The regular season has come to a close and so has our Fantasy Football yearly league start em and sit em picks. Fee and I took a gander at FanDuel and Draft Kings selections last week and we did alright for you (more on that in a bit).

This week, Fee and I decided to look at a few solid picks for your Playoff DFS. This is where it gets tricky. The player pool is more limited with only eight teams playing. Everyone knows to pick Antonio Brown, but who are the little secret weapons that are going to boost your team?

I hope Fee and I have some of them for you below.

PICKS THAT MADE US LOOK SMART (all points are Draft Kings):

• Matthew Stafford: 24.92 points
• Ben Roethlisberger: 28.76 points
• Tim Hightower: 21.7 points
• Julio Jones: 26.9 points
• Zach Ertz: 27.2 points
• Texans Defense: 29 points
• Devonta Freeman: 16.9 points
• Demaryius Thomas: 5 receptions, 117 yards, 1 touchdown

ILL ADVISED STARTS THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT WELL:

• Golden Tate: 7.4 points
• James White: 8.8 points
• Karlos Williams: 11.7 points (left injured after scoring a TD early in the second quarter. 11.7 points isn’t terrible, but he could have had a 25-point day)

I’M NOT STARTING AGAIN UNTIL HE SHOWS ME OTHERWISE

Martavis Bryant — Two weeks in a row I picked him as a sure-fire start and two weeks in a row he has gotten less than three points. THREE!!! Big Ben called him soft this week. I think Bryant has all of the talent in the world, but he has to shape up and become a little more consistent before I spend my money on him again.

FanDuel Fee:

When The Wayniac asked me if I wanted to run a playoff special, I thought, why not?  Let’s take a crack at it and see what we can come up with.  First things first though, I personally would not recommend playing any cash games.  You could essentially end up playing a team with the same lineup with the exception of one or two guys you hope can beat the other teams.  That’s not what you want.  If you want to throw a few bucks out there on some 50/50s go ahead, but the play going forward is the GPPs.

There are four games, eight teams, eight QBs to choose from as well as TE, K, and D for all intents and purposes.  That’s rough. RBs and WRs are a little deeper at least.  

QBs:

Roethlisberger – Highest implied point total on the board and with DeAngelo Williams officially out, Pittsburgh is going to have to throw, which is what they do best anyway.  His ceiling is sky high even with Cincy’s D-line playing great as of late.  I could also see this going the other way and being a low scoring game, but Big Ben usually can get the numbers you need regardless. He’s a good, safer play, but he’s not my best play.

Neither is this guy, but he has to be mentioned here.  Kirk Cousins is playing out of his mind.  They’re playing at home, and this is the game I can see being a shootout.  Neither Defense is any good so this could be a solid play although his price is kind of high for him.

Best Play – Aaron Rodgers.  I know that Green Bay has looked terrible lately.  I know Rodgers may not have a ton to work with.  But I do know this is Aaron F’in Rodgers.  I also know this is the playoffs.  And I also know the Skins D, is in the bottom 25% in the entire NFL this year both in terms of real life as well as fantasy points given up to QBs.  I can see this game being a shootout.  And I can also see Rodgers not being that highly owned (relatively of course) due to some recency bias as well as other QBs people may see as better options for similar cost.  He’s the guy I’ll be on with some exposure to the other two as well.

RBs:

Jeremy Hill – I think Cincy is going to try and control the clock in this one and keep Ben off the field.  With McCarron starting, they should see a heavy dose of Hill and the running game.

And my ultimate contrarian play – Spencer Ware. Yes West is the starter but Ware has seen as many if not more snaps than West in two of the last three games.  Houston’s D is playing out of their minds, which may also mean that KC might be playing from behind and Ware is the guy they go with when that happens.  And oh by the way, Ware is also the guy they go to to close out games if they’re up as well recently.  I’m going to have Ware in my lineups this week and hope he gets play and hope that not too many others will be on him either.

WRs:

Antonio Brown – nothing to say here, just do it.

Jeremy Maclin – I like Maclin here as a pivot to Doug Baldwin who I expect to be heavily owned even in a freezing cold game.  Alex Smith tends to play pretty well in the playoffs surprisingly enough.

AJ Green – He’s torched the Steelers in both games this season.  Does that happen again?  Possibly, so it stands to reason that he would be a solid play here as well.  If you can work out a lineup that gets both him and Antonio in it, could be worth looking at.

Markus Wheaton – I think Martavis Bryant is playing hurt.  Wheaton has seen more targets recently and if this game lives up to the number Vegas threw out there, Wheaton is going to be involved.

James Jones – he’s the guy you want if you’re going to try a Rodgers Stack.

TEs:

Richard Rodgers – I wouldn’t mind throwing a Rodgers, Jones, Rodgers Triple Stack out there in a lineup either.

Eifert or Kelce – I like these guys opposed to Jordan Reed.  Reed is going to be so heavily owned and he costs $1000 or more than any other TE.  Yes, if Reed goes off and you don’t have him, that could hurt, but what will it get you if everyone else has him also.  You can get decent numbers elsewhere for cheaper.

K:

I would go with Cairos Santos or Dustin Hopkins.

Defense:

Well, if you can fit Seattle’s D, by all means go for it, but I would love to go with the Texans and I may have some exposure to them, but I think the Chiefs D is also a solid play as well, so you could go either way in this game.

The Wayniac — Draft Kings

QB: I’m on board with Fee. Aaron Rodgers is the play, especially at $6,400. The Redskins are the worst fantasy pass defense left in the playoffs this week — allowing 20 points a game — and Rodgers could expose them.

RB: People are going to jump on Fitzgerald Toussaint and Christine Michael because D-Will and Beast Mode are out. But they are both over $4,000 for a lot of uncertainty. Giovani Bernard comes in right at $4,000 and I like him to use as a counter to all of the teams Hill will be on. This is a weak week for RBs with the two big injuries, the Texans and Redskins having no sure-fire easy play in their backfields, and AP playing in -10 degrees. A Spencer Ware or James Starks play may be the way to go, as both come in under $4,000 and then you can bulk up on WRs.

WR: If you can start DeAndre Hopkins, I think you need to even at $8,400. This guy has had big games with four different mediocre to worse quarterbacks throwing him the ball and he is seemingly unstoppable. I have one lineup with him and Antonio Brown. I hope that pays off. I love Tyler Lockett with Beast Mode out. I know he was quiet last week, but with sub-freezing temperatures, he could be used as that running back-style wide receiver. At $4,400 he’s a steal. James Jones is also a great play. At $4,100 all he needs is his one big 70-yard touchdown play and he’s worth it.

TE: The Steelers are the worst team fantasy wise against TEs in the playoffs so Tyler Eifert seems the logical play at $5,000. With so many other factors, this may be the position where you play it safe, spend some money and go with Jordan Reed ($6,500) or Eifert.

Defense: The Texans come in under 4K at $3,900, but Alex Smith isn’t the conventional turnover machine. I still think the Texans win their game, and they do it on their defense. Will they get you 29 points like last week? Probably not, but double digits isn’t out of the question.

Good luck everyone and Go Texans!