Welcome to Week 17 of the NFL season and the next edition DFS RB Coach! It was another great week for the RB coach as I had the top scoring back in Breece Hall (43.1 points), and strong plays in James Conner (22.2) and Rachaad White (19.7) – the #3 and #5 scoring backs on the main slate. Our one big whiff came in the form of Kenneth Walker (6.6), but overall it was a great week. Enough about last week though, let’s look to build off it and have another great week. It’s time to start putting those DraftKings and FanDuel lineups together and hit the big paydays! Let’s dive into my favorite RB plays!

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Week 17 Picks

NFL DFS RB Top Plays

Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco 49ers

This feels like low hanging fruit, but I am going to go ahead and attack it anyways. The Commanders just got absolutely torched by Breece Hall, both on the ground and through the air as he totaled over 190 yards and had 12 receptions. You know who is really good at running the football and also catching the football? Yes, CMC, obviously. McCaffrey is having a fantastic season 1395 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns while also having 537 yards receiving and 7 more touchdowns. He is expensive but this matchup feels too good to pass up on and we can expect a big bounce back performance from the 49ers offense as they go from one of the toughest matchups in the league in Baltimore to one of the softest matchups in the league in Washington. 

 

NFL DFS RB Mid-Tier Plays

James Cook, Buffalo Bills

Cook didn’t put up a lot of points last week and got no receiving work, but he sill had 20 carries and that gives him 45 carries over the last 2 games. The Bills have really leaned on him recently and that is a good sign moving forward for his production, of course. He had ONE game with 16+ carries in his first 10 games of the season, but he has no cracked that mark in FOUR of his past five games. I don’t expect zero targets again and nor should you, as he had at least three in four straight prior to Week 16. The Patriots are a solid matchup for running backs this season and they aren’t a good football team. I expect plenty of work for Cook again this week and for the Bills to be more productive offensively as a whole. 

D’Andre Swift, Philadelphia Eagles

Swift had his best game in a while (five weeks) against the Giants on Monday as he rushed 20 times for 92 yards and a touchdown to finish with 15.2 dk points. He was once again a total non-factor in the passing game, as has been the case a lot lately, which does make him a very risky play right now, but it doesn’t get better (matchup wise) than facing the Cardinals. And I mean that literally, as the Cardinals rank as the number one matchup in football for running backs this season. The Eagles are at home and the far superior team, so they should be able to take care of business here and feed the ball to Swift at least 15 times this game. 

 

NFL DFS RB Value Plays

Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Kansas City Chiefs

Welcome to (most likely) CEH chalk week – not something I ever thought I would be saying this season, but with Jerrick McKinnon out and Isiah Pacheco suffering a concussion on Monday (which will likely make it tough to play on a short week), there really isn’t anywhere else for the Chiefs to turn. CEH has flashed some success over the last two weeks as a pass-catcher, hauling in 7-of-7 targets for 106 total yards and a touchdown between the two games. He’s been pretty bad as a rusher, but if we can get some volume and enough passing work, there is no reason for him to not be able to pay off this price tag as a starting back. 

UPDATE: Pacheco is expected to play. That removes CEH from my pool.

*SATURDAY ADD* Zamir White, Las Vegas Raiders

While we lost CEH being a strong play from our pool, we do gain White as it’s expected that Josh Jacobs will once again be out. White has been fantastic in his two starts, scoring exactly 17.5 dk points in both while rushing for over 200 total yards and finding the end zone once. He has averaged 21 touches per game (20 in Week 15 and 22 in Week 16) in those two starts and I would expect about the same number in this one. We also get a fantastic matchup here as the Raiders are taking on the Colts, which rank as a top-3 matchup in the league for running backs this season. 

Justice Hill, Baltimore Ravens

Now this is our deeper dive that won’t be rostered anywhere near the likes of CEH. He won’t draw the start, but I do like what he provides as the 1B back in the Ravens backfield. In the first game without Keaton Mitchell, Hill rushed 10 times and picked up three receptions. I’ll take 13 touches at this price, especially given the fact that he is the pass-catching back in this backfield, while Gus operates as the power back. In this matchup against Miami, I can see Hill being more useful to the Ravens offense this week than Gus and even out-scoring him from a fantasy perspective. 

 

NFL DFS RB Fades

Khalil Herbert, Chicago Bears

Herbert had a big game last week, but that was against the #1 matchup for running backs in the Arizona Cardinals. He doesn’t have that fortune this week as he has to face the third worst matchup in the league for running backs in the Atlanta Falcons. With the Bears also having Justin Fields capable of rushing for touchdowns and having Rochon Johnson working in plenty, the upside to Herbert this week just feels extremely limited to me.