Fantasy Football Today - Week 9 NFL DFS Main Slate - Monitoring the weather might win your game this week

Episode Date: November 4, 2023

Join our Week 9 DFS Contest Sia Nejad and Mike McClure give you some of the best strategies to dominate your Week 9 Main slate 00:00 - Start 01:57 - Seahawks (+6) at Ravens (44) 05:08 - Cardinals (+8) at Browns (37.5) 06:41 - Commanders (+3) at Patriots (40.5) 12:06 - Bears (+8.5) at Saints (41) 17:40 - Vikings (+4.5) at Falcons (37.5) 21:43 - Buccaneers (+2.5) at Texans (40) 24:04 - Rams (+3.5) at Packers (38.5) 27:48 - Colts (-2.5) at Panthers (44) 31:44 - Cowboys (+3) at Eagles (47) 37:16 - Giants (+1.5) at Raiders (37) 'Fantasy Football Today DFS' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT DFS team on Twitter: @FFToday, @Mike5754 @SiaNejad Watch FFT DFS on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today DFS on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does possible sound like for your business? It's having to spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply FFT DFS. My name is Sian Najad. Of course, I am joined by Mike McCore on Fridays. We do our game-by-game preview, which, of course, features Mike's top three at each position and our cheat sheets for the main slate.

Mike, I got to start with this. How are you doing? How did you do last week in DFS? Not as good as I wanted to do. I did fine. I was very big on Dak Prescott, very big on the Cowboys. I remember. I had Jake Ferguson, so that was great.

I did not actually have a lineup with CeeDee Lamb somehow. I had nine of ten Dak Prescott lineups, none of them with CeeDee Lamb, all of them with Jake Ferguson. So it was good, but very disappointing when you miss out on such a ceiling game like that. And if I recall, you know, first of all, you nailed it on Dak Prescott. And we did talk about featuring CeeDee Lamb, Jake Ferguson, maybe throwing in like a Michael Gallup in there.

But was that because you ended up paying up at the receiver position somewhere else? about featuring cd lamb jake ferguson maybe uh throwing in like a michael gallup in there but was that because you ended up paying up at the receiver position somewhere else because i remember cooper cop might have been uh somebody you were featuring yep that was it and i i was so big on ferguson at the tight end position uh and the value on michael gallup and then over on fanduel uh brandon cooks so i i just didn't get to cd lamb lamb and it was a little painful for sure. Fair enough. All right. Well, let's let's head to a 10 game slate. This is interesting because last week we had a 13 game slate. I see some of you already in the chat. We appreciate you there.

And by the way, if you're not already joined up with our FFT DFS contest, it's going to be in the podcast description, the YouTube description, of course, and it will probably be dropped in this chat as well. Scott says love mike and sia scott we love you too and albert says hello to all of us uh albert marroquin i'm just trying to pronounce names at this point hopefully i got that one right but let's kick it off so this is interesting mike i think we're kicking it off with a game that you might like here uh we've got the seahawks plus five and a half plus six depending on where you look at the ravens it's around a 44 point total. Let me just ask you right off the bat because Lamar was somebody. So what's funny for me, Mike, is last week I didn't do poorly,

but I didn't do great either. I basically lost like 30 or 40 percent of my investment last week. The reason I say it didn't go poorly is because I had so much Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers that I should have lost my entire bankroll from last week. And it turns out I didn't because I had some Joe Burrow stacks and I played the afternoon slate, which helped me out here and there. But long story short, I think a lot of people are really disenchanted by Lamar just coming off of last week. We have the recency bias there. Are you on this game, and is Lamar part of the conversation? Yes, I love a bounce-back opportunity for Lamar. He is my favorite quarterback this week.

Spoiler alert, I like him a lot. I got the Ravens helmet up here behind me here for that reason. I like this matchup. I don't think Seattle is as good as people think. I think they've had some fortunate scheduling, but I really don't think they've played a ton of great quarterbacks. I also expect them to be a little flat. You know, this is the point in the season where you have to look

at the West Coast teams traveling to the East Coast with an early start time. This is the part of the year where it really starts to matter on those time zone changes. So I like the Ravens here a lot. I like Lamar a lot. I love his pass catchers in Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews. But I think this is a great, great bounce back opportunity. I think Seattle is a touch overrated because of the QBs they played.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point about the QBs they played. And I'll ask you this. If he's your favorite QB, does that make the stack Lamar to like Zay Flowers? Is Mark Andrews getting in the conversation? Andrews is 6,800. So he's starting to get priced up. If you recall, a couple of weeks ago, he was like in the mid 5K range. Now that's out the door.

But Zay Flowers price is pretty much stayed stagnant in that mid 5K range. He's 5,700 this week. I mean, I assume it's Lamar to Zay. And I assume Gus Edwards isn't in the conversation, and Mark Andrews maybe is priced too high? Yeah, that's basically what it's going to be. The primary stack will be Lamar to Zay Flowers. I will have some Mark Andrews sprinkled in. We're not talking position by position just yet, but just to give a little perspective on where I'm at on Mark Andrews. He is the second highest known tight end for me in terms of my exposure. So how I generate that, I tell the computer to generate 50 lineups.

He's showing up in 16% of them. Logan Thomas is an 18% and then TJ Hawkinson 14%. So what that's saying is, is there's no one for me at tight end that's just like such an obvious play. That he is the second highest exposure but it's not a situation where i've got travis kelsey in 70 like we do some weeks um so i will be playing him uh but i'm not focused on him like i am zay flowers okay it's interesting you bring up logan thomas because uh he's 3500 on draft kings and we'll get to that game against the patriots but i have some opinions uh some stacks I like specifically in that game that I think will raise some eyebrows in the chat.

But we'll get there soon enough. Actually, that's going to be the next game we cover after the Cardinals, plus eight at the Browns, 37.5 point total there. Not a lot to be interested in here, Mike, to be honest with you. I'm just, you know, with the backup quarterbacks at play, PJ Walker, of course, and then it looks like Clayton Toon most likely rolling out for the Cardinals as opposed to Kyler Murray. Of course, Joshua Dobbs traded just a few days ago. Any interest in anything here? By the way, we got to monitor wind and possible precipitation in Cleveland as well. Yeah, there's really only one player that I'm getting to here

and assuming they're active and playing and it's David Njoku. It's a similar thing. It's a tight end looking for athletic tight ends that can catch passes. $3,800. Love the price point. He was a limited participant in practice on Thursday, has an ankle injury. I don't expect it to keep him out of the game. So something to monitor.

