In this article, weekly I’ll be breaking down my core player pool across each position, highlighting projected ownership trends, key leverage spots, and the plays I’m targeting for tournaments of all sizes. You can also get access to my premium DFS builds for every main slate here. Now, let’s dive in…
Quarterback
Projected Highest Own%: Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence
My Targets: Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Justin Fields, Tua Tagovailoa, Drake Maye
We have a big Week 2 slate on tap this week, and plenty of spots to take advantage of while the general public overreacts to what happened in Week 1. We have some higher ceiling options at QB this week with Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts all back on the main slate. I like spending up at QB in GPPs this week, while I will look to spend down in cash games once again.
I think the conversation for your cash game build on DK comes down to Justin Fields vs Drake Maye. Both are mobile QBs, though Fields has a much better raw rushing projection and looked great in Week 1 scoring two touchdowns on the ground. He’s also $500 more in salary so it just comes down to your build. Maye matches up with what I think might be the worst secondary in football, the Miami Dolphins. His weaponry isn’t the best, so there’s still risk there if he ends up being really high-owned but that’s more of a GPP conversation.
Josh Allen looks to be in a smash spot this week against the New York Jets. New York replicated Aaron Glenn’s man-heavy defense that he ran in Detroit in Week 1 against the Steelers and got absolutely cooked by Aaron Rodgers. I’m much more fearful of Allen, and we know that rushing QB’s can excel against man-heavy schemes. Allen carved up the Glenn and the Lions the last two times he faced them and we could see a big day rushing which is how he can access his ceiling.
A spot I want to take a stand on this week and be overweight to is the Miami Dolphins. New England is another defense that got absolutely ripped apart in Week 1 giving up over 350 passing yards to Geno Smith and multiple splash plays. I know Miami looked terrible, but the Colts defense was flying around and they lost possessions due to turnovers. If they can hold onto the ball, they can have success and we have always targeted the Dolphins in these early season home spots. I will be building a Tua double on one of my main GPP teams this weekend.
Running Back
Highest Projected Own%: Christian McCaffrey, Chase Brown, De’Von Achane, Jahmyr Gibbs, James Conner, Kyren Williams
My Targets: Christian McCaffrey, De’Von Achane, James Conner, Jahmyr Gibbs, Breece Hall, James Cook, D’Andre Swift, Javonte Williams
Christian McCaffrey and Chase Brown stick out in terms of projected ownership on DraftKings this week. McCaffrey touched the ball over 25 times last week after being questionable to play and they’re going to need him once again this week with George Kittle now down due to a hamstring injury and no Brock Purdy. CMC is priced too cheap for his big workload, and I will have close to 100% of him across my teams on DraftKings. There is a risk that this team just falls flat due to their key losses but his volume can make up for the team struggling – much like it did last week. Brown has a super secure role for the Bengals, but I prefer him more in cash games than GPPs on Sunday. There’s a ton of good plays in the mid-tier once again so I’m fine simply getting a bit different in tournaments or taking a stand and I want that to be on the next guy I’m going to write about..
Once again James Conner is my favorite mid-tier RB. He got through due to a touchdown last week, but the role was still good overall especially in the red zone and now he matches up with the Panthers who don’t appear to have fixed their run defense issues that plagued them in 2024. Conner crushed in these spots where the Cardinals were playing from ahead last year and this game sets up for that with Arizona listed -6.5 at home on Sunday afternoon.
As I noted above everyone is worried about the Dolphins but now is the perfect spot to buy in on them and hope for the best. Achane won’t fly under the radar, but I’m willing to bet he comes in under his ownership projection with the majority of the public already done dealing with the Dolphins after one week. I love Achane in all formats.
Breece Hall looked like the “old” Breece Hall to me last week and I couldn’t be more excited to play him this week at low ownership. Not only did he look the part, we know that playing alongside a mobile QB like Justin Fields should increase efficiency and the Bills defense looked very exploitable in the run game last Sunday night. You can use him as a one-off or in a Josh Allen lineup as the bring-back.
Both D’Andre Swift and Javonte Williams are a ways down my board but can provide low-owned access to games I’m otherwise excited about. Swift was terrible on Monday night, but the workload was massive and I’m willing to plug him into tournaments as a correlation piece this weekend. As for Williams, he can be deployed in non-Dak lineups or as a part of a full Cowboys onslaught. I doubt Jaydon Blue has much of a role if he is even active in Week 2 and Miles Sanders looked abysmal against the Eagles on top of fumbling in the red zone.
