Week 8 FantasyDraft Advice
Week 8 of the NFL season is upon us and what better way to complement yearly leagues than by playing daily leagues as well? Assuming your opponent’s team is stacked and you’re fighting a losing battle, DFS is a way to still monetize your football knowledge on a lost week in yearly leagues. However, there is a bit of a strategy difference due to the weekly salary cap. In this article, fantasy expert Ricky Sanders will walk you through the thought process of putting together the best possible FantasyDraft DFS lineup for the upcoming week:
Andrew Luck, Colts, $12,700 – The Achilles Heel of the Colts offense is their ability (or inability) to protect the QB. Andrew Luck struggles under pressure but can be lights out when he has time to throw the football. Last week, he tied a season-low in numbers of sacks he took with two. On each occasion this season in which he has been sacked exactly two times (three occasions), he has thrown for at least 331 yards. No team in the NFL has sacked the QB fewer times than Luck’s upcoming opponent this week: the Chiefs. The Chiefs dominated Ryan Fitzpatrick in an all-time terrible QB performance but have played as a rather average secondary otherwise. Expect Luck to eat them up at an unusually affordable price for a stud such as him.
Christine Michael, Seahawks, $13,700 – In poker terms, the matchup against the Saints rushing defense this year has been the “nuts” (or absolute best). The 10 rushing TDs allowed by the Saints are tied for the most in the NFL and they sit all alone in first (or last depending on how you look at it) in terms of fantasy points allowed to opposing backs. Last week, Spencer Ware only rushed for 77 yards on 17 carries (4.5 yards per carry) but he still found a way to finish in the top 10 at the position due to a 46 yard TD reception (REC). While Michael contributes sporadically to the passing game (at least two RECs in every game this season, he is involved heavily in the rushing attack every week (at least 16 carries in every game since Week 3). While his efficiency has been down the last three games (has not eclipsed 3.6 yards per carry), he still produced 20-plus fantasy points in two of those games due to scores. Against a team that has allowed the most scores (12 total) to opposing backs, he should be able to find the end zone once again. Hell, he has scored five TDs in the last four games so it is not exactly a rare occurrence.
Spencer Ware, Chiefs, $12,700 – Could the schedule be any friendlier for Spencer Ware these days? Sheesh. Ware will go from facing the aforementioned Saints to facing a Colts defense that has been lit up by every back that has faced them. Theo Riddick, C.J. Anderson, Melvin Gordon, T.J. Yeldon (season-high yards per carry), Jordan Howard, Lamar Miller and DeMarco Murray all went nuts against this defense so it is not surprising that the Colts rank dead last in rushing defense in terms of Football Outsiders’ defense-adjusted value over average (DVOA) statistic. If playing the Saints is option 1A then the Colts are 1B and Ware is flirting with finishing as a top five back in this offense. Jamaal Charles should no longer be a concern as he is nothing more than a change of pace back. Ware contributes both on the ground and in the air which is notable because the Colts have allowed the fourth most receiving yards and most receiving TDs to opposing backs. As noted in the Michael tidbit, Ware scored a 40-plus yard receiving TD last week so he is a threat to score in multiple ways this weekend. Fading him would simply be a mistake.
Jacquizz Rodgers, Buccaneers, $10,900 – Speaking of workhorses, Jacquizz Rodgers has carried the ball a ridiculous 56 times over the course of the past two weeks alone. The gigantic workload has led to 255 yards rushing in the past two contests which is amazing because he had accumulated just 252 in his previous 19 games. The team is relying on him as the bell cow in the absence of both Doug Martin and Charles Sims and he has come through to the tune of 4.55 YPC over the past two games. For the season, the Raiders have allowed the ninth most fantasy points to opposing RBs but the third most rushing yards. Clearly, gaining yardage has not been a struggle for Rodgers lately especially considering he gained 100 yards rushing in the first half alone last week. The offensive line, specifically the right half, is playing great right now and Rodgers is flourishing in an expanded role. Usually backs seeing this sort of volume are priced around $14,000 so take Rodgers at the sizeable discount.
Ty Montgomery, Packers, $10,500 – Is Ty Montgomery a RB or WR? Well, Aaron Rodgers was quoted as saying this week as saying “Ty is a RB now” after Montgomery played 46 snaps in the backfield in Week 7. This was the second consecutive week he was forced to play RB and it led to 10-plus RECs in back-to-back games. The Packers have virtually no choice but to continue using Montgomery in the backfield considering the recently acquired Knile Davis is the only other healthy back. Although the Packers have virtually replaced their running game with the short passing game, Montgomery still averaged 6.7 yards per carry (YPC) last week. He is both a RB2 and borderline PPR WR1 in his new role and yet he is priced like a WR3. For that kind of value, there is no reason to avoid using Rodgers’ new found security blanket.
C.J. Fiedorowicz, Texans, $5,600 – Okay so the Texans offense was just brutal on Monday Night but there was a silver lining: C.J. Fiedorowicz played a season-high 74-percent of the team’s offensive snaps. Prior to Monday Night against a tough Broncos defense, Fiedorowicz had finished as TE8 between Weeks 6 and 7 combined and he had been averaging 64 yards receiving over the past three weeks (Weeks 5-7). All of this is a long-winded way of seeing he is a youngster on the rise and he draws a dream matchup against a Lions defense that has allowed 19 TDs to TEs in their last 23 games. Furthermore, they have allowed the most TDs to the position (seven) and the third most fantasy points. Vernon Davis finished as a top four TE in Week 6 without scoring and he actually dropped a TD. Coincidentally, he was priced at this exact same price. If punting the position, Fiedorowicz actually possesses more upside than his name value alone might suggest.
Ricky Sanders is a fantasy sports expert with over 15 years of playing experience. After starting several freelance fantasy sports blogs, Ricky moved up in the fantasy industry when he joined Going9 Baseball. He wrote fantasy baseball content and had a weekly radio spot on the site’s SiriusXM Satellite Radio show. Shortly thereafter, in early 2013, Ricky joined RotoExperts as a three-sport fantasy contributor, eventually becoming one of the site’s lead basketball writers. While writing for RotoExperts, Ricky was introduced to daily fantasy sports and immediately fell in love. With help from some of his mentors, some of the best DFS players in the world, he honed his skills and became the daily fantasy expert he is today. When RotoExperts created a daily-focused website called DailyRoto.com, Ricky was brought on to FantasyDraft as one of the main contributors. He still makes frequent appearances on the RotoExperts SiriusXM Radio show and on the FNTSY Sports Television Network, talking daily fantasy sports. He also continues to write for a few DFS content sites: FanVice, RotoCurve and Daily Fantasy Cafe. Ricky is a proud and active member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. Don’t hesitate to contact Ricky with questions on Twitter @RSandersDFS.
