DraftKings College Football DFS Picks: Week 3

This article is part of our DraftKings College Football series.

CFB DFS Picks: DraftKings College Football Week 3 DFS Picks and Plays

Now things are getting good. We've got a couple of weeks under our belts, we're getting a feel for who these teams really are and we have a chance to capitalize on what we've learned so far this weekend. 

By my count, there are at least five games that are quite stackable for DFS and a handful more that are great entertainment that may have a little less DFS appeal. Either way, we've got a nice menu of games tomorrow and it's time to take a closer look.

Slate Overview

Oklahoma State vs Tulsa

The Oklahoma State-Tulsa game is going to be key in all contests but it's expected to be a little lopsided with the 'Pokes favored by 20.5. The Oklahoma State options should be plenty popular. Even with a disappointing game last week and a $10K salary this week, Ollie Gordon will still be plenty popular and this is a pretty obvious smash spot for him.

OK State's Brennan Presley ($7,100) had a monster game against Arkansas in terms of volume with 19 targets, but he converted that into just nine grabs for 91 yards and a score. Still a great day for fantasy, but he left a lot of meat on the bone. De'Zhaun Stribling ($5,200) and Rashod Owens ($5,500) are more accessible for your builds. 

Tulsa has a lively option or two on the other side given Oklahoma State's issues defending the pass thus far. Kamdyn Benjamin has 18 targets through two games totaling 11 grabs for 196 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Zion Steptoe ($4,200) deserves a shoutout on name alone and ranks second on the team in targets with a 19 percent share (8-106-0 on 11 targets).

Pitt vs West Virginia

Looking elsewhere, Pitt-WVU in the Backyard Brawl has actually overtaken the Oklahoma State-Tulsa game as the highest total on the board this week. The mixture of good offenses, bad blood, and worse defenses should make this one a lot of fun Saturday afternoon. 

The quarterbacks on either side  -- Eli Holstein ($7,300) and Garrett Greene ($7,800) -- are absolutely in play and it might be worthwhile to play them both in a lineup. 

FSU vs Memphis

Looking at those stats above, it might be tempting to target Florida State's run defense. They're 0-2 and have gotten shredded in the run game. Mind you, those were against two ACC teams with great rushing attacks and importantly, rushing attacks that featured dual-threat QBs. 

Memphis QB Seth Henigan doesn't pose the type of rushing threat that Haynes King or Thomas Castellanos did. With that, I'm worried about Mario Anderson ($6,200).

Alabama at Wisconsin

I hate to say it as someone who has a soft spot for the Badgers and deep-seated...other feelings towards Alabama but I'm going to have some Jalen Milroe-Ryan Williams pairings in my lineups. If it was later in the year I'd be more concerned about 'Bama playing that far up north. I think the Tide will roll. 

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Position-by-Position Analysis

Quarterback

Brady Cook ($8,500) Missouri vs Boston College

Mizzou has the second-highest implied total on the board at just a shade under 35.0 points. Cook has been efficient to start the year with a 71 percent completion rate but he has just one touchdown and a 6.8 YPA through two games against inferior competition. I think things start to correct in those areas this week.

Boston College has a good pass defense on paper but we also need to remember the passing attacks they've faced thus far. They haven't had to gameplan for anybody in Luther Burden's galaxy yet. He's going to be a problem for that secondary all day Saturday. We will want to keep an eye on the availability report, though, as Burden has been dealing with an illness this week.

Anyway, back to Cook. This is a great spot for him to put up some numbers in a home matchup against a non-conference P4 team that Mizzou will likely want to rack up some style points against. The Tigers are 15.5-point favorites and Bill Connelly has them covering with ease. This is one of those weeks where we can catch an elite offense in a perfect storm where it should win in a blowout but keep the foot on the gas the whole way. I'm all in on Mizzou this week and it starts with Cook.

