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 4 Recap

Well, it wasn’t a bad week for us in week four, however it wasn’t great either. Our final sentence of our preview last Sunday basically sums up why things didn’t quite work out exactly as we had hoped. In case you don’t recall, here’s what we stated regarding our Star of the Week: “At a price tag below $6,000 we’re going to build some lineups around Mr. Irrelevant and hope Christian McCaffrey doesn’t steal the whole show.” Safe to say Christian McCaffrey stole the show with a monstrous 4 touchdown performance and a ton of yards. Brock Purdy played spectacularly, going 20-21 and throwing for a chunk of yardage, but with McCaffrey taking all of the touchdowns and leaving just one for Purdy, the fantasy points just weren’t there. It didn’t help that one of his passes that went for a TD was ruled a run as it went behind the line of scrimmage. We had some of the week’s top performers, but a lot of the lower priced talent didn’t help us out a lot. There was also a lot of mediocrity with players like D’Andre Swift, Matthew Stafford and others. All of that resulted in a slightly down weekend, even though it certainly wasn’t awful. We were still pretty dialed in, although results didn’t quite get home.

These Players Made Us Look Good:

Josh Allen – 320 Yards Passing, 17 Yards Rushing, 5 Total TDs
Stefon Diggs – 120 Yards Receiving, 3 Total TDs
Christian McCaffrey – 106 Yards Rushing, 71 Yards Receiving, 4 Total TDs
Brock Purdy – 283 Yards Passing, 1 Yard Rushing, 2 Total TDs

These Players Made Us Look Foolish:

Tony Pollard – 47 Yards Rushing, 13 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
T.J. Hockenson – 24 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD
Amari Cooper – 16 Yards Receiving, 0 Total TD

NFL Week 5 Preview

The talent pool slims down a bit this weekend as we get our first installation of teams with bye weeks during the season. When you couple that with another early London game, the standard slate is a bit slim overall. Through the first month of the season we’ve witnessed some really good performances that were overshadowed by even more superior performances. This Sunday there will be fewer great stat lines, which will make selecting the right players even more critical. As far as an overall strategy, stacking Miami Dolphins would look like a great option. Just keep in mind a good portion of America will be trying the same thing. Let us know on Twitter (X) @TheBetCrushers if we’re missing anyone we should have our eyes on in week five.

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

STAR OF THE WEEK:

The well documented frustrations of the New York Jets have been in the news since Aaron Rodgers ruptured his achilles four plays into the season. Their offense showed some signs of life against the Chiefs, which is something they’ll look to build on this weekend when they travel to Denver to take on the equally disappointing Broncos. During the Jets regrouping after the loss of Rodgers, Breece Hall was one of the most vocal in his disapproval of the how the offense was structured and performing. Most notably not loving the fact he’s getting four-ish carries per game. We’re expecting that to change substantially against a Broncos defense that flat out can’t stop anyone. They’ve already allowed over 700 yards rushing and surrendering 5.6 yards per carry to opposing runners. The last time Hall was facing Denver he was ripping off a massive run before he suffered his unfortunately ACL injury. With Zach Wilson entering the game with some confidence after a pretty good performance last Sunday, this should be the game where the Jets finally get some points up on the scoreboard. It might be a little scary building your rosters around a player averaging just 8.3 fantasy points per contest, but with a price tag of just $5,400, go ahead and pick your favorite superstars around him. There should be at least one explosive play for Hall, and don’t be surprised if he’s near the weekly lead when it’s all said and done.

Quarterbacks:

Lamar Jackson – $7,800 vs. Steelers
Tua Tagovailoa – $7,100 vs. Giants

Running Backs:

Bijan Robinson – $7,700 vs. Texans
David Montgomery – $6,600 vs. Panthers

Wide Receivers:

Tyreek Hill – $9,000 vs. Giants
Amon-Ra St. Brown – $7,800 vs. Panthers

Tight Ends:

Travis Kelce – $7,600 vs. Vikings
T.J. Hockenson – $6,500 vs. Chiefs

Defense / Special Teams:

Detroit Lions – $3,800 vs. Panthers

Quarterbacks:

C.J. Stroud – $6,000 vs. Falcons
Daniel Jones – $5,800 vs. Dolphins

Running Backs:

De’Von Achane – $6,100 vs. Giants
James Conner – $5,800 vs. Bengals

Wide Receivers:

Michael Pittman, Jr. – $6,400 vs. Titans
Zay Flowers – $5,500 vs. Steelers

Tight Ends:

Zach Ertz- $3,500 vs. Bengals
Kyle Pitts – $3,300 vs. Texans

Defense / Special Teams:

Indianapolis Colts – $3,200 vs. Titans

Quarterbacks:

Joshua Dobbs – $5,200 vs. Bengals
Ryan Tannehill – $4,900 – vs. Colts

Running Backs:

Gus Edwards – $5,000 vs. Steelers
Jaleel McLaughlin – $5,000 vs. Jets

Wide Receivers:

Marquise Brown – $5,000 vs. Bengals
Tyler Boyd – $4,500 vs. Cardinals

Tight Ends:

Hayden Hurst – $3,100 vs. Lions
Durham Smythe – $3,000 vs. Giants

Defense / Special Teams:

Tennessee Titans – $2,400 vs. Colts

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!