Week 6 is upon us. Headlining this Sunday’s games are a pair of injuries to fantasy’s top receivers: A.J. Green and Calvin Johnson. This week I’ll be examining two different tournament lineups, one for FanDuel and one for Draftkings, where I take advantage of precisely that tidbit of gigantic (does that count as an oxymoron?) fantasy-relevant news.
This will be the first week I preview a DraftKings lineup I have created, so let’s start there.
One of the nice things about DraftKings is the player values fluctuate highly in two ways. First, from week to week. Second, from top to bottom. Careful players on the lookout for value can really create some interesting lineups. Take for example the following:
DraftKings Week 6 Sample Lineup
Jay Cutler $8000
LeSean McCoy $6000
Joique Bell $3700
Julio Jones $8400
Brandon Marshall $6300
Wes Welker $5600
Rob Gronkowski $5800
FLEX: Bishop Sankey $3500 / Larry Donnell $3500
Bucaneers $2600
Everyone wake up: Joique Bell is playing the Vikings with Reggie Bush banged up and potentially out and only costs $3700.
Read that sentence again.
Now go get him in your lineups. Thank me later.
The rest of my choices are fairly straightforward. I like Welker a lot in a PPR format. He is almost a lock for 5-6 catches and 50-60 yards and if he can find the endzone against a subpar Jets secondary (and that’s me being nice, Jets fans), then he has a stud week.
I listed two players at the Flex position because I’m playing two lineups. One with Sankey (Shonn Greene is also ailing) and one with Donnell (NYG-PHI should be a high-scoring affair). I like my lineup overall so I’m simply switching out two high-end risk/reward type players.
FanDuel Week 6 Sample Lineup
Jay Cutler $8500
Andre Williams $6300
Brandon Oliver $6200
Brandon Marshall $7900
Golden Tate $6400
Mohammed Sanu $6000
Julius Thomas $8200
Steven Hauschka $5200
49ers $5300
Obviously, I love Cutler this week. Hey, Teddy Bridgewater put up over 20 points against this Falcons defense. And he doesn’t have anywhere near the weapons Cutler does. Here we really see where I am attempting to take advantage of the absence of Megatron and Green: I am playing their teams’ new number one wide receivers in Tate and Sanu, both of whom I like quite a bit this week.
Obviously, we have probably seen Brandon Oliver’s best week, but against a very bad Oakland team (31st against the rush) in a game where the Chargers should be up big and really don’t have anyone else to hand the ball to. I think he’s an excellent play, especially for the price. Williams, on the other hand, I have liked all season and he has rewarded his owners with production BEFORE getting the starting gig. This week, I like him to find the endzone and put up very respectable yardage. I’m playing him with confidence.
Best of luck! As always you can tweet me: @pkaragianis