Fantasy Football Start/Sit for Week 12: Streaming Options & More

Fantasy football Start/Sit tips and top streamers for Week 12. Get matchup-based advice, lineup picks and waiver adds to gain an edge this week.

Updated on November 20, 2025 4:37PM EST

Fantasy Football Start/Sit for Week 12: Streaming Options & More

By:

Jerry Donabedian

Updated on November 20, 2025 4:37PM EST

Exploiting the Matchups

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Here's a quick list of some of my favorite RotoWire resources for analyzing matchups:

Box Score Breakdown (snaps/routes, advanced stats, etc. from the previous week)

NFL defense vs. position stats

NFL advanced stats

NFL injury report

NFL depth charts

NFL player news

QUICK LINKS

Sync a League

Your path to victory starts here

Rankings

See the top players in your league

NFL Lineups

See the weekly starting lineups

Unless otherwise noted, references to 'fantasy points' are based on PPR scoring with 25/10 yards per point and 4/6 points for TDs. Start % comes from Yahoo, as of Wednesday night / Thursday morning.

Start/Upgrade 👍

Quarterbacks 👍

Jared Goff (vs. NYG) — 53% started

Start Over — Baker Mayfield (at LAR), Dak Prescott (vs. PHI), Brock Purdy (vs. CAR)

Goff alternates excellent matchups and terrible ones throughout November and December, facing Washington (W10), Philadelphia (W11), the Giants (W12), Green Bay (W13), Dallas (W14) and the Rams (W15). This week is one of the good ones, facing an injury-riddled Giants defense that's allowing the third-most fantasy points to QB (21.4 per game). Goff should finish the fantasy season strong in general, as even his tougher matchups (GB, at LAR, PIT, at MIN) feature the benefit of a dome or L.A. weather. The Lions play at Chicago in Week 18, but that one doesn't matter for most fantasy leagues.

Other Good Matchups: Lamar Jackson (vs. NYJ), Jalen Hurts (at DAL), Drake Maye (at CIN), Jared Goff (vs. NYG)

Running Backs 👍

Alvin Kamara (vs. ATL) — 58% started

Start Over — Woody Marks (vs. BUF), Aaron Jones (at GB)

Kamara still hasn't scored a touchdown since Week 1, but he had a season-high 22 carries in the final game before a Week 11 bye, finishing with 115 total yards on 25 touches in the 17-7 win at Carolina. The Saints now have a rare chance to play as favorites, with a massive health advantage over the division-rival Falcons. While the Saints were on bye, the Falcons were busy losing QB Michael Penix and WR Drake London to knee injuries. Atlanta had three additional starters absent from practice to start the week, including DE Zach Harrison (knee) and S Xavier Watts (illness).

Kenneth Gainwell (at CHI) — 23% started

Start Over (if Warren plays) — Tyrone Tracy (at DET), Zach Charbonnet (at TEN)

Jaylen Warren (ankle) may end up playing this week, but he won't necessarily have the same dominant role we saw in Weeks 7-10, a four-game stretch in which Gainwell averaged just 3.7 rush attempts and got nearly all of his playing time in passing situations. In Week 11, Gainwell took on a much larger role even before Warren left with an ankle injury in the third quarter, handling 59% of snaps, six carries and four targets before his teammate's early exit (Warren had 10 carries and two targets at the time).

In other words, Gainwell should get at least a handful of carries and 3-4 targets even if Warren suits up this week. All the better that those touches will come against a Chicago defense that opened Week 12 with all three starting linebackers absent from practice due to injuries. After dealing with a glut of cornerback injuries for most of the season, Chicago is finally getting healthier there, only to potentially have similar problems in the front seven.

