Everyone loves fantasy football, but DFS can be challenging. Cash games, in particular, have gotten especially tough. You can try your luck in 50/50s or double-ups, but those contests are full of some of the best DFS players in the world. You can try head-to-heads, but there’s no guarantee that you’re not going to get scooped by a shark.
Luckily, StatHero gives DFS players a new option for cash games. Instead of playing against an unknown opponent, you can play against a set lineup of your choosing. That means you know exactly who you’re facing in advance and can build your lineups to target them. You can fade a specific player, fade a specific lineup construction, or you can even fade Michael Rapaport. I don’t know about you, but I definitely like my chances against the guy from Deep Blue Sea using the Fantasy Labs NFL tools.
Let’s dive into some of the most appealing players to target and teams to fade on StatHero in Week 1.
Players to Target
Quarterback
Jalen Hurts – QB20 on StatHero, QB5 on FantasyLabs
Hurts stands out as one of the biggest edges to exploit this week. He’s priced as just the 20th-most expensive quarterback on StatHero, but he owns the fifth-highest projection in our NFL Models. That’s a massive discrepancy. Hurts was insanely good in three full starts last season, averaging nearly 30.0 DraftKings points per game, and the Falcons were an elite matchup for quarterbacks last season.
Running Back
Joe Mixon – RB12 on StatHero, RB5 on FantasyLabs
Mixon seems poised for a career year. Giovani Bernard is no longer around to steal touches in the passing game, and the coaching staff has hyped up Mixon’s three-down potential during the offseason. Mixon could also set a new career-high in touchdowns if the offense lives up to its potential. Joe Burrow has a plethora of weapons to lean on, which could set up Mixon in plenty of goal-line situations.
He starts the year with an excellent matchup against the Vikings. They had the worst defensive line in football last year, ranking dead-last in adjusted line yards per Football Outsiders. Their 10% stuff rate was also tied for the worst mark in football.
Wide Receiver
CeeDee Lamb – WR58 on StatHero, WR14 on FantasyLabs
You have to submit your lineup before Thursday Night Football to take advantage of this pricing mistake on Lamb, but it’s so egregious that it has to be mentioned. Lamb was being drafted as a borderline top 10 wide receiver in fantasy drafts this offseason, yet he’s barely priced inside the top 60 at the position on StatHero. He has a tough matchup vs. the Buccaneers, but that really doesn’t matter at his current salary. He averaged 18.32 DraftKings points in five starts with Prescott last season, and he only figures to improve in his second NFL season.
Rondale Moore – WR69 on StatHero, WR58 on FantasyLabs
If you miss out on Lamb, I like Moore as an alternative. He was one of the stars of the preseason and has a nearly universal approval rating among fantasy experts. The Cardinals are going to manufacture touches to get the ball in his hands via screens and reverses, so expect him to be busy on Sunday.
Tight End
Jonnu Smith – TE19 on StatHero, TE13 on FantasyLabs
The tight end pricing on StatHero seems to align with the FantasyLabs projections, so I like the idea of using Travis Kelce if possible. Smith stands out as one of the better bargains if you’re paying down. He signed with the Patriots in the offseason, and he was an athletic freak coming out of Florida International. The Titans never really utilized his skill set, but the Patriots prioritized him in free agency. I would expect him to be a bigger part of their offense than he ever was in Tennessee.
Teams to Target
It should be noted that the opposing teams are getting discounts on the players that they choose. That means they’re constructing teams that can’t be replicated, even if you were to try and use them in different contests. That does give your opponent a bit of an advantage off the jump.
That said, that advantage doesn’t feel insurmountable. For starters, you are allowed to duplicate a specified number of your opponent’s picks. The number of players you can duplicate depends on the size of the lineup. I would recommend using as many of the duplicated players as possible since they’re going to be priced at a discount. Then, we can pick on the players in our opponent’s lineup that are still suboptimal.
I like the smaller contests for this reason. In the 2 vs. 2 and 3 vs. 3 contests, our opponents are getting a discount on a smaller number of players, which makes it easier for us to compete with them.
The scoring settings are another potential source of value for us. StatHero utilizes tight end premium scoring, so they get 1.5 points per reception while all other players get 1.0. They also use distance scoring, which awards bonus points for longer touchdowns.
Adams Apple (Davante Adams & Ryan Tannehill)
I like this contest because Tannehill is clearly a suboptimal play. He checks in at $10,300, and we can grab Hurts at just $9,100. We have Hurts as a superior play in our Models, so I will gladly take that discount. That gives us the ability to go up to Dalvin Cook at Captain, who we have projected for more points than Adams.
That’s far from the only combination you can use, but it’s one example of how to exploit Tannehill in this contest.
You can also use the same lineup construction vs. The Cat and the Kittle (George Kittle & Josh Allen), but I’d rather go head-to-head with Tanny.
Ty’s Corner (George Kittle, Tyreek Hill, Terry McLaurin, Odell Beckham Jr.)
This is a 4 vs. 4 contest, but we can duplicate two of our opponent’s picks. That means we can drop it down to a 2 vs. 2, which I’m happy to do. Adams and Kittle are both strong plays on this slate, but McLaurin and Beckham are a bit more exploitable.
One possible combination would be Adam Thielen and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Thielen has an elite matchup vs. the Bengals, while the game between the Steelers and Bills could easily turn into a shootout.
