Fantasy Football FanDuel NFL DFS Week 1 Picks: De'Von Achane Will Shine In Dolphins-Colts Opener
Geoff Ulrich delivers Week 1 NFL DFS plays on FanDuel for fantasy football managers, presenting best picks like De'Von Achane, Tua Tagovailoa and more.
Week 1 is already here. That means there is a ton of money up for grabs in the daily fantasy football streets, so every week we’ll turn our attention on Saturday and Sunday to DFS lineup building.
What we’re looking at today? Picks for FanDuel GPPs and the Sunday Million
I’ll be breaking down my favorite plays here every week, and looking at undervalued plays and under-the-radar stacks to target on FanDuel.
FanDuel awards bonuses now at 100+ yards (3 points passing/receiving/rushing), but its 0.5-PPR setting does make TDs more valuable and receptions less so—something to keep in mind.
The plays and salaries listed here will be specific to FanDuel and their salary cap contests.
However, since we’re also relying on the FantasyLife+ projections, tools and advice, the specific game matchups and correlations (aka, game stacks) are things you can apply to lineup building across the DFS industry.
Hint: Use Code GRIND for 20% off a FantasyLife+ subscription today
If you'd like my favorite plays and GPP targets that are specific for DraftKings, you can also find that here.
Let’s get started. Week 1. What a time to be alive!!
FanDuel Week 1 NFL DFS Picks
Week 1 Stack: Fins Up
- De'Von Achane (8200) and Dolphins DST (4300)
Indianapolis ceded the 10th most receptions to RBs last year, and with Lou Anarumo as their DC, they also seem likely to deploy a lot two-high safety look vs. the Dolphins to counteract their speed. That could also funnel passes to Achane, who caught 78 balls last season.
While the 0.5-PPR scoring downgrades his upside a bit, Achane still ranks with the fifth-best ceiling in our projections for Week 1. With him getting in a full practice in on Friday and being cleared for a full workload, starting any Dolphins stack with him is the prudent move.
Path one if you’re using Achane is to deploy him as the lone Dolphins skill player, but pair him with the Dolphins DST, who are expensive, but also in a great spot. Daniel Jones has been sacked 3.68 times per game over the last two seasons and Miami’s pass rush should be vastly improved with a healthy Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips, who will join Zach Sieler up front (10 sacks in each of his last two seasons).
DST scoring is volatile, but isolating Achane and the DST not only gets you some light correlation, but could also get you exposure to most or all of the Miami points in an extremely contrarian manner.
Fins Up Part II
- Tua Tagovailoa (6000) AND De'Von Achane (8200)
- Jonathan Taylor (8300)
- Plus one of Tyreek Hill (7600) or Jaylen Waddle (5500)
One way I like to play offenses I’m high on is to use multiple lineups to get exposure to all of the potential points from said offense. That way, if it works out, I should have at least one live lineup with a shot at a big finish.
For Miami this week, if you’re playing an alternate lineup to our first stack, that means bypassing the DST, and using Tua and Achane together, along with one of the two Dolphins WRs. Obviously, we’re rolling the dice here a little if we’re leaving Waddle or Hill out, but with Achane being such a great receiver himself and the matchup, it seems less likely we’ll see both WRs hit than we'll see Achane completely bust.
If you’re playing this strategy, going with a full game stack is certainly plausible in this spot as well. I don’t love playing RBs from opposing sides, but again Achane should be considered a receiver at this point given his usage, so stacking him alongside the explosive JT gives you some solid same game correlation in case this develops into a back-and-forth shootout.
Big Play/Multi-TD Pivot Plays
- Tank Bigsby (5300) ← Austin Ekeler/TreVeyon Henderson
- Chris Rodriguez (4300) ← TreVeyon Henderson
- Rashid Shaheed (5600) ← Tetairoa McMillan/Emeka Egbuka
Both McMillan and Egbuka will be popular at under 6000 on FanDuel this week. I don’t think you should fade both, but putting both in one lineup seems like a recipe to have your lineup get duped, and just generally make your lineup too chalky to have a shot at the first-place prize.
Luckily, we have one of the best spike players in the game to pivot to at 5600 in Shaheed. Last season, he averaged 84.5 yards and scored twice in his first two games of the season. He enters this season healthy and will be up against a Cardinals defense that may be starting a rookie in Will Johnson at corner in Week 1.
Henderson and Ekeler are a couple of other names who will likely be uber-popular on FanDuel given the gift-like salaries on both. However, remember that catches are only worth 0.5 points on FanDuel so fading them here is more viable than it would be on DraftKings, if they were that cheap.
Rodriguez not only offers direct leverage off of Ekeler, but is cheaper and has been pegged as the favorite to draw early-down work and goal-line carries for Washington in Game 1.
If you have the flexibility to go further up, Tank Bigsby is another name who should offer good leverage over those who choose the more popular names. Bigsby is obviously going to split work with Travis Etienne, but profiles as the better runner (46 missed tackles last year to Etienne's 17).
Go FantasyLife+
Your league is unique. Your advice should be too. Get personalized tools, rankings, and projections tailored to your fantasy football league settings.
