NFL Weekly Grind Down: Week 16 - Page 5
Pittsburgh at Green Bay
| Pittsburgh Steelers | Green Bay Packers | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| Sun – 4:25PM ET | Lambeau Field | |||||||||
| Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | |||
| 7 | 44.5 | 18.75 | -7 | 44.5 | 25.75 | |||||
| Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | |
| Offense | 22.9 | 19 | 11 | 31 | Offense | 25.2 | 12 | 7 | 7 | |
| Defense | 23.7 | 15 | 8 | 19 | Defense | 25.9 | 21 | 22 | 25 | |
| Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | |
| Green Bay | 23 | 21 | 27 | 24 | Pittsburgh | 13 | 14 | 11 | 14 | |
| Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | |
| Brown | 138 | 9.7 | 7.7 | 6.0 | Nelson | 105 | 7.6 | 5.7 | 9.0 | |
| Sanders | 106 | 7.6 | 7.7 | 6.0 | Jones | 74 | 6.2 | 5.7 | 7.0 | |
| Wheaton | 13 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | Boykin | 65 | 4.7 | 4.0 | 6.0 | |
| Miller | 72 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 4.0 | Quarless | 43 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 6.0 | |
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers had a nice win against division rival Cincinnati a week ago, but they have been long eliminated from the playoff hunt and will travel to Green Bay to take on a Packers team that has everything to play for. I wouldn’t expect Pittsburgh to roll over and die, but the lack of importance on this game does raise some red flags for targeting PIT players. If you do decide to go that route, you can imagine that Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown might be able to find some success just one week after Tony Romo threw for 358 yards and 2 scores and Dez Bryant had 11 catches for 153 yards and a TD. The Packers had 3 different defensive backs in coverage on Bryant for at least 4 targets last week and should throw similar coverage towards Steelers stud WR Antonio Brown. His biggest concern will be when Sam Shields is in coverage as Shields has far and away been the Packers most reliable corner but is also unlikely to totally shadow Brown on the outside. Overall, the Packers have allowed 5 receivers in their last 7 games to post over 100 receiving yards and are allowing the 4th most FPPG to opposing WRs over the last 5 weeks and 3 weeks splits.
The rushing attack should see a slight boost with news that John Jolly has been lost for the season on the Packers defensive line. Jolly had returned from a long NFL absence but went down in Week 15 and won’t play again this season. That should make the battle against Le’Veon Bell even harder for Green Bay, who had already been struggling against running backs. Three of the last four backs to face the Packers have rushed for 100+ yards. In that time, all three of those 100 yard backs were able to post 20+ fantasy points in monster efforts against this front seven. As far as Bell goes, he has really found a nice role in the passing game after catching at least 5 balls for the 3rd consecutive game in Week 15. Over the last three weeks he has 17 catches for 141 yards to go with 191 rushing yards and 2 rush TDs. The Packers are sneakily one of the worst rush defenses in the NFL right now and Bell should be able to tear them up for a huge game.
Green Bay Packers
With news that Aaron Rodgers won’t play, officially, in Week 16, the Packers have to regroup and prepare for life without him again in a must-win situation. The good news is that Matt Flynn is coming off a big game against the Cowboys where he fell a yard shy of 300 and had 4 passing touchdowns in the comeback win. That makes four consecutive starts for Flynn, whose value tends to be dependent on the tempo of the game and need to throw a lot late. His two best performances have come when losing big and the receivers have benefitted heavily in those games. Also worth noting is the targets breakdown from last game, where Jordy Nelson lead all WRs in targets for the first time since Flynn took over the starting gig. The Steelers secondary has improved as a whole over the last few weeks, but Nelson will still likely find himself across from Ike Taylor who has been a disaster all season in coverage. Overall, Pittsburgh has allowed the 6th most fantasy points per game to wide receivers over the last 5 weeks and Nelson, Boykin and Jones should be able to find space against their D.
