Update: With TreVeyon Henderson now ruled OUT, we like looking at Chip Trayanum or Miyan Williams in GPPs. Since this will likely be a split backfield, we don’t suggest making major changes to your lineup. There is upside in the OSU RBs however as the Buckeyes have an implied total of 38.5 points.
Update: I have John Rhys Plumlee projected high because he was fully cleared last week but hadn’t practiced so they decided not to push him. He practiced fully all week and now I think he’ll start and play the whole game. There’s a massive ceiling here and I don’t think his ownership will get very high, so I like using him in GPPs.
Stacks:
DK: UNC, LSU, OU, UT, MIZZ
FD: UNC, LSU, COL, MIZZ
DK Optimal Plays
QBs: Daniels, Shrader, Cook
RBs: Shipley, L. Allen, Br. Allen, Harvey
WRs: Nabers, Burden, Hernandez, Kelly, Wease
FD Optimal Plays
QBs: Maye, Shrader, Dart, Jefferson
RBs: Brooks, Shipley, Skattebo, Harvey
WRs: Nabers, Burden, Wease, Baker, Walker
Finally, a Saturday without Colorado on the DK main slate! We’ve got some excellent upside plays here, with a stable of strong plays at each position. Let’s dig in, starting with QBs.
We have a solid group of QBs to choose from this slate, and fairly reasonable prices on them. For starters, Jayden Daniels is only $9,000 on DraftKings, despite being projected to be the highest scoring QB by 4 points. He’s been among the best dual-threat QBs in the country this year, responsible for 19 of LSU’s 29 TDs this season. He’s among our favorite options at QB when building your optimal lineup.
Garrett Shrader has been great this season. He’s rushed for 6 TDs, while also throwing for 8. Shrader is projected to be among the top scoring QBs on the slate, yet he is priced at $7,200. We love Shrader’s potential in this matchup, and he has a rock solid floor as well, thanks to his built in 5+ designed carries per game. Consider Shrader for optimal lineups this weekend at the QB position.
We got lucky with another excellent value this week in Brady Cook. Cook has been spectacular, tossing for 1,466-11. He also has proven that he is not a statue, rushing for 3 TDs. His Missouri Tigers are implied to score 28 points, and are 6 point underdogs. This is a perfect game script for a QB to produce. Cook is projected to score just 2 points less than Travis, and at 7.4k he is someone we will absolutely be looking at for our optimal lineups.
Florida State is implied to score 38 points this weekend, so a lot of people will be on Jordan Travis. Travis has been rock solid this season, but outside of Week 1 has a peak of just 41.5 DK points. He has not been running as much as previous seasons, with only 16 designed runs this year, and only 9 scrambles. Because of this, Travis has less than 100 yards rushing on the season thus far. The main emphasis with Travis in the past was his legs, rushing for 500-7 last season. Until he starts to run again, Travis is an overpriced pocket passer that may see less than normal opportunity with FSU favored by 24 points. We believe he can be faded this weekend.
We have a bit of tweener value here in Kyron Drones. He is extremely mobile, and has a projected PT/$ of 3.4, making him among the best QBs on the slate PT/$ wise. However, he has a brutal matchup with FSU. At 5.4k, it wouldn’t take much for Drones to be an excellent play though. Consider him a solid value in GPP.
Speaking of value, it feels imperative to mention Jason Bean here in case Jalon Daniels can’t play. Bean has shown to be serviceable under center, and can move a little bit with his legs. Kansas is implied to score 33 points in this one, and Bean has a PT/$ of 2.6, giving him solid value here. He’s a great option for GPP lineups should Daniels sit, we will update you with details on Daniels status as we get it.
In GPPs, we love the upside of Drake Maye. UNC is coming off a bye, and has a plus matchup here with Syracuse. The Orange have been hit for a 60% completion percentage, and nearly 10 yards per completion. Maye is projected to score the second most points among QBs, but could see an ownership dip being priced $500 above Jayden Daniels. We like the leverage and upside of Maye here in GPPs.
Both sides of the Red River Rivalry have some appeal this weekend. Dillon Gabriel certainly comes with upside. He’ll likely be in the positive game script, and he airs it out a ton. He has 78 attempts the past two weekends, even though OU has won both games by 2+ scores. This is great volume, and he’s got some rushing upside as well. Quinn Ewers offers us much of the same upside, except less volume. Still, he has tossed for 1,358-10 on the season while also running for 5 TDs. This is a game where he’ll need to step up if Texas wants to win, so we expect to see his attempts closer to 35 than the 30 he’s averaged on the season. We’ll dive into their stacks and gamestack down below.
