My Saints will travel to Dallas to take on Adam Ronis’ Cowboys in the Thursday night game of the week to kick off week 13 and both teams are in a rare Thursday spot where they had a full week to prepare, so we won’t have any complaints about players on a short week this week.
On the injury front it looks like all the relevant skill position players will be a go on both sides. Tre’Quan Smith is the main guy who could still sit out again for New Orleans if they choose to rest his foot issue. On the offensive line both teams have banged up tackles that impacts them slightly but nothing that changes our approach this week.
New Orleans
- Drew Brees is a viable plays on the Showdown slate. No sh*t right? He’s Drew fricken Brees and returning to his home-town state in a stadium he normally has played fairly well in. Brees needs to be in your lineup but not necessarily as your captain.
- Alvin Kamara will test the Cowboys linebackers in the passing game and should get plenty of usage on the ground as he and Ingram continue to split carries and he’s been a TD machine since coming into the league. Kamara is worthy of consideration in the Captain spot because he could easily run two in and also catch 5+ balls in this game. As the highest priced Captain his ownership might actually be lower than it should be.
- Keith Kirkwood has really taken full advantage of his opportunity since Cam Meredith went down with injury and is seeing plenty of targets in the passing game. On the surface, you’ll likely see only 10 targets over 3 games and not get that excited, but in this offense the 2-4 WR options are all going to be spread around but there’s that one game where someone jumps out and has a slight bump and gets 5-60 and a touchdown. Kirkwood is my sneaky WR to get those looks here this week.
Others to consider: Saints D, Wil Lutz, Mark Ingram, Michael Thomas, Taysom Hill
Darkhorse: Zach Line
Dallas
- Ezekiel Elliott does not have a good statistical match-up but someone who gets the ball 20+ times a game and is the main threat to score in the red zone has to be in consideration on the showdown slate. I like that everyone has picked up on the Saints being a great rush defense and it opens up Zeke in DFS as a must play this week because he won’t be 80% owned due to the perception that you cannot run on New Orleans.
- Dak Prescott may have to win this game on his legs for Dallas and he won’t have a high volume passing game here against New Orleans. He has nobody besides Cole Beasley (see below) who I think draws a good match-up this week and with New Orleans locking down on the running game even more, Dak will have to make use of his ability to move the chains with his legs.
- Cole Beasley is the only Cowboys WR option who draws any form of a good match-up here. Lattimore should completely lock down Amari Cooper and the Saints have been fantastic vs TE this year + Dallas has no consistent TE option. This opens up Beasley underneath and on third down to be the PPR target this week for Dak.
Others to consider: Cowboys D, Maher, Blake Jarwin
Darkhorse: Rico Gathers
Overall CORE I would focus on
I think we get a lower scoring game and both defenses have decent days, the kickers are going to win this slate and I would get exposure to Kamara, Kirkwood, Elliott and Beasley.