The Week 6 NFL Dashboard
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Panthers at Saints
This Superdome affair boasts the highest Vegas total of the week at 53 points. The visiting Panthers are three-point favorites and implied to score 27.75 points; the Saints are implied for 25.25 points.
Carolina Panthers
Writer: Tyler Buecher
QB – Cam Newton
Newton (concussion) is officially questionable, but he practiced on Friday and is expected to play.
He gets a terrific matchup against New Orleans’ poor secondary. The Saints have given up 312 passing yards and 1.3 passing touchdowns per game so far this season. The Saints’ depth chart at cornerback continues to be a revolving door of players fighting injuries and ineffectiveness. If Newton passes concussion protocol and is given the green light for Week 6, he has an astronomical ceiling per our Player Models. His 35.8-projected ceiling on FanDuel leads all quarterbacks and the Saints’ +7.1 Plus/Minus allowed to opposing quarterbacks in the past year is the highest mark of the week.
RB – Jonathan Stewart
Stewart (hamstring) is questionable but expected to play after missing the last three games.
He’ll face a New Orleans front seven that’s allowing opposing running backs a hefty +2.8 Plus/Minus on FD. Opposing running backs have already scored nine total touchdowns against them in just four games. Prior to injury, Stewart saw 58.9 percent of the snaps and 15 touches in Week 1; he’s an interesting GPP play if he’s able to go.
RB – Cameron Artis-Payne
CAP led the Panthers running backs in snaps and touches last week, and he played well: He racked up 85 yards and scored two touchdowns. His viability this week largely depends on Stewart’s availability.
RB – Fozzy Whittaker
The Saints linebackers have struggled in pass coverage. They’ve given up receiving games of 6-43-0 to Melvin Gordon, 5-55-1 to Devonta Freeman, and 3-47-0 to Tevin Coleman. Still, Whittaker is a very volatile play and one with limited upside; he has a six-point DK projected ceiling this week.
RB – Mike Tolbert
Tolbert has yet to score three points in a game on FD.
Until he sees more touches or red-zone usage, he shouldn’t be on your DFS radar.
WR – Kelvin Benjamin
The Saints have already taken their bye week and still remain in the bottom-three in fantasy points allowed to opposing wide receivers. Feel free to load up this week on the Panthers’ passing attack. Per our NFL Matchups tool, Benjamin will likely see a lot of De’Vante Harris on the outside, who has struggled in his limited snaps so far this season. Benjamin’s seen nine or more targets in three games so far this season, but DK bumped up his salary by $800 given the matchup with New Orleans. That said, New Orleans is allowing a league-leading 4.5 red-zone trips per game to opposing offenses, and Benjamin’s been the Panthers’ go-to guy inside the 10-yard line:
At nine to 12 percent FantasyLabs projected ownership, Kelvin possesses a lot of upside.
Benjamin (knee) is officially after questionable after appearing on the Injury Report on Thursday, but he practiced some on Friday and is expected to play.
WR – Ted Ginn Jr.
Ginn isn’t too far behind Benjamin in terms of both snaps and Air Yards so far this season and remains a big-play-waiting-to-happen. Ginn boasts a strong 17.1 aDOT and torched the Saints last season in their two outings. He put up 4-93-0 and 5-80-2 stat lines and saw a combined 16 targets over those two games. Ginn should definitely be on your GPP radar this week.
WR – Philly Brown
Brown continues to see a decent percentage of snaps, but he has only a 12.2 percent target market share in the last four games. He’s averaging only 4.8 targets per game, but that may be enough to meet value against this awful Saints defense.
WR – Devin Funchess
Funchess has five total receptions in five games. He’s seen a steady decline of snaps over the past four weeks and has become nothing more than a desperate GPP dart.
