FanDuel NFL picks, Conference Round: Best FanDuel DFS Lineup
FanDuel DFS NFL picks and advice for the Conference Championship Round to help you build the perfect DFS fantasy football lineup.
Welcome back to another installment of FanDuel DFS advice, this time for the conference championship round. With only four teams remaining and two games on the slate, this is where the best DFS players get to show their talents, but also where a lot of luck and randomness is introduced.
Whether you will be playing both games or just single-game slates, this article provides insight on how to approach both, as well as how to approach the games from a Vegas standpoint. When only dealing with two games it is crucial to take a stand on how the games are going to go and make your lineups with that in mind.
If you spread yourself too thin it will be near impossible to make money unless you are entering hundreds of lineups. Personally, I find a few players I like and mix and match them into a small number of tournament lineups and do not play cash formats for these smaller slates. My total entry cost is also much less than a normal week in the regular season.
When talking about players I will reference the salaries and salary cap of a typical FanDuel tournament. I will also show a complete sample lineup, which consists of nine positions: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, and DEF.
Note that your individual strategy should change based on the type of contests you enter, though I will reference different strategies for both cash and tournament formats.
Without further ado, here are picks and FanDuel DFS advice for every position for the Conference Championship Round!
FanDuel DFS advice for AFC and NFC Championship Games
Bengals vs Chiefs (-7, O/U: 54.5 Points)
Of the two games, Vegas projects this to be the higher-scoring affair. More specifically, Vegas expects the Chiefs to handle the Bengals easily. While the Bengals have certainly earned their way into the AFC Championship and showed their ability to hang with the Chiefs in their first matchup, beating them 34-31.
However, the Chiefs have been scorching hot in the playoffs and the Bengals have had a relatively light path thus far. I project the Chiefs to cover the spread and believe the game will finish right around its projected total of 54.5 points. The Bengals have the offensive firepower to keep it close, but they needed Ryan Tannehill to make multiple terrible mistakes to win last week, and I do not think Mahomes will do the same when push comes to shove.
With that being said, Patrick Mahomes ($8800) is pretty clearly the best quarterback play on the slate this week. The Bengals pass defense has been nothing special and Mahomes has thrown for 782 yards and eight touchdowns in his first two playoff games. Expect Mahomes to keep it rolling this week at home and while he may not have to throw for 400 yards, he certainly has the potential to.
On the other side of the ball, Joe Burrow ($7500) could very well see more passing volume than Mahomes if the game goes the way Vegas projects, and he is certainly very appealing at his price.
Additionally, the Chiefs’ run defense has been much stronger than their pass defense, and with Joe Mixon being virtually useless in the run game these past couple of weeks, expect Burrow to throw it at least forty times in this one.
As for the running backs, I am probably trying to stay away from Joe Mixon ($8200). While he still has incredibly high touchdown upside and has been heavily involved in the receiving game, I do not think he gets the work in the rushing game to pay off this hefty salary.
On the Chiefs side, Jerick McKinnon ($6200) has been the go-to guy in the playoffs thus far, but I think the value will actually be with Clyde Edwards-Helaire ($5700) this week at an incredibly cheap salary. He was more effective of a runner against the Bills last week and was coming off an injury. Even though McKinnon has filled in honorably these past couple of weeks, I think Edwards-Helaire plays a majority of the snaps and out touches him.
The wide receiver position is where I become very interested in this game, as there should be plenty of passes to go around on both sides. Tyreek Hill ($8100), Travis Kelce ($7700), and Ja’Maar Chase ($8000) will be the most popular plays on both sides, but it is some of the ancillary receivers that I think could win you a tournament this week.
Tee Higgins ($6400) is someone I played way too much of all year and will be playing again this week as the Chiefs defense looks to stop Chase, who hung 266 yards and three touchdowns on them in their first meeting.
Additionally, Byron Pringle ($5700) has been heavily involved in recent weeks, especially in the red zone. If he finds the end zone he will easily pay off his salary and is a solid high upside play at a cheap cost.
Finally, it is worth noting that I think the Chiefs ($3700) defense is the best value on the slate, as they will likely be able to hold the Bengals offense in check and grab a decent amount of points off of sacks.