Because of the amount of late news — relative to when the salaries were released — we have a tremendous amount of potential savings in front of us. This allowed for a ‘stars-and-scrubs’ approach that doesn’t really follow the conventional mold. Simply put, we can save salary space in so many different places that many of the stars were able to naturally slide into our lineups.
Based on our expected Week 6 DFS game flow analysis and Week 6 DFS Overview published earlier, we can carry our thoughts into actual lineup positions. The long list of players that fit the requirements set forth by the projected flow of the game was cut dramatically by the requirements set forth by salaries.
Below are Sporfolio’s DFS Week 6 Plays:
Quarterback
Kenny Pickett – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett has had quite the difficult start to his career, but his final numbers have been a bit skewed. He has lost both games in which he appeared, but his team put him in an impossible position last week for his first career start. Outside of the statistics, he has actually been a positive asset to the team, and he has sneaky potential for a given week. This game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appears to be one of the more difficult for a rookie, but they have allowed at least one passing touchdown to every opponent except for Dallas on Opening Night. The game script also helps, where Pickett is either throwing from behind or has done enough to put his team in the lead. Either way, his volume should be relatively high.
Skylar Thompson – Of all people in the league, Skylar Thompson is not someone we expected to be writing about this season, but the NFL has a funny way of surprising us sometimes. Last week’s performance likely didn’t inspire many people to have much faith in the the rookie quarterback, but it is totally unfair to judge a quarterback dressing for his first game and being thrown into the fire when the starter gets hurt right away. Thompson had some bright moments during the preseason, and while that may not mean much, it is at least something positive to go off of. More important than any of that, Thompson has had a full week to prepare as a starting quarterback, and has possibly the best situation you could want this week. For starters, his defense has been bad all season as they currently rank 25th in total yards and 29th in points allowed. Put them against a Vikings offense that has scored 28 or more points in three straight weeks and has some of the top playmakers in the league, and we fully expect the Dolphins to be allowing lots of scoring. Playing in a high-scoring game, or playing from a deficit is always a positive game script for a quarterback, and when you have weapons like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, getting the ball in their hands could always lead to a big play, even if you don’t deserve one. The Vikings’ defense has had plenty of struggles of their own as they rank 24th in the league in yards allowed and 28th in net yards allowed per pass attempt. Thompson may not be anything special at all, but his situation is too perfect to ignore this week, so we will take the risk with the low-salary rookie and see what he is capable of.