Sometimes obvious happens. Other times, cheap happens. Sometimes obvious and cheap happen at the same time and you get a great cash play or GPP play depending on how you build your roster. To put it mildly, Donald Brown is in a great position to succeed on Sunday. The Jags have been completely run over this season *pun not intended but now that I look at it, I’m quite proud of it*. To be fair, the Jags have been destroyed at nearly every position offensively so far as they rank at or near the bottom against opposing QBs, WRs, and TEs on the year as well but I’m gonna focus on the things that make this call mesh for me. You see, for as much as we talk of Philip Rivers, his odd faces, his multitude of children and his bolos, we seem to forget one thing: he ain’t just chucking anymore. Now this isn’t to say he’s not getting his but the Chargers are a clock-managing team. They are forcing their opponent to make due with small chunks of time, putting pressure on opposing offenses to produce with a limited window and they’re doing this by running the ball. San Diego only trails Houston and Cincinnati in rushing attempts on the year with 98 and last week, Brown rushed the ball 31 times. Yes, yes, he only gained 62 yards but I would hang that on the Bills actually being a decent defense more so than the inability of Donald. And now with Danny Woodhead out for the season, the backfield will be his to own until Ryan Mathews grows an extra ‘t’ in his last name. Now I can’t promise he gets the 36 total touches he got last week but I do think he’ll do most of the heavy lifting and that a 35+ touch game is NOT out of the question for Donald as he and the team know when Mathews comes back, he’ll have time to recoup. So come with me as we take the Jags to Brown Town…hey, not THAT Brown Town. It’s in San Diego where Donald plays. What did you think I meant? Gross, let’s move on. Here are my hot takes for week 4 on DraftKings…
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LeSean McCoy, RB: $7,000 – Might be the last time you see McCoy below $8K for the year. The matchup sucks, McCoy has been terrible, yadda, yadda, yadda to the nth degree. It’s all about price point in our little DK world and for 7K, you get 30 point upside. Relish in it. Then mustard in it for a bit, if you must.
Ahmad Bradshaw, RB: $5,800 – The price is slowly creeping up on the lead back by stats but not by name in Indy. I think we saw his upside week 2 and I’ll say that is achievable this week. The Colts are -6 favorites so I wouldn’t be surprised if they get out to an early lead and wind the clock down with some run fun.
Le’Veon Bell, RB: $7,400 – Speaking of running the clock down…the Steelers are the -8 favorites and Bell has run like a man possessed so far this year. The fact that the Tampa Bay MRSAneers are in town makes the situation all the more sweet. Or sour. To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t know what MRSA tastes like.
Darren McFadden, RB: $4,500 – I feel dirty, y’all, but this is what daily fantasy is all about. The Dolphins are second to last in RZ touches to opposing RBs on the year. This game probably starts ugly and stays ugly but that doesn’t mean McFadden can’t score you 15. Consider him a nice flex play at this price point. Also consider this an ok for Matt Asiata and his $4,500 price tag as well as Atlanta has given up the 4th most RZ touches to opposing backs.
Alfred Blue, RB: $4,500 – You’re still my boy, Blue! That’s what I’ll say if Foster is still out. Now I’ve got Blue balls. That’s what I’ll say if Foster is back in.
Eddie Royal, WR: $4,600 – Royal wit cheese is what I like to call him when I talk about Eddie. Which is never, really. This is me believing in Royal’s Redzone habits with Rivers. If Brown can’t dominate his opportunities inside the 20, I think Royal has a great chance to be a TD threat. Again, risky and definitely not a cash game play but I could see a 20 point day out of Casino Royal…ok, I’ll stop trying.
Dez Bryant, WR: $7,900 – This game has the highest o/u of the day and it probably makes Dez one of the safest cash plays at WR. He now has back to back 20 point efforts and I’m sure he’s gearing up for a third. Reach for him. It’s your Dez’tiny.
Brandin Cooks, WR: $5,300 – Guess you need to score a TD to get respect. He has a game of 7 receptions and 8 receptions under his belt now and will get plenty of targets in a back and forth game. Hell, he might even score a TD to get y’all on his bandwagon.
Jeremy Maclin, WR: $6,300 – Get in and enjoy all the yardage before he’s priced up there with the big boys cuz this is the return of the Maclin.
DeAndre Hopkins, WR: $4,800 – Buffalo is a happy conundrum. On the one hand, they’re very good up front. On the other, they let just about anyone and everyone sneak past their secondary for the long haul. DeAndre is just the man to sneak on by. ‘I did it all for the NUK’ee’ will become a common phrase said by all after this weekend (said no one, ever).
Vernon Davis, TE: $4,500 – I’m going for a 2 for 1 here. IF VD isn’t healthy, I’ll find a way to price Michael Crabtree ($6,400) into my lineup. If he is healthy? At this price, I’m not gonna go contrarian. A two touchdown effort could be had here. And let’s face facts, when was the last time was a VD healthy thing?
Jimmy Graham, TE: $7,500 – The big duh here, I know. But really, if you pay down at WR like you can this week, you can swing a WR1 in disguise at TE. Dallas has given up the most targets against at TE as well as the second most yards so far and we know Jimmy can own a game by himself. Graham. Cracker. Crunch!
Garrett Graham, TE: $3,300 – When you can’t pay up for Graham, why not punt with Graham? The Bills have given up the 5th most targets to opposing TEs on the year and given Fitz’ penchant for passing for under 10 yards per pass attempt more often than not, Graham could be 14 Garrett Gold. Not working for you? How about Graham. Cracker. Brunch? It’s not quite breakfast and it’s not quite lunch but it comes with a side of honeydew melon.
Colin Kaepernick, QB: $7,600 – I’m just putting this here because it needs to be. To be fair, I don’t see a huge game coming from Colin despite the plum matchup. I’d much rather aim for a 300+ passer. Suggestion loading…
Nick Foles, QB: $8,000 – So after three weeks, the Eagles are 3-0, Foles leads the league in passing yards and all I’m hearing is that he sucks. Ok…well, go ahead and keep saying that. Foles should be geared up for another 300 yard passing game down in San Fran.
Blake Bortles, QB: $5,800 – So you wanna go the contrarian route, eh? Well honestly, throwing on the Chargers ain’t a bad thing so far this year. If there’s anything that’s going to tilt my Donald Brown call, it’ll be Bortles handling the pressure well and not letting the Chargers dominate the clock. This is a thing and this thing could happen. This is a phrase I tell myself over and over when looking at Blake’s girlfriend, BTW. It still hasn’t happened.
Oakland Raiders, DST: $2,600 – Now I’m not gonna lie and say all of last week’s holding down of the Pats was on the Raiders. It’s clearly not. Pats got offensive problems, yo. But I will say it was a little from column A and a little from column B and I’ll take that at home against a team struggling to find an offensive identity. Man, that was totally a nerd rap there.
Pittsburgh Steelers, DST: $2,900 – Clearly you have $300 left and don’t want it to go to waste. Well the MRSAneers are in town. And have done bupkis offensively. I don’t think the Steelers are the best get – too many will own them – but I do think they’ll have a solid but unspectacular week. Lower case yay.
Indianapolis Colts, DST: $3,100 – You’ve clearly come across a bank error in your favor and can afford the finer things in life. Or at least afford the Colts. The Tennessee Trollops have been the town bicycle so far this year for defensive goodies and with Locker on the road and already under fire, I don’t see that changing any time soon. Ever wondered what a shoe horse imprint looked like on a man’s forehead? Tune in on Sunday!