The situation where you would play him is likely where you don't want to play logan thomas or you don't want to play dalton schultz um kind of want to get just a little bit different i think that david and joku is really the only piece i care about here at the running back position uh jerome ford get into the conversation at all kareem hunt uh i may have spoke too soon let me check that they're definitely not at the top two or three um jerome ford's like the 12th so i have him like five percent so like fringe player pool but not not going to be anywhere near a priority for me gotcha and i'm checking out his game log nine rushes for 37 yards uh only one reception last week but uh you had 5300 if you try there might

be some other discount running backs to talk about by the way but he's he's certainly somebody at least to maybe consider okay let's talk about this commanders game so uh by the way again we have a 10 game slate i believe we only have three four o'clock games so this is the third game we're going to talk about on the one o'clock slate commanders plus three at the patriots we're looking at a 40 and a half point total as i double check that total make sure it hasn't moved in any significant way. And it's gone up to 41. Okay, so that's, I guess, good news because, Mike, I like this game a lot. Even though it's a lower total, obviously, but on this slate, it's not that low because we've got a lot of totals in the high 30s. But when I look at Mac Jones and I look at like DeMario Douglas, for example, if you do a

stack like that, which is 4,900 to 4,000, you can pretty much do anything you want. You can get the pieces you want from that Eagles Cowboys game. You can get the high end running backs that may get a lot of volume, both in the running and the passing game. I'm talking about like maybe the Alvin Kamara, Saquon Barkley's, Josh Jacobs of the world. Two of those three, if not all three, are probably going to be a little chalky. But am I crazy for rolling out Mac Jones? Listen, this is a terrible Washington defense. And now they're even more terrible without their primary defensive ends, their edge rushers. I understand that could mean maybe running the ball a little bit more with Ramondre Stevenson. I see him being kind of a value play too, but I like, I like the Mac Jones angle. What say you? Yeah, I think it's all viable

and interesting. You know, I think the thing that you pointed out that really makes a ton of sense is this total at 40 and a half, you should treat this basically as like a 44 and a half total on a normal NFL week, normal NFL slate. Like there are a ton of low totals out there, a lot of backup quarterbacks in play. So I don't mind it at all. My preference will be to play Douglas as a one-off and then to play Ramondre Stevenson as a one-off, but that's mostly because I'm playing a ton of Lamar Jackson. If I wasn't all the way up at Lamar,

I don't mind the cheap quarterback because like you said, you can get literally anything else you want. Um, and that's a way more viable strategy over on DraftKings where you go get what you want, which is typically someone that's going to excel in the PPR format. So yeah, I like it. I think it's totally viable. Um, I'm not going to play Mac Jones, but I will have Douglas and I will have Ramondre Stevenson for sure. By the way, Marty, your question is super valid. I actually forgot to cover runbacks in that Ravens game. I'll get to that in a second,

but let me ask you this because I think a lot of people will also be intrigued by Sam Howell on the Tuesday show with Megan Schaub. We talked about pass rate over expectation and even in neutral game scripts, partially because of the inefficient running game that Washington has. Sam Howell's chucking the ball around, and he's obviously pretty inexpensive.

5,800, priced up a little bit. Terry McLaurin, 5,600. Jahan Dotson, 5K. And then, of course, Logan Thomas, who we referred to earlier at 3,500. If people were building, let's say, three stacks, would Sam Howell at least be in the conversation, maybe in one of those three for you or no? Very close, yes. He certainly is someone that's popping in the conversation maybe in one of those three for you or no? Very close, yes. He certainly is someone that's popping in the player pool a little bit,

as is Mac Jones, to your credit, actually, down at the bottom here. So they're both very, very viable. As far as bringbacks and stacks, I think Terry McLaurin is fine. I prefer him over Dotson, but my strong preference here is still going to be Logan Thomas and that's mostly just due to the positional requirement at tight end exactly I think I'm going to be running a Mac Jones Demario Douglas with maybe a Logan Thomas run back even though Terry McLaurin's a great run back too I'll probably try to include him in some of my plays as well because he's just getting all of the volume so if this game script does kind of cater to uh more passing which i expect it to then i think terry mcclaren

is going to be the beneficiary of that from a target standpoint i mean i'll just throw it out there mike gasecki's 2600 listen he doesn't run a lot of routes he doesn't catch a lot of targets but he does sometimes get those red zone targets and again against washington with with the receiver core kind of banged up we know kendrick bourne is out I could see them using Gusecki as more of like a in that kind of wide receiver slot role so he's not going to get a lot of targets he might only get three or four but that doesn't mean he's not going to pay off his price so again if you're really trying to save money maybe you play two tight ends like those two tight end sets have been working on pretty well let's go back real quick to that Lamar game, Mike, because if you're playing

Lamar stacks, I'm curious, are you running it back? We have Kenneth Walker at 7k. We have DK Metcalf at 6,900 Tyler Lockett, only 6,200. When I look at that Tyler Lockett's the one that kind of stands out to me, but maybe you're not playing anybody on the run back. I don't know. Yeah. Initially not going to play a ton of run back. Just, you know, the thing that you have to consider on the run back sometimes is you still need to be price sensitive overall. And when you're stacking someone like Lamar at his salary, it does get a little more prohibitive.

