It's time for the Week 4 edition of DraftKings and Underdog DFS Plays.

Below, I'll hand out a handful of completely made-up awards as a vaguely creative vehicle for sharing my favorite DFS plays for both DraftKings salary cap teams and Underdog drafts.

This is a particularly tricky week with so many injuries hanging in the balance. After last week's George Kittle debacle, I'm doing my best to steer clear of any situations that are particularly murky so this article can remain relevant throughout the weekend.

A DFS slate can easily get flipped on its head when players are ruled out and open up value for guys who become must plays, so it's always important to re-evaluate as news comes in.

The best way to use this piece is for ideas on how to construct teams on both DraftKings and Underdog. 

Let's get to it …

Btw, if you are new to drafting weekly teams on Underdog, I previously outlined five tips & tricks for the format.

🏆 THE STEAM CHASING JAMS OF THE WEEK (NICO & RASHEE)

In the sports betting world, "steam" refers to a sudden line movement due to an overload of money being placed by bettors at a given sportsbook. Oftentimes, other bettors will then successfully chase this "steam" at slower-moving sportsbooks who haven't adjusted the line yet. 

 

While the comparison isn't apples-to-apples, a similar dynamic is playing out in the DFS landscape. The Week 4 price tags on the Texans' and Chiefs' No. 1 WRs are starting to steam up, but certainly not enough:

These are two guys we want to continue to chase until their price is reflective of their true talent and roles. Collins and Rice are both Top 4 in WR Utilization Score among pass catchers who have played in all three games:

 

Rice has the No. 2 target share (34%) in the NFL and is averaging 21.6 points per game. He has yet to finish a week lower than the WR14.

Collins has blossomed into a true superstar with similarly impressive usage (26% target share, 43% air yards share) and now gets a Jags secondary that got lit up by Josh Allen on MNF.

As far as how to execute in lineups, I'd use Rice as a one-off play (the rest of this Chiefs offense is pretty busto right now), but I'd have no problem double-stacking C.J. Stroud with Nico and one of Stefon Diggs or Dalton Schultz (it sounds like Tank Dell is legit iffy to play this week). 

The Stroud doubles flopped last week, so this is a great opportunity to go back to it with a condensed target tree against a bad team. 

🏆 THE CLASSIC GPP PIVOT PLAY (Brian Robinson JR.)

Look, you aren't going to catch me saying anything bad about Jayden Daniels ($6500) and Kyler Murray ($6800). Commanders vs. Cardinals is the game of the week and they are the Top 2 QBs on the slate in both raw projection and in "points per dollar" value. 

But … you knew there was a but coming … they are both going to be incredibly popular plays. In smaller DFS contests, I wouldn't be surprised to see 50% of rosters have one of either Daniels or Murray.

Whenever I see a field exposure like that, I'm looking for ways to exploit it. Luckily, we get a prime opportunity to do so with Commanders RB Brian Robinson Jr. ($6100).

Not only is Robinson a particularly good play this week in a vacuum due to Austin Ekeler getting ruled out, but he gives us an awesome leverage angle on both of these chalky QBs. 

If Robinson is scoring TDs, that's a hit to Daniels' ceiling outcomes (who derives a good chunk of his fantasy upside from rushing TDs near the goal line).

Similarly, if the Commanders are rolling on the ground with Robinson, that means the clock is bleeding and limiting possessions for the Cardinals offense.

Essentially, Robinson Jr. gives us paths to paying off his salary and removing 40-50% of the field's lineups from first-place contention. 

🏆 THE VOMIT STACK OF THE WEEK (Andy Dalton, Diontae Johnson, & Tommy Tremble)

This is my favorite award to give out every week. To qualify for a vomit stack: 

1) the QB and pass catchers all need to be cheap

2) it needs to feel gross. 

I would say this certainly qualifies:

This spot for Carolina feels a lot like New Orleans and Derek Carr heading into Week 2. They had just dropped 40+ on the Panthers, but everyone was skeptical of whether they could do it again (spoiler: they then dropped 40+ on the hapless Cowboys).

Now we get a similar setup with the revitalized Panthers. These salaries are begging us to mess around and find out if they can keep the magic rolling.

Dalton, of course, threw for 300-plus yards and 3 TDs last week. Johnson was by far the biggest beneficiary of the improved QB play as he dropped 26.2 points on a gaudy 38% target share. 

But what really makes this a vomit stack is the inclusion of Tremble, who ran 77% of the routes last week and earned 3 targets. I know that doesn't sound impressive, but in this TE scoring environment (or lack thereof), going cheap at TE and correlating with your QB is a +EV play. 

🏆 THE SCROLL THE EFF DOWN RB SLEEPER PLAYS (Najee Harris & Cam Akers)

Well, last week our "scroll the eff down" RB plays completely flopped (you're dead to me D'Andre Swift), but this week we aren't relying on a run funnel matchup to get there. Nah, this week we are hanging our hat on volume with two RBs who will have the backfield to themselves:

With no Jaylen Warren, Joe Mixon, or Dameon Pierce this week (likely), these two will get the lion's share of the touches.

Harris saw 23 total opportunities last week (18 carries + 5 targets) and now gets a very weak Colts defense.

Even with the Vikings defense stymying the Texans last week, Akers still found the end zone and dominated the rushing attempts (82%). He has a much more forgiving matchup this week vs. a Jags team that just got gashed by James Cook and the Bills. 

I love both of these guys as last-round clicks in your Underdog drafts or sprinkled into chalkier DraftKings lineups.

For more Underdog draft-strategy angles and hidden gems, I'll be posting a strategy video on the Deposit Kingdom channel every Friday evening. 

Good luck this week.