Saints WR Brandin Cooks is out for the season and for fantasy owners in Week 12, some free agents and sleeper start options at the position include Andrew Hawkins, Jordan Matthews, Wes Welker, Michael Floyd, Kenny Britt, Kenny Stills, Odell Beckham, John Brown, Andre Caldwell, Mike Evans, Jarvis Landry, Mohamed Sanu, Malcom Floyd, Percy Harvin and Davante Adams, as those names can help make up for the lost production of Cooks.
Jordan Matthews has been hot over the past few weeks and he could be a strong option for the Eagles in Week 12 against the Titans. That is a solid matchup, while injuries could also give players opportunities, as Emmanuel Sanders is ailing for the Broncos and that could give Wes Welker and Andre Caldwell more targets. With Cooks out fantasy owners need replacements and those names are solid pickups, while Michael Floyd had a nice game for the Cardinals last week and finally could be coming around.
Floyd has had an up and down season with the emergence of John Brown, but he had two TDs last week and now could be back on track for the Cardinals. Odell Beckham has continued to be the most consistent receiver for the Giants since Victor Cruz went down and now he has a matchup with the Cowboys on Sunday night football. Hawkins may lose some targets with Josh Gordon coming back, but one could also argue that he will have less attention on him now that Gordon is coming back.
Losing Cooks is tough for the Saints and for fantasy football owners, as he has been one of the top rookies this season. This class of WRs is very impressive and names like Odell Beckham, Kelvin Benjamin, Martavis Bryant and Sammy Watkins have all been good. Cooks has been leading with 53 catches among rookies and he had 550 yards receiving and three touchdowns. Wes Welker could be a sleeper in deeper leagues if Julius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders miss time, as he would step up into a more prominent role.
Cooks at first reportedly was set to miss a month or possibly six weeks, but the Saints placed him on season ending IR after he had surgery. Cooks is a speedy receiver and he came out of college with some great stats last season and he was a perfect fit in the Saints offense. For fantasy owners some of the names above can help replace Cooks as a WR2 or WR3 and in deeper leagues there are options like John Brown and Andre Caldwell.
Larry Fitzgerald is ailing this week and that could make John Brown and Floyd strong start options and this comes after Floyd had two touchdowns last week. The Cardinals will still throw the ball a ton even with Drew Stanton in for Carson Palmer and fantasy owners could take advantage on Sunday. Floyd had two catches for 54 yards and two scores and while he is having a down season, he could be heating up at the right time. Floyd had 66 catches for over 1000 yards last season and this year he has just 26 catches for 454 yards.