DraftKings NFL DFS Picks - Week 1 Main Slate

September 11, 2026

Doug's DraftKings NFL DFS Week 1 picks, value plays, DFS sleepers for the main slate (2026). His top DK plays and value picks for daily fantasy football lineups.

The long, lonely journey has finally ended. Welcome to Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season! We have an absolutely loaded slate this weekend, with six games totaling at least 46 points. My goal is to find the core plays to anchor your lineups, plus value that can help you climb leaderboards.

I’ll be highlighting DraftKings plays to build your tournament rosters around, as well as the cash game plays that will give you the high floor you need to get across the line. I look forward to being your one-stop shop every week of this NFL season to bring your DFS bankroll to the next level.

Be sure to jump into our RotoBaller Discord! We have so many different channels devoted to whatever you're playing in fantasy football. We also have lots of great NFL DFS articles and NFL DFS tools to help you win MORE this season! Good luck with your DraftKings DFS lineups -- let's dominate this Week 1 slate together!

DraftKings Quarterbacks - Week 1 DFS Picks

TOP PLAY

Joe Burrow, CIN vs. TB ($6,900)

2026 is a weird time because we now live in a world where everyone is paying down at quarterback. Over the past three years, we’ve seen the average price of quarterbacks in tournament-winning lineups drop dramatically as people put their draft dollars into premium running backs and wide receivers.

While I think that’ll be the case again this year, especially in cash games, I can’t see how Joe Burrow isn’t one of the most widely rostered signal-callers in Week 1. 

He’s going into battle for a team that has the third-highest team total in a game with the highest overall total for the week. After Burrow came back from his injury in Week 13 last year, he went on a tear, throwing for 15 touchdowns in six games. He had a terrible Week 15 game against the Ravens, but other than that, he threw for at least two touchdowns and scored a minimum of 19.2 DraftKings points in his other five games. 

He’s easily the best non-running quarterback on the slate, and this game projects to be a shootout as neither the Bengals nor the Buccaneers have much to speak of defensively. Burrow also has one of the most condensed target trees in the league, with the trio of Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Chase Brown eating up a majority of his throws. 

That makes him easy to stack, and on a week where pricing is down, you can do whatever you want with your lineups and not have to worry too much about punting a position. Cincy is going to be popular, so you’ll have to find other ways to differentiate, maybe by stacking one receiver with Chase Brown or at other positions. But there are few stacks I’d rank above the Bengals this weekend. 

VALUE PLAY

Kyler Murray, MIN vs. GB ($5,500)

At just $5,500, Kyler Murray presents some of the best value you’re going to find on the slate this weekend, making him an easy cash game click. When thinking about a cash game quarterback, I want someone who has multiple ways to raise their floor, which almost always leads me to a running quarterback. There are few quarterbacks in the league who run as well as Murray. 

Even in a down year last year, he still averaged nearly 35 yards per game on the ground. Now, in Minnesota, he’s loaded with weapons and has a coach who is renowned for his ability to work with quarterbacks, J.J. McCarthy notwithstanding. 

2024 Kyler Murray

If he plays at this level in Minnesota, the Vikings are a legitimate dark-horse contender. pic.twitter.com/szkUOtvmV7

— Between The Lines (@BTLNFL) September 7, 2026

Murray is the fifth-most-accurate quarterback of all time and has averaged 20 DraftKings points per game throughout his career. That’s the kind of floor we are looking for from our cash game quarterback, and at his price, rostering Murray allows us to save cap money for massive upside at running back. 

Minnesota has the eighth-highest team total on the slate against a Packers defense that will struggle without Micah Parsons. To be fair, they struggled with Parsons last year as well, giving up over 24 points and over 240 passing yards per game while only forcing nine turnovers in 10 road games.

That puts Murray squarely into tournament consideration as part of a stack with Justin Jefferson and a bring-back of one of the four main Packers pass-catchers (Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, and Tucker Kraft). 

