If you play DFS, stack these players during the Divisional round of the NFL playoffs for a chance at optimizing your FanDuel and DraftKings scores. Follow Elliot on Twitter @BerkovitsElliot.
What an unbelievable start to the NFL playoffs we had last week, with three underdog road teams pulling off upset victories to advance to the next round.
As exciting as last week was, I think the Divisional round is always the best week of the year, with all four of the top seeds in the NFL playing on one weekend. Looking ahead to this week’s matchups, we have some of the best offenses in the league playing, as opposed to last week, which featured more defensive-minded teams.
Drew Brees and Michael Thomas (NO)
The matchup I like most in terms of DFS is easily the New Orleans Saints going up against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Superdome, where the Saints offense is at its best. The two Saints I’d like to highlight here are Drew Brees and Michael Thomas, both of whom dominated the Eagles secondary in the two teams’ previous meeting this season.
In Brees’ eight starts at home this year he is averaging over 24 fantasy points per game while scoring over 30 in four of those eight games. Similar to Brees, Thomas has been unstoppable at home this year, scoring over 23 fantasy points per game and, exactly like Brees, has four games of over 30 points.
Looking at who these two will be facing this week, it’s almost impossible not to start them, with the Eagles missing three of their top four defensive backs, and their replacements inexperience has shown over and over. This banged up secondary was torched all season and now in the postseason as well, with Bears No: 1 WR Allen Robinson going off for 10/143/1 against them last Sunday.
One area where this defense has been specifically bad at is on the double move. Eagles CBs Rasul Douglas and Avonte Maddox have been beat by the double move over and over this season, thanks to their aggressive style of play. I would expect the Saints to target both Thomas and Tre’Quan Smith deep, and, especially, with double moves. The Saints clobbered the Eagles, 48-7, in their last meeting and while I don’t expect another blowout, I do think the Saints should win this game fairly easily, putting them one game closer to Super Bowl 53.
Score Prediction: Saints 31, Eagles 17
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