FanDuel Championship Week Slate Breakdown

Jan 18, 2018

On a slate with just two games, virtually every notable player is worthy of consideration in DFS lineups. Rather than offering a positional analysis, this week’s slate breakdown will take a look at how to approach each offense on FanDuel.

Patriots

The most glaring matchup of this week’s slate is the Jaguars against running backs, as Jacksonville ranks 24th in schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to the position. No other positional matchup features a defense that finished the season in the bottom 10 in aFPA and New England is expected to have a full complement of healthy backs with Rex Burkhead ($6,000) likely returning to action this week. He and Dion Lewis both project as top-three values at their position and one of the main keys to this slate may be how heavily New England features their running backs in the passing game. In an article highlighting the vulnerabilities of Jacksonville’s pass defense, Warren Sharp explains that one of the best ways to attack the Jaguars is by avoiding three wide receiver sets. For fantasy purposes, this means that doubling up on New England running backs is very much in play. While James White ($4,800) was heavily involved in the passing game last week, it’s worth noting that in the six-game stretch from Weeks 10–15 where all three of these running backs were healthy, Burkhead saw 37% of the backfield touches to White’s 15% and that includes seven more touches inside the 10-yard line. In that span, Burkhead out-targeted White by just two. Expect the Patriots to continue featuring Lewis while rotating White and Burkhead in the passing game.