Fantasy Football Today - DFS Advice! How to Make a Winning Lineup for the Super Bowl (02/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 9, 2022

One-game slates are tricky, but we'll tell you how to differentiate your lineups and who you need to play on FanDuel and DraftKings. We talk about the two different formats (1:40) and how to select your MVP or your Captain, plus we've got ways to make your lineup different (8:15), players you need to roster (9:45) and sneaky sleepers (11:30) ... Going through each position, we start with QB (16:00). Matthew Stafford Joe Burrow? Or both!? At RB (21:30), do we have committees in both backfields? Is Joe Mixon an easy fade? ... We get into WR (25:00) which is of course a very fun position in this matchup. Cooper Kupp is the most expensive player but he will be popular. We are also joined by our DFS expert Mike McClure (30:00) mid-show as he gives his Fantasy tips. Then we talk TEs (41:30), DSTs and Kickers (44:00) and give some lineups ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. Tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. It's Adam and Heath talking DFS, talking FanDuel and DraftKings. One last chance to make some money and enjoy some DFS during the NFL season. And Heath, I know you and I are really fired up for the Big Game Bowl this weekend. know i've been planning my big game bowl party since the last big game bowl that we were allowed to have a party for um so yeah the big spread for the big game bowl did you not have a big game bowl party last year i thought you did well you know

like a small one. Outdoors. Right. Okay. All right. Well, that's good. Wouldn't mind being outdoors in Florida right now. I'll tell you that right now.

I'm freezing up here. It's raining and 58. I will take that. I will take that. Honestly, that is like paradise right now. It's been a rough winter. The Big Game Bowl is what it's called on FanDuel. You can join the Big Game Bowl contest. It's pretty funny um so uh anyway we'll give you fan duel advice we'll give you draft

kings advice and we'll start let's start with um you know the differences in the formats i guess uh you know heath what do we need to know format wise well mean, I think the biggest difference is that when you're choosing your captain on DraftKings, the price is going to be different for the player you put in the captain spot as opposed to the player you play in your flex spots. And on FanDuel, when you put your MVP in, who also gets one and a half times points,

the price is the same as it is for a flex or for an MVP. And so it is definitely on DraftKings is more beneficial if you can find a cheaper player who has a big game to play in the captain spot, because then you can get both the quarterbacks in. It's possible to play both quarterbacks on FanDuel with one of them in the MVP spot. And as we all know, quarterbacks generally score more fantasy points except for Cooper Cup. Yeah, and Cooper Cup is the most expensive player on FanDuel. And is he on DraftKings? I don't think so.

He's, yeah, actually, I think he is. Yeah, he is. Most expensive player. Yeah, and they both, I'm not sure if you said, I know you said it for FanDuel, but both on DraftKings and FanDuel, you're getting one and a half times the points for your MVP or your captain.

And the other thing is, with the bonuses and the full PPR, the edge for Cooper Cup in terms of fantasy points per game over everyone else based on what he's done this season is much larger than it is on FanDuel. You look and Cup's at 22 fantasy points a game for the season. Stafford's at 21, Burrow's at 20. It's still incredible that a wide receiver is outscoring both quarterbacks. But on DraftKings, it's 28 fantasy that a wide receiver is outscoring both quarterbacks but on draft kings

it's 28 fantasy points per game for cup and it's a it's a lower similar number for stafford and burrow want to hear a fun stat i don't know if this matters at all but fun stat in the regular season cooper cup had 25 more red zone targets than jamar chase well that's not really fair to jamar chase though because jamar chase doesn really fair to Jamar chase though, because Jamar chase doesn't need to get to the reds. Yeah. The bingo score from the 50. Yeah,

no, he's, he's a big play guy for sure, but he actually had a very low amount of red zone targets and, uh, and green zone targets, especially when you compare them to the other elite wide receivers. In fact, I'm looking,

Oh God, I would be curious. I would guess that Matthew Stafford had at least twice as many red zone pass attempts as Joe Burrow. I don't think it's going to be that much, but I will tell you, because Joe Burrow was very low on that list for a while. But I will tell you. And I will also tell you that in the last seven games leading up to the conference championship game, CJ Uzama started getting a lot more targets. He actually led the Bengals in red zone targets. I didn't count the conference championship game.

He played barely any snaps. Stafford, all right, so might be onto something here. Stafford had 112 red zone pass attempts. Burrow had 54. Good for you. Good for you. Man, that was almost perfect. Somebody wants to know if kickers are available in DFS.

Absolutely. Our favorite position of all players. The kickers are on FanDuel at 9,500 and 9,000, which is just slightly less than Cam Akers and slightly more than Tyler Boyd. Now, if you go to DraftKings, the kickers are 4,000 and 3,800, slightly more than the Bengals' DST, slightly less than CJ Uzama. So they're quite a bit cheaper on DraftKings than they are on FanDuel.