Both the UNC/Syracuse game and the Texas/OU game provide us with fun GPP game stacking opportunities. Using both QBs from either of these games gives you big upside in a shootout.
Moving into the running back position, Will Shipley has too much volume to ignore. Clemson is projected to score 36 points this weekend and are favored by 21. This is a perfect opportunity for Shipley. In his last two games combined, Shipley has seen 37 carries and 6 targets. He’s the primary goal line back for the Tigers as well. Shipley is projected to score the fourth most points at the RB position, giving him excellent PT/$ of 3.4. He’s one of our first looks at RB when crafting optimal lineups this weekend.
On a similar vein, LeQuint Allen has a ton of appeal this weekend. He is a workhorse, in an offense projected to score 25 points. He does not have the projected script in his favor like Shipley, but his role in the air is much stronger. In a big loss to Clemson a weekend ago, Allen had 13 carries and 6 targets. At 5.8k, Allen makes for an excellent play in optimal lineups this weekend.
Braelon Allen has to be mentioned in the optimal discussion, due in large part to his being projected 23.9 points, the most among RB on the slate by a full point. While he is not the best value, he may have one of the best floor/ceiling combos on the slate. Allen finally started last game, and took on the lion’s share of carries for Wisconsin. He was excellent, rushing 16-116-2. He’s averaging 7.1 yards per carry, with 6 TD on the season. Braelon is worth your consideration in optimal lineups this weekend.
UCF gets Kansas this weekend, and they are projected to score 30 points this Saturday. RB RJ Harvey could benefit from their scoring greatly. Harvey has 71 attempts through 5 games, including 21 last time out. He has seven TD through 5 games, and had scored in every contest until being blanked against Baylor. Harvey is projected to be the top value at the RB position Saturday, and he is firmly on our optimal radar.
Virginia Tech is allowing 177 rushing yards per game on 4.6 yards per carry, so it seems obvious to dive into FSU runners, right? We thought the same thing, but the Seminoles are spreading carries so much. However, Trey Benson showed a tendency to break open plays last season, and we believe he could open this slate up on Saturday. He has had two tough matchups in LSU and Clemson, and a cupcake matchup that he absolutely smashed. He also faced a good matchup in a hurricane that he was mediocre in, but we’re mostly ignoring that game. He’s still the lead back on an FSU team that wants to run it 30+ times per game. As the main red zone back, we expect Benson to have ample opportunity to find pay dirt here with FSU implied to score 38 points. Benson could go under-owned given his lower workload and price point, but we believe his upside is 100+ with multiple TD. Consider him in your GPP lineups this Saturday.
Another consideration for GPP at the running back position, we like stacking a pair of Florida running backs. Vanderbilt gets tagged on the ground, and Florida has a pair of RB, Trevor Etienne, and Montrell Johnson averaging over 10 carries per game. This is a true split-backfield, with Etienne seeing 71 opportunities on the season and Johnson getting 70. You can use either one in GPP, but we don’t mind utilizing both in a lineup in larger field tournaments. Both of these players are projected to score 18+ fantasy points, and are priced at a reasonable spot for upside. Florida likes to run it — 36 times per game — and that number could increase here with the Gators’ sitting as 18 point favorites.
Another note for GPP is that some around the Florida Gators believe they could throw it more with Graham Mertz if Trevor Etienne out. Mertz is already a great value at 3.2 PT/$, but he could be a smash play if they actually throw it more here. We’re considering him as GPP in our lineups, and would prefer to get him stacked with Ricky Pearsall if we use him. Treyaun Webb also becomes a solid GPP value now at RB, though Montrell Johnson likely takes the lion’s share and becomes a great play.
We have two WR projected to score considerably more than the others in Malik Nabers and Luther Burden III. Nabers is the top target for LSU, averaging over 10 targets per game. He has exceptional upside, and is priced at only 6.5k. He makes for an excellent option in all lineups this weekend. Burden holds a 38% target share with 53 targets through five games. He has 641-5 this season, and also gets a handful of carries here and there.
