NFL DraftKings Lineup Walkthrough - Week 12
After an injury-plagued Week 11, I was chomping at the bit for Week 12. It became clear early on in the week that most of the value was going to be at running back. T.J. Yeldon, Thomas Rawls, Javorius Allen, Spencer Ware, and Shaun Draughn were all cheap running backs that could legitimately see 20+ touches. With all the value at the position, the option was to spend up on either quarterback or wide receiver. There really weren’t any quarterbacks that stood out to me at the top end and I really liked the idea of playing two of the three stud wideouts – Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, and Odell Beckham.
Overall, it was a nice bounce-back week. The lineup still had its flaws, but let’s get to the reasoning behind each pick.
Brian Hoyer: $5,000 (vs. New Orleans Saints)
This pick was pretty simple. I have been streaking quarterbacks against the Saints all season long. They have by far the worst pass defense in the NFL and the Texans had a high implied team total. At a price of only $5,000, it didn’t take much for Hoyer to reach value. Hoyer was hurt by game flow in this one, but he still finished with a decent fantasy score for his price.
Spencer Ware: $3,800 (vs. Buffalo Bills)
Like many, the biggest injury that I was watching on Sunday morning was Charcandrick West. As long as he was ruled out, Ware was going to be an easy decision for a price of only $3,800. Not only was he expected to see the bulk of the carries, but he was coming off of an impressive outing against the Chargers in Week 11. Even though he had a perceived tough matchup, the Bills have been very mediocre against the run this season.
T.J. Yeldon: $4,800 (vs. San Diego Chargers)
The only knock on Yeldon this season has been his lack of usage in the redzone. While I certainly had that factored into the equation, I thought the spot was good enough that he could reach value without finding the endzone. The Chargers have the worst run defense in the NFL and Yeldon is one of the few true workhorse backs left in the league. He had a decent outing, but once again the Jaguars refused to run the ball in the redzone.
Odell Beckham: $8,700 (vs. Washington Redskins)
This pick saved me this week. As mentioned above, I was going to take two of the three top end receivers. I decided that DeAndre Hopkins would be the odd man out since I would be able to capture his production by using Brian Hoyer. If Hopkins had a monster game, that would obviously mean that Hoyer had a big game as well. That led me to take Beckham over Hopkins, which turned out to be the right call. He was my leading scorer for the week, as he torched the Redskins’ secondary.
Stevie Johnson: $4,500 (vs. Jacksonville Jaguars)
For whatever reason, people seemed to be over Johnson this week. He wasn’t labeled as the must play that I saw him as. I even heard talk that Nate Washington and Stefon Diggs were both better plays. I wasn’t going to pass on the expected double-digit targets for Johnson against a very beatable Jaguars’ secondary. The Jaguars have a formidable run defense and the Chargers were expected to air it out. A lot of times the obvious plays end up being the right plays.
Julio Jones: $9,400 (vs. Minnesota Vikings)
When you pay $9,400 for a player and he doesn’t get injured, you don’t expect him to be your lowest scoring position player. Jones had everything go the wrong way on Sunday. The Falcons kept turning the ball over, while the Vikings continued to run the ball and milk the clock. Jones didn’t see a lot of the short, quick passes that we are used to seeing and he only finished the game with seven targets. Seven targets in a game where they were playing from behind! Sorry, I’m still a little bitter.
Delanie Walker: $5,400 (vs. Oakland Raiders)
There were two tight ends on my radar this week – Jordan Reed and Delanie Walker. They were priced similarly on DraftKings, so I decided to make the rest of my roster first and then see which one fit better based on their salaries. This lineup left enough room for Walker, so he ended up being my pick. The reasoning behind the pick was pretty simple. The Raiders have been awful against tight ends and Mariota has looked his way often in recent weeks.
Thomas Rawls: $4,500 (vs. Pittsburgh Steelers)
After Rawls went off for over 250 yards and two touchdowns last week, he was going to be the chalk play at running back this week. While I wasn’t all that thrilled with his matchup against the Steelers’ stout run defense, I figured the workload would be there. I also knew that he was going to be one of the highest owned players of the week and that can be a scary fade in cash games. Rawls didn’t have the best day yardage-wise, but a touchdown saved his fantasy outing.
Cardinals D/ST: $3,900 (vs. San Francisco 49ers)
I broke my own rule this week – I target a defense that was playing on the road. I really liked the Chiefs, Jets, and Browns this week, but I couldn’t find a spot to spend the extra salary that those defenses would have given me. Obviously, any defense playing the Niners can’t be that bad of a play. They were such large favorites that I expected the Niners to become very predictable on offense. While the defense didn’t find the endzone, they had a decent game en route to a decent fantasy outing.