5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 15
New England Patriots Rushing Offense
As mentioned before, Kenneth Farrow is just $6,000 this week on FanDuel, and if Melvin Gordon can't play, the puppies finna fly to click on his name. And you won't find me trying to stop you.
But for just $300 more, you can get the league's leader in rushing touchdowns. That's LeGarrette Blount, and it's time to go swinging back into his burly arms.
We generally only target Blount when the New England Patriots are heavy favorites, but we also know head coach Bill Belichick loves to attack the opposing team's most glaring weakness. For the Denver Broncos, there's no question that weakness lies in their ability to stop the rush.
You've probably figured out that the Broncos have the league's best pass defense, and they've got a sizable lead over the rest of the league in that category. But they're also all the way down in 29th against the rush, meaning if you're trying to exploit the Broncos' pain point, you know how you need to do it.
Even though they're 8-5, the Broncos have allowed their opponents to rush for at least 100 yards in eight games, and they've topped 140 yards in six of those. Normally, their propensity for snagging leads would nullify an opponent's ground game, but their complete inability to stop anything not through the air kills that notion.
Blount enters Week 15 ranked 13th in Rushing NEP per carry of the 38 running backs with at least 80 carries, and he has at least 11 totes in every game this year. Even in the pass-heavy games with Tom Brady at quarterback, Blount has averaged 17.8 rushes, and he has scored a touchdown in all but two of those games. With 39.67% of the team's red-zone opportunities for the season, it's safe to say that touchdown production is far from unsustainable.
The obvious knock on Blount is his stability in the offense. His snap rate hasn't been above 46.0% any of the past four games, and if the Patriots fall behind, he's completely out of the game plan. This eliminates Blount as a cash-game asset, but his appeal for tournaments should be obvious.
In addition, this is just a game to which we'll likely want exposure in as many ways as possible. Even though the over/under is low at 43.5, the Broncos and Patriots rank fifth and seventh, respectively, in situation-neutral pace, according to Football Outsiders. There are going to be a ton of plays in this game.
That means you may want to check out Trevor Siemian, Emmanuel Sanders, and Demaryius Thomas as part of a game stack, but Blount's a guy we're going to want to give a sniff regardless.
