NFL DFS: Daily Fantasy Advisor Week 7 Top Performers

So each Monday I'll go through some of the weekend's top performers at each position so far, and later on in the day preview the week's Mon/Thur lineups, who looks good for them, who doesn't, and so forth.  Here are this week's top performers:

Lamar Miller, RB Miami Dolphins
New head coach Dan Campbell has, as I thought he would, changed the offensive philosophy in Miami and really emphasized running the ball, and toughness on the offensive line.  As a result, in the two games since he's taken over Lamar Miller has averaged 144 yards per game, whereas in the 4 games to start the season he'd totaled just 131 total rushing yards.  Yesterday he added a receiving element to his game, and finished with 175 rushing yards on 14 attempts (12.5 average), and 61 receiving yards on 3 catches, with a touchdown receiving and rushing, that left him with a total around 40 fantasy points (depending on ppr vs. standard) for the top fantasy performance of the weekend.

Todd Gurley, RB, St. Louis Rams
As I (and pretty much every other fantasy analyst in the country) predicted, Gurley had a big game.  Going up against the porous run defense of the Cleveland Browns, it was bound to happen.  The Browns just can't defend the run, and Gurley is good, and these two things combined to give Gurley 128 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, to go with 4 catches on 5 targets for 35 yards through the air, for a grand total of 35.3 points in Draft Kings leagues.  If you stacked Gurley and the Rams' defense like I told you to, you picked up an additional 25 points, for a grand total of 60 points on a 2 position stack you spent just $7,400 on.  What a value!  That's over 8 points per thousand spent!

T.Y. Hilton, WR, Indianapolis Colts
Hilton played in what most previewed to be the all-offense bowl, but what ended up being a rather tame game as far as passing offense goes, with only one QB going over 300 yards, and that one throwing multiple picks in the process.  However, Hilton was on the receiving end of the right 4 of Luck's passes, catching 2 big touchdowns including an 87 yard bomb that began the Colts' comeback attempt.  Ultimately, his two third quarter touchdowns weren't enough, as the Colts didn't quite pull

out the win.  Hilton probably lead (or will lead) a lot of owners to a win yesterday however, with the 34 points his performance earned for them.

Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 
I'm a Mike Evans owner in a few of my long term leagues, and I've been shopping him (and Carlos Hyde) HARD this past week.  I bet I'll get some bites over the coming days after this performance.  After 12 targets resulted in 8 catches for 164 yards and a touchdown, Evans reminded owners why he is considered one of the better up and coming receivers in the game.  He was owned in about (or under) 5% of daily fantasy teams this weekend, I'm guessing that number ticks up a bit next weekend after this game.

Nate Washington, WR, Houston
Going into the weekend I told you Hoyer from the Texans and DeAndre Hopkins would have a big day against a lousy Miami pass defense.  Only thing was, it wasn't Hopkins that had the big day.  This time out, it was Nate Washington's turn as he caught 9 of 16 targets for 127 yards and two touchdowns while Hopkins acted as more of a diversion, being targeted 12 times for just 6 catches, 50 yards, and no touchdowns.  A bit of a disappointment for Hopkins owners (about 40% of leagues) but great for Nate Washington owners (pretty much nobody).

Ryan Tannehill, QB, Miami Dolphins
How long has it been since two Dolphins have appeared on a list like this?  A while to my memory.  Tannehill beat out the likes of Andrew Luck, Phillip Rivers, and Tom Brady for the top QB to play so far this week, in completing 18 out of 19 passes for 282 yards, 4 touchdowns, no interceptions, and a QB rating of a perfect 158.3!  This guy was just on point, and made no mistakes.  I think the new offense in Miami helps take the pressure off Tannehill, allowing him to play more relaxed.  Wildly long catches where Jarvis Landry makes almost the entire opposing team miss don't hurt, but Tannehill also didn't make any mistakes, and that's really what he needs to keep doing to continue playing effectively in this offense.


Jacksonville Jaguars Defense
The Jaguars defense was on display in the early parts of the Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars game that was aired exclusively on Yahoo sports, online.  The Jags scored not one, but two defensive touchdowns on consecutive plays at one point, before giving up a 27-3 lead.  The offense ultimately won this game for them, but for a long time throughout this one it was hard to imagine the Bills moving the ball at all, let alone scoring the 31 points they did.  This defense wasn't quite as "stackable" as the Rams' defense, mentioned earlier in Todd Gurley's portion of this, but they outscored those Rams by 6 points in fantasy, so owners will take it.