NFL FanDuel Lineup Walkthrough - Week 17
The old adage “saved the best for last” rang true for me in Week 17. I typically like to break down my cash game lineup, but I had my biggest score in a GPP to date, so I figured I would break that lineup down instead. I had some good fortune with this lineup, as I originally had a Jets’ stack with Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brandon Marshall, and Eric Decker. Once I saw what the winds were like in Buffalo, I pivoted to a Eagles’ stack instead.
I generally don’t play a ton of tournaments, so this one was pretty special. I didn’t win a million dollars (or anything close to it), but it is my biggest GPP score to date. The late grab by James Jones dropped me down to third place in the $300 Monster on FanDuel, but I was able to hold off the rest of the lineups behind me. It’s always a sweat when you don’t have anyone playing in the last game of the slate. This should help buy diapers for a few weeks!
Many expected the Eagles/Giants game to be a shootout, but almost all of the talk was on the Giants’ side of the ball. Despite having two strong games in a row, there was very little talk about Bradford this week. We have seen the Giants’ defense get shredded time and time again, which gave Bradford the two things that we look for in tournaments – upside and a projected low ownership.
Any other week, Freeman would have been 50% owned in both cash games and tournaments. However, with all of the value that opened up at running back, it made sense to punt the position and spend up on the elite receivers. Freeman was still a popular pick, but I will take him at a 20% ownership against the Saints any week of the year. Freeman didn’t have the biggest game, but 14.9 fantasy points didn’t kill the lineup.
When reading all of the expert columns this week, it seemed like the sharps were on Allen, yet no one else was talking about him. I liked Allen more on full-PPR sites such as DraftKings, but I wanted to include him in at least one tournament team on FanDuel. The Ravens were expected to be playing from behind and Allen has been one of their best receivers in recent weeks.
One of the most popular strategies in tournaments is to pair a quarterback with at least one of his wideouts. The logic is pretty simple, if the quarterback has a big game passing the ball, then obviously one or more of his receivers are going to play well. Rather than taking a simple QB/WR pairing, I also included Zach Ertz in the stack.
Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr., and Antonio Brown were all in great spots this week. It was also easy to fit two (or even three) of them into your lineup with all of the value at running back. I knew that I wanted to have exposure to all three receivers, but I wanted to play them in separate lineups to differentiate myself a bit. Brown ended up on this lineup and I’m certainly glad he did.
Decker was the one part of the Jets’ stack that I left in the lineup. He is the only receiver in the NFL this season to have caught at least 80 yards and/or scored a touchdown in every game that he has played in. When it comes to fantasy production, that’s hard to beat. It took a while for him to get going against the Bills, but once again, he caught another touchdown.
Ertz was the chalk play at tight end this week. I knew that would be the case, so I had to differentiate myself by playing an Eagles’ stack. Ertz had 26 catches for 298 yards in the previous three games and he kept it going in Week 17 against the Giants. He finished with nine receptions for 152 yards.
The Panthers needed a win to secure home field advantage. They have been one of the best offenses in the NFL all season and we always like to target kickers on high scoring teams.
Houston Texans
This lineup would have barely cashed if it weren’t for the Texans. They put up a whopping 29 points on FanDuel. After that outing, I think I need to buy a J.J. Watt jersey. Or maybe a Kareem Jackson jersey, as he picked off Blake Bortles and returned it for a touchdown late in the game. I liked the Texans for tournaments this week, because they have one of the best defenses, they were facing a turnover-prone offense, and no one seemed to be talking about them.