Week 6 NFL Blueprint – DFS & Drafts

Slate Overview

When you first open up the Week 6 slate, whether it be on DraftKings, Fanduel, Underdog or Drafters, it has a very different feel to basically any slate from the 2025 season. First, it’s a smaller slate than usual with only 10 games. We are reaching the bye weeks, and even though we only have 2 teams on bye it’s a smaller slate with 2 Monday Night games and a Sunday morning game in London. That’s not a *huge* deal in and of itself, but on this particular slate it also means there are none of what we would classify as elite QBs on the slate. Lamar Jackson is technically on the slate, but he’s not playing this week, so Baker Mayfield is the highest priced QB on DraftKings and Dak Prescott is the most expensive QB in drafts on Underdog. Even with the Sunday Night game on Drafters, we only add Patrick Mahomes and Jared Goff.

Considering a small number of games, plus the lack of super elite fantasy QBs, you’d think that would be enough defining factors for the slate, but we also have a more generally wide open and flatter ownership slate than really any so far this season. You still have some RB “value” available due to teammate injuries, but not to the extent of most weeks so far this year. Rico Dowdle is popping as the biggest value and the most popular RB, and that certainly makes sense. But this isn’t a Jordan Mason vs. the Bengals type situation. Heck, it isn’t a Rico Dowdle vs. the Dolphins situation from just last week. He’s more expensive in all formats, and hilariously the matchup with the Cowboys isn’t as good as the matchup with the Dolphins.

Beyond that, I certainly have my personal preferences of options this week at each position, especially WR, but as the superstar options like Puka Nacua and JSN (and Emeka Egbuka!) continue to get priced up, there don’t appear to be any just total layup plays that we have to figure out what to do with. I love the Panthers this week (who doesn’t?), particularly the passing game, but I’m not going to compare Bryce Young and Tetairoa McMillan to Justin Fields and Garrett Wilson from a fantasy perspective.

I personally love these weeks, but what I would say about why I love them is that you should trust yourself. Obviously that doesn’t always work (duh), but this isn’t the type of week where you have to stare down the chalky top projected plays and figure out whether you feel frisky enough to fade them. The chalk is “fine”, but we are talking about Justin Herbert behind a horrendous offensive line, Rico Dowdle at an elevated price and guys like Chris Olave and Trey McBride. They’re certainly solid options, but I would not classify these guys as slam dunks… at all.

The Chalk

Here are the currently projected highest owned players at each position, c/o RotoGrinders:

DraftKings/Fanduel

• QB – Drake Maye, Baker Mayfield, Trevor Lawrence
• RB – Rico Dowdle (and pretty flat afterwards)
• WR – Stefon Diggs, Chris Olave, Puka Nacua
• TE – Trey McBride, Tyler Warren, Jake Ferguson
• DST – no real standout “chalk”

QB

I don’t want to just reiterate what I said in the open, but this is the most wide open QB slate of the season, regardless of format. Interestingly, the most expensive QB on the traditional DFS sites is different from the most expensive QB in drafts on UD and Drafters. It’s such a huge deal that there is basically no opportunity cost this week. It’s really easy to sit here and say you can play whoever you want, but it’s also important to understand…. you can play whoever you want.

The biggest thing for me is that when we have slates like this with a very minimal separation between the top QBs and the lesser QBs, I would much rather lean into the lesser owned or cheaper options than the chalk. I like Dak and Herbert somewhere around equal to the field, but it’s also very easy to spot the flaws of those guys. Justin Herbert is dealing with arguably the worst offensive tackle situation in the entire league. His two stud tackles are out, and now even his backup RT is out. The Panthers are clearly a bad defense, but they are pretty equally bad vs. the run and the pass. On DraftKings, Trevor Lawrence is $5100, so he’s projecting for ownership, but he Seattle still boasts a solid defense and won’t stumble into multiple rushing touchdowns every week. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Seahawks are missing 3 starting defensive backs, and that led to a big game for Baker in this spot last week. I don’t have the same confidence in Lawrence to capitalize, but the spot is better than it appears at face value.

All that isn’t to say you can’t lean into the more popular guys. I almost always like Dak. Herbert can overcome some pass rush issues. Lawrence just ran for 50 yards and 2 TDs. But it also means that the top options are very fragile. Justin Fields was so bad last week, it was near impossible for him to totally fail at that price in that matchup. These chalky options in Week 6 are even more fragile than that, which is something I like to take advantage of.

