FanDuel NFL picks, Wild Card Round: Best DFS advice for NFL Playoffs
FanDuel NFL picks and lineup advice for your Wild Card Round DFS lineup.
With the NFL regular season in the books, FanDuel DFS fantasy football is a great way to enjoy the NFL playoffs if your favorite team has already been eliminated. If you are an every-week DFS player, it is of course a chance to continue building your bankroll into the offseason.
Playoff DFS is unlike regular season DFS in that each slate of games contains a much smaller amount of players. In addition, there are usually not obvious smash plays that you see in normal slates due to overall stronger defenses. The Wild Card Round is additionally tough as the Packers and the Chiefs, two of the NFL’s best offenses, are both on bye.
When building your playoff FanDuel NFL DFS lineups, you really want to first map out how you think the games are going to play out before picking any players. For example, if you think a team is going to dominate, it makes sense to pick up their quarterback, running back, and a receiving option. Since this would mean their opponent is likely playing from behind, you can also toss in a receiving option on the opposing team.
If you choose to play Tom Brady but no Buccaneer pass-catchers, that pretty much destroys your chance of success in a large field tournament. Similarly, playing two running backs from the same game severely limits your upside.
When talking about players I will reference the salaries and salary cap of a typical FanDuel tournament. I will also show a complete lineup, which consists of nine positions: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, DEF. The players referenced will all be from the main Sunday game slate. Note that your individual strategy should change based on the type of formats you enter, and I will reference strong plays in cash and tournament formats.
Without further ado, here are my FanDuel DFS picks for the NFL Wild Card Round!
FanDuel NFL Wild Card Round Picks and Advice: Quarterback
Lamar Jackson ($9,300) is the premier play on this slate, as the Ravens have been red hot coming into the postseason and now get a matchup with a Tennessee defense that ranks in the bottom five in terms of fantasy points given up to quarterbacks. Jackson has rushed for at least 80 yards in four of his last five games and thrown for multiple touchdown passes in three straight.
The only other quarterback with a floor similar to Jackson on this slate would be Josh Allen ($9,000). The Buffalo Bills have the highest team implied total on the slate at 29.5 points, though they have a slightly tougher task offensively against the Indianapolis Colts. Keep your eye on the injury reports, as Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley are both coming in questionable. But if Diggs can go, Allen remains one of the best options on the slate.
There is certainly a bit of a tier drop after these two, but there is plenty of potential value to be had if you want to save money. Drew Brees ($7,800) has looked much better these past two weeks and should get both Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas back against a Bears defense that has been struggling as of late.
Ben Roethlisberger ($7,500) is coming off a week of rest after playing his best game of the year and gets a favorable matchup against a Cleveland defense that gave up 315 yards to Mason Rudolph in Week 17. Both of these players have less upside due to their lack of mobility, but can easily put up similar value to Allen and Jackson.