This week was one of those ones where it was tough to get mad about. On Draftkings I achieved my 2.6x the 50K salary, but sadly it was woefully short as the cash line was an inflated 163.58, which is roughly 3.3x. This is why we need players with upside, which I thought I was getting, but ultimately I had a couple missteps.

My Lineups

A Note

Right up until lock I flipped flopped with a couple builds and ultimately moved off Burrow and Chase for a combination that included Kyler and Boyd. This was a huge part of my undoing. Going back and forth like that is usually a death sentence, and for me, it was.

The Good

I initially had a hard time believing how easy it was to get Henry into my lineup. I neglected to understand that that meant he would be chalk. He was 61% owned in cash games, which at over 100 yards and 3 TDs, basically meant you needed to have him to cash.

This was one of those weeks that you really had to pay attention as news came out throughout the morning. Dal Cook was ruled out and that paved the way for Mattison to have a day against one of if not the worst defenses in the NFL. I hopped on the open thread to inform everyone, and Mattison put up 30 DK points at 60% ownership, which meant you needed to have him too.

Joe Burrow is still making mistakes, but he does not give up. Also, the connection with Chase is legit, and I regret not playing both Burrow and Chase in cash…but I did play Chase in cash on FD and still lost.

Tom Brady is going after that record. Could’ve easily gone here too if I trusted myself more.

Fraudgers paid off his salary. This game didn’t blow up the way I hoped, but it was competitive and both QBs proceeded accordingly.

Hurts’s rushing upside is what will keep him in play nearly every week.

If Zack Martin is healthy, the Cowboys have a running game. If he is not, they don’t.

Urban Meyer seems to have realized that you should use your best players (James Robinson) if you would like win NFL football games. Then again, why Jones and Shenault didn’t get more targets is…well, I’ll talk about this later.

Damien Williams stepped right in and was serviceable, though he shared more time with something named Khalil Herbert than I anticipated.

If you played Adams, which I did on SD, I doubt you are unhappy today. 200 yards?!?!!?

Jefferson was fine but Thielen was not. Regardless, once I announced I was going Mattison, the understanding should be I wasn’t playing either of these in cash.

DHop got you above 2.6x, though it wasn’t pretty.

Diontae Johnson, and I added Najee Harris late, are the Pittsburgh offense. The opportunity these two have needs to be taken into account going forward.

Ja’Marr Chase is good at football.

Renfrow got the necessary points at his salary.

Toney was a homerun, and considering the injuries pilling up in New York, he might be a shoe-in depending on price for a bit.

The Cards defense I added late. I should’ve had more defenses listed than the two I had. That’s really on me. A few years ago I got on the NO KICKERS bandwagon cuz in all seriousness, fuck them. I think the fantasy industry needs to have a serious conversation about removing DSTs. In any event, I need to be better.

The Bad

I made a huge mistake with Kyler. The mistake was that I didn’t connect that because I liked the Cardinal defense, that would ultimately mean Kyler wouldn’t have to do much. Kyler didn’t run at all in this matchup…that’s a huge concern.

Darnold. I know I wrote him up but I didn’t play him anywhere. Don’t chase perfomances.

Jones. I can’t predict injuries….well, usually I can’t.

Heinicke. I honestly didn’t see any of this game, and will have to check some tape to see what went down here.

Saquon. See Daniel Jones. Such a fluke injury this one was.

Moore. I stayed away for the same reason I stayed away from Darnold. That being said, I was minutes away from using him in cash on DK.

Deebo was a bad, though he did get 9 targets from Lance, which means his role in this offense will continue. Lance looks like he will be hard to trust though.

I pivoted to Boyd from Chase. I have regrets. Boyd appears to need someone else, like Higgins, out to get targets.

The Jags passing attack. Holy damn Urban Meyer cannot be trusted. It’s like the worst secondary in the league and you bench Laviska Shenault and then send 13 targets to things named Jamal Agnew and Tavon Austin??? Trevor Lawrence honestly looked like he didn’t understand the playbook. I know it’s early Urban Meyer BUT….

ARob. I didn’t play him anywhere, tempted as I was. At some point this season ARob’s stats will return to the mean, and he will win someone a million dollars.

Waddle. I fucking give up. Feel free to chastise me if I recommend anyone on the Dolphins.

TE was a dumpster fire this week…as is usually is. At least I didn’t play Waller anywhere.

Patriots Defense. Um…

Chargers Defense…I’ll just address this in the next section.

The Misses

The entire Cleveland v Chargers game. I mean, come the fuck on. Really? This is the game that blows out? Really? Let’s start with the lesson to be learned here. The game that everyone thinks will blow out (like the Rams v Pats SuperBowl from a few years ago) is usually not the one that blows out. It’s typically the game that no one is looking at. I did recognize that the Chargers were vulnerable to the run, but I had zero faith in the Browns to actually attack there. This game is also a painful reminder to me to take emotion out of it. It can seriously blind you, as it did me this game. That being said, I’m glad the Browns blew it. They just became the first team in NFL history to lose a game after putting up over 40 points and over 500 total yards without committing a turnover. Browns gonna Brown.

Myles Gaskin. There is simply no way I would recommend a second rate RB behind a subpar O-line against one of the best rushing defenses in the league. Just so we are clear though, Gaskin didn’t score 30 plus points because he’s an RB. He had only 25 rushing yards yesterday. All the damage he did was via the receiving game.

Alvin Kamara. I used him in one gpp lineup that did decently, but I didn’t write him up. This performance is a reminder not to over react to what we see week to week.

AB and Evans. I just find it difficult to predict which Buccaneer wide out is going to do well from a week-to-week basis. I should have known it would be someone, or in this case, multiple though.