NFL DraftKings Lineup Walkthrough - Week 6
It was an interesting week of lineup building. There were quite a few players that were questionable leading into Sunday, which led to some last minute scrambling. There was also a couple of weather concerns, with the wind up in Jacksonville and potential snow in Buffalo. A lot of people ended up switching off of DeAndre Hopkins once they saw the heavy wind, which ultimately turned out to be the wrong move. I also faded Hopkins, as I didn’t want to have too much exposure to that game.
Mother nature is a cruel beast. Sometimes it helps fading the bad weather games and sometimes it comes back to haunt you.
There are very few times throughout the season where I will actually put stock into a revenge game narrative. When it involves the Patriots though, you have my attention. After the whole Deflate-Gate scandal in the playoffs, the whole world was expecting Brady and the Patriots to run the score up on the Colts on Sunday night. Brady had been the best quarterback in fantasy football in the first five weeks and he was a safe bet to get the 300-yard bonus on DraftKings.
I went back and forth between Forte and Dion Lewis. I settled on Forte because I was a little scared about the Patriots getting ahead early and then using a lot of Blount in the second half. Forte is one of the few workhorse backs left in the NFL and he is one of the few that does not rely on game flow. He is heavily involved in both the running and passing attack, which allows him to continue racking up fantasy points, regardless of the score.
Foster was a no-brainer for me this week. I kept hearing how the Jaguars’ run defense wasn’t nearly as bad as they were in Week 5’s game against the Buccaneers. While that may be true, they are not an elite run-stopping unit. Foster was fresh off of a 25-touch game and all reports said that he looked like his usual self heading into this game. I’ll get my hands on a running back that is expected to see 20+ touches against the Jaguars any time I can. Plus, like Matt Forte, his workload is not game script dependent.
I was planning on using a cheap wide receiver all week. With the injuries to Steve Smith Sr., Alshon Jeffery, and Eddie Royal, I was hoping to use Kamar Aiken or Marquess Wilson. The problem was that all three of those injured players were declared active. Rather than adjusting my game plan completely, I pivoted to Boldin, who was facing his former team. Boldin seems to go as Colin Kaepernick goes and with a matchup against the Ravens, I expected their offense to move the ball well.
There are two sides to every story. The two sides with Megatron couldn’t be any different. We have one camp that says that he is old and washed up and we have another camp that is expecting big things from him the rest of the season. I fall somewhere in between, but I was drawn in by the matchup against the Bears’ shaky secondary. Thanks to the Lions’ late fourth quarter drive and thanks to overtime, he ended up having a monster fantasy outing. He needs more targets, though.
I went back to the well with Robinson this week, after he scored two touchdowns in Week 5. Chasing points is exactly chasing points when the salary and matchup are both in a player’s favor. Robinson was facing the Texans, who led the NFL in offensive plays per game, so I was expecting the Jaguars’ offense to have plenty of opportunities. Robinson was well on his way to another big game – six catches for 84 yards and a touchdown, but he got injured early in the fourth quarter and didn’t return.
Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet when you pick a player that on paper is a good play. You chalk it up to the process. And then sometimes, the fantasy football gods smile down upon you with a very late touchdown to save the day. Cameron was cheap this week, he had seen a heavy dose of targets in the first five weeks, and he was facing a Titans’ defense that had not defended the tight end position well. Cameron was very quiet all game, although a late 12-yard touchdown had me screaming, “TRUST THE PROCESS!”
I went back and forth on what I wanted to do with West all week. Most reports expected West to out-touch Knile Davis and some even went as far as saying West was a mini Jamaal Charles. I would have been more than happy with 15 touches in an offense that creates big running lanes and uses their running backs in the passing game. The game script got out of hand early though, and West had a very mediocre fantasy performance.
Jets D/ST
The Jets were large favorites at home against the Redskins. They put pressure on the quarterback and when Kirk Cousins is under pressure, he tends to make mistakes. Pretty simple, right? The Jets actually played solid defense, but they had little chance in the first half as their offense had three turnovers, which led to some short fields for the Redskins. Then, in the fourth quarter, Washington blocked a punt and ran it back. Football happens.