Updated: Sunday, 10/5 at 8:15am ET

Every week, we learn a little bit more about every NFL team and with that, the NFL Week 5 DFS Playbook becomes stronger than the Playbook from the week before. The NFL DFS game is becoming more difficult these days with so many people using the same lineup optimizers, but the better we get with our work, the closer we get to breaking through and taking down some of the bigger prizes in the space. That means you need to stay diligent. You need to stay on top of all the latest NFL news. Study everything we are throwing at you from the DFS coaches to the updated NFL practice reports to watching the latest NFL DFS Show as the week is continuously evolving. If you don't evolve as well – if you don't adapt to what is coming at you – you become dead in the water and none of us are ready to let go of the door and sink to the bottom.

 

 

This week has been an absolute rollercoaster ride in the NFL and that has spilled out into the fantasy community, both season-long and DFS. It's a little easier to stomach in the season-long world as you go through your waiver wire, make some add/drops and settle on a few lineup decisions, but it gets a little crazier in the DFS space as we continue to make adjustments based on match-ups, salaries and expected NFL DFS ownership as well. We understand that building winning DFS lineups can be difficult. It's a delicate balance between your actual research and game theory. Deciphering what is good chalk versus what is bad chalk while also trying to figure out exactly which way the masses are going to go is not easy. 

This week, the running back position is going to be quite interesting. The backfields for both the Arizona Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been thrown into chaos and most are going to spend their times deciding between Michael Carter, Emari Demercado, Rachaad White and Sean Tucker. Personally, I don't like any of them in reality football. They're all going to be in a shared role and figuring out which one is actually going to pop is going to be extremely difficult. Those who are using lineup optimizers will probably be handed a few different iterations and those who max enter a contest or randomly guess at the right option will find some success. That's what we're battling against this week. 

Obviously, we have some different ways to combat this. First and foremost, stick to single-entry contests. Cash games have gotten a little crazy with the lineup trains and with so many people using the chalk plays, there is a ton of overlap. It raises the pay-lines when 40 people have the same lineup and besting them can be difficult. You almost have to start thinking like a GPP player and figure out which chalk plays to use and which ones to avoid; which way to do so you aren't posting the exact same lineup. We will do our best to help decipher that.

Single-entry GPP contests or at least ones that limit to three entries per contest should be where we see our work and research paying off. In a multi-entry contests, a player maxing out their entries can build their core lineup and then sprinkle in each of the salary-saving running backs. They get one crack in single-entry and they're always going to have to leave one option out if they only get three. This is where the late-week emergence of Rico Dowdle comes into play. There's a fifth value option for this week and now those using optimizers have to choose to leave out another strong option when they play these contests. 

I've said it before – playing contests like the Milly Maker and the Sunday Million are like going to the corner grocery and buying a bunch of scratchers. You have the same odds of hitting it big there as you do loading a single bullet or even four or five into a contests where so many are playing 150 lineups. The prizes in single entry may not be as glamorous, but money is money and when you win these and build up your bankroll, you then start to level-up into contests with a higher entry fee and increase your chances of winning. Not only are the contests smaller, but the pay-lines are typically lower as well. 

So with all of that, let's start to take a look at the NFL Week 5 DFS Playbook. I've got the player pool whittled down for you and we're ready to start taking down some of these single-entry contests.

 

 

 As a reminder, all of our content, our tools and everything else that has made us the leading site for all of your fantasy football needs – seasonal and daily – are here and even more accessible. 

We have also made some enhancements to our NFL tools. We continue to crunch the numbers and tweak our algorithms so that our daily fantasy football projections are the best in the industry and that, in turn, has improved things like our Lineup Generator/DFS Optimizer and our NFL DFS Ownership Projections. Again, all right here on one site for your convenience.

If you are new to the #FAmily, welcome! All the aforementioned tools are, obviously, at your disposal as well, but please allow me to point you towards more of the content and tools we provide to help you crush your DFS contests each week. It also makes for a nice introduction to our DFS team.

In addition to the positional coaches, you also have plenty of other research content to use like the weekly DFS Watch List, where I provide you with a daily-updated list of players I am looking at throughout the week. You will also want to watch our weekly NFL DFS Show with me and Jon Impemba as we break down every position, highlight our favorite plays, offer a core group of players to build around and then drop an example lineup into out NFL DFS channel on Discord. 

For those looking for the DFS bargains, you'll see my weekly DFS Dart Board as well as Impemba's Value Plays video. And for those looking to separate themselves from the herd, we also have our Contrarian Plays video too.

Need more data? Craving more research? Many of our seasonal fantasy football articles also double as kick-ass DFS research. You have the WR/CB Match-Up Report from Drew Scott, full game previews from Mark Lammey and the team, Coop's Target Report and all of our fantasy football tools from snap counts to red zone touches.

That should cover it. Now let's get to the NFL Week 5 DFS Playbook picks!  

 

 

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