For Fantasy Sake

If James Conner is ruled out this week, it might be pertinent to lock Jaylen Samuels in every lineup at $4,000.  With news still yet to drop about James Conner's status after sustaining a shoulder injury, the week's biggest question hangs in the balance. Will James Conner sit and allow us to play all the Jaylen Samuels at $4,000? The slate is starved for value and, it's likely if Conner does sit, Samuels is going to be the most popular play on the slate. With the top-tier running backs being so expensive -- Christian McCaffrey is $10K and Dalvin Cook is $9.5K -- their ownership levels will be directly correlated to Conner's status. The most-common build will be to use Samuels in order to fit in one of those expensive options. So, should the news break that Conner is out, expect McCaffrey and Cook to draw more ownership, which puts you in the position of two things: How many shares of Jaylen Samuels do I play? How much McCaffrey and Cook do I want? ...

DraftKings looks to be raising prices on players who put up big games or garner large ownership percentages, but the middling players aren't decreasing in price at all. In a week where you're going to need some value, Phillip Lindsay could be your huckleberry.  How about that trade deadline, eh? One of my favorite tweets about the, uh, less-than-rousing-to-say-the-least deadline came from ESPN's Field Yates . A comprehensive recap of the NFL trade deadline: — Field Yates (@FieldYates) October 29, 2019 Sums it up perfectly. It also jives with the excitement that is being exuded about this Week 9 DraftKings slate. Don't believe me? Check the game totals put out by Vegas -- 40 percent of the slate has game totals of 41 or less, and only two games at 50 or more. Games with 41 or less: Jets at Dolphins 41 Redskins at Bills 37 Titans at Panthers 41  Browns at Broncos 39 Games with 50 or more: Lions at Raiders 50.5 Buccaneers at Seahawks 51.5...

Latavius Murray went absolutely off again, scoring 39.7 DraftKings points  and was the third-highest-scoring player on the slate. Having the lead role  at $5,800 should have been a signal to everyone to play him, especially in  a primo matchup against the Cardinals.  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That ... that right there? That's the only thing we need to be saying about Latavius Murray . With Alvin Kamara ruled out again in Week 8, all DFS players should have found the way to lock Murray into their lineups. In large-field tournaments, he was only 28 percent owned, which is far too low based on the first week we saw him take the feature-back role with Kamara out. He should've been close to 50 percent owned at $5,800. Especially considering Drew Brees was making his return and teams would have to start respecting the quarterback play a little bit more than when Teddy Bridgewater was under center. That matchup with the Cardinals...

It seems as if Leonard Fournette finds his picture on every column I write, but with the usage he's getting and DraftKings refuse him to price him appropriately, I'm going to continue to tout him. The positive touchdown regression is coming, and when it does, it's going to be a barrage. He's a cash-game lock.  This time a week ago, it was the beginning of the #KoviStrong✊ movement that myself and two co-hosts of For Fantasy Sake  started. We partnered with QC Custom Tees to create the T-shirts and raise money for Kovi and his family as they traveled to Peoria, Ill., and Evanston, Ill. numerous times to get the treatment and surgeries he needed as he battled viral myocarditis.  Our attempt to raise money for the family has been great, and we've received many orders from all of you who read this column, listen to the show and live in the Quad-Cities community. Your support has been so overwhelming we at For Fantasy Sake can't say thank you enoug...

With Kerryon Johnson being placed on IR, it looks as if Ty Johnson will be the lead back in Detroit. At $4,900, Ty Johnson will probably be one of the most-owned value plays on the Week 8 slate.  Apparently, the NFL decided that THIS week was the trade deadline. A handful of trades went down. Not that we care about all of them, but some have fantasy impact, and we can't overlook them. Trades the matter: Momammed Sanu to the Patriots: Not only does Sanu get a bit of an upgrade heading to New England and having Tom Brady as his quarterback, but it likely tells us a little something about another wideout in New England. If the Pats felt the overwhelming need to give up a second-round pick for Sanu, the outlook for Josh Gordon is probably worse than originally anticipated. *Update: Gordon was placed on IR and may be waived by the Patriots.  Emmanuel Sanders to the 49ers: I tweeted out yesterday that I never thought I'd say a receiver leaving a Joe Flacco-led team wo...

