Welcome to the game environment series. This series will provide several weekly games to target and fade, based on macro-level factors that impact fantasy production. For more on these factors, click here. We recommend using this in conjunction with our micro-level analysis, including the buy low report, the strength in numbers series, our quarterback, kicker, tight end, and defense streaming articles, and the slate of DFS analysis we provide.
Week 6 review
Targets
Cardinals at Cowboys
Chiefs at Bills
Texans at Titans
Low-owned Game Stack
Packers at Buccaneers
Week 6’s targets were nothing special, but concentrated touchdown volume to the fantasy stars salvaged a lackluster game environment performance. The Buccaneers and Cardinals held up their end of the bargain, with Kyler Murray, Kenyan Drake, Christian Kirk, and Ronald Jones all delivering excellent games. Unfortunately, the Packers and Cowboys totally tanked, sapping the tight gamescript necessary for elite fantasy production. The Chiefs-Bills matchup combined for a decent fantasy game, but it fell short of the high expectations I had for it. Hopefully you were one of the people who played a Texans passing stack in DFS and brought it back with a chalky Derrick Henry. If so, you likely had a profitable Sunday.
Fades
Bears at Panthers
Rams at 49ers
Falcons at Vikings
The Bears, Panthers, Rams, and 49ers delivered the plodding, methodical performances we expected. Outside of George Kittle, most of these players fell short of average production. As for the Falcons and Vikings, the game script completely flipped from expectation. As that happened, the Vikings shifted to full comeback mode, throwing the ball nonstop, and Alexander Mattison fell far short of our expectations. Upon the news that Julio Jones was playing and supposedly in full health, he became a target for GPPs, as no one would play him and the Vikings were in a good spot, despite the pace concerns. Slow-pace games with two bad defenses are an area where gamescript can easily flip, and I plan to be more cautious when recommending these as fades going forward.
