The one drawback of Dalton is that he's appropriately priced on FanDuel this week at $8,100.
Kirk Cousins? Not so much.
Cousins is $7,300, making him cheaper than Joe Flacco and the same price as Sam Bradford. Of the 24 quarterbacks on the main slate, 16 of them will cost you more dough than Cousins. In this matchup, that's mighty tasty.
Cousins and Washington are going up against the Detroit Lions. Not only are they worse than Dalton's opponent in the Browns, but they're worse than everybody else, too. They rank dead last against the pass, according to numberFire's metrics, and they're a solid chunk behind the 31st-place Indianapolis Colts. That has shined through with blinding vibrancy for opposing fantasy quarterbacks.
The Lions have already allowed three different quarterbacks to finish as top-three weekly scorers against them, and another was in the top seven. Two of those top-seven finishers are Brian Hoyer and Case Keenum, the absolute pinnacles of efficiency for NFL passing offenses.
Initially, this matchup did appear a bit scary. Cousins exhibited big home-road splits last year, and with Washington on the road, he could wind up being a big time value trap. Based on his first two road starts this year, though, that may no longer be the case.
| 2016 Season | Drop Backs | Passing NEP | Passing NEP per Drop Back | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 155 | 22.76 | 0.15 | 54.84% |
| Away | 79 | 17.38 | 0.22 | 54.43% |
Those two road starts came against the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants, who currently rank 15th and 17th, respectively, against the pass, according to numberFire's metrics. They may not be great, but they're not as big of a dumpster fire as the Lions.
Outside of having a great matchup, Cousins has another similarity to Dalton in that he could be getting one of his bad mamma jammas back on the field.
TE Jordan Reed is active but wearing a yellow non-contact jersey. LB Su'a Cravens is doing individual drills #Redskins
— Master Tesfatsion (@MasterTes) October 19, 2016
Jordan Reed is yet to clear concussion protocol, but even getting on the practice field is a step in the positive direction. If he can't go, then Vernon Davis would be a tremendous stacking option to go with Cousins.
If Reed does play, eliminating Davis from the discussion, then Pierre Garcon could be an interesting target. He leads all of their receivers in target market share, and he played his highest snap rate of the season in Week 6. Some of that will regress with Reed back on the field, but Garcon appears to be the most desirable choice among the team's wideouts.