Welcome to the weekly tournament plays article for Sunday’s main DraftKings fantasy football slate for Week 8. I’m going to focus purely on upside plays, stacks and strategies to help tackle the largest tournaments on the slate. GPPs are not won by using all of the most popular players on the slate and finding some relatively lower-owned diamonds in the rough will be the goal of this article.
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Stacks
Game Stack: Seattle Seahawks vs New York Giants
Daniel Jones ($5,700) — Saquon Barkley ($8,100) — Kenneth Walker ($6,500) — Darius Slayton ($4,600)
This game only has an over/under of 44.5 but it feels like there’s a lot more fantasy potential lurking here than that number suggests. The Giants have allowed a league-high 5.7 yards per attempt this season and that’s bad news for New York’s defense with Kenneth Walker III on the other side for Seattle. Walker ate up another weak rush defense last week in the Chargers and has averaged 6.1 yards per carry this season over a relatively large sample now. The fact he’s available at under $7,000 on DraftKings and still not drawing a ton of heat — with players like Tony Pollard ($6,100) and D’Andre Swift ($6,800) in his price range — makes him a great starting-off point for stacking this game.
On the other side, if we’re playing for a Walker-heavy game that also means we could see a spike in dropbacks for Daniel Jones in this game. Teams have averaged 37.7 pass attempts against Seattle over the past three weeks and Jones continues to showcase rushing upside that is putting him in the same category as other elite hybrid QBs like Jalen Hurts ($8,300) and Kyler Murray ($7,500). Jones has now averaged 8.28 rushes per game this season and Seattle has allowed the seventh-most rushing yards to quarterbacks this season.
More dropbacks should also mean more pass attempts this week for Jones and that should help Saquon Barkley approach his fantasy ceiling in this game as well. Seattle’s linebackers have allowed the fifth most receptions to the RB position this year and Barkley is the rare RB this season who doesn’t come off the field, regardless of game flow or situation. Despite being down for much of the game last week, he still managed 24 carries and with him going up against a weak linebacking core this could be the week he finally breaks a big play in the pass game.
If we’re playing for Jones to finally hit his ceiling as a passer this week, then it’s also prudent to pull in one of the Giants' WRs to complete the stack. While Darius Slayton was out-targeted last week by rookie Wan’Dale Robinson ($4,700), it was Slayton who led the team in yards (58) and total air yards. Seattle likes to leave its corners in man coverage on the outside and that’s led to plenty of big plays for opposing WRs. Big, fast outside wide receivers like Chris Olave ($6,000), Mike Williams and Drake London ($5,100) have all scored on Seattle over their past four games and Slayton should be in a good spot to continue that trend. He’ll likely have half the ownership of Robinson but his big play potential makes him a perfect leverage pivot off the more popular rookie.
Quarterback
Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings ($7,500)
Murray has been solid but not spectacular for fantasy purposes this year, averaging 20.3 DKFP on the season, with a 37.5 rushing-yard average. This week will be the second in a row that he’s got DeAndre Hopkins ($7,400) in the lineup with him, though, and with the two of them going up against a mediocre Vikings secondary, this could be the spot a true Murray breakout occurs. Murray and Hopkins connected on 10 of 14 targets last week and it should come as no shock that Murray posted his best QB rating of the season.
While Minnesota’s pass rush has been solid this year they’ve struggled against elite rushing QBs, allowing Justin Fields ($5,200) and Jalen Hurts ($8,300) to complete over 70% of their passes against them — with Hurts dominating them on the ground as well with two rushing TDs. Murray only had to throw 29 times last week (mainly because Andy Dalton was throwing a ton of pick-6s) but should be in a spot to push for 35-plus dropbacks with Minnesota having a more efficient offense. Paying up for Murray in GPPs will pay off with a monster game eventually and this week against Minnesota looks like as good a time for that to occur as any.
Running Back
Top End: Raheem Mostert, Miami Dolphins at Detroit Lions ($5,900)
If you watched the Dolphins game last week you saw Mostert on the field a lot, and you saw him looking explosive. The former 49er took a season-high 20 touches and played on 71% of the snaps, which was the second time he’s played over 70% of a game while in Miami. With Miami doing everything they can right now to limit Tua Tagovailoa’s ($6,200) exposure in the run game, look for Mostert to feature heavily against Detroit, a team that has allowed 5.1 yards per carry against and the third-most fantasy points per game to opposing RBs. At under $6,000, Mostert brings an elite ceiling this week and projects as one of the best overall values at his position.
