Thursday Fantasy Flier, Week 12: Let's talk Latavius Murray

Just for the record, the official position of this blog is that you can do without any Oakland Raiders in your fantasy lineup in Week 12.

In fact, if I were playing in a 10-team, 2-quarterback AFC West-only league, I might still look to avoid Raiders. The team ranks dead-last in the NFL in scoring (15.2 PPG), total yards (276.4 YPG), rushing offense (63.0) and yards-per-play (4.7). This is not exactly a ripe fantasy situation.

[Join FanDuel.com's $2.5M Week 12 fantasy league: $25 to enter; top 21,840 teams paid]

On Thursday, the league's least productive offense will face Kansas City's D, a unit that's allowed the second-fewest total points to opponents (17.1 PPG). KC ranks first in pass defense (201.6 YPG), and, incredibly enough, the team has not yet allowed a rushing touchdown.

So this is not an ideal week to load up on Raiders. (The last such week was in 2002.)

The Chiefs' defense is clearly a strong fantasy play on Thursday, and we shouldn't need to tell you that KC's ground game is stellar. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if Knile Davis delivered flex-worthy numbers. Personally, I do not possess the courage to start Alex Smith this week — he's averaging just 186.8 yards per game and has yet to throw a touchdown pass to a wide receiver, which is ridiculous. But it's worth noting that Smith had a 5-TD game when he last visited Oakland, connecting with Jamaal Charles for  four of the scores.

Dwayne Bowe is currently the most heavily targeted player in the NFL (62) who does not have a touchdown catch. He's not a recommended play, unless you're simply looking for six receptions and 60 yards. Travis Kelce leads his team in receiving scores (4), but he's been disturbingly quiet over the past two weeks (5-56-0). He remains in the starting discussion for fantasy purposes, but the September buzz has faded.

[Week 12 rankings: Quarterback | Running Back | Receiver | Tight End | Kicker | DST]

But enough about KC. We all basically understand Andy Reid's bunch, at least from a fantasy perspective. Let's return to the statistical wasteland that is the Oakland offense to discuss a back who might be looking at an enhanced role this week (we hope).

Latavius Murray had plenty of sleeper appeal during the offseason, before the Raiders decided to throw money at high-mileage/low-ceiling veteran RBs. Murray had a quality preseason for Oakland, gaining 134 yards on 30 touches and finding the end-zone against Seattle's varsity defense (pictured above). But when the real action began, he was barely a rumor. The Raiders finally handed Murray a supporting role in Week 11 against San Diego, and he was relatively impressive. He rushed for 43 yards on just four carries, adding three receptions for 16. If head coach Tony Sparano can be believed, Murray should see at least as much work this week:

Murray is one of those guys with a freakish combination of size and speed (6-foot-3, 225 pounds, 4.38), which gives him thrill-of-the-unknown appeal, despite the horrible team context. He's a capable receiver, he's not a fumbler, and he was a productive four-year player at Central Florida (19 TDs in 2012). Here's hoping he gets a long look on Thursday.

Oakland has an unfriendly rest-of-season schedule (and, again, the team rarely scores), so I'll make no promises about Murray's near-term fantasy potential. At the moment, he's no more than a deeper league stash, owned in only 13 percent of Yahoo leagues.