NFL Week 2 DFS Plays: DraftKings and Underdog Primer
Pete Overzet unveils six top DFS plays for Week 2 on DraftKings and the Underdog Battle Royale.
Welcome to a new weekly piece here on Fantasy Life: DFS Superlatives.
Every week I'll be handing out awards for my favorite DFS plays on both DraftKings and Underdog.
I can't promise that these award categories will remain static—the Academy can get restless around here—but I can promise you that I'll always give you plenty of sharp ideas for building GPP lineups and drafting Battle Royale teams.
Btw, if you are new to drafting weekly teams on Underdog, I outlined five tips & tricks in this Underdog strategy guide last week.
Alright, without further adieu, the envelope please…
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THE "HE'S STILL TOO CHEAP" JAM OF THE WEEK
QB Jayden Daniels, Commanders
Despite dropping a 30-ball in his NFL debut, Daniels' salary on DraftKings is up only $500 from $5,700 to $6,200, making him the best QB value on the slate with seven other QBs more expensive.
Underdog drafters are much quicker on the uptake, however, and are taking him as QB4 off the board (ADP: 25.7).
As we learned in Week 1, you don't need to force a stack with Daniels because so much of his production comes via rushing. Per Dwain's Utilization Report: "Daniels registered a 36% rush share and scrambled on 21% of his dropbacks, leading to 88 yards and 2 TDs on the ground."
That said, I have no problem skinny-stacking him with either Terry McLaurin ($5,700) or Zach Ertz ($3,500). In fact, I think stacking him this week will likely be underutilized as people try to copy/paste last week's stat line.
Honorable mention: Cooper Kupp ($7,600), Kyren Williams ($6,800)
THE SCROLL THE EFF DOWN RB SLEEPERS
Jerome Ford & Rhamondre Stevenson
One of the beautiful things about drafting Battle Royale teams on Underdog is that you can scroll down to "sleepers," who are rarely getting drafted in contests and yet still have insane workloads. Basically, you can have your cake (good plays) and eat it, too (very low field exposure).
That's exactly what we are getting with Ford (ADP: 35.7) and Stevenson (35.1), who finished in the Top 4 for all RBs last week in our new Utilization Score metric:
There's a little concern that Stevenson's workload will decrease this week if Antonio Gibson is fully healthy, but I'm still willing to mess around and find out at these cheap prices.
These two are the perfect RBs to scroll down for with your final pick, especially if your first five picks were relatively "chalky," aka tethered to ADP.
THE PERFECT DK PUNT PLAY (WR: Tyler Johnson $3,300)
Puka Nacua is out for at least four games after being placed on IR with a sprained right PCL. And while I wouldn't put it past Matthew Stafford to force 20+ targets a game to Kupp until he returns, there is value to be found in this WR room.
Many will flock to Demarcus Robinson ($4,000), but I'm most intrigued by what we saw from Johnson. He posted the second-highest TPRR (21%) behind only Kupp and flashed some big-play ability after the catch.
I could see this play getting trendy as we approach lock (similar to Andrei Iosivas last week), so keep an eye on projected field exposures. But as long as you pair him with some less popular plays, he jumps off the page as the best salary-saving option on the slate.
THE BUY THE DIP SCOOP OF THE WEEK (ELITE TEs)
The entire TE position (outside of a few heroes like Foster Moreau) flopped big in Week 1. You know what that means … we can't ever play/draft Elite TEs ever again! Ya right–we are going right back to the well and fading a fluky, abnormally low-scoring week for the top options at the position.
We aren't getting much of a discount on DraftKings for the top guys, but their ADPs on Underdog have created an awesome BTFD (don't Urban Dictionary that, Mom!) opportunity:
- Sam LaPorta (ADP: 11.7)
- Travis Kelce (20.2)
- Trey McBride (20.8)
- Mark Andrews (33)
- George Kittle (28.9)
- Evan Engram (35.2)
Engram is the one who really stands out on Underdog because his ADP and positional rank (TE8) indicate that he's getting drafted in less than 20% of drafts.
It's also worth noting that Kittle and Andrews are both getting drafted after Isaiah Likely, which seems like an opportunity to exploit.
I'll be loading up on these Top 6 guys this week and looking to get unique pieces at other positions.
THE VOMIT STACK OF THE WEEK (Daniel Jones + 2 GIANTS)
Look, it's called a vomit stack (s/o BlenderHD) for a reason. You aren't supposed to like it. It's intended to induce a little throw-up in your mouth. But it's also cheap, real cheap:
- Jones ($5,300)
- Malik Nabers ($5,900)
- Wan'Dale Robinson ($4,300)
- Theo Johnson ($2,600)
This is a play you reverse engineer to the QB because of the salaries and the roles of the pass catchers. Nabers had a 100% route participation and 19% target share in Week 1, which means he's underpriced for both his role and talent.
Robinson had 11, yes, let me spell it out—eleven—targets in Week 1, which gives him an insane PPR scam floor on DraftKings.
Johnson is nearly the min-price on DK and earned four targets last week. Tossing a cheap, correlated TE piece onto your main stack is never a bad strategy on DraftKings.
Here's a mint, I know you need it.
THE BE GREEDY WHEN OTHERS ARE FEARFUL SPOT (CMC)
It's always tricky writing up DFS plays that involve injury designations, but I need to call out this bizarre situation with Christian McCaffrey. We recapped the saga in Wednesday's newsletter and now the Niners are feinting that he will play in Week 2.
CMC's ADP on Underdog is currently 26.8. This number is likely to move quickly in either direction as reporting firms up before lock, but drafting a heaping portion of the best RB in football at these prices is a prudent thing to do.
For those not familiar, if you draft CMC with a Q tag (like he has right now) and he doesn't play, you won't take a zero. Underdog will swap him to the next best available RB via ADP who was not selected in your draft or to your top available RB based on your own rankings if you set them:
This provides an opportunity to essentially chase CMC's ceiling risk-free, while knowing you can easily swap him for a regularly undrafted RB gem like Ford or Stevenson.
For more Battle Royale picks and hidden gems, I'll be posting a strategy video on the Deposit Kingdom channel every Friday evening.
Good luck this week.
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