I just got my tuxedo back from the dry cleaners (got a little vomit stack on it last week) so I'm finally ready to hand out some awards for the Week 5 DFS slate.

Forget the pomp and circumstance, though, let's get right to it.

The envelope please …

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

🏆 2 SETS OF DYNAMIC DUOS (49ERS & PANTHERS)

There are two sets of teammates who stick out as extreme values on the Week 5 DraftKings slate.

A lot of times hand builders are hesitant to play a RB/WR pairing from the same team as they typically prefer to gravitate to a classic double stack (QB + 2 pass catchers) or a one-off RB play. But if you mess with any DFS sims (nerd alert!), you'll quickly realize that attacking correlation across your entire lineup—even if it doesn't involve the QB—is a sharp play. 

Here's a quick individual selling point on each of these guys, but the strength of the play is pairing them together:

  • Mason trails only Alvin Kamara in total opportunities this year (98 to 100), and has already tallied 504 scrimmage yards and 3 TDs. Now he gets an atrocious (and banged up) Cardinals defense that is No. 20 in defensive rush success rate (h/t Matt Freedman). 
  • Deebo had a relatively quiet outing in his first game back from injury, but the usage (20% TPRR and 19% of the targets) was great. Now Deebo is fully healthy, and the Cardinals are a defense that will allow Samuel to tag them for a few big plays. 
  • Hubbard has been a monster these past two weeks (27.8 and 22.1 fantasy points), which has resulted in an elite 8.9 Utilization Score. He's simply too cheap for this role. Keep jamming him until Jonathon Brooks returns.
  • There hasn't been a bigger 180 turn in fantasy value this year than Johnson pre- and post-Bryce Young. He has turned 27 targets into a gaudy 15-205-2 line with Andy Dalton under center. What's really impressive, though, is that he's no longer just a low aDot PPR merchant. He leads the league in end-zone + green-zone targets with 10 on the year. 

🏆 ONE 'HAWK IN EVERY LINEUP (SEATTLE SMASH WEEK)

The Seahawks are coming off a MNF game where they scored 29 points in a loss vs. the Lions. They now get a much friendlier matchup at home vs. a depleted Giants squad. They have a juicy 25-point team total, which is one of the highest on the slates.

I see three different ways to play this:

Not much needs to be said about Walker, who returned from an oblique injury and promptly dropped a hat-trick's worth of TDs. This is a great play on paper, but I'd keep tabs on the projected ownership here. I could see Walker getting very popular as we approach kickoff. Zach Charbonnet was still very involved in the passing game (5 targets) vs. DET, so there is some risk here of KW3 failing if they don't get a positive game script (unlikely, but possible).

Because I imagine Walker will end up popular, I like the idea of pivoting to the passing game here. As Dwain highlighted in his rankings piece, the Seahawks have quietly morphed into a pass-first attack under new coordinator Ryan Grubb. The team now has the “highest dropback rate over expectation in the NFL at 7.2%.”

Through four weeks, Geno ranks second in passing yards per game (296) and in completion percentage (72%).

This gives us the perfect opportunity to lean into the passing game if the field wants to exclusively play it through Walker. Metcalf has been elite this year (21-337-2 on 32 targets) and JSN is coming off a 12-target game. 

  • BESPOKE: Seattle Defense ($3,500)

There's one final way to attack this spot. If one or both of Malik Nabers and Devin Singletary don't play and it becomes obvious that the Giants will struggle to move the ball, paying up for the Seahawks defense could be the move. If they score a defensive TD, it could cap the upside of the entire offense. 

TLDR: It'll be tough to build a lineup without at least one of these three angles.

🏆 THE VOMIT STACK OF THE WEEK (Matthew Stafford DOUBLE STACK)

Alright, you know the drill. This is the gross double stack that is actually not as gross as it seems when you factor in the price and matchup.

Everyone is going to be very excited to play the Packers this week–and rightfully so–but there is a very likely scenario where the Packers (-3) get a lead, turn to Josh Jacobs (the Rams allow the fifth-highest rushing yards per game), and the Rams are forced to sling it the entire second half:

Stafford is never an exciting click because there's zero rushing upside, but he can easily pull a Baker Mayfield or Andy Dalton impression and throw for 3 TDs in the right spot. 

I'll let you take your pick with either Whittington or Atwell at WR. The rookie, Whittington, is coming off a game with 97% route participation and a 30% target share. Atwell, though, wasn't far behind him with a 20% target share and 33% air-yards share. Both of these guys are very solid plays and you could play both, but I prefer picking one to pair with the TE.

Speaking of which, Parkinson is coming off a 6-target game as well and looks like one of the best TE values on the slate. The TE position, as you've likely experienced by now, is a desolate wasteland. That means we should continue to look for cheap options in good game environments who correlate with our QB. Parkinson checks all of those boxes.

🏆 THE SCROLL THE EFF DOWN RB SLEEPER PLAYS (Jerome Ford & Trey Sermon)

It's time to head to Underdog where we have two RB plays who will be fairly popular on DraftKings, but will go completely overlooked in Battle Royale drafts:

Ford's usage in Week 2 was very bizarre (42% of the snaps), but he's otherwise been used as a lead back, averaging 14.8 points per game in the three other weeks. The real selling point, here, is the matchup. The Commanders have been getting lit up on the ground and the Browns continue to struggle through the air.

Jonathan Taylor is very unlikely to play this weekend with a high-ankle sprain, which means Sermon is the next man up. Per the Utilization Report, Sermon has emerged as the clear RB2 ahead of Tyler Goodson:

  • Snaps: 19% vs. 6%
  • Attempts: 9% vs. 0%
  • Routes: 28% vs. 10%