As any father of a teenage girl could tell you, too often the word bargain gets a bad rap. You don't have to spend $150 on a pair of jeans for them to serve their purpose, and if you do, you're probably going to end up eating a lot of fast food. Like life, weekly salary cap fantasy football is all about opportunity cost. If you want to stock your team with the Aaron Rodgers and Calvin Johnsons of the world, you're going to have to mix in a few pairs of jeans off the discount rack. What's important is that you find bargains and not just cheap players. The difference of course is value. You aren't going to win very many weekly leagues with a team full of averaged priced players, and you'll do even worse if you find yourself picking the last two players on your roster solely because they're all you have the money for. If you're going to mix high priced players with bargains, you first have to know who the bargains are, and that's what you'll find below. I've listed the top priced and average priced players at each position as well as the best bang for your buck and my personal FanDuel Bargain Buy. Of course, these prices are all based on FanDuel's weekly pricing system. The best bang for your buck generally focuses on a player that David Dodds has projected to score much higher than their current cost. The FanDuel Bargain Buy digs just a little deeper to find someone under the radar that I personally believe could perform much higher than their current cost.
Quarterback
- Highest Priced Player: Drew Brees - $9,600
- Average Priced Player: Eli Manning - $7.800
Best Bang for your Buck: Jay Cutler ($7500) vs. Bengals. Cutler and the Bears are now under offensive coordinator Marc Trestman, who figures to have a much better scheme than heave the ball up to Brandon Marshall 12 times a game. Look for Cutler to get Matt Forte, Martellus Bennett, and Alshon Jeffery involved in the passing game as the Bears stuggle to run the ball against a stout Bengals front seven.
Bargain Buy: Terrelle Pryor ($5100) vs. Colts. FanDuel's systems aren't yet accounting for Pryor being the starter in what is a very good match up. The Colts are going to score at will against Oakland, but their defense is well below average. Garbage time points count just the same in fantasy football and Pryor figures to score plenty with his arm and his legs. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a top 15 quarterback in week one and for this cost you can stack the rest of your roster with studs.
Running Back
- Highest Priced Player: Adrian Peterson - $9,500
- Average Priced Player: Maurice Jones-Drew - $7,400
Best Bang for your Buck: Reggie Bush ($7,200) vs. Vikings. Minnesota isn't exactly a dream match up for your average running back, but in Detroit Bush figures to be a PPR machine. The Vikings will focus much of their efforts in the passing game on stopping Calvin Johnson which will leave Bush open in the flats.
Bargain Buy: Daryl Richardson ($6,000) vs. Cardinals. Richardson has been the Rodney Dangerfield of the offseason. After an impressive rookie season as Steven Jackson's backup, Richardson has looked like the favorite to lead the Rams RBBC all summer, but he gets no respect. In week one, Isaiah Pead is suspended and Zac Stacy isn't ready for more than a limited role. I see RIchardson getting a minimum of 20 touches in week one and a great chance to put up borderline RB1 numbers.
Wide Receiver
- Highest Priced Player: Calvin Johnson - $8,800
- Average Priced Player: Dwayne Bowe - $6,800
Best Bang for your Buck: Danny Amendola ($6,700) vs. Buffalo. Amendola is as close to a guaranteed stud as you can get for as long as he stays healthy. The great part about playing him FanDuel is that if he does get injured you can just pick someone else next weekend. With no Rob Gronkowski we expect Tom Bready to lean heavily on Amendola and have him as the 7th best wide receiver value on Sunday.
Bargain Buy: Pierre Garcon ($6,200) vs. Philadelphia. Like Amendola, the biggest concern for Garcon is his health. He says he's 100% and he's facing a terrible secondary on Monday Night Football. I don't expect Make Shanahan will draw up a lot of run plays for Robert Griffin III in week one, which means he should be looking to the air. Garcon will be his first target and should be in line for a top ten week.
Tight End
- Highest Priced Player: Jimmy Graham - $7,500
- Average Priced Player: Jermaine Gresham - $5,200
Best Bang for your Buck: Jordan Cameron ($4,900) vs. Miami. Cameron has been hyped up all summer, but FanDuel's computers don't buy the hype. Dodds has Cameron as his third best value at tight end this week and we think he could have a monster start to the season with Josh Gordon suspended for the first two weeks. This is a huge value at tight end.
Bargain Buy: Brent Celek ($4,500) vs. Washington. If you haven't guessed by now I expect this Monday Night Football game to be a very high scoring affair. The Eagles may be playing from behind for a large part of this game and that could open up a big opportunity over the middle for Brent Celek. Behind DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy, Celek is probably Michael Vick's third target in the passing game.
Defense
Defense is a different animal all together. As a rule I like to choose a defense based on match up and not price, but if you find yourself in a bind with only $5,000 to spend I would suggets Dallas against the Giants. The Giants offensive line is in trouble right now and the Cowboys defense has looked rejuvenated in the preseason. This is a risky move because of the talent the Giants have at the skill positions, but if the line can't protect Eli Manning this could be a huge performance from the Cowboys.
Kicker
Chosing the right kicker can absolutely win you your weekly contest but there are always some very good options available for the minimum. This week, the best of those options is Ryan Succop. The Chiefs are going to move the ball against Jacksonville, but there are serious quesitons about their ability to get the ball into the end zone. Behind Dwayne Bowe the best red zone target is probably Anthony Fasano, and Jamaal Charles has never been a huge red zone threat. I could very easily see Succop with 10-12 points in week one.
Contact Heath at cummings@footballguys.com or on Twitter @heathcummingssr
