Welcome in to a new year of Ben’s NFL DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite NFL DFS plays at each position for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections, Final Thoughts player pool + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our plethora of AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my weekly betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
It was an amazing start to the NFL season with my premium Core Plays taking down tournaments on the first slate of the season!
Teams that need to win/playing motivated football: Jaguars,Vikings,Falcons,Saints,Bucs,Eagles,Cowboys,Packers,Seahawks
Quarterback
Highest pOWN% QB’s: Dak Prescott, Geno Smith, Nick Mullens, Jalen Hurts
My Conviction Plays: Dak Prescott, Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor
As I said on this weeks video, Week 18 is essentially its own season compared to the last 17 weeks of NFL DFS we have played. If you haven’t already, I would recommend watching me walk through my favorite plays HERE.
We know which teams will be motivated to win and which ones aren’t playing for anything, which I highlighted above. As for QB, early week it looked like Nick Mullens would far and away be the highest-owned QB on the slate. As the week has progressed, it appears that Dak/Geno will take a majority of the ownership. Mullens is still popping, but I’m becoming increasingly more concerned he won’t play the entire game. He was benched for Jaren Hall last week, with Hall earning the start, and then came in at half for Hall after he struggled. It’s already been announced that Josh Dobbs will back up Mullens this week, and I think there’s a strong chance we see Dobbs in this game if Mullens turns the ball over…something he’s done in every game this season that he’s started. That being said, Mullens is much lower on my list today than he was on Wednesday.
I’m in agreement with the chalky plays this week, both Dak and Geno are motivated to win here and both are in elite match-ups against Washington and Arizona respectively. I also really like Justin Fields this week, as the Bears look to play spoiler and keep Green Bay out of the playoffs. Green Bay lost Week 18 at home to DET last season, eliminating them from the play-off race and marking the end of the Aaron Rodgers era in Wisconsin. I think we could see the same fate here, Chicago has been playing lights out football and are only three point road dogs here. Fields has been playing out of his mind with his job on the line, and he’s my favorite QB for GPP formats this week – with Fields/Dak/Geno being my preferred three-max pool as of now.
Along with those three, I like Tyrod Taylor against a beatable PHI secondary. We have attacked PHI with QB’s all season, and Taylor has looked like a viable fantasy option when starting – eclipsing 300 passing yards last week vs the Rams.
I also want to note that Jeff Driskel is starting for the Browns, and anytime we get a $4K min-price QB we have to consider them an option in GPPs.
Running Back
Highest pOWN% RB’s: Tony Pollard, Zamir White, Jordan Mason, Pierre Strong, Zeke Elliott, James Conner, Aaron Jones
My Conviction Plays: Pierre Strong, Jordan Mason, Pierre Strong, Kenneth Walker, Ronnie Rivers, Rachaad White
With plenty of teams resting some starters, this is going to be a mid-tier or bargain-tier RB week with the emphasis put on spending up at WR.
Pierre Strong should get a showcase from the Browns here, and it shows they are confident in him with the team choosing not to kick the tires on Dalvin Cook. I can’t imagine we see much Jerome Ford/Kareem Hunt so I’m expecting a monster workload for Strong in a game the Browns probably want to go as quickly as possible. He’s my favorite option in all formats. We also have Jordan Mason for the 49ers with guys sitting there, and Ronnie Rivers for the Rams. McVay has noted we will see three RB’s for them this weekend, but he is also a liar and has seemed to like Rivers in the past — he’s my prediction to lead the Rams in backfield touches on Sunday. Strong/Mason are viable in all formats while Rivers can be used as a GPP pivot.
As far as RB’s I liked that aren’t popping for crazy OWN% — I’m looking at Kenneth Walker and Rachaad White. Walker and the Seahawks need to win this game and it’s an elite match-up on the ground. The same can be said for Tampa who is in must-win mode against a team that looks like they’ve given up. Carolina has really struggled vs the run at times this year and could not contain Travis Etienne last week. Fire up White in GPPs this week.
I also want to note that I think with the amount of cheap plays, the ownership should be remotely spread out. My favorite plays in order are: Pierre Strong, Zamir White, Jordan Mason, Rachaad White, Kenneth Walker, Tony Pollard, Ronnie Rivers.
Wide Receiver
Highest pOWN% WR’s: CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Christian Kirk, Chris Olave, DeAndre Hopkins, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Lockett
My Conviction Plays: CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Christian Kirk, DJ Moore, Chris Conley, Davante Adams, Jayden Reed, Wan’Dale Robinson, Darius Slayton, Chris Olave, SEA WR’s
Like QB, I’m pretty in line with the chalky plays here. There is so much RB value that it’s easy to spend up on multiple studs with my preferred order being: CeeDee. JJ, DJ Moore, Adams, AJ Brown, St. Brown.
DK and FD also fell asleep at the wheel, leaving Christian Kirk min-priced despite it being likely he’s back active this week. If Kirk is active, he’s a free square on both sites at that price and can/should be used in all formats.
DJ Moore is my conviction play this week to go along with Fields, he’s my favorite option and I love that he’s projecting for only 3% ownership. I’m not worried about a potential match-up vs Jaire Alexander — Moore has been one of the best WR’s in football this season and is playing the best football of his career the last five weeks. Coming off a 150 yard game, Moore is one of the top leverage spots on the slate in my opinion.
I like running back Moore with Jayden Reed – CHI has been a pass-funnel since trading for Montez Sweat and Reed has clearly emerged as Love’s best target.
I also love Chris Olave with the Saints needed to win. He’s been due for TD regression for almost a year now and it would be fitting for him to get in the box once or twice in Week 18.
PHI/NYG is mainly a spot only if I’m stacking the game — Wan’Dale or Slayton can be stacked with Tyrod along with AJB or Goedert on the opposing side.
As far as cheap plays go, Kirk is a LOCK if he’s in but we also have multiple cheap WR’s from SF/LAR. Ronnie Bell and Chris Conley are both in play for GPPs.
Tight End
Highest pOWN% TE’s: Trey McBride, Jake Ferguson, Noah Gray, Evan Engram
My Conviction Plays: Trey McBride, Dallas Goedert, Johnny Mundt, Davis Allen
Even in Week 18, I’m looking to play Trey McBride or save as much as I can at this position. McBride can be used as a one-off, or in a run-back for a Geno stack / mini-stack with Kenneth Walker. He’s the top projection, and continues to sport the best overall role for a TE in fantasy football to close the season. With some strong cheap plays this week, I’m fine skipping over the mid-tier priced TE’s outside of stacks. Ferguson can be used in a Dak double for example, or Goedert in a run-back with a Tyrod Taylor team.
Johnny Mundt caught a TD in place of TJ Hockenson last week, and can be used in all formats at his price. My favorite play, however, might be Davis Allen given that he is the minimum of $2,500 on DK.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
