Week 12 PPR RB fantasy football rankings including injury news, sleepers, more

Which running backs will shine in Week 12 for your fantasy football teams? We’ll take a look at all of them in our PPR rankings.

Welcome to Week 12 of the fantasy football season! But before we get to all that, let’s take a look at Week 11 and how the running backs performed. Joe Mixon led the way with a huge game on Monday Night Football against the horrid Cowboys. His three touchdowns and 153 yards dominated the field and likely came at a good time on Monday night for a lot of fantasy footballers. He is now RB7 on the season in PPR leagues despite not seeing all that much work in the passing game.

The fight for the top fantasy back got closer this week, as the Steelers slowed down Derrick Henry, while Saquon Barkley went off yet again. At this point, Henry has more total PPR points, but has also played one more game. Barkley is the leader in fantasy points per game and this is with Jalen Hurts stealing a huge chunk of his touchdowns this season!

Week 12 running back bye weeks

Bijan Robinson, James Cook, Chase Brown, Travis Etienne/Tank Bigsby, Alvin Kamara, Breece Hall

Week 12 running back injuries

Jonathan Brooks, Panthers

It’s finally going to happen. Jonathan Brooks will play in Week 12 against the Chiefs. That news probably doesn’t mean it’s time to start Brooks though. First off, he gets one of the best run defenses in the league as they face the Chiefs this week. Secondly, the team has been extremely cautious with their rookie in another lost season. Expect that caution to continue. And, Chuba Hubbard has played lights out and there’s no reason to cut back his workload significantly.

Tyjae Spears, Titans

Spears suffered a brain injury in Week 11 and will be in concussion protocol this week. If he can’t play this week against the Texans, Tony Pollard would get a bump in work and be a volume-based start, especially with so many backs on bye.

Isaiah Pacheco, Chiefs

Pacheco appears close to returning this week against the Panthers. How the running back touches get divvied up between him and Kareem Hunt are unknown and will likely remain unknown. The matchup is so good that it will be tough not to play both this week if there’s a chance the split work, but Pacheco is a much better player at this point in their careers and he will have the most upside moving forward.

Alexander Mattison, Zamir White, Raiders

Mattison went down with an ankle injury while Zamir White suffered a quad injury and neither returned to the Week 11 game against the Dolphins. The extent of their injuries is still unknown, but neither have much fantasy appeal when healthy, especially against the Broncos this week.

Tank Bigsby, Jaguars

Bigsby missed Week 11 with an ankle injury. He’ll get another week to heal up during this week’s bye.

Week 12 running back sleepers

Brian Robinson, Commanders vs. Cowboys

Robinson returned from his hamstring issue last Thursday night and played well despite his team getting destroyed by the Eagles. The Commanders will get a mini-bye and then take on the floundering Cowboys at home. We just watched Joe Mixon roll over the Cowboys on Monday night, and now they go on the road on a short week. Everything points to Robinson getting plenty of work in a game the Commanders lead throughout.

Bucky Irving, Buccaneers at Giants

Irving and Rachaad White should continue to split work, but Irving has shown to be the better between the tackles runner this year by a good margin. This week he’s set up well against a Giants defense that’s week against the run and a Giants offense that just went to Tommy DeVito at quarterback. Add in Mike Evans and the Buc’s offense should be able to move against the Giants and Irving should be set up to get touches around the goal line.