12/26/2018 - NFL Week 17 - Who's Playing? Who's Resting?

 

12/30/18 10:30 AM Update:

• Zeke is out, upgrade to the Giants Defense.
• Antonio Brown is going to try and play but without practicing all week it is a risky play.
  
  
  

12/29/18 6:00 PM Update:

• Teddy Bridgewater will in fact start and while I wouldn't hate you for throwing him in a lineup, we will be totally fading this game and I suggest you do the same with 14 other games on tap.
• Pete Carroll insists he's playing his starters. Thanks but no thanks for me.
• Todd Gurley and OBJ are out, along with most of San Fransisco's offense (Breida, Goodwin, Pettis). 
• DeSean Jackson looks like he isn't going to play giving me a little bit of interest in Godwin.
  

Look for one more update Sunday morning after inactives come out! 

12/27/18 8:25 AM Update:

• Drew Brees stated Teddy Bridgewater will get some snaps, but we weren't on Brees anyway. 
• Dirk Koetter hinted at giving QB Ryan Griffin a look so that would take Jameis Winston out of any lineups and downgrade the pass catchers on Tampa Bay.
• There are also rumblings that RB Christian McCaffrey is going to sit out..

12/26/18 10:00 PM

     Week 17 is possibly the worst week for season long fantasy football and if your league plays their championship in Week 17 they shouldn't.  While it may be the worst week for season long fantasy, it is one of the best weeks for daily fantasy if you put in your time and do your research.  Lucky for you, we are here to help with that.

   We want to help you identify the teams that have the most motivation for week 17 so you can start your lineup build with those players.  Moving on from those players, we will check out the teams that could rest players, limit players, or say they aren't going to rest any players but after the second quarter that guy you started is on the bench. Finally, we will look at the players who still have value but their team's season is over after this week.

     The following teams will need to win or rely on a loss from other teams to get in to the playoffs.  This means there is virtually no chance they rest their key players, so we should target these teams first and foremost:

• Baltimore Ravens (Lamar Jackson, Gus Edwards, Baltimore Defense) 
• Pittsburgh Steelers (Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Conner/Jaylen Samuels)
• Minnesota Vikings (Kirk Cousins, Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook)
• Philadelphia Eagles (Nick Foles, Alshon Jeffrey, Zach Ertz)

   
     Then we have the teams that are in the playoffs but are still playing for a first round bye. These teams still have motivation to play and we can still target their players in fantasy. There is a slight risk they rest players midway through the game if the other teams have already helped seal their fate seeding wise. That doesn't matter to us though as we build lineups because the NFL did a great job of flexing all of the games that mattered:

• Kansas City Chiefs (Pat Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Damien Williams/Spencer Ware, Travis Kelce, Kansas City Defense)
• Houston Texans (Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins)
• Chicago Bears (Mitch Trubisky, Tarik Cohen)
• Los Angeles Rams (Jared Goff, Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, Todd Gurley/CJ Anderson)
• New England Patriots (Tom Brady, Sony Michel, Julian Edelman, James White)

   
     Most importantly we have the teams that have clinched and basically have nothing to play for.  I personally will not be touching any players from these teams, regardless of what coach speak comes out:

• New Orleans Saints (Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, Mark Ingram, Michael Thomas)
• Dallas Cowboys (Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliot, Amari Cooper)
• Seattle Seahawks (Russell Wilson, Tyler Lockett, Chris Carson, Doug Baldwin)

     Then you have the rest of the NFL teams. Now this is where you will have to use your best judgement, or follow the news (this post or follow us on twitter @ DFSToday) to get the latest on teams resting their stars to preserve them after a long season, as Ron Rivera hinted at about Christian McCaffrey. Sometimes coaches will also use this week to get a look at some younger players for next year (Elijah McGuire NYJ, Robert Foster BUF, Nick Mullens SF, Chase Edmonds ARI, Sam Darnold NYJ, Jamaal Williams GB). These are the guys that will win you a GPP because every one is going to be loading up on players from the first two blocks of games above, and rightfully so. These are also all division games, so there is some intrinsic motivation for the players that matters to.

     It's still early in the week so look for news to come out, and as it does we will work to update this post as much as possible.  Thanks for reading and joining us towards the end of the NFL season.  We look forward to providing NFL Playoff content as well as NBA and MLB once the NFL is over.

                    - Matty Ice @ DFSToday