Finding Paydirt: Week 6

by Joe Cistaro (joeycis) Last Updated 2019-10-11 02:26:53

Touchdowns, while extremely variant, make or break daily fantasy success and swing thousands of dollars every Sunday. Every weekend, players wait anxiously for the players on their roster to find paydirt. The purpose of the contest is to provide an opportunity for the RotoGrinders community to come together and have fun as we spend much of our time during the week stressing over the construction of our weekly lineups. Did I mention there will be prizes? Let’s have some fun!

Happy Friday! The cool climate of fall and the changing colors of leaves usher in another NFL slate as Week 6 is upon us around the league. The first week of our second monthly contest proved fruitful for many with Aaron Jones headlining my Week 6 Results article with his four touchdowns. Soon we will find out if anyone can match Jones’ ridiculous day and vault someone above our current leader bdub02. Who is going to score the bulk of NFL touchdowns this week?

First-time reader? Welcome! Read through Finding Paydirt: 2019 Contest Guidelines for information about the contest and prizes. Ready? Let’s play.

That said, the time for Week 6 cuts is upon us.

The Cut List

Simply put, to compete in this contest you must pick a running back, wide receiver, and tight end to score a touchdown on Sunday. The player must be on the DraftKings Main Slate and cannot be any of the players below. These players are the top five at both RB and WR and the top three at TE — I nix them hoping to make the contest more interesting.

Without stalwarts such as Christian McCaffrey, the Buccaneers’ wideouts, and the Chargers skill players, the cut list comes with a few new editions. With a thinner pool to consider, here are my selections for touchdowns in Week 6.

Mark Ingram – RB – $6,600

Mark Ingram finds himself leading off my article again as he finds himself in a home matchup against the Bungles on Sunday. Ingram seems to be cast as the redzone scoring back for the Ravens with his colleagues barely eating into Ingram’s work in the scoring area. He already owns 16 redzone attempts — one behind the 17-attempt lead held by Ezekiel Elliott and Christian McCaffrey. He leads the NFL with seven attempts inside the five. A mention in the same sentence as CMC and Zeke would seem to put Mark in rarified air but his role does not mirror the two stars. Instead, he is the Ravens’ touchdown machine — getting called upon to tote the rock when the Birds are in close.

The Ravens should find themselves in close often on Sunday. The Bengals are pretty bad and lack the defensive firepower to stop… well, anyone. Cincinnati ranks just behind the Chiefs in rushing yards for opposing running backs (642) and already allowed six touchdowns to the position. With 39 DK points allowed per game to running backs, Ingram seems like a likely candidate for a touchdown or two.

Adam Thielen – WR – $6,700

Won’t you tell me how to get, how to get to Narrative Street? I feel like I should yield to both Travis Mangone and/or Allan Lem with this commentary but Adam Thielen worked the “squeaky wheel” narrative to perfection last weekend.

Thielen complained about either the Vikings’ offensive philosophy or his quarterback’s lack of aggression. Regardless of the reasoning, the bickering seemed to pay off in a small sample. Not only did Thielen explode for 7 catches, 130 yards, and a couple of touchdowns — he received an apology from Cousins. Pretty strong Sunday, I’d say.

With five games so far, the Eagles sit in the bottom ten in targets, receptions, yards, and touchdowns ceded to opposing wide receivers. I already use the “squeaky wheel” buzz word, let’s throw in a buzz word from a few years ago and tab the Eagles as a pass-funnel defense. The Eagles seem to think a wise approach to defense in the year 2019 is to sell out to stop the run and allow teams to throw down the field.

Makes sense.

Assuming Thielen suits up (currently questionable), I like his chances to repeat his strong performance from Week 5. If he cannot go, I will just pivot to his teammate, Stefon Diggs.

Austin Hooper – TE – $5,000

I mean. Must I?

There is a long-standing joke about “flow charts” regarding tight end plays in DFS. Whether you love flow charts, pie charts, bar graphs, or any of the visual representations learned in grammar school, one thing is true… the Cardinals absolutely suck at covering the tight end position. Further, the Cardinals run just under 1,573,203 plays per game. With Austin Hooper getting a matchup in this perfect situation, I would be remiss to not include him as my selection for the tight end position. Game theory, be damned!

For what it’s worth, Hooper is doing his part regardless of matchup. In his last three games, Hooper collected 7, 11, and 9 targets from Matt Ryan. Hooper has been targeted thrice in the redzone and already owns two touchdowns on the season. My “model” is telling me to give Hooper a 75% boost to his targets because of the frenetic Cardinal pace. My model is a piece of paper, a pencil, and a calculator. Okay, you got me, I just made all of that up. Either way, Hooper is a strong bet to get in the box against this porous defense.

Thanks very much for taking the time to read through this week’s article. Be sure to tell me who you think will score a touchdown at each position in the comments section below. Also, give me a follow on Twitter to stay updated with the content I contribute to RotoGrinders throughout the football season. I will be back on Tuesday with a recap of Week 6 as well as a leaderboard update. Until then, good luck.

Image Credit: USA Today Sports Images