For most of us, fantasy football championships are over (for some of us, we need to talk to our commissioner about changing championships to Week 17). The good news for all of us is that we have a full slate of DFS games with a TON of narratives that we can use to give ourselves an advantage. Yes, the average NFL fan doesn’t like the idea of teams potentially resting starters for Week 18 but, for us DFS junkies, that presents a lot of potential advantages. So let’s get to it!

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Top Tier:  the safest and most expensive guys available if you want to pay up

Mid Tier: affordable players that offer the best bang for your buck

Value Tier: the bargain bin players that are risky by nature but can have the huge upside in terms of value created

Fades: The guys we feel are the worst value proposition that you should actively avoid

 

SATURDAY TWO-GAME SLATE

There is a two-game slate on Saturday so we wanted to include some quick notes on how to attack it.

Top Tier

Travis Kelce - Obviously Kelce is always an option but he’s almost twice as expensive as any other player. If you do plan to build a lineup around him, he’s only 13.67% of your budget over on FanDuel vs. 15-17% on DraftKings and Yahoo.

 

Mid Tier

Evan Engram - The winner of this game wins the division. If the Titans lose, they are out. If the Jaguars lose, they have a backdoor chance at the wild card but they need a lot to happen. Both teams will be playing to win and it’s a good matchup for Engram. He’s 9% of your budget on DraftKings so this is who I like over there though he’s not bad on FanDuel at 9.67% (stay away on Yahoo, he’s 11.5% there). 

 

Value Tier

Chig Okonkwo -  We don’t love that he still splits snaps with Austin Hooper or that Ryan Tannehill is out but Josh Dobbs is an upgrade from Malik Willis from a passing perspective. He looked at Chig four times last week against a tough Dallas defense and this Jags defense is more manageable for tight ends. He’s much more expensive on FanDuel than the other two so this is the play I prefer on Yahoo (Kelce and Engram are expensive on Yahoo).

 

Bonus Dart Throw

Noah Gray - If you want to get dirt cheap, go Noah Gray. And by dirt cheap I mean he is the bare minimum on both Yahoo and DraftKings and the cheapest viable TE on FanDuel. We are chasing a random touchdown here but he has at least one catch in 12 straight games and he has 11 games this year with multiple targets which you don’t get in this price range. He’s played 50% of the snaps at least in his last seven games so he’s as good of an option as you will get for the bare minimum. 

 

Fade

Darren Waller - He hasn’t played more than 50% of the snaps in a single game since returning so I’m not sure why that would start now in a meaningless game with a backup quarterback.

 

SUNDAY MAIN SLATE

Top Tier

George Kittle - This play really doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining. Kittle had five touchdowns in his last three games. This week he gets the Arizona Cardinals who are a bottom two team vs. the tight end. And, since the number one seed in the NFC is technically all the line with the Eagles, Cowboys, and 49ers all playing at the same time, they 49ers should be playing to win (unless the Eagles get wayyy out in front). He’s around 12-12.67% of your budget on DraftKings and FanDuel but 14% on Yahoo so skip Yahoo for this one.

Mark Andrews - As of now, the Ravens might have a chance to win their division. The NFL’s decision on the postponed Monday Night game could affect that but, as of now, they are playing to win. If that changes, you’ll want to pay up for Kittle. Last week Andrews proved he still has it by catching all nine of his targets for 100 yards. The last time he played this Bengals defense, he caught eight of ten targets for 89 yards and a touchdown. He’s oddly cheap on Yahoo especially for an “elite” option. Here’s how his prices compare to George Kittle in terms of percent of your budget.

 

DraftKings

Yahoo

Fanduel

George Kittle

12%

14%

12.67%

Mark Andrews

10.8%

9.5%

11.83%





 

Mid Tier

Dallas Goedert - The Dallas Goedert story in fantasy football has been a tragic one. Not only did he get hurt, he returned to play two of the toughest tight end defenses in the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys. That should hopefully scare folks off for Week 18 where he plays a must win game against the New York Giants - a much more favorable matchup. And he should hopefully have his starting QB back. He’s between 9.5% and 10.3% on all platforms so a pretty well-rounded mid-range option anywhere. 

Gerald Everett - We usually don’t like Gerald Everett - especially now that Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, and Mike Williams are all healthy. Everett hasn’t played more than a 75% snap share all season. And this is technically a meaningless game for the Chargers as they are locked into their seed. But here’s the kicker: Everett has a clause in his contract that pays him an extra $250,000 if he catches five passes. That’s reasonable enough that there is a good chance they try to help him get that quarter mil. And, in this tight end landscape, at this price, we’ll take five catches any day. 
 

Value Tier

Cade Otton - Last week we liked Trey McBride against the Falcons and he delivered for us with 10 targets and a touchdown. A lot of folks are going to think about how the Buccaneers have nothing to play for and skip over someone like Otton with this great matchup but those folks probably didn’t see what Todd Bowles had to say. If you missed it, he said the starters are playing and went as far as to say “everybody that loves football, that loves to play, will play the game”. Tom Brady loves football and Cade Otton must too because he’s played 84% and 87% of the snaps in the last two weeks. Only catching two passes in each of the last two games will scare some gamers away but I look at the 13 targets over those two games and I’m fired up. He’s pretty affordable on all three platforms so not a bad option but we’re using the player below on Yahoo. 

Albert Okwuegbunam - This player has been an absolute ghost all season. And if you are wondering why, you aren’t alone. Here’s what interim head coach Jerry Rosburg had to say about Albert O, per Andrew Mason of DenverSports.com

With Greg Dulcich out, Okwuegbunam came out and had three catches on six targets, scoring a touchdown. He’s roughly the same price as Otton on DraftKings and FanDuel so pick you poising there but Yahoo still has him at the absolute bare minimum $10 which is a steal. 
 

Fades

Dawson Knox - I want no part of Dawson Knox going up against Kyle Dugger and the Patriots. He’s faced them six times and he’s yet to crack 10 DraftKings points. When they played earlier this year, Knox got blanked completely. Didn’t catch a pass. All set.  

Dalton Schultz - You might be tempted by Dalton Schultz in a must-win game at his price point this week but that to me is a trap. First off, he’s playing the Washington Commanders who are a top five defense vs. the tight end. The last time he played them he got three targets and didn’t catch a single one. On top of that, there is a chance the Cowboys could pack things up at halftime and bench starters. They are technically still in the hunt for the division and bye week but the Eagles play the Giants at the same time Sunday and they are 14-point favorites against the Giants who don’t have anything to play for. If that game gets out of hand, they might just pack it up and prepare for the Wild Card.

 

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