Every Sunday in the weekly fantasy chats, I get asked about my favorite plays of the week or who is my player pool that weekend for DFS.
This article series covers exactly that.
I will go through the players I am targeting as the tournament plays for all formats here. I will cover core players and games to target for stacks in other posts.
The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.
Week 17 DFS Content:
It is not that all tournament players cannot be used in cash games. If a player here works out for your team structure in cash games surrounding your primary core, use them.
These players just come with some element of inherent risk, but they are the primary players I still want to be ahead of the field on compared to the percentage of rosters they are projected to make this weekend.
I will have some analysis on the player selections and game writeups, but check out the Week 17 Worksheet for a fully detailed breakdown of the players and games.
Quarterback
Patrick Mahomes ($7,500 DraftKings/$8,000 FanDuel)
Mahomes is not an easy click at this point for gamers.
Mahomes ended last week as QB18 (16.7 points), the sixth time over his past seven games that he was not a QB1 scorer for fantasy.
Despite that, I have to go back to Mahomes this week because this Cincinnati defense has been that bad.
They just allowed a career-high 20.0 fantasy points to Mason Rudolph type of bad.
This Bengals defense is allowing a league-high 8.2 yards per pass attempt and 12.4 yards per completion.
They also are allowing 3.9 rushing points per game to quarterbacks, 25th in the league.
Mahomes has faced one defense this season worse than Cincinnati in passing points allowed per game, and that was the Chargers.
That was also the best fantasy week (33.0 points) for Mahomes in a game this season.
C.J. Stroud ($7,100/$7,800)
Reservations are shrouding Stroud in his first week coming back from a scary head injury.
That said, Stroud has plenty of upside here if there are no lingering effects from his concussion.
Stroud has been at his best when kept clean this season.
Under pressure, Stroud has completed 50.0% of his passes for 5.4 Y/A with just two of his touchdown passes.
When he has not been pressured, Stroud has completed 67.6% of his passes for 9.4 Y/A with 18 touchdown passes.
Tennessee is 24th in the league in terms of pressure rate (33.0%).
All of Stroud’s true spike weeks have come in spots we have attacked all season. His three weeks finishing higher than QB10 have come against Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, and Jacksonville.
This is another one of those spots.
The Titans are 22nd in passing points allowed per game (14.2).
Tennessee is allowing 7.5 yards per pass attempt (24th).
Derek Carr ($5,500/$7,000)
There is nothing new here.
We have been targeting the Buccaneers weekly since their bye in this space.
If you are looking to save some salary and still have some floor, Carr is the guy.
Carr has peeled off back-to-back top-10 scoring weeks.
This Tampa Bay defense is still one we are targeting for streaming.
They are allowing 15.4 passing points per game, 27th in the league.
The Bucs have allowed 7.6 Y/A (26th) and 11.6 yards per completed pass (27th).
Tampa Bay is blitzing 39.5% of the time (third in the league).
We highlighted it a couple of weeks ago, but Carr has been excellent against the blitz this season.
When blitzed, Carr is completing 67.1% of his passes (sixth in the league) for 7.7 Y/A (sixth) with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. His 100.5 rating when blitzed is ninth in the league.
The Bucs have allowed six QB1 scoring weeks since their Week 5 bye.
Tyrod Taylor ($4,600/$6,700)
If you want to try to cram in Christian McCaffrey with Kyren Williams or even attempt to add another front-end wide receiver, you are going to have to play Jarrett Stidham, Jacoby Brissett, or Taylor to give yourself the cap space to do so.
I prefer Taylor to that group.
Taylor started and finished two games earlier in the season, finishing as QB20 (10.4 points) against the Bills and QB6 (21.7 points) versus a Commanders defense we have targeted all season.
Taylor has some rushing ability, posting 24, 25, 33, and 21 yards on the ground over his past four appearances.
The Giants have a minuscule team total, but the Rams have shown some vulnerability defensively to close the season.
Los Angeles has allowed 18.9 passing points per game over their past five games after 12.2 per game prior.
The Rams are also allowing 4.1 rushing points per game to quarterbacks (27th) to provide some added points for gamers using Taylor here.
