 Welcome into the Fan Duel. Hurry up. It's Maria Marino for Fantasy Sports Network. Jim Sonnis of Number Fire is on hand as we preview this special Pro Bowl Slate coming up Sunday at 3 o'clock Eastern on Fan Duel. So we're going to give you today a pair of studs, a pair of mid-tier options, and a pair of value plays for both the AFC and NFC. Jim, starting with the AFC, your first stud, it's at quarterback Deshaun Watson. Yeah, for me at the Pro Bowl, I kind of want to find players who are in better situations than they have during the regular season. And with Deshaun Watson, he's not playing behind a bunch of scrubs on the offensive line for once, and to me that is super intriguing. So getting him behind a good offensive line, playing with a team that has more than one really good wide receiver. I think that's a pretty major upgrade for a guy like Deshaun Watson who, as we know, is super talented. Now, he's not going to run. We don't really see quarterbacks run during the Pro Bowl. The most rushing yards by a quarterback the past five years is 15 bites. There's only been one rushing touchdown by a quarterback. So you're not going to get that production from Deshaun Watson, but what you will get is an efficient passer. If you look at quarterbacks this year, if you take sacks out of the equation, Watson was the sixth most efficient quarterback on a per-drop-back basis this year. He ranks third among quarterbacks were at the Pro Bowl behind Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson. But of course, we saw Patrick Mahomes lose last week. So I'm not really sure the motivation will be there for Patrick Mahomes, but it should be for Deshaun Watson. I think that I really do like what he brings. He's a guy who will go deep. He can get some yards in chunks. And when you're not going to get a lot of attempts, I think that's pretty attractive. So looking at AC quarterbacks, I think that Deshaun Watson is a guy I do wind up liking most. If I decide to roll a quarterback out there, he'll definitely be on my list for sure. 31 touchdowns on the season for Deshaun. I think he's a fan favorite. I know I'm personally looking forward to seeing him play and have some weapons to play with. Up next, a stud at the wide receiver position. And we've talked about how important that position is for this Pro Bowl single game format. How about Juju Smith Schuster? Yeah, it's not just the fact that Juju plays wide receiver, which is the big thing that I think goes in his favor, Maria. As you mentioned, wide receivers generally do well in the Pro Bowl, but it's not really data either. It's just kind of that Juju is like this free spirit. And I feel like that's kind of a thing that could be really good for the Pro Bowl. It seems like he enjoys playing football and has a lot of fun. I don't know that's necessarily the case for every player at this game. So I think that that could translate well to the Pro Bowl here. Another thing I like about Juju Smith Schuster is that we have seen him playing with high quality teammates already. He plays with Antonio Brown, and even when playing with Antonio Brown, Juju Smith Schuster still gets a lot of targets each game. So I think that the fact that he's playing alongside other good wide receivers is not going to be a huge detriment to him. When you look at the other pass catchers on this ASC Ross, you've got Tyreekill, who can get down the field for sure. But outside of that, it's Eric Ebron, Jared Cook, Keenan Allen, and Jarvis Landry. Those are all guys who operate best closest to the line of scrimmage. Juju can get down the field for sure, and I think that he can also create after the catch. So I think that Juju kind of has the right archetype of player that I want for the Pro Bowl. He's kind of this, you know, fun, loose personality. He can get down the field, and it seems like he's also a guy who can create after the catch. So he kind of checks all the boxes that I want at wide receivers. So Juju Smith Schuster, I think one of my favorite wide receivers for this weekend. 111 receptions on the season for Juju, and you sort of touched on it. I do think personality matters in this type of game because, you know, for some it might not matter as much as others. But for Juju, I think he cares about showing out. Well, let's get into some mid-tier options in the AFC for the Pro Bowl single game slate. And let's start with Keenan Allen. What do you think about him and why he might be a good option? Yeah, it kind of harkens back to one thing we discussed with Juju Smith Schuster, where we've already seen these guys play alongside talented wide receivers for Keenan Allen. It's guys like Melvin Gordon, Tyrell Williams, and Mike Williams. Those are really good players, but even when playing alongside those guys, Keenan Allen still gets a lot of work as a wide receiver. 