Fantasy football waiver wire adds for Week 12
- Top quarterbacks to add from the waiver wire
- Top running backs to add from the waiver wire
- Top wide receivers to add from the waiver wire
- Top tight ends to add from the waiver wire
As the fantasy football playoffs loom -- as well as your league's trade deadline -- the waiver wire is going to continue to grow in importance to your fantasy football season. Injuries are mounting, bye weeks are still coming in full force, and for those needing to shore up any weaknesses on their rosters, these are the top names that should be on the radar:
Top quarterbacks to add from the waiver wire
Jacoby Brissett, Arizona Cardinals (19.5% rostered)
Waiting time is over for anyone sitting on a backup QB. Since Kyler Murray's mid-foot injury in Week 5, Brissett has been on an absolute tear. Week 11 marked his fifth-straight finish as a QB1, and his highest fantasy finish thus far (QB4). And while the connection with TE Trey McBride has been predictably present through this stint, any doubts about Brissett's staying power while Murray is sidelined should be put to rest after he threw for 452 yards on nearly 60 attempts, all without Marvin Harrison, Jr. (more on that, by the way, when these rankings address the top wide receiver pickups at wide receiver).
Brissett is in the driver's seat of an Arizona offense that, given the rash of injuries to their running back room, loves to throw the ball. His 42.4 attempts per game from Weeks 6-11 would lead the NFL extrapolated for a full season's compliment of games, and through that time is the eighth-most accurate QB out of anyone with over 200 total passing attempts (66.9 percent). And with Murray on IR, Brissett is guaranteed to start at least through Week 15. Anyone in a superflex league or who's been remotely disappointed with their starting QB's performance should make Brissett their primary pickup.
Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars (33.5% rostered)
The production drop-off is steep from Brissett, but if you can't get to him and still need an emergency Band-Aid at QB, Trevor Lawrence is probably the best you're going to get out of any incumbent starter who's healthy and rostered in less than half of fantasy leagues. That's a lot of qualifiers, but they are legitimate in Lawrence's case.
Outside of a putrid Week 10 performance against Houston's league-best scoring defense (top three in total, passing, and rushing yards), Lawrence has essentially been a borderline QB1 since Week 5. And now with Brian Thomas, Jr. possibly returning in Week 12, Lawrence gets a new lease on life with his former game-breaking target after having built chemistry with new addition Jakobi Meyers (5/6 receiving, 65 yards). He's a boring, but predictable week-to-week QB1 threat with soft matchups coming up against Arizona, Tennessee, and the New York Jets.
Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers (18% rostered)
He's a bit of a stash, but if you have the roster space, I am shocked to say that Bryce Young might be worth a "milk you're not sure is expired, but you might want to sniff" flyer. After a DNP against Buffalo in the middle of three terrible weeks (1:2 TD/INT, 364 total passing yards), Young apparently woke up in Week 12 against the divison rival Atlanta Falcons (31-of-45 passing, 448 yards, 3 TDs). Despite getting injured in the middle of the game, Young returned to complete what is now Carolina's single-game record for passing yards.
Young's health status is unclear going into Week 12, and Carolina is still waiting on their bye week (Week 14), but if you have time to wait, that record means something. If nothing else, Carolina's win puts their record at 6-5 after Week 11. Young's performance was too strong to be anything less than intriguing, and with a legitimate shot to take the NFC South crown(!), the Panthers will be sure to push for it if they can.
Top running backs to add from the waiver wire
Emanuel Wilson, Green Bay Packers (9.2% rostered)
At this point in the season, if you are still looking for running backs on the waiver wire, you are largely looking at handcuffs or injury replacements. But of all of them, Wilson probably has the best potential to own a backfield all to himself with his team's starter out. After Josh Jacobs went down early in Week 11 to a knee injury, Wilson played 70.9 percent of Green Bay's snaps, rushing 11 times for 40 yards and a touchdown. Who knows when Jacobs will return, but Green Bay has a decently high-powered offense whose running backs have scored a touchdown in all but one of its games this season.
Sean Tucker, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (20.4% rostered)
The other gamble against the return time of a starter is Tampa Bay's Sean Tucker, whose usage has steadily climbed over the past few weeks to the point where he finished as the overall RB1 against Buffalo in Week 11 (19 rush attempts, 106 rushing yards, 3 total TDs). Tucker has officially taken the starting RB job away from Rachaad White, and any doubt about his status as a top-flight fantasy back has all to do with when Bucky Irving returns from injury.