The rushing attack will again be relied on heavily as the Packers ask Eddie Lacy to shoulder the workload and help Green Bay tread water until a hopeful Aaron Rodgers return. In four games with Flynn under center, Lacy has 20+ carries in 3 of them and went for 141 yards and 1 TD with 4 rec for 30 yards in Week 15. He’s been more involved in the passing game as well which has just added value to his fantasy potential. The Steelers rush defense has been up and down in recent weeks, having held 5 of their last 7 opponent RB1s to under 60 rushing yards with the other two having 100+ yard games. It’s hard to really quantify, but the two backs to have success against PIT have been Stevan Ridley and Daniel Thomas, both of them are notorious for hitting the gaps hard while a number of the other backs they’ve faced are more finesse. Lacy would qualify as a hard-nosed back who can run through the teeth of the Steelers defense, although the overall matchup is far from as tempting at Week 15 vs. Dallas.
PIT @ GB – Daily Fantasy Relevant
- Ben Roethlisberger – He’s been a GPP play all season, as he’s had some huge performances coupled with some real duds. He has great value at $11.8K on SS and $11.4K on FTD though, and could be a strong QB2 on either site.
- Le’Veon Bell – Given how involved he’s been in the passing game in recent weeks, it’s hard to ignore his PPR value on DraftKings for just $6K. He has good value on FTD as well at $10.7K.
- Antonio Brown – He’s pretty consistently priced in the top-10 of DFS sites for WRs, but he has great cash game appeal on full point PPR sites because he’s a lock to reel in 6-7 catches every game.
- Matt Flynn – It’s hard to have any faith in Flynn, but for $5.9K on DraftKings he might be worth taking a shot on in one of their large field tournies on Sunday. He’s also reasonably priced at FD for $6.3K.
- Eddie Lacy – Lacy has been running the ball extremely well and gets to face a PIT defense that has struggled at times stopping the run on the road. He’s a salary specific play though, and is worth a shot at $11.8K on DS, $6.8K on DK and $11.4K on FTD.
- Jordy Nelson – His price has dropped all the way to $6.5K on FD and $6.3K on DK, most notably, and on those two sites you can take a chance on an immensely talented receiver in a good matchup.
Oakland at San Diego
| Oakland Raiders | San Diego Chargers | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| Sun – 4:25PM ET | Qualcomm Stadium | |||||||||
| Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | |||
| 10 | 50.5 | 20.25 | -10 | 50.5 | 30.25 | |||||
| Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | |
| Offense | 21.1 | 25 | 25 | 6 | Offense | 24.5 | 14 | 4 | 15 | |
| Defense | 28.1 | 29 | 24 | 9 | Defense | 22.2 | 10 | 29 | 14 | |
| Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | |
| San Diego | 24 | 10 | 30 | 13 | Oakland | 27 | 26 | 25 | 11 | |
| Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | |
| Moore | 76 | 6.9 | 2.0 | 2.0 | Allen | 90 | 6.8 | 6.0 | 5.0 | |
| Streater | 85 | 6.1 | 7.7 | 9.0 | Brown | 63 | 4.5 | 3.0 | 3.0 | |
| Holmes | 36 | 4.5 | 8.3 | 7.0 | Royal | 58 | 4.5 | 5.0 | 6.0 | |
| Rivera | 53 | 3.8 | 5.3 | 5.0 | Gates | 108 | 7.5 | 6.0 | 3.0 | |
Oakland Raiders
Well last week couldn’t have been much more embarrassing for the Raiders, but they’ll have to regroup and head to San Diego where the Chargers have everything to play for and the Raiders have very little. It’s always reassuring though to see teams with rookies starting this time a year, as Matt McGloin will be 100% zoned in on this contest as he tries to prove his long-term worth to the franchise. McGloin will lead the passing attack against a Chargers secondary that has allowed at least one passing touchdown in each of their last 6 games and 250+ passing yards in 5 of those 6 contests. PFF has San Diego’s pass coverage rating as the second worst cumulative rating in the NFL and of their four corners with a qualified number of snaps, none of them have a positive coverage rating on ProFootballFocus. In fact, the two corners likely to play the majority of coverage snaps, Shareece Wright and Richard Marshall are ranked 100th and 96th respectively out of 109 qualified corners. That should leave space on the outside for both Rod Streater and Denarius Moore, with Andre Holmes seeing spot snaps as well.