TE – Greg Olsen
I’m starting to run out of positive things to say about Olsen every week. He is completely dominating in just about every way at a very volatile position. He now gets a cupcake matchup against the Saints; he boasts the week’s highest projection, ceiling, and floor on FD. His nine Pro Trends are second to only Dennis Pitta. Averaging 10.6 targets and 16.4 points per game on FD, Olsen remains a weekly viable cash or GPP option.
New Orleans Saints
Writer: Tyler Buecher
QB – Drew Brees
We already know to play Brees at home, but his stats just continue to impress and are worthy of calling out every single time:
Dating back to the beginning of last year, Brees is now sporting a whopping +10.11 Plus/Minus at home on DK. He’s expensive on DK this week at $7,900, but check out that Consistency mark in the above image. Ninety percent isn’t too shabby. Outside of Matt Ryan‘s 39.5-point explosion against Carolina, the Panthers haven’t given up too many big outings this season. However, coming off their bye week, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Sean Payton and Brees come up with a similar game plan as Atlanta’s to dissect this Carolina secondary.
RB – Mark Ingram
A $6,700 FD price tag is incredibly low for a player of Ingram’s caliber and situation this week; we could see him go a bit under-owned with FantasyLabs projected ownership currently at nine to 12 percent. Ingram has seen just 57.4 percent of the Saints’ snaps this year, but he owns 68.2 percent of the team’s rushing attempts. His 17.5 touches per game is an intriguing mark in a game that has the potential for a ton of points. Ingram’s 98 percent Bargain Rating on FD makes him a great play this week if looking for a contrarian way to get exposure to this game.
RB – Travaris Cadet
Cadet’s usage in Week 4 was puzzling: He saw only four snaps against a team that was very susceptible to receiving backs. He’s not seeing enough volume to be relevant in DFS right now.
RB – Tim Hightower
Hightower hasn’t seen more than five touches in a game so far this season. He and John Kuhn have been used as short-yardage backs, although the latter has seen more of the red-zone looks. Both have very limited ceilings.
FB – John Kuhn
#Vulture
WR – Brandin Cooks
The Panthers gave up on the Bene Benwikere experiment after getting embarrassed by Julio Jones in Week 4, and the move now pushes rookie Daryl Worley into a starting role on the outside. Cooks should see a good number of snaps lined up against Worley and could have a nice bounce-back outing. After putting up a 6-143-2 line in Week 1, Cooks has averaged a 4-37.3-0 stat line over his last three games. Cooks still leads the Saints in Air Yards, owning a 27.03 percent market share. His low usage and high price tag on FD make him a player difficult to roster in cash lineups, but he’s worth rostering in GPPs given his high 18.2-point projected ceiling.
WR – Willie Snead
Snead has bounced all over the formation so far this year but will likely spend most of his time against Robert McClain and Zack Sanchez. McClain is PFF’s 89th-ranked cornerback so far this year and the rookie Sanchez has only 14 total snaps played in his career. Prior to injury, Snead was averaging 25.8 points per game on DK. After an extra week to get healthy, look for a big outing from Snead against Carolina’s struggling and inexperienced corners.
WR – Michael Thomas
Thomas leads the Saints receivers in both Pro Trends (six) and Projected Plus/Minus (+4.6) on DK. He has exceeded expectations in every game so far and has averaged 10 targets and a touchdown over the Saints’ past two games. Unfortunately, his targets could take a dip with Snead’s return.
TE – Coby Fleener
Fleener draws perhaps the most interesting matchup of all Saints players this week. Kyle Rudolph was able to find success against the Panthers, finishing with a 7-70-1 stat line. Carolina has allowed the eighth-most yards to tight ends and the fourth-most touchdowns so far this year. Fleener has been up and down to start the season, but he has still managed to average seven targets per game. Fleener’s $3,500 price tag on DK isn’t a terrible price for a player with a current projected ceiling of 15.2 points.
News Updates
After this piece is published, FantasyLabs is likely to provide news updates on a number of players herein mentioned. Be sure to stay ahead of your competition with our industry-leading DFS-focused news blurbs:
