Fantasy football waiver wire-Week 12 pickups

Thomas Rawls-RB-Seattle Seahawks (37.1%)

The Seahawks are being tight-lipped about Marshawn Lynch’s outlook for the rest of the season, but there are some reports that he may need sports hernia surgery which could sideline him the rest of the season. At the very least, it appears he’ll miss week 12 which vaults Rawls right up to the top of my list of pickups for waiver wire week 12.

Rawls had a breakout performance on Sunday against the 49ers in place of the injured Lynch running for 209 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries while adding 46 yards on three catches with a second touchdown. In many formats, he was the highest scoring player of the week.  Rawls performance didn’t come out of nowhere, though, since this was his third 100+ yard game this season.  He has played very well when given the chance, but he disappears almost entirely when Lynch is healthy and serving as the team’s workhorse back.

The only question mark with Rawls is his playing time, but if he gets starts for Seattle he’s clearly a top ten fantasy back.  The short-term upside makes Rawls my top pickup of the week edging out a few other replacement backs that don’t have quite as high ceilings as Rawls does. If someone didn’t already have the rookie out of Central Michigan stashed, he needs to be your top target this week.

Next: Another RB who will need to step up due to injury