It feels crazy to start here, but there’s a QB facing the Cowboys on the slate, so I think that’s almost always where you should start. Because Bryce Young and the Panthers aren’t very good, the field just can’t quite get onto Bryce like they have basically every other QB in this spot (Fields, Caleb, etc.). But the Panthers may be getting healthier at pass catcher with Legette back last week and Coker/Sanders possibly back this week. Bryce runs enough to have a big game, and even bad QBs can put up big games against this Cowboys team. Beyond that, there are other awesome tournament options. The Packers draw the Bengals woeful defense, and maybe Joe Flacco and co. can hit some big plays against their poor secondary to push the Packers offense. The field is understandably gravitating to Josh Jacobs, but the Bengals have actually been a bit better vs. the run than the pass so far.

I’m not as interested in Baker Mayfield with no Mike Evans or Chris Godwin, and the same can be said for Mac Jones on the other side. But I do *very* much like Drake Maye here. The Saints have been a bit of a pass funnel, and they play at a very quick pace with a pass heavy offense. The Patriots defense may be missing Christian Gonzalez, and they’ve been a pass funnel themselves so far. We could get a little sneaky shootout here in the dome in New Orleans, and Maye obviously has high end rushing ability to crush for fantasy this week.

Lastly, Daniel Jones deserves a very significant shoutout. The Colts offense is rolling, and the Cardinals defense just collapsed in the 2nd half against the woeful Titans offense. If we can get a game where JT doesn’t score multiple times on the ground, Daniel Jones can definitely be the highest scoring QB on this slate.

RB

It’s actually quite nice that the QB slate is pretty wide open because I have a much tighter pool of running backs I’m interested in, and it’s not perfectly in line with the field. Look, I get Christian McCaffrey has as good of a role as you can get for a running back. But the Bucs and Todd Bowles are historically elite at stopping the run. CMC will get his points through the air, but they haven’t been able to run the ball this year in far better matchups than this. He’s clearly not a “bad” play, but there are some other backs I like more and Puka Nacua is an equally exciting spend up option each week.

Where I am really looking to live this week is in a tier of Kyren Williams, Ashton Jeanty, Javonte Williams, Josh Jacobs and the really strong group of backs a rung down from the CMC/JT tier. The Baltimore Ravens defense is getting a couple members of the secondary back, but that won’t help them too much against the Rams running game. Kyren is consolidating the backfield again, and the game script should be in his favor against the Lamar-less Ravens. Ashton Jeanty is also a massive priority, especially at these prices and ownerships. The Raiders offensive line struggles to get push in the run game, so it’s important for them to get a little softer front to get Jeanty into the open field. That’s exactly what happened in his blowup game against the Bears, who have the worst defense in terms of yards before contact allowed, and Jeanty buried them. The Titans are 5th worst in the NFL in that regard.

Outside of those matchup based options, we just have a total workhorse for one of the very best offenses in the league in Javonte Williams that no one ever really gets excited for despite reasonable prices. The Panthers are a good matchup as well, and Miles Sanders is out for the season. It’s not the same offense (clearly), but Quinshon Judkins also boasts one of the best roles in all of football. The Steelers defense isn’t as good as years past, and we’ve seen some ground games have lots of success against them. And no, I’m not trying to besmirch Rico Dowdle! He’s a great play in his own regard after a career game last week against the Dolphins. He’s a bit behind these other guys for me simply because his price came up, and even though the Cowboys defense is bad, their run defense is stronger than their pass defense, and it’s actually a bit worse of a matchup than the Dolphins last week.

You can always play Jonathan Taylor, but the price has really come up, and the Cardinals currently have the 3rd best run defense in EPA/play on the season. Where I’d rather spend up is on Josh Jacobs. The offensive line issues are a real thing for the Pack, but the Jacobs volume, game script and matchup at home against the Bengals defense is as good as it gets. There are efficiency concerns, but the overall spot is so pristine it’s impossible to ignore.

That’s the core at RB for me. You could talk me into Rachaad White or TreVeyon Henderson or one of the Chargers backs, but I really want the ceiling at this position this week, not just good “point per dollar” plays.

