Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): Week 10 DraftKings Fantasy Football Values

One of the challenges with season-long fantasy leagues is managing bye weeks and especially so in weeks like this with six teams on bye.

When it comes to daily fantasy sports (DFS), the good news is that you don’t have to worry about players on bye as every player from every team in action is available to you in the player pool.

Of course, salary-cap constraints restrict us from loading up solely on studs. Instead, we need to find a few bargains to balance out our rosters.

With that said, here are some value plays for Week 10 DraftKings contests:

QB – Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers (at NYJ), $7,500

Completing 76.6 percent of his pass attempts over the past two weeks, Big Ben has thrown for 862 yards (10.02 Y/A) with 12 touchdowns and no interceptions. Roethlisberger can’t keep throwing six touchdowns each game — or can he? Allowing the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks, the Jets have surrendered multiple passing touchdowns in all nine of their games and have compiled an embarrassing 24:1 TD-to-INT ratio against this season. My third-ranked quarterback for the week, five QBs have a higher cost than Big Ben.

QB – Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers (at PHI), $6,600

It hasn’t been fun to own Newton for most of the season and especially so in the past two weeks. Newton has 171 and 151 passing yards and no passing touchdowns in those two games. On a positive note, Newton has run the ball more over the past four weeks with an average rushing stat line of 10.75/53.75/0.5. Putting the disappointing passing numbers aside, Newton has a favorable matchup this week against the Eagles, who allow the fourth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. In fact, the Eagles have allowed a top-12 fantasy quarterback in all but one week (Week 6) and only the Bengals (72.2) and Titans (69.8) allow more opponent plays per game than the Eagles (69.4). As the 16th-most expensive quarterback, Newton offers upside and plenty of value to those looking to free up cap space elsewhere.

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QB – Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons (at TB), $6,300

In general, I’m not a fan of Matty Ice (on the road). Compared to other “experts” tracked by FantasyPros, I’m lower on him than the expert community this week — ninth in my rankings compared to fifth for the expert consensus. With that said, Ryan is 18th in terms of quarterback salary so he offers value to everybody. Ryan lit up the Bucs in their first matchup and that was without Roddy White. Tampa has allowed a 300-yard passer in four of their past five games and DraftKings scoring awards a three-point bonus for reaching the 300-yard milestone.

QB – Mark Sanchez, Philadelphia Eagles (vs. CAR), $5,400

Taking over for the injured Nick Foles (collarbone), Sanchez threw for 202 yards and two touchdowns (plus two interceptions) in Week 9. With the keys to the high-paced Eagles offense, The Sanchize gets a favorable matchup in his first start for the Eagles. The Panthers have allowed the eighth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks and Sanchez is only the 24th-most expensive quarterback this week.

RB – LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia Eagles (vs. CAR), $5,600

Entering the year as a consensus top-two selection at running back, it’s been a disappointing season for McCoy, but he has been better over the past quarter of a season. During that four-game span, McCoy has a minimum of 24 touches in each game for a total of 101 including 11 receptions and is averaging 115.0 yards from scrimmage per game. In addition, McCoy has averaged 4.78 yards per carry during that stretch compared to just 2.74 in his first four games. A value when comparing his price (RB11) to my rank (RB4), McCoy is nearly half the cost of Matt Forte ($10,000) and he has a great matchup as the Panthers allow the fourth-most fantasy points to opposing running backs (PPR scoring).

[Note: DraftKings awards a full point per reception in scoring.]

RB – Marshawn Lynch, Seattle Seahawks (vs. NYG), $6,700

Few running backs have the ability to score touchdowns in bunches as Beast Mode does. After a three-game drought, Lynch scored a pair of touchdowns and gained 143 YFS as he finished as last week’s top-scoring PPR running back. In the first four games of the season, Lynch had a total of six touchdowns. The Giants have allowed the seventh-most fantasy points to opposing running backs and Lynch’s salary is still relatively modest for his considerable upside.

RB – Mark Ingram, New Orleans Saints (vs. SF), $5,900

With a massive 54 carries over the past two weeks, Ingram became the first Saints running back with back-to-back 100-yard games since 2007. Racking up 272 rushing yards and three scores in those two games, Ingram has scored 27-plus fantasy points in DraftKings scoring each week. With Khiry Robinson and Pierre Thomas out for at least one more week, Ingram should see another heavy workload. And while the matchup isn’t favorable (SF allows fifth-fewest fantasy points to RBs), the Saints are projected by Vegas to score the fifth-most points this week, which could/should set Ingram up for a few goal-line opportunities.

RB – Ronnie Hillman, Denver Broncos (at OAK), $6,100

In Montee Ball‘s absence, Hillman has been an absolute stud. In each of those four games, Hillman has either rushed for 100-plus yards or scored multiple touchdowns. During that span, Hillman has scored a minimum of 17.6 fantasy points and averaged 22.25 per game. Not only are the Broncos favored by 12 points, but no team is projected to score more points than Denver, according to Vegas. If there is any reason to not go all-in on Hillman, it’s the potential return of Ball, who is listed as questionable.

