A couple of weeks back, I had a friend approach me asking why I had a certain player labeled as a value play. The player and the results are not as important as the underlying concept. When you are looking for value, you are comparing the amount of salary you must spend for every point the player is projected to score. Ideally, you want the lowest dollar per point conversion. You are still looking to score points in your match, but finding these lower priced higher projected players will afford you the opportunity to get some of the higher priced players in your lineup as well.

Let’s look at an example in this upcoming week. At the tight end position, my projections have Larry Donnell scoring 12.1 points in the DraftKings scoring system and 10.2 points in the FanDuel scoring system. This puts him as my seventh-rated tight end this week. At DraftKings he is priced 15th among tight ends at $3500. That is $288.8 per point which is the best (lowest) at the position on my board. Let’s move over to FanDuel where he is priced as the fifth tight end at $6000. That computes to $590/point and ninth on my value board for FanDuel. What this means is Donnell would be someone I would look to have exposure to at DraftKings but probably would pass on at FanDuel. As you can see, a value play at one site might not be as good of a value, or a value at all at another site when you consider the scoring system and the cost of the player. That ended up being the case with my friend who was playing on another DFS site that had a different scoring platform and pricing structure. Be sure you take into account those factors on the site where you play.

Las Vegas scoring lines for Week 6:

• Indianapolis (24.5) at Houston (22)
  
• Denver (28.75) at NY Jets (18.75)
  
• Pittsburgh (23) at Cleveland (24.5)
  
• Jacksonville (19) at Tennessee (25)
  
• Chicago (25) at Atlanta (28.5)
  
• Green Bay (25.75) at Miami (22.75)
  
• Detroit (22.75) at Minnesota (21.75)
  
• Carolina (18.5) at Cincinnati (25.5)
  
• New England (24) at Buffalo (21)
  
• Baltimore (23.5) at Tampa Bay (20)
  
• San Diego (25) at Oakland (18)
  
• Dallas (19.5) at Seattle (27.5)
  
• Washington at Arizona – NO LINE
  
• NY Giants (23.75) at Philadelphia (26.75)
  
• San Francisco (23.5) at St. Louis (20)

Bye: Kansas City, New Orleans
Salaries: (FanDuel/DraftKings)

Matt Ryan will be a popular DFS pick in Week 6.

Matt Ryan – (8,700/8,600) – Ryan is better at home than on the road and he faces the subpar Chicago defense. Atlanta is one of the top projected scores this week and I look for Ryan to have a great day.

Russell Wilson – (8,400/7,600) Wilson looked great on Monday night and showed that he is a dual threat on the field. He is at home this week and should feast on the Dallas defense.

Eli Manning (7,800/7,200) If you skipped the value discussion above, I recommend you go back and read it. I like Eli’s value at FanDuel but I am not as interested in his price at DraftKings.

Running Backs

Matt Forte (9,000/8,800) – Atlanta is giving up the most points to opposing running backs. The price point is high but so his Forte’s floor and ceiling this week.

LeSean McCoy (8,000/6,000) – McCoy has been largely disappointing in season-long leagues, but luckily we are discussing DFS. The Giants are vulnerable to opposing running backs and I look for McCoy to score well on Sunday night. I see him as a top 10 value at both FanDuel and DraftKings.

Andre Ellington (7,200/5,100) – Washington has been pretty good against the opponents running game but they are vulnerable to the short passes. Ellington racked up 4 catches for 112 yards and a touchdown last week. I would not count on the long touchdown but I expect to see him involved in the passing game again.

Branden Oliver (6,200/5,500) – To me this feels like a little déjà vu to the Donald Brown situation from a couple of weeks ago. At his price point I expect him to be widely owned. He is inline for a lot of work this week against a weak Oakland defense.

Wide Recievers

Brandon Marshall (7,900/6,300) – After a few underperforming and injury plagued weeks, Marshall’s price has dropped across the industry. I am buying into Marc Trestman’s coach speak when he says they want to get Marshall more involved.

Golden Tate (6,400/6,300) – With Calvin Johnson likely sitting, Tate should see increased targets. He has had a couple of good weeks in a row and should fair well against the Vikings subpar defense.

Rueben Randle (5,900/4,600) – Randle leads the Giants in targets this season (40) and had 10 targets in each of the last three weeks. He has a nice price point and faces a weak Philly secondary.

Andrew Hawkins (5,300/4,600) – Hawkins underperformed for us last week but I am going back to the well this week. Against Pittsburgh in Week 1, he had 8 catches for 87 yards on 10 targets. I am looking for similar production this week with hopes that he can break into the end zone.

Tight Ends

Larry Donnell (6,000/3,500) – This is a DraftKings play versus a FanDuel play as outlined above. I look for Donnell to rebound from his zero-catch performance in Week 5.

Heath Miller (5,000/3,900) – As one of Roethlisberger’s favorite red zone targets, I see Miller as a good value this week.

Defenses

Baltimore (5,000/3,200)
Detroit (5,000/3,300)
Jacksonville (4,500/2,600)

Good luck this week!

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