NFL DFS Week 6 Picks: Strategy for DraftKings & FanDuel

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

Top Projected Own%: Drake Maye, Baker Mayfield, Trevor Lawrence

My Player Pool: Drake Maye, Baker Mayfield, Trevor Lawrence, Sam Darnold, Mac Jones, Justin Herbert, Jacoby Brissett, Spencer Rattler, Dak Prescott, Jordan Love

I’m a bit short on time this weekend so the article is going to be a bit abbreviated. Let’s dive in!

Much like last week, I have a huge stacking and QB pool this week due to the lack of slate-breaking mobile QB’s available to us. When we don’t have Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts on the slate – it opens up the door for pocket passer efficiency to win you tournaments and anyone is capable of that on a given week. Right now I like Baker Mayfield or Mac Jones as my favorite spot on the slate followed by either Trevor Lawrence or Sam Darnold. Those are two games I want to play heavily this weekend due to both match-up and injury situations on both sides. 

As far as cash games go, I think most people will plug in the top projected option relative to salary in Drake Maye or drop down to Trevor Lawrence against the banged up Seahawks secondary. 

Running Back 

Top Projected Own%: Rachaad White, Rico Dowdle, Javonte Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Kyren Williams, Josh Jacobs

My Player Pool: Josh Jacobs, Ashton Jeanty, Javonte Williams, Kyren Williams, Josh Jacobs, Quinshon Judkins, Michael Carter

Once again this week, the chalk at RB looks very strong and as I noted above I think it’s better to lean into that chalk and get different with your stacks. Of the chalky mid-tier guys, I would rank them – Javonte, Kyren, White, Dowdle but I do think that Javone, White and Dowdle is the chalky cash game trio. 

Josh Jacobs and Ashton Jeanty are two guys that I love this week, and should come in one ownership threshold behind those mid-tier guys. I want to be overweight to them in GPPs, especially Jeanty in what might be the best match-up for him all season against the Titans + his increased passing game role in recent weeks has increased both his floor and ceiling. 

Judkins and Michael Carter stick out as the low-owned mid-tier pivots to consider in larger-field contests. 

Wide Receiver 

Top Projected Own%: Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Emeka Egbuka, Chris Olave, Stefon Diggs, Ladd McConkey

My Player Pool: Puka, JSN. Egbuka, Ladd, Keenan, Marv Harrison JR, BTJ, Travis Hunter, Jaylen Waddle, Tez Johnson, Jauan Jennings, Calvin Ridley, DK Metcalf

Similar to last week, if I’m playing the chalky RB’s I want to get different with my QB/stack combos so while I like the chalk at this position I would prefer to be unique about how I’m playing them. Right now I would rank stacks – SF/TB game, SEA/JAX game, DAL/CAR game followed by the ARI/IND game. Obviously all the guys above fit into those respective stacks one way or another, but guys that I’m a bit higher on than the field as low owned pivots are Marv Harrison JR and DK Metcalf. Harrison JR is getting a QB upgrade in my opinion with Kyler Murray out while we could see Brissett force the ball to him in his absence. He also correlates well with Jonathan Taylor who could come in lower owned than expected. As for Metcalf, he should have success against the Browns man-heavy defensive scheme who are trying to shuffle the cards in the secondary on the fly after trading away Greg Newsome this week. 

Tight End

Top Projected Own%: Hunter Long, Michael Mayer, Tucker Kraft, Jake Ferguson, Tyler Warren

My Player Pool: Hunter Long, Tyler Warren, Trey McBride, Tucker Kraft, David Njoku

This week is a bit different at tight end, with multiple value options soaking up ownership in Hunter Long and Michael Mayer. We have had more value than needed the last few weeks, resulting in the more expensive TE’s ending up as the higher owned options. This week, that’s not the case so we will be returning to our roots on DK and punting the position in cash games. 

In tournaments, I’m fine with Long as a correlation piece but outside of that I think I want to try and get up to Kraft, Warren or McBride on some teams. Njoku is an interesting value option with how high of a rate Dillon Gabriel targeted TE’s last week – and he can correlate with DK Metcalf.