The other major difference, you can play the defenses on DraftKings. The defenses are not available on FanDuel. And the Rams' defense is one of my favorites just because I think probably the biggest mismatch in this game is the Rams defensive line against the Bengals offensive line. Yeah, it really does feel like a big mismatch. In fact, I,

I look at the numbers. I look at the matchups. I don't see based on paper how the Bengals win, but I do think they could definitely win. They're just, they've won six in a row other than Week 18 where they're arresting guys. They've upset the one in the two-seat on the road.

They're better than they are on paper, but that's a huge disadvantage. I wish I could remember what the advance stat was, but somebody had put together a chart on Twitter, and it was some advance. It might have been EPA. I can't remember what it was exactly, but it just showed the relative ranking of the offenses and defenses that have been in the Super Bowl over the last 10 years.

And the Bengals are the second worst team, basically, to be in the Super Bowl by that measure over the last 10 years. I think you can make a pretty good argument. Who was saying they actually, like I know a lot of people are cheering for the Bengals over the Chiefs, but nobody really thought the Bengals were going to beat the Chiefs, I don't think. No, I did not. They shouldn't have. No. So they could win this game, but they really shouldn't.

Yeah. I think their defensive coordinator is doing a great job. But the other thing to keep in mind here is how tough of a matchup is the Rams? This is obviously DFS relevant here because they were 15th in the NFL in scoring defense. The other thing to keep in mind here is how tough of a matchup is the Rams? This is obviously DFS relevant here because they were 15th in the NFL in scoring defense. And that really shocks you. And you look at what has Joe Burrow done or what has Cincinnati done? What has Cincinnati done against great defenses? They faced two top five defenses, top five scoring defenses, and they scored 15 points against the Broncos.

Let me just make sure I'm right. They've played 20 games. They've faced two top five scoring defense, 15 points at Denver, 19 points a couple of weeks ago or three weeks ago at Tennessee. They did face the Chiefs twice and were pretty good offensively against the Chiefs, and the Chiefs are a top 10 scoring defense. And in your mind, you're thinking the Rams must be a really good defense, really good scoring defense. They're 15th. So, you know, they're 7th in yards per play. They're really good in the red zone.

8th best in the red zone. But, you know, it seems like the perception doesn't line up with how well the points allowed, although they have had a pretty tough schedule. Go ahead. What's your question? Is that points allowed just defensive points allowed? No. Because Matthew Stafford led the NFL in picks this year.

Oh, oh. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just going on pro football references looking at scoring defense. But I know if you looked at offensive points, it would count pick sixes. So I don't. It's a good question.

Seventh in yards per play is probably a better indication of what kind of defense they are. All right, so let's talk a little more DFS here. We talked about the difference in the formats and MVP versus captain, Heath laid that out. You know, Fandles got one and DraftKings has one and the price changes on DraftKings, but they're both worth one and a half points.

Now, do you go with the chalk at your MVP or your captain? Because I have Cam Akers on FanDuel and I have T. Higgins on DraftKings. Do you need to be a little bit different in this one game slate? You're going to have to be different somewhere. I think that the two most important things in one game slates,

one, tell a story. The more plays you can have that are correlated with the story of the way you think the game is going to go, the better. For instance, I don't really think it'd be a very good idea to play Joe Mixon and the Rams defense. Although the second thing, if you're playing in one of these contests with 200,000 people in it, and there's only so many options, you're going to have to do something weird or something that beforehand you look at and says, well, that doesn't make any sense. Like you need to hit on a play. If you want to win one of the big contests, you need to hit on a player scoring a touchdown that no one else really wants to play, or that doesn't make a lot of sense to play.

I think the Bengals defense kind of fits that mold because of what you just said about Stafford. Right. Leading the league in pick sixes, and that's the thing about the Rams. They're really hard to beat when he's not throwing interceptions, but you never know

when he's just going to start throwing interceptions. He's been erratic this year. So I don't have the Bengals DST, but I'm thinking about it just to take a shot um what's a who's a player that you need to have you think i think on draft kings it's the rams defense um just because their price at 3400 at least if you play them in the flex spot just allows you so many options to do other things and i think that they at the very least are going to get some sacks on joe burrow and i like their chances of getting a turnover

on fanduel it's a little bit tougher just because their pricing is never quite as sharp as draft kings and the it doesn't change i think what you probably need to do on fanduel is you need to pick the quarterback that you think is going to be the best, play him as the MVP, and then find the guy who is going to score the touchdown that no one's expecting. Yeah, and that's obviously a tough thing to call, but I think Kendall Blanton has a chance at that. Obviously, that's if Tyler Higbee does not play.

The three tight ends, whether it's Higbee, Uzama, Blanton, they're all priced very similarly. Where is Sample? He's cheaper. Yeah. Right? Now, is that if Uzama's out, Uzama insists he's playing, or is that even if he's out?

No, I think Uzama's probably going to play, and I think Sample's probably a better tournament DFS play if Uzama does play. Yeah. Like, if Uzama's out, then Sample's going to maybe become kind of a popular punt play to get the studs into your lineup.

Okay. So, my next question was about a sneaky sleeper, but we may have just answered it. You're looking at the tight ends. The tight ends have been pretty heavily targeted for both teams, and the Bengals stink against tight ends. You're looking at the tight ends. The tight ends have been pretty heavily targeted for both teams. And the Bengals stink against tight ends. They're 26th against tight ends.

