RADIO
All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard.
Welcome, RotoBallers, to my official tiered rankings for week 18 of this NFL season! You can find my core plays at RB and WR each week in my Anchors column as well as the rest of my favorites plays in our premium cheat sheet.
The concept behind these rankings is to give you an idea of how to approach lineup building for this week's slate. I will rank all relevant players based on their point-per-dollar value in one of five tiers and then provide notes on each tier explaining how I plan to utilize each tier this week.
Tier 1 is going to have most of my favorite plays and likely a good bit of chalk, but you're not likely going to be able to build too many lineups ONLY using players from Tier 1.
Tiers 2 and 3 are going to have some players you will want to mix and match in lineups, likely at lower ownership than Tier 1.
Tiers 4 and 5 are players that I likely won't have much exposure to that week and are players that you should only consider in large field GPPs if you are going to be mass multi-entering a large number of lineups.
NFL Week 18 - Premium DFS Rankings
- Rankings are based primarily on DK pricing and are based on points-per-dollar value, not raw points.
- Core plays are highlighted in green boxes.
- Bold black font indicates the player is useable in all formats - tournaments and cash games.
- Bold blue font indicates the player is preferred for tournaments. These are usually lower-owned pivot plays.
- Red font indicates that I am fading that player, and wouldn't suggest any exposure to them even if you are making multiple builds.
- If a player is not on the chart, it's likely because they are only a part-time player on offense. I will attempt to update the rankings and notes each week on Saturday or Sunday morning once injury news becomes more concrete.
NOTES WILL BE UPDATED SATURDAY AFTERNOON
Tier 1 Notes:
As usual, here's where all the goodness is! If you can make a lineup using only these players, that's an optimal build for cash games or small field single-entry.
I'm really high on Foreman and Singletary as my top backs on a point-per-dollar basis, but Jonathan Taylor is right there, too, even at an elevated price tag. If I am choosing between Taylor and Kupp, then it's Kupp but I think there are paths to getting all four of them into some lineups by using value at QB, TE, and punting several WR spots.
Taysom Hill is the cash game QB this week, but if you want to save some dough then I am okay with Trey Lance, too. Kyler is my favorite spend-up option at the position and I think he brings the highest ceiling of the three. Christian Kirk was my other anchor play this week and I love the target volume we get with him at the price tag. Cooks and Pittman are nice GPP plays in the mid-tier at WR, while Zach Ertz and Cole Kmet are my top two TEs that I would consider for cash games.
Tier 2 Notes:
Josh Allen could shred the Jets' secondary if given the chance, but we don't know if Buffalo just wants to run the ball this week, either. Stafford and the Rams want to win so I like him and his receiving options quite a bit in that game against the Niners. Big Ben is playing his last game of his career and facing a bad Ravens secondary if you want to go there, I am not sure if I will just yet. Perine is a solid punt as the main back in Cincy this week, while Kamara is a low-owned pivot in a nice matchup. There are a lot of receivers I like here with Jefferson and Metcalf being some of the bigger names in good spots. Don't make the mistake of sleeping on Amon-Ra St. Brown as he's been absolutely dynamic the last month and Green Bay has nothing to play for (and is resting key players on defense).
Gronk has a big incentive he's chasing and there is a narrative out there that Brady will make sure he gets there. He's firmly in play, especially when you consider that Tampa has very few healthy receivers left, too.
Tier 3 Notes:
I usually like dipping into tier three occasionally to get different and you might still want to do that, but in general, I am trimming my player pool to almost exclusively tier 1 and tier 1 this week. There are some low-owned guys in this tier with potential, I'm just not sure how interested I am in trying to guess on some of these spots as most of these backs and receivers are playing in games that don't matter or are guys who don't have a really solid role within their offense.
Tier 4 Notes:
I would never tell you not to play anyone if you have a really strong conviction about them or a specific angle you are targeting. But for me, I am likely keeping my builds to players from the top three tiers this week and focusing on cash games and single-entry or 3-max tournaments.
Tier 5 Notes:
Most of my fades are down here and guys that I don't see having much upside. I rarely dip into Tier 5 even in my GPP builds and you really shouldn't either, unless you are max-entering and want to grab a small percentage of a player there.
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy football app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, rankings, starts/sits & more. All free!
