Week 12 Waiver Wire: Fantasy Projections for Top Pickups and Sleeper Targets

Don't be surprised if your fantasy football league's waiver wire is more active than normal this week.

Week 12 of the NFL season is one of the busiest bye weeks all season, as six different teams won't suit up: Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets. That means more than a few fantasy managers could have plenty of spots to cover up.

Luckily, the waiver wire has some intriguing options, and we'll spotlight three of them here who are available in 50-plus percent of Yahoo leagues, per FantasyPros.

The Browns clearly have no hesitation with letting Jameis Winston air it out. During his first three full contest at the offensive controls, the veteran has attempted a whopping 133 passes.

Jerry Juedy has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this aerial aggressiveness.

During his least productive game since Winston took over, Jeudy had five receptions on eight targets for 79 yards. He has seen 11 targets in each of his last two outings and just posted a season-high 142 yards while scoring his first touchdown since Week 1.

A Thursday night tussle with the Pittsburgh Steelers is hardly an inviting matchup, but Jeudy is in too good of a groove to ignore.

Projected stats: Six receptions for 67 yards and one touchdown

Quentin Johnston is one of the more touchdown-dependent receivers around. He has topped 51 yards exactly once this season and only twice exceeded three receptions.

None of that should dissuade you from giving him a long look for a couple of reasons.

For starters, it's fine if he's touchdown-dependent when he's finding the end zone this often. He has six touchdowns in eight games and is now riding a three-game scoring streak. Only Ja'Marr Chase, Amon-Ra St. Brown and George Kittle have more touchdown receptions.

While Johnston's streak will inevitably end at some point, there's no reason to assume his luck runs out this week. Not when he's about to lock horns with a Baltimore Ravens defense that has allowed the most passing yards, the second-most passing touchdowns and the most fantasy points to wide receivers, per Yahoo.

Projected stats: Four receptions for 74 yards and one touchdown.

Apologies to anyone who plays on the site, but Yahoo fantasy managers need to get their act together. Bo Nix's roster rate is indefensibly low, and no one should expect that to last.

Want to see the entire list of players with more fantasy points this season? Here it goes: Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield, Derrick Henry and Jayden Daniels. Six quarterbacks and one running back—that's it.

And Nix, in case you'd forgotten, actually started this season a little slow. He didn't throw a touchdown pass in any of his first three outings. If you only look back since his first of now five (and counting) contests with multiple touchdown passes (Week 5), he climbs up to fourth on the fantasy scoring leaderboard.

In other words, we're talking about a weekly candidate to be QB1 who, for whatever reason, is unclaimed in two-thirds of Yahoo leagues. That needs to be corrected right now, so regardless if you're looking for a new starter or needing someone to plug in with Allen or Burrow on bye, Nix is the easy choice.

Projected stats: 22-of-34 passing for 234 yards and three touchdowns; four rushes for 19 yards