Week 7 DFS Picks: Core Players and Best Plays

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 7 DFS Content:

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 7 Worksheet.

Quarterback

Jayden Daniels ($7,600 DraftKings/$9,100 FanDuel)

If you have the salary, Daniels is the top quarterback on the slate.

Daniels has logged four QB1 scoring weeks over his first five NFL games.

The past two weeks have given us more confidence in him as a fantasy QB1, as he has hit with a QB1 floor against two active defenses.

Daniels only rushed for a season-low 22 yards against the Ravens and still scored 21.0 fantasy points.

He has had spike weeks in some of his best matchups, which he has on the table here.

This is a great passing matchup before even factoring in any rushing here.

The Panthers are 30th in passing points allowed per pass attempt (0.572), allowing 7.9 yards per attempt (27th) and 6.9% touchdown rate (30th).

Carolina is dead last in the league regarding pressure rate (24.1%).

They play the most Cover-3 in the league at 59.3% of their snaps.

Against Cover-3, Daniels has completed 82.0% of his passes (1st) for 10.3 yards per pass attempt (3rd), with a first down or touchdown on 42.0% of his passes (5th).

Geno Smith ($5,800/$7,600)

Smith has been a top-10-scoring quarterback in four games this season.

What makes Smith appealing from a floor and upside angle is that Seattle is just winging the ball around.

The Seahawks are third in the league in plays per game and have the NFL's highest dropback rate (70.1%).

Smith leads the league in dropbacks per game (46.2).

He has thrown the ball 40 or more times in three straight games and 34 or more times in his past five games.

Smith has been at his best from a clean pocket.

Without pressure, Smith has completed 77.9% of his passes (4th) for 7.9 yards per pass attempt (12th),

Atlanta is 28th in pressure rate (28.5%) and dead last in sack rate (2.6%). Smith has not faced a defense this low in pressure rate this season.

They have also done a lousy job of allowing quarterbacks a league-high 37.8 rushing yards per game.

They have faced Justin Fields (57 yards) and Jalen Hurts (85 yards), but Patrick Mahomes (17 yards), Baker Mayfield (42 yards), and Andy Dalton (21 yards) have also had success on the ground.

Smith is rushing for 24.3 yards per game, his most since his rookie season.

Andy Dalton ($5,200/$7,300)

I have gone back and forth between Smith and Dalton on my cash game quarterback all week.

Smith has more rushing ability if you have the spare change to go up to him (and we have the impact of wanting to play Chuba Hubbard with Dalton).

But if Dalton gets you to another piece you want to play at another position, he makes sense.

He has multiple passing touchdowns in three of his four starts, but his past three starts have come against three teams in the top 10 in yards allowed per pass attempt.

That will change here as Dalton gets a good matchup paired against an opponent that should score points and push the action.

Carolina even has a modest implied team total here to suggest as much.

Their team total is the same as the Buccaneers and Texans and higher than the Cardinals this week.

Washington is one of the two teams that has allowed more passing points per attempt (0.589) than the Panthers have.

The Commanders have allowed a 69.9% completion rate (27th), 8.1 Y/A (30th), and a 6.9% touchdown rate (31st).

Running Back