Market Movers Week 12: Stock up for Deebo Samuel

Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon gives his insight on moves to make after NFL's Week 12 discussing Deebo Samuel, Austin Ekeler and Devante Parker.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: Let's talk market movers coming out of Sunday from week 12 of the NFL season. Look, big stack up to Deebo Samuel. In his return, he showed that he's going to be a key pivotal part of this 49ers offense. I mean, the guy is a complete bully after the catch. Absurd 136 yards after the catch today. That was insane.

And you would think that maybe he's not going to be holding this monster roll when first round pick Brandon Aiyuk gets back and fully incorporated into the offense. But I wouldn't be so sure because Samuel, with a fewer than 1 air yard per target mark and Brandon Aiyuk up there at 10 air yards per target on the season, these two guys are playing completely different roles. Like, Aiyuk has developed into more of a downfield threat than we think so.

I think Samuel, as that after the catch specialist, as the guy in the short area of the field-- I think he should be able to maintain a very high volume and highly efficient role in this 49ers offense. I think he's a guy that you're going to want to start as a wide receiver 2 the rest of the way. Now, someone who maintained their value in week 12-- it was Austin Ekeler.

He was back. There were no limitations on this guy. Any talk of a pitch count was completely thrown out of the window. He was on the field for 72% of the Chargers' snaps. He was responsible for almost 33% of the team's yards from scrimmage. He had a huge 40% share of the team red zone targets to go along with 16 targets on the day.

There were no limitations on Austin Ekeler. He is going to be a top 10, perhaps even top 5 fantasy back down the stretch as a central figure in Justin Herbert's highly electric offense. He maintained that value that you had when you drafted him very highly all the way back in August.

Now, a stock down-- and it seems a little weird to give a stock down to DeVante Parker on a day where he piled up the most yards that he has in any other game here in 2020. But the reality is that Ryan Fitzpatrick I think has shown that he is a better quarterback for this offense from a purely fantasy perspective. Like, when Fitzpatrick is out there, it's good news for Parker. It's probably even good news for Mike Gesicki too.

But Brian Flores says after the game that when Tua's healthy, he's going to be the starter. And I tend to believe him. Like, I think when Tua's ready, he's going to be the guy for this team. And while that might be better for the Dolphins future franchise as a whole, maybe even better for their chances of being a defense-first special teams ace steady team down the stretch, it's clearly bad news for DeVante Parker's pure statistical fantasy value the rest of the way in 2020.