Other options: Caleb Williams, Tyler Shough, Jared Goff, Malik Willis

DraftKings Running Backs - Week 1 DFS Picks

TOP PLAY

Omarion Hampton, LAC vs. ARI ($6,800)

Jahmyr Gibbs has the highest ceiling of any running back on this week’s slate, and he should be a lock for your cash game lineup. On the other hand, Omarion Hampton is in such a good spot and is priced $1,200 less than Gibbs, making him one of the best values at the position. 

The Chargers have a home matchup against the Cardinals, whom they are 10-point favorites against, meaning they should be up big early and run the ball to salt the clock. I don’t believe Mike McDaniel for a second when he talks about using all the running backs on the roster. Even if he does, it didn’t hurt De'Von Achane one bit when he was the lead back in Miami. 

Hampton is going to get fed; he’s going to get goal-line work, and he should even get work in the passing game. He had at least two targets in all but one game that he played in 2025, seeing at least five targets in 44% of the nine games where he was active.

Hampton is a workhorse back in a game where the Chargers are expected to win easily, and that’s the recipe for success we are looking for from our cash game running back. 

VALUE PLAY

Tony Pollard, TEN vs. NYJ ($5,600)

The biggest cheat code for running backs in DFS is finding one who gets 15 to 20 touches and is playing at home in a spot where their team is a favorite. Bonus points for that running back if they can get goal-line work and work in the passing game. 

Last season, Tony Pollard averaged just under 16 opportunities per game (carries + targets) and rushed for over 1,000 yards for the fourth consecutive season. He is the clear workhorse for Tennessee even though he occasionally cedes third-down and passing work to Tyjae Spears. While it’s true that Spears averaged nearly four targets per game, it’s overlooked that Pollard saw over two targets per game. 

He is also the clear goal-line back, garnering more than twice as many carries inside the 10 than Spears. While he only scored three touchdowns from inside the five, it is expected that Tennessee should have a better offense this year, which will give Pollard more opportunities to score. 

Last season, the Jets had one of the worst rush defenses in football. They gave up just shy of 140 yards per game and allowed over 100 yards in 12 of 17 games, eight of which saw the opposing team go over 150 rushing yards. Pollard makes for an excellent cash game option at just $5,600. You can correlate that play by stacking him with the Titans defense, as Geno Smith threw 17 interceptions in just 15 games last year. 

Other options: Jahmyr Gibbs, Saquon Barkley, Chase Brown, David Montgomery

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DraftKings Wide Receivers - Week 1 DFS Picks

TOP PLAY

Chris Olave, NO at DET ($6,500)

The Lions and Saints are projected to be in one of the highest-scoring games of the weekend, trailing only the Cincinnati game by half a point. While Detroit is a seven-point favorite, that only pushes the game script toward the Saints having to throw. New Orleans has an underrated offense that came to life last year after Tyler Shough took over for Spencer Rattler. 

The biggest beneficiary of Shough’s improved quarterback play was Chris Olave. He finished the season on a tear, scoring 20 or more DraftKings points in each of his final three games and 14.7 or more points in six of the team's final seven games. During that seven-game stretch, he scored six touchdowns and recorded over 100 receiving yards three times. 

For the season, he averaged nearly 10 targets per game and has one of the highest floors of any receiver in the NFL. That locks him in as a top cash game play, while the back-and-forth nature of this game puts him squarely in the mix as part of a game stack in tournaments.

Detroit's pass defense struggled last season, giving up over 250 yards in four of its last seven games, and it did little to address that problem in the offseason. I want tons of exposure to this game, and my first click on the New Orleans side is Olave. 

VALUE PLAY

Ja'Kobi Lane, BAL at IND ($3,000)

If you want to spend up at almost every position, you have to find at least one punt to make that work. MarShawn Lloyd will be the popular option, but I don't like spending down at running back if I don’t have to.

The studs are priced up for a reason, and we don’t know exactly how Green Bay is going to divvy up the touches. Lloyd will get the start, but Chris Brooks and Kaleb Johnson are squarely in the mix as well.  