Theo Wease of Missouri is an optimal option for us this weekend as well. He is projected to score 16 points, setting him at a rock solid 3.0 PT/$ this Saturday. He gets 25% of the targets for Missouri, who are in an excellent game script for passing. Wease saw 13 targets against Vanderbilt, and gained 118-1. He’s a solid optimal option here. However, if you use him and Burden in the same lineup, it becomes more GPP — more on this down below.
Carlos Hernandez stepped into the mix for Washington State last game, and he was brilliant. He played the third-most snaps among Wazzu WRs, and got targeted 8 times. The Cougars like to use multiple slot WRs, and Hernandez seems to be their favorite at that position while Lincoln Victor nurses an ankle injury. Hernandez provides us much needed value in optimal lineups this weekend. Hernandez’ teammate, Isaiah Hamilton, is also worth mentioning. He is the second slot they have been using, and saw 20 snaps last game. He seems to be clearly under Hernandez in the pecking order, but with everyone on Hernandez, Hamilton could offer excellent leverage in GPPs given that they are priced so similarly.
Josh Kelly is another optimal option at WR Saturday. He has been fed in the absence of Victor, gobbling up 11 targets last weekend. Wazzu is implied to score 28 points, and are four point underdogs here. This is an excellent spot for Kelly, who comes in as the fourth best WR value on DraftKings this weekend. He makes for an excellent optimal consideration.
We got an absolute gift Thursday as Devontez Walker was ruled eligible this weekend for UNC. He is expected to step into a high-opportunity role, and is at minimum price. Consider him in your lineups as optimal value. We believe the team has known about the result of Walker’s appeal for a while, so he is fully ready to go in this offense. This isn’t a spot to fade the chalk.
We have some intriguing stacks to look at on this slate. To start, there are three games with totals at 59.5 or higher — UNC/SYR (59.5), Red River Rivalry – OU/UT (60.5), LSU/Mizz (63.5), and KU/UCF (64). Filtering down more, the worst spread we have among those is UNC at -9.5, making these contests great spots for shootouts.
We’ll start with the lowest total and move upward. For UNC, Maye can be stacked with Tez Walker of course, and after Tez you could go with Nate McCollum who has a 35% target share the past two games. JJ Jones has also seen his involvement rise with a team-high eight targets last game. We like McCollum as a standalone GPP, but prefer Jones stacked. For Syracuse, Damien Alford and Donovan Brown have 31 targets a piece, giving them excellent opportunities to produce. We also like to look at Umari Hatcher, as his 17.0 aDoT could be huge if the UNC pass rush can’t get to the QB. We like this game stack in GPP, and believe you can use 2-4 pieces of this contest. With both Maye and Shrader being mobile, you could also just run both QBs unstacked, although you might as well take the free square on Walker if you have Maye.
The Red River Rivalry boasts a huge amount of viable DFS plays. We’ve mentioned both QBs above, so let’s hit on the skill players. On the Texas side you can use Jonathon Brooks, Xavier Worth, Adonai Mitchell or Ja’Tavion Sanders. Given the expected game script, Brooks makes the most sense, but we’re looking for a shootout in a game stack. Brooks’ ceiling game has the best chance of coming in a contest where Texas controls and wins the game. For that reason, we like using Brooks more as a standalone GPP piece rather than a gamestack. Worthy and Mitchell are by far the top two targets here, seeing 35 and 32 targets respectively. Sanders has a questionable tag heading into this one, but if he gets the full go we love his outlook in the underneath TE role.
Given the playstyle of both teams, we lean toward the passing side for OU. This presents us with Drake Stoops — who leads the team with 30 targets — Andrel Anthony, and Jalil Farooq. Anthony is our favorite of these options, as he has a 14.4 aDoT and 100+ in two games already this season (on 3.99 yards per route run!). He’s the top target here and has Gabriel’s trust. Stoops is more of a safety net, while Farooq plays a bit of a complementary role outside. However, the coaching staff moved him around the formation more last week in order to get Nic Anderson to get more outside reps. Anderson has an aDoT of 19 on the season, so he’s got quite the ceiling. Stoops and Farooq are purely gamestack options for us, while Anthony and Anderson offer GPP upside. Please note that Anderson is the riskier of the two, as he gets 2-4 targets a game. It’s just the massive aDoT and route tree that gives him appeal.
