Have you or a loved one made poor lineup decisions that have cost you over $1,000 in prize winnings? Did you confidently make a claim that there’s no freakin’ way your choice to pay up on an Aaron Rodgers / Davante Adams stack last week was going to be capable of busting? Have you been hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, and led astray by things such as the “Last Dance” Instagram post or prior MVP seasons? Then you may be entitled to financial compensation! Allow us here at Club Fantasy Football to represent you in getting the most bang for your buck here in Week 2 by following this Kash Grabs article right now.
All joking aside, we are right on schedule for the natural overreactions from the general public in fantasy land, and everything we thought we knew prior to going into last week has flown right out the window. It’s time to try and sort out this mess and to get back on track here. It’s almost every season we find ourselves preparing for months with research and planning just to find out that Trey Sermon is a healthy scratch inactive and that Brandon Aiyuk is losing touches to Trent Sherfield. These coaches and beat reporters get us every time. But as a prior MVP has once told us all, there are five letters here “R-E-L-A-X” we’re going to be okay.
So if you had a bad Week 1, then that’s not unusual, and quite honestly, it’s common heading into a new season with new changes that we have no control over knowing. You just have to dust yourself off, put on a brave face, and try again this week to do your best by at least beating your co-workers in a Draftkings / Fanduel contest to get some confidence back. I mean, maybe that’s just me, but If you nailed Week 1, then it’s kudos to you, and I’m happy as heck for ya. This Week 2 slate has a ton of great matchups that I want to get my hands on and several options to give us week-winning upside in cash games and tournaments. I’m ready to wipe the slate clean one way or another, so let’s go kash out!
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QUARTERBACKS
Justin Herbert (Draftkings: $6,700 / Fanduel: $7,600)
*JUICY MATCHUP ALERT* The Los Angeles Chargers want to run this offense through Justin Herbert. That was made pretty dang clear last week when they had Herbert throw 47 times against a tough Washington defense and still managed to pull off an impressive 337 passing yards to go along with a touchdown. While Herbert had what looks to be continued year two success and upside. What actually stood out to me the most watching the Chargers game is how encouraged I felt about his offense as a whole moving forward.
The offensive line gave Herbert all day to do work against Washington. The addition of rookie Rashawn Slater was a huge steal for them, seeing as he didn’t allow pressure on any of the 52 pass-blocking snaps. Come to think of it, Herbert was only pressured five times out of those 49 dropbacks in general. So why is that important aside from the obvious that he has time to throw? Well, to me, this matchup pairs perfectly because the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive line continues to struggle, picking up pressure on the opposing quarterback.
Last week, the Cowboys’ defensive line allowed Brady to sit calmly in the pocket all game long, only applying an 18% pressure rate, the third-lowest in the league. If the Chargers’ offensive line held their own against a lethal Washington defensive front, then the Cowboys are going to seem like a baby kitten compared to the ferocious beast they just manhandled. Not only does Dallas’s defense hardly apply any pressure, but the secondary is butter soft as well. In Dak Prescott’s last five starts, the defense has averaged giving up 38.5 points per game! Oh, and did I mention they also just lost another pass-rusher, Demarcus Lawrence, for the rest of the season. It checks out that this game, as do most of the Dallas Cowboys games, has a potential shoot-out written all over it, and hopefully, we can see Justin Herbert exercise some more deep balls in this one as he flaunted to us last year. Get Herbie reloaded!
Jalen Hurts (Draftkings: $6,500 / Fanduel: $7,800)
Being an Eagles fan myself, you have to believe me when I say that I’m willing to bet there are still a lot of people out there doubting the ability of Jalen Hurts. There has been the narrative that “oh, it was the Atlanta Falcons defense whose just straight trash and any quarterback can have a good day.” Well, then boy do, I have the matchup set for all of you based on that theory!
Last week someone I would consider a very underwhelming quarterback, Jared Goff, had himself an absolute field day against San Francisco’s secondary. Goff threw 57 times, completing 38 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. So with that being said, I’ll say this… the last time I checked about the Detroit Lions, I didn’t see anything suggesting that they have some offensive powerhouse of weapons. Most of what Jared Goff did was thanks to his stud tight end and a duo of play-making running backs. There isn’t some secret recipe to the Lions game plan where the 49ers were just so unprepared for what everybody already knew about who the Lions were featuring on offense, and they used those exact players! The blueprint is really quite easy in how you find a way to stop the Detroit Lions. It’s not rocket science, and they had a whole off-season to prepare for that moment.
