3 Daily Fantasy Football Players to Avoid in Week 11
We have a lot of pieces on numberFire geared toward helping you figure out which players you should roster in your DFS contests on FanDuel, but an important aspect of the DFS process is figuring out who you shouldn't play.
Narrowing down your list of potential plays by avoiding those who are destined to underwhelm can go a long way toward helping you create winning lineups.
Inevitably, some of the players I feature in this article will blow up and pop for a big game, but that comes with the territory of doing a piece like this one -- unless I'm going to tell you to avoid playing dudes who aren't on anyone's radar. I'm trying to avoid that. I want this piece to be useful.
Here are some players I'm fading this week.
Miles Sanders, RB, Eagles ($7,300)
The Philadelphia Eagles have been a top-shelf offense this season, so whenever they're on the main slate, we need to have them on our radar.
This week, the Eagles have the slate's third-best implied total (26.25), making them a team to zero in on once again. But Miles Sanders doesn't profile as a good play.
Philly is taking on the Indianapolis Colts. While the Colts have been a mess this year, their defense has mostly been solid. They've been particularly stingy versus the run, with our schedule-adjusted metrics ranking the Colts as the third-best run defense.
On top of that, there are reasons to be wary of Sanders regardless of the matchup. He doesn't play a ton of snaps, posting a single-game high of a 67% snap rate this season, and he's been held to 12 or fewer total touches in two of the Eagles' last three games.
Given his role and the matchup, Sanders is someone I'm staying away from this week. We project him for 11.2 FanDuel points and rate Sanders as the second-worst point-per-dollar play among the 11 highest-salaried backs.
Terry McLaurin, WR, Commanders ($7,300)
Terry McLaurin balled out last week on Monday Night Football, catching eight passes for 128 yards in a difficult matchup with the Eagles. He's clearly capable of delivering in a tough matchup, but I'm not going to use him this week.
I just don't like this situation for the Washington Commanders. I know the Houston Texans stink, but Washington is on the road and dealing with a short week. And this game looks like an ugly fantasy environment as the total is set at just 40.0 points.
Plus, Houston's secondary has done a good job against wideouts, limiting the position to the third-fewest FanDuel points per game (22.4).
Our model isn't into McLaurin, either. We have him scoring 9.1 FanDuel points. Among the top 19 (healthy) receivers in terms of salary, McLaurin offers the worst point-per-dollar value by our numbers.
Cole Kmet, TE, Bears ($5,700)
Cole Kmet has five touchdowns over the past three games, including back-to-back outings with two scores. He's benefitted from Justin Fields' breakout and the Chicago Bears' recent offensive eruptions.
While Fields and the Bears might go nuts again in a plum matchup with the Atlanta Falcons, Kmet has a whiff of fool's gold to him.
Over the last two weeks, Kmet has seen big-time usage, registering a 31% air yards share and 25% target share. I don't think Kmet is going to keep accounting for one-fourth of Chicago's targets. For reference, Mark Andrews has a 25% target share this year, and Travis Kelce is sitting at a 23% clip.
In addition to that, Kmet's fantasy output has been pretty reliant on touchdowns, and he's obviously not going to keep finding the end zone twice per game. Kmet's 74-yard effort in Week 10 was his first game this season with more than 45 yards.
On a slate that stinks at tight end, especially if Mark Andrews doesn't play, Kmet isn't a horrible option as a way to get a piece of what could be a shootout between the Bears and Falcons. But I'd rather roll the dice on Kyle Pitts ($5,500) at a lower salary on the other side of that game.
With his salary up $600 from last week, Kmet projects as a poor point-per-dollar play, according to our model, as we forecast him to generate only 5.1 FanDuel points.