With six teams on bye this week, it’s a stasher's paradise. Few folks have a good enough record to stash in the first place and a lot of panicky managers will be dropping guys they’ve been holding onto.

This might be the best opportunity for us to sneak some good names onto the back end of our roster and set ourselves up for glory. So let’s dive into the best options out there! And make sure you circle back AFTER waivers to see who might have been dropped!

 

 

 

Best Fantasy Football Stashes For Week 12

We are ideally going to look at players that are rostered in less than 50% of leagues on Yahoo, ESPN or Sleeper Fantasy as those are the guys that are generally actually available. 

We know there are leagues of varying sizes and depths, so we’ll try to cover our bases. And we’ll obviously let you know what it is that makes these players the best fantasy football stashes in Week 12. So, let’s dive in!

 

 

 

NFL Week 12 Quarterback Stashes

Will Levis - Tennessee Titans, Yahoo: 9% | ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 13%

Call me crazy. But we’ve won a lot of leagues playing the matchups down the stretch at every position. Never forget those who streamed Ryan Fitzpatrick against the Bengals in the championship in 2019 vs. a bad Bengals secondary when he threw for 400+ and 4 TDS. And, if there is a guy who could sneakily do that this year, it could be Will Levis.

If your starting QB has a tough matchup in any of the final four fantasy football weeks of the season, Levis could be an option. He’s actually playing okay since returning. And he ges the Jaguars, Bengals, Colts, and Jaguars again for those four weeks. So, keep that in mind. 

Drew Lock, New York Giants, Yahoo: 0% | ESPN: 0% | Sleeper: 2%

I’m not buying this Tommy DeVito business. Whether it’s to get the fans excited or to avoid having Drew Lock hit his incentives, I don’t think this one sticks. Maybe they just want to give DeVito one shot before cutting bait rather than going to Lock and having to go back. 

Regardless, I think Lock finds his way into this role. And the Giants have arguably an even better schedule than the one we mentioned above for the Titans. It starts this week, and they get the Buccaneers, Cowboys, Saints, Ravens, Falcons, and Colts. There is not a tough pass defense in that group. 

Trey Lance, Dallas Cowboys, Yahoo: 0% | ESPN: 0% | Sleeper: 2%

After the brutal performance by Cooper Rush this week, we have to assume Trey Lance gets a shot at some point right. It’s maybe more of a superflex or two QB league play but Lance is willing to run and that creates upside in fantasy. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 12 Running Back Stashes

Blake Corum, RB, Los Angeles Rams, Yahoo: 14%| ESPN: 15% | Sleeper: 21%

Blake Corum has been our top stash for much of the season for one simple reason - Sean McVay. He’s one of the few coaches that is willing to use his starting RB on over 80% of the snaps. If Kyren Williams goes down, Corum could inherit a league-winning caliber role. He has very little value without that happening though so he’s a pure handcuff. 

Trey Benson - Arizona Cardinals Yahoo: 22% | ESPN: 17% | Sleeper: 31%

The large workload for Benson isn’t guaranteed if something happens to James Conner the way it would be for Blake Corum. He could rotate with Emari Demarcado. But Benson does have a couple things going for him. 

He gets more usage as is, so he has more standalone value than Corum. And the schedule down the stretch for the Cardinals vs. the run is fairly easy with the Patriots, Panthers, and Rams as their playoff matchups. 

Dylan Laube - Las Vegas Raiders, Yahoo: 3% | ESPN: 1% | Sleeper: 7%

Laube has been a healthy inactive for many games here. But recent injuries to Zamir White and Alexander Mattison could force Laube into action. When you compare Laube to Ameer Abdullah, he profiles as more of a three down player vs. Abdullah who is a pass-down specialist. It’s a longshot, but that’s what this article is for. Longshot upside plays. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 12 Wide Receiver Stashes

Kayshon Boutte - New England Patriots, Yahoo: 4% | ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 7%

We like Boutte enough to include him in the main article but he’s still more of a stash outside of very deep leagues. We want to see how far things can go with him and Drake Maye. He’s already been the leader in snaps for multiple weeks. Now he’s starting to get more targets, make some plays. How high can we take things?

Mike Williams - Pittsburgh Steelers, Yahoo: 18% | ESPN: 1% | Sleeper: 20%

Well, he didn’t do anything this week. But we didn’t really expect him to do much. Not with his snap counts. We simply are hanging on to see how high that might go. In his first game it was 12% and he scored a touchdown. This past week it was 32%. Can he climb up to a near full-time player just in time for fantasy playoffs? We will have to see. 

Ray-Ray McCloud - Atlanta Falcons, Yahoo: 17%| ESPN: 13% | Sleeper: 22%

We don’t know how serious the injury is for Darnell Mooney. But he could be set to miss some time. Khadarel Hodge was the overtime here earlier this year but I’m not sure how much we trust him to just get the targets Mooney was getting. McCloud has been a fairly reliable piece for the Falcons so he could step into a bigger role and/or some more touches if Mooney misses time. 

Adam Thielen - Carolina Panthers, Yahoo: 20%| ESPN: 25% | Sleeper: 34%

We don’t have to go crazy elaborating here. Adam Thielen had over 1,000 yards in this offense last year. Diontae Johnson is gone. And Thielen is set to return. It’s worth a look, just to see.

 

 

 

NFL Week 12 Tight End Stashes

*For those looking for it, our updated Yin & Yang Tight End chart is in our Week 12 Waiver Wire Article

Theo Johnson - New York Giants, Yahoo: 1% | ESPN: 2% | Sleeper: 5%

A quarterback shakeup always leaves room for opportunity. What if Tommy DeVito loves throwing to the tight end? What if he’s just much better than Daniel Jones? What if Drew Lock is much better than both of them and he gets a shot down the stretch. The usage for the rookie tight end hasn’t been bad as of late but it’s not easy to trust him in lineups. 

Ja'Tavion Sanders - Carolina Panthers, Yahoo: 2% | ESPN: 1% | Sleeper: 8%

Sanders has proven that he’s the best pass catching tight end on this team by far. Ian Thomas is now on IR. Tommy Tremble is set to return which is the real curveball here. Maybe the Panthers have realized that Sanders is a good player so they stick Tremble in Ian Thomas’s inline blocking role and Sanders can catch passes? We can dream. 

 

 

 

Why Do We Stash?

Obviously, it would be nice if our entire roster was just chock full of stars. Maybe your lineup is (some of my dynasty leagues certainly are). But, for most of us, there will be holes. That’s why we highlight the Top Waiver Wire Adds each week as well as the Best Streamers to get you by.

The best fantasy football stashes though? These are the guys that win you the title. That came out of the woodworks down the stretch like rookie Odell Beckham. or Amon-Ra St. Brown. And it’s our job to find them BEFORE they break out!