The rushing attack for Oakland got a lot cloudier with news that Darren McFadden will likely play come Sunday. Rashad Jennings has two rushing TDs in each of the last two games he’s been healthy enough to play in, but McFadden’s presence combined with the use of Marcel Reece on passing downs makes Jennings value a little more confusing. What has been clear is that when McFadden is the featured back, Jennings is much more involved on passing downs as the pass-catching RB, but when Jennings is the featured backs they will use him like McFadden and get Reece in on 3rd and long situations. It’s unlikely that McFadden will be the featured back this week, but having all three healthy just makes for a real ugly situation. I mention the receiving downs because last weekend, Montee Ball and Knowshon Moreno caught 5 balls a piece and both had most of their value come on receptions.
San Diego Chargers
The Chargers get to face an Oakland defense that has been downright awful of late in a game they have to win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Raiders have now allowed a 7 touchdown game to Nick Foles and a 5 touchdown game to Jamaal Charles, so it only seems natural that they need to allow the highest scoring WR and TE of the season to round out the set. In the passing game, Philip Rivers managed the game well enough to win last week but will be able to turn up the heat a bit more on Sunday against the Raiders secondary. These teams haven’t met since Week 5, which marked the emergence of Keenan Allen in the Chargers passing game. Allen caught 6 balls for 115 yards and a score and that was the first of Allen’s 5 100+ yard receiving games this season. It’s been a different story in recent weeks though, as Allen hasn’t been as involved in the offense but has managed to maintain value by finding the end zone. He has 2 receiving touchdowns in each of his last two games despite having just 6 total receptions over the two contests. Rivers has actually only targeted Allen 8 times, a number trumped by both Eddie Royal and Antonio Gates in that span. It’s hard to imagine Allen can be held down by the Raiders secondary, but the declining targets and health concerns of a rookie heading into the latest part of the season are completely valid.
On the ground, the Chargers have been a revelation while getting Ryan Mathews more heavily involved in the offense. Mathews has back-to-back 100+ yard games with a touchdown, but most impressively he’s gotten 29 touches in each of those games. Those 58 total touches are near the top of the NFL for non-QB touches over the last two weeks and his usage makes him a viable option against any opponent. The bigger threat to the Raiders though, if this game stays reasonably close, may be Danny Woodhead who has been quiet in recent weeks. But watching Jamaal Charles have 195 receiving yards out of the backfield has to have opened the eyes of the Chargers coaching staff and Woodhead is their best receiving option. He’s been relegated to pretty much only 3rd downs, but he has so much value on full-point PPR sites and he has 7 receiving touchdowns already on the season.
OAK @ SD – Daily Fantasy Relevant
- Matt McGloin – Against this secondary, McGloin makes for a decent GPP option on Sunday. The Chargers are 10 point favorites so McGloin should be in catch up mode if that line holds true, and that could lead to a number of garbage points. He’s a bottom-5 priced QB across the industry.
- Rod Streater – He’s my favorite pair with McGloin this weekend, although Matt does a good job of spreading the ball around so you don’t necessarily have to handcuff him in a GPP. He’s a bit overpriced on most sites, but is a value at $8.7K on SS.
- Philip Rivers – One price really stands out to me, and that is $11.7K on StarStreet. I don’t know if he has the upside to be worth his high tag on the other sites, but that’s a bargain on SS.
- Ryan Mathews and Danny Woodhead – I’ll make this one simple. Woodhead is the better large field option on the full-point PPR sites. Mathews is a bit safer with his locked in touches on the ground and is the better cash game play, but can also be used in half point PPR tournaments.
- Keenan Allen – Like Rivers, Allen has a rising price tag despite mediocre recent success. The matchup is great so he could be argued in any game format or on any site, but I specifically like $6.5K on DK.
