Hello everyone! Welcome to the Week 8 edition of DFS Studs and Scrubs. Last week we had some great plays featured in this article, such as a low owned Joe Burrow going for over 33 points, and some not so great ones (looking at you, Justin Jackson). Overall, though, it was a good week! Let’s get right back into it this week. As usual, FanDuel pricing will be listed first, followed by DraftKings.

Studs

To get started we are going to look at some studs you can build your lineups around. These are going to be higher priced players, so be careful choosing who you want to build your lineup around, as ideally players will score at least three times their salary. So if a player is $8,000, you want them to score at least 24 points. For the purposes of this article, stud quarterbacks will be over $7,000, running backs and wide receivers over $6,000, and tight ends over $5,000. Let’s take a look!

Quarterbacks

1. Aaron Rodgers ($8,400/$7,600): Rodgers get a rematch with a Vikings defense that he absolutely annihilated in Week 1. The Vikings potentially got worse on defense over their bye week so expect big things from Rodgers this week.
2. Justin Herbert ($7,700/$6,900): Herbert has done nothing but shred opposing defenses since he took the reigns of the Chargers offense. That will continue this week as the Broncos lackluster secondary won’t provide much resistance.
3. Derek Carr ($7,300/$5,500): Carr falls below my threshold to qualify as a stud on DraftKings but I’m going to put him here anyway because that price is absurd. He has been playing perhaps the best football of his career and now gets a friendly matchup versus the Browns.
   

Running Backs

1. Derrick Henry ($9,500/$8,000): Sunday marks the first day of November. Why is that significant? November is the month where Derrick Henry traditionally starts to really punish defenses. The Bengals are going to get flattened by King Henry this week.
2. Kareem Hunt ($8,200/$6,900): Hunt will continue to be the Browns bellcow and gets a juicy matchup against a Raiders defense that gives up a lot of points to opposing running backs. He will probably be very chalky but I think this qualifies as “good chalk”.
3. Jonathan Taylor ($7,300/$6,600): The Colts are fresh off a bye week, perhaps they used this time to decide they need to get their best running back involved a little more? If the Colts commit to getting Taylor the ball more this could be the start of an impressive stretch for the rookie.
   

Wide Receivers

1. Davante Adams ($9,100/$8,800): Don’t get me wrong, Adams is a tremendous play this week. He ate the Vikings secondary alive at the beginning of the season and I would expect more of the same this week. However, I have two issues here. First, wide receiver is very deep this week. There are a ton of solid options. I don’t know if you necessarily need to pay up for Adams. Second, I could see him being extremely popular. It will be interesting to see what happens with him this week.
2. Adam Thielen ($7,700/$7,200): Thielen will very likely see a lot of Jaire Alexander this week. Historically, Thielen has faired just fine against Alexander. Not an ideal matchup by any means but the Vikings should be playing catch-up and heavily targeting both of their stud receivers, making Justin Jefferson a solid option as well.
3. Keenan Allen ($7,400/$6,200): You know how Justin Herbert has been lighting the world on fire lately? Allen has been the primary beneficiary. Herbert targets him relentlessly. Allen should eat up the Broncos secondary. His DraftKings price seems too low.
   

Tight Ends

1. George Kittle ($7,700/$7,000): Kittle is a little more expensive than I would like, but there’s a lot to like here. This game has a 54.0 point over/under as of this writing. The 49ers will likely be trailing, leading to more pass attempts. Deebo Samuel will miss this game which should open up a handful of targets.
2. Darren Waller ($6,800/$5,600): Waller has been very steady this year, but this week presents an opportunity for a blowup game. Carr and Waller make for a very affordable stack on both sites.

Scrubs

This wouldn’t be the weekly DFS Studs and Scrubs article without a Scrubs section! This is the fun part where we find some cheap players to fill in the cracks of your lineup. Imagine this section is the $2 DVD rack at your local Dollar General. Most of the movies are American Pie spin-offs or campy horror movies, but every now and then a copy of Die Hard sneaks in there. Let’s go find Die Hard!

Running Backs and Wide Receivers

1. Le’Veon Bell ($6,000/$4,600): If you buy into the revenge game narrative then just go ahead and lock Bell into your lineups. Bell is going to do everything he can to stick it to Adam Gase this week.
2. La’Mical Perine ($5,300/$4,300): On the other side of the field we find Lamical Perine. His role is growing and the extremely high likelihood of garbage time in this game could lead to even more opportunities for Perine.
3. DeeJay Dallas ($4,600/$4,000): You might as well call him Mike Baxter because Dallas is the last man standing in the Seahawks backfield. Keep an eye on the availability of Chris Carson, Carlos Hyde, and Travis Homer, but there is some potential for a large role at rock bottom prices.
4. Marvin Jones ($5,500/$4,200): While Xavier Rhodes most likely follows Kenny Golladay around, Jones will do battle with Rock Ya-Sin, who is, well, a lot worse than Rhodes. The annual Marvin Jones blowup week could be here.
5. Hunter Renfrow ($5,100/$3,800): The Browns are pretty terrible against slot receivers. Guess who plays in the slot a lot for the Raiders? Since this is the Hunter Renfrow section, I’m assuming you guessed him. Good guess. Henry Ruggs is a good option too.
6. Marquez Valdes-Scantling ($5,000/$3,800): MVS could serve as a nice pivot off Davante Adams this week, just in case Rodgers decides to throw a couple of long touchdowns his way. Nice salary relief option. Note: Allen Lazard has returned to practice, something to keep an eye on if you are debating using MVS.

Quarterbacks and Tight Ends

1. Jimmy Garoppolo ($6,600/$5,400): Has Jimmy G been great lately? No, not even close. This should be a high scoring game though and the 49ers will probably be chasing points. The Seahawks defense is not an intimidating matchup in the slightest.
2. Tua Tagovailoa ($6,800/$5,600): Sometimes people tend to fear the unknown, and that’s what Tua is at this point, at least in the NFL. We do know he is an aggressive, accurate passer with a lot of upside. We’ve seen two other rookie quarterbacks light it up already this year, why not make it three? Facing off with Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey is far from ideal but I think it’s worth a shot in a GPP.
3. Jonnu Smith ($6,100/$4,100): This one is fairly straight forward. Jonnu is simply too cheap on DraftKings for his upside in this matchup. I know he’s coming off two down games in a row, but now gets a Bengals defense that is quite awful at defending tight ends.
4. Albert Okwuegbunam ($4,700/$2,800): Even with the return of Noah Fant, Albert O still saw seven targets last week. I’ll likely avoid him on FanDuel but his DraftKings salary can open up a lot of options for the rest of your lineup.
5. Irv Smith Jr. ($4,500/$3,000): Smith Jr. was beginning to get more involved before the Vikings went on bye. I hope they continue making getting him involved a priority because he has a lot of upside. The opportunity to out-produce this salary will certainly be there this week.

Well that’s it for this edition of DFS Studs and Scrubs! If you want to talk more plays hit me up on Twitter! While you’re getting ready for Week 8 be sure to check out the rest of the awesome articles we have here at Belly Up! Be sure to tune in next week for more DFS Studs and Scrubs! Let’s go win some money this week!