Strategies

Top NFL Fantasy Matchups per Position for January 16-17, 2016

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The NFL Wild Card weekend is in the books as Daily Fantasy Owners start to look forward to the divisional round of the playoffs next weekend. This in most cases will be the final fantasy weekend of the year outside of building your fantasy lineup around just four teams.

For us,  we will release our NFL FanDuel Lineup later in the week. That being said we have turned our attention early in the week to looking at the best fantasy matchups per position to help everyone build their lineup for the upcoming weekend.

The action will kick off on Saturday, as the Kansas City Chiefs will travel to New England to take on the Patriots at 4:35pm ET. In the second game the Green Bay Packers will travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals. The rest of the action takes place on Sunday as the Seattle Seahawks will take on the Carolina Panthers in the early action while the Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to Denver to take on the Broncos.

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Now the big question this weekend is which of these eight quarterbacks are going to put together the best game for their fantasy owners. This comes just one week after a disappointing week for quarterbacks including Ben Roethlisberger (13.16 fantasy points), Alex Smith (13.3 fantasy points) and Russell Wilson (10.78 fantasy points). Of the four winning teams, Aaron Rodgers put together the best game of the weekend finishing with 18.3 against the Washington Redskins.

As we start to look at each of these quarterback matchups the first player we turned our attention to is the Arizona Cardinals starter Carson Palmer. Palmer will get a shot at a Green Bay Packers team that allowed Kirk Cousins to throw for 329 yards, one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown last weekend. Outside of Palmer we also like Tom Brady and Alex Smith who will face off at Gillette Stadium.

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Here is a look at our top fantasy matchups per position for next weekend.

Running Backs

David Johnson, Arizona Cardinals: Johnson is going to cost you a little bit this weekend but we like his rematch potential against the Packers. The Cardinals running back finished with 20.2 fantasy points including a rushing touchdown in week 16 in the teams win against the Packers.

Spencer Ware, Kansas City Chiefs: Ware is slowly becoming a viable fantasy option after posting touchdowns in each of the Chiefs past two games. While his matchup against the Patriots will be a little more challenging we expect that Andy Reid will continue to work him into the passing game.

Ronnie Hillman, Denver Broncos: The Steelers/Broncos matchup might be one of the best fantasy matchups in general. That being said we expect the Steelers to focus on shutting down Peyton Manning allowing the Broncos running game to put some solid numbers up.

Wide Receivers:

Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers: Yes before you say it we may be crazy but the reports are indicating that Brown will play this weekend. If that is the case Brown will be expensive but a great option against a Broncos team he scorched in the regular season for nearly 40 fantasy points.

John Brown, Arizona Cardinals: We love both Brown and Larry Fitzgerald this weekend but we have turned our attention to Brown. The Cardinals wide receiver pulled in a touchdown the last time these two teams met, as well as Fitzgerald. Look for the pair to continue their success this weekend

Devin Funchess, Carolina Panthers: Entering this weekend the Seahawks main plan is to take away the Panthers deep threat in Ted Ginn Jr. While we don’t expect a ton of scoring in this contest, but we do however expect Cam Newton to find the end zone through the air.

Keshawn Martin, New England Patriots: With all of the injury concerns with the Patriots passing attack, it leaves us only a few options with Martin being one of them. Martin is a deep fantasy sleeper but with Tom Brady behind center anything could happen. We also like the idea of Edelman if the wide receiver is healthy enough to suit up this weekend.

Tight Ends:

Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots: The easiest of the tight end targets is the Patriots. While we love him we expect him to be used in a high percentage of fantasy leagues making him a difficult option to cash in on. That being said if you are playing in 50/50 leagues he would be a very safe option.

Owen Daniels, Denver Broncos: While Daniels wasn’t a key target for Brock Osweiler he should be a favorable option for Peyton Manning this weekend. Manning has shown in his career he likes to work his tight end into his offense something that showed up with Julius Thomas production last season.

Kickers/Defenses:

Chandler Catanzaro, Arizona Cardinals: We looked at the games we expect to be high scoring contests. That lead us to Catanzaro for the Cardinals in a game we expect some points to be scored in. The other option we like is Brandon McManus for the Broncos against the Steelers.

Carolina Panthers: Of all eight of the teams in action we really like the Panthers as well as the Seahawks in this matchup. The Panthers have posted at least nine fantasy points in six of his last seven games.

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