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MORE WEEK 2 DFS: Top values | RotoQL Lineup Builder
Week 2 NFL DFS Strategy: Top DraftKings stacks for cash games
QB Derek Carr and TE Darren Waller, Raiders vs. Chiefs In cash games this week, I want to spend down at the quarterback position to help allow me to jam in one of the top-end running backs (Kamara, Barkley, or Elliott), and two of the high-end wide receivers. One of the quarterbacks that I’m considering is Raiders signal-caller Carr, who has an excellent matchup against the Chiefs at home. Carr is extremely cheap across the industry – $5,100 on DraftKings and $6,600 on FanDuel - in a game that sets up for him to throw upwards of 40 times with the Raiders coming in as plus-7.5 home underdogs. At his price point, Carr should easily go 4x his salary on DraftKings and 3x his on FanDuel, which is more than good enough for him to make the cut as a cash game quarterback. Carr went for 285 passing yards and 3 touchdowns when the Chiefs came to Oakland last season and if last week was any indication, this year’s version of the Chiefs passing defense is no better than what it was last season. The pairing for Carr is a three-man race between Josh Jacobs, Tyrell Williams, and Waller. While I really like the touch floor of Jacobs and the big-play upside of Williams, I’m going to go with Waller. Not only is Waller extremely cheap ($3,300 on DraftKings and $5,400 on FanDuel), but he also looks like the top option in the Raiders passing attack. Waller led the team with eight targets last week against the Broncos, and he should feast against a Chiefs defense that ranked dead last against opposing tight ends in 2018.
Week 2 DFS: FD Cash | FD GPP | DK Cash | DK GPP | Y! Cash | Y! GPP
QB Josh Allen and WR John Brown, Buffalo Bills @ New York Giants Allen already made the cut in my core plays for the week, and he is also the other cheap quarterback option that I’m looking at in cash games. Allen certainly has his flaws as a real-life quarterback, but his skill set of deep passing with great rushing ability is a perfect fit for DFS lineups. We saw this combo in action last week as he rushed for a short touchdown and also threw a 38-yard strike to Brown for a touchdown late in the second half. There are so many ‘outs’ for Allen to reach his salary expectations that he is hard to pass up on a week-to-week basis - you can think of him as a discounted Lamar Jackson or Cam Newton. The matchup with the Giants also couldn’t be much better after they were diced up by the Cowboys in Week 1. It’s clear that the New York defense is going to struggle this season, and Allen is likely to be the next player to take advantage. This could very well be one of those ceiling-type games for Allen, who we know has 30-plus fantasy point upside. Speaking on John Brown, he is the clear top option to stack with Allen if you want to exploit the Giants secondary. He has seen his price raise across the DFS industry, but he may still be too cheap considering he is the clear number one option in the Bills passing offense. The Giants let all three of Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and even Randall Cobb get loose last week. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott didn’t have to throw into many tight windows all afternoon long. Brown has a nice combination of a high floor given his target projection and a high ceiling with his deep-play ability.
WEEK 2 PPR RANKINGS: Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end
Week 2 DraftKings Picks: Best stacks for daily fantasy football GPPs/tournaments
QB Ben Roethlisberger and WR JuJu Smith-Shuster, Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Seattle Seahawks This is a great week for contrarian GPP stacks. There are a number of high total games, including the Chiefs-Raiders (53), Rams-Saints (53), Patriots-Dolphins (48), and Chargers-Lions (48) that all make for attractive game stacks. However, I’m going to look outside of those games and try and find a few offenses who struggled in Week 1 who are good bounce-back candidates. The first is going to be the Steelers, who host the Seahawks at home as four-point favorites. The entire Steelers offense looked terrible against the Patriots on Sunday night, but this is a great get-right game against a Seahawks defense that looks like it is going to struggle against the pass after allowing Andy Dalton to throw for 418 yards and two touchdowns last week. Roethlisberger has always played his best fantasy games at home over his career despite having a better plus-minus on the road in 2018. Big Ben is also extremely underpriced this week, especially on DraftKings where he comes in at only $5,800. In three games last season when he was priced $6,000 or less, he averaged 25.7 DK points – good for an absurd plus-minus of plus-9.1. The pairing with Roethlisberger is also a no-brainer with Smith-Schuster. JuJu is coming off one of his worst games since his rookie season and is dealing with a toe injury, but I’m not concerned. He should be able to exploit the matchup against the Seahawks, and I would not be shocked to see him push for 15 targets in this game after the combination of Donte Moncrief and James Washington were huge disappointments last week. Finally, just like Roethlisberger, JuJu is underpriced on DraftKings at $7,500. In 11 games last season in which he was priced under $7,600, he averaged 20.7 DK points which equaled out to a plus-minus of plus-6.0.
WEEK 2 NON-PPR RANKINGS:Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker
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