Vanek's Views: DraftKings NFL DFS Picks for the Conference Championships

by Jordan Vanek (vanekjordan) Last Updated 2026-01-22 18:52:21 Premium Content Part of the product NFL DFS

Using his experience as a former scout and staff member at Central Florida under Josh Heupel, Jordan Vanek takes an in-depth look at the upcoming NFL DFS main slate on DraftKings for the Conference Championships. Formerly of The 33rd Team and 4for4 Fantasy Football, Jordan’s deep dive into the best stacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends is a must-read before you start building your lineups.

There aren’t significant weather impacts as of Thursday, but I’d still check our NFL weather page on Sunday. Weather can always change, but it looks like the main factor for the NE/DEN game will simply be how cold it’s going to be. As for the Rams, they have a chance to become the first dome team to win an outdoor Conference Championship game. Dome teams are 0-13 on the road in these games.

2-game playoff slates are all about chasing the optimal lineup. The normal made-up DFS rules don’t apply in formats like this – you can play 3 players against your defense, stack 7 players from one game and only 2 players from the other game, leave over $2,000 in salary on the table, and most importantly, you can think outside the box. I love 2-game slates because I’m always searching for the one data point that will be the separator, and the margins are so thin that a single play can be the difference between 1st place and the rest of the field.

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NFL DFS DraftKings Picks: Top Stacks, RBs, WRs, & TEs for the Conference Championships

Game Stacks

Matthew Stafford ($6,300, QB, Los Angeles Rams)

Puka Nacua ($9,000, WR, Los Angeles Rams)

Davante Adams ($6,000, WR, Los Angeles Rams)

Terrance Ferguson ($2,700, TE, Los Angeles Rams)

Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($8,000, WR, Seattle Seahawks)

Kenneth Walker III ($6,200, RB, Seattle Seahawks)

The Rams’ personnel usage has been a major storyline all season, with their heavy 13-personnel looks, and in Week 16, they completely destroyed Seattle’s defense using that grouping. I expect the Rams to lean into 13-personnel again, and instead of all of the production funneling solely through Nacua like it did in Week 16, I think Adams gets involved in his 3rd game back from injury, with Ferguson becoming the true difference-maker. Tight ends aligned in the slot have been the most successful against the Seahawks defense this season, and Ferguson has run 65% of his routes from the slot. He’s averaging 1.61 yards per route run from the slot while also owning 360 air yards, giving him an aDOT of 17 yards. The connection hasn’t been consistent, but this is exactly the type of spot where one big play can be the separator in tournaments.

The bring-backs are simple: Smith-Njigba and Walker. I’m not looking to get cute with this Seahawks offense – I want the players who will command the highest usage. With the injury to Zach Charbonnet, Walker should handle around 80% of the RB touches, and I don’t expect the other backs to be heavily involved. If I need to get different for salary reasons, it will come from pivoting off of JSN to a receiver with lower pOWN%, like Rashid Shaheed ($4,100) or Cooper Kupp ($3,800), in order to upgrade pieces from the other game. That said, JSN’s zone-coverage usage is far too strong for me to fully get away from, and he’s also scored 23.6 DraftKings points in each of the matchups against the Rams this season.

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