5 breakout fantasy football stars to pick up for Week 12

3. Top Week 12 fantasy football pickups – Chicago Bears QB Andy Dalton

To be clear, owners in need of quarterback help should also look at Cam Newton, who missed the under 50 percent threshold to be in this space again after his debut last week. Newton is a good option, but one interesting plug-and-play option for Week 12 is Bears’ quarterback Andy Dalton.

Starter Justin Fields left Chicago’s Week 11 loss to the Baltimore Ravens with a rib injury and didn’t return, handing the Bears’ offense back to Dalton, who started at the beginning of the season. Dalton did pretty well for himself against a stout Ravens’ defense, completing 11 of 23 passes for 202 yards with two touchdowns to put Chicago in position to potentially pull off an upset.

The issue here for the Bears is that Fields’ rib injury prevented him from returning to this game, meaning it could be tough for Fields to get cleared ahead of Chicago’s Thanksgiving Day matchup against the Lions. That development would put Dalton in the starting lineup against a struggling Detroit defense, which is noteworthy for QB streamers.

Dalton is rostered in 0 percent of Yahoo leagues and could be a strong plug-and-play option for anyone who will be without Patrick Mahomes in Week 12. Game flow could work against Dalton if the Bears blow out the Lions but the odds are good that he will put up solid numbers anyway if called upon.