Welcome in to a new year of Ben’s NFL DFS Building Blocks for DraftKings and FanDuel! In this article, I will highlight my favorite NFL DFS plays at each position for small-field tournament formats. If you’re interested in signing up for premium access, which grants you Core Plays for every slate, projections, Final Thoughts player pool + expert picks and our premium Discord click HERE. You can also sign up for our plethora of AI-driven sports betting tools and access to my weekly betting card by clicking HERE. Let’s get into the plays…
Quarterback
Highest pOWN% QB’s: Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields
My Conviction Plays: Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, Jared Goff, Dak Prescott, Spencer Rattler, Will Levis
Once again Week 6 brings us just a 10 game main slate, but there are some really high total games for us to attack. ARI/GB checks in at 47.5, WAS/BAL sits at 51.5 and DAL/DET owns a massive 52.5 total. We also have another 47 number between the Falcons and Panthers.
Overall, we should expect some decent offensive performances this week and it appears ownership is concentrating on the expensive QB’s. We have a very strong mid-tier at RB/WR this week which is making it easy for users to spend up on Jackson or Prescott in those massive totals, while Hurts grades out well against the Browns as well.
I think both of the highest-owned options are fantastic plays this week and I would be looking to stack them potentially in three-max entry. Washington hasn’t gotten exposed in a few weeks on defense due to their opponents lack of functionality on offense. This is still very much the most attackable secondary in the NFL and I’m a firm believer that this Ravens team is the best team in the NFL at this very moment. I don’t think they’ll have any issues scoring this week, and Jayden Daniels is a strong play on the opposite side as well. How I am looking to play it is Jackson stacked with Rashod Bateman or one of his TE’s, with McLaurin on the opposite side. If using Daniels I kind of like him solo with Derrick Henry on the opposite side, but McLaurin is still a fine option in that build as well. Finally, just using Henry is in play which we will discuss in the next section.
As for the DAL/DET game, both sides are intriguing. Dak Prescott has been awesome this season in my opinion, and has historically crushed at home. Detroit has been a pretty extreme pass-funnel with DJ Reader in town and I expect that to continue this week. This could finally be the big Prescott/Lamb spot we’ve been waiting for all season. As for the Lions, we have seen some pretty run-heavy approaches from them at times this season but this is a strong spot for the passing game. Jared Goff is coming off the best fantasy game of his season, and Dallas is extremely banged up on defense. They’re still down both Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence which really affects their ability to rush the passer. I prefer a Dak stack I think, but Goff is firmly in play for me in tournaments this weekend.
I really like some of these cheap options we have as well, which is great for the smaller-field tournaments I play. Both Will Levis and Spencer Rattler crack my pool this week.
Will Levis draws the nut match-up, at home against the Indianapolis Colts. If you’ve read this article at all this season, we have been attacking this Colts team at will in DFS. We did it with Justin Fields — who turned in his best fantasy game of the season — and we did it with Trevor Lawrence last week who did the same thing. Tennessee is the second-slowest team in terms of pace this season behind the Jets, but this is a spot we can expect maximum play volume from them for the first time this season due to the Colts defense. Every team Indy has faced this year has exceeded their average plays per game number, and you have been able to throw all over them. It’s gross, but at $4,800 I’m very interested in Levis stacks this weekend.
As for Spencer Rattler, it appeared he would be kind of chalky at the start of the week but I don’t think that’s carrying well into the weekend. It’s a rough situation for him to make his debut, the Saints offensive line is not in a good place but he has great playmakers at his disposal in Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. Overall, you can throw on Tampa and he looked strong in the preseason. Any time we get a flat-min priced QB I’m interested especially one with pedigree. I will be playing Rattler in some tournaments this weekend as well.
Running Back
Highest pOWN% RB’s: Bijan Robinson, Bucky Irving, Tony Pollard, Antonio Gibson, Chuba Hubbard, JK Dobbins
My Conviction Plays: Bucky Irving, JK Dobbins, Najee Harris, Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Najee Harris, Josh Jacobs, DET RB’s
The chalk is very clear at RB this week, with Rachaad White doubtful we have Bucky Irving joining Bijan Robinson, Tony Pollard, Chuba Hubbard and Antonio Gibson in what should be a very high-owned mid-tier.
All of these guys are weirdly in good match-ups, with Hubbard and Gibson clearly trailing the top three of Irving/Robinson/Pollard. Irving is simply too cheap for a full-time starting role and I think he is a must play regardless of ownership. Pollard’s ownership is another reason why I like pivoting to the passing attack in tournaments, but he is viable in all formats. He’s averaged over 18 touches per game this season and seen over 20% of Will Levis’ targets. Robinson has the most risk oddly enough, given the presence of Tyler Allgeier but the match-up couldn’t be better against the Panthers.
