Each week, this article shines the spotlight on players outside the top-12 at their respective positions on DraftKings and FanDuel to help you win your contests in daily fantasy. This advice should help you avoid having a lineup of players on much of the competition’s rosters, giving you a chance to win big every week.
Week 7 had its ups and downs with recommendations. To hit in tournament plays, it’s ideal if the player returns at least three times the number of points than his salary. Let’s see how it went:
WINNERS
David Johnson vs. GB; 84 total yards, four catches, one touchdown, 17.4 DK points / 14.4 FD points
Tee Higgins vs. CLE; 5 targets, five catches, 71 yards, one touchdown, 18.8 DK points / 16.3 FD points
LOSERS
Gardner Minshew vs. LAC; 173 passing yards, two touchdowns, 21 rushing yards, 17.02 DK points
Justin Jackson vs. JAC; 12 rushing yards, five catches, 43 receiving yards, 10.5 DK points / 8.0 FD points
Mike Williams vs. JAC; 3 targets, one catch, 4 yards, 1.4 DK points / 0.9 FD points
Anthony Firkser vs. PIT; 2 targets, two catches, 7 yards, 2.7 DK points / 1.7 FD points
A little bit more “trick” than “treat” as we head into Halloween weekend. However, it’s going to be a big bounce-back week, and daily players will be able to buy all the candy they want with their earnings from this weekend’s contests.
Covid-19 is going to throw some wrenches into the daily fantasy machine this year. Make sure always to check your lineups before they lock, and feel free to reach out on Twitter with questions. Good luck in Week 8.
Quarterbacks
Jimmy Garoppolo, SF vs. SEA ($5,400 DK | $6,600 FD)
Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers have a fantastic matchup to rack up fantasy points on Sunday. The Seattle Seahawks rank 32nd in the NFL in pass defense and give up the most fantasy points to quarterbacks. Opposing signal-callers complete 67.5 percent of their passes for an absurd 374 yards per game against this secondary.
Every quarterback has thrown at least 39 times versus the Seahawks this year. It’s the best way to attack them, and teams are using it to their advantage. Garoppolo has thrown more than 30 passes twice this season, averaging 21.39 points. Fire up Jimmy G and be thrilled when he returns a massive value on his low $5,400 price tag.
Running Backs
Giovani Bernard, CIN vs. TEN ($5,800 DK | $5,900 FD)
Joe Mixon will miss his second-straight game this week for Cincinnati, which means full steam ahead for Team Gio. Since the Bengals drafted Mixon in 2017, Bernard has touched the ball 15 times or more in seven games. In those seven games, he has scored six touchdowns and has averaged 104 total yards with 4.5 catches per contest.
The eighth-year back takes on the Tennessee Titans this weekend and has a great chance to find the end zone. The Titans have allowed seven touchdowns to backs through their six games this year, and five of them have come on the ground. Fire up Bernard as a free space this weekend and spend big at the other positions.
Le’Veon Bell, KC vs NYJ ($4,600 DK | $6,000 FD)
Bell is facing his former team this week in the New York Jets and is a great spot to show them how big of a mistake they made by cutting him a couple of weeks ago. His new team, Kansas City, is a 19.5 point favorite in Sunday’s contest and has the Chiefs sitting with an implied team total of just over 32 points.
There are many options in the KC offense, and the 32 points mean that there will be plenty of touchdowns to spread around. The Jets have given up 100 rushing yards in four games this season and multiple touchdowns on the ground in three games. It’s a long-winded way of saying that Clyde Edwards-Helaire will put up fantasy-relevant numbers, and there will still be some leftover for Le’Veon Bell in your tournament lineups.
Wide Receivers
Marquise Brown, BAL vs PIT ($6,100 DK | $5,900 FD)
Brown comes off a Week 7 bye with a great matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers come into this contest as the best defense in the league in yards allowed per game. However, they do seem to have a weakness against wide receivers. Seven wideouts have caught a touchdown or gone over the 100-yard mark in six games versus this unit in 2020.
Before the bye week, the sophomore receiver played 86 and 85 percent of the Ravens offense’s snaps, respectively. Those are his two highest snap shares this season. Over those two games, he produced 10 catches for 134 yards and one touchdown. It’s rare that Brown is outside the top-12 on both sites these days, and it makes him a sneaky tournament play. He is cheaper on FanDuel than DraftKings, and that almost never happens. Brown is always one deep catch from producing a massive fantasy day, and the matchup with the Steelers should be just what he needs.
Brandon Aiyuk, SF vs SEA ($5,800 DK | $5,900 FD)
The San Francisco 49ers are dealing with injuries heading into a Week 8 division game with the Seattle Seahawks. Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson Jr., and Deebo Samuel are all expected to miss the contest. That leaves a lot of touches available in this primarily run-heavy offense. However, the Seahawks secondary is one of the worst in football, and a game plan centered around Aiyuk should be in play.
The Seahawks are giving up 60.23 DraftKings points per game to opposing wide receiver units. That’s 11.5 more points than the second-worst team in the league, the Cleveland Browns. They are incapable of stopping wide receivers from racking up monstrous numbers against them. Aiyuk has returned quadruple value in two games this season, including last week against the New England Patriots. The matchup with the Seahawks is a great spot for him to add a third game to his rookie resume.
Tight Ends
Irv Smith Jr. ($3,000 DK | $4,500 FD)
The Minnesota Vikings come off their Week 7 bye sitting at the bottom of the NFC North. Something has to change, and one of those is getting their young tight end more involved in the passing game. Smith has seen more targets and caught more passes than his mentor, Kyle Rudolph, in the last two games. In Week 5 against Seattle, Smith caught four of his five targets for 64 yards and then followed it up with another four catches for 55 yards and a two-point conversion. He is taking over the tight end position in Minnesota and it’s time to jump on board while the price stays near the bottom of the barrel.
On the season, Green Bay is allowing the sixth-fewest points to tight ends. However, in four of their last five games, the opposing tight ends have caught at least four passes for 50 yards. That’s a nine-point floor for Smith this week with the opportunity for much more. The second-year tight end is averaging 10.95 DraftKings points in his last two games. The Vikings are seven-point underdogs and will be playing catch up in this game. If daily players need to save some money, the sophomore tight end is a great option this weekend.
Check us out on our socials:
Twitter: @PTSTNews and @TalkPrimeTime
Facebook Page: Prime Time Sports Talk
Join our Facebook Group: Prime Time Sports Talk
Instagram: @ptsportstalk
Follow Euan Leith on Twitter @EuanOrYouOut
Main Image Credit:
Embed from Getty Images
