The NFL postseason always gives a platform for players to shine, whether as stars carrying their respective teams or unsuspecting heroes emerging. In the Wild Card round, specifically, we have an array of teams in action, as the options range from division winners to 9-7 squads who clinched playoff berths just one week ago. Of course, these teams have also crafted a gameplan over the last 17 weeks that will now need to be enhanced if the season is to extend another week.
Sporfolio’s NFL Daily Fantasy Sports game-by-game analysis columns are driven by expected game flow. Based on a combination of our Wild Card Round NFL picks against the spread and our expectations for a given game, we project the actions necessary to make these picks come to fruition. We aim to pinpoint players integral to our predicted game flow for each game of the week.
Luke May is our resident NFL DFS expert, and Mario Mergola operates Sporfolio as our expert for NFL Picks Against the Spread.
Tennessee Titans at Kansas City Chiefs
Luke’s DFS Take: Something about the Titans making the playoffs over the Chargers just simply doesn’t seem right, but life moves on. The Titans have not looked like a playoff team lately, and their offense has been nothing overly exciting for essentially the entire season. To put things in perspective, Marcus Mariota has exceeded 15 fantasy points just twice in the last six games, and he has only topped 20 points once all season, and that came in a blowout loss to the Steelers in Week 11. The matchup is good against a Chiefs defense that has been shaky all season, but Mariota and the passing attack have give me little reason to trust them this year. If DeMarco Murray were to be out again, then Derrick Henry is worth considering solely based on the volume he’d likely receive. The Chiefs offense has regained its form of late, scoring at least 26 points in each of their past five games. The Titans defense ranked fourth on the year in rushing yards allowed, so the NFL’s leading rushing, Kareem Hunt may not fair too well. The passing attack has been much more successful against the Titans, and a rested group of Alex Smith, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce should all be able to produce solidly and lead their team to a first round victory.
Mario’s DFS Take: If we look at the AFC playoff field as a whole, it’s easy to overlook the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, maybe not on Saturday as heavy favorites against the Titans, but in the big picture.