NFL Week 17 Yahoo! Million Dollar Baller Picks Using Awesemo’s Premium Rankings (FREE)

Yahoo fantasy football is running a $1,000,000 contest with a $20 entry fee and 40,000 entries for Week 17 of the NFL season, which means they are adding $200,000 to the prize pool. Let’s get into some Yahoo Daily Fantasy Picks for NFL lineups, including Dak Prescott, Tom Brady and more.

Week 17 NFL Yahoo Daily Fantasy Strategy & Picks

The critical thing to remember is that Yahoo is a half-PPR site, and the minimum salary is $10, with an average salary per player of $22. This week, Jonathan Taylor is at the top of the salary list at $42. The complete scoring parameters can be found here.

One of the most valuable features of the Awesemo.com premium content is the personal player rankings from Alex Baker, for all of the main sports. The players grade out separately for each DFS site with ratings for both “projected points” and “value,” receiving an A through E report card-style grade. This week, as a special treat, Awesemo is also adding in the “Roster%,” which is the projected percentage a player will be used in the large-field tournaments.

Quarterback

If you have played daily fantasy football on Yahoo or Yahoo fantasy baseball, you know that the strategy is to look for the cheapest quarterback or pitcher that is tolerable so you can look for more secure points and upside elsewhere. In the recommendations below, I will be highlighting several discount options at the other positions so you can build a framework that will allow lineup construction for a top-shelf quarterback, along with his favorite target and still have enough salary cap to run it back with the top option on the opposing team.

Dak Prescott: Dallas Cowboys vs. Arizona Cardinals – $32

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B, Roster% 11.9%

Everything came together last week for Dak Prescott as he rolled up 330 passing yards and four touchdowns in a dismantling of the Washington Football Team. It was such a route that even Cooper Rush came in and was two of three for 70 yards with a score. The volume is there as Prescott is averaging just over 41 pass attempts per game in his last half dozen appearances.

Arizona has seen a parade of powder puff quarterbacks, particularly in their most recent games. This list includes Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford (287/3), Andy Dalton, Russell Wilson, P.J. Walker and Cam Newton. Stafford was the only one to exceed 230 yards and the Cardinals are likely to be overwhelmed by the abundance of Dallas pass-catchers at every skill position.

Tom Brady: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New York Jets – $40

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value D, Roster%  2.3%

Chris Godwin is out for the season with a torn ACL, Antonio Brown ($28) did not practice on Thursday and Friday with an ankle injury and Mike Evans ($23) came out of the health and safety protocol only to miss practice with a hamstring issue. Brown will likely play and Tom Brady still has Rob Gronkowski ($23), Cameron Brate ($11) and running back Ronald Jones II ($24). This along with the matchup against the putrid Jets defense and sub-5% rostership make Brady a terrific play in tournaments. Currently, he leads the league in passing yards and touchdowns which is just icing on the cake.

Trey Lance: San Francisco 49ers vs. Houston Texans – $20

Awesemo Grade: Points C, Value A, Roster% 21.7%

The salary is certainly enticing for rookie Trey Lance as is the matchup against Houston. However, we have only seen the youngster attempt 48 passes this season and most of his success has come on the ground where he has 30 carries for 137 yards and a touchdown. The salary cap flexibility provided by Lance also needs to be considered when choosing this increasingly popular path.

Running Back

We want to keep in mind that while running backs are very important, Yahoo fantasy uses half-PPR, which will not penalize running backs that are not as active in the passing game.

David Montgomery: Chicago Bears vs. New York Giants – $25

Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value B, Roster% 30.2%

David Montgomery has logged at least 17 carries in four of his last five games and he has 31 targets in his last four games. The Giants are a tire fire inside a dumpster fire right now and we want to pick on them whenever possible.

Sony Michel: Los Angeles Rams at Baltimore Ravens – $26

Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value B, Roster% 27.8%

Darrell Henderson Jr, is out for the rest of the season and Cam Akers is not yet ready to make his return from his preseason injury. That leaves the backfield to Sony Michel who has been demonstrating that he can actually be a serviceable pass-catcher in addition to a bruising runner. Baltimore does have the sixth best rushing DVOA and they have most of their defenders back after missing over half of their 22-deep to the COVID-reserve over the last two games. Michel will need to find the end zone to be a difference maker, but that is definitely in the reasonable range of outcomes on Sunday.

Alvin Kamara: New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers

Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value D, Roster% 18.2%

This is the lowest salary for Alvin Kamara in nearly two full seasons. While he has not seen the passing volume with Taysom Hill that he did with Drew Brees and even Jameis Winston under center, he is getting more carries than ever. Hill is a threat to usurp some of Kamara’s red zone opportunities, but this is a good matchup against Carolina and New Orleans desperately needs to win in order to stay in the Wild Card mix.

