Getty Gallery: 5/5
The Javorius Allen & Kicking Lineup
CAPTAIN: Javorius Allen $8,100
– Andy Dalton $10,800
– A.J. Green $10,400
– Joe Mixon $9,800
– John Brown $6,600
– Justin Tucker $4,200
If I'm betting on this game featuring the two quarterbacks having some struggles at times, why not roll out a kicker? Especially one with a big leg like Justin Tucker.
Kickers will almost always garnish a low ownership, and if things start out like a typical Ravens-Bengals game, we could easily see one team nail a few field goals early and the first half end with something like a 14-9 or 9-7 score. I'm just hoping a potential three field goal first half comes on the Ravens side.
Tucker managed to score 12 DraftKings points in Week 1 against the Bills, although five of them came on extra points (along with two field goals). I don't think it's outlandish to predict 2-3 field goals once again from Tucker, and if we can get a long one, then we'll be sitting pretty. I'm also not opposed to considering using Tucker in the captain spot a few times.
Obviously, with all the love I've sent in the direction of Allen, it shouldn't be surprising he found his way into the captain spot in one of my optimal lineups. I just can't overlook the pass-catching and heavy workload the Ravens running back will likely receive. Using him as a captain in a few spots makes too much sense, especially since his lower price allows you to fit in multiple other intriguing plays.
I also went back to the Dalton-Green-Mixon stack. Personally, I'm just high on Green in a primetime spot to find the end zone, which obviously benefits Dalton. The Mixon play is a lock and load for me based on workload and I'm just going to eat the chalk here and expect that everyone is going to use him. You can fade him in a few spots, but it could certainly prove risky, or wind up being a bold and beautiful move.
And then we go back to Brown, who I'm touting as the upside play. If I'm going to use a kicker like Tucker who has some level of a capped ceiling, I want the upside with him. Using Brown over someone like Snead here makes sense and overall, it's probably the smartest route to approach this type of lineup.
There are obviously plenty of ways to build around an expensive core in this game. Personally, my core will feature the Bengals top-two offensive weapons in Green and Mixon. From there, I'll build various lineups by mixing and matching the other players I've mentioned.
One name I didn't use here was Flacco, and while he's been pretty bad against the Bengals, I'll use him a bit to cover my bases. As ESPN's Adam Schefter revealed, Flacco has been brutally bad specifically when playing in Cincinnati, posting a 3-6 record with a 34.7 QBR. Even diving a bit further than that, he's thrown just six touchdowns along with 13 interceptions and has been sacked 16 times, per StatMuse. I'm not going to force Flacco into lineups, but he'll have low ownership.
*All statistics for player vs. team courtesy of StatMuse.
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