Now they faced some of the best of the best. And that's usually who's had the big games. But they do give up a lot of touchdowns to tight ends. So, I mean, is that one place you're looking at for sleepers? I think it is. Like a lot of times I like to look at like the fourth wide receiver or something. But these are teams that really, really concentrate their targets amongst their best players.

And so I don't know if there's going to be a lot of opportunity there. I don't know if he'll be a sleeper just because of what he did last week, but Samaj P. Ryan is dirt cheap and still gets used in the passing game a lot for the Bengals. So P. Ryan might be somebody that you'd want to look at on DraftKings. He's only 2,400. Um, those, those are probably, it's probably the tight ends or P Ryan for me. I do think that there is a one narrative that I wouldn't hate would be playing the Rams defense with both acres and Sony Michelle. And that's just a theory where you're saying,

I think the Rams are going to dominate the Bengals. They're going to run all over them and they're going to shut them down defensively. And the second half is just going to be a party basically where they're just running the ball. And so you get those two running backs and the Rams defense that, that trio might be enough to where then you can just play chalk around them. Yeah, I think the offensive line versus defensive line that you talked about early in this show, that's one area that I'm really worried about for the Bengals. And the other is, can they stop the Rams running game? They don't have a very good run defense and the Rams do. And by the way, you talk about telling a story, you know, the story that I think I'm telling with my lineups is Rams run the ball pretty well and I like Acres and we'll have to talk about the Acres-Michelle split because it was fairly even last week

after the fumbles that Acres had against the Bucs. So Rams run the ball pretty well. Rams take a lead and Rams do a decent job against Jamar Chase. Jalen Ramsey is going to want to shadow him. I don't think he can completely shut him down. I mean, he's tried to shadow Justin Jefferson,

and Jefferson had a good game. He tried to shadow Mike Evans, and Evans had a huge game. He had 16 targets, but he had a big game. But that's why I'm looking at Tee Higgins. He's in my FanDuel and my DraftKings lineup, so it's a lot of passing for Burrow. It's an Akers-Higgins game.

Obviously, I don't know if it's going to turn out that way, but that's a story I'm telling with my line of youth. I think the thing that makes, and I don't know that the Rams will do this because I know Ramsey will at least get some say, but I almost think the thing that makes more sense is put Ramsey on T. Higgins. That's a Belichick thing.

And double-team Chase. Right. He said he wants to shadow Chase. He said he wants that. It's an interesting concept. It's kind of what the Patriots were famous for doing. They would double-team the best guy, and they put Gilmore or something on the second-best guy

when they had a really good number two. So what do you think? I mean, Chase or Higgins, what do you think i mean chaser higgins who do you think we should lean toward um i will probably like i don't plan on playing either one of them on draft kings just because of the strategy that i have over there but on fan duel right now i'm leaning towards chase i can afford either and i prefer chase i just think if like if your narrative is that the bingles are going to be playing from behind, I think that lends itself to more YOLO balls from Burrow,

and those generally go Chase's direction. I mean, there's such a big difference in price on DraftKings. Chase is $3,400, and Higgins is $7,600. It's a little closer on FanDuel. I do think that Higgins is going to be far more popular on DraftKings than Chase is. Because of the price. And he's definitely a better value. Yeah. Okay.

Well, we're going to give you some lineups, talk a little bit more about these matchups, but the DFS podcast is really going to help you. So if you want an edge while setting your Super Bowl DFS lineup, you check out the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast. That's Frank Stample, Mike McClure, and Sian Najad. They're giving you deep dives in setting your Super Bowl DFS lineup, you check out the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast. That's Frank Stample, Mike McClure, and Sian Ajad.

They're giving you deep dives in the player props, on the pricing, on FanDuel and DraftKings. Listen to the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast wherever you listen to FFT. You can also hear our experts on the Early Edge podcast powered by Sportsline. That's live on YouTube Sunday at 4 p.m. Eastern until the end of the game. They're going to give you best bets.

They do a great job, so check that out. That's the Early Edge podcast live on YouTube Sunday at 4 p.m. until the end of the game. They'll keep giving you bets throughout the game. Love live bets. All right, so as we look at this game, I guess let's start with the quarterbacks, right? And we go to DraftKings and just looking at the flex rankings. Stafford is 10,800 and Burrow is 10,600. On FanDuel, Stafford is 15,500 and Burrow is 15,000.

