FanDuel Daily Fantasy Football Helper: Week 12 Sunday Night (Ravens at Chargers)

6mo

We've got a fun Sunday night matchup this week with the Baltimore Ravens visiting the Los Angeles Chargers. The Ravens are 3.5-point road favorites in a game with a 48.5-point total, per the NFL odds at FanDuel Sportsbook.

For those unfamiliar, single-game slates feature five flex spots with identical scoring to the main slate. However, kickers are included in these contests, and there is an "MVP" roster slot. The MVP receives 1.5 times his total fantasy points, making this spot crucial.

FanDuel Research's Brandon Gdula has done a deep dive on single-game strategy, and numberFire has projections if you select the game from the slate tab. It's worth checking out both before making your lineups.

MVP Candidates

Lamar Jackson ($17,500) is going to be the standout MVP option on almost every single-game slate he's on, and that's no different for this one.

After an offseason of things sounding like the Ravens may throw more, Baltimore owns the NFL's highest run rate (51.3%). It's led to Lamar being pretty much the same Lamar as always, although his clip of 48.6 rushing yards per game is 15.1 yards fewer than what he ran for in 2022.

A matchup with the Bolts is a dream one for Jackson. LA is permitting the second-most FanDuel points per game to signal-callers (20.2), and they've also allowed four rushing scores (tied for the most) to the position.

There are viable pivots if you want to get away from the likely Lamar chalk at MVP -- with the Chargers' Justin Herbert ($16,500), Keenan Allen ($15,000) and Austin Ekeler ($14,500) coming in as the other top options for the multiplier spot.

The Ravens have been elite against QBs, limiting them to 12.6 FanDuel points per game, the second-fewest. They've also held wideouts to 22.8 FanDuel points per game, the fourth-fewest. They've been more giving to running backs (16.6 FanDuel points per game, 13th-fewest), and Ekeler's role in the pass game gives him stellar upside. If I use a Charger at MVP, Ekeler will be the guy. He's -170 to score a touchdown.

Flex Breakdown

This sets up as a game where Gus Edwards ($12,500) can eat. His meh usage in the passing game makes him a tough sell at MVP, but Edwards has multi-TD upside against a Chargers run defense that has surrendered the ninth-most FanDuel points per game to RBs (21.5). With that said, Edwards is only -105 to score a touchdown in this game. It might be worth looking elsewhere if he's expected to be super popular.

Keaton Mitchell ($8,000) profiles as an excellent play. The salary is lovely, the matchup is great and his usage is trending up. Mitchell handled eight carries and one target last week while playing a career-best 36% of the snaps. The role is far from amazing, but given the matchup and his $8,000 salary -- in addition to the potential for his role to keep growing -- Mitchell is someone I'll be overweight on.

Mark Andrews' injury leaves a lot of pass-game looks up for grabs and gives a boost to the outlooks for both Zay Flowers ($11,000) and Odell Beckham ($10,000). The matchup helps, too, as the Chargers have ceded the third-most FanDuel points per game to receivers (34.8).

My hunch is that the masses will flock to Flowers, and while that may prove to be the right play, I will be very interested in Beckham if there's expected to be a large gap in draft percentages between the two of them. OBJ has flashed some of his trademark big-play juice in recent outings and has seen seven targets in two of the last three games.

Isaiah Likely ($7,500) makes a lot of sense, too. He played 72% of the snaps when Andrews sat in Week 1, and he's posted some big outings before when filling in for Andrews. That hasn't happened this season, though, as he finished with only one grab in that Week 1 game and went without a catch last week despite Andrews' first-quarter exit. Still, Likely is a quality value target.

On the LA side, it's hard to get excited about anyone outside of their top-shelf trio of Herbert, Ekeler and Allen. Quentin Johnston ($8,500) will get plenty of run -- snap rate of at least 83% in three straight -- but he just hasn't been good. If forced to roster a Charger outside of said trio, I'd opt for Cameron Dicker ($8,500).

Speaking of kickers, Justin Tucker ($9,000) is a solid play, too. While he's just 1 for 5 from 50-plus yards this season, Tucker has been perfect from inside 50. He's also barely ever missed a regular-season field goal when playing indoors, going 35 for 37 in his career.

Interested in playing NFL DFS? Head over to FanDuel’s daily fantasy football lobby to see all the offerings for this week's slates.

The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.