And you're typically better off just building out more optimal type lineups versus the true game theory stack it up kind of stuff, just based off price sensitivity um so i'm not planning to stack that game really it's mostly just raven's onslaught basically uh the one guy that does slide in is tyler lockett as you mentioned at 6200 um i expect him to go i expect dk mech have to go but just know both of those guys have been dealing with lingering injuries um but lockett is the only one that's actually in my fireball okay absolutely um we have the bears plus eight and a half at the saints this is a dome environment i believe we've got the total still at 41 here

mike you know on tuesday i talked about derrick carr a little bit you know we know derrick carr is not exactly like the greatest quarterback, but he still manages to pile up yards. And against the Bears, that's certainly in play. But also, you know, in the running game, it's in play too. And then, of course, Taysom Hill sort of throws a wrench in this a little bit, depending on how much he is used, particularly on the goal line. I don't hate a Derek Carr stack to like a Chris Olave or a double stack with Olave

and let's say Alvin Kamara, for example, I'll probably end up shying away from that mostly because of the Taysom Hill factor. Kamara is going to be a chalky play. He makes sense at 8,100. I like him. I'm probably going to be playing him, but I like Olave as a one-off. Do you like any Saints and on the Bears side? I'm not really interested in anybody.

Anybody you like there? Nobody I really like on the Bears side. You know not really interested in anybody. Anybody you like there? Nobody I really like on the Bears side. You know, I love Alvin Kamara. I think that this is nearly a perfect spot for him. I think that there will be involvement in the passing game. I think the Bears could put up just enough resistance to keep this at, you know, that 7 to 10 point game where you're still really, you know, looking to milk some clock, really looking to protect the ball, be a little more conservative,

which plays into Alvin Kamara's hands significantly. So I love him. As far as Olave, I like Olave as a one-off. He's someone that is in my player pool. I'm not going to get to Carr. The other thing I would say is I don't, I don't think it's a terrible spot for Michael Thomas. You know, the skillset, everything has definitely changed throughout his career, obviously. At 4,700 though, I think that it might be okay to take a shot on him now that the price point is again, 4,700. So speaking of 4,700, let's talk about Taysom Hill who listen, he's,

he got nine rush attempts, 63 yards, two touchdowns last week. He had a pass. He had a catch. I mean, he's 4,700 at the tight end position. I think a lot of people think of him as, especially in like year long fantasy, you know, you get them and you put them in the tight end spot. It feels like a little bit of a cheat code. I'm wondering, it's not reliable like i obviously taste him he'll we don't know exactly how much volume he's going to get is he somebody though that you might put in whether it's cash or tournaments and just kind of force him in

at 4700 not for me i i get it i uh i under it's frankly frustrating whether you have kamara or her car or whoever um you know he's certainly got the upside. It's truly just kind of a volume issue for me. You know, I really want to play him in games that I think are going to be a little bit more competitive. I think that's where he's going to get deployed just a little bit more. So personally, I'm not going to go that route. I know he's got a ton of touchdown equity, which is why we have some interest. Personally, I think the best bet there still, you know, I talk about it a lot is

look in the betting market, bet him to score an anytime touchdown. He's not, if you really are like on the fence about playing him, bet him to score an anytime touchdown. At 4,700 bucks, he is not doing enough in the game without a touchdown to be needed in your dfs lineup um and the reality is is he could have a six yard touchdown run score eight fantasy points and you would have been better off just cashing the uh the anytime touchdown but so yeah fair enough um it's interesting like the tyson bajan experience has actually gone pretty well for the bears relatively speaking but if the saints just get all over him it it's his third game. We've got more tape on him. You could see a lot of short fields, which really could benefit everybody,

but specifically maybe Taysom Hill and, of course, Alvin Kamara. So I'm really curious to see where that game goes. I like Tyson Bajan. I'll say this. He is really a short area thrower, so don't be surprised if the Bears burn up a lot of clock with just dinking and dunking it down the field because, actually, I thought Bajan has been really impressive as it relates to that specifically over his his first two starts. And by the way, Cole Komet, he caught 10 of 10 targets from Tyson Bajan last week for 79 yards.

Well, listen, that's not going to be replicated. But I'm curious if you're interested at all in Cole Komet. I mean, I think that you kind of have to at least take note of it uh at that point so let me uh check he might like the tight end position is so spread out for me this week um yeah he is there about eight percent ferguson eight percent and joku 12 schultz 12 hawkinson 14 andrew 16 and thomas 18 so he's there in the player pool definitely playable i'm going to be i'm just telling everybody right now and i haven't looked at it. I'm going to be, I'm just telling everybody right now, and I haven't looked at it yet. I'm going to be looking at receptions props for Cole Komet specifically

in the betting market. I probably won't get to him in DFS, but I certainly don't think it's a bad play at 3,900. All right, well, we're going to move on next to Vikings and Falcons. But before we do that, we're going to hear a message from our partners. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you

safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe visit ontarioonecall.ca it's free it's easy it's the law data sourced from the orcga 2023 dirt report we're back on fft dfs thanks for joining us hit the like button uh write a review for us that would be great on apple podcasts or spotify or wherever you listen to our content a review would be super helpful uh minnesota at atlanta atlanta is a three and a

half point favorite here or i think it might be four and a half i'll have to double check that while we're talking we've got a 37 and a half point total nonetheless obviously we're moving on to taylor heineke we've got jaron hall for minnesota it looks like i don't think dobbs is going to be playing this week most likely next Mike, feel free to confirm that for me. If you want, uh, Drake London, I don't know that he's playing with his groin injury, but that's something we have to monitor as well. Uh, what are you interested in? If anything in this game, I'm interested in Minnesota side with, uh, Jaron Hall, actually, uh, believe it or not. I think that, uh, first of all, i don't think the falcons defense

is very good i think some of that was evident by what we watched will levis and the titans do against them uh last week uh they're dealing with some injuries there now it's in a dome in a controlled environment super friendly when you're a backup quarterback coming in making your first start like that that's definitely the environment you want to do it in uh but the thing that i like about hall is he was a very competent passer in college football, but I think he's got enough mobility here. I think he's got 30 to 40 yards of rushing upside. I think it's going to help extend drives.

I like the price point. It's a huge opportunity for him, obviously. But I don't think this Falcons defense is that good. So I like Hall as one of my quarterbacks this week. I like Hawkinson. I like Addison. I like the pass catchers there. On the Atlanta side, I don't think London is going to play.

