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 (High-Priced Heroes), the average-priced contributors (He’s so “Mid”), and the guys very questionable players at the bottom of the cost charts (Bargain Basement). Yes, for our longtime readers, we did change the titles of our tiers. 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 9 Recap

Another week and we did fall just short of profit as we nailed a lot of the sleeper (or in our terminology – Bargain Basement) players, and rode some strong quarterback play to some success. Unfortunately, other than a couple of nice stacks we couldn’t mix and match well enough to really cash in. We squeaked out just enough from Jonathan Taylor as our featured Star of the Week to make him end up as a worthwhile roster. His performance wasn’t great, despite the fact he got out to an extremely fast start, but he did enough, nothing 18 fantasy points to keep him from spoiling our lineups. There were a few whiffs, looking at you Michael Thomas, but overall it was another very good week. If you happened to stack up C.J. Stroud and the Texans, you probably did pretty darn well. Here’s the full recap of who knocked it out of the park, and who struck out in week nine.

These Players Made Us Look Good:

C.J. Stroud – 470 Yards Passing, 10 Yards Rushing, 5 Total TDs
Sam Howell – 325 Yards Passing, 27 Yards Rushing, 2 Total TDs
Cade Otton -70 Yards Receiving, 2 Total TDs
Brian Robinson, Jr. – 63 Yards Rushing, 4 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
A.J. Brown – 66 Yards Receiving, 1 Total TD
Jalen Hurts- 207 Yards Passing, 38 Yards Rushing, 3 Total TDs

These Players Made Us Look Foolish:

Lamar Jackson – 187 Yards Passing, 60 Yards Rushing, 0 Total TD
Adam Thielen – 29 Yards Rushing, 0 Total TD
Alvin Kamara – 26 Yards Rushing, 44 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
Michael Thomas – 0 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD

NFL Week 10 Preview

Week 10 offers some definitely appealing opportunities to stack up some players, and you may opt to do that based on a quarterback you like. Jared Goff and some Lions, Geno Smith and some Seahawks are just a couple of options you’ve got that could absolutely blow up. Even with some teams on a bye week there is plenty to choose from at all positions, which makes these weeks a lot of fun, but also very strategic. Can you trust a player like Keaton Mitchell, who jumped off the stat sheet for the Ravens against a tough Browns defense? Is this the week to take a chance on a rookie like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who showed some flashes in that same game? Dalton Schultz has a very appetizing matchup against a Bengals defense that isn’t great at defending the tight end. Can he duplicate a performance like he did a week ago? The toughest position this week seems to be running back. Not a ton of “obvious” players to pick here, so do you pay up or opt to save and buy down? A lot to consider, we’ve done the research of what we like and are happy as always to share it with you here.

Before we highlight our three levels of talent, let’s look at our projected star of the week:

STAR OF THE WEEK:

For the last four decades there has been a very un-funny cliché stating the NFL stands for “Not For Long”, and in the case of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, it’s an absolute truth. Just a month ago the national narrative around the former Mr. Irrelevant was he was the next Tom Brady, destined for obvious greatness. After three straight losses, there are now people calling for Purdy to be benched and replaced with the oh-so impressive Sam Darnold. He’s not getting benched, and as far as Daily Fantasy Football goes, he’s now one of the best “buy low” candidates we’ve seen in quite some time. Purdy enters week 10 as the 12th ranked quarterback at a mere $5,700 salary. This places him behind and around guys like Derek Carr, Geno Smith, Jordan Love, and Kyler Murray, who hasn’t taken a snap this season. Purdy is averaging more points per game than all but this week’s top three quarterback options who are priced substantially higher. That’s all great, but is that enough for you to trust him with your lineup this Sunday? We think so, and here’s why: First, he’ll have both left tackle Trent Williams and do-it-all wideout Deebo Samuel back to complete the offense. His opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars, have a strong defense, but are better against the run than the pass. The 49ers may need to throw to move the chains against that defense, which increases Purdy’s value quite a bit. For what it’s worth, the weather is also supposed to be perfect in Jacksonville, so no worries about elements impacting the passing game. We’re going to be stacking up some 49ers, but also using Purdy as a one-off quarterback this weekend.

Quarterbacks:

Joe Burrow – $6,800 vs. Texans
Jared Goff – $6,400 vs. Chargers

Running Backs:

Christian McCaffrey – $9,200 vs. Jaguars
Tony Pollard – $7,300 vs. Giants

Wide Receivers:

Amon-Ra St. Brown – $8,300 vs. Chargers
Mike Evans – $7,200 vs. Titans

Tight Ends:

Sam LaPorta – $5,700 vs. Chargers
Taysom Hill – $5,100 vs. Vikings

Defense / Special Teams:

Dallas Cowboys – $4,400 vs. Giants

Quarterbacks:

Geno Smith – $5,800 vs. Commanders
Will Levis – $5,300 vs. Buccaneers

Running Backs:

Aaron Jones – $6,500 vs. Steelers
Brian Robinson, Jr. – $5,400 vs. Seahawks

Wide Receivers:

Christian Kirk – $6,000 vs. 49ers
DeAndre Hopkins – $6,000 vs. Buccaneers

Tight Ends:

Gerald Everett – $3,900 vs. Lions
Johnnu Smith – $3,600 vs. Cardinals

Defense / Special Teams:

Cleveland Browns – $3,000 vs. Ravens

Quarterbacks:

Baker Mayfield – $5,100 vs. Titans
Taylor Heinecke – $5,100 – vs. Cardinals

Running Backs:

Najee Harris – $4,900 vs. Packers
Tyler Allgeier. – $4,700 vs. Cardinals

Wide Receivers:

Josh Reynolds – $3,800 vs. Chargers
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine – $3,400 vs. Buccaneers

Tight Ends:

Chig Okonkwo – $3,000 vs. Buccaneers
Irv Smith, Jr. – $2,700 vs. Texans

Defense / Special Teams:

Los Angeles Chargers – $2,600 vs. Lions

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!