Two Conference Championship Upsets We Need To Happen
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by BetMGM:
Without question, the most popular rooting interest today is the Bills beating the Chiefs.
The NFL populace has seen enough of Kansas City in the postseason and is ready for something fresh.
But I’d like to convince you that rooting for Commanders is of nearly equal importance.
And it’s not just because it would be incredibly fun to watch Jayden Daniels play in a Super Bowl in his rookie year.
It’s because it would make former Washington owner Dan Snyder’s blood boil.
In a very entertaining read on ESPN, sources close to Snyder revealed that he has been seething about this Commanders playoff run from afar:
"He f---ing hates it," Snyder's dinner companion told the colleague.
Man, inject it into my veins.
I’m honestly mad that I didn’t think of this dynamic earlier. Had I known, I would have relished the ever-electric Daniels play and surprise Washington win even more knowing that somewhere, in foreign waters, it was causing a sniveling man-child to punch a hole in the wall of his superyacht.
Whether you are mainlining Snyder schadenfreude like me today or rooting for your ride-or-die squad, enjoy two of the remaining three games left before we enter a long, dark offseason.
What else is in today’s newsletter?
- Sunday DFS Plays: The Saquon Barkley decision point.
- We all got the Cooties: Awards time with cooterdoodle.
- Watercooler: Full breakdowns of the Conference Championships
🏈 Don’t Miss Out on Today's Playoff Action!
Make NFL Conference Championship games even more exciting by signing up for BetMGM's First Bet Offer! Just sign up now and take advantage of BetMGM’s incredible offer for new users: up to $1,500 in Bonus Bets if your first bet doesn’t win. That’s right, place your first bet, and if it doesn’t hit, BetMGM will cover you with up to $1,500 in bonus bets. Sign up for BetMGM TODAY!
CLAIM UP TO $1,500 IN BONUS BETS
How To Win By FADING Saquon Barkley
Pete here: Can you even think about building a winning lineup today without Saquon Barkley? It’s possible. Here’s one combo among several options that Geoff Ulrich put together to give you that winning edge on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
Eagles passing game with Washington RB bring-back
Jalen Hurts ($6,500) – Dallas Goedert ($4,500 - Q) – A.J. Brown ($6,800) – Brian Robinson ($5,600)
Look, you don’t need me to tell you that Saquon Barkley is going to be the highest-owned player on this slate. On top of nearly breaking the single-season rushing record this year, he decimated the Rams for 205 yards and two TDs on the ground last week.
Still, there are no guarantees he will repeat that feat vs Washington. Barkley had three games with fewer than 10.0 DraftKings points this season and if the Commanders get out in front in this game, you may see Jalen Hurts drop back to pass 30-plus times and take away some of Barkley’s volume.
The crowdthink here is that Hurts and the Eagles don’t want to, or can’t, pass the ball anymore. However, the reality is that game flow and Barkley’s effectiveness have kept their passing numbers down.
Further, when Barkley has produced poor games, it’s almost always correlated with massive games from Jalen Hurts—who is fully capable of going for multiple rushing TDs himself.
Hurts recorded 29.1 DK points in Week 15 vs the Steelers and had 31.68 points vs the Cowboys in Week 10. Barkley had 9.4 and 8.8 points respectively, in those games.
Fading Barkley and going Hurts at QB does make stacking relatively easy as well since you’ll already be so unique by starting without Barkley and the Eagles passing game is heavily concentrated around three players.
From a strategy standpoint, Washington has struggled against TEs in the red zone so I love Dallas Goedert in this spot (assuming he practices in full Friday), although A.J. Brown—who I doubt will be heavily owned—feels like a must-play if you are fading Barkley.
On the other side, if you’re fading Barkley, then coming back with Brian Robinson from the Commanders would be a logical first step. Teams have had success running vs the Eagles in the playoffs (Kyren Williams went for 100-plus yards last week) and Robinson would benefit from any game script where the Eagles were behind and forced to pass the ball more.
2024 Fantasy Football Awards, The Cooties: Saquon Barkley Walks and More
This isn't your typical award ceremony. We're not here to give pats on the back for big plays or historic stat lines.
We're here to reward the fans for everything we've been put through this year.
Let's see what our players have won, shall we?
Welcome to The 2024 Cootie Awards!
Worst Call Award
I bet you thought I was going to talk about those Roughing the Passer penalties during the HOU/KC playoff game, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?? I mean yeah, those were bad. But this award goes to…
Ring, Ring!
It's Episode 2 of Hard Knocks calling. They want to know if the Giants have any regrets after letting Saquon Barkley "test the market" in the offseason.
Barkley finished the 2024 regular season with 2,005 rushing yards in Philadelphia and he is currently headed to the NFC Championship. The Giants? Eh. They'll be watching from home.
Oof. Talk about a digital footprint.
The latest fantasy nuggets, silliness, and NFL gossip from our merry band of football nerds:
📗 Need a full preview of today’s games? Here’s one for the NFC and one for the AFC.
🦓 Does Patrick Mahomes get too many calls? Changes could be coming.
⭐️ More stars emerged at the WR position this season … let’s hand out some hardware.
😆 Cowboys fans are down bad. Might be worth checking in on them.
🍬 This is a fun way to confirm a coaching hire. Hope it sticks.
🍆 He got fined for this?! C’mon let the man hump the air.
