Fantasy Football Today - NFL DFS Championship Weekend: Main Slate Lineups, Picks, Stacks and Ownership (FFT DFS)

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Join our Championship week DFS game - https://www.draftkings.com/draft/contest/173466555 04:46 - Commanders at Eagles (-6), O/U 47.5 19:13 - Bills at Chiefs (-1.5), O/U 47.5 33:24 - Our Favorite Plays this week. SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 'Fantasy Football Today DFS' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT DFS team on Twitter: @FFToday, @Mike5754 @SiaNejad Watch FFT DFS 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 DFS 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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and I've said this before, a little sad. It feels like, you know, we've entered the weekend, but it's the Sunday. It's the late, early evening Sunday and Monday's right around the corner because football season is about to end. How you feeling? Yeah, we talked about this the last few weeks. I hate the end of football season, football girl year round, but you know, it'll be a fun end to the football season. And you know, then I'll just get back in the basketball streets to cope. Mike, normally when we're doing this show or any of the shows

that we do, it's always Kansas City in the conversation, but Meg and I get to have our team in the final four finally for the first time and what feels like 30 years because it is 30 years. How are you feeling today? I'm feeling great. I'm excited for the commanders as well. You know, a team that I, I won't say I adopted them throughout the year, but definitely followed them very closely with some of the excitement there and thought there was a lot of potential. So I'm very excited to see them here. Dare I say Jayden Daniels is the best quarterback in the NFC. If he wins this game, there will be zero doubt that he's the best rookie of all time at any position. So I am very, very

much fired up to watch that game. Yeah, I'm in on both of those takes. This conversation today, it's going to be, we're going to break down both games. But Meg, I think when we have two games, especially when we have two games and there's going to be some very popular game scripts and players, I feel like we need to kind of thread the needle here because we can't just pick the best.

I filled out a lineup last night and it was like perfect. I had zero dollars left and I had every single person I wanted in there and it was like probably like the lineup that I made. I wasn't trying to do this. It was probably the chalkiest lineup anybody could have possibly made and so I think we have to be weary of that. Even in the smaller contest people are going to kind of gravitate to certain players. So I think when we talk about these games, before we get into Commander's Eagles, it's all about contrarian plays, yes. Contrarian constructions, yes. But also contrarian game scripts. I feel like the contrarian game script side of this might be sort of the path to go, where let's say they think, you know, it's going to be this type of game, and you

just kind of go the opposite. Anyway, I don't know if you've made any lineups, but how are you approaching this? Yeah, similar to you, of course, your your first runs your first builds do feel pretty chalky. But then from there, I think you can just kind of, you know, flip certain pieces or flip, like you said, certain types of builds, okay, instead of two tight ends, I'm going to do three running backs or, you know, you know, again, play the defense against the quarterback. You can do unique stuff within, you know, kind of editing that first

chalky lineup, so to speak. And that's why I think I'm going to try to do. But I also think you made a great point that, you know, we're having a conversation that it's all about, like, making, building off different potential game scripts. And I think that's a way to get more contrarian here. Mike, in a two-game slate, does that take priority for you? Or is it just a matter of roster construction and just really like kind of going all in on maybe a popular game script, but like on an onslaught where people aren't going to stack

as much as you're gonna stack? Yeah, I think that it's one where you definitely can make certain stands and don't be afraid to go all in on them. I think that there's one where you definitely can make certain stands and don't be afraid to go all in on them. You know, I think that there's different scenarios out there, basically, like the example with Saquon's a little different, but like looking at Kansas City, if Kareem Hunt is RB2 on the slate, that's not going to be surprising at all. Right.

It wouldn't, at least I don't think it should be to anyone. Right. So like projecting Kareem Hunt over a guy like James Cook or something like that is very, very viable. You know, we did it the last week where I had a lot of success with Derek Henry, essentially projecting someone over Henry, you know, things like that. So you definitely, if you've got little leans, it's okay to take really drastic stances on them. And then just make sure you're, you're building lineups that are correlated to whatever stance you want to take. Yeah, totally makes sense.

We've got a lot of people in the chat. James, Greg Goose-Hays, Jake is in here, Kirk, Moshe, I'm sure I'm leaving some, Alan is in here. All of you love the comments, love that you all appreciate this show, that you're going to miss it when it's gone. I don't know if we have a show next week, but we certainly have a show for the Super Bowl in two Thursdays. Greg Usse says, this season reminds me a lot of the RG3 season before he got hurt. Yeah, I think that's a totally fair comp. Obviously, we think Jayden Daniels might be a

different caliber quarterback, but it does feel like that type of season. All right, let's get into the Commanders and the Eagles. Meg, I'm to start with you. When I was talking about the chalky builds, I mean, everybody's going to play Saquon and we'll have the Saquon conversation in a second. Let's just table the, do we all have to play Saquon conversation? He's 8,600, which is not that expensive under the circumstances. Obviously. I think a lot of people when before they even figure out their stack, I think they're going to be like, all right, I'm punching in Saquon. What's the next move? And I do think for a lot of people, even though this is a great

defense, the next move is Jaden Daniels with one or two pass catchers, and oh look, Diami Brown's only 4,400. People are gonna want to jam him in, and Terry McLorin's 6,700, which really, again, isn't that expensive because there's a lot of cheap options on this slate which we'll get to. I can bring up Austin Eckler, Olamide Zekias, maybe he bounces back, Jameson Crowder is only 3100, of course Zach Ertz is 4300. Is it as easy as Jaden and a couple pass catchers in Saquon? Like how are you playing this? Well I certainly am going to do a lineup with a Jaden Daniels stack and running it back with Saquon. I think there you definitely need to find ways to have some contrarian pieces in your lineup. Because as you said, I do think that is going to be kind of the air quotes chalky build.

