NFL DFS Week 9 Guide: Stacks, value plays and everything to know while constructing your lineups

NFL DFS is an easy game, huh? For the second time this season, Mike McClure, Sia Nejad and myself were profitable in the same week. I’m being facetious, of course, when I call it an easy game. For some reason, last week’s main slate just made sense. We hit on the chalky Rams in Darrell Henderson and Cooper Kupp while stacking Carson Wentz with Michael Pittman in cash. It also helps when you go Cole Beasley over Emmanuel Sanders, which wound up being a 21-point swing in DraftKings last week. Sometimes you run hot in DFS, and Week 8 was definitely one of those. Week 9, however, isn’t coming as easy.

According to Caesars Sportsbook, there is only one game with a 50-point total: Chargers at Eagles. There are seven more games with 46.5-total or higher. The game totals are very condensed this week without the usual one or two standouts up top. Earlier in the week the Packers-Chiefs was hovering around 55 points, but since then Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID, which means Jordan Love is starting for the Packers. From a pure NFL and season-long Fantasy Football perspective, that sucks. However, Love is just $4,400 on DraftKings, which completely changes the slate.

Pay up or down at quarterback

Let’s stick with Mr. Love. I’d be lying if I said I knew much about the gentleman. Everything I’ve read and seen thus far has been pretty underwhelming. Physically, he’s a big, athletic quarterback but he didn’t run much in college. Speaking of his Utah State days, he threw just 20 touchdowns with 17 interceptions his final season back in 2019. No wonder Aaron Rodgers is so pissed they drafted him. I say all this to tell you that I will be playing Love in DFS this week. Why? Mike McClure laid it out on Fantasy Football Today DFS.

“It’s not only about Jordan Love and whatever his upside or downside may be. It’s about the combination of players you get when you play Jordan Love, and that is what I’m most interested in.”

Look at what Mike What did last week with the Jets. Nobody is expecting Love to throw for 400 yards, but White showed us the blueprint. Lots of low aDOT throws to your best playmakers and let them work. Love might actually be a bad quarterback, but all he needs to do is get the ball in the hands of Davante Adams and Aaron Jones. They’ll take it from there. Love isn’t the only quarterback under $6,000 that you can play this week, either.

• Tua Tagovailoa, $5,800
• Tyrod Taylor, $5,000
• Jordan Love, $4,400

If you’re looking to pay up at the position, it’s always a good week to trust the rushing quarterbacks. All the way up top we have Josh Allen at the Jaguars but not far behind are Lamar Jackson home against the Vikings and Jalen Hurts home against the Chargers. Here are my favorite stacks in Week 9.

• Lamar Jackson to Marquise Brown with Dalvin Cook or Tyler Conklin on the other side
• Jordan Love to Davante Adams with Tyreek Hill on the other side
• Josh Allen to Stefon Diggs with Carlos Hyde, Jamal Agnew, or Dan Arnold on the other side
• Tua Tagovailoa to Jaylen Waddle and Mike Gesicki with Brandin Cooks on the other side
• Jalen Hurts to Dallas Goedert with Austin Ekeler or Keenan Allen on the other side

Running back targets

Once you figure out what game you want to stack or what quarterback you want to use, you can focus on the running back position. There aren’t any clear “locks” for me this week, but there are players up and down the position that I’m interested in. Let’s go up top first, and I’m not talking about Alvin Kamara. Kamara is awesome, but had a season-low in snaps last week with Mark Ingram back on the team plus Tayson Hill typically doesn’t throw to his running backs much. Instead, we’re looking at Christian McCaffrey and Austin Ekeler. Technically, McCaffrey is still on injured reserve, but he has put in two limited practices so far this week. He’s priced at $8,000 on DraftKings, which is by far his lowest salary of the season. The Panthers have been very cautious with him and my read is that they will not make him active again until he’s fully ready to go. If he’s active this week, he’s in my DFS lineups. Plain and simple.

If he’s not active, however, you have an easy pivot to Ekeler, who is $100 less. While Ekeler isn’t the player McCaffrey is, he’s not far off from a Fantasy perspective. There are five running backs with at least 25 red-zone opportunities and a 15% target share or higher this season. Ekeler is one of them. You add in the fact that it’s a strong matchup with one of the higher totals on the slate and voila, and we have ourselves a play. Here are my five favorite running back spends this week.

• Christian McCaffrey, $8,000
• Austin Ekeler, $7,900
• Dalvin Cook, $7,700
• Ezekiel Elliott, $7,000
• Nick Chubb, $6,700

Spending down isn’t the worst idea, either. There are three clear standouts to me with Myles Gaskin home against the Texans, Devontae Booker home against the Raiders and Carlos Hyde home against the Bills. Gaskin and Booker have strong matchups while Hyde looks like the lead back for the Jaguars this week. It’s a brutal matchup for him but he just saw eight targets last week. That’ll work at $4,900.

Wide receiver value

If you’re not spending up for one of Adams, Hill or Diggs at the position, then you’re probably allocating those funds to running back. When you do that you’re forced to live in the mid-tier at wide receiver, which isn’t the worst thing this week. There’s plenty of value in the $5,000-$6,000 range this week, starting with Amari Cooper at $5,700. I’ll admit this isn’t a slam dunk as the Cowboys are 10-point favorites at home against the Broncos. If and when they score early, they might just sit on the ball and feed their running backs. Cooper is just an obvious misprice on the slate. Normally he and CeeDee Lamb are within $300-$500 of each other on DraftKings. This week Lamb is $7,200 more plus he didn’t practice on Thursday because of an ankle injury. You can gain leverage by fading Cooper, but that price is just too enticing for me. Here are my five favorite wide receiver values on the main slate.

• Amari Cooper, $5,700
• Jaylen Waddle, $5,600
• Tee Higgins, $5,300
• Jarvis Landry, $5,100
• Hunter Renfrow, $4,800

As always, here’s a GPP lineup I’ve already built out on DraftKings:

• Jordan Love, $4,400
• Nick Chubb, $6,700
• Myles Gaskin, $5,800
• Davante Adams, $8,200
• Tyreek Hill, $7,900
• Amari Cooper, $5,700
• Albert Okwuegbunam, $2,600
• Tee Higgins, $5,300
• MIA DST, $3,100