Week 8 DFS Picks: Tournament 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.

It is not that tournament players cannot be used in cash games.

If a player here works out for your team structure in cash games surrounding your primary core, use them.

These are just the players that come with some element of inherent risk, but they also are the primary players I still want to be ahead of the field on, compared to the percentage of rosters they are projected to make this weekend.

I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but please refer to the Week 8 Worksheet for a detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Quarterback

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

Dak stayed scorching on Sunday, completing 21 of 30 passes for 264 yards (8.8 Y/A) with 3 touchdowns.

That was Prescott’s fourth straight game with at least three touchdown passes.

He has also thrown zero interceptions over that stretch.

We will always price in some floor facing the Broncos, but we have seen Denver play in high-and-tight contests that offer upside.

The Broncos have played games with combined scores of 57 against Indianapolis, 43 against the Chargers, and 65 on Sunday against the Giants, all decided by three points or fewer.

They also played a tight game with the Eagles.

In those weeks, Daniel Jones (316 yards), Justin Herbert (300 yards), Jalen Hurts (280 yards), and Jaxson Dart (283 yards) all posted solid passing yardage.

The touchdown totals are the tricky part, which is where Dak has been riding high.

Denver has allowed multiple passing touchdowns in only six regular-season games going back to last season (two this season).

Only Jones and Dart had true spike weeks this year for fantasy (both had rushing touchdowns with their passing yardage), but all four of those mentioned quarterbacks flirted with QB1 output for fantasy in those weeks.

Going back to last year, we saw them play in shootouts against Herbert, Joe Burrow, and Jameis Winston (Winston and Burrow were both QB1 overall scorers in those games), so there are paths for this game to be high-scoring while still showing respect for the Denver defense.

Joe Flacco ($7,300/$5,400)

There is a world where the Bengals are not pushed here and reduced passing volume, but the strengths and weaknesses of the Bengals' offense mirror those of the Jets' defense.

The Bengals struggle to run the football and have a front-end passing game when everything is working.

The Jets have defended the run well and played the pass poorly, and now have Sauce Gardner out of the lineup.

74.4% of Cincinnati's yardage has been gained via passing, the highest rate in the league.

The Bengals have shown no restrictions in letting Flacco rip.

He has 45 and 47 attempts.

In Week 6, the Bengals threw the ball 3% more than expected.

Last week, they were 11% over expectations.

He faces a New York defense that is 31st in pressure rate (27.6%) despite blitzing at the seventh-highest rate in the league (31.6%).

The Jets are 23rd in passing points allowed per game (15.7) and 29th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.543).

Running Back