Getting down to crunch-time for some of you regarding the playoffs. For those who have a spot locked down, building your bench for the playoffs is vital. Not only do you want to stock your roster with players to use and handcuffs to protect, but you may also, if you have the space, want to block the opposition from stocking up themselves. Here’s what the current fantasy stock ticker is reading…

Stock Rising

Lamar Jackson , QB BAL – Following Sunday’s win over the Bengals, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said it might be tough for Joe Flacco to suit up for Week 12 against the Raiders which immediately gives another boost to the fantasy value of Jackson. He didn’t exactly look good throwing the ball, but his ability to run for 117 yards has to keep him in your sights, especially when defensive players are so afraid to hit a QB now for fear of penalties. Despite their recent win over a hapless Cardinals team, the Raiders should be easy-pickins for Jackson and the Ravens.

Colt McCoy , QB WAS – We’re all still pretty grossed out by the sight of Alex Smith ’s injury, but the show must go on and the playoff life of the Redskins now sits in the hands of the 32-year old journeyman back-up. Though the Skins lost to the Texans on Sunday, McCoy actually looked pretty good out there, completing 6-of-12 passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. He also showed some nice mobility, rushing five times for 35 yards. It’s going to be a tough road ddown the stretch with three-straight divisional games and then a match-up with a seemingly rejuvenated Jaguars defense, but if you just lost your second quarterback in a 2-QB league, he’s ready to go to work for you.

Gus Edwards , RB BAL – The fantasy community was shook this weekend when Alex Collins , even after scoring a touchdown early in the first quarter, was parked on the bench in favor of this undrafted rookie free agent out of Rutgers. The post-game commentary from Harbaugh seemed to indicate this was something he had been mulling over for a few weeks, but no one from the Ravens nor any of their beat writers revealed this nugget of information. Harbaugh said he was impressed by Edwards enough to promote him from the practice squad, was impressed by the kid at practices and then was further impressed by Edwards’ play on special teams. He felt the rookie deserved some work and when he saw him on the field, he just carried the momentum through and earned the carries. Tough to argue against 115 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, but again…information that would have been helpful BEFORE THE GAME!!!! With a match-up against the Raiders coming, you should expect Edwards to keep on getting the opportunities.

Peyton Barber , RB TB – He gets a look here after posting 106 yards and a score on 18 carries this week, but you need to make sure you are deploying Barber properly and not of the mindset that he is capable of doing this week in and week out. This was a great game against a soft run defense and nothing more. If you look at Barber’s game log, you’ll see two other games in which he rushed for at least 80 yards. Those games were against Atlanta and Cincinnati, two of the worst run defenses in the NFL. Against better competition, Barber doesn’t fare as well, as evidenced by his 38.7 yards per game in his other seven games this season. The change at QB for the Bucs shouldn’t have much of an effect and Barber does get a soft run defense in San Francisco coming up next, but don’t fool yourself into thinking he’s going to be your fantasy playoff savior.

Tre'Quan Smith, WR NO – You hear coaches and analysts say it all the time: a game like Smith had Sunday can vault a rookie wide receiver into the elite range. We already knew this kid had great hands and speed. We all knew the opportunity to shine would present itself with the injuries to Ted Ginn and Cameron Meredith . And now, after a 13-target game, we now also know he has the trust and faith of his quarterback. People can complain all they want about Smith being inconsistent because he saw zero targets the week before, but with the injuries at hand and a need to find a true No. 3 to work out of the slot, Smith wasn’t used in a game everyone knew the Saints were going to win. In this week’s game, however, Drew Brees leaned heavily on Smith. With Michael Thomas seeing heavy coverage from the Eagles, Brees went to Smith for crucial third downs, passes in traffic across the middle and inside the end zone. Smith did not disappoint and now moving forward, Brees knows he can count on the rookie wideout for more than just a deep pass down the sidelines. They found their No. 3 in Austin Carr who gets a bit of a nod here as well, but this is just the tip of the iceberg for Smith.

D.J. Moore , WR CAR – What an outstanding performance this week! Though they lost the game, the rookie wideout was able to show off his mad skills with 10 catches for 157 yards and a touchdown against the Lions. The stage was already set for him when word broke that Lions cornerback Darius Slay would play and cover Devin Funchess , so if you missed that bit of news, which was discussed on the SiriusXM show Friday and was in the DFS Playbook on Saturday, then you missed a golden opportunity for points. Looking ahead, you can see the Panthers have a favorable schedule with regard to the opposition’s secondary, so with Cam Newton targeting him more, you can bet we’ll see a few more good games out of the rookie wideout.

Josh Reynolds , WR LAR – He’s getting most, if not all, of the snaps Cooper Kupp was once getting and after watching him in the Monday night craziness, it’s is also obvious that he is going to continue garnering a heavy dose of red zone looks as well. He’s on a bye this week but gets to come back and face a defensively-challenged Lions team in Week 13. A speed bump in Chicago after that in Week 14, but then it’s those hapless Eagles and their makeshift secondary followed by a Week 16 match-up against Arizona who routinely struggles against the opposing WR3.

Chris Conley , WR KC – Two touchdowns on the greatest Monday Night Football game ever means Conley will finally get noticed by the masses. But while his stock may appear to be rising, keep in mind that the extra looks coming his way were mostly due to Sammy Watkins being severely limited and used as a decoy for coverage. Conley has six targets over his last five games and got eight in this one. It’s highly doubtful he sees anything more than two or three targets per game moving forward but we don’t want to short-change the big guy.

