4 Daily Fantasy Football Players to Avoid in Week 7
We have a lot of pieces on numberFire geared toward helping you figure out which players you should roster in your DFS contests on FanDuel, but an important aspect of the DFS process is figuring out who you shouldn't play.
Narrowing down your list of potential plays by avoiding those who are destined to underwhelm can go a long way toward helping you create winning lineups.
Zigging when the masses zag is part of giving yourself an edge in DFS, so you'll sometimes be able to make a case for using a player in this piece in an effort to be contrarian, especially if said player is really good. Inevitably, some of the players I feature in this article will blow up and pop for a big game, but that just comes with the territory of doing a piece like this one -- unless I'm going to tell you to avoid playing dudes like Jared Goff. I'm not going to do that. I want this piece to be useful.
Here are four players I'm avoiding this week.
Cordarrelle Patterson, RB/WR, Falcons
FanDuel Salary: $8,000
Cordarrelle Patterson has been one of the surprises of the first half of the season, and he's in a dope spot this week against the Miami Dolphins, a team that has allowed the fourth-most FanDuel points per game to running backs (26.5) and the third-most to wideouts (36.6), which should suit his versatility.
But with Patterson salaried up in a big way, he's really tough to back this week, especially when we need to save salary for the studs in the Kansas City Chiefs-Tennessee Titans clash.
Patterson has yet to play as many as 60% of the snaps in any game this year, and his season-high snap rate of 59% came in Week 5. That was the Atlanta Falcons' last game, when Calvin Ridley was out. Aside from that Week 5 contest, Patterson has a single-game high of just 13 touches.
Ridley is back this week, and unless Mike Davis, who has led the Atlanta backfield in snaps in every game, gets put on the back burner, Patterson isn't going to see the necessary volume to be worth this salary, which is the fourth-highest at both wideout and running back. Our model projects Patterson as the 20th-best point-per-dollar play among running backs and the 22nd-best among receivers.
Damien Harris, RB, Patriots
FanDuel Salary: $6,800
At first blush, Damien Harris seems like a solid play.
The New England Patriots are 7.0-point home favorites over the New York Jets, and Gang Green is giving up the second-most FanDuel points per game to running backs (28.7). Harris is coming off his best output of the year, too, racking up 17.3 FanDuel points in a shootout with the Dallas Cowboys last week.
My issue with Harris is his lack of upside. Since he does so little in the passing game -- one total target over the last two weeks -- Harris' path to 20-plus FanDuel points is either a one-score day with a huge amount of rushing yards or a two-touchdown day with still quite a lot of rushing yards.
His game last week is a good example. Despite 101 rushing yards and a tuddie, Harris got just 17.3 FanDuel points because he made 1 catch for 7 yards. And while 17.3 FanDuel points are nothing to scoff at, it was only the 10th-most points among running backs on last week's main slate. Furthermore, that was close to a ceiling game for Harris.
Harris likely needs two or three touchdowns for a truly massive game, and that's just not something I'm willing to roll the dice on. Also, because he's not a factor in the passing game (he's played more than 53% of the snaps just once this year), his floor isn't good, either.
We project Harris for 10.6 FanDuel points and rate him as the 19th-best point-per-dollar play at running back. No thanks.
Ja'Marr Chase, WR, Bengals
FanDuel Salary: $7,500
Ja'Marr Chase has been excellent this season. He's averaging 16.4 FanDuel points per game and has reached double-figures in every outing. The overall usage has been superb as he owns a 23% target share and 47% air yards share.
His matchup, though, is a tough one. The Cincinnati Bengals are on the road at the Baltimore Ravens, and Baltimore has permitted the seventh-fewest FanDuel points per game to receivers (25.1). We just saw them halt a red-hot Los Angeles Chargers offense last week, and the Bengals hold an unappealing 20.25-point implied total.
It's also worth noting that in the four games in which Tee Higgins has played, the Cincy passing game has been a three-headed attack. With a 24% target share in those four games, Higgins paces the Bengals in target share while Chase sits at 21%, and Tyler Boyd has posted 17% as well. Chase does, however, have a 49% air yards share in those four games.
Chase -- who has the seventh-highest salary at the position -- should stay in your player pool for GPPs as long as he keeps seeing a massive amount of air yards, but I'm going to be light on him this week. Our projections have him at 12.0 FanDuel points and slot him as just the 18th-best point-per-dollar receiver.
Mark Andrews, TE, Ravens
FanDuel Salary: $7,500
It always feels a little scary to write off one of the few good tight ends out there, but I'm not into Mark Andrews on this slate.
Some of it has to do with his salary, which is a big number and places Andrews in an awkward spot.
He's $700 more than Darren Waller, who projects better in a Las Vegas Raiders-Philadelphia Eagles contest that should be more fantasy-friendly than the Ravens-Bengals game. And Andrews is not that far away -- $700 -- from Travis Kelce, who could lose his mind in a KC-Tennessee game that has a laughable 57.5-point total and will be everyone's favorite game to stack. We also have viable tight ends like Kyle Pitts ($6,100), Dallas Goedert ($5,900) and Mike Gesicki ($6,000) at much easier-to-stomach salaries.
I don't know if it's legal to say this, but tight end isn't awful this week.
Plus, Andrews is getting a Cincy defense that has clamped down on tight ends, allowing just 6.8 FanDuel points per game to the position, the sixth-fewest.
We project Andrews for 11.6 FanDuel points, the third-most at the position, but I'll either get up to Kelce for the sky-high upside or take the salary savings with someone else.
