Welcome in to a new year of Ben’s NFL DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite NFL DFS plays at each position for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections, Final Thoughts player pool + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our plethora of AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my weekly betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
It was an amazing start to the NFL season with my premium Core Plays taking down tournaments on the first slate of the season!
This will be a condensed version of my article for the Week 12 main slate. Be sure to tune into the Sunday morning livestream for any updated last thoughts on the slate!
Quarterback
Highest pOWN% QB’s: Jalen Hurts, Tyrod Taylor, Brock Purdy, Jacoby Brissett
My Conviction Plays: Brock Purdy, Lamar Jackson, Tyrod Taylor, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young
We have a good mix of expensive and cheap QB’s this week – with Hurts and Tyrod Taylor looking like the highest owned plays as of Saturday. This will lead to two chalkier build paths – one with a stars/scrubs construction around the cheaper QB/WR stack.
My favorite game on the slate is MIA/BAL – checking in with a 46.5 total and a match between two teams that we have seen shoot out vs each other in recent seasons. This is a huge game for Baltimore when it comes to the potential of the number one seed – so I’m expecting Todd Monken and the offense to be in their bag on Sunday.
I also love this bounce-back spot for Brock Purdy and the 49ers offense. WAS has been one of our top targets for QB stacks all season and I could see the 49ers coming out and hanging 35+ points here in a post-loss statement. I’ve loved playing Purdy this season because you know where to stack him – and he is one of the top-overall options for me in Week 17.
If you aren’t looking to spend-up – I would rank the cheap options as Tyrod Taylor first followed by Bryce Young. Jacoby Brissett is projecting better and higher-owned than Young, but I’m concerned that he isn’t a very mobile guy and is dealing with what appears to be a pretty serious hamstring injury. He’s listed as GTD for Sunday. Taylor has always been a good fantasy QB and is priced too cheap given that he will start for NY. Young is coming off the best game of his young career with 300+ passing yards and two TD’s. Don’t look now, but the Jaguars are allowing the MOST DK points per game to opposing QB’s this season. Their defense has fallen off a cliff as of late – and I think Young stacks are firmly in play for me in GPPs this weekend.
Running Back
Highest pOWN% RB’s: Christian McCaffrey, Zamir White, Zeke Elliott, Kyren Williams, Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley
My Conviction Plays: CMC, Zamir White, Kyren Williams, D’Andre Swift, Travis Etienne
Last week I had a massive running back pool due to the lack of surefire options and emphasis on the mid-tier pricing range. This week, we have some truly elite chalk options and you should just prepare yourselves for the inevitable tweets on Sunday afternoon about the chalk always getting there. CMC needs no introduction, we know the case with him each week and he is currently the top projected player on the slate. Play him, it’s that simple. After him, we get another Zamir White game with Josh Jacobs listed as doubtful. White has looked great in his action over the last few weeks, he doesn’t have an elite pass catching role, but he is going to get fed touches on a run-first team and seems to have a firm handle on goal-line work as well. I prefer him to Zeke Elliott. Kyren Williams is also basically a mini-CMC in his role, for less salary. He’s a top option for me in all formats and I will 100% be looking to spend up at RB this week across all my contests.
As for the lower-owned plays I really like – I’m focused on both D’Andre Swift and Travis Etienne. Swift has ran extremely bad with touchdowns this season, even getting tackled at the one last week. This is a soft match-up, and grabbing him gets me some PHI exposure while allowing me to save money at QB. He is my favorite TD bet on the slate as well.
I also like Etienne with Trevor Lawrence out. He could be featured here vs a leaky run-defense, and he can be used as a one-off or as the run-back in a Bryce Young stack.
Wide Receiver
Highest pOWN% WR’s: Rashee Rice, Rashid Shaheed, Pop Douglas, Tyreek Hill, Zay Flowers, Chris Olave, Brandon Aiyuk, Wan’Dale Robinson, Curtis Samuel
My Conviction Plays: Tyreek Hill, Zay Flowers, Chris Olave, Nico Collins, Rashee Rice, Puka Nacua, Michael Wilson
The chalk looks really good this week, with Tyreek Hill, Chris Olave, Zay Flowers and Rashee Rice being potentially my four favorite plays on the slate. As I noted above, MIA/BAL is far and away my favorite game on the slate and it’s really tough to ignore the role Rice is in with the lack of quality WR’s around him. It’s going to be tough to fit both CMC and Tyreek into builds together which is going to leave most people choosing just one of them. This is why I think it’s more viable to look at some of the cheaper stacks this week if you aren’t using Purdy. Building through Tyrod or Brissett allows to jam both studs into a small-field lineup.
I’ll be stacking Lamar with Flowers + Tyreek.
My other preferred spot this week is Brock Purdy + Brandon Aiyuk and you could include CMC or George Kittle as well. WAS allows the second-most fantasy points to opposing QB’s and I think it’s a huge bounce-back spot for SF.
For GPP pivots, I like considering some of the upper mid-range like Nico Collins. Nico gets a nice boost with Stroud back, and has absolutely dominated at home in Houston this season.
If risking a Bryce Young stack, I would look at Chark or Mingo over Adam Thielen.
Tight End
Highest pOWN% TE’s: Gerald Everett, Trey McBride, Dalton Schultz, Chig Okonkwo
My Conviction Plays: Trey McBride, Dallas Goedert, Isaiah Likely, Travis Kelce
It’s another week with Trey McBride on the main slate, meaning it’s another week that he’s my top-overall option in all formats. He’s going to be less owned this week than recently due to his near-$6K price tag, but I’m more than comfortable paying $6K for the best tight-end in fantasy football against a team that has historically struggled in tight end coverage. Everett will likely be the chalky play in cash games, but McBride will be my favorite play of the week followed by Goedert and Likely.
I played Goedert aggressively on the Christmas slate and expect him to continue to be heavily involved for the Eagles who have really struggled offensively – especially with deep shots as of late. Swift is arguably my favorite play on the slate, but I would be looking at Goedert in any non-Swift lineup and he is my favorite stack with Hurts.
Much as been made about how bad Cincy is against TE’s this season. If there was ever a spot for Kelce, it’s this week. I wouldn’t go overweight here, but this is the lowest ownership we’ve gotten on him in a smash spot maybe ever.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