This LSU game packs quite a punch, and it’s VERY concentrated. Daniels as mentioned above is a DFS goldmine. You can use him naked or stacked here. We already mentioned Nabers and Burden — they can be used in any lineup this weekend — so let’s touch on the others. After Nabers, Brian Thomas has 40 targets and the next closest LSU Tiger only has 17. Thomas has big play upside, and has actually scored more TDs than Nabers this season. You can stack both Nabers and Thomas with Daniels in GPP lineups, but salary will stretch thin so you’ll need some extra value elsewhere if you take this route. We’ve already mentioned Missouri, but let’s dive in a bit more. Burden gets 38% of targets and Theo Wease gets 25% of targets. Burden and Wease make a decent GPP three-man with Brady Cook, as we have nearly 65% of the Tigers passes going to two players. We don’t mind a full Cook-Burden-Wease stack in GPP lineups as the upside there is excellent. You can use Cook-Wease or Cook-Burden in optimal as well.
For Kansas and UCF, it’s really not as fun. Kansas doesn’t have the aerial options to make this work, so it’s basically Jason Bean and Devin Neal. Neal has excellent upside, seeing 10+ carries in four of five games thus far. He showed his ceiling with a 130 yard, three TD outing against Nevada earlier in the year. As for UCF, we have three players in the 20+ target range: Kobe Hudson, Javon Baker, and Xavier Townsend. Hudson has been involved a solid amount lately, but Baker saw a team high 7 targets last weekend. We consider all these pieces, along with QB Timmy McClain, GPP. So to summarize, you can use any UCF WR in GPP, and RJ Harvey is the bright spot optimal option. It sucks to only have one optimal option for a 64.5 total, but here we are.
On Fanduel, the top QBs are all priced extremely high. Drake Maye looks solid here, as he is projected 4 points less than the top projected QB, but is $2,000 cheaper. We touched on Maye above for DK, and love his potential here with UNC implied to score 34 points. We like looking Maye’s way when crafting optimal lineups on Fanduel.
Garrett Shrader is an excellent option here as well. He’s got a great PT/$ of 2.6 and a solid script to work with. You can see more on his full writeup up above, and it holds true that he is underpriced here as well. Consider Shrader in optimal builds this Saturday.
At QB, Jaxson Dart is projected to score 27.78 points, yet is priced $900 below Jayden Daniels. He has an excellent matchup vs. Arkansas. He has thrown for 1,484-11 on the season.
KJ Jefferson is back on the map, and he is continuously being priced at excellent value. The Razorback QB has passed for 1000-10 thus far, while also averaging 40 yards rushing per game. This built in rushing floor is huge for his value. Jefferson has a PT/$ of 2.6, which is among the top QBs on the slate. He’s on our shortlist of QB options here.
We’d be remiss to not mention the top projected point scorer at QB, Jayden Daniels. As mentioned above, Daniels is one of the best DFS QBs there is, playing a part in 19 out of 29 LSU TDs this season. He’s GPP due to his price being the highest by $900, but only being projected 1.2 more points.
Tahj Brooks is at it again at the RB position. With Morton under center, the Red Raiders love to get this man involved, HEAVILY. Brooks is projected the most points among RB on this slate, and it priced at a measly 8.4k. He had 21 carries in their last contest, and 25 the weekend prior. This is full on workhorse mode. Brooks is our favorite RB for optimal lineups this weekend.
Just like on DraftKings, Will Shipley is a fantastic optimal option here. He’s projected to score 19 points, which is the third highest among RBs on the slate. His role in the Clemson offense is excellent, and this script is fantastic as well. Shipley is a strong optimal consideration for us this weekend.
Cam Skattebo continues to produce, yet his price doesn’t move. He is averaging 18.8 opportunities per game this season, and has scored five TD in four games this season. He is working as a bellcow here, and at only 8.6k, he’s one of the best RB options on the slate.
RJ Harvey again? Yes please. Just like DraftKings, he is underpriced in a huge workload role. He has the highest PT/$ on the slate for RB, and we love him for optimal builds.
We like a look at Donovan Edwards at the RB position for value in optimal builds. He has the highest PT/$ on the slate among RBs, and is only 5.3k. He’s an excellent option at RB this weekend.
Trey Benson’s GPP upside is huge on Fanduel at only 8.3k. We mentioned it on the DK writeup: He is projected to be low owned, giving us huge leverage with his multi-TD upside.