But yeah, with when I do Jayden Daniels stacks, I like him with Echler a lot in the first he didn't play in the second matchup. He played in the first matchup and he was targeted massively as a receiver had I think eight catches for 89 yards something along those lines. So I definitely like Echler here. He comes with a little ownership but nothing crazy. I think Ertz is in play. He's gotten a ton of red zone looks. I believe he scored seven touchdowns in the last seven or eight games. I mean, he's had a lot of red zone looks all season, but also a ton of red zone touchdowns recently. So I think Ertz is fair. So if you want to do like Eklert Ertz, as opposed to the receivers, I think that's a maybe a unique combo with Jaden Daniels. But I certainly don't mind if you wanted to do

Zacchaeus or McLaurin, obviously. And then I will say, or excuse me, I meant Diami Brown or McLaurin. Zacchaeus is running less routes in the playoffs. So he's coming with less ownership. But do you take the risk that he will get more looks, he will get more routes, that's a risk, but that's where that's the kind of stands we make here when we're trying to get ownership leverage. Yeah, Mike, it's interesting on Siqueus because he's been on the field, he did get a little nicked up last game, but he came back and I feel like they're using him as a blocker

more than anything else. And that's sort of why he's on the field a lot, just he's just not getting targeted. I think Jameson Crowder, if you really wanted to get contrarian is interesting because he's on the field and he's not getting a lot of targets, but he's just not getting targeted. I think Jameson Crowder, if you really wanted to get contrarian is interesting because he's on the field and he's not getting a lot of targets, but he's a guy that absolutely could score touchdown and just kind of can get lost in the shuffle here. How are you attacking the Washington side? Is it Jayden and stack him with three guys and maybe including Austin Eckler,

or is it maybe Jayden and you don't play Terry McLuhan, but you play some of the other pass catchers? Yeah, I think it really, the answer to the question really comes down to what you like in the Buffalo game, Buffalo Kansas City game, as far as where you're stacking. I do like Jayden at quarterback a lot for some pretty obvious reasons.

When I'm talking about stack partners though, it looks like probably Austin Eckler is gonna be my favorite piece just cause he is gonna be involved in the ground game. because he is going to be involved in the ground game. I expect him to be heavily involved in the passing game. And then I think that again, they're probably competitive and neutral or trailing most of the way. And if you get into the trailing stuff, that is where Austin Eckler, I think, is going to absolutely shine. So when I look at my builds with Jayden Daniels here, it really,

it's mostly a lot of Austin Eckler, um, and not getting, you know, crazy, crazy exposure, but some of that is like, I want to play Saquon who's taken up some salary. I think you have an interesting decision whether you want to play Travis Kelsey or AJ Brown is another spend. Uh, and then just some of the cheaper receivers on the Kansas City side are popping a little more for me. And I think that when I just play Jayden Daniels and Austin Eckler, I can get exposure to a lot of the offense on the Washington side.

You're obviously exposed if Robinson has rushing touchdowns. But I just I don't think that's the way that the commanders win this game personally. So I'm willing to take that risk and essentially fade him. For me right now, it looks like mostly just Daniels and Eckler is really with Saquon and then that that's really kind of it for me. It's just going to be a real simple Daniels to Eckler. Mike, let's have the Saquon Barkley and Eagles conversation. I mean, again, Barkley's 8600,

which might sound expensive to some people, but obviously points per dollar, like it's not expensive at all. With that said, this is a unique situation, in my opinion, where, I mean, it's so hard to avoid Saquon. I mean, his rushing prop is 130, his combo prop is over 140. With that said, I mean, you got a two game slate and you know everybody's treating Saquon Barkley. I know we use free square for like 4K guys said, I mean, you got a two game slate and you know, everybody's treating Saquon Barkley. I know we use free square for like 4k guys. But I mean, this does feel like a free square to people because I don't think people are going to think I want to fade Saquon. Is that if you're playing five

lineups, is there cause to maybe think hey, Saquon doesn't get there and you fade him? I don't think so. Honestly, see, I'm gonna play him in 100 a hundred percent. Uh, you know, he's going to be 85 plus percent owned in this. Um, it's very similar to me where we had Henry against Pittsburgh in the pre, not last round with the round before that. Yeah. Uh, just one of those situations where the salary works, it's not hard. Um, so I'm, I'm going to play Saquon in every lineup.

And it's really just the fact that the other teams on the slate are, are almost all running back by committee. And what I mean by that is we, we know that it is that case for Washington and Kansas city and Buffalo. I'll make the argument that it is because if you go look at rushing props, Josh Allen is treated as a running back in this way. Josh Allen and James Cook rushing yardage props or six yards apart for this game, Josh Allen's going to run the football 12 times minimum in this. Yeah, Josh Allen and James Cook rushing yardage props are six yards apart for this game.

