StatLogic Sports Week 16 NFL Fantasy Football & DFS Focus

By Scott L. - SL Sports Staff

Week 16 of the 2024 National Football League season is here.

For full-season fantasy managers, it’s playoff time. If you’re still alive, congratulations!

For DFS, we have a limited slate today. The mindset for both should be similar.

In many cases, full-season managers must play the players who are available. The war of attrition that is the NFL season often leaves us with very few decisions this time of year. Hopefully, we’ve all embraced the process throughout the season and built enough depth to compete and possibly even win a championship.

The bulk of our lineups should be comprised of the guys who got us there. Now is not the time to get creative or crazy. We have a large sample size and body of work, which should outweigh everything else in terms of our decision-making. As always, we are trying to maximize our odds of winning one game. What is the most likely pathway to the most points? That’s the question that always should be considered above all else.

It sounds so simple, but it’s very easy to get distracted and stray from that philosophy.

Likewise, we have a much smaller pool of players to choose from for the main Sunday DFS slate since three games already have been played. Fewer overall players to choose from means there are fewer players to be seriously considered for our lineups.

So, maybe we don’t have to put in quite as much time as usual to evaluate or options and make our lineups, but every decision becomes that much more important. The players we are likely to covet most also are more likely to be in many competing lineups, so finding the best value players is going to be essential.

To make it easier, we’ve narrowed the player pool down. It’s our belief that, except in a few instances when we might need to find an outlier to fill that last roster spot, we can win money this week without going outside the pool of players listed below.

Core Player Considerations

We will be considering these players for most – if not all – of our lineups:

Jahmyr Gibbs

James Conner/Chase Brown

Ja’Marr Chase

Brian Thomas Jr./Jakobi Meyers

Brenton Strange (value core TE)

Trey McBride (pay-up core TE)

Best Value Quarterbacks

Kyler Murray

Baker Mayfield

Joe Burrow

Caleb Williams

Aaron Rodgers

Pay-up Quarterbacks

Jalen Hurts

Josh Allen

Bargain Quarterbacks

Michael Penix

Aidan O’Connell

Give Him a Shot in One Lineup

Anthony Richardson

Undervalued Stud GPP Running Back

Jonathan Taylor

Pay-up Running Backs

Bijan Robinson

De’Von Achane

Saquon Barkley

Guaranteed Volume Running Backs

Chuba Hubbard

Rhamondre Stevenson

Rico Dowdle

Bargain Running Backs

Tajae Spears

Patrick Taylor

Tyler Allgeier

Alexander Mattison/Ameer Abdullah

Pay-up Wide Receivers

Puka Nakua – multiple lineups

Amon-Ra St. Brown/Justin Jefferson/Cee Dee Lamb/Mike Evans – alternate in various lineups

Underpriced Volume WR Option

Cooper Kupp – he will see the ball this week after a zero last week

Value & Volume Wide Receivers

DK Metcalf/Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Tee Higgins

Devonta Smith

Davante Adams/Garrett Wilson

Best Value Volume Wide Receivers

DJ Moore/Keenan Allen

Malik Nabers

Adam Thielen

Jauan Jennings

Bargain Wide Receivers

Malik Washington

Josh Downs

Calvin Ridley

Jalen McMillan

Wan’Dale Robinson

Tre Tucker

Demario Douglas

Dyami Brown

Kayshon Boutte

Jaylen Coker/David Moore

Pay-up Tight Ends

Brock Bowers

George Kittle

Value Volume Tight Ends

Sam LaPorta

TJ Hockenson

Bargain Tight Ends

Hunter Henry

Chig Okonkwo

Kyle Pitts

Super Bargain Tight End

Jeremy Ruckert