1. If you are afraid of losing money, you should not be playing NFL DFS or prop bets or any bets in general this year with any source.  I don’t say this as some cop out for the event that somehow you end up down for the entire course of the season.  There will be losing days. Accept that and move on.  I have coached basketball for many years and one rule I have is that after a loss we identify the things that were done correctly and improve upon them and after a win we focus on the things we didn’t do well and try to improve them.   The reason for this is that it’s simple to focus on the negative when you fail and that is going to come naturally.  But if you aren’t focused on repeating your strengths then you won’t continue to have any strengths.   Don’t be a short term player, because I will let you hear it.
2. We’re not here to win a million dollars every time we play.  Sorry, that should never be the single goal of anyone who is reading advice and content.  If we happen to stumble into that right scenario one week then obviously we did well, but there are so many factors that go into winning in DFS and nothing is more true regarding this than the stupid “milly-maker” contests in DFS.  I will address them once we get into the season and yes you can play them, but that’s not our goal.  Define your goals and make them realistic.
3. Don’t be just a negative person and don’t be just a positive person.  Stay middle of the road.  Stay even keeled.  When you see the pick in here that hits for the season you can promote it.  When you see a pick that is going wrong in a hurry, you can shred it.  Just don’t do only one and not the other if you are going to be loud about it.  Because then you’re just a fraud reader.
4. You too as the reader have a role in The Ambush.  If you don’t want to be part of THE AMBUSH, then I am not going to force you to read it.
5. Be Entertained.  Be very entertained.

That’s all for now.  There will be other DFS focused rules that I can outline, but the goal of this article is to walk through the NFL Season Preview.

WHAT DOES THE AMBUSH INCLUDE?

Not only do I bring the same style and flare from my MLB Dongers Club to the NFL Ambush article, but I will cover each week’s slate with a full guide on as much information as I feel you need to know going into it along with my own perspective on the games for the week.  This is intended to be used as one of your main sources each week for NFL DFS research and the article will typically come out Saturdays by Noon Eastern time.  You can expect the following in The Ambush:

• The AMBUSH Plays:
  • These are my top 3-5 plays each week.  They will usually include a must own chalk/stud player who is in a great spot, a couple one off players I really like as sneaky pivots and the combination/stack play of the week from my perspective.  These are the plays I hold with the highest of regard for the week as staples to be used in your main or secondary lineups.
• Breakdown on Ownership:
  • Chalk in NFL is either really good or really bad.  We need to understand who is owned in certain spots so that we know when not to get too cute and just take a player who is identified as a good play and will be heavily owned for good reason.  Conversely, we’ll also be able to match this up with my feelings from earlier in the week on how each game is going to play based upon actually watching football, understanding the ebbs and flows of sports and how that aligns with the data and the match-ups each week.
• Tiers of players:
  • Slight adjustment this year to the rankings on players by position.  You’ll get guys broken down into tiers.  They will include my favorites at a position, my secondary tier players and how to build extra lineups using those plays and then the players I want no part of.  The guys I want no part of aren’t going to be players who are ranked 26th at their position each week – no, these are good players that I want no part of for a given week.
• How many lineups do I play?
  • It honestly changes week to week based upon the slate and potentially even how the sites modify their contests.  But I will always have a MAIN lineup and then up to 5 BIG tournament lineups that I am rolling out.  Sometimes it’s just one, sometimes it’s all five.  From there I will do some heavier multi-entry that uses the second tier players from my pool.
• GOALS
  • Grow The AMBUSH following so that I have a strong community of members who are individually profiting off my advice and hard work.
  • I want to win as many weeks as I can with my MAIN lineup.  This will be in CASH and Tournaments and I want that lineup to profit 10 weeks out of the 17 weeks at a minimum.  This will ensure a winning season from me.  From there I obviously have other huge goals and they are as follows:
  • Win five figures in an NFL tournament twice
  • Survive my birthday in New Orleans
  • Win a showdown slate with Taysom Hill as the Captain simply to own the haters.
• And yes, GIFs

2019 SEASON PREVIEW

I am going to go through each division breaking down how I see the division playing out, who the OVER bet is and who the UNDER bet is within each division.  I’ll also go over the likely sleepers and the likely busts or players that just disappoint in general.

AFC PREVIEW

Bold teams in the playoffs

AFC OVER BET:

Pittsburgh Steelers (Over 9)

Last year I was betting against the Steelers due to the Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown looming drama.  The Bell drama most knew about but didn’t pay attention too, the Brown drama was ignored and as we saw the Steelers just all around had a year from hell and yet still managed to be in position to make the playoffs at the end of the season.  They lost three games last year that you could easily argue they were in a great position to win and now through addition by subtraction they come into this season with a team that I feel is equal to the task of last year.  The whole world is loving the JuJu play this year and for great reason, but the sneaky must-have on Pittsburgh is James Washington.

Big Ben is coming off one of his better seasons and yet nobody is talking about it as we just write him off as a nothing.  He lost A.B. and that’s a huge loss absolutely, but if you aren’t buying into James Washington then you will be kicking yourself and regretting it by Week 5.  The scheme will work, the team is deep on offense and Ben will continue to thrive on his way to a 30+ TD and 4500+ yard season and a record where he even gains some MVP love.

