Updated: Sunday 11/27 at 9:25am ET

Welcome to the NFL Week 12 DFS main slate. The main course, if you will. The three-game Thanksgiving Day slate was a nice appetizer, but with no bye weeks, we still get a juicy 11-game slate for our main course. And this slate is filled with all sorts of daily fantasy football deliciousness. The early games have some outstanding potential, but the two games with the highest expected points-total – Las Vegas Raiders at Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Chargers at Arizona Cardinals – are sitting among the late games alongside Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Christian McCaffrey and a slew of other strong DFS plays this week. It is gong to be extremely important to balance those lineups when you build them, as you never want too much of the late slate because if any of those early game really pop, you're sitting in the back end of the field and then have to start looking into late-game pivots to potentially jump off some of the chalk and give yourself a legitimate chance to finish in the money. 

But we'll worry about roster construction in the NFL DFS Example Lineups. For now, we're focusing on which plays we like best. There is a lot of chalk value on this slate, so digging for DFS bargains may not be as necessary as usual. Getting the top plays correct – that's going to be what is most important to us. So let's not waste any time and get right to it.

 

 

Now, before we get to the Playbook players, allow me to remind you what you should be doing leading up this step in your research.

Step 1: Check out the DFS Position Coaches

QB Coach – Jon Impemba (@jimpemba777)

RB Coach -- Justin Vreeland (@JustinVreeland)

WR Coach -- Colby Conway (@colbyrconway)

TE Coach -- Andrew Cooper (@CoopAFiasco)

D/ST Coach -- Dan Malin (@RealDANlanta)

Step 2: Check out the rest of the relevant DFS content

In addition to the positional coaching pieces, you also have things like the DFS Watch List, where I provide you with a list of players I am looking at throughout the week. We have the NFL DFS Podcast with me and Jon Impemba, who also does the Contrarian Corner video and check out the DFS Bargains from Tera Roberts (@ItsTeraTime)

 

Also, our Master of Tools, Matt Selz (@theselzman), supplies you data junkies with the Weekly Match-Up Report and everyone should also be checking out the WR/CB Match-Up Report from Ryan Hallam (@fightingchance).

Speaking of tools, we have also done some major enhancements with our NFL tools. We continue to crunch the numbers and tweak our algorithms so that our daily fantasy football projections are the best in the industry and that, in turn, has improved things like our Lineup Generator/DFS Optimizer, our DFS Compare tool and even our NFL DFS Ownership Projections. Again, all right here on one site for your convenience.

Step 3: Check the Weather

At this time of year, weather is going to play a very important factor, so always check the weather reports as they can help guide you through which players to use and which ones to avoid. Now, checking in on the NFL Weather Report is a helpful tool, but try not to overreact. Light rain can make the field slick but is unlikely to affect the passing game enough to completely discount quarterbacks and wide receivers. Your biggest concern should come when you see heavy rain/snow and winds blowing in excess of 20 mph. When they say there are 12-15 mph gusts, you can be a little wary of the kicking games and maybe some deep passing, but again, you don't want to totally overreact and you definitely want to check the weather right up until game-time when finalizing your lineups.

Some Week 12 Weather Conditions to Watch:

  • BAL/JAC – Brief showers are possible but not long-lasting; winds averaging 15 mph
  • TB/CLE –  Scattered showers in the area with sustained 10-15mph winds and gusts up to 25 mph
  • CHI/NYJ – Supposed to be heavy rain throughout the game with winds 10-15 mph
  • CIN/TEN – Potential showers with15 mph winds
  • ATL/WAS – Heavy rain early in the day and into the game but should taper off
  • LV/SEA – Scattered showers with only light winds

Step 4: Make your own list of players

It's real easy to just sit and wait for the Playbook, but as you are doing your research throughout the week, it is important to make notes and list the players who interest you the most. Maybe they end up in the Playbook and maybe they don't. If they're there, then great, it should mean we are honing in on the same things that make him a strong play. If not, maybe you're onto something else that someone overlooked. We aren't perfect and if you uncover something different, maybe you're right. I would be careful of routine groupthink and hype from beat writers, but often times someone will tell me something they saw about their local team that I missed and I am always looking to investigate more if its there. If you do, then say something in our Fantasy Alarm Discord Chat, Talk it out and see what the rest of the #FAmily thinks. That's why the chat is there, isn't it?

With those three steps complete and discussions are in progress, you are ready to look at the Playbook players, make comparisons and finalize your list for lineups, so let's get to it.

 

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