STUDS

1.  Saquon Barkley (Written By Brandon Furtado)

This is the easiest stud on the whole season-long list. Barkley is the best running back in the NFL and has become the front runner for Offensive Player of the Year. During Sunday’s 302 total-yard, two touchdown performance against the Los Angeles Rams, he broke the Eagles’ single-game rushing record set by LeSean McCoy. He has firmly entered the MVP conversation and is currently sitting with the fourth-best odds to win it. If he continues his pace, he will break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing yards record and could become the first running back to win MVP since Adrian Peterson in 2012. The league is finally seeing what a good offensive line can do for Barkley. With each passing game, the Giants and their fans are wishing they had done more to keep him.

For fantasy owners, there is absolutely nothing more you could ask for. Barkley is averaging an insane 24.1 fantasy points in PPR formats and Sunday’s game against the Rams saw him total up 46.2 points. It goes without saying that he is a must-start. In fact, he is a must-start that can win a fantasy matchup by himself. As long as he continues to stay healthy, this Eagles team will go as far as he can carry them. This is the dream that General Manager Howie Roseman envisioned when he brought Barkley home in the offseason.

2. Courtland Sutton 

 Since a zero target game in Week 7 In New Orleans against the Saints, it’s been smooth sailing for Cortland Sutton managers with a season-high 29.7 PPR point total this past week against the division rival Las Vegas Raiders. This is what we’ve been waiting for Sutton all season, but we can even stretch it back to the Russell Wilson era, and it just wasn’t even close to this productive. Bo Nix has lit a playoff fire under the Broncos as we continue into the holiday season. As the games become more crucial for the Broncos down the stretch, expect something to continue being a mainstay at the top of the fantasy wide receiver list. 

3. Jaylen Waddle

Jaylen Waddle managers finally got treated with a productive day on Sunday as Waddle finally reached the 20+ point PPR mark for the first time this season.  But considering we finally got this in Week 12, it’s hard to imagine this is something we’ll see week to week, especially since he hasn’t reached anything close to the 20-point mark this season other than in Week 1 against the Jaguars, where he had 16. 2 PPR Fantasy points. The other concern is the biggest headline for the Dolphins at this time of year: bad weather games starting on Thanksgiving night against the Green Bay Packers.  If we look even as far back as the bizarre frostbite game in the Wild Card against the Chiefs last year, Waddle finished with only two catches for 31 yards, so the weather is certainly a cause for concern as we enter the winter months for Waddle. 

DUDS

1.  Justin Jefferson

Jordan Addison was the leader for the Vikings receiving Corps on Sunday as he amassed 30.2 PPR  fantasy points against the Chicago Bears.  Justin Jefferson even said himself in the post-game press conference that he was proud of his teammates and was okay with not being the main target guy. This will almost certainly not be the norm moving forward, as Jefferson has just had an incredible fantasy season. Regardless of the rocky turn his quarterback, Sam Darnold, has had in the second half of the year, he’s still a top-three fantasy wide receiver going into Week 13.

2. Christian McCaffrey

 The 49ers have just gotten from bad to worse with the injury bug this season, which is a major reason why they haven’t run away with the NFC West this year and only have 5-6 through 12 weeks.  Another aspect of this is McCaffrey Where his offensive load is just simply too much for his legs to handle.  While Brandon Allen was absolutely terrible on Sunday, you can expect that from a backup quarterback in this very complicated Kyle Shanahan offense. Still, there also needs to be an understanding that McCaffrey just isn’t going to have the same world-beating production we expect every single week, as injury management will be a continuing factor for him.