Week 14: Pickups of the Week

QB Russell Wilson, ---

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In leading the Seahawks to an upset win over the Bears on Sunday, Russell Wilson inserted himself into the conversation for NFL rookie of the year. Whether or not you're ready to have that talk, you need to give Wilson credit for the unbelievable numbers he's put up, especially over the past month. In the last four games he has thrown nine touchdown passes against zero interceptions and owns the top QB rating in the league over that span. He needs to be owned and started in almost all fantasy leagues over the next two weeks. Only a nightmare matchup against San Francisco during Fake Championship Week prevents him from being considered among the playoff elite in ten-team leagues.

RB Joique Bell, ---

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Joique Bell has put up a gaudy 5.7 yards per carry this season, making himself useful despite being a part-time player. Last weekend marked the second time this season he has surpassed 100 total yards in a game and the outlook is promising for both he and starter Mikel Leshoure next Sunday. Though their Green Bay opponents own a middle-of-the-park run defense on the season, the Packers have been beaten up over the last few games and allowed the Vikings' Adrian Peterson to scorch them for 210 yards in Week 13. Bell has modest upside, but is a reasonable flex option this week in 12-team leagues.

RB Montell Owens, ---

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Montell Owens is a reasonably healthy running back. That's really all you need to know about him. No one else in Jacksonville can make that claim right now, so Owens will be the man until team doctors can -- like the king's horses and men -- put one of the others together again. Jalen Parmele is on IR, Rashad Jennings is concussed (and largely ineffective besides), while Maurice Jones-Drew is due back eventually. IF MJD can't go this week and you're hurting for a back, feel free to give Owens a shot.

RB James Starks, ---

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James Starks out carried his backfield cohort Alex Green (15-12) last weekend and notched the first rushing touchdown by a Packers running back since October 7. He has now led the team in rushing in each of the last four weeks and that fact likely lands him on the fantasy radar. Desperate owners seeking to plug flex gaps this coming weekend may want to look his way. Just remember that Green Bay is deeply committed to passing the football and Starks is wrapped in a numbers-killing platoon. As such, he's an add best suited for deep leagues.

WR Chris Givens, ---

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The Rams were without target-magnet Danny Amendola on Sunday, so they created a new one. For the second week in a row it was Givens, not Brandon Gibson, who led his team in targets, yards and catches. Givens' role has evolved plenty in a short span of time, and it now looks like the rookie fourth-rounder out of Wake Forest could retain considerable value when (or if) Amendola returns to action. He has 20 catches over the last three games and has quietly put together a solid 33/559/3 line for the year. His arrow is pointing up. Gibson, on the other hand, looks to have flamed out and can't currently be trusted in fantasy leagues.

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.