One of the things I did not mention is how contestants in daily/weekly fantasy games love to find reasons to load up on players in the Thursday game just to have someone to watch and perhaps in an effort to get out to an early lead. For example, last week in one of my 50/50’s, someone had five players from the Thursday night game in their lineup. That roster construction is not a great idea for a boom or bust tournament strategy and is downright terrible for a cash game contest where you are looking for a high floor to cash. This is especially the case considering four of those guys were on New England’s offense and the other was the Patriots defense. The best-case scenario would have Tom Brady throwing a touchdown pass to one of the other players in the lineup. The two other players on the roster not only do not score, but they lose the opportunity to score as the Jets then get the ball.

Why do I mention this? Well, as we look ahead to tonight, we have Denver on the schedule. Denver is one of the most common stacks (multiple players from the same team) each week. Rightfully so, Denver passes a large percentage of the time and scores a lot of points each week. The winning roster in the Millionaire Maker tournament on DraftKings a couple of weeks ago had three players from the same offense - Peyton Manning, Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas. Manning and Thomas were 5.6% and 7.1% owned respectively and accounted for 81.56 points. I am pretty certain that even with the premium prices on the Denver offense, the percentages of use of these players is going to be much higher this week in both cash games and tournaments. In a cash game, I would be willing to pay up for one or two of them this week like any other week. In a tournament, I would probably stay away from the high ownership percentages that will come with Denver on Thursday night. If you rather not tune into the midweek game and have to cheer against arguably the best offense in the league, then select a match that does not include the Thursday night game. If you do select a contest that does include the Thursday game just remember that even though its Denver’s offense, putting five players from the same team in your lineup is not going to be the best roster construction.

Side Note – The Detroit versus Atlanta game is a 9:30 EST start on Sunday morning. For this reason, that game is not included in the Sunday game formats across the industry. If you are looking to use players from that game you will need to play the contests that include the Thursday game as well.

• San Diego (22) at Denver (29.5) - Thursday
• Detroit (25.25) vs Atlanta (21.75) - London
• Minnesota (19.25) at Tampa Bay (22.25)
• Chicago (22.25) at New England (27.75)
• St. Louis (18.5) at Kansas City (25.5)
• Seattle (24.75) at Carolina (19.75)
• Buffalo (19) at NY Jets (22)
• Miami (24.5) at Jacksonville (18.5)
• Houston (22.25) at Tennessee (19.75)
• Baltimore (22.5) at Cincinnati (23.5)
• Philadelphia (22.75) at Arizona (25.25)
• Indianapolis (26) at Pittsburgh (23)
• Oakland (18) at Cleveland (25)
• Green Bay (29) at New Orleans (27)
• Washington (19.75) at Dallas (29.75)

Bye: NY Giants, San Francisco
Salaries: (FanDuel/DraftKings)

The Sunday night game should be a high-scoring affair.

Aaron Rodgers (10,000/9,000) – If paying up for a quarterback is in your budget this week, look to Rodgers. He has thrown for at least three touchdowns in five of the seven games this year including each of the last four. The Saints are one of the top ten defenses to target for opposing quarterbacks.

Tom Brady (8,600/7,200) – Since hitting rock bottom in Kansas City on Monday night of Week 5, Brady has bounced back with 914 yards and 9 touchdowns over the last three weeks. He is back at home after a mini bye (Thursday game last week) and faces the Chicago defense that was just lit up by Ryan Tannehill.

Teddy Bridgewater (5,400/5,100) – If you are looking for a bargain price tournament play, Bridgewater offers much salary relief at both Fanduel and DraftKings. He has struggled the last two weeks back from injury, but Tampa Bay gives up the most points to opposing quarterbacks.

Running Backs

Jamaal Charles (8,700/6,700) – Charles has not lived up to his draft position in seasonal leagues, but his usage has been ramped up of late including 24 touches last week. St. Louis has not been generous to opposing backs, but Charles has a high upside potential against any defense. At a price well below the top of the position, the value is there.

Le’Veon Bell (8,400/6,300) – Bell scored well for us last week in this spot and his salary stayed the same at Fanduel and came down at DraftKings. The Indianapolis defense is a better squad than Houston but Bell should still be able to exceed 100 all-purpose yards for the eighth straight game this season.

Jerick McKinnon (5,800/4,900) – McKinnon is my number one value on both Fanduel and DraftKings. He has taken over the lead back touches in Minnesota and last week went over 100 yards against a good Buffalo rush defense. This week he gets to go against Tampa Bay who is giving up top five numbers to opposing backs.

Travaris Cadet (5,300/3,000) – I would only look to use Cadet in a tournament on DraftKings. Cadet hauled in six catches last week on nine targets. He is the primary back in passing situations and in a game that looks to be a shootout he should see plenty of action. He has a high ceiling in the PPR format.

Wide Recievers

Golden Tate (7,500/6,500) – Tate lit it up for us last week and while his price is starting to catch up to his production, he should still see plenty of targets with Calvin Johnson still on the mend. Atlanta is worse against the run than against the pass, but they are giving up a lot of yards after the catch. Just a reminder in case you missed it above, if you want to use players in the Detroit vs. Atlanta game you have to join a contest that includes the Thursday games.

Sammy Watkins (7,300/5,700) – Watkins has been the biggest beneficiary of the quarterback change in Buffalo. With the top two running backs down to injury, the passing game will look to pick up the slack against the lackluster Jets pass defense.

Michael Floyd (6,500/4,900) – With Carson Palmer back, Floyd’s production is continuing to rise. He found the endzone in each of the last two weeks. This game is one of the higher projected scoring games on the board this week so look to play Floyd at his deflated price.

Justin Hunter (5,300/3,100) – Hunter is coming off a 1-catch, 6-yard performance but this week he gets a quarterback change to Zach Mettenberger, which should help his production. He has played 95% of the snaps over the last three weeks so the opportunities will be there.

Tight Ends

Dwayne Allen (6,000/3,900) – Allen has scored a touchdown in five games this season to help his production and playability. With Reggie Wayne possibly sidelined with an elbow injury, look for Allen to see an increase in targets as well.

Zach Ertz (5,400/3,200) – Ertz has been boom or bust this season but should have a good chance to boom against the Arizona defense. While they are not the worst against the tight end position as they were last year, they are still a plus matchup for tight ends.

Defenses

Buffalo (5,300/3,300)
Detroit (5,200/3,400)
Minnesota (4,700/2,600)

Good luck this week!

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