5 DraftKings Bargains for Week 14

Jaylen Samuels, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers

DraftKings Price: $3,700

Projected Points: 13.66

Projected Value (points per $1,000): 3.69

With James Conner sidelined this week, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be without their bellcow running back against the Oakland Raiders. Conner left periodically during Sunday night’s game, which put Jaylen Samuels into the action. Samuels played 25 snaps last week and had 5 touches in Conner’s absence, and that was with Conner still in the game on the Steelers’ last drive.

There is concern that Samuels will be a part of a committee here though. Head Coach Mike Tomlin mentioned in his weekly press conference that Samuels isn’t expected to carry the load. Based on those comments then, it would have made sense to see veteran Stevan Ridley over an unproven rookie like Samuels. But that was not the case. Ridley didn’t record a single snap on Sunday. In fact, Ridley hasn’t seen a snap since Week 10. which happens to be when Samuels started to see see backup snaps over him.

Ridley can easily see some snaps and carries against the Raiders, but he's hardly been used in passing downs this season. He only has 4 targets in comparison to his 18 carries to date. For comparison, Samuels has 9 targets and 12 carries. Even though there is a scenario in which Ridley steals valuable running back work, Samuels is still the better pass catcher and a better fit for the offense. The Steelers are one of the more pass-reliant offenses in the league - first in the league overall and sixth for red zone offenses. For fantasy purposes, targets are much more valuable than carries, too.

The Steelers are implied at 31.25 points as 11.0-point favorites on the road. The expectation should be that Samuels will not have a bellcow workload here, but with that many points flying around he should be involved in getting his offense to that point. His touches should come mostly through the air, which is cheap exposure to one of the better offenses on the slate. And on DFS sites that have PPR scoring, Samuels becomes the better play with his receiving ability. He is numberFire's top value running back this week.