I think any of those receivers are viable and interesting, but I'm more interested in the Vikings side here. Yeah, it's interesting because when I looked at the Taylor Heineke experience, listen, I'm a Taylor Heineke fan. He's only 200 more than Jaron Hall. Certainly doesn't have the rushing equity, but he can sling it a little bit. I mean, this is a really low total, so I don't know that he's going to be doing that. But without Drake London, you kind of wonder who the receiver is going to be. You got Van Jefferson, who's just not a volume guy. Kaderil Hodge, Mack Hollins at 3,500. I just don't know

who the primary receiver is going to be. And it lends itself to me thinking maybe this is a Kyle Pitts game at 4,100. But listen, Mike, that's probably like the sixth tight end

I've mentioned already and we're only through five games. Like, you can only play so many tight ends. I just wonder, Kyle Pitts at 4,100, anybody to even consider knowing that we like

so many other tight ends here? For me, no, but it wouldn't shock me at all. it would not shock me at all uh if he did pop in this kind of game so i i'm not going to get there but and he's not in my player pool but wouldn't wouldn't shock me all right uh we can move on from this game if you have any well you know i i do have to ask about bijan robinson actually before we move on first of all, I assume if you're playing Jaron Hall, I assume you're stacking him, but I don't know that for a fact given who Jaron Hall is.

Is that somebody you would play naked, or you'd couple him with a Jordan Addison or a K.J. Osborne or a T.J. Hawkinson at 5,200? A little bit of both. I will likely have one lineup without a stack and then one with a stack. The primary would be Hawkinson and then Addison. And how about Bijan Robinson? I'm not sure on Bijan yet.

I'm waiting just a little bit longer. I'm probably going to be off. I think that he's – we all know the upside that he's got there. It's just with the quarterback change and everything, I'm probably going to be off of it. Yeah, there's so many other running backs I think I'd rather play that are honestly, because of the stacks I'm playing, I'm playing cheaper stacks for the most part,

and I'm going to pile up. I know this is sort of contrary, Mike, to what you normally do and advise, but I'm probably going to be paying up a lot for running back, paying down for my stack, and maybe like a discount receiver here and there discount tight end so uh that's how i'm going to do it and by the way greg goose hayes good observation if you're watching us on youtube he says i've noticed mike's helmets match his favorite plays of the week uh very good observation and you notice there's quite a few helmets in there uh and uh they are uh usually matching his favorite plays of the week so uh good job there greg goose hayes and music mike says these byq these byu qbs uh byu qbs uh

suck i mean listen they're not great but he's 4800 so let's let's talk about the price too uh buccaneers plus two and a half at the texans texans coming off a very underwhelming loss at carolina carolina picked up its first win last week i really didn't like how texas the texans played it i mean the panthers were basically just having light boxes and inviting the texans to run the ball and great game plan from carolina because they're running the houston running backs aren't very good so you know damian pierce devin singletary like it just wasn't happening for them. Damian Pierce appears to be a little banged up.

I'm not interested in any of this game, Buccaneers, two and a half point dogs at the Texans, but I will say this. I mean, I liked CJ Stroud last week. It would be kind of weird for me to say like, Oh, all of a sudden, you know, I don't like them at home in a dome environment with guys like tank Dell and Nico Collins. So I'm not fully against the Texan stack. I just haven't gotten there. Have you?

I have not. Yeah, I'm not going to play the Texan side this week. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, I think the only thing I could see getting to in a tournament, if you're playing lots of lineups, I don't dislike Mike Evans at 7,300. I think that the high-end wide receiver game is interesting this week. You know, Cooper Cupp, who knows where we're exactly at. A.J. Brown, C.D. Lamb in the same game,

but against decent defensive competition as well. So I think that the higher-end wide receiver that has two touchdown upside, I think it's a little more thin than normal this week. Yeah, I agree. You know, Chris Godwin, interestingly, is 7K, only 300 less than Mike Evans. That disparity was, that gap was a lot bigger over the last few weeks. So I don't think I'm going to be on anything on either side. Kay Dotton at 3K. I mean, I guess there's probably other discount tight ends you could take, but I think Kay Dotton is going to secure a few catches, but I just,

I'm not playing that. I'll say this before we move on to the Rams and the Packers. I still think if you're playing three or four different stacks, I think CJ Stroud to Nico or Tank Dell is at least in play. So I don't want to completely be dismissive of it. I just don't think I'm getting there because usually, just so everybody knows, I play like two stacks and I just have variations of those lineups

with my other players, sometimes three stacks. But the last few weeks, it's been really just like two quarterbacks I focused on and then I've kind of like, you know, had people kind of in and out

with my player pool from there, starting from that, the starting point. Rams, plus three and a half at the Packers, a 38 and a half point total. Well, battle of backup running backs. Yeah call jordan love a backup running back they call him a starter but

i don't have to call him a starter uh brett rippin on the other side because it looks like matt stafford is going to be um probably out for i'm guessing two to three weeks i'm really not interested in anything on the ram side i don't want to get mixed up with the running backs either because I don't know how many touches Royce Freeman's going to get relative to Darrell Henderson. On the Packers side, though, I do have some interest. I think a love stack, even though I just kind of was very dismissive of him, is at least interesting.

But more interesting to me, if the Packers want to start winning games, listen, Aaron Jones is not fully healthy. Maybe he'll be healthy this game. I'm kind of doubting that, but if they want to win games, I think they got to get the ball in the hands of Christian Watson. And now that he's only 4,900, to me, if you're playing a tournament, I feel like there's so much upside there. Even though if you look at the stat sheet, you know, he's been very inefficient. The balls he's been thrown have not been very catchable, but I just got to think, if you're trying to get a W, Christian Watson has to be featured, maybe in the short area,

maybe down the field as well. Any interest in anybody in this game? What do you think of my Watson take at 4,900 on DraftKings? I think Watson is viable. He's in my player pool, admittedly, near the bottom. Cooper Cupp is also in the player pool, not in the top five or six, around the 10th most used wide receiver. I think they're fine, honestly. I think that this game could see some movement. I think that they could move the football and have some success here. I think

both of these quarterbacks, you know, you can say what you will. I think that they are fine in the sense of being able to move the football here. So I don't mind it. I'm not on it in any way, really, but it would not shock me at all if either one of these quarterbacks had two passing touchdowns in this game. Fair enough. All right. Before we move on to the four o'clock games, anything else on these two games, by the way? I mean, I can't imagine there's anybody else in your player pool on either side. No, just if you're a Mountain West fan, tune in. You get to see your Jordan Love and Brett Rippon. If you're a college football Mountain West fan, I was from the DFS days, but that's really the only interest here.

