Adam Zibuda 
Heading into week 9 of the NFL, we saw two teams that looked unstoppable in the Buccaneers and the Cardinals both lose in shocking fashion to two shorthanded teams. The New Orleans Saints were missing their quarterback for a good portion of the game and the Packers were missing their top three wideouts. This was yet another reminder that truly anything can happen in the NFL, as anyone that picked the Bengals in survivor pools can attest to. As usual I will be covering the top quarterbacks and players to stack with them for GPP contests across the NFL DFS industry, so any stack that I recommend is in play for both FanDuel and DraftKings. With that said, let’s get to the picks!
The QB’s
A. I will cut right to the chase and say that the clear cut top quarterback option this Sunday is Josh Allen ($8,200 DK / $9,000 FD). The best part is, he should not even be too chalky on DraftKings, although he should be as chalky as he was in week 8 or potentially even chalkier over on FanDuel. It is much easier to afford expensive quarterbacks on FanDuel, whereas the field generally tries to either pay down at QB or shoot for the mid-tier on DK. Allen will be facing statistically the worst defense in the NFL in general, and also the worst defense in the NFL against the pass, according to DVOA. The Jaguars rank the 23rd worst in the NFL against opposing quarterbacks, and they are 26th against both wide receivers and tight ends. In other words, this team just cannot defend the pass very well at all. I will let others try to fade Allen here due to either ownership or a potential blowout, but despite the 2 touchdown+ spread, if the Bills blow this team out then Josh Allen will have 3+ TDs and plenty of passing yards to his name. Let others play the ownership fade on FanDuel, and take advantage of potentially low ownership over on DK with their strict pricing and salary cap.
B. If looking to diversify off of Allen, look no further than Taysom Hill ($5,500 DK / $7,000 FD). Hill is clearly underpriced across the industry for his new role, I mean we are talking about a guy who scored nearly 19 points on DraftKings in a game that Winston played in! Hill is apt to get us the six points for a rushing touchdown as opposed to just the four points for a passing touchdown, but he can certainly do both. The Saints draw the hapless Atlanta Falcons in week 9 of the NFL, who rank 3rd to last in DVOA through 8 weeks. They also rank 29th in DVOA against the pass and 24th in defending opposing quarterbacks. On top of this, the Falcons rank 27th in adjusted sack rate, meaning the likelihood of Taysom facing pressure when he does throw the ball is extremely low. The Saints also have the 9th highest run potential grade of the week, based on the combination of their strong offensive line against the Falcons mediocre defensive line. Load up on Taysom and the Saints as they look to keep rolling after their extremely impressive win over the Bucs.
C. The final quarterback that I will be looking to get exposure to in tournaments on Sunday is Dak Prescott ($6,900 DK / $7,900 FD), who happened to practice in full on Thursday. Dak will be welcomed back from his short break with a juicy matchup against a beatable Denver Broncos defense that ranks 25th in DVOA. While this defense is stronger against the pass than they are against the run, we know that this team depends on Dak regardless, and they will be sure to put the ball in his hands frequently this weekend. The strange part of this is that despite ranking 21st in DVOA against the pass, the Broncos are 3rd in DvP against opposing quarterbacks. I will side with the defense against the pass numbers here as the Broncos have not faced many quarterbacks of Dak’s caliber. The Cowboys are another near double-digit favorite for Sunday and I expect Zeke and Dak to eat.
The Stacks
A. Whelp, I made the mistake of stacking Emmanuel Sanders with Josh Allen in week 8 and was rewarded with a nice goose egg in my lineup for my troubles. While we need to have a short memory in DFS, Sanders is still more expensive than Cole Beasley, who is clearly the safer option with a similar, or arguably even higher, floor/ceiling combination. I will not be returning to the Sanders well, but Beasley and Diggs are the two receiving options that I will look to in this matchup. Tommy Sweeney is a big red zone target for Allen, but outside of a touchdown catch he does not contribute much and really does not have the ceiling that we are looking for to take down GPPs. On the Jaguars side of the ball, we are left with Laviska Shenault and whatever is left of Marvin Jones. I will pass on the wideouts from this team, but Dan Arnold came through for us as DFS chalk in week 8 and saw the commensurate price bump. I still think that he is a fine option despite the higher price tag, as he will now carry a fraction of the ownership and he is clearly a solid target for rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
B. Now this is a game that we can really load up on from both sides of the football. Despite this Saints team being hit with bad news from both the QB and WR positions last week, they are at least returning their backup QB Taysom Hill, even though there were rumors that he could retire due to concussions. The situation definitely gets a lot trickier with Taysom at the helm, because he could easily steal red zone touches and rushing touchdowns from Kamara. I will likely take a wait and see approach with Alvin, but I am also fine getting some exposure to him in the hopes that Taysom dumps the ball off to him frequently. Marquez Callaway and Tre’Quan Smith outline our top two options at wide receiver, and Smith will be happy to have Hill under center after his public falling out with Jameis Winston. Both of these two are fine flier options, but we should likely limit our exposure to just one of them per lineup. On the Falcons side, we have the continued resurgence of Cordarrelle Patterson as an offensive juggernaut for us to target, along with potentially a cheap and low-owned Mike Davis if we want to get weird. Russell Gage and UMass Amherst’s own Tajae Sharpe are two potential bring-backs, but the best pass-catching option for us is of course Kyle Pitts. This is easily my favorite game to stack up this week, despite the total sitting at only 42.
C. Closing things out with a game that has a much higher total of nearly 50, we have the Denver Broncos taking on the Dallas Cowboys. Dak will have all of his typical weapons healthy in this game, so we can look to Elliott, CeeDee Lamb, Amari Cooper, and Dalton Schultz. While I certainly would not look to target all 4 of these top options in any single lineup, I am definitely fine getting to two or three of them given the upside that this team has shown, and their juicy matchup at home. The Broncos will be returning Jerry Jeudy, and it will be interesting to see how his return impacts Cortland Sutton. Tim Patrick may take the largest hit in terms of his production, but all three are viable in GPPs on Sunday. We also have yet another viable TE bring-back in the form of Noah Fant, so this game is definitely right up there with the Falcons/Saints as a top option for week 9 of the NFL, but keep in mind this game will likely carry significant ownership.
That will do it for this week’s article. If I am not taking down the million this Sunday, then I hope that it is a member of our WDS fam! Please make sure to check out our projection model by clicking here, and if you have any questions about GPP strategy or the top stacks for the week, I will be in our expert chat in Discord leading up to Sunday afternoon. Feel free to shoot me a DM or @ me in chat! Lastly, do not forget to subscribe to the WinDaily YouTube channel and follow me on Twitter: @AThr0ughZ!