Chicago at Philadelphia
| Chicago Bears | Philadelphia Eagles | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| Sun – 8:30 PM ET | Lincoln Financial Field | |||||||||
| Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | |||
| 3 | 56 | 26.5 | -3 | 56 | 29.5 | |||||
| Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | |
| Offense | 29.0 | 2 | 5 | 13 | Offense | 26.0 | 7 | 10 | 1 | |
| Defense | 27.9 | 28 | 11 | 32 | Defense | 24.9 | 17 | 31 | 16 | |
| Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | |
| Philadelphia | 29 | 17 | 32 | 2 | Chicago | 8 | 28 | 13 | 25 | |
| Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | |
| Marshall | 144 | 10.4 | 10.0 | 13.0 | Jackson | 118 | 8.4 | 9.3 | 16.0 | |
| Jeffery | 133 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 5.0 | Cooper | 78 | 5.5 | 7.3 | 7.0 | |
| Bennett | 40 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 4.0 | Avant | 68 | 4.9 | 3.0 | 5.0 | |
| Bennett | 87 | 6.1 | 5.7 | 6.0 | Celek | 41 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 1.0 | |
Chicago Bears
This game has the highest over/under on the board and just a 3 point spread in favor of the Eagles with both teams fighting for their playoff lives. It could mean a lot more to Chicago, based on the outcome of the Dallas game earlier in the day, but regardless the Eagles are fighting for seeding and still don’t have a spot locked up in the postseason. With the 55.5 over/under, you can expect the passing attack of Chicago to be in use early and often behind Jay Cutler who was hit or miss with 265 yards passing, 3 scores and 2 INTs. As was somewhat expected, Brandon Marshall returned to the forefront of the Bears receiving efforts. In Cutler’s first game back, here was the target breakdown:
Marshall (13 tgts), Jeffery (5 tgts), E. Bennett (4 tgts), M. Bennett (6 tgts), Forte (3 tgts)
Marshall has always been Cutler’s favorite play-toy and that connection between the two returned in Week 15 as Marshall hauled in 6 balls for 95 yards and a score. Jeffery was much more efficient though, and managed to catch all 5 of his targets for 5 receptions, 72 yards and a score of his own. The Bears move their receivers around a lot, but Marshall should line up wide left across from Cary Williams who ranks 100th out of 109 qualified corners in coverage this season, according to PFF. Jeffery should have an equally solid matchup with Bradley Fletcher who is 67th out of 109 qualified corners in overall coverage rating. Both will see a heavy dose of each, but neither Fletcher or Williams should be able to shut down the dynamic receiving tandem. One other note on the Eagles coverage, Brandon Boykin is expected to return this week as the starting slot corner for PHI, but he won’t see too much of either Alshon or Marshall as they take the majority of the snaps outside the numbers. Overall the Eagles have allowed the 4th most FPPG to wide receivers over the last 5 weeks.
The rushing attack for Chicago will rely on Matt Forte against an Eagles defense that has held their last two opposing running backs to under 3 yards per carry on 48 carries, despite allowing 4 rush TDs in that time. Forte meanwhile has been the exact opposite, and has 100+ yards rushing in three consecutive games without finding the end zone for a rushing touchdown, although he does have one receiving score in that span. Overall, he doesn’t have a rushing TD since Week 9, which is extremely disappointing after he posted 7 rushing touchdowns through the Bears first 8 games of the season. The Eagles rank 6th in run stopping on ProFootballFocus, and this will be a tough matchup on the road for Forte to establish himself.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles finally lost last week despite the passing attack with Nick Foles and DeSean Jackson hooking up 10 times for 195 yards and a score. It was DeSean’s best game of the season, and far and away his best effort with Foles under center. In fact, before last week DJax had only one game with over 100 receiving yards with Foles playing the entire game. Maybe the most impressive was that Jackson was targeted 16 times, and Zach Ertz was targeted 9 times by Foles. For all the discussion about how bad the Bears defense is, it goes a bit unnoticed how little fantasy success opposing quarterbacks have had against them this season. The Bears have allowed the 6th fewest fantasy points per game to opposing QBs over the last 3 weeks and 3rd fewest over the last 5 weeks. They haven’t allowed a 300+ yard passer since Week 3 and they’ve only had two quarterbacks have 3 passing touchdowns against them all season.
