The Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to take on the Cleveland Browns for Thursday Night Football in Week 12. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Steelers and Browns skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 12 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Pittsburgh Steelers Start-Sit Advice
Russell Wilson, QB
Russell Wilson has delivered some highlight plays, but don’t let those social clips skew your opinion — this isn’t a great fantasy profile.
In his four starts, Wilson has just 14 rushing yards and has seen the majority of his passes (52.9%) travel no more than five yards downfield. That’s a tough sell in one-QB leagues, and it doesn’t get easier against an opposing defense that allows the third-lowest completion percentage to the slot (62.6%).
Now, there is some upside here. The Browns are often attacked down the field (second-highest opponent aDOT), and we know that Wilson can make the most of those opportunities. I’m getting exposure to that potential by way of his receivers — Wilson himself is hovering around QB15 and isn’t my preferred option in most situations.
Najee Harris, RB
Week 12 status: PLAYING
No projection is easy, but players like Najee Harris are a dream. This season, he’s produced 8.4-13.6 PPR points in seven of 10 games, making him somewhat easy to forecast and someone that fantasy managers can plug in with an understanding of what they’re getting.
Harris has been handed the ball at least 18 times in four straight games, but the lack of versatility is what has sucked the upside out of this profile. Prior to last week, he had five targets over a three-game run. Are the five targets against the Ravens a sign of things to come?
It’s possible. Russell Wilson’s “moon balls” get the attention, but he’s ultra-conservative otherwise, and that puts Harris in a position to win.
I think Harris will need to sustain some level of work through the air, as he is averaging a whopping 0.21 yards per carry before contact this season.
The Browns allow the fifth-most yards per carry after contact to running backs this season, a flaw that has me optimistic that we can get low-end RB2 numbers from Harris, even with Jaylen Warren factoring in (13 touches last week).
Jaylen Warren, RB
Warren didn’t practice on Thursday heading into last week due to a back injury, and while he was able to gut it out after a limited practice session on Friday, it’s clear that he’s not fully right and that Pittsburgh likes how Harris’ running style fits this offense.
Steelers RB snap shares, Weeks 10-11:
- Harris: 58.1%
- Warren: 33.8%
- Cordarrelle Patterson: 14.9%
Anything can happen against a Browns team that is allowing 1.6 RB carries of at least 15 yards per game (eighth-most). But as we sit here 11 weeks into 2024, there’s no denying that Harris is the more likely Pittsburgh RB to exploit that weakness.
Warren has caught multiple passes in five straight games, but he’s very clearly a low-upside option at this point, and the Steelers have no reason to pivot off of what is working.
George Pickens, WR
Saquon Barkley to Philadelphia and De’Andre Hopkins to Kansas City are two changes from 2023 that get the attention for impact moves paying off handsomely. However, the move from Justin Fields to Wilson deserves to be on that list in terms of George Pickens’ fantasy value.
Pittsburgh’s clear WR1 has cleared 16 PPR points in three of four games with Wilson, pacing for a 94-1552-8.5 stat line if you were to extend those games forward for a full season. Last week, we saw a 37-yard bomb from Wilson near the end of the third quarter, a pass play with a tiny window to drop the ball in, and proof of high-level confidence in his top playmaker.
Pickens ranks fourth in the league in total air yards up to this point. As long as his role remains the same, there’s no reason to second-guess playing him each and every week. The Browns are bottom five in defending the perimeter in terms of passer rating, average depth of throw, touchdown rate, yards per completion, and interception percentage.
We’ve seen star-level production from Pickens over the past month, and I think there’s a decent chance this is his best game of the season.
Mike Williams, WR
Big Mike Williams turned limited usage into viable fantasy numbers in his debut with the Steelers because he came down with a long touchdown. That had some of us (raises hand) rostering him in DFS last week, presuming that an increase in role and a strong matchup was a bargain.
The read was right in that his snap share rose from 12% to 31.1% (I was hoping for me, but at least it showed growth), but he didn’t earn a single target against the Ravens. Rostering Williams is something you should be comfortable doing, but I need to see him earn a handful of targets in a game before counting on him.
My hope is that he plays the majority of snaps this week and positions us to capitalize next week (at Cincinnati) and potentially in the semifinals of most leagues (Week 16 rematch with Baltimore).
Pat Freiermuth, TE
The idea of betting on Pat Freiermuth has always been rooted in his ability to score, something that hasn’t changed with Wilson under center. The fourth-year tight end doesn’t have a game with more than three targets since September, something I could overlook if he was benefiting from the heightened offensive expectations in Pittsburgh, but he’s not.
Freiermuth saw three end-zone targets to open last season and has seen just two since, the most recent of which came in Week 12 of last season. I’m fine with attaching yourself to Pittsburgh’s offense but understand that this is as touchdown-dependent of a player as there is at the position.
Freiermuth is firmly in the “experienced TE that I don’t trust but you can play and pray if need be” tier that also includes Mark Andrews and Zach Ertz.
Cleveland Browns Start-Sit Advice
Jameis Winston, QB
The Browns are embracing the Jameis Winston experience (133 pass attempts in his three starts), and that’s all fantasy streamers could possibly ask for.
This play-calling style has resulted in a pair of top-10 finishes, but asking for a ceiling outcome against the best defense, for my money, in the league, one that just held the Ravens to 16 points, is tough. Winston will likely have his moments in this game, but I’m not at all comfortable in assuming that the good plays come close to outweighing the negatives.
