Chiefs @ Raiders Week 12 Game Preview
Jonathan Fuller breaks down the Week 12 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders from a fantasy football and betting perspective.
Kansas City Chiefs @ Las Vegas Raiders
Another divisional showdown this week will see the Chiefs travel to Vegas to take on the Raiders for the first time this season.
Both squads are coming off of disappointing losses. The Chiefs fell to the Eagles on Monday Night Football, while the Raiders hung with the Dolphins but weren’t able to mount a comeback.
The Raiders have been playing much better since firing Josh McDaniels, but they are still 9-point home underdogs at the time of writing. Since the firing, their most noticeable improvement has been on the defensive side, as they have done a good job limiting opposing offense on the ground and through the air.
Their rush defense, in particular, has been great, ranking second-best in rush EPA allowed per play.
The Chiefs will try to get their offense going against this Raiders defense after failing to score more than 21 points in three straight games.
Of course, Patrick Mahomes is an elite fantasy option and just needs things to click with his WRs. Mahomes is tied for third among QBs for passes dropped this season at 19, and that has been a major talking point this week after costly drops by Travis Kelce, Justin Watson, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling cost the Chiefs in key spots against the Eagles.
Kelce is the only pass-catcher who should for sure be in lineups, but I remain convinced that the Rashee Rice breakout game is right around the corner.
Isiah Pacheco is firmly in the RB2 mix, but with the tough matchup, he is unlikely to deliver one of his better games of the season, so if you are fortunate enough to have multiple strong RB options, he could be the one you want to leave out.
For the Raiders, their offense has been up and down since the move to Antonio Pierce as Head Coach and Aidan O’Connell at QB. He started the game strong against the Dolphins last week, and his early TD to Davante Adams helped propel the talented WR to his best fantasy finish since Week 3.
Jakobi Meyers has largely disappeared from the offense in recent weeks and is someone I would avoid starting until we see his role in the O’Connell-led offense grow.
The guy who has been coming on a bit with O’Connell under center is rookie TE Michael Mayer. Mayer has 9 targets in his last two games and scored his first TD of the season in Week 10. The matchup is tough against a KC defense that hasn’t given up much to the TE position, but another week with a healthy target share would put Mayer in the streaming TE category moving forward.
Mayer is also my preferred bring-back if you’re rolling out Chiefs stacks in DFS contests this week.
Josh Jacobs remains a volume-dependent low-end RB1 most weeks and has a reasonable chance to score in this game. His ceiling isn’t the most exciting, but you can feel confident starting him each week.
Based on how the two teams have been playing, I actually think the 9-point spread is a bit much, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Chiefs find a way to ‘get right’ against their divisional foe.