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If you’ve never played weekly salary cap games, you’re missing out on an exciting game to play throughout the NFL season. The game that we’ll be breaking down in this weekly article is for the website FanDuel.
For those of you that have never played a salary cap game before, I’ll quickly go over the rules so you can understand how these games work. Each player is given a monetary value based on statistics, matchups and that player’s hype. You then try to create the ideal lineup using as salary cap, such as $60,000.
The purpose of this weekly article is to point out the best values each week so you can make the most ideal lineup. A few positions you’ll never see on this article is defenses and kickers. With these positions you’re just basically looking for the most ideal matchup, whether that’s a rookie quarterback for a defense or a terrible defense for a kicker.
With all this information, let’s now take a look at some of the most ideal matchups over at FanDuel.
Quarterback
Terrelle Pryor, Oakland Raiders
Pryor made our players to watch last week, and he didn’t let us down in Week 1. He’s easily the quarterback with the most value heading into the second week of the season with a cost of only $6,500.
For starters, Pryor plays the Jacksonville Jaguars this week. The Jaguars had the third-worst overall defense with a rating of -13.0 and the third-worst run defense at -6.9 last week. Pryor, on the other hand, rushed for 112 yards on a measly 13 attempts against the Indianapolis Colts.
While his passing ability and potential turnovers are certainly a concern, there is definitely more positive than negative this week for Pryor. He’s got an ideal matchup and his elite athleticism will make him dangerous nearly every week.
Running Back
Joique Bell, Detroit Lions
What the Lions made clear in Week 1 was that Bell was going to be their goal-line back. Last week he had only six carries, but he turned those carries into 25 yards and two touchdowns.
However, there are some signs that point to Bell being a pretty decent running back. In his six attempts, Bell created two missed tackles. That gave him an elusive rating of 39.4, which is the 13th-best out of every running back in the league.
Bell can make people miss and he’s going to get the opportunity to score touchdowns every week. He may be a hit-or-miss player against better defenses, but the Carolina Panthers were just pedestrian last week in slowing down the run.
Look for Bell to post another multi-touchdown game this week. At a cost of only $5,700, Bell’s upside greatly outweighs his extremely low cost.
Isaiah Pead, St. Louis Rams
Pead was suspended for the Rams’ first game of the season, so we didn’t get to see how well he ran. However, we did get to see him in limited action last year, and he had one carry of 15 or more yards in just 10 attempts. He has the ability to make big plays, he just needs the opportunity.
We also got to see how poorly the rest of the Rams’ running backs played in Week 1. Starter Daryl Richardson was rather unimpressive with the ball in his hands, posting a -1.0 grade on the ground. That’s the same grade that Rashard Mendenhall of the Arizona Cardinals had, so not great company there.
The Rams will have to give Pead some opportunities to carry the ball in order to jump start the ground game. Don’t be surprised if he takes full advantage of those opportunities, and for a measly $6,000 he’s definitely worth the small risk.
Wide Receiver
Andre Roberts, Arizona Cardinals
There may not be a better value pick this week than Roberts. His cost of only $5,100 is ridiculously low for what he accomplished last week.
First, there are the statistics. Roberts was targeted nine times in Week 1 and he caught eight of those targets for a whopping 97 yards. He also posted the fourth-best receiver grade in Week 1 with a +3.4 overall grade.
When you dig a little deeper you see even more positives from Roberts. Quarterback Carson Palmer had a quarterback rating of 111.6 when throwing Roberts’ direction, good for the 13th-best for a receiver in Week 1. His “Yards per Route Run” was an impressive 3.03, ahead of players like Larry Fitzgerald, Julio Jones and Danny Amendola.
Simply put, Roberts is looking like a force in an offense that wants to push the ball downfield through the air. He’s an absolute steal this week over at FanDuel and should put up huge numbers again.
DeAndre Hopkins, Houston Texans
Hopkins was one of the most impressive rookies in Week 1. He saw six targets and turned that into five receptions for 55 yards. Not necessarily huge numbers, but considering he missed so much time with a concussion, they are definitely promising numbers.
Even better is the 112.5 quarterback rating that Matt Schaub had when throwing his way. Schaub will only become more confident in his rookie receiver as the season progresses.
While it’s hard to get too much information from only one performance, Hopkins definitely did enough to make his cost of only $5,200 seem ridiculously low. Get him on your roster now and watch him continue to play impressive football.
Tight End
Jordan Reed, Washington Redskins
This pick is going to take some faith on your part, but just hear me out before you start calling me crazy.
Reed posted a +1.4 grade in the pass game in Week 1, which was good enough for the seventh-best amongst tight ends. While he only caught five passes for a measly 38 yards, his positive grade is still a good sign.
An even better sign is the fact that Reed received six targets last week while starting tight end Fred Davis received only four. Furthermore, the Redskins play the Green Bay Packers this week who had a -12.3 grade in pass coverage in Week 1, which was the worst in the NFL.
At a cost of only $4,500, Reed is an absolute steal this week.
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