Daily League Optimized Lineup: Week One

TheFFGhost

palmer

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our new Daily Content section in DLF. Daily leagues are growing in the fantasy community and we’ll cover them throughout the regular season. Remember, we have our own special private game for opening week on FanDuel. You can also get a DLF Premium account free for year (or your current subscription extended for a year) just by signing up with FanDuel and making an initial deposit. For more information on that special offer, click here.

Finally!

I think that’s the word that best describes all of our collective feelings regarding the new NFL season. Is it me or did this off-season seem extraordinarily long this time around? Whatever the case, week one is finally upon us and you know what that means – it’s time to make some money. This off-season Dynasty League Football (DLF) committed itself to continuing to provide our readers not only the best dynasty fantasy football content on the internet, but we also unveiled a new section of our site which should help our readers in a white hot format that’s been growing by leaps and bounds each season.

That format, of course, is daily fantasy football.

As part of our expanded focus we partnered up with FanDuel, a true leader in the daily fantasy sphere to provide an incredible experience from research, to play, all the way through to winning. Between DLF and FanDuel, we fully expect our readers to have the best daily fantasy football experience on the internet.

As part of that experience, we at DLF felt it might be of particular interest to our readers to provide them with an opinion on an optimized lineup you should be able to plug into a Head to Head or 50/50 game and fully expect to win some money…at least that’s the hope!

Quarterback – Carson Palmer – $6,900

Not exactly the player I would have thought I’d start this column off with but when you big a bit deeper, Palmer actually looks like a pretty good play by all indications. He performed quite well against 3-4 defenses last season posting an average stat line of 21.6 completions for 294.6 yards. Meanwhile, the Chargers gave up an average of 23.1 completions last season for 280.8 yards. They actually performed worse on the road as well, giving up 24 completions for 308.1 yards on average last season.

The Cardinals have a very deadly collection of pass catchers with the dynamic duo of Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd. However, Andre Ellington is an extremely dangerous threat to catch passes out of the backfield and rookie John Brown has been electrifying this preseason, giving Palmer yet another target to exploit the Chargers defense with. Look for this game to be much more of shootout than what most people expect as both sides try to keep up with each other in the season’s Monday night debut.

Projected Stat Line – 22 completions for 264 yards and two touchdowns

Running Back – Reggie Bush – $7,800

Reggie Bush was quite the breath of fresh air for a lot of daily players last season, providing an affordable running back who could outperform much of the competition on a week in and week out basis. Bush is a much better performer at home and on artificial turf. At home, he averages 18.5 carries for 82.56 yards and on turf he averages 18 carries for 82.6 yards – both of which are incredible averages for any running back to maintain. However, what makes him even more valuable is his ability to catch passes out of the backfield. Coupled with Joique Bell, Bush is one half of one of the most deadly PPR backfields in the game today.

It just so happens the Giants give up a majority of their passes to the right hand side of the field (42%), the same side where Bush catches most of his passes (46%). New York also gives up an average reception of 10.9 yards, Bush’s average reception goes for ten yards, so there is a natural fit here for Bush to have a very nice receiving game as well. I fully expect Matt Stafford to take what he’s given underneath and let Bush do his magic.

Projected Stat Line – 17 rushes for 79 yards and one touchdown, four receptions for 44 receiving yards

Running Back – Danny Woodhead – $5,700

[inlinead]Danny Woodhead was the Chargers biggest surprise last season in my opinion. Sure, Keenan Allen really turned a lot of heads, but anyone who saw him play in college knew he could do the things he showed last season. That’s not to say Woodhead didn’t show us glimpse of what he could do in the past, we just didn’t know that he could be so heavily depended on over the full stretch of a season.

To kick the season off, Woodhead provides a great value play for his price tag. Averaging a little under 30 rushing yards per game on average last season, he’s not obviously going to dominate the rushing leaders list. However, Woodhead does major damage through the air. He accumulated 4.8 receptions per game last season for an average of 37 receiving yards. When you consider that each reception counts for .5 points on FanDuel, you are essentially getting five rushing yards (.1 point per rushing yard) for every reception. That’s to say nothing of the receiving yards that play gains after the catch. Imagine Woodhead as a school of piranhas – each fish takes a small bite, but when taken all together, the effect is substantial. Like piranhas, Woodhead’s game doesn’t provide a big bite in any one aspect, but his little point bites add up over the game.

Projected Stat Line – Seven rushes for 28 yards, five receptions for 60 yards

Wide Receiver – Golden Tate – $5,000

Golden Tate has always been a great value play in the daily space. He quietly does his damage without providing a whole ton of hype – this tends to allow his production to consistently outperform his price tag. With the move to Detroit, Tate now can be a wide receiver who is accustomed to WR1 coverage but now will consistently face WR2 coverage. I anticipate nothing but good things for Tate this year as he will feast on defenses who are forced to heavily protect against Calvin Johnson.

Last season, Tate average 4.3 receptions per game for roughly 60 receiving yards. Mind you, this was on an offense that relied almost exclusively on the rush to move the ball. Now in a pass heavy offense, I fully expect Tate to match or exceed those totals quite easily.