Wide Receiver

The top-shelf Yahoo fantasy options are typically priced in the low to mid-$30 range. Often, they are best paired with their quarterbacks for tournament upside rather than risking downside as solo plays.

Cooper Kupp: Los Angeles Rams at Baltimore Ravens – $40

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value D, Roster% 13.9%

Baltimore has been shredded through the air and it seems like Cooper Kupp has been a recommendation for every main slate that he is in the player pool. He leads the league in targets, receptions, yards, yards after the catch, touchdowns and plays of 20 or more yards. Yes, this is absolutely a premium salary, however, he will be on less than one in five lineups with 28 teams in action on Sunday.

Tyreek Hill: Kansas City Chiefs at Cincinnati Bengals – $29

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value C, Roster% 14.6%

Last week Tyreek Hill crushed our hopes and dreams with only two targets for two receptions and 19 yards despite Travis Kelce being in the health and safety protocol. Heck, he has only managed one double digit fantasy point game in his last four. However, we are getting his lowest salary of the season and the game log watchers are going to be headed elsewhere on Sunday. This game has the potential to turn into a track meet, though with 14 teams in action, The Masses are not landing here – hopefully that holds until kickoff on Sunday.

DK Metcalf: Seattle Seahawks vs. Detroit Lions – $19

Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value B, Roster% 10.6%

This week DK Metcalf is at his lowest salary of the season and it is just one dollar over his lowest of the last 34 games. Yes, he has been incredibly disappointing with last week being his first double digit fantasy point game in two months. However, on tap is a matchup with the hapless Lions and a final chance for the Seahawks to provide some semblance of redemption in front of the home fans after getting eliminated from the playoffs last week. This is their last game in Seattle for the season. While that really should not be a big part of the decision to roster Metcalf, a combination of the matchup, discounted salary and hopefully a fired up team all comes together. We can roll the dice on a few lineups for just $19 in tournaments.

Tight Ends

There are plenty of top-shelf tight end options, so let’s take a gander at a couple who are getting lost in the shuffle.

Zach Ertz: Arizona Cardinals at Dallas Cowboys – $17

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B, Roster% 14.4%

Over the last two weeks, Zach Ertz has been peppered with targets seeing 24 for 14 receptions and 128 yards. Though it has been four weeks since his last trip to the end zone, this is a nice salary and an intriguing tournament play with gamers flocking to Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce.

Dallas Goedert: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Football Team – $22

Awesemo Grade: Points C, Value E, Roster% 4.0%

Last week was a dud, though to be fair, Jalen Hurts did not see Dallas Goedert wide open in the end zone for what would have been a sure touchdown. In the two prior weeks, Goedert had 15 targets for 13 receptions, 240 yards and a pair of touchdowns. This includes seven receptions and 135 yards against Washington in Week 15.

Defense/Special Teams

This week we are picking on some inexperienced quarterbacks with some bad, but discounted defenses.

Chicago Bears vs. New York Giants – $12

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B, Roster% 15.2%

Hopefully it is rookie Jake Fromm under center as he looked completely overwhelmed in his first start last week in Philadelphia. It is hard to see much improvement and he was unceremoniously pulled in favor of Mike Glennon. Suddenly Daniel Jones does not seem so bad to New York fans.

Los Angeles Chargers vs. Denver Broncos – $11

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value A, Roster% 13.6%

Last week the Chargers rolled over on the road in Houston. This week they are at home against Drew Lock and an uninspired Denver offense. In limited action this season Lock has been sacked seven times for a whopping 10.1% sack rate. He also has a 3.0% career interception rate which is not going to do him any favors eight.

Seattle Seahawks vs. Detroit Lions – $13

Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B, Roster% 13.1%

This could be an emotional game as coach Pete Carroll is on the hot seat and Russell Wilson wants out of town yet again. Last week Seattle dropped an easy victory to Chicago allowing 11 unanswered fourth quarter points in the final 11 minutes with former Seahawk Jimmy Graham catching a touchdown with a minute to go and Nick Foles converting the two-point conversion to Damiere Byrd. Fortunately for the local fans, quarterback Tim Boyle really should not be playing in the NFL. During his time at the University of Connecticut between 2013 and 2015, Boyle had 13 interceptions against one lonely touchdown playing in 19 games. Seattle has ten sacks in their last three games and either they will rise to the occasion or they will fold up the tents on this season. There is no in between.

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Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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