They are very similarly priced. Who do you like better in this game, Stafford or Burrow? My intention as of right now is to play both Stafford and Burrow on both sites um I like Stafford better Stafford's the guy who will likely be my uh MVP over on FanDuel I'll play both as flexes on DraftKings but I just don't see because I don't with the narrative that I think that the the Rams are going to win and I want to play more Rams than I do Bengals I don't with the narrative that I think that the Rams are going to win and I want to play more Rams than I do Bengals. I don't want to play mixing. I don't really want to play one of the wide receivers without burrow. So I think I'm just going to play Stafford and burrow and then try to

be creative outside of that. Yeah. If you look at the Bengals against quarterbacks, they face a lot of good ones. Most of the good ones have fallen in the 23 to 25 fantasy point range and six point for passing touchdown league so that's maybe 20 to 22 or something like that and four point for passing touchdown leagues that's usually where the good quarterbacks live there have been a few mike white had a huge game um i think brady had a huge game well and that like i want to clarify one because like we were talking about you've got to do something that looks a little bit silly um if you want to win one of the big contests sorry go ahead the other key though is that you need to have the two or three top scoring players in the game regardless of how

much they're rostered like you can get away with fading the chalk in some instances on the big slate because there's nine different spots to fill and you just hit on the other players you have the right combination and this one you need need to have the two or three or maybe four top-scoring plays. So I really think I'm leaning pretty heavily to playing both Stafford and Burrow. And then you say, well, Burrow's facing the Rams. Are they tough?

Well, they've actually been crazy good against quarterbacks. They got lit up by Aaron Rodgers in Week 12. He scored 30 fantasy points. They have not allowed 20 fantasy points to a quarterback since then. That's their last nine games. And Garoppolo in the championship game was the first quarterback, the only quarterback in those nine games to throw multiple touchdown passes. So it looks tough.

When you dive a little bit deeper, who have they played? They did face Kyler Murray twice. Once with Hopkins, once with... I mean, they humiliated Kyler murray twice once with hopkins once with i mean they humiliated kyler murray in the wild card round right they faced brady but he didn't have godwin or antonio brown but he still threw over 50 times it didn't have a very good game only threw one touchdown pass um the competition wasn't that tough they faced russell wilson when russell wilson stunk but i mean that's still that's really really impressive. That is one multiple touchdown pass game

in their last nine, and no quarterback in those nine games. Cousins, Brady, Kyler Murray twice, Russell Wilson, Garoppolo twice, for what that's worth. None of them scored 20 fantasy points and six points for passing touchdown leagues. And Joe Burrow, you know,

those two games against Baltimore and Kansas City, Week 16 and 17, scored 46 and 42 points. He's been solid since then, but not amazing. So I don't know. What do you do with all that information? I still think, like, even without multiple touchdown passes, Joe Burrow could be one of the top three or four scorers. Scoring is so slanted towards quarterbacks and you're going to have

to play at least one Bengals player. If you're going to stack the Bengals, like if you want to go that angle, then you're definitely playing their quarterback. And if you're trying to stack the Rams and only play one Bengal, then Burrow is the one that I want to have. But yeah, like there's,

I don't know that there's necessarily huge upside for him. And if Burrow has a big game and you're on the Rams side of this game, then it's not going to help you to have him anyway. I'm basically throwing out all the stats and just saying the Bengals are this team of destiny and Joe Burrow can have a huge game against them. I think he can. I think he can have a huge game. I don't think he will.

I think he'll be in the, you know, I think he'll be solid. I think he'll be 270 and two touchdowns with an interception, something like that. But I'm just not worried about the matchup. They're so good on offense. Their passing game is so good.

They have to protect them, obviously. But he's battled through that before. Right. Yeah, I mean, it's like your heart versus your head when you're talking about the Bengals. They're kind of lovable. But on paper, as you said, they're,

they're kind of pretty firmly behind the Rams. Why are you a little bitter? No, I just think that like Matthew Stafford, I'd love to see him get a ring. Aaron Donald deserves a ring guys like Cooper cup and Odell Beckham approaching that age of their career. We don't know if they're going to get back.

They, they should have a ring. Like the Rams have a lot of veteran players who have never won a championship. We could just cross all those guys off the list of not having rings. Maybe it's my being old. I'm cheering for the older guys.

I'm rooting for the road team. I just don't like that they're old. And Jalen Ramsey. Jalen Ramsey deserves it. Yeah, he's my least favorite player in the world. He's a Seminole. I can't get behind Jalen Ramsey. I just can't do it.

All right, running backs. The least favorite player in the world. He's a Seminole. I can't get behind Jalen Ramsey. I just can't do it. All right, running backs. Least favorite player in the world. That's not true. No, he's my least favorite player in this game, I think. I saw a Florida State bumper sticker yesterday, and I got angry. So it's just deep-rooted. At what point does the irrelevance of Miami and Florida State football start to take some of this hatred out of your heart?

That's the good thing about rivalries. Start hating UCF or something. Rivalries are always relevant, you know? Rivalries are always relevant. All right, running backs. So how about, who's your favorite running back in this game? Because Mixon's got this terrible matchup, but then you have maybe a split in the Rams' backfield.

Yeah, I think, well, I mean, shoot, we saw P Ryan's usage against the chiefs. So they're going to split in the Bengals backfield, unfortunately, some weeks and then some weeks they throw the ball to mix in eight times. So I don't know which of those weeks it's going to be, but a lot of that P Ryan usage came with the chiefs in the lead and the Bengals playing from behind. I think it's going to be a similar game script. I would rank them Akers and then Mixon and then Sony and then P. Ryan. I like both Sony and P. Ryan as the lower-end punt slash contrarian plays. I don't plan on playing any Mixon, and I have Akers currently in both of my lineups.

