DFS NFL Week 2 Picks, Sleepers and Strategy

Here at Roto Street Journal, we fancy ourselves as fantasy addicts. Fantasy football has evolved into something much more than your standard league draft. With the opportunity to enter new lineups every week through Daily Fantasy Sports, the RSJ will be giving you the best plays for your lineups, in order to win you some cash. From the high-priced superstars, to the penny stock sleepers, we have you covered to piece together the optimal lineup week by week.

Note: Standard DraftKings salaries are used when creating these lineups.

Quarterbacks

  • Top Shelf

    • Drew Brees (8.2k) – After a stellar week 1 performance, Brees takes on the New York Giants, who he threw for 505 yards and 7 touchdowns against last season.
    • Matthew Stafford (7.3k) – Jim Bob Cooter’s offense continues to run through the arm of Stafford. Even the running backs do most of their damage through the air. The Titans defense is a great matchup for Stafford, especially at home.
  • Retail Price

    • Blake Bortles (6.7k) – Everyone knows how much the Jags like to throw to their stud receiving core. Bortles travels to San Diego, where their defense was shredded by Alex Smith for 363 yards and 2 TDs. I’ll say it again, ALEX SMITH!
    • Joe Flacco (6.5k) – Flacco has found his new deep ball guy in Mike Wallace, as the two hit on a 66 yard bomb during Week 1. The Ravens face a Browns’ defense that made rookie Carson Wentz look pretty darn good.
    • Andy Dalton (6.4k) – Rivalry game coming up for Dalton against the Steelers,  who boast a solid front 7 but questionable secondary. Week 1 showed that Dalton and AJ Green can throw against practically any defense. Dalton will be slinging.
  • Bang For Your Buck

    • Josh McCown (5.0k) – I don’t really like anyone down this low but if you are looking for some production with a minimal cost it’s McCown. He gets the Baltimore Ravens at home and has a decent supporting cast around him (Barnidge, Coleman, Pryor, Johnson/Crowell). That’s really all I can say for a Browns QB.
  • My Pick

    • Eli Manning (7.6k) – As mentioned earlier with Brees, these two lit up the scoreboard for 850 yards and 13 touchdowns in last season’s match-up. The Saints defense is AWFUL, and just lost top corner Delvin Breaux to injury. This game is the highest projected point total of 53 points (that still seems pretty low) and Eli will be ripping it to flashy receivers Odell Beckham Jr, Sterling Sherpard and Victor Cruz. There’s potential for points galore here.

Running Backs

  • Top Shelf

    • Ezekiel Elliott (7.3k) – After a lackluster Week 1 where Elliott let us down, he has a solid matchup against the Redskins defense that was just carved up by DeAngelo Williams. Elliott should to be hungry to produce this time around, and most owners will likely shy away after his Week 1 dud.
    • Lamar Miller (7.2k) – Last week Miller touched the ball 32 times. 32! He didn’t find the endzone but still put up respectable numbers. This week he gets the Chiefs who surrendered 3 touchdowns to Melvin Gordon and Danny Woodhead.
  • Retail Price

    • Eddie Lacy (6.0k) – Here’s a play that likely won’t be a popular tournament pick. Lacy ran for 61 yards and had one catch in the season opener against Jacksonville. He’s had past success against Minnesota, rushing for 100 yards three of the last four times they’ve played each other.
    • Jonathan Stewart (5.4k) – Stewart had little success against the elite Broncos defense and rightfully so. In Week 1, the 49ers held Todd Gurley to 47 yards on 17 carries, which might scare some owners away. Keep in mind, the Rams have no quarterback so the defense keys on Gurley. This time, Cam Newton is under center so that’s a legit threat who you can’t stack the box against. The 49ers stink and gave up the second most fantasy points to running backs last year. Carolina could run away with this which is good for the ground game, when they’ll be running the clock in the second half.
    • Danny Woodhead (5.2k) – As tough as it is to see Keenan Allen go down, Woodhead should step right up to help replace the lost production. Playing at home against a questionable Jacksonville defense should be a great way for Philip Rivers to figure out the offense sans-Allen. With more catches to go around, look to Woody to snag a handful of those those targets.
  • Bang For Your Buck

    • TJ Yeldon (4.7k) – Were his rushing numbers shitty in Week 1 (21 carries for 39 yards)? Yes. But he still banged in a touchdown and caught four passes. He remains the lone running back again with Chris Ivory out, so I’m willing to take a chance on a true low-priced three-down back. Plus, you can’t really have a worse rushing day, and San Diego is really bad against the run. See: Spencer Ware Week 1.
    • Tevin Coleman (4.5k) – Coleman was slightly out-touched by Devonta Freeman (15 to 13), confirming the RBBC (running back by committee) approach. He actually led the team in receiving yards, and is playing the Oakland Raiders who were in a shootout with the Saints last week. It could be another offensive show where Coleman sees a decent amount of targets.
    • LeGarrette Blount (4.0k) – “CHOO CHOO!” is the text I always send my groupchat when Blount rips off a run of 10+ yards. Two steam locomotive emojis are always included as well. The Patriots made it clear that they want to establish a run game to setup Jimmy Garoppolo‘s gameplan. Blount looked real good (minus the fumble) against a scary Cardinals defense. Patriots RBs are very risky, but if Blount is featured again, he could put up better results.
  • My Pick

    • CJ Anderson (6.8k) – Anderson gets matched up against the ultra juicy Indianapolis Colts. The Colts were shredded by both Ameer Abdullah and Theo Riddick in Week 1 while have virtually no secondary. Luckily, Trevor Siemian is still the Broncos quarterback, so the offense will run through Anderson again. Anderson should beat this defense to a pulp, literally anybody can run on them.

