Daily Fantasy Football Week 12: DraftKings DFS Lineup Advice and Best Matchups

It's over, it's finally done. There are now officially no more bye weeks. That's good news, to some extent, for daily fantasy players, as you'll have a full slate of options to choose from when filling out your lineups.

While that seems like great news when you first think about it, on the flip side, it's going to make it even tougher to sift through the matchups. Fortunately, that's what we're here to do, and we're going to break down Week 12, which features some great matchups on paper.

Let's get right into it with the quarterback position by looking at our top-performer prediction for the upcoming week.

Quarterback

	Player	Team	OPP	Price
Top Performer	Carson Palmer	ARI	SF	$7,100
Safe Bet	Drew Brees	NO	HOU	$7,300
Value Pick	Brian Hoyer/T.J. Yates	HOU	NO	$5,000/$5,300
Wild Card	Johnny Manziel	CLE	BAL	$5,100

Carson Palmer has simply been on fire this year. Through 10 games, Palmer has thrown for 3,066 yards and 27 touchdowns. Basically, he's not only been stellar for the Arizona Cardinals, but he's also been superb for fantasy owners. The video below probably best sums up the excitement that fantasy owners feel with Palmer as their quarterback in most weeks.

While Palmer has been a stud, we could say essentially the same about Drew Brees, who has thrown 12 touchdowns over his last three games. Yes, two of those three games were losses, but you can't deny the fact that Brees has been an excellent daily fantasy option, which is obvious thanks to his pretty high price tag.

Both Palmer and Brees draw great matchups with the 49ers and Texans, but I'll give the edge to Palmer, as the 49ers are fresh off a game where they allowed three touchdown passes to Russell Wilson. The real reason for the love behind Brees is due to the fact that he's just such a focal point of their offense, which is unlikely to change moving forward.

As for the Hoyer/Yates selection, I'll take either one as my value play, depending on who gets the nod as the starter. It's likely that Hoyer will start if he's cleared, but if not, Yates is a great play as well. The reason? The Saints secondary has been dreadful this season. Through 10 games, it has allowed 3,081 yards and 28 touchdowns to opposing quarterbacks and has intercepted just four passes.

A cost of less than $5,500 for a quarterback up against the Saints? I'll take it.

Lastly, the man formerly known as "Johnny Football" will get the nod as the true wild card here. Before Cleveland's bye week, Manziel had the best game of his NFL career, completing 73.3 percent of his passes for 372 yards and one touchdown. He posted 21.58 fantasy points in that game, and now, after being named the starter moving forward, don't be surprised to see another big game.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

The Browns are going up against the Ravens, who have allowed 2,730 yards and 19 touchdowns to opposing quarterbacks this season. Manziel has a great opportunity to put on a show in front of the home fans, and with a very favorable matchup, don't be surprised if he does.

Running Back

	Player	Team	OPP	Price
Top Performer	Adrian Peterson	MIN	ATL	$7,300
Safe Bet	Mark Ingram	NO	HOU	$6,400
Value Pick	Javorius Allen	BAL	CLE	$4,600
Wild Card	T.J. Yeldon	JAX	SD	$4,800

When a running back like Adrian Peterson has a rough day and his team suffers a tough loss, what should we expect the following week? Yep, something incredible. Peterson rushed just 13 times for 45 yards and a score in Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers.

After the loss, he was quoted by Ben Goessling of ESPN, stating that the team needed to be better from "top to bottom." Don't ignore this quote, because next up is the Falcons, who have allowed 10 rushing touchdowns this season. On top of that, they've allowed 66 receptions to running backs, so Peterson could be a big target in the passing game in Week 12 as well.

Mark Ingram should also get a ton of attention this coming week. Before the bye week for the Saints, Ingram had a bit of a strange game, as he was on the sideline with a small injury. Fortunately, he seems good to go, and in that loss to the Washington Redskins, he still rushed for 77 yards on five carries while catching three passes for 21 yards.

