Every week, I’ll be presenting some of the best value plays of the week, for both Fanduel and DraftKings. If you’re going to enter a successful lineup, you’re going to need some good, lower priced players to offset the salaries of some of the high-priced studs, who get you the big numbers. I wouldn’t go completely overboard with these players, but one or two, sprinkled through your lineups, will make your salary money stretch a lot further.
As the season moves along, value gets a little harder to find and most is based on injuries to starters. If the starter is questionable (or even doubtful) to play, make sure to confirm they’re out prior to kickoff.
QB Brian Hoyer (FD $6,000 /DK $5,500) Hoyer makes his second straight appearance in the Value Vault, after scoring over 19 FanDuel points last week against the Lions. Amazingly on FanDuel his salary hasn’t budged, while it’s increased on DraftKings. He gets one more great match-up before the schedule tightens up. He’ll take on a Colts team, rated 29th against the pass by Football Outsiders, that is giving up 18.93 FD points per game. Gameflow is in his favor as well, as the game has a Vegas O/U of 47.5 with the Colts favored by 4.5.
QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (FD $6,900 FD /DK $5,100) This is a DK special and carries considerable risk, so he’s playable in GPP contests only. The last two games Fitzpatrick has been terrible, throwing 9 interceptions. However, this week he gets to face a Pittsburgh defense that is ranked 17th against the pass and is allowing over 18 DK points to opposing QBs and 316 yards per game through the air. If Fitzpatrick has a decent game, he should easily surpass the 3X value threshold on DraftKings.
RB Terrance West (FD $6,400 /DK $4800) Baltimore cut RB Justin Forsett and coach John Harbaugh stated they will be riding the hot hand at the RB position. While some have speculated returning RB Kenneth Dixon will dominate workload, he won’t do that his first week back. The hot hand is West, who is averaging over 4.5 yards per carry, had 21 carries for 113 yards and a TD last week, and gets to run against the Redskins, who are ranked 32nd against the run by Football Outsiders.
RB Wendell Smallwood (FD $5,900 /DK $3,400) Honestly outside of West I don’t think there’s a lot of value at RB, I think you have to pay up for the position this week, but I thought I’d through Smallwood out as a deep GPP play. Injured starter Ryan Mathews should be back this week, but he has underwhelmed. In his absence Smallwood carried 17 times for 79 yards and a TD. Even if Mathews dominates snaps, there’s a good chance the bigger Smallwood vultures goal line touches against the 31st ranked Lions run defense.
WR Steve Smith Sr (FD $6,300 /DK $5,300) At 37 years old, guess who’s back? Mr Smith doesn’t go to Washington, but welcomes them to town. After a major Achilles injury ended his 2015 season, many people considered Smith’s career over. Not so fast. In his four games this season, Smith has had 15 targets in his first two games and 22 targets in his last two games. He faces a Washington Redskins defense allowing over 42 FD points and over 280 yards per game through the air.
WR Eddie Royal (FD $5,700 / $4,200) Second year WR Kevin White was in a lot of pain last week and is highly questionable to play on Sunday. With White out of the lineup, WR Eddie Royal caught all seven of his targets for 111 yards and a TD against the Lions. Royal gets a great matchup against the Colts, who are ranked 29th against the pass. With #1 WR Alshon Jeffery drawing coverage from CB Vontae Davis, Royal may very well run wild.
WR Quincy Enunwa (FD $6,200 /DK $4,600) WR Eric Decker is a longshot to play against Pittsburgh, so Enunwa, who has 32 targets this season, should get another shot as the Jets #2 WR. Ryan Fitzpatrick‘s struggles this season have limited Enunwa’s upside the last couple of weeks, but as I mentioned earlier in the article, Pittsburgh’s pass defense is not very good and the Jets should be forced to pass a lot in this game.
TE Zach Ertz (FD $5,600 /DK $3,500) I have no idea why Ertz is so cheap across the industry, but I’ll gladly take the discount and feature Ertz in many of my lineups. Ertz was targeted 7 times in Week 1 before being injured, turning the targets into 6 catches for 58 yards. He’ll get a shot at a Detroit defense that has allowed 6 TDs in 4 games against opposing TEs and is ranked dead last against the pass by Football Outsiders. A Carson Wentz/Zach Ertz stack is a very intriguing tournament play as well.
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