Josh Allen is going to run the football 12 times minimum in this game. So like, I think it's because it's committee, you know, you're basically just betting on touchdown variants only. There's no reason to fade Saquon here. Uwe 2k says if you fade Saquon, I think you're drawing dead. I mean, that's a completely fair comment. It almost feels like the only way Saquon doesn't get there is if somehow he like pulls a hamstring or something. Yeah, it's an injury. So it's an injury situation. Like even the scenario he doesn't get in the end zone and hurts gets all the

rushing touchdowns. I would be stunned if he didn't have 80 to 100 yards and two catches and still like that 10 points might lead all running backs on the slate if James Cook doesn't score. Yeah, Meg, it's interesting because the, you know, Saquon could quote fail or not get there, but because of what Mike said about the other running backs on the slate, like, I mean, he still could easily be in the optimal lineup. With that said, are you considering, I mean, when you look at Jalen Hurts numbers in terms of like the prop market, I'm not even just talking this week, I'm talking last week, the last

couple of weeks, it's like crazy how low these numbers are. Like last week, it was around 200 yards, he didn't get there is completions prop last week was 17 and a half attempts was 25 and a half. It's even lower this week, which kind of speaks to me, would you consider again, let's say you're making five single entry lineups, would you consider a Jalen hurt stack? Or are you just like, I'm not wasting my money, I'm going to Jaden or going to this bills KC game?

Yes, I would. I am surprised looking at ownership at this point that it that he's not coming in lower, I thought going into before I looked at ownership that okay, if you want to get contri and do a Jalen hurt stack, but he's coming in the same ownership as Josh Allen. So you're not really getting the ownership leverage there. However, I think it's the kind of the build structure and this is not it's like, you know, close your ears for you and I.

But if it really went bad for Washington and if the Eagles just I mean, let's let's be honest. Detroit still put up what 400 yard, you know, 31 points and 400 yards or something. So it's like, you know, they could still get there. Hopefully, you know, we're competitive or we win, but they could still get there or if it is, unfortunately, a blowout, and you just want to over stack the Eagles, Hertz, Brown, Saquon, another Goddard, you know, something like that, that might be the unique way to build around that. So I, as much as it grosses me out, I may do one lineup like that, because I think that's the more contrarian way to approach Hertz with Saquon.

Mike, that's an interesting point, having Hertz with Saquon, obviously, and just capturing all those points and they could both get a couple of touchdowns. We know Washington defense, like they're kind of bend don't break, but there comes a point where they potentially break and they just allow a ton of yards and through the air and through the ground. If you were playing Jaylen Hertz, would it be with Saquon and one of the pass catchers on this two game slate? It would, and it would also be the defense.

So actually a couple of weeks ago, we didn't talk about, cause I wasn't on that show there, but the round where it was the wild card round with Houston and Stroud, I played Houston stack. My lineup that won, I took down a tournament, the GPP big, big score actually. I had Stroud, Mixon, Collins, Schultz and the Texans defense all in the same lineup, which ended up being relatively unique because not a lot of people, you know, you're not going to get that with a hand build generally, right? But I project this as a similar spot. I project this is one that

you know, the consensus is that Washington is probably not as Far off as the spread indicates at six So I think that a lot of builds are gonna look to the commander's side with Saquon I think there is a definitely a case to be made now the case that I would make the first three in would be Hertz, obviously Saquon, and then that Eagles defense. It's going to be something correlated to just ground and pound the entire way for the Eagles. That's the scenario where I would build it.

As far as another player in there, there is enough action in the Kansas City game that I'm not going to force pass catchers in. The one that I could force in would actually be Goddard knowing that I would also be playing Travis Kelsey anyway, uh, in a, in a double tight end build, but to long story short, very much interested, uh, in a Jalen hurts lineup still because one or two tush bushes and, uh, you're there. Let's rank the following three that we haven't talked about too much. You did just mention Dallas Goddard.

But Meg, I'll start with you and price is considered here, right? So AJ Brown 6800, Devontae Smith 5800, Dallas Goddard 4500. How do you rank those three in terms of likelihood that you're gonna play them? Even though AJ Brown is coming at incredibly high, pretty high ownership, he's getting a really high target share and he had a couple drops last week. There were some callbacks last week. So it would be AJ Brown, Goddard, Demonta Smith for me, Mike. It's tough. It really, it depends on your lineup, Bill, like your, your construction, right? And how you see the game.

If you think the Eagles win this game easily, it would be AJ Brown for me, because I think it's just like you hit the home run ball and ultimately get there. Now, if you think Washington can win this game, like if you really believe Washington can win this game, Devontae Smith would be number one for me. And there's scenario in which the Eagles lose this game or the commanders win it is maybe one where Jalen Hurts is actually limited in terms of some of his mobility, where he's not able to create and hit some of those big shots. It's going to be more volume talking like slants over the middle

of the field to Devante, but that's only going to come in the situation where we're like truly neutral or trailing. So you'd need to have potentially Jayden Daniels and Austin Echler on one side and then Saquon and Devante on the other side would be kind of the build that I'd look to at that point. Now as we talked about all that I think you could do that same Eagles onslaught without Jalen Hurts so I think you could play AJ, Saquon, the defense and Goddard with a different quarterback whether it be Mahomes Allen or or Jaden

I think that that is a very viable build here as well. Yeah And again, I think you bring up a good point on the front end of that comment You got to consider at least consider alternate game scripts where maybe Washington's playing from the lead what which they were against Detroit Nobody thought that was gonna happen. So what does that game look like if they're playing from a lead? Maybe it's like a 10 point lead, maybe something crazy happens, like who knows what it is, but I think those lineups aren't going to really be built.

