DB's Daily Fantasy College Football Picks: Week 11
If you read this column every week you will come to notice there are always a couple of teams with defenses I like to pick opposite of. These schools usually include SMU, Indiana, and Purdue. Unfortunately those teams play Cincinnati, Illinois and Iowa this week and few teams garner less excitement from a fantasy perspective than those squads. You probably won’t find many mentioned this week, but know it wouldn’t shock me if Kay , Scheelhaase, and Rudock have good games this week, I’m just not sold on any of them to be across the board plays.
Before I get to this weeks picks, make sure you watch the replay of College Football After Dark to get additional picks from myself and top ranked Grinder headChopper. Also be sure to catch GrindersLive at 10:30 AM on Saturday morning with Emac & STLCardinals for last second news and lineup advice.
Quarterbacks
Jameis Winston (Florida State) – I had a chance to watch this kid in person last week and came away even more impressed than I already was. He didn’t put up a big fantasy day, but he made a play on just about every 3rd down and is surrounded with more weapons than any other quarterback in the nation. I know the running backs have been getting a good number of TD’s the last few games, but last week was particularly flukey with a number of passes falling just short of the goaline. I don’t think he has that kind of luck this week and could have the biggest day out of anyone this Saturday.
Derek Carr (Fresno State) – He is only available in the FanDuel & DraftDay game sets, but you may want to pay the high price tag for him this Saturday night because I expect to see a shootout with Wyoming. The Cowboys have a decent enough offense and are playing at home, so I suspect they can’t keep this close. Carr’s floor this week is probably 350 and 3TD’s with a ceiling of 450 and 5 or 6.
Clint Chelf (Oklahoma State) – If you are looking for a value play at QB Chelf may be the guy you want to roster. He hasn’t been impressive the past couple weeks, but that should change this Saturday vs. a pathetic Kansas team. Oklahoma State is favored by 35 points in this one and you have to think he’ll have a piece of 3 to 4 scores this week. For his moderate price tag he should have no problem reaching value.
Other Options: Devin Gardner (Michigan), Marquise Williams (North Carolina), Blake Borltes (UCF)
Running Backs
Andre Williams (Boston College) – If Williams is available on the site you are playing, just pay up for him and collect the 150 yards and 2-3 touchdowns that are coming. New Mexico State has a complete joke of a defense that is allowing an astounding 334 rushing yards per game. There are no sure things in Daily Fantasy sports, but he is pretty darn close.
Storm Johnson (UCF) – Houston has proven time and time again they have no interest in winning games with their defense, so I think this is a terrific spot for Storm Johnson. He has a TD in every game but one and gets a ton of work in the pass game. Perfect play on those full point PPR sites.
Kelvin Taylor (Florida) – The son of former Pro Bowler Fred Taylor has finally taken over the reigns at the running back position and I only expect him to improve from what we saw last week. He toted the rock 20 times for 78 yards which is not all that impressive, but Florida fell behind early so it could have been worse. The price is what I love on Taylor as he’s below 6K on DS and minimum salary on FD. I think he goes over 100 yards and scores a TD or 2 this weekend.
Other Options : Melvin Gordon (Wisconsin), Tevin Coleman (Indiana), Tre Mason (Auburn)
Wide Receivers
Marqise Lee (USC) – The Cal defense continues to baffle with me with how bad they are and this might be the breakout spot for one of the nations best wideout. Lee has been hampered with injuries and bad quarterback play all season, but both of those things are improving. Kessler has been surprisingly efficient completing 65% and 81% of passes over the last two games, and he and Lee finally got on the same page vs. Oregon State when he caught 5 passes for 105 yards and a TD. Lee’s price is awfully low for the talent and matchup and he someone I am comfortable using on almost every site this weekend.
Eric Ward (Texas Tech) – For whatever reason Ward’s salary doesn’t seem to jump in price week to week, despite him putting up productive numbers. He has 7 receptions in each of 4 of the last 5 games and has gone in for six 5 times during that span. With Tech still with little to no interest in running the football, that makes Ward a great 50/50 & cash game play once again.
Jarvis Landry & Odell Beckham (LSU) – Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that Alabama has one of the better defenses in the country, but dare I say they might be tad bit overrated. None of their opponents over the past four weeks (Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia State, Arkansas) tout an NFL caliber quarterback and the last one the faced (Manziel) absolutely lit the secondary up. This week they will face Zach Mettenberger who will almost certainly be playing on Sunday’s next year and a duo in Landry and Beckham who have been productive all season. I believe this is going to be sneaky high scoring game and if you want a below 5% owned wide receiver with big upside and a moderate price tag, both of these guys fit the bill.
Other options: Amari Cooper (Alabama), Jamison Crowder (Duke), Jameon Lewis (Mississippi State)
Tight Ends
Chris Coyle (Arizona State) – After a slow start Coyle has finally been putting up the kind of numbers we expected going into the year. He has found the endzone each of the past two games and should be able exploit Utah’s porous defense. If you don’t want to pay up for Ebron or Amaro, then I like him at tight end.
Ted Bolser (Indiana) – Illinois is a below average defense and Bolser is a part of an offense that is projected to score in the upper 30’s. There are a lot of mouths to feed on the Hoosiers team, but Bolser should get enough to pay off a fairly moderate salary.
Other Options: C.J. Fiedorowicz (Iowa), Troy Niklas (Notre Dame)*