My preferred way to save dollars is to do so with an upside wide receiver. Nobody at this price point impressed as much as Ja’Kobi Lane during training camp. He is already a favorite target for Lamar Jackson, and he should be the third option in the passing game behind Zay Flowers and Mark Andrews. Priced at just $3,000, Lane can pay off his price with one big catch, making him an outstanding tournament play. 

Ravens film review w/ Huntley:

Ja’Kobi Lane played 100% of the snaps (1WR, 2WR & 3WR sets) - mainly played X but moved around to Z and slot

Lane came out when Huntley came out - clear WR2/3 on the team (pending Bateman)

Devontez Walker left the field for the 1WR set - mainly… pic.twitter.com/qEO5KshvCH

— Zain Dhanani (@DhananiZain) August 23, 2026

I also like him in cash games because he will be on the field a lot in a game that projects to score a lot of points, and he only needs about nine DraftKings points to be a reasonable value. If he happens to get into the end zone, he smashes this price point. 

Flowers should see a lot of Sauce Gardner, which leaves Lane with inferior coverage. I find him safer than someone like Caleb Douglas because the Baltimore offense is significantly better than the Miami offense and the Ravens should be throwing the ball quite a bit more than the Dolphins. 

Other options: Ja’Marr Chase, DeVonta Smith, Alec Pierce, Luther Burden III, Chris Bell, Tre Tucker

DraftKings Tight Ends - Week 1 DFS Picks

TOP PLAY

Michael Mayer, LV vs. MIA ($2,900)

Congratulations, you were just gifted your cash game tight end for the week. While it's not ideal that Brock Bowers is injured and missing this game, it does give the starting tight end job to Michael Mayer, who was more than serviceable when he had to fill in for Bowers last season.

There were three games where this was the case in 2025. In two of them, Mayer scored 16 DraftKings points (Week 6) and 17.9 DraftKings points (Week 17), combining for 14 catches on 17 targets in those two games. At just $2,900, Mayer can score half of those points and still be a value.

More importantly, Mayer's salary allows you to include Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, Ja'Marr Chase, and Chris Olave in your lineup. Those four players project to be the two most-rostered players at their respective positions, making them highly desirable cash game anchors.

This one play, to move Mayer into your lineup, makes everything else fall into place for cash games. That said, I'm looking to fade Mayer in tournaments with his high exposure across the slate, which in turn makes guys like Tre Tucker and Ashton Jeanty prime GPP pivots.

Mark Andrews, BAL at IND ($3,900)

Juwan Johnson is going to be the popular value name at tight end this weekend, but if I’m using Olave in cash games, then I am not stacking him with another pass-catcher from the same team. I have no problem putting them in the same lineup in tournaments, and I'll do that regularly, but I’m going in a different direction for my cash game: Mark Andrews. 

I’m comfortable using both him and Lane in a cash lineup because Lane only costs $3,000, while Olave is nearly $7,000. That price difference is big enough to let me stack two pass-catchers from one team while passing on one from another.

I expect Andrews to have a bounce-back season with Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar off the roster. Lamar Jackson still trusts him, and people who say he’s washed didn’t watch him accelerate last year in the open field. 

Even with the added competition last year, Andrews had at least three targets in all but one game. With that competition gone, I expect him to eat up the targets that Likely saw. That should put Andrews at about a five-target floor, which is more than healthy enough given his sub-$4,000 price point and expected game script against a stout Indianapolis offense. 

Other options: Juwan Johnson, Colston Loveland, Greg Dulcich

DraftKings D/ST - Week 1 DFS Picks

Top Five Defenses For Cash Games

1. Jacksonville Jaguars ($3,400)
2. Los Angeles Chargers ($3,500)
3. Tennessee Titans ($3,100)
4. Pittsburgh Steelers ($3,300)
5. Las Vegas Raiders ($2,900)

Thanks for reading, and good luck in your contests this weekend!

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