7 Daily Fantasy Football Tournament Plays for Week 15
As the fantasy season pushes on through its playoffs, fewer and fewer of us remain chasing glory in our season-long leagues. Thankfully there’s more than one way to chase degenerate glory. Taking down a top prize in a big daily fantasy guaranteed prize pool (GPP) tournament may not earn you the bragging rights among friends that taking down your league championship would, but the cash is a nice alternative.
Our Optimal Lineup Tool is an invaluable asset in putting together a lineup, and our Custom Optimal Lineup Tool is great for tweaking things more to your liking.
In addition to those, here are some GPP plays I like for Week 15.
Quarterback
Derek Anderson, Carolina Panthers - In his limited opportunities this year, Anderson has performed very well, going 40/57 for 424 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions. Tampa Bay’s pass defense has been among the worst in the league this year, coming in at 29th according to our Net Expected Points (NEP) metrics, and falling in the bottom half of the league in terms of fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks.
With such a soft matchup and low price tag, Anderson’s ownership percentage may not be particularly low, but he offers so much value. And the matchup offers enough upside that I think he’s more than worthy of a spot in your GPP lineups.
Running Backs
Joique Bell, Detroit Lions - Despite the return of Reggie Bush, Bell has established himself as ‘the man’ in the Lions backfield. Over the last two weeks, Bell’s tallied 174 yards and 3 touchdowns, and has 55 PPR fantasy points to boot.
Bell offers a lot of upside as far as touchdowns are concerned -- he's recorded 100% of the Lions carries inside the 10-yard line over the last three weeks, and with a projected team total of 25.5, the Lions will likely find the end zone a few times this week.
As eight-point favorites over the Vikings, it would be no shock for the game script to call for a healthy dose of Bell, especially if the Lions can carry a lead into the fourth quarter.
Latavius Murray, Oakland Raiders - Murray finds himself matched up this week against a Chiefs defense that ranks 24th against the run according to our metrics, and that threw him a coming out party two weeks ago when he torched them for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns on only 4 carries.
The Raiders behaved uncharacteristically rationally last week, giving Murray plenty of opportunity to prove himself, carrying the ball 23 times and being targeted twice in the passing game.
With the Chiefs lackluster run defense not translating into a ton of fantasy points against (they have allowed only the 24th-most points to running backs) and with the Raiders as 10-point underdogs, Murray’s ownership numbers may not be particularly high, but if continues to get plenty of opportunities, he has a real chance to once again light up the Chiefs for big points.
Wide Receivers
Charles Johnson, Minnesota Vikings - While the Lions defense has defended the pass well and ranks in the top 10 in terms of fewest fantasy points allowed to opposing receivers, their performances have been slipping of late. At least one opposing receiver has posted 15 or more fantasy points in each of their last five games, twice having more than one receiver score 15. Johnson has emerged as the Vikings clear-cut number-one option in the passing game, accounting for 27% of the Vikings targets over the last four games.
Combining Johnson with Joique Bell this week also makes for an interesting stack, giving you a lot of upside if that eight-point spread can hold true.
Cecil Shorts, Jacksonville Jaguars - With the Jaguars as massive underdogs (14 points) to the Ravens, and with Denard Robinson out this week, the Jaguars will be left with not much to do besides pass the football.
While Shorts’ production hasn’t been consistent by any stretch, he has been targeted heavily in almost every game -- only twice in his 10 games this season has he seen fewer than 7 targets.
The Ravens' defense is shaping up to be a very popular one to use this week, which will likely keep people away from the Jaguars' offense. That makes Shorts an interesting wideout to target against the Ravens defense, which ranks only 20th against the pass according to our metrics.
Tight End
Brent Celek, Philadelphia Eagles - Celek has yet to put up a solid fantasy game this season, but he draws a very soft matchup this week taking on the Cowboys, who are giving up the most fantasy points to opposing tight ends.
While he hasn’t found the end zone yet, Celek sees a reasonable number of targets in the red zone (eight so far this year), and could put up decent numbers if he does manage to. With a minimum salary on DraftKings, he leaves you lots of room to maneuver with the rest of your lineup while giving you good touchdown upside.
Team Defense
Carolina Panthers - The Panthers are a risky play this week, and this is less about having faith in Carolina than it is about fading Tampa Bay’s offense. Tampa Bay has turned the ball over 12 times in the last 5 games, and has the second-most giveaways on the season. So even a Carolina defense that hasn't excelled in terms of takeaways should have plenty of opportunities to get their hands on the ball.
