Stacks: MISS, TUL, PUR, COL
Optimal DK Plays: Sims, Ali, Burks
Optimal FD Plays: Sims, Mockobee, Bradley
Another Saturday, another dollar. Let’s dive into a huge day of football!
At QB, Jeff Sims stands out as the clear chalk on the slate. We saw Colorado get touched a bit by a mobile QB last weekend, and Sims is known for his legs. He ran 19 times for 91 yards last week, while also getting 114 in the air. Sims’ flaw is that he can turn it over with the best of them, and we expect Colorado to win this game, but we love his potential here. Trailing usually only helps QBs, and if Colorado sits back in coverage at all, Sims will burn them on the ground. At 7.2k on DraftKings and 8k on FanDuel, he is way underpriced and is an optimal option for us at QB this Saturday.
Following Sims, we have a grouping of decent options at QB. Michael Pratt is the second highest projected owned, but we believe he has one of the top upsides on the slate, which is why he’s popular. Pratt has shown the ability to use his legs when needed — he ran for 10(!) TDs last season — and also airing it out all over the field. He had an aDoT of 14 last weekend, showcasing his willingness to push the ball downfield. Pratt is an excellent option on this slate for upside, and we don’t mind using him in optimal lineups. He didn’t give us much intel on his favorite targets, so he is fine naked, but we will touch on some receiving options with him later on. Reaching up a bit more into the high priced range, we have Jaxson Dart. Dart made a believer out of tons of fans last week as he shredded in his opening game. He was near flawless, tossing for 334-4 on 23 attempts. He showed big potential on the turf, running 4 times for 36 yards. Dart and Pratt make for a fun game stack in GPPs as both teams are projected 4+ TDs. Much like Pratt, Dart can be used naked or paired with a WR, but it’s a bit more clear than Pratt on where the ball is going. You can use the projections to pair him with a WR that fits your build.
Alright….I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for me to write Shedeur Sanders so here it is. He’s projected to be decently owned, and he has a ton of upside against Nebraska. One issue is that he ran for -32 yards last weekend. They don’t design many carries for him, so that means taking big sacks is going to reduce his fantasy score quite a bit. He has upside, and CRYSTAL CLEAR stacking combos, so he’s one of our favorite GPP options on this slate to build a stack around, but with his lack of rushing we only like him paired with his pass catchers and used in GPPs.
Value wise at QB, we’ve got a handful of options to consider. Hudson Card, Jordan McCloud, and Cam Fancher. Card is the signal caller for Purdue, and in typical fashion the fantasy sites disrespect Purdue. Card is stackable and a rock solid value option in any format. McCloud only looked decent last week, but UVA boasted a bottom 15 defense rating (per PFF) in all of CFB. So for 5k, in a game JMU is favored, it’s hard to ignore the potential. McCloud is more GPP for us than cash oriented, but he really is a solid play as he’s second in PT/$ in our DK projections. Fancher is in an excellent spot against ECU, and the thought here is using Fancher while everyone else uses the Marshall RB (as they should, more on that next paragraph). In a game last week where Marshall was a huge favorite, they passed 11 times (36 total times in the game) on their first 3 drives… restating for emphasis: 11 of 15 plays to start in a game they were favored by 22. A couple big plays within that first 11 and we might just be cooking here in GPPs. Or in a close game they might pass a lot more, which would increase Fancher’s ceiling.
At RB, Rasheen Ali is the alpha dog. He’s our top optimal play and should be locked into all lineups. He had 18-137 even with Marshall throwing 36 times, and had a 73 yarder called back. He’s our top priority play, at any position. Donovan Edwards is also projected very high owned on this slate, and has huge potential as Michigan is favored by loads. In optimals, Edwards is a very good option. However, in GPP we don’t mind a fade of Edwards in favor of Blake Corum at WAY less ownership. Corum has shown more upside than most players in CFB, and is still the starter here. The carries might end up being close at the end of the game, but Corum had the first cracks in the red zone for them. Also worth noting that Edwards had 3 carries inside the 10 but wasn’t able to convert, while Corum was able to convert his close work — Corum showed he was one of the best in CFB at getting into the end zone last year as well. Also, don’t be afraid to roll out both Edwards and Corum in larger field GPP lineups, they’ve proven they can both feast in the same game.
Other top RBs for us are Quinshon Judkins, Ray Davis, Devin Mockobee, and Kaelon Black. Judkins is just a dog, plain and simple. Can be used any week, any lineup. A bonafide stud. The only downside to using him is that everyone knows he’s elite, so even when he doesn’t project much better than the other options, he’ll be higher owned. That makes him worth a fade in GPPs in my opinion because you can easily use just as good of plays at lower ownership. Davis is in a HUGE spot to smash and UK showed that he’s their guy. He has high projected ownership, but rightfully so. We love Davis here in any lineup format. Mockobee is a guy who seems poised for a major workload. He had 16 carries last week and 3 targets. He’s used all over the field, and has legitimate 20+ touch upside. Lastly, we have Kaelon Black. He splits carries a bit, but was the first RB on the field. He showed incredible explosiveness, and UVA looked bad against the run. Black also saw two targets but didn’t reel them in. The workload is decent, and his price is even better. On DK he’s the second best PT/$ play for us after Ali.