The bigger issue for the Bears has been their rush defense, which caught a break last week against the abysmal Browns rushing attack. They still allowed a player I’m willing to admit I’ve never heard of in Edwin Baker to go for 38 yards and a score on 8 carries, but they only faced 14 total carries from Cleveland. It’s pretty unlikely they get that dosage again as the Eagles have rushed with LeSean McCoy 20+ times in 7 different games this season and know that the ground game is Chicago’s biggest weakness. Before last week, the Bears had allowed 5 consecutive RB1’s to go for over 100 rushing yards and 7 straight RB1’s to have over 95 rushing yards. Since Week 6, the Bears rushing defense has been historically bad:
- 9 Games Since Week 6: 248 RuAtt, 1405 RuYd, 5.67 YPC, 12 RuTD
The Bears rank dead last in the NFL in run stopping on PFF and McCoy is in the best spot he’s been in all season, and that includes games against the Vikings and Cowboys already. The biggest worry on McCoy is that he’s been volatile this season. He consistently hits 12 fantasy points, but for his price tag in daily fantasy his floor should be higher than 12. His fantasy totals over the course of 2013 have a standard deviation of 7.6, which is the 8th highest among 1st string backs who have consistently taken the majority of their teams snaps.
CHI @ PHI – Daily Fantasy Relevant
- Jay Cutler + Brandon Marshall + Alshon Jeffery – This group makes for one of the highest upside GPP handcuffs this weekend, so instead of breaking them all down individually, let’s see how their salaries breakdown with each handcuff (Cutler/Marshall, Cutler/Jeffery, Cutler/Marshall/Jeffery) across the industry:
| Handcuffs | FD | DS | DD | DK | FF | SS | FTD |
| Cutler/Marshall | $16,500 | $26,552 | $33,200 | $15,800 | $269,300 | $24,800 | $25,300 |
| Cutler/Jeffery | $16,000 | $25,615 | $32,750 | $15,300 | $280,800 | $24,600 | $24,300 |
| All Three | $24,500 | $39,139 | $49,550 | $23,300 | $422,100 | $37,500 | $37,200 |
- Nick Foles – You’re paying a top price for him while he continues to tear up the NFL landscape. He’s a top-3 priced QB on every site except DS and even there he’s almost $15K. With that said, he’s a consistent play for cash games and has upside in any matchup, he just won’t top my list of QB options this week.
- LeSean McCoy – You know what you’re going to pay as he’s the 2nd highest priced RB behind Charles on every site. This matchup is ideal, and he’ll be a high percentage owned in tournaments, but he should be worth it as the problems in the Bears front 7 are very, very real.
- DeSean Jackson and Riley Cooper – DJax scares me because it could very well be a case of chasing the big game rather than anticipating it. His price has risen heavily and I’d only consider him if you’re doing multiple entries in an event and want to pair him with Foles for their high combined ceilings. Cooper’s price tag has fallen off the map and he makes for an intriguing play at $5.5K on FD, $7K on DS and $5.5K on DK as well as $8.4K on FTD.
- Zach Ertz – Ertz had 17 fantasy points in Week 15, meaning he has 15+ FP in 2 of his last 3 contests with the only exception being a goose egg in the snow bowl. His best price is at $4900 on FanDuel and $4.3K on DS.
Atlanta at San Francisco
| Atlanta Falcons | San Francisco 49ers | |||||||||
 |  | |||||||||
| Mon – 8:40PM ET | Candlestick Park | |||||||||
| Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | Vegas Odds | Sprd | Total | Proj.Pts | |||
| 12 | 45 | 16.5 | -12 | 45 | 28.5 | |||||
| Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | Tm Stats | PPG | Scoring | Pass | Rush | |
| Offense | 22.1 | 21 | 8 | 32 | Offense | 24.9 | 13 | 30 | 5 | |
| Defense | 27.7 | 27 | 25 | 29 | Defense | 16.3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | |
| Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | Opp. Def vs. Pos | QB | RB | WR | TE | |
| San Francisco | 3 | 8 | 6 | 4 | Atlanta | 25 | 24 | 23 | 21 | |
| Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | Rec. Targets | Total | Seas | Last3 | Last1 | |
| White | 69 | 5.7 | 10.3 | 7.0 | Boldin | 112 | 7.9 | 9.7 | 8.0 | |
| Douglas | 115 | 8.1 | 9.7 | 7.0 | Crabtree | 18 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | |
| Davis | 14 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.0 | Manningham | 23 | 3.8 | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
| Gonzalez | 104 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 7.0 | Davis | 76 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 7.0 | |
Atlanta Falcons
Last but not least we have a matchup that I’m sure the NFL expected to be much more even when they made the Monday Night Football schedule awhile back. The Falcons head to San Francisco as the largest underdogs of the day. The pickings on offense will be few and far between as the 49ers have held 4 consecutive opponents under 20 points. In that span, the Niners also rank in the top half of the NFL in every defense vs. position split (all positions, season, last 5 weeks and last 3 weeks) with the exception of some curious struggles against tight ends over the past 3 weeks. Backup Seahawks tight end Luke Willson was able to find the end zone and haul in 3 catches for 70 total yards, but then last week Tim Wright took advantage of this defense for 7 catches, 82 yards and a TD. Overall, the 49ers have allowed 6 receiving touchdowns to tight ends on the season. Beyond that, it’s going to be tough for the Falcons to find anything through the air and SF has held 4 straight QBs under 220 passing yards and their pass coverage rating is the second highest on ProFootballFocus as a unit. Matty Ice has actually been fairly consistent of late, but his ceiling has been extremely low. He has 5 consecutive games over 12 fantasy points but hasn’t topped 18 at any point during that stretch. He could be under pressure a lot in this one, as the 49ers have the 8th highest rated pass rushing defense on PFF and the Falcons offer up the 4th worst pass-protecting offensive line. There’s not a whole lot to love here, so proceed with extreme caution.
