Cracking FanDuel: Week 8

Photo: USA Today Sports

SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE

No change to the primary cash lineup, but do have some thoughts below.

Jamaal Williams is in a great spot this week, and there will be two different types of cash builds for this week. The first is what I'm going with which is the Henry, Hunt, Bernard build.

• QB Joe Burrow, CIN, $7,600
• RB Derrick Henry, TEN, $9,500
• RB Gio Bernard, CIN, $5,900
• WR Denzel Mims, NYJ, $4,900
• WR Keenan Allen, LAC, $7,400
• WR Tyler Lockett, SEA, $7,200
• TE Hunter Henry, LAC, $5,600
• Flex RB Kareem Hunt, CLE, $8,200
• TD New Orleans Saints, $3,600

I expect that you will see a lot of this build. To be honest, it's a good build, and you could strongly consider it for your contests this week. I prefer the one that I'm going with just because I think Derrick Henry's upside is too great this week. I have concerns about Alvin Kamara and the Bears ability to shut him down as they have not allowed a receiving running back to catch more than 40 yards in a game. Kamara's prop is only 49.5 yards which seems much lower than it otherwise should be.

• QB Jimmy Garoppolo, SF, $6,600
• RB Jamaal Williams, GB, $7,000
• RB Alvin Kamara, NO, $9,000
• WR TreQuan Smith, NO, $5,300
• WR Keenan Allen, LAC, $7,400
• WR Tyler Lockett, SEA, $7,200
• TE Hunter Henry, LAC, $5,600
• Flex RB Kareem Hunt, CLE, $8,200
• TD New Orleans Saints, $3,600

SITUATIONS THAT STAND OUT TO THIS WEEK ON THE MAIN SLATE.

• Kansas City (vs NYJ)- 34 points
• Green Bay (vs Min)- 28 points
• Seattle (vs SF)- 28 points
• Tennessee (vs CIN)- 28 points

CASH GAME STRATEGY WEEK 8

Difficult Week

If you’ve followed along this year, hopefully you’re up this year as the primary cash lineup has absolutely crushed seemingly every week. Going to be honest this week, it is a difficult week, we are going to do our best to decipher through some of the craziness that is going on this week. Weather is a big concern, a significant amount of injuries. This is a week where you may want to consider diversification whether that is on multiple sites or multiple lineups as it is not nearly as straight forward as some of the prior weeks.

While most of the season we have said do not take unnecessary risks, this may be a week that you have to do that. Going down at wide receiver seems like the way to find salary relief with players such as Damiere Byrd, Tre’Quan Smith, Denzel Mims, Darnell Mooney are players who you could consider. The key this week will be to have a core group of players who score enough while getting just enough out of the low-end wide receiver.

INJURY UNLOCKS OPPORTUNITY?

The Saints receiving corp is incredibly banged up. Michael Thomas looked like he was going to return, but did not make the trip which as it currently stands, Michael Thomas, Marquez Callaway, and Emmanuel Sanders will all miss. This makes Alvin Kamara almost an must play this week as he should continue to see 8+ receptions this week.

Joe Mixon remains out this week with a foot injury which will lead to Gio Bernard starting once again. Bernard is in play, but as we saw last week is not a great running back as he averaged just 2.8 yards per carry. He did see five receptions last week including one that found the end zone last week. He is in play only because of the number of touches and the salary is still low down at $5,900.

Aaron Jones will miss this week with a calf injury which means Jamaal Williams will once again start. Williams looked great last week amount 77 yards rushing with a touchdown along with 4 receptions. The problem with Williams is that he is priced up at $7,000 this week, but is a decent tournament play as the Packers had 139 yards rushing in Week 1 against the Vikings.

Odell Beckham Jr will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Rashard Higgins would have been a great play for me this week had the wind concerns that we will talk about not existed. I still think he is in a great GPP spot, but a little hesitant in a cash game this week. Most of the volume should go to Harrison Bryant at the tight end position who scored two touchdowns last week.

Julian Edelman will miss multiple weeks with a knee injury and NKeal Harry will miss this week with a concussion. This leaves just Damiere Byrd and Jacobi Meyers as the lead wide receivers in New England. It is difficult to stomach a Patriots wide receiver after how poorly their passing attack looked, but Byrd is firmly in play as a cash game play.

Chris Carson and Carlos Hyde are both game time decisions. If they are unable to go Deejay Dallas would be a tremendous cash game play as he is near minimum price and would be one of the only healthy running backs in Seattle.

Breshad Perriman and Jamison Crowder will both miss this week leaving the Jets extremely thin at the wide receiver position with just Denzel Mims, Jeff Smith, and Braxton Berrios as their starting receiver. More on Mims later.

