Saturday’s NFL slate closes out with a matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills and people will be excited. I’m here to help you build them DraftKings Showdown lineups for this contest. Cool!
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Set your DraftKings fantasy football lineups here: NFL $800K Saturday Night Showdown [$200K to 1st] (BAL vs BUF)
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Baltimore Ravens vs. Buffalo Bills
Weather Impact
Listen, I hate talking about weather when it comes to football games. However, just because it’s a pet peeve for me doesn’t mean it is for everyone. This game will feature temperatures around freezing with a chance for snow. Wind will top out at gusts of 30 mph but will sustain from 15-20 mph. It’s something to consider when making your builds but I’m personally not having it prevent me from using the #goodplayers.
SHOWDOWN STRATEGY
Captain’s Picks
Lamar Jackson/Josh Allen ($18,300 CP/$18,000 CP) — I’m lumping these two guys together because it’s quite obvious they have the biggest upside in this game. It’s going to be hellacious to decide who to use in this spot, as they both will use their arm and legs immensely against each other. The problem is, you’re really limiting the rest of your lineup by putting them in the captain spot. Can you find enough value to make it work? Kind offffff but personally, I want both if possible. Using someone like J.K Dobbins ($12,900) at the captain spot is where I’m leaning more, as I can use both Jackson and Allen.
If I’m choosing, I’m going with Allen. Personally, I think the Ravens win this game so I’m building a script where Allen is throwing and pairing him with multiple receivers. Among the eight remaining quarterbacks, Allen is third in adjusted completion percentage at 79.1% whereas Jackson is last at 74.8%. He is also averaging 9.0 YPA over his last four games, which has seen him throw for a total of 11 touchdowns and only one interception. Believe me, this matchup is extremely close but I’m not comfortable making lineups that doesn’t include both, so trying to jam both in at FLEX is my plan of attack.
J.K. Dobbins ($12,900 CP) — This leads me to using Dobbins as my favorite captain. His matchup is very favorable against a Bills run defense that’s struggling. We just saw the Colts backs go for 27/153/1 while adding 14 yards on three receptions. Dobbins is almost evenly splitting the carries with Gus Edwards ($3,900 CP) but it’s been Dobbins getting the first cracks. I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into his single-digit carries last week either, as the game-script simply didn’t favor him. If the weather concerns come to fruition, this is an ideal spot for Dobbins against a defense allowing 5.1 YPC over the past four weeks. While Jackson is always a threat to run one in himself, Dobbins ended the regular season with 17.8% of the red zone opportunities, which was the second-best on the team, behind Jackson.
Other to consider: Mark Andrews ($12,000)
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Value Plays
Gus Edwards ($2,600) — Simply a massive difference in salary from Dobbins for someone who is nearly in a 50/50 split. Last week, Edwards had one less carry than Dobbins and went for five less yards. Granted, his 3.8 DKFP output was less than ideal but the usage of both is promising. Edwards has been extremely efficient when he gets the ball, averaging 5.0 YPC and 3.28 YPC after contact. You will notice that Edwards’ snap count is low, playing on 29 of the 65 offensive snaps. However, when he is on the field, the ball is essentially going to him. At this salary, you cannot deny the good volume he receives. His ownership will likely be very high as he is one of the keys to jamming in both quarterbacks, so be aware of that in builds.
Gabriel Davis ($5,600) — Davis saw a dramatic snap count decrease to 54% during the Wild Card game against the Colts. The return of John Brown ($5,800) was the reason behind that but Brown put up the goose egg while Davis caught all four targets for 85 yards and 12.5 DKFP. The Ravens were excellent against the deep pass all throughout the season and that’s the game Brown needs to succeed. Thus, we could once again end up seeing more production from Davis in this game. Davis has not seen less than four targets since Week 10 against the Cardinals, a span he’s averaging 58 receiving yards in. While Brown does possess the big play upside, his usage in the red zone is one of the lowest on the team among the receivers, making him a very boom-or-bust candidate. I’ll take Davis at the slight discount.
Miles Boykin ($1,800) — We usually wrap up the values with a player that could easily give you a zero fantasy points! Exciting! Boykin’s involvement is very small but he only played on one less snap than Willie Snead IV ($4,000). Snead has also been invisible in this offense as of late, seeing a total of five targets in his last three games active. Boykin is a touchdown-or-bust option we can target as despite only making 19 catches, four of them were touchdowns. With how this game is set up, you’re going to need at least one player you aren’t excited about at all to roster. If I’m doing that, I want a player that does get some attention from Jackson in the red zone. To his credit, Boykin has averaged 14 YPR with 32% of his total yards coming after the catch.
Fades
Cole Beasley ($7,800) — Beasley is clearly playing at less than 100% but was able to provide some solid PPR points last week with his seven catches. He went for 57 yards on those receptions but he was pricey for the lack of production. In this game, he’s $200 less than Mark Andrews ($8,000), who is also someone I really want in my lineup.
The Bills have been one of the worst teams against opposing tight ends and just allowed the Colts TEs to go for 14/136/1 last week. Now they’ll face another team that loves to go to their tight ends, as Andrews had the second-highest overall target share during the regular season at 22.4% and the highest red zone target share at 29.5%. With this in mind, I would be much, much for comfortable using Andrews over Beasley, who’ll draw CB Marlon Humphrey in coverage.
Set your DraftKings fantasy football lineups here: NFL $800K Saturday Night Showdown [$200K to 1st] (BAL vs BUF)
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