Lineup Advice: Week 12

Jeff Haverlack

Thursday Games

  • HOU @ DET
  • WAS @ DAL
  • BAL @ PIT

Bye:  None

Week 12

It’s Thanksgiving!  A day to be thankful for family, those close to us and for the blessings life has offered us.  Our world is changing.  Getting more complex.  This year in the United States I have witnessed and felt more division than at any before in this great nation of ours.  It’s disturbing, scary and sad.  For those of you outside the U.S., I would bet you have seen and feel the same.  Please take this week to be thankful, whether you celebrate this holiday or not, for all those close to you, the world we live in and the fact that a better tomorrow starts with each one of us.  Respect, nurture and cultivate.  We don’t have to agree, but we should always respect.  If every one of us lived by that simple axiom, what a different tomorrow would be.  If you would like to say what you’re thankful for in your question, it will do my heart good.  You’ll get an answer either way.

Whether you are leading your league, in the running or well out of it, please set you best lineups each week regardless of your record.  A league is only as good and as fair as each coach in it and it’s up to each of us to play our best lineups each week.  Hopefully tanking, sandbagging or poor sportsmanship doesn’t rear its ugly head in your league(s) – don’t be that guy/girl!  We all need to do our part.

Don’t get lazy.  This is a time to be grooming your roster for 2021 regardless of what state your team is in.  There are always opportunities at the end of the year to take advantage of upcoming free agency names, not only for the free agents themselves but for the players beneath them on the depth chart. A very selective addition of one or two names can have a profound impact in future years.

Good luck in week 12!

Please read the following….

To our knowledge, DLF is the only fantasy site that answers your specific lineup questions all seventeen weeks of the NFL regular season and into the post-season as well.  It’s just another feature we offer our valued premium subscribers.

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to all our premium members who support what DLF is doing here.  Without you, we wouldn’t still be here after 14 years!  There’s just far too much work and time involved in running a site like this and your support aids us tremendously by giving us the ability to attract and retain the best dynasty writers in the business.  Beyond that, it allows for solid hosting, tools, utilities, development, podcasts and the delivery mechanisms to get all that content to you.  Thank you again!

If you’re not a subscriber but use the DLF Forums, or have been interested in what we’re all about, there’s no time like now to give us a try.  I can personally guarantee you’ll be hard pressed to find another business, let alone one on the Internet, which cares about their members more and focuses on our value proposition like DLF.  That’s a personal commitment, to each of you, which has guided us from day-one!  We strive to keep our prices low so everyone can afford one of our membership options and, again, we can’t do what we do without YOU!

2020 Lineup Advice

From the first year we started offering “personalized” lineup advice to DLF members each and every week of the NFL season, our membership has grown many fold.  It’s no longer a simple or quick process.

Simply put, I wouldn’t have it any other way!  It’s part of our value proposition to each of you and, most importantly, it’s one of the ways I get to know our members individually.  Interfacing with each of you is what makes what we’re doing here so special, and we very much hope you see and enjoy that difference.  We’re a unicorn in the fantasy space.

But our growing membership base is forcing me to make a few changes to ensure I can keep up with the volume and still provide the quality input you’ve come to expect.  Rare are the questions which I can simply “pop off” an answer to.  With each one, I research up to seven different variables to arrive at my response and that takes time.

Please see below for my notes concerning this service for 2018.  I ask that you read them and hold to them toward helping me help more of you.  And, perhaps, helping me to keep my sanity.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• NEW: Please limit your text and questions.  DLF’s growth has been tremendous. Long (story) questions or questions involving multiple players and positions take a ton of time and I’m genuinely concerned about my ability to provide quality and timely advice.  I would love to be able to answer the old questions of old, but there just won’t be that much time. Please limit, in any way possible, you questions. I’m trying very hard to not limit questions to one per individual. 

• IMPORTANT:  If any of your questions involve players who play on Thursday night, please put “TNF” on the first line by itself at the top of your question.

• If at all possible, please don’t submit your question until AFTER the Thursday night game, unless it involves a player playing on Thursday night.  This allows me to concentrate on the TNF game first while also allowing more time for injury news from the previous week.  Because of the popularity, I answer questions as they come in and much can change in a few days.

• Because of our comment system, it’s VERY easy to miss your response(s) to my advice.  I don’t get alerts to new questions or responses you make to my response to you.  I have to physically scroll from top to bottom each time to look for responses.  Depending on the number of questions each week, I may miss any response to my advice.  When in doubt, make a new entry at the bottom and reference your earlier question if needed.

• Scoring System – Let me know if your league is PPR, non-PPR or if there are any unusual scoring rules that would affect the advice.

• I always like to see what YOU are thinking on your question(s) first. On those “coin-flip” plays, as I call them, knowing which way you are leaning helps me.

• My crystal ball isn’t perfect and I can assure you I “feel” any advice which ends up being incorrect.  I do often go back and check my last week’s advice.  I’m very proud of my track record and like to think I’m more accurate than the “Magic 8-Ball” approach but, in the end, it’s only an guess.  An educated guess, but still only a guess.  Go easy on me.  I’m hard enough on me for both of us.

• I cannot be the coach of your team and all advice is just that:  “advice.”  Ultimately, the decision is yours to make and you should always be fully accountable to that.  Look to me as that little person on your shoulder chiming in with his thoughts.

• Do NOT wait until game-day to ask your questions!  Life here at DLF can be very busy as is my life away from DLF.  Waiting until game day runs the risk of not getting a response.  I always make an attempt to check before kick-off on game day, but I can’t guarantee it.  It’s always best to give me at least 24 hours.

• It’s not uncommon for me to answer questions out of order due to injury status of a mentioned player, players who play earlier in the week or any number of other reasons.  If it looks like I’ve skipped you, I likely have  saved you for later until I have more information.  It’s also possible your question is too long and I’m prioritizing other more easily answered questions.  Brief questions always get priority as I can answer more of them quickly.

• I rarely answer questions after kick-off of the first games on Sunday.   I often am away to watch the games and can’t guarantee I will/can check.  If I’m available and able, I do try to check in.

• HAVE FUN!  I so enjoy interfacing with each of you and look forward to  your comments to my advice while following along with how your team is performing. This game has a lot to offer us die-hard fans, so don’t let its twists and turns, injuries and/or run of bad luck remove any of the enjoyment.  Win or lose, there’s always next week or next year!

Good luck this year.  Fortune favors the bold – but there’s no substitute for preparation.  Now, let’s go have some fun!

jeff haverlack