That's exactly what I have, exactly how I felt. So what we're saying is if you want to be contrarian, you play Joe Mixon, and I have Akers currently in both of my lineups. That's exactly what I have. Exactly how I felt. So what we're saying is if you want to be contrary, you play Joe Mixon. I don't know how people are going to feel about Mixon. He is very involved in the passing game. I know P. Ryan last week, but Mixon still had 27 receiving yards, which was on the low end for him lately.

But yeah, he's involved in the passing game. He's going to get a lot of carries. He's got the chance for the touchdown, but the Rams are arguably the best run defense in football, and they've just been smothering players lately. In terms of Rams against running backs in the passing game, they're about average there. They've given up 50 receiving yards to, I think, five running backs this year,

which is not insignificant, but they've also done a pretty good job against some good pass-catching running backs, so they're middle of the pack in that regard. we like acres the best followed by uh mixin and then and then sony michelle and then you know p ryan would as you said would be kind of that that sleeper uh just shot in the dark yes okay all right we're gonna take a break and talk wide receivers when we get back this is a really interesting group obviously with some some serious potential here and also i think we'll end the narrative that elite wide receivers never win superbowls

finally right just like it doesn't well tyree kill but tyree last year was mike evans and chris no. But, I mean, that's kind of been the thing. Like, these stud-wide receivers, they're not the position to build your team around. That's kind of been a thing. They usually don't win the Super Bowl. I think that was a thing, like, maybe 10 years ago. No, no.

I have to look into this some other time. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Let's talk about those stud-wide receivers who always win Super Bowls. So, Cooper Cup, most expensive player on both slates. And I know Frank Stample on FFT in five this morning, he said he likes Cooper Cup to go over, I think it's 106 yards now.

Is he, what do you think? Must play, good play, avoid? How would you characterize him? I am trying to fit him in on DraftKings, I would say. And on FanDuel, I just don't think I can pay that much more for him than any other. I talked about it. He's a 500 more than Stafford and 1,000 more than Burrow. That's fine.

They've kind of been in the same range. But he's 3,000 more than any other position player i just don't think i don't think there's enough solid value plays on fanduel for me to be able to fit cup into my lineup but on draft kings i will probably have him well i'll tell you my fanduel lineup it's acres MVP, Kup, Higgins, Stafford, and then Kendall Blanton, who could be Tyler Higbee or CJ Uzama. I can afford them all. I've got so much money, but that's all

my salary. It's only one kind of wacky play. It's a tight end, and then it's Stafford, Kup, Higgins, and Akers. I did manage to get Kup in there. He's so good. You did not play Burrow? I did not play burrow i did not play burrow no okay um yeah i i don't i've got both quarterbacks on both and that's probably why i can't like you could i think you could still play cup and both quarterbacks but you're gonna have

to play two punt plays all right i'll just take acres out and I'll put burrow in and see, I have Kendall Blanton and now man. Okay. So I have to take Higgins out and go with a, I think realistically on FanDuel, you're looking at two out of three of Stafford cup and burrow. There you go. That's a good way to put it.

And you went burrow and Stafford and I went cup and Stafford. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Now I'm going to struggle probably up until kickoff because I can just give my fan to a lineup now as well, right? Yeah. We'll do it again later. I've got Stafford, Burrow, Chase, Akers, and Sample. Stafford, Burrow, Chase, Akers, and sample. But I have 1,000 to play with. And so I could use that to upgrade from Burrow to Cooper Cup.

I could use that to upgrade from sample to Uzama or Pirine or Sonny Michel even. I wonder who's better in FanDuel, half PPR, ppr cup or burrow i mean for the season it's been cup because it's four point for passing touchdown right but i just and that's the thing like it's difficult because we going into next year no one's going to project cooper cup

to score as many fantasy points per game as he has this season. We can agree on that, right? We're not going to project him to be at 26 fantasy points per game or whatever he was in PPR. And so when you look at him averaging two more fantasy points per game than the quarterbacks,

we don't think that's going to happen next year. Do we want to bet on it happening one more game? Is it more likely to happen in this game because it's still part of this season? I don't think that's going to happen next year do we want to bet on it happening one more game is it more likely to happen in this game because it's still part of this season i don't think it really is yeah i don't know i mean he's just he's just shredding everyone but uh yeah it's a good point well all right so there you go two out of three of those of the two quarterbacks in cooper cup that's how we're going to approach it on FanDuel. So which other wide receivers just do you like in general, do you think might give you some value this week? You know, I'm going to struggle a lot with Beckham versus Higgins. Chase will still be my second favorite wide receiver in the game,

and I think I prefer Higgins over Beckham where they're equally priced, which is on FanDuel. I didn't draft Kings. Man, again, Beckham's more than Higgins. So I would go Cup, then Chase, then Higgins, although maybe Higgins over Chase on DraftKings, and then Beckham. And then if you need a punt, Tyler Boyd is 5,400 on DraftKings. That's really cheap. Right, and Frank Stample made the point,

if Uzama's limited, then that could certainly help Tyler Boyd, because Uzama is getting about seven targets per game lately. I don't know if this matters to you. I'll throw this stat out there. The Bengals have not allowed more than 70 yards. Sorry. They have not allowed 70 yards to multiple wide receivers.

