DraftKings Top Week 12 Value Plays

Week 12 is here, there are literally no running back values available, and I’m back to help us think through the best ways to save some dough in the DraftKings Sunday slate. Let’s dive into some players at the $5,000 salary or less to target to supplement the stars and try and win some cold, hard cash!

Jameis Winston

Ladies and gentlemen, our fantasy lord and savior is still here for another week! Yes, he wasn’t really our savior last week sadly, but when Jameis Winston plays, you play him in fantasy. The Giants now face the offensive juggernaut of the Detroit Lions in a dome, and Jameis will have no choice but to throw the ball a ton to try and keep pace with the Lions pouring it on. Winston is honestly the only fun click under $5k at the QB position this week.

Tyler Shough

This play is gross, folks. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are somehow from the future and know exactly the combination needed to win a million dollars, and it only leaves 4400 DraftKings dollars left at QB. But the Saints are favored in this game, and the Falcons basically only have Bijan Robinson to have a chance at scoring a single point in this game, regardless of how bad the Saints’ defense is. If Shough can even be average, he can give you some value in a slate deeply lacking in it.

Kayshon Boutte

Folks, you might notice that there are no RBs in this week’s article. That’s because, for the first time in a long time, I truly don’t see a good play at the position under 5000 DraftKings dollars. So instead, you get 2 extra wide receivers this week, starting with freshly returning Kayshon Boutte.

Boutte has given us a few nice weeks on DK already this year, even on a limited target share. And now he gets to face the Bengals in a game where the Patriots can smell the division crown with the Bills losing to Houston on Thursday night. I imagine the Patriots are going to be aggressive early and often here, and Boutte is a great player to target to give you 15-20 points if things go his way.

Alec Pierce

Alec Pierce quietly has joined Michael Pittman Jr as the 1A and 1B targets in the past several games, though Pittman has still turned it into more fantasy points so far. However, with Adonai Mitchell fully gone and Josh Downs relegated to exclusively playing in the slot, Alec Pierce is going to consistently earn 6+ targets a game on the best offense in football, in a year where he has actually had rotten TD luck so far compared to how he usually scores on long bombs in years past. Pierce is a fantastic option here at $5000 on DraftKings.

Rashid Shaheed

Shaheed majorly ramped up his snap share last week, and he seems to now fully be a starting WR in this offense, facing the Tennessee Titans in their bid for consecutive number 1 overall picks in the draft. JSN is still far and away the alpha for the Seahawks, but we’ve seen Rashid Shaheed play well and score a lot of fantasy points in this offensive scheme in New Orleans. Shaheed is very likely to break a big play or two in this game.

Christian Watson

Christian Watson seems to have overtaken Romeo Doubs as Jordan Love’s favorite target now that Watson is fully healthy. He also has far more explosive playability than Doubs, and he could be in line for a large target share in a must-win game for the Packers as they face their division rival Vikings. If Josh Jacobs misses this game, the Packers also may not be able to lean on the run game nearly as much as they usually do, and Watson’s deep threat ability pairs well against a Vikings defense that blitzes constantly and with conviction.

Michael Wilson

Turns out I was right to have so many Cardinals on last week’s article (except for Demercado, but that was injury-related), and Michael Wilson put up easily the most surprising stat-line of the season last week, catching 15 passes for 185 yards from Jacoby Brissett, who set the NFL record for completions in a game.

While we certainly can’t project Wilson to replicate that or even come close, he is still the number 1 WR this week, with Marvin Harrison Jr still recovering from surgery. And at $4800 on DraftKings, I’m happy to pay that amount for the primary or secondary target from Jacoby Brissett’s relentless passing onslaught right now.

Andrei Iosivas

I truthfully am not much of a believer in Andrei Iosivas as a talent. However, when either Chase or Higgins misses a game, the reality is that Iosivas gets the ball more than we would expect or prefer, and the Bengals, with Joe Flacco, have barely missed a beat with Joe Burrow on IR. Savings are hard to come by on this slate, as I’ve mentioned before, and Iosivas is probably the cheapest WR out there that could legitimately be projected for 5+ targets in a good offense.

AJ Barner

We’re going gross at TE this week, my friends, at least if you truly want some savings. AJ Barner has quietly been a really useful fantasy TE, scoring more than 10 DraftKings points in 6 out of his 10 games played. The downside is that if he isn’t scoring over 10, the highest score in his other 4 games is 3.3 points.

You’re flipping a coin here basically, but it’s a good offense against a bad defense, and Barner usually scores fantasy points if he’s involved in that week’s game plan. Plus, he is also the player who takes tush push snaps for the Seahawks when applicable, so there’s always the tiny chance he could get you a rushing TD even if he’s not involved in the passing game.

Brock Wright

It was announced Friday morning that Sam LaPorta will have surgery and miss the rest of the regular season at least, meaning Brock Wright will be the Lions’ TE1 for the rest of the year. Dan Campbell still seemed pretty interested in having Wright involved in the offense, playing LaPorta’s role, and this will be the only week you get any true discount on him before he’s elevated into the mid-range of TE pricing and no longer is worth playing on DraftKings. But for now, in a game where the Lions could score 30+ points, Brock Wright is as good a play as any to score a TD.