Week 12 DFS Picks: Tournament Plays

Every Sunday in the weekly fantasy chats, I get asked about my favorite plays of the week or who is in my player pool that weekend for DFS.

This article series covers exactly that.

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.

Week 12 DFS Content:

It is not that tournament players cannot be used in cash games.

If a player here works out for your team structure in cash games surrounding your primary core, use them.

These are just the players that come with some element of inherent risk but are the primary players that I still want to be ahead of the field compared to the percentage of rosters they are projected to make this weekend.

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

Quarterback

Baker Mayfield ($6,100/$7,900)

Mayfield exits the bye ranking third in completion rate (70.6%) and third in touchdown rate (7.0%).

He has thrown for only 5.9 Y/A over his past three games but will be getting Mike Evans back on the field out of the bye, who missed all those games.

Mayfield still showed a high floor without Evans, and he has regularly produced touchdown upside.

He has seven games with multiple touchdown passes and has thrown 3 or more touchdowns in five games.

He is getting Evans back this week and getting a strong matchup against a Giants team that is again heading for a disappointing finish to the season.

The Giants are 24th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.476).

They can pressure the quarterback, but their pass defense is dependent on that pressure.

When they have not gotten pressure, the Giants have allowed a league-high 81.3% completion rate and 8.7 yards per attempt (31st).

When Mayfield has not been pressured, he is eighth in rating (108.2) and leads the NFL with 23 touchdowns.

Anthony Richardson ($5,600/$7,500)

FanDuel bumped Richardson’s price substantially from a week ago, but he is still cheap on DraftKings.

Richardson came through for us in tournaments last week and is involved in the highest total on the slate.

Sunday was an encouraging reminder of how much upside Richardson has when everything comes together.

The Colts swerved more into what Richardson does well versus forcing full-field development.

Will that be static mobbing forward? We don’t know.

This matchup is dicey but does represent a path to upside.

The Lions have allowed the fewest passing points per attempt (0.277) in the league.

But because Detroit is so aggressive on defense, it has consistently allowed quarterbacks a high number of rushing yards under Aaron Glenn.

Detroit is 17th in rushing points allowed to quarterbacks this season (3.2 per game).

They have allowed Baker Mayfield (34 yards and a TD), Kyler Murray (45 yards), Geno Smith (38 yards), Sam Darnold (29 yards), and Mason Rudolph (29 yards and a TD) to tack on viable rushing yardage this season.

Last year, the Lions were 30th in rushing points allowed to quarterbacks (4.2 per game) and last in 2022 (6.6 per game).

Brandon Allen ($4,000/$6,000)

I was ready to have this spot reserved for Tommy DeVito (he can still be entertained for the same reasons of pricing but does not have as good of offensive surroundings).

Allen is not a click based on his resume.

On 263 career passes in the NFL, he has completed 56.7% with a 3.8% touchdown rate and a 2.3% interception rate.

He has not started a game since the 2021 season, which was a Week 18 fill in for a Cincinnati team resting starters.

He has not thrown a pass in an NFL game since 2022.

But Allen is also an experienced quarterback at minimum pricing who has ties to Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings, and George Kittle.

With Kyle Shanahan, the door is still open to run into something useful at the pricing.

We have seen Shanahan coax some fantasy production out of backups in the past.

Not only from Brock Purdy but guys like C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens with the 49ers.

Allen is not making his first ever start on Sunday, but Purdy (21.7 points), Mullens (22.2 points), and Beathard (13.2 points) all had usable games in their first career starts as backups under Shanahan in San Francisco.

Green Bay's defense has been dependent on getting pressure this season.

When they have created pressure, they have allowed a 49.4% completion rate and 4.4 yards per attempt.

When they have not gotten pressure, they have allowed a 71.6% completion rate and 8.2 Y/A.

That yards per pass attempt difference is going from second in the league with pressure down to 27th without.

But playing Allen is not entirely about what he can provide overall, but what he can provide at his salary.

He is not necessary to jam into lineups, but if he is going to sub-10% in tournaments, then that is something to build around, hoping to hit a usable score since he allowed access to high-ceiling options.

Allen can get gamers to multiple pieces of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Justin Jefferson, De'Von Achane, Nico Collins, or your other favorite high-dollar players in one lineup.

Running Back