By Carey Stevenson
QB: Aidan O’Connell vs. New York (Giants) DraftKings salary: 4,500
RB: Saquon Barkley at Las Vegas DraftKings salary: 7,900
RB: Jonathan Taylor at Carolina DraftKings salary: 6,400
WR: Davante Adams vs. New York (Giants) DraftKings salary: 8,100
WR: Nico Collins vs. Tampa Bay DraftKings salary: 5,800
WR: Mike Evans at Houston DraftKings salary: 7,300
TE: Michael Mayer vs. New York (Giants) DraftKings salary: 2,800
FLEX: Jake Ferguson at Philadelphia DraftKings salary: 4,000
DST: Colts DST at Carolina DraftKings salary: 3,100
Reasoning: It was looking bleak but man, you never know where your blessings are coming from…shout out to Mark Davis for giving Josh McDaniels his walking papers, and in turn giving me someone to play this week. O’Connell was a pleasant surprise in preseason, flashing downfield zip and the ability to throw with timing and anticipation. The matchup is a pseudo tough one facing off against a Wink Martindale defense heavy on blitzes but light on results (27th in sack rate). The first pairing is simple as Davante Adams will most certainly let everyone in the building know what the new order should be. With volume being his only issue, Adams ranks on the short list of very best plays on a slate lacking great ones. Completing the stack with the ascending Mayer who ran a season high 79% of the routes last week and checks price and correlation boxes.
Running it back with Saquon was the natural progression but considering the standing of this slate he would have been a guy i landed on anyway. He’s not someone I’d normally be going out of my way to play but the workload is thicc and while I’m certain that Antonio Pierce will lead the Raiders to play inspired football, unless he can get in there and play middle linebacker…the matchup is a strong one.
The combo of Mike Evans & Nico Collins is my favorite skinny stack of the week. Both have good matchups with size advantages, have made splash plays downfield but win in short areas more than you’d think and have steady and healthy target shares.
Jonathan Taylor played a season 61% of the snaps last week and popped one of his trademark long runs. In a winnable game and a big time OL vs. DL advantage…I can see the Colts really leaning on the Panthers with the run game and forcing the Panthers to lean on a passing game they are still working out the kinks of…making the Colts DST a great pairing, adding a lil razzle dazzle to our JT play.
I normally steer clear of TE in the flex but weird weeks require you to get a lil messy. The lack of cheap WRs i feel great about led me to sneak in the backdoor on the best game of the slate. Ferguson is top 5 in red zone and green zone targets on the season…an opportunity that matches up well with the Eagles vulnerability at TE (2nd most TDs allowed). With a more decisive share of the routes over the last 2 weeks (84% and 85%) finally secured, Ferguson will be a staple of my pool this week.
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