Week 13 DFS Picks: Tournament Plays

Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

It is not that 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 are just the players that come with some element of inherent risk, but they also 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 analyze the player selections and game writeups, but please refer to the Week 13 Worksheet for a detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Quarterback

Josh Allen ($9,400/$7,500)

There are plenty of ways Josh Allen can fail this week since this offense has been worse on the road, and Buffalo will be without both starting tackles, Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown.

But this slate is short on many of the top quarterbacks because they have already played.

There is not a quarterback on this slate who has the ceiling of Allen, so we cannot ignore him.

The Steelers have allowed 3 passing touchdowns in 3 of their past 6 games, including to Caleb Williams on Sunday.

The Steelers are still allowing a league-high 277.6 passing yards per game.

Jacoby Brissett ($7,600/$5,800)

I have some reservations this week about Brissett with Jamel Dean expected back for Tampa Bay, but the pass volume and fantasy points have consistently been here to keep taking shots.

Brissett turned in his sixth consecutive QB1 scoring week on Sunday, closing the week as the QB7 (18.7 points).

Brissett dropped back another 58 times on Sunday, his third game in a row with 50-plus dropbacks.

Since taking over as the starter, Brissett has dropped back 47, 46, 37, 53, 57, and 58 times.

Cam Ward ($6,400/$4,600)

We have seen some steps forward from Ward.

Since the firing of Brian Callahan, Ward has completed 64.5% of his passes (16th) for 6.4 yards per pass attempt (24th).

While he still ranks in the middle to the back of the position, he was completing a league-low 55% of his passes for 5.5 Y/A (32nd) before.

As a byproduct, he is averaging 221.8 passing yards per game (16th) over the past five weeks after 183.5 per game (30th) through six weeks.

Tennessee is starting to let him play a bit.

The Titans have thrown the ball 5% and 2% over expectations the past two weeks.

Ward has even started to run a bit.

He has scrambled on 8.5% of his dropbacks the past two games.

Ward’s two highest scoring weeks of the season have come these past two weeks against the Texans (13.1 points) and Seahawks (23.9 points).

Ward has not had an impressive season by any means, but he has faced a daunting slate, drawing the Broncos, Rams, Texans (twice), Colts (twice), Cardinals (when they were good), Patriots, Chargers, and Seahawks.

That is seven games against top-10 pass defenses for fantasy.

The Jaguars are 26th in passing points allowed per game (16.1), the lowest among the teams he has faced this season.

The Jags are a pass-funnel team, facing 37.9 pass attempts per game (3rd-most).

They have allowed six QB1 scoring weeks over their past seven games, which includes Geno Smith (26.3 points), Davis Mills (27.7 points), and Jacoby Brissett (18.7 points), all on the road.

Running Back