With 12 weeks of the regular season now complete, we are reaching the threshold of this year’s fantasy postseason. Some of you own teams that have already clinched a spot in the playoffs, while others are working feverishly to extend your seasons. As you continue your primary focus on this week’s matchups, I will continue my mantra regarding preparation for Weeks 14-16. Because I remain an advocate for examining those critical postseason matchups now, to make sure that your rosters contain the best components once the playoffs begin.

With the passing of the trade deadline in most leagues, fantasy owners are now limited to the waiver wire for any major adjustments in their starting lineup. However, there should be a number of options within the free agent pool for owners looking to beef up their defense at the back-end of the season.

We have progressed through 11 weeks of the regular season, leaving many of you with just two more games before postseason matchups begin in your leagues. The unfortunate assortment of injuries that occurred last Sunday will create unwanted but essential maneuvering for anyone whose players were impacted.

Probably one of the roughest weeks to get a grasp on during the fantasy football season is the week of Thanksgiving. Three games are being played on Thursday, games on Sunday and don’t forget the Monday night game. This is a ton of pressure to put on owners and to top it off there were a lot of notable injuries in Week 11 and your fantasy playoffs are right around the corner.

Check this week’s Start’em Sit’em week 11 recommend players for your upcoming matchup during this must win crunch time.

This weekly column is normally generated on my trusty laptop in the upper Midwest. However, this particular edition is presented to you from New Orleans, where I had the opportunity to watch the Saints host the Seahawks on Sunday. As always, witnessing an NFL matchup in person is an incredible experience.

The Vikings are this year’s top defensive beast, and we’ve been ranking them that way since we got a glimpse of their dominate force week 2. Minnesota is towering over the Bills who rank 2nd (depending on league scoring) after five NFL weeks. While last year’s favorites Denver and Arizona are hovering respectably in the top 5.

Five weeks of the regular season are now complete, and all of you have already experienced varying degrees of the unexpected. Both in terms of performance, and health. As the level of output from many players that we painstakingly selected for our rosters on draft day has not matched what we originally envisioned.

Here are my Start ‘Em and Sit ‘Em recommendations for Week 5. As always, no space will be devoted to elite players that you should already be planning to deploy. Instead, the focus will remain on the Start and Sit options that are more uncertain. Enjoy the games, and good luck this week.

With two weeks of the season gone, patterns have already begun to emerge in the world of Fantasy Football. While it’s fair to say that not every player is where the world would have expected them to be from a fantasy point of view (I don’t think many people thought Kelvin Benjamin would be WR1 after two games), there are a few big name Fantasy studs that are really starting to worry their owners. I take a look at some of the most prominent, and offer my thoughts as to how you should handle these “stars” moving forward.