Dec 22, 20243 min read

NFL DFS: Week 17 Slate Breakdown - Cash Lineup, Pivot Lineups, GPP Plays, Ownership and Values

Note Core Plays are always considered other plays (GPP only, or Cash Plays)

The player pool is listed below. Any updates for the slate will be called out in the Discord Chat.

Quarterbacks:

Core Play - I don't really like any QB as a Core Play this week. The Ownership projections mimic this as well with the ownership being spread out. In cash contests the QB slot should be field in last not first. Below are QBs I will be going out of my way to target.

Bryce Young - He has been improved lately, and with Hubbard out in this game, and the TB defense being terrible stopping the pass I am fine getting to Bryce Young running him out alone, even though you can easily play him with Adam Thielen.
Baker Mayfield - Besides playing poor against CAR last time out Baker seems to be a quality play, but it still feels like far from a lock especially when we are most likely getting to more of Bucky Irving.
Jordan Love and the Packers are all easy to stack on this slate, and they are playing in game that should be a high scoring one. It makes a lot of sense to get to love in GPPs.

QB Stacks:

Pickett: Brown, Smith
Love: Wicks (too cheap) Doubs or Reed.
Rodgers: Adams\
Young: Thielen
Baker: Jalen McMillan, Durham (TE)
Mason Rudolph (ugly): Ridley, and Spears (RB)

Running backs:

Core Plays - JT, Spears

RB seems very easy this week with the top two that we should be paying up for. With Anthony Richardson OUT we can expect a healthy, and more traditional workload for JT. This should create a nice floor for him, and we just saw his ceiling last week.
Spears without Pollard against one of if not the worst defense against opposing RBs seems like one of the easiest plays of the season especially at this price tag.
With Hurts OUT we can expect a healthy workload for Saquan, but the defense will be able to game plan for that this week. I feel like he is not as much as a lock to succeed as JT and Spears but if you do I would not blame you. I have been flip flopping between Irving and Saquan in my cash builds.

Cash Plays: Core + Bucky Irving, and Saquan

GPP Plays: Hall, Abdullah, Tracy Jr.

Now this GPP plays have been elite this year, all season exceed value on average, and all season not really resulting in a net gain because of how easy, and consistently the top RB plays have hit. So proceed with cation, but I could see all these RBs splashing this week to hold big upside.

Wide Receiver:

Core Plays - Wicks

Wicks is the player that benefits the most on offense with Christian Watson off the field. He has seen the biggest uptick in Fantasy Points, Snaps, and Targets per route. Wicks sees his fantasy score rise by 3.3 fantasy points scored with Christian Watson off the field. Plus Wicks is extremely cheap. Wick also had over 20 fantasy points in week 4 against the Vikings. The being said all the GB pass catchers are firmly in play at their prices. Going all three WRs, and Love should actually create a high floor with the cheap pricing. Jayden Reed averages around 2 more catches per game with Watson off the field as well, whereas Doubs production does not really spike, but Doubs is a in a great matchup at a cheap price tag.
After Wicks is where it gets tough we have the other 2 GB WRs, you have Jalen McMillan being too cheap, Calvin Ridley is in a good spot, both Michael Pittman, and Josh Downs bet bumps with Anthony Richardson OUT, you have Adam Thielen, and Jakobi Meyers are cheap prices, and great matchups that should both continue to hit value. I will be using my WRs/QBs in stack heavily this week. We also get Jalen Tolbert too cheap with Ceedee Lamb out.

Cash Plays - McMillan, Downs, Meyers, Thielen, Reed, and Jefferson

Values (Sub 5K):

Parker Washington, Wicks, McMillan, Tolbert

Tight End:

Core Plays / Values: Ferguson, Durham, Hockenson, Kraft, Bowers

I do think we want to be getting to pieces of the GB/MIN game going with Hockenson or Kraft is a nice way to go about doing that.
Durham is a great value if you need to punt a sub 3K TE play.
Ferguson feels like the safest play this week.