Top-ranked daily fantasy sports pro Jason Mezrahi, founder and CEO of WinDailySports.com, breaks down his favorite DFS plays at various salary ranges for Week 3 of the NFL season.
Even though we have had great results in picking top DFS plays in this article every week, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Our projection model at WinDailySports.com has been firing on all cylinders for the first two weeks so what I will do in this article is list our highest projected player based off raw points and our highest point per dollar play based on DraftKings.com pricing.
These are some of the players Jason will be locking in his lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel for this weekend’s slate.
QUARTERBACKS
KYLER MURRAY, ARI
$6,800 DRAFTKINGS, $8,400 FANDUEL
In the case of QB Kyler Murray, who has the top spot on the board, is looking like the 2020 version of 2019 Lamar Jackson.
Over the first two games, he has averaged 30.2 DraftKings points and already has three rushing touchdowns. The rushing floor and upside he provides in a plus matchup versus a weak Lions defense has him ahead of a stacked QB position so lock him in as both your cash QB and GPP play of the week.
MITCHELL TRUBISKY, CHI
$5,700 DRAFTKINGS, $7,500 FANDUEL
Mitchell “The Truth” Trubisky (I can’t even type this with a straight face) is coming in on our model as the best point-per-dollar quarterback in the Week 3 DraftKings main slate.
- Is he a top 10 Quarterback? No
- Is he an elite Quarterback? No
- Did I think he was going to be the starting Quarterback to start the season? No
- Does he have one of the best matchups on the board? Yes
- Am I playing him at $5,700 in Week 3? Yes
The Atlanta Falcons defense is one of the worst I have ever seen. The only thing that can make this defense worse is if Jameis Winston was the quarterback of the offense.
The story line won’t change and every week for the near future you will see me targeting offensive players versus the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers no matter who the opposing team is. For that reason I feel confident in locking in Trubisky on DraftKings.
RUNNING BACKS
DERRICK HENRY, TEN
$7,800 DRAFTKINGS, $8,200 FANDUEL
After a somewhat disappointing Week 2, both DraftKings and FanDuel lowered Henry’s prices by $100. I truly appreciate the discount and due to the fact he burned a lot of people last week, he will come in at lower ownership. There is nothing better than playing an elite player once everyone else jumped off the bandwagon after one bad week.
Derrick Henry is still one of the best running backs in the league and this matchup versus the Vikings is ideal. The touches and talent are there and in Week 3 the yardage and touchdowns will follow.
MILES SANDERS, PHI
$6,400 DRAFTKINGS, $7,400 FANDUEL
It is time to price enforce an error in the pricing model of both sites. This matchup is too juicy, and Miles Sanders is too talented not to exploit it. We recently saw what the combination of Chubb and Hunt destroy Cincinnati and I expect a repeat showing by Miles in Week 3.
Sanders had a good start to his season in Week 2 in a tougher matchup versus the Rams. He is coming in as the best value on the board at running back in Week 3, so lock him into both cash games and tournaments.
WIDE RECEIVERS
DEANDRE HOPKINS, ARI
$7,900 DRAFTKINGS, $8,500 FANDUEL
I will admit when I’m wrong. I was off of DeAndre Hopkins in season long due to the fact that the receiving core is a crowded space in Arizona and I thought there would be a negative effect due to a shortened off season. I was wrong, Kyler Murray has progressed to another level and the rapport he built already with Hopkins is elite.
I love the stack of Murray to Hopkins in a dream matchup versus the Lions. Hopkins may be highly owned in Week 3 but he is coming in with the highest ceiling and raw projection. He should be as safe as it gets for your cash games at wide receiver.
ALLEN ROBINSON, CHI
$6,200 DRAFTKINGS, $6,900 FANDUEL
After back to back disappointing weeks, I hope the ownership stays low on Robinson in Week 3. He is currently popping as our best point per dollar play and a nice value stack paired with Trubisky.
I will repeat it once more the Atlanta Falcons are terrible on defense.
They couldn’t punch their way out of a wet paper bag and they won’t be able to stop the second-tier combination of Trubisky and Robinson at a discounted rate. Ride the value that Robinson provides and take advantage of lower ownership due to all the boxscore watchers avoiding him.
TIGHT ENDS
ZACH ERTZ, LAC
$5,100 DRAFTKINGS, $6,200 FANDUEL
The Eagles are once again down to scraps at the receiver position and all hope will be on their tight ends. I had a tough decision on which tight end to choose from because both Ertz and Goedert have been producing, and are in identical spots.
I will be leaning on the pedigree of Ertz, but will have shares of both tight ends and I believe you should do the same. I would not be surprised to see both tight ends find their way into the end zone and for tournaments running a stack with both is not out of the question.
DARREN WALLER, OAK
$5,700 DRAFTKINGS, $6,600 FANDUEL
A lot of the fantasy industry didn’t buy into the hype of Darren Waller coming into this season. I think that all changed after his recent performance Monday night.
Waller is one of the fastest tight ends in the league and he is the number one target in this offense. He received 8 targets in Week 1 and 16 in Week 2. If we fall in the middle in Week 3, you best believe Waller will smash again. Derek Carr and this offense looked impressive and on the other end this is not the same Patriots defense from last year. Waller is the way to go if you have the salary to pay up at tight end this week.
DEFENSES
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
$3,600 DRAFTKINGS, $5,000 FANDUEL
They come in as the top defense due to the simple fact that the Panthers have struggled to get anything going on offense and now they are without their best weapon in Christian McCaffrey. This Charger defense did a great job against the most explosive offense in the league so I can only imagine what they do to this Carolina team. I wouldn’t be shocked to see them keep the Panthers under 10 points in this game.
LAS VEGAS RAIDERS
$2,300 DRAFTKINGS, $3,000 FANDUEL
With defense being one of the toughest positions to predict, I love finding an extreme value defense each week for tournaments. This Raiders team is legit and just stifled Drew Brees and the Saints; I am not fully bought into the Patriots offense. They are lacking a true running game and Cam Newton can only do so much. If you stop Cam this entire offense stalls. Give me Gruden and the Raiders at an extreme value in Week 3.
Jason Mezrahi has been a professional, top-ranked Daily Fantasy Player on FanDuel and DraftKings for more than eight years. He has won FanDuel’s $155,555 King of the Diamond competition and placed second in DraftKings’ Fantasy Basketball World Championship, earning him $300,000. He owns and operates WinDailySports.com, which supports the DFS and Sports Betting community with resources such as tools, projection models, expert chat, in-depth written analysis and podcasts, plus much more.
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