Daily Fantasy Football Top Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings Week 6 - 10/15/17

Welcome back for another week of daily fantasy football. Things are starting to heat up as week six is upon us and teams are starting to separate. The Kansas City Chiefs remain as the only undefeated team in the league with the Broncos, Eagles, Packers, and Falcons as the only one-loss teams. Week six brings us another round of bye weeks as the Bills, Bengals, Cowboys, and Seahawks will get a rest as they prepare for the remainder of the season. Before getting into this week's picks, let's quickly review my week five picks.

I started last week by combining the Cowboys and Packers game as it was projected to be very high-scoring. They didn't disappoint as the teams combined for 66 points in another Aaron Rodgers dramatic 35-31 comeback victory. The only disappointing part of the game, from a fantasy perspective, was that both quarterbacks failed to reach the 300-yard mark(Rodgers-221, Prescott-251) but both threw three touchdowns. What capped those overall numbers was the fact that Aaron Jones(GB) and Ezekiel Elliott(DAL) both rushed for over  100 yards on the day. The wideouts somewhat let us down as well as Jordy Nelson only totaled two catches for 24 yards while Dez Bryant tallied five catches for 52 yards. Both ended up scoring touchdowns on the day which did help their overall fantasy totals. Overall, it could have been much better with more volume, but it also could have been much worse.

Speaking of much worse, we have the Arizona Cardinals who got absolutely thumped by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Cardinals were outplayed in almost every area and ended up with just over 11 minutes less possession time which really limited the touches from a stacking perspective. Carson Palmer gave us the volume we were looking for as he attempted 44 passes on Sunday but only completed 28 of them for 291 yards and one touchdown. Five of those completions went to Larry Fitzgerald who tallied 51 yards but didn't reach the endzone. The one play that did work out in this game was Andre Ellington who continued to get his share of touches as he caught nine of his 10 targets for 65 yards. His price did come up a little bit this week but not enough to fade him considering he has received double-digit targets in back to back weeks to lead all running backs and sit second behind only Antonio Brown in that time.

Let us now jump right into the week six picks.

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Houston Texans

Quarterback - Deshaun Watson
Primary Target - DeAndre Hopkins
Secondary Target - Will Fuller

If you have been living under a rock and don't know about Deshaun Watson yet, I strongly suggest tuning into the Texans game this week. No, not RedZone where we for the most part only see the touchdowns and big plays. If you have the NFL package go back and watch the last few games in their entirety. He is nearly flawless in avoiding the rush, can switch the ball between hands while fighting off blitzes, then can plant and launch the ball 50+ yards downfield. Watch below the play from last week vs. the Chiefs.

Deshaun Watson put the ball in his left hand to avoid the strip sack. pic.twitter.com/w7TzrGUJO3

— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) October 9, 2017

Deshaun Watson is the truth..... and he really likes Will Fuller. 48 yard TD makes this a 26-20 game.pic.twitter.com/B0EZ9glexl

— NFL Update (@MySportsUpdate) October 9, 2017

 

Not only did Watson tie the rookie record with five touchdown passes in one game, he also became the only rookie quarterback ever to record five total touchdowns in back to back weeks. We may have already seen his ceiling but that was against a stout Chiefs defense and this week he gets a matchup vs. the Browns. Doug mentioned it in the main article this week that the Browns look much better on paper when looking at the straightforward passing yards per game stats as they sit mid-pack but this is fantasy and they currently rank 27th overall when looking at DraftKings points per game allowed to the QB position. The spread is currently set at -10 for the Texans which does present some risk when looking at gameflow but I am not buying that large spread as the Texans defense has allowed the 5th most points per game through five weeks and that includes holding the Bengals to nine points. If it stays close we are likely to see another shootout and a big game for Watson. His top target remains DeAndre Hopkins who has to be the happiest wideout on the planet to finally have a quarterback who can routinely get him the ball. He has received double-digit targets in four of the Texans five games giving him 61 for the season, second to only Antonio Brown. He has just one 100 yard game but has scored four times in the last two games. If you are planning to go a bit cheaper at wideout this week, consider Will Fuller as another stacking option with Watson. He doesn't get the same target volume but has scored two touchdowns in each game since returning to the lineup.

Los Angeles Chargers

Quarterback - Phillip Rivers
Primary Target - Keenan Allen

The Chargers finally picked up their first win of the season last week vs. the Giants and will look to carry that momentum over into a divisional game vs. the Raiders. There has yet to be a Vegas line or total released and division games can sometimes turn out to be low-scoring which presents some risk but when playing GPP's, I love the risky plays as they are usually lower owned. The key here for this recommendation is the volume aspect. Removing last the Thursday night game quarterbacks(Newton & Wentz), Phillip Rivers sits fifth overall in pass attempts with 194 on the season as he has chucked it up at least 38 times in each game coming into week six. He has recorded two 300+ yard games, and three multiple touchdown games including doing so in back to back weeks with a 5-1 TD to INT ratio. The matchup isn't elite but it is favorable as the Raiders defense sits mid-pack in passing yards per game(226.6) and ranks 17th when looking at DraftKings points allowed per game to quarterbacks. While Rivers comes on the cheap end of the quarterback ranks this week, his top target Keenan Allen does not and that may also help keep the overall ownership of the stack down. Allen is the fourth most expensive wideout on the main slate despite scoring just one touchdown this season which came way back in week one. I do believe positive regression in that area will comes as he has been targeted 10+ times in four of the Chargers five games and he has also recorded two 100+ yard games. Like I said earlier, the key here is volume and these two give us that each and every week.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Quarterback - Ben Roethlisberger
Primary Target - Antonio Brown

If you are looking to go contrarian this week there may be no better spot than the Steelers. Not only is Big Ben coming off one of his worst career starts(0TD, 5 INT), the Steelers also get a tougher matchup vs. the league's #1 team in the Kansas City Chiefs who rank 14th in DVOA defense vs. the pass this season. I am not totally sold on their passing defense, however, as they have given up the 8th most passing yards per game(248) and rank 26th in DraftKings points per game to quarterbacks and 28th in DraftKings points per game to wideouts. The best part is that Roethlisberger's salary has hit a season-low on both sites making it much easier to fit him with the top wide receiver in the league, Antonio Brown. He leads all players with 64 targets(12.8 per game) and 545 yards on the season (109 per game) and sits tied with T.Y. Hilton and Stefon Diggs as the only wideouts to have eight receptions of over 20 yards. He does lack the touchdown upside but with all those targets and his big-play ability, he is another player who has some positive regression coming his way very soon.
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