Other Good Matchups: TreVeyon Henderson (at CIN), Kenneth Walker & Zach Charbonnet (at TEN), David Montgomery (vs. NYG)

Wide Receivers 👍

Stefon Diggs (at CIN) — 82% started

Start Over — A.J. Brown & DeVonta Smith (at DAL), Zay Flowers (vs. NYJ), Emeka Egbuka (at LAR)

The past two games saw Diggs handle his largest snap and route shares of the season while also having his highest rate of slot snaps (58.3% and 67.4%). It worked out well from a production standpoint, with Diggs putting up 14-151-1 on 19 targets to help the Patriots continue their winning streak. His increased playing time in Weeks 10-11 may have partially been a product of Kayshon Boutte's hamstring injury, but that doesn't mean it won't stick now that Boutte is back in the lineup, with Diggs having proven that he can thrive with a full-time workload.

Even if he does drop back to around 65-70 percent route share after peaking at 88 percent last week, Diggs should get plenty of targets this Sunday against one of the worst defenses in the league. No defense has allowed more yardage (1,637) or TDs (15) on passes less than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage, which is where Diggs has seen two-thirds of his targets this year. Consider it a bonus that DE Trey Hendrickson (hip) and CB Cam Taylor-Britt (foot) aren't expected to play this week.

WR Josh Downs (at KC) — 12% started

Start Over — Cooper Kupp (at TEN), Jerry Jeudy (at LV), Tre Tucker (vs. CLE)

Downs isn't someone I've thought about much this year, even though he's playing well for the surprise team of the season. A lack of playing time in heavy packages costs him a handful of routes per game, sometimes more, and his target rate (20.8 percent) has dropped by three percentage points relative to last year. All in all, he's averaging just 5.3 targets per game and 8.8 yards per catch as the slot specialist in an offense where the big-play weapons are thriving.

This week, we may see something different, as Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a strong record of shutting down top running games (even if it occasionally costs him through the air, like in last year's Super Bowl). The Colts may well end up throwing the ball 30-plus times, be it due to game script or crowded boxes. This is the type of game where Downs' volume could spike, especially now that the Chiefs are mostly using 2024 UDFA Christian Roland-Wallace as their slot corner.

Other Good Matchups: Amon-Ra St. Brown & Jameson Williams (vs. NYG); A.J. Brown & DeVonta Smith (at DAL), Zay Flowers & DeAndre Hopkins (vs. NYJ); Stefon Diggs, Kayshon Boutte & Mack Hollins (at CIN)

Tight Ends 👍

Mark Andrews (vs. NYJ) — 65% started

Start Over — Jake Ferguson (vs. PHI), Kyle Pitts (at NO), T.J. Hockenson (at GB)

Andrews is the most TD-dependent player with mainstream fantasy value, lingering in the low-end TE1 range despite career-low marks for yards per game (27.6) and yards per catch (8.6). Four of his six touchdowns came in the past three games, which normally would be a red flag for steep regression. In this case, however, Andrews has a long track record of extremely high TD rates, and three of his next four games are against teams (NYJ, CIN, CIN) that make it easy to score touchdowns in general. The Ravens have an implied total of 29 points for Week 12, and they could reach 30-plus for the matchups with Cincinnati. In other words, Andrews should score a more TDs over the next month.

Other Good Matchups: Trey McBride (vs. JAX), Hunter Henry (at CIN), Dallas Goedert (at DAL), Colston Loveland (vs. PIT)

Odd that Hunter Henry has 7 straight games with single-digit PPR points in a full-time role, in an offense that's playing so well. But think the streak ends at Cincinnati this week.
— Jerry Donabedian (@FootballMammal) November 20, 2025

Sit/Downgrade 👎

Quarterbacks 👎

Baker Mayfield (at LAR) — 57% started

Start Instead — Dak Prescott (vs. PHI), Brock Purdy (vs. CAR), Daniel Jones (at KC)

Bucky Irving (foot/shoulder) and Chris Godwin (fibula) may or may not play this week. Either way, Mayfield is in a tough spot, traveling cross-country for a primetime matchup with one of the best defenses/teams in the NFL. It doesn't help that an illness swept through Tampa Bay's locker room and impacted practice participation for four different starters on offense, including Mayfield, who is best viewed as a back-end QB1 or high-end QB1 this week (rather than his usual spot solidly in QB 1 range).

