Ladies and gentleman, we have a great show for you tonight.

This Week 7 main slate is packed with juicy game environments and splash-play candidates. 

It's also a tricky slate, though, with a handful of key injury situations to monitor. The committee prefers to steer away from handing out hardware to injury-dependent plays, but that doesn't mean you should fully rest on these laurels.

For example …

If James Cook doesn't play for a second straight week, Ray Davis will instantly receive our "Jam Of The Week" award (narrowly edging out Bonne Maman's Raspberry). 

If Dallas Goedert misses this week, then Grant Calcaterra will instantly receive our "Dumpster Dive Of The Week" award (narrowly edging out "What You Had To Do Last Week When Your Toddler Accidentally Put Her Favorite Stuffed Animal In The Trash"). 

With that being said, we play the hand that we are dealt before the overnight Schefty bombs and inactives are announced and this is that hand.

It's time for the Week 7 DFS awards. The envelope please …

🏆 THE SLEEPING GIANT STACK OF THE WEEK (VIKINGS)

This Vikings and Lions game is going to be what everyone hoped the Cowboys-Lions game last week would be.

The Vikings are a sleeping giant coming off a bye in a mouth-watering home matchup vs. the Lions. We'll have a note on Aaron Jones later in the awards show, but this is my preferred way to play it this week:

• Sam Darnold ($6,200)
• Justin Jefferson ($8,500)
• Jordan Addison ($5,600)

If you only hawk the boxscore, Darnold appears solid (17.1 fantasy points per game) on the year, but not spectacular. But that boxscore doesn't tell the whole story. Per Dwain, the Vikings have led by a "9-plus points on a league-leading 55% of plays." Because of this, they have not had to throw much while salting away leads. 

Now the Vikings finally get an opponent who can keep up in a close game where they are projected to score the third-most points (26.25) on the slate. 

I likely don't need to sell anyone on Jefferson—the best WR in football—when stacking Darnold, so let's focus on Addison. The second-year WR is a big-play merchant (17.9 aDOT) and the Lions have allowed the fourth-largest fantasy boost per game (4.2) to opposing WR rooms.

Even if T.J. Hockenson does return, I love Addison's chances to get loose for a big play and speed up the game. 

🏆 PAY UP TO BE CONTRARIAN AT TE WEEK (ELITE TES)

"Pay up to be contrarian at TE?? In this economy, Pete?!!!" I know brother, I hear ya. If you want to save money and play JAGs like Colby Parkinson this week, I get it. I've done it plenty myself this year.

But this week the committee is digging into our couch cushions for the change needed to jam one of this trio:

• Travis Kelce ($6,300)
• George Kittle ($6,000)
• Brock Bowers ($5,800)

Since Rashee Rice exited, Kelce has posted Utilization Scores of 9.2 and 9.3. There's also a nice leverage angle to this play because Chiefs WR JuJu Smith-Schuster ($4,000) is going to be one of the more popular cheap WR plays on the slate.

Staying in that same game, Kittle has cemented himself as the TE1 on the year with a 9.3 Utilization Score. But it gets better: the Chiefs are No. 1 in most fantasy points allowed to TEs (11.7). 

As for Bowers, he has a 33% target share and 36% air-yards share in his previous two games without Davante Adams. There is nothing scary about this Rams defense, either. Per Freedman, "Los Angeles is No. 32 in defensive pass DVOA against TEs (79.1%) and missing FS John Johnson (shoulder, IR)."

🏆 THE VOMIT STACK OF THE WEEK (GENO DOUBLES)

The range of outcomes for these vomit stacks is wide. You truly need the stomach to tail me into the darkest corners of the DFS world with these plays. A few weeks back, our Daniel Jones vomit stack smashed, but then last week our Will Levis one crashed and burned in truly horrific fashion.

I preface the Week 7 vomit stack like that because the most likely thing that happens on Sunday is Kenneth Walker running roughshod over this Falcons defense. Walker has emerged as a Top-5 back rest of season–and he's not 4 or 5–and he's set up nicely here.

But this vomit stack posits: "What if the Falcons get a lead and the Seahawks’ points come through the air instead?"

Enter this cheap trio:

• QB Geno Smith ($5,800)
• WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($5,000) 
• TE Noah Fant ($3,500) 

Geno has shown a high floor (four Top-10 QB finishes this year), but we've yet to see him crack the Top 5. This game, though, has all of the elements for a Seattle passing game script with a 51-point total where the Seahawks are 3-point road dogs. If there were ever a spot for Geno to show a ceiling, it would be in a dome game against a poor pass defense in a trailing script.

JSN has been a target magnet in four of his six games this year. He had 12 in Week 4 and another 9 in Week 6. The Falcons have been particularly vulnerable against slot WRs this year, giving up big games to Diontae Johnson, Rashee Rice, and Chris Olave. 

As for Fant, he saw a very encouraging bump in usage in Week 6 (81% of the routes and 6 targets). If you aren't paying up for one of the alphas and have Geno at QB, I'd be locking in Fant to my TE slot.

🏆 THE Q TAG SLEEPER PLAYS ON UNDERDOG (JONES & MASON)

OK, I know I said that we weren't going to deal with injury situations, but attacking "Q" tags on Underdog is an entirely different story than on Underdog.

There's two reasons for this …

1. On DraftKings, salaries are fixed regardless of a play improving or worsening, but on Underdog, the price (aka ADPs) is dynamic, which means discounts can be had.
2. On Underdog, if you select a player with a Q tag who doesn't end up playing, you will automatically get swapped to the best available player who is active. I described this process in detail here if you'd like a more extensive explainer. 

That brings us to two RBs who you should be clicking at the end of your 6-round Underdog drafts:

• Aaron Jones (ADP: 35.4; $6,500)
• Jordan Mason (ADP: 35.3; $7,600)

The thesis here is simple. If either Jones or Mason go and see anything close to their normal workloads, they are uber-smashes at these prices and provide you the potential to build a superteam. 

There are reasons to be skeptical of both plays (the Vikings traded for Cam Akers; it could be a pain tolerance thing for Mason), but the risk/reward here is too good to pass up. And if one or both of them don't play, the swap options aren't bad at all (guys like Josh Jacobs, De'Von Achane and Kareem Hunt regularly go undrafted).

For more Underdog draft strategy angles and hidden gems, I'll be posting a strategy video on the Deposit Kingdom channel on Friday afternoon. 

Good luck this week.

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