It’s our first glorious Saturday afternoon of a full board of CFB DFS action! Move over Akron and St. Francis. See ya later Temple and Duke. Great to see you Oregon and Georgia! Come on in Cincy at Arkansas! Nice to have you back too Coach Kiffin. Congratulations on turning your entire roster over from 10 months ago. In fact, I think I may just roster some of your new additions in my DK lineups when you clean the floor with Troy this weekend. In the words of my newly found hero featured in this season of Hard Knocks, it’s about to be fun man. It’s about to be fun…
The purpose of every post I make here is to attempt to identify value for any particular slate. I am never going to offer the most expensive, obvious, and essentially best players as my “suggestions” or “picks” for a slate. I’m trying to point out options that could help you afford those players and/or options that I believe could provide similar results at a cheaper price based on logic and statistical evidence. That said, let’s talk some of my favorite plays for the Week 1 Saturday afternoon slate!
Arik Gilbert | TE/WR | Georgia $3,200
After a productive start to his college career at LSU in 2020, the consensus top-10 recruit of his class hit the portal eventually ending up with Kirby Smart at Georgia. After sitting out all of 2021 for personal reasons, Gilbert is back and already showing flashes of what he can do with two touchdowns in the Bulldog’s spring game. With George Pickens off to the NFL and Jermaine Burton going through the portal to Tuscaloosa, tight end Brock Bowers is likely the de facto top option in the passing game to start this season. After him, any clear pecking order has yet to be established. It might take a few games to knock the rust off after missing a full season, but a walking mismatch like Gilbert will immediately have a role and already has the ability to do serious damage.
For our purposes here, at almost the contest minimum price, the Georgia native is an auto play in my mind and will be in any lineup I set. Hot take: this will be the last week that we see the number three as the first digit after his name in DK contests. Take advantage while you can.
Dante Wright | WR | Colorado State $3,100
In that same price range, I would also consider this speedy slot receiver. New head coach Jay Norvell is bringing his Air Raid system from Nevada to Fort Collins to a team whose offense has frankly been offensive under the previous regime. But, that didn’t stop Wright from having a very productive 2021 as the team’s second leading receiver behind NFL bound tight end Trey McBride. Norvell did bring some wideouts with him from Nevada so Wright will still compete for targets. But, he’ll definitely be a starting wideout in offense that could throw up to 50 passes on Saturday as YUGE dogs at Michigan.
I don’t believe he has the upside that Gilbert possesses. But, all he has to do is make 3-4 grabs for 40ish yards and we’re in business at this price. If you start a lineup with both Wright and Gilbert as building block pieces, your average remaining price per player is a plush $7,283. Just sayin…
Quian Williams | WR | Buffalo $5,200
The logic here is very similar to the Jayshon Jackson pick on from Thursday night. The combo of being the team’s clear WR1 in a matchup that will likely produce plenty of throwing early and often makes Williams a great value at this price. In an early season 2021 game against another mediocre Small Ten team, he produced an 8-93 line in a 28-3 loss so he proved he can still produce in lopsided losses which this most assuredly will be. Much like Jackson’s 5-65 line in Ball State’s blowout loss against the Vols, I’m expecting Williams to have that same floor with reasonable upside where he should see plenty of volume.
On the other side in this game, Rakim Jarrett is one of my favorite price/floor/ceiling combos at wideout on the board. He has the upside to compete with highest priced receivers in the contest. Especially, if UNC’s Josh Downs is out.
Christopher Brooks | RB | BYU $6,100
Time shares, matchup concerns, and wacked out game flow scenarios that the college game produces can make it difficult to paydown at the running position in these contests. In the case of this Cal transfer he appears to be checking all those boxes on paper.
It is widely believed that he’ll get the first crack in the role that current Atlanta Falcon Tyler Allgeier averaged north of 20 touches per game in 2021. All BYU wants to do is run the ball behind what projects to be the best offensive line in their conference. Coaches have done nothing but rave about Brooks since he’s arrived on Campus. He routinely proved he could produce big games at Cal against better competition when given the opportunity. Oh yea. And, South Florida blows!
With all these important boxes checked on paper, I feel like Brooks has potential to be the steal of the slate at his position. For similar reasons, Houston’s Ta’Zhawn Henry is getting the nod as starter in a plus matchup with Alton McCaskill already being ruled out. In different stints at Texas Tech and Houston, he has also shown an ability to have explosive games when the circumstances are right. And, getting 20 touches against UT San Antonio in a projected high scoring affair are the right circumstances.
Good luck in Week 1! Follow me on twitter @realBobbyAdcock compliments and insults are always appreciated.