So those have to be in play for you too if you're making a few lineups here. Before we move on to the next game, are we in or out on 4,300 Zach Ertzmeg? I think I'm in, it's definitely in my player pool. How often I'll get there, I'm not sure, but I'm in. He's getting a ton of red zone looks. That's right.

Mike, in or out on Zach? I would say in, definitely in the player pool. I am admittedly gonna target Travis Kelce. Again, he looked a lot better last week. Buffalo has been atrocious in the secondary as well. So you're getting the discount, you know, keep in mind on Travis Kelsey, like in previous years, he'd be 7500 right now 8k. He's a flat 6k and so is his quarterback

Patrick Williams. It's just like you've never seen this combo cheap like this. So he's gonna be priority number one, but I do have a decent amount of Zach Hurts popping up here. All right, Lee Price in the chat. He says Hertz rushing yard prop down about 10 yards from the historical average. Yeah, that makes a ton of sense, especially under his current possible injury circumstances. And by the way, I mentioned his passing yards prop, it looks like it's universally in that

low one 80s range, which is incredibly low, just so everybody knows, Jayden Daniels is in that anywhere between like two twenty two twenty one and two twenty five to twenty six Josh Allen and that two thirty range of Patrick Mahomes just over two fifty. Those are just passing yards, not not combo passing and rushing. All right. We do have to talk about a little bit of rushing because we're going to end up talking about some Josh Allen and Patrick. He runs a little bit, especially in games like this. We're going to cover Casey and Buffalo right after this message from our partners. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at Bet MGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino

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at 1-866-653-1-2600. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. We're back on fantasy football today. DFS. If you're watching us over on Twitter, jump over to the fantasy football today YouTube page and get in the chat. Let us know what you think about some of these plays about some of these games and by the way, so many compliments in here about the show. If you haven't

already reviewed the podcast, go to Apple, Spotify, wherever you review podcasts, hit five stars, say a couple words. It takes honestly about seven or eight seconds tops. I mean, I'm not even exaggerating that point. All right, Buffalo in Kansas City. Well, Meg, we started with you when we were talking about your favorite team.

So now we're gonna start with Mike when we talk about his favorite team, who always happens to be in this. Is it like, did I hear this stat wrong? Is it like seven AFC championships in a row? I heard that wrong, right? That's not, that's not true. It's, it's truly unbelievable, the success, but you know what, I think your commanders could be blessed with the same thing.

Heading heading here, I think they're in a really, really good spot. You know, as far as this game, I'm playing, I'm definitely playing my home's lineups. Uh, so Buffalo, it's interesting. We, I mentioned it on the early edge, you know, what an hour ago, right? So, yeah. So when I look at this Buffalo team, uh, in terms of EPA per play defensively, they're the worst team, uh, in the playoffs.

They're still alive, but they were the worst team in the playoffs defensively here, uh, and it's all because of the pass. Since week 11, they are down to 29th in the NFL in EPA per drop back. That's a problem because Kansas City doesn't want to take the ball out of Patrick Moe's hands. He's going to throw the ball. When you look at these competitive games, Kansas City is throwing the ball just over 70% of the time.

It's really not balanced at all. And when I look at this match up here, you know, we were talking about low price points, uh, again, patch from homes, flat six K Travis Kelsey, a flat six K that combination used to be eight K and eight K like you're getting a $2,000 discount off of where they were now. They haven't played like how they had in years past until very, very recently in this last game. And this is a spot where in a matchup that I think Buffalo is going to surrender enough yards that you're just getting a

massive discount here. And if you want to throw in Xavier Worley, he's 5,500 like that stack with a double stack, you can easily play Saquon, you can essentially play whatever you want, right? So I, Mahomes will definitely be my top quarterback, despite surrendering some of the massive ceiling, uh, to a guy like Josh Allen and the rushing department. Yeah, Meg, we'll toggle back and forth between these two teams. But I think one route where Patrick Mahomes doesn't get there in Kansas City pass catchers don't, I mean, Kansas City pass catches are kind of a finicky thing outside of Travis Kelsey. So we'll talk about that in terms of the value and upside of Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown, maybe guys like Dehop as well.

But on the Bills side, I think the way the Bills win the game and the way that Patrick Mahomes doesn't get there really in any statistical category is if Josh Allen and guys like James Cook hold onto the ball and Khalil Shakir, who doesn't really get downfield, you know, he's more of a just like what we're going to throw it 10 yards down the field to Khalil Shakir who doesn't really get downfield, he's more of just like, we're gonna throw it 10 yards down the field and Khalil Shakir, he's gonna catch it and the clock's gonna continue to run. I feel like playing that narrative is actually really interesting

with of course maybe some KC runbacks. Do you like the Bills side at all? I like Josh Allen for sure. Overstacking the Bills is hard for me just because of the routes they run, the targets. It's just not consistent. So for me, I love Josh Allen here. You're paying up for it,

but you're getting the ownership discount. Like I said, he and Hertz have the lowest ownership among the four quarterbacks. Now, it's not like you're getting massive ownership leverage, but you're getting a little. And I think potentially obviously Josh Allen has like the best floor ceiling combo on the slate. So I know lately they're more run heavy, but as we saw last week, he contributes to that,

