Staff Thursday Cash Plays - Week 6

This week’s bye should be harder to deal with but since you’re already without Tony Romo and Dez Bryant, you’re just contending with Todd Gurley, Vincent Jackson and Amari Cooper’s absence.

We’ll get through this together though and as always we’ve put together some thoughts on the Footballguys Staff lineups for FanDuel, which you can find in their entirety here.

Staff Trends

Titan Defense

Normally we don’t talk too much about defense, but some have been huge contributors to daily fantasy wins this year. And hey, if you can pull 15-20 points from a team and add it to your already studly lineup? Why not?

This week we had a lot of New York Jets selections (because of Kirk Cousins, human pick machine) but the Titans surprisingly appeared as well. As Chris Feery put it in an accompanying note: “Too low of a price for a defense facing a struggling offense.”

There is some concern that the offense could come out firing for a new coach who we’re told everyone loves, but this is an offense which has struggled and a quarterback making some consistently bad decisions. There’s certainly a lot to like about both things.

Brady Barrage

I keep calling the 2015 Patriots season a ‘hate-fueled rampage of revenge’ and even if that bit of hyperbole is over the top for hyperbole, Brady has absolutely been on fire this year. He’s completed 116 passes on 160 attempts for 1,387 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Now he’s taking on the Colts, a team with massive defensive issues and one of the teams who brought down the NFL hammer on Brady and the Patriots. This is a good day to bet on Brady in your lineup as well as most players in that offense (though Dion Lewis was added to the injury report Thursday) and despite the price tag, you can tell most of the staff feels strongly about having Brady in their lineup.

Off-Brand Receivers

If you are going to pull in Brady, you have to cut cost somewhere, and many people did so with a few wide receiver spots. Jeremy Maclin ($7200), Eric Decker ($6100), Willie Snead ($6200), Allen Robinson ($6300) and Allen Hurns ($6100) are all names you should know by now as well as guys who can give you high output for little cost.

Glaring Omissions

Stud Wide Receivers

Dovetailing off of our Off-Brand point, where are the ‘stud’ receivers? No Calvin Johnson, no AJ Green, no Demaryius Thomas, no Antonio Brown, no Julio Jones—heck not even a Julian Edelman. This week the guys who have carried many fantasy owners are out. As I said, you have to cut somewhere, and the staff did it mostly at receiver.

Gronk Down

Only one staff member had Rob Gronkowski in their lineup, and surprisingly he didn’t pair him with Tom Brady. A lot of staff went after Antonio Gates this week after his huge first week back and took advantage of the value by sinking some money elsewhere.

Diamonds in the Rough

John Brown ($6100): Brown had four targets last week in a game his quarterback only threw 14 times. He doesn’t score a ton of touchdowns, but he’s taking advantage of a rejuvenated Larry Fitzgerald pulling coverage away.

Dwayne Harris ($5300): This might change a little if Rueben Randle plays, but Harris has had back to back weeks of a lot more value than his price tag would lead you to expect. It could be a tough day against Philadelphia but with Odell Beckham Jr drawing the coverage the way he usually does, Harris could find value on shorter routes if he finds the open space.