Week 4 Rankings: Standard | PPR

One of the hard things about DFS is both learning from the past and having a bad memory. Doesn't make sense?

You have to learn from trends as they present themselves or you're going to fall behind. At the same time, a good process can lead to bad results in a one week sample size, and one of the surest ways to lose the following week is to let that affect you too much.

It wasn't last week, but two weeks ago many of us were burned by stacking the Saints on the road against the Giants and vice versa. The two teams played an uninspiring game with several near-misses and those lineups went up in flames. With New Orleans hitting the road again you should not fear stacking them at all. In fact, the Saints and Chargers are my favorite stacks of the weekend.

While Brees has absolutely been worse throughout his career on the road, he's still averaged 271 passing yards per game. That would rank fourth all time. The Chargers are not a good defense at all, and Vegas has this game as the highest projected total. If you're going to stack one game, this is the one to stack.

If you do want to avoid the Saints and Chargers (or are just looking for diversity), I would look to the Carolina Panthers. No one likes paying up for the most expensive quarterback, especially on the road, especially after how bad the Panthers looked last week. Cam Newton gets to play indoors against a bad defense with low ownership? Sign me up.

If Newton and the Panthers aren't contrarian enough for you, here are my favorite plays this week that I expect to be low-owned:

Brian Hoyer (FD $6,000, DK $5,000)

Assuming Jay Cutler sits out again, Hoyer will be playing from behind against a defense that has given up more Fantasy points per game to quarterbacks than any other defense. The Bears' quarterback threw for more than 300 yards and two TDs on the road against a better defense in Week 3, I'm not sure why we wouldn't trust him at home against a better matchup.

Dwayne Washington (FD $4,500, DK $3,800)

Washington is flat out the better runner in Detroit. Whether Jim Bob Cooter and the Lions will figure that out before Week 4 starts is a bit of a mystery, but if the Lions have the lead I expect I could see Washington with something in the neighborhood of 15 carries while Theo Riddick gets 10 and all the work in the passing game. Against a bad defense like the Bears that could be good for 75 yards and a score, which would make his price a steal.

Julio Jones (FD $8,500, DK $9,200)

Yeah, Julio has been a disappointment. Still, this is a perfect spot for him chasing the scoreboard against an inexperienced secondary. His price on FanDuel makes him appealing as a way to fade Antonio Brown and save $1,000 at the same time. I'm especially fond of Jones as part of your Panthers stacks.

Hunter Henry (FD $4,500, DK $2,700)

Henry played an outstanding game against the Colts before a costly fumble. Assuming Antonio Gates is on the shelf again in Week 4, I'd expect another solid performance against the New Orleans Saints. This is a way to get a cheap piece of the the highest scoring game of the weekend while also being contrarian.

FanDuel tournament lineup

QB Cam Newton $9,300
RB Melvin Gordon $7,600
RB Dwayne Washington $4,500
WR Kelvin Benjamin $7,700
WR Julio Jones $8,500
WR Cole Beasley $5,200
TE Greg Olsen $7,900
K Josh Lambo $4,500
DST Washington Redskins $4,600

DraftKings tournament lineup

QB Brian Hoyer $5,000
RB Melvin Gordon $6,300
RB David Johnson $7,800
WR Marvin Jones $7,300
WR Alshon Jeffery $7,500
WR Travis Benjamin $5,900
TE Zach Miller $2,700
FLEX Cole Beasley $3,900
DST Washington Redskins $3,500