Other Tough Matchups: Josh Allen (at HOU), Dak Prescott (vs. PHI), J.J. McCarthy (at GB), Geno Smith (vs. CLE), Cam Ward (vs. SEA)

Running Backs 👎

Tyrone Tracy (at DET) — 44% started

Start Instead — Zach Charbonnet (at TEN), Woody Marks (vs. BUF), Aaron Jones (at GB)

Last week, Tracy had season highs for rushing yards (88) and receiving yards (51) against a strong Green Bay defense. His 23 touches were also a season high, but Devin Singletary took 17 of his own, including a pair of short touchdowns. There will likely be far less work to go around in the upcoming road matchup with a Lions defense that's allowing a league-low 16.6 PPR points per game to RBs. Without goal-line carries or consistent receiving production, Tracy still can't be trusted in difficult matchups even after his solid showing last week.

Other Tough Matchups: Jonathan Taylor (at KC), James Cook (at HOU), Bucky Irving or Sean Tucker (at LAR), Isiah Pacheco & Kareem Hunt (vs. IND), Tony Pollard (vs. SEA), Devin Singletary (at DET), Jordan Mason (at GB), Kyle Monangai (vs. PIT)

Wide Receivers 👎

Jordan Addison (at GB) — 43% started

Start Instead — Khalil Shakir (at HOU), Darnell Mooney (at NO), Ricky Pearsall (vs. CAR)

Addison is someone I've drafted pretty steadily since he came into the league, and he's someone I'm looking to bench this week after a fourth straight game below 50 yards. Touchdowns have kept his fantasy scoring looking halfway decent, but there's no way he can keep it up in an offense that's scoring so few TDs in general. Addison is a shaky option even for favorable matchups, much less at Green Bay, until QB J.J. McCarthy shows serious improvement with his timing and downfield accuracy.

Tre Tucker (vs. CLE) — 31% started

Start Instead — Alec Pierce (at KC), Jakobi Meyers (at ARZ), Christian Watson (vs. MIN)

The only real appeal with Tucker at this point is that he never comes off the field for a team that's quick to abandon its ineffective rushing game. He thus has upside to run 40-plus routes, at which point even a subpar target rate tends to translate to a decent number of raw targets. The problem this week is two-fold, with Cleveland sporting a terrible offense and tough defense. The Raiders may be in position to run the ball even if it isn't working well, as they're favored by 3.5 points over one of the few teams with an offense worse than their own. It's certainly possible Shedeur Sanders proves no worse than Dillon Gabriel, but last week's showing against Baltimore suggets that's about the ceiling for what Sanders might provide right now.

Other Tough Matchups: Nico Collins & Jayden Higgins (vs. BUF); CeeDee Lamb & George Pickens (vs. PHI); Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin (leg) / Tez Johnson (at LAR); Khalil Shakir (at HOU)

Tight Ends 👎

Jake Ferguson (vs. PHI) — 61% started

Start Instead — Dallas Goedert (at DAL), Hunter Henry (at CIN), Kyle Pitts (at NO)

Ferguson scored a touchdown Monday night at Las Vegas, but he's otherwise fallen off hard since CeeDee Lamb returned from a high-ankle sprain, accounting for just 15 percent of Dallas targets over the past four games. Ferguson has three TDs in that time, but with just 23.8 yards and 5.0 targets per game. He'll now have to deal with an Eagles defense that's shut down opposing tight ends to the tune of 4.63 YPT (1st) and a 58.7 percent catch rate (1st), yielding a mere 7.2 PPR points (2nd) per game. Ferguson scored 7.3 points back in Week 1 when these teams squared off, catching five of six targets for a mere 23 yards.