Chargers vs. Ravens Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 12

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 12 matchup between the Ravens and Chargers on Monday Night Football.

Find a breakdown of every Week 12 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Lamar Jackson: Jackson gave us his first down week of the season last week, closing the week as QB24 (14.9 points).

Jackson completed a season-low 48.5% of his passes for 207 yards (6.3 Y/A) with a late touchdown to boost what he could through the air, adding 46 yards rushing.

We knew the matchup against Pittsburgh was tough, but the thought was that without Alex Highsmith available and the Ravens building a receiving unit around separators, they could combat the Steelers' Cover 1 approach.

The Steelers ran Cover 1 on 38.5% of the snaps.

According to the game logs, Jackson has played four opponents who have run a high rate of Cover 1 this season. Outside of the Steelers, the Browns (28.6%), Commanders (48.7%), and Raiders (29.3%) all were over 20% against Baltimore.

His three lowest-scoring fantasy games of the season were against the Steelers, Raiders, and Commanders.

Against Cover 1 this season, Jackson is 20th in rating (82.3) and 20th in EPA per dropback (0.02).

The good news is that the Chargers have not played aggressively on the back end.

They are 29th in rate of Cover 1 (10.4%) on passing plays, running the league’s highest rate of Cover 4 (26.2%).

Jackson is third in the NFL in rating (116.9) and fourth in EPA per dropback (0.36) against Cover 4.

The Ravens typically do not see a lot of two-high looks because of their running game, which will be an interesting dynamic to see if the Chargers alter their approach.

Jackson is 21st in rate of dropbacks against two-high looks (41.9%).

Sunday night was the first real test that the Charger pass defense has had in terms of preventing a viable fantasy offense.

In the first half, they played a bend but don’t break defense but ultimately allowed 6.5 yards per play.

The Chargers have allowed back-to-back QB1 scoring weeks to Will Levis (19.1 points) and Joe Burrow (29.0 points),

They are not going to move Jackson down as a premier fantasy QB1.

The Chargers also have allowed rushing production to quarterbacks.

They are 25th in rushing yardage allowed to quarterbacks (26.2 per game), allowing Bo Nix (61 yards), Kyler Murray (64), Jameis Winston (20), Levis (41), and Burrow (28) to all tack on viable rushing yardage to their lines.

Justin Herbert: Closing last week as QB8 (24.4 points), Herbert has ripped off four consecutive QB1 scoring weeks.

Herbert has averaged 9.0 yards per pass attempt since Week 7, fifth in the league.

Another large component added is that he is running a lot more now that he is fully healthy.

Herbert has run 21 times for 148 yards over the past four weeks after rushing 20 times for 34 yards over his first six games of the season.

This is another spot to stick with Herbert as a QB1 for fantasy.

This game features a high total with a favorable matchup.

The Ravens have had some spots this season where they have kept us honest (Josh Allen in Week 4 and Russell Wilson last week), but the body of work has been something we chase while the Ravens consistently have scored points to push passing volume.

Even with those spots factored in, the Ravens are 31st in the league in passing points allowed per game (18.7) and 25th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.476).

They face a league-high 39.4 pass attempts per game.

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Running Back

Derrick Henry: Henry has had some mortal moments over the past month, rushing for 73 yards or fewer in three of his past four games.

He has run the ball 16 or fewer times in four of his past five games.

The Ravens skew extremely run-heavy with Henry in the game.

With Henry on the field, they have run the ball 62.6% of the time, the second-highest rate for any player with 100 snaps on the season behind Gus Edwards (65.4%).

Henry has only 10 catches in the season, which has made him more dependent on rushing efficiency and touchdowns than in previous seasons, something we have gotten.

Eventually, Henry will have a game without a touchdown, but he has lived as a fantasy RB1 on the strength of his scoring upside.

He still has significant touchdown equity, getting into the end zone in every game this season.

Scrolling back up the section on Jackson, I am curious to see how the Chargers approach this offense.

If they run as much two-high as they have this season, Baltimore can combat that with their elite run game.

The Chargers have not allowed many rushing yards and only one rushing touchdown to a running back, but game scripts have impacted that.

They are allowing 4.5 yards per carry to running backs (20th), ranking 18th in yards allowed before contact (1.29) and 24th in yards allowed after contact (3.16) to backs.

JK Dobbins: Dobbins only managed 59 yards on 12 touches Sunday night, but he got into the end zone twice to elevate his fantasy game.

He scored on a 4th and 1 after Hassan Haskins failed to punch in three straight opportunities and then had the night's final touchdown, a 29-yard scamper to win the game.

While the touchdowns boosted his night, there were some added red flags here that we saw from the week prior.

Dobbins has only handled 60% of the backfield touches the past two weeks since Gus Edwards returned.

