5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 9

Dallas Cowboys' Passing Offense

Again, with Elliott destined to get a ton of buzz between now and lock, it seems likely that he'll carry a good amount of ownership. But we don't need to look far to pivot away from that, especially when that alternative is as sweet as Prescott and Bryant.

Strictly based on the numbers, it makes a ton of sense to go at the Kansas City Chiefs on the ground. They're ranked 27th against the rush, allowing four different running backs to go for at least 70 yards against them despite holding leads for most of the year. It sets up well for Morris if he winds up being the lead back. But it's not necessarily a difficult task for the aerial attack, either.

Thanks to Eric Berry's injury and some sketchy play at cornerback, the Chiefs rank just 18th against the pass this year. While that's not a bottom-rung unit, it's also not prohibitive. When they're on the road and facing a team clicking as well as Prescott and the Cowboys have played this year, we can absolutely use pieces going against them.

The other reason we should feel pretty safe here is that the Chiefs' defense would likely rank even worse were it not for a couple of outlier performances. Just this past Monday, they picked off Trevor Siemian three times while Siemian was playing without one of his top receivers. They also picked off Philip Rivers three times back in Week 3. Outside of that, they've allowed 417 yards to Derek Carr, 5 touchdowns to Deshaun Watson, and 333 yards to Carson Wentz. Prescott could join that list of impressive performances this weekend.

Last week was the first time this year Prescott had been held below 17 FanDuel points in a game. He had scored 22 or more in the four games leading up to it. But that performance was more attributal to game script than anything Prescott did himself.

In that one, the Cowboys went into halftime with a lead, were up 10 before the end of the third quarter, and wound up winning by 14 points. Prescott threw just 22 times while they fed Elliott, knowing a potential suspension was right around the corner. With poor weather conditions leading to a sloppy field, there was just no reason to press.

This week, the Cowboys have their bell-cow back again, but they're also facing the top offense in the league, based on numberFire's metrics. The game has the slate's highest over/under at 51 points, and the Cowboys will need to score to keep up. This is the perfect scenario for Prescott to get back to his fantasy-friendly ways for a price of $8,200.

With the aforementioned cornerback troubles, it's a no-brainer that you'll want to pair Prescott with Dez Bryant. A breakout here could come any week.

Bryant is yet to top 100 yards this year, an impedement that has prevented him from scoring more than 16 points on FanDuel. You'd like a bit more juice than that for $7,700, especially when Will Fuller -- the upside king of late -- is sitting at just $100 more.

Just because a big game hasn't happened yet for Bryant doesn't mean it can't. Bryant's usage is that of a high-upside asset.

Let's compare Bryant head-to-head with Doug Baldwin, who is actually priced above Bryant at $7,900. Here are their target distribution profiles for the season. A "deep" target is being defined as one at least 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

This is a pretty massive usage gap. And Baldwin will draw ownership after what the Seattle Seahawks' offense did last week. While Bryant will be popular, the presence of Baldwin in a similar pricing range and Elliott's return should prevent him from having restrictive ownership.

We've talked plenty about Bryant this year, and he's yet to pay off in a big way. But his usage profile says big days will come, and given the Chiefs' struggles at defensive back, this is as good of a week as any for the lid to finally come off.