27% of the Chargers targets this year. He had 26% of their deep targets and 21% of their red zone targets. Now, the red zone work is key for Keenan Allen because so much of the scoring in the Pro Bowl is going to revolve around whether or not that player can get in the end zone. And on the AFC side, the wide receivers, not necessarily the tallest guys. You've got both Terry Kill and Jarvis Landry, who are below six feet. Juju Smith Schuster is six foot one, but Keenan Allen is actually the tallest guy here at six foot two. So if we're looking for guys who can eat in the red zone and potentially snag one of those touchdowns, I kind of think that Keenan Allen is a good option there. Now, I don't think Keenan Allen has the highest upside of this group. So unlike Juju Smith Schuster, I'm not super likely to put Keenan Allen in my MVP slot, but I think the floor should be good there. So Keenan Allen definitely a consideration for one of those other four slots on my roster. In consideration for sure, six touchdowns on the season for Keenan Allen. And I like how you brought up that height advantage when it comes to being able to snag a touchdown. But up next, we have to talk about Lamar Miller, who you have on here as a mid tier option. I'm just curious because we know that running backs don't kind of carry the same weight in this slate. And I'm wondering is his upside with pass catching enough because I don't really think of him that way. Yeah, I don't really either. I think that the one thing that does work in Lamar Miller's favor, though, is that James Conner and Melvin Gordon are the two other guys on this AFC roster for running backs. And Conner coming off of an injury towards the latter part of the season. He's also not the most, pass catching is not his best trade, I would say, for James Conner. So maybe not going to get work in the passing game there. Melvin Gordon is there. But as we know, that guy was super banged up down the stretch front of the season. So I wouldn't expect him to get a lot of work as a rusher or as a wide receiver for this specific game. So that kind of leads us to Lamar Miller. And Lamar Miller, you know, doesn't catch a ton of passes, but has gotten work in the passing game with the Texans before. His quarterback is here into Sean Watson. Maybe Watson-Duzin is being a bit of a safety blanket out of the backfield. He can turn to when he doesn't have a wide receiver open downfield. The other thing about Lamar Miller, it's something we discussed with the Sean Watson, is that the offensive line he is playing behind on Sunday is much better than the one he generally has each Sunday. So I kind of think that when you align all those things up, it does make me at least interested in Lamar Miller. I think overall, I prefer the running backs on the NSE side. You've got some really fun guys we'll talk about there and not too long. So if I'm picking the running back more often than not, it will be from the NSE side. But if I do decide to go here, I really don't mind Lamar Miller, especially because his salary there is very low. Well, the key, like you said, choosing from the AFC side, out of those running backs that are available, if you're going to put one in your lineup, it would be Lamar Miller. And I like the other positives that he does have going from, like you said, a better O-line and a quarterback that he's comfortable with assuming to Sean Watson gets a decent amount of playing time. Let's move on to value plays on the AFC side for this Pro Bowl game. And we'll start with another wide receiver and Jarvis Landry. Yeah, with Jarvis Landry. He kind of doesn't fit the mold we discussed before with Kenan and Juju Smith Schuster, because those were guys who got a lot of targets despite playing around talented players. Now Jarvis Landry, the past catches around him in Cleveland aren't the most talented group of players. And even when he was there, Jarvis Landry didn't get a lot of work. So that kind of may make you question why Jarvis Landry would be in play for this week. But I think that we've seen him try in the Pro Bowl before. And I do think that that is something that I do value a little bit for this week, because not everyone's going to try it. I don't blame them. I wouldn't want to get hurt at the Pro Bowl either. So I don't blame them. But Jarvis Landry in the past has come to play at the Pro Bowl last year. He had five receptions for 78 yards. He had three receptions for 81 yards and a touchdown back in 2015. And kind of like with Juju, he can create after the catch. So I think that there are certain things that work in Jarvis Landry's favor. And I also don't expect many people will use him for the Pro Bowl, because if you're like me, you probably used him during the regular season and it probably didn't go too well. So you're probably not super excited to use Jarvis Landry. You've got guys like Juju and other guys at your disposal. And I think because we've seen Jarvis Landry do well in the Pro Bowl previously, it says to me he's going to at least try on Sunday. And that's more than I could say for everyone else. So I think that that one factor does push me a little bit closer towards Jarvis Landry. I really like the fact that you can point to specific examples when Jarvis Landry has done well in the Pro Bowl. We'll see if he can do that again come Sunday. One more value play we want to discuss heading into this Pro Bowl game. It's at tight end and Eric Ebron. We've already discussed that tight ends are actually much more valuable than is somewhat standard for DFS. And now you have Eric Ebron and you're telling