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USATSI

Thankfully, Week 9 and that Thursday Night Football game between the Ravens and Dolphins are over. Don't get me wrong. I love football and am grateful for every opportunity to play Fantasy, but it has been a sloppy past few days in the sport. The Chiefs offense remains broken. The Bills lost outright to the Jaguars. What is happening? We saw it reflected in DFS as well. The cash line in the Week 9 Massive $25 Double Up on DraftKings was just 122.14. To put that in perspective, it was 141.16 the week before. Let's hope Week 10 produces more action.

Speaking of Week 10, we're looking at an 11-game main slate with four teams on bye: Bears, Bengals, Giants and Texans. According to Caesars Sportsbook, we have three games with a total over 50 points and one that's just behind as the Seahawks-Packers are currently at 49.5. We also have five games with at least a nine-point favorite, which seems like more than usual. Like last week, let's start up top with the quarterback position, this time focusing on our favorite stacks as well.

Stacks to target

In cash games this week I'm looking at two different strategies at quarterback: either pay up for Josh Allen/Tom Brady or pay down for Carson Wentz. If you're somebody who likes to make multiple cash lineups, I would suggest making one of each. The easiest of those three to stack is Tom Brady. As of writing this, it looks like each of Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski and Chris Godwin are going to be out in Week 10. While losing players of their talent level isn't ideal for Brady, it makes stacking easier for us. Mike Evans is the lone healthy target and is a slam dunk at $6,900 on DraftKings and $7,400 on FanDuel.

What happens next is we take this one step further. Because of all the injuries, we're expecting an expanded role for one or multiple of Tyler Johnson, O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate. All three are fantastic value options at their cost with Johnson standing out most. He's played over 60% of the snaps the past two weeks and has flashed some talent. On top of everything, this is a fantastic matchup! The Washington Football Team has allowed three or more passing touchdowns four times already this season. If you haven't noticed, Brady and the Bucs aren't really shy about pouring it on late in games. If you don't believe me, listen to Sia Nejad on Fantasy Football Today DFS:

"This is double stack consideration with Tom Brady, Mike Evans and Tyler Johnson. I don't really think Tyler Johnson is a reach… He's been playing around 60% of the snaps the last few weeks and that really could increase this week… And then with Washington, you could bring it back with Terry McLaurin. It gets really expensive if you do that but we know on this slate there is some value to be had at both the running back and wide receiver position."

Here are my favorite stacks to target in Week 10:

Let's continue right down the line in our lineups.

Running backs to target

We have six running backs priced over $7,500 on DraftKings this week and I think all but one are in play. My favorite of the bunch is Jonathan Taylor. This is more of a season-long Fantasy Football stat, but since Week 4 Taylor has 154.3 PPR points. The next closest running back is Joe Mixon with 115.5. That is a massive difference! Taylor is on a crazy roll as he has 110+ scrimmage yards and a touchdown in six straight games. To the Jaguars credit they've been a tough run defense but that's also been helped out by facing bad rushing offenses the last three weeks. Honestly, I don't really think the matchup matters for Taylor right now. As a bonus, I'll point out that Christian McCaffrey is projecting for under five percent ownership this week, which is pretty amazing considering his upside. I know the Panthers are starting P.J. Walker and they're huge underdogs, but McCaffrey is set up very nicely as a tournament play and pivot off these other running backs. Here's how I rank those high-priced running backs this week:

The running back position seems very obvious to me in DFS this week. You have your elite options worth spending up on, two mid-tier standouts and then a bunch of value. One of those mid-tier options is James Conner coming off a game with 26 touches, which included five receptions and three touchdowns. It's a tougher matchup against the Panthers, but he's going to see a ton of work with Chase Edmonds out. The other is Michael Carter who had 23 targets in Weeks 7-8 with Mike White as his quarterback. White will start this week and is expected to pass quite a bit  for the 12-point underdog Jets.

 If you're looking for value, we have quite a few backups ready to step in because of injury or COVID situations. The main option as of now is D'Ernest Johnson. Nick Chubb and Demetric Felton tested positive for COVID earlier this week and, while there's still a chance Chubb could play, I don't see it happening. Plus, Johnson is a capable replacement. In Johnson's Week 7 start, he racked up 24 touches, 168 scrimmage yards and one touchdown. That will definitely play at $4,700 on DraftKings. Here are the four main value plays worth monitoring this week:

We need more value!

Alright, alright. Running back isn't the only position with viable value options. I mentioned Tyler Johnson earlier, but Cole Beasley is still just way too cheap. He was $5,400 on DraftKings last week, saw 11 targets, and his price somehow went down. I'll take it. Even if Dawson Knox is back this week, Beasley is too valuable to Josh Allen. The team doesn't have a run game to speak of and Zack Moss is in concussion protocol. Beasley has effectively been working as an extension of the running game and the Jets have struggled mightily with short area targets this season. Here are five value wide receivers in Week 10:

At tight end I see three clear standouts under $4,000 on DraftKings this week with Pat Freiermuth, Dan Arnold, and Tyler Conklin. Freiermuth has a 20% target share since Week 6 and three touchdowns over his last two games. Dan Arnold has a 20% target share since Week 5 and at least 60 yards in three of his last four games. Tyler Conklin has seven targets in back-to-back games and has a great matchup against the Chargers. Choose your favorite!

Here's a single-entry GPP lineup I currently have built out for this week:

  • Tom Brady, $7,600
  • Jonathan Taylor, $8,100
  • D'Ernest Johnson, $4,700
  • Mike Evans, $6,900
  • Jakobi Meyers, $4,800
  • Tyler Johnson, $3,300
  • Dan Arnold, $3,500
  • Christian McCaffrey, $8,400
  • Titans DST, $2,600