Fantasy Football Week 12 Rankings Review: Thomas Rawls ready to run wild?

With byes behind us in Week 12, Fantasy players will have different kinds of some tough decisions this week.

Week 12 Rankings: Standard | PPR

Our trio of experts -- Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings -- publish their first rankings of the week every Tuesday, and Chris Towers is here to break them down for the week ahead.

1. Who is the toughest QB to leave out of your top-12?

• Jamey: Philip Rivers
• Dave: Cam Newton
• Heath: Derek Carr

This is a tough week to do rankings, and it can be a tough week to set your lineup as well. All those high quality backups you've been hoarding to get you through the bye weeks might actually lead to some tough decisions this week with all 32 teams set to play.

If you picked up Marcus Mariota a few weeks ago and have been enjoying his hot play of late, how can you possibly sit him? On the other hand, how can you possibly sit someone like Carr or Rivers, who has been so good this season themselves.

This doesn't just go for the quarterback position, of course -- I have to leave DeVante Parker and Devontae Booker on my bench in one league -- but you'll probably feel the crunch more here, where you can only start one player. Faced with the prospect of benching one of two high-quality options can feel like a lose-lose this week.

2. Which injury replacement RB ranks highest?

• Jamey: Wendell Smallwood
• Dave: Thomas Rawls
• Heath: Thomas Rawls

With Christine Michael waived and C.J. Prosise out, Rawls is going to get every opportunity to prove he can still be the guy he was last season. Injuries have been a real issue this season, but Rawls was arguably the best running back in football last season, averaging 5.6 yards per carry before going down with his ankle injury. He is a powerful runner who looks for contact and can create for himself after meeting the defender, but we haven't seen much of that this season.

However, we know he has that potential, and has already shown progress as a pass-catcher this season as well. Even in what could be a tough matchup against Tampa Bay's solid rush defense, Rawls should get a workhorse's workload, and is impossible to sit.

If you don't want to consider Rawls an "injury replacement," that's fine. He was already slated to get plenty of work even with Prosise healthy, and isn't available widely enough for anyone to take advantage of his opportunity anyway. Smallwood is, though.

With Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles both dealing with injuries, Smallwood has a big chance to contribute this week. He would likely rank higher than this if we knew for sure whether Mathews and Sproles were going to sit out, but the Monday kickoff against the Packers puts Fantasy players who might otherwise want to play Smallwood in a potentially untenable situation.

3. Which typical must-start RB ranks lowest?

• Jamey: Mark Ingram
• Dave: Jonathan Stewart
• Heath: Matt Forte

Ingram is in the concussion protocol, and as of Tuesday morning, we haven't received an update since he suffered the injury in Thursday's game against the Saints. That uncertainty makes him an obvious risk heading into Week 12, especially with six teams playing Thursday night.

The Saints don't play until Sunday, and Ingram could be a No. 2 back if healthy against the Rams, but if you have to decide between, say, Rob Kelley, Frank Gore, or Theo Riddick and Ingram, you probably have to go away from the Saints' back until we know for sure. Especially with him seemingly still very much entrenched in a time share with Tim Hightower.

There may be no player with more disagreement in our rankings this week than Stewart, and Dave is lowest of them all. Stewart is always startable thanks to his role, as he has at least 13 touches in every game he has been healthy for this season. There just aren't many running backs you can say that for. However, his production has been really lackluster of late, averaging just 37.3 rushing yards per game over his past three, with a lone touchdown last week. That has spared him from total Fantasy irrelevance in that time.

This isn't a bad matchup against the Raiders, but the Panthers have struggled to run the ball of late, and the injury to Ryan Kalil's shoulder that forced him out of Thursday's game could loom large. If Kalil is able to return, you might see Dave move Stewart back up; if not, Stewart is a pretty fringe starter.

