Week 9 may be the most difficult slate of the season thus far from a NFL DFS pricing perspective. At this point, there isn’t a lot of obvious value, which makes jamming in Christian McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook in the same lineup a difficult task on DraftKings. That could change should James Conner be ruled out, and Jalen Samuels gets the start for Pittsburgh, but we’ll have to wait and see on that. With that being said, there are still a few decent value plays at quarterback and wide receiver that can unlock the high end running back options. We've got stacks for both DraftKings cash games and GPPs.
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WEEK 9 NON-PPR RANKINGS:
Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker
Week 9 NFL DFS Picks: Top DraftKings stacks for cash games
QB Philip Rivers and WR Mike Williams, Los Angeles Chargers
I really don’t want to spend up on a quarterback this week with best plays clearly being the high-end running backs. Of the cheap quarterbacks, my favorite is Rivers at $5,100 on DraftKings. While Brandon Allen is also very tempting at $4,100, there are a lot of unknowns with him, and you get much more security with the veteran Rivers, who has an exploitable matchup against the Packers. Rivers has paid off his salary expectations in 5-of-8 games this season, and his $5,100 price point is the lowest of the year despite throwing for multiple touchdown passes in four of his last six games.
There are a lot of options to pair with Rivers, but with how I’m trying to build my lineups, I’m going to go with Williams, who is yet again one of the best value wide receiver plays on the slate on DraftKings at $4,600. Williams is due for some big-time positive touchdown regression, and his target floor looks fairly secure as he’s averaged 8.75 targets per game over the Chargers' last four outings. The Chargers also just fired offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt this week, so we may see the team look to target Williams deep down the field like they did for much of 2018. The value on the stack is excellent and will help you find the salary to fit in some combination of Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, and Nick Chubb in your cash game lineup.
WEEK 9 PPR RANKINGS: Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end
RB Dalvin Cook and WR Stefon Diggs, Minnesota Vikings
Cook has one of the best matchups among any skill position player on the slate in the Chiefs who can’t stop anyone on the ground and is someone who I’m making a priority to get in my cash lineup. We just saw the Packers' running back duo of Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams dominate the Chiefs both on the ground and through the air, and there is no reason to believe that Cook can’t do the same given his consistent 20-30 touch workload. Given their prices, I would have an easier time fading McCaffrey than Cook, but jamming both of these players in your lineup gives you such a good points floor that I think playing both of them is the optimal play.
We saw last week with Latavious Murray and Michael Thomas that a RB/WR stack in cash games can work out just fine, and you can comfortably do that this week with Cook and Diggs. While Diggs’ price is high across the industry, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve it after three-straight games with seven receptions and at least 143 yards. Fellow WR Adam Thielen is likely to return from a hamstring injury this week, but I don’t see him taking enough volume away from Diggs - who is running most of his routes deep down the field - to make a big difference.
WEEK 9 DFS LINEUPS:
Y! cash | Y! GPP | DK cash | DK GPP | FD cash | FD GPP
Week 9 DraftKings Picks: Best stacks for daily fantasy football GPPs/tournaments
QB Jameis Winston, WR Chris Godwin, and WR Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
If you want to instantly make a GPP lineup contrarian, then start by jamming in two high priced wide receivers and fade both or at least one of McCaffrey and Cook, and my favorite route to do that is a Winston, Evans, and Godwin triple stack as they head to Seattle to take on the Seahawks. Winston has looked awful at times this season, but to his credit, he has consistently been excellent for fantasy scoring. He has 35-plus point upside in this matchup, and he will likely be forced to throw the ball 40-plus times, given the lack of a reliable running game from the Tampa offense.
You can pair Winston with either of his receiving targets, and I expect both of them to see over 10 targets this week with tight ends O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate battling injuries. Godwin is my favorite of the two, but as we saw last week, Evans has as much upside as any receiver in the league with his catch radius and excellent contested catch rate in the red zone. This triple-stack likely means you’ll be sacrificing at running back, but it’s also a high upside route that I don’t think many will take in tournaments.
WEEK 9: Waiver wire | FAAB planner | Trade values | Snap counts
QB Matthew Stafford and WR Marvin Jones Jr., Detroit Lions
I mentioned Stafford as a great play in all formats last week, and he paid off with a 342-yard, three-touchdown outing against the Giants. I’m looking to go right back to the red-hot Stafford and the Lions offense yet again this week in an even better matchup against the Raiders. While Stafford is priced way up, especially on DraftKings at $6,800, he should be able to easily pay off that price tag against a team that ranks 26th DvP against opposing quarterbacks. It’s also important to remember that the Lions are using a full-blown running back by committee with Kerryon Johnson out of the lineup, which should lock in Stafford to over 30 passing attempts in this spot.
While I like Kenny Golladay coming off of his big week, his price tag is overblown at $7,700 on DraftKings, with his previous high being $6,600. Because of this inflated price point, I would much rather drop down and shoot for the point per dollar upside of Jones. While Jones’ target share is more volatile than Golladay, he still has double-digit target upside as we saw in Week 7 against the Vikings. I wouldn’t play Jones in cash unless he was the last player in, but for GPPs, he makes for one of the better upside plays on the slate.
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