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 16 Recap

If you set your lineups around our strongly suggested Star of the Week, Joe Burrow, you cashed some winnings last Sunday. If you stacked up Tee Higgins with him, you really banked in week number sixteen. Needless to say, it was a great week of DFS for the BetCrushers as we were 100% in on Joe Burrow, and he delivered with a whopping 525 yards passing and 4 touchdowns. It was important that we hit there, as our other high priced QBs didn’t really light things up in their respective matchups. Serious injuries to running backs James Robinson and Clyde Edwards-Helaire cut their days short, and of course Dalvin Cook was placed on the Covid-19 list. There were some other nice hits in our recommendations as well, including the late additions of Justin Jackson and Isaiah McKenzie, both of whom has pretty monster days as sleepers. After a few week stretch of mediocrity, it was nice to see our name at the top of the leaderboards again as we look to finish the season strong.

Who Made Us Look Brilliant?

• Joe Burrow – 525 Yards Passing, 4 Total TDs
• Mark Andrews – 125 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Tee Higgins – 194 Yards Receiving, 2 Total TDs
• Kyle Pitts – 102 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
• Justin Jefferson – 116 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
• Cooper Kupp – 109 Yards Receiving, 4 Yards Rushing, 0 Total TD
• Philadelphia Eagles DST – 10 Points Allowed, 2 Sacks, 2 Ints, 1 Total TD
• Isaiah McKenzie – 129 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Ronald Jones II – 65 Yards Rushing, 16 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Justin Jackson – 64 Yards Rushing, 98 Yards Receiving, 2 Total TDs
• Mecole Hardman – 35 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
  

Who Made Us Look Foolish?

• Drew Lock – 153 Yards Passing, 10 Yards Rushing, 0 Total TD
• Courtland Sutton – 33 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
• Matthew Stafford – 197 Yards Passing, 8 Yards Rushing, 1 Total TD

NFL Week 17 Preview

If there were a tagline for the upcoming week of Draftkings DFS it would have to be “don’t overthink it”. There are some quality players that have extremely juicy matchups that they should thrive in. Even though a lot of the public may be on some of these, don’t get too creative in trying to craft your roster. Pick a couple of players you really want to build around and then look for some sleepers that can vault you over the finish line. That may require waiting or swapping out with late injury/Covid news. You’ll notice there are some teams we like this week, including the Rams, Patriots and Cowboys. And you may want to pony up for a little better defense as there seems to be an even greater than normal gap between the matchup of top defenses and bottom choices. Our Star of the Week isn’t quite the slam dunk that Burrow was a week ago, but there is pretty much no reason outside of a huge lead and sitting in the 2nd half that would keep him from going off in his matchup. Read about him below, and check out the top plays at all positions.

STAR OF THE WEEK:

Even with some injuries mounting, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have one of the softest matchups of the weekend against the New York Jets. Tampa opens as a two touchdown favorite as they have some mismatches across the board. Although there are several, one of the biggest is the Tampa offensive line against the New York front seven. Additionally, the injuries in their secondary have hurt the team’s ability to support the run from the second level. The big and athletic offensive line of the Bucs should have their way in the run game, and with Tampa potentially without Mike Evans again, look for them to lean on the running game. Of course game script may come into play here as well, as there is a good chance that Tampa is up big in the second half. This is the type of road game they’d love to run the clock out on to get back on the plane and down to south Florida. We’re expecting a season high in yardage from Jones, and at least one score, with the possibility for multiple touchdowns very much in play.

PLAYERS WE’RE TARGETING:

Quarterbacks:

Tom Brady – $7,600 vs. Jets
Matthew Stafford – $7,100 vs. Ravens

Running Backs:

Jonathan Taylor – $9,000 vs. Raiders
Damien Harris – $6,600 vs. Jaguars

Wide Receivers:

Cooper Kupp – $9,500 vs. Ravens
CeeDee Lamb – $7,100 vs. Cardinals

Tight Ends:

Travis Kelce – $7,300 vs. Bengals
Rob Gronkowski – $6,200 vs. Jets

Defense / Special Teams:

New England Patriots – $3,900 vs. Jaguars

Quarterbacks:

Dak Prescott – $6,700 vs. Arizona Cardinals
Jalen Hurts – $6,600 vs. Washington Football Team

Running Backs:

Melvin Gordon – $6,200 vs. Chargers
Sony Michel – $5,800 vs. Ravens

Wide Receivers:

Amari Cooper – $6,600 vs. Cardinals
Hunter Renfrow – $6,500 vs. Colts

Tight Ends:

Hunter Henry – $4,200 vs. Jaguars
Tyler Higbee – $4,000 vs. Ravens

Defense / Special Teams:

Indianapolis Colts – $2,900 vs. Raiders

Quarterbacks:

Matt Ryan – $5,400 vs. Lions
Trey Lance – $4,800 vs. Texans

Running Backs:

Rhamondre Stevenson – $5,300 vs. Jaguars
Boston Scott – $4,900 vs. Washington Football Team

Wide Receivers:

Michael Gallup – $4,800 vs. Cardinals
Emmanuel Sanders – $4,200 vs. Falcons

Tight Ends:

Ricky Seals-Jones – $3,300 vs. Eagles
Albert Okwuegbunam – $3,000 vs. Chargers

Defense / Special Teams:

Denver Broncos – $2,600 vs. Chargers

If you play Daily Fantasy Football we love talking sports and 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!