5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 12

It's not hard to figure out what we as football fans should be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The schedule-making deities locked themselves into consideration there with the slate of island games they've brought us this week.

We started things off on Monday with the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs melting our faces off with arguably the best regular-season game in NFL history. We hyped that puppy up for months, and it still managed to make us shout obscenities in high-pitched voices at nobody in particular.

Then, Thursday involves some of the sport's biggest names. You've got Ezekiel Elliott, Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, and Khalil Mack all suiting up in one day. That's some sweet firepower as you digest the mountain of potatoes that has burrowed in your intestines.

This is great for us in the short-term. We get to watch exciting football played by some of the sport's top athletes. When the alternative is talking politics with your Uncle Frank, things look even sweeter.

There are long-term ramifications, though. With all the Thanksgiving players not on the main slate and the Rams and Chiefs on a bye, we're deprived of some of the big staples in our DFS rosters. We can't deliberate over how much Todd Gurley is too much, scramble to shove Travis Kelce into our cash-game rosters, or just plug in Patrick Mahomes and accept our 25 points. We actually have to put some thought into this.

As such, it's time to get back to basics and hone back in on our traditional process. Instead of worrying about getting throat-punched for fading Julio Jones, which plays objectively just make the most sense this week?

Part of that process does revolve around matchups, which we can evaluate with the help of numberFire's Net Expected Points (NEP). NEP is the metric we use to track the efficiency of both teams and players, looking at the expected points added or subtracted on each play throughout the year. This accounts for the massive difference between a three-yard completion on 3rd and 2 and a three-yard completion on 3rd and 4, helping us see which offenses truly operate in the most efficient manner.

We don't have our regular crutches entering this slate, but that doesn't mean we're completely devoid of players in smash spots. Which matchups should we be looking to exploit on the Week 12 main slate? Let's check it out.