me that he is at a reasonable price. Yeah, it's kind of nice. I mean, the salaries weren't necessarily adjusted for the way that things are scored in the Pro Bowl. It's more so based on the way they score during the regular season. So guys like Eric Ebron and Jared Cook are super, super cheap and I love both of them quite a bit, especially Jared Cook. I don't think any people use Jared Cook. So love Jared Cook with Eric Ebron. He has the two things that I really want for a player in the Pro Bowl. The first one is as we know, the dude can score touchdowns. He scored like 13 this year between the regular season and the postseason. He had 21 targets in the red zone this year. Also 23 deep targets for Eric Ebron. So there's a little bit of yardage upside to go with him here as well. Also something we discussed with Lamar Miller. We've got the quarterback for Eric Ebron here too. Andrew Luck is on the ASC Pro Bowl roster. We could see those two guys connect together. Maybe you want to roll out Andrew Luck with Eric Ebron and get that Indianapolis Cold Stack here in the Pro Bowl as well. So when I'm looking at the ASC, I definitely do like Jared Cook because he's an older guy, hasn't been to the Pro Bowl before. He is an impending free agent. There are a lot of things that draw you towards Jared Cook. I think that Eric Ebron, if I exclude the narratives and just look at the type of player I want for the Pro Bowl, I want a guy who can get up, score some touchdowns in the red zone, get targets there, and also maybe get some deep looks. And Ebron absolutely fits that mold. It was a great season for Eric Ebron. I mean, he had more touchdowns than he did in his previous four seasons combined. I think it does help when you have a guy like Andrew Luck as your quarterback. And so it's important as you mentioned that Luck will be out there on Sunday. Hopefully they'll see some playing time together. All right, Jim and I are going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we still have to talk about the entire NFC in this Pro Bowl game slate coming up Sunday on FanDuel. So don't go anywhere. We're back on the FanDuel. Hurry up, Maria Marino for Fantasy Sports Network once again and Jim Sonnis of Number Fire. We are previewing this special single game slate on Sunday for the Pro Bowl, which gets underway at 3 o'clock Eastern. We've already talked all about the AFC, and it's time to talk about the NFC. We're going to give you a couple of studs, a couple of mid-tier value plays, and also value, value plays. That makes sense, right? But we'll start with the studs, and the first one is Russell Wilson at quarterback. Yeah, when we talked about yesterday, Maria, we talked about how quarterbacks in the Pro Bowl don't generally do a whole lot. The big part of that is because there's splitting reps of three other quarterbacks and don't throw the ball a ton. But Russell Wilson may actually throw the ball more in the Pro Bowl than he does during the regular season because his team, for some reason, hates having this really good quarterback chuck the football. So I think that Russell Wilson does make a lot of sense for the Pro Bowl because he has a couple of things that I really like with quarterbacks, as mentioned with the Sean Watson. I want guys who will throw the ball deep. And Russell Wilson did so at the fifth highest rate this year. He also was the best deep ball passer in the league based on expected points added per deep attempt. So he'll go deep and he will do so well. I love both those things. He also gets an upgrade in supporting cast. His offensive line was not as bad as perception in Seattle this year, but still an upgrade for him there. Also gets a lot of fun pass catchers to work with outside of just Tyler Lockett and Doug Baldwin. So I kind of think that I'm looking at quarterback for this Pro Bowl slate. I think that Russell Wilson is my favorite. I really like to show on Watson a lot. I think that Andrew Luck is intriguing, but Russell Wilson we saw during the entire regular season was able to do quite a bit with not a lot of volume. He's probably not going to get a lot of volume here, but we know what he can do on that volume. So to me, I think that Russell Wilson is a pretty fun play for the Pro Bowl slate. You might get to see him unleashed a little bit. And Russell Wilson unleashed is always a delight for football fans and hopefully for our DFS rosters as well. I noticed you took a little dig there at how he's used within the Seahawks offense, but really good point by you in terms of making the most of the time that he does get to play and the fact that he has that ability to throw that deep ball. I think it's so huge in the Pro Bowl because again, you're not going to likely have a lot of playing time. You need to get a lot of bang for your buck. Okay. So another stud we have to talk about on the NFC side is of course, Saquon Barkley. And his entire appeal, of course, is the fact that he can catch a lot of passes in addition to what he can do on the ground. Yeah, we also had to get you one last time to talk about Saquon on this show, Maria, before the wrap of the year. I wanted to make sure we get you that little nugget in there before we wrap it up