So the number two guy, the second wide receiver, or a second wide receiver, has not had 70 yards in eight straight games for the Bengals. So they're giving up points to one guy, doing pretty well against the other guys. There have been some exceptions. Like last week, Mikko Hartman

didn't have 70 yards, but he caught a touchdown. I don't remember. James Prochet, I think, had a good game. But for the most part, it's been one guy beating Cincinnati. Also, surprise, Mike McClure is here. Hey. What's up, fellas? Hey, Mike.

How you doing? I'm doing all right. I've been better, been worse, but I'm here. How are you guys doing? I don't know. I just assume like you waited for us to talk and say a bunch of stupid things. And now you're going to come in and just tell us all the ways that we were wrong. Yes. Yeah, so, you know, well, there's no reason to hide what happened. There are these things called time zones. And I am living in the central time zone, not in Eastern time, and had not checked anything yet today.

I was getting up, preparing, thinking that everything was going to be fine. And I realized that I am not very smart at times. And I'm an hour late. No, you are not. You are 45 minutes late. Give yourself a little bit of credit, Mike. Okay. I was on time for central time. That's all I'm going to say.

Yeah. You were early. All right. So I'm going to fire some questions at you. Catch up. Okay. Give me your one game slate strategy, to win how to be different that kind of stuff the number one piece of advice i could recommend especially on a slate like this where it's a lot of contest site like the sizing

is huge there's way more entries than a normal week to do not use all of the salary cap, no matter what the easiest way to get different and make sure that you're not going to be the same as a lot of the competitors is to. So if it's a $50,000 salary cap, at least use 49, nine, but if you really want to take it down to 49, seven, you eliminate the possibility of having your lineup being duplicated significantly. So that's going to be the first piece of advice I would recommend. The second piece is going to be kickers and defenses are your best friend, especially kickers, because in normal DFS, we don't use kickers. So it's not on anyone's mind for the most part. You have a lot more people,

some more casual players coming in for the Super Bowl in general. Use the kickers. They're $4,000 essentially for the most part. And go look at the kickers that are playing in this game. When was the last time Evan McPherson didn't score double digit fantasy points, even on the PPR site like that? That's going to be your best friend. Don't use the salary all the way and make sure you're including a defense or a kicker.

That's definitely going to be key in this game. Well, I just changed my FanDuel lineup because I had used all my salary and I replaced Kendall Blanton with a kicker, with Evan McPherson. And now I've got $1,000 left and I just guarantee myself some winnings, basically, is the way I enjoy it.

Yeah, that's exactly how it works. Well, we'll pick it up from the wide receiver discussion here. So give me your overall thoughts, Mike, on wide receivers and who the best values are, who to play, who to avoid. Yeah, so on the DFS pod, Frank likes to say, fade Cooper Cup at your own risk. That is definitely the statement uh anytime he takes the field so obviously like cooper cup but you have to take a stand somewhere

right you have to take a stand whether you're fading cooper cup fading jamar chase if you want to get really cute fade both of them um that's likely what i'm going to be doing i'm going to be looking i love odo beckham in the. He's definitely my favorite wide receiver of the bunch. I think that he is someone, he also has a ton of, obviously everyone has contract incentives. Everyone wants to win. He has really elevated his play as he's been able to hit some of these contract incentives down the stretch, but I really love the way that Stafford trusts him. So I, Odo Beckham is my favorite.

He is top priority and wide receivers for me the only other comment i'll make on chase i'm very interested to see if he continues to touch the ball out of the backfield and running you know catch or running with the ball he's done that a lot in the i say a lot he's done that more in the final few weeks here i'm wondering if we're going to see a lot more of that especially with the pass rush that the rams are able to generate so i think that that does maybe increase his floor a little bit i'm not saying he's going to be used like debo samuel but otto beckham my favorite t higgins second favorite and then after that i think you

could take dart throws with skoranek on a site like DraftKings just because of the pricing, and it allows you to get some of the other players in there. But Odell Beckham, definitely the top priority. So does that mean you're going to have both quarterbacks in most of your lineups if you don't have a lot of cup and chase? Yes, and some of the running backs. I like the running backs on the Rams side. It's just difficult to say exactly where we're going to be as far as who, you know, you have to build for certain scripts, right? So I'll be playing multiple lineups on it, and you'll basically build a lineup for each given back.

