Fantasy football projections, Week 12: Jaguars-Bills featuring Allen Robinson, Julius Thomas, Charles Clay, more

The Week 12 matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills features two teams trending in opposite directions. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Wide receiver Allen Robinson’s 2016 fantasy season has been a bit of a letdown for his owners. The good news is he’s played better of late and is still averaging more than 10 targets per game on the season. He’s managed to score a touchdown in each of the last three games and added a two-point conversion on top of that back in Week 10. It’s unfortunate he was limited to just three catches for 18 yards against the Detroit Lions last week.

Robinson should see more than 10 targets against Buffalo. Hopefully he can take those opportunities and capitalize on them. Nobody would have guessed going into Week 12 that he’d be stuck on just a single 100-yard receiving performance. As long as he can keep scoring, however, fantasy owners will take what they can get from Robinson. Hopefully another touchdown puts him beyond his projections in Buffalo.

If Robinson is again limited to just a few catches on Sunday, perhaps tight end Julius Thomas will break out. Like Robinson, Thomas was also held to just three catches against the Lions last week. Those catches lead to just 12 receiving yards. He was a popular mid-round draft pick in fantasy leagues to start the season, but things that simply haven’t gone well for Thomas in Jacksonville.

Part of that is due to injuries and part of that is due to subpar play at the quarterback position. Either way, Thomas faces off against one of the best teams in the league at defending fantasy tight ends. It’s tough to trust that he will get anywhere near his projections in Week 12.

Running back LeSean McCoy had thumb surgery following the team’s Week 11 win over the Cincinnati Bengals and nobody knows whether Sammy Watkins will play, either. That leaves running back Mike Gillislee as the potential top fantasy option in Week 12. Believe it or not, Gillislee has four touchdowns in the last six weeks in spite of getting a limited number of carries as McCoy’s backup.

Add to that the fact he totaled 72 rushing yards on 14 carries against Cincinnati and Gillislee might surprise some people this week. His fantasy projections are low, as they should be, which means it shouldn’t be too difficult for Gillislee to surpass expectations on an increased workload.

In general, the fact that the Bills will head into Sunday’s game banged up offensively means tight end Charles Clay could see a lot of action as the team’s safety valve on Sunday. A few years ago he was touted as a potential fantasy stud. While that never materialized, Clay can still be reliable when the situation calls for it. Week 12 looks to be shaping up as one of those scenarios.

Consider in addition to Watkins being questionable, that Robert Woods may also miss the game against the Jaguars. It’s hard to envision Clay not surpassing his projections given that he’s been held to less than 30 receiving yards in four straight weeks as probably the fourth or fifth option in the offense this season. A temporary move up on the depth chart thanks to injury means there’s no excuse for him not to rise above projections.