Now that season-long fantasy leagues are completely over, it is
time to focus all of your efforts into the one-week contests. If
you have not done so already, this is a great time to get your season-league
mates involved as well. Set up a head to head with a buddy or a
private league with a handful of friends and let the battles continue.
Sure, you can play against plenty of random people, but isn’t
it more fun to trash talk and beat the people you know?
With the NFL playoffs upon us, you are probably wondering how
your thought process should change as you put together your DFS
lineup. The significant change is the amount of games and players
available for you to consider but the thinking should remain the
same. You will see that the contrarian players are not as contrarian
because of the limited choices and fewer permutations on how one
can construct a lineup. If you have dabbled in other daily games,
you might have experienced what this is like on a night when there
is a smaller slate of games. Here are some players to consider
you put together your lineup for this first week of the NFL playoffs.
Las Vegas scoring lines for Wildcard Weekend:
- Baltimore (21) at Pittsburgh (24)
- Arizona (15.75) at Carolina (22.25)
- Detroit (20.75) at Dallas (27.25)
- Cincinnati (23) at Indianapolis (26)
Bye: Seattle, Green Bay, New England,
Denver
Salaries: (FanDuel/DraftKings)
Quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger
(8,500/7,300) – Last time Big Ben played Baltimore in Pittsburgh
he threw for 340 yards and 6 touchdowns. With Le’Veon Bell
(knee) questionable to play, Roethlisberger should help shoulder
the load with close to 50 pass attempts against a Baltimore secondary
that continues to struggle.
Cam Newton (8,300/7,600) – Newton has played well of late
including averaging over 60 yards on the ground since his Week
12 bye. He has recorded a rushing touchdown in each of his last
three games. Arizona has given up top-three production to opposing
quarterbacks over the last month.
Running Backs
Justin Forsett averaged 7 yards per carry
in Week 17.
Justin
Forsett (7,000/6,100) – After a couple of down weeks, Forsett
was able to bounce back against the Browns last week in the season
finale. Based on the predicted game flow, Forsett should see a
decent amount of carries as well as a few catches out of the backfield.
Jonathan
Stewart (6,500/5,300) – There are not a lot of big-named running
backs available this week. Stewart is priced as the 7th RB but
has potential to show top-three production at the position against
an Arizona defense that has been giving up points to opposing
backs of late. Even with DeAngelo Williams (hand) set to return,
Stewart should continue to see the bulk of the carries.
Josh
Harris (5,600/3,500) – If Le’Veon Bell (knee) does not play,
the backups will provide some salary relief and upside potential.
For the price, I would gamble on Harris over Dri Archer (6,600/4,500).
This would be more of a tournament play than a cash game selection
for me. Newly acquired Ben Tate is not available this week on
the daily sites.
Wide Recievers
Kelvin Benjamin (6,900/5,900) – Benjamin is priced
as the 6th / 5th wideout this week, but at a considerable discount
to the players ahead of him. He is coming off a one-catch game
but he still saw a team leading five targets in a game Carolina
had in hand early. He will continue to be heavily targeted against
a Cardinals defense that has been slipping of late.
Steve Smith (6,400/5,000) – Smith has seen heavy usage
with 12 targets in each of the last couple of weeks. He has not
had a good yardage output and has not found the end zone against
the Steelers this year, but he does have 11 catches in those two
games. Based on the volume and Pittsburgh giving up top-ten production
to opposing receivers, Smith is a value gamble this week.
Markus
Wheaton (4,900/3,100) – As I mentioned with Roethlisberger
above, I expect Pittsburgh to throw early and often on Saturday
in the likely absence of Bell. Wheaton played 59% of the snaps
last week to Martavis Bryant’s 44%. Bryant will probably be heavily
owned because of his touchdown totals on the season, so I would
go move to the contrarian play at the cheaper price in this plus
matchup.
Tight Ends
Jason
Witten (5,400/4,500) – Witten does not have an exciting matchup
against the Lions this week, but he has seen a nice volume of
targets (22) and catches (18) over the last three weeks. As DeMarco
Murray’s hand continues to heal, I expect Witten to maintain that
target level.
Heath Miller (5,000/3,900) – Miller has a tough matchup
against a Ravens defense that is good against the position. With
the amount of passing I expect in Pittsburgh this week, Miller
should see a couple extra opportunities providing a decent scoring
floor in your lineup.
Defenses
Carolina (5,300/3,500)
Cincinnati (4,500/1,900)
Good luck this week!
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