Winners Club: Vikings-Steelers Preview and Need-To-Know Info for NFL Week 14

Player rankings and DFS advice for the last week of the fantasy regular season, and Thursday Night Football Bets.

Welcome to what is likely the regular-season finale for your fantasy league. Everything you need to know for Thursday Night Football and beyond is covered in this edition of Winners Club. Keep reading to win your week and punch your ticket to the postseason.

Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5-1) vs. Minnesota Vikings (5-7)

8:20 p.m. ET, FOX/NFL Network

It’s a prime-time showdown between the only two teams in the NFL that have played the Lions this season and not come away with a victory. Pittsburgh tied Detroit a few weeks ago before Minnesota outright lost in Week 13 on an inexplicable walk-off touchdown. The Steelers and Vikings both are outside of the top-seven seeds. A win this week would go a long way for either team in their playoff push. Minnesota is a 3.5-point favorite on SI Sportsbook at home, where the Vikings are 3-2 this year.

Photo Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

PIT-MIN Best Bets: Frankie Taddeo breaks down Thursday’s matchup and explains his Against the Spread pick and a couple of player props. “If you are under the assumption that backing home teams in the NFL is a profitable endeavor this season, you are sadly mistaken,” he writes.

Player Props to Target: Both defenses have struggled as of late, which should mean plenty of points for both teams and your fantasy players. Jen Piacenti makes her prop picks with the recent performances of Pittsburgh and Minnesota in mind as well as an ATS pick. “The Vikings have a knack for letting things get too close, and it burned them last week in a loss to the hapless Lions,” she writes.

Cook trending towards playing against PIT: NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero is reporting that Vikings star running back Dalvin Cook, who’s listed as questionable, may play Thursday night. He dislocated his left shoulder 11 days ago and Alexander Mattison started in his place for the third time this season.

Essential Reading

Week 14 Player Rankings: Shawn Childs’ meticulous spreadsheets are a great tool every week to help you make difficult lineup decisions. This week is especially important, so be sure to consult Childs’ projections and see which players are projected the most points at each position.

Checking in on NFL Futures: Frankie Taddeo broke down the AFC and NFC Championship odds after New England’s huge win over Buffalo on Monday night that sent them into first in the conference. The standings are neck and neck thanks to the addition of an extra playoff team in each conference.

Photo Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: One bad performance can sink you in an all-important week like this one. Michael Fabiano has Start/Sit advice to ensure that the correct players are in your lineups and the riskier ones are comfortably on your bench. Fabiano likes Dak Prescott against Washington coming off a bad game as his quarterback Start of the Week. See who else he likes for Week 14.

DFS Lineup Help: Childs is also here to help you scope out the cheap DFS options that can be difference-makers and advise you on which top-tier players are worth their price tags. “The key to winning is mixing a core of studs with some undervalued options that post impact scores for their price point,” he writes.

Betting Roundtable: A group of SI Betting writers came together to discuss which non-division leader they would pick to win their division. No surprise, they’re all AFC teams with the NFC division races all but locked up.

Analyzing NBA ATS Trends: Are the teams with the best records in basketball also the best to bet on? Well, not really. I wrote about how certain teams with poor records have been great against the spread and how some top seeds rarely cover.

Play of the Day

The Steelers and Vikings are not short on fantasy contributors at every skill position. And the way these teams have been playing defense as of late only further juices their fantasy prospects. The player with the most upside for Thursday night is Steelers wideout Diontae Johnson (FD: $13,000 | DK: $15,300 — prices based on Thursday single-game competitions).

Photo credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Johnson gives you a solid floor (seven straight games with five or more catches) and still has a high ceiling (100 yards and two touchdowns Sunday against Baltimore). The volume will certainly be there for Johnson, expect the production to be there, too, against a Vikings defense that was carved up by Jared Goff a week ago.