FanDuel advice: Finding the cheapest plays

The key to any successful FanDuel fantasy football roster is finding at least one (and ideally two or three) seriously discounted options. It's not hard to say "Oh, Julio Jones will be good." It's much harder to confidently identify, say, Lance Moore as a two-touchdown guy.

Brian Hoyer, Texans ($6,900)

For all intents and purposes, Houston has a playoff spot locked up. But until it is actually locked away, the team will be trying to win, and that means going all-out Sunday. Even if they had things well in hand, I expect the Texans would want Hoyer to get a strong game under his belt before the playoffs. Against Jacksonville, who have allowed three-plus passing touchdowns in three of their last five games, and with DeAndre Hopkins being, you know, DeAndre Hopkins, Hoyer could be a deep quarterback play worth a look.

AJ McCarron, Bengals ($6,300)

The Ravens' defense has improved since the first part of the season (see their shutdown of Ben Roethlisberger just a week ago), but still is the eighth-worst team against opposing fantasy quarterbacks all season, and gave up five touchdowns to Russell Wilson as recently as Week 14. Their primary strength is as a run defense. McCarron, who dealt with an injury scare early in the week, now appears to be a full go, and should have A.J. Green, Marvin Jones and even Tyler Eifert ready to go for the game, plus a pass-catching back in Giovani Bernard. If you're looking contrarian, he looks nice.

Rashad Jennings, Giants ($5,800)

In his last three games, Jennings has topped 100 yards from scrimmage three times, with 115 yards per game. The Eagles, meanwhile, are a wholly different run defense than they were early in the season (12.6 fantasy points per game against running backs before their bye; 25.1 since), and have allowed running backs to put up huge numbers lately, like David Johnson's 40-point game in Week 15. Jennings has pushed Shane Vereen, Andre Williams and Orleans Darkwa to afterthought status, as he should have, but his FanDuel salary hasn't yet reflected that.

Travaris Cadet, Saints ($5,100)

If we're going totally bottom-of-the-barrel, Cadet became last week what C.J. Spiller was supposed to have been for New Orleans most of the season, serving as the pass-catching complement to Tim Hightower. He caught three passes for 69 yards and a score, all numbers that could easily increase against Atlanta's rough defense. In a half-point PPR, Cadet's pass-catching could be a sneaky play.

Travis Benjamin, Browns ($5,400)

We know Benjamin has upside. We saw it over the season's first half. When he surpassed 100 yards three times. Benjamin comes into Week 17 at 913 yards for the season, and you know the Browns would love to see him reach a full thousand. Against a Pittsburgh pass defense that isn't any great shakes, Benjamin should see plenty of looks Sunday, and not even the fact that it's Austin Davis throwing him the ball scares me off too much.

Eddie Royal, Bears ($4,800)

Royal's next big game as a Bear will be his first. He's maxed out at 54 yards in a game and has only one touchdown in his first season with the team. But with Alshon Jeffery and Marquess Wilson both on IR and Matt Forte unlikely to be at 100 percent Sunday, the Chicago passing offense is basically Royal and Zach Miller. I like Miller more, but Royal, in a game that has decent shootout potential, could be an interesting play as well.

Nick O'Leary, Bills ($4,600)

The Bills have been fans of O'Leary for a bit now, promoting him from the practice squad when they didn't really have to just to keep other teams from pouncing on him. He has only one target in three games so far (which he caught for 37 yards), but with Charles Clay out yet again, the team has announced it will be O'Leary, not Chris Gragg, who will draw the start in Week 17. With Clay expensive and injury-prone, the sixth-round rookie O'Leary will get a chance to stake a claim on the possible Buffalo starting job for 2016.