Right before I started working on this piece, I asked the wife if she was as excited as I was about Football season being here? She stated, ” No not really, I will never see or hear from you until after Superbowl Sunday.” I was sad but happy at the same time . I will have to figure out the balance of family time and football, oh wait what’s that? Family night? Yes, let’s go have dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings . See what I did there? I am getting the best of both worlds! Ok enough let’s get down to business and figure out tops plays at each position for this week’s cash games .
Note: I will not be playing the Thursday night games throughout the season as they are normally not high profiled games and have primetime teams.
Plays will be broken down into three categories:
- Top-Tier
- Mid-Tier
- Value
NFL DFS FanDuel & DraftKings Cash Game Advice for Week 1
Quarterback
Top-Tier Drew Brees (NO) vs OAK FD $8,700 DK $8,100
Targeting high scoring games is a must in cash games, the important part is picking the right players and pieces to help you build that solid lineup.
Drew Brees is at home and against the new and improved Raiders’ defense, but it seems like it may take a couple of weeks for the raiders defense to gel . With the arsenal of Cooks, Snead, Ingram look for him to pass the ball at will against the raiders. Averaging 325 Yards a game Drew Brees will look to shred the raiders defense here.
Brees can easily throw for 3 Touchdowns and 300 yards. If you like paying up for a QB this is your guy
Mid-Tier Derek Carr (OAK) @ NO FD 7,700 DK $7,300
Looks like all signs point back to that game in the Superdome. The saints last year allowed the most Touchdowns per game with an absurd 2.81 touchdowns TD’s per game, this in my eyes will let Carr sling the rock a whole lot more as the saints did minimal to improve their roster in the offseason.
With the saints at home, I can see the raiders playing catch up and throw the pigskin all over the field with a plethora of weapons of Cooper,Crabtree, and Murray.
Carr will have himself a nice game of 270 yards and 2 touchdowns and at his price range that meets value for me.
Love our content? Check out the GoingFor2 Live Podcast Network!
Value Play Dak Prescott (DAL) vs NYG FD $5,000 DK $5,000
Take a deep breath, before you freak out and start saying curse words cowboy’s fans relax you have Dak Prescott, He did well in preseason and showed great command and leadership. Everything I’ve heard about this guy is good. The Cowboys have the best offensive line in the NFL and should give Dak enough time to stay upright and make some plays here and there .
Dez Bryant and Ezekiel Elliot are going to be players that will make him comfortable to throw the ball and hand if off to the point where he won’t fail. A lot of people laugh at the Saints for being the worst pass defense in the league , but the Giants aren’t far from being a close first. Allowing the league worst 308 YPG and 1.94 PTD per game .
I will have Dak in my Cash Lineups as he helps me load up everywhere else. Also because I don’t like to pay up for QB’s as I see that there matchup everywhere else in the league for QB’s to excel and I see Dak in a spot to do well, He will be Chalk (highly owned) everywhere in cash games and will be a great play.
Dak Will have 2 TD’s 250 yards and 20 yards rushing, with the potential of a rushing TD as he has proven he can run as well.
Other Players to Consider : Eli Manning,Matthew Stafford
Running Back
Top-Tier Todd Gurley (LA) @ SF FD $8,900 DK $7,800
Gurley will be looking to continue what he did last year against the 49ers in week one. The 49ers have looked terrible during the pre-season and it seems that Gurley is in for heavy usage as they will have a rookie QB running the offense. I don’t expect this game to a blowout as it will be close and the rams will try to control the clock and run the ball most of the game and only force their QB to pass when needed to.
Why wouldn’t you want to run against the San Francisco 49ers as they allowed 1.13 Rushing Touchdowns and 112.o yards per game last year? They aren’t that scary and I will target Gurley in my cash games.
Gurley will get 120 yards and BOLD PREDICTION 2 TD’s I honestly could see this happening if the Rams want to win
Mid-Tier Lamar Miller (HOU) @ CHI FD $7,600 DK $7,000
New Place, same face, Lamar Miller just didn’t get respect in Miami and now Houston is speaking about making him the workhorse and running him to the ground. The bonus about Miller is that he’s a great pass catching back. He knows how to get open and will get some yards after the catch. I bump him up a little more on DK where it is Point Per Reception and he should get 4-5 receptions as he will be targeted in this game.
Houston offensive line should be able to handle the Bears defensive front and move them around the bears have made improvement during the offseason, but it will take time for their defense to come together.
Lamar Miller should get 80 yards 5 receptions for 30 yards and a rushing TD as I don’t see the Texans having an RB to take away Red Zone touches from him so he should get some good amount volume in the RZ.
Value Play Spencer Ware (KC) vs SD FD $5,400 DK $4,400
It’s looking like Jamal Charles is going to rest week 1 and the chief won’t be using him. This opens up all the carries for Ware in week one. Some are worried that this could be a three-way split with West, Ware, and Davis, but it appears that coach Andy Reid like to stick to just having one RB running the ball and likes to keep it that way. So it appears that the guy will be Ware so keep a close eye on this situation on Rotoworld or twitter.