This week he faces a Giants defense who had a pretty tough time last season defending the pass. Tate should provide Stafford a capable outlet to target when Johnson is double teamed, luck for Tate that should be most of the game.

Projected Stat Line – Five receptions for 60 yards

Wide Receiver – Brian Hartline – $4,900

Poor Brian Hartline, he is consistently overlooked in fantasy circles despite outperforming players like Victor Cruz, Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd in most fantasy formats last season. Hartline was a 1,000 yard receiver last season and was clearly Ryan Tannehill’s go-to guy when he got in trouble.

Guess what? Tannehill is going to be in trouble on Sunday as he faces a pretty stiff Patriots defense and is likely to be playing from behind due to New England’s high powered offense.

With the Patriots sure to be guarding against the home threat lining up opposite of Hartline in Mike Wallace, it’s very likely Miami will try to make up the difference by taking medium size chunks out of the field with Hartline to the left. Why to the left? Well, that’s where Hartline caught roughly 70% of his passes and where the Patriots gave up the largest share of the receiving yards they surrendered last season.

With the Dolphins playing from behind expect Hartline to be the biggest beneficiary.

Projected Stat Line – Five receptions for 53 yards and one touchdown

Wide Receiver – Anquan Boldin – $6,000

Anquan Boldin was an absolute lifesaver for the 49ers season last year when Michael Crabtree was injured. Boldin was able to pick up the slack and gave Colin Kaepernick a solid target to depend on throughout Crabtree’s absence. Boldin went on to have his best season in nearly five years and posted a season solid enough to rank him as the 15th best wide receiver last year. It’s obvious Boldin has shown no signs of slowing down at 33.

To open the season, Boldin and the 49ers will be facing the Cowboys, a defense that gave up the third most completed passes and passing yards in the league last season. Couple that with recent news that Crabtree is nursing a calf injury and has been missing practice this week and you’ve got quite a tasty play sitting before you.

Boldin should have no problem putting up very nice statistics this week and should absolutely no problem out performing his price tag.

Projected Stat Line – Six receptions for 72 yards and one touchdown

Tight End – Ladarius Green/Travis Kelce – $4,500 each (You Pick)

I’m giving you a bit of an option here because both of these young tight ends should be excellent plays this week. First, Ladarius Green is facing the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football, a game that just screams for a nice breakout performance. However, it’s more than just a gut feeling here. Last season, the Cardinals were dreadful against tight ends, giving up over six receptions per game on average for nearly 77 receiving yards and over a touchdown per game – that’s absolutely jaw dropping and what’s worse is that the second worst defense against tight ends wasn’t even in the same ballpark as the Cardinals. Now then, could Gates be the sole beneficiary of this prime matchup? Sure, he could, but Gates has clearly lost a step or two while Green is just now coming into his own.

During the preseason, Green has looked sharp and appears to be a major part of the Chargers offensive plans. I get the feeling San Diego is purposely keeping Green under wraps so Arizona doesn’t game plan him as much coming into this week. That would be a huge mistake on their part.

Projected Stat Line – Four receptions for 70 yards and one touchdown

Travis Kelce has seen a decent bit of hype start to swirl around him as well. He was pegged as a player to keep your eye on last season, but was unable to step on the field due to an injury. However, this preseason Kelce has looked quite formidable and appears to be right at home in the Chiefs’ offense. Kansas City will be facing off against the Titans who weren’t exactly sturdy against tight ends either last season, allowing five receptions for 58 yards per game to opposing tight ends on average last season. With Dwayne Bowe suspended for the first game and a highly suspect receiving corps, look for Kelce to be Alex Smith’s prime target.

Projected Stat Line – Five receptions for 65 yards and one touchdown

Kicker – Kai Forbath – $4,500

I’d be kidding if I said I had much foresight into how a kicker will perform. Kickers are one of the most difficult positions to predict in fantasy football. That being said, I expect Houston’s defense to bend but not break fairly often, allowing Forbath to get at least a couple of shots to put some points on the board. When you factor in that the Texans allowed the second most fantasy points to kickers last season, you might just find yourself with a viable kicking option for the lowest price available.

Projected Stat Line – Two field goals, two extra points

Defense – Detroit Lions – $4,600

Once again I’m going cheap at the end of the lineup to help free up cash for the skill players. The Lions actually have a bit of a shot to gain you some points on Monday. You see, Detroit’s defense isn’t a league leader but it’s far from horrible, either. The Lions actually performed, on average, similar to defense like the Cardinals, Panthers, Bengals and Steelers for fantasy scoring purposes – not bad company at all. Plus, remember the Lions will be facing Eli Manning this week, the quarterback who threw the most interceptions last season at just under two thrown per game. I expect the Giants to fall behind the high flying Lions offense which will for Manning to throw more in order to keep up the pace. Once he does that the Lions should have an easy time adapting.

Projected Stat Line – 17 points against, one interception, two sacks

[ad5]