Most weeks, in this space, I run through a bunch of good and bad situations for weekly FanDuel games. You know, Player A plays Team B, who allow X points to Player A's position. That sort of thing.
Fantasy football advice, Week 17: Who to avoid in FanDuel
With all the teams playing this weekend, we need to be able to take an axe to some of them before we can even get started.Click here to use FanDuel promo code SBNATION9, get 100% deposit bonus
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This week, though, I’m not even bothering with the good side. You can find those. Guys whose teams still have something to play for. Guys who have something to prove. Everyone is talking about them.
No, for me, Week 17 is more about who you’re avoiding, who you aren’t touching. So today, I’m being Mr. Negative, looking at the players (and teams!) I wouldn’t even bother with in FanDuel for this week.
Maybe I’m being a downer. But I’ve found that it’s much easier, this week, to start from a standpoint of eliminating a lot of names. What’s left, then, is a smaller pool, and easier to choose from. These are generalities; you could talk me into some of these players, but overall, I’d rather steer clear:
Their quarterbacks stink
(Shouldn’t need much elaboration here)
- Arizona Cardinals
- Cleveland Browns
- Houston Texans (perhaps not as bad off as the others, but I still want to steer clear)
- New York Jets
- Tennessee Titans
They’re getting ready for the playoffs
- Dallas Cowboys (can improve their seeding, but let's be real)
- Denver Broncos (need a win to lock down a bye, but I don't see them going four full quarters)
- Indianapolis Colts (no reason to push any guys who aren't already 100 percent)
- New England Patriots (no reason to push anyone at all)
Their teams just don’t offer much upside
- Buffalo Bills (can you genuinely expect anyone there to score even two touchdowns?)
- Detroit Lions (that offense is so underwhelming these days)
- Green Bay Packers (check out their recent history against Detroit, particularly Jordy Nelson's; it's brutal)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (because of his price, I'm actually not totally opposed to Jordan Todman, but even that's dicey)
- Oakland Raiders (I mean, come on)
- San Francisco 49ers (can't say a single successful offensive game is enough to shake off the recent stink)
- St. Louis Rams (middling offense at the league's best defense)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (even Mike Evans' numbers have fallen off)
- Washington (why would you press a subpar DeSean Jackson, and who else can you trust?)
That leaves 14 teams. Eight of them -- Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle -- still have playoff spots and/or seeding to fight over. The other six -- Chicago, Miami, Minnesota, New Orleans, the Giants, Philadelphia -- are done for the season, but I expect they'll still be trying.
When 32 teams are playing, picking out a FanDuel roster can be intimidating. It’s like solving a single jigsaw puzzle when there are pieces from a dozen different puzzles lumped in together. If you can just excise half or more of those extraneous puzzles, it makes solving your own puzzle much easier.
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