It’s the last daily fantasy football weekend of the year—at least until September. Make your picks count.
It’s the last weekend of NFL DFS and we need to go out with a bang. Don’t worry about ownership this weekend because it’s a two-game slate, meaning that one player will be the difference between winning a tournament and not cashing. Three of the NFL’s top defenses going this weekend, which will lead to lower scores. Let’s look at the plays this weekend and remember if Nick Foles, Case Keenum or Blake Bortles can lead their team to the Super Bowl, we can take down a tournament.
Quarterback
Case Keenum, Minnesota Vikings
The Philadelphia Eagles struggle against the pass but excel against the run. Keenum will have to throw it if the Vikings want to win. As an Eagles fan, I hope he has the worst game of his career but If I am thinking with just the fantasy side of my brain, I can tell you that he has the best matchup out of all the quarterbacks. All four quarterbacks have risk but I believe that Keenum will have the best day out of all of them.
Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars
Bortles has scored over 16 fantasy points in seven of his last eight games. That is the kind of safety that I want in cash games and he will be the sneakiest play of the weekend. The Patriots will force Bortles to beat them with his arm but at his cheap price and guaranteed workload, he makes for a good play. I would much rather have a healthy Bortles going against an average Patriots defense then roster a banged up Tom Brady against the top defense in the league.
Running Backs
Dion Lewis, New England Patriots
Lewis has scored 23 or more fantasy points in three straight games. He is involved in every aspect of the Patriots offense and saw 10 targets last week. Brady is beat up and will look to dump the ball off to him. If the Jaguars have a weakness on defense, it is stopping running backs, especially ones that can catch the ball out of the backfield. He is the most expensive running back on DraftKings but he is worth the price this weekend. If you want to double-stack the Patriots’ backfield I would recommend that you pair him with James White.
Jerick McKinnon, Minnesota Vikings
Receiving threats out of the backfield like McKinnon are the only running backs who can give the Eagles defense trouble. I expect him to be heavily used in the passing attack. Most players will avoid the Vikings backfield altogether. McKinnon is a risky but contrarian play.
Wide Receiver
Danny Amendola, New England Patriots
The Patriots would be smart not to attack the best cornerback duo in the league in Jalen Ramsey and A. J. Bouye. The good thing for Amendola is that he should avoid seeing either one of them for most of the game. Amendola saw 13 targets last week and caught 11 of them for 112 yards. He is the perfect play this weekend because of the PPR scoring on both FanDuel and DraftKings. He will be the lowest-owned Patriot of the weekend and he could have the best game. This is another way to be different with your lineup and he has the upside to win us a tournament.
Mack Hollins, Philadelphia Eagles
Mack Hollins is the fastest player on the Eagles and I wouldn’t be surprised if they take some long shots down the field to him. The Eagles will have to keep the Vikings secondary from getting too comfortable and Hollins will be able to stretch out the field. He has a better chance of getting us zero than making a big play but scared money doesn’t make money. If you are playing multiple lineups, I would throw Hollins in there to free up cap space and if he scores a touchdown, you will win money. If not, his low price won’t hurt you too much.
Tight End
Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots
I know it’s shocking that I am telling you to play Gronk but give me a chance to explain. In every playoff game that he has played in his career, he is averaging a touchdown a game. This isn’t a great matchup for him but it’s hard to stop a six-foot-six tight end who weighs 265 pounds and has some of the best hands in the league. Brady will target him no matter how many defenders are on him. If Brady wants to get him the ball, he will get him the ball. Gronk will be 80 percent owned this weekend but if he goes off and you avoid playing him, you will have no shot at winning a tournament. Don’t get cute at tight end, pay up for Gronk.
Defenses
Every defense is in play this weekend. All have been top 10 defenses for most of the year and you can make a case to play any one of them. I am expecting both games to be low scoring. The Jaguars have been the number one scoring defense of the season and they are the lowest priced. Besides last week against a horrible Titans secondary, Tom Brady didn’t throw for more than 300 passing yards in six straight games. Minnesota is the highest price and the Eagles played it safe last week with Nick Foles with a bunch of short routes to eliminate mistakes. The Jags have been my defense almost every week and this is the lowest they have been priced, take a chance on Jacksonville and it could pay off.
