DFS CFB FanDuel Week 6 Thursday

Welcome back to the weekly DFS CFB FanDuel review. This edition is focused on the Thursday Night slate, Week 6 of the season. We’ll discuss top DFS CFB options by position for your FanDuel DFS CFB slates.

Over the first five weeks of the college football season, we’ve had mild success with our DFS lineups. Most of our success comes with the smaller Thursday and Friday night slates, as it’s been easier to pin-point the top plays, with more limited DFS CFB FanDuel competition. We’ve hit some great plays on Saturday’s, but the value picks have been hard to nail.

For Thursday night, we have four games we’ll pick through, and grab several top point plays at all positions. However, for the receiver position, we’re going to dig in for a couple of value plays. We may even consider punting the top receiver position to the Super Flex spot, and blanket the position with sneaky value.

Before we get there, a reminder to never take a DFS CFB optimal lineup as ‘bible’ for your personal lineup each day. Use the suggestions as guidance. Also, make sure you follow final lineup thoughts throughout the day on our twitter account @FantasyCPR or me @MattyMcMatt17 look for late breaking lineup news.

Here’s a look at the schedule for the Thursday night Week 6 slate:

Georgia State at Troy 7:30pm ET (ESPN 2)

Tulsa at Houston 8pm ET (ESPN)

While each of the college football games scheduled for Thursday night are broadcast on prime ESPN channels, they’re also anticipated to be lop-sided affairs. But, of the two, the George Stat and Troy game at least has some potential to be a close game.

George State and Troy each had tremendous success facing the 2-3 University of Louisiana Monroe Warhawks. But Troy is already 2-0 in their conference, two wins away from likely clinching a bowl birth, and beat a Big Five team, Nebraska, on the road.

Of the four teams most likely to have a ton of points, the Houston Cougars are the obvious pick. Houston has an outstanding passing game we’ll need to consider, and could put the ball on the ground often toward the end of the game. But, in order to stay in the game, we could see a lot of passing offense from Tulsa in the second half.

DFS CFB FanDuel Week 6: Thursday Quarterbacks

Unless you’re using some unique GPP take expecting one of the quarterbacks to get injured, or sit out the rest of the game, Thursday night, you really only have four options at this position. Between these four teams, we already know this. Houston and Troy are each expecting to win Thursday night. Also, of the four teams, they should put up the most points.

For GPP plays, you should consider Dan Ellington ($8,200) before Luke Skipper ($8,000). Yes, Skipper and the Tulsa offense will likely play catch up all game, trying to sling the ball down the field. But the Houston Cougars front line is formidable, with an NFL caliber Ed Oliver leading the front line. So taking my chances on Skipper isn’t ideal.

But the reason you shouldn’t consider Ellington for cash plays is similar. Troy’s pass rush in the last couple of games has been impressive. They’re setting team records in tackles for a loss and sacks lately, and Ellington is likely going to hit the ground a lot on Thursday night.

So for a cash game lineup, and quite frankly for GPP too, you should consider either Kaleb Baker ($9,200) or D’Eriq King ($10,500). Barker has a solid match up and is a solid bet for over 20 DFS CFB FanDuel points on Thursday night. His point-per-game average is slightly skewed by the defensive talent his team has faced before Georgia State.

However, we’d be remiss if we avoided talking about King, as the top overall pick. Yes, King is obvious chalk. But sometimes picking the chalk to anchor your lineup sets up you better to win all formats.

And in this case, you’re likely going to lose any format without one of the most productive offensive signal callers so far this season. Against Tulsa, King likely gets us around five touchdowns with around 300 passing yards. He should add some yards on the ground too. You can’t pass that up in any format.

DFS CFB FanDuel Week 6: Thursday Running Backs

The running back position is trickier than the quarterback or wide receiver position on Thursday night. In each game, we’re expect all four teams to conduct an air raid on their opposing defenses. That impacts our spending targets at the running back position. We don’t want to spend too big here, and starve our salary available for other positions.

Tulsa’s Shamari Brooks ($9,600) is listed as the most expensive tailback because he’s getting over 20 carries per game. But with those carries he’s only had over 100 yards once, and scored two touchdowns in just one game.

While B.J. Smith ($9,100) is getting less carries per game for Troy, he’s still averaging 65.5 rushing yards per game and has a higher total of five touchdowns, compared to Brooks. We also know Troy is favored to win the game, and if they get a sizable lead by the third quarter, Smith has a very good shot at over 100 yards in this game. He’s our favorite back in all formats.