for the 2018 season. But Saquon Barkley really does make a lot of sense beyond the fact that he's just fun to talk about because like you said, the dude can catch a lot of passes. He had 21% of the Giants targets during the season. And as you saw and as all Giants fans saw, he can create a lot once he gets the ball in his hands. He's also the only NFC running back who was not in the playoffs. We got Zeke Elliott there and Alvin Kamara, Kamara coming off of that loss last weekend. Zeke Elliott just played two weeks ago, but Saquon Barkley is very fresh and of the six running backs in this game, only he and James Connor were on teams that didn't make the playoffs. Those two guys are more rested than the other players. I think that could lead to additional playing time. And again, he's just a really fun player to watch as well. When looking at running backs for this game, I kind of think that Saquon Barkley is just gonna tear all by himself. Now he is pretty costly, but I think given how much I love wide receivers and tight end for this slate, I'm not super worried about salary. So to me, I think that Saquon Barkley definitely is expensive, but I also think he's very much worth that even with the limitations that running backs generally carry. Those don't quite apply to Saquon Barkley. Just a beast over 2,000 yards on the season for Saquon. And as you mentioned, he really is hungry. You get that vibe, right? Because he didn't make the playoffs. He is a rookie first pro bowl. He's gonna want to do something special and I can't wait to see what that is. Let's move on to our mid-tier options and a couple of players you want to highlight. Starting with Mike Evans. What do you like about him? I think I just kind of selfishly want to see what Mike Evans can do with a quarterback who is more accurate on his deep balls. Like if we can see Russell Wilson just throw one bomb to Mike Evans, that is literally all I want from this pro bowl. I just want to see that happen one time because Janice Winston will go deep pretty often, but he's not the most accurate passer on those deep balls. But he did go to Mike Evans a lot down the field. Evans had 58 total targets, at least 16 yards downfield this year. He had 38% of the buck's total deep targets, which is a huge number. And as we talked about, we want guys who are kind of trees who can do a lot in the red zone. Mike Evans absolutely qualifies as being that. Now, when we look at Mike Evans, we didn't really talk about him a lot during the regular season, but it's because his team wasn't that good. There wasn't a lot popping for the buck's of the team because their defense was so bad, but he had this incredible individual season that just kind of got glossed over because the team didn't have a lot of juice overall. But now Mike Evans gets to play with some really good quarterbacks, hopefully with Russell Wilson again. I'd love to see that. And we know how much talent this guy has, the size he has, the speed he has. So Mike Evans, maybe it's just like this hopeful thing where I really want to see what he could do with a quarterback like Russell Wilson. So hoping the two were able to play together at least a little bit this weekend. But Mike Evans, a late addition to the roster, but one I think is really fun for DFS too. I completely agree. Mike Evans has been kind of underrated. I personally kind of forgot about him, didn't even realize what an impressive season he had with over 1,500 yards. And so therefore I would think he would relish the opportunity to kind of showcase what he can do in the Pro Bowl. And moving on to another mid-tier option that you like for this slate. It's Amari Cooper. We talk about having quarterbacks in the Pro Bowl, not like have too many opportunities to make things happen. You want a deep threat and you want to get that bang for your buck. Amari Cooper seems like the way to go. Absolutely, absolutely for sure. And the good thing about Amari Cooper too is that we saw him throughout this season. Like he changed teams in the middle of the year. So he didn't really have an issue despite not knowing his teammates, despite not knowing his playbook and nobody at the Pro Bowl really does know their teammates. Although he does have Dak Prescott there as well due to this roster. So we know Amari Cooper can excel in kind of mediocre surrounding conditions, which is what he had throughout this year with Dallas and before that with Oakland as well. But even when he changed teams, Amari Cooper still had 24% of Dallas' targets, got some deep looks, got some looks in the red zone. So the volume was certainly there. I think this format also fits him well because the rules of the Pro Bowl dictate that opposing defenses have to play in a 4-3 look for the entire game. Amari Cooper is essentially at his best when he's facing off against ManCover. Now you can play pressier and you can play some cover too as well. But overall, I think that this format just sets up really well for a guy with Amari Cooper skill sets. He can beat pretty much anybody in one-on-one coverage. He's probably going to see quite a bit of that on Sunday. I also don't expect many people to use Amari Cooper for this game. So I think that the format