Chase Edmonds was the highest-scoring running back on the slate, and was less than 2 percent owned across DraftKings.   Sometimes it be like that. Yep. Chase Edmonds happened. And it happened after we got reports from Kliff Kingsbury told reporters that David Johnson was going to be active. It went a little bit like this ... Me: Nice! Looks like DJ is going to be able to be fired up for DraftKings this week. Me: Locks DJ into 50 percent of GPP lineups. Me after Edmonds ran wild while Johnson sat on the sideline all game Here's what we have to look forward to in Week 8. QB High-End Plays Deshaun Watson $7,100 (vs. Oakland) Jared Goff $6,800 (vs. Cincinnati) Matthew Stafford $6,100 (vs. NY Giants) Value Plays Jameis Winston $5,900 (at Tennessee) Ryan Tannehill $5,100 (vs. Tampa Bay) Derek Carr $5,000 (at Houston) RB High-End Plays Saquon Barkley $8,900 (at Detroit) Todd Gurley $7,400 (vs. Cincinnati) Le'Veon Bell $6,900 (...

David Johnson is a game-time decision this weekend. If he does play, he's a great tournament play, but if he's held out, lock in Chase Edmunds into all your lineups. Your lineups can't be fully built yet. There's no way. Right? I mean, mine aren't even CLOSE to being built. There are still far too many tidbits of information up in the air and have yet to drop.  We got a bit of clarity on a few situations on Friday: Alvin Kamara is OUT with his ankle injury Todd Gurley and Saquon Barkley were taken OFF the final injury reports Davante Adams is OUT and Geronimo Allison is DOUBTFUL  What we're waiting to learn more about: David Johnson and Christian Kirk are GAME-TIME DECISIONS  Marquez Valdes-Scantling is QUESTIONABLE  Marquise Brown is QUESTIONABLE, but it doesn't sound all that good  Dede Westbrook looks like he'll carry a QUESTIONABLE tag into Sunday's game Maybe it's just a me thing, but the news that still...

Leonard Fournette may have finally reached the $7,000 mark but he's still far too cheap .   My journey into the journalism world began with my love of sports. Writing sports was my passion. It was what I loved to do. My life, in fact. I wanted to be known for my writing. Published everywhere. The biggest papers in the country, the largest websites and featured on the million-viewer sports analysis shows. What I've learned about journalism and media, however, as I've gotten older, is that it's not about your byline or the amount of followers you have on social media, or even the amount of words you're allotted in a publication. Rather, it's about what you do WITH those words. Making those words have real impact. Using your byline in a way that can bring attention to causes and people who aren't million-dollar athletes or NFL superstars.  No. There are things that are bigger than football. And this is one of them. Dakovion Kennedy, a soph...

It's unbelievable to have to write this down in actual words, but Josh Allen comes into Week 7 as the No. 5 highest-priced QB ($6,500). In a home game against Miami, and coming off a bye, he might be worth paying up for.  After a week that saw some of the biggest top-end scores I remember seeing on DraftKings.com , Week 6 allowed us to come back down to earth. There was only one 40-point scorer on the main slate -- Stefon Diggs of all people. The narrative that surrounded the Vikings for the past two weeks all but spelled doom and gloom for Diggs. Hearing all of the drama he had been involved in with requesting a trade, and stoking the flames more by giving some open-ended answers to reporters and cryptic social media posts. That being the long way of saying, we probably should've seen this coming. The industry was on Mike Evans a few weeks back after the price had dropped to a point where it was just obvious to play him. Now, there's no way we could've pre...

