Sleepers - Daily Fantasy Football Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, DraftDay and Draftster for Week 4

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A peek ahead at week 4

If you want our full slate of picks for week 4, click here. I go position by position and give you whom I believe to be the best plays, dollar for dollar, for Week 4's games. This article is going to be a little bit different. Instead, I'm going to focus on particular lineup formation strategies that might help you get some separation from the field and get those value plays and sleepers that will let you spend money elsewhere while cashing in for cheap.

Sleepers

Weekly disclaimer:
The whole concept of a sleeper in one week fantasy football games needs to be adjusted. First of all, there's no real such thing as a "sleeper," in that you're not really going to sleep on a guy until he wakes up. What you're looking at with cheap plays are guys who are priced very reasonably who could go off if all things break right. Sniffing out the best cheap plays with upside is really the only way to have a chance in hell at taking down some of these utterly massive NFL tournaments. You'll pay up for the big names, and then hope your bargain plays pay off. That's where we come in - here are some sleepers that we love for Week 4.

Teddy Bridgewater - FD 5900 DK 5700 DD 9600 DFSTR 3500
With Cassel on the IR, Bridgewater takes over an uninspiring and mostly lost Vikings offense. Pretty exciting, huh? Well, here's the thing. We don't know for sure if the Vikings have sucked because they have Matt Cassel, or whether or not they had Matt Cassel. Bridgewater would be a huge gamble, but it isn't like the Falcons are the greatest defensive team of all time. With a week of snaps with the 1st team, Bridgewater's ability to tuck the ball and run makes him an intriguing guy to pair with Cordarrelle Patterson in something like 1%-5% of your lineups this weekend.

Khiry Robinson - FD 4900 DK 4800 DD 9500 DFSTR 3000
As expected, Khiry Robinson got the bulk of the carries for the Saints last week, putting up 69 yards rushing on 18 carries. While this isn't anything to write home about, our projection system still likes him for week 4. Critics will point to Pierre Thomas' goal line carry and say that Robinson didn't actually slot into Mark Ingram's role, but if you watched the game, that play was actually just a function of the Saints' hurry-up trickery. Robinson will be the short yardage and "feature" back until Ingram's return, and Dallas' lousy defense could make for some excellent opportunity here.

DeAngelo Williams - FD 5700 DK 3900 DD 8300 DFSTR 3900
My cell phone auto-corrects his name to DeAnge-lol, but here's the thing: after their torrential downpour of injuries, the Panthers literally have no one else. Now the Ravens have a moderately stout defense, but if this game turns into one of those old fashion running contests, DeAngelo could still see a lot of run. With Newton saving his legs more this year, I think Williams could get 20 carries. Those might be for 50 yards, but this is a sleeper article, so quit being a jerk about it.

Ahmad Bradshaw - FD 6100 DK 5800 DD 8400 DFSTR 3300
Lamar Miller - FD 6900 DK 6200 DD 11900 DFSTR 3800
Calling either of these guys a "sleeper" is sort of disingenuous, but as they weren't mentioned in our main picks article for week 4, they deserve some mention here. I actually think the Bradshaw love is a little overblown while Trent Richardson keeps getting so many damned touches, but there's going to be SOME week where he goes off and the roles flip. But his 11 touches last week just won't provide value on these salaries very often. I won't personally be gambling on when he takes over the role.

If you ask me, Lamar Miller is the much better play at these values. He's a little more expensive, but his 19 touches are a lot more reassuring, and the Dolphins could have a lot of running opportunities against Oakland this week. If you haven't noticed, Oakland has allowed more than 150 yards per game on the ground this year. That's bad.

Darren McFadden - FD 5700 DK 4500 DD 8550 DFSTR 3700
Speaking of the Miami-Oakland game, I am going to be real as hell with you for a second. I actually like Darren McFadden this week! MJD looks like he's returning, but McFadden is so cheap and he got so many touches (22) in week 3 that I think he could still return value against a Miami defense that has allowed 125 yards per game on the ground this season.

Jeremy Kerley - FD 4900 DK 3500 DD 6550 DFSTR 3900
A lot of my favorite sleeper wide receivers (Hawkins, Quick) are on byes this week, but I was encouraged to see that the sites didn't adjust Jeremy Kerley's price after his "big week." With 10 targets for 81 yards and a touch down, Kerley was Geno Smith's favorite target (by far) last week, and given that Eric Decker continues to be banged up, I suspect he'll get much the same consideration against Detroit. I'm a little concerned about the Jets offense, period, after what Detroit did to Green Bay, but this is a bottom priced salary guy that could absolutely pay off for you.

James Jones - FD 5300 DK 5100 DD 9500 DFSTR 3900
The de-facto Raiders #1 has been targeted 22 times this season, and should continue to get a similar amount of traction now that he will be returning from Revis Island. I'd consider him a much riskier play than Kerley, but he really did go off against Houston in week 2, and this match-up with Miami should look a lot more like that than the disaster match-up with New England.

Markus Wheaton - FD 5100 DK 4200 DD 8850 DFSTR 4000
Wheaton is another young WR that got chewed up by a tough defense, and another guy who should be headed to much friendlier confines. The knock on Wheaton is that Antonio Brown is taking most of the deep ball action, but Roethlisberger continues to look his way, and he does continue to convert what opportunities he does have. Tampa Bay got absolutely devastated by Atlanta's passing attack last week, and if Pittsburgh can muster 70% of what the Falcons did, it should mean that Ben's #2 target has a pretty solid week on a great price.

Steve Johnson 5800 FD

After hauling in all 9 of his targets for 101 yards and leading the Niners in receiving yards last week, many have wondered if we're looking at the yearly 1,000 yard receiver that we once knew and kinda loved in Buffalo. Now, Vernon Davis' absence definitely had something to do with Johnson's increased role, but there's a decent chance he'll still be hampered (or Crabtree will), and Johnson could continue to see these increased looks. It was particularly noteworthy that the aging Anquan Boldin had just 36 yards receiving on 6 targets. Keep an eye on this one. It could be that where there's smoke, there's fire.

 
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