Welcome to the Last Word on Sports NFL DraftKings Week 2 lineup.
Last week’s lineup scored 125 points and placed 175,913 out of 383,333 in the $1 million Play Action contest. Not a great start, but hey it was in the top 50% at least. Hopefully you entered some 50/50s with that lineup and won some money anyway. Even though yes, I realize that just because it was in the top 50% of a big guaranteed prize pool (GPP) tournament, it isn’t necessarily going to win in a 50/50 or a head-to-head contest due to the different roster constructions between tournaments and 50/50s. Heck maybe you only used a few of my picks last week because you liked certain statistical tidbits more than others. Either way below you will be presented with another DraftKings NFL lineup utilizing only the Sunday-Monday slate (of course, if you read this early enough, you could enter it in Thursday contests). Use the whole lineup, or don’t, at your own risk. Let’s make some money.
DraftKings Week 2 Lineup
Philip Rivers, Quarterback, $6700
Last week San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers threw for an NFL high 404 passing yards (with two touchdowns and two interceptions). That huge yardage is all well and great, but the stat that really caught my eye was his 85.4% completion percentage on 42 pass attempts. Rivers has plenty of offensive weapons to be able to sustain that type of efficiency, even with Antonio Gates still serving his four-game suspension. The Chargers play against a Cincinnati Bengals team that allowed the lowly Matt McGloin to throw for two scores after Derek Carr left with a shoulder injury. I don’t anticipate as high of yardage for Rivers this week, but he should be able to replicate those two touchdowns and perhaps add a few more, all for a good price.
Justin Forsett, Running Back, $6200
The Denver Broncs vs. the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1 was an ugly game. There were no offensive touchdowns scored, and every relevant fantasy player for either team would have been better off not showing up for work last Sunday (perhaps with the exception of Emmanuel Sanders). This week the Ravens don’t play against the best defense in the NFL. They play an Oakland Raiders “team” that got run over by both Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard last week, and who are starting the previously mentioned Matt McGloin at quarterback (barring a miraculous recovery by Derek Carr). I foresee a comfy lead for the Ravens in the second half and plenty of carries for Forsett. He should also pile on multiple receptions as is usual for running backs in a Marc Trestman offense.
LeSean McCoy, Running Back, $6600
LeSean McCoy received the required twenty touches last week that a workhorse tailback needs to receive to truly live up to that moniker. His overall stat line was underwhelming, however, because he lost out on scoring opportunities to both of his backups. If his workload remains consistent the touchdowns will come, especially against a semi-porous New England defense that allowed the ghost of Deangelo Williams to run on them for 127 yards in the Thursday night season opener.
Keenan Allen, Wide Receiver, $7100
He leads the league in targets (17), receptions (15), and receiving yards (166). I’ll take the under on all of those categories for this week, but even half of those stats with one or two touchdowns would make him worth this price. Add in the fact it’s a stack with Philip Rivers, and we have ourselves a no brainer pick here.
Cole Beasley, Wide Receiver, $3300
Dez Bryant is out for up to eight weeks, and someone is going to have to pick up the slack. The obvious first choice is Terrence Williams, but I have a feeling his ownership is going to be sky high this week. A lesser utilized options in most lineups will be Cole Beasley. He’s the Cowboys slot receiver (91% of his snaps in the slot), received six targets last week, and while he obviously isn’t going to get all of the targets that would have gone to Dez, he is still in line for quite an uptick all across the board this week.
Brandin Cooks, Wide Receiver, $7000
Cooks underwhelmed last week over with only four receptions and 49 receiving yards. However, he still received the most targets out of all wideouts for the Saints with eight. Those targets will still be there, and the fantasy points are going to follow in the pass happy Saints offense against a Tampa Bay defense that got shredded last week by a rookie quarterback.
Greg Olsen, Tight End, $4900
Olsen put up a huge stinker last week with only one catch for 11 yards. However, he did have a touchdown called back by penalty, and the Panthers still don’t have any competent receivers to call their own. Get ready to see a plethora of targets coming his way this week against a Texans defense that allowed huge numbers from tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs last week.
Kendall Wright, Wide Receiver, $5500
Kendall Wright last week scored more fantasy points per snap (0.91) than Julio Jones did (0.66). Obviously Jones’ great game was much more high profile, being on Monday Night Football and all, but Wright put up a crazy efficient stat line of four catches on four targets for 101 yards and a touchdown. Of course there’s no way he will score almost one point every snap he is on the field this week. However, even with a slightly scaled back point per snap number, if that is combined with a higher total snap count, he should be able to at least match his point total from last week, if not exceed it.
Baltimore Ravens, Defense/Special Teams, $2900
I don’t buy the “death” of Peyton Manning. His passes last week had more zip than I’ve seen recently from him, and he still made some great throws. The Ravens just pressured the bejesus out of him with their pass rush, and the Baltimore corners had the Broncos receivers locked down the entire game. I chalk up Denver’s poor offensive performance to Baltimore’s great defense, not some era ending demise of the greatest regular season quarterback of all time. Back to this week, the Ravens are playing the Oakland Raiders led by the now infamous Matt McGloin (third reference today, this is gonna be some kind of a record), so expect a defensive touchdown at some point along with a smorgasbord of turnovers.
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