Noto's NFL DFS Key Personnel: Week 3

by Derek Farnsworth (Notorious) Last Updated 2025-09-19 00:38:22 Premium Content Part of the product NFL DFS

A daily fantasy sports OG, Notorious has been roaming the DFS streets ever since they were invented. So, who better to walk you through all of the key NFL DFS positions each week? Noto has racked up multiple live final seats and several six-figure tournament wins in his DFS career, and he will mix it up in all different types of contests. In his Key Personnel article for Week 3, he will walk you through his favorite NFL DFS picks, ways to pivot away from the chalk, and overall strategy for the upcoming featured slate.

Week 3 is already upon us!

I must say, time moves differently when you have a baby. If not for the NFL schedule, I wouldn’t know what day it was. Having a baby girl has been the best surprise of my life, but it has certainly brought a little chaos as well. I’m stacking baby bottles and dirty diapers as much as I am quarterbacks and wide receivers.

Like parenting, DFS is about surviving the chaos. I was able to do that in Week 2 despite far too many shares of Brian Thomas Jr. and Chase Brown. Luckily, I had plenty of exposure to Mac Jones, Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, and Malik Nabers. While it would be nice to win every week, the break-even weeks are what buy us time before we take down tournaments.

I appreciate you joining me. Let’s dive into Week 3 before the baby monitor goes off again.

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NFL DFS Top Picks & Plays: Noto’s Key Personnel for Week 3

I love this week’s slate. We have stackable games, we have good spends and values at each position, and we have spread-out ownership. It’s the perfect recipe for a great NFL DFS slate. In this week’s article, I added a key injuries section to each position. I’ll keep this updated through lock on Sunday. As always, you can find my most up-to-date thoughts in the Consensus Value Rankings and with my tags in our NFL DFS Optimizer.

Top Quarterback Plays

I had a tougher time than usual narrowing down my player pool at the quarterback position. There are very few elite quarterbacks on the slate outside of Jayden Daniels, and he’s dealing with a knee injury. Even if he suits up, we should be concerned about his rushing upside. For Week 3, we have a lot of mid-range and value plays. There’s not much separating the quarterbacks in terms of their median projections.

Tier 1 – Core Plays

Caleb Williams ($5,600 DK / $7,100 FD) has looked great in the first quarter of each of the first 2 games. Ben Johnson has done a tremendous job with his scripted plays to start each game, but the offense seems to sputter once the game gets into the second half. Williams has been one of the least accurate passers in the NFL this season (29th in catchable throw percentage), but he’s still managed to average 21 fantasy points per game. A lot of that is thanks to his rushing upside, as he’s already racked up 85 rushing yards and a touchdown in 2 games. This week, he gets to play at home against the Cowboys, who just gave up a career game to Russell Wilson. We don’t know if Williams is a good real-life quarterback yet, but he should be a great fantasy quarterback in Week 3.

Do I love clicking on Carson Wentz ($4,000 DK / $6,400 FD) this week? No, but the pricing is a bit tighter than we’ve seen in the first couple of weeks, and Wentz is priced at the stone minimum. We saw Mac Jones throw for 280 yards and 3 touchdowns in a similar spot last week. Wentz has all of the weapons you could dream of, he has a quarterback whisperer as his head coach (Kevin O’Connell), and he’s playing at home against one of the worst defenses in the league. Despite facing Joe Flacco and Trevor Lawrence in the first 2 games, the Bengals have allowed the 10th-most fantasy points to quarterbacks this season.

Tier 2 – Strong Plays

The Eagles might be the best team in football once again. The major question each week is whether their opponent will put up enough points to keep the Eagles aggressive through the air. If not, it’s going to be tough on Jalen Hurts ($6,800 DK / $8,500 FD) and his pass catchers, as they have only averaged 22.5 pass attempts per game this season. The Rams are a team that could give the Eagles a run for their money. In fact, they nearly knocked off the Eagles in the playoffs last season. If we get a rare game where Hurts drops back 30+ times, he could easily break the slate at his current price point. This is the cheapest he’s been in recent memory.

Mac Jones ($5,000 DK / $6,700 FD) came through for us last week, although my lineups would have looked a lot better had he thrown the ball more to Ricky Pearsall than Jauan Jennings. The bet was as much on the Niners and Kyle Shanahan as it was on Jones. The system is so elite that it turned Brock Purdy into an MVP candidate. Purdy is likely going to be out again this week, which means Jones should draw the start against the Cardinals. It was a strange game script for Arizona last week, but they gave up 328 passing yards and 3 touchdowns to Bryce Young. Jones has easy stacking mates and should have all day in the pocket (the Cardinals are 32nd in my sack potential metric this week).

Tier 3 – Sprinkle Plays

Drake Maye ($5,300 DK / $7,300 FD) didn’t need to throw the ball much in the 2nd half against the Dolphins, yet he still finished the game with 26 fantasy points. I would argue that he hasn’t shown anything close to his best this season, and he’s still been one of the most productive quarterbacks for fantasy. It certainly helps that he has 14 rush attempts and a rushing touchdown in the first 2 games. This week’s matchup against the Steelers is far from ideal, but Maye is still underpriced on all sites. This is a bet on talent rather than a bet on the matchup.

I considered C.J. Stroud for this last spot, but I’m going to continue fading him until he gives us a reason not to. With Justin Fields out, Tyrod Taylor ($4,800 DK / $6,500 FD) will draw the start for the Jets. He’s a veteran backup who has performed well in spot starts throughout his career. More importantly, he’s facing one of the biggest pass-funnel matchups in the NFL, as the Buccaneers’ defense is top 5 in most rushing metrics and bottom 10 in most passing metrics. Taylor offers some rushing upside and pairs nicely with Garrett Wilson. This is a stack that will be less than 5% owned in GPPs.

🏈 Quarterbacks – Noto’s Notes

🏆 Core Plays: Caleb Williams, Carson Wentz
💪 Strong Plays: Jalen Hurts, Mac Jones
🧂 Sprinkle Plays: Drake Maye, Tyrod Taylor
📊 Ownership Angle: Play your favorites- no QB is too chalky this week
📚 Favorite Stacks: Williams + Odunze, Taylor + Wilson
🤕 Key Injuries: Jayden Daniels (Q), Brock Purdy (Q), Justin Fields (O), Joe Burrow (O), J.J. McCarthy (O)

Top Running Back Plays

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