We are officially five weeks into the 2021 NFL season and Tom Brady is still getting better! Brady currently leads the league in passing yards and is second in passing touchdowns, proving that the man simply doesn’t age. With that being said, let’s see how my weekly DFS picks played out!
QUARTERBACKS
To start, let’s look at how my quarterback picks performed this weekend. Justin Herbert was the highest-scoring player at the position, erupting for 45.8 DK points against Baker Mayfield and the Browns. He was followed by Tom Brady at 40 DK points, a player who was one of my top plays of the week. Jameis Winston proved to be a solid value, as his 5.6k DK price tag was more than affordable as he produced 27.7 DK points. My biggest letdown at the quarterback position was Sam Darnold, who only scored nine points while throwing three interceptions on Sunday.
RUNNING BACKS
Next, let’s evaluate the running back plays of the week. For my ‘love’ picks I chose the top-priced Derrick Henry and once again, he did not disappoint. Henry saw 29 touches for a total of 130 yards and three touchdowns. This seemed like an obvious play when Julio Jones was ruled out and with A.J. Brown still banged up. Alvin Kamara had a great performance as well, as he was the fifth-highest scoring option of the week.
A surprise inactive in Dalvin Cook hit the slate right before kickoff proving Alexander Mattison as a must-play option. Cook was a ‘fade’ play for me this week due to the nature of his injury.
Najee Harris, Chuba Hubbard, D’Andre Swift, and Leonard Fournette all performed at a high rate and are players I had across my lineups. As for Saquon Barkley, a player who I liked to show up in a big inter-division game, he proved to be my biggest letdown. He, unfortunately, suffered a low ankle sprain early in the game.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Now let’s dig into our wide receiver picks for the week. Davante Adams showed his crazy usage rate by topping 40 DK points. Just like Tyreek Hill last week, you missed a great opportunity for a big payout starting your lineups with Adams.
One of my favorite value options, Antonio Brown, showed his speed is no joke even at 33 years of age! AB was all over the field, yielding seven catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Brown surely benefited from Tom Brady’s big day. Another huge value play was Kadarius Toney. Toney was electric for the Giants as he recorded 10 receptions for 189 yards.
The biggest letdowns of the day are easily my selection of Jaguars’ receivers. The tandem of Laviska Shenault and Marvin Jones proved to be softly quiet as the two only produced a combined two receptions for 83 yards.
TIGHT ENDS
Lastly, my coverage of tight-ends. The tight-end position has continued to get the best of me so far this season. Top-priced option Darren Waller was only able to haul in four catches for 45 yards. Another big-named tight end in T.J. Hockenson failed to produce as he only posted two receptions for 22 yards. Sadly, if you chose to pay up at this position you were severely let down. My highest owned tight end of the week, Ricky Seals-Jones, produced a mediocre performance providing nine DK points at a 2.5k price tag.
To conclude, never consider a player a “lock” for your lineup. To avoid having down weeks in DFS, consider a wide range of players and don’t overload exposure on one player. Also, injuries happen. Players bound for big weeks can end up not producing because of in-game injuries. That is the nature of sports betting. If it were easy everyone would do it.
Thank you for reading. Catch me on Twitter @fantsyforecast for all fantasy-related discussions and football takes. #DFFArmy
You can read previous articles in this series here: DFS Week 1, DFS Week 1 Recap, DFS Week 2, DFS Week 2 Recap, DFS Week 3, DFS Week 3 Recap, DFS Week 4, DFS Week 4 Recap, DFS Week 5
