Week 6 DFS Picks: Core Players and Best Plays

Every week, 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.

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

They can be played in cash games and tournaments.

I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but please refer to the Week 6 Worksheet for a detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Quarterback

Drake Maye ($7,800/$5,900)

This is a unique main slate in that all of the top quarterbacks at the top of weekly rankings are unavailable.

Jalen Hurts has already played.

Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Jayden Daniels are in primetime games.

Lamar Jackson is still out with an injury.

Maye checks the most boxes of what remains.

He is a home favorite in a favorable matchup at a solid price point.

Maye leads the NFL with a 68.8% completion rate (33 of 48) on throws 10 or more yards downfield, while the league average is 47.9%.

Maye is second in the league with a 117.7 rating on third downs.

Over the past four weeks, Maye has had motion on 53.7% of his dropbacks (16th) and used play action on 30.8% (5th).

Using pre-snap motion, Maye’s 121.1 rating is fourth in the league, while his 9.1 yards per attempt average is second.

Using play action, Maye has averaged 8.1 Y/A (12th) with a 117.1 rating (12th).

Maye draws another soft matchup here.

New Orleans is allowing 8.3 yards per pass attempt on dropbacks with motion (27th) and 8.2 Y/A on play action attempts (19th).

On throws 10 or more yards downfield, the Saints have allowed a 52% completion rate (25th).

In total, the Saints are allowing 16.3 passing points per game (25th) and rank 27th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.539).

To go along with that, they are allowing 4.1 rushing points per game to quarterbacks (24th).

Dak Prescott ($8,000/$6,500)

Prescott has been hot these past two weeks, closing as the QB1 (31 points) and QB2 (28.3 points).

He has been a top-six scorer in three of his past four games.

Prescott has thrown 7 touchdowns these past two games, throwing for 8.0 Y/A and 8.2 Y/A in those outings against the Packers and Jets.

All without CeeDee Lamb.

The Panthers opened the year strong against the pass, but we were questioning their strength of schedule.

These past two weeks, they have allowed QB1 scoring weeks to Drake Maye (23.2 points) and Tua Tagovailoa (22.7 points).

With Carolina, we know what we are going to get from Ejiro Evero.

The Panthers deploy a high rate of Cover 3, using it on 45.7% of their defensive snaps (third in the league).

Against Cover 3 to open the year, Prescott has a 123.1 rating (third), completing a league-high 82.8% of his passes with a league-high 5 touchdowns.

Running Back