Editor’s Note: FanDuel is running a $1,500,000 fantasy football league in Week 5. The top 66,000 teams win cash with $100,000 paid to first place on Sunday. Join now!
FanDuel advice: How to make a weekly league memory
You remember your best, smartest calls forever. Find some of those.
Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Honestly, I don’t remember a lot about my biggest FanDuel payday. I know it came in the Broncos-Cardinals game from last year, and Andre Ellington’s huge catch-and-run touchdown late in the game shot me way up the leaderboard. He and Demaryius Thomas were studs for me.
Those are the only things I’m sure of. I think I was in line for more money through Sunday, but slid down the ranks a bit because of Monday night. I think I remember it being Week 4, and could easily check that right now, but it’s more fun just to say I think these things.
But no, overall, I just remember Ellington’s catch, and celebrating that performance.
I do remember, though, investing in Kyle Orton when he played the Jets once last year. It was Orton’s biggest game as a member of the Bills, and he was on my roster because I thought he should be. I remember thinking about how Coby Fleener does better when Dwayne Allen is injured, and getting 20-plus points out of him.
If I looked back at that best roster of mine, I bet I could remember a certain lineup choice that made the difference for me, or some piece where I looked at the matchups and said “Yes. This.” Those are the fun moments. It’s cool to stumble into a winning roster because you picked the guys everyone else did, and just happened to have the right mix of the most popular players. It’s more fun to find the right play (or avoid the wrong play) because you were smart, or because you noticed something others didn’t. (To be fair, Orton and Fleener weren’t some “wild and crazy” plays, and I get that, but the point still holds.)
That’s part of what I’m doing here. Every week, I run through the good and bad investments for that weekend’s FanDuel games, taking into account salary, opponent, usage, what-have-you. Use my tips, or find your own. Either way, have fun in Week 5:
Quarterbacks
Good situations
- The 49ers rank middle of the road in fantasy performance against quarterbacks. Take out Week 1, though, which at this point appears to have been played by a wholly different San Francisco team, and they're giving up an average of 21 fantasy points a game, third worst in the league. That bodes well for Eli Manning ($7,700).
- Opposite Manning in Sunday's game is Colin Kaepernick ($7,100), who, let's face it, has been abysmal this year. The last two games, he has 227 passing yards total, with no touchdowns against five interceptions. There have been Blaine Gabbert whispers. The other side of that: Kaepernick still has his talent. He had 335 yards and 26 fantasy points as recently as Week 2. The Giants' defense has performed functionally well, but certainly isn't special. And lord knows no one else is using Kaepernick this week. If you're looking for a contrarian play, there's an argument for one here.
- In two games since returning from his concussion, Josh McCown ($6,700) has averaged almost 350 yards a game. He has four touchdowns against one interception. In Travis Benjamin, he appears to have found a real weapon, and Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson Jr. and Gary Barnidge aren't looking bad as a running back/tight end grouping either. Meanwhile, the Ravens have lost any semblance of a pass rush, giving McCown plenty of time.
Bad situations
- "He's back!" they said about Drew Brees ($8,100) after his Sunday night game, ignoring that 80 of his 359 yards and one of his two touchdowns came on an absolute busted coverage that you can't remotely count on being repeatable. It also ignores that Sean Lee, probably Dallas' best player, missed the second half of that game. Brees will be fine, decent even, but in a road game against an Eagles team that has been above average against quarterbacks, $8,100 is just too high a price.
- A quarterback doesn't need a list of weapons like, say, Peyton Manning has to be a monster. It's nice, but Andy Dalton has had successful years where it looks like all he has is A.J. Green and some Bengals-colored kidney beans. Still, a quarterback has to have something, and right now, Joe Flacco ($7,700) just has no one. Steve Smith Sr. is out. Crockett Gillmore too. Kamar Aiken, Marlon Brown and Maxx Williams are NFL players, but they aren't "top three pass-catcher" weapons.
Running backs
Good situations
- The Rams gave up 31 fantasy points to Washington's running backs. They gave up 20 to the Arizona guys. Eddie Lacy ($7,600) is better than anyone in that list, and his relatively slow start to the season has him priced very affordably for such a strong running back.
- FanDuel is well built. Things don't really fall through cracks. You aren't going to scroll down, and whoops, Aaron Rodgers is only $4,500 this week. When guys are inordinately cheap, it's fluky. Like Todd Gurley ($6,700) this week, because the algorithm can't just say "Didja see that guy last week? He's worth a billion!" But heck, we can. You can't often get a star running back at that price.
- If you're in a cash game, a 50/50, I like Anthony Dixon ($4,500) just fine. He's super cheap, and with LeSean McCoy and Karlos Williams both out, the Bills have just him and Daniel Herron to work with, and Herron has only been on the team a few days. In a game where you just need enough points to finish in the top half, top third, guaranteed touches out of a running back is tasty. I wouldn't be using him in tournaments, where you need more upside, because I don't think Dixon has much of that, but there are different styles of games all over the place.
