller suffered a lower-body injury and will have to miss time. Then on Sunday, the hurting continued after Dalvin Cook suffered multiple injuries to his shoulder and we don’t know when we’ll see him take the field again. Christian McCaffrey rolled his ankle and the Panthers are keeping him out for the rest of the season. Deebo Samuel hurt his groin and Dan Arnold will miss the next four to six weeks with a sprained MCL. Happy Thanksgiving weekend right? 

Week 12 did have its bright spots as Leonard Fournette scored four touchdowns while both Cordarrelle Patterson and Elijah Mitchell returned from injury and each rushed for over 100 yards. Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford were able to bounce back in Week 12 throwing for over 300 yards and multiple touchdowns. Aaron Rodgers played successfully through the pain of his injured toe and threw two touchdown passes and then even ran one in. Let’s look at some trendy players and dive into our week 13 Fantasy Football Stock Watch Report.
 

STOCK UP:

Alexander Mattison: How about a little low-hanging fruit? Those that held on to Mattison whether you handcuffed him with Dalvin Cook or not are about to be rewarded in volume. Cook has already missed time this year and we don’t know when we’ll see him back on the field again this year. His injury hasn’t been marked as season-ending, but Mattison should have at least a few games with a high production ceiling. He hasn’t been running the ball as effectively as he has his previous two years, but we also have to remember that he’s had a lot of games in which he’s been given four carries or fewer with Cook on the field. Up next for the Vikings are the Lions and Mattison destroyed them for 113 yards on the ground and he caught seven passes. He’s been given 10 or more carries three times this year including the Lions game and he was given 26 carries against the Seahawks and rushed for 112 yards and caught six passes. The Steelers are a pretty good matchup for Mattison as well before the schedule gets a bit tougher for him. We’ve seen him fill in for Cook before and succeed. This isn’t a situation like the Titans in which we think Adrian Peterson (now off the team) has the job with D’Onta Foreman and Dontrell Hilliard coming out of nowhere to produce. Mattison is the established backup and it’ll remain that way until Cook comes back or he gets hurt. He has two strong matchups coming up and heavy volume ahead.
 

Jaylen Waddle: Waddle has been a target monster; he and Tua Tagovailoa have a strong connection. He’s received at least nine targets in four of his last five games. He accounts for 22.6 percent of the Dolphins targets. He hasn’t received fewer than six targets since week four. Waddle has caught 77 passes ranking him fifth among Wide Receivers. Only six other wide receivers have been targeted more than Waddle. DeVante Parker and Will Fuller are still hurt giving Waddle a huge production ceiling each week. The Dolphins schedule is favorable down the stretch including two games in the NY/NJ area facing the Giants and then the Jets after the Dolphins week 14 bye. Waddle caught eight passes for 65 yards against the Jets in Week 11. Waddle also ranks in the top-15 in receiving yards with 759. It also helps that Tagovailoa is completing over 70 percent of his passes this year.
 

Pat Freiermuth: Has there been a hotter tight end over the last four weeks than Freiermuth? He’s scored nearly 70 fantasy points in PPR leagues during that stretch. He’s caught five touchdown passes in the last five weeks. While Ben Roethlisberger looks like he’s ready to retire, Freiermuth has received 15 red-zone targets this season, which equates to 25 percent of the Steelers red-zone targets thus making him ultra-appealing in a very unappealing Steelers passing attack. Tyler Higbee is the only tight end to get targeted in the red-zone more than Freiermuth. Freiermuth has caught 40 passes this year tying him for ninth-most among tight ends. Only Hunter Henry and Dawson Knox have caught more touchdown passes than Freiermuth. The Ravens are one of the weakest teams at defending tight ends giving Freiermuth a strong matchup. The one thing we have to watch out for is whether or not Freiermuth will have to enter the league’s concussion protocol. If he does, he can still clear protocol prior to Sunday’s game, but it’s something we have to keep an eye on.

 

STOCK DOWN:

Dallas Goedert: Remember how we thought it was going to be roses for Goedert once Zach Ertz got traded? Well, it certainly hasn’t been in recent matchups. He hasn’t had many highly productive games this year. Goedert hasn’t caught a touchdown pass since week four. He’s received more than three targets once in his last three games. It’s not all his fault as his quarterback Jalen Hurts is completing just 60 percent of his passes. He’s completed less than 55 percent of his passes in both of his last two outings. Up next for the Eagles is a game against the Jets and the key to beating them is to run the ball continuously against them making it not a great game script for Goedert. Hurts threw the ball 31 times versus the Giants in Week 12 and that was the first time he hit the 30-pass mark in five weeks. Goedert has caught more than three passes four times this year. His best game this year was a game in which he caught five passes for 56 yards and scored one of the two touchdowns he’s caught this year.

Marvin Jones: Jones is another receiver who hasn’t caught a touchdown pass in a while as it’s been since week six that he’s hit the end-zone. After catching five or more passes in four of his first six games of the season, Jones has caught five passes one time since the Jaguars week seven bye. He hasn’t produced double figures in PPR leagues since week six. DJ Chark got hurt early in the season and then Jamal Agnew was recently sidelined. Now, Dan Arnold is out for the next month and change and while by default you would think that targets would be force fed to Jones. In Week 12, we saw Laquon Treadwell get more love than him and according to reports, Treadwell is going to be more involved in the Jaguars passing game bringing fresh competition for Jones. It also doesn’t help that Trevor Lawrence is completing just 58 percent of his passes. The Rams are up next for Jacksonville and they’ve only surrendered seven touchdowns to wide receivers this season.

Kenny Golladay: I don’t care that he was targeted seven times against the Eagles, Golladay hasn’t been productive since returning from injury and even Sterling Shepard being out of action hasn’t helped Golladay’s cause. If Golladay can’t produce with other teammates out of action, he certainly won’t be able to hold a solid target-share when Shepard and Kadarius Toney are back from injury. Evan Engram even has a bigger target-share than Golladay and Darius Slayton is right behind him. Golladay received 10.5 percent of the Giants targets. Saquon Barkley being healthy also impacts Golladay negatively because he takes some of the targets away from the receivers. He hasn’t caught a single touchdown pass and Golladay has caught more than four passes just once in the eight games he’s been active for. Daniel Jones has not thrown more than one touchdown pass in four of his last five games. The Dolphins have won their last four games and part of the reason is their improved defense.