It’s clear the FanDuel pricing indicates an expectation of mostly passing from the Houston Cougar’s offense. Patrick Carr ($7,700) is the top tailback option from the team, and I think he’s dirt cheap.

Again, Carr isn’t getting a ton of carries, only around ten per game. But with this passing attack, he has a more open field to pile up big games. Also, he should see the ball more as the passing attack claims a big lead over Tulsa on a home field in Houston. As a result, Carr is a tremendous value play.

DFS CFB FanDuel Week 6: Thursday Wide Receivers

With so much focus on the passing game Thursday night, receiver is a key position to ‘get right.’ Unfortunately, the salaries provide some funky overall results, which we’ll get into in our summary.

Before we get there, let’s review our four, yes FOUR, favorite wide receiver picks for DFS CFB FanDuel lineups. First and foremost, Marquez Stevenson ($10,200) is as chalky as his Cougars quarterback, King, but also just as necessary to have in your lineup.

Stevenson has 22 receptions in five games, or more than four per game, just under 400 (391) yards, and five receiving touchdowns. But, oh, it gets better. Marquez is the Cougers third leading rusher with just four carries this season. That’s right, with four carries, Stevenson has 119 yards and a touchdown. Basically, we’re paying up for an easy 30 FanDuel points and dropping him in the Super Flex position.

With the chalky top receiver pick now in our lineup, we still have three WR picks to fill. This is where it gets tough. Troy is a solid team to consider in the passing game too, but they’re spreading the ball around more.

That’s why I’m not going to spend too much money on Deondre Douglas ($8,800) and grab Damion Willis ($7,600) instead. Douglas’ salary makes little sense to me. Yes, Douglas has five more receptions. But Deondre has 263 receiving yards compared to Willis’ 239.

So we’re still getting around the same receiving yards production with Willis, for a $1,200 cheaper price. Also, Willis has four touchdowns in five games, compared to only three for Douglas. And Damion has two touchdowns in two of their five games, demonstrating a higher floor.

One of the sneaky value picks of the night could be Cornelius McCoy ($6,000). For a dirt-cheap price, we’re getting the Panthers second leading receiver this season with 153 yards. In each of the Panthers three tough losses, McCoy shines the most, averaging four receptions per game. They’ll be in a similar situation tonight, and Cornelius should see the ball often.

That leaves us with $8,900 left in salary, and a long list of options. Honestly, I find this next pick difficult. Penny Hart ($8,100) is the Panthers leading receiver in a game we expect George State to hurl the ball in the air often.

He’s a worthy consideration at this position, and we’ll demonstrate that in our example lineup. But, you’re leaving $800 of salary on the table. So a pivot option would be to use Deondre Douglas ($8,800), instead, and stack that Troy passing offense. Hart is probably the better GPP play to Douglas’ cash play, but either is a solid choice.

DFS CFB FanDuel Week 6: Thursday Summary

With just four games on the slate, we narrowed our quarterback options down to Houston’s King or Troy’s Barker. But of the two, King is just too dominate of a fantasy player to avoid in your lineup. He’ll be chalky, but you can eat that chalk and find winning picks in the rest of your lineup.

With King now already in our lineup, and expecting a monster passing game from all four teams, we definitely need to have Marquez Stevenson ($10,200) in the Super Flex spot. Marquez should have over 100 yards on Thursday night, with the potential for over 200 yards and likely gets at least one or two touchdowns.

We’re going to start out our receiver positions with two value plays, Willis and McCoy. That gives us plenty of cash to grab either Hart or Douglas as our top receiver option, outside of Stevenson.

At running back, we’re not paying the ridiculous price given for Brooks and the Tulsa run game. Instead, we’re putting our money on the two likely winning teams, and grabbing Troy’s smith and the Cougars Carr at the position.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the Week 6 DFS CFB FanDuel Thursday Night slate:

QB      D’Eriq King ($10,500)

RB      B.J. Smith ($9,100)

RB       Patrick Carr ($7,700)

WR     Penny Hart ($8,100)

WR     Damion Willis ($7,600)

WR     Cornelius McCoy ($6,000)

Flex    Marquez Stevenson ($10,200)

Remaining Salary: $800

Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for the slate. You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building DFS CFB FanDuel lineups.  We are not telling you, or selling you, to use this lineup.

Best of luck in your DFS CFB FanDuel contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis across College Football, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, EPL, PGA, and NASCAR this fall!