NFL DFS game by game breakdown: Week 2

NFL DFS: Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Carolina Panthers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Jameis Winston and the Bucs came into week one garnering heavy ownership and left their game leaving a sour taste in fantasy players mouths. Jameis Winston showed his floor, tossing 194 yards with 1 touchdown and 3 picks, two of which were down-right bone-headed throws. His matchup was ripe for the picking last week but gets a bit tougher against Carolina this week. With his poor showing, I have no interest in looking towards him in a tougher matchup with much more secure options on the board.

With Jameis struggling, it seemed to correlate most with his WR1 Mike Evans. Evans finished with 2 catches for 28 yards on 5 targets. This could be in large part due to the fact that Winston spread the ball around throughout the offense, but it doesn’t give me any faith heading into a matchup against a secondary that ranked 5th in pass DVOA against WR1s in 2018. Chris Godwin could be a viable play once again after recording a 3-53-1 line on 6 targets and now gets a defense that was dead last in DVOA against WR2s in 2018.

Carolina was also in the bottom half of the league last season against the tight end position and allowed a combined 5-27-1 to the tight end combination of Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett last week. O.J. Howard is a far superior talent to both of them, giving me hope he could produce here.

I have zero interest in the run game here, regardless of it’s production last week, as they still find themselves in the thick of a committee in a tough matchup.

Cash Plays: Godwin

GPP Plays: Howard

Carolina Panthers

If you thought Christian McCaffrey was going to regress this season, you’re sadly mistaken. He posted 200+ yards from scrimmage (128 rushing, 81 receiving) with a pair of touchdowns en route to a monster performance. He handled 95% of the running back touches (19 out of 20 carries) and had both the most targets and receptions on the team. While the 49ers couldn’t crack the rush defense of the Bucs, McCaffrey should have no problem whatsoever en route to another RB1 performance.

Right behind McCaffrey in the target department was D.J. Moore, who recorded his first 10-target game of his career. While he did lose a fumble, his 7-76 line on 10 targets gives a ton of reason for optimism. Greg Olsen was another bright spot with 9 targets, even though he was only able to corral 4 of them. He is, however, battling a back injury, leaving his status for Thursday up in the air. If he misses, Ian Thomas steps into the starting tight-end role and immediately becomes an intriguing value play.

Both of them look to have a strong connection with Cam Newton, who had an efficient day (25/38 for 239 yards) despite not throwing a touchdown. I don’t expect the Bucs porous secondary to keep him out of the end-zone this week, making all three viable options in the passing game.

Curtis Samuel played a clear second-fiddle to Moore between the two wideouts and third-fiddle if you factor in Olsen, amassing only 4 targets making him impossible to trust in cash games. With that said, he saw over 90% of the offensive snaps, which is an encouraging sign and could result in an increase in usage if Olsen were to miss the game.

Cash Plays: McCaffrey, Newton, Moore

GPP Plays: Samuel, Olsen, Thomas (if Olsen is INACTIVE)