NFL DFS - Wild Card Weekend Analysis for Tournament Leverage Jan 2026

I told myself I wasnt going to do this, but last minute, I got the urge and some free time to run things as is. The thing about playoffs is that most stats will stay stagnant for the next few weeks, as playoff stats start messing things up a bit from here out. Therefore this weekend is the best stat view of the post season for sure. As time permits I will add some showdown slate insights too, with focus on finding leverage, optimal plays, and underowned thoughts to fill in your lineups.

Saturday Workload vs Salary

For the slate, there appears to be a clear cut path to Stafford and Puka both being tied to the optimal, considering the workload of both being atop of the chart. The problem is that they combine for over 100% of my projected ownership, with Puka being the absolute top owned and top priced. Therefore my first instinct is that we will end up playing Stafford without Puka to get some leverage, although I will certainly have some with this pair and then lots of low owned pieces everywhere else. Caleb appears to be the pivot to stafford and Adams the pivot to Puca, although both a tier down in usage to where that would build a balanced lineup if taking that approach. The cheap end points at the 5 names I circled in yellow as candidates for value at low ownership. Stafford to Parkinson seems like a great starting block on the slate.

Defense vs Recievers

Looking at the Rams here, both Puca and Parkinson are both in good spots (wr1 + te), which leads to the immediate validation that this is my starting point, although Adams for Puca is still a potential thing I do for ownership sake. It is thin though unless we land more value. Burden appears to be in a good spot again after burning folks last week so that validates him as a pivot too. I dont know that Reed is a true WR3 so I have caution on that play.

WR Ranker

I have laid out the recievers who are most likely to score touchdowns in the redzone. The TEs have been mentioned already that make the most sense (Loveland and Parkinson). Watson and Puca are the top WRs on the slate otherwise and so I may take one or the other. The WRs Renfrow, Legette, and Zucheus all have the lowest ownership on the table, and I suspect I will take a dart on one of them.

Top 5 by Position

Projections get you so far. I love the Parkinson play a lil more seeing the ownership at half of Loveland's. Loveland feels like a pivot piece and maybe we see something in the leverage around that. For RB, Swift appears to be my favorite as of now.

Optimal Lineup

The optimal interestingly did not select either TE that I had in mind, in favor of getting to Puca and Stafford. Gotta see w

Top Leverage from My Sims

Seeing Burden and Doubs up there is interesting. Maybe Doubs is the WR3 we are looking for? With so many people on the Rams today, a Chuba + Panthers stack would be wild if the panthers were able to do something within the realm of a pick 6. Jordan Love is someone I havent mentioned much, but that could be a sign that no one wants to play him too, despite liking multiple WRs of his. Sims likes them too per the double stack showing.

Good luck!