Daily fantasy football continues to climb in popularity as jackpots have risen consistently and more fans are joining sites every week. Our weekly article showcases players to target at three general levels of value: The big dollar talent (Heavy Hitters), the average-priced contributors (Average Athletes), and the guys very questionable players at the bottom of the cost charts (Sneaky Sleepers). Our selected players are based on DraftKings values as that is our daily fantasy site of choice, but the values should translate fairly well to any other sites you may use. We don’t share specific lineups or optimized computer rankings, but we will give you some great candidates for you to consider. We set this breakdown up that way because while winning is great, a big part of the fun draw of daily fantasy is mixing and matching your lineups to see how you can maximize your team. That and the fact that we are trying to win the same way that you are, and quite frankly, we don’t want our readers to all have the same exact lineups.

NFL Week 6 Recap

We’ll get the good out here in the open for starters, as we unfortunately didn’t have our best week of the 2021 season. The good news is we hit with our Star of the Week, as Joe Mixon had a solid game based on his price tag and helped with our lineups. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough juice across the rest of our rosters to really do much damage and finished with a small net loss on the weekend. It wasn’t ugly, but it definitely wasn’t pretty either. We were let down for a second week in a row by Terry McLaurin, despite his favorable matchup against Kansas City at home. We did have a couple of really nice hits, such as Darrell Henderson in LA, Damien Harris in New England, and even some value with a sleeper like Carson Wentz. We missed big with the Chargers as Justin Herbert and Austin Ekeler were held way down, dooming a lineup. For the first time this season, we really whiffed with our defensive options, as none of our selections at any tier really provided any points. Week number six was a bit of a strange weekend overall, hopefully you enjoyed more success and profit than we did.

Who Made Us Look Brilliant?

• Joe Mixon – 94 Yards Rushing, 59 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Matthew Stafford – 251 Yards Passing, 4 Total TDs
• Darrell Henderson – 78 Yards Rushing, 29 Yards Receiving, 2 Total TDs
• Patrick Mahomes – 396 Yards Passing, 36 Yards Rushing, 2 Total TDs
• Tyreek Hill – 76 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Damien Harris – 101 Yards Rushing, 7 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Mark Andrews – 68 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
• Ricky Seals-Jones – 58 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
  

Who Made Us Look Foolish?

• Terry McLaurin – 28 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
• Justin Herbert – 195 Yards Passing, 12 Yards Rushing, 1 Total TD
• Austin Ekeler – 7 Yards Rushing, 48 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
• Taylor Heinicke – 182 Yards Passing, 1 Total TD
• Evan Engram -24 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD

NFL Week 7 Preview

Bye weeks are making things simpler, or more difficult depending on how you look at things at this stage of the season. This week seems more challenging, as it feels like there are too many good options to build around at all positions. Where does the money get spent? Patrick Mahomes comes with a hefty tag as usual, but is there any chance he doesn’t shine in his game with the Tennessee Titans? And speaking of those Titans, how do you not roster Derrick Henry when he’s averaging a ridiculous 30+ points per game in what’s turning into a record-breaking season? If you’re grabbing guys like that, then you’ve got to try to find lightning in a bottle at the tight end position as you won’t be able to get one of the marquee talents there. Our plan for this week is pretty consistent with our normal approach. We’re going to build around our Star of the Week, and a couple of other core players, and plays a few different lineups filling in the blanks with the heavy hitters. It’s a a somewhat low-risk/low-reward proposition, but a slow and steady profit is always what we’re after in our DK account. If we can hit a homerun somewhere, that’s always icing on the cake. Best of luck this week!

STAR OF THE WEEK:

The Star of the Week came down to two choices this week for the BetCrushers, and we strongly suggest getting both into your lineups. Darrell Henderson was the slightly more obvious choice, as he should follow up last week’s success with a repeat performance against the Lions. We went a little deeper and are rolling with Damien Harris, the Patriots young lead running back in a favorable matchup with the Jets. Harris is also coming off of a nice game a week ago, and seems to be earning more and more trust with the fickle and always changing New England running back room. He’s clearly the go-to back and should get 20+ touches in this game. The Jets have been decent overall against the run, but are 29th giving up points to opposing running backs in a standard PPR format. Harris is the 15th priced running back and sits behind guys like Latavius Murray and Darrell Williams on the draft board. With a price tag of only $5,700 he’s almost to a “sleeper” level, and is almost guaranteed to produce on Sunday. With some really appealing big dollar players you’ll want to add to your lineups, starting with Harris is a good cornerstone piece this weekend.

PLAYERS WE’RE TARGETING:

Quarterbacks:

Patrick Mahomes – $8,400 vs. Tennessee Titans
Aaron Rodgers – $7,500 vs. Washington Football Team

Running Backs:

Derrick Henry – $9,200 vs. Chiefs
Darrell Henderson – $6,600 vs. Lions

Wide Receivers:

Davante Adams – $8,900 vs. Washington Football Team
Tyreek Hill – $8,600 vs. Titans

Tight Ends:

Travis Kelce – $7,600 vs. Titans
Darren Waller – $6,700 vs. Eagles

Defense / Special Teams:

New England Patriots – $3,400 vs. Jets

Quarterbacks:

Jalen Hurts – $6,900 vs. Raiders
Ryan Tannehill – $6,400 vs. Chiefs

Running Backs:

Cordarelle Patterson- $6,300 vs. Dolphins
Chase Edmonds – $5,600 vs. Texans

Wide Receivers:

Mike Evans – $6,500 vs. Bears
Brandin Cooks – $6,000 vs. Cardinals

Tight Ends:

Mike Gesicki – $4,700 vs. Falcons
Hunter Henry – $4,100 vs. Jets

Defense / Special Teams:

Arizona Cardinals – $3,100 vs. Texans

Quarterbacks:

Matt Ryan – $5,700 vs. Dolphins
Tua Tagavailoa – $5,500 vs. Falcons

Running Backs:

Myles Gaskin – $5,300 vs. Falcons
Miles Sanders – $5,100 vs. Raiders

Wide Receivers:

Robby Anderson – $4,800 vs. Giants
Tyler Boyd – $4,700 vs. Ravens

Tight Ends:

Robert Tonyan – $3,500 vs. Washington Football Team
Anthony Firkser – $3,100 vs. Chiefs

Defense / Special Teams:

Philadelphia Eagles – $2,300 vs. Raiders

If you play Daily Fantasy Football we love talking sports and we’d love to hear your take and who you like each week, find us on Twitter @TheBetCrushers and let us know. Good luck and enjoy the weekend!