Value: Tyler Allgeier, Atlanta Falcons vs Carolina Panthers ($5,400)
Last week we called the breakout in this spot with the Jaguars' Travis Etienne Jr. and this week we’ll go to another young RB who looks on the verge of inheriting a true bell-cow workload. Tyler Allgeier has been the Falcons' best RB since Cordarrelle Patterson went down a few weeks back and he comes into this game having now taken 15-plus carries in each of his last two games. That workload resulted in the first TD of his career last week, a game in which he dominated the early down work for Atlanta. Overall, Allgeier took five red zone touches in the game against Cincinnati, while the rest of the Atlanta RBs took zero. Atlanta runs the ball regardless of game flow and the Panthers have ceded the seventh-most rush attempts against to opposing RBs. Look for Allgeier to potentially post his first true breakout game this week.
Wide Receiver
Top end: A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles vs Pittsburgh Steelers ($7,700)
I like the idea of paying up for lower ownership on A.J. Brown this week. He’s at his highest price point of the year and hasn’t exceeded 20.0 DKFP since Week 1, so the ownership here should be extremely low across the board. Only two teams have allowed more TDs to the wide receiver position this year than the Steelers, who have given up 100-plus yards and a TD to an opposing WR five separate times this season already. Brown led the Eagles in targets and yards in his last outing, is now well rested coming off a bye and will be going up against a still banged up and ineffective secondary. Don’t be shocked if he accounts for the bulk of the Eagles' scoring this week in a game where they have an elite 26.75 implied team total.
Value: Darnell Mooney, Chicago Bears vs Dallas Cowboys ($4,800)
Despite the notion that the Cowboys have an elite defense, they have given up some bigger games to opposing WRs of late. A.J. Brown ($7,700) and Devonta Smith ($6,300) both found the end zone against Dallas in Week 6 and Cooper Kupp ($9,600) posted his usual 100-plus yards and a TD line against them back in Week 5. Despite a slower start to the season, Darnell Mooney comes into this game with an elite 28.7% team target share, which is the eighth-highest among all receivers. Despite being attached to the lowest-volume passing offense in the league, he’s also posted 50-plus yards in four straight games and is averaging 14.7 yards per catch this season. At his lowest price point of the year, he makes perfect sense as a boom or bust value to chase in GPPs.
Tight End
Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers at Philadelphia Eagles ($3,900)
I’ll give a quick shoutout to Jelani Woods ($2,500) of the Colts off the top, who has been seeing more snaps and makes sense as a min-price flyer this week at TE — especially with a new QB, who he likely saw several practice reps with this spring. That mention aside, it’s Pat Freiermuth who looks like the practical value play at this position for Week 8. Freiermuth saw nine targets against the Dolphins in prime time in his return from a concussion and converted eight of those into receptions. The Eagles also defend the outside of the field very well and are a team you generally want to attack down the middle with a bigger, more athletic tight end like Freiermuth.
The +10.5-point spread here suggests we’re also likely to see a game script similar to last week for Pittsburgh which had Kenny Pickett ($5,100) dropping back 44 times while trying to play catch-up. Freiermuth isn’t fooling anyone here and will likely be a popular play, but at under $4,000 and in a matchup where he figures to be featured (and may even push to be Pittsburgh’s leading receiver), it seems fine to eat some chalk and take what’s given to us.
Defense/Special Teams
Arizona Cardinals ($2,500) vs. Minnesota Vikings
The Cardinals DST has been a resilient group and has done well at working its way back to respectability after a slow start. Arizona has allowed 20 or fewer points to four of their last five opponents and that stretch includes matchups with the Rams and Eagles. The Cardinals have also grabbed four turnovers over the last two weeks and have been able to get some pressure, notching seven sacks across their last two road games.
Both of these teams come in well-rested as Arizona last played on Thursday and Minnesota is coming off their bye. It’s the Cardinals DST that is being disrespected though with such a small salary as this line (which was once +1/-1 on the lookahead) remains small at +3.5/-3.5. The Cardinals have been opportunistic on defense of late and take on a team in Minnesota that ranks below league average in overall team DVOA (per Football Outsiders). Given the overrated opponent and positive trend they’ve shown of late, Arizona’s a great cheap DST to build with for Week 8.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is wavegoodbye) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.