Now we get to the fun position, wide receiver. Deion Burks is the top optimal WR on DK. He’s fine naked, or stacked with Hudson Card. Burks had a 35% target share, so this is a complete funnel. The next two projected ownerships are Jimmy Horn and Travis Hunter. They’re high-priced, but had 13 and 14 targets respectively. Either can be used naked, or you can be a warrior and use them both in a stack with Sanders. Coach Prime said he’s going to get Hunter into the endzone this week, which might inflate his ownership (plus people just know he’s the frickin man because he plays on defense too, but that doesn’t help in DFS), so Horn might be the better GPP play here as he actually projects slightly better. That being said, if Coach Prime says it he probably means it, and the projections can’t really factor that in, so maybe Hunter is the better play. Weird spot but we think in some capacity you want exposure to this Colorado offense. Xavier Weaver also ran a ton of routes and saw 8 targets. He doesn’t project nearly as well as the other two, but he’ll be much lower owned as a result. Dane Key is in a huge total with Kentucky, and had a team-high 8 targets last week. He’s a great option on this slate at his price. Jaylin Noel also gets peppered with targets at a similar price range. He’s a near-lock to lead Iowa State in targets, and could reach nearly 1.75x value on catches alone. Xavier Restrepo is cheap as well, and has nice upside. He had the second most targets on the team, and proved to be a solid safety net for Miami. We like his value on this slate, but lean GPP with him. Key is the best play from this group for optimal lineups, followed by Restrepo, but Restrepo projects pretty low owned so he’s also excellent in GPPs.
A bit more on the GPP side, we’ve got some stacks to note. With Pratt, we like Chris Brazzell II, Jha’Quan Jackson, and Lawrence Keys III. Each one had 4 targets, and started. Keys led the team in routes, Jackson had a 26 aDoT and actually had a big drop as well, so his 103 could’ve been a lot more. On the other side of that game, there are a couple Ole Miss WRs to consider as well. Tre Harris went nuts last week with 6-133-4. He led the team with 9 targets. Jordan Watkins had 6, and Dayton Wade had 3. Harris was the alpha, but Watkins ran the most routes here. Wade actually ran more routes than Harris (26-21) but only had 3 targets. Wade had a 29 aDoT though, so the upside is bonkers while the floor is literally 0. Ayden Williams was technically listed in an “or” with Wade, and he had 6 targets but only ran 17 routes. If Zakhari Franklin plays, this could all be very jumbled, so his status is worth watching closely on Saturday (but actually we’ll just update you in Discord with the info you need).
Switching gears, let’s look into some Fanduel specific plays since there are a lot more games on the FD Main Slate than on DK. Tyler Shough projects to be one of the top QBs, and he funnel stacks well with Jerand Bradley. We love this combo in all formats. Drake Maye, Jeff Sims, and Bo Nix round out our favorite optimal QB options, while Hudson Card, Michael Pratt, and John Rhys Plumlee are our GPP options. At RB, Devin Mockobee is our top option, with Braelon Allen (who led Wisconsin with 7 targets last week), and Quinshon Judkins closely following. RB value isn’t as deep as we’d like, but Bhayshul Tuten, Jaylon Knighton, and British Brooks all project well. The aforementioned Bradley is our top WR, while Kobe Paysour and Travis Hunter trail closely behind him. Deion Burks is still firmly on our radar here, but his value isn’t as great with FD scoring and pricing. Javon Baker at only 6.5k is one of our favorite values on the slate, while Myles Price also has some value and can make for a full on TTU stack if you want to bet on them scoring a bunch of TDs. We want to prioritize stacks on this slate, and given the prices of guys like Bradley, Paysour, and Hunter, it is very possible to get two solid stacks in with 1-2 of the top RBs.
Conclusion: This DraftKings slate brings us a lot of value at WR, with great pay up options elsewhere. Jeff Sims, Michael Pratt, Jaxson Dart, and Hudson Card are the optimal options for us at the QB position, with Sims being our No. 1. Rasheen Ali is our lock at RB, with Quinshon Judkins, Donovan Edwards, Blake Corum, Ray Davis and Devin Mockobee as RB2 and flex options in optimal lineups. WR wise, it’s Deion Burks leading the pack, followed by the Colorado Combo of Travis Hunter and Jimmy Horn. Some WR value we love are Jaylin Noel, Dane Key, and Xavier Restrepo. You can game stack the Tulane/Ole Miss game, though it may lead your lineup on a more GPP route given the prices you’ll have to pay to do it. On that same wavelength, you could also run a Nebraska/Colorado game stack. With RBs like Ali and Black, it’s possible to get all the big pieces there and still field a great lineup. I know we’ve thrown a lot at you here, so we want to emphasize that we recommend starting optimal DK lineups with Sims, Ali, and Burks as your top priorities in every lineup.
On Fanduel, we love to start lineups with some combination of Maye, Sims, Nix, and Shough. From there, slotting in 1-2 of Mockobee, Allen, and Judkins is ideal. At WR, we like using some grouping of Paysour, Bradley, Hunter, or Burks. For tournaments, a stack is a great way to roll it out from here, perhaps going Maye+Paysour, Shough+Bradley, and using the projections to fill out the rest.
P.S. Remember, due to the scoring on FD, it is more viable to go one QB, while on DK we recommend always using two QBs. It’s still a bit more GPP to go without two QBs on Fanduel, but definitely not the cardinal sin it is on DK. In general, we’d just recommend using 2 QBs in every lineup and always put an RB in your flex on DraftKings.