WEEK 9 - FANTASYSCORE GPP OFFERINGS
FantasyScore is a USA Today Sports Media Group fantasy sports game that is powered by RealTime Fantasy Sports. It is a DFS site that can give you the excitement of playing fantasy football each week during the NFL season. FantasyScore offers Draft Leagues (Draft & Go) and Salary Cap leagues weekly during the NFL season.
In this feature we are going to look at the GPP contests and offer the top stacks, fades, and ownership projections for each upcoming week.
For Week 9 of the NFL season, FantasyScore is offering three big GPPs for buy-ins of $1, $5, and $10. The $1 GPP is limited to 1,000 total entries and pays the top 200 places, with $135 going to first place. The $5 and $10 GPPs are limited to 500 total entries, with both paying out the top 100 places. The top prize in the $5 contest is $450, while the top prize in the $10 contest is $1,700.
FantasyScore will also be hosting a $25,000 Football Championship for Week 16 for which you can qualify during Weeks 1-15 via satellite tournaments. There will be a total of 105 "golden tickets" available to be won via satellite contests from Weeks 1 to 15 and the Championship pays the top 20 winners, with $10,000 going to first place. In Week 9, FantasyScore will run a $20 satellite with 50 total entries, where 4 golden tickets will be awarded, and a $5 satellite with 170 entries, where the top 3 finishers will receive a golden ticket.
TOP STACKS
New England Patriots -- QB Tom Brady ($8,900) and TE Rob Gronkowski ($8,200)
Tom Brady has clearly been on a mission so far in 2015 with 2,410 passing yards and 20 passing touchdowns with only a single interception to his name. He also has rushed for two more touchdowns with a touchdown total of 22 out of the teams first 7 games he has been on a torrid pace to start the season. He is averaging over 3 touchdowns a game and a game against Washington seems to put him at the same number once again. Although he is very expensive at $8,900 he is also the safest option for cash games this week and should be able to beat up on the Washington secondary with ease. Pairing Brady up with Rob Gronkowski is very expensive but it does serve a couple of missions as it locks in both the QB and TE positions with two of the best players at their positions and allows you to build your team out from there with value and mid range priced players. Gronkowski has 7 touchdowns in 7 games this season with 40 receptions and 646 receiving yards.
Chicago Bears -- QB Jay Cutler ($6,800) and WR Alshon Jeffery ($7,700)
With the injury to Matt Forte it will be interesting how the Bears attack the Chargers defense on Monday Night Football. In the last 4 games Cutler has scored at least 2 touchdowns in 3 of them and now that he has Alshon Jeffery back his numbers have been on the rise. It is always nice when you can get a favorable QB/WR stack for the Monday Night game giving your team to sweat out the cash lines right up until the last minute. In the last two game Jeffery has been back in the lineup he has been targeted 26 times for 18 catches, 263 yards and 2 touchdowns. Cutler will be looking in the direction of Jeffery a lot on Monday Night and a statline of 7/100/1 seems like a safe baseline for Jeffery.
New York Giants -- QB Eli Manning ($7,900) and WR Odell Beckham Jr ($8,500)
The surprising stat for Eli Manning is that he has thrown 17 touchdown passes and only 4 interceptions on the season. Although he padded his stats last week with a 6 touchdown performance against the Saints he still has had multi touchdown games in 4 of the 7 games before this one. You have to think that the pairing of Manning and Beckham Jr. is going to be one of the highest owned stacks based on what the accomplished last week as Beckham Jr. had 8 catches for 130 yards and 3 touchdowns. On the season Manning has looked in Beckham Jr.'s direction 75 times for 50 receptions, 654 yards and 7 touchdowns. This may be a combo you might want to fade if you are afraid of ownership percentages but at the same time it is hard to fade Odell Beckham Jr. in his current form.
VALUE STACKS
Oakland Raiders -- QB Derek Carr ($7,400) and WR Amari Cooper ($7,100)
Derek Carr's 2015 success has been well under reported so far as he has been great for the Oakland Raiders throwing for 1,793 yards and 15 touchdowns through 7 games. The nice thing about Carr also is that he is making smart decisions with the football and not turning it over as he has only thrown 3 interceptions so far on the season. His rookie WR Amari Cooper has left a spark on the offense right from Week 1 and Carr has targeted Cooper 59 times this season for 38 receptions, 565 yards and 3 touchdowns. Those number are great for a rookie WR in Oakland and an offense that is on the rise with Derek Carr under center. The Steelers defense has been pretty solid so far this season but they always have potential to get into back and forth shoot out type of games and if that was the case this week a Carr/Cooper stack would come at a pretty fair price.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- QB Jameis Winston ($6,300) and Mike Evans ($6,900)
Jameis Winston has had a nose for the endzone to start his NFL career as he now has 12 touchdowns in his first 7 career games with at least one touchdown in each game and only two games with just a single touchdown. The price is nice on Winston at $6,300 and he gets a matchup against a Giants secondary that just allowed Drew Brees to throw 7 touchdowns on them. It is hard to imagine Winston not finding the endzone at least twice this weekend and could be in line for his first 3+ touchdown game of his career. Mike Evans had somewhat of a let down game last week against the Falcons with only catching 3 of his 9 targets for 48 yards and will likely be lesser owned this week and has the strong potential of having a breakout game on the season. He should see 10+ targets in this game and no matter if Tampa Bay is trailing or leading he will continue to be a big part of the offense. This pairing is priced really reasonable with both players under $7,000 in a game that has plenty of upside for them.
