With Marcus Mariota unable to go, the Tennessee Titans will throw Zach Mettenberger out there against the Houston Texans on Sunday. Considering Mett's lack of success this season (one touchdown, two interceptions in 43 attempts), there's no real reason to consider him in DFS contests — even with the Titans playing a bad Texans defense. Though, Delanie Walker becomes a solid value play at tight end. Struggling quarterbacks tends to latch on to their tight ends as top targets.
San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde will be inactive for the team's game against the St. Louis Rams Sunday. It is expected that Hyde will miss substantial time with a foot injury. Following that announcement, the 49ers made the decision to waive rookie running back Jarryd Hayne.
This means that Reggie Bush will get a vast majority of the rushes against St. Louis with rookie Mike Davis spelling him — a less-than-ideal scenario for the free-falling team. No one on the 49ers offense is worth a start this week.
As you likely already know, Joseph Randle will not play against the Seattle Seahawks after leaving the Dallas Cowboys this past week. With Darren McFadden coming off a solid outing and expected to receive a bulk of the Cowboys' touches this week, he's a solid DFS play. That's magnified by a cheap cost in both FanDuel ($6,400) and DraftKings ($3,800) contests.
Vincent Jackson will be inactive against the Atlanta Falcons Sunday afternoon. Averaging 6.7 targets in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first seven games, this is a big loss for rookie signal caller Jameis Winston. It also means that second-year receiver Mike Evans should see an uptick in production. He's a solid DFS play in FanDuel ($7,800) and DraftKings ($6,800) contests.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Anquan Boldin is inactive Sunday with a hamstring injury. As if the 49ers needed to miss more skill-position players in this game, Torrey Smith will now take over as the team's No. 1 receiver. As indicated above, not a single member of the 49ers offense is a DFS play against the studly St. Louis Rams defense.
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Leonard Hankerson is inactive against Tampa Bay. Considering Hankerson is averaging 5.6 targets per game, Roddy White should see more action in the passing game against a substandard defense.
Tennessee Titans wide receiver Harry Douglas is inactive again. While Dorial Green-Beckham should continue to see snaps in his stead, we want to see some production from the rookie before starting him in DFS contests.
Tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins is inactive for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The second-year player hasn't suited up since suffering a shoulder injury Week 2. While void of any real pass-catching presence at tight end with ASJ out, this also means Evans should receive a ton of targets against Atlanta.