5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 11

Oakland Raiders Passing Offense

Allow me to publicly acknowledge that I'm way behind the ball on this one. Others have jumped onto the Oakland Raiders' bandwagon far before me, but I've decided to make sure that stops now. Here's why.

Heading into the season, I was bearish on buying into the Derek Carr hype. After all, he had one of the lowest Passing NEP marks in the league last year, only being out-gunned by fellow rookie Blake Bortles. There wasn't a whole lot of reason to be optimistic.

Because of this, even when there were indications that Carr had improved, I was hesitant about getting too invested. Even with the additions of Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree to the passing game, I didn't necessarily think that the team would be able to sustain its success. As the sample size has increased, though, they've been able to eradicate those concerns. It's time for me to admit I was wrong and get on board.

Entering Week 11, the Raiders sit fourth in Adjusted Passing NEP per play. Individually, Carr is sixth in Passing NEP per drop back of the 35 quarterbacks with at least 100 drop backs on the year. At this point in the season, it would be ignorant for me not to look at them as being a team that can sustain success. When they're facing a defense that sits 31st in Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP per play, it's time to go all in.

Some of you may be having violent flashbacks to last week when the Detroit Lions were able to largely shut down the Green Bay Packers' aerial attack. I'm right there with you, friend. Sure, it is possible that the Lions suddenly discovered the value of pretending to play pass defense over their bye week, but I'm willing to put more weight on a 10-game sample than one single game.

Of the top three pieces in the offense, I think all are very much in play. Carr's price is steeper than I would have hoped on FanDuel at $7,700, but I'm more than willing to pay that given the lack of solid alternative options. His $6,300 price tag on DraftKings is easy to stomach. Considering Detroit has allowed quarterbacks to top 18 FanDuel points eight separate times this year, Carr should have no trouble hitting value.

Choosing between Cooper and Crabtree isn't easy, but neither appears to be a bad choice. Cooper has seen at least nine targets in seven of nine games this year, including each of the past three. Crabtree still leads the team in targets with 85 (Cooper has 81), and his price is lower than Cooper at $6,500 on FanDuel and $6,000 on DraftKings (Cooper is $7,200 and $6,800 respectively). So, which do you go with?

I'd be inclined to lean Cooper. The main argument in favor of Crabtree is that he has seen the most red zone targets on the team with eight. However, he hasn't caught any of those, and Cooper has seen all three of his red zone targets in the past two weeks while Crabtree has seen one. If ownership in the Thursday contests is higher on Crabtree, then I'm 100 percent on board with stacking Carr and Cooper and going from there.