Top-ranked daily fantasy sports pro Jason Mezrahi, founder and CEO of WinDailySports.com, breaks down his favorite DFS plays at various salary ranges for the Divisional Round of Playoffs.
We are now in Round 2 of the playoffs and things are heating up. It was a long year for us all but I hope I helped you make it a profitable one. Our projection model at WinDailySports.com has been firing on all cylinders to this season so its time to crank out some playoff lineups. What I will do in this article is list some of our highest projected players based off raw points and our highest point per dollar plays based on DraftKings.com pricing.
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These are some of the players Jason will be locking in his lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel for this weekend’s slate.
QUARTERBACKS
PATRICK MAHOMES, KC
$8,000 DRAFTKINGS, $9,200 FANDUEL
What can I say about Patrick Mahomes? He is really good at football and he has some of the best weapons in the game around him. Don’t overthink things and simply have your fair share of Mahomes stacks with Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. Have some lineups with one of his pass catchers and then run some lineups with them both. Mahomes should be a lock for 300+ yards and a minimum of 2 touchdowns but if this game stays tight we can see a ceiling game here for Mahomes and all the Chiefs. Lock him in your cash games and focus on building some nice game stacks with both Chiefs and Browns mixed in.
JOSH ALLEN, BUF
$7,400 DRAFTKINGS, $8,800 FANDUEL
Josh Allen is carrying a city on his back and I know he doesn’t want to disappoint. We saw him take over in the wildcard round and he was the quarterback you needed on your roster on the Saturday only slate. If you’re not paying up for Mahomes in your cash games Allen is the safest place to land. He has one of the highest ceilings at the position and I prefer Allen over Jackson in this game. If you need some salary relief for tournaments and are fading the two quarterbacks I mentioned, I would pivot all the way down to Brees or Mayfield at $5,600 or $5,300 on DraftKings.
RUNNING BACKS
ALVIN KAMARA, NO
$7,900 DRAFTKINGS, $9,000 FANDUEL
If you’re building cash lineups on DraftKings or have the salary to spend up for one running back Kamara is my top choice at the position. Kamara has averaged 25.2 DraftKings points on the season and with the full point PPR on DraftKings, he has the safest floor of any position player on this slate. There is a path to fade him on FanDuel and once we get a clearer picture on practice reports from Helaire and Jones Jr. there may be some nice values that open up like Fournette or possibly Bell. I am currently leaning on an all value running back core to pay up at the wide receiver position but I will also have shares of Kamara as well. Devin Singletary, Kareem Hunt, Cam Akers, and Leonard Fournette (if Ronald Jones is out) are all nice values to squeeze into your lineups.
KAREEM HUNT, CLE
$4,800 DRAFTKINGS, $6,200 FANDUEL
Kareem Hunt will be an integral part of this offense that will most likely be playing catch up mode for most of the game. The current line is set at the Browns +10 points which means we should see a lot of Kareem Hunt catching balls out of the backfield. We need to find safe value in the playoffs and there are a couple of nice value pieces at the running back position that I named above with Hunt leading the charge especially on DraftKings. The total in this game is set at 57.5 and is the highest of the slate so you will need exposure to this game. At $4,800 you won’t be able to find anyone else in this price range that has the upside and floor that Hunt has. Feel free to lock up Kareem Hunt and the narrative of him playing against his old team who let him go not too long ago.
WIDE RECEIVERS
TYREEK HILL, KC
$8,000 DRAFTKINGS, $8,800 FANDUEL
You can call him the “Freak” or the “Cheetah” but on this slate I will call him “Mr. Upside”. The upside Tyreek has coming off a couple weeks of rest is second to none. He is my favorite receiver to pay up for on the slate and there is truly no way to guard him with Mahomes and Kelce by his side. The Browns can be beat through the air as we saw last week and they rank 29th in the league at defending the wide receiver position. I will have shares of Diggs, Adams, Landry, and the trio of Tampa Bay receivers but if I had to choose just one it would be Hill, especially in lineups I passed up on Kelce. Make sure you get some Mahomes / Hill stacks during the divisional round weekend slates.
MICHAEL THOMAS, NO
$6,700 DRAFTKINGS, $7,200 FANDUEL
The pricing algorithm simply can’t catch up to the proper price levels on Thomas and he is your free square at the position. He is simply too cheap and safe to pass up on in what looks to be the second highest scoring game as per Vegas. With this game having a tighter spread of only 3 along with an over/under of 52 we can see the most production from the wide receiver position coming out of this game. It’s truly tough to predict which of the Tampa Bay receivers will be the highest scoring but I can say with great confidence that Thomas will lead the Saints. Tampa Bay ranks 25th at defending the wide receiver position and Thomas should have a field day when the Saints square off against the Bucs.
TIGHT ENDS
TRAVIS KELCE, KC
$7,800 DRAFTKINGS, $7,600 FANDUEL
Sooner or later people will realize that Travis Kelce out produces most wide receivers on every slate and rostering him is like having 4 wide receivers in your lineup. It’s a cheat code which has made Kelce a lock for me in cash in every slate I play and I load up on him in tournaments as well because no other tight end comes close in providing the consistency that he does week in and week out. Kelce is averaging 22.1 DraftKings points per game and draws an elite matchup versus the Browns defense who ranks 30th against defending the tight end. Lock him up in all your cash lineups and have him as your highest owned tight end in tournaments as well.
TYLER HIGBEE, LAR
$3,000 DRAFTKINGS, $5,200 FANDUEL
Tyler Higbee is the safest cheap option at the position at only $3,000 on DraftKings. With Cooper Kupp dealing with a knee injury, the Rams will need to get production out of Higbee whether or not Kupp makes it on the field Saturday. With Kupp dealing with a questionable tag due to a sore knee combined with the fact he will be dealing with harsh temperatures in Green Bay, it has me believing Higbee will be a nice value to slide into your tight end or even flex spot this weekend. The Rams should be trailing in this game, so Higbee could be the beneficiary of a prevent defense and some garbage time. That’s all you may need at $3,000 on DraftKings so get some Higbee shares in tournaments Saturday.
DEFENSES
GREEN BAY PACKERS
$3,900 DRAFTKINGS, $4,600 FANDUEL
With only 8 teams to choose from, give me the Packers defense who are favored by 7 and going against the Rams who possess the lowest team total offense as per Vegas. This Packers defense has been getting better over the season and a matchup versus Jared Goff is all they need to force some turnovers and keep this game low scoring. They have secured 17 sacks over the past 5 weeks and anytime I can get a home favorite against a Quarterback 2 weeks out from thumb surgery on his throwing hand I will take it.
BUFFALO BILLS
$2,900 DRAFTKINGS, $4,000 FANDUEL
We saw Lamar Jackson make some bad throws and scramble a lot last weekend. Now he faces off against a team who has secured 15 interceptions and 11 fumble recoveries on the season which could be a recipe for defensive fantasy points. The Bills are cheap and have the upside with playmakers who can find their way into the end zone on Saturday if the ball bounces right. Split up your shares of Defense, but as of right now with Lamar Jackson carrying some heavier ownership I like the leverage that the Bills bring to the table this weekend.
Jason Mezrahi has been a professional, top-ranked Daily Fantasy Player on FanDuel and DraftKings for more than eight years. He has won FanDuel’s $155,555 King of the Diamond competition and placed second in DraftKings’ Fantasy Basketball World Championship, earning him $300,000. He owns and operates WinDailySports.com, which supports the DFS and Sports Betting community with resources such as tools, projection models, expert chat, in-depth written analysis and podcasts, plus much more.
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