DiRTy Plays NFL – Week 2
Week 1 is in the books and I know you are still looking to become a millionaire, whether you play on Draftkings or FanDuel, let us help. As we look at tournaments to target, build your player profile, we are also going to provide you with our experts’ picks as they bring you #TheBeSTDiRT for building your lineups each and every week. So let’s breakdown week 2 for Draftkings & FanDuel!
Absolute Must Have
We know you have been waiting since the end of the NBA season for you Absolute player selections so here we go. Reminder that this selection is for players with a salary above $7,000. In this week we have several nice matchups but our absolute Must Have for Draftkings is Drew Brees.
With Tampa Bay continuing struggle, in fact giving up 4 TD’s in the first half to Mariota, this should be an easy pick for you. We have Brees throwing 3 touchdowns and over 350 yards. On FanDuel we have Matt Stafford coming in on our top spot. This is based on matchup and projection for the week but he too should have a pretty good day as he looks to get back on track with Megatron. Look for Stafford to go over 300 yards and at least 1 touchdown to Johnson. Check out your Draftkings Absolute’s here and your FanDuel Absolute’s here.
Absolute Notable
Onto our mid-level salaried guys, we have our Notables section. This is for players with a salary between $5,300 and $6,900. Our Draftkings Absolute Notable for week 2 is Matt Stafford. He is actually our second highest projected player this week and should put up big numbers against the Vikings. The Absolute Notable for FanDuel is Nick Foles. He had a great first outing against the Seahawks last week and now has Washington in town. Look for Foles to put up a descent game with 279 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. He should get you around 14 fantasy points this week.
Absolute Sleeper
Our Absolute Sleeper section looks for guys that have a salary of $5,100 and under. Coming in as our Absolute Sleeper for week 2 on Draftkings is the Kendall Wright. He has a monster game against the lowly Bucs in week 1 and now has the Browns to deal with. That said, Mariota looked great and the Browns have no offense. This means tons of extra possessions and he is their #1 guys for now. For FanDuel we have Washington’s defense as our Absolute Sleeper.
Something incredible happened in the St. Louis/Seattle game last week, Seattle’s defense still put up a 19 spot, even though they gave up all those points. That’s because most of that production was on special teams with Washington coming in as an underdog, this could be a great value pick for your team this week with descent production.
The main #Sleeper that I am on this week is Darren Sproles. His salary didn’t go up after the first week and if you watched on Monday night, you quickly realized that Chip Kelly is going to use Sproles often.
Heaviest Favorites
As of today, we are showing the top 4 games in terms of heaviest favorites to be New Orleans -11 over Tampa Bay, Indianapolis -7.5 over the Jets, Baltimore -7 over Oakland and Miami -7 over the Jags. It would be tough for me to take the Saints and give up those points as that is a ton of spread for an NFL game with a divisional opponent. As for the Jets, I was impressed with their second half last week and the Colts flat out struggled against that Bills D. I see the Colts winning this game 23 – 17 so I’m on the Jets with the points. Moving onto the Ravens and Raiders. Cross country matchups are always ones to keep an eye on. I’m on Oakland with the points this week as I do believe the Ravens will win the game but it should be a close game with Carr expected to play, look for a low scoring battle, Ravens 20 Oakland 17. The last matchup is the one I like the most. In every game that Bortles has been the dog by at least 7 the other team has covered. Look for that trend to continue this week with Miami’s offense beginning to roll, Miami 31 Jacksonville 16.
Top Overall Game Over/Under
The top Over/Under game of the week is Dallas at Philadelphia. The Eagles lead this category for the second consecutive week, with a total of 55 expected combined points.
This just goes to show you how much the public is on the Eagles offense. I watched the entire game on Monday night and while the Eagles ended up with 24 points, they only put up 3 in the first half. The got a break with an interception return down inside the 10 yard line of the Falcons, otherwise, I highly doubt they would have hit the 20 point mark. Let’s give them 21 this week and that would mean that the Dezless Cowboys would need to put up 35 points to hit that over. I don’t think they have a chance at that this time around. Keep in mind that Dallas held the Eagles to 3 points in Philadelphia two years ago and that was with the worst defense in the league that year. Sproles will have a solid performance and I look for Terrance Williams to have a solid performance for the Cowboys. I have Cowboys 24 Eagles 21 in this one and Philadelphia fans are in an uproar for Kelly’s head after this week.
Toughest QB Matchup
In this segment, I am going to highlight for you the top three, toughest matchups for QB’s for the upcoming week. Leading this category for week 2 is Cam Newton. He comes in playing against the Texans, who after giving up 3 first half touchdowns to the Alex Smith of all people, they settled in and shutout the Chiefs in the second half. Keep this in mind as well, the Jags shut down the Panthers in that game and the only reason the Panthers won is because of their defense. Cam has no weapons and after paying Olsen, he certainly didn’t show up for much of anything in week 1. Our second candidate this week is Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Yes, I know they are playing the Colts on Monday night but face it, the Colts held Taylor to 195 passing yards last week and I believe that the Bills have far more talent in their receiving core and backfield than the Jets. Look for the Colts to bounce back this week, Fitzpatrick will struggle and the only player that should be thought of on the Jets this week is Ivory. The last tough matchup is Aaron Rodgers. Yes, I said it, Aaron Rogers. He has had his worst games as a professional against Seattle. Most of those games have been played up in Seattle where this one is going to be at home but Seattle comes in with a loss to a divisional opponent and it’s Sunday Night Football. Look for Rodgers to struggle this week and only put up 17 points.
Matchups to Exploit
In this segment, I am going to breakdown the pass defense, rush defense and overall defense to exploit for the week. If a team shows up in this area, it is because our system shows them as giving up the most yardage totals for the upcoming week.
