Week 12 DFS Picks: Core Players and Best Plays

Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

Our core players are the ones we will have the most exposure to at their respective positions.

They can be played in cash games and tournaments.

I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but please refer to the Week 12 Worksheet for a detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Quarterback

Jared Goff ($8,000/$6,000)

Goff is second in rating at home this season (116.0), completing 69.4% of his passes (9th) for 8.5 yards per attempt (5th) with 10 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

The Giants are 28th in passing points allowed per game (16.3).

They have struggled to defend play action, allowing a 71.7% completion rate (23rd) for 8.3 Y/A (19th).

Goff is fourth among all quarterbacks in dropback rate with play action (30.3%).

Goff has also been the best quarterback against man coverage this season (129.1 rating).

Against man coverage, he averages 8.4 Y/A (4th) with a 13.3% touchdown rate (5th), throwing 10 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.

The Giants are playing man coverage on a league-high 41.1% of passing plays.

Drake Maye ($8,400/$6,900)

Maye was efficient again on Thursday, completing 25 of 34 passes (73.5%) for 281 yards (8.3 Y/A) with a touchdown and 0 interceptions.

He only ran for 2 yards, his first game with single-digit rushing yardage.

Maye leads the league in completion rate over expectations (+9.3%).

He has averaged over 8.0 yards per pass attempt in eight straight games.

This week, he gets to go against a defense allowing the second-highest yards per pass attempt in the league (7.9).

The Bengals are allowing 11.8 yards per completion (31st), a 6.6% touchdown rate (29th), and 17.9 passing points per game (31st).

An injury to Aaron Rodgers snapped a streak of allowing QB1 scorers, but Rodgers and Mason Rudolph combined for 18.4 fantasy points on Sunday, which would have been QB7 on the week.

Lamar Jackson ($8,500/$6,700)

Jackson has had a couple of down weeks, finishing as the QB14 (16.6 points) and QB29 (4.7 points).

He has only completed 58.6% and 56% of his passes the past two weeks against the Vikings and Browns.

Jackson’s three worst games this season have come against opponents capable of running man blitzes effectively (Chiefs, Vikings, Browns).

Therein lies the key here.

The Jets like to do those things but are not particularly good at them.

New York blitzes 28.8% of the time (8th).

They play man coverage on 62.4% of their blitzes (7th).

The last team Jackson faced that was aggressive but not effective was Miami.

In that game, Jackson threw 3 touchdowns against man coverage and was 8 of 10 for 70 yards and 2 touchdowns when blitzed.

The Jets are 29th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.518).

Even with two down weeks, Jackson is first in passing points per attempt (0.649).

Over the past three weeks without Sauce Gardner, the Jets have allowed top-10 scoring weeks to Joe Flacco (24.3 points), Dillon Gabriel (20.1 points), and Drake Maye (15.4 points).

The Jets are also 25th in rushing yards allowed to quarterbacks (23.5 per game) if we believe Jackson will run, but with the hamstring and ankle injuries, I am less confident that will be the case.

Running Back