FanDuel Daily Fantasy Football Helper: Week 2

Week 1 did not disappoint on the fantasy scoreboard, and nor did the chalk, with big performances from high-owned players like Alvin Kamara, James Conner, Michael Thomas, and Rob Gronkowski, who all cracked the FanDuel perfect lineup. It's not going to shake out that way every week, but they're highly-owned for a reason, right?

Of course, we still had our share of surprises, with the most notable one being Ryan Fitzpatrick, who had the game of his life (42.28 FanDuel points) in a shootout against the New Orleans Saints. And while Tyreek Hill's performance wasn't necessarily a total shock, he went a long way towards proving he's more TyFreak than TyFluke, notching 38.8 points of his own. In all, it was an exciting way to kick off the fantasy season. Let's hope Week 2 can keep things going.

With that, welcome once again to our weekly FanDuel primer, where we give you an overview of the Sunday main slate to help you get started on your research. As always, we recommend checking out all of numberFire's premium tools at your disposal. In particular, the heat map is a great way to get a general overview of the slate's implied totals, and every team's strengths and weaknesses. You also have access to numberFire's weekly projections, which can assist you in nailing down who might be the slate's top scorers and best values.

Be sure to also pay attention to inactives prior to Sunday's games, which can often completely change the makeup of a given slate. After all, injuries can have a huge impact on playing time, where an otherwise low-priced backup can suddenly find his way into a feature role and become an excellent play.

Now, let's run through some of this week's top plays on the FanDuel main slate.

Quarterbacks

Ben Roethlisberger ($7,600 on FanDuel): The Saints are proud owners of the slate's highest implied total (30.0) against the Browns, so Drew Brees ($8,800) is certainly in play again after racking up 439 yards and 3 touchdowns in a similar spot last week. The upside is undeniable, but at his lofty price tag, he's more suitable for tournaments, particularly when we have so many solid value options we can drop down to. Ben Roethlisberger is coming off a subpar Week 1 performance against those same Browns, living up to the well-documented narrative that he doesn't perform well on the road, but he draws the right matchup to quickly bounce back. In a game that features the week's highest over/under (52.5), the Steelers are four-point home favorites versus a Chiefs squad that just got shredded by Philip Rivers for 424 yards and 3 scores. Keep on eye on a minor elbow injury Roethlisberger is dealing with, but otherwise it should be all systems go come Sunday.