The Lineup Lowdown: NFL Week 4 Edition
He’s one of the best minds in all of DFS, so who better to debut our new article, The Lineup Lowdown, than Derek Farnsworth, aka Notorious?
A top 30 ranked Grinder who is also currently #35 in the RotoGrinders TPOY race, Notorious is well known for his cash game prowess. For Week 4, he shared his FanDuel NFL main slate cash game lineup with us, along with his thought processes.
Philip Rivers: It was a close call between Rivers and Carson Palmer at $7,400. The Chargers are basically in desperation mode and playing at home. The Eagles are weakest in the secondary and paying down at quarterback helped me get up to a few of the studs at other positions.
Ezekiel Elliott: With Kareem Hunt playing in the Monday night game, Zeke became my favorite running back play of the slate. I always like to target backs that are favored, playing at home, and see at least some pass game work.
Joe Mixon: Mixon was strictly a price play for me this week. Heading into the game, I wasn’t sold on his workload or snap count. However, at this price, I knew he would be popular and I knew that he could burn me if I didn’t have him.
A.J. Green: I usually don’t target a running back and wide receiver from the same team in my cash game lineup, but I made an exception. Green owns the Browns, has great splits on the road, and this is a favorable matchup for both players.
Keenan Allen: When we talk about receivers, we want volume and redzone work (especially on FanDuel where touchdowns are more important). Allen consistently gets peppered with targets and is squaring off against a beatable Eagles’ secondary.
DeAndre Hopkins: You can basically copy and paste everything from the Keenan Allen blurb above. Hopkins is too cheap for the number of targets he sees each week. Even with a rookie quarterback at the helm, I like his chances to convert those against the Titans.
Zach Ertz: I’ve played him every week so far and that’s not going to change in Week 4. The Chargers funnel targets to the middle of the field and historically haven’t been great against the tight end. I like to pay up at tight end on FanDuel where the cap is a little softer.
Phil Dawson: He’s a kicker.
Steelers D/ST: After filling out my position players, I had $9,000 to spend on a kicker and a defense. There weren’t many options at $4,500 or cheaper at defense, so I went with the Steelers. They get pressure on the quarterback and Joe Flacco has been dealing with a back injury.
With the Sunday Night game still remaining, Notorious is in prime position to cash with his lineup sitting in the top 10% currently. Outside of Joe Mixon, all of his players put up double-digit fantasy points, and that includes 15 points from “the kicker”. At nearly 35% ownership the Mixon number wasn’t going to hurt Notorious too badly and when Dalvin Cook and his nearly 20% ownership was limited to just 11.9 fpts due to the injury he suffered it further lessened the blow.
Noto’s lower ownership plays (those under 25%) all put up more than respectable numbers distancing him from the field. The two mega-chalk plays were Elliott and Green and those two combined for 42.7 fpts meaning those that didn’t roster that pair were facing an uphill battle. The Steelers D/ST put up a more than respectable number as the Ravens offense continued to struggle and DeAndre Hopkins put up a massive 21.7 fpts at surprisingly low ownership (20.9%).