Taylor Gabriel (WR, CHI) - Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: I have to start this little column by speaking of Mitchell Trubisky. I’m not a believer, but the quarterback has been putting on some work lately. He has his best game of the season in Thanksgiving to the tune of 338 yards on 29 completions and was able to pass for three touchdowns and a fantasy score of 29.3 points. He’s now scored three, one, one, and three touchdowns in his last four games while racking up 21.5, 13.9, 25.7, and 29.3 fantasy points. He’s a thing, or so it seems.

If that is the case, Taylor Gabriel should see his upside boosted in the final stretch of the season. The Bears offense operates with a go-to guy in Allen Robinson and a set of second-fiddle receivers in Anthony Miller and (mostly) Taylor Gabriel. Gabriel missed last week’s game due to concussion symptoms but he should be back for Week 14 and be part of the starting receiving corps. Although he didn’t put on a show in Week 12 (just three targets, though he caught one for 19 yards), Gabriel numbers from weeks 8 to 11 are pretty encouraging: he caught 18 of 29 targets in that span for 218 combined yards and a touchdown. Translated to fantasy scores, all of that amounted to 9.3, 9.9, 13.8, and 12.7 fantasy outings in order. 

It was always going to be hard for Gabriel to recover in time for last Thursday’s game, but he should be good to go in Week 14 against Dallas and he shouldn’t be in a worse role than Chicago’s no. 3 receiver. Gabriel had a monster 32-point performance back in Week 3, but that wasn’t very real. He is a 10-to-15 receiver with upside in he finds the end zone, and his usage has been good lately with 23 targets in the last three games. Not a starter at your wide receiver positions but definitely someone to start at a flex spot if you play in a deeper league as he should offer a floor close to 10 fantasy points weekly.