Gerald Everett , TE LAR – Take everything you’ve just read about Josh Reynolds and now apply it here are well for Everett. He’s going to get a share of Kupp’s old red zone targets and he is going to be deployed in a number of different ways, both as a tight end and as a receiver. If you are struggling at the position and you’re looking for a TE on a high-octane offense with crazy-good touchdown upside, then Everett deserves a look after the bye week.

Cameron Brate , TE TB – With news breaking that O.J. Howard is landing on injured reserve with a foot and ankle injury, Brate will probably be the most-added TE from waivers this week. Hell, he’s likely to be the most-added player overall, not just at his position. The bottom line is that, regardless of who is taking snaps under center, without Howard, Brate’s role is going to increase and intensify. Both Jameis Winston and Fitzpatrick lean heavily on the tight end position, so his number is going to be called plenty and given the remaining schedule for the Bucs, this could be a huge money-pick.

Stock Falling

Ryan Fitzpatrick , QB TB – Well, you can’t say you weren’t warned. We told you over and over again that the “magic” had a very finite lifespan. We’ve seen this all too often, so if you were genuinely surprised he was the pulled from Sunday’s game, you need to work on your listening skills. Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter already announced Winston, who relieved Fitzpatrick last week and nearly led an amazing comeback against the Giants, would be the team’s starter in Week 12 against the 49ers. While that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see a third flip-flop, the fact remains that he is not to be trusted in your fantasy lineup. End of story.

Marcus Mariota , QB TEN – Another QB you’re going to be hard-pressed to trust moving forward as Mariota left Sunday’s game with what was originally announced as a recurrence of his elbow issue, but was then changed to a stinger. Either way, there’s numbness in that arm and that makes grabbing and throwing a football very difficult. If truly just a stinger, then he should be fine moving forward, though I wouldn’t want him on my fantasy team. But if there’s a chance that another hit does irreparable damage, you don’t want to be the one left without a chair when the music stops.

Alex Collins , RB BAL – With this newfound John Harbaugh love affair with Gus Edwards , it’s tough not to throw some shade at owning Collins who has been kicked around by his coach all season long. How many times must we be fooled into thinking Collins, not only has a chance, but makes for a good play against a soft run defense? It’s time to move on. There just doesn’t appear to be much respect for him by the coaches and it looks like they will take any other avenue than the one that uses Collins as their RB1. In the words of Jim Bowden, “He gone!”

Kerryon Johnson , RB DET – A knee injury in Week 11 with an automatic “not going to play in Week 12 due to the short week” tells you the Lions have zero intention of doing anything that could threaten the health of their running back of the future. It makes perfect sense as the Lions aren’t going to the playoffs, so with a match-up on Thanksgiving against the Bears, there is no reason to push anyone who may be banged up. This doesn’t appear to be a long-term stock drop, but if anything happens between now and Week 13, you should be prepared for a potential shut-down.

Dion Lewis , RB TEN – How do we trust this guy again? How? This past week was awful and that makes to weeks in a row, Lewis has been a major disappointment. Oh who are we kidding? He’s been a huge disappointment all year. He’s got two touchdowns on the season…just two…and he’s never rushed for 100 yards or had 100 yards in receptions either. What’s worse is that he’s been given ample opportunities – 10 red zone touches in his last three games – and still hasn’t done anything. The upcoming schedule is far from promising and it’s more than reasonable to say it’s finally time to cut bait.  

Demaryius Thomas , WR HOU – Apparently you cannot teach an old dog new tricks as Thomas had been a mainstay in Denver and thrived for years. But father Time has caught up and DT has moved on to a new city where we had hoped he would find the Fountain of Youth. Instead, he’s been barely targeted and we’re continuously hearing how hard it is to integrate a new wide receiver into an offense like this. Maybe that was something they should have thought about before they traded for him. We won’t tell you to drop him outright just yet, but he should have a set seat on your bench until we start seeing a little something.

Golden Tate , WR PHI – Everything that was just said about Demaryius Thomas can be fully applied to Tate and his new job with the Eagles. Forget about how bad the Eagles looked against the Saints – yes I know, it’s a tough image to remove from your memory – just understand he went from being the No. 1 target on the Lions to the No. 4 target on Philly. You’re just not going to see the same value.

Michael Crabtree /John Brown , WR BAL – Until we see Lamar Jackson pass the ball with consistency, there is no reason to invest in any Ravens wideout. Crabtree was falling off the map as is, but you can throw Brown in there as well. Jackson will run the ball heavily, either on his own or with Gus Edwards , and the receivers will suffer from a lack of targets and opportunity. You may want to hold one of them another week and see what Jackson does against the Raiders, but if you simply cannot wait, feel good about shedding the dead weight.

Sterling Shepard , WR NYG – It has been painfully evident over these last two games that Shepard is no longer considered a favorite in Eli Manning ’s stable of receivers. He went from an average of just over seven targets per game to just five targets over his last two. That’s five in total over two games, not an average of five. The match-ups for the Giants have been super soft over these last two games which makes it even more disappointing that he hasn’t produced. With no indication that things will change over the next few weeks, it just might be time to say goodbye.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling , WR GB – Speaking of goodbyes, it’s probably time to say ours to MVS now. After back-to-back disappointments, and no clear sign that things will change, we may need to change things up. He’s not one to trust at the moment, but there is hope on the horizon now that Jimmy Graham is likely out for the season. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t have a lot of targets on that team right now, so maybe, just maybe, things get turned around for this youngster.