Welcome back football fans. It's week nine in the National Football League and unfortunately, we have to start off with some terrible injury news to one of the most exciting players in the league. DeShaun Watson suffered a torn ACL in Thursday's practice and will undergo season-ending surgery. Another huge blow to a Texans team that has already lost J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus for the season. It is also a huge blow to the NFL and its fans as it just adds to the list of stars who have gone down(Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham, David Johnson, Dalvin Cook). Nevertheless, we must move on and talk about the players who are still playing so let's jump right into my top stacks for this week. If you missed it on the main page, also be sure to check out the DFSR Game by Game podcast where Doug and James discuss the top plays of the week at each position.
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Quarterback - Drew Brees
Primary Target - Michael Thomas
Secondary Target - Tedd Ginn Jr.
Using the DFSR Player Lab this week, I broke the quarterback options using just two filters. I set the "High Vegas O/U" filter to 50 or more points and the "Poor Defense vs. Pass" filter to 20th or worse. This gave me two options to choose from and it was neck and neck who I was going to choose until the news broke Friday morning that Ezekiel Elliot's suspension was once again called off thanks to a temporary stay from the Second Circuit Court. That made my decision easy this week as I will turn to Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints who get an elite matchup vs. the Bucs who rank 31st in defense vs. the pass on the Lab and rank 30th overall when looking at passing yards per game allowed this season(274.7). When equating that to fantasy points, they have allowed the fifth-most DraftKings and sixth-most FanDuel points per game to quarterbacks. The number gets even worse when looking at wideouts as they rank dead last in DK points and second last in FD points per game allowed. That is great news for Michael Thomas who is seeking his first 100-yard game of the season. He has been very consistent with five or more catches in six of his seven games and 70 or more yards receiving in five of those games. My value play on the Saints this week is Tedd Ginn Jr. who is a home run option and has picked up a 40+ yard play in three of his last five games. Both wideouts get plus matchup like I mentioned above but adding to the intrigue this week is the fact that the Bucs top corner, Brent Grimes, is likely out once again this week. Load up on the Saints!
Quarterback - Derek Carr
Primary Target - Amari Cooper
Secondary Target - Michael Crabtree
Next up, I turned to a combination of filters that includes games with a thin spread(3 or fewer points), opponents ranked 20th or worse in defense vs. pass, and teams with a high TD % when looking at over touchdowns for that team. This gives us three options but to be perfectly honest, there is only one I will consider this week and it's Derek Carr and the Oakland Raiders. After failing to throw for 300 yards in his first five games, he has done it in back to back weeks for a total of 730 yards. The thin spread filter was key for this matchup this week as the volume for Carr has been huge in those two games as the Raiders have been down a lot and he has attempted 49 and 52 passes. The same could happen again this week as the Raiders defense has been awful this season ranking 26th in total yards allowed per game(356.9). My top option to pair with Carr this week is Amari Cooper who is finally trending in the right direction after a terrible start to the season. He has been targeted a total of 29 times over the last two weeks, catching 16 of them for 258 yards. He also showed us his immense upside in the Thursday night game vs. the Chiefs as he tallied 210 of those yards and two touchdowns. If Carr gets anywhere near his pass attempt totals of the last two weeks it won't be hard for him to feed two wideouts so make sure to also consider Michael Crabtree who has been the more consistent of the two this season. He has been targeted 10+ times in two of his last three games and has scored six touchdowns in 2017.
Quarterback - Jacoby Brissett
Primary Target - T.Y. Hilton
Finally, I am going to go a bit contrarian in a few lineups this week and roll out Jacoby Brissett and T.Y Hilton who will go on the road to Houston this week. The first thing this stack provides us is salary relief as Brissett is one of the cheaper quarterback options on both sites. The floor has been there lately as he has attempted 34 or more passes in each of the last four games and he is also coming off his first multiple touchdown pass game of the season while completing 64% of his passes vs. the Bengals. The matchup is actually a bit better for Brissett and the Colts pass game this week as the Texans rank 22nd in yards allowed per game through the air(238) and have allowed the third-most DraftKings and FanDuel points per game(22) to the quarterback and the ninth-most DraftKings(35.5) and seventh-most FanDuel(28.8) points per game to Wide Receivers. It has been a very disappointing season thus far for talented wideout T.Y. Hilton who has just 527 yards and one touchdown but he has shown us he still has huge upside with two 100+ yard games(177/153) and best of all, comes with a season-low salary on both sites.
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