just sets up well for Amari Cooper. We're getting to see him hopefully in a better situation than we had in Dallas overall. So I think I like Amari a lot and again, I'm hoping people won't use him very often because he was a super late addition to this roster. Definitely seems like a great spot where Amari Cooper could potentially thrive. He had over 75, rather he had 75 receptions on the season over a thousand yards and on a side note just interested to see what he can do once he's on Dallas for a full season. We're going to talk about some value plays for the NFC side of this Pro Bowl slate in DFS and the first one we need to point out is George Kittle at tight end. Once again as you taught me yesterday Jim tight ends are very important in this format and George Kittle fits that bill. Yeah, tight ends are deities and George Kittle is basically Zeus in this scenario because I know that Travis Kelsey's nickname is Zeus but like Kittle he's taken over that mantle for this game. I think that he may be my favorite player in the Pro Bowl but you're getting him at this super low salary because George Kittle does everything that I want for a player in the Pro Bowl. Not only does he play tight end which means he'll be on the field quite a bit but he also creates a ton after the catch and that's just a super attractive quality for a game like this where it's kind of dink and dunk type fashion but George Kittle can do a lot once the ball is in his hand. He's also moving to a really good situation because during the regular season George Kittle played with C.J. Bethard and Nick Mullins most of the time and Mullins played well this year but getting him to play with guys like Russell Wilson Mitchell Trabisky and Dak Prescott is a pretty solid situation for George Kittle. He had 26% of the 49ers overall targets he had 25% of the deep targets 27% of the red zone targets so just monster usage and again that's while adding on what he does after the catch as well. So yes George Kittle is a value play but I think when I'm filling out lineups he is going to be in my MVP slot a pretty good number of times despite his salary being as low as it is I just think that he is the perfect fit for this format. I love his talent we don't get to see a lot of pancake blocks in George Kittle on Sunday unfortunately because he's also a really good blocker but I think what he provides as a receiver is going to do really well in this format and Maria might be my favorite player on this entire slate. I praise for George Kittle once again using a tight end at your MVP that's the strategy that Jim has been preaching and George Kittle with that salary allows you to splurge on some other people in your lineup I love it and I hope that I can watch on Sunday and be like Jim called it Jim called it. One more value play to discuss and it's another tight end once again they do get quite a bit of playing time and you like Austin Hooper as well Yeah I love Austin Hooper because I think that when you look at the tight ends in this game I would assume that people have caught on to the fact that tight ends are like this cheat code for the Pro Bowl they're probably going to focus on our guy George Kittle but also Eric Ebron because of what those two guys did during the regular season that probably means that Eric Ebron or sorry Jared Cook and Austin Hooper are going to fly a little bit under the radar and those guys get the exact same benefits that Eric Ebron and George Kittle get because they will be on the field for roughly half or so of the snaps and Austin Hooper and Jared Cook also rested up because their teams were not in the post season so I think that with Austin Hooper the big allure for him is that he's probably going to go overlooked compared to George Kittle and Eric Ebron even if people do realize how good tight ends are for the Pro Bowl so I think in general when I'm filling out lineups I'm just going to go through and filter through combinations where I use Kittle with Ebron then Kittle with Jared Cook and then Austin Hooper with Eric Ebron Austin Hooper with Jared Cook and try to nail those combinations but I do want to actively make sure I get Austin Hooper in there because he's a talented player too, he's very young not playing alongside Julio Jones in this game so maybe some extra targets going to him so Hooper I want to make sure he doesn't go overlooked because he does benefit from the exact same things that make me love guys like Eric Ebron and George Kittle Austin Hooper somebody you should not let fly under your radar really looking forward to this Pro Bowl slate and that's not something I usually say I'm not usually into the Pro Bowl but this is a way that you can really get into it with this format available on FanDuel Jim Sonnis of Number Fire thanks so much for all of the input honestly if you're planning on playing this slate and you haven't listened to Jim Sonnis' advice like I feel bad for you alright that's going to do it for this edition of the FanDuel Hurry Up I'm Maria Marino for Fantasy Sports Network thanks for watching and if you want more content just head over to FanDuel.com slash the dual click on videos also subscribe to our Fantasy Sports Network YouTube channel see ya