I have my concerns about Cleveland being able to establish anything close to a viable run game, and the second you become one-dimensional against Pittsburgh, you’ve lost. I don’t think we’ve seen the last peak in the Winston rollercoaster, but you can cut ties in single-QB formats given that the Browns get the Broncos, Steelers, and Chiefs following this game.
Nick Chubb, RB
In his four games back, Nick Chubb doesn’t have a touch gaining more than 15 yards, and he has just two receptions on the ledger. D’Onta Foreman was inactive last week, and yet Chubb left the week with an underwhelming 55% carry share.
On the bright side, the plan was to get him involved. Chubb carried the ball on four of Cleveland’s first six offensive snaps, but by getting stuffed on fourth down, the floodgates were open and the game script got away from the Browns.
This story is a good one (the Steelers were the opposing team when Chubb was hurt last season), but that doesn’t make him a top-25 running back, even with a pretty clear lead role. Not only are the Steelers allowing the fourth fewest yards per carry after contact to RBs this season (2.61), but their offense grades as the eighth slowest, putting this at risk of being a low-possession game.
Chubb is nothing more than a low-end Flex, ranking alongside secondary options like Austin Ekeler and, this week, Isiah Pacheco.
Elijah Moore, WR
Week 12 status: PLAYING
Elijah Moore owns a stable skill set in an unstable situation with Winston pulling the levers, but the condensed nature of this higher-volume passing offense is truly remarkable.
Active receiver streaks, games with 8+ targets:
- Justin Jefferson (eight straight)
- CeeDee Lamb (seven)
- Malik Nabers (seven)
- Courtland Sutton (four)
- Ja’Marr Chase (four)
- Cedric Tillman (four)
- Jerry Jeudy (four)
- Elijah Moore (three)
You read that right — three Browns on this eight-receiver list. Moore’s production relative to expectations has improved over his past four games than through the first six weeks, and while I believe the upside is capped (6-66-1 in New Orleans last week is about as good as it gets), you don’t need him to be a week winner.
Elijah has officially passed DJ as my Moore of choice when plugging in a Flex option this weekend.
Cedric Tillman, WR
After back-to-back-to-back top-12 finishes at the position, Cedric Tillman let all of fantasy nation down last weekend against the Saints with three catches for 47 yards and a WR50 finish.
Your thought process, for the most part, was sound in trusting Tillman. We aren’t sure of the exact hierarchy in Cleveland, but the idea was to chase the volume, and that came through with eight targets. If you were excited to play him last week, I don’t blame you, but you may have been blinded by the production over the profile.
The volume is nice, but the type of volume needs to be considered. Tillman owns a 15.5-yard aDOT this season, and a role like that is always going to carry a low floor, especially when the play under center isn’t the most stable.
There are spots moving forward where I’ll rank Tillman as a starter, but this isn’t it. The Browns have an implied point total of 16 and face a defense that ranks in the top six in both touchdown rate and interception percentage on deep throws. A repeat performance is roughly what I’m expecting this week, and that relegates Tillman to fantasy benches, but don’t dismiss him completely when planning out your future lineups.
Jerry Jeudy, WR
Week 12 status: PLAYING
Jerry Jeudy recorded his first 80-yard game of the season on a single play (an 89-yard touchdown in the first quarter against the Saints) and now has 30 targets over his past three games. In each of those contests, he’s reached 70 receiving yards — the only Browns player with such a streak within a single season since 2016 is Donovan Peoples-Jones (2022).
Can he keep producing?
Jeudy’s air yards by week, 2024:
- Week 5 at Commanders: 47
- Week 6 at Eagles: 79
- Week 7 vs. Bengals: 94.8
- Week 8 vs. Ravens: 103
- Week 9 vs. Chargers: 131
- Week 11 at Saints: 160.6
You love to see the upward trajectory, but it might not mean much in this specific spot against the second-best defense in opponent passer rating on deep balls. I’ve moved Jeudy up in my ranks over the past month, but the range of outcomes remains concerning and has him slotting in as just an average Flex option in PPR formats for me this week.
JEUDY 89-YARD TD!! 😳
📺: #CLEvsNO on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/pPwT9dYWZs— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
Anything can happen in a Winston-led offense, but with the Steelers (twice), Broncos, and Chiefs on the schedule over the next four weeks, I’d try to avoid the temptation to overreact to the big Week 11 that may have well come on your bench.
David Njoku, TE
Week 12 status: PLAYING
David Njoku has at least five catches (and seven targets) in five straight games. Last week against the Saints, he showed me an important tweak in his usage under Winston.
It’s easy to fall in love with the YOLO stylings of Winston, and we’ve seen it pay off for a receiver in this offense consistently. However, it comes with a wide range of outcomes (just ask any Jeudy or Tillman manager).
On Sunday, Njoku was hyperefficient (nine catches on nine targets). It was by design, with eight of those looks coming less than five yards downfield.
While the athletic profile is a ceiling elevator, I’m more interested in a heightened floor at the TE position these days, and what we saw in Week 11 has me optimistic that we are looking at a top-five tight end due to consistency.
The Steelers have recorded their top two blitz-rate games of the season over the past two weeks. If that level of aggression is here to stay, we could be looking at a handful of quick hitters (be it screens, slants, etc.) to Njoku, a role that would give him the potential to swing matchups in your favor this week.