DraftKings Top Week 9 Value Plays

I blinked once and Week 9 is already upon us, but I’m back to help us think through the best ways to save some dough in the DraftKings Sunday slate. Let’s dive into some players at the $5,000 salary or less to target to supplement the stars and try and win some cold hard cash!

Mac Jones

Brock Purdy has been ruled out once again for the 49ers, which leaves Mac Jones to start once more in the matchup against the Giants. The Giants’ defense is fairly mediocre outside of their front 4, and Jones is starting to get a better complement of weapons to throw to. George Kittle is back and healthy, and CMC always soaks up 6-8 targets a game like clockwork. If Mac can distribute the ball to his stars in this game, he has a great chance of paying off at only $5k.

Geno Smith

I know it’s gross folks. Geno has been an unmitigated disaster this season for the Raiders. However, Brock Bowers is back and fully healthy, and they face a beatable Jaguars’ defense now lacking Travis Hunter. There is absolutely a chance that Geno is still a pumpkin even off the bye week, but there’s also a chance he has figured things out somewhat during the break. If that ends up being the case, Geno has an arsenal of weapons around him that can help produce a more than solid fantasy day any given week.

TreVeyon Henderson

Well my friends, I believe (and hope) that we are finally here with TreVeyon Henderson. Rhamondre is out this week, and the only other option in the backfield for New England is Bob from accounting who used to play linebacker in junior high. If it doesn’t happen this week, it will very likely never happen, at least in New England. Play TreVeyon with full confidence, because the talent is absolutely there. Sometimes, all we can do is follow the right process, and be at peace with whatever results that process yields. This is one of those times for sure.

Kyle Monangai

Speaking of trusting the process, D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson are out for this game against the Bengals, and Kyle Monangai is a cool 4600 DraftKings dollars against the worst defense in the league in a game the Bears are favored. Travis Homer will almost certainly get a little work, but Monangai is the guy here, and regardless of how talented you believe he is, the opportunity is enough to make anyone salivate at the idea of a workhorse role against this sorry excuse for a defense. Monangai is heavy chalk now, but sometimes chalk is just good to play regardless of ownership.

Kareem Hunt

Everyone and their mother is excited to play pieces of the Chiefs and Bills on DraftKings this week, but $4700 Kareem Hunt without Pacheco is for some reason not very popular. Is Kareem Hunt kind of boring? Absolutely. Is he going to get a crap ton of work and basically all of the high value touches in what projects to be a shootout? Also yes.

I know it’s gross, but Hunt feasibly has a multi-touchdown game in his range of outcomes for this matchup, and he’s only $4700 with a decent floor due to his projected volume. Hunt is the weakest of the 3 fantastic RB plays this week, but I like him at his cost over plenty of other flex options at the same or lower cost.

Jauan Jennings

It hasn’t quite clicked yet, but Jauan Jennings has 14 targets over the past 2 weeks with Mac Jones, resulting in 15.6 DraftKings points over those 2 games. However, those games have come against 2 of the better pass defenses in football (the Falcons and Texans). This week, he faces the New York football Giants.

I talked about the array of weapons at Mac Jones’ disposal in his section, and Jennings is easily the most underrated of the 3 main ones. All it takes is a touchdown or a broken play mixed with his target volume to give you an excellent result playing Jennings at $4300.

Parker Washington

The loss of Travis Hunter is devastating, both in fantasy and in real-life for the Jaguars. However, it now presents a major opportunity for targets behind BTJ, and Parker Washington is the logical choice to move up the pecking order with Hunter gone.

Washington has 2 games already this season, including in their last game before the bye, with 10+ targets. Trevor Lawrence has struggled to connect with Washington on those targets though, with only 8 receptions accrued in those 2 games despite throwing him 21 targets. If Parker gets a similar target volume, but more passes connect against this poor Raiders’ defense, Washington provides easily the best value on the entire slate.

Darius Slayton

Darius Slayton caught a long bomb touchdown last week in his return from injury, but it was called back due to penalty. That phantom touchdown has meant that Slayton is going relatively unnoticed in fantasy and DFS circles this week. The 49ers are beat up beyond belief only 9 weeks into the season, and the budding stardom of Jaxson Dart provides upside to Slayton that he never had with Russell Wilson under center. If the phantom touchdown turns into a real touchdown this week, Slayton can more than pay off at just $4100 on DraftKings.

Juwan Johnson

The Tyler Shough era has officially begun in New Orleans, and Juwan Johnson seems positioned to be one of the primary beneficiaries of Shough figuring out the NFL game in real time. Something that has been lost in the shuffle this season is that Johnson has quietly been the secondary target in New Orleans behind Chris Olave, even above Rashid Shaheed and Alvin Kamara.

Johnson has 7 or more targets in 5 of 8 games, including 2 straight. Every game he’s had more than 7 targets, he’s scored more than 10 DraftKings points as well. Against a fierce Rams’ pass-rush, Shough may look for the easy button in the offense, which has been Johnson this year over Kamara from years past.

Ja’Tavion Sanders

I’m not going to lie, I don’t love this play. But as I talked about on Get Titled this week with Bryan, it feels as though the value tight end range on DraftKings is voluntarily lighting fantasy points on fire in the current landscape. The expensive and mid-range TEs just feel so much better from a projection standpoint compared to the cheaper plays outside of Johnson, and you’re basically just hoping for a touchdown with all of these guys under $3000.

Sanders at least has a relatively wide open path to touches outside of Tet, and he’s back healthy from his injury. Gunnar Helm is another decent play at $2900, though Chig will play this week, and Taysom Hill is always an acceptable coin flip. But my recommendation for DFS until further notice is to ignore the punt TE strategy, as you will lose far too much projection at the position.