Like Jacobs in Green Bay, rumbling indicates that Irving could return as early as Week 12, and he's had since Week 5 to recover from the foot and shoulder injuries that have kept him from the field. Once he does return, Tucker's Cinderella story is likely over, but until then, he's worth gambling on, even with a tough matchup against the Rams.
Tyler Allgeier, Atlanta Falcons (38.8% rostered)
It's not sexy per se, but like it or not, Tyler Allgeier is likely the most productive handcuff in fantasy football when his starter is healthy. Despite a massive Week 12 from starting RB Bijan Robinson (143 total yards, 2 TDs), Allgeier continued to be the absolute touchdown gremlin he's been towards Robinson's fantasy managers, nabbing a one-yard TD run for his fourth score in as many weeks. Get this: through the 2025 season, despite being ranked as the third-best running back in fantasy football, Robinson is still getting eclipsed in rushing touchdowns on his own team (four to Allgeier's seven).
Even adding Robinson's receiving touchdowns into the mix, he's still down one to Allgeier. Long story short, if touchdowns are largely an unpredictable stat, you can almost paradoxically on Allgeier to rip at least one off per game -- as far as handcuffs go, that's as dependable as dependable gets. And if Robinson goes down? Allgeier immediately becomes a top 10 option.
Top wide receivers to add from the waiver wire
Alec Pierce, Indianapolis Colts (33.9% rostered)
Even after a pair of borderline WR1 finishes in Weeks 9 and 10, fantasy managers have largely left Alec Pierce on the waiver wire, likely due to the small sample size of meaningful production that came right up against the Colts' Week 11 bye. If that is the case in your league, he carries the best hope for sustainable WR2 value among every remaining waiver wire receiver by a long shot. Think of Pierce as a way-less-hyped version of Jameson Williams: a relatively sparsely-targeted deep threat WR2 that puts up mountains of yards (20.9 YPC).
And outside of stiff matchups against Kansas City, Seattle, and Houston, Pierce faces an easy schedule against teams that tend to leave deep threats in single coverage. And even against those tough matchups, all three teams will have their hands full dealing with TE Tyler Warren, WR1 Michael Pittman, and RB Jonathan Taylor. Pierce's sample size is small, but it is meaningful. Capitalize.
Christian Watson, Green Bay Packers (21.9% rostered)
Speaking of deep threats that have recently shown up, Christian Watson is officially in place as Green Bay's deep threat. It took him a couple of weeks to get there in a pretty ho-hum offense that is largely led by committee, but Watson's numbers over four games have been staggering. He's already fifth on the team in total yards (234), and comfortably leads all receivers in yards per catch (19.5). His per-game catches and yards are basically equivalent to that of Tucker Kraft, and with Kraft out there are a lot of targets to go around. Look for Watson to get more involved as the race to the top of the NFC North gets more heated.
Top tight ends to add from the waiver wire
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints (30% rostered)
It's gross to dip your toes into the New Orleans roster after Chris Olave, but Juwan Johnson and rookie QB Tyler Shough have quietly found a bit of a connection over Shough's first two starts. Johnson finished as the TE7 and TE2 in Weeks 9 and 10 for PPR leagues (TE9 and 3 respectively for standard scoring) and figures to be a safety blanked for the rookie going forward. Johnson also faces decent matchups in the coming weeks, including a rematch against the Panthers' defense that surrendered 15.2 PPR points to him in Week 10.
Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans (52.2% rostered)
It's ugly, you'll want to pinch your nose as you do it if need be, but if you're hurting at tight end, Dalton Schultz is a nasty little volume pickup that is a safe, if unspectacular stash week-to-week. It might say more about their receiver room than it does about his actual talent, but Schultz is the Texans' only pass catcher outside WR Nico Collins to surpass even 40 targets on the season (51/68 receptions). His 51 receptions are also third among all tight ends through Week 11, while his 489 receiving yards are tied for sixth. Shultz only has one touchdown on the season, but that's more symptomatic of the Texans' offense as a whole. Volume-wise, Schultz certainly outperforms the percentage of rosters he's kept on.