Yeah. So if I recall, that's Utah State and Boise State. Again, I just was kind of shaking my head. I'm not going to pretend I'm a scout or anything, but it was his second to last year that Jordan Love was pretty good at Utah State and really kind of put himself on the map. His last year, I watched a lot of those games because I bet on a lot of those games, not really knowing who Jordan Love was at the time. What I watched was not impressive,

especially from a decision-making standpoint from Jordan Love. So I did not understand that draft pick a few years back. But anyway, I digress. We're going to move on to the four o'clock games, but Garrett Pochella has a question. Rashad White worth the price. Mike, I haven't played Rashad White all year. I haven't regretted it all year. He's 5,600. Honestly, the way you phrased that question, I had to like double check, like maybe he's like 5000 all of a sudden i have no interest in rashad why do you not exactly uh you know it's the the target volume's gone up the last two weeks uh it's also been when baker mayfield's been supposedly dealing with an e-injury a little bit so maybe there's some correlation there um if he's going to get seven targets again sure. I think it's fine in this matchup.

He does sneak his way into the player pool. Not going to be a primary focus for me, but it's a 10-game slate. He's a $5,600 running back that has seen 13 targets in the passing game the last two weeks, and, yeah, I don't hate it. Yeah, fair enough. All right, Garrett, good question uh colts minus two and a half at the panthers a 44 point total you know i think at first blush a lot of people would probably say hey i want to play gardner minshu uh he's relatively cheap at 5200 and we know these

colts games can kind of get weird and and shoot out that would have been my initial thought too but doesn't this seem to be when you're playing Carolina doesn't this seem to be a Jonathan Taylor Zach Moss game Mike and if so are you playing either of those two guys I'm only looking at Jonathan Taylor a little bit here um you know the volume was a little more concerning last week I we kind of thought it was going to bounce back all the way uh he really came crashing back to earth in terms of the receiving game. So that's something that I want to be cautious of going forward. But I do like him.

He still should be a $7,000 player. But I really like the other side with Chuba Hubbard, 5K. There's a big difference in that price point. And I've already told you I'm playing Lamar Jackson, so I need some salary savings. So my primary focus is going to be on Chuba Hubbard here. And he is certainly one of the discount running backs that we referred to earlier.

And that's because, listen, Miles Sanders has been, and this could kind of revert to some degree, but we've noticed over the last couple of games, Miles Sanders has really been sort of not phased out completely, but Mike, he's certainly the RB2 here, whereas Chuba Hubbard's getting like the lion's share, if you will. Yeah, most definitely. I think you got to be encouraged with Chuba Hubbard's volume overall. 15 and 19 carries the last two weeks, only nine against Detroit, a little different game, but 14 against Minnesota. He's definitely rb1 here let me ask you this if you're

playing hubbard are you considering any other pieces on the carolina side and is this potentially a stackable game whether it be with bryce young or gardner minshu i don't think it's stackable others might uh you know 44 is again a relatively high total on the slate. And we've seen these Colts games kind of shoot out a little bit. I'm not going to go there. It's possible. It's very, very possible that it does shoot out. If it does, I'm hopeful that it's Chuba Hubbard kind of picking up a rushing touchdown or two with the goal line, but I'm not going to be playing either quarterback here. Yeah. And I agree. This is probably not going to fit into the limited stacks I play, but if you're, if you're diversifying the portfolio, I do think maybe at home, Bryce Young, Bryce Young stack with Thielen and Mingo, for example, like, or Thielen and Chuba Hubbard is in play with like a downs or Pittman run back or Jonathan

Taylor. Like I do think there's, if you think this game, and again, a 44-point total on this slate's kind of high. If you think this game is going to hit 44 or, you know, potentially a lot more, there are pieces here. If the game flow is right, you can have a Minshew stack to Downs or Pittman or, you know, even maybe correlate him with Jonathan Taylor if you think he's going to get targets too. And on the other side, I think Bryce Young is in play.

I'm not going to get there, but I don't hate it. I definitely think there's pieces in this game if this game starts to. And by the way, Jonathan Mingo, not getting a ton of targets yet, but he's running a lot of routes. So maybe the Mingo game is coming. He's obviously very, very cheap here at $3,400. So maybe a discount receiver. Maybe that's where you go to get off like DeMario Douglas chalk

or something like that. Listen, the next game, this is the big game that people are going to want to talk about. We're going to talk about it. Cowboys plus three at the Eagles, 47 point total, but let's hear another break from our partners first. All right. Only a couple more games to cover. Maybe a few more games to cover before we get to our cheat sheets and our top three. Mike, this is the big one. Cowboys plus three at the Eagles, Eagles, a 47 point total. My first question for you is, I mean, Prescott 6,500. We know that Hertz is in the eight K range. I believe 8,100.

The Hertz knee injury. Like, are you worried about that at all? Because it's, I feel like we kind of know his running's going to be at least a little limited, but that hasn't limited his point production because he's just slinging it to AJ Brown, Devante Smith and a little bit to Dallas Goddard. I'm just curious on the eagle side of things are you worried about that at all? I'm not really and you know why I'm not worried about it is honestly a lot of his upside still isn't coming in the form of the 30-yard run anymore it's coming in the form of the play at the goal line that no one can stop that's essentially where the upside's coming from

it's that rushing touchdown equity um i i don't think the days of jalen hurts like having and needing 70 yards rushing to like have this ceiling game i think those days are gone because it just you know he's getting the ball anytime they're within the two yard line it's gonna happen right that's just that's the game plan uh and again aj brown's been absolutely incredible he's gonna stand in the pocket he's gonna deliver um so i don't mind him honestly i i'm not gonna get to a ton of jalen hurts because i'm just gonna pay the extra 200 for for Lamar personally. But I think he's totally viable. Yeah. And by the way, he's $8,000. I said he was $8,100. Jalen Hurts is $8,000. Prescott's only $6,500. Quite the discount. Obviously, if you like this

game and you saw what Dallas did last week and what Prescott did specifically with CeeDee Lamb, it just makes sense to everybody, I think, to do a Prescott, Seedy, Lamsdack and run it back with A.J. Brown. What say you on that strategy? And on the Dallas side, what pieces are you interested in? Is it Pollard? I mean, he hasn't really had that game yet. And against the Eagles front seven, I'm not sure he's going to. But, again, Dak to Seedy, maybe including Jake Ferguson again,