The pass defense to take advantage of this week is going to be the New York Giants. They gave up 357 yards last week to Romo and in comes Julio Jones. Look for Matt Ryan to go over 300 yards this week by the 3rd quarter. Don’t be alarmed about Julio Jones, he played the entire game and on a short week, the Falcons are resting their superstar for Sunday.
The rush defense to exploit this week is going to be…..Tampa Bay. They didn’t give up a huge game last week but that is because Mariota put on a show in the first half and it was over at that point. The Saints have Drew Brees, so they are going to throw the ball but look for Ingram to get over 100 yards this week and at least 1 touchdown.
The overall team that is going to give up the most fantasy points this week is going to be….Green Bay Packers. Yes, I know you think that the Pack is ready to make a charge for the Super Bowl but the simple fact is look what Forte did to them last week. Now comes Lynch and Seattle is coming in off of a loss last week. This is going to be higher scoring game than people think and look for Seattle to make a statement this week.
QB Selections
Our top 3 QB’s for this week in order of projected score is Drew Brees #1, Matt Stafford #2 & Russell Wilson #3. I know you are thinking, where is Luck or Rodgers? They haven’t made it for week or week 2 as far as we are concerned. That’s because we are fantasy football guys and we specialize in daily fantasy. I wouldn’t take the QB against the Bills or Jets, almost any week this season and that is what Luck is having to deal with.
As for Rodgers, we didn’t have him last week because we had other guys that showed up a bit higher and this week he is up against a hungry Seattle defense that got beat down last week by the Rams. He struggles against the Seahawks and we have him right at #8 for this week. The QB that I’m very inclined to take this week is Matt Ryan. He had a pretty solid outing against the Eagles and the Giants D, without their stud defensive end, looks horrific. If Romo can put up a 27 without Dez Bryant, I’m sure that Matt Ryan will hit them for at least 25 points with an injury free Julio Jones!
For full QB projections for Draftkings go here.
For full QB projections for FanDuel go here.
Public Picks
This is a new segment for us to cover this year. Currently FanDuel and Draftkings won’t tell you who the public is on for this week’s contests. There is a reason for that from their perspective but from ours, we love it. While we cannot tell you specifically which site has which figures as that would violate our partnership agreement with each company, we can tell you based on the NFL.com, Perfect Lineup challenge, who the public is on. Yet another reason why you only need to come to our site for all of your Daily Fantasy information.
QB – Drew Brees 41.7%
RB – Matt Forte 32.8%
WR – Julio Jones 64.4%
TE – Rob Gronkowski 58.0%
K – Brandon McManus 22.5%
DEF – Miami 34.6%
Can you take all of these and still fill out a lineup, probably not but come check out our lineup analyzer and build your winning lineup with our high quality analysis here.
Hottest Players
Week 1 is in the books and below are the top 5 performers for both FanDuel and Draftkings!
- Carlos Hyde – 31.2
- Julio Jones – 30.6
- Rob Gronkowski – 29.9
- DeAndre Hopkins – 28.3
- Tom Brady – 27.6
- Carlos Hyde – 35.2
- Keenan Allen – 34.6
- Tyler Eifert – 34.4
- DeAndre Hopkins – 32.8
- Antonio Brown – 31.3
Players to Exploit
With week 1 complete, I completely nailed Julio Jones last week as he was almost every winning lineup over the weekend. That said, let’s get back to week 2, who am I on this week you ask? For our top 2 running backs this week, the DiRT Canon analyzer shows Matt Forte and Marshawn Lynch. I, however, am on Carlos Hyde. He not only lead both sites last week, it was glaringly obvious that the 49ers are going to run and run often. Reggie Bush is washed up, so this leaves Hyde to get somewhere between 25 and 30 carries. The Steel Curtain hasn’t been lifted for production on Sunday’s in quite some time now, look for Hyde to put up another 115 yards and 1 touchdown this week. Moving onto the wide receiver group. Our system has Julio Jones coming in at #1 with Julian Edelman at #2. That might seem surprising, given the fact that the Bills defense is so good but look for the Bills to attempt to shut down Gronkowski and not let him beat them. This leaves Julian for a ton of catches not to mention he had 11 receptions last week. All in all, I’m taking Julio Jones until he reaches $10,000. I don’t see a defensive player that can stop him and the Falcons are going to get him the ball around 10 times per game if not more. Had he not had 4 receptions called back on penalties, he would hit my bold prediction of 200 yards, 12 catches and 2 touchdowns. Onto our last position for this segment and that is tight ends. Our system has Jimmy Graham barely ahead of Gronkowski and had the Gronker not been playing in Buffalo this week, he is like Julio, take him every week as he will probably score at least one touchdown. Now for the winning lineup tight end for this week, my bold prediction is Jordan Reed. He had a solid performance last week and the Rams aren’t going to stop him. With DeSean Jackson out for a few weeks, look for Reed to own the middle of the field and he should get at least one touchdown. For the $3,600 on Draftkings, he is a solid pick with plenty of upside that will allow you to take Forte and Julio this week.
Weather
The only game that has any potential weather would be in Green Bay on Sunday night. The forecast is for 58 degrees so nothing to really be concerned with at this point in the season.
Lineup Considerations
Now for the part that we know you have all been waiting for, give me the lineup that will win. I know, I know, we have done this quite significantly in the past and here very soon we will have our lineup analyzer providing automatic lineup recommendations but what do I think. Well here are the top projection, top confidence and my picks for week 2, main contests for Draftkings:
Highest Projection
Highest Confidence
Experts Pick
Now we look to provide your FanDuel lineups for the week below:
Highest Projection
Highest Confidence
Experts Pick
Come check out the rest NOW.