RB – Bobby Rainey, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (vs. ATL), $4,400

With the Muscle Hamster (expected to be) out, it’s going to be a lot of Rainey this week even though rookie Charles Sims is expected to make his debut. Rainey gained 121 yards on 20 touches last week and he has a total of 400 YFS in the three games that he has had at least 18 touches. Helping Rainey’s cause, the Falcons have allowed the most fantasy points to opposing running backs this season.

WR – Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions (vs. MIA), $7,100

Welcome back, Megatron! Not only has he missed three games (and had a bye), but Calvin was a decoy for a couple of weeks before that. Since Week 4, he has a total of three catches for 19 yards. The matchup this week isn’t great, but few players (when healthy) can take over a game like Megatron. Counting the playoffs, no receiver has more 200-yard games than Johnson (six). With his salary under $8,000 for the first time this year, he will be in the majority of my lineups this week.

WR – Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons (at TB), $6,600

Jones has not scored in five consecutive games, but the good news is the last time he scored was against this week’s opponent. In fact, he scored twice that game as he posted a 9/161/2 stat line and finished as the top-scoring fantasy wide receiver for the week. Granted, the offense isn’t as sharp on the road as it is at home, but Jones is an elite talent, the Bucs give up the most fantasy points to wide receivers and this is the first time he’s been priced under $7,000 all season.

WR – Brandon Marshall, Chicago Bears (at GB), $5,600

Not only has Marshall been kept out of the end zone in four consecutive games, but he has three receptions or less in four of his past six games. To put that into perspective, Marshall had ZERO games with three or less receptions in 2013. The good news is that Marshall has double-digit targets in back-to-back games and this is the first time this season that his salary has been below $6,000.

WR – Brandin Cooks, New Orleans Saints (vs. SF), $4,300

Especially at home, the Saints have focused on getting the ball into Cooks’ hands. Cooks has more targets in three home games (28) than he has in five road games (26). Especially in full-PPR formats like DraftKings, Cooks should get a lot of opportunities to do some damage on the fast track.

WR – Kelvin Benjamin, Carolina Panthers (at PHI), $4,200

Every Friday, our contributors give their one DraftKings must-start of the week and mine was Benjamin. Here’s what I wrote: “… With the 39th-highest salary at wide receiver, Benjamin is my 11th-ranked wideout this week. In fact, this is his lowest price since Week 1. Although he’s coming off a disappointing performance (two catches for 18 yards on 10 targets), there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about a bounce-back game. At his size (6-5, 240), Benjamin is always a threat in the red zone and he’s getting consistent targets (8.7 per game) and Philadelphia’s secondary can be exploited. The Eagles have allowed six 100-yard receivers this season including three of them in the past two weeks.”

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TE – Jimmy Graham, New Orleans Saints (vs. SF), $6,300

It’s not too often that the most-expensive option at a position will be listed as a “value,” but it applies this week. Graham’s $6,300 salary is the highest at the position, but he’s been priced higher in all but one game. The one game that he had a lower salary, it was widely anticipated early in the week (when prices were established) that he would miss the game with his shoulder injury. He played a limited role that week (40.0 percent of the team’s snaps), but he has played 62.3 and 68.8 percent of the snaps, respectively, over the past two weeks. Given that Patrick Willis will miss this game, the matchup isn’t as challenging as the numbers would otherwise suggest.

TE – Julius Thomas, Denver Broncos (at OAK), $4,900

In a few lineups, I have gone with Graham at tight end and Thomas at flex and love the TD-scoring potential of that combo. Either way, Thomas is a tremendous (and even better) value in his own right. Thomas had a season-low two targets last week even though he ended a two-game scoring drought. That said, JT still leads the NFL in touchdown receptions (10) and can score them in bunches — three games with multiple scores this season.

TE – Mychal Rivera, Oakland Raiders (vs. DEN), $3,800

In situations where you’re looking to pay up at other positions, Rivera gives fantasy owners some additional flexibility. Rivera scored his first two touchdowns of the season last week and while he may not score in Week 10, he has seen a high volume of targets (20) over the past two weeks that he has turned into 15 receptions. Priced as a top-10 tight end, Rivera will have his worst outing of the past three weeks if he only finishes as the 10th-most productive fantasy tight end. In addition, the Broncos have allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to the position.

In addition, check out our site’s DraftKings Week 10 Cheat Sheet.

Also, check out my weekly fantasy football rankings:

• Week 10 Fantasy Football Quarterback Rankings
• Week 10 Fantasy Football Running Back Rankings
• Week 10 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Rankings
• Week 10 Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings

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