NFL DFS game by game breakdown: Week 2

NFL DFS: Seattle Seahawks @ Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

While we didn’t quite get the efficiency we had hoped out of Chris Carson, we certainly got the volume. He garnered 71.4% of the running back carries and also led the entire offense in targets (7) and catches (6) while scoring twice. If this proves anything, it’s that the coaching staff meant what they said when they preached involvement in the passing game. If Carson can maintain an every-down role this week, we could easily see a replication of his stat line with a bit more efficiency.

Tyler Lockett came into the week with a ton of hype and let with, well, 2 targets. He was able to go vintage Tyler Lockett and turn his one catch into a 44-yard touchdown, but the fact that D.K. Metcalf out-paced him in targets (6 to 2), catches (4 to 1) and yards (89 to 44) shouldn’t go unnoticed. Until Lockett proves he’s the true WR1 in terms of volume in Seattle, he remains a boom-or-bust GPP option with a bit more propensity to boom rather than bust. Metcalf, on the other hand, is still not someone I’d trust in cash, but showed his upside in tournaments, especially seeing how badly Phillip Dorsett and Josh Gordon just burned the Steelers’ secondary on the deep ball.

Russell Wilson had an uber-efficient game (70% completion rate), but just doesn’t produce enough volume to rely on for fantasy purposes. He’ll need to attempt a lot more than 20 passes to pay off his salary, making him a tournament play at best.

Cash Plays: Carson

GPP Plays: Lockett, Metcalf, Wilson

Pittsburgh Steelers

Week 1 couldn’t have gone any worse for the Steelers, as they got embarrassed on Sunday Night Football at the hands of the Patriots. With the Seahawks look like another menacing matchup on paper, the Bengals were able to keep the game close and produce a ton of fantasy gold, so I expect the same out of the Steelers.

James Conner was a massive disappointment, producing only 21 carries on 10 yards. With that said, the fact that he commanded 10 of the 12 carries out of the backfield shows that he’s still the workhorse, he just happened to be a victim of negative game script. The Seahawks front-7 is a tough test, making Conner a GPP-only play, but his upside is still massive. JuJu Smith-Schuster suffered a toe injury in week 1 after posting a 6-78-0 line on 8 targets, but luckily the x-rays came back negative and he’s expected to suit up. The Seahawks secondary just got burned by the combination of John Ross (7-158-2) and Tyler Boyd (8-60-0) and ranked 25th in pass DVOA vs WR1s last season, giving JuJu massive upside here.

Vance McDonald didn’t see much action until the fourth quarter, walking away with a dismal  2-40-0 line on 4 targets. The silver lining is the fact that he was active for 71% of the team’s snaps. This is a spot where he could realistically bounce back after C.J. Uzomah posted a 4-66-0 line against them last week. Ben Roethlisberger threw 47 passes and looked lost as he failed to record a single touchdown. While I won’t target him in this matchup, being at home with a higher-likelihood for a close game should help his cause.

Cash Plays: Smith-Schuster

GPP Plays: Conner, McDonald