The Week 12 matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Detroit Lions features two teams who have severely underachieved so far this season. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 12: Eagles-Lions featuring Brent Celek, DeMarco Murray and Calvin Johnson
We break down the Week 12 matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Detroit Lions.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Philadelphia Eagles
Tight end Zach Ertz is listed as doubtful for Thanksgiving Day, which means teammate Brent Celek should draw his third straight start against the Lions. It was only a few years ago that Celek was pegged as one of the future fantasy studs in the NFL, but in the last few years he’s played backup to Ertz. Reprising his former role as starter this week could mean a handful of catches and a touchdown. He’s put together a combined 11 catches for 213 yards in the last two weeks, so don’t underestimate his potential to surprise the fantasy community against the Lions on Thursday.
Although it’s not known whether Sam Bradford or Mark Sanchez will be the one throwing Celek passes, what is certain is that running back to DeMarco Murray will be handling the team’s rush attack. Murray only ran for 64 yards on 13 carries last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he’s only rushed for more than 65 yards in a contest once over the last month. There’s no way fantasy owners will get the return on investment expected when they drafted Murray at this point in the season. One anonymous teammate of his has even questioned Murray’s effort recently. Hopefully he takes that to heart and goes at the Lions hard on Thursday.
Detroit Lions
It’s been a tough year for wide receiver Calvin Johnson. He hasn’t scored a touchdown in three weeks and only has three touchdowns on the season. Last week against the Oakland Raiders he caught five passes for 88 yards. While his numbers are certainly serviceable, particularly in PPR formats, it’s just not what we’re used to seeing from Megatron. The good news is only one team in the NFL gives up more fantasy points to wide receivers than the Philadelphia Eagles, so Johnson could be feasting on a different kind of bird on Thursday afternoon. Save the turkey and get this man some eagle.
Perhaps running back Ameer Abdullah will also save turkey for another day. He was featured in the lead role in the backfield while facing off against the Raiders last week ahead of teammate Joique Bell. That said, 44 yards on 12 carries isn’t going to win anybody a head-to-head matchup. With the Lions clearly looking towards 2016 at this point, maybe Abdullah gets more action going forward and this week is as good a time as any to give him added touches.