that running game. He had two rushing touchdowns last week. He's historically played the chiefs very well. Um, I definitely think this could be a punch back and forth type game. So I do like Alan. I'm not going to over stack it. And I definitely like target tight end. I'm actually going to take the ownership leverage there. And I like stacking him with Knox, the cheap tight end, who's coming in at sub 10% ownership. We know you can have chiefs through the tight end position,

but Kincaid and Knox, they run about the same routes. Knox actually ran more routes last week. They had, you know, both had two catches in the game where Kincaid and Knox, they run about the same routes. Knox actually ran more routes last week. They had, you know, both had two catches in the game where Kincaid missed. It was against these Chiefs. Knox had, I believe, four catches for 40 yards. That's only eight DK points. But if he finds the end zone and you're getting him at sub 10 percent ownership, that's where I like it.

So I kind of like the Allen Knox fill in some Chiefs run backs. Obviously, Kelsey and you know, we can talk about others, but I'm not over stacking it. I certainly think if you want to go outside of Shakir, you get massive ownership leverage on the bill's receivers, but good luck, good luck picking. I mean, that's for people who are mass entering. And if you want to allocate certain percent

to each bill's receiver, you're getting massive ownership leverage on those receivers. But I couldn't begin to try to predict which one would be the one you'd try to play. It's really interesting you say that because it's, you know, we think of DFS is gambling in some sense, but you're purely truly gambling with that rotation of receivers, but that's not necessarily a bad thing on a two game slate. If you happen to hit, if you grab Keon Coleman and he grabs a 70 yard touchdown, a couple of the catch, whatever it is, you can get

there. Let me ask you this if you're going to gamble, Mike, I'm gonna ask the same question to you. And then we're gonna get to the KC receivers. If you're gonna gamble on a receiver, forget off the tight ends, a receiver outside of Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Mack Hollins, I feel like those are the and Curtis Samuel maybe are the top candidates with Amari Cooper being like trailing in last place. Amari happens to be the only one in the 4k range,

the other three are in the 3k range. Are there two receivers you would if you were making a handful of lineups you gamble on? It's just so hard for me. I'd maybe take a shot on Curtis Samuel. We saw him kind of pop a couple weeks ago, kind of manufactured touches. But yeah, it's guessing. It's a major guesswork. I think it's Curtis Samuel, too. And again, I think if the game plan is let's keep Pat Mahomes off the field, let's keep this clock rolling. It's a lot of short area passes to Khalil, to Curtis Samuel, and then get James Cook and Josh Allen involved in the running game.

Mike, do you have an opinion on these Buffalo pass catchers? Yeah, I'm not playing any of them other than Shakira Knox. That's an opinion. Curtis Samuel would be the guy, though. You're dead on there. And the reason for that is, they can manufacture touches as Meg mentioned, he can catch the ball around the line of scrimmage. He's relatively difficult to tackle in space. And that's frankly why he's been you know, an asset to the team or at least

they thought he would be and why they brought him in right. So I I'm only playing Shakira and Knox. I've got one lineup that I love. I think it's going to be heavily duped. That's the problem you run into on a two-game slate. But yeah, it's those two and move on. I would much rather save over Curtis Samuel. I'd rather save the 900 with Knox, play him at flex,

pair him with Kelsey, and kind of move on. All right, so talk to me about some of the KC guys, Mike. Kareem Hunt is 5,400. We talked about how some of the running backs are such a drop off after Barkley. Kareem Hunt or James Cook in your build, who are you finding more of in your build? I assume it's Kareem Hunt. Yeah, a little bit more Hunt versus Cook. Cook the price points just nuts at 7K, essentially 6,900.

It's a little much considering how much I think Josh Allen's going to take priority, uh, particularly in the red zone. Now, if you, if you're in the camp that thinks Kansas city struggles offensively, then I think that cook is a phenomenal play. Like I think he's a great play at that point. Uh, I think Kansas city is going to score points here. And I think that we've seen the other running backs. Someone just mentioned Ty Johnson. Uh, you've got Davis as well. I think that they mix in those

backs a little bit as well. So to me, this is not a great spot to play them. Uh, I have more interest in hunt. I think the more interesting question is what do you do with hunt versus Eckler? Uh, cause Austin Eckler can, he's got a ton of, you know, ceiling and upside in terms of catching passes. Uh, but hunt does seem to potentially get those goal line carries. So it's, uh, that's going to be the toughest call for me. Uh, is doing that because there's a lineup that I like here. I'm going to read it off. I don't normally share a full line.

I'm gonna read it off. Uh, it's my homes, Barkley, hunt worthy Shakir, AJ Brown, Travis Kelsey, Dawson Knox, and the Eagles. Notice that has zero Washington commanders in it. You could obviously play Eckler over Hunt, but for me, it would be that Kansas City onslaught where it's Mahomes, Hunt, Worthy, Kelsey. That's a lineup that I'm looking at playing here right now. Yeah, I think it's really important that you brought up James Cook and

the only way he's like super viable is if Buffalo is kind of dominating this game somehow from the outset. And again, I think these alternative narratives are something to potentially build for because this is only a two point spread. It's not like Kansas City's favorite by ten here. Like that is absolutely in play. Patrick Mahomes seems to never have a bad playoff game, but it's in play at least. And then all of a sudden it becomes the Josh Allen and James Cook show. And you can build for that.

