10 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets Heading Into Week 12

Jameis Winston, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Yahoo Ownership: 9%

In keeping with their season-long trend of quarterback indecision, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers benched Ryan Fitzpatrick during Week 11's loss to the Giants. This is the third time this season that the team has made a mid-game quarterback switch, and while you'd expect a team like that to be one to avoid in fantasy, the Bucs' situation has been the opposite.

If we combine the passers' stats into one "Tampa QB" super-player, they have failed to finish as a top-six fantasy passer only twice in 10 games.

Jameis Winston has only made two complete starts this year, but he finished as fantasy football's QB1 and QB6 in those weeks. He also did the bulk of the work in Week 11's combined QB4 (pending Monday Night Football) finish.

The Tampa offense may not be a friendly spot for quarterbacks in real football, but for our purposes it's one of the best.

They also draw a terrific matchup in Week 12 against the San Francisco 49ers, who came into Week 11 ranked 22nd in Adjusted Defensive Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per play and allowing top-10 fantasy production to opposing passers.

Of course, this is all contingent on Winston starting. That has been the trend so far -- getting benched mid-game has meant a new starter for Tampa in the next week each time -- but it's obviously something you will need confirmed before you plug Winston in as a starter. If you need a quarterback to start for Week 12, though, it's worth taking that slight gamble and putting in a claim on Winston.

Of course, if Fitzpatrick starts, he's a terrific fantasy option. That seems unlikely enough that you shouldn't bother adding him this early in the week (if he's available, which is only the case in about one-third of leagues), but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on. If he gets dropped en masse with people assuming Winston starts and then is named the Week 12 starter, you'd want to jump on the opportunity to grab him.