Ingram has topped 12.8 fantasy points in every game except one this season, so he's by far the definition of the word "safe." The Saints do throw the ball quite a bit, but it's obvious that Ingram is the workhorse back in New Orleans, and he should get plenty of work against the Texans in Week 12.

Last up are two low-cost options in Javorius Allen and T.J. Yeldon. What do we love about these two matchups? Well, the better question is, what's not to love? Both the Browns and the Chargers have been terrible against opposing running backs.

We'll start it off with Allen against the Browns, who have allowed 1,227 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns this season to running backs. They've also had issues slowing down running backs in the passing game, allowing 39 catches for 450 yards and a score through the air.

While Allen is only getting the starting nod due to a brutal injury to Justin Forsett, we saw him receive 22 carries in Week 11 and catch five passes as well. Allen will get plenty of work, so don't shy away from this matchup.

Next, Yeldon draws the Chargers, who were torched by not the No. 2 running back in Kansas City in Charcandrick West, but the No. 3 back in Spencer Ware during the Week 11 loss. The video below from the NFL's official Twitter tells pretty much the whole story.

After West went down with an injury, Ware stepped in and rushed for 96 yards and two touchdowns against the Chargers. This is no big surprise, as San Diego has allowed 1,257 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns to opposing running backs this year.

Best of all, both Allen and Forsett have sub-$5,000 price tags, meaning that you're going to be able to fill in your lineup with a stud at another position if you use one of these two running backs.

Wide Receiver

	Player	Team	OPP	Price
Top Performer	DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	NO	$9,100
Safe Bet	Odell Beckham Jr.	NYG	WAS	$8,700
Value Pick	Travis Benjamin	CLE	BAL	$5,300
Wild Card	T.Y. Hilton	IND	TB	$5,700

Is it a surprise to anyone that DeAndre Hopkins is the top performer? While it's obvious that he's one of the best in the game, we watched him roll over the New York Jets and Darrelle Revis in Week 11 to the tune of five catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Oh, and he did this:

Now, Hopkins and the Texans are up against a Saints defense that just fired Rob Ryan and has allowed 1,691 yards and 15 touchdowns to opposing wide receivers. There is simply no better option in Week 12 at the wide receiver position than Hopkins.

When talking about safe bets, we'll include another stud in Odell Beckham Jr. While the Giants had a bye in Week 11, Beckham has topped 100 yards in each of the past three games. Now, coming out of the bye week, the Giants will face the rival Washington Redskins, who just allowed Cam Newton to throw for five touchdowns against them.

While watching the Panthers completely shred the Redskins, don't be surprised at all if Beckham is right there with Hopkins for the most fantasy points at the wide receiver position in Week 12.

Don Wright/Associated Press

As for Travis Benjamin, there's one thing that's obvious. Johnny Manziel and Benjamin have a strong connection. Between Weeks 3-8, before Manziel got the nod to start again, Benjamin topped 100 yards just one time. Then after a down week in Week 9 for Cleveland's passing game, we saw him come back to life with Manziel in Week 10, catching seven balls for 113 yards.

The most important thing is that Manziel was targeting Benjamin often. We spoke above about how poor the Ravens have been against the pass, and they've been torched by wide receivers this year, allowing a total of 16 touchdowns to the position.

Finally, let's talk about one of the most frustrating/confusing wide receiver options. Without Andrew Luck, it's obvious that we should have expected a drop-off from Hilton. What we probably didn't expect in Week 11 was two catches for 21 yards. He also only received four targets, so that's a major cause for concern.

The good news for Hilton? He's up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have allowed 1,646 yards and 13 touchdowns to opposing wide receivers. If there's a time for Hilton and backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck to fix their connection, Week 12 may be it.

Follow Jeff Smith on Twitter.

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Pricing information and scoring data obtained from DraftKings.com. All statistics courtesy of ESPN unless otherwise specified.

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