At WR, Xavier Weaver pops up heavily for us again. He’s projected 18 points and a PT/$ of 2.0, which ranks second among WR. He has 11+ targets in each of the past four games, and has been the top snapping WR in every game this season. Weaver’s opportunities are just too much to ignore, and we love him in optimal builds this weekend. Staying in Colorado, Jimmy Horn is an excellent option this weekend as well for the Buffs. He had 8 targets last weekend, and caught 7 for 84-2. Both Horn and Weaver can be stacked with QB Shedeur Sanders as well. Given their outlook this weekend, they can both be used in optimal builds.
Malik Nabers and Luther Burden are projected to score 3 points clear of every other WR on FD. However, they’re pretty pricey. We like fitting in one of them in your optimal lineup. As I build, I find myself using Nabers more often because Theo Wease is priced at just 7.3k. Coming off his 13 target game, Wease is an excellent option here, but is flying under the radar ownership wise. We love fitting Wease into our lineups, and it makes for an excellent run back against Nabers.
A note on the above paragraph, Burden is still absolutely an optimal option here, we just like spreading it out and getting one LSU and one Missouri WR. You can absolutely use both Burden and Wease, but then it becomes a bit GPP because you’ll want Brady Cook, since he likely has to go off for both Burden and Wease to produce, and Cook is more of a GPP play.
Javon Baker is just too cheap on Fanduel this weekend. He saw a team high 7 targets a week ago, and has shown great rapport with QB Timmy McClain. Baker has a 1.7 PT/$, placing him 6th among WR. Baker is projected just a point below teammate Kobe Hudson — who is also decent value — despite being $600 less. The savings, coupled with Baker’s increased role lately leads us to preferring him over Hudson. It’s also worth noting that Vegas projections lead us to believe that UCF could get into a shootout here, as their contest has a 64.5 total. We like Baker as an option in optimal builds.
Same thing here with Devontez Walker, except he is a smidge above the min. We don’t know his role yet, but it seems clear he’ll be involved from the jump. He’s an optimal consideration.
KJ Jefferson can be stacked with Andrew Armstrong in GPP. Armstrong has one of the top PT/$ on Fanduel at the WR position, and it’s for good reason. Armstrong has 28 targets across the past three weeks, emerging as one of Jefferon’s top targets.
The WR are a bit clumped projection wise, with nothing really popping out for GPP. Upside wise, Marvin Harrison Jr. will always be on our radar. He has such a huge ceiling, and will get his targets each week. We like stacking to be GPP this weekend, because we have the value to make optimal lineups work cleanly. So using a QB with your WR, or an extra WR with a QB — like Cook – Burden – Wease for example — is a great way to make your lineup unique this weekend on Fanduel.
Conclusion: The quarterback position is the most imperative one in CFB DFS, but luckily we have a handful of solid options. Some combination of Jayden Daniels, Garrett Shrader, and Brady Cook will have you off and running in the optimal direction on DraftKings. Daniels is projected to be the top scoring QB, while Shrader and Cook offer loads of value. At RB, Will Shipley, LeQuint Allen, Braelon Allen, and RJ Harvey are our favorite options for optimal. Shipley, L. Allen and Harvey offer excellent PT/$, while Allen is projected to pace the RB position in points. At WR, we believe Malik Nabers, Luther Burden, Carlos Hernandez, Josh Kelly, Theo Wease, and Devontez Walker make excellent options for optimal. Nabers and Burden are projected to score the most points at the WR position by six and three points respectively, making them two of our favorite WR options on the slate. By combining the above players, we believe you’ll have an optimal construction, suitable for all formats on Saturday.
On Fanduel it’s a lot of the same at QB, with Garrett Shrader being one of our favorite QB options due to his excellent value. Drake Maye, Jaxson Dart, and KJ Jefferson are our other favorite options on FD at QB. Tahj Brooks, Will Shipley, Donovan Edwards, Cam Skattebo, and RJ Harvey make up the RB group we like for optimal. The prices on these RBs are excellent, giving you a ton of value to fill out other positions. At WR we like Malik Nabers, Luther Burden, Theo Wease, Javon Baker, and Devontez Walker. Nabers and Burton are projected a ton of points this weekend, so even at their premium price they are two of our favorite options. Don’t be afraid to stack, and make sure to utilize the value we have available. Let’s eat.