Going For 2 fan base my name is @TheBLeagueSays and in this week’s ‘Game Plan for the Week’, I will give to you some plays to make for seasonal and daily roster construction, prop bets, and dynasty evaluations. Before you make any start and sit decisions this weekend make sure you check out our weekly rankings also.
Thank you, and enjoy your Thanksgiving!
Slant Route
If either Will Fuller or Brandin Cooks isn’t a WR1 for the rest of the year:
Then I don’t know what else to tell you, with Randall Cobb (toe) and Kenny Stills (quadriceps) both getting hurt last week opening up the door for both men to take off heading towards the fantasy playoffs. The duo who left last week’s game injured as both combined for 20.5% of the Texans passing attack (mind you Cobb outweighed Stills 48 targets to 19) in 2020. But even that little amount of extra work could be enough to take either/or Cooks or Fuller to the next level for the rest of the season. Funnily enough, a blast from the ‘hype train’ past was Keke Coutee, who of all people returned from the gulag with a couple of targets and a touchdown. Detroit’s passing defense is fair-to-middling when it comes to fantasy points against wide receivers in general, but they are prone to giving up the big play, like with what we saw from Curtis Samuel last week. The Texans have won two in their last three, and I don’t think they’ll have any troubles this week unless D’Andre Swift gets cleared from the concussion protocol. So for what it’s worth I’ll take the Texans at -3 and the under with the O/U currently set at 51.
Flat Route
Not again:
COVID-19 has struck a few key pieces to the Baltimore offense, as Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins will probably miss this week due to testing protocols. I’d be surprised if they met the time requirements for them both to even be let in their facility let alone the change rooms on a short week for their divisional game against the Steelers. Now we can use the global pandemic as an excuse for the Ravens but the reality is that whether or not the Ravens offense is at full strength or not won’t really matter because that looks like one of the more fractured units that I have seen over the past month. And do you know who not only knows this and could care less? The Steelers, where the last time they met in Week 8 they got the job done 28-24 on the road where they looked more dominant than the score suggests. In the first series of the game, they plucked a pick-six from Lamar Jackson with two intercepts, four fumbles (two recovered), and four sacks to go with it for a total of 18.1 fantasy points on Draft Kings. Knowing this, naturally, we wouldn’t be shocked to see the Steelers DST as the highest priced and on the short slate this Thursday I have zero problems paying the $4200 if that’s the sort of performance we can come to expect from the undefeated unit in the AFC North.
Comeback Route
They’re both coming off wins?:
Dallas and Washington, somehow, both won last week in a weird turn of events which saw teams in the NFC East go 2-for-3 in the win/loss column in Week 11. Washington was probably in cruise control against the Bengals before Joe Burrow got injured, and Alex Smith has his first win in a few years under his belt as well. Dallas looked relatively explosive against the Vikings last week with some sick plays from CeeDee Lamb and Tony Pollard, with even Ezekiel Elliott getting a touchdown as well which feels pretty rare in 2020. If you are playing the three-game slate on Draft Kings this Thanksgiving, it’s going to be hard to not roll with Terry McLaurin but I feel like everyone will be, so look to guys like Steven Sims ($3200) who looked solid with a nice touchdown last week as a nice, cheap building block instead. On the other side of the coin, I’m going back to Dalton Schultz, who gets a nice matchup (Washington OPRK 24th to tight ends) who came up with another 6 target game and a touchdown against the Vikings.
Screen Route
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What is going on in Baltimore:
Lamar Jackson isn’t really connecting with Marquise Brown and Mark Andrews, and their run game has been a rotation of inconsistency. J.K. Dobbins looks great when he gets a chance but before you know it Mark Ingram and Gus Edwards get worked in. Now I mentioned Ingram and Dobbins earlier and I’d expect both to miss Thursday night’s game due to the COVID-19/reserve list. And if that’s the case I’m looking at a few contrarian plays (and remember this is a three-game slate so finding low-owned players will be stiff) from the Ravens to step up in their absence, more notably Devin Duvernay ($3000). Despite the lack of work, he was starting to see more snaps before the Titans game, and I see that as a reason to maybe risk throwing him in as an uber-low drafted player into the Flex. Marquise Brown hasn’t returned any value despite commanding a $5500 to $6500 price tag most weeks. Pittsburgh (OPRK 15th to wide receivers) can be had by the deep play, and it seems that Duvernay is as good of an option as Brown at this point.
Out Route
Speaking of the Ravens:
Willie Snead has out-targeted Marquise Brown 25-to-17 over the past four games and Brown looks like he is in an absolute funk. Add to it Dez Bryant (yep, I’m going there) betting promoted off the practice squad, and all of a sudden their receiver group looks more log-jammed than Myles Boykin trying to run through a pack. Brown for me right now I can’t trust to the point where I’m now only checking in on him for prop plays with his O/U on his receptions and yards. This week he has been set the bar of over 2.5 receptions and 36.5 yards which is something he has attained only once since the Ravens met Philadelphia in Week 6. Willie Snead on the other hand has been set the task of over 5 receptions and over 33.5 receiving yards. If you trust either of them have at it, but I’m fading both.
The Go Route
CeeDee Lamb is ridiculous:
How about them Cowboys! Now, I don’t normally take a big stance on players, especially rookies. And I especially don’t plant my flag on rookies in teams that already have extremely talented receivers in their rotation. But I will say this – I love the progress of someone like D.K. Metcalf this year and seeing him move up the dynasty rankings. He is lights out insane most weeks and going forward for me he is a Top-5 wide receiver for the next 5 years at least. But by this time next year, I will say that not only will CeeDee Lamb be the number one receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, but he will also overtake Metcalf (and many others) in Dynasty.
This week Dallas (as always on Thanksgiving) will be at home to Washington in a “tough” divisional matchup and I can see Lamb taking advantage in this matchup despite the Football Team being tough on receivers. But to slot receivers? Tyler Boyd (11-9-95), Marvin Jones (10-8-96-1) over the past few weeks have had success. Now I know Lamb gave you a doughnut in Week 7 against Washington, but he still had five targets in a game that saw Ben DiNucci take over from Andy Dalton who got a concussion. I’d expect a better performance from the rookie in Week 12.
Hail Mary
When he looks good, he’s great:
In positive matchups, as Eric Ebron ($4100) has had solid moments, and this week against the Ravens (OPRK 16th) he could/should face a tough task. However, the last time they met, Ebron had a solid 5-4-48-1 afternoon as it was he and JuJu Smith-Schuster that saw the majority of work in Week 8, and with the latter’s health in question (which was covered by Dr. James Ferretti on our Monday Night Show) and on the short week I could imagine an expanded role for the 6’4, 255lb tight end. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that he ends up as the Steeler’s best receiver in Week 12 against the Ravens and I’m also chalking him up for two scores as well.
I want to thank you for checking this article out! As always you can follow me at @TheBLeagueSays and feel free to check out my @BackRowGiants podcast out (https://linktr.ee/TheBLeagueSays) – subscribe, rate, review, share, and listen.
Let’s all get better together!
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