FanDuel NFL 2018: Thanksgiving Lineup

Turkey, family, friends and of course fantasy football. Week 12 of the NFL season begins later today with three matchups. Who should be in your Thanksgiving FanDuel lineup?

The slate of action begins at 12:30pm ET with the Chicago Bears taking on the Detroit Lions, on CBS. This will be the 79th time the Lions play on Thanksgiving, the most in NFL history. Detroit is 4-1 in their last five Thanksgiving day matchups.

After dropping three straight games, the Lions bounced back in Week 11, defeating the Carolina Panthers 20-19. Rookie running back Kerryon Johnson and wide receiver Kenny Golladay were responsible for a majority of Detroit’s points.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears shined in prime time. They defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 25-20, to improve to 7-3 and sit atop the NFC North Division. Chicago’s defense helped lead the Bears to their fourth straight victory.

These two teams just met two weeks ago and the Bears defeated the Lions in large part to Mitchell Trubisky’s performance. The last time these two teams played each other on Thanksgiving was in 2014. Detroit defeated Chicago 34-17.

After the NFC North rivals go head to head, it’s a battle between NFC East foes. The Washington Redskins travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys at 4:30pm ET, on FOX. This will be the 51st time the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving. Dallas hold a 30-19-1 record on Thanksgiving, the highest winning percentage amongst teams who have played at least 10 games on the holiday.

Despite the overall success on Thanksgiving, they are 1-3 in their last four games on Turkey Day. They enter this afternoon’s matchup on a two-game winning streak, with victories on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons.

Dallas is right behind Washington in the NFC East standings, but Washington’s season may be over sooner rather than later. Redskins starting quarterback Alex Smith suffered a broken fibula and tibia in his right leg in Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans.

The final rivalry game on the schedule features two teams who have only played a combined three times on Thanksgiving. Atlanta hits the road to take on New Orleans at 8:20pm ET, on NBC.

New Orleans hasn’t lost a game since Week 1 and is the best team in the NFC. The Saints took down the Falcons in their first matchup of the year in Week 3, 43-37. As for Atlanta, they enter this matchup on a two-game losing skid and have a 4-6 record.

This lineup will only include players from these three games. In addition, the max amount of players from one specific team is four. Lastly, all fantasy points discussed are based off of FanDuel’s scoring system.

Quarterback: Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys- $7,400

Dak Prescott played mistake free football for a second straight week and the Cowboys won on the road again. This time, the Cowboys took down the Atlanta Falcons 22-19. In the victory, Prescott completed 22 of 32 passes for 208 yards.

His fourth quarter touchdown run gave Dallas their first lead of the game and they used that momentum to defeat the Falcons. This was Presctott’s fourth rushing touchdown in his last five games. He finished the afternoon with 14.82 fantasy points.

Compared to the rest of the starting quarterbacks on Thanksgiving, Prescott is the fourth most expensive. In the team’s first meeting against Washington, Prescott threw for a season high 273 yards and one touchdown. He added 33 yards on the ground and one score in the 20-17 losing effort.

Washington’s secondary is ranked 24th in the NFL and they have surrendered 2,612 yards through the air.

Things are starting to turn around for the Cowboys and they are taking on a Washington team that is very vulnerable.