Week 14: Pickups of the Week
WR Josh Gordon, ---
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As the anti-Greg Little, Josh Gordon has put together a solid rookie campaign and is now a reliable number one option in Cleveland. On Sunday he set new single game highs in catches (6) and receiving yards (116) and added a 44-yard score to help his team earn their lone road win this season. The Browns face a pair of middling secondaries over the next two weeks, with the Week 15 faceoff against Washington's league-worst pass defense offering massive fantasy potential for all members of the Cleveland Browns passing attack. Though Gordon was a popular pickup earlier this season, he continues to linger on a large number of league waiver wires. Give him a shot as a WR3/WR4 down the 2012 homestretch.
WR Golden Tate, ---
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Tate continues to make the most of the limited opportunities he's been given, notching his team-leading seventh touchdown on Sunday. That's a stunning ratio of one TD every five catches. He now has four touchdown catches in his last four games and is progressing, stride for stride, alongside QB Russell Wilson. The Seahawks passing attack is really starting to open up and both players look strong going into the fantasy playoffs. While Tate's 2012 season could be forever marred by the ghost TD he allegedly scored to beat Green Bay in Week 3, it should instead be remembered as his breakout year -- with an asterisk marking his positive contribution towards putting an end to the referee lockout.
WR Mike Thomas, ---
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Titus Young has been inactive (benched) for the past two weeks and now his replacement has a torn ACL. Ryan Broyles is done for the season and so, it seems, is Young. According to the Detroit Free Press, Young has played his last snap with the Lions. And, just like that, Mike Thomas is running with the ones. We got a good long look at him last weekend and he failed to impress in his first big step up. Broyles was injured early in the Indianapolis game, so Thomas played most of the team's offensive snaps. Yet he managed only one catch for negative yards. Despite that inauspicious first showing, we expect better from this newly minted starter down the stretch.
TE Dallas Clark, ---
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It wasn't a big receiving day otherwise (three catches on five targets for 21 yards), but Dallas Clark found the end zone again on Sunday for his third touchdown in a month. He just keeps quietly producing. Sooner or later, the Buccaneers surely have to realize he deserves more looks in the passing game. Clark has been a top-10 TE over the last four games. With the position in flux, Clark could easily maintain that status through the fantasy playoffs. If Tampa Bay's coaches are smart, they'll use Clark to exploit the painfully soft middle of Philadelphia's defense this weekend.
TE Tim Tebow, ---
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This is the pickup recommendation I've long dreaded. Mark Sanchez was so brutally ineffective last weekend that he was finally benched -- only to be replaced by third-stringer Greg McElroy. Tebow was on the sideline recovering from cracked ribs, so didn't get the call. He says he's now healthy enough to play, leaving Jets coach Rex Ryan with the unenviable task of choosing between Tebow, Sanchez and McElroy as his Week 14 starter. We're secretly rooting for McElroy, but if Tebow gets the call he at least warrants fantasy consideration because of his hybridized QB/RB skills. Love him or hate him, he's a reasonable bench stash at this point.
Remember to read all our columns for this week and use our Who To Start Rankings