I think like mixing Sonny and Michelle, like we have no real clue what the workload is going to look like there, but it's not unreasonable to think that he's going to score a touchdown in the game that he could score a touchdown in the game. So I'll have a lineup built for that particular script to play out. But typically yes. In, you know,

basic showdown strategy you're going to want to find running backs, quarterbacks, kickers basically, because that's going to enable you to have exposure to all of the scoring points. Like say Jamar chase having a big day. We know basic correlations. Like you can't, the quarterback is going to get exposure to the passing touchdowns. So in these games like this, you, you know, on the Bengal side,

you don't have a ton of secondary players that are catching passes. But like in Kansas City games, for example, we always want the homes because we don't necessarily know which one of those wide receiver three and fours are going to catch passes in this game. I do think that you see now that they've had more time to prepare for it. We're going to see players that we're not expecting to catch the passes. So I would prioritize the quarterbacks for sure. As far as playing both of them, it's going to be difficult, in my opinion, to get both of them in the lineup. Oh, okay. Interesting.

Wow, Heath, we should just scrap the first half. No, I think I have a question and then a suggestion. The first question is, on DraftKings, and if you have speculation on FanDuel as well, who are the two or three chalkiest MVPs on DraftKings in your projections? Who is everybody playing in the MVP spot this week? I mean, everyone's going to try to jam Cooper Cup in, for sure. Cam Akers is going to be a popular choice as well.

That's two I had. Yeah, those are definitely going to be the top two. After that, you'll see ownership on several guys, but Cooper Cup and Cam Akers are by far going to be the the two most popular okay um quarterbacks don't tend you know in cash games quarterbacks tend to be a little more popular but in tournaments uh i think trying to play a quarterback at captain is very i wouldn't recommend it in tournaments just because it's the math on it it gets relatively difficult to, to make it work there because they,

they've got to be throwing touchdown passes to receivers. I would assume on FanDuel, it's going to be because there's no difference in the price. It's going to be either Stafford cup or burrow in the MVP spot for the most part. Correct. Yes. On FanDuel.

Yeah. Well, there's no incentive to, yeah, it'll definitely be those three on FanDuel. Okay. Now, Adam adam my suggestion was can we get it mike to uh rate your lineup on how chalky it is my fanduel lineup no well do you have fanduel or drafting so i've got a drafting and you've got a fanduel right i have both you have both okay what do you want me to do i would guess it's like nine out of ten okay so do you want me to do my I would guess it's like 9 out of 10. Do you want me to do my FanDuel lineup or my DraftKings lineup?

I don't care. Okay, here's my FanDuel lineup. I have Cam Akers at the MVP. On FanDuel? Yes. Okay. I have Cup, Stafford, Higgins, and McPherson. Okay.

I mean, yeah, you're not the only one that's going to be playing that lineup that's for sure but no i am though i asked like a lot of people thousands of them i told them please don't i really would like this lineup okay so i am draft kings my my first build had acres in the MVP chalk King, um, with Stafford borough cup, the Rams and Matt gay. I like it. So I think that's pretty chalky except for the fact that I don't think many people are going to play Matt gay over Evan McPherson. Right. I definitely, I definitely agree with that. I do have them very close in, you know, in some of the ownership projections, but they up here I actually don't have acres being now as popular I don't know if it's just the some of the report which is good thing in the captain spot I'm showing now and some of the latest runs Jamar Chase is still going to be more popular in the

captain than cam acres okay which is a great thing to see if you like cam acres absolutely um yeah okay so i i think you know can you be chalkier in in in 50 50s and cash games rather than tournaments though should you be i mean you you should be so what i like to do in those situations i'll be chalky if there's three guys that i just really want to have no matter what. And that'll be like Cooper cup acres, Stafford, whatever it may be. But that's where I would still like to get different with one of the one spot, just completely different at one of the spots. Uh, just because it gives you so much leverage even there. Um, just because in a, in a one game, you have to treat it a little bit differently than even the two-game slate, right? Or even a normal 10-game slate during the season.

With one game, you got to do something different for the most part in those spots. So whether it's like one thing I would recommend, frankly, if it's say you want to play Cooper Cup at a captain and you're wanting to normally handcuff him with Matthew Stafford, replace Stafford with Joe Burrow. Just make that one simple change. I know obviously Stafford and Cup have that correlation, but Burrow isn't completely uncorrelated to that because if they're scoring touchdowns and Cooper Cup's having a big game, it's very likely that the Bengals are trailing, Joe burrow has to throw more, has to do more. So just little things like that, that might seem a little unconventional. I think that you should try to do that, um,

to, to get different in ways. All right, Heath, let's talk about tight ends here. And both starting tight ends are injured. So it's weird. But these guys were more involved lately. Pretty inexpensive, and the backups could be okay. So what do you think about the tight ends? I'm hopeful that both of the starting tight ends are active in play, and then I'm going to play the backup tight ends. That's kind of how I'm looking at the tight ends. I've got Drew

Sample locked into my FanDuel lineup right now, and I think as long as Uzama is active, then there's going to be very few people on him. And really, with these guys, you're just like, they're not going to have a great catch day. They're not going to have a great yardage day. You're

hoping they catch a touchdown. And so, yeah, and Sample, I i think is a little bit cheaper than blanton right or are they the same oh well let's see i'll tell you they're mostly the same sample is 6500 on vandal and blanton is 8 000000. So big difference there. And then DraftKings sample is 4,200 and Blanton is 46. So a bigger difference on FanDuel. I didn't have either of them on DraftKings, but I do have sample on FanDuel. Okay. Mike, anything you want to say about tight ends?

