Week 18 DFS Picks: Core Players and Best Plays

Every week, I get asked about my favorite plays of the week or who is in my player pool that weekend for DFS.

This article series covers exactly that.

In the three articles linked below, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

Week 18 DFS Content:

Our core players are the players we will have the most exposure to at their positions.

They can be played in cash games and tournaments.

Quarterback

Jayden Daniels ($7,800/$8,700)

Dan Quinn has said his team will “fight like hell” to secure the No. 6 seed this weekend, which gives us added confidence that we will get a full runout for Daniels.

Daniels is on a scorching hot streak, averaging 29.6 points per game over his past five.

Touchdown regression has found him in a big way.

He has thrown 15 touchdowns over that span with multiple scores through the air in each game.

He had 11 passing touchdowns through 11 games with only three games throwing for multiple scores.

Since Week 10, the Cowboys have allowed a 69.2% completion rate (28th), 7.7 yards per pass attempt (27th), and a 5.0% touchdown rate (20th).

Dallas has allowed 21.4 fantasy points per game over their past eight games, including surrendering 26 combined points to Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee on Sunday and 30.4 points to Daniels himself when these teams played in Week 12.

Sam Darnold ($8,100) *FanDuel

Darnold stayed hot on Sunday, throwing for a career-high 377 yards against Green Bay.

Darnold added 3 touchdown passes, the 12th time he has thrown multiple touchdown passes this season.

Only Joe Burrow (13) has more.

Darnold did not stuff the box score with fantasy points when these teams played in Week 7 (16.3 points), but he did complete 81.5% of his passes (22-of-27) for 9.6 yards per attempt.

He only threw 1 touchdown pass, an outlier based on the highlighted note above.

That was also against a healthier version of the Detroit defense.

The Lions have been hemorrhaging passing production to close the year.

Over their past five games, Detroit has allowed a league-high 9.1 Y/A with a 6.4% touchdown rate (28th).

During that run, they have allowed 28.6 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks.

Detroit also struggles to contain quarterbacks in the running game.

They are 29th in rushing yardage allowed to quarterbacks.

That is not a massive part of Darnold’s game, but he added 39 yards on the ground when these teams played in Week 7.

Josh Dobbs ($4,000/$6,000)

Out of all of the punt play options we have at quarterback this week, Dobbs is the one that stands out as someone to nibble on.

Dobbs posted six QB1 scoring weeks over his 12 starts last season.

We know he can provide rushing output, averaging 32.4 yards per game as a runner in his stint as a starter last year.

He came in and ran for a touchdown on Monday night.

Heading back to Arizona, Dobbs will be playing with a strong collection of talent and scheme.

He can be played as an isolated play at his salary that allows to to build a traditional “cash” lineup fitting in other core players mentioned here, but can also be stacked relatively cheaply in larger-field settings with Jauan Jennings and even Ricky Pearsall.

Running Back