Below are positional rankings for the 17-game early slate of DraftKings contests on Saturday with some commentary along the way. Keep in mind that salary has a huge impact on a player’s ranking.

Matchup Chart

Below is a matchup chart I create each week that includes information from Vegas and information on each team’s opponent in terms of their defensive strength. The defensive numbers are rankings from Football Outsiders’ S&P+ ratings. All the info is color coded as follows from most favorable to the offense to least favorable: purple-blue-green-yellow-orange-red-burgundy.

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Quarterback

1. Chad Kelly – $7,400 – Ole Miss
2. Patrick Mahomes – $9,500 – Texas Tech
3. Joe Hubener – $5,700 – Kansas State

I’m only giving you three options here, but given the great variance in their salaries, you can go in several directions with your roster construction based on the quarterbacks you roster. For cash games, I’m not too sure how you don’t roster Patrick Mahomes. Texas Tech has the highest team total of the slate, and they’re facing Kansas who has the 121st ranked defense according to the S&P+ ratings (out of 128). I prefer Mahomes as the safe play of the day compared to guys like Seth Russell, who is facing the 14th rated West Virginia defense, and Matt Johnson, as Bowling Green doesn’t have an elite team total and has a slightly below average matchup against Akron.

That said, I have Chad Kelly ranked above Mahomes simply based on value. Mahomes is definitely a much safer play, but the gap in salary between them should probably be smaller than $2,100. Ole Miss has a pretty damn good matchup against Memphis, who rates 105th in total defense and 99th in pass defense, and Ole Miss has the fourth highest team total of the slate as a result. I was able to work both Mahomes and Kelly into a lineup without too much consternation, so it can be done if that’s your preference.

The cheap option is Kansas State’s Joe Hubener. The matchup with Oklahoma is not good as the Sooners rate 25th in total defense. But the price is right on Hubener. He has six rushing touchdowns on the season and ran four in last week against TCU. He’s a big guy at 6-foot-5, 211 pounds, so it would make sense for him to remain a factor on the ground in tight. There’s certainly a chance he bombs as he has completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes this season. But the rushing stats should push his floor up high enough given his price tag.

Running Back

1. Dare Ogunbowale – $4,900 – Wisconsin
2. Conor Hundley – $4,800 – Akron
3. Jordan Howard – $6,000 – Indiana
4. DeAndre Washington – $6,300 – Texas Tech
5. Chris Hairston – $5,200 – East Carolina
6. Rodney Smith – $4,300 – Minnesota

If you’re going to spend on quarterbacks, you’re obviously going to have to save elsewhere. Thankfully, the running backs in this slate allow for some salary relief. Dalvin Cook and Kenneth Dixon are the only ultra-expensive running backs of the slate, and I’m not overly compelled to consider either one of them. There are some decent options in the low-seven/high-six range, but there’s more value if you go a little farther down the pricing list.

First up, Dare Ogunbowale and the Badgers running game have a good matchup against Purdue who rates 75th in total defense and who has been worse against the run than the pass. Ogunbowale has split the workload about evenly with Taiwan Deal this season, but Ogunbowale dominated the touches in Wisconsin’s last game with 18 carries compared to just four for Deal. And Ogunbowale should be getting more work as he’s been a more efficient runner, averaging 5.5 yards per carry compared to just 4.4 for Deal.

Next up we’ve got Conor Hundley who doesn’t have a ton of upside but has a nice floor. Hundley has between 18 and 21 touches in each of Akron’s last three games, so you can feel confident in the amount of work he’ll get. He has only topped 100 yards rushing in one of those three games, but he had two touchdowns in two of the three games and has six total touchdowns on the season, which leads the team.

If you’re looking for a bit more upside out of a back and you have a little more money to spend, consider some of the guys in the mid-price range. For example, if you decide not to go with Mahomes, it would make a ton of sense to roster Tech’s running back, DeAndre Washington. He’s much more likely to get you 150 yards from scrimmage and multiple scores than Ogunbowale or Hundley, but he also has three games this season where he failed to clear 100 yards from scrimmage or score a touchdown. He’s more of a GPP play.

