DraftKings Daily Fantasy Football: Top Punt Plays for Week 9
Alfred Morris, RB, Washington Redskins
Alfred Morris ($3,900) seemingly came back from the dead last week against the Dallas Cowboys, scoring a touchdown for the first time since Week 4. He carried the ball a healthy 18 times for 73 yards and caught a pass for 12 yards.
Morris is criminally under-priced this week and presents perhaps the best value of any player on DraftKings. Why? The return of Robert Griffin III transforms Morris into a totally different player.
Want proof? When RGIII was able to scare people with his legs during his rookie year, Morris rushed for over 1,600 yards, averaged 4.8 yards per carry, and scored 13 touchdowns. According to numberFire’s metrics, Morris was the 6th-best running back in the NFL in Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) back in 2012 among backs with 200 or more carries.
With RGIII playing on a bum knee last year, Morris slipped out of the top-10 in Rushing NEP (he finished 11th) and only found the end zone seven times. He tapered off in every statistical category as well, including rushing yards (1,275) and yards per carry (4.6).
To put it simply, he’s just better with RGIII under center. And that trend has continued in 2014 - when Griffin was healthy against Houston in Week 1, Morris rushed for more yards than in any other game this year (91). His 6.50 yards per carry in that game shatters every other performance thus far in 2014.
On top of all that, the Minnesota Vikings are actually quite porous when it comes to stopping the run and give up the 10th-most fantasy points to running backs. With RGIII reportedly back in the lineup for Sunday, everything is shaping up perfectly for Morris to have a big game.
