Welcome to Week 12's fantasy football start/sit breakdown for the running back position! Shoutout to the wonderful Morgan Rode for filling in for me last week, as I was ironically out with an ankle injury of my own. 

With that in mind, I'll go back an extra week for my usual review of previous results, and I'll keep it brief (who even remembers what happened in Week 10?). Start side: Wan'Dale Robinson — slight hit (9.2 half-PPR points), Alec Pierce — excellent (16.4), Jauan Jennings — great (14.1). Troy Franklin — solid (12.5). Sit side: Keenan Allen — nailed it (2.9), Khalil Shakir — slight miss (9.3), Jameson Williams — I blame Dan Campbell (20.9).

Overall, I'll definitely take those results, especially from the starts. Without further ado, let's dive into Week 12. 

For more help with your toughest Week 12 start/sit decisions, check out FantasySP's start/sit tool!

Wide Receivers to Start Week 12

Alec Pierce, Indianapolis Colts

Pierce leads all wide receivers (minimum five games) with a whopping 125 air yards per game. He ranks ninth at the position in straight-up receiving yards per game, with 73.1. The only reason he isn't already considered a weekly WR3 (or better) is that his touchdown in Week 10 was his first of the season.

But yards and targets are much more likely to remain the same than touchdowns. Even in an objectively bad matchup with the Chiefs, Pierce is still a startable option. Our Week 12 wide receiver projections have him as the WR20 overall. At this point, I'm just going to keep listing him every week until his usage changes or his start rate gets above 50%. 

Michael Wilson, Arizona Cardinals

Marvin Harrison Jr. has already been ruled out for Week 12 after suffering appendicitis in the lead-up to Week 11. In case you somehow missed it, Wilson absolutely exploded in MHJ's absence last week. He caught 15 of a whopping 18 targets for 185 yards, the most recorded by any player so far this season.

The key to Wilson's fantasy success (and that of the Cardinals' whole offense recently) is that Arizona has kept the pedal to the metal even when down big, at least in the Jacoby Brissett era. Brissett literally set a new regular-season record for completions last week, and he just kept chucking it even while the fat lady was well into her encore. 

That trend should continue this week, as Michael Carter is literally Arizona's only healthy running back heading into a matchup with the Jaguars. Jacksonville is favored by three, and their defense allows the 13th-most points to opposing receivers. Neither of those numbers is exactly ideal, but they still set up for a healthy dose of garbage time (or at least catch-up-mode) production from Wilson this week.

Fire him up as a flex or WR3 option. 

D.J. Moore, Chicago Bears

The fantasy community has been very excited about the fact that Luther Burden III clearly passed Olamide Zaccheaus on the Bears' depth chart last week. But that wasn't the only potential change that occurred in Chicago's WR pecking order.

Moore actually led the team in route participation rate, ahead of Rome Odunze, for the first time since Week 6. The 11% gap between the two was by far the largest it has been in the veteran's favor all season.

I should note that Moore's overall usage wasn't actually that great. His 81% route participation rate, while better than Odunze's, was essentially in line with his season averages. His 9% target share (three targets) was actually well below his baseline, although a 23-yard ADOT led to a solid 22% air yards share.  

Most likely, DJM is still the Bears' WR2. But that's nothing to scoff at, especially this week. The Bears are facing the Steelers, who have allowed the third-most points per game and by far the most yards per game to opposing wideouts this season. Far from the Steelers' defense in recent years, which was a unit to avoid, this is a group to target — that makes Moore a nice high-upside WR3/flex option. 

Wide Receivers to Sit Week 12

Jordan Addison, Minnesota Vikings

Normally, my sit picks tend to be players who I think are overperforming their usage and are likely to regress. But if anything, Addison has underperformed his underlying metrics recently. The talented young wideout has averaged a solid 19% target share and 33% air yards share in his active games this season, and those numbers have remained stable in recent weeks.

However, Addison hasn't been producing, and it's easy to see why: J.J. McCarthy. The sophomore QB has flashed at times, but it has mostly not been pretty. According to Fantasy Points Data, ranks dead last among 39 qualified QBs in each of highly accurate throw rate, catchable target rate, and off-target throw rate.

In three games with McCarthy under center, Addison has averaged 7.1 half-PPR points. Only 50% of his 20 targets have been graded as catchable, bringing his per-game catchable targets down to a measly 3.3. Especially against a tough Green Bay defense, Addison is too risky to start, even if it's not his fault. 

Romeo Doubs, Green Bay Packers

Traditionally, the only thing that Doubs has had going for him is his reliable role. While the rest of Green Bay's receivers are constantly on and off the field, whether due to injuries or coaching decisions, Doubs has been reliable. However, that has changed in recent weeks. 

Doubs has been dealing with a chest injury, which is almost certainly to blame for some of his dip in usage. But he was active last week, and he still posted just a 72% route participation rate. Christian Watson was the team's top receiver with a 79% rate, and he made good on it with two touchdowns. 

Heading into Week 11, the Packers have an unideal matchup with a Vikings defense that allows the seventh-fewest points to opposing receivers. Their entire WR room is also banged-up. Each of Doubs (who is now listed with a list injury), Watson (knee), Matthew Golden (shoulder/wrist), and Dontayvion Wicks (calf) was limited at the team's first practice of the week on Wednesday.

Unless Doubs emerges as the lone healthy option or one of only two healthy options from this group (which he does have a tendency of doing), he's best avoided with all the uncertainty and the bad matchup. 

Ricky Pearsall, San Francisco 49ers

The second-year wideout made his long-awaited return to the field last week, but the results were uninspiring. Pearsall did immediately tie Jauan Jennings for the team lead with a 78% route participation rate, so that's something. But he saw just two targets for a 7.7% target share and a 13% air yards share. In a game where the 49ers scored 41 points, he scored 0.5. 

Going forward, I still have some hope for Pearsall as he settles back into San Francisco's offense (although I was always a believer that Jennings would be the team's top receiver ahead of him). But he's at the point where we need to see it before we believe it.

He's not a trustworthy starter against the Panthers in Week 12.