Fire up some Clash… Pour your favorite beverage… It’s time for another short slate extravaganza as we have our first London game of the year (ugh)…
Slate Overview
- LA Rams @ San Francisco 49ers
- Baltimore Ravens vs Jacksonville Jaguars
Unlike the SNF-MNF slate this past week, we have two teams that lack offensive firepower to fully warrant a complete gamestack of one game over the other, however I do think going the route of a 49ers/Rams game-stack presents some strong upside.
First off, London games are historically BAD. Teams always complain that the travel schedule ruins their week, the conditions are usually subpar and throw in that neither the Ravens or Jaguars have lit up the scoreboard through the air in the first two weeks and we should see a low scoring game.
Second, the Rams and 49ers both have new offensive coaches this year who are slowly getting their teams into a more aggressive offensive attack. Not to mention, they’re two young up and coming coaches who worked together with the Washington Redskins and surely we can expect them to want to one up each other with their offensive attacks….
Short Slate Contest Approach:
You can either go a single lineup, bury it in cash and higher $ tournaments or go with the multi-entry and by multi-entry I mean 20 or more approach and lock in a solid core….. As you go through this, you’ll see who I think are the core plays and where you need to get some variance exposure.
Quarterback
Brian Hoyer – I love some Hoyer tonight because I think the 49ers are the team who will be behind, and I also think they’re going to have the bigger play threat deep down the field. The whole fantasy world has been waiting for Marquise Goodwin to go off and I think we get that tonight.
Jared Goff – It’s about 2:1 on the ratio of ownership for me with Hoyer to Goff on this slate, but I do love the Rams WR’s and so Goff is my correlation play with them.
I would go 70% Hoyer and 30% Goff.
Fade – Joe Flacco will draw plenty of ownership with his name compared to the others on this slate, I wouldn’t touch him.
Running Back
Todd Gurley and Carlos Hyde are my guys and it’s not even close. They are both CORE locks for me on this slate and I expect them both to score and combine for over 150 yards rushing. Len Fournette for Jacksonville will draw plenty of ownership but he’ll also draw about 9 men in the box with the pathetic Jaguars passing game. Lock in Hyde and Gurley…
Alternative Flex: Buck Allen
Wide Receivers
Marquise Goodwin – CORE Lock play. Going to go all in with one guy and it’s Goodwin to catch a deep bomb.
Pierre Garcon – Second in line with a full SF stack of Hoyer-Hyde-Goodwin-Garcon
Others to mix in:
Cooper Kupp, Mike Wallace, Allen Hurns, Jeremy Maclin
The optimizer loves Jeremy Maclin this week, which is very interesting….
Tight End
Ben Watson – CORE Lock… I am so heavy on the RB and WR doing the work in the Rams/49ers game that TE is a complete punt to the London game. Plus, Watson seems to be ageless and should rack up receptions as the Ravens WR will be locked down by Jacksonville’s strong secondary.
Defense
Jaguars – Contrarian pivot off the more popular Ravens defense. I think the Jags win this game and the defense is what comes through with a late pick 6 to clinch it.
Ravens D – Ravens D is okay, as they can stack the box against Fournette and force Bortles to beat them, however I don’t like the Jaguars to try and throw it a ton and thus the sack/INT/defensive score upside is diminished…
