Sunday's Week 17 NFL DFS bargain bin for the main slate
By Chet Gresham
Welcome to Week 17 of the NFL season. At this point, many injuries are season-ending, especially for starters in long-term contracts on teams eliminated from playoff contention. That can sometimes lead to strong fantasy backup opportunities — but also can muddle up the whole situation.
This Sunday has only eight games, as the NFL decided it owns the holiday viewing audience. I didn't think I could get weary of NFL football, but they are testing me during this Week 16-17 stretch. NFL players shouldn't be asked to play three games in 11 days. But, here we are and we need to make some sense out of the end times . . . of the nfl season.
Sunday's Week 17 NFL DFS bargain bin for the main slate
- Quarterbacks
- Running backs
- Wide receivers
- Tight ends
1. Quarterbacks
Bryce Young, Panthers at Buccaneers ($5.6k)
Young has turned things around in a big way since being benched early in the season. He's still not putting up huge passing yardage, but he's added rushing numbers to his fantasy results, which have helped a lot. He now has three rushing touchdowns in his last four games and the Buccaneers have had trouble keeping quarterbacks out of the end zone. The Buccaneers have allowed the third-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season and Young had one of his best games against them in Week 13, as he rushed for a touchdown and had his highest passing yardage game of the season.
Mason Rudolph, Titans at Jaguars ($5k)
Rudolph might have saved Christmas, but he's not likely to lead you to huge fantasy points. The good news is that he's very cheap and has tossed multiple touchdowns in his two starts. He's proving to be an effective backup quarterback and at this time of the year, that can come in handy in a good matchup like he has this week against the Jaguars.
Kenny Pickett, Eagles vs. Cowboys ($5.5k)
Overall, there aren't any great cheap plays at quarterback this week, but there also aren't a bunch of great expensive plays either. Jalen Hurts looks like he'll be out with a concussion, which gives Kenny Pickett a shot against a poor Cowboys defense. The good news is that Saquon Barkley should be able to take on the heavy lifting, while Pickett can pick his shots and hopefully put together a useful fantasy game with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith as his main targets.
2. Running backs
Tyjae Spears, Titans at Jaguars ($5.4k)
Spears has put up strong numbers the last two weeks, as he's found the end zone four times. We can't expect that again this week, but Tony Pollard continues to play through injuries and that appears to have kept Spears in heavy use. I expect that to happen once again as long as Pollard is avaialable. If Pollard ends up not playing, then Spears is a must-start, but don't rule him out even if Pollard can go.
Kendre Miller, Saints vs. Raiders ($5.5k)
Miller didn't have much of a chance in his first ever start last week, as the Packers absolutely swamped the Spencer Rattler led Saints. There is hope for a better offensive showing this week at home against the Raiders Maxx Crosby-less defense though. And Alvin Kamara is once again out with his knee injury. The Raiders have allowed eight running backs to total over 100 yards this season and rank 25th in run defense DVOA.
3. Wide receivers
Jalen McMillan, Buccaneers vs. Panthers ($4.6k)
McMillan has found the end zone in three straight games and this week both Cade Otton and Sterling Shepard look like they'll be out. That would be 14 targets from the last time they played in Week 13 gone. Of course Mike Evans, who had a big game in Week 13, should be in line for another, but McMillan has a real shot of putting up good numbers as the no-doubt No.2 target this week.
Josh Downs, Colts at Giants ($4.8k)
Downs had a good game last week, but needed a long touchdown to make it happen on just three receptions. The hope for those with Downs this week is that Anthony Richardson will miss due to injury, which would give Joe Flacco the start and likely a lot more targets for Downs. But, if Richardson does play, the margin for error is much thinner when starting Downs.
Adam Thielen, Panthers at Buccaneers ($5.7k)
Thielen is Bryce Young's main target and he's helped him to receptions on 27-of-34 targets for 295 yards and two touchdowns over the last four games. His best game in that stretch came against this same Buccaneers pass defense, as he caught 8-of-10 targets for 99 yards and a touchdown.
Calvin Ridley, Titans at Jaguars ($5.5k)
Ridley hasn't been good this year, but he continues to see plenty of targets, giving him decent upside each week. This week he takes on his old team and should once again see double-digit targets. He's risky, but I'll take targets over no targets anyday and the Jaguars are just a plain bad defense all around.
4. Tight ends
Chig Okonkwo, Titans at Jaguars ($3.6k)
Mason Rudolph has really given Okonkwo a second life this season. Over the last two games, Rudolph has targeted him 10 and 11 times in their last two games. He wasn't able to find the end zone, but still finished as TE2 and TE6 in PPR leagues. The Jaguars have also been weak against tight ends, allowing the eighth-most fantasy points to the position this season.
Payne Durham, Buccaneers vs. Panthers ($2.9k)
We're scraping the bottom of the barrel here (sorry Payne), but if we're punting tight end, Durham looks about right. He saw a 92% snap share last week with Cade Otton out and caught five of seven targets. Unfortunately, those receptions went for a measly 29 yards, but the Panthers have allowed the most touchdowns to tight ends on the season and Durham grabbing one this week would not be too surprising.