NFL

5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 4

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Baltimore Ravens Passing Offense

Everything about what Joe Flacco has done so far this year says that we shouldn't be even sniffing the Baltimore Ravens' passing offense. He has had back-to-back Gucci matchups, but his output has been anything but.

We might want to give him one last crack in Week 4.

A big part of the reason Flacco may have been a value trap the past few weeks is that he was playing on the road. Using the RotoViz game splits app, we can see that since the start of 2014, Flacco has had some pretty extreme home-road splits on a per-game basis.

VenueAttemptsYardsTouchdownsInterceptionsYards Per Attempt
Home36.79270.501.640.577.51
Road38.07250.931.401.336.77


Even though Flacco throws less at home, he still racks up more yards and touchdowns while dramatically cutting his interceptions. The lack of turnovers allows him to create more scoring drives, giving both him and the assets in his offenses extra upside. As they head home this week to face the Oakland Raiders, it would be wise not to overlook this split.

Additionally, it's possible those matchups weren't quite as juicy for Flacco as they may have appeared at the time. The worst defense he has faced so far based on Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP per play is Cleveland, ranking 16th in the category. To find the Raiders, you have to cruise all the way down to 30th. By that, this is easily the best spot Flacco has been in the whole season.

The Raiders did come through last week against Marcus Mariota, keeping him out of the end zone while forcing a pair of interceptions. Before that, though, the Raiders had allowed Drew Brees and Matt Ryan to combine for 819 yards, 7 touchdowns, and 1 interception through the first two weeks. Now, they're flying back across the country for another 1:00 p.m. game on a Sunday. They've got a lot of factors working against them, and they all line up well for Flacco and company.

Considering tight end juggernauts such as Jacob Tamme, Austin Hooper, and Jace Amaro have all racked up at least 50 receiving yards against the Raiders the past two weeks, it would seem obvious you'd want some exposure to Dennis Pitta. His 19.5% market share and 71.4% snap rate the first three weeks just make that a bit easier.

At receiver, there's not a lot of certainty, and that makes it hard to have overwhelming faith in either Mike Wallace or Steve Smith. They both do have their merits, though.

Smith looked cooked in Week 1, turning 8 targets into a whopping 19 receiving yards. Since then, though, he has 17 targets, resulting in 11 receptions for 151 yards. He has had a low snap rate all three games, keeping him in the risky realm, but he is still worthy of consideration.

Wallace is a bit of the opposite. He has been on the field plenty with his snap rate increasing each week, but he is still yet to exceed six targets in a single game. The value in Wallace is that his per-target efficiency has been superb and he has three of the team's four red-zone targets. This is enough to give him a slight edge over Smith, though Pitta may be the best target of all in the passing game.