What’s up Karma Nation! Due to Thanksgiving this week, I’m a bit strapped for time thanks to the holiday and two massive NBA slates on Wednesday and Friday, so instead of the usual game-by-game article I will be releasing a special leverage plays article in addition to the usual Final Thoughts cheat sheet on Saturday evening around 7-8 PM! I actually feel pretty confident about this slate with casual players having done much less research than usual, and getting a later start on looking at the slate in general. Let’s get into how I’m attacking my main build this weekend!
Quarterback
Lamar Jackson- Once again Lamar Jackson is the top Quarterback play on the slate, and this feels like another week where I will be looking to jam him in if at all possible, even in a “tough” matchup with the San Francisco 49ers. Despite the narrative that this defense is unbeatable, I definitely think we should be fading the noise in that aspect and not be worried about rostering Lamar whatsoever. Not only do the 49ers have to travel cross country for a 1 PM kickoff against the equally red hot Ravens, but they also have lost some key players on defense in recent weeks, most importantly Kwon Alexander and Dee Ford. Nobody has been able to halt Jackson thus far this season, he even posted 28 fantasy points against the New England Patriots…
Furthermore, I was on Kyler Murray in this exact matchup in Week 11, in which he posted 26 DraftKings points — two weeks after posting 23 against the same defense once again. San Francisco is an extremely good real-life football team, but Jackson has been playing at an unreal level and has been the best player in fantasy football this season. He’s actually cheaper than Patrick Mahomes on DraftKings, who is a great play as well with a much higher implied team total, but if I spend up at QB this week…it’s for Lamar Jackson.
Andy Dalton- Dalton is the victim of a brutal mispricing on DraftKings, as the salaries were released prior to the news confirming that he would return as the Bengals starter. It’s not that he’s an amazing real-life QB. but he also clearly wasn’t the main problem with the Bengals offense and prior to his benching he was averaging over $18 DraftKings points per game. He’s just $4,700 on Sunday, up against a Jets defense that has funneled usage towards the passing game this season. It really comes down to these two guys for me this week, we have the salary to get up to Lamar, or we can lock in a punt that I feel extremely confident in hitting 3-4x his salary while stacking the rest of our roster.
Note: As I mentioned above, Patrick Mahomes is an exceptional play at home, with the highest implied team total on the slate. I won’t blame anyone for prioritizing him in cash games this week, but I personally prefer Lamar for cheaper on DK and only $100 more on FanDuel.
Running Back
Christian McCaffrey- Every week I put CMC in this exact spot, and that isn’t going to change this week against the Washington Redskins at his same $10,500 price tag he’s been at for weeks. I noted that I would not be playing McCaffrey personally last week, but still graded him out as the top overall play and would not blame anyone for playing him in cash games … he went on to drop over 30 PPR points once again at sub-10% ownership. He will definitely be more popular this week, but with the value we have it’s easy to fit him and I plan on being overweight in tournaments as well. He will be the first player I plug into most of my builds this weekend.
Saquon Barkley- Barkley is an interesting case to me because he has been so bad this season, I’m wondering how inclined people will be to play for him. Getting him at an extremely cheap price tag — for him — definitely sweetens the deal, and this is the best matchup he’s had in almost a month as the Packers have allowed the 8th most rushing yards and 4th most rushing touchdowns in 2019. He also wasn’t on the injury report this week, wnich bodes well for the health concerns, and he should see an increased target floor with both Evan Engram and Golden Tate out. I’m not exactly sure if I will land on him yet, but I will consider him on both FanDuel and DraftKings.
Miles Sanders- Even with Jay Ajayi expected to get “even work last week, Sanders remained the Eagles lead back and sets up for the same role with week with Jordan Howard already ruled out. He hasn’t had a big game yet, but his price hasn’t moved as a result of that and if there was ever a matchup for him to succeed it’s this one against the Miami Dolphins. He projects for double-digit ownership on both sites again in Week 13.
Note: There are some other usable backs in cash games such as Jonathan Williams and Jamaal Williams, but I’m keeping my pool at these three for now. I will update my thoughts on tomorrow’s live stream — 11 AM EST — but for now these are the only three guys I have considered in my cash game builds on DK.
Wide Receiver
Davante Adams- Adams has been a target whore since returning from injury totaling 33 over his last three games… and is still priced at just $7000 on DraftKings. The Giants have allowed the seventh-most passing yards in the NFL this season, and also rank bottom-three in fantasy points allowed to Wide Receivers. Adams appears $1000 too cheap, and is a lock to make my main build on Sunday.
Jarvis Landry- I don’t expect this to be a popular play at all, and was going to save this for my tournament article, but felt the need to include him here as well. Landry has been able to produce all season, even when Mayfield was struggling early on, and now gets a dream individual matchup in the slot against the Steelers with the Browns offense playing the best it has all season. The Steelers have now allowed 14 touchdowns in the slot after Tyler Boyd scored from there last week, and Landry himself scored against them in their last meeting a few weeks ago…He’s now scored five touchdowns over his last four games.
Tyler Boyd + Auden Tate- I love both of these plays, whether or not you use Dalton, especially with how cheap they’re priced across the industry. Boyd was one of the top fantasy receivers in the NFL early this season with Dalton as the starter, while Tate is priced under $4,000 and is the the top punt at the WR position for me. The Jets have surrendered the fewest rushing yards in the league this season, and have severely pushed opposing offenses to attack them through the air. I was all over Boyd last week at low ownership — he was featured in this article — and I would love to go back to the well in Week 13.
Sterling Shepard- This is the easiest play of the weekend with Evan Engram and Golden Tate out, which allows Shepard to return to his slot role that we saw earlier on in the season and in past years. He saw nine targets last week with Tate playing most of the game, and it’s a near lock that the Giants will be trailing in this game , pushing them to throw more. He also is not priced up for this role whatsoever, and I won’t be overthinking it this week, simply locking him in and moving on.
Tight End
Outlook: As always, we are looking to spend down as much as possible at TE on DraftKings, and we were awarded some very strong value over the weekend when Gerald Everett was ruled out for the Los Angeles Rams. Higbee has seen 10 targets over the last three weeks and gets everyone’s favorite matchup for a Tight End against the Arizona Cardinals.
We also can consider Dallas Goedert against the Miami Dolphins with Zach Ertz questionable, as well as Jack Doyle for $3,300 with Eric Ebron now on IR. I rarely use two Tight Ends, but this week on DK I wouldn’t entirely rule it out, especially if Ertz ends up missing for the Eagles.
On FanDuel it’s easier to spend up if you want given the looser salaries, and my pick there would be Travis Kelce who I expect to be a chalky option…he’s priced at $7,100 compared to $8,300 for Tyreek Hill and I would probably want exposure to one of them in my main build there.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
