Every Sunday in the weekly fantasy chats, I get asked about my favorite plays of the week or who is in my player pool that weekend for DFS.
This article series covers exactly that.
Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.
The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.
Week 9 DFS Content:
| Week 18 DFS Picks |
|---|
| Core Plays |
| Tournament Picks |
| Best Game Stacks |
Our core players are the players we will have the most exposure to at their positions.
They can be played in cash games and tournaments.
I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but for a detailed breakdown of the players and games, check out the Week 9 Worksheet.
Quarterback
Jalen Hurts ($7,800 DraftKings/$9,300 FanDuel)
Since returning from their Week 5 bye, only Jared Goff has thrown for more yards per attempt (10.5 Y/A) than Hurts (10.4 Y/A).
Hurts added 3 rushing touchdowns last week, giving him 7 on the season.
The Jaguars are 31st in passing points allowed per attempt (0.552).
Jacksonville has used man coverage on 41.1% of passing plays, the second-highest percentage in the league.
Against man coverage. Hurts averages 10.0 Y/A (third) with a 7.8% touchdown rate (10th).
Because the Jaguars play so much man coverage, they are also 23rd in rushing yards per game to quarterbacks (26.3).
They have allowed double-digit rushing yards to a quarterback in every game this season.
Sam Darnold ($7,500 FanDuel)
Darnold only has one week finishing lower than QB15 in weekly scoring, making him a high-floor QB capable of running into spike weeks when the touchdowns do come.
This is a good matchup to chase passing efficiency.
We know what Gus Bradley prefers to do.
The Colts play man coverage on only 15.5% of passing plays (29th) and run a high rate of Cover-3 (43.8%) and Cover-2 (16.2%) for the bulk of passing snaps.
Those rates are fourth and 12th in the league.
Darnold has blazed Cover-3 looks this season, completing 75.5% (40-of-53) of his passes (6th) for 8.6 Y/A (9th).
Against Cover-2, he leads the NFL with 13.1 Y/A.
The Colts are 20th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.444) and are 24th in pressure rate (29.7%).
Derek Carr ($5,600/$7,000)
With Carr returning from a long layoff, he gets the gift of the Carolina defense in his first game back.
They are dead last in points allowed per pass attempt (0.590) and touchdown rate (7.2%) while allowing a 71.6% completion rate (30th) and 7.9 yards per pass attempt (27th).
Carolina is dead last in pressure rate (22.2%).
Carolina has allowed a 78.2% completion rate (31st) and 8.6 Y/A (31st) when they have not pressured the opposing passer.
When Carr has not been pressured this season, he has completed a league-high 80.2% of his passes for 8.0 Y/A (10th).
Over the past month, Carolina has allowed QB1 scoring weeks to Caleb Williams (23.6 points), Marcus Mariota (19.6 points), and Bo Nix (29.8).
When these teams played back in Week 1, Carr was 19-of-23 (82.6%) for 8.7 Y/A with 3 touchdowns.
Running Back
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