Welcome back for what will be my final Vegas Lines Column of the 2015 NFL Season. It’s been an incredible season so let’s end it on a high note this week!

I love playoff football because the cream generally rises to the top. Teams bring their best or worst traits to the playoffs as we saw last week. The divisional round brings another round of interesting and somewhat straight forward matchups. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Tidbits

This weekend is the live Draftkings Fantasy Football Championship finale. The top 10 finishers will compete in an event that will be televised on ESPN. I want to wish good luck to my buddy UnderJones in this weekend’s Draftkings Championship Live Final. Even for one of the top players in the world competing with 9 other players for 10 Million in prizes has got to be insane. The good thing is that everyone that made it to the finals already wins a ton of money. Still the $5 Million top prize is incredible. My one piece of advice to Underjones (not that he needs it) is to keep it chalky. This is a ten player contest so there is no reason to worry about ownership percentages and what not. Put your best team forward and let the chips fall where they may.

THIS HAPPENED

A few weeks back our own DFS Army Member Brwnz took 38th place in the Draftkings Milly Maker.

It’s safe to say he was pretty freaking excited. When we asked him what he was going to do with the money he mentioned some of the standard, Christmas presents for the kids, something nice for the wife type answer. At the end he mentioned he was going to get some DFS Army ink. I was like yea right I’ll believe it when I see it. Then it happened:

This has got to be the most bad ass thing I’ve ever seen! Brwnz blew me away with this photo. This type of loyalty to the group deserves a reward. You get FREE DFS Army membership for life Brwnz!

FANDUEL ROAD TO THE ALLSTAR GAME FREEROLLS

The above NBA Freeroll runs every day up leading up to the All Star Game. There are some great NBA prizes with the top being a VIP trip to the game.

VEGAS LINES ANALYSIS – DIVISIONAL ROUND

1/16 4:35 ET At New England -5 Kansas City 42.5

The Chiefs march in to New England to take on a Patriots team that is getting healthy just in time. The Patriots are home favorites here in a game that is expected to be fairly low scoring.

Last week Maclin went down to injury and is currently listed as day to day. The Chiefs offense is not particularly dynamic. Their primary two passing game weapons have been Maclin and the TE Kelce. In the past the Chiefs had relied on their RB, Jamal Charles, as a heavily targeted passing game option. Since he went down however they have not utilized the RB position in that same manner. West hasn’t passed 2 receptions in a game since week 10. The numbers have been even worse for Ware. With Maclin likely out it is likely that the Patriots will focus their attention on stopping Travis Kelce in the passing game. With the lack of viable pass catchers for KC it is possible that they start utilizing their primary RB, West, in the passing game this week but that is pure speculation. The more likely scenario is that KC struggles to keep their offense on the field and gets destroyed by the New England juggernaut.

The Patriots are facing a top ranked KC defense. They have been solid in pretty much every category this season but in particular, they have excelled in run defense. Setting defensive rankings aside for a moment I’m fully expecting the Patriots to crush the Maclin-less Chiefs this week. One of the primary issues for Brady the past 5 or 6 weeks has been the loss of Edelman. Edelman is a player that Brady counts on particularly against teams that pressure QB’s (like the Chiefs). Julian has great chemistry with Brady and has a knack for getting open quickly. It’s tricky to pay top dollar for a player in their first game back from injury. Rust is a real issue and players sometimes need a game or two to get back in the swing. This is the playoffs however and there aren’t that many elite WR options this week. Edelman is a lock for 10+ targets assuming he is in shape and ready for a full complement of snaps. At TE Gronkowski will be going up against the top Defense in the NFL at defending the TE position. There aren’t many quality options at TE this week so although the matchup is rough, using Gronk has to be a strong consideration this week. Gronk isn’t a normal TE anyway and he can smash against even the best of Defenses. The RB position is the trickiest part of the Patriots offense to predict on a week to week basis. They use a mix of Bolden, White and now Jackson to the point where none of them are particularly great values. White is used primarily in the passing game and his outlook is best in games where the Patriots need to go in to their no huddle offense. Bolden is used more as a conventional back with Jackson spelling him. I’m not wild about any of the RB options for the Patriots this week.