Wide Receiver
Highest Projected Own%: Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Puka Nacua, Zay Flowers, Hollywood Brown, Jaxon Smith-Njjigba, Brian Thomas Jr
My Targets: Bengals WRs, Dallas WRs, Puka Nacua, Tyreek Hill, DeVonta Smith, Courtland Sutton, Tetairoa McMillan, Chris Olave, Rome Odunze, Calvin Ridley, Elic Ayomanor, Tyquan Thornton, Troy Franklin
As far as the chalk options go, there’s going to be heavy emphasis on the Bengals WRs this week along with Puka Nacua and Hollywood Brown on DraftKings. It’s a clear bounce-back spot for the Bengals offense at home in the highest total on the slate. Nacua ran the majority of his routes from the slot in Week 1 and once again received several layup targets from Stafford and McVay. He’s likely headed for another historical season in terms of workload should he stay healthy and he’s a top play in all formats for me. Davante Adams is in play for larger-field contests, but Nacua is my top overall WR on the slate this week.
Hollywood Brown saw 16 targets from Patrick Mahomes once Xavier Worthy went down against the Chargers and he is out on Sunday. I don’t love him in GPPs, but he is too cheap for his current “role” and I think he should be played in cash games on DK. Tetairoa McMillan is the guy that’s too cheap on FanDuel in my opinion and I like this spot for him against the Arizona Cardinals. He’s an easy correlation piece with James Conner.
Tyreek Hill might be my favorite GPP WR this weekend, and that’s saying something given that I was adamant about fading him in season long leagues. I think he wants to return the the Chiefs, and playing motivated football for the next few weeks is the only way to get home to his true king Patrick Mahomes. Either way, as I noted above the Patriots were completely cooked by big splash plays last week and I think Hill was moving around fine in Week 1. Hill has pretty significant home/road splits during his time with the Dolphins and these are the spots that we want to lock him in.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba can be used in all formats after he saw the league’s highest targetshare in Week 1 – while the Steelers will be without one of their top DBs in Joey Porter Jr this weekend.
Dallas is in a great spot at home against the Giants and I think they may slip a bit under-owned due to the presence of the Bengals/Jags game. I would be willing to double-stack Dak Prescott this week. He played much better than the box score indicates against the Eagles and I’m still sky-high on this offense for season outlooks.
DeVonta Smith makes too much sense as a GPP pivot, even as a one-off. If you remember, I was all over him in the props market during the Eagles win in February and he gets an even bigger boost this time around with Dallas Goedert out. Kansas City plays pretty man-heavy relative to league average and he has always been an elite man-coverage beater. He has also owned the Chiefs, and I love him at what should be single digit own%.
I wrote up a Rome Odunze prop ladder here – he has a super-high ceiling in this spot against the Lions and like Smith, should be virtually unowned. You can play him as a one-off or mini-stack him with either Jahmyr Gibbs or Jameson Williams in tournaments.
Courtland Sutton once again dominated targets from Bo Nix, and the Colts are missing several key starters on defense this weekend including multiple starting corners. I don’t love much else in this game – so I will likely deploy him as a one-off or you could consider him with Nix in larger-field contests. Sutton is atop my list of potential late swap candidates as well if my early players start slow.
Calvin Ridley is popping as a cash game play due to his sub-$5K price and I like his teammate Elic Ayomanor in GPPs as well. It’s fair to worry about the Titans offensive line in this spot against the Rams pass rush but I still think this will be an improved unit this season. Ridley was bottled by Pat Surtain last week and had some key drops – I’m expecting a much better game today for someone I was very high on coming into the season. Anyone that’s watched Cam Ward plays knows he doesn’t like to check down and we saw his willingness to throw down field last week when he led the league in average depth of throw. Ayomanor led the team in first read target share per Fantasy Points data and while that could have had to do with Surtain blanketing Ridley it’s hard not to be bullish on the rookie moving forward. This team desperately needs a second weapon to step up and I believe Ayomanor can do that.
Tight End
Highest Projected Own%: Trey McBride, Harold Fannin, Sam Laporta
My Targets: Hunter Henry, Juwan Johnson, Harold Fannin, Mark Andrews
Last week, I wrote up Harold Fannin as a way to get leverage off of David Njoku given that I thought he would see a much bigger role than anticipated. That held true, fast forward one week and now he is the lock and load cash game option and potential highest owned TE on the slate. With no George Kittle, I don’t see anyone I’m scared of at this position or willing to spend up on other than Trey McBride. Given that, I will likely just play the higher-owned cheap options like Harold Fannin or even Juwan Johnson on the bulk of my teams. Both had big-time roles in Week 1, and I feel more comfortable in their target-shares and sub-$4K than most of the guys in that upper mid-tier.
Hunter Henry is the one I really like for GPPs, due to my interest in that game as a whole. He ranked top-6 in expected fantasy points per FantasyPoints Data in Week 1 and correlates nicely as a stacking partner with Maye or run-back / mini-stack with Tyreek Hill or De’Von Achane.
Andrews was nonexistent in the Ravens shootout loss to the Bills last week, but I’m willing to consider him in Lamar stacks due to his low ownership. He has 11 touchdowns against the Browns in his career and they should still be missing Isaiah Likely.
Written by Ben Hossler (Follow @BenHossler)
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