Gallup, Cooks, any of that in play for you? It is in play. I'm shifting around some of my top QBs right now, but I do like Dak a little bit. I'm going to have at least one Dak lineup for sure. As far as whether it's CeeDee Lamb or Ferguson remains to be seen yet, I think they're all fine. I would not hesitate to go back to Michael Gallup in this week. Just personally, I think that there will obviously be a ton of attention on CeeDee Lamb

defensively from Philadelphia. So I do like that spot. And I do like Tony Pollard, to be honest with you. 6,800. I still do believe he should be a more expensive player. I think this is the game where he might have a bigger role in the passing game. I really think the Eagles are going to be able to put enough pressure. If CeeDee Lamb is bracketed, I could definitely see heavy volume for Ferguson and Pollard. So I will be speculating on Pollard and playing him quite a bit. Yeah, I think that's how Pollard gets there ultimately in terms of the receiving game as opposed to the rushing game. OK, so Dak Prescott stacks are in play.

You're probably not getting to Jalen Hurts, even though you'll like it because you're getting to Lamar Jackson. You're paying a little bit more for that. Any other you mentioned Michael Gallup, any other pieces to consider? Let me ask you this. If you're doing a Dak Prescott stack, it sounds to me like CeeDee Lamb might be involved. Would there be in your if you were just doing one, would it be CD lamb and like a Jake Ferguson or would it just be to CD lamb? And do you run it back with AJ Brown?

I'm definitely running back with AJ Brown. If I do, I think primary will be Ferguson over CD lamb. Okay. So no CeeDee Lamb in that primary lineup. Likely no CeeDee Lamb in the primary lineup. Likely back off of CeeDee Lamb again, just the same way I did last week. Okay.

And I have to mention DeAndre Swift. Now his production has dipped a little bit. Is he in play at all for you? He is 6,600, which is a pretty high price under the circumstances. By circumstances, I mean like he hasn't been super effective from a fantasy payoff standpoint over the last few games. He is in the player pool around the eighth most used running back. So guys above him, Jacobs, Alvin Kamara, Ramondre Stevenson,

Chuba Hubbard, Jonathan Taylorlor tony pollard and then swift yeah and i'll say this just to remind everybody what sam howell did against this uh philly defense like that that secondary just just doesn't have uh the pieces right now so if dac's going to have the big game this this could be the game especially if philly pushes them which i expect um since this is like the game, let me just, I got to like ask you a wrap up question. Did we cover everybody in your player pool on each side of the ball here in Dallas and Philly?

I believe so. I'm glancing quickly to see. I got to see, have we already talked about CD? Yeah, I think so. Yep. And for the record, I haven't decided if I'm playing just two stacks or three. If I play three, Dak is definitely going to be one of the three. I'm probably going to be off Jalen Hurts, and I'll probably do kind of the chalky thing. And when I play the Dak stack, it'll probably be Dak to CD Lamb with that A.J. Brown run back.

I may include Michael Gallup or Brandon Cooks or Jake Ferguson there as well, but that's just how I'm going to play that. Okay, let's talk about the Giants. Kind of an ugly game. This is the last game we have to talk about. Giants plus one and a half at the Raiders, 37-point total. It's the Aiden O'Connell experience versus Daniel Jones.

So just talking about Aiden O'Connell, we know who that benefits. It benefits Devontae Adams, but in my opinion, more importantly, it benefits Josh Jacobs, who when Aiden O'Connell played in Week 4, 11 targets for Josh Jacobs. So I just think it's a really good spot for him from a volume standpoint. I think Saquon Barkley's in play 39 touches last week, which is kind of incredible. Raiders allowing a lot to QBs.

I honestly like playing both Barkley and Jacobs in the same lineup, which, again, is usually against conventional wisdom here. But what do you like in this one? Yeah, you know, it is against it. It typically would have a pretty strong negative correlation, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad here. And it always needs to be looked at on an individual basis right if you just look about rb1 and rb1 yes you're going to get a negative correlation for sure uh but those guys are both

going to be heavily involved in passing games so i don't mind it jacobs is definitely the uh the primary uh play for me in this game uh but like i mentioned with mike evans i love davante adams here as well i'm going to play some Devontae Adams. You know, we know a lot of the ownership is going to be concentrated between A.J. Brown and C.D. Lamb, right? Devontae, you know, there's kind of a – with Cooper Cup having his quarterback situation and playing that game where it is, I don't think enough people are going to play Devontae,

and I think that there will be a focus on double digit targets his way so Aiden O'Connell's only 4,500 and Devontae obviously pretty expensive at 8,100 would that stack be in play let you know what let me contextualize this a little bit let's say you're playing just the afternoon slate which of course includes Dallas Philly uh and Indy Carolina and the last game or it's just those three games, excuse me. Would an Aiden O'Connell, Devante Adams stack potentially be in play while you take a couple of pieces from that Dallas Philly game? Yeah, honestly, yeah.

I'm building it out, looking at it right now. I don't think you're getting 20-plus points from Aiden O'Connell, but if you get 16, 18 um you know i i think that's i don't if you really like davante like i do i don't mind it at all and if you're playing that afternoon slate it's very interesting right yeah i'm gonna have to run at least one of those lineups the thing about the main slate for me i mean i don't think because i mean it's good this is gonna be crazy when we get to my chichi. But because I like players like, listen, you like Jaron Hall. I like Mac Jones.

I assume because they're all comparable from a price standpoint. They're all sub 5K. I assume you like Jaron Hall more than you like Aiden O'Connell on the main slate. And whereas I like Mac Jones over Aiden O'Connell on the main slate as well. But is that accurate that Aiden O'Connell would fall below Jaron Hall? For me, yes. I just I want to capture some of Jaron Hall, at least in my opinion, is rushing upside, just the game environment a little bit as well.

