Photo: Jerry Habraken, USA Today Sports

Know Your Opposition

If you want to finish at the top of the standings in a mid-to-large field GPP, your roster has to stand out from the crowd. Studying a list of projected roster percentages is a helpful first step, but it lacks the context of how the most popular players fit together under the salary cap.

To gain some insight into how the majority of entrants will allocate their cap space, so you can spend yours differently, let’s think about how the public is most likely to attack roster construction at each position.

Slate Overview- Week 2 Thoughts

Week 2 is always an interesting week, as we spend all offseason coming in with projections, anticipation, and thoughts on certain players. For some players, we throw all of that out simply because of one game. Football is a weird sport in that sometimes teams just don’t show up, especially in the NFL. Looking to capitalize on the crowd writing a team off can be critical.

One way to do this is to look at roster percentages and find that team or teams that you think are better than their Week 1 performance. This week far more than last week is going to have crazy high roster percentages at positions such as the high-end wide receivers and cheap running backs that going with a different strategy can pay off significantly. No one wants to play those cheaper wide receivers such as Chris Godwin, Christian Kirk or DJ Moore as they all had horrendous Week 1’s.

Key Injuries for Week 2

Injuries could completely shake up this week. There are a number of guys that are questionable, and it seems like a lot of them are truly game time decisions, which is always difficult to quickly adjust.

• Austin Ekeler is doubtful this week with an ankle injury. While logic says to look at Joshua Kelley this week. The matchup is a difficult one going up against arguably the league’s best run defense in Tennessee. This could be a situation where you look more heavily towards the passing game of Herbert, Allen, Williams.
• Jakobi Meyers is out with a concussion this week. After a dominant Week 1, the Raiders will look even more heavily towards Davante Adams this week. Adams was fine in Week 1, but not spectacular, as he had just 6 receptions for 66 yards. This could also be a situation where we look at Josh Jacobs for the Raiders to go with a more run-heavy approach.
• On the defensive side of the ball, Eric Kendricks is out for the Chargers, which is a massive injury for the already thin linebacking group in Los Angeles. The overall crowd has not adjusted Derrick Henry upwards enough, and he is a great play this week.

Stacks

Top Stack

Justin Herbert, Mike Williams, Derrick Henry

This is going to be an expensive stack this week, but it is in the perfect opportunity to hit big this week. The more popular and more expensive option of this stack would be to pair Herbert with Keenan Allen, which is more than fine to do, however this week Williams may be in a better position to have a GPP winning week. Mike Williams is a September guy. Over the first five weeks of the season, Williams topped 20 DraftKings points three times in 2022, four times in 2021, and once in 2020 albeit it was a 31-point explosion. This is a guy who has dealt with significant injuries throughout his career but was a top-10 pick for a reason. The Titans allowed over 300 passing yards 8 times last season, as they allowed a league-worst 290 yards per game to opposing quarterbacks. They didn’t show any signs of improvement in Week 1, allowing 306 yards to Derek Carr last week.

On the other side of the ball, Derrick Henry is in a tremendous spot. He is facing one of the league’s worst linebacking units that will be without their leading tackler in Eric Kendricks this week. That will put the primary responsibility on Kenneth Murray who has been a big reason why this team has struggled against the run over the last several seasons. Henry is another player who has a history of some very big games early in the season.