UNDER BET:

It would be too easy to sit here and pick the Miami Dolphins, so let’s get a little creative with this selection.

Houston Texans (Under 8)

The division with the most market instability right now is the AFC South and you could legit still make a case for any of these four teams to win the division.  But there are many factors going against the teams in the division and Houston has a couple big holes associated with them that have me going against them despite one big risk (which I am hedging as you’ll see below).  The AFC South has the unlucky draw of facing the NFC South, which has 3+ really good teams in it this year, and they also draw the AFC West, which has the best 1-2 punch in the AFC in the Chargers and Chiefs.  All total, Houston will still be a competitive team this year and they aren’t going to completely implode to 3-13 level.  But Bill O’Brien is a disaster Coach/GM and the offseason they had has to be one of the biggest blunders we have seen by an organization in a long time.  Not only did they not address their offensive line prior to a last second trade with Miami, they completely butchered the Jadeveon Clowney situation and now just turned a defense that couldn’t stop the pass before into one that lost arguably its best pass rusher.  Solid move.  Lamar Miller tearing his ACL is just a minor blow as they couldn’t run the ball and wouldn’t run the ball prior to his injury either.  The only saving grace this team has is that Deshaun Watson is the best QB in the division and in my mind finishes around QB1 for fantasy.  But then again, most times when a QB finishes around QB1 it’s with a team that is around .500 and that UNDER 8 number is where we take a shot this year.

TEN AFC THOUGHTS

1. The Patriots offense remains unpredictable and no skill position player has more than 6 touchdowns.
2. Buffalo beats New England in New England
3. The Dolphins’ cheerleaders remain their main attraction
4. James Washington, not JJSS leads the Steelers in TD receptions.
5. Justice Hill gets injured 4 times in the middle of games this year.
6. Leonard Fournette has a MONSTER season
7. Mike Williams leads the Chargers in TD receptions
8. Justin Jackson rushes for over 1000 yards
9. LeSean McCoy has an insane first six weeks of the year
10. The Colts aren’t as bad as everyone projects and they win 6 games.  No team in the AFC South wins more than 10, no team loses more than 10.

TOP FANTASY PRODUCERS BY POSITION IN THE AFC

Quarterback – Deshaun Watson

Running Back – Leonard Fournette

Wide Receiver – DeAndre Hopkins

Tight End –  Travis Kelce

TOP FANTASY SLEEPERS BY POSITION IN THE AFC

Quarterback – Ben Roethlisberger

Running Back – Justin Jackson

Wide Receiver – James Washington

Tight End –  Chris Herndon (post suspension)

PLAYOFF SEEDINGS

1. New England
2. LA Chargers
3. Pittsburgh
4. Jacksonville
5. Kansas City
6. Cleveland

I went fairly chalk here on the playoff teams and I realize that every year there is turnover.  I have a rule of three in and three out and so as you can see the three in from last year are New England, Los Angeles and Kansas City.  Those three to me are the deepest teams in the conference by far and in the case of the Patriots, Chargers and Chiefs they really don’t have a ton of competition from within their divisions (except for KC & LA with each other obviously).   I could honestly see any of the top 4 teams flipping around within their positioning for seeding.

AFC Championship Matchup:   Pittsburgh and Kansas City

AFC Champion:   Pittsburgh Steelers

NFC PREVIEW

TEN NFC THOUGHTS

1. Dallas Goedert has more touchdowns than Zach Ertz
2. Daniel Jones plays 8 games and leads the Giants to wins in 4 of them.
3. Dalvin Cook leads the NFC in rushing yards.
4. Mitchell Trubisky gets benched.
5. Saints Defense is a top 5 fantasy defense.
6. The Falcons lead the NFC in points scored by an offense.
7. Jameis Winston has a stretch of 3 straight games without a turnover and Kirk Cousins leads the Vikings to the NFC North title, meanwhile, hell freezes over.
8. Kyler Who?
9. Christian McCaffrey leads all NFC running backs in fantasy points (PPR scoring)
10. The Redskins win 1 game.

TOP FANTASY PRODUCERS BY POSITION IN THE NFC

Quarterback – Matt Ryan

Running Back – CMC

Wide Receiver – Chris Godwin

Tight End –  Austin Hooper

TOP FANTASY SLEEPERS BY POSITION IN THE NFC

Quarterback – Jameis Winston

Running Back – Tevin Coleman

Wide Receiver – Golden Tate (post suspension)

Tight End –  Jared Cook

Super Bowl Champion:   No comment.

Futures Bets

NFL MVP

• Drew Brees +1200
• Deshaun Watson +1800 (This is basically the Texans hedge if he goes full bananas)
• Ben Roethlisberger +3000

SUPER BOWL CHAMPION

• LA Chargers +1400
• Pittsburgh +1800
• New Orleans +800

TEAM DIVISION BETS (Looking for Value here)

• Minnesota +240
• Jacksonville +260
• Longshots:
  • Tampa Bay +850
  • San Francisco +500

Good luck and listen up, let’s run AMBUSH