The Main Slate is going to be rough this week. The Chiefs and all of their stud players play on Sunday Night Football. There are two games on Monday (Washington Football Teams vs. Steelers 4 p.m. ET and Bills vs. 49ers 7:15 p.m. ET) and one game Tuesday (Cowboys vs. Ravens at 7 p.m. ET). If that is not enough, add in the fact that the Buccaneers and Panthers are on their bye. That is a lot of good players that will not be available Sunday. We should still be able to make some good lineups but the top players will likely be higher-ownership this week.
Top Stacks for Week 13
Stacking is a great way gain an advantage in DFS. When you pair your QB with a WR or TE you will get double points when they hook up for a TD. If your QB throws 3 TDs to your WR you will likely take down your Tournament Contest. Here are the stacks I like for Week 13 base on value….
The Single-Entry Tournament Stacks are the more popular stacks this week. These players will likely have high ownership but they are the most likely to score well Sunday. We can use these stacks in our Single-Entry Tournament Contests and find some contrarian picks to use with them.
The Multi-Entry Tournament Stacks will not be as popular but they are sneaky plays that should have a good chance of scoring well Sunday. We need to find an ownership advantage in our Multi-Entry Tournament Contests so playing these stacks makes the most sense.
DraftKings Cash Contest (50/50 and Doubleups)
I like having a mobile QB for my Cash Contests. The rushing yards and ability to rush for a TD really raises the floor for our QB and that is what we want in Cash Contests. This week I had to decide between Ryan Tannehill and Taysom Hill. I decided to go with Tannehill. The Titans will likely have to throw more this week since the Browns should score some points too. Also, Coach Mike Vrabel said he wants to throw more passes to Derrick Henry. Sounds good to me. Tannehill should score 20+ DK points Sunday.
Coach Anthony Lynn said last week, “When Austin Ekeler is ready to return, we will give him his full workload.” Wow, was he right. Ekeler had 16 targets!!!! That is a lot of points in a PPR scoring format. Add in 14 carries and Ekeler is the safest play for Cash Contests this week. I know he will not get 16 targets again but if he gets half of that, he is still a great value. * You can also play James Robinson in this position. Both are fantastic pick.
Speaking of returning from an injury… David Montgomery made a splash in his return from the injury list. He scored 28.3 DK points vs. the Packers and now he gets the mother of all RB matchups vs. the Lions dead last run defense. Montgomery is severely underpriced this week. He should be locked into all Cash Contest lineups.
DeVante Adams is our “Free Square” in Cash Contests. His floor is roughly 9 receptions for 75 yards and 1 TD (22.5 DK points). I am not worried about the matchup vs. the Eagles defense. I will pay up for the best WR on this slate.
The Rams play the Cardinals this week and the experts in Fantasy Football refer to this game as the “Robert Woods Invitational.” Woods has a history of destroying the Red Birds. He averaged 28.6 DK points vs. the Cardinals last year and 24.8 DK points vs. the Cardinals in 2018. I expect Woods to score over 20 DK points again Sunday.
I need to be honest…. I do not trust the Texans’ offense without Will Fuller V, but Brandin Cooks is too cheap this week. The Texans are without Fuller, Kenny Stills and Randall Cobb. Someone has to catch the ball for the Texans. I like Cooks more for Cash Contests because he is going to be highly owned. If he lays an egg, it will not hurt us much.
It is tough to trust any of the TEs this week. Dallas Goedert has been the only consistent piece of the Eagle’s offense. He has averaged 19 DK points over the last two weeks. The Eagles will have to pass the ball a lot this week to keep up with the Packers. That means a lot of catches for Goedert. (I am not worried about Zach Erzt returning. Goedert outplayed Ertz when they were both in the lineup earlier this season)
My play at the Flex position over the last three weeks has been Denzel Mims. So far he has been very good at returning value. Mims has scored over 10 DK points in his last 3 games. He will have a good chance to score over 10 DK points again because the Jets target Mims at least 7 times a game. That is good volume for $4,100.
I have been punting the defense position all season and so far it has worked. I played the Jets Defense/ST last week vs. the Dolphins and they returned 4.5X’s value. This week they get to face the Raiders offense that let the Falcons (one of the worst defenses in the league) score 28 DK points against them. The Jets should have no problem returning 3X’s value Sunday.
DraftKings Tournament or Contest Picks
People in the Fantasy Football business often try to get too cute instead of playing the obvious stack and try to be contrarian in other positions. Last week I recommended the Patrick Mahomes + Tyreek Hill + Travis Kelce stack and they went off for 108 points. I am not going to try and get cute this week. I will simply play the best stack on the board again this week. The Aaron Rodger + DeVante Adams stack has averaged 53.57 points over that last 4 weeks. That is a lot of points for 2 players. I will add in Robert Tonyan as a cheap TE. He has averaged 16.55 DK points over the last two weeks. The Packers should put the Eagles out of their misery Sunday.
David Montgomery is too good of a value to fade this week. He has the best matchup from the RBs on this slate. I will play Montgomery in Cash and Tournament Contests this week.
I played James White last week and he rewarded me with 2 TDs. I will go back to White this week. The Chargers allow the most receiving yards to the RB position. With Rex Burkhead out of the way, White is a great value pick in DraftKings’ scoring format.
Adam Thielen will return for the Covid list this week. He has a fantastic matchup vs. the Jaguars 26th ranked pass defense. I thought about playing Justin Jefferson in this position to save some salary but Thielen is a target monster in the redzone. He has caught 4 TDs in his last 2 games.
I have Robert Woods in my Cash Contest lineup and I like him for Tournament Contests as well. The Rams will move Woods all over the field to prevent Patrick Peterson from shadowing him. He has been very good in the past at burning the Cardinals’ defense and he should do it again Sunday.
Brandin Cook is going to be a popular play for the Texans. I will save some salary and use Keke Coutee. The Texans will use Cooks as their deep threat and Coutee as their possession receiver. He should get targeted 7-8 times and easily return value on his $3,500 price tag.
Punting the defense position is a good strategy is Cash Contests and it has become popular in Tournament Contests too. For that reason I will be contrarian and pay up for the Seahawks Defense/ST this week. They have improved a lot since Jamal Adams returned to the lineup and the team signed Carlos Dunlap from the Bengals. They should score a lot of points vs. the Colt McCoy led Giants team.
FanDuel Contest Picks
Scoring for FanDuel is similar to DraftKings but there are some differences you need to know. FanDuel DOES NOT award 3 bonus points for 300-yard passers or 100-yards rushing / receiving. The game also awards ½ point per reception compared to 1 point on DraftKings. We need to focus more on players who can score touchdowns on FanDuel and less on players who catch a lot of passes. The scoring is not as tight as it is on Daftkings so it is easier to pay up at the QB and TE position. My lineups for the two sites will be similar but I will have to make some changes based on the scoring and prices for the players.
FanDuel Single-Entry Tournament or Cash Contest Picks
FanDuel Tournament Contest Picks
Yahoo! Tournament or Cash Contest Picks
FanBall Tournament or Cash Contest Picks
Good Luck This Week!
Follow me on twitter: @MrFantasyNASCAR