WEATHER CONCERN

Some major line movement this week as there are some games with some high winds out there tomorrow. Typically for me to care about weather it needs to have a line movement of 4 or more points as anything less than that typically will be probability of made field goals or long field goal attempts.

New England at Buffalo- Opened at 46 currently at 41
New Orleans at Chicago- Opened at 47 currently at 42
Las Vegas at Cleveland- Opened at 55.5 currently at 49
Tennessee at Cincinnati- Opened at 55.5 currently at 51
Minnesota at Green Bay- Opened at 55.5 currently at 49

One thing to note here is that this does not mean to completely avoid the players in these contests. It typically will help running backs and shorter throws while greatly impacting deep throws as it is really difficult even for an NFL quarterback to complete 30+ yard passes in high winds and often they won’t even take a chance due to the chance of an interception.

KEY CASH CORE

Joe Burrow- $7,600

This is a week in which salary relief is a necessity. While the Bengals are not a great team and are projected to lose by 7 points in this game, Joe Burrow has now averaged 359 yards in his last two games. Facing a Tennessee defense that has allowed 282 yards passing per game which is the seventh-most in the NFL, and a staggering 2.5 passing touchdowns per game, this is a prime opportunity for the Bengals to move the ball through the air this week. Both Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins are in great spots this week facing Chris Jackson and Jonathan Joseph respectively.

Derrick Henry- $9,500

The major question this week will be Alvin Kamara or Derrick Henry as it is incredibly difficult to have both in your lineup. Henry has all the makings here for a huge game as Cincinnati is allowing 5.1 yards per carry and 114 yards rushing per game which is the 5th-most in the NFL. When it comes to opposing running backs, the Bengals schedule has been quite soft as the only comparable running back that they have faced is Nick Chubb and they allowed 124 yards and 2 touchdowns to the Browns running back. The concern with Kamara is that while he should see a lot of the volume in the passing game, Eddie Jackson and the Bears defense have shut down pass receiving running backs as they have not allowed a running back over 36 yards receiving this year.

Denzel Mims- $4,900

Denzel Mims currently is the best value option of the group that was listed earlier in the article. A talented rookie who was taken by the Jets in the second-round dealt with injuries early in the year, but saw seven targets last week a game in which the Jets had a lead for a majority of the game and only threw the ball 23 times. This week, the Jets have the daunting task of facing the Kansas City Chiefs and are an astounding 21 point underdogs. Expect them to throw the ball a lot in this one and with no Jamison Crowder or Breshad Perriman, Mims will be expected to take on a majority of the work load.

LINEUPS

SAMPLE ROSTER 1 ($60K) – PRIMARY CASH- (DD PROJECTED POINTS = 131.6)

• QB Joe Burrow, CIN, $7,600
• RB Derrick Henry, TEN, $9,500
• RB Gio Bernard, CIN, $5,900
• WR Denzel Mims, NYJ, $4,900
• WR Keenan Allen, LAC, $7,400
• WR Tyler Lockett, SEA, $7,200
• TE Hunter Henry, LAC, $5,600
• Flex RB Kareem Hunt, CLE, $8,200
• TD New Orleans Saints, $3,600

SAMPLE ROSTER 2 ($60K) – Secondary Cash (DD PROJECTED POINTS = 130.2)

• QB Joe Burrow, CIN, $7,600
• RB Derrick Henry, TEN, $9,500
• RB Gio Bernard, CIN, $5,900
• WR Denzel Mims, NYJ, $4,900
• WR Keenan Allen, LAC, $7,400
• WR Justin Jefferson, MIN, $6,600
• TE Hunter Henry, LAC, $5,600
• Flex RB Alvin Kamara, NO, $9,000
• TD Detroit Lions, $3,400

SAMPLE ROSTER 3 ($60K) –San Francisco Seattle Stack (DD PROJECTED POINTS = 128.1)

• QB Jimmy Garoppolo, SF, $6,600
• RB Josh Jacobs, LV, $7,800
• RB Alvin Kamara, NO, $9,000
• WR- Tyler Lockett, SEA, $7,200
• WR Brandon Aiyuk, SF, $5,900
• WR Denzel Mims, NYJ, $4,900
• TE Hunter Henry, LAC, $5,600
• Flex RB- Derrick Henry, TEN, $9,500
• TD Detroit Lions, $3,400

NEW FEATURE: PLAYER POOL

Projected points are static as of Saturday morning and will not be updated throughout the weekend. Green means great cash game play, yellow means should be in consideration in cash game lineups.