Fantasy Football Week 12 WR Rankings: Is Deebo Samuel Legit?

Getty Deebo Samuel of the San Francisco 49ers

Welcome to our Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings for Week 12 of the 2019 NFL regular season. This week, we examine a potential budding star residing in San Francisco and assess whether his recent success is sustainable. Plus, an injury to a perceived WR1 out of Pittsburgh who has failed to live up to expectations this season.

Week 12 will eliminate a few top-end pass catchers from our lineups, most notably Tyreek Hill and Stefon Diggs due to byes.

Reminder: These rankings are based on full-PPR scoring formats.

* If you’re looking for more information on how to best set your lineup this coming week check out our Week 12 WR Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em.

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Wide Receiver Outlook Week 12

Many believed JuJu Smith-Schuster’s (WR19) concussion would be the injury we would have to monitor throughout the week. Apparently, that’s not the case.

Smith-Schuster’s playing status is now up in the air for this week’s matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. As painful as it may be to say, the loss of JuJu to your lineup may actually be a positive. Many owners have forcefully placed the wideout in their lineups all season simply because of his draft position. However, he’s averaged just 4.46 fantasy points in five of his last seven games. He’s also failed to reach eight fantasy points in three straight games.

Deebo Samuel’s (WR25) recent mini breakout has been quite special to watch for a guy who had him pegged as the WR1 coming out of the 2019 NFL Draft. The wideout has been phenomenal over his past two games. While many may peg his string of success to the rookie finally starting to learn the NFL ropes, I would argue the talent has always been there, it’s just the fact that his usage has finally caught up to it.

After seeing five or fewer targets in six of his first eight games of the season, Samuel has received no fewer than 10 targets over the past two weeks.  The rookie has rewarded the 49ers and fantasy owners for their added faith in the rookie pass-catcher, ranking as the sixth-highest scoring player at his position from Week 10 through Week 11.

Samuel has a great chance of keeping the magic going Week 12 against the Green Bay Packers. While it is true that Green Bay has surrendered the 10th-fewest fantasy points to the wideout position this season, they’ve taken a noticeable step back over recent weeks. Since Week 4, five of the last six leading receivers to face off with the Packers have averaged an eye-popping 130.8 receiving yards. Samuel has averaged 123 yards over his past two games.

Week 12 Fantasy Rankings: Wide Receivers

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   2. *Check out our Week 12 Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Ems to further optimize your lineups
   3. Start-Sit [ QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | DEF | Ks]
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