12/30/2018 - NFL Week 17 - Sunday Night Showdown

 

    As I write this while watching these 1pm EST games, I can’t wait to get to some exciting meaningful football as opposed to watching scrubs like Cameron Artis-Payne score multiple touchdowns.  There are a lot of 4:25pm EST games and then we get a win and your in prime time game between the Titans and the Colts. These showdown write-ups will be the focus going in to the playoffs so hope we can get you into the money these next couple of weeks. Let’s look at tonight’s game.

     The big news that has already came out today is that Marcus Mariota will not play tonight.  The Tennessee offense has been the Derrick Henry show lately anyway so it’s not a huge difference with Blaine Gabbert in there even though Mariota is the better player.  On a single game slate I wouldn’t fault you for throwing Gabbert in a lineup hoping for some play action passes or garbage time, but he’s obviously not my focus.  In fact I’m not really interested in the Tennessee offense at all outside of Henry and maybe a flyer on Dion Lewis. I’d rather look to the Colts for my points.

     You have to like the offensive pieces of Indianapolis much more than those of Tennessee even against the strong Titans defense.  Luck doesn’t want his comeback year to end tonight and I expect him to come out firing to T.Y. Hilton all night.  These guys will be my main two pieces to my build and I’ll try and differentiate elsewhere.  With that said let’s get to the less obvious potentially low owned plays.

Naheem Hines (4800 DK/ 8500 FD):  Marlon Mack is the leader of the backfield but Hines has seen multiple solid games with double digit fantasy points, even games where Mack is healthy.  Hines has also seen 5 or more targets the last 4 weeks making him more valuable on DK.  With Tennessee’s pass rush being decent Hines could get some third down work and some dump off passes when Luck is under pressure.

Anthony Firkser (2800 DK/ 7000 FD):  Firkser has shown some potential in catching the ball and if Tennessee gets behind early Firkser could see some garbage time passes from Gabbert.  Indianapolis is more beatable via the pass, and in the last 3 games tight ends have put up a combined 15 catches for 212 yards for an average of 5 catches and 70 yards.  If Firkser could get that, we would all be winning some money.

I will only be playing DK tonight so my build will most likely include some sort of kicker defense combination along with the other plays.  I’m leaning towards Hilton as my captain as he has one of the highest ceilings with Henry.  I will pair Hilton with Luck and throw in Henry.  That gives you the top 3 playmakers on the slate and now you differentiate with your last 3 guys. In comes some combination of Hines, Firkser, defenses, and kickers.  Good luck tonight and we look forward to providing showdown content during the playoffs.

- Matty Ice @DFSToday