Like I can think of some lineups where I'd have James Cook featured in this game in a potential Buffalo positive game script. And everything else goes to that other game with the exception of maybe one or two pieces. Like I think you can build for those alternative narratives and on a two game slate I feel like you should do that. Mike go ahead. Yeah I think the the real thing it probably comes down to is Cook versus AJ Brown and I know they play different positions but it's a two game slate. I think that's the decision that ultimately can decide a lot of these contests this week. Whether it's AJ gets in the end zone, you know, gets that 100 yard bonus potentially and Cook. So I, for me, I think that that's the toughest decision, but I am leaning towards still potentially including AJ Brown here over Cook. ask you this and then Meg, I'm gonna ask you this. The pass catchers for Kansas City. Xavier Worthy 5500 seems like a pretty good price. Marquise Brown kind of fell flat last

week but but had some potential. He's only 4200. Are they making it into your builds and is there any other KC pass catcher outside of Kelsey that would be making those builds? Yeah, Xavier Worthy's wide receiver one for me on the entire slate. He's just simply too talented in the way that they can use him. Buffalo has been, as I mentioned, atrocious in the secondary. He's so difficult to cover because of the speed. And the thing that I like to point out on him is while, yes, it's

happened many times and we hope it gets better at some point, if you go back and watch Kansas City play, we're missing probably like eight massive Xavier worthy highlights that didn't count because he had half a foot out of bounds because he lost track where he was. And that's just things that happened, you know, as a rookie in the league, right? But he's, you know, right there on some massive, massive plays, and they're going to continue to give him the football. So for me, he is clearly wide receiver one, really for me on this entire slate, regardless of price in terms of wanting to put him in my lineup. And emphasis on wide receiver there because Meg, you know, when you look at the receiving yards props across the four teams,

Travis Kelsey actually leads the way as you two know, it's close depending on where you look, it's in that 70 range. Just so everybody knows, Terry is in the 65 range and I'm ballparking it because books are different across, you look, it's in that 70 range. And just so everybody knows, Terry is in the 65 range and I'm ballparking it because books are different across, you know, across books, it's a little different. AJ Brown, 60, then you got Khalil Shakir, 55, Xavier Worthy, 49, and then you got Devonte Smith after that in the high 40s as well. Meg, are you playing, you think you're playing

Xavier Worthy as well? Because when I built that super chalky lineup, Xavier Worthy was definitely one of my first clicks because I think Mike's right. Like, first of all, he's getting a lot of work anyway, especially nowadays. But we know he's viable for that long catch in that long run or that end around that goes to the house.

So Xavier Worthy in your lineups, and is there any other past catcher for KC that you like outside of Travis Kelsey? Yeah, I'm with you and Mike. Worthy is an early clique. Maybe it's not the very first one, but it's an early click for me. And I see him in most of my lineups for sure.

Outside of obviously Kelsey is as well, but outside of that, I don't know them forcing it. Marquis from around did run the routes. His routes went up last week, but only had two targets didn't get there, you know, didn't get bringing in. So could he this week? Absolutely.

But you're not getting any ownership leverage by going to that because he's still, I'm still seeing him at around 50% ownership. So you are getting ownership discount on Hopkins, but he's not really, at least last week didn't run the routes. Maybe that changes this week. So I'd say if you wanted ownership leverage, you could try Hopkins and hope he runs more routes, gets like an end zone target. And I don't fault you if you do want to, you know, stack with Hollywood Brown too. We know he can be explosive as well. But my priorities are definitely kind of the chalky ones and calcium worthy. Yeah.

And again, some of this stuff is going to be chalky and building with contrarian pieces or just some onslaught stacks that you don't think people are going to do contrarian builds. And again, contrarian game scripts scripts I think are really, really important this week. Well, listen, we don't have Mike, anything else to follow up on this game because I wanted to discuss cheat sheets and in top threes, but we're not going to have official plays in that capacity because it's just the two games late. But I do want to talk about some of our favorite plays.

Anything left on this Kansas City Buffalo game? Don't be you know, one thing I'm considering as well. I know we like Knox. I actually might have a dual tight end build that's Kelsey and Noah Gray, both of them. I just think there are ways that Kelsey can get there through sheer volume, Noah Gray can get there in the red zone, as we've seen a couple times. So that's one build that I'm considering, especially where I'm playing Mahomes, Worthy, Kelsey, and not the running backs. That's a build that I'm strongly considering here. And I don't think anyone plays Noah Gray for 400 more than Dawson Knox here.

That's interesting. So it would be in at least a lineup, you would have Patrick Mahomes, Worthy, Kelsey, and Noah Gray. Yep. I will say this because I was looking at Patrick Mahomes passing yard as prop, which again is around 252. But it's completions prop 24 and a half. And I think it might even be juiced a little bit to the over. That is that is an

incredibly high completions prop. So to your point, Mike, in terms of like leaving the ball and Patrick Mahomes hand 100% that's what they're gonna do. So you know, you could have Noah Gray at 3k with easily a few catches in this type of atmosphere. Yeah, I mean, to the point, again, it's not a full slate. At a flex spot at 3K right there, three catches 36 yards might be enough on this slate. Very, very interesting.