Seth Henigan ($8,000) Memphis at Florida State

Memphis is a trendy upset pick this weekend and Henigan is a big reason why. Well, the biggest reason is probably the 'Noles looking dreadful thus far, but Memphis is looking like one of the best G5 teams out there.

Henigan is a fourth-year starter with three 3,000-yard seasons under his belt and threw 32 touchdowns last season. He was held in check by Troy's defense last week but there's little doubt Memphis will be more geared up for this game.

Memphis throws it 53 percent of the time and that number could tick up this weekend if the run game gets shut down, or if Florida State pulls ahead. This is a good game script for Henigan either way and he has the talent to produce in this situation.

Darian Mensah ($6,100) Tulane at Oklahoma

If you're not familiar with Mensah's game, make sure you tune in Saturday afternoon. There was a lot of concern and question marks surrounding how the Tulane offense would look with so many changes to the coaching staff along with the loss of former star Michael Pratt to the draft.

It's early but so far, Mensah looks like the real deal. If not for a costly turnover that went for six points against Kansas State last weekend, Mensah could have led Tulane to a victory over a Big 12 opponent. Outside of that turnover, Mensah still carved up K-State for 342 yards and a pair of touchdowns while averaging 11.8 YPA. 

Going on the road to Oklahoma is going to be a challenge. The Sooners got a scare put into them already last week against Houston so they shouldn't get caught lacking here. Plus, Tulane nearly beating Kansas State nullified any chance of them sneaking up on OU.

OU has the No. 16-rated defense by SP+ which definitely has a downward pressure on both the game total (46.5) and Tulane's team total (16.75). Even so, Mensah and his supporting cast (more on them later) are worth some consideration on this slate. It's worth noting that the Sooners are particularly stingy against the run, but somewhat vulnerable through the air. This suits Mensah, who is a pass-first QB. 

$6,100 for a quarterback this talented, even in a tough matchup, is something I'll be eyeing closely as I build my GPP lineups. 

Others to Consider: John Mateer, Washington State ($8,900); Dillon Gabriel, Oregon ($9,900)

Running Back

Desmond Reid ($6,400) Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia

We're going to keep coming back to the Reid well until he's properly salaried. And even then, we might keep riding this train all season given how soft Pitt's ACC slate looks.

Reid ranks as RB7 in fantasy points per game among RBs with at least two games played. DraftKings has him priced as RB12 on this slate, behind guys like Chez Mellusi who have far tougher matchups. 

Reid impacts the game in all facets and gets a manageable matchup against a WVU run defense that was shredded against the only real offense it has faced thus far (Penn State). Reid isn't Nicholas Singleton or Kaytron Allen, but he doesn't have to split carries like they do, either. 

Darius Taylor ($6,200) Minnesota vs Nevada

Just like D.J. Giddens last week being a bargain relative to his best ball draft price, Taylor fits that profile for Saturday. Like Giddens, Taylor will likely be popular too but if he can 4.5x his value as Giddens did, we won't care.

Taylor notably missed the opener due to a hamstring issue that cropped up in camp but he got back in the mix against URI and stacked up 14 carries for 64 yards and a score along with four grabs for 48 yards. That was a 48-0 laugher, so Taylor saw less work than he normally would. Plus it was his first game back. 

The concern here is that Nevada has been rather salty against the run so far. Outside of the Troy game, the 'Pack have given up 142 total rushing yards on 53 attempts. Minnesota's run game should at least be on par with Troy's though (191 rushing yards, two scores vs NEV).

Still, we've seen Taylor take on massive workloads in the past -- he had three games of at least 30 carries and four games of at least 20 in six total games last year -- and the numbers suggest he gets stronger with the more work he gets. He averaged just under 200 yards in the games in which he got 30 carries. Minnesota has a sneaky-high implied total this week (30.5) and Taylor should contribute to that figure. 

Jonah Coleman ($6,800) Washington vs Washington State

Ah, the Apple Cup. Thanksgiving leftovers and late-night PAC-12 After Dark bliss. Wait...

