Week 12 Fantasy Football RB preview

Over the past two weeks, TreVeyon Henderson has scored 60.3 PPR Fantasy points, good for number two at the position. For the season, Travis Etienne has scored 142.9 PPR Fantasy points, good for RB12 on the season. Neither has a difficult matchup. Which probably makes it seem strange that they are two of the most difficult backs for me to rank in Week 12. It’s because of the other backs in the backfield.

We are expecting Rhamondre Stevenson to return from his toe injury in Week 12. In the first nine weeks of the season, when Stevenson was healthy, Henderson had just a 25%share of the team’s rush attempts. It would be tempting to believe that Henderson has proven he is so much better that Stevenson will take a back seat now. But I thought Henderson was clearly the best back three months ago, and that didn’t seem to matter until Stevenson got hurt. For now, I am projecting close to a 50/50 split, which makes Henderson a high-upside RB2 who ranks just outside of my top 20. Dave and Jamey have more faith in Vrabel than I do, ranking Henderson inside the top 13 at running back this week.

Etienne has pretty much been the lead back all year, but it looked like that was maybe changing early in Week 11. At halftime, Tuten had a 47.1% rush share and Etienne had a 35.3% share. Tuten also scored the team’s first touchdown and was more efficient in the game. Tuten left with an ankle injury, and Etienne had a solid second half, but we are expecting Tuten to play this week and have little reason to feel confident that Etienne will lead the team in rushing. I have both Jaguars backs ranked around RB24, with Etienne just ahead of Tuten.

At this point in the season, you may not have much choice but to just start Henderson or Etienne. But running back does look like the one position this week you may have options. I have 30 backs projected to score double-digit PPR Fantasy points this week, including multiple guys on the waiver wire. Check out that section below before you make your waiver claims.

Now let’s get to the rest of the Week 12 RB Preview:

Week 12 RB Preview

• 46.4% — Bhayshul Tuten and Travis Etienne both played 46.4% of the snaps in the first half of Week 11.
• 81.8% — Chase Brown played 81.8% of the offensive snaps in Week 11. He’s back to must-start status even in a bad matchup against the Patriots.
• 19 — Kenneth Walker had 19 touches last week, his second-highest total of the season. Head Coach Mike MacDonald said Walker is earning more opportunities.
• 50% — Amongst qualified running backs, Kareem Hunt’s 50% success rate ranks second only to James Cook.
• 15 — Chris Rodriguez had a career-high 15 rush attempts against the Dolphins. He could be a borderline RB2 after their Week 12 bye.
• 3.99 — TreVeyon Henderson’s 3.99 yards after contact per rush attempt is second only to Jonathan Taylor. Rhamondre Stevenson ranks 32nd at 2.89.
• 35 — Woody Marks has 35 touches over the past two weeks. He has another great matchup on Thursday against Buffalo, hopefully, he takes advantage of it.
• 14.5% — Kenneth Gainwell has a 14.5% target share this year, fifth amongst running backs. He is a smash start if Jaylen Warren misses Week 12.

My full set of Week 12 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 12. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.