All right, Meg, listen, you did fill out a cheat sheet. I didn't, because I'm just kind of just freewheeling it on today's show. But with that said, let's talk about some of your favorite plays in terms of you know, and you've kind of given your opinion on all these games but like if you had to pick a favorite stack and a chalk by chalk fade contrarian value, what do you like? Sure.

Yeah, I talked about Josh Allen. You know, he's played the Chiefs well. So, coming in a little ownership doing Josh Allen with Dawson Knox for the ownership leverage at the tight end position. Of course, I know a lot of us are probably running double tight end builds. Chalk by, of course, Taekwon, we talked that through. Obviously, two matchups against Washington, 300 yards, four touchdowns. I'm going to go back there. Chalk fade. I put Shakir just because, you know, he doesn't have that touchdown equity like some of these other receivers.

Um, so, you know, if you're just fading a six for 60, which has kind of been what a lot of Shakir games are, then I can dodge that. And, you know, maybe I do after talking this through, take a stab on the Curtis Samuel, if I did want to run a second Bill's piece, um, contrarian, I put Dawson Knox and Kareem Hunt Dawson Knox is sub 10%. I believe Kareem Hunt is around 20% or lower. So that's low on a two game slate. And Mike talked through that.

And I definitely have some interest in Kareem Hunt. I actually had a follow up question for you and Mike about three running back builds versus two tight end builds. But Kareem Hunt is definitely in consideration whether you're playing him over Eckler or Cook or just as a third running back. And then value, I'll just stick with the whole Dawson Nox thing, you're getting 2.6K tight end and hoping he gets in the end zone basically.

Mike and any response to what Meg just kind of referenced in terms of are a lot of your builds three running backs and then how much are two tight ends are you having? Yeah I got a lot of tie too tight end initially. You know I think that the two running backs, like, if you don't play three running backs, you leave yourself very exposed, which I'm okay with personally, I'm okay with taking that risk. But if there's a scenario where James Cook scores multiple touchdowns, I can assure you that I'm not winning this week, right?

So because you're going to need them, you're going to need Cook and Barkley for sure at that point. So I'm leaning more towards the two tight end build than the three running back build. So that's just where I'm leaning there, which I'll tell you, Cook is the guy that I'm not playing for the most part. Fair enough. All right. Mike, I do want to ask you about some of your maybe favorite pieces at each position, not necessarily a top three, kind of where you think you're going to go all in on with some of these stacks and whatnot. But I'll say my stack is going to be the same stack that I had last week. It's Jaden Daniels and Diyami Brown. And by the way, Uwe 2K says, a commander's onslaught. We have to remember that the commanders in

that game where they won and granted they beat Kenny Pickett they threw for five Jaden Daniels threw for five touchdown passes if memory serves they also had five turnovers in that game I guess the point being is no matter how good this Eagles defense is there is the possibility that Washington puts up a lot of points just like they did against Detroit I understand two different defenses but I think the onslaught is really really interesting and I think you could make the argument that you get a lot of players in that game including Saquon Barkley on the other side. And you say to yourself, it's just going to be, you know, dink and dunk on the Kansas City side, grab Kelsey and grab,

grab James Cook and just hope that it's really just a running game for the Buffalo Bill. So I think that type of narrative is certainly in play. As far as my chalk bite, it is probably going to be Saquon. My chalk fate, I agree with you. It's not going to, it's going to be Shakir. I think he's an okay play, but I just think the upside is a little limited, especially when some of these other receivers can get peppered in, particularly down the field. Contrarian play, I don't really have one. So I think Noah Gray, I'm certainly convinced there from Mike. And then there's just plenty of value plays that we talked about on the board. I think you could, I'm certainly convinced there from Mike. And then there's just plenty of value plays that we talked about on the board.

I think you could go back to Hollywood Brown, but I think there's plenty in that Washington game, and even some chances to take potentially on a Curtis Samuel in the Buffalo Bills game. All right, Mike, how about just some stacks you like, and maybe a couple of core pieces that most of your builds have? Yeah, I'd say every build will have

Saquon, Worthy and Kelsey. Those will be the top three pieces that'll for sure be in every lineup. I'll play Noah Gray a little bit as a little bit of a contrarian stance, only doing that with Mahomes at quarterback. I'm not sprinkling. If you're looking for a cheap tight end

in a non-Mahomes lineup, it would be Knox for me. I only want Noah Gray with Patrick Mahomes because the scenario that Noah Gray goes off, I think it's Patrick Mahomes has multiple touchdowns. I don't think it's Noah Gray catches the only Patrick Mahomes touchdown. So that that's how I'm building that. As far as running backs, it is it's a toss up right now for me. I'm leaning Kareem Hunt still. I see a question in the chat, who will be the the pass catching back for me. I'm leaning Kareem Hunt still I see a question in the chat who will be the the pass catching back for Kansas City I think Kareem hunt is the back that they trust the most

So Maji P Ryan is in there and pass protection a bit on third down But when the game's on the line if it is on the line, I think Kareem hunt is the guy That that's gonna get the look so I'm leaning there. We talked Not enough about Buffalo and that was my fault there. I think Johnson Ty Johnson is interesting In the scenario that Buffalo falls behind and it is trailing So if you need some salary savings, I could see that being viable and then the other guy that I Still like Devante Smith a little bit But again, that's only in Jayden Daniels lineups, only in the scenario where Washington

is really, really, really pushing. Very, very interesting. Build for the narrative. One last question before we get out of here. Meg, I'm gonna, well, I'm gonna ask both of you this. Meg, I'm gonna start with you. The team most likely to go over their implied total, and I'll give you each team's implied total.

