The top of the Week 1 NFL DFS player pool looks identical to the first three picks in many Fantasy football rankings, as Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook and Derrick Henry are the three most expensive options. While Cook and Henry are coming off career years, McCaffrey’s injury-ridden 2020 season may cause hesitation when filling out your NFL DFS lineups. Will his production against the Jets match his price tag of $9,500 on DraftKings and $10,400 on FanDuel?
That is one of the many questions daily Fantasy football players will have to ask themselves when making their Week 1 NFL DFS picks. The Jets had the league’s worst scoring defense and total defense in 2020, so you can see the appeal he carries for Week 1. If you pass on McCaffrey, who else should your Week 1 NFL DFS salary cap be allotted to? Before locking in any NFL DFS picks for Week 1 on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, be sure to check out the NFL DFS advice, player rankings, stacks and top daily Fantasy football picks from SportsLine’s Mike McClure.
McClure is a predictive data engineer and pro DFS player with almost $2 million in career winnings. He uses a powerful prediction model that simulates every snap of NFL action in every game, taking factors such as matchups, statistical trends and injuries into account. This allows him to find the best DFS values that he shares only with members at SportsLine.
In Cowboys vs. Buccaneers on Thursday, McClure had Bucs receiver Antonio Brown as one of his top NFL DFS picks for both FanDuel and DraftKings: The result: Brown piled up five catches for 121 yards and a touchdown, leading to huge returns on both sites. Anybody who had him in their lineups was well on the way to a profitable day.
Now, McClure has turned his attention to Week 1 and locked in his top daily Fantasy football picks for Sunday. You can only see them by heading to SportsLine.
Top NFL DFS picks for Week 1
One of McClure’s top NFL DFS picks for Week 1 is Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts ($4,400 on DraftKings, $6,000 on FanDuel). Pitts averaged over 96 receiving yards per game in his last year at Florida while also racking up 12 touchdowns in just eight games. He saved his best for last, as his final college football game came against eventual champion Alabama and Pitts posted 129 yards and a score against Nick Saban’s defense.
The Falcons plan to use Pitts in a variety of ways to take advantage of mismatches. The Eagles were exploited by elite tight ends last season, as George Kittle posted a career-high 15 receptions along with 183 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles in Week 4. With Julio Jones departed for Tennessee, 10 targets per game are now up for grabs.
Part of McClure’s optimal NFL DFS strategy also includes rostering Vikings running back Dalvin Cook ($9,100 DraftKings, $9,400 FanDuel), who had over 1,900 scrimmage yards and 17 touchdowns last season. The Vikings open up the season against a Cincinnati team that has been out of sorts since head coach Zac Taylor took over in 2019. Defensively, the Bengals were one of the NFL’s worst units in allowing second-level and open-field rushing yards.
Conversely, Minnesota had one of the best rushing offenses in those categories last year and will be led by Cook’s powerful running style. Cook had the second-most carries in the NFL for ten yards or more, so Sunday’s matchup presents another opportunity to rack up yards in bunches. Cook is always a sound bet to get production every week, but McClure believes that this matchup is as good as it gets for him.
How to set NFL DFS lineups for Week 1
McClure is also targeting an undervalued player who is set to explode for huge numbers in Week 1. This pick could be the difference between winning your tournaments and cash games or going home with nothing. You can only see who it is here.
So who is Mike McClure putting in his optimal NFL DFS lineups for Week 1? Visit SportsLine now to see optimal NFL DFS picks, rankings, advice, and stacks, all from a daily Fantasy expert with nearly $2M in winnings, and find out.