I think that game can get a little crazy. So for me, yes. All right. We're going to go to your top three at each position, Mike. We've got some questions in the chat, but I'll just address the one I see right here. Just one more thing, which is a cool name. He says Goddard, question mark. Mike, Goddard's out for me. He's just not getting the, he's getting targets, but like down the field, it's just all A.J. Brown, a little bit of Devontae Smith. Is it a no for Goddard for you as well? Yeah, it's a no for me.

The only scenario I would play Goddard is the scenario where you're playing Jalen Hurts. And what I mean by that is the scenario that Jalen Hurts, I mean, that Goddard is the scenario where you're playing Jalen Hurts. And what I mean by that is the scenario that Jalen Hurts, I mean, the Goddard gets there is likely going to be the three to four passing touchdown day for Jalen Hurts. And one of them goes to Goddard. So you're likely going to need a full on Eagle stack. I don't think just playing Goddard on his own is going to get you there. Right. Goddard 4,800. By the way, on the Dallas side, Jake Ferguson is 4K. Seedy is 8,200. Dak Prescott, 6,500. And those lower tier receivers that you can take a chance on, Cooks, 4,400. Michael Gallup, 3,600.

All right, Mike, let's talk about your top three at each position before we get to our cheat sheets, and let's start at the quarterback position. All right. We're going gonna go lamar jackson number one i got the raven's helmet up here for that reason uh number two i'm listening jaron hall uh minnesota vikings here again i think there's rushing upside i think atlanta's defense is in a really really rough spot so i think there's some upside here and then finally dak prescott i i had jalen hertz and dak prescott both listed I ultimately have leaned to the Dak Prescott side for the salary savings. There's also some correlation there between Prescott and Hurts, believe it or not.

So I do like the Dallas side a bit here. As far as running backs, no surprise, Alvin Kamara at the top. I like the game script for him here. Is it possible that it gets ugly and they don't use him as much? Certainly. You have to consider that when they're playing the top. I like the game script for him here. Is it possible that it gets ugly and they don't use him as much? Certainly. You have to consider that when they're playing the Bears. I think they're going to push just enough. Number two, Josh Jacobs. Love the volume. I think he's going to be leaned on heavily. And number three, Chuba Hubbard for me. Again, this isn't saying that Chuba Hubbard is going to be the third highest scoring running back. It's the guy that I'm using the most.

And that's because I'm paying up for guys like Lamar Jackson, Alvin Kamara, Josh Jacobs. Right. So you've got to make it work. So that's why I give him their wide receiver, Zay Flowers. Again, I love Zay Flowers. I love the connection with Lamar Jackson. That's going to be my top one there. Demario Douglas. I know someone that you like as well. I think the volume is going to be there just enough. I think the price point is obviously extremely attractive. And again, I need the salary savings. And the third wide receiver, A.J. question. At the quarterback's position specifically, can you name maybe one or two quarterbacks

that you'd be willing to use in a cash game? Well, for me, Lamar and Dak Prescott for sure. I think Dak's going to end up being used quite a bit. Honestly, in a cash game for me, though, it sounds insane. I don't think quarterback matters that much. I think that the scoring gets kind of bunched on the quarterback. So the quarterback is not the position that I'm like most concerned about in the cash game. And as far as let's just touch on the running back position cash real quick, would Kamar Jacobs and Hubbard firmly fit into cash builds?

Yeah. At least two of the three for sure. I think we'll see a ton of Kamara and Jacobs. Yeah. Okay, great. All right, let's move on to tight end. Your top three there. TJ Hawkinson. I think this is a Hawkinson week. We'll see the chemistry with Jaron Hall, but I like him.

Jake Ferguson, if you're stacking up with Dak, and then Mark Andrews, again, stacking with my quarterback, Lamar Jackson. So it's important to remember when I'm giving you the top three, it's not necessarily saying these are the top three that I think are going to score the three most fantasy points. It's the three I'm going to use. We're still building correlated lineups. So that is why they're there.

They are the tight ends that match the top three quarterbacks. And by the way, since we kind of ran down some running back cash and quarterback cash, I'll just say this, Mike. I'm going to have DeMario in my cash lineups, and I'm only going to build one or two. DeMario Douglas is going to be in there just kind of for the savings and for the anticipated volume, and A.J. Brown likely in there too as at least two of my cash game receivers.

Does that make sense to you? Very much so, yes. All right. All right, so we built out a little bit of cash for everybody. Let's go to my cheat sheet. This is crazy. I'm just telling you, but this is how you win contests. You go crazy sometimes. Mac Jones is only 4,900 and he gets the Washington defense that is even more depleted than normal. It could be the one game where Mac Jones shines and maybe gets the Bailey Zappi talk off his back a little bit. DeMario Douglas, chalky play, but not so chalky when you're pairing him with Mac Jones. I'm not even afraid if I really think I need to save the money, throwing in like a Mike Gusecki in there. By the way, DeMario Douglas is my value play as well, but we mentioned Logan Thomas, and because he also sort of fits into this game, I think you could just kind of,

because I've already mentioned DeMario twice now in the stack and the value play, I think you could throw Logan Thomas as a run back. Obviously, if you have the money, McCorn probably a better run back, but at the tight end position, I think Logan Thomas at 3,500 is a pretty good value along with, of course, to Mario. My chalk play is Josh Jacobs.

I just think he's going to get a ton of volume through the running game and through the passing game, thanks to Aiden O'Connell. My contrarian play, I mentioned him earlier. It's Christian Watson at 4,900. Yes, the floor is low, but I actually think the ceiling is pretty high, particularly in this matchup. My fade is going to be Bijan Robinson at 6,100. I think he could have a good game, but I'm just either going to

be paying down for the Chuba Hubbards of the world, or I'm going to be paying up for like the Josh Jacobs, Alvin Kamara, Saquon Barkley. So that is my cheat sheet. Mike, let's go to you. Lamar Jackson, two Zay Flowers. That is definitely going to be my favorite stack of the week. It is a little expensive on the Lamar side. Fortunately, Zay Flowers down at 5,700 still. Very, very tolerable. Also, same value play, Demario Douglas. I like the volume, the price point.