Washington, just under 21. So let's just call it 21. Eagles, just under 27. So we'll call it 27. So Washington, 21. Eagles, 27. The Chiefs, 24. And the Bills, 23.

Team most likely to go over their implied total. Oh, this is tough. I'm gonna, I think this could actually be a higher scoring game in the Chiefs-Buffalo. So don't get mad at me, Mike. but I'm going to say bills on this one. I'm going to say that I see them going over 23 and a half. Okay, Mike, same question for you. Yeah. I think the answer is probably the bills or Kansas city.

I think it's that game for me. And the only reason I say that is I think that Philly can have enough success on the ground that they just really limit possessions in that. Yeah. Is what I could see happening. So, and that goes the same way. I think Washington can move the ball, but I don't think they're hitting 60 yard home run balls in this game. I think it's moving the football down the field. So, I'll say Buffalo only because of the key number, right? 24 is super key. They're listed at 23 and

a half. Like the scenario, the Buffalo lands on 24, I think is probably likely here. Now, where does the 24 come from? I feel better about where the 24 comes from on the Kansas City side. So I like in DFS, I like the Kansas City side a lot more here. All right. It's such a good point about Washington. Don't expect to see what you saw last week. I mean, I know they did that against the Eagles to some degree when they played Kenny Pickett in company, but you had such a banged up defense and then Amique Robertson, their best defensive back went out within like five minutes of the game starting, which honestly, like I feel bad for Detroit.

How many injuries could this defense possibly sustain? It's just not going to hold up against most teams, but especially not against Jaden Daniels. So, I mean, I do think that's interesting in terms of Jaden Daniels ability to throw it downfield. Maybe that makes Austin Eckler even more palatable. Maybe that makes Olamide Zaccheaus even more palatable. And of course, Terry McLorin and Zach Hurts. I think that makes things interesting. I'm going to choose Washington though. I mean, they just keep scoring. So 21 implied total, I still think is too low. Maybe even in garbage time, if they're getting blown out, which hopefully that's not the case,

I think Jaden can put up some points there. Jalen Carter versus that backup tackle. Yeah, Trent Scott is gonna be fun. Yeah, Sam Cosby being out is not good, but this offensive line, Trent Scott's a veteran. Like this offensive line's been pretty good. It's been pretty good, but much better than, and that's partly because of Jaden Daniels. All right, I think that's it. Meg, any final thoughts before we get out

of here? We'll be back in a couple of weeks to talk showdown in the Super Bowl, so don't forget that. But Meg, any final thoughts here? No, I think we talked through a lot of it. Just I think build for those alternate game scripts if you're trying to be contrarian. And yeah, enjoy. We got two more fun weekends here. Yeah, and Mike, before you give out your comment, Uwe Touquet, I mean, he makes a really good point here. He says Mr. Najat, okay, Stafford went off on that D last week. That's very true. Like, I mean, this defense, here's the thing about the Eagles

defense, I don't think it's as good as we've been talking about over the last couple of months. I think it's great. But I like the fact that we've had we've seen quarterbacks over the last six weeks really kind of not dominate the defense, but really find holes in this defense is telling. And that includes Matt Stafford last week in a game that the Rams easily could have won in my opinion. Mike, any final thoughts?

Yeah, just don't be afraid to leave salary, especially receiving. Like if AJ Brown doesn't score a touchdown at 6,800, there's a good chance a, you know, $4,200 Hollywood Brown can outscore him. So there, there's a lot of ways to get different. Um, and don't remember, you don't have to be the team that you think is going to win to play.

Uh, there's many scenarios where there's things that might sound and seem negatively correlated, but like the Eagles defense being good and picking off Jaden Daniels twice early in this game might be a great thing for Jaden Daniels fantasy score. Yeah. Right. So just a lot of things to think through like always every week, but leave some salary on the table is the best way to get different here. All right. We got two comments that I just have to read. One is from Rad Pav, who came in here late. Thanks for coming in at all. I appreciate everybody in here. Says, I came in here just to say, go birds to Sia and Meg.

All right, I mean, we'll see how this turns out. Obviously we're playing with house money here. As long as our king stays healthy going into next season, I'm looking very optimistic because Mike, you made that comment about Washington. They've got what, $90 million in cap space. I think they're like in the top three as far as cap space is concerned. So this is a team as long as the quarterback stays healthy.

And I always worry about that. We went through the RG three experience 12 years ago. Um, we got, we're things are looking up. Uh, the future is bright. That's right. Future is bright. Yeah. And then Lee Price says, appreciate it.

Enjoy the best four teams are remaining. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, uh, that was 44 minutes on just two games, but I thought we just attacked it from so many different angles, and that's what you have to do on a two-game slate. Everybody, thank you for joining us. That's Mike McClure, we got Meg Schaap, we got me, Siena Jahn, and we've been bringing you FFTDFS all year. We still got a show to go before this season ends, so tune in for that. Meanwhile, have fun on Sunday watching Championship Weekend. Go commanders, go chiefs, I guess. That's

what this show is going to be all about. Maybe the commanders and the chiefs in the Super Bowl. Hopefully, ladies and gentlemen, have a great week and weekend. We'll see you next time on today, DFF.