Apparently healthy and heading into a game against his former team, Lions wide receiver DJ Chark is worth a look as a deep fantasy sleeper for Week 13.
It’s safe to say this season has not gone anywhere near as expected for DJ Chark in his first year as a Detroit Lion. Some early struggles to connect with Jared Goff were followed by a six-game absence due to an ankle injury.
Chark was worth a look as a late-round flier in fantasy football drafts, but he’s been parked on the waiver wire for several weeks now with no real appeal to be added back to rosters. At this point in the season, with the fantasy playoffs coming, he’s not someone easy to rely on in a fantasy lineup outside of narrow circumstances.
In his second game back from his ankle injury, Chark played 52 snaps against the Buffalo Bills in Week 12. He had just two catches for 16 yards on five targets in the game, but he did have a touchdown. If Goff had a made a better throw on a late 3rd-and-1 play that became a topic of conversation, Chark would have had more yards and perhaps another touchdown.
Lions wide receiver DJ Chark is a deep fantasy sleeper for Week 13
Chark gets a revenge game angle in Week 13 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But the Jaguars are also a good matchup, in the bottom-10 of the league in fantasy points per game allowed to wide receivers this season with 17 touchdowns allowed to the position.
Lions-Jaguars on Sunday has one of the highest over-unders on the Week 13 slate, 51 or 51.5 depending on the sportsbook (odds subject to change). There’s appeal to a wide swath of fantasy options in the game, beyond the obvious starts on either side.
Chark is cheap in DFS this week ($3,800 on DraftKings, $5,300 on FanDuel), and he’s widely available in season-long fantasy leagues (15 percent rostered on Yahoo!; 18.8 percent rostered on ESPN). As a discount DFS play, or a lineup option in deeper redraft leagues, don’t forget about the former Jaguar this week.