Similarly, Indiana’s Jordan Howard has upside but comes with risk. He rushed for at least 145 yards in each of Indiana’s first four games, but managed just 34 yards on 14 carries against Ohio State two weeks ago before leaving the game with an injury and not playing the following week against Penn State. It seems like Howard will play this weekend against Rutgers, and the matchup is above average. But you have to wonder how much work he’ll get. That risk will probably keep his ownership percentage low, so he too could make for a GPP play with his upside.

Finally, we have yet to discuss the team with the third highest team total of the slate,  East Carolina, so let’s discuss their running back, Chris Hairston. Hairston opened the season with a 154 yard, four touchdown performance, but in five games since he has just 224 yards rushing on 75 carries (2.99 average) with only two touchdowns. He continues to get the most carries for the Pirates, but one of ECU’s two quarterbacks, James Summers, has five rushing touchdowns in the last three weeks. The matchup on the ground against Tulsa is great and ECU should score a lot, but it’s risky betting on Hairston to get in on the action too much.

Wide Receiver

1. Isaiah Jones – $5,800 – East Carolina
2. Joshua Atkinson – $5,400 – Tulsa
3. Shelton Gibson – $4,700 – West Virginia
4. Jakeem Grant – $7,200 – Texas Tech
5. Jonathan Giles – $3,700 – Texas Tech
6. Deante Burton – $3,600 – Kansas State
7. Corey Coleman – $8,200 – Baylor

Here’s your exposure to East Carolina and that third highest team total of the day. Jones is easily ECU’s leading receiver, and his price is very accessible in this matchup. The only reason you didn’t see an ECU quarterback ranked above is that they use two of them. Blake Kemp is effectively QB1, but Summers sees plenty of work. In the last three games, Summers has at least 16 carries-plus-pass attempts in each game. No matter how much work Summers has had, it hasn’t affected Jones too much. Jones did only catch two passes against Virginia Tech when Summers ran the ball 21 times, but he managed 55 yards and a score in that game. In his other five games, he has had at least six catches and 75 yards in each game.

After Jones we’ve got a couple of reasonably priced options in good matchups with decent floors. First, Tulsa’s Joshua Atkinson has at least 100 yards receiving in each of his four games this season, and he’s averaging seven receptions per game. Tulsa has an above average team total and a good matchup against ECU who rates 86th in total defense. That game could turn into a bit of a shootout.

Then there’s West Virginia’s Shelton Gibson. Gibson is a bit more of a home run threat as he averages 22.4 yards per reception but averages only four catches per game. Despite that seemingly boom-or-bust nature, Gibson seems to get his almost every time out. He has five touchdowns on the season and has scored in four of five games. He has also managed at least 80 yards receiving in four of five games. West Virginia also has a good matchup against Baylor who rates 100th in total defense. That game should also end up being a fairly high-scoring affair.

Now let’s talk about the Texas Tech receiving options. Jakeem Grant is unquestionably the only Tech receiver you can truly trust as he has 44 catches this season (7.33 per game), while no other Tech receiver has more than 18 on the year. The problem of course is his price. He’s not so expensive that he’s out of consideration, and I think he can hit value in this matchup. The problem is that pairing Grant and Mahomes makes constructing the rest of your roster tough. You pretty much have to go with Hubener as your QB2 in that scenario, and you’re pretty much locked in to the cheaper running backs. The other option is to go with a cheaper Tech receiver like Jonathan Giles. The freshman has come on a bit lately with three touchdowns in the last two games. He only has eight catches for 97 yards in those two games, but perhaps he’ll continue to grow into the offense.

If you’re going with the salary relief of Hubener, he can be paired with more salary relief in Deante Burton. Burton leads the Wildcats in receptions, yards and touchdowns, but his numbers are just 15/224/2, which obviously doesn’t inspire much confidence. That pretty clearly makes him a GPP play, but I think the necessity of Burton would only definitely arise in the situation where you stacked Mahomes and Grant and were forced to go Hubener. For that reason, Mahomes shouldn’t be stacked with Grant in cash.

I have Corey Coleman ranked last here simply because I can’t fit him in most lineups. But were you to go Kelly and Hubener at quarterback, you should be able to work Coleman in fairly easily. If you need to know why, just remember to check out his game log.

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