This article is part of our FanDuel Fantasy Football series.
Wild Card weekend kicks off Saturday afternoon, and the main slate of games consists of just the two games. There's a $5-entry, $1,000,000 contest being run with a top prize of $200,000 on FanDuel. Obviously two games isn't much to pick from but I'll try and go over some of my strategies at the different positions.
One of the basics in a tournament such as the one mentioned is to not "zero out." What this basically means that in GPPs, it's fine to not use up all of your salary cap, and it's even fine to leave $1,000 or more unused. This make it more likely that you'll have a unique lineup that will win the overall top prize. Using almost all of your salary cap ensures others will have the same lineup and you'll end up splitting the top overall prize with many other players.
One side note — given their recent performances, look for stacks of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to be popular this week. There's nothing wrong with going back to that well; just realize there will be a lot of lineups with those three.
QUARTERBACKS
With only four quarterbacks on the docket, I'll probably be using all four in tournament lineups. Not only are you then having one guaranteed lineup with the top scoring quarterback, but you'll also have the best value pick, dollar-for-dollar who may not be the top scoring guy. On paper, Derek Carr ($6,800) actually has the best matchup against the Bengals and he saves a ton of salary cap over Josh Allen ($8,800). That being said, it's going to be hard to pass on Allen this week for cash games, given that he has averaged more than four more fantasy points per game than Joe Burrow who has the second-most of the four. If I had to rank the four in order of the production, I think they'll have this week, it would be Allen, Burrow, Carr and Mac Jones.
RUNNING BACKS
It's not a surprise that the FanDuel Sportbook has Joe Mixon ($8,500) listed as a -165 anytime touchdown scorer with an over/under of 74.5 rushing yards, both easily the best odds at the position. Pairing him with Allen in cash games makes sense and still allows for an average of $6,100 per player for the rest of the lineup. Damien Harris ($7,500) and Josh Jacobs ($7,200) have the next over/under rushing yard totals (60.5) while Devin Singletary ($6,900) comes in fourth. I prefer Jacobs out of this group, as he has the best anytime touchdown odds (-110) of the three, and I think I'm getting the best piece of the Oakland offense in the game with the highest over/under total (48.5). Rhamondre Stevenson ($5,200) is my favorite GPP play at running back considering he will have a low ownership number.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Ja'Marr Chase ($8,200) and Tee Higgins ($6,900) both lead the way with over/under totals for receiving at 70.5 yards. Stefon Diggs ($8,000) comes next (66.5 receiving yards), so Higgins is the best value of the three. Chase has the best anytime touchdown scoring odds of the three with Diggs (+130) slightly better than Higgins (+135).
Zay Jones ($5,300), Cole Beasley ($5,500), Tyler Boyd ($6,000) and Jakobi Meyers ($5,900) are all excellent GPP plays, as any of them can easily earn their value for their low roster hit. Boyd has scored in three straight games and has averaged 15.2 fantasy points over that span. Zay Jones has had at least eight targets in his last four games while Meyes has at least eight targets in his last five games.
TIGHT ENDS
Tight end is an interesting spot to navigate this week given that even though there are only two games, there are three obvious choices who are all viable. Darren Waller ($6,300) returned last week but was highly inefficient with a 9-2-22 line. The silver lining was that Waller had 15.1 fantasy points against the Bengals already this season without scoring a touchdown. The other two options who stand out are Hunter Henry ($5,900) and Dawson Knox ($6,000). Both have tough matchups facing each other, and both have been largely touchdown-dependent this season with each scoring nine times. The final option would be best left for tournaments and that's C.J. Uzomah. He hasn't shown the consistency of the other players mentioned here but does have fantasy games of 22.6 and 26 fantasy points, demonstrating his upside. I also like the idea of using two tight ends in the same lineup for GPPs, because it's almost always going to be a contrarian play.
DEFENSES
The Buffalo Bills ($4,500) are the obvious defense to use this week as a home favorite with the lower total score expected between the two games. The Bills are capable of both turnovers and sacks, and the weather should slow the game, helping the Bills defensively. The Cincinnati Bengals ($4,300) would be my next choice, again as the home favorite. Earlier this season they had 10 fantasy points when the game was in Las Vegas. Finally, there's nothing wrong with taking a gamble with the Las Vegas Raiders ($3,300) especially given their lack of a salary cap hit. Vegas will most likely be the least team rostered so they could pay off in a big GPP.
