Dalvin Cook and Joe Mixon’s 62.30 combined points did the heavy lifting last week. Pats-Steelers surprisingly turned into bit of a defensive struggle, thus killing the upside of the Brady-Edelman-Vance McDonald game stack. They finished with 39.46 points combined. Randall Cobb and Corey Davis chipped in (or not) 3 catches for 30-ish yards each. The Bills held the Lions to 13 points but lacked the counting stats and ended with a blah 4 points. As a whole the lineup ended up with a disappointing 127.46 points.
We’ve got some work to folks…on to week 16.
QB Aaron Rodgers @ NYJ
Rodgers has a pedestrian season by his standards and is coming off a 14-point game. He also has injury concerns coming into the game. 2 factors that will likely steer many people away from what is a very good matchup. The Jets have given up the 11th most points per game to QB’s on the season and clearly look like a team ready for a vacation defensively.
DraftKings salary: 6,300
RB Zeke Elliott vs. TB
Tampa Bay’s defense has been a lot better since the firing of Mike Smith but they are still getting hammered in the run game. They give up the 6th most points per game to opposing running backs due largely to the 4.8 yards per carry they give up. Even coming off a scoreless game versus Indy, Dallas has a real chance to control this game. Even if the script isn’t quite to the Cowboys liking, Zeke’s pass game work keeps his touches intact. This could be a 150-total yard, multiple TD kinda day for Elliott.
DraftKings salary: 9,000
RB Marlon Mack vs. NYG
Mack’s 139-yard rushing performance versus a very good Dallas defense was one of last week’s mild surprises. Now he gets a very exploitable Giants defense that gives up the 7th most points per game to running backs. Odell Beckham is likely to miss this one and sustainable drives will probably be few and far between. We should be looking at a repeat performance from Mack this week and this price it’s absolutely stealing.
DraftKings salary: 5,500
WR Davante Adams @ NYJ
This is the easiest stack of the week. After watching the shredding of this defense by DeAndre Hopkins and knowing Adams’ track record, it’s pretty difficult to imagine a scenario where he doesn’t produce big in this spot. Only 2 teams give up more points to fantasy receivers than the Jets. We’ve seen Adams kill it in much worse spots.
DraftKings salary: 8,500
WR Alshon Jeffery vs. Hou
Who knew Nick Foles was all it took!? Jeffery had it all going last week and I’m riding the train until the price tag says otherwise. If he’s going to be peppered with targets in this fashion in a game, I fully expect the Eagles to struggle to run in, it’s easy to see a potential repeat performance. The Texans have played well against receivers on the year as a whole but injuries at cornerback has compromised their ability to keep that up.
DraftKings salary: 5,300
WR Tim Patrick @ Oak
The former Raven has picked up all the production we expected from Cameron Sutton when Demaryius Thomas was traded to the Texans and Emanuel Sanders was lost to injury. He’s got double digit fantasy points in back to back games and now faces an improving but still shaky Raiders secondary with zero pass rush to support it. My favorite mid to lower range priced receiver this week.
DraftKings salary: 4,000
TE Evan Engram @ IND
This is an opportunity and scheme play for me. Engram will likely be the preferred target of Eli Manning versus the Colts predominately zone-based defense. His snaps and routes have been up since he returned from injury and his splits without Odell Beckham have always been more favorable. Could easily wind up being a double-digit target game for Engram.
DraftKings salary: 4,600
Flex Kalen Ballage vs. Jax
Sparq’s twitter rejoiced when Ballage ripped off that 75–yard TD run yard last week and it looks like he could see workhorse usage this week since the coaching staff doesn’t like Kenyan Drake. The Jags are a lighter defense that’s show vulnerability in the run game. Fair or not once you give up the type of run they did to Derrick Henry I feel different about you, at least for the rest of the current season. Ballage at the price point is an easy flier even if shares the work.
DraftKings salary: 3,700
Def Vikings @ Det
The Bills couldn’t pull it off last week so I have to send Mike Zimmer in to get it done. Again, the Lions offense is injury decimated and generally bad and I don’t see the Vikings have the problems the Bills did as far as accumulating the counting stats need to cash in. This is always a surprisingly low salary for this opportunity. 2nd times a charm, right?
DraftKings salary: 2,900
