Week 2 NFL DFS Strategy for Underdog and DraftKings: Sleepers, Vomit Stacks, and More

I'm finally back in the saddle after traveling last week and excited to break down the Week 2 DFS slate.

Every Friday, I'll be sharing my favorite plays for DFS contests on both DraftKings (salary cap; salaries) and Underdog (draft style; ADPs). Most of these musings will focus on tournaments, but I won't shy away from identifying the #bestplays when necessary.

The exact format of this article might change, but this week I got a five-pack for you, including:

How to approach the Week 2 slate from a macro perspective
A $4K QB to consider on DK
A mispriced WR1
Why you shouldn't be afraid of the Titans on Underdog this week
An interesting case study of the Browns TEs across both sites.

By the way, I'll be hosting a weekly "DFS Jam" on the Fantasy Life YouTube every Thursday at noon ET. I'll mainly be drafting Underdog teams, but I'm also happy to talk about DraftKings as well. Check out the Week 2 edition here.

Macro: Fade The Noise Or Chase The Steam?

Week 2 is arguably the most fun week of the season when it comes to DFS. Weeks 1 and 18 are definitely the trickiest with all of the uncertainty, but Week 2 provides players with two different pills to take before drafting:

Blue pill: Fade what happened in Week 1, let the field chase the randomness
Red pill: Adapt quickly to new realities, chase the mispriced players who proved their worth

I wish I could tell you that taking one of those pills is definitively better than the other, but I can't. As always, each situation requires additional context and nuance. Here are a few of these situations and how I lean toward playing it…

Blue pill: Dolphins stacks. I know they looked like a dumpster fire on Sunday vs. the Colts, but so did this Patriots defense without Christian Gonzalez. They will carry extremely low ownership this week, and I will be taking some stabs.

Red pill: Keon Coleman. The Year 2 WR dominated in Week 1 with 11 targets (26%) and an overall Utilization score of 95. At $5100, he's definitely underpriced relative to his Week 1 usage. If the field is still skeptical, I have no problem "chasing" Coleman in Week 2 because he's on his way to being a $6K+ player for the rest of the year.

The DK Vomit Stack Of The Week: Mac Jones & The Niners

Every year, there seems to be at least one team that is in a Final Destination-like situation with injury after injury. In 2025, that team is definitely the San Francisco 49ers. Brandon Aiyuk started the season on IR, George Kittle just got placed on IR (hamstring), and now Brock Purdy is out 2-5 weeks with turf toe.

Because this Purdy news dropped after salaries were released, the new starting 49ers QB, Mac Jones, is priced at the stone minimum ($4,000). This is particularly interesting for two obvious reasons: 1) it is extremely cheap and 2) we know this offensive system can prop up average QBs (sup Jimmy G).

It's rare to be able to get a QB, bellcow RB, and WR1 on the same team for less than $17,000 in total salary, but that's exactly what you can do with the Niners this week.

Mac Jones - $4,000
Christian McCaffrey - $7,500
Ricky Pearsall - $5,300

The matchup is great, too—a dome game with a New Orleans Saints defense that struggled to contain the Cardinals last week. You could easily make a game stack out of it and include a Saints pass catcher on the bringback, but it isn't a necessity.

Free Square: Eat The Hollywood Chalk

Hollywood Brown ($5200; 34.9) is the last man standing in the Chiefs WR room after Travis Kelce took out Xavier Worthy with some friendly fire in Brazil.

Brown responded accordingly with 16 targets, 10 receptions, and a wild 40% target share.

The Chiefs now host the Eagles—who looked extremely leaky in the secondary vs. the Cowboys—at home at Arrowhead in a game with a respectable 46.5-point total.

Hollywood will be far from sneaky on DraftKings—I envision him being the most popular WR on the slate—but that doesn't mean he should be ignored. Last week, Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka was the most popular WR on the slate (31% ownership) and put up a score you had to have to win Week 1 tournaments (23.6).

On Underdog, however, he's a genuine sleeper as the WR19 with an ADP of 34.9. He should be a big part of your draft plans this week. Speaking of which …

Underdog Sleepers & Scrolls: Remember The Titans?

Because only 36 players are drafted in the weekly Underdog contests, scrolling for players who aren't as popular can provide you with a unique piece that can differentiate your roster from the field.

When you hit on those pieces—like Daniel Jones and Michael Pittman Jr. or Justin Fields and Garrett Wilson in Week 1—your path to the top of the leaderboard is way less crowded.

In Week 2, I really like going back to the well with the Titans after they faced an extremely tough task on the road in Denver. Their ADPs reflect their poor Week 1 outing:

This is the perfect spot to take the blue pill and attack in drafts because the underlying usage was great, but the production wasn't there because of the matchup:

Tony Pollard: 89% snap rate; 18 rush attempts, 1 reception
Calvin Ridley: 32% target share; 8 targets, 4 receptions

The Rams don't represent the easiest matchup in the world–they held the Texans to nine points last week—but this is a spot to chase the volume on a concentrated offense.

I'll be scrolling down to Pollard and Ridley on lots of teams this week and mixing in some Cam Ward stacks as well.

BONUS: Read about why Titans rookie WR Elic Ayomanor is set for some big games earlier than expected. I think you could sprinkle him in at $3200 on DraftKings this week in a pinch.

Underdog vs. DraftKings: Browns TEs

One thing that novice DFS players have a hard time understanding is how a player can be a good play on one site and not on another, but scoring settings, pricing, and ownership all matter a ton.

In this space each week, I want to highlight a situation like this as a way to illustrate how you should look to get exposure to players on specific sites.

And no duo does that better in Week 2 than the Browns TEs.

Harold Fannin Jr. - (ADP: 34.8 - TE6; $3100)
David Njoku - (ADP: 35.5 - TE11; $4400)

So let's break this down. Fannin Jr. shocked the fantasy world with his Week 1 Utilization, but Njoku's role wasn't awful (6 targets):

This sets us up with a situation where Fannin Jr. is a clear top play on DraftKings while Njoku is a clear top play on Underdog.

Fannin is $1300 cheaper than Njoku on DraftKings, which is also full PPR. That lends itself well to how Fannin Jr. scored in Week 1, getting spammed with nine targets.

On Underdog, however, he's the TE6, which means he'll be selected in most of the drafts. Meanwhile, Njoku is the TE11 with an ADP of 35.5, which means he'll be selected in very few drafts.

This makes Njoku the perfect scroll on Underdog, which rewards TDs more so than DraftKings because it is only .5 PPR.

On the flip side, Njoku is a very tough sell at $4400 and the sixth most expensive TE on DraftKings.

TLDR: Fannin Jr. on DK, Njoku on Underdog.