The problem is that the 49ers’ injury woes continue to add up for them, especially on defense in the secondary. Let me just give you the list of cornerbacks available for the San Francisco 49ers… Josh Norman, K’Waun Williams, Dre Kirkpatrick, 3rd round rookie Ambry Thomas, and 5th round rookie Deommodore Lenoir. It’s ugly out there, people! If you want to talk about a bad secondary, then look no further because this currently is one too! Now, I believe in Jalen Hurts ability as a more than capable quarterback who got his offensive line healthy and also finally acquired a reliable alpha wide receiver. I don’t just base everything on the idea of playing Hurts in only these matchups against bad defenses. But for the crowd who still rolls with that idea, I just wanted to be able to cater to you too.
This is a great matchup and another one that can come bearing fantasy points with a very generous over/under set at 50.5. The Philadelphia Eagles averaged 67 plays last week, and so it seems they are planning to play fast… with that comes more plays, bringing more opportunities and more chances for fantasy points. As I said last week, I really like a quarterback with Jalen Hurts’ skillset who can use his legs to score and offers you plenty in the passing game as well. Hurts is a legit fantasy option, and if his fantasy finishes don’t prove it to you in his small sample size finishing as QB10, QB1, QB16, QB19 (pulled from the game), and QB5, where we’ve seen Hurts as a top 10 QB in 3 of his five performances than I don’t know what else to tell you. To me, he is a value so long as he isn’t being listed within those first five quarterbacks on any given week. Come on, baby, make it Hurts so good.
Honorable Mention: Matthew Stafford (Draftkings: $6,400 / Fanduel: $7,500)
Deep Sea Dive: Teddy Bridgewater (Draftkings: $5,400 / Fanduel: $7,000)
RUNNING BACKS
Najee Harris (Draftkings: $6,300 / Fanduel: $6,100)
I’m sticking to Najee Harris one more week, hoping that a better matchup leads to production, given all of his volume and availability. If you’re on the field all of the time and your the centerpiece and honestly the only piece of a team’s run game, then I’ve got to bet that eventually, it’s going to pay off! He was on the field for all 58 of the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive plays! That is going to continue going forward all season long. I try my best not to overreact to Week 1 because sometimes it could be so wonky and so far off from what we should expect moving forward, and I’m sticking to that idea when it comes to my faith in Najee Harris as a viable RB1 this season. I like his matchup here against the Las Vegas Raiders, where we saw the Ravens run game carve their defense up for 147 yards and two touchdowns to go along with five receptions for 44 yards in Week 1. This is Najee’s week to start off on the right foot to get things going!
Ezekiel Elliott (Draftkings: $6,200 / Fanduel: $7,500)
The disaster that was Ezekiel Elliott last week was in no way a fault of his own. Zeke and Kellen Moore basically said I am going to put him in a position to do what’s best for this team to win a game, and I do not care about what his fantasy output looks like! If Zeke got points for blocking, then he would’ve at least helped to give you a better day. But that isn’t the name of the game here in fantasy land, and we want offense, but last week’s matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t allow for it on the rushing side of things. We can’t forget last year that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers allowed an average of 60 rushing yards a game to opposing running backs. They’ve also brought back all 11 of those defensive players and now have a healthy Vita Vea at defensive tackle. They are a hard team to run against, and Dallas took to the air in a very close attempt at figuring out how to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But also not to be forgotten, Dallas was without top offensive guard Zack Martin and Zeke did what he needed to do to keep Dak Prescott upright.
I understand that people are frustrated and tempering expectations on Elliott after a bad season last year and a bad week 1 to start this year. That’s probably why we get him here at the discounted price! But like I’ve said before with Najee, the fact that he’s out there for so many of the offensive snaps, the opportunity is bound to present itself in a better matchup. His offense is always going to find themselves in positions to score one way or another, whether it’s on the ground or through the air. Look for Zeke to bounce back this week against the Los Angeles Chargers, who have allowed 126 rushing yards on the ground to start the season. Keep the faith that Zeke will be back to playing like the Zeke we’ve all known to grow and love in the past. All hope is not lost!
