Every Sunday, 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 18 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 18 Worksheet for a fully detailed breakdown of the players and games.
Quarterback
Dak Prescott ($8,000 DraftKings/$8,700 FanDuel)
I am handling the Cowboys more through a tournament lens this week rather than locking them into core plays.
I want to onslaught their offense in certain small-field tournaments and run Prescott paired with CeeDee Lamb in other larger-field games.
If the Dallas starters do get pulled, it will be because their offense scored a ton of points to put them comfortably in control of securing the division and home-field advantage to open the postseason.
Prescott leads the NFL with 32 touchdown passes.
Prescott was QB3 (32.2 points) when these teams played in Week 12, completing 22-of-32 passes for 331 yards (10.3 Y/A) with four touchdowns.
Washington is 31st in the NFL pressure rate.
When they did not pressure Prescott in Week 12, Dak was 21-of-24 passing with three of his touchdowns.
Washington has allowed a league-high 18.8 passing points per game this season, allowing 12 QB1 scoring weeks on the season with eight top-six scoring weeks.
Justin Fields ($7,200/$8,400)
I wrote up some negative points in the Worksheet on Fields and this matchup that prevents me from going all in as a DFS anchor this week, but there is no denying his ceiling potential on this slate filled with backup starters.
From a tournament perspective, that is the angle we are chasing.
Ending last week as QB3 (25.2 points), Fields has now been a top-five fantasy scorer in three of the past four weeks.
He has delivered four QB1 scoring weeks over his six starts since returning to the lineup in Week 11.
They did rally on Sunday night to shut down the Minnesota passing game led by Jaren Hall and then Nick Mullens, but the Green Bay defense had allowed back-to-back top-10 scoring weeks to Baker Mayfield (29.0 points) and Bryce Young (22.2 points) over their two games before last week.
Tyrod Taylor ($5,300/$7,000)
Taylor is once again on the table as a pay-down quarterback in DFS.
His price has not climbed heavily on either primary DFS site.
Taylor has delivered two QB1 scoring weeks over three full games played.
The Eagles are 31st in the NFL in passing points allowed per game (18.5) in games that they are playing 100% all out this season.
Taylor had 9.4 fantasy points in the second half against the Eagles two weeks ago.