Week 12 Waiver Wire: Anthony Richardson, Bo Nix, Watson Highlight Pickups to Know

As the old adage goes, the early bird gets the first look at the fantasy football waiver wire.

Or something like that. Don't bother looking it up.

Instead, file it as a reminder that you don't have to wait for completion of Week 11 of the 2024 NFL season to start looking ahead at potential pickups for Week 12. Some prime waiver-wire targets should have your attention already, and you should be able to pounce them outside of the deepest fantasy leagues as they're all rostered in fewer than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues, per FantasyPros.

Bo Nix might be prone to the occasional clunker, but his good games are pretty great, and the frequency of them has reached a point that his rostership is getting harder to fathom.

Sure, that's easy to say after watching him have a career day against the Atlanta Falcons—his 307 yards, 84.9 completion percentage and four passing touchdowns were all personal-bests—but he's posted a number of loud stat lines lately. Sunday marked the fifth time in seven games that he's thrown multiple touchdown passes. During this stretch, he has produced the third-most fantasy points at the position.

If he does go quiet, he can obviously hurt you—he had no touchdowns and one interception during those other two outings in this stretch—but if he's on, he might be the biggest factor in your success.

And when he's booming far more often than busting, that's something anyone with questions at quarterback needs have on their radar. If his hot streak wasn't enough, he also has a couple of favorable matchups (at Las Vegs, versus Cleveland) on the docket before Denver's Week 14 bye.

When the Colts benched Anthony Richardson a few weeks back, it wasn't clear how long they'd stay away from the player they picked fourth overall in the 2024 draft. Turns out, the answer was two games—full stop.

Richardson regained his starting spot Sunday and sure looked like he'll hold onto it going forward. This maybe wasn't perfect quarterback play, but he completed a respectable percentage of his passes (66.7), didn't turn the ball over and tallied three touchdowns (one throwing, two running).

This was the player who had the fantasy community so enthusiastic coming into his sophomore campaign. And for all the managers who bailed on their early draft pick, you better believe they'll be scrambling back with his skyscraping ceiling on full display.

With a potential shootout against Detroit looming in Week 12, the Colts and fantasy managers alike will hope Richardson can once again electrify with his quick-strike rushing and rocket-armed passing.

Green Bay's receiving group is uncomfortably crowded, so it's never really clear which pass-catcher will get the chance to go off.

Having said that, Christian Watson showed Sunday that he doesn't need a ton of opportunities to make a big dent in the box score. In a tricky-on-paper matchup with the Chicago Bears, Watson turned four targets into receptions for a season-high 150 yards.

Granted, fantasy managers should know by now not to expect a repeat. This was the first time he'd eclipsed even 70 receiving yards, after all. However, the Packers are clearly looking to get him more involved. While the targets didn't amount to much, it was still encouraging to see him have 13 passes sent his way over the previous two outings.

Maybe he'll get ghosted again soon, but the possibility of this talented, speedy receiver growing into a larger role can and should tempt fantasy managers with any holes in their receiver or flex spots.