DFS Showdown Tips: Browns-Ravens

By Matt Schauf 11:12am EST 12/14/20

The Ravens clobbered the Browns when these teams last met, all the way back in Week 1.

Lamar Jackson threw for 275 yards and 3 TDs on just 25 attempts, finding Mark Andrews for 2 scores and Willie Snead for the other. And there was still room for Marquise Brown to tally a 5-101 line (back before he officially ceded his “Hollywood” nickname in a Zoom ceremony).

J.K. Dobbins teased fantasy owners with a pair of rushing scores, while only running 7 times for 22 yards. Mark Ingram led that backfield with 10 carries (and just 29 yards).

The Browns found both Nick Chubb (60 yards on 10 carries) and Kareem Hunt (72 yards on 13 carries) running well, but fell too hopelessly behind to stick with them. And some dude named Odell Beckham Jr. dominated targets (10 of Cleveland’s 39 attempts), while barely impacting the stat sheet (3 catches for 22 yards).

Much has changed for both sides heading into the rematch. But 1 carryover: Austin Hooper’s irrelevance.

Let’s check the values ...

DraftKings

Austin Hooper is reportedly not expected to play tonight because of his neck injury. We’ll have to confirm that when the inactives come out, of course. But his absence would propel rookie Harrison Bryant back to prominence. Bryant caught 7 of 8 targets for 81 yards and 2 TDs over the 2 games Hooper missed for his appendectomy earlier this season. David Njoku trailed Bryant in playing time for each of those games but did draw 3 targets in each of them. His tiny salary and the matchup with Baltimore make him very interesting for DK showdowns. The Ravens have presented a slightly positive scoring matchup for TEs, compared with the 2nd-worst matchup for WRs and below average vs. RBs.

Don’t let the negative matchup scare you completely off Jarvis Landry, though. The veteran WR has faced Baltimore 9 times in his career, including 4 games with the Dolphins. Landry has fallen short of 5 receptions just once in those 9 games -- way back in 2015. With the Browns, he has caught 5+ passes and topped 60 receiving yards each time. That included lines of 8-167 and 7-74 last season.

Baker Mayfield, meanwhile, has averaged 37 pass attempts per game in 5 meetings with the Ravens, compared with 31.5 attempts per start against everyone else.

For more on all the prominent players, check our Week 14 rankings.

FanDuel

It’s hard to imagine building a lineup without Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews, especially in FD’s half-PPR scoring. Andrews has scored 5 TDs over just his past 3 meetings with Cleveland, drawing at least 6 targets in each of those contests. Overall, the Browns present the league’s 3rd most friendly TE scoring matchup this season.