Ivan Herrera 
Welcome to Week 17’s Saturday slate of the NFL season. All three games on the slate have playoff implications so expect the teams fighting for a playoff spot to treat this game as a do-or-die situation.
The purpose of this article is to break down the best plays both on the DFS and betting sides. The article will include my favorite plays and honorable mentions for every DFS position. You can also find my favorite bets under Drago’s Best Bets section at the end of the article.
The QBs:
Bo Nix ($6200DK, $8600FD)
The best rookie quarterback not named Jayden Daniels, Nix has the Broncos a win away from clinching a playoff spot. On Saturday he takes on the Bengals who are in a must-win game to stay alive in the playoff heading into the final week. The Bengals are coming off holding Dorian Thompson-Robinson to only 9.2 DraftKings points, but before that, the Bengals have struggled against quarterbacks in fantasy. They are allowing the fourth most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks at 20.9. One of the main reasons they are allowing the fourth most points is because they have given up the most rushing yards to quarterbacks, 479 yards. That is something that Nix can take advantage of as he is 10th in rushing yards by a quarterback this season with 352 yards.
Who to pair him with: Courtland Sutton. Devaughn Vele, Marvin Mims Jr
Joe Burrow ($7200DK, $7500FD)
Staying in the Denver/Cincinnati game, Burrow is very much in play on Saturday. Over the past seven games, he has had at least 250 yards and three touchdowns in each of them and has only thrown a combined five interceptions in that span. The Broncos are a stronger defense than the seven he has played over that stretch, allowing the fifth-lowest fantasy points to quarterbacks at 16.5. This game has the highest total on the slate which means that Cincinnati will surely need another strong performance from Burrow to keep up in a potential shootout.
Who to pair him with: Ja’Marr Chase. Tee Higgins.
Honorable Mentions: Justin Herbert. Kyler Murray
The RBs:
JK Dobbins ($5800DK, $8000FD)
As of writing this Dobbins is expected to play, but if he is ruled out I will post an update on Discord. Dobbins hasn’t been seen since Week 12’s game against the Ravens. With the Chargers being down Gus Edwards for this game and Kimani Vidal not being able to get any momentum going, I’m expecting a significant workload for Dobbins. The Patriots are allowing the fourth most fantasy points to running backs, 21. At his price compared to other starters, Dobbins feels like one of the better plays on the slate if he is active.
Kyren Williams ($7500DK, $9200FD)
Heading up to the second highest-priced running back, Kyren Williams is a great play on Saturday. Williams has consistently put up solid fantasy numbers over on DraftKings, with only Week 11 being his lone single-digit fantasy performance. In his first game against the Cardinals, he had 15.2 points despite the game getting out of hand early on and getting a season-low 12 carries. The Cardinals are allowing the tenth most fantasy points to running backs, 20, and as long as the game doesn’t get out of hand like it did in Week 2, Williams should have plenty of opportunities to have a great fantasy day.
Honorable Mentions: Chase Brown (highest owned on DraftKings). James Conner. Audric Estime, Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin
The WRs:
Puka Nacua ($8000DK, $9100FD)
I was debating Nacua and Chase, but I am giving the slight edge to Nacua based on Chase having to deal with Patrick Surtain. Puka gets a better matchup against Sean Murphy-Bunting who is allowing the most fantasy points (.34), and yards (.9), and has the highest target percentage (20%) on the Cardinals. Puka leads the Rams in all three of those categories with .72 fantasy points and 3.49 yards per route ran, and has a target percentage of 39%. The numbers are too good to fade Nacua for me, while I’ll switch between him and Chase depending on the lineups, Nacua is a priority for me.
Ladd McConkey ($6600DK, $6600FD)
The Chargers found their franchise wide receiver with Ladd McConkey. He is having a great season as a rookie, and there is no reason to expect that to change on Saturday against the Patriots. Working out of the slot, McConkey should avoid Christian Gonzalez and instead lineup across Marcus Jones who has been the weakest of the Patriots wide receivers. McConkey has a 35.2% target share so he has been seeing the ball a lot, and is averaging 2.32 yards per route run. At his price, he is a hard player to pass on.
Honorable Mentions: Ja’Marr Chase. Courtland Sutton. Marvin Harrison Jr. Tee Higgins. Cooper Kupp, .
Value WRs: Marvin Mimms Jr. Devaughn Vele. Michael Wilson. Demarcus Robinson. Kayshon Boutte.
The TEs
Trey McBride ($6200 DK, $6100 FD)
I’m going with the highest-priced tight end as my favorite on the slate. McBride has been one of Murray’s favorite targets for the past five weeks. In the last five games, he has 55 targets for 43 receptions and 406 yards. The only issue for McBride this season is despite having 92 receptions, none of them have ended with a trip to the end zone. He should get plenty of chances this week as the Rams are allowing the tenth most receptions to tight ends.
If you don’t want to pay up on DraftKings and FanDuel then I would move down $2000 to Hunter Henry.
Honorable Mentions: Hunter Henry. Will Dissly. Tyler Higbee.
Drago’s Best Bets:
- LA Chargers -5.5 (-108) vs New England Patriots
- JK Dobbins Over 54.5 (-115) and 60+ Rushing Yards (+110)
- Bo Nix Over 21.5 (-115) and 25+ Rushing Yards (+120)
- Puka Nacua Over 86.5 Receiving Yards (-115)
Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Ivan (idrago15) will be there answering questions all day and all night! Follow Ivan on Twitter @idragol15 and be sure to be on the lookout for future articles at https://windailysports.com/nfl/