Wide Receivers

  • Top Shelf

    • AJ Green (8.9k) – After his monster Week 1 showing where he claimed ownership of Revis Island, Green heads into Steeler country that boasts a weak secondary. Mentioned above in Andy Dalton’s piece, Green could be on his way towards a second straight big game
    • Brandin Cooks (8.0k) – The sky is blue, water is wet, and Drew Brees can sling the rock. All known facts. Cooks exploded against the Raiders Week 1 and finds himself in another likely shootout against the New York Giants. There’s the definite possibility to repeat both last year’s match-up (6-88-2) and Week 1’s (6-143-2) performance.
    • Allen Robinson (7.8k) – Robinson is clearly Blake Bortles’ top receiving target. After 15 targets last week, Robinson put up numbers that were below what’s expected of him. He seems due for a big game against a very bad Chargers defense.
    • Amari Cooper (7.6k) – Cooper set a career high in yards last week and gets the same Falcons secondary that was torched by Jameis Winston and Mike Evans. Cooper couldn’t possibly go two weeks in a row without scoring right? He’ll put on a show for The Black Hole.
  • Middle Tier

    • Jarvis Landry (6.4k) – It’s no secret that I love Landry, and it was devastating not being able to play him Week 1 against the Seahawks. He still put up respectable numbers against the Legion of Boom, but now he gets the New England Patriots who he’s had success against. He could easily do what Larry Fitzgerald did on Sunday night.
    • Willie Snead (5.9k) – To continue the theme of Saints/Giants players, Snead still offers great production for a discounted price. He likely won’t be priced below 6k for the rest of the year so take advantage of this price tag now. Brees loves feeding him the ball, and for good reason.
    • Mohamed Sanu (5.5k) – Sanu is turning out to be the Roddy White of old. A dependable WR2 that won’t draw the same attention as Julio Jones. Playing against Oakland in Week 2 could be another shootout as the Raiders defense was just eviscerated by Drew Brees‘ assault.
    • Sterling Shepard (5.2k) – Shepard caught his first career touchdown last week and looked very solid against the Cowboys. As mentioned in Eli Manning‘s blurb, there’s a lot of points to go around Sunday. Shepard could see a lot of them.
  • Bang For Your Buck

    • Mike Wallace (4.7k) – Wallace looks like he’s “back” after his 66 yard TD bomb with Joe Flacco. He gets a very nice match up against the Browns while offering high yardage and touchdown potential for a pretty low price.
    • Victor Cruz (4.3k) – Hailing from #WideReceiverZoo , Cruz comes into Week 2 healthy which is almost a victory in itself. His potential matches Shepard’s but at a much lower cost.
    • Cole Beasley (3.2k) – Beasley is that scrappy slot receiver that always seems to pick up the tough first downs. New QB Dak Prescott didn’t look to air it out much, and stuck to the short routes with Beasley and Jason Witten. Beasley had 12 targets for 8 catches and 65 yards. Very good numbers for a sub-4k player.
  • My Pick

    • Odell Beckham Jr (9.5k) – It feels like I’ve mentioned about a million Giants or Saints players by now, but I want the Alpha Dog of them all. ODB was held in check Week 1, but you can only keep a rabid dog caged for so long. The stat line last year against the Saints was 8-130-3, and their secondary is even worse this time around. Odell will get his on Sunday. I’m expecting jokingly good numbers.

Tight Ends

  • Top Play

    • Jason Witten (4.1k) – Similar to Cole Beasley, Witten dominated in targets from Dak Prescott. As he develops, Prescott will continue to rely on the good ol “Security Blanket”. Witten should see a healthy amount of targets again in Week 2.
  • Bargain Play

    • Eric Ebron (3.5k) – Ebron had a nice Week 1 with 5 catches for 46 yards and a score. His health was the big offseason story and he’s been moving around just fine on the field. Matthew Stafford will continue to throw the ball a lot, and Ebron is a great red zone target capable of scoring every week.

Defenses

  • Top Play

    • Carolina Panthers (3.9k) – The Panthers get the luxury of facing Blaine Gabbert and the San Francisco 49ers at home this week. That should be pretty much all you need to hear. Seriously. The Seahawks at 3.8k at the LA Rams are also a good choice seeing as the Rams didn’t score against San Francisco.
  • Bargain Play

    • New England Patriots (3.0k) – The Patriots defense looked pretty solid against the Arizona Cardinals, minus the massive run from David Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald carving the secondary like a Thanksgiving turkey. They should be able to shut down the run of old man Arian Foster, and then its a matter of eliminating the deep ball for Kenny Stills and containing Jarvis Landry. The offense will probably look to control the clock and dominate possession limiting the pressure being put on Jimmy Garoppolo.

Author

  • THE Inaugural 2016 RSJ Fantasy Football League Champion. Owner of a #bigbrain, and lover of football, baseball and college hoops. When not grinding for the RSJ, can be found captaining his beer league softball team.

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