Cancel culture: Might find pitfalls on DFS slate search

We’re not sure when it happened, but at some point in the not-too-distant past, daily fantasy sites began isolating the weekly main NFL slate to a single day.

We recall waiting out the result of Monday games to see how much we won. Now, during the regular season, on the main slate you don’t even have to wait until Sunday night. The only games included are all played in the afternoon.

That idea has trained DFS players, it seems, to focus on single-day contests. Sure, that makes sense in “daily” fantasy, but it also undermines the weekly nature of NFL action. It isn’t that one is so much better or worse than the other, but we do prefer to have both options.

Yet, the broader “weekly” slates generally are smaller contests with smaller payouts. And, as we learned last week, they can be subject to cancellation.

Now, the Madman doesn’t think we were going to win any significant money, since we faded Christian McCaffrey or Austin Ekeler, but we didn’t get to find out since our contest was canceled. Whether it was because of technical problems, as FanDuel stated publicly, or because of large overlays in those contests (far fewer entries than intended), it doesn’t really matter. It got spiked, and our action died with it.

We’ll try again this week hoping more people choose to play the Saturday-Sunday slate, or any technical problems can be avoided.

We feel like many will flock to the Bengals-Bills game, and we’re a bit timid about going heavy on an intradivision Giants-Eagles game, so we’re going to start our build with the Chiefs — who have averaged 32.2 points in 11 playoff games with Patrick Mahomes.

Patrick MahomesGetty Images

If we’re going with Mahomes ($9.200 at FanDuel), we have to include Travis Kelce ($8,000). That doesn’t leave much to spend across the rest of our roster. But we’re greedy, so we’re also going to add Ja’Marr Chase ($8,500) and A.J. Brown ($8,300).

We go cheap the rest of the way: RBs Elijah Mitchell ($5,400) and Boston Scott ($4,800), WR Isaiah McKenzie ($5,100), the 49ers defense/special teams ($4,500) and Evan Engram ($6,000) as Flex.

Now, if we can only avoid cancelation.

Divisional Do’s and Don’ts

Key picks you should consider for the FanDuel and DraftKings contests this weekend:

Daniel Jones QB, Giants, at Eagles (FanDuel $7,400/DraftKings $5,800)

Has been used as a rushing threat more often and effectively the past two games, helping boost his fantasy totals — he averaged more than 32 those two games.

Daniel JonesN.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

Dak Prescott B, Cowboys, at 49ers (FD $7,500/DK $6,100)

Last week was great, but we haven’t forgotten the disappointing regular season that came before it. Wouldn’t be surprised if this game turns into a defensive slog.

Jerick McKinnon RB, Chiefs, vs. Jaguars (FD $7,000/DK $6,000)

This keeps burning us, but we keep leaning toward history over anomaly. We don’t trust TD-reliant running backs, particularly those whose primary role is in the passing game — even when they have scored in six straight games.

Jerick McKinnonGetty Images

Christian Kirk WR, Jaguars, at Chiefs (FD $7,600/DK $6,000)

We would love to save a couple of bills and go with Deebo Samuel, but we just don’t trust Deebo as much as we do Kirk.

Dallas Goedert TE, Eagles, vs. Giants (FD $6,300/DK $4,500)

More feel than data analysis here. Goedert hasn’t scored in three games back from a shoulder injury. Only one of those has come with Jalen Hurts at QB. An extra week of prep gives them time to get Goedert more involved.