Ah, playoff DFS. Small slates, obscene lineup overlap and yet for some reason, we still find ourselves drawn in. With only a handful of players at each position, you may find yourself having difficulty even using up your entire budget this week, and that’s okay. More than ever, you need to focus on identifying the optimal plays, even if that results in an extra $1,000 -$2,000 left in your budget.
This doesn’t mean that we should ignore value though. There are plenty of elite, high-priced players available and finding a bargain or two should allow you to squeeze a few of them into your lineups.
As always, our look at bargains may be a bit different then columns featured at other sites. The focus won’t necessarily be on the cheapest option available, but instead it will lean towards finding a few great values on DraftKings, as compared to FanDuel and Yahoo pricing.
Our main method of measuring this will be Fantasy Labs’ Bargain Rating, which is a metric that allows us to measure how much of a discount a player is from one site to another.
We’ll also factor in overall price in relation to their position, price change over the past week and the past month.
And remember, you can always find a list of all players sorted by their Bargain Rating by visiting the Player Ratings page!
Kirk Cousins
Bargain Rating on DraftKings: 99%
Current Price: $5,900
Price change over last week: +$500
Price change over last month: +$800
If there is one phrase that will emerge from the 2015-2016 NFL season, it will be undoubtedly be “You like that” and yeah, this week, I do. Cousins’ price is on the rise, but he is still criminally underpriced on DraftKings, coming in with a 99% Bargain Rating. He now has 11 touchdown passes over his previous three games and only played a portion of Week 17 as Washington had already secured their playoff seeding. That’s not all though. Cousins has actually been incredibly consistent all year, as he is one of only two players that have thrown a touchdown pass in every game this season.
Over the past four games, only Cam Newton has surpassed Cousins in fantasy points per game, and by a very slim margin at that.
With Jordan Reed healthy, we’ve seen Cousins zone in on his top target and teams have yet to find an answer for the duo.
Green Bay has been decent against the quarterback position this season, but they have been far superior at home. With this game taking place in Washington, Cousins is far more appealing play.
Using our Trends tool, we can see that Green Bay has allowed a Plus/Minus of +4.19 to quarterbacks playing at home this year. And while they have done well against the tight end position as a whole, they’ve allowed top tight ends like Greg Olsen, Antonio Gates, Martellus Bennett and Travis Kelce to all post very nice games against them, which bodes well for Jordan Reed. As we’ve seen this year, when Reed is able to get going, Cousins is able to find success as well.
With much of the field likely to look to Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson, Cousins represents a nice pivot capable of producing comparable numbers at a greatly reduced price.
DeSean Jackson
Bargain Rating on DraftKings: 98%
Current Price: $4,500
Price change over last week: –$200
Price change over last month: –$300
It’s going to be tough to differentiate your lineups this week, so why not consider a Washington stack of Cousins, Reed and DeSean Jackson to give yourself a little bit of separation from the many owners that will likely roll out a Cousins/Reed lineup? You’ll find Jackson priced at just $4,500 and sporting a Bargain Rating of 98% on DraftKings, which should offer plenty of savings to pay up for Reed.
Green Bay has allowed 27 passing plays of at least 30 yards this season and it’s looking like cornerback Sam Shields may miss this week’s game. This should set up well for the speedy DJax.
We’ve only seen Jackson with a Plus/Minus over +3.0 five times over the previous two seasons – he’s sitting at +4.3 this week – but on these occasions, he’s been incredibly successful. Once again we’ll look to our Trends tool to pull this data.
These games include three performances over 24 DK points and one over 30. Jackson has found the end zone in four of the last six weeks that’s he’s played – excluding Week 17 in which he didn’t see the field – and is only two games removed from a six catch, 153 yard, and one touchdown performance. His week-to-week production is highly variable, but the upside is there at his depressed price.
Bonus Bargains
Because our Bargain Rating metric is correlated so highly with a player’s success, why not highlight a few more great bargains? Below you’ll find players who didn’t quite make the cut above, but are still a great value this week. If you find yourself wanting to utilize the Bargain Rating as a part of your weekly lineup construction, make sure to check out this short video from our co-founder Jonathon Bales on how he uses this rating within our Player Models tool.
Jermaine Kearse
Bargain Rating on DraftKings: 99%
Current Price: $3,300
Kearse has now posted at least 70 receiving yards or a touchdown in four consecutive games and his price has actually decreased by $100 over the past month. Heading down Narrative Street a bit, Kearse has also recorded a touchdown reception in four of the six playoff games the Seahawks have been a part of the past two seasons. If you’re looking to squeeze in multiple of the top wide receivers, Kearse can provide some nice flexibility.
Heath Miller
Bargain Rating on DraftKings: 95%
Current Price: $3,300
If you’re looking to fade the chalk play in Jordan Reed, Miller represents a nice pivot at a reduced price. With DeAngelo Williams unlikely to play, Ben Roethlisberger may look to utilize Miller on short checkdowns to keep the chains moving with Steelers unlikely to be able to muster much of a running game. Additionally, Miller has been PPR gold against the Bengals this season, posting 20 receptions for 171 yards in the Steelers’ two matchups against them. Reed is undoubtedly the top play at the position, but his expected prohibitive ownership percentage lends credence to looking Miller’s way in GPPs.
