FanDuel Daily Fantasy Football Helper: Conference Championships

The Chiefs held Hardman out of practice last week, but he's on track to play in Sunday's AFC title game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. It would be his first game since Week 9. “He feels better than he did the last couple of weeks, so that move (to rest him looks) like it worked to this point,” Reid said of Hardman. “We’ll just see how he does every day. He seems to be in a good place.” Hardman will be competing with JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kadarius Toney, and Justin Watson for targets behind Travis Kelce. Jerick McKinnon could see fewer opportunities if Hardman is active.

The Bengals ranked No. 12 during the regular season in FanDuel points allowed per game to opposing wide receivers. Their pass defense is No. 11 in numberFire's adjusted team rankings.

McCaffrey was held out of practice Thursday for a second straight day, but he told reporters there's "zero" chance he will miss Sunday's matchup. Elijah Mitchell (groin) has also been sidelined at practice this week while Deebo Samuel (ankle) has logged back-to-back limited sessions. Mitchell and Samuel will see more backfield work if McCaffrey is limited on Sunday.

McCaffrey has a $9,000 salary on the Conference Championship slate and our models project him to lead all non-quarterbacks with 16.3 FanDuel points. He has a $15,500 salary on the single-game slate and is the second-highest projected player behind Jalen Hurts. Across 11 full games with the 49ers, CMC has averaged 27.8 adjusted opportunities and a 73.6% snap rate.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said before practice that Mahomes would "do everything" on Wednesday and that appears to have been accurate. Mahomes' mobility has been the primary focus ahead of Sunday's AFC Championship game versus the Cincinnati Bengals, but he reportedly moved well during the portion of practice open to the media. Mecole Hardman was the only Chiefs player that didn't practice in full on Wednesday.

numberFire's models project Mahomes for 270.6 passing yards and 12.8 rushing yards in the Championship Round, to help him reach a total projection of 19.2 FanDuel points. Mahomes scored 19.8 FanDuel points versus the Bengals in Week 13.

"I think he's going to do everything. I don't think that's going to be an issue," Reid said in regards to Mahomes' ankle injury. Mahomes is expected to play in Sunday's AFC Championship game versus the Cincinnati Bengals, but it remains to be seen how much his mobility will be limited. The Chiefs will release their official practice report on Wednesday afternoon.

numberFire's models project Mahomes for 270.6 passing yards and 12.8 rushing yards in the Championship Round, to help him reach a total projection of 19.2 FanDuel points. Mahomes scored 19.8 FanDuel points versus the Bengals in Week 13.

Pollard was forced to leave the Cowboys' Divisional Round loss to the San Francisco 49ers early on Sunday, but according to Todd Archer of ESPN, he should be back to full health "well before" training camp. Pollard is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March and it remains to be seen if the Cowboys will attempt to bring him back. The dual-threat back turns 26 in April.

Among the 45 running backs with at least 100 carries this season, Pollard averaged the sixth-most Rushing Net Expected Points per carry.

McCaffrey was reportedly dealing with the issue throughout the game, and was noticeably absent at a few critical points of the game and the 49ers bested the Cowboys. The star back assured the media that he would be available for next week's game against the Philadelphia Eagles, and the 49ers will likely manage his reps in practice this week.

The Cowboys' explosive defense managed to mostly bottle up McCaffrey on Sunday, with the back carrying the ball 10 times for 35 yards and a score, and catching 6 passes for just 22 yards. He'll face a slightly easier run defense matchup in the Eagles next week, and should continue to see a strong workload for as long as he is healthy.