Week 3 of NFL DFS saw some previously mediocre scorers like Mike Evans and Tyler Lockett have breakout games, while big points were put up in the Ravens-Chiefs game as expected. But who saw that monster game from Russell Wilson coming? His 41.34 points on FanDuel thanks to two passing and two rushing touchdowns helped cliffyc1 win the $150,000 second prize on Sunday. And it turned out that Kyle Allen was a smart pick, after all.
Second-String Quarterbacks Were a Mixed Bag
In my preview I suggested mostly avoiding the QBs who were filling in for injured starters, and that proved to be a correct strategy, for the most part.
Kyle Allen with the Panthers proved to be good value, scoring more than 4x on FD and 6x on DraftKings, where his $4,000 salary allowed players to spend up at other positions.
After a slow start, Mason Rudolph of the Steelers, filling in for Big Ben, threw for two TDs on 174 yards passing, earning 2.3x value on FD.
The story was similar for Saints QB Teddy Bridgewater, his first start after filling in for most of Week 2 for Drew Brees, who left with an injured hand. He tossed for 177 yards and 2 TDs, with 12 rushing yards, earning 2.4x value on FD.
You want to see at least 3x to aid you in cashing in both 50//50s and guaranteed prize pool contests so I’m glad I didn’t play those QBs.
Digging Down on Defense
I also recommended playing the defenses who were facing off against those fill-in QBs, which were the Cardinals, Seahawks and 49ers. The Cardinals were a definite miss, giving up 38 points to the Panthers. Two sacks and a fumble recovery led to a big fat zero on DK.
The 49ers fared better, giving up 20 points to the Steelers. Overall, that San Francisco team earned seven DK points on Sunday, decent defensive numbers.
Even as Bridgewater didn’t put up monster stats against Seattle, the Seahawks still allowed 33 points to the Saints and were a Sunday dud.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys – the trendy pick – got 12 DK points by holding the Dolphins to six points while sacking Josh Rosen thrice and recovering a fumble. I was concerned the team would be too highly owned, but the Cowboys were selected by about 16 percent DFS players in the DK $3 buy-in Play-Action GPP.