They are playing the San Diego Chargers and the chargers are great a great team to target when it comes to their rush defense. they allow 111.3 ypg and 0.88 touchdowns per game. The Chief are favored in this game to win by 7.5 and they will get ahead and once they do they will be conservative and will run the ball as much as they can.
In cash games, Ware should easily meet value as we only need him to get 2x value on FD and 3x Value on DK so Ware should easily meet his value with a salary of 5K and get 70 yards and 3-4 receptions and 20 yards and a rushing TD.
Other players to consider: Mark Ingram,Latavious Murray, Lesean Mccoy, James White (DK)
Wide Receiver
Top-Tier Antonio Brown (PIT) @ WAS FD $9,300 DK $9,800
This is a simple plug and play , yes I know there is a possibility of him lining up across Josh Norman . Pro Football Focus has him playing against Breeland the other corner who is a good corner , but can’t stand a chance against Brown .
Brown’s target rate at 31% is astounding only Julio jones gets as many targets as him . With them missing their star running back LeVeon Bell, the usage and offense will go through him . I will always take volume and usage for cash games, also Vegas has this as one of the higher scoring games on this week’s slate for 51 points total .
I’ve got brown for 120 yards 8 receptions and a touchdown . He could exceed that but at his salary, that’s cash game value and he’s a solid floor .
It was a hard choice to choose between Brown and Julio but to me, Julio is a close second . Julio seems to be the only person there . I understand they have Sanu as their WR2 and that’s great, but that will only open up the field more for Julio . Like I said above Julio jones target rate was 31% and his touchdowns weren’t as big last year and that is why this year I believe he will be more of a target in the Red Zone with Sanu being a decoy .
This game has great potential of being A shootout or a grind it out games . Either way, they will love the ball through Jones and Freeman which only makes things easier for Jones.
Jones has a good game for 110 yards 9 receptions and 1.5 touchdowns . Yes, I believe he has 2 touchdown upside in this game . Tampa Bay weakness are their corners and the Falcons will look to attack them .
Mid-Tier DeAndre Hopkins (HOU) @ CHI FD $8,400 DK $8,880
Targets… 193 targets is what Deandre Hopkins had last year . They got him some help also an upgrade at RB and QB . This offense is also one of the fastest paced offense in the league . With pace comes more plays and more opportunity for receptions and touchdowns .
The Bears are missing more than half their secondary and it seems that they are down 3 corners right now . Not even google could find the 4th & 5th corner on their team . So with that, I am attacking the Bears secondary with Hopkins . He should rack up plenty of yardage and receptions.
at a smaller price than top tiers players and for what he’s going to produce I consider him a mid-tier player .
Value Play Michael Crabtree (OAK) @ NO FD $6,100 DK $5,500 / Marvin Jones (DET) @ IND FD $5,500 DK $4,800
You can go either way. Both have high scoring games, neither defense can defend the pass and will be targeted in the red zone . Jones brings more value, but Crabtree brings a better floor .
Other players to consider: O’dell Beckham Junior,Brandon Marshall,Mike Evans
Tight End
Top-Tier Jordan Reed (WAS) vs PIT FD $7,400 DK $6,600
This play is based on 3 things volume , red zone target and Vegas . All of those seem to point in a positive correlation between cash games . Cousins is always looking for this guy and the Steelers defense being the soft curtain they will struggle to slow down the redskins pass game.
Mid-Tier Delanie Walker (TEN) vs MIN FD $6,500 DK $4,500
who had a higher red zone target rate Walker or Antonio Brown? Brown by 1%, Walker gets targeted 29% of the time in the red zone and to me, that shows that walker is a great target for TE against Minnesota .
60 yards 6 receptions 1 touchdown is well within possibility. Walker is the mid price play I will enjoy to plug-in .
Value Play Colby Fleener (NO) vs OAK FD $5,400 DK $4,900
I am solely putting Fleener here due to the fact the field will be on him. So if you want to play him go ahead and you will be with the masses on this .
45 yards 5 receptions 0.5 touchdowns , I can’t give him a touchdown yet .
Other Players to consider: Zach Ertz, Travis Kelce
Defense
Top-Tier Seahawks vs MIA FD $5,000 DK /Â Chiefs vs SD FD $5,100 DKÂ
Seattle is 10-point favorite and KC IS A 7.5 favorite right now. Both of these teams are at home and it seems impossible for offenses to do well in these stadiums
KC 13 points
Sea 15 points
Mid-Tier Texans vs CHI FD $4,900 DK $3,600
This is my boom or bust, could easily get 15-20 points
Value Play Rams @ SF FD $4,500 DK3,800
They are on the road against the 49ers , but should slaughter the 49ers . The 49ers struggled in the preseason and they should continue to do against the Rams.
Kickers
We don’t do kickers at GoingFor2 because no one remembers the extra point!
Thanks for reading. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @aguirre_jason and you can join my facebook group DFS RoundTable for questions and lineup advice.
[wysija_form id=”10″]ATTN Dynasty Commissioners: Do you want to do something cool for your league? How about a 1-hour live show dedicated to YOUR league? Team-by-team breakdowns, rankings, and more. For details and to book a show, visit: GoingFor2.com/plp.
The GoingFor2 Live Podcast