I like the spend-up options in tournaments — Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry — and I will be looking to maybe get up to one of them in lineups I use a cheap QB. Cleveland has been extremely bad at containing the edge this season, and I really think Barkley could have a field day vs them as a big home favorite.
I prefer JK Dobbins and Najee Harris both to Hubbard this week. Dobbins will be playing without Gus Edwards while Harris is leading the NFL in touches without a touchdown. Jaylen Warren is back for the Steelers, but Patterson remains out and I think we could see another heavy workload from Najee with Las Vegas being one of the softest run defenses in the league.
Wide Receiver
Highest pOWN% WR’s: Drake London, Darnell Mooney, Diontae Johnson, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Chris Godwin, Terry McLaurin
My Conviction Plays: CeeDee Lamb, ARSB, Jameson Williams, Drake London, Marv Harrison Jr, Terry McLaurin, Calvin Ridley, Jayden Reed, Ladd McConkey, Jalen Tolbert, Stefon Diggs, Chris Olave, Rashod Bateman, Xavier Hutchinson
The chalk is pretty clearly concentrated in the mid-tier this week, particularly in the Falcons/Panthers game with all of Drake London, Diontae Johnson and Darnell Mooney popping in projections. Similarly, Ray-Ray McCloud is popping as a top point per dollar option as well. All are strong options, but I likely won’t be using multiple of them outside of a game stack. London is my favorite to one-off,, I love how they’ve used him the last few weeks including a nice increase in first read target%.
Marvin Harrison JR and Jayden Reed are guys projecting for low-ownership I like as one-offs. You can pair them together in a line also, or stack Marv with Josh Jacobs for example for a mini-correlation. We’ve seen the type of upside Harrison possesses and he is projecting for minute ownership despite the solid total on this game. Reed has absolutely crushed in two of the three games that Love has played in this season and was tackled inside the five last week. Arizona plays zone-heavy defense under Jonathan Gannon and Reed has graded out as one of the best zone beaters in the NFL this season. Both of these guys could be slate breakers if this game gets cooking on Sunday.
Obviously I’m interested in CeeDee Lamb given my Dak love this week. This really feels to me like the big game for Lamb that’s been due all season. That being said, Jalen Tolbert has filled in admirably for Brandin Cooks and can be used in tournaments as well. Amon-Ra St. Brown is projecting for high ownership, but I actually have preferred dropping to Jameson Williams in my early builds.
Calvin Ridley is one of my favorite overall plays this weekend, and he can be used in a Levis stack or as a one-off. Ridley has been one of the unluckiest players in football this season per FantasyPoints XFP data, and the Colts have been shredded by similar outside WR’s. We also have a squeaky wheel narrative with HC Brian Callahan saying they need to get him the ball starting with this week.
As I noted above, Rashod Bateman is my preferred stack with Lamar Jackson and I also think he can be a one-off at his price. He has ran the second-most routes on the team behind Flowers and the Redskins have been extremely vulnerable to outside WR’s this season.
Tight End
Highest pOWN% TE’s: Jake Ferguson, Cade Otton, Zach Ertz, Tucker Kraft
My Conviction Plays: Jake Ferguson, Cade Otton, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts, Ja’Tavion Sanders
TE has been a nightmare this season, and it only gets worse in Week 6. We have two clear guys — Jake Ferguson and Cade Otton — projecting for essentially all the ownership at the position. Both are fine options, but Ferguson is $5K on DraftKings and typically, we try to avoid the mid-range salaries at TE. Tucker Kraft was chalk last week, but it appears the Packers pass catching corps will be healthier this week and he saw a price hike after his 2 TD game vs the Rams. If you’re using Dak Prescott or Jordan Love, I think they’re good options in your stack but I’m really not going out of my way to one-off any of the higher-owned TE’s this week.
Mark Andrews has been a complete disaster this season, and is coming off a game in which he ran a route on under 50% of Lamar Jackson’s drop-backs. That being said, he still turned in 9.5 DK points and saw his first end zone target of the season. Lamar just missed him on that pass, and had he scored that touchdown I envision his ownership being much higher this week (currently projected 1%). The guy is basically out there playing offensive line and then breaking out for some routes, but he is below $4,000 now and we aren’t being asked to pay for the Mark Andrews we once knew. This position is a wasteland, so I’m fine being overweight to Andrews at this price and ownership level even if it seems like a fish play from the outside.
Rookie Ja’Tavion Sanders is in play for the Panthers with Tommy Tremble out as well. Last week, he ran a route on over 70% of Andy Dalton drop-backs and Sanders is priced at just $2,600 on DraftKings.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler on Twitter)