Elite Plays: Brady, Gronk, Edelman

Secondary/GPP Only: Bolden, White, Kelce

1/16 8:15 ET At Arizona -7 Green Bay 50

The Saturday Night game features the highest total of this week’s slate. The Packers travel to Arizona as heavy underdogs. The Cardinals are a top defense across the board.

The Cardinals feature the highest projected points total of the Divisional Round. It starts with their RB David Johnson. Johnson has been incredible since taking over the job from the injured CJ2K. He will be the highest owned player across the board in the playoff slate of games. Fade him at your own risk! The Packers Defense is nothing special and can be exploited in many ways. I’d rank the Cardinals pass catchers as follows: Floyd, Fitzgerald, Brown in that order on a Points per $$ basis. Brown is the most GPP’ish of the three. I’d expect all three of these guys to be feeling good after having taken off half of the week 17 game plus the bye week.

The Packers seemed to get their shit together in the second half of last week’s game against the Redskins. Rodgers had that swagger about him and I’m pretty sure I caught a discount double check or two out of him. The test gets much tougher this week heading to Arizona to face a team that literally slapped the snot out of the Packers in their regular season meeting. This is a game where matchups will count and the 1st consideration will be figuring out who AZ shutdown corner Patrick Petersen will be assigned to cover. I’m assuming it’s James Jones primarily because Jones plays on the outside and has been the primary weapon in terms of targets for the Packers. If that does happen I’d expect Cobb to pick up a few extra targets. Last week the disappointing second year WR Adams was injured in game and will be replaced by Jared Abbredaris. I remember a statement by Rodgers a few weeks back when Adams was struggling mightily about how he thought Abbredaris should be getting more opportunities. I take that to mean that Rodgers likes the guy. As a minimum priced punt play you could do a lot worse the Abbredaris this week. The RB position for the Packers is sketchy this season and more so this week. The Cardinals are a top notch run stopping unit and the Packers are rolling out a virtual 50/50 timeshare between Starks and Lacy. I’m not going there this week.

Elite Plays: Palmer, Floyd, David Johnson (ALL IN)

Secondary/GPP/Punt: John Brown, Fitzgerald, Abbredaris, Cobb, Cards Defense (GPP Only)

1/17 1:05 ET At Carolina -2.5 Seattle 44

The Seahawks come off the miracle Blair Walsh Project game and travel to Carolina for a rematch with the Panthers as slight underdogs. The line in this one is interesting. Normally when teams are evenly matched there is a three point home field advantage granted to home teams. The 2.5 line says that Vegas actually slightly favors Seattle over Carolina if this were in a neutral stadium. It feels like the Vegas sharps are trying to get people to pick Carolina here which is interesting.

Carolina is getting healthy for this game. Both Ginn and Stewart are expected back. Since this game is a rematch of sorts I went back to check on who did what in the regular season matchup with these teams back in week 6. Obviously that was a while ago and both teams have changed up a bit of what they do but in that game Greg Olsen shined. Olsen is dangerously close to the Gronktmosphere in terms of being priced just a few hundred dollars below Gronk this week. That should keep his ownership low which makes him an intriguing GPP play. At RB Stewart did well in the original matchup scoring 2 TD’s. My issue with Stewart is this being a tough matchup facing a top notch Seattle run stopping using alongside his salary being bumped to a whopping $5800 on Draftkings. That’s well over his average and a touch high for a player that rarely gets receptions.

The Seahawks are facing a tough challenge going up against a Carolina defensive unit that is one of the best in the league. The reality is that most of the teams going deep in to the playoffs play great defense so this is par for the course this week. There is a possibility that Lynch will be back this week but I’m not trusting it nor would I be excited to roll him out in his first game back off a serious ailment in this type of matchup. Chances are if the Seahawks are scoring they are doing it through the air. The Panthers have a shut down corner in Josh Norman and one of the big questions for me is if Norman will shadow Baldwin out of the slot. If he does, I’d expect Lockett and Kearse to benefit with extra looks. That’s not certain however so I’ll continue to keep my ear to the ground looking for any snippets out of the Carolina beat writers on the subject.

