Daily fantasy football continues to climb in popularity as jackpots have risen consistently and more fans are joining sites every week. Our weekly article showcases players to target at three general levels of value: The big dollar talent (Heavy Hitters), the average-priced contributors (Average Athletes), and the guys very questionable players at the bottom of the cost charts (Sneaky Sleepers). Our selected players are based on DraftKings values as that is our daily fantasy site of choice, but the values should translate fairly well to any other sites you may use. We don’t share specific lineups or optimized computer rankings, but we will give you some great candidates for you to consider. We set this breakdown up that way because while winning is great, a big part of the fun draw of daily fantasy is mixing and matching your lineups to see how you can maximize your team. That and the fact that we are trying to win the same way that you are, and quite frankly, we don’t want our readers to all have the same exact lineups.

NFL Week 11 Recap

Fantasy football has really skewed the way that the average fan views the sport, and in reviewing how week 11 played out for us, it really brought that to light.  Our Star of the Week was Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who truthfully had a pretty dreadful day.  He was inaccurate, made some bad decisions, and really hurt his team when you look at the game in its entirety.  For fantasy football purposes, he was pretty darn good, amassing 30 points in DraftKings behind some late running, garbage passing yards and touchdowns.  Unfortunately, the rest of the players we ended up spending our money on, did not perform by and large.  The biggest regret on our rosters was stacking Jones in a sideways manner with his running back, Saquon Barkley.  Somehow, the giants runner was unable to get anything going against the Lions, and even lost a late TD to his backup, making his afternoon a complete dud.  Who would have guessed that Jones would produce for our team at the same time that Saquon would let us down?  There were a couple of nice performers for us in our good lineups and several let downs as well that you can review with us below.

These Players Made Us Look Good:

Daniel Jones – 341 Yards Passing, 50 Yards Rushing, 2 Total TDs
Cordarelle Patterson – 52 Yards Rushing, 7 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
Devin Singletary – 86 Yards Rushing, 12 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
New England Patriots DST – 3 Points Allowed, 6 sacks, 1 Total TD

These Players Made Us Look Foolish:

Saquon Barkley – 22 Yards Rushing, 13 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
Nick Chubb – 19 Yards Rushing, 48 Receiving, 0 Total TD
Justin Jefferson – 33 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
Dameon Pierce – 8 Yards Rushing, 9 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD

NFL Week 12 Preview

There are a lot of sneaky good players you can get a bargain this Sunday, and some average players that should put up some big statlines.  In fact, some of the bigger names have tougher individual matchups, so if there’s ever a case to be made about playing a balanced lineup it’s probably this weekend.  That includes quarterbacks as well, and as always, pinpointing one of the highest-scoring QBs is going to be crucial.  With so many favorable options at the position, do your research more with that position than any, as that will probably make or break your lineup.  We’re probably just as perplexed at the quarterback position as you are, but we can give you a running back as our Star of the Week to get into your lineups.

Before we highlight our three levels of talent, let’s look at our projected star of the week:

STAR OF THE WEEK:

The Arizona Cardinals have had a disappointing season as a team, and that has trickled down to running back James Conner. The Cards lead back has missed a few games with injury, and has been pretty average when he has been on the field. He’s averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, and 12.6 fantasy points per game. It’s tough to put that all on Conner, as his offensive line has been banged up and overall pretty poor, and the Cardinals have been behind in several of their games. Sunday is an opportunity to change that for Conner, when he is the tenth most expensive running back at $6,600. The Cardinals will host the Los Angeles Chargers, the team surrendering the third most fantasy points to opposing running backs, and allowing nearly five and a half yards per carry. They’re also missing four players on the interior of their defensive line, which is where Conner primarily likes to operate. On the Arizona side, the team is basically leaning fully on Conner at this point in the running game, as he really doesn’t have anyone to share carries with at this point in the season. It’s also possible that Kyler Murray and Marquise Brown could return making the Cardinals a difficult team to defend as a collective group. We’re anticipating all of this adding up to Conner’s best performance of the season including a minimum of one touchdown.

Quarterbacks:

Justin Herbert – $7,000 vs. Cardinals
Joe Burrow – $6,700 vs. Titans

Running Backs:

Austin Ekeler – $8,500 vs. Cardinals
Josh Jacobs – $7,700 vs. Seahawks

Wide Receivers:

Tyreek Hill – $8,800 vs. Texans
DeAndre Hopkins – $7,700 vs. Chargers

Tight Ends:

Travis Kelce – $7,700 vs. Rams
Gerald Everett – $4,400 vs. Cardinals

Defense / Special Teams:

Denver Broncos – $3,800 vs. Panthers

Quarterbacks:

Geno Smith – $6,000 vs. Raiders
Jimmy Garoppolo – $5,600 vs. Saints

Running Backs:

Jeff Wilson, Jr. – $5,900 vs. Texans
D’Onta Foreman – $5,500 vs. Broncos

Wide Receivers:

Amari Cooper – $6,400 vs. Buccanneers
Terry McLaurin – $5,800 vs. Falcons

Tight Ends:

David Njoku – $3,600 vs. Buccaneers
Foster Moreau – $3,400 vs. Seahawks

Defense / Special Teams:

Carolina Panthers – $3,000 vs. Broncos

Quarterbacks:

Taylor Heinecke – $5,300 vs. Falcons
Davis Mills – $5,200 – vs. Dolphins

Running Backs:

Rachaad White – $5,100 vs. Browns
Latavius Murray – $5,000 vs. Panthers

Wide Receivers:

Curtis Samuel – $5,000 vs. Falcons
Zay Jones – $4,600 vs. Ravens

Tight Ends:

Tre McBride – $3,100 vs. Chargers
Austin Hooper – $3,000 vs. Bengals

Defense / Special Teams:

Kansas City Chiefs – $2,800 vs. Rams

If you play Daily Fantasy Football, we’d love to hear your take and who you like each week. Find us on Twitter @TheBetCrushers and let us know. Good luck and enjoy the weekend!