What’s up everyone and welcome to Ben’s Building Blocks! If you’ve never read my content before, welcome. To those that have, welcome back. I truly appreciate everyone that reads and supports during NFL season. This article is designed for me to highlight the top plays of the week, and my overall player pool for the main slate. Obviously, things can change rapidly in the NFL with injury news on the weekends, so I would be sure to subscribe to our premium package for access to my Final Thoughts cheat sheet, our premium discord channel and my core plays. Our Core Plays product gives you the ability to tail all of our analysts in your contests each week. We do the work for you, and you simply plug and play with our premium Core Plays. With that being said, let’s hop into the playoffs…

Saturday

Elijah Mitchell

It’s pretty clear the most single-entry / cash game builds for the two game slate are going to feature three running backs — those being Austin Ekeler, Christian McCaffrey and Travis Etienne. I think all are strong plays, and that is probably the optimal build path. That being said, if you’re trying to separate your roster on a two game slate – you have to play a little weird and I like the idea of pairing CMC with Eli Mitchell on the same team. It’s going to be a very wet game it appears between the 49ers and Seahawks…and I really don’t see how anyone expects the Seahawks to win this game. San Francisco’s defense is too good in my opinion, and Seattle has been exposed down the stretch of the season. Anyways, I do think that the 49ers will be winning this game in the second-half and that could lead to huge days for their running game. I think it’s unlikely that they just pound CMC all day in a game they should easily win – and we’ve seen Eli Mitchell mix in a lot even behind McCaffrey. I think double-digit carries are in play for Mitchell this week against a bad run-defense — and I would even consider betting his over on rushing yards. Pairing them together gives you room to spend-up elsewhere and attack the passing games more in the JAX/LAC game.

Colby Parkinson

Parkinson is another cheap option that allows you to fit in whatever build you want. He also correlates well with our CMC/Mitchell pairing without having to spend a ton of salary on a wide receiver. Will Dissly is still out for Seattle and Noah Fant has been injured himself. Parkinson and Fant have basically been in a timeshare at TE — but Parkinson paces Fant in both targets and routes the last few weeks. He’s under $3K on DK and if he happens to find the end-zone you would likely need him to win any tournaments.

I think Trevor Lawrence is the best QB play on the slate – and I’ll be looking to pair him with one or two pass catchers and running it back with Austin Ekeler and Keenan Allen — both of whom are locks for me with no Mike Williams.

Sunday 

Daniel Jones

Jones will definitely be a popular selection on the Sunday three-game slate, but he’s my favorite choice and fits the best into my early builds. He recently excelled in this exact match-up — these teams met on Christmas Eve resulting in 334 passing yards for Jones…his second-highest mark of the season. Minnesota made some defensive adjustments down the stretch of the season, but they still rely heavily on schemes that Jones and Brian Daboll have punished this season. This game also features the highest O/U on the entire weekend at 48.5 – and a shootout is definitely in the range of outcomes. Overall, he has legitimate rushing upside and this is one of the few spots we’ve seen him excel as a passer as well. I think the Giants win this game, and if that’s the case, Jones is going to have to put up a solid day.

Jeff Wilson Jr + James Cook

Both running backs in this game provide a great source of value on a slate featuring Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Stefon Diggs and even Tyreek Hill as potential spend-ups at WR. Wilson will likely end up as one of the more popular plays — we can expect the Dolphins to lean on the run game even more with Skylar Thompson at QB and I think it’s pretty unlikely that Raheem Mostert plays in this game. Even at high-ownership, on a three game slate I won’t be passing on those savings at RB. As for Cook, he’s still technically behind Devin Singletary but I think we will see a lot of both of them this Sunday. Cook continues to look explosive when given opportunity, and if this game does get out of hand that’s even more reason for them to feature Cook in the second-half. Cooks’ snap-count has risen in each of the last two weeks and they’ve basically seen the same red-zone usage. I think Singletary is a strong option as well, but Cook seems like the more likely option to get more run if the Bills are handily winning which I think they will be.

Bold Call of the Week

Giants upset the Vikings and win outright!

Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)