Honorable Mention: Kareem Hunt (Draftkings: $5,800 / Fanduel: $5,700)
Deep Sea Dive: Nyheim Hines (Draftkings: $4,700) / Fanduel: $5,100)
WIDE RECEIVERS
Keenan Allen (Draftkings: $7,000 / Fanduel: $7,400) / Mike Williams (Draftkings: $6,100 / Fanduel: $5,600)
Keenan Allen was out there last week doing Keenan Allen things as we expected out of him for the previous five years. But is this finally the year where we get the true emergence of Mike Williams? It’s nothing new to hear that Keenan Allen had 13 targets and totaled up 100 yards. But when we hear that Mike Williams found himself with 12 targets for 82 yards and a touchdown now, you have my attention. On the opposite side of this dynamic duo is the other similar dynamic duo in Amari Cooper and Ceedee Lamb, and I like these guys for stacks in cash games.
I said it before when talking about Justin Herbert, and I’ll say it again when talking about Allen and Williams that I expect this game to have a lot of fantasy points to go around. Austin Ekeler, someone who usually commands a boatload of targets, didn’t find himself with a single one of them last week with new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi. Maybe this is the year we finally get a breakout season from Mike Williams. Either way, I am totally cool with paying up or paying down for one of these two wide receivers to round out my lineups this week, and you should be too!
Cooper Kupp (Draftkings: $6,000 / Fanduel: $6,200)
Breakfast buds Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford made things look over easy last week against the Chicago Bears. Kupp looked like his old reliable WR1 days toting a performance of 7 receptions for 108 yards and a touchdown. He actually almost had two touchdowns but fell just shy a few yards of the goal line. Most of the time, when a player has a killer stat line like Kupp did in Week 1, we see their price dramatically rise, but with Cooper Kupp, he went up a measly $500 on Draftkings and stayed the exact same on Fanduel. Okay! I’m totally cool with this; give me Kupp at this cheap price range to slot in as my WR2 absolutely everywhere.
Like I said earlier, I try not to overreact too much in Week 1, but the Los Angeles Rams looked really damn good with Matthew Stafford under center. The Bears technically should’ve been a tougher matchup, and they just made it look so easy. I am not concerned with the Kenny Moore matchup going against Kupp in the slot. We’ve seen Kupp succeed in tougher matchups before, and I think as per usual, he or Robert Woods could have themselves a dominating performance against the Indianapolis Colts. Let Matt Stafford have Cooper Kupp as his breakfast bud any other day of the week because I rather him at 1:00 Sunday for brunch!
Honorable Mention: Devonta Smith (Draftkings: $5,400 / Fanduel: $5,600)
Deep Sea Dive: KJ Hamler (Draftkings: $3,800 / Fanduel: $5,500)
TIGHT ENDS
Noah Fant (Draftkings: $4,200 / Fanduel: $5,700)
It absolutely crushed my soul as a Jerry Jeudy truther to see him go down with a devastating high ankle sprain on Sunday. It’s extremely unfortunate for Jeudy, and my fantasy teams, but of course, with injury does come opportunity, and that is where we can see a bump in production for Noah Fant. He caught an encouraging six receptions out of 8 targets for 66 yards last week. That’s a decent 22.9% target share in Denver’s offense, and those six receptions were highest amongst all receivers except for Jerry Jeudy before his exit. He fits perfectly with Teddy Bridgewater, and I’m trying to fit him into all of my lineups this week as a pay-down option. I think he has a very safe floor, at the least.
Jared Cook (Draftkings: $3,900 / Fanduel: $5,400)
Ya’ll remember Rob Gronkowski last week? Because I sure do. Do I think everyone is going to repeat similar performances the next week? No, absolutely not. But in Week 1, it’s a good place to look to start and see where opportunity can lie for fantasy points. Without the two touchdowns, Gronk’s week would look very meh, but Jared Cook was heavily involved in the Chargers offense right along with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. Cook finished the day with eight targets and five receptions for 56 yards. He can absolutely beat his value at only $3,900 on Draftkings, with the high set over/under in this game being 55.5. You could always do much worse in this range, and if I choose not to stack Allen or Williams, then I’m cool with throwing Cook in at tight end.
Honorable Mention: Cole Kmet (Draftkings: $3,700 / Fanduel: $5,100)
Deep Sea Dive: Adam Trautman (Draftkings: $3,000 / Fanduel: $4,500)
D/ST
Cleveland Browns vs Houston Texans (Draftkings: $3,500 / Fanduel: $4,200)
New Orleans Saints vs Carolina Panthers (Draftkings: $3,100 / Fanduel: $4,300)
Honorable Mention: Pittsburgh Steelers vs Las Vegas Raiders (Draftkings: $3,000 / Fanduel: $4,900)
Deep Sea Dive: Arizona Cardinals vs Minnesota Vikings (Draftkings: $2,900 / Fanduel: $4,400)