We've seen a pretty consistent pattern this season with Forte's usage. In the six games the Jets have either won or kept within 10 points, Forte has 20-plus touches five times. He has averaged 18.2 Fantasy points per game in those six games, compared to just 3.8 per game in the other four.

If you can just predict how the game is likely to go, you have a pretty good chance of pinning down what Forte's production will look like this season. Luckily, those guys in Vegas are pretty good at predicting outcomes, and they have the Patriots as 7.5 point favorites for this week's game. That keeps Forte in range he needs to be in, but puts quite a lot of uncertainty here too, because the Patriots could very easily run away with this one.

If the Jets have to put the ball in the air early and often, we've seen Forte can wind up on the outside looking in, making him a pretty risky play.

4. Which injury replacement WR ranks highest?

• Jamey: Tyler Boyd
• Dave: Brandon LaFell
• Heath: Brandon LaFell

Pick your Bengals' receiver! Someone is going to have to step up in A.J. Green's absence, and two of our three experts are putting their money down on the veteran. LaFell has been more involved in the offense this season, has more of a track record, and even saw more targets in Week 11 than Boyd.

He is certainly the likelier bet, I would say, and if you're absolutely desperate in Week 12, probably figures to be a bit safer than Boyd in the near term.

But Boyd has to have more upside, right? LaFell was a readily available free agent this offseason, coming off a disappointing season in New England, while Boyd was a second-round pick who set records for receptions and receiving yards while at the University of Pittsburgh.

That isn't a guarantee of anything, but you don't have to squint much to see Boyd finishing the season stronger than LaFell. Maybe he isn't the smarter play in the short run -- neither is more than an emergency flex play -- but he is a higher variance option, who could really pay off down the stretch.

5. Which typical must-start WR ranks lowest?

• Jamey: DeAndre Hopkins
• Dave: So many ... Emmanuel Sanders, Michael Thomas, Kelvin Benjamin, DeAndre Hopkins & Donte Moncrief
• Heath: DeAndre Hopkins

Monday night was almost a good reminder of why you don't want to give up on a player with Hopkins' ability no matter how bad things get. Instead, it turned into yet another reminder of how this just is not his season. Hopkins ended up with just another ho-hum line, catching five passes for 58 yards in a loss to the Raiders, but probably should have had more; Hopkins was ruled out of bounds on a 24-yard catch that probably should have been a long touchdown. It's not clear if Hopkins stepped out of bounds -- let's get those 4K cameras set up, huh? -- but he came within millimeters of a huge game.

Instead, Hopkins' nightmare season continues. He hasn't reached double figures in Fantasy points since Week 5, and has done so just four times in 10 games overall. I still have an awfully hard time sitting Hopkins given his role and his skill, but you may find you have no choice but to on a week with no byes.

6. Which usual waiver-wire flier TE are you keeping around this week?

• Jamey: C.J. Fiedorowicz
• Dave: C.J. Fiedorowicz
• Heath: Cameron Brate

What does Fiedorowicz need to do to get some respect around here? He wasn't on Fantasy radars for the first few weeks of the season, but has at least five targets in every game since Week 4, including a nice six-catch, 82-yard showing Monday against the Raiders. The Texans' offense has been a disappointment, but Fiedorowicz has been a very nice surprise, ranking sixth in Fantasy points at the tight end position since Week 4. Despite that, he is still owned in just 44 percent of leagues, making him the 20th-most owned tight end in CBSSports.com leagues at this point. Brock Osweiler's struggles are well documented, but he's had no trouble finding Fiedorowicz, who has another solid matchup in Week 12 against the Chargers in Week 12.

Brate is owned in nearly twice as many leagues as Fiedorowicz, and has been a solid streamable option for much of the past few months, albeit a worse one than Fiedorowicz. But Brate remains a solid weekly option if you missed out on one of the higher upside options at the position. He has a bit of a tougher matchup with the Seahawks on the way, but he plays in a high-volume passing offense and is always a nice streamer as a result.