I think the opportunity is clearly there. Chalk play, Alvin Kamara. Once again, I think this is a great game script for him. You always do run the risk of a defensive score, things like that, against a young quarterback like this. However, I think this is a really, really good spot for him. And probably the last week we see him less than $8,500. So my contrarian play, Jordan Addison, 6K.

I don't think people are going to play the viking side of it i've already told you i'm playing hall uh the quarterback uh but at 6k there's a lot of receivers in that 4500 to 5800 range uh i mean say he's 300 more than zay flowers right here i don't think anyone's gonna play him but i think he's got multiple touchdown upside i think he's literally got 100 yard two touchdown upside uh And then my fade, Adam Thielen. Look, the guy's been incredible this year. The volume has been incredible. When we started this season, the first two numbers on this salary were flipped,

and I think it was still lower than that. It's now $7,500. I'm going to bow out at $7,500 at this particular matchup. So I, I'm going to spend that money on other wide receivers. So no Adam Thielen for me at 7,500. Yeah. It even felt a little too expensive to me last week when I believe he was 6,600. So 7,500. Yeah. That's just not going to happen for me, especially in a game that I I'm not super interested in stacking. Although we did discuss it. It is a stackable game. Two quick questions before we get out of here. Uwe2k says, this is from earlier in the show,

so I apologize for getting to it now. He says, is it winner-take-all again in the FFT DFS tournament? So, Mike, I got to share with you. I accidentally made the term. I don't know if you were in it last week. I accidentally made the tournament winner-take-all instead of top 20. So one guy, Game Changer Nick, who I don't think has revealed himself, won $900 because I made a huge mistake.

And positions 2 through 20 didn't get paid at all. So, no, it's definitely top 20. Please register for the tournament. Hopefully everybody forgives me. And then, Mike, this is actually kind of an important question from PS. Again, it was earlier in the show. Hopefully he's still listening, but this will help everybody. Could Mike go over game selection?

I recall that he mentioned that he only makes five or so lineups, so I am guessing no multi-entry tourneys. Can you just talk about your game selection? Yeah, and we'll do it specifically on DraftKings because this is geared a little bit more towards DraftKings. We always reference DraftKings price points. So my contest selection this season on DraftKings, I play the three max tournament.

It's a 150 entry, three max. So it is multi-entry, but it is capped multi-entry at three. So I am at 100%. I'm maxing out. No other user will have more entries than me. So that's where my first three go. And then the other two lineups go into single entry contests. So I'm not playing any large, large field. I'm playing higher stakes, lower entries overall. And then when I go over to FanDuel, I do play the mass multi-entry, but I still just play with five. I don't play, you know, sometimes they allow between 75 and 150 in the tournament. I still only play my five lineups over there. But on DraftKings, it's a three max contest

and two single entry contests. Yeah, and I'll say this because I only play three max and single entry as well. It's mostly single entry for me, but there's different types of single entry tournaments. And what I mean by that is you could be in a single, it could be in like the $12 single entry with 19,000 people, or you can be in a $12 single entry with 2000 people, you know?

So you have to keep that in mind. You're not necessarily doing it right just because you're maxing out your, your tournaments or your entries at, at, at a one, a single entry or a three max. You know, I joined those tournaments too, that have 1920, sometimes 30,000 entries in them, but you do want to pepper in some tournaments that have just lower entries, whether it's 500 or 1000 or 2000 entries. And the reason for that is kind of obvious, but I feel like I have to point it out. It's because you don't have to be perfect.

You can have one or two plays that kind of crash and burn or just don't do as well as you think. And you can still take down a tournament or at least top five or tournament. And that's where you want to be. You want to be inside the top five, top 10 for any real money. So just keep that in mind that just because you're doing single entry, it doesn't mean your contest selection is optimal. Do some of those bigger single entries. And Mike, I'll get your comments here too, but also do some of the ones that don't have as many entries. I know that the cash prize at the end of those doesn't look as great, but you have to be a little realistic here too. Like you don't want to always have to be perfect to see green.

That's part of the reason we play cash games, but it's also part of the reason I play tournaments that don't have quite as many people in them. Mike, your response to that. Yeah, no, I agree with everything you're saying there. I think the thing that's important to think about when you're entering those large field tournaments, whether it be single entry, large field, single entry, small field, three max, whatever it is. The, yeah, the reason why I go up in stakes,

play fewer entries and max it out in the sense that I'm either so, you know, single entry, that's the max for everyone or I'm maxed out at three, which is again, maxed out for everyone. When you play those kinds of tournaments, the score needed to win the tournament is much lower. However, the score needed to minimum cash in it is going to be a little bit higher. So you have to kind of look at it and kind of assess your goals, right? If your goal is to just simply minimum cash in something and still give yourself a theoretical chance at the upside, then by all means, play the large field,

multi-entry, go in there. There's a lot of dead lineups in that because of the theory on trying to cover the field in a sense, right? So there is going to be more opportunity to get a little bit better minimum cash in some of those. But I'm looking for upside. I'm looking for the ability to take it down. And you'll go look like the score needed to win unless it's a big player who happened to have a great lineup the score needed to win my three max 150 is going to be 15 to 20 points lower than the winning score and one of the massive tournaments out there yeah um i would actually go back if for everybody that's listening that's at least somewhat new to dfs and NFL DFS.

I think the last two minutes are really important, especially the part where it sounded counterintuitive, Mike, the part where it's like, well, you know, for a minimum cash, you know, it's better in certain types of tournaments. So I think that's really worth listening to again, especially knowing like what the theory is behind those bigger tournaments, because people are really trying to spike it. And you have some also some dead lineups in there as well. All right. That's going to be our show. Thank you, Mike, for joining us every Friday, because I absolutely love your insight, whether it's about tournament selection or about player selection. Wish us luck with my Mac Jones, DeMario Douglas lineups, and Lamar Jackson, DeZay Flowers. And, of course, we talked about so much else. So don't just stick to the cheat sheet. Stick to some of the analysis on each and every game.

We'll see you here same time, same place next Friday. This has been Fantasy Football Today DFS. Thank you for watching.