Getty Gallery: 2/5
Optimal Lineup No. 1
– CAPTAIN: Quincy Enunwa ($14,700)
– Tyrod Taylor ($11,000)
– Jarvis Landry ($10,800)*
– Duke Johnson ($5,600)
– Terrelle Pryor ($3,800)
– Jason Myers ($3,400)
*If Jarvis Landry is out pivot down to Sam Darnold. Lineup will be updated if that is the case.
It probably seems a bit outlandish that I have Terrelle Pryor with Duke Johnson and the New York Jets kicker in Jason Myers in an optimal lineup. It's fair and completely understandable, but there's a reason for it.
First, this lineup is going to likely be pretty different, but it won't be as different as you think. On the surface, it seems crazy, but the way the pricing is set up on this Thursday night slate, building a lineup with multiple high-upside players isn't as easy as you'd think.
I'll start with Pryor because his names stick out, but even more than that his price jumps off the page. While it was expected Robby Anderson would be the offensive force, it seems rookie Sam Darnold is gravitating to Quincy Enunwa and Pryor. After Week 1 when Pryor caught all three targets that came his way for 49 yards, he followed that up with a four-catch, 84-yard showing in Week 2.
Pryor has outproduced Anderson and is earning more playing time because of it. After seeing the field for 40 percent of the offensive snaps in the opener, Pryor was out there for 68 percent of them last week, per Football Outsiders. As long as the workload doesn't decrease, which there's no reason for it to, the wideout is going to receive targets.
Duke Johnson is the real wild card here. He's going to garnish ownership after Browns coach Hue Jackson said the team needs to use him more. While it's an unknown how much more he'll get used (he totaled 11 touches over the first two weeks), the fact that he can catch passes is a big plus here. Johnson had 74 receptions last season and even just involving him in the passing game would make him worth rolling out this week.
I went with Quincy Enunwa in the captain spot on my first optimal due to his high floor, but fairly high upside as well. The price doesn't break the bank either and allows you to get a few other big names in. Enunwa has seen 21 targets over two games and has at least 16.2 DraftKings points in each. If he finds the end zone there's a high probability he winds up as the highest-scoring player on the slate.
The Tyrod Taylor stack with Jarvis Landry is going to receive a lot of love. I'm a big fan of targeting quarterbacks at home on primetime and Landry should see a massive number of targets. This duo let me down last week in a great matchup against the New Orleans Saints, but even a mediocre showing from Taylor resulted in him scoring 15.44 fantasy points. Landry only caught five passes but still managed 11.9 after receiving 15 targets in a weather-impacted Week 1 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Based on upside, there's no stack more intriguing than Taylor and Landry, and my hope is that adding Johnson as the third member gives us the potential for quite a few big plays.
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