WR

WR is interestingly a lot like QB this week. The most popular plays are solid, but Stefon Diggs and Chris Olave aren’t these “cant fade” mid tier plays on DraftKings or Fanduel. I love Puka Nacua against this Ravens defense, but we also love Kyren Williams from the Rams. And we also probably should love Davante Adams in the exact same spot at no ownership. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is an absolute stud, but we are paying full freight now. He’s worth his new prices, but it makes him less slam dunk-y. Same goes for Emeka Egbuka. He’s earned his new price, but there’s no Mike Evans, Chris Godwin or Bucky Irving so defenses can really focus in on him a lot more now.

All that is to say we shouldn’t fear really anything on this one. Get off the beaten path, scroll down, target leverage plays. It’s interesting that Tetairoa McMillan isn’t the glaring chalk given his target share and matchup with the Cowboys where opposing receivers have been monstrous chalk every week. But with Rico Dowdle being the most popular RB, you’re getting slightly neutered (not low, but neutered) draft cost and ownership for TMac. There’s not a ton you can to get away from Stefon Diggs on Drake Maye stacks, but Rashid Shaheed makes for a killer pivot of Chris Olave on the Saints side. The Patriots have been the biggest pass-funnel defense in the league this season. They are 5th worst in the league against the pass in EPA/play but 5th best in the league against the run. Shaheed is a home-run hitter, as we saw last week, and the Patriots might be without Christian Gonzalez on defense, which is one of the bigger swing pieces for a defense in the league. Even if Gonzalez plays, he likely covers Chris Olave, which should funnel some work to Shaheed.

The Colts receivers also really jump out in tournaments. The Cardinals have also been a pass funnel so far this year, and the field really only looks to Tyler Warren in this pass game or of course JT on the ground. Michael Pittman continues to churn out solid games, and Alec Pierce is back as a home run hitter who probably won’t drop the ball before the goal line like Adonai Mitchell. I am a noted hater of DK Metcalf, but Aaron Rodgers has historically destroyed man coverage heavy teams. In fact, he’s specifically destroyed Jim Schwartz defenses, who is the DC for the Browns. This Browns defense is really awesome, but I don’t see why Metcalf can’t hit a couple big plays with Rodgers, especially since Calvin Austin is out as a sneaky man beater for the Steelers.

Calvin Ridley, Ryan Flournoy, the Chargers receivers, and even the likes of Romeo Doubs, Brian Thomas Jr., and others have projections or at least ceilings not too different from the more popular and pricey receivers.

TE

TE is another position with a tight player pool this week. Jake Ferguson is the TE1 overall in fantasy, and he draws a matchup with the Panthers horrendous linebackers, with Jaycee Horn drawing George Pickens quite a bit. Trey McBride is a superstar, and the biggest decision point of the week I’d say. His floor is incredibly high, but the ceiling is there too… we just haven’t seen it. On DraftKings, he projects to be the super chalk, but the price is coming down in drafts. I like him a lot better there because I sense that drafters are really starting to get sick of him.

Tyler Warren makes the 3rd member of the “big 3” at TE this week, and he’s an outstanding play both in Daniel Jones stacks and as a one off. But I think Tucker Kraft is probably the most exciting tournament option of the week. All the ownership is going to center around that “big 3”, and when people look to the Packers, Josh Jacobs is the easy choice. But Tucker Kraft showed he has one of the highest ceilings of any TE in football a couple weeks ago. The Bengals matchup might actually be the best for Kraft of any player  on the Packers offense. It’s a killer tournament spot.

After those 4, there’s a pretty sizable gap to the rest of the TE pool. You can throw darts at a Hunter Long stepping in for Brenton Strange, or Jake Tonges or Michael Mayer. You can include Hunter Henry in Drake Maye stacks. But there are not other priorities in a vacuum outside of those first 4.

Stacks

Reiterating here that we have a pretty tight core this week from a QB perspective, which means we also have a tight core for our stacks.

• Dak Prescott + Jake Ferguson
• Bryce Young + Tetairoa McMillan
• Drake Maye + Stefon Diggs
• Jordan Love + Tucker Kraft
• Daniel Jones + Michael Pittman and/or Tyler Warren or Alec Pierce

Core Plays

DraftKings & Fanduel

Drafts – Battle Royale (UD) & Drafters