DFS guide: Playing DraftKings in the Conference Championships

We’re back at it again this week, once again dissecting another week of NFL DFS fantasy goodness. While our player pool has been cut in half due to this being just a two-game slate, there’s still a massive edge for us to gain if we’re able to approach this slate from a smart angle. That means leveraging ownership to our advantage, being creative with our salary usage, and finding the right chalk to fade in order to give our bankrolls a nice boost with some great tournaments this weekend. Given the nature of this shorter slate, I’ll be mixing up the typical position-by-position format utilized in the regular season. Instead, I’ll take a look at players projected to be the chalk at their positions, some stacks for you to utilize, and contrarian plays that may go overlooked.

Chalk Plays

Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots ($7,700)

Given the quarterback options this week, it comes as little surprise that Brady is projected to have the highest ownership. The Patriots are implied for a slate-leading 27.75 points currently, which is the largest by a wide margin. Brady does draw a tough task this week with the visiting Jaguars coming to Foxboro, but his pedigree puts him squarely on a different playing field than the rest of his quarterback counterparts this week. Brady has arguably the highest floor and highest ceiling of all quarterbacks, and I’d expect the Patriots passing attack to target the middle of the field and avoid the boundary corners this week. The Patriots have receiving backs in spades and the irreverent Rob Gronkowski to bully the Jaguars’ linebackers and safeties with seam routes. We saw recently that both Ben Roethlisberger and Jimmy Garoppolo experienced success against this terrific pass defense. I imagine Bill Belichick has been studying their game plans extensively and will put Brady in a position to succeed, despite the tough matchup on paper.