Week 6 Sleepers
We have another loaded weekend of matchups with just the Chiefs and Saints on their byes. There are two games with over-under totals 50 or higher: Bears at Falcons (54) and Giants at Eagles (50.5). Fire up all your key offensive players from those games. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to find cheap running backs below my self-imposed $6000 threshold on FanDuel, so I want to make it clear that I like both Andre Williams ($6300) and Branden Oliver ($6200) in DFS this week. They'll be in a healthy amount of my lineups. Everybody knows the song and dance with Sleepers by now. In parentheses is Player X's FanDuel price. For quarterbacks, anything below $8,000 is value. I've set the limit at $6,000 for running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends.
QB Ben Roethlisberger at Browns ($7600): Big Ben put 365 yards on this same Browns teams in Week 1. Now Cleveland may be without top CB Joe Haden (hip). Even if he does play, Haden will be at less than 100 percent and has been owned by Antonio Brown in the past. Cleveland is a bottom-five pass defense and surrenders the sixth-most weekly fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. The Browns made Charlie Whitehurst look competent Week 5. Fire Roethlisberger up as a back-end QB1 with upside.
QB Eli Manning at Eagles ($7200): Eli makes another appearance on the Sleepers list and continues to be a bargain on FanDuel. Giants-Eagles has the second-highest over-under of the week at 50.5 points. The Eagles' up-tempo offense allows the opposing offense to run more plays. Look for Eli to pick on CBs Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher on the outside, just as every other quarterback in the league has through five weeks. The Eagles have given up the third-most passing yards and most passing touchdowns. Eli is a mid-range QB1 play.
QB Joe Flacco at Bucs ($7000): Flacco on the road scares me a bit. His career QB rating is about 13 points lower away from Baltimore, and he averages more than a yard less per attempt on the road. But this is a great matchup, and Flacco is cheap. We like cheap here. Only the Jaguars have given up more passing yards than the Bucs. They'll give up a lot of easy completions, while their run defense is starting to come around some. Look for Flacco to pepper Steve Smith Sr. and Owen Daniels with targets. There aren't going to be many better matchups for Flacco in 2015. He's worth firing up as a solid QB2 in two-quarterback leagues, while his minimal price in DFS allows us to load up at other positions.
Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $400,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 6's games. It's only $10 to join and first prize is $35,000. Starts Sunday, October 12th at 1pm ET. Here's the link.
RB Antone Smith vs. Bears ($5800): Simply put, Smith is a touchdown scorer. He's touched the ball just 17 times this season, but is averaging 16.3 yards per touch and has found the end zone four times. Smith is 29 years old, but there's so much tread left on the tires after Atlanta basically locked him up and threw away the key after signing him off the practice squad in 2010. At 5-foot-8 and 191 pounds, Smith ran a 4.33 forty at Florida State's Pro Day in 2009. Speaking on Monday, coach Mike Smith admitted Antone needs more touches. We're not expecting a dramatic increase in snaps played, but Smith is a threat to score every time he has the ball in his hands. Bears-Falcons has the highest over-under at 54 points. It's harder and harder to find cheap running backs on FanDuel. Smith is one of the better shot-in-the-dark plays.
RB Bishop Sankey vs. Jaguars ($5600): Sankey was a favorite of a lot of fantasy players last week, but I wasn't one of them. He burned people by posting an 8-27-0 rushing line after coach Ken Whisenhunt alluded to Sankey seeing an increased role based on improved footwork. Whisenhunt continues to feed plodder Shonn Greene, which is a waste of time and money. Greene popped up on this week's injury report with a hamstring issue. This could be the game we see the Sankey breakout. Jacksonville is 21st against the run, but allows the second-most fantasy points to running backs. Sankey can run it and catch it. While risky, Sankey is on the FLEX radar.
RB Storm Johnson at Titans ($4800): GPP tournaments on FanDuel require shot-in-the-dark dart throws. There may be no better one than Storm Johnson this week. Making his NFL debut Week 5, Johnson played seven snaps and managed to turn four carries into 27 yards. He's a liability in pass protection and not a great athlete, but Johnson has good size at 6'/216. With Toby Gerhart battling a sprained foot -- he was downgraded from "full" on Wednesday to "DNP" on Thursday -- and his snaps decreasing by the week, Johnson can be considered the favorite to lead this backfield in touches against the Titans. Johnson is worth owning in 12- and 14-team leagues.