Edwards played as many snaps (4) as Dobbins in the first quarter and matched him with 5 touches in the first half.

The team gave Haskins work at the goal line for the second straight game.

Dobbins is trending toward being a touchdown-dependent FLEX option.

We will need a touchdown here.

The Ravens have allowed 3.3 yards per carry to running backs (2nd) and 8.8 rushing points per game (4th) to backfields.

Wide Receiver

Zay Flowers: Flowers only collected 2-of-6 targets for 39 yards on Sunday but managed to make one of those his fourth touchdown of the season.

That was the sixth time this season that Flowers has been held below 40 yards receiving.

He has another five games with 90 or more yards, giving us no middle ground.

Flowers has topped six targets in just one of his past five games.

He has been up-and-down, but his top-down peripherals have kept him in play as an upside WR2.

He leads the team with 25.6% of the targets (WR10) and 2.20 yards per route run (WR22).

This is a good spot for wide receivers.

For as solid as the Chargers have been, they have exploitable metrics defending wide receivers, something we highlighted last week going into the Bengals matchup.

The Chargers have allowed 8.2 yards per target (22nd), 13.5 yards per catch (24th), and a 6.35 touchdown rate (26th) to receivers.

They have allowed an 8.5% touchdown rate to WR1 targets (28th).

If the Chargers stay in their base Cover 4 approach, Flowers leads the team with 23.8% of the targets against those looks.

Ladd McConkey (TRUST): McConkey came up big on Sunday night, catching 6-of-9 targets for 123 yards.

He had receptions of 28 and 27 yards on the final game-winning drive.

He was targeted on 27.3% of his routes, his highest rate in a game since Week 4.

As Herbert has heated up, so has McConkey.

Three of McConkey’s top four games in yardage have come over the past four weeks.

He is playing 69% of his snaps in the slot.

Only 35% of the receptions by receivers against the Ravens have come via the slot (5th-lowest) but the Ravens have allowed 9.0 yards per target (28th) and an 8.1% touchdown rate (25th) to slot receivers.

With the Chargers expected to be pressed to throw here, McConkey has a lot of upside per target this week.

Quentin Johnston: Johnston only pulled in 2-of-8 targets on Sunday night, but he managed to get into the end zone for the sixth time.

While it once again appears Johnston was touchdown-dependent, last week was another encouraging step forward for him.

Johnston was close to a huge outing, just missing a few downfield 50/50 balls.

He had a season-high 180 air yards.

He had a season-high 8 targets and was targeted on over 20% of his routes for the fourth time in five games.

He has raised his playing time, running a route on 95.7% and 87.8% of the dropbacks the past two weeks.

29.7% of his targets are coming on deep targets, so there is still plenty of volatility here being that dependent on targets with a lower success rate, but his recent increase in usage paired with this matchup makes it worth chasing the upside outcome.

The Ravens are allowing a league-high 128.0 yards per game to outside receivers and a 6.1% touchdown rate (26th) to those targets.

Baltimore has allowed 17 receptions to receivers on deep targets (31st) with 5 touchdowns (28th).

Rashod Bateman: Bateman only managed to pull in 2-of-5 targets for 30 yards on Sunday.

Bateman has had some spike weeks, but he also has only had more than four receptions in one game this season.

He had 30 yards or fewer in five of his past nine games.

Bateman is still a boom-or-bust WR4/FLEX.

The good news is that the matchup does present upside (see what was laid out with Flowers), and Bateman has not given up any ground to Diontae Johnson.

Bateman was still on the field for 85.7% of the dropbacks Sunday and has been on the field for 87.1% of the dropbacks on the season.

Tight End

Mark Andrews: We will always have Week 10 as the one week that Andrews was a full-time player this season.

With Isaiah Likely back last week, Andrews only ran 20 pass routes (57.1%), catching 2-of-3 targets for 22 yards.

Andrews has gone over 60% of the routes in just one of the past eight games he has played with Likely.

With Likely back, Andrews is a touchdown-dependent fantasy option.

He has averaged only 4.4 PPR points per game in his weeks without a score.

The Chargers are the only remaining team that has not allowed a touchdown reception to a tight end this season, but they are 24th in receptions allowed per game (5.6) to the position.

Will Dissly: Dissly stayed hot on Sunday night, catching 4-of-6 targets for 80 yards and a touchdown.

He did run a route on only 56.1% of the dropbacks, his lowest rate in a game since Week 6, but the targets per opportunity were there again.

Dissly was targeted on 26.1% of his routes.

Over the past five games, Dissly has 22.9% of the Charger targets with 1.98 yards per route run.

The drop in route participation is not ideal and something fragile if that is static, but Dissly is in another spot to be used as a streamer if you have been playing him.

The Ravens are 30th in receptions allowed to tight ends per game (6.1) and have allowed 8.0 yards per target (22nd) to the position.

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