Welcome to the Best Week 16 DFS Fantasy Football Lineup with These NFL All-Star Players!
On the sixteenth week of the season, the NFL gave to us, a hot garbage Sunday main slate. Seriously, from a football fan’s standpoint, this slate is brutal for this point in the season. One game between two teams currently in the playoffs and one game between a team that’s in and a team that has a reasonable chance to get in. The rest? Woof. Jags Raiders, anyone? But that’s why we have DFS! So, in the interest of keeping ourselves entertained on Sunday, let’s get to it!
Top Week 15 DFS Fantasy Football Picks
Quarterback
We’ve got a live one! Atlanta is doing the right thing and parking the Kirk Cousins struggle bus in the Mercedes Benz Dome garage. Starting in his place will be near min-priced rookie Michael Penix, Jr. ($6000, 10% of available salary on FanDuel; $4500, 9% of available salary on DraftKings). The Giants make for a juicy starting point for the rookie’s NFL journey. While it could certainly turn into a Bijan Robinson game, we expected a monster game from Derrick Henry last week and instead got a five-passing touchdown game from Lamar Jackson.
With pricing being as tight as it is this week, we’ll need some salary relief somewhere. Penix won’t need to do much to pay off his number.
Running Back
It’s a pay-up week at Running Back. Are you really going to risk your DFS investment on career special teamer and practice squad lifer Patrick Taylor ($4800, 8% on FD; $5200, 10.4% on DK)? It’s also a tale of two sites pricing-wise.
On DraftKings, I’m leaning to James Conner ($8400, 14% on FD; $7100, 14.2% on DK). It’s not just that he gets to face Carolina’s league-worst run defense. With Emari Demercado and Trey Benson out due to injury, he’s going to get all the work he can handle.
Over on FanDuel, Jahmyr Gibbs ($8300, 13.8% on FD; $7500, 15% on DK) is somehow $100 cheaper. David Montgomery’s knee injury opens up a full-time role for Gibbs. That kind of volume paired with Gibbs’ efficiency spells W-I-N-N-E-R.
Wide Receiver
It’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba time, it’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba time. JSN ($7900, 13.2% on FD; $6000, 12% on DK) is averaging 18.9 1/2-PPR points over the Seahawks past six games. Minnesota struggles with slot receivers and it’s looking like Geno Smith (in play at $7300, 12.2% on FD; $5700, 11.4% on DK) will be good to go for Sunday. If Sam Howell gets the start, run. Run far, far away from here.
There’s a dearth of attractive pay-down options this week. If you need to conserve some salary to load up on top-tier guys in tournaments, Jalen Coker ($5200, 8.7% on FD; $4200, 8.4% on DK) is in play. You’ll need to keep an eye on the inactives on Sunday morning as Coker does carry the dreaded “Q” tag. He came back from injury last week and put up a 6-110-1 line. A lot of that came on one big play, but in this price range, the ability to make one big play is all we’re looking for. Xavier Legette is out this week, so if Coker can make it to game day, he’ll be a WR2 on the field for Carolina.
Tight End
With pricing being as tight as it is this week, it’s going to be tough to pay up for the top Tight Ends without giving up something else at another position. You can go down a little bit to Sam LaPorta ($6000, 10% on FD; $4700, 9.4% on DK) and still feel good about your choice, though. Somebody’s going to have to pick up the David Montgomery slack and Jahmyr Gibbs can only take on so much of that workload without burning out before the playoffs. Look for LaPorta to shoulder a good deal of that load. The fact he saw a season-high in targets in the game Montgomery was injured is a peek into the future of his role.
Defense
You thought I was into picking on the Browns with Jameis Winston at QB? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Dorian Thompson-Robinson is an even more attractive pick on play. Literally one of the worst Quarterbacks to see regular time in recent memory is on the opposite side of the field for the Cincinnati Bengals ($4400, 7.3% on FD; $3300, 6.6% on DK) this week. That’s all I need to know to want to proliferate the Bengals throughout my DFS lineups.
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Thank you for reading Joel’s Best Week 16 DFS Fantasy Football Picks. Be sure to catch next week’s NFL All-Star Lineup! Joel will line up another winning combination with expert insight and analysis. You can find and follow @theJoelWirth on X and BlueSky for more of his great content!
