Week 9 Cash Plays: Drew Lock, Cheap Backs and One Pay-Up Receiver Decide the Slate
Gibbs costs $10,000, Jaxon Smith-Njigba $9,300 and Kenneth Walker $9,000, while three starting quarterbacks cost between $4,000 and $4,100. This is a get-the-cheap-guys-right slate: Lock, Singletary, Coleman, Antonio Williams, Adonai Mitchell and a defense under $3,500 carry the lineup.
Week 9 is an 11-game main slate. The Bengals-Falcons game in Madrid, Thursday's Jaguars-Ravens game and the Sunday and Monday night games are not on it, and Pittsburgh and Tennessee are on bye. Two games share the slate-high total of 51.5 (Raiders at 49ers and Cowboys at Colts), with Lions at Dolphins right behind at 50.5, and San Francisco's implied 30.5 is the highest team total. Kansas City is a 10-point favorite over the Jets, Seattle an 8.5-point favorite over Arizona, and the two lowest totals belong to Cardinals at Seahawks (39.5) and Giants at Eagles (between 38.5 and 42.5 depending on the book). All spreads and totals below are the DraftKings lines as listed by ESPN and RotoWire on Friday, and every salary is from the Week 9 DraftKings file.
The pay-up tier is expensive. Gibbs is 20% of the cap, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is 18.6%, and Puka Nacua is 17.6%. A lineup can afford one of them, and only with a $4,000 quarterback. The good news is that the cheap tier is unusually well supported by news. Sam Darnold is out and Drew Lock is cleared to start at $4,000. Cam Skattebo is out, which makes Devin Singletary ($4,600) the Giants' lead back. RJ Harvey is out in Denver, which leaves Jonah Coleman ($5,300) as the main back, and Garrett Wilson is out for the Jets. That is why this article builds around the savers and not around the stars.
