NFL Preseason, I honestly enjoy it — just not a ton from DFS to where you are going all in. But I enjoy watching players who’s entire dream of playing in the NFL comes down to a couple games where half the team is just hoping to not get injured. There’s no stress for most teams fans watching games and it’s also neat for anyone who played college DFS because you will recognize guys who were great in college and see them out here sometimes struggling mightily to make the jump to the pro’s.
Full transparency, I am still in MLB mode and will be through August but I still have my pulse on watching what is going on in training camps and will be dabbling in some NFL pre-season DFS along the way.
Contest selection rules and tips are kind of thrown out the window in the pre-season, especially with a measly two game slate tonight, so just play it like it’s a donkey contest and have some fun with it. The value in this is that you’ll be sharpening yourself for the regular season when it comes if anything (not really, these games honestly do not matter for week 1 DFS).
My core principals for NFL pre-season DFS
Quarterbacks
- Play guys who are going to make the team, dont bother with likely players who are going to be on the practice squad
- Heavily favor starters with a few exceptions
- Running QB1’s dont matter. In other words, dont play Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray because you think they’ll run. A QB2? Absolutely
Running Backs
- Second Team / Second Half players are fantastic plays. Teams grind out the clock in the second half many times.
Wide Receivers
- Correlation is critical with the QB you play in pre-season, go all in and don’t try to “spread it around”. One touchdown reception can win the slate or at least get you in the green.
- Just because someone is fighting for a spot doesn’t mean they will get the good targets. But a WR who is returning kicks does have a chance to return one to make a splash. There are more special teams TD in the pre-season than regular-season (on avg/per game).
Game stacking is certainly viable but keep in mind snaps are what teams want and so you are many times just getting 2 possessions for opportunity no matter how fast paced the game moves.
And of course, pricing doesn’t matter in pre-season which is nice.
Today’s Player Targets
New England vs Washington
I would be heavier on the Washington side if I trusted what they had at Quarterback. Fitzpatrick will play but not sure how long and the choices behind him are all banged up.
- Mac Jones (NE) – Rookies making their debut are often decent spots to target and Jones has enough poise playing at Alabama to come in and not be phased early.
- N’Keal Harry / Jakobi Meyers (NE)
- J.D. McKissic (WAS) – Rolling dice with him and Antonio Gibson, I lean the pass catcher more and don’t trust that Washington is playing all the starters very long despite what they might say.
- Matt LaCosse (NE) – NE is focused on TE in their offense but very banged up here and he should get some run with Mac Jones.
- Logan Thomas (WAS)
Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia
- Mason Rudolph (PIT) – Really like Rudolph tonight, he got 30% of snaps last week and Should get the first half action tonight. He’s going to be QB1
- Anthony McFarland (PIT)
- Boston Scott (PHI)
- Kenneth Gainwell (PHI) – Potential for breakout star in pre-season, but might not get the big looks tonight
- JuJu Smith-Schuster (PIT) – I believe he is going to play a good amount with other injuries, but Anthony Johnson would be an alternate longshot
- Quez Watkins (PHI)
CORE Build
The Pittsburgh/Philadelphia game is the one I am going to roll with tonight. Steelers had a game which definitely plays into their favor and the Eagles first unit has struggled in the pre-season but has some depth behind it to make a comeback late in the game.
Mason Rudolph – Ju-Ju Smith-Schuster
NKeal Harry
Kenneth Gainwell