Davante Adams
There are plenty of reasons to play the Sunday and Monday primetime NFL slate in DFS.
Maybe you fired the main NFL slate and bricked everything, rostering a bunch of guys who played in 17-13 snoozers. Maybe you want a piece of the big guarantees, no matter how small the slate — DraftKings and FanDuel each have at least two contests in excess of $100,000 guaranteed. Maybe the games suck and you just want a reason to watch the primetime games. Or maybe you just slept in really late.
Whatever your reasoning, the primetime slate is there, and if you’re going to play, you need to pick some players to roster.
For Week 11, we get an interesting pair of contrasting games. On Sunday, there’s what’s expected to be a high-scoring matchup between pass-heavy offenses Green Bay and Washington, and then Monday features Raiders/Texans at altitude in Mexico City.
Quarterback
Kirk Cousins (Sunday)
Washington vs. Green Bay
Both QBs are very attractive in this game. But even with Rodgers’ insane volume — he hurled another 51 passes in Week 10 — Cousins’ price, especially on DraftKings, is too good to ignore. Washington has the highest expected point total on the slate by a hair over the Raiders, and Cousins will almost certainly be lower owned than Rodgers. Take Cousins at a discount, and he’ll be an especially good play if Clay Matthews, who sat out the last game and hasn’t practiced in full, warms a seat on the bench again.
DraftKings $5,800 DK FanDuel $7,400
Running Backs
James Starks (Sunday)
Green Bay at Washington
The Packers decided to abandon the “Ty Montgomery at RB” experiment when they got Starks back from injury, as the wide receiver moonlighting as a runner got just 2 carries to Starks’ 7. Starks isn’t terribly likely to do a whole lot with the carries he does get, but he’s also a big part of the passing game catching screens and dumpoffs. The signing of Christine Michael shouldn’t be a threat to his clock since Michael hadn’t even reached Green Bay as of early Thursday.
DraftKings $4,200 FanDuel $5,500
Lamar Miller (Monday)
Houston vs. Oakland
Miller got a piddling amount of carries last week despite the team playing from ahead against Jacksonville because he went down with an injury and saw the distribution go to something of a committee. If Houston knows what’s good for them, they will give Miller the rock early and often against Oakland’s 27th-ranked run defense. Hopefully, Miller’s iffy usage last week pushes some owners away from him. He could be a factor in the passing game even if Oakland is winning.
DraftKings $5,800FanDuel $7,100 FD
Wide Receivers
Pierre Garcon (Sunday)
Washington vs. Green Bay
Garcon has become something of a forgotten man in the Washington offense with the emergence of Jamison Crowder, but he’s actually gotten a slight edge in targets over Crowder the past few weeks. His price is crazy low on DraftKings considering this is probably going to be a pretty high-volume game for Cousins. Another factor that could help Garcon is the status of DeSean Jackson. He missed the last game with an injury, and if he sits again, it’ll mean even more targets for Garcon.
DraftKings $3,900 FanDuel $5,700
Davante Adams (Sunday)
Green Bay at Washington
Davante had a monster game against the Titans with 156 yards, but he’s still a clear second fiddle after getting 9 targets to the monstrous 18 of Jordy Nelson. However, Nelson should most likely be shadowed by Josh Norman here, especially after the debacle earlier in the season where Antonio Brown was able to torch Washington’s other corners while Norman watched helplessly on the other side of the field. Also, Randall Cobb seems to be less than 100 percent, so Adams should be a premium play Sunday night.
DraftKings $6,700 FanDuel $7,600
Tight End
CJ Fiedorowicz (Monday)
Houston vs. Oakland
The most popular TE by a country mile should be Jordan Reed, who could carry over half of the ownership here. Fiedorowicz might make a decent pivot. It seems the only throw Brock Osweiler can make on a regular basis is the short pass over the middle, so Fiedorowicz probably gets more targets than he should. Grab him and hope someone besides Reed gets in the end zone for Washington.
DraftKings $3,300 FanDuel $5,100