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WR Rueben Randle at Eagles ($5900): Odell Beckham has played all of one NFL game, and is already more costly on FanDuel than Randle, who has seen double-digit targets three consecutive weeks and now leads the Giants in looks from Eli Manning. Randle continues to be a bargain and will find his way in a high percentage of my DFS lineups. Eagles outside CBs Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher have combined to yield six touchdowns to opposing receivers, and Randle, along with Larry Donnell, is Eli's favorite red-zone target. Randle will run most of his routes against Williams. Victor Cruz will draw the toughest matchup with slot CB Brandon Boykin. Though all three Giants receivers are strong plays, I prefer Randle > Beckham > Cruz against Philadelphia.
WR Andrew Hawkins vs. Steelers ($5300): Hawkins isn't an every-down player -- he plays about 75 percent of the snaps -- but far-and-away leads the Browns with his 41 targets through four games. After Ike Taylor went down with a broken forearm, it forced underwhelming veteran CB Brice McCain into slot duties for the Steelers. That's who Hawkins will run most of his routes against. I don't love Hawkins on FanDuel because he doesn't score touchdowns, but he's worth WR3 consideration in PPR formats. Hawkins is on pace to catch 96 balls. Weak-armed Brian Hoyer leans on the jitterbug in the short passing game.
WR Andre Holmes vs. Chargers ($4700): Holmes started and played 62-of-67 snaps the last time the Raiders took the field in Week 4 against the Dolphins. He was targeted 12 times against Miami, reeling in five of those passes for 74 yards and a score. Holmes is a size-speed freak with basketball leaping ability and a knack for high-pointing the football. He's the ideal FanDuel tournament play at a bargain price in an offense that is bound to be trailing on the scoreboard and checking the ball through the air late in games. Holmes is the only Raiders player worth any consideration for any fantasy lineups.
WR Jarius Wright at Lions ($4500): Wright has come on to lead the Vikings in targets back-to-back weeks. In Teddy Bridgewater's first NFL start Week 4 against the Falcons, Wright turned 10 targets into an 8-132-0 line. His snap counts are a concern as he's not an every-down receiver behind Greg Jennings and Cordarrelle Patterson, but it's clear after one start that Bridgewater and Wright have a chemistry after working together with the second-team offense during the summer. Wright will run most of his routes against up-and-down sophomore LCB Darius Slay and slot corner Danny Gorrer. Gorrer is the weakest link in an otherwise very strong Detroit defense. Like Hawkins, Wright is undersized and isn't going to score much, but is worth firing up as a WR4 in PPR leagues.
TE Owen Daniels at Bucs ($5300): Only the Cowboys (39) have allowed more catches to tight ends than the Bucs (37). The Bucs like to keep everything in front of them with their two-deep look on defense. That's a recipe for success for tight ends like Daniels who make their hay in the middle of the field. Daniels has seen 13 targets the past two weeks, and is a candidate for 6-10 of them against Tampa. There isn't a high ceiling here, but Daniels is a threat for 70-80 yards and a score, making him a starting option as a back-end TE1. OC Gary Kubiak has shown a willingness to draw plays up for Daniels in the red zone.
TE Clay Harbor at Titans ($4900): Marcedes Lewis is expected to miss another month-and-a-half at least on short-term I.R. That leaves Harbor as the Jaguars' every-down tight end. He's a pass-catcher first and a blocker second. Harbor has caught 11-of-12 targets in two games with Blake Bortles at quarterback. The Titans are allowing the tenth-most fantasy points to tight ends and just lost SS Bernard Pollard, who was actually having a pretty decent season in coverage, to a torn Achilles'. Jaguars OC Jedd Fisch has kept Bortles under wraps a bit, forcing him to get the ball out of his hands in the short-to-intermediate game. That favors Harbor. He's a Week 6 streaming option.