San Francisco 49ers
Just looking at the Defense vs. Position numbers in the table above, it’s easy to see why the 49ers are such heavy favorites. The Falcons rank near the bottom of the league against nearly every position while the Niners are near the top. The Falcons are coming off a game where Kirk Cousins threw for 381 yards and 2 scores on their secondary, and Colin Kaepernick has slowly watched his arsenal of receiving weapons grow over the past few weeks. Michael Crabtree is back and healthy, and took advantage of the Buccaneers defense in Week 15 for 5 catches, 45 yards and 1 TD. Crabtree has now been targeted 14 times over the 49ers last two games, and is just behind Boldin with 16 targets and ahead of Vernon Davis with only 10 targets in that time. The Falcons struggle against any type of wideout, as was showcased last week with Pierre Garcon having 7 receptions for 129 yards and a score as the WR1, but Aldrick Robinson also contributing 4 catches for 99 yards and Santana Moss having his best game of the season with 64 yards and a score. There are no real places to avoid in the Falcons secondary, so fire away with Kaepernick and his targets this weekend.
The rush defense for Atlanta has been equally bad, and with Alfred Morris tallying 98 yards in Week 15, he fell two yards shy of becoming the 4th running back to hit triple digit rushing yards in six games. If this game gets out of hand, there are legitimate concerns as to what kind of workload Frank Gore will see, but he has gotten the ball 39 times in the past two weeks for nearly 200 total yards rushing. Gore has a prime matchup here, and given the large spread favoring SF he is a likely candidate to get 20 carries on Monday Night Football.
ATL @ SF – Daily Fantasy Relevant
- Colin Kaepernick – His price is really scattered, and he’s a top-10 priced QB on most sites but on FD he’s 17th at $7900 and he’s 14th on Feud at $145K. Those are good starting points.
- Frank Gore – He really stands out at $4900 on DraftKings, though his lack of production in the passing game hurts his value there a bit. $9.5K on DraftDay looks solid as well and $6.3K on FanDuel is relatively cheap considering a really good matchup.
- Michael Crabtree and Anquan Boldin – The 49ers don’t throw a ton and as 12 point favorites, you shouldn’t expect them to suddenly become a heavily passing offense in Week 16. That means deciding for yourself which receiver can go off against a soft Falcons secondary. Boldin has 90+ receiving yards in 2 of his last 3 games and is likely too physical for the smaller Falcons corners, but Crabtree may have more upside as he gets back to health. Point being, Boldin for cash games and Crabtree for tournaments.
- Vernon Davis – With Jordan Cameron and Rob Gronkowski sidelined, Davis becomes the 2nd best tight end option for daily fantasy purposes, but is still a far cry from Jimmy Graham. Luckily, Davis is priced a lot less than Graham on most sites AND his matchup is far better than Graham’s in Week 16. The only place I wouldn’t pay his tag on is DraftStreet where he’s over $10K and there are some dirt cheap tight ends that may be better values to build around.