Elite Plays: Wilson, Ginn, Baldwin, Olsen, Newton

Secondary/GPP: Lockette, Funchess (GPP Only)

Sunday Afternoon Hammer

1/17 4:40 ET At Denver -6.5 Pittsburgh 39.5

One of the fun things about Multi-Entering GPP’s in a 4 game slate on Draftkings is the ability to make late swaps before the last game. At this point you will know if any lineups have potential for big finishes. The Steelers are in a rough spot here heading to Denver to face the top defense in the league with D Wills on the shelf, Brown possibly concussed and Big Ben with torn ligaments in his arm.

There isn’t much to like about the Steelers offense in this game. I guess Wheaton could be a low ceiling punt play if Brown is out. That’s about it.

The Broncos are in a great spot this week. Steelers Defense is one of the softest in the playoffs and the lack of a viable offense for the Steelers means that the Broncos should be getting the rock in excellent field position all day. The entire Broncos Offense is viable this week. It’s tough to choose between Sanders and DT this week as both have excellent prospects. I like both guys and will play whichever I can fit into my lineups. The two Broncos RB’s are in play as well. They split carries fairly evenly in this offense and either one or both could easily make value particularly in a slate where there are very few alternatives at RB2. My all in play from this game is Broncos Defense. I don’t care if it’s a hobbled Ben or a not very good Landry the QB situation for the Steelers is rough. The prospect of not having Brown makes it even worse.

Elite Plays: Broncos Defense (all in), Sanders, DT, Anderson, Hillman

Secondary/GPP: Peyton Manning

Final Notes

That’s it for the 2015-2016 Daily Fantasy Football season. I hope this has been as awesome of a season for all of you as it was for me. This season we grew from what was a basic blog in to the DFS Army. A completely unique concept in which casual DFS Players can interact with DFS Pros and get information directly from the source. In the coming months we will continue to expand our content. This week for example we added PGA coverage and we are working on bringing in the best guru’s for all of the popular DFS sports.

I want to take this moment to thank everyone that has helped me with this site and the DFS Army group.

Choppodong filled in for me in this column and posted the DFS Army Bankroll Management bible with his ladder method. He is one of the members that is always quick to give advice to our newest members.

Tex0332 is a mod extraordinaire helping new users with technical issues and helping with some marketing and promotion.

Jimmee2187 is our technical wiz and our slack forums admin. When slack bot comes after you there’s a good chance Jimmee was involved.

Keith aka boomersdaddy has been an incredible find and is our designated NBA guru.

Pvaaron put together his weekly Kickers Corner column in our forums. I found myself referencing it whenever I was trying to decide between kickers. Now he’s running our DFS Army NBA brackets contest which is a ton of work to administer.

Sconnie came up with the logo for the site and has helped with anything related to graphic design.

cowboykilladfs produces our podcasts and is helped design our forums and new dfsarmy.com website.

OrangeCrush took the reigns on the revamp of this website and added in the membership software that allowed us to go away from the email newsletter model.

Rorzor is our editor extraordinaire. Don’t blame him for any typo’s you see here. I often get impatient and publish these articles before he gets a chance to edit.

Fluffhead is a full time DFS pro that has been incredibly helpful and quick to answer questions from members in our slack forums.

SpoWeezy heads up our NHL division and is a fixture in our NHL slack channel.

Al Walsh has been an awesome addition with his NBA game breakdowns and willingness to answer questions and give advice in our NBA Channel.

Taco is the newest addition to the DFS Army team and will be heading up our PGA content. He’s only been here for a few days and is already fitting in like a glove.

Special thanks to all of the people that signed up for our VIP Package and became members of the DFS Army. I hope you all enjoyed being a members of our team and banked some cash along the way!