Maclolm Brown is going to define the DraftKings slate in Week 6 now that Todd Gurley has all but been ruled out. So what's the play with Brown? It's weeks like these that can totally turn a slate upside down late in the week. Injuries on injuries on injuries. Which, in the NFL, shouldn't really come as a surprise, since it's such a violent sport to begin with. However, this week ... this week?!? We have some injuries to major players that are going to change ownership drastically. Read as: Time to take advantage of some of the values that have popped up like the whack-a-mole game, and spend up on guys that should be owned, that will now go overlooked. So, about those values Maclom Brown ($4,300) is looking like he's going to be the lead back for the Rams with Todd Gurley listed as doubtful after popping up on the injury report. Brown is likely going to be the most-owned player on the entire slate now. Obviously, the value is good, but don't under...

George Kittle is carrying a $5,200 price tag coming into Week 6, which is just TOO cheap. He's going to be chalky, but he's a damn good play.  Will Fuller week happened. So, you -- and basically everyone else playing DraftKings -- got a piece of that 50-burger he tossed up. Scores were crazy. Some of my lineups hit solidly in the 200s and didn't return much. It felt like every bit of the chalk hit last week, which is bound to happen from time to time throughout the course of a 17-week season, I guess. There is a benefit to come out of weeks like Week 6, though. The chalk donkeys will continue to chase the chalk and use the "this guy went off last week, so I have to play him again." And another golden nugget: the game log watchers will thumb through the DK player pool and see the dud games put up by guys like Alvin Kamara and refuse to click the plus sign next to their name. Take advantage of those people who will fully fade the guys coming off bad w...

Oooohhhhh, whammmmmy. That's about the only way to sum up Week 5. It was a freaking scoring frenzy. Six players topped the 40-point mark in DraftKings scoring and the high-scoring chalk game of the week hit 85 points. And it didn't involve the Chiefs. #Shocker. Let's take a minute to channel our inner Alex Trebek, "and let's take a look at the scores." Not 1. Not 2. But 3. Yes. Three players put up 50-burgers. Will Fuller, 56.7 Aaron Jones, 52.2 Christian McCaffrey, 50.7 The other three to go over 40 were: Deshaun Watson, 44.74 Michael Thomas, 44.2 Amari Cooper, 42.6 If you didn't have a lineup with at least two or three of these guys, you were doomed from the start. However, with Thomas' price at $6,600, Aaron Jones' at $5,900 and Will Fuller's at $4,500, it wasn't unfathomable to run into lineups that had four or five of these guys.  That, kids, is what they call the buzzsaw.  It's a progressive...

Michael Thomas' price has dropped significantly since Weeks 2 and 3 ($8,000 and $7,400, respectively), but, let's not forget, people, he's still Michael Thomas. He's going to go overlooked in GPPs this week, which means ... FIRE HIM UP!  Tournaments are the best, aren't they? They're far more fun when it comes to lineup building, projecting ownership and taking shots on some of the guys who you know have immense upside. Obviously, it's my preferred style of DFS play, despite my gills coming out in full force and fishing my way out of my Week 4 run at winning a GPP. That's the glory of DFS. If you make a mistake in any given week, it's not reflected in the slates or weeks to follow. Unlike seasonal fantasy football, where one bad decision or trade can send your season into a tailspin. Thankfully, no blunders have been made in any season-long leagues I play in ... yet. But you didn't come here for season-long talk. You came for the g...

This about sums up the way I felt after forgetting to swap T.Y. Hilton out of my  lineup that was about 30 points off from winning a GPP that would've been a $20,000 payday. It happened.  I had a chance to win a GPP in Week 4. One of my few tournament lineups I played scored 200.8 points, and placed me 394th out of 297,265 entrants in the $250K First Down.  Not a great win, but it's usually not a HORRIBLE position to finish in like it was for me this weekend.  After the For Fantasy Sake live show -- 10-11:30 a.m. on QCSportsNet.com at Kavanaugh's Hilltop Bar & Grill ... #ShamelessPlug -- I was rushing home so my lovely significant other could get out the door to teach a one-on-one dance solo to one of her students.  During that very same For Fantasy Sake show -- did you see the links above? you need to see the links above -- we went through the gambit of actives and inactives. During that segment, we confirmed T.Y. Hilton was, in fact...