The dissolution of the P12 deserves another article that hundreds of other people have already written so I'll just leave that be. But suffice it to say -- Washington vs Wazzu on a Saturday afternoon in September feels wrong.

Anyway, Washington's backfield looked rather undecided entering the season. Early on it's been Coleman, who followed Jedd Fisch from Arizona, leading the way for the Huskies. He not only leads the team in rushes by a wide margin with 16 more carries than anyone else, but Coleman is also giving Washington no reason to go away from him. He's peeling off 8.56 yards per carry and has found paydirt three times already. 

Washington State gave up 215 rushing yards to Portland State and 5.48 YPC to Texas Tech to start its season. The run defense needs work and Coleman and Co. should be able to take advantage this weekend.

Others to Consider: CJ Donaldson, West Virginia ($5,300); Montrell Johnson, Florida ($6,100)

Wide Receiver

Here's this week's updated table of players who are getting volume and excelling with it.

Mario Williams ($6,000) Tulane at Oklahoma

Williams is off to a great start with at least 120 yards in each of his first two games with the Wave. He's ripping off at a 19.4 YPT clip, including 16.0 YPT against K-State last weekend. In watching that game, I was intrigued by the Tulane passing game as a whole after being concerned about some dropoff following the departures of Willie Fritz and Michael Pratt. Darian Mensah can ball, and I wouldn't be shocked if he puts a scare into OU on Saturday.

A little backstory -- Williams transferred to Tulane after two so-so seasons at USC. How did he end up at USC? Well, he followed Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams from Oklahoma. Williams looked like he might be the next big thing at OU after a strong freshman season with four touchdowns on 48 targets. I love a good revenge game narrative, though I guess you could argue Oklahoma would have the bigger ax to grind here.

Konata Mumpfield ($6,000) Pittsburgh vs West Virginia

I'm going to get the Pitt passing game right one of these days. Week 1 informed us that Mumpfield was going to be a major part of this passing offense, but 10 targets for Censere Lee and a touchdown grab from Kenny Johnson gave us some false hope that we could find the top Pitt passing game option at a discount.

Week 2 showed that Mump is that dude. He caught five of eight targets for 123 and a score in a fun game against Cincinnati. Now West Virginia comes to town with a shaky pass defense that allows a slate-worst 9.5 YPA despite having played Albany. In fact, Albany threw for over 300 yards on the 'Neers last weekend. 

It's worth noting that quarterback Eli Holstein was shaky early against Cincinnati but he dialed in during the second half and gave me some confidence that his Week 1 outing wasn't a fluke. Mumpfield should pace the passing game for Pitt in the projected highest-scoring matchup on the board.

Giles Jackson ($6,900) Washington vs Washington State

Washington's passing game is off to a strong start as the Will Rogers-led Huskies. Jackson has paced the pass-catchers in almost every important category (targets, receptions, yards). The only thing he's missing so far is a trip to the end zone. 

The target volume is key in a full-PPR scoring format like DraftKings, and his explosiveness has been encouraging as well with 10.9 YPT. 

Jackson's price tag relative to the other Washington wideouts might keep his roster percentage in check and there's enough value elsewhere on the slate to where it's not overly difficult to fit him into your lineup.

Kris Hutson ($4,900) Washington State at Washington

Speaking of values, and from the very same game, we have Hutson on the Cougs. The ex-Oregon Duck lit it up in the opener for 101 yards and a score before coming back down to earth against Texas Tech. That's alright because the important thing is he is sustaining his target share. He has seen six targets in each game thus far and with Wazzu checking in as underdogs here, the pass-catchers should be plenty busy. Kyle Williams ($7,000) is the headliner for the Cougs' passing game but Hutson presents a nice way to get exposure to this offense on the cheap.

Others to Consider: Ryan Williams, Alabama ($5,600); Aaron Anderson ($4,100) and Zavion Thomas ($4,500), LSU <-- Watch LSU's pregame injury report for details on Chris Hilton and Kyle Parker. Luther Burden, Missouri ($9,000)