Bad situations
- Look, I know I had Devonta Freeman ($7,600) in this space last week, and that might be my single worst call in a while. Granted. But (a) regression is still inevitable, (b) his price has climbed $1,100 in the last two weeks, (c) Tevin Coleman returns this week, and (d) the Washington run defense is underrated and strong. Maybe you don't believe in one or two of those letters, but all four? Something is going to pull Freeman's Week 5 numbers way down.
- When LeSean McCoy was scratched last week, we all jumped on Karlos Williams. With Marshawn Lynch out this week, the same might happen with Thomas Rawls ($6,000), but that seems dodgy. For one thing, his one good game came against the Bears, when they had spent the whole week preparing for Lynch. For another, the Seahawks in Week 5 face the Bengals, who have yet to allow a rushing touchdown. Rawls won't crack that.
Wide receivers
Good situations
- I spent the preseason full-bore on the Jeremy Maclin ($6,900) hype train. I didn't shy off even after the first two weeks, when he had five fantasy points a game and wasn't getting quite the massive number of targets I had forecast. And I've been rewarded the last two weeks, with 140-plus yards in each game, and 24 combined targets. Maclin is an absolute target monster with Kansas City, and at $6,900, he's an affordable one.
- The price for Allen Robinson ($6,300) fell from a week ago, and Allen Hurns' salary rose correspondingly. This after Hurns had 116 yards and a touchdown on 11 catches in Week 4 against the Colts, compared to Robinson's 80 yards on four catches. The thing is, Robinson spent the day being blanketed by Vontae Davis, while Hurns had to deal with the riff-raff that is not Vontae Davis in the Indianapolis defense. Robinson is still the No. 1 guy to use of the Jacksonville receivers, only now he's more affordable.
- It looks like Alshon Jeffery is going to miss yet another game for the Bears, or at least be well below 100 percent if he does play. Eddie Royal has been dealing with injury all year long as well, and didn't practice at all this week, calling his game readiness into question as well. Marquess Wilson ($4,800) hadn't done much of anything all season until Week 4, but still, as the team's only marginally healthy receiver, he should get plenty of run Sunday.
Bad situations
- If you're looking around, and think to yourself that you want to use a Tampa Bay receiver, why would you use Mike Evans ($7,500) over Vincent Jackson, who is $700 cheaper? The advantage Evans had on Jackson a year ago was his touchdown prowess, which most everyone knew would balance out at least a little this year. Evans will have plenty of big moments this year, but so will Jackson. Just go with the cheaper guy.
- Admittedly, I've been the lowest on Martavis Bryant ($6,100) for months now. But this is a guy with a touchdown rate that was absolutely unsustainable last year, and he missed the first four games of the year. That would be enough to scare me off of him normally, but now he also has Michael Vick throwing him the ball instead of Ben Roethlisberger. A guy who was already going to see his touchdown rate fall now has a worse quarterback. That doesn't sound like a wise investment.
Tight ends
Good situations
- One of the truisms of shopping for anything is that you want to look past the highest-priced item, especially when that item is standard deviations away from the field. The difference in price between the top option and the next tier is usually larger than the difference in quality. But Rob Gronkowski ($8,400) is an exception to that rule. He's miles ahead of the field at tight end. Yes, he'll have weeks without touchdowns (though, assuming injury, it's hard to imagine), but by and large, you'll live a good life employing Gronk.
- Eventually, yes, the Raiders are going to make an adjustment and stop letting tight ends have field days against them. Until then, though, just use tight ends facing Oakland and profit. Owen Daniels ($4,900) is the man this week.
Bad situation
- I bet people still think Zach Ertz ($5,000) is a star tight end. This despite nine total fantasy points this season, and five targets in his last two games combined. He's just not offering a lot of upside, especially for a guy priced as though he's some big thing.
Defense/Special Teams
Good situations
- The Lions have very little for a running game, and considering Matthew Stafford's struggles and Calvin Johnson looking past his prime, they don't have much in the passing game, either. Meanwhile, the Arizona defense ($5,200) has been one of the league's best. It's the most expensive unit of the week, but it's worth it.
- The Seahawks managed one offensive touchdown in a home game against the Bears, and one offensive touchdown in a home game against the Lions. Only two teams have allowed more points to opposing fantasy defenses so far this season. Now the Cincinnati defense ($4,700) gets to face Seattle in a home game. That's a good setup.
Bad situation
- In our defense rankings, I was actually relatively high on the Oakland defense ($4,400) this week, slotting them 11th. That comes as a result of the general lacklusterness of Peyton Manning so far. But also, after negative-two fantasy points through two weeks, the Oakland defense has improved, with 18 points the last two weeks. On the other hand, it's still a game against Peyton Manning and the Broncos, and the unit's good games came against Cleveland and Chicago. Could Oakland do well? Yeah, I think so. Is it worth the risk? Not at all.
See More:
