Week 6 featured a few really interesting games, however, the theme of the slate was the extremely poor pricing of players in the marquee game (LSU vs. Missouri), which funneled a majority of lineups into similar builds. While I thought the lineup construction was pretty straightforward, we did get a couple of big curveballs this week that kept us on our toes. First was Devontez Walker of UNC being ruled eligible, giving us a viable minimum-priced play at $3,000 on a slate where all you were really looking for was one really cheap play to make everything fit. The second was Treyveon Henderson being ruled out around two hours before lock — we’ll discuss this one in the running back section.
Let’s go position by position and then touch on some results.
Quarterback
Jayden Daniels was a priority play for me despite not having an overwhelming projection for his price tag. I thought Missouri had a really good chance to move the ball quickly versus LSU, forcing Daniels into a back-and-forth type of game where his legs and arm would be on display. I really liked Brady Cook as a second quarterback, however, his price tag of $7,400 was a tad bit high when I tried to put the puzzle pieces together. Other guys who I thought were similar plays when adjusting for price were Garrett Shrader at $7,200 and Jason Bean at $6,700. I considered going down to Kyron Drones, but once we got the ability to play a $3,000 wide receiver, I felt he was unnecessary in cash. I left the QB2 spot open when building my lineup, as it was something I would circle back to once I worked through other positions.
Running Back
As discussed in Top Plays, LeQuint Allen had the best role of all running backs on the slate at $5,800 and has shown to be viable no matter what game script presents itself. He was the priority running back play for me despite being an underdog at UNC.
Earlier in the week, the next group of running backs for me were Montrell Johnson, Will Shipley, Devin Neal, RJ Harvey, Jonathon Brooks, and Trevor Etienne. I was considering Etienne at $5,300, however, it came out that he was doubtful at some point on Friday, which really changed how I viewed this tier. Post-news, I felt Johnson was extremely strong, as Florida had not used backup Treyaun Webb much so far this season and the matchup versus Vanderbilt was prime. Also, Johnson was cheaper than all of the other options. Once Etienne was ruled out, I was pretty locked into playing Montrell Johnson next to LeQuint Allen.
Of the remaining names, Devin Neal was the most appealing to me at $6,300, as he was cheaper than Jonathon Brooks and I thought the matchup versus UCF was much better as well. Will Shipley was a fine option, but I had concerns that the Clemson game would be a blowout and we would see a lot of Phil Mafah. I was curious if Braelon Allen would get a bigger workload with no Chez Mellusi, but his price tag was just too high to justify.
The late wildcard of the slate was Treyveon Henderson being ruled out two hours before lock. I expected Chip Traynum to start, but the coaches had been talking up Miyan Williams all week, so I thought there was a chance that the workload would be relatively split between the two. While Williams was out of play at $6,000, Traynum was only $4,200, putting him squarely in play in all formats. I just could not find any lineup builds that seemed to make sense with Traynum, so I ended up passing and leaving him for a few GPP lineups.
Wide Receiver
I alluded to pricing mistakes earlier, and this is the position where they were extremely apparent. Luther Burden at $6,900 and Malik Nabers at $6,500 were just stone cash locks on this slate and they were both extremely difficult not to play in tournaments as well. Having two easy clicks really cut down on the decision-making needed on the slate. When Devontez Walker for UNC popped up as viable for only $3,000, it was very easy to just play those three guys. I was not expecting Walker to start, but all reports suggested he would play a lot. My expectation for Walker was 4-6 targets, and at that workload, he was very tough to pass up considering how explosive he was at Kent State last season.
With the position being so straightforward, my cash pool of wideouts was insanely consolidated. Beyond Nabers, Burden, and Walker, I really only considered Tyler Brown and Brian Thomas. I was a bit concerned that Brown would be a bit affected by the potential return of Antonio Williams (who started the season in the slot, where Tyler Brown has been playing). Williams was ruled a game-time decision and I never really thought we would get a clear picture of his status, which created risk with playing Brown. With Brian Thomas only being $6,100, I viewed him as mispriced as well; it just was not as extreme as Burden/Nabers.
My final 2v2 came down to Tyler Brown and Brady Cook versus Jason Bean and Brian Thomas/Devin Neal. With the Tyler Brown risk, I just decided that the Jason Bean side was safer, as Kansas had a 32-point team total and he has shown to be mobile. Once I made the decision on that path, the last decision was Brian Thomas versus Devin Neal. It really came down to a few factors. I thought Thomas had a superior upside (at a similar floor) compared to Neal, and I did not want two Kansas players on my cash team, as they do tend to spread around production quite a bit at the skill positions. Also, since I was already playing Jayden Daniels, it created some additional correlation (even though that’s not something I am necessarily striving to have in cash). While I did not think I would ever double stack Daniels in cash, this was a situation where it was only because of how inefficient the price tags were on the main LSU guys.
Results
This was yet another week of explosive chalk, where we saw Jayden Daniels, Luther Burden, and Malik Nabers (all over 79% owned) combine for over 115 fantasy points. If you did not start your lineup with those three plays, you were down bad going into the late window of games. Devontez Walker did pretty much what we expected, catching six passes for 43 yards in his debut (Drake Maye missed him for a wide-open TD, too). Brian Thomas picked up 33% ownership and had a middling game. The next group of guys at WR with ownership all failed pretty badly, which consisted of Carlos Hernandez, Tyler Brown, and Josh Kelly. Really, if you stayed on the board and played the lock wide receivers, you were fine at the position.
Beyond Daniels at the QB position, Cook performed well as the second-highest-owned signal-caller. Beyond that, there was a series of spectacular failures for the next three guys in terms of ownership. Jason Bean posted 8.6 points, as he spent most of the game just handing the ball off. Garrett Shrader worked up a 6.7 fantasy-point performance, as he spent most of the game either on his back or watching UNC march down the field yet again. Then Cameron Ward, who has been great this year, did not crack 9.0 points versus UCLA. It was pretty shocking that we saw that many extreme floor games from quarterbacks. The mega-minds who only played one quarterback in cash (and there was a good chunk of them who did so this week because QB wasn’t very deep) generally had better results, as most of the running back pivots in those price ranges did quite well.
LeQuint Allen was a victim of systemic offensive failure, but he at least scored a touchdown and posted 13.6 points in a game where Syracuse lost 40-7 and did not play their starters in the final quarter. This really showcases why Allen was such a good play. Things really could not have gone worse for Syracuse and he still got 13. All of the other cash running backs were fairly productive, and you were generally rewarded if you played a third running back in cash over the FLEX options you likely got to at wide receiver.
I thought I played decently well, as I don’t really regret any plays. Obviously going Devin Neal over Brian Thomas would have netted a few more points, but I was fine with the decision. I do think this slate would have been much more fun if pricing was a bit better and we actually had decisions to make. Hopefully we’ll see DraftKings clean that up for the rest of the season. We have a really short turnaround — we get CUSA Tuesdays starting this week, so we have plenty of CFB action to jump back into. I hope you all had a good week, and thanks for reading!
Season Results in Single-Entry $5 Double-Up (1,149 entries):
Week 0: 87th-percentile lineup
Week 1: 12th-percentile lineup
Week 2: 49th-percentile lineup
Week 3: 33rd-percentile lineup
Week 4: 92nd-percentile lineup
Week 5: 42nd-percentile lineup
Week 6: 64th-percentile lineup
