Fantasy football advice, Week 12: Who to start/sit for Seattle Seahawks vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Fantasy owners already had enough to deal with on Thanksgiving, whether it’s polarizing dishes, cliché racist uncles, or scalding themselves in the kitchen. So no one wants to add “being served a slice of awful fantasy lineup” to their list of gripes, which is completely understandable. So when the Seahawks take on the Buccaneers during the first slate of Sunday’s football games, it’s best for fantasy owners to at least attempt avoiding that outcome.

After a rough stretch of games in October, Russell Wilson has looked like his usual self once again after scoring eight touchdowns over his last three games. Now appearing fully over an ankle injury that hampered his production, Wilson’s stellar play elevates the fantasy value of Doug Baldwin and Jimmy Graham, who both must be started against a middling Buccaneers defense.

With Christine Michael waived and C.J. Prosise and Troymaine Pope injured, Thomas Rawls finds himself essentially all alone in the backfield. The volume of carries he is slated to get puts him back in the RB2 conversation, but rather than lean on a recently injured Rawls to carry the offense, the likelihood is that moving the chains will fall even more on Wilson’s shoulders. Rawls is worth the start, but fantasy owners expecting to have the 2015 version of him in Week 12 need to temper their expectations.

Jermaine Kearse, Tyler Lockett and other Seahawks role players can remain far away from fantasy lineups of all formats.

It will be tough sledding for the Buccaneers’ offense, but the elite Mike Evans deserves starting consideration in all formats. The NFL’s leader in targets, who has the third most receiving yards and eight touchdowns, should not be benched in any format despite having to deal with Richard Sherman and company. Earl Thomas’ absence gives fantasy owners more hope that Evans will be able to win over the top of the Seahawks’ vaunted defense, but his upside remains somewhat capped.

Though the Seahawks were vulnerable against the run early in the season, they have tightened up considerably, allowing just 3.5 yards per carry in 2016. It spells bad news for Doug Martin and the run game, but fantasy owners could likely do worse than plug Martin into the flex spot and hope for the best. Martin totaled 102 yards from scrimmage in Week 11 despite averaging just 2.6 yards per carry.

The fantasy wealth isn’t likely to trickle down amid such a tough matchup, so fantasy owners would be wise to bench Jameis Winston, Cameron Brate, and Adam Humphries with zero teams on bye.