CFB DFS Slate Breakdown: Week 2 (Main Slate)
I have been dealing with a few mental health things the last few weeks, so I have not been as thorough as I would have liked in the first two CFB weeks, but I am starting to feel a bit better this week and am hoping to carry that into next week. I hope to integrate some SP+ data and some other stuff under the team headers, and then also add in some Elite/GPP categories under each team to make it a little bit easier to determine who I like for the week. For now, we just have the breakdown, but hopefully with some extra data and another week for myself we can get there. Anyway, we have a nice 12 game slate here with some really interesting games and maybe only 3-4 guys that we will see insanely owned. I think there are multiple ways to differentiate, so this should be a fun slate.
Pittsburgh (27.5)
This is the “show-me” year for Pat Narduzzi as the Panthers have an extremely experienced offense and a solid defense that should get them a few wins. This is a big moment – a beatable SEC team away from home could really jump-start the season for them. Kenny Pickett ($8,500) feels like he has been here forever, and we did see some rushing ability in the first game but it’s not something we should expect often from him especially with the team talking up Abanikanda a lot. Pickett is a fine play in this spot – he is not a top tier QB, but he’s firmly in the B tier, and these are two offenses that could potentially end up in a shootout. I’m OK with him in GPPs considering all the options they have at WR, and his slight rushing ability (and Pitt’s general inability to rush with the RBs as well).
It seemed like the coaching staff was extremely bullish on Israel Abanikanda ($4,300) in the pre-season and they were talking him up almost like he would be the feature back. We have not seen a true feature back in Mark Whipple’s offense in 2 years, and based on game 1, I do not expect that to change. While Abanikanda is my preferred upside GPP option on this team, he is still an absurdly risky play that will find a floor performance more often than not. Israel saw 6 carries in the first game while Vincent Davis ($5,900) saw the same. A.J. Davis Jr and Todd Sibley Jr are also still here in the backfield, meaning that again we should see a lot of distribution in carries. I am only interested in playing Abanikanda as a small own % play in multi-entry GPPs.