Mostly the same strategy there. I'm hoping that at least one of the two will play. If they do, I do love going right back to those backups. I guess the, yeah, that's basically all you can get to on tight ends. They don't really have a ton of depth either team,

unfortunately. So it's, it's likely going to be fade them completely. So that that's, I guess that would basically be my recommendation. Fade them completely if it's backups only that are playing and then play the backups if the starters are actually out there. I think those are the two ways that you're going to be able to get different enough just because we know that they're going to be super popular

if both of those guys are unable to play. So that's likely what I would do in that spot. All right. And then, Mike, why don't you take us through DSTs and kickers and the best ones and how important they are to have in your lineup? Yeah, so the kickers,

more so on DraftKings. I mean, you like them in both spots, right? But on DraftKings, they're so cheap relative to some of their performance on a single game. You go look at, you know, I'm looking at some of, most of my lineups here are double kicker lineups. So I don't know, am I allowed to just like read off a lineup? Yeah, yeah, you can do whatever you want.

Yeah. Please. Okay, so I'm just going to read this lineup here. It's a Cooper Cup lineup. I think it's going to read this lineup here. It's a Cooper Cup lineup. I think it's going to be incredibly chalky. It uses all of the salary. So I think you're going to see this lineup. It might be the most duplicated lineup in the entire tournament.

But it's Cooper Cup, Matt Gay, Evan McPherson, Cam Akers, Matthew Stafford, and T. Higgins. That's just like a standard basic lineup where you've got both of the kickers in there and it allows you to get Cooper cup at the captain, his quarterback, his running back, and then T Higgins. So basically the game script there that you're building for is a Rams when Cooper cup does his thing. Evan McPherson kicks a few field goals, T Higgins catches some passes over the middle. The Bengals don't score a lot of touchdowns.

That's basically what you're betting on in that. But the point is the kickers, I have them pretty much everywhere here at $4,000, 3,800. Like I said, just click on Evan McPherson's game log and then go try to find a pass catcher outside of Odo Beckham and Cooper cup. Really that consistently every single week score double digit fantasy

points. It's really, really difficult to do, especially when you factor in the price point. And they're better. They're scoring more than the DSTs. Yes. I mean, the defensive and the DSTs can definitely score more at times.

Obviously, the benefit that you have with the DST is they start with 10 points when the game starts, and then points can get removed. It's a lot more fun to look at when you're one of those people that watches the score throughout the whole game. It's much more fun to play the double DST at the start. Yes, double DST at the start with one of them in the captain, and you've got yourself a very nice screenshot for about eight minutes.

That's awesome. It's almost as simple, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, but the kickers are good plays, period, on DraftKings. The kickers are contrarian plays on FanDuel. Correct. There's players priced similar to the kickers that have more upside on FanDuel, but they're going to be a higher roster rate probably.

Definitely. Okay. All right, so Heath, what's your final lineup that you want to give um so i gave my draft kings i man i don't i guess i'll give my fan duel it's super chalk except for the one guy that i said so i've got stafford as the mvp stafford burrow acres chase and drew sample as the just score a touchdown and then let everything else go chalk okay and then mike you want to give that lineup again that you talked about?

I'll give a slightly different lineup. This is what, DraftKings or FanDuel? This is going to be DraftKings. Okay. Let's see. I thought I had it ready. Maybe I don't. It's a time zone. I don't have that one ready. I don't it's a it's

no time zone I don't have that time zone it's okay it'll be ready at 11pm central no problem man no problem and then I'm working on lineups here I'm gonna be honest with you I don't think I'm gonna do a tournament I think I'm gonna do a cash game and be a little

chalkier I just kind of my it's kind of where I live. That's who you are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually, you are the first person that I've met who has said out loud that you are playing a one-game cash game. What do you mean?

Like, I know they play them. The contest is always Phil. Oh, yeah, yeah. I never actually heard someone say they were going to play a 50-50 on a showdown slate. And I like Akers and Higgins, I think, are the two guys I'm going to be focusing on. So that's kind of where I've – and then if you play them, they're not my best players. You can throw the quarterbacks and cup in there as well. Right.

I think the thing that Mike said, because if you play, I would assume in a cash game with acres and Higgins, you're currently tied with 80% of the field, or maybe it's 70% of the field. You're going to have to like that one guy that you play. That's different. If you play the two quarterbacks and maybe you're at 60% of the field now. Yeah.

Well, I got all I got to do is be top 50%. All right. I'm close. That one guy you play is going to be key. He'd better do something. Yeah. Well, maybe I'll just play all the chalk guys. I'll let the other people try to outsmart themselves.

You know, that's how. There you go. That's how you do it. All right. Thanks for watching and listening, everybody. Make sure you follow Mike McClure, read him on Sportsline, and listen to the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast. Listen to the Early Edge podcast.

And remember, the Early Edge is live on YouTube at 4 p at 4 PM Eastern on Sunday until the end of the game with your best bets. Have a great day. Everybody will talk to you tomorrow on fantasy football.