Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): Week 3 DraftKings Fantasy Football Values

With auction fantasy football drafts, one of the benefits (compared to the more common serpentine style of draft) is that roster composition possibilities are virtually endless.

No sane drafter goes into a snake draft expecting to land LeSean McCoy and Matt Forte with his first two picks. In an auction draft, that’s possible. It will cost you a lot of money and you’ll have to compensate elsewhere, but you can make it happen (by bidding more than your leaguemates for each running back).

Daily fantasy sports (DFS) is similar.

If you want the two best running backs or two or three best wide receivers, you can have them. You’ll just have to compensate by finding values elsewhere to stay under the league’s salary cap.

In this post, I identify players that offer more value than their salaries in Week 3 DraftKings fantasy football leagues. Although not always exclusively, the attempt is usually to find values that are cheap in both absolute and relative costs.

Here are some value plays for Week 3:

QB – Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears (at NYJ), $8,100

Even though Cutler has thrown multiple interceptions in Week 1 and for less than 200 yards in Week 2, he has finished as a top-10 fantasy quarterback in both weeks including a QB2 finish last week. The guy that finished Week 2 as the top-scoring fantasy quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, faced Cutler’s opponent for this week. While it’s difficult to run on the Jets, they have an inexperienced and hobbled secondary that Cutler should be able to carve up for a big performance. The seventh-most expensive quarterback this week, Cutler is my fourth-ranked quarterback in Week 3.

QB – Geno Smith, New York Jets (vs. CHI), $6,100

If you’re looking for a cheaper option as a potential starter, Geno is priced as the 25th-most expensive quarerback this week despite being ranked as my QB12 for the week. Smith finished among the top-10 fantasy QBs last week and could have had a better performance had a fourth-down 37-yard touchdown pass not get wiped out by an unintended timeout.

Tied for a position-high six rushing scores last season, Smith has scored 8.17 fantasy points per game from his rushing stats alone over his past six games. During that stretch, he has rushed for 250 yards and four touchdowns on 48 carries. That means that Smith can throw for 176 yards, one touchdown and one interception (like last week) and still finish as a top-10 option (like last week).

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RB – Rashad Jennings, New York Giants (vs. HOU), $5,200

So far, every one of DraftKings lineups has DeMarco Murray, a must-start in my view this week. He’s certainly not cheap as no running back has a higher price, but he leads the NFL in rushing and fantasy points and his two best games have come against the Rams with 25/253/1 and 26/175/1 rushing lines. That said, Jennings is one of my favorite cheap(er) options to pair with Murray this week.

Jennings has had two difficult matchups to open the season against the Lions and Cardinals, who rank second and third in the NFL in rushing defense so far. (And that’s not just a result of having faced Jennings. Arizona led the NFL in rush defense last year and Detroit ranked sixth.) Despite the difficult matchups and general sluggishness of the Giants offense, Jennings has been relatively productive, especially in PPR-scoring formats, which is what DraftKings uses. With 205 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown plus 10 receptions, Jennings is the RB11 through the first two weeks of the season. This week, he faces the Texans, who have allowed a league-high 5.8 yards per carry.

RB – Ahmad Bradshaw, Indianapolis Colts (at JAX), $4,800

Not only does Bradshaw have five receptions in each of the past two games, he has 181 YFS and two touchdowns and he’s the RB6 in PPR formats so far this season. Based on DraftKings salaries, there are 29 running backs that have a higher salary than Bradshaw this week. The Jags have allowed the second-most fantasy points to opposing running backs this season.

RB – Khiry Robinson, New Orleans Saints (vs. MIN), $3,900

More talented than his early-season role in a three-headed rushing attack, Robinson is set to see his usage increase significantly. With Mark Ingram (hand) out for a month, Robinson should see a heavy dose of early-down work and get most of the goal-line opportunities. Considering the fact that Ingram currently leads the NFL in rushing touchdowns and that the Saints are favored by double digits, there could be plenty of opportunities for Robinson to score a touchdown (or two) this week. On a related note, I like Pierre Thomas ($4,900) as well this week, but I’d prefer to save $1,000 with Khiry.

RB – Donald Brown, San Diego Chargers (at BUF), $3,500

Everybody has a price, I guess. I’m not a fan of the matchup as the Bills have shored up a run defense that was one of the league’s worst and I put Brown on the “sit’em” side of my weekly Start’em, Sit’em for Week 3. With the volume of work I expect him to receive with Ryan Mathews out, I have him ranked as a “flex” option in leagues where there are no salaries attached to owner’s start/sit decisions. With 46 running backs more expensive than Brown, however, his price is low enough that he is undervalued.

RB – Isaiah Crowell, Cleveland Browns (vs. BAL), $3,000

You can’t get any lower than Crowell — when it comes to salaries, that is. Priced at the contest minimum for running backs, Crowell does not have a favorable matchup against the Ravens and he’s second on the depth chart behind Terrance West with Ben Tate (knee) out for at least another week. That said, he has plenty of talent and he has rushed for 86 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries (5.38 YPC) through his first two games.

WR – Mike Wallace, Miami Dolphins (vs. KC), $5,800

Even though downfield chemistry has been lacking between Wallace and Ryan Tannehill, 60 Minutes is off to an excellent start this season with 7/81/1 (WR10 in PPR formats) and 5/56/1 (WR14) in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively. Wallace gets a favorable matchup this week against the Chiefs, who have the sixth-most fantasy points to opposing receivers in PPR leagues. Wallace is the 16th-most expensive wide receiver this week.

WR – Kelvin Benjamin, Carolina Panthers (vs. PIT), $4,800

To say Benjamin’s Week 2 was a disappointment is an understatement. With multiple drops, Benjamin finished with two catches for 46 yards on eight targets after 6/92/1 on eight targets in his debut. While Greg Olsen has more targets, Benjamin leads the team’s receiver corps in targets (16) and has the size (6-5, 240, 35-inch arms) to flourish in the red zone. I expect Benjamin to have a bounce-back game and there are 35 receivers with a higher price than Benjamin.

WR – Steve Smith Sr., Baltimore Ravens (at CLE), $4,500

While I don’t believe he’s the most talented Smith among the team’s receivers, he’s the one that’s dominating the targets and the better option in fantasy for now. The only receiver that is averaging more targets per game than Smith (12.5) is Green Bay’s Jordy Nelson (15.0).

WR – Justin Hunter, Tennessee Titans (at CIN), $3,600

Clearly a roll-of-the-dice type option after last week’s dud by the entire offense not named Delanie in their dream matchup against the Cowboys. Blessed with rare physical tools (6-foot-4, 4.4 forty, 40-inch vertical), Hunter will likely have a couple of 6/125/2 or so type games in him this season. I’m not saying it’s this week against a talented Bengals defense, but he’s $600 cheaper than his Week 2 salary and unlikely to be widely owned this week after last week.

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TE – Jared Cook, St. Louis Rams (vs. DAL), $3,400

In the lineups that I don’t have Jimmy Graham, I have Cook. The obvious concern with Cook is his boom-or-bust track record, but this matchup has boom written all over it. This season, the Cowboys have allowed 4/44/2 to Vernon Davis and 10/142/1 to Delaine Walker.

In addition, check out our site’s sortable grid of all players ranked in relation to their DraftKings salary.

Also, check out my weekly fantasy football rankings:

• Week 3 Fantasy Football Quarterback Rankings
• Week 3 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings
• Week 3 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings
• Week 3 Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings

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