FADES
Quarterback -- Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers ($7,800)
It doesnt' seem like a smart move to recommend fading Cam Newton in a game that show cases two of the top teams in the NFC with the Packers and the Panthers. Newton is coming off a strong home win against the Colts on Monday Night where he competed 16 of 35 passes for 248 yards and 2 touchdowns. This week the Packers defense should be more of a threat to Newton and his 117 out of 216 completions on the season is often over looked because of what he can do on the ground. Newton has 286 rushing yards and 4 rushing touchdowns through 7 games and for him to hit value each week a rushing touchdown almost feels like a must. The Panthers are hurting in the receiving game with only Greg Olsen as the true trusted target so look for the Packers to zone in on stopping Olsen and stacking the box on Newton and the running game. If the Packers get any sort of early lead in this game it will be difficult for the Panthers passing offense to battle back.
Running Back -- Darren McFadden, Dallas Cowboys ($5,900)
Darren McFadden is relevant once again in his career as he has performed well for the beat up Cowboys offense in the recent weeks. He is getting touches with 49 rushing attempts in the past 2 weeks and 8 receptions in that time period. This week it is a divisional battle with the Philadelphia Eagles and one that will be a tough test running the ball on as the Eagles rush defense has been pretty stacked so far in 2015. Even with all the touches for McFadden recently for him to hit value this week he is going to have to break at least one big run or passing play.
Wide Receiver -- Julian Edelman, New England Patriots ($8,200)
Edelman has been having a season so far in 2015 with a remarkable 52/584/6 statline. The reason for fading him this week would be based on price and the fact that teammate Brandon LaFell is back on the field. I really like Brady to spread the ball out a lot in this game against Washington and by half time the Patriots should be holding a decent lead. If the Patriots are up big in the second half I think they turn to the running game or spread the ball to all the receivers. With the $8,200 price I am having a hard time at locking in Edelman with Gronkowski, LaFell and Lewis there to steal targets and opportunities.
Tight End -- Jordan Cameron, Miami Dolphins ($5,200)
Jordan Cameron is one of the big names at the TE position but he has yet to do big things so far in 2015. Through 7 games he has 19 receptions on 43 targets and 257 yards and a single touchdown. He has caught 2 passes in every game so far this season but has not caught more than 34 yards in any of the teams last 5 games.
Defense and Special Teams -- Oakland Raiders ($1,300)
The Raiders have been playing really well so far in 2015 and with a basement price of $1,300 for their defense this week it looks very appealing. The problem is that Steelers offense has been great at times this season and with a healthy Ben Roethlisberger back in the lineup it could turn into a fireworks show for both teams on offense. I will only be looking at the offensive players in this game.
OWNERSHIP PERCENTAGE
FantasyScore just announced this week that they will share the percentage owned for all their contests going forward. Now we don't have to guess at which players will be highly owned or which players will be low owned as we will have the current percentage to go off of. I will list the top 3 players at each position below with their ownership percentages as of the time I write this article.
HIGHEST OWNERSHIP
Quarterback
Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers ($7,400) = 14.36%
Tom Brady, New England Patriots ($8,900) = 13.26%
Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears ($6,800) = 10.91%
Running Back
Jeremy Langford, Chicago Bears ($5,000) = 28.31%
Dion Lewis, New England Patriots ($6,800) = 26.66%
DeAngelo Williams, Pittsburgh Steelers ($6,700) = 23.34%
Wide Receiver
Malcom Floyd, San Diego Chargers (4,400) = 38.26%
Willie Snead, New Orleans Saints ($4,400) = 36.74%
Alshon Jeffery, Chicago Bears ($7,700) = 25.00%
Tight End
Benjamin Watson, New Orleans Saints ($4,600) = 41.16%
Heath Miller, Pittsburgh Steelers ($4,700) = 12.02%
Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots ($8,200) = 8.01%
Defense and Special Teams
Atlanta Falcons ($2,000) = 23.20%
Jacksonville Jaguars ($1,500) = 11.60%
Denver Broncos ($3,400) = 11.19%
LOW/VALUE OWNERSHIP
Quarterback
Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings ($5,900) = 0.14%
Sam Bradford, Philadelphia Eagles ($6,700) = 0.14%
Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars ($7,300) = 0.69%
Running Back
Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings ($8,300) = 0.41%
Frank Gore, Indianapolis Colts ($5,400) = 0.55%
T.J. Yeldon, Jacksonville Jaguars ($5,900) = 0.69%
Wide Receiver
Donte Moncrief, Indianapolis Colts ($6,400) = 0.14%
Brandon Marshall, New York Jets ($7,300) = 0.55%
Pierre Garcon, Washington ($6,000) = 1.10%
Tight End
Jordan Reed, Washington ($7,200) = 0.69%
Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys ($5,200) = 0.83%
Martellus Bennett, Chicago Bears ($6,600) = 0.97%
Defense and Special Teams
Tennessee Titans ($1,800) = 0.14%
St. Louis Rams ($3,200) = 0.55%
Pittsburgh Steelers ($2,000) = 0.69%