Welcome to the Saturday Edition of the NFL Week 18 DFS Playbook!

Week 18 DFS can be tricky, so wetting our beak with a two-game slate here on Saturday should make for a nice transition into what we are looking for here. As we've discussed throughout the week, our focus is on players who have something to play for. In the case of this slate, three of the four teams have the playoffs in site and all three will be pulling out all the stops. The fourth, the Las Vegas Raiders, are playing for their coach's job and would love to spoil the Kansas City Chiefs chances of earning the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

Remember, with a two-game slate, we stick to GPP tournaments only. There is too much player overlap in cash games and that increases the pay-lines, making it more difficult to cash, even in a single-entry 100-person 50/50 contest. So today is more about having some fun and playing around with some interesting combinations. But keep in mind, you don't always need to have some random dart-throw in your lineup to cash. Building a high-floor, zero-fat lineup that you would use in a cash game should still give you a strong opportunity to cash so don't get all crazy looking for nothing but cheap, random guys. You still need to include the guys who are going to score the big points as well. Yes, you should find ways to differentiate yourself from the rest of the herd, but there's being contrarian and just being silly. I'm not going to be throwing Racey McMath into any of my lineups because I think Joshua Dobbs will air it out all willy-nilly should the Titans be losing. You still have to be smart about it.

Before you get to the NFL Week 18 DFS Playbook players, keep in mind that all of our content you've used throughout the year is still in-play for your research. We play to the final buzzer here at Fantasy Alarm and in the immortal words of Rocky Balboa, “I ain't heard no bell.”

 

 

If you are a current Fantasy Alarm subscriber, then you know the drill. Feel free to skip head to the actual Playbook. If you're new here, then allow me to give you a quick tour around here so that you can sample all of what we have to offer in the daily fantasy football space. Let's start with our four-step process to successfully building winning DFS lineups.

Step 1: Check out the DFS Position Coaches

QB Coach – Jon Impemba (@jimpemba777)

RB Coach -- Justin Vreeland (@JustinVreeland)

WR Coach -- Colby Conway (@colbyrconway)

TE Coach -- Andrew Cooper (@CoopAFiasco)

D/ST Coach -- Dan Malin (@RealDANlanta)

Step 2: Check out the rest of the relevant DFS content

In addition to the positional coaching pieces, you also have things like the DFS Watch List, where I provide you with a list of players I am looking at throughout the week. We have the NFL DFS Podcast with me and Jon Impemba, who also does the Contrarian Corner video and check out the DFS Bargains from Tera Roberts (@ItsTeraTime). You can even give the podcast a listen while you're running through the Playbook players as Jon and I open with a full discussion on the Saturday slate.

 

Also, our Master of Tools, Matt Selz (@theselzman), supplies you data junkies with the Weekly Match-Up Report and everyone should also be checking out the WR/CB Match-Up Report from Ryan Hallam (@fightingchance).

Speaking of tools, we have also done some major enhancements with our NFL tools. We continue to crunch the numbers and tweak our algorithms so that our daily fantasy football projections are the best in the industry and that, in turn, has improved things like our Lineup Generator/DFS Optimizer, our DFS Compare tool and even our NFL DFS Ownership Projections. Again, all right here on one site for your convenience.

Step 3: Check the Weather

At this time of year, weather is going to play a very important factor, so always check the weather reports as they can help guide you through which players to use and which ones to avoid. Now, checking in on the NFL Weather Report is a helpful tool, but try not to overreact. Light rain can make the field slick but is unlikely to affect the passing game enough to completely discount quarterbacks and wide receivers. Your biggest concern should come when you see heavy rain/snow and winds blowing in excess of 20 mph. When they say there are 12-15 mph gusts, you can be a little wary of the kicking games and maybe some deep passing, but again, you don't want to totally overreact and you definitely want to check the weather right up until game-time when finalizing your lineups.

Step 4: Make your own list of players

It's real easy to just sit and wait for the Playbook, but as you are doing your research throughout the week, it is important to make notes and list the players who interest you the most. Maybe they end up in the Playbook and maybe they don't. If they're there, then great, it should mean we are honing in on the same things that make him a strong play. If not, maybe you're onto something else that someone overlooked. We aren't perfect and if you uncover something different, maybe you're right. I would be careful of routine groupthink and hype from beat writers, but often times someone will tell me something they saw about their local team that I missed and I am always looking to investigate more if its there. If you do, then say something in our Fantasy Alarm Discord Chat, Talk it out and see what the rest of the #FAmily thinks. That's why the chat is there, isn't it?

If you like what you see and aren't a subscriber, we are offering a holiday special that gives you 20% off the annual subscription price plus a free Fantasy Alarm Holiday Swag bag that includes a Fantasy Alarm t-shirt, pint glass and stickers. Just go to fantasyalarm.com/holiday and use the promo code: HOLIDAY.

With those four steps complete and discussions are in progress, you are ready to look at the Playbook players, make comparisons and finalize your list for lineups, so let's get to it.

 

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